Blade walked to his table and sat down. He looked exhausted and he was. He had worked late into the night and had managed to produce a patronus charm. But the results shocked him and he had a hard time sleeping after that. He got himself a large mug of tea and was yawning heavily not really noticing the shops.

Niamh had really enjoyed her trip to the beach, and was sorry to have to leave. As she entered the Great Hall, still wearing the necklace Blade had bought her (she had worn it every day, only removing it overnight since the trip to the beach) she was intrigued to see the pop up shops by the Hufflepuff table. She realised Blade was already there, and sat next to him, "you ok? You're looking knackered."

Blade gave Niamh a tiny wave. "Hey," he said taking another sip of his tea. "I feel like...pickled flobberworms. I was up late practicing a charm and then when I got it, I couldn't sleep. I ache and yeah...feeling washed out."

Niamh resisted the temptation to say he looked like picked flobberworms as she didn't think it would help. "Which charm were you working on?" she asked, wondering what could've been so engrossing that he stayed up so late to practise it.

Blade managed to refrain from sighing, barely. He should've known that question was coming. "Well," he replied, "I heard many students here knew how to do a patronus...so I've been working on it on my own. I finally got a corporal patronus last night." But it wasn't what he thought it would be in the slightest.

"Hang on, you managed to do that without any lessons? That's incredible!" Niamh had realised Blade was intelligent, but didn't know he was quite so skilled. "It took months for me to get it to work, and that was with having lessons here last term. What patronus did you end up with?"

"Is it?" he asked feeling a little better. "Well if it helps, all I've learnt is basically on my own. I mean a tutor would help some but a lot of it is either solo or one on one. But here there's other students so I suspect that didn't help you." He took a gulp of his tea wishing it was fire whiskey. He looked around and no one was beside them so he said, "thestral." Now he was very worried she'd shun him. Thestrals were often avoided because of the death thing after all, and the skeletal look. If his animal guide was that, who would want to know him more?

"I think the other students can get quite distracting," Niamh replied thoughtfully, "although sometimes that's just my excuse if I get a lower mark than I was meant to." When he said what his patronus was, Niamh felt totally surprised. "That's so cool!" One of the other Gryffindor girls has a field mouse for a patronus, so yours is so much better than hers. And yours is really rare isn't it?"

Millie walked into the Great Hall and poured herself a cup of English breakfast tea with two sugars and chose a cranberry orange scone before sitting sitting down at the Hufflepuff table, opposite of the booths. She unraveled the blanket she had been crocheting and resumed where she left off. "Hello Niamh () and Blade ()" she said while starting her stitches. She thought of asking how they were but decided not to. She could feel they were in middle of a private conversation. She smiled and turned her attention to her blanket while sipping her tea.

Private Outfit Kiara sat on the bench at the Ravenclaw table, hunched over and scowling at the food on the table. Mornings were not her time. Breakfast wasn't her meal. Her stomach did not feel READY for food this soon after waking up. She snagged a waffle from one of the plates and nibbled on it grumpily, while drinking a glass of water. She knew she would feel better later if she had at least a little bit of food in her stomach, and her own personal rule was that she had to drink 16 ounces of water first thing in the morning, because she had heard that it was good for you.

She also still had sea water tangled hair, because she'd been too busy studying lately to bother with showering. Also she kind of liked how it looked and smelled and she hated taking showers for some reason so really she just had too many excuses not to take one.

Blade nodded. "Hey if the excuse works right?" he said as he finally shoved some scrambled eggs and bacon onto his plate and put some marmalade on some toast. He looked up surprised that she thought it was cool. "Really? You think so?" he asked. "You don't think its creepy cos of the skeletal look and death thing?" He nodded. "Yeah its very rare. Took me for a loop to be honest. What's yours?"

Millie arrived and sat down. "Morning," Blade said. He was watching with fascination. What on earth was she doing? "What are you doing?" he asked. He hadn't seen Kiara since his back was facing the other tables. But he wasn't a social butterfly anyway. It was taking him awhile to get comfortable talking to people. Suddenly he realised the popup shops where there. "Oh cool, Dominic Maestro's, I can get some reeds."

Millie heard Blade ask what she was doing. She looked up and responded, "I'm crocheting. It's kind of like knitting but with one hook instead of two needles. It helps with my anxiety. It gives me something to focus one while being productive. I've been making blankets for the patients at St. Mungos, where my dad works as a healer. He says homemade blankets make the patients feel more at home, which promotes quicker healing."

She broke off a piece of her scone and ate with and took another drink of tea.

"I've never heard of that before," Blade said. "I've seen knitting but not this crochet." He wasn't sure how to comment about the homemade blankets. "I guess I can see how it might help. My stay there wasn't exactly fun when I was twelve."

“It’s really calming. You get lost in making the loops” she told Blade (.) “I was lucky my dad brought me some things last year when I was in St. Mungos. He brought me my favorite quilt my grandmother made me when I was born. Sorry, that’s my grandmother from Germany. My mum is from Germany.”

((I'm not sure the German names are allowed on the forums, asked to double check for us. I maybe best for now to just say she said the word in German but post the English.))

"I know what it means," Blade said softly. "My mother is German as well. I speak it fluently." He even took his music lessons in German, though he had so far only shared that detail with one other person.

(( - you're absolutely correct. It slipped my mind. I went back and corrected it))

"I'm fluent in German too. Emmett is from Germany as well. He lives up the street from my grandparents." She set her crochet down and continued, "that's really neat you learned music in German. Where is your mother from, if you don't mind me asking? Mine is from Berlin.""

((its so easy to do.))

"Cool. Emmett is?" Blade asked. "My grandfather is a German composer. Mother's from Bremen. Berlin is very pretty."

(( it is. I knew whole conversations were but I couldn’t remember if just a few words were))

“Emmett is my boyfriend. He is in his final term at Durmstrang.” She took another drink of her tea. “That’s really cool. I used to play the chello but it got to be too much for me when I started my third year and had to pick up extra classes. I miss it.

“I love Berlin. I always look forward to visiting. I also really enjoy Teningen and Rothenburg, mostly because of the history.

“Do you ever go to London?” She asked. “My mum owns a Germany bakery there. She makes muggle goods and runs a side shop employing two witches who make magical goods. A lot of those are German too.”

((My German ancestors are from Teningen. My mom and I traced them back to mid 17th century))

(( Nope. Sadly. Though honorifics for Japanese are okay.))

"Ah, I see," Blade said. "Maybe you can pick it back up soon." When Millie asked about London, Blade shook his head. "Only the magical sections. My parents are er... not understanding about muggles so if they are allowed I wouldn't be allowed to go to that shop. It makes no sense because my grandfather is a muggle."

((have anscetroy there, used to live in Germany and was an exchange student for a month. In fact, I have a German character coming soon.))