Exploring the castle seemed to get people in trouble. But Kaycee couldn't help it. The desire was too strong. This is probably why she was in Gryffindor. Reckless girl was reckless.

Today she was trying random doors to see which she could get into. So far she'd run into a broom closet and room she just stared into. Weird. But she left those and tried her luck on a different floor.

That's when she ran into this door. Inside looked like and empty office. She tilted her head to the side and walked into it. Old rug. Cool. It smelled like... dust... and ... something she couldn't quite place. Like... sort of fruit?

Norah and Hayden's detective work had lead to a lot of important things, and one of those things was a super secret room on the sixth floor that nobody had been in for a hundred million years. At least it smelled like it had been a hundred million years. It also smelled a little like a smoothie that had been left in the sun far too long, but that could be overlooked 'cause it still didn't change the fact that it was a SECRET.

And that's what the fifth year needed--a secret place. A secret place for secret business. She had her list held tight in her hand for safe keeping, because who knew what'd happen if she put the parchment in her bag. The bag made it much easier to make it look like she was going somewhere to study, and nobody could question that right? Studying was just what fifth year were supposed to do, it was practically a rule.

She pushed the door to the old office open and immediately raised her eyebrows 'cause guess what? There was a PERSON in there. "Hiya Kaycee." It didn't come out quite enthusiastic as it usually would, but she still gave the younger girl a big smile as she held her list close to her chest. "How d'you know about this place?" Was she in on the SECRET then too? Was it even a secret AT ALL? Norah paused a moment, chewing on bottom her lip, before brightening suddenly. "Oooooh, wait! D'ya think you can help me?"

Whoever thought secrets were more fun than telling people stuff was definitely getting everything backwards. Even the fact that Kaycee knew about her secret room was a really awesome thing all of a sudden. She didn't hesitate before sitting cross legged on the floor and laying her list down on the worn rug. "I bet you're a whole lot better at this stuff than I am, anyways." It seemed like EVERYBODY was better than her. Plus Kaycee danced and stuff so obviously she was good at a whole bunch of things. It just made sense. "These are all the things I've got to do except I haven't been very good at doing them." She smiled hopefully at the fourth year. This was the PERFECT plan, right?

SPOILER!!: LIST

Quote:

Originally Posted by NORAH'S BIG LIST OF STUFF

To do for Norahs at the ripe old age of fifteen:
1. Don't forget that getting distracted is totally lame and even Professor Culloden said so so it's definitely the real deal.
2. Convince mum and dad to let you get a camel. If that doesn't work then a cat is also acceptable.
3. Buy all the sparkly shoelaces ever.
4. Be smarter than Sebby.
5. (at least pretend to be smarter than Sebby)
6. Get a cat even though mum and dad probably said no.
7. Invent a new flavor of ice cream.
8. Become Sophie Brown
9. Learn how to snog so you're not the onliest one ever. Also don't be dreadful at it.
10. Find a good snogging teacher. Apparently being French is important but I don't know why yet. Or maybe act French? Something about France, I forget.
11. Probably brush your hair or else nobody will want to snog you anyways.
12. Become allergic to broccoli.
13. Teach Zander how to like glitter.
14. COOKIES.

Kayce jumped. She clutched her heart and turned to face the person who scared her to DEATH. DEEP BREATHS. She was okay. She was fine. She needed to teach Hufflepuffs to wear bells, apparently.

"Hey Norah." she greeted with a nod. She blinked several times. Holllld up there Hufflepuff. She can't answer that fast.

Umm... "Just found it." she said holding up one finger to indicate which question she was answering. "Sure." She added in a shrug and a second finger. "Aww. Thanks." Third finger.

That was all the points, right? Right.

She made grabby hands for the list and read it over.

And she had comments. "Okay. Um. Let's see. First of all... what would you do with a camel?" She was genuinely interested in the reasoning behind that. "I'm pretty sure shoelaces can be transfigured... so no need to buy those." Just sayin'.

She wasn't sure what a 'Sebby' was, so she'd skip those.

She was cool with helping to illegally obtain a cat. "I'm game to help with this cat thing." Afterall, she was the reason Kody had a cat, so she was pretty good at.

She made a face when it got to number eight. "That girl, like, vomits rainbows." But whatever. If Norah was in to that sort of thing, she wouldn't judge. Much.

Her eyes then grew bigger. "Yeah... I'm not sure if I could help you much with the snogging thing either." Well she could. But a) she refused to make out with anyone that used the word snogging. It made it sound like some kind of allergic reaction. And b) she knew a guy that probably wouldn't be very enthusiastic about the idea.

She read more. "Why do you need to remind yourself to brush your hair?" That seemed elementary. Like brushing teeth. Which lead her to ask... "You brush your teeth, right?"

"I bet there's a spell to the broccoli thing." Probably.

And lastly... "How does one glitter?" That that it really mattered since she was not Zander and therefore couldn't mark that one off the list anyway.

Norah's grin faltered slightly around the edges, but she didn't let the smile go away because she NEEDED that smile. Smiles were important, especially when stuff got embarrassing. Which it was. Immediately regretting her decision (as tended to happen when she didn't think things through, aka always), she leaned in closer to read the list over Kaycee's shoulder.

"To play with it and ride it and be its friend and see what it feels like to poke one of its humps." DUH. Hadn't that been obvious? Why wouldn't somebody want a camel? "AND maybe it'll teach me to spit really far!" She always lost those contests with Marcel and Sebastian which was unfair because she was older so she deserved to win. Wait but transfiguring shoelaces? "DO YOU KNOW A SPELL TO MAKE STUFF GLITTERY?" Oops. C'mon prefect Norah, you're not supposed to be loud anymore. Lowering her voice slightly, she added. "They really teach us all the wrong things in Transfiguration."

It looked like Kaycee didn't know how to be smarter than a genius little brother either, but that made sense because the only person who knew how to outsmart Sebastian Kittredge was probably Sebby himself. Or maybe Sophie Brown. "Ooooh the cat one's a good one. I almost got one over the summer but I got scared." Being in trouble for tracking mud through the house was one thing, but getting a secret cat without permission was a whole other one. It'd lead to a lot of yelling, and non-joyful yelling would definitely make her list of Worst Things Ever. If she ever wrote one, that is, but that subject seemed much too tragic to be all on one piece of parchment.

And she caught that look, she DID. "You say that like it's a bad thing." She nudged Kaycee softly, with a big grin. "Imagine how cool it'd be to vomit rainbows!" THAT comment could easily go on a Dumb Stuff to Say list, but it was TRUE. Sometimes impossible things were the best things. The unfortunate thing was that the snogging bit seemed impossible now too. Had Kaycee never kissed anybody either? That had to be why she couldn't help, right? The thought was a bit of a relief either way, 'cause it really did seem like she was the ONLY person in the whole world who'd never kissed a real person's lips before. Mari had been kissing that Mitchie guy since the beginning of TIME but she wasn't even here anymore so who was she supposed to get advice from, huh? "I guess I'll have to find somebody else who knows a lot about kissing, then. I dunno how to ask though. There should really be a manual." Honestly.

"I DO brush my teeth, but I have much more exciting things to do than the hair. Plus it hurts." It was curly, see? Problematic. Very problematic. Teeth couldn't be curly like that, which was a relief because that'd be pretty funny looking. "And there's probably a spell for everything, I just don't know it yet. And it's not about doing glitter, 's about LIKING it. He's missing out." Sophie Brown's boyfriend had to be too important to miss out on such life-changing things, right?

Kaycee blinked a few times. "I... ugh... guess that makes sense..." It was still weird though. Weren't camels gross and smelly? She made a face. Yes. Gross. Spitting really far? Who wanted to do that?

WHOA. Holy loud Hufflepuff. "No..." she said slowly. "I bet Maggie would though." It seemed like the type of thing her Slytherin friend would know. Maggie was a girly girl like that. She nodded a bit. She was under the opinion that most of the stuff they learned weren't super useful.

"Pft. What's the point of life if you don't get in a little trouble now and again." Seriously. It was good stress relief and it kept like interesting. Norah was just way too safe. And that comment about vomiting rainbows just proved it. Erm? It really didn't sound good to her. It sounded terrible. Vomiting was not fun.

"I didn't say that." she said almost immediately. "I happen to know a lot about kissing." Well... she'd participated in it. That was the same thing as knowing, right? "I said I couldn't help, as in I wasn't volunteering." So don't get any bright ideas about it, mmkay? She had her eye on you Prefect. "A manual would be unnecessary." It would probably actually be more nerve-wracking than helpful.

That's good to know. She paused for a second. "I think detangling potions and sprays and spells exist." Just saying. Curly hair wasn't an excuse to not brush it.

"Condolences to him, I guess." she said slowly with a raised eyebrow. "Is there any particular part of glittering that you'd like him to enjoy?"

She thought that this place would be perfect.

With the ball that she got from Professor Baxter, Ava walked to the spare office. Glad that Zander wanted to work together with her for Charms homework. No matter what the gossip paper said about him, she thought that he's such a good Head Boy. Why? Because he had been so helpful and now he wanted to work on together for Charms homework.

Entering the office, the young lioness realized that Zander hadn't been here. It's okay, she could wait. She's gonna sat on the table while playing with the ball. Toss and catch, toss and catch.

Zander was running a minute or two late, but in his defense it's because he had to give some new kid directions to the library. Which okay, first of all, how come the kid asked Zander Adair of all people for directions to the library. Not that he didn't know, he had been there a few times on account of OWLs, but still. Did he look like he went to the library? Probably not. Kittridge could confirm. But anyways, after that was done he headed straight towards the spare office.

He didn't bother picking up a ball from the Charms room, figuring Ava had already done that bit... Hopefully. Actually, now that he thought about it... Maybe he should've checked in with her on that front? Ahem. Welp. Only one way to find out.

"Heeeey," he said swinging the door open. "Haven't been waiting on my for too long, have you?" He hoped not. He was only a few minutes late... But what if she had gotten there extra early? Man. Zander REALLY hoped not. And "Oh, good you've already got the ball!" he sent her a goofy grin before throwing his single-strapped bag to the side for now 'cause really they only needed their wand for this, right? And okay, so he hadn't quite gotten things to banish properly yet, but he had stayed up ALL NIGHT practicing the nonverbal so that he wouldn't look like a fool in front of a first year. He was bound to get it right this time around, totally determined. And that is exactly why he was in a pretty decent mood. He wasn't going to fail this time. N O P E.

Toss... Catch! Toss... Catch!

She didn't really remember how long she had been waiting for Zander because she's too busy... Tossing and catching the ball to keep her mind distracted. Avs just still didn't believe that the Head Boy wanted to work with her. He had been very nice and helpful and.... Wait, why suddenly she had been thinking about him?

And there he was!

"Hi Zander!" The young lioness greeted him back. "That's okay, I just arrived here." She stopped tossing and catching the ball. "Are you ready?" Then she threw the ball to him. Could he succefully banished the ball by using the non-verbal?

She had just arrived? "Oh, good," he mussed his hair. That was a relief! Only partial relief though because he still had to get that nonverbal to work. He had managed a few times when he had practiced the night before... But that was last night. And this is today. And who knows how many times he could get the spell to actually work.

Speaking of which, "Woah! Weren't you gonna warn me first?" He wasn't exactly ready to cast the nonverbal, though he did catch the ball in his hands. Of course was only messing with her, smiling goofily. Except for the fact that, no he needed to mentally prepare to try and do the nonverbal. So he did need a warning. Ahem.

"You think you can slow it down, though?" He asked with a slight raise of his brows. 'Cause "Catch, Burton!" Sending the ball over her way. But hey! At least he gave her a warning before hand.

Oopsie daises. Instead of banishing it, the Head Boy caught the ball with his hand. "Sorry." The young lioness chuckled. Yeah, maybe she should warn him first. "I'm just very excited to work on this."Because it's charms, you know? And so far she did good in charms. And also she did get a chance to work with Head Boy, ehem. Okay!

"You think I cannot? " She smirked. Her wand was ready and once Zander tossed the ball to her, Ava waved her wand and cast the spell. "Arresto momentum!" The ball did go slower before it hit her. Yaaay!!! She caught the ball and was ready to throw it to him. "Okay, are you ready now?" She asked the Head Boy. Once he was ready, she threw it to him. Could he banish it non-verbally now?

"I can tell," he laughed, throughly impressed with her enthusiasm to be honest here. If only he were this enthusiastic about homework. But that seemed like a real Ravenclaw thing to want, so naaaaah. He'd stick with complaining about homework. And also, he wasn't too excited to get to state out this spell because it was still a difficult nonverbal. And he still didn't like the thought of embarrassing himself even further. Especially since he was working with a first year who probably thought he knew what he was doing as Head Boy. If only she knew... If only she knew.

Huh. He gave her a HUGE almost PROUD smile as she succeeded in her casting of the spell. Hm. Very niiiice. "Nah, never doubted you for a second," he grinned. "You're good at this," he noted, eyeing the ball in her hand. He nodded in response to her question though he was sure that he wasn't all that ready. Especially considering the ball was a moving target. 'Depulso,' he thought just as she let go.

But the ball was still heading towards him through the air. 'Depulso,' he tried thinking again to no avail. 'Depul--' but before he could even finish the thought this time he had to act quickly, catching the ball again with his hands. "Uh, I just need to warm up," that's all... He mussed his hair with one hand, still holding the ball with the other. "Your go," he again threw the ball back over at her.

Get it together, Adair. He had to get this right. Merlin, he had been up all night practicing. Where was the proof?

You're good at this.

The Head Boy said whaaaaaaat??????!!!!! Merlin, she couldn't help but BEAM excitedly when he complimented her. "Thank you...." The young lioness said and grinned sheepishly. Zander Adair said I'm good in charms! I should tell everybody... Well, at least to Teddy and Zhenya. Hehehe. Okay, she watched Zander tried the nonverbal charm but it didn't go well. That's okay... "It's just the first try, don't worry." nonverbal charm wasn't easy, she did watch some seniors couldn't practice that perfectly.

Once he threw the ball agin, Ava quickly waved her wand and cast the spell. "Arresto momentum!" She managed to slower the ball again. Hehehe. Now it's her turn to throw the ball to Zander. "Your turn!" GO ZANDER GO ZANDER GOOOOO!!! fangirls

Zander chuckled a little, finding Ava very amusing. Merlin, she hadn't stopped smiling since the moment he had spotted her. Was she always this happy? Not that he minded... But it still was real strange seeing someone be so happy about homework. But eh, she was only a first year. She had no idea how annoying homework could get. Maybe she was still just new to the whole routine. Yeah, okay. It made sense now. "Nice one!" Merlin, she sure had this spell down to a science.

Huh. Probably one of them fast learning types. aka THE DREAM. Ahem.

But uhuuuum. He was very much embarrassed about how his first attempt went. But y'know what? He was going to get it this time. He was DETERMINED. It was a lot easier to stay calm when there wasn't a whole room of people watching him. Right now it was just him and Ava. And she didn't seem like the type to claim he was useless on account of a failed verbal spell... So everything was alright for the moment being. And he was determined. And this spell was going to work. He knew it.

He nodded waiting for her to send the ball over, this time he had mentally prepared himself just before she went to toss it. Okay he was going to get it. He was going to get it he was going to--'DEPULSO,' he thought and THE BALL???

WHERE DID IT--

Oh. Well it didn't exactly banish into his hands (that he had outstretched waiting to catch the ball)... But it did banish the ball... Just uh, ended up right next to him instead. "Uh, oops? I think my aim was off..?" he mussed his hair, sure that his cheeks had gone slightly pink. Ahem. Well. Uh. IT WORKED THOUGH??? IT SORTA WORKED????

Merlin, why she couldn't stop smiling? And again, she couldn't help but blush when the Head Boy complimented her work. Well.... Maybe it was just his job as the Head Boy. Okay, now focus back to the homework!

As she threw the ball to Zander, the young lioness watched if right now could perform the nonverbal banishing charm successfully. And.... HE DID IT!!!! YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!! She's also happy about that. "Good job" Ava then gave him a high-five. "I guess it's my turn now?"

HE ACTUALLY DID IT???? He did a nonverbal AND IT SORT OF WORKED??? Never mind the fact that it actually didn't do exactly what he wanted... Because the point here was that he banished the ball and he didn't even say anything. That was an accomplishment, in Zander's eyes. And Ava looked like she agreed, which was nice. But uh...

Yeah, maybe he should grab the ball and give her a chance now? La la la. Oops. The Seventh Year bent over to pick the ball up from the ground before looking back over at the first year. "Alright, ready!?" He waited for her to confirm before throwing the ball over to her fully expecting her spell to work. He had no doubts, see?

well, maybe it's not that faaaaar away he banished the ball. But he did banish it, she remembered that her father loved to compliment something that even that's not really.... Big. Yeah.

Okay, now it's her turn again to try the charm. "Ready when you are, Head Boy!" The young lioness answered and waited until he tossed the ball. Once Zander threw the ball, Ava waved her wand and cast the spell again. "Arresto momentum!" And again, she successfully slow the ball. Hehehehe. "And now, your last turn, Zander!" She said and threw the ball again to him.

Ava sure did have some spunk. Sort of reminded Zander of the kind a younger Sophie Brown had. He approved of it, of course. Giving her a small smile in return, before he had let go of the ball.

And of course her spell was successful, which didn't surprise him in all honesty. She was doing very well. Especially for a first year, like woah. This stuff just looked like it came naturally to her. If only it came naturally to him too. Siiiiigh.

Now it was his last turn meaning all the pressure. And he had gotten the spell to work the last time, but just the aim. He needed the ball to appear in his hands, that's all. Once Ava let go, he closed his eyes and focused as hard as he could. 'Depulso,' he thought one last time. And !!!! THE BALL DISAPPEARED!!!

Uh. Again popping up right next to him instead of in his hands. Eeeeerr... "I think I've just been overworking it," he nodded. "Maybe we should call it a day?" Y'know, and then he could get it right once he stayed up all night practicing the nonverbal again. Merlin. He'd ever pass his NEWTs.

One of his baby badgers had found him lounging in an armchair as he dozed. Who could blame Adi? Did everyone not realise how BORING studying could be? Yes, he did know he had to pull himself together if he aimed to get great grades for his NEWTs. But today was NOT that day. He happily took the excuse that Polly had wanted him to hang out with her and Benny. After giving the badger a Chocolate Frog as a reward for bringing good news (hehe), Adi took off for the sixth floor.

Man, climbing all those stairs was lonely work though. Gosh. Hogwarts needed an elevator. For company, Adi conjured up Glider, his coyote Patronus. "Hey, Glider! Race you to the sixth floor spare office!'' He laughed as the Patronus playfully snapped at him then glided gracefully ahead of its conjurer.
....................

By the time Adi had made it to the spare office, Glider was waiting by the open door but sprinted in when it caught sight of Adi. "Alrightey, Glider. I got it! You win.'' Grinning, he bounded into the room, looking for his friends. Polly did say they would be here.

Benny had to admit, he hadn't thought to send a message via a housemate to help locate Adi on their way down from the Astronomy tower. Thankfully Paulina had and had mentioned they would be on the sixth floor waiting for their mutual friend after remembering the spare office there to hang out in. Otherwise a patronus would have been the most helpful, making him more anxious to work on getting it up and working for him. He was close...the wisps had strenthened and started to take more form.

He had been leaning against one of the window wells of the room as they waited, the furniture seemingly long-since taken from the room, when the sight of the shadowy coyote could be seen. He reconized it of course, figuring Adi to be right behind it and sure enough, he wasn't wrong. "Hey..." he greeted his best friend. "Having fun with Glider?"

Waiting with Benny, Paulina was slightly surprised when a coyote Patronus entered the room...And there was its owner. "Wow, great Patronus. I didn't know you could cast one." She was impressed because she hadn't been able to master that yet. "Can you help me practice mine later?" She wasn't about to turn this into Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Paulina wondered if Benny could cast a proper Patronus as well.

The room was bare. That was one of the first things Adi noticed. The next thing being Benny because he had spoken up. "Heya, Benny. Polly.'' He grinned at his friends as Glider ran around Benny before streaking off to Paulina.

To answer those questions... first Benny's. "Yep. I challenged him to a race up the stairs. Any guesses as to who won?" Hehe. That was a straight forward question. Now, back to Paulina. "I managed to cast him for the first time over the last summer. His name is Glider, Polly. I think he likes you.'' Indeed! Glider was happily prancing around Paulina. Gosh, he was as energetic as his caster! "Sure I can! I think I can be a good teacher as Dakest. Have you ever given it a try before?''

Oh yeah...Paulina didn't know about Glider. Her reaction to its appearance before Adi was a dead giveaway. But then it's full reveal had happened over the summer not in a class where it had been shown before all the other students. And thank Merlin it hadn't needed to be used for anything serious this term. "The patronus of course," Benny answered matter-of-factly in the question of the winner.

Duh.

As for the talk about casting one, Benny simply listened to his two friends talk about it. He couldn't help half-snorting as Adi mentioned being as good as Professor Dakest. Yeah...that head was swelling a little there, bestie.

Paulina snortedas Benny answered Adi's question. It had been so obvious. Adi could be really silly sometimes, but it was rather endearing.

Curiously she watched as the Patronus - aptly named Glider - pranced around her. "I rather like him too." She wished she could pet him, but knew better than to try because it wouldn't have worked anyway. "I'd love the lessons. Thank you. I've tried a few times but never focused on it extensively," she admitted.

"Can you cast one, Benny?" She was curious.

''Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!'' Adi said, holding up and invisible mic to his mouth and patting his best friend on the back. "For that, you win another prank to be played on you by Spidey.'' Adi just loved pranking him with that toy spider...

At the phrase where Polly said she liked Glider too, the Patronus stopped prancing about to sit on his hind legs as he wagged his tail. "Look, you've made him an extra happy coyote by saying that, Polly.'' Adi grinned. "No problem! I could help you now if you like.'' And Benny too because as far as he knew, his friend hadn't much luck at it. He didn't know if the problem was the memories Benny was using were the correct ones or not.