Hayden nodded and smiled at the woman's optimism. "Yeah, there are a lot of people here." Sometimes it could be a little overwhelming. But she didn't always mind being around so many people. It did mean that there had to be at least a few people she would become natural friends with if she ever met them.

Potions, yeah she supposed it was useful. "I like him, he's very helpful." At least to her. So far he was one of her favorite professors, probably because she hadn't actually talked individually with many of them. "The thing about Potions I don't like is that you just have to follow the directions, I want to be able to know why we're putting in each ingredient and what its effect is on the potion." She could always look up things like that later, but it always frustrated her in the moment that she didn't know why she was doing the things that she was doing.

"Wow that sounds interesting." That was the truth. Even though Hayden didn't like the subject much, she did think it was interesting that her professor had come from a line of seers. She didn't know much about them though. "What exactly is a seer able to do?" They had some sort of ability, right? They could do things normal witches and wizards couldn't, right?

Okay that was scary. Sure it was FREEZING cold from the very moment he stepped outside, but the clouds started doing a weird thing and before he knew it there was some sort of weird blizzard thing going on. Ugh it was supposed to be Spring. Why was the weather STILL an issue!? GAH. "A lock down? Oh no. That does not sound good... not at all." They couldn't go on lockdown!... Could they?!

Anyways, back to the REAL issues here. His love life, or lack there of. Wait-- Hufflepuff Lux say what? He couldn't just fall in love so that he'd fall out of love? WHY NOT!? Was that like some sort of love rule he didn't know about?! THIS IS ABSURD. "I can't? Well this sucked. So how was he supposed to fall out of love with Beautiful Bentley? "So I can't just choose someone else to love? Why can't it be that simple, Lux?" Falling for Bentley was easy! Why couldn't he just fall for someone else? Zander falls a lot. It shouldn't be that hard to fall another time, even if they were talking about love now... "Lux I just... I just don't understand. Why can't I just choose some other girl?"

Love is hard.

Nothing was wrong? Except Hufflepuff in...third place, was it? Yeah, Penelope didn't count that. She didn't see anything wrong with it.

And then the question was directed at her. The Gryffindor shrugged. "Nah, they look good to me. Seems like the way it should be." Gryffindor in the lead. She'd never cared much about the points in previous terms since her focus was usually on the Quidditch Cup, but y'know...that couldn't happen this term. So maybe Gryffindor could at least win this when she graduated. Hopefully.

And...there was a Puff giving a card to the Headmistress? For Valentine's Day? Kids gave professors stuff for that? Huh. Odd. But okay. Whatever he wanted to do.

Sigh.

Yes, a lock down did seem inevitable. Sadly. But then of course Lux wasn't an expert on these things,so she could be very wrong about her assumption. "Well, I'm not POSITIVE about it," she said with a small shrug as she eyed the gemstones in the Hufflepuff hourglass. "But the snowfall looks like it will be huge, and will probably block the entrance." It reminded her of some of the days in winter she had experienced when she was living in Canada. Even though they had moved to England when she was little, Lux could remember that sometimes they couldn't leave the house because of a blizzard blocking off the front and back doors. "I'm sure that everything will be okay soon though." By tomorrow the blizzard had to be over. HAD TO.

But oh well. There were other things to discuss, like Zander's notions about love. "Love is something that you feel with your heart. This is probably going to sound really sappy and cliche, but please bear with me." Yes, she was well aware of how a lot of guys felt about this kind of thing. "I don't think love is something that you can choose. It isn't something done with your BRAIN, it is something done with your HEART." Like how his HEART had told him that he loved Professor Bentley even though his BRAIN was telling him that he shouldn't. He had to see the relevance to what she was saying; he was by no means unintelligent. Zander was one smart cookie. "I'm just saying that I believe everything works out in the end." No, she was not saying that he would end up marrying Professor Bentley (because let's be real), but that when the time was right she was sure that he would fall in love with someone who is perfect for him.

She believed in the fate stuff, and she was not ashamed of it.

Dylan had been wandering the castle for quite sometime out of complete boredom. He was extremely bored today, and couldn't find any friends to hang out with. SIGH. He really did need more friends.

He walked down the stairs to the ground floor, and decided to go look at the pretty hourglasses. The third year walked over to them, observing them. Looks like Gryffindor was in the lead right now...and Hufflepuff was in third. Dylan frowned at this. That was no good! They needed to work harder to boost their points up, didn't they? Sighing once more, the boy leaned against the wall next to the hourglasses and looked around himself for anyone to talk to.

“Tobias, are you in here? TOBIAS? TOBIAS!” Uuuuuuugh. Ethan fixed his askew turban slash green scarf that Ella had sent him and went down all the way from the seventh floor down to the ground floor looking for a certain Tobias housed in Hufflepuff. Ella told him that he should make friends with that specific student, because he’s great and stuff. The Slytherin need not doubt the former Badger, and he even promised to her that he will look for this…Tobias kid.

And so the search went on…but alas, no Tobias.

Ethan flopped on the stairs and re-read Ella’s letter. Somehow her message brought smile and comfort to the boy who’s now sloooowly succumbing to cabin fever. Stupid snow. Sighing, the Slytherin looked up from the letter and thought that being able to produce a patronus would be most convenient to accomplish his mission.

…

But hey look! That looks like a Hufflepuff kid…aaaaaaaand he’s a guy, so he must be Tobias? Scuttling from his spot, Ethan grinned at the boy looking at the…gems…and stood beside him. “Are you Tobias? Please say you’re him. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I’m Ethan!” Hi. Hello! Waaaaaaaave!

Cassie just continued to smile, there were a lot of people, so she just knew the girl would have so many friends soon. “It’s brilliant that there are so many. I’ve always loved how diverse this castle is with students.” It was so wonderful to see. So many backgrounds and interest. Just lovely all of it.

Of course the girl liked Professor Culloden, he was such a nice man. “I’m glad he’s helpful, I hope all of the professors are helpful!” That was their job wasn’t it, to educate and be helpful to the students, at least that’s what she thought her job was. Ooooh very detailed wasn’t she, “Ask.. I bet Professor Culloden will tell you exactly why. It’s always great to want to know more. It makes you a better student and us better professors.”’ This one was going to be great, she could see it.

She was asking questions about Divination and Seers, this was just fantastic! Cassie snapped with joy, “It is a very interesting subject.” So much to learn and do, plus if you had the talent it was a great gift. “There are different forms of seers. All can see the future, but the difference is how. Some can envision people’s futures in prophecies, some like myself are seers for animals. Can see their future.” She loved that she had the unique side of the inner eye.

Hayden just nodded. She liked it too, how diverse Hogwarts was. There were so many different people with so many different stories and personalities. It was fascinating. And yes, Hayden supposed it was the job of every professor to be helpful. She just hadn't really needed help from the other ones so she couldn't really judge them all fairly. Sometimes teachers weren't as happy about giving help, but hopefully no one at Hogwarts felt that way. "I did ask him a little bit, but he just gave me a general explanation. In the next class I'll have to ask him about the specific ingredients." Or maybe if she ran across a specific potion she was curious about, but she didn't know why she would.

Hayden would give her interesting. But past that, she wasn't eager to give Divination much credit. Maybe she should actually go to a class and she'd change her opinion, but she didn't have time to go to every class. Of all the ones to elect not to take, Divination seemed like the best choice to her. "You can see animals' futures?" Was that a useful gift? Hayden couldn't think of why that would be necessary or useful at all. "Does everyone in your family have the same gifts or are they different?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin

"Yes m'am.." he told the headmistress. He got out his card and finally gave it to the headmistress. "I just wanted to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day.." he smiled.

She also needed to see the message inside...


Plus this was part of the divination homework but it felt nice to let the headmistress she was loved. He wasn't try to be a suck up or anything. He probably wasn't gonna get more house points for this. Well it was the credit for trying right?

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Look at this. Look. At. This. Annie had gotten a Valentine's Day card from a student!!!!!! For the first time in.... forever!

"This is really," she paused to open the card and make sure there wasn't a prank inside, "really sweet, Kace! Thank you!" She beamed from the card up at the boy. If it weren't so against her anti-touching and being-touched policies, the Headmistress might even hugged Kace. But as it was...

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlwaysSnapesGirl

Nothing was wrong? Except Hufflepuff in...third place, was it? Yeah, Penelope didn't count that. She didn't see anything wrong with it.

And then the question was directed at her. The Gryffindor shrugged. "Nah, they look good to me. Seems like the way it should be." Gryffindor in the lead. She'd never cared much about the points in previous terms since her focus was usually on the Quidditch Cup, but y'know...that couldn't happen this term. So maybe Gryffindor could at least win this when she graduated. Hopefully.

And...there was a Puff giving a card to the Headmistress? For Valentine's Day? Kids gave professors stuff for that? Huh. Odd. But okay. Whatever he wanted to do.

...there was a Gryffindor just standing by and watching. "I think they look wrong," Anastasia frowned at the girl. Never mind her, her opinion (like the house points) was also wrong. So time to fix that. "By the way, Kace," she turned slightly back to the boy, "ten points to you for the LOVELY card. Thank you ever so much. That was sweet."

She awkwardly reached out and gave him a Botros-like pat on the shoulder.

Dylan had turned back to the hourglasses to admire them again when suddenly he heard footsteps from behind him. Hmm? The third year turned around to see a boy who looked his age, asking if he was...Tobias? Huh? Dylan looked down at himself for a second, puzzled. No, he was pretty sure he was Dylan. Not...Tobias. Tobias, Tobia, hmmmmm....That was a different boy in his house, wasn't it? Yeah, he was pretty sure. And they looked completely different. He wondered how on Earth someone could mix up the two! Hmm.

"Oh, I'm not Tobias...I'm sorry." he said, shaking his head. "I'm Dylan, Dylan Callaghan. It's nice to meet you though, Ethan! I can help you find Tobias if you want?" he offered with a small nod. He knew Tobias's face well and everything so he wouldn't be hard to find.

Kace nodded and was glad she liked it. "Your welcome Headmistress." he said politely with a wide grin. He did put a lot of work into it. He grinned even more and was even more surprised he got 10 points for it! He did not expect that! Woaahh kudos to him. He smiled when she patted his shoulder. He tried to remembered who else patted him on the shoulder and it was Bostros! That is whyy it seemed familiar.

He even blushed when the Headmistress called him out. He didn't want to put on the spot light or look like a suck-up. He was just doing a nice thing ya know?

Ethan's smile faded slowly. He's not Tobias. FAIL! But then, hey new friend, and he's going to help him find Tobias. Yeaaaaah! Cool! "Niiiiice to meet you, Dylan!" Ethan's smile was back on his face, and started to do jumping jacks. He really needs his blood to run because the weather is just too cold for his liking. Did he see the turban? COLD.

"Awesome...idea." Ethan stopped jumping, and for a moment there, forgot about his mission and stared at the different colored gems in front of them. "What's up with that? Why were you staring at it?" And...what exactly is that anyway? Obviously, the Slytherin haven't figured out his own points yet. Yep.

Dylan smiled, watching as the boy suddenly began doing jumping jacks. Probably because it was so bloody cold everywhere. Dylan had been shivering himself earlier. What was with this super cold weather anyways? Hmph. Watching Ethan for a second, he shrugged, and joined in with Ethan. There they were. Two kids who had just met. Doing jumping jacks. Heh. It was pretty rad.

After a while, Dylan got tired so he stopped doing jumping jacks. WHEW. Well, that sure got his blood pumping and he was slightly warmer. It was still too cold, though. Ah, well. Perhaps he'd need to put on an extra scarf or two next time. Seeing the boy look at the gems with interest, Dylan glanced at them and then looked back at Ethan. "Oh they're just interesting to look at. They're purrrrdy." he said with a small shrug. He liked to look at the pretty gems.

Cassie looked back up at the hour classes, had they moved? Someone must be giving some points. Bravo students that were earning them. It always put a smile on her face. "Well Professor Culloden seems to be a very factual man, I bet if you ask him even after class he'd probably explain in more detail." She gave a little wink, Cosgrach always seemed like the helpful type to her, "and if he still doesn't help you just come to me and we'll get him to talk." Grinning and chuckling a bit. It could be fun going to his office and questioning him really.

Now this was just so fun, she was enjoying their little conversation. So much so she had to give some snaps. Feeling her purse move a bit she looked back to see Aries' cute little kitten head poking out. She grinned at him before turning her eyes back towards Hayden. "I can, I can sense what's going on with them. It comes in very handy with these two rascals." She pointed towards her purse where Gemini was hiding and Aries was looking around. "Oh my family is all different, I'm the only one with the animal thing. It's very unique as my father would always put it. I'm the only seer in the mix of my mother, father, and brothers. My grandmother is the next one. She is so good at prophecies." Her thrilled words got some snaps for excitement.

"Uh...purdy? What's...purdy?" And...why is it there? "Is it just a decoration of some sort? Because...you know, they could have scattered the gems across the walls." Weird. But...how come the colors are exactly the same as the house colors? Oh. Ooooooo. "Does it represent the four houses?" If so, then...why?

Merlin this is confusing. Ethan stared at it for a few good good seconds and started to run in place. The air inside the castle's starting to drop once more and...GAAAH!!! It was starting to feel like they're inside a huuuuuge igloo of some sort. THEN. Then, the gems started to drop one by one for each holder. Ethan gaped and stopped. "What happened?" he asked pointing.

Awh no. This was terrible. The Gryffindor nodded sadly, he was pretty disappointed about all this funky weather. It was terrible! The fresh air always helped when he needed to get his mind off of a certain Professor, but now WHERE COULD HE GO!? Maybe he could camp out here with Lux? Forever. They could ask some elves to bring them food. Full proof. "I-I hope you're right.... It was really bad out there though..." Hopefully Lux's wishful thinking wasn't just wishful.

.....

But anyways. Enough about the blizzard. There was a blizzard in his heart. A BLIZZARD OF EMOTIONS AND CONFUSION, that is. Ahem. "Your heart...?" The Gryffindor repeated after Lux and listened curiously. Hm. Okay. Heart. He could do that. "So... so you think that if my heart falls in love with someone else that I could get over that certain Professor?" Ahem. Was there anyone around to hear him?

They didn't look wrong, but the Headmistress was free to think otherwise, Penelope supposed. And then...really? Ten points for a card? Talk about favoritism and bribery. But at least it wasn't enough to bump the Puffs all the way into first place. So Penelope was just gonna give that whole thing an unimpressed eyebrow raise and make no further comments.

Maybe it was time to leave. This wasn't holding her attention or curiosity anymore. Food was calling her name again. "Riiight. Well I think I'm gonna go eat now." Which was more important than points anyway.

Hayden just nodded. She'd been thinking the same thing, he probably would be willing to help her if she asked. She laughed at the thought of having to go to his office with this professor to make him talk. Besides the fact that she couldn't imagine it would be necessary, the whole situation would be pretty funny. "Something tells me that wouldn't be necessary," she responded with a grin.

Oh, she had kittens in her purse. What? How had she not noticed that before? Hayen eyed the one that had stuck out its little head. "Can I pet...your kitty?" She figured the answer would probably be yes, but she still thought it was best to ask. She couldn't just start petting kitties without their owner's permission. And prophecies, huh? That was...interesting. But Hayden didn't have any more questions so she just nodded and smiled and decided to stop that line of questioning. At the moment she was more focused on the kittens anyway. Hopefully she wouldn't mind.

Cassie beamed at the Hufflepuff, she was really enjoying the conversation. Glancing back up to the hourglasses had someone just lost points? She squinted towards them, she could have sworn that one just had went down. Hmm, interesting. “Well I’m offer is always there if you need it.” She would certainly love to help her students whenever they needed it.
Looking at her purse she grinned, “Of course you can. This one poking his little head out is Aries and Gemini is hidden still in the purse. Once you start petting Aries he’ll probably peek out as well.” She moved her purse to the floor so the girl could pet the cats. They loved attention, this was going to be so exciting for them.

“Do you have any pets?” She couldn’t keep up with the student’s pets as much as she’d like to. They came into her thoughts all the time, but she hadn’t placed them all with students yet.

Even though she didn't think the offer would be necessary she was still thankful, and Hayden smiled again. But then the subject focused on the kittens and Hayden got distracted. The professor set her purse on the floor so Hayden sat cross-legged on the ground to give her better access to the kittens. She gently pet the head of the one who'd been sticking hid head out - Aries. "No I don't have a pet. My grandmother has an old kitten but I've never had any pets." She didn't really mind, it just meant that she really liked to give other peoples pets attention when she saw them. She didn't have any pets of her own to whom she could give attention.

Cassie watched as Hayden pet Aries and soon Gemini was jealously wanting attention too. The one couldn't have unless the other did she had found that out long ago. "Well you are still young, maybe you can bring a pet soon enough. I'd suggest a cute little Pygmy Puff, that was my first pet at school. Adorable little creatures." She missed her gizmo.

Looking back at the hour glasses one last time she realized she needed to be on her way. "It was very nice talking to you Miss Hayden, but I do need to be heading back up to my tower. I have a meeting very soon." She gathered up her purse and placed it over her shoulder. "Feel free to visit anytime, these two little guys love the attention and I do just love visitors." She always had tea and cookies ready for anyone that wish to come. Giving the girl one last wave she headed happily on her way.

After dealing with some pretty rude portraits, Simon made his way over to the House Point Hourglasses. Despite after originally deciding on climbing up the stairs, the boy wanted to see how each of the houses were doing. He frowned slightly when he noticed that the Gryffindors were ahead of the Slytherins. Only ahead by 19 points, right? Well THAT certainly needed to be fixed. So he'd complete this homework exceptionally. Slytherins were persistant. They could sneak by and capture the House Cup without the Lions even noticing. It'd be like taking candy from a happy toddler. Mwahaha. Oh yes, he liked that plan a lot. It was perfect.

Ahem.

Then Simon noticed some other students and faculty around here. Right. Look active, he thought and brought out his wand, figuring that he could do the next part of the Charms assignment here. Pointing to the wall ahead of him, he quickly cast the insulation charm by moving his wand in an infinity sign and then uttering, "Caelum Saepio! Caelum Saepio! Caelum Saepio!" Doing it three times in the row made the little fluff of fog appear. Huh. He needed to do it a couple more times. Sideways figure eight and "Caelum Saepio!" His blue eyes widened when he saw a much larger cloud of fog appear. Perfect. His work was done here. He walked off to go find another place.

Two down, three to go.

Ah, so here he was by the hourglasses. Man. It seemed like he was permanently stuck to this spot nowadays. Especially since he couldn't frequent the Great Lake anymore. The points hourglasses were where it was at! Except, as he noticed the difference between the Slytherin points and the Gryffindor points, he found his face falling. Falling into a deep pit of sorrow and despair.

DESPAIR!!

No. This would not do. He couldn't let them stay ahead. No! And with that in mind, the Gryffindor suddenly remembered his charms homework! Well this was the PERFECT motivation for it! Grinning to himself, a little idiotically one may add, the Gryffindor boy held out his wand and got busy.

Alright, walking over to the wall behind the points he whispered, "Caelum Saepio,” making sure to move his wand in a sideways 8 motion. He watched as the area around fogged up and smiled to himself with satisfaction. Well just one wouldn't do! No, he needed some more. "Caelum Saepio!” This time he was a little louder and more confident.

As he continued to say the incantation over and over again, he had practically gotten all over. This was good. He was making some progress. It even felt a little toastier if he wasn't mistaken. Or was that just a placebo effect? No matter! The castle would hopefully start to warm up soon enough! After having Caelum Saepio-ed the heck out of this room, Zander ran off beaming. Now, where would he head to next?

Jasmine decided that her next target would be the wall near the housepoints hourglasses. She looked around for the perfect spot and when she was satisfied that she had found it, she stopped and dropped her bookbag. Taking out her wand, Jasmine pointed it at the wall and made a sideways figure eight. "Caelum Saepio", she said as she moved her wand. Then Jasmine repeated the spell twice more. "Caelum Saepio. Caelum Saepio". Figure eight, figure eight. Jasmine looked at the wall and saw some fogging so she knew that the spell was working.

Now that Jasmine had completed her spell, she took a moment to look at the sorry state of the Ravenclaw hourglass. "How can we be that far behind?", she thought to herself. With a sigh, she picked up her things and prepared to move on to her next spot.

Jumping down from the steps the first year panted as made his way over to the hourglass. Stoping right in front of the giant point deciders he pulled his wand and aimed when a distinctively growl from his miniature toy dragon above caught his attention. "Shh! Ramsey i'm trying to concentrate." He was TRYING to warm the castle up so he no longer had to put on two pairs of underwear just to stay warm AND trying to help Ravenclaw get more points, OKAY DRAGON?

Concetrating he pointed his wand at the hourglass which had the blue gemstones. ""Caelum Saepio." The words flew out of his mouth as his wand drew out the lines of a distinctive infinity sign. Moments layer fog covered the area and the hourglass began to fill with steam.

If their hourglass was warm that HAD to mean that more gems would fall at least by accident, right? Hopefully. Kyroh didn't wait for an answer before he took off again.