28 080 527 4 9

Tori "hmm'd" at the way the numbers broke up. Looked like they were the same as the ones from class, so that was good. "Well it looks like we have our combinations so......... now what do we do?" She did not like feeling this clueless and stupid and lost and especially not around Sierra Greingoth. Yuck.

"Do we touch the walnut yet?" Her wand was just ITCHING to give that thing a poke.

An evil smile slowly made its way across Sierra's face. No, they shouldn't touch the walnut, and she wanted more than anything to play innocent and tell Bunny they should. It would be a spectacular show to see, but no--Sierra wouldn't do that. Could it be that she was being nice? Umm, no. She just might need Bunny later on in case there was more confusion, so she couldn't have the girl fried by walnut.

"Right now," she said, eyeing the number combination, "we crack the code. We have to figure out what these numbers mean or else that walnut will..." She paused. She didn't know what it would do. "...freeze us." She though. That's what had happened a few times in class, at least. "Then when we crack the code, we crack the walnut."

She gestured toward Bunny's code. "After you," she said.

Desiree had gone into the girl's bathroom to.. well go to the bathroom. She was just finishing up washing her hands when Indigo slipped out of her open bag which was slung over her shoulder, and into the sink!

She decided to wait a second. To see if Indy liked the water or not, and... she didn't. The little silver egg was shaking. Worried she quickly turned off the water and grabbed her out, setting her on the counter. She took out her wand.. "Argentum, Siccus"

There, she was nice and dry now, every- wait she was still shaking! Poor thing it must be freezing, Desiree had the water on really cold. She felt the egg and sure enough it was like an ice cube. These eggs were so sensitive. She held her wand up again. "Argentum, Calidus" she said quietly. Then she put her carefully back into the bag, making sure to close it this time.

Crack the code. Oooh. That sounded ominous. Tori eyed Sierra, almost certain that the girl was trying to trick her but she refrained from poking her walnut anyway. Hmmmph.

"So... the numberssssss. THE SAME ONES FROM CLASS." Tori cleared her throat and pointed out the combinations and what parts they matched up to. "This is what I got. Ya?"

"Oh," Sierra said, looking back toward the floating numbers. It was only then that she realized she and Bunny had conjured the same exact grouping. Hmm. Was it the numbers from class? She didn't know. Arithmancy was confusing enough with having to retain information over a couple of days. "Right." She peered over at Tori's numbers, studied them for a few seconds, and the nodded once. "Yup, ...that's what I have, too."

"Okay, so...the basis is supposed to determine what the spell effects. We've got a twenty-eight there," she pointed out. She flipped through her Arithmancy textbook and read the information for two and eight. "Okay, so a two means...harmony, unity, relationships, collaboration, duality, and humans/human magic. An eight means...authority, finances, business, success, material wealth, self-mastery, complex thought/reasoning, and fluidity." She didn't know what half those words meant, but oh, well. "Any thoughts?"

...was she really collaborating with Bunny?!

Tori plucked her parchment up off the sink, careful not to accidentally brush the walnut, and started jotting down everything Sierra said. "And then there's 080, which would be...."

Sierra edged closer to Bunny and watched while the girl scribbled down everything they were discussing. It was an odd thing, this working with Tori Bunbury. In a way, it sort of reminded her of that 'business relationship' interpretation Bunny had just made. "Zero-eight-zero," she said, "...that'd be the kernel or core, which is what the spell does." So, great. It looked like they were headed down the road to nowhere...

She took the parchment and slid it closer to her. "Five, two, seven--that's the range. It tells us how the spell is activated," she said, eyeing the unity part of that collaboration. She was starting to have a sinking feeling that...

...no. It couldn't be.

"So... what? Does the spell do nothing?" Tori frowned and tried not to scoot away from Sierra, who was creepin' in on her space bubble. Ugh. Ugh. Enemy be creepin'.

What did this MEAN for them? Were they going to start getting along suddenly now, after working on this hellish homework assignment? Tori stared between her parchment and Sierra, gaping just a bit.

"Great," Sierra mumbled under her breath. "Can't you see it, Tori?" She gestured toward the parchment. "The answer's right in front of us." She tapped an area of the parchment with her index finger. "In order to open the walnut,..." *dramatic pause and eye roll* "...we've got to work together."

"Maybe we should..." She paused as a look of disgust crept across her face. "Open each other's walnut..."

Tori ALMOST LAUGHED at Sierra's dramatic pause and eye roll. Wow. It was weird; if they weren't such blood-sworn enemies, they could almost be friends. They WERE oddly alike, after all....

Nah, that was such a ridiculous thought. Them, friends?! NEVAH!

"Ummmmmm right...." Tori took a step back from the walnut boxes and gave Sierra a slap on the back that pushed the girl closer to them. "After you.... frenemy." EVIL!BEAM.

Sierra gave Tori an intense glare before stepping closer to the girl's walnut. "So the curse breaks when you crack the code," she recalled. "...and we've cracked the code to mean that we have to...collaborate on this." She looked toward her own walnut and then to Tori's. What's the worst that could happen? If it froze her, it'd only be temporary. "So I'm opening your's, and in return, you'll open mine..." She reached out toward Tori's walnut, edged in closer and closer, and then...

...she snatched it away from the box. There it sat, in her hand--just like a regular old walnut. Sierra squeezed it hard, causing the two halves to crack open. She smirked at the walnut and then at Tori. "Told ya," she said.

Well well well. Tori applauded Sierra, not sincerely of course so her applause sounded loud and awkward in the echoes of the bathroom. She stopped rather quickly and stepped forward to pluck the other girl's walnut out of her box too.

Boom. Done. Tori smirked over at her archenemy and cracked it too, popping the edible part into her mouth and crunching loudly. "Mmm... shame this assignment was so freakin' hard it took TWO of us to do." She rolled her eyes. "But yeah, we did it so.... good job?"

Sierra pocketed the walnut then gathered everything that belonged to her. "Seriously," she said, rolling her eyes. Although surprisingly, this time the eye roll wasn't directed toward Tori. It was directed toward the assignment which they better get a good fifty points for. "Hmm, yeah. Good job." She managed a tiny smile as she headed toward the door. "Yeah, well...see ya around." She hesitated a second longer then slipped back out the bathroom door.

Look at that, they were like... almost being civil to each other....! Tori nodded in agreement with Sierra and gathered up her parchment and notes. "See ya...."

She waited for the other girl to get a good head start and checked out her hair in the meanwhile. Then she tapped the box to pack it all up, gathered all her stuffs, and headed out. Now to do the write-up for this mess.... ugh. Would it never end?!

Lilly bit her lip. She'd never met Rupert before...what if he was horrible? But Rose seemed to like him and he was Ronnie's brother. She was really nice, but still. What if he didn't like Lilly, but liked her sisters? Anything could happen. Or he could be really nice. Fat chance. No it wasn't. Or was it? Lilly was extremely anxious and worried. What would her new guardian be like? She hadn't confided her worries to anyone, even her sisters didn't know how scared she was. It wasn't because she'd miss her friends at home...she didn't have any. Wait...maybe she should've been sorted into Hufflepuff with Violet. The sorting hat must have gone wrong. Weren't Gryffindors s'pose to be brave at heart. That was something she wasn't right that minute...

Gaby wandered into the bathroom, intending to find a mirror and sort her hair out. Normally she wouldn't care how it looked, but she'd fallen out of the treehouse, and had a feeling that there were leaves and stuff all caught up in it. It was probably a just a huge, tangled mess on the top of her head... although it looked like that a lot of the time anyway. But that wasn't the point.

As she dumped her bag by the side of the sink and began to pull the leaves and bits of twigs from her hair (gross) she caught sight of a girl in mirror. She looked rather sad, actually. Gaby turned around with a friendly smile and gave a little wave. 'Are you okay?' she asked, concerned.

Lilly tried to stop herself from laughing. Luckily, she succeded. She wasn't trying to be mean, but the girl did look slightly funny, her hair full with twigs. She restored herself. 'I'm fine,' she replied, letting her hair loose into a golden sheet. Lilly smiled back, warmly. Inside, she was still anxious about her new home. 'I'm Lilly,' she carried on talking. But after introducing herself, she didn't trust herself to speak without bursting into tears. Lilly fiddled with her new necklace. She was very proud.

Violet stomped into the girl's bathroom and plopped her bag down near the sink. She leaned across the sink to peer at herself in the mirror, expecting to see ugly red boils all over her face. No, they were all gone--well, maybe...was that a faint pink spot on the end of her nose? But...no, even as she watched it, it faded into nothing. She turned on the water and began to wash her hands and arms, then her face. Then she got a towel and looked herself over again as she dried off. No, no more boils--her potion must have worked. What had Professor Lafay been thinking, though, to inflict boils on them just for a Potions Final?! And they'd had no choice about the matter, either--she'd said they would only get half credit if they didn't eat that cake. Violet wondered what would happen to any students who couldn't brew the Boil-Cure Potion correctly.

Tori had wanted to give Harry a bath ever since Simba had covered him in spittle. Now, after class one day, she had her chance. She walked into the girl's bathroom where she had once done homework with Sierra Greengoblin, and dumped her bag into an empty sink.

Tossing all the junky papers and broken quills into the trash left Tori with one shaken little egg. "Hehee hi Harry!" she greeted her Charms project. "Ready for a bath?"

Tori stopped up the sink and dumped in a bunch of bubble bath stuff she'd stolen from her stepmother over break. Then she turned on the tap, and watched as her egg quivered and squirmed and tried to avoid the hot faucet. Hmm, that was weird. It wasn't like the water was going to get INSIDE him, right? He was a SOLID egg. He sure FELT solid.

Anyway, once the bath was ready, Tori turned off the water and set about scrubbing and washing her little pet egg. She could have sworn she heard Harry making a whistling sound but that was probably her imagination. Or it could've been the bathroom. Tori had heard rumors of a ghost that lived in one of these bathrooms.... probably this very one!

She finished washing Harry and then let the water drain out, rinsing him under the tap gently. With that done, the redhead started drying him using a combination of the charms "Argentum Siccus" and "Argentum Calidus." When Harry looked shiny and bright, like new again, Tori gave him a little kiss and tucked him into her right skirt pocket.

There, all good! Mission accomplished.