Jez leant against the old crone's hump, her arms folded, face set in a thoughtful, slightly glazed expression, staring at the stone floor without really seeing it. Her jacket pocket was weighed down by the mysterious orb. She had spent a while looking at it on her bed in the girls dorm by herself, then realised that she needed a fellow Ravenclaw's help, and sent an owl to Nate before coming down here to wait. Actually the messenger was a pygmy puff belonging to another girl, since the only owl in the dorm was a very disgruntled one that Jez didn't really want to mess with. She hoped the pygmy puff had gotten to Nate safely - otherwise she'd be guilty of bringing about cute fluffy animal's demise, which was as bad as murder in the eyes of most of the girls.
Jez didn't want anyone else to see the orb. She could only hope that that Hufflepuff first-year, Nate Jones, had kept his silence. Hexing a first-year was also frowned upon in girl society, so she didn't really want to have to do that.

"Is this yours?" rang Nate's voice from around a corner, echoing through the empty hall. He held in his palm a petite pygmy puff, tired from running all the way down the girls' dorm stairs and then up the boys' dorm stairs, and then somehow getting onto Nate's bed. Either way, he got the rather succinct note without a hitch. Nate leaned against the wall beside Jez, looking over at her empty look with a smile. "Hey, you awake?" he joked, waving his hand in front of her eyes.

Jez smiled and caught Nate's hand as it waved. "Barely," she said, glancing at him and then the pygmy puff. "Oh good, the fluffball didn't get squashed." The pygmy puff let out an offended squeak at that comment, but Jez just quickly started patting it, and it was all good. That always seemed to work with puffs. Jez looked back up at Nate, her eyes glinting. "I've got something to show you," she announced, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the orb, which was still glowing. She held it in one hand, peering at it like a Seer into the depths of a crystal ball. "It hasn't stopped glowing," she said quietly, more to herself than Nate.

Always curious--and eager to see something new and exciting thanks to the eery silence from Jared--Nate snatched the glowing orb from Jez's hand and took to the same sort of stare, peering into the depths of it. "Well," he said, "I'm going to guess that it's in some way magical." He flashed a smile at Jez and chuckled, shaking his head at his own joke. He broke his focus on the orb and turned it over in his hand, still watching. It was about the size of an acorn, perfectly round with no blemishes, divots, or even designs on the surface, and it glowed a bright white, which made it very difficult to look directly at for too long. "Do you think it's a unicorn egg?"

Jez shrugged. "Dunno. But unicorns are mammals, if you haven't noticed. You can get unicorn milk. So I highly doubt they lay eggs." She looked at the orb hopefully. "It would be pretty amazing if it did hatch into something, though. I found it by the pathways, a squirrel was trying to eat it. Nate thinks it might have come from the Forbidden Forest. He's a Hufflepuff first-year," she added quickly, to avoid name confusion. "He thinks that's what's been driving all those magical creatures out of the Forest. I'm not sure, though. I mean, it's a small ball. Sure it glows, but it's not really enough to damage you. It's warm, though, don't you think?" Really really wanted to see what it was!

"Don't underestimate size!" Nate warned, gesturing to his and Jez's own heights. They weren't the most vertically proficient. "Oh, and have you ever heard of a platypus? They aren't even magical creatures, they're just mammals that lay eggs. It's possible." He quickly dropped the conversation to look at the ball in a nonfading wonder. What could it possibly be? "Do you think it tasted good to that squirrel? I personally wouldn't eat it, it's too heavy and... yeah, warm." Nate tossed the orb back and forth between his hands for a minute, then, without warning, pulled out his wand. "I wonder... Diffindo!"

Probably not a good idea. Thankfully, nothing happened to the ball--that they could tell, at least...

"Platy-what?" asked Jez, wrinkling her nose in confusion. Why oh why did Nate refer to Muggle creatures when he knew that she didn't have a clue what he was on about?! Then while she was in her state of bewilderment, he turned his wand on the orb. "No!" she shrieked, before realising that the spell seemed to have had no effect on it. Still, she snatched the glowing ball from Nate's hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "You break it, I hex you," she told him with a glare. Merlin, really?! Yep, let's all start firing spells at the potentially important ball!
That made her mind wander back to what the Hufflepuff had said about the orb, and how it might be scaring the Forest creatures. She cringed on the inside. Maybe she should just give it to Vindictus or the Headmaster ...

"You hex me, I'll dodge it," Nate tested, holstering his wand. "So this thing seems pretty important. You said it was scaring the animals out of the forest?" That was just plain weird. How could this harmless little orb, with the danger factor of a chihuahua, be scaring magical creatures out of the Forbidden Forest? Was it really the orb itself, or was it...?

"Jez, what if there's something else in the forest that's scaring out the creatures? What if the orb has nothing to do with that?"

The orb did not like being passed around hand to hand so lightly. It did not appreciate the male Ravenclaw attempting to blast it open, nor did it approve of being stuffed into a pocket like an old Chocolate Frog.

As soon as the orb was seemingly forgotten by the female Ravenclaw who had fetched it in the first place, the bright little bulb started to worm its way away. It twitched and wiggled in so subtle a motion that the girl most likely could not feel the motion of its movement. It also dimmed the light that lit it from within and, once it reached the seam of her pocket, it dropped right out and started rolling away.

Just keep rolling, just keep rolling, just keep rolling, rolling, rolling.... down the corridor and through the hall, to somewhere else it goes!

With her bookbag slung over her shoulder and a haste in her step, Sierra headed down the third floor corridor en route to the dungeons. Dear Merlin! Did the classes have to last what felt like forty-eight hours each?! Especially the agony known as Ancient Runes, Divination, and Arithmancy. The professors she could tolerate. It was the subject matter that put her in a bad mood. Honestly? When would she ever use something as odd as a crystal ball in her everyday life? Honestly? Really? Right. She didn't think so.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, a round, glowing object, quite similar to a crystal ball, came rolling her way. Her eyes grew wide, and she stared at it as if it were sign from Sybill Trelawney herself. Whoever that was. She'd heard her name thrown about a time or two in the past. At first, Sierra jumped behind a little column. If this was a sign from some Divination Great, then she didn't want a thing to do with it. The last thing she needed was more Divination in her life.

As the object grew closer, though, she realized that it wasn't really a crystal ball, but some...

...thing.

Yeah. That was the best way she could explain it. It was a thing. Stepping out from her hiding place, she scooped it up. "Yo, who lost their crystal ball?" she said out loud.

The 'thing' had not been glowing, actually, until it was plucked out of anonymity by yet another female. It was also not a crystal ball by any means of the word although it did have somewhat similar properties now and then....

The orb began glowing once again as the girl talked out loud to herself. Glowing brightly.

Isabelle was strolling casually down the third floor, she didn't have any idea where she was going. Whatever she was just walking randomly just like Izzy's personality. Random!!! Suddenly she saw a crystal orb thing rolling down the hall past the hunch backed witch. Just to be picked up by a fellow Slytherin.

"Hey what is that?" Izzy asked the girl. "It looks like an orb or something. But whatever it is, well its glowing like crazy." Isabelle stated. What was with this weird glowing orb thing.

Sierra had been so focused on this 'sign from a Divination great', that she'd pretty much lost track of her surroundings. She stared at the...thing...as she tried to figure out what it was and why it had rolled toward her. Well, technically it hadn't rolled toward her. It was just rolling in the opposite direction she'd been walking in, so they'd just sort of come together at some point.

Great. Why couldn't it have been a new racing broom? Some candy? Or...maybe even an already-completed homework assignment? It just had to have been a thing. Anyway, she'd been so focused on it that when she heard a voice coming from somewhere nearby, she jumped a little before turning around to face the source of the sound.

"Oh," she said, realizing it was one of her co-Slytherins. "I, erm...don't really know. It's a...thing." She was oh-so-helpful. Finally, she shrugged. "I don't know. It just came rolling this way, and since it looked sort of weird, I picked it up." Yeah. Her father would go ballistic if he found out she'd picked something up without knowing what it was. He'd taught her way better than that.

Hogwarts was so weird this year. Isabelle was positive she hadd been seeing magical creatures that live in the forest roaming the grounds freely and now there was this orb Divination thing. What was happening to the school? Really Beauxbatons wasn't even this weird and Isabelle thought it was weird after two years of Hogwarts. Plus she thought it was even more awesome because of the duck pond!

Ummm. Well wat was this thing anyways. "Um. Well whatever it is its weird looking," Isabedlle said going baacck to her fellow Slyterin person. "Maybe you should take it to Mister Centaur Guy the Divination teacher, it seems all Divinationy," Isabelle said. "Or it might be one of those prophecy things. Or some communicaator from aliens." Yes it was totally an alien comunicator, but Isabelle was just spewing ideas.

Jez put her not noticing the orb's disappearance sooner down to distraction. When she did notice, she also noticed the two girls down the corridor who had picked it up. "Hey!" she called, running over to them. "It's weird, isn't it? I found it outside a couple of days ago, I've been trying to work out what it is ever since." Although alien communicator wasn't something she had thought about before. "You think it might be a prophecy?" she asked, looking at the orb doubtfully. She'd never seen a prophecy glow like that before.

Olivia had been searching all break, but still she could not find Flippert. Starting her search on the third floor she peered into any open room or any door with a crack big enough for a Pygmy Puff to fit under. She would not fail Slytherin by loosing a Pygmy Puff which, infact, she diddn't even loose, it ran away by it's self, while she was sleeping. Olivia had thourally checked the common room. But somehow, Flippert had managed to squeeze out.

Oh what was that! That little blueish green orb!

Olivia got a closer look as it rolled and twitched by her, it was not Flippert!! But it sure was cool!

Sierra just started at the thing. She probably shouldn't have picked it up, because it most definitely wasn't the Slytherin thing to do, but it had all happened before she'd thought to think better of it. She made a slight face when the girl mentioned Thereos. "Thereos?" she said. "It just freaks me out to look at him. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with him, but...he just has this weird resemblance to my dad. Except...with a lot more hair." It was weird how much their faces looked alike, though.

"It could be a prophecy," she said aloud, thinking that one over.
"I don't know. Maybe we should just leave it alone. It seemed pretty happy rolling around all by itself." She just couldn't be bothered with a thing...or a crystal ball...or a prophecy. Whatever it was.



Sierra glanced up from the thing when she heard another girl approaching them. Looking up, she saw a Ravenclaw girl she didn't think she knew. "Weird. Yeah...," she mumbled. She grew quiet for a few seconds while she listened to the girl's story. "So maybe we should just throw it back outside," she suggested. As long as it wasn't bothering her, which so far it wasn't, it could just roll to its little heart's desire. Well, it didn't have a heart, but still... "Or maybe we should just let it roll and see where it goes..." What were they? Superheroes? Gryffindors? Why should they be bothered with what happened to this thing?



Hearing footsteps nearby, Sierra glanced over at another fellow Slytherin and gave her a small nod of acknowledgement. It looked like the girl had been watching the thing just before Sierra had picked it up.

Olivia was about to walk up to the fourth floor, when some other Slytherins appeared and one girl picked up the orb. Olivia noticed her give her nodd. There were examining it! I better get over there, Olivia thought. They were talking about Thereos, Okay... "Well, you don't have to be the one to give it to him" Olivia suggested as she approached the group.

Maybe it was a prophesy, or crystal ball. "We, could ask it something, or let it roll away and follow it" said Olivia. Reading to much into it was totally the un-Slytherin like thing to do, but Olivia was too curious to let this go. Maybe the sorting hat was right and she did belong in Hufflepuff, she kind of told the hat to put her in Slytherin.

Nate came strolling along and he found himself at the humpbacked witch statue. He then saw the orb yet again. He went up to the person holding the orb and said "Be careful with that orb. I think that is the reason why the creatures are coming out of the forest. Just be careful with it. You never know if it's dangerous." Nate looked at the orb with a cautious look. He didn't like that orb. He just didn't have a good feeling about it.

"It deffinatly does, have something to do with the forest. And Im starting to think this is no prophacy" Olivia replied.

"Yes I would have to agree with that. I don't like that thing. There is something weird about it. I can just feel it. You know that feeling when you're being watched, or you feel something is not right. Well that's the feeling that I'm getting from this strange orb."

"I see what you mean, I can tell it has some dark properties. What if there's a new dark wizard out there who created it, and setting things loose from the dark forest is all part of his evil plot!". Olivia paused for a moment, and stared at the orb. It was hypnotising and she had to fource her eyes away, she blinked. What if this thing took over her mind! "Guyes I think we should ask it a question, Im pretty sure Jez has already done that, but even if the orb doesn't answer It might do something else after we speek to it".

"Once again I have to agree. If that doesn't work two of us should try to find a teacher, and take it to them. Then the others should go to the library and see if they can find anything about an orb like this. What question should we ask it though."

Sierra didn't really know this girl, but she was already starting to like her. After all, she was suggesting that Sierra didn't have to go see Thereos, which scored her brownie points right there. Again, Thereos was an alright guy...err, centaur...but the eerie resemblance to her father was just too much to handle for long. "I think we should just let it roll away and follow it," Sierra said with a slight shrug. "It seemed to be doing alright on its own before, and the way I see it is the best way to figure out what it's up to is to let it show us."



Sierra looked up at some Puffer with a raised eyebrow expression. "There's creatures coming out of the forest?" she asked. "...and you think this thing might be responsible?" Well, dear MERLIN! If that was true, a freaking Hippogriff could come storming along any second now and she'd be right in the line of fire! She looked down at the thing, now being called an orb, with a different outlook now.

Come to think of it, though, hadn't she seen a hippogriff wandering along somewhere at the beginning of the school year?



Dark properties? New dark wizard? "Okay, you know what? I'm getting rid of this thing," she said. If it had infected her with some dark disease, she'd...she'd...she'd... Well, she didn't know what she'd do. She could DIE, according to these people. "So if you want to ask it a question, be my guest. Maybe it'll lead you to...something." You know, other than a wild hippogriff.

"Alright, well...have at it," she said. "Ask anyway." Then she bent down and pushed the orb forward with a little roll. "See where it leads you..."