Maddox's eyes about poped out of his head. His face turned beat red and he gently pushed Lima off of him. Once he was calmed, and the red was gone he replied, "There will be no more of that." He paused and started walking. When he didnt hear footsteps behind him he stopped and turned saying, "Well, Bloody hell lets go!" He didnt want this to last longer then it had to.

She blushed as he pushed her off of him. "Sorry! I totally didn't think there for a moment." UGH, she could be so foolish. Though she didn't want to admit that she had secretly missed hugging him and had enjoyed it. Hmm. She had to keep a hold of herself. Then suddenly he was calling out to her. "Oh, right!" she said collecting herself. She started heading over to him. "So like does she have any favorite places around here or something?" she asked him curiously.

"Yeah. Right." Maddox continued to walk down the corridor and thought about her question for a moment. He put his hands into his pockets while he walked and replied, "Anywhere you can find candy, you will find Cela. Or anything that has to do with adventure. Cela is...rambunctious...to say the least." He grinned at the thought of Cela and all the trouble she had caused this term. Hopefully when he was gone, Kayla owuld be able to handle her by herself. Otherwise it was going to be a very hard term for her.

Taking the corridor at a steady pace, it was a few minutes worth of walking before Jake got to the portrait of the dragon with Myrtle. He eyed it closely, letting his gaze linger on the handle before moving up to looking at the actual feature in the portrait.

"Soooo..." Jake said, looking around. "You know the school motto... never tickle sleeping dragons... and here we are... sleeping dragon..."

Jake looked down at his hands. What was it she was saying about how much fun it was to do stuff I shouldn't?

Myrtle floated along by Jakey Jake and brushed through him with ghostie chill powers when he stopped walking and she didn't stop floating.

"Tickle it! Tickle it! Tiiiiickle it Jakey Jake!"

Myrtle become slightly more transparent in her excitement.

"Braver than a Gryffindor, but not nearly as stupid." Myrtle told him, silkily.

Helena floated through the wall. "Are you actually going to listen to what Myrtle says?" she asked the Hufflepuff.

Just about stifling his gasp as Myrtle floated through him, Jake stood rigidly for a second before he heard what Myrtle was telling him to do. He beamed at her. "Seriously?!" Jake looked at her with the look of a 6 year old that had been told they now owned the contents of a sweet shop. "You are just... awesome, girl."

Grinning at the compliment and giving Myrtle a small smile, but not quite picking up on the fact that he'd been called brave for some odd reason, Jake stepped forwards and tickled the dragon.

Wait, what?! Why was that brave?! Uh-oh... Jake stepped back next to Myrtle and waited. He looked up at the new ghost that had arrived. "Erm... should I not have done that?"

The dragon woke up and yawned. As it yawned, fire spewed out of its mouth towards Jake.

"I told you so," the Grey Lady admonished as she watched the young Hufflepuff's robes catch fire.

"ARGH!!!!!" Jake yelled out, inexplicably jumping backwards for a moment. He panicked, forgetting what to do, before remembering the muggle fire safety thing and forgetting his wand completely.

Stop, drop and roooolllllll...

Dropping to the floor, Jake quickly managed to smother the flames out before springing back up to his feet and finally bringing his wand out, in case he needed to use that water spell they used in Herbology. "Hang on... but it's only a portrait... how the heck did it manage that?!" Jake exclaimed, wide-eyed.

Paris was just walking enjoying the solitude when she smelled smoke. "That can't be good," She said trotting toward the smell. She turned a corner and saw Jake and his robes were on fire. She dashed over to him with her wand drawn. "What are you doing?" She cried. She pointed her wands at him and water shot out of the end dousing him with water.

"This poor lad tickled the sleeping dragon and was the recipient of such foolishness," Helena replied. "Now the dragon is awake and the door is locked."

Eyeing the ghost, a little offended, Jake drew himself up indignantly. "Hey, it ain't my fault," he said. "I just did what I was told to do... And... well... if the school motto is Never Tickle Sleeping Dragons, doesn't that kind of highlight the fact that something would happen?" Ack... I hate logic.

Turning to the portrait and looking between it and Myrtle, Jake asked, "Does the dragon talk?" he looked at it and then back at Myrtle. "What were you expecting to happen, Myrtle?"

"Oh bother..." Helios approached cautiously with his wand balancing between his fingers. "Not wise to be an art critic when the paintings can critique you."

Cloudy blue eyes adjusted to the light, catching sight of the nearly transparent ghosts, sometimes you wouldn't notice them just floating there.

She looked at the Grey Lady, "Well I am sure he is not the first nor will he be the last one to do that." She told her. She still wasn't sure she even like the Grey Lady she always spoke in riddles and then acted like the queen of knowledge. "And the dragon didn't have to set him on fire either." She said. It was a bloody picture after all.

She turned back to Jake. "Well who told you to tickle it in the first place?" She asked him as she looked at him. "You are going to have to toss those robes." She explained.

She turned and looked at the boy whom she'd never met. "And just who might you be?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Who I might be might be anyone, but who I am is who I am. Is that what you meant to ask?" Helios arched a brow as if they were having a height contest.

"If that is the case, which I assume it is, I will gladly introduce myself as prince Helios, son of Hyperion." The Hufflepuff boy stated in a dignified fashion, flashing a smile and bowing respectfully.

"Now for my question: Who..are..you?"


OOC: Haha. Better watch my Alice refrences infront of the kiddies. Wouldn't want to say something they already saw in a Disney movie.

She stared at the boy waiting for the other shoe to drop. Surely he was kidding about the prince part? When he didn't burst into peals of laughter she tried to stop staring like a moron. "Er um, I'm Paris Greenwood," She told. "I wasn't aware there was a monarchy in the wizarding world." She told him trying to to get him to explain himself, before she recommended he check himself into St. Mungos.

Looking from his robes to the portrait and back to Myrtle, Jake tried to work out what in Merlin's name was going on. "What... but you... and I... huh?!" he stammered, looking about him. Then some other boy was there and introducing himself. Really... I think there's more important things right now...

"It breathed fire!" Jake finally managed to choke out, pointing at the dragon accusingly. He looked up at Paris. "Myrtle said I should... and... well, it's a portrait..."

When the Grey Lady had appeared, Myrtle had gone totally transparent, mostly because she didn't want to be reprimanded for hanging around the portrait. Even if dragons were awesome and Jakey Jake was her knight in shining armour, she had a feeling that this was one of those illegal activities good ghosties didn't do.

But then Helena was gone and Myrtle was just left with two annoying students and Jakey. "Teeheheheeee," she giggled lightly, popping out of her camouflaged hiding spot against the wall. "Sorry you got scorched, Jakey, I didn't think that would happen....well, not really...."

She sighed and floated to his shoulder, making puppy dawg eyes. "You're not maaaaaad at me, are you? I mean, now you know proper fire-safety at least..."

"Oh... it's okay, Myrtle... no harm done, eh?" Jake managed a weak smile at her. All seemed okay. Not many students visited this place recently, had they? It wasn't like the most popular place in school.

"No, I'm not mad..." He turned to her as she floated over. What was with the eyyyyes? "It's just... I totally didn't expect it... I mean I knew the portraits could talk and move about, but I didn't think things would get quite so interactive..."

Jake looked over at the portrait again, letting out a sigh. "Now what?" This whole thing seemed totally bizarre to Jake. As non-clued up as he was, Jake was sure this was just... weird. The ghosts, the strange actions of the teachers... the mirror that nobody had seen before and just happened to show up this year.

The way he carried himself, Helios was either crazy serious, or seriously crazy. "The world is larger than anyone can imagine." What that meant was anyones guess. Left to the imagination.

Though he did not look the part of royalty in European standards, though the way his hair shined did hint towards a special pedigree. "I come from a place which is only known as a place from a book. Almost like Oz or Wonderland, but I assure you it is real." The young warrior wasn't quite helping his case with the storybook refrences, but for some reason he felt like Paris would understand him. Obviously oblivious to her disbelief in his divinity, or royalty.

If he knew anything about St. Mungos, the prince might be shocked at how well he would belong.

She looked at Jake. "Well that was obvious from the small fire on your robes," She told him. "Oh no you listened to Myrtle," She groaned. Sometimes that ghost was more trouble than she as worth.

And speak of the devil in horn rimmed glasses. "Myrtle love," Paris cooed. "I've been missing you. The bathroom seems a lonely place without you dear," She said with a smile. Best to be nice to her, she might be able to solve that little riddle of the Grey Lady's.

She looked at him. "Well of course it is. I mean muggles don't know we exist after all." She said matter of factly. He was very strange and Paris didn't know if he was telling the truth or going crazy like the professors.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "A place form a book. Or there is a book about the place you live in?" She was going to get a headache if she kept up this circular logic.

Those broad shoulders arched, not quite knowing how to answer the girls question.

"The muggles call it Homers' Odyssey. The island of Aeaea isn't on any maps." Taking a look left and right, Helios continued in a quieter voice. "I'm not even sure if anyone believes it exists."

You would think he would realize how weird he sounded. He sounded sincere at least.

"Miles shouldn't care," he said confidently. "Because Miles is a nice guy, I think. He would have to be, if you're his girlfriend."

He rubbed the spot on his chest where his heart kept thumping and took a deep breath. Now that he wasn't looking into the mirror... he could get a grasp on things. No reason to get so upset. It didn't matter if he had a bad heart. He would be himself, whether he had a good heart or not. He would do the things he wanted. It was something he couldn't change, no matter how much he wanted to.

"I'm alright," he said softly, smiling at her. "I'm... I'm alright."

He took a step toward the spot through which they'd come in. Perhaps... it was time to get out of here. And away from that mean mirror. It hadn't had anything in it that interested him anyway... right?

He put a hand to the door and pushed...

Nothing.

"Uhm... Vannie Corbette?"

"Miles is a great guy..." Vanessa spoke with a smile, and she knew that Miles didn't really care about what his father thought, well not that much anyway. And all she cared about was what Miles thought.

Vannie smiled as Raiden said that he was okay. That was good, she didn't want him to be upset or anything. He didn't look okay though, but she wasn't going to question it, she knew how it might upset people.
As he turned to walk where they'd come from she followed him slowly. And then stopped as he pushed the door and nothing happened.

"Won't it open?" She asked, looking confused. She walked up behind him, and tried to open it herself. "Rai why won't it open?"

Raiden pushed a little harder on the door. It... wasn't moving at all. He knocked tentatively on it. Maybe someone was blocking it from the outside? Like... holding it shut as a joke?

"Hello?" he called, then looked at Vannie Corbette as she tried it. "It doesn't want to open at all...Why won't it open?"

He pulled out his wand, and pointed it at the portrait. What was that spell? Hellomora? No, wait...

"Alohomora," he said. But... would it work if there were really no lock to have locked? He pushed again. "Vannie Corbette... I don't know what..."