Feels good to be here.

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel smiled, as he straightened the frame of the photo above his brand new fireplace, the last thing to be put into place in his new flat. Finally, finally, finally, he had found a flat in his home country, and it felt good. He released his hair from the short ponytail it had been in, and ruffled it, pulling the comical, oversized clip from his fringe. The clip had been a gift from a friend, when he left Hogwarts Scotland, and he had actually found it incredibly useful, if a bit too garish to wear in front of people. Placing it on the mantlepiece above the fireplace, he surveyed his work proudly, straightening a cushion on the sofa selfconsciously, then beamed with pride at how he had done. The perfect home, and he didn't even need to share with rowdy flatmates, like his dormmates at HS had been. And living with his mum had been great, but after a certain age it got sad, and Gabriel was already enjoying the space.

He flopped onto the sofa, making the formerly perfect cushions utterly crooked, and sighed. Okay, now what to do. All his work supplies were still packed up until he found a job... his guitar hadn't survived the trip, sadly, and Gabriel was going to have to save up for another one. TV was out, he didn't have electricity until tomorrow. Which left reading. Or exploring the new neighbourhood. He knew his aunt and her kids lived somewhere near here, and almost considered visiting, but decided that seemed a little random, and after all... he hadn't visited them since just after he finished Hogwarts, soon after they had moved back from France. Definitely not an option.

Stretching up from the sofa, Gabriel decided that exploring seemed like the best option, grabbing some shoes, and throwing a jacket on over what he was already wearing. He locked the door behind himself, chucking the keys in his pocket and checking his watch, remembering that he had to be home by 6, because his mum was gonna phone before her night shift and ask how moving in was going. He had to remember to email her pictures of the new flat as soon as the internet was up - she'd been asking for them for days now. Whistling a happy tune he strolled down the footpath, content in getting to know his new neighborhood.

 

[Rose Love]

Rose was having a bad day and was walking without looking where she was going even though it was a hot day she still had her hood up she bumped into someone on accident.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel blinked when a short girl bumped into him. He had hardly been paying attention to where he was going, enjoying the rare nice day, taking in his new neighborhood. He hadn't expected to see anyone at all, which, in retrospect, was rather silly. Primary school would have just finished about now, of course there would be kids about.
"I'm sorry." He said, crouching down to check that he hadn't hurt her. "Are you okay?"

 

[Rose Love]

Rose looked up. "i'm fine" she said pulling her hood down. "i'm Rose, Rose Love" she said.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

Sarah was bored again. She had only been in town for a little while, and soon learned that there was nothing to do. She had lessons with Angela later that night; but wanted to relax. That's when she saw them. Two people, a young woman and an older man. They seemed to be friendly looking enough. She smoothed out her yellow dress. She walked over and noticed that trhe girl was very young; maybe her and the boy were related. She hoped she wasn't inturupting.

"Hiya, mind if i join the talk?" She asked, a peppy tone in her voice.

 

[Rose Love]

Rose shurgged. "i don't care" she said.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She smiled at the younger girl. This girl was probably the same age as her niece, Angela. "I'm Sarah."

 

[Rose Love]

Rose smiled. "I'm Rose" she said.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel smiled when the little girl introduced herself, standing back up. "Nice to meet you Rose. I'm Gabriel." He looked over when a woman closer to his own age walked over, and smiled politely at her. He hadn't expected to meet this many people so soon after moving... a definite plus.

"You're not interrupting at all." Gabriel smiled. "I just accidentally knocked this girl over and was making sure she was okay."

"Gabriel Blume." He said when the others introduced themselves. "I just finished moving in here today, it's nice to have met people already."

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She smiled at Gabriel and laughed a bit when he told his story. "How nice of you." She said.

He made a comment about just moving here and she grinned even wider. "Oh really? Where did you move from?" She asked.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

"Uh... living with my parents." Gabriel laughed embarrassedly. "I went to boarding school in Scotland, and only just got around to finding a place of my own in New Zealand." He smiled, chewing his lip ring out of habit. "What about you... do you live around here?"

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She giggled a bit, noticing his embarrassment with his parents. He said he had lived with them before coming here. "I just moved from Japan to here, a few weeks ago." She said smiling

 

[Gabriel Blume]

"Really?" Gabriel smiled. He had been trying to figure out if she was Japanese or Chinese, but he was an awful judge of that sort of thing. "Your English is really good." He smiled. "Are you liking New Zealand?"

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

"Well i would hope it is, since i had to learn that and another language!" She said with a grin. She knew not only Japanese, but french, and also English. She had learned the languages at a very young age. "Well i like it so far. Lots of people are friendly. How about you?"

 

[Gabriel Blume]

"Really? Which other language?" Gabriel asked curiously. He had always been interested in languages, though he couldn't speak any other ones. He remembered visiting his cousins when he was seventeen and being awed by five and seven year olds spouting French like it was the easiest thing in the world, then switching to English just like that when they realised he couldn't understand them. He wondered briefly if his aunt could teach him some French - another good reason to go visit his extended family.

"I'm liking it alright... it's so great being back here, though I don't really know many people... I only came back from Scotland a year ago, and all my friends still live up there." Gabriel missed his friends immensely, but he had missed New Zealand even more. There was nothing that could compare with the clearness of the air, the sweet scent of untainted nature, and he had yearned for his home country the whole time he lived in Scotland.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She grinned. She loved showing off her ability to speak other languages. She had loved it since she was little. She remembered coming home from Beuxbatons, and telling her parents things in french. "Well i speak Japanese, English, and French." She said smiling widely.

"Well I'm very glad you like it here. So do you miss your friends then?"

 

[Gabriel Blume]

"French? Awesome!" Gabriel grinned. "My cousins are all from France. I never learned to speak French though, my mum stayed here when her sister moved."

Gabriel nodded. "It kinda sucks, but I'm working on the whole making new friends thing, and we still write to each other and stuff. I'm going up there next time I get a decent holiday from work." He smiled.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She smiled when he said that it was awesome that she spoke french. "Do you speak french?" She asked.

"Yeah well here, it's easy to make friends. everyone i know is super nice!"

 

[Rose Love]

Rose got shy all of a sudden. "i'm not a little girl and you went Hogwarts in Scottland" she said.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She looked at the girl who claimed she wasn't little. "Okay then, but you aren't exactly a big girl either."

 

[Rose Love]

"yeah but i'm only ten so" she said.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel shook his head when asked if he spoke French. "Nah... I never had time to learn. I want to though." He smiled.

"That's good." Gabriel grinned. "I was kinda worried everyone here would be all set in their friends and stuff... I'm still kind of expecting high school over again to be honest." He laughed.

Gabriel chuckled when Rose protested him calling her little, then paled when she mentioned Hogwarts. Had this girl's parents not taught her to hold her tongue in front of people who could be muggles? There could be a disaster if she just ran around blabbing to everyone!

"Sssssh." Gabriel whispered. "Hogwarts is a private school, remember." He chose his words carefully, still assuming Sarah was a muggle for safety's sakes. "You can't talk about it to outsiders. They're very secretive." He explained.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She smiled. What a mean joke to play on them. It would be fun, but would they be mad? Well she hasn't gotten a good laugh in a while. "What's Hogwarts?" She asked, faking curiosity.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel blushed. This was not good at all. "Uhh... it's a really private school. Most people don't even know it exists... it's kind of for people with... different abilities. Not special needs or anything, they just focus on different subjects to most other schools." It was the truth... in a way, so Gabriel didn't feel too bad for lying. He hated keeping it secret, but running about blabbing to all and sundry was definitely not the way to go.

 

[Rose Love]

Rose rolled her eyes. "um sir she's a witch and your a wizard duh" she said being able to tell that Sarah Xu-Marion had gotten a sly look for a bit.