Louisa squeezed her eyes shut and bumped her forehead on the pole. The last person she ever wanted to see her in such a position. "Yeah. Very funny, Paulie." She didn't even look down at him because he was SO FAR AWAY! She just talked to the pole with the vines right in front of her face. "In case you didn't notice, I'm on a rescue mission." SELF rescue mission.

The Ravenclaw eyed her stupid cat who was watching the scene very coolly as if she was merely an outsider NOT THE REASON LOUISA WAS STUCK ON A POLE. Grrr. The girl waited silently for a moment trying to find a way to either get down without cracking her head or asking for help without sounding so helpless.

....

....

She started moving one of her hands slooowwwwly to her right side where her wand was safely tucked in. She had no idea what kind of spell would be useful but maybe a cushioning spell? Only she can't really focus with her heart pounding so hard in her ears. D:

Paulie chuckled. Poor girl, to be stuck in such a predicament with him, of all people, to be there. He looked from the nonchalant cat to the edgy Louisa and shifted his weight to one leg. "Well, you're doin' a fine job of rescuin' her." ..That was a joke, by the way. He noticed her reach for her wand, though, and he actually DID find himself feeling a weird tinge of anxiety that the smartypants Ravvie might really fall.

"Oi, quit it! Just.... ask for my help, like a normal person." 'Cause he didn't want her in the hospital wing for something HE could've prevented. Plus, she had to request his help. Yep.

Louisa's hand clutched the pole without managing to get her wand surprise surprise. She glared at the cat and didn't reply to his sarcastic confirmation. Yeah, fine. She wasn't an athlete or someone who used to climb things and get down but she wouldn't just sit around while her cat was perched up on a bea-

O__O

The Ravenclaw pursed her lips together stubbornly but she didn't dare snap back because Paulie never snapped or talked like that and it was incredibly scary now that he did. Louisa untangle her legs a bit to let the blood flow well and used her arms and the vines to stay hanging on the pole. Still not answering him.

Until one of the vine's small stem got cut off and she had to hug the pole quickly, more out of panic than out of actual danger, "Help me!" EEEEEK.

Hydra walked into the Topiary garden and sat down on one of the benches and began thinking to herself- 'I am so glad that I'm finally here... WOW... Ah I need to make friends with some Hufflepuff's... Hmmm I wonder how Bethan is I haven't seen her since the sorting... She must be happy that she's in Ravenclaw.' Hydra remembered how she made her new friend at Diagon alley that day. 'I guess I should look for her so we can catch up on things...'

Merlin's beard, Paulie's neck was starting to strain with all this looking up at that cat and at Louisa. Usually, he was pretty used to looking down at people. Then, suddenly, he heard a 'SNAP,' and without thinking, he quickly lifted his arms in preparation to catch - or at least cushion - the falling Ravenclaw prefect....

..Who never fell.

Oh. Good! He stretched his hands up over his head as far as they'd go. "'Kay, so keep holdin' onto the pole, but put your feet on my palms," he instructed. It was a similar situation to when his old muggle friend got stuck in a tree, but was too frightened to come back down. "Once you've got your feet planted on my hands, then climb down the pole a bit with your hands and step onto my shoulders." And then she could jump off him or climb down his back or something of the sort.

Louisa's cheek was against the pole and she managed to see Paulie by the corner of her eye standing very close and... EXCUSE ME? She was supposed to step on him?!! "I'm not going to stand on you!" That was the instinct in Louisa talking but a second later and when she felt herself shift a millimeter downward, her mind quickly took over "Okay okay!" She'd throw herself at him squashing him to the ground if necessary.

The Ravenclaw shifted her arms so that her hands were now gripping the pole using the vine as a main gripping aid... hopefully it wouldn't crumble down suddenly, she made sure to balance her weight on her almost-numb now legs. Hands secured, she slooowwly untangled her left leg from around the pole and shakily dragged herself lower. If her breath wasn't so fast, she'd call out for him to stretch his arms further up.

Moving her hands along, Louisa dragged herself another inch before her foot bumped into one of his hands. GOOD GOOD! But... she wasn't going to step on him with her shoes on. "Err.. I think I sh-should get.." Another slip from the vine caused her to change her mind and just secure her foot on his hand regardless. Okay, now the other leg was next and this time Louisa did it a bit skillfully. All the time the same round of ideas rushing through her mind; What if her arms couldn't hold? What if Paulie's arms didn't hold? What if she fell directly on top of him and he died? What if she broke a hip? What if Adam lost both of his best friends because Louisa played hero for one day?

D:

Catching her breath she started shifting her hands to a lower spot... she felt her weight shifting as well to her feet but tried to hold herself with at least one hand as the other moved quickly to grab the pole again. That was why she never liked sports. IT WAS DANGEROUS. When she was in a good position, she shook her foot off one of his hands and sliiiiiid it to his shoulder... but she didn't have the heart to stand on it yeah, shuddap she had a heart. As an alternative, her left hand grabbed a bunch of vine stems and tried to hold her whole weight...

... but it was sprained in the process and the girl had to let out a sharp YELP! before she shut her mouth and eyes swallowing. Yep. That was real pain.

See that was the reason as of why Louisa didn't use her heart so often. It always led to agony. Hmph. Silently, she left her right arm to hold her as still as possible as she shifted to stand on the boy's shoulders while her sprained left wrist fell to her side. Now what?

Well. She was injured already. She tightened her grip on the pole and without thinking twice jumped off Paulie's shoulders and flailed her legs just a bit as she sliiiiiiiiiid down what's left of the pole cutting some stems on her way down. Even if this was deliberate supposedly-safe fall, she screamed anyway.

Ronnie nodded. "Yeah." she replied with a little nod.

Ronnie sighed. "Yeah, I feel ya." she said with a laugh. "I hate how much homework they throw at us, and all the work in the classes." she said. "Like in divination, dressing up like fools...I mean fortune tellers." she said, laughing again. "I'm surprised I'm even out here. I probably have some homework I should be doing." she said, a shy smile on her face. Ah well. She'd have time for it later. . .

Which probably meant like midnight for her. Fun fun fun.

"Anytime!" she said with a smile. "I love jellybeans. They're my faaavorite food!" she exclaimed. "Well...that's if they count as a food." she added with a chuckle.

Ella took note of the fact that the older boy seemed quite surprised by her sudden appearance. She didn't comment on that though, nope. Instead she focused on the wildly unjust reaction by this boy to the elephant taking his food. "S-stole it? Are you sure?" She asked, doubting an elephant would do such things. "I'm sure it isn't a criminal. Maybe it was just hungry! I mean it sits here all day long without any food and maybe just maybe you happened to be eating its favorite thing. Can you blame the elephant for taking it? It was only acting on its...its animal instinct" She said, arms folded. She walked over to stand in front of the elephant in case this angry boy decided to hurt it or something. "You don't think Mr. Murdoch will like punish it or something?...That is if you can punish a topiary..."

'I'm not going to stand on you!'

An expected response from Louisa Carter. Paulie rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to respond, when she soon enough agreed on her own. Okay, good. She was cooperating.

After what felt like ages of waiting, he finally felt her shoe hit his palm. It seemed like she hesitated before she eventually put her feet on his hands. She must not have trusted him, though, because she quickly grabbed onto some vines for support and, in the process, somehow ended up hurting some part of her body. Paulie wasn't sure what was hurt, 'cause he couldn't exactly get a great view from where he was. "I can hold you," Paulie told her, a little irked that she wasn't trusting him. And perhaps he was slightly edgy because she could get hurt if she didn't use that brain of hers.

But alas, he felt her full weight on his shoulders. Before he had a chance to just kneel down, which would have been more logical, the girl hopped off and flailed down the pole like a swarm of bees were attacking her!

THUD.

She was on the ground.

Paulie hurried over and kneeled down. "Louisa, you okay?" He glanced her over quick, but it didn't seem like there was anything noticeably wrong with her, save a few scratches here or there. "I heard ya yelp or something.." Quite high-pitched, may he add.

... she wasn't dead, was she? Paulie's face was hovering over her and if this was heaven then... boo.

Louisa started getting up when her left wrist sent an electrical wave down her spine causing her to flinch. Not heaven at all. She brought her left hand to her lap as she shifted herself to a sitting position, too tired to get up now. "I'm fine." The Ravenclaw started shaking her hair and getting whatever stuck in it to fall over, she looked down at her dirty hands and made a face. "I think I sprained my wrist." With her right hand she inspected it. The flinch confirmed it, again.

Looking up at Paulie, Louisa saw that he was actually concerned. He even called her by her name. Gee. The girl couldn't help but suppress a grin.

With her good arm she grabbed his elbow and stood up, a little wobbly. "I'm going to kill the cat." No kidding. The girl turned to look up at Viola, "Do you think she'll come down on her own? Or should we just cut the whole tree off?" she mused, leaning on him with her hand still on his arm, the hurt wrist cradled to her chest.

Maxwell laughed. "I barely do the homework, i normally just cram it all and turn it in." He laughed at the comment about divination. "I know that was ridiculous. I don't know how clothes help you...I'm not sure i get that class..."

He smiled. "I think they count." He said jokingly.

Aaaaaaaaand......

She was okay! Apart from her slightly messy hair, which Paulie couldn't help but grin at. Was that a leaf in there..? hehe. He did notice her flinch, however, when she tried to get up, and so it appeared that she wasn't wholly uninjured. "Well, I guess it could've been a lot worse, right?" Paulie offered, after he stood back up and served as her support cane.

He followed her stare over to the cat and he shook his head. "This is why dogs are better." If JB were here, he'd probably be licking her to death in order to make her feel better! And the cat just.... stared back, unmoved by anything that just happened. "Cut the whole tree down?" He grinned. "I'm sure the groundskeeper would lo-oove that." NOT! "I can climb up and get her," he shrugged. But really, Paulie wasn't all that concerned with the cat that got them into this predicament in the first place!

He turned and looked back down at the wrist she was cradling against her chest. "I think we should worry about your wrist first. You should probably go to the hospital wing, ya know? I'd try to diagnose ya here, but alas, I'd probably end up breaking it."

"Of course I'm sure, I know what stealing consists of," Edric replied to the bewildered little girl who seemed shocked an elephant made of twigs and leaves could do something as insane as stealing. But it did.

As the girl went on to defend the elephant, Edric raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "Has it ever occurred to you that maybe - just maybe - this 'elephant' is just a plant?" he asked. Because she seemed to have completely forgotten that bit. "Plants don't eat peanuts." They eat… sunlight and plant stuff. But definitely not peanuts.

When the girl wondered aloud if Mr. Murdoch would punish the greedy elephant, Edric shrugged his shoulders. What did he know? He didn't care either way. He just wanted his lunch back.

"Right. Groundskeeper. Coz we can't do it and blame it on someone else." She showed her grin. Hopefully this slightly stinging feeling in her forehead wasn't an ugly scratch. "But no, you're not going to climb up there on account of my stubborn cat. She'll probably just get bored and get down here any time soon now." The Ravenclaw eyed her cat doubtfully.

... what? Louisa raised one eyebrow at him. He'd end up breaking it? "I'm not made of glass." So no, diagnosing a sprained wrist wasn't really that hard. Waaaaaaaait a minute. She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, "I've heard this tone before..." When they had just gotten out of detention, "Are you... implying something?" Yeah the cat AND the wrist could definitely hold still. "Spill it, Paulie. Don't use those witty comments with me." Because she believed she'd get it anyways. Louisa was witty enough for most people, she believed.

Ella simply frowned at the older boy, feeling a bit defeated. Had it occurred to her that the elephant was a plant? Well yeah, it had. But she was twelve and the thought of a plant that was also an elephant that could also move was pretty exciting, no? "I know it's a plant." She said in a soft voice. "But it also moves and acts like an elephant so-there's that." Shrug. "And if plants don't eat peanuts then...then where did yours go, hm?" Explain that one, mister.

After a moment of awkward silence in which this boy did not answer her question about Mr. Murdoch, Ella looked up at him and studied him carefully. "You know, you could always go get more food in the kitchens...the elves are quite nice and then you wouldn't have to be mad anymore." And then Ella could go back to spending time with her favorite elephant plant.

Paulie half grinned, half gaped. "Louisa Carter, were you insinuating that we'd blame it on someone else?" He feigned a gasp. "How un-prefectly of you." He laughed when she refused to let him climb up and get the cat. Really? "I'm no quidditch star or football star by any stretch of the imagination, but I can totally climb trees," he told her. He looked up at the cat, but as if it were purposefully mocking him, it hopped up to an even higher, thinner limb. Hmmm. He pushed his lips to the side. "Okay. I guess we'll wait it out." Pffffft. CATS.

Wait, what? Louisa WASN'T made of glass?! He shrugged. "I donno, Helen. I can be rather clumsy." This was true. Though this did not include his tree-climbing skills, just to reiterate. "If you're not gonna go to the hospital wing, then you've gotta at least wrap it like a muggle would." Gosh, Louisa was supposed to be smart! Didn't she know anything about injuries? Tsk, tsk.

She was narrowing her eyes at him. Why was she doing that...? Paulie lifted an eyebrow and waited for her to speak. Tone..? "Huh?" What tone? Implying something? 'Spill it'? Okay, if he was confused earlier, then now he was TOTALLY befuddled. "Wait... erm. I think I'm missing something?" Like.... WHAT she was talking about.

"Really? Like what?" Anya asked. "The only thing I've run into was a hall of tapestries. How boring is that?" Why would she want to look at... rugs... when there was a whole magic school to explore?

Anya grinned and nodded. "Yeah. I just hate that he's in the Hufflepuff house. It's like we're missing out on all the fun that could happen if we were together all the time, like we used to be."

That, and she didn't like having to share him. It wasn't fair that others got to see him more than she did.

She giggled. "That would be amazing. Of course, I'd have to make the team again. Sadly, I didn't have any time to practice during the summer."

She then smiled. "We've been talking a lot about me. What do you like to do?"

He could climb a tree. SCOFF. "I bet." Paulie was totally the type of boys Louisa thought were running, climbing and hanging off branches and other higher places when they were younger. But yeah, waiting. With her hand she started pulling him toward the nearby bench to sit down, the one she'd used to climb up there. They could sit down while discussing her wrist and the evil cat.

Like a muggle would? She gave him a look. "I can't wrap it with only one hand, can I?" Hello! And.. she might as well ask him to do since she already asked for his help, "You do it. Just conjure a bandage and wrap it up a bit tightly." He was the one who suggested it anyway. Louisa lowered her arm and shifted in her place to give him access to her hand. It wasn't a risky task... even for clumsy Paulie.

Blink blink. Well... maybe she needed to spill it since he didn't get what she meant. Or what she thought she meant. With her arm still stretched down, the girl spoke flatly, "Y'know, you don't want to fix my wrist now outside the hospital wing because you don't think you're capable of this." She gave him an odd look, a combination of disappointment and sadness. "Like that time we did detention and then you snapped something about your efforts always being not enough." The look continued for a few more seconds before Louisa took a deep breath, "Obviously, that's a wrong analysis." Since he didn't get it on his own. It meant she might be overthinking stuff now.

... she didn't hit her head, did she?

João didn't even bother to answer to her next set of words about Louisa. It was over, why were they still discussing it? He had never been jealous, save for that scumbag Adam issue, because Adam had obviously feelings for her. And now, they probably dated. Other than that idiot though, even for that guy Paulie, had João never been jealous, which was the right reaction to FRIENDS.

Moving on. With still a neutral face on.

Oh. Wow. Maybe she was placed in the wrong house. Maybe she shouldn't be accepted into Hogwarts at all. Imagining her being literally kicked out amused him. He hid his smirk.

"Oh? Since when calling me names and demanding to know why I behaved so and so a million years ago is 'being good'?" With his quite condescending smile on his face. "And I just reminded you of your supposed house traits," he shrugged, "and pointed out that you did not fit in. Don't worry though, I'm sure you'll be accepted somewhere too." Yeah, he was done with her.

Why was she still here and disturbing his peaceful atmosphere?

Evelyn raised an eyebrow when he spoke. "You don't have to remind me about anything." She stated, rather coldly. Yeah, right. Whatever. "..and you don't know anything about me, so I think you should keep those opinions to yourself." Frankly, this was the first time in her life that she'd been this rude to someone. Although, he did deserve it. Seriously. What a freaking jerk.

Anyway, that's it. Evelyn refused to even look at him before she plonked down on the seat again. If he wanted to leave, he could leave. She was going to do what she came here to do in the first place. Relax. Although, she really doubted if that was going to happen now. She was way to annoyed with him to relax.

João didn't react in any way to her words. He was done with her, so why acknowledging her once more? Instead, he lay his head back and closed his eyes once again to enjoy the birds singing. It was a beautiful day, after all, despite all her efforts to ruin it. Frankly? He didn't give a care. He was good at those things--if he wanted to ignore, he ignored about everyone quite successfully.

Wait. WHY wasn't he leaving again!?

Evelyn folded her arms, tapping her foot impatiently, just hoping that he would just get up and leave. But..looked like he wasn't. Unfortunately. And..the silence was making her feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Why are you still here?" Evelyn blurted out before she bit her lip. UGH. She turned around to face the garden again, her cheeks slightly flushed. She knew that she should have just ignored him but..she didn't like the silence.

"It was so scary, omg i cant even TALK about it." the second year spoke, wide eyed. "itwasasuperscarystatuelikeomg.sougly!" She flailed her arms about before taking a deep breathe.

But yep, Taperstries were super boring.

"Lots off people seem to be Huffloopuffs." Brooke stated, or well a lot of the people she'd met. She hadn't met many Slytherins which was sad, she got super lonely in the common room, and in the dorms. Especially when everyone was asleep and she didn't wanna sleep.

The blonde smiled at her new friends giggle, yey! "Im sure you will make the team, you made it once right ?" heheh. Obviously, she had or she wouldnt of said she had. UNLESSHEWASALIAR. Which Brooke didn't like to think about..

....and now they were talking about Brooke. Brooke didn't like people talking about her. O_____o "Uh...I like poking fings wiff sticks, i like...going to the abombed playground wiff my Bestie Dar, when we're at home." she meant abandoned, eck. "I uh...i dont like people wiff cooties. But Its okay, because Dar doesn't haff cooties, neeva do my new friends Lucca and Alec." She wasn't quite sure about the other boys she'd met. hmmmm.

Paulie took notice of her scoffing at his tree-climbing pursuits. Heh. Yeah, Louisa didn't seem like a big outdoorsy kinda girl.

Of course she couldn't wrap her wrist with one hand! He didn't expect her to. But.. ah, right. Apparently that did leave him to wrap it for her. "Okay, I'll do my best." He conjured a bandage from thin air, then slipped his wand back into his pocket. He took her hand and shifted over so he could wrap it properly. "Just.. tell me if I'm doing it too tight or too loose or anything," he said, before he began wrapping the bandage about her wrist, then across and behind her palm, and back to her wrist again. Add 'Doctor' to his long list of professions.. heh.

Paulie listened to Louisa explain her reasoning behind her words and bring up that time that they spoke last year, after detention. His eyebrows raised slightly, and he focused back on her wrist to conceal the slight redness that had surfaced on his cheeks. "I forgot I said that to you." And he didn't realize that she'd remember it, either. The Gyrffindor finished wrapping her wrist, and he drew his hands back. "Well, it looks like I fixed up your injury all right, so I suppose I'm not completely incapable, hmm?" He gave a smile.

"So, does it feel stable enough, or whatever?"

Huh?

Now João was amused. He opened his eyes with a smirk on his face. Raising his eyebrows in slight confusion, he said "Why should I be gone?" They weren't even on the same bench. If she didn't want his existance, she could leave alright. He, on the other hand, was going to enjoy this free day and stay here.