With his arms folded tight across his chest, Theo's head was still turning from left to right sharply. He sorta hoped that a professor would walk by and see his dedication to the role. He certainly expected some sort of gift for being such a great Head Boy when the term ended. He looked left and saw a massive spider crawling towards him, which kept his attention whilst someone silly decided to sneak up behind him.

Theodore jumped a MILE, somehow thinking that the mysterious person behind him was a massive spider coming to eat him.

It wasn't. It was Adelaide, his friend. Which made it most difficult to be annoyed, and Head Boy-like. The Slytherin scratched the back of his head and couldn't help but frown. "Oh... hey." Aaaaaand have a smile. A small one.

Addi bit her lip, holding in the fit of giggles that wanted to escape. She really hadn't expected Theo to be scared. It was quite comical.

She saw that frown Theo. But at least he gave her a small smile after the hey.

"Hey. You keeping an eye on things? Making sure no one's causing mischief?" He had seemed all shifty and what not. Adelaide took a bite of the brownie still in her hand.

AH, Zander fancied a nice walk. He was so tired of just sitting in front of the common room fire. And especially tired of hanging out in the dorms. And even more tired of the cold. Especially all the stupid lessons that the Professors decided to teach out there. Where they insane or what?! It is clearly freezing, yet all of the Hogwarts Professors decided to do class outside. The struggle is so real. ...Anyways.... Yes, Zander needed to stretch his legs, take a few breathes, just escape from his usual setting.

So what better place to go than... a random corridor? The third year had honestly been walking around for ages now. He had decided to start from the Gryffindor common room and walk down towards the bottom of the castle. He thought it sounded like a good idea at the time, but now he was actually getting kind of tired. Not to mention the fact that he'd have to walk all the way back up too...

Yeah, is there anywhere to sit around here?

It was too cold to go outside anymore. Mr. Centaur, Gurion, had advised them not to so Simon had taken the advice. Always listen to a centaur as they always seemed much wiser than some of the people Simon knew. Never doubt a centaur. Hmm.. That'd make a pretty cool phrase on a tee shirt. He'd have to copyright it.

So Simon went for a walk inside. He climbed up all of those unpredictable changing stairs and spoke to a couple of portraits on his way up. Eventually, he found his way onto the third floor. He wandered down several corridors and finally saw a familiar face. Wait. He knew that person. Was that Zanderman!? He hadn't seen Zander since Hogsmeade and things had gotten quite busy with all the homework that they had been assigned. "Hey Zander!" he called out, making his way over to his friend. He grinned happily. "What's up?

Just as all that walking was starting to catch up to him, he heard his name being called out. Oh? What? That voice definitely sounded familiar. Zander looked for the voice-- SIMON! Aka best CoMC carriage riding partner and superhero enthusiast. The corners of Zander's lips curved into a big grin as he saw his friend approaching. YAY! Walking around was getting pretty lonely, plus he really liked the Slytherin.

"Hiya Simon!" Zander replied enthusiastically noticing the Slytherin's smile. It was always nice to know that someone was happy to see you. Especially if it was a mutual thing. "Nothing much, but I'm super exhausted with this cold weather and all the homework!" Seriously! The professors had all assigned things on the same days and the cold... Don't even get him started on the cold. And all the outdoor lessons IN the cold!? That was the worst of both worlds. Eugh. "How bout you?" Zander asked in return. "Anything new and exciting going on in your life?"

Yeah enthusiasm for the win!

Simon enjoyed spending time with his lion friend. The two had quite a few things in common and could easily geek out about all comicbook things. Yes. It was always a fun time with Zander. Simon nodded in agreement. "Tell me about it. This weather is horrible," he said. The Australian preferred his own winters to this one that they were experiencing at Hogwarts. He'd take gray and rainy any day over snowy and frigid. Mhmm.. "I'm good, but a little tired myself from doing homework and being out in the cold. I've been doing some research trying to understand what is going on around here. Things have been really weird." Very weird. But anyway. "Apart from that I met a centaur!"

Cause Centaurs are awesome!

Since there was not really much that Lux could do outside anymore with the FREEZING cold weather, she had taken more and more to going on walks inside the castle. Might be stuffy inside at times, but at least it was warm, Walking around also made her feel good because it was exercising which was always good for you.

Wandering along, she was led to the third floor where she kept going while whistling a tune to herself. Where was everyone? It was very quiet around here.

Zander had never really thought that he'd become such good friends with a Slytherin. You know, with all those rumors about how the two houses were sworn enemies and such. Especially way back when. Wasn't that a thing? Either way the Gryffindor hadn't really met any other lions in his year, well any male lions anyways... And no offense, but he could never see himself being best mates with any of the girls. Cinnamon and Emmylou were really nice and all, but Zander needed some men. And besides, girls were like SUPER intimidating. And made him all nervous and stuff. Zander nodded when Simon commented about the weather. "Tell me about it mate," It was bad. Zander was born in January so winter didn't really bother him all that much... normally. But there was something real wonky about things this time. It wasn't like last year... Or the year before that. Heck, Zander couldn't even remember back to a winter this harsh!

Homework. Ugh. Yeah. That was super tiring. And all the lessons too! And the club meetings. And emergency herbology stuff. School was getting real busy real fast. And Zander was getting real worn out. "Research?" Zander repeated curiously.
Was Simon the research type? "What has your research been telling you?" Zander was actually genuinely curious. Especially with all the weirdness of this winter. He wanted to stay in the know. Without having to figure out the know by himself. So hopefully Simon would have something interesting to explain. Just then when the boy mentioned Centars, Zander's eyes shot wide open. "WOAH! What did it say to you?!" Didn't Lux mention centaurs too? Zander had seen a unicorn, but they don't really talk. Actually that one just ran away. Oops. He was even trying to be quiet and all that tooo!

The longer the weather had stayed freezing, the more Lily had become suspicious it wasn’t normal. She couldn’t remember it being this cold last winter, and it was closer to spring by now anyway. As far as she was concerned, that meant it should be warming up. Not causing panes of glass in the greenhouses to shatter, let alone still requiring them to slag through snow if they wanted to set foot outside. It was suspicious, but she didn’t have the time to investigate. Studying for exams was more important, and finding time to see Austin and her friends was even more important. She had already found time for music, since that was easily enough done in her dorm after curfew. She was just wandering currently, however. She wasn’t really heading in one direction or another, or looking for anyone in particular. It was simply that wandering the hallways was the best way to keep warm when she didn’t feel like staying near the fireplace in the common room.

As she had reached the third floor, though, she’d heard faint whistling and adjusted her pathway to investigate. There hadn’t been a lot of whistling going on around the castle lately that she remembered, so it was curious. Plus, it was basically music, and that was always something she was drawn to. Turning a corner as the whistling got louder, she’d grinned as she saw the familiar figure of Lux ahead of her. There was nobody else around, so it must have been her whistling. She could accomplish two things at once, continuing her wandering and spend time with one of her friends. “Hey, Lux,” she said, falling into step beside the smaller redhead. At least they could wander together.

Hehe. This was kind of fun. Lux didn't whistle much because a lot of the time she was around other people and they might find it annoying. But when she was by herself, there was no one for her to annoy with it. Where WAS everyone though? It was really strange. Were they all huddled up in their beds trying to stay warm? Even with the use of magic, coldness still seeped into the castle walls. Not that it wasn't worse outside. The Greenhouses had been devastated by the terrible weather. Where did Professor Bentley sleep now? And Professor Thompson for that matter? She'd wonder the same thing about Mr. Kirby, but she hadn't seen the Groundskeeper in a while. What had happened to him?

So many questions floating around and it was starting to give her a bit of a headache. Thank goodness there was someone talking to her so she could snap back to the present. Ooh. Haaai, Lily. Beaming, she waved as her friend joined her. "Hey! What's up?" Was she heading somewhere in particular? Or just killing time?

Simon nodded. Just thinking about the extreme cold made him shiver. Brrrrrr.... He didn't like this weather. You had to wear a huge eskimo snow suit, gloves, scarves, hats, and several layers. It wasn't fun. Couldn't they just all escape through a portkey or secret portal that would take them to a sunny island called paradise where they could spend the wonderful winter blues on a beach? That sounded good to Simon.

He nodded. Yes, research. Simon loved research. It was the best way to figure out an answer to an unknowable question. Sometimes if you wanted to find something out, it was best to do it yourself. He frowned for his research hadn't been too helpful. "My research isn't giving me much. It's suggesting that I should go talk to some more centaurs," he explained. He wanted to know what they had meant by Mars not shinning as bright in this specific age, but what Professor would know that? He thought Flamsteed would know but he didn't... Would the Divination Professor know? "Well, it told me to seek shelter as the weather was too harsh for young ones to be out. Also, their home has become inhabitable. Something must be out there making this weather more harsh. It can't be the weather by itself, can it?" he said, wondering what Zander's opinion on the whole situation was.

Research, eh? Was Simon sure he wasn't a Ravenclaw after all? Zander listened as Simon explained. Awh. So his research was a bit unsuccessful? The Gryffindor had been hoping for a little more. He was pretty clueless, so he was just hoping that maybe Simon was a little better off than he was. He wanted to be in the know so badly! But... Alas, things at Hogwarts are always so secretive and such. So he didn't really have much luck either way. More talking to centaurs though? That sounded like a pretty good idea. Besides the fact that they're all kind of weird with the whole moon and mars stuff, they did seem pretty knowledgeable. "Hm, I think that's a good idea! But-but if they're relocating because their home has become inhabitable, where will we find them to talk to them more?"

He was basically just repeating bits of what Simon had just told him. Because in all honesty, Zander felt like Hogwarts was becoming inhabitable too. With all this cold nonsense and stuff. "I saw some unicorns in Hogsmeade! It seemed pretty freaked out!" Zander just now registered what all Simon meant by the inhabitable part. All of the creatures were running away from the forrest! "And at SNAC when we looked for footprints!" Some of this was starting to click now. Except there was still so much that he didn't know. It can't be the weather by itself? That part is what really struck Zander. "Yeah, wait Simon! I think you're right about something... I don't think I can ever remember a winter at Hogwarts being this harsh..." Granted, this was only his third Hogwarts' winter... But still.... It was way worse than the first two. "Whatever it is that's doing this... It must be pretty bad in the forrest. Especially if it's making all the creatures run away!" Simon was definitely on to something. Then he thought about the Playmates club meeting. The lightening. The sparks. The thing running in the distance. Jasmine going down to give blankets. "Some sparks were fired somewhere from the outside of the castle.... I reckon it had something to do with all this weird stuff... Especially if it came from near the forrest." But what it was? Zander had no clue. That was all he knew.

And Zander brought up the key punch line to everything. If the centaurs were moving, how would they speak to them. "Good point. We can exactly go off into the cold and follow them, now can we? Nor can we go and ask the Headmistress about it all. She'd shoo us away," he began but then stopped all of a sudden. But with Zander with him, it could be a completely different story. This boy probably had loads of the Professors loving him because he was just so sweet and wonderful. Maybe they ought to try it? Simon would bring it up later.

Simon blinked when he heard SNAC. "SNAC? What's that?" he asked rather confused. Silly Nasty...? Then Zander brought up a very interesting, interesting fact. Simon's blue eyes widened, he clasped his hands, and rested his chin on them... Hmmmm... The winter had never been as cold as it was this winter? Foul things were at work in the area. They had to get onto it. He nodded when Zander mentioned the Caring for Playmates meeting. Simon had arrived late to find a group of his friends baffled by it all. "Oh right! I had arrived slightly tardy so I didn't get to see the sparks," he explained. The boy had walked straight into a pitch black dark room. He'd admit that it wasn't one of the best experiences that he'd had at Hogwarts. It was sort of scary yet exhilarating. "Me too. There's no way for us to get into the forest to check it out. Maybe we could go see if the girls who went in there discovered anything..?" he asked, trying that idea with Zander. What were their names Cassie and Jasmine?

In the few times she had talked to Lux before, Lily had never known that the Hufflepuff was particularly musical. She knew the redhead knew she was, considering they had both been in the girls bathroom that night the previous term when Demelza had started screaming about the Heir of Slytherin trying to get her and Professor Flamsteed suggesting they renovate the room. She’d had her guitar then, and later on she had offered to play for the girl. It was obvious that her own tendencies were known, but she’d never known the redhead was. It was nice, almost like they had something else in common. Down to the fact it seemed as if the younger girl hadn’t expected anyone to have overheard her whistling, which amused her a little. She’d never whistled, but the concept was the same. She’d rather not have anyone sneak up on her when she was singing, anyhow, and that was why very few people had ever heard her.

There were plenty of other questions floating around right now, though. Why it was still so cold outside, when it should have probably been starting to warm up again. All of the other strange incidents that had been happening, all sort of centered around the forest, it seemed. It was all curious, yet nobody seemed too worried. The Ministry guards that had been around earlier in the term, after the Quidditch threat, were even gone. For now, though, Lily was just focused on staying warm and not going insane with studying for NEWTs. Talking to Lux should work for both, if they kept walking. “Not much,” she replied with a grin. “Just getting away from the common room for a while. I need a break from studying.” That and she’d been going stir crazy from being cooped up in general.

Hm... Simon had a good point. They couldn't really follow them... And they couldn't really go to the Headmistress.... She probably had tons of stuff on her mind already. What if they went to someone who actually knew about centaurs? Maybe that could help? "What if we... What about Professor Thompson?" The care of magical creatures professor might be able to help them out? "Or.... since they were talking about mars, what about Flamsteed?" Either way, a professor would probably know what to do. Or what was going on. Or at least they'd know more than Zander and Simon did. All Zander knew is that Professor Bentley probably wouldn't be much help. Which totally relieved him. Because he did not need more reasons to freak out over Beautiful Bentley. Nope.

Simon didn't know what SNAC was? Well actually... Come to think of it... Zander didn't really know what it was either. Well, he did show up to the meeting. But what SNAC actually stood for? He had no idea. But it did sound delicious. "It's this divination club thingy," he explained. "I went to my first meeting a few weeks ago... It was really weird. We just followed animal tracks?" And then, a sudden realization hit the boy! "Professor Morgan said she could understand animals or something like that! And I don't know if it's true... But we could always talk to her about her findings from the club meeting!!" Or not... Eh, it was just another suggestion. Because honestly Zander was super confused by this insanely apocalyptic winter. Maybe he'd best leave the research with the Ravenclaws or something. "Oh yeah! I know Jasmine... Well, I know Jasmine's boyfriend anyway... Maybe we could talk to her?" Maybe she'd be able to give them some more information.

It was nice to see that Lux was not the only person who was killing time. It never stopped making her sad that the outdoors were so inhospitable now. It wasn't often that she got to venture outside these days, and whenever she did, every moment was treasured even if nothing much happened.

Walking with company was always wonderful, and it had been a little while since they had last met up. Their time in the kitchens seemed ages ago; back then it was warmer and there weren't strange things going on in the forest. It had been apparent to her even since the Centaurs left that everything going on here now was a result of something going on in the depths of the trees.

"Ewwww, studying! Gross. How is that going? Next term my boyfriend has to take his NEWTs." He would do wonderful on them, surely. He had done so well on his OWLs; it had made her proud.

Toby wasn't complaining about his sudden income of anonymous cookies from an anonymous benefactor, and he figured the person who was sending them wanted to remain unknown for reason, but he just wanted to know WHO was being so nice to him? It had taken a lot of debating with himself before Tobias had finally decided to start investigating, so that was what he was doing. Right here. Right now.

Or he would be, if he even knew where to START. Technically right now he was looking for clues, or maybe just inspiration... but he was doing this while bouncing through the corridors on the pogo stick (ALSO from an anonymous sender... hmmmMMMM) and looking suspiciously around at passers-by. It was funny how fewer and fewer people seemed to be surprised with seeing a pogo-ing fourth year in the corridors these days...

FOCUS, TOBIAS!

Right, if I were an anonymous cookie sender, where would I be...

Derry was - have a guess..? - that's right! Procrastinating! Or rather... distracting herself. After the news about her horse, her mind had got all twisted again, so she was taking a moment to untwist.

It was kinda difficult.

So wandering was a thing again. Since they weren't allowed outside... She'd ended up on the third floor this time, staring at her feet as she shuffled around. Hiding her red eyes behind her hair... Then she glanced up when she heard...

Oh. Toby. On his pogo stick.

"Hey Toby." she said, managing a little smile.

This pogo stick really was great; whoever had got it from him had really known what they were doing. He ended up bouncing super high on it so that he felt his hair actually brush the high ceiling of the corridor. It didn't make him bounce with any less enthusiasm though. Bouncing helped him think.

Toby wasn't sure whether he saw or heard her first, but it was most likely that her flaming red hair was what drew his attention first, because the bouncing of the pogo stick and the air rushing in his ears (and, lets face it, his abominable tendency to barely notice anything), but suddenly Derry was there, and he was glad. With one final bounce he jumped backwards off of his pogo stick, keeping a tight hold of it. Because of the speed at which he'd been going, Toby still had to take another step or two to steady himself, but remained upright and correct. He finally turned to his Slytherin friend.

"Hey Derry," the fifteen year old spoke, and even as he stood there he began shifting around on his feet and jiggling his knee and fiddling with his uniform and hair with the hand that didn't hold onto the pogo stick. He looked at Derry, but every minor distraction in the corridor distracted him and drew his gaze momentarily before giving Derry his full attention again. "Whatch'doin'?" Even his speech carried that same unsettled energy, but still he beamed at her.

Angel was totally trying to figure out what to do because well she wasn't allowed out, which meant that she couldn't go to the greenhouse or go to the lake, which she really wanted to do because then she could go ice-skating and have loads of fun but for now she was stuck in the castle, though it was giving her a lot of time to take a look around the place and see if she could find anything new.

Adi was officially bored. He really wanted to go outside but the darn cold was just too much. Not that it was much better in the castle. At first he had enjoyed the chill and what not but now it was just plain annoying and overbearing.

Shivering slightly, Adi trudged down the corridor. Maybe he should just go back to the Common Room. Yeah, good idea. Though why he left it in the first place was mystifying. His eyes caught someone else lurking on the corridor. The cold third year did not take much notice of then until he was closer. It was Angel. Adi could always tell. Angel always dressed more fashionably and carefully than AJ. Not that AJ didn't look good or anything. She always looked perfect to him.

"Yo, Angel. Having a secret meeting with Benny?'' Hehe. Adi could never resist teasing either Angel or Benny about the other.

Simon's blue eyes widened at Zander's ingenious thought. "Aha! That'd be perfect. We could go see him," he said with several excitable nods. Yes, yes. Professor Thompson would know what to do. He paused and flushed pink. Ah Professor Flamsteed. "Well I sort of went to go see Professor Flamsteed and he didn't really tell me anything other than the visibility of Mars is blocked by the growing storm around us." Yeah, Airey hadn't seem to happy to answer the question about Mars as the topic of the question was Astrology not Astronomy. "We could always pay Professor Bentley a visit? Maybe she may know something," he said, more thinking outloud and oblivious to his mate's feelings for the Professor.

They followed animal tracks? "How interesting," mused Simon. Perhaps he too ought to join the club. If they were doing things like that then perhaps they knew some things about the forest life out there. Before he could ask how they could join, Zander brought up the fact that they could ask Professor Morgan because she seemed to know about animals. Merlin. Zander was hitting the jackpot today. "That's a brilliant idea, Zanderman! We ought to go see her straight away. Do you think she'd mind a visit from us?" said Simon.

He nodded once more when Zander brought up Jasmine and her boyfriend. "Yes, yes, we'll have to go look for her. Where do you think she'll be? Library?" he mused.

Angel smiled before blushing a bit. "No i'm not, I'm just hanging out, wondering what to do." Angel giggled before deciding to ask Adi something. "You and AJ been spending time together? Angel hoped that they both would realise that they were made for each other and she hoped that AJ and Adi would become really good friends, even maybe more.

Angel looked at Adi and smiled again. "What you been doing lately?" Angel hoped that her friend would have been doing something fun. "I'm wishing the weather would change back because I want to go outside soon." Angel gave a little pout as she looked out of the window.

"Of all the places you choose to hang out, Angel.'' Adi shook his head. "You're a weird one. But I mean that in a good way.'' He added that last bit in quickly because he knew Angel was a sensitive girl and she might take the statement the wrong way.

Adi eyed Angel as she giggled? What's so funny? "Uh. Not of lately,'' he answered, wondering if AJ had said anything to her sister about that day at the Lake. He hadn't told Benny anything. But he missed AJ. Had all the awkward between them evaporated as yet?

"Trying to keep warm,'' the third year muttered as he shivered again. He nodded in agreement. "If it weren't so cold and we could be outside, I'd bury you in snowballs, Angel.'' Hehe. In other words, have an epic snowball fight.

Lily was seriously starting to wonder if the weather was ever going to get warmer. She wasn’t entirely positive, but it seemed like it was only getting colder outside, and after a while, she wasn’t going to be able to put on any more layers to stop herself from becoming a popsicle. She hadn’t even tried to go outside for awhile now, but every time she got close to a window she could feel the cold seeping through. It was everything she could do to get out of bed in the mornings, since at least she was warm there. She just also was smart enough to acknowledge that she’d get bored if she stayed there too long, as already had been proven.

At least she had Lux to talk to while she continued her almost aimless wandering. It had occurred to her that she didn’t know if the Hufflepuff was actually headed anywhere specific, but then, she also figured that would have come up by now. They’d just kept walking down the corridor, and she’d stifled a giggle at the outburst that was a reaction to her complaint about studying. “Exactly. Although normally I don’t mind it, but it seems like that’s all I can do lately. Since the weather’s been horrible,” she replied, before shrugging. “It’s going. I’m sure he’ll love it just as much as I’m starting to soon enough.” If she studied much more she felt like her head might explode, and music wasn’t even helping if that happened.