Whistling a tune to herself Lux made her way along the seventh floor corridor. She wanted to head up to the owlery so that she could send a letter home to her parents.

Skipping along, she suddenly heard a ripping noise and drat everything was falling out of her bag. Sighing, she stopped and began picking things up. She needed to repair the tear, but she also didn't want her stuff scattered everywhere, and there was A LOT of stuff in her bag.

So many floooors to explooooore! Jay was skipping along the corridors, enjoying seeing everything. Mum had said to explore as soon as possible instead of messing around with Torie and James was definitely doing that. He was partway down the corridor when he heard the sound of things falling. Turning, Jay beamed at the girl. "You need help?" he ran over and started picking things up for her without waiting for her answer. He first gathered her books and handed them back. "There you go!" Wow, she had LOTS of stuff.

Awwww, a boy was coming over to help her. That was so cute and Lux really appreciated the help. "Thank you so much," she told the boy with an appreciative smile. He seemed to be a Firstie because he looked so young. It was crazy to think that there was a time where she had been 11, and now she was getting closer to being of age!! So thrilling.

Now that there was someone to help her, it would take no time to get everything sorted, and she quickly repaired her bag before placing stuff inside. If she was back at home she wouldn't have been able to do this without getting in trouble, and the muggle method of sewing was a lot slower and she wasn't the best at it. "I'm Lux."

"It's okay!" Jay beamed at her and kept gathering her things together happily. His eyes widened slightly when she repaired her bag. That was so cool! How did she do that? He focused on the girl when she said her name and finally responded. "I'm James. Nice to meet you." Heh, she was a Hufflepuff, so why wouldn't it be nice? "That's cool!" he pointed at her newly repaired bag as he handed another few things over.

Awwww, this boy was so adorable. Lux couldn't help but smile at his excitement. And no wonder he was excited; he was a Hufflepuff! Her House seemed to be full of happy and excited people, and she loved it!

"Nice to meet you, James. Are you enjoying Hogwarts so far?" She hoped so, and if he needed help with anything all he had to do was ask her and she would gladly do what she could. Now that everything was back in her bag and it was all fixed, Lux placed it over her shoulder again. "You want me to teach you how to do it?" she asked once he pointed to her bag and commented on how cool what she did had been.

Helena glided out of the Ravenclaw Common Room and into the 7th floor corridor after her last visit to the eagle girls dorms. What should she do or go next? She could always float down a few floors and talk to the Transfiguration professor but she wasn't in the mood.

Hovering in the middle of the corridor the elegant lady looked left and right as she tried to decide what to do next.

Enjoying??? "I LOOOOOOVE it! There are so many cool corridors and the lake is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge, the grass is so greeeeeen, the air is so clear, there are MOUNTAINS," HOW COOL WERE MOUNTAINS? "There is snow on the top of the taaaaall ones!" He reached as high as he could to demonstrate just how tall they were. "I still have to find everything. Hm. "Do you know where the Ravenclaw tower is?"

His blue eyes were drawn to her bag when she asked if he wanted to learn. "YES!" Excitement got the better of him for a few moments. "Uh... yes please." he answered as his manners finally came to his thoughts. "Sorry..." Eep.

Having selected an especially extravagantly decorated plumed hat from his ghostly collection for the occasion, Sir Nicholas floated down the corridor until he spotted Helena.

"Milady," he greeted with a polite bow and a nervous smile hidden beneath his small moustache. "I hope I find you in good spirits."

As James went on about how awesome Hogwarts was, it melted Lux's heart. It was so nice to see students filled with love for their school, and Hogwarts was an amazing place. She didn't want to think about how her life would have been if she never attended; she wouldn't have Bay, her friends, or her aspirations to be a potioneer.

"The mountains are beautiful, she agreed before raising her brow at the question about the Ravenclaw common room. Of course there was nothing wrong with asking, but she WAS curious about why he wanted to know. "I know where it is, yes. I also know where the Gryffindor one is." But then how could she not when she her boyfriend was in that House...

He asked her politely to show him how to do the spell and that made her heart melt even more. "Sure thing!" Reaching into her bag, Lux pulled out a blank piece of paper before ripping it in half. "Okay, so the incantation is Reparo." VERY simple. "And the wand movement kind of looks like a backwards G." Kinda, being the key word.

"Reparo!" She moved her wand in a straight line to the right, downwards in a diagonal line slightly to the left, slightly upwards in a diagonal line to the left, and then a small straight line to the right. "Tada!" And with that the paper was fixed!!

Helena was playing with her fan and inspecting her nails by the time that Sir Nicholas found her in the corridor. As he approached with his extravagantly decorated hat on his head Helena curtsied politely in response. "Sir Nicholas..." She choice to not say anything about his choice of hat. Even if she thought it was a bit over the top.

Pushing her fan down into a dress pocket Helena replied softly. "I'm in pleasant spirits yes, how are you Nicholas? Are your lions well?"

Removing his hat to return her curtsy with a proper bow (a bit late, but his flustered nature had momentarily caused him to forget proper etiquette) and held it over where his heart would be beating for a few moments while they spoke.

"Doing splendidly," he smiled. "Although it was a real pity to hear they lost their Gobstones match against Hufflepuff." Although he suspected Professor Flamsteed was taking this blow much harder than any of the students were. "Ravenclaws doing well as well, I hope."

And this conversation, right here, was the living's equivalent to discussing the weather.

Why was he fussing around with the hat? Helena wondered silently. Ignoring the hat all together she raised a brow in surprise. "They did? I thought they'd win this year. Do the students seem to enjoy the foul smelling sport as much as quidditch?" It was the only sport they had available aside from duelling of course.

Nodding she said "Yes, the eagles are doing quite well. They recently had a paint war down by the lake. The state of their clothes and hands after made me shudder. They seemed to have had fun though." It was the most important thing, but still the stains and such. Shudder.

"I'm glad I shook off the Baron tonight. I'd much rather spend the night in your company than his." The lady said softly, her eyes downcast.

There was an extra special message that needed delivering and the howler was on a mission. Had to make the recipient KNOW and had to do so with as much zeal as is to be expected from a howler.

Down the corridor it zipped, aware it was arriving at it's destination but when it approached the ghost it went right through, darting down the corridor.

What what what?

No one was escaping the howler today! It reared around and charged again...going right through a second time. Welp, it could do this all day til it exploded.

Not wishing to insult the Head of House whom Helene worked closely with, Sir Nicholas tried to pick his words wisely. "Judging from the way Gryffindors speak of it, it is of my belief that the only thing that could possibly compete with quidditch in the hearts of Gryffindors would be something along the lines of dragon racing," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Certainly not rolling little round objects along a playing board. Delicate precision was not something most Gryffindors were known for.

Pleased to hear that the eagles were doing fine as well, Sir Nicholas felt his un-beating heart skip a beat at the Ravenclaw ghost's words. With every intention of floating closer to her...
...he instead had his path interrupted by a crimson coloured envelope. A very persistent one at that!

Mouth forming a long 'O' underneath his small moustache, Sir Nicholas watched the thing zoom back and froth right through his front. How rude!

"Do you mind, you ghastly thing?" Sir Nicholas spat, waving his hand at the howler as he zipped this way and that. "Just explode and be done with it!"

His curiosity was tickled, however. Just who would be sending him one of these? Furthermore, how did they expect him to receive it?

"Dragon racing," Helena echoed wondrous. "I don’t think that’d ever be allowed at Hogwarts except at very special occasions like at a school tournament. Headmistress Truebridge wouldn’t allow it." Not after the most tragic death last year.

She was fully expecting Sir Nicholas to take her up on her wish to spend the evening in his company when they were very rudely interrupted by a crimson coloured envelope Helena identified as a howler. Said howler zoomed back and forth through Sir Nick and then it continued to zip this way and that in front of him.

Pulling out her fan Helena waved vigorously with it after the howler her irritation on Sir Nicholas behalf clear in her indignant voice. "Chooo! Chooo, you ghastly thing! Deliver your message and leave."

Fifth time wasn't the charm but something had to give. This message would be received one way or another and this fellow was going to have to stop this foolery that he was going on with.

Open open open!

The envelop's temperature rose steadily as it whooshed this way and that, trying to snag itself on some part of him.

OPEN IT!

One day, he was going to climb those mountains. He so definitely was! His eyes lit up again when she said she knew where they were. "Can you tell me where they are? I want to see them!" YEAAAH. He didn't even have to go inside to be happy.

He beamed at her and watched as she explained how to do the spell. Okay, he could do that. Right? He pulled out his wand and copied her movements. He did it a couple of times and then looked in his pockets for something that he could break so he could fix it again. He loved learning new stuff!

Errrrr. Did she know where the mountains were? Lux looked out the window, and honestly wasn't sure what to tell him. When things were that far away, it was hard to tell distance. Besides, she didn't exactly spend time exploring mountain ranges and rock climbing. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "But we could probably find out." Maybe someone knew or they could find the information in a book. Books were wonderful.

Watching James practice the spell a few times, she was impressed. He was doing a great job so far. Noticing that he didn't seem to have anything to break, Lux reached into her bag and took out a wooden pencil. Snapping it in half, she handed it over. "Here you go!"

She wasn't sure? But she'd just said she knew where they were! "You said you know where the common rooms are." James blinked innocently at the person in front of him. Didn't she know anymore? Surely she couldn't forget that fast? Or had he just confused her?

His blue eyes followed the pencil the second she pulled it out of her bag and he bounced with excitement as she handed it to him broken. "Okay... I can do this." Mhmmm. Oh, right. He didn't need to work himself up for a simple spell. "Reparo!" he did the wand movement and watched the pencil with wide, excited eyes. Okay, it could stick back together any second now. Orrrr NOW. A pout appeared on his face now, but Jay wasn't giving up. He tried again and let out a whoop of delight when it repaired itself.

Sir Nicholas had forgotten how Helena tended to take his wit and humor at face value. Her delicate and naïve Ravenclaw personality had misconstrued his words as fact when he had been implying that there was nothing to be done at Hogwarts to compare to the zest Gryffindors shared when it came to quidditch.

But alas. The ghost was not even granted a moment to chuckle and glide closer to her to clarify as they had been interrupted.

"Fear not, milady," he said, boldly holding up a hand to calm her as he glided away from her. It did seem as though it was set to explode soon and it would only be proper for it to do so entirely on his ghostly self and away from Helena. "Should all be over...soon..."

He suspected Peeves to be behind this, somehow. Or perhaps the Headless Hunt had taken their rejection notices up a notch?

LOL. Gosh, she was a goof. Lux mentally smacked herself over the head. Of course he had meant the common rooms, but she had been focusing on the mountains still. "Sorry! I'm being silly. Yes, of course. I know where they are." Don't mind her, she was just a nut sometimes.

Eagerly she watched as James tried the spell...without success. That was fine though!! Totally normal to not get spells right the first go, and he was only a First Year. The second attempt went waaay better. "Wow, that's awesome!! You will be a total pro at fixing things in no time." Practice always helped and he was already doing amazing.

He smiled when she said she knew where they were. YAY! "Will you show me?" His eyes were lit up with delight. "My step-dad was a Slytherin and it sounds COOL down there." Mhmm.

Jay beamed at her praising him and bounced on the spot. "I did it!" Just like the water had been! "Why doesn't it always work first time?" he asked, suddenly curious. Mum always managed to do spells right the first time.

Oh good, they were on the same page again. Lux was pleased about that. "Yeah, I can definitely show you!" It wasn't as if they were going to try to break in or anything. Nope. They were going to be good little Puffs. "Slytherin is cool, but I don't think I've really gone outside their common room." Nothing personal, she just tried not to go down to the dungeons unless it was potions related.

Beaming, Lux applauded James. It was adorable how happy he was to have succeeded and she totally got it. She was the same way when she worked out a spell!! "I think a lot of it has to do with concentration and confidence." She had started doing MUCH better with her spell work once she gained more confidence.

It could wait no longer. This one had asked for it and this howler was set to pop. This could have all been done in a civil manner but apparently not?

"YOU NO GOOD, ROTTEN, SPECTRE. DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO OPEN YOUR OWN BLOODY MAIL??? THE NERVE OF SOME PEOPLE! YOU HAVE A HOWLER AND THIS IS WHAT IT SAYS:

DEAR SIR NICHOLAS, THANK YOU FOR BEING ALL NOBLE AND FOR ALWAYS BEING AROUND, I LOVE HANGING WITH YOU. LOVE, ZEKE." and with that the letter was up in smokes.

Gone.