Rachel's eyes widened the second he touched her face. Her lips parted slightly and the corners of her mouth tugged upwards as his finger moved and her eyes locked onto his. She wanted to reply - to say that she was glad she was all right too - but in order to talk, there needs to be a little bit of air in the lungs.

And that was problematic because the fifth year discovered that unfortunately she did NOT have any air in her lungs. She didn't have any air at ALL. Bugger.

She nodded slowly and blinked twice, hoping he'd get the message. By her calculations she should start going blue in about ten seconds - unless by some miracle she would remember HOW on earth people breath, and then she would remain in her normal shade of paleness.

Ever so slowly, Rachel let go of his hand in response to him not wanting to be dragged. She would have just agreed and continued to hold onto it but for the fact that she couldn't speak. She began to fully appreciate just how important the use of spee- Uh oh. Cue the blueness right about now. Great.

Satine wandered with her two Slytherin friends through the halls, "Up is a great idea Iris. The Ravvie/Huffie CR is up that way too...plus the staircases can be an adventure in themselves." she said with a smile.

"Yes they can!" Iris said, smiling. After a while she said, "do you think that anybody has ever fallen off the stairs'? I know it's an odd thought, but it's possible." she added, shrugging.

Satine had never thought of that before, "I don't know...surely they have some kind of spell on them to keep that from happening, but that's a good question...I think I read in the History of Hogwarts that there's an enchantment on them to keep that from happening...but you never know...they may just say that so parents don't worry."

Iris nodded in agreement to what Satine was saying. "yeah I guess your right." she said as they got to the stairs. ooc= seeing as there is now actual stair thread, what are we gonna do? post on each floor corridor or just zoom straight to the seventh floor? "I've not read Hogwarts: A History yet. Well, I've skimmed through it, but not actually sat and read it."

Ruby was walking down the third floor corridor when she spotted a couple of first years she was still on a confident boost and not hiding her gleaming red eyes walked with grace and dignaty she was healing slowly but she knew she would never forget as she didn't think her physical scars would heal "hello" she greeted the first years

Iris turned around to see who had said hello, "oh! Um, hi." she said, a little startled by the girl's eyes. wow, they're so ... odd? weird? different? ... Red. "Um, I'm Iris." She added shyly.

Ruby held out her hand "pleased to meet you Iris, i'm Ruby Malfoy" she smiled sweetly but knew that she was shocked with her eyes

Satine held out her hand to the new girl after Iris, "Howzit, I'm Satine." she said with a smile.

"Well, let's go for it." Aaron said positivly. After all he'd been through today, he just wanted to get back to his bed in the Griffy common room.

Aaron turned to the other Slytherin. She had to be about a year older than them. She had red eyes. Awesome. "Hey! I'm Aaron!" he said happily. He then looked up all the stairs. "We're, uh, kind of lost. These stairs are so confusing. Do you know how to get back up to the towers?" She probably knew, she had been there a year longer than them.

Reid looked at Rachel and couldn't think of anything he would rather be doing, spending time with her was making him light headed and different to how he normally was. She was what was making his world spin right now and it was exciting but scary all at the same time.

Lost in his musings Reid didn't notice that Rachel wasn't breathing, all he could think about was the fact that she was breathtaking. If he had of been paying attention he would also have noticed that he was having a little problem with forming a coherent sentence, luckily he wasn't talking though as his thoughts were incoherent enough. He didn't need to make a fool of himself by vocalising things. He did however notice when she let go of his hand.

Looking down Reid blinked slowly before looking back at Rachel. She was going blue, it suited her. Shaking his head slightly to get his thoughts back to a coherent state Reid quickly realised that although blue may suit Rachel this blue certainly wasn't one he wanted to happen again. Grabbing her shoulders he shook her slightly to try to get her to wake up or something. "Rachel I need you to breath ok? I don't want to take you back into the Hospital Wing right after we've left and explain to the nurse that you stopped breathing and fainted on me."

Ruby shook the girls hand and replied "Hello Satine I'm Ruby Malfoy"

She was just about to speak to Satine when a boy was looking at her funny "Hello Aaron pleased to meet you i'm Ruby Malfoy" she smirked when he said that they were lost "its easy to get lost when your a first year" she joked "i havn't been this way for a long time but i think it is down the corridor and then you go up 4 or is it 3 flights of stairs"

This was ridiculous. Rachel had HAD a boyfriend before - and HE had NEVER made her lose control like this. Lose control so much that she couldn't literally BREATHE. Then again, he hadn't had Reid's eyes, or his hair, or his smile, or his personality, or his nature or his Reid-ness... ACK! And while Reid was great - really amazing, spectacular, marvelous, fantastic, oh-so-cute and all the other compliments in the world - she did value her life and therefore preferred being with someone who allowed her to-

Ok fine. Maybe not. But STILL.

The lack of oxygen was beginning to hurt. She felt her head swim slightly and her heart beat extraordinarily fast, then ever so slowly slow down... ARGH! Blinking rapidly, she felt herself being shaken and automatically gulped down air before her brain would refuse her body its needs again. "I AM breathing - now, at least," she insisted, reluctant to let him know that he had reduced her to a state of light-headedness. Boys always took advantage of that little fact and teased girls because of it... Or at least that's what Jake told her they did - since Toshi hadn't done it.

"Do you want to go somewhere? Because we are standing in the middle of the corridor and it's slightly weird," Rachel pointed out as she cleared her mind of unnecessary thoughts. Looking around her, she noticed a few other people there but other than that the corridor was empty. She kind of liked the fact that they were alone here...

This is right out of a movie, the way she's acting. Merlin I hope she isn't just acting. If she was it would be terrible for him. He'd been with people who were before and those relationships always hurt the most. It was why he'd built a wall up around his heart, sure he'd kept up the happy go-lucky act but it hadn't been real for years. Yet Rachel just waltzed right up and got under those walls without even trying to. If she was acting it'd destroy all his faith in women. If it just didn't work out that would be different.

"I'm glad. While the colour blue suits you I wouldn't want to see it on you because of lack of oxygen. That plus I think my poor arms and back need a rest. For a skinny chick you sure aren't light." he said while exaggeratedly rubbing his back. Truth was it did hurt slightly but that was either because he was out of practice or because of the fall. He was pretty sure it was the fall and that he just hadn't noticed it earlier because he'd been too worried about her. "Then again it's probably just me and not you. These weeks at Hogwarts have turned me into a weakling." Reid nodded decisively, making up his mind that that's what he'd let her think.

"I suppose so. But where? I don't really know this castle all that well so if you lead the way I'll be happy to go somewhere with you." Although he did kind of like it here. Apart from a few other students they were alone and they could act in any way they wanted without worrying that someone may overhear them and send something to that Apparecium that Reid had been reading lately. He'd discovered the parchment folded up in a pair of his clothes and had been reading it ever since.

Dominic shook his head and blinked at Ryder's amusement about the homeless thing. He didn't really think it was very funny, especially having to share a room with Ravenclaws. It wasn't that he minded them so much as he minded the drama, which was definitely intensified since the merge.

"Good point," the sixth year agreed. And there he goes mentioning the house team; how is it that everyone seemed to know these things before he did? No fair. "Thank you. Yes... I'm really excited." And not surprised, he felt like adding but refrained.

"Anyway, I know we just started talking, Ryder, but I should actually get moving. I'll catch you later."

With that, the sixteen year old half-smiled and then took off down the corridor and towards . . . someplace.

"Trust me, I'm glad too," Rachel replied with a small wink and a giggle. It was good that the colour blue suited her... because if it didn't she would just simply have to switch houses due to the fact that she wore blue every single day. "Aww - your poor back. Perhaps I cou- WHAT?" the fifth year blinked in astonishment at his words and had a flashback to one of those rare evening when Jake and her had talked relationships.

'Girls always wear whatever makes them look thin - which really isn't fair for the guys, if you think about it. Sure they're nice to look at, but some of them even charm themselves to appear thinner too so that when you get together with one you can never know whether she's really hot or just pretending to be,' Jake had said and Rachel had intervened with a dry comment about how guys should attempt to use their little brains and try to get the girl who has the best personality. To which her uncle had replied with a smirk and shrug of his shoulders. 'I've found the easiest way to tell whether girls are faking it or not - catch them with a trip jinx and save them from the fall. If, when you lift them, they're heavier than you expected - you got yourself a poster.'

Jake could be an idiot sometimes - but to her sorrow and annoyance Rachel could not deny the logic behind his words.

Weakling huh? Rachel didn't add anything to his comment, wanting an explanation to his 'heavy' one first before she will begin hitting him with a book. Which she would have to summon, she suddenly realised, since she didn't have her bag with her. Eh well - I'll use my VERY STRONG fists.

"Erm, well," the fifth year thought about where to go, then realised that she didn't really have much time to spend with him anyway. All the moping she had been doing lately because of Reid had taken it's toll on her efficiency and now she was a bit behind (she calls it that - normal people call it insane dedication) on her homework.

"How about we head up to the seventh floor and sit on a bench there? Both our common rooms - or temporary ones, anyway - are on that floor," she said, not willing to tell him now that their meeting will be cut short. Maybe they could study together next time... Go to the library, find a quiet secluded spot, study and have fun at the same time... It sounded VERY nice.

Milly entered the corridor just huming a song and she was really bored so she wanted someone to come in the corridoor

Lettie strolled along in the corridor; she was still having a bit of a hard time with the passageways and corridors in the castle, so she was making a small map for herself in order to remember things better.
'Don't know how they manage to find their way around here...' She thought and started to make another edit to her sketch that was half completed on a fairly large piece of parchment paper.

Her tongue was sticking out slightly at the side of her mouth as she concentrated on her drawing. Running into something was the only thing that made Leticia look up.
"Oh." She said, slightly surprised, "I'm sorry...I didn't see you there. I hope I didn't hurt you."

Iris shook Ruby's hand and smiled, "Nice to meet you too. I'm suprised I haven't seen you around the common Room before."



Three or four flights?! Great. Iris looked at the older girl in shock... "Okay then like Aaron said, lets go!" she said, grinning.

Aaron started walking on the stairs then he stopped and said to Ruby. "Wait, we're going to the towers. Don't we have to go to the top floor?" Aaron thought about it for a second. "Wait, what floor are we on? I have no idea. I was knocked out for the journey here." Were they on the ground floor... 5th floor... ugh!

Well hello there said Milly how are you ?Oh no u didnt hurt me.Lettie you are very pretty and way better than me ? so what house are you in ? Its very nice too meet you!

Lettie stood still and merely blinked for a moment, "Um, hello, and um...thank you." 'Did I introduce myself? Hmm.' "I'm doing fine." She continued and put her quill away so that she wouldn't accidentally stab something, or someone.

"It's nice to meet you as well." Leticia said after a brief time, "And I'm in Slytherin, and a fourth year. What about you?" Boy was she glad that Ornlu wasn't around right now, that'd make things painful for everyone.
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know your name."

oh its Milly the name is but u can call me mill if u want

"Okay, Milly." Lettie said as she stashed her hand-drawn map back into her backpack. There were at least fifteen lolipops in her bag, ready to be sent to different family members...which required Leticia to get a couple school owls in order to send them.
"I'm on my way to the owlery now...would you like to come along as well? It won't take me very long."

Copernicus glanced down the long third floor corridor as they topped the stairs. They couldn't walk any slower if they tried. And she was all snuggled in... sigh. Perfection.

"I like the love story, but I still say Romeo and Juliet was just too sad. I mean... no one was on their side, and then they died. Do you suppose they really loved each other, or was it some sort of infatuation with being in love?"