Well, the first match was a success! No rough play really, at least nothing beyond what was to be expected.

These were Tiara's thoughts as she made her way to the Wall of Fame. The wind had picked up since the match finished, so she pulled her cloak close. Shivering, she pulled out her wand and performed a series of taps on the plaques, which updated for the first time of the term. The snarl of a badger could be heard as the wooden figure jettisoned to the top spot, with the lion head directly underneath and the eagle and snake still at the bottom.

Five total number of bludger hits and Cutty felt the loss all over again. The bludger was probably his favourite part of a Quidditch match, but he was left unsure if the plaque detailed Beaters hitting bludgers or the other way around. It was hard to tell with both.

It was good to know the results, but beyond frustrating that his mum had not been able to send him a new racing broom. Next year? He doubted that. Cutty didn't know her plan, if she could be said to have one, but he had a feeling it included making him a social pariah...beyond his own personally enacted efforts. The Slythie firstie pressed his back against the wall and sliiiiiiid down until he was sitting on the ground against it, glad to be alone. Though, he had guessed it was probably for the well-chilled wind that the entrance way was now experiencing.

Cutty removed a book from his bag and began to study the Siccus Aerous or Hot-air charm, wondering if it had the ability to also make ones voice all high-pitched 'n stuff as well. That, he imagined, would be dead useful. Though, what possible use did they have for a charm like this in Herbology? Nothing around him was terribly wet, but he practiced the wand movements anyway, two small clockwise circular motions and then along the area of what you wanted to dry.

Benzi had not shown up for the Quidditch match for a variety of reasons, one of which he will not tell you even if his life depended on it. NOPE. The reason he's saying to anyone who asks is that he wasn't about to pay to see a bunch of kids racing about on broom when it wasn't even HIS HOUSE competeing.

Therefore, he was here now. Just to see who won and who scored and stuff. He didn't really expect anyone to be there, but was glad all the same when he caught sight of Cutty on the ground. "Cutty!" he called him, and made his way over to the Slytherin, not sitting quite yet as he eyed the wall with the standings.

Hufflepuff, eh? That meant Forrest the Weirdo won. Bleh.

"What're you doing there?" he asked, sitting beside his Slytherin friend and eyeing the book he was holding.

"I missed the game." He said sounding particularly put-out by this. He was. "And I was trying to find some place I could practice a charm for Herbology. I think Siccus Aerous might make your voice higher." He said sounding a little cheered by this thought.

"Four bloody Bludger hits for Hufflepuff. Too bad that Fern Quimbley girl wasn't on the house team." Whether that meant beater hits still meant that there might have been bludger hits.

Benzi couldn't remember if he'd ever seen Cutty look this upset over something. He decided that he hadn't, and therefore this situation was awkward because Benzi didn't know the first thing about cheering people up. He was never called on to do that, ever.

Oh, Herbology! There was a better subject. "Oh, you're doing the homework? .. Er, why would you think that? Isn't it supposed to make stuff cold? Or warm, I don't remember," he said, pulling out his own wand and grabbing Cutty's book to see the instructions. They looked straightforward.

He made two clockwise circles along the patch of ground next to his hand. There. That didn't look too difficult.

"Does four bludger hits mean the Hufflepuffs hit the Gryffindors four times, or the other way round? .. Hehe, Fern would have hit the bludgers back and probably cost Hufflepuff the match," Benzi laughed, imagining the mad eleven year old on a broomstick. A slightly annoyed expression crossed his face as he remembered she had yet to return his parchment to him. The thief.

Benzi, one of few people who could just take things from Cutty without causing some sort of reaction. He remained seated calmly thinking about the Herbology homework, until his thoughts were pulled towards the Hufflepuffs.

Cutty laughed a snide little buttheady laugh at the mention of Fern messing up on the pitch. "She's so stupid." He said with an affectionate sort of smile, like what would he do to amuse himself if it weren't for Fern Quimbley. Sure there were others, but none as complete a package as she.

"Alright, time to practice." He drew out a few sheets of parchment from his bag and began to crumple them up, finding amongst them his copy of Aparecium Sophie Newell had left him that day in their common room. Quickly though, he folded it and stuck it in his robes. Careful. Don't want to lose that! "Aquamenti!" He said taking the first wad of parchment and wetting it thoroughly. "So it was, two clockwise motions ...in a circle...and then aimed at the thing you wish to dry...or maybe it was heat?" Cutty shrugged and gave it a go. "Siccus Aerous!". The little wet parchment wad flew back against the opposite wall like a spit-wad, but judging from it's tenacious relationship with the wall hadn't dried very much. It was a concentration thing, yes? Maybe.

Benzi couldn't argue there, Fern the Lake Girl was STUPID. And a thief. He grinned along with Cutty's laugh, though he would be a lot more cheerful should she return what was HIS. HMPF.

Right. Homework. Always fun.

Watching calmly as Cutty wet the parchment, he couldn't help but snort as nothing particularly interesting happened to the parchment aside from it sticking to the wall. "Let's see. . ."

Two clockwise circles, his wand moving over the parchment still stuck to the wall. Nothing interesting happened again, apart from it flying up slightly before hitting the ground with a wet splatch.

Benzi frowned before it hit him. "Wait, that wasn't clockwise was it?" Dangnabbit.

Cutty took another wad of parchment and after wetting it launched it onto the wall near where it's comrade had formerly been before it had landed onto the ground with a soggy sort of splatch. Cutty watched it fall and wondered if maybe Benzi had gotten his a little drier since it seemed to have lost it's hold against the wall.

"No, it was clockwise. And I think maybe our circles are too big." He took another parchment sheet and wet it, repeating the tossing to the wall until he'd had about five total including the one he'd previously launched. Then, following his own advice and trying out much smaller circles, Cutty tried the spell again. "Siccus Aerous!" Maybe it was a bit more advanced than he'd known since his results were just as lacklustre. Which was alright for the time as he had plans to spell out something moste dastardly against the wall in parchment wads.

Benzi eyed Cutty's doings with a blank look, not really understanding what he was trying to do but getting the feeling there was a point to the wads of parchment stuck to the wall. A point other than extra Herbology practice.

"What does this have to do with Herbology anyways? Isn't this charms?" he grumbled, watching Cutty attempt the spell again with non too shining results.

This time, his voice was a lot clearer. "Siccus Aerous," Benzi cast, glaring at the parchment he was trying to dry as it obnoxiously stayed put. But... "Hey I think I felt a little heat!" the eleven year old exclaimed, his face splitting into a wide grin. "You gotta sorta make the circles small but not really complete one before starting the other, you kinda drag the wand down into the second circle," he conveyed the information, examining the wet parchment with great interest as he spoke.

He poked it. "Yep, it feels a bit warmer."

"Ooh!" Cutty grunted like a curious animal making his already monkey-like features all the more simian as he leaned forward to watch Benzi's wand movements. He knew there was a reason he kept this kid around. Benzi was good at figuring stuff out quickly. One picked pockets and the other picked locks.

Turning back to his original position, Cutty faced his wad-wall masterpiece in the making and mimicked to the best of his ability his friends wand motion, dragging the motion down at the second circle. He felt a small gust of heat radiate from the tip of his wand as the magic emerged from it. He stared ahead at the wad at which he was aiming and swore he saw it move.

"I don't know! Maybe she's going to have us make our tea next." After that last class, he'd gathered that Professor Bentley was a bit...eccentric.

Benzi watched Cutty as he did the spell, nodding as he felt a bit of heat emanating from the wand tip. "There you go! .. It's supposed to be stronger though right?" he asked, not really expecting an answer as he stared at a particularly soggy wad of parchment that was to be his next target. He raised his wand.

"Siccus Aerous!" he stated loudly, perhaps a little TOO loudly, and once again began a staring match with the wad before- "OH OH CUTTY LOOK!" once again grinning from ear to ear as his wad appeared to be drying. But then he lost his concentration, and it continued to stick.

BUT STILL.

"Professor Bentley's mad," Benzi said as a matter of fact, looking at Cutty as if to wonder how that wasn't obvious.

"Sicc...I, you know I'm not even sure, really. I think it's meant to completely dry out anything wet. What'd the book say again?" He said interrupting himself and taking back the book for quick reference. "Yeah. The Hot-Air Charm is meant to dry-out objects made wet...via emitting a hot gust of wind." If he could aim it and time it just right, how far could he launch a scented burp in the next annoyances face?

Cutty looked up when he heard Benzi call his attention. "It moved! I totally saw it move! Do it again?!" He let out a pleased snort. "She is! Did you see her petting the leaves of that plant as we walked into class that day? Totally mental."

"Siccus Aerous!" His circle this time a little wider, but still using the method shown to him by Benzi a few moments ago. The gust emitted, though it had not gotten any hotter, seemed to be a bit stronger and this time he felt like it definitely had an effect on the parchment wad as it billowed slightly in the arid passage way. But was it his wand or the natural wind?

"Hmm. Perhaps we should just hold the charms for longer then?" he mused, eyeing the still not quite dry but definitely warmer wad of parchment. He scratched his chin thoughtfully as Cutty had his go at the charm, in the meantime laughing at their Herbology professor's antics. "Batty Bentley's got a weird thing for plants, that's for sure. I mean, you don't see Hadley walking around petting light bulbs do you?"

Right. His turn. "Siccus Aerous!" two clockwise circular motions, one leading into the other, his wand dragging over the wad yet all of this done painstakingly slowly. Benzi made sure to hold his concentration as he moved his wand, but couldn't help the slight grin when he literally SAW the parchment shrivel up then unceremoniously fall to the ground.

"BOOM BABY!" he beamed, raising both his hands to the air in celebration of his perfectly executed charm. "That was one HOT gust of wind I just made," he snorted and lowered his hand to a high five position, waiting for Cutty to hit it.

He found the image of Hadley roaming the corridors of the castle cradling and cooing over her light bulbs to be quite amusing. And also found that it would not surprise him if she did, as he'd found most encounters with witches at the school thus far to be of the cray variety. "HA! Batty Bentley! We're keeping that." He said, smacking his friends hand palm to palm. That was a goooood name. "Is it just me or are an unusually high number of witches here mad? I mean, did you reaad what Fern wrote about me in the Aparecium?"

Cutty stared at the wad-wall, not thinking about his intended design upon it but carefully concentrating on removing the wetness from it. "Siccus Aerous!" He said using smaller circles whilst also applying the dragging motion. The parchment drew paler and Cutty could hear the sharp crinkling sounds replace the soggy noises it had made earlier as he kept his wand focused on it for an extended period of time. He shut his eyes fully envisioning the parchment laying flat. When he opened one of his eyes to peek, followed by the other he could see that it had helped. The parchment had been slightly more flattened as the hot air from Cutty's wand had blown it straight against the wall. "Right. Now we're getting somewhere!"

"Probably be clever not to mention it to her though," Benzi countered, amused by his own joke. He would certainly laugh should Cutty ever call the Professor Batty Bentley to her face, but he had a feeling the Herbology teacher might not find it QUITE as funny. Shame, really. They needed teachers with a sense of humour - sort of like the Astronomy professor.

"DID I read it?! I was with her when it appeared - mate you should've seen her, she was so weird about it.. It was almost like she didn't mind saying she was your girl," the eleven year old said, still perplexed by that turn of events. He'd expected a chair thrown at his head, not happy girly skipping. "And then she STOLE my copy of the aparecium, which has yet to come back to me." GRUMBLE.

He grinned. "Nice one," he commented, lowering his hand from their highfive as he searched for his next target on the wall. He raised his wand and was about to utter the incantation when he remembered his little experiment during the charms homework, and decided he'd try it here too. AIR IN. AIR OUT. Concentration as of NOW. "Siccus Aerous," Benzi said, his voice as low and as normal as if he'd just stated the weather, his hand tracing the wand movement that now came sort of naturally to him.

He felt hot air and waited patiently for it to dry the wad of parchment to thoroughly that it seemed as if it peeled itself from the wall to the ground. Cue GRIN.

"Oh, I personally think she was probably trying to draw my attention that way. Trying to get me to think of her like that and make herself seem more desirable. She even crawled out of some barrels and caused a fuss in front of one of my best clients! Mental I tell you, mental." Or, that's how it was in Cutty's reality. Which he didn't think was too terribly off, given the additional information he'd received on Fern having stolen Benzi's Aparecium. "I'm willing to part with mine. For the right price. Have you got 4 sickles?" He was originally going to ask for 7, and possibly could get it if he threw in the fact that Sophie Newell had been the last person besides Cutty to handle the copy of the Aparecium, but there was that thing about going to the bathroom elsewheres of sleeping quarters.

While he waited for Benzi's reply, Cutty concentrated on the myriad of uses the spell possibly had to motivate himself towards performing it perfectlye. I mean, heck if Benzi Rider could do it why not Cutty Mordaunt. He stared at his next target and winding his wand in the motion familiar, he casted.


"Siccus Aerous!". The hot little gust propelled itself towards it's target and pushed itself into the nooks of the crumpled parchment until it had caused it to steadily unravel like a bursting bud. When Cutty felt the gust dying down, he applied the charm again keeping it going long enough to get the parchment sheet dry enough so that it made that crinkling sound again.

The new apparatus DID catch his eyes; the sound, his ears and the names, his heart.

He was going to practise a little on his own because he was still too shy to ask anyone. He was dressed in training outfit, holding a school broom in his hands. It was eight o'clock on a Sunday morning. He hoped no one would be on the pitch, but he couldn't reach it because he was staring at the plaque with his name on it. The Keller boy's name was in red, but he honestly saw the plaque like this:

Goals:

Lotus Wisteria - 3
*some silly Gryffindor*
Forrest Charlton - 1
Ella Bishop - 1


A silly grin was effectively on his face and he couldn't stare enough at it.

Benzi couldn't help but be a little taken aback by this. "FERN leaked that herself?!" he exclaimed, and proceeded to nod understandably at Cutty's predicament. "Really is a nut job. I'm just glad she decided to pick you and not me," he grinned in spite of himself, genuinely relieved. He did NOT need to have his name written on some gossip parchment linked to dating a Lake Girl.

At Cutty's NEXT words however, the Ravenclaw snorted. "Mate, I ain't paying you for somethin' that I already own," he pointed out. "And besides," he couldn't help adding, "who'd be thick enough to buy it for FOUR sickles? I'd give the aparecium 2 sickles at best, y'know, for those crazy girls.." he laughed lightly. "Then again, some girls are so weird they'd probably give you a galleon if you caught them at the right time." Girls were so strange.

Right, the spell they were working on. In all this aparecium talk Benzi had almost forgotten about it. Searching for one of the few targets still left on the wall he pointed his wand and, his tone bordering on bored, cast the spell with the wand movement required, his hand relaxed. The eleven year old grinned lazily as the steady stream of hot air dried out the parchment slowly, allowing it to retain some bendiness to it.

"I reckon we don't need to practice anymore right?" Benzi pointed out as he grabbed the warm parchment off the ground, crunching it up into a ball and tossing it against the wall for his own amusement.

"I know. She can't get enough of me. But that's to be expected." He said, not the least perturbed by a rumour being spread about him or even that it was Fern he was connected to. He seemed to relish the attention for exactly the same reason he'd accused Fern of leaking it. "I feel sort of bad for the Forrest kid." Did you, Cutty? I mean, really? You're such a liar!

"Ma'aate, four sickles is nothing compared to what you'll have to do to get it back from Fern." Likely. "Besides, would you pay four sickles knowing that Sophie Newell had handled it? I thought I could still smell her lipgloss on it." Or maybe it was her hair wash, or maybe it was nothing at all.

Cutty was quite tired of practicing the charm by now and the gust of the cool winter wind was already reaping what was the left of the parchment wads anyway. Though Batty Bentley had mentioned to practice until you can't do it wrong. There'd be time for that later. "Yeah, I suppose we should quit while we're ahead." He hoisted himself up and grabbed his bag.

Given that he was trying his super super hardest to be a professional Quidditch player, Tobias would go for a run to keep fit and then go practice his flying, even on the weekends. Especially on the weekends.

So here he was, headed to the pitch, broom in tow, wondering if maybe he could catch Professor Tyner for a chat after he'd done with practicing. And get a hot drink. Maybe?

But on his way to the pitch, Tobias couldn't help but notice a familar figure up a head, and he grinned and ran to catch up. By the time he did, he was at the wall of fame as well, and took a moment to sort of stare. But only a moment because-

"Hi Forrest," the Hufflepuff all but chirped at his best friend, giving him a wide grin before looking up to see what he'd been looking at. "Whatcha dooooin'?"

Forrest was ADORING the plaque. He wanted to shout 'I got a goal YES SEE WORLD ME YAAAAAY!' but before he could complete these plans, he was cut off by his best mate Tobias. He was pretty startled by his greeting and didn't try to hide it. He immediately flushed with the question and stuttered.

"Hi--I--nothing!" Yeeeep. "Jus', y'know, checking the standings." Checking HIS standings to be exact but, ahem, he wasn't self-centred. He was just super excited for scoring his first ever goal in his first ever Quidditch match.

Text Cut: dis be Cutty

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlytherinSistah

"I know. She can't get enough of me. But that's to be expected." He said, not the least perturbed by a rumour being spread about him or even that it was Fern he was connected to. He seemed to relish the attention for exactly the same reason he'd accused Fern of leaking it. "I feel sort of bad for the Forrest kid." Did you, Cutty? I mean, really? You're such a liar!

"Ma'aate, four sickles is nothing compared to what you'll have to do to get it back from Fern." Likely. "Besides, would you pay four sickles knowing that Sophie Newell had handled it? I thought I could still smell her lipgloss on it." Or maybe it was her hair wash, or maybe it was nothing at all.

Cutty was quite tired of practicing the charm by now and the gust of the cool winter wind was already reaping what was the left of the parchment wads anyway. Though Batty Bentley had mentioned to practice until you can't do it wrong. There'd be time for that later. "Yeah, I suppose we should quit while we're ahead." He hoisted himself up and grabbed his bag.

Benzi rolled his eyes at his friend. "Poor thing, must've fallen on her head as a baby to fall in love with you," he commented. "And you don't seem too hung up about it," he added, eyebrows raised as he gave Cutty a pointed look. He was momentarily distracted by the Forrest comment which he thought was a bit out of the blue until he noticed the boy not too far from them. He shrugged - Benzi did NOT feel sorry for the Hufflepuff.

"Who's Sophie Newell?" Benzi asked, confused. "And that's disgusting mate, I'll only take it now if YOU pay ME," he said, his features pulled in an utterly grossed out expression. Because, ew, make up.

GOOD. They were stopping homework. Marvelous. Benzi was bored of it. Lifting himself up off the floor too, he dusted his behind and reached down to pull his bag over his shoulder and stuff his wand in its holster. As he did, he caught sight of the various parchments on the floor and looked at them thoughtfully.

"Should we pick that up?" he asked, somewhat half heartedly. He didn't want to. Some fifth year could just magic it away, he'd have to find a rubbish bin. He was still pondering his parchment dilemma when out the corner of his eye Benzi caught Forrest's grin and for some reason was VERY aggravated by it.

It took a second for the eleven year old decided something must be done regarding this matter. He was actually still curious as to why Forrest had walked around looking so ODD that day. All the commotion and that INFURIATING Tora girl had steered them all away from the topic of Forrest's apparent weirdness, and Benzi was ever the nosy boy.

Opening his mouth to say something quite clever concerning a certain skirt, Quimbley and peeing one's pants, Benzi held his tongue as another Hufflepuff showed up. This was a cause for concern, since clearly the two were friends and Benzi didn't want to make MORE people hate him. He was fine with it just being THAT WHO IS MADDENING and Forrest. And Fern? .. Nah, Fern liked him.

Loosening his already loose tie, he lifted his eyebrows at Cutty as if to ask for his opinion on this matter.

Then AGAIN - they had more pressing matters than Forrest. Matters that certainly related back to the incident, just had nothing to do with the person that incident revolved around. MMHM.

"Ah-yeh! We all know Fern is nutters. It simply makes no difference, mate." Cutty shrugged off Benzi's pointed expression as he did not see the correlation between his reaction and Ferns. He didn't mind the rumour, but for reasons he thought were very different from Ferns. "It just doesn't surprise me. Why would it? And Sophie Newell?! Don't tell me you don't know who Sophie Newell is. You were staring at her during Charms AND Transfiguration." And also, you dragged me out of class presumably because of her. Not before I popped a water-balloon on her, though. Ah, happy thoughts.

Cutty let out a loud monosyllabic belch, the timing of which seemed to reply to Benzi's question about the parchement. "If you want to. I planned on letting the wind take care of it since it'll probably end in us having to chase 'em down." He adjusted his bag and with a head gesture towards the exit, which would lead them straight past the Hufflepuff boys, which Cutty seemed remarkably unperturbed by given the incident they'd just been through. He didn't even register the question in Benzi's face, really. He just went in. And there was nothing his typist could do to stop him.

"Tobias." He said greeting the Hufflepuff most helpful as he passed them in the entrance way. "Fern's boyfriend." That was for Forrest, though Cutty's tone seemed to not change in greeting one Hufflepuff to the other and there was a casualness that seemed to suggest he wasn't even teasing them.

Rare. O__O

The standings, yes. YES. Tobias BEAMED up at his best friend and then looked back at the wall again and straight at Forrest's name. It was amazing to be on the team together, that was a given, but to see Forrest's name in the 'goals scored' thing pretty much made it for Tobias. He'd been so happy for his fellow second year during the game and still was now.

"It was a brilliant game," he said in a sort of low, reverent voice. "It was amazing to play on the team together. And you were so good, and it just makes me so happy."

Even though Tobias was often very smiley and upbeat, he rarely actually vocalised his emotions and stuff, but it was important to point that out. Forrest's achievements made Toby just as happy as his own did, perhaps even moreso.

Before he could even open his mouth to say something else, Tobias' thoughts were interrupted by another voice, and he looked around to find the owner of it.

"Oh, hi Cutty!" Tobias said cheerfully to the kid he'd worked with in the Greenhouses. "Hi Cutty's friend!" At the greeting that was offered to Forrest, Tobias kind of blinked and looked up at his friend again and then back at the younger boy who was with a friend of his own.

Forrest was a boyfriend? To... Fern? Fern... Tobias definitely knew that name, but couldn't put a face to the name no matter how hard he tried.