Clutching a thick stack of books to his slim chest, Ling trudged down the corridor, a ball of nerves and irritation. The dance had been a complete nightmare and he was certain that Emmy never wanted to see his dismally plain face ever again. Once he had gotten back to the Gryffindor common room, totally soaked from crashing into the lake and fuming, he had been laughed at all the way up to his dorm. He had been so sure that was going to be the best night of his life...but no.

It had been one of the worst.

Ling was still storming when his left foot crossed over the right and he slipped onto the floor with a gasp. Half of the books came crashing down onto him while the others hit the floor loudly.

Alright, so it was a litttttle late out. But what's the worst that could happen huh? It's not like she was making a huge ruckus, pull a prank, or do anything stupid...

...like try to break into the library...

PFFFT. Noooo. She wasn't going to do that. Which was also why she wasn't walking that way either. Pssh. She was innocent!! Actually, she had lost a rather important letter and she was hoping she would spot it if she retraced her steps from the last couple of days. So far, no such luck in finding it.

Sly probably ate it. He ate EVERYTHING! And she swore she saw something really unnatural hanging out of his mouth the other day. Bleh.

Sighing, Evelyn paused and glanced around the dark corridor, wand raised and slightly lit from a very weak lumos spell since she just didn't have the energy to keep a good one up, and looking a bit pale. She needed that letter!

Okay, so Rae liked being out late, so what? She also loved breaking rules.. Even if she wasn't going crazy with it, she was still taking a nice walk. Then she saw a light, then a face, then...

"EVELYN!" Oops, she did not mean to be that loud, but she had been meaning to find Evelyn, not particularly right now but it was fine anyways. "Okay look I got something really good. It can help us drastically!" Rae took the letter from her father out of her pocket, then realized Evelyn was walking out late too... Why? "What're you doing out tonight?" Not that it was a problem, Rae was out too, obviously, she was just wondering.

Leaning against the wall for just a moment, and seriously thinking about giving up and going back to bed, Evelyn stood up straight and tried to stretch...but failed miserably. Perhaps a cup of tea would do her some good. And that potion. Her dreams may now finally be warm and wonderful, but why was she still feeling like this?

Cracking her neck, the third year Slytherin was juuuust turning around when she heard someone yelling. She didn't even acknowledge that it was her name being called, but what she did hear...was that someone was in the corridor. With her. And it could be a professor!

Staring at the person with wide eyes, the black eyed Slytherin just stood there, quite still, the words coming from the person going through one ear and right out the other as she fought to keep her heart from exploding out of her chest. OMGOMgomgomgomg...

Taking a quick and hasty breathe, she un-tensed her body and stopped clamping her wand to her chest, which, finally made the little light there was go out.

....

"Please don't do that again." she whispered shakily in the darkness as she tried to regain her mental composure. Give a girl a small and QUIET warning next time! "Lumos." Holding the light away from her face, she finally saw that it was indeed Rae that was in front of her. Thank Merlin it wasn't Lawson. She really didn't want to see that Professor at the moment. "I'm...taking a walk. What are you doing?"

And what was that paper?

Good going Rae! She thought as she realized she totally scared Evelyn. Anyways, Rae could NOT wait to tell Evelyn about their new solution. "Oh, me too. I just thought... Well I don't know what I thought but anyways read this! It's..." How does she explain it? "Part of the inheritance I guess. But it's a letter from my father from back when he wrote the will, he says what he left.." Well, and encouraging words for Rae. She handed the letter to Evelyn, but Rae was happy, therefore still rambling on..



"This letter is as much for you as it is for me... Well, minus the daughter parts.. But I'm talking about the HOUSE! And also the account with all the MONEY transferred in it. I mean, I know we have somewhere to go for THIS summer, but after, like holidays, future summers, after school in general.... WE CAN LIVE HERE! It... Just needs a little work." Rae, still rambling on and on, she didn't even know if Evelyn was listening but Rae felt like this could be the solution for both of them. "Evelyn! Come live with me! I can't live there alone, I don't know how to take care of a house."

Meep! Happy Rae!

What happened to weird and calm Rae? That one made her feel...safer.

Inheritance? With her eyebrows raised in surprise, Evelyn stood down from her defensive posture of running away, and took the letter. Looking down at the letter, she unfolded it and read the first few words before Rae spoke up again. For her?! WHAT!? A HOUSE?

Listening to Rae, the Slytherin could not really comprehend what she was saying. What was she talking about, 'we'? And then that's when the final words were spoken. Live with her? Evelyn...go and live with Rae?

Frowning, she looked back down to the letter and started to read it slowly and carefully, making sure she got every word and understood everything that was written. "A house?" she mumbled quietly, her words almost slurring together. Rae had a house, and she wanted her to live with her. That was...big. And should not be asked at such a late hour or on such low energy. "Wow...I mean...that's...it's...."

What was she supposed to say? Stumbling just the slightest to the wall, Evelyn leaned her back against it, satisfied to feel the coolness of it seep through her pajama shirt as she stared at nothing. Big step. Definitiely...a big step. The idea of having no place to go was weighing more and more heavily onto her shoulders, mind, and heart as the school year drew closer to an end. And now with both Lawson's leaving, the only two people she would have even considered as a 'semi-second family' of sort (even though she never really showed it), she was pretty much done for.

"Can...I mean, am I able to...think about it?" Or did Rae need an answer right now? It still didn't really process right in her mind.

Rae had not expected that reaction. She had expected something.... Well different. "Well.. Yeah, you can think about it... I just thought...." Rae's words trailed off. Rae thought she had a great idea, maybe it wasn't so great after all. Though did Evelyn plan on living on the streets? She had never done that before, Evelyn would have a hard time adjusting. She thought this would be better.. It would be a nice change for Rae anyways....

Seeing Rae's expression, Evelyn sighed and scooted down to sit on the floor. "I'm sorry. I'm just...tired." Rubbing her stinging eyes, the Slytherin held her wand over the letter to read over it once more.

A house. And Rae was inviting her to live with her. Thinking a bit more clearly now, the most logical thing to do would accept it. Sure, she had a place to stay for the summer but, what about the summer after that? And holidays? Or, what if Hogwarts closes all of a sudden for some reason? Where would she go?

Blinking a few times, a small smile played on her lips as she looked back up to Rae. "Where is this place? The house I mean." she asked, folding the letter back up and watching how her lumos spell faltered slightly. Pffft. She should be heading to bed soon. Unless Rae wanted to help out with the lighting in the corridor.

Rae followed Evelyn's motions to sit on the floor. Watching as Evelyn smiled, then Rae started to feel a little better about the situation... When she asked where it was, then she knew there would at least be a chance. "Outside of London, more in the country.... I mean I couldn't tell you exactly where, I haven't been in a while, but I was sent the adress." So that would make it easier to find right?

Rae tried to help the idea sound more appealing though she mightv'e made it sound more of the opposite.. "Though.... If you chose to go with me of course.. We would need to find a time to fix it up.. No one has been there since he died.. But in the letter he said he set some for use of the house.. Maybe.. It could be fun?" She noticed the strain in her voice and quickly tried to cover her comments.. "Well, I meant.. Uh.. It's in one peice and everything it's just probably a bit uhh... Dusty." Right? She was almost internally freaking out, she felt she had not made this sound like a good idea.. "Uh... Destiny could come help too! And maybe Xylon when he's not at university... It could be like a house dusting party..." Nope... Rae pretty much gave up trying, Because she felt like her attempts had failed when she herself didn't think it sounded like much fun.. At least she had somewhere to sleep..

Outside of London and more into the country. Sounded like her place. Well, it wasn't her place anymore but, well, the general idea was there. Which then got her wondering, how big was this house? What surrounded it? Just exactly how many years has it been sitting there?

Glancing back to Rae when she tried to make 'cleaning' and 'fixing it up' a bit more fun, Evelyn laughed quietly and shook her head. "Obviously there is no way around that part." she muttered, flipping the note in her hand slowly. However, the way that she said that, one may have assumed that she was accepting Rae's invitation on living with her. Which, all in all, she was.

Smiling at the thought, the tired third year Slytherin suddenly became a little less tired, and more excited about the idea. "Destiny definitely should come." she agreed, stretching her legs out in front of her. "She's loves to clean too much, and will probably clean the house herself if we word things right." And hide. She bet Destiny wouldn't be able to stand all the dust and such if she was left in it alone.

Mwaha! Oh, this was going to be great. It took her awhile to fully understand what Rae was asking, but now that it processed in her mind, there was only one thing to do, and that was to accept the offer. Obviously! Where else was she going to stay anyways?

Rae started getting more and more excited as Evelyn was speaking. When she finished, Rae gave this really wide smile "Does that mean you will live with me?!" Exciting!!!! Rae didn't even wait for an answer before she started rambling again. "My grandfather built the house with my dad when he was a kid. He left the furniture there. Though it's probably outdated but i'm fine with it unless you want new furniture.. It's a nice size too. 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms... If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to take my father's old room.. You could have the room that Kaleigh and I used to share... If you want." Rae felt like leaving her father's stuff in his room, so if she had that room, it wouldn't be moved. "He had a study too.. It over looked a small valley."

Smiling even wider now, she wasn't even able to answer Rae's question when she went on about the house. Four bedrooms and two bath? That was bigger than she was imagining it. And it overlooked a small valley?

Though it probably didn't stand up next to her...previous house, it probably was beautiful all the same.

"Oh, of course. It's your house really. Take whichever room you want." Evelyn wasn't about to take Rae's father's room anyways. That just didn't seem right. She herself though would have to see the other rooms to decide which one she wanted. The Slytherin didn't really feel comfortable with taking Rae and her sister's old room either. Perhaps one of the other two. Whichever had the better view if it had one.

Now completely awake, and actually feeling better now, Evelyn stood up and stretched, noticing the light from her wand was actually bright now too. "Hey, Rae..." Might as well ask. "Have you seen a random piece of paper lying around here somewhere?" Well, actually, more like four different papers stuck together at the upper corner. They were...rather important.

It was stupid of her for losing them.

"Oh, thanks. I just thought I could keep all my father's stuff in the same room. The rest is fine to move or throw out or whatever. And the room Kaleigh and I used... If you want that room you can throw all that stuff in there away, it's useless. Oh, and you wouldn't be expecting Kaleigh over AT ALL, she pretty much hates me for taking my father's side. So don't worry about her...." Kaleigh would rather drop dead then to see Rae at Dad's house. "OH! And there's a Kitchen!" Duhhh! but that wasn't Rae's point.. "We can bake in there! And... Well I will need to learn to cook.. I don't know if you can or not.." Another thing she needs to work on. "Oh Merlin I'm so happy! I've lived too long on sidewalks. YAYYYY!" Rae then forgot about Evelyn's space thing cause Rae took almost a tackle-hug to Evelyn. Yeah, this was quite unusual for her.. But as was having a place to stay with some cash she didn't steal.

"Hm? Oh, Uh.. I haven't looked... But I'll help look!"

Aw good. So she could personalize her room the way she wanted it. Omg. Just the thought of it made her rather excited. No parents to hang over her shoulder and tell her what to do and what not to do, what she could say and when she could say it, or ANYTHING!

Unless Rae was one of those people who did that, but Evelyn doubted it.

And baking...she could bake without hiding the fact that she was baking! And she wouldn't get into trouble for it since she was rather messy when baking. "I know how to cook." she said, smirking as she looked back over to Rae. "Cookies and cupcakes aren't the only thing I know how to make." Evelyn was rather good at making pastas and such. Hopefully Rae didn't mind not eating meat for a couple days until she learned how to cook that. Unless Rae decided to learn how to cook that kind of food, and Evelyn just stuck with the pastas and salads.

Could be a good plan. What also could be a good plan was now getting Rae's mind off the letter since she hadn't seen it. "Oh umm- I...no, no it's alright. I'll find it later." Waving off the help, the Slytherin glanced around before deciding they should probably be going back to the common room. "Let's get, going back. I haven't been down here before at night..." Actually she had, but that was in first year. "And I don't know what the patrol is like."

Evelyn can cook! "Ohhh good! Well, I guess you will be cooking until I can learn how to cook something, then we can trade off or something." She would feel really bad if she made Evelyn cook all the time. Rae was thinking about how Evelyn might feel about this, from remembering the last time they talked about this kinda thing. "So, both you and I..... Have been through stuff that we shouldn't have. And I'm thinking of this as a new beginning... I don't want to remember what happened, only the good memories with my father I will keep. As soon as I...... Find myself a last name, I plan on leaving everything that happened behind. I know it hurts for you, but it wont help to still think that what you had was better. You might not get that back." If Rae knew better then she wouldn't get that life back, but she didn't was to majorly upset her. "What do you think? New beginning?" Rae was pushing it and she knew that.

"You sure? I can help look, it must be important." Not that Rae would ask what it was, it wasn't her bussiness.

The difference between her and Rae it seemed, was that when Rae could remember happy times with her father, she herself couldn't remember any happy times with her parents anymore. It was like she had those memories obliviated from her mind. But the older Slytherin had a good point. This was a new beginning and they should not be dwelling on the past, like she was doing right now. Mostly, it was because she was scared. She didn't want to let go yet, even though it hurt to remember.

"Sure." she mumbled, glancing down the hallway for a moment to check if there was anyone there. Nope, no one. Perhaps later in time she'd be ready to finally, 'let go' of the past. She knew her previous life was over, and she was never going to be able to go back to it, which all in all... that was the major thing that had NOT sunk in yet. The Slytherin was anticipating that it was though this summer, when she wasn't living in her home anymore.

"Yea, that is...a good idea. A new beginning." Might as well right? But... when she was ready that is. Rae didn't have to know that part. Waving off the help once more, her face flushing already of how embarrassing it would be if Rae got a hold of the papers, Evelyn took a few steps down the hall towards the stairs that led to the third floor. "It's fine. I'll look later. It's not...all that important."

Rambling. Yeah, she wanted to ramble. So much had happened recently, wayyy to much. Things were moving to fast for Miss Savannah Conrad and quite honestly, it was scaring her. Running her fingers through her waves in her hair, she sighed. Savvy needed to feed Prissy when she got back to the common room but until then she was just going to wander in hopes of finding someone of interest to speak with.

Torin needed to send a letter home. It was important stuff really. All his information for when he would be in New York. The address of Brody's brother and all the other stuff that he wanted his mum to know seeing as he would be with Tammy before he and Brody left for the States.

He sighed, why was he so far away from the owlery?

Then he saw someone familiar, and all thoughts of mailing letters left his mind.

"Hey, Savannah," he said as he walked up to her.

Sav stopped running her fingers through her rather curly "mane" as she heard a male voice. TORINNNNN !!!!!!

*flail*

She ran up to the boy giving him a tiny hug, sure she had only talked to him once but she liked Torin a lot. He was fun to talk to."I haven't seen you in forever, like since the ball thingie,right ? What have you been up to ?"She asked, pulling away from the light hug. Hopefully this hug wouldn't be all awkward and junk ? She didn't like awkwardness.

Shana frowned as Torin poked her,he was older so that was no fair. She poked his leg cause he was tall so from the floor she couldn't reach anywhere else but his leg.

"I can't.S'why I fell over,Sillyyyy." Teehee. She didnt understand why he was being so sigh-ey and head-shake-ey about this she thought it was quite funny.

Theatrics? whats that ? YAY! he was lifting her. "Woo." She grabbed his hand and smiled. "Tor, why wont you marry Tam ?

He laughed and hugged her back. He liked hugs. YAY! Hugs!

"I've been studying, Prefecting, causing mayhem. You?" He smiled, she was looking better now that she had when he had last seen her. Obviously she was dealing with everything better now.

"It's my birthday today." 'cause he was awesome.

He barely felt her poking his leg, but he kicked at her gently. haha. Take that Shana Miller. But he was really going to miss her when he was in New yourk. Even if she had this thing about poking him.

"Well, stop falling over." He rolled his eyes, and then figured that it was a good time to lift her up if he had told her that she could go on his shoulders. "Okay, I'll bend over, and you can try to climb on me." 'cause that was totally normal.

Frown. Talk about marrying Tammy again. Bad subject. Really bad subject.

Shana. I'm marrying Brody."

K, soooo the hug wasn't that awkward. That was certainly a good start. She sent him a smile, Savvy loved giving hugs and such, it made her feel all happy and good on the inside.

^____^

"Mayhem and prefecting ?"Cue the snort."I don't think those two thing go together, Torin."Savannah stated with a flip of her curly blonde locks. Sav knew she would be a terrible prefect, she would use it more to cause trouble than to do anything good. Being a prefect + Savannah Conrad = never gonna happen.

"I've been goooood. "Savannah stated with a nod of her head, minus most of the stuff that had occurred in her life she was in a pretty good mood. Maybe Torin just like had a this effect on her that just like made her happy ? *shrug*

"Stuffs happened for me in my life that hasn't exactly been that great but whatever, I'm dealing with it."And she closed her sentence with a nod.

Ooooooh....? Birthday ? Damn. She forgot to get him a birthday present........now she felt bad. Well, a hug counted as a good present right ? So with that she gave him another hug, this one feeling slightly less akward then the first one.

"Happy birfffday !This is your present....a HUG !"Shouldn't he feel lucky.

Kicking was rude. She poked him more and harder HA. Torin, beat that she was sooo going to grass him up to Tam . What he didnt know wouldnt hurt him, eh ? She smiled up at him sweetly so he'd be all nice to her.

"But it was all your fault in the first place." She said, rolling her eyes back at him. HMPH. She poked him as he bent over teehee, she did like annoying him although t'was kinda mean of her. She was pretty sure he didn't mind, He was laughing and joining in afterall. Maybe she'd ask him if he minded another day.

WHATTT.

He.
Was.
Marrying...

HER ?! nonononononooooooooooo.

She pushed him to the floor, which was much easier when he was bending down, and tackled him. "HOW COULD YOUUUUU ?!" She yelled, getting all up in his face.

"It goes together when I'm Prefect." He smirked at her. She had no idea what kind of stuff he got up to. The rollerblading in the corridors incident for one. And then there was the time where he had pretended to be Scottish for a day. The bagpipe playing probably had made quite a few people go deaf.

And it was good that she was doing good. Doing good was awesome, and people weren't supposed to be sad because it made everything suck and that wasn't cool. I'm glad you've been well. Not getting into any trouble." Because he knew how naughty Slytherins could be.

"Thank you for the wishes and the hug." He laughed, but he was being serious. He liked hugs. So it was awesome. YAY! Go birthday hugs.

Okay, he knew she was up to something because of that sweet smile. "Don't you be telling any stories to Tammy, you." Because it would be typical for her to rat him out to his best friend so that she would get mad at him. He didn't want her to get mad at him when he was leaving for New York so soon.

But whatever. That didn't matter when she had tackled him to the floor.

He was amazed that she had even managed that. Perhaps bending over wasn't his brightest idea.

"Shana, calm down. Are you really all that surprised?"

It wasn't like they were wedding planning and wanting to get hitched during the summer, but they were forever. So it was kind of a given that they would get married at some point.

Shana, who was obviously PWNing Torin at the moment because she was sitting on him so she just ruled, bit him for being so evil, not just now but just always he'd been evil since she'd met him. When he wouldnt play games or share secrets with her. HMPH. Rudeness. She giggled evilly as she released her teeth from around his wrist and began spitting it didnt taste nice. Needed more salt.

Was she really this suprised ?! Obviously if he hadnt told her.DUH.

"Yes. And no your not marrying her. I dont approve. And im gonna jump up and yell when the man or lady says does anyone have a reason why they cant marry and Imm''a say yeah."