Jezz found herself sitting at a study table not with a textbook or class work in front of her but with a copy of the Gryffindor Gazette. She moved it and decided to read one of her Herbology textbook.

Expecting the study tables to be deserted at this time, Ari took her book on former Hogwarts Headmasters and headed there. But her initial assumption proved wrong. The third year passed by the other girl only glancing at her, but then realized she seemed familiar, so she took a better look. 'You are in the gazette!' Ari said out loud, happy that she remembered why she knew the girl. Well, not really knew. But it sounded bad, like pointing out something obvious. 'Of course, you probably know that.' Nothing like a cheesy joke to improve matters.

Lilly sat down on a chair at the study tables, pulling out Quiddich Through The Ages and opening the first page. Smartie sat at the second-year's feet, perfectly happy to just sit there, doing nothing. She read the introduction about how the book represents many years of travel and research. Then the first title: What is a Beast? The answer for that seemed a lot more complicated than it actually was. A big hairy thing with eight legs, Lilly thought to herself, smiling. Then there was a long passage about many arguments through the ministry about what could be classified as a beast. It all seemed quite intresting, though. Lilly read more. This was intresting!

Jezzabelle had just gotten to the page on Abyssinian Shrivelfigs when she heard an older girl address her. "Yes, that was me in the Gazette." She couldn't help but smile. "I'm Jezzabelle. You are?" She didn't know what expect when she ahd done the interview for the Gazette but this wasn't bad at all.

'Oh, sorry to bother you while you're reading.' Ari realized that too late as well. 'Anyway, congratulations, I suppose.' What do people say in these situations? Congratulations, right?

'Pleased to meet you, I'm Ariadne Marchbanks. So you're a firstie, huh?' The first Gryffindor firstie Ari had met this year. Wicked.

Tayla walked into the study to read her new Charms book. Then recognizing Lilly, Jezz, and Ari, she decided to say hello.

"Hi girls!" she said and caught a glimpse of the Gyffindor Gazette. She had read it earlier and remembered the interview they were talking about. "Oh! I remember that. Congratulations, Jezz! Must be a nice welcome to Hogwarts.

"So, how are your classes so far?"

"It's fine," Jezz said smiling. "Thanks! I was really excited to do it." She was and she still was excited seeing herself there, in the gazette.

"It's nice to meet you Ariadne." Jezzabelle nodded, "Yeah, I'm a firstie. What year are you in?"

"Thanks! It was a great welcome. I was very honored to be in the Gryffindor Gazette." Jezzabelle smiled. All these congratulations was nice to be getting.

"Classes are good. I'm really enjoying them and getting the chance to somewhat meet the Professor's. Thanks for asking Tay." She smiled and didn't really know where to go from there. "How are your classes?"

"Looking forward to Charms homework to be honest," Tayla laughed. "It's my favourite subject. What's yours?"

'I bet it's amazing to see your own words printed on paper.' she nodded pompously, wondering if other Houses had a newspaper. Probably not. Ha! Even if Gryffindor hadn't won the House Cup in the last years, they were still the coolest House in school.

'Oooh, welcome to Hogwarts then! How do you like it so far?' Yep, Jezz was indeed the first firstie Ariadne had met this year, so the third year was doing her best to be cheerful and pleasant around her, hoping not to scare her away.

'I'm in my third year now. I honestly don't know what happened. I could swear I was a first year just yesterday.' Great. Sounding like her Gran once more.

And then Tayla walked in. Wicked! Ari had wanted to talk to her ever since the feast. 'Hey, so you've read it too? Looks like Jezz is going to be a very popular firstie.' But she, Ariadne, had been the first to congratulate her. Muahhh. She treated this like some sort of achievement, judging by the pride she felt inside.

'How are you, anyway? We didn't get the time to catch up at the feast. Except that we've both been to Hawaii this summer. Who'd you go with?' Ari wondered if her friend hadn't told that before and she had just forgotten. Awkward.

Jezzabelle smiled, "I love Herbology." She had always been good with plants, however, ever since coming to Hogwarts she'd actually been struggling just a little. It was amazing how different the school made her act. She mentally shrugged it off. "I even have two plants down in the greenhouses."

"It's was a little weird at first but now it's pretty awesome," Jezzabelle said smiling. "A lot of people are stopping and staring at me now. Like they do a double take and I can hear the words come out of their mouths right before they say it." Jezz blushed a little. It was weird at first but now she had come to accept it and take what was given to her.

"I love it here. It already feels like home," she said a little glad to moving away from the topic of the gazette. "I find it funny because Kurumi said that being in Gryffindor is like coming home to the smell of fresh baked cookies," or at least she said something a long those lines. "And she was right."

"Time flies when you go to school I guess," Jezz said laughing. "I hope every year here takes it's time. I want to enjoy it."

"Yeah, Jezz is a pretty popular firstie." Tayla smiled and nodded.

"I'm good, thanks. You?" she replied to Ari. "I went with family. My grandparents, Mom, Dad, and my little sister April. You were in Hawaii, too? Oh! Too bad we didn't see each other! Would have been great fun."

She didn't want to talk about the locket just yet, not with other people in the room.

Tayla turned to Jezz. "I'm not very good at Herbology to be honest," Tayla blushed a little. She nodded at what Jezz said about the Gryffindor common room smelling like fresh baked cookies. "Sometimes I come in from a feast and still get hungry for cookies! And don't worry. I'm sure you'll enjoy every year at Hogwarts. There's always something great to do, especially when the professors come up with something cool in class." She thought of the Muggle Studies films, the lake visit during History of Magic/Care of Magical Creatures, and the activities they had in classes during her first two years. Yup! Lots of awesome things.

How cute! The girl was actually blushing! It seemed like her popularity didn't make her vain or anything like that, she was still a regular firstie. 'Looking on the bright side, you get to meet lots of new people with the minimum of effort.' That would've been a blessing for the socially awkward first year Ariadne two years ago.

'Who do you share your dorm with? I haven't met any other Gryffindor firsties yet, I'm wondering where they're hiding.' Ari chuckled at that, but also at Jezz's reply regarding cookies. 'We Gryffindors sure are lucky to have Kurumi around, I don't know what we'll do when she graduates, cookies are like our emblem now.' The most delicious one ever.

'Doing pretty good myself, only I'm worried about how many things are changing around me. Hogwarts seems to be the only constant at times.' She was going to expand on that, if Tayla had the patience to listen, but later.

'Yeah, I went there too. Small world. If only we'd have known we'd be going in the same place...Oh well, there's plenty of stuff to do together here, am I right?' Ariadne smiled broadly.

"Yeah the classes seem pretty cool so far," Jezz said. "I mean I'm not really good in them but they're fun." She closed her book. "I love Kurumi's cookies. They are amazing...almost as amazing as her."The older girl was almost like the older sister Jezz wanted but didn't have because she was an only child. She stood up and looked at Ari. "I'm not really sure where they're hiding at either. I've only met three first years like myself and only one was in Gryffindor." It all seemed just a little depressing. "As much as I would love to sit and talk. I have plants I must tend to. I'll catch you guys around the common room later?"

Tayla wondered what Ari meant about things changing. She hoped her friend was okay. "Definitely," Tayla nodded. "Erm...want to grab something to eat? I'm getting hungry." She thought maybe they could talk at the Great Hall.


"Yup, I love Kurumi!" Tayla agreed. "Catch you around the common room then. And I hope you meet more Gryffindor first years." Hogwarts was fun and even more so with great friends.

'Aww, I'm sure you'll do just fine, classes seemed daunting for me too at first. In fact, I find myself clueless in some of them even now as a third year.' Ari winked, hoping to put the girl at ease. 'I think I'll be hungry for cookies if we keep talking about them.' the third year chuckled, but felt her stomach rumble already. 'Sure, see you around. I'm glad we met!' Ariadne told Jezz as the younger Gryffindor was preparing to leave.

Thankfully, Tayla took the hint. 'I'm kind of hungry too, let's make our way downstairs, shall we?' Ariadne asked, wondering how to start, while at the same time not wanting to burden her friend with her life drama. She decided to just be quick about it, straight to the point.

Now was as good a time as any to start on transfiguration homework wasn't it? Drawing the frame alone would take... well... ages! With a sigh Prue sat herself down, fully aware that she'd probably be up all night for this. Quickly, she decided to do things the muggle way, beginning to cut out the frame big enough for a A5 photo. Now... landscape or portrait... definitely landscape, after all how many photos were actually taken that weren't landscape format?

Not many that Prue was aware. Twirling her hair around her fingers, she absently hummed to herself. She'd make this for Professor Bentley, that she'd already decided. Because really, how many teachers encouraged you to hug plants, let alone dance around and tell them bed time stories for their entertainment? Not to mention she was the Gryffindor head of house.

With a grin, she drew Professor Bentley down the bottom of the frame, in cursive bubble writing, colouring it a silver colour. That would definitely work. Getting to work on the basic outline of the swirls that she was planning to draw around she sighed. This was harder than she first thought.

Holding a few design books she had checked out of the library, Kurumi made her way to the study tables, bowing her head and offering each lion that she saw there a small smile. Finding a relatively empty table, Kurumi set her things down and took out a piece of parchment and quill. She set the quill to her paper, but found that she was at a complete loss for what to draw. A frame. It was something typically with four 90 degree corners that went around a photograph or piece of art. It wasn't like she had to draw a masterpiece that was expected to go to some art museum.

Sighing, Kurumi tickled her lips with her quill and drew a square about a half inch away from the edge of her parchment. Okay...so she had a start. Now what should she do?

She supposed that she should figure out WHO she was giving this frame to. Jonathan was already getting the one from class, so there really was only one other person she could think of that should get a framed photograph from her: Selina.

Okay, Selina...which meant that this frame should have something Quidditch related on it, but Kurumi couldn't bring herself to draw anything that remotely looked like a broom or snitch. Instead, Kurumi eyed the center of the paper and drew a heart that took up about two thirds of the parchment within the square that she had drawn earlier. For a bit of an added feature, Kurumi drew a simple doily design around the heart and then a small heart in the bottom left corner, adding a knitted feel around each heart with a dashed outline.

Hmm...what to do next? And was this turning out to be too girly for Selina? Quite possibly, but she would have to forgive Kurumi. They were best friends.

Grayson wanted to get a head start on reading up for Potions. He liked potions. It was his strongest area of study. As he made his way to the study tables with his book, he saw the girl who handed him the delicious cookie. Walking over to her, he let a smirk slide unto his face.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" he asked politely and quietly.

Kurumi held up her parchment and tried to think of what else to do. After a bit, Kurumi drew a polka dotted flower in the upper right corner and added the knitting detail around its edges too. Since she had a knitting theme going on for whatever reason - Kurumi wasn't much of a sewer - she drew four circular buttons. It still needed something else, but Kurumi found herself a little puzzled as to what. There was going to be an awful lot of blank space on this frame...and it needed something to make it pop. Kurumi idly set her quill against the parchment when a small drop of ink fell on it. NO! Now her drawing was ruined! Unless...

Kurumi tapped her quill against the ink well, making sure there was no extra ink it and attempted to smear the dot into a straight line. Might as well draw more now. Kurumi dipped it back into the well and began to draw vertical lines around the rest of her design.

Just as she was almost done, she heard some one ask if they could join her and she looked up. "Of course," she smiled, scooting over a bit. She looked at the book in his hands and tried not to wrinkle her nose too much. "Getting a head start on Potions I see."

Grayson nodded a bit with a smile as he sat down. Setting the book down on the table and opening it to the page he was reading on Boomslang skin properties and usage. He said,"Thanks much. Kurumi right? I'm not so great with names but positively brilliant with faces; especially with cute faces like yours."

Resting his weight on his forearms as he leaned forward, he said,"I like potions. Sometimes I read it for fun. My parents allow me to keep my own ingredients storage at home. Only the difficult stuff like scales of a sea serpent I don't have." as he took a moment to look at her work,"I see you are almost finish your Transfigurations. How proactive of you." he remarked.

Grayson, was not a bad guy but just can't resist flirting with pretty girls. Though since he got to Hogwarts, he's been a bit low key and kept more to himself with the exception of Selina of course. Her fiesty retorts kept him going back for more. It would be nice if they ended up being friends or a bonus if they became more than friends. He grinned a bit as he thought of the highly unlikely prospect, even though it was a prospect nonetheless. Yup, leave it to Grayson to see the silver lining on any grey cloud first and foremost.

"It's no problem at a---" Huh?! Kurumi found herself blinking faster than a humming bird could beat its wings. What...did he just say? She had a cute face? Jonathan said that the other day, but Kurumi had a hard time believing it. Wasn't he obligated to say that as her boyfriend? "Um..right...that's my name," she confirmed, still blinking at him. Maybe she could pass it off as something getting in her eye? "You're...Grayson, right?" Since they were both sort of confirming each other's names at the moment.

In a feeble attempt to push the awkwardness of that greeting aside, Kurumi took her quill to her parchment again and continued to draw a bit. She added a slightly diagonal line across it, starting about a fifth of the way up from the bottom and running her quill across the parchment to the opposite side. She began to add little details to make it look more like a ribbon running across it.

Kurumi continued to draw a bit as he spoke. Potions. This guy would get along with Jonathan. "I wish I could say I share your appreciation of Potions," she replied, adding a few dashes to her ribbon interpretation. One of her least favorite subjects to be completely honest, but he didn't need to know that bit. "Transfiguration is one of my favorite subjects. I was told that my wand is the type that takes particularly well to it, so I suppose that is fitting." Among other things.

Hmm...her frame needed one more detail. The ribbon was looking lonely all by itself. Kurumi quickly drew a thin robe scaling across the drawing underneath the bit of ribbom. That should do it. Now for the spell casting and actually giving it to Selina.

"That's pretty awesome. When I went to get my wand, the shop owner said my wand was made for aggression and accuracy but I'm not like that really." he said,"I'm a lover not a fighter without reason of course."

He looked down and finished reading the paragraph before he looked up and asked,"So what other than Tranfigurations do you like?"

"They may not have meant aggression in the way you think it does," she smiled. Wands and magic were tricky business, just like how the Sorting Hat handled things. "It may mean that your wand does better with attacking sort of spells instead of defensive ones, like Protego." Kurumi's wand seemed to hone in more on her ability than anything else, even though Transfiguration was one of her favorite subjects.

Kurumi picked up her wand and traced a square around her drawing, "Statua Habitum!" She winced a bit as she hoped that the paper didn't melt or something. Which, thankfully, didn't happen, but Kurumi quickly learned that she hadn't connected all the lines as her frame fell to pieces on the table. Oops. "Reverto," she laughed, returning the bits and pieces back to paper. She pocketed her wand again and picked up her quill, retracing over all her lines and making sure they were thick and connected so she could try again.

Kurumi looked up again. "Well, I would have to say that Care of Magical Creatures has always been my personal favorite," she nodded. "Really though, I like everything put...Potions and Flying...Divination is sort of so-so."

Grayson nodded and said,"I like Flying since I'm good at quidditch and I like Herbology. But you sound like a nurturing kind of individual as well as a patient."

"So, what do you like to do other than school?" he asked her as she was interesting him even more. For once he just wanted to get to know a girl. She was pretty but there was something inviting about her spirit that he looked passed her physical appearance.