Dahlia was positive that no matter what happened during the course of each year here at Hogwarts, she was always going to be happy to return home for summer break. Sure she might miss her friends but they could always meet up and send owls and those that couldn't.. well.. they knew that she would be thinking of them.

"Hopefully you don't miss and get hit in the eye!" That would hurt! She could just picture it now.. getting hit in the face by tons of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. Ouch! "Eeww, that's gross," she made a disgusted face. "Probably dirt? I don't really eat those very often." The mention of dragons did two very different things both at the same time. It brought a smile to her face as she loved dragons still but it also made her heart race and brought back flashes of memories of being off by one last term. Not that Remy would know that. Lia subconsciously rubbed at her shoulder where she still had fading scars. "Baby unicorns would be really really cool." Yeah, she was leading away from the topic of dragons a little bit there.

Did she want to see what was down there? That was a GOOD question. One she wasn't entirely sure the answer to. "Uhh, no? Yes? Maybe. I don't really know if I want to or not." Before last year she had always thought it would be epic to get to explore the chamber for herself but now, not so much. Her feelings about things sometimes changed daily though, maybe tomorrow she would want to check it out. Certain things required more thought, other things.. less thought. Than there were things she already knew about, like the chamber. Those were the things that she tended to feel differently about from time to time. It was confusing, she knew that.

Dahlia set her bag on her lap and rummaged through it until she found what she was looking for. Hair ties. Selecting one that matched what she was currently wearing she passed it over her shoulder to Remy. "There you go." She couldn't help but beam brightly at her hair. "Thanks! I never really cut my hair.. only trim it when I need to." Her long long hair was a part of who she was. "Since you're a beginner and I know my hair is super long.. it's okay if you only want to braid a small section of it. It might be easier for you to do it that way." Much less hair to hold and focus on at one time.

I mean, there's worse things in the world to fall from the sky than Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. You could never be certain that whales wouldn't fall from the sky in the wizarding world. Remy mimicked Dahlia's face of disgust. "Oh, yeah, I've had dirt before... or was it earthworm?" She had probably had both. Remy didn't particularly like them either, but it was just a bit of fun, like a roulette. "Awwww! Baby unicorns." That WOULD be really cool. "Maybe there will be a lesson in the forbidden forest this term." During care of magical creatures, maybe.

Remy grinned, mischievously. "You DO want to go down there, don't you? I wonder how..." There had to be a password, or something. But she didn't think the headmaster would make the Chamber of Secrets particularly accessible. Let's just say it was on Remy's Hogwarts bucket list, along with countless other dangerous activities that she would probably NEVER complete.

"Thanks," She took the hair tie from Dahlia and continued to play with her hair. Although... it wasn't working too well. Started off strong, but now the hair was just getting all knotted together. Remy took Dahlia's advice and started again, just working on a smaller section now. She was quiet as she concentrated, and eventually plaited a tiny little braid, trying to entwine it with the rest of the hair, but it just made a mess every time.

"Ugh." She let go of Dahlia's hair and crossed her arms across her front. "I can't do it, I give up." HUFF.

True. If anything was going to fall from the sky she would be good with just rain and snow. Or maybe something like confetti or glitter. Anyhow, Lia giggled as Remy copied the face she had made. "Both are probably equally gross." So it likely didn't matter which one was eaten. "A lesson on baby unicorns would be really cool." As for a lesson in the Forbidden Forest, she didn't think so.

Dahlia shrugged. "I said maybe. And the chamber is sealed." It would take more than just a password to open it back up again. All information she had but needed to double check some details on first.

The silence didn't bother her one bit. She had a feeling the Remy was doing her best to focus on the task at hand. A little frown tugged at her lips though when she heard her announce she was giving up. "I think I know what the problem is. I can't actually show you while you're working on my hair. We need another person.. or maybe two. Know anyone that will let us braid their hair?"

Misa nodded as the other girl talked. "You need more moisture. Deep condition maybe every other week with a mask and switch to a wide paddle boar bristle brush. That should help." she explained.

"You could also try switching to shampoo that has the word moisture in it."

Moisture. Oh. Okay. Mamie nodded, wishing she had something with her to write down what Misa was saying. "Deep conditioner mask, and a pig hair brush, got it," she said, looking down at her own, very basic, hairbrush. Definitely not boar bristles. That was just a fancy name for pig hair, right?

"Thanks for the tips," she said, smiling as she set the brush down and started working on returning her hair to its usual braid. If she needed fancy conditioner and a new brush for her hair to be shiny and not frizzy, she wasn't even going to try today, without those things.

Misa nodded. The pig hair was a weird way to say it but whatever helped her remember. "Yeah. Sure. If you have any other questions let me know." She could be helpful sometimes.

"I think it was earthworm..." The more she thought about it. "Thankfully I haven't had a vomit flavoured one yet." She liked to think she could figure it out by looking at the colour of them. Consider her a Every Flavour Bean pro!! Remy nodded in agreement at the CoMC lesson plan. Nothing from now on would match up to that idea. "Oh." Boring. What's the point in sealing it? It could've been turned into a museum, given its history. "Weird. I wonder if the basilisk is still in there?" Remy pondered, blissfully unware that Dahlia clearly didn't want to talk about it.

Remy paused her frowning to think of friends who would be up for a hairdressing session. "Ummm... probably Ollie." She suggested, knowing that she had taken an interest in doing makeup with Remy. "Have you met Ollie Burke? She's my best friend." She said proudly. Lisa, too, of course.

Margaret had accepted her hair was probably as good as it was going to get today without the nice conditioner and fancy hairbrush, so she tucked her hair behind her ears and gathered her things back up. One more big, grateful smile for Misa, and she nodded. "I will, don't worry," she told Misa. "If you have any questions about...the...kitchens, let me know, I know all about food." She knew where the kitchens were, at least, and she liked to eat food.

"I'll see you later, I guess."

Dahlia crinkled up her nose a tiny bit. "Still not something high up on my list of things to eat." There was much better food options than earthworms. Like ICE CREAM. "There's plenty of flavors I'd rather not have." Sure she would eat them for the fun of it but there was much better candy options in her opinion. Lia agreed. Unicorns would definitely make a great CoMC lesson. She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sure there's a good reason for it being sealed off." Like a ground of students and professors ending up down there a few years before she was born. "It's skeleton might still be there."

Ollie? Lia smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I know her. Do you think she would let us do her hair?" Or well, let Remy do her hair. All she had to do was instruct her younger friend on what to do.

Hehehe. Remy shrugged with a giggle. Each to their own. She made a mental note to smuggle a bean into Dahlia's evening dinner one night. Although that seemed like a sure-fire way of losing friends! Remy widened her eyes as she continued to talk about the Chamber of Secrets. "That would be.... AWESOME." Even MORE reason why it should be a museum.

"Of couuuuurse she would." Although Ollie was starting to get a bit sassy, so it was hard to tell these days. Remy had another look in the bathroom mirror at her hair and smiled with a sigh. "Thanks again, Dahlia. It looks so nice. Anyway, I'm gonna head to the library in a sec." Homework didn't do itself, and she had already spent much more time in the bathroom than she had intended.

A small laugh escaped her lips at Remy's excitement of just the simple idea of it. "Yeah, it would be pretty cool." Might make for a really nice research item too. Not that it mattered much right this very second but what if somewhere right below them lay the skeletal remains of the Basilisk? Had she ever confirmed with Hady if it had still been down there when the chamber had been opened while she was at school? Suddenly, she couldn't remember.

"Well, in that case.. next time you see her speak with her about it and then let me know. Maybe we can figure out something and all meet somewhere and I can show you how to really do a French braid, okay?" It would be much easier that way. "You're welcome." She liked doing other peoples hair more than her own. "Okay, I should really get going too." There was now a very important mirror call that needed to be made.

Dahlia closed up her bag and slung the strap over her shoulder, getting to her feet.

Remy grinned with excitement at the idea of learning new hairstyles, although she had a feeling that she wasn’t a natural at it. It should be easier to do other people’s hair rather than your own but she couldn’t even do that! “I’ll make sure to tell Ollie all about it when I next see her.” Which would probably be later on today knowing those two.

“Okay.” Remy got up, too, making sure she had everything with her. “I’ll see you in class, probably. Byeeee, Dahlia!” She smiled and then skipped out of the bathroom.

Dahlia smiled. Something was telling her that getting to teach Remy how to do these hairstyles was going to be interesting and she was rather looking forward to it. She always had a great time with her family when they did each other's hair and she figured this wouldn't be any different. "Great! And if you think of anyone else that might want to join us, you can invite them along too." The more the merrier!

"Yup, if not before that." Lia laughed, following Remy out into the corridor but heading in the opposite direction of the Gryffindor.

Remy absolutely loved this bathroom. It was huge, full of history, and just had a good vibe to it. Plus, no boys allowed, meaning she could tend to her notebook without any prying eyes she wrote about boys a lot, okay? Oh to be young and to have hardly any problems other than what cute boys were in her classes. She was sat in a cubicle, feeling giddy and mischievous, as she scribbled all sorts of shapes and drawings of her friends onto the pages.

Hearing someone enter and linger the bathroom caught her attention. Sure, people came and went to do their business all the time, but not many people stuck around like she always did.

The Gryffindor peered out from the crack of the door to see the back of another girl, looking at herself in the mirror. She couldn’t quite make out who it was from this angle, but decided to make herself known in the most annoying way possible. Remy quietly closed the cubicle door and then gently, but loudly, tapped on the door multiple times, still closed inside of it. She wanted to freak the girl out, of course, completely unaware of her current state out there.

Bahhhh, Hogwarts students were brave and explorative, so hopefully she’d come and check it out.

Ash was in the middle of healing. But more importantly, she was admiring her reflection (she hadn't seen it in a LONG time ok). And then, there was loud knocking from a stall. She panicked for a second, then reassured herself that it couldn't be a rosier follower. What was it then? Was it Moaning Myrtle? It sounded like her, but it didn't LOOK like her, because Ash could see feet in her reflection. Which was good, because Ash hated ghosts anyway. "Oh no. It's a ghost." Pause. "With the feet of a living person." Pause. "I'm all alone, perfect time to be jumpscared by a ghost. This is the most terrifying thing I've ever seen in my life." There was more than a little bit of sarcasm in her voice. Because really, whoever was in there ought to stop knocking on the door like that and scaring her.

The person in here could have locked themselves in and been unable to get out (made no sense).

The person in here could have just been really strange and liked knocking on stall doors from the inside (Ash had never met someone who did that).

Or they could have been trying to scare her (if so, it was working).

"If you're really a ghost, tell me what your name is." Voice. A good way to tell who it was. Ash knew what Moaning Myrtle sounded like.

Ash hoped she was right about the thing in here being a person and not a ghost. If it was REALLY Moaning Myrtle, Ash was gonna be in so much trouble because the bathroom was gonna flood. Well. Too late now. Fingers crossed.

Remy’s eyebrow lifted at the initial response from the girl. Was that sarcasm? Really? There could be ANYONE in here with her. She felt she had to up her scaring game if she was going to succeed at this, so she tapped a little faster and a little louder, wondering if it would be too much to make ghost noises too.

Ahhh, why not?

“OoooOOOOOooo… get out of my bathrooooOoooom.” Remy tried her best ghostly, Moaning Myrtle voice. She hadn’t actually encountered the ghost herself, thankfully, because she figured she’d be terrified and never return here again if she did. What a sad place to spend your days, she thought.

Remy pressed her forehead against the bathroom door, careful not to get her lips near the icky frame, to give the ghost sounds a bit more range, but oops, the door hadn’t clicked shut and she stumbled forwards onto the ground with a BUMP. The Gryffindor froze for a moment before looking up at her victim. Remy hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting this girl before but she knew exactly who she was - Ash Fox. She was good with faces and names.

Without thinking about it much, Remy burst into a fit of laughter as she stood herself back up. “Sorry, sorry… I’m really sorry. I couldn’t resist.” Hopefully the girl would be cool about it…

See, Ash had a near-perfect memory, and she knew what Moaning Myrtle sounded like. This kid's impression was... not entirely horrible. Like the ghost, the voice sounded like a teenage girl. That was about how far the resemblance went. Whoever was in the stall wasn't crying. That probably meant it wasn't the ghost.

Ash was now 100% sure that this was not, in fact, Moaning Myrtle.

How did she know that? The person making ghost sounds had fallen out of the stall, and Ash could see them. She didn't know the girl, but she had seen her around in classes. Which meant that she was probably a living person.

Logic.

Ash remained looking in the mirror, still scared to look away. She could see the girl from here and it looked cool to talk to her without looking (and Ash loved being cool). There was really no reason to turn around.

"Most people can't seem to resist scaring me for laughs," Ash commented in a calm but rather cold tone of voice. Then, she laughed. Her laugh was bubbly this time, like a fizzy soda overflowing a cup or a tumbling stream or something. There were lots of ways to describe it. None of those descriptions would involve kindness, but hey... It wasn't a mean laugh at all. The best way to describe it was "amused, whether amusement is acceptable in this context or not." It all depended on the context. Right now, Ash was laughing because the girl had fallen over. That could be interpreted as mean. But given that the girl behind her had likely been trying to scare her, Ash thought the laugh was entirely deserved. Surely the girl would realize that too. If not, then... whatever. This interaction could go in several ways. Some of them were good. And some weren't. That was how life worked.

"Who are you, exactly?" Because they hadn't met. And she was definitely not Moaning Myrtle. Ash was completely sure of that.

It only dawned on her after the fact that sneaking up on older students probably wasn’t a smart, nor kind, thing to do. Given the situation that occurred last year at Hogwarts, before Remy had started here. Poor Ash could’ve been reliving the nightmare of last year for all she knew. It was easy for her to not think about it when she wasn’t involved, and she was still too much of a kid to understand any of it from her family’s point of view anyway. Feeling bad about what she had done, Remy stopped laughing immediately, and didn’t know how to take her comment.

… buuuut, the girl was laughing it off. So Remy started to laugh once again, this time a little more calmly. Phew! Got away with that one.

“Oh.. I’m Remy -“ oh… always a bit of a sucker punch when you knew someone’s name but they hadn’t a clue what yours was. Remy pretended she didn’t know the girl either. “And you are?” She hadn’t meant for it to come out so rudely, but she had to make it believable.

She really hoped the pair had not gotten off on the wrong foot. Ash seemed pretty cool, and she had pretty hair.

GASP. Where had she dropped her notebook??!

Ash was mostly only laughing because this happened all the time. If she cried every time someone tried to sneak up on her, she'd cry a lot. And she already cried a lot. She didn't need or want to cry more. So she shrugged it off, accepting that this was a daily part of her life. There was a point at which she couldn't care anymore. Half of these kids had no idea what they were doing to her sanity when they did that anyway. They didn't mean it, and they were only children. It still hurt though.

"I'm Ash. Or Fox, if you hate me already even though we've never formally met." She did not know this girl and wasn't looking for trouble, but at this point she kinda expected people to instantly dislike her. So she gave Remy options. Maybe it would make it clearer in which direction this conversation was going to go. Because if it was going to go bad, she might as well just leave.

Remy was being loud again. Ash looked at her through the reflection, then sighed and finally turned around. "You good?" She arched one eyebrow, not interested in having a younger year scream at her or start crying (like they usually did). Maybe she was just pretending to be a ghost again. Maybe.

Momentarily forgetting their conversation and panicking about her notebook, Remy double backed on herself to peek inside the cubicle. Phew, it was there on the ground. She reached in and tucked the book under her arm. Important info inside, and all.

Remy was… confused, to say the least. She raised another eyebrow towards Ash. “Huh? Why would I hate you? I don’t even know you.” Kinda, not really. “I’m real sorry about scaring you, I didn’t know who was out here.” She sighed and bowed her head. Honestly she felt terrible about it. “I was being stupid.” And now she was being dramatic.

“I’m fine. Thought I’d lost something important, that’s all.” She wasn’t used to sharing her the bathroom. Her reply was followed by a sigh. Remy wanted positive vibes and she was definitely not getting them from this interaction.

Ash shrugged. "No idea. Hating people before you know them doesn't make sense to me either, but what can you do." Some people seemed to dislike her before she had even found out there name. It seemed pretty dumb, to hate someone you'd never talked to. But some people were dumb. Maybe it made sense after all.

"Nah, it's fine. It's whatever. I wasn't that scared anyway." A bit of a lie, but she didn't want to explain why exactly she was scared. She pretended not to notice when Remy called herself stupid. It would be mean to agree, and Ash wasn't a mean person. Cold? Yes. Sarcastic and cynical? Yes and yes. Uncaring at times, mostly unsympathetic, inflexible? Yeah. Yup. Absolutely. But not mean. No, not mean.

"I see. Well, It's good that you didn't lose that." She gestured at the notebook journal thing. Notebooks were pretty private. It would be such a shame if she lost it. Also, that would probably involve tears, accusations, and going on a quest to find it. Not something that Ash particularly wanted to do.

Why was Remy carrying around a notebook in the bathrooms anyway? It couldn't be a drawing notebook, because most people didn't draw bathrooms for fun. It was just a weird place for a notebook to be. "Watcha doing in here?" Ash didn't really think Remy was doing anything nefarious. It was just so... strange. Remy would probably decline to answer the question. Relatable. Ash was lowkey hoping she wouldn't have to explain herself either. After all, what kind of Hogwarts student didn't know what they looked like? Hogwarts students named Ashley Fox, that's what.

The more she thought about it, the more she could agree with Ash on that one. It was true that some people took an automatic disliking to others. She decided to share her own experience, just so Ash didn’t feel as if she was the only one who went through such things. “I get it… on my first day, the first people I met at the Gryffindor table were really mean to me.” Who’s have thought it - at the GRYFFINDOR table. Remy wasn’t about to drop names unless Ash asked about them. Not good to be a gossip with someone who wasn’t also a gossip. Could end very tragically.

She wasn’t sure she believed Ash when she said she wasn’t scared, mostly because she thought she nailed the performance. Of course she would - she was the lead role.. uhhh… secondary-ish role in the play, Peter Pan! Was ASH in the school play? Remy couldn’t recall. Anyway, it totally didn’t matter but Remy just knew that she’d bring up her theatre achievements at some point today. “That’s… good…” The Gryffindor paused. Nah, she couldn’t let it go. “Why weren’t you scared? Did I not make a good ghost?” Constructive criticism only, please.

Remy couldn’t help but act sketchy about her notebook, but unfortunately it was one of those ones that didn’t come with a lock. The lockable kind were a little too childlike for her taste. Maybe there was a spell that she could learn to lock it.

Uhhhh…

“I was… using the bathroom, obviously.” What ELSE would she be doing in the bathroom? Not making lists of names in her notebook, that’s for sure. Come on, Ash, don’t make Remy lie about fake bowel movements.

“What are YOU doing in here?”

Ash frowned. It wasn't nice to be mean to first years on their first day. "Hmph. That's not very nice." She wasn't gonna dwell on it though. Remy would probably be scared if Ash offered to fight whoever was mean to her (although she might have actually fought them if she knew who Remy was talking about). Her willingness to fight people was maybe something that she should keep to herself.

"I wasn't scared because I could see your feet. Try kicking the door suddenly if you wanna scare someone. Don't even pretend to be a ghost, just make a sudden loud noise. It's mean though." Very effective, but very mean. VERY VERY mean. "And dangerous. Some people around here lose control when they get scared." And Ash would be included in that, in case Remy was wondering. "The scary part for me is the surprise of you being here, not the ghost. Maybe focus on that, because Moaning Myrtle is probably the least scary part of this bathroom." Ash knew that a girl got crucio'd in here last year. She knew that because the girl was her.

"I wouldn't recommend any of this by the way." Remy had asked for tips for scaring people. Did she know where Ash got these tips from? She thought about what would terrify her, and she was using real experiences for it. So if Remy ever tried any of this on her... yeah. That would be a major violation of trust. She leaned against the sink, looking a little bit past Remy like there was something far away. "It won't be worth it when you see the look on someone's face." It was all a joke, until it wasn't. It was all fun and games until you hurt them and they lost it. It wouldn't make Remy feel good at all. Ash was telling her how to scare someone, but it was still very wrong.

Her eyes refocused to look at Remy. "You know, muggles generally bring their phones to the bathrooms, not their diaries. But I guess this is just the wizard version of that." Did she believe that? No. But she didn't actually care very much, so it was okay.

Remy asked WHAT Ash was doing, not WHY she was here. So Ash could hide a lot of things. "I'm just looking in the mirror." Which was an absolutely RIDICULOUS (but true) thing for Ash to say, but she didn't think Remy was aware of that. She turned back around to look in the mirror again, tracing the line of an old scar that ran down her jawline. It was years old, and Ash didn't even remember where she got it from. Evidently not one of the traumatic ones from the alliance then. She must have tripped or something. "To be completely honest, I haven't looked in one of these things for like a year. I look so... different." The Ash she had seen last was smaller and hungry-looking, and looked old, like she had seen the whole world and was disappointed in it. It was so different. Ash was mesmerized by her own reflection. Some would mistake it for vanity, but Ash was not vain.

She finally broke eye contact with the refection and turned back around. "Yeah, just looking in the mirror." Like normal people did. She shrugged, almost unsuspiciously. Almost.

It seemed Ash wasn’t going to press her about who it was being mean to her. That was fine, she had mostly gotten over it since it was a long time ago, and she even got a smile from Kinsay James the other day which was good for her REP. Kinsay seemed like one of the ‘cool kids’.

Remy opened her mouth to respond to Ash’s criticism of her technique, but was put back into her place when she described it as mean and dangerous. She was currently feeling embarrassed, awful, like a bully. The thought made her face feel a little hot, like she was about to tear up. “I… I didn’t think.” It was a little boring in this bathroom, but that was a bad excuse. If she was bored, the natural solution would be to… you know, leave.

Her head tilted. “What could be scarier about this bathroom than Moaning Myrtle?” Apart from the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, of course, but she had full faith that it was safe nowadays.

Ugvggvhhh… more making her feel bad.

“I won’t do it again, I promise.” Remy took a few steps closer to Ash, and looked her in the eye with honest eyes. “I’m really sorry.” She hesitated from making physical contact with Ash, but she kinda did want to hold her hand to really make the apology real. That would probably scare the girl more than any bathroom door tapping she had done previously, so she refrained.

Remy shrugged. She wouldn’t give up her diary for anything, although those muggle ‘phone’ contraptions looked very interesting indeed. Albeit a little lazy and unsociable. She’d much rather seek out her friends and family in person for some proper time spent. It probed her next thought, “I suppose a phone would be quicker than an owl.” For letter purposes.

That was… completely fair enough. “Cool. It’s a quiet bathroom, and a good place to practise new hairstyles.” Remy nodded. She had spent some time with Dahlia in here for just that reason. Why was she spending so much time in a bathroom? It suddenly dawned on her that it was totally weird. She opened her eyes wide at Ash’s next statement. “What?! WHY?” Remy could NOT fathom not looking at her reflection for that long. However she was a person who worried about her looks, to be fair.