Olly wanted to take advantage of the grounds while it was still warm. It would be for a while, and it was the perfect time for him to head out to....the playground. Actually he had just been headed outside in general, without any real plan in mind. When he'd gotten out there, though, he made a split second decision and headed toward the playground. He hoped that someone he knew might wander by. Hopefully someone like Ellery or Noelle or Phillip.

The first place Olly went was to the monkey bars. He swung himself from one side to the other a couple of times. To be honest it was starting to hurt his hands. So instead he managed to hoist himself up so he was sitting on top of the monkey bars. There. Now he could pretend he was taller than everyone.

Oh yeah, Vivian just wanted to have capital FUN today. Guess she still had time to play since she didn't have classes for a couple of hours. On top of that, she had already explored most of the castle and yeah, got lost in the process too. But for today, she settled for the playground outside. She skipped and skipped until she reached the grounds. Ahhh, nice weather today. Not too sticky and not too dry either. She mentally commended herself for her great choice of destination today. However, she did kind of wish her sister were here to play with her.

Though Vivi kind of expected herself to be alone out today, she was wrong. Maybe there were other people who wanted to make the most out of such a beautiful weather. Vivi squinted at the boy who was up the monkey bars. Hmm, maybe it looked good up there? She needed to ask. "Hey, there! Hi! Hello!" the blonde waved her hands around for the boy to see, unless he was like... blind or deaf or something. "Is the view up there nice? May I join you?" Bounce bounce bounce.

What was that? A munchkin? Just kidding. Olly knew it was a regular sized human being. Well, fairly regular sized. Maybe a bit small. Probably a first year? Olly had not been paying enough attention to the sorting to remember if she had been part of it that year. There were always too many of them to remember all of them anyway.

She did look smaller than average from Olly's viewpoint. He felt like giant. "Halt!" He raised himself up dramatically and held out a hand. "This is my territory. You must ask permission before entering." He hoped she knew that he was just playing. He didn't want some tiny first year thinking he was actually mean.

Just as she had made sight of the swing sets, Juno started running head on towards them. As soon as she was within reach, she launched herself headfirst into a swing, landing on the seat with her tummy. She cackled as she swung almost upside down from the swing. She may be 14 but she still liked playing on the playground.

She continued to hang there while the swing moved back and forth, "C'mon Essy! We don't have all day!" She screamed back to her identical twin. She must look really funny hanging upside down in her school robes. Sometimes when you need a break from class, you need a break from class.

HALT? Whaaaat?

Vivi stepped backward and kept squinting at the boy. The sun was really getting into her eyes a little bit, even if it wasn't shining much. But you know... LIGHT hurts. Oh, ohh... permission? Vivi tilted her head. Didn't she ask permission before? Maybe the other boy didn't hear her. But... they seemed to be playing make-believe! She didn't mind!

"I'm sorry, gentle sir!" the eleven year old said with a curtsy. Maybe they were being dramatic? "May I please join you up there?" Was that good enough? Did good ole Sir hear it this time? Could she climb up nowww?

It could be hard to keep up with Juno when she was hellbent on something. Shaking her head, Esme watched as her sister ran towards the swings and launched herself on one. She could easily have followed suit, but she was not in the mood to run right now. Instead her sister would just have to wait for a little bit. Amused, she laughed. "You are so much like dad." It was rather funny at times.

"Having fun?" she asked as she took a seat on the next swing over. The blood was going to rush to Juno's head soon and Esme was enjoying using the swing the way it was meant to be used.

Steadily she rose higher and higher before launching herself off of the swing and into the air.

"WHEEEEEEE!"

Oh good she was playing along. That curtsy was a nice touch too. Olly grinned briefly before regaining his persona. "Come on up madam." Did she need some help? He laid down on top of the monkey bars and looked down through them. It hadn't been too hard for him to climb up, but he'd done it before. If she'd never climbed up on top of monkey bars before she might need some help. He watched just in case.

"May I ask the name of my lovely visitor?" He asked. "I am sir Oliver of Slytherin." He wished he had a costume or something.

Yay! So she finally got permission. "I am honoured!" Vivi curtsied one more time as a sign of respect to the older boy, since they were playing whatever this game was. It was fun, nevertheless! She slowly made her way up and maaaay have nearly slipped on one of those bars but that was okay. If she fell down, she was used to it. She reached the top after two attempts. Mhm, being small and tiny had its disadvantages apparently.

Aawwhh Merlin, did she forget to introduce herself too? "Oh, I apologise for my lack of manners, good sir. My name is Madam Vivian of..." PAUSE. Slytherin? Did he say SLYTHERIN? "Heeeey we're from the same house!" She slipped back to reality for a bit and beamed at the boy. That was soooo cool! Hello, house mate!

Olly stayed silent as he watched her attempts to climb up onto the monkey bars with him. She seemed to have trouble at first, but it didn't take her long to manage it. He smiled encouragingly as she joined him. He decided he liked her, even though he didn't know her yet. Obviously she was pretty cool if she had played along with his little game.

Oooh Slytherin too! "Are you a first year?" He asked, basically forgetting his play persona. Now he was excited to be meeting a new person, and one from his house. He figured she must be a first year, because he would definitely have seen her before if she had been at Hogwarts before. "I'm a third year," he added. Did she hear that. He was a teenager.

The view up here was incredibly splendid! Vivi took a moment to appreciate her surroundings and inhale the fresh air! Ahh yes, the air in the Dungeons was sort of water-y and salty. Suppose the scent came from the Black Lake, since their common room was located down there. "It looks great up here,"" Vivi said to the boy. "Don't you think so, Sir Oliver?" Also, great weather out too.

"Well, obviously I am!" She was tiny, really. It was just so evident. "You're older! And... does that mean WISER too?" She'd have to know stuff from him, since he was more mature than she was. He was a teenage too, because like... third year... thirteen years old. Yep. That also meant Vivi had someone to pester with her endless firstie questions! Yay? Yay!

"I do! You can see for miles." Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. But he could see pretty far up there. Across the grounds for sure. He could see some people down by the lake, some birds flying around the whomping willow. Unfortunately he couldn't see into the Forbidden Forest - the trees were too thick. There would probably be lots of interesting things happening in there.

Wiser? "...Yes." She didn't know him. He could pretend to be wise. It wasn't like she would even know if he was wrong anyway. He probably knew more than her. Was she going to ask him questions, though? He wasn't sure he was prepared for that.

Vivi sort of wiggled a bit to see if she would be comfortable up here. She decided to sit on one of the bars, her short legs dangling on the space between them. She was very light for sure so they wouldn't really break through, right? "I'd stay up here aaaall day, but you know... attending classes was a thing, sadly," she said and pouted a wee bit. "Do you come up here often, Sir Oliver?"

Ah, wiser indeed! The older boy got a beam from the tiny eleven year old. "Well, then. Since I am just a new maiden here in this enormous castle, what has it been like here in this wonderful Kingdom of Hogwarts for the past few years?" Wiser meant more knowledge and experience, right? Besides, he'd been here for the past two years anyway. Vivian was all ears.

She had a point there. This definitely beat going to class. But he wasn't sure he'd be able to stay up there for too long. It was already starting to hurt a little bit. Those metals bars were not exactly the most comfortable thing to sit on. Olly adjusted his position so he was sitting on the edge, allowing his legs to swing. He liked that she kept calling him sir. It was fun. "I've been up here once or twice. I don't usually stick to one location. I like to mix it up and move around." There wasn't one place he liked best. He liked to wander the grounds.

Olly had to think about her question. She wanted a wise answer worthy of a thirteen year old such as himself. Not something like 'you don't get lost as much after you've been here for a while.' "You will love your time here in Kingdom Hogwarts, Lady Vivian. It's so huge you never run out of things to do. There are new discoveries to make every day." Was he sounding smart? "Sometimes it's weird, though. Strange things can happen. Like hags who want to eat kids. But the professors will keep you safe," he added quickly.

Vivi nodded at Sir Oliver answer her question. Well, it was something she would do too. She easily got bored when things were no longer exciting to see. Though this view would be perfect for looking at the Black Lake. She might even see Mr. Barty the Giant Squid wave a tentacle or two. "Where else do you suggest I can visit?" She had to know the good places here since this was going to be her home until she was seventeen. Might as well know a couple of things earlier on, right? "Sorry for the questions." Firstie probs.

Ah, well, Vivi was expecting to have a splendid time her anyway. Her parents definitely had a blast when they were students here. "Oooohh, sounds good!" the first year beamed and stuff. Yay for new discoveries! But... whaaat? Hags? Vivi blinked. "Hags, as in those ugly creepy looking witches hags? Ewwww, what was it doing here?" Hogwarts actually welcomed those stuff here? Not that she would complain much but... really? A dangerous hag, to point it out.

"Everywhere," he said. Was that a good suggestion? Or was it too vague? "I love to swim in the lake and just sit by the shore. The whomping willow is cool but don't try to climb it. Be sure to check out the kitchen, it's close to our common room and you can make whatever you want or ask the house elves for some food. There are some locations that change each year or depending on the professors. What do you like to do?" Where she went to hang out would, of course, depend on what she liked to do.

Oh, she was asking about the hag. That made sense. It certainly wasn't a normal thing. "Just for a bit last year," he reassured her. No hags this year. At least, he hoped she never came back. Where had she gone anyway? "I'm not really sure. I think she was going to teach divination. But then she tried to eat someone and the professors chased her off."

HATS! Rooney was trying out hats and today he had a flat cap on the top of his head -- NEWSIES STYLE! Ayyyy. He loved anything Newsies. Wanted to star in it one day. Wanted to be known for it. WANTED TO LIVE IT. Actually, he had been on the grounds for about an hour now practicing his jumps in preparation for an audition one day. Maybe he could intern backstage one day! UGH. He'd want to be on the stage so badly...

But the day was getting on and he wanted to test out his breathing for singing and dancing at the same time. He KNEW it was excellent, but it was never the wrong time to test it out.

ON THE SWINGS!

AYYYYYYYYYY!

Higher and higher and hIIIIIGHERRR. You needed an excellent height to project from.

Well.. that was quite an answer. Pretty sure Vivi had already figured out that everywhere was a great place to be. But you know, she was kinda hoping for a respond that showed the BEST place to be. Kinda like a stress reliever from all the stupid lessons and homework. Merlin, she thought first year was free and easy. "The whomping willow is that big tree that likes to whack people right?" It sounded really cool, not even scary, but she wasn't going to risk her life trying to chase those branches. "I like... eating marshmallows, and skipping around, and... talking? My daddy said there were talking portraits here! Is that true?"

Last year? A hag? Good Merlin at least she was around. "Is there a chance she's coming back THIS term though?" It was just a recent event, to be honest. But she really hoped she didn't have to face the hag anytime soon. She would've... cried. Meh. "So they actually allowed a hag to teach Divination?" Really, though? Crazy staff!

He nodded at her question about the whomping willow. If she had spent any time at all he was sure she had seen it. It was pretty huge. And most other trees didn't move so much. He considered her interests. "There are portraits all over. Some of them like having people to talk to." Others could be grumpy, but maybe they just didn't like him. "There's a big fireplace in the kitchen. You could probably roast marshmallows over that."

"Anything could happen," Olly said ominously, but he grinned so she knew he was mostly kidding. He didn't want to scare her or anything. "She...didn't really teach. There was only the one lesson but then she tried to eat someone and didn't come back to teach any more after that."

Juno continued to swing upside down, grinning from ear to ear. She was definitely her fathers child. She was just like him in basically every way possible. She giggled, "I know." Though she did have more variety in her boots than he did.

Juno could feel the blood slowly rushing to her head, "Always!" She called out with a giggle to her sister. Then the rushing noise in her ears started to get louder, so she knew it was time to properly swing. As
she was getting up she got a little dizzy, but ggigled some more are her sister flew super high off the swing.

"Awesome jump, Essy!" She sat back on the swing and started pumping her legs super hard...she could jump farther.

THERE WAS A PARRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Landon was BOUNCING his way towards the equipment, the cushion charm on the ground making it easier to bounce. He made a beeline for the jungle gym. he need to climb and work up his upper body strength. The girls were not going to be impressed with his whimpy arms he's working with now.

Grabbing onto a bar he pulled his lanky self up, well as best as he could before he had to swing his legs around and pulled himself up. He needed a break, he sat up and took deep breaths as his looked at his arms, did he have MUSCLE yet!?

Hattie was loving being at hogwarts. It was amazing, and she loved the grounds the most. She was going to explore more today and she beamed as she headed down to the playground. She had seen that before, but hadn't really looked at it yet. So today she really wanted to go down there. She loved playgrounds, and she wanted to see how awesome it was.

Ooh. Someone else was there. She looked up at him, as she wandered over to him. "HIII" She murmured a big smile on her face. "Isn't this playground Great?"

"WHOA!" Sudden voices gave him a fright and he swung himself upside down on the bars he was climbing to look at. "Oh, Well, Hello there Stranger!" Not just any stranger but a GIRL stranger!!! Someone Call the papers, this was a big deal!!!! "I think im a fan of it actually." it would definitely raise his muscles up for sure. "trying to gain some muscle." this was only day 1, dont look at his arms!

"Oh merlin's beard! I didn't mean to scare you" but at least he hadn't fallen from the bar because that would have been really bad. "Oh. Hello." She murmured with a smile. "but I'm Hattie. Not a stranger" Or at least she wasn't a stranger now he knew her name. Which was very good indeed. "Oh?" She mused, looking at him. "I hope you get lots of muscle then!"

"It's quite alright.. i think im scared easily to be frank." he shrugged his best shrug he could muster upside down. "You're Hattie.. and I'm Landon... Not London.. that's a city, i'm a boy.. err.. man." yes! he was a Manly man!

Yeah! Lots of muscle! "Me dad says if i do lots of lifts it'll grow in no time. turns out im heavier to lift than i thought." silly poppa never really knew what was going on.