Maeve headed up to her common room after slipping a quick note to one new third year housemate, figuring she had a little bit of downtime she could utilize to help the girl. Sure the Runes classroom wasn't THAT far from the Gryffindor Common Room, but imagine had it been Potions, she'd have never made it back to class in time and so being the helpful student (sometimes), she was going to teach her something that could potentially be a lifesaver in the future.

Finding a seat near the fireplace, she waited and wondered if the third year would show up.

In the meanwhile, she pulled out a small journal of prank ideas from her backpack and slipped it into her transfiguration textbook, to read while she waited.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Maeve headed up to her common room after slipping a quick note to one new third year housemate, figuring she had a little bit of downtime she could utilize to help the girl. Sure the Runes classroom wasn't THAT far from the Gryffindor Common Room, but imagine had it been Potions, she'd have never made it back to class in time and so being the helpful student (sometimes), she was going to teach her something that could potentially be a lifesaver in the future.

Finding a seat near the fireplace, she waited and wondered if the third year would show up.

In the meanwhile, she pulled out a small journal of prank ideas from her backpack and slipped it into her transfiguration textbook, to read while she waited.

Runes was a subject that absolutely fried Cordelia's brain every time. It was all so confusing. Post runes lesson, Cordelia needed some down time to reset her brain before her next lesson. She headed over to the sofa by the fire and plopped down on it. "Maeve!" The second year grinned at her older friend. Nowadays she didn't get to see quite as much of Maeve as she used to. Cordelia peered curiously over to the book her friend had. "What'cha reading?" Hopefully something more interesting than ancient runes.

Eleanor left the runes classroom fingering on the note Meave had passed her at the end of the runes lesson. The elder girl had wanted to meet her in the common room to teach her something. What that something was Ellie was curious about so she quickly slung on her backpack as she jogged up the stairs to the lion den to see Maeve. She didn’t have her next class yet for an hour or so.

Giving the fat lady the password she climbed through and into the common room where saw that Maeve wasn’t alone by the fireplace, another girl was there too. Ellie tried to recall her name. Was it Cordelia? Walking over she looked from Maeve to the other girl and greeted kindly "Hi Maeve and Cordelia right?" The last was directed to the younger girl. Eyes going to Maeve she asked curiously "What did you want to teach me?"

"Oh Cordelia, hey!" And that question. Was she going to tell Cordelia that she was secretly reading up on pranks? Absolutely not. But she'd also known Cordelia for years she'd lost track how long but it was definitely pre-adolescence for herself and legit couldn't lie to younger lioness. Which is why instead of answering, Maeve simply held up the book for her to see the cover... Transfiguration, mmhm, nothing unusual here.

OH THANK heavens! Ellie read her note alright and showed up! Snapping her book shut it with a loud close, she slid it back into her bag and removed a pack of gum to pop a piece into her mouth. Somehow it was maybe going to make her less nervous cause she never actually taught anyone anything. And yet ...... it seemed like the helpful thing to do. "Right, sooo I was thinking to teach you a simple spell if you forget the wrong shoes or any uniform accessory again. Especially if we're down on the grounds or the dungeons, rather than have to run back to the common room. You'd never make it." Just saying. Unless she had a broom and could fly up but under ordinary circumstances, it was impossible. Which was where magic came in.

Anna of course wasn't in Runes lesson since she didn't take that subject. She had been out in the grounds running and stretching and running some more. At one point she wished Koen was still around to teach her some more martial arts, because just doing the few things she knew over and over again was going to get boring pretty fast. For that reason, she just ran that day. She reckoned if she didn't do the martial arts thing every day it would take longer for her to get tired of it.

But now it was down time, so she sorted herself out in the Quidditch locker room because why not, and headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room. It was nice to know that she could just chill there now without wondering whether her brother would turn up and start bothering her about studying pointless subjects.

As soon as she walked through the Fat Lady's portrait, Anna heard Maeve say something about a spell to help when one forgot something especially when they where on the grounds or the dungeons. "Summoning Charm?" She asked as a greeting, moving to plop down on the sofa she deemed the most comfortable of the Common Room and looking at the younger girls. "Don't you know that already? Wait, how old were we when we learned that?" She asked Maeve. All of those Hogwarts years were blurring into one now in Anna's brain. Except when it came to Quidditch. She knew exactly what had happened in each of her Quidditch years at Hogwarts, alright.

The rest? A big ball of boring classes, if you asked her.

Great, just great! Maeve had seen her leave the class to change shoes. Could she sunk down into the floor in embarrassment? Feeling her cheeks burn Ellie tried to explain herself. "I thought since it said 'comfortable' shoes on the runes lesson notice for the class that i could wear my sneakers. I wasn't the only one that messed up though. A boy did that too from Slytherin." Just saying. Hopefully this wasn't going to be the talk of the halls, next? She didn't want to be laughed at by all the other lions. Starting to twiddle with her thumbs like she always did when she was ashamed or embarrassed she still asked curiously "What simple spell do you want to teach me Maeve? I'm pretty good at the levitation charm."

Ellie's cheeks had stopped burning by the time that prefect Anna entered the common room and joined their conversation by plopping down on a nearby sofa. Shrugging she looked over at the elder girl. "Maeve hasn't revealed what charm she plans to teach me just yet." Hopefully it wasn't a charm that Anna saw as pointless to know. "I'm in third year Anna and I've been switching schools so maybe I don't know it. From Durmstrang to Beauxbatons to Hogwarts." Ellie quietly said with a hint of sourness in her tone. It was one of the many downside's to having a father that worked as an influential ambassador for the ministry of magic with fluency in multiple languages, they often had to move to new country and she had to transfer to another school.

Ugh, her head! Runes always did a number on her and yet she continued to take the class. While she had gotten incredibly better at it that didn't change the fact that is was still difficult. It was one of those classes that she really truly had to focus on and study for... a lot. Not to mention she still asked Drew for help from time to time as well as mirror calling her brother, Anni AND Storm!

Entering the common room directly after the lesson, Rylee had every intention on flopping down on one of the couches for a short nap. Which is exactly what would have happened had there not been several lionesses already occupying the area. There went her nap.

"Hey, everyone!" she smiled brightly pushing away any lingering thoughts of being exhausted mentally. "What did I miss?" What were they all talking about? Hopefully she wasn't interrupting something to serious. Flopping down into the nearest empty arm chair she let her bag slide from her shoulder onto the floor as she made herself comfortable.

Cassidy sat by the fireplace surrounded by quite a few candy wrappings, chocolate frog in hand. Her mum had just sent a care package for her and Rhett and there was loads of candy inside. She read the letter as she took a large bite grinning from ear to ear. She loved candy and chocolate frogs were her favorite.

Mum and dad were doing good. They mentioned possibly getting the twins their own owl to share that way they could write letters home as well. Cassidy thought that was a great plan. Then there was a part about their cat Mr. Whiskers. Apparently he was very ill. Suddenly the firstie who was always grinning, was now frowning. She loved that cat more than anything in the world. Mum and dad didn't expect him to be around much longer.

Cassidy put down the letter. What was she going to do? Mr. Whiskers had been with her her whole life. She started to sniffle just thinking about it.

Sammy popped through the portrait hole after spending the day out on the grounds. There was grass on his clothing and a leaf or two stuck in his hair from climbing a tree. He was about to run up to his dorm room to change before heading off to the library when he noticed a firstie near the fireplace. She didn’t look so good. He paused. ”You ok?” he asked with his faint Russian accent. There were quite a few candy wrappers lying around. He wondered if she had eaten something like he and Eleanor had. Did he need to take her to the nurse? ”Stomach ache?”

Cassidy looked up at the sound of a voice. She wiped a couple of tears away from her eyes as she looked up at the boy. She'd seen him around the common room a couple of times but had never talked to him so she didn't really want him to see her crying. She tried to muster up a smile as best she could. "I'm fine." She shook her head no at his second question. "I've only had a couple chocolate frogs. Not enough to make me sick."

Oh! She was crying. Sammy had to force himself not to step backwards. Crying girls were worse than perky girls and they activated his fight or flight (usually flight) mode. ”Um…” He reached into a pocket and produced a clean old fashioned cloth hanky. He handed it over while looking out towards the nearby window. He’d taken to carrying a cloth hanky around with him after getting two horrendous nose bleeds in one week the first week at Hogwarts. ” Never had chokolate frrog. Not much forr sweets.” Well, not much anymore. They hadn’t discovered what had caused his nose bleeds, but Sammy had been eating candy at the time and, well, blood-flavored chocolate wasn’t exactly tasty. Unless you were maybe a vampire.

Cassidy gave him a smile. It was clear he was as uncomfortable catching her crying as she was with being caught. She took the hanky and dabbed around her eyes a bit before handing it back to the boy. "Thank you."

Cassidy's eyes kind of went wide in shock. "Chocolate frogs are delicious. They are my absolute favorite followed closely by licorice wands. I've never met someone who doesn't like sweets before." Even Rhett liked sweets. And he was one of the weirdest pickiest people she knew. "Oh. I'm Cassidy by the way."

Sammy nodded, not really sure what to say, but glad she hadn’t continued to cry. Sometimes, the best things were to pretend like you hadn’t caught someone being vulnerable. He found it helped them move past it quicker. He took back the hanky, grateful she hadn’t blown her nose it in, but still wishing he knew a cleaning charm to use on it. As it was, he tucked it into his pocket and resolved to replace it as soon as he could make his way up to his four-poster.

”What makes zem so tasty?” he asked. Part of him wondered if they were made out of real frogs and if so, then Brits were even crazier then he thought. He’d had licorice wands before, they were alright. Sammy just wasn’t sure if he trusted much food around here anymore. Seemed like every time he tried something new, his nose started to bleed like a waterfall. And he hadn’t had a problem with bloody noses before he started school here. Well, the exception was the food Beezley the elf gave him for breakfast. She could really fry up some eggs. ”Ahh, Samuil,” he said, looking towards the dormitory stairs before taking a seat nearby Cassidy. Despite not being fond of crying or perky girls, Sammy felt odd just leaving the girl alone. He'd sit for a few minutes at least.

Cassidy was glad she could brush off the awkwardness of crying. She would have to hunt down Rhett later to talk about Mr. Whiskers. She knew he wasn't really too fond of the cat but she was so he would have to sit and listen. And she wasn't afraid to cry in front of her brother so that was a bonus too.

Cassidy just shrugged her shoulders. "Dunno. They're just really good." She grabbed a small handful of the various treats her parents had sent. "Would you like something?" She had manners, plus this was way more candy then she could eat in a couple of sittings. It was bound to just sit in her trunk for a while. "Nice to meet you Samuil." She offered a big face filling grin.

Sammy felt like he should again ask the girl about why she had been crying, but she had bucked up a lot when she started talking about sweets. So, he felt it was best to just let it go. After all, he really didn’t want to know why she was crying, it was just that his sense of civic duty or chivalry or politeness or whatever made him feel like he should.

He glanced suspiciously at the candy behind held out to him and then grabbed a suggard butterfly wing, figuring it had to be safe as it wasn’t chocolate. ”Thanks,” he said forcing a smile and hoping it wasn’t too fake looking. ”Sent from home werrre these?” he asked. The girl was younger then him, so he doubted she was able to go into Hogsmead just yet and purchase them herself. ”Awfully nice of whomever to send them.” The only thing he'd received in the mail was more socks.

Cassidy smiled as Samuil grabbed a piece of candy. She was always happy to share. She set the rest down so it was between the two of them incase he wanted another piece. "You're welcome." She finished off the rest of the chocolate frog she was still holding. "Mhm. Mum and dad sent my brother and I a care package. They sent us new scarves for winter too but I think the candy was the best part." She was going to use the scarf too of course but right now the candy was what she wanted most.

”A scarrf?” he asked taking a bite out of the candy in his hand. ”Still better than the socks I got.” Yep. His mom was very practical and not very sentimental. Her note had stated ‘I bet you lost half your socks by now and the weather’s getting too cold to not wear them.’ And she had been right. Half of his socks had gone missing or had holes in them. He pulled his feet up onto the chair under him. If one looked closely, they would notice that Sammy was wearing two different colored socks.

Cassidy nodded and grabbed the pink and purple scarf that was sitting next to her on the floor. "My mum knitted it herself." She giggled a little about the socks. "It never hurts to have socks. You can always use more." She watched as he readjusted himself to get more comfortable, noticing that his socks didn't match. "Do you always mismatch your socks? Or were you in a hurry this morning?" She was really good at noticing odd things. Came from growing up with Rhett.

Had he worn two different socks? He looked down pulling up his pants leg a little. Huh, look at that. At the giggle, his ears went pink under his russet hair. He shrugged, trying to brush off his embarrassment. ”Must have gotten pairred wrrong,” he said simply when in fact it was the fact that as long as he had socks on, he didn’t really care. No…no that was wrong. As long as he has socks on and they weren’t pink or covered in flowers, Sammy didn’t care.

He noticed her scarf was pink and purple. He pointed. ”Favorrite colors orrr?” He took another bite out of his candy. He was thinking the colors would stand out a lot against their black school robes or in the snow. She’d be easy pickings for a snowball fight.

Cassidy shrugged. "Not that it matters. Socks are socks." She'd mismatched hers sometimes when the laundry wasn't done. She'd even stolen some of Rhett's before just to have socks on her feet. Wearing shoes without socks on was just weird and wrong.

She nodded. "I tend to lean more towards purple but mum made it so can't complain." She always loved getting handmade gifts. Handmade gifts were always the best gifts. "What's your favorite color?" Might as well ask since they were kind of on the topic.

Sammy wasn’t sure if Cassidy was trying to make him feel better about his socks or not, but he wasn’t really that embarrassed by them, more the girl’s reaction. Sammy didn’t like being laughed at. Even so, he tugged his pants legs down a little more and wraps his fingers around his ankles without realizing he was doing it. ”Blue,” he said after a moment of thinking about it. ”Like a dark blue, not a bright one.” or the light blue that people often put little boys or babies in.

Cassidy could tell she had upset him in some way. He was acting the way her brother did when she pushed him too far. But she didn't know what she did or how to address it so she decided to ignore it. Best to just let it go and pretend it didn't happen. "So something like a navy?" Navy was nice. It went with everything.

He wondered when it would stop feeling surreal when he entered the Gryffindor common room. It was a sentiment that went well beyond the current situation at Hogwarts. Grandpa had been here...Uncle Ryu had been here...Uncle Junichiro had been here...mum had been here...and he felt the weight of their presences and whatever legacies they had left behind with every step he took. It had been why he hadn't wanted to be in Gryffindor, part of it at least. To not have these standards and memories to live up to as a lion. Hufflepuff was the same with it being dad's old house. Uncle Takeshi with Ravenclaw. Slytherin was the only house, as far as he innocently knew, that did not have a direct connection to him. It had been his chance to make his own path without someone else's spotlight on him.

....and now, here he was, living in a self created shadow of those who had come before him.

..................and there was so much crimson. The warm color was distracting and always made him hungry, which was a problem considering the kitchens were now inaccessible. He missed the soothing, calming, green hues of the Slytherin common room.

Sighing, he slipped the strap of his bag off his shoulder and eyed up the couches and chairs. Maybe today he would try the one just slightly offset of the fire place and see how it felt. He needed a new reading chair.

It had been an entire year since she had transferred to Hogwarts and despite how regularly she made it known that she wasn't a fan of the school, Slytherin had grown on her. Not the dormitory (as there were still many problems there), but the Common Room. She had grown accustomed to the dimly lit corners, the placement of the portholes, the green. She had even picked a favorite sofa.

But the Gryffindor Common Room was far different. She hated it.

It was far too crowded (something all the suffocating RED contributed to in its own right), far too LOUD, far too everything she didn't like about the House itself. There were only a few Gryffindors she could tolerate. Even less that she genuinely liked (Calyx and Józef being the top two). As if having to live alongside Karlin and Eloise wasn't enough already. Now she had to deal with Lenora too. And Céline, apparently.

She felt uncomfortable. Displaced. And very, very small.

As she made her way down from her temporary accommodation, her eyes fell upon Eiji (who equally disapproved of the switch, she hoped). Nina made her way over to the boy, sidling up next to him. "Can't decide where to sit?"