With a full schedule planned this year between her regular classes and extracurriculars, Skylar definitely knew the importance of following a strict schedule. She had few goals in mind for this year and one of them was continuing her record as a top-notch student, but she also intended to keep her social circle expanding. Plopping down Indian-style on her bed, she glanced at the papers before her. She'd already given one to Hattie at the feast, but figured she would wait until they got back to the dorm to give to her roommates. Because planning needed to start from the very first day of classes, in order to have the least amount of stress possible in a year that was definitely very stressful. She knew they wouldn't prioritize the study planning; that was sort of her job. The planner. The organizer of the she-snake-squad.

Now, all she needed was her roommates to arrive. And of course, there were the usual snacks that she and Vivian had had since their first ever time sharing the dorm four years ago. It seemed like an eternity ago and it was hardly believable that they were finally in their OWL year and even more surreal that in three years they would be going their separate years.

Who knew all this prefect-ing could be so draining?

Once she had finished off helping the last few first years with their dormitories and all that, Vivian dragged herself along the corridor towards her own dorm to just crash forever... if possible. She wasn't sure if she should feel pity for all the older students who dealt with her as an eleven year and, yes, firstie Vivian was also that energetic. The prefects before her deserved all the praise for having to handle her. Perhaps, this was how they felt after directing first years on what and where to go. Tired, exhausted, needed about a week's worth of sleep. Dramatic Fairfield was dramatic.

The blond pushed the door open and rubbed her eye as she entered, immediately spotting Sky. "Hey!" Vivian offered a tired smile towards her bestie as she flopped on her own bed, laying like a starfish in her sea of blankets. "It wasn't in the job description to be this tired, y'know?" She wasn't complaining, but Vivian was just overwhelmed. But well, it had only been the first day of prefect duties and a whoooole lot more to come. She'd get used to it, hopefully.

"Ladies." Felicity greeted the two other girls as she returned from the bathroom, grinning wide before clambering up onto her bed. "Is it just me who hates the first years calling them 'Miss'? Makes me feel so old." She pulled a face at that, wondering if Vivian did like it now, and how long it was going to be before she got sick of it.

She wasn't really prepared for classes to start in the morning, she couldn't help but think as she pulled her hair back into a bun: fifth year was so daunting here, and she just knew the first day of term wasn't going to be an excuse for the teachers to go easy on them.

The poster was not interested in being stuck up. Tough break for the poster because Julie Bellaire was one determined witch and when she set her mind to something she accomplished it. No ifs, ands, or buts accepted. She lai it down on the bed, staring the Muggle poster down with a look that meant business. She'd taken a lot of trouble to get the thing in the first place and the least it could have done was politely allow the Fourth Year to place it on the stretch of wall Julie had long ago deemed her own.

"You'll like the wall, I promise." Julie said, speaking quite naturally to the unhelpful poster. she crossed her arms, maybe she ought to try her hand at learning stronger sticking charms before attempting this- No, that was silly, her sticking charms were excellent as they were. Julie cracked her knuckles and smoothed out the printed paper once again before picking it up by the topmost edges and carefully carrying it to the wall. Okay, she had to get the level just right....

"I actually like being called Miss," Junia offered as she entered the room, her usual curious smile in place. "Feels like a sign of respect or something and considering we are older and wiser, it's fitting." At least she thought so.

The brunette perched on the end of her bed and kicked off her shoes, wiggling her toes and soaking in the freedom of bare feet. Merlin did that feel good. "So, what are we doing about this O.W.L. situation?" Like, they had a plan for surviving the whole ordeal, yes? Because they needed a plan. One that helped her figure out how not to get overwhelmed or distracted by the boyfriend and Botros babies.

And there were her roommates, slowly making their way into the dorm and if Vivian's comment was one to go by it was that they desperately needed a plan. Fortunately for them, she had a system all planned out ... and it might even help with Vivian not being so overwhelmed and exhausted every night this year.

"I thought you'd all lost your way," Skylar smiled, feeling amused, yet knowing they hadn't. "I don't mind the Miss either. Emmeline calls me that and it's kinda cute... but yea i think it's definitely a sign of respect thing. And there are worse things to be called." But onto the business that Junia had so graciously brought up. "OWL situation solved with Operation 5.0" yes she just adlibbed that... but sliding off her bed with the parchments she'd been working on since the train, she dropped the appropriate one off on each of roommates beds. "Read, classes and extracurriculars penciled in as well as obligatory study time for two hours every day after dinner. There's of course still several hours in the day which I've left open in case we need extra time for homework, boyfriend time, Prefect patrol for you Vivian, or well really whatever else we want to do in our free time" See, planner. Oops? Hashtag, sorry but not sorry? yes she may have personalized each of their schedules with what they were taking and probably went over the top just a little, but she was a planner and organizer, which also meant ensuring the success of her friends so they didn't get stressed. Because if there was stress from anyone in the dorm room, it would no doubt rub off on her and be an endless cycle of bad karma.

Xavieria, for her part, was busy putting up twinkling fairy lights around her bed. She was quite distracted by considering how to arrange them when she heard Julie speaking. But Julie wasn't speaking to her, she was speaking to the poster. Huh. Xavvie climbed down from standing on her bed and crossed over to her neighbor's bed. "Need some help?" Cause she was great at helping.

And then maybe Julie could help her decide how to best arrange her lights,
two heads were better than one, right?

Vivian still laid like a starfish on her bed even when her two other dorm mates came it, but she raised her head a little bit from her pillow and wiggled her fingers at them. She had missed her oh so comfortable bed, okay? They had been separated for a few months.

But they were talking about being called 'Miss'? To be honest, the moment that firstie, Philippa, had addressed her as such, Vivian froze for a few seconds. "It surprised me, actually. I'm so used to being the one calling older students 'Miss'," the blond shared. Ava, Noelle, and Etta could all attest to that. "But it's quite nice. Maybe it was just her way of showing respect." And the prefect totally left out the fact that they were older than they used to be. Fifth year was a huge deal, and they were officially part of the 'older students' squad.

The blond sort of grunted when asked about schedules and OWLs and that stuff. She honestly didn't want to deal with those yet, but she knew that she eventually had to. "I'm probably just gonna wing it," Vivian paused. "Only joking. I guess I'll have to find time to study no matter how tired I am." Especially in between prefect duty and extra curricular activities this term, Vivian knew fifth year wasn't going to be easy on her.

... What in Merlin's name, Skylar Diggory? Vivian promptly sat up after finding a comfortable position on her pillow when the dorm mate dropped a little something on her bed. She blinked at the planner, taking a while to absorb it, before looking up at Sky. "I wouldn't have expected anything else from you, Mama Skylar." HEH. Vivian grinned at her. "But thanks!" Really, she appreciated it. In fact, Vivian didn't think she'd have the time to actually create a planner for herself!

"Yes, please." Julie said, smiling gratefully at the blonde. "Here, hold it up flat against the wall." She offered the top two edges for Xavvie to take. "I think the problem is I can't really hold it flat and do the spell at once." she'd have needed three hands for that and sadly (or maybe not really considering the unbalanced aesthetic) she only had two.

Taking her wand out from her pocket, Julie waited for Xavvie to get into place before performing this little act of magic- last thing she wanted was to stick her friend to the wall.

“Of course we didn’t get lost,” Felicity giggled a little at Skylar’s comment. “Although I am surprised: I barely got the hang of the Castle last year, I can’t believe I can remember the way around it.” Vivian got a grin in response to her finger wiggles, partly in greeting and partly at the starfish position.

Britain was weird and her housemates were weird. Of course, Felicity loved them all dearly, but she did not understand their appreciation of the word ‘Miss’. Yet, Junia was probably right: they were definitely wiser and so maybe it was a good thing. Herself, on the other hand, was older, but not so much as wise as the others, and so as much as she wanted respect and stuff, she didn’t like being addressed like a teacher… Or something.

SHE COULD NOT HANDLE THAT RESPONSIBILITY.

Nor could she handle the talk of OWLs. Flopping onto her bed and pulling a pillow down over her head, Liss let out a small, muffled wail. “Operation…….?” Her question was muffled, which was probably a good thing, because it was redundant: Five-point-oh obviously meant fifth year. Merlin, it looked like a lot of work was required for Felicity to even reach Skylar’s level of organisation. Feeling a thud of something land on her bed, she dramatically rolled over and sat up, clutching the pillow to her chest as she picked up the timetable in front of her. “I think you might be a life saver, Sky.”

Junia looked over Sky's work and she had to admit, she was extremely impressed. Not only had her dorm mate come up with a system that allowed them to conquer the subjects they needed to, but she'd included their extracurriculars, too? How did she even remember what each of them was doing in their free time? ...Although, perhaps Skylar was better at taking an interest in things she wasn't directly involved in. Junia didn't have that talent unless it had to do with her family's interests. She couldn't be bothered.

"When did you manage to do all this?" The brunette glanced at her friend, head tilted to the side. "I mean, I'm pleased that you did because it means I don't have to figure it out, but how?" She really was very curious. "Also, thank you. I one hundred percent agree that you're a life saver."

Xavvie hopped off of her bed and crossed over to Julie's, taking the end of the poster that she was closest to. "Okay." She held up the poster against the wall, tilting it a few times to make sure it was straight and laying flat. "Is this good?" Xavvie looked over her shoulder to see that Julie had her wand ready. Oh boy, this was going to be a bit of a test of friendship, wasn't it?

Could Xavvie be the new wall decoration? "Don't miss." She grinned helpfully, she knew Julie was good. But also like, please don't miss.

don't miss.

Now, Julie hadn't intended to but the idea of playfully sticking Xavvie and the poster to the wallows dancing through her mind. A little fun, no harm done - oh, that had rhymed - she was sure they would laugh about it afterwards...

"I'll do my best." Clearing her throat, Julie raised her wand and took careful aim as she performed the sticking charm- hoping to glue Xavvie and the pin-up in one go.

Xavvie hadn't honestly thought that Julie would miss the poster and stick her to the wall instead, she'd mostly been joking when she'd said not to miss, so she was quite surprised to find that after her friend performed the spell and she went to move her hands away to see if it worked, she was stuck to the wall.

She was STUCK.

"Julieeeee!" It was hilarious, she had to admit that, but also, it was weird to be glued to a wall!

Julie tried to bite her lip but it hardly helped, the laughter that spilled out was just too strong, raw and smug to be held back even by teeth as white and strong as Julie Bellaire's. She doubled over, her arms wrapped around her middle as Xavs called out her name. Where was a camera when she needed it? Not that Julie would have been able to stay still long enough to take the photo, so strong was her mirth that the fourth year was shaking from head to foot.

"O-Oh No!" She called out in a lame attempt to play this off as an accident- she had to try, you know?

January is ending, bringing with it rain, tiredness and an onslaught of homework. Your Friday lessons have ended and you go back to your dorm to place your bag away before dinnertime arrives. It’s a normal, everyday activity but the sight that meets you when you arrive at your dorm is anything but normal...

You walk through the corridor towards your dorm and instantly notice that something seems off. The flickering torch shines down upon the pieces of broken wood that used to be your dorm room door but was now laying on the floor. When you step over the pieces of wood, you’re met with a ghastly, heart-wrenching sight.

Your dorm, your safe haven during the term time, is in complete disarray.

Feathers float down serenely, providing a juxtaposition against the chaos of the room itself. The beds have all been stripped of their bedding and pillows and sit there looking naked and unwelcoming. What used to be on the beds have been tossed aside and ripped apart, their contents spewing across the dorm room floor.

And it doesn’t stop there. Trunks have been ransacked, the contents of which have been flung everywhere without a care in the world. Clothes, some ripped beyond repair, can be seen laying on the floor and hanging off the four-poster beds. Books have been ripped apart, their pages scattered haphazardly across the floor. Art supplies that used to paint a pretty picture now paint the calamity of the scene before you. They weren’t expensive, were they?

To make matters worse, every bedside drawer has met the same fate as every other item in the room. The contents of the drawers have been flung out of their resting places, some even shattered as they were tossed to the ground, leaving bits of glass everywhere. It seems as if someone has gone to great lengths to search the room.

If you clean up and are observant enough, you might notice that something happens to be missing...

FINALLY, it was the end of the week! Natalie was ready to shove the textbooks away, change into some comfier clothes, eat some good food and have some NOT homework or classroom time. Maybe even a nap... yes, a nap sounded good.

Walking into the dorm, Natalie slung her bag off of her shoulders, but stopped when she felt a crunch underneath her shoe. Looking down and moving her foot she noticed.. glass? What was broken glass doing on the floor? Better yet, what was EVERYTHING doing on the floor?

Panic set in suddenly when Natalie realized that the whole dormitory was in disarray. Her bed was destroyed and belongings were everywhere, along with everyone else's things. Blue eyes wide, Natalie stepped in slowly and carefully, looking back at the door to see if anyone else was coming in to see the disaster.

There was nothing better than Friday afternoons and being done with classes and extracurriculars for the week. Of course she had some 'fun' extracurriculars that she did on the weekends, like health and wellness or writing her quill articles. But for the most part Fridays were good. Except for when the fifth year entered her familiar safe haven to find it ... ransacked.

Yes she'd heard Kitty saying something about that happening to the Ravenclaw girls dorm, which was when she got cursed? Imperiod? Whatever she happened to be under.... and Hattie had mentioned the Hufflepuff girls dorm too, but for THREE dorms to be hit? And the library, where that dark arts book was stolen.

Her bed. Her precious sheets, stripped from her bed. Her books, the ones she hadn't had with her, ripped apart. Her extra clothes, destroyed. Where were her roommates anyway? She was fairly sure she was the only one who wrote for the quill, but perhaps they had something else? Studying? Snogging boys? Or girls?

Hyperventilating, Skylar made her way over to the bed and found herself collapsed on the bare mattress, staring at her destroyed Magical Creatures textbook. Breathe, Skylar, breathe. And yet, instead, her eyes were leaking and she found herself having difficulty breathing.

Junia was in a fog. Long days of classes, studying, yearbook duties, and play preparations had her feeling overloaded and exhausted. All she really wanted to do now was curl up in her bed and look at pictures of home so she could dream of her family and not of failing O.W.L.s. Yes, that had been a reoccuring nightmare lately. Fifth year was. so. fun. She just--

She stumbled forward over the pieces of wood littering the hallway, just managing to catch herself before she fell completely. "What on earth?" Her stomach dropped immediately and she continued on through the doorway of her room, a feeling of dread washing over her like a wave. She already knew what she'd find even before seeing the damage because of course this would happen. Of course.

Eyes that were more blue than green today swept the space and widened considerably when they landed on her trunk. She'd had photos in there. Photos of baby Jasper and of jaddi and of her mama and papa..."No. No..." She barely registered that Sky was in the room as she moved forward and dropped to her knees by her bedside, sweeping the debris of paper and clothing towards her to look through. "...This isn't happening." Only it was.

Glancing up absently, the brunette swallowed thickly and focused on her dormmate. "We can repair things with magic, right?" They could fix this? "Sky, we can, right?" Sky who always had a plan-she'd have a plan for how to deal with this, right? RIGHT?

Spending time with Flynn was still nice even if he did insist on doing revision. Of course, Felicity knew that she needed to study for OWLs, but that didn't mean she didn't begrudge him for being the rational one. Sometimes.

Heading up to the dorm, Felicity's footsteps quickened when she heard the sounds of dismay, but she faltered at the door. Or lack thereof. Nudging the wooden splinters away with her foot, her mouth dropped open as she stepped inside the room and saw the extent of the damage.

"Not everything," she said quietly, finding she'd entered just in time to answer Junia's question. But she did pull out her wand, biting down hard on her lower lip as she approached her dormmates.

What the hell had happened here?!

Breathe. Just breathe. Vaguely hearing footsteps and then negative exclamations from one Junia, Sky glances up from her naked bed and notes through blurry eyes. Huh? Fix things with magic? Yea... maybe ...

And then Liss walked in; not everything which was kind of true too. Gosh she was supposed to be the responsible one. The sensible one. And she was a bloody wreck. This was like ten times worse than when she couldn’t eat solid foods for like a week after breaking Brent’s heart and subsequently her own.

“It depends, yes and no,” Sky said finally. “We should probably try to see if we kind find anything missing?” because why else would a dorm be ransacked unless someone was looking for something... Hopping off her bed, she slowly moved to refill some of clothes, carefully casting reparo as necessary

And that was the last of her Friday night classes for today, which was an extreme relief for the prefect. She just wanted to flop on her bed right now and maybe take the advantage with a few minutes of sleep before dinner. She needed it so bad.

Skipping through the corridor, Vivian didn't immediately notice the wooden boards on the floor until a bit of light flickered over it. The prefect immediately picked up her pace and paused at the opening on the wall where their dormitory door used to be. The blond saw her dorm mates with wide eyes, opened her mouth to say something, but apparently nothing came out. She was at a loss of words, and that was saying something. Vivian Fairfield never ran out of words.

Too many thoughts ran across her mind as Vivian ran along the mess on the floor to her own corner. Her kneazle-print blanket, which she had had since ten years old, was ripped apart... and her guitar. Good Merlin. That didn't look like a guitar anymore. She got that from her dad for her twelfth birthday. "This can't be happening," she said as she dug around the litter of paper on the floor. There, under her bed, she found her two-way mirror. Vivian nearly fainted at the sight of it, but gave out a loud sigh of relief to see it had only garnered dents along the frame. Merlin knew what she would have done, had her mirror been broken beyond repair like the rest of her things.

But it was too much for her to handle. Vivian felt hot tears falling down her cheek as she immediately wiped it with the sleeve of the school robes she had worn for the day. "C-can we still fix a few things?" She looked up, eyes a little red, for a moment at Junia, Liss, and Sky. But she knew the answer wouldn't be all positive. A few of these things didn't seem like they could be fixed, not even with magic. Still a little shaken, Vivian immediately took a ripped piece of parchment and a quill from her sling bag. She wrote down a note, sniffing and wibbling in the process, and folded it into a paper airplane. Did the prefect care that her handwriting was comprised? Nope, not at all.

Once that was finished, Vivian sent a charm to the airplane note and watched it fly out of their dormitory. "I... I just sent a letter t-to Professor Vance," SNIFF. She hated crying, she really did. But she was tired and wanted to sleep, a little hungry too, and THIS was what she came back to. "R-reparo," she sent the spell to one of her ripped shirts.

She was gonna cry now, and deal with her accumulated anger later. Yes.

Laurel highly doubted that anyone in the dungeons could have done this crime. Her gift would have warned her if so but there were still too many unknown details. She needed to see the scene for herself before she could make any real conclusions. One thing she was pretty certain of was though that none of her snakes could be responsible for the deed and from Vivians note she had ruled out the possibility of a bad prank.

Coming into the dungeons several minutes later after hasting down the floors and navigating the endless corridors with ease Professor Vance soon stood in front of the thirteenth stone wall and whispered serpensortia and waited impatiently for the passage to open.

When she came into the common room still with her wand in hand Laurel whispered and cast a few spells to allow her to enter the Girl's Dorms. The professor quickly scrambled up the right staircase past Natalie until she came to and looked into the Fifth year dorm to find Vivian.

Oh dear.

This didn't look good at all. It looked even worse than what she had envisioned.

It clearly was not a prank.

A big uneasy clump settled in the pit of her stomach. Someone had decided to ransack the Girl's Dorms just like they had done to the Ravenclaws some months ago. The big question was WHY? Who would go to this length of thrashing a room entirely in search of something and why?

Utterly confused Professor Vance carefully stepped into the room over the shattered wood remains of the dorm door making sure not to step on any splinters. Silently she surveyed the demolishment from the ripped bedding and pillows, the clothes, the books, art supplies and the shattered drawers and bits of broken glass and noted how everything strewn and tossed around the room.

Once her examination was done and she hadn't really found any clear sign or trail left by the culprit Laurel turned to Junia, Skylar, Felicity, Natalie and Vivian she said "Sweet Circe, someone has really demolished this room entirely." Shaking her head heavily she asked eyes now on Vivian. "Vivian, has anyone else come in here after you sent me that paper plane? Or even walked past?" Anyone looking suspicious or out of place? "Unless someone has a grudge to settle with the girl's in this part of the dungeons then it looks like someone was after something. Have you girls looked through your belongings and seen if anything is missing yet?" The last Laurel directed to all of them.

Junia felt angry a lot of the time but allowing herself to show how angry she was, that was an entirely different story. More than it being a way to disguise the things that bothered her, it was because Junia never wanted to lose her composure and let her family down by doing or saying something inappropriate. Instead the anger was bottled up until it showed in the form of frustrated tears, ones that were now wetting her cheeks as the fifth year pieced together the remains of several photographs and attempted to fix them. She'd heard the girls, not everything could be salvaged. She'd known as much but hearing it out loud hurt.

The arrival of Vivian and then Professor Vance didn't do much to distract from the brunette's actions. Slowly, steadily, she was making piles. Fixable. No good. Not worth saving. ...a grudge? "I can't imagine someone would have a grudge with all of us." And besides, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened. It wasn't a coincidence. Couldn't be. Didn't matter, either way her things would still be trashed.

"It's hard to tell if anything is missing at this point...it might take a bit to figure it out." At least for her.