Jayden laughed, throwing her hair back as she did so. She was a big fan of hair tossing, it made her hair all bouncy. "Oh you know, this one Puffer fourth year I like to associate myself with sometimes.." She giggled, pulling a bag of gummy wands out of her purse as she spoke. "I've been around, my dad passed away, so I had to head back home. It was very, depressing.." She mumbled as she began working open the bag. "Want some?"

CANDY. The best distraction from the sads.

Finding nowhere else to go, Ness gave up with the indoors and ventured outside, deciding she'd finish off with the activity much quicker and easier this way. It wasn't exactly easy looking through windows, this was better..even if it was slightly chilly and a longish walk.

The Lake. That's where she headed first.

Getting her focus on she looked up at the sky once again looking for the two kites as she now decided to call them over dippers. Once spotting them she looked at the end of the tail of the small one whilst using Cassiopeia to check that her location of Polaris was right. Which it was.

North or more like Polaris star found once more.

For the Astronomy Activity, Daichi walked towards the Lake. He had the sextant in his hand but he wasn’t going to use it for now. He wanted to use this place to use the spell they had learned in class because he figured that the sky was clearest here. Meaning no trees around and the field was huge right?

Sitting down on the ground, the Prefect rubbed his tired looking eyes. He actually wanted to get some sleep. He checked his watch and noted that he still had some time to do the assignment. In fact, he was a little early. Daichi looked around to check if the Professor wasn’t somewhere near and then layed down on the grass.

He closed his eyes and sighed softly as a cool breeze swept over the landscape. He would close his eyes for a few seconds and….then….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

Zzz..zzzzzzzzzz…zzzzzzzzz
Zzzzzzz…….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……

The Slytherin frowned in his sleep. (Yes, he actually fell asleep but who could blame him? )His leg twitched a little and a frown appeared on his face when he turned around. He began to sweat and mutter words in his sleep before he woke up with a loud gasp. Sitting up right, the Slytherin gasped loudly as his hand went to his chest in an attempt to slow his speeding heart. Tired eyes looked around and he wondered what he was doing at the Lake when he realized he was here for Astronomy. MEEEEP?! WHATTIMEWASIT?!

The Slytherin checked his watch quickly and noted that he had slept at least 10 minutes. 10MINUTES! “Oh nonononono….” He HAD to hurry up now. Ugh he knew he shouldn’t have closed his eyes! Wait a second. Daichi frowned as he wiped the sweat from his cheeks. Only it wasn’t sweat, they were tears. He couldn’t remember what he had dreamed about but he was pretty sure he knew what it was. Having the same kind of dream since a young age, it was still difficult to deal with it. GAH, NO TIME FOR SELF-PITY!

In a slightly panicked state, Daichi grabbed his wand and pointed it at his eyes. “Oculo Focalis!” He checked his surroundings and noticed that the spell hadn’t worked. MWEH! He took a deep breath to calm himself and with the back of his sleeve he rubbed his eyes. “Oculo Focalis” This time the spell worked and he looked around.

WOAH! BIG WORLD! The Prefect looked up at the night sky and FINALLY started to search.

Please don't kill him for falling asleep Grandson of a famous person!

Sextant time again. Seeing as it was already in her hand this time, Ness didn't take her eyes off Polaris. Instead she brought the sextant to her eye and only then tilted her head back to normal till she could see the horizon rather than the sky in the lenses of her sextant.

Clamp release and clunk. clunk.

She swished handle waiting to see Polaris. And there WHOOPS she had missed it. Right. Focus. She pulled it back in the opposite direction and soon enough she found what she was looking for. Her Polaris star right at her horizon line. She pressed the clamp and took down her degrees.

Hmmm...interesing, how just like Airey said they'd differ so much. Eleven was her number this time and her latitude was seventy nine. Those both got scribbled down and then not wasting any time the red head moved on.

It was cold, creepy and the sooner she got inside those doors again the sooner a smile would be worn on her face once more.

Sarah had spotted Nessie and ran after her. The bruntette had wante dto do one last reading outside proper. She casted lumos and made her way, her heart pouding. Even the 'be a lion. be brave' she was telling herself did not seem to be working. She followed the redhead, tring to keep her thought off the creatures lurking in the shadows...lying in wait... Her heart beat fast. The dark was scary, not a scary entity in itself, yet rather what i was hiding or could be hiding was scary. Nessie was there and Nessie would hear Sarah if Saarah screamt-right?

They were headed to the lake. Sarah was scared she was going to fall in or something. SCARY. NIGHT. DARKNESS. Look up, and get started, she told herself and she looked up. Her eyes rested on the superhero shaped one... the one ready in a pose. Okay, so Polaris was a bit down from there... there he was! Great. Now for her sextant

The world was actually really funny when it was magnified like this. Also a bit scary because he could even see the little insects walking around through the grass. Daichi looked around him and spotted another student in the distance. Thanks to the spell, he could easily see who that person was. He grinned when he noticed it was the Head Girl before he blushed. She hadn't seen him sleeping right?

Scratching the back of his head, he quickly looked up at the sky. So he had to find the polaris system right? His eyes hurt as his eyesight zoomed in , searching the stars. It didn't take long for him to find the brightest star. Especially not with the use of this spell.

He yawned a little before continueing the search. A few seconds later, his eyes saw Polaris A and he smiled a little had his finding. Good. Remembering his notes, Daichi knew that Polaris AB was close by. So he searched the sky for another few seconds until he found that one as well.

He was on a roll despite having fallen asleep earlier. Mweh, he still couldn't believe he had been that tired. Shaking his head, The Slytherin lost Polaris and he groanded loudly. Though the groan had been unnecessary since he found the system right away again.

Polaris B...where were youuuu? He remembered that it was further away than the other polarises...polarisen....whatever you call them together! He looked out and for a few more minutes and BAM! He found it~

Slapping himself on the shoulder as a job good done, he then used the "Finite" spell on his eyes and blinked rapidly when his eyes adjusted to the world again. Normal size. Ah he wished he had eye-drops right now.

This lake was so scary. She was scared to move an inch could htat would mean falling into the water. Wand light needed to go off so she could see. Now. Sextant needs to find horizon. A brief Shiver went over her. She hated being outside. Nessie was about to move on, so she should too . Thankfully there were other students there though. Maybe she was shivering from the breeze? She did not know, yet what she did know was that she did not want to be outside for longer. She found he horizon, now she needed to press down clamp and put Polaris in the same place as the horizon... Good. Now realease clamp. Maybe just swing for fun. Awesome. Measurements, now she need her wnad for light as she wrote down on a partchment:

This Hogwarts interference was really something.. the results really did vary. Wait Nessie was leaving? Sarah ran as quick as her legs could carry her away from lake. She did not want to squid to pull her in by mistake or something

Mika had run down so fast that she almost forgot where she wanted to go. When she managed to stop, and glance around and realize that she was infact standing by the lake. The very lake she had gotten the most points in the history of point reductions in her stint at this school...she just frowned. But still, it was also near to where she had done that star-gazing thing. So she was going to try this thing.

Glancing at the sky, she just smiled to herself. The stars were twinkling - and she really wasn't looking forward to doing the eye spell (again). But she had to. Otherwise she wouldn't be completely sure if she was looking at Polaris A, Polaris B, or Polaris C....D...E...whatever other amount of Polaris's there seemed to be.

"Oculo Focalis" she tapped her eye and nothing happened. Frown, "OCULO FOCALIS" she spoke the spell with as much force as possible and tried not to jab her now closed eyes. When she opened them again she had to stagger back. The word was so detailed.

He STILL wasn't moving. For Merlin's sake. Why was this such a hard concept when it wasn't supposed to be? All he had to do was get up, and then the fight could resume if he really wanted to win that badly he wouldn't win, but she admired him for trying anyway. Just get UP. Up up and away. Something. He just needed to move somewhere that WASN'T on her because she was getting slowly buried in snow and it wasn't fun. Being cold was NOT enjoyable.

"And I wanna END it! I'm freezing!" Surely he was too. He was the one with snow in his sleeve and OBVIOUSLY making HER sink further into snow was NOT helping HIS situation either. So y'know. Get up, yeah?

Okay, so she had complimented the tree and talked with it a little bit. And she'd meant what she said too. She wasn't just trying to butter the willow up so that she could get what she wanted, because that would be mean and she certainly wasn't a mean person. In fact she was a very genuine and caring person. Which was why she was looking forward to giving the tree a gift, but not quite yet. For now, she just needed to pop the question.

She sat up from the trunk slightly and cleared her throat. It was sort of a big thing to ask, wasn't it? She knew she needed to though, so she took a deep breath and forged ahead. "So, I was wondering..." But then she remembered, Oh! Walk around the tree. Notes. Right.

She checked her notes again, dragging her pale finger across the page. Yes, three times, clockwise. Annnnd go! She slowly and calmly stood from the base of the tree, brushed off her robes, and began to walk around the tree. Lucky I didn't choose a redwood ey? This could take DAYS if I had! They were massive trees indeed. This willow though was fairly average size. But not in the average way that meant she thought the tree was only average, because she was being nice to it and appreciating it and all of that and definitely didn't want it to have any confidence issues.

She circled clockwise, once, and ran her hand along the bark as she did. She sort of felt like she was stalking the tree, but that was what the book said to do so... She circled it again and began to speak, again. Um, willow tree? Could I have a branch from you please?" She looked up at its branches and watched them blow beautifully in the wind as she circled a third time. Hopefully she wasn't on the verge of giving the poor tree an anxiety attack, because she knew if someone was circling her like that - she just might feel a little nervous. She stopped after the last circle and spoke softly again. "I'd like to make a nice gandr you see, and I chose you for it. For a lot of reasons, but, would you mind?" She didn't feel any bad vibes so that was a good sign in her eyes. "Maybe you'd like to tell me which branch you'd like to share with me? I don't want to take your favorite or anything." Maybe it's like having a favorite section of hair or something. There's always that spot that's always super soft, so I wouldn't want to give that away if someone asked me... Subconsciously, she began to twirl the strands near her ear as she thought of the shiny collection of hair.

Anyway. The breeze blew in her direction and made the branches sway and blow, revealing a low growing branch just above her head. It looked pretty pliable and fresh to her, so she took that as an acceptance.

After a few more moments of flailing his arm, the snow melted and Ascanius was free of the agony of the cold. Ugh, it was so wonderful and now he could bring on the fight TENFOLD. But when he looked down at his girlfriend he realized he already had. She was squished into the ground begging him to get up. Smirk. Yeah, who had won this, Pen? Him. That was who.

So he was going to draaaaag on this he-was-cold-routine until he won. 'Cause that was how it was done in Essex and also because, well, he was a Slytherin. They won because they were the best. Pfft.

Ascanius continued to flail with this thought in mind and dramatically continued, "Cold! Really, really cold. HOLD STILL!" Or give up. Whichever came first. Smirk.

.........Okay, you know what? New tactic.

Penelope had stopped her flailing and now just...stared up at him. Yeah. No more talking or ordering him to get up. She was gonna let him flail and squeal like a little girl until the snow in his sleeve had melted and stopped bothering him and he finally got up and admitted she won. Meanwhile, she was just gonna stare. No moving. No talking. Almost like she was...frozen, yeah?

Which she felt like she was. Her entire back and legs were freezing, and she was probably starting to shiver a little from the cold. But she set her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering, and other than the slight shivering, she wasn't moving anymore.

Stare.

As much as she wanted to stay in her common room to save some of her knuts, the air inside is killing her. And it was too crowded for her comfort. With coins tingling inside her pocket (since she needed them to be able to get inside the common room), Erin made her way to the lake. It seemed like fresh air was circulating around her. She was able to absorb the breeze of the wind. It felt like she was one with nature.

How this feels good.

With silence covering her up, she was distracted by a sudden sound. A sound of loud footsteps. She could already guess who it is.

Laura had decided it was time for her to go outside after spending a lot of her time studying for her Owls, she wanted to do the best should could do with her OWLS but she knew she didn't want to get ill by studying to hard, she then saw Erin. "Hey" Laura walked over to her friend. "How have you been?" Laura smiled. "And where have you been?"

Erin turned around where Laura's smile greeted her. Laura was always full of energy whenever she meets her but this time around, the younger Puff seemed wary. Oh, must be the anticipated exams or rather...a boy. Or just whatever. Maybe, she's just hungry.

Erin smiled humorously how she could always distinguished Laura's presence from others even with her eyes closed. Ha.

"I've been good," Erin answered Laura while doing an Indian seat. Yes, she was ready for her usual meditation. She closed her eyes and did the yoga position while facing the lake. "I'm busy with homeworks of course and some stuffs. How about you?"

There was a level of smugness that Ascanius was carrying about right now at his awesome plot. Pretty soon his girlfriend would get so bored that she would BEG him to get off of her and then he would have affectively won. It was idiot proof.

Until of course his girlfriend just went completely still and starting staring at him. What the-

Okay, so, pfft, he KNEW he was handsome--that part wasn't new--but she didn't need to stare at him like that so he would know. A simple you're stunning, love would have sufficed.

Mildly distracted by her new tactic, he stopped moving and looked down at her. He raised his eyebrow and asked, "What ARE you doing?" 'Cause he was curious and stuff.

What are you doing?

That was a good question, Ascanius. Too bad she wasn't answering. Nope, not a word. All the things she'd said to him just minutes ago basically went ignored so...nope, she wasn't gonna speak. She simply continued to blankly stare at him.

The shivering was getting a little stronger, but Penelope TRIED to control it. She was doing pretty good keeping her teeth from chattering, but she wasn't sure how long she could keep that up too. Hopefully long enough for him to get up, admit she'd won, and go inside with her to warm up. It was also the only way she was gonna willingly go in anyway - if she won. She'd stay out here long enough to catch a cold if it meant she'd win the snow fight.

But, y'know, hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

Earth to Pen. Was she going to respond at all or was he going to have to just lay here until she responded. 'Cause she was the one below him so the cold wasn't really affecting him all that much. Instead, he would just lay here and watch her. Eyebrow raise. Hmm?

But then, he started to feel a little shivering underneath him and he smirked. Was she shivering? Why yes she was, yeah? He could feel that and that meant that she was cold and that HE was awesome. Okay, her being cold didn't make him awesome; he had TONS of reasons why he was awesome.

Smirking at her WILDLY, he said, "Are you....COLD...Pen?" Yeah, she was, wasn't she? All she had to do was say yeah and they could move on from this and go inside. Easy.

Minerva made her way down to the lake. She held the small basket in her hand and the blanket over her arm. Breathing in the spring air she stopped and looked around. It was a wonderful evening and she wasn’t sure why, but she felt nervous. The nerves made her laugh thinking about the first time she had nerves like this. Maybe that was why she did have them, she was wanting to recreate that very special first date that happened over two years ago.


Walking to the same spot she hoped she looked out of the lake. This seemed to be the location they sat last time. Standing there she smiled the memory of that first date going through her head. How so much had happened since then and how wonderful it all had been. Setting down the basket Minerva opened the blanket and laid it flat onto the ground. Since the last date was in the winter and this was spring she didn’t have to do a warming charm, hoping it was the only difference.


Sitting down on the blanket Minerva pulled out the small jars and with her wand placed the blue flames inside each of them. Setting them on each corner of the blanket. Next Minerva pulled out the food she had worked on this afternoon. She wanted the exact dinner they had on that first date. She just hoped she had gotten it all right. Pulling out the Sauerbraten , with sauerkraut, and potatoes. Minerva then set out the Black Forest Cake and Apple Pie. Looking at the blanket she smiled to herself. So far everything seemed perfect. The final thing she pulled out was a gift bag, a special item that was new to the first date scene. Setting the bag behind her, Minerva pulled out a small bundle of yellow flowers, still terrified to go near the gardens she had conjured them with her wand. . She knew you didn’t really get guys flowers, but it was part of that date and her plant boy would appreciate it, she hoped. Setting the flowers next to the bag.


Checking over blanket she went through the check list in her head. Making sure everything was perfect. It had to be perfect. He had done so many things for her in the past two years that she wanted to make one last special date for them before he left Hogwarts. Since the term had been so crazy and so many ups and downs, she decided to go ahead and do the date now instead of wait until the end. Frowning at this thought, she couldn’t believe he was almost done. He wouldn’t be here next term with her. Trying to push down the anxiety that this brought Minerva just thought about the evening.



Adjusting her heart necklace and then folding her legs beside her she flattened her dress. Then she looked out at the lake. It looked so pretty at the moment just as it did during that first date.

Oh, it seemed he'd noticed the shivering. Well, that was lovely, but he still wasn't saying what she wanted to hear. These questions were not gonna get him answers. The only thing she wanted to hear right now was "You win." Just two words, that's all she wanted. Two words and she'd talk to him again and they could have a good rest of the day drinking some hot chocolate.

As it was though, Penelope remained still aside from the shivering, and her eyes sorta blankly started focusing on the sky above him. Not really staring at him anymore like she usually would, so he couldn't be smug. Nope. The sky was better than your face right now, Ascanius.

But once he admitted she won, she'd suddenly realize his face was much nicer than the sky, and the cold was simply affecting her brain.

Checking his watch to make sure he was on time, Ethan made his way down to the lake to meet Minerva. He had been slightly surprised when she asked him to meet her for a date late that afternoon because it seemed to be more than just the casual hanging out they often did, but it was a pleasant sort of surprised and he jumped at the chance of spending some time with his girlfriend. And he refused to let his mind wander to the last time they had planned something special. No, he got the idea that this was something important to Min.. so it would be for him too.. and he was not going to let anything ruin it.. he would be focused on the present. He needed to.

Because it was a date, he wanted to bring her flowers, but he figured that wasn't a good idea right now.. so he let go of that traditional idea of a gentleman's decorum for today. Ethan wasn't sure what to expect with Minerva being a bit secretive, so he figured she had something planned and he showed up with only himself. Green eyes scanned the immediate vicinity as he walked and he spotted her in the near distance. Raising his arm to give her a wave, the boy headed in her direction.

He slowed down as he neared, his eyes taking in everything she had set out.. the blanket, the jars of bluebell flames, flowers, dinner. The sight looked so familiar and he couldn't help but let his mind wander back to their very first date. And was it in this exact location? He turned around briefly to view the lake.. yes, this seemed to be the same spot. Turning back around, he stepped closer to her, giving her a wide smile, and took a seat on the blanket next to her. "Hi.. this looks amazing." He gently picked up her hand in his and lifted it up to his lips, kissing the back of it. "What a great surprise.."

Minerva was sitting looking out at the lake thinking when she saw something move in the corner of her eye. She looked up to see Ethan coming towards her, she didn't know why but she felt her stomach flip with nerves. Why was she feeling nervous. They had been together over two years now. Her smile grew as she saw the look on his face, that was what she was going for. She hoped he would be surprised and like the surprise.

"Hi" She gave a simple greeting and smiled as he kissed her hand. Always such the gentlemen. "Do you like it? I.. well I've been actually planning this it for awhile." She hoped he liked it, maybe that's why she was so nervous, she wanted everything to be so perfect. So much had happened through out the term and she just wanted this to go well. She glanced around and touched the yellow flowers she had near the bag. "I tried to do everything exactly the same, only a few things are different. Of course no heat charm since winter is obviously not here and I still can't get myself to go near the greenhouses without a panic attack and you, so the flowers were conjured not cut."

She looked at the food and then back up at Ethan, "I hope my memory is doing alright. This was everything, wasn't it?" She knew that it really didn't matter, but she wanted everything to be right and the same. The first date and last at school mirroring each other it was bittersweet really.

Oh so now he was getting the silent treatment, was he? AND she wasn't staring at his beautiful face? Pfft, fine, whatever. He didn't care. Let her be cold and silent or whatever else she wanted to be because he was not moving. This was a battle and just 'cause she was cold did not mean he was gonna relent. Did she see this? It was his unrelenting face.

Punishment for her insubordination was as follows: he just wasn't going to move. Nope. He was gonna just lay here until she gave up and begged him to get off. Not a moment sooner 'cause he was in this to win it. Smirk.

Yeah, this was no joke.

See, the bad thing about having a snow fight with two extremely stubborn and competitive people was this - neither of them were willing to give up. Penelope was pretty sure she could be stubborn about this longer than him in any normal circumstance, but with the cold and wet snow really getting to her, they were probably about even right now. Still, this was definitely not the first time she was stuck outside in the cold, so she could deal. Even though all those other times didn't involve an Ascanius trying to crush her into the snow.

Eyes still on the cloudy grey sky - which kinda reminded her of his eyes...but she was NOT gonna look at them, nope - she finally decided to say something. "If I get sick from this, you have to take care of me." Just pointing that out. She was back to silence and keeping her focus on the clouds instead of his face.

She was speaking to him now? Jeez, it only took forever, but even that was not going to be a good enough response to get him to be moved TO move. Nope. Smirk. He was plenty enough occupied as it was laying right there. Until she gave up, of course. Then he'd be completely oblidged to get off of her. He could be rational, see.

So he just shrugged and smiled down at her in a VERY smug manner, "Fine. Still not getting up though."S'long as that was clear. You know?