A curse. Yeah it is definitely something like that. Evil and mean because why would anyone want to drain the youth's energy and power. Of course mean people always exist and always manage to do evil things such like this. "A curse....They are cursed then." Cassia said allowed. How on earth were she and Lex going to solve that. "But do you realize that this is a very difficult mission we have." Cassia wished it was something simpler and easier.

As Lex clarified her opinion, Cassia nodded finding that it made more sence. Surely Alexa didn't mean chickens literally. After all Hogwats is a school for people...not chickens. Good, the lioness was concerned too about Cassia becoming infected or cursed or whatever. And just to be sure that Lex didn't change her time anytime soon. Cassia added, "Yeah if I became infected you'd be too." So yeah that meant..we're in this together. At the mention of Lafay, Cassia shook her head and spoke. "I don't think that is a very good idea. You know the woman just had her baby and let's not bug her." And be set on fire,she added silently.

"You know..this seems to be a huge thing that we might be able to handle." She said but she sounded too defeated. "..Yet..Can't handle it yet.." She added in lamely. "I say we don't spend much with older infected students." She told Lex musing at the horizon...just for dramatic effect. "What if it was contagious? Just try to avoid them." Which was easy for Cassia because mostly older students avoided her . They obviously don't like chatty girls.

He showed her the parchment, he then saw a smile cross over her face as she chuckled "What do you mean?" he asked confused as to why she wsa telling him that, though he couldnt see how he could spend any less time with Ella. That was .. that was too hard for him to do! Just being in different houses was tough on them both let alone spending less time, but at the moment he was glad that the common rooms were locked out cause he got to watch her fall asleep and he could watch her sleep before he left. He then looked to where she was pointing, he turned a slight pinky color as he realised what had happened. "Umm I think so..." he was if you counted the hours he spent laying in bed thinking about Ella, he heard her laugh a bit more at this. He nodded "Yeah ok I will do those changes right now" he said about to take the parchment back when she asked to see it again. He wondered what had happened now, he looked to where she was saying. "Ahh yeah I knew that was 11.. just missed adding the one digit" he chuckled and nodded "Yeah that helps.. not being a claw today.. am I?" he chuckled as he shook his head. Maybe she was right.. Ella being on his mind all the time was making him make these mistakes? He then amended the changes that she had told him about

Ok so this is what he had and now he had to change it



And adding the changes she talked about what he ended up with was



"[B]Ok now I have to figure out the numbers now.. from the Pythgorean Number System.. right.. well it looks right to me now so time to add some more letters.

He looked at the Number system

1---2---3---4---5---6---7---8---9
A---B---C---D---E---F---G---H----I
J---K---L---M---N---O---P---Q---R
S---T---U---V---W---X---Y---Z



Ok he was time.. to write that out properly now



"That right? I dont think so.. it still looks very umm... wrong.. I mean.. it doesnt make sense to me" he said looking over his work and looking over at Minnie.. maybe she could.. nudge him onto the right track without actually telling him what it was.. kind of.. thing.

Laura was just staring at her besties, what on earth were they talking about? Laura had no idea, there was something about Mordred and him having a girlfriend, but wasn't Sophie suppost to Marry Mordred? Well that was there plan last term, she was marry he-who-must-not-be-named, Ella was marrying Harvey and Sophie was marry Mordred and they were all going to live near each other. "You know what we said last term seems ages ago now." Laura sighed, why were boys so complicated. "I wish I had listened to Carigan." Laura giggled, she might not have been hurt so much if she had, saying that she hadn't seen Carigan for ages, she hoped her friend was alright.

Good to see she and the snake were on the same page. It was now very obvious that the older ones were under some kind of curse and the two were rather clever for figuring this out without having to be told. Lex nodded reflectively as the girl mentioned that they would have a difficult mission. "You're right...and if we're not careful we might end up cursed too--kinda like in those mummy movies where those people go down into the tombs and end up getting themselves cursed." She didn't like that thought one bit. "Let's uh...let's make sure that never happens, okay?" Mummies she could handle but being boring she could not.

The next thing Cassia said made her skin crawl. She'd never thought of it that way before but the girl was right. If anything happened to Cassia it was likely to happen to her too. Gulp. This just made her even more determined to find out a little more about this curse. It would help if they knew who cast it in the first place and just how strong it was. They were only 11 and 12, at this point their magic might not be enough.

Oh?

"She did??" Why was she always the last to know everything?!?!? "I had no idea! Is that why she was being all sick and stuff then?" Because that would have made sense...wouldn't it? But anyway, "I guess we shouldn't bother her then..." The woman was vicious, she didn't wanna know just how much more vicious she could get if she felt she was being bothered right after having a baby. Yeah...she could do without finding that out...

Alexa didn't appreciate Cassia's tone when she began talking about the work they'd have to do. NO! "Listen here, we will not be thinking like that! No matter what we have to do, we will find a way to get rid of this curse before it gets anyone else. Yes I agree that we should avoid them--er...well...except for Vivi you see because she's awesome and I can't avoid her." It was true, avoiding the girl would have left her torn. "It should be easy to spend very little time with the others though I suppose." Then she thought about the girl's question. Boy, Cassia just knew how to freak a girl out didn't she. "Umm...let's not think about that part yet or I might change my mind about solving this." She'd had enough of contagious diseases that seemed to only affect the higher years.

Nora burst into silly giggles at Cora's reaction. "Yep. Ever since I moved here." Well, sometimes it was awesome that she didn't have to spend a whole day on the train to Hogwarts, but then again, there were times when she felt like going to London so she wouldn't miss it.

She'd only been to Honeydukes? Not that the place wasn't heaven, but there were so many other places to see. "I'll have to show you something else, then," she grinned. "Madame Puddifoot's is a lovely place!" She'll definitely have to take Cora there.

After being delayed on returning to Hogwarts, Alex was finally back. As she entered the courtyard and sat beside the fountain she pulled out her notebook from her bag and began to finish off a drawing she began at home. The unnatural red head looked about at everyone all in groups of friends and sighed thinking about how she hadn't found Ronnie or even Jory about.

Jory was sitting in the Courtyard reading his Divination text. He had noticed some students were doing their Arithmancy homework and was glad he had got Minerva to solve his cryptogram. Occasionally, he glanced up looking to see if he could spot anyone familiar but so far he had not.

It was as he was turning a page he happened to look over by the fountain and spotted a red head who looked familiar. Someone the Puff hadn't seen in a while.He got up and walked slowly over to the fountain. Could it be?

"Alex!'' he called out as he neared, now certain it was her. "Hey, remember me?''

As Alex looked at her drawing trying to work out if it looked OK she heard a familiar voice. Looking to the source of the sound The now fifth year spotted Jory.

"Of course I do!" she replied to his question, jumping to her feet to give him a hug. "I've been wondering where I could find you!"

Minerva looked at Harvey why wouldn't the ending make sense. Minerva put her hand out to take the parchment and then looked it over. She checked all the work and then chuckled, "No this doesn't make sense, but it's because you have some wrong.. look.. You have these letters wrong...

She smiled as she handed him back the parchment. "Figure these out and then I think you could finish it on your own." Smiling she sat back, yes he should be able to get this now she had now worry.

Jory returned Alex's hug. "Where have you been?'' he asked, feeling happy to see his friend after a long time. He sat by the fountain next to the spot where Alex was sitting before. ''Come on, sit,'' he said indicating next to him. "And you can tell me all about why I didn't see you here before.'' Of course, only if she wanted to. Maybe it was a very personal matter and she won't want to tell him.

The second year rose to her feet and crossed her arms across her chest facing the fountain. She needed concentrating now…They might get cursed! Cassia nodded at Lex saying that they needed to be careful.Then the girl said something about mummies..tombs and stuff. She tipped her chin up and looked at Lex. "Ehh….I do not know what you are talking about.." She said not sure. Was it a common thing that everyone knew about it and only Cassia was clueless about it like always? "Tell me more about this." She said to Lex though she knew she wasn't going to like what she's gonna hear but if this thing was important to help them understand this situation then she needed to know about it.

Cassia wasn't surprised that Lex didn't know that Lafay just had her baby. "Last term's feast she fainted and stuff then we found out that she was pregnant." Cassia told Alexa. And it was the first time she had told someone something they didn't know. She liked the feeling. Then at the mention of sickness ,Cassia paused thinking of the situation. "Actually, I think she is both sick and pregnant." She was a first year then and couldn't keep up with the gossip. "But now I guess she's just sick." She shrugged. Yeah who cares there were more important stuff now. And yeah they shouldn't bother her for their own sake more than hers anyway.

The Slytherin swallowed hard afraid of her own assumptions. She really knew how to freak her own self out. And seeing that Lex was convinced too, made Cassia sure that this was real serious and creepy. The twelve-years old shook her head and sighed, "Though there must be no exceptions," She said. "I think interacting with one cursed person won't be that bad." Wow that sounded creepy. Change her mind..Cassia was a couple of steps to do that! But she needed to feign courage. "N-no..We can't bail on Hogwarts," She said her voice shaking a liiiitle bit. "I-I-I mean we're the school's only hope." Even she found a trouble keeping a straight face saying that.

"Okay, so we should set our strategies." She said sitting on the edge f the fountain again. "Do we tell anyone?" She asked looking up at the lioness.

He heard her chuckle as she pointed out why the ending wouldnt make sense.. he looked at it and raised his eyebrows.. but he was so sure they were right!! Darn you Pythagorean Number System.. 3 letters per number and he had to choose one of them no wonder he was finding this tough. He looked over the parchment again "Okaaayy... lets go again." he looked over this "Trust Mins to come up with a tough one just cause I am a claw" he mumbled to himself trying to pass it off as if he was thinking of his next move



He looked up at Mins.. "Ok I got this now.. getting closer?" he questioned her as he showed her his parchment.

The walk on the Hogwarts Grounds was TIRIIIIIING Kat. The girl went to the Courtyard to take a rest for a while... That's silly. Kat, resting? Ha ha, not going to happen today. The blonde skipped round and round the Courtyard and did cartwheels and splits. Hehe, she looked like she was making a dance routine for the Pep Rally. Although it was kinda of humiliating, Kat didn't care. It was all about having FUN!

Later on, Kat felt like something hit her on the skull. After dancing, she squatted and started jumping around. LIKE A TOAD! Yeah, she will buy a toad after term ends. The girl jumped around and started croaking. Yep, she was a professional with animal sounds. The next thing she knew, she was acting like a cat.

"HEY LOOK AT ME! I'M A KAT! GEDDIT?!" she yelled. Oh well, if she ever gets embarrassed then... not my fault.

Minerva chuckled at his comment. She really didn't mean to make it that hard. She was actually surprised it was this hard. How on earth did she make it that hard and not realize it. She wondered to herself and then just shrugged it off as she saw him working again. Harvey would figure it out, he was smart, he had to be.. His best friend was her and not that she was full of herself, but she was a nerd, and his girlfriend was Ella, again another very smart girl. Min always looked at Ella as a younger sister even. So he had to have some brains to be around those two all the time.

Harvey then took her out of her thoughts and she looked up at him. Oh he was wanting her to look again. Hmmm it still didn't say what it was suppose to. She wasn't giving him anymore clues. No, he was going to figure this out, handing it back to him Minerva gave him a smile. "You seem to be almost there, but not yet Harvs. Keep trying."

Logan didn't notice that someone approached him until they spoke to them. He scowled, because it was Ness, and he was mad at her. Yes, he was still bitter after what she had done to him even if he wasn't really feeling heartbroken anymore. Why should he pine over someone who didn't even want to date him? It was being used by her that was the main problem here.

He started packing his work up. "I think it is time for me to go." Because I don't want to speak to you.

Smiling, Alex sat down beside him "I went on a holiday to Australia for a while with my family to visit my cousins and stuff." she replied. "How's things been here?" This was all Alex had been wanting to know since she left for Australia. "Oh and sorry I didn't owl you or anything. It was because I was so busy over there and when I came back I had to pack my stuff for Hogwarts."

He had seen that he had broken her out of some thoughts she must have been having "Try to focus here for a minute while I complete this.. THEN you can think about Ethan.. and I think about Ella...deal?" he chuckled as he looked at her.. man it had be ages since they had hung out.. maybe they needed to hang out again.. yeah.. they needed to. He remembered her announcement at the game before and knew that he would make sure that he did hang out with her over the summer and before then if possiblie

She then looked at his parchment and giving him a smile told him that he was almost there but not there yet. So he took back the parchment and try to crack it in the same way they had done in class, they all had five letters so no where to start except that he knew the shortest word was US. He looked at before he noticed the first word looked very familiar. There was only one word he knew that was spelt like that "Got it!!" he called out before writing it down.. and he looked at Minnie "Sorry just got excited there" he said before going back to his parchment, and edited what he knew from the letters he had gotten.



He then looked and suddenly he could see what those missing letters should be "I think I got it!! Hang on!!" he said as he started scribbling down the new letter that he now knew "Where the Ps are.. look like there should be.. Es... and adding those...."



He then read the solved cryptogram, he smiled "Well.. the plant should listen to you soon enough." he smiled at her.. knowing how she looked at the game, realising that this must have been hard on her. "You know.. you should give it a cryptogram to solve with a hidden message in it that will scare it away!" he chuckled as he joked with her.. "Well I am done! Am I smart or what?.. No.. I am not.. this was a tough one.. well done for making up a tough one!" he said to her as he was glad that he had finally solved it even though he thought that he wouldnt be able to solve it.

Ronnie grinned wider. "Mhm, yeaaah, suuuure." she said nodding and giving him a 'oh come on, I know you were' look and a wink. She then laughed at what he said. "Oh, please!" she said, her cheeks starting to turn a bit pink. "I rarely blush." she lied, giggling a little. Well, that was a total lie. She blushed ALL THE TIME. It really bugged her. But she couldn't help it...

Ronnie burst out laughing as he realized what he had just said. She laughed harder and harder, feeling tears run down her cheeks from laughing so much. Poor Harvey, she was probably embarrassing the poor guy...ah well. It was kinda fun to tease him. She'd stop at some point.

Harvey looked at her "What? I am serious!" he said as he saw the look she gave him with her own little wink. He then chuckled as she laughed at what he had said before he grinned "Oh really? so what is that pink color that is now suddenly appearing on your cheeks? Surely you cannot be blushing.. for you said that you rarely blush" he said to her chuckling as he knew that she and Ella both hated blushing..

He heard her burst out laughing as she caught onto what he meant, he saw the tears falling down her face as she laughed so hard that she could not stop! He knew that she was going to be teasing him alot now that he had told her that. "So... what you been upto?" he asked her hoping to change the subject off him and Ella.. but that look on her face told him that they would be talking about him and Ella soon enough

Ronnie rolled her eyes and laughed. "Uh huuh...yeah...then why'd you hide your face?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and grinning again. Oh boy, this was so much fun!

Ronnie shook her head at what he said. "I'm not blushing." she muttered as her cheeks turned redder. "It's just um...the...the weather! Yeah! It's rather chilly so it makes my cheeks red." she said quickly, even though it was bright and sunny today and not one bit chilly. Heh. Ronnie was awful at this...

Ronnie began laughing again as he tried to change the subject. Ah, she had teased him enough. She'd tease him again some other time though...mwahahahaha....

"Eh, nothing much," she said with a shrug. "What about you?"

He saw her roll her eyes and laugh as she questioned him "I.. hid my.. face cause.. I noticed this.. little caterpillar.. over there" he said as he looked there again to try and prove his point "But he isnt there anymore" he said smiling as he looked back up at Ronnie. He raised his eyebrows as she said that she wasnt blushing when he could clearly see that she was, he chuckled as she blamed the weather for her blushing "Umm I dont think that it is that kind of weather right now that can make you blush right now Ronnie" he chuckled knowing what he knew about her being a total blusher having known her for years. "So you cant blame it on the weather I am sorry" he chuckled.

He heard her laugh as he tried to change subject, he knew that he should get used to being teased now. "Nothing? really? Nothing exciting or anything?" he asked wondering if she had been upto any of her usual mischief or anything, he smiled "Nothing much also.. just.. been with Ella.. alot" yeah almost daily.. its like they were stuck at the hips.

"How was the trip?'' Jory asked excitedly. He, his family and his now girlfriend Ari had been there on holiday a few summers go. "You must have been really enjoying yourself and that made you come back here after a long time,'' he added with a wink.

"That's alright,'' the Badger said.”I've been pretty busy myself. Studying for OWLs.'' He indicated to his text book. "And then there's homework and classes, too.'' You could say he hadn't had much time for himself in the last few weeks. "Things have been weird here,'' he said seriously.”Last term it was students freezing in classes and this term it is a mysterious plant attacking us this term.'' He still remembered the incident that happened during the last Astronomy lesson.

Blushing at his words Minerva pushed him a bit, "Harvs I was thinking about the homework, I don't.. think about Ethan.... all the time." Yes that was a lie and she knew it, but hey she had a school rep to stick with as well. She had fought Harvey since first term getting him to class, she wasn't going to make him think she was not going to continue that for the next three terms. She then jumped as he got excited and laughed,"Well I knew you would get it." She watched as he finished up and changed some of the letters that needed changed and giggled to herself when he finally said it out loud.

"Yes it does need to listen, but I don't think anyone has seen it for awhile, so maybe it's already gone. Taking the professor was enough for it." Minerva smiled happy that Harvey finally got the puzzle and that the assignment was pretty much done. She rolled her eyes, "I didn't mean to make it tough.. I'm sorry if it was hard. I really wasn't trying to make it that way. I just came up with what I wanted to say then went from there." She pouted a bit sad she made him work to hard. "But you got it, that's all that counts!" She put everything away once she knew it was correct and then looked up at Harvey, "So what's been going on other then school work for you?"

"It was great! I've missed my cousins since they moved there but we did spend a lot of time together to make up for it." The lion replied smiling. "I didn't want to leave!" she told Jory. "They have arranged to come over here in a few years though so I will see them again." Alex mised the sun over in Australia but loved being back here in Hogwarts talking to her friends again.

OWLS! Alex knew she forgot about something. "I forgot about OWLS!" the fifth year exclaimed. "Is should start studying soon, but tell me more about the plant story it sounds good." she added grinning.

"I know what you mean when you say you didn't want to come back,'' Jory replied. He didn't have any friends or family over there but the place was so awesome, he thought at that time he should probably live there. If his parents let him. "You went scuba diving?'' he asked. "Or surfing?" He enjoyed being in the water more than the land.

"You should start,'' the Puff said, wondering how on earth Alex forgot about OWLs. He was close to panicking whenever he thought of it. "Well, it sneaks up on us so we never really get a good look at it. I just lurks around sort of looking for victims.'' Scary. "You should be careful.''