...and brought her up to the second floor.

Forrest was very careful to keep clear of the suits of armour, though. He even eyed them suspiciously from afar, and soon enough, he was explaining why.

"Keep away from those, they're malicious," he said. He'd already let go of her hand and leant forward towards her ear as they faced them. One hand pointed at the armours. "They attacked me last year while I was doing astronomy homework." He was 200% serious, and his voice betrayed his fear. He had never been avenged... but she was the person he would like to keep out of trouble, so he didn't say that.

Instead, he turned her slowly by holding her from the shoulder. "And here we have arithmancy classroom, headmistress' office--protected by a password--and girls' bathroom." His hand was pointing at places as he named them. He couldn't warn her about Mrytle, though, as he'd never ever wandered even somewhere close to the bathroom. So she'd have to see it herself.

He was curious just how much she would remember in the end, seeing as it'd taken him half a year to get everything correct.

Fern couldn't believe how hard it was to find a restroom in this castle. All these corridors and levels, and then there were the moving staircases that complicated EVERYTHING! It was a miracle she'd found the girl's room without having an accident.

Mentally retracing her steps so that she'd never have to go through this again, the first year stepped out of the restroom and -

"FORREST!" she cried, before she noticed the girl with him.

And his hand on her shoulder.

And his face close to her ear.

OOOOOOooooh!

Tours were so fun, yes?

Bristol looked around at everything there was to see. One thing that had initially surprised, was just how many staircases and corridors there were. It did make sense, though, as there were SO many rooms. She wanted to look in them all and explooooore, but she knew that Forrest wouldn't want to and she had to respect that. Friendship before everything - including possible adventures.

Malicious, she considered, as she tuned into what he was saying. "If they're malicious, why are they allowed in Hoggywarts?" Bristol STARED at the empty suits of armor. Surely, if that was the case, that was a breach of health and safety. Not that she cared - they would interesting to experiment for her. "They attacked you!?" She whisper!cried, looking her bestie in the eye. He was really close to her right now, but she couldn't care less because she needed to get across all the feelings that showed in her eyes. The oh-no-they-didn't look, the look and much more like that. No way any silly suits of armor would be doing that again under HER watch.

"I'm watching you." There. Hear that armor?

You've been warned.

Oh. He was showing her something else, she realised and was instantly distracted. "Ew, Arithmancy," she said instantly and glanced at Forrest, hoping that he wasn't offended. Maybe he LOVED the subject, but she didn't. Password protected? "Would that be a hard password to guess? ... Not that I want." Obviously. Lastly, the girls' bathroom. Always helpful to know. She nodded and grinned at Forrest, he was a really good tour guide, did he know?

She was so immersed in the tour, that she didn't even notice the other person in the corridor.

Forrest wanted to be dramatic and whisper 'This is Hogwarts, please don't die!' but he didn't want to scare his bestie; even though they'd met when she scared him. Instead, he just shrugged. He was so intent on eyeing them that he didn't even notice 'hoggy' part.

"Yes," he simply said as he frowned and looked back at her. "I was just lucky to get out unhurt." Ooookay, maybe the last part was an exaggeration. But what if he enjoyed her attention, hmm? There was nothing wrong in that... right? Right. He wasn't going to be any more dramatic though, because they had promised each other they would be honest.

They were too close. Oh well. She certainly wouldn't kiss him, so it was fine. He'd seen his brother kissing girls before, and they had been this close too. It was ew though, and Bristol didn't do ew. Instead, she was watching the armours, see? Hear that? So they'd better think twice before attacking him again.

"I don't even know what it is." He ought to select lessons this year, but he was far from being interested. It was ages till that time. Surely, sometime, he'd visit Professor Hadley. Or Airey. Maybe both. Now though, now his whole attention was on Bristol.

...and also on Fern.

He'd opened his mouth to answer her question, but Fern interrupted his thoughts and he pulled away from Bristol, back to her normal personal area.

"Fern, hi!" He grinned at the girl. He didn't bother to introduce them to each other though, since they shared dormitory and probably knew each other very well.

"We were just touring the castle," he said casually. "Have you seen around already?" If not, he could show her too.

'cos you know, he definitely enjoyed the attention and their impressed looks at him for knowing so much.

Fern tried hard to keep a straight face, but as soon as she recognized the girl as her dormmate, Bristol, she broke into a delighted gap-toothed grin.

This was sooooo romantic!

"I've been to almost all of the floors, I think," thanks to those no-good, tricky staircases, "actually...I'm not even sure what level I'm on right now."

"But don't worry about me!" she added quickly, flapping a hand in their direction, "I don't want to interrupt your da-ate!" Then, despite her best efforts, the 11-year-old started to giggle.

Bristol continued staring at the suits of armor, hoping that her threatening body language was getting across to them. No one touched her best friend. Not under her watch or at any other time. "Yeah," she agreed, then smiled at Forrest, "they'll never have the chance to hurt you again, anyways." Of that she was absolutely sure.

Still watching you, armor. Always.

During their discussions of armor and subjects, Bristol hadn't been having 'ew' thoughts, she wasn't even close to thinking things like that - in fact, she'd be flailing and calling out 'ew' if she heard Forrest's thoughts.

Oh. "Arithmancy is numbery type stuffs." Did that make sense? "I don't think it'd be that much fun, honestly." She shrugged, about to tell Forrest what subjects she was looking forward to, but she distracted by a Fern Her dorm mate. "HI, FERN," she giggled, unaware at the current moment of the girl's 'ew' thoughts.

How did she not know what floor she was on? Bristol was SUPER aware of her surroundings right now. "This is the second floor," she told her dorm-mate, grinning ... then lost her grin. "Nooooo, not a daaaate." Wide eyed and flailing, she rushed to correct her. "Just a Hogwarts tour with my best friend." Nothing ew going on here, nope. Forrest wasn't like that, she was sure.

Forrest let the girls chat, because they liked that. He could be distracted easily, but their love for a chat was so great, even he had noticed that.

...and he noticed Fern's WRONG comment.

His mouth fell open as he stared at the girl dumbly. Date? What? Like his brother did? No, thanks. He would rather not. His confusion turned into slight disgust and it showed on his face.

"No!" he exclaimed at the same time as Bristol explained. He let her explain, because he was too shocked to speak. "Yeah. She's my BFF." With capitals.

...was Fern, Bristol's BFF? Was she jealous? Perhaps that was why she accused them in a very ugly way? Anyways, Forrest could forgive her still.

"You can join the tour too." He smiled. See? No dates to interrupt.

Oh.

Fern stopped giggling and frowned, pursing her lips and wrinkling her forehead in confusion. Only a couple minutes ago, she had sworn Forrest and Bristol were about to kiss. And there was no way she could be wrong about that; when Uncle Carl had been talking to an old classmate at Flourish and Blotts, Fern had quickly skimmed Teen Witch Weekly's article 10 Signs He Likes You.

Forrest had been displaying at least TWO of the signs.

"You can be best friends and date." She pointed out finally. "Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger were best friends, and they dated...well, I think they did. I know they got married, so they must have dated before that."

And if Forrest and Bristol didn't believe her they could come and see her Famous Witches and Wizards Cards collection. It was very extensive, and Tallulah had given her a binder with plastic sleeves to keep them in. Fern's father redid the dust-repelling charm every year, but now that she had a wand, she could do it all by her self.

"But sure, I'll come along!" ...if only to prove she was right.

Sophie was still holding her wand as she made her way to the Hufflepuff Common Room. She did like to cast minor and random Charms around the school as she walked around, and this time would be no different.

After making a few things levitate and/or twist here and there, the girl walked past an open window and looked out. No trees nearby or anything. Well, obviously, that was the second floor and the castle wasn't build anywhere near trees. The badger leaned on the window sill and looked down to the ground.

Hmmmm.......... interesting...

That totally gave her ideas. Ideas related to the spell she had just been practising in the Charms practise room. Oooooooooo!! Cool!

Sophie got her bag out of her shoulder and held it outside the window. She considered what she was about to do for a few seconds before letting go of her bag. There it went! Towards the grooound obviously!! "Arre--" NO!! NonverbalSophie!! She was able to stop herself and actually cast the spell nonverbally before her bag hit the ground. In fact, everything had happened so fast the bag was yards away from the floor even though it was still slowly going down. Way slower than it was before, though, which meant the Charms had worked.

That, of course, made Sophie smile brightly and summon her bag back up to the window and to her outstretched hand. "Brilliant!" The Hufflepuff exclaimed as she turned around and resumed walking towards the Common Room.

He'd try again. He decided, he wasn't gonna give this up, even though he had a plan in mind. That came up and now he'd focus on that- at least once more that is. He grabbed the hackysack and started his trek back up to the library.

After a week of pure observation, Léa decided that these Hogwarts people were living far too comfortably without any pressing concern. She would still prefer her Beauxbatons palace, but she had to admit that the castle was better than her expectations. People were also all too nice... plus, they had beaten both them and Durmstrang... so she felt the urge to do something to disturb them. A joke, you might call it. Yes, a small joke. She knew all about the Harry Potter era of course, like every wizard kid did these days, and her clever brain had quickly formed a perfect plan. The first step was ordering a toy cat from her parents. She hadn't told them the reason, of course, so her mother must have thought she wanted it to keep as a night company or something because the cat was pink. She wasn't pleased with it at all, but it had to do. The second step was to observe the nightly patrols, and third was to perfect the spells required for it. Once she was done with all the steps, she decided on a day - Valentine's Day, to be exact - and set to work.

She waited for everyone in her dormitories to fall asleep first, and once she made sure that EVERYONE was fast asleep indeed, she slipped out of the Ravenclaw Common Room at 2 o'clock in the night in her slippers to make as little noise as possible. She carried the cat in one hand while the other held her wand. She quickly descended the stairs to her destination - with a lot of caution of course and making SURE that NO ONE had seen her - and in about five minutes, she was viewing the wall right next to the Girl's Bathroom.

The moment had come.

Casting a silent Wingardium Leviosa charm, she lifted the pink toy cat to hang it on the stick from its long tail - just like Mrs. Norris in 1992. She had always been obsessed with details, so she was careful for its face to view the front-down. Once she'd arranged its posture, she yanked her wand powerfully to the right so that the tail would be hung down the stick. She smiled to herself and nodded once - certainly celebrating her work - then turned her attention to the wall ahead. After a few complicated wand movements, she smiled and nodded to herself - a bigger smile for sure. She was nearly done... she only needed some water here, and that came via a silent Aguamenti - flooding the entrance of the bathroom and in front of the wall - she was, of course, careful not to step on the water as it would leave footprints. Once she was done with it as well, she turned to leave. She was 10000000% sure NO ONE had seen her as it was the middle of the night and the corridors were ill-lit. Pausing to view her art from afar, she giggled to herself silently and fled to Ravenclaw Tower - taking necessary precautions to not be seen again.

A few complicated wand movements were all that was necessary for this task. As the French girl walked away, ominous words in a deep, blood red began dripping down the wall...

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened.
Enemies of the heir... beware

Lex was up at the crack of dawn...actually it was probably way later than that but seriously it was earlier than noon so it counted for something. With a yawn and a kneazle still half asleep, she made her way down corridor after corridor. She herself was still a bit sleepy but there was no time to stay in bed. Today was VALENTINE'S DAY. No she did NOT care about love and crushes and all that other garbage associated with today, she was more thinking all the CHOCOLATE the elves would have prepared down in the kitchen for this occasion. Lottie would never know. She'd be in and out in no time.

As she rounded the corner she noted something hanging from the ceiling.

...

This wasn't Felix's doing, obviously. He didn't kill other felines and he didn't know how to tie knots. As cautious as a Gryffindor could be, she got closer, you know, to get a better look. Poor thing. It would have been so happy if she'd found it while it was still alive. Lex fished her wand out of its holster and poked it a bit...wow. Something else caught her attention. Lex's eyes widened significantly as she turned to the wall itself.

"Holy Kneazle!!" She staggered a few feet away from the wall but didn't run. No. Gryffindors didn't run. Instead she STARED at the writing. "Whoa......" This was probably a really bad time but this was so COOOOL!! bksvbsdkfgsjkgfvje!!!!

Adrienne didn't like winter, and she didn't like spring, either (too many allergies), and she certainly didn't like seeing all of these couples doing sickly sweet things for each other because ''tis the season,' as Papa always said as he made Maman breakfast in bed on each and every Valentines day. It nearly made her gag, though. Ugh. She hated romance, with a burning, disgusted passion. As she headed towards the staircase that would take her up to her dormitory (and hopefully not decide to lead somewhere else today), Adrienne noticed a girl who seemed to be staring- either intently or terrified- at the opposite wall. "What's your deal?" she started to ask as she traced the girl's vision to the wall where- MERLIN'S PANTS. WHAT. WAS. THAT.

She let out a few particularly vile French curse words before she got full control of her voice again, at which point she just took a breath and shut her mouth. Her mind was racing, thoughts ranging from Merlin, is that blood? to Haven't I heard the name Chamber of Secrets before somewhere? to Oh my god we'RE ALL GOING TO DIEEEEEEE. It took her a minute to get the words out, but she managed to ask the apparently equally frozen older girl a question. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Caleb was walking back from completing his Charms homework and heard a bunch of YELLING. UGH. Did anyone know what time it was?? Caleb had a serious headache and was not about to let these girls continue screaming. Not until he had tea or something in his system.

"OI! Do you have any idea how lou--" his sentence broke off when he took a look at the wall, and discovered what they were yelling about.

His mouth fell open in amazement. He'd read about his happening before, but there was no Harry Potter around to fight a basilisk. In fact, the basilisk was dead, right? So what was the threat here? Still, it irked Caleb that someone was threatening the school, and knew how to even do that spell with the blood and stuff. He looked around really fast, remembering what he'd read in his History of Magic books - ok, no petrified person nearby. That was a good sign.

"If anyone wants MY opinion," Caleb said loudly, since these girls were older than him but still freaking out like little children. "I think it's all a rouse. Someone is trying to scare us," he said, crossing his arms like he had just solved a decades old murder mystery case.

It was official. This was the BEST Valentine's Day she'd EVER had. Was Felix seeing this?? Her shouting woke him up yes??? OMG, a bloody Valentines Day. She must have been dreaming, no one pinch her.

Her ogling at the wall came to an end when she heard footsteps and finally a voice. It was that second year that tried using her as a human shield. Yeah, she remembered her. Lex could see the obvious terror in the girl's expression and found it even MOAR amusing. Dark Wizard or not, whoever did this sure knew how to make her day. The movement in her hands told her her kneazle was in fact awake and taking it all in as well. "Who cares what it means. This is the most epic thing to happen this term!" For the little that she knew of history a wry smile spread across her face. "If it's the chamber I'm thinking about, the entrance is right over there in the bathroom, wanna go look?"

But then there was someone else, someone asking if anyone wanted their opinion. Truthfully, no. Lex didn't care for any opinion but her own. She didn't get a chance to answer though because he was already speaking.

Little Mister Know-It-All should have been a Ravvie. "If that's what they're getting at then it failed." Lex wasn't scared, she was wildly intrigued by the idea of a basilisk running around the castle again but now he killed it. See what logic did? It ruined the adventure. Alexa walked over to the wall and ran her finger along the writing. "It's actual blood. Nice." Not NEARLY as nice now SLYTHERIN but still nice.

EWW SHE TOUCHED THE BLOOD! Gross.

"Who do you think could have opened it? Or CLAIMED they opened it," Caleb asked. He wasn't about to go following them into a bathroom, looking for a monster that might or might not actually be alive. He wasn't an auror just yet, and wasn't going to face a basilisk!

There were so many questions swirling around in his head now. He didn't know why someone would want to open the chamber again, or get everyone scared thinking that it had been opened.

Oh, hey look--there was her brother just down the corridor. Sophie nonchalantly headed his way. He was a girl, too. An OLDER girl. Hmm. Oh, that was Lex! Sophie had worked with her on that Ancient Runes assignment. She was pretty good at spell work, Sophie remembered.

As Sophie grew closer, she happened to catch the fact that everybody seemed to be looking in the same direction. Curiosity got the best of her, and she followed their gaze.

Uhh... O_O.

"Caleb," Sophie said, in a half whisper. "What did you do?" He didn't open that thing, did he? She did a side glance toward Lex. If that thing had been opened, Sophie hoped the Gryffindor did it. She didn't want this pointed on anybody sharing her blood.

...and the question remained, ...who was the heir and the enemy this time?

Mo was very tempted to goof off in the corridor, especially as he didn't have anywhere in particular to be and had finished his homework assignments. Plus there wasn't anyone around that he had to be all particularly mature and impressive for at the moment. So when he spotted the trickle of water on the floor, he quashed the bossy!pants!captain voice in his head that said he ought to tell a professor about the overflowing toilets on the second floor.

He was going to freeze the water and make an ice puddle to skate across.

Except the trickle was more than a trickle. More than a puddle, even. A small lake. Was there a squid in there? Mo traced the edges of the giant puddle spreading down the corridor until he came across a small group of students. A stuffed cat. And a really NOT funny message.

"What did you do, Cambridge? This could be considered an anti-Muggleborn activity... that's not a joke, you know?"

Airey was making his way down to the grounds for some fresh air and to harass Stick Nicky when he walked down the corridor and saw a group of students gathered. Odd place for a club to meet, but then again he had picked odder places as a student. He was just the slightest bit curious as to what they were gathered about when........

SWEET SOLSTICE HOLY ORION'S BELT. WAS THAT A DEAD CAT HANGING THERE?!

"Someone want to explain to me what is going on here?" he asked, pointing mainly to the DEAD feline hanging there. He hadn't even noticed that he had stepped in some water on the floor and soaked his pant leg. And it was only now that he saw Miss Cambridge caught red fingered. Only if it had really been her who had written.........wait. Say WHAT?

Blue eyes looked around at all the students. Yes. Someone. Explain. Now. Dead cat.

Cat had been sure, almost absolutely positive she'd left her hairbrush in the bathroom here. Surely, she had. Elodie had been messing about with her hair and that was the last place she remembered having it.

Except there were suddenly loads more important things than lost hairbrushes when Cat rounded the corner. A messy mess of water, a bunch of other students, a lost looking Professor and... whaaaat. Everything about this was very uncomfortable making. Dead cat, too. Like. SHE was a Cat.

Cat blinked at everything all curious like. Someone was going to be in troooouubbllleeeeeeeeee.

"It's not real, is it?"

Charlie had rounded a corner and had about to say a big HIII to Cat before she stopped in her tracks, noticing the Professor and his question.

Now, the water on the floor was something he was going to AVOID because she did not want her shoes to become ruined, but she eyes the hanging cat ruefully. Thankfully it wasn't Cat cat. That would have been a lot worse.

Obviously.

What she did notice was that the cat was pink. And she'd never seen a pink cat before. Not a real one, anyway.

Lex shrugged, rubbing her fingers together. Definitely real blood. Hard to miss. "I dunno, but they have a good sense of humour." She said to the firstie. "Considering you think it's a joke, you wouldn't be too chicken to come checking the bathroom with me, would you?" Smirk. There were only two outcomes. He could be right and they'd live....or he was dead wrong and only one of them would make it out, maybe none. Eh, details details.

And again they were joined--oh Sophie! She liked that firstie, she seemed cool and not at all like her spoil sport of a brother. Lex noted the look she had. THIS was the expected reaction that brought the adventure back.

Felix wiggled in her hand but he was ignored because another set of footprints...in water...water? She glanced down. When did that happen? Alexa wanted to see the look on Mo's face when he saw the message but that changed after she did. He wasn't very amused. Boo, another spoil sport--whaaaat? Lex blinked at him. "I'm flattered you think I could pull this off." Really she was.

And Professor Airey was there too. He looked just as shocked. "There isn't much to explain Sir. I walked into the hall, saw the cat then the writing, then this Ravenclaw showed up then Caleb came and spoiled my fun, then Sophie came and brought new hope for adventure but then Mo came blaming me and now you." Comprehensive coverage. She so had this.

Also HAI Cat and Charlie!

"I didn't do anything!" Caleb said to his sister. Why did she think HE did it? He wasn't an idiot, she knew that. He felt the need to say that anyways since Flamsteed was headed this way, and he did NOT want any rumors starting that HE had done it. He was just a first year, there was no way he could open the chamber! First off, he wasn't Parseltongue. Secondly, he didn't really CARE all that much about muggleborns and whether or not they were on his side. So why would he try and GET RID of them?

"I didn't spoil the FUN Professor," Caleb said, glaring at the Gryffindor girl. How did she know his name anyways? "I was just pointing out that this could all be a rouse. I mean, it's not really a SECRET what happened down there with Potter, right? There's no threat anymore, now that the basilisk and dead and everything, and I just thought...maybe someone was scaring us," he said.

And, he hated to admit it...but it was working.

"Unless, there's ANOTHER giant snake down there..." he said, his voice trailing off. UGH he didn't want to think about that. He just tried to tell himself that if that was true, he was safe. He was Slytherin. Pureblood. He was FINE.