Ahh, yes. Back to the lovely old grounds of Hogwarts. The forest, the lake, the pathway, the dreaded tree that wanted to knock you across the country. It was just charming, wasn't it? And of course, that's where Piers ended up. That's where he and Javy had planned to meet anyhow.

As he neared the still (for now) tree, Piers eyed it cautiously before plopping down on the grass. It wasn't wet since it was still the end of summer. Autumn had yet to begin, so he was taking advantage of the rather dry grass. With him, he had a plate wrapped in foil with a special something under it, so he set that aside. While he waited for his friend, Piers kicked out his legs, leaned back and stretched his arms back behind his heed. Ah, yes. Comfy place to lie down.

Home was nice and all, but this... was the real deal for Javy. Inwardly inhaling in the smell of the outdoors. He loved it. The grounds of Hogswarts just made the smell sweeter with the nostalgia he had from his younger days as a student here.. from the good times of course.

Him and Piers didn't have a class planned for today, so it was a time for chilling. Bringing along one of his quilts and a basket filled with leftover enchilada pizza that was still perfectly good and butterbeer bottles. They could prolong the need to return inside longer now. "Comfy?" Javy asked his friend who was just lying in the grass. "Come on and help me with this, it should at least prevent the grass from getting in your hair." Yes Piersie, they were going to sit on the blanket out here.

Afterward, Javy plopped down sitting beside with the basket of food in between them. Now what to talk about. "So.." Hmm? Looking down at his friend he then noticed something wrapped on a plate. "What's that you got there?"

Bay wanted to walk around the grounds to take it all in, he was back. Thank goodness that he was his normal age now but he felt like he missed so much being so old last year. He didn't realize that he was walking towards the Whomping Willow, making sure he kept his distance he stood back and watched it move with out any wind.

Having spent the morning in the Common Room, Terry had decided that now was probably a good time to go out and get some fresh air. Being cooped under the lake, as fascinating as it was, could sometimes get to you and at least once a day he liked to go wander around the school grounds. That and this would of course be his last term at the school, might as well make the most of it whilst he was still here.

The Slytherin followed the path, heading towards the Whomping Willow, his eyes scanning the area for someone he knew. Either that or something interesting that was happening, unlikely in the first few weeks. He arrived at the tree, squinting up in the autumn sun. He still wasn't 100% sure what the purpose of the willow being here was. To ward of intruders perhaps? He doubted it. As he looked back down to eye-level he spotted a familiar face.

That was Ana's friend Lux's boyfriend yeah? Bay? They had been talking about him when he intruded on the pair on the train journey here. "Hey mate" she smiled moving to stand next to him. "New term, new something to go wrong" he chuckled, starting the conversation. It was inevitable at Hogwarts that something should go wrong. He hadn't known a time. nor read about one, where things DID go smoothly.

Hearing a voice behind him he turned his head "Hey Terry" he has met him before surely and he's pretty sure that Ana has mentioned him a few times and one of those times she said she was dating him. "yeah well were off on a good start.. no Quidditch and all of that" he said with a smirk. "some freaky looking tree right?" why on earth would anyone buy such a plant…

"its like they've loaded up the school with dangerous things for us to try to keep away from" he laughed. oh and speaking of Ana he hasn't seen her in a while "wheres Ana?" thinking that they would be going on a walk together.. well it seemed like Terry was catching some air just like Bay so maybe he just went alone.

Piers was long lost in his thoughts of the outdoors when Javy came around. He hadn't even heard him coming until he spoke up. Piers popped his eyes open and responded with an affirmative grunt as he sat up and then hopped onto his feet. He scoffed at Javy's comment. "Don't pretend you're concerned about my hair when we all know it's yours you're worried about." His light, fluffy, delicate hair.

Regardless, he helped Javy spread out the blanket on the grass, even though he thought it was slightly unnecessary. Ah well. Piers plopped down on the blanket near Javy as he asked about the plate. "Oh, just a little surprise. For desert." So he didn't get to know what it was just yet.

"What do you have there?" he asked, gesturing to the basket. Whatever was in there, it smelled good.

One of his eyebrows quirking up at him, "Whose pretending? Chances are you'd have me pick out anything that ends up in your perfect hair." See, big favour for making him get him off his bum for a moment. "..Is there a reason for me to be worried about my hair?" Something that he wasn't aware of, perhaps?

Now this was much more comfortable, lying on the quilt instead of the messy grass. "Really now?" Anything to make Javy more curious was on the mention of surprise.. and dessert. Smart move to be asking him a question before he could press any further. "Food and butterbeer.. you hungry already?" Smiling a little before opening the basket to show the leftover enchilada pizza. Time to dig in.

Well... He couldn't deny that. "You'd have me do the same," he responded instead. He would neither confirm nor deny that statement. Piers wiggled his legs and got comfortable, raising an eyebrow at Javy's question. "No," he replied simply. "Your hair is fine. Nice and fluffy, as usual." Could they eat now?

Grinning a little bit, Piers grabbed the plate of secret desert and set it off to the side so Javy wouldn't get impatient and sneak a peek. It was top secret, after all. His curiosity piqued when his friend opened up the basket to reveal two of Piers' favorite foods mashed into one. Enchilada Pizza. "I'm always hungry. You know that." They had lived together most of the summer, after all.

Piers wasted no time reaching into the basket. He grabbed himself a slice of pizza, took a bite, and let out a satisfied sigh. "You, my friend," he said after swallowing his first bite, "are an amazing best friend." He made him FOOD. What was not to like?

Whilst Javy was serving, he was still eyeing that..surprise. Hm. If it only it was closer. He could then try to get the smell of it to determine what it was. It was too bad the smell of the pizza and Piers' scented cologne was blocking it. Hmm, maybe not it wasn't so bad after all. Taking one of the pizza's to chew on, "Don't I ever.. It's amazing your shape hasn't changed from it." Smiling, it felt good having his own cooking appreciated, even if it meant he had to have the least amount of portions..

Why was he the one doing most of the cooking again back home? Oh yeah, because of this rare sight of confession. "I do believe that's my line." Smirking, but he'll take it just the same. It felt nice to hear that. Popping off the lids of one of the bottles to take a sip, "Remember when we rode on those branches?" Indicating those of the Whomping Willow's. Everything just seemed to be filling with memories around here.

Kace decided it was time to go visit the famous tree. He was waiting for this and he remembered he told Grayson about it. He wondered if he was gonna see that new guy around. He didn't see him at the feast but he figured he would be busy meeting all the new slytherins.

As he approached the tree, he told the safest distance. He didn't want to get whacked. He hoped one day he would be able to through the secret passage. While he was here, he took out his sketch pad and started to sketch the tree.

The Quidditch issue hadn’t really bothered Terry. He had never played it, never even had any intention of playing it but with three of his own dorm mates on the team, he really did sympathise with its cancellations. Some of them were relying on Quidditch for their future careers, to have that seemingly taken from them was probably a bit of a blow. And personally he thought it took some of the house spirit away, Quidditch always brought out the healthy competition between the four houses. But still, the safety of his friends and the student body as a whole was so much more important than playing the game. For he’d much rather have his friends alive then to see them hurt or possibly even worse.

“Yes, that was a bit of surprise” he sighed a little in response. It truly was unexpected, not the way he’d thought the term would start. But thankfully the conversation swiftly moved on to the whomping willow before them. “I’ve been here six years and I still don’t really know what the purpose of it is yet.” Protection he assumed. But from what? Or whom rather? “Still, its pretty cool. No one else can say they have a giant tree with a mind of its own that can cause significant damage if you go anywhere near it.” No muggle would believe you anyway.

Where was Ana? “Good question” he shrugged in response. He hadn’t seen her that morning. “Probably in her dorm, I didn’t see her when I passed through the Common Room earlier.” As long as she wasn’t studying the entire year like last term he was fine with her not being around that morning. Besides, she probably liked her space and Terry liked to have a walk once a week entirely on his own. It made a healthy relationship, at least that was what he thought.

THIS was the place he wanted to come and see! He had heard quite a bit about it and out of all the things Kace had told him back at the potions shop in Diagon Alley, this was the one he was probably most interested in seeing. Did he want to miss the opportunity to see the tree whack something? Not at all. Besides, he had to come and see this for himself to see if Kace was telling the truth or just pulling his leg. You could never be too careful.

Speaking of, look who it was! Tucking his hands deep into his pockets, the Slytherin headed down the grounds towards Kace at his usual pace. He wasn't rushing for anybody. Kid was standing at a safe distance from it too. Shame. No whacking today, then. That still didn't mean that he couldn't observe things from a safe distance.

"So this is the infamous whacking tree, huh?" This was his way of greeting the fellow fourth year. Obviously.

And what was the boy drawing? Was it the TREE? Birds? Hogwarts?

Why was he drawing when there was a WHACKING TREE he could look at?

Piers sat up a little straighter when Javy mentioned his 'shape'. He was rather good at staying in shape. And he was pleased his friend had noticed. "I take care of myself," he pointed out. He looked good, man.

Continuing to eat his pizza, Piers was still grinning a little bit when Javy mentioned riding the branches of the Whomping Willow. He laughed and washed down his bite with some butterbeer. "You mean when I broke two ribs and sprained an ankle?" He snorted. "I think 'got attacked by' is a better description of what happened." He seemed to remember Javy didn't come out unscathed either.

"Clearly," Javy hadn't ever really paid much attention to his friend's size. He was just Piersie, after all. After surviving the whole accelerated aging thing however, he's grown to appreciate their youth and each other's figure more and more. Of course, in his mind that was how he was connecting it. "It'd be tragic if I needed to control your portion intake." Because hello, that meant more work into cooking for as long as he lived there. "Luckily you got nothing to worry about." His friend was still in good shape.

"Along with me breaking a leg and getting a cracked skulled after being tossed out." Chuckling, being attacked was definitely the proper wording."You sure were convincing on how great Quidditch was with that bright idea on riding the branch." Hence his insisting on only watching the game back then. It became one of those grand stupid things to be laughed about years later. "So how many crazy schemes did we get ourselves into?" He personally lost count by their fourth year.

Kace was in deep focus when he was drawing his pictures. He didn't even notice Grayson made his way to the tree when he heard his comment. He turned around and grinned. "Yeah it is.." he said gesturing towards it. "Nice to see you again mate." he nodded towards him. "How are you liking your house so far?" he asked him. He remembered watching him being sorted and how nervous he seemed to be.

Just two dudes standing here staring at a tree, some people might think thats weird but Bay was oddly comfortable. Swaying where he stood with a slow rhythm he was glad that Terry was here. "yeah totally. Being there on a trip when the headmistress received the letter, we were all freaked but no one knew what it was about, until now that is" he sighed. Of course someone would threaten Hogwarts, it wouldn't be a school year with out something awful happening right.

"i'm with you on that one mate. thats one randomly placed tree they have here" he said while sizing it up. "you know what I wonder if anyone else has a tree like this" he thought out loud. "oh yeah… if I was in a fight I'd totally love to have this tree on my side" he laughed while thinking of this tree fighting a group of bad people for his honour.

Hearing him talk about Ana made him smile, Bay thought that they were such a cute couple, but of course he wasn't going to tell him that. "oh I haven't seen her yet at all… I totally miss my friend" he confessed, she was the first person to teach him about sweets and they had cookies in the kitchens and she was teaching him about foods from her country and some words too. "I'll have to go hunt for her later then" he smiled as he was still swaying.

"so how was your summer? do anything fun?" talking about summer was always a good topic, it was just so peaceful here he wanted to keep everything flowing.

Since the intense, rapid aging occurrence, Piers also had learned to appreciate their youth. He and Javy had both been so grumpy around each other while they were OLD. But now they were good again, if not closer. Piers still grumped though, as he did. That was just a personality trait. Javy didn't seem to mind. "Why, thank you," he said, taking his friend's comment as a compliment. "You're not so bad yourself." He took another sip of his butterbeer. Perhaps he should be a little less sarcastic. "Y'know. You're rather... fit." It wasn't against the law to call your best friend fit and attractive, right? Riiiight. It was cool.

Piers chuckled at the memory of getting tossed around by that blasted tree. "Oh, Merlin. Hundreds and hundreds. I can't even count the number of detentions." There had been quite a few of those, too They sure did get into a lot of mayhem as students, hadn't they? Those were the best of times. Piers sighed after a good bit of laughter. "I'm sure glad we're here. At Hogwarts, I mean, teaching together and hanging out, just like old times." Life had been SO dull before Javy came. Honestly.

Blinking, Well.. thanks." Javy was expecting a backhanded compliment from Piers, to be honest. Not that he was complaining about the actual compliments. It was quite nice actually, making him smile a little. "Yeah.. as you are." Poking Piers' stomach just to prove it. Very firm like his. He couldn't help but wonder how he was the lone one in the article to not receive any offers. He was quite the catch.

"Well, we did have a lot of energy to burn." Taking the last few bites into the pizza. It was just unfortunate to those who happen to get in their way of exercising it. According to Javy, that was. "Me too, mate.. it's like we were meant to stick together." Like Partners in crime.. well, without the whole crime since that wouldn't fly well with them being Professors. Glancing around, his eyes found that mystery plate. "So Piersie, what's for dessert?" You know, that thing that's been risking invasion by ants.

Javy smiled so Piers smiled. And then he laughed when Javy poked his abs and made a grab for his arm, but just ended up swatting his hand instead. It helped that they generally worked out together to stay in shape. BUT, "Yeah, whatever. You're the one who got the owl response." He backhanded Javy's knee but laughed it off. Obviously kidding. Obviously not jealous. Obviously.

It was kind of corny how Javy said it, but it was true. They seemed to be best friends no matter what, able to pick up right where they left off once they saw each other again. Piers perked up again when Javy mentioned dessert. "Aha!" he said, grabbing the plate and bringing it to the center of the blanket. "Your favorite. Angel food cake with strawberries." Piers grinned as he lifted the cover off to reveal the dessert. It looked so GOOD. He just hoped Javy wouldn't ask who made it, because it certainly was not him.

Marigold had escaped out of the castle without seeing anyone she knew, and so she could lie on the ground in peace. Not that she didn't want to see anyone, but she didn't want to get stuck talking to someone outside when it was such a beautiful day. She rolled onto her stomach and propped her chin up on her hand. The Whomping Willow was oddly mesmerizing, with its branching moving in a languid manner. She smiled as a slight zephyr ruffled her hair. Life was good.

Grayson hadn't noticed that the fellow fourth year was deep into his drawing. Just that he was drawing. "Huh," he started, glancing back at the tree, "Has it whacked anything, yet?" Or did it usually just stay there swaying in the distance?

What? The Slytherin turned to look over at Kace. Nice to see him again. "Oh yeah, it's good to see you again as well." Cue a single nod from him. The next part took a it of thinking. Just a bit. "It's alright," What? What else was he expected to say? "It's a lot different to things back at Beauxbatons. In a good way. And I've met some interesting people." Interesting. Not all of them were the good kind either.

And then his blue eyes flew to the drawing. "You drawing the tree?"

Kace chuckled, "I mean it has whacked a few birds if that is what your asking, but it is has not whacked any humans yet." Man this kid really wanted to see people get hurt, but he found it humorous all the same. He raised his eyebrows when he mentioned meeting interesting people. "Yeah Hogwarts does carry around those kind of people, i mean i am kind of unique as well." he joked just a little bit.

Now onto a little broader question. "Have you met any cute girls mate in your house?" he asked. I mean he could, Kace was taken but he wanted the new kid to have a girlfriend soon. Plus he was new, usually girls always soon over the transfer students. He was from Beauxbatons. That was interesting. "Hmm...Beauxbatons you say? I gotta say i have never been there. What is it like?" he asked curiously still shading in his tree drawing.

"Yeah i am drawing the tree, it is not the best.." he shrugged. "But i can show you this..." he flipped opened his sketchbook and showed him some graffiti art. "What do you think?" he asked him.

.....INCOMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111


Zahra cartwheeled (poorly) and landed SOMEWHAT ON the unsuspecting HUFFLEPUFF. hahahaha! BOOM.

"SUP PUFF." Hi and junk. hehaho!

Marigold let out a SHRIEK!GIGGLE when SOMEONE WINKWINK landed on her. Play-shoving Z off her, she sat up eagerly.

"Yo! How was your summer?" Tell her ALL the details. She could handle it. And maybe tell her some of HER juicy secrets too.

Spill, Z, like the lion you are.