'In the Meantime...Something for Fun' Cont..

[Thomas]

Erin remembered herself "Right.. Olli, yeah of course" She hurriedly helped shove the posts into the jumper, but the thoughts still burned on in her mind... "what was he up to... he looks tired" she thought, as he busied himself with putting the jumper right she started to smile... "Tasha will know what's going on... she's the only girl to ask".

[Nicci]

Placing his palm outstretched at a very low height over one of the brooms, Tristan commanded it to rise and waited patiently for Erin to copy his actions on the other side.
Returning to his position at Olli’s feet, he screwed up the corner of the jumper enough to grip tightly in his fist and braced himself ready to pull once Erin was in position. Contemplating the need for every ounce of team work, he glanced over at the young woman bustling about in the rain. He’d have to watch her closely for any signs that she might be struggling during the haul, in the worst case scenario he’d have to forcibly take over.. There was no way he was going to let her get unnecessarily hurt.

[Nicci]

Out enjoying the sunshine in the break between the morning’s lessons, Juliet rested her back against the trunk of a tree, surrounded on her right side by two small piles of books specifically on aquatic habitats of well known magical creatures.
With a coil of parchment resting on her folded knees, she glanced up occasionally up at the cluster of Gryffindor students standing talking, close to the castle walls. Sighing, she dropped her head down and scribbled a faint outline of a facial profile on her page as a distracting doodle.

Jolting back to reality as she felt a heavy thud knock into her left shoulder, Juliet suddenly found herself being half smothered by Lance trying to lean across to see what she’d been drawing.
“Oh at least if you squint at mine and turn it 180 degrees you could roughly believe it was supposed to be a Hippocampi..” Lance announced still leaning into her vision and twisting his loose leaf of parchment out in front of them both with his left hand. “See..tail, mane. Of course it would have been easier to visualise a mermaid...but you on the other hand are just drawing... Seth.”

Blushing at the thought that she’d been figured out, Juliet gently pushed Lance back upright with her elbow and pencilled in the heavier details of the face on her page. Not being able to control her smile, she finished darkening the pupils of the eyes and rose to stare back at the Gryffindor group again. It didn’t start out as intending to be Seth, it just had those pronounced high cheek bones and the long, soft, messy hair style of a face she’d grown to love over the years.

“Just go and talk to them then...” Lance spoke in a sullen tone, having turned back to his own assignment. “I didn’t ask for you help for once on our magical creatures assignment this time...I’m not making you stay”

Briefly shocked at the suggestion, Juliet put down her roll of parchment and graphite stick and shuffled closer to Lance beside her.
“As much as I want to see Seth, I don’t want to see Peter..” she began whilst stealing his graphite stick out of his right hand and adjusting the proportions of the tail on his supposable mythical beast drawing.

Twitching, Lance furrowed his eyebrows but remained silent watching her draw on his work. Questions quickly began to form on the tip of his tongue: Why Peter? What had he done? Wasn’t he everyone’s ideal friend?.
“Peter?...” he muttered surprised and slightly unsure if he had heard correctly “But...”

“You have great proportions...on the horse’s face” Juliet interrupted without making eye contact “That’s usually the difficult bit..It’s like you’ve really studied them. Maybe I’m finally starting to rub off on somebody...”

“I had a horse..at least till a few summers ago” he added before realising that Juliet had shuffled fully away from the tree and was now hooked on the newly leaked bit of personal information.
“Oh come on it’s not that grand..It wasn’t magical or anything.. Not like an owl or a Hippogryph in your back garden like I bet there is at your house..”.

“Was it a thoroughbred?...or one of the heavier working kind?” she quizzed, eager to ask questions on its shape, size, gender, name and colour “Did you enter it competitions? I can’t imagine you really doing dressage or are really built for show jumping?...That would be a surprise though”

Laughing at the mental image he’d created of himself with the aid of her questions, he placed his hand down on his knee and smiled at the red haired young woman beside him. “It was just a horse..Nothing fancy or special and it just went about its business. Technically it was owned by a childhood friend of mine.. He rode it most weekends but he let me take care for it. Feed it, groom it.. That sort of thing”. Pausing for a breath, he tilted his head slightly and wondered why she was so interested, not even Shawn knew where his interest of animals came from.
“Mandalay’s Crowning Glory was his official name but we called him Monarch, he was jet black with a white stripe down his forehead..There satisfied?”

Shaking her head, Juliet continued to listen hoping to finally understand some things about her secretive friend.

“Jules..The rest is boring and uninteresting..It’s dead and been gone sometime. It had to be put down due to arthritis in its back legs and couldn’t stand anymore.” Lance pleaded, hoping she would change the subject before she drifted onto uncomfortable topics of conversation.
“So why don’t you want to talk to Peter?”

“He gives me strange looks, it’s like he knows...” She mumbled, retaking her position against the tree but this time looking down over Lance’s view rather than up at the castle.

“About Dragona or that you have plans to ditch his best friend?” Lance added, as Juliet slammed an troubled hand down on the small strip of grass between them.

“About everything..He just appeared in the basement with Seth and Ylana out of nowhere when I at the meeting place. I have no idea how they found me or if they apparated there by a freak chance. But Peter was clearly there and wasn’t pleased to see me back at the castle the morning after or when he heard me talking about Seth to William..”.
Understanding the sudden silence from Lance she quickly added who William was and explained he was the Quidditch captain for Gryffindor.
“And no I don’t have plans to ‘ditch’ his best friend actually! I have to find a way to save him from getting involved with Tommy’s plan...there’s no way I could physically look him in the eye and tell him I didn’t love him. It was bad enough when it got suggested that if I couldn’t do it the apparent ‘easy way’ that I’d have to blank his mem...”
Hesitating on the last few words, whilst several beads of tears began to roll down her cheek Juliet unexpectedly found Lance’s firm hand ontop of hers squeezing it tightly.

Trying to regain her smile, she wiped her cheek with the edge of the sleeve of her black robe and gently returned the hand squeeze, thankful that someone was there to listen to her schoolgirl silliness.

(Sorry I knew it would be long..They talk too much ><)

[Chris]

It had been a few days since the Room of Requirement meeting, and the weather was finally nice. Peter had been wanting to find the tree, but his friends wouldn't let him do it alone. He really would like the company, so he wouldn't be complaining. He, Alex and Seth were in the library, looking in books. They may very well have looked in most books, but it couldn't hurt to look a bit more.

Alex found something and said, "I may have found something. Was this year when you went back?" Pushing the book across the way, Peter read the entry and nodded. "I would have changed into other clothes had I known in advance." Chuckling, Peter added, "it doesn't surprise me that they think that was weird." Seth ran around and looked in between Peter and Alex. "Let me see? Its not everyday that a friend is found in a history book, when said friend is standing right beside you." Peter gave Seth a playful shove. Alex laughed, and they got a glare from the librarian, as she said, "Shh!" Quieting down, the trio continue looking.

[Nicci]

Sitting on the opposite side of the table, Gen had her head leaning on a tower of textbooks and another open on the desk in front of her. They’d been looking for something (which was probably nothing) all morning and the pages of text were quickly sapping away her enthusiasm.
Raising her eyes at the trio giggling like girls on the other side of the bench, she wondered what they had found so entertaining.
Sighing she returned to her comfortably position, closing her eyes trying to hide from the sunlight that was taunting her through the stained glass window. One of the last days of the summer weather and they were stuck inside being bookworms.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Standing in the second floor corridor outside the transfiguration rooms, wearing a formal looking crimson robe Katie patiently stared out the window. Today was her first day as a teaching assistant and it wouldn’t be too long before she’d have to face her first class of students.
Hoping the seventh years might be slightly more mature to begin with, she sighed and looked down at the bandages wrapped around her forearms.
Although there was no way her uncle could find her in the safety of the school, Katie felt ashamed to be hiding from the problem. An issue that she only felt comfortable discussing with one other person..

[Chris]

Alex smiled and looked over to see Gen napping on the books she was looking at. Walking over, he crouched beside her and asked, "this must be boring. I don't think we'll be up here too much longer. We haven't really found much, except an account of a Hogsmeade store owner."

Peter and Seth had moved past the account, and continued perusing through the other books around them. There wasn't much that they were finding, so as a result, they were losing motivation to keep looking. Seth started to think about seeing Katie earlier in the week. He wanted to stay with Juliet...or at least, he thinks he does, but on the other hand, she's been very strange recently. Then there's Katie, who he's been great friends with over the years, and now she's back.'

Peter looked up from the book to see Seth, looking up to the ceiling. Walking behind his mate, he followed his gaze and didn't see anything interesting. Shrugging, he thought it best to not disturb Seth.

[Nicci]

Gen smiled as Alex joined her on her side of the table. “It’s ok..” she began, placing a hand on his shoulder gently “I could just use a break from all this reading. When Peter said he was going to the forest today I didn’t think he literally meant the cut down one that is stuffed into the first floor of the school.”

[Chris]

Alex nodded and said, "with the weather being so rainy the past few days, he was excited to see sun today. He might want to go for a fly later, if we aren't heading into the Forest by then."

Peter closed his book and looked to Seth who was back from dream-land. "I could use a break from this. Do you three want to head outside?," he asked with a smile.

[Nicci]

“I thought you’d never ask” Gen beamed jumping up from her seat and quickly gathered as many books up in her arms as possible. “I hope there are actually real trees involved this time..No archiving, no leather bound encyclopaedias’..... and definitely no yearbooks...” she trailed off as she disappeared down one of the shelving aisles.

[Chris]

Peter laughed. "I just want to be able to enjoy some sunny weather." He took a handful of books as Alex and Seth split the rest and brought it into the various aisles to return the books.

Once all of the books were sorted, Peter, Alex and Seth returned to the table where they were reading at.

[Nicci]

Excited at the potential of being able to see daylight again, Gen finished putting the last of the books back in the positions on the shelves and slung her bag over her shoulder.
Buzzing with a smile on her face, she hastily approached the others and grabbed Peter and Alex’s arms as she brushed past. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get going...We are missing vital rays”.

Locking them both around her elbows and having one on each arm, Gen looked like the gnome in the middle being the shortest of the three but she didn’t care. “Come on Seth!” She yelled without looking back over her shoulder.

(I have a 2nd bit to add onto my later post but will let the group reach everyone else first on timeline outside on the grass before posting)

[Thomas]

Olli sighed, he was stuck in the library on the finest day of the year, and those incessant gryffindors were not making the experience any easier.
Tired and bored he closed his eyes for just a second
"Jones, I thought that was you" Erin's look of concern made him grimace "You look exhausted" she said, catching his chin as he tried to turn away from her "Olli, please... I'm only trying to help. What's going on? You need to rest, Professor Fischer said tha-"
"Professor Fischer is a teacher not a healer" Olli hissed through clenched teeth "She doesn't know squat" he turned to face Erin "Look I'm fine just go, you need to get to practise"
Erin frowned "She's right, and you know it. Why would she make that up? You just need some rest and relaxation, then you'll feel miles better" She placed a hand on his "Please Olli, just go back to the common room"
Olli sighed and set down the textbook 'Olde ailments and infirmities' "Fine, you win, I don't have the energy to argue with you again"
Erin smiled, relieved "Ok I'll check up on you later after practise"
"I'm not a child" Olli snarled as Erin skipped off, waiting for her to leave he reopened the book...

[Chris]

Alex and Peter smiled with Seth laughing since Gen was the shortest of the four. Seth said excitedly, "not far behind." The four of them headed out the library, with the Librarian glaring at the four students but happy to see the 'buzzing' source go away.

The path to the sunny outside was same old but not long afterward, they reached the door to the outside.

[Nicci]

Dropping arms with Peter and Alex as soon as they made it out in the open, Gen ran off slightly ahead of them and flung her arms out in the air.
With the sudden movement, a whoosh of warm, crisp air brushed past her face as she closed her eyes to enjoy its revitalising effect. After taking in a large, deep breath, she collapsed her hands back down by her side and opened her eyes slightly saddened.
Soon the days would get shorter and the night would draw in after lectures finished, but the approach of winter wouldn’t be all bad this year. At least at the start of the snowfall, she could make sure somebody she liked was always wrapped up warm in a scarf.... If somebody else didn't get to them first that is.

[Chris]

As Gen ran forward, Peter and Alex looked at each other. They smiled, but before they could run out, Seth chuckled, and said, "last out is a rotten egg."

Alex was out first with Seth close behind, and Peter laughed, "so I'm a rotten egg now?"

Before they knew it, Seth tripped and Alex being right behind started to too. With a shake of his head, Peter waved his hand and some warm air cushioned their fall. As they got up, Alex brushed the grass from his robes, and said, "Thanks, Pete." Seth did the same with brushing his robe off and added, "Thanks, Pal."