He remembered Quimbley crawling out of the barrels about a year ago. But where, exactly? Cutty plopped down into the floor in direct sight of the barrels and he stared intently at the pile. Sooner or later, one had to show up. Sooner or later, one had to leave. Then he'd know (exactly) where the entrance was to the little badger barrel house. After that, it would all be a matter of persuasion. Would people get hurt? Possibly. But just to see the look on some of the faces would be supreme.

He sank deeper into his position until his elbows were upon the floor and his hands were supporting the lower part of his face. He patiently watched as a cat might a mouse's hidey hole-house.

Marigold skipped down to where the entrance to the Common Room was, ready to tap on the barrels and enter. Except there was a boy standing outside. Slytherin, she thought, remembering seeing him at that table. Bouncing to sit next to him, she wondered why he was there.

"HAI."

Sugar was GOOD YES?

Squeaky voice was squeaky he observed and it tore his attention away from the bebarreled entrance to the Hufflepuff hide-out. It had said something too.

"Hello." He greeted back. It was a girl. A little Hufflepuff girl, just like he wanted. Maybe she was mad like all of the other girls he'd met at this school so far excepting the Slytherins? Let's find out. "I'm not in the way, am I?" Cutty asked in his best fake-politeness.

Marigold bit her lip and offered a polite grin to the other boy. She wasn't sure why he was outside their Common Room, though she did see him with Toby a lot, therefore he got her grin of approval.

"I'm Marigold," she said quickly, just to get that out of the way. Ugh. Tacky names. She tapped her foot a bit. "No, not in the way at all."

"Oh, good. I was hoping I wouldn't be." And at that he made no effort to move whatever. Instead he rolled something he'd had in his hand, a small ball of some sort, whilst continuing to stare at the barrels.

"Cutty Mordaunt." He sighed and lifted his upper body up so that his elbows were no longer against the cold floor. Then Cutty turned to the girl and was all like, "I like your name, Marigold. It has 'gold' right in it." And actually, this wasn't a complete and utter lie. "Where ya off to, Marigold?"

Marigold kinda of awkwardly shifted and flailed her arms/hands a bit. Her palms had a weird flappy noise. Flap flap flap. YEah. When did she become awkward?

"... that is an AWESOME NAME!!!!!!!" she said excitedly. WHOAAAA. Cutty. LIEK... CUTTING STUFFS? And then he complimented her name. Whoa. She liked this one. "Thanks. I actually think its a bit... old-grannie-frumpy, but I do like the gold part." GRIN. It was true. Just not in a Goldilocks way. "Oh, just to the Common Room. But I'm in no hurry."

"Isn't it?" He said not too emotionally, but with something of a light tone. Like he was only sooort of kidding. His glance shifted left and ceiling-ward as she gave her comments about her own name being granny-like. "I suppose all flower names run the risk of sounding somewhat old-fashioned, but only yours is symbolic of passion & creativity. Not one or the other, but BOTH." He said with a small, casual smile.

"Well, don't let me keep you, Marigold. Really. Your probably have Hufflepuff friends inside your common room that are wondering where you are." He reminded her in his gentlest tone, all while looking quite clueless for why would a serpent know even the vaguest vicinity of where the entrance to the badger den was?

Marigold gave a frog grin and shrugged. She guessed that any name with a flower made them sound tacky... but she couldn't really imagine Zahra... or someone named like... nevermind, most flower names were old grannyish. Hmm, though. "That's cool, I guess. Passion and creativity?" BEAM. "But also death." Frog face.

"No it is TOtALLY fine! I can hang out for a while," she said. She wondered about Cutty. He seemed... mysterious.

"Death-Schmeath. P'uhh! Two out of three of the meanings is positive anyway. Look on the bright side, Goldie." Was Marigold a pessimist or one who always looked on the bright-side, he was trying to gauge. It had been difficult in his previous encounters with her as all she would do was stare at Odessa. "May I call you Goldie?" It made him think of the Yukon, which he'd never, ever been to but had seen images of. "Else do you prefer to go by your full name? Oh!" He said with a snap of his fingers as if he'd suddenly just remembered something. "As long as we're sitting here, chit-chatting would you care for a cauldron cake?"

Marigold grinned REALLY BIG at Cutty-wutty-not-putty. He was AWESOME and thought her name was cool. YAY. "Okay, I'll try." And she would because HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY. And Goldie? Suuuuure. Like Bristol used to call her OH SHE miSSED HER SIS. "Totallllly." She as totally chill. And then she grinned and brought out the goblet of pumpkin juice she brought. Spiked with a daydream charm, that is. INNOCENT GRIn. "Suuuuure," she said, a little suspicious, "Just as long as you drink thiiiis," she added.

"Moment of truth?" He said eying the goblet of pumpkin juice which was really sounding a helluvalot better than any of the sweets he sold. He had been quite tired of them by this time, actually by the summer. Not that he'd gone into getting chuff off his own stuff. But the scent of it alone could be nauseating. "That's not laced with love potion, is it?" Cause Cutty figured he had a hard time enough without the concoction working through his system. Anything else, he figured he could work to his advantage as he often did. Even that time he was transfigured into an animal boy. He reached out for the goblet and swished the liquid in it around sniffing it for traces of anything potion related.

His nosed turned up nothing and he tossed her the charmed cauldron cake. Have fun lost out in the Sahara, dear Goldie! With it's blaring heat and mirages. Cutty drank down the liquid surprising even himself at his sense of adventure having abandoned the concern over a love potion. Not like his vengeance wouldn't have been twice wouldn't have made a love potion a bare necessity to any witch who'd dare dream of slipping him one.

MUNCH.

Marigold took a bite of the cauldron cake without enough time to answer any of Cutty-putty's questions or even say ANYTHINg at ALL because before she could OPEN HER MOUTH SHE WAS

In perfection.

And by perfection, she meant paradise. There was warm sun on her skin, a slight breeze ruffling her curls. The sky was blue. She was sitting at a picnic table, which was warmed by the sun, and there were flowers - daisies in fact, covering the space in front of her. She was alone, but there were rabbits and deer and other cute cuddly animals all around.

Pretty much heaven, though she didn't quite know it. But the daydream was short lived as she started to consciously think again, casting a quick Finite over herself.

Mmmmm.

The look on Marigold's face...why did she seem so happy. Happy and relaxed? She was meant to be in sweltering heat and a wind that would've exacerbated the terrible aridity. Cutty tried to keep a disappointed look from showing up on his face. It was difficult, and growing more so as he felt himself drift into a daydream. Cutty blinked and when he opened his eyes, Marigold was gone and so was the castle. What he found in it's place were tall grass fields and rolling hills of the type that were perfect for running. Occasionally they would move of their own accord. A breeze? No, actually a small animal of the non-magical variety. It was as if Snow White had made this day dream possible with it's over-saturated and bright colours. He had a look upon his face that might've suggest his disgust, or perhaps it was only surprise. Enough was enough. He took out his wand and casted, "Finite!" to end the thing.

Note to self, never ever, ever let Goldie make you a daydream charm again.

Marigold giggled as she saw that her daydream charm had worked. Unless Cutty just randomly spaced out in the middle of a conversation. Well, it wasn't a conversation per say, seeing as she had just had a daydream herself, but she figured her Charm (which had taken long enough, so it should work) was strong enough to work immediately. Still grinning, she tried to sneakily take out her notebook and jot some notes down.

He looked.... weirded out? Surprised? Grossed out? Jotting all of this down, she put her quill between her teeth.

"Heyyyy," she said, smirking at the newly awakened Cutty-putty. Heh.

Drifting out of it sharply Cutty-Putty turned his attention back toward the little Hufflepuff girl as she called to him with her 'Heyyy'. The expression he had been wearing dropped off and he was left again with his neutral one.

"It wasn't a love potion." He confirmed outloud. "Were you experimenting upon me?" He asked without sounding the slighted twinge offended. He was, in fact, more fascinated.

Marigold GRINNED at the Cutty-wutty in front of her. DAWWW, he was a bit confused, wasn't he. She gave him a wink and a thumbs up.

"Not a love potion." Why would she do that? Sensing he was a bit angry at him, she put the back of her hand against her forehead and fake!swooned. "It was for homework, dear! And I better be off." Before he MURDERED her.

Her dramatic and girly gesture made him chuckle lightly. He'd been wondering, not too often but wondering nonethless, where the school dramatist was. Perhaps he'd found her in Marigoldie.

Homework, h'mm? So then they'd been on the same tier. Was as clever as he found himself? Perhaps, it was only that he'd underestimated her by her exterior. "Alright, then. Bye, Goldie." And he waited for her to take her leave before taking his own himself.

So this is what it was like being locked out of the common room.

Ella sat on the floor, back leaning against the wall and eyes trained on the barrels which were currently the subject of the dirtiest looks the Head Girl was capable of producing. Those barrels were mocking her because she couldn't remember which one would let her into the common room and it sure did twist her wand into a big old knot. Stupid barrels. Stupid wand. STUPID OLD AGE!

And she continued to sit like this, seething but too stubborn to admit she needed help. If anyone asked, she was just taking a rest...in the hallway...outside of her common room...her comfy common room.

JHGDHKJSGJHSG!

>.<

Elodie had spent the last few hours trying to bribe Coul with food and kisses to get some of his NEWT studying done, and sure..they'd gotten through a page or two...but it wasn't enough and she'd given up very soon after. She needed to go and cuddle with Gemini for a bit too so she didn't drive herself insane with wanting to hit her boyfriend. Boys were stressful. No one told you that when you first started getting those whole liking feelings. Boys were insanely stressful. And then they gave you butterflies and kisses to make up for it and still stressed you out.

BOYS.

Tilting her head slightly as she approached the barrels, Els looked at the opposing wall and the Head Girl. "You're probably better off punching a wall than trying to inflict pain on them with your eyes." If she wanted input, you know..

Wall punching hurt though.

Punching a wall, eh? Ella glanced up at Elodie and then down at her hand thoughtfully. After a minute or two the eighteen year old shook her head. "I'd break my hand for sure." Defeated, she was. "And I take it that means my angry eyes aren't up to par. It'd probably help if I could actually see the barrels clearly." Blurry barrels were blurry and still mocking her, by the way. So Ella very maturely made a face at them and then turned her attention to the younger badger.

"Are you going in...uh..." Wait, what was her name again? E-something. "Elsy?" Close enough.

Break her hand? Yeah. Sure. That was plausible. Els nodded, and tapped her fingers against the wall. "Walls are pretty dangerous to hands. And apples." Sometimes Elodie threw apples at walls when she wasn't in the best of moods. It was pretty fun watching them being destroyed. Maybe she was just slightly morbid. Apple deaths.

Elodie grinned and shook her head. "Nope, I was planning on just sitting out here too. It's how I spend as much time as I can. I like admiring the barrels. They're awfully pretty, don't you think?" And with that, she closed the gap between the two and sat beside Ella. She had been intending to go in, but it was all the more fun to sit out here anyways.

"Are you avoiding someone? Waiting for someone?" Was she broken?

"Apples?" Ella had heard of people punching walls out of anger but she'd never heard of people throwing apples at them. That was new. "Waste of food, y'know." Water balloons worked better. Or balloons filled with paint. She'd done an art project like that once.

Wait, whaaaaaat? She wasn't going in? "Just as well. I probably couldn't get up to go in anyway." Ella shrugged and scooted over, making room for the younger badger to sit. "Prettier back in the day. They've aged a bit since then. How old do you s'pose they are?" Did they get replaced after a certain amount of time? Did they get spruced up? More importantly, was the vinegar in there just as old as the barrels themselves? Questions, she had them.

She wasn't waiting for anyone, nope. The boyfriend seemed to be avoiding her lately which was unnerving. Annoying too. As for avoiding people, she didn't have to do that unless she was having a bad hair day. "I forgot..." PAUSE. "Which barrel I'm supposed to tap." More looks in the direction of those devilish barrels. Elodie would help her figure it out, yeah?

Waste of food. Psh. Els shrugged. "I bet eating apples with worms in isn't as fun as throwing them at walls though." Actually, she was sure it was pretty sickening and the thought of it turned her stomach more than it should have. If she had any food in her stomach, she'd probably have brought it up right then and there onto the floor, or even Ella's lap.

"I can help you up if you need it." It wasn't any extra effort on her behalf, besides..would she get brownie points for helping the Head Girl? Was that a thing? Could she get favours? Was that a thing? Maybe she'd question that a little later on. "Old? I think they're probably a good few decades old. Can you see how the colour has faded a little in places?" Then again...Ella had already stated she couldn't see them properly, so maybe Els would just have to let her imagine the colours. They were only barrels. Nothing highly important.

Oh....

Elodie frowned, and patted the older girls leg. "That's cool. I know which one you have to tap..." But they could sit here for a little while. Maybe see if she could remember too.

Worms? Ella wrinkled her nose at the thought. Yeah, she most definitely did not want to eat wormy apples. "So really, you were doing us all a public service." The eighteen year old smiled a little. "Saving Hogwarts one destroyed apple at a time." Kidding, she was. It was better to think of it like this, though. Made Ella care less about what the elves might think of wasted food.

Elodie would totally get browning points for helping the Head Girl. What she could redeem them for, that was the unknown but surely Ella could offer something good in return. ...Maybe. "That'd be great, thanks. Only...mind if we hang here for a bit longer? I've sort of lost all motivation to move." And no, she definitely couldn't see the faded parts of the barrels but she nodded along like she could, not wanting to admit how horrible her eyesight actually was. Pretending, she'd gotten good at pretending. "During first year I wanted to change their colors, the barrels. Make them rainbow or something."

Ella smiled faintly at the leg patting and looked over at her, thoughtful. "I remember it's one in the middle somewhere but...yeah. Old age sucks." Seriously.