Alyssa entered her dorm room and looked around. It looked like it was empty....for now. Quickly she took out the box from her bag and placed it on her bed. Taking out her wand, she tapped it once on the box. It immediately unfolded to reveal the same pesky walnut she had been seeing for the last 5 days. The curse that had been cast upon it was really a tough one, although when Professor Hadley had told them their assignment, and assured them that it really wasn't that hard, Alyssa had thought that she would have no problems revealing the numbers that made the spell and that she would then be able to crack open the walnut. "You're definitely a tough nut to crack!!", Alyssa whispered at the walnut. When she realized what she had just said, she busted out laughing. "Now I know where that saying came from", she laughed to herself. "Okay enough fun for now. Right now, we need to reveal the grouping of numbers that you are hiding".

Concentrating on the spell, knowing that most spells/curses work if one concentrated on what they wanted the spell to do, Alyssa waved her wand down and then up and pointed it at the walnut. "Arithmos Revelio".

Immediately an orange glow appeared over the walnut and numbers shimmered. She saw the numbers 2, 8, 5, 2, 7, 4 and this time a 9. This time the numbers appeared clearer. "Is that it? Are those the numbers? Did my revealing spell work this time?"Alyssa jumped up and down with glee, excited that she had finally solved the puzzle.

But then suddenly the number began fading and eventually disappeared. "No!! No!! NO!!,"Alyssa exclaimed, disappointed that she had failed again."Sigh!! There's no way I'm going to get those numbers revealed. I was right all along. I'm still not good at this. Maybe I never will. I have a feeling that Arithmancy is not going to be one of my best subjects. I'm sorry, Professor Hadley ," Alyssa silently apologized to her House Mistress.

Salima waoke up and got out of bed she made ther way to the bathroom and came back 20 minutes later looking refreshed she mader her way down to the common room

Entry 1: Date:10/17/2074

Alyssa took out her egg. She had called it Queenie, even though she didn't think that it had a gender, because it looked all shiny and has beautiful swirly decorations. "It looks so royal looking," Alyssa had told her friend, when she was asked why she had named the egg, Queenie.

Alyssa had examined the egg a couple of times over the last few days ever since she had picked it out in Charms class. She had tried to figure out what was inside the egg, but couldn't. She even tried shaking it, gently, but that didn't work either. She had thought of test dropping it, but decided to nix that idea altogether, because she knew that somehow the Professor would find out about what she had done. Alyssa shuddered to think what punishment the Professor would enforce on her.

For the last few days, the egg had been 'behaving' normally, if still looking shiny and room temperature warm, was considered normal. But now it was time for her to check on her egg again.

Alyssa took the egg out of the bag and unwrapped it from her woolen sock. She immediately felt a difference. The egg was very cold to touch. In fact, it was biting cold AND quivering. "Oh no!! Is the egg hatching? No, it can't be. If I didn't know better I would think that it was actually shivering. Does this egg actually feel the cold? I wonder whether the sudden drop in temperature because it snowed really bad last night, has affected the temperature inside her. Even though she was wrapped up in my little wool sock in my bag, the cold air must have seeped through. What am I doing?? Questions later. I need to warm Queenie up right now,"Alyssa thought to herself.

She placed the egg on her bed and quickly checked her notes for the spell to warm the egg up. It was the Argentum Calidus spell. Quickly taking out her wand, she swished and tapped it on the egg while saying "Ar-gent-um Ca-lid-us".

Putting aside her wand, she reached out to touch the egg, and heaved a sigh of relief. Queenie seemed to be warming up nicely now. Alyssa could actually see that she has stopped quivering...or shivering...or whatever these metal eggs did when they got cold.

"That was a close call. I will need to keep a closer eye on her from now on to make sure that she doesn't get too cold, or too warm for that matter," Alyssa reminded herself.

Isobel walked in to the girl's dormitory and sat down, cross-legged, on her bed. She held her egg in her hands and studied it. She needed to name it, but she had absolutely no idea what to call it. "What do you want to be called, little egg?" She focused on it, but of course it did not answer back. Isobel sighed and studied it. It was purple, so maybe she could call it something that had to do with that. She considered Violet, but her best friend was named Violet, so that would be weird. Maybe....lilac? That was a color though, not much of a name. Violet was a color, but it sounded more like a name than Lilac did. Maybe Lavender, but that made her think of the color pink for some reason. Suddenly she had an idea, one that did not make any sense whatsoever, but she loved it. "Your name is now Roza," she declared to the egg with a smile.

Now, for the spells the actual part of her grade. She grabbed her notebook and spread it on the bed in front of her. She flipped past the pages of Transfiguration spells until she found the page titled; egg. It was underlined too, and it contained her notes of the spells.

She was not sure what was wrong with Roza, but something was wrong. She looked...pale. The purple was not a shiny as before. Luna was not particularily cold, or hot, so Isobel did not know what was wrong. Maybe she was sad, which would be weird since she was an egg. Maybe Roza needed to be clean. Isobel shrugged and took out her wand. "Argentum Humidus," she said with a twirl of her wand, then a point at Roza. She picked her up again and noticed that she was damp, like she had been outside when it was raining. That was what the spell was supposed to have accomplished, so Isobel took that as a good sign.

She set Roza on her bed and got her wand ready again. Isobel glanced at her notebook to be reminded of the spells. "Argentum Siccus," she said, with another twirl and a point. Isobel set her wand down next to her and picked up Roza. She was dry, and looked better than she had before. But there was one final thing missing. Isobel set Roza back down on her bed and picked up her wand. She pointed it at Roza and said, "Excolo." She traced her wand around Roza and hoped with all her might that it worked. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for a minute. When she opened her eyes Roza was shinier, and Isobel smiled in satisfaction.

Does an egg has to have a name? Janice thought. It doesn't, right? I'll just call it Eggie, then, or Ellie? Nah, I'll stick with Egg or Eggie.

To aid her bad memory, Janice wrote the spells on the first page of the Journal. If she forgot anything, she could always look it up there.
Suddenly, Janice shiverred and let out a little sneeze. It's cold again, she thought.
"Argentum Calidus!" she said, with a swish, ended with a tap on the egg. After that, she touched Eggie.

Somethings moving inside.

She jerked her hand upwads and remembered Professor Althea's message at the Bulletin Board. The eggs are not alive, but they seem to have quirks. Maybe your egg twitches a lot when it is dirty, maybe it shivers if its too cold. Maybe it likes to wander and rolls off sometimes.At least the shell's warmer. Good.

For safety measures, Janice bent down and took out a pair of socks from her trunk. Putting one sock inside another, she put Eggie inside it after 'Excolo'-ed and 'Argentum Calidus'-ed it. Then, she wrote her Journal entry 1.

After she's finished, she curled in her bed with the socks in her arms. Patches took a spot near her feet and purred. Then they both, slowly, drifted to sleep.

Minerva came running into the girls dorm and fell upon her bed sobbing. Why did she feel this way she couldn't control her crying. She was shaking all over.

Violet stalked into her Dorm and screamed loudly. 'STUPID! STUPID LIFE! STUPID ILLNESS!' she screamed, kicking the side of her bed. Violet had never lost control like this before. Never. And she didn't like it. She screamed again and launched onto her bed, burrowing under the covers. She wouldn't come out. She'd refuse to. She wasn't leaving her bed.

Daisy stormed up the stairs, running hard. Violet was in a right state, and Rose and Lilly had told her to look after her and make sure she was ok, a bit like an older sister, as Rose couldn't get into the Hufflepuff common room. She rushed past her own dorm, opening the door to the First-years dorm room. Hopefully she was allowed in there...
'Violet? Vi, are you ok?' she asked her best friends sister. 'Listen... I'm worried. Your sisters are worried. D'you want a hug? You don't have to talk to me at all, i promise.' she said kindly, holding her arms out to Violet.

Violet jumped as she heard a voice. Daisy. Her sister's best friend. Checking on her. Well, it seemed Rose and Lilly were in a better state... She poked her head out of her duvet to look at her.
'N-No. I-I'm not OK. M-Mum's dying.' Violet said, her voice trembling. 'I-They-We-Yes, please.' Violet sobbed, climbing out of her bed and launching onto Daisy, sobbing. 'I-I don't mind talking to you.' she said, shaking slightly. She was, as put, in a right state. She didn't know how to go on with life normally if her Mum was dead. And what if she completely broke down when she did die? Then what?

Daisy watched as the girl poked her head out of her bed covers to look at her. Without any warning, Violet broke down in tears whilst hugging Daisy.
'I know,' Daisy said quietly, hugging the girl back. Her shoulder was getting kinda wet, but she didn't mind. Like her mother did when she was upset, Daisy made little shussing noises while Violet continued to sob.
'I can't say what's gonna happen,' Daisy sniffed, almost tearful herself, 'but If it does,' she shook a little, 'you've got Rose, and Lilly. And me,' she added as an afterthought. 'And it won't be easy, but it'll get better over time, i promise.'

Violet listened to Daisy as she spoke. Wow. She could totally be a public speaker. Doubtful she knew what one was, seeing as it was muggle things, but still! She nodded. 'I know I've got all of you guys. And vise versa and such.' Violet said quietly. 'Get better?' Violet asked, dumbfounded. She could see the logic, but she knew it'd be hard, how was a girl supposed to get over her Mother's death? Violet had never thought that she would lose her Mum, it had never crossed her mind, but now that it was happening, it fell harder than a tonne of bricks. Quickly. Horribly. Like nothing had happened. She was happy. Then this happened.

Minerva jumped out of her bed. Did she hear that correctly. "Violet oh Honey did I just hear correctly your mom is dying? Oh hun. I am so sorry." Minerva ran over to give her dear friend a hug.

And then she was being hugged. By someone else. She winced slightly and scolded herself. She was usually fine with being hugged. But she probably wasn't in the mood. She relaxed herself quickly and sobbed quietly, nodding. 'D-Dying-Cancer-Going-Sad-ARGH!' she screamed again, loudly. It just wasn't fair. And she still refused to go out. She didn't want to. She didn't want to have to face her sisters. See the faces who had lost the same as she had. It would only remind her. But she had to see her sisters.

Violet Deluise was messed up

Alyssa walked back into her dorm room and was relieved that none of her room mates had returned back yet. She wanted to complete the Protection Spell and bless her wooden rune in private without anyone thinking that she was weird or talking to herself again...which was nothing new.

She reached around her neck and felt for the ribbon. Then using the ribbon, she pulled out the wooden rune that was hidden under her school robes. She remembered how she had to chant the Gladr of the rune the last time when she was asked to pick an object to charm it. She still wore that chain around her neck and she wasn't sure whether she had done it right that time, but it definitely seemed like she was having better luck in her classes. That time she had to use her wand to do it. "But the Professor had said to kiss it this time. Maybe because I carved out the design using my wand, it will work the same way too. So here goes."

Alyssa pressed the wooden rune to her lips and kissed it while chanting the Gladr to the Rune Algiz:

"elhaz elhaz elhaz
z z z z z z z z z
[a deep whirring, whistling sound]
uz az iz ez uz
oz ez iz az uz
z z z z z z z z z
(m m m m m m m m m)"

She felt a warmth on her lips and without removing the wooden rune from her lips, she tried to squint down to see whether something was happening to it. For a split instant, there was a bright orange glow surrounding the wooden rune and then it disappeared.

"Okay. I guess that was it. Now here's hoping that I did it correctly. Guess I'll find out soon enough."Alyssa then tucked her rune back under her robes and left the room to join everyone downstairs.

"Oh Violet I am so sorry. Should you guys be leaving school to be with her? Do you need me to do anything? What can I do?" Minerva wanted to help her best friend in the house. "What can I do?"

Violet shook her head at every suggestion. 'I have to stay here. It's where all of my friends are. I'll lose it even more, otherwise.' Violet sighed, her now-grey eyes clouding over more. 'Nobody can do anything. Nothing.' Violet sobbed quietly.

"Oh Violet" Minerva hugged her friend. She might not be able to do anything, but at least she could be here with Violet and support her.

Daisy smiled a little, her words seemed to have comforted Violet a bit. She hugged her again, and took a nervous breath before asking Violet the question.
'Do you think you could come out of the dorms and common rooms? Just to tell Rose and Lilly you're ok?' she asked, 'they're really worried, and I don't think you want to make things any harder for them.'

Salima woke up still feeling a bit tired; she got out of bed and walked into the bathroom.
About half an hour later looking refreshed, got dressed and walked towards the common room.

Violet sighed. She knew Rose and Lilly would be worried. But she couldn't help it. She wasn't ready to leave her own bubble. Her own world, where she could change what she wanted. The world could change to her liking. It made it easier. 'I don't want to make things harder for them. But. It's difficult. I-I'm not ready, it'll make it all so much more real.' Violet said quietly. She didn't want to. But she was so hungry! She groaned and sat down, placing her head in her hands.

Minerva went over to her bed and then back to Violet. "Here you need to eat something." Minerva placed a bag of chips and a muffin onto Violets bed.

Violet looked down at the food and beamed. 'Thank you.' she smiled, before opening the crisps and eating them slowly, savouring the flavour. Yum!

Jesifur pulled the box out of her bag and set it in the middle of her bed. She had such a difficult time in class and felt very confused when she had left. She stared at the box. maybe if she stared long enough the box would open itself. Jesifur pulled her wand and carefully tapped it to the box. It burst open, the sides fell away and the walnut sat in the middle. Do Not touch the nut. She shifted her weight on the bed and the walnut started to roll toward her. Do not touch the nut! She jumped up fast off the bed and the nut stopped short of leaving the box. Whew. She held her wand at the ready now standing next to the bed. She pointed the wand at the nut and said, "Arithmos revelio." Faded numbers, just beyond recognition appeared above the nut. Just as quickly as the appeared they faded away. hmm. Maybe she should eat first then try again. Careful not to touch the nut she closed the box back up and set it on her bedside table. Later nut. She walked out of her room feeling a bit defeated.

Minerva was glad to see Violet eat something. "How are you feeling?"

Violet looked up at Minnie. 'Fuller?' she said, smiling slightly. How was she feeling? Like she'd just been blown up, that her world was upside down, that life was stupid, Minnie could take her pick, if she could read her mind, obviously...