Preston rubbed his forehead and grimaced as the slime-covered boy rose from the swamp again. That had to be terribly unpleasant.

Still keeping an eye on the two students being lifted out, Preston conjured a stack of precisely folded fluffy blue towels. Those students were going to be.. cold. And slime covered. Preston knew that sometimes a good towel felt better than any number of spells.

Tapping them briefly, he warmed them. Freshly laundered, warm towels.

Much better than swamp.

Even though her eyes and most of her concentration were still on Ty, Lexi was able to quickly glance Roxxy's way and give her a small, hopefully comforting, smile. She knew the little girl had to miserable, and she hoped, in some small way, her smile and soft talking would help. "Roxanna, that's a pretty name. It's the first time I've heard it actually," she said, noting how unique the name was. She was sure she'd heard variations, but she didn't think she actually knew of any Roxanna's...well, other than the one swimming right in front of her, that is. "It sh---..."

Lexi sort of froze in...fear? disgust? alarm?...when she was suddenly sprayed with bits and pieces of disgusting goo. Eww. She closed her eyes for just a second and tried not to think about the nasty mess oozing down her face and onto her shirt. She wasn't wearing any of her really good shirts, was she? She opened her eyes, but was afraid to look down at the mess that was bound to be there. Thank Merlin for cleaning charms! Lexi's eyes shot wide open when Ty yelled out. She hoped he hadn't splashed back down into the swamp again. Her arms were getting a little tired!

Out of the corner of her eye, Lexi saw a bit of blue fluff poof its way into the air. Curious, she glanced to the side and saw Professor...something...standing there with a perfectly folded pile of blue towels. What was he doing---sightseeing? She guessed he felt like he might be in the way if he jumped in now. At least he'd conjured towels, though. She smiled at him before returning her focus to Ty.

Oliver stared at the wee boy. Like what indeed. Pffft. Like yelling at his adopted kid sister! Sigh. “Nevermind.” He muttered cos the kid obviously was scared and fear could make you say and do irrational things.

Urgh.. poor Roxxy. Oliver felt the need to retch again as she coughed up a load of swamp slime. Gross. He knew what that stuff tasted like.. hell.. he could still taste it in his mouth following his unexpected bath in there.

He looked at the the professor as she advised him to focus.. which he already knew. Heh. He took deep breath. "H-okay.” He said and shook his limbs like he was warming up for a muggle sporting event. Merlin... how rubbish would be in a real crisis? But then he knew that his main problem with mastering spells was his lack of focus. There was just too much going on inside his twitchy brain to concentrate on one thing at a time.

He pointed his wand at Roxxy thankful that she'd swum back towards him...

He shook his head at Roxxy's words. “I wont. I didn't mean to in the first place.” Like, really.. surely Roxxy knew him better than that. Hehe. ..Maybe not – Oliver did have a tendency to open his gob at the wrong times. “You ready?” Pffft.. well he was even if she wasn't and that was what was important here if he was going to get her out of there. “Mobilicorpus!” He said firmly and confidently and began to lift Roxxy out of the swamp. Oh he was doing well this time... that was, until movement from behind almost broke his concentration again. He grabbed his wand with both hands and pulled a face as he concentrated very hard on getting Roxxy out of the gunge.

Nymphy got there a little early, but decided just to sit and wait for Avery anyway. While he waited he sketched the statues, especially the one of the Weeping Witch.

Avery had recived her note from Nymphy to meet her here. She was pretty excited to be spending the day with Nymphy, she hadn't really had an opportunity to since the term started. When she saw him, she all but ran over to him. "Hey Nymph!! Good to see you! How have you been?" Avery smiled at him.

Roxxy kept ignoring the Ravenclaw boy floating a few meters away from her. It was the best thing to do. It wasn't exactly the place to get into a fight about if she was more scared than him or not. Roxxy had though not been the one who had taken a human girl for a swamp monster. Shaking her head she turned her head to look at the Professor lady who was complimenting her name. Beaming she responded "Thank you. My father named me Roxanna after his aunt who used to be a famous singer in Spain."

Turning towards Oliver who was ready to try lifting her again Roxxy nodded as she put her uninjured arm protectivly over her other bitten one. "Yes i'm ready." As Oliver unleashed the spell she felt herself being pulled out of the swampy water. Clutching her injured arm she saw exactly how huge the bite was and the blood hadn't stopped coming out of it. Gulping down hard to not retch up more swamp water she kept her eyes fixed on Oliver's face. Roxxy felt how she started to wobble and feared that she would fall in again but somehow Oliver renewed his grip and managed to lift her to safety.

As she landed on the bank of the swamp her feet gave way under her and she fell down into a lump on the ground. Still clutching her arm Roxxy mumbled to Oliver "Thannnnk you!" before turning away from him to cough up more slimy water.

Lexi just glanced at the Slytherin boy out of the corner of her eye. He nearly had Roxxy levitated and safely out of the water, and Lexi didn't want to distract from that in any way. So instead of saying anything else, she focused her attention on levitating Ty to the edge of the swamp.

Seeing that he was close, she tugged her wand a little more and guided him to an area where he could just step down and then make his way back to solid ground. "Alright, Mr. Adams, you can step down now," she said, as she slowly lowered her wand to her side. She turned back to the Slytherin boy, whose name she still didn't know. "Five points to Slytherin house. These two are lucky you came along when you did," she said. "I think...he," she said, pointing to Kingsley, "has a few towels to dry off with and to keep warm. You may want to head to the Hospital Wing just to get the nurse to check you out, too."

From his elevated position in midair, Ty was glad to see that both the girl and the older Slytherin boy had agreed to his claims, since they weren't arguing back. Excellent. HE was not scared. HE was never scared. Except, of the Potions Professor... >__<


Step down? Huh?? Did she want him to just DROP DOWN?!

Oh, wait. The ground was close. Nodding, Ty outstretched a shaky, filthy, smelly, slimy leg and made contact with the floor. At long last! "Thank you Professor!" he said, shooting her a slightly chattering smile, since he was sort of freezing. Looking VERY relieved to be back on dry land, Tyglanced down at his robes. BLEH. They SMELLED - and they were COOOOOLD; HE was co-

TOWELS. Looking to where the Professor had pointed, Ty spotted another Professor - one whom he hadn't met yet, and didn't look very pleasant - with towels beside him. Ty walked over to him without catching his eye and looked down at the warm fluffy towels with longing.

"Professor, can me and the Gryffindor girl use these towels?" Ty asked, looking over to where she stood and he beckoned her over. Now that she knew he wasn't scared, Ty didn't feel any resentment to her whatsoever. Other than the fact that it was her fault he was in this mess. But STILL.

Shivering from the cold where he stood, Ty waited for the girl to show up at his side and for the Professor's consent.

Sitting up on the ground Roxxy heard the professor award house points to Oliver for his assistance in getting them out. She wondered if the professor was going to draw points from her and the Ravvie boy for falling into the roped off swamp section. When nothing came Roxxy struggled up to her feet feeling the pain surge threw her arm with renewed force. Grimacing she shivered considerably. Turning around the blond saw another professor close by with towels. Maybe they could warm her up. Looking over at Oliver she asked "Will you come with us to the Hospital wing? You swallowed a lot of swamp water too, didn't you?"

Sheltering her pounding and slightly bloody arm Roxxy heard the Ravvie boy beckon her over. Going up to him she said quietly "I'm SO cold and tired." Glancing over at the boy her age she ask shivering noticeably "Can you tell me your name now? I don't want to refer to you as Ravvie boy anymore. I'm Roxanna/Roxxy and you are?" Peering up into the face of the male professor she asked "Please professor can we get some towels?"

As soon as the students were out of the swamp, Professor Kingsley hurried over, no longer worried about causing anyone to lose their concentration and drop a child.

Yes, yes, of course," he said to each of them as they asked (so polite!), lowering the stack so that they could each grab one.

Turning to the two rescuers, then, he offered the stack as well. "And, either of you?"

"Me too... I'm Ty," he nodded, not really willing to speak much more as his teeth were beginning to chatter. They did that easily, and Ty HATED it. It was like someone took over controlling his jaw - and it HURT after a while too.


"Thank you, Professor!" Ty smiled at him - or what was meant to be a smile, but turned out to be something along the lines of a grimace - and grabbed a fluffy towel from the stack. It was BLUE, too. Hehe.

Wrapping it around himself as tightly as he could with his small, shaking hands, Ty would have laughed if he had been observing from the side. The towel was WAY too long for him, and warmed up his feet just as nicely as the rest of his body, maybe even more. The Professor must have charmed them to make them warm too, because they really radiated heat - which was super nice. Or, maybe he was so cold that stuff began to feel warm even when it wasn't.

COOOOL.

"Mmhmm," Lexi said, replying to the thank you from Ty. She grew quiet as the conversation turned to...that professor with the towels. Merlin, Lexi really needed to get around to introducing herself to the other professors. Calling people that professor, even if it was only in her thoughts, just didn't seem right at all.

Lexi wasn't exactly cold, but she was...ew, there was swamp water on her clothes...a little dirty from the whole rescue operation. A towel would be sort of nice and soft and fluffy right about now. She took one and dabbed the icky water off her clothes and skin. "Thank you, ...erm, ...I'm sorry. I don't think we've been introduced yet. I'm Alexia Carlton. You can call me Lexi, though," she said.

Ew! Oliver pulled a face like he was going to vomit when Roxxy coughed up a load more of the swamp water. Guh.. the stuff was so gross and it STANK! *retch* His stomach churned and gargled as he watched the slime covered girl cough and splutter some more.

He held out his hand to help her to her feet. “You ok?” He asked her weakly, his face paler than ever. He glanced at the boy who was now out of the slime and seemed a hell of a lot happier and less obnoxious for it.

Despite the feeling of nausea, Oliver managed a small smile at the nice professor as she awarded him points for saving the two kid's butts. “Thanks, Professor.” Thank Merlin one of the professors around here recognised his intentions were to help rather than cause bother.. like Professor Lawson – the female one that is. Merlin, he and Roxxy still needed to go retrieve her pets from her office! Later.. it would have to wait cos right now the Slytherin needed a bath ...and possibly a bucket.

Looking more than a little green around the gills, he shook his head at Roxxy suggestion to accompany them to the healer – surely the girl knew he was terrified of all that medical stuff by now! “No. I don't...” He started weakly but trailed off. “Urrrh.. I don't feel so good.” he mumbled to no one in particular, covering his mouth with his hand. As he was reaching out for a towel it happened before the boy could even attempt to stop it; he puked on the ground by the Transfiguration professor's feet. Guhhhh... no. This was deja vu – he still owed Nancy a pair of new slippers.... and Nate a pair of shoes. He groaned. “Urrh... sorry.” he muttered and.. oh no: it was going to happen again! His eyes widened and he made a dash towards the swamp to empty more of the slime that had got into his stomach back from whence it came. Guhhhhhhh... Stoopid weak constitution.

Aiden stumbled across an interesting little corner containing two statues and an odd swampy-looking thing. He lifted an eyebrow. A swamp, in the middle of the school? After examining it further, he realized that the mini quagmire was dedicated to the Weasley twins! Heh. Interesting. Poor statues, though. The swamp must claim much more attention than both Boris and Gregory combined.

'Hmm, where am I now?'

Ella thought she had gotten over all of this 'being lost' business, but as she walked around the fifth floor, she came across a very unfamiliar room with statues inside. How many more rooms can there be in one castle? Taking a second glance, she recognized a face in the room. But grr, she wasn't particulary pleased to see him. "Hello Aiden. Haven't spoken to you in a while... how's the girlfriend?" Her eyes narrowed as she stood by his side.

Aiden heard footsteps. But he didn't even turn in time before he recognized the voice directed towards him laced with a nice light coat of venom. Just a tad. "Ella," he acknowledged her, turning away from the statues. Of course she would bring that up. "Right.. so, you heard then." His tone was rather flat, and he didn't care. "I think the real question should be, how's your boyfriend?"

"Yes I did hear. Care to explain what the hell you were thinking?" Ella said in an unusually calm tone. Although knowing her, the explosive-ness would most likely occur soonish. "If you're talking about Patrick.." Which he obviously was. "..he is not my boyfriend." She stated. The last time she had actually spoken to Patrick they had argued. Bad times.

Back to the point. "So.. fake relationship huh? I'm not surprised really. I couldn't imagine you seeing anything in that Vanessa girl." She scowled at her name. Hate herrrr..

"Pfft. You should be thanking me, Ella. Didn't the whole thing just push Patrick into your arms anyhow?" Aiden swallowed, and took a sudden interest in Boris the Boring, or whatever he was called. He was rather boring, so the name suited him. Aha, so Olivia must have gotten that part wrong; they weren't dating. "Well, you kissed, right? So, it's only a matter of time," he said smoothly.

Aaaand, back to the fake relationship thing. He drew a breath and lazily ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, well. She wanted to make Patrick jealous, and she asked me to help her." Wrong choice, duh. But hindsight is always 20-20. "I'm sorry that I had to lie to you, but I gave her my word."

Hmm. What to say back to that? It was quite true really. "Yes but... I don't know if he really likes me.. or if HE is trying to make Vanessa jealous." She explained with a scrunched up expression. It was hard to get your views across sometimes.. "You know what I mean?" Haay, who told Aiden about the kiss? So much lack in privacy lately. Sheesh. "Yeah we kissed. But... so what?" The kiss was basically all that happened. Nothing had developed..

Pfft. "It's fine Aiden. I don't blame you. I blame her." She said firmly. He was kind of an idiot for agreeing but he is just a kind, lovely person and was sooo easy to forgive. "Just as long as it's over.. right?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Why was everyone so crazy about making everyone else jealous? Maybe it was just human nature. He was about to go on about Vanessa liking Patrick, but his instincts directed him against it. "Olivia told me," he answered, a small grin playing around his lips.

Gah. Those statues were annoying him. It like they were watching, or something. Critiquing them. But he didn't seem to mind so much when his mind wandered back to when Nancy caught him placing a fake mustache on that witch statue. Heheh.

But, back to focus. He turned so that he could make eye contact. "So, Patrick makes you the happiest around here, am I right?"

The sixth year nodded when Ella asked whether it was over with Vanessa. "Yes, it's over. Well.. it was never really real, so I suppose it never began." He shrugged; she understood what he was saying.

Preston smiled at the first boy who took a towel. "You're quite welcome. You'll still want to see the Healer to make sure you don't take ill."

Looking up as he was addressed, he faced the woman he had offered a towel to.

Preston nodded deferentially. "You're quite welcome. Preston. Preston Kingsley. It's a pleasure to formally make your acquaintance, Professor Carlton." He raised an eyebrow and moved his eyes pointedly in the direction of the students.

He most certainly would not be addressing staff by their first names in the presence of children.

Preston noticed another of the children reaching for a towel and turned to lower the stack when... ew. Preston pursed his lips as he watched the boy scurry off to empty his stomach into the swamp.

Wand aloft once more, he pointed at his shoes, which were spotted with stomach acid and swamp slime. "Evanesco."

Satisfied, he looked up at the boy. "The healer for you, as well."

Ella nodded but didn't say anything. Sighhh. "Oh did she? Olivia can't seem to keep her mouth shut these days." She said. Although she was greatful on occasions, it was still really annoying.

Ella stopped for a moment to think about what he said. "Well..yes.. yes I think he does make happiest." She almost continued with her doubts but decided to stop right there. To be honest, Ella was really confused about everything.

"Good." She stated simply. Anyone who dated Vanessa for real or just pretend, Ella would feel sorry for.. "So.. got any real girl interests lately?" She asked.

Heh. Yeah, that was true. Olivia did somehow seem to be the gossip queen lately. Although that memory problem of hers wasn't quite the best combination with gossip.

Aiden looked to Ella, as if staring at her would make her spit out her reply any quicker. But, in the end, he had guessed right. It was Patrick. He shifted his jaw and let out a barely audible sigh. Well, that sucked. A lot. "Well, then.." If Patrick brought out the best in her, then that was Aiden's cue to move on. "I'm happy for you." Sort of. Even if Patrick was a complete git.

The hint of a smile graced his lips as she asked whether he had his eyes set on any girls. How ironic. "Nope," he answered. "Not really."

Amidst all the chaos still going on, Lexi was trying to find a nice way to say her goodbyes and return to...well, somewhere. The Slytherin boy, who she'd recently heard being called Oliver, looked like he was going to be sick, and that was...well, not something Lexi desired to stick around to see. Ew. Besides, the students all looked to be okay now, save for needing to be checked out by the healer.

"Thank you," she told Oliver, when she heard him thank her for the house points. Had it not been for his help, it would've been loads more difficult to rescue to the two swamp swimmers. She sort of edged away from him a little when he turned a bit of a green color. Lexi had a weak stomach, and if he threw up, it was quite possible she might get sick, too. So for that reason, she turned her attention to the professor, who'd introduced himself as Preston Kingsley.

Ahh, another name down...another ten or so to go. His formal tone didn't escape her, and she guessed he was one of those people who took to formalities in the presence of the students. Lexi wasn't exactly one to be so formal, though. Polite, yes. Formal, not so much. If it would make Preston more comfortable, though... "It's good to meet you, too, Professor Kingsley," she said with a smile.

...and then, she heard it. Yes...it. That Slytherin boy had vomited, hadn't he? Lexi wrinkled up her nose and dared to look. Preston's feet---that's what it had landed by. She edged away from Preston now and watched as he vanished the throw up. "Yes, yes, the healer for you, too," she said to Oliver, repeating what Preston had just said.

Ella cleared her throat, why was this situation feeling so awkward for her? Probably 'cause she still had a soft spot for Aiden. "Thanks Aiden." She said with a weak smile. Hopefully Vanessa wouldn't try to get in the way this time. "I wonder if your plan worked.. I wonder if it made Patrick jealous.." She voiced her thoughts out loud. All she kept thinking was that Patrick was just using Ella to make Vanessa jealous too.

"Ohh, don't lie. You must have met somebody." Even if it was Trixie then Ella would be happy. Well... happy wouldn't be the word. But it would be better if it was Trixie rather than anyone else.