Aurora walked into the common room with a skip in her step - she was having a day off from her music revision and it felt marvelous. She glanced around for the kid she'd been paired with in Serpent Sidekicks... she had definitely seen him around somewhere...

AHA! That looked like him! She made her way over and hopped into the chair next to him. "Mr Lawrence, I presume?" she said in her best evil villain voice - she had watched all the Bond movies at Rufin's over the summer - something about them had fascinated her. The evil bit was somewhat deducted from by her big grin. "I'm Aurora." She presumed he'd seen the sheet with the pairings on.

Sammy looked over at the girl who had hopped into the chair next to him. He gave her a look before turning back to the fireplace. The nice fireplace. Wait...what? He looked over at the girl who had just spoken in the strange voice. "Yeah..." Who was this girl? Then she said her name and it hit him. She was his Serpent Sidekick thingy. Great. "Hi Aurora. You can call me Sammy or Sam by the way."

Hahaha he was looking at her funny! Maybe she should tone herself down a bit - don't want to give him the wrong impression; it wasn't like she was this hyper all the time. "Sammy it is then, nice to meet you. Want a jelly baby?" She produced a white paper bag from her pocket and offered it to him. Regular muggle jelly babies this time - she'd run out of the screaming ones.

Sammy smiled at Aurora. At least she seemed to calm down a bit and the fact that she offered him candy made her all right in his books. More than all right actually. "Sure." He reached in the bag and pulled one out before popping it in his mouth. After he chewed it he looked at her. "So what year are you again?" He'd already forgotten what he'd read on the board.

Aaaaaaaaaaand he smiled at her. Good. Didn't want things to be like last year... she hadn't got on with the girl at all... She popped a jelly baby into her own mouth and propped the bag open on the arm of her chair. It wasn't like she ever ran out of sweets - she could probably feed the whole castle if she needed to...

"Fourth year." she said, pushing a red curl back behind her ear. "But this is my third year here." she added. She loved Hogwarts... it was completely different to home tutoring of course, but it was wonderful. "Sooo... the sidekick thing. Basically, I suck at flying, charms and runes but I can help you out with anything else. Potions and Herbology especially." she started, counting the lessons off on her fingers. "But... basically... I don't know. I guess I'm supposed to just help you out and stuff." And maybe he could teach her something... maybe.

After a long day of doing nothing, as usual, Mikey made his way into the common room for some time to himself. He still hadn't worked out what to write to Maria. And time was passing by quickly. The more he thought about it the more he missed her. She was over in Italy wishing she could see him and he was in England doing nothing but worry. What Ad had told him shook him. Maria was sick, and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't even think of what to write to her. In his mind, that was bad.

Once he had reached the sofa, he reached into his bag and took out a fresh piece of parchment and a quill before sitting down and thinking about what to write. His mind was still blank. All he could think of was saying how much he missed her and how much he wished she were there. She was about all he really had to hang on to. His parents weren't there to help him out, were they! And he sure couldn't rely on them for the rest of his life. He was just a fourteen year old in love, missing several people and constantly side-tracked because of it.

After finally thinking of what to write, Mikey penned it down on the parchment. After a few minutes, he had a complete letter. Now to get Ad to send it with her own letter to Maria. Any other way would be a catastrophe. Maria wouldn't be allowed it if she knew it was from him. To Mikey, that was the worst thing anyone could ever have on them.

Her brown curls bounced around the frame as her face as she tore through the Slytherin Common Room, and plunked down into a chair. At first she might have looked like she was in a good mood, but once you got a look at her and the way she was grasping her hair in a slightly clenched fist, you could tell she wasn't in the best of moods. She rested her forehead on the palm of her hand, and only for a split second she looked up to noticed the other person in the room. She layed her head on the back of the chair, and heaved out a sigh. The other boy looked quite troubled, and she felt like asking him what was wrong, but she shyly just ignored him and looked around the room, awkwardly.

She looked around at everyone else in the room, and then she realized that she was technically one of the only people in the room, out of two..She pulled her knees up to her chest, and continued to look around the room. She sat there silently and her stress seamed to melt away because of the silence in the room. She looked over at him again and she realized the silence was a bit akward. So she got up and walked over to him."You seem a bit troubled" she said with sympathy in her eyes. She leaned against the wall as she spoke, a small smile on her face.

Mikey sighed biting the inside of his lip trying to stop himself from worrying about Maria. But it wasn't working. The more he thought about it the worse his worry got. He glanced up hearing someone speak to him. He raised an eyebrow. Was it really that obvious? He thought he was pretty good at hiding things. Obviously not. "Worried is more like it" he replied truthfully, his voice crackly and the worry clear.

A smile of sympathy swept across her face. She felt sorry for him, and felt like consoling in his sadness, but she didn't even know who he was so that would've been a bit akward. "It's okay, whatever it is, i'm sure it'll get better" she replied truthfully. She was sure that it would get better, it might take a long time, but her words were true.

Mikey shrugged. "Time will tell.." he replied in a slight whisper.

Brooke nodded and looked around akwardly. She leaned against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting. "Yeah..." she replied with a slight sigh.

Mikey looked down at the letter in his hand before folding it and putting the quill and parchment in his bag again. "I'm Mikey, by the way" he told the girl with a small but intriguing smile.

She looked up at him from her little spot next to the wall. "Brooke" she replied. "Nice to meet you" she replied, a hint of smile on her face. She looked at the letter in his hand for a moment, but then looked away and ignored it.

Aurora ran down to the common room after Sebastian, he'd ran off as soon as she'd found the cat basket... he clearly didn't want to go home for Christmas. She saw a flash of white fur shoot under a sofa and ran after it. "Sebastian!" She flattened herself on the floor and peered under the sofa. "C'moooonn... we have to go soon. You won't be in the basket for long... come on..." she said, trying to coax him out of his hiding place. She hadn't noticed if anyone was sat on it.

Mikey smiled a little. He somehow felt a little at ease talking to her. But he wasn't sure why. He didn't know the girl and it wasn't as if he'd spoke about what was troubling him. And he wasn't about to either. "Pleasure's mine" he replied. And it was. Who wouldn't be pleased to meet a pretty girl like her.

She grinned. "So who are you writing to?" she asked curiously. "That is if you don't mind me asking" she added quickly, her face turning slightly pink. She looked down at her hands akwardly.

Mikey smiled a little. "Of course I don't mind" he told her. But he didn't want to say it was his girlfriend he was writing to. Even though Maria was his girlfriend. But the long distance thing didn't seem to be making a very good impression. "Gir--A friend in Italy" he replied. Why couldn't he just say Maria was his girlfriend? There was nothing bad about it. He loved her to pieces. Maybe it was just the idea of being in two completely different countries.

Really? She wasn't that stupid, she laughed to herself.Well hopefully not.But seriously what he was saying was obvious. "You mean your girlfriend?" she teased, a giggle stiffling out of her. She knew he was trying to keep that from her, just by the way he said it. She couldn't help but laugh inside of her head. Hehe.

Mikey glanced at the girl narrowing his eyes slightly. "I never said that.. I'm just not sure what's going on with her being in Italy and me stuck in England thousands of miles away" he replied sounding a little harsh. Could she blame him for that? He was missing Maria an incredible amount and all he wanted was to see her face. But the more he thought about her, the worse he got.

Brooke raised her eyebrows at his unmistakeably harsh tone. Woooops.She knew she shouldn't have said anything like that.. " I'm sorry, and I hope you and her clear up your problems with her..." she replied, standing up now. She smiled politely at him and started to make her way out of the common room.

Mikey raised an eyebrow. Problems? He never said anything about problems. "The only problem is her parents.." he mumbled. By now he was too upset to even avoid getting upset about the fact she was miles away.

Brooke stopped in her tracks next to the door, one of her hands rested on it. She closed her eyes and heaved out a large breath. She turned back towards him, and slowly walked over. "I-I'm sorry, I can be a bit of a know it all sometimes" she said apolegetically.

She got up and left the common room quietly.

Selena snipped the scissors in the air experimentally. Yup. Definitely felt nice to be holding them. She took a bite of her chocolate and looked at Kent sitting on the ground next to her... then at Clarke who was half-awake. Whatever, better than having him chew on someone's shoes. Selena looked around the common room. Nowwww.... where was her victim ready to lose their HAIR?! Not all of it of course... unless she was told other wise, then she'd cut off all the haaaair.

That wasn't safe. Nope. Not at all.

Kennedy gaped at Selena who was snipping her scissors in the air. He gulped and asked himself why he had agreed to get his hair cut by her. Maybe...he wasn't thinking? Most likely.

Well, it didn't matter. He needed to be around cheery people and Selena was definitely one of them. She always seemed happy.

He threw himself on the couch causing it to bounce. "I'm here," he said, staring at the scissors. Please, be careful with his hair.