Marigold didn't have to study for OWLs anymore.

…

Straaaaaaaaange.

She had the entire summer for not studying, but being back at school without her nose in a book was refreshing. And slightly monotonous. What was she supposed to do? She didn't know. So she was lying on the ground, because that was the correct conclusion. And thinking about ANYTHING other than OWLs because of those two failed ones.

Oopsies.

Considering that his only encounter in Ancient Runes consisted of sneaking in, setting a boy on fire, getting reprimanded, and being kicked out.... well, Dima wasn't too excited to start the class this year. And if something happened and new flames burst out during the course of a lesson, speedy exits were IMPORTANT, alright.

So he had come here to do exactly that. Except it was hard not to get distracted when you saw a girl lying on the ground.

"Are you okay? Are you alive?" And WHAT was he supposed to do if she wasn't? O_O

Hmmm???

Oh. Person. Marigold rolled over, onto her back, and squinted up at the little person. "'maliveit'sfine," she half grumbled, half mumbled - she must've drifted off for a bit - before sitting upright and rubbing at her cheeks. "Just tired."

She tilted her head up at the boy. He looked familiar. "Are you friends with…" Who WAS it? She knew it was someone she knew… some other Ravenclaw… She snapped her fingers in finger guns and nodded. "Kyroh, yeah?"

Most people would have found it weird that this girl was sleeping in the middle of a corridor, but Dima had done it with Thornton ALL the time. Naps were a universal activity! Any time, anywhere, right? Obviously, he wanted to join in. And he didn't think that weird at all, so he laid down next to the girl.

"We should probably summon pillows unless you want a welt on your head," was his sage advice. Never mind that he didn't know her. No big deal.

And... was he friends with Kyroh? At the moment, Dima didn't know the answer himself, but he nodded anyway.

Marigold could nap ANYWHERE. It was a proven fact. Literally, put her in the middle of a full fledged battle, and she could sleep soundly right through. So she didn't need a pillow, though his idea was an interesting one.

"I feel like there'd be lots of things that could go wrong though, y'know? Like, who knows where the pillow would come from." Hopefully not HER pillow. From her dorm. It was special and comfy. "I wish I could conjure them." She waved her wand weakly, but all that happened was a couple sparks.

"'m Marigold, by the way."

"I think if you focus on YOUR pillow and what you remember it looks like and exactly where it is, that's the one that'll come here." He nodded wisely, clearly an expert on the subject. Or not really, since he was just assuming, but that WAS how the charm worked, right?

Conjure them? "I wish I could do that too. Or transfigure stuff into 'em." That would be cool.

He wasn't sure if he'd heard the name Marigold before, but it sounded familiar. "Hi Marigold! I'm Dima." And he was SLEEPY, like always.

She didn't make it that far since talking to Zander and him worrying and possibly freaking out about her fall when he said something to her. She really didn't think that she hurt her arm but she was being very stubborn right now. Her whole right arm hurt, there was just pain shooting up and down her whole arm, even her hand hurt a little bit but she didn't want to go to the healer, she would suck it up and everything would be okay. Emmylou walked down towards the fifth floor corridor and had to take a seat against the wall and held her right arm.

Bored. Bored. BORED.

It was strange how once the classes began, the boredom kicked in. And all the excitement about being back at Hogwarts drained away.

But anyway, it was a really empty corridor and Noel was in a mood, so he started singing. It was not often one could get away with it because people liked to stare and wonder why were you being weird?

The fifth floor was a good place to be alone, if one was inclined to be alone. Or if one couldn't find her best friends and was alone by consequence. Or if one couldn't find her friends and liked the look of a long stretch of hallway for practicing a spin. Arms rounded over her head, red hair flying like a smudge of fire, Dot spun down the hallway.

And then she stopped. Did she hear music?

"If you're going to sing, you should either do it loudly or not at all. Those are the rules." Also, hello, new person.

Cinna had just got done working on something in the library. And no it wasn't homework, though that's what she should really be working on. She could do that later.*But for now she was just going to take her time going back her common room.

She walked right by Emmylou. She turned her head back to look. It was her so the fifth year turned back and flopped down beside her. "Hey Emmy. What's up?" And why was she holding her arm like that.

As Kace was walking past the fifth floor corridor because why not? He loved the explore the castle. As he walked down the corridor he noticed Emmy and Cinna were there. He figured why not say hi to them. He even saw Emmy holding her right arm? He gave Emmy a quizzical look and he asked, "Emmy what happened to your arm?" Now he was concerned.

A few moments passed while Emmylou still held her arm, she moved her and there and every movement in her right now just felt like it was going to fall off. She heard a voice and looked up to see Cinna. "Hey." she said wincing in pain. "Nothing really, you?" Just pretending like nothing happened. After seeing Cinna come over and sitting next to her Kace wasn't that far behind and the both of them were concerned about her arm. It wasn't broken, it wasn't broken, it just felt like it was broken. She just didn't want to admit that it was broken. Who would want to admit that. Besides it was a stupid reason for getting it broke and she really didn't want to get laughed at. There were tears in her eyes from the pain but nope she wasn't going to go and get it fixed. "N-nothing. It's fine! See." She said moving her right arm around and closing her eyes because it hurt so bad and was starting to swell.

Kace raised his eyebrows and didn't believe her for a second. One she couldn't look him in the eye to tell the truth and two she was wincing. She was obviously in pain. "Emms you gotta go see a healer or something.." he suggested. If he had to beg he would have to. "Or if not and I know you are stubborn, you need to put ice on it. It is starting to swell up bad.." he said and walked over to give it a better look.

As he sat down and looked at her arm, he delicately began to touch it and examine it. "Bloody Merlin Emmy what did you do to it?" he asked. He kept his anger under control and diffused it with Cinna. "Sup cinna?" he asked smiling.

Oh look, he wasn't alone!

The boy stopped to hear what they girl had to say, before adding: "And don't you know the other rule?" with a brow pulled up.

"If you hear someone singing, you should totally join in"

It only sounded fair. And if her voice was nice, maybe Noel could ask her to join his band. Noel had also not failed to notice her really hypnotizing eyes - such intense stage presence she would have., he thought.

Holding his hand out for her to shake, Noel said: "Name's Noel, by the way"

Dot did NOT know that rule, and she considered whether it was a really real rule or whether it was totally made up. Like hers was. "I haven't heard that rule before. And I'm not sure I know that song. Sing it again?"

She wasn't opposed to singing in public, but only if she knew the words or could make up something close. And if this Noel boy made fun of her, then she'd punch him in his nose.

"I'm Dot. Well, Charlotte, actually, but everyone calls me Dot." She shook one of his fingers rather than his whole hand. Hand shaking was like hand holding, and she was sworn off boys forever and ever. And ever. Even friendly ones or cute ones or tall ones or nice one.

To do this Divination homework, Toby had figured that the best method would be to head up to the Divination tower and then work his way down to the ground floor. The last time he'd seen all the cats, they'd all been up there, so it seemed like a logical place to start. But he'd not even made it that far before he spotted the first feline friend.

It was a ginger cat, kinda fat, and it reminded him of the Headmistress' cat, though there were maaaaany differences too. This one was asleep in a patch of winter sun that was thrown out over the flagstones. It looked comfy and happy, its top half stretched out and upside down, paws sort of stretched out, with the rest of its body all curled around. Toby was pretty sure this something that had been in that chapter of the textbook, and he took out a scrap of parchment of his pocket to check (it had been easier to copy out the meanings rather than lug the entire book with him).

After a few seconds of scanning the parchment, he came to a part that was really quite accurate. The forehead to the floor one. Toby glanced at the cat, and yep, forehead to the floor. Then he ran through the rest of the list to make sure he'd not missed anything else. Finding that he hadn't, he got out his homework parchment and quickly wrote down an interpration.

Would that do? Sure, let's go with that.

Toby, who could never help himself when it came to animals, reached out to give the cat a gentle little stroke (the cat make a cat-waking-up noise then and made the Hufflepuff smile), before getting up and carrying on through his quest to find cats and do readings.

kate had sort of let her Divination homework assignment slip up on her, but she still had time to complete it and time to do a good job. She'd been making pretty good scores so far, and she planned to keep that up. At least this was a fun homework assignment. Well, hunting down stray cats was sort of fun. She wasn't keen on doing many more readings, but at least she only had to do three.

Her search found her wandering the fifth floor, which was a floor she didn't find herself on too many times. She'd actually started out at the seventh floor and then the sixth floor, but she'd had no such luck on either floor. Hopefully the fifth floor had at least one or two stray cats. With her luck, she'd find three and get everything done all at once.

Kate continued her walk down the corridor, slowing every once in a while to look for a cat. About halfway down, she finally found one. She felt kind of like she'd won the Muggle lottery or something! She took out her parchment and quilt and started to observe a little more.

Homework Reading #1

I finally managed to find a stray cat wandering down the fifth floor corridor. I was the one doing the wandering--not the cat. The cat was swatting in the air at something I never did manage to see. I tried to creep closer to see if maybe it was a small insect, but it didn't look like anything but air. Flipping through my textbook, I saw that this actually means something! It means that I'll get good news soon. Awesome! Thanks, cat! I can't wait!

Putting away her quill and parchment, Kate headed off in search of a second cat.

It had taken a bit of walking but they had finaaaaaally arrived! Thorbert was still in the lead, surprising since he'd paused every so often to observe a wall here, a painting there. Each time scribbling in his notebook with surprising speed before moving on again. Needless to say, their journey from the seventh floor had taken longer than need be but could you blame him? The castle was simply faaaaascinating! Surely his team thought the same!

Speaking of, were they ready to map?

Ethan was too busy watching the expert cartographer taking down notes, and or drawings on his own notebook, when he realized that they already arrived on the fifth floor. Maybe he should have taken down details on his own notebook rather than watch Mr. Kenting’s movements, because by the looks of it, there were a lot of details to note down.

Ethan wasted no time and drew the hallway on his notepad, noting down details and whatnot. He paused however, and sidled towards Mr. Kenting. “Sir? How does mapping the true North help cartographers? It seems to be a very important element in map making...” Well, muggle maps at least.

Simon saw Ethan's note and quickly made a note of it himself. They would definitely have to check out that room when they were up there. Flashing his mate a grin, he nodded in agreement. "The game is indeed afoot! No time to lose, hey?" he said as he placed his pen inside of his notebook and followed the group to the fifth floor.

Mr. Kenting set to work on mapping every little detail. Simon's blue eyes widened at he took note of how many times the man stopped and scribbled something down and then picked up the pace. The whole process was fascinating to the boy. He too continued to watch Mr. Kenting work. It was as if the man was solving an incredibly difficult case by writing down little details here and there. Case solving and map drawing all had to do with the little details.

Simon raised his right eyebrow at Ethan's question and waited in anticipation for Mr. Kenting's answer. That was an interesting question that Holmes had posed. The boy kept quite and continued to draw the corridor in his notebook. Simon wasn't much of an artist but his small diagram was at least sort of neat.

Curiously Lux watched as Mr. Kenting repeatedly stopped so that he could record things her served in his notebook. It must be really fun to be a cartographer because they seemed to find a lot of things fascinating. She had no interest in Pershing it as a career, but it would definitely make a nice hobby.

As Ethan asked a good question, she waited eagerly for the answer because she really wanted to know what the expert had to say about his field.

Botros was at the end of the line, walking at his usual pace because that was enough to give him time to see and record as much as he could. It was a lot easier having lived here for the past five years, he came familiar with the nooks and twists of this corridor. There were plenty of locked empty rooms on the sides but perhaps the most important place was the Spirit Room.

Botros wasn't so keen on getting there so soon, though. Instead, he let the students ask Mr. Kenting some guiding questions. As for him, he took his small plain pad out and jotted down some notes here and there to keep his memory from fading about details. The portrait that held the door to the Boys' Prefects' bathroom was a little further down the corridor. "The rooms lining this side are empty, feel free to open a few doors and check." They were square, empty rooms with a sideful of windows. Nothing to be written down, really. "The Prefects' bathroom's further down the corridor." He made a casual note, then continued writing in his notepad.

Thorbert was surprised that someone knew that there were different 'north's, and he smiiiiiiiiled at the boy. "True North shows the geographic North Pole," he said, "so in a way, it's the end of the world. That's how it helps us. We have an 'end'. Of course, it isn't this simple, but I'm sure you know other aspects..." Thorbert nodded once, then turned towards the rooms Professor Botros mentioned. After he had noted aaaaaall down, he looked further down the corridor. He wanted to see the Prefect Bathroom. He could only imagine aaaaaaaaall the beauty...

"Might we enter the bathroom, sir?" he asked gently. It would be great to depict that special place he had never entered.

Of course! Having an ‘end’ could simplify things for the lot. They can’t just do mapping without end, yes? Unless one would desire to be like Mr. Kenting over there, whom Ethan assumed wouldn’t mind sketching and mapping forever. The Slytherin took down notes, and added his own input as well. Probably, by knowing where North is, could give them a ‘start’ as well. Huh. Interesting stuff! Ethan looked at Mr. Baldy, and returned his smiiiiiiiiiile. Really, should Mr. Kenting go on a smiling contest with him, the older man will have no chance of winning. Hehehe!

And so...time to move? The sixteen year old looked back and saw Professor Botros. He’s probably all bored with this stuff because the fifth floor is his domain. He could probably sketch it even when he’s asleep. Speaking of which...well, let’s not get into the sleep stuff. Heh. How could he forget that he sleep-walked and ended up knocking on Professor Botros’ door? Meeeep! Fun times though! Hahaha!

Ethan moved closer to Simon and peeked over his shoulder to see how he’s doing. The Slytherin also took note of the only girl in the group. “Oh, hey Lux!” he said and looked at her work too. “Hopefully we get to see something...interesting.” Like...ahem, the Spirit Room? Oh but wait, they’re to check the Prefect’s Bathroom? Ohh. OOOOH. That room’s grand. He was lucky enough to gain access last term when he was still the Slytherin Prefect. Not that he misses the responsibility of a student leader, but he definitely regret missing the perks that came along with the title...