Lexi stood in front of the tapestry watching Barnabas attempt to teach the trolls to dance. It had always made her giggle a good bit. Right now she needed to pep her mood back up. Not that eating steak in the kitchens wasn't euphoria inducing. Hehe. Finally growing tired of standing she plopped herself down on the cool stone floor and pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around her legs. Giggles escaped her lips now and again.

Chloe left her common room and heard someone giggling. As she went to see where the sources of the giggling was coming from she found herself going down an unfamiliar corridor and site she saw next caused her to crack up laughing. The sited of the Barnabus trying to teach trolls to dance was too much. She called out between giggles, "Is there someone back here?".

Hearing someone else giggling and calling out, Lexi stood up and peeked to see who it was. She was not familiar with the girl so she smiled and waved. "Yeah, it's just me. I like to come down here and watch Barnabas teach these trolls to dance sometimes," she said with a chuckle for emphasis.

Taking a few steps forward she extended her hand. "Hey. I'm Lexi Denver. YOu are?" she said by way of introduction.

Having exited the Gryffindor common room with her cookie recipe book in hand, Kurumi had every intention of heading down to the kitchens for some baking. She stopped in front of the tapestry that she had passed by so many times her first year, but had never really stopped to look at it and immediately burst into a fit of giggles. Just what was that tiny wizard trying to do with those giants and were they...wearing...ballet slippers? "That's too funny," she said to no one in particular.

Coraline had been walking around Hogwarts lately trying to find out where everything, she had found out though that while she was looking around she was last, and thats why she was here, she looked around and smiled as she saw the tapestry, they seemed to make her happy. she had to get back to the matter at hand, now where did i start again? oh yeah, at the common room, now, where was that? she looked around for some help, there she saw Kurumi, maybe she could help, "hello Kurumi" she said, she would ask maybe later on, Misty, Coraline's cat had been next to her all the way she had been walking next to her, as soon as Misty saw the new girl who was giggling she hid behind Coraline's leg to scared to be seen.

Kurumi turned to see Coraline standing there with a shaking black mass behind her legs. "Hey," she waved trying to shake off some of the giggles. "What brings you all the way up here?" She had done her fair share of exploring when she was a first year, so she wouldn't be surprise if Coraline was doing the same. Kurumi peered slowly around to catch a glimpse of an adorable shaking black kitty. Kneeling down on the ground, Kurumi reached into her pocket for some of the tuna fish cookies she often fed Walnut. "Hey there," she said holding the cookie out. "You must be Misty."

she walked up to her smiling, she was glad Kurumi didn't say to go away or something, but that was probably because Kurumi was a sweet and nice girl, she couldn't imagine her being mean, "well i was looking around hogwarts so i knew were everything was, but i think i'm lost now, this place is so big" she said giggling nervously, she felt embarrassed to say she was lost but she kind or needed help right now and Kurumi was a friend so she might help. Misty looked out from behind the leg as the sound of her name was called out, "meow" she meowed taking a bite of the cookies, if Misty could talk human she would be saying how yummy they were but sadly she couldn't speak human.

"You sound like my roommate Heather," Kurumi laughed. "She is always getting lost and we spent all of last term drawing a map for her to keep in her robes so that she could use it. She ended up losing that, but I, thankfully, made some copies for her." Kurumi looked back down at the kitty that was nibbling on her cookie. "You can have a cookie any time," she said smiling at the cat. If Walnut were around right now, he probably would be furious that Kurumi was feeding his cookies to another cat. Thankfully, he was curled asleep on her bed at the moment. Her right robe pocket began to move and shift around a bit, hopefully not startling Misty too much. A soft peep could be heard and Kurumi took that as a sign that she should let the poor guy out of her pocket.

Coraline laughed along, a map would come in handy sometimes, right now was a great time to have a map, "have any copies i could use?.." she asked shyly, she would like a map, great to find herself around this huge place. Misty smiled as she heard what Kurumi had said, Misty always wanted to see Kurumi now if she always had those cookies, "meow" she meowed nibbling on the cookie again, Coraline looked down at her cat and gave her a pat on the head, "thank you for the cookies your giving Misty" she said, someone needed to thank her.

"I think Misty just said thank you too," Kurumi said nodding to the cat. You couldn't say that Kurumi was any sort of pet psychic, but, having grown up with animals as pretty much her only companions, she had gotten good at guess what they were feeling and thinking. "I probably have a copy or two in in my dresser drawer, that is, IF Momotaro hasn't used them to make his bed."

Coraline smiled, she enjoyed talking to Kurumi, on reason was she was a nice girl and not a bully, "umm, if you don't mind me asking who and what is Momotaro?" she asked, even when Ravenclaw's were suppost to be smart she was still clueless about some things. Misty watched the two talk as she kept nibbling on the cookie.

Ellie made it down the corridor to the Barnabas tapestry before three of her books fell out of her arms. She let out a frustrated sigh. Then remembered something...

She quickly wrote a note on pale blue parchment and charmed it to find Braeden. Hopefully he'd be there in a minute. Just like he promised, mhmm.

Luckily for Ellie, Braeden remembered his 'I'll be there in one minute, guaranteed!' promise, and the second he received the note (after it blew up on his face, leaving dark marks on his skin and his hair standing on all ends with some of the ends burnt), the boy set off in a run. They reeeaally needed to allow apparating inside the castle. Braeden was in no way an athlete, and though he was lanky and didn't have much weight to carry around, by the time he arrived at Barnabas the Barmy, he was pretty much crawling his way to Ellie's feet.

Once he reached Ellie, the boy collapsed to the floor. And died.
Well, maybe not literally… but he was definitely worn out. And tired. Those dratted stairs were just too long! Merlin! Whoever had designed this castle had obviously not thought about the inefficiency of the stairs during an emergency! There needed to be more shortcuts!

After just laying face-down on the cold floor for a minute or so, Braeden finally got up to his feet at a sluggish pace. "Braeden Stonem reporting for duty, sir-- Er, ma'am!" said the breathless boy, greeting Ellie with a soldier's salute. He eyed the 878475 books she was carrying and groaned inwardly. Oh Merlin. This wasn't going to be easy… he could barely feel his legs, now he was going to lose his arms too. But a promise was a promise, and though he may be a bit of a weakling, Braeden was definitely not the type to back away from a promise.

Ellie waited, trying not to smile. She wondered what floor he was on and hoped she didn't make him run too far. Sooner than later, she heard mad stomping from the stairwell.

Ellie saw Braeden reach the top of the stairs. And collapse. "Oh.." She quietly said to herself, tempted to poke him. Finally Braeden stood up slowly. Oh Merlin... "You're.. face." She said quietly. It looked like someone threw a grenade at his face. She had charmed the paper to dissolve itself after a minute. But after a long summer break, she was a bit rusty.

"Your hair..." She walked up to him, reached up to his head and ruffled his hair a little. A cloud of ash formed around his head and a few burnt chunks of hair fell. She coughed as she inhaled some of it. "Merlin's pants, Braeden... Was that my... note?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

Braeden coughed as Ellie got a cloud of ash to suffocate them after ruffling his burnt hair. As she asked if that was the result of her note, he gave a weak chuckle, trying to be as nonchalant about it as possible. "Yeah, but it's no big deal," he said, waving a hand as if it was of no importance. "I mean, I didn't get burnt so I'm fine…" then his smile faded and his eyes widened. "I didn't burn myself, right?" he asked a little more nervously now. He didn't really feel like… he got burnt or anything, but what if he was walking around with burnt skin on his face or something without being aware?! Ew… oh Merlin! No! His beautiful face! GAH.

No big deal? Ellie laughed nervously, scanning his face. "Well you, er... Your face is... black." She took her pointer finger and rubbed some ash off his cheek. She showed her black finger to him with a frown.

Suddenly a million apologies and excuses flooded her mind. She spoke as fast as her mind was reeling. "I charmed the note to disolve after a minute, but I wasn't sure if it would just fall to peices or explode like it did. I thought it would just, y'know, be GONE, but I hadn't used magic all summer and I didn't really mean it to do that. Oh, Braeden I'm so sorry I blew up your face! I really, I-I I'm sorry, I really am!" She said, her voice straining from not breathing inbetween words. It all sort of sounded like one reaaally long sentence. That's what happens when panic sets into Ellie.

Black? Huh? What? Braeden merely blinked in confusion until Ellie passed her index finger over his cheek and showed him the result of such a small gesture: the tip of her finger was completely black, as if she had just touched… coal or something. What?! That was on his face?! Braeden passed both hands over his face in an attempt to wipe off the black stuff, but instead he just ended up:
One- making a bigger mess of himself.
Two- tainting his hands, and
Three- ruining his uniform when he passed his hands over it afterwards. The boy was just a disaster. A five-year-old had more grace.

But before Braeden could fully begin to panic, Ellie had taken on that job. She was going on and on about how the note was supposed to just dissolve, and this and that, and Braeden was just finding himself overwhelmed with the avalanche of apologies. Wide-eyed, he stared at her as she went on and on, and figured he'd best get her to stop apologizing before she jump off the nearest staircase in her remorse. The lanky boy brought up a finger and placed it on Ellie's lips while doing the same to his lips with his free hand, going, "Sshh," as if he was trying to calm a three-year-old crying over stolen candy. "Don't worry, I won't turn you into Azkaban for this," he assured her with one of his goofy grins, bringing his hands to his pockets. His grin faded, though, as he realized that now, thanks to that small gesture, he'd just left a black mark on Ellie's lips, so the girl looked like she was wearing black lipstick or something. Oh. Crap.

"Uhhh… Er… You kinda… sorta have something… on your face," muttered Braeden.

In any other situation, the fact that Braeden was making an even messier mess of himself would have been amusing. But Ellie blew his face up. That wasn't funny.

Towards the end of Ellie's speech of many apolgies, she felt Braeden put a finger to her lips, hushing her. She stopped talking immediately and looked up at him with wide eyes, realizing how much of a maniac she sounded like. Her lips were even parted a little. She probably looked insane. "Er. Sorry." She said quietly. Funny, she was apologizing for apologizing too much...

Something on her face? She whipped a hand to her face and unknowingly wiped her blank finger on her cheek, smudging more soot on. "What, where?" She asked. Nooo, this was going all wrong.

Braeden couldn't help but laugh at the fact that Ellie was apologizing for apologizing, his teeth looking brighter and whiter than ever now that his face was as dark as his shoes. He watched with guilty amusement as Ellie tried to clean her face but instead ended up smudging the black coal-like stuff on her cheek.

"And now you look like a warrior about to spear someone," he snorted, unable to hold back the amusement that came from seeing his new Ravenclaw friend looking like this. True, he felt a little bad for being responsible for the mess, but... Merlin. It was just too funny.

"I'd help you, but my hands are... well, black," said Braeden, pulling out his hands from his pockets and holding them up for the girl to see the mess he had made of them. If he tried to help her, she'd just end up looking like him and no one wanted that. "Tell you what... You give me your books and on our way to whatever room you have class in, you can stop by the bathroom and clean up or something?" suggested Braeden, not really sure how big of a deal this was to her. She was a girl, so he imagined her appearance must've mattered to her. While he, on the other hand, didn't really mind walking around like he just escaped the loony bin and set fire to it. In his opinion, it made him look... adventurous! A total wizard version of Indiana Jones. Yeah. He was so cool.

Oh. Ellie then realized she smudged ash all over her face. She snorted. It was too funny. Maaaan, if anyone could've walked by right then. They would've had fun putting together that story. Ellie continued laughing. "We always end up in the weirdest situations, you know." Going blind first and now covering their faces in ash. Great stuff right there.

Ellie nodded and looked at nothing in particular as she brainstormed. "Sounds like a good idea. Well, I need to go to Charms right now. And the girl's bathroom is on the second floor, but Charms is on the third. So we'll have to do some back-tracking." She looked at Braeden again. "I'll go easy on you. I'll just give you two books. I'll carry three." She teased. She gave him a wink and poke in the arm. Those were two cool kids. Walking down the halls with ash all over their face like they were ready for battle. So cool.

Braeden laughed aloud as Ellie pointed out that they always ended up in the weirdest situations. And it was the fact that this statement was so incredibly true that amused him so much; first the blindness at the Observatory, now this. What was next? He wasn't sure he even wanted to know. Every time something weird happened to them, he always got the worst end of it - burning his eyes, then burning his face. Shudder.

Braeden's heart dropped to his stomach as Ellie explained that they'd have to do quite a bit of walking around the castle so she could pass by the girl's bathroom. Oh… yeah… okay. Wonderful… He tried his best not to look like she had just kicked him in the shins when, suddenly, she announced she'd go… easy on him? Give him only two books? HEY! What was that supposed to mean?!

The boy furrowed his brows at Ellie as the girl winked and poked his arm. No. He wasn't amused. He didn't come all the way up here just to carry two books (ever the stubborn, proud little Gryffindor, Braeden had a bad habit of making all the wrong choices). "I'm sorry, Ms. Johanson, but there are certain details about our contract that we need to go over - the first being that you can't make me carry just two books," said the offended little lion, taking Ellie's books before she could even have a chance to complain. As his arms took in the weight, he felt his back bending slightly as his arms nearly fell to the marble floors of the school with the weight that crushed them. OW. With great effort, he pulled himself up to stand straight, the pile of books in his arms so high that you could barely see his face behind the book-tower. "Lead the way, m'lady," said Braeden with one of his goofy grins. He was sore and he was tired and the books were too heavy, but he was happy. Because he was going to prove he wasn't just a weakling, that he could carry a pile of books if he had to.

Before Ellie could stop him, Braeden grabbed every single book of hers. She grimaced as he wobbled under the weight, but he managed to lift them up. Way up. "Uhm, Braeden, can you even see over those?" She asked skeptically. Oh, boys and their manly pride that they must prove.

Ellie shrugged and smiled at Braeden's dorky grin. Alrighty then, let's go! "Whatever you say..." She muttered. Ellie slid her side bag up her shoulder and began the everlasting descent down the everlasting stairs.

"'Course I can see!" scoffed Braeden, as if Ellie's question had been completely ridiculous. In all honesty, he couldn't see where his feet were going, but he wasn't going to admit that. He'd carry the books whether she liked it or not, he just… hoped he wouldn't trip, or something. 'Cause, being Braeden, there was a good chance he would find a way to trip on his own feet and roll down the stairs to his death.

The boy grinned as Ellie dropped the subject and began leading the way down the stairs. Braeden followed at a slow, cautious pace. Since he wasn't able to see his feet or where he was putting them, he had to be extra careful when going down the stairs. And it certainly didn't help that they moved suddenly when he least expected it, causing the boy to lose balance and the books in his arms to wobble before he was able to regain composure. "Honestly, I don't understand how you could need so many books in only one day," said Braeden after a few minutes of walking and trying his best not to run over the little first years passing by. "Though I suppose this must be a Ravenclaw requirement, or something? I never see a Ravenclaw without a book in their hands…" he went on absentmindedly. Talking made the strain in his arms easier to ignore. "Oh, and when are you getting started on that drawing?" he added. "My birthday's less than a month away, y'know. I got time if you need me to pose. I even got my angles ready and everything. I think I want it to be in profile… though I'm not sure, my mum always told me I had nice eyes, so maybe front-on wouldn't be so bad. Y'know, so you can appreciate the beauty of my lashes while drawing," went on the dorky boy, unaware of how conceited he sounded. Whether he was joking or serious was hard to tell. And he just went on and on and on, like a walking chatterbox hidden behind a wobbling tower of books.

Right, Braeden... Right. "Suit yourself." She muttered. She just hoped he wouldn't trip and fall down the stairs and have all the books land on him at the bottom. Though it might have been funny if he survived.

As they walked down the stairs, Ellie was listening to Braeden chat away how Ravenclaw's always have books in their hands. She laughed at that. "No, it's not a "requirement"," She used her fingers as airquotes even though Braeden couldn't see her, "to always have a book in your hand. Our common room is on the seventh floor, it's easier to carry five books around all day rather than go up these treacherous stairs between each class." Unless, of course, it was Divination or Astronomy.

Then Braeden started chatting away about the painting of himself Ellie was gonna do. A look of amusement spread across her face as he spoke. She snorted loudly when he said "the beauty of my lashes". She quickly cleared her throat. Gladly, Braeden couldn't see her face, because she was silently laughing. She kept quiet and continued walking down. When he finished talking, she looked next to her at the talking pile of books. But it wasn't there. She looked behind her and up and saw Braeden ten steps up still wobbling slowly down the stairs. "Actually, I've already started on your drawing. So whether it's profile or not will be a surprise to you." She said with a teasing smile as she waited for him to catch up.