Nemo walked up to the base of the tree, looking up and then when he reached it he saw the girl standing there and raised an eyebrow, her back was to him. "Are you gonna go up or not?" He asked and crossed his arms, The Count of Monte Cristo was in his arms, as it was currently what he was reading. In French of course.

He awaited the girl's reply and stood there waiting, hmmm. Why would someone walk all the way to a glorious tree house just to not go inside?

"Not sure yet."

The answer came instinctively. And it wasn't until the words were out of her mouth that Maggie realized they sounded VERY weird. Like, who didn't know what they were going to do? There was no good reason for her to be unsure about going into the treehouse or not. Oh no. She was going to have to talk her way out of that. Only how....

Still trying to come up with a witty thing to say, Maggie turned around and....relaxed. Ah good. Nemo. No need for witty stories. Not that she had thought of one anyway. "Heyyyy." She grinned. "Are you going up?"

Nemo raised an eyebrow because what kind of answer was that? Like... what even did that mean? Who wouldn't be sure if they were going up?

Clearly this student was younger and he didn't recognize the voice. She turned around and Nemo grinned a little because look it was Maggie. "Hello, i haven't seen you in a while." He nodded and looked up. "I am, you should head up. Have you even been in the tree house before?" He seemed to recall her skepticism over tree houses a year ago, maybe that changed?

Yes they really hadn't seen each other in a while.

"You make it sound very tempting." More grinning was happening and she glanced back up at the treehouse. There was no way she would have gone up there before but now...it was a maybe. It probably wouldn't take a lot more convincing until she was...well, convinced.

"No?" Pause. "Why would I?"

"I promise I will TRY not do any life threatening thing to you anymore, Henny.'' 'Try' was the key word there. Not that Adi would ACTUALLY put the boy in any danger. If he was unsure of a spell, he wouldn't use it. Or would he?

"Really cute,'' the six the year stated regarding the fourth year and his WEIRD voice. OHHH! Rare cards! "I want to see them, please!'' Wasn't this SUPER COOL?! He would actually get to have a look at some of these rare ones! "You got the bargaining skills, huh?" Henric must have put quite a lot of galleons into this card collection.

Keep this a secret? That was something Adi could do. "You got it! It will ours and the tree house's secret,'' was the promise. He may kid around and play tricks on Henny but Adi could see just how much this collection meant to his friend so he would keep it all hush- hush. He also realised that Henric chose to share it with him and he found that quite cool of the boy.

The prefect bounded after Henric and flopped down beside him. "Uh, I think it was one of the Groundskeepers a few years ago. Before I got here.'' Wasn't it the same poor man who had passed on due to a tragedy at the Castle?

Adi peered at the first card. What a majestic looking dragon! Oh yeah. He could see why Benny and Henric were so fascinated with the things. "I like the Chinese Fireball and the Swedish Short Snout and that Dragon called Toothless from that Muggle movie How to Train Your Dragon.'' Had Henric ever seen that?

Nemo shrugged. "A tree house isn't a hard sell, it's pretty awesome so it sells itself." He grinned and looked at the ladder wondering if she was gonna climb it and if now if he could just go ahead and go up instead.

Why would she? Why wouldn't anyone? "Cause it's a house in a tree... it's off the ground, it's freeing and special" He shrugged, Nemo's only solitude for years was his tree house at home so they held a special place in his heart.

"A groundskeeper made this massive treehouse? Wow... wish I knew the man, do you reckon he's still around with us?"Henric asked Adi curiously. He would love to learn a few tricks of building one for himself one day, of course if he had the galleons and the woodcraft skills to match as well.

"Ahh...nicee! Those are fiery beasts, better watch out for them..never put yourself in their line of fire, I'll tell ya..."he commented before looking back up at Adi,"Toothless? You mean the old muggle animation movie?" Adi watched those?! Oh my....the more he knew about Adi, the more surprised he was. There were so many things he had in common with him! He too shamelessly watched them a couple of times back home.

"Oh right...I forgot to mention...BEST DRAGON MOVIE...Evverrr~"he added, grinning like a fool.

"He's not,'' Adi told his Hufflepuff friend. "He died. Dementors.'' Uh, yeah. He had never read too much about that particular incident. Firth, he thought the man's name was, had been unfortunate. Dementors, yo. Not pretty things to encounter.

"Speaking from experience, Henny?'' Adi kidded. He seriously doubted Henric had jumped in front of a line of fire emitted from a dragon. Hehe. Wait, or had he? He and Henric may have become good buddies but there was still A LOT he didn't know about the guy.

Eeeep! Henric knew who Toothless was! "Yes! And from the series! I watched the entire series over the summer.'' Yup! Despite all the stuff he had been involved in over that period of time, he still found time to watch the series online. "It is!'' There was no debate from Adi on the topic of the best Dragon movie ever. "Didn't know you were into Muggle stuff, Henny,'' the boy stated as he reached into one of his pockets. "Before I forget... here you go.'' He handed over a huge stack of Chocolate Frog cards. All that was for you, Henny.

Dementors?! Henric frowned at the mention of it. Those things were trouble wherever he went. "Oh...that was unfortunate, sorry to hear about his demise...he should have died honourably though,"he muttered sadly.

"Speaking from experience? Haha! No."Henric told him sternly. "I wouldn't want to be barbecued kebab for the dragon, thanks..but no thanks..."he shook his head for extra emphasis, kebabs were his favourite food by the way but that didn't mean he wanted to be one for the dragon...nope. "But... I would like to meet one though...I'm going to study about them in Romania after I graduated...maybe become a Dragonologist too...what about you Adi?"he asked him. Now that he realised, Adi would be leaving Hogwarts in exactly 1 year more, wasn't he?() Henric didn't want to think about it. He would still be in his sixth year in Hogwarts and he couldn't imagine Adi not being around to tease him anymore. And Kace leaving too this year...he wish he had more time to spend with them, he made sure of it.

Enough with the sad thoughts, he grinned at Adi."Yeah, I've been raised in a muggle household...well...almost all my life,"Henric replied, looking down in his hands He hadn't told Adi the whole truth about his upbringing. Would he be able to tell him one day? Then, Adi gave him a huge stack of chocolate frog cards and put them on the table.Sweet! Henric grabbed the cards and went through each and everyone of them.

"Woah!Thanks Adi! Man..I didn't know you collect this many! Is this Albus Dumbledore and...oh merlin, you got Ginny (née Weasley) Potter too? Do you know about her, she was super cool back in the days too,wow..."Henric said, gawking at Adi's collection.

"Oh yeah, me too...here pick any one of them, but not the short-snout ones though...I gave up an arm for that,haha!Just kidding! Go ahead, take what you like,"Henric grinned and handed Adi his precious dragoncards collection folder.

Even though Henric had not know the man, it was obvious he felt just as bad for the old Groundskeeper as much as Adi did. He nodded. "It would have been even better if he were alive. Who know swhat other awesome stuff we would have had on the grounds.''

Adi laughed. ''I bet you wouldn't make a very tasty kebab, anyway, Henny. The Dragon would simply toss you out of his mouth the moment he gets one taste of you.'' He was super pleased to hear about Henric's plans but that meant Adi wouldn't even get to see him for a while because he would be off riding dragons in ANOTHER country. Hmph. Why you be leaving Adi, Henny? Too much teasing? "That sounds like fun! I hope you meet lots of dragons but you don't get barbequed.'' No, no, no. The dragons needed to know Henric was not to be eaten. Only Adi could barbecue him. Hehe. "I'm going to work with all creatures but mostly Hippogriffs. I'm going to be a Hippogriff breeder!'' Wheeee! Adi looked forward to that! "Also, I plan to invent a potion or two as well. I'm thinking that maybe I can give lessons to persons who suck at Potions.'' Ambitions. Adi had them. But Henric's long face did not go unnoticed. "What you thinking about, Henny? Does someone need to have a hex cast on them?'' Had someone troubled the boy?

"How come 'almost' all of your life?'' Adi wondered aloud as Henric grabbed the cards. He couldn't help but grinning. James and Henric were both so pleased for the things! He was sure glad he hadn't tossed them all out. "Yep. That's him and I think she's still cool. You can have ALL of them, Henny. I've even got more at home.'' So, Henric's collection could even get BIGGER. "I eat too many Chocolate Frogs,'' he explained with a laugh.

And Henric was letting him have card! Awesomeeeee! "Thanks, man.'' Adi was still looking through the cards as they had been talking but in the end he decided on the LionDragon. "I'll take this one.'' Oh? Henric had to give up an arm? "Your arm looks just fine.'' Hehe.

Brian was pretty sure he'd agreed to meet Clara in the treehouse. That older Ravenclaw girl that he saw hanging around Eden a lot? Yeah, that one. The slightly scary but very pretty one. She'd agreed to switch the emotion potion thing with him and Brian was pretty glad, because he didn't want to take a potion that was probably unsafe. Granted he had to try a second time to get his down, but hey, at least he managed to do it.

He was fairly certain that Culloden would have murdered him if he failed again. Potions ingredients were expensive, the last time he checked.

So there he was, wingardium leviosa-ing a leaf and making it dance around the treehouse while he waited. She'd show up soon enough. Brian just liked being early.

Clara wasn't the type to be extremely late to anything, but she also wasn't the type to show up early. So, when she arrived at the tree house to meet Brian it was within five minutes of the time they agreed to meet.

She climbed the stairs to find him levitating a leave, a little thing that made her smile. She liked charms, and she especially liked watching people practise them. "Nice," she said, announcing her arrival. "I hope you've not been waiting too long." Though, if he had, it seemed that he'd been able to keep himself entertained.

......... "You ready?"

Dalton made quick work of clambering up to the treehouse, avoiding the few people who were there and making his way over the the very edge, where he inhaled a few deep breaths and sat precariously close to the edge of the ledge with his legs hanging over. He took a moment to roll the sleeves of his MASSIVE hoodie up before he dug into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and his wand.

The paper had on it a list of spells he needed to practice. Spells that would hopefully mean his jeans would finally fit him, and he wouldn't trip over the hem. Clothes altering spells.

You know, just until he got his own money and could buy clothes that were his size.

Brian was focusing rather intently on the leaf, making it do somersaults and twirl in the non-wind. The whole magic thing was coming to him slowly, but surely. He didn't expect it to be a thing he managed with a snap of his fingers, but seeing his classmates master things before he did was a bit of a damper to his spirits. No matter, he made up for it with perseverance. He stuck to it until his wand produced results, no matter how ridiculous or pointless the charm.

When Clara arrived, he almost jumped, but instead managed to lower the leaf somewhat delicately onto the ground again. "Thanks." He was only doing it because he was bored, but he did practice it for a long time until he managed it.

Was he ready? Brian pulled out two small vials from his pockets and showed them to her. "As ready as I'm going to get, I suppose," he said, and it was true. He wasn't sure if forcing himself to feel fake emotions was something he would ever be fully prepared to do. It didn't seem pleasant.

Eden, last term, had come to the treehouse a LOT to just be alone and stuff. Not so much this term, though. And seeing as it was her last term here, she thought she should at least spend time up here...so many memories...with Connor, Justine...with Cole...hadn't she run into Hugh here, once? Mph.

As she wiggled her way up the ladder and into the treehouse, she saw the younger boy as soon as she slid inside. "Oh--hi--sorry--I just--" she blushed a little and took a deep breath. "I came up here just to relax. Hope you don't mind."

She smiled and sat on her bum, crossing her legs and pulling her backpack into her lap. Hmm. To take out her lollipops here or no...this kid looked young, and she didn't want to share her lollipops with him.

Dalton shuffled closer to the edge of the of the ledge as he heard someone joining him in the treehouse, but didn't turn around until he heard the voice. "No need to be sorry." His voice was gruff as he shoved his hood down so she could see his face, and he washed the blood creep into her cheeks.

The twelve year old cocked his head slightly at her blush, wondering why the colour was rising, but shrugged it off as he turned his body slightly to lean against the treehouse wall, and be more inside.

"Free country." Have a shrug with that sentiment. Daltons eyes flicked back to the wand in his hand before shoving it away - there was no way he was practising magic in front of a seventh year - that would just be embarrassing.

Henric agreed and nodded sadly,"Yeah...it would be great if he was still alive today." He wondered how the man encountered the dementor in the first place and what had the ministry done to stop it from happening again. He had so many questions left unanswered, it made him feel dizzy inside. He should stop now and enjoy his company with Adi...

Henric chuckled,"I wouldn't dream of it buddy, I can handle the dragons...don't worry, I won't let them eat me, have some trust in me,Adi!" Yep, he would be the best dragon caretaker,alright! Henric smiled broadly when Adi told him his plans after graduation. Nicee...a hippogriff breeder and a potions maker! He knew Adi will be brilliant at both, he truly believed that he could do it, there was no doubt about it.He raised his hands,"Umm..I do...I suck at potions..."he grinned sheepishly."But seriously though, is it possible to ride on one of your hippogriffs,Adi?"Henric asked curiously.

Henric paused browsing at the cards that Adi had kind-heartedly given him, he looked up at Adi who was busily selecting his dragoncard. Should he tell him? Henric wasn't sure...he was afraid that Adi would look at him differently.Henric stared at the cards in his hands...maybe when the time was right...
"Umm...my parents decided to move I guess,they wanted to open up a muggle restaurant in Manchester...my dad is a chef,"he told him, it was not exactly the whole story. He just left out the wizarding orphanage part before he was allowed to live in the muggle world with his new muggle parents and his life before then."Umm..what do your parents do?"Henric asked Adi, hoping it would divert the topic away for now.

"Thanks man...I will treasure them!"Henric grinned.He saw what Adi had picked as well,"I was just kidding with the arm losing mate, but don't they have Skele-Gro potion for that if you do,"Henric chuckled and added,"ahh..a Lion Dragon, very good choice mate."

"Of course I have trust in you, Henny,'' Adi said cheerfully and playfully gave Henric a hair ruffle. Yay for hair ruffles! He always had been a fan of those since his first year when he had been introduced to them by Alec and Wade. Anyway, back to Henric! "You've got this 'Handle with care, I'm fragile' look about you. Sure you can taken on the meanie fire breathers?" Hey, Adi was concerned. For some reason he didn't like the thought of his friend taking on Dragons. I mean, the guy was so small or so Adi thought. He was... what? Five feet five inches? Yeah, so Henric was small. The older Hufflepuff conveniently forgot that Henric was still in the process of getting taller. Hehe.

"You do?" He had not known Henric was bad at Potions. "You can be my first official student then,'' he said with a grin. "I shall teach you to brew whatever you want. Oh and you can set up your workstation next to mine in Potions class if you want so that I can help you out.'' That way, there would be no messed up potions by his friend. Take a ride on his Griff? "Nope. Sorry, Henny. Only awesome people allowed.''

Adi went back to browsing the cards, pausing to examine one with a Norwegian Ridgeback, a smirk playing on his lips. Had we mentioned how much he liked ribbing at Henric? But maybe he was making the poor guy feel bad so Adi looked up back. "I'm joking. Of course you can! You can take a ride on how many you want, whenever you want. You'll have VIP access to the Griff/ Unicorn farm.'' It didn't get better than that, right? But... "I suppose you'll be too busy chasing Dragons to have time with me though.'' Saying about made Adi go sort of cold on the inside because it reminded him that Benny would be working with Dragons too... and if Benny went away on world dragon tours, a certain Hufflepuff would be a sad Hiccup/Adi without Toothless/ Benny.

"Your dad is a CHEF?" That meant FOOD! "That's so cool, Henny! I'm surprised you haven't gotten fat with him around.'' Hehe. "What about your mom?" Manchester, huh? "Is that why you're such a fan of these guys?'' Adi indicated to the badge for BManchester United Henric had given him at the Start of term Feast. Yesh, Adi wore it proudly on his shirt, yo! "My dad's a muggle. He's a bank Manager and my mom works for the Daily Prophet. Pretty boring jobs for two cool persons, in my opinion.''

"You're welcome.'' Adi was so pleased that Henric liked receiving the cards. He laughed. "Right! But I hear it's a painful process so don't go around loosing any more joints.'' Cue the wink!

Clara noted that Brian didn't exactly seem ready, but who could blame him? Feeling fake emotions was odd, anyway, but even more so when you just a first year. She would not have been able to deal with it at that age, that's for sure.

"It'll be done with soon," she assured him and reached into her pocket to pull out the potions.

Did he want to just throw himself into the situation? Now? Yeah.

Brian nodded, inhaling deeply. Fake emotions just didn't seem right. Nope. Not to this Hufflepuff. He could see the concern in Clara's face and shook his head. He was ready, sort of. It was just weird. He'd asked her not to tell him what emotion it was, so that he wouldn't try to throw it off but he really did hope she remembered to force feed him the antidote.

"I sure hope so," he said, taking the vial and uncorking it. Raising it in a mock toast, he pinched his nose and downed the whole thing.

Almost immediately, he started bouncing around and talking fast enough that he wasn't even sure what he was saying. "Ithinkit'sworkingjustfine. Ifyoupickedexcitement, thatis. Didyoupickexcitement? It'saveryexhaustingemotion." It was actually really strange. He couldn't find any logical reason to be so wound up and excited, but it wasn't really stopping him. If he was any more excited, he'd probably turn into a puppy.

SPOILER!!: Brian

Quote:

Originally Posted by laurange

Brian nodded, inhaling deeply. Fake emotions just didn't seem right. Nope. Not to this Hufflepuff. He could see the concern in Clara's face and shook his head. He was ready, sort of. It was just weird. He'd asked her not to tell him what emotion it was, so that he wouldn't try to throw it off but he really did hope she remembered to force feed him the antidote.

"I sure hope so," he said, taking the vial and uncorking it. Raising it in a mock toast, he pinched his nose and downed the whole thing.

Almost immediately, he started bouncing around and talking fast enough that he wasn't even sure what he was saying. "Ithinkit'sworkingjustfine. Ifyoupickedexcitement, thatis. Didyoupickexcitement? It'saveryexhaustingemotion." It was actually really strange. He couldn't find any logical reason to be so wound up and excited, but it wasn't really stopping him. If he was any more excited, he'd probably turn into a puppy.

Clara decided that she would wait a few minutes after Brian had taken his potion before taking her own....so she was in the right head space to make sure he was okay. As soon as the effects of the excitement potion kicked in, it was clear she had brewed it correctly. Obviously, she was confident that she had brewed it properly before, but this just confirmed it. "That is what I chose," she confirmed, reaching her vial.

She unstoppered it.

"Here goes nothing."

Doing as he did, she pinched her nose and threw it all back at once.

......... Was it supposed to kic--

.... "Ugh, that tasted so horrible!" She exclaimed, glaring at the little badger, anger boiling in her veins. "How dare you brew something so disgusting?!" She was vaguely aware that she was being rude and it might upset him, but she was just ... so ..... angry.

Brian's eyes widened as she downed the potion. Wasn't he supposed to recover from his potion before she took hers? So that she could make sure he actually stopped being all excited? Well, at least she'd meant for him to be excited. Who knew, this could have been a side-effect of happy gone wrong. "Well, I'mgladitworked. AndthatIdidn'tblowup. Beingintactisveryniceyes." INHALE.

When did he get up?

"Oh, you'remad. I'mverysorrythatittastedbad. Butyou'remadandthat'sgreat! WONDERFUL, even!" Why was he bouncing? Why was he even excited about the fact that she was ANGRY? He should be running. Goodness knew that a seventh year Ravenclaw would know a lot of hexes. OH WOULD SHE TEACH HIM?! THAT WOULD BE SO COOL! AND HIS POTION WORKED! "Becausemypotionworked." Yes, that explained everything. AND it was even greater because he wasn't sure it would, since his potions skills weren't exactly the greatest but hey at least nobody asked him to transfigure her into anything. That wouldn't have gone very well.

*BEAM*

Clara narrowed her eyes at Brian. Why did she find everything he said irritating? "What do you mean you're glad it worked? Of course it was going to work. Do you think I'm an idiot who can't make a potion?" GOSH. "YEAH, YEAH, YEAH. It's great," she scowled, waving her hand in his face. She stood and begin stalking back and forth in the tree house.

MORE TALKING? Didn't this kid shut up?

"MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE IT TASTE BETTER THEN, HUH?"

"THAT'S GREAT?!"

Brian was happy and excited about the fact that was mad? That made sense because he'd had the excitement potion and she presumed that he'd given her the anger potion, but logic could not stop her from being so annoyed at his joy. Why did he had to make an anger potion anyway? Why couldn't he have brewed and happier potion?

............... Cue growling.

"No, Clara you don't understaaaaand!" Brian was flailing, almost tripping over himself in his haste to explain himself to the older Ravenclaw. "I wasn't referring to your inability to brew a potion, I mean you're a seventh year Ravenclaw. I have zero doubts about your potioneering ability. It's just that this was my second attempt at the potion. Culloden vanished mine about halfway in so the second time I decided to pay a lot more attention." Wow, that was a lot to say in one breath, especially with his hands everywhere trying to articulate points as he gushed.

"WELL, I would have probably tried to if I'd known that it tasted bad but I've read somewhere that adding sugar or honey to most potions renders them pretty close to useless. Especially for the Wolfsbane potion. We wouldn't want people taking the Wolfsbane potion finding that it didn't work, right? That would be really dangerous."

"It is simply wonderful! It's MARVELLOUS that you're mad because the potion is WORKING! See?" Brian beamed at her from what was probably not a very safe distance. Mmhmm, just let him skip along over to what would be significantly safer and near the door. There we go, she was less likely to kill him now. "I gave you an anger potion, because you know the others were significantly harder to brew. It's way easier to chuck feathers into a cauldron than to laugh loudly and sprinkle doghair in it. Really, I would have tried tenderness but it was dangerous because I don't really stay very still when I'm laughing and I might miss my cauldron entirely and accidentally fling it into someone else's or something."

WHOOSH. Brian was out of breath. Give him a second, he'd try to catch it. HEEEEERE, BREATH. HEEEEERE BREATHY BREATHY.

Some part of Clara knew that what he was saying fair enough, but a larger part of her was picking apart his arguments and, well, basically tossing them back in his face. It angered her even more when he claimed that she didn't understand. She was Clara Wilde, one of the smartest students at Hogwarts, and he was saying she didn't understand?! "YOU'D BETTER HAVE ZERO DOUBT. I could have brewed one to kill you if I wanted." Still hadn't ruled it out ....... The little part of her brain disagrees.

"You don't add SUGAR or HONEY to make it taste better, you idiot, that's in cooking." Wow. She was in the presence of an idiot. "Am I going to have to teach you everything there is to know about magic?!?!" Because she would if it meant she didn't have to listen to his incessant and incorrect babbling.

"IT. IS. NOT. WONDERFUL."

"It's certainly not marvellous," she spat, jabbing her finger in his direction. "Stop making excuses!" ...... "And stop talking so much, and bouncing, what is with the bouncing?!" Wasn't there a way to shut him up?

Clara racked her brain.

AHA. Antidote.