"What does she do?" Felicity asked as she finished the last of the marshmallows she'd taken from Vivian. She was curious as to what job a wizard or witch might have in the muggle world. Of course, her dad's job wasn't exactly a 'Wizards' one, but seeing as he worked within the magical community, and that his parties often involved, you know, elements of magic, she always saw it as such. As for seeing grandparents, well, that wasn't something she ever really experience: One of her fathers had been disowned, the other's parents had died, and her mum's had never really cared for her. "Is it nice being able to see them more often, then?"

"oh uh-" He stopped knowing it was a bit embarrassing considereing she could teach at a wizard school, but instead she taught at a muggle school. "My mom teaches college classes for muggles, she teaches conspiracy theory classes so kind of a bit about magic i guess." he mumbled the last part while scratching the back of his neck. His grandparents were a whole 'nother story, considering they didn't travel like they used to. He had only met them once. His brothers loved them a lot. "It's been interesting getting to know them."

When Olly's attention shifted from his marshmallow he noticed the Head of House mingling among the students. It was not long before she was next to him and greeting him. Olly gave her a smile. "Hello Professor. How was your summer?" He turned his marshmallow so it wouldn't get burned on one side. "Nope, all good. Got everyone here just fine. I've always thought we were very lucky to have a common room in the dungeons and not all the way at the top of the towers like Gryffindor and Ravenclaw." Climbing all those stairs? No thank you.

It looked like smore making was a pretty popular activity. Of course it was; smores were delicious. Who wouldn't want to make them? Olly smiled in greeting at one of the small newcomers. "Hello Kyle. How was your summer? Ready for your second year?"

Felicity was completely oblivious to the boy in front of hers embarrassment. If she noticed his quieter attitude, and his awkwardness, she put it down to the fact that it was his first night here, and that, if anything, it was getting quite late. "No way, that's totally cool. Where did she teach?" Her remarks were genuine, too, the idea of Muggles talking about things that they didn't realise were real was kind of fascinating.

"I bet they're really glad they get to see you often." Because, if anything her parents said about grandparents was true, then spending time with their grandkids was really important. Felicity was a little jealous that he had the chance to get to know his.

Glancing up at the cheerful greeting she'd received, Junia couldn't help but smile at Xavvie and the new girl. "Hi, how's it-" going. They were off, though, and she knew why. Better in the loo than on the floor, that's how she saw it. She'd catch up with the blonde later.

Taking a sip of her pumpkin juice, the fifth year's gaze fell on Vivian and she nodded. "I'm okay, just kind of tired. I'm looking forward to sleep." She smiled a little, shrugging. "I want to hear all about the prefects compartment when we all go up, okay?" She did. Speaking of going to their dorm, her other dorm mates got a wave. They all had things to discuss, per usual, she was sure.

"Hello Professor." Vance was nice as far as authority figures went and the fifteen year old smiled when she came over, mention of her siblings causing her to hold her cup just a little bit tighter. "It was a little weird, honestly. It feels like they were five yesterday, you know?" Did she know that feeling? "Plus, not being in their house, well, it's a little hard." She paused, then shrugged. "At least they're together. They'll look after each other."

"She just started at the University of Manchester." He said knowing his mom was probably torturing her students with a paper before classes began. She always liked doing things like that to her students to see what they thought like when things didn't go their way. HE had sat in on a few classes when he didn't have school and thought it was fun how oblivious the students were to their surroundings.

He nodded his head about his grandparents, they weren't bad people just not as close to him as his siblings. "They are pretty nice people i suppose."

Kyle beamed when someone else started roasting a marshmallow too. He waved to the other boy and nodded. "Yup! I'm gonna head to Professor Hirsch's office first chance I get, too. We have plans for extra training I'm doing. Summer was pretty good, too. I got a second wand that's a little less erratic and some books on wand lore, and then helped dad with brewing potions for his shop. Oh, and I learned more fighting techniques and worked on wandless magic, too. What about you? What did you do this summer?"

POP!

Argyle appeared with the common room, her wide eyes flitting around in caution. She was always wary of the Baron and his hauntings, yes she was, but the Slytherin ghost didn't appear to be around. So the house-elf felt clear to clean. "Dust...dust...dust." A much-used rag flicking and wiping along the stone walls of one corner of the cavernous room as Argyle worked on the dark material. Must keep it clean. No mess like those stubborn cobwebs a few terms back.

So they had to sleep in the common room.
What the hell was this? Eddie was not okay with sharing his room with the people he had to and now he had to sleep with tons of people around. This was going to be a long night.

HE WAS NOT OKAY WITH THIS!!!


Someone had ruined their rooms, but they had magic and things were pretty much back together so why were they sleeping in the common room. Another plan from the adults to do something to them. He was sure of it. They had been the ones to go through their stuff, they had to be. Them or peeves and if it was peeves he'd be getting his dung back.



Finding a corner he put a sleeping back down and laid in it. Maybe if he hid in this far corner people wouldn't try to talk to him and wouldn't try to be near him, though unless you were Farah he never really had an issue with people wanted to be social with him. This was good.

Kyle had managed to get his pillow back together and sullenly went down to the common room. He was so disheartened in seeing his stuff scattered everywhere he just couldn't bring himself to go through it. And now it was "suggested" that they sleep in the common room. Why? For how long? He curled up with his pillow by the fireplace. Looking over, he spotted Edward in the corner. What was he doing all the way over there? There was plenty of room to pick a spot. "Hey," he called out to the other boy. "Any idea what happened?"

The last thing Flynn Kowalski was looking forward to was spending the night in the common room with every Slytherin at Hogwarts - ESPECIALLY the first years. Didn't they still wet the beds every now and then? Or need to be told bedtimes stories to go to sleep?

Merlin, this was going to be a long night. At least he had found a pack of his sleepy time tea.

He had a very displeased look on his face as he walked down from his dorm, drinking the hot tea from his newly fixed tea cup, with his sleeping bag and pillow floating behind him. Noticing two younger boys already there, he made eye contact with one of them (Eddie), completely ignored the other one (Kyle), and went over to an area that was near the crackling fireplace. He placed his tea on a nearby table before he took his sleeping bag and placed it on the ground along with his pillow.

Once done, he picked his tea back up and went to stretch himself out on his the couch.

Still fiddling with her necklace, Felicity padded down to the Common Room in one of the few pairs of fluffy pyjamas that hadn't been completely ruined by the reckless vandal that had made a point of destroying everything. She'd finally shed a few tears, more out of anger and frustration than anything else, but hoped her eyes weren't red enough to give that away.

Staring around at the few people already present, her slippered feet automatically took her towards the couch on which Flynn was spread out. "Budge up."

It was one hell of a tough night for Vivian. Not only did it absolute break her heart to see her guitar in ruins, but also because she hated having to leave the confines of her dormitory. However, the decision for all of them to stay the night in the common room was justifiable and understandable. She knew the staff wouldn't want to risk it. The dorms being wrecked themselves were just... enough.

After successfully fixing and sending repairing charms on her blanket and pillow, Vivian made her way to the common room with a tiny frown on her face. Tonight was definitely not her night, but she mentally reminded herself that this will pass... and that she had a secret picnic date with Chase later. At the moment, her stomach was in knots and couldn't even bother thinking about food, much less eat something. But yeah, the thought of the picnic date made things a little easier for the prefect.

"Everyone alright?" Vivian asked the people around in general. It was an ironic question, though, because the fifteen year old was really. Not. Okay.

Even though Skylar would have half preferred spending the night in the Ravenclaw dorms near her brother, the first night after the ransack, since there was the decision for them all to sleepover in the common room, she might as well. It wasn't as if it would be the first time she slept in the common room. No, the fifteen year old had fallen asleep many times over re-reading and cramming her on her study notes. But usually she was the only one here, whereas this time she'd have people from all years here and boys too.

One boy, whom she'd been skillfully ignoring for the past three or four months, but now she'd have no choice but to see him. Though she could hide under her blanket, or hope he was just too preoccupied. At least she was wearing cute pajamas.

With her heart rate accelerated - various circumstances but she'd blame it on her ruined textbooks - Skylar made a brief nod to those in here already and went over towards her usual study couch. Yup, this couch was hers and she was definitely sleeping here.

What on earth had caused such horrific behaviour? Holly was confused by the whole situation, she wasn't even entirely sure she knew what had actually happened. She'd gone through her belongings hoping upon all hope that her books hadn't been totally destroyed. More importantly, that her sister's precious manuscript wasn't ruined beyond hope. If that were the case, she would have to hide for the rest of her life.

But right now, she had more important things to think about. Like where on earth she was going to put herself for the evening. She was fully aware that there would be a lot of people sleeping in the common room tonight so she would have to find somewhere comfortable, and fast.

Blanket and teddy bear in tow, she trod through the room in search for an available chair or spot by the fire, whispering apologies as she snaked her way through the growing crowd of students. So what if she still slept with a teddy at night, she loved him and that's all that mattered.

Patrick padded down the stairs with his somehow untouched comforter and a pillow that he had help repairing. It was wild what was going on in the rooms, he couldn't believe that they would have to sleep in the common room. He took in who he knew in the common room before picking his place to sleep. He noticed Skylar over on one side of the room, and the boy he had met at the lake, wasn't his name Flynn.

He made sure to avoid Flynn he seemed like he would be too annoyed to let Patrick come around. He set his blanket down over by the fire and leaned against the wall taking in everything. It wasn't ideal to have to sit around in the common room. He could only hope that they would quickly get things figured out and begin to go back to normal. But after the incident at the bulliten board, he wasn't so sure that anything was normal.

Flynn was keeping to himself, drinking his tea, and watching the fire crackle in front of him. He loved winter time. LOVED IT! He could wear his favorite flannel pajama bottoms, enjoying his favorite tea, all without no worries of it being too hot. It was a beautiful time. He placed the cup of tea to his lips once more, but then he heard her (Felicity) voice.

He was about to give her a very sarcastic and probably not the nicest response until he saw her face. "Hey," he answered in a calm tone. He moved his legs to give her space beside him. "Drink some." He offered her his cup of tea with no hesitation. "It'll make you feel better." Or at least warm her up.

When he heard Vivian's voice, he turned his gaze towards the blonde. He gave her a LOOK then glanced over at Felicity. Clearly, his girl was NOT. OKAY. He, on the other hand, was okay after he had fixed his tea cup. Magic was a wonderful thing. However, the Prefect herself did not look okay, which prompted his next question: "Do you want a cup of tea too?" He was not giving up his couch and his spot next to Felicity though.

andddd here comes Skylar. He watched as she collapsed onto the other couch. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it, figuring she wanted to be left alone. He diverted his attention away from her.

Was that.... A TEDDY BEAR? The older Slytherin stared at the younger girl (Holly) who entered the room. Maybe HE WAS RIGHT. MAYBE they did still wet the bed! Oh no, this was not a good idea. Could he could stay in the Gryffindor Common Room with Dora instead? Was it too late to sneak out? Though, when his foot nudged against Felicity, he was reminded why he would be staying in his own common room tonight. "Do you want a pacifier to go with that bear of yours?" Sorry, he couldn't resist.

Oh, he noticed you placed his sleeping bag next to his, Patrick. He noticed, and he eyeballed you. His spot was near the fire. The first years could sit in the cold damp corner of the common room. He, however, did not say anything just yet. He was going to be nice to him, or try to be nice. He seemed.... cool enough. As cool as a first year could be, but he would not hold it past the boy to be an annoying little monster either.

Of course more were coming. He knew they were, but he still didn't want to be around them. Maybe he could sneak out and sleep in a closet or extra classroom. There were going to be way too many people for this one. He was going to send an owl to his uncle when this was all said and done. Did the Blaze family know what really went on here? Seriously how did they think this was still a good place for their children?

He stared wide-eyed at all the girls coming in. This was not his cup of tea, nope, and when he saw the annoying Zita he knew it was time to hang into the sleeping bag and pretend to be asleep, but that was all taken from him when one of the guys in there already spoke to him, Kyle got a shrug, "No clue, just know when I got up there it was a mess." For once he didn't do anything, but he wasn't cool with not seeing his brother yet. "Anyone knows where Eivan is?" He figured he was fine, but older brother was trying to find him and make sure he had nothing to do with it.

Now Eddie wasn't one to stand up for anyone, he really didn't care what people did, but he did give the older boy a glare, "Buzz off idiot. Leave the girl alone. Some of us are trying to sleep." He glanced at Holly only for a second and without any more interest before he pulled his sleeping back up to start his pretend to sleep to keep people from trying to come near.

Finally finding a spot to perch herself somewhat close to the fire, although not close enough to give her much warmth, she sat down cross legged, placed her bear in her lap and unfolded her blanket across her. This wasn't going to be a particularly comfortable night but it would have to do. She didn't want to be alone in the dorms.

She watched as young boy(Patrick) walked in and plonked himself by the fire. He looked about her age, and possibly friendly enough to talk to. If only she had the smallest bit of confidence to do so. No, she would remain where she was and wait for someone to speak to her.

And when someone did, she wished she hadn't hoped for interaction. She looked up at the older boy(Flynn) wide eyed pulling her bear closer to her body. She wasn't entirely sure if he was speaking directly to her or over her but his comment stung nontheless. She looked away biting her lower lip, did she dare respond? Maybe just a little response, to open his eyes. "Yes, I have a teddy bear. What did you bring to comfort you when you first left home? Or do you not remember how scary it is" she replied. Okay, so she hadn't exactly gotten the art of defending herself yet, but at least he would back down a little, right? She hoped he would.

Then Holly turned her attention to the boy(Eddie) who had called him out. She smiled politely yet nervously and bowed her head slightly as thanks. Although she had no idea who this person was, he was the first person to help her in any way, shape, or form since coming here. Although she would always be grateful to Professor Vance for recommending two books to read. She would have to read those in the summer.

Flynn leaned back into the couch where the armrest met the back of it, getting comfy, as his eyes wandered over to the younger boy (Eddie). "Sure looks like you're trying to get some sleep, kid. Do you need someone to sing you a lullaby?" It was when the younger boy had pulled his sleeping bag up that he added, "Don't let the sleeping bag bugs bites you." He took a sip of his tea, which was now getting cold.

Oh, HOW CUTE! He could not help but smirk a little as the little girl (Holly) spoke. "My courage," he replied. "How exactly is that teddy bear going to help you? Please, do tell. Does it have magical abilities against a troll attack? Does it come alive to fight against the merpeople?" He was clearly being sarcastic in the meanest way possible. The young girl clearly needed to learn how to defend herself better, and Flynn Kowalski was more than willing to help her learn... the hard way, of course.

Patrick watched what was happening between the girl (Holly) and Flynn. He seemed to be trolling her if he could say so. He stayed leaned up against the wall, knowing that fighting with a 5th year wasn't exactly smart they were going to be the big dogs in the next few years and all we were as firsties were the young children who had left home at a young age. The older kids often forgot what it was like to be out on their own. Granted Patrick didn't feel homesick hardly at all, not in the sense most of the kids here did. He missed the States, and his friends that he no longer saw, or got to talk to since phones weren't exactly in high supply. Bet they all forgot about me by now he thought to himself as he continued to watch the interaction between Flynn and the girl.

Skylar was content on her couch, really, she was. She had noticed Flynn and Felicity by the fire and the adorable first year Patrick was there too, but after a brief complacent smile, she returned to her own thoughts.

That was until she heard Flynn pestering a first year about her teddy bear. Ugh, seriously?! He had a girlfriend now, so surely he should be a little more sympathetic, but apparently not. Yes, she'd heard Eddie speak up from his sleeping bag, but as predicted, it did nothing to tame Flynn. And she wasn't sure that he'd listen to her either, but as his friend, surely she was going to try, because picking on those inferior was not cool. Mama Skylar was coming back.

Rising from her couch, she went over to Holly to show she stood by her. "Flynn Kowalski. Just because you claim to have courage, doesn't mean we all do. Sometimes we just need that little something from home to let us know it is all going to be okay. Now, back off, before I give you something to cry home about." Sorry, Felicity, we like you, and your boyfriend too, but he can be a jerk sometimes.

Turning toward Holly, she smiled as she sat down by the younger girl. "It'll be okay, don't worry." Perhaps now wasn't the time to tell her that two years ago there was a monster INSIDE the castle, who took people to an alternate Hogwarts. It was all over now, wasn't it? Nightmares existed at Hogwarts, but they never persisted...

As more and more Slytherins joined them in the common room, Vivian politely smiled at each one of them, not actually saying anything. Tonight had been really overwhelming for the prefect to be her normally happy self, but she didn't want to seem unapproachable especially for the young ones. While Olly and Professor Vance weren't around, it was kind of her responsibility if anything happens to the snakes in here.

Vivian opted to take a seat on the couch, NOT the one where her dorm mate and her boyfriend were sitting on because she had done enough third-wheeling with Sky from last term. The blond caught Flynn's look towards her and, unlike her usual self, she just offered a small smile. Not even a raised eyebrow because she just wasn't feeling well about seeing her dormitory in ruins. And... was he offering her a cup of tea? Eyeing his cup, the prefect shook her head. "I'm good. Thank you though," she replied. Perhaps she'd just sneak back into her dormitory and snatch a couple of stuff when she felt like it. But not now.

And then, of COURSE, Slytherins just had to make their drama, right? Vivian eyed Flynn and the firstie (Holly), who were talking about the latter's teddy bear. "I see nothing wrong with having one," she casually said. The blond remembered she used to have one when she was a firstie, too. Not a teddy bear, but Professor Hirsch's stuffed dog from that gytrash lesson. In fact, it was still there in her chest... probably. She didn't get to check it out yet without breaking down into tears again. To add to that, Skylar came to the rescue, and Vivian wasn't just about to stop her dorm mate from speaking up. "Point made. Thanks, Mama Sky," Vivian offered her a wink. Sky could sit back down her couch now. The drama was over now, yeah?

Holly narrowed her eyes slightly, the biggest part of her wanting to shrink into the furniture and be gone from this situation. The smaller part, however, was determined not to let the older boy(Flynn) get the better of her. Straightening her back, she looked straight at him. "Courage? You bought courage? It appears you forgot to bring some with you this year" she replied. She glanced around at the room, her eyes once again falling on the younger boy(Patrick). Although she had no real idea why. He didn't look like he was going to say much in this situation. And she couldn't blame him. In fact, she admired him for keeping to himself. If only she was actually able to do that.

Turning back, she shrugged. "You know, being mean to younger students doesn't make you courageous, it makes you look small. And no, my bear doesn't have magical powers. Just the ability to make me feel at home in a huge castle full of people I don't know"

Holly turned her attention to the older girl(Skylar) as she spoke her own opinion. The smallest of smirks made it's way onto the first year's features. And then the attention was back to her. She smiled at her fellow student, "Thank you" she replied.

Then another studentVivian spoke up. Holly looked in the girls direction and smiled at her. She smiled a little at her before bowing her head slightly. Something told her she was only poking the bear more by responding to everything, but if she was going to survive in this school, then she couldn't just back down. She wouldn't just back down.

How was it already May? If Skylar was being honest, it felt like it was still September, when she had that talk with Flynn and somehow led to snogging him. While she was dating someone else. The weird thing was that she didn't even like Flynn in THAT way; yes he was one of her best friends, but that didn't mean she cared for snogging him. It didn't even make sense why she did it; not then and even less now. It was foolish almost and while it hadn't led to her breakup, it did maybe open her eyes.

To what, she was still not quite certain, but to something.

Of course, if Skylar was being honest again, she was GRATEFUL that this year was drawing to a close. All things considered, she never expected fifth year to be like this.

Curled up on the same couch she'd been back in September, the fifth year had her Herbology book propped against her thighs as she fought off the fatigue from too many late nights and early mornings. Soon she could sit for these exams that she'd been preparing for ages about.