2-1 (yes, Char and Dora)
 

Hope wandered to the girls dormitories a little bored. It seemed like no one was around lately. She had hardly seen any of her friends. she needed a little her time anyway. She looked around. Out of the beds that shared her bedroom, she hadn't met any of the girls who occupied the other beds. This school was crammed with people. So why wasn't she finding anyone?

And so the over enthusiasm started. Thanks again for this wonderful opportunity Professor.

Yes, that was sarcasm.

Where should we start? "Probably with the fact that we're not freeing the house elves." Sorry, not sorry. That would definitely come across as 'Hey, we totally don't think you're doing your job.'

Basically, she did NOT want her food to be spit in by vengeful house elves.

"We're also not cooking." Mostly because she had no idea what house elves ate.

If one can adequately imagine the image of a happy puppy being abruptly drenched in a dumped bucket of frigid water, that was exactly how Amur looked when Kaycee's words hit her. She blinked. Her shoulders slumped visibly and the twitch to the corners of her lips were not in a smile.

".....Why not?" She could and would refrain. Be civil. Ask questions. Seek understanding. All the things required of teamwork, she would yield to. Yield and hope that her partner had a very good reason for not wanting to do the noblest thing they could with their assigned responsibility.

"If you were a house elf, wouldn't you want to be free? Be your own person?" Just, in case her reasoning skills weren't quite up to snuff with the situation.

Kaycee made a face. Would she like it? "No. Ooooof cooourse not." She said drawing out the vowels for emphasis. "I would be offended, like I wasn't doing a good job."

"Why are you so eager to offend them?" She asked. Hmm? Why?

And yes, she might have been using strong words to make her point. But it was important to note that that was how house elves thought. It wasn't backwards or anything. It was just how they were.

Wait. Offended?

Amur drew back slightly, her brow knitting into all sorts of knots. Suddenly, in the face of this girl who was soo sure of herself, Amur didn't feel quite as confident. "What do you mean, offend them? Of course not."

The very notion was ridiculous. Clearly this girl didn't know her at all.

Still, she couldn't wrap her head around it. Shifting her weight, Amur considered her slightly-less-desirable partner. "How is it an offense, to say they are free? Not like we're dismissing their service or anything. They could stay if they want to. Just, they'd be free. So they wouldn't have to feel the need to bash their heads in every time they did something wrong."

She straightened a little. "Why do you think it's an offense to set someone free?"

Kaycee made a face. "Do you know nothing about house elves?" She thought she was fairly uneducated with most magic things, but she understood the basics of house elves.

"They like what they do. Freeing them is like disowning them. How would you feel if your family just disowned you because they weren't pleased? That's essentially what you would be doing."

Really, it was common sense. You don't RUIN someone's way of life.

She then rolled her eyes. "They don't all beat themselves up. That's a terrible stereotype. All you need to do is not be horrible to them and they'll be fine."

As for the last part. "They're not people. They're their own species," or whatever the correct term for non humans was, "so you can't just go changing their views to match yours."

Amur wasn't really sure what to do. She could feel the heat rising to her cheeks, and her knuckles turning white as she gripped the pen in one hand and the parchment in the other. Needless to say, this Kaycee had done well to get under her skin, but Amur wasn't quite sure if she was wrong. And that was the worst type of under-skin-getting one could do or be.

Shifting, Amur tried several times to get the words out, but each time they failed her and dribbled off into silence. What if this girl was right? What if she was insulting the elves? What if it would be disowning? What if this was the same thing as the poncho?

Amur's heart and enthusiasm sunk a little bit. Even in that moment, she still find enough bite to at least try and defend her logic. "But we wouldn't disown them. And I've never heard of a freed elf who was an unhappy elf."

So take that Miss Professor in Elf Studies.

Still, Amur couldn't quite convince herself that she was dead set right. It turned out she was dead set wrong in a lot of things, and this might very well be the next wrong thing. But, she would find out for herself.

Pulling her head back up, Amur squared her shoulders. "Fine. We'll do it your way for now. I'll ask the elves if they would like to work here as free elves, and then if they say yes, we can move forward with that. For now, why don't you tell me your bright idea - besides cleaning - that you'd like to enforce for this Elfinization project."

And she tried to look interested. She really did. Truth was, she was a little bit irritated, a sprinkle disheartened, and a great deal worried.

Same TL as Kaycee and Amur
 

Giggling, a childish giggling, was growing louder...and louder...until this particular dormitory is echoing with it. Tiny footsteps can be heard outside the door.

Also, a voice, a child's, says, "Play with me!"

There was incessant knocking on the door, but it suddenly stopped. A small shoe was left in front of the door, but the doll was gone.

Kaycee was winning! She could tell. "It doesn't really matter what you think, does it?" she said. "We're doing this for them."

She nodded. "Except instead of coming out and possibly insulting them, why don't we just ask what they like about us and Hogwarts." That seemed like a good idea to her. "And if they know any free elves. Because I really don't think they're happy often and I'm just really curious now what other elves think about it." Since they were going to talk to them anyway.

Kaycee was about to say more when something... weird happened. She tilted her head. "Sounds ..." Way too young to be a Hogwarts kid. But, she was curious. Especially when the knocking stopped suddenly.

"Did you just...?" She didn't bother finishing her sentence. Instead, she headed straight to the door and answered it. "There's a shoe here." she said picking it up and inspecting it.

"Like, a tiny shoe..." She held it up to her face and squinted. "Come look at this."

First, there was the slap in the face. Then, there was this particular dousing of cold water. It had Amur drawing back abruptly, all at once hurt and confused and angry. Very angry. Her eyes narrowed, her brow knitted and her lips pressed in a thin line.

She would wait to see what sort of logic had the girl spouting such indeciencies. Turned out that more disappointment, and confusion, was just around the corner. Amur simply couldn't believe it, and rather than setting differences of opinion aside, she responded with the shortest and most abrupt comment that came to mind. "Have you ever even talked to an elf?"

Seriously. What made this girl think that she knew the first and last thing about elves. She wasn't that much older. Was it something personal? Amur couldn't remember EVER having talked to her, or even glancing her way before. It was uncalled for. This one needed a dumpling to the nose.

Except that, she did hear what Kaycee was hearing. It trailed a cold finger down her spine and sent all hairs standing on edge. It didn't sound natural.

Amur's wide eyes went to Kaycee, and instead of responding she followed close on the fifth year's heels. Her wand came out into her hand as her mind raced through all manner of offensive spells that she knew. But when the door was opened, there was nothing. Nothing but something which Kaycee was picking up.

Blinking, Amur leaned over the other girl's shoulder, careful not to get too close to the item. It was a shoe. A very tiny shoe. A baby shoe. Babies didn't exist in Hogwarts. Nor did they leave shoes behind.

Before there was a moment to loose, Amur pulled off her hoodie and held it out to Kaycee between both hands. "Quick. Drop it. I don't think we should be touching it." Things that showed up without reason or sense shouldn't be touched, as curious as they were.

Though, she couldn't quite help the part of her brain that immediately trailed off to doing a Cinderella type shoe fitting throughout the whole of Hogwarts. Problem was, why would the owner of said shoe disappear if ..... "Did....you hear her ask us to play with her?"

Suddenly, the open hallway looked a thousand times more threatening than it had been before. Amur was no coward, or at least she never considered herself as such, but those hairs were still standing on end.

Kaycee nodded. "I have actually." Not really about this. But, whatever. "It's just fairly common knowledge that they're culturally different. And I happen to respect other people's cultures."

But that wasn't important right now. She continued to look at the shoe. "I'm sure it's fine. What harm could a little shoe do." Although, recalling that laugh and the childish voice maybe she should be more worried. "No, I'm sure it's fine. If it was cursed something would have already happened. And, like, who would curse a tiny shoe anyway?"

She mostly said it to convince herself.

She shivered and looked out at the landing. "I did." she said slowly. "Maybe... maybe someone is just playing a trick on us? Or maybe someone just wanted to play with us? Maybe we should go see if there's a first year that's bored."

And give this whole thing a logical explanation. Because, Kaycee was officially weirded out now.

Well, that was a surprise. Amur had half been hoping that the girl's nose-in-the-air-attitude was due to living in a box for the majority of her life. Apparently not. Amur's own nose crinkled at the retort. "As do I, provided they're not barbaric."

And to her, beating oneself upside the head with a tray or bench fell into the category of barbaric. Just, as an FYI. Wasn't like cultures couldn't influence each other. And freedom was wonderful, didn't Kaycee think? Obviously so, or she wouldn't be talking so freely. Surely, the elves would enjoy such a thing too.

But elves were second to creepy, possibly-cursed, minature shoes. Amur's face worked itself into a state of disbelief as Kaycee continued to handle it and make excuses for doing so.

"Ever heard of a necklace that nearly killed a girl back in Potter's day?" With that, Amur made to swipe at the shoe with her sweater, full on intending to pluck it out of her housemate's hands and into the protection of the sweater. "Don't be a dull spade. It's weird, it's creepy and so it's most certainly not safe. And we are most certainly not chasing it down the hallway."

Just, she didn't feel like disappearing and leaving one of her shoes behind, thank-you-very-much. Solitary shoes got lonely, didn't Kaycee know? So either someone had left it on purpose, or someone had disappeared without it on not-purpose. Whatever the reason was, Amur was bound and determined to get the shoe OUT of Kaycee's hands and wrapped up in something that didn't involve touching skin or being directly seen.

Then, they could deal with creepy disappearing voice.

Kaycee sighed loudly. "Like I said. They're not all like that. Stop stereotyping." Seriously. It was NOT helping.

As for the shoe. She let the younger girl take it. Mostly because she was tired of the arguing and the whining. She really didn't think there was a problem. "It was probably just some girl who has a toy that dropped a shoe. Not a big deal." Because the more she thought about it, the more it couldn't have been anything strange.

Right?

Right?

"What do you want to do? Because I'm pretty sure Professor Flamsteed will think you've gotten over excited over nothing."

The girl got a look. How was saying that she didn't appreciate barbaric cultures stereotyping? It was simply saying ----- nevermind. A huff of air back to the loud sighing. One day they could sort it out.

One day when she didn't have a creepy little shoe in her hands.

"And just how many girls have you seen with dolls around here?" Regardless of whether the thing was actually creepy or not, Amur quickly wrapped it up in her sweater. She'd be sure to burn the sweater later.

As for Kaycee's question, Amur gave the other girl a stink-eye. "And I'm pretty sure you've got me figured out all wrong." Talk about stereotypes.

Slinging the make-shift pack over her shoulder, she stood. "I'm going to Flamsteed. Whether he thinks I'm ridiculous or not. I don't know about curses, and I'd rather someone who does check the shoe." Leaning forward, she peered at her partner. "Do youuuu know about curses?"

She didn't think so. Straightening, Amur shifted the shoulder-bag. "Plus, no one in their right mind simply says 'play with me' and then skitters off." It was just wrong.

Kaycee really did not want to think about this any more. There just /had/ to be a logical explanation. There had to be. But of course, Amur just wouldn't let that slide.

"Fine. Let's go." she said giving in. There really wasn't a down side to the plan. She just wanted to ignore the invitation to play. Was that too much to ask?!

"I just know they take place when you first touch something." Which she had. And she was fine. But whatever.

"Lead on."

Oh. So, she did know something about curses. Maybe that meant she knew something about elves too?

....Awkward.

Clearing her throat, Amur nodded slightly. At least she was agreeing to come with. Truth be told, as much as she would never verbally admit it, she had not wanted to step into that hallway alone. Who knew if the creepy voice and shoe owner would suddenly pop out of the dark. It looked dark down that hall, and Amur's courage felt very small.

"Well.....I hope you're right." For once. For once she hoped the girl's opinion and apparent knowledge was true. As much as they were butting heads already, she didn't want to see Kaycee's hair fall our or her fingernails grow exponentially. Or, whatever other curse could be administered on one's person via a shoe. Toe hair, perhaps?

Sucking in a deep breath, Amur turned into the hallway and started them forward at as fast a pace as she could manage, without looking like she was lagging or trying to run for her life.

Candice bby <33
 

It was the first week back and Noelle still couldn't sleep. Every time she tried, she had a nightmare and ended up forcing herself awake. Tonight was no different. Her dream started out in the dungeons as usual, but the ending was starting to change. The rats were bigger. Noelle couldn't help herself and yelled this time. She jolted awake in bed and breathes heavily.

Noelle looked around, getting her settings and telling herself she's not in the dungeons anymore. Her breath was raspy and she had sweat beading her brow. Get in control Noelle.

She debates going to see Noah or Sabbie because can't seem to calm herself down. Noticed its late but can't seem to calm her nerves.

It took her a moment (or some hours) to realized that she was asleep with a book covered her face. Merlin's beard, This was just like Teddy because she often found her twin brother fell asleep with a book on his hand or covering her face.

And it's uncomfortable, Seriously.

By the way, what time is it? Because it seemed like it's dark enough and Ava hadn't changed into her usual giraffe pajamas. Alright, she needed to change first. Rubbing her eyes, the young lioness noticed that her dorm mates Noelle was awake. This was her first week back in school after she had been gone for half of the term. "Hey Noelle." She walked to her bed. "You can't sleep?"

There was noise in the bed next to her, and Noelle stayed still, her mind not completely back where it needed to be. It wasn't until Ava said her name before she snapped back to the present. Noelle took a deep breath and looked over to her. "N-no. I keep having... Nightmares." She said in a smal voice and pulled the blankets up to her chin.

Noelle looked Ava older noticing she must have fallen asleep with her clothes on. Noelle had her panda pajamas on her mother bought her. Unfortunately, they didn't soothe her like her mom had been hoping they would.

"What about you? Fall asleep?" She asked and turned to face Ava in her bed. She was awake now and didn't have plans on falling back asleep anytime soon. Being exhausted was better than her dreams.

Nightmares, yuck. Ava hated nightmares. When she was little, she often got nightmares but her mom said that it's because she often forgot to skip bedtime rituals like brushing teeth or something like that. Well, she was five years old at that time. But Noelle's nightmare sounded more serious.

She sat on her dorm mate's edge of bed. "Do you need help? I think there's a potion that can make you fall asleep. Maybe we can ask Professor Newton or Healer Murdoch about that?" As someone who has a father work being a healer, Ava knew pretty much about this. Not to mention that her sister had taken advance potion making course so... If Noelle didn't want to see the professor or the healer either, she could ask Zhenny about this.

"Yeah, I am just a little bit tired. I'm trying to keep up with History of Magic for the essay but I ended up falling asleep while reading it." History wasn't a subject that she really enjoy even though Professor Finch was an amusing and fun person.

Nightmares were definitely not a favorite thing of Noelle. They were more terrifying than the actual experience sometimes... /sometimes/. Noelle figured she didn't have as many nightmares in the place because she felt hopeless. But now that she was safe, she feared being taken again.

Now here was another person telling her to take a potion for the nightmares. Maybe she should... But she was nervous about it and she didn't know why. "Maybe, Noah told me to take some potions too. I just... I don't know. I don't feel comfortable with that." She knew it didn't make sense. Maybe it was the fear of being knocked out and not having the power to wake herself if something were to happen. It all came back to her safety.

"I need to study my history. I've been trying to play catchup. Olly has given me his notes and helps but I have a long way to go." Noelle had been working hard but she'd missed a bunch. She yawned and ran a hand through her hair. She couldn't remember the last time she had a good night sleep

Yeah, taking potions to help her had a good sleep didn't seem comfortable, it's like they were being forced to sleep. But... Ava thought that it was such a very good solution. "You need to talk to Healer Murdoch, or Professor Newton. I'm sure that they would know which one that you should take." Since they were expert in Potions brewing. "Was it persistent? Your nightmare, I mean. If yes, I think you should talk to somebody about it."

Catching up with history... Ava wished she could help, but History of Magic wasn't her strongest subject (meaning: She's TERRIBLE at it.) "Yeah, there's so many things that we need to read for History." Unlike Teddy, she wasn't a bookworm and reading wasn't her thing. "Speaking of subject, do you need any help to catch up?" She could help her in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions. And slightly in Transfiguration.

"If you don't mind telling me... Where have you been gone?"

Noelle bit her lip and pulled her legs up as Ava said she should take to some people about them. She still didn't think it was a good idea but she would agree to do it to get away from that conversation. It just reminded her of her nightmares which reminded her of what happened to her and she didn't want that. "Sure, sure, I can go talk to them if it'll help." She agreed. Maybe they could find something that wouldn't knock her completely out.

History. Noelles least favorite subject. She nodded in agreement to the so much to read. "I haven't started on my paper yet. I'm trying to catch up on some of the past assignments. " she told Ava as she glanced at the book Ava had put up. Her eyes popped back to Ava's face when she asked about needing help. " Yes! I do! I have Olly and Henric helping me but I could use all the help I can get. And since you're my dorm mate.. It would be easier to study with you after dark." It made a lot of sense.

Aw. The question. Noelle hated answering that question. Her eyes drifted back down and she played with her sheets. "Um.. A dungeon. " She said quietly. Mixed emotions swimming over her.