Kellen stopped off in the bathroom on his way to the Great Hall, irritated at his latest trip to the owlery. He tried to be clean, Merlin knew, but the owls had no qualms with being dirty little creatures and Mary Tsu was no exception.

Running the water over his hands, he sighed at the silence in the bathroom. It was so much quieter here than the common room or most other areas of the school. He scrubbed his hands with soap, and it wasn't until he was replacing the bar on the ledge that something in his brain clicked.

It was quiet in here.

It was peaceful.

And girls weren't allowed.

As is normally the case when a person becomes caught in the throes of an epiphany, Kellen stared around the boys' bathroom with wide eyes and a slowly opening mouth. It wasn't as beautiful as the Ravenclaw common room, but they could fix it up. Yes, yes they could. Store snacks over there, have chairs over there... He doubted it would ever rival the Prefects' bathroom, but they could get it close.

He clapped his hands together once and left the bathroom to tell Sabel, Chaucer and the rest.

Stepping into the bathroom first, Sabel found it a little strange that all three of them were going to help Chaucer re-obtain his dignified, personal image. In truth, he didn't really think the Slytherin was going to let them help anyways; he seemed to have a very precise way of attending to himself.

Frowning, Sabel turned around and watched the others come in, eyeing Kellen suspiciously. "This is it, isn't it?"

"...don't want me doing your hair anyway, Chaucer. We tried that once and you got all huffy at me. You know I'm right."

Kellen followed his cousin into the bathroom and shot Chaucer an irritated glare as the boy sashayed to the bathroom mirror and began to restore himself to his usual appearance. He then made a dismissive motion at him with his hands and turned instead to Sabel, "Yes, this is it. And don't look so strange, didn't I say at the table that it wasn't the most stunning of places? But listen. Just listen."

He was quiet for a moment, and then resumed talking, "No girls. They aren't allowed in here. Think Sabel, this is the only place in the whole school where we can meet without girls being there. We aren't in the same house, so the dorms are out. This is it."

Why Raiden was going with them to the bathroom, he had no clue. Especially a bathroom all the way up on the sixth floor, so far from where they had been, and farther still from his common room.

It wasn't really part of his prefect duties, to see another student to the loo.

He'd decided on the way that it must've been because he liked being around boys for a change. And if that required a bathroom stop, then that required a bathroom stop.

So he had followed them, and was now standing awkwardly just inside the door. He had no reason to need to be in here.

Except when Kellen said that this was the place he'd been talking about earlier.

A bathroom?

...wait. WAIT. That was actually brilliant. Seeing as he couldn't hide in the prefect's bathroom, as Cela was allowed in there... and he couldn't hide in the dorm, because someone would drag him out eventually AND he'd get lonely. This was actually...

"-kinda really brill," he said aloud, casting his eyes around.

There was a reason the kid was a Raven.

Grinning Sabel shook his head, agreeing with Raiden at the brilliant logic. "Very, very ingenious Stern. I have to hand it to you. I really do."

He glanced around, his grn fading a little. "Except...where do we sit?" Toliets were the obvious question but...he just wasn't going to get into the sanitary issues surrounding that.

A little knot he hadn't known was in his stomach released itself at their words. Having one person agree with him would have been comforting, but this... now he was convinced it was a good idea.

"Thank you," he said it as modestly as he could, but now wasn't the time for humble thanks and he quickly got back to business. He turned on his heels and indicated the open area with the sinks, "I was thinking that this could be the central area. I mean, it's half the size of a common room! As for that part," he pointed at the aisle with porcelain, "it's just a bathroom section."

"Seating!" He had this all decided too, "We conjure seats! We just learned butterflies and flowers, I'm sure Professor Pilliwickle won't mind telling us how to conjure chairs. Or we could ask someone else..." though he didn't know who. Maybe they would.

"But..." he reined in his enthusiasm and turned back to Sabel and Raiden, "do you think some of the other boys would want to learn the spells and hang out here as well? And for that matter," he glanced at Raiden's badge, "We won't get in trouble, right? For conjuring stuff in a school bathroom?"

Raiden watched as Kellen laid out like... a floor plan of what he thought they should do. Chairs would be easy enough to conjure; they didn't even have to ask a professor, he was sure that there was a furniture conjuring spell in one of his books somewhere. He'd learned enough junk on his own that it wouldn't be that difficult.

"I doubt it. I don't think the professors come in here very often, and there's not really a rule about loitering in the bathrooms, nor against practising Transfiguration... long as it doesn't hurt anyone or anything, that is."

Pause.

"And I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few others that wouldn't mind... escape."

Every so often. Like Garret, when Neptune saw him next.

Wandering around the bathroom, Sabel had to admit he'd never admired any one before as much as this one. That was, of course, because Kellen had come up with a masterplan to turn it into a hideout, or rather sanctuary. It was all in the eye of the beholder he supposed.

Turning back around to face the other two boys, Sabel decided it was best, for the time, not to lean on anything. They would have to use a few cleaning spells or something.

"Have you talked to Damien yet?" He tried to think of some others that would want to join in the safety. "Or what about..." What was his name? "...That Ian guy you were talking to at the opening feast? The one at the Quiddich practice."

The good news just kept rolling in. He grinned at Raiden's mention of escape, but shook his head as Sabel asked if he'd told anyone else, "Not yet. I just thought of it a little while ago and you're the first friends I've seen since. I will, though."

He leaned against one of the sinks, not sharing Sabel's paranoia about the dirt, and crossed his arms. his grin relaxed into a smile, "I'm glad you like the idea, really. It's not exactly the most conventional of hang-out spots."

"That's the thing with the different houses though," Raiden said absently, wandering around as he imagined the possibilities. "They force you to think unconventionally sometimes. Can't always stay in the common room, if your friends aren't allowed."

He ran his hand over the tap of one of the sinks, tuning out as Sabel and Kellen discussed others who could... use this place. It really was brilliant, and the easiest course of action.

"Bar the Room of Requirement, this is the best place," he mumbled quietly, to himself more than to them. "Cos that presents issues with more than one... mmm."

Sabel shook his head, smiling as he considered the ceiling. He had to admit, despite it being a bathroom, it wasn't that bad. "It's genious Kellen. It really is. Though..." He glanced around. "Could get a tincy crowded in here...depending of course how many of us there are."

His eyes flicked over to Raiden as the Slytherin muttered something to himself, only catching Room and Requirement. "You okay Raiden?"

"It's not like we'll be living in here though." Kellen noticed a discoloured patch on the sink he was leaning against and wrinkled his nose, "This place definitely needs a good cleaning." It was clean, yes, but it needed to be clean. Telling someone you were hanging out in a bathroom didn't have the same appeal if said bathroom was dingy. An immaculate bathroom, on the other hand...

He turned to Raiden as well, "Room of what now?"

"Hmmm what?" Hadn't... been paying attention. Raiden looked back at the younger boys at the mention of his name. "Sorry. I was just thinking that this is the best course of action, bar the Room of Requirement. Because that can be picky sometimes; if you go in, and say Sabel comes up a bit after... he might not get to the same place as you, because his thoughts on what he wants in the room might be different to start off. So there's always the possibility that people meeting there won't end up in the same place..."

He trailed off, thinking. Had he ever actually used the Room of Requirement? He knew it was there. A lot of people knew of its existence. But he couldn't recall ever being in there. The mechanics of it, he'd overheard from older students when he was younger. But he hadn't been able to find anything really specific about it in the history books he'd read.

Sabel blinked at Raiden, then glanced over at Kellen, speaking slowly. "Well...that doesn't sound very useful." His eyes went over to Chaucer. The boy would probably end up in a room of fashionable clothes or some such.

He frowned, looking back at Raiden. "How does that make sense though? Doesn't the room of Requirement occupy the same physical space? How can two people be in the same place at the same time and not be in the same place?"

"It's useful if you've got down exactly what you're meant to be thinking of, and have the same mental image."

Raiden turned to face them, leaning against the sink. Wasn't about to attempt to conjure chairs just yet, so that would have to do.

...haaaaa. Sabel. Raiden let out a little chuckle.

"It's magic. Doesn't really have to make sense." He shrugged. "I couldn't find any specs on how it works. Looked in history books and stuff. I'm sure something somewhere has information about it, but I haven't found it yet."

Sabel chewed on his bottom lip, frowning in thought. He had probably studied too much of physics in his younger days, and now it was interferring. "Magic still has to make sense. I mean not normal sense but magic sense." What was he saying again? "It still has rules, guidelines it has to follow. You can't just make something up and expect it to work." Why was he aruging this point?

Shaking his head he waved his hand a little and leaned back against the wall. "Ignore me. I'm not making any sense."

Chaucer had been listening to the group as he fixed his hair, not entirely concerned with the comparative triviality of the conversation. With each strand in place however and the swelling on his left side down, he began to truly pay attention to what they were proposing.

Lounge in the bathroom?

The boy scrunched up his pointy nose in distaste; never before in history had there been a group of gentlemen that gathered in a lavatory. Not in the way that was being proposed, at least. Nay, for only women sought communal refuge in their toilettes, while men held salons at manors, coffee shops or... well, really anywhere else.

"Of course no women are allowed, but other lads are sure to come by-the-by, are they not?" Chaucer flung his hands in the air: must he always be the voice of reason? "Let us assume we can somehow eradicate the smell and overall ambience of this bloody water closet, are we to assume any old John can enter? If so, what is really the point?"

Dreams of someday becoming part of a Gentlemen's Club were a part of Chaucer's childhood, but this bathroom business seemed a right travesty!

Kellen felt tempted to muss his cousin's hair back the way it had been. They were working with what they had; they couldn't very well ask the Headmaster to section off a part of the school specifically for them. He took a deep breath, let it out, took another one, and proceeded to give his cousin's head a metaphorical shake.

"Let's assume for one moment, Chaucer, that the world doesn't revolve around your visions of grandeur. Now that we've done that, let's take a look at what the situation in the school is. Boys can't go anywhere with their friends from other Houses without the possibility that girls will tag along too. Now granted, not all girls are crazy," though many were just good at masking the symptoms, "but a lot of them are. This wouldn't be some kind of posh club. It's a refuge. The point is that by its very nature, a boys' bathroom is for boys. Not girls."

Irritated now, Kellen stopped leaning against the sink and dusted off his robes, "And no one's forcing you to be here. By the way."

Chaucer was momentarily taken aback, but resumed a composed posture and flicked back his hair as though to emphasize his nonchalance. "Pray settle, cousin. I wasn't attacking your glorious idea of a bathroom sanctuary, just posing questions!" It was quite fine when Kellen decided to stand up for himself - it added a little intrigue to their relationship, so long as he didn't choose to make a habit of it. "And no, I couldn't ask for just the lot of us here as the only attendants, but should someone come along who chooses to tell the fairer sex... you know, they might take it as a challenge and double their efforts. If we take that possibility into consideration then yes, perhaps you really have something." It was this way of speaking that allowed Chaucer to feel in control somewhat of the situation; a cover he used for not having thought of the idea himself.

Grudgingly, very grudgingly, Kellen had to admit that Chaucer had a point about the girls finding out. Instead of acknowledging this, however, he turned to Sabel and Raiden, "Spreading the word about this place will be easy enough; we can just talk to the boys in our dorm rooms. But if it is going to be more like a club and less like a casual drop-in, we're going to need some way to pass information. Ideas?"

Scrubbing the back of his neck, Sabel examined the black...something creeping up between some of the tiles. He vaugely wondered if the potions master was growing something in here for an experiment.

"We could use Allison's rather persistant prodding parchment." He suggested as he scrubbed some of the black stuff with the toes of his shoe.

There was ... something. On his head. Walking on his head. Or crawling, whichever - Ian could feel something over there that totally should not be living between his tangled, brown locks.

A spider, maybe? He HAD been around the grounds, doing his usual crawling around and looking for galleons. If it was spider, it really was no problem; he'd had worst.

Pushing the door of the bathroom open, Ian stepped inside the lavatory looking every bit the unclean boy he usually was. Shirt untucked, shoe laces untied, tie hanging very loosely around his neck and stains of mud and Merlin Knows What Else all over his shirt, pants and even hands, the boy looked like a mess. He even had a bloody lip, and the truth was Ian could not recall how on EARTH had he gotten that.

Oh, people. He wasn't alone.

There was Kellen, Daph's Raiden and ... Strangers. Ian waved at them all in a cheerful fashion. "Yo!" He busied himself with washing his filthy hands, unaware that he'd walked in and interrupted a meeting.

The idea came with a fleetness unknown to Chaucer's brain under normal circumstances. After weeks worth of prodding, an old acquaintance had convinced him to watch the old Metropolis film in all it's heavily segmented glory. While Chaucer personally found very little to say in favor of any silent film, except that the actresses looked exquisite, Lang may well have created the perfect idea.
"I recall watching something with a group of workers passing around special notes. If we set a series of notes into circulation amongst the student body that only males would comprehend, it would save us a lot of trouble." But what to put would be the real question. "Boys generally are drawn to delinquency... why not have something like: 'spitting contest in sixth floor wc'? When they arrive out of curiosity, they will be greeted with a lounge and a list of regulations. Made most prominent would be something about telling females."

All this aside, Chaucer wasn't quite sure if there was a better way to guarantee neither females nor faculty would discover their operation.



Maybe we could start with that one... Chaucer thought slyly to himself. But perhaps a set plan would be more profitable than to leap like a bloody fool into the fray.

Raiden tuned out automatically as his mind turned to ways to pass information. Wasn't anyone's fault really. He'd just stopped paying attention as he tried to remember things that he'd read this past summer, between bouts of solo Beater practice and... other... ventures.

Yeah.

"There was... a charm. Pr..." Frown. He couldn't remember the name? "Protec... no, wait. Ugh what was it?"

He rubbed his forehead, giving Ian McKensie a little wave of recognition when he entered and started washing up. He'd read about it at the beginning of summer, and made a note in the margin of the book to look up more information on it. What had it been?

"Prot... OH." Yay memory. "Protean Charm, I think it's called. It's not easy, but if we can get Professor Kade to show us... it would be easy to pass information."

...what had he missed? Stare.