Lucas made an apologetic face and pulled himself up off the ground. "It's the worst, it, uh, usually helps to get outside," he muttered and then felt the blush creeping up his collar. This was a little awkward. She probably thought he was really dumb. "Do you, uh, play Quidditch?" he asked quickly to cover up the pause.
He smiled, rubbing his elbow to stave off the nerves. "Sure, it's alright. It doesn't have any neat nicknames though."

Lucas followed Lux's gaze to the lake and peered over her shoulder at the tiny air bubbles popping on the surface.
"Oh," he mumbled. She had a point. "But he's a lot bigger than me," Lucas reasoned, "This place has a lot of quirks, though. Like the stairs.." And at this he huffed, angrily. "Do you know how many times I've tripped? Like infinity." It was the worst. "Or ended up where I started?"

This was horrible, and Hannah would deny it if anyone asked about it, but she had to suck it up and do it. She had no idea why she all of a sudden had a conscience, but it was irritating. Every once in a while she actually came across people that she felt protective of and Adi just happened to be one of those people. Hannah could mess with him, but nobody else had better try it.

Hannah did not appreciate being rushed at all. "You're lucky I am doing this at all." Let's not get cocky now m'kay! It wasn't that hard? Frogs were gross and she was WILLINGLY touching it... why wasn't he getting that this was not just a big deal, but rather a huge deal? "If you laugh so help me..." Oh yes, she was still going to threaten him because that was how Hannah Lockwood rolled. She could tell he was trying to hold in a laugh, but at least he was holding it in.

Just when she was thinking that the worse of it was finally over the frog went and did that...

"EWWWW!! EW!" Did that long nasty tongue really just touch her cheek? "It, it, it... tried to kiss me." Annnnd she was flailing again and making high pitched screeching noises that she was sure merepeople couldn't even understand. In a blind panic, the seventh year rushed to the end of the lake and placed her cheek in the water and scrubbed until it hurt.

"ADIIIII!!!!"

Adi was rather enjoying himself. Seeing Hannah squirm uncomfortably. Revenge is a dish best served cold, yes? And Gus's amphibian skin was cold. Hehe. He rolled his eyes at her comment. "I don't see how I'm lucky,'' he told her. He wouldn't care if she did it or not as he had not expecting them to ever communicate ever again.

Gus's action just made everything even better and far more hilarious. Adi believed he had never laughed so heartily in his life before! He just stood there laughing and enjoying Hannah's reaction. Gus was croaking away as if he was the happiest toad in the world. "Hannah, I think Gus likes you,'' Adi said in a singsong voice.

Still laughing, he watched in amusement as Hannah rushed off towards the water. Had he gone too far? No, not him. Had Gus gone too far? Meh. Who cared right now? But still he had better protect his toady friend from the mean one. Stashing Gus deep into his pocket, he ran off after Hannah as she SHOUTED his name. Uh oh. Was she going to hex him again?

Asher nodded. "Yeah, or you could always see if Bart would just skim the surface of the water." If that was possible. That way you know that chances of going under the water was decreased. Some. "But if not then how would you know. In less you popped it into your mouth before you go under." That might be the only way and hope you stay under for a while after.

The Slytherin chuckled. "It sounds like a great lunch for me." Actually anything sounded good at this point.

This was not okay. This was so far beyond okay! Did Adi really just tell her that his toad liked her? Did toads even have feelings? Sure, the toad would have VERY good taste if that was the case, but it was a toad for crying out loud and she was just not having this conversation. "UGH!" was all she could muster.

Adi was laughing, he was actually laughing at her. Her hand twitched over where her wand was firmly placed beneath her robes. No... she couldn't hex him again. With her luck she wouldn't be so lucky next time and end up in detention or something, and that was just not going to work for her.

Hannah lifted her cheek from out of the water once she heard footsteps behind her and she glared at Adi while water streamed down her face. She knew that she must look like a crazy person, but quite frankly she was feeling like a crazy person. Since when did she accommodate anybody? "Keep that slimy thing away from me." Hannah had done her part and all was squashed, but if that toad of his tried to get fresh with her again, she would not be responsible for what happened to the creature or Adi for that matter!

"Gus is a very handsome toad, you know,'' Adi said with a smirk. Oh how he loved annoying the Slytherin. He didn't think he would ever get tired of it. He watched in amusement as she got her face out of the water. "That was fun, wasn't it? I suppose we could be frien- er acquaintances.'' That was what she wanted, right? He punched her playfully on the shoulder jut as she had done earlier. "Lighten up. Gus was having fun.'' He suppressed a grin.

"Oh don't worry about him,'' Adi continued and ignoring the "slimy" part. "He's somewhere around.'' He looked innocently at her. Little did she know he was in his pocket. Hehe. It was a good thing Gus knew to be utterly quiet when he was in a pocket. Time to change the subject. "So, that cheek all clean?''

Gus. His name was Gus. "Maybe we should just agree to disagree on that one." She was not about to have a full on argument about the attractiveness of a toad. This whole conversation was insane and she seriously starting to question her sanity. "Fun?" They obviously had very different opinions on what they considered to be fun. "That was something, but fun is not what I'd call it." Speaking of the slimy thing... where was he? "Errr... where is he at anyways?" She did not want a sneak attack happening. Wait... did he just say, or almost say that they could be friends? He was making it seem like she was begging him to befriend her, and Hannah didn't like that at all. "I just wanted to clear the air." You know from hexing him and all. Whatever happened, happened. She would keep her wand to herself from now on though.

The toad was somewhere around? That did absolutely nothing for her anxiety. He had to be somewhere close to Adi because she seriously doubted that he would just let that toad hop around all willy nilly. Although, he practically let Gus make out with her so who knew anymore! Toad owners these days! "I think I need a shower." and a memory charm done on her would be greatly appreciated.

*Walking down to the lake Romulus had a book in hand and a few packs of prawn flavored crisps in his school bag. Sitting on the shore Rom opened a pack of crisps and started sending a few out onto the lake.*

"Whatever you say, Hannah,'' Adi said with a grin. He wanted to tell her as a joke that she and Gus looked cute together but he figure that would be pushing things too far. Besides, he and the seventh year seemed to be getting along. Sort of. But it was fun. "Well, I thought it was quite funny,'' he said smugly. And quite a revenge. Could he do the evil laugh? Oh, where was Gus? Like Adi was going to disclose that. Instead, he just waved a hand in the general direction of where they were standing. "Oh, he's just hanging around somewhere.'' Like in his pocket.

"Well, you can say it's all crystal clear now.'' Did this mean she wanted to hang out more with him? Or did she still not like him much even though she saw her little brother in him? "So you're done hexing me, right? If you do Gus will "kiss" you again.'' Adi kept an innocent look on his face but he meant his little threat. A shower? For a toad's tongue on a cheek? "I don't see why you need one,'' he said with a now confused look. "You washed your cheek anyway.'' What a weird girl.

After exploring the grounds Ana had decided that this was her favourite spot to be. She loved looking out at the water, it was soothing. She also loved how cool the air was around the lake, the water having a cooling effect on it. The air around the lake was probably colder than anywhere else in the grounds, and reminded her more of home than anything else around the castle did.

Sighing, Ana walked to the waters edge and closed her eyes, paying no attention to any students around her.

Laura suddenly had the urge to make sure her hair was perfect, so she took out her brush and brushed it, it wasn't until she was about to put the brush back did she notice the few lose strands on the brush.

Once Laura was sure that her appearance was perfect, she smothered down her robes and made sure everything was great. "Hey Ana, you seen any cute boys around here?" Laura was upset about the fact her boyfriend had seemingly dumped her but she wasn't going to dwell on the past. "How are you today anyway my friend?" Laura beamed.

Ana was happily oblivious to the world, feeling her hair and robes billow out, in what was probably a very pretty picture, before some rude person decided to startle her. She jumped in surprise, turning to look at the person who spoke to her and lost her footing on the slippery ground at the lakes edge. She attempted to catch herself but couldn't stop her descent and ended up falling into the cold water of the Blake Lake.

Surfacing from the water Ana spluttered a bit as she moved to drag herself from the lake. "I'm just peachy," she told Laura, once she realised that she was the one who'd spoken to her. She was completely wet now. It was just lucky she was used to living in a frozen desert and so her wet clothes wouldn't bother her. What with the dips they all took in the frozen lakes in the middle of winter when she was at home. Now that she thought about it this was quite refreshing.

"And maybe a few cute guys but I don't think you'd be interested," she told Laura, her voice quite chirpy now that she'd pulled herself from the water and had gotten over the shock of falling in.

Laura took out a towel from her bag, luckily she always had one just in case she needed it, you never knew with the younger students if they were going to start a water fight or anything like that.

She took her friends hand and smiled. "THAT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!" Laura was totally excited, surely her friend could do that again. "I'll give you a 7/10 for that dive, you just need to tuck your legs in more." Laura said trying to sound all judge like.

Laura then let go of her friends hand and gave her the towel. "Here you go." Laura smiled hoping her friend wouldn't be cross with her for all of this." Laura then thought. "What cute guys you on about?" Laura really wanted to know.

Why was this boy blushing? o_O

"That helps me too." She really wished that he would stop seeming so awkward, because he was a boy who got anxiety, not an alien or something. Or at least he didn't look like an alien to her. "I love Quidditch and I want to play badly, but I get anxiety over flying." See, Lucas... anxiety is normal; no need to blush. "I can give you a nickname. I'm sure I can think of something." And it would be totally unusual, since he had such a normal name.

Laughing, Lux shrugged again. "Elephants are big too, but they aren't scary. Maybe he wants to give people giant squid hugs." Perhaps it got lonely deep in the lake. Ooh, but the stairs issue was something she could relate to. Nod. Yes indeedy!

"Maybe we could use a map to help us not get lost! And we can make sure our shoes are always tied so that we don't trip." It seemed like a good idea to her at least.

"Thank-you," Ana said, taking the towel off Laura and attempting to dry her hair with it. The rest would be fine probably. Still once she wrapped the towel around her head she leant down to take off her waterlogged shoes. Those wouldn't be fun to leave on. They were also kind of ruined now. Lucky she had another pair just the same.

"Only a seven?" she asked, affecting an offended tone to play along with Laura. "Tell me coach how can I improve. I want to get the gold!" she said seriously before breaking character and giggling slightly.

"Well West Odessa is quite good looking, although I only know him from tryouts really," she was unsure if he even knew her name. She might have to properly talk to him sometime. "Victor Bay is also quite handsome, but he's my age, so I don't think you'd go for him. I've seen other guys around that are quite cute but I'm not really sure of their names," she finished off with a shrug.

"I don't think Mr. Henry takes direction from students," Mo offered helpfully. He'd dive deep or skim or do water ballet on all 8 tentacles, but he wouldn't do anything just because they didn't want to DIE. It was a nice thought, though.

"Now I"m hungry." Mo rubbed his belly and grumbled good-naturedly. "I think I'm going to head in for a snack. See you around, yeah?"

'I THINK THAT ONE'S A BUNNY!'

Charlotte somehow found herself looking up at the clouds and finding different shapes and she was really into it -- not actually thinking of the password -- until she started to become extremely sleepy. She yawned a big yawn and sat there trying to figure out what in the world it was that was making her so sleepy. After a few seconds, she realized she felt someone's hands on her hair?! "What the-?!" She looked down at her shoulder and saw Jun's hands playing with her hair. Oh, right. Jun was there. "Why are y-yo-YAAAAH." Without meaning to, she let out yet another big long yawn. This was his fault! "Playing with my hair makes me sleeeeeeeepy." She wasn't exactly complaining though because she loved when anyone played with her hair. Would it be wrong if she fell asleep on his shoulder?

Password? Why was he talking about a password? She just wanted to sleep! "What password?" Charlotte let out another yawn, this one making her eyes water. Was it nap time yet?

Lucas' stilted conversation did decrease considerably when the topic of Quidditch came up. It was something he loved watching and a sport he knew about. But he comment hit home pretty hard. "Wow, uh, me too.." he said, tucking his hands into his pockets. "People watching me fly is what freaks me out." All of those people, the height, his nerves; a bad combination.

He laughed brightly when she offered to nickname him. "..are you really good at nicknaming people? I can't accept just any old claptrap." He grinned at her, "do you have any nicknames?"

She had a point. She had a REALLY good point. And Lucas always appreciated a logical, reasonable answer. "And giraffes. And hippos. Although apparently they're really dangerous, so maybe not hippos. But giraffes seem pretty chilled out. And being a squid would be pretty cool, right? You just float around all day and sometimes you might even see a merperson!" Being a merperson was also a category of job Lucas had 'when he grew up'.
"You're full of brilliant ideas," he told her, seriously as she suggested they make a map to help with navigation. "There must be a charm or something for that. Like an anti-clumsiness spell. You're genius!" Uh huh. YUP.

Of course it was whatever she said, and she was glad that Adi was finally starting to realize that. "I noticed. You got quite the laugh out of it." That was really an understatement. He practically had tears rolling down his cheek, but it was over. She was putting this whole thing behind her. This NEVER happened. "So, ummm... we should keep this to ourselves okay?" Hannah wasn't going to threaten his this time about it because he obviously didn't react well to them. Hannah quickly did a quick scan of the areas around her to see if there was anybody that could see what was going on. Surely nobody would be too involved in what they were doing anyways.

"Good." she said with a nod kind of businesslike. That was done and she could actually feel a little bit of relief wash over her. Could she promise that she was done hexing him? "Yes. I am done." It felt good in the moment, but she actually had some guilt afterwards that she was not liking having to deal with. "That did not happen remember!!!" Hannah really hoped that she was going to keep this to himself. He just didn't understand... it was gross and Hannah felt dirty.

Duh. Of course he got a laugh out of it. "It was one of the most funny things ever,'' Adi said. Oh darn! Laughter was still threatening to escape from him. He pressed his lips together and tried to keep a straight face. He must not think of what just happened. So instead he focused on Hannah. Which wasn't any help because as soon as he looked at her he wanted to snigger. Keep it between them? Oh sure. "I would. But Gus knows too.'' He wiggled his eyebrows noting he asked him and she didn't use threats. How unusual.

Awesome! No more hexing! But should he trust her? Adi decide he'd better not. He would still keep an eye out in case this was just all a ploy. "Yeah, sure. I wouldn't blab on your most embarrassing moment,'' he said in a serious voice but with a face that said differently. He wasn't going to tell anyone but he thought he'd have some more fun by making her worry.

"Yeah, maybe for you." She eyed him because she could tell that he was trying to still contain his laughter. The effort was appreciated, but she couldn't help but to be slightly annoyed that he still found this funny. Move on boy! Gus! "Surely he can keep his toady mouth shut." Even if he did open it all that would come out would be some croaks, and as far as she knew nobody spoke frog language around these parts.

Hannah sized him up and tried to decide if Adi trusted her or not. She couldn't be completely sure so she would just have to prove it to him over time. He didn't seem to be taking this too seriously and Hannah was not happy about this. "Come on Adi, I'm being serious... please!" Okay she was not going to beg. That was not her. Awkward.

"So anyways. How about we start over?" She wondered what he would think about that. "I'm Hannah Lockwood." and she extended her hand for him to shake. That was all she could think of to do and what better way to move on from the past than to start over?

Okay, he was sobering up. Hannah might just find it okay to hex him again if she got annoyed. But he'd just tug her leg a bit longer. "I'll tell him to keep your secret but I dunno. He can croak the alphabet, you know so I suppose speaking english isn't far off.'' He conveniently neglected to say that though the man at the adoption in Diagon Alley had told him so, Gus was yet to prove that he croaked the alphabet. "Gus is not your ordinary toad, Hannah.'' Hehe. He didn't know if she would buy it but it hadn't hurt to try.

And what was this? Hannah Lockwood the girl who thought she was royalty begging him to shut up about what had just happened? Adi was momentarily taken aback. This was the last thing he expected. She must be desperate, he figured. Fine, fine. "Alright, I wouldn't tell anyone,'' he responded aloud. But he had yet another leverage over Hannah in case she wanted to hex him again. First Gus and now the secret. If she ever tried to harm him again...

Yes, a start over was good. "Hi, Hannah. I'm Aditya Rehman but I go by Adi.'' Adi shook her hand and grinned.

He can what? Was Hannah hearing properly? Maybe Adi needed to quit playing with Gus and have some human interaction. "Oh yeah? Prove it." she demanded a bit skeptical. She really hoped that the dang toad couldn't croak the alphabet. Even if he could who was going to sit around and try to decode a secret? Nobody that's who! "On second thought maybe we should just let Gus be." She had, had enough near misses with him to last her a lifetime.

So he had finally agreed with her and that felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "Okay good." Hannah didn't know whether or not anybody would believe him anyways, but she would rather be safe than sorry. She would have to make sure that she really didn't hex him or hurt him in any way because she knew if that happened he would surely spill the beans.

Hannah felt goofy when she returned the grin. This was not real life. "It's a pleasure." Kinda. Well this was awkward. What was she supposed to do now?

Well, lookie here. Lux had a kindred spirit, and it made her happy to see that he seemed to be feeling a little better since he was not talking strangely anymore. "I am really scared of heights, so one of my best friends is teaching me how to fly... but it's really hard." Terrible fears had this way of crippling you to the point where even something tiny could set you into a panic attack.

Smiling when he laughed, she thought about his question for a moment. "Well, I am sure I could think of something." It might just take a little bit of time is all. "My nickname is Cucumber." And it was one that got a lot of attention, since people always wanted to know why she was called that.

"Exactly! I'm sure he floats around wanting hugs or talking to Merpeople. Or maybe even getting hugs from Merpeople sometimes." She bet that if she went into the lake, she could get the Giant Squid to give her a big giant squid hug! "Oh, I bet there totally is! We could ask a student who is really smart or a Professor! Then we could have our own special map and never trip!" She started turning red when he called her a genius. So many compliments.

Uhh. Prove it? Well Gus hadn't proved that even to him, how was he supposed to prove it to Hannah? He needed a way to trick that toad into croaking the alphabet. Wait. What was that? Leave Gus alone? For once Adi was glad to listen to Hannah. "Okay, sure. We don't want him kissing you again, right?'' There was know way he was going to let her know he was lying- Sort of- so he kept up the attitude.

Oh look! She can smile! And he let her know. "I didn't know you could smile. All you ever did was look serious.'' It was the truth and she couldn't blame him for that. "Nice to meet you too.'' And then Adi could not stop himself. "Why are you always like that? Serious and rude, I mean. Don't you want to make friends?'' He seriously doubted she had any with that attitude.