Where was it?! Where was that parchment!? Fern knew she had it; she had kept it in that one folder, the metallic one with Dante Dark's face on it. It had to be in her bag somewhere.

"Aha!" the first year finally exclaimed, yanking out the correct folder just as Benzi started YELLING AT HER!? Fern hadn't ever seen Benzi this upset at anyone except for Tora, and the comparison between that situation and this current one did not make her happy. She did not like to be compared with the Hexy Boyz Hater, unless it was where someone was saying she was better than Tora.

"STOP YELLING AT ME!" Fern shouted back, "IT'S NOT NICE!!"

But when was Benzi Rider nice?

Not nice?! NOT NICE?! SHE TAKES HIS STUFF AND THEN HE'S NOT NICE?! Pah. Girls. QUIMBLEY. Oh no, Benzi wasn't even NEARLY done here. NOT. AT. ALL.

"STOP YELLING?! I SHALL NOT. YOU STOLE," yes, she stole, "FROM ME. I WANT IT BACK. I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU FOR MOoOoo-" the eleven year old stopped abruptly and his eyes widened, for the sudden high pitched break in his voice was HIGHLY UNEXPECTED. His hands clasped around his mouth and he just blinked for several seconds, not really knowing what to do now.

... Well, this was embarrassing. Thank Merlin for his naturally darker face. It made it very difficult to blush.

Slowly, he released his hands. And coughed. Twice.

RUDE. That was Benzi Rider. RUDE RUDE RUDE.

AND MEAN.

AND A LIAR.

Fern opened her mouth, because she could tell he was going to be yelling for a long time - after she had so clearly told him not to! - and she wasn't going to wait for him to finish. Not when he was calling her a thief.

But before she could start shouting back, something very strange happened. He...squeaked? Was that the right word for what had just happened? Fern was confused, so she shut her mouth and blinking back, standing there awkwardly.

...

Really?

No teasing? No calling him pipsqueak like his cousins did?

Benzi was grateful, if a little surprised. To make sure they never spoke of this again, the eleven year old quickly steered away the conversation from the sudden awkward silence - she was LOOKING at him, it was very weird - and to the reason he was even here in the first place.

Pointing at the parchment, he turned his hand over palm up. "Took you long enough to return it," he said, clearly expecting her to hand the parchment right over. See? He was being polite. He didn't call her a thief. He had practically said please.

Fern still had no idea what had just happened. But whatever. They were moving on, and she wasn't curious enough about it to ask questions.

They had more important things to discuss. LIKE THE FACT THAT BENZI HAD NO MANNERS. Fern eyed his open hand with pursed lips and a wrinkled nose while she waited for him to apologize for yelling, actually thank her for returning it, and then add a please to the end. If he also mentioned something about how she was the most amazing person ever, that wouldn't hurt either.

While she stared at his hand with displeased expression, she tapped her left foot impatiently. For emphasis.

Benzi's eyes bulged. She was tapping her foot. She was TAPPING HER FOOT.

OH, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT WAS SUGAR.

"Give. It. Here," he enunciated each word slowly, as if speaking to a slow, dumb child. Which he was. So it was actually a very legitimate way to act, all in all. He closed and opened his hand a few times, as if making grabbing motions.

To be perfectly honest, he really just wanted to yank it out of her hand but he was afraid she'd just bolt and he REALLY wasn't in the mood for a chase. He could totally take her though, if he came to that. He ran faster. He played FOOTBALL.

Still clutching the folder with one hand, Fern placed her other hand on her hip and rolled her eyes with an exasperated (and exaggerated) sigh. Then she shook her head in disappointment. She could see this was going to be difficult, but Benzi was going to have to learn his manners sooner or later, and who better to teach him than Fern? Speaking just as slowly, she replied, "What's. The. Magic. Word?"

Really, Benzi was truly fortunate to have Fern in his life. Imagine if he went around demanding things that rudely from teachers. They would give him a detention. But Fern, she was going to patiently, out of the goodness of her heart, teach him how to be a proper wizarding gentleman.

"GEMINI ROBERTSER." Damn cat. This was the fifth time he'd stolen something he shouldn't have from her trunk and ran away with it. THEY WERE PERSONAL ITEMS, GEMINI. Elodie had already given up and she'd only just made it out of her common room. Already. Given. Up.

The cat was going. He was going home and she was going to put him in a box and leave him outside.

........... If she could stop adoring him, that was.

Food. Donny needed food, after all that homework and maybe a bit of a nap he'd gotten hungry, so he'd jumped up and ran out of the common room. And ended up maaaaybe going the wrong way, this wasn't the great hall anyway, or was it...? How long had he slept for?!
He yawned loudly and rubbed his eyes, best turn around and head back the right way!

Ooh, a kitty. Donny grinned and skipped over to the cat. 'Hiya! Watchugotthere?'

Elodie stepped aside when someone walked past her and....toward her cat. And sighed loudly when the cat actually STOPPED for him. She might have known the boy but for right now..she was intending on getting her things back from the cats mouth and not talk yet. So..sorry. She crouched beside Gemini and snatched her things back, shoving them into her pocket. "Bad cat."

And then she spoke to Donny. "They were mine. My things. My stuff. Mine." Yeah. "You're yawning........" Was he not sleeping? Was she gonna have to bundle him up in blankets till he slept??Q"?!!

Donny was more of a dog-person. Or dolphin-person, except you couldn't have those as pets. Not that he could have a dog as a pet either, but that was just because he made lots of messes and dogs did that too, his mam didn't like that. But this cat was cuuute. ...and a thief? He grinned up at Elodie, half wondering if she had any lollipops on her. 'What's his naaaame?' Or her. Cats were girls.

Yawwwwn. He was yawning. 'I jus had a nap..!' He didn't usually have naps, those were for his baby brother Cian or for his gran. Old people and babies took naps. 'Because I did lots of homework. I don't need naps. I'm not a baby.' He couldn't have Elodie think he was a baby. Donny was NOT a baby.

Mmm.

He could smell the food wafting through the corridor. That's where he was headed.

It was a long day and Coul wasn't overly in the mood to go to the great hall for food because he wasn't overly in the mindset to see people or watch them be annoying and talk to one another too loudly. And obviously a kitchen and elves were the easy solution to the avoidance of people and the gaining of food.

Obviously.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and continued down the corridor.

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

Cat was skipping down the corridor, headed away from the kitchen with a plate full of food that she was planning on bribing Mo with. She didn't actually need to bribe him to read to her, since he did it already, but she liked food and she liked bringing him food, so she was going to pretend she needed to.

She veered off to one side to turn a corner and almost skipped right into another boy's arms. Ooops.

............."Oh." She jumped backwards and stared without realizing it. "It's you."

Totally polite.

Woah.

As he was almost bumped into, he pulled his hands out of his pockets and stuck them in front of himself in one fluid motion to steady himself and whoever it was. But it wasn't needed. No. Because the girl seemed to stop before she even touched him.. And.. and she jumped back from him.

She Elodie's best friend and she was also staring. Which made him uncomfortable.

Coulson was also very aware of the fact that she didn't like him. He just never knew what to do about that.

"Um.. hey..."

He had no idea what else to say.

Immediately, Cat glanced around the corridor to see if there were any witnesses anyone else was around, but she found it to be empty. Of course there was no one else there. Of course not. Just her and Coulson and awkward. Lots of awkward.

She fidgeted, rocking back on her heels and shifted the plate from one hand to the other. "I was just getting food for my boyfriend."

Cause she had one.

Boyfriend.

Quidditch Captain.

Who knows about you.

Used to be a beater.

Surely still has the bat.

Hits hard.

Not that Coul had asked, but she felt like it needed to be said.

Coul watched her a moment, just studying her very quickly as she seemed to be on edge. Not that he was surprised. Elodie tells her everything. And since.. and since she was told about last summer.. How could he blame her?

He ran his fingers through his long brown hair and just nodding, attempting a warm totally not scary smile. "That's.. that's nice.... You should uh.. get to that. I'm going to get my own food and.. yeah." Bye? He could tell she wanted to go.

So leave.

This was why he was avoiding the great hall. People didn't like him. See? He just wanted to get his food and bring it back to his room and be alone. Probably invite Elodie over so he didn't have to be completely alone.

And then maybe write up a letter to his head of house and see about making an appointment to talk to her.

Yeah, wow.. Can I leave now?

"I'll uh.. see you around.."

PFT. Like she wanted to stay and have a conversation with HIM.

AS IF.

Gathering herself again, Cat stepped widely around him and started to walk away. Though she didn't get very far at all before she started to feel really bad. She never treated anyone like this. She wasn't a mean person, really. Was it silly for her to be scared of him? Elodie loved him, so he couldn't be THAT bad, right?

With a pause, she glanced over her shoulder and considered him for a moment. "Coulson?"

Coul watched her again, just quietly with soft eyes. He tried to move closer to the wall and farther from him as she made her way around him. No use in getting in her way.

He didn't want to move closer and scare her. That was the opposite of what he wanted. Moving closer to the wall was the obvious and better choice. Yeah? Yeah.

Still kinda pressed to the wall, Coul started walking again, keeping his eyes up a bit as to not almost run into anyone again. But he stopped dead in his tracks.

Weird.

He turned around slowly to face the direction Cat had just started walking and tilted his head a bit. "mm? What's up?"

Really though. What was up?

Alright conscious, that is quite enough from you, yes? Cat knew she wasn't exactly being the best person right now. But she also couldn't help but think about the conversation she'd had with Mo about this whole situation, and the one with Elodie.

But she still felt awful. "....I'm sorry for being rude."

Hmm?

Did he hear that right?

He paused a minute, hoping it wasn't really his imagination. But she was still there. So.. obviously this was real life.

"You weren't... I mean.. I get it.. It's okay." He understood why she didn't like him. But that didn't mean he was gonna stand around and let people look at him funny. "I appreciate it though.." The apology. Yeah. He appreciated that.

Donny was a cutie. She brushed his hair with her fingers as he grinned up at her and then looked back at Gem. "Gemini. His name is Gemini." And he was a bad cat and grounded and an absolute bottom. She half wondered why she'd even kept the cat for so long. He was healthy, but she could have left him at home with her brother, because technically Braison had looked after Gem when Els was too young to. "He's my baby." He was almost eight now, actually. Old fat cat.

She laughed when he yawned, giving him a little nudge. "Proud of you for doing homework." Just a little. She didn't really care all too much, oops. As long as he was okay and safe and not dead. That was all good. "I take naps." And she was much older than he was. Did he think that was a bad thing?!?!! Because she wasn't a baby. No, not at all.

Donny beamed, Elodie was so so nice. Maybe he should like cats too, if she liked them enough to have one. 'He's a pretty cat.' He petted the cat, not really sure how to properly pet a cat. Dogs didn't really mind, as long as you just loved em lots, but cats were always moody it seemed. 'Does he scrats people?' This once a cat scratched him, he wasn't impressed. HER BABY? He'd better be super nice to the cat then, best not upset Eloooodie, he wouldn't want to see her upset ever. 'I'll be esstra esstra nice to him then, for you.'

Seeee, she was proud of him. That was so worth all the boring homework, it was really boring though.. 'Really?' He laughed at the nudge and nudged her in return. 'Did youuu do your homework?' Probably, she was smart and stuff. Smart people did their homework.
'You do...?' She wasn't old or a baby. She was ....awesome. And stuffff. He blushed. 'I didn't meaaaan... It's okay if you take naps.'

Elodie smiled and watched Donny with Gemini, as carefully as she could without coming across as to be watching him. As much as the cat got on her nerves, she'd had him for so long that she always found herself watching people with him extra carefully. "Isn't he?" He was a super handsome cat, and he gave kisses too, which was cute. Scratch? Elodie shook her head. "He's only ever scratched me, and I was trying to put his eye drops in." He'd never scratched the kids at home either and they picked him up badly and pulled his tail and all sorts. "You will? Thanks." Donny was a cutie.

Content with the situation and where they were, Elodie sat herself down near the cat and the boy and played with her hair. "Of courrrrrrrrrrrse." She actually had some to do now, but she was putting it off of sorts. Or just doing things that could wait. Procrastinating. For life.

"If you nap, sweets, then you run out of hours in the day to do the things you're supposed to. Orrrrrrr, you've done them and you've worked super hard that you need to rest." Babies didn't deserve naps. Students did.

Josephina was eager to head down to the Grounds for the activities that were taking place with the completion of the Wizarding Competition. Because the outcome of competition, which school would take home the large sum of monies, determined her salary next year, of course. If she should expect a raise or if they'd have to go back to washing their own silverware. Or even, if she needed to start looking for another job ...

But before she headed down to the grounds, she probably ought to pop into the common room ... collect some Hufflepuffs along the way ...

The Friar was simply pacing down by the Kitchen Corridors when he saw the Hufflepuff Head of House heading down the corridor, seemingly lost in thought.

"Good day, Professor." The Friar tilted his head in respect. "And where might we be off to today? Anyplace with decent food?"