As you crest the staircase coming up from the sixth floor, you'll notice a statue to your right. Lachlan the Lanky is a great landmark for a meeting place.

Cela examined the statue, Lachlan the Lanky? She giggled- it was kind of a funny name.

There was noone around, Celandine peeked over her shoulder to check before turning back to the statue.

"Hiiiii, Lachlan!" she twirled a strand of her hair absently and examined the statue, "You don't mind if I sit here right?" She plonked her self down and opened her book, burying her nose in it before peeking at the statue, "And don't read over my shoulder, it's rude!"

Boredom. Not sugar high.

Celandine patted her pocket and smiled softly; there was plenty of time for fun with candy. She began to chew on the end of her hair as she read her book.

Lucas continued on his trek through Hogwarts. He had covered a few floors already. He wasn't going in any particular order. He looked around and saw that he was on the seventh floor. He wasn't even paying attention to where he was going to be honest. He was following the light from his little green hardhat.

He walked upon two other students. "Hi Cela," He said brightly remembering the Potato Artists from the starting feast. he turned his light off so he wouldn't blind anyone. He turned to the other boy. "Hi I'm Lucas, Lucas Greenwood." He said holding out his hand for the boy to shake.

Celandine looked up and almost threw her book in the air in her excitement to have company.

"Raaaaiiiiiiiiiden!" She greeted him brightly and stood up, looking down on him where he had sat, "Of course I remember you." Cela blinked at Raiden as he commented on Lachlan's name and placed her book on the ground next to him.

"Shhhusshhhh! He might hear you." Cela clambered onto the statue and covered Lachlan's ears, giggling a bit before turning to face Raiden,

"But you are right it is a reaaaally strange name- not like Raiden and Celandine."

Still on the statue Cela grinned down at Lucas as he appeared too. What were these Slytherins doing on the 7th floor? She jumped down, skidding a bit on her shoes and pointed at the statue.

"Lucas, meet Lachlan the Lanky." Cela grinned and picked up her book again. "What are you wearing?" she pointed at the strange hat that Lucas had on and immediately jumped to a different subject, "I've just been reading this advanced charms book." She gave both boys a grin, "I want to be better than my brother at charming people by the end of the year."

Thinking over her sentence she paused before clarifying, "The magic of charms, I mean. Not making people think you are charming."

Raiden put a hand over his mouth and blushed slightly when she said that Lachlan might hear him... he knew things in this castle weren't always what they seemed, but... the statues? He'd have to watch what he said around them from now on, that was for sure... He giggled as she scaled up the stone figure to cover its ears. This girl was loads of fun, that was for sure.

"Raiden's a weird name for here... in Japan, it's not, I think." He grinned. "Where does your name come from? I like it, it's pretty."

Another boy had arrived and he introduced himself as Lucas Greenwood. Raiden took the boy's hand, as if they were adults, and shook it vigorously, grinning. How exciting, more people to meet...

"Hai, I'm Raiden Kururugi... I'm in Slytherin," he said proudly, as he wasn't wearing his school robe at the moment. It was stuffed into his little messenger bag that quite possibly weighed more than he at the moment. It was jammed full of books, ink, quills, parchment, and a lone muggle notebook with a muggle pen in the circular metal spine. It was in this notebook that Raiden wrote down everything that interested him... Celandine had already been written in, as had Kiri, and Astrid, and Barry, and Kingston Wendleworth, and Daphne Hopton, and Elizabeth Andrews... He was going to need another notebook before the term was through, if these people kept up with their interesting ways. "I like your hat. It's neat."

Lucas and his hat would be Raiden's next entry. He was sure of it.

"My name is either a kind of flower, or a swallow, take your pick." Cela grinned, deciding that Slytherin first years were almost as cool as Slytherin sixth years. And Will, not Nicholai was at the top of that list.

She grinned widely as the two boys shook hands, as if it was because of her that they would become friends and not anything to do with the fact that the two of them were the same year and the same house.

Celandine too, examined Lucas' little hat with interest, wondering why a hat would need a light when someone could just conjure light or use lumos with their wand.

He smiled at the statue "Hello Mr. Lachlan," He said bowing to the statue. It was very nice. It would take him awhile to draw him on his map. "Its a hardhat with a light on it. Muggle miners and splunkers wear this so they can see int he dark." He said puffing out his chest proudly. "I wear it when I go exploring." he explained to her. "I know loads of magic of already too. My mommy taught me lots of stuff before I got here." He told her.

He looked at her not knowing why you would want magically charm people. "Maybe if you are just nice to them then you can be charming." He told her.

He noticed that she was sliding on her shoes. "Are your shoes Healy's?" He asked. He always wanted a pair of those.

Lucas' teeth chattered at the boy shook his hand really hard. "Hi Raiden." He said brightly. "I'm in Slytherin too. Thats why my hardhat is green." He told them both proudly as he turned off his light. "I like my hat too. My daddy gave it to me. It even has my name in it." He told them.

Raiden giggled. Celandine's name, either way, fit her perfectly. It was a very pretty name, that was for sure... He tried to recall what his own meant. His mother had once told him, he knew... it was a variation of his father's name, Raizo. And Raizo meant...

"Oh, yeah," he said as he remembered, "Mine means 'god of thunder and lightning'. Not as pretty as a bird or a flower."

Again, he wondered why on earth his mother had named him Raiden. Thunder and Lightning didn't really suit him. Neither did being a god of said thunder and lightning. His name always felt as if it preempted him, when people knew what it meant.


Raiden bounced excitedly. Another Slytherin! How fortunate! He was glad to be making friends in his own house now, as well. It would be lonely when he was in the Common Room and Evangeline Green was out doing Prefect stuff... he didn't like lonely.

"I really like it, I like the light thing... what spell is that? And you can flip a thinger and turn it on and off? How neat!" It never dawned on Raiden that it might be actual lighting, like they had in the Muggle houses.

Lucas giggled as he watched Raiden bounce. Lucas liked him a lot, and he hoped they could be friends. Small people should stick together, after all big people stuck up for each other. "I really like your name. Are you named from Raiden on Mortal Kombat? Like Lou Kane and everything? Did your mommy give you that name? " He asked him excitedly. He like martial arts and king fun movies almost as much as he like pirates.

"No its not a spell. Muggles can make light. It runs on batteries. I just flip the little switch and it goes on and off." he told him demonstrating turning his light on and off. "I have a lot of cool muggle things. You can play with any of my stuff." Lucas said to him.

Celandine nodded, a little confused but interested nonetheless. She reached out her hand and cautiously rapped on Lucas' hat.

"It is hard." Cela replied, with a small giggle at the noise her knocking on it had made.

"Healy?" Cela stared at her shoes in confusion, "You can get shoes that heal people?" she looked up at Lucas and noticed she was a tiny bit taller than him. She straightened up, not used to being the biggest at all.

"These shoes are charmed to slide and brake." Celandine said in a near whisper- she still wasn't sure that she wouldn't get in trouble for it after the whole saga of Anna sliding on the table and Steelsheen turning the charms classroom into her personal roller-rink back at Belle's. Even though she had researched a whole bunch and practised a whole bundle of times on miniature shoesies before doing her own.

"Oooh well thats what I mean." Cela admitted, "I mean casting charms, not being charming. I am charming. But not as charming as my brother." She made a face; she hadn't even spoken to him since they'd been at school. Hre was always with some girl or another who wasn't Kayla.

Celandine smiled as the two Slytherins suddenly developed an aura of friendship.

"Thank you." Celandine responded graciously, " Thunder and lightning is scary! Are you scary?" Cela eyed Raiden, " I don't think you are. But that's okay; one day you should learn how to cast spells that make thunder and lightning and then you will be just like your name."

Celandine couldn't help but smile brightly as Raiden bounced; another bouncer! She bounced fairly frequently too.

Cela nodded at Raiden's comment about Lucas' hat. It was pretty neat.

"Mortal Combat?" Celandine's eyes widened and her brain automatically imagined a duel to the death involving thunder and lightning. She blinked a bit as the light on Lucas' hat flicked on and off, reflecting brightly off the statue of Lachlan, flashing in a way that made her little daydream even more realistic. She shook herself.

"It is cool but I like light that doesn't run on batteries better, even though sometimes its hard to hold my wand and turn the pages of my book."

His head was jarred as she rapped on his hat. "Thats why its called a hard hat. It protects your head from things falling on it." He told her with a sight giggle.

He looked at her. Did she know nothing about muggles he wondered. "No Healy's are shoes that are skates too. You lean back on the heal and the skate comes out and you can skate all over the place." He explained to her. "They are like your shoes just muggles made them." He told her. "Do you think you can make my shoes like yours. I can give you a hard hat if you want one." He offered to trade with her.

He nodded at her. "My mommy is the best at casting charms. She taught me loads of stuff. Who is your brother? My sister and my aunt are here too." He said. He loved having family around.

"Its a video game. Where good guys fight the bad guys and you can have fatalities and everything. Then they made it into a movie and everything." He told her. "I like my hat. I don't have to hold it up to do stuff like you do with a wand." He said to her.

Raiden grinned when Lucas told him that he liked his name, but he had to think a bit to remember exactly what Mortal Kombat was... he was pretty sure it was a very old Muggle video game, he'd never played it before or anything... but he remembered one of his older tutors talking about it excitedly, because Raiden shared his name with one of the characters. Polar opposites, the man had reminded him. But alike in the fact that they shared a name. He vaguely remembered the details: the character was all martial artsy, and he could shoot a ball of something out of his hands...

"My mummy named me Raiden after my dad, his name is Raizo," he explained. "But I've heard about that Mortal Kombat game thing! One of my tutors from when I was in the hos- from when I was younger told me about it, he was all excited because we had the same name."

Without missing a beat, Raiden had backtracked and stopped himself from saying 'hospital'. This was like, the third time doing this, he really needed to remember to not mention that stuff here... He focused his attention on Lucas' hat as the boy explained how it worked; how marvelous! He stared in open fascination at it. He'd known Muggles, he'd been in Muggle hospitals and Muggle houses and everything, but he'd never had the attention span to notice stuff like this! And Lucas had more stuff! And he was going to let Raiden play with it! Raiden bounced even more, excitement making him abandon all ability to contain himself.

"Awesome! I don't have any cool stuff like that with me...most I have is the toy snitch my daddy gave me for my birthday last year..." He thought for a second. This was the first time he'd be away from his mum and dad on his birthday... what was he supposed to do? "My birthday this year, I'll be here... and I won't see Shiro or Mum or Dad..."


He had to think for a second. Had anyone ever told him that he was scary? He couldn't remember it, if they had. So he shook his head and grinned widely at Celandine.

"I don't think I'm scary... I'm... what's the word mum used... hyperaddive? No..." His tongue poked out the corner of his mouth as he tried to think of the word she'd used. "Hyperarctic?"

"Thunder and lightning spells? Those might hurt someone..." he tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I'd rather do spells that can make chocolate milk like the stuff they had at The Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley... that was goooood."

He licked his lips, remembering the taste of it. Chocolate milk. Yes. Those spells were far more desirable to learn. He didn't want to hurt people. He wanted to make them happy!

"In Africa, its very important who named you." He said with a smile. "Your mommy picked a very nice name. She must be a very smart lady." he said with a smile. "I have the Mortal Kombat game if you want to play it with me and I have the DVDs for the video game too if you want to watch it. The first one is better than the second one." He told his friends.

Lucas laughed out loud as Raiden almost bounced himself silly. Lucas started bouncing with him. It was fun and Lucas' hair was flying out behind him like a dark cape.

"Yeah it is really nice. My mommy let me bring lots of my toys. You can play with any of them. They are in the my trunk under my bed." He explained to Raiden. Lucas looked at Raiden when he talked about his birthday. He seemed sad and Luke hated for people to be sad. "Well we can have a birthday party here." He said finally. "We can have cake and different ice creams and everything. I know how to bake. It will be fun." he said.