Emiliano nodded his head to warn he was ready to play some music. He held his bass as he stood up then turned on the amp to start playing some notes while he waited.

Freya walked up to the Room of Requirement, the large doors were once again waiting for her to enter. 'I'm so lucky with this thing, I swear it knows me better than I know myself...'

She pushed open the doors and was somewhat surprised to see a few others inside already; but they had odd looking, um, tools in their hands. Freya watched them eerily as she made her way across the floor, which took on it's comfortable metal appearance as her feet hit the tiles. 'I need a place to work alone.' She thought to herself as hard as she could, 'Just a place to be alone and practice for a while.'
Freya got her wish; as she looked up from the metalic floor her pale eyes spotted another oak doorway in the middle of a stone wall that hadn't been in the room previously. She grabbed the elegant handle and pushed the door open. Inside the new room were solid teak and oak trimmed walls, a large stone fireplace was held within the far wall, and stacks of books were along the same wall the contained the door.
Freya's eyes caught something else thought after her immediate delight had faded slightly. There it was, her practice partner...the same one that had knocked her flat last term, but that wasn't going to happen again...no on her watch. 'How do I even dare look at myself in the mirror, knowing that I was hit by you?' She walked up the couple of stairs to stand atop a dueling platform, the practice dummy was at the far end, and it's false wand was still at it's side.

'There won't be a shred of this thing left once I've had my fun with it...' Freya told herself as she hopped off of the platform, and with her long stride made her way over to a couple of leather chairs near the books. She removed her heavy cloak and tied her hair back in a high-set ponytail, glaring at the dummy the entire time. 'A hunk of metal beat me...PAH!'
Freya took her wand out of her pocket and stepped up onto the platform again, taking her preferred stance.
Like a charm, the dummy also raised it's wand and prepared itself to 'duel', only it would be the one attacking the student for now. "Ready." Freya said outloud, giving the dummy it's command. And as it had last year, it cast a red stream of light toward the seventh year, this time the girl was better focused. 'Protego!' She thought strongly and gave her wand the proper movements, and an added whiplike snap to her wrist. Freya watched with delight as the beam of light soared upwards and smashed into the ceiling.

'We'll try this a couple more times.' "Ready." And again the red light flashed towards the student, and once more Freya successfully shielded herself. 'Not so hard now is it? Why did I fail last time?' She scolded herself more than was necessary. 'I think I'm done with you. Reducto!' Another beam of amber colored light erupted from the girl's wandtip and smashed into the torso of the dummy, taking out most of the top half, and leaving the concrete and metal legs connected to the stand.
Freya laughed to herself slightly and watched as the remnants retreated into the wall behind it. 'Probably replacing itself...too bad.' She jumped off of the platform again and walked over to her cloak before looking over towards the fireplace and bookshelves. 'I have time...' Freya went over to another set of chairs in front of the fire and searched through a few shelves before selecting a thick book and taking a seat. Why not spend a few hours reading?

Ludo looked at Liz in amazement as she voiced his very thought and kissed him. His eyes were wide, and he was very silent as he watched Liz pace around.

It wasn't long before she was rambling and he began to shake his head. He stepped up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder before he finally found his voice. "Hey...just chill. You're over-analyzing it. Asteira was the other best friend, besides you."

She mentioned Professor Forrester and Ludo scowled. "Him....It's all my fault. I shouldn't have gone there after his explosion in the Mirror room. Now I'm down twenty points and made you lose them as well."
He stopped to think of..everything.

"Maybe I just made it too big of an entrance. To you...and to the Professor too, I guess. We could forget this ever happened and just go back to normal..." he trailed off, unsure of how to carry on.

Qaz couldn't think of a better place to work on finding different ways to work with her lock. This time, she entered the room alone. Her tabby would have gotten in the way.

She pulled the empty treasure chest and lock from her bag. How to make this difficult. Suddenly a shelf appeared at the top of the wall on the other side of the room. Brilliant! Qaz locked the chest, and with a flourish of her wand 'Wingardium Leviosa!' The chest floated up to the shelf. 'Alohamora!' and she heard the lock click open. Still too easy.

'Wingardium Leviosa!' and the chest came floating back to her. She fastened the lock once more and pondered....deep in thought...when she heard music..it sounded like the County Fair back home. When she looked up...there was a Merry-Go-Round. Qaz just laughed! A moving target...far out! With a quick 'Alohamora' she grabbed the lock off the treasure chest and hopped on the Merry-Go-Round. Now what to attach it to....ah, the horses's ear. That should do the trick. Hoping off, she walked all the way back to the door. Distance and movement. That should be a good test. Trying to time the movement of the horse could be just the challenge that she needed. The horse was coming into view...up and down and up and down and 'Alohamora!' and she missed. That was a surprise. Around it came again...up and down and up and down and concentrate 'Alohamora!' This time she saw the lock pop open. Jumping on the Carousel, she grabbed the lock off the horse's ear and hopped off...and watched, rather sadly, as the Merry-Go-Round and the music disappeared.

That should be enough, she though, as she packed up and left.

Terry beamed at his best friends, squishing them both into a tiny hug then letting them go before either perhaps had all the oxygen completely forced out of every particle of their VERY BEING. ...no exaggerating there at aaaaall.

'I love you both. A LOT.' Terry murmured seriously, eyeing the two. 'BUT if Hugo here doesn't hurry up here and cut his cake, stuff atleast and five bites into his face AND open atleast the most sparkliest prezzies in the corner right there, ...I am going to EXPLODE.' He flailed his hands in the air. 'So yeah. No pressure.'

Elizabeth stopped to turn and look at Ludo again as he put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm over-analyzing what?," she asked, confused again. So Asteira was just a friend?, she thought, still having a little trouble adapting to the new situation. But then she spoke softly, unable to completely keep from arguing. "You can't deny that way more people seem to be attracted to my friends than to me," she said barely above a whisper, looking away again. Nico, Seth, Robert . . . none of them ever said anything like he just had to her. And she was fairly certain none of them ever would.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ludo scowl as he heard her talk about the professor, and smiled a little. "Okay, yeah. Maybe the choice of the observatory wasn't the best, considering the circumstances. But we had no way of knowing he'd decided to stop in. Especially not when he did," she said, before turning to look at him again as he talked about the points. "Twenty points is nothing. A couple homework assignments," she tried to reassure him. "You can earn those points back easy. And you didn't make me lose points. I did. I underestimated his mood, and it backfired on me. It happened, and now I'll try to get those points back too." She looked at him steadily for a few seconds, trying to make sure he was convinced she was serious about that, before emphasizing, "Don't blame yourself for what I did . . ."

She trailed off as he spoke again, and a hurt expression crossed her face before she could hide it. "Do you want to forget it happened?," she asked him, starting to worry he wanted to take it all back. Okay, she was all for pretending the stuff with Forrester never happened, but she also didn't think she could just go back to before.

Ludo found a hurt in Liz's eyes as she explained about her cousin. "Well..I feel sorry for every stupid guy that didn't. I guess stupidity is a given to the male chromosome." he said with a smile, trying to force a laugh out of her.

He nodded in agreement as she reassured him of making the points back up. "I suppose we are both to blame."

As predicted, Liz's face filled with more hurt as she posed the question to him. He already had his answer. "...No...No, I don't. D-do you?"
Things just wouldn't be normal if they did forget it all.

Elizabeth found herself staring at Ludo for a second as he said he'd feel sorry for all the guys who were more attracted to people like Mari and Asteira. It was like part of her was flattered, but another part didn't know what to think, especially since she knew a lot of those guys. And Ludo did too. But she cracked a half-smile at his joke about guys in general. "So does that mean you're stupid too?," she semi-teased back, getting a little more back to her normal self. And she grinned as he said they were both to blame for the loss of points. "Why can't we blame it all on Professor Forrester's bad mood? I mean, that's the reason we lost them. Not anything we did. Not exactly, at least."

She blinked as he stammered a response to her question about wanting to forget everything from up there in the observatory, and then reached out a hand to touch his arm lightly. "No," she said softly, but then snickered a little. "Okay. Maybe I wish I hadn't had to deal with Forrester glaring at us again, because he can be really scary. Especially when you don't expect to see him. But there's other parts I don't want to forget." She trailed off into silence.

Sneeze came running up to the wall, a camera in his hands. He thought of what he wanted. "A place to show this to Rian. Rian..." Then the door opened and he went in. In the middle of the room was a pedestel where he put the camera. He sat down on a chair and started finishing it off. Nuts and bolts were flying. He had forgotten about this! He decided to give it to Rian as a Christmas present, but he'd have to excuse himself. Every two seconds Sneeze looked at the door.

"Hi Marcus! I'm Chalice. Nice to meet you!" Chalice said to one of Lizzie's friends.

Rian stood in front of the door, confused. Sneeze had told her to come here...but did she really want to? Yes, of course she did. ...Right? UGH! she thought angrily as she starting whispering "I...need to see Sneeze..." three times.

She took a deep breath when the door appeared, and stepped inside the room. When she saw Sneeze, she couldn't help it - her face lit up with a smile. "Happy Christmas!" she greeted, running forward. She reached into her bag and pulled out a package. Inside was a quill, but if you pressed the top, it became a screwdriver thingamajig. "Here!" she said, handing Sneeze the gift, along with a bag of Licourice wands.

"Oh, thanks Rian. Oh merlins beard! It's... The Jingrenslugfren 5000! Do you know how hard this is to find! It's one of the finest tools in the market now! Oh, Rian! Thanks!" Sneeze hugged her, picking her up a bit. He held the quill in his hands. "Oh, here's your Christmas present. A bit late, but, it's here! Your own Sneezeograph 2000! It took me a two tries to make it perfect. It takes wizard, muggle, and troll pictures! Also, it takes 3D photos, too." He put the quill in his bag with the candy, and handed her the camera. "You can do all this with this button."

Rian grinned when he said the name of the gift she gave him. She couldn't pronounce it for the life of her. She sucked in a surprised breath when he hugged her, and her feet left the ground. A surprised giggle left her mouth, and her face turned bright red instantly.

"Sneeze!" She exclaimed, grinning at the camera. "It's great!" she held it in her hands, then turned it backwards and held it out from her. "Say Merlin!" she chided, clicking the button and taking a picture of her and Sneeze.

"Well, I'm glad you like it! Since we're here, let's catch up. How's everything?" Sneeze looked around and saw that the room had been decorated for Christmas. That had been weird. He checked the ceiling for mistletoe. None. Good.

Rian smiled and settled down onto a comfy armchair that showed up as soon as she thought that she wanted one. "Everything's pretty good," she replied, kicking off her shoes and bringing her feet up onto the chair. "Not too swamped with homework...and it's the Christmas holiday! That's the best part."
Her smile got bigger as she looked around the festive room. She smiled at the holly and garland, and the Christmas lights that were hung near the roof.

Hugo smiled to himself, but pretended that he'd missed the little connection between Evie and Terry. It was those special, brief moments that made the whole thing a lot less awkward, so he decided against making a comment. Especially because his comments usually evolved into arguments. Hmm.

He grinned as Lettie kissed him, and sniggered as Terry got impatient. "Okay, okay, I'm doin' it!" He laughed, picking up the knife. "REEEADY?" 1, 2, 3....make another wish, Woods. Closing his eyes tightly and wishing with all his might, Hugo pressed down on the cake with the knife. "Yaaaay!" He beamed down at the yummy-looking treat, and began to cut slices for Terry, Lettie and himself. He licked some icing off of his finger, and let out a gasp. "Wooooow. This cake is GOOD!" He took a massive GENEROUS bite, smiling thankfully at his two friends.

"Yeah, I have just finished another 30 inventions due to the free time. But with the new tool I can finish a new part for the car. It needs some tuning." Sneeze smiled at her and sat down. He grabbed a vial from his robes. "I need to take the potion for the problem, I forgot to do it last night." He drank some and choked a bit. He smiled. "How's Lily? I thought you were going to go back to see Lily?"

"More? What are they?" Rian asked, curious as he mentioned 30 new inventions. "A new part? What's that?" she asked, smiling shyly when she realized she was asking alot of questions.

A potion for...? "Oh," she said, watching him drink the potion. It didn't seem too tasty.

She frowned when he asked about Lily. "She's...sick. They're at St. Mungo's right now." she said this quietly. Her sister was deathly ill or anything, though. She just had a really bad cough. "I was going to, but my mum said it would be best if I just stayed here. Appearantly, even my dad came back from Ireland." her frown grew more prominent as she told Sneeze this.

"Oh, such a pity. Juliet isn't feeling well either, but my parents knew I wasn't going to go home. I love Hogwarts and wish to get a job here! Yes, Professor Longbottom of Inventory! How I wish that would happen. Oh and to answer your questions in order: Yes. They are toys for babies. A part to allow it to go underwater." Sneeze smiled to her. He imagined himself, a professor, walking around teaching about inventions. The store was a back up plan.

Ludo let out a loose chuckle as she asked about his stupidity. "Well after tonight...yes I think I may be a bit." He then nodded as Liz brought up a third party candidate. "Yeah...let's just give him all the blame."

A wave of relief fell upon him as Liz said she wouldn't want to forget. "Yes...some of the stuff tonight we can forget." He said with a smile.
"But what now?" he thought.

"Really?" Rian asked, tipping her head to the side. "I'm sorry." she opened her mouth to say something else when Sneeze kept talking. "Oh, that's cool," she replied to the first thing he said. When he said something about the car, she grinned. "That's cool!" she exclaimed. She smiled to what he said about wanting to teach here.

Elizabeth tilted her head to one side as he used the recent events as an argument for his stupidity. "Why do you think tonight makes you stupid?," she asked, before he sidetracked her by agreeing with her joking idea to blame Forrester. "We're only blaming him for the bad stuff, right? Like, losing points," she tried to verify, still a little nervous about where they were going with this conversation.

When he smiled at her, she relaxed a little, although she could sense he was still unsure about things. Biting her lip, she looked at him. "So we agree to not forget everything. But where does that leave us?," she asked. She wasn't sure.

"Yeah, but never enough for me. I always need something to entertain myself." Sneeze said. He thought about the last few weeks not being with Rian. To fill the empty spot she filled, he invented more and more. But he seemed more tired than ever before. He wished they could get back together but it would be difficult. "Yeah, the baby toys were inspired by Lily and Juliet. I just sent a pack of them home." Sneeze smiled at Rian. He looked around at the room and found a guitar. His chair rolled over, got the guitar, and came back. He started strumming.

Rian nodded silently to all that Sneeze said. She looked around at all the decorations and thought of home...then thought of Sneeze. She missed not being his girlfriend. Even though their 'break-up' hadn't really changed anything, it made her a bit sad when she thought about him being with other girls. Maybe that was selfish, but it didn't matter to Rian. She still really liked Sneeze.

She smiled softly as he grabbed a random guitar that happened to be in the room. She listened quietly while he strummed, then she tipped her head to the side and started humming. She would be singing, but she didn't know the song.

Sneeze started strumming faster, harder. And then started singing:
" Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one."

He smiled when he finished this, got up and bowed.