Ronnie walked along the pathways, her hands in her pockets. The weather was already getting a little chilly...well, to her anyway. She was almost always cold. Probably because she was so skinny! She shivered a little and crossed her arms across her chest, her teeth chattering a little bit.

She then saw Damon walking down the pathways as well. She ran after him and smiled at him once she caught up to him. "Hey, Damon!" she said with a smile. That smile faded as she saw he didn't look to good. "You alright?" she asked, concern on her face.

Damon looked up hearing someone call his name, expecting to find it to be Minerva or Ariana... but no it was Ronnie. Not that he minded seeing her, he still felt pretty bad for nearly flinging her into a bookcase at the beginning of summer. He gave a halfhearted smile and a small wave.

Then she asked if he was alright... there's a loaded question, there was no right way to answer it at the moment, "Yes and no... Bright side of life, my best friend who was supposidly never coming back showed up and she's back for good, He grimaced, "Bad side... Taylor and I broke up and... let's just say it didn't end on the best terms."

Ever since Ariadne had given her that diary written in code, the Ravenclaw had been doing her best to decipher at least a few pages of it. As much as she tried to figure what meaning those random numbers had, she didn’t manage to come up with any solution until recently. Yes, not long ago, Gwendolyn had finally managed to crack the code. Finally. With a small grin on her face, the fifth year made her way out of the Common Room.

She needed a break.

With no plan in mind, the fifth year found herself walking along one of the pathways. Where to go?, the Ravenclaw asked herself, eventually thinking about going to the lake. After all, that was one of her favourite places at Hogwarts.

Ronnie frowned. "I'm sorry about that, Damon." she said, giving her friend a comforting hug, hoping she could cheer him up. Poor guy. Breaking up was always hard to deal with...she frowned as she pulled away. "If you wanna talk about it, I'm here for ya, okay?" she asked, giving him a reassuring smile.

Damon shook his head, "It's not the breakup I have a huge problem with... I mean, yes, it's sucks because I love her but... It's how she treated me afterwards." He sighed, "Like I was some play thing that's only here for her amusement and for her to play with my emotions." He looked at her, "But that you for the offer Ronnie... By the way... Still really sorry about the whole nearly flipping you into a bookcase..."

Ronnie frowned. "That's terrible. I'm so sorry, Damon." she said, giving him another hug, squeezing him tightly. That really was terrible....gah! What a rotten thing to do! How could someone do that?! That was just dumb. She just couldn't believe it...

She laughed at what he said. "You're fine, really. Don't worry about it." she said with a small shrug.

Damon sighed and shrugged, "I'll get over it, I'm sure." He didn't mention that there actually was someone else he kinda liked, but he knew Ronnie and Ariana didn't get along, so he didn't want to bring it up.

"Still feel bad... blame my past for it," He said plainly, knowing t-shirt he had on did show the top of one of his numerous scars.

Oakey was on one of his typical walks around the Grounds this time his destination unknown. He had his head down and was looking at his feet.
He had no idea that Gwendolyn was walking in his direction and accidently bumped into her knocking a book right out of her hands.

"S-sorry Gwendolyn!" Oakey said slightly startled from the bump. He reached down to grab the book from the ground and peaked quickly into it. He would be dead if this was some kind of secret diary no doubt, but the page he looked at was written in numbers?
"Was that Arithmancy work?" He asked puzzled with the book he had handed back to her.

With the thought that she had actually managed to do something about the diary written in code which Ariadne found, the girl couldn’t help smirking while going for a walk along the pathways. Well… there was still a lot to do, but the important thing was… she managed to find the method which should be used to crack the code. Guess I could start with the first pages?, the fifth year asked herself, but her thoughts were soon interrupted, as someone bumped into her.

. . .

She had expected the person to be a hyperactive firstie, so the Ravenclaw was really surprised to see Oakey in front of her. ‘It’s alright’, she said simply, wandering if it wasn’t actually her fault. After taking the book from the Hufflepuff, Gwen heard him ask something. Errr. Arithmancy work? ‘Sort of’, she said, a bit confused. It actually had to do more with Arithmancy than she even expected at the beginning. After all, from what she had worked on so far, there was a number for each letter, just like in Arithmancy. Pretty much the same. Just without adding and reducing.

‘What are you up to?’, she said, willing to continue her walk. Well… as long as he wouldn’t ask anything about the diary, then it was fine.

He agreed with her and headed out of the door and down to the closest pathway. "So, how're you finding Hogwarts so far?" His bright eyes looked at her, still showing his exceptionally good mood.

Sutton walked along next to him and considered his question for a moment before answering. With a shrug, she said, "I don't know... it's different. Sometimes I miss Muggle school... I had a lot of really good friends there..." Trailing off, she met his gaze with her pretty, light green eyes. Suddenly smiling, for some unknown reason, she looked away quickly. "How about you?" Sutton asked, thinking that he probably already had a lot of friends at Hogwarts. Who wouldn't want to be his friend?

She missed it? Wow. But he could understand missing her friends. "I understand. I miss my old friends too, but I keep in touch constantly." He supposed it was easier for him with his friends being wizards and not freaked out by an owl dropping off a letter. "So was there where you were for the last two years?" He asked, curiosity showing clearly in his expression.

He grinned at her smiling, it was great to see his friends smile. "Well, I've met a few people already. They're all good fun, little bit crazy. You know?" He loved this place! "The castle is HUGE, and full of surprises. I really do enjoy being here." He turned and walked backwards for a few steps as he looked up at the castle.

Sutton shook her head as he asked her about her school before. "No... once my parents found out I was a witch, they paid for a private tutor to come in and homeschool me. I didn't really learn much, though, which is why I'm so behind in magic stuff. Mostly I just learned how to control it so I don't like burn down their house or something," she explained a little sadly. "But at least I was still close to my friends there. I could still see them. Now they think I'm at some super snobby boarding school. My parents said if my friends gave them letters, they'd send them to me, but I haven't heard anything from anyone since I got here, so they probably just threw them away..."

It was weird talking about all of this... she hadn't really told it to anyone. She didn't want anyone's pity because of her parents not liking that she was a witch. It was just how it was. She still loved her parents, and they still loved her, this was just a part of who she was that they'd never understand, that they couldn't deal with.

"Anyway..." she continued, her smile returning right to where it should be. "I'm glad you really like it here! Maybe I will learn to love it, too!" Sutton said brightly as she watched him walking backwards. "Where did you go to school before?"

Ouch. That had to smart. "But that sucks. Surely you would have learnt all that here and more." Honestly, her parents had let her get so far behind that she only knew how to control herself? He nodded understandingly at her next words though. "Yeah, I'm sure it kinda took the sting out of it, being able to see your friends." Then a frown crossed his face. "That's not nice of them." It wasn't fair that either her friends had tried to write and her parents hadn't sent the letters, or her friends just hadn't bothered. His mood changed dramatically at hearing this.

Looking up at her, he just had to smile once more. "I hope you will. I've wanted to come here for so long." A satisfied sigh escaped him before he turned back around. "I was at Durmstrang for six years." Now he was waiting for the most basic 'but you don't sound like you're from there. I thought you were English' comment.

Sutton kept silent about his reaction to her parents for a few seconds before responding apathetically. "They just think life would be easier for me if I was normal... whatever that means. I never felt normal my whole life until I came here, but they didn't realize how it would be, I guess. I finally convinced them to let me go to a magic school, and here I am. They said that they thought this would be the best school for me, but I think they just wanted to send me somewhere that no one they knew would see me..." she finished with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. Her parents were... something.

As he explained that he'd been at Durmstrang, she nodded. It seemed silly that his parents had sent him all the way to Durmstrang when they could have sent him to a school right in Britain, but then again... Sutton was here instead of at Salem. "Why'd they send you all the way to Durmstrang?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"But you are normal. To me and everyone else in this place, at least." Her parents had made her miss out on two years that could have been some of the happiest of her life. Oh, they wanted people to not see her? "Why? Where do your parents live?" Most magical schools were hidden and were boarding schools, so why the secrecy?

He was surprised when she didn't ask the common question, but answered her other question nonetheless. "Well, dad got a job over there, so I had to move with him, even though I desperately wanted to be at Hogwarts." Even the name was cool. A hog that had warts.

Sutton gave him a small smile for thinking she was normal. She supposed that a lot of girls spent their lives wanting boys to think they were extraordinary or beautiful or incredible, but honestly, Sutton was just fine with boys thinking she was normal for once. Just normal sounded good.

"Well, right now, they live in the U.S. ... in Ohio. Not a very exciting place. They're like business people, though, and they travel a lot, so they know people all over the U.S.," she explained in a matter-of-fact tone. Sutton tried not to think about her parents much because she was never sure if she missed them or not. Had they sent her away to school two years ago, she'd probably be so homesick for them, but now... Well, they were her parents, and she loved them, and they loved her... yes... that is what she always told herself.

Sutton nodded some more in understanding as he explained about having to move to stay with his parents. "Well, I'm really glad that you got to come here this year," she said in a quiet voice, looking up at him with a warm expression in her green eyes.

The U.S.? Ed stared at her in amazement and put his hands into his pockets. "Wow, that's... wow." What could he say to that? He was surprised at their jobs and that they'd sent her from America! "Would I be right in assuming they're muggles?"

He looked at her once more with a content smile. "Thanks. Me too. I've already met some awesome people, like yourself, for instance." It was everything he'd hoped it would be. And a little bit more.

She couldn't help but giggle a little at his amazement. It didn't seem that odd or anything to her, but maybe that was because she'd already met other Hogwarts students from America. "Mhmm... I'm a Muggle-born," she confirmed, nodding her head. She blushed a bit, now, saying that she was awesome. Sutton thought that he was pretty awesome, too, buuut she wasn't gonna say that out loud.

There was something, though, that was nagging at her mind. "It's not a big deal, really, the Muggle-born thing, is it?" she asked shyly, her eyes now pointedly not making contact with his. It had been something she'd wanted to ask everyone she'd met so far, especially since she hadn't met any other Muggle-borns that she knew of.

Oh, she was a muggle-born! He wondered what it'd be like growing up in the muggle world. He'd had a taste of it, but had always seen magic used at home. In a way, this kind of explained her parents responses to her magic. He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't even notice her blush. Her shy question made him smile. "No, not at all. Can't see why it would be. I find it fascinating. It must have been so strange coming from one world into another."

"Of course. Everything will be okay." she said, smiling again. Ronnie then frowned. "I was fine, you shouldn't feel bad, Damon. I wasn't hurt at all, just a bit surprised at first. That's all." she said.

She felt that she needed to change the subject, she wanted to get Damon feeling happy...not sad. And talking about all that they were talking about probably wasn't really helping. "So, that train ride...pretty crazy, huh?" she said with a laugh. Man, she had really hurt her head from the train stopping so fast...and that stupid Portkey had made her puke at the station! NOT FUN!

"Not the most fun..." He sighed, there was no denying that he was actually depressed, losing Taylor and not to mention this whole new confusing thing with Ariana and it being close to the second anniversary of his mother's death, he had decent reason to be.

"Trying to carry three animals and keeping hold of the stupid thing was difficult." Damon shook his head, "My cat, puff, and owl... Not much fun."

Today was an excellent day. Wisteria had her infamous camera at hand. She had collected so may pictures throughout the years, she started a scrap book. She pulled out her camera and started snapping pictures of the foliage. The nice thing about these pictures as opposed to the muggle ones are that if the wind blows the trees, my camera takes it's actions. It makes for a pretty picture because when you watch it, it feels like you're almost there.

The only down side to taking pictures, at least when it comes to Witsy, is that she finds herself alone all the time. Sometimes she wonders if she'll ever bump into William, but she knows now that that is long gone. William is never coming back and each year it gets a little better and better, but there's still that residual-ness and she cant quite let go yet. She stops focusing her camera and stares blankly towards the horizon.

Van Came running towards her sister.What-ca Doing she asked curious.Are you alright she asked in a sincere voice.I have a gift for you she took out of her pocket.she handed to her.

Tay was sitting close to the pathways, with her head in her knees. She had been crying and she was in sweats which was highly unlike her since she was usually bubbly and in a cute dress with her make-up, nails and hair done. Her hair was a little messy and she had no make-up on whatsoever. Her nails were all chipped. Taylor just wanted to see her brother, Harvey or Mins and no one else... okay maybe Lily or Ameliah... but mainly Mins, Harvey and her brother.