Hayden needed to actually unpack. She'd been putting it off but she couldn't continue to do that anymore. So she sat on her bed and studied her open trunk. She still wasn't unpacking but at least she was making an effort. Kind of. Okay, not really. She forced herself to get up and actually put her things where they were supposed to go.

The first thing Hayden took out was the map of the school she'd made last year. There were ten pieces of paper: one for each floor of course. It wasn't the best map obviously, just a rough outline of the rooms so she wouldn't get as lost. She wasn't a very good artist, but the map certainly had a lot of different colors on it. Hayden paused for a moment to study it. She smiled as she remembered Lex helping her work on it last year. And how she'd explored so many different parts of the castle in order to make it as accurately as possible. It wasn't wonderful, but it was pretty cool if she did say so herself. Hayden went back over to her trunk and took out her camera. It had been careful packed away in a nice carrying case. Now it was time for Hayden to take it out and she set it carefully on top of her dresser for future use. The clothes would be the last thing she put away because boring. She had more interesting things to unpack, like a picture of her and Mya from over the summer.

Next was the cat. No that wasn't right. Hayden stopped. She put her hands on her hips and stood at the end of her bed as she contemplated what was in front of her. It was like a game of what doesn't belong. The bed, the blanket, the pillows, the cat. The cat that wasn't hers yet still decided it was supposed to be curled up on her bed. She'd just been in that same spot, so where did the cat come from?

"What are you doing?" She addressed the cat very formally. Please move sir or madam because that is not your bed. Hers. "Move." But it didn't. It just laid there, like it was deliberately disobeying her. Maybe it was. WHOSE CAT EVEN WAS IT?

Norah had been skipping down to the dormitory with book in hand when she heard a voice coming from inside the door and stopped short. If somebody was IN there they couldn't just SEE her skipping. That was second year behavior, and she was NOT a second year anymore, even if she was still shorter than all of them. The THIRD year poked the door open with her finger and saw there was only one person inside. Weird. She could have sworn Hayden had been talking to somebody. Giving her dorm mate a big grin, Norah crossed the dormitory to her bed and sat on the soft quilt before saying, "Hey, Hayden! Have a good holiday?" Catching up, it was necessary. 'Specially 'cause even though they lived together she had never really gotten close with the other girl.

The thirteen year old found her eyes straying back to her book, which had a ginormous picture of a flower on it, as she waited for a reply. The plant book was just so COOL and the pictures were nothing short of awesomesauce, the very highest Norah praise. But then, "Is that a cat?" She stood up immediately to approach it, still grinning from ear to ear because WHAT IF HAYDEN HAD A CAT AND SHE COULD PLAY WITH IT AND BE BEST FRIENDS? It was a very legitimate question, y'know. She wasn't allowed to have a cat of her own but she DID like kitty snuggles. She liked 'em a whole lot.

Hayden turned at the sound of the door opening. Oh, it was Norah. Hayden smiled cheerfully at the sight of the other girl. "Hey Norah. My summer was pretty fun, not very interesting though. How was yours?" Yes, there was catching up to do. Asking about break and whatnot was the standard small talk for the first few days back at Hogwarts. Then they could actually talk, which was something Hayden had resolved to do more of with her fellow third year Hufflepuffs. They were great people, so why wasn't she friends with them already?

Yes it was a cat. Thanks Norah for pointing that out. Hayden didn't bother to respond because obviously it was a cat. She just turned to stare at it again. The long, calico cat seemed to know they were talking about it. It raised it's head and looked at Norah, blinked once, and then put it's head back down. What was even the point of a cat? Sleeping? Apparently that's what this one liked to do. "Have you seen this cat before?" Maybe it belonged to someone at Hogwarts, and she could give it back to them.

Pretty fun sounded good to her, so Norah smiled at Hayden and replied, "I'm glad! Well not about the uninteresting part, but what's Hogwarts if not interesting?" It was really the most interesting place of all, what with all the WEIRD stuff that always seemed to happen. "My summer was fun! I just did what I always do. France to visit my gran 'n gramps and playing with my brothers." She didn't even try to hide the fact that she played, because FINE she was thirteen and she liked to play, Hayden could know the truth. The third could probably blame it on her little brothers if her dorm mate thought she was strange for it. "Didn't grow much though." So much for reaching five feet this summer.

THE CAT LOOKED AT HER. Norah fidgeted with the lining of her robes for a moment before giving in to the temptation and walking over to Hayden's bed, laying a hand on the cat's head. She got to her knees so she was level with its ears as she scratched them, and grinned up at the other girl when the sound of rumbly purrs filled the air between them. "I've never seen it before, but I think it likes me!" But if the cat wasn't Hayden's, then it whose was it? And MORE IMPORTANTLY, when would she get to snuggle with it again? Norah waggled her eyebrows and giggled, "Maybeeee its a stray and we can keep it." PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE?

Hayden nodded. Hogwarts certainly was interesting. Sometimes it was a little too interesting, if you asked her. There was a very thin line between interesting and absolutely insane and the events at Hogwarts often toed that line and even sometimes crossed it. But she'd be lying if she said she didn't love it. "France? What's that like?" She kept hearing about all the interesting places people went and she was a little jealous. Jealous in a healthy way that stimulated her sense of adventure, where she was still happy for Norah to have been able to go somewhere cool.

Hayden watched Norah go to pet that cat. It was good that she liked it at least. Not to say that Hayden didn't like it, she was just confused. Because she didn't know where it came from. Hayden gave up on unpacking and sat cross-legged on her bed. There was enough space for Norah if she wanted to sit and talk, and yes also pet the cat. "It must be. It first started following me in Diagon Alley. I can't believe it managed to get all the way to Hogwarts." Unless it belonged to a student? But then why would it have been in Diagon Alley? Following her and not it's owner? The facts didn't make sense, and Hayden came to the conclusion that it must be a stray. Only one question remained.

Should she/they keep it?

Norah shrugged as she contemplated Hayden's question. What WAS France like anyway? She didn't want to sound unappreciative or anything but she barely even noticed it was different from home anymore. Giving her dorm mate a small smile, she replied, "Wellll, my mum's French so we go every summer to stay gran 'n gramps. They live in the south so there's nice beaches and things, but mostly we just spend time in the garden and stuff like that. I've only been to Paris once but I don't remember 'cause I was little." She WASN'T little anymore. Could Hayden tell? Her eyes widened slightly and giggling, she added, "The food is gooooood though. As good as Hogwarts, even!" Food WAS the most important thin, y'know. After fun, anyway.

Her hazel eyes widened EVEN more as Norah tore her eyes from the cat when Hayden said it had followed her. FOLLOWED HER? Nothing as cool as a cat had ever followed her before. Only brothers. "All the way from Diagon Alley? Wooooah!" The third year straightened up, one hand still between the cat's ears, and began to bounce on the balls of her feet. "Its like an adventure! Or a mystery! We could SO be detectives or something AWESOME like that." She played detectives with Seb 'n Marcel sometimes, but she wasn't gonna tell Hayden that. What if she thought she was immature? The whole POINT of being thirteen was being mature. It was a TEEN year after all. The VERY FIRST one.

Norah eyed the empty spot on Hayden's bed and ceased her bouncing for a moment to contemplate that spot. Could she sit on it or...? MAYBE she could sit there and they could talk about all the TOTALLY MATURE things people talked about at thirteen. She hoped Hayden would know what those were, 'cause she suuuuure didn't. Her eyes flicked up to Hayden and back down at the spot on her bed, conveniently placed next to the mysterious cat. Deciding to take the polite route, Norah grinned and Hayden again and asked, "Can I sit?" SEE she was being mature already. Somebody should give her an award for all this effort.

"That sounds fun," Hayden said brightly. "And pretty." She'd spent a little bit of time at the beach over the summer. Not a French beach though. For some reason, a French beach sounded prettier. But was it really any more notable than any other beach? Actually, probably not. It was just in a different country, so that made it more exciting.

"Yes." Hayden nodded and smiled, gesturing to the empty spot on the bed by her. An adventure? A mystery? Yes, Hayden supposed it was. They couldn't be certain the cat was a stray until they had examined all the facts. And they couldn't keep the cat if it wasn't a stray. That would be very mean to the person who may have lost a cat. "I've never been a detective before." Of course she hadn't, thirteen year olds weren't hired as detectives. Well maybe as undercover detectives so nobody would suspect them. That would be cool. "Where do we start?"

Norah grinned and answered with a cheery, "Yep!" France WAS pretty, even she could see that.

Oooh! She could SIT. The third year sat cross-legged between Hayden and the mysterious cat, which was still purring loudly. Looking up at her dorm mate, she let out a little giggle and allowed herself a single bounce before sitting up straighter like the mature thirteen year old she was. Ahem, duh. She was SO mature, okay, sitting here talking to a fellow TEENAGER about the most important things in life: cats. "I've never been a detective before either! Well 'cept for the time somebody was eating all the cookies, btu it turned out just to be my brother." Of course. It was always one of their faults. Okay fine sometimes it was hers but not getting into trouble was harder than it seemed. "This is gonna be a good adventure, I can feel it!" All adventures were good adventures, but this one was going to be supermegagood.

Norah leaned reeeeal close to the cat and stared straight into its eyes before straightening up and shrugging at Hayden. "I guess we've got to look for clues. Doesn't look like its wearing a collar so we don't know where it came from. D'ya know when it was you first saw it?" She WISHED she had a magnifying glass or a trench coat to make her look like a real detective. OOH! Or one of those checkered hats or something like that. Those were wicked cool looking.

Hayden smiled at Norah's story about her detective experience. Eating all the cookies sounded like a heinous crime indeed. She was glad it turned out just to be her brother, even though he would have been her biggest suspect from the start. It also seemed like something Hayden would do. But she was glad Norah had at least some experience with detective work. It would be pretty bad if neither of them had any idea what they were doing.

Where she'd first seen it? Hayden had to think back and remember where exactly the cat had first been seen. "I think it was somewhere by that fountain. You know that one in Diagon Alley? It's at the...north end, I think." Was that really helpful? That was all the way in Diagon Alley so it didn't seem very helpful. If someone had lost their cat there, they would have a hard time getting it back from so far away. "Should we make posters?" Ones that said Found Cat or something like that. If someone at Hogwarts had lost it, that would help them.

Norah smiled and nodded at Hayden even though she didn't know what fountain she was talking about. Half the time she still had to make little shapes with her fingers to remember left and right, let alone being able to distinguish DIRECTIONS. Nuh uh. She'd learn that...someday. If she could be a detective in real life, but that was way down on the list after being a plant complimenter or sparkly space suit maker, because PRIORITIES, she had 'em. The third year beamed at her dorm mate and nodded excitedly 'till it made her neck feel all funny at the mention of posters. "That's an AWESOME idea!" Man, Hayden was SMART. Norah got up from the bed as quickly as she could without upsetting the ickle kitty and got on her knees with one arm under her own bed. WHERE was it? AHA!

Pulling the box from under her bed, Norah straightened up and swept some hair from her eyes before placing it next to Hayden. "Glitter paint! For the posters, if you want." Why anybody would reject glitter was really beyond her, but watcha gonna do. " I think shiny stuff will get the most attention. But what should we write on them? ASSGJKSD; art time! She hoped Hayden was good at these things 'cause her handwriting was atrocious. She could draw kitties though! And that was much more important if y'asked her

Hayden grinned. She was glad Norah thought her idea was a good one. It would have been terrible if she's thought her idea was bad and didn't want to be her friend anymore. Hayden hadn't even considered that but now, after the fact, she was glad that hadn't happened. She and Norah could still be friends. Maybe even...best friends.

GLITTER PAINT. "Wow, that's so cool!" She got down off the bed to look at the paint. She didn't want to make the posters from her bed because what if they got paint on it? Then it would be all sticky and the paint would get all over her when she slept on it. That would be bad, so they could make the posters from the floor. Hayden went to grab her own box of art supplies. It also contained a bunch of blank pieces of paper in case Norah didn't have enough of those. She had some markers, crayons, and colored pencils, in case they needed to write something in a solid color. It might be easier to read if it wasn't completely glitter. Not that glitter wasn't awesome because OF COURSE IT WAS.

"Probably just 'Lost Cat' or something like that. We should also put a picture of the cat. Can you draw?" Hayden wasn't that great at super artsy things like that. She could write the words though. Or even take a picture of the cat to attach to the picture. She grabbed a piece of paper and began to write. Ooh, so far this was fun!

Leah looked inside her trunk. She took everything out, then looked again. She fished inside every pocket of the trunk (why were there SO MANY of those??) but still had no success. This was going nowhere; she did not have any hairbands left. You might say that was no big deal, but haha it was to one Leah Abbott because she remembered packing ten thousand hairbands before her fourth year.

None of her dormmates were back yet. She could wait for them to come back... but this was considered urgent on her list of things to do. So she headed down to the third year dorm room and knocked on the door. Hellooo?

Nola had been peacefully sleeping on the floor of the third year dorm among her books and homework. Her intentions were good, of course, the end result was to accomplish assignments. However, one way or another Nola became over come with drowsiness and fell asleep.

Being a relatively light sleeper, Nola jumped awake when there was a knock at the door. In the short three years Nola had been at Hogwarts she couldn't recall every answering their door. With sleep in her eyes she stretched her arms above her head. "It's open." She called towards the door. "Did you bring food?" Surely whoever thought to knock on the door would bring some sort of food with them.