Heath returned Charlie’s smile with a small one of his own, relieved that she’d accepted his offer. In order to get the ball rolling on the activity, he jotted down the idea he already had: requirement for an acting role. Before he could explain his point, Peralta said it was time to move on. What, already? They hadn’t even started yet! He tried to block out his worries of failing the last activity and focus on the directions for the next one.

Oh, a night vision spell? Now that sounded useful! Maybe learning this spell would help him overcome his newfound fear of darkness. He could only hope! Hanging on to Peralta’s every word, he took careful notes on the spell’s incantation and wand work. He was so absorbed in the task at hand that he almost didn’t register Charlie’s question. “Oh!” he said, jerked out of his thoughts. “Sure, that would be good.” Maybe having a partner would make him less nervous about the darkness.

That thought had barely popped into his mind when the lights went out. Usually Heath would practice the incantation and wand movements of a new spell separately first, but he wanted to get this done before the darkness and the memories of The Room it brought made it impossible to think straight! Taking a deep breath to calm his rising anxiety, he drew a clockwise circle with his wand around his right eye, then his left. “Visionem Nocte!” Did it work? He blinked, glancing around the room, and he saw Charlie and the various obstacles, all tinted in a green glow. He did it, thank Merlin!

“I’ll get a mouse,” he said. “Do you want your own or-?” If she did, he’d let her pick hers herself. Making his way to the front of the room, he picked a basket at random. He didn’t open it until he’d returned to his place, but when he lifted the lid, he smiled. Inside was a little blue mouse with a silver star pattern. If he didn’t know better, he’d think that mouse was put there just for him! “I’m going to let it go now,” he said to give Charlie a heads-up before setting the mouse on the floor.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!

He watched it as it skittered away, weaving between the desks. Keeping a close eye out for the star pattern, he took off after the mouse.

The mouse was not the only thing that squeaked. Being under the slide, he hadn't been expecting the little devil to run across him. And his surprise barred him from reaching back and grabbing it before it was gone again. At least he knew where it had gone now, as he scurried towards the slide as well, pushing himself down face first with arms outstretched for the mouse going down before him.

Was the little creature having fun???

Actually.. Evan kind of was too.

Violet was relieved that she hadn't blinded herself with the spell, although her vision now felt blurry--or maybe it was the weird green overcast to it. Making her way carefully, so as not to trip, she managed to get over to an unclaimed basket and carefully took off the lid.

Inside was a dark grey mouse with a bright red hourglass shape on its back, which reminded Violet uncomfortably of a black widow spider. While she was staring at the creature and thinking about this, the mouse suddenly twitched its nose twice, place both paws on the edge of the basket, and with a sudden burst of speed, leapt out and began to scurry away.

Ohh, this was definitely a cool spell!

This was something Ivy could definitely see herself using every day. Um, well, maybe not every day considering the potential for headaches and blurry vision, but it would at least be useful during the nights when she couldn't sleep and needed something to read to distract herself, without lighting her wand and risking disturbing her dormmates while they slept. Plus it made the darkness less...nerve-wracking, so that helped too.

She waited for her eyes to adjust as the lights when down, mumbling the incantation under her breath to ensure she got the hang of it. "Visio-nem Nocte... Visionem Nocte... Visionem Nocte..."

And now it was completely dark again, but at least she had this to focus on now, and after a few practice circular wand movements, it seemed like as good a time as any to give it a shot.

"Visionem Nocte!" A circle over the right eye and then left eye... And after blinking a couple times...it seemed like it! She couldn't see super, and the glow might not be as distinct as it could be, so she'd probably still need some more practice. But it was enough that she could still see nearby classmates and obstacles, certainly more than when she'd entered the lesson in the dark, so it was probably fine!

Ivy walked over to a covered basket and opened it to find a red and green striped mouse inside. Okay, so this was who she needed to track down.

She picked it up and set it on the ground, watching as it ran off, counting to ten...and then the game was on!

The crying out from Emmerson made her shudder. That would have been her if Noah hadn’t come to her rescue and tried to remove said rodent from her head. And said Rosen had other ideas now... In fact, a lot of them did as they darted away from the students.

Lisa froze as the older Gryffindor reached for the mouse. Then the mouse was brave and took a leap of faith off of her head and over to the boy’s. Unfortunately because of Lisa’s stature she had a difficult time seeing him.

“Do you need help?!?” she asked Noah. She didn’t know a spell that could help them nor could she begin to reach it. Maybe she could stand up on a chair or taking a leaping dash towards Noah?

If he didn’t, then she’d go let her mouse loose too.

Noah was prepared for the sudden movement... but he did not anticipate the mouse to jump. Well, real rodents don't jump, do they? But it was a toy one, and so it could do the most unexpected moves. "Uuhhh..." Noah let out a low grunt, and the young 'Claw could very well see that he was annoyed. "Merlin, not the haaaair," he said in exasperation. Sure, he was blessed by the hair gods, but his hair has no capability to style on its own. That was all him, and it took him hours to get it looking good for the day. And for the ladies, just sayin'.

It was sweet of the first year to offer help, and Noah didn't have the heart to turn it down. She sounded genuinely concerned. "Just... try not to pull my hair? Please?" he asked, bowing in front of her, so she could reach for the bloody toy.

It would be this Ravenclaw's lucky day. Who knew she'd get the chance to touch his beautiful hair.

Cambridge had not exactly been on the same page as Nem with that line of thought, but that was fine, and not an uncommon occurrence. They were content to let her run with that assumption, and simply listened to her own ideas, which... Nem supposed that might work, though they could see flaws in that plan. They also could not entirely relate to wanting to make it so clear what they may or may not want, but absolutely did not say so.

Moving on. Thriving in darkness. Night vision charm. Visionem Nocte. Nem twirled their wand around their fingers while the lights went back down, then pointed it first at their right eye, and circled, and then repeated it on the left. Visionem Nocte. Visionem Nocte.

The room bloomed back into sight again, sort of, in a kind of sickly green glow.

Like Cambridge, Nem didn't intend to take part. That was a clever trick of Peralta's though - or perhaps not a trick but an accidental benefit, which were apparently common around here - even those who didn't want to do the activity would need to practice the spell itself, unless they wanted to end up sitting in the dark while most people around them, including the professor, could see, and see them specifically. Nem wasn't worried about practicing the spell in any case, that part was fine; it was doing much of anything around Peralta, whom they now had reason to distrust, that Nem was trying to avoid.

They did at least do her the courtesy of not being completely obvious. Backing away into a corner of the room, they cast a quick Disillusionment Charm on themselves around the time Peralta seemed preoccupied with Cambridge, then looked at their hand, to see how well it held up under night vision. Huh.

Whether or not it would stop the fake mice seeking them out, they didn't know, but it didn't matter. If nothing else, a spell or a stomp would deal with those. As for Peralta, the same was true they'd burn that bridge when they got to it. In the meantime, Nem watched the students, watched the professor, watched everything, in total silence.

Uuugghhh, just what she needed, a first year trying to fix her problems. They weren’t exactly...good at many things and this one didn’t inspire much hope in Emmerson, so the girl kept on with what she was doing, whacking and swatting at the mouse, determined to crush it if she couldn’t make it get off her.

Merlin help her magazine live through this horrid ordeal.

“You really wanna help, cast something useful.” Could they even do that? They didn’t learn many useful things in first year and she didn’t have the time for fumbling around while she waited.

“Know what? Emmerson went perfectly still, all the better to FEEL where the little critter was. She would find it and she would entirely obliterate it. “Find it before I do and I won’t stomp it into nothing.” Proper use of that night vision. Meanwhile, she would depend on her senses like the Professor hinted on earlier.

Was that on her shoulder?

Her mouse stopped at the end of the tunnel, blinking its beady little eyes at the girl with interest. It paused another beat as if beckoning the girl forward and then took off towards the far wall. Better hurry to catch it! Time is almost up!

The little mouse with the star pattered weaved in and out of the desks before climbing up on the top of one to get a better vantage point of its new playground. What a view! So many places to explore.

The mouse was ALMOST in his grasp, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. It hurried towards one of the foam tunnels, disappearing inside. Come and get it if you dare!

The mouse didn’t have much time for freedom and it didn’t plan on wasting a minute. It took off towards a foam wedge and scrambled up it as fast as its little legs could carry it.

The striped mouse joined the mice mayhem, running towards the desks for cover. Was that an open backpack it spotted? That seemed as good a hiding place as any!



The mouse loved the boy’s hair and curled up there in its new, soft bed. Maybe it’d just take a little snooze. That was okay, right?

Cambridge provided enough of a distraction that Neva didn’t notice Nem suddenly disappear from view. They went unnoticed for now.



Why yes, that was the mouse on her shoulder. It was a nice place to watch everything going on and the girl’s reaction to it had scared it into staying still, at least for the moment. Better act fast!

Cast something?!!? What exactly was she supposed to cast?

For a moment, she thought about using the water shooting spell at Emmerson the mouse. That’d keep her housemate occupied long enough for her to make her escape, since she wasn’t sure if the older student even knew her name. It was better that way, though. Nah… she’d probably get herself into detention if she pulled that.

Remy stood, idly, wiggling her wand as she wracked her brain thinking of spells to use. During her contemplation, the mouse had perched itself quite happily upon Emmerson’s shoulder.

This was her chance to do something…

She automatically lunged forwards and grasped her hands around the mouse. That was her main priority…. crashing into Emmerson was a very sad accident……

Rats!

Er... mouse!

He had almost captured the small creature, but it had just escaped his grasp. It darted into a foam tunnel close by, so he quickly darted in after it, on hands and knees and going as fast as he could. It wasn't nearly as fast as he could be on his feet, but he was still giving it his best effort. He reached one hand out in front of him for the animal running fast in front, getting as close as he could before trying another dive attempt.

He couldn't wait to see the bruises afterwards from these movements.

Violet was still thinking about black widow spiders when her mouse took off, climbing up a wedge of something so fast she almost missed seeing where it went. Startled from her reverie, she took off across the dark room after it, pleased that she could see it so clearly. Unfortunately, she didn't see some of the obstacles on the floor as clearly (or wasn't looking carefully enough), because she tripped over something and nearly landed flat on her face. Fortunately, after flailing around for a while (she was glad it was so dark), she managed to catch her balance, but now she'd lost sight of her mouse.

She hurried over to the wedge where she'd last seen it and peered around it in all directions, trying to see where it had gone. With that red hourglass on its back, surely she would be able to spot it again.

There it was.

Claudine saw it looking at her and she slowed down until she decided to come fully to a halt. Chasing the mouse would only make it run further. Perhaps she could lure it to her- oh, never mind. The mouse had taken off again. She saw where it was headed. A new thought flashed through her mind: could she corner it?

The sixth year approached slowly. “Hi, little fella,’’ she spoke up softly and warmly. “It’s kind of tiresome running through all this junk. How about we head back?” Claudine was speaking to it as though it were one of those creatures she frequently worked with out in the barn. “I promise not to hurt you.” She actually held out one of her hands in an effort to coax the mouse to her.

Heath followed the little star-patterned mouse, periodically looking back to see if Charlie was following him. He saw it perched atop one of the desks and stood behind it, watching it intently. Where to now, little mouse? He thought, but no way in Hoth was he saying that out loud. He sounded silly enough when he talked to real creatures. He couldn’t imagine what everyone would think of him if they saw him talking to a toy creature! He was so absorbed in watching the mouse that he almost forgot he was supposed to be capturing it. Slowly, cautiously, he reached out a hand to grab the mouse and…

It scampered away before he had the chance. Dark eyes scanning the room, Heath spotted the star-patterned mouse near a foam cylinder, one nearly as tall as him. He beelined in that direction, but as he neared, he saw nothing. Blink, blink. Where was the mouse? Maybe it was hiding. He peered around the side of the cylinder in search of the mouse.

”Time everyone!” Neva hated to end the fun, honestly. It was amusing to watch. Free educational entertainment. But making the kids be late to their next class wasn’t in good form.

With a wave of her wand, any of the uncaptured mice were sent back to their baskets. ”Thank you for coming. Please use ‘finite’ to end the spell and I’ll slowly bring the lights up. Take a few minutes to adjust and then pack up your things.”