Aspen raaaaaaaan like a bandit! She didn't stop until they were a couple of flights up, then she nudged Cornelius to duck into whatever room was empty (which happened to be the armor room).

She was grinning, but definitely winded from their RUNNING.

Naturally, she'd been thinking while they ran. Aspen hadn't ever really held hands with a boy (she'd also never had her name screamed in the Great Hall, or climbed under the House table, OR ran like a bandit through the castle). Before she'd actually held his hand, she'd have argued that there was no point to hand holding. It was something that people apparently WANTED to do, but never was something necessary to do. But now she was convinced otherwise. Aspen had been able to look over her shoulder as they ran, knowing Cornelius was probably watching where they were going. Hand holding was like the ultimate teamwork.

With that in mind, Aspen didn't let go of his hand. "Considering the amount of disasters I'm having around you, maybe this wasn't the best place for us to duck into." Suits of armor? Weren't there swords in here? They'd just have to be REALLY careful. "I hope you weren't still hungry." Since... she'd kind of made him leave unexpectedly.

Cornelius took the lead as they ran up the two flights of stairs, not quite knowing where he was going but getting as far away from the Great Hall as possible in one swift run. He himself couldn't help but notice the convenience of holding hands with Aspen, knowing that she was keeping the look out as he found his way through the corridors at top speed. As they found their way to a stop inside the armor room, he allowed himself the chance to lean his shoulder against the wall, panting a bit from the swift feat of running out like bandits.

And of course, he was smiling.

He glanced over at Aspen with pure amusement in his light brown eyes, listening as she mentioned wisely that the armor room might've not been the best choice to hide with the disastrous quality he brought to her life. "I'm not gonna let you get attacked by a suit of armor," he promised her through a soft chuckle, his hand still somehow intwined with her own. His eyebrows rose as she hoped aloud that he wasn't still hungry.

"Nope, Aspen, I'm just fine," Cornelius assured her, flashing a bit of a grin her direction before his gaze fell and he caught sight of their intwined hands, left dropped between them casually as though both parties had yet to realize that they were connected by the hands.

"I really am sorry for what happened back there though," he said, referring to the announcement to the Great Hall. He hadn't realized that Aspen would be so terribly embarrassed by it. It was as though she'd never had someone yell to an entire room about her before!

Quote:

Originally Posted by emmafan123

Cornelius took the lead as they ran up the two flights of stairs, not quite knowing where he was going but getting as far away from the Great Hall as possible in one swift run. He himself couldn't help but notice the convenience of holding hands with Aspen, knowing that she was keeping the look out as he found his way through the corridors at top speed. As they found their way to a stop inside the armor room, he allowed himself the chance to lean his shoulder against the wall, panting a bit from the swift feat of running out like bandits.

And of course, he was smiling.

He glanced over at Aspen with pure amusement in his light brown eyes, listening as she mentioned wisely that the armor room might've not been the best choice to hide with the disastrous quality he brought to her life. "I'm not gonna let you get attacked by a suit of armor," he promised her through a soft chuckle, his hand still somehow intwined with her own. His eyebrows rose as she hoped aloud that he wasn't still hungry.

"Nope, Aspen, I'm just fine," Cornelius assured her, flashing a bit of a grin her direction before his gaze fell and he caught sight of their intwined hands, left dropped between them casually as though both parties had yet to realize that they were connected by the hands.

"I really am sorry for what happened back there though," he said, referring to the announcement to the Great Hall. He hadn't realized that Aspen would be so terribly embarrassed by it. It was as though she'd never had someone yell to an entire room about her before!

"It's not necessarily me that I'm worried about," Aspen admitted, but... she a little perplexed by his assurance for her safety. Her brows furrowed, not like she was upset, just not quite understanding. Something else to think about later.

Aspen moved around Cornelius, still keeping his hand, and matched his stance with a shoulder leaned against the wall - now she was opposite of him. She leaned her temple against the wall, too, tilting her head. "Me, too," she admitted. Aspen's eyes were fixed somewhere around his chest. "I mean, I guess I asked for it.... with that experimenting, but I'm sorry you had to crawl on the floor. I'm not making a very good case for myself on 'not being weird'." Shrug.

Cornelius gave a bit of a shrug as she told him that it wasn't necessarily her safety that she was worried about; understanding what she meant. He couldn't help but give a brief smile as he saw Aspen lean up against the wall next to him, and listened as she apologized as well. "I didn't mind crawling on the floor," he assured her with a bit of a grin, listening as she mentioned that she wasn't making a very good case for herself on the 'not being weird' thing.

"You don't think I'm weird?" he countered, rather amused that she seemed to feel as though she was the only one trying to make a good case about her weirdness. Sure, they were weird in different ways, but...he'd just stood up on the Ravenclaw table's bench and made an announcement to the entire Great Hall. He was pretty weird too.

"You're different, Aspen," Cornelius decided, absentmindedly scanning her expression, evaluating how to put his thoughts into words. "The good kind that's good," he joked, poking fun at himself from earlier when he had decided that her weird was...just the good kind that was...good. He grinned, his temple still resting on the wall, "Your good kind of weird has given me what's probably been the most fun I've had so far here."

Quote:

Originally Posted by emmafan123

Cornelius gave a bit of a shrug as she told him that it wasn't necessarily her safety that she was worried about; understanding what she meant. He couldn't help but give a brief smile as he saw Aspen lean up against the wall next to him, and listened as she apologized as well. "I didn't mind crawling on the floor," he assured her with a bit of a grin, listening as she mentioned that she wasn't making a very good case for herself on the 'not being weird' thing.

"You don't think I'm weird?" he countered, rather amused that she seemed to feel as though she was the only one trying to make a good case about her weirdness. Sure, they were weird in different ways, but...he'd just stood up on the Ravenclaw table's bench and made an announcement to the entire Great Hall. He was pretty weird too.

"You're different, Aspen," Cornelius decided, absentmindedly scanning her expression, evaluating how to put his thoughts into words. "The good kind that's good," he joked, poking fun at himself from earlier when he had decided that her weird was...just the good kind that was...good. He grinned, his temple still resting on the wall, "Your good kind of weird has given me what's probably been the most fun I've had so far here."

Aspen didn't want to admit it. She didn't want to think someone else weird, not when it had sort of been bothering her lately that people thought HER weird. She particularly didn't want to tell Cornelius that she thought him weird. He was new! He smiled at her continuously! But..... "I do," Aspen conceded, bursting out laughing at how ironic it was. "You are weird, Cornelius! But it's nice." Well... "Mostly nice."

She chewed on her bottom lip and "chewed" on what he was saying, continuing to grin... unable to STOP grinning, actually. That was SUCH a nice thing to say and Aspen had weird fluttery tummy things going on. Probably more of his doing, disaster catalyst boy! "Well...I know I should feel sorry for you if I'm all your fun, but I guess I'm kind... of... flattered."

SO weird. Weird on top of weird.LAYERS of weird here. Must be a Ravenclaw thing?

"I have to know though.... why did you tell everyone I smiled at you?" Just... really, why? Aspen was laughing at him again. She'd crawl under the table again if he ever tried it again, him or ANYONE, but still she wasn't mad he HAD done it.

Cornelius let out a laugh as Aspen assured him that she did, indeed, think that he was weird but it was nice...or at least, mostly nice. His eyebrows rose at this comment, though pure amusement still remained on his expression. He couldn't deny that hearing her admit that she didn't quite mind his weirdness was something that got his smile to widen, surprisingly happy to hear it. But he was glad that his announcement in the Great Hall hadn't made her dislike him or anything.

As she admitted to being rather flattered by his words, Cornelius's grin practically doubled in size, seemingly fueled by her own smile which had slowly made an appearance throughout the conversation. And just as he was contemplating this smile of hers, she asked about it. Well, she asked why he decided to tell everyone that she had smiled at him.

He thought for a moment, once more trying to translate all of his thoughts into words. He glanced down, seeming to realize that his hand was still intwined with her own, and quickly looked back up as though deciding not to evaluate that just yet. "Your smile..." he started, trailing off as he tried to think of the right words. He couldn't think of how exactly to say it.

"You made me earn it," he decided honestly, giving a bit of a shrug and a weak smile of his own. "I liked that."

Quote:

Originally Posted by emmafan123

Cornelius let out a laugh as Aspen assured him that she did, indeed, think that he was weird but it was nice...or at least, mostly nice. His eyebrows rose at this comment, though pure amusement still remained on his expression. He couldn't deny that hearing her admit that she didn't quite mind his weirdness was something that got his smile to widen, surprisingly happy to hear it. But he was glad that his announcement in the Great Hall hadn't made her dislike him or anything.

As she admitted to being rather flattered by his words, Cornelius's grin practically doubled in size, seemingly fueled by her own smile which had slowly made an appearance throughout the conversation. And just as he was contemplating this smile of hers, she asked about it. Well, she asked why he decided to tell everyone that she had smiled at him.

He thought for a moment, once more trying to translate all of his thoughts into words. He glanced down, seeming to realize that his hand was still intwined with her own, and quickly looked back up as though deciding not to evaluate that just yet. "Your smile..." he started, trailing off as he tried to think of the right words. He couldn't think of how exactly to say it.

"You made me earn it," he decided honestly, giving a bit of a shrug and a weak smile of his own. "I liked that."

Oh...

She had? Aspen thought back to the Common Room and Egbert, cheesy snacks and pumpkin juice. Maybe she had. "Doesn't that sort of... make me a ... I don't know... a bad person?" Aspen's brow furrowed, but not like she was mad. More like she was entirely perplexed with herself. Did she always make people earn a smile before she gave one??? "Who does that? Makes people earn smiles?" Especially NEW people??

But Cornelius the Equally Weird had been moved to insanity shouting about it AND apparently liked her tyrannical smile-withholding... He was STILL smiling at her, after all.

"Come on. I'll give you a tour. You haven't been in here yet, right? These are suits of armor," obviously, "I don't know what their purpose is, but they're enchanted I think." Aspen gave his hang a little pull. This way. They could prod the armor with their wands and make them do things...?

Cornelius let out a bit of a laugh as Aspen wondered aloud if making people earn smiles made her a bad person, continuing to wonder who even did that in the first place. "No, it doesn't make you a bad person," he said with a shake of his head, amusement still in his expression as he realized she didn't quite understand what he had meant. "I mean..." he clarified, raising his eyebrows at her with a hint of playfulness in his tone. "It's not like you refused to smile at me or anything," Cornelius explained, "You just...didn't give your smile out at the first thing I said."

He gave a brief nod as she asked to make sure that he hadn't been in here before. He could easily say that. Cornelius had barely seen a quarter of the castle, let alone the suits of armor! In the next moment she had offered him a tour, explaining that these were suits of armor that were enchanted, though she didn't know their purpose.

"Wow..." Cornelius muttered, shifting his weight away from the wall and back onto his feet as he followed in the direction she tugged his hand. He glanced around at all of them, the smallest smile on his expression. "So...Tour Guide...does this mean that you're gonna show me other sections of the castle too?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by emmafan123

Cornelius let out a bit of a laugh as Aspen wondered aloud if making people earn smiles made her a bad person, continuing to wonder who even did that in the first place. "No, it doesn't make you a bad person," he said with a shake of his head, amusement still in his expression as he realized she didn't quite understand what he had meant. "I mean..." he clarified, raising his eyebrows at her with a hint of playfulness in his tone. "It's not like you refused to smile at me or anything," Cornelius explained, "You just...didn't give your smile out at the first thing I said."

He gave a brief nod as she asked to make sure that he hadn't been in here before. He could easily say that. Cornelius had barely seen a quarter of the castle, let alone the suits of armor! In the next moment she had offered him a tour, explaining that these were suits of armor that were enchanted, though she didn't know their purpose.

"Wow..." Cornelius muttered, shifting his weight away from the wall and back onto his feet as he followed in the direction she tugged his hand. He glanced around at all of them, the smallest smile on his expression. "So...Tour Guide...does this mean that you're gonna show me other sections of the castle too?"

Aspen considered what he was saying, then of course had to agree. The first thing out of his mouth had been an inquiry into what she was doing and her subsequent figuring that he thought her weird. She shot him a tiny, mischievous grin, accompanied by a nod. She got him.

She was in no hurry to get around the room, treating each of the suits of armor as special, something worthy of stopping to study. "If you want me... to... sure. I spent so much of last year lost, in spite of all the maps I tried to draw, I'd be happy to show you how to get lost." Aspen grinned at her reflection in a particularly shiny Suit. She DID notice that her hair was kind of a mess (crawling under tables and sprinting up stairs will do that..), but didn't think too much on it.

Reaching across herself, Aspen pulled her wand from it's holster (strapped to her forearm), then used it to tap the suit. It immediately sprang to life and bowed to the pair of them in a loud, clangy show. "It's sort of like we live in a giant, ever-changing, live museum." Hogwarts was SO full of things like enchanted suits of armor. Aspen loved it.

Cornelius flashed Aspen a warm smile as she decided that she would be happy to 'show him how to get lost', mentioning her map-drawing last year. Her tale sounded similar to his own; getting lost often. Though, he hadn't tried to draw his own maps, his drawing skills weren't really that impressive and it probably would've just looked like a large maze rather than a map.

Did this mean that they would be seeing each other again? He couldn't deny that he wanted to see Aspen again, in fact this little adventure of theirs seemed so spur-of-the-moment and out of nowhere that he was half afraid a scheduled meet up would be entirely too normal for them. Just as he was trying to figure out if they'd both just agreed to meet up in the future, he was distracted by the suit of armor coming to life before them.

His expression lit up at the sight of the armor moving, bowing at them as a knight would. He was just listening to Aspen's words when he turned to look at her, only to find her own expression positively beaming with her own excitement.

"So you really grow to like it here, huh?" he asked, scanning her expression curiously as he compared his own mixed feelings about Hogwarts to Aspen's obviously excited impression of the castle.

His eternal smiling still didn't make sense to Aspen, but she found (interestingly enough) that she minded it less while holding hands. Or did she mind it less because it wasn't new anymore? Too many variables to be sure, but she liked the former theory better.

But now that she decided she didn't MIND that he smiled at her constantly, she couldn't help but dissect the smile a little. Cornelius didn't just smile at her - it was more than that. And the even stranger part was that Aspen was certain his smiles were specifically for her, in spite of her not actually doing anything worth a smile! Not really! Anyone could tap their wand on the suits of armor! Really!

"... You do. Or I hope you do. I hope you don't go home for Christmas break and never come back. I think you're a good addition to Ravenclaw."

Probably a weird thing to say, and even weirder since she'd stopped looking at the armor in favor of studying his face, his worrisome smile, and the way his eyes followed her expressions like they were trained to do so. Abruptly, she let his hand go. "Maybe we should head back to the Common Room. I ...left the window open."

Cornelius often smiled; it was just something he did naturally. And depending on what or who he was smiling at, his smile was just slightly different, as everyone's was. And looking at Aspen, his smile seem to house the slightest bit of admiration that he himself wasn't even aware of. As she hoped aloud that he wouldn't ditch the school after Christmas break, expressing her thought that he was a good addition to Ravenclaw, the boy's smile widened. "I have no intentions to ditch Hogwarts after break," he assured her honestly. It was true though, he liked Hogwarts well enough, but now it seemed to have more to offer than he originally thought.

Just as his light brown eyes scanned over the suits of armor moving around, a small smile still displayed on his expression, he found his hand was dropped. Apruptly. His gaze fell down to their separated hands before immediately flying up to Aspen's expression, his smile faltering as he listened to her suggest that they head back to the Common Room, as she'd left the window open.

Cornelius's brows furrowed just slightly at her words and sudden change of thought, "Yeah...right. Of course," he muttered, honest confusion in his tone, though he tried to keep his expression from showing the disappointment he had suddenly found himself burdened with. He didn't even understand why he suddenly felt disappointed. It's not as though their holding hands necessarily meant anything... Right? And yet still, for whatever reason, it felt as though Aspen's release of his hand meant that some unspoken, confusing connection had been broken.

"Let's go," he decided, flashing her a small, though somehow confused, smile before leading the way towards the Ravenclaw Common Room.

Alyssa walked along the hall looking at the armour as she walked. She felt an eerieness creep over her. Maybe it was because she was the only one in the hall right now, or maybe it was because she had heard rumors about how some of the armored suits had been seen walking around. Either way, she knew that she had to brush aside her fears because she had a mission to complete and that was to place one of her floral arrangements in this room.

As she carried the box containing her floral arrangement with both hands, Alyssa looked around to find a suitable place to put her vase. She spotted an empty stand sitting at the other end of the hall, and so she bent down and put her box on the ground before walking over to the stand. She looked around wondering why this stand was empty. "Come on Lyssie. Maybe someone took it to polish it. The Suit of Armor didn't just get up and decide to walk away."Alyssa whispered to herself trying to calm her nerves. Alyssa quickly dragged the stand over to the entrance of the hall and then walked over to her box. She looked inside and chose the taller floral arrangement with it's bright colored flowers. "Yes this will help brighten up this room a lot."Alyssa told herself smiling as she placed the vase on the stand. She made sure that all the flowers were properly arranged before stepping back to admire the arrangement.

"CLINK" Alyssa turned quickly turn around when she heard a noise only to find that she was the only one in the room. "CLINK" Alyssa heard the noise again. Without waiting to see who was coming, she picked up her box containing the last vase and quickly left the room. Whoever or whatever it was, she hoped that they would appreciate the vase of flowers that she had left behind.

Ella was wandering the castle aimlessly when she happened upon the suits of armor. She stopped short, looking at them with a shiver. They were quite creepy, standing there all serious and intimidating. She felt a surge of fear suddenly, like one was going to jump down and capture her or something. But they couldn't do that right? It wasn't like anyone was inside of the armor...She stood watching the suits closely, waging a battle in her mind. She wanted to touch one, just to prove she was being silly. Who was afraid of a suit of armor? Really, she was being quite childish. She approached one of the nearest suits of armor on tiptoes, feeling like she had to be quiet for whatever reason...

Logan, who had been exploring the castle yet again, was walking down the second floor corridor, when he saw Ella looking at the suits of armor. She looked really fascinated, but slightly...afraid of them. He eyed the suits of armor and could understand that feeling. He walked up to her, trying not to scare her or anything. "Heya Ella." he said, looking at her and then at the suits of armor. "Pretty interesting, aren't they?" he asked quietly.

Ella jumped a bit when she heard Logan's voice. She hadn't heard him approaching because she had been so close to touching one of the scary suits of armor. She turned to look at him, relieved she was no longer alone in front of the army of armor. "Hello there." she said quietly. "They are interesting...and frightening. It's like they're watching us or something." she said, whispering. She felt this was the only way to talk around the suits of armor, she didn't want to provoke them or anything.

What Kurumi was about to do was long overdue. Not that she hadn't exercised Momotaro II at all until now, because she had, but not to the extent that he probably needed. Five, maybe ten, minutes of rolling around the girls' dormitory...which wasn't nearly enough for a maturing pygmy puff like him. Then again, he DID spend a good thirty minutes the other night being chased by Walnut, so he had got a fair bit of cardio then.

The pygmy puff was currently resting on the Gryffindor's shoulders as she made her way towards the suits of armor, cooing softly into her ear. Kurumi had wanted to go outside to do this, but with it pouring down rain...she had had to make other arrangements. Kurumi approached one of the suits of armor and removed the pygmy puff from her shoulder and set him on the metal shoulder of the suit in front of her as she retrieved a sugar cube tied to a piece of string from her pocket

*meeep meep meeeeeeep mep meee*

OH OH OHOH! Look at that! It was one of those BEAUTIFUL crystal things! The delicious kind! OH OH OHOH!

Kurumi smiled as the creature began to jump up and down, making small clanging noises as his slightly heavier than the average pygmy puff body collided with the metal of the suit. Yeah...he needed to lay off the shrimp and sugar cubes...except for the one that she had tied to a piece of string right now that is. She then tied one end of the string to her wand - which wasn't the most practical use of her wand and there were other ways to accomplish this, but this was the first thing that came to mind. Now with the sugar cube hanging off the other end of the string, the Gryffindor held her wand out and dangled the sweet in front of the pygmy puff as if it was a fishing pole.

That certainly had his attention.

Kurumi began to wave it back and forth in front of Momotaro II nice and slow just to make sure that she had a captive audience. The pygmy puff rolls back and forth in rhythm with her own movements and soon began leaping at it with his abnormally large pygmy puff mouth hanging open. Kurumi continued to wave the sugar cube fishing pole all around the suit of armor, Momotaro II chasing after it at full speed and performing all sort of aerial movements as he attempted to catch the sweet with his mouth. Eventually, Kurumi moved to the floor, Momotaro II rolling after it and after several minutes the pygmy puff was squeak!panting which signaled to Kurumi that they were done.

"Alright alright," she said, untying the sugar cube and removing the string from her wand. She then handed it over to Momotaro II. He had worked hard for his sugar...which may have defeated the purpose of all the exercise they had just done, but at least he was a happy pygmy puff?