"Slime?" Valenitine asked looking down the hall for any sight of slime, or Viola. "Viola! Come on now, stop playing about." She called with her hands cupped around her mouth. Moments later the brown bat came flying back cheerfully and back onto her shoulder. Valentine sighed with rolled eyes and petted the mammel on the head. "So what is this about slime?" She asked looking back at the two boys.

Valentine sighed again at Sho's question. You sure you should be wearing heels down here, Val? Her shoulders shrugged. "Yes well I couldn't find any of my shoes today. I think Nyx and Viola are playing around with them and I was this close to being late for class today." She put her fingers almost together. "and these were the only ones I could find."

"Well I guess that would be pretty bad to lose all your shoes," he said, turning to look down the hall. "Viola!"

He wanted to help find her pet. She was obviously distraught, but Sho didn't want anything flying into his head and playing with his hair. There was some fluttering down the corridor, but no return yet.

"And you really need to do something about that nose, Cale."

"Oh Cale." Valentine quickly pulled out a clean tissue out of her black purse and passed it over to her friend. Always prepared- well she tried to be. "You okay there?" She asked as Viola got off her shoulder and flew off again, this time out of the dungeon. "Viola you! Oh." Valentine pouted softly.

"Yes well they are most likely just pushed under my head, hidden where I can't get the quickly." She said to Sho stumbling slightly once again. Valentine wasn't all that timble on heels in the first place, nor in her own feet. Now she was on cobblestones and heels. "VIOLA!" She called once again.

Sho walked down the corridor, looking around at the walls. He saw the bat twittering around one of the dimmer sconces. Motioning toward it, he hoped that it wouldn't jump into his hair. Could bats even jump?

"Violaaa... come to Sho. Atta girl," he said in a soft voice. "Come on, girl."

"thank you Cale." Valentine said stumbling back onto her feet. She looked down at the brighter end of the corridor as she took off the black and blue shoes from her feet. "That is a good idea. Viola!"

The floor was cold. Her sockless toes wiggled at the touch of the stone floor that send soft shivers up her spine. Maybe she should have kept the shoes on. No, she would have ended up face into the stone that way. "I was on my way too the common room back from the astronomy tower. When I was walking pass the steps she flew off my shoulder and in here." Valentine looked at Sho walk down the corridor. "Sho there isn't really any need. She'll come back, I think."

Viola fluttered from candles to hanging stones. She sniff the air towards the mysterious boy as he called her name. He seemed nice enough. Softly she fluttered down and landed on his shoulder and sniffed his cheek.

Sho walked back over to the two, bat on his shoulder. He smiled to the two and let Viola flutter over to Val's shoulder. Cale was busy wiping his nose on his sleeve and talking about how he was hungry.

"There you go, Val," Sho smiled. "And if you're hungry we can go back to the surface to go grab something to eat."

"Oh dectective work?" Valentine smiled lookin over at Sho who now had Viola sitting on his shoulder. What was there to find down here in the cold and the dark? "Hey you got her!" Valentine giggled as Viola flutter towards her own shoulder. Nothing to find down here other than her pet, and Sho seemed to have done a good job of that. "Should be proud of youself Sho, Viola doesn't really like people all that much and just does alot of flying away from them. I say we get food to celebrate!"

"We're allowed in the kitchens?!" Valentine asked cheerfully. She didn't even know where the kitchens was, but she knew she could go for some classic italian pizza. Pizza came from Italy right? Well she wanted pizza, and she knew that. Or pumpkin pie. Anytime is a good time for pumpkin pie.

"Hm? Oh, right. The elves are good at taking care of hungry students. They can get a little... odd... but for the most part they're eager to please," Sho said, nodding from Cale to Val.

"And I'm sure we can get Viola a piece of fruit or something."

He smiled to the bat that was comfortably sitting on Val. Maybe bats weren't all that bad... They still scared him when they blasted out of caves and the like.

"Well you both show me the way, for I have no clue where we are going." Valentine said cheerfully following the boys

Not quite at the entrance of the common room, Nico stopped and slumped against the wall, reaching his hand into his pocket and pulling out the vial. He eyed the liquid contained therein and frowned thoughtfully. There was something that felt a little off about him of all people having the intention to give this potion to somebody- since he'd never needed anything like it before.

But he wasn't doing it for him, he was doing it for Kitten. She needed help and he was possibly the only person able to give it to her; that and the fact that he wasn't sure quite what would have happened if he had of said no to Intern Trelawney.

He sighed and straightened a little, unstoppering the vial and watching as a tiny whisp of steam rose in a spiral. Hesitating slightly he brought it up to his face and tentatively sniffed at the liquid.

A well-stocked apothecary...

Fresh snow...

warm caramel...

He restoppered the vial and shoved it in his pocket. So she had changed it. He closed his eyes tightly and rubbed at his signet ring until the images of her had slid out of his mind again.

Could he do this? To Anna..? Would she understand in the long run? Did he care?

Yes. He cared. They had grown to be friends after all.

Still caught in his dilemma, Nicholai remained motionless, leaning casually against the wall of the corridor with his eyes closed.

Where could Nico be? She’d practically been through the whole castle looking for him. Really, he was usually so easy to find. She walked through the corridor, having decided to search the common room one last time.

Wait, there he was! Finally. But what was he doing? Could he be meditating? Oh well, this was much more important than any strange rituals he might have. Hmm. His eyes were closed. She smirked to herself and crept over to him. She took one more look at him before poking him in the stomach. That ought to snap him out of…whatever he was in.

She was grinning like a maniac and before he even had a chance at any kind of response, she spoke in a sing-song voice. “I found something very interesting…”

Nicholai's eyes snapped open and his wand was instantly in his hand and pointed directly at the throat of whoever had jabbed him. Usually he wasn't caught so unawares...

He relaxed when he realised it was Camira and lowered his wand, letting his arm hang loosely at his side.

"Did you now." Nicholai responded, bringing his other hand up and running his fingers gingerly over his stomach where she had poked him. No damage.

"And what might that be?"

Oh my God. He was going to kill her. She looked at the wand that was currently pointed at her throat. That had definitely been a bad idea. Oh good. He was lowering his wand. He sure knew how scare the heck out of a girl. She willed her heart rate to go back to normal.

She smirked when he asked her what she’d found. “Something that could possibly be a secret scroll that points towards a clue that will help us find the treasure, which only opened for a Slytherin”, she said casually. She was super-excited on the inside, of course, but she wanted to see his reaction before she squealed like some lunatic.

"And were you planning on showing me, or just telling me about it?" Nicholai shoved his wand in his pocket and in doing so, dislodged the vial. It clattered on the stone floor and Nicholai breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn't broken. It rolled toward Camira's feet and Nico bent down and scooped it up before she could get a good look at it.

"And I assume there'd be similar possibly secret scrolls for each of the other houses?" Nicholai questioned, hoping she'd not think anything of him dropping something. Despite the fact that it wasn't exactly something that happened ever.

Camira smirked at him then. “Mmmm, I might be persuaded to show it to you”, she said shiftily.
And all of a sudden, something fell out of Nico’s pocket. It looked suspiciously like a vial of potion, though she couldn’t be sure. She’d only caught a glimpse of it for a brief second. Interesting. Suddenly, she had an idea. “Like maybe if you tell me what exactly fell out of your pocket”, she said, eyebrow raised.

Oooh. Wasn’t he a bright one. “Your assumption is correct.” She didn’t want to give him too much information yet. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. She just liked knowing something he didn’t.

Nicholai regarded Camira for a moment and cast a non-verbal Muffliato before answering.
"Its... a certain kind of love potion. I don't think I'm going to use it though. I got it from the Intern... she intends for me to use it on Anna Greingoth." Nico paused.

"Great. House Unity. Yay." Nicholai muttered.

Wow. She couldn't believe he'd actually told her. She thought it was going to take a lot more prodding... Wait, did he just say Cassandra gave him a love potion to use on Anna? She sighed. She didn't even want to know.

"M'Kay. I guess you're worthy." That said, she pulled out the piece of parchment and handed it to him. "We've speculated that it's hinting at the restricted section. What do you think?"

She gave him a minute to look over the scroll. "I've also memorized what the others said." She pulled him a little and stood on her tiptoes so she could whisper the other scrolls' contents to him. Muffliato or not, she wanted to make sure nobody got this info.

Pleased that Camira wasn't saying anything more about the potion, Nicholai examined the scroll and nodded slowly before reaching into his own pocket and pulling out a note. He handed it to her in silence. It was like fate or something.

He listened as she told him what was in the other scrolls, immediately following where they likely led to.

Unbelievable. He had a note to the restricted section! How insane was that. But, what about her. She still needed one. "That's brilliant. I can't believe you have that. I was trying to find a way to sneak in or maybe beg a teacher into giving me one. Professor Forrester might, I think, or Professor Carracio. Do you think the librarian would notice that my name wasn't on there?" She had to find a way to get in there. Nico was lucky. He already had one.