Hogwarts was a lot bigger than her mothers house. And a lot bigger than her fathers house. And a HUUUGE amount bigger than her sisters house. She did not care what anybody said: Charlie was NOT going to be able to find her way around EVER. Nope. She needed a map, a detailed map. Or maybe a satnav. One embedded into her brain would be cool.

Either way, she needed something to guide her around.

Thinking she'd gone the right way, Charlie turned a corner and was lost again. She'd only been trying to make her way to the grounds, maybe explore or get a bit of sketching done, but this was the three hundred and seventy billionth time she'd managed to get lost in the last half an hour.

That may have been an exaggeration, but it didn't make it any less annoying.

And she was totally sure those suits of armour had moved. FREAKED, much?

Okay, maybe, just MAYBE this wasn't nice. But Cat was pretty sure she would be forgiven and if not, there was always food. Food was a good way to smooth things over when one has been naughty. She was definitely being naughty now. Instead of calling out to the girl when she'd spotted her, Cat hid in the shadows and waited for the perfect moment. Once Charlie had her back completely turned, her attention on the suits of armour, Cat jumped out.

"BOO!"

As soon as she'd noticed movement out of the corner of her eye, Charlie's retina's were trained on the suits of armour. No way was she going to let one of them scare her. She was not going to be a wimp. But they were supposed to be inanimate, and she was sure that they WEREN'T. Her dad had left out so much information about this school, and she was not enjoying finding out on he-

"Meeep."

A suit of amour had her, she was going to die at the hands of the metal beast. Charlie didn't, couldn't even scream, only let out a slight noise of shock and resignation. She stood stock still, closed her eyes and counted to ten in her head, before whirling 'round ready to whoop some armour butt.

Except... "Cat?" Okay, totally uncalled for.

Okay, okay, okay. That had not been nearly as gratifying as Cat had thought it would be. It would have been a million times better had it been a successful attempt to make one of her brothers scream like a girl (a feat that had already been conquered, thank you.) Cat did feel bad for scaring the poor girl. She slid out of her hiding spot and grinned. "That was mean, I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?" Come ooon... forgive? Please?

Totally not cool.

Charlies frown deepened, because she'd totally made an idiot of herself and that wasn't good. She was supposed to be CLEVER, or so the hat had told her. Shrugging her thoughts away, she turned back to Cat and pouted a little. "Completely mean. First I get lost and then you freak me out..." But, she couldn't really blame the other girl for her getting lost. That was completely her fault, and the lack of sense of direction she'd inherited from her father.

"I suppose I could forgive you... Depends on what you're going to do to make it up to me?" Huuuuge grin.

"Awwwwwww." Cat coooed in Charlie's direction and nudged!attacked the girl with a hug. Pat, pat, pat. Hugs were THINGS that happened when one was a friend with a Caterina. Hopefully Charlie was okay with that, it was a very important thing, after all.

"What shall I do?" Hmm? She let go and grinned, "What would you like?"

It wasn't like Charlie could stay angry at Cat: she was just too nice. Like hugging her. Smiling, Charlie hugged her back, but pretended to still be upset when they broke apart. Because she was going to make Caterina pay for scaring her, uh, trying to scare her rather. And Cat was going to be super dooper nice until Charlie had decided that she was forgiven.

Which wasn't yet. "Hm, I'm not sure," Charlie began, thoughtful expression clouding her face. "Maybe you should go and tell everyone how mean you were to me?" She was totally joking about that one, though, and she smiled so that Cat knew. "Erm. Fudge." Yup, Charlie would like her favourite food thing EVER. Fudge.

"Fudge?" Cat bounced in place, grinning all the while. She would make Charlie love her again, she would. Who wouldn't love her? Really. A grinch.

"I have an awesome secret recipe for fudge, you know? Family secret ingredients and such." And everyone (well not Charlie, but she'd learn) knew that Moretti food was the best food. It just was. No arguments. "What kind though? Chocolate? Peanut butter? Raspberry vanilla swirl?" There were options to consider here, important questions.

Secret recipe? Charlie's ears perked up at that, and she giggled at Cat's bouncy-grinning-ness. How could you not get excited about cooking and food and fudge especially? It was one of the most awesome things in the world.

"Well, I think I shall have to try this super secret recipe!" You know, Charlie would be the judge of how good this secret family recipe is. Charlie would be the expert judge of anything fudge related. Maybe that could be her job... you know, when she left school? "So many CHOICES." GASP. "You know, that raspberry vanilla swirl sounds fantastic." Now please.

"Super duper top secret, you know? No one knows about it save for a few select Morettis." Cat wasn't even just talking it up, either, it was TRUE. "Raspberry vanilla swirl it is. That's one I haven't made here yet, I'll make extra for the common room and the boyfriend and the friend people." Good idea!

Then, she dropped her voice and scooted closer to the girl, "Can I tell you a secret?" Not a secret recipe, no.

Perfect! "I can be your taste tester, then!" Charlie was totally up for sampling the new and never tried before recipe, especially if it was fudge related. Her mental mouth was practically watering at the thought. "I'm jealous, I wish my family had secret recipes to pass on." Nope, she just cooked because her dad couldn't. And it was just lucky that she enjoyed it.

"Sure," Charlie murmured, ears perking up. This was so going to be the secret recipe, wasn't it? Yeah, it was the secret they'd been talking about so what else could it be?

Whatever it was, Charlie was good with secrets.

Asher roamed up and down the halls, looking for a good place to try out another once of his brilliant uses for Solis Focus. As he walked past a few of the suite of armor, he decided that it would be as good of place as any.

He pulled his back pack off of his back and took a few pieces of parchment out. While standing near a window, Asher pointed his wand, equipped with magnifying glass, and commanded "Solis Focus!" He only pointed the wand at the parchment for a moment. Just enough to burn a small hole in the paper and not let it catch fire. It worked wonderfully. The parchment was singed in a few spots and burned through in a few others. It looked as if the parchment had been victim of an accident and not a deliberate act.

So he wouldn't draw too much attention to himself, Asher decided to move along to a different part of the castle to test his new use for solis focus again.

Hmmm. Well, since she'd brought it up there was no stopping the secret now. Cat tilted her head and stood on her toes to reach Charlie's ear before whispering. "Well, see, it's not a legit thing, but I think Stan has a crush on you." Cat pulled away from the whispers and grinned.

So like, Charlie should go for it if she wanted. Kisses could happen and stuff. Kisses were good.

Cat was on her tippy-toes to whisper to her. Charlie giggled, and leaned her head down slightly to make it easier for then other girl to reach. Was this the secret recipe? WAS THIS IT?

READY.

And she was let down. Pouting slightly, Charlie turned back to Cat with a little frown on her face. "Caa-aat." Pout pout. "What has Elodie said to you?" Because this had to be part of her plan to get her on this date that was NEVER going to happen. "It's not true."

Even if kisses would be nice.

Today was a rather slow day. There was only one thing to do when a day got unbearably slow and boring leaving you to lie in your bed and stare at the ceiling. She'd give a hint, homework...was not...the answer. No. Not at all. Deciding not to let the day make her go brain dead Lex hopped up and made her way to the 'claw Common Room to get Aidan then made her way down to the suits of armour.

He probably had questions about why she wanted his company but why tell him when he would see anyway?

All he had to know was that they weren't on their way to the library...or the kitchen, they weren't on their way there either. Finally she stopped walking when they were in front of a particular suit of armour. What was special about it? Truthfully? Nothing but they had to stop somewhere.

"This one will do. What do you think?" About the suit of course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Today was a rather slow day. There was only one thing to do when a day got unbearably slow and boring leaving you to lie in your bed and stare at the ceiling. She'd give a hint, homework...was not...the answer. No. Not at all. Deciding not to let the day make her go brain dead Lex hopped up and made her way to the 'claw Common Room to get Aidan then made her way down to the suits of armour.

He probably had questions about why she wanted his company but why tell him when he would see anyway?

All he had to know was that they weren't on their way to the library...or the kitchen, they weren't on their way there either. Finally she stopped walking when they were in front of a particular suit of armour. What was special about it? Truthfully? Nothing but they had to stop somewhere.

"This one will do. What do you think?" About the suit of course.

Actually, it wasn't like it was unusual for Lex to suddenly need Aidan time. It wasn't the first time she's gotten bored and sought his attention.

...Nor was it unusual for her to not reveal where they were going or what they were doing. So Aidan followed beside her, his hands in his pockets, waiting for her to reveal whatever she had planned, but not really curious about it otherwise and didn't bother asking questions.

When she stopped, he'd taken a few more steps before he noticed and backtracked. Then, stared at the suit of armour. "Do for what?" NOW, he was curious. NOW, he'd find out her scheme, right?

He was doing a good job of not asking questions until they were actually needed. Very good quality to have if she did say so herself. Lex eyed the suit of armour for a moment before turning to him to answer his question. Really, she should have explained this bit earlier because now she needed input but would have to wait until he was fully briefed on the situation.

She reached over and tapped at the metal. Hollow, just the way she wanted it. "Have you ever wondered what the inside of a suit of armour would be like?" Her expression was a curious one, her thoughts already all over the place. Could she walk around in one? Would height affect anything? The Gryffindor looked to the suits again, giving them another tap. "I have, the idea's been bugging me for a while and I wanna know."

No movements...this meant they weren't going to protest to the idea and she'd be allowed to climb inside one, yes?

"I wanna climb inside and we should have a race so you should climb inside one too. Maybe that one?" Lex suggested, pointed to the next one in line.

These were the best suits in the castle. Naturally they had to use them. "Now then, do you think this one will do and that one?" He was in a better position to give his feedback now. Mhm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

He was doing a good job of not asking questions until they were actually needed. Very good quality to have if she did say so herself. Lex eyed the suit of armour for a moment before turning to him to answer his question. Really, she should have explained this bit earlier because now she needed input but would have to wait until he was fully briefed on the situation.

She reached over and tapped at the metal. Hollow, just the way she wanted it. "Have you ever wondered what the inside of a suit of armour would be like?" Her expression was a curious one, her thoughts already all over the place. Could she walk around in one? Would height affect anything? The Gryffindor looked to the suits again, giving them another tap. "I have, the idea's been bugging me for a while and I wanna know."

No movements...this meant they weren't going to protest to the idea and she'd be allowed to climb inside one, yes?

"I wanna climb inside and we should have a race so you should climb inside one too. Maybe that one?" Lex suggested, pointed to the next one in line.

These were the best suits in the castle. Naturally they had to use them. "Now then, do you think this one will do and that one?" He was in a better position to give his feedback now. Mhm.

"Sure," he answered with a shrug. He was a sword-wielding master, of course he's wondered what an authentic middle-ages sword fighting experience would be like. Those suits never looked very brandishing friendly. Lex had wondered that, too, apparently, as was obvious when she asked the question in the first place. Aidan listened.

And then she shared her idea and all the Ravenclaw could do was stare at his friend.

Climb inside one? Usually, he'd be more than excited about the idea, unfazed by the possible detention. But he sort of had a bit of a social life now, and didn't want to give it up for a night's cleaning Hospital Wing bedpans or something. Plus Quidditch Practice. Mo might make him work extra hard if he missed one due to detention.

But the castle did serve the perfect opportunity to get inside a suit of armour. And a race inside one did sound fun. And maybe a detention for 'stealing armour and racing in it' was the best reason for detention. And maybe it would give him just enough of a bad boy image....

"Right," he answered after much contemplation. "I'll help you in yours." So it was a 'yes', Alexa. He was up for a race.

For a moment she thought he might have wanted to back down. He wasn't looking all that sure about this which would have made it a TOTAL waste considering she'd bothered to walk over to his Common Room to get him. She waited silently, eyes now back on the suit before her while she waited on his response.

It took him long enough.

"Awesome, now we just need to work on how we're getting in them in the first place." He was going to help her into hers and that was all kinds of great but it meant nothing if they didn't know how they were getting in. "You figure these things open in the middle? Like we could just take off the top half or something?" She eyed them each going straight down the line. If one wanted to offer a demonstration she wouldn't really complain. As it stood that seemed to be a no.

Didn't matter, they were doing this anyway. "Give me a hand with this." She took hold of the upper body of the suit. They were going to try lifting and hope it worked out. If not, plan B but 'cept she didn't have a plan B so this kinda needed to work the first time.

On three whenever he was ready.

Suits of armor. Charming. Her mind wandered off to the Ancient Runes lesson... and she couldn't quite remember what had happened there. That was so not a good sign. At all. Perhaps it would be a great idea for Lottie to stop reading about Astronomy for a little while and read her notes on the other lessons instead, yeah?

And charm her memory to work better.

Now, she knew they could come alive, with spells, but she was just woooondering something... perhaps Fuller would be proud of the fact that she'd use one of the charms taught in class to figure this out, without complaining. Granted, she was supposed to be practicing, anyway.

Wand out. The same whipping motion as in class, focusing more of one of the arm parts of one of the armors and..., "Carpe Retractum!" And pulling. PULLING. Because these things were so heavy! With a purple rope wrapped neatly around the arm of the armor she kept on pulling to one side, she was just turning it using her body not trying to pull it towards her, if that makes sense. But the thing was s heavy, though, it took a great deal of concentration and strength to get it done.

Now, the other one. She did the same, "Carpe Retractum!" only she was pulling to the other side. See, the armor could talk to each other now, LOL!NO. Then...it was falling, leaning towards her, only a little, but it was enough for her to be done with that spell and quickly utter an 'Arresto Momentum' wow, we're practicing everything, so now it was frozen in place.

"Oh, well." Smirk. If it ended up falling, she'd be long gone, so no harm done. At the moment. She could leave now, yeah? Lottie got the answer she was looking for the second the purple rope came out.

Off we go.

Davina was fascinated by the suits of armour. They were kinda creepy, but interesting to look at. And maybe, just maybe, a little inspirational. For her drawings, at least. She walked past them slowly, studying them with genuine curiosity. They were so much taller than her, and she had to crane her neck to look up at them.

Once she decided she'd done enough staring, she found some free space against a wall and sat down, crossing her legs as she did so. She twirled her hair [a terrible, terrible habit of hers that would never die] and opened up her notebook to a fresh page. She couldn't afford a nice drawing pad, so she settled for a plain ol' notebook. As long as she had something to draw on, she was fine. Popping a piece of gum into her mouth and pulling a pencil from behind her ear, the girl began drawing, the images that danced in her mind all day finally making it onto the paper.

Schuyler slipped into the suits of armor room. Why? She wanted to scope it out and see how many people frequented this room. Like.. did the suits somehow watch if you were doing something you maybe shouldn't be? That was another question that Schuyler wanted the answer to. For various reasons. Okay, mainly one reason.

As the Gryffindor rounded the corner of one line of knights, she literally almost tripped on someone. Someone who was sitting on the floor, cross-legged. And drawing, she soon found out - hence the notepad with the beginning sketches. Her foot may have even collided with the girl's side. "Oops," she smiled.

Davina was only a few pencil-strokes into her sketch and she was already very happy with it. This was the result of brilliance building up all day. Not that she'd ever call it that, though. She was far too modest to call her designs brilliant.

She was designing an outfit. It was a secret passion of hers, fashion designing. But she never showed anyone her art for she was too easily embarrassed. She was afraid people would pick on her, or worse -- rudely criticize her art. That was why she always alone when she doodled. No one was there to judge her.

She was just about to fill in the skirt she'd drawn when someone's foot came in contact with her side. Startled, she let out a yelp, her hand immediately flipping her notebook shut so the person couldn't see what she was drawing. She clutched her side, the pain from the kick starting to make itself felt. Looking up, she saw it was a girl who had tripped over her. "Um, s-sorry," she mumbled, scooting back further into the shadows. "Sorry."

Oh, wow. A yelp. Aaaaand a clutching of the side. Had Schuyler kicked her that hard? ...maybe she ought to try her hand at soccer.

Schuyler had been the one to kick/trip on the other girl, and yet ironically, this girl was the one who was apologizing. And scooting off to the side some more. "It's fine," she smiled. "It was my fault." Mostly. Sitting in the middle of the floor wasn't the best place to settle down, either.

The rushed closing of the notebook had been quite obvious, and so the Gryffindor couldn't help but notice how determined this girl was to not allow her a peek at any of the drawings. Schuyler didn't ask either, though. Art could be personal. She wasn't an artist, but she got that.