Oh well, at least she was going to watch over him. It was better than having no one to help or watch over him right? Every time, he would sniff, magnify, crawl. That was what he did basically. Sniff, magnify, crawl. Oh, he forgot to add to the list that he looked at Reese every once or so to make sure she didn't ditch him. And he finally realized it, there weren't any ant-sized trolls anywhere.

"There's noone. Nada, nothing!" He dug his face into her stomach, he wanted an ant-sized troll and there were none!

"Then let's go outside, and we can try to collect Ravenclaws along the way," he gestured toward the other staircase, the one that led down.

"Sounds good" Liz says heading down down the stairs toward the pathways.

Ludo was still a bit disappointed for leaving the room with the mirror. "You should have seen it! It was...amazing! Professor Pierce was in there earlier and said the mirror showed you...Gah! I wish you could have seen!"

As she let go of his hand, he realized just how tight she'd been holding it. He smiled. "Oh..no." He put an arm around her for a slight embrace. "You were just looking out for me. Don't apologize. Forrester really shouldn't put students out...they deserve to see."

He looked around the empty corridor. Looking back to Liz he saw she was wearing a badge from Defense Against the Dark Arts. "So...are we at a truce? Or are you looking for a duel?" He laughed and paused a second.

"Are you ready to tell her, Ludo?" he thought...he'd lingered on this for weeks.

"Or if you want...we could go somewhere else? And just talk?" He stopped walking and smiled at her.

Elizabeth looked up at Ludo as he went on about the mirror. Smiling, she said, "I should have seen what? You keep saying there's something weird, or cool, or whatever about that mirror, but you aren't explaining it. And how do you expect me to believe you when I don't know what I'm supposed to be believing?" It was seriously both confusing her and piquing her interest. Since even Professor Forrester seemed to have been hiding something about that mirror.

She was a bit thrown when he then told her she hadn't needed to apologize for dragging him out of the room and everything, and hugging her a little. "Um, okay," she said, before looking up at him again. "I was kinda looking out for both of us, I guess. Trying to keep us from losing points. Which obviously didn't work very well, since you had to complain in Forrester's earshot that Pierce had said it was okay." She grinned up at him. "I think he's just enjoying being scary right now."

She laughed when he brought up the game from DADA. "I can't duel you," she reminded him. "Remember? Automatic truce among people from the same house as you. No hexing members of your house. And I don't think anyone wants to test Kazimeriz to see if they can get around that rule."

His pause piqued her curiosity again, since she wasn't exactly sure why he had paused, but she simply smiled again as he spoke. "Don't we kinda have to go somewhere else? I mean, I don't think we want to just hang out in the corridor, in case Forrester comes back out, or we get ambushed by other students that are hex-happy. So sure. If you have any ideas for where we could go."

Qaz was making her way down to the great hall, keeping her eyes peeled and her wand ready....just in case another DADA player tried to get her.

Out of boredom, Anna had decided to take a random walk around the castle. Not too many of her friends were in the Common Room at the moment, and Cale was Merlin-knew-where. The two just didn't get to hang on as much as they used to, but Anna knew Cale was busy trying to get his graduation requirements completed in time for the end of the school year. It still didn't take away from the fact that she missed him terribly. What had happened to the good ole days when they were always together and never apart? She missed that. A tiny bit of her---very tiny---sort of wished for things to be similar to how they were during that school year the boys and girls were sparated at those awful Cooper's and Belle's Schools. Anna didn't want the schools back, of course, but she missed how close she and Cale seemed to be that year. Sighing, Anna leaned up against the wall, thinking back to the good old days. Before she knew it, a little tiny tear had escaped down her cheek. Next school year was going to be tough, and the worst part about it was that she couldn't even discuss that with Cale. "Only the positive," of course.

Just as Cale wandered down the corridor, he noticed a very familiar female prefect walking along the corridor a little further up from him--not facing him, of course, so now he had the perfect opportunity to sneak up on her. WOOT!

Being as quiet as he possibly could, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek. "Hi there," he said with a smile before turning her around to face him. His eyes looked at the badge on her chest and he chuckled and playfully rolled his eyes. "Oh good Merlin, you're wearing one of these badges too?" he asked with a grin. "I hope you know what you're getting into--Jack Mosier was awfully feisty with me earlier and I wasn't even WEARING one of those," he told her.

He noticed a very faint tear streak on her face. Frowning and wrinkling his eyebrows, he used his finger to dry her cheek. "Have you been crying?" he asked with concern.

Was it possible to literally feel someone's presence? The feeling was weird, because Anna had never felt like someone was near her before. It was hard for her to describe, but she suddenly felt in her heart that her boyfriend was somewhere very close to her. "Hey, Cale," she softly said, the words coming out seconds before he actually wrapped his arms around her. Anna squeezed her boyfriend in return, loving the feeling of having him around. When he spun her around, she immediately turned to looked right into his eyes, almost as if she were trying to read his soul. "Yeah, I do," she said, reaching down and touching the little DADA badge before looking back up at Cale. "You know me...always trying to earn points and be active in class. I just hope no one sneaks up and tries to hex or jinx me right now. I just want to enjoy walking and talking with you. School keeps us too busy, you know."

"Have I been crying? Ummm, no?" she said, her statement coming out more as a question. She knew better than to try and make some part of her boyfriend's seventh year negative by bringing up sad feelings. Switching the subject quickly, Anna said, "The school year's passing by so quickly now. I can't we're seventeen and eighteen now. Cale, I've been with you since I was fourteen! Fourteen!"

"Pssh, points smoints. I'd rather make sure no one takes a hit at my hair," Cale joked, pausing to fix a curl that was barely touching the top of his forehaed before grabbing her hand and walking down the corridor with her.

"Correction--I think you've KNOWN me since you were fourteen," Cale said with a smirk. Mwahaha--he loved being right. "You see, we met when you were fourteen and then you turned fifteen that year, when we were still friends and still semi-hated each other. Do you remember that?" he asked with a grin. "We could hardly be in the same room with each other for five minutes without ripping each others throats out!" he chuckled.

"You would only be worried about your hair. You're such a girl sometimes," she joked, referring to how he spent so much time perfecting his hairdo. "I'm only kidding. Anyway, you should be worried about those 'points smoints.' This is your seventh year. You can't start kidding around now, you know." Anna linked her hand with Cale's and followed him down the hallway. "I liked you when I was fourteen, though. I was such a little kid, but at the same time, I just knew that there was something special about you. Oh, and no, I wasn't thinking about your hair either. That's why I always hated you so much, though. I had the biggest crush on you, and I didn't want you to know about it, so I tried my hardest to make you think I hated you."

"Oh, Cale!" Anna exclaimed, suddenly stopping dead in her tracks. "I accidentally told Professor Ashby that---," she started, almost telling him that she'd nearly told a professor that what she wanted to be when she grew up was Mrs. Newell. "I mean, I told him that I was thinking about playing professional Quidditch one day or being a potions researcher. Cool, huh?"

"I'm not horribly worried--I'm still on the leader board," Cale said with a grin. That, in his opinion, was good enough for him. "As long as I'm on there it's all good--I mean, it's not like I'm ever gonna catch up to YOU or anything," he told her with a grin, giving her a one armed squeeze.

He stopped abruptly when Anna had a panic attack and told him that she had accidentally told Ashby something--and then changed the subject. Wha? Blinking dumbfoundedly, he looked at Anna and wrinkled his eyebrows. "You accidentally told him you wanted to be a potions researcher? Was it like, some big secret or something?" he asked with a chuckle.

"I guess you're right. I mean, I doubt seriously we'll be able to catch up to Ravenclaw at this point, but hey, we just might. You never know. Still, I'm happy to be on the leaderboard, too," she said. "I'm proud of you, too." She leaned up on her tippy toes and kissed him lightly on the cheek and then continued the walk down the hallway. For a while, she didn't say anything. She just walked alongside Cale and thought about how nice it was to just be with him. "I'm going to miss this....," she absentmindedly mumbled.

"Yeah, it was erm, a big secret. I wasn't going to tell anyone just yet," she finally said, blushing and looking down to the ground. She was so not a good liar, but she was also so not in the mood to scare Cale away with the whole "Mrs. Newell" comment either. Maybe he wouldn't be so freaked out, though? Maybe she'd never know one way or the other...

Cale sighed contently and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb as they walked along. He didn't want to talk about it, but he was dreading the end of this as well. He kept telling himself it was only one year, one year and then they'd be able to be together again, but it was such a long time. A whole YEARRRR.

Well, he still had a while to go before they parted, so he shook his head to clear his thoughts before looking back at her. "So, potions researcher, huh? Why that?" he asked with interest.

Okay, so once again he didn't want to talk about next school year. That was definitely one thing the two of them disagreed on. Anna wanted to sit down and talk about next school year, and she wanted him to reassure her over and over and over again. Didn't he understand that girls were just like that...especially girls who were in love? No, he didn't. All he cared about was "having fun" during his final year. He didn't seem to understand that this whole year wasn't all about having fun. There was a heart being broken---her's---and all he wanted to do was fix his dumb ole hair. Okay, so she didn't really mean that. His hair happened to be fabulous and just perfect in her eyes, but still, he was hurting her, and he didn't even realize it. "Does it really matter why I want to be a Potions researcher, Cale?" she asked, speaking out of hurt only. "You know what I think matters? I think it matters that you're being pretty frippin selfish right about now!" She slung her hand aways from his, turned around, and headed back to the spot on the wall she'd been leaning against when he'd first walked up.

Cale blinked in confusion as Anna accused him of being selfish and stormed away, leaving him there dumbfounded. This was one of those moments Cale hated--when he apparently did something wrong and had no idea what it was. Selfish? SELFISH? He had asked a question about HER for Merlin's sake! How was that being selfish?

Storming right back up to her, he tapped her on the shoulder. "Oi! What in the name of Merlin was THAT all about?" he asked her, crossing his arms and wrinkling his eyebrows. "You accused me of being selfish when I'm pretty sure I was asking YOU a question about YOUR future career. I thought that was something important that you wanted to talk about, but apparently I broke some sort of relationship rule that only the female in the relationship knows about, as always!" he grumbled, nearly tapping his foot in annoyance. "Seriously, what is your DEAL?"

Anna angrily slouched against the wall, willing herself not to cry over her mean, rude, selfish...loving, cute, perfect...ugh...boyfriend. No doubt Cale would stomp off and head far, far away to punch some wall or something. Wasn't that how he usually dealt with these sorts of conflicts? By running from them? Typical Cale. So the plan was to stand here on this wall long enough to allow Cale the opportunity to get a good distance away, and then she'd leave for the safety of the Common Room---girl's dormitory. Did she really want to do all that, though? No, not really. What she really felt like doing was turning around and running to find Cale as quickly as she could. She didn't want him far, far away. He'd be too far away soon, so why separate now? Ugh. Why did relationships have to be so complicated? Stupid boys...

Anna jumped, completely caught unaware, when she felt a tap on her shoulder, followed by Cale's not-too-happy voice. She spun around and stared at him in shock. He'd stayed? Umm..wow. She stared at him, dumbfounded, for a good two or three minutes before she finally replied. "Don't you get it, Cale?" she softly asked, trying not to raise her voice. "We've been dating for two years now, and all you can think to ask me about right now is potions research? Right now? When I'm practically...dyinginside," she said, mumbling the last two words. "Look, I understand you're a guy, and guys have this weird way of not being able to understand how a girl thinks all the time, so let me just point-blank tell you what's going on."

Anna sighed and pushed herself off the wall. "Your girlfriend is so hurt...and in so much pain right now...because the one person that she loves more than anyone else in this world is slipping through her fingers little by little. I know you want to have a fun year and only think about the positive, but seriously Cale, it's not all positive right now. It's also not as easy as saying it's 'just a year and then we'll be together.' A year, Cale. A whole school year will pass by, and we'll see one another...oohhhh, maybe...three days. Has that really occured to you yet? I really don't think it has," she explained. She walked over closer to him and grabbed both of his hands, looking him in the eyes as she did so. "I need you to understand me, please. I need you to understand that girls are different from boys in that they need to be reassured, sometimes over and over and over again, before they're comfortable with something like this. I need you to stop closing up about this and talk about it...because I'm not doing so well with it. Please..."

Cale frowned as anger started to bubble up inside him. Of course she just had to bring this up right NOW. That's how it had been with her for months now--just when they started having fun, she'd pop in and get all depressed cause somehow, fun reminded her that he was leaving and then BAM! Girl hormones must have kicked in or something, cause everytime that happened she turned into a big sour fun-sucker. Boooooo. What was so hard about just trying to savor the good moments? It's not like he was saying that they had to push it all under a rug until the very last second, like the night before she left for school or anything--but Merlin, it was only December! They had absolutely no reason to worry about his departure until after he graduated, at least.

Cale rolled his eyes. "Anna, I GET it, ok! You're sad about me leaving and you're dreading next year, and I am too...but this has GOT to stop! Every time we have a nice conversation or do something fun together, you flip out and get all moody on me. How can we POSSIBLY enjoy this last year together if every other moment you're bringing up the fact that I'm leaving after this year?" he asked her.

Shaking his curly head, he sighed and gave her a hug--he wasn't as mad at her as he had been a moment before, but he was still frustrated. "DON'T say I'm slipping away from you, cause I'm not. Sure, I won't be here next year, but you honestly think I'm going to abandon you? Forget about you? I'll write you every week, every day probably, and we'll see each other during the holidays and we can arrange to meet up at Hogsmeade. It will be hard, but it's not going to change the way I feel about you at all. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, remember?" he asked with a small chuckle.

"And you honestly think I haven't thought about the fact that I'm leaving next year and leaving you here?" he asked her with a small frown. "I'm just...trying to be optimistic. These things happen, ya know? It's not the end of the world, people have survived situations like this before us and been perfectly fine. But we'll be ok, I KNOW we will--I mean, if we can survive that hurricane breakup from last year, this should be a piece of cake," he added with a wink. Now that he had gotten out what he had been trying to get through to her, he was finding it easier to joke around with her now. "But I need you to do one thing--accept that I'm going to be leaving next year. It's going to happen, we both know it is, so we need to start looking at it more positively. It's going to be hard, but it's going to be even harder if we just sit around moping about it all the time. And you can't snap at me everytime I try to start a polite conversation...I mean, if it isn't future career choices ticking you off, it's something else!" he finished.

Ludo shrugged. "I don't know what Forrester's damage is. I was just telling you what was what and he had to butt in."

He smacked his forehead as Liz reminded him of the dueling alliance. "Oh yeah! I must've been in a hurry. In all honesty I doubt I'd win in a duel against you." He smiled.

He stayed relaxed as Liz left the decision to him. "How about we go to up to the Observatory? At least before Forrester comes back and catches us..." he laughed.

Anna dropped Cale's hands, sighed a little in defeat, and turned to look towards the wall again. This was just not turning out how she wanted it to. Anna could remember a time when she was a little girl, no more than five or so, and she'd dreamed of one day finding a Prince Charming who would ride her off into the sunset on a beautiful, snow white horse. She and Prince Charming would ride and ride until they reached their beautiful, shiny palace, and then he'd hand her a crown, and life would always be this perfect little fairy tale. Psh. Stupid Cinderella. She should be hexed for allowing little girls to believe in fairy tales. Boys just didn't really turn out like Prince Charming, did they now? Anna spun back around and looked at Cale---really looked at him. He was clumsy, yes. ...and he had this little unruly curl that never quite seemed to want to stay out of his eyes. He was also a tad grumpy at times, and he really had this funny way of unintentionally making more enemies than he'd ever intended to.

He was beautiful, though. In so many, many ways, he really was Prince Charming. He'd been Anna's very first boyfriend, and the very first boy she'd ever fallen in love with. He never failed to figure out when she was upset, and he always wiped her tears away when she cried. He bought her really thoughtful gifts, too, like jewelry and baby crups. Anna also couldn't forget about all the times they'd shared the swing in his mother's backyard, or the times they'd combined their two favorite ice cream flavors into one yummy little treat they could share with one another. He also loved her more than anyone else had ever loved her, her parents included. He was her Cale, and she'd pass on that snow white horse and shiny palace anyday if it meant being his Anna for the rest of her life.

Anna sighed once again. Her anger with him was slowly fading away, and she found herself in a position where she honestly wanted to leave all their troubles behind and just live for the moment. Without saying one word, Cale had sort of helped Anna through her little slump she was in over him graduating this term. She didn't even make a face or get angry at him when he initially raised his voice at her, either. Maybe she deserved it, though. She simply looked him in the eyes and listened to every word he was saying, nodding at the appropriate moments.

She leaned in and hugged him back. "I'm sorry, sweetie. I really do understand. Really. I'm sorry I overreacted, and you're not selfish. You're actually one of the sweetest, most thoughtful people I know. I promise you I'll write you everyday, too. I'll tell you all about my classes and how Gryffindor's coming along. I may even write you and tell you that this hot new guy sits next to me in Potions class every day!" she said, obviously joking on that last line. "I'm only kidding about the guy in Potions class. You're irreplaceable, you know." Anna took a deep breath when he asked her to accept the fact that he was leaving Hogwarts after this term. She let it out slowly and then added, "Okay. I accept that you won't be with me next school year. I trust you, and I love you a lot, and I know things will work out in the end," she said. "You have to stay true to that promise to meet me in Hogsmeade, though!"

"Oh, and I owe you an answer to one of your previous questions. "I've wanted to be a potions researcher since I was eleven. I've always been interested in brewing potions and finding ways to improve them in some manner. I've always wanted to create my own potions, as well," she replied. "You know what, though? I'm kind of considering professional Quidditch, too."

Cale grinned. Whoa, had he actually just--won a fight? All of his upbringing had told him that guys weren't supposed to win in fights, and yet he just did! WOOOT! Obviously, he wouldn't go sharing this with Anna, it was his own little ego boost that he had solved the problem and Anna wasn't mad at him.

"Speaking of guys, I may have to find someone to watch over you next year," Cale said with a grin, chuckling at the thought of having a watchman looking over Anna. "I mean, I trust you of course, but do you know how many creepers there are in this school?" he asked, chuckling and giving her another one armed squeeze. "And I'll come visit you every Hogsmeade weekend there is," he promised.

"Quidditch? That could be fun," he said, looking at the ceiling as he imagined the possibilities. They could see Ryan and Rapunzel again, and didn't Mia play Quidditch too? "Potions would be really interesting though. To be honest, I dunno WHAT I want to do--I know I want to work at the Ministry, so I suppose whatever department takes me is what I'll go with. But if I had a choice, I'd like to work with my uncle Ben in the Accidents and Catastrophes level."

Elizabeth shrugged in reply to Ludo's almost identical shrug, as well as his comment. "He is Slytherin. And isn't he their head of house? But seriously, I think some of the professors aren't exactly acting normal right now. At least, that's my opinion." She grinned. At least it was strangely fun to see professors acting weird.

When he smacked his head again, she reached up and grabbed his wrist. Again. "You really need to stop doing that," she said concernedly. "You might do damage to your brain or something." But then she laughed, before mischievously adding, "At least you haven't injured enough brain cells to not know that I'd beat you." She was teasing, especially since she had no real idea what he could do, but she knew Jonathan had trained her well.

She grinned again as he suggested they head up to the observatory, getting themselves out of the way in case Forrester came back out of the room behind the portrait. "Sure. Anywhere but here, right?," she joked, before turning to head to the upper floors. "And you never answered me earlier. Did you hear about the Quidditch rosters coming out?," she added as she walked.

Ludo nodded to Liz's comment about Forrester. "Well...I try not to judge by a person's House...and I'm sure you don't either." He smiled and added, "But that clears a lot of things up about him.."

He grinned as she grabbed his wrist and grabbed her hand back. "I know...I've still got a few brain cells left to tell me to stick around with you." He chuckled. "And is that a challenge I hear?" he added.

Ludo nodded again. "Yeah, let's head up there. Like you said 'anywhere but here'." He raised his eyebrows as she restated Quidditch rosters. "No, sorry!..." He held out his arm for her to take as they made their way up the stairs. "Tell me all about it."

When Cale grinned, Anna broke out into a fit of giggles. "Caaaaaaaale!" she playfully exclaimed, amused at the fact that Cale was being oh-so-Cale at a moment like this. "You're having an ego boost---aren't you?" She'd been his girlfriend and his best friend long enough to know that when Cale Newell grinned like that, then he was feeling pretty dang awesome about himself at the moment. Silly boy. "...only because I love you so much, though. Had it not been for that, I would gone on and on until I either won, or you grew tired of me and gave up," she teased.

"A guy to watch over me, huh?" Anna repeated, grinning mischievously and tapping her chin. "I just might enjoy a little bodyguard of sorts. Oh, I know! Plymouth Morgan! He's been such a sweetie lately, and he really seems to care about me! I'm sure he'd watch over me if you asked nicely." Anna laughed lightly at his "creepers" comment. "Unless you count Peeves, I don't think we have many creepers around here. You never know, though. I guess someone could try and pounce just when I least expect it. Maybe I'll luck up and there really will be a hot guy sitting next to me in Potions class," she teased once again. "You know what, though, Mr. Newell? I think I might have reason to worry about you working at the Ministry. You'll have some awesome job with a secretery that does seventy-five percent of your work for you, and then I'll have to worry about all your co-workers lining up at your office door." She smiled sweetly, stood on her tippy toes once again, and hugged him tightly.

"What? NO! How dare you accuse me of that!" Cale exclaimed, grinning in the process. He had never realized that his facial expressions gave away the fact that he was having basking in his own glory--he made a mental note to work on that. "And please--it's ME. I would have never given up. We're lucky this didn't turn into a Paul Kutcher moment, you know," he added, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Plymouth? Erm--how about Copernicus instead?" he asked with a sheepish smile. Sure, after the whole incident in the bathroom with the spazzy Hufflepuff, Cale had a bit more respect for the Ravenclaw than he had before--which was odd, seeing as how Plymouth had been about to stuff that kid's head in a toliet. But he hadn't made any cracks about his hair even though he could tell he was thinking of it so he was...somewhat more tolerant of him? It was hard to explain and made his curly head hurt. "Pssh, no creepers? Clearly, you've only been exposed to nice guys like me," he said with a grin, "I bet there's a lot of closet creepers hanging around--you know, they're not creepy till the boyfriend is out of the way and BAM! They're stalking you."

"ME? With a SECRETARY?" he asked with a hearty laugh. "In my first year, I'll probably BE someone's secretary. You gotta start at the bottom, sweetie," he told her with a smile.