Minerva walked into the study room. She wanted to get started on some of her assignments and it was quiet in here. She found a nice spot in the back corner and put her bagon the table and pulled out her assignment calendar. Looking it over she decided to get out her Herbology and work on it for awhile. She scanned the questions about flesh eating plants and then opened her notes from class along with her book. She still wasn't a big fan of the plants, but she wasn't going to let that hurt her grades.

Ella walked over to the large wooden table with her laundry basket and heaved it on to the table with a sigh. She had been meaning to practice the spell she had learned in charms for days now and since she had some laundry to fold, this seemed like the perfect time. Pulling the wand from her pocket, Ella set it down in front of her while she went over the spell in her head. Plic Vestimenta...Plic Vestimenta...Plic Vestimenta

Pulling out her yellow jumper, Ella placed it on the table in a ball and picked up her wand. With a light tap of her wand on the jumper, Ella said "Plic Vestimenta!" She watched with a smile as the jumper began to fold neatly. "Brilliant." She said happily. Next she pulled out a dress her mom had bought her a while ago. FROWN. She really wanted to get rid of it, throw it away so she wouldn't have to be reminded of-of that woman. For some reason though she just couldn't go through with it. Nope, instead she found herself pointing her wand at the dress and tapping it gently. "Plic Vestimenta!" And now the dress sat on the table, neatly folded, and Ella wanted to throw it across the room.

Minerva had her nose in her book whens he heard something and jumped a bit. She looked up and saw Ella folding her laundry. Minerva chuckled a little at the site of this. She was practicing the spell they learned, but at the same time she found it funny to see someone folding laundry in the study room. She looked back into her herbology book and wrote on her parchment with a grin on her face. "Ella, nice folding. You want to do mine next?" she laughed and looked up at her friend. Leave it to them to be in the study room on a nice day.

Ella had moved on to a pair of her jeans, crumpling them up into a ball and letting them fall to the table. It was actually quite fun, messing up her clothes and then watching them magically fold into perfection. "Plic Vestimenta!" She said, enjoying her handy work as the jeans folded themselves.

Ella hadn't even noticed Minnie when she had sat down at the study tables so her voice caused Ella to jump. The startled look that had been on her face disappeared when she heard Minnie's comment. "Ha-ha, Min. It isn't that bad actually. I'm liking this spell." And she was doing a pretty good job with it, at least at the moment. "What are you working on?" She asked, curious.

Minerva couldn't help but laugh from scaring Ella and she shook her head "What are you doing folding your clothes in the study room, don't you know this isn't a laundry room. Did you get lost second year." she giggled at her own joke, but tried to eye Ella suspiciously, but she just couldn't. Minerva looked at the clothes and nodded her head in approval, even though Ella didn't need her approval "Good job on the folding, maybe you should have been the puff that did the competition with Alyssa."

She then looked down at her book and gave a sheepish grin "Oh I'm working on the herbology homework. Not as exciting as folding clothes, but it has to be done. I'm just glad our homework isn't cleaning more flesh out of plant teeth" she wrinkled her nose in disgust "That was just way to gross"

Alyssa quietly entered their House study room and made her way to the back row of tables where she found an empty seat. She sat down and pulled out two books that she had borrowed from the library. "Animagus: A-Z" and "Transformation Explained". She placed them on the table and opened the first book and started reading.

Minerva was talking a bit with Ella about their homework and spells when she saw Alyssa come in and quietly go to the back of the room. She was quiet. Well this was no surprise to see the three girls in the study room on a nice day. Minerva was hoping for a big change this term, she sighed realizing she was the same old Min, studying and going to classes, that would never change.

"Hey Alyssa, how are you today?" she looked curiously at the books recognizing one of the books as one she had just taken back from her and Maxwell's research. "What are you studying about?" hoping Alyssa wouldn't mind her asking.

Alyssa looked up placed her finger on the page she was reading and closed the book to show it to Minerva. "It's about Animagi. I was just interested in the reading about them.." Alyssa wasn't sure how much to tell her friend.

Minerva smiled as she read the title, "I just returned that one actually. I have been researching it for my friend Maxwell. He wants to learn all he can about it because his great grandfather did it and he is hoping to be able to do it some day." what an interesting thing, first she had the book now Alyssa, "So if you struggle finding something in there I might have seen it and can show you."

Alyssa smiled her thanks. "Thanks for the offer. I'm just interested in knowing more about. You know me. I'm always interested about learning something new." Alyssa hated lying to Minerva but for now she didn't want anyone to know that she had spoken to Professor Magnus earlier about training to be one.

Ella grinned at Minnie, rolling her own eyes at the older girls joke. She couldn't help but laugh when Minnie attempted to look at her suspiciously. "No, Ms. third year. I know perfectly well where I am." GRIN. "Besides, these tables are just big enough to fit all my laundry." Heh. Ella blushed a bit when Minnie complemented her folding skills. "Thanks, Min. I think you did a great job in class so you were the right choice." She said sincerely, placing her wand down for a moment.

"Herbology, huh? I just finished my Herbology homework a little while ago. It wasn't that bad, which was nice." Nope, the homework had been pretty straightforward which was just the way Ella liked her homework. The second year wrinkled her nose, remembering what they had done in Herbology. Ick. "You're right, the whole flesh thing was pretty nasty. I'm glad I'm not a flesh eating human." She said seriously, then sticking her tongue out in disgust.

When Alyssa entered the room, Ella wanted to laugh. It wasn't surprising that the the three of them were studying on a nice day. "Hey, Alyssa!" She greeted cheerfully. "Nice job in Charms, by the way."

Minerva laughed at Ella and then called her third year. Minerva crossed her arms trying to act mad, but it was no use. She just laughed with her friend. "Well I am so glad we can make studying more fun and I am serious, my clothes are in my dorm looking like a balled up mess, so if you feel like you need more practice." she winked laughing some more.

"Oh yeah, that was totally disgusting seeing the flesh flying out of it's teeth." she stuck out her tongue grossed out. "Well it shouldn't take me long then I will have to begin all the other fun. I'm thinking maybe working on some transfiguration spells I have been looking at in my book. I really want to be able to transform clothes into a dress. It's something I have been trying to figure out since first year." she laughed knowing Ella would be wondering why.

Minerva smiled at Alyssa, but with a little of curiosity. What was her friend up to. She was hiding something, Minerva could tell, but she wasn't going to push the issue. "Well have fun reading it, it is a very interesting read. Did you know the person my parents named me after could become a cat. I told Maxwell it would be fun if I could do it, but the cats fur would have to be purple." she laughed "I'm just kidding, I really don't think I would like being an animal. They don't change much, how fun is that."

Ella smiled, "I'm glad we can make studying fun. It's honestly no fun studying alone...even if you get more done that way." Heh. Ella couldn't help but giggle when Minnie invited her to go up to the dormitory and fold her clothes. "I'll pass thanks." She said with smirk. "I've got my hands full with my own clothes."

Ella listened attentively as Minnie talked about what she was planning on doing next. "A dress? Why do you want to transform your clothes into a dress? Sounds kind of like Cinderella to me." Did Minnie know what Cinderella was? If not she would probably ask. "I like transfiguration. Especially when we made vases. That was fun." As she finished talking, she couldn't help but smile as she watched Minnie and Alyssa work. They kind of reminded her of a super group...The Powerpuff Girls. Helping Hufflepuff one homework assignment at a time.

Minerva laughed "Well fine then, I guess I will have to do my own laundry." she did an over exaggerated sigh then began to giggle a bit. She was enjoying studying today, it was a nice different way to study. "Well it's not going to have the happy ending like Cinderella." she laughed and pulled out the pictures Butterfly had made for her. "These dresses, will soon be made from Harvey's clothes. I have threatened him since first term I am going to learn how to transform his clothes into a dress and this term I'm going to do it." She laughed hoping it didn't sound to mean. It was just a joke, but some people might think she was a brat for it.

Alyssa smiled over to Ella. "Thanks Ella. I'm just disappointed that we didn't win. I feel like I let the house down." Alyssa answered sadly.



Alyssa listened as Minerva told her about how their parents friend could change into a cat and was going to tell her why she reading the book, but then Minnie laughed about how basically boring being an animagus would be and so she decided to keep silent. "Yeah being a cat would be boring. You just lie around and do nothing at all." Alyssa now couldn't tell Minnie the real reason why she wanted to learn to be one had partly to do with what she planned to do when she graduated from Hogwarts.

Minerva laughed thinking about being a cat. "Don't get me wrong, I think it would be super fun to be a cat and move around like that. I wouldn't mind being a cute little puppy. I just would have to be able to change it's fur once in awhile. You see how much I change my hair. I couldn't handle just being a black tabby or something like that. I would want to be a green kitten." She giggled. They had only been to school a month and she had changed her hair three times, so the boring part would be the same fur. "Well have fun reading, I heard it's really hard to do. I just don't think I'm a good enough witch to be able to do something like that." She had the feeling she said something wrong and hoped she didn't.

"Oh no, it's fine. Yeah I heard that it's really hard to do. I was reading to see how it actually works. I wonder whether anyone has changed into a dragon before? Now that would be really cool. Everybody would stay away from you for fear of making you angry." Alyssa laughed jokingly. Not like she would want to be a dragon, although she was sure her cousin, Caleb wouldn't mind it one tiny bit.

Ella looked at Minnie, surprised, when she said that the dresses she was trying to make would be for Harvey. "F-for Harvey?!" She said, a small smile forming on her face. "Oh man. That'd be so funny to see. You don't think he'd be mad about it, do you?" Though Harvey seemed to have a pretty good sense of humor so he probably would laugh it off.

When Alyssa thanked her, Ella smiled and shrugged. "No problem. You and Minnie did do great. Who cares if we didn't win first, you guys tried your hardest and that's what counts, yeah?" At least that's what counted to Ella. No one could win all the time but if they did their best all the time, they could always be proud of their work.

As the girls continued to talk, Ella turned back to folding her laundry. Pulling out one of her jumpers, she tossed it on the table and tapped it gently with her wand. "Plic Vestimenta!" She smiled as the jumped folded itself. "This spell really is brilliant."

Minerva laughed at the thought of someone being a dragon. "Now that would be awesome. I would love to see someone do a dragon." She giggled and thought to tell Maxwell next time she saw him about the idea. Maybe instead of being her little fox he could be her big dragon. "Well from what I have read it takes a great wizard to be able to do it and most aren't able to do it as early students." She thought about showing all her notes to Alyssa, but figured she was just reading for fun, so why bother her with a ton of notes.

Minerva laughed when she looked and acted shocked over the dresses being for Harvey. "Oh he'll be fine, I think I could do anything to that boy and he would just keep coming back for more. That's why he is my best friend I guess. He puts up with me." She ddn't mean for it to come out that she was always mean to him, but she did like to play jokes on him. "Thanks Ella for the encouragement in class. We needed all the cheering we could get." When she saw Ella turn back to her practice she reopened her herbology book and tried to finally concentrate on the homework. It was really getting no where, so she put her book back in her bag and got up. "I think studying is over for the day, see you girls later." Then she headed out of the study room.

Oakey came to the Study Tables to do what you expect to do at study tables. He sat down in in a chair and dumped the contents of his bag onto the table. In front of him were piles of books Magical and Muggle. He picked up a Muggle Dictionary and began skimming through it until he came to the letter "M". He turned a few more pages and looked down one until he came across the word "Mishap". Reading the definition Oakey was surprised, Mordy had called his life an unfortunate accident. Oakey's life wasn't that bad...well okay it wasn't terrible, but he found ways to enjoy it. Plus he wasn't dead so that was a plus.

Closing the Dictionary Oakey put it back in with the pile of books and took out his Ancient Runes Text book and buried his face in it.

Ella had been looking for her fellow Hufflepuff all over. She had checked the common room and the great hall, even the kitchens. She supposed he could have been in the boys dormitory but no one had come down in ages so...

Feeling a bit defeated, the second year walked over to the study tables, holding her CoMC textbook in her arms. Maybe a little light reading would take her mind off of her troubl-O__O "Oakey?" She asked, seeing the back of someone's head. She walked closer and began to smile. It was him! "I've been looking all over for you." She said, plopping down in the chair next to him and dropping her book on the table. "I need some advice, do you have a minute?"

Oakey was just finishing "The Legend of Odin" for the umpteenth time when he heard say his name. he placed his Ancient Runes Text book down and saw it was Ella. She wanted what? Advice, what kind of Advice could he give her? He was knowledgeable about Ancient Runes and Quidditch but that was about it. He closed his book. Sure, I guess I could. What is it you need advice with? Runes, how to swing a Beaters bat without pulling an arm muscle?

Ella raised her eyebrows when Oakey asked about what she needed help with. Actually him helping her with runes or quidditch wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, though that wasn't what she needed at the moment. "Uh-I was kind of wondering if you could help me on the subject of luck...well bad luck in particular." The second year said, looking sheepish. "It seems I have really bad luck and I remembered you carried around that-was it a rabbit foot? Well I just thought maybe you could help."

She needed help with whaaaa?!?!?! With Luck? Were his problems that easy to pinpoint to his Unluck.

Oh she's only ever just seen me where my rabbit's foot. Which reminded him. It was still missing. I did have a rabbit's foot, but I've lost it about a month ago. Before he could scare her off he pulled out his necklace with the scarab jewelry on it. I have a friend who helped replace it though. Mordy always seemed to come through for Oakey in the worst of times. It's apparently charmed to ward of bad luck as well... I'm testing it right now. He slid the necklace back under his robe. So far, so good he smiled.

He turned and propped himself up so that he was sitting on top of the table facing Ella.

He looked down at her from his new view at the Study table
If you need to make a rabbit's foot, let me warn you it's a lot of very thorough steps and one really unlucky rabbit. It took Harvey a whole year to get his old rabbit's foot just right, and he still lost it in the end.