Dylan glanced around himself worriedly. Where was he?! All he had done was a bit of exploring about the castle, and now he was very, very lost. He had no idea where he was and not a clue how to get back to the common room. Sighing in frustration, the first year slumped against the wall next to a tapestry, frowning. He just wished he could find his way back, but he didn't know which direction to go. The corridors all seemed the same to him, he didn't even know what floor he was on anymore.

After what felt like hours up in her common room going through her book of hexes Lex decided she needed a break. There was no better way to take a break than to head down to the kitchen for a snack. Candy could have been had but what she really wanted was a sandwich. Maybe she'd stop by the Hufflepuff Common Room to get Lottie...or not. Lottie didn't stay in there often. This could have been one of the times when she was out. Having a sandwich alone, how dull.

While heading down the corridor and by a familiar tapestry, she noticed a Firstie..not a very happy looking one at that. A part of her wanted to keep walking, afterall, the sooner she got to the kitchen was the sooner she could get back to her Common Room and get back to distracting herself...but again, he didn't look very happy.

With a sigh she stopped. "You okay?"

Suddenly, he heard footsteps and glanced up and noticed a girl walking along. He was about to ask her where the Hufflepuff common room when she asked if he was okay.

Well, that was nice of her to stop and check on him. He had been sort of worried she'd just pass by him. But then again, he felt embarrassed telling her he was lost. He had to though...unless he wanted to stay here and be lost all day! "Er...n-no...I'm lost actually..." he said quietly, looking down at the ground, blushing slightly.

It was just as she'd thought. He was in a bit of a fix. Good she stopped then, huh? "Lost? I bet not really. Where are you trying to go?" That was the first thing to be asked. If he was looking for something on the fourth floor then he may have been closer than he thought.

"If it's the library, you're on the right track." Fourth floor. That was all she could think about.

Oh but where were her manners? "I'm Alexa and you are?" Might as well learn the name of the kid she was helping. Just for future reference in case he was the type to get lost often. You had people like that, always and forever lost. She used to get lost often but with her it was all an adventure and she never much minded. With him, it was obviously different.

With drumsticks in hand, Ascanius was wandering about the castle in search of somewhere to practice. Some dolt was using the Room of Requirement so that option was shot down, but at least he could go practice rhythm sheets without the whole drum set, yeah? 'Sides, it was nice to get out of the Common Room sometimes.

So after a while, avoiding some moving staircases and all, he found a suitable place to set up camp. Tapestries. Like a nice sound proofed little cage. Smirk.

Mmk. Drumstick roll. Let's begin.

The fourth floor did not have food. The fourth floor did not have anything edible except for herself. She wasn't going to chew on her hand or anything. Els supposed she wasn't that hungry.

Also, looking for food whilst following your toad around probably wasn't the most responsible of ideas.

BUT...she hadn't yet squashed him. Which was good, right? She'd probably upset 'fessor F, if he found out the toad he'd named was all..toad guts on the fourth floor. "Caaaastor, where are you going? Home is thattaway." You know..back in the opposite direction. Did toads understand direction? The main questions was..did toads understand ANYTHING?!?

Follow. Follow. Folllllllllllow.

Ascanius was halfway through the riff section of The Pretender when he heard a voice coming from down the corridor. He settled his hair, which had been properly rocked in the middle of the song, and shoved his drumsticks in his back pocket.

Who was interrupting jam time?

A toad? He had been interrupted by a toad? That was just downright unacceptable. Pfft. The fifth year was doing important things, yeah? Go away little toad.

And so it was getting a glare. Where was dumb animal's owner anyway?

.............OH. Oh. It was Elodie. Hmm. You know, maybe he had been a tad hasty calling her animal dumb. Smiiiirk. "Looking for someone, gorgeous?" As in the toad.

Castor was grounded. Castor was so grounded his little toad butt was not going to see the light of day for YEARS. And he was not coming back to Hogwarts for sixth year. Noooooo way. He was a pest. He was an absolute pest and she was so very annoyed at him.

...... Crud.

"The toad. Is he bothering you, Ascanius?" Not. Going. To. Comment. On. The. Gorgeous. NOT. If he wasn't bothering him, then he could have him. She would GIFT him the darn toad that didn't know anything about directions or life or ANYTHING.

Useless piece of...toad.

"He interrupted my jam session actually," Ascamius started trying to muster his strongest smirk. Didn't take long of course, he was a veteran in the art of smirking.

Not bothering to touch the toad, 'cause it was nasty and all, he went on, "But no harm, no foul, beautiful." He wouldn't argue with her though if she wanted to get the thing away from him. The fifth year hated toads because they were ugly and he was sort of an admirer of beauty. Ahem.

His jam session? She grinned, forcing herself not to laugh, before nodding. "Well I'm awfully sorry about his bad timing. You've obviously got yourself a fan." And she wasn't talking about herself here.

The toad. Hehe.

"You can have him if you want. He obviously likes you." Maybe. The toad was prettttttty dumb anyway, and there was no telling that it was Ascanius that drew Castor in this direction. None at all. Besides, Castor hadn't seen his face, so it wasn't that.

Oops, sorry.

Ascanius had a lot of fans. Smiiiirk. He was the face and the jaw and everything about his face, yeah? Anyway, it was only natural the toad would like him, but he didn't want it. So the thing could go away now.

Like right now. "S'fine. I don't mind." No, but he did. Get it away.

Ha, no.

He had no use or need or want for a toad. Elodie was cute, but he wasn't stupid, yeah? S'no need to try and be gentlemanly about this if it meant that she got to pawn off an ugly toad on him. That was her stupid pet. She could just take it and get it away from him. He had rhythm sheets to practice. "Thanks, but no thanks, gorgeous."

La la la la la. Exploring the castle. Again. Because there had to be places she'd never been before, and she had super missed the entire castle, okay? She was just enjoying being back and whatnot.

So, fourth floor. She was here, yep. This was a place. Well... now what? She walked over to a window and leaned her elbows on the sill, looking out across the grounds. It was a great place here, all pretty and stuff. She hummed a tune to herself, a happy one her dad used to listen to. She had no idea what the tune was, just that she liked it, and it was a happy song.

Once again Olly was taking a break from studying. Somehow it felt like she was taking more breaks than studying but whatever. Also she really needed to come up with something interesting to do in her freetime. Aimlessly wandering around the castle just didn't cut it. And she hardly ever ran into anyone interesting either.

Today wasn't any different it seemed.

She heard the humming before catching sight of the redhead leaning against one of the windows. It was the former Slytherin Quidditch Captain. The one who fell out of a window or something. Actually, she STILL didn't know what exactly had happened. Her and Ella's conversation hadn't really shed any light on the whole thing. So, even though Olly was tempted to just turn on her heels and walk the other way again she didn't. Instead she stopped right where she was. "So you're back then." How lovely.

Derry was pondering the implications of a pet hippogriff, and had come to the conclusion that, whilst it would be totally awesome to have a flying horse bird and whatnot. It would be cruel to keep one in captivity, even on a farm. It was like keeping a canary in a tiny little cage. Just mean. She was wondering if she'd ever get the chance to actually ride one when she heard footsteps and turned around.

Ahh... her favourite person in the world, obviously. "Great to see you too..." she said, plastering on a huge fake smile. "I'm feeling wonderful, thanks for asking."

Ooh. Why was she being sarcastic? Derry was confused at herself now. Psh. Oh well. "You okay?" Polite... hopefully... to counteract the... yeah.

Oh, sarcasm. What a great comeback. "Why would I ask?" If she'd wanted to know how Derry was then she WOULD have asked. She hadn't though. And Olly highly doubted the redhead had expected her to be concerned about her well-being either. They weren't friends. It wasn't like Olly hated the other girl per se. She didn't even know her.

She just didn't really care enough to be genuinely worried. There were more important things on her mind.

Was she okay? Olly actually took a step forward, her face briefly falling into a confused frown. "I'm not the one who fell out of a window." Or whatever had happened to Derry. Now she could tell her all about *insert story here*. That had worked out quite well really.

Why would she ask? Oh, you know. Manners. Psh. Unless of course Olly had been raised in a... oh. Wait. Hang on. Derry had pretty much been raised in a barn. Or stables anyway. And she was polite and stuff. "Never mind." Derry disregarded it and just moved on.

Fell out of a window..? Derry blinked at the girl. "...Why? Who fell out of a-... oh. Is that what people think? Really?" she raised an eyebrow. "No, I didn't fall out of a window. Not quite." Close enough though, it was a fall. It'd do.

There. Derry didn't have an answer either. She did however look EXTREMELY suprised at her mentioning the falling out of a window incident. Interesting. Olly took a step closer while simply looking at the other girl, silently willing her to go on. And she did. Sort of anyway.

Was that what people thought? "I don't know about people-" She raised her eyebrows pointedly, trying hard to keep her face void of emotions. Didn't want too look tooooo eager to find out what had happened to the Slytherin after all. "-but that's what I heard anyway." Yes. From the Headmistress at the match actually. Huh. So that WASN'T what had happened.

"How did you end up in hospital then?" Because now she kind of was curious.

Was Olly actually interested in what had happened to her? Because Derry had never really been an object of any interest to the general populous. Was this... gossip. That would be kind of cool. She'd never had enough friends before to be considered gossip worthy. Oooh. This was getting a full analysis later.

"At the match?" Yeah, she'd been there, but she'd thought the headmistress was just joking. She knew what had happened, right? Her dad had owled in... She hadn't realised people had actually believed that. "Well... no. I was riding and some kids threw stuff at my horse." she explained, shrugging a bit. "He bolted and slipped on the ice." And she came off, tumbled, hospital etc. It wasn't a particularly interesting story. Apart from that bit where she nearly died. That was a good excuse for everything and she was going to milk as much as she could.

At the match? Olly just shrugged vaguely in reply, still trying very hard not to look toooooo interested in the incident. Which she wasn't. It was just the fact that Ella had known what had happened either that had got her even more curious about what had happened to Derry. Also, she just liked knowing things. It could save lives at times.

Or keep jealous girlfriends off your back. That kind of thing.

Well that...actually posed a lot more new questions than it answered. "Why were they throwing things at your horse?" Had they WANTED her to fall off the horse? This story was getting better and better by the second.