It didn't take long for a first year to approach her and honestly, her questions were ones that Skylar had mixed feelings over. While she'd have liked to think that this was in her control, it also had to do with the other teams as well. And she'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. "Possibly. I mean. I'd like to, of course. But as with any sport, there's always that gamble ... the chance... Merlin, for all we know, we might have a sun glare disadvantage." Which would be really pitiful if they lost due to the sun, but what could they do when it came to nature?

Also, she was totally ignoring the way the younger girl followed her gaze to the dorms. While she'd have liked to have slinked off to check, well, she couldn't exactly.... Not without unwarranted attention, so she'd just have to hope the noise subsided some.

"Who you calling crazy, crazy?" she joked casually of the dormmate. But seriously, she was super grateful to hear that Kye would be trying out again! The girl had proved herself to be a brilliant flyer! She turned her attention over towards Vivian's intro and wait ... Coleslaw? She rolled her eyes, not exactly surprised by him disappearing between the feast and now. She did catch Felicity and Junia over there beside enough and gave little finger waves to the girls, figuring they'd catch up more later. Or hopefully anyway. They'd been rather quiet towards her on the train and ever since, which made Sky suspicious as to why they didn't want to talk to her.

Oh, there was Flynn, with his opening introduction and did he just offer to answer one question?? Color this one impressed and Skylar debated on the one question she wanted to ask him.

But not before another first year had also approached, Lydia apparently. "Thanks! Yes, Slytherin did in fact win both the house and quidditch cups last year! Flying is pretty amazing!"


Eyes focused over on the head of house as she introduced herself and a game too; one she knew about (obviously), but still. She waited for a few people to brave the wheel first before heading over towards it to have a spin and cross her fingers........ as it spun around, she found herself hoping for something not completely disgusting and when she heard the wheel stop, she opened her eyes...

KETCHUP.

Well that wouldn't be so bad; plucking one of the red ones from the ketchup bean area.... she popped it in her mouth. So it was weird by itself, but again, it could have been worse like rotten egg or something.

Beth grinned over to Laurel and clearly Laurel had to refrain from hugs…since, well, she’d like hugged her the last time she’d seen her over summer. Still, here she was being polite and acting like she didn’t have a connection here other than the tea – and that was just polite. ”I will have to keep that in mind Professor,” she even added a wink in there for special effect because Beth was one that winked a lot. ”Oh, I know…its why I grabbed this one – she probably figured you’d need it after the start of term feast” she smiled kindly before watching how kindly she interreacted with everyone.

Laur was the best.

Oh…so was that why Prefect Flynn left? He didn’t want to eat bertie botts…huh, smart move. Beth glanced over to Nimma when she arrived her a pop and smiled at her before turning her attention to the game.

please be something good she thought to the game and tried to will it as she gave it a slight spin. ”I hope that’s the case too then, y’know we don’t want that to get in the way” the wheel tick tick ticked as it spun closer to its final destination. When the sounds stopped she looked again and smirked – she was lucky. Thank merlin.

MINT

Taking a bott from the mint area and popped it into her mouth and grinned to herself. It wasn’t bad at all, in fact it was good. Almost made her smell better yeah?

Oh! Nimma's assistance was needed by the Head of House! "Yes Miss, Nimma would love to help with the refreshments Miss!" There was a very low bow towards the woman, and Nimma made herself useful. After checking on drinks for the studentsies, she went to the basket of Bertie Bott beans, ready to start helping them find their correct flavors! She smiled at the studentsies, secretly happy not to have to partake in the taste tests.

Smiling at Professor Vance, Kye offered her the jelly slug she had requested. "But of course!"

Kye laughed at Sky's response, and shrugged. Yea girl, I'm crazy... you're crazy... We are all definitely a little crazy. Also, byyye Flynn... Kye shook her head as he 'addressed' the students. How was it decided that he was Prefect again? Could anyone remember? *sigh* She redirected her attention to Professor Vance who had set up a wheel for Bertie Botts... Hmmmm risky... She waited for an opening and went up to the wheel.

-OVERCOOKED SPINACH-

"But whyyyyy???" she thought... out loud. She gave a displeased look at the wheel before heading over to the basket. Not envious of herself, she started the search for the right one... completely tempted to pick out an Apple one instead. Who'd know?? Alas, she found the right one and gave a subdued smile at the house elf in front of her before saying, "This is how I go!" She wasn't into cabbage on the best of days, and it was no different this time. Kye made a slight gag face and went to get herself a drink. "Why do we subject ourselves to this kind of torture??" she said, mostly joking. She flashed a smile to Professor Vance just in case. Drink in hand, Kye went back to her chair and took out another sweet. Hey, she deserved this one okay?!

From a quiet corner in the common room the Bloody Baron sulked and watched as the beans testing got started after the boring intro's. He had heard Miss Vance mention him too. Rattling his chains, as he floated forwards still feeling dejected, he let his black staring eyes scan around at the group of snake students. As he came to a stop, hovering on the spot the Baron grumbled out in his hoarse whisper, his tone a bit on the surly side. "Can someone spin the wheel for me and eat up the bean?" He obviously couldn't for ghost reasons.

Patrick turned to a the girl who started speaking to him, he was sure she heard his accent, and there it was. He smiled, “Well was, my parents moved back to London the summer before I started here. Oh, I’m Patrick.” He forgot how strange it was for most people to hear an accent when they weren’t accustomed to the southern twang like his friends back home were. He was just glad he didn’t pick up the European slang.

Patrick turned and started talking to Skylar about quidditch. He had practiced a bit when his brothers were in town, mostly in hopes of making the team this year. “So ready for this year. I cant wait to try out. We looking good for this term?”

Another girl came up to him and said hello, she looked a bit giddy, but he was sure it was just the first year nerves. He was so glad to see so many happy faces around Hogwarts this year especially in his house. “Hey Beth, I’m patrick, welcome to Slytherin I’m sure you’ll love it.”

Patrick Glanced over at Kye noticing how excited he was to be trying out for Quidditch again and just fly, he felt the same way. He was more into quidditch this year after having a year to get accustomed to the game.

Patrick watched Flynn, man he couldn’t believe that he used to idolize him his first year, thank the wizarding gods for bringing him to his senses he was not going to ever be like Flynn, he was always going to try and be the best Patrick he could be.

Patrick was still getting used to the height, he could almost look down on Professor Vance. It was weird he used to have to look up to all of them, but then again his mama had prepared him for hitting close to 6’ this year like his older brothers. “Had a great summer Professor Vance. I spent it back in Kentucky, but my brothers visited for a few weeks on vacation which made their trip back even more special. Did you have a great summer?” he always liked Professor Vance, she was a kind soul.


“Sure sir.” patrick spun the wheel and landed on POPCORN. He was so ready for it, he popped the bean in his mouth started chewing ready for anything but really it tasted just like that movie popcorn he loved to get when he would go see a movie at the local theater. “Tastes just like butter Sir.”

As Flynn began to speak, the blonde busied herself with her lemonade, allowing the loud thoughts of what she wanted to add to this bucket list to tune out the words he was saying.

"I love it," Felicity grinned, squeezing Junia's arm. "It sounds like the perfect way to spend our seventh year." Or, rather, the perfect way to spend what little down time they would have, but she did know that it would serve as a brilliant set of rewards for all the heart work that they'd surely be spending many all nighters doing. She also had a few ideas of what they could start off with, but she'd save that for later.

After whatever this Beans challenge was. Bushy brows furred together as she winced, allowing Junia to step up to participate in something she would not be joining in. She didn't even like the nice Bertie Bott's at the best of times, let alone when she was being forced to eat one. Besides, Felicity was already looking forward to the sweets Junia had up in their dorm.

"At least it wasn't phlegm," Junia whispered to Felicity as she returned from her turn at the wheel. The fact that there was even such a flavor out there made her skin crawl. Gross with a capital G. The others seemed to have luck on their side as well, avoiding the nastier of the bean options for the moment. Good on them.

"Astrea is up for a study group, by the way. We talked about it and she was excited. Maybe we can pick a time every week to brush up on things once we all have our schedules sorted out?" There would need to be snacks and a good location and mandatory study breaks because how could there not be? She had it all planned out in her head, now they just needed to put it into action.

"Not at all, Professor," Vivian responded to her head of house. Except, maybe, when her co-prefect disappeared into thin air. That came as no surprise though, yeah? And speaking of....

...

Vivian stared at Flynn as he walked away to his dorm after his oh-so welcoming introduction. Part of her wanted to flipendo his bum back down to the common room, but part of her--the part which always won--just let him go. He was probably tired, and the Head Girl didn't want to waste what was left of her energy on trying to bring him back, which will most likely end up in vain anyway. She'd gotten used to it, though. Coleslaw was a friend, but she'd talk with him tomorrow about important stuff.

Also, she may have side-glanced at Skylar when she heard a weird but faint sound coming from the dormitories. So she did bring it with her, huh?

But when Professor Vance started the beans challenge, Vivian sort of stayed at the side and watched things happen for a few rounds. Then she realised how utterly boring it was to just watch them all taste crazy flavours. "Hmmm, my turn!" The blond said and went ahead to spin the wheel while nobody was around. What better way to enjoy the house spirit than to join in....

DIRT.

"What?!" Vivian cursed under her breath, wondering why they even planned this entire thing with like 50% of the gross flavours in that bowl. "But...." UGH. It would be unfair if she didn't, and she was no loser. Vivian had an ego to protect so, frowning as she reached out for a bean, she immediately threw the brown-coloured one into her mouth in hopes of sparing the pain of actually tasting it.

However, it tasted soooo much like dust and soil that it made the Head Girl almost shove people away to get a glass of juice. Why couldn't she have just gotten a marshmallow-flavoured one? That was her favourite. Cue the internal sobbing. Downing an entire glass in one go, Vivian made a face at the aftertaste. NOT COOL.

"Alright, guys! I have an eeeexcellent idea. Who here likes surprises?" Vivian asked, but clearly wasn't waiting for responses because either way, she was still doing it. "I do! Why don't we spice up this Bertie Bott's Challenge with...." The Head Girl took her wand out and flicked it towards the direction of her dorms, and a tiny hand bag flew into her free hand. She had practised that, okay?

She opened up the bag and pulled out a couple of cloths. "Blindfolds!" She started giving those out for the other Slytherins. "You know what to do. Have fun." Wink.

OOC: Haha, hi guys! Vivian wanted to turn things up a bit and now, she has a couple of blindfolds set out for your charries to wear. This time, they won't be spinning the wheel in-character but rather, you guys (the roleplayers) spin it out-of-character and whatever flavour comes out as a result will be the bean your charrie gets to taste. So they're blindfolded and will be picking a random bean from the bowl. We can't wait to see their reactions to all this. Enjoy, y'all!

Zarina was in her own little world and heard the head of house and the leaders being introduced! She perked her ears up and saw the head of snake house stating they were all playing a game. This slytherin was up for any game that came her way. She got up and observed other students playing the spinning wheel and see what beans they got. Some got nasty ones and she laughed. Others got lucky and got original flavors like mint.

Zarina's turn for the wheel. Her heart was beating out her chest. She had no idea what the wheel had in store for her. She wiped her sweaty palms on her pants and walked up and grabbed the blind fold from her head girl. She beamed and then tried to walk over.....

OMFFFFFF

She bumped into the wall. She laughed and massaged her nose. She turned around felt around and felt the spinner and tugged down and began to spin. She hoped she got something good. She heard the clicks slow down and she took the blind fold off and read....

CHOCOLATE

Wheew! That was close. Zae was in the clear. She beamed and got one chocolate bean and didn't want to jinx her chances.

Turning her attention back to Beth she had to remind herself to keep being professional when really all Laurel just wanted was to pull her bonus niece into a hug. Smiling she said with a wink "We'll see if i need it Beth, it depends on how this party ends. But thank you so much for the tea. You're welcome to come try the tea with me sometime, if you'd like?"

Laurel missed when Beth ate her MINT bean since she had just spotted Flynn's sneaking off towards the dorms. Eye's narrowing she pitched her voice over the chatter so it was probably heard in the whole dungeon. "Prefect Kowalski get back here! The party isn't over yet! You promised me to introduce the new Snake Buddies system to everyone tonight......" If Flynn tried to refuse she'd be very cross with him.



As the little elf came over and bowed to her which by the way was completley unnecessary Laurel said "Thank you Nimma for your help! Don't you want to try a tasty bean yourself?" What did an elf eat anyway? The same as humans did?



Accepting the jelly slug from Kye she plucked it into her mouth and chewed, it tasted just like remembered. Smiling she said "Yummy, just like i remembered jelly slugs tasted." Laurel looked on as Kye stepped up to spin the wheel among the first ones. She watched as the girl got her spinach flavoured one from Nimma and ate it up making a gag face and then trying to joke and realizing probably that it was borderline and flashed her a smile. Laurel let it pass.



It was a very akward feeling to have to look up when talking to a student, it was not natural. Laurel hoped that Patrick didn't give her reason to have to reprimand him for something because then it'd be weird. She'd have to get very large heels if she wanted to look down at him. Pushing the awkward feeeling away Professor Vance listened to what Patrick was saying. "Kentucky, that's in America right? Aww, how fun that you got to see your brothers. Are you close to them in age?"

Laurel let her eyes glance over the room for a moment satisfied that nothing was out of order before she turned to Patrick again with a smile. "I had a great summer. Spent a few weeks on Mallorca and then with family and friends just like you did."



"I'm glad to hear that Vivian. Going down to the dungeons after the feast should be simple and I hope everyone will memorize the new password and not spill it to someone they shouldn't." Laurel commented with a look over at the blond Head Girl. She got herself a glass of lemonade to sip on as Vivian took her turn at the bean wheel and then tried to spice things up by adding blindfolds to the mix. Flashing Vivian two thumb's up Laurel waited to see who'd be daring enough to let themselves be blindfolded.




"Go Zarina!" Laurel chanted as the fifth year stepped up to be the first to give the new twist a try. She ooooed as Zarina bumped into a wall nose first. Luckily she didn't seemed to have hit the wall so hard. When Zarina removed her blindfold Laurel called over "How did it go with your nose Zarina?"

Oh please. Was the Baron kidding!? Someone spin the wheel for him and eat the bean?! Thank Merlin Patrick volunteered and Skylar gave the younger snake a small smile, before answering his questions - well, sort of. She wasn't about to give away all her secrets afterall. "I'll let you know, but hopefully... I've got my fingers crossed for a good season though" although she was admittedly kind of sad about not having the same rivalry with Gryffindor again. It didn't feel quite the same against the youger Botros as it did against Zoryn and she still didn't really know what happened? It seemed like Zoryn had been a good captain last year.... ?? Though of course it had little to do with her abilities, but again, what did Skylar know.

And then, Vivian was calling attention to them with changing up the game with blindfolds!? Oh why not... it was a good distraction until she could go up to her dorm to check on... things. And avoid further questioning about quidditch and strategies until the time came...

Stepping up after Zarina, who lucked out it seemed, Skylar stuck the blindfold around her eyes and felt the wheel, spinning... listening for it to stop. And then randomly selected one and popped into her mouth.

And promptly spit it back out. "Troll bogey! Gross!" She exclaimed pulling the blindfold off. Just as she heard some more ruckus from her dorm. She side-glanced over at Vivian... had she disrupted something when she summoned the bag of blindfolds?! Maybe she should just quietly slip away to errr ... check on things. Before the noises got worse. Get some ... water.

Vivian watched as the rest of the Slytherin passed the blindfolds around, and she couldn't resist a smirk when they had to get a random bean. It was fun to watch, and maybe not as fun if she had to do it herself. Which she won't be doing because she was enjoying all their grossed out faces.
"I've got that part under control, Professor Vance," she replied. For sure the students won't be forgetting the password anytime soon. If they could remember while they were on the way to the common room, Vivian had practically repeated it five times. And if they forgot it, it was their fault. She had done her part, after all.

As for the second half of her Head of House's concern, Vivian pretended like it wasn't a big deal. "That someone won't be me, Professor." Just in case. She didn't have a reason to share the password to other students anyway. Had Eloise been sorted to another House, though, then she would have spilled it to her sister. But since they both turned out to be Slytherins, it didn't matter. "I'll try to make sure nobody gets a hold of our password." No promises on that, though. Every one of them had their own reasons.
And then Vivian heard it. Again.

The Head Girl's blue eyes darted from the Bertie Bott's wheel to her dorm mate, and raised a brow. Vivian was sure it had nothing to do with summoning the blind folds. Her bag wasn't even heavy enough to knock things down. It was a small one, so the seventh year grew more and more suspicious.

"Please don't tell me...." Vivian said under her breath, so only she and Sky could hear. No way. Nuh-uh.

*POP*

Tinka entered the room and started to tidy up a bit. "Studentsies make messies Tinka have clean." Her happy kitchen duty face was turned sour over having to pick up after the students, a job that didn't require the use of her whisk. "Toddles need clean after studentsies, not Tinka."

She huffed and grumbled at every misplaced pillow and cushion, every scrap of parchment, and all of the dust bunnies hiding under the furniture. She was fed up with taking care of duties Toddles should have completed.

Flynn was ready to call it quits today after spending hours outside with his nose stuck in a Charms textbook - strange, right?! Kowalski actually studying?! If he didn't need that scholarship to fund his studies at WADA, he wouldn't give two flying hippogriffs about his NEWTs. Yet, he needed the funds, so he was trying to learn seven years worth of material in a few short months. He was hoping for a miracle because if he didn't get this scholarship and he didn't get an audition this summer, he didn't know what he would do....

He entered the common room, exhausted and with a headache. He was attempting to treat the headache with a cup of soothing hot tea; however, his headache only grew when..........

...................

He stared blankly at the mess within the common room. By mess, he meant mess. His The couch looked as though it has been chewed on by some sort of animal. The pillows, which had also been chewed and destroyed, were laying in a pile of their own white stuffing. His eyes were drawn to the books that had been knocked off the study tables - or at least, he was looking at something that was once a book. It now looked like it had been something's play toy.

Not to mention, it smelled, like something had went to the bathroom in here.

It took a moment for him to piece everything together for him to remember something:


...... SKYLAR ........

He loved his friend, he did, but she was suppose to keep that thing under control.

There was a new thought on his mind as he stood there, amongst the crime scene, dumfounded: where was that thing at? Merlin help the Slytherin Prefects if it had gotten out of the common room.

Surviving on caffeine, quick meals, and very little sleep was totally normal, right? ....It felt awful, sure, but Junia needed to believe that this was typical seventh year behavior and that it'd get better once exams were over. Plus she was lucky in that she was done for the day. She'd gone through each of her study guides with surprising speed, knowing the topics like the back of her hand, and now she could sit on the couch in the common room and.....

"Why can't we ever just have a day of peace at this school?"

The seventeen year old moved closer to Flynn, her nose wrinkled as she took in the absolute disaster area that was the common room. "Throw a wild party I wasn't invited to?" She needed to joke about this because otherwise she'd probably cry. Did she have to help clean now, or?

...so much for relaxing.

So in all honesty, Skylar HAD been keeping her pet under control. It was only a baby, which made it easy to keep stealth for the months she had been. Which was why she was confused when she came in and smelled the all to recognizable odor that infiltrated her nostrils. Along with the mess of the couch. And her fellow seventh years there, hovering.

Pinching her nostrils, she looked between Flynn and Junia, the latter of whom, things still felt rather strained with and Skylar felt useless about. She wanted to fix things, because she thought she'd been doing her a favor and yet apparently not.

"What happened here?" Skylar asked, feigning innocent, although she was pretty sure she knew exactly what happened. Except, it was locked in its carrier; she ALWAYS made sure it was secured before she left in the morning for her daily activities.

The Baron floated lazily through the wall. He was in a grimmer mood than usual as he had only just told off Peeves for being a nuisance. His Bloodiness mood seemed to get even grimmer (if that were possible). The Common Room was in absolute shambles. It was appalling. “Yes. Exactly happened in here?’’ the Baron demanded. The words echoed that of Ms. Diggory’s. “Has Peeves been up to something in here? If he has I will see to it that he never dare come here again.’’ The tone of voice was low and rather menacing for he was in no good mood.

Flynn had been thinking about ignoring the mess in the common room because seriously, who had time for this? Not him, that's who. All he wanted to do was go relax in his bed, maybe mirror Archie for a little while, then go to sleep. THAT had been his plan, and you know what? That was going to be his plan. Not like this mess was his fault, so why should he care? He was going to pretend this mess didn't exist, and he was going to continue up to his dorm, hoping that that thing didn't destroy his dorm.

Just as he took a step in the direction of his dorm, he heard Junia's voice, which caused him to stop.

He couldn't disappear now. Plan ruined. Thanks, Botros.

He turned to look at her with a single raised eyebrow. "If I had thrown a party, I would of done it more discretely, Botros." He wasn't in the market to get detention, thank you very much. He avoided the mess around him by looking at his fellow Slytherin, who was looking rather attractive today. Did she do something different to her face? Hm.... "You know, if we get out of here now, we can avoid having to clean up." ..... well, that was until the real culprit showed up....

"I was going to ask you the same thing, Diggbutt." Yeah, what HAD happened here? HMMM? He gave her some looks, but he immediately stopped when he heard the Bloody Baron's voice.

So much for avoiding responsibilities.

He looked over at the ghost, figuring out what to say (because he wasn't going to tattle on his friend), and it was only until the mention of Peeves that a lightbulb went off in his head. "It was Peeves," he blurted out, avoiding eye contact with Skylar. "I saw him as I entered the common room, but he left before I could do anything." Acting skills were a 10 out of 10, guys. "Do you think you could track him down for me, Baron?" And maybe, I don't know, not come back for a few hours? He added in thought.

The Baron glared at the male prefect. In all honesty and fairness he was almost always glaring. “Is that so?’’ The chains rattled loudly when the Baron moved closer to the vast mess. “How long ago would you say this happened?’’ The Slytherin House ghost was quite aware of many students blamed Peeves for their own prankish deeds. There was no room for defending Peeves but the Baron appreciated honesty. After all he had been telling off Peeves not so long ago about something completely different.

Nimma arrived in the common room with a *POP* not realizing that she now expected the worst when she showed up anywhere. Had Toddles found his way back to the snake? Thankfully it looked as though he hadn't... but... well, this wasn't the cleanest of rooms either. Nimma looked around wondering where to start first, hoping she wasn't intruding. "Hmmm..." she said with a hint of a sigh. Time to get to work!

The House elf appeared. The Baron simply looked at her. She was here to clean. Of this the Baron was certain. “Just a minute.’’ The Baron held up a transparent hand. The chains clanked loudly. “I would like to get to the bottom of this before we have any clean up done.’’ He did not know the elf’s name but he was sure he did not want her to be cleaning the Common Room when he suspected teenagers were the wrong doers.

His icy gazed affixed on the prefect yet again.

Flynn was not phased by the icy gaze that the Baron gave him; he even gave an icy gaze right back at him. He, too, could also do that. He did break the gaze to glance over at the house elf that arrived, giving himself enough time to think his answer over, then he looked back at the ghost.

"I would say about," he took a brief pause as he pretended to do some calculations in his mind, "10 minutes ago? Maybe 15? It's not like I constantly keep up with the time, Bloody."

The Bloody Baron did not think much of Flynn Kowalski. The Prefect seemingly was rude. The Baron could deal with his sassiness. "The act of having the common room upturned surely would stick in one's mind,'' his bloodiness said smoothly. "As it was I was just dealing with our resident poltergeist before arriving here. He was, as usual being quite a nuisance but he was certainly not being a nuisance here.'' Chains rattled. "You might want to reconsider before lieing to me. I suggest you assist the House Elf in cleaning up this mess. It would be a good idea to set an example for your fellows to follow.''

Nimma had been ready to go when she was stopped by the Baron. She looked up at the transparent ghost with her large eyes, not used to being asked NOT to clean. "Nimma does not mean to get in the way, Sir!" she said with a squeak. She had not meant to intrude! She backed up a step tucking her head in a bow, waiting for the Baron's instructions.