Christmas smiled and said "That is cool and i am glad that i got sorted into Gryffindor i was worrying that i would end up in Slytherin"

"Well Slytherin is not a bad house. It just has a bad reputation. You would have been fine in Slytherin but it is wonderful that you made Gryffindor. So would you like to ask more questions.".

Christmas smiled and said "Yeah i know and hmm what do you say is your favourite class here at Hogwarts"

"Well, my favorite subject has got to be Care of Magical Creatures. Learning spells is wonderful. But getting to see astounding creatures and learning how to take care of them is just beyond words. I love it beyond all else.". Oichi paused deep in thought on Magical creatures for a moment. She then snapped out of it and looked back toward Christmas. "So what is you're favorite subject thus far at Hogwarts?".

Christmas smiled and said "So far it has to be History of Magic but that will change probably pretty quickly"

"Ah, what do you like about that class", Oichi was never partial to it but she still responded kindly and was honestly curious.

Christmas smiled and said "Well i like to find out about history of our world and it has always interested me"

"Yeah, that can be interesting but it is not usual my thing. And our current assignment in that clas is really making me scratch my head. I really don't like the way muggles are portrayed in wizards comic. I have barely been able to come up with anything for the homework. I am trying to come up with something I don't find completely offensive and my lack of drawing sills really is not helping either.".

Christmas smiled and said "Yeah i am the same Oichi i am struggling to come up with anything for the homework and i am not really a good drawer myself"

"Yeah, it is difficult though you have a wizarding background and get to go for a muggle comic character. They are super-heroes with extroidinary powers. You can have a guy who could breathe in noxious fumes and be able to save people from fires or toxic leakage with no risk of getting killed. I have to come up with some slapstick muggle thing that is not offensive to muggles that wizards might still like. Do you have any ideas?".

Christmas shrugged and said "Nope i have got no ideas at all"

"I am superb, by the way. I wonder if you have heard my theory about life. Once one is breathing and their heart is beating - there life is awesome, all else is extras!" yup, although as a teenager there was a day or two,,( or three or 4) where Sarah got a bit out of her real happy self, yet keeping that in mind always helped one from feeling down.

Sarah scanned a page, "yeah he is, he is the father of all the Norse gods or something like that... he was the one who got the runes as someone mentioned him in class..."

So Penelope also did not know what to do with the pendant, "I guess I could.. perhaps a necklace, I am more likely to lose a bracelet...". What it is good for.. Sarah luckily remembered that, she turned the pendant over and showed it to Penelope, "see, these runes engraved on the back? They are Sowilo, Fehu, and Jera, it is the runic charm for success... although it is not the Felix Felicis it will as the professor said "helps you be at peace with your efforts when you venture a new step in your life.". Which is really good. In fact in our brain there are things called neurons" (not nephrons.. they are kidney filteration things) "every time we learn something It developed connections in our brains, yet whenever we get anxious or stress, the connections severes, which is why this charm will be useful if it works. If one does not stress, they will remember things better.
Yet, Sarah always one to state her views said, "I personally do not believe in the Norse gods, I need facts, not legends... Also, I am not onew to believe in superstitions or amulets, yet I suppose it won't hurt to wear one... if I had a necklace to attatch it too it will be great. BY the way.. when is your birthday?"

Alice pushed her own teddy bear, the precious pig rabbit that Melanie had made for her a while back, far away from the pile of ones they were going to practice charms on. "So Piggit won't get hurt by any of them," she explained to Melanie. Because she LOVED her pig rabbit, mhm. "No, no, the shrinking charms bo-ring." She wanted to chop the heads off teddy bears and such. Ahem. "The nice ones are no fun, Melon." The whole point of this was the destroy teddy bears, right?

.. yeah. She really needed to get some of that pent up anger out, too.

With that, the fourth year turned back to the book. "The Severing Charm, incantation: Diffindo," she read aloud. "Invented in the fifteenth century by wizarding seamstress Delfina Crimp. She made the spell because prior to her discovery, cutting spells were apt to burn or shred things." .. wait, so the spell was invented for sewing? Hm. That seemed a bit odd to Alice, but she didn't comment. "So.. we just aim our wands at the target and white light should spurt out of end. And then teddy bear heads will roll." She squinted at the book a little more, and then turned to Melanie, beaming. "Can I go first?"

She could totally go first, pfft.

The lioness pulled out her wand and grabbed a teddy bear from the pile that Melanie had organized in front of them. Pointing the thing at the neck of the teddy bear, she whispered the incantation. "Diffindo." A little smile appeared on her face as white light burst out of the end of her wand. Alice dragged it across the air, moving the beam across the stuffed animal's throat, before the light faded away. And then a teddy bear head fell off and stuffed animal fluff flew everywhere.

"Did I do that right?"

Sarah had a theory on life? That wasn't too surprising. She was pretty smart, so Penelope figured she probably had a lot of theories on a lot of things. The Gryffindor nodded. "That's a good theory." Seemed reasonable, at least to her. And she figured she agreed. It was awesome to just be alive. The alternative was...well, it seemed scary. Much more so than living. Penelope refused to think too much on that though. It would just...lead to a lot of bad thoughts.

She nodded again when Sarah seemed to accept her suggestion, then set her textbook next to her on the bed to better allow her to lean forward and see the engravings her friend was pointing out to her. Oh, so that was what it was for? Success and not stressing and stuff? Interesting. That would be pretty helpful. "I should try to find mine and start wearing it." Wouldn't hurt to try it, right?

Another nod as Sarah explained her views. Also reasonable. Penelope couldn't say she believed them either, but they were interesting to learn about. That lesson had been pretty fun, at least with the hammer stuff, even if she didn't understand a lot of the discussion beforehand. "I have a spare one you can use for it if you want." There was only one necklace that she ever really wore, and she had it on now. So any random ones that were in her trunk because she was too lazy to take them out were fair game.

Her birthday? "January 30th," she replied. "Yours?"

Sarah was glad that Penelope liked her theory... part of having theories was sharing them after all.

"Perhaps I can borrow a spare chain for a whie... until I get my own? I cannot wait to try it out!" Sarah said.

"My birthday is February 20th... just three weeks after yours!" Sarah said all the while making mental note of Penelope's birthday.

"I hope you don't mind if I do things as we talk. I have this new thing I want to try out..." Sarah said to her friend. "as it is winter I thought that it might be nice to get into warm pajamas". Sarah went to get her nightgown and laid it out on the bed. "There is a spell called chaudnesis which warms things up... I am going to try use it on my nighty..." she informed her friend. She took out her wand and preformed the spell... then she checked on the nighty. It was warm now, "see it worked!" she proclaimed to her friend.
"Thats one thing I like about Hogwarts... being able to do so many spells although you are under 17..."

Melanie seemed like she was scared to hurt her precious teddy bears, so maybe she could just watch while Alice did it? Whatever it was, she was going to continue. "Shrinking charm! We can shrink the bears down and make them bigger again?" It sounded okay to her. But Melanie probably wasn't listening, so when the fourth year flipped open the page of the spell, she didn't bother reading the history aloud this time.

"The light should be purple," she clarified for Melanie. "I'm gonna go ahead and try, mmk?" Reducio. That was the incantation, and the hand movement was just a simple point. Easy enough, right? "Reducio."

.. NOTHING.

UGH.

Melanie held a book under her arm with a teddy bear and a cup of tea in her other hand. She was going to make sure that Alexa Cambridge slept at the appropriate time. It made absolutely no sense to Melanie for a second year to be up in the middle of the night and later than herself. The fifth year took a quick sip of her tea, feeling a bit tired herself from all the studying she had been doing to prep for the OWLs that were coming closer and closer with each passing day.

"Leeeeeeeex?" Melanie called out, looking for the girl, "It's almost eleven. It's time for bed."

And Melanie was tired, so it was probably best for the younger girl to come out from wherever she was now and just sleep.

Lex was jumping in her bed. She did that sometimes before going to sleep when she needed to make herself super tired, like now. Melanie wanted to her go to bed before 1! It was ridiculous and she would never fall asleep unless she went and burnt off some of the excess energy. Once it was gone the older girl would have no problem getting her to bed.

The problem was...she wasn't ready to go to bed. Nope. So when she heard Melanie's voice heading towards the Dorm she hopped off she bed and shuffled under it.

From where she crawled she saw the girl enter the room with a book and some tea. Wow, she came prepared. Too bad she was prepared in vain because Alexa Cambridge was NOT tired and did NOT plan to go to be just because the older girl was telling her to. She stifled a giggle when the girl began calling for her.

Any noise and she would have been caught. Duh.

So now she would stay down here until the girl gave up and decided to go to bed without her. Yup. Seemed legit.

It would definitely help if Melanie remembered which bed was Alexa's. It really would, but she didn't. Did she look for the messiest one? Or did Lex keep things neat? What if a house elf cleaned here? She really wasn't sure. With a slight frown, the Gryffindor continued to look around the dormitories for the girl.

"Lex~ Come out, come out wherever you are," she said in a sing-song sort of voice, looking around some more. Where was the younger girl? "Remember, if I can't find you, you can't get the chocolate frog," Melanie added before taking a sip of her tea. Because she was pretty sure that would get the girl out.

She stood in the middle of the room, tapping her foot. Her feet were very cozy in the teddy bear slippers she was wearing. Melanie could just stand here and wait right? The girl would come out after the mention of chocolate frogs? "And if you don't get the chocolate frog, I'll eat it for you."

Pffffft, Melanie could call until her face turned blue but there was no way Lex was leaving the safe haven that was underneath her bed. She could very well stay there and talk to the dust bunnies until the girl left because 1 am was her target time and not a minute before--

Chocolate frogs! She forgot about those!!! Eeeeek!

Lex shot up before she could remember that she was under a bed and hit her back and head against the under side of the bed.

"Ow...." She grumbled, crawling out slowly. Her back! Her head! How very ruuuuuude of the bed to have done that. Couldn't it have been kind enough to make itself cushy or at the very least move?

"Don't eat it! I'm here! I'm here!" She said, forcing herself up then dusting herself off a bit. Those were meant to be her chocolate frogs.

Melanie continued to wait patiently, taking another sip of her tea before hearing a thud. Ouch, that sounded painful. Wincing a little, Melanie watched as the younger girl crawled out from under the bed. What had Alexa been doing down there? "Are you alright?" Melanie asked, worried about the girl. She walked over, touching the girl's head to make sure there wasn't a bump there. "It doesn't hurt a lot right?" Because if it did, they'd have to go see the healer and get that checked out.

Assuming the girl was fine, Melanie took a step back and smiled. "I don't know what you were doing under the bed, but it's time to get under the covers and let me tuck you in," Melanie said, setting her cup down on a table nearby. She placed the teddy bear she had been holding on the bed. "And you can sleep with a teddy bear if you want to, because it helps me sleep when I'm snuggling a bear," she added. "You'll get your chocolate frog in the morning. I don't want you staying up late because of the sugar." That would defeat the purpose of even trying to get the girl to sleep if Melanie gave her a chocolate frog.

Right.

"So are you ready?" Because Melanie was.

Even before Melanie got to her to ensure she was fine she was already checking to make sure nothing had gone horribly wrong. Horribly wrong would mean the healer and the healer would mean bad stuff. Luckily, as far as she could tell, there was nothing wrong and she would be alright! "Nah, not really. I mean it kinda hurts but not like the super painful kinda hurt that has you screaming out and rolling around on the ground senseless." But strangely enough, she had the feeling that even if it was that bad she would still be opposed to going to the healer. It just wouldn't happen, okay??

Her gaze fell on her bed at the mention of being tucked in and all that stuff. She hadn't been tucked in in the longest while so she didn't protest, yet. And seeing as she wasn't protesting, she happily took the teddy and crawled into the bed, throwing on the covers after she was through. Once that was done she was ready to begin her appeal. "But whhhhyy? Can't I have the chocolate frog now? And how come I have to go to bed like right this second? Can't I stay up for a bit moreeeeee? What if I had the chocolate frog then we waited like another hour for that sugar to run off? Wouldn't that kinda be good too??" And now she seemed even less tired than before.

She threw off the covers once more and stood on the bed. "I can get rid of the energy afterwards you know! I can jump! See!" Then she proceeded to bounce all over her bed.

Jump. Jump. JUMP!

Okay good. It wasn't the super painful hurt. "If it hurts later on though, you let me know and we'll ice it. And if it gets worse, we'll go visit the healer," Melanie decided. Because she didn't want the girl to suffer from anything bad if Alexa had bumped her head a bit too hard. Though the image Melanie had in her mind of the girl rolling around senseless was definitely not a pretty one. She'd rather if something like that didn't happen. Right. Bedtime. Melanie would need to stop worrying about this.

Melanie smiled as she watched Alexa throw the covers over herself. That was a good sign. There were no protests just yet, which was even better. Melanie placed the book by the tea and started to tuck the girl in. "You cannot have the chocolate frog now," she sighed, as she looked at the younger girl. "And you need to sleep now because sleep is good for you," she added, smoothing out the sheets. Alexa Cambridge was making Melanie very tired. And the girl was going on and on about chocolate frogs. Well, she wasn't but to Melanie it really felt like it, especially since she was a bit sleepy herself. "No, Lex, you'll-"

What was Alexa doing?! Melanie had been ready to sit and start reading to the girl but then there was jumping. A lot of it. "Alexa Cambridge! You will stop that right now before you hurt yourself," Melanie scolded, placing her hands on her hips and staring at the jumping Gryffindor who had way too much energy.

Lex almost willed herself to not listen as Melanie went on about the injuries she was sure she didn't have but then she realized that the girl wasn't talking about taking her to the Healer anymore, she was just going on about icing it. That was fine. She could live with that. "Okie dokes! I will! And you can be like a doctor 'cause you know why? 'Cause doctors sometimes give candy when they're done seeing a patient and I'd be your patient." The thought of Melanie being a doctor wasn't even all that weird because the girl was so good at taking care of people and making them feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

She continued bouncing as she thought about everything she said but she was careful not to bounce on the teddy because that would have been mean. "But don't you think I'd fall asleep quicker if I had chocolate frogs now? Plus, sleep is good and all but I'd still have the same amount of sleep if I went to bed late and woke up late." There was a pause for her to get a good pause in. "The first class I have tomorrow is History of Magic maybe and I don't care if I fall asleep because well rested or not I would, you know." Just saying.

It seemed the more the bounced was the bouncier the bed got. She found herself going higher and higher but froze at the sound of her full name.

Blink. Blink.

The 12 year old slumped down onto her bed again with her legs crossed. "Okay okay...jeez..." No need to go full name. Merlin.

Mackenzie slowly paced her dormitory, mentally going through a checklist of all of her assignments. Once she was sure she had accomplished all she needed for the night, she finally laid back on her four poster bed. As much as she loved her bed it was nothing compared to the beautiful hand carved bed that adorned her bedroom at home.