She waved a hand. "Naw, I got it all handled." she said, smiling and nodding. Aww. Sure was sweet of the guy to offer help though. Wasn't he the best? Eeeep! Ohh. Ancient runes. Meh. The lion wasn't quite a fan of that class. "Want help with it?" she asked. Because surely it was probably taking up a lot of his time along with the studying for the final exams. Ugh. Ronnie didn't mind waiting a while for those...Then Ronnie smiled. "Bring it on! I can take anything!" she told him, beaming. Hehehe! 'Twas true. She could jog or run for miles and miles and never get tired!

Well okay maybe just a little bit tired.

A LITTLE BIT.

Angel. Oh merlin. She loved when he called her that! Like a snap, her cheeks went red again and the tips of her ears as well. She let her head hang a little so that her hair could cover up her cheeks a bit so that he wouldn't see. Maybe she should do this more often, it was nice to hide her bright red cheeks. She blushed too much. Heh heh. She then laughed. "Right?! I feel a bit bad for her. I did lots of cruel things to her." she told him, smirking. "She deserved it though," she finished in her head. Oh. Now he was wondering about the punishment. "Well, I got spanked quite a few times. Then grounded in my room for two weeks." she said laughing. Not that bad of a punishment, really. She just got time in her room to plot more things to do to her mother!

She had a massive flinch at the sudden sound of Lex's outburst. Her newly cleaned finger came out of her mouth and she dried it in the air, shaking it back and forth rapidly. She just stared for a moment, unsure why there was any protest - but then she just couldn't help but find it all very silly. "Well what do you mean? I'm not wasting it, see? I'm eaaaaating it!" She took another bite with the swipe of her finger and then grabbed her spoon and had a few more spoonfuls.

Then she had a very tempting idea indeed. One that she knew she wouldn't act on, because she wanted to eat the ice cream too - but she wondered what Lex would do if she exploded some of the ice cream. Just for fun. But she wouldn't try because, well, she hadn't even exploded anything before anyway. So instead, she cleaned her robes with a quick scourgify and then began to hop around the room. She aimed her wand at easily gotten lumps of ice cream from all of the different bowls, one at a time, and levitated them towards herself. She held them still in front of her, hovering, and then slowly lowered them plop by plop into a high stack in her bowl. "See? I'm going to eat every flavor!" There really wasn't any reason to panic. The ice cream was safe with her and her belly.

It really was all quite delicious. There were so many kinds! This was all putting her in a fabulous mood and she was feeling chatty. "So, Lex. What's shakin? What's the low down? The word on the town? The story through the grapevine?" She chuckled at herself and gobbled up some more from her bowl. "In other words, whatcha been up to lady pal?!" She and Lex had some catching up to do! Or, well, she figured they did. There had been a lot going on this year and Lex always was into some sort of mischief, so Eliza wanted to hear all about it!

Looking up from her stretching, Nessie checked on Sarah. Who surprisingly did pretty well. Was she a dancer too? Because most people even struggled with stretches and Ness sort of expected that should have been needed to guide Sarah, but maybe not. heh. Either way as long as the stretching was done and correctly, which Sarah seemed to be okay with.

As for Ness she was still stretching away. Now she was in the splits position, and she bent her head and body from side, to side making sure it hurt just a little so that she knew it was correcr. After that she stood up and lifted her leg to her ear. It was nothing for her, almost usual routine . Putting her first leg down she lifted up her other and did the same thing.She could of gone stretching for much longer, but it wasn't that necessary considering she wouldn't being too much of hardcore dancing today, so for now this was good.

Sarah was ready? The red head looked up to her and noticed she was waiting. She must have been ready then. "You want to begin? I can teach you a routine?" She had one in mind..and she needed to get used to the teaching bit, or at least a little better at it because surely it would help her next year.

But who needed to think about next year, now?

Jory shook his head and smiled. "I've got it all under control,'' he said. "I'm almost done. Just about three steps left to complete, I think.'' He would get those done soon enough. It was the easier part of the assignment left, anyway. "Say, do you need help with studying?'' NEWTs were not far away and he was beginning to feel occasional twinges of nervousness. But it was not as much as he had encountered with OWLs. That was a good thing. About jogging. Jory grinned wider. "Then we should see who can go the longest before they get tired.'' That would be loads of fun!

And there Ronnie went, blushing all over again. The badger couldn't help himself and laughed. "I can see you going all red on me, Rons,'' he said. Did she know how much he loved seeing her blush? He would never get tired of that! "I like it when you blush,'' he told her, squeezing her hand lightly. Jory laughed again when he heard about the punishment. "I'm guessing you didn't mind the punishment?'' he said.

Even as Eliza spoke, Lex kept her attention on the ice-cream that was left with the girl's imprint after she'd gotten up. The ice-cream. Wibble. It was good she'd stop though, Lex didn't know how much more of watching that she could take. "Okay good. You do that." She helped herself to more of the ice-cream that she had in her own bowl while she took another look around. "Between the two of us, we should have this place eaten through without much problem." It was a bold endeavor but then, it was ICE-CREAM, anything was possible.

"Every flavour? How many do you think they have?? As much as the ice-cream machine in the kitchen? More?" If so then she would jump onboard this eating every flavour thing. In fact, she could get started now...er...once her bowl wasn't so full.

In the meantime, "I've been up to everything and nothing!" That was probably the best way she could think to explain it. "Exploding stuff by the lake, eating lots of ice-cream, playing on the moving staircases, avoiding homework, sneaking around, not reading. You know, the usual." She plopped an exceptional amount on her tongue and enjoyed it for that one moment before continuing. "What about you Ms. Busy Body? What have you been up to?"

Sarah watched as the older girl did her thing. Stretches seemed quite universal, didn't they. Nessie looked still in shape though, as if she practiced often. Sarah wished she could say the same about her own routine.

"I am ready when you are ready" said Sarah flashing a megawatt smile, "I would enjoy that!" Sarah said. That would be perfectly awesome. THE HEAD GIRL teaching her a dance... out of this world magical, on top of the magical ness of doing another magical form of art in magical Hogwarts....

She now had to listen carefully and concentrate. And try to be coordinated as possible.

Returning the smile, Ronnie nodded. "Okay then! If you do ever need help though, don't be afraid to ask." she added. 'Cause she loved helping Jory out in any way she could. It made her happy! She then shrugged at his question about studying. "I don't need that much help, but it'd be nice to study together." she told him with a small smile. Jory would make the studying a whole lot funner. Now, if only they wouldn't get distracted by each other. She doubted that'd be easy.

Oh! He wanted to compete again, eh? The red head grinned. "Sounds like a plan!" she said, rubbing her hands together. Time to beat her adorable boyfriend at something yet again! She hoped. "And I'll have you know that I can jog and jog forever and not get tired easily." she added, beaming.

BLUSHBLUSHBLUSH.

"Stop it!" she said, giggling and lightfully-playfully hitting him on the shoulder, her cheeks turning more red as he laughed. Oh Merlin. Was there a spell or a potion or something that could keep her from blushing?!?! That'd be nice. Then she looked at him curiously. He...liked it when she blushed? As in, he liked it because it was funny or something else? She cocked her head. "What do ya like about it?" she asked, her voice a little quiet, a shy smile slowly appearing upon her face. Then she shook her head. "No, I didn't mind it much. It actually gave me time to come up with more plans on what else to do to my mum." she explained, grinning.

Studying together would be fun. But then a thought struck Jory. "It would be distracting if we study together, won't it?'' he asked. But maybe he could prop books up in front or to the side or where ever Ronnie was going to sit so he would not have to look at her pretty face. No doubt he'd take a few peeks though. Really. because who could resist looking at that angelic face?

Jory laughed. Ronnie was blushing more than ever now! Her face almost matched her vivid red hair. He shook his head. "Come on! How can you not like the blushing?'' he chided. "You look totally adorable!'' Not that she didn't always look adorable. Was it possible Ronnie could get more red? He surely wanted to find out!

More pranks! "Any other in particular that you remember?'' the Puffer asked. He liked listening to the mischief she got into.

Ronnie laughed. Was Jory a mind reader or something?! "Y'know, I was JUST thinking that." she told him, grinning. But still. She'd probably get a bit of studying done...with just a few distractions. That wasn't that bad, right...? Besides, it'd motivate her to study more. Heh.

The red head (literally, she WAS red headed at the moment...) smiled shyly again and giggled, her cheeks turning even more red...surprisingly. It was adorable? Hmmm...she could get used to blushing now if he kept calling her adorable. "Aww, but y'know Jory, you're WAY cuter when you blush." she said. It was true, and she wished she could see her Jory blush more. She couldn't get over how adorable it was! Squeeee!

"Of course! Let me try and think of a funny one..." she said, looking at the couch thoughtfully as she began to think. Let's see here... a smirk spread across her face when one finally popped into her head. "Okay, here's a good one! So one day when I was about eight years old, I was at my friend Layla's house and we were making pies and decided to make a gross one for my mum for fun. We made it look delicious on the outside but on the inside...Merlin, I kinda felt a bit bad! We put dirt, worms, mustard, nuts, zucchini, and grapes and tons more I can't think of in there and cooked it.." she paused so she could laugh before finishing. "And man! The LOOK on her face when she ate that thing!" she then began to laugh even harder, a few tears streaking down her cheeks from laughing so hard.

Mouth still full of the mushed ice cream she'd eaten to prove to Lex it wouldn't go to waste, she eyed the room around them and nodded. "Mhmmm, it's," a dribble of ice cream went down her chin and she moved her hand to wipe it away. "Sorry, it's a lot of ice cream but...I feel like we can make at least a pretty good dent in it." She took another bite and swallowed. "And if we need to, we can take a nap in between so there's room for more." Solid plan.

Gosh, she'd never thought about how many flavors exactly there might be. "Yunno...I'm not sure really but I bet the possibilities are endless! So we just have to think what flavors we really really want and I bet they'll turn up somewhere. Maybe we should bring the ice cream machine from the kitchen into this room, so can keep it coming. What do you think?" She put another spoonful into her mouth and licked her lips.

She nodded at every word Alexa said, taking it all in. "Wow yeah, that makes sense! Busy and not busy. Weird, I usually just feel one or the other but that makes total sense you know?" She took a sample from her bowl of a new flavor. Mmm pineapple! "Exploding things like what?" she asked curiously. "Not people I hope!" she said with a chuckle. But then she stopped. What if it had been people? Nahh...she wouldn't really. Would she? Nahh.....would've heard about it. ....Yeah? She tried to think of what she'd been up to herself and answered between mouthfuls. "Well, classes, homework... I've been trying to get on the good side of this willow tree you see and it's been taking some time." Who knew? But she had been making progress, it was just slow. "Ummm what else...oh! Well, you know - practice for Quidditch and stuff. Um, yeah. Not much else really." Blimey has the whole school year gone by AGAIN without me doing anything super amazing? She supposed she didn't really care all that much at the moment, cause she was having bowls and bowls of fun now so that's was enough for her.

Her mind wandered back to the ice cream machine in the kitchen. Questions like how was it secured down there, how many flavors could it make per minute, how many bowls, could they SELL the ice cream at Hogsmeade, could they conceal it and wheel it up here for a while just to play around with it...? Lots of questions. Sharing was good and all but maybe...maybe they needed to replenish THIS ice cream area first. And then invite people to come use the ice cream secret room!

You know, Lex liked the way Eliza thought. It may have seemed like an impossible amount of ice-cream but she also believed that they could make their way through it once they tried. It was good to know that they were on the same page here. "I bet we can do more than dent it, just have to pace ourselves and probably try running off some of it as we go along." If there was one thing Lex was good at it was mischief burning energy and getting more. "Shouldn't be too difficult, we'll need a strategy.' A way of tackling it all. Nodnodnod.

"Oh yes, very much." Lex took a few steps and gazed around the room in awe. "Just imagine, all the flavours we can think about and even more. Wish I had found this room earlier. It's a little paradise in this otherwise broke place." Broke. After nearly a whole year it seemed so natural to say it, like that was how it had always been. It was odd but there you had it, the term had gotten underway and they were still broke.

She couldn't help but giggle at her question. "Nah, I couldn't go blowing people up, that would have gotten me expelled--or sent to Azkaban. I can't go there because I heard they don't serve chocolate ice-cream." Pity too, up until she heard that it seemed like a perfectly nice place. "It was mostly just stuff I found around the school, broken stuff." Not that that mattered to Mr. Not Shiny Grounds Keeper who yelled at her anyway. A willow? "You've been trying to befriend the whomping willow? I think it just needs a hug but lots of people disagree so I dunno." She gave a casual shrugged and shoveled some more ice-cream into her mouth. The tree was simply misunderstood, that's all.

"What flavour do you think that is?" She asked, pointing distractedly with her spoon. It looked like something she wanted to try.

Dylan was fed up...with these dementors. The Slytherin Captain did not know WHY they were at the school, but that did not matter. Not anymore. More and more of them were being attacked. Members from all houses...The Professors weren't even safe.

Something needed to be done.

The only other people he was aware of being able to case a Patronus was Oakey...and with that realization came the knowledge that he'd need to extend the invitation to join him. Dylan wasn't too proud to admit he'd need help...and he knew he didn't exactly inspire happy thoughts.

Not in the traditional way.

Pacing in front of the stone wall, the door appeared and he stepped through.

Now to wait.

Ella was here.

The dementor attacks scared the blonde to death and when she heard that Oakey and Dylish were willing to help people learn to cast a patronus, she couldn't pass up the chance. She felt horrible about not being able to do anything for Theo and West when they'd been attacked and if she could learn now, she could help next time.

...Which, hopefully there wouldn't be a next time.

"Hey Dylish," Ella greeted quietly before giving the Slytherin a faint smile. She appreciated him and Oakey doing this, offering their help. Merlin knew she was tired of running from the things that scared her.

The sixteen year old then stood quietly, wand in hand as she waited for the lesson to begin. She was nervous, remembering things from the last time she'd gotten together with a group of students to learn. This...would go better than that, yeah? Shudder.

It seemed as Hogwarts was less and less safe as each day passed on this term. But the worst things was the constant attack of the dementors. They were everywhere and going after everyone and it was beginning to make Tag nervous. This shouldn't have been happening. So, when he heard that Dylan would be doing some sort of class, the small blonde did not hesitate one second to come to this.

He went to the Room of Requirements door and specifically thought about how to conjure a patronus against dementors, three times. And soon enough he was let in. Tag quickly walked inside and found Dylan and stood nearby him, waiting to see who else would join along.

Well Nigel could do a patronus. But practice never hurt. Nigel walked up to the door and started to think about The Most Comfortable Room in the History of Forever. But that was for another visit. Nigel thought about casting a patronus the three times and walked in.

Well it looked like Dylan, Ella, and Tag were here already. Nigel nodded to them and took a place off to the side, put his hands in his pocket to hold his wand and waited for who was going to talk first.

Finally someone was taking this issue seriously and not just ignoring it like some of the professors seemed to be. Dylan had finally made it an issue to try to teach some of the others How to conjure a patronus, or try to, with the help of Oakey. Pacing in front of the door three times thinking of where she needed to be she watched the doors appear. That always amazed her. Once fully shown she opened the door and walked in to the small crowd already present. "hey." yeah. Thats all.

Dylan had the right idea to do this.
He received Dylan Owl asking him to help teach others how to produce a Patronus. In all honesty Oakey saw this as a chance for the two of them to get past what ever it was Slytherin Captain had against the Head Boy. He wasn't getting his hopes up with the stubborness that Dylan had been showing all term long.

The Dementor attacks were happening more often, Oakey had cut off most of his walks around the Grounds just to be outside less. This seemed pointless now though. He heard rumors that Dementors were inside the Castle now too. So his pace was slightly quicker as he reached the Wall, and paced back and forth in front of it until the door appeared. He entered and saw Dylan, Ella, Tag, and Ariana. Good she was here, this would make being around Dylan less awkward, and hopefully easier"I got your owl." Oakey said as he moved in closer to the group, and just sort of sat on the floor beside Dylan. "Dementors can't get in here though yeah? You take that into consideration while thinking this place up?" That's what he loved most about this room. As long as you were very specific you could prevent others from finding it.

Learning how to cast a Patronus seemed like the most helpful thing she could do at this point. How many times had the school been attacked? And none of the professors seemed intent on doing anything about it, so they'd have to. Especially since running away was the only option when Alice couldn't cast the charm. Next time she needed to ward off dementors, she wanted to be prepared.

.. but no dementors would be nicer than fended off dementors. Just for the record.

"Hi Dylan. And Oaktree." It was really, really great of them for doing this, did they know? She twirled her wand in her fingers, remaining quiet and waiting for the teaching to begin.

There was another request of 'No REAL dementors in the room while they're inside' to add to the one she was supposed to say to join Dylan. Also, thanks Ella for leaving her behind. Clearly, she was better off following another Captain.

Aaaaaand, there were a bunch of people here already. Excellent!

All she brought along was her wand, though, which was more than enough. "Hi, Oakey." Was he already complaining of something??? "Dylan," BEAM! And well, everyone else got waves and smiles. Especially Tag.

Suddenly the room got cold... so cold in fact it felt like ice on the walls.

Black figures glided in the room... they weren't needed... but there they were... gliding in and sucking up all the happiness from the room...

Oakey shivered...only moments after Lotus entered did the room suddenly become increasingly cold. This answered his question for him, he tried to stand up but wasn't up to it. Nothing was worth getting up for. They weren't safe in here, they weren't safe on the Grounds, and they weren't safe in Hogwarts in general. The sitting position he was in slowly became more of a slump, tears slowly forming in his eyes. "Stupid." Oakey muttered. Probably to the Dementor's or to Dylan he wasn't really sure. He did however manage to pull his wand out. He cleared his throat and stumbled up. Wiping the tears from his eyes.

He couldn't let this get to him. Not now, Dylan and him were the only ones in here that could form a proper Patronus Charm and everyone they just invited in here were their responsibility. "C-crash course!" Oakey stuttered."Y-y-you need to cling onto the ha-happiest thought right now. Don't let it go, and focus that into your Patro-Patronus Charm." Damn, tears were rolling down his face now. "You need to f-focus!" He grabbed onto his knees and gripped his jeans bending down. He was feeling awful now, and had not been this close to any of the Dementors until now.

Nigel kept holding his wand as more class mates he knew entered the room. Though it did seem like he was the only ravenclaw here. That was okay since at least all the houses were represented. Right after Lottie entered the room. It suddenly got cold. NO. No possible way. They could not get into this room. It was the Room of Requirements. Could dementors even think that long to get into here.

Nigel always thought them creatures of instinct.

Nigel could feel his happiness leaving him. Was definitely not a good feeling. Okay. Think Quickly. Stop thinking about his parents. THere was no way out. Since the Dementors were blocking the only door. Which meant that the people who knew how to do an Patronus had to do it now. Nigel could tell Oakey was getting more frightened by the second and Nigel was close to losing it also. No time to hesitate.

"Happy Thoughts. Happy Thoughts." Secret Libraries, Books, Friends. Protecting the people who could not do a patronus right now. Focus. Focus. No sad thought. Nigel quickly shot his wand out of his robes, pointed it at the Dementors and yelled

"EXPECTO PATRONUM"

Nigel watched as his wolf took shape and ran towards the dementors. At least it worked.

Dylan stood stationary, arms crossed and wand out, as people slowly started to trickle into the room. First was Ella...and really, the Slytherin was so relieved to see her there. He'd hoped she wasn't too sore about what had happened in the Quidditch match and stuff...and it remained that she was one of his favorite Hufflepuffs...If not, THE favorite.

...and then there was Gryffindor Tag...and Ravenclaw Nigel. They both got a manly nod...Almost like a bro!nod but not as familiar. Logan was in the room moments later...and then Gunter.

Dylan stared at Oakey for a moment, passing silent information onto his once best mate. They had things to do...and the drama didn't need to be brought up anymore. It was lame...and this wasn't the time. People could be dying...

...and ALICE....and then Slytherin Lotus...

"Right...to begin with...a Patronus is just a partially-tangible positive energy force...Patronuses are known as spirit guardians, because they're different from person to person..."...Just giving background. "If you think about it logically...it's not really THAT hard to produce one. It can be in the heat of the moment...but not for practice like we're about to do."

..........

...Then the door was opening...and he expected to see another of his peers stepping through the door...but instead...

What.................even......?

"How.......did they......?"

He looked to Oakey and shook his head. This hadn't been his fault..."Right...." There was ice in his veins...but whatever. It was going to be fine. He'd faced these ridiculous creatures TWICE and survived. "Seems we'll be doing a practical. Gunter, pull it together..." Seriously SO OVER THESE STUPID THINGS.

"You'll need a happy thought...and not just any happy thought. The HAPPIEST you can muster...Let it fill you up..."

Ella wasn't sure if it was nerves or what but she suddenly felt extremely cold. She hugged herself and glanced around, wondering if this was something Dylan and Oakey had planned before-hand. Could they have thought up that the room would be cold like th-

O________________________O

Was.This.Real.Life?

"B-but how...?"

Ella's green eyes widened considerably and she took several steps back, trying to ignore the sense of impending doom that was overtaking her entire body. She was shivering cold and she could hear it again, that faint voice in the back of her mind. Ella, she's not coming back. The blonde shook her head, trying to focus on what was being said around her but she just felt so sad. How could this be happening? There were too many people she cared about here. What if they left too? She couldn't...couldn't do this...Chin!Wobble.

Happy thoughts...crash course...happy....thoughts...

Wibble!

She needed...to focus...on something good.

Alec.

She'd focus on Alec...

And she closed her eyes tight, thinking of the day she'd spent at the zoo with Alec, Sophie and Oakey, trying to let that fill her up.

Oakey was there and he seemed sad. Didnt you need to be happy to do this? He should cheer up, thought the general mood in the room was kind of.... blah to say the least. Anyway, she blinked and gave faint smiles to those who entered after her and then turned her attention to dylan. She was listening and trying to think of her happiness memory but she just didnt know. Then... suddenly it was cold... not just cold but freezing cold.she shivered and looked at the door as everyone else did...


No no no no.... this was NOT ok... she was slowly feeling sad.. real sad and this wasnot ok...

Think HAPPY logan!