The thing was, Toby hadn't actually been planning to come up here today. It was one of those 'oh my feet brought me to a place that apparently my brain lowkey wanted to go' sort of moments. And he knew why that was, toooooo. There was a Gryffindor he needed to speak to.

Except, not being a Gryffindor, Toby couldn't get IN there. Soooooooooo... he'd just... wait out here. By the portrait, yep. Soon. Soon Zander Adair would appear.

Leaning up against the wall, Tobias twiddled his thumbs and alternated between watching the portrait and looking up and down the corridor. Leaning didn't last long, and soon he had started casually wandering around in circles, to keep moving. Like a shark, but less bitey.

Just a casual day in the neighborhood. Well at least there wasn't anything going on that made Zander think it was more than just a casual day up in Gryffindor tower. Except, he was hungry. And while that wasn't anything out of the ordinary, he could only ignore his growling stomach for so long. And really, it wouldn't make any sense to devour any more of those chocolate frogs. He had already if eaten his fix of those today and if he ate any more he'd definitely come across a shortage way earlier than he had planned for. Speaking of shortages, hopefully Cutty had some more to help with the whole restocking issue.

ANYWAYS. Hungry. Zander was hungry, which was strange because it wasn't meal time. But also not strange because it was Zander.

So he made his way out of the Common Room, a little begrudgingly as he knew it was a long walk down to the kitchens but a walk that he would make nevertheless. He wasn't planning on stopping either, 'cause he was on a mission to get some food. Except, when he spotted Toby (walking around in circles??) he had to stop and say hello, 'cause you know... Being polite and all. Plus, he never really got to talk to him after Sophie said that... Yeah. You know. That. Would this be awkward? Zander hoped not. Aheeeem.

"Hi, Toby," why are you walking around in circles? Was that a rude thing to ask? Yeah. Maybe. So Zander kept quiet. Maybe the boy would explain on his own.

Tons of people had gone in and out, none of whom was the person Toby was looking for, though he greeted them all anyway. Nobody really questioned why he was walking in circles, which was unsurprising. You could usually count on Gryffindors and Ravenclaws to not question weirdness. Ravenclaws were all original and quirkly, and Gryffindors just kind of... did what they wanted. Very broad definitions, but whatever.

At last the voice belonging to Zander Adair rang out, and Toby stopped in his tracks to look up at the Prefect. Which caused the dizziness, which wasn't a problem when he was moving to suddenly hit him. Toby staggered a little, but put out a hand and used the nearby wall to prop himself up. Okay, cool. Totally cool.

"Hey Zan," he said, as his vision returned to normal and he shoved his hands in his pockets, totally casual like. But then the thought occurred to him: Soph must have already told Zander about... stuff. Like. It made sense. She was unlikely to just NOT tell someone about it (like he himself, ahem), and Zander was likely the first port of call. Or Evie or SEEEEE-BEEEEE or Cat or whoever. But that was okay, in fact if it was TRUE it would make this waaaaay less awkward for Toby, because he didn't really want to explain it all over again if he could help it. So yeah. "I wanted to talk to you... are you busy? Or we could talk later?"

Toby smiled, to sort of show that all was good. No hostility and all that. As if Toby could ever be hostile, pshhh.

Zander immediately stepped forward to help Toby stand up after the abrupt stop to the spinning, but it looked like he caught himself by using the wall. Ahem. Crisis averted. Again, not gonna question the circles and stuff.... Why? But still. Not gonna question it.

Though he was afraid of a potentially awkward in counter, Toby seemed pretty chill. So Zander mirrored the same attitude by-- O_______O TOBY WANTED TO TALK TO HIM? His entire body froze up on the spot. Was it a bad kind of talk? Zander's mind of course only jumped to the absolute worse conclusions. Which he probably shouldn't have. Besides, he never wanted Toby and Sophie to take a break or anything. If they were happy together then Zander was happy and Zander didn't even know that they were going to and it technically-- Wait. He was still panicking, wasn't he?

Ahem.

Shoving his hands into his own pockets, Zander attempted to not jump to worse case scenarios 'cause apparently it was a thing he accidentally tended to do (oops). "Oh-uh-yeah, of course. I've got time." WHAT WAS TOBY GONNA SAY? Also he was just gonna ignore the hunger because obviously this was more important.

Yeeeaaahhhh... Toby could see Zander freeze there. It was difficult not to, to be honest. Which made things... tricky. He wasn't nearly as good at reading people as he thought he was/pretended to be/WANTED to be, but Toby had a tendency to pick up on VIBES. And he was getting vibes from Zander. Panicky ones. Oops.

But he was acting more casual at least, and even though Toby felt guilty for making the Gryffindor anxious, that was a good sign. Because if it was like... TOO MUCH TO DEAL WITH, people tended to not even try to pretend to play it cool, y'know? Well anyway, Toby figured best thing to do would be to just get on with it, super casual like. The sooner he spoke, the sooner he could convince Zander to be less anxious. Which was something he had experience with; Forrest had a tendency to work himself up at times, and Toby had developed his skills in sort of talking him down. Then there was Gabe, who had a whole different kind of anxiety, but Toby liked to think he was decent enough company to him at times like that.

Okay, anyway. Distracted. Very. YES. RIGHT. OKAY.

"Awesome." Another smile, almost a grin, really. To show that this was OKAY, EVERYTHING WAS OKAY, ZANDER. "It's about Soph, actually. Did she tell you? About me and her, like, breaking up?" Because that information was sorrrrt of... pivotal to the conversation, y'know? Ahem.

Yes he was panicking. Trying not to look it, but unfortunately Zander Adair was blessed with the ability to react to everything. Didn't take a detective to figure out what he was feeling. But when Toby started smiling it did help a bit. Still, the Gryffindor was waiting for the kick. He wasn't one to run away though. He'd take it. O________O It's about Soph. Not that he didn't expect it, but y'know.... Ran a hand through his hair, kept the other in his pocket. Trying to seem cool. Totally cool.

"Oh, uh-yeah-she... yeah," again he mussed his hair, breaking eye contact for a brief moment. "I'm really sorry."

What was the protocol on this kind of stuff? He wasn't quite sure... But he was sure that they were going to do some more talking. 'Cause this couldn't be all that Toby wanted to chat about, right? It made Zander a little uneasy thinking about what else was coming. Ahuuuuuuuuum. Sooooooooooo....

Toby nodded, still giving a half smile. But the thing was... the more he thought about what he wanted to say or what he was doing here or the chain of events that led to this conversation the more he realised he... didn't want to talk about it at all. Drat. This impulsiveness thing was such a pain in the butt.

"No, no," he hastened to say, realising that Zander was, of all things, apologising. "You don't need to be sorry at all, really. I mean. I'm the one who suggested we break it off any everything." In Toby's mind, that meant it took the blame from anyone else, so they didn't need to feel bad. Or something.

But, ahh, okay. Now what. Toby paused, made a face, and rubbed the back of his neck. He didn't need to do the whole cliched 'you be good to her' thing, because that seemed unnecessary. Toby never felt the need to remind someone not to be mean, he didn't really know any mean people. Did they exist? Doubtful. But even if they did, Zander wasn't one of them.

Moments of silence passed, with Tobias feeling increasingly like he'd rather just walk away now. But that was rude. He'd come up here, after all. Consequences, pls.

"Well," Toby said at last, straightening his shirt and shoving his hands in his pockets before looking at Zander. "I guess I don't really know why I came up here." Lie. "Forgot what I wanted to say." Lie. "But just... I mean, if you and Soph end up together and stuff, I hope it's good for you both, and what you need. And that you're both happy and stuff." ... Truth, actually. No matter how difficult things were, that part was the truth. And Toby smiled to show it. "... That's it. See? No big deal."

He smiled again, and nodded with an air of finality. Failing to take a step back and realise how weird the encounter had been. But... y'know, he was a little preoccupied.

"I'll let you get off, then."

Zander nodded, feeling a little relieved at what Toby had to say, though of course he already knew as much. He had asked Sophie a lot of questions when she came to tell him what had happened. He just had to be sure, okay? He liked Toby. Toberson never did anything wrong to anyone, y’know? He was such a nice guy and Zander didn’t want to take advantage of that ever. Or let anyone else take advantage of that, ‘cause rude. The sixth year awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, waiting.

He wasn’t really sure what all this was about. It seemed like Toby was up here for him since he stopped walking in circles ’n stuff. Plus he said he had to talk to Zander… So you know. Just waiting to see what else is in store. ”Oh I—“ he paused for a moment, kind of unsure of how to respond to all of that?

Uh. It was awfully nice of Toby to say all of that. ”Thanks, Toby.” It seemed like the proper thing to say. Though still, he wasn’t all too sure.

Before Zander could think of much else to say, however, Toby was going to leave? WAIT. Uh. ”I was actually just uh-about to head over to the kitchens… You know, get something to eat?” He gave the seventh year a small smile. See, he was done being uneasy and panicky now that it was over. Mhm. ”If you want, you’re welcome to join. We could make pizza again, maybe? You know…Only if you want?” He wasn’t sure where all of this stuff left their friendship. Were they still friends? Could they still be friends?

Maybe it wasn't so obvious, but after Toby basically making an about-turn halfway through talking to Zander, he could sort of tell the Gryffindor was puzzled. Understandable, too, because he'd be exactly the same were the roles reversed. Confusing people were confusing, and Toby was one of those people, and he knew it.

He just smiled and nodded, and was about to turn to head off when Zander spoke up again. HmmmMMMMMmmMMmmm food. Mmm. Toby didn't often turn down food. He was, actually, thinking of visiting Botros on the way back down through the castle, but the offer from Zander was tempting.

"Sure!" he said at last, quite cheerful, like he hadn't just been talking about sorta sensitive stuff. Already forgetting it, yep. That's how Tobys worked. Ignoring the negative. Coping. Sure. "I could go for pizza." He'd already turned to head off the other way, but now turned back to him again.

To say that Zander was incredibly relieved when Toby agreed to pizza was a complete understatement. He wasn't really sure where all of this left them, but accepting a pizza invitation meant things were alright... Right? Plus, pizza could fix just about anything so maybe it could make things feel less awkward. Either way, Merlin Zander was really starting to get hungry. Ahem. By the way, he wasn't actually just thinking about food this entire time, okay? He actually did listen. And take things in.

"Awesome!" Very awesome, actually. Zander meant it too.

He gave the seventh year a small grin as he began walking away from the portrait, and instead towards the stair. "I've been craving pizza for days," he was also trying to find ways to bridge the silence. It made him a bit uncomfortable, given what they were last talking about. Just kinda... Weird, y'know? Sophie and Toby breaking up, it was never supposed to happen. It was just... strange.

Toby grinned too as he followed Zander, just half a step behind and subconsciously letting him kinda sorta lead.

"Same," he replied, though that wasn't entirely true. It was just an automatic response and he wasn't entirely sure where it had come from. But Tobias did love his pizza, so it wasn't a total lie. "Still reckon it'd be cool to order in. But I don't think it'd be too easy to direct a muggle pizza deliverer...er... to the school gates."

He shoved his hands in his pockets as he started down the stairs (sidenote: never a smart move). "Still. I liked our pizza last time. We made a good team, y'know? I'm so ready for another one."

Okay, so there was something about homework at Hogwarts that everyone should know. It was much more fun than homework for a normal school. Mostly, because well, y’know. MAGIC was involved, but seriously, it was just better in general.

Like Charms. For their homework, they had to “take over” the Castle. HOW COOL WAS THAT?

Hehehe. Skipping out of the common room, on her way to take over a few walls or floors or … well, where-ever for Gryffindor, she stopped beside the portrait door as it closed. ”Hi Ms… So, for our Charms homework, we get to take over some walls in the colour of our house… and I was thinking, since you are our entrance that you would be okay with being on a red wall for a while? Or maybe surrounded with a red glow or some form?”

Marsha wasn’t really sure how far she could get the charm to spread, but she knew that she was getting better at it every time she attempted it.

When she received no quarrel from the portrait she gave her, her thanks and with a huge beam on her face said, ”COLOVARIA!” while pointing her wand at the wall directly beside and around the portrait hole. The red spread out wards and although it didn’t fill the whole wall (or anywhere near it), it looked like her portrait had been placed in the middle of a Gryffindor rosette… which the Welsh girl thought was rather cool.

Happy with her first section, she moved on.

Smiling, Lux reached the Fat Lady.

There was only the one poster left and she had been saving it for the Gryffindor common room. She knew this place very well because she passed by it a lot. She also had a boyfriend who used to be in this House and many friends who were currently, so that helped as well.

Hoping that one of said friends would step outside - hopefully carrying food since she was practically out of Chocolate Frogs - Lux set about finding the perfect place to stick her poster. Obviously it would be by the Fat Lady and maybe she wouldn't mind the company, but it seemed that she was in the middle of a deep sleep. Lux could understand that because she got really tired by the end of the day. Portraits needed their sleep too because they got tired out from visiting each other and the Fat Lady had the added job of letting Gryffindors into their common room.

Quietly Lux placed the poster against the wall and used the Sticking Charm on it. There. She was done the homework and now she could get something to eat.

Yay.

Covered from top to bottom in sticky cobwebs is the portrait of the Fat Lady. You can try to enter your common room but might find it a difficult task as the occupant of this portrait is preoccupied with trying to get rid of the filth that surrounds her.

Mitchie was ready to take a nap. He needed one. He headed toward the common room. He slowed his steps when he spotted the portrait that marked the entrance to the common room.

Erm...?

Were those cobwebs? What were they doing there? He made a face and reached out to touch the webs. What were they doing there?