Ollie suddenly appeared, and Fauna gave her a big hug and a grin. She'd been so busy this summer that she'd missed out on seeing her these past few months, and felt a little guilty about that, but Ollie seemed cheerful and welcoming as always.

"Well, yeah," she shook her head and smiled. "I had to see you and Sophie before the summer ended!"

Fauna greeted Ayla with a quick hug around the shoulders, then turned around at the mention of food. She glanced at Ollie. Nope, she hadn't changed. "Come on, Ayla," she told the younger girl. "We'll have to elbow our way in to get a chance at the hamburgers. If Ollie leaves us any."

At least it wasn't bacon.

"I like your hair," she told Ollie as the small group moved towards the kitchens, noticing it looked much lighter than it had at school.

Sophie watched the outside going-ons through the large kitchen window that looked out over the pasture, despite the jokes she made she really did trust Luc not to let things get out of hand. Though he was a little flighty and lacked focus he was never deliberately hurtful. Sophie knew that, she just got frustrated with him, with who he seemed to want her to be. Their fight hadn't even really about how he acted that day, it had been a culmination of all the things that she felt were holding her back and all the places she felt like she had to assert herself and he had just been in the line of fire.

Mulling that all over as she watched Deus, Erin, and Luc from her distance, she only cast a sidelong glance to Gracie. She was not out there for lots of reasons, namely that if Deus had wanted her within cuddling distance he'd have taken her with him not left her on the counter. She was not going to be one of those needy clingy girls who begged for attention. Of course saying that out loud would make her one of those girls so she just gave a shrug, "They'll be alright on their own for now. Of course you could always grow a pair and go admit to Luc you took all your anger at Wiedman out on him, when you know it takes two people to kiss".

A social Ninja Sophie was not, but she was good at pointing people in the right direction. She said nothing as Alfie excused himself, puzzled look on her features. Of course one quiet boy was always replaced by another and in Alfie's stead came Elijah. She smiled brightly and reached behind her to fish a Butterbeer out of the bucket and offered it to the Hufflepuff, "Welcome to the fray Handsome and pull up a chair, Gracie and I were going going to start talking about how we seem to scare nice boys away," she paused looking over her shoulder at Peyton with a cheeky grin, "No offense".

Kelvin smiled as Zoe recounted her summer, and was about to ask about the spells she'd learned over the summer once it seemed she had finished her summer recap when she announced she was going inside to get some food.  "Okay," He said with a shrug.  He had forgotten about the food he was picking at and he certainly wasn't going to enjoy himself if he just stood there picking at food.  He spotted Winifred and Church and the others standing not far from where he was.

He made his way over to the others around the fire, "Hi, Winifred."  He nodded in greeting to the older Ravenclaw.  "Church.  Nothing wrong with appreciating a good bonfire."  Kelvin said in response to the pyromania comment. "And it is a nice bonfire."  He directed at the guys who had started it, though without as much excitement as Winifred.

Winifred's eyes grew large when one of the older boys addressed her- asking if she was a pyromaniac. Winifred giggled- a little too loudly- and shook her head. "No, not me! Fire is too dangerous to play with. I'm not allowed to even have matches." Which was true. Mostly because her mother and father knew how clumsy Winifred could be, and how forgetful, and had no doubt that she could be easily capable of burning down their home. She had done other things that were destructive enough (like when she was younger and just showing her magical skill, and her old wand's finicky nature no matter who picked it up).

She waved when Kelvin told her hello, a little glad to see another fourth year in the fray. Especially out by the bonfire. "Hello, Kelvin! Are you ready to start back to school?" she asked. "I know that I am. I had a fun summer, but I missed all of my friends, and a lot of them didn't go to Egypt on the trip. And I can't wait for the tournament and meeting all of the foreign students!" Especially the cute boys that she knew had to be coming from the other countries.

Rolling her eyes at Deus's antics, she smiled warmly at her friend before excusing herself, "Raine, I'm going to look at the flickering flames and so on. See you at Hogwarts, yes?" Before turning and weaving through the crowds of people. It was possibly the one time she felt that her small height was useful.

A combination of quick footwork and a few insincere "excuse me"'s later, brought her to the bonfire, a number of her fellow Hogwarts students already milling around and talking. Walking closer, she came to a stop far enough from the flames for the heat to be warming, without being painful. She stood, gazing into the flames mutely and demolishing her burger in under a minute, feeling irritation when she'd finished- why hadn't she grabbed a second? Stupid her. Instead, she took a long gulp of the butterbeer, before turning to the boy next to her, who she vaguely recognised as being an older Ravenclaw, to ask: "I don't suppose you have any marshmallows?"

A rather hopeful question, but nevertheless, she was hardly going to give shun the possibility of marshmallows. And you never knew, someone might have had the forethought to bring some- although it was highly improbable. She might have, but two things had prevented her: firstly, the lack of marshmallows in her house, and secondly, that she had lacked time when leaving for the bonfire. And if she had been in possession of marshmallows, they wouldn't have made it this far anyway.

Church smirked slightly at the younger students. "True enough Kelvin," he agreed while mentally noting that there was technically nothing wrong with pyromania. Not until it manifested as arson at the very least. But the girl had a point when it came to playing with fire, so Church didn't press the matter and let the friends be.

"I don't suppose you have any marshmallows?"

What? Church cocked an eyebrow for a moment at the girl who had asked, trying to work out why she would ask him something like that. Then he remembered that it was a bonfire and people roasted marshmallows at these sorts of events. Church shook his head. "No I didn't think to bring any," which was true. In fact he doubted many people had the thought of bringing a bag of marshmallows with them when they left the house.

"I could get some though," he offered. "Wouldn't take but a minute."

Jazz stopped behind Church with a frown.  Who doesn't bring marshmallows to a bonfire?  "You are pitiful," she said with an exasperated sigh, pulling out the many bags of marshmallows from her schoolbag and thrust them in front of him.  She rounded on him and gave him a dramatic pout.  "I know I said I wouldn't come, but, I was starting to hear unkind voices being hold up in my room." she explained with a hint of irony only he would understand.

He was, in fact, the only one of her friends--the only one at all--who knew about her... inner eye.  In truth, earlier that day she had a not-so-positive vision involving a complete stranger.  The details were fuzzy, as per usual, but the overwhelming feeling of dread spooked her enough to want to go to the bonfire for a distraction.  She never had a vision with that much of a negative reaction.  Usually her visions were of useless things, like her dad getting married to his girlfriend or her brother switching majors in college.

Maybe there was an off-chance she'd meet the stranger at this bonfire...

It turns out that her house didn't possess multiple bags of marshmallows and other bonfire necessities, so she had to stop at a convenient store.  It turned out to be inconvenient, however, when therein sold only mini marshmallows.  This was unacceptable.  So the next hour she scoured the super WalMart, having trouble locating her goal due to the recent remodeling.  Regardless, Jazz held up the many choices of marshmallow goodness to the girl who expressed interest, raising an eyebrow in expectation.  Ah, I think I know her.  Alexandra... she's in Ravenclaw.  A year below, I believe.

Ayla giggled lightly when Fauna caught her around the shoulders. It felt so good to be hanging out with her again. It made her sad to know that she'd be going back to Hogwarts in September and her 'Big Sister' wouldn't be there. Ayla wondered if it would only give her an opportunity to get closer to one of the other older students or become a big sister to one of the younger ones (aside from being a big sister to Dahlia and Erik already)

"Werewolves and meat? We'd better hurry." Ayla chuckled as she followed the older girls into the kitchen, recognizing most of the faces about and grabbing herself some food and a bottle of butterbeer. She nodded a hello to Sophie who seemed wrapped up in a conversation and twiddled her fingers at Peyton who also seemed to be involved in said conversation. She gave herself time to get her food in before pursuing any conversations of her own.

She was sure she had seen Zoe and Winnie about somewhere and would eventually fall into step with her best friends but for now she was enjoying just being around the older students, feeling for the first time in months that she actually belonged somewhere. She made herself a promise that this school year was going to be a billion times better than last year, no more rumors, no more stupid slytherin boys, back to basics, it was about time she figured out who she was again.

Fact of the matter was Deus liked Luc. He just also liked to mess with people, and the whole thing appealed to his massively distorted and keenly skewed sense of humor.  He hadn't known Luc and Erin were such good friends—or he'd forgotten, hard to say. "Hey Norwood, how's Caity? Didnae see her in th' crowd."  He waved to Strellie as she approached. "Hey Mimi."

As for the rag…

Deus shrugged to Erin. "Tae be honest mate," He never was, so the preface to his statement was questionable, "I didnae expect it tae do that. I mean, I know it wasnae exactly slean but…" He shrugged. And then a light of innocent mischief sparkled in his eyes, and his mellow tone wrapped around the most innocent of questions. "Speakin' o' sparks, ye and Liviana set a date?"

A fourth year –probably, hard to say for sure—complimented the fire, and Deus shamelessly took credit. "Thanks, darlin'." He said with a flutter of eyelashes before her attention was scooped up by a few others.

Then he dropped to the ground and sprawled comfortably on his stomach in the warmth of the flames, careful to find a spot not so occupied that he'd get trampled. "Hey, didnae I 'ear sommat about magimellows?" The wizard kind that got bigger when you roasted them—he thought one of the half-pint kiddos had brought a batch, but from his angle he couldn’t tell. Vegetarian, Deus was not, but he could appreciate a good magimellow.

Peyton chuckled at Sophie's initial response. She always did seem to be the kind of girl that loved having a billion people around her. The first bonfire he had gone to back in the winter had pretty much been the same thing and he wouldn't be surprised to find out Sophie had plenty of other parties during the year. Though he was happy to be invited to this one, even if he wasn't able to bring along his new friend.

He glanced to the back yard where the fire was now blazing, "I'd be a little worried about Harper and the fire to be honest." Peyton faintly remembered hearing something about the Slytherin having a penchant for flames.

As the conversation moved over to Gracie and Alfie, Peyton snapped open his butterbeer and began to shovel food into his mouth as politely as a soon to be seventeen year old boy could. He smirked and shrugged as Sophie added, no offense, in his direction. He held up his hands, widening the smirk, "None taken." He assured her.

Soon the kitchen seemed to be filling with people and Peyton was in need of fresh air. He gave Sophie a gentle but quick peck on the temple and a shoulder hug, "See you around doll." He waved back to Ayla who had twiddled her fingers at him before exiting the kitchen with his butterbeer and heading out to the back yard.

For a few moments Peyton watched the flames, mesmerized before catching sight of a familiar fellow Ravenclaw. He bounded over to Alex and laid down his head in her lap looking up at her, the goofy smile still present on his lips as if it was an apology for his suddenly and rather close entrance. He flung up his hands, as he looked up at her, "I'm in love!"

"I am so ready to get back to Hogwarts." Kelvin said to Winifred since Church had already turned away, talking about marshmallows, which would certainly be nice.  "Summer has been-" He shrugged, "Not the greatest.  And I have a long list of spells to work on.  And the foreign students will definitely make this year one to remember."  He started to gesture forgetting the food and butterbeer in hand, and attempting to catch the food before it fell from his hand, he sent butterbeer flying from the bottle at Winifred.

Alex was about to, somewhat selfishly, accept the offer of food, when a second seventh year appeared. The two evidently knew each other, the casual insults and somewhat intriguing subtext of the conversation making that clear, but- unfortunately- neither mentioned a name. "Admittedly, I didn't bring any either," she pointed out, "I'm Alex- you?" her head tilted quizzically. However, she didn't catch the answer before Deus, who, it seemed, was incapable of standing upright for even five consecutive minutes, draped himself across the floor in front of her.

Poking him with her foot, she said "Deus, I suggest that you move in order to avoid your impending incineration, as, unfathomably, the hostess seems rather fond of you, and your being burnt to ashes would put rather a damper on her evening. But marshmallows did come up as a topic of conversation," she concluded, her tone lighter.

Further bickering, however, was prevented by the exuberant arrival of Peyton, and her smile returned on hearing his news. Although she had wanted to talk to the seventh years, finding out about Peyton's amour was, for the moment, more important. "Indeed?" she said, smiling, "In that case, which unworthy soul has stolen your heart? Have you stolen theirs, pitiful as it may be? Do- actually, tell me first, and I'll ask unwanted questions after, okay?"

"And maybe you should be sitting upright when you do so," she added, as, pleasant as it was to be greeted in so exuberant a fashion, Peyton was a little too heavy for her to be entirely comfortable.

Ollie smiled when Fauna was coming along. "Well, I am glad you came since now we will be the opposite of last year." Ollie said with a chuckle but it was one that tried to cover up the hint of sad. Ollie had spent a year apart from Fauna due to the choices of the academic staff, (aka Analiza). Now Ollie was headed back after her expulsion and Fauna would be out into the real world. "How is it being an auror in training?" Ollie eagerly asked as she started walking a little more swiftly to the kitchen. "And don't think I didn't hear that you two!" Ollie replied in comment to their little playful jokes about her food intake.

As Ollie entered the kitchen she stopped and peeked around the door and smiled at Fauna, "Thanks! It was all Sophie's doing." She picked up a few strands of her hair and inspected it. Ollie then turned back around and headed towards the hamburgers. She really wanted one of those her stomach was growling. Maybe she should take two? She picked up a hamburger in both hands and took a bite out of one. Okay maybe this was going to be a bit awkward. She located a plate to help with this food intake, and for good measure added a third hamburger to the plate. "Is there bacon on these?" She asked taking a peek.

She took a bite and was distracted by the comment of scaring all the boys away. "You're just leaving room for the lovely ladies Sophie, obviously." She gave her a wink and chuckle before she took another couple bites of the first hamburger. "These are delicious." She definitely had a bit of sauce on her face. "So are we having a kitchen party? They're my favourite kind." She laughed a little.

Sassily Church took a bag of marshmallows from Jazz and rolled his eyes. "Yes, forgive me for lacking the clairvoyance to think of such things," he said with words dripping from sarcasm. It had become a running joke by now that whenever she thought of something he didn't he would poke fun at her sight. Although he had to admit, this time he had made a much cleverer joke. "And are you sure you heard voices and not just that owl of yours?" He winked at her. Whenever he was over the bird never seemed to shut up.

"Church," Church replied to the girls-Alex's question. However he wasn't sure she quite heard the response before Deus showed up and plopped himself on the ground before the flames. "Boys like a cat..." Church muttered to himself, although he expected Jazz would hear it. She always did. He was about ready to once again introduce himself when Peyton demanded her attention. Well, someone certainly was popular.

"So why did you show up?" he asked Jazz, taking a step closer to her. "What, exactly, did you see?"

Sophie watched as Peyton scampered away, and tilted her head to one side, "There is something going on with that boy - but I have absolutely no idea what. Then again I rarely do," she took a long pull from her bottle of Butterbeer, though her ears perked up at Ollie's mention of her name. She was quite pleased with herself and the way Ollie's hair and turned out. It had been one of the best spur-of-the-moment decisions that either of them had ever made... even if it had prompted the fight with Luc. "Doesn't she look lush? Next time I want to try pink or maybe green. Of course it'll have to wait till Christmas. Oh! We could do red and green," the petite sixth year looked just a little too pleased with this idea. Making Ollie look like a Holiday decoration would be the highlight of Winter vacation. It probably should have been more worrisome to he that she was already planning for Winter when summer wasn't even over yet.

Brown eyes drifted back to the large window looking out over the yard as she tried in vain to spot the familiar mop of dark hair. She did, however, notice the addition of a blonde head, "Huh, I wonder when Jazzelle showed up. She didn't bother to answer any of my owls," she sounded distracted, and maybe a little confused by this but shook her head and looked back to Ollie at the mention of bacon, "Half yes, though I'm seriously offended no one is even pretending to try my Almojábanas, they're cheesy fritters for Merlin's sake. For a culture of people who came up with dishes Eel Pie and Haggis, no one has any sense of culinary adventure," she pretended to huff a little, but she was obviously joking. "The ones on the green plate are veggie burgers," she added, as a warning to Ollie and offer to any of the Vegan/Vegetarians among the mix. She wasn't sure if Pax was still doing that or not, but better safe than sorry.

"You know, I'm thinking we might want to head outside, kind of rude of the hostess to hide away in the house," especially when she would really rather be hiding away in her room with a certain Slytherin boy who was both charming and vexing. "Also there may or may not be a surprise for you, and I don't want you to fill up on burgers," she gave the newly reappointed Hufflepuff a cheery smile, and a peck on the cheek not covered in sauce as she hopped down from the counter. "Shall you lead the way my darling Hufflebutt, or should I," she was dusting off her hands as she posed the question - for the millionth time so grateful that Ollie would be going back to school with them, going to be a part of their world again. This summer hadn't been easy but if there was one thing that had kept Sophie from completely losing herself it was Ollie and the sense of normalcy in all the chaos. They were sturdy ground for one another in a time when all the world was shaking, and it was a gift Sophie could never fully express her gratitude for.