The weather was starting to get better by the day, which had prompted Maddie to head out to the grounds for a little walk. She'd been outside plenty of times throughout the winter, but it had just been for a dash to class and then back again. She hadn't really been outside just to enjoy the outdoors in quite a while. She found herself walking over by the hot springs, an area she hadn't explored at all in her three years at the school.

She peered into the water, admiring how she could see down to the very bottom of it. It was so pretty, causing her to take a seat cross-legged style at the edge of the spring. Thank Merlin the rain had stayed away today. She was starting to get as sick of it as she had been of the snow. She had just tried to get lost in thought about the weather, when something caught her eye. She squinted and then stood up.

"Whoa," she said to herself. Normally a simple coin wouldn't phase her, but these things had been popping up everywhere! She had to retrieve it! Not exactly being dressed for a dive, she withdrew her wand and pointed it toward the coin. "Accio!" she called out, hoping to summon it toward her.

"Did you drop something?" Felicity asked as she approached the Hot Springs, and heard the girl using the summoning charm. This place was like a little bit of bliss, a great place to relax when all of the NEWT pressure was getting on top of her, and ever since Junia had suggested using it for that reason at the beginning of the year, Felicity had been here a lot of times.

As she got closer, she saw something glittering at the bottom of the spring, and for a moment thought the girl had dropped some jewellery or something, but there was a lot of sparkling, and she realised they were coins of some sort?

Curious. Had someone been using it as a wishing well?

Maddie was aware that somebody had joined her, but she didn't want to lose too much focus on the spell she was casting. After all, if the coin did get summoned toward her, she wanted to be ready to catch it. She did, however, spare a small glance to the newcomer. Oh, she knew her from classes! Felicity, right? "No, I didn't," she said, waiting to see if the coin would come, "but I'm trying to get that coin. They've been popping up everywhere. Wonder who's leaving them?"

She quietened down as she waited for the coin. Maybe it was lodged in there really good or something. If it didn't come out in a second or two, she'd try it again, and if that didn't work...diving? Hmm.. Maybe she'd ask Felicity for her opinion.

Giggle..............Giggle.............Giggle

A family of Pixies lurked behind a rock watching the silly girlies trying to take the golden beauties! Oh, but those sneaky little Pixies had another thing coming for those girlies!

As the coin flew threw the air, after the little blondie (Maddie) summoned it to her, three of the Pixies shot out of their hiding place and grabbed the coin before either of the girlies could catch it. They thought it would be fun to play keep away, so one flew just above the girls holding the coin just out of reach, giggling like mad, while the others poked and prodded each of the girls.

Those darn Pixies are so fast!

Suddenly, the coin budged, and Maddie grew more and more excited. "I think I've got it!" she said to Felicity. She cupped her hands toward the coin and went to catch it. Just as it was about to reach her hands, though, something got it. "Huh?" Maddie hadn't even had time to see what that something had been, but she knew it wasn't human hands.

She glanced up to see three fairy-like creatures taunting her with the coin. "Pixies! ... Seriously?" she asked no one in particular. She'd try to reason with them, but she knew they wouldn't understand anything she was saying. Nor would they want to reason her. Instead, she gave then a look of annoyance then turned to Felicity.

"I don't suppose you know any spells for Pixies?" she asked. Wasn't the girl a seventh year or something? "OUCH!" she said, as one of them prodded her. She withdrew her wand just on instinct alone.

"How strange," Felicity mused, leaning further over to peer at the coins littering the bottom of the Springs. There were a lot of them, and she couldn't help but wonder how they'd gotten there. As curious as she was, the seventh year didn't pull out her wand just yet, deciding to see what the coin was or looked like before she tried summoning some herself. "Or what," she couldn't help but add to the younger girls wondering about 'who' was leaving them - and she definitely didn't mean it to sound as ominous as it did.

But maybe ominous was indeed the effect it should have had. Stepping back as the Hufflepuff reached out to catch the coin, Felicity's eyes grew wide when their new company arrived. "Get off!" she shouted, pulling her shirt out of a Pixies grasp and twisting and turning her body in order to try and avoid their poking - not that it help, and they hurt. She managed to pull her wand out of her pocket after a moment, and tried to aim it at the Pixies that were flitting around their head.

"Immobulus!" she muttered, waving her wand and praying that the Freezing Charm hit the creatures. "IMMOBULUS!"

"OUCH!" the third year said again. She swatted at a pixie as it tried to poke at her a second time. She'd heard Felicity's replies to what they'd been talking about before the pixie attack, but Maddie didn't exactly have a chance to stop and say anything in return. Since when did pixies fly about the school calling chaos?!?! She paused, pixie attack and all, and watched as Felicity cast a spell.

Oh? Is that the one? Well, in that case... "Immobulus!" the third year joined in, waving her wand toward a group of pixies. "Immobulus!" There was nothing to do now but wait it out. Would their efforts work? Was the coin even worth it? She wasn't sure, but if this got the pixies away from them, then something was worth it!

GIGGGGGLLLLEEESSSSS!

The Pixie holding the coin still floated just out of reach. Jumping would be futile because it would just fly higher. The other two kept poking, pulling hair, giving wet willies, and anything else they could do to annoy these two girls.

Every time the girl sent a spell, the Pixie was faster. The were giggling something fierce now! Always fun to torment girlies! The pixie fluttered out of the way with the last spell and pulled the girls hair. That would teach her to send spells at them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first spell the littler girly cast missed, but the second caught the Pixie off guard and it froze in mid-air and dropped like a rock to the ground.

THIS PIXIE WAS INTERNALLY SCREAMING AT YOU!

Part of Felicity was a little disheartened that her her spells hadn't hit, especially when the younger girls had, but that was the smallest part of her. The larger, ruling part, was relieved that at least one spell had hit, and she shot an encouraging smile at Maddie. "Nice aim," was all she managed, before her hair was being pulled again.

"OW."

That sent anger right through Felicity's body, and she raised her wand again. "Immobulus. Immobulus. Immobulus!" she cried, pointing her wand at a different pixie each time, and praying that at least one hit. The coin, hovering above them in the pixies gasp, was forgotten right then.

Maddie glanced upward and saw the pixie right above her. She started to jump and attempt to snatch the coin from the creature, but no way was she going to let it see her make a fool of herself. The third year sighed to herself. Just then, she turned around and realized that one of her spells had hit a pixie. "It's working!" she said.

With newfound hope and determination, she pointed her wand toward another pixie. "Immobulus!" she called out. Without missing a beat, she pointed her wand toward another and then another after that. "Immobulus! Immobulus!" Her gaze turned toward Felicity, and she noticed that the older girl was doing the same.

Surely with all these spells flying at the pixies left and right, they'd have that coin in no time! For all they knew, it could just be a knut. It really hadn't looked like one, though...

When the bigger girly cast her third spell it struck true to the heart of the Pixie that was bothering her. The blue bugger fell straight to the ground.

Internally...it was calling her some very bad names and kept glancing at the last pixie and the first on that was on the ground.

HOW DO WE GET OUT OF THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSUH!?

The last immobulus of the ickle one struck the last Pixie. It froze with a gasp, releasing the gold coin as it tumbled through the air. These Pixie's wouldn't be bothering them anymore.

The rest of the Pixies that were hiding behind a rock nearby, whispered in shocked voices and flew as fast as the could away from the big scary girlies!

NOPE. NO MORE.

Maddie glanced toward her older friend and saw her take down a few more pixies. They were defeating them! The coin was in the back of her mind by now. All she was mostly thinking about was saving them from the random attack. As she cast one more Immobulus, it struck the pixie with the coin. "Take that!" she called out, a little too excited about their defeat. She scrambled to pick up the coin and held it tightly in her grasp. She didn't even want to put it in her pocket for fear the pixies would come to and snatch it back from her.

"So what do you think we should do with this?" she asked, gesturing toward the coin. "I know the professors have been collecting these kinds of things and displaying them somewhere. We should probably give it to one of them." Her gaze traveled from the coin to the pixies. "We should probably take off, too, before these little guys wake up." Hoping that her friend would follow her, Maddie turned and headed off in a different direction--toward the Great Lake.

Felicity let out a low sigh of relief as the last of the pixies flew away, prodding the one she'd stunned with the toe of her shoe, just to make sure it wasn't trying to be clever. She then took a moment to peer back down into the Springs, but decided that there was no way she was risking grabbing another of those coins, and instead she turned to Maddie and offered a small smile.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," she offered, in reply to the younger girls suggestion of giving it to one of the Professors. Part of her wanted to just put it back and move on, but another part was curious, and she found herself following Maddie towards the lake.

As Maddie headed back out onto the grounds, she thought about this was the final of the observations she needed to do for her long-term assignment. She could always come out here on her own sometime in the future, but as far as actually having to for the assignment, this wrapped it up. She had a newfound hope about seeing the Northern Lights, too. She'd seen them during her third observation, so it wasn't a far stretch to think she might see them tonight, too.

She crossed the grounds and headed toward the hot springs, a place she'd been before when she'd found that mysterious gold coin in the water. Actually, there'd been several there. Odd, but she'd brought it to its proper place, and now it was with the other bits of treasure on the display. She stopped just to the side of the water and spread out her blanket. Once she'd gotten settled on it and taken out her quill and parchment, she laid down and looked up at the sky.

It was pretty clear up there tonight. There weren't any clouds, so she had a good, clear view of the stars. She watched them for a few minutes, and despite the fact that she was here for the Northern Lights, she tried to pick out a few constellations, too. After a while, she moved on to looking at the moon. There were so many things to see in the night sky, but apparently not the Northern Lights. At least not tonight. Oh, well. At least she'd gotten lucky during that last observation. She sighed, sat up, and took some notes on her parchment.