"Uh huh. I transferred here for my fifth year, didn't you know that?" Huh. Paulie gave an amused smile, then shook his head. "Not exactly. I fawned, yes, and she rejected me, yes, but she never fell for me." He gave a shrug, though, because it really didn't matter much to him now, besides the fact that he realized it was quite a waste of his efforts.

Heh. He appreciated her attempt to partially defend him about not being irresponsible and not being too full of himself. Really, though, he was most of those things. And he was okay with it, too. "Well, thank you for sticking up for me, Helen." Cue the lopsided grin.

Chuckling a bit at her response to his little clarification about their friendship, he gave a smug roll of the shoulders when she admitted that she (gasp) had never jumped off a pole for anyone else! "I have been told that I'm pretty persuasive, so.." heh. He smiled over at her.

.........

Oooohkay. That was not the response that Paulie was looking for when he said fighter pilot. She was supposed to say, 'Wow, that's so awesome, Paulie. You'll be the best pilot ever to fly the skies!' Or.. something. Why? Why? "That's not your question, is it?" 'Cause he was only answering one question!

At least her wrist was 'fine.' Paulie did know better than to believe that, though, 'cause he had sprained his ankle before, and that didn't just go away. "If you're not gonna go to the hospital wing, then you have to continue wrapping it." In case she never dealt with something like this the muggle way, he thought he'd say so. But, about her answers... Mashed potatoes. Green. White Daisy petals. He gave a single nod. "Aha, I see." It was strange that she didn't like flowers. She was a girl and she didn't like flowers. They looked pretty and smelled nice, and they looked pretty in girls' hair, so what was there not to like?

Aaaaaaand, she was at this whole 'Why you wanna be a FIGHTER PILOT?!?!1' thing. He lifted a brow suspiciously. "Have you and Adam been exchanging notes or something? 'Cause he got all fussy about it, too." Well. Not 'fussy,' per se. Adam wasn't really a 'fussy' person. But he made a big deal out of it. "I think planes are cool," he eventually answered. There. And that was true, too, even if it was by no means the entire reason. Hence, it counted as a truthful answer.

His turn. By now he was either running out of questions or forgetting the one's he had wanted to ask her. He did remember this one, though. "Is there any part of you that's dating Adam to make Joao jealous?"

Again with the wrist thingy, she rolled her eyes, "Yes, mom." And no, she wasn't going to the hospital wing and waste Merlin knows how long just to get a sprained wrist checked, she had a lot of things on her schedule already.

Louisa was surprised to know that Adam too had found this pilot thing unacceptable. For some reason she expected him to be supportive of Paulie's decision no matter what.. but hey, he too didn't want Paulie to die so young! D: "Get a damn electric plane and fly it in your yard! Get a video game! Ride a broom! I don't care!" Planes are cool my aunt Petunia >___> "Hoping to be a fighter pilot must've come from somewhere else. If it was only for that reason then..." And Louisa was looking at him in that way that said Paulie Foster was the stupidest boy on earth.

His question snapped her out of it for a second and she blinked. Twice. Whao. That wasn't expected... much. "N-no." She kept her eyes locked on his. "I saw him a couple of times already and we made it clear that it's over." With a lovely kiss.

Her turn. A serious question. "Do you really think that you're not good enough in a lot of things?" Like that detention comment... his hesitance about wrapping her wrist... his assumptions that he was irresponsible... and maybe other clues that she just missed over her drama.

Meanwhile, the cat had gotten up, stared down at the ground and started pondering over leaving the comfy oval shaped tree... only her feist owner was nearby and even Viola knew the consequences of this whole get-on-the-bear-tree-head were going to be ugly.

It is like every other morning, except that it's Saturday, so there are no classes. Albeit he already had his breakfast earlier, Xing literally knelt before the elves begging them for some sandwiches in the kitchen.

Soon, here he is, crouching silently at the side of the topiary garden, slowly chewing the sandwich in hand. His dark eyes curiously gazing at the moving animal-shaped plants. As the thought 'what kind of sorcery is this?!' crosses his mind, Xing recalls that he isn't in the muggle world anymore. Funny how the two worlds are very much alike, but yet so different.

Edric nodded his head attentively as Ella explained her family situation to him. He'd learned more about her in an hour than most people learned about him in years. Did that mean he was extremely introverted or the girl was just an open book? Either way, it was his turn to start answering questions now.

"Oh, yeah…" he muttered absentmindedly, honestly a little caught off-guard by the question. He wasn't used to questions. He normally didn't like them. But he didn't mind telling Ella a bit about his family, he supposed. "My dad's a wizard, and so is my older brother Evan. My mum's a muggle." So Edric was a halfblood. "Loads of fun pulling tricks on her when she's least expecting it." Poor Mrs. Barlow was the victim of constant pranking from her husband and two sons. Such was the life of a muggle caught in a house filled with immature wizards.

"Psh!" And then Edric was scoffing indignantly. "Choke?" he seemed offended by the mere mention of such an event. "I'm a skilled gummy bear devourer, I'll have you know," he announced proudly, indeed gummy bear-free now.

Aurora walked down to the Topiary Garden with Giacomo sat on her shoulder. Her little white pygmy puff was squeaking softly as it bounced with her footsteps. He was adorable. So there.

She found a bench and plonked herself on it, removing Giac and holding him in her hands and she looked around the garden. Merlin... she was so glad she was out of that castle... Like, really glad. She'd needed this walk and the lovely crisp autumn air.

PURDY MOVING BUSHES.

Blue's eyes widened as she gazed around at the dancing!bears. But that got a little bit boring after a while. She was use to awesome magick-y stuff now so...well, not really but you get the drift. But what REALLY caught Blue's attention was a girl with a white thingy-ma-bob on her shoulder sitting on a bench.

Blue skipped over to her and tapped the girl on the shoulder. "'Scuuse me, but you have a ball of fluff on yo' shoulder."

Just in case she didn't know.

BEAM.

Huh? Oh. Aurora glanced at the little Ravenclaw. Didn't she know what Giacie was?! "He's a Pygmy puff!" she said, holding the ball of fluff up so that the girl could see his funny little face. "His name is Giacomo." And he was ADORABLE. The Pygmy puff squeaked with glee at being paid attention to. "He does that a lot." Yup. And she loved it.

"I'm Aurora, by the way." she said. "Who are you?" First year by the looks of it... Though Aurora didn't know many of the first or second years so she wasn't sure.

Oh yeeah. Blue had heard of those. They were...well, balls of fluff. "Giiaaaccoomo." Blue said, considering that name before nodding her approval. "I have a toad," Blue pulled WMD out of her pocket and beamed at the girl. "His name is Weapon of Mass Destruction." 'Twas an awesome name. "He squeaks a lot? Maybe you should get him checked by a vet! He might be broken!" Pooor little fluff ball.

"I'm BLUUE." And she pointed to the blue!ravenclaw crest on her chest, BEAMING with pride.

Brooke copied Anya's action and lay back on the graph, NOT that she was a copy cat or anything, because she so wasnt. "Im seeing...I see ...mr Blobby, ..and elephant..an..." she trailed off, trying not to catch this elephant seeing disease Anya had.

Not that there were any interesting shapes in the sky right now.

Brooke momentarily closed her eyes before opening them again to see if anymore interesting shapes had appeared.

They hadnt.

"It IS!" Brooke preffered his real name much better though, it was interesting and it was the same name as that science-y man. Brooke didn't know why Dar didn't like it.

Brooke nodded her head, probably a little over enthusiastic, good thing head were glued onto people. heh. "HE SURE DOES! He's a SECOND year and hes a ...a Ravneeclow." she meant Ravenclaw of course.

Of course Oakey had a Rabbit's Foot! He also kept a four-leaf clover in a small glass bottle, stuck a horseshoe facing up above his bed in his dorm room, and his wand for Merlin's sake, his wand had a Leprechaun hair core! It may not seem that big a deal to you, but it's super important that I DON'T loose it. Oakey said, looking Mordy sternly in the eyes. Mordy knows of Oakey's bad luck streak, but he hadn't heard about Oakey's run in with the Mackled Malaclaw, it was the whole reason he had missed his second term here at Hogwarts. That Foot is charmed to keep my luck in check. Oakey explained. Without it things will explode around me. Well nothing like that has to happen.

Guess it'd be now or never that Mordy heard the story. When I was twelve Oakey started looking at a Rabbit Topiary the was wiggling it's ears. My Guardian, Harvey, took the family on a vacation at the beach. That's where I stepped on a Mackled Malaclaw, and it bit me Oakey lifted his foot up slightly. Normally the bad luck lasts only a week but I had an allergic reaction and...well...it never left, or hasn't left me yet. It sounded better when Oakey was optimistic about his own problems. Harvey spent the whole year teaching me to withhold the Bad Luck and even went through a ton of trouble to make sure he got a properly charmed Rabbit's Foot. Because apparently, you need to follow tons of steps, like hunting a rabbit on a full moon and stuff.

Oakey smiled at Mordy's suggestion at using the cleaning charm to see if it was under a huge mess in his dorm, the only problem was Oakey hadn't made a huge mess...yet.. He still had things packed away in his luggage. It's something else though. Oakey said, wouldn't it have come to me right away after I used the summoning charm to get it?

...Did Alec seem...nervous? Apprehensive?

He was wasn't he? He thought she was intimidating. But...she wasn't! At all! Look at her! She was wandering around on her own in a topiary garden with a baby bunny! Ellie was nice. And friendly and...

Really needed to get a reputation off the Pitch, apparently. Especially now that most people she knew who knew her away from Quidditch were...gone.

Yet, Alec still managed to smile and sound so happy. He was cute. "No, you don't have to," she smiled back at him. Friendly, see? "I'm looking for one, though, and it would have helped if you'd seen it and knew where I should look." For now, though, she could only wander. And...no, she wouldn't ask Alec to help. He could offer, sure, but she didn't want to make him feel obligated to do so. NICE, see?

"Thank you." Grin. "Wanna pet her? Hold her?" He could if he wanted to. If he was careful. And sat on the ground in case he was going to drop her. Yup.

A toad? But toads weren't cuddly... What? Weapon of Mass Destruction..? What kind of name was that?! Aurora smiled, "Hello..." she said to the toad. Which, granted, wasn't as un-cute as she thought toads were.

Aurora giggled, "They're supposed to squeak." she said. Seriously, this girl was silly. "It's like... toads croak right? ... Well pygmy puffs squeak." Explained, yes? She hoped so...

Blue? And she was a Ravenclaw..? That was a coincidence... right? "Is Blue your real name?" Because it would be pretty cool... Then again, Aurora couldn't imagine being called Green... that would just be weird.

This girl was nice. Saying hi to her toad. "I call him WMD cause it's quicker to say." She smiled with a nod and hopped up on the bench beside Aurora. She stroked her toad and WMD let out a crooak. COOOL. Blue started to swing her legs, looking at a bush!bush jumping up and down trying to get their attention. Stupid bush!bear thing. ...But it was kinda cool. Maybe she should dance with him? Naaaah.

"Oh." Blue giggled. "I don't know much 'bout them...obviously." In case the girl didn't know. But the puff ball was squeaking a lot and that could NOT be good. She glanced worriedly at the white pygmy puff. Pooooor fluffy thingy.

"Wellllll..." Blue paused, thinking. It was a seriously complacated thing but, "I'm adopted so my real real name is Blue but my adoptive parents called me Hazel but I like Blue better so." Shrug and BEAM.

Was she talking a lot? Ella felt like she had been going on and on since she met this boy and hoped it wasn't bothering him. It was normal for Ella to share whatever was on her mind, she liked being open with people. The second year did recognize that not everybody was this way though, thus the worrying about Edric growing annoyed with her. He didn't seem annoyed yet though, good sign right?

So he did have wizards in the family, how cool! "It must be nice having people to do magic with. I think mine kind of freaks my dad out sometimes." Though Caleb, Ella's little brother, was only two so there was still time for him. She really he was a wizard. She couldn't help but smile when Edric said the men in the family played tricks on his mother. Heh. That must be fun. "Does she get mad?" Ella inquired, curious about how someone in that position would react. Hopefully she had a good sense of humor cause it sounded like she'd need it!

Ella raised her eyebrows as Edric reacted to her request for him not to choke. A skilled gummy bear devourer, eh? "Well it sure seems that way, you seem to have made it through a mouth full of gummys without dying. That's a good skill to have." Yup, and she was smiling again, enjoying the gummy bear banter. "Maybe you could be a professional gummy bear eater when you grow up. What a cool job that would be. You think there are jobs like that out there?" Because if so, Ella wanted in.

"Does it?" Edric seemed rather amused that Ella's magical abilities freaked her family members out. Because… well, it was funny to freak people out. At least that's what the Gryffindor believed. As the girl went on to ask about his mother's reaction to pranks, Edric shook his head. "Nah, my mum could never get mad at anything. That's precisely why we tease her so much. She's one of the most even-tempered people I know." Indeed Mrs. Barlow had long ago given up on scolding the wizards in her family, they never learned to behave.

As Ella suggested Edric become a 'professional gummy bear eater', the boy's eyebrows raised.

"Do you want me to get fat?" he asked incredulously. Actually, he even resembled a stuck-up Barbie girl for a brief millisecond there. He couldn't help it, though. He'd been brought up to be healthy and fit, and to exercise often. So… eating too much candy wasn't one of his goals.

Yeah, he was no fun.

Ella nodded, laughing softly. "It really does. I think dad just doesn't know how to handle a twelve year old that can do damage with a wand. He said his only concern up until I found out what I could do was having to meet my boyfriends someday." She smiled at this, rolling her eyes. Her dad was pretty funny. The second year was happy to hear that Edric's mom didn't get mad about the tricks they played on her. "That's good, I bet she's nice." Not like Ella's mom who was just plain self-centered.

Edric's reaction to her suggestion about a profession in gummy bear eating was just too funny. He seemed down right scandalized that she would suggest something like that and it amused her very much. The second year began to laugh, not able to take how seriously Edric had taken her comment. "Fat? Edric you're too funny. I wasn't being serious. I only thought it would be something fun to think about." You know, Ed...fun? Ever heard of it? It took a few minutes for Ella to stop laughing and when she did, she sighed happily and turned to Edric. "You're not really afraid you'll be fat one day, are you?" Cause he wasn't fat and probably wouldn't be unless he only ever ate sweets and sat on benches in the topiary garden.

Edric chuckled softly as Ella explained her father's concerns. They seemed totally rational to him, but he couldn't be sure. He didn't have a daughter or any little sisters, sooo… but he assumed if he did, he'd be worried about her with magic and boys too. Not a good combination.

"She is," the boy confirmed with a nod to Ella's following comment about his mum. He would've asked her about hers but he didn't want to be nosy. Enough about family.

Aaand then Ella was laughing. LAUGHING. Like, burst out laughing - at HIM.
The boy was completely shocked. First of all, he had NO idea what he'd done that was so funny, and second of all - what in the world was he doing, making people laugh?! Edric was… well, not funny at all. No one ever laughed in his presence. He was too Scrooge-y.

But then Ella finally caught her breath and explained the whole situation to him. Wait - she was making fun of his health concerns?! Who knew, 12-year-olds could actually be crueler than him… ;______;
Nah, Edric wasn't really offended but he was still surprised he'd actually made someone laugh. It was… unbelievable.

"Oh I bet it was hilarious to think about," said the cynic as Ella explained it all being 'fun to think about'. He was smiling though, so he wasn't really bothered, just amused that Ella could find HIM, of all people, funny at all. "Nah, not really," he added as she asked if he was concerned with getting overweight. "I can't imagine it, can you? I'd look absurd."

Ella was relieved when the talk about family ended. Truth be told, as much as she loved her family, conversations about them always led to the subject of her mother. And that subject was about the only thing that she didn't want to discuss. Not in detail anyway.

The second year hadn't paid much attention to Edric during her laughing fit, she was having far too much fun replaying Edric's comment about getting fat. He had sounded like a teenage model or something...A very FEMALE teenage model and it was quite funny.

Ella returned the smile, not really caring about Edric's cynical tone. "Good." She was glad he wasn't really concerned about getting fat because they were kids and should be able to enjoy a fair amount of sweets if they liked. Not that they should consume only gummy bears, though Ella would if it was considered socially acceptable. Someone should really think about adding gummy bears to the food pyramid. Did the guys who created that have a suggestion box? As for imagining what Edric would look like as an overweight person, Ella giggled. "I imagine you'd look a lot like you only...puffier." Heh. She smiled at the older boy, trying to imagine a fatter version. "Plus I think if you were fat you might have a little more appreciation for elephants. They certainly rock their size." Yup, they were back to elephants again. They had come full circle.

Edric shrugged as Ella explained he would just look like a puffier version of himself if he was overweight (and for some reason that made him think of this guy), but it was her following comment that really got him laughing.

So he'd be more appreciative of elephants if he had a body like theirs, eh? And they 'rocked' their size?! She talked about these elephants like they were… models strutting down a runway or something. And these weren't even elephants in the first place! They were plants! Plants!

This conversation had turned so absurd Edric could not stop himself from laughing. He laughed more than he had laughed in… well… wow. IDK, months? Years? He wasn't sure how long it had been, but he knew that as of right now Ella was probably one of the most unintentionally funny people he'd ever met. If she was this funny at twelve, she'd be a riot at his age.

"Alright. You win. I think you've converted me into the elephant fandom," he confessed.

Paulie smirked at the mum comment, but he didn't care.

Electric planes, video games, and brooms. -____- "I have an electric plane, I have video games, and I'm not so skilled on a broom." Plus, all those couldn't compare. It was like saying that a picture of Niagara Falls was just as incredible as seeing the real thing in person. And, he didn't like this look she was giving him, either. "I wanna be one 'cause my dad was one. And he was real good at it." There.

To his question, she answered 'no.' It was a stuttered 'no,' but it was a negative all the same. And this was the TRUTH game, so he trusted her to be telling the truth, whether his instincts cautioned him against it or not. "All right. Good."

Paulie looked at her. Louisa had this irksome habit of picking up on EVERYTHING that he made an effort to breeze over. "I donno. I guess so, sometimes," he admitted. "But everyone feels like that at some point, and I don't want a pity party just 'cause I'm not feeling like I'm the best of the best or something." Catching some movement out of the corner of his eye, Paulie lifted his chin and noticed that darn cat moving a little. He nudged Louisa and nodded his head toward the tree limb. "Think she's gonna come down soon?"

Ella's eyes grew a little wider as Edric began laugh, really laugh. She couldn't help but smile, thinking this was a good thing. This boy really needed to laugh more often. Though she was a bit confused as to why he was laughing? She didn't recall saying anything funny. All she had said was that elephants rocked their weight, and they did! They strut around all huge and proud and totally content. That was 'rocking weight' as far as this second year was concerned. His last comment made Ella look at him in disbelief. She had won meaning...meaning he was officially an elephant fan! Yes! "I promise you won't be disappointed. Elephants are the best." But he knew that now, right? One other thing had crossed her mind though, they had been talking for quite a while and she had even got Mr. Grumpy Pants to laugh so did that mean that they were friends now? She wanted to ask but was unsure of what Edric would say.

After a few minutes of thinking, Ella tilted her head to the side, looking at Edric curiously. "Can I ask you something?" That was probably the best way to start.

Edric had no choice but to trust Ella when she assured him he wouldn't regret his decision to join the elephant fandom. The girl had proved to be quite a good lawyer, so… he hoped she had a business card. You never know.

And then she was asking to ask him something.
"You just did," he replied, raising an eyebrow at her. Oh, he was so clever. Aaand worried… nothing ever good followed 'can I ask you something?' 'cause if what was coming was any good, then the person asking wouldn't need to forewarn about the upcoming question.

Or maybe Edric was just paranoid.
Which he was.

"… What is it?" he ended up asking against his will.

He... was really good at it? Louisa raised her eyebrows at the past tense and opened her mouth to investigate but then he was so keen on answering her true question.. and he admitted. AHA! She knew it! Louisa shrugged one shoulder, "Not gonna throw you a pity party, don't get your hopes up. But I'm not going to let you keep thinking that, either." And.. how was she supposed to do that exactly? Err... she was going to hit the library soon and look in some psychology books. Real soon. As in after she got a pain killer for this nasty wrist.

...huh? Louisa looked up at her cat and saw her standing up and staring down at the ground and slowly moving her big green eyes to the couple sitting on the bench. "Don't look at her!" Louisa nudged Paulie urgently, "Just ignore her... she'll think we're not aware of her and will come down the same way she got up." Which was Louisa's big mystery that she had yet to unsolve.

"Does your dad want you to be a fighter pilot like he was?" Did he have an injury so that he quit? Or did he get enough money for his son and wife that he just simply left? Coz pilots got paid a lot, right? Louisa didn't really have any idea... she just guessed. But whether his father wanted him to be a pilot or not, she didn't like it. She didn't like going against gravity in general, actually. So she naturally was going to nag him about leaving this crazy dream for good. She might use Adam, too. A couple of snogging sessions should do it... y'know, when he gets the guts to actually touch her lips.

The cat was moving away from the tree bear's head, she disappeared within the leaves and branches but the rustling was clearly heard assuring everyone that she wasn't lost or falling... yet.

Paulie shrugged one shoulder. That question was done with, so they could move on. It's not like he was mental. Well, he was. But in a GOOD way. Not in some depressing kinda way.

Whoa! He jumped slightly. Okay, okayyyy. He wouldn't look at the furball. "Right. Gotcha," he nodded. After refraining from peering up at the feline yet again, Paulie looked to Louisa. "I don't see why you don't want to let me climb up and get it. I'm good at climbing trees." It was the truth! He was an avid tree-climber, mhmm. "I'm gonna climb up and get her if she isn't down in ten minutes, ya know.." 'Cause Paulie's patience only lasted so long.

She wasn't dropping the fighter pilot subject, which was now in the process of transitioning to the fighter pilot father subject. He loosened the red and gold tie around his neck. "Don't ya think you've extracted enough personal information from Paulie Foster for one evening?" He smiled. The Head Boy tugged on his tie some more, ready to take it off altogether, but.. the knot was stuck. Seriously?! Not feeling motivated to bother with it anymore, he let the cloth fall back to his chest.

"Eight more minutes, Helennnn." He tapped the face of his watch.

Ella rolled her eyes when Edric informed her that she had in fact just asked him a question. She was smiling though, amused. "Touche'"
Point Gryffindor. The second year did notice as she got ready to speak that Edric looked nervous. Why was that? Had she done something that made him think she'd say something mean? She raised her eyebrows questioningly but before she could speak he was opening his mouth. So he was ready to hear her question then, yes? Well here it comes.

Looking down at her shoes, Ella slid her left foot forwards and backwards as she began to speak. "So assuming that you don't think I'm terribly annoying and considering you're now a member of the elephant fan club..." She paused to look up at him sheepishly, wondering if she was going to regret what she was about to ask. "Does that mean that we're kind of friends now?" Cause that might be nice, you know if he could get past the fact that she was only a second year. She looked down again, cringing inwardly for having asked such a dumb question.