Ells didn't know about Blue's frog obsession yet? "Yeah. She's a really humane person, being an innocent and such." Of course, Alice had perfected her act of innocence as well, she just didn't use it very much. heh. "B-but I WANT TO BE THE HULK." 'Cause the Hulk was so awesome. It wasn't nice to be nearly as awesome as your Queen, thank 'ya. "Join forces with them? YEAHH. They could be like my bodyguard forces! And the Hulk could be my pet!" BEAMBEAMBEAM. Ella had good ideas. "YEAH. We could like cling to buildings and stuff. OHMIGAWD. We could climb up things and throw water balloons at people from the top!" Best. Idea. EVER.

The lioness understood Ella's precautions of the Syltherins, she couldn't get along with many of them. Excluding Emma and very rarely Selena. "Theodore? That kid doesn't like me. I mistook him for a girl and now he's all sour towards me." It wasn't her fault! he was popping his hips and snapping his fingers and crossing his arms and his voice was kind of high-pitched. "Sel? She's a good Prefect. And she's nice. She has her Pygmy Puff and her cruppy, Clarke, with her at all times and she gives everybody fruit names." Alice had kind of avoided Sel since then, 'cause she didn't want to end up being Pomegranate or something worse. "Everyone has awesomeness, just some more than others. But not to worry, you have a LOT of it." BEAM. Ells was pretty awesome, yeah. She would take everyone else's awesomeness when she was Queen, but not Ella's. Maybe.

Ella was getting dangerously close to the story. Would Evs still blame her if the other girl found out by herself? "You're friends with Edric? Hm.. so he hasn't pushed you into anything or given you a creepy nickname?" Surprising, but then again, Ella was rather nice, so.. ehh. "Well, um, I know a Evelyn. But she doesn't fit that description." Yeah, she definitely wasn't smart if she thought that snogging the biggest jerk in the history of people was going to do anything for her. Except, y'know, gross her out.

Adam could tell that Louisa was trying to push back tears that were either flowing all ready, or perhaps were about to start by the whimper like noise that came out of her mouth. Adam wished that Louisa could look up and look at him so he could see her eyes. But before Adam could do anything to try and get Louisa to look at him she had started talking again, and Adam just stood there listening to her. He was silent once she had finished speaking, and the silence seemed to hang there even more painfully than it had when he was waiting for her to say something back. Adam knew what he needed to say, but at the same time he saw how broken Louisa obviously was and he knew that it had been him that had made her this way. The soft side of Adam wanted to close the distance between them and take her in his arms, but the realistic side of Adam realized that that would be a mistake. Louisa had hurt him and after a long time of reflecting Adam realized that it was his unwillingness to let himself be angry at Louisa for kissing Joao back and not saying what he felt he really needed to say that led things to end between them. And truthfully Adam couldn't do that anymore. Adam couldn't keep protecting Louisa the way he had been.

"I won't lie to you Louisa," Adam finally managed to start out, looking at the ground as he spoke. "I did hate you and Paulie for a really long time." And it was the truth. There was no other way to describe the anger he had towards them both. "And I don't think that I will ever be able to forget that what you two did to me hurt me in a way that I didn't even know was possible." Adam shifted his glance towards the wall. "I thought about apologizing for the way that I reacted to you both in the great hall, but....I'm not going to." Pause. "Because for too long I have been putting other people's feelings ahead of my own. I've been too concerned about how my actions could be effecting everyone else that I haven't been acting for myself. And that's not far to me or anyone else."

Adam reached up and ran his hand through his hair. "But Louisa you were the first friend I made at Hogwarts, and I thank the stars that I fell on top of you that day in Diagon Alley. I would say let's try to work on getting back to the way things were before, but honestly I don't think that's possible because I've changed. And I'm changing. But I want you to be apart of my life and I just hope that maybe you and I can finally have the relationship that I think we deserve. The kind of friendship were you can know where I really stand."

Louisa expected him to give her a curt one-word answer, mostly like others who were hurt by her and then confronted her again, but Adam seemed to have rationalized everything beforehand and knew where he stood from both of his friends already. The time that Louisa spent mostly by beating herself up, and roaming around with that poker face, the boy had spent thinking and looking beyond the mere act of betrayal. However, when he started putting his emotions on the subject into words Louisa's lips parted and quivered holding a silent sob. She moved back until her back hit the wall, she did need some sort of support as she listened and accepted everything he had to say... and that was hard.

Her head seemed to lower even more, yeah it did hurt to have the girl that you just stopped dating kiss your best friend who in return already had a girlfriend! But again, the Ravenclaw didn't think before pressing her lips to Paulie's... she simply tried it. It worked. For about five seconds before the series of unfortunate events came down on them.

Adam now concluded that he still wanted her in his life, with a friendship that both deserved and one she understood where he really stood? What did that even mean? Louisa swallowed a couple of times, taking gulps of air so that her voice didn't came out as strangled as she felt it would. "W-what do you mean?" If he said it, if he really wanted to talk to her again even if not as much as before, but if he really could do this to save a friendship then that'd be the trigger to Louisa's tears. Because she never believed in forgiveness, not even to her family.

She wanted to lift her head and look at him, look into his familiar eyes and read them. But she was afraid.. he didn't seem bothered with her like this, maybe he wasn't really ready to look at her face just yet? Babysteps?

"An innocent?" Well yeah, Ella guessed Blue was quite innocent. She used to be that way too...though lately life seemed to be smacking her in the face with real grown-up type stuff. Sigh. Growing up was the worst, even more horrible than dropping your ice cream cone on the floor. "The hulk, huh? ...Well he is SUPER strong!" *Thinks* "I guess I would enjoy being really powerful for a while too. I don't really know how that feels." Ells was a bit of a weakling, poor fragile thing. FLAIL. "I was thinking that too! I mean the bodyguard thing!" BEAMMM "They'd be the most epic bodyguards everrr!" And no one would mess with Alice...like evahh. O__O Hmm. Would Ella like to throw water balloons at people? Well...it was only water...so it wasn't that mean. GRIN. "Yeah! That would be really fun actually!" Did she really just say that? Merlin. She was so turning into Edric. How horrifying.

WHAT??? Bahahaha. Poor Theodorable! Alice had thought he was a girl? Oh man, wait til Sophie heard about this. "Well...why didya think he was a girl?" Maybe he was doing that weird epileptic hair flipping thing again...Shrug. "He's actually quite a funny little guy, though he thinks I love him or something!" O__o Which was just...completely off base. Completely. Oh, and the pygmy puff prefect was nice? That was good news! But..."Fruit names? That's different. What one did she give you?" And more importantly, which fruit would Ella be?? GRIN.GRIN.GRIN. D'aww Alice was quite nice. "I do? ...Well thanks! I mean I guess I didn't realize it." BEAMMM "You do too, Queen Alice." Y'know, have a lot of awesomeosity.

Ella thought about her friendship with Edric...had he ever pushed her into the lake or anything as mean as that? "Well no. I mean he does tease me a lot...Like A LOT-A LOT...AND he pinched my cheeks the other day, which was unpleasant." And hurt. "Oh...and he does this hair messing thing that is entirely unnecessary." Though he seemed to only do that when he or she had done or said something nice so...Shrug. "I do think he's awesome though, in an evil sort of way." Did that make her evil too? O__O And hmm...Ella only knew one Evelyn that was older and could possibly be Edric's maybe girlfriend. "Are you sure? I mean...I don't think there are many Evelyns around Hogwarts..."

Adam looked at Louisa who had managed through the course of their talking to press herself up against the cement wall. He figured she was looking for some kind of support because of what he could tell of her body language, Adam had a feeling that she wasn't really handling this whole thing well. Adam had to admit that kind of shocked him because clearly Louisa was handling the whole ordeal about as well as he had, except instead of anger she had more hurt and depression. What did he mean? Adam ran his hand through his hair again.

"I don't think I was as honest with our relationship before as I should have been," Adam said with a little shrug of the shoulders. "I think I've just always put the value of other people's happiness way ahead of my own because...I guess since I've never had it I've never really felt that I deserved it or needed it. But after this whole incident and having some time to myself I realize how stupid that is," Adam said, letting out a sigh. "I do deserve to be happy. So...I guess what I'm saying is...that I'm not going to put other people ahead of myself so much. I'm going to actually put myself first for a change, and that's different." Adam looked up at Louisa to see if she was understanding this any better or if he still wasn't making sense.

"I mean...do you want to be friends?"

Oh. He finally saw what she'd tried to tell him many times before, when he took all the blows from his family and parents specifically, when he put up with Joao for her when she insisted her replied back to him, and other dozen situations. All that made his anger issue build up inside until he finally could take no more. Louisa would've been happier about this announcement if he had asked her to look at him, or made any kind of gestures as if he wanted to look at her face...

Keeping her eyes fixated on the very same spot ever since he started talking, the Ravenclaw fought hard against her curiosity and didn't sneak a peek at him.

Does she want to be friends? WAS HE SERIOUS? Louisa let out a wet chuckle, sniffed and talked, "I do..." aaaand she started crying, moving closer toward him and not stopping before she was exactly in front of him asking him for a hug indirectly but her arms were still wrapped around her books. She wanted to rest her forehead on his shoulder but she wasn't that short anymore, so her forehead touched his cheeks sideways. And she let herself cry quietly with him, he needed to know that those were the bent up feelings he caused, and that he was that important to her.

"You... scared... me..." she managed to hiccup between sobs.

Adam stood there after he finished and his question, wondering what Louisa was going to say to him. He had run it over in his head multiple time the very real possibility that Adam's actions had done their damage as well, and that she too wouldn't be able to move on from them. When she chuckled Adam felt a smile start to spread on his lips, and his own chuckle escaped as Louisa said that she did want to be friends. But as Louisa finally let out the sobs that Adam knew she had been trying to hold in Adam's smile faded into a soft expression. Adam watched her as she moved closer to him, still not looking him in the face, and his arms wrapped around her as she rested her head against his cheek.

"I know," Adam whispered back. Still holding her with his one arm, Adam took the other and used his finger to lift her chin up so that she could see his face. "I never wanted you to see that side of me, and I'm sorry for that." Adam kept his gaze on Louisa, his expression sterner with the confession but softening again after he had gotten the words out. "But no more tears, okay? I want the time we have left at Hogwarts together to be as fun and goofy as they can be," Adam said with a chuckle.

Adam kept his eyes locked with hers for another moment before bending forward and planting a gentle kiss on each cheek, wiping away the tears, before he pulled her back closer so that her head was resting on the side of his face again. "I really do love you Louisa," Adam whispered. "You're my best friend and I never want to lose that."

Louisa raised her head with his hand supporting her chin, but she kept her eyes gazing downward a bit shyly. His words, however, made her look up into his face instantly and forcing her mouth into a nervous smile. No more tears, that was going to be hard because she still had a lot of things to cry over. Strangely too, it wasn't like crying in front of Kurumi, Paulie or even Joao. Here she didn't feel weak or pathetic, she felt... normal. "Okay..." sniffing and almost wiping her face if he didn't lean in.

The seventeen years old's cheek burnt at the touch of his lips, and her throat went dry... or drier to be more accurate. When he hugged her again and said those three words, her eyes stared forward at the wall behind him. She swallowed, blinked the leftover tears in her eyes and spoke slowly, "I... love you.. too." As soon as they were out she felt the sincerity behind them and leaned her head down into his neck. "I don't want to lose you at all, Adam. I'm so sorry I did this to you. I don't know why I did it. It meant nothing, I swear. It just destroyed relationships..." sniff sniff. "I hate myself."

"Yeah. Blue can bat her lashes and look sad and get of ANYTHING. 'Course I can, too. But I hate the adorable way out.." It kind of sickened her the way she could make her eyes all wide and look sad and people would back off. She only used it in emergencies. "YEAH. I'm a Hulk!" *flexes tiny muscle* "What Superhero do you want to be?" YEAHH. That bodyguard idea was pretty cool. "Plus I could watch them use their powers all day! FUN. You could come watch, too!" She liked Ells, and after all, wasn't she the one who gave her the idea of enlisting the superheroes? "We should get together in the Room of Requirement sometime and have a water balloon fight!"

Err.. "He was popping his hip and crossing his arms. And flipping his hair. And he has a really high voice." How was she supposed to guess his gender correctly with those kind of hints? hmph. "EWW. Well, you wouldn't like a boy, right? 'Cause boys are gross. That Theo guy is way wrong, yeah?" Ells was normal. "I've kind of avoided her since she started to name people.. I don't want to get something weird. Like pomegranate." But knowing Sel, she would probably be named something like that.. "You do! And thaaaanks, Ells." YEAH. She was definitely liking this girl.

He WHAT?! "He pinched your cheeks? And messes with your hair? But those are signs of.. of affection. Does he actually LIKE someone? He actually likes you?" This was a lot to take. First, Edric snogs someone, and now he starts liking little girls? Yeah. This was weird. But, yeah, evil was more like it. "He's okay. He seems to b getting slighlty less horrible, from what you've told me.. and.. err, some other stuff.." *whistle* Yeah. She wasn't supposed to talk about that. She liked her neck the way it was when it wasn't being wrung by Evelyn, thank'ya very much. But she didn't want to LIE for Evs, either.. lying was very un-awesometastical. "Err. Well, is she in Hufflepuff?" Don't know her house, don't know her house..

Ella smiled. "Yeah she can! She's really good at it. It helps that she's adorable, I think. I can do puppy dog eyes pretty well, see?" And Ella did her best puppy dog eyes at her new friend. "I don't use that a lot, though. Mostly just on my dad...and recently Edric." Though it hadn't worked on the ogre, probably because he was allergic to cuteness or something. And then Queen Alice was showing off her big hulk muscles and Ella giggled. "Wow. That's quite impressive." Her muscle, of course. Hmm...and who would she want to be? "Well I'd want to be like Thor! I mean he's immortal...and super strong! Plus he can like...control the weather!" Which was super cool! Yup, Thor was pretty awesome, alright. D'awww! Alice was gonna let Ells come watch her bodyguards use their powers? BEAM BEAM BEAM. "Thanks! That would be wicked." Edric was clearly wrong about this girl, she was perfectly nice! O__o "Water balloons?...That's BRILLIANT! We should have a giant water balloon fight!" Hehehe...another chance to clobber the boys, perhaps?

Tehehehe. Popping his hip? That was kinda weird...and funny to picture...and wait! Did boys even do that sort of thing? Well apparently so. "The hair flipping thing...he thinks it's a trick to distract girls or something." She said with a smile, recalling her conversation with Theodore quite a while ago. EEK. Alice wanted to know if Ells liked a boy? Well...she did...but not Theodore so..."Oh, Theodore was wrong. I don't love him...I just like him...as a friend, of course." All true. The second year then laughed as Alice explained why she didn't want a fruit name. Heh. She was funny. Grin. "You're welcome!" Wait, was this the beginning of a beautiful friendship? It sure felt like it.

"I...well yeah, he does." O__O Edric really DID care about her a whole lot! I mean, she'd always thought he did but even Alice could tell by the things he did. D'awwww! Her ogre SO enjoyed her company! Wait, WHAT? "Sure he likes me...but like a friend...best friend! I was his first friend here, actually." BEAM. And she was proud of that. Besides, Edric was like...ANCIENT. The blonde smiled a bit as Alice finally agreed Edric wasn't so bad after all. Good. Because Ella wanted to be friends with both of them. Then they were discussing Evelyn again...and Alice was being kinda weird. "Yeah, she's a Hufflepuff. That's Eve!" And that meant...?

Adam help onto Louisa, giving her a squeeze as she said that she loved him as well. Adam knew how hard that must have been for Louisa, because saying you loved someone was a sign of serious trust and Adam knew how hard it was for Louisa to trust people in general, and especially in matters of the heart. Adam listened as she apologized again, still holding onto her as she leaned her head into his neck. "You aren't going to lose me Louisa," Adam said once she had finished talking. "And I accept your apology." All it did was destroy relationships? "It didn't destroy them Louisa, it just...changed them is all. And yeah there was a lot of hurt on everyone's end , particularly mine, but we can't go back and change the past so I think it's best to just focus on moving forward." And Adam wanted both Paulie and Louisa in that forward.

Louisa pulled back from his neck body and wiped her face with her sleeve. "I think we should find Paulie quickly and... see how he's doing." Her arm was wrapped around the book again hugging it, "I haven't seen him since that... great hall thing." Her brow furrowed, her mind suddenly realizing this. How come she hadn't seen or talked to him ever since then? He said he wasn't mad at her, he wasn't determined on ignoring her or holding any kind of grudge against her. Maybe he found it so hard to meet up after Adam had snapped at both of them? Probably. "He'll be happy to know that you want us back..." she smiled, linked her arms into his and started toward the stairs. Maybe they could find him out somewhere in the grounds...

Alice grinned as she stared up into Ella's now giant eyes. "Perfect!" BEAM. Obviously, anyone who could get Edric Barlow, of all people, to care about her was a master of adorableness and innocence. "Yeah. I'd like to see you use it on him sometime!" 'Cause that would be like.. the best thing ever. "If you tried, do you think you can make him give you candy?" OHMYGAWSH. that would be even better! A monster with an open kitchen! Sigh. It would be heaven.. and Ells wanted to be.. Thor? "YEAH! You'd get a giant hammer and everything! I have a couple of hammers back home, I can give you one!" BEAMBEAMBEAM. Yeah. So a twelve year old 4'8" girl played with hammers, problem? "Yeah. Water balloons. FUN." And she could turn the hose on her friends. MWAHAHA.

"Theo? Distract girls?" HEH. If the boy could even manage to stand on his tiptoes so long as to look them in the eye. That wasn't a problem with Alice, though, seeing her height, but anyways.. "GOOD. 'Cause that would be weird if you liked Theo." Wait. Ells looked a little squeamish.. did she..? "So you don't like anyone?" Ahh. She could totally join the movement she and Blue had against love germs. WOOT. Heh. As Ells beamed at her, the lioness smiled back. She was beginning to really love her Jigglypuff new friend.

It must have been scary to have Edric care about her. Alice actually kind of pitied Ells for a bit, but Eddy must have not been so bad to her, yeah? "You were his first friend? That seems about right. Seeing as I don't think I know anybody as nice as you. 'Cept maybe Emma Malfoy." But Ems was busy with her NEWTs and stuff.. plus, the third year didn't want Eddy to infiltrate Emma's mind like he was doing to Evs. She loved Emma just the way she was. "Oh. Err.. well, is the Evelyn you know a.. err. fourth year?" That was just a question. technically not lying. Squirm.

WHYDIDSHEHAVETOBESOHUNGRYATNIGHTANDWALKINONTHEMSNO GGING.

Sigh.

Ella smiled. "Yeah, I'm sure that could be arranged!" I mean Edric had agreed to be around more often now that he was almost done with all his big-boy school work so...GRIN. Candy?! Ells had done that already! "One time I told him I wanted gummy bears and...he gave me his!" BEAM BEAM BEAM. Cause he was clearly the best evil fairy god father evah! But wait...he wouldn't be mad that she was sharing his good side, would he? MEEP! ...A giant hammer WOULD be so cool! "But I don't know that I could lift a giant hammer..." FROWN. But wait! If she WAS Thor she totally could. "Never mind! I'd clearly have his super strength too! Duhhh." And the duhh was to herself, not her new superhero friend. "I think my dad has some too so I'll just steal one of him! ...But thanks!" Cause it was super nice of Queen Alice to offer. Oh and water balloons! "It's a plan then!"

Nod.Nod.Nod. "Yeah, that's what he thought the hair flipping would do! Apparently Alec told him about it...though I don't know if Alec really believes it does that. Do you know Alec?" Cause it'd be kinda weird if she didn't and Ella was talking about him and his hair. "Um YEAH it would. Theodore is so ickle! He's just my friend." Yup. Squirm. Squirm. Squirm. Was Alice gonna hate her if she knew that Ells did kinda like someone?! "I uh...I'm not so sure if I do or not." What? She was confused!

Ella blushed and then BEAMED at her new friend. She thought she was really nice? D'awww! "I'm gonna hug you now, okay?" Ella asked, because getting a compliment like that deserved a hug. And she did, stepping forward and giving the girl a quick one, careful not to smoosh Frank. When she was done, she stepped back and smiled. "I don't know Emma but she sounds cool." Ella added with a shrug, wondering who this Emma person was. Back to the Evelyn questions...The second year shook her head, eyebrows raised. "Nope, Eve is a seventh year. She'll be graduating soon...and she's friends with Edric." Ringing any bells?

"Is Edric going to be all mushy and sad and stuff when Ev- I mean, his old people friends leave next year?" Alice wondered aloud, nearly slipping up about Evs. She'd been doing that a lot lately. But she didn't want a gushy, lovey-dovey, heart-broken Scrooge on her hands. Wore. Scenario. Possible. "I didn't think he liked gummy bear.. does he?" Trolls didn't eat gummy bears. They ate little third years who tried to save them from drowning. The lioness frowned again as Ella said she couldn't lift a giant hammer. "'Course you could!" BEAMBEAMBEAMM. "Super strength or not! It only takes awesomeness. Which you clearly have a lot of." Never give up faith, Ells! She beamed for the billionth time as her Jigglypuff Puffer friend clarified their water balloon plans.

SHE WOULD DOMINATE THAT, TOO. :3

"YEAH. I know Alec. Alec Summers. Jigglypuff. Yeah?" OOPS. had she just said Jigglypuff out loud? Well. Alec DID look like one. He should know that. "I mean, Hufflepuff. His hair flipping scares me. It's weird." Cue nose wrinkle. "Theodore's not THAT small. He's bigger than I am." Ells had hit a sore spot. Alice was very, very insecure about how small she was. 'Cause powerful people had to be big. "4'7" isn't that short. And seventy-one pounds isn't that light. Right?" But her thoughts about her size were whisked away as Ella started drop hints that.. that.. "You like someone?" You.. you have a crush? On a person? Of the other gender? A boy? First she figured out that Messer had asked a girl on a date. Erin had dropped hints that she didn't mind being around boys. Then she realized that Alec had a crush who, thankfully for the love of Alec's life, she didn't know. And now Ells did, too? Blue was the only sane one of her friends. But, luckily for Ells, the lioness had just given up talking her friends out of dying from love germs. Sigh. They were too mental. "Err.. um.. that's.." Silly. Crazy. Scary. DEATHLY. ".. nice." IT WAS SO NOT NICE. "Who is it?"

Squirm.

"A hug?" So many people gave her hugs these days. Hmph. Not that she minded. She would probably be dying soon, then, from love germs, so might as well hug away, yeah? Alice awkwardly hug/patted Ells, thankful that the Jigglypuff Hufflepuff had been careful about her little frog, who had hopped from the top of her head to her shoulder. BEAMBEAMBEAMBEAMM. SUPER BEAM. "Emma's my SISTER. Well, not really my sister. Like my.. my bestestestestestestest old person friend. She's very awesometastical." But her smile quickly vanished as the subject shifted back to.. Evs. And her new beau, Edric. Cue internal groan. "Oh. yeah. I.. err.. I think I know her. She's very.." in love with Edric. NO. She wasn't allowed to say that. Or Eve would kill her. For the 183948250912504123958102401284th time. And 183948250912504123958102401283 times was quite enough, thank you. ".. err.. practical." That was true. "I like her." That was true, too. Well, it was when she wasn't being all mushy with Prince Charming and whatnot.

Ella raised her eyebrows, invisible detective hat still on! She heard Alice's slip and a small smile formed on her face. MWAHAHAH! Alice SO was talking about Evelyn and Edric...which means that she knew they were friends. Maybe even knew that they might be a little MORE than that too. EEP! "I don't think Edric will ever get all mushy gushy." She admitted honestly to her friend. "Whenever he comes close to that, he does something mean to make up for it, like spill a drink on my lap." Pumpkin juice, if one was into specifics. "I do think he'll be sad though when EVELYN leaves." And she gave the lion a knowing smile. "Oh yeah, Edric loves gummy bears. Which is why I was SO surprised that he shared them with me." But he was becoming more brotherly towards Ells all the time so maybe it shouldn't be so surprising anymore. The second year returned the many BEAMs when Alice reassured her that all she would need was awesomeness to help her lift a giant hammer. "You know Alice, you're pretty nice! I think Edric was really wrong to call you a little demon." And Ella would be speaking to him about that next time she saw him. MHM!

Eyebrows slightly raised, Ella giggled at the word she hadn't heard before. It sounded funny..."What exactly is a...jigglypuff?" Though O__O Maybe that was just a mean name for Hufflepuffs. FROWN. "It isn't like...a bad thing, is it?" Cause then Ella would be quite sad, since Alec was one of her friends. She couldn't help the small smile that appeared when Alice went on to say Alec's hair whipping was weird. "It is kinda weird, though his hair isn't bad or anything! It's actually quite shiny for boy hair." Cause Ells was clearly a boy hair expert and everything. "Though I think girls would always win when hair flipping or erm...whipping was involved." PSH! Who was she kidding? Girls would always win even if it wasn't involved! BEAM. The blonde noticed the change in Alice when size was mentioned and frowned, feeling bad. "No, I just meant he's a bit young for me, yeah?" Cause Ella was SUCH a grown-up at the age of thirteen. "And you're not so small! I mean hey, I bet you end up being the tallest out of your friends!" Cause they were young and still had a lot of growing to do! And JHKDJHDJHHDJK Now Alice knew she had a crush and wanted to know who. "He's uhh...a Ravenclaw." Poker face. As for it being nice..."No. It's horrible. Liking boys is the worst."

Good. So Alice had accepted the hug even if she was super awkward about it. Ella had a the sudden urge to suggest she teach Alice and Edric about hugs at the same time but thought better of it. "Oh...so Emma is like my Edric!" Yup. Cause Edric was hers and hers alone. Her very bestest ancient ogre evil fairygodfather brother friend. MHM! And Hmm...the Eve discussion continued. "She is kinda practical, isn't she?" Ella added thoughtfully. "And I think she loves Edric a little too."

Edric wouldn't ever get mushy gushy? "GOOD. 'Cause I don't think I could deal with anymore sappiness, especially from a person like Edric. Wouldn't that be scary.." Alice shuddered. She didn't want to think about things like that. Because if someone as stone cold as Edric broke down, how many pieces would the other teary-eyed people be in? But her disturbing thoughts were wiped away by Ella's confession. Edric did mean things to her, too? "I call him Prince Charming for a very wrong reason, you know." Giggle. "It doesn't mean that he's subtle. But the juice was a nice touch." It had Duck Chow's name written all over it. She'd have to use that one on him, sometime. Heh. And.. there was the bombshell again. "I know. he and Eve are very good friends. I wonder if he'd share his gummy bears with her, too?" 'Course he would. He had cow eyes for Evs. Shudder. But her shudder turned into a beam as more kind words spilled out of Ells' mouth. "Awwh, thanks Ells, but I can't say Edric and I were as nice to each other as I am to you and likewise."

God forbid the day that Alice Fischer and Edric Barlow got along.

BEAM. "Jigglypuff? Oh, it's what I sometimes call Alec." BEST. NICKNAME. EVER. "He says 'tis some kind of thing from a Muggle cartoon, and he showed me a picture. It's all pink and round and googly-eyed and I always tell him he looks like one, as a joke." Heh. And.. was Ells complimenting Alec's hair? Err.. "I don't really pay attention to hair.. 'cept for mine, of course." Cue horrible imitation of the Theo/Alec hair flip. Giggle. "Yeah, 'cause we have more hair than most boys! though, I've got to say, while their hair flipping creeps me out, they are pretty good at it.." Whistle. It was still weird, though. "Yeah. Theo is a bit young .. and short.. for you. But I'm sure he's still a great friend, no matter how girly he seems at first glance!" YEAH. She was having a nice-person day today, unlike her usual moody self. And.. BEAM. "Awwh! Thanks, Ells! I hope you grow tall, too! 'Cause apparently, tall people are supposed to be as cool as super short people!" But Ells would be cool, no matter what her size, yeah? "A Ravenclaw?" Squirm. "They're.. err.. supposed to be smart. that's good. What's his name?" Like.. liking boys was the worst? GO ELLS! "YEAH! 'Tis. I'm never falling in love. EvereverevereverEVER." No love germs fo' Queen Alice.

Emma? Being compared to Edric? HAH. "Err.. yeah, I guess. 'Cept Emma's a Slytherin, and she's a girl, and she doesn't push people into water." Wait. yeah, she did. "Well, she did one time. But the person she pushed in had kissed her.. err.. boyfriend.." Squirm. Yeah. She was still not okay with the whole I'm-going-to-date-Brae-a-weird-boy-who-kisses-other-girls thing. But whatever. "That's an okay reason, I think." And the subject was pushed back to.. Evs? "Err, yeah, very practical, and a smart girl, too." Alice, the amazing Prefect Evaluator! I need to add that to my list of nicknames, she reminded herself. "Loves Edric? .. All good friends love each other in a.. err.. a way, yeah?" This discussion was making her squeamish.

Squirm.

Ella shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it would be kinda weird seeing Edric acting all sappy. Wait...you couldn't deal with any more sappiness? Does that mean you've been dealing with a lot lately?" The second year asked, now quite curious. Wait, WHAT!? *Snort* "You call him PRINCE CHARMING?" O__O This seemed VERY strange to Ella. She loved her big evil fairy godfather and everything but a PRINCE...umm. Nope. She couldn't see it. "Why that name?" Cause if it wasn't too mean a reason, Ella could use that name on him too to see what he would say. Teehee! She was SO turning into a mini ogre. "Yeah, but I got him back though...I dumped my own juice into his lap." Giggle. And Ella was still pretty shocked she had done that...and that he hadn't killed her for it. The second year then thought about the possibility of Edric sharing his gummy bears with Evelyn too. "I bet he would, I mean I think he really likes her." And for some reason this made her frown slightly. Weird. Maybe because Ella thought that if Edric liked Evelyn SO much...he might forget about the little second year. And being forgotten scared Ella. Trying not too think too much about this, Ella focused on Alice and what she was saying. "Welcome...and I wish you guys could be friends...at least a little bit! Cause you're both my friends...and I don't want you to hate eachother."

Ohhhh! Jigglypuff! Ella hadn't made the connection until Alice described it to her. She had seen that erm...character before when she was younger! "I know what you're talking about now." And she tried to picture Alec and make the connection. "I don't really see the similarity but." Shrug. It was a funny nickname though! So Alice didn't pay attention to hair? Ella couldn't help but pay attention. "Oh I notice people's hair all the time. And I like to compare and contrast them...Yours is quite nice, by the way!" And as if on cue, Alice was hair flipping! Ella giggled and BEAMED at her new friend. "Alice! That was quite good!" Though course it was, they were girls! "It is kinda creepy when they do it, right?" And she recalled the nose hair incident and cringed a little. "Buy yeah, I guess they are good. Alec's the best so far...though I wonder what Morbid-I mean Mordred's hair would look like while it was flipping." She would have to see for herself to make an accurate decision about who did it better. And then Ella was giggly but nodding too. "Yeah, he is a great friend...even if he is girly!" Giggle. Giggle. Giggle. Even though she never really thought he was girly before. BEAM. "You're welcome! And yeah, I hope I grow taller. I think it'd be fun to be tall and be able to like...you know, see in a crowd and stuff!" Cause that's one of the perks of being tall, you know...Then Alice was questioning about her love life again and Ells was feeling all nervous. "Erm yeah...they're meant to be smart." Shrug. "His...his name is Harvey." Squirm. Squirm. Squirm. "I don't want to ever be in love either. Just liking someone is horrible enough...plus, people in love don't ever stay together...not really." Frown.

O__O "Emma's boyfriend kissed another girl!" Ella asked, eyes wide. "That's horrible. Clearly that erm...kisser deserved to go into the water then." Cause it was super MEAN to kiss someone else's boyfriend. BEAM. "Evs is smart! I bet she could be like...the minister of magic some day if she wanted." At least Ella thought she could. She thought about what Alice said next and nodded. "Well yeah, I mean I love my friends. But I think there are different kinds of love..." And she couldn't help but wonder if Edric and Evelyn were heading towards the other kind. EEP!

Alice sighed. 'Well, yeah, kind of. Since, y'know, everyone's in love these days. It's kind of sickening." And nasty. And disgusting. And so very vomit-worthy. But, her calling Edric Prince Charming.. that had nothing to do with sappiness. "YEAH. I call him that now. Because I saw him sno—" WAIT, WHAT?! The lioness clamped a hand over her mouth, and spoke again, but through her fingers. "Err.. I mean.. sno.. snoring!" Well. His brain was constantly asleep, so that wasn't a total lie. "I saw him snoring, and the princess is usually the one who is asleep, and I'm rather sarcastic.. and now I call him Prince Charming." The small girl's shoulders hung low; that was probably the worst cover story ever known to man.

But, anyways.. "You dumped juice into his lap?! Oh, Ells, that's so.. so.." BEAMBEAMBEAM. "AWESHOME. Did he freak out?" Flail. Ignoring the comment about Edric and Eve and gummy bears, and trying to avoid another slip up, the girl focused on the next thing Ella said. "I don't hate Edric. I just.. dislike him. But he's also kind of.. sweet." Gag. "After he got out of the pond, he indirectly implied that he didn't want me to freeze to death and wouldn't take my coat." Yeah. I don't want you to freeze to death. How sweet. Possibly because he wanted to kill her himself? Shrug.

She didn't see the similarity between Alec and the Jigglypuff? "Neither do I! It's just teasing.." And she loved teasing Alec. "But he's my official teasing partner. We tease Messer together. 'Tis funnn." Flail. She liked teasing Messer. "Do you know Messer?" But it seemed Ells already knew everyone Alice knew, so probably. Shrug. "Err.. thanks?" Alice beamed and giggled at Ella's last statement. "You.. err.. you have nice hair, too! But.. ahem.. I think my hair-flipping is better than Alec's." Cue Superman hair-flip imitation again. Giggle. "Who's Morbid?" Hmm.. the nickname sounded familiar.. and hadn't Sophie mentioned something similar before? The lioness shook her head and turned back to Ella.

"I KNOW! It'll be so awesome to be tall. Then I won't have to stand on my tiptoes or make Alec and messy give me piggyback rides." 'Course Messer always refused, but she'd make him, one day.. And.. Harvey? That sounded.. like something she'd heard before. "Is he on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team?" Ahh! That's where she'd heard it! BUT Anyways. "So you.. you don't want to be in love.. but you are, anyways?" Alice shrugged. "I guess it's okay, since you and Harvey can get married and have children and name one after me!" YEAH. Ells could totally do that. "Well, Emma says 'twas not her boyfriend's fault, but she doesn't remember how hurt she was when it happened. I do." Sigh. "It hurt to see my role model that.. that broken, y'know? 'Cause the only Emma I ever knew was the strong and dignified one." But even when she was sad, Emma was still strong. "Anyone who would do that to her, intentionally or not, is a horrible person in my mind." OHKAY. Conclusion of mini-speech. "Evs can't be the Minister of magic. That's Erin's future job!" Plus, Evs wouldn't want that much power.. she thought.

Ella listened to Queen Alice, her eyebrows raised slightly. Wait! Everyone was in love? The second year was quite curious about this since she always thought one didn't fall in love until they were super OLD...like at age 18 or something! "Who's in love that you know?" Cause now Ella really needed to know so she could talk to these guys and ask what being in love felt like...cause just being in like with someone was plain awful! Then they were talking about Ella's ogre again and unfortunately for Alice, she now had the second year's FULL attention. This meant Ella caught the slip...and didn't buy the cover up. O___O "Don't lie, Alice! You were going to say....to say..." Merlin's beard! She was going to say... "SNOGGING!" FLAIL. FLAIL. FLAIL. Ewwwwww. Her evil fairy godfather had been snogging! Ella didn't even know ogres knew how to snog! EEP! "ALICE, WHO was he snogging?" Cause Ella simply had to know!

The second year nodded, feeling quite proud of herself. She BEAMED right back at her royal friend. "I did! It was so perfect, especially since he'd done it to me! I just got so annoyed and I...just did it!" And her eyes went a bit wide at the realization that she'd done something so...ogre-ish. "Merlin's beard...I'm turning into him!" Oh no. Okay. Was this REALLY bad? Maybe she was just going through like...an identity crisis. Those passed eventually, right? RIGHT? MEEP. "Erm...he didn't even freak out. He just...glared at me...and then dried himself...and then like-watched me." Because...GASP...He knew she was turning into an ogre even before SHE did! FLAILLLL! As for the rest of the conversation about Alice not hating Edric, Ella kind of nodded along, her thoughts on her emerging ogre-ness. She was totally freaked out!

So Alec and Alice teased Messer together? Hah! Ella giggled at this, imagining it was quite fun to watch. "Course I know Messy...erm Messer!" BEAM. "He's one of my favorite Hufflepuffs!...Though I think he thinks I'm a bit crazy after I attacked him with a pillow." BUT in her defence, it was during a pillow war. So he really shouldn't be too angry. And he probably wasn't. "You're welcome!" Ella said with a smile. She was just stating facts, y'know. "It is?" BEAM. "Thanks, Alice!" And Ella giggled as Alice said her hair flipping was better. "Maybe we should have a contest! That would be fun." AND entertaining to watch! "I erm...I meant Mordred. He's a friend...and a Slytherin...and has nice hair!" AND SOPHIE LOOOOVED HIM! But she wouldn't say that. That was between besties! Mhm!

"Wait! They give you piggyback rides?!" Ella asked, eyes wide. No fair! They NEVER gave her piggyback rides. Not that she'd ever asked. She wondered if she should now that she knew they were open for business. Ugh. And apparently Alice did know who Harvey was..."He um...yeah he is." Squirm. Squirm. Squirm. O___O "Alice! I'm NOT in love. No.No.No! I only like him...well like-like him but...NO! Definitely not love." Just so they were clear. And HUH? Get married?! EEK! "I don't think I'll ever get married..." Ella said thoughtfully. "I don't really know if I believe in that anymore." She then frowned as she listened to Alice talk about her friend. "Yeah, it must have been really hard seeing your role model so sad..." Ella wouldn't want to see any of her friends sad, especially not her best ones. Oh...and Ells didn't know who this Erin person was so she simply shrugged. "I didn't know." She said truthfully.

Cornelius was in between classes currently, but he had plenty of time. The next class he had wasn't for another hour, so the young man was strolling casually through this corridor on his way up to the Common Room to grab one of his text books. It was a beautiful day outside though, and it was clear by the Ravenclaw's expression that he would have preferred to be somewhere out on the grounds, his eyes glancing out each window he passed.

West had a map in front of his face with former secret passages marked on it. He was just trying to figure out if any of them were still sealed up so he could try to a) unseal them and b) eliminate them as possibilities for use. Up here on the fourth floor apparently there was a mirror and a tapestry that hid passages that were now sealed up. But HOW SEALED WERE THEY? West meant to find out.

Natch he wasn't looking where he was going and collided with a big kid. Seemed like that was the normal way to meet people though.

From his new spot on his bum on the ground West blinked once and looked up at the bigger boy with an expression that was distinctly Odessa. "You're in my way."

Truth.

And of course, just as Cornelius glanced out of what must have been the eighth window of the corridor, he ran straight into another student. And not just another student, but a younger, much smaller student who fell to the floor upon collision! Startled, the young man gave a bit of a jump at the impact. "Oh, sorry, sorr--" he immediately began to ramble, only to be cut off by the first year's observation that he was in his way.

Cornelius's eyebrows rose at the statement, not having expected the younger student to be so straight forward and stern with his first words. But in the next moment, his expression broke into a large grin and he let out a soft chuckle, "I suppose I was," he agreed, extending out one of his hands to the boy who was still on the floor in order to help him up.

"Sorry about that..." he started, but trailed off just slightly as he examined the younger student's face, his brows furrowing. Why was that expression so familiar? He shrugged it off for the time being, immediately replacing the confused look with another smile as his hand sat hanging in the air, waiting for the unknown boy to accept his peace offering/help.

Maybe a bit slow? Weren't Ravenclaws supposed to be super smart? Even if they weren't as smart as Aspen, they were still smart, right?

"You were." West reiterated, but took the big boy's hand and hoisted himself up, cos he was strong and all, and then let go. Wait. Where was his map? He looked around and then, spotting it, he scooped it up triumphantly.

"Hey!" Realisation. "Do you know where a mirror is? And a tapestry? They're supposed to be on this floor." And it would be FASTER if this big boy just TOLD him where. He bounced a couple times eagerly, eyes going big.

Tell him or else!

Cornelius could hardly keep up with this kid! He gave a brief "Oof!" as the first year hoisted himself up using his extended hand, disappearing in the next moment. The older boy spun around to find the boy now scooping up a map and bouncing on his toes, asking about a mirror or a tapestry, things that were apparently supposed to be on the fourth floor.

He wished that he could be more of a help, but he was currently distracted, trying to figure out where on the planet he had seen this kid before! And so Cornelius's brows furrowed, trying to listen to what the kid was asking and simultaneously trying to crack the code of where he had seen him before. "A mirror or tapestry..." he repeated, registering these words just a few delayed moments later.

"Oh, yeah! I think I actually just passed a mirror a few windows back..." He pointed vaguely down the hall, but immediately followed up with his own question, figuring he had to ask quickly or this kid would be zooming away. "I'm sorry, have I.. Have I seen you somewhere before?" He gave a weak smile.