The technology lounge might not be the same as it was before, but it did make Ivy smile to see it fixed up again. Even if it was mostly bean bag chairs.

To some extent, the difference in appearance was actually a good thing, because it also helped her not dwell on the reason for its new look in the first place. That man making them destroy this place might have ended up being one of the "tamer" memories from the term, but it still wasn't something she liked to think about.

She turned her attention to the stack of board games. Hopefully there were some good ones. She might not be able to play right now since she was alone in here, but maybe if she found one that looked really fun, she could gather a few friends to play with later.

The technology lounge was not something he'd taken advantage of his past two terms, so the differences were not striking to Evan as he hesitantly walked into the room. His first term he'd been so preoccupied with MAGIC and the whole idea, why would he want to spend his time somewhere so mundane? And last term.. well, before they were locked up he'd spent a good deal of time laying low, trying to not draw attention to himself or his heritage.

But now? Now the mundane was comforting. So he was searching for solace, somewhere he felt comfortable. Surrounded by an old Pac man machine and plenty of board games was a good start.

Evan headed towards the wall of games, before realizing he was not alone in the room. He would have turned around to avoid conversation, until he realized he knew the other person and had thus far not minded her company. So maybe he'd try that whole 'being friendly' thing he told himself he'd do this term.

Maybe he'd even get real crazy and see if she wanted to play Go Fish.

He stepped further in and gave a small wave of his hand. "Hi Ivy. Found your favorite yet?"

It didn't seem like she had been looking through the games for very long before she had company. And that company was Evan!

Looking up from the stack of games, Ivy smiled. "Oh hey! No, I haven't found one yet. They all look interesting though." So it was hard to choose really. And she wasn't looking for anything specific, so that made it harder to narrow down the selection too, especially when she didn't play board games or card games often anyway, not even magical ones. "Do you have a favorite one?"

He scanned through the titles as well while he waited for her response, noting a lot of the classics Monopoly, Sorry, Mouse Trap?? That was one he certainly had not played in awhile. He wondered if Professor Schmoe also had an oridinary set of chess laying around somewhere. "Do you play a lot of board games?" Her response made him assume no, but it was better to be safe than sorry and ask first to confirm. "I like the game Sequence. It's like a bigger board of Tic Tac Toe. Another strategy type."

He could see it over in the corner with a board for Checkers as well. Was there also Chinese Checkers? Those were just pretty.

"Fancy trying to play something?" Funny how that was one of the scariest sentences he remembered saying in awhile.

Ivy shook her head. "Not very often, no." She didn't have anything against them, of course. It just hadn't ever been her thing. There were other ways that she liked to spend her free time and have fun.

Like photography. Except...she wasn't doing a lot of that these days, for reasons. So maybe now was as good a time as any to try something new. And maybe that something new could be board games.

"That sounds interesting." Strategy games might be something she'd enjoy. And probably a lot of the other ones lying around too.

"Sure! What do you feel like playing? Sequence? Or something else?" She was willing to try any of them. Aside from chess, wizard or not. That was one she had played before and had never liked very much.

Oh. Not a big board game player, maybe that's why she hadn't found her favorite yet. Maybe she didn't actually have one? That would certainly be understandable. "My dad's big on board games and family bonding nights. We played a lot in our house." If it wasn't board games, it was Star Wars light saber battles and movie reenactments, per the request of the youngest who had them all entirely wrapped around her finger.

It was unfortunate she knew it.

"It's pretty fun." And he liked strategy and having to use thinking, even in board games. Scrabble was one that was fun too. Even if it was for old people, like Bingo.

"I'm up for anything! What looks fun to you? That section looks like strategy, and that section looks like mindless fun." He pointed out the two areas. "Maybe we can find something that you like?"

Ivy smiled. "That sounds like a lot of fun." It was always interesting hearing what other people did with their families to bond and have fun together. The activities varied so much sometimes, and it felt like she could learn a lot about them even just from that.

What looked fun though? Hmm. A lot of them did, and there were so many that it was hard to choose. But also just because one looked fun didn't mean it actually would be. So maybe... "How about we try Sequence?" she finally said. "You were right about the sherbet drops, so maybe I'll like that game too."

The memory actually a bit more of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He definitely missed home and their full family events, but at least there were some familiar comforts here at the school as well. Like this room. "Do you and your family do anything like that?" He realized he didn't really know much about her.

Oh? She did want to try sequence? He chuckled softly at the mention of the sherbet drops and nodded in agreement as he went to locate the game and pull it out to set it up on one of the tables. He reached for his bag as well. "Sequence it is. Do you want any sherbet drops or anything too? I have kind of a sweet tooth so I'm usually well stocked." He pulled out the current plastic bag of individually wrapped candies, setting them down on the table so she could reach too if she wanted.

Hmm, something her family did that was similar to playing board games... "We like watching Muggle films together." They didn't get to do it as much as when she and her brother were little, but they were always fun times, whether the movie was actually good or not.

Following him to the table, Ivy slipped into a seat across from him as he set out the game - and a bag of sherbet drops! He really did carry them around everywhere, huh? "Sure, I wouldn't say no to one of those." She grinned, grabbing one of the wrapped candies before turning her attention to the game board. "So how does this work?"

Oh? Movies were a fan favorite as well, so he perked up slightly at this. “Do you have a favorite? My family likes Star Wars. But I always thought the Star Trek series was more fun.” Not nearly as easy to play out but… still of more interest to him than the other. Though maybe it was also over exposure that made him value the iconic series less.

He carried multiple types of candy with him everywhere. In his household, Evan was notorious for his sweet tooth, and it was uncommon to find his family sneaking into his room to raid the box he kept underneath his bed. He didn’t mind much, as when it got low anyways his parents could usually be convinced to refill it. It did feed the whole family’s addiction, after all. “Help yourself. I have chocolates and things as well.” And those were only good for the beginning of the year since he ate them the fastest.

But yes, the game. Evan laid out the board and shuffled the deck of cards, before dealing both of them a hand of seven and passing it to her. “You can look at those. Do you want to be blue or green?” He didn’t care either way. “The game is kind of like a mash between Bingo and Tic-Tac-Toe. You can look at those seven cards which will have about two matching spots on the board. So for the bingo part… you have a seven of spade? There’s two of those. And you can choose which spot to use.” He proceeded to pause and point them out. “The goal is to get your chip pieces in a sequence of 5 before I do. They can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal. That’s the tic tac toe part. And we just do that back and forth using the cards in our hands. You always want to be at seven though, so when you discard grab another.”

Favorite movie? Hmm... "I think we've watched those at some point too." She didn't remember much from them though. Just hadn't really captured her attention as much as others. "We all kinda like different things, but I really like romantic comedies. Or the animated ones." The romantic comedies were cheesy, yeah, but they were cute and fun. And the animated ones were so pretty. The wizarding world had moving pictures and portraits that could talk, but there was something really special and beautiful about the way Muggles made pictures and drawings come to life.

"Thanks!" It was really nice of him to be willing to share. Ivy wished she had thought to bring some snacks with her when she came. But if there came a time where she did have some with her, she'd definitely share with him too.

She unwrapped the sherbet drop and popped it into her mouth as he explained the game. There was quite a bit to take in, but it didn't seem too bad either. There were much more complicated games out there. So hopefully she'd get the hang of it once they began playing. "Okay, I think I get it."

She picked up her cards, looking them over, then glancing at the board, then looking at him. "You wanna go first?" That seemed like the best idea, just to ensure she understood.

They were good ones. And if she hadn’t actually, he would have recommended she do, but he figured that recommendation was implied so he said nothing more of it. “Do you have one you like to watch over and over again specifically?” Animated movies he was a fan of too, but they usually liked the international animation movies. And anime in general if he was going to watch a show. The drawing styles were so impressive, and so different, and he admired how people could create such dynamic characters with lines alone. Way better than people.

“You’re welcome.” Growing up with three siblings, it was easy to get used to sharing. Whether you wanted to or not. And when you didn’t want to share, they took anyways, so might as well just like it. So he didn’t really even think twice about it anymore.

It sounded like a lot more information than it was and when she said she got it, he smiled encouragingly. He pushed over all the blue chips towards her and kept the green for himself. Hearing her request for him to go first, he nodded looking at his cards before putting down a 2 of hearts and setting one of his chips in the middle of the board on the appropriate space. “Are you glad to be back at Hogwarts?”

There were a few that she had watched more than once, but one in particular popped into her mind first. "There's one about Anastasia that I really like. It's an animated one." Animated and kinda romantic, so it used both of her favorite things. And the music in it was pretty great too. "What about you? Is there one you like outside of Star Trek?"

Ivy watched as he made his move, selecting a two of hearts. Okay, yeah, this seemed simple enough. She glanced at her cards, using those moments to ponder the question he asked. Hm... She picked up a blue chip, placed it on a Queen of diamonds space, and replaced her discarded card with another.

Finally, she nodded. "Yeah, I think so. Overall. I'm glad it's back to normal. Or at least...better than it was." Not that it was hard to be better than all of...that. But at least she could pretend things were some sort of normal now. And also pretend that she was fine. "What about you?"

Why was Healer Poppy's bread so good? Dahlia still had no clue and no matter how many times and how many different people told her not to eat it, she couldn't help it. The harder she tried not to eat the sweet delicious bread, the more tempted it became. She swore it was as if it called her name sometimes. Anytime she knew it was near, she had to have some even if she wasn't hungry.

Which was what had just happened. She had meet her siblings, cousins and Tad in the great hall were they all had eaten a huge lunch. Then she went for a nice walk to the barn to play with some of the creatures before returning to the castle. It hadn't even been an hour maybe and the moment she smelled that sweet scent she made a direct beeline for the great hall once more. Right there on every table was large baskets of bread. Lia couldn't help herself. Her feet were moving without her even realizing it. Before she could think about what she was doing she had a half eaten piece of strawberry bread in one hand and a piece of cinnamon and a piece of orange bread in the other. With her food in hand she headed out into the corridors.

By the time the second year reached the first floor all three pieces of bread were eaten. And her stomach ached now. She felt calm and sleepy though. So relaxed that she really didn't want to continue all the way up to the Ravenclaw tower. She really needed to lay down.

Lia headed to a room she hadn't been in since last term. A room she couldn't bring herself to enter knowing she had part in ruining it. Gently pushing the door open she peered into the Tech lounge and sighed. It was.. different. Certainly not like the previous term. It made her sad. Yet, she also kinda liked the beanbags and the simplicity of it right now. Quietly walking over to one of the beanbags, she set her bag down beside it and sat down. Wiggling around a big until she got herself really comfortable, resting her head back and closing her eyes. All she wanted to do was rest for a few moment. Just until her stomachache went away. There had been no plans on falling asleep..

Ash had been in a bad mood the past few days. It seemed that life was trying to spite her (tell her something she didn't know). She had already been angry about the bread. She had been forced to eat lots of bread. She didn't like it (too sweet), but she felt the urge to eat the bread until she felt ill. And every memory she had of eating the bread felt hazy, and she couldn't remember WHY she was doing it. All those memories(?) were very calm, but they gave her headaches. She always felt worse when she was not eating the bread. She did not want to eat the bread though. And this was an endless cycle. The second thing that was all wrong was that the "computers" (if you could even call them that) in the "tech" lounge were too slow. Ash knew a bit about computers, and she was planning on checking them out so that she could find a way to fix, improve, or replace them.

And there was a third thing that went wrong too. The third thing was the worst thing. As Ash reached into her bag to pull out some computer-related instructional guides, she found something else again. A regular hand mirror. Inexpensive, nonmagical, but a mirror nonetheless. And either someone had been trying to play a prank, or someone had mixed up their things and the mirror had ended up in her bag. Ash didn't care. She didn't even want to know. But either way, this was a BIG PROBLEM.

Ash threw the mirror straight down to the ground with a lot of force.

CRASH!

Thankfully the broken pieces did not go flying. Yay?

The mirror being gone did not make her feel better.

She turned around to go find a broom or something... clean this mess up... oops. She hadn't seen Dahlia sleeping over on the other side of the room. This was awkward.

Eating too much. Having a stomachache. Getting all comfy in a beanbag chair in a semi dark, quiet room where it was nice and warm had been a good but bad idea. In fact it had been a horrible idea. A recipe for disaster in fact. It all fit together for a perfect storm.

Dahlia's eyes drifted shut and she was out. There was no resting her eyes like she had planned. Full on napping consumed her and nothing else mattered. Before long her mind began to wander and Dahlia found herself dreaming.

It was a lovely day. The sky is a clear blue with few clouds and a gentle breeze that blows every so often bringing the scent of fresh flowers and the sound of music with it. The smell of flowers makes sense as she’s walking along one of the pathways out on the grounds and it’s obviously early springtime. As for the music, Lia found it lovely. It was a really soft melody that almost felt like it was coming from everywhere all at once but also nowhere at the very same time.

She continued to walk, listening to the birds singing their song up the tree. Oh, she could see them perched there on the branch. One flew down and landed not to far from her on the path to nibble at a bit of bread someone else must of dropped. Even the birds seemed to like Healer Poppy's bread. They didn't seem to be the only one either. A little gray squirrel was suddenly there on the path and it was enjoying some bread too.

Lia really didn't think too much of this at first before well Hogwarts students ate outside all the time and bread was crumbly. Let the creatures enjoy their meal. Things only got stranger though. There was Tiger Lukas's cat and Sir Frederik too. Both were not only eating the bread but they came right towards her and offered her some! That's when she noticed lots of her friends and her boyfriend were there getting up from benches or walking along the path towards her. All offering her bread. No one said anything, they just held the bread out towards her. All kinds of warm fresh baked bread. The scent wafting through the air where that was now all there was.

The soft music was louder and now more ominous. Everyone and everything had bread and they were trying to make her eat the bread. She didn't want it. The sky started to darken and suddenly she was running from them all and they were chasing her along the path. Only they weren't her friends anymore, now she was being chased by huge pieces of bread. Poppy, strawberry, banana, cinnamon. The faster she ran, the faster the bread ran.

All Dahlia knew was that she had to keep going. She rounded a corner on the path and..

CRASH!

She ran right into a huge cart stacked high with trays filled of bread. The entire cart fell over, trays hitting the ground and bread flying all over the place. Lia falling along with it.

Her heart was racing as her blue eyes flew open and she somehow toppled right over out of the beanbag chair onto the floor with a startled yelp of surprise. Dahlia looked around in obvious confusion as she pushed herself up onto her knees. Brushing some hair from her face, she spotted Ash in the room... when had she gotten here?! Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. Hopefully, Ash hadn't seen any of that.

Lia gave the slightly older girl a small sheepish smile in greeting, grabbed her bag and plopped back down onto the beanbag chair. Rummaging inside it quickly for her dream journal so she could write down everything she remembered about her weird nightmare. And Merlin was it weird. But umm also... why was there glass on the floor?

"Are you alright?" she asked softly. "You didn't cut yourself, did you?"

Ash's face did not get even a tiny little bit red. NOPE NOPE NOPE. Of course not. Turning pink? Ash had never ever been known to do that in stressful situations. No, of course not.

This was awkward. And very upsetting.

"I'm fine, there's just glass here now. Did you fall on any of it?" She poked one of the pieces one of the pieces with her foot. Not very safe. "I guess I should sweep it up before a little kid steps on it."

She took a deep breath. "You haven't heard anyone complaining about losing a mirror, have you?" She looked at the broken pieces on the ground, trying to keep anger and fear from overcoming her. "I... I think I found it." Oops.

She hoped it wasn't special to anyone or something, because she wasn't going to apologize for this very predictable outcome. "Mmm, I wonder how that got there." It was more of a joke than a lie, since it was pretty obvious what had happened. She sighed. "I guess I should find a broom or fix this with magic somehow."

Dahlia flipped her journal open and jotted the days date down on the top corner of the page. She was about to starting when Ashley's question had her pause. Had she fallen on any? Glass? Uhhh..

Not that she knew of? It didn't feel like she had. Nothing hurt and she didn't see any injuries. "No, I don't think so?" She was pretty sure that if she had fallen on any of it, she would have felt it. Turning her attention onto her journal again for a few moments, Lia focused on writing down every single detail that she could remember from her dream/nightmare. The music, creatures, her friends, the bread, how everyone had turned into bread! Then how the bread had chased her.

"No, I haven't heard anything." At least not that she could remember. Her dream was still very fresh on her mind and it still had her thinking about what it might have meant. Had she been eating to much of it? Was it because it had given her a stomachache before she had fallen asleep?

"It was probably an accident? Maybe a mix-up of some sort?" Dahlia really didn't know but things happened sometimes. "Do you want some help cleaning it up? I can help you find a broom or something?"

Really quickly a sketch was drawn underneath the journal entry of herself being chased by Healer Poppy's hoard of bread. Closing the journal she slipped it back into her bag with her quill.

Mmm... Dahlia seemed preoccupied with... whatever she was doing. Dreaming, it looked like. Maybe it was good that Dahlia had other things on her mind. When people were paying attention to Ash, they tended to pity her and ask dumb questions like 'are you okay'. Look down on her. Etcetera. That sort of thing. She could do without that.

"I guess it's good that you didn't fall on any of that glass I..." You know what? Nevermind. Dahlia didn't need to know why the glass was there. It was better for her to assume that Ash had dropped the mirror in shock. Which wasn't exactly what happened.

"I hope that mirror wasn't important to anyone. That would make me feel bad. Even though putting a mirror in my bag is a kinda dumb mistake to make or, if it was on purpose, a dumb decision." Whoever put the mirror there was mean and/or careless with their property and/or dumb. So she didn't feel too bad about it. The way Ash saw it, any mirrors she found inside of her bag or on top of her bed were fair game. This was a predictable outcome, really. Even so, Ash felt just a tiny little bit bad about it. Just a little bit.

"I don't know. It's kinda my fault, so maybe I should have to clean it up. So that I'll learn my lesson or whatever people want me to do." She shrugged. Didn't they know that Ash would never stop? The consequences were worth it. That was what people didn't understand. "Do you know where the brooms are?" Because she should clean this up soon. Get rid of the evidence. In case some kid wanted to look for their missing mirror, or a professor wanted to investigate. Ash didn't feel like explaining anything or apologizing today. If there was no evidence, then there would be nothing to explain and people would leave her alone.

Logic.

She nodded. "Mm, I've done that before when I was really little but I'd rather not have to take another trip to the Healer." Stepping on glass was rather unpleasant but that still hadn't stopped her from running around bare foot whenever she wanted.

If someone had purposely put that mirror into Ash's bag, that was just all kinds of wrong. And sad. Who would do so a thing knowing what had happened last term? That would just cruel. Lia frowned a little at the mere thought of it. "I would like to think that no one in our house would do something like that or anyone for that matter.." but truthfully it wasn't something she knew for sure. Hopefully it had been a mistake. Either way the mirror was a broken mess now.

Huh? Her fault? Dahlia didn't quite understand. A broken mirror was a broken mirror. It didn't matter who's fault it was. At least not in Lia's eyes. All that mattered was that it was cleared up before someone DID get themselves cut on the glass. "It was an accident and that doesn't mean you have to clean it up all on your own." With that being said she got to her feet.

"Uhh.. not really? There's probably a closet in here that has a broom or something or umm.. do you know the spell that makes stuff disappear?" Being a second year there was noway she would be able to cast anything like that.

"Me neither to be honest. If either of us had to go to the healer, she'd probably ask annoying questions." Like who, what, when, where, WHY, HOW questions. Ash did not like answering questions like that.

"It doesn't matter how it got there, I suppose, as long as it's gone. It is gone- kinda." She crouched down by the glass and looked at it. One of the bigger shards showed a reflection of her own eye... creepy. Oh well. Now she knew what her eye looked like.

"I wish I knew that spell. It's taught in the fifth year, I believe. I only really know some extra fourth-year spells." And with all the catching up on things she missed last year, there hadn't been time to learn a spell like that. "Upstead know it, but I'm not asking them. All the professors know it, but I don't want to ask them either." She thought hard. Who would know it? Kayne? Claudine? One of those older kids who hung out with Cambridge? Heath? She didn't even know if anyone was nearby... "I guess we should either get help or try transfiguring the glass. Or transfigure something into a broom." Sigh. She wished she was an older student. Older students seemed like they knew everything. Ash didn't know everything. Just another problem to add onto today's.

"Exactly and I really don't need that again. I went through that more than enough times last term." It felt like she practically lived in the hospital wing last term with how often she had been there.

Dahlia nodded. "That's true." After what happened to Ash last term, she couldn't blame her not one bit for not caring at all about the broken mirror. If it had been her, she wouldn't have cared either.

"Yeah, I hear it's pretty hard to master too." Her older siblings were working on learning it but they were both fourth years. Being a second year was rough, she was beyond on a lot already so she understood to catch-up. "I'm not very good with transfiguring things but I can try.." That's all she could really do. Unless they came up with a different way.

"Same. I should be on a first-name basis with the healer by now cause I'm there multiple times a week since first year." Some of that was other people's fault, some of that was accidents, but a lot of the time her visits were just her being stupid and reckless on purpose. She probably gave the healer a headache.

"Is there a spell for mirror shards into marbles or something?" She stared at the pieces. Transfiguration didn't seem very useful right now. "Or paintbrushes to broomsticks? What if I just pick it up with my hands?" No, that was stupid. She sighed and kicked the wall (not very hard, not even hard enough to break her foot). "The vanishing spell thing is fifth-year level. I'm going to learn it, cause it'll be useful someday. I'll get someone to teach it to me." She sounded more confident than she felt. "Pity I don't know it already." There was no way she could have known to learn it, but STILL. She was frustrated. "I suppose we should get an older student or something." Since there was no obvious way to clean up the glass, and they couldn't just leave it there.

Dahlia blinked. "Multiple times a week?" Whoa. Here she was thinking that she had spent a lot of time visiting the healer last term. Ash had her beat by a landslide. "How come? Do you have allergies or something?" That was the only thing she could think of off the top of her head that might require such frequent visits to the healer. Unless they were like crazy accident prone and constantly getting themselves hurt. That was always plausible. Being as active and adventurous as she tended to be at times, injuries happened.

"Erm.. if there is one.. I don't know it." Being a second year was hard. She loved to read and yes she did read ahead in several of her textbooks but that didn't mean she knew any of the spells yet. Lia shook her head. "Probably not a good idea. The vanishing spell is the best thing I can think of but.. it isn't helpful to us right now." Since neither of them were able to cast it. "I have some parchment in my bag.. and a textbook? Maybe we can slide the parchment under some of the glass and kinda push the glass onto the parchment? We can fold the corners up some glass won't fall off?" It might be worth a try. Or they could go get help.