Let's raffle it up: Eagle commune!
 

short and sweet: come grab a ticket
 

Thornton positioned himself right at the doorway to catch students as they came in. After the craziness of the opening feast, so many of the raffle tickets had gone undistributed, and so he was there to pass them out - after having carefully dried them all, as they'd been doused in the rain.

Tonight would be a better night, yes?

It had to be.


ooc: Feel free to say you just grabbed one if you want. I work and might not be around :)

Huff huff huff...

Azura entered the common room and panted a bit as she put a hand on the wall. Merlin! That climb was a doozy! Though thankfully she had only tripped once! She has left dinner and Jasper Early in order to get a head start so she could go slowly up the stairs and not die!

Her purple eyes blinked as she looked around her common room!

What was going on?

She turned to see Prefect Thorton standing right next to the door and she smiled warmly at him. "What's going on?" She asked him curiously as she took a ticket and made her way inside to sit down.

Pfff, two. Ya right Julia; keep dreamin'.
 

Tonight would be a better night, thanks so much for asking, Prefect Thornton's inner dialogue! It could hardly be worse, after having to spend the previous evening picking up soggy, ruined food by hand and putting it on plates because she didn't know any of the clean-up spells the other students were whisking about with. Tonight would, most definitely, be bett...

Omigoodness House Dad was wearing pajamas! Silky, dramatically flowing pajamas, which were so clearly the best kind of pajamas! Julia promptly resolved to go and change into hers, which admittedly weren't silky or dramatically flowing, but still comfortable. Solidarity! Ravenclaw bonding! Her new blouse was itchy!

But first, Prefect Thornton, he of the shielding big brotherliness, was handing out tickets. For something. Didn't matter what, really, and since tickets could be finite but her pajamas were hers alone, she decided she'd best grab a ticket first.

"Yes please!" She chirped up at him, holding out her hand. Maybe if she was extra chipper he'd give her two. For whatever they were for.

School was officially in session and Janelle was glad. Tired, but glad. Finally making it back to the Common Room, she discovered that it was time for fun.......and s'mores. OK, rest could wait for a while.

Janelle saw her new Prefect lurking near the entrance with raffle tickets. "Hi Thornton. Congratulations on becoming Prefect." Unfortunately she hadn't had a chance to say that yesterday because of all the goings on at the feast. "May I have a ticket?", Janelle asked before taking the lucky ticket that the prefect handed her. "Thanks. I know this is a winner."

"Hello Mr. Kitridge", Janelle said, before taking a seat in her favorite chair. It was the perfect spot to people watch. Observing her housemates was always interesting and informative.

Austin loved times like tonight. Every year there were activities that involved his fellow 'Claws. Last year they all made food together. This year, it looked like a s'mores cookout. There was no way he was missing this. Having just come from the Great Hall (which had thankfully been fully cleaned after last night's events) he was ready for some desert. But on his way in he was stopped by Thornton. They haven't spoken much, but they were in the same year, and, thankfully, he remembered his name. "Thornton, hey! Thanks." He happily grabbed a raffle ticket, although what it was used for, he didn't know. The boy placed his ticket in his potions notebook, so it wouldn't get lost, and put it in his messenger bag. Which he promptly placed in an empty chair.

The only people he recognized were Azura and Thornton, but there were new faces sitting around the fire. After roasting his own marshmallow to burnt perfection, he said a nice "Hey there," to Azura. "Mind if I sit here?" He nodded his head to the empty spot next to her.

Abby entered the common room after finishing cleaning the table and chairs after the feast and smiled at Thornton as she grabbed a raffle ticket and took a seat by the fire what a crazy way to open the term

Azura had grabbed a cup of pumpkin juice and had settled into a chair, with empty spots on either side of her.. She was saving one of the spots for Jasper.. but the other..

She turned her purple eyes up to Austin as he spoke to her and she smiled warmly up at him. "Hey Austin! Of Course, feel free to sit down." She said as she patted the chair next to her. She moved her bag over to the other chair, to make sure it would be saved for Jazz..

"How was your first day?" She asked him.

Haddie and anyone else who wants to say hi!
 

For everyone, really ^_^
 

Ailsa, Rachel and everyone.
 

Hi Rachel!
 

Austin happily sat down next to Azura. The marshmallow on his stick had cooled down just enough to pull off and eat. Burnt on the outside and mushy on the inside; just how he liked it. He pulled out another one, and stuck it in the fire, glad to have his favorite treat on hand.

"Honestly, it was pretty good. I haven't met the divination's teacher yet, but I'm liking the potion's master more than I thought I would." The new man was nice, and was helpful when Austin messed up. It was going to take some getting used to, but he could tell it was going to be a great class.

"What about you? Do you have a favorite class yet?"

A smile grew on Austin's face. "Jasper, hey! We were just talking about classes. Do you have one that you enjoy so far?" No everyone 'found their calling', as Austin did with Potions. Sometimes it took a while before anything stuck. Hopefully they found some fun things to do. Many first years have enjoyed their new classes, glad to learn new things. Especially since most of the classes were about magic. The face 11-year-olds made when they entered a classroom on the first day of school was priceless.

When his next marshmallow was as burnt as the last, he pulled it out of the fire and popped it in his mouth. Yum!

Austin and Jazzy
 

Azura smiled and sipped her pumpkin juice as Austin spoke and she perked up a bit as he mentioned potions! "Oh really? You've met him? I still need too." She said with a nod as she looked up at the older boy, she wasn't eating marshmallows! She didn't like them!

She was very content to sip her pumpkin juice!

"Potions." Was her automatic response. She loved them! As did her mother and she was looking forward to those classes!

She heard a familiar voice and she turned to see Jasper coming towards them and he settled in the spot she has saved for him.

"Hey Jazzy, how's it going?" She asked as she waited for his response to Austin! She was curious about the answer too!

Just hand out the tickets, Thornton. It's not the big a deal. You can't really screw it up, ok? His inner monologue was churning away, though there was a smile on his face. "Keep it safe," he said, handing it over.

Having handed her the ticket, he continued to pass them out, while also answering her question.

"Bit of Ravenclaw fun," he said, maybe a little cryptically. "There's snacks and marshmellows for the fine, and whatnot. Make yourself comfy."

Oh! "And keep that ticket safe."

Ah. Haddie. "It's alright," he said, trying to seem friendly. No hard feeling - well, not many, anyway - after the night before. If he got past his upset at the food fight, he would have to admit that her 'loophole' was quite quick thinking. "We won't be starting for a bit, so if you need to, sure. Run up, then come back and get comfy."

Comfy. Hogwarts had made Thornton say words like comfy. Father would not be amused.

Between picking the peas off his shoulder the night before and her enthusiasm today, Julia was going to be a firstie that Thornton kept his eye on.... in a positive way.

He placed just one ticket in her hand, however. A single ticket for each student, that was the rule.

"No worries," Thornton managed as the boy brushed past. He did get his ticket, though!

"Janelle, hi, thank you." He smiled as he handed over the ticket. Yes, this was turning out to be a much better evening. Friendly students, no flying food. Ravenclaw goodies to be distributed shortly.

Exactly what he'd been hoping for.

"No problem." Austin was in his year, though they didn't know each other terribly well. Perhaps that needed to change...

Thornton was distracted, though, as he followed the progression of Austin's ticket. Into a book, into a bag, and onto a chair.

"Don't lose that!"

"Welcome, Abby," he said as she came by. "Make sure you grab some snacks..."

And a ticket for Jasper... This ticket distributing thing was excellent for remembering names. Thornton filed it away as he continued about his duties.

And a ticket here too... Thornton spied the book of poetry as she went by, recognizing it as one he'd read. "The library has quite a bit of poetry," he offered, hoping he was being helpful.

Maybe they could discuss that later.

"Just Thornton is fine," he said, handing over the ticket. No need for titles every time.

Thornton looked around the common room as it filled, mostly with the younger students first. He supposed that made sense... fifth, sixth and seventh years had been doing this opening night thing for many years and many of them would take their time getting upstairs.

He just hoped none of them would kick the younger students off the couches.

Garreth did so love riddles. The invigorating thrill he felt when finally solved a hard one was similar in intensity to the one he felt when he learned a new useless fact or understood a new mathematical concept. It all stemmed from his love of unveiling mysteries. Thoughts, words, concepts and actions, things previously hidden, now uncovered. Few things made him happy the way a good riddle did.

His affinity for them meant that it didn't take him long to figure out the one given to him by the famous knocker. The boy still had hard time believing he was finally there. The Ravenclaw tower, where he belonged. When the knocker was satisfied with his answer and the door swung open to reveal the common room, the bespectacled first year stepped inside.

The one and only Ravenclaw common room. It was still as magnificent as the first time he saw it, the night before.

Oh! And there was Prefect Thornton handing out raffle tickets. With all the commotion at the opening feast, Garreth had, like many of his housemates, been unable to get his hands on a ticket, and h half expected to not be eligible for a prize because of that. Thankfully though, Ravenclaw thinks of everything. "Thank you very much." he smiled politely as he received his ticket and stepped from the entryway into the common room proper.

Rachel, Haddie, and Ailsa were the first familiar faces he spotted, instinctively making his way toward them. Of course, he noticed Mr. Kitridge, but once again, found it difficult to introduce himself, though he wanted to. Garreth admired the man very much, and had a multitude of questions regarding the day to day operation of the world famous Hogwarts library. Not to mention the fact that he was also Head of House, practically the leader, of Ravenclaw house, the object of his biggest aspirations since learning to speak.

So how could he just waltz right up and say hello?

Instead, he approached the aforementioned familiar faces and gave a distracted wave, his mind completely in the clouds. "Hey, you guys." he muttered, straightening his Ravenclaw tie, which thankfully had been spared ruin at the hands of the previous night's food fight.

Look at all of these cute firsties! *squishes* s'eh cute. Post is for anyone really.
 

Scurrying back and forth fixing things Leo heard the sound of feat and chattering children behind him as he made the final preparations. Having been in the library all day had given him less time to get things ready. Lifting the chest up on a stool he turned to the eagles.

Broadly smiling he greeted the first student who had just claimed a chair. "Hi Janelle! It's good to see you again. How was your summer?" Leo had had no time for catching up with any of the students at the feast. He'd correct that today.



Smiling at one of the new first year boys Leo gestured to the ceiling. "Isn't it amazing? I always felt that when I looked up at the ceiling that I was a small part of cosmos. Does it feel like that for you too?"

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm Mr Leobald Kitridge, Ravenclaw's Head of House and you are Alexander Montague, right?" He hoped he had remembered his name correctly from when the boy had been sorted the previous night at the feast.



Turning to beam at the ever inquisitive boy by the name of David Truebridge he responded. "Evening David, It's nice to see you again and congrats to entering your second year here. Professor Morgan misses all of you very much. She told me to tell you to keep happy snapping and to wear lots of pink accessories."

Moving to claim a pink comfy chair Leo continued. "My summer was great. Spent most of it with Professor Morgan. She is one could say my one true BFF. How was your summer David? Played any quidditch?" He doubted that it was wise to let it out that he was engaged to Professor Morgan. It'd spread like juice on the grapevine. Very Fast!



"Good evening Abby," Leo called over to the senior girl. "How did your OWL's go? Did you get the grades you hoped for?" He still remembered how nervous he had been when he had gotten the letter over the summer with his own OWL' grades. He had gotten his sister Rose to open it for him because he had been too scared to. Luckily it was all good news. He hoped it had been the same for Abby.



It was good to see that Thornton was passing out raffle tickets left and right. Shooting the prefect a thumbs up and a smile Leo turned to make sure that chest with the prizes was still locked. He'd get embarrassed if everything there had gotten feet but it had weighed a lot when he had lifted it earlier. No use worrying.



Spotting a blond hovering in a corner Leo beckoned her to come closer with a cheery smile. "Hi there, come closer. I promise none of us bites. We've got many tasty treats to roast over the fire in the fireplace. Do you perhaps like smorés?"

Looking around at the so far assembled student he beamed broadly as he cleared his throat to get a moments attention from them all. "We'll wait a few more minutes to let the stragglers still at dinner join us before I'll open the commune and tell you all about the first ever eagle raffle."

Ooc: As Leo just said. Wait's a bit longer to open the commune to allow for more student users to join us. I'll open it tomorrow morning sometime. Roast treats and chatter in the mean time.;)

Drat. Maybe she should have been a little more bouncy in her approach or something. Still, this just meant that her one ticket was going to be twice as special as all the other ones, right? Wrong. Right.

Enthused by this thought, Julia gave Thornton another smile, informed him "I'm going to put my jammies on", and hurried off.

A few minutes later, Julia reappeared in her not-silky-or-billowing-but-still-resplendent pink and purple Puffskein pajamas. That was the word on today's calendar, resplendent, and she'd already used it with frequency to describe the castle as she traveled through it, getting lost more than a few times and clinging to older students of any house to rescue and redirect her.

There was a big group of her year mates in one part of the room, including but not limited to the feast disruptors who'd somehow not been drafted into cleaning up the hall, but Julia remembered her earlier (internal) rallying cry of house solidarity and instead aimed for the one standing off by herself. In a corner.

"Are you in a time out?"

Did their House Dad give time outs? If he did, maybe she shouldn't be talking to this girl; after all, in Julia's house, if the time out got disrupted it had to start all over. Not fun.

A raffle? Ooh!

Julia held up the ticket in her hand with a new understanding of what it was for. Prizes! Goodies! Yay!

She waved her ticket in potentially-in-time-out girl's face, "You should get one of these from Prefect Thornton! Go go!"

Ryland might have come a little late, even being guided by someone most of the way up. However, now that she had her breath, wasn't perishing of a heart attack and got a little ticket from someone unknown stuffed in the pocket of her robes (she knew where it was and that's all that mattered) she was good. Well not good, because three days before hey departed she took three caramels from her moms purse and her mom was waiting to eat those, but she was good.

It looked like the entire house was in the common room, which made her very excited for some reason and also a bit curious. Did they do this after every feast? Was this like a start of the year thing or was this a one time thing? Were all of these people really in Ravenclaw? It seemed like so many! So many people to meet and say hi to. Okay, now she was super excited. Social interaction was like, her thing, and the fact that she would get to interact with so many people, probably moe than her graduating class back home, made her happy.

Sitting in the first free space she could find, Ryland waited for something, though she wasn't sure what she was waiting for. Food? She was still peckish. A nap? Those stairs were killer. Ehh, she wasn't sure. However, she was going to find it eventually.

Abby smiled at Mr Kitridge and said "My OWLs went pretty well thank you sir, yes i did get the grades i wanted, even though i have decided to try and get into the professional qudditch league when i leave Hogwarts"

he's still asocial but i wanted to play, so... i'm sorry .-.
 

A favourite class?

He wasn't surprised Azura already had one... but him? He wasn't entirely sure yet... "Astronomy is probably my favourite... but all of them seem pretty good. Not sure I even want to try divination though..." his nose scrunched up. Seeing the future? He didn't believe in it. Even if he was at a magic school. And even if that hag could see his future, he didn't want to know.

Life was meant to be a surprise.

Anyways, he immediately went to respond to the other question. "I'm all good, you guys?"

Austin's face lit up as Azura told them her favorite class. "Potion's is an amazing class. You've chosen well." The boy listened as Jasper spoke. "And Astronomy is a great subject. But made even greater by the professor. He really.. um.. get's into his teachings." That was an understatement. Last term, he made everyone call him Admiral. He wasn't complaining, it just seemed like a perfect fit.

"For it being the second day, I'd say I'm doing pretty well. Are you guys settling in okay?" Austin looked up as a young girl sat in the chair behind him. "Hey, Ryland! Want a marshmallow?" Saying this, reminded him that he needed another one. So, he popped one on the stick and put it directly into the fire. The more burnt the better. "So, what do you guys think we're all doing here?" This wasn't a regular thing, that was for sure. But it seemed fun, and they all had raffle tickets, which obviously had to be for the wheel the prefects were setting up. He made a mental note about the fact that his ticket was in his book, in his bag.

Daxton
 

The affected disinterest of the older boy did not escape Lex's attention, who himself preferred to take a more distant, observational role. The particular position of his own armchair was such that he had to turn sideways in his seat to get a good view of Daxton, but once the ideal position was achieved, it was fairly simple to maintain a visual.

Lex wasn't totally sure what it was about this particular student - was it that he was older, and therefore inherently worthy of admiration? Was it that he was comfortably, if distantly, at home in this strange environment, the surface of which Lex knew he'd only scratched? Or was it his preference to read rather than socialize, finding it sufficient to only occasionally steal a glance at the goings-on around him?

The potential similarity to his own mentality was nothing short of intriguing, and Lex became so enthralled by his speculation that it never occurred to him that he was staring, and fairly obviously at that.

Azura smiled as Jazzy spoke about his favorite class, she should have known that! They talked about it on the platform! It felt like that had been so long ago,and yet it had only been a few days! She grinned at him as he spoke of Divination, her purple eyes twinkling just a bit..

"I'm good, thankfully I haven't fallen.. yet. I'm sure it will happen soon." She said with a smile at her best friend. "Find any interesting drawing spots?" She asked him before she turned to Austin.

"Thank you." She noticed the older boys bright blue eyes light up and she smiled. "Do you like potions to Austin?" She asked him curiously as she nodded as he asked if she was settling in all right.

"Yeah, I think I'm doing pretty good." She still had moments of panic that she was going to lose Jasper, and occasional moments of loneliness, but other than that.. she was mostly doing all right.

no quotes, look for mentions (lots)
 

Truth be told, older kids are scary. Jace realized that as soon as he stepped inside the Ravenclaw Common Room. Although it’s already his second night in Hogwarts, he is still a bit overwhelmed with the event that happened before that...and has now become suspicious of any gathering that involved food. Jace could see the refreshments, but before he could make a beeline for it, he was ushered by the crowd towards...an older boy with a badge pinned to his shirt.

Jace’s cheeks flushed as he realized he had been staring at the pin for too long, and bowed at the boy in apology. “One ticket please? Thank you.” He said in a shy tone, and gave the boy another bow before taking a seat.

He wasn’t really excited about the treats really. He just had dinner anyway, so obviously, he was more curious about this...raffle thing. His brown eyes shifted from the ticket in his hand, and to the people around him. Perhaps, a little bit of people watching won’t hurt while he waited, yeah?

Haddie, Azura, Katherine
 

Austin and Azura
 

Jasper listened as Austin was talking about potions and astronomy. Potions definitely seemed to be something that his two friends had a common passion for. One that, while Jasper thought was in fact an interesting subject, he didn't share.

"Yeah... he's the one that fainted during the feast wasn't he?" he asked the older Ravenclaw. While he might be an awesome professor, he seemed kind of dramatic.

Which might actually add to the enthusiasm for his subject in a good way.

Following Austin's lead, he grabbed a stick, toasting himself a marshmallow as well. It seemed like such an odd thing to do in their common room. But hey, Jasper wasn't complaining!

"So far so good then" he responded to Azara. He already knew she was clumsy, especially after she'd fallen on the train. Any good drawing spots? He couldn't help but beam at the girl beside him. "Everywhere!"

Truly this was a perfect place to find inspiration.

Haddie grinned and nodded. "Thanks Penny." To think, if she were born just a day or two earlier she'd be in her 2nd year instead. What if Natalie had also been a witch, and they had been one of those where the first twin was born so close to midnight that the second one is born after midnight? Then Natalie would be a second year while she was a first year... Weird. Her marshmellow was on fire.

Her marshmellow was on fire!

"AHHHHH!!" She blew on it, strongly, four or five times before it went out and looked around sheepishly. "It's okay, it's out." Haddie bit her lip and avoided looking into anyone's eyes. She slipped the roasted marshmellow in the between the graham cracker and block of chocolate of her first smore and took a bite, immediately gasping in pain. "Ow. Ith'th hot!"

****

Deciding that it was high time to start Leo stood up from his chair and went to stand next to the raffle wheel as he beamed out at the assembled students. "Welcome everyone to a new glorious year of education here at Hogwarts school of Withcraft and Wizardry!" Eyes drifting over the faces of the many first year eagles in the room Leo continued "For those of you who don't know me I'm Leobald Kitridge head of Ravenclaw, School Librarian and I also serve as one of two Gobstones advisors. You should all come down and watch and play when the house matches are being held!" Enough advertising.

Gesturing to Thornton, Penelope and TiaMarie in turn Leo spoke on. It was best to keep talking when he had everyone's attention. "This year's student house leaders/prefects and head girl are Thornton Baines, Penelope Wright and TiaMarie Mancini! I expect you all to respect and listen to them and follow their lead. They are my extended arm when I'm not in the common room, so if you have a problem or a conflict you can't sort out please seek one of them out before things get too out of hand." Here Leo paused to let his eyes drift around the many student faces lingering a little longer on Haddie.

Getting excited now his serious tone turning more upbeat and happy he leaned towards the raffle wheel as he spoke. "Now I've bet your all dying to know about the raffle and what you all have won! After we finished in second place in the house point race last year a great team effort I' might add, I wanted to give you all something nice that will give you all the encouragement, drive and motivation you need to make Ravenclaw end this year on top of the house point race in first place."

Giving the raffle wheel a spin he said as he moved to lift up the heavy chest in his arms. "Everyone has won a prize tonight. There are no blank tickets!" Holding up the chest so that everyone got a good look at the treasure Leo said with excitement bubbling in his voice. "In this chest is a large assortment of eagle goodies like, stuffed eagle toys, eagle scarves, caps, gloves, book marks, diaries, quills, novels and even some fun games like exploding snap and a new chess set. Everyone needs to step up here in an ordered line as I open the chest and pick out their prize by sticking their hand into the chest without peeking and drawing something out. Alisa, would you please come up here and get your prize first? Everyone else form a line after Alisa!" He hoped that Thornton, Penelope and Tia would see to it that there was no shoving or evil tricks to get ahead of the line as he unlocked the chest and opened it to look down at the navy cape hiding the chests content.

HAPPENING RIGHT NOW: When the head of house opened the lock to the chest it was the signal to the things waiting inside the chest to start acting. Before anyone could do anything the chest started to shake uncontrollably in the adults hands and make squeaking sounds and then next second a whole horde of furry pugmy puffs, puffskeins and ferretts in multiple colours tumbled out of the chest attacking every student in close proximity with their claws and teeth, one ferret even jumped up to attack the Head of House's nose. Watch out EAGLES! These furry creatures are NOT happy and they our out for BLOOD!


OOC: We are under attack by a horde of furry creatures! :whaa: Try to defend yourself and leash and cage the fur balls without harming them too much. Work together! Do not, I repeat do not go overboard with this and use unnecessarily strong spells, these are all pretty harmless creatures. Have fun! Wrestle a furry creature, have your character get a few scratches from the attack. If you all show house spirit and work together you may just get to keep a furry creature for your character.

Sliiiiiightly changed the order of replies :33
 

As blue eyes scanned the room, they fell on Daxton as well, and Katherine oddly felt... safer. There were PEOPLE she KNEW, so she wasn't a complete stranger. And she also wasn't the only one who didn't want to join others (yet - although maybe it was because Daxton couldn't talk and writing things every single time ought to be tiring). So she wasn't a weirdo. All was well. She waved a little and smiled. Hi, half-friend. But she didn't bother to go next to him, because he was already pulling in a chair for himself. Besides, she liked her corner alone.

Her own Head of House was beckoning her to come closer... with a big smile. Her Head of House, Mr. Kitridge, was AWARE of her existence and even smiled at her. And all this before she even had to to impressive stuff at a class!

Katherine blushed and smiled shyly back.

"Okay," she mumbled. In a moment - once she made sure she would be accepted in that circle of first years who were enjoying themselves.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmbiguouslyMe (Post 11854973) Thornton nodded slightly at the man's thumbs up. He really did need to go talk to him at some point but that moment would come later. For now, he was returning to his position handing out tickets, since it seemed that the Head of House and some others were tending to the student. He did, however, hold up a raffle ticket and wave it a little in her direction. She (Katherine) should make sure to get one.

Prefect person, who had risen quickly to be Katherine's short-term idol, was also waving at her. They ACKNOWLEDGED her, a pretty insignificant first year girl, who'd spent last night under the table.

Ravenclaw really WAS the best!

Yes - she was coming for sure to get her ticket and be merry like everyone else and maybe even exchange a greeting with the Haddie girl (although not more). Yes. Okay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin (Post 11855095) Next she headed over to the corner where one of the firsties (Katherine) was standing. Just standing there in the corner. Not even reading or anything. "Are you okay? There's food over there if you want some, and we're going to start the raffle soon." It couldn't be so bad that she just wanted to stay there in the corner, could it?

And at last, the girl prefect greeted her - and talked to her to make sure she was fine.

Katherine was pretty relaxed and happy now. It was goot to be acknowledged by people of authority, y'know? She quickly nodded at the girl.

"I'm fine, thank you!" she said, "I was just... looking." Observing. But now that the authority figures knew she existed, no one could reject her. So, she would go join them now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashwinder (Post 11854285) ...and instead aimed for the one standing off by herself. In a corner. "Are you in a time out?" Did their House Dad give time outs? If he did, maybe she shouldn't be talking to this girl; after all, in Julia's house, if the time out got disrupted it had to start all over. Not fun.

...but then her eyes fell on another (first year?) girl who had addressed her. Time out?!?!?! Her? EW, NEVER.

"No!" she quickly said, terrified of the idea. She had NEVER had time out, tyvm. And she never intended to. "I'm coming," she said, and did come and join the group in the centre of the room and got her ticket from Thornton.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19 (Post 11854311) Rachel had not failed to notice Janelle, Katherine nor Mr Kitridge. She smiled at them both.

Oh, Rachel! Katherine'd smiled BROADLY at someone since yesterday at last. Rachel was friend - a smart and responsible one. She was safe. Katherine could still talk to her.

But Professor - Mr. - Librarian? she would ask Yoongi for the correct title - Kitridge began his speech, so she listened like it was the most important thing on Earth. Well, it was.

Gobstones, yes, for sure. She would be a player NO DOUBT.

And... the introduction of the prefects were great too. She hadn't had a chance to meet them last night, so she mentally repeated their names till she felt she got them. She would ask them about the school later anyway...

Raffle and gifts, yes please! Katherine listened on, and wasn't actually pleased to hear that they finished only second. They had to be first in everything, and she would see to that from now on as well as she could, yes. But - fun time! And they had ALL won something tonight! She instinctively stood on her tiptoes to take a better look at the chest. Every gift sounded great, but if she had a preference, she would go with a diary, quill or a novel. Hopefully, she would get one of them. She quickly got in line. And the chest was opening now, how exciting!..

Instead of the promised presents however, FURRY ALIVE MOVING STUFF got out of the chest. Before Katherine could comprehend what was happening (though she DID comprehend that they were puffskeins, pygmy puffs and - ferrets?) one purple thing was tugging on her feet to climb. She gasped, shook her hand, but another one was on her other leg and before she knew, it had already climbed up to her tummy and was TICKLING her! She SQUEALED in delight and tried to get it OFF but there were TWO of them HFLŞAKŞ

"HAAAAAAAAAHAHAHEHEHEHAHAHHE!"

One second more of this, and she would curl up in a ball on the floor and be useless about collecting them back in the chest.

As soon as the chest opened, something under Lex's robes began squeaking; within seconds, a pair of small male rats emerged from his collar, looking a bit distressed.

"Hey, hey, what's the matter, guys?" he whispered, taking note of how they nervously clung to him. As the chest began to shake, he reached for his wand, and began wracking his brain to recall any of the charms he'd read about before the term.

When the furry creatures poured from the chest, Lex immediately backed away, knowing the ferrets in particular would mean his rats harm. He raised his wand as one headed straight for him.

"Flipendo!" The simple Knockback Jinx hit his target; the enemy ferret squeaked and retreated under an armchair. However, two more were headed his way. He cast two more jinxes, but only one met its mark; the ferret he'd missed reached his pant leg and began to climb.

It was then that, in a panic, both of his baby rats lept from his shoulders, landing on the floor amidst the chaos.

"Lance, Artie, no!" he cried unable to grab for them due to the ferret on his robes. The two rats split up, scampering away in search of cover.

Haddie
 

Lance, one of Lex's young rats, came scampering in Haddie's direction. Smelling the ferrets on her, he climbed onto her robes and bit one of the assailants on the tail.

Seeing this, Lex immediately rushed over and snatched his rat back up just in time to save the little thing from the ferrets. He thrust his rowan wand forward, repelling each ferret with a point-blank (but harmless!) Knockback Jinx. He reached his hand down to the cowering girl to help her up.

"Are you OK? Did they bite you" he asked. He glanced down at Lance, who was now hiding in his sleeve. "You haven't seen another ratty around, have you? This guy's brother ran off. I'm worried about him..."

making the furries friendlier; creating some nets for the ickles to use
 

The teen remembered last year, and how they almost came in first. It wasn't a great feeling knowing you came so far, only to have lost. He was determined to get them to first this year. When it was his turn, he grabbed a new chess set out of the box. He had played a few times against his dad, but their chess set was old. It was his mom's moms, and no one had taught the boys how to play. So, they were figuring it out together. Austin figured a new set would help things along.

As soon as Austin put the set next to his bag, Mr. Kitridge was unlocking the chest. Many people were panicking, but Austin was as calm as could be. The family had gone out and adopted one over the summer, mainly for his younger sister, but the rest of the family took care of it. Lucy was just happy to have a friend when Austin and his dad were busy with the pub. They weren't so bad. The one at home would even fall asleep as Lucy pulled it's fur into ponytails.

It was strange to see the creatures jump around and bite. Normally they were calm creatures, who would be happy at the site of people. And although Thornton's cheering charm did work, it didn't make any of them sit still. Thinking hard, Austin realized that that's what they needed. For the Puffs to sit still. He pulled his wand out of his leg holster and pointed it at the Puffs that Tornton had just calmed. Each time the tip of his wand found a puff target, he said "Immobulus." He made sure he was calm, so as not to restartled some of the puffs. Also taking extra care not to hit any of the students.

Lex
 

"Vicious little hamster demons!" Haddie yelled at the retreating weasel monsters. She took the offered hand and got to her feet. "Thanks," she nodded. "Yeah. They got me everywhere. Everywhere," she emphasized. "I'm fine as long as they didn't have demonic rabies or something."

Her hand dipped into her pocket and pulled out an indigo ball of puff and sighed in relief. The pygmy puff was fine. She put him back into the safety of her pocket, and then rescued a little yellowish pink one. That puff was also tucked safely into her pocket. She shook her head. "No, but I'll help you find him."

She reached out and scratched the boy's rat on the head with her index finger. "If he's anything like this one, he'll be good to keep close. Will you help me rescue pygmy puffs while we look?" As if on cue another puff wandered by and Haddie gently scooped it up, putting it with the others. "Haddie, by the way."

Sometime this week. Cool! He and Professor Morgan were really close then. Davie nodded serenely. "I loved it. Peru was cool. I saw dragons, and BIG wild bugs, and all kinds of magical creatures that like the Andes, but no Yeti. I hung out with DRAGONS, mostly." His dad knew people who worked with dragons, so it had been an AMAAAAAAAAZING trip! The Quidditch tour though, "It was okay." David shrugged at that question. "I watched a few matches last term, so I'm hoping to help Ravenclaw win this term!" And the House Points race! He was determined to finish in first place for that too.

But, moving on. The girl with the hair was talking to him again, and a small bit of heat seemed to be affecting David's ears. It was lovely to meet him, was it? "Same," the second year blurted out. Real smooth, Davie, real smooth. Uh? "Yeah, my first year was awesome." Pretty hard to top everything he had achieved as a mere first year.

He turned away from the girl--- RACHEL, was it ---- such a pretty name, he should remember it --- and focused on Mr. Kitridge's speech. Davie nodded along here and there and then got up on cue to join the queue. Just as he stood up, though, a horde of pygmy puffs, puffskeins, and ferrets? weasels? Something long and wiggly came bursting out of the box.

"George's left ear!" David exclaimed, catching a puffskein as it came crashing into his chest. He was nearly knocked over by it, but managed to wrap his arms tightly around the furry ball. Silly thing's tongue was out though, and definitely looking for pocket lint or boogers or something to eat. He let out a laugh and then a sneeze as the puffskein's tongue tickled his nose. Dropping the creature because of his sneeze, he wiped his nose on his sleeve and got out his wand.

Time to think like a grown-up, Truebridge. Like... like Thornton, over there, with the quick wand work! Wow, he was brilliant! What could Davie cast... what could he cast... "Arresto momentum!" the second-year cast, remembering one of his spells from last term and pointing it at the various animals running around. "Arresto momentum! Arresto momentum! Arresto momentum!"

>.< sorry
 

After taking her ticket from Prefect Thorton, Sam had skewered a marshmallow or two and had followed fellow firstie Olivia's lead and toasted it over the fire. It was taking her full concentration to just caramelise it and not set it completely on fire.

Which was why when Kitridge started talking, she redrew them from the fire, blew them a couple of times, and stuffed them into her mouth so she resembled something along the lines of a greedy hamster. She listened quietly as everyone was introduced. Thornton she'd met at the feast, and she recognised the other two. That being done, she swallowed the rest of her marshmallows and started to join the queue for the raffle thing.

Except, quite simply, chaos ensued.

Whether it was planned or not, Sam didn't know. What she did know was that a load of fluffy things had suddenly launched themselves across the room. Lucky she'd left her rat upstairs, really, all these people and spells around trying to catch the things. Including a cage thing that emerged over a pile of pygmy puffs right next to her.

"Blimey, guv'nor!" she exclaimed. What a clever idea! Not that she was gonna attempt any such complicated magic on only her second day here. That was sure to only end in disaster in this ruckus. She did have another idea though.

Rat food!

If she could coax a load of the furry things to one area, then maybe one of the older students could trap them in one of those nets. She pulled Oliver's treats out of her pocket, and laid out a small circle of food.

"'ere ickle furry things. Look wut I 'av. Nummy food..."

Abby wasn't sure how she was going to deal with the rats that were coming after her and she had her wand out but didn't know what the spell was that would help her deal with the rats and she knew that she shouldnt be worried but it was still in the back of her mind

You sleep for a single night and come back to 46 posts to reply to!
 

Garreth beamed over at his best friend, just barely beginning to come back into the real world. He'd been so swept up in his own thoughts, he'd been forgetting to even enjoy the evening. "Well, hello, Rachel. I have a feeling you might be right about that." he smirked with an uncharacteristically calm charm. It had obviously been a good day. He would of course, have told her all of that if he hadn't been slightly distracted by Ailsa's rather sudden outburst. Speaking of which...

Ouch. That rather hurt. "Well, I'm sorry for whatever I did to make you not li-" he had begun before she made her attempts to salvage the situation. She seemed to be having a hard time getting the words out. Garreth's rather poor self-image flashed into his mind the idea that perhaps they were talking about him behind his back, saying negative things and he had simply caught them, but he quickly dismissed that thought as utter rubbish. 'You must learn to think better of yourself, the way Rachel does'. Of course, Garreth didn't think any less of the girl, she probably didn't mean it that, way, like the tried to say.

And she thought his glasses were cute. The boy flushed a little, really rather confused as to where that had come from. Maybe she was trying to make up for having practically yelled out loud that she didn't like him. No! Again, he shook away an unfounded negative thought. Maybe she did like his glasses. They were rather fetching, at least in his opinion. "Well, erm.. Thank you." he smiled back.

**********************

Merlin's beard! More chaos! As if the food fight hadn't been enough, now fluffy little monsters were flowing out of the raffle chest! It seemed Garreth just wasn't meant to have a good start to the year. For the first few confusing moments of the critter attack, the first year simply stood still, frozen in a mixture of confusion and disbelief. He only snapped back to reality when he was startled by a pygmy puff rather viciously leaping at his nose. Instinctively, he swatted the fluffball to the side, where it harmlessly hit the floor and focused its efforts on finding another, less prepared nose to attack. Garreth made a valiant effort to catch the beast as it hopped across the table in front of where it landed, but only managed to hit his knee on the couch. He let out a very well audible "Ouch!", before giving up on the puff, deciding a better strategy would be to find some friends and stick close by them.

That's when he heard Rachel call out, and saw her being terrorized by yet another pygmy puff. Was it the same one? Whatever the case, it had to be stopped. It was too quick to catch, but even with the first year's very limited repertoire of spells, he did know one that would help. The boy quickly produced his wand, and with a quick flick, and a confident "Flipendo!" the puff was pushed back. The first year's lack of experience produced a rather pathetic knockback jinx, but it was effective enough to make the very light critter fly back and straight into an empty vase by the far wall. "Get it before it comes back!" he rushed to Rachel's side, pointing at the vase.

lol. Hi Garreth!
 

The night looked promising, really. Jace grinned at the older male prefect again, and waved his tiny ticket around for him to see. Was he going to join them, or not? Not far from him was Rachel. Jace gave back an enthusiastic wave at her, and then diverted his attention back to Mr. Kitridge—their Head of House, as the man spoke.

Jace nodded his head as the man continued to speak, and would glance at the chest, imagining all the good Ravenclaw stuff inside it. It would be grand if he could win a book...or a chess set! The Ravenclaw wiggled on his seat, and craned his neck to get a better view of the chest.

...

Oh no. It’s not supposed to move, yes? Because the contents—as mentioned by Mr. Kitridge, were non-beings, so why...why is it moving?

Seriously, this school is MAD. But at least, there was no sort of violence involved from students this time. Jace was quick, thanks to his Kendo training and was already trying to ward off a poffle with his arms and legs. Soon enough, he realized how difficult it is to be a first year, not knowing how to make use of his wand and spells. It would be very convenient if he can now, but seeing it’s just the second day of school...

Jace ducked as older and taller students rushed around the room to catch the creatures. As he got back up, he felt a gust of light breeze pass his left ear as a pygmy puff ricocheted back and dunk itself inside a vase. Jace looked at the boy (Garreth) who did it, and gave him a smile. HE. WAS. BRILLIANT! The eleven year old rushed to empty the basket of carrots, and went back to the boy. “Do it again! I’ll catch your target, let’s go!” he said enthusiastically, and waited for him to throw the ball creature.

Azura
 

Oh she couldn't EVEN right now!

She had expected a nice quiet night by the fire and now!!! Everything was everywhere and things were biting her!

"Eeeeeekkk!" She shrieked as things came over her! Biting and attacking her! The little girl tried to stand up and get her wand out but the confusion was just too much for her accident prone little self!

BAM! She fell over, smashing her face on the side of her chair and she groaned as she slithered to the floor..

Owwww!

Groaning the little purple eyes Ravenclaw looked up.. None of her healing spells would work on this!

And perfect!

Her nose was bleeding!

She get Jazz's hand grab her and she winced as he pulled her to the side to watch the chaos.. She whimpered a little as she looked up at him.. "Thanks" She whispered to him.

Jasper
 

Azura looked up at Jasper as he asked if she was all right! Quite frankly she wasn't anywhere close to all right! Not only was she being attacked by.: whatever was attacking them, but now she had just made a fool of herself in front of Jazz and her entire house!

And she didn't know any spells that would have helped out!

She bit her lip and shook her head.. "Not really." She whispered as she looked at him!

Did she want him to take her to the hospital wing? She winced and hissed softy in pain as she tried to clean the blood off her nose.

"Maybe.." She whispered as she tried to keep the tears from her eyes.

Thanks for the cages Thornton and Tia! Hi Rachel and Davie!
 

Puffskein pajamas + Puffskein status + Puffskein attack = Illuminati confirmed.
 

Well, what was she doing standing in a corner then? Julia huffed a little, but at least the look on the girl’s face seemed to suggest, maybe, that she wasn’t a food-throwing hooligan like some of their roommates.

Text Cut: Speech!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nordic Witch (Post 11855153) Deciding that it was high time to start Leo stood up from his chair and went to stand next to the raffle wheel as he beamed out at the assembled students. "Welcome everyone to a new glorious year of education here at Hogwarts school of Withcraft and Wizardry!" Eyes drifting over the faces of the many first year eagles in the room Leo continued "For those of you who don't know me I'm Leobald Kitridge head of Ravenclaw, School Librarian and I also serve as one of two Gobstones advisors. You should all come down and watch and play when the house matches are being held!" Enough advertising. Gesturing to Thornton, Penelope and TiaMarie in turn Leo spoke on. It was best to keep talking when he had everyone's attention. "This year's student house leaders/prefects and head girl are Thornton Baines, Penelope Wright and TiaMarie Mancini! I expect you all to respect and listen to them and follow their lead. They are my extended arm when I'm not in the common room, so if you have a problem or a conflict you can't sort out please seek one of them out before things get too out of hand." Here Leo paused to let his eyes drift around the many student faces lingering a little longer on Haddie. Getting excited now his serious tone turning more upbeat and happy he leaned towards the raffle wheel as he spoke. "Now I've bet your all dying to know about the raffle and what you all have won! After we finished in second place in the house point race last year a great team effort I' might add, I wanted to give you all something nice that will give you all the encouragement, drive and motivation you need to make Ravenclaw end this year on top of the house point race in first place." Giving the raffle wheel a spin he said as he moved to lift up the heavy chest in his arms. "Everyone has won a prize tonight. There are no blank tickets!" Holding up the chest so that everyone got a good look at the treasure Leo said with excitement bubbling in his voice. "In this chest is a large assortment of eagle goodies like, stuffed eagle toys, eagle scarves, caps, gloves, book marks, diaries, quills, novels and even some fun games like exploding snap and a new chess set. Everyone needs to step up here in an ordered line as I open the chest and pick out their prize by sticking their hand into the chest without peeking and drawing something out. Alisa, would you please come up here and get your prize first? Everyone else form a line after Alisa!" He hoped that Thornton, Penelope and Tia would see to it that there was no shoving or evil tricks to get ahead of the line as he unlocked the chest and opened it to look down at the navy cape hiding the chests content.

They all won a prize? Just for being in Ravenclaw? Julia wiggled closer to the box, eager to see what exactly was in…

AMIGAHD, WHAT?!

Julia backpedalled from the explosion of fur from the chest, for a moment not seeing anything but fluffy coloured things. Three of the big, pompom-shaped ones (puffskeins) came flying towards her, one pink, one purple, one blue, and she let forth a profoundly embarrassing squeal before tripping over her own feet and landing flat on her back.

There were pompoms attacking her! If a fish had arms and legs and was flopping about out of water, Julia would currently resemble it remarkably well. Then one of them bit her! On the ear!

…and very shortly after that, she sat up with a frown. This… this did not hurt. Not really. It was sort of like… sort of a gummy, squishy pinch. On her ear. And the other two pompoms were trying to nom on her fingers, and that also didn’t really hurt. It wasn’t pleasant, but…

Orange!ferret!from!nowhere!

”Nyaaaa!” Julia toppled over again, her attempts at swinging puffskein-covered hands to protect herself completely useless as the ferret launched itself at her face. This one did hurt, scrabbling its little claws at her like that, and she attempted to cover her face with the still-chewing puffskeins, squealing, ”Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow!”



”Ow, ow…! Ow…? Huh?” Julia peeked up at the ferret through the pink and purple puffskein furr; it was now, for whatever reason, nuzzling her cheek. ”…what.”

Even the puffskeins seemed to lose interest in gumming her fingers, and were just sitting to either side of her head instead—one of them on the third, which was still adamantly nomming away on her earlobe. She reached up and pulled it off her, at which pointed it hummed a little.

”…what.”

And then the other two puffskeins stuck their tongues up her nose.

”Agabflabagafa!”

We just have to react to this! XD
 

He was still waiting for the boy to throw him a creature, when a girl, probably about his age looked awfully clueless at first...until the fuzzy balls attacked her nose.

O_O

Awgh, Merlin that is just...awful! Although the girl will have a thoroughly cleaned...nose and all.

Jace had dropped the container he was holding, and was now covering his mouth and nose with both of his hands.

Should he go help? Does she want him to pull out those creatures?

Merlin...this is madness!

"Pygmy... puffs?" Lex looked around as a couple of pygmies were encapsulated in a net. "Well, better we scoop them up than let them get squashed, eh? Let's look for the ones that don't get caught in the nets." He smiled as Haddie scritched Lance's head. "This is Lance. His brother's Artie."

He looked around, picking up a pygmy puff as it hurried by, while also shooing away a strangely pacified-looking ferret. "I'm just worried about a ferret eating Artie... " He looked back up at Haddie and blushed. "Oh, and I'm, uh, Lex." He looked down sheepishly. "Let's go find Artie. And more, uh, pygmy things."

Lex and Katherine
 

"Lex and Lance." she said the name like she was testing it out and nodded. Then petted Lance on the head again. "Thank you, Lance. You are very brave." Haddie looked back up at Lex, "Don't worry. Finding Artie is our first priority. We'll just collect any pygmy puffs in our path along the way... like those."

She was looking over Lex's shoulder now, at a girl (Katherine) writhing with two pygmy puffs on her stomach. She didn't seem like she was in pain, more like... tickle torture? But still. "Come on." Haddie didn't wait to make sure if Lex was following, and marched over to the girl, scooping the purple pygmy puffs off her, rescuing both the puffs and the girl. Her first pocket was full, so she put them in the other pocket and turned to Lex. "Not sure I'll be able to carry many more," she told him, shrugged and turned back to the girl and offered her a hand to help her up, like Lex had done for her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Need medical assistance? I'm Haddie, that's Lex. We're looking for his rat, Artie before a ferret gets it. Wanna help?"

Azura & Mr Kitridge
 

Seeing her try to clean the blood up, he quickly searched his pockets until he found a small travel pack of tissues, practically shoving them into her hands.

"It's fine, it'll all be alright," he tried to comfort her before looking around at the continued chaos. Best case scenario, he could try to get her out of the common room without a problem and without setting those things loose on the rest of the school. Worst case scenario, she'd break some more bones, he'd do the same and they'd end up causing an infestation of animals in Hogwarts.

"I'll grab our head of house..." if he managed to find him. Jasper began scanning the room to catch sight of the professor. "Then we'll see if he can help you and if not I'll take you to the hospital wing, alright?"

He tried to keep his voice even and confident as he spoke. That'd probably help her calm down.

"Just wait here."

He hoped Azura would listen as he ran off to grab the aforementioned professor. Another ferret had leapt onto him as he went straight back for the chaos in order to get his friend help. As it bit him he glared at the white ferret, grabbing it in his own hands. It moved to bite him again, but he ignored it.

At least this one couldn't scratch him.

Finally. Mr Kitridge was right in front of him. Also being attacked by the furry creatures he'd just let lose. Somehow Jasper thought it was karma. Not that he'd ever say that.

"Uh... sir? I think my friends got a broken nose... or something," wasn't exactly very wordy, but it got the point across.

Help would be very much appreciated.

Hello Jace! Also, Julia!
 

Garreth hadn't intended to invent a puff-catching strategy when he came to Rachel's rescue, but another first year seemed to see the value in his tactic. The boy rather enthusiastically called out to him to repeat the feat and cast the critters into his basket. As good a plan as that was, Garreth wasn't sure he'd be able to replicate the success of the first panicked attempt, but it wasn't as if he had any better ideas of his own.

Giving the other boy a quick nod, he rushed to find another critter. While he tried to move quickly and maneuver himself in such a way that another puffskein found itself between him and Jace, he wasn't so quick that Jace didn't have time for his attention to drift. Tracing the other boy's gaze, Garreth also found himself horrified by what was happening to the girl (Julia) with the monsters' tongue up her nose. He shot a glance back at the beast on the floor between him and Jace, and decided in a flash he wasn't going to let let monster do that to anyone else. Best to take care of that before rushing to the girl's aid.

"Heads up!" he called to the other boy whose name he didn't know, hoping he'd be quick enough to catch the beast in the basket. Another "Flipendo!", and a flick of the wand produced another knockback jinx - this time of a respectable strength - that launched the puffskein towards the other boy.

There was no time to see if he managed to catch the little demon, he had to help the girl being violated by the puffskeins! He rushed over and without really knowing what he was doing, tried to yank one of them of her face. Garreth had read about puffskeins, and their undying hunger for boogers, but in none of his books did anyone say what to do when under siege by one. In fact, they all said they preferred to eat the boogers of sleeping wizards, not ones who were awake and fighting back.

All of you.
 

Leo's first conscious thought when all the chaos broke lose was THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAAAPPEN! Gahh! Before he could reassure the eagles of that however something furry attacked his nose causing pain to immediately shot up it. Ferrets had a nasty bite Leo managed to think before Ailsa too his great relief and gratitude lifted the ferret away from off his face. Flashing the girl a big appreciative smile he said "Thanks Ailsa. I think if the ferret had held on any longer it'd have sparked blood." Rubbing his still hurting nose Leo pulled out his wand out expertly. "I'll start conjuring up cages and leashes." Because they needed them like NOW. It was the only way to stop the furry creatures attack.

"Immobulus!" Leo cast at a green pygmy puff that was climbing up his left robe leg with his claws extended for a scratch. Over the commotion he shouted to his eagles as he surveyed the chaos. "Keep working together! Help each other fend the creatures off and then leash them and put them in cages. If we'll do that we'll soon have restored order!" Or that was at least Leo's hope as he lifted off a white ferret that trying to bite through his robes to get to the skin of his right arm underneath.



Thank heavens for Thornton on Tia. They were keeping their heads cool and thinking on their feet. Seeing what they were doing Leo shouted over the loud voices to compliment his prefects. "Good thinking Thornton and TiaMarie! We need more cages so keep the spells coming in a steady pace!"

Addressing all the eagles Leo gestured to the cages that were just forming on the floor. "Everyone, place the furry creatures in the cages when you manage to catch one! When we have all of them caged I'll send a message to Professor Draper. We can't house all these balls of cute fur even if we want to." The common room was sadly not big enough and most of the students already had their own pets to care for so many might not even want a second pet. Plus if memory served Leo then you needed special permission to have a pet ferret at school. But something to lay thoughts on later, not now when it was still chaos pretty much.



Leo was about to focus his attention on conjuring up more cages when Jasper approached asking for help for his friend who had broken his/her nose. "I'll come right away Jasper, lead me to your friend." He was by no means as skilled as Cece but he was certain that he could mend a nose if it indeed was broken.

As they joined Azura he saw immediately that her nose was bleeding. "How did you break your nose Azura? Have you broken it before? Do you want me to mend it with a spell?" Pulling it out his wand Leo was ready to mend Azura's nose if the girl gave him permission. If it wasn't the first time she had broken it then he'd advice her to go see Cece.



It was hard not to hear the sounds coming from Julia. Gripping his wand Leo called over "Julia, are you all right?" as he mumbled firmly "Wingadium Leviosa!" and lifted the puffskeins off Julia's face and into the air. They hung there for a few moments before Leo moved them over to one of the waiting cages.

Katherine was lucky, because one of the cheering up spells that her new idol Prefect Thornton used hit the pygmy puffs that were attacking her. Still she was uselessly laying on the floor. She hated furry things, because she was awfully ticklish and the little moving motion drove her mad. All she could do was covering her nose and face, because she heard someone yelling that these animals were after their boogies. Ew. It was a total chaos, and she hoped (through her maniac laughter) that someone would notice her soon…

No, not THAT someone! Katherine was eternally grateful – or she would have been had someone else come to her rescue, but this girl was a complete troublemaker who defied authority. Katherine didn’t want to be associated with her – but they might as well be dorm buddies. Katherine wouldn’t know as she slept right away last night to avoid human contact after the trauma. Besides, she was too much of a giggle puddle to really regard the girl coldly.

“Thank you,” she breathed and giggled one last time, “I’m fine. I don’t need anything.” Though, she did take her hand. She was the bigger and better person here. She just had to remind herself not to be over-friendly with this girl. Did she want to help with finding a rat? No, she didn’t think so. But she also didn’t want to look rude, because a lady was NEVER rude, even towards her enemies.

“Why don’t you ask Mr. Kitridge? He can safely accio it.” Clever thinking, right?

And… she forgot to tell her name back, because Haddie had asked too many questions and she really did forget. She looked around briefly – the chaos seemed to have ended. Hopefully. Because she didn’t know any of those cool spells people performed, and she didn’t want to be completely useless.

Jazzy and Mr.Kitridge!
 

Azura's hands were now covered in blood as she tried to stop her nose from bleeding and she gratefully took the tissues that Jazz handed her! She gingerly put one up to her nose and nearly whimpered in pain as even that movement hurt!!

Tears burst into her eyes and she looked over at Jazz and nodded.'All right.. I'm sorry." She whimpered out as she looked at her friend. She hoped it was going to be all right! She felt terrible!!

Chaos had broken out and instead of helping... she had just added to it!!

She nodded again, wincing as Jasper spoke.."Please be careful." She said as she stood there.. There was no way she was going to move! She leaned against the wall and watched as her friend braved the biting animals to get the head of house for her..

Though as Mr.Kitridge came closer.. she felt like she was going to cry again!!

She whimpered softly as he came and spoke to her and her purple eyes were indeed misting up! She almost reached out a hand for Jasper!! But instead she clasped them in front of her as she attempted to answer her head of house..

"I'm sorry Sir.." She started out.. her voice a bit thick with tears and the tissue.. Which she removed.. "I was trying to get away from everything, when I stood up and fell and bashed my face into the side of the chair." She explained. Wow.. she sounded lame! Was she going to lose points for this??

She gave a slow nod if he asked if she had broken it before.."Yes sir, I have.. a few times." In the past three days, but she wasn't going to say that!!!

"If you could please Sir? I know the spell, but I can't do it on myself yet." She bit her lip a little.. Her mom WAS a healer!

She stood there, trying not to cry and she looked over at Jazzy and threw him an anxious look.

Hadley glanced between her new shy friend and new friend Lex, uncertain. She shrugged and shook her head, to indicate she didn't know what that was. "Would that work?" she asked Lex. She didn't know the spell, or how safe it would be for the rat. But Kitridge would know if it worked and was safe for it. "Do you want to try that?"

Besides she needed to deliver the pygmy puffs in her pocket. As much as she wanted to keep all of them -she had a plan- she didn't want to get into trouble again. "Worth a try, at least? We have to drop off the pygmy puffs, even though I don't want to. But I've been in enough trouble with Kitridge for the last two days. Come on."

Haddie lead the way to Kitridge, making sure, this time, the others were following. Especially her new friend, least she get tickled by more puffs. She put the pygmy puffs, all 5 of them, into the cage with an exaggerated disappointed sigh, and then smirked her mischievous smirk. "That was fun," she muttered, just loud enough for Kitridge to hear. It was their thing now.

Then she turned to him properly. "Mr. Kitridge, we're trying to find Lex's rat, Artie, and..." she turned and looked at the girl, realizing she didn't know her name. "Um, she," Haddie gestured to the girl, "suggested we ask you if you can uh, accio? him safely? Sorry," she turned back to the girl, "I don't know your name."

"Sorry, Mr Kitridge could do what?" Having overheard as he approached the two girls (Haddie and Katherine), Lex found himself confused as he didn't recognize that strange word; "ack-ee-oh"? "Artie's my pet rat, and Haddie is helping me find it. I don't want a ferret to..." He shook his head, looking around the room.

"He seemed scared, so he must be hiding. We must find him." Lance crawled up and peered out of Lex's collar. "Oh, hey mate. Don't worry, we'll find your brother..." He gave Lance's tiny head a pat, but looked down to the bottom of a nearby sofa.

"Artie!?" Lex knelt down and reached under the couch, and pulled his hand back up to reveal a scarlet pygmy puff. "Oh, it's just another pygmy puff." He placed the small thing in his robe pocket with the others he'd found.



Lex placed the pygmy puffs he'd found in the cage with Haddie's before approaching her and Mr. Kitridge. "Please, anything we can do to find him safely, sir." He began to worry - what if one of those ferrets found Artie before he did? Ferrets and rats didn't play well together, and Artie was sure to be terrified...

Garreth and Julia! Yanking off the other puffskein now. XD
 

Jace could feel his eye do a series of twitching as he watched the puffskeins attack the poor girl’s nose. They sure look hungry, by the way. And Merlin...how much booger does that girl even have??? The eleven year old slowly lowered his hands and continued to gape at his fellow Ravenclaw and just stood there, too perplexed to function.

The sight was highly amusing, and at the same time very educational. Jace didn’t want to miss it out!

Of course, he got distracted when the boy had called his attention. The pygmy puff already flew away from his fellow first year, when Jace was just about to pick up the crate. The fluffy ball of creature crashed against his face, and Jace had to swat it again away from his person. Merlin’s beard! Jace was quick to pick up the humming creature though, and placed it inside his crate. One down, and a hundred more to go?

The Ravenclaw picked up his collection, and moved towards the same boy who was now...yanking one of the puffskeins off from the girls face. Jace made a horrified face, and quickly rushed towards the girl. The eleven year old followed suit and tried to get the other puffskein off her.

Yanking it off now, yes... "Keep still!"

You can't get away from us girls that easily Davie! :P
 

"The polecats aren't going to trust you if you keep refusing to pick them up," Ailsa informed the boy who'd been going all red around Rachel earlier as she walked by with another robefull of the ferrets in her arms. "You can tell they're unsure about you because of their squeaking."

She emptied her bathrobe into a waiting cage save for one occupant, which she cradled in one arm while walking back over to the bespectacled puffskein collector. "If you're calm and gentle they're really quite nice," she told the boy as she stroked the little mustelid, which now seemed quite content, "you just have to remember that they startle easily."

you caught him! :D
 

Persistence. It's Ailsa's watchword.
 

Ailsa looked quizzically at the boy as he backed away and studied him. "You're going to hurt your little puff friend if you squeeze him too tightly you know." It wasn't an admonition or even judgment; just a matter-of-fact observation.

"More like salamanders with fur," she mused aloud, "because of the feet you know." Another moment's thought and she looked up at him, "And just what's wrong with snakes anyway?" There was a slight challenge in her voice and a firm look in her eyes until it broke with a giggle over his comment about boogers.

"They're puffs and pygmy puffs," she pointed out with an amused smile before continuing, "they like everyone's boogers."

With a little bit of shifting to keep the ferret happy she stuck out a hand, failing to notice its cuts and scratches from the chaos before Thornton had managed to calm the animals down. "I'm Ailsa. I'll help you by picking up these polecats if you'll teach me that 'arresto momentum' thing you did."

She'd help him anyway, because that was who she was, but it was silly not to at least try to get him to help her with that new spell. Besides, he seemed interesting.

"Thank you sir," he had told the professor before manoeuvring his way back over to Azura.

This time seemed easier than the last.

Seeing the anxious look as she spoke to the professor didn't make Jasper feel all too good though. Shooting her a sympathetic smile he shuffled a bit closer, to be able to quietly and calmly say something to her. "Don't worry Azura, it's not your fault and it could be a lot worse."

He almost added in that he was fine and not injured despite traipsing through the chaos for her, because Jasper knew that she felt bad about that. He had seen that she didn't particularly want to put him through that.

But it was over again.

For now.

But where had that ferret he had grabbed gotten to now??

"Don't mention it Jasper. I'm here to assist all eagles in any way that I can." Leo answered with a big smile to the boy. He'd fix up his friend in no time. Turning his attention to Azura whose nose was clearly hurting he aimed his wand at her nose and said firmly "Episkey!" waiting for the spell to take affect Leo asked concern and warmth etching his tone. "Does it feel better now?"

Hearing of Azura's recent history of breaking her nose before he advised. "When you have a moment in between classes someday soon I think you should go see Healer Tillstorm and let her examine your nose, Azura isn't it? It's probably nothing wrong with it, but breaking it more than once isn't good." Even if it could always be fixed with a dose of magic.



Leo was putting up some more cages and was filling them with the ferrets and puffskeins he managed to snatch up before they attacked his legs or jumped for a higher perch to attack from. He had just deposited an orange pygmy puff into one of the cages when Haddie approached in company with another first year boy who Leo recognized from the sorting the previous day that was named Alexander.

Listening to the duo Leo nodded reassuringly to the boy more than Haddie. "Sure I can help accio Artie the rat for you." All though it had been better if Alexander had done it who had a connection the rat. Giving his wand a flick he said "Accio Artie the rat!" moments later a wriggling rat was trying to get out of Leo's hand. Passing the rat towards Lex he said "Here you are! Artie will hopefully calm down as the last ferrets are caged."

HAPPENING NOW: The horde of furry creatures that seemed like an angry attack of hundreds has now with the eagles great teamwork and untiring efforts caged most of them up and now only a handful of pygmy puffs, puffskeins and ferrets remain scurrying around the common room floor. Get those last caged balls of fur caged and order will be restored.



Immobilizing the last handful of furry creatures with a few well aimed spell's Leo scooped them up and caged them. He allowed himself a sigh of relief before he flashed a glance over at Penelope. "You should be allowed to keep the pygmy puffs yes, but we'd have to consult Professor Draper about the puffskeins and ferrets if anyone would keep one of them."

Wiping away some sweat he sent off a patronus message to Professor Draper that they need his assistance in the Ravenclaw Common Room. With that done Leo beamed broadly at his house of eagles "Well done everyone! Great team work! We've managed to cage all the furry creatures. Does anyone have injuries, cuts or scratches that need to be looked at and healed? Is anyone interested in keeping a pygmy puff, puffskein or ferret?" He assumed that Professor Draper would ask the same question, when he eventually got there.

Leo paused to move over to the centre fireplace where he gestured to the food and treats at the sound of his stomach growling. "Eveyone is still welcome to roast fruits, vegetables and the other available food and have some juice and just relax for a bit in front of the fireplace. I don't know about you all but all this spell casting has made me hungry plus don't you all all still want to get your raffle prizes?" Grabbing an apple on a stick Leo started to roast it over the fireplace fire.

OOC: Well done everyone! All the furry creatures are now caged!:woot: Professor Draper (ArianaBlack) will join us shortly to relieve us of the caged creatures. If your character wants to keep a pygmy puff, puffskein or a ferret for themselves then make it known in your posts that you do.:) We'll now roast some marshmallows and hang out together and your characters can also pick up their raffle prize from the chest.

Abby was glad that all the furry creatures were now captured again but looking at the ferret in one of the cages she thought that she wouldn't have minded to keep one for herself because she liked ferrets and would be able to look after one and she took a stick and put a marshmallow on it and roasted it over the fire, Abby said to Mr Kitridge "Sir i would not mind keeping a ferret for myself sir as i have always liked one"

"Artie!" Lex held out his hands, cupping them to allow the little rat to crawl in; Artie seemed to relax a little at Lex's familiar scent.

Lance scurried down Lex's arm, sniffing and pawing at his brother, and then began cleaning him. Artie closed his eyes and began making a contended bruxing sound.

"Thank you, sir," Lex said to his rat's rescuer. "They both seem to be alright..." He sighed with relief before going and sitting again his armchair, letting his ratties climb and explore his robes.

Lex, Katherine and Kitridge
 

Azura bit her lip a bit as her Head of house used the episkey spell on her and almost instantly.. She could feel relief move through her nose! The aching stop and her eyes stopped watering.. She wiggled it around a little before letting out a happy sigh. "It feels much better, thank you so much Mr.Kitridge." She said with a warm smile as she blinked her purple eyes up at him.

She nodded as he spoke about going to see the Healer, she was planning on doing that anyways! "I will do that, and yes.. my name is Azura." She said with another warm smile as she looked up at Jasper! She wanted to hug the boy again! But now probably wasn't the best time to do that!

For now she just shot him a grateful smile and one hand reached over to tug on his robes just a bit. "Thank you.." She whispered to him as she looked over at her friend.. She couldn't believe what he had just done for her..

Azura, Jasper, and Mr. Kitridge
 

As the commotion died down, Austin put his wand away. Thankfully there were now cages for them to rest in. Looking around for his friends, he realized that two of them were off in a corner with Mr. Kitridge. Picking up a bright blue pygmy puff that was circling his feet, he walked over to them.

"Hey, Azura, are you alright? If you need someone to take you to the Hospital Wing, I know the way." He was sure she'd rather Jasper take her, seeings as they were best friends. But Austin wasn't sure if he knew the way to the Wing, and it would probably be better if an older student took her anyways. Hopefully she wasn't too badly injured.

He realized, at this moment, that he was petting the pygmy puff, and it had fallen asleep in his arms. It was a cute little guy, who had fur as blue as a clear day's sky. "Hey Mr. Kitridge," He figured if he wanted to keep it, now would be the time to ask. "Am I allowed to keep the little guy?" It would be awesome to have his own puff. Three pets would be hard to take care of, but he really could do it. One of them was a rock after all, and it was fairly easy to keep track of. Plus, his little sister's puff would have a friend.

Sorry for the short reply :(
 

Frustratingly, Garreth was having no luck at all getting the puffskein to release its deathgrip on the girl (Julia), and was greatly relieved when Mr. Kitridge came to her aid. He would have more success for sure! It looked like most of the creatures had been captured, and things were starting to calm down again. Maybe the rest of the year could be a nice, normal school year at Hogwarts? Somehow, Garreth had his doubts. Eh, maybe the most important thing for now was to focus on the problem at hand. There was still the matter of that one Pygmy Puff that ended up in the vase by the far wall! Pocketing his wand again, Garreth hurried, eager to impress Mr. Kitridge, and stuck his arm into the vase, attempting to fish out the puff. Once he'd gotten a firm hold of it, he stepped quickly across the common room towards the head of house and presented the final puff. "I think that's all of them, sir."

Suddenly remembering the puff he'd launched toward Jace, he shot a glance over towards the other boy and down at his puff crate. "You got it, right?" he asked, bending forward to try to spot the squirming critters. This kid was pretty quick and obviously very capable of thinking on his feet. There were few things in the world that Garreth respected more than a sharp mind.

"You were pretty good back there." he smiled at Jace and extended a hand towards him. "I'm Garreth." he introduced himself warmly. He'd been doing a lot of that lately, and was getting better at it. At least, he thought so.

Jace fell unceremoniously on his backside as the last puffskein was removed magically by Mr. Kitridge from the girl’s face. What was that about, really? It looked like they will all have to remain vigilant for the rest of the school term, seeing that unexpected events kept on happening. It was just their second night, and this already happened.

Turning his attention to the boy he helped earlier, Jace looked up and gave him a grin. “Yes I did. Look it’s sleeping now.” He said pointing to the crate, and in it was a pofle, huddled closely together. Merlin, hopefully they’re not scheming another attack.

Oh, and introductions! “Hello, Garreth. I’m Jace.” He said bowing his head to him. “And thank you, for helping me. You did very well with your spellwork.” The half-Japanese said. “Would you like to keep one?” he asked the boy as he held up the crate and showed it to his new friend. His cat could use some company, really.

Rachel & Garreth want to co-own a pygmy puff ^_^
 

One way or another, the puffskeins and the ferret were removed from her person, and Julia sneezed multiple times at the feeling of abnormally clean nostrils. It felt like one of them had gone so deep probing for boogers—of which she had very few, thank you very much JACE—that its tongue had poked down into her throat. Erlack!

But they were gone now, and after a few more sneezes and furious rubs of her nose—whether to get rid of the feeling or to stop potential crying, she wasn’t going to tell—she answered, ”I’m okay.”

…

And then she just stared at House Dad. Why would anyone want to keep one of these little monstrosities?! Now that she knew what they were like, she almost felt tempted to burn her pajamas depicting them. Or at least never wear them again.

…or just pretend she didn’t know she had puffskeins on her pajamas because they were quite comfortable… but then, if the creatures were their prizes, and she did have a ticket, would it not be rude to refuse to…

Oh thank Merlin! They got different prizes! Julia gave her nose a last wipe, gave the boys who'd rescued her a mumbled "Thank you" and shuffled closer to their House Dad. Yes she did want her prize still. And food sounded lovely too.

Professor Creatures is here