Hogwarts

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Around the corner, and-

Emery stopped in her tracks, silently skidding to a halt as she rounded the corner of the big hallway she was walking through and out the big, wide doors ten times her size and out the back entrance of Hogwarts. From this vantage point she now knew she could have a good view of the Quidditch pitch (wouldn't start for another few weeks, practically a month! She was itching to see what all that excitement was about) and the Groundskeeper Hagrid's little cottage. She also knew (since she had been following them since they left the Great Hall) that she would find Harold, Calcifer, and the flower girl out here.

She didn't want to seem too overeager- Lana the Seventh year student had specified that over-eagerness was a turn off. She was always spouting knowledge like that to her friends in the S.P.E.W. club when the President wasn't paying attention. The girls had all nodded vigorously, giggling behind their hands and whispering hushed things. Emery had been confused- they should share their thoughts with the club! She had excitedly told them that. "Is that what I should do to get first years to be a part? Not be overeager?" She had exclaimed loudly, to the embarrassment of the group of girls. They hadn't let her forget that little slip up. APPARENTLY, that was a conversation between them, A & B, so she should have seen her way out. (Seems that phrase wasn't only a muggle creation...)

Walking in a steady rhythm and looking around, she pinpointed her prey and sped up slightly, catching up with them easily (they hadn't seen her) and setting her pace with theirs easily, though Ellis did seem to fall behind. Emery had taken her spot and grinned broadly when addressing the two boys, her voice excited and warm.

"Hey guys! I'm glad I caught up to you! Have you all heard of SPEW yet? It's super awesome and something I think all of us would be interested in," she emphasized, taking the moment to acknowledge even the flower. Lord knew it took magic and baby safety locks to get her to do anything. She turned in her spot, stopping so that they were forced to quit walking and look at her in her awesome 4 ft 9 in glory. She held out a button with one hand and her other hand met at her hip in a fist so she had their full attention. "SPEW- We care about the Elves, and want to stop the evil of slavery they have been forced into. We've been around since the great HJ Granger was at school here! What do you think?" She grinned, pushing the button a little more enthusiastically in their direction, hoping one of them would take it and take the time to listen to her further, even going so far as to plop a button in Calcifer's hand and reach in her bag for Harold's very own button. She avoided eye contact with Ellis- she was still annoyed about the boat ride and how she had fussed so much that their entire boat had been delayed- and thus, the rest of the class.

"I'm sure we can all agree that house elves deserve their freedom, right?" Sure, they were all half-bloods and according to Lara, half-bloods and pure-bloods were hard to convince sometimes. But Emery felt confident that these ones were a sensible bunch- at least the boys, anyways.


Cal looked at the girl silently, his expression completely apathetic- of not slightly annoyed, for he had been interrupted mid-sentence. He didn't know her very well, just that apparently she had made a few snide comments about Magnolia shortly after they first arrived, and that she was a really, really big tomboy. She was also a little loud, if he was being honest. Quite honestly, he hadn't agreed to any such thing!

Well, okay he didn't think they should be slaves. But he also had heard from his mother and father that SPEW was a little... naive in their approach to elvish benefits. He handed the button over to Magnolia, arching an eye as Harold watched the Gryffindor search her bag, which had accidently snagged against her skirt. She didn't seem to notice, though, not even when it ripped a tiny bit. He was about to tell her, his finger already pointing, when the girl let out an excited yell and pulled out her wand, levitating a few flyers at him and his friends with more buttons in her hands. Though the papers floated....decently enough, it seemed she didn't trust herself to Wingardium Leviosa those buttons. (Thank the heavens)

Harold Arthur Barlow
"Bloody hell Barker tryin' to give us a heart attack?" Harold laughed acting if he was generally happy about her appearance before studying his pin seriously. "So elfs, never seen one myself dad said that's what he had kids for you know, hmmh kinda like garden gnomes? Mom's got loads in the garden because of dad's plants you know, feisty things, one bit my cousin Darek, had to get stitches he did." Harold shook his head as he took the paper biting back a smile, "never much liked Darek," he snorted.

Ellis Magnolia Waters
Magnolia fiddled with the pin nervously. She'd tried to ignore how Emery had jostled her out of the way to move next to her friends. The brazen Gryffindor did this sort of thing often. Maybe she hadn't seen her...?

Ellis was easily missed. It was a common mistake.

"G-garden Gnomesss are nothing like House Elves. E-easy mistake," She whispered. "I-I-I have one," she murmured her voice almost lost on the wind as she ground her shoes into the dirt shakily handing the pin back to Emery.

Ellis Magnolia Waters
"Uh uh ummm uh I..." Ellis swallowed hard taking in a deep breath as she watched everyone's eyes turn on her, even the giggling group of third year Slytherin girls seemed to stop in their tracks to watch the tween drama unfold. Her tongue felt like weights were holding it down as she watched Emery's irritation grow as seconds ticked away. "N-no. She doesn't-" but Ellis wasn't given an opportunity to defend herself.

"I see," Emery stated tartly, completely dismissing the girl and looking back to Harold and Cal. "That's a shame. I mean, I knew you had issues Ellis, but I didn't think beating up on House Elves was one of them. That's kind of sick." She breathed sharply through her nose, ignorant to how unreasonable she was being. She didn't like Ellis, the girl annoyed her, and this? It made it worse. "If she was human I'm sure you would pay her. I hope you would! You're eleven, you could talk to your Aunt, speak up for her." She glared back at the girl, hissing through her teeth "I would. Or are you too s-s-s-scared?"

Emery shut her mouth just then as Cal stepped suddenly close to her, blocking her view of the visibly shaking pouty girl. She stood her ground, but there was a feeling of hesitation. Maybe she had gone too far...

"I think you should leave," the London boy stated simply, a glower on his face as Emery refused to listen. "Look. I'm just saying, to be so mean to a House Elf that you don't even pay them for their help is messed up. She probably doesn't even see how messed up it is because she thinks it's perfectly normal to step on people! She thought it was perfectly fine to put her needs in front of all of ours before. It's obviously an issue she-"

"It's obviously something you know diddly squat about. Leave her alone! We're not interested in the club anymore, so leave." Cal huffed, standing his ground. Emery glanced at Harold, biting her lip. "Will you at least try a meeting?"

Ellis Magnolia Waters
Ellis was close to tears as Emery did her best interpretation of the stuttering child. Honestly it didn't take much to get Ellis close to tears. Twinkle was part of the family not a slave. Like a governess or nanny. She was angry at herself for not being able to stand up to Emery and embarrassed Cal had to always do it for her.

Emery nodded, a small smile on her face as she turned to depart, though they quickly tightened as she gave one last fuming look at Ellis and her freakish boyfriend. "See you later, Barlow," she hummed, pausing before the nosy third years and handing a flyer to each of them. "I hope you all may want to come too!" She beamed, just as the little house elf on her button did a delighted nod and clap that one of the older students had charmed it to do. With that, she turned to leave, heading back inside for more people to convince.

Arcadia Adler
Arcadia gave her friends a disgruntled look as a gross flyer was shoved in her hands by some Gryffindor first year. Who did she think she was, like seriously?

"Why don't you go spew this somewhere else," she snickered rolling the flyer into a ball and chucking it at the insufferable twit. Spew was for social rejects who were still pissy mummy didn't say she loved them enough.

"We're going to miss Slytherin practice," Arcadia called to her fellow classmates before hurrying off towards the quidditch field.

Rowina Octavia Adler
Rowina couldn't help but give her sister a dissatisfied look as she trampled like a stampede of elephants across the quidditch stands with her gaggling friends. Sarah looked downright irritated as she watched her textbooks pushed aside by Anwen Carrow, who was trying to get closer to her best friend Arcadia who in turn had decided out of the whole stands she had to be right next to Rowina and her best friend Sarah Lyons.

"Do you mind Anwen, we're trying to study for the N.E.W.T.S." Sarah complained pulling her prized textbook out of the third year Slytherin's hands.

"Seriously?!" Miranda laughed shaking her blonde locks before her mirror image continued on,

"You don't even take them 'til next year," Margo Tesla pipped up.

"We told Kimmy we'd help her study," Rowina stated defensively, since when had it become a crime to study? And in blunt honesty Kimmy Kim needed serious help. If her pre test scores could be trusted.

"Don't you mean Acamar needs help studying," Arcadia joked looking at her sister's attractive boyfriend currently shouting plays to Calista Tran on his rather impressive broom thirty feet in the air. Her words got a rise out of her five friends, (Anwen, Margo, Miranda, Rosie and Bryony) who all let out a collective 'Oooooooooooo' followed by giggles.

Rowina could see Anwen scrunch up her nose in dissatisfaction, before she went back to watching Rowina's boyfriend with her steely blue eyes.

"Perhaps..." Bryony paused a blush crossing her cheeks before continuing, "Briar Andrews needs help studying?" She asked jokingly only to get a large laugh out of the tweens and a high five from Rosie Kessler.

"If Briar Andrews wasn't our sworn Slytherin enemy, I would so agree with you," Arcadia allowed.

"That hair," Margo fluttered.
"Those eyes..." Miranda continued.
"That butt," Rosie dared with a gleam of mischief in her eyes.

"Excuse me! Are you seriously praising the sworn enemy of our house? The Gryffindor slime who stole the head boy title from our beloved Seeker and captain of our house Quidditch team?" Anwen reprimanded with a pissy look in her eyes.

"Hey sister, we're in Hufflepuff so Bry and I are allowed to look occasionally." Rosie shot back irritatedly dragging Bryony back into the conversation.

"Excuses excuses," Anwen huffed going back to watch the game.

"Can we get back to the practice, we're missing Calista's trick shots!" Arcadia exclaimed ending the conversation as the girls went back to busily watching the field and Sarah was able to dig back into her textbooks. Even if it took a little prompting once in a while to get Rowina to sink into the test instead of staring at her boyfriend's butt...

Song SunMae & Hestia Byzantium Adler
Hestia paced her office floor. It would be quite obvious to any of her students that the Professor of Transfiguration was clearly irritated, to Sun-Mae her coworker/best friend for half a billion years, it was like a neon sign flashing in the usually poised blonde's direction. Hestia was normally a serious girl, always had been, but scowling was unlike her, she wasn't much of a smiler per se but her thin lips rarely pushed in any direction unless greatly displeased. Students (as well as Sun-Mae) had to work for a smile or seriously piss her off for a frown, but a scowl... Only one person could do that.

"So, what did your father want to speak with you about," the Korean girl asked carefully, putting her half empty tea cup back onto its saucer before adding another cube of sugar and stirring it lightly with the end of her wand.

"You shouldn't do that, it's bad for the wand," Hestia informed pausing from her hunched march to mother her slightly older friend.

"No it's not, you just made that up, mother's been doing that for ages." Sun argued then paused considering how awful her mother's charms had been of late. wiping off her wand she placed it down. "So wha'd he say?"

"He wanted me to reconsider Hector's offer," Hestia grumbled.

"Wait... Creepy Hector? The one with the over bite? He's your cousin though..." Sun grimaced pulling her legs into the chair with displeasure.

"Apparently that's supposed to be a good thing. Keep money in the family and all. Mum bloody asked if I was a Lesbian, if that was the reason I said no. As if not wanting to marry Hector Adler and procreate little purebloods with overbites and webbed feet was ludicrous!" Hestia let out a rattling sigh before collapsing into her office chair.

"Tell her about Neville then, your mum is a romantic," Sun reasoned for the trillionth time.

"Dad would never go for it, no best to keep putting it off," Hestia continued before taking a sip of her tea.

"King! You need to pass to Hester if you're going to do the play right. Yes, Reeve, I know the game is coming up, I am the Captain you know, it's not just a titl - oh, will you touch her hands already, the girl won't bite you, lad! This is Quidditch, not some ballroom gala, you don't have to be embarrassed to-"

Acamar let out a huff of breath, hovering off to the side of the two third years, and shaking his head as they looked at him with huge eyes and blushing cheeks. It was his fault, after all- allowing the kids to join in practices, albeit off to the side and as opponent player stand ins, even though they were neither part of the team nor Reserve players had been a bit of a risky move. Some of his teammates had argued they didn't have the time, nor resources to let a bunch of kids shadow them. They'd be too much of a distraction. Acamar disagreed. Though awkward and gangly, the kids showed potential- and he had seen what could happen when you let potential flourish over a year or two. Calista was one of the best players on the team (better than him), had been for a while now, and she had started where these two were. If their previous Captain had seen the benefit of training students young, then Acamar was more than willing to follow suit.

"Right, King. Hester. You're to practice hitting this ball to each other until I say stop, got it? Calista says it's a Soccer Ball. Whoever lets it get out of range or touch the ground first gets to be opposing Keeper this and next practice. Stay a bit low, so you don't have to worry about diving too much to catch the ball, and make sure to stay out of the field until you hear my summons. Oh, by the way: I hear Wayne and Macmillan are practicing the Dopplebeater Defence." Acamar grinned, flying up and away from the startled faces of the two and joining his team for the more intense part of their training. His attention was unwavering now, Rowina's younger sisters' friends laughter and chatter background noise as he watched Calista practicing some shots and his Beaters' keeping the Bludgers from his other teammates brooms.

There was a high pitched whistle, and then attention was on him.

"Right, well then. So far we seem off to a good start, this is one of the best teams we've had in a while after all, but we can't let that get us cocky." There was a snort, but Acamar chose to ignore it. "I expect you all in each and every practice. Think of potential plays in your free time, what you can improve on. We can't rely on natural skill, or fancy outmaneuvers, or fancy brooms. We're taking home that Quidditch Cup if it's the last thing we do, team, and that means we're going to eat, breath, and sweat Quidditch as much as we can! Who's with me?!"

Ellis Magnolia Waters & Harold Arthur Barlow
Ellis let out a huff of breath as she clutched her journal close to her chest, her feet planted firmly on the ground. Wobbly Dock? Absolutely not. Never again, if she could manage it- let alone willingly.

"Boats sink all the time, it-it's impractical," she paused watching the boys with judging eyes as Harold threw the sunscreen he'd packed to Calcifer.

"Ain't no one forcing you to come," Howard smiled his hands going to untie the small four person paddle boat from the dock. Her outburst not surprising him in the least. He hadn't expected her to come and Calcifer and him could easily maneuver the little boat themselves.

"I didn't say you were, I just-" She paused not knowing what to say without sounding like a nag.

Calcifer sighed softly, smirking at Ellis as he held onto the sunscreen like it was his lifeline and began to lather it onto his skin. Even after a month living at Hogwarts and spending a good amount of time out and about during the daytime, the sun was still proving to be a big adjustment for him. Sure, he'd been outside when the sun was out before, but never for such long periods of time, and never had he had to suffer the indignity of a sunburn. That is, until his second week at Hogwarts.

Cal was less prone to forgetting his sunscreen after that, but even so, he had his slip ups. That's what made having Harold around as such a good friend so great. The Hufflepuff couldn't possibly know how much the offered bottle of skin protector meant, but to Cal, it was like Harold was tossing him a bottle of Liquid Luck.

"There's nothing to worry about, Noli. Tons of people have ridden on the lake, there's nothing to fear.No one has ever gone under!"

He knew that even with the reassurance, she'd likely refuse to get on- but after a few more repeats of this process, Cal and Harold were sure to have her tagging along with them one of these days...

Ellis Magnolia Waters & Harold Arthur Barlow
Harold didn't bother reminding Cal that his cousin, had so gone overboard on his first boat ride over the lake. He doubted if he brought that up Noli would let them on the boat.

"Thank you very much, but no thank you, I shall... Write," she paused looking back at her spot by the trees not too far off. She liked being a sensible distance from the water. She'd heard enough stories about the killer squid to risk being on the water's edge. "W-w-w-watch out for the Merpeople, Grindylows, Squid.." she shook her head suddenly as if this idea was terrifying.

"Cool-cool, we'd better like bounce before the olders get down," he pointed at the group of fifth years descending down the side of the hill. The lake was a popular spot overall for students on Saturday. "Can you watch Edna, she hates water?" He asked scooping the kitten out of his pocket much to the disdain of the cat who had been napping in his cloak pocket.

The white puffball forced into Ellis' hands making her drop her journal in surprise.

Cal nodded, grimacing as he stopped from patting his face with the sunscreen to see the older students Harold had mentioned. None of them seemed to be heading over here, but it was better safe than sorry. People could get really territorial with these boats sometimes.

"You can tell us all about your story when we get back Noli! Maybe write about the why you should not wake Edna from naps or why we can't get any of the good seats at our tables during breakfast."

With that he huffed and grabbed Harold by the arm, pulling him into the boat and causing the water to splash around them. "Bet I can paddle faster than you," Cal dared cheekily at the Hufflepuff.

Edna

The kitten was not at all happy with the sudden development as she was roused from her well deserved nap in Harold's pocket. She was trying to digest the bit of bacon that had somehow made it into her pocket during the course of breakfast. She had no doubt earned this morsal from waking her master by pattering across his face, effectively waking him so he wouldn't miss the yummiest meal of the day! Harold was a deep sleeper so it often took a lot of pattering and mewing and licks on the cheek to wake him... After such hard work she deserved a nap and a tummy full of bacon or kipper (if the elves were feeling daring with the morning selection).

Now though she was being shoved off to her master's nervous friend, who always interrupted her naps with some loud noise or jerking motion. The girl almost dropped her for goodness sake. She much preferred the cold boy to the welp. She was quick to let out a mew of disgust to let her master know exactly how she felt.