Ewan really wasn’t sure why he was exploring the lower floors of the castle today. Something inside him just suddenly said, explore so that’s what he was doing today. Maybe he should have been doing a little bit of revision but he simply could. Not. Focus. No sir. So instead, today was just going to be one of those days where he let his legs take him wherever he was supposed to be and that was that.

Although, he had kind of hoped that his legs would take him somewhere a little more interesting than the lower floors of the castle. Sure, if he continued into the dungeons, there was a pit of slugs and an entrance into the kitchens but he’d been to the kitchens so many times already for the pancakes and well, why would he want to go to the pit of slugs? No thank you.

Then again, maybe a pit of slugs would be more interesting than the broom cupboard that lay in front of him now. A very small part of him almost wished he wasn’t here alone and that he could just sneak in there with someone else to swap saliva. Although, knowing him, he’d most likely get detention and then actually lose his badge. Instead, all he did today was poke his head in to make sure no one else was kissing in there because, you know, prefect? DUH.

Jina was heading back to the entrance hall after spending some time studying outside. She had managed a productive revision session and also got vitamin D from the sunlight! Feeling quite pleased with herself, she was about to walk up the stairs when she saw Ewan opening the door to the broom cupboard. She had never seen what was inside the cupboard, and now curiosity got the better of her. Therefore, she changed her direction and walked towards her housemate. A mischievous idea came to her as she approached Ewan quietly … When she was right behind him, she stood on tiptoe and yelled into his ear, ”BOO!”

”Who, what wh-uuuu”

Either Jina had been trying to sneak up on him or he was growing increasingly deaf because he did not hear her sneak up in him. Turning, the prefect just took a deep breath and replied ”What the…” pausing for a moment before continuing ”what’s up Jina?”.

Did she actually want something or did she simply want to distract him from his investigation into the broom cupboard? Either way, she had achieved both of those because he was not looking at her with a half amused look on his face.

Yes, she was trying to sneak up on him, hehe. It worked! ... oh, was he mad at her? She suddenly felt apologetic and embarrassed. He might have been handling some important prefect business and did not want to be disturbed. Or he might have been in a bad mood, which could have been made worse because of her. She knew that her specialty was unintentionally annoying someone when they are already feeling irritated.

"Nothing, haha. Did I scare you? Sorry," she said quickly and stepped back a bit. He looked kinda amused though? So she smiled and looked inside the broom cupboard herself. There were brooms and other boring things - nothing exciting. "What were you doing here?"

Had it not been obvious that she had scared him? He had practically squeaked at her first before he turned around. Totally embarrassing and not at all cool. Never mind. It didn’t matter. There were no snogging kids inside and now he looked like a right fool in front of Jina. This just kept on getting better and better. He obviously was not in a bad mood.

”It’s okay” he replied as he forced a small smile on his face. ”I was just doing some perfecting. Just making sure there wasn’t any kids making out in there” nodding his head towards the cupboard now. Sometimes being a prefect was fun. Catching people doing things they weren’t supposed to be doing was honestly so fun. Watching them freeze and then make up some kind of excuse for why they were there. ‘Oh. W weren’t kissing. Honest. We were just looking for my lost set of marbles. Oh look, there’s one now. In my pocket. How did it get there?’. Yes. He had heard that story before.

Jina did not think that Ewan was uncool! She was just getting better at sneaking up on people. And her definition of "not cool" includes holding grudges, but he was clearly not angry at her for scaring him, so it was all good.

"You sound like you were hoping to catch some kids making out in here," she laughed. She did not know much about the responsibilities of prefects, but having to stop students snogging in random places did not sound fun to her. It would just be a painful reminder of her singleness ... xD

Hoping to catch some kids? Well, that would make his day more interesting although then he’d have to sort it out and take the two miscreants to a professor or someone and honestly, it was just hard work. Well, that was a lie. It was annoying.

”I mean, it might make my day a little more interesting. It would also stop me from going to revise for the NEWT’s so I guess it wouldn’t be so bad”. Being made a prefect was such a great honour but it was hard at times. He had so many extra duties then all of his homework and then finding time to revise. As for the singleness…he was happily single at the moment although he wasn’t sure how long that would really last for. It was all just one big confusing mess of confusion.

"Ah, I see." She said with an understanding nod. Her days were pretty boring nowadays too. Lessons, meals, extra-curricular activities, then homework and NEWT revision. The only odd thing that was happening was the sky changing colours, but she did not like looking at it too much. She envied the prefects for getting to see plenty of ~interesting~ things while on patrol. However, Ewan's words also implied that prefect duty took some precious revision time away, which might make it challenging to study well for the exams. That would be pretty stressful, she thought.

"Well, have fun prefecting! I'm gonna go back to the common room. See ya," she said brightly and waved, before heading back to the stairs.

Ewan just gave a small nod and smile as Jina headed off back to their shared common room. His day was far from over. He would still be trapsing around the corridors until the sky went dark and everyone was hopefully fast asleep.

”Sure. I’ll see you back there later” he called after her before he turned and headed in the opposite direction. Maybe he’d have time to head to the prefect’s bathroom and grab a bath before he had to do more patrolling. Nothing would happen for an hour or so surely?

It had been an eventful morning.

Eleven year old Finn Quentin had awoken to someone else laying in his bed. Sharing had always been something he prided himself on. However, this other person wasn't completely whole; ghostly, you might say. This fright resulted in a rather loud shriek, a lot of tears and fleeing.

It had been early enough in the morning that he hadn't run into many other students as he escaped the scene of his dorm room. He was still dressed in his comfy striped gray and white pajamas a small duckling plush clutched tightly under his arms, squished up against his chest as he escaped into the broom cupboard. He was too tired (and his vision too blurred from tears) to keep running. Plus? His mummy had been on the quidditch team and this felt close enough to being with her.

He sniffled loudly as he tried to stifle his sobs.

Really, it was more than just the fright of the ghost student in his bed that caused all the commotion. Homesickness and the storm was presently eating at his insides.

Was it dusty in here?

Cassidy was tired, and that was almost a weird word to describe such a vibrant redheaded girl. A lot of factors were in play right now, especially with this entire magical lockdown being the biggest factor of all, but they collectively have given her a good cry once in a while. For someone who prides herself of good stamina, one can only take so much of the sniffing and deep breaths. The "ghosts" were also a little weird, but she kinda thought it was normal. Her parents told her about them, but it didn't occur to her that those ghosts weren't the ghosts. Still, they were weird.

Not that she's had enough hugs from her dorm mates and her friends, but Cassidy needed time to take a breather too. Quite a literal one too. The lioness, in a very casual no-brainer set of clothes, made her way out of her common room and was almost on her way to the grounds when...she realised she didn't want to be out there today. Since the storm that prevented them from heading home, she was a bit sulky about it. So no, she's avoiding the outdoors.

Again, so weird of her.

That was when she saw the broom cupboard and, usually, she wouldn't want to be in there. It's not the pitch, but it's as close as it could get. Cassidy rubbed one of her eyes as she reached out to tug the cupboard door open, ready to welcome solitude—

"Oh." She blinked. ".....Finny?" Cassidy was taken aback. Was this cupboard occupied already?

Crying hurt.

It made it hard to breathe. And... well... the dust sure wasn't helping. But not only that, tears always gave him a headache. Was it cause he was dehydrated? 'Cause the tears were taking away his body water? He wasn't sure.... But it made sense to him.

After a few more moments in silence with his tears, he looked around for something to wipe up his snotty nose (his sleeve was NOT an option, thank you) but was unsuccessful in his hunt. Guh. Snotty nose, snotty throat, weird Finn throat talky noises. Guh uhg.

And it was then, fully ugly (sorta) post cry face as tears were still coming but in much smaller waves now, that the door swung open. Which nearly gave Finn a heart attack. The backlighting on the figure was scary enough to make him believe the ghost had come for revenge. "It's not your bed anymore! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry... We-We can share!"

WIBBLE. wibble wibble.

Oh... Wait.

"C-Cassidy....?"

Uhm....uhmmm....

Cassidy was even more surprised when some words were thrown at her, and usually she would be offended. However, given her own state at the moment, she was merely perplexed, and she moved awkwardly to the side so she can be close to the door. For...solidarity, maybe? Anything to keep her grounded or whatever. "I have my own bed!" She said, still blinking. Why would she want to share a bed? She needed alllll the space she can get!

Except the person inside the cupboard was a very familiar face. So very familiar, she's seen him in all her classes! "Hi, that's me," Cassidy replied, pushing back uncooperative strands of red hair off her face. She too had puffy and tired eyes from all the crying she's been doing lately.

Unlike him, she didn't mind wiping her eyes (and possible snot, not that she had any right now!) with the sleeves of her jumper, so the lioness pulled out a hanky from her pocket and offered it to Finny. "May I come in?"

Finny rubbed at his eyes some more with clenched fists, careful not to get anything on his sleeve still, and peered up at her. The embarrassment of his outburst began to flood over him, cheeks flushing beneath the streaky tear stains.

"Uh, um.... Please do..." He scooted over some to make room, while reaching out to take the handkerchief from her. First, he wiped up the little bit of dampness on his hands before doing his eyes, then his nose. It was less messy and gross that way and... um... "I'll wash this, I promise."

Dab dab. Pat pat.

"What are you doing here?"

Maybe it was just a little weird. Maybe. Cassidy hasn't seen anyone outside of her dormies cry, and usually she would approach her fellow lioness firsties by hugging them. No words said. She wasn't sure if that would work with Finny too, but that's yet another maybe. So many maybes.

Even if he looked a bit awful, snot and tears and all, Cassidy was certain she's seen worse. She had to watch three of her baby brothers grow up, and that involved so much poop and wee and vom and drool and tears! She didn't, not even a bit, care much for the way Finny looked or the way he reacted, now that she thought about it too. They were just as overwhelmed.

With his permission, Cassidy then let herself slip into the cupboard and closed the door behind her. She was here for a friend....and, well, for herself too. "Mm, yeah," the redhead replied, making a crumply noise face at her now soiled hanky. "'Tis fine. You can keep it for now."

She looked around the cupboard for a moment before sitting cross-legged beside him. "I wanted to go outside but...eh," the lioness replied, rubbing her nose—it was ticklish, maybe because of the dust? The grounds, once her favourite place to be, no longer appealed to her. "You? Are you okay? Do you wanna hug?" Cassidy whispered the questions.

Hush hush, or older people might hear and force them out of here.

The hanky and cleaning himself up in the slightest definitely helped him feel better overall. Just... being cleaner helped him most of the time. But... Well? Yeah... a hug would definitely do a better job of that. So he nodded and opened his arms for her.

He... didn't like feeling like such a crybaby all the time. He'd always been an emotional kid but... this all felt different and overwhelming and he felt small and weak and alone and... it was too much, y'know?

His long thin arms slipped around her wordlessly.

"I promise i'll clean this and get it back to you. Promise." He sniffled a little, afraid to fully blow his nose into it because that was embarrassing and it was her hanky and and and he didn't want to disrespect her somehow?

"Are you.... ok...ay?"

Cassie had been very hopeful that Finny would be okay with hugs, so when the Hufflepuff opened his arms for her, the redhead immediately scooted closer and slid her arms around him for a much appreciated proper snuggle. "This is nice," the Gryffindor muttered. Very nice. She has a big fan of hugs, especially during moments when they were needed the most.

She wasn't a crybaby too, which she felt was necessary to point out. They're allowed to feel a certain way when everything around them was way too overwhelming for first years. A regular firstie would have to deal with mean older students, fitting in, class schedules, getting lost, and making a name for themselves. Not this.

"I know. You also said promise twice, so I believe you." Cassie got the point, squishing him gently while still in their hugging bubble. Also, her hanky was in his possession for the meantime and he could do whatever he wanted with it...except steal it, of course. Not that Finny struck her as the thieving type.

"I'm...." The lioness started, but was unable to find the right words to describe what she was feeling. Or maybe she forgot the word she was supposed to use. That seemed on brand too. "I don't know. It's been hard. I miss my family and I don't like being a ghost."