Pao slipped in to the library. He didn't come in here much, but it seemed like the best place to meet Alec. They were going to exchange cryptograms for Arithmancy. And.. since the Common Room just wasn't an option right now.. It's really too bad. I liked our Common Room's study tables area. Nicer atmosphere. It's just too quiet in here. Whereas he could be in a homey atmosphere, with just enough background noise to keep your brain stimulated--but not too much to be distracting.

He sensed someone looking at him. "Hey, Alec!" he said quietly, waving at the Seeker as he walked toward the table where Pao sat.

Alec did not like this.

Not the Artihmancy homework or the fact that he was meeting Pao. No, those two were always awesome! But... the library bit. At least with the study tables in the common room, they could eat there. And with the change in weather, he really felt the need to eat some ice cream.

ICE CREAM. GRIN.

The fourteen year old stepped into the library and... blinked. This was... weird. Was it usually this quiet here? So... were they meant to work... in complete silence. ... Yeah, this was not going to work at all. The Hufflepuff shook his head and looked around in his search to find a small first year.

A call, his name, and Alec turned his head like the majestic ponyboy Aaron thought he was. His hair flipped away... and he GRINNED WIDELY at his housemate. "Pao!" ... Right, they were meant to be quiet. Good going, Summers. Alec shrugged and made his way over towards the young dude, completely disregarding any looks he may or may not have received by calling the guy's name out loud. ... Did this make Pao popular then?

"Hey!" he said once he reached the Keeper, "You ready?" Because he was! This was going to be AWESOME!

What was he DOING? Just calling his name like that! The other studious studiers were sure to be giving them scandalized looks right about now. "SHH!" he said, his finger to his lips in a warning gesture. The Keeper pointed at the seat next to him and cleared away his bag from it, which he had been using to save the space. Just in case, you know, there was a mad rush for the library chairs or something.

"Yeah, I'm ready," he said, careful to keep his voice low. "Here's mine," he said, sliding a paper across the space in between them. On it were the encoded message and a hint.

"And mine?"

Uh oh. From the look on Pao's face, it seemed like he had done something really, really bad. Like embarrassed the little boy. You know, like his Dad did when he asked about Rilez... in front of other people! That was not cool, Dad, not cool. Feeling slightly guilty, Alec grimaced and sat down in the empty seat that Pao had cleared away for him. "Sorry, mate!" Really he was. He'd give away his sweets and everything.

... Well this was... exciting! It actually was! Although, Alec secretly hoped that it wouldn't be too hard because, well, he didn't want to seem dumb in front of Pao. That's not the way to go. "Awesome!" he whispered, taking the piece of paper and grinning at the boy, "Thanks mate!" Please don't make this hard, please don't make this hard...

...

CLUES! The little smart dude had put in clues for the older boy! This... helped, slightly. Even if his brain seemed to turn to mush at the sight of the jumbled letters. And his cryptogram for his fellow Hufflepuff? "Here you go!" he whispered, sliding his piece of parchment across to Pao.

Quote:

Alj, tlmq, V mnvdy oje'fq sfvwwvldm lm Xevkkvmgn ldk ld ltlrvdb beo!

Hint: The first word is your name and the X is a Q and the 'm' and the 't' have been swapped around.

So... that had to make sense, yeah? Right. It made sense to him but... that probably wasn't saying much since he was the one who knew what the message read. "Erm... sorry it's so long!"

Pao mouthed, "It's okay," to Alec. But all the same, he hoped the cool older boy wouldn't be loud the whole time they were working. They could get in trouble! "You're welcome! And... woah, yours is long!" Shouldn't the third year be the one having to solve the longer puzzle? This was backwards.

He shook his head, but nevertheless set to work. He first substituted all the clues he was given. He gave me quite a bit to work with, actually. He scribbled what he knew underneath the original message.

Okay. Easy part done. Now it was time for the hard part--the rest of it!

Alec grinned back at Pao and gave him a thumbs up in return. At least the little dude wasn't mad at him. Or... the librarian for that matter. Alec turned his head and looked around. Okay... so they were safe for now. Perfect! He turned back just in time to hear...

... Yeah. So Pao did think his message was a bit long. But... Alec thought his message was nice! And really true as well. Nodnod. The fourteen year old shrugged and grinned sheepishly at the guy before saying, "I'm... really sorry?"

Right. Yeah. Time to solve a cryptogram!

So first things first... Pao had said that the Q was still a Q and the X was a C. Alec scribbled in the correct letters underneath before letting a frown form across his face. There was more than one X in there so... yeah. Scribbleeeeeee... And OH! The first letter! It had to be either I or A, right? Because... well... the only time someone would use any of the other letters was when... they were talking about that letter, right? Or U in text speak.

...

He would be seriously surprised if Pao decided to use U instead of 'you' here. Shrugging, Alec scribbled down what he knew as well as his first guess.

Quote:

L ahgc rc rlf oac Qelnnloxa Xeg!

I|A|U / _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ i|a|u _ / _ _ _ / Q _ i|a|u _ _ i|a|u _ c _ / C _ _ !

...

Hey, this was like hangman! GRIN.

Okay, hard part time! But first he took a quick glance over at Alec. He was coming along quite well! Catching the Seeker's eye, Pao gave him a quick 'Keep up the good work!' wink. Then it was back to business.

Okay, that second word is definitely 'mate,' not 'math' or something. He substituted the E for the Q everywhere in the cypher. Seriously, only one other E in the whole thing? Wasn't that supposedly the most common letter in the English language? Sigh. Well, that lone V was definitely an I, at least. He scribbled that down as well, along with the rest of the newly-known I's. Oh, and U has to come after that Q in this language, right? Yeah.

Hangman. Just... in the form of Arithmancy. Yeah.

THIS WAS AWESOME.

But... there was a lot of THINKING required. So Alec rested his elbow on the table and his chin on his palm as he sat there and, you guessed it, thought. His grey-blue eyes wandered around until they landed on... Pao's face. Oh hello there Mancini! At the wink, Alec grinned back, trying to silently encourage the boy as well.

Okay, maybe he should stop distracting the young Keeper.

Come on, Summers! HMMMM... So the Q word? That could be Quidditch, right? Because... well... he wasn't sure how many words began with the letter Q. And he wasn't sure how many words Pao knew that began with Q. And... it did fit... Alec bent his head and scribbled in the other letters, crossing out a few of his previous guesses as well.

...

This was starting to get really messy. Eh, he'll fix it later and... maybe write a neatened version of the sentence later. ... OH! Wait! So if the E equalled to a U... he could add those in, right? And the other letters? AWESOME!

So... that last word? That had to be 'cup'. It... well... it couldn't be anything else could it? Because there wasn't such a thing as a Quidditch Cut, was there? No. Nodding to himself, Alec bent his head and scribbled in the guesses.

Quote:

L ahgc rc rlf oac Qelnnloxa Xeg!

I|A|U / _ _ p _ / _ _ / _ i|a|u _ / _ _ _ / Q u i|a|u d d i|a|u t c h / C u p !

...

Wow! Pao Mancini was a smart boy!

Lovely. He was almost halfway there! Okay, what else do we have here...? Oooh! That word! Q-u-i- double something -i-t-blank blank. There was nothing else that could be coming from this guy. "Quidditch!" he exclaimed, before clapping his hands over his mouth with wide eyes. Oops! Library voice. "Quidditch!" he said again, but much softer this time. He made the necessary addendums to his cypher. And that contraction has to start with Y, either you're or you've. Looks like that didn't help him all that much, though. Only one extra letter in the last word.

Okay, what else? Those two words after Quidditch... The only thing that fit in both spaces was... An N! It's gotta be N. He made another set of substitutions. And that fourth word.. t-h-i-n- blank. Hmmm. Thine? Thing? Think? Thins? It really needed to be a verb where it was, and the only one he could think of in English was 'think.' He tried it.

The library was a really silent place. Not... that he didn't know that before. Of course he did! But... it was just now that he was sitting here silently with Pao that... well... he had realised just how quiet it can get in a place that had people in it. Odd.

But then all of that was disturbed by a shout.

Alec jumped and looked towards Pao, his facial expressions turning from one of fright and worry to... an amused one. He used his free left hand to cover his mouth and stifle the laughter. Pao really was a funny dude! "Well done, mate, well done!" You know, for getting the correct word, not shouting in the middle of the library.

Then again Quidditch really was that exciting!

Time to concentrate, yeah? Yeah. So... this was only a sentence. And really, it shouldn't be so hard. But there was just something about the middle words that he couldn't figure out. They were two/three/four letter words and yeah, those words were the easiest ones but there were a LOT of words that could fit in those spaces.

OH! Wait! The Quidditch Cup... it was an object, yeah? So... well... it should have the word 'the' written before it, right? YEAH! And... OH! Wait! Didn't Hadley say that E was the most common letter in the English language? So... the letter that appeared the most in this cypher was C. So it had to fit! GRIN GRIN GRIN! Alec bent his head and scribbled the letters in place.

Now... the second word... that was EASY! It was only one thing it actually could be because, well, there was no such thing as hape or hepe or hupe or hipe. It had to be hope! Alec grinned some more and bounced a little in his seat before filling it in.

Quote:

L ahgc rc rlf oac Qelnnloxa Xeg!

I|A|U / h o p e / _ e / _ i|a|u _ / t h e / Q u i|a|u d d i|a|u t c h / C u p !

...

There was a feeling inside of him. One of smartness. Alec Summers was a smart boy now! GRIN.

Oh dear, he'd caused Alec to jump?! He must've been REALLY loud. Pao looked around to make sure the librarian wasn't about to swoop down and kick them out. Seeing no signs of impending doom trouble, he relaxed slightly. "Er.. thanks," he said guiltily. Continuing quietly, he said, "You're a lot closer, too!"

He looked at his own encrypted message again. He was so close he could almost taste it! Ewwwww. Old parchment? Gross. Okay, so close he could almost feel it, anyways.

So... That last word had to be a noun because of that 'an' before it. So it's not 'buy' but it could be 'guy' still. He mentally checked the rest of the alphabet. Yes, 'guy' was the only option. Which means..., he thought right after he inserted all the G's, that the word right before it has to be 'amazing!' There were no other Z's, which wasn't surprising, but still disappointing.

Alec shook his head and grinned at the guy, silently telling him that he was all okay. Because... well... the librarian can't kick out someone for saying 'Quidditch' out loud, can he? ... Alec hoped not! But then again, they could always camp outside and eat something whilst doing this.

Although... Hadley might not appreciate any food smears. And she might not like all these crossings out he had on his parchment. Eh.

The fourteen year old ruffled the Keeper's hair as if it was his own before saying, "Anytime! And... I... thanks mate!" GRIN! So if he was nearly done, he should get back to the cypher, no? Yeah. He was going to finish this and then... he'd think about that later.

And that smart feeling? Well, that went flying out the window faster than you can say 'HOLD THE SNITCH'. What was Pao even trying to say in this message? I hope [beep] [beep] the Quidditch Cup! So Pao... was hoping for something to happen to the Quidditch Cup. And that something, the verb, had an I in the middle.

...

Hit? No, that wasn't a H there. Or a T! Mit? No... Bin? Definitely not! Because then the sentence would read: I hope be bin the Quidditch Cup, thanks to the two R's that were there. And he didn't really know what else it cou-

...

WAIT. HOLD THE SNITCH.

I HOPE WE WIN THE QUIDDITCH CUP! Alec GRINNED WIDELY and waved his arms around wildly before scribbling in the letters. YES YES YES! It... well... it had to be right but... there was only one way to know. And to do that, he had to write it out neatly!

Quote:

L ahgc rc rlf oac Qelnnloxa Xeg!

I|A|U / h o p e / w e / w i|a|u n / t h e / Q u i|a|u d d i|a|u t c h / C u p !

I / h o p e / w e / w i n / t h e / Q u i d d i t c h / C u p !

And Pao? Alec's eyes shone a bright blue as he looked on at Pao scribbling away at his parchment. The puzzle... it wasn't too hard for him, right?

"You're welcome," he whispered, now ultra-aware of how loud he spoke. There was NO WAY he wanted to get them kicked out of this library. Not in front of Alec. When they had nowhere else to go because the Common Room was off limits. He didn't fancy trying to concentrate in their sleeping area, with the smell of food from the kitchens wafting up from below.

Right, so. Back to work.

The contraction was either going to take an R or a V in that blank. First he mentally tried the V. Pao, mate I think you've something at Quidditch and an amazing guy! No, that didn't work. The 'have' bit doesn't work with 'an amazing guy' at the end. It has to be the R, I think. He made the swaps.

That's when he noticed that Alec had put down his quill. Was he done? Pao peered over. Sure enough, he'd gotten it! "That's right, mate!" he said, raising his hand for a high five. Then he gasped and lowered his hand. That would be too noisy. "I'm close, just one more word!"

He made a list of all the letters that he hadn't used yet. There was only B, F, J, L, S, V, W, and X. He mentally discarded the J and X, since those letters were rarely used. Okay, the most likely letter left are L and S. Now that double letter there in the middle... It could be '_ rilliant' or '_ rissiant.' It had to be... "Brilliant!" He finished out the word.

"Is that right?" he asked Alec excitedly.

Alec sat back, slumping slightly in his seat. He tried his hardest not to look at Pao as the dude worked because... well... that was a bit creepy, right? Yeah. And he, Alec Summers, was not a creepy dude. Awkward, maybe. Creepy, no.

...

Maybe he was very awkward.

And then the first year spoke and Alec turned his attention back to him. "It is?" he asked, sitting up again, "Awesome! And... erm... I hope so too!" At this, he nodded down at the parchment and the solved cypher, trying his hardest to ignore that nervous feeling he was getting in his stomach.

Championships were ages away... right? Gulp.

The Hufflepuff just nodded and let Pao finish, looking at the piece of parchment intently as the guy scribbled away. His answer... seemed to look neater than Alec's. ... Eh. It was okay. At least... they were solving these cyphers. That's what mattered, right? YEAH.

Oh look! Pao was nearly done! Alec sat up straight, a grin slowly spreading across his face until...

YES!

He didn't really need to check but one glance over the parchment told him all he needed to know. "Yeah, it is!" he whispered, grinning at the Keeper, "We make an awesome team!" GRIN GRIN GRIN!

Wait, he was right? Sweeeeeet! He couldn't help it. This was cause for a high five, even if it would cause noise! Yeah! He raised his hand for the gesture. "Up high, man!" But.. Alec thought they made an awesome team?!?! That was like.. the best thing he'd heard. ALL. DAY. LONG.

GRIIIIIIIN.

This was cause for celebration. "Wanna go hit the Great Hall? We finished so fast, there may still be some puddings left!" He packed his bag quickly so he'd be ready to leave: either with Alec if he said yes, or without Alec and with embarrassment if he said no.

With the two books in her hands, the fifth year made her way towards the study area. She looked around, eventually picking a random seat. The Ravenclaw than started looking at the covers of the two books. Even though she should have probably started to study in Divination a while ago, Gwendolyn had postponed that as much as she could. But now… with OWLs coming up, she really needed to take things seriously. So that was the first book she had brought. Gwen eyed the cover of the Divination book a bit, but then put it to the side. She was so not in the mood for that. Nor would she ever be.

Instead of studying for what she had planned, the fifth year drew her attention to the second book, eventually starting flipping the pages of ‘Potions elabore’. Well, this was at least something she liked. She’ll have enough time for Divination too, yes? Probably… It was just so irritating that she was such a failure at that subject. Ughhh. She hated to admit it, but she really needed to convince herself to stop postponing it for much longer.

Eliza had her book bag stuffed to the brim with notes from her lessons and homework instructions. She wasn't sure how she was ever going to find time to do all of it, especially now that she'd been spending so much of her free time contemplating the strange occurrences at Hogwarts. She knew she had to get a jump on some of the workload though, so she asked Ethan to meet her here for some help.

She spotted a table for them to work at and laid out her things. She pulled his chair out a little for him, so that it would be ready when he arrived. Should be any minute now... she thought to herself as she looked down the aisles around her.

After a quick bite to eat in the Great Hall, Ethan walked up to the library for the second time today and adjusted the messenger bag's strap on his shoulder. Merlin.. it felt like he practically lived in the library anymore.. he seemed to spend more time there than anywhere else with all the OWL studying he had to do. Not to mention the homework..

But he was thankful to be meeting Eliza today, because it always made homework go a little easier when he had someone to work with. Besides,Arithmancy was a class he was halfway decent in and he wouldn't mind helping out the younger Claw if she needed some assistance.

Making his way through the room, he spotted her at a table up ahead. "Hi, Eliza," he said brightly as he approached and set his bag down upon the table. Pulling the chair out a little further, he sat down and gave her a slightly concerned smile. "So.. how have you been?" He wanted to make sure she was alright since that horrifying incident in Astronomy the other night.. like no nightmares or anything.

Eliza looked up when she heard Ethan greet her. She was glad he was here. She had struggled with the decoding in Arithmancy, so she was hoping he could help her get through the assignment.

"Hi Ethan," she responded cheerily. "How have I been? Well let's see...teachers have been kidnapped and maybe even killed...animals are disappearing and dying, our common rooms hate us... I've been worse." She chuckled and smiled. "Really though, with all of these things happening, it does make it hard to focus on school work." She looked down at her paper for a moment, then back to him. "Thank you for making sure I got out of the tower all right. It was nice to know that at least if something took me away, someone would notice." She gave a small smile at the thought. I'm so glad no one else has been taken. Especially my friends, she thought to herself. "How have you been doing?" she asked. I'm sure his life has been a lot busier than mine. It's nice of him to take some time out to meet me.

She pulled out her notes on their Arithmancy homework and looked to him, conflicted. If he knows I had a hard time in class, will he think I'm dumb? What if I never get better at decoding? Does that make me less of a Ravenclaw? She knew it was sort of silly to think so, but she did feel a nagging doubt about the subject. She knew though that she would never get better if she didn't ask for help. She gave an internal sigh before she opened up.

"So...I didn't quite catch on...in Arithmancy." There, I said it. "I got some of the letters decoded, but it was hard for me to get past the not knowing. And then remembering and guessing," she said in a disgruntled voice. "Do you think you could go over the homework with me for it? I just want to get it done right." She skewed one side of her mouth up in a hopeful plea.

Ethan emitted a soft chuckle as he glanced down for a moment. "Dumb question, I guess," he said with a small smile as he looked back up at her. "Some good news though, if you haven't heard.. well, a rumor anyway.. I just heard down in the Great Hall that some of the professors were able to open the common rooms. I haven't had a chance to get up there and check it myself.. but I'm going to go up there to see when we're done." Small consolation after everything that had gone on.. but he'd take it. He really hoped the rumors were true.. then he'd be back in his own bed tonight instead of those tiresome sleeping bags.

He nodded at her words. It really was hard to focus on schoolwork with all the strange things going on.. what with being on edge all the time and having thoughts consumed with mysteries. "I've been okay.." he said, offering her a small smile. "Really busy.. I have OWLs coming up really soon, so I've been spending most of my time studying for those.." She was really lucky she wouldn't have to worry about those for quite a while.

Ethan watched Eliza pull out her notes and he did the same. "Okay.." he began, nodding in understanding. "Yeah, sure, no problem," he added with a nod. "I like puzzles like that, so I'll try to help.. Have you started anything yet? I actually haven't done my homework yet, so maybe we can work together.." But first he needed to know how much of it Eliza understood.

It has been a tiring day for Zoey. Classes....classes...homeworks...and more homeworks. There just doesn't like a day where there's no break at all. So Zoey has decided to come to the library...to take a little break from working in the noisy common room. It's either someone blows up a dungbomb or some drama going on. Zoey just want somewhere quiet to work.

Zoey set her books, parchments, and quills down on an empty study table...a little bit too loudly (it was rather heavy). She quickly glanced around the room to see if she disturbed anybody and silently whispered a few "sorry's". Then, she sat down, flipping through her planner to see what she needs to work on next.

Although there's much to be done, Zoey doesn't feel like working or studying. Something like this always happens - Zoey never feel like working...never. Especially when it's such a lovely day....

Instead of scribbling down homework, Zoey went on daydreaming about today and what she could do...

She smirked a little and said, "No, not a dumb question. I just gave a useless answer," she said with a smile. "Oh really? That would be nice to sleep in the dorms again. Camping out is fun, but my back is getting a little sore! Do you think they rooms are safe now? ...I wonder how much the parents hear about this stuff though, you know? I can't imagine it's much or else they'd want us all back home right away." Except for my parents. They might view it as some opportunity to come into my own and get my wits about me, she thought. Well, they'd probably want me back really, but they would say it was a good learning experience...

"Oh that's right! I'm glad I don't have those yet. Good luck to you!" She thought about exams for a moment and wondered how hard they would really be. "Could you let me know what they're like once you take them? If I can get prepared for the format now, it might help me later." There was that Ravenclaw spirit kicking in again.

He'll help me? Thank goodness! She pulled out the method sheet the professor had given them to help crack codes and stared at it a moment, trying to take it all in. "Well...I get the basic concept. That one letter is equal to another letter or number depending on how you code it...And I can get a few, but I feel like it just takes forever to figure the other ones out. Maybe it's because I'm over thinking it or something. She looked back at her blank parchment that was meant for her homework. "I haven't started mine either. Is it okay if I make a crytogram for you, so you can check that I'm doing it right?"

She went to work on her paper, trying to decide which letters to link to other letters and wondered if he'd be able to figure it out. She spoke while she was writing, "You'll probably be faster at figuring it out than I will be at writing it!" She chuckled a little, a defensive reflex. She didn't want to appear dimwitted, so humor was her best decoy.

Once she had finished, she copied the finished cryptogram to a new piece of paper and slid it over the desk towards Ethan. "See what you think," she said as brightly as she could, but a twinge of self-doubt might have slipped through.

Quote:

BLFGN ERS WRZ LCVIQGJ DC KQBL BLC LRDCKRZN

Ethan's smile faltered a little at Eliza's words. Yeah.. he had wondered how safe the common rooms were as well, especially after something was so intent on keeping them out.. and he wasn't surprised that the first year wondered the same. Seemed like such a Ravenclaw response.. "Yes, I'm awfully tired of those sleeping bags too," he began, with a light chuckle. "But, I'm not sure about the common rooms yet.. I want to check it out first.. I don't think the professors would let us back in if there was any danger though." So it would be best to hear from them first.. although he wasn't completely sure they knew much about what was safe anymore, especially with everything that had been happening.

The boy chuckled a little. She was already wondering about OWLs.. and it sorta made him wish he had someone older who could have shared the ins about the exam with him. But he knew he was pretty well-prepared and was feeling more confident about them as they drew nearer.. which was probably the opposite reaction for most. "Thanks, Eliza," he grinned. "Sure.. I'll let you know what they're like.. and you'll have plenty of time to prepare," he added with a wink.

The fifth year leaned over a little to look at the younger girl's parchment and he nodded at her words. "Right.. that's the basic idea.. but you can also use the Pythagorean or Chaldean numerology.. although that gets a bit more complicated.. best to stick with letters for now, I think." At least until she had a pretty good handle on solving the cryptograms.. and as a first year, he would expect that she should start out a little more simply. "Well.. why don't you watch me work on one and maybe if you see my methods, it might help you figure them out?"

He nodded a little at her words and, while she began working on her puzzle, Ethan pulled a few things from his bag.. He had his own to do as well and maybe she'd like a little extra practice. The boy looked over at the piece of parchment slid in front of him and he picked up his quill to begin working on it.

BLFGN ERS WRZ LCVIQGJ DC KQBL BLC LRDCKRZN

"Okay.. first I start with the smaller words. If there was a one letter word, you know that would have to be either A or I.. but there's none of those. I like to look at three letter words next, because most often there is the word AND or THE in the puzzle," Ethan said as he looked between the puzzle and Eliza. "So there's a few three letter words in your puzzle and I would guess that at least one of them is AND or THE." He looked through and pointed out two of the jumbled-lettered words. "So, if BLC equals THE.. it would make sense, because at the end of KQBL would be _ _ TH.. that's something else you can look for.. often when you see an H in a puzzle it also goes with a T or C in front of it." Ethan began working on that part of the puzzle to show her and exchanged the Bs for Ts, the Ls for Hs, and the Cs for Es throughout the puzzle.

THFGN ERS WRZ HEVIQGJ DE KQTH THE HRDEKRZN

It had been a while since he had seen her. Either he was busy .. or she was. Running his hand through his hair rather frustratingly, Nathan looked up from his book - looking around to see if she was here yet.

Nope, no sign.

He had asked her to help him study .. Not that he needed much help, given that Delphi pretty much helped him through each one of his classes and homework - he just needed a reason to get Addy alone with him. They were boyfriend/girlfriend, right? THEY needed timeee with each other.

Yep.

Ethan paused for a moment to look over at Eliza to see if she was understanding his method yet, then he continued.. Maybe he wasn't making a whole lot of sense to her - he wasn't sure - but it made perfect sense in his own head and he wasn't sure how else to explain. "Okay, so I'm guessing this word is either both or with.. as those are the two four letter words that end in -th that I can think of off the top of my head," he said pointing out the word to her.

He looked at the puzzle for a second. "If the word is both, the next word is the.. and both the doesn't flow right in the sentence.. so maybe it's with.. with the flows better." Ethan began changing all the Qs to Is and the Ks to Ws.

THFGN ERS WRZ HEVIIGJ DE WITH THE HRDEWRZN

He looked at the puzzle again after changing those letters. "Alright, now this two-letter word that ends with E.. should be be or me.." Looking at the puzzle, he added, "Me makes more sense.. be with the doesn't sound right." And he changed all the Ds to Ms.

THFGN ERS WRZ HEVIIGJ ME WITH THE HRMEWRZN