Walk straight through the corridor, making sure to pass the ... thingymabob. Then, make sure to take a left at the Suit of Armor, then make a ... right? No, wait, it was go straight. Or was it another left?

Ugh. This castle was so bloody big it was a wonder she made it to class on time today. She must have passed about 6 Suits of Armor, and these corridors were endless. Stopping in her tracks, Arabelle turned in a slow circle, looking for her destination. Her shoes squeaked on the floor and the sound echoed back to her. It sounded like there wasn't another person around for miles. But that couldn't be true ... could it? After the wild goose chase Arabelle went on today, she wasn't exactly sure how big this castle was. Enough to make her the only living thing in a sizable radius was her guess.

Where was it? Walking down the corridor a bit, Arabelle kept her eyes pealed. There! A door. She headed toward it, grabbed the knob and flung the door open. This was ... not the place she was looking for. She was extremely frustrated now, and didn't even want to go looking anymore. She was done, cooked, given up. She walked into the empty classroom, taking in her surroundings.

This could work. She took her pack off her back and flopped down against the wall. Closing her eyes, she made she to calm down before doing anything else. Then she reached out into her pack and brought out her Arithmancy book. "I am going to understand this by the time I leave this classroom," she said to herself. Propping her book on her knees, she began to read.

Evan walked out of the great hall, heading to the common room. These two were the easiest places he could find in the great castle, and he wouldn't go off his way. If he went to some other places, he'd get lost and it'd take hours to find his way back. Well he wouldn't go off his way if he hadn't just seen a class door open. He decided to pass, but he was bored of being to only two places because of his fear. Besides he was still on the ground floor, he could easily find his way back. With that reassurance, he walked into the classroom, ready for an adventure! It was simply a classroom, but everywhere here was an adventure by simply 'existing'.

He saw a girl reading a book. He had interrupted her. "Oh sorry," he said, trying to cover his rudeness. "I just saw the door open and came to see what was here." Why was he still talking? Why didn't he just leave the girl alone...?

The Transits are ... something. And Physical Tranits do ... something. They - uh - Why oh why did Arithmancy have to be so hard? Arabelle chewed on her bottom lip, deep in concentration. She had promised herself that she would learn this stuff and she would. She wasn't about to let Arithmancy get the better of her.

So engrossed in her reading, Arabelle didn't hear a boy enter the room. Her head snapped up as she head a voice. Ow. Her hand came up to rub her neck where the pain lanced through it. She smiled at the newcomer.

"No, it's fine, really. I didn't think to shut the door. But you can come in." She waved her hand, signifying that it was safe for him to enter. Anything to put off pounding this stuff into her brain.

Evan winced with the girl too. He knew that kind of pain, it was momentarily but hurting. He was relaxed when she smiled. That was something good, right?

Evan walked in now that he was allowed to. "What are you doing?" he asked, just to fill the silence. He wasn't inspired to ask better things, and to be funny or interesting.

Standing up from the wall, Arabelle let her book fall to the floor. Thank Merlin, too. That thing is heavy. She watched the boy as he entered the room. She turned her head to the side, examining him.

"Oh, I'm just studying for Arithmancy. I had a hard time in class the other day and wanted to make sure I had everything down before the next one." She made a face as she told him about having a hard time in class. She was going to learn it, she was going to learn it. No need to worry.

"Are you any good?" she asked him, signaling to her book.

Lyra decided to walk around the castle for some time. Being a second year, Lyra hadn't seen much of the school yet and she found herself wandering on the ground floor. It was strange but she had never really looked at where she was going in this castle. Mostly when she had a class she would walk to it without even thinking about what direction to go. Lyra looked around the corridor and found a few doors on each side, one of them at the number 11 on the door. The Slytherin walked towards the door and looked at it, she had never seen this door before. Was it new or was it here thousands of ages ago too but Lyra had just walked pass it without even looking? Ah it didn't matter, she grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. As she started to walk inside the room that looked like a empty classroom, Lyra heard voices coming from somewhere. She looked better and noticed Evan standing near a girl. Lyra's heart started to beat up at the sight of Evan and for a moment she thought she was going to get a panic attack. Stupid feelings! he is just a friend!...a really cute, nice, sarcastic, duel losing, helpful, arrogant friend! thats all.
"Hey Evan" she said from the doorway and then looked at the girl. "Hey" she said to her and stood still by the door, not knowing if she could come in too. And even though there was a girl near Evan, Lyra promised herself not to attack her even though its hard. Jealousy....

While she was waiting for an answer from the boy, Arabelle's head whipped around when she heard a noise. Again. Really, today was not her day. Rubbing the same spot on her neck, Arabelle focused on a girl standing in the doorway. How was it possible for this classroom be so empty it felt like she was the only person around to being filled with students?

Ah, so the boy's name was Evan. She filed that piece of information away for later. Yeah, right. She'd be lucky if she remembered it ten minutes from now. She smiled slightly at the girl. "Oh, hey," she said. "Wow, this place is filling up fast, huh?," she asked. All Arabelle was looking for was a little piece and quiet to study Arithmancy. It looked like that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. She knew she should have kept looking for the place her brothers told her about.

Although, the more she thought about it. The more these people could be welcome. She could have an excuse to put off the studying, which she really was not looking forward to.

Walking inside the room because she didn't wanted to stand at the door way, Lyra looked carefully at the girl who she had never met before. She looked around the same age as her, maybe slightly younger.

Lyra yawned slightly because of the lack of sleep and moved over towards a desk. Sitting on the chair, the second year leaned back with her chair so that she was balancing on two legs and held her hands behind the back of her head. "I'm Lyra" she said while looking at the girl. Lyra's eyes traveled from the girls face towards a big book that was laying closeby.

Lyra pointed at the book that looked very much like the Arithmancy one. No, she was sure that it was the Arithmancy book. "I'm sooooooo bad at that subject" she said and gave the book a disgusted look. "i never understood it" Lyra knew that she had to atleast try and make her Arithmancy homework but the information that had been given in class just didn't came through to her and she didn't feel like making the homework right now....she would look at it at the last moment and write down some answers. And when she got a bad grade it didn't really matter because her other grades from Dada and charms would be higher, Lyra was sure about that so she could balance the Arithmancy one.

Evan sat down some desk as the girl said she studied Arithmancy. That was a hit lesson, and a hard one as everyone seemed to be studying it. But he had done it, and given it to the professor. He was lucky to understand the lesson, thanks to his father, he was trained well. He opened his mouth to say that he'd already finished when a very familiar voice came behind him. He instictively raised his hands to protect a potential blow again, but Lyra did nothing and merely talked to girl. It was odd of her, but apparently she didn't think Evan was up to anything bad or mischievous. Or it might also be because she didn't feel well today. Evan guessed it was for that matter. She tended to smack him whenever he was with a girl.

Now pretty sure that no blow was coming, Evan relieved obviously and jumped in the conversation. "I've done my homework." he said, nodding. "I think I understand it..." No he was sure he understood it, but he was being modest. "I can help you if you need help." He'd actually be happy to help. He felt like he was useless to Slytherin.

He was so into explaining Arithmancy that he forgot to introduce himself. Slapping his head sarcastically, he said "I'm Evan Cartwright." and smiled, turning his blue eyes to the girl.

Seeing the girl lounge in a chair, Arabelle walked over and decided to do the same. She hopped up on a desk and, after a few seconds of testing her weight on it, she relaxed.

"I'm Arabelle," she replied. She watched as Lyra shifted her attention the Arabelle's Arithmancy book. "I'm awful at the subject, too. I've been studying for who know's how long and nothing has sunken in." She did feel slightly better as Lyra confessed to knowing little about the subject. At least she wasn't alone. Everyone in her class earlier acted like they've been working at it for ages.


He...was good at Arithmancy? Woah. Arabelle didn't know how he did it. And he was offering to help her. She blinked a couple of times before composing herself enough to respond. "Oh, I would love help. I've got most of the homework done, but I don't really know how the Transits work."

She hoped that he really wanted to help her, and wasn't saying it to be polite. Because if she wanted any chance of passing Arithmancy, trying to learn it by herself wasn't going to work. She smiled. "I'm Arabelle Reynolds. Pleased to meet you."

So her name was Arabelle. Good to know. It slightly annoyed him that he seemed to be meeting the girls all the time, but these girls were all good, so he was lucky. Kind of. He looked sort of sad when they both said they didn't get the subject. It was easy when you read it like ten times. And his father had made him read for 20 times. Good man.

He smiled. "Okay. Which part do you not understand?" he asked, then walked over her to check from the textbook. "Nice to meet you too. First year?" Most likely.

Which part did she not understand? It would probably be easier to ask what parts she did understand. She shook her head a bit to clear it and watched as Evan walked over to the book of doom. "Uh, I'm have a little trouble with the the Physical Transit reveals. I know the Transits reveal the future, right? So is the Physical Transit any different? Or is it the Physical Transit that reveals the future. Wait... no. Agh." She grabbed her head and scrunched up her face. Her brain hurt.

"Uh, yeah. I'm a first year. What year are you?" He looked slightly older than her. Probably a Second or Third Year.

Evan listened intently when she formed her question. Whoa, he didn't understand the description in textbook that way at all. Frowning slightly he looked through the pages and found what he was looking for.
He pointed the (ooc: bold) sentence. "I thought it talked about the bad situations, but... yeees... in the future." he added the "future" as an after thought. He had just noticed the word 'predict'. He continued looking at her eyes. "I listened to the teacher, and she described the physical transits a bit different, or maybe I understood them different." Shrug. "I think there's no information about the transits in the book, so why don't we go to the library instead?" He was being too generous, but the girl was a snake, and they were in need of points.

Tibi walked into the empty room and looked around for someplace to sit. Spying two desks in the corner, Tibi dragged his bag over, Rune pouch jiggling in his pocket.

Settling in, he looked around the room for Rayedem.

Rayedem wandered around the ground floor--he had partnered up with Tibi for the Astronomy homework and decided to do it in classroom Eleven, but where was it? Sigh. Peeking into an empty room, he finally saw Tibi.

"Tiberius! Thank goodness! Sorry I'm late, I was lost on my way here." he said as he walked towards the desk Tibi was settled in. He sat on the chair across him, getting his own pouch of Runes and placed it upon the desk. "So, er, I think you should start first." he said nervously.

Tibi smiled when he saw Rayedem enter the room. Chuckling, he said, "No worries, friend, I got lost on my way here, too. The castle is just so BIG!"

Squinting down at his textbook, Tibi frowned. "Ok... I THINK this is what we have to do." Tibi flipped through a few pages before speaking again. "Think of a question you want answered and then tell me what it is. It shouldn't be too vague." Tibi traced his finger down the page as he read. "Ok.. and then tell me what the question is and keep thinking of the question while you shake your bag to mix up the Runes. Then, pull three out and lay them right to left in the order you pulled them out." Tibi took a deep breath. "And then.. I can do the reading."

Smiling, he looked up at his friend. He hoped he had this right.

"I know, right.." Rayedem said, straightening himself up on the chair and leaned forwards, listening carefully to Tibi's instructions, for he was sure that Tibi had known much more than he had. "A question, okay.. Hmm.. Lemme think." he looked down, thinking, then reached for his pouch of Runes and looked up at Tibi again. "Okay, here's what I wanna know.. I guess. I wanna know if what my first year at Hogwarts is gonna be like. That should be okay, right?" he asked, frowning.

Closing his eyes and repeating the question in his mind, he picked up his pouch of Runes and began shaking it. Seconds later he thought it was enough, and he pulled out his first Rune, opening his eyes. 9. Hydra. He placed it on his right and pulled his next Rune. 4.. Fwooper. He placed it on the left of his first one. And the last one, 8, he placed on his left. Acromantula.

Sighing deeply, he looked at Tibi, "Well?"

Tibi scrunched up his face. Hydra, Fwooper and Acromantula. They'd only sort of gone over these runes in class and some of the meanings seemed like they contradicted each other.

"Ok.. well. The Hydra is the rune for the past, relating to this question. And.. um. Well, we talked about how it could mean sadness, or loneliness or despair, but also regrowth." Tibi paused. This was a lot harder than arithmancy. Not only did Tibi have to interpret the meanings, he had to decide which were relevant? "Soo, either before you got here or right when you got here, you might have been feeling sad or lonely about coming to school but coming to school was a great opportunity for getting past whatever was bothering you, even if you couldn't see it." Tibi furrowed his brow as he looked at the Runes. This seemed really personal and while they'd talked a bit, Tibi felt uncomfortable suggesting that Rayedem was sad or lonely. "I think."

"But for the present, you have the Fwooper, which represents emotion, happiness, insanity and natural equalization.. hmm, I'll just say balance for that last one.. among others." Tibi bit his lip. This one was a little harder. "So, I'd say that this rune is pointing to feeling better about Hogwarts, though things around here might be a little crazy at times, it all balances out." Tibi thought about what had happened in Runes class. Crazy was right!

Flipping a page in his text, Tibi moved onto the last rune. "For the future, you have the Acromantula." Tibi was about to speak again, when he remembered something. Flipping through the book again, Tibi read, speedily. "Ok, so the future rune really only addresses the future as it could be at this moment.. well.. I mean, what the future would be if you continue on the present path. It could change if you want it to." Was that right? Tibi thought it was. "Ok, so the acromantula means the spoken word and language, intelligence, but also fear and danger." Well, that certainly didn't sound good. "So, if things remain as they are, I'd say you'll do well in your classes, but that something is going to happen at the school that's frightening, or dangerous, or both." Tibi chewed on his lip. With what he knew about this school, that didn't seem like much of a stretch.

"So.. what do you think?"

Rayedem gave Tibi nods of approval at the appropriate times. The interpretations had been mostly right, except maybe for the future--because no one knows the future, right? He leaned backwards, sighing, and said, "Yeah, I think your readings were accurate." he began, "I did feel lonely, because I thought I didn't have friends, but now.. Now I do." he said smiling.

"There might be danger in my future, alright, that one doesn't sound good," he chuckled in his effort to make it sound like a joke. Fail. "but it might as well happen that way, right? I don't know how we're supposed to confirm this one, maybe the professor could do it better." he paused, considering his options, well.. "The future's, I think, out of our hands.. I guess."

"We should write this down, then?" Rayedem asked, rummaging his bag for a piece of parchment and quill, then wrote their achievements briefly. Once he was done, he picked up the Runes and put them back into his pouch. He sighed once more. "Your turn, Tiberius." he said excitedly.

Tibi smiled when Rayedem said that the readings seemed accurate, but a puzzled look washed over his face when he started talking about the future. "Well.. maybe." Had Tibi heard the professor wrong? "I guess I thought that what Professor Lupa meant was that the runes didn't tell us definites about the future because we could change it." Tibi shrugged. "I don't know, though."

Tibi wrote down his readings and then, putting his parchment and quill aside, picked up his rune pouch. "Ok.. what I want to know about being easily frightened. Whether I'll continue to be, I guess."

Tibi dug his hand into the bag as he repeated the thought in his head. First rune... Graphorn (2). Looking at it a little perculiarly, Graphorn in my PAST for fear? HUH?, Tibi pulled the next two runes. Demiguise (0) for the present and Unicorn (1) for the future.

"Well, there we go. Graphorn. Demiguise. Unicorn. What do you think?" Tibi was, not surprisingly, a little frightened of what Rayedem might tell him.

Rayedem nodded at Tibi's explanation. Of course, the future could be changed. He wasn't a true believer in predicting the future--probably he wasn't gifted with the ability, but Ancient Runes amused him.

"Alright, then.." he rubbed his hands together, leaning further forwards to concentrate on the Runes. However, he only remembered few of the many meanings of the Runes, so he took his notes and began searching for them. "Well, the first Rune is a Graphorn, which, according to my notes, symbolizes protection, repelling, fear, strength, danger, teamwork, risks, blah blah," he continued reading the rest of them in his mind. There was a brief silence.

"Sooo. Fear. There we have it. Obviously it's the most relevant meaning to the question. And since the rightmost Rune represents the past, I guess the time for you to be easily frightened is about over, because then in the present we have the Demiguise, which as far as I could remember, means nothingness, gone, unseen. It's great, isn't it?" he grinned looking at Tibi. Oh well, maybe his interpretations weren't as good as Tibi's, but he did the best he could. And from his point of view, the boy sitting across him is braver than most of the people he knew. You are brave, man. But.. On second thought, "But there's also another meaning.. this 'unable to see something before you' is kinda disturbing. I hope you won't let your guard down." he ended, not intending to frighten Tibi, only to warn him.

He continued with the third Rune. Unicorn. "Difficulty, purity, healing, power, beauty, magic, solitude, strength, simplicity, wealth and prosperity, innocence, nurturing and emotional acumen." he read all the meanings he had wrote down in class. This was quite confusing. He scratched his head, thinking, obviously having a hard time choosing which one would be the most relevant. Whew! "So I guess.. Wait," he took yet another pause. His head began to spin, but he snapped himself to focus.

"Okay now, I wish I knew the reason why you're easily frightened, but if it were me, it would be because that I wasn't confident enough. I wasn't strong enough. See? But according to this Rune, if I'm reading it right, you'd have the strength you've always needed in the future. And to conclude everything, I don't think you'll continue to be easily frightened, no." he shook his head. Wiping sweat from his forehead, he leaned on to the back rest and asked Tibi weakly, "How did that sound? Maybe you should add more to that."

Tibi frowned. "I don't know why I'm so easily frightened. I guess that's why I asked. I just always have been.. that I can remember, anyway." Tibi shrugged. "I don't know what else I'd add... only maybe that the Graphorn could be that I didn't used to be this scared but something happened? That I don't remember?"

"Well, whatever it is, I think you did a good reading... do you think you have the hang of it, or do you want to each ask another question?"

Uh-oh. He knew he'd done it wrong. What did he lack--perhaps concentration? Shake those thoughts off! Rayedem sighed.

"Well, I wonder.. Could you try remembering what it was? Maybe it was your.." Rayedem paused, hesitating. He wasn't only hesitating, but he wished he had not said anything at all. After some attempts of opening and closing his mouth wordlessly, he finally managed to continue, "..father.." he couldn't say the word 'death'. He remembered the conversation they once had on the House table, and maybe.. Just maybe.. He looked at his notes again.

"I mean, here it's written that one of the meanings of the Rune Graphorn is protection.. And there's also love," he began verbalizing his speculation, avoiding Tibi's eyes as much as he could--I really shouldn't say this! But he was being professional. Fingers crossed, he continued on, "and that it's past.. Maybe it tells us about.. Er.. The loss.." and that was it. He didn't wait for Tibi to confirm it.

"Yeah, let's do another one." he busied himself with putting the Runes back into its pouch, just so there wouldn't be a moment of silence. "Let's see, er, I'm gonna ask one about my sister.. If I'd see her again anytime soon." he said, then he shook the pouch with his eyes closed, just like he did minutes ago. Then he put the pouch down and began drawing the Runes. He put them in order--right to left. Graphorn, Quintaped, Runespoor.

He looked up from the Runes. "There you have it," he said, waiting for Tibi's readings, hoping the Runes had showed the good signs.

Tibi frowned. "I.. well.. I don't remember anything about my dad. So I.." he sighed. "I don't know." Maybe it had been his dad's death.. but he didn't remember it, so how could it be?

Grateful that they were doing another reading, Tibi looked at his book and at the runes. "Ok.. graphorn for the past. I'd say that points to your relationship with your sister, that you we're sometimes a pair and that you cared about one another a great deal. But the rune also means deception." Tibi paused. He'd suspected something was fishy about how Rayedem never saw his sister and here was a rune maybe insinuating the same. "So.. um.. maybe what you've been told about her leaving for that other school and not coming back isn't entirely true." Tibi swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Uh.. moving on. Quintaped for the present." Tibi flipped a page. "this rune means warning, fighting, isolation, and lack of focus. That could mean any number of things, including that your separation is distracting one or both of you, or you're being intentionally kept apart or isolated." Tibi thought this reading sounded too much like a conspiracy theory, but pressed on anyway. "Or, it could also be a warning to you about your sister." Tibi coughed, and avoided Rayedem's eyes.

"Annnd, finally, the future." Tibi was reluctant to even continue. "Runespoor." Oh no. Tibi read through the description. This was BAD BAD BAD. "Most of the meanings of this rune point to rumors, conflict, betrayal, treachery, confusion, etc. This could mean that if your path remains the same, a conflict or betrayal regarding your sisters absence may take place." Tibi sighed, reading through the book. "I.. well, I would say that the rune may be pointing to the outcome that will occur if you don't heed the warning of the present rune." This was no fun. Well, there was that one uncharacteristic meaning. "Well, there's also a note that the rune can mean unity... so maybe you'll be brought together anyway, even if it's not under the happiest of circumstances?"

Tibi sighed again, keeping his eyes fixed to the page. He was pretty sure he'd just told Rayedem that his parents or sister were lying to him about where she was or why she was there. He busied himself with recording the reading.