The Relaxation Tree

Theresa nodded "yes I have" she said as she walked closer to the tree. "Spy on the other students more easily huh? I wondered how you always have the best news during the little gossip sessions that we somehow manage to have" she said, giggling. "There may be nothing wrong with trees now but we will see how you feel after you fall out of it" she teased as she happily sat down on the grass.

"Hey, don't knock the gossip sessions!" Shelby said jokingly, "You know you love them just as much as the rest of us. Just wait until you fancy a boy. When that happens, I'm so going to tell Lauren."

"Speaking of Lauren, do you know if she did her dare yet?" she asked, wondering if their Gryffindor friend had told Theresa about their deal.

Theresa blanched as she leaned against the tree "that will never happen so you wont be able to tell Lauren anything" she said stubbonely. She crossed her arms and clossed her eyes as she thought "she sent me a message saying that she had sent him a letter, that is all I know about the yucky dare and it is all I want to know" she said, pretending to be sick again.

Shelby laughed at Theresa's reaction. "Just you wait," she said, hopping down from the tree and sitting next to her friend. "Some day you are going to fancy a boy, and you're going to have to come to me and Lauren for advice since you'll have never fancied anyone before and we'll have to tell you how to act."

An evil grin flashed across her face as she continued. "I can't wait until you fancy someone," she laughed.

Theresa snorted "it will never happen, I will never fancy any of the smelly, weird boys here" she said, shaking her head for emphasis. She looked at her friend amusedly "why wouldn't you be able to wait? not that it will happen though" she said. She rested her hands under her head for support, trying not to giggle as she waited for her friend's answer, knowing that it would just make her laugh.

Shelby giggled. "That was a very lady-like snort, Theresa. And I can't wait because then you'll be just like the us- I mean, Lauren. You'll be just like Lauren," Shelby diverted her eyes from Theresa's and stared at a suddenly very fascinating blade of grass, hoping that her friend hadn't caught her slip up.

Theresa realised that Shelby had said 'us'. Her friend turned to look as the grass, obviously embarrissed. She thought for a moment, she would talk to Lauren later, for now, she would let her friend off, for now. "I didn't snort" she denied, poking her friend in the shoulder, hoping that she could somehow cheer her up, she was obviously shy about it. She would be too if she turned into a boy loving zombie which she almost was earlier that day, she wasnt going to admit that to them though!

Shelby giggled and poked her friend back, her cheeks were still a little pink but the blush had faded considerably. "Yes you did," she laughed before returning to the semi-serious conversation they'd been having moments ago. "You know, my mum says that people who fight too hard to defend themselves are hiding something. You're pretty defensive about liking boys," she put the pieces together. "Is there something that you're not telling me?" she asked with a sly smile.

Theresa's jaw dropped as she watched her friend. Her cheeks turned bright red as she quickly stood up "no I am not, boys are gross" she said, straightening her skirt before walking to the tree. "I think I will have a little climb" she said as she gripped one of the low branches and climbed to one of the high ones.

Shelby laughed and lay back on the grass to look up at her now blushing friend. "Whatever you say," Shelby giggled, having a sneaking suspision that Theresa was in fact hiding something. "You know, if you did like a boy, you could tell me," she said. "I wouldn't tell anyone. Except maybe Lauren, but she wouldn't tell anyone either."

Theresa tried her best to lean against the tree as she sat on the branch. She rolled her eyes "I do not like any boys so there is nothing to tell" she said. She crossed her arms "can we please stop talking about boys, I think I am going to be sick" she said, pretending to gag before she picked at the leaves on the tree.

Shelby was sure that Theresa was lying but she decided to drop it for the sake of her Hufflepuff friend's sanity, and her own.

"Fine," Shelby snickered. "What would you rather talk about?" she asked pulling a few blades of grass out of the ground and twisting them around her fingers.

Theresa smiled "how about... who this Merope person is or something, I really want to know about how they got expelled, also I am wondering who this Orieta girl is, I think thats her name and if you mention one thing about what a gossip I sound like I will pelt you with leaves" she said, giggling as she looked down at her friend.

"Well I don't know anything about Merope. All I know is that she got expelled. I asked around and no one else seems to know anything about her either," Shelby said, happily slipping into gossip mode.

"As for Orietta, she was a Ravenclaw and she was in a few of my classes. I'm not really sure what she did to get expelled though, but I'm pretty sure it happened during the Purge," Shelby searched her brain to see if she had any more information, but she didn't.

"What about you? Have you heard anything?" she asked.

Theresa shrugged "the only stuff I know of is about Nick Hale ans Parkinson but everyone already knows about all that I think" she said. She hopped down from the tree when she disided that it was safe and sat down next to her friend. Picking at the grass and throwing some into the wind, wondering how far it would actually go before it hit the ground again or even the lake.

"Can you imagine all the cool stuff we'd be able to do if we were seventh years right now?" Shelby blurted out randomly. "We'd be able to do all sorts of advanced magic, not just Alohamora and Immuto Acus. Even if we were third years, we'd be able to go to Hogsmeade instead of having to stay at the castle all the time," she sighed. "Being a first year is the worst. We can't even fly without supervision by a teacher."

Theresa nodded "I know, the second years can fly, the third can have trips and all the others have great magic, we have nothing" she said as she leaned back in the grass. "Third years even get better lessons, I cant wait for care of magical creatures" she said. She had loved everythinng to do with magical creatures ever since she saw her first Hippogriff when she was young. She thought for a moment "although we do get dueling club" she said.

Shelby sighed again. "Yes, but dueling club is pointless when we don't know any decent curses to use," Shelby remembered a jinx that she had read about that caused the person hit with it to tap dance until the counter-jinx was performed. She had been itching to try it out on someone, but the new castle rules expressly forbid them using any magic that they had not yet learned in class.

Theresa sighed "good point, we will just have to all writher away in boredom" she said, her eyes lit up. "What are you complaining about Princess, you could do about a million things in your common room of awesomness" she teased. She giggled as she remembered their discusion earlier that day.

"That's right!" Shelby's eyes lit up in excitement. "We can do anything we want in the common room of the House of Awesome!" she laughed. "I can't wait to see if the Room of Requirement can actually make it for us."

Mentioning the Room made Shelby remember something else she had been wondering. "If the Room can make its own food, do you think that it can make any book you want appear?"

Theresa grinned "it must be able to, the room can do a lot, the books would probably be simple for it" she said gigling at the idea. "I am sure of it after it made a party room and a quidditch pitch" she said enthusiastically. She was giggling madly at her friend's expression which quickly changed from boredom to excitement.

Shelby squealed delightfully as she read the note from the Headmistress that had just been delivered by a passing owl. "Oh my Merlin," she gasped. "Just wait until Lauren reads this!" she said to Theresa. "This explains a lot of the things that have been going on here," she said.

Theresa quickly finished reading the message that was sent to her and grinned "well this is going to make the next gossip session a whole lot more interesting" she joked. "Abusing girlfriend, what on earth was this guy doing, its not enough for a boy and girl to date" she said, gagging.

"He must have some serious problems," Shelby said. "I'm just surprised at them trying to start another school. I mean, this one is perfectly fine. THey just couldn't follow the rules. Or at lease, he couldn't and they somehow got sucked into it," she said, still in a bit of shock.

"Yea, maybe he roped them into it and now they have no choise because they have been expelled, I would hate to be expelled from here, like you said, it's a good school and also it is fun, when we ar enot nearly killing ourselves that is" Theresa said. She looked over the message again and still couldn't believe that one person could have done so many things, it was like he was purposely checking off the school rules, making sure to break them all.