The Courtyard
 

https://i.postimg.cc/fLwsJFm4/thecourtyard.jpg

The Courtyard is where many students spend their time between lessons if they're not in their Common Room or in the Great Hall. Its architecture, including watchful gargoyle parapets and real Gothic arches, reveals the Courtyard to be one of the oldest parts of Hogwarts, connecting the castle with the grounds and also leading to the wooden bridge over the ravine. In between lessons, the courtyard is usually filled with students enjoying some sun or gathering around the pear tree before heading back into the castle. Whether you choose to occupy one of the many stone benches or play gobstones on the cobblestone ground, the courtyard is the perfect place to relax with your friends from all houses.

In the middle of the courtyard is an antique ceramic fountain flanked by eagles, perfect for admiring your own reflection or making wishes. Beware though: once your coin has been tossed into the water, you may never get it back as it will continue to magically sink out of dight. Do try not to fall into the fountain, as the staff does not fancy a swim to fetch little students.

A new addition to the courtyard as of 2104 is a bronze plaque hanging on a suspiciously, perhaps not high-quality, restored pillar. The plaque reads:

Quote:

This marks the location of the duel to the death between the Neo-Alliance leader, Lucien Rosier, and the British Minister for Magic, Charles Hollingberry, which resulted in Rosier's death. Long Live Hollingberry! May 10, 2104.

Don't mind me, crashing~
 

She had to admit, it was a little weird being able to so freely walk the grounds again. After being locked up so long, then most of the castle gone home when she was finally released, Emm had grown unaccustomed to seeing so many people around at any given more.

While the Third Year was still on the fence about how she felt about that, she had to admit, it was nice seeing her friends out without worrying about the hoodie squad scooping in to make their day miserable.

"Hey, Adam." She came to a stop by the pair, her toy dragon in toy. Now that he'd learned to fly, it was all he seemed to want to do. "Ivy." It took her a moment to notice the new shiny by the fountain, and another silent moment of reading it. "Wild, isn't it? This is where he took half of us and locked us up...and then he fell here, too." There was some sort of poetic justice in what happened to Rosier. He certainly deserved it.

He was right, Ivy supposed, and so she nodded. "He does, yeah." It was a nice way to memorialize the final victory that had been won here by the Minister that day. How they had all finally been freed.

And yet still she felt... Well, all of her feelings were all mixed up and conflicting with each other, and she couldn't pinpoint why. And she wasn't sure she even wanted to know why. Delving into all of that would mean dredging up those memories, and Ivy wanted noooo part of that. Ignoring it was going just fine so far, yep. So pushing all of that aside...

But before she could run with the opportunity Adam had given for a change of subject, Emmerson had also arrived with her flying dragon toy to take note of the plaque. "Yeah...weird to think about." The juxtaposition of the two events...was a lot.

And so she turned her attention to the toy creature. "Cool dragon."

Can I barely keep up with posts? Yes. But do I need some Quinn fluff? Direly. Open!
 

Quinn was all bundled up in an oversized wool sweater as he sat on a bench in the courtyard, studying up on History of Magic. He thought that the autumn chill would help to keep him focused on his work, but the sweater was kind of counteracting that. He was dead tired today: most of Quinn's time recently was spent worrying. And that was not good news for his schoolwork, which there was an abundance of. The night before Quinn had stayed up late doing a paper for Muggle Studies, practicing for Charms, memorizing ingredients for Potions and writing up observations for Astronomy. And today he still had to do predictions for Divination, readings for History of Magic and another paper for Ancient Runes. All of this while thinking about everything that was going belly-up in his personal life. The heavy bags under his eyes were good indicators of how tiring this all was for him.

Elbows rested on knees, Quinn propped his head up with one hand and his textbook with his other. His heavy eyelids blinked slowly as he read the same sentences over and over to try and retain the information. Soon his eyes closed without him realizing it and he drifted off, slowly leaning forward, threatening to drop off of the bench entirely.

Autumn was in the air and Ingrid Luck was all wrapped up in her winter coat, not because she found the weather at Hogwarts out of the norm in anyway, being from Scotland herself. It was simply, a really cosy coat and being outside for too long, no matter who you had close to you, simply got cold after a while. Mind wandering slightly to her summer and the times she’d spend wandering through Edinburgh with friends, ordering food and laughing, it was safe to say that she wasn’t exactly paying attention to where she was going but the route was so familiar to her at this point that she wasn’t worried. And if it weren’t for someone who looked like he’d fallen asleep in a very precarious position on a bench, Ingrid would have happily wandered into the grounds but seeing something so out of the norm, even by Hogwarts standards, had made her take note and come out of her stupor.

Walking over to the boy who she somewhat recognised from her previous year at Hogwarts and because he was in fact in her house, she pulled out her wand (because you could never be too cautious) and lightly poked him in the face to see if he’d been charmed or simply fallen asleep. Judging from his and the massive bags under them, it seemed that it was most likely the latter. “Errr…hello? Wakey wakey. You’ve fallen asleep outside Quinn”, a small smile across her face now as she smiled down at the figure who was practically kissing the floor he’d leaned so far forward. Shaking her head and laughing, the third year Ravenclaw slipped her wand away and tried to shake him a little a little and wake him up.

Oh, the joys of being responsible. She knew that Adam would most likely play a prank on the boy but she was far too nice for her own good and not really the practical jokes.

"Hm..?" Quinn grunted groggily as he was roused from his slumber. As the world came into focus he realized he was looking down at the ground, which gave him a start. He flinched and sat up straight. "Wha—? O-oh, um..." Now he was looking at Ingrid. His brain was still a bit foggy as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. "Hey, Ingrid. Um. Thanks for, y'know..." big yawn, "...not letting me face plant." Quinn looked at his book and put it down for the time being, sighing. "I came out specifically so I wouldn't fall asleep... but I guess that was unsuccessful." He rested his chin on his head, pouting. "Maybe a slap from the Whomping Willow would keep me up..." A joke, of course, but not exactly delivered as one. Too tired to laugh.

The smile on her lips was a mixture of both playfully amused and worried because it was not normal for a second-year student to be this tired so early into the term. Sure, when exams were just around the corner, she understood but not right now. “Hey there sleepy head. Have a good nap?” she teased as he began to sit up again now. “It’s fine honestly. You’re lucky it was me and not my twin or you’d be waking up to toads jumping around you or something”. He really was the oddest twin sometimes.

“Why are you trying to stay awake anyway? Maybe you should be sleeping or like, taking a nap?”. He seemed so zonked that it was almost stupid to stay awake at this point. What book could be so important that he had to stay away? Briefly, she peered down at the book before turning back to him. “I mean, I can’t slap as hard as the Whomping Willow but I’ll slap you if you want?” her tone neutral and serious. If only the not-so-subtle smile across her face hadn’t given it away. “You could always see if some of the older students could slip you some invigoration draught? That’ll give you an energy boost”. She’d have honestly considered doing it herself but she’d never actually made one and it was a fifth-year potion, not that she hadn’t already read about how to make it in one of her older siblings textbooks however.

Quinn chuckled a bit at her jest—it actually was a fairly bad nap, in terms of naps. And then his mind turned to Adam—someone he didn't know well, but well enough from seeing him in classes. And, yes, he could imagine the catastrophe that would be if Adam had found poor defenseless Quinn sleeping on a bench. Quinn grimaced at the thought. "Ugh, yeah, that.... would have been very unfortunate," another big yawn.

He sighed, rubbing his eyes again. "I just... have a lot of work. It wouldn't be a lot if I had just... paced it out better but...." I feel like everything is happening all at once and I barely have time to focus on my work because my thoughts are consumed with how I'm ever going to sort out what's happening with everyone else and what's happening with myself "...I just didn't." For a moment he was taking Ingrid seriously, and he was seriously thinking about if a slap would wake him up, but he shook the thought from his head once he noticed she was smiling. He laughed a bit again. "No, I'm alright, but thanks for the offer." Quinn thought for a moment about getting an invigoration draught, but then... "Uh, well... I actually don't know very many older students that well. Like.... I know Avalon to see, and I talk to Claudine and Bernie a bit, but... I would feel weird asking them to make me something..." A lot of the older students intimidated Quinn, anyway. Anyone over third year generally made him nervous, either simply because they were older, or because they seemed like they wouldn't be bothered with him, or they were really good-looking and it gave him butterflies.... he hated butterflies. But he nonetheless wanted to get to know some of them better, and he wasn't exactly sure why, he just thought that it would be cool to have older friends.

Ollie~
 

The courtyard had been one of the few places at Hogwarts that Daniel loved to spend his time at. It didn't top the library but it was a close second. It was a simple place really where he went to read a book while seated at the edge of the fountain.

Today was a day like that, despite it getting colder outside Daniel had taken a seat on one of the stone benches in the right corner of the courtyard. He had been reading a new novel for the past twenty minutes when he had to take a short break.

He placed his book beside him on the stone bench and leaned his back against the wall behind him as his dark brown eyes found the pillar with the plaque on it. He had read it before so he stayed seated but wasn't it surreal that he was sitting here reading a book when a grand duel had taken place here? He let out a sigh, hoping to witness a duel like that one day. Maybe he'd be the one duelling?! That be so epic!

Ollie made her way over to the courtyard. She brought Pepper, her cat, with her again, figuring that she needed some fresh air too. No cat likes being cooped up in a dorm for weeks on end. She also had her notebook with her, the notebook that had a hand drawn map of the school. She planned on sitting by the fountain to study and decorate the map a bit. Ollie knew the school better than she had before, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to study her map a bit more.

"Okay Pepper, go find some bugs to hunt down." She nodded to her cat as she sat down on a bench next to a boy. Was he going to move? Was this seat taken? She should ask. "Is someone sitting here?" She pointed to the seat she was already sitting in. He looked familiar, but Ollie didn't think they had ever talked before."I can move if someone is." That was polite right? To offer to move from someone's spot. Well she wasn't even sure someone was actually sitting here.

Smiling a little because Quinn clearly knew her brother and how much of an annoying little something. In all honestly, she knew she could be exactly the same too so she was never too harsh on her twin but her little pranks were always few and far between. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he’s busy running or something at this time” if that was what he still spent his mornings doing these days.

Sighing, she shook her head sarcastically. “Sounds like someone needs one of those homework planners that remind you to do your homework and shout insults at you,” not that she’d ever needed one but she’d heard good things about them. “Is there any reason why you didn’t space it out a little better?” her eyes watching him carefully now just to see if there was some other reason other than the usual “I can’t be bothered” or “I’ll do it tomorrow” excuse that people usually use.

“Your loss then” she replied shrugging now as if she would have actually done it. The truth was, after last year, she hated violence and the idea of doing something like that to another pupil kind of scared her, even if it wouldn’t actually hurt all that much. Nodding because she knew exactly what he mean, she continued “Yeah, I know what you mean. I had my brothers and sisters who were older than me so I could always ask them. I would offer to help you too but I don’t think I could honestly make one. Not right away anyway. It would take a lot of guessing and most likely a fair bit of trial and error and then I’d need a guinea pig and there would obviously be risks with things going wrong and potential trips to the hospital wing and…” but her voice began to trail off as her thoughts turned from her the verbal to non-verbal. She did that sometimes. Just spewed her thoughts out without thinking. Some people internalised their thoughts but not her. Not for the most part anyway.

“If you need one though, you should maybe ask one. Branch out a little. Make new friends” kind of like she sort of was now with him, for example. Smiling now, she put one hand on his shoulder as she made to get up. “Are you sure you’re okay now Quinn? You really do like awfully tired” her voice full of genuine concern for the second year.

Daniel had been lost in his daydream of epic battle when he was taken out of it as one of the Slytherin first years appeared in front of him. He looked down at the cat and wondered where his black cat even was. He wasn't worried though, ever since he had bought the cat in Diagon Alley the animal had been roaming around and only coming back now and then. It was perfectly capable to be alone.

He did not say anything as the girl sat down on the bench next to him. The bench wasn't only for him after all and he knew how to share. Her question made him turn his head to look at her though and he wanted to comment on it that she was seated there but decided not to in the end. "No" he said. "I was alone until you showed up" he had seen her during classes but never really interacted with her. "You're a first-year like me, right?"

Ollie did not wait for the boy to respond before opening her notebook and reading her pencil. The full map of the school hade taken almost the whole time she had been there and it still wasn't truly complete since she had never been to off-limit parts of the castle. Nevertheless, She was happy with her map. She decided to flip to the courtyard's page and she started sketching out a rough copy of the fountain in front of her.

She looked back to the boy and frowned at his answer. That was.... kinda rude. Obviously she didn't mean to intrude on the boy but she didn't think she was that much of a bother. "Well, if you'd like to be alone, I'm happy to move." She returned her attention to her drawing. She looked back up at him as he asked her if she was a first year. He did look familiar, but Ollie was terrible at remembering names. "Yes, I'm Ollie." She didn't offer him a hand as she normally would've, instead she looked back at her drawing once more and started at it again.

open to any and all~
 

Ash was regretting all her life decisions. As usual. So she was on a walk(skipping breakfast- oops), in hopes that she'd be happier and less tired when she went outside. It was clearly not working. The universe had decided that she should run into Upstead. Stupid universe. It backfired tho... she was too tired to bother caring. Ha. What was Upstead doing anyway??? Were they getting rid of the Rosier sign? Good. That guy didn't deserve a sign. There were a lot of dead people who deserved signs. Like Kitridge. Rosier was not one of them. But it was unlikely that Upstead was thinking the same things as she was. "Why?" She came to a stop behind them and curiously watched them. Why were they getting rid of the evil guy sign? She was mostly just curious and too tired to protest. If the sign was gone, the sign was gone. She wasn't gonna tell anyone.

She'd gotten a late start to her pre-breakfast run today, so Mamie was a bit in a rush to get back inside and get some food into her belly. She jogged into the courtyard, slightly sweaty and incredibly hungry.

Wait, was that...Ash? She veered toward her former friend, adjusting her glasses nervously. Wait, Upstead too? What were they doing? Had...had Ash given up friendship with Mamie for friendship with Nemesis, who Ash famously disliked and blamed for the whole...mirror ordeal?

"Good morning!" she said, stepping closer to sate her curiosity. Chipper from the exercise, if a bit hangry. "Lovely weather!"

A book tucked snugly under her right arm, Lisa walked out of the castle doors and into the courtyard. She hadn’t felt like eating this morning when she saw the bread. It made her feel sick to her stomach just thinking about it so she opted to skip breakfast. Instead, she’d utilize this time before classes to do more research on how to get into the Restricted section of the Library.

Her goal was to end up at the Treehouse (her sanctuary) but a smaller group caught her attention. Nem, Ash, and Margaret were three that she would not think of hanging out together outside of classes and THIS intrigued her. “Hi!” she said with a wave and was going to continue on her way when curiosity got the better of her. What were they doing exactly?

She looked at the older students before her gaze went to the plaque. “What’s… that?” she asked. Her mind was still overloaded with processing the information from a previous HoM lesson.

”well I wanna take it down too, but why do-“ Was that Mamie??? Wow. The universe really did want her to be unhappy forever. Upstead, Mamie... And now Lisa was here and she couldn’t show emotion for fear of ruining her happiness. “Hey Lisa.” Lisa was the only person here worth greeting. Ash raised her eyebrow at Mamie, then turned away . “Sure. The weather is fine. Whatever.” She looked at the pillar, now missing a plaque. “What are you gonna do with it, Upstead? Melt it? Hang it on your wall? Bury it? Put it in the headmaster’s office as a prank?” The possibilities were endless.

Upstead, Mamie, Ash, and Lisa. What a great group. But like, sarcastically.

“Hope the pillar doesn’t fall and kill us all.”

Ha Ha.

Lisa gave the older students a small smile and greeted them in return. Her smile dropped when Nem mentioned what the plaque was about and a sudden chill crawled up her arms. She shivered, folding her arms across her chest. “Rosier… I read about that guy,” she said almost in a whisper as if saying his name could conjure him to their precise location.

The suggestions that Ash were throwing around were rather perplexing. She did like the sound of pranking people but… the Headmaster? :yikes: She’d pass on that one.

Lisa just stood there, becoming more and more confused by the second. The icing on the cake was certainly the comment about the pillar killing them. “Why? It looks fairly… stuck in place?” she offered having ZERO idea of the details surrounding how Rosier’s demise actually ended. She just heard that he had gotten… got for lack of a better word.

There was also this REALLY weird tension thing going on between Ash and Margaret. It made her feel really uncomfortable to see the two practically ignoring each other after they had been so chummy before. Was this what she had to look forward to as a teenager? Broken friendships and awkward tension? She started hoping that the Peter Plan play actually DID have some fairy dust in it so she could go to Neverland and NEVER AGE past 12.

Her idea was absolutely dramatic.

She glanced down at her book and then to Mamie. “It’s a book on sleeping potions for research….”

A different person would have questioned Upstead more about the plaque. But Ash was happy to get rid of it, and would be extra happy if Upstead AND Mamie left and never came back. “I wanna make my own plaque like that. And then melt it. That would be cathartic.” That was all she really had to say, and she would have left... but Lisa said something interesting. “One of my ‘friends’ put a sleeping potion in my food a while back. They probably just wanted me to get a full nights sleep, but I didn’t appreciate that and when I find out who did it, I’m going to-” Huh. She’d lost her train of thought. Something was hovering on the edge of her perception, but she couldn’t quite grasp it. “Remember that, Mamie? I think I told you about it. She completely ignored the girl’s disapproving look. Mamie disapproved or everything she did. She probably disapproved of her existence. Instead, Ash found a lemon candy and ate it. “Sounds like a cool book, Lisa.” She might read it, in the hopes of finding a clue.

This first year was also curious if Nem could just pocket the plaque and bolt. What was so important about that plaque anyway?!? Lisa turned her attention to Ash, figuring that Nem had a reason for taking the plaque and perhaps wouldn’t understand it. Someone slipped a potion into Ash’s food? “Are you okay?” she asked, concerned about that whole ordeal. It seemed like it still weighed quite heavily on Ash and then Ash became quiet, leading Lisa confused. Mamie’s reaction didn’t give her much either. Wait. Did …. Did Mamie slip the potion into Ash’s food? WOAH. Her mind just was blown a little. She’d never expected Mamie to do that!

… but then again maybe her mind was overreacting.

Lisa have Ash a smile before turning her gaze to Margaret/Mamie and nodded. “I am! It’s not actual homework. It’s self assigned and it’ll help me later on,,” she beamed. She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “The more I brew the potion, the more of an expert I will be, yes?” Lisa was smart, yes. Buuuuut she worked her butt off.

“Stealing? Maaaybe borrowing?” she asked, trying to help Nem out. Not that they needed it. Nem seemed fully capable of handling themselves.

"Oh it's definitely stealing. But I don't really care. We're all watching Upstead steal that plaque. And? It's the Hogwarts courtyard, not the Rosier's dumb face courtyard. I'd be happy to see his name gone." Ash shrugged. "There are worse things than stealing anyway." Like putting people in a mirror. Or torturing people. Or putting sleeping potions in other people's food.

Her gaze moved from Upstead to Mamie. "Sure you don't remember."Her voice was slightly cold. Didn't remember? It was just like her to forget... but Ash thought Mamie was lying to her. Maybe it was Mamie who tricked her. Probably not, right? Mamie didn't know how to make those. She was probably just ignoring Ash's feelings again. Still... something stirred at the edges of her mind. Cookies... special ingredient... hot chocolate... What did that mean? She couldn't put the pieces together right. It was annoying. She let it go for now and looked over at Lisa. "I'm fine." It was a bit of a stretch, but Ash was never fine. Sleeping potions didn't cause much of that. "But I'm not gonna let it go." Because, uhhh... she kept grudges forever. She was never gonna like Cambridge, or Upstead, or Mamie.

Speaking of Upstead, why were they acting so nice all of a sudden? Ash eyed them suspiciously. She wasn't Kinsay James. She wasn't Mamie Turov. Had she ever had a positive interaction with Nem Upstead? Not really. She didn't answer their question aloud, but she shook her head almost imperceptibly, possibly subconsciously. She crossed her arms too. Body language didn't lie. She didn't want to be Mamie's friend. She'd burned that bridge in self-defense. Their relationship didn't need fixing. They just needed to stay away from each other until the day they both died.

Oh. Lisa hadn’t expected Nemesis to just outright say they were stealing it. “Why?” she asked, titling her head to the side as she looked up at them. However the why was almost answered when Ash mentioned the crazy cult scary guy from last term. “Oh. That guy…” She still refused to say his name outloud. People like that didn’t deserve to be called a name.

Her eyes did flick back and forth between Mamie and Ash. It felt very much like a tennis match where she and Nem were the spectators of the match. It was tense. “Suuure…” she nodded before fidgeting.

It was really awkward especially when Mamie crossed her arms. Lisa didn’t like it.

She let the silence fall. “Could cut it with a knife…. Is that the right phrase?” she turned to look at Nem to confirm.

For Daniel!
 

Dahlia needed some fresh air and whatever sunshine she could soak up this afternoon. There was still a couple of weeks left before the school year was over. It was nearly summer time! Eight weeks of being at home with her family. No professors or schoolwork. Just lots of time to be herself and have fun.

Finding a bench near the fountain that was empty, Lia sat down placing her bag at her feet. Sir Frederik Puffington the Pink Pygmy hopped down from her shoulder to sit beside her. Reaching down into her bag she pulled out of her special box of paracord, might as well work on another bracelet while enjoying being outside.

It didn't take very long for her to lose herself in her bracelet making.

With a book pressed against his chest, Daniel had decided that for today he would do some reading outside instead of in the library or in the Hufflepuff Common Room.

Arriving at the Courtyard, the first year looked around for a place to sit but finding that the benches were already being occupied by other students he was about to leave when something caught his attention. A pink Pygmy Puff hopping down from a girl's shoulder to be exact.

Moving closer, Daniel watched the girl take out some sort of cord from her bag and when he saw that she was making a bracelet he raised his eyebrows. "Wouldn't that go faster if you use magic?"

Sir Frederik Puffington was about to take himself a nice long nap beside his human. There was some bouncing and wiggling and squirming around as he made his fluff ball self all snuggly cozy up against Lia's side where it was safe and warm. That was at least until he saw someone walking towards them, someone new, someone who would pay attention to him, yes? His attention was on this boy as he puffed himself up and squeaked to get his attention. Hi, hello there.. lookit me!

Lia on the other hand had didn't stop what she was doing at all, continuing to work the bracelet. "It would but that wouldn't make it as personal. Plus where's the fun in that?" She could make tons of bracelets in the time it took to make just one by hand if she used magic. That would be taking the easy way out though and each bracelet she made was different. Different colors, patterns, lengths and even the clasps or strings that held or tied them closed. "Plus I enjoy making them." It was calming.. mostly.

Finally glancing up from what she was doing, she noticed the book he was holding against his chest. "Whatcha reading?" It didn't look like a textbook or anything for a lesson.

His dark eyes followed the movements of the Pygmy Puff next to the year older Ravenclaw, seeing it puff itself up and squeaking loudly to get his attention. With his arms still clutching his book against his chest, the Hufflepuff waved his pinky and ring finger at the creature before turning his head to look at the girl.

"I think that using magic is far more fun than doing tasks with my hands" he said as he cocked his head slightly to the side. They were at a magical school to learn magic so he didn't understand why some people would do things the muggle way. It was slow and time-consuming. "You could have made ten bracelets in the time that we spoke" He watched as she continued to make them before he raised his eyebrows at her comment. Did she enjoy making them? "Ok, everyone has their preferences I guess" he shrugged. "Do you know Lisa Nam? I'm pretty sure she wants to start a business to sell stuff you two should combine forces" before looking down at the book in his arms. "Just a crime novel I was reading" he nodded to the Pygmy Puff. What is that?" and why was it so cute?

Why was this human boy not petting him? Not holding him and cuddling him? Everyone that saw him, loved him! Did this child not know this? Usually by now there were squeals of delight and gasps of how adorable he was, then he was being given all of the love and affection. All he was getting was a finger wave thing? What even was that?! Sir Frederik bounced to the edge of the bench closer to the boy, big eyes staring up at him. Pet me! You know that you want to!

"Mm, I'm not saying that you're wrong in some cases." Depending on what the task was, she would readily agree with him. Lots of things were much more fun with the use of magic. "I could have but I've always made them by hand. It's more personal this way." If the bracelet was created by hand it showed that not only thought was put into it but time and effort as well. A warm smile tugged at her lips at the mention of her fellow Ravenclaw. "I do. We're friends and in the same house." Huh? Lisa was starting a business? This was news to her. "She is? Do you know what she's selling?" Consider her interested.

"Is it any good?" Lia smiled. She was always looking for new books to read. Blue eyes swung towards her bestest fluffy companion in the entire world that was all her very own. "Sir Frederik Puffington is a Pygmy Puff." Dahlia reached over and gently scooped up the fluff ball, giving him a cuddle. "He's simply amazing." Anyone could see that he was.