Ella continued to pat the niffler gently on the head as it continued to sniff her. She smiled, having accomplished befriending her first niffler. It was strange though, the way the creature was eying her. It made her sort of uncomfortable though she knew it was better than the thing scratching her to bits. "Nice niffler, you're a nice boy aren't you?"

She was just waiting there for him to come over and talk wasn't she? August's heart was beating rapidly as he continued to approach the Gryffindor Prefect and his face soon became plastered with a big, goofey grin of excitement.

As he began to fiddle with straightening his robes and tie then next his hair, she suddenly spoke to him! It was as if a phoenix began to sing. The melodous notes that poured forth from her perfect lips made August hurry his pace towards her.

"Yes, urm--"

BOOM!

August had gotten overly excited and tripped on the bottom of his robes and landed in a pile at Kurumi's feet. He was so close to her! He could reach out and...

"Kurumi! Come with me to Hogsmeade!" he blurted out. "Madame Puddifoot's would be perfect for our first date, don't you think?!" After his shouting, the infatuated lion boy threw his arms around her ankles and hugged them as close to hiself as possible.

Oh Merlin! August had tripped over...something. Had it been a niffler? Was the creature alright? Kurumi's hand reached for the little guy on her shoulder and patted him to make sure it knew that she wouldn't let anyone trip over him.

Kurumi reached out to help August get back up on his feet when...

WHAT?!

Kurumi just STARED at her little brother lion, blinking furiously. "August Goldstein, are you out of your bloody mind?" Well, clearly he was considering he had just asked her out on a date. Before Kurumi could say anything else, however, he had thrown himself at her ankles and was...nuzzling them?! Kurumi tried to wiggle herself free from the clutches of August, but found it really difficult to do so. "August, August, stop it." She whispered frantically. "What about your girlfriend?"

Kurumi DID remember what Madam Pink had said about having to actually slap the person to break the effects of the spell...but...THIS was August!

Emrys did not like the sound of those instructions. Not. one. bit. Sighing, he opted to return the trinket before ending the spell, lest the niffler peel his face off trying to get it back. When he returned to the table, he looked at the niffler, head tilted as he considered the creature.

"Finate Incantatem," he intoned, rather lackluster, recoiling in anticipation. But the niffler, instead, turned away from him and ran straight off the desk, presumably toward someone who had already cast the attraction spell.

Emrys repeated the spell in his head, over and over, eyes locked looking somewhere over the tops of his glasses, into the blurry beyond. Raising his wand, he practiced the wand movement, but his concentration was interuppted by a loud thud. Turning to look in the direction it came from, he caught the unfortunate sight of one Gryffindor clinging to the ankles of another, begging for a date.

Emrys swallowed hard, a sinking feeling in his stomach as he turned to look at the girls seated near him. What if... oh no. No no. He would not cast. Would. not. do. it. He couldn't handle the thought of them fawning over him and he certainly wouldn't be able to slap them.

Eyes wide, like an animal trapped in a corner, Emrys started to sweat.

Oh she was talking again!

August's eyes glazed over once more as he took in her wonderful voice. He couldn't believe he had wasted all the time he had heard her speak before. Why hadn't he recorded it somehow or wrote it all down in a notebook? How stupid could he have been not to do that?!

"Wait, what? Kurumi you want to be my girlfriend?!" August had just heard the word used and he certainly didn't have one, did he? The Prefect wanted to be his then! She was beautiful, smart...and an older woman. The other boys would be so jealous of him.

He continued to hold onto her legs and nuzzle them fondly. After looking up at her face here and there, he noticed the niffler on her shoulder--she even made that look good!

*SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH*

Woah woah woah woah! Rewind and freeze! Kurumi knew that this was just the spell talking, making August act all weird and clingy, but that did not make the situation any better. It really only made it worse because it made her wonder what August was really thinking inside his head somewhere deep down. The Slytherin girl wasn't here in the seminar, was she? Kurumi really did not need another pair of snake eyes wanting to go all basilisk on her.

"NO!" she exclaimed, somehow managing to pull herself free from August. She HAD a boyfriend, thank you. One that she was head over heels for and...Kurumi stopped and blushed. Yeah, she had been suspecting that for a while now and wanted to tell him...but with him leaving school...

Her eyes snapped back on to August now, remembering that he was still there giving her puppy dog eyes and practically wagging his tongue at her. She needed somewhere to hide...run...avoid. "Emrys!" Kurumi chirped, noticing the Ravenclaw boy watching them. He could keep August at bay, right?

Hand on the niffler on her shoulder, Kurumi scampered over towards him when another niffler took notice of her and followed on his hind legs. Kurumi didn't notice the creature just yet, however. She was too busy trying to put some distance between her and August.

Merlin...what if he tried to...to...to snog her?!

Oh. No. It was Kurumi that was the object of the Gryffindor boy's adoration. This was bad. BAD. Emrys felt his cheeks burn as she got closer and he couldn't tell if it was the attraction spell or just his own screwy awkward feelings and insecurities. As she ran to him, he stepped to the side so she could slip behind him and he tried desperately not to really look at her, as if not making eye contact would prevent the attraction from taking hold.

"You.. you have to s-s-.." He tried to get out what he meant as the niffler following the girl ran over his foot. But instead of 'slap' what came out was anything but.

"You have to stay. Right here with me," he said instead, his voice slipping into a dreamier cadence as he turned to face her, smiling. He reached for her hand and took it in his. "I'll keep him away from you."

Merlin help that Gryffindor boy if he tried to get too close to his Kurumi.

No?! What did that word mean? What did she mean, no. They were together now, she said so herself.

Somehow she escape his grasp and took off away from him shouting 'Emrys', whatever that was. A spell, maybe?

*GASP*

Another boy?! How dare she!? The Gryffindor rushed to get off the floor and then scampered over to where she stood with some Ravenclaw boy. "Kurumi, how could you? You wanted to be with me, you said so. We are going to go to Hogsmeade!"

Now this dude was trying to hit on his woman? Not today. "Excuse me, bro but Kurumi is mine." He tried to get around him but his way was blocked. The fourth year frowned and then pulled his arm back making a fist ready to hit Emrys. "Don't make me fight you, I was a beater on the Quidditch team last term!"

Anything for Kurumi, she needed to be saved!

Oh GOOD! Emrys had understood her plea for help and was willing to help keep August at bay. She really didn't want the younger lion to do something he was going to regret...and that she would too. "O-O-Okay," she nodded, scooting just a little closer to the Ravenclaw. So nice that he had a good head on his shoulders and oh so very unfortunate that she failed to hear the change in his tone or the dreamy look that came over his face.

The stray niffler continued to run around and over her feet and Emrys' in a clear attempt to get some attention. The niffler on Kurumi's shoulder cooed softly into her ear and wiggled around a bit. Just then, the niffler on the floor latched itself to her leg and started to...OH that was NOT okay!

"GAH!" she groaned, wiggling her leg a bit...just as August made his appearance.

o___________________O

Bro? ... BRO?! If the situation had been a little different, Kurumi probably would have been laughing...but when she saw August's hands curl into fists...her jaw dropped...and the niffler continued to do its thing on her leg. Okay, THAT needed to stop. Quickly bending down to pet the creature with her hand, the niffler stopped and relaxed. Phew. One less thing to worry about and onto the other shoulder it went.

Now...back to August. "No fighting!" she said, complete with finger wag. "I don't want any fighting." And she didn't want to be August's either, but she left that bit out for fear of him becoming more heated.

*sigh* She was going to have to slap him...wasn't she? Couldn't she just say shoo? Humans were animals too after all!

Emrys smiled as Kurumi inched closer to him and he unholstered his wand as the Gryffindor approached. He wouldn't... curse the boy, necessarily. Just trip him up a little. But only if absolutely necessary.

"She doesn't want you hanging on her," he said, keeping himself between the boy and Kurumi. "So take a step back, bro." It sounded absurd coming out of Emrys' mouth, but oddly enough, the attracting he felt was overriding his usually dominant sense of self-preservation and stumbling, bumbling ineptitude. Maybe his problem really was that he over thought things too much...

Kurumi popping in, wagging her finger at the Gryffindor, admonishing him. Emrys smiled, looking back at her and before facing the boy again.

"See. No fighting," he said smugly. "Not going to win her over if you hit me."

Alyssa quickly retrieved the shiny bell from the Niffler and placed it on the table where Madam Poppy was standing. Then she took out her wand returned to her Niffler and waving it over the Niffler said, "Finite." ending the first spell. The Niffler looked startled and then looked up at her and then started to snarl. Alyssa quickly backed away from him.

Now for her to practise saying the Attraction spell's incantation. "Coh-LEE-wee-meh Nn-BEE-my-low...Coh-LEE-wee-meh Nn-BEE-my-low....Coh-LEE-wee-meh Nn-BEE-my-low." Once Alyssa was certain of the pronunciation, she pointed the wand at herself and said the words again. "Coh-LEE-wee-meh Nn-BEE-my-low."

Alyssa then knelt down on the ground and looked over at the Niffler. He looked at her, blinked a couple of times, and showed it's teeth. 'Oh No. The spell didn't work. It's going to attack me.'Alyssa thought to herself. She quickly stood up...which was a very good thing, because the Niffler started walking towards her still showing his teeth. "Good Niffler....really good Niffler...you don't want to bite me do you?" Alyssa spoke to it. Before she knew it, the Niffler was standing next to her looking up at her, only he wasn't attacking her at all.

"Whew I guess the Attraction Spell worked after all. Thank goodness for that. "Alyssa told the Niffler.

"finite!" Daichi said and moved towards the front of the class with his shiny object in his hand. So they were now going to attract the Nifflers to them? Sounded easy but there was just one down part.... The Slytherin shivered at the thought of maybe attracting more than a Niffler. Or worse!

He decided to practise first and began to mumble the incantation under his breath for a few times until he wassure he had it. Looking up from the ground, Daichi's eyes scanned the room and fell on Kurumi who seemed to be fighting off two other students. Eh? What had happened? Was that the power of the attracting spell? He looked at the two boys. Thats so freaky!

Luckily for him, he didn't feel any different at the moment so he quickly began to work on the task. Raising his wand, he shouted the incantation and pointed his wand at himself.

Now he waited....

It took a few moments in which Daichi thought the spell wasn't working but then he saw that one of the nifflers were starting to edge towards him. Seeing this, Daichi smiled broadly and held out his arms. " good Niffy! Good~ come here"

Fine. It was all clear by now- the woman was crazy. Gwen simply wanted to get out of there… FAST. As soon as the Pinky announced that it was over, the third year tried very VERY hard not to jump around. Finally! Wait- whaaaat??? There was a second part?! And that one sounded even worse.

*sigh*

After having returned the shiny object, Gwendolyn tried to cheer herself up. Well… she did manage to attract two nifflers with the shiny thing for the first task—things couldn’t go that wrong, right? Riiight?!! ‘Finite Incantatem!’, she said loud and clear, pointing the wand at the creature she had previously charmed. There. She was ready to start.

As she glimpsed around, the young Ravenclaw swallowed heavily. Everything was starting to get very confusing. Kurumi and some people she didn’t know have all started using the spell… and it seemed to Gwen that the effects were- worse than she even expected. Sigh.

Here goes. ‘Coh-LEE-wee-meh Nn-BEE-my-low,’, she said, pointing the wand at herself. The girl felt totally sorry for attending at this course. Even though she’d much rather have left before the second task began, Gwendolyn simply decided to move around until it was all over. Pffft. Besides, she didn’t even want to win. Even though she usually got incredibly competitive at any sort of thing, this time, she would rather prefer coming up last.

Before she knew it, a niffler started walking towards her. Trying hard not to do something to make him go away, the third year took out her wand and pointed it at the animal. Right. What was next?

Ella couldn't help but laugh as she watched two boys fighting over the older girl. She was thankful that at the moment, only her little niffler friend was hanging around her. And another seemed to have taken a liking to her as well!

Along came another niffler, headed straight for Ella at alarming speed. This niffler's eyes were staring directly into Ella's, making her extremely uncomfortable. "Okay, easy niffler..." She said, raising her eyebrows at the creature.

Kurumi's eyes shifted from August to Emrys. He...certainly became less soft spoken in the span of a few seconds. How...odd...

And then it hit her like a sack of potatoes, especially when he had unholstered his wand and talked about winning Kurumi over. "Um....uuuuuuuuum..." she stammered, taking a few wobbly steps backwards away from the two boys. She really didn't want to slap either one of them. She had slapped ONE person in her life, and he had had it coming for a LONG time. Neither one of these boys had done anything to merit this...yet.

Kurumi continued to take small steps away from them when...
She bumped into someone.

Kurumi spun around and her eyes slowly glazed over. Daichi had grown up so much over the past term...he was a little more mature...much taller...and MUCH more handsome. Why hadn't she ever noticed this before? Perhaps there were two Slytherin Princes in her life? No, silly her, what was she saying? There was only one!

"Hi...Daichi," she said, her cheeks flushing as she swayed back and forth in a ridiculously girlish fashion. She scooted a little closer to him. He wouldn't mind, right? As she did, the niffler that had been walking towards him changed directions and began heading towards the Gryffindor. Kurumi continued to edge a little closer. For some reason, she wanted to ask Daichi if he was interested in seeing her rubber duck collection...but she didn't even have one to begin with. Odd. "Have I ever told you how...incredibly handsome you are?"

And she reached out to brush a stray hair out of his face, giggling as she did so.

Meanwhile, the niffler scurried a little closer while the other two cooed on her shoulders.

"Do you...want to see my rubber duck collection?"

When the little niffler finally got to Ella, it began to sniff her as the other had done. She giggled, feeling the familiar tickling sensation. "That's it, nice niffler." She said, patting niffler number three on the head gently. As long as it just continued to sniff her things would b-

Suddenly the niffler looked at her as if she was a tasty treat. It waddled very close to her legs and proceeded to try and get up on to her lap. "Um-no! No, bad niffler! Don't-don't do that." It was no use, the niffler was on some kind of mission and couldn't be stopped! To make matters worse, the other niffler that was sniffing around her seemed to be angered by the attempt of #3 to get on to her lap. It began making a hissing sound. "Oh merlin!"

Daichi was about to bend down and hold his arms out as one of the Nifflers came walking towards him when he felt something bump against him.

It was more in shock than in pain that he let out a tiny yelp and his eyes landed on Kurumi standing near him. "Hi Kuru...."

O____________________O

WHYWASSHESOCLOSE?!

This was awkward. He felt awkward. Especially when she seemed to scoot closer but as she did the Niffler he was trying to attract was now changing directions. Nononono! it was suppose to go to him!

"Niffy, no this way~!" he said to the Niffler who seemed to be confused at the two spells. Not knowing who to choose. Can't he just pick it up or something? But as he thought this, the Niffler suddenly rubbed its head against his leg and he smiled broadly as he bend down to pick it up. He had one Niffy!

"eh..i..." he stuttered, not knowing what to do with the situation. What had Auntie said again?! The Slytherin blushed feverishly as Kurumi moved a stray of hair out of his face and giggled. GIGGLED!

Not liking this one bit because he never liked the lovey dovey stuff, he looked at the blackboard in the hope of finding the answer of what to do with her. But before he could read the sentence she spoke the magical words.

"You have a rubber duck collection!?" He asked suprised. His mouth fell slightly open in awe as he stared at the Gryffindor Prefect. "YES! Where is it?!"

Maybe he could have a few ducks?!

Wait wuttt. Emrys felt Kurumi move away and immediately scanned the room looking for her. NO.

Annoyed, and perhaps a bit heartbroken, Emrys fumed, wondering what he could do, when it dawned on him. Kurumi was obviously attracted to boy because of the spell that had been cast, he reasoned, ignoring the fact that he was attracted to Kurumi for the same reason.

He knew what he had to do. Casting his eyes toward the board, Emrys repeated the spell in his mind.

Wand aloft, and back to the hostile Gryffindor, Emrys intoned the words crisply and cleanly, "Coliuime Anbemailo," wand pointed at himself. He put all of his concentration into casting a spell that would make him the most attractive person in the room. That would bring Kurumi back, right?

Meanwhile, a niffler in the middle of the room that had been shuffling between students, not yet pulled in one direction came scampering over, following at Emrys' heels as he made his way to Kurumi.

Ella was still trying to get niffler number 3 off her legs when suddenly she found herself staring at a boy across the room. He was just so adorable. Ella sighed dreamily, forgetting all about the nifflers at her feet, and stood. She walked over to the older boy and grinned at him, giggling softly.

When she got to him, she wrapped her arms around the older students middle, smiling up at him. "Hello cutie." She said, winking at him. She had never met this boy before but he was just so-perfect.

His fist still in the air pointed at Emrys, the Gryffindor kept smacking his bicep as if trying to intimidate the Ravenclaw boy further. How could he possibly think that Kurumi would go for someone like him over August Goldstein, besides she had already gushed her true feelings for him just a few minutes ago, right?

Now the kid decided to pull a wand on him--seriously did he not see these muscles?! "Hey, don't you try to hex me you girlfriend stealer!" He felt around his pockets for his wand but forgot that he had dropped it back at his original working space. Oh well his fists would do just fine to reach his asian princess.

Wait...where had Kurumi gone?

The fourth year searched the room for her and saw that she was now with another boy. A younger one it seemed. Nothign seemed to be happening...WHAT?!?! Her hand brushed over her face and she was giggling.

The Gryffindor stomped over to the Slytherin boy and his Kurumi and put his other fist up. "Watch it, she's mine buddy. You and that boy don't need to worry I have two fists and I can take care of the both of ya!" he said excitedly bouncing around where he stood. He would take on this whole room!

Emrys raised an eyebrow at the kid as he walked away. Grateful as he was not to be punched in the face, he still needed to make it over to Kurumi, too! Which was being made exceedingly difficult by the niffler darting between his feet.

Stopping, he bent down and picked the creature up, stroking it fur softly. "You're going to trip me, if you keep doing that." Emrys lifted it to his shoulder, from where it quickly tumbled, landing in the hood of his robe.

Emrys shifted as it squirmed, but figured that was as good a place as any to keep it. Niffler acquired.


But before he could move again, he felt two arms wrapped around his waist. Looking down, he was a bit disturbed to find a young Hufflepuff clinging and... giggling?

"Um, hi," he said, craning his neck to see what was happening with Kurumi. If he didn't get there soon...

"You should really let go," he said, using his free hand to tap the girl on her cheek a few times. He couldn't slap a first year. No way.

Ella smiled, staring at the older boy when he said hi to her. His voice was just lovely. "Hello handsome." The small puff said, batting her eyelashes at him.

It was as if she had got up from some strange dream. She was suddenly aware of a hand tapping her cheek. And she was 0___________0 WHY was she clinging to an older boy?! She immediately let go, her eyes wide, not quite understanding. "Erm-I'm so sorry. I don't know wh-" But she did know, the attraction spell. This boy must have cast a strong one! "I"ll just be going n-now..." She said sheepishly, quickly walking in the opposite direction, nifflers number 1 and 3 in tow.

Oh? Did he want that niffler? He could have him. Kurumi was just enjoying looking into his chocolate eyes...getting lost in them. His hair was so soft...soft enough that she wanted to touch it again...

Oh, right. She had mentioned rubber ducks. "Oh, yeah, yes I do," she nodded enthusiastically. She needed to get Daichi alooooooone...away from all the nifflers and other people. There was that corner of the classroom, the one sort of near the door. "I...have some right over there!" she chirped, grabbing his hand and beginning to drag him towards the corner. As she did, one of the niffler's stuck his nose up in the air and began to follow her and tried to jump onto her robes.
Only to find that their path was BLOCKED...but August. She was getting in the way of her ALOOOOOONE time with Daichi. Clearly not in her right mind, Kurumi's right hand pulled back and...

*SLAAAAAAAAAP*

She hit her little brother lion right across his left cheek. Had Kurumi not been charmed by Daichi, she would have been appalled by her actions but...alas, that was not the case.

Kurumi then clung to Daichi's arm. Now...where were they?

It was then that Kurumi felt herself being pulled in the opposite direction, although the pull wasn't as strong as the one that currently had her attached to Daichi's arm. Her violet eyes gazed around the room and fell on Emrys. Now that she thought of it...he looked like a very handsome scientist with his glasses. Kurumi was attracted to a brilliant mind. The question was, was his hair as soft as Daichi's?

Forgetting the lie about the rubber ducks in the corner, Kurumi dragged Daichi by the arm towards the Ravenclaw boy, the niffler following close behind.

Emrys waved the girl off, not bothering to respond to her apologies or even registering her embarrassment. She was simply an obstacle between him and his sweet, beautiful Kurumi. He had to get to her.

From a few feet away, another niffler began scurrying his way, threatening to trip him up.



Emrys resisted giving a small whoop of joy as he watched Kurumi's hand make contact with the Gryffindor's cheek. One less person in his way, he reasoned, still not acknowledging that he, himself, was attracted to her because of the spell.

The niffler was now scurrying between and around his feet as he made his way to Kurumi who was, he noticed with a smile on his face, approaching him. Even if it was with that other boy. He ran a hand through his hair and gave her a smile. "Hi Kurumi," he said as he stepped near her, the niffler in his hood pawing at his back.

"I was thinking... we should go find the Room of Requirement after class like we said we would," he said, giving a look at the other boy. See? We already have plans. Back off, buddy.

Alyssa looked down at the Niffler before kneeling down to pet it. "Hello my little friend. It is very nice to meet you. You're really not too bad when you are in a good mood are you?" Alyssa spoke to it as she continued to pet his head and scratched behind it's ears.

Once she had befriended this Niffler, Alyssa noticed that there was another Niffler that hadn't been befriended yet. Taking out her wand she pointed it at herself and said,"Coh-LEE-wee-meh Nn-BEE-my-low".

She then tried to attract it's attention as it seemed to be walking towards a Ravenclaw student. "Hey there little one? Over here. Yes over here. Why don't you come over here and join your buddy over here." Alyssa yelled over to it trying to attract it's attention. The Niffler looked over at her and started moving in her direction. "Yes yes come on over." Alyssa called out welcoming it.