First night. First batch of responsibilities over and done with. Now to sort the common room out how she wanted it to be. Cool, awesome and fun for all the rugrats. She'd swiped a big bowl from the kitchens, (or she'd asked really nicely - BE NICE TO THE HOUSE ELVES, RUGRATS) and had filled it with a selection of lollipops. Studying kids needed snacks. Lollipops were OBviously the best for this reason. Elodie put a yellow and black flower placement underneath the bowl and made sure they were in the center of the main table. She would dot a few on the other tables later, but for now she'd stick with one bowl.

Didn't want any sugar hypes in the first week.

And then she was onto what she'd wanted to do ever since she found out Professor Hadley was expecting a baby at this time of year. THE CONGRATULATIONS CARDS.

Elodie stocked each table with folded coloured card that she'd collected over her summer and various craft materials including ribbons, scissors, glitter and crayons. And then put the post box (wrapped in blue tissue paper with a selection of baby toys wrapped up inside also) on one of the smaller tables with a set of cute instructions.

Quote:

It's a BOY!

Put your finished congratulatory messages for our Head of House and her growing family in this postbox! You can't open it. I've charmed it. Don't even try it, you little rugrats.

You have a week to fill this box up and I'll be personally delivering it to Professor Hadley upon her return to the castle. Have fun! Be creative. GO DO YOUR HOMEWORK TOO.

Loveeeeeee to you all!

- Prefect Elodie Robertser

There. That was okay, wasn't it? It wasn't a bad idea and she was TRYING her hardest to be nice.

SO. MAKE CARDS, GUYS.

Once she'd set the tables out, Elodie headed on up to bed finally.

OOC: Hi guys! This isn't mandatory, it's just something Els wanted to do to welcome the newest nugget to the family! If you want to RP with her at the table, just post here and I'll have her come back to the tables the next day. Have SO much fun! (PS. WELCOME XOXOXOXO)

Naturally you would think that after such a fun filled and exciting day of traveling and meeting new people and seeing such a wonderful place that is Hogwarts that a child would be able to fall asleep rather easily at the end of the day. Nola however was finding it difficult to fall asleep without the sounds of the bayou outside her window. Sure she had Buster to snuggle with but it wasn't the same as home.

Buster was still snuggled in bed while Nola found herself in the common area. Cards? Crafting? Perfect. Nola set to work at the table, concentrated on making a card that the Professor would remember for all of eternity. She even glued some of her precious confetti to the card.

Somehow the creative process tired Nola out and she fell asleep with her head resting on the table. At least she was kinda near her bed?

She'd forgotten something. She was sure of it, and she'd been lying in her bed and trying her hardest to figure out what it was. THE COLOURING BOOKS. With cute colouring pages to do with babies and happy things and ugh! How could she have forgotten?! She was sure that everyone had been in bed when she'd set the tables up, so hopefully no one would have noticed that she'd added more stuff, but when she got to the common room, arms full of colouring books, she was greeted with a RUGRAT.

OUT OF BED. Much like she was. But out of bed and asleep on the table nonetheless. Elodie tiptoed around her as quietly as she could, putting three colouring books on each table before crouching beside the girl. Once she was close enough, she recognised her face of one of the houses newest rugrats. A first year. One she'd saw the sorting of and applauded for for definite. Whilst there, she gave the girls card a little look and smiled. Cuuuute.

The prefect ran her hand over the girls arm and gave the crook of her elbow a little shake. "Heyyyy rugrat?"

It was unknown how long Nola had been out of bed or how long she had been sleeping on her card in progress. Buster was curled up on top of her feet keeping them warm while she snoozed. When the older student approached Buster got to his feet and walked near her meowing.

Nola let out a moan when her arm was shaken. "No, mom. I'm sleepy still." Nola said moving her arm. "I don't wanna go fishing." She mumbled into her arm.

Buster jumped up onto the table and lightly pawed Nola's arm. Slowly Nola raised her head up from the table. There was confetti glued to her face from letting her head rest on the still wet project. "Buster." Nola smiled sleepily at seeing her cat out of bed finally. Then her eyes widened when she realized that a prefect had woken her up. Wasn't there a rule about not being in bed? "Oh no." Nola sighed as she hung her head.

With a soft smile, Elodie petted the cat a little and moved just a little bit away from the girl so she didn't wake up with a face in hers. That'd be pretty horrible for anyone. Even worse if the person had bad breath. Which neither of the girls did. So, that was cool.

Mum? Really? She'd already dealt with being called mother at the feast and now again? Ugh. She waited a moment for the girl to wake up a little more and straightened herself up before sitting in the seat next to her. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead." It wasn't really 'shine', because it was dark out and Elodie was going to get this girl back to her bed in the hour. She needed to finish off her card first. Speaking of.... Els reached out and took the confetti from the other girls face and smiled again.

"The idea was to stick things onto the card, not your face. And you have a few days to do it...you know that, right?" Had she came down here tonight just to get this done?

Nola nodded her a head a little bit and calmed her racing heart. Surely if she were going to get in trouble the prefect would have made that really clear, right? Like crystal clear. "I couldn't fall asleep so I came out her just to look a little. Then I saw all of this." Nola motioned to the tables with the card making stuff laid out. "I was gonna just make one super fast and then go back to my bed but I guess I fell asleep." Nola explained finally as she ran her hands across her face to make sure there wasn't any more confetti there or drool. She definitely hoped she hadn't drooled on herself while she slept.

"This is Buster." Nola said pointing to the cat who laid down on some paper scraps Nola had set off to the side. "I'm Nola." She yawned. Maybe she could just take her unfinished card to the dorms and finish it in the morning?

Rubbing her eyes, Lux slowly made her way from her dormitory and towards the Common Room. It was early, so she should have still been asleep, but of course that was not happening. After tossing and turning in bed for a while, she had given it up as a lost cause, so here she was.

Hearing voices at the study tables, she headed towards them and found Nola and Elodie in conversation. "Hey, guys. What's up?" It made her happy to see that she was not the only early riser here.

Elodie nodded and ran her hands over a couple of the plain pieces of card on the table. "I thought it would be a nice thing for Professor Hadley to come back to, you know? Show that she isn't just our Head of House...." In fact, Elodie supposed she was one of the only mothe figures she had in her life. Whether that influenced the attachment or not, she didn't know. But what she did want was to have something to give her when she returned to the castle and her teaching position, fresh faced and baby bump-less.

She already had plenty of presents, so it wasn't going to bother her really if people didn't. She'd just assumed it was a nice enough thing to do. It wasn't like they'd been treated badly by the woman. In fact, Els thought she was pretty fair on them and treated them very much like family. "Well. It's nice to meet you Nola. And you Buster!" The cat got another set of petting then and Elodie took another look at the card Nola had been working on. "Would you like me to walk you back to your d- Oh, hi Lux!" She had been meaning to offer to walk Nola back to her dorm and make sure she got herself settled with Buster, when the other girl made her appearance.

"You should be in bed, Lux Carrington." She wasn't joking, but she wasn't telling her off. It was the best thing for the students to be in bed at this time of night, especially when they had classes early in the morning. But she couldn't do much more than suggest going to bed. "Are you okay?" Had she been sick? Had an accident in her bed? Had someone died in her dorm?

Tired as she was, Leah ran down the stairs of the girls dormitory and into the common room and skidded to a halt in front of the study tables. This was where the notes were at, Elodie had told her last night. Though Leah had a lesson this morning, it was not OKAY to wake up at this hour (which happened to be half past 7). But this was about Professor Hadley. It was just different.

The first thing the second year noticed was the instructions given by Elodie. Cute. She picked a yellow card and took out her flamingo feather quill and Leah's favorite honey flavored ink. She started scratching out her thoughts onto the card.

Quote:

Dear Professor Hadley,

Congratulations on the baby boy! XD I hope you and your family are well and healthy. I also hope you gave the boy a good name. I personally think that is very important. Enjoy your time with the baby and your hubby! We all miss you soooooo much, I just want you to know that. You are expecting lots of hugs and kisses (AND gifts, of course) from your student when you come back!

Leah Abbott
firstie Second Year Badger

Was that too many smilies? Okay, now what?

Anna walked up and looked around, huh... felt weird to look at the study tables in. She never was much of a studier... but hey, she was turning a new leaf, and maybe this would be kinda enjoyable. But she was really doubting it, which is why she did grab a book for when should her mind begin to wander.

YAWN.

Covering her mouth with her hand, Lux knew full well that she should be sleeping, but sometimes that was easier said than done. At least Elodie wasn't being all super lecturing Prefect on her, which was wonderful seeing how it was too early in the morning to waste energy freaking about getting in trouble. Besides, she liked Elodie too much, and the thought of having the older girl mad at her made Lux sad.

"I couldn't sleep and I felt hungry... I thought maybe I could sleep better in the Common Room by the fire." Honestly, this child was not sure if she even made sense, but that was her reasoning.

Glancing at her surroundings, Lux noticed some stuff on the study table. "What's all this for?" Even tired, this girl was naturally curious.

Kace was going to the study tables because he found this a comfortable spot. He didn't have homework to do but he decided to come here anyways. It was nice and quiet. He smiled and then saw a familiar face. He grinned and tapped the lovely lady on the shoulder. "Hey Anna...long time no see! How have you been!?" He asked his friend who he hadn't seen in a while.

She looked up at Kace and smiled, "Hey, Kace." Anna hugged him, "It's good to see you again." She gently laid her bag down and looked up at him, "How was your summer?" Annaleecia gently moved a piece of her brown hair back, waiting for an answer. She had missed him, and the time away from the school had done her a lot of good... She was actually ready to talk to him again instead of running away like she had at the end of the last term.

Kace hugged her back tighter. It was nice to have his friend back. Even though the awkwardness at the dance was well behind them, he wanted to make sure they could be where they left off, just as best friends. "It is good to see you again Anna.." he grinned towards her. Oh? Now it was his turn first. "Oh my summer was great, i just chilled out, did some sports camps as usual. I didn't go anywhere extravagant.." It was for the best because the summer went by too fast.

"How about you??" he asked nudging her. "How was your summer?"

She nodded, a simple summer... well, that would've been nice for her. But then again without her evil summer, she probably wouldn't be who she was the moment, and she would still be living in lala land about her parents ever taking her back and all that hope.

"Oh it was... hard, I guess you could say." She shrugged, "I mean, started off great... got out of the orphanage in Russia was sent to Turkey thanks to two of my tutors." Anna nodded, "... I mean, it's great there... All the kids they take in are like me, so I'm actually kind of accepted... Then I got to see Anastasia..." She looked down, "And she just... She ran away in fear, telling me she didn't want me around messing up her chances of staying with Mom and Dad..." She bit back a whimper. The old Anna cried, she wasn't going to mope about it anymore, "It was just... a wake up call, I guess... If my own sister wants nothing to do with me... why would anyone else?"

Kace nodded and heard her story. He moved in closer and gave her a hug. "Well at least you are accepted here right?" he smiled towards her. "If your sister wants nothing to do with you, just wait, she will come back to you someday and realize a big mistake she did." he said reassuring her again. "But enough of that, i came here to introduce you to a game.." he smirked and got out his favorite card game.

"Have you ever played UNO before?" he asked showing the card game to Anna. He hoped she heard of it being from the orphanage and all.

Anna hugged him back but shrugged slightly, "I suppose I'm accepted here..." She didn't really know. After all, aside from Kace the only people she talked to were Romulus and Mel... Sure, she'd exchanged conversations with a few other people but it was rare. And no one on the quidditch never really talked to her so... yeah, she kinda felt alone here too... She paused thinking about what he said about her sister and shook her head, "Something tells me her mind won't change... She actually has their love again... She's looked like a normal person, not a freak... She wouldn't give that up again just for me."

She looked at him puzzled at the game, shaking her head, "Never heard of it..." She shrugged and looked at the cards, "But I do normally like card games."

Kace nodded and told her, "Well give her time. She will come around, i can feel it." he winked at her. Then he saw her puzzling look at the game he held in his hands. She never heard of this game!? Well good thing he was teaching her. This was a classic card game. Easy and simple. "Well it is an easy game really." he said getting the cards out of the deck. He shuffled the cards. "Okay so each player starts with six cards in their hands.." he said giving her six cards and then him.

Then he started to explain the rules, "There are cards like Draw Two where the player draws two cards, there is a Reverse so it reverses the order, there is a wild card to change the color, and a wild draw four to draw four cards..." he said holding each card up. "Do you understand so far..?" he asked before he went on.

Annaleecia shook her head slightly, but let it drop. She didn’t want to start an argument over something as stupid as her younger sister. She looked at the game as she tried to get all the directions he told her, “Um… I kinda get it… So just match colors and numbers?” She sat down and looked up at him. It sounded simple enough. She nodded to what he said though, “But, how are you?” They hadn’t seen each other at all through the summer, and hey, being back at the school had to be either a relief or dreading about being back.

Anna paused and again brushed her hair back. She was admittedly kinda nervous to actually talk to him like before. After all she hadn’t talk to him in roughly half a year… mostly because she chose not to but still. It was just a little odd to think that they could actually talk like nothing had happened.

Kace nodded and said, "Basically you just match the numbers and colors and then you can spice it up if you want with the draw 4's and draw two's.." he shrugged. "Not like you would use them against me." he joked with her. Then as they were beginning to play, he looked at her and said, "I am doing pretty well to be honest with you. Same old stuff, nothing new with me besides Emmy and all. Do you know Emmy Duchannes?" he asked her.

On a side note. "But i know things were awkward between us last term but i think we can change that around.." he said being optimistic. He knew she kissed him and he didn't care. I mean sure it was nice to be liked but his heart now belonged to someone else.

She had said she was only going to keep the card crafting out for only a week, but a month into the term, it was still there. Elodie finally took away the charm from the box, and opened it up to see how many cards had been made. Not too many. But more than she expected to see. She put the lid back on the top, and placed in her own card, as well as the jar of cookies she had just finished making and a few extra gifts she'd spent her free time this month on.

Once she had finished rearranging the post box, Elodie gathered up all of the craft supplies into another box and sent that back up to her dorm with a flick of her wand. Then she refilled the bowls in the center with lollipops and other sweets fine with longlasting exposure and placed a note on the main study table.

Quote:

'Hope you're all settling back into the year okay, and are attending classes and behaving appropriately. I'll still clip you around the ear if you aren't. Don't think I won't. I don't joke about these things.

Will be here on Thursday doing my homework if anyone wants help with their own. Help yourself to sweeties!

- Elodie'

Yeah. Thursday. She could do that. She didn't even care if no one wanted help or showed up. They'd know she'd be there. Cool. Whatever. Providing help to the rugrats.

“Okay… I think I get it.” She nodded and played along with him smiling slightly, “So… I’m guessing since I don’t have any colors or numbers matching that I have to lay down this?” She laid down a draw 4 card and gave a weak smile, “And then I can change the color right?” Anna thought it seemed right, and easy enough… After all if it was just matching the colors then a card that had all of them… She paused to his question trying to recognize the name but shook her head, “Can’t say I’ve heard of her.”

She paused as he talked about the last year, no… She didn’t want to think about that, so Annaleecia just tried to laugh it off, “Oh, Kace… I’m over that, it was just a stupid decision and just… yeah, like I said… Stupid.” She shook her head knowing that didn’t sound convincing at all but… at least she tried, “And I mean… I think I’ve grown use to the idea that I’m not really meant for romance or that kind of stuff.” If her own parents and sister wanted nothing to do with her, why would a guy?

Kace eyes widen and she put down a draw four card down. "Aww come on Anna i mean i just got my cards.." he joked with her slightly with a smile. "Yeah you can put it down and change the color. So you pick the color and i put the color down." he nodded and was glad she was catching along. He cocked his head and frowned. "Well she is new so it is normal. But you might see her if you go to Hogsmeade or events.." he offered to her.

Kace chuckled and understood. "Trust me i have done stupid things too." Trust me. He had his fair share. He wasn't convinced but he let it go. When he heard her say she wasn't meant for romance, he shook his head. He took her hands and said, "Anna listen to me...You are meant for romance. It may not be the right time but one day a guy will sweep you off your feet. Trust me on that." he smiled and let go of her hands and continued playing the game. He didn't want her to loose hope.

She laughed slightly at his reaction, “Hey, not my fault I don’t have any of the yellow cards.” She smiled weakly and looked at him, “But I guess it can be… Green now.” Anna nodded and looked up at him as he talked about Emmy. She shrugged slightly, It might sound odd but she was really fine anymore with the idea of being alone, just in general. She hadn’t seen Mel all summer and she hadn’t made any new friends at her orphanage… Maybe she was just made to be an outcast, “Maybe so.”

She looked at him and just shook her head slightly, “Kace, I’ve just come to accept the fact that I’m not really the type of person who should have friends… I mean, Mel and you… Romulus every now and again… But aside from that I’ve never really talked to anyone here.” Annaleecia shrugged, “And that’s not a bad thing to me. It just seems like maybe I don’t need to have the friends aspect… or I’m not supposed to. Not saying I don’t want to talk to you.” She added the last part quickly. She didn’t mind talking at all, but she just didn’t want to bother anyone.