Ellie Spencer found herself wandering down a corrider she had never been before. This fact made the adventurous first year very excited. She had heard many tales of the hidden secrets of Hogwarts, but so far she hadn't uncovered anything extraordinary. This hall was proof the girl clearly wasn't trying hard enough.

She slowly felt each brick along the wall as she strolled along. She even took out her wand and started tapping random areas as she walked. "Here secret passage... won't tell nobody if you appear..." she mumbled, continuing her ritual. She poked her head into a few doorways, but didn't feel the need to explore those areas further. Instead she stuck closely to the empty corridor, keeping her eyes open for anything interesting.

Alexandra was skipping down the corridor on her way up to the tower when she saw another girl...talking... to the wall. Hmmm....

"What passageway are we looking for exactly?" Alexandra asked in a hushed tone. Trouble, adventure, explosions... any of those things and she was game. "I'm Alexandra by the way. she said as she skipped up to the Ravie's side and smiled

Ellie jumped back when she realised she wasn't alone in the corridor. She instinctively hide her wand, fearful that this was a professor, eager to get a new student in trouble. She breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing it was another first year, like herself.

"Well I wasn't looking for a 'pacific one. But," she lowered her voice with intruige, "you hear about all the rumours 'bout this place? Hidden passages, rooms, monsters?" Her eyes were now wide at the thought of discovering a secret beast.

"'Course, I didn't find anythin'," she confessed, feeling a bit foolish for blindly feeling around a hallway. It took her a moment to figure that Alexandra was interested in joining her little expedition. That explained why she stuck around. "The name's Ellie, by the way," she added. This was as much of a formal introduction that the country girl could muster.

Alexandra smiled at Ellie and said,
"It's lovely to meetcha, Ellie. Well, I am quite sure there is some mischief to be had around this place! Let's see what we can find." A manical gleam coming into her eye she began to tap the wall with the tip of her wand after unholstering it from her sleeve.

It felt good to have someone along for the ride. Ellie looked at her new partner in crime, smiling. "Why don't I go to that wall, so we cover both sides. 'Member, I don't know there even is something here." She hopped across to the other wall and continued her trial and error.

"I've never been in this area before; that's what I love about Hogwarts," she explained, her voice traveling down the desolate hallway. "Always things to explore." She reached a statue of a sphinx. Her short attention span wasn't ideal for the kind of meticulous search she had embarked on with the bricks. She was more than happy to hop atop the statue and straddle it.

"Look! It's like I'm riding it!" she said loudly, voice carrying. "Waa-hooo!" she yelled, rocking back and forth, pretending the beast were riding around.

Alexandra smiled at Ellie as she set off down the opposite wall looking for tunnels or passages. "Yeah, I have been exploring the grounds more than anything else really. It is such fun around here." She cotinued her tapping, sending sparks from the tip of her wand now and again.

Alexandra spun around as the crazy girl started to ride the statue of a sphinx. Okay, that is a bit odd...but funny nonetheless. "Hey, I think there is a statue gallery on this corridor, we should go find it!" Alexandra suggested to Ellie. There was definite potential for troublemaking with this one. Who would have thought it, a troblesome Ravenclaw. Alexandra smirked and shook her head while casting glances over her shoulders making sure no one was approaching.

Ellie stood atop the statue. She loved to see things from different perspectives. "Everything looks so different from up here," she said, looking down at Alexandra. "You look tiny," she exaggerated, remaining balanced on the back of the stone sphinx.

Ellie jumped down and landed in a crouching position on the floor. "A statue gallery around here? You don' say," she mused, standing up. It sounded like this could be fun, climbing atop of random statues. This behavior wasn't exactly permitted, but Ellie wasn't one to follow rules. "Lead the way, Alexandra," she said, eager to follow. "Maybe the statues come to life, like the suits of armour," she said, hopping up and down with excitement.

"Classes are alright." Nataly replied carelessy. Her mind was buisy with thoughts about her low mark on History of Magic. She had to do something about it. "Well, I think I'll go study a bit, my grade really needs it. Nice to meat you again, Alexandra!" she said and headed to the ground floor. She heared there was an abandoned classroom there.

(OOC:I have an exam in maths tommorow xD)

Alexandra smiled and nodded emphatically. "Yes, let's go to the gallery then. I'll take us there." she said. SH ebegan to saunter off toward the staues.

Alexandra waved to Nataly and said, "Well, good luck with your studying and have a good day." as she walked off down the hall.

Levitating Abby, Celandine rounded the top of the stairs and stepped into the fifth floor corridor, comforted by the fact that they weren't going to the hospital wing. Abby would get more help from her and Professor Lupa anyway and maybe she'd explain what had happened and why Jake had attacked her.

Cela offered a quick smile for Abby and headed to the Runes office, knowing Lupa wasn't far behind her.

The haze is starting to clear in Abby's mind. She sees Celadine smile at her. Abby smiles back. She looks at the walls as they go by, and things don't look right. What's going on? "You aren't taking me to the hospital wing?"

"Nope. We are going to Professor Lupa's office." Celandine explained, flicking her wand gently as they moved along. "Miss Melita won't be much help if she's even in the hospital wing. I was there for hours with a broken arm and all it would have taken was a simple spell to fix it."

"Miss Melita... Jake's going to be okay, isn't he? It's all my fault. Shouldn't have tried it not without help. My magic isn't strong enough not against those runes..." Abby closes her eyes again. She needs Lawson there. He believes her. He'll convince Professor Lupa that Abby's not crazy.

"He'll be fine..." She said leading the way to her office.

Abby smiles at no one in particular. She finds herself back in the haze. There are no dangerous rune stones, dark wizards, Jake, or LouAnn there. Abby's just having a picnic lunch with Professors Kazimeriz, Lawson, and Truebridge. She has all of their wands, so the guys have to behave themselves. Heaven...

Cela followed Professor Lupa into her office and levitated Abby carefully through the doorway.

Copernicus Kettleburn wandered down the corridor with his camera in hand. He had a particular mission in mind and two pictures left to take. He paused in the middle of the corridor and admired thick snow piling on the windowsill.

Long moments later, he shook himself from the daze. How long had he just been standing here? Why did that keep happening?

Sulky!Cela stepped out of Lupa's office and brightened immediately when she saw Copernicus.

"Cope!" She tackle!glomped him and gave him a little kiss on his chin. "I don't think Professor Lupa likes me."

Snugglesnugglesnuggle.

"Who cares that that thing likes? I like you," Copernicus was VERY pleased to see little Celandine Toussaint, and he gave her a twirl. Her feet picked up off the floor and he nuzzled her face with his before setting her down again.

"Happy New Year, Shiny. Missed you."

"Like you too." Nuzzle snuggle. She looooved twirling. It made problems go away and she felt like nothing could touch her for as long as her feet were off the ground and Copernicus was holding her.

Celandine pulled back from Copernicus, her arms around his shoulders. She blinked at him innocently.

"What thing? I made a protection bindrune and gave it to Professor Kazimeriz to give to her, but she isn't wearing it." Cela's face fell again. It did not occur to her that Kazi had just been too busy to pass it on to Lupa.

"I missed you." Cela agreed, smiling again. She liked the shiny nickname.

"Celandine," Copernicus smiled, but it was hard around the edges. He gave her chin a gentle pinch and shook her face a bit. "Cela Cela. We're going to have that fight again, and I don't want to fight with you. The company you keep..." He tsked at her playfully.

He let go of her and gave her real smile. "We should go play in the snow. Start a massive snowball fight while the snow lasts."

Celandine looked up at Copernicus inquisitively. What company?

She looked at him in delight at his suggestion and reached her hand out to catch his. "Oooooh lets!" She caught his hand up and squeezed it. "AND ZOMG I forgot to tell you! I forgot! EEeee! I did non-verbals! I did!"

She bounced in excitement.

"I soooo have to tell Professor Kazimeriz! He'll be proud, don't you think?"

Bounce.

"Let's tell Truebs. Or... Bunbury!" Those two were trustworthy. He let Cela go so she could bounce without hinderance. She was being awfffffffully cute. Crazy cute.

"Show me your non-verbals. Does it count that I'm proud of you too? Very proud." And then he was done letting her bounce without hinderance and Cope hugged her again.

Why would Cela tell Truebridge? He was COPE's favourite professor, not hers. And as for Professor Bunbury...

"Nooo professor Bunbury took Lord Borr's cane and he made me go get it and she wouldn't give it and she didn't fix my arm... Of course it counts that youuuuu are proud of me, its just that Professor Kazimeriz taught me so much, you know that." She snuggled Copernicus, a tiiiny bit confused but relatively happy.

"What should I show you? Oh I know!" Cela stepped back, pulled her wand and concentrated REAL HARD and stuff.

She conjured a ribbon and directed it into a heart shape, a bright grin on her face as she did it.

"Oh!" Copernicus watched the ribbon draw a heart. It framed her face a bit, and Cope reached out to draw the ends of the ribbon toward himself. He caught it up and wiggled the ends at her nose.

"That was awesome." He used the ribbon to tug her toward him by draping it over her shoulders. "Please be careful if you insist on spending time with Kazimeriz. Don't go alone."