Abby was glad to be back in the familiar surroundings of Hogwarts she just wondered what else to do during the year that she was going to be here

Echo was here last year for her first year but she still didn't know her way around much, Looking around she thought that all of this sounded familiar. and then she smelt it... "oh im near the great hall" she thought while smelling the air for the food, while she was doing this she had her eyes closed and didn't see where she was going, which made her bump into another person.. "ooommppppffffff" the noise that came out of her mouth was a weird one, like the wind got knocked out of her. Stumbling back she saw that it was an older Ravenclaw girl that she had just ran into.

"sorry, sorry...... got lost" thats all she could manage to say.. but hey she was a slytherin so meh.

Abby smiled at the younger slytherin girl and said "Hey it is okay everybody gets lost, i mean i am in my fourth year and i still get lost" Abby knew that everybody gets lost

"ohhh, okay cool" she said while brushing off her robes... "might as well introduce myself, because well i ran into you and all.....Echo.....Echo Duchannes" she said while sticking out a hand for the older girl to shake.

Abby shook Echo's hand and said "Pleasure to meet you Echo, I am Abby, Abby Valentine, so you glad to be back for another fun filled year at Hogwarts" Abby sure was but she had only just met Echo so it was only fair that she started the conversation off nicely

Valentine..... shes heard that she's hear that name before, and this girl did look familar.. "do you have any siblings here???" she was pretty sure that the girl did, or hey they could be cousins or something.. "yeah, im excited to be back just need to get used to the castle again and its lay out" she told the older girl as she grabbed a piece of her hair and started to play with it, this girl kind of bored her but hey, Echo didn't know her all to well yet so lets see how this goes.

"so what year are you in??? are you excited to be back?" nice Echo way to be super nice about it *beams*

Abby smiled at Echo and said "My sisters are both gryffindors and yes they attend here and i am in my fourth year and yes i am excited to be back i am just wondering what is going to happen this year"

OHHH YEAH!!!! Echo figured it out, she did know this Abby girl after all. She was sure that they had met last year. "okay!!! itsnt it fun having family here with you, instead of like being alone?" she asked Abby.

"Its always crazy here" Echo added to the girls comment about what was going to happen this year, what didn't happen at this crazy place.

Abby smiled and said "Yeah it is totally fun having my two sisters at the school with me and yes Echo it always is very crazy here and we have got no clues as to what to expect, like when i first started at Hogwarts it was forever freezing cold at the school because of something i can't remember what caused it but everywhere you had to where more than one layer of clothing"

"cold?? layers of clothing" wow, that sounded so terrible. "I wouldn't have been able to deal with that, i like the winter, but I love my summer more than anything" she told her new friend.

"I like seeing my cousin every now and again, shes in a different house than me so its normally during classes and meals but its nice, and comforting" smiles for the girl.

"so is there anything famous or something that happened in this entrance way?" she asked for alot of the places in hogwarts had stories to them.

Abby thought and said "Well i can't remember what exactly happened here but there was something that happened but my memory at the moment is blank on it and yeah i do like seeing my sisters at times even if they are both in a different house from me"

Norah sat smack in the middle of the Entrance hall, waiting waiting waiting for somebody Cinna to show up. It was Potions time, WOOOH! She held the flask of potion tightly in her hand, 'cause if she dropped it it'd be all sorts of bad news. Culloden sure wouldn't be happy for one thing, and she didn't really know what happened when you spilled a potion on the floor. It didn't really make sense for the potion to have the same effects on the floor as it did on people, right? She didn't think floors had feelings but she'd never been a floor before so how was she supposed to know? It wasn't nice to assume something didn't have feelings. Or so she thought. So there.

With a quick glance around the still empty entrance hall, she laid down flat on her back and stared up at the ceiling, holding her flask as it rested on top of her tummy. Cinna would still see her, right? Right.

It wasn't that Cinna was putting off doing her homework. Especially her potions homework, right? Okay so maybe she was putting it off a little bit. It wasn't on purpose of course. If she didn't do it she would never hear the end of it from Bart for not doing the assignment. Sooo when the lioness and Norah decided to work together on the homework, now she had to get her butt in gear. So grabbing her bag, already packed with the potion and the other things she would need for the homework. She headed out of the lions common room sit out to find the younger hufflepuff.

She was going to check out around the great hall first, then the kitchen and around the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. To the sixth years surprise she didn't have to do too much looking for Miss Norah. She didn't say anything yet just flopped down beside her on the floor. "Is this part of the homework? or are we starting a yoga group? if we are were going to need mats. " Because this floor was way to hard for this.

Norah didn't notice Cinna entering the hall until she'd already been flopped down next-to, but when she DID notice she gave the older girl a giant smile and sat up. "I WISH it was part of the homework! Imagine Culloden doing yoga. That'd be awesome." She snorted at the very thought of it. Except they were on a MISSION here. A potions kind of mission, not a yoga kind of mission but both were pretty cool missions if you though about it. Different, though, which was unfortunate because yoga and potions had loads of potential together. Maybe she could INVENT it. And name it the Norah McSparklez practice for obvious reasons.

The fourth year held out her flask for Cinna to take. "Mine's a fear one," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Sorry 'bout that." Professor Culloden hadn't exactly told them that real live people were gonna have to drink this stuff, otherwise she'd have made a happier kind. She probably should've considered that beforehand but it wasn't the point. The point WAS...well she didn't really know yet. But she was gonna find one. "Do we just drink each others?" What was in her flask, hmmm?

The Gryffindor just laid there quietly lost in whatever thoughts she was having at the moment. She turned her head, returned the BIG smile, yeah. She was smiling, weird right? Anyway Cinna sat up to after a few minutes of just laying there. She laughed, not sure if she could actually picture Culloden doing yoga. "I can't really see him doing yoga." Yeah. No yoga.

She dug threw her bag and got out her flask of potion. She grinned and handed hers to Norah. "Sorry you're about to get angry." She took Norah's flask and looked at it. Fear, yeah? Well this should be interesting. The Gryffindor was pretty fearless you know. Not scared of anything, okay maybe a few things. Nothing is would admit to just anyone. One person pretty much them all.


Nodding. "Yeah. I think that's what we are suppose to do." bottoms up?

Norah raised an eyebrow. Anger? She didn't feel that one very often. Holding the flask Cinna handed to her up to her eyes for an inspection, she gave a small shrug and brought it down to her lips. "Here goes nothin'." She tipped her head back and downed the potion in two gulps, wrinkling her nose as she sat up again and placed the flask on the floor.

Her eyes narrowed slowly, eyebrows creeping together and arms crossing in front of her chest. What. Was. SHE. Doing here. A Gryffindor? She was wasting her time with a GRYFFINDOR? Norah rose to her feet so she could glare down at Cinna. "What are YOU doing here? Who said you were allowed to?" Stupid Gryffindors thinking they could do whatever they wanted. She felt a heat rising in her chest as she continued to glare. Mad. Mad mad MAD. Everything was so AWFUL. Who decided it was okay for everything to get awful? She wasn't okay with that. It wasn't allowed. The awfulness had to go. Her voice rose to a shout. "Just leave me ALONE."

Were there any puppies around here that she could kick?

The sixth year watched as Norah looked over the flask. It was fine, believe it or not she could brew a pretty good potion. She took a look at the flask in her hand, too. She trusted Norah and her potion."Let's see how this goes." So with that she downed the potion. Well.... She pocketed the flask and looked around. Now what?

Cinna seen Norah and jumped back, like scared little kitten. She blinked and bit her lip. OHMYGOD Norah was a big scary meanie face. She was scared of her. Cinna wanted her daddy. She took a few more steps back when she spoke to her. "I....I.....I umm. We're do...doing our p..p..potions homework." She was so that Norah was going to hurt her. Cold chills were popping up on her arms. Biting her lips even harder she could feel the pulse in it. Her first thought was to run, run as fast she could and get away from her. But fear kept the standing there. She jumped about ten feet in the air when her voice got louder. She crouched down. "S...s...sorry." Oh my goodness she was going need a paper bag to breathe into. Panic from fear. PANIC FROM FEAR.

Norah watched somewhat triumphantly as Cinna's face clouded with fear. Served her right. With a derisive snort at the older girl's pathetic jump, she crossed her arms even tighter and marched towards her with her nose up. "Sorry? SORRY? You'd better be SORRY. This is all your fault." She wasn't entirely sure WHAT was Cinna's fault, but something was. Something bad.

The fourth year straightened up to all five feet of her height and continued to glare at Cinna. PEASANT. She was just an itty bitty peasant who was messing up Norah's whole entire LIFE for some weird reason but she didn't even have time to think of what that reason was because she was far to busy glaring and being ANGRY. As a thought suddenly dawned on her, she rose to her tippy toes and pointed an accusing finger at the Gryffindor's chest. "Was it YOU? WAS IT YOU WHO TOOK MY CHOCOLATE FROG? I WAS SAVING THAT DUMB FROG. IT WAS MY FROG." Of course. How had she not seen it before? Of COURSE Cinna had broken into her dorm and gone under her bed and FOUND her chocolate frog that was gonna be her prize for doing this stupid homework. Of course she'd gotten past Leo the Lion who was guarding the frogs under there because Gryffindors were DUMB and did DUMB STUFF like breaking into dormitories and STEALING. OTHER. PEOPLE'S. DUMB. FROGS.

He'd seen the posters, of course. The Pebbles posters. They were uncomfortably familiar too, Toby thought; that poor rock had gone missing far too many times in the last few years. With this... the third time, maybe? Last time it was him who'd had her, keeping her safe, but this time... not a clue.

And it was SAD, okay? It was DEVASTATING. Toby knew how much Airey treasured Pebbles, and he was going to do his best to help find her. He'd grabbed a poster from his House table at breakfast and was taking it upon himself to hold it up to people's faces as the passed him in the Entrance Hall, saying, "Pebbles? Anyone seen Pebbles? We NEED to FIND PEBBLES." And so on and so forth.

But THEN he'd had THE IDEA. Toby had CONNECTIONS, okay. To THINGS. He could help get the word out, right? And if there was something that could be done, then why not try to do it? Even as he circled the entrance hall, harassing informing others about the situation, he occasionally glanced into the Great Hall or up the stairs, wondering if Airey would happen this way at all.

Some more poster waving, and then he would go look for him. Yes good plan.

Dragging his feet out of the Great Hall, and with a bit of ketchup from his hash browns unceremoniously dribbled on his suit near his enchanted breast pocket, the astronomer had every intention on taking his usual walking path around the Black Lake looking for Pebbles and nearly slammed himself into the seventh year waving his Missing poster about. Stutter stepping and pivoting with the grace of a centaur on ice, the astronomer mumbled an apology while trying his best not to make eye contact with the Hufflepuff.

Anyone? Had ANYONE seen Pebbles? Someone had to have seen her. Rocks didn't just get up and wander of-... actually, given the amount of times this had happened, maybe they actually DID. Get up and wander off of their own accord. It was a possibility. Maybe he could talk to someone smarter than him and they could do some sort of- omgwhatshappening.

He'd not been expecting to walk full pelt into Airey, but it had almost happened. Almost. There was a moment of rapid blinking where Toby took in what was happening on, processed the apology, and looked at the man properly.

"It's okay, Professor. Um..." Um indeed. Toby wasn't used to seeing such a glum Airey. It hurt his heart a little bit, and the sads deepened. "I was just looking for you, and-"

He realised suddenly that he was still holding the poster up in the air, and very quickly retracted it, feeling an immediate and unforgiving stab of guilt. Wow, way to go, shove a picture of the guy's LOST PET right in his face. Nice one Toby. "I... sorry." For... yeah. What was he saying?

Pull it together, Flamsteed.

You are not standing in the solitude of your office and acting ridiculously unprofessional in the presence of students.

Inhaling deeply and holding the breath in for several painfully silent moments, the astronomer exhaled slowly and allowed his eyes to close. Refocusing. Compartmentalizing. Putting the emotions into a box and then that box into another box and sending... Alright, no. Don't go down the comedic route again with those thoughts. Just...tuck it all away.

Opening his eyes now, they focused on Mr. Toby and even managed a weak smile. The sort of smile one would expect from someone who had just stepped on a rusty nail and was trying to hide the fact that their foot was not in agony.

"Thank you, Mr. Toby. I know Pebbles means an awful lot to you as well," he said with a polite nod. The seventh year had, after all, taken care of her after the whole Hookstead incident.

Even though Professor Airey was acting, like... super weird, Toby sort of... recognised what he was doing or at least what he THOUGHT he was doing. Like... centering himself or something. Pulling himself together. Controlling emotions. Not far off from being accurate, really, though if he knew exactly about how he was shoving his emotions away, Toby would have been able to relate. A whole lot.

The smile wasn't a normal Flamsteed smile, but Toby would take it. He met it with one of his own; not a gleeful grin or anything like that, Merlin knew he couldn't even manage one of those at the moment. But... a sympathetic smile, hopefully.

"Well, y'know... I just wanted to help you, uh... find her and stuff," he replied, unwittingly using That Word. "I had an idea, actually. Something that might help? I'm on The Quill, aren't I? I thought I could perhaps... write an article. Get the word out and stuff." Toby watched Airey carefully, trying to gauge his reaction, even though he had an abysmal track record of reaction-gauging. "What do you think?" Obviously he still had yet to consult Gabe, but surely he'd be okay with this. PET ROCKS and HAPPINESS were at stake.

You know what Airey Flamsteed was not doing at this moment? Crying. He most certainly was not. He was also most certainly not wibbling his lip while trying to keep himself from the not crying he was doing. He also did not pretend to pinch the bridge of his nose so that he could dry his eyes with his thumb and index finger. His voice also did not crack as he spoke next.

Only all of the above totally DID happen.

"You are truly one of a kind, Mr. Toby," he said, this time showing the Hufflepuff a genuine smile full of pearly white teeth. "I would be even more in your debt were you to do much such an honor."

A thought suddenly crossed his mind as he gazed upon the seventh year. He would never admit to picking favorites, and that was NOT what he was doing right now FOR THE RECORD, but there was something unique about his relationship with the Hufflepuff. Something that needed to be immortalized somehow. Somehow so that in .... oh 10 or so years down the road when they met again at a reunion or whenever they met in the streets of Diagon Alley they could....

YES! That was it!

And just the sort of positive distraction he needed right now.

Sticking his arm out towards Mr. Tem....Toby, he waited for the young man to accept it.