It was a fair bit quieter up here now that the common rooms had been closed for a while. Some people, Dora noted, occasionally stopped by to see if they could attempt vainly to enter their common rooms. But that wasn't why she was up here. The twelve year old missed her common room, sure, but really she just wanted some space from everyone in the great hall.

That place wasn't so great when everyone was forced to live all cramped together there.

The rain eliminated the option to go outside, but she still had the highest corridor to hideaway in from all the chaos down below. Legs crossed she sat in a window nook and carefully stacked exploding snap cards.

Laura didn't like the fact Belle was a prefect, it meant they couldn't spend a lot of time together because she was too busy with prefect stuff, but well it didn't mean Laura couldn't have fun, when she saw Belle waiting around she slowly and quietly walked to just behind her and then in her best Professor voice she could do she said. "And what would a Hufflepuff Student be doing up here on a day like this?" Laura couldn't help it, she started to giggle. "Oh I'm soo sorry Belle but I couldn't help it."

Even with her prefect duties, Belle tried to make time for her friends. Belle stiffened when she heard a professor's voice. "Oh i am sorry professor...." then Belle saw Laura there giggling. "Omg Laura!" Belle said happily and went to hug her . Belle laughed and said, "Nice tricking the prefect Laura. I will give you props for that." she felt stupid she fell for it, but she laughing getting away the stress from studying and doing homework. "But i needed that laugh that is for sure. How have you been doing Laura!? I have not seen you in a while. We need to catch up."

Laura giggled when Belle started to say she was sorry to a Professor. "I can't believe you fell for that Belle." Laura giggled as she hugged her friend. "I'm glad your not mad with me." Laura had really missed her friend. "I'm glad I made you laugh, it's a much better thing to do that working all the time." Laura looked at Belle and smiled. "I've been doing homework and having fun, what about you?"

Belle laughed at herself and slapped herself on her forehead playfully. "I can not believe i fell for that either. I guess my brain is like dead from studying and catching up on my homework and prefect duties. My brain will fall for anything now a days." That was somewhat. She was in a daze and was in her own little world.
Belle shook her head, "I can never be mad at you Laura. You played a harmless prank that is all. We all had little laughs." She went to go hug her again. When Laura asked what she has been up to, Belle replied the same way Laura did. "I have been doing homework and having fun too. I even been exploring the castle sometimes to clear my head. I have visited places i never knew. Like i usually never come to the seventh floor corridor."

Aidan was one of those vainly attempting to get into the common room. He just wanted his chocolate. It was STILL in there. Hopefully. But the boy was starting to wonder if he was ever going to see it again. Sure, his sister had taken to sending him some (from Sugarplums, though, which was NOT as good), but he was missing his whole stash. HIS WHOLE STASH.

Sighing loudly, and...multiple times, the first year wandered through the corridors trying to find his way to go back downstairs to....do....SOMETHING when he spotted Dora.

AND WERE THOSE EXPLODING SNAP CARDS??!!!?

Aidan was an EXPERT at Exploding Snap!!!! His long face changed into his characteristic grin as he walked up to her. "Can I play, too??!!"

It surely got his mind off his chocolates.

She'd kinda noticed Aidan when he'd entered the corridor, but didn't pay him too much mind on account of she was focused on her card stacking, and possibly that was why she'd started slightly when he'd come up and practically shouted his request to join in. The yelling probably had something to do with it too, cause it was SO quiet this high up.

Still, she wasn't all that phased by it and grinned at him in greeting. "Yeah, sure." There was a bit of scooting and shifting on her part, and then there was enough space for Aidan to join her in the nook without worrying that he'd knock any over.

Good thing they were both really small, else the card castle would suffer.

"I'm making a replica of the castle with the cards. Got three decks for it." Which should be enough, assuming none exploded anytime soon.

Laura looked at Bella and smiled. "You need to have some fun then." Laura giggled. "I know lets go outside and have a water fight that would be so cool!" Laura thought so anyway and if it was outside they shouldn't get into trouble right, since it was outside. "I'm glad." Laura really had missed her friend. "I come up here when I want to get away from things." Yeah she had to get away from things sometime.

Belle eyes widened and she laughed. "Oh my god i would love to do a water fight! That sounds like so much fun!" she smiled and was glad her friend suggested the idea. Belle wanted to be outside instead of being cramped in the castle. "I wanna enjoy the spring air is all."

Laura looked at Belle and smiled. "That would be awesome!" Laura had no idea that her friend would want to take part in one. "Want to go get our swimming costumes or just have a water fight in our clothes?" Laura decided that Belle should decided how they would have the water fight.

Belle was smiling and nodded when Laura said they should go get their swimming costumes. But Belle laughed and corrected her. "You mean get our bathing suits? That is what i call them in the muggle world." Belle shrugged as it was nothing. "I think having a water fight in our clothes will be uncomfortable, don't you think?" Belle asked Laura for her opinion.

Laura looked at Belle and she smiled. "Yeah I mean Bathing suit." Laura giggled. "I agree with you though." Laura smiled, it would be awesome if they didn't feel uncomfortable. "It would be uncomfortable in our clothes." Laura gave Belle a quick hug. "lets go get our suits." Laura smiled.

Belle smiled when Laura corrected herself. It is okay not to know the muggle terms. I mean everyone was at Hogwarts to learn. After Belle hugged Laura, Belle smiled and said, "Last one to the common room will be the first one to get soaked." she said as she started running.

YAY! Aidan liked Dora lots more than he thought, he decided. Like...friends like. Which was new for him but he liked it cause he liked her cause she like the same things he did and she was nice.

"You're making the whole castle?!" he asked, slightly in awe. "Are you sure we have enough room here?" Hogwarts was a pretty big place. Merlin knew he was still getting lost, even this far into the term. He thought he'd have it down by now.

But anyway, he gathered a few cards and started building a corridor off of what Dora'd already started.

"Yeah! I've got the first two floors done, and I was gonna work on the dungeons soon but I don't know what all of it looks like so we'll have to make stuff up for some of it." Like they'd have to for all the other common rooms and professor only places.

They were Ravenclaws, so it was a safe bet their imagining would be accurate. That or epic.

She eyed the space in the tiny nook and considered how much more was needed for the rest of the castle. "We can always levitate it to the floor once it gets too big." That was kinda how it was all staying together anyway, magic.

"You have to charm the cards together or else they'll fall everywhere. And I have tons more decks in case one explodes on you." But like her first aid stuff wasn't with her so he'd just have to not let one explode in his face. Picking up another one, she joined him in working on the third corridor.

Laura giggled and looked at her friend, she was a prefect. "HEY no fair, because I can't run!" Laura laughed. "If I run you might tell your prefect friends to tell me off or you might tell me off yourself." Laura sighed. "But no matter what you do I'll beat you." Laura was going to try and beat her friend now.

Bouncing the wooden box between his hands like a basketball, Vickers hop-skipped up the 7th floor corridor, turning a corner and set his sights on the blank wall ahead. Suddenly he took off at breakneck speed, heading straight.for.the.WALL!

…And would’ve smacked soundly against it—had it not parted like the jaws of a hungry whale to let him through.

After a few minutes he bounced out of The Room, Vivi’s box tucked within his shirt, a really thick coil of very stretchy cord slung over his shoulder and a bag of colorful wrinkly balloons gripped between his teeth, rushing back up the corridor and making his way towards the highest point of Hogwarts…