Ronnie saw a sixth year (way older than her!) crying on her bed. Ronnie slowly walked up to her and sat next to her and slowly put an arm around her. "Are you alright?" she said. "If you need someone to talk to, I'm here for you." she said soothingly.

"Just had this nightmare......where these dementors were all in my dad's cell and they sucked his soul right out of him! Then I had another dream where I was in my bed, just sitting there and all these giant spiders burst into the room and killed me!" she said shuddering. "I hate spiders...." she said.

Rose shivered. 'I hate spiders too! Horrible creatures with eight legs...'

"Yes, I have a big fear of them..." Ronnie said. "Basically like my great grandfather, Ron Weasley." she said laughing. "I wonder if it's a family thing or something..."

'HEY! We could totally be related if it is!' ROse grinned

Kurumi had been sitting on her bed in her room reading a book with Walnut asleep on her lap when she had heard heavy footsteps going up the stairs. As if that hadn’t gotten her attention, the slamming of a door and then the only slightly muffled noise of things being thrown around and the chattering of a monkey certainly did.

Kurumi set her book on the end table and pushed Walnut off her lap with an apologetic look. In her canary yellow pajamas and her hair tied tightly in one braid on the side of her head, Kurumi slowly tip-toed her way towards the noise and become even more concerned when she saw where it was coming from. She hadn’t been in this room too often, maybe once or twice to share a cup of tea with a certain older lioness, but Kurumi could sense that there was a change – and not a good one.

Nervous hands grasped the door’s handle and she slowly pulled it open just in time to see Lexi seemingly collapse with her back to a trunk and then the girl crying into her hands. Kurumi had never seen Lexi look this vulnerable. Usually, it had always been the other way around and Kurumi was the one crying a river. This did not settle well with the young Gryffindor and she continued to make her way towards the girl.

“L-L-Lexi?” she called in a soft voice.

Lexi didn't recognize the voice... so she just shook her head and gave a muffled thanks to the girl who was touching her. Which... in a regular situation would have sent Lexi over to the side of anger, but she was too broken to get mad.

...

Then she heard Kurumi call to her. Rubbing her hands over her face she cleared her throat a few times and sniffled. "Hey kiddo," she said softly without turning around. She wasn't able to look her in the face just yet. "H-h-how are you?"

Lame. She knew it was a lame attempt at normalcy... but she couldn't really be normal yet. Sighs.

"What" Ronnie said, completely lost

"Right..." Ronnie said. "Please tell me what's bothering you? I want to help..." she said, feeling really weird talking to a sixth year....and a bit afraid. Well at least she wasn't a spider, or Ronnie would have fainted

Rose laughed. 'Don't worry! So how're you?'

Ariella noticed Rose talking to Ronnie in the dormitories. With her deck of muggle cards in hand, she flopped down on the bed next to Rose. "Hey, Rose! Do ya mind if I do a muggle card trick on you? For my History of Magic homework?" She grabbed the cards out of the deck and shuffled them, hoping that the card trick she had been reading about would work. "It's called Back Flip."

'Sure! Can I just tell you something first? I, sort of, accidently told Jordan that I liked him and he rejected me big time...' Rose told Ariella. 'Also, I need to ask you and Ronnie a question... Do you think I'm a Slytherin Pureblood spoilt brat?' Rose tried to recite what William had said. 'Also, do you think I'm more evil than Bellatrix Lestrange? This is all of the things William called me just now in the Common Room... Will I get into trouble for using the jelly-legs-jinx on him?' Rose asked them. Then she let out a shriek of frustration. 'I'm fed up of him always looking his nose down at me!'

"Oh right..." Ronnie said. "Erm....I've been better I guess." she said, shrugging a bit.

"Oh my Gosh!" Ariella shrieked, placing her hands over her face. "No way! That jerk! I so thought he liked you." Ariella sighed. "Ummm....no way! Rose, you're an amazing Gryffindor. And you are so NOT as evil as Bellatrix Lestrange. I'm actually not really sure why William would even think to say that. The jinx serves him right!" She stomped her foot on the ground. "I am fed up with him, too."

'What's wrong?' Rose asked. 'Look, about me and William fighting, I do leave him alone, but he always comes up, like in the Common Room, he asked me whether I'd ever speak to him again, and I said no, why do you care? and he said all of that random crap about the Slytherin and Bellatrix!' Rose fumed

'Yeah, I know, I don't mind getting a detention, it was payback, as I said last time he verbally attacked me that I'd jinx him, and I don't break my promises...' Rose said resentfully

"No, it's not about William and you...I got over that." she said, shaking her head, making her bright orange hair flip all over the place. "I'm not mad at you, mate." she said. "I'm mad at that little git, who just thinks he can just go around saying you are like Bellatrix." she said, her ears turning red. "I'm here for you mate, and if he ever is a git to you again, just let me know. I'll take care of it." she said smiling a bit. "The reason I'm sad is just....I keep thinking about my father in Azkaban....I know I probably bother you with this a lot but it keeps popping up in my head! Maybe I should write to my brother..." she said.

Rose laughed. 'Yeah, but if you do anything, he'll just get you a detention, like he did me!' Rose grinned. 'Don't worry, I promised I'd be here for you, and I will be!' Rose smiled. 'Write to your brother, he'll be going through the same thing as you, so will be best to talk to!' Rose nodded

Ariella shrugged. "Yeah, that's a good outlook. So where and when did you tell Jordan you liked him? And what exactly did he say?" she asked, eager for more details. She was mad. At William, at Jordan, at her sister for not writing to her......but she still wanted details.

"So what? I don't care if I get a detention!" Ronnie said laughing. "And your right, I think I'll go down to the study tables to write my letter." she said. "Wanna come?" she asked.

'Well, I was at the Whomping Willow and I was practising how I would tell him, then I turned aroung and he was right there! And he sais stuff like, he'd only ever want to be friends and blah blah blah and etcetera!' Rose said angrily

'Yeah, sure I'll come! I just wanna make one thing clear here though... I have only ever jinxed him once... No matter what he says I have only jinxed him once...' Rose told Ronnie after finding out William had told her she had jinxed him many times!

"Oh, okay. Well at least he was nice about it. But I wish he would have liked you at least." Ariella sighed. Well, come to think of it, 11 year olds shouldn't really be dating. But it was fun to like people. "Okay, now I'm going to do a muggle card trick on you for my History of Magic homework. It's called Back Flip." She prepared her deck of cards.

Rose shrugged. 'Maybe... In later years he will...' Rose said hopefully. 'Go for it!' Rose grinned

The blonde peered round the side of the door into the dorms, her blue eyes saucer like as she stared at her new sleeping quarters. "Wow." she breathed, not realising she'd actually said anything. A grin broke out on her features, her neck craning as she tried to take in the cozy looking room lined with beds and a few other Gryffindor girls. It was like heaven compared to her old room at home. She hoped her cat had arrived ok; she still hadn't seen him since they'd parted ways in the Entrance Hall. So she was...what? Six months late to classes? That didn't even matter now though, as she tentatively pushed the door open and made her way over to an empty bed. She figured it was her's and the thin carpet of cat hairs that lay at the end of it confirmed otherwise.

She flopped down backwards onto the mattress, her eyes fluttering closed and her arms out-stretched. Six months late. Damn, she had some catching up to do. A smile flickered onto her face as she rolled over onto her stomach, resting her chin on her hands and absently kicking out with her feet.

'Hallo!' Rose grinned at a... new girl? 'You're a bit late aren't you!' Rose grinned. She looked in a mirror and saw her hair was back to black again... 'Oh, damn...'

"Yeah...." Ariella said dreamily. Then, she snapped back to reality. "Okay. For the card trick. Pick a card. Any card. And memorize it." While Rose was looking at her card, Ariella swiftly took the top card, flipped it right side up, and placed it at the bottom of the deck. She flipped the deck around so it gave the illusion of the same deck of cards. But really, it was flipped around! "Now go on and put your card back anywhere in the deck."

Her eyes fluttered open again when she heard a voice. She looked over at where it had come from, a large smile breaking out on her features. She'd missed talking to people - it'd been a long trip with a silent driver. Not fun. He hadn't even wanted to discuss the importance of breadsticks. She rolled onto her back again and peered at the girl from upside down, her head hanging off the side of the bed. She was pretty, and looked like she was around her age, her face and body still lacking in the maturity of their elder fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh years.

She wrinkled her nose. "Only by a few months." she sad with a small laugh. "I'm Hemo." She puffed out her cheeks, and pushed away a few stray hairs from her face. Her thoughts flew to her cat, and her stomach twisted with worry. "Have you seen a cat around here?"

'Alrighty!' Rose grinned as she picked her card and placed her card in the top middle of the deck.
'That's a pretty cool name! I'm Rose!' Rose grinned at Hemo. 'Nope, sorry, the only cat I've seen is my cat... Maxine! Here puss puss!'

Maxine crawled out from under Rose's bed. She had been looking for catnip. Meow.

'Sorry, Maxine, I've hidden the catnip!' Rose grinned