Penny was getting antsy now - "Ally what time is homework due today?"... This was a disaster, first Justin not showing up and now Jory not playing her move.... She really didn't know what to do for the best...

Jory fished into the letter bag and pulled out his seven tiles. He pondered and came up with ''Tally''. He placed the tiles "ALLY'' next to the T from QUAINT.
Then he replaced his four tiles.

Penny was delighted that Jory was back in the land of the living.... counting up his score, she came to a total..."Cool Jory, you just scored 9 points"

Looking at her own tiles now, she realised now how silly it had been to play scrabble - she was never any good at this game !!

She then placed her tiles down.... DES, incorporating the Y from TALLY, making the word DYES... counting up the score, D is worth 2, Y is worth 4, E is worth 1 and S is worth 2 because it sits on a 2*LS....and the full word falls on a 2*WS..

Calculating the best she could, she arrived at 18 - "Guys, can you check my maths..I think they're right - I got 18...... Ok Ally your turn"

Reaching into the bag for 3 more tiles...

Mickey walked in and took in the scent of the place. It didn't even occure to her how much she missed it here. Her visit back to America wasn't nearly as pleasent as she was hoping, and she felt glad to be back to where her only real problem was keeping her feelings from that stupid gryffindore and trying not to absolutely flunk charms. She sighed before ruffling her hair. What was once choppy hair which were all different lengths was all one short length and her hair was back to her original color instead of the black and teal it was when she left. She would wait for her hair to grow out a little before messing it all up again. She hated it when her hair was neat. To her it was a bad omen.

After getting tired of getting bitten and swatting herhands aimlessly under the chair, Janice gave up on getting Alvin. Instead, she took out her wand, and said "Lumos". She pointed her wand to under the chair and spotted Alvin with its glowing fur and -somehow, or was it her imagination?- red eyes.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Alvin's body went rigid as the curse struck himin the eye. Now, Janice could bring him safely from there to the dorm withut getting bitten thrice.

Alyssa looked down at the board and then looked over at her tiles. "DECK" using the D that Penny had just put down, adding ECK below it. "There you have it my move."

Jory's turn. He studies his tiles and came up with the word ''KINGS''. He placed ''INGS'' below the K Alyssa had had played in ''DECK''.
"Penny's turn,'' he said replacing his tiles.

Penny noted down the word and counted up what its score was...D=2, E=1, C=3, K=5 and it landed on a 2*LS.... 2+1+3+10=16

"Another great score Ally, 16 points..

Penny then counted up Jory's word...K=5, I=1, N=1, G=2, S=1...5+1+1+2+1=10

"Nice one Jory" Penny beamed...

Penny looked at the board and then at her tiles.... "Oh no", she thought...

Then suddenly seeing a word, she placed it quickly...KNOC..and adding it to the left of K already there from the word DECK, Alyssa had laid earlier.

K=5 (3*WS), N=1, O=1, C=3 K=5....5+1+1+3+5=*3(ws)= 45

"Oh my godric... that was cool", beaming "Jory could you check my math please.?" then saying, "I think we should call the first person to reach 100 is the winner - I need to submit this homework".

Taking four more tiles from the bag and laying them on the rack.....

"Wow! Penny that's a good one adding letters and making another word. Okay I guess it's my turn now. "S N E E Z E" Alyssa said adding the letter SNEEZ to the E that was part of the word DECK. She then dipped into the bag to take another 5 more tiles out of the bag.

Penny smiled as she noted the word, then began adding up the score..
S=1 (2*LS), N=1, E=1 (2*LS), E=1, Z=10, E=1...1+1+1+1+10+1 = 17

"Another good word Ally - 17 points for that one --- Your turn Jory!". she said with a grin... then with a look of concern she asked Alyssa "Ally are you okay? you look a little peaky".... Alyssa looked a little green around the gills actually - like she might be sick...

"I'm sorry, Penny. My tummy is not feeling good right now. I don't know whether it's because of the 8 pieces of fried chicken I ate or the effects of the Hate Potion. I can still hang on for awhile if you need to finish the game for your homework,"Alyssa said, holding on to her tummy.

Penny felt her heart fall to the floor..."Oh no, I want to finish, but my friend is ill - may even need the nurse", The she made up her mind - Her friends welfare came before a game.... muggle or magical...

"I think we should call this match a draw - next time we play til the very, very end!!", she giggled.."Jory and Alyssa, I want to thank you for playing along -you've been great"..

Then she turned to look at Alyssa.."Do you want to go lie down for a while - maybe I can get you a nice cup of tea to settle your tummy"

Jory felt sorry for Alyssa. "You go lie down, Alyssa,''he said ''I would have stopped playing too but I need to get this done.''

He looked at the board and his seven tiles. He placed ''UICK'' at the back of the Q which was used in the word ''QUAINT'' so now the word "QUICK'' was spelt.

"Penny, please keep the score. I'm not good at that,'' Jory said.

Penny took note of Jory's word, then quickly started counting up how much it was worth..

Q=10, U=1, I=1, C=3, K=5 (2*LS)= 10+1+1+3+10 = 25

"Brilliant Jory, that's worth 25 points", Penny beamed at Jory... He was getting good at this game..

Adding Jory's score to the scoreboard before looking at her own rack of letters...

Then she saw it... B, R, I, C... then it to the K from Jory's QUICK.....

B=3 (2*WS), R=1, I=1, C=3, K=5 = 3+1+1+3+5 = 13*2= 26

"WHO HOO...26 for me -Jory can you double check that for me please"

Jory checked calculations. "Yes, they're correct. And you're brilliant at this game. 89 Points!''

Focusing on his new four and three old tiles, Jory tried to form a word. Finally he laid ''STAI'' in front of the N in ''QUAINT'' so now there was "STAIN''.

"Stain,'' he said as he replaced his four tiles.

Penny again made a note of the word and getting the scores counted...
S=1 (2*WS), T=1, A=1, I=1, N=1 = 1+1+1+1+1=5*2=10

Penny looked at Jory and said.."Aww, only 10 this time - not to worry it all adds up at the end", she finished with an encouraging smile..

Then she scanned her own letters and found a word quickly...
D, E, S, I ,S and then added it on to the T from STAIN.....

D=2, E=1, S=1, I=1, S=1 (2*WS), T=1 = 2+1+1+1+1+1= 7*2= 14

Then she took 5 new tiles from the bag... and began looking for words again..

"'Yes, it does. I suck at this game,'' Jory said grinning.

There was only one word he could see. He took ''FOL'' and placed it in front of of the D in ''DESIST'' to form ''FOLD''.

"Little word,'' Jory said.

"No tea. Thanks though. I think that I'll go lie down on the couch here for awhile. That way I can still see you guys play. I'm really sorry that I wasn't able to help you finish your homework, Penny. You guys can still play with 2 players right? If not, I'll play from the couch if I have to."Alyssa told Penny.

Alyssa went to lie down on the couch. Her tummy was really rumbling. Unfortunately, not in the hungry sort of way. She could see Penny and Jory from where she lay, and was glad that they were still able to play on without her. She felt bad that she wasn't able to help Penny complete her homework assignment.

Penny noted the word and began counting the score...

F=4 (3*WS), O=1 (2*LS), L=1, D=2 = 4+(1*2)+1+2= 9*3=27

"Nine that time Jory", said Penny as she added the score to the scoreboard..

Then Penny saw a word ready for laying on the board....D, E , A adding it to the F from FOLD..

D=2, E=1, A=1, F=4 = 2+1+1+4 = 8

"8 for me on the word"

"Yay! Penny you reached 100 first. You're the winner," Alyssa yelled over to the players from the couch. "I'm sorry that I couldn't finish playing this round, but if there's a next time, I'm definitely in".

Minerva walked into the common room. Her safe place at the castle. She knew that someone couldn't find her there. She went over and sat down on a chair exhausted from what just went on at the lake.

Alyssa saw Minerva come in. She looked exhausted but her face looked worried. "Are you okay, Min?" Alyssa leaned forward to a sitting position on the couch.

"Oh Alyssa I'm ok. It's just been a rough week, but I think well I hope I got it fixed. I well I ended it with Harvey." Minerva looked into the fireplace she hated the fact that she hurt him.

The decision of leaving for home during the holidays was still something he was questioning, but since his sister will be around this year, he decided to be there. Maybe next year he'll stay, after all, it'll be his last.

Either way, he was contemplating the fire that was ever-so-close to him and where he was seating. All the cold outside only made him want to take the fireplace to the dormitory...and...taking Conan along, the boy would probably freeze in this cold.

There were only few days in which he could find some time to relax...and today was one of those days. No homework, and no Ravenclaw tonight. Just the pretty flames dancing along the sound of nothingness. It was rather boring, truth be told, he was tempted to go on patrol but it wasn't even time for that.

It was so cold outside, Cassie was trembling as she made her way into into the Common Room. Thank God! She pulled her gloves off, they were no good anymore. In fact her fingers felt frozen. She didn't to snuggle up into her favourite couch by the fire place and defrost.

Somebody was in her chair. She pouted as she plopped into the couch next to it.

Treyen! Gah gah, she hadn't seen him around in a while. The boy seemed to be really busy these days. He looked so thoughtful. Hmm, was he okay?

"hey Trey Trey." It was official the boy had the cutest nickname ever. His might even beat out Jonathon's.

She extended her fingers out over the fire to warm them up a bit. She cringed as pain shot through her fingers when they started to thaw. She couldn't wait to leave for the holiday. Wherever James was must be warmer than here.

"You alright?"