Again Sandra had found speaking to the younger students to be quite useful as one of them had told her about a secret passage down in the dungeons. Though it had taken her a moment to shake the clingy students. Merlin help the next batch of students that visit this castle.

As soon as she had found out about the passage, she sent her best friend a patronus to meet her down in the dungeons. They had been here for a few days now and desperately needed to chat.

Letting her fingers graze the wall as she walk, enjoying the dim lighting as it reminded her of Durmstrang she wondered how far it extended while she waited for the other young woman to arrive.

Oh, you have no idea how glad Danika was that she'd seen the silvery mist of the patronus she most adored seeing. Well, the second one she most adored.

But she had to walk fast in order to keep up with it. Now she had something else to tell Sandra...to keep her casting at a normal rate. Not that Danika truly minded. She was equally glad.

And then, oh, a secret passage? Odd, how did Sandra find it? Usually Danika was the one wandering about for this sort of things. "Sandra" she smiled, "You have to keep your casting at a normal rate, I had to valk fast enough to keep up" she said, pulling her dark red hair in an intricate braid.

"Hoe did you find this?" her question was followed by her hands gesturing the place.

Secret passage. Only in the dungeons.

A small smile formed on her lips, and slowly her eyes turned to her friend. "I'm sorry, Danika. My excitement of finding this place must have leaked into my patronus." It didn't explain why the creature was fast any other times. Sandra was just a naturally quick caster. Asking her to keep her casting at a normal rate was like asking Danika to stop being so brilliant with transfiguration spells.

"A fev of the younger Ravenclav students told me about it in the common room." She said, watching the girl braid her hair. "It took me a vhile to actually find the passage vay. But I knev it was in the dungeons and so I kept searching until I found it."

It wasn't to hard for her to do since they didn't seem to have much in the dungeons, too bad that.

"Have the Grifindors been treating you vell?"

Well, yes, the excitement must have been a great one indeed. Danika would've reacted the same way, you know, the unknown sort of called to her. A nod came to her head as she accepted her friend's answer.

Oh. "Really?" these Ravenclaws were sneaky fellows, weren't they? "I vas thinking it odd that you found it on your ovn. No offense, because you did, after all, find it on your ovn" given that she only knew where to look but not the exact place.

The Gryffindors. Well..."They have, I velieve. Vut there were some that simply vere not to my liking" it was obvious that Vladimir had gotten the best House. "Non-magical descendants" she shrugged, still thinking about that conversation with Nikolai and the way the slipped up their blood status. One has to be careful in the Wizarding World. Little did those know.

"You seem to adjust vell to Ravenclav, though" and she winked, Danika already knew that based on that time in the feast. Particularly with Noel. Amazingly enough, Danika still knew nothing about the Beauxbatons one that was staying with her.

And now there was the nervous smile again, "Vut I met someone" she said, making a dramatic pause, perhaps that way Sandra will react kindly to what she had to say next.

"None taken." She smiled at her friend; it would have taken her weeks to find the castle on her own. "The castle is so big, I still haven't explored the vhole thing. Though finding this place vas a nice challenge." She waved her hand around the passage way.

Muggleborns. Sandra was unsure if she had spoken to any yet, but she was sure it was possible the way the students seemed to be so diverse. "They seem to have a lot of those here." She commented. "I'm sure there are a fev from magical descendants. They just haven't spoken to you yet."

Sandra smirked at Danika, running her fingers through her hair. "I've had some help from the Beauxbatons boy who is staying with me. Noel Laurent. You tvo vould get along vell, he loves to spend time outdoors." The young woman didn't mind her friend spending time with the boy, so long as she knew that she would still be snogging him. Heh. "Have you met the one staying vith you?"

Now she was intrigued. Leaning against the wall, she smiled at the girl. "You've meet someone?" She repeated, mildly surprised. Her friend was more beautiful than she herself credit for. The Hogwart boys would be foolish to think her otherwise. "Is he cute?"

A nice challenge indeed, Danika couldn't help to smirk. Challenges, she liked those. The place itself was not too nice, but it was meant to be some secret passage, and secret passages weren't meant to be nice places. Most of the time.

With an exasperated look on her face, Danika nodded. "Gryffindor has lots of those" while Hufflepuff she couldn't tell, Nikolai didn't pay attention. "Vut it is okay, Zitnik said it vould happen" she was still unprepared, though, which was always something she hated, being unprepared.

Then again, how can you be prepared for something you've never experienced? Aha! You study. And this time, she didn't.

The girl smiled, "You have? Vell, that is great to hear, I guess" nice to know someone else likes spending time outside the Castle, she wonder lightly how things worked in Beauxbatons, though, "Oh, the one staying vith me? I have only seen him from distance, you knoe, at the feast. I guess he just disappeared" she made a "poof!" gesture with her hand. Like, seriously, the boy in question was nowhere to be seen.

Oh, no. She knew Sandra would think of that. She should've said it differently.

Danika shook her head, "It is not like that, vhat you think" no, nothing like that, honestly, "I mean..." Danika sort of chuckled at Sandra's question, "...well, he is cute, but that is not vhat I took notice of" truth be told, she only noticed now that Sandra was asking her, "I found a very smart non-magical descendant" yes, that was the important part of the story, wasn't it?

Sandra felt back for her friend, she had to live with all those muggleborns for the whole term. "I'm not sure if Ravenclav has any. I've only spoken to a fev." A very few, the young woman was too distracted by Noel to speak to anyone else. Hopefully she had less muggleborns than the other houses. "He did." She agreed with a few nods of her head.

"Maybe ve should go to the muggle studies class they provide here, so ve can understand them a little better." She mused. "Since ve're to live vith them, and Zitnik vants us to be on our best behavior." He had given her that 'play nice' look that she knew meant business.

Shrugging her shoulders, she let her hand graze the wall. "Maybe you vill meet him soon. I haven't met any of the other Beauxbatons." Nor did she care to, she had the hottest one staying with her.

"If he's cute I don't see vhy it vouldn't be like that." She said with a smirk. Oh. That was why. He was a muggleborn. Her smirk faltered at the fact, and she crossed her arms, leaning against the wall. Well....he was cute, so at least he was easy on the eyes when speaking to him. "Hov smart?" Very important question. If her friend was to be hanging with muggleborns than he better be brilliant.

Oh. This will be a long year, indeed.

Between non-magical descendants, and the classes at Hogwarts, those were the real tasks for the Tournament.

Danika shrugged. And then her eyes widened slightly, she was not sure if going to that class would be a great idea. Even on her best behavior, it was still odd to attend a lesson where they'll discuss the non-magicals. Perhaps she had a lot of that in the Common Room as to attend the lesson as well...but...then Sandra wouldn't react too badly...she decided to leave for last what she was going to say about the lessons, "I do not think I vill ve going there" she dismissed it with her hand, but had a smile on her face.

"It is not mandatory that I meet him. I am only curious as to vhere he managed to hide this vhole time" there was another nod, he must be hiding from the non-magical descendants. It wasn't as if she was looking for him either.

Danika didn't laugh, her face was serious. "As much as Zitnik vants us on our vest vehavior, I do not think he vill approve of me spending time vith a non-magical descendant" she started to say, "Perhaps he vill not have a provlem vith the classes, vut maybe vith a student, he vill" and we all knew Danika only wanted to please Zitnik. If he said no, then it was no. But right now she felt like a rebel...going against rules. Dangerous. That was something she also liked.

And she almost sighed, "Very" a firm nod came to her dark red head, "He even got me..." Danika Eara Malik, the one who was always against non-magicals, "...to make a deal vith him" well, there were always two people in that equation, she could've said no. But she was curious. "That is vhy I do not have to go to that non-magicals class" she shrugged, and then smirked, "The deal is that he gets to teach me vhat I vant to knoe avout his vorld" it made her feel bad, though, 'his world'. His world was so different from her own train of thought.

She was having second thoughts about the deal. And what if Zitnik found out? He most likely won't be surprised that she was the one to succumb to the dark side.

"Just a thought..." She replied with a shrug of her shoulders. The girl thought that if her friend was living with all the muggleborn students, she should understand something about them, but she wasn't gonna force the girl. Danika could handle herself, though it never stopped Sandra from offering her help.

"He could look just as good as his friend, Noel." Which made meeting him mandatory. Still, him looking as hot as Noel was highly unlikely since Noel was right up there with Nik, but the guy could at least be cute.

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she opted for a soft sigh instead, expression softer than Danika's. "Your already spending time vith a non-magical descendant." She reminded the young witch. "And there isn't much Zitnik can do about you socializing vith them, they're everyvhere in this school." Sandra couldn't fathom Danika's need for their Headmaster's approval. Of course this was because she was one of the man's favorites. She would never confront the girl about it.

Perplexed, her brow furrowed, as she surveyed her friend even more. "You made a deal with the muggle-born?" What is Merlin's sweaty gym socks caused her to make a deal with one of them. Ah. That was the Danika she knew. Using the boy to gain knowledge. But her expression softened, but she needed to know more about this deal of hers. "And vhat does he get out of this deal?" Sandra wasn't really upset with her friend, if she made a deal with a muggle born, then he had to be smart.

Yes. Danika will have to think it very thoroughly if she ever wanted to attend that lesson. She knew that Aleksandra would join her if she asked her to, but she still needed to think it over. A private tutoring seemed much better.

The girl laughed, "Mayve, mayve not" she truly didn't care about the Beauxbatons' boy appearance, what she cared was about his hiding abilities. Actually, she should try and find him, those hiding abilities may work for any challenge they may encounter.

Mmm. She hadn't considered that, "You are provavly right. There is little he can do avout it, and it is not like he vill vant this Headmaster to think vadly of Durmstrang vecause Zitnik does not approve of their education" a smirk on her face showed she already knew what to say to Zitnik in case he ever found out about the times spent with the non-magical descendants.

About the deal...well, that was going to be harder to explain, considering she had a choice there.

Danika looked concerned. But then returned to her previous state when her friend's expression softened. "He? Nothing" she said, shaking her head, and then she stopped...

...it was right. He got nothing out of it. Danika would probably learn and all he got to do was teach, there was truly nothing in it for him. That was strange, when there was a deal both parts gained something, and all he was gaining was the experience of teaching? Not a bad experience, but it did seem odd. "Vait a minute, there is something I do not understand" something? Many things!

"If he is getting nothing out of it...then..." surely, spending time with Danika was prize enough, but it wasn't the case. "...No. I do not get it" the girl didn't understand.

Sandra's smile grew when Danika laughed. Of course the other Beauxbatons' boy didn't look as handsome as Noel. The guy was hot. She couldn't wait to spend more time with him.

She knew she was right. The girl had thought this threw when she researched about the school and found out that they accepted muggleborns. "Exactly, the muggleborns are creeping around every corner," Literally, she was sure if they stayed down here long enough one would find them. "There is nothing Zitnik can do about it vithout disrespecting the Hogwart's Headmaster. And ve both knov he doesn't vant to do that." She returned Danika's smirk with one of her own; Zitnik concern about who they associated themselves with were the least of their worries.

The boy got nothing? Sandra was perplexed.

Maybe the boy wasn't as bright as she had thought.

"Maybe he's holding out....vants to find something out about Durmstrang, but has yet to ask you." She mused. "If so he is really smart." This was really strange. Normally when someone made a deal, they wanted something out of it. "vhat vere you tvo doing vhen you made the deal?" Maybe finding out more about their conversation would help.

Perhaps.

But it was still Danika's choice to spend or not time with them, therefore, she didn't know. Though, Zitnik can react unexpectedly sometimes.

And the worrying time was over because now she had an excuse, just in case any sort of discussion may arise concerning the Headmaster and the non-magical descendants. She was still going to keep away from some of them. The smirk stayed, because Sandra was right, and the 'excuse' was already thought. Perfect.

Back to the deal.

The odd deal.

Danika shook her head, "No, he is. If I ve ever see him I vill point him out for you" hopefully the boy will be speaking when she does that, otherwise Sandra would be missing what she was telling her. "Honestly, Sandra, I have not given it much thought until noe"' she looked almost defeated. How could something like this slip from her mind? Perhaps there was more to the boy than meets the eye and there was some other magical power he had.

What were they doing? "At the feast? Vell, just talking" she started to say, shrugging, "Vut the conversation turned into magical vs. non-magical" for some strange reason, "I velieve he sensed hoe I felt avout the non-magicals and their vorld" like, literally, because she sort of said it on her own, "That is vhen he told me vhat he vas" there was a little nod before her head was tilted to the right side. Danika leaned against the wall and continued, "I vas surprised, never vould I have velieved him to be one" one of those non-magical descendant people.

She was probably going to be teaching him Runes as a language, but that was after the deal. Maybe that was the deal?

Evan made his way into the Secret Passage, to his usual spot to think about some stuff. Not that deep things, he just liked the place. Sitting down on the floor, giving his back to the cold stone, he tried to think about his summer; but the stone was too cold to focus on something. Maybe he should get his robes. However, being as lazy as he was, he chose to stay and get used to cold. His shivering would come to an end eventually.

Marie wanted to get away from everything and everyone so she decided to go to the secret passage. She knew no one would find her and bother her there since there weren't very many that knew about the passage. Not bothering to light her wand since she figured there wouldn't be anyone in there she made her way to the end of the passage and sat down....

Right on top of someone.

Jumping up she flicked her wand out of its holster. "Lumos" she said pointing the wand at whoever it was she jut sat on.

Evan

"Oh hey Evan. Sorry about sitting on you," she said. "I didn't think anyone would be in here. I'll just go someplace else."

Really, why is it that in a castle this huge she couldn't find one spot to be alone?

Evan was in the middle of getting himself used to the cold stone when he heard some faint footsteps, coming closer. Who could that be? Not many people should know about this passage, since it was secret. He shrugged. Not many people would go this--

"HEY!" he yelled, getting up to his feet immediately with anger, hands thrown in the air. Who would sit on him in a secret passage?! And as if their rudeness wasn't enough, that very person decided to light their wand in this deep darkness! Covering his eyes with his hands, getting irritated every second, he removed his hands from his face only when he heard the voice of Marie.

Riiight. She knew about here, and riiight, she had some history of sitting on him/stepping on him/falling on him at this very spot. He should have known. And riiight, she must have every reason to look for a silent place to think. And to be in a foul mood enough to consider going to somewhere else with the silly idea that she had annoyed him, for that reason. Sure, she did annoy him at first, but that was until he recognised her.

"It's OK," he lied perfectly in the darkness, although the wand still illuminated his features. It wasn't OK at all for someone to sit on him, but yelling at her wouldn't help her mood at all. "You know you can stay here. I won't bother you." Pfft. She should have known that.

Marie could tell by the look on Evan's face that it was not OK that she sat on him, or that she was shining a light in his face. "Nox" she said quietly before reholstering her wand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to blind you. I just wanted to see who else had discovered this passage." She should have known it was Evan. They did have quite a history of running into each other here.

Not really wanting to try and find some other place to be alone she sat down and leaned against the wall. "Thanks." At least Evan was a friend of hers so she didn't mind being there with him. Even though she knew he still didn't like Carter and was probably happy that he wasn't talking to her now.

Finally Marie was smart enough to put off her wand. Evan rolled his eyes, although he wasn't sure if she'd seen it. He didn't try to reassure her it was OK, 'cause he couldn't lie about being blind. She was unbelievable. Who else could she sit on here? It was always him. And it wasn't like many people knew about here anyway. Breaking up with Carter obviously hadn't helped her at all.

After staying silent for a while, he couldn't help but talk. Yes, he'd promised to leave her alone. If she showed that she'd like to stay unbothered, he'd stay quiet. But sitting in silence there with her was awkward.

"So, what have you been up to?" A casual question that wouldn't upset her any further, eh?

Marie was sitting there in the dark enjoying the peace and quiet. Finally she had found a place she could be without being bothered. Sure, Evan was there but he had said he wouldn't bother her... and so far he wasn't.

Resting her head against the cool wall she closed her eyes and started thinking about the past events that had lead her to where she was now... sitting alone (sort of) in the dark trying to figure out where things had gone so wrong in her life. Then her silence was broken... be Evan, the very person who said he wouldn't bother her if she stayed there with him. She should have known the boy couldn't keep quiet.

Opening her eyes and leaning forward she sat there contemplating what to say. Did she tell him what she had really been up to? Deciding she didn't want to hear him bad mouth Carter she opted to tell him only part of what she had been up to. "Well, I've been going to classes and studying a lot." Yep, not seeing Carter sure did give her LOTS of free time to study. "So what have you been up to?" Nice safe question. No way he could bring Carter up now.

Evan leaned forward too when Marie did. He wanted to see her expression to determine whether she wanted to talk or not. Although it was a little hard to see in the darkness, he could make out her eyes, mouth and eyebrows, which were enough to guess how she felt.

"Oh, I'm glad for you," he said with a small smile. That should busy her mind enough not to think about some certain people. Shrugging, he said "I'm... socialising." Yeah, it was a safe remark. He, of course, wouldn't mention whom he socialised with, like Carter. Or the details of his conversations, like flirting innocently. Naah, she wouldn't like it at all.

Now that she'd answered, this meant she wanted to talk, right? She could have snapped him and wanted to be left alone but nope, she'd answered nicely. So he tried to find another topic to talk. This question didn't last long, after all.

He was glad for her? What the heck was that supposed to mean? That he was glad she had no social life now so she had lots of time for going to classes and studying? Whatever. She wasn't in the mood to argue with him right now so she just let that little comment go.

"Socializing? Making new friends are you?" Okay, so he didn't say anything about new friends but the last she knew he really wasn't one to socialize much. She always seen him as pretty much keeping to himself... except for when he has been with Mina, who wasn't there now. Crap, now she was missing Mina. Why did she have to leave? Marie really could go for a good girl chat with her now. Maybe she would have to write her later.

Evan nodded at her question. Playing with his fingers to find a decent topic to talk about, he stayed silent for a while. His ideas went directly to the firstie he had met last week. Might as well confirm from Marie that they hadn't been so rude when they were a firstie. It was a random topic, so nothing could be any safer than it.

"Were we so mean when we were little?" he asked directly with a curious and confused edge in his voice. "Because last week I met one, and she tried to yell at me." Of course, he had answered right back, but still... to much courage for that small body.

Marie sat there waiting for Evan to answer her. Really, how hard was it to say yes or no to her question. It really wasn't a hard question to answer. Was he or was he not making new friends?

Huh?

What in the name of all that is magical is the boy talking about?

Were they mean when they were little? Pfft, Marie was never mean... well not to anyone that didn't deserve it anyway. "I assume you are talking about first years." she said. "I don't know about you since I didn't meet you until you were a second year, as for me though I know I wasn't mean." Nope, that didn't happen to her until the end of second year, when she got tired of Rex people messing with her and getting into her business.

He met one? "You mean you met a little firstie who yelled at you? Why'd she yell at you?"

Evan didn't even bother to reply to Marie's first question. Of course he was talking about first years. He thought that part was pretty obvious. He remembered her being rather rude to him when they first met. He grinned at the memory but decided not to remind it. There was no sure she'd defend herself, and he wasn't in the mood to put up that effort to listen to her.

"Apparently, I've destroyed her 'personal' bubble when I stepped too close to her. The fact was, I almost fell and could hardly stop." Pfft. Little inconsidrate know-it-alls.

"So she yelled at you for something you didn't mean to do? Like you did me when I accidentally sat on you a little bit ago." Okay, so he only yelled 'HEY!' but she knew him well enough that if she would have been someone else he wouldn't have stopped there. He probably would have verbally ripped their head off.