Laura was just going to try and get through this detention, she just hoped that Alexa wouldn't try any funny business with her, though she was sure that with Professor Hadley being here she wouldn't which was a good point because it meant Alexa couldn't hex her whilst she didn't have a wand.

Laura walked into the room, well at least it didn't look as bad as the torture chamber, that she had been in last year, though seriously she was thinking of buying herself a chair and having her name put on it, so that she had her own personal seat when she came into detention.

Laura looked around and waited for Alexa and the Professor to come into the room, she really wanted to know what the Professor had in store for them, she was afraid it would be like last term and she would be chained to a wall again.

Skip. Hop. Skip.

Will had told Lex all about dungeons and she had to admit that she was a bit curious as to what they looked like. What happened in them anyway? Were they gonna stare at the walls all day because the walls didn't look very prettiful.

By now the 11 year old had gotten over her fowl mood because she was presented with the idea of something new. Lex was a sucker for anything new and was willing to try anything at least once. This detention was like a new phase in her life and it was something she didn't know very much about which meant it would have tonnes of cool surprizes--like dragons breathing fire--oo, oo, or snakes crawling from the walls or something cool like that!!!!

Just the thought of certain danger put a pep in the young Gryffindor's step as she entered the room. For now she would ignore Laura because the girl was stupid and didn't deserve her time.

Entering the room, Josephina closed the door behind her, before turning to the trouble-makers. Well first, her gaze flickered around the dwelling at the rodents skittering across the floor. Gross. She was actually thankful she opted to wear closed-toe heels, considering the condition of the floor. Was Annie even really going to show up?

For now though.... "Welcome. Please, have a seat, both of you," she flicked her wand casually, and conjured up two hard backed, itchy chairs, facing each other. Yes, they were going to be forced to look at each other. And yes, Miss Bouncy first year, you were going to HAVE to sit.

"Sit forward. Straight. Hands on your thighs. Keep your back at a ninety degree angle to your legs." That was their first task, anyway. "And tell each other one thing about yourselves that no one else knows. The truth."

She was still doing her hopping when Professor Hadley walked in and she opted to give her a little smile for taking the time out to WASTE everyone's time but you know...she was a good girl so she... just kept...hopping--Merlin what just ran across the floor?!

Temporarily ignoring the Professor she glanced down and caught hind sight of a rat right before it scurried off.

I WANT ONE. She hadn't fed any rats to Felix in a while and she was sure he'd appreciate it more than the Professor seemed to. Not to self: On way out; nab a rat. Ahem. Right, back to Professor Hadley, it was Hadley. yes? She watched her conjure up two chairs and couldn't help but scowl...they didn't look comfy.

"I can't sit on that. My daddy makes sure I'm comfy before he starts scolding me." POUT. But hey!!! She liked what they would have to do when they sat so she sat plopped down in the chair, winced at the hard surface but ultimately smiled sweetly over at Laura. It was fine because she wouldn't be sitting for long anyway. "I wanna go first! She volunteered Shimming into a more comfy position; the 90 degree strict order wasn't working for her; again her father always made sure she was comfy. "Ahem! Hi Laura, what no one knows about me is that I can bite really hard so think about that the next time you wanna bump into me." Then the smile was gone and the 11 year old was suddenly very serious. She MEANT that.

Laura looked at the Professor as she made two chairs appear, she couldn't believe how hard they looked, but she knew she deserved her punishment so she sat down on the chair and looked at Alexa, who was for some reason complaining it wasn't soft enough but at least she sat down in the chair

Laura looked at Alexa as she said that she could bite hard, well so could she but she wasn't going to tell Alexa that because it was naughty for someone to threaten to bite someone, she rattled her brain for something to say. "Well one thing that no one else no about me is that I love to eat peanut butter and ice-cream together." Yeah it tasted nice and okay maybe it was weird but it still tasted nice.

Although the door to the Dueling Dwelling was sealed to its occupants, the Headmistress had no problem getting into it from the outside. She might have been running late from another hold-up in her office, but she certainly hadn't forgotten about this detention. The redhead slipped in through the door without a sound and click-clacked to a spot behind the Gryffindor's chair.

"Alexa Cambridge," the redhead boomed, putting one manicured hand down on her shoulder with a grip like a Quidditch player clinging to a broomstick, "did Professor Hadley ASK what your 'daddy' does when he lectures you?" She dug her nails into the girl's arm. "Does Professor Hadley LOOK like your daddy? Does this dungeon LOOK like your house?"

No. She needed to sit up straight properly in her chair so that she felt the full effect of it. So Bunz gently pulled the girl back against her chair with her hand. "Laura, thank you for sharing that. Good answer. Five points to Hufflepuff."

That's right. She DID just earn points in detention. First time that had probably ever happened...

Laura was waiting for Professor Hadley to speak when suddenly she heard the Headmistress voice, this wasn't good at all, Laura was really annoyed with herself for allowing her temper to get the better of her, she just sat in the position Professor Hadley told them to sit, waiting for Professor Hadley to speak when suddenly something the Headmistress caught her ears

*OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!*

Laura was in totaly shock her first thought was to just stare at the Headmistress, had she seriously just given her five points for a good answer, she didn't know how to react to that, she thought it was polite to thank the Headmistress but then she was in detention. "Eh!!!" Laura blushed as she looked at the Headmistress. "Thanks Headmistress." Laura then looked back to Professor Hadley and waited to see what was in store for her next.

....

That was it? She liked peanut butter and ice-cream...? Lex liked her answer better. It seemed more informative. Meeeehhhh...

She began swinging her feet idly as she sat in the chair, waiting for further instructions, humming a little tune as she did, when she heard a familiar click-clacking. Wait...why was it familiar--

GAH!!!

Lex jumped in her seat when she heard the booming voice of the Headmistress but before any thoughts of hopping from the chair and heading for the door could come to her she felt a hand latch onto her shoulder.

O_____O Gulp.

And there were those pointed questions...did she expect a reply? Maybe she was being fi..gura..tive....or something...If that was the case then she didn't want to go ahead and give an answer. Nope. She would remain quiet. There was no resistance on her part when the woman leaned her back towards the chair but did it really matter? It was just a chair.

WAIT WHAT?!?!!!?!?!? NOOOOO!!! "What kind of rubbish is that?!" She couldn't help but shout, throwing the woman's hand off her and flying up from her chair. "She talked about peanut butter and got points?!?!?! Are you just as biased as the Professor or something?!?!" The average 11 year old would have taken the injustice quietly but she wasn't the average 11 year old and they must have known that by now. In her anger she suddenly remembered another injustice done against her. "And where's my wand?!" She WANTED it.

Josephina blinked as Lex went on about her daddy and him making sure she was comfortable. And that scowl. Really? Listening to her, she frowned at that comment, which was so NOT the point of the exercise. Who cared if she bit hard? Besides, she was a Lion and so Lions were supposed to rawr, not bite. Badgers bite.

At least Laura was cooperating though.

Before Hadley could react to either of their statements, she heard the click-clack of heels on the stone floor and looked over to see Anastasia had slipped into the dwelling. Ah good, the Headmistress found time to come down and discipline the children; she was quite sure the redhead wouldn't want to miss out on the opportunity to toughen them up.

She cracked a smile when the redhead rounded on the Gryffindor first, about her bringing up her daddy when he punishes her; which she suspected was rather often. And didn't the Gryffindor know how to sit still?!

"She's also not raising her voice," Fina said quietly. "And don't worry, you don't need your wand for the detention. What you do need though is to be able to sit still in the chair. And cooperate." Something that given what she'd seen so far of Alexa, she highly doubted the girl to manage, without complaining.

Right, so now they knew something of each other, time to get to business. She flicked her wand and a blindfold appeared which covered Lex's eyes and all her sight. "Using only your words, Laura, you have to guide Miss Cambridge around the room. Avoiding the rats, because like her, they may bite if provoked. But you should also be aware, she won't have use of her hands to feel her way around..." With that, she used another wand movement to tie Alexa's hands together behind her back....

Alexa turned to Professor Hadley with an even deeper scowl than the one from before. She wasn't asking her anything, she was talking to the Headmistress who stole her baby and was currently holding him hostage. For a brief moment her eyes flickered to the chair. "I don't wanna sit in it. My legs might fall asleep." Then she'd have to run around for a bit to wake them up and she was sure there wasn't enough space in here for that.

Suddenly she had a blindfold over her eyes. "Neat!!! We're gonna play a game!" She wasn't aware that they had pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey down in the dungeons. She snickered sheepishly at being able to go first again. She took a moment to feel the blindfolds. Hmm! They didn't feel blue. "Hey what colour is this thing..." Hopefully blue but--"it's not pink is it?!" She could have lived with it not being blue so long as it wasn't pink either.

The next thing the Professor said left her puzzled. What did it even mean? Before she had time to question it she felt her hands being bound behind her.

???

Was that supposed to happen? Maybe it was a part of the game! Ooooo, she really liked this game. Now she was especially glad that she got to go first! She spun in a complete circle to test out the whole moving thing without her hands or eyes...it was a little weird. "Hey Laura, you mind leading me to the chubby rat I saw earlier; I wanna bring a treat back to the common room for Felix." Because most times he was a good Kneazle.

And with that.....

Spin. Spin. Spin. SPIN. This was just gonna be so epic!!! A blindfolded treasure hunt!!!

Laura looked at the Professor and sighed, this was going to be really hard for her to do since she didn't know if Alexa would listen to her, she would trust anyone to lead her somewhere but she wasn't sure that Alexa would trust her though she hoped she would.

Laura smiled at Alexa. "Okay Alexa, I'll tell you which way to go and then all you have to do is move." Laura said quietly to Alexa, this was going to be very interesting but she could see why Professor Hadely was asking them to do it, it was so they learned to trust each other.

O_____________________O

Laura listened to Alexa and sighed. "I'm sorry Alexa but we don't want you getting hurt." Yeah that was right Laura did care about first year students and so they were going to stay away from the rats. "Right are you ready?" Laura looked down at the floor and then took a deep breath.

"Alexa I want you too take 3 steps forwards and then 2 the right." Laura smiled that would keep her away from harm. "You can do that Alexa, I know you can, just trust me?" Laura hoped that Alexa would trust her.

Cooperation was going to have to be the key element if they hoped to catch that rat. Now that she had lost the use of her hands and eyes it would have been very difficult but she was sure they could figure something out. Hopefully Laura was smart enough to do this because she didn't feel in the mood to leave here without the little guy for Felix.

She sighed heavily when the idiot girl said she wouldn't help her find the rat. If her eyes weren't blindfolded she would have rolled them too. "Fine then I don't need your help." She said stubbornly, turning her back to the source of the unnecessary noise.

Lex thought to ignore where she was telling her to go but then it occurred to her that she would have been leading her away from the rat. GRIN. This could easily be done without her, she didn't need hands. Feeling rather clever she kicked her boots off and wiggled out of her socks--now she could feel. Mmm...the ground felt a little mucky but she could easily over look that. Calculating the moves in her head for a minute she did the exact opposite of what the girl had said. She even took an extra step--

"Owww!" She protested when she felt something latch on to her toe. "Ah hah!!" She had him now. Lex began stomping wildly at the floor, hoping to feel the rat's tail...or even the rat under her foot at some point. "Get back her you little thing." She muttered, stomping away like she was the only one in the room.

Laura looked at Alexa when she did the complete opposite, this was going to be a lot harder that she thought. "Alexa we need to get you away from those rats." Laura was still staying strong and doing what she was told. "I want you to take two steps backwards and then 3 to your left." Laura smiled, that would take her away from the rats. "You can do it Alexa." Laura was sure that Alexa could do it, she was going to be a sort of cheerleader type person for Alexa. "Just remember it's 2 steps backwards and 3 to your left.

"Can you...shut...up!" Lex said through gritted teeth as she tried her hardest to get a foot on the rat. It had to be there somewhere; the bloody thing had just bitten her hadn't it?! Grrr...this was why she fed those things to her Kneazle.

She ignored the girl's other orders, still stomping away furiously at the ground. This time she extended her leg search and began stomping to the sides occasionally as well. "I don't know why I should listen to you if you won't help me out." Yup. In her mind it was her way or the high way so Laura had better make up her mind before Lex completely tuned her out. At the moment the goal was to catch the rat. Give her the rat and she would walk wherever she wanted her to go.

"And quit talking to me like I'm a baby or something--I'm 11." Yeah so the nice voice wasn't going to get her very far today. Once Lex set her mind on something she was going to get it.

Laura looked at Alexa and sighed, this was hopeless, she couldn't do it, seriously Alexa wouldn't ever listen to her and she was going to tell the Headmistress and Professor Hadley that.

"Professor Hadley, Headmistress." Laura looked at them and sighed. "I'll do anything, you can hang me by my thumbs in the dungeon, you can set Professor Lafay and Healer Tillstorm on me." see that is how desprate Laura was to get away from Alexa. "Just say I don't have to try and get Alexa to listen to me." Laura sighed because there was one thing she was sure about and that was no matter what she did Alexa wouldn't listen to her.

Anastasia just shook her head at the Gryffindor, not even bothering to reply to more of her whining as she moved from behind her chair to stand next to Professor Hadley. She was so over this child. Alexa was more 'out' than boots with the fur.

The redhead crossed her arms and listened as the Arithmancy professor explained the brats' task. As the girls got started, with Laura trying her best to be patient and follow directions, it became obvious that Alexa was determined to sabotage this detention and turn it into her own personal.... rat-catching fest.

"What the hell," she muttered quietly to Josephina, her eyebrows furrowing together in anger at the bratty Gryffindor. "I mean really, what the hell is wrong with that child?!"

She shook her head and turned to Laura. "Go sit down, Laura." Then she focused on the Gryffindor, her voice booming once again. "ALEXA CAMBRIDGE, IF YOU DO NOT PUT YOUR SHOES BACK ON AND SHUT YOUR MOUTH RIGHT NOW, YOU ARE GOING TO BE KICKED OUT OF THIS SCHOOL. You WILL respect your elders, your peers, and this school, or you will NOT be sleeping in the Gryffindor dormitories tonight. IS THAT CLEAR?"

Laura looked at the Headmistress and gave her a smile as she sat down on the chair, she was going to sit in the chair in the position that Professor Hadley had told her original position, she hoped that the Professor was going to let her have a go at being blindfolded, she would trust Alexa to tell her where to go and she would hope that would show Alexa she was friendly.

O____________________________________o

Laura had never ever heard a professor this angry and it made her jump in fright even though she wasn't talking to her, she looked over at Alexa and waited to see what the little Gryffindor girl would say back to the headmistress.

Stomp. Stomp. Stom--

What? She stopped stomping for a minute when she heard Laura say that she didn't want to stay with her anymore. Heh. Good. Maybe now the girl would think twice before messing with her again. This was why the 11 year old preferred taking matters into her own hands. When Professors got involved she usually ended up rather unsatisfied but, as was seen earlier, whenever she decided to get even she was usually very successful and therefore very happy. GRIN.

Quite content with her efforts she went back to stomping, ignoring the muttering of the Headmistress. Who cared what the redhead had to say...or grumble?

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

Hey! How come Laura got to sit?! She flashed around in the direction of the Headmistress' voice at the sound of her thunderous yelling. Despite not being able to see her she could see the anger clearly etched in the woman's expression, thanks to her wonderful imagination and it left the girl shaking. KICKED OUT?!?!?

For once, Alexa had nothing to say.

She didn't want to be kicked out!! This was her first year--not even a year, it was her first few months! Her father would have been sorely disappointed in her then he wouldn't smile at her! The sudden fear of never seeing the Gryffindor common rooms or her new friends ever again were enough to have her desperately shifting her feet around in an effort to find her shoes. Hopefully she hadn't kicked them too far away earlier. After a bit of blind searching she found the left foot and shoved her foot into it--but where was the other one?!

Laura looked at Alexa and could see that she was looking for her shoe, well this was the perfect time to get Alexa to follow her right and Laura didn't want to see Alexa get into anymore trouble, so she looked around for Alexa's other shoe.

O___________________________o

Laura suddenly spotted it, standing up she spoke to Alexa. "Alexa go forwards 2 paces then right 3 paces." Laura smiled. "Then you will find your other shoe." Laura hoped that Alexa would listen to her this time.

Where the hell was the other bloody shoe?! She--she had to find it and get it on before the woman threw her on the first thing back to the train station!!

That. Would. Have. Been. Awful.

This detention didn't seem so fun anymore...everyone had gotten all serious and some pretty scary threats were being made. The entire situation was making her as miserable as the day Prof. Hadley had caught her when she broke Laura's wand and she was more than just slightly miserable on that day. A scowl formed on her face; as it always did when she was getting miserable.

She stopped moving for a minute when she heard Laura talking. Pfft. She didn't need her--

DON'T BE STUPID, ACCEPT THE HELP!!!

Mmm... with the blindfold, finding the other shoe would have been impossible and she didn't think the Headmistress and the Professor would have wanted to spend all night waiting on her to do so. Sniffle. She just wanted her bed, her nice warm bed where she could sleep and lie to herself about this whole thing being nothing more than a horrible nightmare. That's all this was...right?

Alexa grudgingly followed the girl's directions and on the last step found that she had landed on her other shoe! Oh! Not wanting to waste anymore time she quickly manoeuvred her foot into and let a sigh escape her lips. Thanks Laura..." Her voice came out in no more than a whisper. The Headmistress had told her to shut up so she didn't want to make things worse by talking any louder than that.

Okay, that cooperation thing wasn't going as planned. Josephina just stood stunned, watching the first year run around anxiously, blindly, stubbornly. She cracked a smile though at Annie's comment over what was wrong with the child.

And then Annie went all official on them, with the thread to suspend the Lioness. Something that seemed effective in for ONCE getting the girl close to acting civil. ABOUT TIME. And she even listened to Laura's directions over where to find her other shoe.

"See how much easier stuff is when you work with someone, rather than against," Fina commented lightly, more directed at Alexa.

"Alright then, next task. Yes, you're still blindfolded, Alexa. No eyes, but you have your hands." She flicked her wand and piles of rubbish games and toys and activities appeared on the ground. "However, Laura will NOT have her hands." Another wand flick tied Laura's hands behind her back and freed Alexa's. "Using Laura's eyes and guidance, she will guide you, Alexa, to straighten up the games into neater piles so no one trips."

Anastasia gave herself a mental pat on the back as she let out a lengthy exhale. FINALLY, the Gryffindor was getting it. If she had to live in complete silence for the rest of her Hogwarts years, then so be it. She was going to learn some respect or she was going to be out of the school faster than she could say 'Hogwash.'

Apparently the girl didn't want that, though, which was a good thing, because Annie really wanted to see what else Hadley had planned for this little detention.

"She has a lot of growing up to do," Bunz murmured to the other Hufflepuff alumna in the room. "They both do. But props to you on the activity!"

Oh how she loved when students were forced to do menial tasks!!!!

Laura just listened to Professor Hadley instruction and felt her hands get tided behind her back, she looked over at the mess. "Alexa, if we work together we can do this in no time." Laura hoped Alexa would believe her, okay so it would take them a bit of time but at least they would be working together and that would be better right.

Laura stood thinking for a couple of minutes about the direction she needed to take Alexa in and once she had worked it out she spoke to Alexa. "take 2 steps for forwards and 4 steps to your left and then bend down and pick up the objects that are there." Laura knew it would take then awhile but she wasn't going to tell Alexa that. "You can do it Alexa."

Alexa had to fight the sigh of exasperation when Laura tried that whole encouraging thing again. It sounded patronizing if nothing else but this was no time to get annoyed. This place was starting to get to her. She was beginning to miss seeing things and more importantly she didn't like being yelled at and threatened. These people really needed to take a page from her father's book; now he had the right idea about punishment.

The sooner they got the stuff into the neat piles was the sooner she could get away from all of them and just sink into her bed.

Okay...

Lex had to replay the directions in her head for an extra second just to make sure she got them and knew she was spot on when she stumbled over what must have been one of the toys. Bending down she began feeling around for all the toys in that general area and drew them into a pile.

Was that neat? She couldn't tell.

"Are we almost done...?" It was only a curious question, her not being able to see and all.