Laura had gone for a walk up-to a part of the castle that she didn't normally go to, she was still upset and wanted to find somewhere quiet for her to read the letter that DJ had sent her, she couldn't believe he wasn't coming back, after all they had loads of fun last term when her and Susan had dressed DJ as a girl ghost to try and get Peeves to fall in live with him.

Laura took out a book that had pictures of her time in the school, she looked at herself as a firstie and then looked at herself last year, she was used to being mischievous but now it was time to grow up in December she would be 16 and that meant setting an example for the younger students and that was what she was going to do.



Laura read the letter for the third time and tears came down her face, as she thought about the fact that he was over in America and she was over here in England, how was they going to have fun, well no DJ meant no pranks, she didn't want to do anything that reminded her of him.

Owlery day. It was another one of those days.

With his journal safely tucked away in his bag and his bag slung over his shoulder, Alec slowly ascended the stairs, a number of thoughts running through his minds. Thoughts that he had tried to keep subsided from the common room but were threatening to overflow his brain and give him a headache.

Overthinking sucked.

It was just as he was about to continue climbing the stairs towards the Owlery that something caught his attention. He froze and turned his head to the side, scanning the corridor with his grey eyes. ... This... was weird. Or was it? People were allowed to roam around freely, yeah? But it was just sort of... weird that he was bumping into this person here instead of down at the common room.

"Laura?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. He moved away from the staircase and started walking down the corridor towards the fellow fifth year. This was probably better, actually. Yeah... sort of like a distraction. "Erm... hey! Need some company?" Or was she busy with that piece of parchment in her hands?

Laura just stared at the parchment, she couldn't believe that it was true, she was so distracted in her letter she didn't even hear someone coming along the corridor until they spoke and made her jump a little. "Alec, I didn't expect to see you up here." Laura was totally confused as to what he was doing up here.

Laura sighed. "You can keep me company if you want, but I thought you might be hanging out with Ella." Laura wished she could talk to Ella and Sophie about this news because she was confused as to how to reply to this letter and surely they would be able to come up with something.

Breakfast was over. Time to go back to the common room.

Zeke walked along the corridors, his mind still full of the vacuum business. It was a pretty neat Muggle stuff. Maybe once in a while, he could go to the Muggle world and be amazed of those weird devices they use to get their jobs done. Lazy people who depend on technology. Of course, wizards couldn't say the same for themselves...they did have magic.

He stopped just beside the window to take a look outside. Lovely weather they were having. The Gryffindor smiled. Lately, despite Hogwarts' current state, he's realized that life is worthwhile if you learn to look at the bright side of things.

Christmas was just hanging outside the common room when she saw a fellow lion coming back from breakfast and said "Hey there lovely day we are having today"

Took the words right out of my mouth. Zeke's head turned at the sound of his thoughts being said out loud. Mind reader? No, not likely. Offering the fellow Gryffindor a smile, he glanced back out the window. "Yes, it's really nice to just take some time to appreciate the little things in life."

They were up high in the castle. Seventh floor, right? To think that it's his first time to actually attempt to look outside the window and enjoy the view Hogwarts has to offer. But, wow, even the windows were dusty. Maybe he'd go clean here some time.

Christmas smiled at the boy and said "Yeah it is don't you think the windows need a good dust, I'm Christmas by the way"

Christmas? His eyebrows shot up at the mention of her name. That was unique. Once again, the brown haired boy turned to face the girl named Christmas. "That's an interesting name. So I assume you were born on Christmas Day? Christmas Eve? Somewhere between those two?" Zeke smiled at her for a moment, before deciding to shift his position that he was leaning against the wall.

Christmas smiled and said "Yeah i was born on Christmas Eve and i have got a little sister called Mistletoe, my parents love the christmas holidays"

'Hmm, maybe it's something about March that they love so much.'

He simply nodded at this statement, placing his attention back to the scene outside. But clearly he was still bothered by those windows. DIRTY WINDOWS. They needed cleaning. Ohyeah. Wasn't that their astronomy homework? To clean? Maybe he'll start with the common room, his dorm, then this corridor. "That is quite interesting. Christmas is a good holiday..." his voice faded away as he became distracted.

Zeke was bored. Plus his eyes were very keen. He spotted some kind of a...sign? No it wasn't a sign. Something written on the window sill. Though it wasn't exactly written. Engraved? No. Etched. Yeah, something like that. His right hand shot up gently while his index finger stroked the area, trying to get a clue on what was written there. Dusting away some of the dust that was hindering him from finding out what was etched on the windowsill.

'.....P....I...B? PIB TR?' He inched his head closer, bringing his right eye nearer to the unfathomable letters, while his index finger applied some friction to it in an attempt to make the letters somehow clearer because as of now PIB TR does not exactly make any sense. He was blocking the view from Christmas in a way that she couldn't exactly see what he trying to look at.

Christmas smiled and said "Yeah it is a good holiday and are you okay you seem a bit distracted there"

Blink. Wait, what? Oh right. Zeke had company and he was being rude with all that staring at something else. Ahem. So yeah, he stood up straight and faced Christmas. "Sorry, there was that erm," his thumb pointed over casually at the window sill behind him, "...uh. Thing. Yeah." He placed both of his hands in his pockets and exhaled then had a sheepish smile on his face.

He'll have to look at it later. Speaking of having company, his hands shot up in the air. "Oh yes, right right. Let's see, uhm, where are my manners?" handshake offer. GRIN. "It's nice to meet you Christmas."

Hand to the chest. "My name is Zeke, and I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier." The brown haired boy bit his lip and half-smiled. Trademark expression of Zeke.

Christmas shook Zeke's hand and said "It's a pleasure to meet you Zeke, so what is your take on what is happening this year"

'Erm, on what's happening this year...?' the words echoed in his head while he was still somehow spacing out, not giving his total 100% attention to Christmas. Mainly, it's because he was bothered by those letters whose meaning he can't really decipher.

On what's happening this year.... OHH. The whole paying thing, and the bad food quality, bad utensils, which all points to one thing: Hogwarts needs money. At least they should be thankful that the school's still open and that the Headmistress is doing everything she can to keep the institution running...even if it meant getting money from the students of Hogwarts (which they were not even warned of, Zeke could've spared a trip to Diagon Alley and withdraw some money).

"It's all new and odd, but we gotta do what we can to help," the Gryffindor shrugged.

She actually wouldn't be complaining about this homework, not as much as she would have if it were at another time but as things were, she was in full agreement with the Professor. The castle had dirt everywhere! There was a hardly a place she could walk that didn't leave her shoes all dusty and that was NOT okay because there was no one to clean her shoes after. See how that worked? No? That's because it didn't.

Lex lugged the vacuum along the seventh floor corridor. It would have been better to start here because this was the closest floor after leaving the Astronomy tower. Less walking. Yup.

And just as she thought, there was plenty of dust and grim and icky stuff. AH WELL. "Vacavus!" The vacuum roared to life and she got to sucking up the dust that clearly thought it would have been a match for her. How's about no. This vacuum was powerful because SHE charmed it. That was really the only reason and it was a real legit one too!

Lex made her way along the corridor, dirt whirling around but finding itself lodged firmly in the vacuum in the end. This continued as she made her way toward her Common Room. There was a lot of dust and dirt THERE.

Seeing as he was nearly at the top of the castle Clement decided that he may as well go up to the seventh floor to find some where to clean. It was only up one more set of stairs, so it didn't matter that much. A few minutes later he was up on the seventh floor. Luckily it was only one set of stairs, so he wasn't too tired. Now he just had to find some where to clean. Clement was feeling a little lazy now though. He couldn't be bothered to find somewhere properly, and the floor looked a little dusty. So that would do. Setting his vacuum down, he decided to have a little rest. He could have one, he was nearly done with his homework. Now then. Back to work. Grabbing his wand, he tapped his wand against the vacuum before muttering "Vacavus." It puffed into life and Clement was happy. It would be a bit dreadful if it had stopped working for him.

Now to collect dust, putting the vacuum at the floor, he moved it around a little, hopefully collecting some dust. This was getting tedious actually, and he was pretty glad he wasn't a cleaner, and now he had no intentions of becoming a cleaner. Deciding he'd collected enough dust, he headed back to the stairs. He'd head back down to the common room now.

It was much warmer higher in the tower and there Sarah put down her things. She was going to try one more of her tricks using equipment before moving on. She thought she would use this trick in her presentation.

From her Satchel Sarah took out a stick which she then transfigured into a hoop.Then she took Greg out of his box and moved over to the windowsill and put him there. “Piertotum Locomotor” she casted on Greg. Then Sarah held out the ring in fornt of her, “jump through the ring” she commanded.

Then Sarah felt something barrel into her stomach. It was Greg. Sarah grabbed him, put him back on the window sill and then gripped her stomach again in agony. She had placed the ring in front of her resulting in Greg upon finishing the jumo flying into her. Sarah decided to head to her common room and grab a nap before resuming her homework. She put Greg back into the box and walked toqards the common room, she guessed she would have to spare an extra knut.

The little Ravenclaw had been skipping about the halls, her vacuum slung over her shoulder like a ghost-busting device. As she stepped around a corner she saw the windowsill and frowned. The etching on the wall had been covered by a thick collection of dust. That was disgusting.

And this was the tribute to Fred Weasley – it had to be cleaned, not cleaning it was sacrilegious right? She thought so at least since that was from back during the great war, and without that and all those horrid things then they wouldn’t have defeated that old creeper. Heck, he’d probably have found a way to live forever and be tormenting them now if he could.

So she just bit her lip and walked over to the window, pointing the nozzle of the vacuum as the sill she tapped it and cast the spell. “Vacavus” the suctioning sound happened almost immediately, and as she swiped the nozzle over the sill the words were suddenly made visible.

She moved the vacuum nozzle along the window itself and reaching up as high as she could manage to (suctioning a few cobwebs up as well). This was brilliant she had officially cleaned the most amazing spot in the seventh floor hallway of course. Other than the unknowable room and the contents within but that didn’t have to be cleaned after all it was a magical room and hardly anyone knew about it.

Garrick was at a loss at what he should do. Here he stood looking out one of the windows, staring down at the quad... thinking about a girl. A girl that had his head all wonky and he was thinking... it was never going to work. The thought made him sadder than he thought he could be over a girl... Merlin this teenager stuff was stupid.

Benjy skipped up the stairs two at a time, skateboard in his hand. Today had been a good day. He'd perfected a trick, and might ask Lex to join him next time he had a play about. Mainly to prove to her how awesome skateboarding was...but maybe to show off a bit too. She'd seemed pretty keen on having a try at the quidditch match.

He was about to drop his board and kick off in the direction of the Common Room, when he spotted a familiar figure gazing wistfully out the window. "You want company?" Benjy asked, minimising his skateboard to pocket size with a flick of his wand. "Knut for your thoughts..."

Garrick turned slightly when he heard his cousin speaking to him. DID he want company? "Sure. As long as Lex doesn't mind you're spending time with your own cousin." Unlike usual there was no spark in his voice, no sarcasm, just Garrick's flat voice. Turning back to gaze out the window he frowned out at the scene. "I want to just go home." Truth. He just wanted to go back to his Mum and Dad and be done with Hogwarts.

"The people here are terrible. More terrible than usual this year it seems." Except Lotus... but he made the decision to keep his distance thanks to her terrible friend. Who was also taking his time with his cousin away.

Benjy pulled a face. What was THAT meant to mean? "I only went to the Quidditch match with her," he said, almost defensively. Though, there wasn't Garrick's usual sarcastic tone underlying his comment, and a frown quickly spread across Benjy's face.

Something was clearly wrong.

"You're serious?" He wanted to go home? "I mean, I know the payment system is rubbish, and so is the food, but you would rather be there?" Benjy shook his head in disbelief, and ran his fingers through his shaggy hair. He'd noticed Garrick had been a little down lately, but he hadn't realised it was that bad.

The people here are terrible. The words rang in Benjy's ears, and Benjy's eyes narrowed. "What makes you say that?" Had Beezus got moody with him? Or was something else afoot? Did he need to go have, er, words, with people?

Even Benjy's firing back defensively didn't get a rise out of Garrick as it normally would. He shrugged one shoulder slightly and pressed his hands against the glass in the window and peered down. "Right now I'd rather be there than here. Mum wants me out of this dreadful place, too... So why not give her what she wants and just go home?" He didn't want to fight with them anymore right now. He hadn't the energy, honestly.

This time he turned to face his cousin and shook his head. "Just because I am not rude and outspoken I am shunned... It's ridiculous. The kids here seem to be raised by wolves. They have no manners and the things they say." He shook his head sadly. "They don't realize how hurtful it is." And was he naming names? Nope. Just gonna let it be known that he disliked most of the people he was getting to know around here. "I mean... you know I would love to go around telling everyone how much they disgust me and punching and fighting, but it's uncivilized and uncouth. And that makes ME a loser." SCOFF. He was tired of being treated that way.

"And I told Lotus I fancy her, she said she fancies me, but I can't be around her anymore. I like her a lot, but that terrible friend of hers will never let us have... any normal time together. I feel as though I have to sneak to see her. I can't sit with her in classes. I am not someone to be hidden away. But it sure doesn't feel good." SIGHS.

And yeah, he had just went on a tangent. Shrugging once more he directed his gaze back out the window. This time he even pressed his forehead to the glass and looked down.

Merlin, Garricks really was out of sorts. He barely moved at Benjy's response. That made the Ravenclaw look look even more worried. "You should you're not ill...not getting enough nutrients?" Because really, Garrick wasn't making any sense right now. "You just want to get pampered, is that it?" Gah, Garrick could be such a mummy's boy at times. "You know what that'll mean for me, too?"

Because if Garrick got pulled out of school, then Benjy's mum would soon follow suit. He didn't mind having a tutor - they'd had one growing up - but Benjy wasn't sure he could put up with his mother 365 days a year. She always seemed so disappointed in him, like he could never do enough. Going on the summer, he'd probably also manage to be grounded and on a reduce allowance simply for not wearing a belt, and going skate boarding. Sigh.

He took a moment to take a breath, before looking his cousin in the eye. "They?" He raised a questioning eyebrow. "Well, it's their problem...not yours. There's plenty of people who ARE cool. The others, well, just ignore them." It's what Benjy did. It seemed to work well enough. Though maybe Benjy was just oblivious to a lot of it? His own mother berated him on a regular basis, a few kids wasn't really going to make an impact, was it? And at that last bit, Benjy gave a wry smile. "That's just reserved for me then?" he said with a wink.

Garrick fancied Lotus? Well, that explained a LOT. And at the same time, was highly confusing. "You can't be around her why, exactly?" Was this down to Lex? "Surely if she feels the same way...?" Actually, Benjy wasn't sure at all. He was trying his best to be serious and helpful, but the immature side of him just wanted to giggle. He might been the older one in terms of age...but in terms of maturity, Garrick won hands down.

Trying to hold in a snort, Benjamin frowned. "Sorry, I'm missing something here...why would you be hidden exactly? And why can't you sit next to her?" Surely Lottie had two sides to sit next to?

So. Confused.