The cupid shuffle came on as the next song. Minerva laughed. "Ok guys we know this one from class. Let's dance!"

Alyssa came down from the Girl’s dormitory into the Common Room. It was almost past 9:00 at night and there were only a few students sitting around, either reading or chatting with each other. She took out the woolen sock and dropped the egg into her hand, this time making sure that she gripped it a little tighter. She was prepared for it to 'bounce' out of her hand again. But nothing happened. The egg felt warm to the touch. “Just nice. Room temperature.” Alyssa told herself. She brought the egg closer to her face because she wanted to examine it more closely.

Then suddenly the egg bounced up hit her on the nose and then landed on the ground and rolled away….AGAIN!!.

“Ouch!! Darn it! You were playing possum all along. “Alyssa yelled chasing after it. “You can roll but you can’t hide for long. I’ll find you,” she said aloud knowing that the egg could understand her. Either that or she was going crazy. She looked every inch of the floor in the Common Room but couldn’t find it. Then she saw a glint from the corner of her eye. She saw something leap into the fireplace. “Oh No!! Please don’t let it be Queenie”. Alyssa quickly ran to the fireplace and looked inside, and sure enough, the egg was lying among the burning embers. Quickly taking her wand, she pointed it at the egg and said “AK-ee-oh Egg”. The Accio spell worked, and the egg came flying back to her. Alyssa caught it with one hand and almost dropped it because it was singeing hot.

Alyssa quickly placed the egg on the table and took out her wand. She was going to have to perform the Argentum Frigidus to cool it down. But she knew that she couldn’t cool it down too fast, or the metal might expand and crack. So she decided to cool it down slowly first by wetting it with water. She twirled and pointed her wand at the egg and cast the wetting spell by saying “Ar-gent-um Humid-us”. Water started spurting from the egg. Alyssa touched the egg and it was starting to cool down slowly but not too fast to cause an immediate change in temperature. She soaked the egg for a couple of seconds, then switched to the drying spell Argentum Siccus to dry the egg. She twirled and pointed her wand at the egg again, and said "Ar-gent-um Sik-us".

The droplets of water on the surface of the egg, started to evaporate. She touched the egg and it still felt warmer than it should be. So she used the cooling down spell to cool it down faster. She swished and tapped the egg with her wand, saying “Ar-gent-um Frigid-Us” at the same time. She leaned over to touch the egg. It felt cooler now. “Maybe if I do it two more times, it will eventually go back to its regular temperature.” So Alyssa repeated the spell two more times and when she touched it again, the temperature of the shell had returned back to room temperature. “Whew! Now that was a close call.” Alyssa sighed in relief.

She picked up the egg and noticed tiny scorch marks on the shell. “I need to use the Excolo spell. Hopefully that will remove these marks.” Picking up her wand again, she traced it all over the egg, while saying “Ex-CO-lo”. A yellow light engulfed the egg and when it disappeared, Alyssa picked it up and closely examined the metal shell. The scorch marks were gone.

“All nice and shiny,”Alyssa told her egg. “Now will you please behave”, she whispered to it, just before she placed it back in the woolen sock and tucked it back into her bag. Then she took out a rag and wiped up the water on the table before heading off to bed.

Violet nodded. 'Nice to meet you again, Janice!' Violet smiled. She had yet to read the letter Rose had left for her...

Salima walked down the stairs comming from the girls dormitories; she was walking towards the portait hole when she walked past the 'Bagder borard of notices'.
Salima stopped to look at it and saw that there was quidditch today; she was ever so excited since their last match against Ravenclaw. Salima walked away from the noticeboard and made her way out through the portrait hole.

Penny walked into the Hufflepuff common room and the scene couldn't have been more different from last match..


Last match they had won, and the room was all decorated in yellow and black - the colours of Hufflepuff..there had been food and drinks and their house mates were all here waiting to celebrate with them..

Penny walked over to the fireplace and sat on the comfiest chair beside the fire, hugging her knees to her...

Losing the match wasn't anybodies fault - Slytherin were just better today.

Alyssa walked into the Common Room. She was tired out first from the game and second from the chaos AFTER the game. She saw Penny sitting by herself on the comfiest chair and went over to her. "Wanna be alone or can I keep you company? We can be our own cheer team since there isn't one today. What's happened to good housemanship? Do we only get people talking with us when we win and if we don't, it's ignore them time?"Alyssa muttered to herself looking around at her fellow Huffies.

"Anyway, you played really well, Penny. Everyone did. Slytherin just happened to be better today. But we've got another game to play and when we beat that team, we'll meet up with Slytherin again. This time we'll be better prepared." Alyssa reached over and gave her friend a hug.

Tears were still flowing down Kita's face as she slowly made her way towards the common room. She was going to get slated wasn't she? She could almost feel the glares, complaints, disappointed looks as she continued to walk along the corridor.

And yet, all she wanted to do was crawl up in her bed and cry.

Kita stopped in front of the barrels and looked at them, trying to imagine what kind of expressions the people on the other side were wearing on their faces. Had they stayed up to wait for the captain to walk through? She hoped not!

The brunette took out her wand and tapped the correct barrel. It opened... and she made her way through.

Kita scrambled through the other side and stopped. Everywhere she looked, there were people there. Gulping, Kita scanned the room for her teammates. Only they would know how she was feeling right about then. And... there they were! Well, only Penny and Alyssa but... that was good enough, right?

Forgetting about the other people, the seventh year made her way towards the two girls and sat down. She looked between them at all the injuries they had sustained. Kita knew that she must look bad what with all the cuts on her face and arms but... both Alyssa and Penny looked pretty bad as well.

Deciding not to say anything, Kita sat there and looked down at her legs. They would come back, she knew it. They would be able to defeat the other houses and win the Championship but... she didn't like how hurt her team were getting from all this.

Minerva sat down near the fire because she was cold. As she sat her bag on the floor Sparkles rolled out and headed towards the fire. "Oh no you don't" Minerva said as she jumped up and grabbed the egg. Sparkles felt chilly so Minerva took her wand out "Argentum Calidus" The egg warmed 'That's better. Come on Sparkles come sit with me." Minerva sat back down and placed Sparkles in her lap.

Jesifur was sitting enjoying the fire when she felt a movement in her pocket. She reached in and found the charmed egg. It looked a little dingy. She pulled her wand out and with a twirl she said, "Argentum" and with a point to the egg she said, "humidus". The egg became slippery and wet. Holding it firmly she twirled her wand and said "argentum" and with point at the egg she said, "siccus" and the water was gone. the egg was dry. Holding it in the palm of her hand she felt its coldness. She swished her wand and said "argentum" and tapped the egg and said, "calidus". The egg warmed to almost her own body temp. The egg gave a little wiggle in her hand. Feeling it was a happier egg now she reinserted it back into her pocket. She would sing to it later on this evening. It seemed to like that.

Ronnie had been waiting for Simon for forever and it appeared that he wasn't coming. She missed him and wanted to tell him everything. She was ready to talk about her dad and explain why she had been so absent for the past few months. Simon needed to know that, but Ronnie couldn't find him at this moment. And there was way too much commotion going on in this common room for her.

She sighed and sat down away from the crowd a bit hoping that Simon would come find her.

louise walked into the common room, she sat down by the fire, her hands were cold, she got out her book and started to read

Aaron fell into the common room, stumbling over his tail once again. As much as he loved wearing his monster suit, he'd been wearing it quite a while now, the tail was starting to drag over the floor. Quite a few stumbled had been caused in the past few days.
He rubbed his knees painfully, but refused to take the suit off.

"AAAARRRROONNN!! You're just the person I was looking for. Before you take off your monster suit, I so want to take a picture of you in it. Maybe you can show it to your grandkids one day and tell them how cool you were back when you were in Hogwarts. I have this wizard camera, so if you just do what you like doing i.e. dance around and act like a clown, I'll give you this Dr. Pepper as a BIG THANK YOU for posing for me." Alyssa raised up a bottle of Dr. Pepper knowing how much Aaron loved his DR. PEPPER'S.

So while Aaron walked around and stumbled over his tail, Alyssa pointed her camera at him, and looked through the viewfinder. She almost burst out laughing when he stumbled over his tail again. "This is going to make such a great shot, Aaron. Say Cheese", Alyssa called out as she snapped a series of shots.

Then running over to him, she handed him the Dr. Pepper. "Here have fun and thanks again for posing for me."

'Please do, Alyssa, please do.' Aaron made a weird pose with a grin. 'And I'll still be cool when I'm like 100 years old and stuff, of course.' He was so cool, who else could pull of a monster suit this good? Exactly, nobody.
Wait, he'd get Dr. Pepper for posing? He jumped up and made a few more poses, anything for Dr Pepper, although he'd do it for free too. But now there was Dr Pepper in the game.

'CHEEESE!' He yelled excitedly, making a few weird signs with a big grin on his face, this was great! 'I could do this allll day!'

Aaron gladly accepted the bottle of Dr Pepper and grinned down at Alyssa, 'Oh, I will have fun.' He said with an evil smirk, drinking Dr Pepper = fun times.

Violet popped her head from the Girl's Dorm and looked down. This was her first time out in about a week. A party? Why? OH MY GOSH! She had missed the Match! She edged slowly down the stairs and stood quietly. 'Who won?' she asked no-one in particular.

She should have come out. She should have eaten. Her Mum shouldn't have been dying. She was getting there. At least she had come to the common room.

'VIOLET! Fancy seeing you here!' Aaron said, gulping down a lot of Dr. Pepper. 'Haven't seen you in a bit!' He patted on the table next to him, where he lay staring up in a sugar high.
He chuckled, 'have you ever heard how weeeeeird the word ceiling sounds?!' He shook his head madly.

Violet looked at him and blinked. 'That's 'cause I'd locked myself in my dorm.' she smiled sadly, thinking about everything that had happened. She sat next to hom on the table and smiled at him.

'I have, actually, it is, isn't it? Ceeeeeeeiling. Ceiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing. However you want to say it!' Violet chuckled.

'Have you ever known how sad it is for your Mum to be dying?' she asked, all serious, holding back the tears. Hopefully Aaron would be able to make this situation better. Somehow. If Aaron was hyper. He'd be able to make her laugh, hopefully.

louise walked into the common room, she was in ters, in her eyes, she was holding her back, it was huring her, she went slowy to the bed, she saw two other people there "sorry i got in the way of your talk"

Minerva pulled out Sparkles. She was so curious what was inside the egg. She knew it had to be getting closer to knowing what was inside. 'Sparkles you awake?" Minerva said tapping on the egg. Nothing happened though. The egg all of the sudden rolled out of her hand and across the common room. Minerva jumped up and chased the egg. She got to Sparkles, but not before the egg hit someones water and got all wet. "Oh Sparkles always getting into trouble." Minerva took out her wand and twirled then pointed "Argentum Siccus" The egg dried right up. Minerva then took Sparkles and sat near the fire.

'Locked yourself in your dorm?' Aaron stared at her confusedly, why would someone willingly lock themselves into their dorm? He was too easily bored for something like that. 'WHY?!' He asked as he took another few gulps of his Dr. Pepper.

'Ceiling ceiling ceiling ceiling.' He droned on until Violet asked him a question.
He rolled off the table in shock. Aaron crawled up, his head resting on the side of the table. 'I'd say it's pretty sad.' He mumbled, his mum was always around and he wouldn't want it any other way. 'Is your mum sick?'

'Because I couldn't take it.' Violet shrugged. If she were older, this would be the point where she's day 'I wanted to get bladdered.' But she couldn't. 'Cause she was only 12. Stupid law. She chuckled slightly at his look and listened to him say 'ceiling'.

'I before E, except after C. I know a couple exceptions. Weird. Their. I suppose there's more.' she nodded.

She smiled weakly as he rolled off the table, before putting his head on the table. She listened to him and nodded at his question. 'Cancer. She's been given two months to live. Now it's one.' she whispered. tears rolling down her face. 'I just couldn't take looking at my sisters, they'd make it more real for me, so I hid myself away. That's why I'm glad for food,' she smiled, eating a sandwiche. 'Haven't eaten in days.'

*sigh*

The joys having the common room all to yourself. No talking students, no need to look normal and certainly more space. In her purple pyjamas Ness plonked herself onto a nearby couch and looked around the empty common room. Most of the Badgers were already faassst asleep, but seeing as she didn't want to sleep, the common room was the best place to chillax. She put her now sleeping pgmy puff on her lap and just sat on the couch doing literally nothing, which is what she felt like doing..nothing.

After a few moments her eyes started to close, but she tried her best to keep them open. She didn't want to sleep yet, she wanted to be all 'big' and stay up the whole night like some adults did. She reached into the pocket of her pyjama top and took out her favorite snack, a chocolate frog. It may have been EXTREMELY unhealthy, but then it had sugar which gives you energy right? At least thats what she had heard. She started nibbling on the chocolate already feeling more awake. All she needed now was something to distract her mind from the thought of sleep.

Chandler had forgotten some stuff that he had left here at the beginning of the year for no reason and never noticed that he hadn't kept them here. Which WAS pretty stupid of him and what didn't help that he didn't know where he had left them, he could have put them in the dorm where he's supposed to sleep but he doesn't or he could have left them in the Common Room, which was where he was looking now. Thankfully no one was around, so..he didn't think so but he was trying his best to keep quiet in case he was to awake someone. Stifling a yawn, he moved someone's doodles (well he presumed that they were doodles) behind him on the floor and continued to look until he heard rustling.

Automatically Chandler turned his head behind him to see that Nessie was up, eating a chocolate frog. Mellow. Now he wanted a chocolate frog. "Err...Nessie? Why are you up?" He hoped that she didn't see him the whole time and had been watching him silently, that would be weird. But it was dark and winter after all.

Not focused on anything else Ness nommed on her choccie. She looked up when she heard something, but saw nothing and so she went back to her beloved chocolate. Then there it was again the noise. There weren't monsters in the common room...were there? It couldn't be a monster, why would a monster want to enter the common room. That was the wrong way to see it there were many reasons why a monster would enter the common room. Whatever just focus on the chocolate she thought to herself. The noise was probably nothing.

o___O

That's when she saw the shadow of whatever was in the common room."Monster AAAAAAAH!!...no don't eat me..I'm innocent!" She jumped out of her chair dropping her Puffles and the chocolate frog to the floor. She stood for a few seconds praying that she didn't wake up any Badgers. As her Pygmy puff groaned from being dropped, Ness looked at what they shadow was more closely. Oh it was just Chandler.... this was embarrassing. Nessie's cheeks went as red as her hair as she carefully picked up Puffles to make sure the pygmy puff was okay. She eyed her chocolate and decided to leave it for the time being.

"I..um..why can't I be up?" She answered him, hoping he wouldn't start with a million questions.

Sigh. It wasn't here but Nessie was. The only person in the Common Room awake apart from him and she thought he was a monster. Chandler retaliated by shifting back. "I'm not a monster, Nessie!" He shouted above her but then whispered, cursing because he had thought he would wake up someone and then they would come down and see what was going on. "Wait...what's zat?" He whispered, hearing a groan after some stuff that she had dropped onto the floor. Chandler couldn't exactly see clearly in the dark so he had trouble wondering what it was."We really need to put a light on, I can't zee at all." Why didn't he think of this before? It would have made it a LOT easier to find what he was looking for. "No, I didn't zay zat you can't. Of course you can but..why are you? It's late, everyone's in bed..well..not everyone." Chandler gestured to himself and Nessie even though he could vaguely make out where she was.