This castle had so many floors and on each floor there were more weird things than on the last one. Like this statue. What the hell was that supposed to be? It looked kind of odd. Well, REALLY odd. Was it somehow related to the castle's history? Or had somebody some time thought he was just too beautiful not to be put on display in the school? Because he really wasn't. To be honest the statue was quite ugly.

Hey, hang on a second.

Olly had stepped closer to the statue for a moment to see if maybe he had a name written on him or something when she noticed that there was space BEHIND the statue. She could see the other end of the corridor when she leaned against the wall next to it and peeked through the gap. A year ago she would have probably even fit behind it. Was that like the ultimate hiding spot then? This statue had probably seen A LOT of things then.

Being an observer meant you observed, and that was exactly what this sixth year planned on doing today. She'd pocketed her badge in the hopes of going unnoticed, and it seemed to do the trick. No one had so much as spared her a glance or a wave or the slightest bit of acknowledgement, and when she wasn't vying for attention, that was just the way Alice liked it.

Starting from the bottom floor up, she'd made it a goal to make her way back up to the towers unseen. It had been easy for the most part, but when she reached the statue of and spotted a girl peeking through the gap behind it.. hm.

It was an observing day.

So Alice peered back at her from the other side of Lachlan the Lanky and observed.

It was kind of interesting to watch the corridor from where she was standing. The statue's back partly obstructed her view but she could just see enough to see that there was...well, nothing happening. She was absolutely alone in the corridor. How boring. Though she could just imagine how cool it would be to be able to fit behind it and be able to watch people without being seen by them in return. She'd probably spend all her time h-

O___________o

Olly was pulled out of her little reverie quite suddenly when she focused her eyes again on the corridor. Only she couldn't see the corridor. Because there was another set of eyes peering back at her instead. Whoa, she had totally missed somebody joining her at the statue. "What are you doing?!" She asked, the hostility in her voice mainly due to the fact that the other girl had startled her.

Pulling back, the Hufflepuff took a step back to walk around the statue to get a closer look at the girl. Huh. She did look vaguely familiar, though Olly couldn't quite place her.

A bit cranky, weren't we? Alice thought so, but she simply pulled back and dusted off any spittle this other girl's shouting might have gotten on her clothes, seemingly unaffected by her display of outrage.

"Observing." Wasn't that obvious?

Still disinterested in the hostility of her companion for the time being, the sixth year immediately began taking mental notes.

Dark hair. Brown eyes. About 165 centimeters tall. Looked around 15. And judging by the crest on her robes, she was a badger.

Also grumpy. She was that, too.

Olly frowned at the other girl when she went ahead and dusted herself off. The statue wasn't dusty. The house elves were doing a very good job keeping the entire castle clean she had noticed. Or were trying to anyway. Nonetheless, the Hufflepuff glanced down at her own clothes for a brief second to see if they were dirty. Which they weren't. Of course.

Observing?

Furrowing her brow slightly, Olly looked up and down the corridor for a moment, apparently in search for something. Without success, however. "What were you observing?" There wasn't a whole lot happening in this part of the castle. There actually just wasn't a whole lot in this part of the castle. Period. So..huh?!

"What do you think I was observing?" One of Alice's most common habits was answering questions with questions, just as she did when this dark haired, brown eyed, 165 centimeter tall Hufflepuff started inquiring about her activities.

She stepped back to get a better view of the girl.

Hmm. Interesting specimen. Maybe she'd stick around longer to see what else it did.

Alice waited. And observed some more.

Staaaaaaaareeeee

Okay this one was irritating. Why did she answer (or NOT answer) her question with a question of her own? That wasn't how conversation worked. Though that made Olly think about why she even bothered in the first place. Conversations with people like this Gryffindor girl in front of her. They just got on her nerves.

So instead of replying Olly just shrugged nonchalantly, giving the other girl an unimpressed look. "Thinking about it, I actually don't care." It just bothered her that she had managed to sneak up on her like that really.

Forrest arrived at one of his favourite spots: Lachlan the Lanky statue. It was perfect for hiding--one would question whether they put it there on purpose--but also, it was his measurement area. He remembered exactly how well he fit in that hole last year, and he was going to measure whether he had grown taller by the same way again. So he got inside there--it was a little more difficult this time-had he put on weight?!?!?!-- and stretched as far as his legs would go.

Fern had just finished sending fan mail to Dante Dark and was in an incredibly good mood. The message she'd sent before this one had actually received a reply! But it was a signed picture of the keyboardist, NOT the lead singer. Fern was sure that this time, this letter, she would actually get one of Dante. It was her seventh one, after all, and everyone knew seven was a magic number.

She had been humming Stupified by Love all the way down from the owlery and was getting to the best part when she passed by Lachlan the Lanky. Unable to contain such amazing music (and after making sure no one was around), Fern burst into song "YE-EAH! I've been STUP-I-FIED by LOVE! STUP-I-FIED BY YOU BABYY! STUP-I-FIED by LOVE! BY LOOOOVE!"

She was a tad bit flat, but her great dance moves - jumping up and down and tossing her hair - totally made up for it.

Forrest was trying to calculate whether he'd grown taller. Last year his feet reached this love point--wait, what?

He frowned. Had someone been spying--but spies didn't sing--he stopped stretching nevertheless and listened. Not that he needed to listen, the person made everyone listen. He giggled. The lyrics were pretty stupid. Did the person really like the song? He tried to distinguish the voice. Wasn't it... Fern? He fumbled to get out so that he could be sure. Someone cool like Fern couldn't listen to this music. He tried to get out, but couldn't. He panicked. He wanted to be out, NOW, by himself! He wanted to laugh at Fern but if she found him trapped there, she would laugh at him. He wasn't going to let that happen, so he pushed himself forward harder. His shoulders fit in perfectly, he didn't understand what kept him behind--

*insert fabric tearing noise here*

He fell forward onto his open palms, but a leg of his trousers didn't follow him. Or, better phrased, followed him too late with a piece still hanging inside the statue. It had apparently got caught on somewhere and kept him trapped. The fabric of the back of his trouser's right leg was torn off, showing his whole bare leg and a little part of his white pants. Still lying facedown, his hand flew to the crime scene and as soon as it felt the bare skin; he gasped, flushed, eyed Fern in utter fear while rolling over.

Did she see? HOW MUCH did she see? Was she going to keep it a secret? Please? Please?!

"Hey girl I saw you walking down the street; looking so fine from your head to your feet! But there's this fact that I can't hide - I was absolutely stupified! YE-EAH! I've been STUP-I-EEEEEK!!!" The Hufflepuff's song turned into a surprised shriek as she turned around to see what had produced that sudden, strange noise. And what she saw was Forrest falling face first onto the floor!

"Forrest!" she cried, running over. Any indignation (not embarrassment; it was Forrest after all) that he had been eavesdropping on her mini-concert was completely overshadowed by the fact that her friend might potentially be in need of a visit to the Hospital Wing. "Are you okay! Us anything broken! Can you OH!"

Eyes following Forrest's hands, Fern's face flushed to match Forrest's; then she quickly turning around so she couldn't see. The 11-year-old pulled off the heavy robes she had worn over her uniform up to the owlery and threw them as best she could behind her back. She didn't think she needed to tell him what it was for; she was thinking maybe she could just not refer to the situation and that would be that. Never to be spoken of again.

NO, Forrest was NOT okay! He was physically alright, but mentally? He wished he was DEAD.

At least Fern turned around. At least she didn't giggle. At least she didn't make fun of him. Yet. There was guarantee that she wouldn't. She was going to remember this moment everytime she saw him now, and who knew how long it would take her to tell it to her friends?

Ooooooh, no! She wouldn't run to her dorms to giggle at him with her friends, would she? He groaned. No. No! He grabbed the robes, eyes never leaving her back, and scrambled up to his feet. He tightly rolled the robes around his waist and opened his mouth several times to speak, but nothing came out for a while.

"This... this never happened." You know. EVER. No silly girly gossips. No. "Please."

Fern almost decided to forget the whole privacy thing and go help Forrest when she heard him groan. After all, he had never answered her question and for all she knew he had actually broken his nose. When she'd last seen him, his face had been down, forehead against stone floor. It was very possible that he'd smashed it.

But she didn't, because well...

Anyway.

It wasn't until Forrest spoke that she finally turned back around, and when she did, her cheeks turned an even deeper shade of red. Fern found it hard to make eye contact, so she stared at his nose which didn't appear to be broken at all. Squirming because she didn't want to talk about it, the first year gave a quick nod, and then said, in an unusually squeaky voice, "I heard you made the Quidditch team."

Quidditch was a safe topic, right?

Forrest was 17918090100% aware that it was HER robes that hid the...misfortune. But he didn't have his robes with him. He hoped she didn't mind, at least until they got to the common room. Fern never struck him like that kind of a girl, but you never knew with her kind. Females were not to be trusted, and currently, he suspected them ALL.

He couldn't meet her eyes too, and instead stared at some distant point behind her back. He bit his lip. At least she'd agreed to forget about it. He trusted her. He had to. Was she a friend of Bristol's? If she spoke too much, Bristol would tell him.

Wait. He didn't want Bristol to know. Oh Merlin. If she asked him to be her slave, he would do it, just so she kept her mouth shut. This was the worst thing that had ever happened to him! And there was just NO way out... no no no no... his heartbeats got faster as he held onto the robes even more tightly. He was worrying like WHOA. He didn't want to be laughed at! Those times were history. It couldn't happen again!

"I--what--I think so." He didn't even hear the question. He was trying to calm down, but he was going to be uneasy around Fern forever; because she knew. The witness. The mighty, possible laugher.

"Can we go to the common room please." PLZPLZPLZ.

So Quidditch wasn't a safe topic. Fern mentally beat herself for even bringing the topic up. She should have talked about horses. Or cats. Or - or - or cake. Forrest liked cake. She should have talked about cake.

But his next sentence brought her to her senses. They were currently on the seventh floor. Which meant they were near the Ravenclaw common room. Which meant they were near Benzi.

And if Benzi saw Forrest in his current condition, it wouldn't be pretty.

Looking around the corridor, it looked as if it was empty except her and Forrest. So they should go, now, while it still was that way. "You go first." she said, bossily, directing him towards the stairs with a pointed hand. She was going to follow behind, to better mask the tear in his trouser leg from anyone they came across. Fern was done being embarrassed. She was taking charge of this situation. Just thinking about aggravating boys like Benzi could do that to you.

"Then why did you ask?" Did this girl really want to make her waste her time and energy on formulating an answer that she didn't even want to know of? Alice squinted at the Hufflepuff, trying to make more observations.

Dark hair. Brown eyes. About 165 centimeters tall. Looked around 15. Badger. Grumpy. Asked rhetorical questions?

Interesting specimen.

...

.......

.........Olly just stared at the other girl for a while, her eyes narrowing slightly. Why had she asked? Good question. Because she'd been caught by surprise? And she really really hated surprises? But she couldn't exactly say that. So she decided that changing the subject was as good a comeback to the girl's question as any.

"Who are you anyway?" Name, house, year, social security number. No she didn't really care about any of that except maybe the girl's name. She wanted to have a name to the face standing before her.

"Who are you?" Not that she cared, but it'd be nice to have a name to categorize all the information she'd just collected under. Alice narrowed her eyes right back, mimicking the other girl's scrutinizing facial expression and made more mental assessments.

Didn't like surprises? Probably. That went under the mental file, too.

Which still needed a name. She waited for one.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

Olly closed her eyes briefly and inhaled deeply. This girl wasn't worth her time. Seriously wasn't worth it. She had no idea why she was still here anyway. She should just leave. There were a lot more interesting things to do than waste her time with this one.

Opening her eyes again, the Hufflepuff gave the girl an unimpressed look. This wasn't even bothering her anymore. She was beyond being annoyed with the girl's behavior. "This conversation isn't going anywhere, you know." This was just pathetic to be honest. Why was she still here again?

Was she irritated again already? Alice grinned.

"That depends on what you consider the progression of a conversation, doesn't it?" Impatient. She added that to the list of descriptors for this girl, trying to think of more ways to capture the personality she'd made evident so far in words. Cranky. Curt. Demanding. Quick-tempered?

Intolerant of persistent questioning. That too.

Still needed a name, though.