Sarah walked into the common room, in her hands was the vase with her flower arrangement in. She hoped Penelope would like it... speak of the devil.. there was Penelope right there, by the study tables... awesome...

"Hey everyone!" she said to those gathered. Many of her friends were there. "I hope I am not disturbing you..." . Maybe this was the wrong place to give it to Penelope...
She then turned to Penelope.
"Penelope, this is for you. I remembered you being down the first night we were here so I decided to make you this" She placed the arrangement on the table.

Kurumi had made a quick trip to her dorm room to sort through her potions supplies for a vial of Shriveling Potion and an old box that she would have thrown away otherwise before she had arrived at the study tables - somewhat lost in her own thoughts due to the task at hand. Not looking at her surroundings, Kurumi set the box down on the table along with her basket of flowers and leaves that she had collected earlier that day in the greenhouses beside it before sitting down and removing her wand from her pocket.

Right, mental check list time. She first needed to apply the potion to the flowers and leaves to dry them. Then she needed to magnify the scent somehow if it wasn't strong enough. Then she needed to transfigure her rubbish box into a proper one... that seemed to be about it.

Kurumi removed an eyedropper from her potions kit and removed the cork from the vial. Once the dropper was filled, Kurumi applied a single drop to every single flower and leaf, watching as they contracted and shriveled up. A few that became too shriveled up were quickly banished as they would not be useful for the task, but Kurumi was left with more than enough to fill her box - the smell was rather potent as well, while also being extremely relaxing. Kurumi had used similar floral remedies when she had been home the summer her mother had passed away. One of the only ways she had been able to relax into sleep.

Setting the dried flowers and leaves aside, not bad for a first time attempt at popuri, Kurumi turned her attention to the box and drew her wand again. She alread knew the sort of design she wanted it to turn into - having seen a similar one in her grandmother's room when she was younger - so it didn't take very long for Kurumi to transfigure the rubbish box into a proper wooden box. Smiling to herself, Kurumi removed the lid and began to fill it with the dried flowers and leaves until it was almost filled to the top and she slipped the lid back on.

Leaning back in her seat a little, Kurumi waited a few moments to see if the aroma from the flowers and leaves would reach her now that it was in a new home - which it thankfully did.

The easy part was over...now came the hard part: delivery.

Penelope nodded too. Yeah, politeness was good. It wasn't always easy to be polite to everyone though.

Young talents? Well she wasn't sure about the last part, but... "Yeah, I'm one of the younger ones." Since most of the team was older than her. She didn't like Quidditch though? That was sad. But she still supported them and stuff, so she was still okay in Penelope's books. It seemed they had a few other things in common though. "I have a cat too," she replied. "And I like Chocolate Frogs." She could live without them though, as long as she had other food still.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Princesspower

Sarah walked into the common room, in her hands was the vase with her flower arrangement in. She hoped Penelope would like it... speak of the devil.. there was Penelope right there, by the study tables... awesome...

"Hey everyone!" she said to those gathered. Many of her friends were there. "I hope I am not disturbing you..." . Maybe this was the wrong place to give it to Penelope...
She then turned to Penelope.
"Penelope, this is for you. I remembered you being down the first night we were here so I decided to make you this" She placed the arrangement on the table.

SPOILER!!: view from the side of arrangement

Oh, and then Sarah was here!

With a vase of flowers? That was pretty...

...and they were for her? Because Sarah remembered how she'd felt at the start of term? A small smile appeared on Penelope's face when she heard that. She couldn't believe Sarah had remembered that and actually thought to give her flowers for it. It was probably one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for her.

"Thanks, Sarah," she replied, still smiling a little.

Sarah was glad Penelope liked them... and it seemed judging by the other girls smile that it had cheered her up. ”anything for a friend you know” Sarah said smiling back. “I hope what was bothering you is better now or at least is getting better” Sarah had picked up a few clues what it was about mainly from quidditch tryouts. Boy trouble it seemed like. Sarah was glad that she never had to worry about that... she had enough trouble dealing with girls a boy would just mess it up. She sagely kept quite though, Penelope had not officially shared anything with her or asked her advice and things. Although she wished Penelope would. It would be nice to be confided in though. And Sarah would like to hear Penelope’s side of the story in full. Some girls needed to have boyfriends others did not. Although few girls in Sarah's opinion fell into the former category. She did not need a boyfriend yesiree.. at least not yet. Through her brothers she had enough boys in her life to keep her happy and she knew what most boys thought about boys. That disturbed her greatly.

Penelope nodded a little. "Yeah, it's...getting a little better, I guess," she replied. And it was kinda true. It still wasn't GREAT, but gradually things were looking up, at least more than they had been at the beginning of term. And then impulsively, Penelope gave Sarah a quick hug. "Thanks again," she added with a small smile.

Sarah was happy that her friend was happier. "AWESOME! I am so happy for you! May they get only better and better!"
Then Penelope hugged her... Sarah embraced her friend tightly. She loved hugs. At home her mother and father always hugged her and now at Hogwarts not enough people hugged her. She was feeling hugged deprived you see. Sarah is a very affectionate and huggy person. "its a pleasure... Remember if you ever want to talk I am here."
It was then that Sarah remembered that she had not congratulated Penelope on quidditch. "BY the way. You were brilliant at the quidditch match. You are such an amazing seeker... My, I think you are going to be the lion quidditch captain one day!" Yeah, Sarah had it all sorted, she was going to be prefect and Penelope captain...

It happened so suddenly, and quietly, but it happened all the same: the hardworking students who had been studying at the Gryffindor study tables suddenly found themselves pushed out of their seats, shoved out from their desks, rolled out of their common room, and generally ejected from their House's private area.

An unseen force repelled all Gryffindor students from the Common Room and attached areas, and locked all entrances and exits to the rooms. The Common Room was officially locked and sealed.

Sarah needed to convene a meeting with Alexa, she hold told her to meet by the study tables. While Sarah waited for her friend she tried to do some homework. Her ink was running out, being nearly the end of the year yet she seemed okay for now. She would miss Hogwarts when she went home.
While she waited for Alexa to some she wrote a farewell message to Kurumi who she would miss so much

After having a good snack down in the Great Hall Lex dragged herself up to the common room where she'd promised to meet Sarah. Though homework wasn't her favourite thing it was a necessary evil that she needed to get done.

The young lioness stretched lazily as she approached the study tables. After homework some sleep would be in order. "Hey Sarah. You ready to get started...?" Because you know...if she rathered them have a nap first she wouldn't complain. Homework was lame. She took a seat opposite her friend and took out her own quill and parchment. "I already have my code ready for you to give a shot, you have yours too, right?" Or did she need more time...like the rest of the afternoon--Stop it Lex, homework no, sleep later.

Sarah had decided to do a REALLY easy one for Alexa, she was only a first year, although Alexa did not seem like the stupid type, Sarah did not want to embarress her friend in anyway and did it really easy.

So as Alexa approached and sat down opposite her, Sarah put away her letter to Kurumi and said "sure, let the fun begin!" She fingered in her satchel for the partchment, she had done it before and tested it as well. "Here it is! Good luck!" She said "I even helped you by putting the different words on different lines, each letter is represented by a number and there are dots between each number" Sarah said showing her friend. Really easy, like codes for dummies

Alexa grinned when she heard the work was made easy for her! Good! In her current condition she couldn't bring herself to do anything too hard. In the time it took her to rummage through her bag for her own she heard Sarah saying something about numbers and words. Meh. She'd figure it out; especially since it was made easy.

She shifted a bit in her seat then turned to face the girl again--

JBDUVDCFDDUSKJSVDUI!!!

Didn't she say she'd made it easy??? What in Merlin's beard was that?! She could hardly tell anything a part from anything and this was easy?! Man, older kids were really something, weren't they.

Deciding not to hurt herself just yet she stretched her own simply code across the table towards her. [b]"Here you go. I know you'll have better luck with this one. "I'm positive you'll do better."

Then she reached across and took the one she'd be decoding. She stared speechlessly at it for a few moments before she decided she would finally give it a try. Okay. Here went nothing.



She went through, crossing out numbers and adding letters as she saw fit. Half of this wasn't making sense and it was giving her a headache.

Sarah looked at the code she was given and got to work, as there was no single lettered words she began with the frequency table Sarah thought that J was Either E,O or T, as they were the only letters of the six that could be a second letter of a two letter word.
Then again, she though F was E, to make the first word SEE

While Sarah was busy working away at her own puzzle Lex tried to understand just what she was looking at. She'd only been able to guess the first letter or two and this was quickly becoming rather discouraging. She didn't like feeling stupider than she needed to and this most certainly was doing just that. If Sarah said this was easy and she was having such a hard time then wasn't she stupid??

Staring down at the parchment for a bit longer she finally sighed in resignation. "I can't do this Sarah...not without a hint anyway." See? She was still willing to try...just with a little help was all. "You mind telling me what one of the numbers translates to?" Just one. That's all she asked.

This thing was hard! It made her feel bad about the easy one she'd given to the girl.