Patrick had found this room that one time someone had a party. Right now he needed a place that wasn’t over run with point deductions and contraband items. He just wanted to read one of the books he knew his friends back home were reading. But he couldn’t because it was contraband and as a captain of the quidditch team he had to set a decent example.

It felt very wrong to break the rules but he figured his parents would understand considering it was for reading. His mother encouraged reading all of the time and said no one should go through life without reading all they could. But here, here he could relax and be himself.

His thoughts were focused on things he could possibly do to make the doom and gloom ease up. Yet so far the Puff students were the only ones revolting. He wondered if more would soon join them in taking a stand against the headmasters ridiculous rules and demands. Hopefully leaving them with a better school and ending the sad faces.

Professor Petrov's uncalled for and unwelcome modification to her uniform had been the final straw. Archer had been happy (okay, not necessarily happy) to take her punishments for disobeying on the nose as it were, but causing spiders to start crawling all over her? That had crossed a line! Only, she couldn't take on the regime on her own, unfortunately. Which is why she had called for this little 'study group'.

While Archer waited for people to join her, she was working on redoing (with spells, of course) the phoenix on her uniforms at a table like the ones one might find in an art room. On the table were containers of sequins like the ones the Hufflepuff was currently working with, all blue in color. And just in case, she had asked the room to make it IMPOSSIBLE for professors to get in and warn them if professors were outside. So feel safe to join her!

Benji approached the Room of Requirement nervously. He had seen the flier up on the bulletin board. He had seen the symbol. He was pretty sure he knew what it meant. And that he could potentially get in trouble if he showed up. And then Certified Good Boy Benji Park, the Boy Who Did Not Break Rules, decided that he had to go.

Merlin, his parents were going to kill him.

He hadn't told anybody anything, not even Penny. He wondered briefly if he should have. But no, he didn't want to implicate her in anything... If he got into trouble, he didn't want it to happen to her, too.

Ironically, she was kind of the reason he felt like he needed to be here. He had never broken a Hogwarts rule, not even one single time, until he had met her. And now that they had done it once, he couldn't imagine not being able to hug her or hold her hand or kiss her but that one was a secret again.

Of course, he'd been upset before by the new regime. It wasn't like he'd been perfectly happy until Penny came along. She was just the catalyst for him feeling like he needed to be proactive in making a change. He'd never liked it. The rules, the professors being sacked, all of it was complete rubbish in his opinion. But he'd been raised not to speak up, not to make a ruckus, definitely not to fight back. In fact, his attitude toward the beginning of the year had been annoyance at those students who did try to fight back. He had wondered why they couldn't just make things easy on themselves and go with the flow. Why complain when you couldn't change anything? And the thought of talking back to or arguing with or disrespecting an adult... The thought still made his skin crawl. But he had finally realized that he couldn't sit back and ignore it anymore. Now that Penny was around, and now that all of his favorite professors -- especially Professor Stewart -- had been sacked... Well, he felt it necessary.

He entered the room cautiously and saw only one other person there. Must be the one who had called for this. He was the first to arrive? He remembered the girl... Something about her uniform in Care of Magical Creatures...? He didn't know her, but he recognized her, anyway. "Hi," he said softly. "Is this the... study group?" He held up the Divination textbook he'd brought with him. Just in case he was wrong and this was a real study group, he figured he'd bring something he actually did need help with.

At first, Max had been a bit dubious upon seeing the poster for the study group pinned up on the bulletin board. He was more of an independent studier and he'd never really understood the point of studying in a group. He imagined it to be kind of distracting.

Still, here he was ready to give it a bash. His grades this term had taken a tumble and so this was kind of a last resort. Who knows, maybe a study group was the answer to all of his problems. He doubted it, but you never know.

Had he seen the phoenix symbol on the poster? Yup. Did he think it was anything out of the ordinary? Noooope.

As far as Max was concerned, this was just your average run of the mill group study session.

"Wouldn't..... the study hall or library..... make more sense....?" He asked nobody in particular as he slipped into the room, all puffed out of breath thanks to the assortment of huge textbooks he'd just struggled up to the seventh floor with.

Nettie had felt...so out of sorts lately. After her little stint in Divination, and subsequent lashing by Eiji, the young Ravenclaw felt like she was helpless in this whole situation. Realistically, she was - what had she THOUGHT would happen, honestly? That she, a lone thirteen year old girl, would get the old professor to admit that the rule was stupid? That she was somehow outwit the old geezer in to some sort of morality debate, proving that they had no right to take her personal property? It had been rash and not as thought out as it should have been. Still, she'd felt like she had to do something, ANYTHING, and that was what she had come up with.

This, however...seemed more promising.

As Nettie entered the Room of Requirement, she realized that she didn't know anyone who was here. Still, that notice had OBVIOUSLY not been about a study group. She hoped it hadn't been THAT obvious, though, and the Headmaster wouldn't notice what was happening right under his nose.

And...she also hoped that this wasn't a GENUINE study group. Then she'd feel REAL stupid. She started to get nervous, especially when she saw that some members had brought actual books. Oh no. She had nothing...was she possibly wrong? Again?

"Hello," she piped up quietly, giving a small smile to the older students as she took a seat.

Rylee had spotted the flier announcing a studying group on the Bulletin Board. Normally she took to studying on her own or with a small group of friends whom she knew were going to study as well. However the simple fact that it had stated the meeting place was going to be in the Room of Requirement had peaked her interest instantly. Right away she wanted to know why this was. Wouldn't the more likely place to study be in the Library or the Study Hall? And what was up with the symbol of a the Phoenix on the flier as well?

Something just felt strange about it to her. Even if it was just a little detail such as that. Was there more to it or was it simply a random location for studying (which she herself had used many times for the same propose but because she wanted to be alone). Then what about the symbol? Was it supposed to mean something too? It all seemed curious to her. And whenever anything appeared to be curious, Rylee had to check it out.

So that's why she was here. Entering the Room of Requirement right away she noticed only a few people were present. Fixing her bag over her shoulder, which she always carried with her just in case, she found herself a seat. "Hello," she greeted everyone as a whole.

Patrick had noticed the flyer on the bulliten board when he walked by earlier. It seemed odd that a study group would be meeting in the room of requirement but he paced around and found the room. Looking up and aroundbhe spotted the familiar faces of his fellow classsmates and nodded at all of them as he pushed the door shut. He wondered just what he might find the further into the room he went.

Looking at the faces he waved, “Hey everyone. How’s it goin?” he was very very curious as to what they would be studying if they would study. It was a mix of students but he was certain that they were there for a reason.

The flyer had definitely not gone without notice, although the text hadn’t really caught Stasya’s notice as much as the phoenix emblazoned underneath it. Even the idea of a study session being held in the Room of Requirement didn’t really seem unusual to her, considering the situation. The Room was practically the only safe place in the castle these days, really, considering she wouldn’t put it past the headmaster to be spying on the dorms somehow. Beyond the obvious transmittal of his voice as the alarm for SORE every morning, that is. Her own safe spaces had been whittled down to basically zero too, ever since the barns had been taken away from her. It was as if there was only the Room and the forest, and the former was infinitely safer. The phoenix, however, was what had led her to walk up to the seventh floor at the hour indicated.

She knew it didn’t have anything to do with the hawks of previous years, but that didn’t make her any less nervous about what to expect. She wanted to know, though, so she’d slipped inside once the door had appeared and shut it securely behind her. Just in case.

The sight in front of her seemed normal enough, aside from the tables Archer was working at. Plus, she saw both Max and Patrick, so she wouldn’t be the only student leader in the event something happened. “Hi,” she said simply, stopping at a position next to Rylee. She wasn’t going to let anything happen to her little Gryffindor. The only other Gryffindor who appeared to be there, oddly enough, if her suspicions were correct. If not, she did have a few books in her bag to study with.

Nora had seen the notice on the bulletin board. There was something about it that made her infer that there wouldn't be any studying going on. The Room of Requirement wasn't exactly known for being a place to bunker down and get ones homework done. Especially at night. She hoped that neither Scrimgeour nor any of his cronies were smart enough to come to the same conclusion. If they wanted to investigate, she was sure that they would find a way somehow.

But here she was regardless, clad in her Ravenclaw uniform. She was carrying her book bag, which contained her Potions textbook and other necessities.

Not that they'd be using them. Nora was willing to bet Galleons on that hunch.

"I take it we're not here to study?" She was mainly looking at Archer and the sequins and the ... phoenix? That act of defiance wasn't subtle in the slightest. If the girl really wanted to act out, then she had plenty of suggestions that didn't involve getting directly blamed for something or caught red handed.

Phoenix has seen the poster for the study group, and he had been intrigued, not only by how it was worded but by seeing a Phoenix on the flyer!

Anything that had to do with his name he was curious about, so he showed up, hands in his pockets, tie pulled slack at his chest, his brown hair a little messy and his knapsack casually slung over one shoulder.

He wasn’t going to win points for the neatest uniform, and he was probably going lose points, but at the moment he didn’t really care. The rules were really wearing on him and he was tired. SORE every morning was not his mug of butterbeer.

He smiled as he saw Nora in there, and came to a stop close to her.

“Hey guys.” He said with a shrug of his shoulders that was meant as a greeting, seeing as his hands were still in his pockets.

Hanna hadn't initially thought she would attend the study group. She was sure that would be breaking some rules, and the girl was afraid of conflict. She'd done everything that had been asked of them, but still felt like she was running into a wall. So, at some silly hour before the group started, she changed her mind.

Walking into the Room of Requirement, and seeing the group that was already assembled there, she said "Hello," in way of greeting whoever was around her. But... was this a study group? She pulled out her Charms text book and was moving to the page she had bookmarked.

Would it be perfidy of her to be here tonight? She had... somewhat agreed to follow the rules of Scrimgeour and his lot, but now was she breaking the very loose commitment to those rules? She still did all of her morning SORE exercises, but mostly because she didn't want TROLL written on her skin. She didn't greet any of her true Professors, which was so hard to do, because she didn't want to let Ravenclaw down. She also didn't want to let her mother and father down by getting detention or being expelled.

She sat with her head resting on her hand, thinking of what would happen if this group was caught. But also rising in her was anger that THEY had come to their school and ruined it for them. They had ruined the fun of learning. And she was set that she was going to stay here and study!

Aretha had been told about this study session well before the flyer on the Bulletin Board had taken her attention. With a book bag slung over her right shoulder, she followed students to the Room of Requirement. As a matter of fact, she was right behind a Ravenclaw girl (Hanna). Aretha stood a little away from the crowd as she observed everyone. The expression on her face was a bit serious but she did smile a tiny bit on occasion at a few fellows.

All they were waiting was for things to get started, yeah?

Hanna looked up at the older girl who had walked in right after her. She, too, looked like she was prepared for study. But some of them didn't.

"What are you going to study today?" she asked, a hint of doubt in her tone. Perhaps one of the older students, like this one, might be able to teach her some of the charms she would need to know for fifth year. So that she could try and get ahead now, rather than feel like she were falling behind. Though Merlin save them, she hoped Hawthorne would be back by next term. Otherwise she'd likely beg her parents to homeschool her.

Study groups.

Ehhhhhhhhhh.

This was not the sort of thing Abra usually signed up for, not that there was any signing up involved as such. That wasn't to say he'd never been part of a study group before. He had. He just... wasn't very good at studying in groups.

Or alone.

... Or really at all...

Which was WHY he'd chosen to come, actually. Things were changing at Hogwarts, including the professors, in case nobody hadn't noticed. The pressure to do well suddenly felt very, uhh... enormous, so Abra was taking every opportunity he could to try and boost his chances at that.

Arriving at the Room of Requirement, Abra glanced around at those gathered and immediately regretted his decision not to bring along a friend. There was Stas, though, and Rylee too, and Abra sort of gravitated towards them, smiling slightly as he did so. Familiar Gryffindor faces, hello.

Okay, he was ready to study. Sort of. Not really... er... at all. But he was ready to try! He'd brought his books and everything. Er... the ones he could find, at least.

With his sweater tied around his waist, his tie loose at his neck, and his messenger back strap crossing his broad shoulders, Ashton Grey walked into the Room of Requirement. He had seen the flyer for this 'study group' on the bulletin board and had a feeling it wasn't really about studying.

"Hi guys." Ash said to the group of students in his deep voice and Australian accent. He made his way over to Nora and Phoenix giving them both a big grin, and sent a wave to Aretha. The gang was together again!

He dropped his bag on the floor and crossed his arms over his chest, wondering who was in charge, and when they were going to get started...and honestly wondering what they were really doing here.

”Indeed, it is! But you won’t be needing that,” Archer replied to the younger Ravenclaw with a wink. Though, she was glad that people had actually brought studying stuff with them. Would make it easier to pretend that they had actually been studying in event that the room failed them somehow.

”Hmm, maaayybbee.” Was it concerning that the Slytherin prefect hadn’t caught on? Slightly. But then, she hadn’t exactly been able to be explicit on what this whole thing was about on the bulletin board, so he could be forgiven for not catching on.

The next four to enter the room got ”Hey!”s and ”Welcome!”s in return.

A large smile crossed her face as Nora entered an seemed to immediately get it. ”Not exactly.” Archer left it at that for now, so as to not scare anyone off. Not right away anyway.

She gave it a few more moments for any stragglers before standing and calling the ‘study group’ to order with a clearing of her throat. ”Now, as some of you may or may not have guessed, this isn’t actually study group per se. It’s actually a meeting to discuss what we, as students, can do to push these, shall we say, interlopers out of Hogwarts. You know the ones I’m talking about.” The new professors and their head hog. The furious five. Whatever you wanted to call them. ”I’ve asked the Room to make it impossible for professors or Scrimgeour to get in and to warn us if they’re out there trying to get in, so don’t worry about getting caught.” For now, anyway. ”But, if you still feel uncomfortable with this, you may leave now.” She paused there to let those who wished too, leave.

Once things were settled again, Archer spoke. ”Okay, so anyone have any ideas? Something that would make those professors crazy enough that they leave voluntarily?” Thoughts, anyone? Everyone? Questions?

OOC: Thank you for coming! Sorry for the late start and not giving everyone a full reply, but real life happened, as it so often does!

There..... were too many people. Way too many. The more kids that showed up, the more anxious Max could feel himself getting. The studying part hadn't even started yet but he was already certain that coming here was a terrible idea. Hey, maybe if everyone was studying here, the actual study hall would be empty.

Before he could make his great escape, however, a girl he didn't really recognise spoke up and said something about not actually being here to study. And then Archer piped up and if he'd been feeling anxious before, it was nothing compared to the anxiety he felt after listening to her spiel.

"Wait. So we're not really here for studying?" This was confusing, okay? And don't worry about getting caught!? Max clung tighter to his pile of books and frowned unhappily, feeling very much confused and coerced.

He'd just traipsed up seven flights of stairs for absolutely nothing and whatever this was sounded like a TERRIBLE idea.

Study group?

Not really all that interested. But the company of friends and possible new friends was up Bel's alley, so the Hufflepuff captain had gone on up, not bothered by the seven floors of travel required to get there. She'd arrived at the tale end of her teammate's little speech and gaped. Then looked at Max. Oh good, at least she wasn't the only one who was clueless.

And maybe a little torn. She liked their old professors, and had a ton of respect for the former headmistress, but honestly, more than anything else, Bel just wanted to get on with her own schooling and not worry about all that sort of thing. However she also aware of how stressful many of her friends and classmates felt all the changes and rules and strictness to be. She wasn't really sure what THEY could do, or if she wanted to be involved exactly, but Bel did want to be supportive.

"I'll keep watch outside." Bel spoke up. "Then if anyone comes I can stall them a bit." And you know, if everything went pear-shaped, what were a few more housepoints when Hufflepuff had no chance of winning the cup from all the losses so far? Good thing she didn't care about points! Bel gave everyone gathered a double thumbs up and slipped outside into the corridor. Yep. Keeping watch.

Patrick listened to the words Archer was saying intently. He watched as his housemate and prefect looked nervous as he heard that it wasn’t a study group. He was surprised that they didn’t get the memo. He saw the Hufflepuff captain running out into the hall to keep watch. He looked around waiting for one of the others to speak up about an idea. He had nothing he wasn’t super devious but he was done with the professors. “I don’t have any ideas yet but I’m game for almost anything.”

AHA! So Nettie had been right! This HAD been a meeting about some sort of revolution...or something. Nettie was more than happy to let someone else take the reigns on this thing too. She scanned the room - there were a handful of student leaders here, although she frowned a bit when the Slytherin prefect seemed to think this was really a study group. They probably would need some badges on their side if they were going to get anywhere and his reaction wasn't very promising...

There were a handful of older kids there too, but she didn't recognize any of them. Which was odd, because she was good was faces for the most part. Rubbish on the names, but faces were ok. Ah well. The more the merrier, she didn't care.

"Well, I tried a little something," Nettie piped up. Her cheeks turned red, which was not a normal reaction for her, but she suddenly felt very small and afraid she was going to be reamed out for her admission of what she had done. "I wore a necklace to Divination and tried to get the professor irritated. I wanted to make a point about them not having the right to take our personal stuff, and...well, it didn't really work, and he just took it from me. They're a lot tougher to crack than we think," she said with a frown. At least Fletcher was. He was like a stone man, that on. "It was probably really stupid of me," she added quietly.

SO basically, she was down to do things - she just needed other people to come up with the ideas because she was obviously rubbish at it.

Abra was still completely clueless. He'd not exactly caught onto the whole ~secret meaning~ of the notice that had been put up on the notice board, probably because he'd not really been looking for any ~secret meaning~. He'd just thought the sign-off on the notice was kind of pretty, and that had been that.

Except that that really wasn't that. That was this, and this was...

Gasp.

A rebellion.

As that one Hufflepuff girl called things to order and kinda sorta bLAtANTLy said exactly what this group was all about, Abra's eyes widened slightly. Now. Listen. Just listen. It wasn't that he agreed with all these school rules and strict professors and all that stuff, but he just preferred to shut up and keep his head down and ride it out. Maybe it was easier for him, being just over a year away from graduating and therefore closer to the light at the end of the tunnel, but... he just...

... He didn't want to try his luck with this. It... well, hello Captain Obvious and all, but... it made him all kinds of anxious. Even if nobody could find them here, what was to stop someone from going back and telling some of those new professors exactly what was going on and exactly who was there? Yikes, you know?

But Abra didn't really want to just... walk out of there. Being a prefect, surely it would look extremely suspicious if he just upped and left. Like he was going to report everyone or something. He was just fretting over that when Bel spoke up and... oh! Yes! Excellent!

"Me too!" he blurted out, already practically falling over himself in his eagerness to head back to the door. He cast a glance around at the others as he went. "Uh... sorry. Good luck. I mean, sorry. I mean..." ... Yeah, okay, leaving now.

Maybe it looked even more suspicious, going to keep watch when the room was supposed to be unfindable, and then apologising profusely as he went, but... well... too late to start thinking about that.

Phe seemed to barely notice the entrance of the resf of his little group, and the wide smile from Ashton was returned with a mere head nod. He tugged at his tie again as he looked around at everyone who had gathered there and he wasn’t surprised about the few people who had left.

This was serious business, and he couldn’t blame people for not wanting to be part of it. Some people just wanted to keep their head down and finish school. He however was not such a person.

“I think we should all start to break the rules. They can’t possibly get us all in trouble can they? What if we all start to break the dress code, and go hold hands with people. I’m not saying like significant others, but just friends. Let’s all not show up at SORE, have food outside of the kitchens and break curfew..

Let’s show them we aren’t going to take it anymore. We won’t submit anymore..”

Ashton nodded along listening to everyone's suggestions. They were all great but...they needed some bigger things too. They needed massive pranks. As soon as the word prank hit his brain he said, "OH! I KNOW!" And bounced on the balls of his heels...not that he wasn't already tall enough.

"We can release Nifflers into the castle, specifically in the interlopers bedchambers and offices. Have them wreck a little havoc. Go big or go home, right?" Ash said, his slight Aussie accent accentuating the surfer slang. He nodded his head to his own idea and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I would be more than happy to lead that action!" He said with a mischievous grin.

Aretha did not smile. Of recent, she was in no mood to do so. Shortly put, it was due to all the stress. So, when she was asked a, she naturally answered. “Arithmancy. What about you? Want to be study buddies?’’ It was out of her peripheral vision that Ashton’s wave. There was no hesitation to return the wave. “When are we going to get started?’’ she questioned (Hanna), hoping that the girl would know. She was itching to get something done, something that would distract her from the stress.

The words were hardly out of Aretha’s mouth when (Sterling )spoke up. The Slytherin listened with great interest. A look of interest crossed her face as she straightened up, adjusting the bag on her shoulder. A minute later, she was able to gather what this meeting really was about. It really warmed her heart just how determined all who were gathered here wanted the replacements gone. It was evident from the way (Bel ) was offering to stand guard, the question (Sterling ) asked, the observation of how tough it was to crack Scrimgeour and his friends.

“Vandalizing their offices or whatever is a good way to frustrate them,’’ Aretha stated quietly but loud enough to be heard. "We just need to make sure we're not caught. I've heard about them throwing every wrong doer in detention without hesitation."