Nikolas stretched and leaned back against the stonework of the castle's entrance, glancing out onto the Hogwarts grounds. While the sky was still overcast it was not raining at the moment, and looked like it wouldn't any time soon. The day was easily the nicest day they've had since last fall.  He had been feeling antsy since the snow had set in, cooping everyone up in the castle.

He twirled his wand idly as he checked his watch. Frowning he peered back into the castle's depths, Billy was supposed to be here several minutes ago. There was a new section of the forest that he wanted to explore and this was the first time in a couple of months that they were finally able to go outside without five layers on. "Come on Billy, where the heck are you."

It was too bloody early in the morning to have to be outside. It was too bloody early in the morning to do anything other that lay there with the sheets over his head - and yet here he was, stomping through the castle to meet up with Niko to check out the bloody forest in the bloody cold because the bloody Gryffindor hadn't seen one bloody stupid empty bloody clearing...

Muttering under his breath wasn't uncommon for Bilius in the morning; his roommates had long ceased to pay it any attention.

That said, Bilius was in a decent mood - for him, at least. He'd gotten breakfast before heading to the courtyard and was even now carrying a jelly donut as he headed outside. It looked to be sunny today, which was good; the Forest was a bad place to be in any weather, but the sun always drove away the worst of its residents.

He headed down the stairs of the courtyard, his wand's end clicking on the edges of the steps. It was hug from his belt in a swordlike fashion, as usual. Niko's tall form was easy to spot, and Bilius headed over to him, grunting in greeting as he arrived at Niko's side. He looked up, chewing in the donut without really bothering to look happy - it would have been a lie anyhow, and he wasn't going to insult Niko's intelligence by bothering.

"Where to?" he asked, brushing his hair into place absently.

Niko grinned down at his short friend, completely ignoring Billy's sour mood. "I'm thinking heading north from where we were exploring last October." He pulled out a piece of parchment from the front pocket of his jeans, unfolding it with care. This reveled a fairly detailed map of the forbidden forest that the two of them had been working on for the past two years.

Nikolas sat down  and pointed at the grove labeled Oct. 18th. "I'd like to see if we can get here." He traced a path that ended in a blank section of the map, about an inch above the grove. He looked from the map back to Billy, "Or did you have somewhere else you wanted to try?"

Bilius shrugged, silently both annoyed and glad Niko'd sat down. It was that same annoying juxtaposition that always plagued him; he hated it when people accommodated him, but at the same time he couldn't see the bloody map without help. It was just another thing on the long list of things that annoyed him.

"Mm. Sounds fine to me," he said, loudly finishing off the donut - was it even possible to eat those things quietly? - and cleaning his fingers with his wand. "That's the glade with that stream, isn't it?" he asked, pointing to the filled-in grove on the map with the tip of his wand. He mostly remembered it via falling in it the previous October.

"There was a big log in the way of the path last year, remember? We'll have to go over it, or under it or whatever. Y'know how dangerous going off the path can be."

Winifred had yet to poke Nikolas about tutoring her. So far things had been going well, and working with Trishna and the others had proved to be effective- at least so far. It was weird to know the answers to things and for Professors to smile at her instead of rolling their eyes or covering their face with their hand.

She was coming out of the great hall whenever she spotted Nikolas heading outside. Shortly there after Bilius Clogg-Spleen was tottering out the door with a donut in his hand. A jelly filled one. Winifred was always nosey- and the idea of that Slytherin going outside of his own accord seemed... odd. She did not associate Bilius Clogg-Spleen with having fun in the sun. Winnie associated him with having fun by stringing people up by their toes in a dungeon and laughing maniacally from a pair of giant stilts which gave him amazing powers. Maybe she would give him stilts for his birthday or Christmas- if she found out when his birthday was.

And because it was odd, Winifred followed a few yards behind him- nodding in an all-knowing-fashion when he stopped to talk to Nikolas. That explained it. The Gryffindor had lured him out...

Nikolas had always been pretty nice to her in classes. So she felt it must be so unfair for him to be suck with a grouchy old sour pus like Bilius all day long. So she skipped over, flopping down on the ground across from Niko. "Hello, Nikolas!" Then she looked at Billy- ignoring him would be rude. "Bilius Clogg-Spleen," she greeted simply. "I've been looking for you all week Nikolas!" she told him. Not entirely true- but it sounded good. "I have a very important question to ask you."

Nikolas nodded along with what Billy was saying, "True." Niko glanced up at the sky and then back down. "Given the weather I don't think we should try and go over it, the wood will be slick with all the rain we've been having recently. We could go around it without too much trouble, I think the stump was not too far outside of the clearing."

"Hello, Nikolas!"

Niko started as Winnie flopped down in front of him. "W-w-winnie. Good to see you." Niko hurridly tried to refold the map up before she saw and messily shoved it into his coat pocket as she greeted Billy.

"I've been looking for you all week Nikolas! I have a very important question to ask you."

"Oh?" Niko raised his eyebrow at her, "We did have class together yesterday, but..." He waved his hand dismissively, "what question did you have?" Curious as he was about Winnie's question the call of the forest was stronger. The sooner she got her answer the sooner he and Billy could be off.

Ugh, Oliver. Of all the people the gods needed to smite, she was on the top of Bilius's list. Yet she always seemed to survive, somehow. He almost wished her claims Storm was trying to kill her were true; Storm could make quick work of her, he was sure.

And the world would be a smarter, less annoying place. But there was no point in dwelling on dreams.

"He's not gonna let you practice snogging on 'im, Oliver," he sneered. "No point in asking." He half leaned on Niko, since he was standing behind the other boy. He leaned an elbow on Niko's shoulder and sniffed derisively - something his large nose made him quite good at.

Winifred stuck her tongue out at the Slytherin. "You're just jealous because I wouldn't ask you for practice, Bilius Clogg-Spleen. Because you know that nobody would ever want to snog you. Nobody wants to snog a boy on a ladder." It wasn't like Winifred to be so very mean, but Billy just got on her nerves! He was always making fun of her! (Which might have something to do with the fact she was always making fun of him, but logic was not one of her strongest skills.) "Besides," Winifred added, "I have a boyfriend. And I wouldn't want him to beat up Nikolas for snogging me." Not entirely true. But it was her most recent story for her friends- that she did, indeed, have a boyfriend they were just keeping their romance a secret.

Now that Bilius was taken care of- she refocused her attentions on Nikolas. "Professor Trishna told me that you would be a good person to ask for help with classes. I'm supposed to try to do better and study and stuff. I just keep forgetting to ask you at class- because I'm usually focused on something else." Like drawing pictures instead of taking notes, or trying not to blow everyone up with her stupid wand. "I was not going to ask you for snogging practice," she added, glaring at Bilius again. "That's hardly the sort of studying I think Trishna had in mind when he told me to ask you."

He's not gonna let you practice snogging on 'im, Oliver," Billy sneered. "No point in asking."

Nikolas blinked, blank faced. 'Snogging practice? With Winnie?' Niko dragged is mind back to the conversation to avoid his mind crashing from the thought just in time to catch Winnie's response.

You're just jealous because I wouldn't ask you for practice, Bilius Clogg-Spleen. Because you know that nobody would ever want to snog you. Nobody wants to snog a boy on a ladder."

Aaand Niko went right back into disturbing (and yet bloody hilarious) mental images. Nikolas bit his lip trying not to burst into peals of laughter at the thought of Billy and Winnie in an alcove of the castle, snogging the heck out of each other.

"Professor Trishna told me that you would be a good person to ask for help with classes. I'm supposed to try to do better and study and stuff. I just keep forgetting to ask you at class- because I'm usually focused on something else. I was not going to ask you for snogging practice. That's hardly the sort of studying I think Trishna had in mind when he told me to ask you."

"Yeah," Niko squeeked out, valiantly trying to hold in his laughter. "I agree." Nikolas took a deep breath and attempted to banish the visual of Billy and Winnie snogging from his mind so he could focus on Winnie's question. "I don't mind really. But I'm not certain that I would be the best tutor for everything. DADA, Astronomy, and Charms I can defiantly help with. Ancient Runes I could as well, but you're not in that class."

Niko tapped his finger on his chin as he flashed through all of his classes. "You'd probably be better off getting help from someone else for Herbology and History of Magic and whatever electives that we don't share."

It was a good thing looks couldn't kill, because of they could Winifred Oliver would have decompressed very messily.

Jaw set, eyes bulging out and wand at the ready, Bilius growled loudly, his large nose scrunched up in anger. "I am not jealous! If I did snog you I'd loose so many brain cells I'd wind up liking it - I'd be as dumb as Pepper is!....and you would not need a ladder!" He sniffed loudly. "You have a boyfriend? Just come out with it, it's probably Pepper. Everyone knows he fancies you." He'd have to stop that - they might breed.

Niko laughing wasn't helping Bilius's mood; he kicked Niko in the kidneys to get him to shut up. "Fine, whatever, tutor the bint - it won't do her any good anyway. Can we go now?"

"I'm so horrid at Defense," she said to Nikolas- not realizing he had been holding in a fit of laughter. Not that she would have been offended if he did laugh, she would have only been offended if he had told her he was picturing she and Bilius snogging. THat was offensive. He was gross and tiny, and before she met Bilius Clogg-Spleen, she had never realized that tiny things had the capability to be gross.

Winifred blushed when Billy accused her of having Ambrose as a boyfriend. "It is not Ambrose Pepper! And he doesn't fancy me." she protested. Because it was true. Ambrose was not her boyfriend, and as far as she knew he didn't fancy her- they were just friends, and he listened to her- and a lot of people didn't do that. So she liked him more than some of her other friends in her year. "He older than a third year," she bragged.

"And tutoring does help! I got a question right in astronomy! And I knew the reason! And I haven't blown anybody up in class in a week!" A real accomplishment for Winifred Leigh Oliver. Getting an answer was more than anyone could have hoped for, and then her wand not backfiring (too badly) was miraculous.

But she was distracted from being contrary when Billy asked Niko if they could "go now". "Go?" she questioned. "Go where? Where are you going?" One of the few things Winnie was good at included being curious- and asking a lot of questions, and being nosy. "You don't want to go anywhere with Bilius Clogg-Spleen, he'll fall in a hole and get stuck."

"Go?" Winnie questioned. "Go where? Where are you going?"

'Crap.'Nikolas frantically groped around for anything to distract her away from that line of thought "Uh, Billy and I are going to... to... to wander around by the lake." 'Think, think. What does Winnie dislike? "We thought we might go and borrow a couple of brooms and head over to the quidditch pitch and fly around for a bit." Niko mentally patted his back for his quick thinking.

"You don't want to go anywhere with Bilius Clogg-Spleen, he'll fall in a hole and get stuck."

He leaned back against the stone work, rubbing his head. The chances of Billy letting that one go were slim to none and he didn't want to play referee to the ensuing argument. Nikolas sighed, "Winnie, just because you and Billy hate each other doesn't mean that everyone else shares your opinion. Billy and I are friends just like I'm friends with you."

"I don't hate Billy!" she protested- it was a rarity for her not to call him by his full name. She couldn't help that habit. It just fit him so well. He was small and weird and had a big nose and Clogg-Spleen was just a funny name and it seemed to fit. So she called him that. Besides, she wasn't the only one. (At least, she didn't think that she was. The professors, at least, called him Clogg-Spleen... sometimes.) "I don't hate anyone. It's not nice to hate people. Even if they are Slytherins." At least she had chosen that particular trait instead of the more obvious.

"Quidditch pitch?" she repeated, making a face. "I'm awful at qudditch. I can't fly. At all." There were a lot of things that Winifred could not do at all, though. So she was somewhat accustomed to it. She refrained from making a joke about Billy and brooms. He was Nikolas' friend, and she knew that she didn't like it when others picked on her friends in front of her. So she would try to play nice for as long as she was forced to endure Bilius Clogg-Spleen's company. (Naturally the idea she could just go away had not occurred to her.)

Winifred suddenly crouched down and wrapped her warms around his waist, scooping him up. "Bilius Clogg-Spleen and are the best of friends!" she announced to Niko, placing very loud, very wet kiss on the goblin-boy's face before plopping him back down on the ground. "I don't hate him- he hates me." Because in her mind, Billy had started it all. (She couldn't remember, exactly, who had started everything in the past, but at the moment she was inclined to believe he had and that she was just retaliating.)

He went from twitching in annoyance to blank in shock in about .02 seconds. Even when she put him down, he sat there stunned for a few moments, opening and closing his mouth like a frog.  Then his rain turned back on, and he processed what she'd said. Aside from Niko's great save, friends? What the hell. "You and I are not friends, Oliver! And - ugh," he wiped his cheek dramatically. "You snog your friends? Uggghh," he kept wiping his  cheek like the touch wouldn't come off.

"Gah, now I have to go shower again," he snapped at her, drawing his wand. "That was totally uncalled for! Jelly-legs!" There was almost no pause between his whining and his casting the jinx.

Nikolas facepalmed when Winnie insisted that she and Billy were great friends and then picked Billy up and gave him a kiss. Sometimes, in the not nice corner of his mind, Niko really wondered if Winnie had any kind of survival instinct. 'Five, four, three, two...'

"You and I are not friends, Oliver! And - ugh. You snog your friends? Uggghh. Gah, now I have to go shower again. That was totally uncalled for! Jelly-legs!""

'And there goes Billy right on schedule. Why me?'

 "Gah! Can you guys ever not argue?" Surging upwards, he grabbed his wand and pointed it at Winnie. "Unjellify." Not even bothering to see if Winnie was alright, Nikolas irritatedly grabbed Billy by the back of his shirt collar and dragged the smaller boy away from the castle towards the section of the Forbidden Forest they had been planning to explore. 'And it was such a nice day.'