This wasn't exactly the most ideal place to do her acting exercises. But it was much quieter than the Gryffindor common room, and she really did not know where else to go. Even though Demelza had been at Hogwarts for over a month now, she was still unaware of all the nooks and crannies the place had. Not to mention she would probably get lost somewhere in the castle again. She didn't have any time for that, which was why she was here in the girls' bathroom on the second floor. Luckily for her, it was empty.

And so she began with one of her favourite acting exercises. Standing in front of the mirror, Demelza made a number of faces. She started off with a blank stare and then blinked her eyes. When she opened them, she had a big smile plastered on her face. Her eyes closed and opened again, this time followed by a frown. The process continued for a few minutes, her expressions ranging from looking quizzical to ecstatic to flirtatious.

So far she was quite pleased with her performance. If no one paid a visit to the bathroom, she would gladly do this all day. Demelza was that dedicated to the arts.

Patrol. Make sure students were safe. Watch out for extra and unnecessary PDA. Trouble in general... if there was anywhere that this was bound to happen it would be the girls bathroom. History of Magic may not have been his best subject as a student, but he had learned a thing or two having Tiberius for his best mate. And, well, this bathroom had A LOT of dangerous history and since it was his turn to patrol at this hour, well, he was going to have to go and investigate slightly unfamiliar territory.

Slooooooooooowly opening up the door, Airey stuck his toe in first as if he were testing the waters of the bathroom and, seeing as his leg was not chomped off by anything, he allowed the rest of his body to slide in after.

So far so good.

He began snooping looking around for anything out of the ordinary and ended up stepping in a poorly placed bucket used for cleaning. The loud clattering noise echoed in room like the roar of a dragon. "Well...there goes the element of surprise," he murmured to himself. You know, in case there was anything unfriendly in here.

Things were definitely getting better. Classes were taking up a lot of her time, but Lily still wasn’t tired yet. She had other things to distract her anyhow, and keeping busy was keeping her spirits up. She was even looking forward to the holidays, although she still didn’t know what was going to happen. She remembered last Halloween finally, and that memory didn’t hurt anymore. She didn’t feel guilty. There wasn’t any reason o feel guilty, since everything that had happened since last summer hadn’t had anything to do with whatever happened then. She truly was a better person now, and that was why she felt amazing. She might not have gotten the time by herself that she’d said she wanted over the summer, but that didn’t matter. She still knew who she was, and it wasn’t what certain people had said she was back then.

On her way out to the grounds again, since she had a free period, she had stopped off at the second floor bathroom just to give herself a moment. There were too many people up in the dorms for her to deal with, too many questions that could have been asked about how much time she’d spent outside lately, so she’d wanted a quiet place to make sure she didn’t have bed head or anything else. It wasn’t easy to finger comb her hair while carrying her guitar case after all. A mirror was a better idea, and that was where she was headed. Except it looked like there was already someone there, so she’d set her guitar case down against the wall and leaned above it, watching the other girl in amusement. That wasn’t something she would have expected when coming in here. Girls doing their hair, makeup, even crying… this was not anywhere near that.

Lucky for the other girl, she was familiar enough with Hollywood and all that stuff that she didn’t entirely think she was insane. Just maybe a bit odd in the context of Hogwarts, and after a moment more of watching the facial acrobatics, she decided to let her know she was there by clearing her throat slightly. At the same time a clatter came from her other side, making her jump slightly.

Ana had decided that she was going to go to the Technology Center to check out some of the old muggle technology, maybe see if she could watch a film or something. Predictably she'd managed to get herself lost and had somehow ended up on the fifth floor. Cursed moving staircases! But she was sure she'd found it now and would be able to enjoy something relaxing.

She could hear noise from outside the door and figured that there was already someone inside and so she attempted to open the door quietly before slipping inside. She didn't want to distract anyone, after all. However, after turning to look at the rest of the room her face contorted into a look of confusion. There was a girl pulling faces in the mirror, another girl with quite unkempt hair and a boy with a bucket on his foot. Worst of all she'd walked into a bathroom and considering the fact that there was only one boy in here with two girls she was willing to bet it was a female one. Which begged the question of what the boy thought he was doing in here.

She considered backing out of the room slowly, but was too intrigued by what exactly was going on to do so.

For being a supposedly haunted bathroom, Demelza didn't think it was that creepy of a place. Then again, she was too preoccupied looking at herself in the mirror to take notice of her surroundings. Because the girl was in her element, she was completely unaware that another girl had joined her in the bathroom. So she kept on facing the mirror, making more faces at it. Moody, scornful, cunning, woeful, and then – CLATTER! – all of a sudden she was wide eyed and screaming at the top of her lungs. This could arguably have been the best acting she had done in her entire life, thank you very much. But this wasn't acting it all. It was real.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Demelza was no longer standing in front of the mirror. After the loud clattering broke her intense concentration, she made a mad dash for one of the stalls and locked herself in it. She had no idea what had caused the noise. In fact, she didn't even know that there were more people in the bathroom with her now. As far as she could tell, she was going to die in the haunted bathroom all alone. Goodbye, cruel world!

But then she heard the murmur of a man's voice coming from inside the bathroom. This did not help the situation at all. Was that the Heir of Slytherin or whatever it was they called him? Had he come back for revenge? Demelza was on the verge of tears. She was too young and pretty and talented to rot away in some dirty old chamber. "HELP! THE HEIR OF SLYTHERIN IS IN HERE! HE HAS ME TRAPPED INSIDE THE BATHROOM! SOMEBODY HELP ME! HEEEEEEELP!"

Wiggling and kicking his foot to try and get the bucket off - unlike the normal human being who would have simply bend down and plucked it off in a civilized manner - he froze quite suddenly when he heard the screams.

See? He KNEW the girls' bathroom was nothing but trouble!

Fumbling around with his breast pocket for a few moments, he pulled out his wand and began charging out from behind the divider that had been blocking his view from the young woman performing facial exercises and.......a small flock of other girls. Well, at least now he knew the stereotype was true about them never going to the bathroom alone. Under normal circumstances, the man's ears would be read and he would be a stuttering bafoon, but since there was clearly a student in danger, well, his Gryffindor was showing. The good and the bad.

"Stand back!" he declared, now in full view of everything and everyone with his wand held out triumphantly. "I'll handle the........." Eeeeeeeeeeer.... He froze in place and slowly lowered his wand with an expression on his face that could only be compared to a young boy getting his hand caught in the cookie jar as it became all too clear that there was nothing wrong here at all. "Heeeeeelloooo ... er.... ladies..."

Well, she hadn’t expected that sort of reaction from her clearing her throat. Lily had jumped again as the girl at the mirror had suddenly screeched at the top of her lungs and then streaked for a stall like a frightened cat. It really did remind her of a cat. Her father’s cat did that sometimes, anyway, but there were better things to consider than people acting like cats. Like the professor currently charging around the divider like Sir Cadogan, answering her question about what had caused the clatter that had originally made her jump. That and it helped her realize that it probably hadn’t been her soft noise that had scared the other girl. That was probably the bucket that had, she assumed, somehow ended up on Professor Flamsteed’s foot. She forgot about making sure her hair wasn’t all tangled in all the chaos, anyway. That didn’t matter. “Um, hi Professor,” she said, trying not to eye him too much or ask just what he’d been doing sneaking into the girls bathroom. The not-eyeing meant she’d finally noticed the redhead that was lurking by the door, too, and she sent her a glance as if to ask how they’d get out of the situation.

It wasn’t the best situation to be meeting people in, after all. It certainly left a story to tell, but first there was the matter of the girl screaming from the bathroom stall. It didn’t seem like the Astronomy professor was inclined to correct her, not when he looked like a deer in headlights. At least, he looked like she assumed one would look like, since she hadn’t seen many deer in her lifetime to really know. He didn’t really look like a professor, which was the point. Somebody was going to have to try and do something. She moved from her position against the wall, leaving her guitar case there for the moment, and headed closer to the stall the girl had disappeared into. She didn’t think anyone was going to steal her guitar right now, and even if they did, she’d know who to ask first. “I doubt Professor Flamsteed is the Heir of Slytherin,” she said, trying to talk loud enough that she’d be heard through the screaming. “Nobody’s trapping you in here. You can go if you want. At least, I think you can.” Professor Flamsteed wasn’t going to order all of them to stay there and explain, or at least she hoped not. She wasn’t sure how to explain any of this if she was asked.

This situation was just getting stranger and stranger. Why was the funny faces girl screaming her head off about an Heir of Slytherin and dying? Why would one think they were going to die in a bathroom? This was probably a safe place. But still, the boy, or now that she was looking closer he looked like a man. Wait, he was a professor??? He didn't look like a professor? But maybe that was the bumbling.

"Uhm, hi..." she said, responding to his rather hesitant greeting, while returning unkempt girls look. "So, umm, are you all pretending to be weirdo's in a bathroom or something?" because if they were they were nailing it. Like, it was a great performance to scare away any other people, especially the girl that'd run for the toilets. You could tell that she was totally committed to her role.

As she walked closer towards unkempt girl and the apparent professor Ana managed to spot herself in the mirror and let out her own blood curdling cry, while racing towards it. She had, no she couldn't possibly. This wasn't happening, she was only young.

"Never mind the heir of Slytherin, I have a grey hair," Ana wailed as she pulled it from her head. "I'm too young for this," she continued, sobbing slightly as she turned around and latched onto the person closest to her, which just so happened to be Professor Flamstead.

Just when all hope was lost, the damsel in distress heard two female voices and then the voice of a man who sounded like he meant business. Oh, thank Merlin someone was here to rescue her! Demelza was tempted to leave the safety of her stall just to see the epic battle take place in front of her. But, no, she stayed exactly where she was. There was no way she was going to leave the stall until after the Heir of Slytherin was long gone. And if the Heir tried to break into the stall, she was ready to bite, kick, pinch, scratch, or whatever else she would have to do to make sure she stayed alive.

Fortunately, there was no need for any of that. Before she even could register what all was happening on the other side of the stall, one of the female voices told her that it was safe for her to come out. Demelza hesitated for a moment. What if this was a trap? What if the Heir of Slytherin was trying to trick her into coming out? But what if she was really safe, like the female voice said?

She then cautiously unlocked the stall and opened the door with a drawn out creak. Seeing no Heir of Slytherin or any danger whatsoever, she quickly flung open the door and ran out. "My hero!" she exclaimed, ready to jump into the arms of her rescuer and thank him for saving her from the monstrous Heir of Slytherin. But then a blur of red hair whizzed right past her and latched onto – GASP! – her rescuer. "Hey! What do you think you're doing? I was clearly the one being rescued here! I should be getting the hugs!" And she also clung onto the professor.

Females. Guitar. Heir of Slytherin. Bathroom stall. Grey Hair.

There was an awful lot to process right now and the astronomer was probably only receiving and processing about 43% of that information. He did manage to give Miss Andrews a nod to at least acknowledge her greeting before she went over to talk to the nearest bathroom stall. And people thought that he was odd? He only spoke to pet rocks. And ties. And suits. And sometimes his mecha models. Never mind, the Ravenclaw could talk to....

Oh. There had been someone in there. A someone who he concluded had been the one to scream earlier and...

"E-Excuse me?" he stammered at the Slytherin who accused him of pretending. The next thing he knew the stall door was opening, a girl was coming out, another was screaming about having grey hair, and then......... OOF! The astronomer stumbled a bit as he was physically attacked from both sides. The bucket, which was still stuck to his foot by the way, banged against the cold floor while he tried to keep his balance. He felt like his skin was going to crawl right off his body and go hide in one of the bathroom stalls like the Gryffindor had been only moments earlier.

His. Personal. Bubble. Was. Beyond. Popped.

Not to mention his suit was getting all wrinkly because of the clinging.

His face distorted and his entire body tensed up while his hands formed tight fists at his side. He was also pretty sure that he had stopped breathing and, if this kept up, his face would turn purple in a few moments due to the lack of oxygen.

"Ladies," he manly!squeaked when he found some breath. "Kindly release me before I throw you both in detention for excessive amounts of inappropriate public displays of affection."

This had to look completely insane. Lily knew that, but she also knew that the girl in the bathroom stall would just keep shrieking about the heir of Slytherin if nobody stopped her. Somehow, it seemed like she had ended up elected to that position, as well, as the redhead, who she could now see was in Slytherin robes, hadn’t seemed inclined to do anything. At least, not when the first words out of her mouth had been something about them all pretending to be weirdos, which had garnered yet another look from the Ravenclaw. She wasn’t a weirdo, although she had raised a hand to her hair after passing a mirror and seeing that it in fact was a bit tangled. She wasn’t carrying her guitar anymore, so she could finger comb while she was talking the other girl out of the stall. Professor Flamsteed could deal with weirdo girl, especially as she had started wailing about a grey hair. It was probably a figment of the girl’s imagination anyway, unless her family had a tendency of getting grey hairs as teenagers. The professor had a bucket on his foot, but he hopefully was still logical. Hopefully. She had better things to focus on than grey hairs.

Except for the fact that the stall door had suddenly opened with a creak, before bursting open the rest of the way, making her jump aside simply to avoid getting hit as the girl had whizzed out and suddenly exclaimed that Professor Flamsteed had been her savior before getting into things with the redhead. Who was now clinging to the poor professor, along with the other girl, and all Lily could do was stare. Well, stare after she’d moved the door aside so she could even see what was going on. Maybe there had been a point to the redhead’s earlier question. Although now it was Lily who was wondering about people’s sanity, and starting to worry that the professor was going to suffocate. “Y’know, nobody’s really saved anyone,” she said, speaking normally again. No need to yell anymore, unless they had to get another professor here since she really was concerned that he was going to die right there in the girls bathroom buried under possibly crazy teenage girls and with a bucket on his foot. At least she could try and get the bucket off if that happened, but then he spoke. Telling her he could breathe, anyway, and that technically maybe she would avoid detention. She wasn’t clinging, at least, but then, she also wasn’t doing anything to pry either of them off. She might lose a hand if she did, and she rather liked having those. It was hard playing the guitar without her hands, not to mention doing most class activities.

Why was the screaming girl now clinging to the Professor as well? Did she not realise that Ana had gotten there first and that he was therefore her person to cling too. And look, she was causing the professor, and therefore both of them, to stumble. Ana did not want to fall to the ground today! She'd already gotten lost and found a grey hair. Falling was not on the agenda. Which is why she was relieved when the man regained his balance. Although that did put her in the awkward position of having her upper body pressed into him from when she'd stumbled with him.

Although, now that she wasn't in any immediate danger of dying, maybe she could be nice enough to share. "Honestly! We both fit," she said, rolling her eyes at the other girl as she straightened up so she was once again simply clinging to Flamsteed. No need for her to be strange and hug the man, while declaring him her saviour. "And like she said," Ana pointed at tangled hair girl, "there is no heir of Slytherin in here!" she would have told her to give up the act but she was rather amused by how committed she was to her part.

Turning back to the professor, hoping to get sympathy from someone, Ana was disappointed when all she saw was slight panic. Anyone would think he wasn't in the bathroom willingly! But he was. Unless these other girls had forced him to come along. And...had he stopped breathing?

"But Professor I'm not showing any inappropriate levels of PDA," Ana told him earnestly. "Being distressed and simply grabbing onto someone isn't a display of affection, it's a cry for comfort! A PDA would be if I kissed you or something," which she wasn't going to do. The girl beside her might though. She couldn't be too sure.

Even though she was pretty sure the professor would have to see her point of view about the PDA thing she wasn't so sure she wanted detention so she loosened her grip on him, brushing a few wrinkles from her grip out as she did so. She only moved back a tiny bit though. Who knew what heir girl would do. She might be needed to pull her off now that she'd have access to the whole of the professor. That would be especially important if he, like her, was dragged into this unwillingly.

Merlin, this guy was acting really weird. She totally understood that fighting of the Heir had to have been quite a challenge, but there was no need to be so uptight anymore. Especially when she was trying to thank him for rescuing her! He was either being very rude or he was just freaked out from the redhead clinging onto him too. That had to have been why his entire body was so tense. He clearly did not expect that random girl to get in the way of everything. Demelza thought about shoving the girl off the man so she could get a proper hug, but that wouldn't have been very lady-like of her. It was tempting, though.

Demelza was just about to suggest that they should take turns. Because she was the one who had been rescued to begin with, she would obviously be the first in line. Then the redhead could go, followed by the blonde who said she could come out of the stall. But then the girls said that she was never in any danger whatsoever and that the Heir of Slytherin hadn't even been there. To top it all off, the professor was threatening to throw her and the redhead in detention for ... PDA?!

Well, this was extremely awkward.

She blushed as she quickly let go of the professor and backed up a few steps, not exactly sure what to say. But then Demelza realized that one of the man's feet was inside a bucket. Wait a minute. The pieces were starting to come together now. He was threatening to punish for her something that he caused. "Hey! It was you that nearly scared me to death!" she said, dramatically crossing her arms. "What were you even doing in the girls' bathroom? You - you didn't even knock!" She looked over at the two girls. Was she right? Or was she right? He should be giving them all apologetic hugs or something!

Wiggling his toes inside his shoes - and pressing them firmly into the sole of his shoes to help relieve some of the tension that was causing him to clench his teeth and his jaw to ache. "You are aware that the message from the 'Heir of Slytherin'," he began, using air quotes in the appropriate places for emphasis. "Was nothing more than a prank from one of the visiting students, right?" Assuming that is where the one young lady had gotten the idea from. Rumors in the corridors spread faster than dementors sucking up happy feelings.

While he was thankful that one side of him had been released, and his personal bubble restore to an extent, he was NOT pleased by the Slytherin's response and ended up choking violently on air as he inhaled and snorted at the same time. "That....yes....that would be....yes...." And thank you for loosening your grip and even being considerate of his suit wrinkles.

"Well, actually, it was whoever did not put this bucket away properly that is the one who initially caused the problem," he pointed out. Technically speak. If the bucket had been put away, then he would not have stepped in it, and then he wouldn't have made such a loud noise, and therefore this entire misunderstanding and uncomfortable bursts of personal bubbles would have been avoided.

He made eye contact with all three girls. Ah yes...that was the million galleon question now, wasn't it?

"I was...just..........." he replied, tapping his legs with the palms of both his hands as he became distracted mid-sentence. "Terribly depressing decor in here, wouldn't you say?" he asked as he took several steps forward and rapped his knuckles on one of the stall doors. "Could really use a new coat of paint...among other things."

Finding herself on the second floor, Lux made her way towards the washrooms, figuring that she would freshen herself up a little before heading over to the Technology Center to play with some of the cool Muggle devices that Hogwarts had. She hadn't had a great night's sleep, so she was very tired and probably had circles under her eyes; splashing cold water on her face would probably help.

Opening the door, she walked in on a scenario that she hadn't imagined ever witnessing during her entire time at Hogwarts. The same Professor who she had seen get hit with a water balloon was standing with his foot in a bucket being hugged by... "Ana?" And there was the girl who had gone camera crazy making another scene.

What on earth was going on here?! Scared, Lux hovered in the doorway, not sure whether she should stay or leave.

Lily was starting to feel more and more awkward the longer she watched the scenario playing out in front of her. First the bucket, which had honestly startled her too, but not as much as the Gryffindor face girl who had fled to the stall. Then finding out it had been Professor Flamsteed. Another startle, but it had at least given her the chance to get the other girl out of the stall and to hopefully drop the whole Heir of Slytherin stuff. It made more sense than the redhead wailing about grey hairs, when she would have thought the professor would have had more to worry about on that front. He’d almost had an aneurysm or something when the clinging had started, but now that looked like it was done as well. Maybe things would be more sane now, except she’d had a finger pointed at her at one point that she wasn’t entirely sure of. She had, in fact, been the one to establish that there wasn’t any heir of Slytherin in the bathroom, but the pointing just didn’t make sense. Dramatic girl wasn’t paying attention anyway. There were better things to deal with. Like avoiding detention, which she was already setting up her argument as to why she didn’t deserve to be included if the professor actually did enforce that.

First and foremost, she wasn’t invading anyone’s personal space. Except for maybe Myrtle if she didn’t like her standing by the stalls, but the ghost didn’t seem to want to make an appearance. She still edged away, toward her guitar, though. She wasn’t even thinking of clinging. Or kissing him, which was an idea that had made her eyes widen as the redhead had stated it. She wasn’t going to witness anyone kissing poor defenseless professors. Maybe help with the bucket, but that was it. That was as close as she’d get. She wasn’t about to suddenly yell at the man either, and her widened eyes turned to the Gryffindor before returning to the professor in question. “Does Hogwarts have a caretaker still? I don’t know who would leave mop buckets around,” she found herself saying, even though that hadn’t actually been a question asked. More of a rhetorical comment, and she applied herself to rescuing her guitar from its position against the wall to hide any embarrassment. “I never really thought about the décor,” she added, letting the professor have his alibi. “That sounds like a suggestion someone should make to the headmistress.” Who had been going on about feng shui in the Ravenclaw common room anyway, so updating the girls bathroom shouldn’t be too much to ask. And then, she noticed another girl hovering in the doorway asking about someone named Ana. That had to be either the redhead or the Gryffindor, but she wasn’t going to knock down a second year just to escape.

Instead… “Would you like me to help you get the bucket off your foot, Professor?” She may as well feel useful, considering he’d taken her credit involuntarily for getting the other girl out of the stall.

As soon as the face girl stepped backwards Ana herself stepped further away, assured that the Professor wasn't in any danger from the other girl she started to take in the situation around her more fully. Apparently the girl wasn't acting and no-one had known that the Professor was in the girls bathroom. Ana nodded along when she was pointed at to show her assent to the statement.

"You know, I think he might have been spying on you," she told the girl next to her, who now that she thought about it might be called Demelza - but she wasn't 100% sure so she'd stick to mirror girl, touching her arm to get her full attention. "He looked rather suspicious when I walked in after him. He wasn't even in the main part of the bathroom. I think I must have came just after he got the bucket stuck on him, because I heard the clatter from outside... Obviously he wasn't looking where he was going," Ana declared, joining the other girl in looking accusingly at the Professor. She really didn't know why unkempt hair girl wasn't more worried. Obviously she was being spied on too.

"I mean why else would he be skulking around the girls bathroom. Surely they wouldn't send a male professor in to check would they? And if he wasn't doing anything unusual why would he be avoiding the question?" Ana was totally onto the Professor. He should watch out.

"By the way, I think your faces were great, you could be a real talent," Ana added as a second thought to mirror girl.

Upon hearing her name Ana turned her head towards the door, ignoring unkempt girl who seemed to want to help the Professor. She shouldn't get too close to him. She'd probably be threatened with detention too even though they'd done nothing wrong. "Lux," she exclaimed, giving the girl a bright smile. "Come in, come in," Ana said, beckoning Lux away from the door with her hand. "No need to stay over there, you might get bowled over and I certainly wouldn't want to see you get hurt," Ana finished, looking over at mussed hair girl. She better not knock Lux down as she tried to escape or Ana would hex her. Something which she tried to convey with her eyes. Although luckily it appeared that she'd given up on her escape plan and was going to attempt to be helpful instead. If only she was helping with their interrogation that would be great.

Any hurting or scaring of Lux would result in dire consequences, even for the Professor.

These professors and their damn insistence to practice the most mundane spells repeatedly until one lost their sanity was ridiculous, in Dora's opinion. And yet here she was anyway, sitting by the sinks that were bathed in sunlight, waiting for her partner to do said homework.

This wasn't so bad she supposed, since she did LOVE transfigurations as a branch of magic, but really she could think of much better spells to practice. At least she got to have some Vesper time with this. That made it better too.

The sixth year sat with all the needed supplies laid out in front of her, watching her jarvey run around while she waited on her friend.

This was stressful.

Vesper, who'd not attended Transfiguration on the grounds that she'd dropped the subject, had agreed to help her friend with her homework. Dora was Dora. It was so very hard to say no to her...but pass that, Ves had the unnatural anxiety about failing with the spells. Guh.

Guuuuuuh.

Bile was rising in her throat and she hadn't even reached the bathroom where'd they'd be doing the homework, yet.

After several more slow steps, though, Vesper had...and was entering the bathroom, a bit pale in the face. "Dora, I'm here."...and she was about ready to fall out. Dora wouldn't laugh at her for failing, though. Nope. That was the only reason she'd agreed to this. Yep...

She smiled up at her friend warming, comfortingly and patiently. Dora wasn't in a rush to get this homework done. She would wait until Vesper was relaxed enough to start. And she most definitely wouldn't laugh.

"Hi."

Reaching around, she grabbed her potions sack and held it up for the other girl to see. "I brought these, in case you needed one." She looked like she might. "And butterbeers." Dora patted the spot beside her, inviting Ves further in to join her.

Seeing the sack of things and the butterbeer, Vesper moved further into the room. Always prepared, that Dora was. Great friend was great.

Accepting one of the bottled drinks, she finally took a seat. "Thank you...and 'Hi'." Struggling with the top for a moment, she glanced over at her friend. "You'll have to tell me what the assignment was." She didn't know, unfortunately...because of subject dropage and all that. Had Dora known about her dropping Transfiguration? Had Vesper told her? Ves couldn't remember, now that she thought about it.

Finally getting the lid off her drink, she took a sip and smiled. SUCCESS. "Hopefully by teaching me...it'll help with your homework."

The professor's jaw hung open at the one girl's accusation. SPYING?! IN THE GIRL'S BATHROOM?! HIM!? SWEET SOLSTICE WHAT SORT OF PERSON DID THEY TAKE HIM FOR?!

His ears turned the beat red almost instantly, and his face began to match as well...but it was not from blushing. Nope. Embarrassment would only come if it were true and that accusation was FAR from it.

"I was doing NOTHING of the sort," he retorted as he folded both his arms across his chest. He ought to make her write lines for that. And if it weren't for the fact that the dungeons were currently experiencing a make-over of sorts he would have done just that. "I was doing a routine patrol of the corridors. Making sure that the school is secure and I am sure you are all well aware of the dangers that have historically lurked in this bathroom." That much had been demonstrated just now by him being accused of being the Heir of Slytherin for Merlin's sake. Although he would much rather be called that than what the young woman had just inferred he was. "I was simply being concerned for the well being of all the young ladies at Hogwarts and wanted to make sure that none of you ended up like Myrtle for whatever reason."

Besides, he had knocked before he had entered...hadn't he? Or maybe he had meant to and never actually done so. Hmmm.

His blue eyes turned back to the young Ravenclaw as she offered to help with the bucket. "Oh, that would be most helpful, yes," he said as he lifted his leg that had become tangled up in some of the robe that was inside the bucket. "If there is, I haven't seem him around since I took up the position of Astronomy professor," he pondered as he rubbed his chin. Oh, stubble? He better shave again. Although he could have sworn he had done so that morning. "Nah, let's not trouble the Headmistress over such matters. Nothing that some charms work and a little bit of feminine touch from you ladies can't handle." Because they knew more about interior decorating than he did, right? "Could even turn these mirrors into proper...er...what are those ones called that they have in dressing rooms? Dressing room mirrors?"

Could Miss Dramatic Arts tell he was trying to appeal to her? Make up for the near death experience he had nearly caused her via being scared to death?

Before he could continue with this new mini project of his, another young woman entered the bathroom cause...why not? Girls tended to go to this place in flocks. FLOCKS.


"Heeeeeeeello..." he said, wiggling in place awkwardly for a moment. "Just in time to give this place a bit of a face lift." He turned back to the other girls. "I trust you all know the Colour Change Charm, yes? Start with the doors to the stalls and turn them pink, perhaps?"

Girls liked that color, right?

Lily still wasn’t entirely sure how she’d ended up involved in this mess. All she’d wanted to do was use the mirror to check her hair, and then there had been dramatics about the heir of Slytherin attacking, talking people out of stalls, and now Professor Flamsteed was being accused of spying? She didn’t blame him for the shocked look on his face. She’d even looked at the other girls in surprise, although she’d stayed quiet. She was beginning to think there wasn’t much point in talking anyway, when nobody seemed to bother to care what she said. At least, she was still a little annoyed that nobody had given her any credit for getting the Gryffindor out of the bathroom stall. There were better thing to consider, however. Namely, getting everything sorted and preferably getting the bucket off the professor’s foot. She didn’t think he wanted to finish his patrols with it still there, plus that would probably startle even more people if they heard him coming.

She’d given him a smile as he’d acknowledged her offer, anyhow, along with the other questions she’d asked while she’d been thinking aloud. “Of course,” she replied, moving toward his outstretched foot and trying to tug at the bucket without knocking him over. That wasn’t easy. He didn’t really seem like he had the best balance, and there was still the question of why the bucket had been lying around in the first place. Nobody had seen a caretaker around, so that meant someone else must have left it there. “Well the Headmistress was going on earlier about how our common room needed redecorating. That it wasn’t set up for proper Feng Shui or whatever,” she added, finally getting the bucket free and going over to set it below the sinks. Hopefully nobody would step inside it if it was there. It distracted her from thinking about how it really seemed like the professor was suggesting they redecorate the bathroom themselves. That and maybe she could stop getting those little glares from Ana the redhead if she was all the way over by the sinks, although she’d retrieved her guitar again just in case. She didn’t want it getting redecorated too. Obviously she wasn’t about to do anything to the newcomer if she was nowhere near her, and maybe she’d get out of turning anything pink too. Getting the professor free of the bucket should give her some sort of credit. Maybe the other girls could take point on the redecorating.

She eyed the man when the hero thief Slytherin touched her arm and mentioned that she was being spied on. Immediately Demelza gasped and her hand flew over her mouth. It all made sense now. This man was no Heir of Slytherin. No, he was much worse. He was a kidnapper! A kidnapper that was jealous of her talent! He was going to sneak her out of the school and hide her from the entire wizarding world. "You know, sir, this girl is making a lot of sense," she said, nodding her head in agreement. She slowly reached inside her robe pocket for her wand. Just in case this guy tried doing anything funny now that they all knew his evil plan.

But she could not help put perk up a bit when he suggested that the décor in the bathroom was terribly depressing. So this man wasn't going to kidnap her. He was simply there to redecorate their bathroom. What a serious make-over it needed, indeed. "Ooh! Dressing room mirrors? Those would be perfect, actually! These mirrors are too small and don't give us a full view of what we look like. And everything else in here is just so boring."

Without another word, Demelza took out her wand and walked over toward the mirrors. What everyone else was doing didn't matter to her anymore. She was on a mission. Decorating was serious business! She flicked her wand and the mirrors quickly grew bigger in size, reflecting her whole body. Pleased with her work, the girl flashed a big smile and twirled around in front of the mirror. After twirling a few times, she looked at the others (including the new girl) in the bathroom. "Well...? What do you all think?" Wasn't she just gorgeous?

Before anyone could give a response, she noticed that the Ravenclaw girl was holding a case. "Is that a guitar case? You should totally play something," she said, nodding. "I can sing while we decorate this place. I am a fantastic singer!"