Two statues stand out on the fifth floor: Boris the Bewildered and Gregory the Smarmy. Beside Gregory the Smarmy is a roped off section of swamp, left in honor of the famous Weasley twins: Fred and George, founders of the joke shop chain, Weasley Wizard Wheezes.

It was the second day back at Hogwarts. Miss Roxanna de Rivera a blond lion was wandering around/exploring the castle while looking for a certain Slytherin. Her friend Oliver had promised that he'd take her to see Professor Lawson after breakfast but he was no where to be found. Roxxy didn't want to belive that he'd forgotten but with his new important DUTIES it could be the case. Coming up to the fifth floor her attention was immediatly drawn to the big swamp next to a big statue. A swamp how cool...I wonder if it's real. Going closer she stopped at the rope fence to peer down into the swamp. Muttering a little to herself Roxxy said "If i drop a gum into the swamp will it sink?"

Ty was NOT lost.

Of course not. He had wanted to end up in an empty corridor. That was the INTENTION. Hello, people, Tyler wasn't lost.

... The corridor wasn't empty. There was a girl there and- o_O a SWAMP?! EHHH???

Walking closer to it, Ty frowned in confusion. Hogwarts will never cease to amaze him. Seriously. Ty held onto the ropes - which were too high to actually protect him - as he eyed the swamp. "Probably - I wonder how deep it is," he answered the girl's question, naturally assuming she was asking him.

He was a Ravenclaw after all, he was smarter than... He glanced at the girl's robes to see what house she was in. Red - and red was... Hufflepuff? Gryffindor? No. Gryffindor. Lo wore yellow, and she was in Hufflepuff.

With her hands cluthed around the rope Roxxy stood peering almost mesmerized down at the lush, green swamp. She heard light footsteps coming in her direction and then a boys voice. Turning sideways she saw that he was even shorter than she was. "Do you think we will see how deep the swamp is if i drop a gum? Or do we need something heavier?" She asked thoughtfully. Roxxy wasn't really the one to seek or create trouble, but the swamp REALLY intrigued her. Looking at the boy more closely she saw that he wore blue robes, the signature of a Ravvie. Figuring he'd have a theory Roxxy asked "Why would someone place a swamp in the castle? Don't we have enough dungeons, peeks and towers as it is?"

Ty's frown returned. "How will we be able to see how deep it is with GUM? Unless you happen to have gum that's about a meter long, I don't see how we can see how deep it is," he commented, really wondering if the fact that the Ravenclaws were smart made all the other houses dumb. Surely not! That would mean three quarters of the school was dumb!

It was impossible.

"Hogwarts is awesome. This is just another wicked thing they put in, see..." Ty said, peering over onto the swamp. It really was wicked. . . Reaching out, he put a finger in. The cold liquid sent shivers down his body. Hehe - this was COOL.

A meter deep gum?

"Er no! I don't have a meter long gum..Unless we enlarge it with a spell." Roxxy said ignoring the boys visible frown. She wasn't dumb at all. Taking up a gum wrapper from out of her robes she pluked it out of the wrapper and then held it up to the other boy asking "Do you think that will work? If not then what can we use instead? I'm not carrying anything heavy..do you?" Roxxy watched the boy stick his finger into the swamp..Crouching down she put her whole hand in. It was SO cold.

SPELL. Of course! "Yeah, that could work... Only, I don't know any spells, see," he said, looking at the girl. Maybe SHE knew spells? After all, she looked roughly his age which meant that she had been here last year too! Lucky.

"We have our wands... But I don't want to use that," he confessed, watching as she put her hand in. Smiling, he pushed up his sleeve and stuck his whole arm until the elbow in. Hehe. It was really wicked cold. "Maybe it's not that deep - if I just. . ." And he trailed off, searching for the bottom with his hand as he inched it deeper and deeper into the green, mucky swamp. It couldn't be THAT deep - after all, there was a floor underneath them.

THIS WAS SO COOL.

Spells..Hm."I know some spells, the engorio spell for example it enlarges objects but i haven't mastered it..so if i try it could go bad.." Roxxy said unsure if she wanted to show her not so big skills with her wand to a boy who could potientially be in her own year. He certainly looked 12ish to her but judging someone's age wasn't exactly a talent of hers.

Not taking up her wand at all Roxxy pulled up her sleeves too to stuck both her hands and arms into the swamp. "I wonder why its so cold?" Peering down into the swamp over the side she felt herself begin to wobble forewards. Her balance was playing a trick on her again. Seconds later she knocked into the boy beside before tumbling head first into the giant swamp.

Surfacing again she cried out at the top of her lungs "HELP ME! HELP! I've Fallen into the SWAMP! HELP!" Pulling away her hair out of her face while tredding swamp water she wondered where the boy had gone.

Hmm.... Yeah, maybe it was better if she didn't try to use spells. Eying her wand, Ty shrugged and let it go. He was getting rather cold, what with this area of the castle not being really warm on the first hand. "Well, usually stuff is cold because no sun's getting to it... And 'cause they're deep?" he said, suddenly realising that this might be a LOT deeper than they both had initially thought.

This was a MAGIC school. Magic = the swamp wouldn't show on the ceiling. Smiling as he felt smart for realising that, he didn't really notice as the girl stuck her SECOND hand in, but he did notice as he was suddenly shoved head-first into the swamp.


EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!

Flailing around in the murky, icky waters, Ty tried so desperately to return to the world that he lost all sense of what was up and what was down. !!!! Headfirst hadn't really been that good of an idea - not that it was up to him, but yeah. . . Still thrashing, Ty's closed eyes frantically searched the darkness, trying to decipher where there was more light so that he could go in THAT direction.

And it was so COOLD.

Oliver, free from the Slytherin meeting in the duelling arena and feeling a lot happier and alert now that he'd had breakfast, was on his way up to the seventh floor to meet Roxanna to accompany her to see Professor Lawson. He knew he was running late and he knew the little Gryffie would probably be worried, but the meeting had dragged on longer than he had expected.

Up on the fifth floor, the curly haired boy paused when he heard shouting echoing down the corridor. He frowned and looked around and for the first time ever, spotted a roped off area. A... swamp? With a puzzled look on his expressive face -man, how could he have missed this last year- he wandered over, his puzzled expression becoming more exaggerated when he realised the shouting was coming from there.

His eyes widened wih horror as he spotted the forms of two small human beings in there! One of the little people was the very girl he was looking for! His adopted little sisiter, “Roxxy!” His voice sounded strained with the sudden stress he was feeling. He leaned over the side of the swamp and extended his hand to her. “Take my hand.” He looked over at the other figure – a small boy. He couldn't reach him!

Arrrhh... STRESS!

Roxxy spluttered out water from her nose as she turned around to look for the other boy. He was nowhere in sight..Oh dear merlin. Couldn't he swim? Not knowing wheter someone had heard her or not Roxxy dove into the water to search for the Ravenclaw boy.. Why had her balance pulled a nasty trick on her in this place? Peering in all directions in the swampy water she finally saw the other boy. Swimming towards him she knew that she needed to go up for air. Swimming up to the surface Roxxy took new air into her lungs before diving down again. This time she grabbed a hold of the boy and started for the surface.

As Roxxy broke through the surface still holding the boy by a tight grip she heard Oliver's strained voice shouting her name."Oliver i'm over here! We fell into the swamp..We didn't mean too..We just........I'm okay but it's freezing cold." trailing off she tried to swin towards the outstretched hand but it was hard. Roxxy had never tried to swim with an extra person. Finally grabbing Oliver's hand she asked unsurely "Think you can lift us both up out of the water?"If he couldn't then what were they supposed to do.. Roxxy wasn't leaving the other boy. It was her fault that he had fall into the swamp in the first place.

BLEAAHHHHH!!! He had water up his nose!! IIIIICCCKKK. And it HURT. It HURT real bad.

Still thrashing in the water, Ty began to feel the need for air. OH NOES. AAAIIIIRRR. Even more furiously than before, he flailed his arms and swam to and fro, searching for where the UP was. As he thrashes, Ty felt something grab him. EEEK - SWAMP MONSTERS!!

Since the grip was pretty strong, Ty did the only thing he could think of without more oxygen in his brain; opening his mouth, he bit whatever was holding him. HARD.

!!!

THERE WAS LIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS EYES. He had done it! Kicking and thrashing towards it, Ty broke the surface of the water with a big gasp and gulped down the fresh air, too busy with breathing to even begin to open his eyes.

Wait - what had happened to the girl?

Roxxy had a-hold of the boy. Oliver felt a sense of pride for his little sis – See? That was her Gryffie side, right there. Despite his worry, he grinned at the wee girl and her words. Oh yeah.. now to get them out of there...

Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnn!

Oliver to the resc... er.. ok – so that was getting a little monotonous now. Still, it just solidified his point about what an awesome Gryffindor he would have made. Heh.

An eyebrow cocked at young Roxxy's words. “Well I didn't think you'd jumped in there for a nice swim.” He said sarcastically looking disgusted as he eyed the soup they had fallen into. “Is he ok?” He said in reference to the boy. “You ok?” He repeated, looking at the boy. He didn't look ok.

He took Roxxy's hand but it was all slippery and gross from the swamp water. Ew. “Guhhhhh...” He stained and tried to pull the pair out but her hand was slipping out of his. He grabbed her wrist with his other hand and yanked with all his might, his face turning red from the effort of it. His back was not going to thank him for this. He almost had them out; almost; when his foot caught on some rubble and.. “Waaaaaaaaah!” In he tumbled into the cesspool of snot. “Heeeelp!” He flailed around oblivious to the biting and such that was going on.

Urgh.. it STANK! Retch.

In his blind panic and nausea he had temporarily forgotten about the two younger kids and the fact that he was trying to save him. Movement from somewhere in the swap reminded him however and he snapped out of his own little, slightly traumatic right now, world. “Roxxy?” Oh gawd. “Where are you, luv?” And her little friend... urrrh.. no name. “Slime Boy?” heh – that would do for now.

"OOUieeeeeeeeeeeee!" Oh how it hurt. The boy had bitten her in the arm for absolutley no good reason at all. So focused on the surging pain in her arm Roxxy lost her grip on the boys arm. Trying to ignore the pain that was making her eyes tear up she looked around frantically for the boy. Seeing him several meters away she called out "Hey! I'm over here...Why did you bite me?" Okay maybe the biting should be left for another time like after they had gotten out of the swamp but Roxxy couldn't just leave it. The pain kept reminding her of what had happened to her poor arm.

Roxxy tired to help Oliver get her out of the swamp but when he couldn't and came tumbling into the same swamp she knew they were doomed. If Oliver couldn't get them out and he was a fifth year then what was to say that a professor could do any better? Panicking and stressing at the same time Roxxy knew she should have demanded Oliver to get help. But it was no use saying that now.

Tredding water she heard Oliver call out for her. Swimming towards the slimy water to him she said "I'm here!" Pointing at the Ravvie boy with her uninjured arm she said "He bit me on the arm Oliver. It's bleeding and hurting. I didn't do nothing besides keeping him above the surface when he just attacked me." Looking her adopted brother over she saw that he was a bit green in the face..That couldn't be from the swamp could it?

Air. He liked air. Air was nice. Air was good. Air was clean.

Feeling his heart rate slow down as he treaded water and focused on breathing, Ty finally opened his eyes to see what had happened. There was the girl and- EH?! There was someone ELSE there.

About to start racking his brain over the fact that there was a third - and considerably older - person in the icky swamp with them, Ty suddenly remembered the MONSTERS due to the foul taste in his mouth. Panicking again, he flailed over to the edge of the swamp when the girl spoke up.

Oh. Ok - at least no monsters, right? "I thought you were a swamp monster!" Ty nodded, and tried not to dwell on it too much. Just because SHE had been the thing that had grabbed him didn't mean that they didn't exist. The swamp monsters.

"Who's that?" Ty asked as he tried to grab a hold of the rope - but it was too high. DANG IT. What would Uncle James do? ... Ty concentrated, forgetting that he had asked the girl anything, and smiled as he came to the conclusion that simply climbing out would be simple and effective.

... But the stone was slippery and just as Ty began heaving himself out, he fell and plunged into the murky waters AGAIN.

UGH. >__< Great. Those monsters better stay away from him until he figured out where up was for the second time. AND HE HAD ICKY WATER UP HIS NOSE AGAIN.

Oliver had stopped flailing and was treading water – this thing didn't look half as deep as it was. He looked in the direction of Roxxy's voice and felt a little relieved. Wait? Slime!Boy bit her? Oliver made a face about to say something when the boy piped up. A swamp monster – oh.. well that explained it. Hang on... A swamp MONSTER!? Did they exist? He swallowed; not only was he now feeling sick, but also paranoid – who was to say the kid wasn't right? This was a magical school where anything could happen. “H-he thought you were a swamp monster.” He repeated to Roxxy. Grooooann.. they had to get out of here or Oliver's breakfast was going to joining them in the swamp. Ew. As if it wasnt gross enough already.

Whos that? He looked over at the boy. “Oliver Greenwood.” He said flatly. “Pleasure to meet you.” Oh.. and why did that come out far more sarcastic than he intended? Because he was in an ICKY SWAMP! Best leave introductions til later, eh?

Oliver swam towards the edge and attempted to haul himself out in the same way the boy did but his palms slipped on the stone and he plunged back into the grossness. Cue more retching as the stuff went in his mouth. “Urrrh.. I think I'm gonna...” He trailed off and held his stomach. NO! He had to hold it in dammit.. for all their sakes.

He felt his side for his wand and drew it. “Accio rope.” he muttered and one end of the rope that was cordoning off this place plopped in the slime in front of him. He heaved on it and managed to pull himself out onto 'dry land' He sat and panted for a bit, eyes closed and concentrating on keeping his breakfast inside of him.

Now... to save those kids. Heh.

He threw the rope in the water in front of Slime!Boy. “Grab a-hold, Slime Boy.” He told him. With any luck, this would work.

He thought SHE was a what? Blinking in disbelief Roxxy shook her head. What was up with the ravvie boy? How could he think she of all people would be a swamp monster...It just didn't make any sense. "I'm not a swamp monster..I'm as far from it as you can get. But are you okay? No head ache or anything"

The Ravvie boy whom she still didn't know the name asked who the sixth year snake was. Roxxy wondered if it really was the best time for introductions but she said anyway "He is Oliver Greenwood. My friend....adopted bigbrother. And you are?"

Roxxy watched as the boy made an attempt to get out of the swamp but it was of course futile. The stones, the ropes and everything was just gooey with slimy slippery swamp stuff. Sneezing out swamp water and coughing Roxxy continued to tread water. How she was supposed to get out of the swamp with her injured arm which by the way was hurting BADLY?

Roxxy suspicions were correct. Oliver was about to throw upp what ever he had in his stomach because of the swamp. Meh she didn't like when otheres were nauseous it made her sick too. When Oliver came up on the bank of the swamp again she thought he was going to throw right then and there. Nobody was so green in the face as he was. Nothing happened though.

Instead Oliver tossed the rope to the ravvie boy. Keeping a bit of a distance from the back Roxxy called to Oliver "I don't think you can pull me up that way.. My arm hurts tooo much. And I'm loosing the feeling in my toes.. It's better you get help..Professor help." Shivering and still teary eyed she hoped that she'd get out of the swamp soon.

The sound of click-clacking heels echoed down the corridors as Lexi Carlton made her way towards...well, nowhere in particular actually. She'd been back in the castle for a few days now, but she'd only been to just a few of the floors. Thinking it'd be nice to take a little tour and see how things had changed over the years, Lexi had left the third floor and ventured up a few levels. So that was the big story of how she ended up on the fifth floor---not a very exciting story, but it did explain her random appearance in a place she had no real reason to be in.

As she walked further down the corridor, the sound of commotion grew louder and louder. "Commotion...at Hogwarts. Imagine that," Lexi thought to herself, thinking it was probably just some silly spell gone wrong. You know...a few stray canaries trying to escape out a window or something trivial like that. There was water, though...this, she could tell. There was splashing...dear, Merlin. Lexi tsk-tsk'ed as she considered what sort of trouble some probable first year had gotten themselves into.

When she rounded the next corner, though, what she saw caused her to stop dead in her tracks and blink in confusion. Someone was...swimming...in a swamp? Eww! Swamps were disgusting little places. There were usually little, icky bugs and snakes, and...gross. The closer Lexi got, though, the more she began to realize that there wasn't just one person in the swamp...there were two people in the swamp. ...and they weren't just swimming either!

"Oh, ...Merlin Me! How did you two---oh, nevermind that!" she exclaimed. Whipping her wand out, Lexi hurried to the side of the Slytherin boy who was trying to fish them out with a rope. With a...rope? "I don't know if they'll be strong enough for a muggle method. Let's try..." She raised her wand and nodded, indicating for him to retrieve his wand, as well. Lexi could have easily done this one her own, but a little instruction never hurt anyone. "You're familiar with Mobilicorpus, yes?" she asked. He looked to be old enough to at least have had some experience with it.

THERE WAS THE LIGHT!

Kicking his legs in the water, Ty made his way towards the surface - or what he hoped was the surface at least - and came up for air, gasping again. ICK. All this SLIME.

BLEH. Rubbing his eyes to get the slime water off them, he blinked furiously and heard someone shout for a slime boy to grab hold of something. Eh? Who was slime boy? Finally able to open his eyes, Ty saw the person from before was holding out a rope to him and comprehension dawned.

Apparently, HE was slimeboy. o_O



Ty was cold. VERY cold. And slimy. And smelly. And icky. And this girl thought that NOW would be the perfect time for introductions?

HONESTLY.

Giving her a crazy look - one that obviously meant "What, are you CRAZY?!!?!?" - Ty looked away from her and her bleeding arm (whoopsies) and towards what was unmistakably the sound of feet coming their way.

HEEELP WAS COMING.



Oooh, a lady professor!

Still treading water, and convenietnly ignoring the Professor's half question about how they had actually gotten in the swamp, Ty watched with great interest as she told the other boy that they weren't strong enough for the muggle way. HEY! HE was strong enough for ANYTHING. She must've been talking about the girl.

Wait. She was going to LEVITATE them out of the water?!?!? O_O

...

That actually sounded kinda fun! Hehe.

Oliver was soaked to the bone and had started shivering as the cold corridor air hit him. His robes were sopping with stinky slimy water and all he wanted to do was get back to the Slytherin dorms so he could get changed. “C'mon just grab the rope, kid.” He repeated a little impatiently to Slime Boy. He tugged on the end of the rope and danced from foot to foot in an attempt to keep warm making him look like an small child who desperately needed the loo. His eyes flitted to Roxxy when she said there was no way she would be able to cling to the rope. Sigh. HE would be the one doing all the hard work here! Did he really have to jump in there again so that he could save her butt? Urrrh.. he wasn't sure his stomach could take it for a second time. Get help? Now there was a cunning plan. He nodded, “Alright”, but paused at the sound of the click clack of heels approaching. “Someone's coming.” He said clearly relieved, and, woe and behold, it was a lady. An adult lady who would be able to help them! Yay!

So this must have looked... odd; two small children swimming in a slime infested cesspool, and Oliver standing there with a rope in hand. Heh. “I just fancied a spot of fishing.” He grinned at the lady and dropped the rope on the floor. She had a fair point about attempting to get them out the muggle way, but he wasn't sure he had the ability to levitate a whole human being. “Um..” He said in reply to her question, and not particularly wanting to look stupid said, “Yeah...” Pffft. Well it wasn't a lie - he WAS familiar with the spell -he'd had it used on him last year when he was all injured (shudder)- but that didn't mean he was necessarily any good at casting it. Well.. there was only one way to find out. He drew his wand and pointed it at Slime!Boy. “After you, Professor.” heh. Maybe he could pick up a few tips watching an expert at work.

Torin shivered slightly as he walked down the corridor not really paying attention to what was going on around him. He saw Oliver and a few other people, but didn't bother stopping to say hi. He could always shat later. Right now he wanted a nice quiet place where he could study that wasn't a library.

But where?

Cameron had been running for the hills up the steps from her encounter with Raven. Goodness, that girl could scare you. Then she saw a Prefect. Her big, brown eyes widened with the prospects of getting the mean Snake back good and proper. Making sure it was, of course, not a Ravenclaw prefect was her first priority. After assuring herself that it was indeed a yellow badge and striped tie he was wearing she approached him.
"Err.. hello Mr. Prefect Man.. I'm er.. looking to report.. er.. bullying!"

His eyes widened slightly as a girl rushed towards him. He had no idea who she was, so what was she doing rushing towards him like that.

Then he heard the word bullying. That was rather serious.

"You can call me Torin." Because it was better than Mr Prefect Man. "Who has been bullying you?"

Cameron smiled as the Prefect introduced himself but she didn't really care about that. That wasn't important. "Well that's nice Torin, but we'll stick with Mr Prefect Man, it's easier to remember see?" She said in a rushed, almost hysterical way.
As he asked the all important question, Cameron's smile just burst. "RAVENCLAWS!" The Lion whispered looking around suspiciously lest those sneaky Ravenclaws decided to attack her again.
"Oh.. and this one snake but she doesn't really matter cos she was being really mean but then she apologised but yeah.."

"Uh huh," he replied simply as he raised his brow at her. It didn't really matter to him too much if she called him that just so long as she knew what his real name was. Hopefully she could remember it. How hard a name was Torin to remember? Not that hard, he would assume.

... Ravenclaws? What?

"What about Ravenclaws?" They were a good House, and he had quite a few Ravenclaw friends. He didn't get why they were a problem here.

"So it was a Slytherin. And she apologized. But you still want to complain?" That seemed a little harsh to him if the person had said that they were sorry. But she had a right to complain really. "What's their name?"