After Astronomy, Tora had grabbed her blue vacuum and, deciding that it was really time to go to bed, had postponed her homework for tomorrow. Then she got to the dormitory. Merlin was it dirty! ...and there goes her plans for postponing her homework... Ahh well. Now if she could only remember that spell... She knew that she had written it down somewhere in her notes. Ahh. Here it was. Right underneath the doodle of the Nebula and the Black Hole. 'Vacavus'. Well, here it goes!
"Vacavus!" She said tapping the vacuum. vVvVvVVvVRROooOOOMMMMM!

SHLUP SHLUP SHLUP

SHHHHOOOOOOMMMMMM WHOOOOOOMMM OOOOMMMMM

WHRRRRRRRRR ERRRR DI DERRRRRR

There! All clean! The vacuum powered down and Tora stowed it under her (now dust free) bed for tomorrow. She changed into her PJs and climbed into bed, taking her notebook with her to review. She fell asleep with the light still on and her notebook open in her lap.

As is the current state of the school, it wasn't only educational of Professor Flamsteed to hold a class about black holes just recently wherein they were able to utilize vacuums for the lesson's activity, it was also utterly helpful not only to them students but for the entirety of the school as well.

At least that was what Beezus thought.

The homework assigned to them was a definite plus. Not only will they be able to clean off because of the lack of house elf to do it for them, they were also gaining house points in the process. Kinda hitting two birds with one stone, right?

And so...after carefully retrieving a blue-colored vacuum cleaner from the cabinet outside the Professor's office, Beezus returned to the Ravenclaw Common Room in with a smile on her face. It was going to be her turn to clean now. Her housemates had a done a great job thus far at keeping everything tidy. They had initiative like that. When they learned that the absence of the house elves, each Ravenclaw had agreed to take on cleaning duties and had designated the act of labor properly.

This was going to be extra work for her but she didn't mind one bit.

......

......

She decided to start off with her own things.

You have to begin with yourself, no?

Groaning, she pulled out her trunk from under her bed while the vacuum lay on the side. *cough cough* "It sure is dusty on this part." She even scraped the surface the trunk had once occupied and gathered an ominous amount of dust on her index and middle finger. Things really got pretty dirty without the house elves.

Sigh.

Oh well. This means they had to be more responsible and independent. Probably a good thing in disguise, you know. Scratching her nose, she tugged on the vacuum, grasped its nozzle so that it was situated on the appropriate spot where it could suck up as much dust as possible. Then she took out her wand, "Vacavus!" With a loud whirring sound, the engine came to life and began to slurp the dust.

SSSSssssSSSsssLLLLuuuUUUUuuUUUUUuUUURRRRRRRPPP

She repeated the same until the entire space under her bed was covered. When she was done, the brunette wiped sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. Phew!

After retrieving a blue-colored vacuum cleaner from the cabinet outside the Professor's office, Nerida retreated to her common room. Why not start with where she lived right? Nerida had cleaned at home so this should be easy right? Well at least this time she would be able to you magic!

Slowly walking into the girls dorms, she sighed...Time to start. She walked over to her bed and She grasped the vacuums nozzle and then took out her wand, "Vacavus!" With a very loud whirring sound, it came to life and began to eat the dust ALIVE!!!

SSSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRPPPPPP
SHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM WHHHHHOOOOOOMMM OOOOMMMMMMM

Nerida cleaned underneath her bed, next to the little stand, in front of her trunk...Now time to move the trunk. Ater saying finite, Nerida pulled her trunk moving it from its spot. Eww this things was dirty the Ravenclaw thought as she pulled her hands away. Gripping the nozzle once more, she said again "Vacavus,"
VVVVVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!! !!!!!!!

She vacuumed the trunk and the area around where the trunk had sat. When she was done, the blonde wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand and fell onto her bed.

Cleaning for Aquila was usually something that involved manual labor. Priestesses have their own brand of magic, but it when it comes to cleaning it almost always involve a certain amount of elbow grease. So all this cleaning with just a flick of her wand was quite a new thing for her.

But then she saw Beezus with that tube thing... which apparently looked quite effective in picking up dust. The young Claw stared for a while, the apparatus from Astronomy class lay in tangles amongst her things. She just never got it to work that well.

Learn from the older students yeah?

“Haii Beezus.” She murmured shyly.

Dragging her trunk back to its place under her bed, Beezus wiped her forehead yet again and exhaled. She was done with her side of the dorm. As she straightened up to stretch her back which had gone a bit sore from her crouching down under her bed to make sure the area was covered clean, the brunette heard someone greet her from her right so she tilted her head in the direction. "Oh. It's you." She gasped slightly for air and smiled at the younger 'claw. "Hey, Aquila. I'm just....cleaning." She explained just for the sake of it.

When the vacuum's engine had finally stopped, she stood up and placed a hand on her hip. "Are you busy? Or do you want to join me and sparkle up this place?" Hmm.

With the heavy box cradled under her arm, Eliza went up the stairs into the girl's dormitory and over to her four post bed. She saw Beezus and another girl were already in here, but she doubted they'd mind what she was about to do. "Hi Beezus," she greeted in a friendly tone. "The dorm is really looking nice now! Thanks for cleaning!" And it really did look tons better. Like, so much better that she would have guessed the house elves were back. Maybe a few people have been helping out in here. An army of vacuums could do that to a place.

She hopped onto her bed and sat the box down. Then from her bag she pulled out some thick twine and tied it from the top right post of her bed to the bottom left post, snapping it once she was done to be sure it was tight. She then removed the gargoyle from the box and brought it to life. "Piertotum Locomotor!" It shimmied in place as it broke its stony binding. "Hello again little one. Today, we tightrope." she said to it in a chipper voice. "First thing's first, let's get you walking. Easy enough right?" She pointed her wand and looked at the gargoyle sternly, "Walk." She'd been practicing with a lot, so it really wasn't any trouble to have it do as she pleased now, so it was no surprise that it walked in one direction to the end of the bed. "Stop," she commanded before it walked right over the edge. "Turn around." And it did. "Walk." And it did.

Once it reached her side again she said, "Right, so that's sorted. Good. Now the tricky part," she said as she picked up the gargoyle and held it over the makeshift tight rope. "Open your wings," she said, and it did as she asked. Since she already knew she could make it fly, having done so in class, she was confident it would do it again if she told it to. "Okay....walk." She released her hold of it, trying to aim it in as straight a line as she could down the rope. She held a tense breath as it wobbled on the line, and then started to fall. "Fly!" she cried before it could fall, even though that was what the bed idea had been for. Might as well avoid an accident if we can, ey?

The gargoyle flew in circles around the room until she said, "Land here," and pointed to the bed. She let out a huff of air and sat up straighter, determined. She reached for the gargoyle another time and repeated the training process. "Walk," she said again. It went as straight as a thing like a stony roof ornament could, and almost made it the entire way over before it fell and caught its wing on the rope. This made it waiver on the line until it dropped and bounced once on the soft bed. "Good try," she said kindly. "Now again," she commanded, this time with her game face on.

Third time was always a charm in her book, so she just knew this last time would work. She steadied the gargoyle on the line with one hand and cast the movement spell again just in case it was about to wear off. "Piertotum locomotor!" She paused to be sure it had worked and then began the exercise again. "Walk to the other end." Maybe being more specific would work for her this time. She clasped her hands together in anticipation as she watched her rock puppet walk bravely all the way down the twine until it reached the other post. This time before it fell, she called for it, "Fly here!" And it flew to the point on the bed she'd been pointing her finger at. "Bravo!" she exclaimed to it and ended the spell. "Finite." Oh yeah, she was ready for this circus all right. No matter how odd of an idea she thought it was.

Peace and quiet. Finally. Carsyn tossed her bag onto her four-poster and then tossed her body onto it, as well. Laying across the bed on her back, she looked up at the ceiling without focusing on anything in particular. Her eyes glazed over, Carsyn tried to clear her mind of everything racing through it. She was physically exhausted from all the traipsing across the grounds and the stairwells of the castle, and mentally exhausted from spending her entire day fending off panic attacks. Social anxiety is absolutely miserable.

She didn't want to risk dozing off and missing dinner in the Great Hall, so Carsyn decided she'd practice with her gargoyle again for Transfiguration class. Forcing herself to sit up, Carsyn drew the curtains around her for privacy. She pulled the gargoyle-in-the-box out of her bag and sprung the little guy free of his container. She also pulled a textbook from her bag to give the gargoyle a hard smooth surface to move along.

Curious to see what its reaction would be, Carsyn placed the gargoyle upside down on the book, balancing it on its head and wings. She directed her wand at the gargoyle and pronounced, "Piertotum Locomotor!" The gargoyle unfroze from his stony position, wiggling his legs helplessly as he unsuccessfully tried to upright himself. While his adorable struggle did make her smile, Carsyn felt bad for the little stone beast, even though as a statue, it probably didn't have any feelings anyway. She turned the gargoyle over onto his feet and commanded him, "Walk backwards." It obeyed, just as it had earlier in the Kitchens. Phew. It wasn't a fluke.

"Stop," Carsyn ordered before her gargoyle walked off the edge of the book. "You need a name, my friend. I'm gonna call youuuuuu..... Mikey!" Carsyn repositioned Mikey on the end of the book and told him, "Put your left foot behind you with your toes pointed to the floor and then slide your right heel back until it is even with your left foot." Mikey tried to follow her directions, and technically he did, but it just didn't look right. She instructed him again, "Now do the same but switch the feet." Again, Mikey did as he was told, so the spell was working, but it didn't actually look like the Moonwalk as it was meant to appear. Perhaps the Moonwalk requires more fluidity than a stone statue is capable of achieving, even if he is Transfigured to move. Sigh. Now I need to figure something else to make him do.

Carsyn didn't have the mental focus at this point to think of some new trick to teach the gargoyle, something he could perform in the circus that Professor had planned. Maybe some food would refuel her brain and help her think. "Finite." She tucked Mikey back in his box, grabbed her change purse (so that she could re-enter the common room later), and took both with her out the dormitory door.

Sparkly dorms. Oh the Prefect knows the right words “I can help!” nod nod. She scampered back to her side of the dorm and collected that bizarre contraption before dragging it back towards Beezus.

Well... wanting to help was one thing—actually getting to help, such as making that thingamabob work was quite another.

“Vu....Vu....Vukwis” wave wave wave the wand....

She was going to help. YAY.

Beezus sat down on the edge of her bed as the younger girl went ahead to get her own vacuum. This was really hard work, to be honest. If it wasn't part of their assigned work, she might as well have used Scourgify to tidy up but no...she had to use the vacuum. Oh well...at least she get to practice the Sucking Charm.

....which apparently, Aquila didn't quite get.

"Erm, doll...it's actually Vacavus." The incantation, yeah. Not Vacuwis...or Vukwis or whatever it was that she had just muttered a while ago. Beezus tugged on her vacuum and dragged its nozzle towards the corner of the room before looking back at the younger 'Claw. "Va...ca....vus... You got it?" Smiling, she pointed her wand at the contraption, said the incantation and VOILA! It whirred back to life and began to suck up the dust and dirt on that corner. ".....Like so."

When it died down, she gave her little eaglette a look that meant, "Your turn."

“Ohhhh...” young Aquila murmured sheepishly. She always had trouble remembering that spell when not written down. “V- V.... just a moment.” she squeaked as she ran back to amongst her things and took a quill the started scribbling something on her arm. She scampered back to the Prefect with the word VACAVUS scrawled near her inner wrist “Ok.... Vacavus--” and more waving of the wand. Her vacuum hummed to life, although not quite as noisy—or as strong—as Beezus’ own.

She tried aiming it at the dusty underside of the beds, where bits of parchment from students’ homework littered the floor. She beamed at Beezus, trying to make the brunette feel proud that she was helping clean up... although her vacuuming looks more like it was just blowing stuff around.

Her first stop was all the way up to her dorm room for a potion ingredient. She had plenty of her own that she could have grabbed in her trunk, but that wasn't why Dora was up here. She had finally found use for all the hair that stupid cat kept leaving on her bed when it slept up there.

When she got her new pet, she was gonna train it to attack cats too. Unless certain people transferring got put into her house, then she'd just train it to attack the one cat.

She ran all the way into her dorm and SCREAMED at the fat orange cat who was on her bed, pleased when it ran away frightened. The hair it left behind was gathered up and she slipped it into one of the vials she had on her.

That went into her pocket and she shot nasty looks at the cat as she left the room.

It had been a long day that Orr went to shower and get ready for bed. She did everything quickly since she was afraid that she would fall asleep before finishing what she had to do. After twenty minutes, she walked into the fourth year girls' dorm and got into her bed.

She was asleep in less than a minute.

Already in her pajamas and sleeping robes, Beezus gathered her tea leaf reading stuff and set it down on her bed. It was time for the third and last reading of the day. She was growing sleepy by this time so she wanted to finish this quickly.

She turned the thermos' lid open and carefully poured hot water into her teacup. Her movements were minimal and precise. She didn't want anything spilling on her bed. Then she scooped a teaspoon of the tea leaves and added it into the cup. Ah. There went that chamomile aroma again. Very inviting and relaxing. It made her system want to succumb to sleep then and there. But no, she had to get this reading done. So while she waited for the drink to cool down, Beezus grabbed her journal, quill and textbook and placed it beside her.

Then she cleared her mind......kinda. The snow outside was crashing gently against the windows and she could clearly hear the gush of wind. At least the thoughts that filled her mind were of the weather, right?

A yawn escaped her lips then and her eyes fluttered open. She hadn't realized that she'd close them. But only for a brief while, it seems,because the tea was still warm when she drank it. When she consumed enough, the brunette gave it three swirls and turned it over on its saucer. As she did this, she also managed to pull out a thought from her mind....the focus of this reading. A very familiar face kept filling her thoughts. Yep. The exact person she'd always think about before going to sleep. Apparently, tonight was no exception so she allowed herself to be drowned of the thoughts of him. Three breaths followed and she turned the cup over again.

And without another word, she immediately began her reading.

Beezus squinted at the rim....there it goes again....the whole squinting war between her and the cup. Why can't it just show her the symbols it withheld without her having to go all through this trouble? Sigh. Okay....this one looked like.....a bird......nope, not a peacock. ...More like......a swan? Yeah, maybe that was it. A swan.

She decided that she would look up the meanings after she would find all the symbols because really, she was getting sleepy and that was the quickest way to do it.

Moving on to the middle part.....which can happen in the next two weeks. "A cube?.....Er...a box?" It couldn't be a square because it was pretty dimensional so perhaps it was really a box. It definitely looked more like a box than a cube anyway.

She recorded that down before reading the tea dregs on the base of the cup. This was the ultimate conclusion, right? More sighing. She hoped this wasn't too bad. And maybe it wasn't......the dregs were created a shape that she was sure she'd seen before but just couldn't pinpoint it directly. She snapped her fingers in an attempt to recall. But it wasn't working. Gah, this was frustrating....she also didn;t want to cheat this time because this reading was somewhat important. So she looked at the ceiling, and around her, trying to catch words....or something.. And then....she saw it, on her bedside table. A magical vase that held one single flower. A blue rose. The very first Valentine's gift Dylan had given her. She'd preserved it, you know. And that was what the tea residues were making, right? A rose? She nodded, answering her own question. "It's a rose."

.....

.........

The things were cleaned and then put away. Only her journal and text and quill remained with her as she sat on the bed, leaning her back on the headboard. Moment of truth. She had to find the meanings and connect it with the "question" she had struck up.



Welp.

Well, that was a bit of a dramatic entry right there. It even made her tear up a bit. She was so pathetic. There was no stopping things from happening but she was still hoping.

Sigh.

Beezus closed her journal, settled it on her bedside table and slid down on her bed until her head reached her pillow and for a few moments, she just stared at the ceiling.....seeing his face. Her chest was closing in.....it felt heavy.....ugh. She better just go to sleep and stop worrying. It was all too much.

"Right." Right, indeed. So she shut the lights out and closed her eyes ever so slowly. She could still see him.....his smirk....."Dylan, get out of my head." ......Not working. Merlin, she'll have to struggle with this one for a while before she could actually go to sleep.

Meh.

The snow rushing past the windows was a comforting sight paired with the warm glow of the dorm room. Eliza was all cuddled up in bed with her cup and saucer. She filled the cup with the water spell, “Aguamenti,” and stopped when it was almost full. “Fininte.”

Then she heated the water like Ethan had shown her. “Chaudensis,” she said while tracing the rim of the cup with her wand. She felt the cup warming in her hands and waited until she saw steam to add the tea leaves in. Thank goodness I thought to ask for some Oolong, she thought as she watched it steep.

She cleared her mind and reading to drink the tea. What am I thinking about? she wondered. Mostly a late night snack at the moment, maybe some ice cream actually, but that wasn’t a very interesting reading. Instead she let her mind drift to Christmas. Okay…will Christmas at home be better or would Christmas at Hogwarts? she wondered, and drank the tea through her teeth until there was not much left. The taste of this tea from home was soothing to her as she laid there in bed. It made her miss home a little bit, but she knew Christmas at Hogwarts could be really beautiful too. She was torn.

She flipped the cup over, then back, and checked for symbols. Right off the bat she saw a thing like looked like a candy cane in the middle. Then on the rim she saw a ribbon, and on the bottom she saw a leaf. These symbols were definitely being influenced by having holidays on the brain.

She looked up her symbols and did her best to discern their meanings.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Eliza Dawnsel
Ravenclaw Third Year
Divination - Homework One

Evening Reading:
Rim: Ribbon - There isn’t anything for a ribbon or a string…So maybe it’s a chain? Chain means there’s a wedding or a union imminent - Present Reading
Middle: Cane - Nothing for cane or candy, so hook? Nothing for hook either though. Horseshoe seems close, so a horseshoe means someone I know is going to have good luck. Near Future Reading
Base: Leaf - Good fortune and good health Future Reading

Okay well first off, there is no wedding happening so that’s not right. Maybe I didn’t think hard enough. Secondly, I didn’t see anything for candy or cane so….Maybe hook is the next best thing, but that seems more negative. I struggled to find a meaning for what I really saw, but a horseshoe was sort of like a candy cane so I looked that up and it said there would be good luck for someone I know. So that might mean that someone I know is going to get a good Christmas gift? Maybe Hogwarts will have a nice Christmas tree and decorations after all? Lastly, I saw a leaf and that’s another one about good luck and fortune and health, so I’m taking all of this to mean that everyone is going to have a holly jolly Christmas, and that all sounds pretty good to me!

So this was day one of Gandr polishing process. She wasn't supposed to carve it, just to make the wood smoother and all that. To leave it in the sunlight and moonlight for a full lunar cycle and just perfect its shape while it sat there, absorbing the light.

Touching the delicate piece of wood with her forefinger, she ran it across what would soon be a Gandr. No wandwork, since it was so delicate and would likely break under the pressure. Nope. Just smoooothing the Gandr.