Today was the day. A SURPRISE day.

It wasn't quite Toby's birthday yet, but Soph thought today was just as good as any to celebrate his birthday and it would be a fun way to really TRULY surprise him and catch him off guard. She figured he would know she was up to something since she had invited him to meet her at the innovation lounge and didn't give him a reason why, but the REASON for their meeting was hopefully going to be a very nice surprise in itself.

She was actually a little nervous, though. Just a little. No. Well. Maybe a lot. Or a medium amount of nervous. Probably that, yeah.

With a gentle hand on her stomach in an attempt to calm the butterflies, Soph sat on the piano bench and sprawled out some sheet music on the stand, took a deep, cleansing breath, and watched the door for her best friend.

In a way, this was a sort of weird place for Soph to get them to meet up, but then again, it was also random enough that it ended up making sense as a meeting place. That... probably made little sense to anyone else, but Toby knew it made sense to him.

He made his way up to the Astronomy tower, SANS skateboard OR pogo stick, though it was always so very tempting to bounce up all those stairs. Toby didn't know what Soph had planned, so it somehow made sense that he shouldn't bring anything else up here. Like, what if she planned for them to glisseo the stairs and slide all the way down to the ground floor on their stomachs? Though... going down that on a skateboard sounded like the most fun ever ever ever.

And that was what was on his mind as he strolled into the Innovation Lounge, hand in his pockets and head more or less in the clouds. It took a moment for his brain to realised that his feet had brought him to his destination, at which point he blinked his way out of his reverie and flashed the present Ravenclaw a smile.

"Hey Soph."

She was nervous, which WAS a pretty unfamiliar feeling for Sophie Brown because she was usually as confident and cool as could be. Well, at least she liked to appear that way, but today, she was undeniably fidgety as she waited for Tobes' arrival, slightly worried that someone else was going to walk into the room who wasn't Tobes - Flamsteed, maybe, and kick her out and not let her carry out this plan, or maybe another student who had wanted to retreat to the room for some peace and quiet. There were SO MANY THINGS that could have gone wrong, and Soph was playing out every scenario in her head, when -

Tobes arrived.

And Sophie giggled.

"Hi best friend," she stood to greet him, giving him a big hug before tugging him over to sit with her on the piano bench with the brightest of smiles on her face. "I want you to sit here and listen to this and be a good audience and be impressed with me and cry a little, maybe," she teased lightly, smoothing out the sheet music in front of her and putting her hands where they needed to go to begin her song. "I have a whole song to play, so y'don't need to say anything till the end. But I figure you know this song because you're a dork and I heard it in a Muggle shop when my mum and I were out at the department store, and I liked it and it's perfect for us so I learned it just before school started. S'from me to you. If you don't know the words, they're here on the music, so you can... y'know, kinda follow along and get the gist." She pointed to where the song started and gave him a knowing grin, searching his eyes briefly for his recognition of the song. "M'not gonna sing. But, y'know, pretend I am, and... yeah. S'us."

Smiling a bit timidly at him, Soph cleared her throat a little and whispered, "Consider this a birthday surprise," then proceeded to play for him, the gentle smile never disappearing from her face.

With her rat Nabber on her shoulder and a parchment in her hand she slowly entered a room she didn't had seen before, and that while she HAD been in this part of the castle before! Hmm, frowning because she wondered how she could have missed a door like that she looked at the parchment in her hands to see the notes she had made. Her first trip through the castle had been a disaster because she didn't had known the way and didn't knew how to find her way back!

Instead of having a adventure and to find secret passageways she only had found a dirty and smelling swamp! But now she was prepared! She noted on her parchment where she was and how she had found that same place and she hoped that she could find her way back that way easier than before! And... If she was lucky than she could find a really special place!

Entering the room she again wondered how she could have missed this room! It seemed to be new to the castle because she definitely didn't had seen it before and then she saw... A beautiful room! "Wow! This place is beautiful!" spoke the first year out loud while she stared wide eyed around her, already thinking about this place as 'hers' where she could sneak to when she wanted to something do eh... something she didn't wanted to share with others! Like making secret plans!

Walking around the castle, the still glum Gregoire made his way up to the Astronomy tower. Even though his mind said no, his body still wanted to say hello to the Astronomy Professor. Though, Gregoire normally wasn't interested in learning about this type of stuff. It would still be nice of him to visit the Professor. Since he might as well boost his good reputation since what happened at the feast. Gregoire wasn't proud of himself because of those moments there at the Ravenclaw table. The memory was still repressed inside of his head sadly. This memory was probably engraved in their until hell froze over. Though, the brain tended to suppress bad memories, and remember the good ones, this one was just that terrible that it would always be in his head. Until the day this French boy died, it would remain in their for good.

Peering down the corridor, the Snake noticed a door at the end of it that he never noticed last year. Hmm, that's odd. Since when was this door here? He thought to himself. The fourth year Slytherin knew almost every detail about this marvelous castle, but never in his past terms has he noticed it. Granted, this was only his second year at Hogwarts since he spent two years learning at Beauxbatons. Out of curiosity, he slithered his way down the hall to the door. Opening it he gazed inside to see a marvelous room, and a familiar face.

"Cahira?" He asked. What on earth was she doing her? Stepping inside he then saw the Grand Piano in the center of the luxurious lounge. His eyes widened as he made his way over to the magnificent instrument. With a hand, he walked all around feeling the smoothness of it. Forgetting that he was still in the room with one of his fellow first year snakes, Gregoire sat down at the bench and began to play a very old song back from 2011. It was a muggle song. The title was Someone Like You, written by Adele. He loved the song, even though it was almost 80 years old.

Toby didn't even need to SAY anything else just yet, as Soph was apparently pretty talkative at the moment. That was good, because Toby wasn't in so much of a talking mood right now, although he could kind of tell that Soph was nervous about SOMETHING because she tended to talk way more when that happened. Right now he just hugged her back before following her over to the piano bench and sitting right where he was directed.

Looking between the piano and the sheet music, both of which he recognised very well (though maybe not well enough to actually read the music) as his grandmother was very into music and all, Toby nodded along as Soph spoke.

"I don't know about crying," he quickly interjected, giving Soph a little LOOK followed by a smile, and then going back to looking down at the keys. "But okay. Let's hear-..." It wasn't until he properly looked at the sheet music, then, that Toby realised what the song WAS. And yes. Yes he did recognise it. One of those way way waaaaaaaaaaaay old songs that his grandma liked to sing sometimes. It was actually a song she would sing with his grandfather, back when he was alive, and the pair slow dance around the kitchen to as Toby looked on. He had very happy feelings connected to that tune, and smiled a little wider now. "-... it." An enthusiastic nod; yes, please play it.

He settled where he sat, stayed quiet, and listened as Soph played, automatically reciting the lyrics in his head. At first Toby had thought it would be an awesome song to hear again, especially as Soph was playing it, but as she progressed through the music he found that it was hitting a chord (ha) within him that he'd not been expecting. Feelings were happening, all because of Soph and her beautiful rendition of this beautiful song. Toby glanced from Soph's hands to her face for a moment, and then back again after a second, trying to focus super hard on the actual MUSIC and the PLAYING rather than the emotions he was getting. It started to work, and soon the prickling in the corners of Toby's eyes lessened a little (though he would deny such an occurrence at all, even if it was happy prickling), and he just continued to stare at Soph's hands as she played, staying quite quiet.

As the song began to wind down, Toby broke out into a grin, because this really was filling him up with all kinds of good feelings. He might even forgive her for almost making him cry out here in the open. Hoping that he wasn't about to mess up her playing, Toby slipped an arm around Soph's waist in a kind of half-hug and waited for her to finish the piece. He may also have been humming by this point.

Sophie had practiced this song probably a hundred times to ensure that it would be flawless and her nerves wouldn't inhibit her performance. Her hard work had paid off, luckily, for as she got started, she WAS nervous, but she didn't miss a note, and as the song progressed to the chorus, she was smiling bigger, completely relaxed and comfortable, and the notes came as second nature.

Though she wanted to steal a glance at Tobes' facial expression to see if he was enjoying it or completely bored, she didn't want to risk messing up and ruining the whole ambiance of the moment, so her eyes stayed glued to the sheet music. The smile was NOT leaving her face, though, and it grew when she felt Tobes put his arm around her waist. Suddenly aware that her eyes had pooled with tears, a single mirthful teardrop escaped from each eye, and she hoped he wasn't paying any attention to her face as she leaned into the side hug and continued to play, unable to keep from giggling softly when he hummed. Not laughter at him, no - they were easily distinguishable giggles of the purest joy, the kind that bubbled out from an overwhelming amount of positive emotions.

As she played the final notes of the song, she gently removed her fingers from the keys and brought a hand up to brush the two fallen tears from her cheeks. She took a moment to sigh softly, exhausted from emotions, then peeked at Tobes for the first time and whispered with a timid smile, "I got you, babe."

Still staring around her, amazed about this room she heard how somebody called her by her name! Hmm! Who was it? Turning around she saw a familiar face, it was a boy from her house! She had met him during the feast after the sorting ceremony but... She had forgotten his name! Again she had forgotten somebody's name and she now really started to get irritated with herself because of it! She never had been good at remembering names but now it was getting more and more difficult because she didn't knew ANYBODY here! All those new faces and new names! Pff...

The boy walked further into the room and... started to play on the piano? Hmm, he was good but... She didn't knew what song he was playing, she didn't had heard it before on the wizard radio her dad was listening to. Walking toward him she stood beside him, watching what he was doing and waiting for him until he was finished with playing.

"That was good! Playing piano like that is really hard, I can't do it but I had a few lessons a few years ago." spoke she while she stared at the piano. "Eh... I have forgotten what you name was... There are really too much faces and names to remember" spoke Cahira while she frowned. Looking around her she suddenly wondered if this boy knew something about this beautiful room! "Did you knew that this room was here? I was here yesterday and i didn't saw the room, there was no door but... Today it just... Was here! Is it normal here at Hogwarts that there are doors appearing out of nowhere?"

Oh, what a snazzy place!!

Lux had never seen this room before, so she was super curious when she stumbled upon it. Seemed to be a nice place for Professor Flamsteed to go in order to relax and that was nice because she loved the Professor. He was so awesome.

The piano caught her eye first, and she wandered over to it, playing a few random keys because she was not gifted when it came to music. Maybe one day she would try to learn and she wondered if Flamsteed was a good piano player. Her eyes landed on the bookshelf next, and she wandered over to see what books he owned. No surprise to see that some were Astronomy or Science-Fiction.

Toby may have been unobservant to almost everything ninety-nine percent of the time, but he totally did see that, Sophie Brown. Those tears. And even if he hadn't, he couldn't have missed her brushing them away.

When she finally spoke, Toby looked across at his person, his Ravenclaw, his best friend... and gigglesnorted.

"You nerd," he said softly, he reached over, brushed away whatever remained of the tears on her face with the pad of his thumb, and grinned. "Only you would manage to make yourself cry while trying to make me cry." He was kidding around, but that didn't mean he wasn't incredibly touched. It was just... well, if he went too heartfelt here, he might actually start crying, and it was much easier to joke around all that stuff. He didn't doubt that Soph was well aware of that, but shhhhh. "I loved it. I did. And you played it beautifully." He leaned across and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek; quick, because Airey would probably not be a fan of them even doing that, and he didn't want to risk upsetting the dude if he walked in. "Thank you, Soph."

It was tricky, sitting here, because Toby was so freaking fidgety, and with a piano RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF HIM, it probably wasn't surprising when, after a brief pause wherein he checked out the sheet music again, he started randomly tinkering on the keys (not that he knew how to play this thing, even after his grandmother's countless patient attempts at trying to teach him). Just for something to do. He was still paying attention to Soph too, okay? Okay.

Pffft. PFFFFFFFFFFT. He was LAUGHING at her. Pffffffffffffffffffft.

"M'not a nerd," Soph mumbled as she kept her gaze on the piano keys, uncharacteristically embarrassed as Tobes helped wipe her tears. "I would've been fine, if you hadn't hugged me. Nerd. " She snuck a glance up at him and smiled softly, thoroughly understanding that he was quite touched and he was using light humor to cover up the emotions he was having. It was easy to let that go and not tease him this time, since she was still experiencing many feelings, and he had the keen ability to make her cry even more if he wanted. Once the tear barrier had broken, she was undoubtedly going to be super sensitive to anything too-nice he had to say.

"Thanks," she rested her hand atop his and gave it a squeeze, still smiling a bit bashfully. "When I heard the song, it just... felt... like... appropriate. Like it's us. It just..." Sophie paused, looking at him very seriously, then glanced at the sheet music on the piano and scanned the pages with her eyes before lifting a finger and pointing to a certain string of lyrics. "When I'm sad, you're a clown, and if I get scared - which doesn't happen too often, mind you, thus reducing your chances to fulfill this - you're always around." Her finger skipped the part about his hair - though there was a time when Tobes' hair was adorably shaggy - and she pointed, "With you I can't go wrong."

She smiled as he grew fidgety and began playing around with the piano, and she moved her wrapped present from hiding and set it in her lap. He could keep playing, if he wanted. "This isn't your only birthday present from me - not the piano, and not this present - but I wanted to give it to you now, since I just got to use it. It's... for both of us to share. Thought it'd help with... coping with stuff," she smiled, offering him the package and waiting for him to open it with anticipation. "Surely y'can guess who has the other."

Her mind was spinning and before long she began wandering around aimlessly completely caught up in her own thoughts. Here she was thinking that her and Adi would never have a problem or fight, and boy was she wrong. It was naive to think that wouldn't happen, but everything had been so perfect... until now.

The usually chipper gryffindor was out of sorts and anybody paying attention could tell that something wasn't quite right. All she knew for sure was that she needed to clear her mind, and sitting in her common room wasn't getting the job done. AJ needed to move because for whatever reason moving actually helped.

Before too long she found herself in a room that she had never been in before. Blinking a few times, her brain registered a piano. That was the first time she had seen one of those at Hogwarts. Her feet started to walk over to the piano and she bumped into someone without noticing that had actually made body contact.

Wondering if Professor Flamsteed had a problem with people reading his books, Lux reached out to take down one of the science fiction novels. Despite the risk she was curious because she had never read one before. Besides, Flamsteed was a nice man and she was probably being silly by having doubts in the first place.

Standing on her tiptoes in order to reach better, Lux almost had the book down when someone bumped into her, knocking her into the bookshelf. Fortunately she hasn't been hurt but it had startled her. Regaining her balance she looked to see who the rude person was and was shocked to see an upset looking AJ. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice filled with concern. AJ was usually so hyper and happy.

"Really?" Toby replied, an amused grin spreading across his face. "Well, I can stop hugging you if you really want?" He was, OF COURSE, totally absolutely joking there. Unless, like... she really did want him to stop. In that case he wasn't joking and totally would. So... y'know.

Those lyrics... yeah. Yeah, he COULD see how Soph would totally read that as applying to them, and Toby smiled a little more as he followed her finger pointing at the words. He didn't read them though, as Soph had that covered, and he knew them well enough to remember.

"Well, y'know. I'll always be your clown. And I'll always be there for you when you're scared, which, y'know, totally happens more often than you admit. Pretty sure you're still scared of Thompson. Which, by the way, is hilarious." Just so she knew, ehehe. But again, the humour was covering up the seriousness which was probably not wise during a touching moment like this, but he didn't want to start CRYING, okay? Soph had seen him cry more times than he cared to admit.

Toby instantly paused his piano tinkering as a present was offered to him, and his hands automatically moved to that instead. New things to fidget with? Yes pls. The sixth year took it from Soph's hands and sort of felt and weighed it for a moment, before he glanced at the Ravenclaw and back and carefully peeled off the wrapping, to seeeee...

... his face. No. A mirror. A TWO WAY mirror judging by how Sophie was talking about it. Tobias looked into it, staring at the odd expression, a mixture of happy and hesitant and ???sad??? and all sorts, on the face staring back at him.

"Who?" was all he said. But he was pretty sure he already knew exactly who had the other.

"...No, not really," Sophie murmured after a beat, wrapping both of her arms around him and giving him the best hug she could manage from their sitting position. "Don't ever stop." Though they had to, and she let go after a few long moments, not wanting Flamsteed to walk in and accuse them of things. Hehe. But she did shift and gently rest her cheek on his shoulder as he continued speaking, and she snorted lightly at what he had to say.

"He's the only thing in the whole world that I'm scared of. Dunno how you're not terrified, too, honestly. His arms are massive and he could crush you like a bug, and his EYEBROWS are so creepy and he STILL always gives me that look like he's gonna reprimand me for something. So serious. Terrifying." She shivered. "But speaking of him, Piers wants me to look out for him - and you, too. Look out for him, I mean. Piers says Javy gets lonely and sad but he won't show it, so we've gotta give him hugs and make sure he doesn't get too lonely, okay?" Sophie peeked up at him a bit nervously, though she was sure Tobes already looked out for his dad. "He needs us."

As Tobes began to unwrap the present, she gently reached her hand up to lightly squeeze his arm comfortingly, her cheek still on his shoulder, and grinned big at his reaction. "Your dad, of course. He got his last night. Test-called it and everything. He said we can call him any time of day, any time we'd like. So... we'll share it between us? You can take it with you. I'll let you know if I..." she cleared her throat a bit uncomfortably, "need it. And we can call him together sometimes. Bet he'd like that. Just thought... y'know, this would help with... coping. We can see him whenever we want now."

So? Did he like it? Or was he terribly disappointed that she wanted to share it and it wasn't all his own?

Someone was speaking to her or closely around her. Her head should turn in the direction of the voice. All she had do was move her neck muscles, and it would be all down hill from there. She could do this. This was the thought process that was going on inside her muddled brain right now. AJ blinked a few times, and her body woke up enough to follow a simple command.

Once she turned, she stared at Lux in her stance and wondered what happened to her. Did AJ do that? There wasn't anybody else close enough to be guilty. Was she a walking zombie? "Did I hit you? I'm so sorry." Maybe Lux had just lost her balance and AJ was just embarrassing her now. Good going, Valentine.

Wrong? With her? "Me? Oh, um... nothing." That was a lie, and there was no way that she was doing a good job at hiding that regardless of what she kept telling herself. She was absolutely miserable. This was a first for her, and she didn't like it. AJ didn't like this one bit.

She had finally reached the Innovation Lounge after all of those stairs & Josette couldn't feel more relieved! And not only had she made it to the lounge, but she was finally reunited with that glorious piano that Ethan had so graciously showed her last term. AND not only that, she couldn't wait to get her fingers on that beautiful instrument!

She almost let out an anxious squeal, but obviously contained herself, as she made her way across the lounge towards the piano. From the looks of it, there weren't many people around & she felt at ease. Before sitting down, Josette adjusted the sleeves of her sweater & thus sitting down on the bench in front of the piano once she had finished doing so. The brunette placed the sheet music that she was carrying in her hands on the little shelf that held the sheet music for you when you were playing the piano & took in a deep breath. She straightened her posture & placed her feet on the pedals below her. Then opened her sheet music to the first page. Placing her fingers on the piano keys, she didn't waste another moment before her fingers began to dance across the keyboard allowing the music to pour throughout the lounge. It didn't take long at all for the fourteen year old to get lost in her mind as she allowed Mozart's beautiful music delve into her soul.

Somehow, Finn had managed to lose his cat, Rolo, earlier that day. He had extensively searched his dorm room, checking every inch, then had moved towards the common room. When he'd seen no sign of him, he decided he'd have to search the rest of the castle. The search turned out to be rather unsuccessful as he tried looking in every place he could think of. His cat, fairly young still, as well as small, could be wandering around anywhere.

Nearly given up, Finn found himself on the seventh floor, and saw a room he'd not seen before. Perhaps, his cat was up here, he could've slipped in with a person. It wouldn't hurt. So, he walked in, stared at the decorations, and began searching every spot. Behind the chairs, windows curtain, everything. He did, keep out of people's way, never wishing to disturb them, most especially the girl in the piano.

Did Hogwarts have a band class here?

Clearly AJ hadn't even realized what had happened, so Lux would brush it off. AJ was a nice girl, so she never would have thought it was done intentionally. "It's alright," she said while brushing it off. There were more important things, anyhow. Like what was wrong with her Gryffindor friend.

Concerned, the redhead bit her lip as AJ lied and told her nothing was wrong. A normal response, and one she would have probably given in the other girl's place. "Does it have something to do with Adi?" She had remembered seeing them in Astronomy class and mentally noting that they sat far away from each other.

Just as the fourth year was on the verge of continuing her music, there was a bit of noise behind her. She could feel her body tensing up & playing a little erratically rather than smoothly, but she didn't stop playing, determined to finish this aria. Just as she was almost finished with her terrible playing, she'd caught sight of someone whom she figured making the noise, in the corner of her eyes.

It seemed like this person was, looking for something or maybe they were doing something else? She was unsure, but couldn't help but feel a slight bit curious as to what he was doing, but at the same time didn't want to be rude & intrude on his business. Father would think that was very rude to do such a thing, especially with a stranger, who might be dangerous. Or was he? The fourteen year old bit her lip as she stopped playing altogether & turned her attention to the boy as he was still looking around. She softly cleared her throat & spoke in her soft tone, "U-Um..E-Excuse me..A-Are-W-Were you looking f-for something?"

...Perhaps it was a better idea to just keep playing & pretend that she hadn't see him?

...Too late now...

Well, it seemed like the places his cat could've been hiding up here, were diminishing. There weren't many more hide-out spaces that the room held that Finn had not already checked. He stood up, surveyed the room around once more, then sighed. Perhaps his cat would make his way back to him.

Then, was he being addressed? It seemed so, Finn found the face to the voice and stared at the girl. The first thing he noticed about her was the.... stutter. Slightly familiar to him, not in the way that he knew who the girl was, because he didn't, but because stutter was something he dealt with time to time. So, for whatever reason the girl was speaking like that, no need to worry, Finn didn't bit.

My cat. There's uh..thought he might've.. traveled here. That was a comprehensible sentence, wasn't it? His eyes glanced around the room more.

Josette watched as the boy continued to search the room & judging by the sigh that had escaped his lips, it sounded like he wasn't having much luck finding what he was looking for. She bit her lip as couldn't help but feel very bad that he was getting upset. Although she couldn't quite explain why, it wasn't like she knew who the boy was, but still losing something was not fun! She should know!

But her thoughts went blank briefly once the boy had stood up & turned to look at her. Josette didn't know why, but words were gone & she couldn't seem to come up with a sentence at least for a couple of moments, that was until he had spoken again & she shook her head to pay attention to his words. Just at that moment suddenly she could speak again & also able to process thoughts along with emotions. He had lost his cat & thought he might have traveled all the way up here.

She bit her lower lip & took a quick glance around herself before looking back at the boy. "W-When was the last time you h-had seen him?" Josette paused as she waited for a response. "I-I lost my cat last term..F-For a couple of d-days actually..A-A friend..of mine helped m-me look for him.." The fourth year fiddled with her thumbs briefly as she sat there. "Did you n-need any help looking f-for him?"

Had he manage to paralyze the girl? He highly doubted that, but, if so, that was a first for him. It was alright if she was trying to process things or find out what to say, but she looked frozen almost. But, then she was back to speaking up.

"Oh, I..I just noticed he wasn't with me this morning." He said nodding. Because the little furry one usually sat on the edge of his bed. "Yeah yeah... maybe I'll get help. Posters...something." Technically, Rolo wasn't 'lost'. Only if he'd gone for 24 hours he'd be a missing case, yeah? Finn could tell she was trying to help, but, it seemed her nerves were getting the better of her. There was nothing to be nervous about.... it was Finn. Harmless. "Don't think... no, he's not up here." He answered her, giving it some thought. "Did you-did you find your cat?" Like, was it in a specific place or just wandering about?

Good. Lux didn't seem mad at her, and AJ was glad because she considered Lux a good friend. The lion really did feel bad about almost knocking her over. How did you do that and not even notice? Was she really that bad off over Adi? Goodness, she needed to get a grip.

Adi. Just hearing his name sent a sharp pain to her heart. How was Lux so attentive? Her own sisters hadn't even caught on that something was wrong. AJ thought about lying again, but she knew that Lux wasn't going to be fooled by that. Maybe it would be good to talk to somebody about it.

AJ took a deep breath in, and looked up at her friend. "Yeah, it does." Okay, that wasn't very forthcoming. "We got in a huge fight and I don't even know where we stand anymore." She bit her bottom lip as she stared off into space.