@Ceta de Cloyes

Oliver nodded as mike talked about his kitten. His own pet was perched quite contently on his shoulder.

"She's twenty I think." He answered, shrugging much to her discontent. "My, um, my dad got her back in America." Ruffling his hair he moved on. "Anyway, she acts just like an owl, it's too bad she doesn't get along with them."

A few more Hufflepuffs came through the barrel entrance, giggling about something the middle girl had said. It was the girl who was talking about frogs before, and several first years. They all took seats around one of the hearths and she began telling them about the school.

"We should probably go check on Mercy. he said with a nod toward the dorm room.

Inside the round door was the boys dorm. Patchwork quilt covered beds lay neatly along the wall, trunks sitting at the foot as one would expect them to be. candles flickered in the windows high on the walls, casting honey colored light, just enough to see.

@RumikoOhara


"Well.. I am glad for you." she laughed. "Best of luck with that. Honestly.. at this point I will probably end up alone forever. It won't be all that bad i guess." She shrugged. "I wasn't really keen on ever having children anyways. Not going to curse them with the same problem I've got."

She smiled at Meg. "I know. Thank you."

Then Emira stiffened as Megan gave the suggestion to connect with Marcus on the other side. "I will tell you the same thing I told you last year" She narrowed her eyes. "If someone is dead, and does not come back as a ghost then they do not wish to be disturbed. I may miss my brother, but I am not going to attempt to contact him if he is at rest. It's unhealthy to hold on to someone for that long. He died years ago, and even though life will never be the same.. that is life and I have to learn to live with it. I have a shrine for him here at Hogwarts because he loved this place, not because i have this sick need to keep him alive. He died because it was his time to go.. nothing more nothing less."

Emira's views on life and death might be a bit harsh, and her acceptance of her brothers death might seem a bit cold for someone who was so close to him they practically shared a brain sometimes.. but it was actually was a deep part of her personality. She'd always been taught from a young age to accept death as a cost of life. She'd seen countless Thestrals pass away, and a cat and owl as well. Her uncle's gentle hands had taught her to cry was okay.. to mourn and keep memories of them was okay.. but to try to bring them back was... disgusting.. like trying to reanimate a corpse. Something like that famous story with the three brothers where the one brother tried to bring his lover back but she didn't want to be alive and he'd killed himself to be with her. Trying to contact Marcus would almost be like trying to bring him back.

It was actually.. probably part of the reason she'd been chosen by a wand with a Thestral Tail hair core. She'd read up on the core because not one other student she knew had one like it. She'd initially thought it was just because she worked closely with Thestrals.. but after reading up on wand lore.. she'd learned it was far more complex than that. Thestral Tail hair was a core rarely used because it was finicky and difficult to handle. Though, apparently if one could learn to harness it properly it was one of.. if not the most powerful cores in all of the entire wizarding world, with their being a rumor about the strongest wand in the world with a core of the stuff. Not that she believed that rumor at all, no wand could possibly be 'the strongest in the world.' She hadn't been able to find much more about it, other than a weird rumor about Thestral Hair wands choosing people with a strong connection to death. Another stupid rumor, which was probably brought about by the misinformation about Thestrals.

Mike grinned, Mercury always brought a smile to his face, the cat was both simple and uncomplicated. He was one of the best things to ever happen to him, second only to Hogwarts itself. He flicked his wand in the general direction of his bed as they entered the dorm, prompting the chest that sat on it to open slowly. By the time they stood in front of it a simple box had risen out of the chest and landed on the foot of his bed. He opened the lid to the cardboard box, latched in a way as to only be openable from the outside, and gently pulled a sleeping kitten from the mat within and cradled it in his arms.

"Finite," he incanted, swishing his wand and sheathing it in the same motion, as if to hide the evidence of magic from the cat. Being part Kneazle, it was likely that was the case. "Mercy? Come on, wake up." Mike prodded the sleeping kitten, scratching his head. "Mercy, Ollie's here to see you."

That got the cat's attention, realizing that Oliver's presence must mean they were back at Hogwarts, Mercy's eyes popped open and the now fully awake kitten fled Mike's arms with speed. He landed on the bed and bounced to the floor, landing at Oliver's feet and letting out a string of incomprehensible mews as he began pacing around his feet in that annoying way cats did when they wanted something from you. Mike smiled, used to being shunned by Mercy the first few days back at school, the cat was just too curious to sit by Mike's side when there was a whole castle to get reacquainted with. "He does really like you," Mike commented offhandedly with a small smile, Mercy liked a lot of people, but he only ever demanded attention from a few people.

@Classpet

Elliot was listening to everything that Karen was saying as he continued to finish the food that was stacked up on his plate. “Yeah I know what you mean, if they turn out to be radicals I don’t think they’ll be fans of two Half-Bloods like ourselves.” Elliot let out a little laugh at the situation trying to make light out of the situation and get Karen in a bit of a better mood.

As Elliot finished off the last of his food he continued to talk, “I'll probably just come with you to the meeting to be honest. When is it again?" Before she answered he went on to say, "Well anyway I fancy going relaxing on the couches in the dorm room. Are you coming Karen or are you staying here?” He slowly got off the bench and started to give a massive stretch and a yarn. Elliot hadn’t realised how full and tired he was until he actually stood up. Rubbing his belly he waited for Karens answers and smiled at her.

@TheHangedMan

@Always



Melanie smiled reassuringly at Alyssa and nodded again as she pushed the paper towards the other student instead.
"Well, you're doing just fine right now. I think it's just your confidence."Melanie beamed at her. "You know all the answers, you just panic and start thinking that you don't." She leaned forward to scan down the paper towards the next question. "Okay, where would you find a bezoar?"

@Draconequis




"I know it wasn't A good suggestion but being exposed to the presence of the restless dead gives me a strange perspective on it.

If I had a twin though.......sorry, stepped in it didn't I?

You're like my sister sometimes and I can't help but meddle" said Meg in soft apologetic tone

Megan sighed and grabbed her book bag and drug out several respected and expensive books that contain information on NEWT and OWLs along with study guides. Then there are the DADA books along with a treatise of the Art Duello. Better potions and the Kitchen, all three books.

"I thought I'd bring a few light reading books, I have even more in the bag. I thought as I read them I could put them in the house private library for everyone to read.

I know they're expensive but dad insisted I have any book I wanted so I really pushed the cart an he didn't bat an eye, I should have gone for a car" grins as she settles back to do some reading before bed

@Ceta de Cloyes

As he entered the room Oliver pulled off his backpack. Tapping it with his wand it unzipped, immediately spewing books, potions materials, clothes and other miscellaneous objects everywhere. Frantically he tapped it again a startled "Finite" accompanying the motion. It was a mirical that he'd managed the expansion charm in the first place, trying to magic all of the contents back out was probably not his best move. Charms hadn't been he's best class but he was by not means bad at it, these particular spells just happened to be fit for wizards more practiced than he.

Slightly irritated he waved his wand at the mess. Each object shuddered and one by one they began scooting or hopping to their proper location: The clothes scooting to the chest at the foot of the bed, the books to the bed side along with a lamp and a picture frame until at last everything was in its proper place. The raven on his should cooed in apparent disgust, though it could also be taken as a tired coo, and fluttered over to the bed. Eyeing the kitten she settled on the end of the bed. Tossing his back pack towards the bed Oliver turned his attention to Mercy with a sigh. Unpacking was hard work he thought as he sat on the floor.

Petting Mercy he looked back up at Mike with a stupid grin. "He really is a great cat. As far as cats go anyway." Realizing he probably was staring he looked back down to the cat, then to his watch. It looked like a little past midnight, though it was always hard to tell later at night the exact time. "any way it's getting kind of late. I aught to get to bed, I'll need to get up early to unpack the rest of my stuff and be ready for DADA in the morning."

Awkward and rushed he got in the bed under several of the thick quilts.

---

---

Defense Against the Dark Arts: Professor Quinton Bellfree

Hufflepuff and Griffondor
In the new defense against the dark arts room there were windows. Only the upperclassmen remember it being in the dungeon, though they often retell the stories to frighten the first years. As a matter of fact it was by no mysterious means or circumstances that it came to be in the second floor of the left-wing are quite boorish. The reason was simply Professor Bellfree disliked the damp coldness of the basement.

Aside from the normal set up tapestries of magical victories over any number of creatures or in a few cases other wizards hung about the walls. Red and gold curtains hung over the window and the only light came from bright bulbs floating about in mid air. Not that anything unusual necessarily meant that the lesson would be any good, it just meant that the students would likely be on their feet.

The lesson was scrawled across the black board seeming to actually be a planned one, including summoning distractions and expelling them. There was still a chance that any curious student could keep Bellfree off topic for the entire time if they wanted to.

Oliver sat at a desk near the back writing as quickly as he could in attempt to finish summer homework for several of his other classes.

---

---

Potions: Professor Albert Cunningham

Ravenclaw and Slytherin
The potions room was tidy as always, books along one wall and potions ingredients along the other. The room was tall and bright, offering an pleasant place with a kitchen feeling to brew in. Professor Cunningham stood at the front of his room, a potion brewing in front of him as well as several odd ingredients organized across his desk. As ussual he would have the students be making a potion on the first day, and in tradition give a much nicer dose of a diffrent more desired potion to the student who could craft the best potion.

This years student would have to make a blood replenishing poyionl, or at least the recipe for it was on each desk. A cage or rats that looked sickly would lead one to believe that their potions would be tested on the creatures for effectiveness, archaic but sensical.

Megan walked into professor Cunningham's potions class and smiled as she sat her book bag down and took inventory of the materials then starting with the common root ingredients worked her way through to a conclusion.

*A Blood Potion* was her solution to the puzzle's first stage then to a farther refinement of probability arriving at the only potion it can be a Restorative.

Goddess she hated the fact that her Aunt's repetitive lessons in cooking had helped her move so quickly to her answer. The Witch's ghost could be a horrible Dominatrix when it came to school work drilling Meg sometimes over vacation till the young Prodigy left her wand home to seek solace among muggles.

Well that was over now because Aunt Liv had agreed to never meddle at school but did act as an extra guilt trip type of conscience were school work was considered.
So before she gave her suffering dead Aunt any extra ammo while they debated on "The Cloaks" and the depth of the law.

Auntie didn't disapprove of her attending the not so secret meeting only her refusal to take on it's power structure actively. The ghost didn't even care that she join them or cause their ruin so long as she exercise her casting power against live targets as she gained a reputation for power.

Shaking off such thoughts caused Megan to growl vocally disturbing the calm atmosphere of the class room.

"I could have been a muggle posh, gone to a muggle school an lived a muggle life gone to muggle collage and been happy; No I found a wand." said to herself in a quiet tone a bit above a whisper.

@RumikoOhara


Emira rested her head on her knees. "I know you are constantly with the dead... i mean.. i am while i am at home.. That Polgergeist living in my attic and all." she shrugged. "Its alright, you might be close to me like a sister, but we were still raised differently. You can believe as you like, as long as I can believe as I like. It is only our right to have our separate opinions which makes life interesting."

Emira smiled at her friend, clicking her tongue. "If you like. Just be careful that they don't end up getting taken because someone likes them so much." she was actually guilty of that same thing, taking a book out on spells, charms, and hexes as soon as she'd come to hogwarts. She'd spent most of her first through third year practicing various spells from the books. Then when she'd gotten good enough to do them without looking, she'd attempted a few without using words. So far.. she was only capable of lighting things on fire and blowing things up. Naturally her two best spells. She waved her wand, muttering a spell under her breath, conjuring butterflies from the tip of her wand. The glowing creatures fluttered around the room before vanishing in a shower of sparkles. "Man.. its going to be so weird not coming back to this place." she climbed up to the window seat again and glanced out the window.

"You know.. i'm supposed to decide what i am doing for the rest of my life this year." she stated. "I know i don't want to be an Auror.. too much paperwork. I.. i didn't tell my uncle this, but i am thinking about going to study dragons for a year or two. Then.. i don't know. I wish there was a job as volatile as I am... where i could go where i like.. and just.. see everything in the world whenever i like. I just.. i want to be free.. you know?" She smiled. "Actually.. you should remember how much my obession was with escaping everything when we were kids. You remember fifth year? When i transfigured my arms into wings? I thought.. that if i was a bird.. i could just take to the skies... and leave all this behind." she let out a laugh. "I broke all the bones in my legs and arms, and was in the hospital for three days." she laughed. "That's what i get for trying to be an animagus without proper training i guess." She leaned back against the window seat, glancing back over her shoulder as she gazed at Megan. "You know... i don't even know if i want to go study dragons. I mean.. i am good at training THestrals.. and i like them.. should i just take the easy route? Maybe.. but... then what of the world... I want to leave an impact.. i want to do something no one else has done... you know? Just.. i haven't figured out what it is yet.."

________________________

Emira may or may not have been the slightest bit late to Potions class. This may have been slightly purposeful, as making a blood replenishing potion was really boring. She wanted to do something more exciting... and this was keeping her from learning something actually important.

Whatever, she would just make the potion, not because she wanted to, but more because she didn't like to see the weakened rats they were supposed to be feeding the potion. The poor creatures deserved her best effort.

Staring at the recipe on her desk she brought her steel cauldron onto the desk, admiring the stupid face she'd carved in the side using a knife when she was in fourth year.

Potions was honestly pretty easy for Emira.. all she did was follow instructions.. sort of like cooking, only with far more volatile results. There were those in the class who were better than her.. but she still had relatively good grades in this class.

She wiggled her fingers at Megan and joined her at the table. "Hey princess." She called with a teasing eyebrow wiggle. "Blood potion, yaay." she stated sarcastically. "Can't wait to use it never again in my life."

@RumikoOhara@Always



Melanie rolled over as she heard Ally grumbling about Potions from across the room, yawning tiredly as she scrambled to throw on her robes and get her things together. She smirked and rolled her eyes slightly, slipping her wand into her pocket and allowing Kindle to sidle into her pocket before grabbing her book bag and following Ally down to the Potions room.

She took a place next to Megan, noting that the Ravenclaw seemed a little down this morning but was unsure whether to broach the subject or not. She'd never been all that good at judging what was appropriate to ask and what wasn't. To distract herself and find a safer discussion topic, she turned to the inventory of ingredients at the desk, taking no longer than Megan to figure out what their assignment would be for the day.
"Blood restoration...should be interesting."

Mike cast a speculative look at Oliver's back as the boy went to bed, but then shrugged and went to work unpacking his own things. He'd always had trouble going to bed early, too many late nights in the muggle world probably. Moving about quietly in the dark, long after everyone had gone to bed, was something of a skill he'd acquired. "Mobiliarbus," he incanted quietly. Various objects began floating out of his trunk, school books rising to wait patiently in the air and a new set of clean robes hanging themselves on the wall even though there was nothing to hang from. A bowl swooped off to the bottom of the bed, and hundreds of small, perfectly round red balls dropped into it; Mercy's cat food.

Speaking of Mercy, the cat had taken off to explore as soon as Oliver had abandoned him. It wouldn't be long before the cat was forcefully returned to the room by skittish house elves. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence, Mercy would vanish into the halls and reappear at the feet of a prefect or professor and bother them until they gave in and gave him attention or ordered the house elves to take the cat back to it's owner.

Mike decided not to wait up for him, instead locking up his trunk and striping down and redressing himself in bumblebee pajamas. He slept soundly for a change, unstressed by a foreign environment and relieved to be home- because Hogwarts was definitely home.

@Classpet

---

By early morning Mercy's food bowl was empty, but the cat was still nowhere to be seen. Mike wasn't worried. He stumbled through the morning rituals; nabbing a shower the second the bathroom was empty, dressing himself in the robes he'd set out the night before, and brushing his teeth in the charmed mirror, following the reflective personality's advice as he did. By breakfast he was more awake and eager to begin the day, it didn't matter that his first class was with Bellfree, DADA not being his favourite class, at least he was back at Hogwarts. The school was literally where the magic happens, and any class at all was better than another strained day with his parents.

He followed Oliver tot he back of the class, dropping into a seat beside him and hiding an amused grin when he noticed he was rushing through his summer homework.

"In a few days time, evening in the Whompping Willow," answered Karen easily, "and they ought to know that no movement can last very long with only Purebloods. After all, Half-bloods make up more than half the population of magical Britain. If they truly have the mind to discard people like us, then they are much, much more foolish than I suspected."

Watching Elliot stand up, Karen smiled and shook her head. "You go on ahead, I think I'll be taking a short walk around the grounds." It was nearly ritual for her to take walks besides the lake, maybe go for a skinny-dip if she was so-inclined. It was too early for that now, though.

So she watched him leave and spent a few more minutes in the Great Hall, before leaving herself for the grounds after dark.

---

Aah, Defense Against the Dark Arts, one of Karen's premier classes. When they had something to do of course. Sometimes Karen found herself spending an hour doing nothing whenever Belfree got on one of his unusual tangents. Thankfully, the class for today seemed to have been planned out.

Well, she'd see how long that would last. Plans and outcomes generally don't match well with each other, especially in a classroom. Seeing as the lesson had yet to begin and quite a few people were still not present, she decided to offer a quick prayer for the day. Clutching the rosary hanging from around her neck, she closed her eyes and tuned out the mundane sounds around her, in favor of her inner voice offered in worship to the Lord.

Most would see this as unusual, but then again, how many people would be paying attention to her anyway? Besides, while it may have been unusual to those that did not know her, it was nothing new to those that did -- and many of them also knew that trying to disrupt her in a rude manner would end up terribly for them in the long-run.

Elliot's night had ended rather quickly after he left the hall, his eyes were hardly staying open as he walked to the Gryffindor dorm room. He decided to just go straight to bed instead of staying up and chatting to his friends. The first day always took it out of him, mainly because of the huge train journey.

As soon as Elliot got up, he chucked on some clothes that he has for his quidditch training and went for a quick jog to wake him up before grabbing some breakfast and getting ready for his first lesson, with plenty of time to spare. Defence Against The Dark Arts was Elliot’s favourite class easily, mainly for the fact he thought it was the most interesting and entertaining. The room was nicer than the old one that was down in the basement, Elliot had to give it to Professor Bellfree for that. It was the only thing that Elliot could give credit to Bellfree for, his lessons were very poorly put together which annoyed Elliot. As he walked into the class, hardly any one was there, so he decided to take a seat in the middle and wait for the lesson to start.

Defense Against the Dark Arts: Professor Quinton Bellfree

Hufflepuff and Griffondor

Proffesor Bellfree rushed into the room and into his office at the back of the class room. Rustling could be heard from within, though it was uncertain as to what he was doing. Several crashes later he came back out with a few odd trinkets in hand. "pages 134 to 140, everyone read those, don't leave the class!" He yelled, jogging back across the room "Only try the fog spell and anti spell!!" with that he left toward the stair case and the main hall.

The pages he indicated held the instructions for an age line, age changing charm, and age detection spell. None of the pages near these contained information on the spell he'd asked everyone to try. Those who'd read the book, or in fact those who even bothered to check the table of contents they would know that the environment and weather changing spells were on pages 25 through 43. The spell displayed on the board was on page 31.

---

---

@Ceta de Cloyes@TheHangedMan@josephb

Oliver stared as Bellfree rustled about. He didn't have a negative opinion of the teacher necessarily, but everyone knew that the man was not well suited for a teaching career. For Oliver it was only occasionally an inconvenience, for the most part it led to a relaxing class. Today seemed more put together than usual, even with the frantic running about.

Giving up on trying to make up months of time with his homework he turned to Mike "What do you think he's up to?" Oliver quipped "Do you think it'll take him the whole hour?"

---

---

Potions: Professor Albert Cunningham

Ravenclaw and Slytherin
@RumikoOhara@Draconequis@Always@The Elvenqueen

As everyone took their seats and unpacked the Proffesor looked on, his cauldron fuming a golden color. Tapping his wand on the desk in front of himself he cleared his through in preparation for a lecture. "Quills out everyone, we need to get started if we're going to get through today's potion." Pausing for a moment he allowed everyone to get ready for notes. "today We will be making a blood replenishing potion, as all of you should already know. Now by the name everyone can assume what it's for, It's much more important to know when to use the potion and of course when not to. This particular potion is used when a wizard has lost profuse amounts of blood, of course if the magic that caused the blood loss is sever enough, it will require a stronger drought or perhaps something more severe..."

The lecture went on to describe how one might actually make the potion, along with some useful tips that were not in the book. He ends by telling all the students that this years prize is a few doses of invigoration drought, "For those days that you just feel tired" he went on to explain. Finally he alloted the rest of the time for making the potion.

@Draconequis@The Elvenqueen




Meg chuckled when her friend called her Princess because it was one of her grandparents pet names for her. Then as her best friend settled on her right Melanie Stryder settled on her left which caused her briefly to lose her place in preparing her things in their proper order.

"Yes a Blood Restorative that's what it is.
Goddess knows Aunt Liv has etched it into my brain along with a plethora of other critical information." she said hoping she wasn't visibly blushing

*Talk about being caught between anvil and hammer* she thought as she struggled to devise a balanced approach.

On one side was her best friend and housemate Emira and on her other was the beautiful and desirable Melanie who was as Aunt Livonia called her A Bad Girl Fixation

She sometimes hated that the ghostly witch read her with such ease because it made her worry that others around her could do the same. It was a major reason that Megan tended to act chaoticly at times so as to throw off Liv's perception. But she also had to be careful that her Aunt wasn't using reverse psychology and the effort was mentally taxing.

She picked up her quill thankful for the prof's lecture to distract attention from herself . And as her quill flew across the page of her note book displaying a skill with calligraphy few could match in speed or precision she tried not to think of how wonderful Melanie smelled.

She'd been shocked when last year she'd found herself drawn to the Slytherin beauty and had been troubled by little snippets of fantasy which involved the taller girl. It wasn't that they were both girls that had surprised her but that the one girl at Hogwart's she could crush on was the Queen of Serpents.

@RumikoOhara@Always


"Shouldn't be too difficult..." Melanie shrugged as Proffessor Belfree began to speak. She scrawled as many notes down onto her parchment as she could while he was explaining, and set it down once he seemed to have finished, and indicated that the rest of the lesson would be left for them to prepare their own draught of the blood restoration.

She'd attempted to make this potion once before, at home in the summer of her fourth year. Of course, it had gone horribly wrong because she'd stirred it the wrong way and her mother had essentially made her throw the draught out. "As long as I can remember which way to stir it, that is. she smirked, starting on her preparations of each of the ingredients while she glanced over her shoulder to check on her housemate. "You alright back there, Alyssa?"

"Probably," Mike admitted, turning to the page the professor had told them absently. Finding the subject there to be totally unrelated to anything else the professor said, he glanced up at the board and turned to that page instead. With a sign he found himself mentally committing to do both pages.

@Classpet

An unamused look covered Elliot’s face as he watched Professor Bellfree run out of the classroom within a minute of the class starting. He opened up the book and looked at the topic that had nothing to do with what Bellfree was asking them to do. “Are you serious?” Elliot said, mainly to himself because the teacher had already left. He noticed Oliver and Mike sitting behind, they were two Hufflepuffs that Elliot had talked to a few times. Mainly to Mike because he was also a chaser. “How does Mckelly think he’s a good teacher? Everyone knows he can’t even teach!” Elliot said to them both as he turned round to face them.

“Well if he’s not going to teach me, might as well do it myself.” Elliot got out his wand, pointing it upwards and said, “Nebula.” Elliot knew the name of the spell, but hadn’t done it before, so he had no idea what to expect. Slowly a thick fog started pouring out of the end of his wand starting to cover the class.

@Ceta de Cloyes@Classpet@TheHangedMan