Professor Virohsa hid her surprise when the Headmistress and the Nurse took some of the candy. She wondered if she would be soon seeing some effects. After all, Lainey was acting way too happy.

"I heard about a common room not only being burnt, but ransacked", she answered. "This is starting to get dangerous, children could have been seriously injured because of the fire", she added quickly with a glance that said --we really need to get rid of the book.

Unoticed by the staff a fat, silnced, unspottable, disillusioned and hovering cat entered the room and sat in a empty corner of the room.

"On my way here, two students told me that the Ravenclaw Common had a snake problem. I don't think it was anything more than a prank though." Lainey left it at that. She'd rather not mention the strange whistling and wind that whipped through her office.

Professor Virohsa frowned. Lainey thought that a fire, snakes... were pranks? Children could have been severely injured in the fire, by the snakes. She shot a glance towards the Headmistress waiting to see what her reaction was. Her grip on her wand tightened, yet she appeared completely relaxed and aloof.

"It hasn't affected me," said Andi bluntly over the sounds of Lainey sucking the candy. "But students have come to me with... stories." Not all about the odd happenings, she added mentally, without glancing at Lainey.

Salem broke free of his reverie and gave Professor Lainey a small smile. “Thank you madam,” He said and popped the small candy into his mouth. He pulled a face and laughed softly as he said, “Mmmm… quite sour, yes, but good nonetheless.”

Salem gave the Headmistress a blank glance at her mention of outside influence. “I was unaware that anything other then the incidences within the Grounds were taking place.” He said, suddenly not smiling anymore. “You don’t suppose…” he trailed off, shaking his head slightly as if to say I don’t know and tightly twisted some of his cloak under the table in a nervous manner, hoping that this didn't mean what he thought it meant.

”Did they disclose or happen to know what species of serpent they were?” Salem asked Professor Lainey, thinking it would be quite obvious if it was a prank or foul-play if they were of the poisonous nature or not. “Magical, non-magical, non-poisonous or… poisonous I mean?” He added quickly.

Salem suddenly gave a torrent of violent sneezes. "Is there a feline in the room?" He asked everyone randomly, pulling a blue handkerchief from his cloak breast-pocket, "or does anyone own one?" He added from under the cloth over his nose and mouth, "I'm a bit allergic to them, they make me sneeze when I forget to take a certain anti-allergie potion you see." He finished, scanning the room as if expecting to see one.

Hazelle entered the staff room for yet another meeting and found an empty seat, listening to the details, or sketchiness, of happenings about the school.Snakes in the Ravenclaw common room? Hazelle shuddered, she wasn't very fond of snakes.

She smiled at Thorn, "I'm sorry, Mr. Thorn, but I do own a cat. He doesn't crawl up over me, but I suppose his fur does tend to stick to my clothes a bit." Hazelle moved further away from Thorn, hoping that would help him a bit, peculiar though, how he didn't sneeze last time they were in this room together....perhaps she had been far enough away, or perhaps Cepheus hadn't been in her laundry at the time.

"I haven't heard a thing about these happenings, and nothing has happened to me. I wish I could add something that would help but..." she simply shrugged.

Professor Light had hoped to mention the matter in private but... right now it seemed she had no choice to but to bring it up.

"Um..." she cleared her throat to catch attention. "My office was completely distroyed. Some of the students kindly offered to clean up, but my actual office really isn't the issue. I'm slightly worried because I fear that whoever did it has something against Muggles... my suspicions seem confirmed by the fact that all of the common rooms had some sort of problem except the Slytherin common room. And um... the other thing I'm worried about-" Iulianna was rather nervous about bringing this up. She felt as though she was going ot get in trouble, and the last things she needed right now was to be jobless.

"I took notes on the last meeting we had. I was unfamiliar with the book so I jotted a few things down... um... among them were some of what our plans were for the Book of Mysteria. And maybe even specifically what certain teachers thought we should do with the book." She avoided looks from the other professors, especially the History of Magic teacher, whom she had always liked but didn't know very well. Mostly because besides Headmistress Rae, Lainey was one of the main names she had mentioned in her notes.

"Those notes were in my locked office, but apperently the lock didn't stop whoever did this from destorying my office or stealing those notes. So um... there gone. So if whoever this is is interested in the book of Mysteria, and I personally feel they might be, um... I think I just made our problem worse. Sorry." she added quickly at the end. Actually, the whole speech had been said rather quickly, and she hoped she wouldn't have to talk much more this meeting.

Her worst suspicions were beginning to be confirmed.. Against muggles... snakes... notes on the book... "It must have been a powerful wizard or witch to have entered into your room", she casually added.

"This just convinces me we have to get rid of that book", she said with a sense of urgency. After she said that, she shot a glance towards Lainey.

“Quite alright Professor Belle.” Salem said, smiling from beneath the cloth. “I usually only sneeze when a cat is in the same room with me or quite close to me, but I suppose there is a first time for everything,” He added, “Although, just to be on the safe side, would you do me a favor and accio for any feline that may be in this room?” At this he sneezed a few more times. “Sorry.” He apologized to everyone once the episode had subsided.

“I do not like the sound of ransacked offices and missing notes of our last meeting,” he began, giving Professor Light a sympathetic smile, “And I also do not suppose the one responsible for these incidences is just anyone, it has to be our ever bothersome and persistant Voldemortist and if so, we have a serious problem on our hands if we do not stay one or two steps ahead of him. Therefore I vote we do whatever it is we are going to do with this book as soon as possible, a preemptive strike if you will." He finished, the cloth still over his face muddling his words.

Andi shrugged. "I'll do it," she said, not that she really thought there was an invisible feline in the room. "Accio any particularly feline species that might trigger Mr. Thorn's allergi---oof!"

Something that felt like a fat cat crashed into her lap, making mewling noises. "What the five hells and four heavens?!" yelped Andi, almost pinned back into her chair. She performed a revealing charm and stared in disbelief as something that could certainly be described in terms of 'cat' appeared in her lap.

Professor Virohsa frowned at the cat. She quickly browsed the area for people's reactions and then walked closer to Andi. "I believe this cat should be confined", she said severely. "It very well could be one of Voldemortist's followers... which would explain its invisible state", she said coldly as she inspected the cat from afar.

Andi looked at Virohsa, as her own hands poked and prodded the animal, removing charms from it as she felt them. The mewlings consequently became louder and shriller as the all the concealing spells were stripped away. "How idiotically cruel," snarled Andi, trying to calm the enraged animal down. "Putting spells on animals is painful for them. Will you sit still, you overfed excuse of a mammal!"

The cat turned yellow eyes on her and the expression on it's face could be described as a metaphorical raspberry, but it calmed down a little, settling into Andi's lap and turning it's insolent gaze on Virohsa. "I sensed no animagus spells on it," said Andi to Virohsa. "Though maybe professor Craft would like to doublecheck when she arrives. But I highly doubt this poor mistreated animal is one of Voldemortist's followers. Poor thing," she added, slowly stroking it.

Andi's normally crystal clear, knife-sharp and a little jaundiced view of life became a little screwed when it came to animals. This cat was not, by any means, a particularly loveable specimen.

"Just snakes," Lainey leaned over to tell Thorn, and Thorn alone. "I just have found out about it myself. I'll have to ask my Prefect after the meeting." Then Lainey had to endure the ridiculously over-done paranoid professors. It really took all she had not to laugh when the more than insane Herbology quack thought the cat was a follower of Voldemortist.

"Can I have that cat?" Lainey asked, quite politey if she thought so herself.

Had she been anyone other than who she was, Andi would probably have hugged the cat to her petulantly and said, "No! It's my ickle schnugglekums, aren't you weedle snookums? Yes, you are! You don't wanna go to the other lady, do you, cuddlekins? No, you don't!"

Being Andi, she simply resettled the animal a little more firmly into her lap and said, "I think it would be safer to wait till Professor Craft gets here so that she can verify Professor Virohsa's... ideas are completely unfounded." Who's'a goo' boy? Ishn't 'oo a cutie-wutie dumpling! She scratched the cat's chin, with no expression on her face.

The cat, seeming to sense it had found an ally, purred a little rustily and more than a little smugly.

"So it appears the damage is even more wide-spread," Rae willfully ignored the cat shenanigans as much as she could. "Let's focus... the last time attacks were made on the school, Voldemortist was involved. I think it's a safe assumption to believe he's involved once again. The question is how to get him... uninvolved."

Lainey raised her hand politely. "If I may say so, and I may because I've been through this before, these attacks don't have his style to them. Stealing notes and burning books? Really now. These attacks are juvenille at best. I wouldn't even call them attacks. Just occurences. We've had a lot of events in the past and everyone is just a bit paranoid." Some more than others. Lainey couldn't help but turn and look at Virohsa. She had an overwhelming urge to quack at her... but maintained herself. "I think we should alert our Prefects to keep an ear out for open prankster bragging."

Salem gave a questioning look to Professor Mao-Macdougal at her exclamation. “Aha, I thought s-s-s-so…” He said barely stifling a sneeze as the cat became visible. “Thank you Professor. I suppose I should take that allergy potion now then, shouldn’t I?” He extracted his wand a silently accioed his allergy potion with a small wave of his wand, then leaned in a bit closer to hear Professor Lainey. “Right then, I was just thinking if they were harmless there’d be no r-r-r-real need for suspicion of foul play.” He said quietly, once again stifling a sneeze. “Here we are,” he said as a small phial swept through the room and into his outstretched hand. He drank the potion in one gulp and gave a small shudder, like most potions this one was quite distasteful. “That’s much better.” He then put his handkerchief back into his pocket, no longer troubled with the cat’s presence.

He didn’t really have any ideas on how to get Voldemortist uninvolved so he gave a Rae a small shrug and a frown.

Professor Virohsa frowned at how inmature Lainey was acting.. or perhaps that was a cover aimed at getting people's defenses down. "We could always send the book away, destroy it, and have it be known that it is no longer with us", she said briskly. "Or we could hold a big ceremony, which would give the pretense the book was unattended and bring him out", she added. Granted, the later would be a bit more dangerous than the former.

Louis was quite relieved this lady was removing all the spells the crazy girls placed on him, but he found her poking rather annoying. Knowing that most of the charms was removed, now he has his own mind rather than orders from his master, he couldn’t resist the smell of food contained within this room. The girls haven’t fed him for weeks, and he is extremely hungry. Taking the poking as an advantage, louis bit and scratched the professor’s hand for his escape and jumped on the floor wagging his tail proudly as he walked towards a professor that had loads of candy with her (Lainey). Jumping on the professor's lap he dived his head into the candy dish and ate as much as he could.

The cat jumped off, but Andi barely noticed as the Herbology professor spoke. "Actually, the latter seems to be quite a good idea," she said. "Suppose we pretended we were going to destroy the book in a ceremony, just the professors, in the Great Hall. Then perhaps we could bring him out of hiding, without hurting any of the students in the process, or destroying the book." She rubbed her forhead.

McAiken stood quietly in the corner. He knew all to well the past events this book had caused. He paid attention to the conversation but his mind also recounted past terms.

"Oh... well hello, there," Lainey said as the cat made itself at home in her lap and with her candies. Poor hungry darling, Lainey thought as she stroked between it's ears. See? The cat had known the Charms Professor was a nutter. Animals were smart, smarter than some humans.

"In theory, it wouldn't be a bad idea. But, to be perfectly honest, Voldemortist isn't stupid. He'll know what we're up to. He will not come in person and we will not be successful." Lainey tried to catch Rae's eyes. Surely, Rae would agree with her on this one.

"We're not going to openly invite Voldemortist back into the school, no matter how safe we think it will be. I don't want him here," Rae nodded at Lainey, believing she understood her look. "I'd much prefer that we decide quickly what we're doing with it... and then we do it. If the book isn't here, then the man should leave us alone."

Ariana listened as the others fussed over the cat. She had no idea how the cat even got in the room as what its purpose was. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow over the paranoia of Virohsa. She had to agree with Professor Lainey. These didn't seem to be anything more then pranks.

"I'm inclined to agree with Professor Lainey." Ariana said speaking up. "I don't think these are anything more then just occurances. If it had been anything more then that my waiting room would have been overflowed with students with various symptoms of such going ons." She gave a shrug. "It seems like it would be more the workings of a prankster then a spy anyways."

"Besides Voldemortist would never believe if we tried to mislead him with a false book destroying ceremony as you two have already pointed out. What could be in the book that is so important? I'm sure you've researched this Cass, anything in there that would interest him?"