'In the Meantime...Something for Fun' Cont..

[Nicci]

(Have gave you an update in the chatbox earlier feel free to jump in wherever you want to and we'll help get you involved again)

[Lauren]

(Sorry about not getting on here faster guys! D: ))

Leilani and Vixie sat in the Slytherin Common Room. Vixie was "researching for Potions" (read: looking through an index of books, trying to find the book Juliet still needed her to get) while Leilani watched her.

"Vix, haven't you revised enough? The only poeple you've spoken to in the past few days have been that Juliet girl and Lance."

"Speak for yourself," Vixie said shortly, annoyed at the lack of information in the index about what she sought. "You've only spoken to me and Shawn lately." She turned back to the index. Leilani stared at her, shocked and hurt.

[Jazzie C]

Lia looked up at the girl. She shook her head. She pointed at the transfig classroom and hissed 'that b**** ruined my life and she's here to finish the job. what do i do with that?' she shuddered and made herself small. 'why can't she leave me alone? she has to torment me over and over and over again with that godforsaken ostrich!' She burst into tears and began sobbing.

[Nicci]

Kalina raised her eyebrows in shock at the answer the young woman gave. Shuddering at the thought: Ostriches were scary as hell, they were third on the list of large birds she had a phobia of after geese and swans. It reminded her of a time when she was three and accidently toddled too close to a local wildlife duck pond with a triangle of sandwich in her hand.
Back on the subject at hand, Kalina wasn’t really sure how to provide comfort in this unknown situation. She had never had a bad experience with one of her professors before but knew the one person who would at least have power over the Transfiguration professor (whoever they might be).

Reaching into her pocket, Kalina took out a neatly folded handkerchief and offered it out with a stretched palm to Lia.
“Here..” She spoke softly, trying to show compassion “It’s at least a start to dry your tears...I can’t do much about the Transfiguration professor but I can guide you to the Headmaster or if you’ve already seen him about it, the Head of Ravenclaw”.

[Jazzie C]

Lia looked up at the girl and wiped her tears away. She sniffed and laughed bitterly. 'Who's gonna believe the crazy new girl over the teacher?' she said, looking away. 'There's a reason i'm a transfer. They say PTSD makes one paranoid. It's the sort of mollycoddling you cant get rid of easily. What am i supposed to do? They arent going to believe me and she'll stay and she'll make life hell for me. Aaahhh i just want to go home, but i cant, because SHE took it away from me.' She said, her voice slowly raising in pitch. she was nearing hysterics and for once she actually thought she might need those suppressants.

She looked back up at the girl, wondering what kind of messsed up impression she was making. Way to start afresh.

[Nicci]

Although knowing that it must be hard what the Ravenclaw girl was going through, Kalina warmly smiled and tried to remember something inspirational.
“E.D Martin once quoted ‘It is easier to believe than to doubt’” she began, still offering out her hand to help Lia up from the floor “The headmaster won’t think any less of you for going to see him about a personal problem and I’m sure he’ll be kind and get your timetable amended so you can take other classes to make the situation more comfortable for you”.

Bringing Lia up onto her feet, Kalina realised the near hysterical state the unfamiliar girl was working herself up in and without thinking of the strangeness behind it, she put her arms around Lia and instinctively offered her a caring hug.
“It will be ok...” she spoke gently and reassuringly “Hogwarts is your home now and I promise they will make it safe for you”.

[Jazzie C]

Lia sank gratefully into Kalina's hug, feeling immediately reassured. She breathed deeply to calm herself down and ran her fingers through her hair. picking up her things, she sniffed and smiled at Kalina. 'Will you go with me?' She asked quietly.

[Nicci]

“Sure!” Kalina answered collectedly, almost instantaneously. “I wasn’t going to be doing much just meeting a friend in the library to do some numerology homework but she can count, so she’ll be fine without me for a while. Can I help you carry anything?...”

[Lauren]

"Vixie," Leilani said in a low, dangerous-sounding voice. "Please tell me you didn't just say that."

Vixie exploded. "Well, maybe if you would just LEAVE ME ALONE when I'm STRESSED, then I wouldn't get MAD! Besides, it's true! If I'm not Shawn, I'm not anything to you. Seriously, Leilani, you need to talk to your friends a little more."

"I'm TRYING TO!" It came out more angry than Leilani meant it to, a shout rather than a calm statement of fact. Vixie jumped and then stared at the blonde girl. She was usually so unruffled, so calm and comfortable; it was a huge shock to see her so frustrated. "The truth is, Vixie," She added a sneer to her friend's name. "if I'm not Lance or Nature Freak, I'm nothing to you." And, with that, she stood up, glared at the brunette, and stormed out of the Common Room.

Vixie was still sat on the sofa, dumbstruck. What had all that been about?! Frustrated, she flipped back to the index and began searching again. Then she stood up, holding her place in the huge book with her index finger, and walked out of the Common Room herself in an attempt to find Lance and Juliet. She needed to know the name of this book.

---

Anneliese Taylor was doing something she hardly ever did: she was ditching class. She was a vampire; she had the mental capacity to remember whole libraries of information without breaking a sweat. It wasn't like missing one tiny lesson would hurt. Besides, she had something important to do.

She hurried to the seventh floor and walked outside a stretch of empty wall, muttering 'I need to see Elena, I need to see Elena, I need to see Elena'. Then, without warning, a door appeared on the wall and Anna, grinning, stepped into the room beyon.

The walls were pasted in a deep aubergine purple with lavender-coloured gosaamer drapes hanging from the ceiling. Mahogany furniture sat around the room; a small sofa, a four poster bed, a glass-fronted cabinet with a crystal decanter holding something dark red and thick, a rich smell wafting from the liquid.

"I thought you said you'd be here earlier." A high pitched, bell-like voice alerted Anna to the fact that there was someone else in the room. She whirled around, Shield extending, ready to attack whoever it was that was hiding from her. But she came up blanks when she came face to face with a pale girl with large, round, innocent-looking aqua eyes and straight white blonde hair that fell to her waist.

"Elena," Anna said, breathing. "I didn't realise that you were already here. Hey."

Elena bobbed her head in greeting and smiled quickly. Anna knew immediately that something was wrong; Elena was usually very happy and optimistic. Anna was usually the pessimist.

"Realist," Elena corrected aloud. Anna smiled - her sister had obviously just heard it in her mind. "But that's not the point. I've had news from Edward."

Anna was excited. "And?" she probed.

"He said he can get here by next week earliest. He said it's not easy for him to get away from Trinity, but that there's a slim chance that he may be here tomorrow if she sin't back from her trip by then. It's all a matter of how long she's in Canada for."

Anna nodded, taking all this in carefully and commiting it to memory. "Is he bringing anyone else?"

"No. Well," Elena added hastilly after seeing the dark expression on Anna's face. "He said if he sees Robyn on the way, he'll get him to tag along, but as he's probably in France by now..." She shrugged as if to depict what the chances of a meeting were. Anna sighed.

"You can't hide any more, Elena. You need to enroll here, I've told you - we'll protect you and Edward really well. There are a few decent people here who will help us aswell. And there's something going on with the Slytherins. They're acting jumpy." Well, one Slytherin was in reality: Vixie Browne.

"I'll see what I can do." was Elena's reply. Anna knew that was all she would get out of her for a while.

((746 words OMG! ))

[Jazzie C]

Lia bit her lip as they came out of the headmasters office. They had gone in there and asked for her to change classes. She was now in defence instead. She felt a huge relief when they changed her timetable, just like that. She had told them that Jey made her uncomfortable and she didnt want to be in that class anymore. As she walked alongside Kalina she felt like she actually had a proper friend. She was happy, and for the first time in far too long, she smiled, just a little bit, but it was a start. She bumped shoulders with Kalina 'thanks for coming with me... i wouldnt have been able to do that alone.' she said, genuinely grateful.

The head had said he would have a 'chat' with Jey...whatever that had meant, but she knew Jey was manipulative and she would end up staying at hogwarts. Nothing was going to change that...no amount of chats in the world COULD change that, but at least Lia wouldnt have to face her so often in the future.

***

Back in the transfiguration room, it was time to wind the lesson down. With the students beginning to have success with conjuring, Jey and Katie felt the lesson had been a success. Jey clapped her hands together, just as she had at the start of the lesson and she spoke loudly and clearly. 'Okay seventh years, i'm impressed with your work today, you've got about ten more minutes to practice. Your homework, which you will have exactly two weeks for, will be to write me an eight hundred word essay on Gamp's laws of transfiguration. I want it in depth and i want detail. Do not hand in any half-arsed work people, or you will reap the consequences. Okay, ten minutes practice then you're free to go. Anyone who doesnt hand in their homework, will be spending time scrubbing floors.' She smiled angelically at the class. There was no trace of red in her eyes, not like before when she had spoken to Lia...how odd.

[Nicci]

Kalina smiled, proud that she had given her time to help Lia.
“Aww yeah you would, you did fine in there.” She began nudging the young woman beside her back with her shoulder “The headmaster is really nice..But boy can he talk; I can’t believe it took us so long...”.
Thinking about Lia’s new choice of class, Kalina paused before speaking again.
“At least you be with the Ravenclaw’s in Defence against the Dark Arts, three of my closest friends take that subject too..”
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Katie hovered around the room watching carefully. As the students were packing their books and things away her eyes were naturally drawn back to Seth, he really wasn’t himself.

[Nicci]

“So that concludes the biology section of the topic, next time you’ll be getting hands on with some live specimens so you’ll need to bring your protective gloves with you. Any questions?.. Class is dismissed..” The care of magical creatures’ professor finished standing proudly at the front after having given a quick look around the room for any raised hands.

With the dismissal of the class came the instant sound of wooden stools being scraped back across the stone flooring. As the other students began packing their books into their bags, Juliet was already up out of her seat and making a beeline for the door.
Ignoring the professor’s additional rambling reminder about their Hippocampi lifestyle drawing homework, she left the room not even giving answering Lance a second thought. Deep down she wanted to be comforted, having to give Seth his own space was almost an incomprehensible foreign feeling and something that didn’t happen in her everyday routine. She wanted Seth close, she needed him...Lance wasn’t going to understand that immediately and besides that’s who Seth would have expected her to run to.

Miserably, she paced down the corridor towards the nearest staircase feeling alone. The Hufflepuff girls would only exploit her situation for their own gossipy gain, writing in the notebook was of the equation and asking for a shoulder to cry on from Vixie was just..Wrong. Sighing she placed her palm on the banister rail and held onto it tightly as the staircase swung down to fix in its next position.

Back in the now virtually empty classroom, Lance still remained sat at his desk lost in deep thought. He’d never seen Juliet move so fast, nor stop to give anyone a chance to catch up and enquire about the problem. Confused with her illogical actions, he rubbed his eyes and looked up at the professor who had taken a seat behind a large desk at the front of the room.

“Still here are we Mr Bishop?” The professor asked not look up from the magically appearing mound of paperwork.
Startled, Lance mumbled and hurried to put a book in his bag to try and pretend his had been meaning to leave.

“It’s not a problem, just clear you have a distraction. One is described as being caused by either the lack of ability to pay attention, lack of interest in the object of attention or the great intensity, novelty or attractiveness of something other than the object of attention.” The professor continued seriously this time glancing up and meeting eye contact with Lance.

“Professor, I...” he answered, throwing the badly folded rolls of parchment on top of the textbook in his open bag.

“A distraction appears in two kinds, something you know is instantly bad and off-putting and the other feels good and yearns to be enjoyed fully. HOWEVER! One must be careful of both as too much of either could land you feeling the same way if it isn’t taken in moderation. If you can’t find the balance between working and distractions you won’t fulfill your potential.”
Pausing, he put down his quill and continued,
“This is why this is the perfect opportunity to inform you that some of your essays have been sent off for critical review to the wizarding exam board....”

Paralyzed in shock, Lance instantly froze in horror at the last major part of the professor’s rather long lecture about multiple types of distraction. Cursing repeatedly over in his mind, he knew the outcome didn’t look very promising. If the exam board had received Juliet’s essays as well he would be stuck in a guaranteed fail situation, pulling the wool over the professor’s eyes was hard enough over the last year, but doing it over several beady eyed goblins was outright impossible. They’d instantly pick up on the similarities in the grammar and sentence fluidity; then everyone would know that she really wrote them for him.

“Is everything ok Mr Bishop? You’ve gone pale..” The professor asked with concern now standing over Lance’s desk. “Did you not hear that they have since profusely appologised for having misplaced your work and you will either need to submit to me copies of the originals or rewrite them before the final exam date later in the year?”

Lance couldn’t really answer but managed to shake his head. If his brain didn’t feel like it was going to explode before it did now. Was his secret still potentially safe?

“Don’t look so confounded” The professor answered cheerfully, patting Lance firmly on the shoulder “It shouldn’t take you too long and it will all help towards practicing for your N.E.W.T.S, you should be running along now I have the 4th years class after lunch to prepare for”.

Acknowledging the professor, Lance shut his bag and stood from his stool momentarily beside the tall man before making his way towards the open door. Leaving the care of magical creatures’ class behind him, he sighed as his thoughts returned back to Juliet. <Could too much of being around her really be a bad thing?>

Note to self - ITM FBpg29 COMC Professor is named Gobbly-Shanks.... Lol... Thanks Chris. I might have to dub him Prof.GS for short.

[Nicci]

Alone in the corner of the library Callie had waited patiently for Kalina to show up so they could share their thoughts and findings on the Numerology essay, they were meant start that was due in on the following Friday. She had already begun creating a personal reading and had broken down both Kalina’s full name and birth date using Pythagorean methods. Once she had added up all the numbers and condensed them to form a single value, which happened to be the number 8, she had then begun the long summary paragraph about the apparent influences that number had on the particular person.
From the birth date, Callie had concluded that Kalina should be a hard working individual who takes extra time to get ahead with studying or working. With her added devotion should concentrate on working towards a career in an office or for a large organization, with a way to continually progress in an honest way to the top of the ladder and finally that she should keep focus on progressing at a steady pace to get the most out of her inputted energy.
One of a number 8 should also love to have an interest in the past, whether it is in History, Antiques, or Archaeology.

The rest of the summary merely repeated itself for the numerical combined value of letters from her name. Still also having the value of 8 not much more information could be noted apart from the idea that she should apparently continue to work hard to achieve a future gain and not relying on luck.

Grumbling, Callie flattened out the page of parchment and used it as a marker in the Arithmancy textbook. She dreaded what Kalina was going to come up for her own personal reading in return, something totally obscure that would indicate the exact opposite of being an emotional mess of two things mashed together and how difficult trying to be normal actually was.
Looking up at the clock and realising that the study period was nearly over; she gave up waiting on Kalina and took her belongings down the Astronomy aisle. This is where her brain belonged, thinking over real physics with intellectual equations and geometries rather than silly A=1, B=2..Ta Da! your magical number is 7.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Having now been at the terraced house on Chickadee Avenue for nearly a week, Dragona had already begun to make herself quite the queen of the place. With Thomas’s help the inside of the house was almost three times as big since the night Juliet was there and the front living room was the size of a stately parlour with a huge roaring fireplace.
The rickety staircase was no longer narrow and was strong enough to take Dragona’s gait in either of her smallest forms without worry and the once front bedroom was hardly recognisable that is once bore a comfy place to rest a muggle’s head.
Delighted with her creative environment at an acceptable standard, she was now free to continue about her business.

After recovering from her trip to retrieve the egg of fire from the erupting summit of Mount Teide in Tenerife, Dragona had learnt of the arrival of a small parcel and was pleased to be informed that the pathetic beings Thomas was toying with had actually found something of potential use.
Reading the first volume of the scrying textbook was pretty much a waste of 5 minutes, it wasn’t enough and it didn’t tell her anything about creating a device in this time period for a way to lockdown the location of the Phoenix born.

Enraged and disappointed she had pushed the trivial thought about seeking out the worthless underlings and crushing them with her excess might aside and begun work on her latest idea.

For a good part of the Wednesday morning, Dragona in her near human form with her long silvery hair stood patiently over a large cauldron, stirring it occasionally when the colour started to fade. The liquid in the pot boiled a vivid emerald green but would be no where near ready to start the cooling process for another couple of days. If the base mixture succeeded then she could begin to add the magic and Thomas would be the first subject to witness a fraction of her greatness.

[Nicci]

Oh dear this looks like it's going to be my page and one that I bet everyone by-passes

[Nicci]

Uncomfortable with the silence that had developed between them, Kalina thought it was maybe for the best not to talk anymore about her friends. Maybe to Lia it sounded like she was bragging and didn’t help with her situation of being new.
Trying to choose her next words carefully, she hoped her next questions wouldn’t be as hurtful.

“Would you like a tour around the castle? I can show you some of its best features if someone hasn’t done so already? We have an excellent Quidditch stadium for outdoor sports if you are into that kinda thing? Or maybe you prefer books and would like to see the extensive library? Oooh or maybe you’d like the Black Lake that’s said to be the home of a colony of merpeople?"

Thinking about all these wonderful features of the school warmed her heart but also brought about a heavy feeling of sadness. Soon it would all have to be just a past memory once she started her life outside of Hogwarts. Many a time she had found herself in the library flicking through old yearbooks and looking at the moving photographs of happy couples that had found each other during their school life and had gone on to create wonderful families. Kalina had secretly wished for the same but that ideal dream was never going to happen for her and the only likely people that she knew that stood a chance of achieving that were Seth and Juliet.
Blinking back to reality she tried to smile a semi positive grin as a thick section of brown, curly hair dropped down beside her face as she awaited an answer from Lia.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Martha’s Nook ward, eighth floor of St Andrew’s hospital was unusually quiet for that time of a Wednesday morning. Usually nurses or doctors would bustle to and fro carrying papers or medicines but today was different. The halls of the intensive care unit were deathly silent apart from the rhythmic beeping of a particular heart monitor.
The only signs of life on the ward were the still bodies of three middle aged woman, paralysed and hidden behind the reception desk and the two individuals wearing open white coats standing at the foot of a bed that the monitor was placed beside.

Beep...Beep.... the continuous sound the monitor made as the two individuals stared at the unconscious man lying in the bed.
Beep...Beep... the continuous sound that echoed through the mind of the young woman with long, straight jet black hair as she held out her wand with potential intent to harm.

“I..I can’t..” she muttered worried, to the tall, dark haired older man beside her “I don’t want to hurt him, They’ll know in an instant, I don’t want to face imprisonment. You promised you’d help me, you raised me, you trained me so I wouldn’t face a life trapped in eternal darkness. I can’t do this, I’m not even sure it’s him”

“That’s him alright..” the dark haired man answered with slight disappointment, before reaching out his left hand to take the young woman’s wand. “Sometime’s life isn’t always what it seems, there are two ways to get to the top spot: Earn it respectfully or take it by force and take out the competition. They all had it coming to them, shame so far both acts looked like tragic accidents...”

Exhaling deeply the man thought over his past actions, Amelia was just a busybody who always interfered but Sophia... Sophia was an amazing woman, one that just got involved with the wrong man and he, well.. was lying in the bed unconscious before them. Two down and one to go.......

“This man is no saint Isabella; he was given a specific task for the project and so far to this day has failed. Where everyone else who was assigned a test subject succeeded in giving it a potential whole life he hasn’t. The Jovian project could have been a success if it wasn’t for him living with his head in the past. We could have had it all...been the greatest scientists involved with lycanthropic developments in history..and I would have been the most well known of them” he continued raising his own wand in his right hand out over the still body of Dr Rufus Veinhert with a manical grin. “This man didn’t help Callisto”

“There’s still time...” the young woman known as Isabella answered not wanting to give up hope in this strange and uncomfortable situation as she reached out and clutched the man’s elbow with her hand tightly, “What if there is a way we can ensure the project is a success? Rufus may never make it out of the coma even if you give him the chance to live, but what there is a way to help Callisto? Would you let me go and find my sister..?”
------------------------------------------------------------

Seizing the moment of opportunity, Serena from her hiding place under the table cast a quick stunning charm at the hopping teacup and made it come hurtling back to earth with a delicate crash against the stone floor. <Well at least that’s the end of that> she thought to herself, coming out of hiding. Maybe more practice was needed to be done outside the class before she came to Transfiguration again.

Glancing across the room, she noticed her brother looking out of character and sullen. She could understand his disappointment for not being able to join in on the Quidditch pitch but wasn’t aware about how he was feeling about Erin. Maybe she could catch up with her brother later in the Ravenclaw common room for a chat.

Conjuring away the broken fragments of the teacup off the floor, Serena packed her textbook and flung her bag over her shoulder before gazing across the room at the door.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Slowly closing his textbook with his left hand, Tristan gazed across again sadly at Erin. He felt so in the dark about everything that she was currently involved with, even the simple events of Olli’s fall had complicated themselves once Professor Fischer had somehow got wind of the accident and had met them at the door of the castle. After all their hard work and effort to bring him inside during the pouring rain, she intervened once and moved him instantly to elsewhere in the castle with a flick of her wand.

Gritting his teeth, the thought aggravated him; the Defence of the Dark Arts professor had this creepy aura about her that made the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end whenever she was near him. Maybe it was just plain ridiculous, but was a feeling he couldn’t shake. <What was really going on?> he wondered, noticing the shine off Erin’s red hair as she continued to work.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Sitting proudly in her office as the head of both the Beast and Spirit division of the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Marissa ‘Riri’ Summers smirked as she re-read over the large article about herself in the morning’s edition of the Daily Prophet. They had covered her last interview perfectly and in particular had highlighted her response to the so far ‘unconnected’ animal attacks that were happening in Scotland.
Once she had gathered enough resources and made enough public appearances to whip up a strong paparazzi following, then she could confidently leave the office and begin the physical undertaking of finding the culprit in question.

Reaching the bottom of the page she glanced under the paper as her eyes settled on a still photograph of her beautiful red haired daughter in a silver frame that sat next to her stationery tidy. Maybe there was also time to drop in unannounced....
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Afraid I don’t know what will happen to Lyn so I can only imagine that Gen stayed with her or they went their own separate ways to class. So I will post again as Gen as soon as Tom posts.

(Yes I know..another long boring post to fill up the page but least I'm up to speed with nearly all main characters and you even got an insight into some secondary plot goings on!!)