Alright. Here we go. This time she was gonna do it.

Faylinn was going to master these stairs, it was just going to take some practice. Even more practice than when she learned how to ride a broom. It was like the staircase that a mind of it's own, a devious mind. This was just a game to it...

The first year was almost half to her destination and was just about to hop onto another staircase, with one foot on the next step and the other on the previous landing when it decided to start moving.

"Woah! Woah! WOAH!" She shouted with increasing volume as her legs started spreading further apart. With her heart racing, Fay gripped the railing and hulled herself onto the moving staircase and held on tight.

That was a close one. Let's just hope no one was around to see that little incident...

EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Glaring at the his chosen staircase as it swung away from him, Benzi waited for the next one to come by and in the meantime decided he would try and learn the system. There was no way these stairs moved at RANDOM. How could he ever get anywhere?!

He was dwelling on this matter and trying to find a pattern when he heard a slight yell and looked towards the source only to see a girl holding tightly to the rails of the staircase coming towards him. Once she got a little closer, Benzi saw that she was super young - a first year probably - and a Slytherin. And hey, she had a familiar face. . .

OH. HAHAHAHA.

"You ok there Frownyface? Gotta watch out for these buggers," he smirked as her staircase joined with the platform he was on, placing them just about face to face.

Oh no.

Please don't let it be who Fay thought it was....

The girl opened her eyes, which had been squeezed shut, and found herself looking at the person she had been the least excited about running into...Zippy Zippington the money knocker-over with very little manners. And of course he had to catch her during one of her...less noble moments...

Being very careful not to let her fear shine through her tough exterior, Fay unwound herself from the staircase railing, but kept an extremely strong grip on it. "What do you want Zippy?" She asked firmly, "I'm perfectly fine very much and I'll have you know I've almost completely gotten the hang of the moving staircase!" She said nodding her head.

Lying through her teeth. One of the Hadaways' specialties.

She glared at his smirking face, which was directly in front of hers...until the staircase came to a jerking halt and Fay let out the most embarrassing squeal of surprise. She was far from prepared for the sudden stop which sent her falling down onto her bum. Fantastic...

Hands crossed over his chest, he raised his eyebrows. "Riiiiiiight, that's why you almost fell all the way down to the dungeons right about now, of course, that was intentional," he nodded, sarcasm dripping from his every word. Poor Frownyface, still struggling with the system. Benzi was PROUD to say that he had never gotten to a point where he had to cling onto the rails for dear life. NOPE. He knew better.

SMART PEOPLE HOUSE.

Did she just. . . "BWAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm sure that was intentional too then, eh?" he asked in between laughed, looking down at the Slytherin girl who had fallen so gracefully - NOT! - onto her behind.

Er. He should probably help her. Why was it she always needed his help whenever they met?!

"Need a hand?" he asked, still smirking broadly, and offered his own to her.

Grrrrrrr....

Faylinn growled under her breath as Zippy laughed at her expense.

We do not hurt people in school. You will get in trouble. Resist the urge!

However what shocked her in the end was Zipyy HOLDING OUT HIS HAND TO HELP HER!! She stared at his hand in disbelief. Then glared at it. If she took his hand this could mean a truce, but what if he was teasing her... Oh the decisions.

After a few more moments of intelligent staring, Faylinn reluctantly reached out to take his hand, trying not to punch is smirking face. "Thanks..."

This was awkward...

What would happen if he dropped the hackysack from he moving staircases? Other than he'd probably have a warm time trying to find it. He knew many people were tackling the problem head on, but what would happen if someone were to try and stop an object from going somewhere, instead of coming. He paused on the steps and looked over just as his staircase began to move. Surely it was worth a try, plus his curiosity wouldn't go away if he didn't try.

Okay. He pulled the hackysack from his pocket and holding it over the railing, wand ready, he let it go just as the staircase below began to move. "Arresto Momentum!" He urged. It was like the hackysack didn't even acknowledge his presence and instead fell two floors down. With a sigh, not yet defeated. He made his way back down the stairs without even a thought as to if the hackysack hit anyone.

The silence was super awkward as they both looked at each other, Benzi's smirk slightly abating as Frownyface finally decided to take his hand. He pulled her up, making sure not to pull TOO strongly because he really didn't want to end up on the floor.

"Cheers," he said, immediately letting go of the blonde girl's hand. The last time he'd held a blonde girl's hand it had NOT been fun. Nope. Not at all. That had been a lot of awkwardness and no fun at all.

"I'm Benzi, by the way," he added after a few moments. "So you can stop calling me Zippy now," he said, giving her a LOOK. He was not Zippy. That was a dumb name.

Dora had walked all the way down from the towers to the fourth floor and stopped abruptly, removing the bag from her back. From the bag she removed a small bag of frozen mice, her charms book, an apple, and then placed it off to the side. The apple got a brief inspection before she bit into it and opened up her book to the correct page for the homework, reading and noming on the apple a bit.

Right. She could do this.

But she was gonna practice on something less valuable first

Putting the apple and book aside, she swallowed the bit already in her mouth and looked up to the top of the staircase. It was almost difficult to see her jarvey standing between railings with a stuffed animal, but that was why she had glasses in the first place, right? Right. Dora pushed them closer towards her face and then gave her pet the signal.

Not a moment later the teddy bear came falling from the seventh floor corridor.

Caterina had been on her way out, heading from the direction of the library, intending to head back down to the common room and gather up Sharky for her walk, but of course, she got sidetracked.

By Dora.

And a falling teddy bear.

She kept her mouth shut though, assuming there was a method to the Ravenclaw's madness and waited to see what she'd do. What was she doing, anyway?

She didn't see a Cat standing there watching her, but if she had it still wouldn't have mattered cause Dora was completely focused on the teddy bear that Theo had made her at the prefect event. It was a cute bear, right? Right. Obviously, since Dora didn't use that word to describe almost anything, but she was to describe this bear that was falling down at an increasing speed.

Raising her wand at the bear, she waved her wand in a practiced movement.

[B]"Arresto Momentum."[/B

Now it was a slooooooower falling bear.

But she didn't slow it down that much, cause this was homework practice, see? And she wanted to see how many levels of this spell there were. The bear had only managed to fall halfway down before she was waving her wand again. "Arresto Momentum."

There, now the bear was falling waaaaay too slow.

Ooooooh. Charms. Oh. Hi teddy bear. Cat waved at the teddy as he fell and then slowed and then slooooowed more. She was definitely going to stay over here and out of Dora's way. Ravenclaws took their homework seriously, she knew this first hand. At least she wasn't causing this one to go blind.

Making a mental note to ask if the bear had a name and a gender, Cat leaned against the wall and waited. She had time. Sure. Nooo problem.

The stupid bear was taking forever to fall, and Dora was finding herself regretting her awesome spell casting abilities. At least she knew that the next object wouldn't come crashing to the ground, which was good and all, but it'd be better if this one would just hurry up.

She counted the seconds, and held out her hands until the bear finally reached her palms. Then she gave the thing a squeeze just cause. And she thought about Theo.

Moving on.

Putting the bear with the rest of her things, she picked up the small sack of frozen mice and moved back to her spot. Then she waaaaaved it around in the air, looking up at her jarvey.

"Come on, Biter. I promise to catch you!" She shouted up at the creature, who after a looong moment. Finally jumped from the seventh floor.

Cat had decided to emerge when Dora caught the bear. She stepped forward, still out of the way, toting her bag full of books at her side. She shot a grin at Dora and leaned on the railing. Now she was waving a bag of mice in the air.

...This was one odd Ravenclaw.

But ooooh. Oh. It made sense now that she'd tipped her head up and spotted the jarvey falling through the air. Brave thing, yeah?

Bundled in her jacket, Cassia stood at top the staircase clutching two books and a bunch of parchments to her chest. She was supposed to return them to the library after having barely touched read them. Yes, yes, she was intending to put effort in everything. Because important year and all. So yeah, she's made many trips to the library so far.

Clumsily she started descending the stairs while trying to arrange the books and parchments in a neat way. Which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do seeing that the staircases had a mind of their own and liked to switch directions randomly. And that exactly what happened. Instinctively, her arm reached out for the rail and grabbed for it while her other arm attempted to keep hold of what she held.

Which didn't work.

The blond frowned at the book and parchments that got out of her grip and tumbled down the steps. She waited till the staircase came to halt then followed them down lazily letting out sigh.

There was someone with her. Dora hadn't been aware of that cause of homework reasons, but now she was and it was bad timing since she was trying to catch her beloved pet before it fell to it's death.

Cat. Right.

The other girl received the briefest of looks before she was back to Biter, who was falling FAST.

Dora waved her wand and cast, "Arresto Momentum." Slowing down the jarvey some, but not stopping his decent. Not yet.

He was shouting things too, angry inappropriate things.

Where they towards Dora or Cat?

Why oh why were the kitchens so far away from the Gryffindor tower? Hmmm. Whose smart idea was to make the house, the most notable house that was hungry for food all the time- SOOOOO many floors from the kitchen. Idiot. If Tag had decided, if he had the choice to change the layout of the castle the kitchen would, AT LEAST, be on the same floor as the Gryffindor house. If not actually inside it.

So, coming back up all those stairs was a drag for Tag. Especially seeing as he had a lot of food to eat down there. At least he would be getting some exercise all the while. As Tag took steps onto the stairs he felt one of them move... great. Hopefully it wouldn't make his trip any longer. An there were books and pieces of parchment on the steps. Bending down to collect the stuff for whoever it was, Tag grabbed them in his hands and stood directly up. "You dropped your stuff." He said to the.... oh.

It was Cassia.

Awkward.

Hey hey hey, snippy little animal. The Cat did nothing to you. She was just hanging around, waiting for Charms homework to be done so she could catch the stair case and hope it went in the right direction.

................"What's his name?" Cat was getting tired of not saying anything. She and Mo had chatted back and forth while doing their work, surely it wasn't that distracting, right?

She almost crossed her fingers hoping that the books were in perfect shape and no pages got ripped or anything. She didn't want to upset the librarian. She was friends with the man and he was one of her favorite, probably the only one remaining. Scabior was her favorite, too! But he left. So she really needed to remain friends with Mr.Kitridge. Besides the man was nice and he'd understand if she explained. Yup, exactly, now she was prepared to see the damages the fall caused the books.

Except when she heard someone talk, her mind went blank momentarily as she of course recognized the voice and then the face when she walked down the steps til she stood on the step above his. Ahem.

Reluctantly she reached for the books and parchments nodding her head. "Yeah," She said bringing them closer to her torso. She'd not talked to him directly since they ....... attempted to make pancakes. Which was like two months ago and she'd been seeing him in classes almost everyday but never had they had a direct conversation.

"Thank you, Tag," She said looking at him with a faint awkward smile playing on her lips. Then she turned her attention to the books and let a sigh of relief seeing that no pages were ripped, wrinkled or any other way of damage seemed to occur. "I was worried they'd get damaged or something," She said casually.

Yes. Now the books and parchments were back in Cassia's hands. As they were originally. Good.

Yep. They had stopped talking for a while. But that's what Cassia wanted, and requested of Tag, so he was going to follow what she wanted. Ironically enough, Cassia was lucky Tag would now be attempting to talk to her after this. He usually flat out stopped talking to the girl, if he got hurt. Soooo, hurray for Cassia getting hurt.

"You're welcome." He said in a quiet voice, sighing slowly at the end of his speech. Small talk. Tag could do this. It'd take time for them to have normal-ish conversations again. But at least they were trying right now. "It doesn't look like they're damaged. So...er, there's that. " Woooo. "So... I can safely assume you're studying for your owls?" Safe question was safe.

It could only get more awkward from here? Yes? Yes. But, let's hope that it doesn't. Though- their last few chats weren't the greatest. If they stuck with the book and owls talk- a FAVORITE subject of Tag's- then it would be all right.

... That was definitely directed towards Cat. Her jarvey never spoke to her like that, only with affection. He was being so adorable now though, Dora watched him fall slower before raising her wand again.

"His name is Biter." Should she tell her how to get him on her good side? Nah. Naaaaaah, she wouldn't be around him that much anyway. She waved her wand at her jarvey again. "Arresto Momentum." This time her jarvey slowed even more to the point were if someone were to walk by, they would have thought he was floating almost.

The jarvey was seeming a bit more relaxed at this point, though he never had been too panicked, as if this wasn't the first time Dora had used him to practice spells on.

Ooooh. Like Alice. Alice was a biter. Cat wondered briefly if that had anything to do with the naming of the creature but she figured it was rather obviously so and decided not to comment on it. She watched in fascination at the floating/falling jarvey and nodded.

What time was it now, anyway?

Biter was almost close to her face until, she waved her wand and, "Arresto Momentum." She stopped her right in front of her face and grinned. Hi pet. She kissed his nose and then carefully snatched him out of the air, letting him on her shoulder and pulling out a frozen mouse for him to eat.

"I named him after Alice." In case she was wondering. Dora was giving the Slytherin attention now.

The blond shifted her weight from foot to foot and counted the parchments with her eyes to make sure none of them flew away. They all were here. Though if one had flown away, it would have been a perfect excuse to GO after it. But then again, the odds that she'd find them were pretty slim. So that was probably for the best.

Yup. Awkward.

Oh, and they were talking about owls? She could easily talk about that. Since it was a casual topic, everyone's been asking her that, and she could reply to him just like everyone. "Mhhmm..I am." She answered looking down at her feet. "Thought it's better to get a head start." She added. "Are you?" Because they were casually talking, yeah? Except that she usually would have babbled on this subject for a bit rather than just answering simply. She's been generally decreasing the amount of words she's been saying. The less she talked the less likely she regretted saying anything.

"And I hear you're on the Quidditch team, yeah?" Though she didn't play she did check rosters. Mainly to check if her friends made it on the team which they always did. Owls, and Quidditch. Nothing could make it awkward. And deep down she wasn't really upset. It was never the reason she asked him to not talk to her. It was the embarrassment she felt upon what happened. Her ego was kind of huge and it stung at that time at the thought of being rejected or pitied. She felt herself in a weak position so she withdrew completely leaving it to time to make her forget. Which happened, time and a few other stuff helped. So for now, She's come to accept what happened and moved on, was even on verge of forgetting it. It wasn't that big of a deal for her now. The less caring the better, eh? Change of priorities, what used to concern her didn't now. Not that she wouldn't care about anything, just putting up a shell to not get affected by the simplest things. Metaphorically, of course. A shell was no way something cool to wear. Unless it was a costume party with a theme related to the sea. Mhhm. Looks were still at the top of her list.

Didn't people move around or fidget a lot when they were lying? No. Cassia wasn't lying. There was no reason for her to be lying. Probably nervous. They hadn't talked in two months, and after the events they went through, of course it'd be weird and uncomfortable.

Tag LOVED talking about Owls. NOT. But, this was better than complete awkward silence. Which Tag didn't doubt could happen. "Yeah. Head starts are good." He responded, clearing his throat afterwards and nodding his head. "I'm just going to the classes of the owls I wanna take. Ancient Runes, Charms, Muggle Studies, Divination-I believe and maybe Care of Magical Creatures." Tag listed off as he counted his fingers. That wasn't over doing it. Yes? But it wasn't like he was putting no effort at all. "I'll probably start studying more in the second half of this year." The boy hated studying. So boring.

So Cassia knew he'd made his quidditch team. Interesting. Very interesting. "Yeah. I made the team. Beater. Lex made the team as well." But Cassia probably knew that second part already. And the first game was approaching soon, and Tag's performance on the pitch so far, was...decent. It was good he had some distractions since his and Cassia's last talk. He had his classes to go to, thinking about his owls, other things, Quidditch, and Alec. Or else he'd probably still be feeling pretty bad. "Err, are you doing anything extra curricular like?" Returning the question back.