After pretty much mastering the last transfiguration lesson, the homework should be a piece of cake. But before he went looking for a partner he wanted to practice a few times. He did NOT want to look like a fool in front of someone by having his wood turn into a .... he didn't know something besides the boat that it was supposed to. The vine too. He wanted to make sure he could turn it into a rope again. One without leaves still on it.

The seventh year carried his wood and his vine to the study tables. He sat down and placed the wood and vine in front of him. He pulled his notes out of his bag also. He read through them.

He started out pronouncing out the Spells again, just like in the lesson. Lig-num Na-vi-cu-la. Lig-num Na-vi-cu-la. Lig-num Na-vi-cu-la. Yeah that was enough of Nova locola or whatever. He'd get to the vine.... later.

Now he just needed his wand.

Astrid... needed to get her butt out of her dormitory and start doing homework. She was slacking a lot with homework. Classes were nothing because she always attended them anyway, but homework? That's another thing. It needed effort. LOTS of it. Deciding that she should start with the Transfiguration homework days before the deadline would be a good idea, except she needed a partner. Oops. She didn't really think of that but guess she could just do it on her own?

She thought that the Slytherin Study Tables would be a good place to start with. The library would've been a good place too, but she wanted more of a place where she could be alone. But, yeah... she was wrong. There was already someone at the Study Tables. Well, one student is better than 478375834 of them.

Okay... so. Uhm. She needed to say something. "Hi." Astrid smiled a liiiiittle bit. "May I sit here? She gestured to the seat in front of the dude. It was the nearest seat to her dormitory and if she wanted to leave ASAP, she could just run. No big deal.

Asher dug through his bag until he finally found his wand. In the time that it took him to find it someone else had appeared at the study tables. He looked up when he heard her voice, He smiled slightly and nodded "Sure go head." If she was working on the Transfiguration homework assignment maybe they could buddy up.

Slytherins should stick together espeically in times like these. Slytherin in last place right now, That was something that he did not like at all. He watched her for a moment. "Are you working on Transfiguration?" He was just guessing or maybe hoping she was. Maybe that way they could partner up. Double Slytherin points.

Oooh, he said yes? Astrid grinned at him even more and placed her quill, inkwell, parchments, and Transfiguration textbook on the table. "Thank you," she told him and then sat down. Heh. Yeah, she had to do some Transfiguration work too and, in case she got bored and stuff, she would probably just doodle on her parchment. As much as she wished she could do the Transfiguration homework because of house points, she needed to find someone who didn't have a partner yet.

"Yeah, I am," Astrid said. "... Well, not yet actually. I don't have a partner so I'm just gonna practice the spells for a while until I could find one." Mhm. At least she'd be able to practice her oh-so-amazing Transfiguration skills, right? Unless.... he.... needed a partner too. Because Astrid was so down for that. Totally. Since he was a Slytherin and all, she was okay with it. They'd both end up earning points for Slytherin which that Vanacutt girl lost in the Welcome Party. SIGHS.

.

Asher watched as she placed all if her school supplies and a book on the table. He nodded a you're welcome as she sat down.

He looked at his wood and other things in front of him. Then down at his notes. The seventh year nodded again. " That's what I'm doing too." He shrugged "We could partner up if you want." That way they both could just knock it out together. And get more points for Slytherin.

"I'm Asher by the way." You know, if they were going to partner up then he would just get that part out of the way. If not it would still be nice to know the name of a person sitting next to you. Yeah.

Really? He was doing his Transfiguration homework too? This caught Astrid's attention. Yes, so the dude had her attention right now. And, partner up? Even more attention from Astrid. She grinned at the dude. "Of course we could," Astrid said while nodding. "In fact, I'd love to." Because, why not? That only meant more points for Slytherin, which was always a good thing.

Oh right. She needed to tell him her name. Well, at least she knows that his name was Asher. "Pleasure to meet you, Asher," she said with a smile. "My name is Astrid, new girl and all." So that meant she didn't really know much people here, so it was great to get to know another house mate. He was kinda familiar though. Probably saw him on the Quidditch Pitch during tryouts? Yeah, probably that.

... So yeah. Back to the homework topic? "Where do you wanna start? The vines or the piece of wood?" Because she was totally fine with any of them.

Awesome. He grinned back to return. Great, now he didn't have to worry about finding a partner. He had one now. "Cool." He said simply. In fact she'd love it. He chuckled, so was he.

He nodded "Astrid? That's nice name. He grinned at the new girl. Hey wait a minute. Didn't she try out for quidditch? He thought so. Anyway they had Homework to do.

Asher looked at the vine and the wood. He was pretty sure about the wood the vine on the other hand well, he should get it out of the way. "Let's work on the vines first." Nod.

"Cool." She grinned. Because that's usually what happens when a person says 'cool', yeah? The other repeats it? But that seemed like she was a broken record so... yeah. Ahem. Anywaaaaaaaay.

Ooooooh. He liked her name. YAY. Astrid gave him two thumbs up for being awesome and saying her name was nice. "Thank you," she said. "I like your name as well." Just to return the favour. It's not like the name Asher was bad too, you know. "You tried out for Quidditch, yeah? I remember you." Gotta know one's competition, apparently, but now they weren't competing for anything anymore. It's more of a fellow Slytherin thing now.

"Okay, then," Astrid said and took her vine out. Uhm... yeah, vine. But then, you know, what was the incantation? BLINKBLINK. She was lost. "... Do you happen to remember the incantation for the vine-to-rope spell?" Because THIS GIRL forgot her notes in her dormitory and was too lazy to go and get it.

Well this girl was turning out to be awesome. She should get fist bumps, yeah? Yeah. He offered her one. She seem like the kind of girl that wouldn't mind getting fist bumps. If she made the team too then she should be prepared to get plenty of them.

She liked his name. nice He also returned the thumbs up. "Thanks" He grinned too. So that where he had seen her. "Yep. I was at try outs. I thought I seen you there."

He nodded again. He moved his piece of wood to the floor beside him. So he could focus on the vine. He sat there for a minute. Oh, yeah, Okay. He looked down at his notes. "Vinea Funiculus with a point to the vine."He said as he showed her his notes. He tired it out. "Vinea Funiculus" He then pointed to his vine. It turned into a rope. He smiled and nodded. Great job Romalotti.

At first, Astrid thought that Asher was going to punch. Well... lol. He probably wouldn't. He wouldn't dare, would he? Hah, of course. He can't do that. She was a girl. But anyway, Astrid knew that was a fist bump so she fist bumped him too. And grins for him because not everyone got the privilege to fist bump an awesome girl like Astrid.

"Noooo problemo," she replied. Oh, so he was at the tryouts! Her memory couldn't have failed her. Yep, her brain was totally normal. Mhm. No big deal. "Ooooh. You did great at tryouts, yeah." He got on the team, right? Hmmm?

Vinea Funiculus. She remembered it now! Yay. "Thanks." It was just a point, right? And a tap for the wood-to-boat spell. Had to remember that, mhm. Astrid took her vine out and placed it in front of her. So... yeah. She had to cast the spell otherwise she'd be staring at it all day. That'd be weird. "Vinea Funiculus!" she said, pointing her wand at the vine. And then.... BAM! Success! Grins everywhere. "Not bad," Astrid commented on Asher's spellwork. WOOOOT!

Asher just smiled a bit. "Thanks. So was you." Yep, yep. He believed that she also made the team, too. The competition this term was crazy. They had promising talent for years on. Which was good. He just hoped that they did well this term too. Being his last and all.

After was done he watched Astrid work her magic on the rope. He was very impressed. He gave her a clap. She was athletic and academic. "Excellent! Should we practice it again?" You know to make sure his vine turn into a leafy rope. like it did it class.

Astrid gave Asher lots of beams. Well, that was because he deserved them. He was cool and a Quidditch player and overall awesome, so Astrid did not see why he shouldn't receive grins. Most of the Slytherins deserved them anyway. "You think so?" Because she knows so. She was pretty good herself, but that was really conceited of her. "Thank you!" She didn't forget her manners. Heh.

Did he clap for her? She would've curtseys and bowed but she was settled sown on a seat and it was kinda hard trying to stand up. "If you wanna practice yours again, you may, but it's okay with you if I move on to the next spell, yeah?" She was ready to turn her piece of wood into a boat and try it out at the Black Lake. Hehe.

"Lignum Navicula!" Astrid said and tapped her piece of wood. Slowly, it had turned into a boat. SEE? It wasn't that bad. She'll have to test the boat later at the Black Lake just in case there were holes or defects or something she didn't want on her small boat. Mhm.

Asher nodded. "I know so, I look forward to playing with you." Now that tryouts were over and they were officially teammates now. He could say this now. He nodded again at her 'thanks' And he grinned back. The younger slytherin was cool. They should hang out in a non homework setting sometime.

Now back to the homework this was why he....they were here.Did he want to work on the vine again? No not really it looked good. What if he worked on it again and it came out terrible. Then how many times would it take him to get it back to looking this good. Who knew? He shook his head. "No, that's fine. my rope is great."

Okay wood come here. He picked up his wood off the floor and placed it in front of him. He got his wand "Lignum Navicula![" and tapped the wood. The wood turned into a very nice boat indeed. Look at the detail! He beamed at Astrid. She'd been beaming at him so it was time to beam at her. "We should probably test these boats out at the lake, you think?" He picked up his boat and grinned.

Curse NEWTs and the pile of homework. Andrew would love to join the small victory party that Healer Tillstorm prepared for Slytherins, but alas he can’t—at least for the time being. Since there was free food before them, Andrew took the opportunity to slip two pieces of brownies up his sleeve and headed over to their study area wherein the place was deserted. Perfect, yeah?

Andrew sat on one of the chairs and placed both brownies on top of the table giving it a good stare. He can’t think of a good day dream that he wanted to share with someone, so he just decided to infuse the delectable brownies with the spell he learned from Charms class. The seventh year pulled out his wand from his sleeve and pointed at the first brownie. “Sentio Somnium.” a purple thread-like thing emanated from the tip of his wand and ‘cursed’ the brownie. Now on to the second one. This time, he attempted to use a non-verbal version, to see if he was getting better at it. “Sentio Somnium.” Nothing.

Grunt.

“Sentio Somnium!” A purple thread shot out of his wand and enveloped the second brownie making it cursed too. Andrew grinned and nodded to himself. “Yeah, that’s how you do it Ackerman. Good job.” The Slytherin kept his wand in his sleeve, stood up and placed the brownies inside a brown paper bag he kept in his pocket.

Now. To meet his victim…

Andrew got the paper bag of brownies and headed out towards the school grounds. That's where the naive and gullible people hang around, right? Right.

Dum dee dum dee dum.

Back down from Professor McCormack's office, Cutty's hands were both quite occupied fumbling about with the glob of faience clay. It more or less had gotten everywhere on his hands and around the hemline of his robes. He found a spot to sit at the common room study table and slammed the glob down working it out, flattening it, massaging it, rolling it out and balling it up again as though it were pretzel dough.

Cutty dug his wand out of his pocket, further extending the epicenter of the mess he'd been creating. "Aguamenti!", he summoned a bit of water to maintain the clay's flexibility as he worked it. Slamming the clay onto the surface of the table once more, Cutty cleansed his hands one at a time, then summoned his book. How did that symbol look, again? He'd chosen his design somewhat at random, finding little else he thought he could use at the time. An Alchemical symbol for love and feminine beauty. One of the oldest elements. A slightly rectangular shape would suit the many branched design for copper well and he began to mold the faience into said shape.

He ended up with a bit of extra clay, which he thought would do for a stupid or lewd (or possibly both) prank on Caleb later. He took up his wand once more and used the slender tip of it to etch out the almost panicle looking design.

Normally she wouldn't carry a mirror with her. Why would she need to look at herself, especially when she was studying? For that main purpose, actually. Her failed attempt at the gray-hair reversing charm hurt her pride more than she'd suspected it would.

Away from the chatter of the common room and dorms, she found herself pretty alone at the study tables. Thinking about the charm all day, she came to the conclusion that she lacked intent. In all honesty, thinking about her mom had drawn down her walls, so she was determined to shove all of those thoughts away.

Drawing her wand out and holding the mirror with her free hand, Beverly inhaled a deep breath. She could do this. She'd done it before. Piece of pie...cake...however that went.

And she wouldn't mind any of those, actually-- CONCENTRATE WAYNE.

Right. Ahem.

Wand aloft, Beverly gave it a wave as she said, "Senectus Reversus."

Her fringe, which was a dull dark brown form earlier that day, grew richer in color. Some color seemed to have spread all over hair. It wasn't gray or white-looking. It was the color of...wheat bread. Not her normal tone, though.

With a sigh, she set her wand and mirror down. What was she doing wrong? She would like to say that her intent was strong and that it was a faulty charm, but how could it be when she'd accomplished it during the lesson? With every day that passed her magic lagged, she knew that, but a witch couldn't lose her magic... Could she?

Was that the reason her grandmother refused to age? No. No. It was all in her mind, like Dad says. Stuffing her belongings into her bag, Beverly stood up to leave. She needed some fresh air and give it another go.

Clear her mind.

Right. Everything else aside, Derry really had to finish this book before the summer holidays, for exam reasons. But since the whole Qui-... since everything, she had had absolutely no attention span. It wasn't that they'd lost - they'd lost last year too, in fact, Derry was really happy for Hufflepuff. They'd played really well, but now Derry was... she didn't know. It probably wasn't just the Quidditch. In fact... it definitely wasn't. Maybe she'd just run out of space to shove stuff she didn't want to think about...

Anyway, muggle exams in the summer, right... Derry flipped to the last page she'd been on in the biology book she was studying, and attempted to read it. The medulla oblongata is a small section at the base of the brain. It controls breathing, heart rate and blood pressure...
...
......

Nope. Nothing was going in. In fact, she could feel herself getting stupider as she attempted to force her brain to work. It just wasn't going to have an effect. Derry closed her book and rested her forehead on the desk. Her 'medulla oblongata' (good name) didn't seem to be working too well today, because it was kind of a struggle to even breathe properly. Ugh. Just... ugh. Why.

Theo wasn't here for studying.

Was he ever?

He was here simply to clear his head since the dormitory was getting on his nerves this particular week. No privacy, man. He sat at a desk, ignoring everyone else that was in here, and pulled out a blank piece of parchment from his bag. He'd been trying to write a letter to his parents for the past few days but he wasn't sure what to say. A part of him wanted to mention the old age epidemic in the hopes they'd pull him out of school, or something. But the mature niggle in the back of his head knew that it was a bad idea. He only had one year to go anyway.

And boy oh boy, he could NOT wait much longer.

So far in his letter, Theo had written 'To mum and dad' and that was it, but he decided that he needed a break already. His eyes eventually looked around the room, and it was very quiet, apart from a redhead with their head resting on the desk. Theo felt kinda like doing that, too. He knew who it was straight away, so he got up quietly and slid down into the desk next to her.

"Psstt..." He whispered.

Derry was never going to pass this exam. She would never do well in her magic exams, she wasn't going to pass her muggle exams and there was no way she'd ever end up a pro quidditch player. So really what was even the point? Maybe she could just leave school, learn how to look after the farm and do that for the rest of her life. So what if she never got to move out? So what if she never got to travel? At least she knew she could do it. Maybe if she told her parents they'd pull her out of school. ........ But her friends. There was no way she could just... ugh. Derry sighed heavily and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out her brain with colourful, fuzzy dots. It wasn't working...

Psstt...

"What?" she snapped. Was she in the way here too? Derry lifted her head up and looked in the direction of the noise... "Oh, hi Theo." she said, pushing her hair out of the way. ... Uggghhh. So much of it. She should cut it all off. Pfft.

Ohhhhhh, sassypants alert.

Theo pulled his head back sharply but didn't say anything at first. He wouldn't bother her. Fine. She greeted him properly once she looked at him, and he returned it with an incredibly uncomfortable smile. "Hello." Derry was in a mood and Theo didn't know what to do about it. Was it her monthly lady time? Who knows. "Are you alright?" Stupid question, but there was a need to ask it because he was such a darn good friend!

What he really wanted to know was how she was feeling after Quidditch, since she ran off before he, or anyone, got to really see her. If her grumpiness was anything to do with that, then he would totally understand how she was feeling. But before prying in that area, he took a peek at whatever it was she was reading. "Science. Bleugh." It WAS science, right??

Derry felt bad for snapping at him... sigh. She felt bad for everything. She felt bad for not shaking hands with people, even though she couldn't have touched anyone, she felt bad for not trying to find West yet, she felt bad for deliberately leaving the pitch before her dad got there, she felt bad for not writing to her family in so long, she felt bad for feeling as jealous of Hugo as she did, she felt bad for not replying to her grandfather's letters, she felt bad for being happy when she realised she would be able to apparate away from home for most of the summer, she felt bad for avoiding everyone, and she felt bad for letting a game tip her that last tiny little bit so that everything else fell out. But... eh, she didn't think Theo really wanted to know that. "I'm fine, yeah..." she said, shrugging a little. "Are you..?"

She did genuinely care, she was just finding it difficult to make her voice sound like anything really mattered at the moment. Her brain was just frazzled. Derry took a deep breath to try and bring herself back into the real world and out of the mess that was her thoughts. "Yeah, Mammalian Physiology and Behavior... specifically the nervous system..." she said, shrugging a tiny bit. "A level biology, really... for vet stuff." Which was super hard to study alone, okay? Even with the little tutoring she'd had in the holidays. Sigh. But she'd seen some of the old exam papers and they didn't seem as bad as the book felt so... who knows.

Snorrrrrt. He was not convinced. "Sure?" He peered down at her with real nosy eyes. Uhh... "I guess..." Long pause. "The game knocked me for six a bit." As well as countless other things that were tipping his temper over the edge, "I feel better today, though." How could he not be? He was seventeen in a few days and you know what that means????!!!

DRIVING LICENSE... well, a learner's one at least.

Anyway... "Where'd ya disappear to after the match? I wanted to see you." And tell her how much of an awesome job she had done. He'd been up against Tobias before and he knew very well how much of a star player he was. It was annoying.

Theo made a face as she spoke words that he didn't understand, but he nodded along a bit just to give off the impression that he had some sort of idea. So it was science? Woot, he had gotten that part right! "Sounds... boring." He looked at his bag and wondered whether to study himself, though it didn't take him long to convince himself not to bother. His head was not in that zone. "Want a distraction?" Because he was sure he could think of something fun for them to do.

Like... food, or something.

Fun.

Sure?... no. Derry shook her head the tiniest amount but left it at that, it wasn't like she wanted to dump it all on Theo. The guy probably had his own issues, and really, did she expect people to be able to deal with hers when she could deal with them herself? "Mhmm, same." The game thing. "I guess... it's just a wee thing but... cherry on the cake or something." Eloquent, Derry. Well done. Fantastic. So descriptive. You're never going to be a writer. "That's good though... me too I guess. Hanging out with 'Scanius helped." Always did. He was good with stuff.

... Oh. That. "Um..." She shrugged slightly. "I... y'know... someone might have touched me." she said quietly, rubbing her thumb over the scratches on her hand that she'd got climbing that tree... "It's... kinda difficult to explain. And... my dad was there. I didnae um... I didnae really want to talk to him." Because she'd have cried, in front of everyone. By avoiding people she'd managed to hold all of the stuff in and not humiliated herself... it wasn't long until summer now anyway... she could deal with it all then.

Boring? Derry didn't really think so. "It's kind of fascinating actually. It's all about how mammal's brains and stuff work and... yeah." she trailed off, conscious of the fact that most people around here weren't too interested in muggle science. "Cannae concentrate anyway." Brain too full. Mind too occupied. "A distraction would be fantastic."

No. See? He could tell. Theo wasn't going to press her for details, however much he wanted to know, because she clearly didn't want to talk about it with him. Fair dos really, but the game is something that they had shared. "Yeah..." Cherry on the cake thing was exactly right. It's amazing what losing a game of Quidditch did to a person's confidence, especially when they were heavily into the sport. "Not just a small thing for everyone." Or a wee thing, like she said. Wee. Lol. Quidditch used to be a big thing for Theo but not so much these days. Their last game had only made that feeling stronger. He nodded but didn't say anything. He sure wished he had someone to make him feel better about himself after. Was quite a lonely night actually.

Sigh. Misery loves company. Sigh.

"Oh." He got it. She did a runner because she didn't want to speak to anyone. Not the answer that Theo was hoping for, but oh well. "He was? You played so well, though." Theo encouraged, and gave her a little elbow nudge in the process. "I bet he was dead proud." These sounded like comforting words to Theo, he really hoped they would help...

Mammal's brains. Huh. "Aren't humans mammals?" Was that a fact? Was it bad that stating this fact made him feel proper clever? Ummm, okay, distractions. Theo dug into his bag quickly and pushed all of the general crap out of the way. He had a few chocolate frogs which he placed onto his desk, he had a pen and notebook (boring), he had a few paperclips, he had a bracelet which he pushed to the very bottom of his bag, aaaaaaaand last of all he had a Comb-a-Chameleon hairbrush. That was pretty cool. He got that out.

"Uhh..." He brushed his hair and felt it magically change... (into a mini afro) "What do you think?" Entertaining enough?