What other fantastic opportunity can the Levitation charm can be put to use, Gwen thought as she approached the one-eyed witch, than on a statue? Certainly more fun than moving things around in the common room. OHHH I should bring the statue INTO the common room!!

No, she thought after a moment. That's overkill. Perhaps for fun later, but this is for homework.

She poised herself and studied the witch for a moment. Hmm. Ugly. She glanced around furtively, and ensuring that no one was watching, drew her wand from a pocket in her robes, cleared her throat, and held the wand aloft.

She swished and flicked. "Wingardium Leviosa," she enunciated, careful to put emphasis on the -gar. The one-eyed witch raised off her pedestal, now several feet above the floor. Gwen beamed with the success of a charm well cast. It always felt nice.

Just for a moment, she let her wand falter.

The one-eyed witch came down on the floor with an ear-splitting crash. Her hand cracked off and skittered across the corridor.

Gwen's eyes grew wide. Oops.

"Accio," she squeaked, and the head of the witch flew to her feet. She waved her wand and said, "Reparo," and quick as a flash, the head rejoined the body. She cast the Levitation charm again and carefully put the witch back on her pedestal with a thump.

Gwen wiped her brow, and with another quick glance around, pocketed her wand and scurried away.

Lucas was watching the Gryffindor girl from around the corner. Someone told him about the witch and he wanted to get her on his map. "That was a good try." He told her with a giggle. "Hello." he said stepping out from the shadows and walking over to her.

Gwen froze in mid-scurrying, one foot in the air. She turned and faced the young boy, smoothing her robes and squaring her shoulders. Caught in the act? Never.

"Hello," she said, her voice measured. "Good try? What do you mean?"

He smiled at her. "I'm good at keeping secrets. The best." he stated plainly. she obviously thought he was going to tell on her and get her in trouble. He wouldn't do that. Tattling on his brothers and then getting hit for it taught him not to do that anymore. "I'm Lucas, Lucas Greenwood." He squeaked out as a creeping blush rose up his brown face.

Gwen tipped her head to the side. No secrets, huh? Why, there were no secrets to keep here, see. But as long as he was good at keeping them. It was an invaluable trait.

"Nice to meet your acquaintance, Lucas," she replied. "My name's Gwen Minton. What are you doing skulking about the castle on such a nice day?"

"Nice to meet you too Gwen." He said brightly. "I am making a map of Hogwarts, so I have to explore everything from top to bottom." He told her with a shy smile. He reached into his Dora the Explorer book bag and pulled out his map. "See I've got a lot done so far." He told her.

Gwen's ears perked up, and her eyebrows traveled up her forehead. A map? What did he know?....

Gwen scanned the map-in-progress. "You certainly have," she said, spotting some of the grounds on it. "But Lucas, why would you want to make a map?"

He watched her as she looked at his map. "I really like your hair." He commented. She had curlier hair than he did, well his was in braids at the moment, but when he let it fly it was curly. "Well the potions professor said he gets lost all the time and he said I should make a map. So I'm making one." he told her proudly. "I'm going to make it talk when I get finished. Just like Dora the Explorer." He explained.

Gwen smiled in spite of herself. What a cutie pie.

"Thanks," she said, a hand automatically brushing her hand back. "That's real nice of you. And it could really come in handy, what with the treasure and all."

She blinked. "Dora the Explorer? Whozat?"

"No problem," he told her honestly."My mommy says you should always be nice and help everyone." he told her. His his ears literally perked up at the mention of a treasure. "We have a treasure in Hogwarts?" he asked as he started bouncing at the thought of being on a treasure hunt.

He showed her his bookbag. "She's a explorer on TV. She has a monkey that wears red boots." He told her. "She travels everywhere and she has a talking map." he explained. He wished there was a TV in Hogwarts so he could show her what he was talking about.

"Oh, on the Muggle box, yeah?" she replied. "Cool!"

"Apparently there is some sort of treasure hidden in the castle somewhere," Gwen said, tapping her chin. "Or maybe on the grounds. I overheard Rae and some Ministry women talking about it. In fact, my first thought was that you had an idea of where it was, since you're making a map and all."

Lucas giggled "Yeah the muggle box is called a television." He explained. "I watch a lot of TV at my house. I have a ton of DVDs at my house." He told her.

"Wow, a treasure here at Hogwarts." he breathed excitedly. "I haven't heard anything about it. I don't know where it but I would love to go looking for it, and my map will be a big help too." he said bouncing some more.

Toshi entered the corridor where the statue was standing, and saw some other pupils standing there.
He joined them and heard them talking about a secret treasure at Hogwarts and that one of them wanted to create a map of the castle.
"A treasure?", he asked. " Are you sure? That`d be great! But..." He wasn`t sure whether to believe this, but then he started to become very excited. "Let´s find out more about it!"

Anna made her way down from the seventh floor to the third. She'd just left Cale, and, of course, they'd had another argument. Surprise, surpise. He'd left her in a huff, stomping off in his typical drama queen fashion, and she'd been left sitting at the suits of armor for a good fifteen minutes afterwards.

She'd left in a huff of her own and continued about her prefect duties, stopping only when she arrived at the humpbacked witch statue. What a funny looking statue. Funny indeed. Good resting place, though. Anna propped up against the statue and stood, taking a moment to rest before continuing her daily rounds as prefect.

Evolette was on a mission. This mission was dangerous and possibly life threatening, but it was one that she could not turn down. What was this mission you ask? Well, Evolette was on her way to find Anna Greingoth. To tell her exactly why she could not leave Hogwarts.

She had made her way through the first and second floor, searching diligently for the Gryffindor Prefect and so far, no luck. She was certain she was going to have to make it all the way to the seventh floor before she found who she was looking for.

But then, finally, sweet success. She almost walked past her, but doing a double take, she stopped, right infront of the girl. "Greingoth." she said, her voice calm, "We need to talk." She added, then gestured to the insanly large box in her hands, filled to the brim with her peace offering: chocolate frogs.

Jack was needing some serious air.His head was spinning from arguing with Sam earlier and now he needed some air.He decided on route he hadnt been down before.He put his hands in his pockets and and walked down through the school,and he stopped."What the-"he looked at the Statue infront of him,frowning.

Anna had just closed her eyes, trying to find some peace within the chaos of her world, when her tranquility was suddenly interrupted by none other than...

"McKenna," she stated, matching the tone of her voice to the tone used by Evolette. Was Evolette's voice...calm? It sure sounded like it. Then again, the old saying "the calmness before the storm" seemed to be used a lot lately when Anna was concerned. She'd had her fair share of people strolling on into her life just to create a tornado of sorts a short time later. "Talk...about what?" Anna asked, the leeriness showing through in her voice. Usually when Evolette McKenna wanted to talk, it was to explain to another person the many reasons why they were "supposedly" inferior to her. Psh.

That was when Anna noticed Evolette's gesture towards a large helping of...ZOMG! Chocolate frogs! Anna eyed the candy suspiciously, then, deciding to take her chances, reached over at grabbed one. "Alright, you have my attention..."

Evolette took a deep breath, trying to keep her calm, "These are for you." She said, handing over the box. It seemed the best to just jump right in. There was no sense in beating around the bush.

"You see- I just wanted to tell you." She fumbled over her words, twisting her hair around her finger as she struggled, "Okay. It's like this: You can not leave Hogwarts."

There, it was out. Dropping her hand from her hair, she crossed her arms and took a step closer, so that she didn't have to talk so loud. Then she waited for Anna to respond, or rather, explode.

Anna blinked and found herself wanting to take a few steps back. She needed to sort a few things out inside that head of hers before she continued any further with this conversation. First of all, Evolette McKenna comes strolling up the corridors, calmly at that, bearing a gift...for Anna. Then, to top all of that off, the entire reason behind her little show was to get Anna to stay at Hogwarts and not leave? What was the world coming to? Unless...

Anna shoved herself away from the humpbacked witch, her eyes wide and alert. OHMIGOSH! Cale had just fallen over and died in the courtyards and Evolette was coming to break the news. "Where's Cale?!?!" Anna quickly asked, her heart rate increasing by at least twenty or so heartbeats.

Evolette blinked in turn, "Er- last I saw him, he was talking to some- dude." she said wrinkling her nose and waving her hand in no particular direction, "She had no idea who that dude was that Cale had been talking to, just that he was in Gryffindor. "But, he's fine. Don't worry. He's not dead or anything."

Tucking her hair behind her ear, she looked around to make sure no one was listening, "Just- trust me on this. You can't just leave like this. It's not going to solve any of your problems."

Anna eyed Evolette out of the corner of her eye, those extra twenty or so heartbeats disappearing all the while. "Oh," Anna said. "Well, in that case, thank you for the chocolate frogs. They're my absolute favorite." Anna gently rested the box on the humpback of the whale, leaving it open so that she could sneak a few more snacks as this conversation unfolded.

"Ok, so," she started, stopping to take a bite out of her frog, "you're saying I should stay at Hogwarts. I've heard a million and one reasons why I should stay, neither making up for the reason I'm leaving in the first place, but go on. Let's hear it." Anna swallowed her frog and nodded in Evolette's direction, an indication that she was ready to hear the girl's answer to that question. Evolette seemed to be attempting peace, but right now, Anna was a little leery of that. She'd save her own peace offerings for later, if and when she was ever sure Evolette was sincere.

Bleh. It seemed that Anna was not going to let her go without her confessing to why she knew that she couldn't leave.

Wrinkling her nose, she shrugged, "Well, let's just say I know what happens when you leave someone that you care about." she confessed, a slight stabbing feeling throbbing in her stomach.

It was true, Evolette and Terry were back together now, but every time she thought about what she did to him, that feeling came back...

..and she was sure that it would never go away.

Biting her lip, her blue eyes searched out the other girls face, trying to figure out if she really wanted to hear her story or not.

"You know, you're right, Evolette," Anna said, standing straight and tapping her chin as if she were in deep thought. "I do care about Allie and Astrid a lot. It would be a shame to leave them..." Anna slumped back down to her resting place on the statue, hands crossed over her chest, and shot Evolette a sarcastic look. Anna knew who Evolette was talking about, and Evolette probably knew that Anna realized that. Anna just wasn't in the mood to admit that not only would she miss Cale Newell with every part of her heart and soul, but he was the exact reason she was leaving in the first place. Well, not just Cale alone...the fact that Cale was with Evolette and Anna could never, ever be with him again was the reason she was leaving.

"Okay, so, are you going to tell me your story?" Anna asked. "What happened to make you feel that it was so important to stop me from doing the same?"

"You know who I am talking about Anna." she said, Evolette said, crossing her arms again. She shook her head, she was going to make this girl understand if it was the last thing that she did.

She might even have to take back that box of chocolate frogs. Hmpf.

"Okay. I don't like talking about my mistakes." she started, tossing a glance at her nails, "But, it seems that you need to hear this one."

"You see- last summer.... I met a boy." she started, knowing that Anna was going to be all snotty about this at first, but she hoped that she would understand in the end.

"We- got along really well." Snort. Really well was an understatement. But Anna did not need to know all of the details.

"The week that I was supposed to leave, to go back home- he asked me to be his girlfriend." she added, feeling a blush creeping up her neck and cheeks. "This was on a Wednesday, I was supposed to leave on a friday, and I told him that I would give him an answer the next morning."

Now comes the part where she looked really bad. The worst part of the whole story, that made a lump form in her throat. "Thursday morning, I left, and I didn't say goodbye."

She looked away from Anna, and chewed on her lip. She had really opened herself up and there she was, standing vulnerable, waiting for a snotty remark. Doing the right thing was SO hard!

"Terry and I got a second chance- but who knows if you and Cale will get one?" she asked, turning her eyes back on the girl. "That is why you can't leave."