Nancy more like stumbled back into the castle, her hair slightly messy due to the strong wind which had all of a sudden arisen, and found herself looking straight at the Hourglasses. Hugging herself she started rubbing her arms with her hands to have them warm up again and have the goosebumps the cold wind had caused to erupt all over her body to go away. Where had that wind come from anyways? First it had been a perfectly mild fall day and then suddenly it had come almost blowing her off her feet. Weird weather...

So, here she was trying to warm up again Nancy while staring at the Hourglasses which only contained a few gemstones each as the term had already started a few days ago. And still, Slytherin was only second. Hmpf... Tugging a strand of dark-blonde hair behind her ear Nancy resumed to stand there rubbing her arms, producing heat in the process.

LAST PLACE! How could she be in last place. Her smartness should help her get more points. Homework.

Raiiight, after hearing the news that some little Huffie had lost them points, AND by the end of the feast, once more they were in minus numbers. Tammy had to go and check, she just had to. Just where they were. If they were still in minus numbers, then.. OOOOH, you just wait till she caught up with Willie Crocker.

That boy wasn't gonna know what was poking him. From a small height, but she would still poke him to be good. It was of course her final year, and he WOULD be good! He just WOULD.

Taking the little walk that brought her to the hourglasses she gave a little sigh as she saw they were in third. And not in minus numbers. HALLELUJAHH.

Girl. There was another girl there. "Oh.. uh Hi.."

Nancy must have looked like she was trying to hypnotize the Slytherin Hourglass to have more gemstones fall down giving them more points than they currently had. Why did Cam have to lose those points?! The term had started off so well with Kiri earning the first 5 points at the Start-of-term-feast. But then Cam had to go and lose them again. Great, just great. Although, this whole dance in tutus had been quite amusing...still, no, it was quite annoying that he had lost those points for Slytherin.

Staring even more intently at the hourglass Nancy tried to make them have more points by the sole power of her will. And it was working! Sort of. She was quite sure that this one gemstone had moved. Yes, just a little more then it would fall down...just a litte..."What?!" She snapped at the girl as she whipped her head around to face her. She had interrupted her hypnotizing of the hourglasses. Couldn't she have chosen a different moment to talk to her?!

With one last glance at the hourglasses - and yes, she was completely sure this one gemstone had moved - Nancy heaved a sigh as she turned her full attention towards the Hufflepuff girl. Eying her up and down she gave a small shrug while saying, "Sorry 'bout that. I was just...uhm...never mind." She certainly was not going to tell this girl what she had just been doing, as the next thing she would probably know was waking up in St. Mungo's next to a man who was talking to his invisible Flobberworm-friend.
"So, hey there. I'm Nancy." The 15 year old gave the girl a small smile as she took a step towards her.

Giving a tiny little jump at the sharpness of the girls 'what', Tammy considered just walking away. Interupting was never a strong point of hers. She was a fail in having the guts. And she had, to be snapped at.

Sigh.

If she doesnt talk in three. Just walk away, be nice, let her get back to staring at the glasses. Thatw as what she was doing of course. Wasnt it?

"Oh.." The girl was talking. Nodding with a smile Tammy introduced herself. "Tammy Wood."

Chris Potter walked up to the place that was home to the four large hourglasses that held the millions of precious gemstones that recorded the house points. He just wanted to check on how Gryffindor was doing and was pleased when he got there. Sure enough the ole' Lions were in first place.

He turned with a smile away from the Ruby hourglass to where two girls were standing, one of them a familiar friend. "Hey Tammy! How are you? Good to be back huh?" he then smilde at the other girl, a Slytherin it looked like, and stuck out his hand to shake hers. "Hello, Chris Potter. What's your name?"

Nancy risked another glance back at the Hourglasses and her eyes widened slightly in surprise upon noticing the increased amount of gemstones inside the Slytherin hourglass. Well, in the others as well but they were not important. Period. Slytherin had earned more points. Hehe... With a small smirk playing around her lips Nancy turned back to the other girl as she introduced herself as Tammy. "Well, nice to meet you Tammy." She gave her a grin, and let her eyes wander down the girl's robes until the rested on a yellowish badge pinned to her robes. Hufflepuff Prefect?!

"Wow, congrats, Tammy." Nancy was just saying when somebody else joined their little group, somebody who looked rather familiar. This time immediately turning to see which house he belonged to the 15 year old gave him a smile. Of course she would know him, they had apparently shared a Common Room last term. Plus, he was also a Prefect. Whoa, no wrong word there otherwise she would be in trouble with those two Prefects there. "Hey, nice to meet you, Chris, I'm Nancy. Nancy Hudonson." She shook the boy's outstretched hand firmly, her eyes never leaving the boy's face. His name had made her furrow her brow slightly. She knew him from somewhere apart from sharing a Common Room. There was something right there in the back of her brain but it didn't dare to come out....Hmm....

Hehe...but anyways, she was there with two Prefects from two houses which had less points than Slytherin.

Tammy nodded. "Nice to meet you too Nancy." She smiled softly, and her gaze turned back to the hourglasses. FOURTH PLACE? Man. She needed to get poking the hufflepuffs. Or Dom could do that. Yes, he was the eviller one of them both. Domerella, was the evil one.

Smiling once more, she too glanced down at her badge. "Oh.. er.. thanks." She chuckled softly, this was slightly awquard. Bagde. Poke it.. Atleast it hadn't scared Nasncy away. Or this other person who had appeared from behind them. It seemed looking at the hourglasses was proving popular.

"Chris!" Tammy found one more smile appearing as the person she had met in WWW and really the only person she had spoken to on the train. "I'm okay thanks? How are you anyways? Havent seen you since the tarin.." And that wasn't long but still, she needed support. Being a prefect was deeming hard, and scary.

"Eh, its odd being back.. Last year and all..." Sigh.

As Annabell skipped along the floors she had suddenly come across four different coloured (and rather large) hourglasses. They were very pretty. Lots of gems glistened at the bottom of each one, but some had more than others. Why? She heard others talking about the house points and guessed that this might be the place. Her house colour was blue, surely not.. Ravenclaw had the most points?

She'd only been her five minutes and was already feeling competitive! Mehehe >:---D

Chris smiled and shook Nancy's hand. Suddenly a look of recognition came as he heard her name. " I knew I recognized you from somewhere!" he said excitedly after he finished greeting her. "I saw you around the Common Room last term. Speaking of which I bet its good to have your own again?" he smiled. He then turned to the other person who he had greeted and who had also given him a warm welcome. Hopefully Nancy wasn't afraid of Prefects!

"Hey Tammy!" he said with a bright grin. He had really started to like Tammy, she was proving to be a great friend. "Yeah I haven't seen you since the train either!" he laughed. "Even though it really wasn't that long ago." he smiled. "Oh I know it is a bit strange coming back and it being dry." he laughed. "Personally I'm very glad to have a little less water and merpeople in the castle." he joked.

Virgi goes up to look at the hourglasses again dreading what she thought she would see. "First place!" Virgi screamed excitedly. Last time she checked it had been last place! Virgi danced out of the hall excitedly.

Lyddia was absentmindedly walking around, she began to pass by the hourglasses. Taking a glance at the points she kept walking, only to step back and gape.

Last time she checked, Slytherin was in negatives. Now they have 79 points. 79 emeralds. They were second to Ravenclaw. Second.

She inspected the other house's points then started laughing. Carmela's going to be upset when she sees this. Hufflepuff in last. Lyddia would never leave her be.

Lyddia smirked, thinking of things that she could say to Carmela to get her mad. Ha, Hufflepuff last. Slytherin second! Who would have thought? Not Lyddia, definitly. Although, she did assume that Ravenclaw would be first.

Lyddia was about to turn around and head for the courtyard when she saw something run past the bottom of the hourglasses. Lyddia turned her head so quick she got whiplash. Massaging her neck, she saw that the flash of movement was her ferret, running after a rat.

"Oh no," Lyddia mumbled. Terref, as Lyddia was calling him now, likes to run after things. Never eats them, but he likes to make them think he will. Thing is, this rat probably had an owner. An owner that will soon get mad if Lyddia doesn't do something.

And, so Lyddia screamed, "Terref, get back here, now!"

At Lyddia's shout Terref made a full U-turn, straight towards Lyddia. Once Terref was at her feet Lyddia picked him up and made to head towards the courtyard once more, maybe she'll pass by someone she knows...

Raven walked through the corridor and stopped when she noticed the hourglasses, walking closer, she saw that Ravenclaw was in the lead; oh this would not do! Slytherin was going to be number one even if it made her work harder than she ever had before, she took out her sketchbook and pencil; then began sketching the image in front of her.

After an interesting... mmm... event or something of that sort, in the Great Hall, Livvy seemed to feel more perked up. The Healer Auditions had gone quite well, in her opinion. Though, honestly, why she had auditioned escaped her. Guess it would be just a nice and interesting experience. So was reacquainting herself with Daphne Hopton. The girl seemed nice... yet... elsewhere. Hmm.

Skipping towards the Hourglasses, she noticed the points and couldn't help but smile to herself. YUSH. In the lead. RAVVEH POWA! Last term had been a close one. But no way were they going to let the Gryffindors win. So far, they were off to a good start. Whew-whee.

Glancing around, Livvy glanced around and saw a girl with pwweetteh red hair who was bent over something. Tiptoeing closer, she noticed that it was a sketchpad in the girl's hands. "Whatcha draaawwwin'?" Livvy asked, curiously.

Raven stopped sketching when she heard someone ask her what she was drawing, it seemed like people around here were nosy and that frustrated her to no end. "I'm drawing the hourglasses just for something to do." She said then shrugged slightly and continued sketching.

Oh. Did she scare her? For some reason, Livvy tended to do that. She got the feeling that the girl didn't really like it. But it wasn't heerrrr fault that she was born like that. Was being friendly against the law? Well... maybe being too friendly was. Pfft. Who knew?

"Oh really?" Livvy repeated, smiling as she bent down a little to study her sketches. "They're really good for 'just something to do'... Nice curves," she said, nodding her head as she leaned back so the the girl didn't think that Livvy was invading her personal space. Probably too late, right?

Ah... well...

Raven felt incredibly frustrated all of the sudden, she closed her book and got up from where she was sitting, dusting herself off in the process. "I don't suppose we've met before, the name's Raven Athlon, 5th year Slytherin." She said then rolled her eyes slightly. What was with this school and people invading other people's personal space honestly?

Eep.

Livvy jumped back when the girl suddenly shut her book. Scawweh. Pretty haired girl had a crazeh attitude. But she still seemed like a nice enough girl. She wasn't going to go around and judge people just cuz' they seem scary looking whenever Livvy intruded in their personal space. Can't blame 'em actually.

"No. Don't suppose we have. Nice to meetcha Raven. My name is Olivia Zhang. Or Livvy. I'm a sixth year, Ravenclaw. I don't believe I've seen you around. How long have you attended this school?" she asked, wondering. She knew practically EVERYONE at this school. Mm. Must be a transfer. Then again... Livvy didn't really pay much attention to the people around her.

Noticing Raven rolling her eyes, Livvy just smiled and shrugged.

"I've only been here since the start of this term, I came here from a school in Ireland." Raven said, putting her hands in her pockets so that she wasn't forced to do something incredibly stupid which she was going to regret later on anyways.

Oooh. Transfer? Knew it.

Grinning at her somewhat accomplishment of knowing the girl was a transfer, Livvy turned to the girl once more as she cocked her head. "Ireland? Realleehh? That's so cool. I've always wanted to go to Ireland," she said, wistfully as she felt slightly envious of the girl. Ireland... Scotland... Austria... Poland... Australia... you name it. Livvy wants to go everywhere.

"Its a beautiful country, I miss the hills and the grasslands. I came from a city called Kilkenny, its absolutely gorgeous." Raven said then smirked slightly, she reminded herself of the country that she spent all her time since that she missed so much.

A last marmalade-covered toast in her hand, Kiri wandered through the Entrance Hall, wondering whether to take her homework outside or return to the Slytherin common room. The weather was definitely turning cold already, and it would be nice and warm down in the Dungeons, but, Kiri considered, biting off a piece of toast before the jam could drip onto the floor, she'd spend enough afternoons locked up in there as soon as the weather was too forbidding. Which would be soon, at least for someone like Kiri who did not react well to low temperatures.

Outside it would be, then. She headed for the large doors opening into the Grounds purposefully, but before she could reach them, her attention was distracted. The large hourglasses showing off the four houses' points showed a... displeasing trend. She turned around again and ambled over. There were a lot of gems already in each glass for this time of year, but Slytherin was in third place, even behind Hufflepuff. Kiri tapped her fingernails against the Slytherin hourglass reflectively. They made a clinking noise against the glass. At least Gryffindor were still behind them, and by a decent amount of points too, she was pleased to see.

Tiberius was wandering morosely down the hall. He couldn't shake the readings he and Edem had done, and sitting in the common room hadn't helped any, so he'd decided to wander the castle. Shuffling his feet and kicking at nothing in particular, he'd made it all the way down to the hourglasses before putting his back to the wall and sliding down until he hit the floor.

Looking up, he was please to see Ravenclaw still in the lead, and only barely noticed the older Slytherin girl tapping at the glasses. He watched the gems fall for a bit, distracted, before drifting back to the readings they'd done down the hall. Evil. Secrecy. Death. It was all too much for an eleven-year-old. Wrapping his arms around his knees, he pulled them close to his chest and then put his head down. He started to cry then, in the hall, ever so softly; unless you were looking right at him, you wouldn't even know he was there.

He was starting to think he wanted to go home.

From his position in the shadows at the top of the steps to the kitchen level corridor, Jake stared around the Entrance Hall, taking in each and every person present and movement made. More often than not, his eyes were drawn to the hour glasses... specifically the amber gemstones in the Hufflepuff one.

As he made to cross the wall to go up to one of the upper floors, a couple more movements caught his eye, and the sounds of his footfalls on the flagstones ceased. There was a girl there, simple enough... but there was also a crying boy. The first thought that came to little Jakey's mind was that the girl had caused the crying, and he headed over.

"What's going on here?" the boy said, with more authority than he held. Both people seemed... extremely familiar.

Hmmm.