The Room of Requirement was soon becoming one of Zhenya's favourite spaces to use. When she walked past it three times, she just wanted some place to think clearly... And what appeared? A medium sized room, pillows and blankets on the floor, lots of writing stationary and no other students! She smiled and walked in, closing the door behind her. She flopped on the rather large pile of pillows. She pulled out her trusty journal and pulled a fancy looking quill and some purple ink and wrote;

She packed everything away and left the room, going outside for a quick jog.

Nate double checked all the way around him, wand outstretched in the same direction as his eyes. The shield was still up. Turning back to Jez, he put an arm on her shoulders to support her. "Where did it get you? Actually, how did it get you? They don't have real wands..." Looking at Jez, Nate could see the pain in her eyes. Not only physical pain, either. She's not getting over this for a while...

Sitting up Marie placed her hand on Matty's chin turning his face towards her. "Please tell me you don't still believe your aunt took off on purpose." Nothing could ever make Marie believe that woman would abandon her family. "You know how much she loves you guys. If she's still gone..." Well, Marie wasn't going to finish that sentence. She wanted to help not make things worse.

"If she's still gone then she's dead? No it would take an army to kill my aunt Kayla..."
*And from the stories his uncle had told him that almost happened a few times. Letting out a long sigh he closed his eyes. He knew his last comment sounded a bit harsh, or at least it came out that way and all Marie was trying to do was help.*
"I'm sorry Marie... I'm just-... how could she just up and leave her family like that? It takes everything my uncle can do to make sure this wont get in the papers, and he still thinks she's been kidnapped..."

*Rubbing the back of his neck Matty looked down. He knew that his family had fallen apart and he had no idea what to do.*
"By the look of it I'll have to give up my ambassador job..."

lame/late post, i'm sorryyy <_<
 

That was a question that kept coming up and that she still didn't have an answer for. Vashti really needed to make up her mind about this already. Before she knew, she seventh year would come and go and she wouldn't have anything to do. "I don't know yet," she answered. "But hopefully I'll figure something out soon." Very soon.

Take a photo? Aw, Merlin, the pressure was on now. "Sure, if you'd like to," she answered. Hopefully she'd be able to succeed with a corporeal Patronus at least once - because who wanted a photograph of just a bunch of silver mist coming out of a wand?

It's okay! :D
 

Zhenya smiled and pulled out her camera, looking through the eye hole, waiting to see for when Vashti conjured her Patronus to take the photo. Zhenya didn't mind what it looked like, she didn't recall ever seeing any Patronus, formed or not... It was all amazing to her!

Well... now that Zhenya thought about it, if being a Healer fell through she would have no idea about what she wanted to become.

"It put its sparky fingers into my back," explained Jez, wincing as she touched the place where the dummy had burned her. There were four neat circular holes about the size of fingerprints burnt right through her robes, and onto her skin. Jez could still feel the electric energy pulsing from those points. "I let my guard down," she said, gritting her teeth. "It won't happen again." She was going to make sure of that. That had been a slip of concentration - she hadn't been watching her opponent. Rule three.
Jez smiled at Nate, or tried to. "I'm fine, let's keep going."

Nate smirked. "Let's!"
He waved his wand and the barrier came down, dummies piling over each other and falling stupidly to the ground as the wall they were leaning in on disappeared. "Bombarda! Incendio! Diffindo! Flippendo!" Nate took out the dummies on his half of the circle, keeping an eat open for Jez behind him, just in case, and watching out for the hands of the dueling dum-dums.
After a few minutes of shooting spells, destroying dummies, and crossing over chassis, Nate called back over his shoulder, "So we're friends again?"

Jez shot curse after curse at the dummies, shooting for the hands first, then taking down the rest. Jez was nothing if not cunningly strategic. She flashed Nate a quick smile as she turned to him for a second. "Keep working on your duelling and we might be," she teased, but her smile told him they were firends again. Jez turned back to the fight. "Everte Statum! Incendio! Bombarda!" Hadn't she said she wasn't going to use that spell? Then Jez had an idea. She ran towards a gang of 3 or 4 dummies and pointed her wand at them. "Bombarda Maxima!" They all blew up in a shower of sparks. Jez grinned.

NO!

That's not what Marie was trying to say at all. "I didn't mean it like that Matty. I just meant... if she's still gone then someone must be holding her... against her will." This wasn't going the way she wanted it to go at all.

"Come on Matty. You know as well as I do that Kayla would never leave her family like this. You guys mean the world to her. She would do whatever it took to protect her family." Including pointing a crossbow at Matty's friends.

Lacing her fingers with his she leaned in to give him a soft kiss. "You don't have to be sorry. I know you're hurting..." She knew if one of her parents came up missing she would be a basket case. Sure, Kayla was his aunt but she was the closest thing he had to a mother now.

Give up his job... before he even started it? "Why... would you have to give up being an ambassador?" Wouldn't it be best to carry on with things as they had been planned? Especially if they wanted to keep things out of the papers.

Nate felt a burning on his arm. Dummy hand?! Nope, just sparks. "Aguamenti." Now that his robes were no longer on fire, he whirled back around and launched a Bombarda directly at a dummy's head. It subsequently blew up, leaving the dummy falling to its... knees... and dying Western-style.
Nate then felt a sharp pang of creativity. "Wingardium Leviosa!" He picked up a dummy, suspending it above th horde. "Incendio!" It burst into flame as it dropped. "Flippendo!" Nate knocked the dummies closest him underneath the falling dummy, and then when the all hit, a large bonfire was produced by the flaming dummy carcasses.

"Marie my uncle has pretty much checked out. He's not at the castle or doing his job as king. My cousins are being raised by nannies. Micheal's father came and took him away when he found out Kayla was gone.They lose their mum, a brother, and a father in one week? No I can't let that happen to my cousin's..."
*Matty knew what it was like to not have a family and he would not let that happen to his cousin's, even if he was adopted he had to step up now.*
"As soon as school is over I'll take on raising my cousins and being in the public as a... ruler or whatever until my uncle returns."
*Moving his hands to his face Matty looked down.*
"I have to..."

As Marie sat there listening to Matty she could feel her heart breaking for him and his family. "I-I'm sorry Matty. I didn't mean you shouldn't be there for your family." Merlin, she really sucked at this making someone feel better stuff. "Of course you have to be there for them. They need all the family support they can get now." He had to be there for his cousins just like she was going to be there for him... no matter what.

"I love you." Putting her arms back around him she gave him another soft kiss. "I know you'll do a great job with your cousins and I'll be there to help with them while you're stepping in for your uncle. That is if you want me to help." All he had to do was say he wanted her there and she would be there, no questions asked.

"No need to be sorry and of course I would want you there with me but I can't ask that of you..."
*The last thing he wanted to do was hold her back from life. Matty would pretty much become a parent once school ended. He couldn't ask her to give everything up just for him.*
"I love you too... but... I don't know."

"You don't have to ask. I'm telling you I want to be there for you. I want to help you."

He loved her too but he didn't know? What exactly didn't he know? "What don't you know... If you really want me there?" Was this his way of trying to tell her he really didn't want her help? She felt like someone was stabbing her in the chest right now. Just the thought that he may not want her there to help him through this was killing her.

"No! Thats not it at all." *Matty couldn;t help but smile a little at how suddenly she misunderstood his words.*
"I do want you there and with me always, but I feel selfish by asking that of you... like I'm holding you back."

"Trust me, you're not holding me back from anything. If I didn't want to be there then I never would have told you I'd be there for you." When was he going to realize that "It's not like I had plans of doing anything other than being with you anyway." Every since their talk at the waterfall at the beginning of term she had thought of nothing else other than being with Matty after graduation.

"I love you with all my heart and soul Matthias Gardner and nothing is going to stop me from being there for you. We're in this together." She considered his family her family too.

"I think we need to get out of here and go do something fun. How about we go hang out in Hogsmeade?" He needed something to distract himself from what was happening with his family. Besides, she neded to find something for him for his birthday... Which would be here in a couple weeks.

*He knew she was right. With one last sigh he nodded and stood up. Cleaning up their hot chocolate cups with a flick of his wand he looked down at her.*
"Thanks..."
*He didn't know what else to say other than that. Marie knew him well that was for sure.*

On this particular day, Marilyn Force could be found in the Room of Requirement...Outfitted in tight black workout cloths and black boxing gloves. Her frustration had finally gotten the better of her and the RoR had decided to cooperate.

So, here she was...beating the beans out of a punching bag. She was sweating, but did not care. It felt good to get everything out...

Adam thought about being alone,all alone just to have some time to think to himself after everything that had been happening.He was so tired he didn't even have the energy to imagine an even attempt to try an change the Room of Requirement.

When he looked back after staring at the floor so long,Adam took a few steps back when he saw a blonde haired girl fiercely punching one of those punching bags.He didn't want to interrupt her,or get hurt so he quietly walked out before she could spot him out of the corner of her eye an turn him into orange juice pulp.But his plan failed miserably when he tripped over some misplaced weights on the floor.He lay,back to the floor on the ground,now trying to scramble up an leave the room.

Marilyn was so into the punching bag that she hardly noticed someone stepping into the room...but in the next instance, she heard something off to the side. Whirling around, the blonde seen...some young Gryffindor boy standing there.

Wait! She recognized him...

Oh. Right.

It was that snotty Lion-boy who always tried to start stuff with her via that social network thing. Not forgetting the disgusting Slytherin comment, Marilyn openly sneered in his direction. "What are you doing here, Gryffindor?" Her tone was highly agitated.

Oh no.She saw him.An recognized him.Great,way to land himself into deeper trouble now,Adam.He had almost reached the door by the time he got up he wanted to rush out an run for his life,he knew that would be the only way for survival.Not to mention if she 'hurt' him,she would have the excuse of them supposedly being punching bag partners an she had 'hit' him too hard.

"Excuse me!But this is a free country.I can be wherever the bloody hell I want to be!I didn't know this place was off limits,snake." he jeered back.Adam began to walk away sideways,keeping a good distance.An for your information-I can talk to whoever I want an you should keep your big nose out of other people's private conversations.You know what I'm talking about!" he said angrily crossing his arms.It was about time they confront each other on this subject.Have it all opened an out in the air floating around an out of their minds.

*blink*

*blink, blink, blink*

Deciding to ignore him, she turned back around to face the punching bag. This Gryffindor was obviously stupid to come in here talking smack to her...and if she had learned anything...it was NOT to argue with stupid people...

The blonde began hitting the bag again, putting more effort into each punch and kick...trying to send a message to this Burn character. She was NOT playing around. If he came at her, she WOULD take him out.

It was funny to her how some people used the terms snake and Slytherin offensively. Pfft. They couldn't have given her a higher compliment.

Vashti closed her eyes and began focusing on casting the Patronus. She tried not to think about the fact that Zhenya was going to be taking a picture of her - worrying about it would only ruin her concentration. So she put it out of her mind...cleared her mind...and thought only of a happy memory. Both the Ravenclaw Quidditch party and the History of Magic battle lesson in her second year were definitely happy, but neither had helped her produce a full-fledged Patronus any of the times she'd tried it, so obviously she needed something else. Something like...

Her date with Anakin in November suddenly popped into her mind. Sure, it had been really awkward in the beginning, but towards the end...it had been pretty wonderful. She felt a smile come to her face as she let that fill her mind...

"Expecto Patronum." Vashti cast the spell without really realizing she was. She continued to keep her eyes shut, wanting to make sure she was fully focused before actually looking to see what she had conjured. After several long seconds, she opened her eyes...

"Merlin's beard!" Her concentration was instantly broken, and the silvery mist vanished. Only it hadn't been completely formless mist this time. This time it looked like it had almost formed something - some sort of animal. She hadn't been able to tell what it was, but it was something. She was getting better!

"Did you get that?" she asked aloud, suddenly remembering Zhenya's presence. Had she gotten a good picture? Vashti really hoped so - what if Zhenya had managed to capture the shape the silver mist was trying to take.

Jez was about to apologise for setting fire to Nate when he did something not only unexpected but pretty creative too. "Great!" whooped Jez, pausing for a few seconds to appluade him. Then she remembered that they didn't want the Room of Requirement to burn down, so she pointed her wand at the bonfire. "Aguamenti." The fire went out with a hiss. Jez had a flash of inspiration and twirled her wand. "Aqua Eructo!" A jet of clear water burst from Jez's wand. She twisted it in the air, loving the feeling of being able to control it. The jet cracked like a whip onto a nearby dummy, the force of the water slicing its head straight off. Jez grinned happily.