She held up a finger at Church's question as to what she saw.  "First of all, imagine how dangerous he'd be if he were a cat.  He'd take every coin in your pocket just by doing the big, sad eyes routine." She snorted at his comment about Deus as a cat and continued.

"Second of all: hey, hey, hey now, you leave Hoots-n-Boots out of this." she scolded, giving Church a halfhearted glare.  "You know I only charm my bedroom to keep the noise under wraps so it doesn't drive the rest of my house's inhabitants insane.  If I did his cage all-together I'd probably forget he was there and he'd starve to death.  Besides," she sighed, looking off into the distance with a smile, "I like his little hoots.  And he likes you, that's why he's so chipper when you come by.  Can't imagine why he does..." she trailed off lowly as a joke, then grew a little more serious, thinking about her vision.

"It was... about someone I don't know.  Someone I don't recognize.  A boy, not much older than me by the looks of it, and he was alone, walking down a street into a back alley at night.  Then... a loud noise like... I don't know, it was unclear, but he looked scared.  Like... whatever it was was after him?  I don't know, but the last thing I saw was his face and everything else was so dark." she explained softly so only Church could hear.  "Something told me to come out tonight.  I have this overwhelming feeling of dread that I never experienced before.  But, now that I'm here, I can't feel... anything that would lead me to suspect anything from happening.  God, I hate this.  Why so cryptic?  What's the point?" she growled a little exasperatedly.

"And who doesn't bring marshmallows to a bonfire?  It's just common sense."

Elijah looked at Sophie as she suggested he had to get out a chair. Grinning slightly while his cheeks flushed red he looked around, trying to find an escape route. "I, uhm, love to. Just have to get some air." He replied with a nice smile as he rushed outside. He ran his hand trough his hair as he moved closer to the bonfire. Now that the polite thing was done he could either leave or try to socialize. The leaving sounded more appealing to the sixth year Hufflepuff, but he knew that was not really an option. Shuffling towards the bonfire, Elijah started to move slower and slower, he recognized some people from Hogwarts. Some that were not really thát bad.

Reaching the bonfire he saw Jazz Hawke, a girl he had had some conversations with before. A girl he actually liked. He smiled, genuinely now, as he approached her. "Uhm. Hi." Elijah said as he awkwardly put up his hand in a slight wave. Why did he always have to act so stupid? He wondered as he mentally facepalmed himself again. Next to Jazz was Church, a lad from Ravenclaw. He knew the boy fairly well because they had some classes together. "Hi." He said to the Ravenclaw as  he slightly raised his eyebrows. He liked the boy from Ravenclaw. He could actually call him his friend.

Elijah sat down, as there was no escaping now anyways, and looked into the fire. Maybe he should have chosen the first option. Socializing was so darn exhausting.

Peyton chuckled as he sat up and settled himself into the spot next to Alex. He was happy that his student buddy turned friend wasn't miffed about his exuberant entrance nor was she too busy to hear about his recent bliss. He briefly glanced at the others gathered around the bonfire before going into it, "He's a Senior from Salem. I met him in Zonko's just after they arrived. He's into Quopod almost as much as I'm into Quidditch. He's really into animals and he's got this whole protective crazy older brother thing going on."

He kicked at a twig near his feet before bending down and picking it up to toss it into the fire, "I haven't stolen his heart yet, and judging by the way he was talking about the Cheerleaders back home I don't think he's playing on the same team I am but  . . . " He trailed off briefly before turning back to Alex, "The way he kept complimenting me and smiling at me, just makes me wonder."

"I tried to get him to come out to the party tonight but the foreign kids aren't allowed to leave Hogsmeade, which is total bollocks but whatever." He took a swig from his bottle, "I've never been so excited to get back to school. I've never had a crush like this before."

“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.”

Caught in mid-bite, Gracie stared at her, brows raised.

As the tiny girl looked away, momentarily distracted by another—Alfie—and then another—Elijah—and then another, the Slytherin resumed chewing, but this time with an expression that was curiously blank. Inwardly, she sighed; while she and Sophie were friends (not good friends, yes, but close enough to be what the Gryffindor jokingly referred as ‘smoosh buddies’ and remained as such even after the breakup), Gracie never forgot just whose best friend the other girl was in the end: Luc’s. If Sophie wanted to take his side, she couldn’t—wouldn’t—hold it against her.

Even if she really disliked being judged. Refusing to come clean about her exact feelings on the matter was her own fault, but that didn’t necessarily mean one thing or another. And she hadn’t been the one who had pulled her into the bathroom to come clean, at that. Or had railed at him, for that matter. Or, even cut their little ‘talk’ short (which he had wanted) first. Hell, all she had really been trying to do back on the train was figure out if she’d wanted to punch him and be done with it, or—or—

-cry.

Ugh. She was going to have to talk to him again, wasn’t she?

By the time Sophie turned to glance back at her, the smirk was already back in place. “You two go on ahead,” Gracie said, shooing them away as she flashed them both a friendly grin. “I’ll catch up with you in a minute, I just need to use the loo...”

Well, not really, but if she was going to face Luc again she wanted to catch him on the side and slip away. She was not going to make a scene-

And then Zoe Torret walked into the kitchen, and there was really no helping that look of blatant distaste that crossed her face. “She a friend of yours?” Gracie asked Sophie, giving the Ravenclaw an unimpressed look. The two of them had never spoken before, true, but when someone was so vocally self-righteous and judgmental of a House you were a part of it was next to impossible to think anything but little of them.

   

Pax had been floating around below everyone's eye level, just taking in the atmosphere and making a little small talk here and there with the people he knew well enough. And offering the magical marshmallows he'd brought to anyone who wanted them. When the bonfire was lit, he spent some time just watching it, and warming up by its glow, before deciding that now was a good time to find out how much he could get a magimallow to grow by roasting it... when he realised that he'd neglected to bring anything to spear them with. Rolling his eyes a little at his lack of forethought, he headed over to where he'd seen Sophie, Fauna, Ollie, Ayla, and others, disappear to previously.

He arrived just in the kitchen in time to catch Sophie's mention of veggie burgers, and grinned his approval at her. Y'know, I'm actually kinda hungry. I guess roasting magimallows can wait for now. So he plopped the bag of sweets down on an empty portion of the table, hoping people would just help themselves if they fancied, and helped himself to one of the burgers Sophie had pointed out. 'Amazing spread,' he said happily to the room at large, before tucking in.

He glanced up at the older Slytherin girl, vaguely surprised by the look she was giving to a Ravenclaw in Winnie and Ayla's year. 'Everyone here's friends with Sophie, aren't they?' he said around a mouthful of veggie burger. 'Sophie's got tonnes of friends. She should've been a Hufflepuff,' he joked. Of course popularity had little to do with what house one was in, but Pax couldn't help but think of his own house as the friendliest. They were known for their loyalty, after all.

Alex smiled, "Excited to get back to school? That sounds pretty serious, Peyton- usually, only Sasha is." And me, she thought, but she wasn't going to start complaining about her Father now, so instead she said, "If you want a protective crazy older sister, I volunteer." She pulled a grumpy face, her voice dropping an octave, "What do you mean, you want to talk to Peyton? Do you have an appointment? No? Then I'm happy to say that's impossible." Her voice returned to normal as she continued, "I'd be great at it!"

Turning to slightly more important matters, she wondered whether she should tell Peyton to be careful or just enthuse with him. "So, he's basically your perfect guy? He sounds amazing." She smiled, and continued, "I hope he falls for you. You deserve some romance after putting so much time into studying last year, other than just being a generally worthy person." Warnings could come later, for now, she would share in her friend's enthusiasm. "I hope that he knows how lucky he is."

"And anyway, he's an idiot if he doesn't," she announced tempestuously, before returning to an essential piece of information that Peyton had neglected to mention, "So- what's his name?"

Peyton chuckled heartily and gave Alex a one armed hug. He neglected to mention the fact that he was actually older than her, in fact he was going to be the first Raven in their year to hit the big 1 7 in September. The thought of her being his protector was amusing enough to let the fact go not to mention he liked the idea of it all, "With that attitude I might never get a date to the Yule Ball." He chuckled again. He hadn't really thought about what he'd do when the Yule Ball came around. The last big Ball they had was the Valentine's one and he had gone with Bellatrix Dark, his other female protector.

"He is the perfect guy. I just wish I knew if he was, well you know, like me." He looked into the flames for a moment a smirk curving his lips, "It's not really something you can just come out with you know, 'Oh hey by the way, you dig blokes any?" He chuckled again at himself before turning to Alex and mentally kicking himself for having not mentioned the name in the first place.

"His name is Mace and he has three sisters, triplets, Mary, Sherry and Cherry." He smirked again before offering her a shrug, "Helena was there when I met him so the whole sister thing just kind of came up."

Jazz hushed discreetly to Church and focused her attention on the Hufflepuff.  Elijah Young.  She liked this lad.  Really liked him.  And not just in a tolerable friendly acquaintance way.  In a legit, want to be good friends with, kind of way.  Smiling genuinely at him, noticing his awkward social skills, she sat beside him.

"Hello Elijah.  Fancy seeing you here." she greeted, mood lifting in his presence.  For the briefest moment, the horrors of the vision escaped her and she was able to enjoy herself.  Opening a bag of marshmallows, she held it out to Elijah, offering him one while eating one herself.

She stared into the fire and relished in the heat hitting her face.  The flames flickered and danced in a way that delighted Jazz.  "I'm glad I came out tonight.  Sophie had a really good idea, doing this." she commented to no one in particular.

Elijah was surprise but happy that Jazz decided to sit next to him. He looked to his side, where the blonde friend sat. "Yeah, I am happy as well." He partially lied. He did not like parties. But he liked seeing his friends again. Even though he had seen Jazz a lot last summer, every time he saw her he bubbled with joy again.

He lifted his chin to Church. "You just standing there?" He jokingly said as he accepted one marshmallow from Jazz. He was happy he was here with his friends again, it always felt good being together again.

Holding the marshmallow in the fire, making it nice and soft he turned to Jazz again. "Do we have biscuits and chocolates as well? I would really fancy a smoore." He then asked, feeling his mouth already water from the idea of eating a smoore.