Think, Nessa, think.

She was trying to keep it together and not panic for the students' sake, but the situation seemed dire and she was having a hard time thinking clearly. Okay, they needed to get the students to safety, and that was first and foremost. Taking a deep breath, she first turned to Cassie and nodded. They did need to alert the others. "A message will get to someone quicker than we can get there, perhaps Javy since his office is outside.. Then we can head down to help." She hated the thought of students still there. Who knew how many more could be taken after Kate ran away.

It was probably urgent that the two students with them get going to their common rooms and maybe it'd be a good idea for each of them to escort one. She was about to suggest that when a tugging at her robes caused her to turn. She looked at Echo first, concern in her eyes as the little girl looked positively horrified. "Oh, no, dear, it's alright.. Don't cry, we'll make sure everyone is safe." She put her arm around the girl and that was when she saw them. A movement caught her eye and she looked up to see acromantulas advancing on them.

"OH!" she let out a surprised little scream as she drew Echo closer to her. "We need to get out of here now!" Where.. Panic was setting in even more so now. She gripped her wand tightly ready to cast a protective spell if needed. Maybe common rooms would take too long. "Let's get them to the Great Hall." That was closer and she thought she remembered something awhile back about emergency plans. Grabbing Echo's arm with her other hand, she looked back at Cassie, who she'd figure to take responsibility of Kate. She wasn't leaving without her best friend.

She was still trying to think about the next step. "Yes let's send a patronous and the we could head there and you two could...." She looked at Echo as she whimpered, but seeing Nessa put an arm around she pulled her own wand. "I'll go ahead and send one and then we can get moving."

What was?

She spun feeling them just as Nessa spoke. Frozen a moment in her spot she stood there watching them. Not sure if they should move quickly or stay still. She tried to focus, but it was no use. Too many things were going on. She didn't want to take her eyes of of them, but she glanced towards her bag that sat alone with Gemini and then towards the corner were Aries was.

"Nessa take Kate and Echo to the Great Hall I will be right behind you." She slowly took steps towards Gemini first so you could get him out of harms way.

"No! Stay there!" ordered one of the charging acromantulas.

"Yes! STAY!" insisted another. "Makes it easier to feast upon you!"

"NOT YET!" snapped a third, whacking the second over its head with her leg. "You know what mother said."

The sense of urgency in their movements intensified at the prospect of their prey fleeing before they could get their pincers on them.

And one of them was making it FAR too easy.

As both the professors showed their shock over what she'd reported to them, all Kate could do was nod along. YES, Acromantulas attacked, YES, there are still students out there, and YES, professors should get out there and come to the rescue. "There's no adults out there at all," she told them. Well, there WAS an adult out there, but she'd ben kidnapped by spiders...and lots of them.

"We have to help them!" she stressed again, now able to breathe.

Feeling like she needed to be a warrior on a war path, Kate spun on her heels only to come face to face with more of the nasty creatures. "AHHHH!" she squealed, because what second year wouldn't scream her head off? Without thinking (obviously), Kate whacked one on top its head with her wand. Why she didn't cast an actual spell was beyond her, but she guessed a person did really silly things when they were trying to survive.

For a second there, it seemed that nobody was going to save Kate. Was Professor Glendower going to take her or Professor Cassie? "Uhhh, I SPOKE TO MOTHER!" she yelled out. "MOTHER SAID TO...EAT NO ONE." Kate spun on her heels again and hurried to Professor Glendower's side. Wherever the adults were going, she wanted to make sure she was with one of them.

Yes, yes, they needed to help the students still at the greenhouse, especially now that she knew no other adults were there to get them to safety. But it seemed there were more pressing matters to tend to first.

Feast upon them? Nessa looked at the overgrown spiders in horror as she put up a protective shield between the humans and the acromantulas. Not if she had anything to say about it. She glanced at Cassie and shook her head. "We aren't leaving without you." No, she could not go and leave her best friend in danger, but she had to get these children to safety too. How very conflicted she felt right now!

Her brown eyes glanced towards where Cassie was now looking. The cats, of course. She didn't want them to be left for the spiders either. "Okay, grab the cats and let's go." The shield should hold them off for now, and if not the kids should run.

Any other time she would have laughed at what Kate had just said. Saying she spoke to the mother and all, but this wasn't a laughing matter and the blonde inched closer to her purse as she kept her eyes on the spiders. "Today is not the day you are going to eat anyone." She held her wand towards them. Hearing a thud she turned her head to notice Kate hitting one, "Kate don't anger them." Her sense were on high alert and she wished so many of them would shut up! She needed to get a grip on right now. Her cats, the kids, Nessa, and what they were planning on doing next.

"I'll be fine, like they said they don't want to anger their mother." She reached down slowly and picked up her purse. Hearing Gemini meow she whispered soothing words to him as she pulled the purse over her arm. "I have Gemini, I just need to grab Aries, he's in the corner." She pointed where she could sense him and wished the cat would make it a little easier by coming to her. She'd have to get too close for comfort to get him.

These spiders were intelligent creatures, so she felt she had a way with creatures, maybe talking would help. "I think we could talk this out. We've lived in peace with you for so long." It was more for a distraction as she slowly made her way closer to the corner of the corridor.

Echo did not like what was going on, not one bit. Things were going down that she didn't want to stay and watch but she made a mental note to tell Kate that she thought it was awesome that she hit a spider on the head.

Professor Morgan needed to grab her kitty Aries and Echo was short enough that she thought that she could run over and quickly grab him to get him away fro the spiders. Making a split decision Echo tore away from Professor Glendower and crouched down and scooped up Professor Morgans kitty.

As soon as she grabbed Aries, she ran back really quick and out of breath. Looking down at the poor startled kitty she started to soothe it. "its okay Aries... shhhhhhh...... thats a good kitty" there Echo had done her good deed for the day and hopefully she didn't have to do more. "Professor Morgan, did you want your kitty or may I hold on to Aries?" she quitely asked her while stopping to listen to both of the professors telling the spiders off.

wow, go professors go. "yeah cant we talk this out" she said a little too loudly as she realized that she shouldn't have spoken. *gulp* Echo think next time and let the adults do the talking.

It all happened so fast. One moment Nessa had her eyes on Cassie to make sure she could get her kitties without being attacked herself and the next moment Echo was running off away from her. And it would have been alright if she was running for safety to her dorm or the Great Hall as she suggested, but instead the girl got closer to the acromantulas.

"Echo, no!" she cried out, recasting her shield charm at an angle that would serve them all well. That had been a very brave, yet dangerous move, even if it was sweet of her to want to save the kitty. Once she had Aries in her arms, Nessa looked to both of the students. "Girls, get behind me. We are leaving." And she would step in between them and the spiders to make sure they were safe.

Then she looked to Cassie who already had her kitty bag with Gemini inside. "Let's leave talking for later, we need to get everyone to safety." She'd agree that some sort of negotiations needed done, with kidnappings and attacks and some talk about mother and feasts, but having the responsibility of the young ones on her shoulders was really weighing on her. "Great Hall, everyone.. go!" She expected the young ones to run and she'd be right behind them making sure they were safe with Cassie and the cats too.

Right.

No one had to tell Kate twice. She had absolutely no reason to stay here and wait for any more Acromantula to come around. Plus, if everyone else was leaving, she was going to be right alongside them. No way did she want to find herself ANYWHERE in this castle alone.

With a nod of her head and not another word, Kate turned on her heels and hurried off, en route to the Great Hall.

It was one thing for Cassie to be walking slowing and speaking to the spiders to distract them as she went for Aries in the corner of the corridor, but a student. She couldn't believe her eyes and now she had a hissing scratching cat in her hands. "Echo, as much as I appreciate your help, next time please listen to the professors when they tell you to stay put. I assure you I had all under control." She walked still watching the spiders as she opened her purse and placed Aries into it. He could calm down as they headed out.

Looking back towards the spiders she gave them a small smile trying to stay positive that they wouldn't hurt them. "Thank you for being good listeners to your mother." She heard Nessa speak to the girls and watched as Anna headed out first. "Yes you two lets get to the Great Hall and then we can tell someone about the Greenhouse." Though if the spiders were on the third floor she had a great sense that they were all over and people already knew what was going on.

Keeping her wand out and ready she headed down the steps as the rest of the group headed down.

Echo felt bad now "im sorry" she said quietly to both Professors as she watched Professor Morgan take the kitty and as they stood there, she was instructed to run for the great hall, Kate had already turned tail and ran.

"wait for me" she said as she followed Kate as she ran with her fellow student and she heard some sounds coming from behind her.. more feet running. she hoped that the Professors were coming with her, but she didn't look back. To the great hall she was going.

The itching was still irritating her, but Daisy was trying her best not to scratch, especially now that she had put some of Nurse Murdoch’s anit-itch cream on it. The potion she’d been given to help with the nausea and the headaches had kicked in and with the expectation of the after-taste of the potion and a vomit (and the itching) she felt like she did before she got covered in webs and bit by raining spiders.

She pushed open the doors to the hospital wing, wand in hand and in a hurry to go down to the Great Hall per Nurse Murdoch’s orders. The other girls were still being treated or talked to about their misadventure, but she had been dismissed. The halls were eerily quiet…now she just needed to make it to the Great Hall without taking any wrong turns. Daisy cursed her lack of directional skills wondering if there was a charm or something to help her with that as she headed down the hall.

*Leaning against the wall he waited. He had heard about some girls getting mixed up in some webs and spiders and that one of them was Daisy. He remembered dealing with those buggers in herbology so the moment he found out that Daisy was one of the girls he raced up to the hospital wing. It wasn't until he got there that he wondered why he raced to get there. He didn't have many friends and Daisy and him weren't really friends but he still felt some loyalty to her. Was it because of last year when he was in the wing? He didn't know. Scoffing a little at himself he remembered that both of his parents were Hufflepuffs. That loyalty must come from them. After another good twenty minutes the hospital wing door opened and out strode Daisy. He opened his mouth to say some sarcastic remark but nothing came out.*
"Hey... Heard about the dungeons, you okay?"

Daisy stopped mid-stride upon seeing Noah outside the hospital wing. Why was he here? And more importantly – why was he being nice?! It took her a moment to say something especially because nothing snarky came out of the boy’s mouth. She had expected something like ‘only a dim-wit like you would end up covered in spiderwebs’ or ‘were you too busy pushing someone out of a tree to see the spiders that bit you?’ She wondered briefly if she should drag the boy into the hospital wing for a check up by Nurse Murdoch....

“Why are you here?” she asked, answering his question with a question. It’s not like he had tried to talk to her after their row in the Great Hall at the start of term feast. In fact, he’d seemed to have gone out of his way to avoid her. So she felt like she didn’t owe him any explination. “You shouldn’t be here, we’re all supposed to be in the Great Hall.”

Somewhere deep down, she knew she was being unreasonable and that it wasn’t entirely his fault that they had spent the whole year not talking. What she had said to him at the feast she had meant, whole-heartedly. He was a jerk and he needed to know it. Perhaps there had been a better way for her to say it though. Daisy tended to have a bit of a filter problem. She had said her piece and maybe now it was time to make up.

Bah! Make up!

Daisy wasn’t sorted into Gryffindor because she was a push over No she was rather prideful. He’d hurt her feelings on the train and ruined her favorite jumper and he needed to apologize. But she knew better than to expect that of Noah. Only because of their row, she’d spent most of the term alone – wandering round the castle which was how she ended up in that passage way in the first place. ‘If Noah had been around,’ the small voice in the back of her head said. ‘Maybe you wouldn’t have gotten into this mess in the first place.’

She let out a deep breath. “I’m fine,” she told him. It was her way of conceding. She was tired of being alone. Her left foot rubbed at her right ankle which was still covered in red bumps from the spider webs. Apparently the anti-itch cream hadn’t begun to work down there – yet. She realized what she was doing and put her foot back down on the floor. “We should get to the Great Hall – or Nurse Murdoch is gonna murder us.”

*Her question caught him off guard and he looked at her confused. Why was he here? He had been asking himself the same thing all the way up to the wing and while he waited. The truth was he didn't have a real answer for her. Was because he had been lonely all year without a friend? Even if it was an annoying Gryfinindor. Thankfully he was saved from answering her question.

"I'll walk you down to the great hall then. Best not go alone.
*He was echoing his sisters words when he told her that he was going to the wing. Emma had told him to stop being brave and stupid. She must have thought that he was going to fight the spiders. A large part of him really wanted to but he had to make sure Daisy was okay first.

At the mention of the nurse murdering them he smirked and scoffed a little.*
"Please, Nurse Murdoch is all talk. if she really was all that mean then why did she become a nurse?"

Why was he looking at her like she might sprout horns out of her forehead. It made her rub the area self-consciously, her poofed up hair (curtesy of Hady’s scourgify spell) floated around her head as she scratched her forehead. She had been bitten by spiders, not a minotaur. It didn’t escape her attention that he also hadn’t answered her question.

At Noah’s behest, the two started walking down the hallway, Daisy still with her wand out, although she wasn’t really sure what spell would work against spiders that rained from the ceiling and webs that caused you to break out in hives. At least she’d learned her lesson – don’t touch white sticky stuff.

Ah! But there was the snarky Noah she was used to. The affable version that had waited for her outside the hospital room was a bit unnerving to Daisy. It made her wonder if he had been beamed over the head or bitten by a spider himself. “Because,” Daisy said answering his question about Nurse Murdoch. “She can torture students by making them drink abominable potions and giving them anit-itch cream that doesn’t work…” she stopped to scratch at a spot on her ankle, completely unaware to the fact that most of the area was not itching anymore.