Hopefully you listened to Headmaster Scrimgeour's words during the feast and took the phrase 'make sure you get plenty of rest for your first day of classes' to heart. Bright and early, before the sun was even up, a blaring noise fills the entire castle. It is so loud that it is sure to wake any heavy sleeper.

"EVERYONE IS TO REPORT TO THE QUIDDITCH PITCH FOR THE DAILY S.O.R.E. — SPECIAL OBLIGATORY RUNNING EXERCISES — IN TWENTY MINUTES," booms a gruffy voice. "THOSE WHO DO NOT SHOW UP WILL FACE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES."

The sound and the message continue on repeat, only the amount of time decreases with each minute that passes by. Hurry up, throw on some running clothes, and get down to the Quidditch Pitch!

Tad was sleeping in his dorm, dreaming peacefully. The beds were sure comfy at Hogwarts, his dorm mates were cool. Sure, last night was strange but he was here at the school. He just had classes to worry about and then-

*BLARE*

"AHH!!!" Taddy rolled off the bed, landing not so smoothly. Talk about a rude awakening. He wanted to ask who decided to set the alarm so early, when a deep voice came from it. "What??" No one told him that there was mandatory exercises at the crack of dawn. Then he had to get down there in twenty minutes??? That was not enough time to bathe, dress and then head down to the pitch.

Not really having a choice with that, Tad went to change into simple tees and track trousers before heading down with the rest.

Despite the new headmaster's warning, Septimus hadn't had it easy falling asleep. Start of term jitters and all with the excitement of wondering just what the new year had in store. And what ever had come to mind as he finally drifted off, it certainly wasn't being awakened by the loud, obnoxious announcement that appeared to flood to every imaginable corner from the very stones of the castle as his eyes opened in surprise.

"What in Merlin's beard?" he asked as he struggled to sit up with a yawn. Mandatory exercises? Quidditch hadn't even started...classes hadn't even started.

The day hadn't even properly started.

With a sigh, he moved to get dressed in something appropriate, dragging himself out of the dorms with reluctance. The third year noticing he wasn't the only one none to happy. Oh boy, this was going to be a fun year.

Tad went up to his dorm room with purpose. He had to do the thing he was use to doing when he was an ickle. Walking to his bed, he tore off the bed sheets, unraveling the pillows as they bounced off and onto the floor. He shut the windows temporarily to silence the wind before making work of building a tent. Well, to the wandering eye it looked like he was having fit with the speed he was working. In actuality he was making a tent, but it was more than it. It was a Blanket Fort.

Tad having been so use to making these whipped it up in a matter of minutes before finally scooping up the pillows discarded and laying inside the fort that was built by his bed. This was better... Now he just needed to reach into his secret candy stash for this to be perfect.

His breathing slightly heavy now, Ewan charged through the dormitory door with the speed of a flying Thestral, his mind on the piece of parchment that lay hidden in his trunk. If he’d been walking like a normal person, he may have been able to stop himself from going over the pile of blankets that had been placed in the middle of the room. But he hadn’t. He’d been running. Quickly. Very Quickly. “What the…”, was the only response he could muster as he somehow managed to jump over the blanket fort, landing in a what can only be described as a heap. “Ouch”.

Tad's sweet stash... It was not easy keeping a collection this year with the way posts were coming in and the whole health regime. He was so glad to have older connections when they went to Hogsmeade to keep his sweet cravings in check. Let's see... Bertie Botts, Chocoballs, aha, he was feeling up for some Mice pops. He was about to unwrap one when he turn running foots steps.

Uh oh.. Tad's attempt to repack his sweets had the undesirable effect of making the loud wrapping noise. He would be caught. The running footsteps had to be that Meanie Head, he couldn't hide or deny this act in time. He would be forced to do illegal child labor acts. Just then he heard a loud thump nearby. His blue eyes widened. He didn't hear any grown man's voice or sounds like from one. So with that, he cautiously peeked out, his curls almost obscuring his sight.

Oh... it was some guy near his age. No wait, it was Ewan. Phew. "Nice landing, mate..." That looked as painful as it sounded. ".. want a Mice pop?" Lollies were good for boo-boos after all. Besides that, Taddy knew could trust a fellow Quidditch bench mate. Especially since he managed to not destroy the fort.

Legs up in the air. Arms flailing. There was no other word for it. Ewan was a mess. Looking around now, his head slightly sore, Ewan spotted a first year in what could only be described as a blanket fort. “Uh… hey Tad. What are you doing under there?”, his face caught in between amusement and annoyance. “I could be wrong but isn’t sweets and chocolate banned?”, a small smile spreading across his face now, amusement finally winning over annoyance.

Hesitantly, he started to rearrange his flailing body parts around so that he no longer depicted a dead fly and turned to face the first year Ravenclaw. “Hey, you know I don’t mind you having them but you really should be careful” he continued as he cast a small glance towards the door. Honestly, Ewan had no idea if they were banned or not. He really hadn’t been paying attention all that much these last few months but somehow, he didn’t think the headmaster would take kindly to all these deliciously sugary treats being stashed here.

Moving the top half of his long frame into the fort, his feat sticking out of the end, he put his head down against one of the pillows and reached for the mice pop. It would be rude not refuse. Right? “Maybe next time, just eat one or two quickly and put the rest away. The whole fort thing…” he gestured around at it in all its wonder “it sticks out a little”.

Tad watched very curiously as Ewan managed to un-pretzel himself back into a more comfortable position before he was joined in the tent. "I had this thought.." Taking his time to suck on the mice pop to savour it's delicious watermelon fruit flavour. "See, in the school in classrooms and in the halls we have rules to follow. Well, the privacy of one's private quarters has its exceptions. Unless we're harming someone we have no reason to be disturbed." A loophole? Perhaps. But in other words, Taddy didn't care anymore. "Yeah, it does doesn't it?" He was pretty proud of his fort, heh heh.

"Thanks for looking out. I think I got this covered though, I keep it hidden in a special part of the room so it can't even be charmed out." He grinned at this, his teeth showcasing the green leftover of the pops incidentally. Now he had some questions, "So what happened with you? Why were you running in here?" Was there someone coming? Could that be why he was being warned? Tad started to kick his bag backward underneath the bed behind him before checking the door. He couldn't see anything or anyone.

Listening to the first year now, he couldn’t help but agree with him. He wasn’t hurting anyone and he was happy so did it really matter. Nope. Besides, it was hard to argue against it when he himself was suckling on the fruits of Tad’s secret stash. Ewan couldn’t help but smile at his friend now who was clearly proud of his little blanket fort. “You know, I’m pretty sure if we used some magic, we could make an amazing blanket fort. Or a blanket castle”, a playful smile across his face now. No matter how old he got, he’d always be a child a heart.

He had to admit, it was smart keeping the stash in a place where it couldn’t be charmed was a smart idea. Very smart for a first year although it wasn’t all that surprising considering he too was in Ravenclaw. “Hmm… smart. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if our dear headmaster somehow found it”. There wasn’t much that could surprise him these days. Except for his next question. That took him off guard slightly. “Uhh, honestly I just needed to grab something from my trunk” pausing for a second now before continuing “it doesn’t matter though. It can wait”. Watching him closely now, he couldn’t help but notice his eyes wandering to the door. “Don’t worry. No one else is coming. Or at least no one was following me” he added on at the end. He didn’t really care though. What’s the worst that could happen?