Evelyn moved closer to somewhere she could hide if needed to, covering her mouth with her wand hand, trying to stifle the laughter that was just itching to burst forth. Watching Professor Bunbury *grin* hide behind Truebridge...and squeak! for that matter, just too much to handle! Holding her aching sides from laughing, and being careful not to squeeze the nameless snake too hard, she watched, and waited...waited for Destiny to hug both of them. Almost there...

This was beginning to get unbearable, but Jake refused to let on, consciously, that he wanted to climb.

And now.

A sneeze as a result of the dust and the damp announced Jake's arrival, and the boy emerged into the shack, looking very jumpy and very fidgety. Immediately, Jake knew he wanted to go to the upper floors of this place... (well, no, what he really wanted was to duck out and run away) but the lad quickly pushed himself up and darted towards one of the biggest pieces of furniture, on top of which he climbed and sat, swinging his legs back and forth. This drawing cabinet gave him a good view of everything. Good job it was for some reason upright.

As Jake sat there, biting his nails, he could only think of the tree... the tree he believed he wouldn't get to climb.

'And 'the Shrieking Shack' looks and sounds all scary and stuff huh?' Not enough. He did not care if Severus Snape had died there, he died anyway, he was gone, doomed, asleep so it was not going to do any use for him if he cared. The question was why the professors brought them here. As far as he was concerned there was nothing with the Herbology class here, a class which totally was contradicting with the professor's beauty by its prosiness. But of course it had some relation with the other professor...History of Magic...even much more boring than Herbology...at least there were plants that were trying to eat you in that class and it added a little bit excitement.

Then he heard someone utterinh something about hugging to the professor. Destiny's voice, her words were funny so he laughed out loud. ''If you really wanna hug someone why not try me or your little friend with eight legs? ''

Riiiight.

Sooo what was that Slythiee thinking? No one hugged Professor Bunbury and got away with it! Well, Professor Truebridge might - MIGHT - be an exception, but no one else, really. Fyo frowned, then wished he had brought Trubury Bananasticks .... The Second.

He sorely missed the little bug, now.

SORELY!

Stepping anxiously into the room, Wesley was surprised (and extremely happy) to see the professors already there.

The magicness of adult protection helped with the overall scariness of the shack. But not quite.

Shaking slightly, the tiny Hufflepuff stood against a wall, hands close to her face and lip bit. Every few seconds she would give a small jerk. Why did it feel like something was breathing on her, when her back was to the wall?

And where where those groans coming from?

Mind beginning to work, the Hufflepuff jumped forward quickly. Maybe it was coming from INSIDE the walls.

Clutching her robes close, she skittered over to Prefect Dominic, far away from the snakes. Because Dominic was brave (and tall), and he was a prefect. And next to teachers, prefects where safe. Nothing bad could EVER happen when you where with them. Wesley was 100% positive.

Now he had at least climbed a piece of furniture, Jake swung his legs more and more, feeling less stressed out. In fact, looking at the others with the little pets they'd managed to find (had he heard something about a spider in the tunnel?) Jake smiled and said, looked around.

And saw Charlie.

His pet tarantula.

The creature must have clung to him for the best part of the day, since he'd last seen the animal in his hiding place along with Lolcat. And here the tarantula was, sitting on his shoulder. Nuzzling the creature with his nose, Jake turned to the rest of the room and observed them all.

Really, what was wrong with a hug?

Destiny turned from the Professors when she heard Josh. When did he get here?

She raised a brow at him. Hug him? Seriously? No way was she hugging him with Evelyn over there holding a vicious snake. She was probably a Parselmouth! She would make that snake eat her. Destiny needed an excuse not to hug him. 'Josh, I won't hug you. You are...dirty.' Not a great excuse but it is much better then getting attacked by a snake!

Oh look, all eyes on Destiny. Sorta uncomfortable, but she couldn't back away now. These professors were getting their hugs, well maybe they would. She hadn't thought this out yet. Surely they wouldn't take away points, would they? A little human contact never killed anyone, not that she knew of anyway. 'C'mon Professor! Just one hug!' and Destiny might have inched closer.

''Dirty???'' The Gryffindor boy raised his eyebrows at the word and eys the Slytherin girl from head to feet. ''Look who's talking. You look like a complete mess and expect Bunbury to hug you...Ha ha!''* more laughter* ''...and you were carrying a spider if i'm not mistaken. I'm sure the Professor would prefer hugging me. She likes me, i know she does. You wanna see?'' This old place had started to bore him anyway, so he had to find a way to enjoy himself and where was Rose?

It was taking forever for just one hug! She would have just walked over and hugged the professor herself, but she saw what happened last time a student that came in close contact with her...And the fact that he was put into the hospital wing? Noooot really something that sounded exciting. But they weren't messing with the professor's hair or anything...so that wouldn't happen right? And Professor Truebridge was there!

Spotting Josh though, her eyes lit up and she walked over, although paused when hearing something about a spider. Spider? Like a real one? Destiny was carrying one? Backing away slowly, her eyes now glued to Destiny, making sure that the spider was still with her and not...roaming around the place or anything. Her back made contact to the wall she had been leaning against and she stood there, frozen. 'Great, first the tree, now i have to be on the look out for another spider. Great lesson!!'

Was Josh laughing at Destiny? For being dirty?'You think its funny, Mister?' Turning away from the Professors, she would hug them later, Destiny started to walk towards 'clean' Josh. When she got close to him, Destiny put her arms around him and gave him a huuuuge hug, making sure to get enough dirt on him as possible. There, now Bunbury wouldn't hug him either.

Destiny let go of him and examined her dirty work. Her eyes got wide with the mention of her spider.
'Spider!? What spider? I didn't have a spider!!' They were too close to Evelyn. But it seemed she had already heard and she started backing away. 'Don't worry Evelyn, I left him on the table, see?' She pointed to the table and turned to look at her little Truebridge Spider, but he was gone. Oh Merlin. 'Daddy Long Legs on the loose!' Now where could he have got too?

''I suppose i already laughed enough to show you that you look funny'' He teased her ''Spider girl. Did you know that there's a Muggle cartoon called Spiderman? The guy there is bit by a spider and he can jump around buildings like crazy by using his spider's power web. I think you can be like him too Spider girl you can jump around Hogsmeade or much more exciting, Hogwarts towers'' when he was finished he roared with laughter literally roared this time. Then he closed his mouth looking surprised as Destiny approached him and giving him a sqeeze and when she backed away there were dirt everywhere on his Gryffindor uniform ''Baaah! Dirt girl dirtied me! I think i'm gonna run and cry to Bunbury so she will hug me'' And did she say? Did he hear right? ''You said Evelyn'' he looked around ''Where? Where?''

Evelyn looked to wear Destiny pointed, expecting to see the deadly evil spider that she had carried. But it wasn't there. Was this a joke? Apparently not, seeing as the Slytherin shouted out that there was a spider on the loose. This has got to be a joke. 'Juuust a joke. There's no real spider that's on the loose.' she tried to convince herself, but wasn't working out since she backed away from the wall just in case the spider was crawling on it. Her arms were squished tight to her side out of reflex and she remembered to snake that she was holding onto. Oops...

"Sorry." she muttered quietly to it, letting her arms ease up a bit and not squish the snake to death. "Hey Josh?" she asked quietly, walking back over to him and practically clinging to his arm with her free hand. No time for 'hey how are you' or any other proper greetings...SPIDERS! "Do you see the spider?" Her voice quivered as her eyes darted around, completely forgetting about the hugs, professors, and the fact that there could be even more spiders in the building besides this one.

Destiny just stared at Josh. What was he talking about Spiderman? 'There was a man who was a spider? Was he an animagus?' Muggle cartoons? Right. They were them kid shows of the Muggle box. She didn't watch them. Not after being told she would turn into a Muggle if she watched them! 'Still have no idea why we have one of them.'

And then Josh called her the dirty girl. 'For your information, there are a lot more dirty people in here than me. I can't see any, so they must still be in the tunnel.' Josh must have needed another dirt filled hug, or maybe a dirt filled mouth to shut up his laughter. He was roaring like a lion! 'He is a Gryffindor.' That made her laugh.

'There is Evelyn!' Destiny shouted as she stood on her tip-toes to wave to Evelyn. Now to find that spider. But the spider had already found her. She felt him crawling up her leg, and bent down to pick him up. 'Don't worry, I found him!' she said as she held out her hand so Evelyn would believe her.

''Hey hun! You'r there!'' Happy to find Rose in this dark ruin he was about to make his compliments about her beauty even in this mess but only kept staring at her as she looked a little bit frigtened. What was wrong? Spiders... Was she really scared of them? There was some wild animal that Rose was scared of!! ''Spider, i thought i saw her carrying one but it's away, it's nowhere'' he tried to comfort her

Then he turned back to Destiny who asked if Spiderman was an animagus...an animagus ''Are you crazy?'' he said staring at her as if she was an alien ''Of course he is not an animagus. How could he jump from building to building or beat the bad guys if he was a little spider. He is not a spider, he only has some spider power. Like creating webs and climbing walls. Got it?'' the Gryffindor boy shoke his head at her ignorance and went on ''And for your information none of them is jealous because Bunbury likes me and she wants to hug me'' as he spoke the spider crawling up the girl's leg caught his attention. ''You found him?'' he took out his wand and pointed it at the spider ''Take it away, vanish it. It scares Rose''

So the spider was gone? GOOD! It SHOULD be gone. Should be destroyed! Evil little unnatural creature. But now they were talking about a spider man? Did the guy have like, a million eyes and eight legs? Now that was creepy. Was there such a guy like that? Spell gone wrong?

Still a little freaked out over a spider that was possibly close to her, she let go of Josh for a split second before hearing Destiny say she found it. IT! And she was holding it out to her! With a gasp, she pushed Josh forward towards it and hid behind him, holding the little snake close to her as if protecting it. "Kill it! Kill it, kill it, kill IT!" she yelled, hoping that someone, anyone, would do that. That spider was HUGE! Yes and it did scare her! Vanish it? VANISH? No! Destroy it! Burn it alive! Put it in acid and then throw it to the werewolves!

'Oh, he's not an animagus.. That's not fun.' Destiny would rather become a spider rather than just have to spider powers. What powers to spiders have anyway. 'How can a spider beat up bad guys.' This was all just crazy talk. Destiny looked down at her spider in her hand. 'Do you have powers?' No, he was just a normal little spider.

Then Destiny heard Josh say something horrible. 'Vanish my spider. Are you crazy!?' She cupped the spider and held it close to her chest. 'I'm not getting rid of Truebridge the Spider! I'm scared of her snake, but she's keeping it.' Josh was crazy, telling Destiny to get rid of her spider. Psssh, who does he think he is? 'Don't worry little Truebridge, I won't let the mean boy hurt you.' And Destiny stuck her tongue out at Josh, the mean spider vanisher.

And Evelyn was part of Josh's plan to rid her of her pet? 'I don't wanna killllll himmmmm!' Destiny would run away if she had to. She was not killing her spider.

This girl was really not going to understand the Spiderman. Nothing he was telling about him was making any sense to her. ''No, it would be extremely boring if he was an animagus. Who wants to watch a spider running around? No one. And they have documentary channels for the mad ones who like to watch insects running aroun which are among most boring things in the whole world. And he is not a spider. He is a man, a superhero. Hero, i say, got it? Like Harry Potter.'' and he wanted to roll his eyes when she asked her spider if it had powers. Weird girl.

'What!' Josh stared at Rose with a confused expression on his face *blink* 'Kill it? Killing is no good. But Rose asked for it. No, it is still not good. She is Rose. And it is Destiny's pet and apparently she likes it. And i like..no..love Rose. It is cruel.'. He was totally confused and was finally able to speak after a couple of minutes of blank staring. ''I'm sorry honey but i cannot kill anything''

But he could persuade Destiny to take it away. ''Destiny you heard her. Do something or i am going to do something, anything. She is scared'' then did she just stucked her tongue? And what did she say Rose had? A snake? He quickly turned back to Rose and checked her arms. There was really a snake coiled around her arm. ''You are both crazy'' he said pointing from her to Destiny then from Destiny to her ''And this is craziness. What are you going to do wih the stupid animals? Let 'em go!''

"Truebridge? You named it Truebridge?" Okay, so her friend likes to name things after Professors. There was nothing wrong with that...right? And she wasn't going to kill it. The vile nasty creature, was not going to die any time soon. Greeaaat... Well maybe Josh would-

Nope, he wasn't going to either. "What do you mean you can't kill anything? It's a spider! It...shouldn't even exist!" Like right now! It shouldn't exist now, but it was. 'You are one lucky spider.' she thought, glaring at the eight legged monster. Hold on... "Hey! I'm not crazy and he's not stupid!" she held the snake closer to her. "If he wants to go, than he can, but apparently, he wants to stay on my arm."

Narrowing her eyes at Josh, and moving her attention back and forth between him, the spider, and Destiny, she decided she was just going to give up and move to the other side of the room where they both couldn't get her. Unless they came over of course...ugh, was there no good hiding spots in this place? "Don't come over here." she said to Destiny. "Not with that spider anyway."

'He is a hero but also a spider? Harry Potter was not a spider.' What was this boy talking about? Destiny was so confused. Comparing a spider man with Harry Potter. Whatever.

Good, so Josh wasn't going to kill the spider. But he still wanted Destiny to do something with it. 'Josh, I am doing something with it. I am protecting it from you!' Josh couldn't be blind. He could clearly see that Destiny was cupping the spider, protecting it. Jeeeez.

Did he just call them crazy? 'You are the crazy one! Talking about a man spider.' Destiny laughed. And what kind of question was that? 'What do you think we are going to go with them? Keep them of course.'

What was this? Pick of Truebridge Spider day or something. 'He likes his name. Well I think he does. If it is even a he. How can I tell?' Not that Destiny was going to check or anything, she was just wondering. 'Whaaaaat? Its only a spider. It won't bite. I think.' But if no one wanted to be around her and Truebridge spider then she would have to get rid of it. 'Fine, fine, fine. I'll get rid of him.' She walked over to a spider web and placed her spider on it. 'Goodbye Truebridge.' And she might have patted the spider on its head. He will be missed.

He was ... alone.

There was a bunch of first years talking nearby, one of them the girl who had accidentally-on-purpose tripped him [that hadn't been too bad, now], and Fyo glanced around for someone he knew. Where was Shum?

Or even Trubury Bananasticks Goatpink Popcorn?

The Second, of course.

The fourth year walked away from the side of the room he was in, and stepped over to a wall. It was rather dusty, and it felt very dryish to the touch. Fyo liked that feeling -- it reminded him of the Sandbox, a place he loved, and found it hard to forget. Because of, of course, the Sand Monster memories. RAWWWRRRR.

"You can be Sandbox," he told the wall, with a nod. "I really think the name suits you, Sandbox. It does, doesn't it?"

There he went again.

A little spider was on her shoulder but Shumeeta wasn't too worried about it. She didn't flick it away or anythin' as she made her way to Fyo. Who was talkin' to non-living stuff once more.

"Maybe you can name my spider too," she said sarcastically.

Fyo heard footsteps closing in, but he would have ignored them for another of the Shrieking Shack's oh-so-spooky sounds, if they had not been followed by a voice he knew well. QUITE well.

"Hello to you, too," Fyo said, rolling his eyes at the sarcasm in her tones. Buttt .... "You're right, Shum, it must be boring to have a pet spider that doesn't have a name. Lemme think of one for it." He gave her a broad grin, then peered down at the spider she OWNED.

Or had, maybe, found in the tunnel?

It wasn't the most unique thing in the world, no new kind of spider the fourth year did not know. One of those little, eight-legged creatures that love a good, cosy corner of an abandoned on not-often-swept house, in fact. But he was interested in it, like he was often in most creatures. Nature, after all, had a highly magnetic pull. He couldn't stay away from it!

"How about we name it Little Fyo III?" He suggested. "Can't name it Little Fyo II, because I already own a duck by that name." It was the duckling Professor Kapoor had let them have, the year before. Yes, he STILL had it, though it had grown plenty bigger, now. Yep, plenty.

Was it a wonder he had named it, too?

Guess what? NOPE!

Shumeeta clicked her tongue rather impatiently. "I don't own this spider Fyoch," she said with a shake of her head. He could be so exasperating sometimes! "It found me somehow........ I'm not bothered ya know."

Her eyebrows went further further further up when he suggested a name for the spider. "You are SOOOO kiddin' me, aren't you?" she asked, glacing at the spider on her shoulder. With a name like that, it would have an amazingly embarrassing life. "Duck? What duck?"

She did not? Oh.

But Fyo had guessed as much. Shumeeta had never been ... the spider-owning type. Sure,she was a tomboy; sure, spiders had never managed to freak her out but, really, she was not the type. "I see," he said, taking a closer look at the spider. Such skillful things, spiders.

Heyyyyyy!

What did she meaannn?

"I am NOT joking," Fyo said, trying his best to sound indignant. "I do have a duck by the name of Little Fyo II. Remember the ducklings Professor Kapoor brought to class? For the Duckling Project, last term?" He had earned some whooping, awesome points for that project, and had many fond memories of it. Not because of the points, of course, but because of the ... duckie bits. They had made even Professor Kapoor laugh. "Mine is an awesome, non-duckling now. He's still as cute, y'know."

Because it totally was.

He saw? Oh wow.

"Good," Shumeeta said, very sarcastically.

She listened to him, her eyebrows still arched in exasperation but then she had to laugh. "You actually named that duckling Little Fyo II?" she asked with a shake of her head. "Did Professor Kapoor get to know that? I mean did you mention it in your journal when you submitted it to him?"