"Whatever you feel is the right thing to do." He sighed, laying his head on the wall behind him again, "I even told you that earlier in the kitchen. Your choices are yours to make, not mine, not Min's... and not even Maxwell's. Do what would make you happiest." He flicked his wand, Taylor's cookies she'd left in the kitchen appearing. He handed them to her, "Before I forget to give them to you."

Tay shook her head, "Keep them please." She and punched and kicked the wall a few times.

"Didn't you say you were making them for a friend?" He asked puzzled. When she started kicking and punching he sighed, "Want me to leave?"

Tay sighed and slid down to the floor. "Yeah but i am going to avoid the friend for a bit...." She looked up, "No i need to go to the common room." Though she didnt make a move to get up. Her hand and foot was throbbing in pain right now.

Damon looked at her, "I should be heading back up as well..." He sighed, standing up and offering her his hand.

Tay took his hand and got up. As soon as she was up, Taylor let go of his hand and muttered, "Thanks."

He sighed, "What are friend for?" He started walking and turned a corner seeing Arianna. He looked at her for a second, "How long have you been standing there?"

Tay saw Ariana and she frowned. "Is Maxwell sending spies after me to see if i am cheating?" Taylor snapped at her boyfriend's friend.

Ariana heard they were leaving and turned to walk away thinking they would be taking a while, she was a good 40 feet away from the entrance to the secret passage when she heard them, Ariana Stopped dead in her tracks, the ONE and only time they should of taken there time they rushed out she thought to herself. she was appalled at Taylor's comment, she turned around and rushed up to the girl with her wand in hand. "NO, he didn't and so nice of you BOTH to just assume i was spying, You know i am a slytherin, i do Spend most of my time in the dungeons." she said very sternly at the two "But, let me tell you something 'Princess' Max, has been hurt by enough in his past and if you do anything and i mean ANYTHING to upset him or heart him in anyway, i will have no problem getting myself expelled over you." she said with a twinkling look of evil in her eye. she put her wand down before pointing it to Damon not knowing he broke it off with Min already "And the Same goes to you about Min." Ariana smiled kindly at the two of them, a fake smile obviously, and pushed past them down the hall to her common room.

"My bad that i thought she was spying. It sure seemed like it was but it could be another Maxwell thing..." She thought back to that day at the hourglasses. "Ariana, dont you dare threaten me. I dont have a problem with fighting you despite how close you are to my boyfriend."

Damon shook his head, "One, don't threaten my best friend." He said his voice equally stern, "And secondly, don't threaten me over something that's already been done! I didn't mean to hurt Minnie but there doesn't seem to be a way to break up with someone without them getting upset. So... There's no point, I'm already under a death threat from Maxwell because of it."

Ariana kept walking and threw her hands in the air and waved her wrists back and forth "pish, posh." ariana was not afraid of them, she wasnt afraid of anyone.

Geeze Louise, good thing that GRYFFINDOR'S common room wasn't down here. The tower was way, way better.

After finding the exposed secret passage, Paulie slipped into the little passageway and found that he had beaten Miss Ravenclaw Prefect to the spot! Hah. His hands found their usual place in his pockets, and he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he glanced around the dungeon's passageway. Hmmmm.. Paulie needed to go find some secret passages that were STILL secret.

Determined, with straight face and slight stompy pace to her feet, Louisa got into the passage and slung her bag off her shoulder flinging it toward the wall. "I'm ready," she called to the boy waiting for her as planned. The bag fell lifeless to the floor, with a thud from the books cramped in there.

The Ravenclaw got closer to Paulie and took a deep breath, staring right into his eyes showing him how serious she was. "I want to show that Brazil Nut how to mess with my life behind my back." Because Adam was a huge part of her life at the moment, just like Dallin was two years ago and he punched him TOO.

Joao either went ahead and confessed that he wanted her to be in his life, or he should stop chasing whatever or whoever she chose, damaging it.

Not here.. not here... and then, BAM. Louisa was here. In a stompy, down-to-business rage, no less.

The side of Paulie's mouth hitched up a bit when she spoke. She was using his 'Brazil Nut' nickname? Oh yes. She was ticked all right. "Well, you're definitely off to a good starting point, 'cause this is the kinda emotion you want when you're gonna punch someone real good." Because Paulie was SUCH an expert on this. Ahem.

He pushed his lips to one side and glanced down at her hands before meeting her eyes again. "Are you a righty or a lefty? And which wrist is the sprained one again..?" Because if they were one and the same, they may just have a problem.

Good, she was on the right track already. Louisa ignored his smile but she felt herself straighten her backbone just a bit, getting into the zone even more. "Righty, my left wrist was sprained but I don't think it's that bad now." So if she had to use BOTH hands, she would. "I know a little about it, by the way. Adam tried to teach me last year but... something happened and I lost concentration." She wasn't going to lose focus now, it was crucial.

Louisa jumped a step back, lifted both of her fists up parallel to her face and assumed the position. "Do I need to do this?" Hopefully not because Joao was supposed to be taken by surprise... not in a punching contest that'll be end before Louisa blinks.

Huh. Wow. Louisa really wasn't messing around, was she? Paulie nodded when she said she was a righty. Okay, good... 'cause she probably wouldn't need her left hand if she was only delivering one blow. Suddenly, she hopped back and looked as if she was ready for a boxing match. "Nah, you don't need to do that. I doubt Joao would hit ya back." He was a jerk, yeah, but he wouldn't do anything that low. So, Paulie stepped forward and lowered her fists.

"Now.. you just want one really good punch, right?" Surely Louisa didn't want to fight him, because that was just... stupid. "So, I think ya have to have three things to get a good blow: speed, aim, and power." Yeah, that sounded about right. Paulie lifted both his hands up and put them side by side so that they made a bigger target. "'Kay, so lemme see ya do some practice swings. Aim right for the center of my hands.. don't really worry about hittin' hard, just try to hit the direct center."

Daaaarn! No assuming the position meant no dramatic scene. Oh well, she could manage by merely walking up to the boy and swing her fist at him in any position she was at the moment. Louisa repeated after Paulie silently, 'speed, aim, and power'. If he was dorky-free, she'd write some notes too... but this urge was easily controlled thankfully.

She stared at his hands for a second before shooting her right fist directly at the center... not. She hit only the left side. Cursing under her breath Louisa did it again, rather nervously, managing to smack the exactly same spot she'd just hit. Not wasting another minute her hand flew again toward the center but not exactly getting to the point. The left side of the target kept getting smacked. "Your hands are so smaaaall," she drawled, pouting and slouching her shoulders. What was she doing wrong anyways? She gave him three constant smacks with barely seconds between each one of them!

SHE WANTED TO BE READY FOR THAT SCUMBAG ALREADY.

Paulie shook his head. On the contrary.. he had kinda big hands. Or, at least he had really long fingers.. "No, they're not. You're just letting your emotion get in the way of your focus." She repeatedly hit his right hand, then slumped her shoulders and threw three more sloppy punches.

"No, no, nooo. Are you really tryin', Louisa? Or are you just angry and mopey?" Hmmh. Maybe he had moved too quickly. He shrugged off his jacket and rolled it up into a ball before slipping his wand out of his back pocket and using the adhaero spell to attach it to the wall. Ta-da: a makeshift punching bag. "'Kay, so what you're doin' is this.." Demonstrating in slow motion (compared to a usual punch), he wound his right fist back and threw his whole body weight into one swing at the jacket. "See that? There's two things wrong with that punch: your shift of body weight and the pathway of your swing." He moved over so that he was standing behind her. "So, try to keep your feet in the same spot, but use your arm and torso.." After planting his hands on her shoulders, he gently moved her right shoulder forward and the left back so that her torso naturally moved. "..for the power, so that ya don't lose your balance if he misses and also so that ya don't leave yourself right out in the open for a punch from him if he dodges." Again, not that the Brazil Nut would swing back, but juuust in case Louisa had to fend off some horrible criminal in the future and didn't have her wand!

"The other thing is that your arm curves out to the side a bit, kinda like a sideways trajectory, before you hit the target, and this is probably 'cause that makes you feel like you're gettin' more power behind your punch, right?" Building up velocity and what not. "You don't want that curve thing.. all you want is for your fist to have one straight, direct path to the target, so that you get speed and steadiness. We'll work on the power part after the form." Now, he took her right fist with his right hand and, as he moved her torso again, he also slowly extended her arm out toward the target in one straight motion. "See? Ya just want your.." ..Oh. Whoa. Paulie seemed to cut himself off as he turned his head and realized how close his face was to Louisa's. After a moment, he let go of her wrist and stepped back.

"Anyway, yeah.. that's basically how it goes.." His fingers raked through his hair and made their way further down to rub the back of his neck. Good thing HADLEY wasn't spying on them.

Louisa shot him a glare when he said she was 'angry and mopey' coz she was WAY more than that. However, she fell silent and crossed her arms. As he took off his jacket and adhaero'ed it to the wall, she gathered her hair and lifted it into a tighter pony tail, this seemed to be a serious workout. Then Paulie started demonstrating.... did she really punch THAT bad? Louisa didn't think so, "Ididn'tpunchlikethis," she murmured as he continued explaining.

Okay, so, shift of the body weight and the pathway of the swing. Seems easy when you TALK about them. And Paulie seemed to know this, he came from behind her and started moving her shoulders. Louisa's eyebrows rose up slightly, nobody told her about the shoulder moving like-- oh! There was the other part of the move. She focused her eyes on the jacket at the wall and let Paulie move her arm and shoulders. For a moment she felt like a puppet on strings which really got on her nerves because Louisa NEVER allowed people to just move her around - literally and figuratively speaking.

He turned to look at her as he explained, she looked at him too. But he stopped then. She stared at him anticipating more words but instead her skin tingled because he BREATHED ON her cheek. D: Louisa wished that his breath was smelly... coz she'd pull off an act and get this awkward moment over with, but no. It wasn't smelly and thankfully Paulie let go and moved back, his hand raking his hair.

Louisa took a deep breath for concentration and faced the jacket on the wall. "Keeping balance..." she moved her torso like he'd shown her, right shoulder forward, left one to the back. "...and direct pathway." extending her right arm toward the jacket, at the center of it. Louisa gave a crooked smile, "That was in slow motion though." She moved back to position zero and started moving her shoulders and arm the same way over and over again only a bit faster.

After a few swings she paused and grinned at Paulie, slightly breathless, "Y'think that was good?" OFF TO THE NEXT STEP AND SHE WAS READY!

... right?

Paulie caught her little murmur. "Your punch wasn't that bad, but I exaggerated it to teach you." And he was doing okay, yeah? Teaching? Add yet another profession to Paulie's already LONGGG list.

Well, he could tell that Louisa was concentrating hard on all this because her expression showed it. Heh. Should Paulie have been a little concerned about that..? He really wasn't sure, but he could think about that later. Once he stepped back, he watched as she threw her slow motion punch, then a few more normal ones at the jacket. He smiled a bit. Not bad... not bad at all! "Good, Louisa. Real good, actually." She was a fast learner.

"So, the only thing now is that ya wanna just work on putting as much power behind your punch as ya can, while still maintaining that same form ya just used." He nodded his head towards the 'punching bag.' "Have another go."

Real good! Louisa couldn't help but feel proud of her fast learning skills, see when you focused and didn't have a crush on the person touching your waist and arms, you could actually learn something! Good to know. The Ravenclaw nodded at him. Right. More power. That was the part that she dreaded the most.

Turning around and facing the jacket on the wall, she started talking, "I'm not really sure how strong I should put in my fist, really." She curled her hand, moved herself like she did a moment ago and hit the jacket forcefully, with a low grunt, and jumping almost instantly, wiggling her hand, "Ow ow! I think I hit the wall.. GAH." She frowned down at her hand curling and uncurling it. "Err... where exactly should my fist hit the target?" Because her fingers were the ones that hurt... if she was supposed to use her curled fingers as a hitting object then she had no chance in hitting the boy - maybe tickling would do better.

Mhmmm. It looked like Louisa would probably be good to go for a single shot. "So, you said you had a lesson with Adam last year or somethin'? How come that got cut short?"

He cocked his head to the side a bit, not quite sure what Louisa meant. How hard should she punch? As hard as she could.. She swung again and he jumped a bit. She hit the wall?! "Oh! Uhh.." Yikes, yeah, if she hurt THAT hand, then there was no chance she was swinging at anyone. He walked over to his jacket to take it down. "I think maybe we should go back to hitting my hands as a target.." So that she didn't BREAK her hand.

He put up his own hands in the same fashion as before. "'Kay, so hit the center of my hands a few times, and I think you'll be pretty ready." Now they could see if she progressed from those initial punches.

Rubbing her knuckles with her hand she waited for him to take his jacket off the wall and use his hands as a punching bag again. His question made her smile and shrug awkwardly, "Nothing really happened I was just... uhh.." she chuckled and shook her head, recalling her flustered attitude toward Adam that day. "Well, you know how things go when a boy and a girl meet alone and do what.." she hesitated and frowned, "..we were.." Okay, this was officially awkward. Louisa bit her lower lip and forced the stupid flush away from her face, lowering her gaze.

Without warning the Ravenclaw moved her body and threw a punch at Paulie's hands. Not forcefully since her main purpose was to get out of that embarrassing moment, she didn't hit the center either, same reason. But after a couple of unfocused punches, her breath started to accelerate slightly and she did hit the center of his hands. She started adding a bit more strength into her swings, careful not to hit any of his knuckles or wrist joint.

After a minute of focused swings, Louisa stopped and kept her eyes on his hands. "Are you... okay?" Because his hands were a bit reddish now.. more than a bit maybe. Even her own hand hurt from the sudden activity. She curled and uncurled her fist but waited for him to answer.

There was only one more thing left to do for her now; she had to learn how to throw a swing at a face she used to snog with, and then flee without any witnesses. Especially with the badge on her uniform drawing so attention this term, and a couple of months into the year, people were recognizing her as the Prefect even without the badge. She had to brainstorm about that.

Paulie honestly did try to stifle the smirk that was playing at his lips, but it was unfortunately to no avail. hehe. Louisa was being all precious, blushing at the recollection of her time with Adam last year. Perhaps she was feeling a little embarrassed, but that never stopped Paulie before.. "What?? Did ya kiss? Oh! Or was it an 'almost-kiss'? I love those in the movies! So much tension." He grinned a little more, then added, "I mean, you don't have to be embarrassed, Helen. You are datin' the guy now."

Phew! Man oh man, Paulie ALMOST wasn't ready for that punch! After that one, though, he straightened up a bit more and locked his elbows to make his 'hand target' more steady. Bam, bam, bammmm. One after another, she was swinging away. When she focused, her aim was quite good, too. "Hmm?" He turned his hands around so he could see his now reddened palms. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. The redness just makes it look bad." Maybe he was so focused on watching her punches that he forgot about the condition of his hands. Somehow, though, a person's palms seemed to take a beating much better than, say, a person's face. Ahem. Joao and Adam. "If your hand or wrist is gettin' tired, you can take the bandage around your hurt wrist and wrap it around that one." He shrugged. If she preferred.

He watched Louisa for a moment, thinking. During this lull from the blows, Paulie lowered his hands. "Ya know.. you're definitely improving and all with this punching stuff," he told her. "But.. I donno. Are you sure this is how you wanna express your anger to Joao?" He paused. "I mean, I'd definitely feel like hittin' him, too, but... I guess it just doesn't seem like your style." Perhaps that was due to the fact that she was so brainy that he figured her manner of payback would be in the form of mental or emotional discomfort, not necessarily physical. But, it was her choice, and if he were in her shoes, he'd be set on doing the same, so Paulie certainly couldn't do any preaching.