Damon looked up and sighed, And now Ariana's here as well? Wonderful... Then hearing her tone Damon couldn't fight a small snarl, "Hey Ari, back off her, she was trying to be polite." In love with Ariana or not he wasn't going to deal with her being rude. They all were obviously stressed one way or another, her attitude wasn't helping.

Everything Isabelle was trying just wouldn't work. The common room flatly refused to open for her, and quite frankly it was now beginning to get on her nerves.

Along with the sharp chatter coming from Prefect Lecium and one of the two Slytherin girls present. "All right, that is enough," Issy said, moving away from the barrel and turning to face both girls. She'd overheard the whole conversation and to say she wasn't particularly taken in by the Snakes mock upset was an understatement. "If you two can't behave in a civil manner while I try and sort this problem out, I suggest you separate and you return to your own common room, Miss Logan." Isabelle gave her a look, and Belle too. She wasn't in the mood to be dealing with arguing teenagers.

Now, to handle the ideas Minerva and Laura had come up with. Peeves and a chainsaw. One had some merit, the other not so much. Sighing, Issy crossed her arms and began tapping her wand again. "Peeves is a poltergeist, he's more than capable of throwing things around, and quite possibly locking the common rooms. And I suspect it's all of them," she said, looking over at Minerva. "But... so many people at once? I just don't know."

As for the chainsaw. "Laura, come here a second and feel the force on the barrel," Isabelle said, bending back down to touch it, and gesturing for the girl to do the same. It was like a forcefield, one that was bouncing every spell off it. "If we try and use a muggle implement to get through that I hate to think what would happen. Especially with one so dangerous as a chainsaw. Although you're right that it would destroy the barrel, if this magic wasn't protecting it."

Nothing was working. Sooner or later she'd have to think about finding them all somewhere to stay.

Ever since her uncle had passed away that previous summer, Presley felt a strange protectiveness for her younger cousin. Presley had been through the same thing when she was a little younger that Awar had been. She knew how it felt. So ever since then she'd been trying to make sure Awar was okay, every second. So as soon as she figured out what was going on in the Ravenclaw Common Room, she booked it down seven flights of stairs to the Hufflepuff common room to see if Awar was okay. That girl from Slytherin had told them Slytherin was locked out too.

And sure enough Hufflepuffs were everywhere, outside the common room. "Awar! Are you okay?" she asked, skipping around gazillions of people to find her eleven year old cousin sitting on the ground.

Minerva looked at Belle and gave her a smile. This was hard to have friends that sometimes didn't seem to get along. She loved being a floater and not being consider in one actually group, but at the same time she wished some of her friends would act a little nicer. She knew Ari was in slytherin for a reason, but she saw a side of her that wasn't snake at all, she just wished others got to see it more as well.

Shrugging off she heard Professor Magnus and knew she wasn't falling for anything at the moment. Well at least now that might be done and over. Then professor Magnus addressed her thoughts, "I just can't see how anything would do this or want to. It just seems very odd." There really was no other wording for it, and if all the rooms were done something was obviously playing a mean trick on them.

Laura looked at the Professor, seriously she knew that, but sometimes thinking like a muggle would get you in places where magic wouldn't, but she did what the Professor asked and had to admit that it was like a forcefield but still surely a chainsaw might work. "Professor surely nothing can be so powerful nothing will open it." Laura had never heard of a spell that did that. "Professor I don't think it can be Peeves, if all houses are locked out then surely someone would have seen him, it was the Invisable Man that did this or Dark Vader or something like that." Laura smiled.

Sophie frowned when Minerva told her exactly what had happened. They weren't teleported then... and for what they were saying... they were literally thrown out of the Common Room. That must've felt weird...

The fact that it might have happened to the other houses made Sophie frown more. That was really strange... and suddenly a thought crossed her mind. "Professor!! My bunny rabbit is in there!!" OHNO!!! What if they couldn't open the Common Room soon??? Who would feed Brady??? "Do you think the elves can go in, professor???? At least to feed Brady?!?!"

HER BUNNY!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

WAIT! Was Brady also tossed out??? The young badger immediately started looking around the floor. "Maybe he's out here too??" Oh Merlin, PLEASE, let him be there!! She knelt down and started crawling between them all. "Careful not to step on him if he's out here, guys!! PLEASE!!!"

Belle saw that Damon was coming to the entrance. Belle's heart lifted a little when Damon told Ari to back off a little bit. Belle mouthed quietly, "Thank you." to Damon. Then she turned around to see the professor talking to her.



Belle nodded to the Professor. That is what she exactly said to Miss.Logan before to go to her own common room. Belle looked at Ariana and nodded to sort of make ends meet. She did not really want to get off on a bad start.Belle wanted to be the better person.

Belle then asked the Professor, "Professor does the headmaster know about the lock out? Maybe she might know what to do?"

She looked up to find her dear cousin standing over her. "Presley!" She grabbed her cousin's hand and pulled it, gesturing her to sit down. "I'm fine! How are you?" She smiled big.

Good Merlin. When Pres saw Awar sitting on the ground, she'd assumed the little girl had been hurt. Turns out she was just resting her feet. Presley sat down next to her crossing her legs. Her ettiquette coach would shudder to see her now. It was freezing down here! Presley wrapped her jacket tighter around her shoulders. "So, it looks like the whole school got booted out of the common rooms." She observed. The only one she hadn't heard from was Gryffindor, and odds were good they were out too.

"Anyone know what's going on?" This school year was weird. Really weird. Things at Hogwarts were usually spiced up by some great adventure. Like the pirates in Presley's first year. But this was odd. The Headmistress was new, the Astronomy professor was terrible, ghosts were acting funny, and now nobody was allowed into the common rooms. It was strange, and to be honest, slightly creepy to Presley. She just wanted to lay down on her cozy bed and go to sleep.

Odd was a very good word. Why would someone, or something, want to do this? What was the point? What were they gaining? Apart from cold, tired and possibly hungry students. Isabelle nodded along as Minerva, giving the girl a small smile and shrug. She really didn't have an answer to anything right now.

"Something will open it. I just don't know what yet," Isabelle mumbled, resuming her crouching and staring. Staring in the hope her glare would suddenly make the barrel spring open. No such luck.

Wait... "Dark what?"

As Issy stared now at Laura, trying to work out what the child was talking about, Sophie suddenly started panicking.

"Miss Campbell.... I -- MISS CAMPBELL. Calm down. I'm sure your rabbit will be fine. Once we've worked out what is going on, I'll see if an elf can get in." But I wouldn't hold your breath, because something seemed to want to keep everything out.

"I'm sure someone has notified her by now, but I was just about to myself anyway. We need to sort out where you're all going to sleep, and she would be the person to do that," Isabelle nodded. And while she was at it, a message to Fina as well just in case she didn't get the one she'd left in the office.

Flicking her wand out again, Issy cast her Otter patronus and sent it off with a message for the Headmistress, before doing the same again for Fina. Now, to get them sorted and ready to move...

Move to the Great Hall apparently.

What seemed like seconds after she'd sent her patronus, Isabelle got one back. A Nundu suddenly stopped in front of her with the instruction to take everyone to the great hall. As it disappeared in a puff, she turned on the spot and clapped her hands. "Okay everyone, if I could have your attention please! You will all be sleeping in the great hall, so if you could follow me we'll make our way up there now. Grab whatever stuff you have with you and bring it along."

"So, it's not just us?" She asked her cousin. She thought it was an unfortunate Hufflepuff thing again.

She almost wanted to ask if this was a common thing at Hogwarts. The train incident was very scary and nobody knows how to get into our sleeping quarters.

She gasped. "My present for Manolo is in my trunk!" She said looking worried. "He'll think I forgot!"

Oakey had finally done it! He got out of the sink, no need to tell everyone that Laura helped him out of it though! He rushed over group pushing through them all including Professor Magnus! He was dripping wet and smelled slightly like mashed potatoes, be once he reached the barrel he overheard the Transfiguration Professor's instruction to go to the Great Hall. "I need to dry off, and clean up though. Why is everyone just standing around?"

Pao headed down the corridor out of habit. It wasn't until he was five feet from the entrance to the common room that he stopped. Ohh... While his feet had carried him there automatically, his brain understood that there was no way he could enter. The first year just stared at the stack of barrels and sighed. "When can we get back into our home?" he wondered aloud. He, along with many others, was sick of their makeshift residence. Shaking his head, he turned around and walked in the other direction, heading back toward their sleeping quarters.

Leobald proceeded down to the kitchen level of the castle and up to the Hufflepuff barrel entrance with Sophia in tow. His friend was still wearing her long dress that wasn't exactly suitable for trots up and down staircases.

Eyeing the entrance he popped out his wand and said calm and clear "SpeRevelio!".

Well see if they had informed her that she'd be solving some weird ghost mystery and locked common rooms she'd have dressed for the occasional, but nooo she'd just received a message about meeting up at a common room entrance, no explanation no anything.

Talk about stress levels.

At least Leo was wasting no time with getting the unlocking under way. As soon as they spell revealed that they were dealing with the exact same thing as the other common rooms, Sophia raised her wand and cast the unlocking spell.

"Anfth Eeshtrak Fimbaarah"

The soft psssh sound, told her that the spell had indeed worked. "Three points for the Hogwarts staff, evil spirit thing zero. She smiled at Leo then started down the stairs towards the dungeons.

"Let's make it quick Leo I need to change out of these robes."

It didn't take long for Sophia to raise her wand and cast the unlocking spell. Leo was relieved when it turned out it didn't need two people. The distinctive pssh sound was heard once more.

"Sure. I'll check that the common room is now unclocked." Wand still in hand the mop haired man turned the door knob and walked in.

"Orchideous."

Theo said it quickly as he crouched on his knees. It hadn't worked, and it was starting to frustrate him. But he HAD to do it quickly before a sneaky Hufflepuff crept up behind him. Especially one CERTAIN Hufflepuff that he did not need to see right now.

*cough* ELLABISHOP.. *cough*

"Orchideous, Orchideous, Orchideous!!" But nothing. So Theodore closed his eyes, and started to think about mushy stuff. Mushy stuff would help conjure flowers, right? Besides, he should know this cos he'd learnt it briefly in his first year. It was EASY.

With feel.... "Orchideous." And viola, there was a lovely bouquet of roses in his hands. "YES!" The second year lay the flowers just a little way away from the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. Surely their common room was up and running again, since Slytherins was, too. Soo... Anyway... he placed a note on top that he had written up neatly earlier in his recognizable handwriting.

It simply read.... 'For Ella Bishop'

And with that, he sped off like a rocket back to the dungeons.

Late Valentine's gift? I think so.

Ella was on her way back from the kitchen holding a plate full of cookies. They weren't just any cookies, either! These particular cookies were chocolate chip cookies in the shape of dinosaurs! Ohhhh yeah. They were Chocolate Chipasaurus Cookies! BEAM. That's how Ella rolled.

...

Ella stopped just short of stepping on the lovely bouquet of roses, a curious smile on her face. AWWWW! Someone had done something very special for a Hufflepuff and Ella was the lucky person who got to deliver the flowers! That was quite lucky. Hey! Maybe she could even give the recipient a dino cookie too? Double awesome! BEAM.

Bending down, the third year carefully picked up the bouquet and smiled when she saw a note on top. BEAM. Maybe whoever left the flowers had also left a message? For a second or two, the badger debated whether or not it was right to read someone else's note. Because CLEARLY the flowers couldn't be for her. Curiosity won out in the end though and she grabbed the card, turning to read the front.

O___________O

And there on the card was her name. HER NAME! BLUSHHHHHH!
The blonde turned immediately red in the face and chewed on her lip, not knowing what to say.

The part that got her the most was that the handwriting on the card wasn't Harvey's. She did recognize it, though. This was handwriting she'd seen lots of in classes. Handwriting that belonged to someone who was a friend. Handwriting that belonged to

...Theoman.