Hugo rubbed his head, groaning as a lump began to form on the back of his skull. Perfect. Why was he being so freaking clumsy? Gah! "Sorry Lettie! Sorry Perfe-- I mean Prefect!" He corrected himself, grinnig sheepishly at the Gryffindor who he'd almost squished. "And sorry, but I don't actually know your name," he chuckled, edging away from the DANGEROUS wall. "I'm Hugo Jermaine Woods, the boy that almost squashed you." A small smile played around his lips. Hold up a sec...wasn't the Gryffindor Prefect with Curly Boy? Hmm. Prefect and Prefect. Cute! He saw a theme running here...weren't the two Slytherin prefects together, as well?

"I was looking...kinda." Hugo grinned at Evolette, and rubbed his head again. It was sore! "But you were sort of just...there. In the middle of the floor."

When Aggie finally managed to get to her feet on the moving staircase, she was not only out of breath but all sore. “Owww,” she said giving her backside a vigorous rub with both hands.

“My wand!” she suddenly felt a deep concern for it and started patting her legs down. The wand had slipped down a few more centimeters into her sock and the handle was no longer visible. But it sure felt in tact. Aggie let out a deep breath then turned around and inched up the stairs to see if Tobi was still waiting at the platform.

He wasn’t.

I wonder if he gave up? she though. Not likely her conscience told her.

When the stairs finally reconnected with the lower level, Aggie inched down the stairs slowly and as quietly as possible. It was odd really, the extra effort she put into being quiet considering how loud the stairs were when they reconnected with another level. Aggie didn’t care though, she was too preoccupied with staying unscathed from the Raging Rhino’s out of control temper. An odd irony struck her. Wasn’t it merely weeks ago that Tobi had dragged Aggie out for a walk because of her temperament? Funny how the tides change.

There was nobody waiting for her at the bottom. She looked left, then right, then inched forward into the hallway. Nothing. It was almost eerily quiet.If I can make it outside, she thought. I think I can loose him. A part of her wondered if Sho was around to save her. Then another part wondered if Sho would even bother?

She took off running feeling confident she had a good head start. She bolted left down the corridor that would lead her down the Great Hall. Her purple tennis shoes made a soft plat plat sound as she ran. The lack of Tobi noise gave her more confidence that she had lost him and so she sped up as she rounded another counter and then –

SMACK!

Tobi hurtled down the hall through the statue corridor to catch up with Aggie via the secret passage way and he was almost at the staircase, he just had one more corner to round, when -

SMACK!

"Woah!!!"

Aggie had come darting around the corner and sent him flying backwards.

"Ow," Tobi groaned. He lay on the cobble stone floor for only a minute, thinking how sturdy Aggie was, for such a little thing, and JUST how much that collision had hurt, when remembered that he was supposed to be chasing her to exact horrible revenge. He hopped up onto his feet in one smooth wobbly motion and took off after her, as she had fallen too, but seemed to have recovered quicker. It was like she had run right over him.

Another thing to get her back for.

"You better run!" he shouted, taking off again, a good 10 feet behind her.

Aggie found her nose stuck against something that smelt like burnt marshmallows. She sniffed, once, twice, and then realized that the thing she was atop of was Tobi.

Tobi. The very person she was running from. “It’s you!” she exclaimed as she pushed herself up, hand on his chest, another near his cheek. She scrambled for a second then pushed off, using his elbow as a starting block and bolted off down the corridor again.

"You better run!" she heard as she turned another corner and took the stairs two at a time.

“How did he beat me down there?” she huffed to herself, little arms pumping as fast as they could go.

You know, that voice in the back of her head called a conscience spoke up again. Running is only getting him madder. Yes, Aggie agreed with herself. But he still has to catch me before he can exact that anger. The voice shut up. She assumed because it agreed with her.

She huffed, then puffed, and dashed off the steps to land a few feet into the 4th level corridor.

Tobi saw Aggie launch herself down the staircase to the fourth floor.

"Oh so NOW she listens to me," he marvelled at the irony, still running, narrowly overturning a statue of Merwyn the Malicious, maybe it was a sign...

Good 'Ol Merwyn was on Tobi's side. He knew how it important it was to have revenge!

Tobi took the stairs Aggie had disappeared down three at a time. This was perhaps not the best idea. Even if you have the unnaturally long legs of A 6'2" gangling wizard.

Tobi felt himself begin to fall before he impacted. "Oh blast it all," he said as his (even less graceful, as little he does is ever graceful) assent began.

WHUMP! BANG! CRASH! BOOOOM!

"I meant to do that," he announced dryly from a heap from the bottom of the staircase. Aggie's robes were just swishing around the corner, he knew it was her by those awful purple tennis shoes, which he could see (for a brief moment) quite well from his position.

But the chase was still a foot. He would NOT be deterred! Tobi struggled to his feet and set off again, still running to beat the band, but mighty sore.

Not really any kind of attention to where she was heading, for the girl was completely and utterly distracted --no surprise there-- Willow wandered aimlessly around the fifth floor of the school. Naturally, the girl soon enough snapped back to reality, and found herself blinking a few times at the scenario around her.

Crud.

Serves you right for being so distracted! Sneered the voice inside her head.

Shut up, will you? I'm trying to figure out where are we. . . is this the fifth, or are we still in the fourth corridor? Hmm. . .

Sure thing, answered the voice, souding just like Willow did whenever she was feeling smug. Let me know when you figure where we are!

Uuuughhh.

Wrinkling her nose at nothing in particular, her forest green eyes landed on the two statues that were before her. "What are you looking at?" Demanded the girl scathingly.

Perfect. Just perfect. She was talking to a statue now, for crying out loud!

I always knew this place would end up driving me insane.

Glad you are finally embracing your reality, cooed the voice sweetly.

Go. Away!

Statues, statues. If gargoyles and portraits could talk, what made it seem that statues couldn't? There could have been talking pencils, quills, maybe even talking chairs in Hogwarts! Cam was like a detective right now and trying to find out what the things in Hogwarts reaaally were. It totally freaked him out but he loved being freaked out--kinda. Now this place was where the statues were! Yup, yippity yup! He felt like touching and poking the two inanimate objects but didn't want to risk it at all.

And then a girl who was eying the statues started talking to them. OOOH. So there really were talking statues! "Hi statue. I'm Cam, nice to meet you! How was your day?" He kept on a smile but it turned upside down when he heard nothing at all.

Silence. Did he hear crickets outside?!

"HEY STATUE. ANSWER ME ALREADY!" He was yelling at the statue, it wasn't fair that it had talked to the girl and it certainly didn't want to speak at all to him. With his finger he poked the statue's eyeball."Speaaaaak." Nothing again. Cam poked the statue's other eyeball.

WAS HE SHUNNED?!

"Hey, you. You girly person. Can you make these statues talk? How'd you do it? IT'S NOT FAIR!" Cam was having a fit, a really big one. His head went for her stomach, to hide his face in it. Do girls like boys who put their heads on their stomach? And then there were the cooties.

The girl seemed old to him, she had to be vaccinated already.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dingDong

Statues, statues. If gargoyles and portraits could talk, what made it seem that statues couldn't? There could have been talking pencils, quills, maybe even talking chairs in Hogwarts! Cam was like a detective right now and trying to find out what the things in Hogwarts reaaally were. It totally freaked him out but he loved being freaked out--kinda. Now this place was where the statues were! Yup, yippity yup! He felt like touching and poking the two inanimate objects but didn't want to risk it at all.

And then a girl who was eying the statues started talking to them. OOOH. So there really were talking statues! "Hi statue. I'm Cam, nice to meet you! How was your day?" He kept on a smile but it turned upside down when he heard nothing at all.

Silence. Did he hear crickets outside?!

"HEY STATUE. ANSWER ME ALREADY!" He was yelling at the statue, it wasn't fair that it had talked to the girl and it certainly didn't want to speak at all to him. With his finger he poked the statue's eyeball."Speaaaaak." Nothing again. Cam poked the statue's other eyeball.

WAS HE SHUNNED?!

"Hey, you. You girly person. Can you make these statues talk? How'd you do it? IT'S NOT FAIR!" Cam was having a fit, a really big one. His head went for her stomach, to hide his face in it. Do girls like boys who put their heads on their stomach? And then there were the cooties.

The girl seemed old to him, she had to be vaccinated already.

Not long after Willow had committed the stupidity of demanding the statues why were the staring at her, the sound of foot steps reached her ears, and the girl quickly half-turned around to see who was coming.

Oh, It was a boy. And a very young one at that.

Waiting at first for the boy to aknowldege her presence, and then feeling shocked when he didn't, the fifth year's dark, long eyebrows shot to the air. However, that was NOTHING compared to how both of her eyebrows --already jerked up-- were attemtpting to disspear under her dark bangs.

Was this boy. . . talking to the statues?

Conveniently forgetting that she had done the same thing just a couple of minutes before he'd arrived, the girl's eyebrows started to pull together, as her bottom lip slipped into a pout. So Statues were more noticeable than her now? What ever happened to 'Willow having a presence'? Several times had the girl heard that statemet, and yet, this kid. . . this kid was blatantly ignoring her, and focusing on speaking to the statues!

And not only that, but he seemed to truly being expecting some kind of answer from them, for he had begun to yell now.

Hogwarts was clearly full of mentally unstable people. And there had Willow been thinking that the place was safe now that the Loony that Rapunzel Black was, was gone now. Clearly, she had been wrong. It was also slightly sad that the semi-lunatic before her was only a kid.

She was just about to leave the boy alone, when he addressed to her. Girly person? Many things had she been called before, and yet, 'Girly person' had not been one of them. Huh. "The statues don't talk, kid, and I'm not deaf, you see, so there's no need for you to--"

This.Was.Not.Happening.

Cam, the kid, had now his head on her stomach and. . . he was touching her. Or rather, he was touching her robes, which was practically the same, for boys were normally dirty and. . . and. . . she had GERMS all over her body now!

People just ADORED invading her personal space bubble.

Taking deep breaths in order to control herself and not yell at the child, the girl said mechanically, "What do you think you are doing?" People did not touch her. Everyone knew that, and if they didn't, they certainly should.

Cam thought about what he just did, he never really saw boys putting their face into the stomach of a girl. Well there were a few people who did that to check if the baby kicked or punched if a woman was pregnant. And this girl was definitely not pregnant at all, but his face was still in her stomach and he didn't know why he couldn't stop. She smelled... oh her robes smelled simply wonderful. Maybe that was why he couldn't stop, he recognized one of the smell. Oh it was the smell of lemon. Lemony. Lemony girl!

He wanted lemon right now, but he didn't want to bite this girl's robe or anything. That would toootally be absurd!

Face still on stomach, he felt it move. Was she breathing? Very deep breaths, he soooo realized it. What was she, crazy?! She did realize that his face was still on her stomach right? He felt her breath and quickly removed his face from her. Face removed but his finger was outstretched to touch her hair, but only for a little bit until he took it back.

Hm... What shampoo does she use? Lemony shampoo, but he wanted to know. "What am I doing? Well I'm obviously hiding. You just don't know when these statues come to life and attack the living daylights out of ye!" Maybe he was faking what he said, but the thought of walking statues made him quiver in fear for a few seconds.

"So hey, what shampoo do you use? Or soap."

Quote:

Originally Posted by dingDong

Cam thought about what he just did, he never really saw boys putting their face into the stomach of a girl. Well there were a few people who did that to check if the baby kicked or punched if a woman was pregnant. And this girl was definitely not pregnant at all, but his face was still in her stomach and he didn't know why he couldn't stop. She smelled... oh her robes smelled simply wonderful. Maybe that was why he couldn't stop, he recognized one of the smell. Oh it was the smell of lemon. Lemony. Lemony girl!

He wanted lemon right now, but he didn't want to bite this girl's robe or anything. That would toootally be absurd!

Face still on stomach, he felt it move. Was she breathing? Very deep breaths, he soooo realized it. What was she, crazy?! She did realize that his face was still on her stomach right? He felt her breath and quickly removed his face from her. Face removed but his finger was outstretched to touch her hair, but only for a little bit until he took it back.

Hm... What shampoo does she use? Lemony shampoo, but he wanted to know. "What am I doing? Well I'm obviously hiding. You just don't know when these statues come to life and attack the living daylights out of ye!" Maybe he was faking what he said, but the thought of walking statues made him quiver in fear for a few seconds.

"So hey, what shampoo do you use? Or soap."

In moments like these, Willow started to wonder what on Merlin's beard had she done to deserve these kind of punishment. It was simply ridiculous that the seventy percent of the Hogwarts male population that she'd had the disgrace to meet seemed to have NO respect for her personal space or whatsoever.

And there had she been thinking that it was only the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors that did that. Clearly, Slytherins were the same thing, too. Or at least this boy certainly was.

It was just completely bizarre to have someone's head in her stomach. And not only bizarre, but it was also really awkward, too. One thing was to have someone touching her hair (against her will), or her face (again, against her will) or try to kiss her even (SOOOO against her will, of course), but a head in her stomach never. Also, she'd never had a child being so comfortable close to her. Usually they just rain away; apparently, Willow was scary.

Huh. Maybe this kid was just strange and insane in an entire new level.

Taking a tiny step back when he finally pulled apart from her, and tried to. . . touch her hair? the girl could only blink at him.

This was exactly why she did not hang out around children. They were just weird, and even scary. This Cam boy, being the perfect example of weirdness in children.

Hiding from the Statues. Statues coming back to life. Scaring the daylight out of human beings.

Complete insanity.

"The statues," chocked out Willow, eyeing him carefully, "Are not coming back to life to 'scare the daylight out of you'" She finished, quoting him. Or almost quoting him, for the boy had said 'ye' instead of 'you' and sure Willow was shocked because of the kid's behaviour, but that didn't mean she was about to stop speaking properly.

So hey, what shampoo do you use? Or soap


Say what? "I. . . lemon and jazmin scented shampoo?" What a random question.

Note to self: Stay away from little kids.

Cam raised an eyebrow when the girl took a little step back. Hmm? Did the girl have to go to the bathroom or something? Or maybe she had homework to do and just enjoyed too much of his time that she could only take a step back. Yeah, maybe that was it! Putting his brow back down to where it was before on his face, he too took deep breaths and made a few steps away from her back to the statue.

Raising his finger up, he poked the statue's nose and lips and eyebrows and everything that was part of it. It still didn't answer though so all he could do was frown and pretend to sulk.

He took a few steps forward to the girl and smiled, wow she seemed like a reaally nice girl! She actually tried to make him feel better by stating that the statues really didn't go alive and everything. That was so kind of her, to comfort him and everything. "Uh huh, oh thanks."

And then his eyes shined when she told him her shampoo. Maybe he'd use that shampoo whenever that BunBun had another class in which he would have to go shower again. "Oh, reaallly?" he went on his toes and tried to go higher, leaning closer to her ear, "Don't tell anyone, but I think you smell really good.

Then Cam figured it out from her robes, she was a Ravenclaw. Oh he was meeting several Ravenclaws these days. She looked familiar... oh right, she was part of the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team. Position, he didn't know but he knew her as one of the players there. "You're in the Quidditch Team! I sooooo know you, kinda!"

Again he leaned closer to her ear. "I'm in the Quidditch team too, so if Ravenclaw ever gets to fight with Slytherin... tell your captain that we'll sooooo beat you! Tootaally!"

Who was their captain anyways? For that, he didn't really know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dingDong

Cam raised an eyebrow when the girl took a little step back. Hmm? Did the girl have to go to the bathroom or something? Or maybe she had homework to do and just enjoyed too much of his time that she could only take a step back. Yeah, maybe that was it! Putting his brow back down to where it was before on his face, he too took deep breaths and made a few steps away from her back to the statue.

Raising his finger up, he poked the statue's nose and lips and eyebrows and everything that was part of it. It still didn't answer though so all he could do was frown and pretend to sulk.

He took a few steps forward to the girl and smiled, wow she seemed like a reaally nice girl! She actually tried to make him feel better by stating that the statues really didn't go alive and everything. That was so kind of her, to comfort him and everything. "Uh huh, oh thanks."

And then his eyes shined when she told him her shampoo. Maybe he'd use that shampoo whenever that BunBun had another class in which he would have to go shower again. "Oh, reaallly?" he went on his toes and tried to go higher, leaning closer to her ear, "Don't tell anyone, but I think you smell really good.

Then Cam figured it out from her robes, she was a Ravenclaw. Oh he was meeting several Ravenclaws these days. She looked familiar... oh right, she was part of the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team. Position, he didn't know but he knew her as one of the players there. "You're in the Quidditch Team! I sooooo know you, kinda!"

Again he leaned closer to her ear. "I'm in the Quidditch team too, so if Ravenclaw ever gets to fight with Slytherin... tell your captain that we'll sooooo beat you! Tootaally!"

Who was their captain anyways? For that, he didn't really know.

First giving her strange looks, and now. . . now he had gone to poke the statue, as though it were alive. Unbelievable. Why would they let people like this kid to attend to Hogwarts?

Upon noticing his new expression, the fifth year could only gulp. The boy was obviously dissapointed because he was getting no response from an inanimated object. It seemed that he could not grasp -or rather, that he didn't know- that the statues were definitely not going to answer to his questions, or complain due to all his poking.

And now, he was smiling at her. It was just a little too hard to keep with this kid's emotions. Had she been like that when she was a first year? That was not important right now, and since Willow didn't want this kid to eat her be sad, Willow commanded the muscles on her face to move, and then smile back at him. Maybe she could run now, before the kid hurt her, or anything of the like. . . "You're welcome." For what? She didn't know.

Swallowing hard as his expression change and turned. . . dreamy like? Willow's lips curved into a smile once again. Because really, she couldn't think of anything else to do other than smile at the boy. However, crazy or not, the kid was right--she smelled good. Of course she did. "Thank you, kid," answered the girl appreciatively, with a small, genuine beam. "You said your name was Cam, right?" And then the beam faltered when the young Ravenclaw realized that the boy Cam was once again, invading her massive personal space bubble. She took another automatic step back.

Right. Quidditch. That was a safe topic, one because there was no need for the kid to get any closer to her when talking about it, and two because she knew Quidditch. A smirk started to tug in the corner of her rosy lips. "Guess what?" Looking absolutely smug, and raising one of her hands, the girl pointed at the Captain badge pinned on her robes. "I'm the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain."

Cam applauded himself in his mind once the girl smiled back at him. He was sooooo good at making people do that since he was telepathically talking to them all in their minds. She probably heard him to tell her to smile since this girl was obviously a tough one. Or she could have been just a shy, lonely person that could have been acting tough. It was probably a combination of both.

And then he remembered her smell, he really wished that he didn't back off since he really wanted that shampoo. Lemon and jazmin? He reminded himself to ask other girls if they had the same kind and could possibly lend it to him. Lending shampoo was really unsanitary though, but he didn't care. He would just use some sort of a cootie-shot against the shampoo bottle. That would work!

"Yeah, I'm Cameron Karsten. But you can call me Cam. Since Cameron is suuuch a lame name, don'tcha think?" He raised his eyebrows again when she took a step back. This was like one of his friends, she was probably a clean-freak too. "So, what's your name?"

He still wanted to know about Quidditch... Big mistake.

Was he blind or the badge just too small for his eyes? The girl right in front of him was the captain of the Ravenclaw team. THE Captain of the team. Stutter. Stutter. "N-no youu aren't," he said confusingly, but it was true. The badge couldn't be fake since he knew what a fake badge would look like, kinda. He mentally smacked himself at the side of his head and then frowned, then smiling again.

"Yooou're like a goddess then! YUP! YUP. I haven't met any Quidditch Captain at all this year, well except mine but you're like the fiiirst one." He was such a suck-up when it came to times like these. But he didn't want to talk about Quidditch (in-case they Slytherin might go against Ravenclaw and he didn't want to tell her that his house would obviously win).

"So watchu up to?"

Rumbly in his tumbly, Tobi had thought that a stroll down to the kitchens was perhaps in order. Of course, with Tobi he never took the direct route. he always meant to, but it never worked out that way. Mostly, it's that he was a bit known for getting lost, even at the age of Seventeen. And though his stomach was loudly reminding him of his most important quest, Tobi was a distractable sort, so he was compelled to check out the roped off section of swamp.

"How... swampy..." he muttered bending over to take a closer look.

So this was the first ever portable swamp...

Grooooowl!

Yes yes time to go...

Under his stomach's orders Tobi headed for the Fifth floor corridor.

Ludo found himself wandering along the fifth floor during a free period between classes. He stood by a statue and looked out of the adjacent window. He could see the Black Lake, one of his favorite views.

The shadows cast by the trees of the Forbidden Forest were growing long with the afternoon sun. He leaned his elbows on the sill, taking in the scenic view of the grounds.

Elizabeth headed back up toward the common room after arithmancy class, only to get sidetracked as she arrived at the fifth floor and saw Ludo standing there idly, near the statues and looking out the window. Pausing a second as she thought about if she could sneak up on him again, she grinned as she realized it would be too easy. Although still fun.

Slowly approaching at an angle so as to prevent any possible reflections or anything, she crept up behind him silently, then lightly put her hands over his eyes. It was so much easier on her since he was leaning over. Smiling again, she pitched her voice a few octaves lower than usual, disguising it, as she then said "Guess who?"

Ludo's view of the Black Lake and Forbidden Forest were suddenly cut off as hands were placed in front of his eyes. A voice posed a question and he smiled.

"Alright mystery person. How many guesses do I get?" he said, chuckling.

Elizabeth bit back a giggle as Ludo responded to her. She didn't want to give away her identity that easily, even though she had the sneaking suspicion he knew who it was and was just playing around with her. So as she struggled to keep a straight face, she spoke again, still somewhat using her disguised voice. "Just one."

Now she'd be able to see if he actually did know, or not. She was fairly certain she was right, and at least she hadn't given him a heart attack like the one time out in the grounds.

Ludo smirked before speaking.
"Let's see...Who is the one person that has snuck up on me over the course of one year?"

He stood up and took the hands covering his eyes away, but holding them loosly. "Could it be..."
He turned and smiled at Liz. "You?"

As Ludo started speaking, Elizabeth couldn't help but smile. He was catching on to her whole evil plan way too fast. But it was still entertaining when she could at least give him a millisecond of surprise.

When he stood up, her amusement faltered a little when he kept hold of her hands loosely, but it came back as he continued speaking. And when he turned to face her with a smile, she grinned for a second before faking a pout. "Darn. Guess I can't fool you," she said, fake disappointment in her voice. She pretty much knew he was going to figure out when it was her sneaking up on him, but that wasn't going to stop her.

Ludo grinned before replying to the "pouting" Liz. "Oh yes. You can't outsmart me." He put a playfully smug look on his face and folded his arms, trying to look like a know-it-all.
He cast his eyes to the ceiling.

Elizabeth grinned again. "That look isn't gonna work on me," she said playfully. "Cause you know I'll just find another way to surprise you another time." She reached over and grabbed one of his arms, pulling down and unfolding it from the other one, before simply looking at him waiting for him to stop pretending like he was so far above her. Even though physically he sort of was.

Ludo brought his gaze back to Liz. She was right, she probably would find some other way.

He smiled. "So..." he breathed.
"Aren't you glad we're not having to worry about O.W.Ls? It's like an erumpent's been taken off my shoulders." he chuckled.

Elizabeth laughed a little as Ludo finally looked at her again. His expression told her he knew she had been right, so she felt oddly validated. But as he started to speak, she tilted her head a little, curious about what he was getting at. And she smiled at his question. "It's kind of weird, actually. Like I feel like we should have something to do, even though we already took OWLs last term, and we don't have NEWTs until next term. The pogrebin pressure's off, but it just feels like I'm missing something," she said, narrowly avoiding veering off into babbling.