"Uh-uh." Raiden shook his head emphatically. "She won't. He won't let her. It's Professor Kazimeriz." Pause. "Don't stare at me, it's... unnerving."

Professor Kazimeriz would not fix him until he had that mouse, nor would the old man allow anyone else to do it. Surely Kiri understood that...

Her suggestion that the mouse was on the grounds, or had been eaten by a Thestral (or possibly an owl, his brain would have said, were it thinking straight), was downright alarming and Raiden felt the fur on his body start to stand on end, prickling spreading across his skin. His tail fluffed up behind him, and flicked anxiously. That was... impossible, it couldn't have happened. If the mouse had been eaten, then there was no mouse, and that meant that... Kazimeriz wouldn't fix him.

One thing was for sure. It wasn't in this passageway. Unless it was dead, or had not moved for an extended period of time, it was not here. He hadn't heard anything that suggested otherwise.

And Kiri was reaching for him again. She wanted to take him back to the Potions classroom, which would only end in his getting sent back out to find the mouse and lost time. When the hand was close enough, Raiden leaned toward it and kinda headbutted it automatically, his ear rubbing against it before he scampered backwards a little bit more.

"I can't go there until I find the mouse. It's not down here... I should go."

Was he... rubbing his head against her hand? Kiri's thoughts were momentarily scrambled, caught between a drawn-out awwwww-isn't-that-adorable and anger at Professor Kazimeriz. Someone should really go and report him to the new headmaster...

Trying to imagine herself telling on Professor Kazimeriz - which turned out to be very difficult; if he found out someone had gone to the headmaster about him, that person would probably be very sorry indeed - Kiri was so lost in thought that it took her several seconds to realise that she'd started scratching Raiden behind his Kneazle ears.

Oh, no... "Sorry. Sorry!" she said hastily, blushing furiously. She withdrew her hand quickly. "I kind of... It was an automatic reaction." Goodness, this had to be so humiliating for Raiden, being petted like a cat (although it did feel nice).

"No, don't go," she began, trying to think straight, "er, what about... I dunno, taking another mouse and colouring it blue? I'm sure Professor Lawson has some. You don't have to run around all day trying to find it. It could be anywhere!"

Raiden was caught between happiness and horror for a second there. The feeling of Kiri scratching his ears was really nice and he'd actually stretched toward her a little bit, turning his head slightly so she could get at them better... before realising that she was scratching his cat ears and he was a human.

Face turning red, he scampered backwards again, putting space between himself and her. It took him a second to get on his feet (the posture was starting to feel uncomfortable and weird), and he kept his eyes on her as he moved a bit farther away. His entire stance was a bit bent forward, cutting about two inches off his height.

The tips of his ears twitched.

"It's Professor Kazimeriz. He would know the difference. Besides, his is made from a coffee cup." It didn't matter that it could be anywhere. It had to be that mouse, and it had to be soon. "I have to go."

He went to the opposite side of the passageway, eyes watching her as he slooooowly eased past her.

"If you see the mouse... help me?" he whispered, his nose wrinkling as he sniffed at the air. He couldn't smell the mouse here at all.

Kiri sighed, getting to her feet likewise. After kneeling down for so long, her knees protested, but she overruled them. Up, up, up she got.

"Well, I guess you have a point," she said, lips pursed disapprovingly. "I still think you should just... come along with me. I'm sure if Healer Ashford saw you, she would just take you along to the Hospital Wing, whatever that old... man said."

She nodded earnestly. "If I see the mouse, I'll stun it and bring it straight to you." There were still some minutes until she had to be at the Pitch, maybe she could look around a bit or something. "Good luck." She smiled, and then Raiden was gone, scampering out of the gloomy passage with his tail flying behind him.

This had been odder than almost anything she'd ever experienced, Kiri considered, kneeling down again to snatch up her Quidditch uniform and equipment.

They had been walking in relative silence since they left the hustle and bustle of the busy ground floor. Diggy was still holding Natasha's hand, she hadn't asked for it back and he didn't really want to let go of it if she didn't want him to. Though bis heart was racing in his chest. This was all new to him, not liking girls no. he liked girls since he first realized not all girls were like Paris. Not that he hated his sister, but if you know her you knew what he was talking about. His sister was just so sure of herself all the time, nothing came as a surprise to her. She was poised and perfect, always having an answer for everything. Diggy was unsure about himself all the time, he made male jokes and became a chatter box when he was nervous. He wanted a girl that was like that.

Paris never would have blushed if a girl asked her out. She was have held her head high and told him it was about time he came to his senses to ask her out. But Natasha blushed, and Diggy had loved that. She was just as nervous as he was and that helped him to relax about the whole situation.

"Do you speak any other languages?" he asked her. Having her alone all to himself he wanted to know everything about her.

That he was still holding her hand, she liked. Natasha wondered if she should maybe ask for it back but didn't, because she realised that she didn't want him to let go of her hand. It he was holding hands because he wanted to, right? She smiled. It was nice, just walking with him.

"No, I don't. It would be cool to, though." She smiled at Diggy, and paused for a moment. "Do you?" She asked, genuinely very curious. Natasha felt herself being interested, she didn't know all that much about him, really. Usually she was curious about people, but know she felt like it was something really important to know more about Diggy, even if it was just trivial stuff. She still wanted to know.

He glanced down at their hands. Natasha's fingers were longer than Diggy's, well she was taller then he was as well, but Diggy didn't care. Most people were and like everyone else in his family save his brother Lucas and his father he would have to get used to that. The contrast between their skin tones was beautiful to Diggy, just like his mother and father's. Where his hand looked like molded carmel, Natasha's hand looked like poured cream. He was really going to have to talk to his dad whenever he got the chance. He had never before in his life experienced any of the feelings that were coursing through his little body right now. He liked it.

He nodded when she answered his question. It was a shame that she didn't speak any other languages. "I speak Arabic and Japanese," he told her. After all he did go to primary school in Egypt. He would have finished up school there but him mom pulled all of them out of that school. "I learned Arabic because thats what we spoke at my old school and I learned Japanese because I love kung fu movies and Samurais. My family has a muggle obsession," he told her in case she didn't know what kung fu and samurais were. Which most wizards didn't. "Are you a pureblood?" He didn't care either way, but he might as well know if she had that pureblood mania now before he was totally in love with her.

It didn't seem that they were in sort of hurry to get to the common room. Diggy knew it would be busy and everyone would still be awake and frankly he didn't want to have to compete for Natasha's attention.

"Oh, that's really cool, speaking those two other languages." She smiled at him. Natasha looked at him curiously when he said that he learned Japanese because of kung fu and Samurais, unsure what they were. "Oh." She said, nodding when he said his family had a muggle obsession. "Yes, I am." Nat said. "Are you?" She asked, with a bright smile. It didn't matter to her, she was just curious.

He chuckled. "You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?" he asked. Most wizards didn't know what kung fu was nor samurais. "I'll show you some kung fu one of these days." he told her. Him and JoJo were black belts. His mom was leery of them learning how to fight, but their dad insisted that he didn't want his kids to get picked on. He nodded. "Yeah I'm a pureblood, but like my whole family is obsessed with muggles and all their stuff. My brother Lucas is going to be a muggle doctor, and my twin goes to a muggle school in the United States." And he missed him a lot. "How is your term going?" he asked her.

Carter continued in the direction she pointed. It lead to a corridor he had never been down before.

"Brilliant." he said softly. He would have loved to have a look around... but now was not the time for that. He continued walking until he reached a point where the way was blocked.

Still no Destiny. Still no Evelyn. And still no Evan.

Marie followed Carter into the secret passage really hoping this was where she was going to find Evan. She remembered the last time she had tripped over him in there, that turned out to be the happiest day of her twelve year old life... That was the day he asked her to be his girlfriend. Now here she was looking for him because he was missing. Somehow knowing that he was missing took away her happiness of this place.

Shining the light from her wand all around she could feel the tears starting to form when she didn't find Evan. This really was the one place she had thought she would find him. Wiping the tears from her eyes she said to Carter, "Let's get out of here, I don't want to be here anymore." She knew if she stayed there much longer she would be in full blown crying mode and she did not want that to happen, she needed to focus on finding her boyfriend and friends.

"Alright." Carter said leading the way. They checked everywhere he could possibly think of down here. He looked back at Marie. She was crying. And Carter being a guy wasn't quite sure how to comfort her. She must have been worried sick about everyone. He didn't consider himself good friends with Evelyn or Destiny but was still worried about them. But he would do whatever he could.

He lead them back to the staircase. Now on to the kitchens. Maybe everyone was in the mood for a snack?

Marie silently followed Carter out of the passage. She was afraid if she talked now she would really start crying. She would just wait until tey were out of the secret passage to say anything.

"I'm sure she's fine." Carter said. "Maybe they took her to St. Mungo's?" he said. If she went there the baby would be fine. That is, of course, if that place was like a muggle hospital.

"How about down this way." he said leading the way down the secret corridor. He had shown her this place before when they were searching for Evelyn and Destiny. Now would be a nice time to just sit and look around.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right. They probably got her to the hospital in time." Maybe tomorrow they would hear that the Lawson's were parents now.

Marie's heart stopped beating for a minute when Carter started leading her down the secret passage. This was sort of a special place for her. It was in this passage that Evan asked her to be his girlfriend. She had thought for sure she was going to find him in here when her and Carter were looking for him, which of course she didn't. Thoughts of him went rushing through her mind. How was he doing, when would she see him again, was he coming back to school.....

Knowing Carter needed to rest though she didn't protest about being in the passage, she just followed him in. "Umm yeah sure, in here is good. It should be nice and quiet, we'll be able to rest in here without anyone bothering us." She tried sounding happy that they were finally going to get to rest hoping Carter didn't hear the sadness in her voice.

"Yeah. I'm sure we'll hear about what happened soon." Carter said. Maybe in a week Professor Lawson would come back with a baby. That would be fun.

He walked over to the wall. He leaned against it and slid down to the floor. Now that he was down he would probably never get up again. "You alright?" he asked her. She seemed to have a bit of a wavering voice. Was something wrong with this spot?

Marie followed Carter to the wall and sat down next to him. She was still thinking about Evan and how happy she had been in this passage eight months ago. Now here she sat all banged up, missing Evan and confused about her feelings for Carter. "Yeah, I'll be alright, it's just...." did she really want to tell him what was bothering her? "....never mind, I'll be okay." she said. They needed to rest right now and talking about Evan would not relax her....would it?

"You sure...?" Carter said. "I mean... if you don't want to say anything that's fine... but... you know I'm here for you, right?" he said. He looked at Marie sitting next to him. He had the urge to hold her hand but ignored it. He then looked straight ahead not daring to look at her again.

Yeah, she knew he was there for her, that was part of the problem but she couldn't tell him that. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged her legs close to her. She started to bite on her bottom lip deciding if she should say anything to him or not. Finally deciding she didn't want to keep any secrets from him she told him.

"It's just that the first time I was ever in this passage...." she stopped and bit her lip again, "....well that was the day Evan asked me to be his girlfriend." She couldn't look at Carter right now because she knew if she did she would cry. "Then the next time I came in here was with you when we were looking for Evan. I had thought for sure I was going to find him in here that day but we didn't." Of course she was happy when they found him in the entrance hall but she hadn't seen him anymore since that day.

Now here she was sitting in the passage again, only this time with Carter. And as much as she was missing Evan and wanted him back at school she also wanted to be there with Carter. She was just really confused and didn't know what to do. She put her chin on her knees and closed her eyes. Maybe if her eyes were closed he wouldn't be able to tell she was about to cry.

"Oh..." Carter said. He had no idea why he wasn't writing her. He didn't know how many times he had written Marilyn over the summer. How could you forget about your girlfriend? It just didn't seem possible to him.

"I'm sorry. We can go somewhere else." he said. He watched as she huddled into a ball. He was not good at comforting girls when they were going to cry.

"No, we can stay here" she said. "I'll be okay, really I will." Maybe if she told herself that enough she would actually believe it. "Besides, even if I wanted to go somewhere else I don't think I could get back up right now." Her head was pounding, her body was aching and now her face was all puffy. All she wanted to do was sleep. She leaned over and put her head on Carter's shoulder just like she had done when they were way up on thre fifth floor. "Carter, thanks for being here for me and for being so understanding. You really are a great friend." She closed her eyes again wondering if she would actually be able to fall asleep sitting there.

Carter nodded. He couldn't get up either. She leaned on his shoulder again. He leaned his head on hers. This is nice... he thought as his eyes began to droop. He smiled. Not that she could see it. "Same to you." he said. This would have been a much worse experience if he hadn't have gone though it with someone.

When Carter put his head on hers she knew everything was going to be okay. She felt really relaxed and happy sitting there with him. Everything just seemed right for her now. "Thanks" she said as she put her arms around him and felt herself starting to drift off to sleep.

Tyler walked towards the the secret passage thingy. He needed to clear the air with Cadence before the term ended, and right now didn't care if someone came to interrupt them. They had to work something out, even if his girlfriend didn't like Cadence, that didn't mean he was going to stop being friends with her. Ty stopped near a the opening of the passage and looked beyound it. Yeah, no. This is the farthest he'd go. Who knew what was beyond this point.

Now all he had to do was wait for Cadence to show up. Which he hoped was pretty soon.

Cadence played nervously with the ends of her hair as she walked through the dungeon corridor looking for Tyler. She hated it down here. It sort of creeped her out. It creeped her out even more that it was so dark and would be so easy for someone to jump out at her down here. Nearing the passage, Cadence stopped and took a deep breath. She determinedly stopped playing with her hair and put her hands to her side, squeezing them into fists so she wouldn't fidget. Tyler had said he wanted to talk. He wanted to talk. That was an improvement from the majority of the year. Maybe he was finally going to stop caring about whether Lucy was okay with them being friends or not. Taking another deep breath, she walked the rest of the way and found Tyler. "Hi, Tyler," she said shyly.