"Something happened to Cel?" Well, that would explain it. Was she hurt or... but Plymouth didn't want to talk about it? Maybe Plymouth had caused an accident? He could be awfully careless, but he was endearing and well-meaning. Or maybe they'd had a fight. Where to start looking?

He stood, hesitating. "Plymouth. I... sorry."

In the end, Copernicus was just a coward. He left.

Plymouth picked up the bag of whatever it was that Copernicus had brought him and LAUNCHED it as hard as he could at the door where Copernicus had left. "YOUR APOLOGIES ARE MEANINGLESS!!!" And then Plymouth pulled the curtains of his bed and rolled up in his covers.

Kel was humming - yes, actually humming - as he ascended the stairs to the dorm. He was...scarily happy. It was weird how a girl made him that way, too. Freaky weird. Buuuuuuuut....he was.

When he got to the door of the dorm, he opened it and his eyes closed - there was a thing flying toward him! The thing missed him and hit the door, so Kel just shrugged off the weird moment ... until someone yelled about appologies. Hmm...not my business, Kel told himself, watching as curtains on some bed were pulled closed rather hurriedly. He cocked an eyebrow at the bed, then shrugged and walked over to his.

Well, someone's upset, he thought carelessly. He sat down on his bed and pulled Neige out of his pocket, putting the white fluffball in it's crate on his bedside table. He glanced up at Jasmine, who was perched on his headboard, then pulled out the Charms textbook from his bag and started reading, laying on the bed, on his stomache.

Plymouth couldn't sit still long enough to stay in his bed for any longer. He was there maybe a whole three minutes. Then, he got up to pace around the room. He walked from one side of the room to the complete other side of the room. Plymouth touched each wall, back and forth, and back and forth.

He was on his third trip around the room when he noticed someone - Keltan - in his bed. Plymouth paused to look at him, then resumed his pacing.

Kel watched, trying not to seem nosy, as a guy - that guy that had thrown the thing at the door - got up off his bed and started pacing. Kel bit his lip, returning to his reading. When, out of the corner of his eye, he realized that the boy was still pacing, Kel propped himself up on his elbows and decided to try and be social.

"Hey," he said, controlling the urge to raise an eyebrow at the guy. "Are you...alright?" Sure, it was none of his business, but he looked upset...maybe he'd want to talk about it?

Plymouth stopped to stare at the wall when Keltan said something to him. It was like the dude had asked him something deep and difficult. Plymouth's face crumpled as he thought about the answer to his question. Was he alright??

Plymouth blew all his air from his lungs. "Not right now, no. You?" Plymouth started pacing again.

Kel looked down at his book when Plymouth stopped pacing. He glanced up, saw his face, then looked back down. Darn it, he should've just let him pace without bugging him. Stupid happy, wanna-be-social mood. It wasn't good.

When Plymouth confirmed what Kel had thought, Kel went from biting his lip to frowning. How were you suppose to respond to something like that. It's not like he could be all 'I'm great! Just got a girlfriend. It was a very, very good night' when the guy you were talking to wasn't okay. Things just didn't work like that.

"Um, I'm okay," he said, looking down. Now feeling quite stupid, he looked back at Plymm, who was pacing again. Why did people pace, anyway. It's not like it was doing anything besides wearing down the carpet. "Um...you wanna talk about it? Or something. Or not. You could tell me to shut up and leave you alone, if you wanted..."

"I don't want that," Plymouth assured Keltan. "I kind of just want to talk to my mom. What are the rules on going home around here?" At this point though, Plymouth was not above just letting the stay behind at Hogwarts and just going HOME.

Keltan nodded, feeling a bit better. At least he wasn't annoying the crap out of Plymouth. When he asked about the rules about going home, though, Kel frowned. "I...think you have to wait for a break, unless it's an emergency or something." How was he supposed to know?

"But...if you wanted to talk to your mom...you could owl her...it's not face to face, but it's something," he shrugged - as well as he could while he was still propped up on his elbows.

"Don't like birds," Plymouth mumbled. "They ... I don't LIKE BIRDS," he took his robes off, balled them up, and threw them against the wall. "I'm not sleeping by Copernicus anymore. Will you help me move his bed?"

Plymouth rolled up his sleeves, went to Copernicus's bed, and started SHOVING it as far from his bed as he could.

Kel's eyes widened when Plymouth raised his voice. Whoa. He sat up at Plymouth's question, and shrugged. "Sure..." he said slowly, standing up. Maybe Copernicus was the reason for Plymouth being upset? Maybe he was the one that Plymm threw the thing at.

He took off his robes quickly, and pushed up the sleeves on his shirt. He walked over to bed Plymm was shoving at, and joined him on the side he was on. So...shove THIS way, he thought, shoving the bed hard away from Plymouth's bed.

"We're going to need some tape. The big, thick, black kind. You got any of that? We're going to need it." Plymouth shoved the bed up against some poor unfortunate soul's bed - but FAR away from his. These beds were HEAVY though and Plymouth was already breaking a sweat.

With the bed out of the way, Plymouth moved to get Copernicus's trunk. He SHOVED it with great heaves across the room. "You seen my Farrah ferret??"

The ferret was going back, too.

"Um, no. I don't have tape." Kel shook his head. Why would he have tape? And...who's bed was now next to Copernicus'? Kel stepped back, looking at the big space between Copernicus' bed and Plymouth's. Well...he should be happy now.

He watched as Plymm pushed a trunk - most likely Copernicus' - away from his bed too. Then asked about a ferret. "Um...no. I haven't seen your ferret," he told him, his eyebrows raising a bit involuntarily.

Plymouth would have to go get some tape. He was SO SURE he knew a spell to make the black lines appear - to divide the Dorm room - but he couldn't sit still long enough to think. He didn't want to think about it either. Thinking sucked. Thinking about spells and charms and ... .ugh. All lead back to one person and Plymouth was anti-thinking at the moment.

"Well - if you DO see it. Her. Just put her over there," Plymouth pointed at Copernicus's bed. "Cause I don't WANT her." Next, the... no. "Hey can you do me another favor?"

Kel nodded sharply. Hopefully, no one else had a ferret that they would want with them. Or...hopefully no one else had a ferret named Ferrah. He wandered over to sit on the footboard of his bed, then looked back at Plymouth.

"Um...sure. What do ya need?"

"There's a box under my bed. Old shoe box. And there's taffy," Plymouth's voice cracked on the word,"in it." He sent a horrified sort of look at Keltan, the 'Im going to cry and really dont want to cause I'm a man' sort of look. "Will you get it? Give it to Cela," his voice cracked again and he had to do some heavy, ridiculous breathing for a moment," Or keep it. Or throw it away. Just, I don't need it. Okay?" Okay. The pacing resumed - and he had much more room to do it in now.

Kel's eyes widened at Plymm's horrified look. Taffy...must not be good. He hopped off his bed again as Plymouth was giving him more instructions. Hearing his voice crack as he said 'Cela' - who Kel knew was a girl; he'd seen her around quite a few times - his brain clicked onto what the whole big problem was with Plymouth: Plymouth and Copernicus liked the same girl but something happened between Cela and Plymm so Plymm was up here and Cope came up and Plymm got mad and chucked the thing at the door.

...Well, he might not know every detail, but he sure got the gist of it. "Sure, I'll do that for ya." Kel told Plymm, going to his bed. He got down on all fours and started to search for the shoe box. Finding it, he pulled it out from under the bed and lifted the lid. Seeing the taffy, he nodded to himself and closed the lid, then stood up.

So...he was suppose to give it to Cela...or keep it or throw it away. But he didn't really want to eat it...and it looked yummy and he didn't want to throw it away. So...Cela. She could decide what to do with it. Kel returned to his bed and set the box down, then trned to Plymm. "Do you know where-" he shut his mouth quickly. Would Plymm freak if he asked where Cela was? ...Kel didn't want to chance it. It wasn't too late, maybe he could go find Cela tonight.

"Um...I'm gonna go find her...and give it to her." He looked at Plymm carefully, watching him pace back and forth. When Kel was quite confident that Plymouth wasn't going to lose his mind or anything, he nodded, picked up the old shoebox and went to leave the room.

Copernicus was not at all surprised to find his belongings moved across the room when he finally returned to the dorm. In fact, he'd be more surprised if his bed was still next to Plymouth's. He was a bit surprised nothing of his had been burned or mutilated. That he saw at least.

Right inside the door was the little pouch he'd spent so much time working on. The bag itself was made of velvet with a Fehu rune Copernicus has carefully hand-stitched to the front himself. He'd spent a long time looking for the spell that would assist the Fehu in refilling the bag with a galleon from the special account Cope's father had set up for Plymouth over the summer.

And now his brother wouldn't take it.

Well, Cope was done loaning the kid money when he had a perfectly good account full of galleons at the bank. He strode across the room and buried the satchel deep in Plymouth's trunk. Someday, he'd thank Cope.

It was game day mate, and Cy was more nervous than he was willing to admit. The gritty first year DIDN’T get nervous, according to popular demand. He was constantly bouncing around, trying to keep the butterflies out.

The game was only a few hours away, so he’d better get started wrapping his hands so he didn’t get injured. Flipping onto his bed, he got out his tape and began to wrap his wrists tightly.

About twenty minutes went by and he’d finished. The over-eager first year jumped off his bed and ran over to the tower window. The freezing cold weather would prove to be difficult conditions.

But he was ready. So very ready. He stood there in a trance, looking at the window. For the first time in his life, he was standing still.

Plymouth returned to his room with the BIGGEST grin on his face. He was REFUSING to let himself think about what his date with Evolette McKenna meant. He was going to do just as he told Evolette he would: Plymouth Morgan was going to dance around and celebrate.

He kicked off his shoes and slid across the room in his socked feet. He did little knee lifts and danced danced danced.

No raining on his "Date with Evolette" parade! He ended up on top of his bed, jumping up and down and doing toe-touches.

Copernicus looked up from where he was sorting clothes out onto his bed, which was still shoved into a corner against some other poor student's. Hmmm. To greet and be rebuffed, or to ignore and be accused of being unfriendly? It was a hard spot to be in.

But then again, Plymouth WAS doing jumps on his bed. That was new.

"Hey, Plymouth." Pause. Awkward awkward pause. "I think some of your socks got mixed in with mine." He brought them over and set them on Plymouth's trunk.

"Oh."

...


Plymouth totally hadn't seen Copernicus. He plopped down to his butt on the bed. "I might need those," he snatched a sock from the pile. "For my DATE."


Because Plymouth Morgan had a date.

"Oh," Cope backed up. It wasn't like he'd packed the socks on purpose. "That sounds fun. Where are you going on your date?" And... yay! Plymouth had a date! He should tell... or no. Maybe she didn't want to know about that sort of thing.

"Places. I don't know. Places." Plymouth pulled his socks off, grabbing each of them by the toes and pulling hard. Then he set to putting on his NEW socks to try them out. "I need money."

Copernicus reached into Plymouth's trunk and pulled out the little bag he'd placed there before Christmas. "You have money. Dad set up that account for you, and this bag will always have a galleon in it from that account." He set it on the bed and then... scurried away.