Kitty was patrolling a part of the castle she never patrolled before. Sure, she'd patrol the dungeons before, but never this part. Hogwarts was a huge castle after all. That's part of the fun of being a prefect: discovering new places all the time.

"GAAHH!!!" Her foot caught on something and she tumbled sideways into something slimy.

"Eck! What IS this?!"

Laurel was heading down to the dungeons to see if she could find Justin since he wasn't in his hut. It seemed like the most logical place to look first since her cousin was head of Slytherin. A loud girl voice stopped her though and caused her to follow the sound until she arrived in the slug pit area.

Spotting prefect Kitty Valentine in a heap on the green slimy floor with slugs around she called over as she approached, careful not to walk on any slugs. "Are you all right Kitty? I see you've managed to find the slimy slug pit."

Luckily Kitty hadn't twisted her knee when she fell. Her knee had a nasty habit of twisting when she bumped it into something but lately after visiting the Hospital Wing it had been much better.

She was just cleaning her robes off the slime when Professor Laurel appeared and asked her if she was okay.

"Oh hi Professor, I think I'm okay. Slug pit? Wow, for a moment I thought this was one of Miffy's pranks." Because making things slippery was totally in the mischief makers style. Kitty stood up slowly and pulled a slimy strand off her robes in mild disgust. "Are there other things here besides slugs?" She glanced around somewhat apprehensively.

Manoeuvring around the slugs to get closer to Kitty proved difficult but Laurel prided herself with only squashing one slug in the process as she stopped next to the Ravenclaw prefect. Laughing good-naturedly Laurel said as she gestured around the dungeon. "It is easy to make that assumption given all the pranks that poltergirl has been getting up to recently, but no Miffy has nothing to do with this. This dungeon has always been filled with a giant infestation of slugs. It's here to ensure that those taking potions or teaching it for that matter never runs out of supply."

Glancing around she shrugged "I've got no idea. Slugs and gooey slime is all that I've seen. What do you fear we will run into?" Bubotubers maybe? With mild disgust she pushed slime and a few slugs off her shoes albeit gingerly.

"How do you like being a prefect?"

Kitty was careful not to step on any slug as she moved closer to Laurel, since it would have ben rude to make her come the whole way without moving a foot. Slugs mildly disgusted her (unlike worms, which were so cute) but she didn't want to kill any. "Oh I don't really fear I'll run into anything, but then again I didn't know there were slugs here either. I wouldn't want to run into a spider pit. Ugh!" She loved the darkness and was a big fan of worms, but even Kitty was scared of spiders. At least the large ones.

"Oh I love being prefect," answered Kitty with complete sincerity. "I never imagined I would have been able to be a good prefect, but now I think I've got the hang of it. Patrolling is great! And Rooney and I get along just fine. Penny writes to me with advice every other week."

"Are you going to collect slugs?" Kitty asked curiously, looking at Laurel and the nearby slugs. She wondered if that was why she was down here.

Laurel looked on as Kitty did her best to avoid stepping on any slugs while she moved closer to her. Probably to not seem rude while they conversed. Roderick had chosen wisely, she was going to remember to tell him that. The amount of slugs in this dungeon were to put it mildly disgusting but Laurel wasn't going to tell Kitty that.

She could not keep a straight face though at the mention of a possible spider pit. The Divination professor visibly shuddered and said "I'm not a fan of spiders either so I'm immensely glad that Hogwarts doesn't have a spider pit." Unless of course they had one down in the detention dungeon to scare naughty students ?

Smiling glad for the change of topic Laurel said "That's wonderful to hear Kitty. Most people grow with responsibility and you seem to be doing that too. Penny, who is that? A former housemate?" Seemed likely since there was no student currently studying at Hogwarts by that name.

Nodding she said "Yes, I am actually here to collect slugs. The more withering, slimey and large slugs i can find the better. Would you care to help me collect some? I need a big amount of slugs for my next lesson and i'm sure Professor Newton wouldn't say no to a few either."

Since Professor Vance was new to Hogwarts it made sense that she didn't know who Penny was. Kitty had forgotten about that or she would have explained. "Penny, Penelope Wright was head girl and a Ravenclaw prefect when she was at Hogwarts. She left last term and I still miss her." Not that her leaving was a bad thing, since she was happy where she was. "I remember one time when I got into a food fight (a LOOOOONG time ago) and Professor Flamsteed caused it to rain in the Hall and I ran and hid underneath the tables. I probably would have stayed there all night if Penny hadn't come to get me out. Once she taught me and many other younger students how to turn invisible in the Room of Requirement." She sighed as she remembered her friend. ]"But we keep in touch so it's not really so sad, and she's quite happy studying at a university."

Kitty smiled enthusiastically when she asked her help in finding slugs. "Ooh now I'm curious about our next lesson. I'd love to help!" But she wasn't going to ask what they were for because she didn't think it was likely the professor would tell her, as that would be an unfair advantage. That was okay, it would be fun to find out.

She bent down and found a large blue one. "Hey Professor, do you have any gloves?"