Auror on duty looking around or patrolling or...something. Whatever. He might be patrolling but he didn't want to look like a too serious and strict guard in order not to disturb the students with all the tense and stressing sense that would bring. So, he tried to look like he was having a casual wandering around as he walked in the corridor eyeing here and there.

He could remember some of his moments as a student in this very corridor. Lots of things happened, good and bad. Mostly good he supposed. So he hated the reason he was there. Somebody wanted to ruin things for the residents of this school. Nope. Not while he and the fellow MLErs were here.

Stopping his walk for a bit, he leaned against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. Short break.

Just leaving Nessa's fun Wizard Suite, Cassie headed down the corridor. Her kitty purse on one shoulder and her yoga mat in the other hand. Stopping to make sure her heeled tennis shoes were tied, she didn't need to trip in front of a student now did she. Her mind busy going over things that Nessa and her had just spoke about she almost ran smack into someone.

"Oh goodness, I'm so.. " Her words trailed off as a big smile crossed her face. Ooooh it was the cutie auror and she was dressed in her workout best. *sigh* not the best way to run into him. She couldn't even pull the bouncy pony tail tighter on the top of her head. "Well hello Mr. Carter. Keeping us all safe."

She giggled a bit, "Are you enjoying your time back in the castle?" He had went to school here, hadn't he? She thought she remembered that at least. Oh well she continued smiling at him and wishing she would have freshened up her makeup before leaving the Wizarding Suite.

Somebody was approaching. Taking his gaze off the ceiling, Josh looked towards where the footsteps were coming only to see the professor woman in pink approaching. Ah...judging from her look, he guessed she had been exercising or something. Cool. It was good to know the professors wanted to keep a healthy body and mind as well.

But...um...was she aware that he was there? He supposed not but at least she became aware of his presence before she literally ran into him. Good. Because he would surely have felt bad for standing on her way and moreover she could get hurt...in a way. Perhaps. Glad that none of those happened, Josh smiled back at the woman. "Hello, Professor...." Cassie, wasn't she? He couldn't remember if she told him her last name. Eh...professor alone was good now then. "I am and will be trying my best." About keeping people safe, that is.

"It's good to be back. A unique feeling but i cannot say i am all happy about it with the reason i am here."

Professor? This was something she hadn't gotten use to being called professor. She enjoyed it and it gave her a little thrill to hear it, but it was still weird. "Oh my no you don't have to be so formal. Cassie is just fine." She gave a bubbly grin. She certainly didn't need him being all formal, no she was enjoying getting to know him and formal was just not her idea of fun.

"I think you are doing a very good job. Look how safe we are." Yes they were super safe now weren't they. Plus if they were going to get to see him around the corridors often, this professor wouldn't mind if they never figured out who was sending those awful owls.

She listened to him and couldn't help the dramatic frown, "Oh I know. It's just awful that someone would do something so horrible." shaking her head, why would someone ever do that.

He didn't need to be so formal. Well...okay. He supposed that was fine with him if it was okay with her. He remembered she introduced herself to him with her first name at the feast anyway. So...it had to be good. "Cassie." he said returning her grin with a kind smile. This professor woman was a quite friendly one and to be honest, Josh liked friendly people. He considered himself to be friendly as well.

He chuckled at her words about his performance. Look how safe they are. Right. "Well...that's flattering, Cassie, thanks but i hardly did anything yet. Just patrolling here and there." His smile vanished when it came to this anti-Quidditch lunatic and he wore his serious expression. "We haven't progressed much yet but i promise as the Magical Law Enforcement, we will do what needs to be done about it."

Smiling again, he looked around for a bit then returned to face her. Professor...hmm. "If it's okay for me to know, which subject do you teach here at Hogwarts?"

She couldn’t help the smile as he said her name. He seemed like he wasn’t sure so she nodded to make sure he really knew it was alright. There was no rule about calling professors by their last names was there? If so she was certainly going to get into trouble, but it wouldn’t be the first time she had over looked something so the thoughts just slipped away.

“But you are here. You are walking around taking precious time away from other things and look nothing has happened with all of you around.” Her smile big and encouraging. So maybe nothing would have happened while they weren’t around, but it would mean she wouldn’t get the fun little run ins now wouldn’t it? “I have all the faith in the world that the Law Enforcement will figure this out. You are just so strong and smart.”

She was giggling again and waving her hand at him, “Oh goodness no why would it be not okay? It’s not a secret.” She put her hands up the best she could with her kitty purse and yoga mat. “You got me Mr. Auror sir. I’m keeping my position a secret.” More laughing was going on as she put her hands down. “I’m the Divination’s professor.” She said very proudly of her position. It was just perfect and everyone should know that. “Did you like Divinations Mr. Carter?” She gave him a playful eyeing at this question.

Hayden followed Leah away from the portraits. She was glad she had someone older to show her where to go. Now she wouldn't get lost. Getting lost wasn't always bad though, because she could find new things in the castle. But now Leah could show her the cool things and she wouldn't have to get lost looking for them. So it was an all-around good idea.

"Should we go to the library?" Leah had mentioned research. Hayden agreed it was a necessary first step before casting any spells she wasn't sure of, or before starting any project such as this one. The library would be a great place to do research, but there might be somewhere else they would be able to find the information needed, so Hayden wanted to check with Leah first.

"Thanks." Hayden smiled happily. She felt happy and proud that Leah thought she had a good idea. And she was excited that she wanted to help. AN ADVENTURE! Yes of course that sounded cool. Hayden bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. "YES, let's go on an adventure! Where should we go?" They couldn't explore the entire castle in one day, it was just too big. It looked like this project was going to take a while. A few days at the very least.

Okay, now they were away from the boring portraits. Now what? Leah was the big girl, she needed to think of something to do. Not that she did not know where to lead Hayden to, there were just too many good places in Hogwarts that it was difficult to decide on the first place to go.

Luckily for the second year, Hayden was a clever girl. Research = the library! Leah gulped. She had kind of gotten over the book-allergy last term, but an area full of books was still intimidating. "Oh, to research about the charm? That is a good idea, Hayden." she smiled, or the corners of her mouth lifted a little, and patted the younger girl's back encouragingly. Though she was not very happy about the idea. Leah inhaled and said in a cheerful voice, "Okay, let's mark the library as our first destination!" She had to do this, she had to get over her weakness.

Eeep, Hayden seemed excited about her adventure idea! Leah was never happier that someone appreciated her thoughts this much. The little girl kept asking her opinions, but instead of feeling a burden, she felt proud. "Hmm, didn't you want to go to the common room? As you should have seen yesterday, it is wonderful." Unless she was too sleepy after the start of term feast to notice anything, which was possible. "If you want, we could start the adventure in our common room." And then... head upwards??

Hayden grinned. Yay, Leah thought her idea was good. She was all set to head to the library, well follow Leah to the library because she really had no clue where it was, when the older girl suggested the common room. Hayden shrugged. "I saw it yesterday. I mean, it's definitely cool but I think I can see enough of it any time I want. We should start with the library." True, she had been on her way to the common room but with the prospect of adventure in front of her she would much rather go find new and exciting places. Plus she was excited about her map and she wanted to figure out how to do that first.

Josh grinned at her words of faith for his work and unable to help it, he started to feel all proud and kind of smug. Mostly proud though. "Actually my precious time itself is all about protecting people." Yeah. It had always been like that. Even since he was a student and all, as much as his abilities let him to do so. "But it's great and a pleasure to know that someone actually appreciates my department. People lately have been very judgemental thanks to the Prophet." Yeah. Jorge the Distorted-News Bird and his amazing (!) work. He had to admit though, the way that man managed to lead people via his words was impressive.

Not a secret. A secret?

Oh she was joking. When he realised it, Josh let out a chuckle. Maybe he was being too...formal and it made him look funny? Divination. A wide grin appeared on the Auror's face when he heard the question. "I enjoyed that subject pretty much, i have to admit. It was fun and i didn't have fun during all the classes."

Cassie had leaned against the corridor wall as she beamed up at him. He was super tall even when her heels made her 5’4, but that didn’t stop her from twirling at her pony tail as he talked like a little school girl. Her green eyes glancing at his hands. So no rings, hmm that was a good sign, right? “Well I hope you do have time for yourself as well. Go out with friends or spend time with a girlfriend.” Hoping that little question wouldn’t make her sad at the end to find he really did have one.

“Oh no.. NO one should ever take your department for granted. Who is going to protect us if you aren’t around. We need the big strong Auror’s happy and wanting to protect us.” Touching his arm as if to touch his big muscles. Hmm impressive, yes! “I never read the prophet. I get my news from the Quibbler. They have the best stories.” The prophet was always so factual and boring. Her Quibbler gave her the more juicy stories.

He enjoyed Divination well that was a big plus in her book and he got happy snaps for it. “I love hearing this. Divinations is fun and everyone should enjoy what they are doing while in the class or practicing it. You should stop by my tower one day and we could always do a tea reading or even astrology readings.” Having him come to her office would be kind of fun, “Or even if you need a break you could always stop by one my lessons.” Her green eyes looking up at him smiling.

After leaving the History of Magic classroom, Penelope ran through the hall crying. Stupid, she was stupid for yelling at Kyroh like that. She shouldn't have yelled at him. Why had she yelled at him? There hadn't really been a reason to yell at him like that. She felt horrible for yelling at him like that. And that had made him feel bad. He had yelled back at her. What had she done? Thinking about it made her cry more. She felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it. Why did it have to be her? Penelope, the smart and quiet little girl. No, not anymore. She had yelled at Kyroh. The guilt and embarrassment of what she had done was terrible. Why? Why had she yelled at Kyroh? Why did she have to yell at him in front of the whole class? This feeling was worse than anything she had ever experienced. Why did this have to happen to her? Kyroh was kind of a brat, but no one, neither Kyroh or her, should have been yelled at by the other. Why couldn't she have just kept her mouth shut and taken notes?

...........

Penelope disappeared around the corner and ran up the stairs to the second floor.

She was becoming too much like her sister.

Was that a bad thing?

Coral-Bay had sat herself in the middle of the corridor with her book opened up in her lap, the rest of her upper half bent over it, as her eyes led her mind through the pages. She was a tired of trying to find hiding places to read and figured the best way to solve that was to learn how to read in loud places with lots of people passing and stopping to chat.

She needed to stop getting mad at people for being interruptions.

This was an okay way to do that, was it not? And she'd read this book cover to cover at least ten times by now. So it wasn't like she was missing anything. Besides, it was a Hogwarts: A History book. Nothing new to anyone, really.

Tucking some stray hairs behind her ear, she wiggled around a little in a small attempt at getting more comfortable.

So it was negative a million degrees outside and FREEZING cold. So that wasn't an option. And the common room sure was cozy, but it can only be cozy for so many days in a row. It was also, hard trying to avoid Professor Bentley nowadays around the seventh floor. So that wasn't an option either. Basically Zander was now itching to get some new scenery. Who knew that being cooped up in a castle this big could actually get boring!?

But... Bored wasn't his first feeling at the moment.

More like... Exhausted.

The Gryffindor had been traveling around the floors for ages. Then he decided that it'd be a good time to take the stairs and explore each and every one of them. So he started up by the common room of course. And seven floors later, he was practically dead. Except, he wasn't planning on losing sight of his breath anytime soon. But still. Practically dead okay?

He was starting to get all delirious and dizzy. Who knew that so many steps could do that to a person!? Especially because the stairways kept moving and making him all dizzy and lost. Yeah. Practically dead. Either way, he definitely did NOT notice the girl who was sitting along the corridor. Whoops.

And with a huge CRASH Zander Adair came tumbling down all on top of the reading girl. Double whoops. Still lying across her legs, Zander looked up in panic. "Woah, I'm so sorry!" Welp. So much for staying away from pretty girls that made him all uncomfortable and awkward... Falling unto one was definitely not apart of the plan.

She wasn't sure whether this was a super lucky thing that just happened or super unlucky.

There was suddenly a boy in her lap. But also a bit of pain because people were heavy and she was kind of small. Hallie was bigger than her. So she was smallish. She stared at the boy for a few moments, kind of in shock, having made a loud OOF noise when his weight had landed in her lap unexpectedly. It hadn't really hit her that someone would fall into her, or fall into her quite this soon, really. In her mind, people were better at watching where they were going. It was her own fault, really. Sitting in the middle of the corridor? Who did that? Crazy people. Thats who.

"Um..." She continued staring at the handsome blond, perplexed, and also surprised at herself that she wasn't angry that he'd ruined her reading and quite possibly tore the page of her book. Well she wasn't angry yet. She still had a damage assessment to do.

"You're sort of.. on my legs.. and my book.." And I hurt a little. I might be bruised too. She resisted the urge to pry her legs out from under him. "Are you okay?"

With his face turning redder and redder by the minute, it definitely didn't cross his mind that he might have been causing her pain! And STILL causing her pain because he didn't have the sense to get up yet! He was in shock, okay? "Oh, I-uh-I-um-I" Why was he sitting there blabbering about!? HE NEEDED TO GET OFF HER!

The third year quickly lifted himself off of the poor girl and looked at her apologetically. He wanted to apologize more 'n stuff, but he could feel his face doing the tomato thing and he was MORTIFIED. Jeez. Never going down all seven floors in one go without eating, ever again.

Uhum anyways, Was HE okay?! He should be asking if SHE was the okay one! She was the target of his poorly executed crash landing after all. Yet he still found himself momentarily unable to talk, when ow! He quickly got down to the ground and sat right across from her. Grabbing his ankle, he looked at the girl with his big blue eyes. "I think I might've twisted my ankle..." Oops. "But it's not a big deal" he could just sit across from her until he felt better and could walk. She didn't look like bad company either... He could totally stare at pretty girls all day. Pft. Except he could never admit this to himself because he was still trying to convince himself that girls were still all yucky and stuff. But throughout this term things were starting to change, and he did not like that one bit!

BUT WAIT WHAT WAS HE DOING, THE POOR GIRL! "I mean are YOU okay?! His big blue eyes widened as he leaned forward to inspect the damage. "I don't know what got into me- I, I didn't mean to I swear- it was an accident and I'm really sorry and are you hurting? Do we need to get the healer?" And in that moment it was as if he had forgotten how to breathe in between sentences.

Still caught between enjoying the interaction with the super cute boy and being annoyed that he fell on her and caused her the slight pain, CB watched him and his stuttering.

She smiled a little, hoping it would allow him to relax, and pulled her legs in close to herself, waiting for the slight throbbing to slow and eventually stop. She'd have to worry about the book later. If it was ripped, she'd have to find some sort of mending spell to get it back in shape. Or maybe she'd write home and have someone buy her a new one. The slightest imperfections drove her mad.

Twisted his ankle? Coral-Bay pushed her book off of her lap and inched closer to the boy hesitantly. Could she fix it? No. But she could look at it a bit and pretend like she knew what she was doing. That's what Hallie would do. Or maybe she'd actually know what to do. She leant over him with her legs folded beneath, her hair falling down over her shoulder as she did. "You didn't like.. break it, did you?" Now that would be scary. "If it really really hurts, maybe we should have the healer look at it." she lifted her gaze to meet his eyes and smiled again. "Can I poke at it? Check to make sure it's not broken? I could walk you to the healer either way." She needed his name for the cute boys list anyway and walking him places or talking to him might help her get that.

Coral nodded her head as he leaned forward to inspect her own legs. He was sweet, she decided. "I'm alright. Maybe a little bruised, but all together just dandy." GRIN. Very very sweet. "You mean you're not always this clumsy?" she teased. "But really. Really, i'm fine."

And you, sir, are cute.

Zander eased up a bit at the sight of her smile. It was a nice smile.

With that, he let go of his leg and found a smile of his own. Which promptly turned into a fit of small chuckles. It was actually kind of funny how things worked out. But when she put her book down and got closer, that kind of took him by surprise! Oh yeah, his ankle. In that momentary fit of laughter and her smile 'n stuff, he had forgotten that it was hurting. "No... No, I don't think it's broken. It doesn't really hurt that bad anymore." It just hurt when it happened. But it was starting to get a bit better. But mostly because he was a little distracted.

Could she poke at it?! What? Was that what you're supposed to do with injured body parts? Poke? Welp, Zander had absolutely no idea either way, and it kind of looked like this girl knew what she was doing. Kind of. "Oh, uh, sure." She could poke at it as long as she wanted to as long as it meant he could just sit here and stay put. Mhm. "B-but I don't think I need a healer. I could just sit here, with you? Until it gets better." Walking was not the right move. Nuh-uh. Especially after his failed attempt at walking earlier. "Oh, I mean, if it's okay with you?"

Okay, so she wasn't hurt. That's a good sign. Well, a better sign anyway. But then, his eye skirted back to the book she had set down! "Wait, is your book okay?" It was his turn to lean forward and try to inspect it the best he could from his spot on the floor. It did't look damaged... From what he could see... But maybe upon closer inspection... "I can even buy you a new one! What book is it?" he asked upon sudden realization. Something must've happened to the boy during the fall because he was suddenly feeling a lot more talkative than usual.

But then, when the girls spoke again, he felt a blush coming on. Always this clumsy...? Well... there was that one time on the treehouse... But no, she didn't need to know that. "Only when I'm around nice girls though." WHAT. What in the world made him even say that out loud?! But... It was kind of true. That time in the treehouse was around Josette. Then whenever Professor Bentley was around. And now, wait... He didn't even know her name yet! He had fallen on top of her, and he hadn't even known her name! Man. This day just keeps getting more and more humiliating by the second.

Were they going to continue smiling at each other's smiling?

Coral-Bay was fighting not only the urge to blush, but the urge to continue smiling at the blond. She nodded some more, trying to distract her thoughts and think of things that wouldn't make her smile like Cristo or her parents. That worked a little. "So it's already getting better? You're probably fine, then. Not to dismiss your thoughts or anything." 'Cause not trying to be mean here! Just trying to be helpful and all that stuff. Thats what she liked doing. Being helpful even if it mean trying to out knowledge people.

She touched his ankle lightly, barely touching it at all, really. 'Cause if he yelped or anything that had to mean that it was broken. But if he said it was already getting better than maybe this was just a weird excuse to make contact with another person. She'd been having the urge for DAYS to cling to someone's arm. But she couldn't find Hallie and didn't feel comfortable doing that to Sophie just yet so she instead she just sorta randomly brushed arms with people when she got a chance. Strange child, she was. "Yeah, sure. You're definitely welcome to sit here with me if you want. I was just reading and.."

Yeahh...

"..Umm.. the page is kind of torn a little. See?" she wiggled the page gently to emphasize the small tear. "No no no! You don't have to do that! That's really really sweet of you to offer-" she tucked some hair behind her ear, "-but i can send home for a new one. It's not really a cheap book." What book was it? Heh. "Hogwarts: A History. My favorite. Well, current favorite." Only because she liked to pretend she was living history. Being in the place she read about. She did that a lot.

CUE THE DEEP RED CHEEKS. "How do you know I'm a nice girl?" she teased some more. Oh, yes. He'd won her over. Not that that was a hard thing to do. Really easy, actually. But shhh. That was a secret.

It was kind of hard to remember that he had just fallen on top of her only moments ago. Practically almost squishing the girl, and her book, to death. With all this smiling going on and everything, a random passerby-er probably wouldn't have given them a second glance.

The Gryffindor nodded as she began speaking about his ankle again. "It's definitely okay," he agreed. He was totally a big strong Gryffindor man that could take on any fall! Completely invincible. Yeah! Zandermaaaan he could almost punch himself for almost referencing Simon's nickname for him. "I don't think I should walk on it quite yet though..." He probably could actually. It may hurt at first, but he could probably get used to it. "You know.. uh, incase?" But then again, he could also sit and get to know this girl AND also make his mom proud by making a new friend in the process.

Zander shut one eye closed as he waited for the poke. Why was he expecting it to hurt? Eh. But she touched it reeeaaal lightly, to the point where he could hardly even feel it. Sure it may have hurt a tinsy bit, but it wasn't enough to worry him. Actually it really... tickled! Even if it was only a brush over his skin, he let out a tiny laugh. Ehehe. Was being ticklish lame? And oh, he could stay! "Oh... Uhum, sorry about that again by the way... Interrupting your reading and all..." But then again, who reads in the middle of the corridor? Must be a Ravenclaw. "I won't bother you if you wanna read some more..." It was his fault after all.

Then, when she showed him the tear, he felt all guilty. Oops. He should've been looking more carefully, Jeez! "Maybe.. Maybe we could take it Mr. Kitridge? And see if he could fix it!?" The librarian might have a couple of tricks up his sleeve. Maybe. Then, when she mentioned the title-- OH HE HAD THAT ONE! "Really!? I have a copy of that! For first year, and I've hardly ever used it." He could pinky swear on that one because history... History was definitely not his thing. "I could always give you mine!" He didn't have it on him now of course, but he could always grab it for her some other time.

And now she was turning kind of red too. Well that made two of them. Heh. But how did he know? That was actually a pretty good question... "Uh, my nice girl senses were tingling?" Uhum. Whut. He really needed to stop reading those comic books. "I mean, uh, you just... you look... you... you just look nice." Ah, here are those nerves again. It was actually kind of weird, talking to a girl without getting nervous. He actually kind of missed it. But then, no. Changed his mind. "I mean, like a nice girl... I uh, are YOU a nice girl?"

Angel was totally bored at the minute, she hadn't spent much time with her sisters at the moment, Aubrey was busy doing something else and spending more time with Adi then her which sort of made her a bit sad and Abby well she had no idea what was going on with her because Angel hadn't seen her for ages.

Angel was totally bored at the minute and she had no idea what she was going to do at the moment, she decided that she would take out her parchment and a quill and do a bit of drawing, she thought it would be cool to see if she could draw something cool.

The snow outside was ridiculous! What was she going to do in the castle? She couldn't spend another second in her dorm. Wandering around, AJ was hopeful that she would find something to do.

As she turned a corner she noticed that somebody was there, and she had already made up her mind that whoever it was, was going to do something with her. Upon closer inspection AJ saw that it was her sister. "Hey Angel." What was she doing? "Whatcha drawing?" Apparently she was just as bored as AJ.

Angel was busy doodling when suddenly she saw AJ coming towards her. "Hello AJ!" Angel was totally bored at the minute, the weather was awful. "I'm just doodling a few pictures." Angel giggled, as she showed the one she had done of her sister as an troll.

Doodling? That sounded even less fun than wandering aimlessly around the castle. "That does kind of look like Abby." Because there was no way that picture was supposed to her AJ. Speaking of Abby... was she still alive?

"I'm bored." Really, REALLY bored. "Entertain me." Do something. Seriously though, did she have any ideas?