Poor Cris. The Potion seemed to be affecting him pretty badly. Adi wondered what he was so guilty about. And why did he had to go to his Dorm? To write an apology letter or something?

Speaking of guilt...Adi was suddenly having flashbacks of the day he had that fight at the Whomping Willow with Benny and Angel. Oh gosh! He shouldn't have lost his temper. Granted he had apologised to them both but he still felt ashamed every time he thought of the unfortunate incident. And now he was particularly feeling guilty. Ugh!

Cris was making way up the stairs to his dormitory room when he stopped mid-step. What was he doing? Why was he headed upstairs? Cris inwardly questioned himself. What did he intend to do when he got to his room? Unable to answer those question, he slowly walked back downstairs and found Adi still sitting where he had last left him.

Cris didn't say anything to the younger boy. He was more concerned about what was happening to him. He still couldn't find an explanation for the overwhelming sense of guilt he was feeling now. All he knew was that it somehow had something to do with his father and the unspoken issues between them.

But why would that make him feel guilty? When it came to his father and himself, he believed that there was nothing he had to be guilty about. Yes, things were fine between his father and him. Things were great.

Satisfied with his reasoning, Cris sat down on the chair next to a fireplace. However, even as he opened up his book to read, those guilty emotions bubbled back up to the surface. Cris tried to ignore the feelings but they just got stronger and stronger to the point that he felt compelled to do something. Getting up from his chair, Cris headed quickly upstairs to his dormitory,

Noel was bored.

Compared to last year, the current term was going pretty uneventful - which is very hypocritical of him to be thinking but it was the truth. Maybe Hogwarts was only ever interesting when kids were turning old and stuff.

Letting out an obnoxious groan, the twelve year old plopped face down on the couch in the common room.

WHY was life so utterly boring!

Adi was so wrapped up in his guilty feeling that he failed to notice Cris come back down into the Common Room. All he could think about was the event at the Whomping Willow. But wait a minute...he had apologised to both Angel and Benny. Angel forgave him instantly but Benny was still a little...suspicious about him. Still, they were on their way to being back to their old selves. Adi could feel it.

Right. He didn't have anything to feel guilty about, right? He had great friends who were willing to put his idiotic behaviour behind them. He could move on...forget that it ever happened. Still, the third year could feel a twinge of guilt still lurking there.

He suddenly snapped out of his reverie when someone shouted. Looking in the direction of the voice, he saw Cris who was heading upstairs once more. Adi knew it was the Potion he had slipped Cris that was agitating the poor dude.

Hayden hadn't spent much time in the common room. She'd been through it a lot, but most of her time was spent around the castle. And she usually did her homework in her dormitory. But it seemed like a good place for meeting new people, which was something Hayden did like. So she decided that she'd spend her day in the common room, or at least around Hufflepuff-infested places.

Luckily for her, there was no shortage of people in the common room. Most of them were already immersed in conversations though, and Hayden didn't want to try and insert herself. So she looked around for someone by themselves, and she saw one. A young boy laying face-down on a couch. She approached him slowly.

"Are you sleeping?" She stage-whispered. So that she was loud enough for him to hear her if he was awake, but quiet enough that she would hopefully not disturb him if he really was sleeping.

When he heard a girl speak to him - Noel did not hold back and let the drama begin: "Noo. But I wish I was. I WISH I could sleep this boring term away, man!" he semi-whined, before turning his head to look at the person talking to him. He could full on whine but his mother had told him: whining would scare people away from him. And whining was generally just reserved for his cousin. She actually heard him whine without judging him.

"Do you want to sit here?" he asked, forcefully pushing himself to get up and sit. "Are you bored like me too?"

Hayden had to listen carefully because the first part of what he said was sort of muffled, considering he was still mostly speaking down into the couch. But she caught most of it. She was glad he hadn't been sleeping, because she wouldn't have wanted to bother him.

"Sure," she said with a friendly smile when he offered her a seat. She didn't sit on the couch normally, however. Instead, she sat cross-legged facing him because she thought it would be easiest if they were going to talk. It was fine since she wasn't wearing a skirt. She shrugged at his next question. "Sort of I guess, but not as much as you. Do you want to do something fun?" He seemed like it, but the next question was what to do. And she hoped he might have some ideas, but it didn't look like it.

Noel watched as the girl chose to sit across him. Good. Now maybe he could lie down again. And you know sleep the term away like he planned.

Or not. Because the girl was talking and maybe he could make a friend.

"No one seems to be as bored as me," he said frowning slightly - as he looked around the common room. Everyone was generally happy. They ALWAYS were. It seemed it was only him who had to make an effort to be happy at Hogwarts. Or maybe it was a Hufflepuff thing?

"Yes! I do! I really really really do," he said. "Do you have anything in mind? Because I am totally out."

"I am Noel Wallace, by the way," he introduced himself.

That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, in Hayden's opinion. It was better if people weren't bored, but she also thought they might be bored as well. "Maybe they're just better at pretending they're not bored," Hayden suggested. Boredom usually came easily.

She was glad he wanted to do something, but now they were faced with a bigger problem. What to do. Hayden shrugged and thought for a moment. "I don't know," she said apologetically. "Is there something you want to do? What fun things are there to do at Hogwarts? Or...do you know any fun games?" She threw out several options to narrow down their search. She really wasn't sure what to do, but she'd be willing to do something fun.

"I'm Hayden Malone." She introduced herself with a smile.

"We can do something but half of Hogwarts is like covered in deep snow," WHAT was with the weather lately?

He sighed, letting his head lean back on the couch. "I do know games but they don't really seem fun at the moment." See, this is why he wanted to bury himself in the couch and sleep.

"Anywaay. How are you liking Hogwarts so far?" he asked. Maybe if they couldn't do anything, they could have a conversation? She was a firstie right?

"Nice to meet you, Hayden." He said, when she introduced herself. "Even if I am like dying at the moment" Blegh.

She shrugged at his mention of the snow. "I don't like the outdoors much anyway." That was why the extreme cold wasn't bothering her that much. It was only a pain when they had lessons outside. And those were always the ones she didn't like.

Looks like he didn't have any ideas of fun things to do. But he didn't seem too disappointed that she didn't either. She was fine with just talking. "I like it. It's really exciting, and there's so much potential for things to do." Meaning experiments, not the kind of things that would help in this situation. "What year are you?"

Kace decided to go down to the hufflepuff common room. He needed to get started on his Ancient Runes homework. He promised Lux he would help her with it. Apparently they needed to cook something with using the Kenaz spell from when he looked at the notice board. He took his favorite comfy chair by the fire and sat there and waited for Lux. He loved the feel of the warm fire on his legs.

Sitting at one of the study tables, Lux had been reading a book. Every once in a while, she would look up from it and try to see if Kace was approaching. He was supposed to meet her, and he wouldn't be late surely. Even if he was, it wouldn't matter though because even she wasn't always punctual.

And there he was. Watching him take a chair by the fire, she put her book down and quietly got up. Scaring friends could be fun, and she wanted to give Kace a nice surprise. Sneaking up behind him, she whispered "boo," in his ear. Hehe, that was fuuuuun.

Kace was sitting in his chair and he felt the chair move and heard a little voice. He turned around and grinned. "Heyyy Lux.." She didn't scare him and he was okay with that. "Nice try on the scare but maybe try not to bump into the chair." he winked at her. "You ready to get this homework done?" he asked her coming towards the study tables.

Awww, it hadn't worked. Pout. Lux was hoping that she could scare Kace but maybe not. "Hmmm, Bay has some awesome ninja sneaking skills. Maybe he can help me master it." Her boyfriend was definitely better at sneaking up on people than she was.

Lux gave a nod at his question. " Of course I am! But I'm kind of tired. It's been so cold lately, it's making me sleepy." Yawn.

"Yeah Bay has awesome sneaking skills. I mean I taught them to him." he winked to her. "Yeah ask for his words of wisdom. I mean I do scare Emmy once in a while but she hasn't scared me back yet.." he chuckled. Anyways back to business. Aww Lux was tired? Maybe they should wait but he had the notes out.

"Alright so for this homework we need to use the right spells to cook something in the ancient runes workshop..." Kace trailed off. "Then we need to have someone judge our foods and figure out which one is made with what fire.." Hmm. That shouldn't be too hard. "Maybe we can have Emmy taste our food. What do you think?" he asked.

Hahaha! As if Kace had taught Bay. Shaking her head, Lux laughed. Her friend was really funny. Emmy was definitely a lucky girl. "Bay hasn't scared me yet as far as I can remember. Oh wait, he did once last term when he made Ziggy squeak in my ear." That had not been cool, but Tessa had taught him a lesson.

Nodding, Lux was glad that she had made her dishes already. "Well, I'm all set with my food now. Are you done with yours?" Because if they both were finished... Did he get what she was hinting at?

Anna walked into the common room with a sigh. No, she didn't really want to talk to anyone, she was just tired of staying in her bed all day. The fourteen year old sighed and ran a hand through her hair before sitting down on one of the couches, just curling up there. Huh, okay, maybe she didn't have to leave her bed because she just basically did the same thing. Oh well. She curled up on the couch with a sigh.

Kace chuckled and said, "I wish I could have seen your reaction. It would have been priceless.." he grinned and was kidding with her of course. Oh? So Lux was set with all her food. He grinned and nodded. "I think I am set with all my food too. I am just making a meatball parm hero.." he said gesturing to his sandwich. All it needed to be was heated up. "You ready to go to the workshop?" he asked.

Hearing a sigh, Lux turned her attention to the couch and saw Anna. Awww, she looked sad. "Are you okay, Anna? Do you want to talk? Or have a Chocolate Frog?" Chocolate was nice when someone was sad, and talking could be as well. Though some people didn't really like to talk about what was troubling them. Besides, Lux and Anna didn't know each other too well.

Eyeroll. It was okay though, because she was amused herself. "It scared me! I screamed." Anyone would have if they had a loud sound in their ears while they were trying to lie down in the middle of the corridor.

Oooh, sandwiches. Yummy. Shaking her head, Lux was amused. Kace could be so adorable sometimes. "I'm not supposed to go there with you, silly. How am I going to be able to guess at which one you made with the Rune if I'm there when you go to heat it up?" If she did that, it wouldn't have been fair. "If you want, I can wait for you while you go to the workshop?" She had both of her dishes ready!

"Heyyyy I believe you.." Kace said still snickering. And then Lux made her point. Kace rolled his eyes and walked over and plopped his head on the sofa. "Well now I feel like an idiot." But when she made the suggestion, he stood up and said, "Well when you say it like that! Yeah I will go first.." he said going to the exit. "I will see ya in a bit!" he waved towards her.

Dylan entered the common room after he had changed into new clothes from being out in the freezing cold snow not too long ago that day. It had been so cold, he had no clue why he had bothered going out there. He needed to have been wearing more layers, that was for sure...

He made his way over to one of the couches and noticed a girl who looked around his age, curled up on it. She looked pretty tired. He took a seat beside her, looking towards her. "Mind if I sit here?" he asked her, in case she wanted to be alone or anything.

Anna looked up and gave a small fake smile, "Oh... Hey Lux." She gave a small nod and sat up slightly, "I..." She was very tempted to actually say how she felt for once but still held her tongue, "I'm fine... just a little worn out I guess." She nodded hoping it sounded believable, "But, what about you? I haven't seen you much this year." Then again, Anna had been hiding from people most of the year.



Anna looked at the young man as he came up and she just nodded to him. Sad or not she wouldn't be rude. She looked up at him and gave a small smile, "Hey, it's been a long while, Dylan." She gave a weak laugh. They'd only met for like five minutes over a year ago but she was pretty good with faces... Hopefully that didn't make her seem odd.

She had looked quiet comfortable laying there, he hoped he hadn't disrupted a nap or something. As she looked up at him, he recognized her from meeting her a long while ago. But he had forgotten the name. He racked his brain for a minute... "Yeah, it has," he said as he got comfortable. "Remind me of your name again?" he asked, smiling shyly. He was really so bad with names sometimes.

Adi plopped down on one of the armchairs close to the fire. He had just returned from the kitchen after completing part of the Ancient Runes homework. Now, all he needed was someone to try to figure out which of his rice pudding was made by ordinary fire and which wasn't. He thought he'd find a Puffer friend because: 1. They were his House mates and 2. Less likely to laugh at his cooking skills.

Randomly, he pulled one of the bowls from his bag. Red lid. That meant it was cooked in the kitchen. Adi pulled off the lid and inhaled the delicious aroma that escaped. He hoped it tasted as good as it smelt. Retrieving a spoon, he dug into the pudding. Mhmm. It did taste as good. Awesome! He wasn't going to be poisoning anyone with bad food then. Hehe.