[Mike Dirnt]

Mike looked under where he was sitting, on a tree branch somewhat high up in the Forbidden Forrest, when he heard scratching at the base of the tree. There was a small dog like animal now barking at Mike from the ground. It was a Crup. It's forked tail was straight up, and it was nervous because it didn't know what Mike was, or who he was.

Smiling, Mike brought out his wand and summoned it up. Crups were very loyal, and not all that dangerous. Some were kept as pets. It began to sniff Mike, and Mike relaxed a bit, stretching out on the thick branch. He was pretty much laying down now, and the Crup was now sniffing him. It was getting used to him, so it began to relax.

He started scratching behind it's ears like you would a normal dog, and just like a dog, it's forked tail began to wag and it barked happily. This was one of the reasons Mike wasn't placed in Slytherin, like he almost was. He loved dogs, and he was a loving guy at times. But, he could also be extremly cruel and mean. You had to know him, or he had to like you to see his good side.

[Sorry. Crap.]

[Zooey Deschanel]

((Let's see the crappy post I make for Zooey... ))

Walking through the forest was one of the Hufflepuff's favorite pasttimes. After all, what was scary about the forest besides well... Everything? Well... Whoever said Zooey Deschanel was normal? For she surely was the personification of the oppisite of the oppisite of the oppisite of normal.

But nonetheless, no matter how odd Zooey may have been, she didn't exactly come into the forest just to sit and take a rest. No... Zooey came out here because she could get inspiration from the beauty of the forest. Yes, the forest was dark, but without dark, how could anybody know what light was? Even darkness must be beautiful in Zooey's mind.

Zooey sang and acted, she prided herself on her talents in both, and she often was inspired to write a song when she was in the forest. Nobody ever bothered her while she was there, or made fun of her for her oddeties. Slytherin's constantly bothered Zooey, but she usually just shrugged them off. It still bothered her, but Zo never let anybody know that; not even her closest friends.

Then she heard a bark, from high in the tree tops above her head and she looked up. She was a bit surprised to see a student and a Crup in the midst of a tree's branches. She stood there for a moment, wanting to see if he would take notice of her. Or was he too involved in petting that Crup?

[Mike Dirnt]

Mike jumped when he noticed someone standing on the ground, actually looking at him. Shit. No one really knew that side of him. Most of Hogwarts thought of him as a 'bad boy', because he drank, goofed around, and did some pretty stupid stuff, even though he was in Ravenclaw.

He really hoped that the girl hadn't seen him, though she probably did. He let the Crup go up a few branches, and then he acted as if nothing had happened. "Hey. What're you doing out here?" He asked.

Mike, like Zooey, often came out when he need inspiration of some kind. Or if he was just bored and needed to get away. Though Billie Joe was the main song writer in the group, Mike often wrote songs, though he didn't show them to many people. He mostly wrote them for himself, to vent a bit. But, if he thought a song was good enough, he would show it to Billie and Tre and get their oppinions on it.

[Zooey Deschanel]

Zooey raised an eyebrow as she saw the guy jump slightly when he noticed that she was there. She recognized him as the Slytherin-like Ravenclaw, Mike Dirnt. He had a reputation... Well, so did Zooey, but her's was made for her outlandish ways. Mike's was because he acted like a pure arse. She had spoken to him only a few times and had always wondered why he acted like he did.

Then he questioned her. She merely smiled mischeivously for a moment and then she replied. "The question should be, what are you doing here? But as you asked it first, I shall reply first. Although, the person who was seen stroking a Crup should be made to reply first to spare himself from the horrid gossip I can but choose not but I could spread about him."

Zo looked up at him, her eyes gleeming with mischeif. She was bored and hadn't been able to baffle anyone in the last hour and she needed to remedy that. But then again, it would have been hard to baffle one's self.

[Mike Dirnt]

Damnit. He thought to himself when she said that she saw him stroking the Crup, as wrong as that sounded. He knew he was probably caught, but he still had to try and make a cover. It was just something he had to do. "He got stuck. I was helping him out." He lied.

Mike sighed. Okay, so that was extremly lame. "Okay, okay, okay. So I like animals. I know you could spread rumors. But, what the hell. I'm sure people are already saying a bunch of shit about me anyways." He said. He hated how much gossip was around Hogwarts. Hearing about how so and so was a lesbian, or how whoever was caught making out with what's his name go old really fast.

Mike looked the girl over for a second, sitting up so that his feet were dangling from the branch. "I know you from somewhere. Z... I know your name starts with a Z..." He had talked to her once or twice, maybe three times, but he didn't remember her name. He was bad at things like that sometimes. Damn memory.

[Zooey Deschanel]

Zooey looked at Mike with an ambigous look on her face. "Sure..." she said, the doubt clear on her voice. "I completely believe you..." She ran a hand through her brown locks, a hand which stayed there for a moment as it got stuck in the knots of her hair. Knots which had formed against Zo's wishes but alas, there they were; as knotty as a tree trunk yet not as hard nor solid. Much like this Ravenclaw's image it seemed; Mike seemed to want people to think him hard, but he was still a soft little puppy dog down inside. A puppy dog who wanted to pet other puppy dogs. Zo grinned slightly at her thought.

"Rumors are only rumors because people don't come out and say the facts. Why! If I said the sky was falling people would think I'm crazy, which they do anyway, I think. But, if someone else said there was going to be a new wing added to the school, people would call it a rumor. It really just matters who starts the rumor and what it's about," Zo said, knowing that what she just made very little sense to anyone else, let alone herself. "Let me put it this way," Zooey said calmly. "Your secret's safe with me. You should just be more careful next time. Don't need you falling out of tree's anytime soon, do we?"

The brunette stared off into the distance for a moment, in the direction the Crup had run in. When a bark was heard, the girl nodded and then looked back at Mike. "I'm Zooey Deschanel and you're Mike Dirnt. Now the introductions over so we can move onto the boring thing people call conversation."

[Mike Dirnt]

"Good. You should believe me." He said sarcasticly. He knew that it was obvious he was petting it, but he was going to put up a fight. Well, maybe not a fight, but he was going to argue his point. But, there was no hope for him. She had seen him, and it was useless.

Mike thought about her words a moment then looked back at her, his eyebrow raised. "Do you realize that that made almost no sense at all?" he asked as if he were asking her name. In a way it made sense... but only a fraction of it did. So, Mike chose to just mock her for it, in a way.

Wait. She knew his name? That was cool. "Am I that popular?" He joked with a grin. He hopped down a few branches and finally hit the ground. He took a seat on the hard ground with his back against the base of the tree.