What was this party, then? Was Mo terribly terribly late for the meeting, or was it possible that it was still going on? He emerged from the stacks where he'd been lurking and looking for books, and he opted to linger near the table where Flamsteed was instructing people to do research.

Mo was good at research. He had to be at this point in his Hogwarts career.

"Hullo, Professor. Nice day for a bit of research, eh?" He grabbed up a book and flipped through it helpfully.

Flipping through a few of the pages before and after the portion of the passage she was supposed to be looking at, only a few words were grasped before just leaving the book open as is. "Be safe!" she called out to the group leaving as an after thought.

Oh my...

Chewing the inside of her lip, she leaned back in her chair and sighed. So much wrong here. Though to let the students get involved? Especially the young ones? Even if it were research? She supposed that was better than wanting to go out and search for the trouble themselves. "Perhaps ve may find some use in looking for spells from our ancient history." For anyone who wished to research for something more specific.

She, on the other hand, stood up and moved closer to Airey, lowering her voice as she spoke. "Do ve know vot happened to the victims from the forest?"

Flamsteed said research, BUT THE WHISPERING- THAT SAID SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.

That's right. He was watching. He was being extra cautious and careful. Constant vigilance!!

O_________O

All this time, you were trusted Flamsteed. YOU WERE TRUSTED! But no, really HE was in on this whole plan too. He must've known. What else would they be whispering about!? It certainly couldn't have been about dinner. Because then they wouldn't be whispering! They were probably talking about how they were going to take millions of innocent lives in a matter of seconds!! Where was the old man's cane when you needed it! BOTROS COME BACK IT WAS A SETUP.

Abort mission. ABORT MISSION. Code red. Good merlin why W H Y did it have to be them?! Couldn't they just take a hufflepuff and be happy? Why'd it have to be the whole restricted section filled with students. And the worst part was no one except for Zander knew! They were being blind sided. This is not a drill people!

Zander was starting to get quite good at this 'appearing normal, but slowly shriveling into a nut on the inside' thing. This was bad. And if his suspicious shifty looks didn't confirm anything then what would. But that's all he'd give them. He couldn't let them- THOSE TWO- know about what he knew. He needed the element of surprise. He needed an attack plan to attack the attack. And also a potion to get rid of headaches please?

Fine. She would just stay here and read up on these chorts. Since nobody was going to tell her what they were she was just going to have to find out herself. Maybe if she proved herself useful they would let her tag along in the chort removal group.

AJ pulled down another book and looked for chorts. Nothing. Pushing that book to the side, she went and got another one. The lion did this multiple times until she found the definition of a chort. As she read, her eyes got bigger and bigger. Demons... what the... Is that why all of the professor looked like doom and gloom. Exactly how does a demon just wander to Hogwarts?

She needed to read more. She had to find out about what to do about them. She WAS going to be one of the ones involved in fighting them.

Patronus received, the Headmistress hurried down to the research meeting. She was worried that they were going to have frightened children to deal with now on top of the probable chort infestation living in the forest. How were Flamsteed and Romanos handling this, hmm? She was curious to see.

"Hellllllllo," the redhead spotted Medea and made a beeline for her and Airey, keeping in mind the warning about women with accents all the while. "What are we discussing here, hmm? Tell me how this research went."

And quietly, because even without a librarian, this WAS still a library!

Simon eyed the two whispering Professors with the utmost suspicion. His eyes glanced about the room and then finally landed on Zander who had a very interesting facial expression. The boy made his way over to his best Lion mate and then nudged him. Simon whispered, "What do you think they're discussing?" He continued flicking through the various pages of the books.

Then the Headmistress arrived. Wow. Very important research for the Headmistress to happen to pop in for a little visit. He gave her a nod and went back to his research. Simon watched her quickly walked over towards Flamsteed and Romanos.

Whispering Professors. Adi wished he could eavesdrop but tat wouldn't be polite now, would it? Plus he was too far away. And there was the Head arriving now. More whispering. Well, it was no use wasting time trying to listen in.

Professor Romanos said to look for spells from long ago? Okay. Adi guess he could do that. He started flipping through the book he had in front of him once again, hoping to find any useful spell.

Zander looked over at Simon as he watched suspiciously. HM, was Simon just as aware of what was going on as he was?! THIS WAS PERFECT! Maybe they could work together to take Romanos down! HA he wouldn't have to save Hogwarts all by himself after all!! ""I don't know, mate... But let's just say, I don't think it's about the dinner menu," he whispered back and then looked over at the pair again. "I think Romanos is bad news, Simon." He watched as the Slytherin continued looking through books for research.

Well now it was time for him to do some research of his own. Romanos Research. He needed to build up an army to defeat Romanos' army. He couldn't just do it all on his own. Even with Simon, it was just the two of them. He'd need some proof. With that thought in mind, the Gryffindor took out a notebook and observed they're suspicious behavior. Just as soon as he started watching, he began scribbling down viciously. This was some good stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romanos Research Observations

*Enemy seems to be whispering intensely to her accomplice
*Enemy is remaining very calm-- Almost TOO calm.
*Enemy and her accomplice are standing only centimeters away from each other, could this be a sign?
*A wild Headmistress appears
*Headmistress is joining in on the whispering ((WHY SO MUCH WHISPERING??))
*Is headmistress another accomplice? -- Possibility
*Whispering is possibly about the whereabouts of the attack- Needs further information
*Enemy cannot pronounce the letter 'w' this is highly suspicious behavior- Further investigation necessary

Though he picked up a book to appear as if he was busy, he kept all eyes locked on the three adults in the room. Constant vigilance.

After everything they'd discussed, Lex was less and less convinced this winter had anything to do with Runes. Professor Botros said he'd have known and besides, the next culprit was far more epic. Not exactly something you'd sneak up to the Gryffindor girls dorm when no one was looking--pfft, no, even Lex knew that, but still as epic, so no she wouldn't be looking for troubled runes that didn't exist, she would be staying here with the rest and reading up on anything she could find on chorts like Airey said.

Curious enough, the Headmistress joined them too. This must have been serious, even more serious than she'd said when she was trying to convince her it wasn't snow zombies. Don't worry we're firm believers now Ma'am. No zombies, just snow demons, because THOSE were so much better.

She did have a question though. "Professor Romanos said they'd been causing trouble for magic and non magic folk because of some migration....I don't suppose anyone's been tracking said migration since it started?" Surely someone would have gotten the bright idea unless they wanted to lose them. "Where's the most recent sighting been and are they moving diagonally or straight across?" That would affect whether they ran into Hogwarts or some other poor suckers further south, yeah?

Just wondering.

Simon just stared at Zander peculiarly when his mate mentioned dinner menu. "Dinner MENU?" he repeated, unsure what his mate was saying and then he blinked when his mate mentioned that Romanos was bad news. "Bad news? I..." he said a little bit too loudly than he would have liked to.

Whoops. Act calm. Act calm.

Luckily the Gryffindor Prefect spoke up. Migration patterns. That was a good question. He eagerly awaited one of the Professor's answers to it.

He flicked through the book, reading things about how chorts could be both good and bad. Folk narratives tell us that Chors are made of fire, but also physical in nature, being able to interact physically with people and objects and likewise be acted upon. Interesting. After a while, he put down the book and then whispered to Zander (oh so subtly), "I hadn't even thought about how she could be bad news. When did you develop this theory?" Then the boy picked up a different book about spells and began flipping through the pages.

You know, Lottie actually considered going with Botros, since at least she'd feel like she was doing something useful other than sitting here without a clue of what to search for.

The sixth year paid no attention to the crying girl, and quickly said to her bestie that she had as much of an idea of what was going on as they (the Professors) did. HONEST. Truly honest, she was being. At this point, she was thoroughly confused and wanted a time out to consider everything that was said. Weather, runes, chorts. What even? And then a patronus was sent and... well, that was quite an interesting patronus, Airey Flamsteed.

The moment Romanos arrived, she thought they could finally see light! But noooooo, instead, she watched, rather amused, the reactions of a certain Gryffindor boy (Zander) to anything Romanos did. It is rather easy to notice when his eyes didn't even leave the woman. There was something in him that reminded Lotus of herself for a second, and she smiled. YES, smiled. In a moment like this! Oh, well.

Now the Headmistress was here? Excellent, and no one brought refreshments.

Riiiiiignt, it was time to start researching Chorts while the two Professors busied themselves talking in whispers. Wondering what they were discussing, Lux got to her feet so that she could find a book which could prove helpful in dealing with the demons. How fortunate that this meeting was being held in the library, because she had access to any informative book short of the ones in the Restricted Section.

Returning to the table with what she hoped would be a helpful book - and wondering when the Headmistress had arrived - Lux noticed Zander furiously writing down notes on something. Whatever it was must be really exciting so of course she had to take a peek. It was in her nature to be curious.

Eyes widening, she glanced from the paper to Zander to the chatting adults. Then back to Zander again. No. They weren't involved with the Chort invasion. They COULDN'T be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roselyn

She, on the other hand, stood up and moved closer to Airey, lowering her voice as she spoke. "Do ve know vot happened to the victims from the forest?"

He raised an eyebrow at Medea and her research suggestion. Honestly, he was not sure if it was a genuine topic of research or if she had suggested spells as a means to easily distract students. Those that had minds that easily wandered, like himself, could get lost in the wealth of enchantment information.

Oh look, he was distracted. What had she just asked? Forest? OH!

"I'm not sure myself," he whispered back as his blue eyes drifted towards Miss Carrington. The Hufflepuff's behavior certainly seemed to reflect a certain theory though, didn't it. "Partly why I thought calling the Headmistress would be efficient." Because surely Cecelia had kept the redhead up to date on the situation, so any course of action against the probable chorts would need the woman's approval first. Two fwoopers one stone, yes?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

What was this party, then? Was Mo terribly terribly late for the meeting, or was it possible that it was still going on? He emerged from the stacks where he'd been lurking and looking for books, and he opted to linger near the table where Flamsteed was instructing people to do research.

Mo was good at research. He had to be at this point in his Hogwarts career.

"Hullo, Professor. Nice day for a bit of research, eh?" He grabbed up a book and flipped through it helpfully.

Slightly sidetracked by Medea's whispering, he nearly missed the arrival of Mr. Branxton, so please forgive his half-hearted nod of the head. "You could say that," he replied with a faint smile, only slightly recovering from the pathetic at best initial greeting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

Patronus received, the Headmistress hurried down to the research meeting. She was worried that they were going to have frightened children to deal with now on top of the probable chort infestation living in the forest. How were Flamsteed and Romanos handling this, hmm? She was curious to see.

"Hellllllllo," the redhead spotted Medea and made a beeline for her and Airey, keeping in mind the warning about women with accents all the while. "What are we discussing here, hmm? Tell me how this research went."

And quietly, because even without a librarian, this WAS still a library!

And there she was, although the astronomer was far from breathing a sigh of relief just yet. Was there even such a thing as a sigh of relief when it came to Hogwarts? Probably not.

Quietly, he reached for the codex and pulled it towards the Headmistress. Nothing like a bit of light reading, yeah? "A passage..." OH! They were still going to whisper. Okay then. "... discussing the actions of Morgan la Fey was discovered and how she brought about a five month winter by invoking the power of Isa, which is why Professor Botros took a group of students to look for signs of any engravings, although alluding to not really believing that there were any present." Because of his nifty device. Still, better safe than sorry, yeah?"It also mentioned that the winter was initially thought to be the work of chorts due to the increase of tuberculosis cases among muggles during that time..." He paused and ventured a glance towards Medea before returning to the Headmistress and gave her a rather expectant cruppy-eyed look.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

She did have a question though. "Professor Romanos said they'd been causing trouble for magic and non magic folk because of some migration....I don't suppose anyone's been tracking said migration since it started?" Surely someone would have gotten the bright idea unless they wanted to lose them. "Where's the most recent sighting been and are they moving diagonally or straight across?" That would affect whether they ran into Hogwarts or some other poor suckers further south, yeah?

Just wondering.

Overhearing what Miss Cambridge had just said, he swallowed and threw Medea a sheepish smile. Yeah...about that....

The group split up. Didn't they know this was a bad idea? Bev has read enough horror books to know this wasn't a good idea. Botros' team would be the first to go. Why? Because he was old and not that quick, and everyone else would do their best to protect him. That is why Beverly was smart enough to stay with Airey's group. He didn't look like the strongest - that was Professor Thompson with his wide shoulders and all - but he was clever and that would get them farther and toward safety.

Hopefully.

Also, they had Professor Romanos and she looked like she could kick serious butt. Have you seen the boots the woman occasionally wears? She can kick butt. Beverly was set on that. Then they had the ex 'Claw captain - whom arrived out of nowhere, but he would make a good shield if needed.

And now, the Headmistress herself was here.

Beverly watched her intently as she made her way toward the professors. She didn't hide her gaze. She wasn't rudely staring at the woman, she was studying her. As she did that she realized the three adults were whispering to each other.

Hmmmmm.

Why?

"If it is chorts, what's going to happen to us?" she asked to all. Even the students. Answers would be nice. Clever ones, that is. Ones that would keep her alive.

The headmistress? Oh, that was fast.

If there was anyone who knew what was going on, it should've been Annie. Right? With a short smile and bow of her head to the headmistress, Medea chose a glance to the students to see how they were doing. Researching...hopefully.... "Tuberculosis?" she mumbled, peaking towards the codex once more. "You didn't mention that part."

Could it beeee? "Ve didn't haff any cases of tuberculosis though...did ve?"

Ooooh? Growing quiet, she may not have heard Alexa's thought process (or knew where Airey's smile came from but she gave a small one of her own in return), but she did hear Beverly's rather unsettling question. Ahem. Welp. Did...the headmistress want to take that one?

The Gryffindor turned to Simon and whispered quickly as if he was in a hurry, "Shhh, Simon! Don't let the enemy overhear us! And yes, very bad news," Didn't his mate know anything about whispering. Anyways it wasn't a big deal as it looked like the Professors hadn't noticed anything. The had to stay low. Stealth. Element of surprise. It was key. They had an advantage here. Even though the Professors were all ganging up and had a Cold One army, Zander had Simon. And the advantage that know one knew that they knew that the Professors knew that-- Just that no one suspected that they knew. Geez. Headache much?

Right, back to the notes. The Gryffindor continued to watch over Romanos and her evil accomplice, Professor Flamsteed GASP and furiously took more notes. Then, he noticed a certain Hufflepuff reading over his notes. Lux you can't do that! The Gryffindor nervously pulled them back to his body as he continued to glance all shifty everywhere. Now, as for Simon. The third year pretended to be looking down at his book-which he so gracefully was holding upside down- as he listened to the Slytherin's whispering. Ah, that's more like it, mate!

"Well... It was months back when I was in the trophy room with Sophie..." He quickly scanned the area to make sure that no one was listening in OR trying to take another peek at his notes thank-you-very-much, before continuing. "She helped me develop my theory... And Simon, I've been watching Romanos all this time and she--" Pause. One more look around and then, "is most definitely up to something," A bad something. A very, very bad something. Romanos the kid knows. He knows.

And right, back to the notes. Couldn't waste any time!

"Up to something? But mate, she's trying to help us research," he said but when he heard Beverly's question go unanswered Zander's theory kept popping around in his mind. It could be very, very relevant.

Simon heard Beverly's question and nodded. "Yes, what does that mean? Being frozen? " he asked as he put together the idea that since the chorts brought ice and destruction that they'd all be basically frozen. Hey, it'd be like Captain America. Perhaps someone would make them up in fifty years time. Then he refocused on flipping through the book that he was reading. Bitting his lip when he couldn't find anything on chorts. He put the book down and picked up another.

"Maybe she's not answering the question and is hoping that the chorts invade," he said as he continued flipping through the pages, pretending his hardest to scan the pages. Simon grew silent when he flipped the page. "Yet still I don't believe a Professor would try to harm a student. I mean they're Professors, mate. They're supposed to protect and teach us."

SPOILER!!: Flomanos/Airea/Romansteed/Mediry/YOU TWO

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

And there she was, although the astronomer was far from breathing a sigh of relief just yet. Was there even such a thing as a sigh of relief when it came to Hogwarts? Probably not.

Quietly, he reached for the codex and pulled it towards the Headmistress. Nothing like a bit of light reading, yeah? "A passage..." OH! They were still going to whisper. Okay then. "... discussing the actions of Morgan la Fey was discovered and how she brought about a five month winter by invoking the power of Isa, which is why Professor Botros took a group of students to look for signs of any engravings, although alluding to not really believing that there were any present." Because of his nifty device. Still, better safe than sorry, yeah?"It also mentioned that the winter was initially thought to be the work of chorts due to the increase of tuberculosis cases among muggles during that time..." He paused and ventured a glance towards Medea before returning to the Headmistress and gave her a rather expectant cruppy-eyed look.

Overhearing what Miss Cambridge had just said, he swallowed and threw Medea a sheepish smile. Yeah...about that....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roselyn

The headmistress? Oh, that was fast.

If there was anyone who knew what was going on, it should've been Annie. Right? With a short smile and bow of her head to the headmistress, Medea chose a glance to the students to see how they were doing. Researching...hopefully.... "Tuberculosis?" she mumbled, peaking towards the codex once more. "You didn't mention that part."

Could it beeee? "Ve didn't haff any cases of tuberculosis though...did ve?"

Ooooh? Growing quiet, she may not have heard Alexa's thought process (or knew where Airey's smile came from but she gave a small one of her own in return), but she did hear Beverly's rather unsettling question. Ahem. Welp. Did...the headmistress want to take that one?

Look at these two over here, exchanging all their dopey doe-eyed smiles and whispers. GAAAAAAGGG. Bunz did her best to not throw up in her mouth, standing between the duo as she was. She would entertain the whisper party. All for the love of the students. She was such a martyr.

Blah blah blah, power of Isa, yes, the Headmistress nodded to show she understood. Mostly. "So you have reached the same conclusion as us, then. I just met with some of the staff who went out to the forest, to ask about the trip," she continued whispering. Cases of tuberculosis... "And we don't know for certain WHAT attacked Leo and Victor in the forest, but whatever it was, it was enough to knock the librarian out cold for a few weeks. Maybe they did contract TB from... from an encounter with chorts. I don't know enough about Muggle diseases to say so." Maybe Cece did, but she hadn't diagnosed Leobald with one yet!

"We do strongly think it's chorts though. Javy was telling us a lot about them, but... I heard you taught a lesson on them, Medea?" Was the redhead subtly slipping in her suspicion of women with accents?! Maaaaaaybe. But she continued whispering furiously regardless. "Now we need to figure out a way to get rid of them... and we have to know WHY US. Why are they hiding outside Hogwarts? What did we do to deserve this eternal winter?!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deezerz

"If it is chorts, what's going to happen to us?" she asked to all. Even the students. Answers would be nice. Clever ones, that is. Ones that would keep her alive.

"Don't worrrrry, dear," Bunz poked her head up upon hearing a student's question, "we've got everything under control. Everything is juuuuuuust fine. You'll be fine. Trust us. We know what we're doing."

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

She did have a question though. "Professor Romanos said they'd been causing trouble for magic and non magic folk because of some migration....I don't suppose anyone's been tracking said migration since it started?" Surely someone would have gotten the bright idea unless they wanted to lose them. "Where's the most recent sighting been and are they moving diagonally or straight across?" That would affect whether they ran into Hogwarts or some other poor suckers further south, yeah?

She had just turned back to the whisper!party when Alexa addressed the group at large too, or so it seemed. Instead of replying to the Gryffindor girl, Bunz looked at Romanos. Well? Her eyebrows seemed to say. HAD anyone been tracking this migration she was just now hearing about?!?!!!

Shaking her head at Zander for his weird theory, Lux started looking through the book she had selected. She sucked at this research thing, but she would try her hardest for Bay. She would do anything for him. Half paying attention to what people were saying around her, she tried to find anything about Chorts so that she would have something to contribute to this meeting.

But the Headmistress was saying that everything was fine when it WASN'T. "What about Mr. Kitridge and Bay? They aren't fine." It was hard for her to not start crying again at the thought of Bay being in the Hospital Ward.

Yeah, okay. Something was definitely up with the whispering between the professors and the Headmistress. Layla continued to flip through the book in front of her while keeping an eye on what was going on with the group of adults. Not that she was suspicious of any of them, but because she was curious.

And yeah, not buying that everything was fine. The Headmistress did realize that she was speaking to the group that had figured out what was going on, right? Then there was the news about the migration. WHAT?! There was a migration of these things and NOBODY WAS TRACKING IT?! "So glad we're not in Tornado Alley right now." If the people who were responsible for their safety couldn't track these chort things, or even warn the Headmistress before it was too late, then they definitely couldn't be trusted to watch out for those things.

"How are we going to get rid of these chorts......? I mean, we can't just wait them out, we'll run out of food at some point........" Gulp. Also agreeing with the previously crying Hufflepuff. Not everyone was fine.

SPOILER!!: Ro came up with more majestic sounding names than us XD Romansteed...sounds nicer than Flamos XD

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roselyn

SPOILER!!: headmistress and airey

The headmistress? Oh, that was fast.

If there was anyone who knew what was going on, it should've been Annie. Right? With a short smile and bow of her head to the headmistress, Medea chose a glance to the students to see how they were doing. Researching...hopefully.... "Tuberculosis?" she mumbled, peaking towards the codex once more. "You didn't mention that part."

Could it beeee? "Ve didn't haff any cases of tuberculosis though...did ve?"

Ooooh? Growing quiet, she may not have heard Alexa's thought process (or knew where Airey's smile came from but she gave a small one of her own in return), but she did hear Beverly's rather unsettling question. Ahem. Welp. Did...the headmistress want to take that one?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

SPOILER!!: Flomanos/Airea/Romansteed/Mediry/YOU TWO

Look at these two over here, exchanging all their dopey doe-eyed smiles and whispers. GAAAAAAGGG. Bunz did her best to not throw up in her mouth, standing between the duo as she was. She would entertain the whisper party. All for the love of the students. She was such a martyr.

Blah blah blah, power of Isa, yes, the Headmistress nodded to show she understood. Mostly. "So you have reached the same conclusion as us, then. I just met with some of the staff who went out to the forest, to ask about the trip," she continued whispering. Cases of tuberculosis... "And we don't know for certain WHAT attacked Leo and Victor in the forest, but whatever it was, it was enough to knock the librarian out cold for a few weeks. Maybe they did contract TB from... from an encounter with chorts. I don't know enough about Muggle diseases to say so." Maybe Cece did, but she hadn't diagnosed Leobald with one yet!

"We do strongly think it's chorts though. Javy was telling us a lot about them, but... I heard you taught a lesson on them, Medea?" Was the redhead subtly slipping in her suspicion of women with accents?! Maaaaaaybe. But she continued whispering furiously regardless. "Now we need to figure out a way to get rid of them... and we have to know WHY US. Why are they hiding outside Hogwarts? What did we do to deserve this eternal winter?!"



"Don't worrrrry, dear," Bunz poked her head up upon hearing a student's question, "we've got everything under control. Everything is juuuuuuust fine. You'll be fine. Trust us. We know what we're doing."



She had just turned back to the whisper!party when Alexa addressed the group at large too, or so it seemed. Instead of replying to the Gryffindor girl, Bunz looked at Romanos. Well? Her eyebrows seemed to say. HAD anyone been tracking this migration she was just now hearing about?!?!!!

He simple gave Medea a small shrug. He knew better than to stick his nose in Cecelia's business. Unless he wanted it hexed right off that is. "Are there any updates at all regarding those two?" he questioned, making another brief glance towards Miss Carrington who had just asked about their well-being. He had missed giving Leobald a hard time about his receding hairline, although he would probably be more gentle with the bloke now that he had been through all this. He was only vaguely familiar with muggle illnesses, but by no means able to diagnose someone. If he were a muggle doctor everyone would have a cold and be sent home with a lemon lolli.

But yes, blue eyes were back on Medea. "What are your instincts telling you," he said, repeating the same words he had several months ago in the Owlery. Just what thoughts were going on in that beautiful mind of hers?

It was a somewhat rhetorical question coming from him, as she had been suspicious from almost the beginning. So, yes, Medea...about all those questions the Headmistress just asked...

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

"How are we going to get rid of these chorts......? I mean, we can't just wait them out, we'll run out of food at some point........" Gulp. Also agreeing with the previously crying Hufflepuff. Not everyone was fine.

"Miss Cambridge has a suggestion as to how to handle the possible food situation," he pointed out. Just in case anyone was wondering. Although he would let the Gryffindor explain that should she so desire.

No one was gonna answer her question? Well fine, she'd just assume they didn't know. That was the usual trend when things went wrong around her anyway; Professors being the last to know and the students being first targeted. Yup, she knew how these things went. With them being locked away in the castle for the past few months she doubted any news they had on chort movement was old by now too so no use looking.

Wait what? Lex heard her name but it took a couple seconds for everything said as it related to her to be processed at which point she helpfully chimed in, "It's true. Professor Thompson has a LOT of creatures up in the Room of Requirement. Depending on how long it takes the chorts to pass we could actually wait them out...though I reckon someone would have to sedate the Professor first on account of him being attached to them and all..." Said as an afterthought.

The Professor was nuts about the animals. Naturally he'd try to stop them but just as naturally, Alexa wasn't prepared to live off nothing but greens.

Simon nodded in agreement with the older Slytherin student. He felt as if her question was the most important one. How were they going to handle the chorts? The Gryffindor Prefect spoke up and Simon raised a curious eyebrow. If the Professor had various creatures in the Room of Requirement, what if a chort had gotten INSIDE? Or worse, what if a chort could transfigure itself to become any type of creature. He bit his lip. WHAT IF THE CHORT WAS HENRY THE DELIGHTFUL HIPPOGRIFF? If that was true, Simon would have been devastated for he liked Henry. He was a nice, friendly creature that didn't try to bite your face. It probably wasn't Henry.

Continuing to flip the pages of the textbook, he glanced up and directed his question to everyone. "Can a chort change its shape?" he asked. He didn't know too much about chorts and the books he had picked up hadn't really said anything about that power.

The Gryffindor listened to his friend's logic and shook his head furiously, still pretending to read his book in the process. "She's just trying to make it look like she's helping to research," Duh Simon. Why would she make it obvious, right? She still had to hide the fact that she was the evil Chort/ColdOne leader. Especially because she still didn't know that this smart Gryffindor was already aware of her malicious plans. MUAHA element of surprise, people. It's a thing.

He then turned his attention back to his notes, as Simon spoke up to ask another question. Man. He was so curious. It was brilliant! That would totally get everyone off their trail, nice thinking! Maybe Simon could be a Ravenclaw after all. "Simon! That's exactly what she's doing, she wants us all to die. Starting with..." Head nod at Lux, incase the girl was trying to listen in or something sneaky. "But think about it, who better than a Professor? She knows so much about the school and about the dark arts! Aaaand who else would be out in the forbidden forrest, a student couldn't go there by themselves in this cold!" It was all in the details, Simon boy. All in the details.

Details that he was going to miss if he didn't get back to his notes and quick!!

He snorted. "Right, cause your theory obviously makes sense. She's been here for a while so why would she wait to have a snowstorm happen now? Why wouldn't she do it earlier?" he questioned, glancing at his friend. Then a smirk graced his lips. Perhaps Zander was on the dinner menu? ENOUGH. That was just ridiculous to think that a Professor would eat here. "Flamsteed wouldn't let her eat us," he added. Flamtseed and he were Trekkie Bros. The Astronomy Professor was awesome.. He wouldn't let the DADA Professor eat them.

Simon just stared at his mate for a brief couple of seconds before returning his gaze back down to the book that he held in his hands. The cold weather had obviously gotten to his mate's head so he decided just to keep on nodding. He looked up again when Zander spoke and followed his gaze to Lux. Why was it that whenever things went sour, a Hufflepuff was always injured? Merlin, it was like the guys who wore the red shirts in Star Trek. Note to self: never wear red on the USS Enterprise or wear Hufflepuff colours. "You do have an interesting case but what about Domingo? She's nice but suspicious."