"I see," Jake nodded. She'd clearly missed a lot in the school. "I took a year out last year. Apprenticed by a pretty top class wizard who used to teach here. I wanted to be homeschooled too... but my parents taught here until the end of my fifth year so it wasn't possible."

Mhmm. Mhmm.

"Not paranoid. It's a reasonable fear. Some people expect tension between the houses," Jake pointed out, hands going into his pockets. "I'm nice to pretty much everyone."

Unless you were one of the She-Snakes... Destiny, Marie or Evelyn. Yeah... that had never worked out. He gave her a small smile. Maybe she was worried because of what he'd told her in the runes classroom? Like... he might suddenly turn?

"I guess I was thinking about that. I mean the tension between the houses." She smiled back. Well, she had never been and probably never going to be fond of that stupid 'pureblood Slytherin power' and blah blah.

"Are you serious?" Damian faked a surprised expression and forced a hug onto surprised Hufflepuff. "Who's fighting?!"

Helena couldn't do anything but laugh, looking at them. That was... unexpected. "Okay, you definitely convinced me. No one's going to fight," she said, still not being able to stop laughing.

"Yeah man," Jake nodded. "Tension has kind of died down. You know, since that Voldemort dude. I mean since then we've had Voldemortist and Remi Devereaux or whoever he was. That was the guy I was telling you about earlier..."

Jake cleared his throat slightly.

"All the houses fought him. Together."

Twas happytimes.

WOAH.

WOAH.

WOAHHHHH.

Surprise physical contact?! NO.

Startled and not having expected that at all, Jake roughly pushed Damian off of him. That... was something you didn't do to Jake unless you wanted him to freak out... which was admittedly quite funny.

Ahem. "Yeah."

"Glad to hear that," she said, remembering his... let's say not-so-pleasant history.

"Whaaaat? You look funny, you know?" she said, still laughing.

Straightening her robe Damian gazed in a cunning manner at Jake.
"He's just shy." she pointed out to Helena.

He... looked funny?

"Is that... an insult or a compliment?" Jake responded, genuinely nonplussed.

"Not shy. Just don't like it when people... hug me... without my say-so."

Unless you were Neptune.

It wasn't RIGHT. Unless, of course, you were Lafay. In that case you deserved many small children with snotty noses to run at you and hug you.

In large groups.

"If I have to choose between these two, then it is a compliment," she confessed, grinning. "I would never insult you. Or anyone."

"Hey..." Damian eyed Jake once more with a crooked smile. "I was just trying to prove to the poor child that no one's head is going to fall... today."

No one's head is going to fall. Good.

Wait. Today?

"Uh... I'm still here? And still listening," she laughed. "That wasn't so pleasant to hear."

"Don't be silly." Damian seemed too distracted for a moment by the Hufflepuff. She was surprised - the first Hufflepuff that she didn't kick or swear at. That she didn't feel like kicking or swearing at. "Shall we?" Damian extended her hand towards the stairs to the Great Hall.
"Are you coming?" she turned to Jake as well.

... right.

"No," Jake said simply. "I have desks to carve into."

Truefax.

HOW tempting was it to say 'I'm busy washing my hair'?

"I'll see you two around," the young man added, adjusting his sunglasses on his face and nodding more for himself than anyone. Feh.

Huh? Oh! "I totally forgot we were supposed to go to the Great Hall." Anyway, she had so much fun. And... two slytherins and a hufflepuff? That seemed weird. But maybe it really was true what Jake had told her earlier. Maybe the... issues between the houses were gone.

"Bye," she said, smiling.

"Or maybe it's your hair?" Damian smirked before turning around and walking away with Helena.

"A random thing it was, wasn't it?" Damian smiled at Helena.

"Indeed," she said, smiling back.

"Not really." Cass said with a shrug, she knew that wasn't the answer that Sierra was looking for, but she really couldn't do anything about it. "All secret passages have been closed, or damaged beyond repair, and all the other places in Hogwarts are open to everyone." Where was the fun in that if everyone knew about it?! Then she raised an eyebrow at her and asked "Unless you would be willing to dive into the lake and meet the giant squid there, that would be interesting."

Violet headed down the Dungeon Corrider so that she could go to the Slytherin Common Room and get all cozy.

CHRISTMAS TIME WAS COMIIIIIIING!

Hehe. She decided to start skipping, happily. probably looking childish in the process.

Now where was everybody? Surely she couldn't be the only one wanting to skip around Dungeon Corriders.

Well, this has been one of the places Stephen hadn't visited before. He eally didn't have a reason to come down to the dungeons if he wasn't in Slytherin. Which he wasn't. Well maybe except for Potions and that was about it. Stephen hadn't gotten detention so far so his record was clear. Spotting a certain blonde skipping towards their common room, Stephen smirked and ran towards her.

"VIOLET!" He yelled jumping over her and landing on his feet.

She stopped skipping when she saw a boy.

YES, a boy!

Even better....a boy she KNEW!

WOOT. "Heyyy, Stephen!" she said, bouncing slightly.

"What brings you down here?" 'Cause he wasn't a Slytherin, and he didn't seem like the type to get detention.

"Hey," Stephen smiled. Wow, he was in a good mood today. Hmm, why was Stephen down here anyways? Roaming was probably the reason. "Roaming around and ended up here. Y'know, I've never visited the dungeons all the time I've been here," he said. Which he considered pretty sad. Not even on those wandering time with Lexi wold they come into the dungeon corridors. Was that bad? "So you're heading to your common room, I'm guessing?"

Caroline was absolutely freezing, but then again she always did down here in the Dungeons. She was walking with her friend, Braeden, who was in the kitchens the same time she was. It was fairly late, as they walked together toward the Slytherin common room. She was cold, which made her sleepy not like she was sleepy to begin with. She covered her frozen fingers up with her sweater sleeves. She shivered a bit as she walked. It seems like the colder it got outside, it got twice as cold in the Dungeons. She walked with her arms crossed. Why exactly did the Dungeons have to be so cold. She smiled over at her friend. Their walk so far a been quiet compared to there nornal talking and laughing. They were full of food and sleepy so that was a good explaination for the silence, She supposed. She searched for something to say to break the strange slience between them.

"I feel like a popsicle" She said through her chattering teeth, and a small laugh. She could come up with most random things sometimes. Although, this wasn't too random giving her state of coldness, but Brae didn't look too much like he was at the popsicle stage yet.

Braeden had always hated the dungeons. It wasn't just the cold, it was… the darkness. They were so creepy! And, of course, our cowardly lion was no fan of the dark. Neither was he a fan of being near the common room of the Slytherins, who usually could not stand Gryffindors like him. But he set all of those sentiments aside, he was on a mission here: to get Caroline to her common room safe and sound. And without getting caught, seeing as they were out past curfew hours and the prefects were most likely out patrolling the halls. The last thing Brae needed was to lose his House any more points.

The boy yawned sleepily. He was tired and dreamed of nothing more than to curl up under the covers and snore the rest of the night away. However, his dreams about the warm bed that waited for him up in the Gryffindor tower were interrupted as Caroline spoke though chattering teeth, mentioning she felt like a popsicle. GAH! Braeden's brown eyes widened - Caroline had been freezing all this time and he never even noticed! Some friend you are, Stonem!

"I'm sorry," muttered the boy, as if it was his responsibility to keep her warm. Though, he did feel slightly responsible; friends help each other out and he wasn't being much help basically sleepwalking next to her. And so, the boy pulled off the jacket he'd been wearing that night, as he had suspected the castle would be cold before leaving his common room earlier that night. "Here," he said, awkwardly handing the jacket to Caroline. Okay, that wasn't right.. shouldn't he like… put it on for her? Or something? He couldn't just throw it at her! Well, he wasn't really throwing it, but he felt like he was being rude. With an awkward chuckle, the boy took a step back and proceeded to place the jacket on his shorter friend's shoulders. Okay, there. Now he wasn't a rude little boy anymore. "Is that better?" he asked hopefully. He didn't want to be completely useless.

Caroline hadn't even though about the prefects, or the fact that she was being walked to the slytherin common room by a gryffindor. Not that it matter to her or anaything. Although she found it interesting that he was her only gryffindor guy friend. She stopped for a moment and opened her mouth like she was going to say something she was going to ask him if he had any other slytherin friends, but for some reason the throught didn't matter. She sighted not meaning to be so loud.Yawning must really be contagious, becasue she had just seen Braeden yawn out of the corner of her eye.

"It's ok" She said. She really didn't want to make him feel bad, she just found the silence awkward. She was suprised when he offer her his jacket. She was even more suprised when she seen him step back and put it over her shoulders. It wasn't the fact that he had done it, it the manner it which in done it, that suprised her. Most of the Hogwarts boys would have threw it at her. Braeden so sweet like that.

"Thanks" She said with grin and a blush why did she have to start that again. She just could leave such a sweet guy out in the cold. So she grabbed his arm and pulled him over to her. Linking their arms together, she swung the other arm of the jacket around his other shoulder. "There, I can't have a Braeden flavored popicle as a friend, now can I? She asked as she looked up at her friend, and smiled brightly.

Braeden flashed Caroline a smile as she thanked him for the gesture. "It's no prob--" but before he could finish that, he found himself being pulled over to the girl, half his jacket on her while she brought the other half to him. The boy laughed lightly at her following words, honestly flattered she'd be caring enough to worry if her cowardly friend would get cold.

"Trust me, I won't turn into a popsicle," said the boy with an amused smile, bringing the arm of the jacket she had placed on him back onto her frame. He couldn't have her be just half warm! She had to be entirely warm, or else he wasn't doing his job as a good friend. "I'm barely cold, really," - lies - "I'm more worried about you. C'mon, just keep the jacket on… little one," he teased, obviously poking fun at her for being so much shorter than himself. He ruffled her hair playfully, the way he often did to his little sister (something that always irritated her and got her chasing after him all throughout the house). "If you don't, I'm gonna feel bad and cry. And you don't wanna see me cry, trust me. It's scary." He flashed her another one of his goofy grins.