Raiden had no idea what he was doing up here. Being on the seventh floor meant he had walked up seven flights of stairs that he hadn't needed to. Being a Slytherin, he really had no business being up here at all; his common room was far, far below, and none of the classes were on up here just yet. Still, it seemed habit from last year had carried him up the stairs, and close to the Gryffindor Common Room before he'd realised what he was doing.

"Hmmm." He stopped in front of a statue and stared at it. He needed distraction. Something to make him think of something else. Arithmancy homework had only held his attention for so long, after all...

Deep in thought after her conversation with Professor Truebridge, Kiri began her long descent back to the Slytherin common room. A new Astronomy teacher... Professor Truebridge had not seemed too pleased. Which was not a good thing in Kiri's opinion. He was a very smart man, and if he didn't approve of the new staff, Kiri's favourite subject might just turn into a bore. Or, worse, something she disliked.

Trundling along the corridor, she almost wandered past the person staring at the old statue of Lachlan the Lanky before part of her brain registered who it was. Foot hovering in the air above the first step down to the sixth corridor, she caught herself and swivelled around. "Oh.. Raiden! Hi!" She smiled, instantly feeling a little more cheerful. "How, er, are you?"

This was weird, but it was JUST hitting her as she aimlessly wandered the halls, hoping to catch a study break.... this was her LAST term. After this? Who knew what she would do? She surely had no idea.

The only thing she knew was that she was going to do something fabulous.

Twilrling her wand between her fingers, the brunette stopped short, noting that she was now on the seventh floor, which meant she'd now make her way back down to the dungeons, and check up on Muffin. Yep. That's what she would do.

That was when she spotted Raiden, the boy from the Hopton's house, and...some girl she did not know, "Hello." she greeted the two with a smile.

Just the thing he needed.

Raiden turned at the sound of Kiri's voice, not even having heard her footsteps as she'd walked past him. Managing a decent smile, he waved his hand at her instinctively and nodded.

"'lo Kiri! How have you been?" he said happily. He was really happy that she was there. He'd missed her quite a bit over the summer; he'd had Daphne time, Cela time, and... "Hello Miss Evolette!"

There hadn't been enough friend-time this summer, he'd decided. It was time to make up for it.

"Oh, er, you know..." She shuffled closer and joined him at the statue. "I've been okay." She sighed and pointed to the end of the corridor behind them. "Just been up in the Observatory to... er, to pin something to Professor Forrester's memorial. It's really sad, isn't it? And..." She realised that the one time they'd seen each other during the summer had been on that day. She looked at him. "And we were there, remember? I didn't even know until now."

More footsteps could be heard. Kiri glanced around. Another girl was joining them. She looked familiar, but Kiri was pretty sure she'd never exchanged a word with the girl. When she came closer, Kiri noticed the gleaming Head Girl badge on her robes. Slytherin, too.
"Hello, er..." Raiden came to her aid. "Evolette? Hi. 'm Kiri."

Another charming smile appeared as Evolette took in the two younger students, and nodded, "Lovely to meet you Kiri." Lovely it was too. She should probably get to know more of the Slytherin students, as.... with the exception of Hugo, she had no Slytherin friends.

....Haha. Wow. That's a nice revelation to stumble upon when you're Head Girl.

"Did you two have a lovely summer?" She had had a RATHER lovely summer. But, of course, hers would have to be edited for small ears. Ahem.

"It is sad, yeah," Raiden mumbled, staring at the Observatory door. He hadn't known that day that it had been a Professor that had died, but he'd learned it later. It had spread like wildfire; with all the students in the Leaky Cauldron that day, it hadn't taken long for him to overhear the whispers. "Professor Forrester was really smart and nice. I guess you didn't... hear about it in Diagon Alley?"

He looked at Miss Evolette, then looked at his feet. Summer had been alright, really. He'd been fine for most of it. Sure, it hadn't been of his own volition that he'd been fine, but he'd still been fine.

"Summer was alright, Miss Evolette," he said, looking back up at her and smiling. "The party was... interesting. It was nice to see Nicholai Toussaint again, and to, er... meet Daphne's family and stuff. It was fun. Your summer was good too?"

"Mm, er, nice to meet you too," said Kiri in the direction of the older girl. She smiled vaguely and gestured towards Raiden. "I was just, er, telling Raiden about my summer. Well," she amended awkwardly "not my summer but what happened, you know, to Professor Forrester. Raiden and I were there when he was... attacked in the Leaky Cauldron."
She turned to Raiden. "No, I... I didn't hear about it. I just found out about today, to be honest. Anyway..."

She leaned against Lachlan - not because it was comfortable (his arm was poking her in the back) - but more for something to do as she listened to Raiden and Evolette talk. They'd been at a party together? Raiden hadn't told her about that! It didn't occur to her until later that this was the first time, really, that she and Raiden were meeting again, but she felt a little jealous nonetheless. A gleefully sadistic voice in her head whispered, Celandine was there as well, I'd bet you anything.

"A party?" she repeated, unnecessarily. "How was it?"

Copernicus exited the Ravenclaw common room, heading down the corridor in search of a light snack. Mmm, stolen food.

What he found was a convention of Slytherins. Wait, what did you call a group of snakes? A... herd?

"Did the dungeons flood again?"

Raiden was RIGHT. It had been nice to see Nicholai again. VERY nice. It had been far too long since Evolette had seen her best friend, and she'd missed him.

"It was lovely, thank you." she grinned. Lovely, interesting... scandalous. It had been a very good summer.

Her blue eyes turned to the source of the new voice, although she didn't have to look to see who it was. She was pretty good at telling which boy was which boy. "Hello Copernicus." she replied, flipping her hair off of her shoulder, "Surely you are not inferring that we Slytherins should remain in the dungeons at all times?"

She arched an eyebrow at him, Evolette knew that was not what he had meant, but she also opportunity to tease pass her by.

Raiden rubbed the bridge of his nose and he thought back to Isaac Hopton's birthday party.

"It was... interesting," he said, repeating the words he's spoken a moment ago. "It was for Daphne's little brother, Isaac. He turned one over the summer."

There had been someone noticeably missing from the party, however, and he had just appeared here. Raiden gave Copernicus a small smile and a laugh at his... well hopefully it was a joke.

"I hope not... It's far too soon for it to have flooded already, it waited at least a little longer than this last term, didn't it?" He nodded at the older boy. "How have you been, Copernicus Kettleburn?"

He put one palm against the wall and leaned slightly; Kiri was leaning on the statue, which he would've worried about when he was a first or second year as he'd been convinced nothing was nailed down properly in Hogwarts. After all, the staircases moved. But he'd grown accustomed to that, for the most part. Hopefully Lachlan the Lanky wouldn't think about jumping down and running amok anytime soon.

"That sounds nice," said Kiri with a small smile, feeling unaccountably relieved. A party for a little one-year-old kid? That sounded harmless enough - even though that other girl, Evolette, appeared to Kiri to be a little out of place at such an event. And Nicholai Toussaint, too.

She shrugged inwardly as yet another person came round the corner and drifted over to their little group. This one was a Ravenclaw, clearly surprised by this collection of Slytherins so far away from their common room. But he seemed to know everyone, too. Everyone, that is to say, but Kiri. Obviously. She leaned past Evolette and gave the boy - Copernicus was his name? - a small wave. "Err... hi," she said. "I'm Kiri. I'm, um, a friend of Raiden."

"Just teasing," Copernicus grinned at them. It was a good thing they all were back in their common rooms, really, and Cope liked having the 'Claw house back to normal. Hufflepuffs were all well and good, but it was just... too crowded and busy and... bloody cheerful.

"I'm doing well, Raiden. How was your summer?" Cope gave the younger boy a nod before grinning at the girl. "Kiri, is it? Nice to meet you. I'm Copernicus Kettleburn. Cela's boyfriend?"

Torin had decided that this was as good a place as any for him to do his homework. He needed to focus. And it was hard to do that when bloody Reese kept popping up in his thoughts.

He couldn't help it. She was driving him crazy. Her crazy mood swings. One second she hated him and the next she thought that things were perfect again? Yeah right.

Feeling grumpy, he took his Ancient Runes work out again and tried to start it.

How the bloody hell was he supposed to do this thing?!?!

Nancy was wandering the towers once again, this time actually knowing where she was. Sort of anyways. She knew that she was in the towers. Yay, go her. That was already something. Completely lost in thought about her last conversation with Steven the 15 year old did not look where her feet were leading her until her toe got in contact with something hard. Something very hard. "Ouch!" She winced slightly as she took a quick glance down to thingy which had dared to make her toe hurt and found herself looking at a statue. But not just any statue, but the one of Lachlan the Lanky.

Biting her lip to keep herself from wincing some more she let her blue eyes quickly roam the place to see if she hadn't had any witnesses. And, of course, like always, she had. Why did there always have to be people around when something like that happened to her?! Trying to force a smile onto her face despite the throbbing pain in her toe Nancy took a few careful steps towards the boy before saying, "Uhm...hey there." Well, what else was there to say?!

Okay, he was going to ask Tammy for help with this. Her or Brody. He had no idea what was going on and he was totally lost.

He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. And then he heard someone cry out in pain. He looked up and saw that it was a girl. A girl that reminded him of Karma.

But of course it wasn't her.

"Hi. Are you alright?"

Leaning against the nearest wall to relieve her right foot a bit Nancy took a few deep breaths to make the throbbing pain in her toe go away. Not that it helped but somehow she did it anyways, just to play for time before she had to face the boy's laughing at her. Which he would surely do. He was a boy after all and most boys behaved like that.

The 15 year old blinked at him a few times, her blue eyes widened slightly in surprise as after all he only asked her if she was alright. Not even a smirk?! To be honest, even she would at least smirk when somebody ran into a statue. This guy obviously didn't, though. Not yet anyways. "Weelll...my toe hurts a bit to be honest." She finally replied while running a hand through her dark blonde hair. Then because she felt the need to add something else she said, "I'm Nancy, by the way."

He nodded slowly. "I would imagine so. Just be careful next time." He chuckled and patted the ground by him, offering for her to sit down. She shouldn't e sanding if she was sore like that.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Torin." Nancy should be easy enough to remember. He just had to make sure not to accidentally call her Karma..

Ha! There was the chuckle. Nancy would have thought him to be weird if he hadn't at least smirked or anything. So there it was, and she sort of joined in on his chuckles as she smirked broadly at him at her own clumsiness. "Yes, believe me I do try to. It's not much use, though." She let out a small laugh as she rolled her eyes at him before slowly taking a seat next to him on the floor. It was loads better than standing and like this she could even rest her head on the cold wall behind her.

Giving him a broad smile Nancy turned her head on the wall slightly to the right so she would be able to face Torin fully. Plus it felt awesome having the cold wall press against her cheek and some part of her forehead. "Nice to meet you, too, Torin." She replied with another grin before adding, "So, what are you doing here? All on your own?"

Well, at least she could laugh about all this. That was a plus. Especially seeing as she was clumsy from the sounds of it. "So you bumping into statues isn't that unheard of?" Hopefully she wouldn't take that as him being mean. He didn't know this girl well enough yet. Hopefully she wasn't crazy like Reese.

"I'm trying to do my Ancient Runes homework. Trying being the key word." He sighed and propped his pencil onto the paper he had out. "I'm so lost. I need either Tammy or my girlfriend to help me." He ran his hand through his hair yet again.

Feeling the coldness from the wall touch her skin made Nancy's thoughts clear up a bit again. They kind of stopped swirling around in her head like crazy and started to make sense again. Which really was something. With a small sigh she directed her gaze at Torin next to her again to give him another smirk. "Oh no. Not only statues, to be honest." Then leaning in slightly she added in a conspiracional whisper, a small amused undertone in her voice, "I even ran into a wall once. But ssshhh! Don't tell anyone." It was bad enough that somebody had in fact witnessed the whole thing.

A groan escaped her lips as Torin mentioned Ancient Runes. Closing her eyes while resting the back of her head against the wall again Nancy replied, "Oh my. I so such at Ancient Runes. Almost as much as I suck at Herbology." Herbology, yes, she even sucked more since Camira wasn't there anymore to help her. Tammy? Wait, she knew a Tammy as well. "You mean Tammy, as in the Hufflepuff Prefect?" She had opened her eyes again to stare at him questioningly while adding, "Oh. Who is your girlfriend if I may ask?" No, she so wasn't the nosy type.

He was definitely laughing now. Banging his head against the wall, he snorted. Then he felt sore. "Ouch." He rubbed his head now. Apparently that was what he got for laughing at her. Not he honestly couldn't help it. It was amusing.

"You're bad at Herbology? It's my best subject. Professor Bunbury is amazing." Was he letting his admiration show? Maybe. He wondered if she liked the ode that he had given her; it was sorta hard for him to know since Jack had to drag him off on that scavenger hunt. "Yes, I meant the Prefect." He nodded. But Nancy was asking him about his girlfriend now. "Her name's Brody Summers." He had no idea if she had met her before. Brody was new and all.

Nancy's smirk only grew even more intense at Torin's snort and she couldn't refrain from rolling her eyes at the boy. "Jeez! It's not that funny." Although, to be honest, it was. But the sad thing about it was that it had actually happened. Clumsy her. "Ha! You so deserved that!" She exclaimed as Torin hit his head on the wall and started rubbing his head in pain. "You okay?" She then asked between a few giggles as she simply reached up to take his hand away from his head to see if he wasn't bleeding or anything.

Professor Bunbury is amazing! Nancy stared at him in wonder as he stated that along with the fact that he was brilliant in Herbology. He actually liked Bunbury? Well, she wasn't that bad - nothing like Lainey - but Nancy was not too fond of her either. It was probably just because of the subject she taught, though. "Oh, really? So if I ever need help with my Herbology Homework I know who to turn to." Just raising an eyebrow slightly in obvious amusement at the eagerness in his voice as he told her about Bunbury Nancy did not dwell any further on the subject, though. She didn't like talking about Herbology after all. It just seemed to be embarrassing her.

Her eyebrows furrowed as Torin told her who his girlfriend was. She had never ever heard of her before. "Oh, uhm...which house is she in? Brody I mean." And it was right there that she remembered something. It was Torin with..."Aren't you like really close to Reese or something?" She inquired as she was pretty sure she had seen the two of them together.

"Yeah, right. It so is." He smirked and let her look at his head. Even though he really doubted that he was hurt he didn't mind. "You think I'll survive?" he joked. He really did appreciate that she was looking though. And if she had been Brody he would have asked her to kiss it better. But as it was he unfortunately couldn't seeing as she was somewhere he didn't know.

"Oh yeah. She's the best Professor. I wrote my Astronomy ode on her. And yeah, I'd love to help you." Why not? He already seemed to be tutoring Alice with Arithmancy. That is if Miles didn't manage to replace him. Not that he really cared; he was mostly doing it 'cause she was Fyo's girlfriend. Fyo who he hadn't seen in bloody hell who knew how long.

"Brody's in Hufflepuff." So apparently Nancy didn't know her. Not too surprising as he had a feeling that Brody was friends with guys more than girls. And then she had to say the word. The R word. The word that needed to be stricken from his vocabulary. "Don't mention Reese."