The grounds were incredible, huge, lush, clearly well taken care of and absolutely beautiful. Everything about the school was beautiful so far and Damien was still in awe. He was living in a castle, an actually castle, Salem had been a beautiful place too, but nothing compared to this.

Still, he would have enjoyed it more if his best friend didn’t absolutely hate it, to the point where she seemed to feel alienated… And Damien had been so excited for them to be going to school together. The boy sighed, rolling up the sleeves of his linen shirt and climbing up the beech tree, making his way toward the thick branch that reached out over the lake.

Somehow, he thought this would be a good place to think.

The lake was magnificent. It was. Evie had spent the last half an hour walking around it and tossing pebbles in it to see what would come up. So far, she hadn't been attacked, which she remembered could be a possibility (which is why she had stopped for the time being).

She made her way back around and came back to the old tree that sat by a shallow part of the lake. It was a neat tree. Evie reached up and hung on to one of the branches, with her feet on one of its large roots sticking up from the ground. Tempted to climb it? Yes, she was.

Kace decided to go down to the tree by the lake. He always felt this spot was the most relaxing. He owled Puck to come down here because he needed to catch up what went on with Braedon and plus they haven't seen each other in a while. He missed his buddy. I mean they did meet at the feast but she was busy talking to other people. He liked hanging with his friends one on one. As he waited for miss prefect to show up, he took out his sketchbook and began to do a sketch of Puck with her prefect badge. He wondered if she would like it.

It was a lovely day outside, so Lux thought it was a great idea to head outside to the lake, one of her favourite places at Hogwarts. Maybe she would dip her feet in the water, but for now sitting in the shade under the tree reading a book sounded like a great idea.

Reaching the tree, she removed her bag from her shoulder and took a seat on the grass. Hopefully her dress wouldn't stain, but she knew the spell to fix it in case it happened so no worries there. Removing her book from her bag, she opened it to the page she had left off on and began to read.

Puckalmost groaned when she was hit in the head with the letter that day. Puck chuckled of course when she read the note and made her way over to the lake to meet her friend. She didn't know what he wanted to talk about really, but it had been a while since she had seen him what with traveling and visiting Bianca's mom on the photo shoot...and all the food babies. Food babies ruled.

What had taken up most of her summer had been the freaking out over being Prefected and the music fest thing...oh and all of the pizza eating with Rorie! Because obviously that was fun she had loved that.

"Hey Pillow" she grinned as she plopped down on the ground next to him. "how are you?" She asked grinning and then tapped her head. "Do I have a papercut on my head? The owl kind of dropped it there" she laughed and grinned at Kace.

As usual, Dima had been continuing the practice he and Maddie had of searching and attempting to lure out the giant squid. Of course, his tries were unsuccessful (when were they not? Most people knew that squids' primary diets didn't consist of crackers and juice, the third year's sole offerings). And it was too hot to stay in the sun FOREVER.

So he went and took refuge under the beech tree, not noticing the girl hanging off one of the branches on the other side.

She hadn't decided to climb the tree yet, but she mostly just doing the monkeybars on it. Evie had let go of the first branch she was on and found another one to hang from. Keeping her eyes on the branches, she swung to the next and held onto it. But as she swung, she felt her foot hit something below. Looking down, she noticed that it was a boy.

"Oh." Oops. "Sorry." She looked down at him as she hung from the branch. All good?

Honestly Ruby had decided to take advantage of the weather being nice-ish while she could, and also because she had nooo idea how long Bellaire would have her serving detentions this time so she figured she might as well make the most of her freedom while she had it. So out to the grounds it was and she zeroed in on the tree near the lake. Not to climb it though, ugh, no, thank you. If she was going to flash someone it'd be on purpose and not thanks to monkeying about in a Beech tree.

She found a spot on the lakeward side where there was a nice soft tuft of grass growing between the roots. Big enough to sit there comfortably. Big enough for two people to sit there comfortably really, but Ruby had come on her own. She sat carefully, tucking the small bit of skirt beneath herself. Once she was settled she looked out over the lake, looking unusually lost in thought.

The shade was much nicer than out by the dock, that was for su-

Oomf. Dima felt something connect with his temple and fell over. A person? Rubbing the side of his head, he blinked and sat up again.

"S'okay." Why was she just hanging there though? "Do you need help?" First of all, was she trying to go down or up? It was a pretty easy tree in which to do either, and if she required assistance, the third year would have found it awfully weird. But you never knew with girls, really.

Awfully weird was like their definition.

Norah was practically WRIGGLING with excitement as she set herself up under the tree, turning her face up to the sky for a moment to feel the sun on her face before she got to the REAL DEAL reason why she was here. The third year picked up the yo-yo and held it up to her face, examining it with hazel eyes narrowed. How did this thing work, anyway? The muggle store that sold hadn't given her any instructions or ANYTHING. What was the use of that, hmm?

She stuck her finger through the little hole in the string and waited for something to happen. Okay. So that didn't work. With a shrug, Norah let go of the circle-y thing and watched as it slid down the string and....landed on the ground. She GLARED at it, trying not to get frustrated but it was HARD okay? A muggle toy for CHILDREN was too hard to figure out. SIGH. What kind of name was yo-yo anyway?

Aw man, right in the head too. Whoops.

"No," she responded, letting go of the branch and landing on her feet. "I was just hanging." No real intention of climbing, not in a skirt. Which was why she was on her feet now and not hanging above this boy. "I know how to climb a tree." By the way. She wasn't impaired, and apparently wanted him to know that.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She hadn't seemed to kick him that hard, but she hadn't been paying attention, so she couldn't be sure.

Oh, see, she COULD get down.

"Me too!" He could climb a tree, that was. Not that it was a very rare ability, but they had something in common. And those said things were always nice to point out when you were conversing with someone you didn't really know. Although Dima figured she'd find a different tree to hang off now.

Was he okay? The third year tapped his head again. "Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a brush, I think."

Pause. "I'm Dima. Toussaint. Have I seen you before?" She didn't look familiar.

Just a brush? He fell OVER. Evie questioned him in her mind, but decided to let it go. If she wasn't going to get in trouble, then she wouldn't push it.

Uh oh.

.... "Toussaint?" Evie tried not to smile when she heard that name. What were the odds? Assuming this boy was his brother, she kept cool and flattened her skirt back out. "No, I'm new. I'm Evie. Shacklebolt." Since they were doing last names and all.

Ah.. the lake by the lake was his favorite spot through out all of Hogwarts, he just loved sitting and thinking underneath this tree. As he sat underneath the tree he rested his head against the tree looking out at the lake deep in thought, he was thinking about what this year would bring, he was sure it was going to be better than last year was. Although he was worried about his best friend Savannah but he knew that Tobias was comforting as much as he could, it stink that her parents were divorced now and she didn't see her mother much anymore. Tyler hated seeing any of his friends and loved ones hurt, it hurts him to see any of them hurting or sad. What made it worse, Tyler didn't know what to do fod his best friend.

Sighing to himself, Tyler brushed all those thoughts away and decided to just relax under the tree enjoying the nice warm sunshine before it gotten cold. He knew that it wouldn't be long until it gotten chilly and cold, although Tyler didn't mind it, he didn't have a favorite season he loved then all equally due to them being all fun. Feeling a soft breeze blow through his blonde hair he smiled and looked around for Abby or his twin brother or friends, sighing as he didn't see them he thought maybe they gotten busy.

Abby was out getting some fresh air and smiled to herself when she saw Tyler sitting alone and said "Hey gorgeous why so lonely out here" Abby thought it was a beautiful autumn day

Tyler who didn't realized that he was asleep under the tree opened his hazel eyes slowly to see Abby and smiled. "Hey beautiful, came out here to relax and think about things, and I guess I fell asleep under the tree! "said Tyler honestly. " You wanna join me Abbs or you going to stand there and look at me?"Tyler asked her playfully before smirking at her.

Confused. He was so freaking confused. And what did he do when he was confused about something? Usually, ignore it and grumble about it. Or talk to someone he deeply trusted about it. The former didn't seem to be working because it was the ONLY thing on his mind at the present time. Only. No food and nothing inappropriate either. Weird or what?

So, he decided to head outside to see if a certain curly haired Gryffindor was here. He wasn't gonna try and flirt his way into the lion common room again so he thought it'd be a good idea to search out here BEFORE going up all those stairs. He loved the dude but he wasn't ready to tackle those stairs. Not ye--

.............

........................ Oh jeez. Oh MAN. The ONE person he needed some help about and she was sitting RIGHT THERE. It was as if she'd read his mind and decided to caaaaaasually sit somewhere where he'd bump into her just so that she could torture him.

Girls, man.

Tucking his hands into his pockets, he maintained a cool composure as he walked towards her. "Fancy seeing you here, Rubes."

And he was gonna take a seat, mkay? Because the seating place looked like it'd be MUCH more comfortable with two people sitting there.

Ruby looked up, startled out of her reverie by a very familiar voice, even if there was something off about his tone, at least to her ears. Well norrrrmally his voice was laced with something far more flirtatious right? Was he okay? She wouldn't press, if he wanted to talk he knew that he could.

"I know, its so weird, like I go to this school or something." Ruby said lightly, studying him as he sat down. She leaned against him a little bit. "Looking for somewhere quiet too?" And added bonus, Bellaire free right? She smiled at him in her usual way. 100 percent attention on you, Grayson Whitlock.

Toussaint, yup. Had she heard of the family? Dima thought it was weird when people did, on account of he didn't know anyone else's big ol' clan. But Angelo acted like HE was used to it, all calm and collected as usual, when it happened, so the third year didn't pay it much attention. Maybe she was just double checking names or something.

"Oh." He must have missed her sorting in all the spit napkin, fork throwing commotion. "What house are you in? .... fourth year?" Decent guess, right?

Abby laughed and sat down beside Tyler and said "Of course i am joining you and well i am just really glad to be back here at school now"

Tyler laughed as he wrapped his arms around her pulling her close to him before he kissed the top of her head. "Um... Abbs remember when I told you that I had something that I want to tell you, well...I think here is the perfect place to tell you, seeing how this is where we met."said Tyler softly but honestly. "I love you Abby Valentine, I love you more than anything!"said Tyler softly but honestly before he blushed as he said that. "I got you something, I hope you like it!"said Tyler softly before handing the box with the necklace in it.

Damien had dozed off, his face pressed against the branch, his legs hanging on ether side. The boy was completely at ease and at peace with the world.

He shouldn't have been. The wind, though not dry strong, was strong enough to have pushed him, little by little to the edge of the side of the branch and with each soft snore, he grew perilously closer to falling on top of a certain red head a few feet below. Still, the boy remained unaware, his dreams of candy, pretty girls in bikinis and becoming president were the only thing in his mind.

The wind blew again, harder this time and Damien was sent tumbling through the air, the sensation of falling waking him abruptly, but he could do nothing to stop it. "Watch ou-" He shouted, but it was too late.

He landed right on top of the diminutive red head, the arm he'd been holding out to shield him was beneath him no, not to mention bent the wrong way.

Yikes.

Why could she hear what sounded like snoring? O_o

Confused, Lux looked around but there was no one else in the area. She was completely alone. Shrugging it off as her mind playing tricks on her, the redhead went back to her book, figuring that she wouldn't have too many opportunities to read for enjoyment with all the studying that was required before exams.

Turning the page, she had barely a moment to register that someone was speaking to her before said person had LANDED ON HER.

Gasping with shock and pain, she laid there with a boy on top of her.

There were a lot of words going around Damien's head. Ouch. Why. Damn it. Sonofawitch. But the loudest word was- "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I am so sorry!" He was trying to get up, to crawl off the smaller body beneath him, but his arm, his arm was hurting like crazy and he just couldn't move. He lifted his head,and his eyes widened as he realized who he had crash landed on. "Lux, are you okay?" He asked, finally thinking straight and rolling off other.

He was so worried about her that he had yet to see the damage down to his appendage.