Lloyd had once again let her eyes flicker shut, letting the instrument take her mind completely, and her arms move out of memory and strict learning. She listened carefully to the notes emanating from the violin, and the faintest of smiles was placed on her lips. Dorremoon was patiently watching, her ears flicking every so often, until Lyle appeared out of no where with his ferrets. The cat made a soft yet somewhat rough meow in their direction.

And then Lloyd opened her eyes once more.

Immediately her bow slipped up from her initial shock, and a painful note screeched from the strings. An immediate blush spread across her cheeks from embarrassment and shame, and she quickly moved the bow from the instrument. She smiled sheepishly at the boy, rubbing the back of her neck. She then dropped it a few seconds after, and her cheek moved up a little as she squinted, a faint grin still remaining.

Lloyd hopped down from the rock, not meeting his eyes and then she set down her violin into the cushions of its case including the bow. She pushed down the cover and flipped the latches back on, locking it. She quickly picked it up and held it with both hands behind her figure. Dorremoon entwined herself between the girl's legs, successfully rubbing off some of the dirt she had amassed in her fur.

"Hey, what's up?" She asked casually, glancing up at the quickly dimming sky. "Er, not to be rash, but perhaps we should head back before some creepies come out of the woods. Or worse, the prefects." She made a mock shudder, and then walked slowly past him back towards one of the castle doors. "Unless you only needed me for a question, that is. Which is totally fine too!" She mumbled quickly, a half smile and an apologetic look to her eyes.



He looked at Myra thoughtfully, an unbelieving smile on his face at her comment about the actress. "Psh, nah. You know me with famous people or people of higher standings. I'd much faster chuck my camera at their head than have the decency and a hold of my thoughts to be polite. But I did have a superb time." He put his hand to his chest poshly, and formed a very refined British accent with his tongue.

He smirked, patting her head resolutely. His face then turned into that of a bad poker face as she mention the pictures of that year. "Eh-heh. Whatever floats your boat." Another nervous chuckle, and then he shook his head. In truth, he kept most of his personal pictures in a photobook in order to go over in the summer during free time to help remember the memories better.

"Yeah, yeah. Of course. Plus the mosquitoes are probably gonna be out soon too. I mean, Chopstick is usually good with them, but, he's so small...." He complained without any enthusiasm. Chopstick hooted in protest, flickering up to Naire's finger as he got up. Naire shifted his hand in front of his chest so that Chopstick would not be upset by the onslaught of wind as he sped after Myra.

He then fell in place next to her, scritching his head softly as they walked, using his peripheral vision so he wouldn't trip or run into anything. "So sleep is soon to come. It'll be nice to get back in the beds here. It's always been a second home, to everyone I'd say. At least sleep'll come easy." He nodded, continuing along.

Lyle Brightham – Ferre House

At the sound of the screeching note that Lyle’s unintended stealth had resulted in, the boy winced and his pair of ferrets quickly scurried for cover. Two mobile lumps appeared on his shoulders as Skip and Scamp disappeared into his collar once more. Even with the sunlight faltering, Lloyd would easily be able to see the lumps scurrying in a spiral down his torso beneath his robe. Despite the fact that he felt really, really bad about interrupting her, he couldn’t help a bit of giggling as their little paws danced over him. Realizing how much worse that probably made things, he quickly stifled. His cheeks flushed red and he reached up with one hand to rub the back of his neck as well.

”Oh, um, I was actually looking for Naire but I heard you playing and couldn’t help but come over.” His mind caught up to his mouth a few seconds later, and he realized that he might have just insulted her, sort of. ”But I was hoping to see you too! We didn’t get to talk at dinner, haha, sorry, I got all wrapped up in stuff. Did you have a good summer? Mine was great. I’m really glad to be back, and oh! I’m going to try out for the Quodpot team this year, isn’t that something? I’ll have to find someone else to take over the sports column, because I’d probably be biased, but I’m really excited. So excited. This is going to be the best year yet, I can feel it, can’t you?”

He never quite seemed aware of how hard it could be for people to keep up with his rapid-fire manner of speaking. His father often remarked on how little he seemed to need to breath, if only when he was talking, which he almost always was. There was a brief pause, where she might have been able to get a word in, but probably not. Again, he only seemed to have digested what was said, this time by her, once he’d quieted a bit and had time to actually let the words bounce around his skull a few times. ”You’re right though, we should head in. I guess I won’t see Naire till tomorrow, that’s too bad.” His brow creased a bit. ”Should I have a question for you? Did something exciting happen?” His eyes were wide, eager, waiting. Quite reminiscent of a puppy, he scampered after her towards the school.

Vance Abernathy – Arietem House

He nearly flinched when Lee mentioned that his siblings were at the French wizarding school that Nevaeh would supposedly be attending. He’d nearly forgotten that little fact, forgotten it enough, at least, that he had to rapidly make several decisions. He had faith that he could convince Lee not to share anything that would disrupt the cover story, but very little faith that the boy would have the good sense to keep his mouth shut on the matter unless expressly told to. That meant he needed to tell the flamboyant younger man even more than he’d intended to, which didn’t sit well with him. This was the one area where he’d always trumped his sister. She’d ruled her flock of female friends and male admirers exclusively with fear, but he was much better at the game. It was his grandmother who had called it that, the concept of identifying people as pieces and maneuvering them across a metaphorical board. No doubt, if Nevaeh were in his shoes rather than the cold ground, she’d already have her wand to Lee’s throat, a threat ready to pour like poison from her lips.

”Very eventful, I must say.” He had taken a bit longer in coining his reply than was required, something that Lee would surely notice. ”But all in good time.” His fingers unwound, and he reached over with his remaining hand to give Lee’s shoulder a brief, Vance’s-version-of-friendly squeeze. ”This year will turn out to be just as eventful, I think.” That should have been sufficient to whet Lee’s appetite for secrets while satiating his appetite for affection, however brisk.

He lengthened his stride by a half-pace as they drew nearer to the entrance of the common room of Arietem House. ”Lordly lineage,” he whispered into a brazier by the door after a quick, surreptitious glance to ensure that no one was in range to eavesdrop. The heavy stone door slid aside, revealing the short flight of steps that led down into the common room proper, plushly appointed as it was in the greens of the house’s standard.

Normally, Vance relaxed ever so slightly upon entering the Arietem-only cloister of the school. In part, it was to convey a bit of trust that barely existed; it was also because maintaining poise could be laborious throughout an entire school day, even for him, particularly on a day where he had to deal with Fletcher. Not so, this year. This year, anyone could be an enemy.

He vaguely remembered Bellona mentioning something about a gift when he spied her by the fire. He offered her a courtly nod, then allowed himself to sink down into an overstuffed chair across from her. He was careful to choose one with another adjacent, so that Lee wouldn’t have to pout, or worse, make a show of dragging a seat closer to him. ”What a tiresome evening this has been,” he remarked earnestly. He’d sleep well tonight, if he didn’t dream of fire, green light, and cold, pale girls.

And then there’s Justin – Vulpes House

Normally, lazing about on a cot for a spell with nothing more intensive to do thank keep track of time would have been restive for Justin. He couldn’t keep unbidden scenes from the past from his mind, though. Two young boys, on a slender whip of a thing with spikey hair, the other a bit sturdier with a shaggy mane and a goofy grin. The former leaning heavy on the latter, practically clinging to him as he limped along toward a first-aid tent a stone’s throw from the cacophony of a Quodpot stadium teeming with fans.

That same spikey-haired boy never failing to notice when the shaggy-haired boy was about. They were both a little older than they had been, both a little more certain of what they wanted. A dozen or so instances of the two of them avoiding one another’s gaze or presence, the cloying desire to break their shared silence, the cold stare of another boy, indistinct in memory, who might ever be a wedge between them.

A kiss, the first and only kiss they’d shared, only they hadn’t really shared it. The formerly spikey-haired boy, who’d finally realized that gelling his hair into tines didn’t do all that much to make him look badass, had stolen it. The true punishment for his crime: the only chance he might have had stripped from him.

Justin’s dark brown eyes snapped open. He planted his feet on the ground and stood, using his wand to carefully levitate the boiling cauldron from the flames onto a rack, where it could cool. While it did, he busied himself with changing out the cartridges of sleeping gas in the hutch and restoring the protective enchantments he’d layered upon it. It was tedious, but he didn’t mind just them. The images from his reverie were hovering at the fringes of his mind and the task helped keep them at bay. He was nervous, he realized. This whole affair was a Hail Mary, an act of desperation, almost certainly doomed to fail.

Justin never wore insecurity well, and so he clamped down on those thoughts. Instead, he focused on a siphoning spell, drawing the brown liquid from the cauldron in a thin stream that he snaked through the air, passing it through a cheesecloth set up for just this purpose in order to filter the scum away. A bit like making consommé, really, he never failed to think. Maybe he could conspire a way to cook for Emerson. The boy loved food, and anyone who was successful at Potions was a worthy cook with his mind set for the task.

Something to think about later. When the Betterbeer had cooled enough, he began drawing up pipettes of it and transferring it into glass vials, which he stoppered with tiny corks and then threaded through loops of cloth he’d sewn into his messenger bag for the express purpose of carrying potions. The bag itself was ridiculously enchanted, Extended, of course, but it featured a few other Charms as well, similar in nature to the Breaking Charms used in broom-making. In the event that he took a tumble with his bag, the contents would remain relatively undisturbed. It was a necessary safety measures; there were times when his little bag held enough volatile potions to take down an entire hallway of the school, never mind any unforeseen reactions that some of his more interesting concoctions might have had with one another.

All that was left now was to ascend. He lit his wand, and once outside the chamber, brought it through the reverse of the motion he had used to open the titanic door in the first place. It groaned closed, and he stepped lightly over the sheet of wood covering the hole to take the stairs two at a time on his way up. He’d need to hurry, if he wanted to be back to the common room by curfew. Not that he was worried about being caught; it was more a matter of getting to socialize with the friends he’d missed in the Great Hall. Thank whoever that Bliss and Flint get along. It’d be Hell if the two of them ever decide to become those sorts of exes, particularly on me.

The clutter above the trapdoor silently arranged itself once more, and Justin clambered out as quietly as he could. He’d never been at all athletic, and actually hoisting his own body weight out of the circular aperture put more strain on him than he’d ever admit. Once the flooring and rug were back in place, he moved to the door, waving his wand a final time in order to restore the mess to its natural state of messiness. He extinguished his wand silently, then cupped a hand to the door to listen.

The long hallway was a perfect conductor for sound. Hearing no one, he quickly slipped out, simply flipping the switch on the knob to re-lock the door. No magic needed. Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his robes, he strolled on out of the Astronomy area and started for the small stretch of school that he thought of as home more than the house he’d been raised in.

Lee’s Perspective

”Very eventful, I must say,” Vance finally said to Lee, moments of waiting between Lee’s question and Vance’s answer. It had seemed so long, that Lee had almost forgotten he was missing his duties as a prefect. But Vance was a million times more important to Lee. Vance was Lee’s achille’s heel, and no amount of pressure from the Headmaster, from Chambers, from the whole house of Arietem, not even from the ghost of General Beauregard himself could pull Lee away from Vance. Lee knew Vance had a little… hate, to say the extreme, for Lee, simply because Lee was annoying. Lee knew that everybody hated him. He was the epitome of a “faggot”, a true and blue queer, just with a Confederate flag and not a Pride flag.

”But all in good time,” Vance continued, reaching over his hand to give Lee’s shoulder a brief, somewhat awkward squeeze. To Lee, it was almost short of a proposal. Lee soaked in this moment, relishing the soft touch that Vance somehow new to master. Vance somehow always knew how to apply the right amount of pressure, the right amount of warmth, however false it may have been. Lee suspected he was being played, but didn’t give a damn. The man he loved… he acted like he cared and that was enough. Lee, caught unawares, melted in Vance’s hand as he heard him say, ”This year will turn out to be just as eventful, I think.” Lee, attempting to hide an obvious party-invitation in his pants, gazed off in the distance and imagined Vance giving Lee a slight wink. Dammit, Lee thought, another cold shower tonight.

Lee noticed the lack of humanly twitches and reliefs that even Vance usually sported, though tonight was different. He was as a stiff as a gator in the bayou, and even the cold, refreshing homeliness of the Arietem commons provided Vance any semblance of relief. Now, Lee was worried. Now, Lee had forgotten any amount of his own emotions(despite still sporting quite an obvious erection), and inspected Vance as closely as possible. The boy of his dreams was… not necessarily bothered, but definitely different. Not as warm, even colder than normal Vance. It was odd.

Vance sat down across from Bellona, close enough to be warm, far enough to maintain some level of whispering between Lee and Vance. Luckly, there was a chair next to Vance that Lee immediately assumed. If Vance sat in a throne, Lee would proudly sit behind him (at least in Lee’s delusions). ”What a tiresome evening this has been,” Vance remarked, appearing drowsy and somewhat content, though still not at ease.

Lee whispered to Vance, ”Vanz, wad’ya ne’d me a’do?”

Garrett Flint

Her smile was so infectious. And soothing, really. Even shy as Summer was, she had such a way with people. She offered him a way out by saying they didn't need to talk about everything, just what was on their minds. Of course, the things on their minds were most likely the things they didn't want to talk about. At least, it held true for Flint. He wasn't so good at reading people that he could tell if Summer was being plagued by something, too.

They skirted past the Great Hall, and headed up to the second level of the greater castle, towards the library. Flint had been tempted to take a peek into the Great Hall, see if he couldn't catch Justin still in there, but had decided that Summer was more important right now. Priorities, right? Flint liked to think he had 'em straight. As they made their way into the library, Teek's hooting noticeably halted. Smart bag of feathers, Flint thought. He wasn't sure if it was cool for owls to be with all the books, but he figured that was probably looked down upon. Not that Flint had any special regard for the rules, but it wasn't even the first day of classes yet. It was a little early to start getting into trouble.

Damn, Garrett, you are different now, aren't you? It's never too early to get in trouble! He didn't know whether to be cheered or saddened by his own line of thought.

"Well, look at this. I'm turning into a regular bookworm, aren't I?" He said quietly as they entered. "Garrett Flint, proud bookworm of Vulpes House... yeah, that's not happening."

They slipped through shelves until they were deep in the library, more surrounded by books than Flint had probably ever been. Summer sank into one of the seats at a two person table. "Good enough?" she asked. "Yeah," he said. "I don't even think the librarian could find us right now. But Teek will let us know if someone's coming, right?"

The owl gave a low hoot in response, before flapping up on top of one of the bookshelves, his amber eyes scanning back and forth like a dutiful sentinel. Flint plopped down in the chair across from her, folding his hands together on the tabletop.

He made Summer go first, and he learned about Bliss and Felix. That was... interesting. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Obviously he and Bliss weren't working out, so he didn't feel angry or anything that she was interested in other guys. That was just Bliss. He couldn't help but feel concerned for her, though. She'd gone through that line of thought many, many times. Each guy was better than the last, right? And yet none worked out in the end for her. Of course, maybe Felix was different, but history said otherwise. And then of course Summer must have been hurt from that. She'd told him herself that she'd liked Felix, back when he'd been dating Bliss and it didn't make a difference to him who Summer liked. He encouraged her to go for it, as he always did when someone was having trouble attempting something. But now she said she was over her crush for him, no doubt helped along by Bliss swooping in and taking him away... or perhaps by Flint? An interesting thought.

There was something about Bellona hiding something from her, girl problems. Well, that wasn't new. He'd wondered how Summer was friends with Bellona as much as everyone at school, but wasn't going to bring that up now. Summer was right... her problems were minor. Of course he didn't say that, but it didn't stop him from silently agreeing with her. "Alright, my turn then," he said, taking a deep breath before beginning. "So I was originally going to stay with Justin over the summer again, you know, like we had planned. Only the day before school got out, Teek brought me a letter from my parents, saying that my dad--"

He was suddenly distracted by Teek, who had abruptly turned to stare at a nearby painting on the wall. His amber eyes were unblinking and narrowed at it. Flint looked closer at the painting. It was of Sir Jacen, more commonly known by the student body as Sir Hops-a-lot, for the fact that he only had one foot. The knight claimed to have lost it in battle, when everyone knew that the painter had simply painted his leg to the edge of the canvas, and hadn't had room for the foot. The knight was still as stone in his frame, leaning against his sword. Flint, having not seen a magical painting all summer, had nearly forgotten about them.

"Hey, don't you have a princess to save or something?" he called out to him. The knight immediately hopped forward, grabbing his sword in one hand and balling his other into a mailed fist, shaking it at Flint.

"Oh! Don't you start with me about that, young man! One of your friends came along last spring and apologized, before telling me that my princess was in another castle! It was that Justin boy you just mentioned. But I went off to Hogwarts which, let me tell you, was no easy feat, and searched the entire castle. Guess what, young man! She wasn't there! No... I'll never find her."

Flint sighed. "Yeah, but he didn't tell you which castle. How do you know he meant Hogwarts? Maybe he meant Beauxbatons! Have you looked there?" At this, the knight's face lit up. "Aha! My boy, I think you've got it! Beauxbatons it is! Just... damn it all, it's going to be a pain getting there." He started to hobble away into the background of his painting, muttering. "Oh, this had better be worth it. And if she's not there... well, I'm sure there's got to be a nice painting of a French maid I could bring back with me or something..."

Flint turned back to Summer, with an apologetic look, and found that he'd lost all his steam. He'd been about to blurt everything, but now he had to start over. Flint just wasn't used to laying things on people. He wasn't used to having things weigh on his mind like this. Well, nothing besides schoolwork, looming responsibility, and things that everyone else had to worry about. He was used to being the one that you could talk to, not the one that needed to talk. And Summer had admitted to feeling awful already... but looking in her eyes, he didn't know who else he wanted to talk to. Best to get it over with, right?

"I spent the summer at home because my dad's got brain cancer," he blurted quietly, feeling like he was ripping an arrow out of his chest. He looked down at his hands. "Late stages of it. He wanted to see me for a few months before...well, you know..."

His voice trailed off.

Summer Turner

Summer had poured few details out on the table for Flint because she really didn't have that much to talk about. Since they last saw each other last year, her whole entire summer was consumed with Bliss and Felix. It was weird to still have to put their names together as more than just Bliss and Felix, now it was like the whole thing meant something. Just saying their names together got her mind somewhere she felt it shouldn't go because a different person came out when the thought that her own sister had stolen the one guy she practically loved. Those feelings were long gone because of the way the relationship with the two mentioned were just thrown in her face. And then of course, she had visited her mom's burial ground like she did every summer because she didn't have time during the school year. Bliss had always went with her, but this year was different. She had decided to skip out, so she could go somewhere with Felix.

Summer felt that was the breaking point of their sisterly bond that had been so strong through the years, but now that the boy they both equally liked had picked his match Summer no longer cared to share her secrets with Bliss. Of course, this was when Summer began to wonder over the other guys on campus and immediately went to Flint. At first this was just to piss Bliss off, but when Flint was mentioned to Bliss as an option for Summer; Bliss was overjoyed at the idea that they could all hang out again like last year. That maybe Summer would warm up to Justin, which that wasn't even an option in Summer's book. She then realized that Justin was best friends with both Bliss and Flint, so she'd make some kind of effort. Crap, why did she let her mind wondered like this. She let her gaze meet with Flint's, giving him a reassuring smile. "Sorry, thoughts running wild." She said as she crossed her legs under the small table feeling her foot rub against Flint's leg. "And sorry for that." She said as she gave up on crossing her legs and returned to the position with her feet directly under her chair.

She was curious what had been on Flint's mind, so once he began to speak she felt herself repeating every word in her head, analyzing what this could be leading to. 'So I was originally going to stay with Justin over the summer again, you know, like we had planned. Only the day before school got out, Teek brought me a letter from my parents, saying that my dad--' His dad. That was as far as he had gotten when he went off into a conversation with Sir Jacen. Summer didn't bother listening to their discussion as her mind came up with some crazy ideas why his dad as involved in the story. His dad must be wanting to fix things. She was certain that was it, but then another one came to thought. No, he's probably forcing Flint to choose between magic and them. She rolled her eyes because she knew Flint would pick magic after everything his parents did to him over the years.

Once Flint's attention seemed to be back Summer, she blocked out the thoughts and prepared herself for which of her ideas were true. What came next was not expected at all? 'I spent the summer at home because my dad's got brain cancer. Late stages of it. He wanted to see me for a few months before...well, you know...' Frozen is the best word to describe the feeling that now trapped Summer in her own body. She couldn't move. She couldn't feel. She couldn't speak. She needed to do something, but she couldn't. Get yourself together! He needs you. She felt her mind screaming. She didn't know how it happened, but she felt her hands on top of Flint's. She let her thumb trace the side of his as she tried to get the words together that were best for this situation. She didn't want to ask details because she didn't want to know.

She had went through this once with her own mother, but back then it was unexpected. She was glad she didn't have to sit and think about when the day would come. "I'm so sorry, Flint." She said in stride as she somehow managed to appear beside Flint with her arms around him. It was like every movement was a blur until it was finished. "I'm so sorry." She said as she pushed back his hair, giving him a soft kiss on his forehead before kneeling beside him. "How long does he have?" She didn't want the details, but she would learn every detail as long as it meant Flint was getting it off his chest. "Is there anything we can do?" She said we because she had made an unspoken pact to be beside him through it all.

“…but, he’s so small…” Myra slowed down a little as she heard Naire’s footsteps following her and Chopstick’s little hoots. How can an owl be so darn cute? She smiled softly to herself. Turning to Naire as he fell in step with her, “You know I’d never really ask you to burn a picture you’d taken, right? You’re too talented. It’d be a waste.” They entered Magus Rex and Myra enjoyed the quiet the building was taking on as students found their ways to their beds. This large building was so comforting to her, even with her bumpy start. It was like she knew she belonged.

As if he could hear her thoughts, Naire stated, “So sleep is soon to come. It’ll be nice to get back in the beds here. It’s always been a second home,” Myra nodded agreeably, “to everyone I’d say. At least sleep’ll come easy.”

Myra had half a smile as she bumped him with her shoulder, “Yeah, one of the only things that comes easy living here. But you’re right, Near, I feel so safe here, especially because I have you…” She trailed off as she caught sight of Vance and Lee walking out of the great hall. Her chest got tight and her body tensed, momentarily stunned. Myra let the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding go as the boys didn't take notice of her or Naire. She shot a glance at Naire, to see if he'd seen her reaction. She hadn't shared her thoughts on Vance's new attitude yet, and wasn't sure if she should. She also wasn’t sure of exactly what emotion had coursed through her as she'd seen the two Arietem's, and she didn’t have time to think on it more because Kaplan had turned and started heading the direction they’d just come from. Not one for making noise, he uncharacteristically mewed happily as he trotted up to the jeaned pants of a very familiar figure. Although Kaplan adored Myra, he was very close to Vin as well. Myra turned and stopped, giving her brother a once over she tapped Naire’s shoulder and cocked a hip. With a smirk that announced victory she crossed her arms and simply stated, “Vin, I told you so.”



“Hey, thanks man!” Vin drawled casually, smiling as he gingerly stepped off the rickety boat that had brought him to the island. Caretaker Wicks gave him a steely-eyed glare as he pulled the small rowboat by it’s rope to the dock.

“This was no gift, Magaly. 10 points from Ferre and you just arrived,” Wicks barked at him, “You’ve missed the dinner. Head straight to your commons. I don’t want to see you out and about tonight, you hear?”

Woops… Finn’s not gonna be happy with me for that one. Vin thought of his pal and his insatiable urge to win house cup for a moment, then shrugged. “Alright then.” He grabbed his duffle bag with all his clothes in it. It wasn’t the first time Vin’d missed the cruise over, and it wouldn’t be the last, he knew. He didn’t understand why Wicks always came and picked him up though, he was willing to wait until it got dark and fly over. Vin may not have been as good at flying as Myra was, but he wasn’t inept. With a sly smile at Wicks he said, “I’m just gonna stop by the kitchen on my way up there, kay?” Before Wicks could reply, Vin had placed his headphones in and pressed play on his MP3 player. Give him all the magic in the world, Vin just couldn’t help but love technology and it’s ease of use. No remembering silly Latin words for things… then again, that did come in handy every now and then.

Vin pulled his hood up over his head and, sauntering up the hill towards the school, couldn’t help but bob his head the bass beat of the song in his ears. A little Soundgarden tonight, “The Day I Tried to Live.” He smiled and waved at random passerby, knowing full well they hadn’t noticed he was gone during the feast, but that they’d still be surprised that he wasn’t wearing his robes and was carrying his belongings. He shot a large wave to Lloyd and Lyle, then entered the huge front doors of Magus Rex. He noticed Naire and Myra walking up ahead and a lazy smile crossed his face. His sister had an “I told you so!” waiting for him for sure. She’d tried in her most non-confrontational way to get him to skip the beach and make it to the dock on time, but god those waves!!

The swell had been perfect and Derek, his best muggle friend, had promised to keep an eye on the time so that Vin wouldn’t be late to his “flight to boarding school.” An hour after the cruise had surely left him behind, Derek and Vin had finally called it a day and gotten some In ‘N’ Out burgers before heading to their respective homes. Good ol’ Mums and Daddy-o hadn’t been too pleased with him and sent an owl off right away. An hour after that Vin had found himself sitting face to face with an extremely grumpy and gruff caretaker as he had worked out the chords on his bass to a Black Sabbath song. Occasionally he’d paused to try and chat with Wicks, they’d had the long ride many times before and Vin had a soft spot in his heart for the angry-esque guy, if only because his constant scowl was amusing. Wicks had only ever grunted in response, … or was it that he was just over-exerting with the boat. Maybe I should have helped? Vin chuckled softly to himself then stooped to pet Kaplan firmly along his spine and tail. “Hey cat daddy!” He looked up as Myra smiled at him with that gleam in her eye, “Here it comes! ‘I told you so!’” he said simultaneously with her, removing his right head phone. “Hey Harth-man!” He held his hand up for a high-five. "How's the portfolio coming along for the year? I'm sure you've already captured all the drama-rama of the first feast." Vin let his voice get low and conspiratorial, a mischievous grin on his face, "Have you heard? Houses are intermingling." He looked at himself, then looked at the too Vulpes, "Wait! Aren't you two... Vulpes? Our friendship is doomed." He laughed softly to himself.

Garrett Flint

"Nah, it's not a matter of time," Flint said, his voice surprisingly steady considering the subject. "My dad'll die when he's damn well ready. Said so himself. 'Flints are tougher than anyone gives us credit for,'" he said, in a rather poor imitation of his father's deeper tone. "The doctor figured two months. That was about three months ago. I guess he was right. Still, I'm sending Teek tomorrow, to stay with them. They'll send him back with the news, when it happens."

Teek gave a low hoot from atop his bookshelf. Flint managed to crack a smile despite it all. "Heh, my dad always thought it was ridiculous to keep a bird in the house. He used to shoo Teek away whenever I tried to bring him in. That was... what, five years ago now? He used to hate Teek, but I think even they managed to repair their relationship this summer."

Hoot.

On the one hand, he felt terrible for dumping all this on Summer. She was the last person he wanted to see brought down with him. But at the same time, Flint didn't feel there was anyone else who could help him through it as well. He'd tell Justin, of course... he still felt pretty bad for ditching him at the start of summer without a reason... but he'd tell him later. After things had gotten back to normal, after he was back to his old, irrepressibly happy self. Other than that, Flint didn't think anyone needed to know.

Flint was only vaguely aware of Summer being beside him, her hands on his, her arms around him, the kiss she'd planted on his forehead. Since leaving Bliss, Flint had imagined that if he and Summer had happened to come together... that it would be much happier than this. Still, he wanted her there. He didn't think his was capable of having this talk with anyone else.

"It's fine," he said quietly, "don't worry about me. We... well, we got over our differences. I apologized for not being the son he wanted, he apologized for trying to dictate what I did with my life, and then we both called each other idiots for apologizing for anything. He's so much more like me than I ever realized. I'm his son, after all. I think life and work just sort of kept that side of him from me, but this summer he didn't have to worry about any of it, he could just let loose. I've never been that close to him in my life. And then we said our goodbyes, and that was that."

Flint was glad that he'd at least been able to repair his relationship with his father, he just wished it hadn't taken this to make it happen. Still, he couldn't help but feel that this was going to be a positive turning point in his life. He didn't plan on dampening his spirits at all, in fact, he planned to be as wild as ever. He was going to take all the good qualities he now knew his father had under the surface, and live them out every day. He was going to look out for people, be the friend that everyone needed, give people the laugh they deserved after a trying day. He just felt like he had a little more of a mature outlook on things now. He was going to love life, and make sure everyone else did, too.

"It's funny," Flint said. "First thing he said to me when I saw him was 'I bet your fancy magic can't do shit about this, can it?' 'Course, he knew the answer by just looking at me. But God, I wish there was something I could do." He managed to meet Summer's eyes, and he hoped she could see he wasn't going to let this keep him down, but rather that he was going to grow from it. "I guess I'll just have to make him proud, right? It's all I can do."

A moment passed, and then Flint sighed, feeling like a weight had been pulled off his chest. "I should probably get back. There's probably twenty giddy Vulpes girls waiting to see Teek again. Little bastard never gives them any closure, just keeps 'em hanging like that."

Hoot.

He grinned a little, giving Summer's hand a gentle squeeze.

Summer Turner

Summer could see a side of Flint she never knew existed. The way he now talked about his dad actually made her feel good that even though there would be a loss at the end of all this that they had at least mended things. She knelt there beside him listening to everything he said because she didn't want to miss anything. She didn't want to be a let down on the one thing she was good at; listening. She let a smile come on her face to show that she wasn't going to turn into a sad little girl that would make this situation harder for him by being sad. Of course, she did feel awful for him, but there was no point in being sad about a situation that couldn't be changed.

She felt her hands stay in Flint's as she just listened to him talk about the Flint men and how they were tougher than people credited them with. She laughed at the thought and spoke up. "Not enough credit? How much more do you want?" She said jokingly to show that she was attempting the lighten the mood. She found herself tossing little jokes and teases whenever she felt was a good time to throw them in. She didn't want to make complete light of the situation, but she could tell he didn't want complete darkness with it either. "He's still hanging on? That's amazing. He is proving the doctors wrong for sure." She said as she returned to the seat across from him, placing her face into her two hands. She couldn't help, but smile as she listened to Flint talk. She was glad things were better between him and his father because she knew that was something Flint always wanted.

She listened to how his dad had always hated Teek until recently, and she through in a quick remark about how 'nobody could hate that cute thing up there!' to contribute to the conversation. She didn't want Flint to feel like he was just talking about nothing, she wanted to show him that she cared about everything he was saying. When he spoke of their apologies, she shook her head at the thought of the two apologizing then telling the other not to. The little argument of who should be sorry and who should made her laugh. She liked talking to Flint like this even if it was about something so serious. She liked his attempt at making things normal again when most people would bury themselves in the pity and soak for weeks; like she did with her mother.

It had been awhile since Flint said something, so Summer gave his hand a gentle rub to see if he was okay. It seemed he had been thinking hard on something, but what he said next only made her laugh a little louder than before. 'First thing he said to me when I saw him was 'I bet your fancy magic can't do shit about this, can it?' 'Course, he knew the answer by just looking at me. But God, I wish there was something I could do.' "Flint, there is something you can do.. Be the son he now cherishes and loves, don't change." She gave a little shrug before giving him a crooked smile. 'I guess I'll just have to make him proud, right? It's all I can do.' She shook her head in disagreement. "Of course that's not all you can do. We'll figure out the rest later."

Giving Flint a reassuring smile, she looked up towards Teek studying the owl from afar. 'I should probably get back. There's probably twenty giddy Vulpes girls waiting to see Teek again. Little bastard never gives them any closure, just keeps 'em hanging like that.' Feeling the squeeze from Flint's hand, she looked back down from Teek shaking her head. "I knew he was playing me." She rolled her eyes, shaking her finger towards the bird. "Hopefully the girls are just after Teek and not you." She said before feeling her face flush. "Anyways, guess we'll head back now. God knows we can't get in trouble the first night.. Maybe the second. Maybe." She said as she stood from her chair as she lead the way out of the library.

Justin Hardy – Vulpes House

Justin was ambling along down the hallway, hands still hidden away in the pockets of his robes. His usual stride was a sort of rolling step that was actually quite entertaining to watch when he moved quickly. Aside from having quick hands, Justin had all the athletic potential of a turnip. He couldn’t fly, thanks to his crippling fear of heights, he ran like a scarecrow in the midst of a colonoscopy, and his upper body strength was about on par with a third year girl’s. He’d tried a few times over the years to bulk up a bit, to improve his stamina, but it just never took. His body had an aversion to adding muscle mass, so he’d accepted his slim profile. The boys seemed to like it well enough, so why mess with perfection?

He spotted something interesting as he passed by the open door to the library. Summer and Flint, on their way out. It took about as long to dissect their expressions and body language as it did for him to turn to face them, cocking his head to one side as he inspected them openly. Summer might not, but Flint would know exactly what Justin was doing. He segued neatly from examination to a playful grin and extracted a hand from his pocket to waggle his fingers at the pair.

”How was your summer, Summer?” He spoke the same five words to her every single year when school started up again. He delivered it like someone would a terrifically funny joke, as if the fact that she shared her name with the season that had just expired was something incredibly witty that he’d just come up with. Clearly, Emerson was a bad influence on his sense of humor.

His right eyebrow arched just so as his eyes slipped to Garrett. ”And how was yours?” He asked it a little more cagily of his friend. Not that he disliked Summer at all, but she wasn’t exactly a friend. She’d never managed to make much of an impression on him, other than being Bliss’s sister and extremely sweet.

The caginess he engaged in was right on par with the caginess that Flint had cancelled their summer plans with. It had been abrupt and suspicious, out of nowhere really, but Justin had let it go without more than an odd look. He’d been looking forward to having him around. The last summer had been one of his best, mostly because there was someone around with whom he could talk magic, and because Flint was just as adept at making mischief in the Muggle world as he was at Magus Grex. He’d been insanely curious, of course, but he trusted in either his ability to ferret out the truth or Flint telling him eventually- whichever came first.

”My mom asked after you,” he continued, his smirk still in place. Justin was by far the better mimic of the two; he had his mother’s obnoxious Boston accent and mannerisms down perfectly, even emulating her usual expression to a degree as he did his impression. ”Wheyah’s that nice boyfriend yah braught home last yee-ah?” Ever since he’d come out to his family a few years ago, any male he brought near the house or mentioned was immediately dating him or screwing him, in their minds. His mother had made a point of popping into the room they’d shared unexpectedly (Justin’s eldest younger brother was away at junior ROTC camp for most of the summer, freeing up a bed in the room they shared), as if she expected to catch them in bed, or painting each other’s fingernails, or something similarly inane. If only they had a bumper sticker for that: Proud parents of a gay wizard honor student, or something like that.

"And how was your summer, Teek?" Justin was not immune to the owl's charm. "Kept this one from getting into too much trouble, eh?" He jerked a thumb toward Flint. They seemed to be making an exit, so he didn’t bother going in. He just lingered in the hall, waiting for them to answer and join him so that they could converse on the way back to their respective dorms. He slipped the hand he’d used to wave into his messenger bag, extracting first one, and then two vials of Betterbeer in preparation of handing them off. If Summer was going to be around more often, he might as well start getting used to it, so she’d get one too.

He was practically mutilating his tongue, literally having to bite it in order to avoid saying any of the forty or so snarky things that had come to mind upon seeing one of his best friends with his exes’ (who another of his best friends was interested in) sister. Those could wait till he and Flint were alone. Things were going to be complicated this year, he decided, but probably amusing too.

Lloyd flashed him a small smile, shrugging nonchalantly in a slightly forgiving manner. I'm sure he didn't mean it like that.... Dorremoon's head tilted upwards as she watched the girl walking a little strangely. Her paws hit the dirt silently as they neared the door. "Oh yeah, Naire. I think he was out here, not sure though. But you know him, always so eager to take his pictures. Outside is always one of the best places to do that."

As he rambled along, Lloyd walked quietly through the doors of Magus Grex, her head positioned upwards as her eyes flickered to and fro, taking in the building's architecture. However, inside she was actually quite embarrassed and mortified he had been listening to her play. "Yeah, that's no problem though. I'm sure you were just working hard at more petitions, right?" Her voice was soft, and she had a small smile on her face as she turned back to him.

"Yeah, I had a pretty good summer. Worked at the violin almost a third of my twenty-four hours every day. I also did a bit of hiking, you should have seen where my dad and I went. It was amazing." She nodded softly, sidestepping a few students rushing past. "I'm extremely glad to be back as well. This year is going to be pretty great, I can feel it."

Lloyd paused, waving at Vin as he ran by. "Quodpot, huh? I'm sure you're going to have a great time! Just be sure to practice a lot." She smiled once more, reaching the great steps to the Common Rooms. "But you're going to have to-" But she was cut off as he finished what she was going to say. She nodded with a small chuckle. "Yeah, you're going to have to find someone to fill in for you.

She laughed quietly. "What with you being in the papers, I don't think I could tell you, even if something exciting did happen." She set her hand on the railings of the stairs, but spied Myra, Vin, and Naire again. "Well, there's Naire. I guess you should probably go join the conversation. I'll meet you up in the Common Room, or see you tomorrow. Night."

Lloyd quickly scaled the stairs up to Ferre's Common Room, leaving Lyle to whatever it was Lyle did. Dorremoon silently padded after her before catching up and walking beside the girl.



Naire chuckled lazily. "'Course I know that, Myra. I was just playing along." He smirked at her, ruffling her hair with that smile of his. He continued to walk, stuffing his hands into his pockets and fiddling around with his wand. She then bumped him and he flashed her a teasing frown. "Yeah, well. It's what I do." He grinned cheekily at her, scratching Chopstick gently above the right wing.

He then noted her sudden change in body language, and nudged her with his shoulder. "Ah please, it's just Lee and uh, Vance." He rubbed the back of his neck with a lopsided, comical grin.

He then turned, hearing the voice of Kaplan. He let out a warm chuckle, waving at Vin. He paused though, looking back at Myra with a confused appearance. "Wait, wha'?" He then looked back at Melvin, finally taking note of his belongings. "Oh, miss the ship again?" He said in a faked Swedish accent, mimicking Myra and put his hand on his less prominent hip, a mocking pout on his face.

He let out a laugh, dropping the act and meeting his high five. "Good to see ya, Vin." Chopstick hooted his own cheery greeting, flapping his wings for a second. "Dude, cut me some slaaackk. The year's only begun. I did get some good shots of what you missed." He stuck his tongue out, arching his eyebrows mockingly with a smile and a snicker.

Naire's eyes suddenly widened, and he put his hand to his mouth with a sarcastic gasp. "Nooo! We must tell the presses!" The boy then turned and began to run forward slightly in slow-motion, over-exaggerating his movements. He then rolled his eyes, putting his hands back into his pockets and leaning against the stair railings. He then saw Lloyd and Lyle making their way over.

Once more he removed his hand from a pocket and waved once towards their direction before turning back to the twins. "Aww, only for a coupe hours a day, Melv!"

"Hopefully the girls are just after Teek and not you," Summer said, to which Flint cracked a grin. "I wouldn't worry about that. I know who's important to me. And Teek's always more than willing to pull out their hair if they get any funny ideas." He raised his eyebrows at her. "And we're wiiingmen, remember?" he said, emphasizing the word to poke fun at her lame joke, "We help each other keep the bad ones away in addition to snagging the keepers."

Deciding it was best to head back now that their talk was done, the pair made their way out of the library, perhaps behaving a little more couple-ish than Flint intended. Of course he really enjoyed Summer's company, and found himself quite incapable of realizing that other girls existed when she was around, and realized how much help she could be in the days to come, but he couldn't help but want to be more cautious this time. Summer may not have had to deal with the idea of bouncing back into a relationship so soon, but Flint did. And even though Bliss seemed to be having little trouble with the idea, Flint right now was focused on making sure no one got hurt from this. It felt right, and he was willing to see where it went, he just wanted to make sure to try and take things slower this time, especially with the weight on his mind.

And there was Justin. Flint had hoped to have a good talk with him before the night was out, and he supposed he still could, but now Justin had developed impressions on the situation before Flint could even open his mouth. That, and he figured Justin wouldn't be too happy with Flint spending the majority of his first night back either alone, or with Summer, and likely was getting extremely suspicious at his friend's behavior. There wasn't much Flint could about that now.

Flint rolled his eyes at Justin's question about Summer's summer, but made no comment. In fact, he'd likely have made the same joke if he hadn't been interested in Summer, and not trying to annoy her. It was just too easy, after all.

"Complicated," he said about his own summer, and no more. He hoped Justin would leave it for the moment, though he feared that tantalizing bit would only intrigue him further. Flint did plan to fill him in, and soon, just not now, and not here, right outside the Great Hall. He grimaced at Justin's highly accurate imitation of his mother's Boston accent, practically able to see the woman before him, completely convinced that he was one hundred percent gay. But Flint was nothing if not willing to accept and be patient with people, and so he didn't mind, both Justin's mother's incorrect conclusions, and Justin's own occasional tendency to hit on him, even if he knew well his orientation.

At the mention of his name, Teek flapped around above Justin's head and hooted at him, big amber eyes gleaming in the light. He wasn't quite friendly enough with Justin to attempt perching on him without receiving permission, but it was still obvious that the owl had taken a liking to Justin, typically sharing the same friends as Flint did, even being much slower to trust as he was.

They set off back towards the common rooms, Teek moving around surprisingly stealthily above their heads, floating from perch to perch. "Oh man, you're a life saver," Flint blurted when Justin revealed the Betterbeer he'd brought, gratefully accepting one and starting work on it immediately. Though he only seemed to have brought two... Flint hoped he had already had one or something. He knew Justin had never really bonded with Summer in the past, and hoped it wouldn't be too much of a problem if things kept going the way Flint imagined they would.

"You pull off that Beauty and the Beast thing at the feast tonight?" Flint asked offhandedly. He was curious, as he couldn't help but admire the idea, always the troublemaker as he was, but he also just wanted to make sure things weren't too quiet on the way back.

Bliss Turner

Bliss had a very eventful night after her exit from the Great Hall. She had been planning on the talk with Braelyn to be rather short and to the point because she wanted to be able to catch up with everyone instead of missing out on night one drama. It seemed only seconds after she finished explaining things to Braelyn things got weird. Braelyn had started to rub her head and losing her train of thought on the conversation the two were having. Bliss managed to catch her friend in time as Braelyn collapsed on the ground. She was lucky that the courtyard was so close to the infirmary because she knew that she couldn't have made it very far with Braelyn.

Bliss had stayed by Braelyn's side for what seemed like hours as she brushed her friends hair out of her eyes, rubbing her hand when her friend would come to. She was so worried about Braelyn that she didn't even bother to think about what anybody else was doing. Her best friend was right in front of her with something wrong that even the doctors at school were having a hard time picking up on. When the doctors had finally figured out what was wrong, they quickly scurried Bliss out of the room to start treatments. Of course, they never released the actually cause for Braelyn collapsing, but told Bliss to not worry about a thing that her friend would be better in no time.

Bliss sat outside the infirmary a little longer before her curiosity took over, and she decided to go find her friends. She had yet to see Felix since the Great Hall, so she wondered if she'd be lucky enough to run into him before curfew. She made her way out through the courtyard, having a very steady pace as night had already taken full effect. She didn't like being outside so late by herself, so when she made it through the doors to the Great Hall she quickly looked back to make sure no monsters had been following her. She laughed to herself before picking out a familiar voice from around the corner; Justin. This was almost as good as finding Felix, so when she rounded the corner to spot not just Justin, but Flint and Summer she let the biggest smile appear on her face.

"Oh my gosh! All the people I wanted to see." She said as she made full pace to Justin, giving him the tightest hug. "Where have you been? Let me guess.. Your place." She said because she didn't know what to exactly call it. As soon as her eyes hit Flint, it was weird to actually feel the butterflies he had once given her appear now. "Garrett Flint." To her that was enough because she knew he knew every meaning behind his name, he knew how much she had missed him and how much she wanted to talk to him all summer, but didn't. "I've missed you." The hug she gave Flint was different than Justin's because with Flint they had shared something that Justin could never offer her. She let her arms stay around his neck until her eyes fell on Summer, who just stared towards the ground.

Wait, why is she here? Bliss let her arms fall as she looked towards her sister. "Summer.." She said as more of a question than anything. "Is the ground that nice to look at?" She said before kissing her sister on her head before wrapping her arm around the little girl's waist. "What have y'all been up to?"

---

Summer Turner

Summer had just stepped out of the library when she heard a voice she hadn't expected. Looking up to see Justin eying herself and Flint, she let her eyes focus on her feet instead of letting Justin read her face. She could only imagine the thoughts running through Justin's mind right now, and honestly she could careless what he thought because she knew the truth. She didn't plan on sticking around with the two boys because she knew they had a lot of catching up to do, but as soon as Justin acknowledged her she felt no need to run off. 'How was your summer, Summer?' Summer rolled her eyes at the attempted joke that she'd heard every year, and just shrugged. "The usual, I guess."

Hearing the exchange between the boys, Summer felt herself as more of an outside party, but didn't mind watching the two boys interact with each other. After the impersonation of his mom, Summer felt herself laughing at Justin for the first time and actually meaning it. She could only imagine what Justin's mom was actually like, so she let her mind put the woman together what she thought fit. As they walked towards the common rooms, Summer watched as Justin pulled out the two Betterbeers. She felt her face flush red as her thoughts immediately went to Justin purposely making her feel out of place, but when it was brought in her direction she felt a smile come across her face.

"Thank you, Justin." Summer had never spoken the words to him before, but she was thankful because she could see him making an effort. As she had a sip here and there, she watched their paces begin to all match until she heard her voice. Looking up to see Bliss was like being hit by a bus to Summer. She was one of the last people Summer imagined seeing, so when she watched Bliss make contact with Justin she let her eyes connect with the ground and stay there. She didn't pay attention to much until she caught sight of Bliss' arms surrounding Flint's neck. The knot that now seemed to be lodged in her throat only grew as she listened to the words passed between the two.

She wanted to disappear, but knew it was too late to run off. 'Summer..Is the ground that nice to look at?' Bliss would make a joke to lighten the mood she didn't know was so dense. "Yes, Bliss. It's the most beautiful floor in the entire world." She shot back before letting her arm repeat her sister's action connecting them by the hip. "We were just heading back to the common rooms."

Fidus' ears began to shot up as a two pairs of footsteps approached the common room, the Fenec fox gnarled and stood it's ground as the two shadows approached them, "Down Fid'" She whispered and caressed its thick and velvety fur causing the small fox to calm yet it maintained it's hunting sense just like a real Venator. Bellona had not really expected Lee's presence, the meeting might not go the way she planned it will be.

”What a tiresome evening this has been,” Vance sat across her while Lee took his seat like a faithful servant. Why does Vance have to act like a royalty? He must have known that their little rendezvous requires some privacy, the secret must not even reach Lee's ears despite or in spite the fidelity he has sworn to the Abernathy boy. Bellona stared in response to Vance's words and spoke as if the other boy was no where in sight. "Must you bring a stranger? I'm thinking you wouldn't want anyone to see my small gift. It isn't really something to be shared to other people." She hinted some sarcasm and raised her left eyebrow coolly.

”Vanz, wad’ya ne’d me a’do?” A feeble yet audible whispered question came from the French boy as he leaned towards Vance and asked.

"Really Vance, this isn't a matter for the little boys and girls, I suppose you ought to grant this meeting some more privacy than what we have right now," She played with the letter envelope with her fingers, edging the sides one by one and exposing the broken wax with the Abernathy's sigil on it. Though if you want him to know what's in store then I guess I can't really do anything- But do you?" She asked coldly and continued to pet Fidus' small head while the Fennec fox stared at Lee with it's sharp eyes.

Savant had carelessly strode towards the dormitories in hope of a quieter feel of the castle grounds but before him was the painting of a lovers sharing some fruits under a shade that looked upon the vast and lush mountain, their backs on the viewers point of view yet every time they share a kiss a part of their faces are shown- but in the entire history of Magus Grex, no one or a very few people actually knows who the lovers are. They were just there since the school was built. Savant was not even sure why the school had chosen the painting.

He decided to stare and look at the couple and tried to figure out who they were when a prefect disturbed him. "Stuck? This year's password is plucking berries." And off he went, leaving Savant on his own. He was about to speak when the woman in the painting giggled, stood up and made the man run after her, still their faces were hidden.

Savant shook his head, realizing that two people in a painting are far more happier than he is. A man trapped in a painting actually has a girlfriend yet he couldn't ask girls out for pizza. He lifted his gaze when something caught his eye. On the grass, where the couple sat earlier, lies a shiny and colorful gem. Savant walked closer and stared to see a ring with a smooth green gem on top. He peered in closer when suddenly the couple came back, still their backs facing Savant and sat.

"What is the password boy?" The man in the painting asked, plucking some berries from the basket and giving some to his woman.

"Err... plucking berries," he spoke quietly.

"Must they always use the obvious? Fine!" The man complained but had let Savant in the common room.

Inside, everything was quiet, he knew he had the whole year to chat and spend time with his friends but alone times are rare- very rare. He was lucky to find the room he shares with his friends to be empty. His belongings were already on his bed as well as the others. He opened his trunk and looked for his sketch pad and pencils and walked back to the common room by the crackling fire. It was warm and comfortable as Savant sketched two faces, hoping that it would somehow be the same as the couple in the painting would look like. And before he knew it he was also sketching the beautiful ring he had seen laying on the grass. Was it the man's surprise to his partner or did it belong to the woman in the first place? Who ever owned it was lucky- Savant has never seen anything like that of as a precious stone.


(OOC: Savant's just waiting for his friends to come to the common room after flirting lol)

Caden Wahl

After the headmaster's speech Caden grabbed a few bits of this and that before leaving the din of the Great Hall for the solace of the Arietem common room. The castle was empty, silent as he meandered through the corridors, his footsteps echoing off the walls. Once in the common room he retrieved this year's Charms book and flipped through the last few pages, making sure he had already read up on the material before classes started. He found his favorite chair, pushed back in a lonely corner, and that's where he stayed while one by one or sometimes in twos, threes or fours, his housemates filed into the common room. When Bellona entered he was a bit startled at first by her vicious treatment of the few other kids in the room but he stayed put, outside of her view. Something was up and he wanted to see it unfold.

It was when Vance and Lee came into the room that she put on a smug look, one that definitely meant trouble and possibly a show. Caden was pretty familiar with that look, Bellona often made trouble in the middle of the common room and often they were public affairs. Besides Caden always watched his housemates warily, while they claimed to look out for one another, he preferred to watch out for what they might do next. From his vantage point he could see very little and though he usually wouldn't care for this sort of senseless drama, this was a new year and besides even Bellona seemed more excited than usual with her tidbit of knowledge.

The way they spoke, all three of them, was painful to hear. Lee's accent always immediately reminded him of a trip down south, the murky sulfuric swamps supposedly filled with old magic fit perfectly with Lee's backwoods drawl. The other two, however; their pretentious banter could drive anyone mad they wasted so many words beating around the bush and shuffling through pleasantries. She insisted, in her stupidly polite way, that Lee should not hang around for whatever she had to say to Vance, all the more reason for Caden to stick around. He was already pretty comfortable and had every right as an Arietem to remain in the common room. He wordlessly cast a concealment charm around the chair, it was weak of course, but if they weren't looking for him he wouldn't be found.

Emerson Caldwell


"You're kinda boring Lester." The toad looked up at Emerson from the bowl only acknowledging that he spoke before he sunk back into the bowl. The meal worms were all gone and Emerson had decided that Lester had been given enough attention for now and went into the common room. The toad would probably hop about the room while he was gone, getting into beds and socks and other places he shouldn't be.

Only a few people sat in the common room chatting about their Summer or reading or whatever and Emerson considered who he might go talk to. He saw a few decent candidates but without even giving the others a second glance he snuck up behind Savant. He silently leaned over Sav's shoulder to spy what it was he was drawing. The sketchbook was a coveted thing to behold by anyone who knew an artist. Sav's had garnered a special interest from many girls in particular who wanted to see if they might find themselves within its pages. Emerson was simply curious as he knew these things were typically well guarded and personal, but a little peek couldn't hurt, right?

His amazed gasp probably gave him away as he saw the familiar figures sketched in a elegantly raw form and a ring accompanied them and even when rendered in plain pencil it was brilliant to behold. Em's eyes skipped across the page astonished by how closely it seemed to replicate the original, not that he found himself staring at the painting but you could still clearly see the emotion conveyed in their body language and even though the sketch didn't move it felt just as lively as the one guarding Cervus House.

Lyle Brightham – So Confused!

Lyle nodded profusely. Naire did like taking pictures, and Lyle couldn’t really get upset about how inaccessible it made him sometimes. After all, a lot of those pictures wound up in The Scrivener, and Lyle was well aware of how crucial pictures were to the success of a paper. People needed them to break up all the columns of letters and words, especially him!

He listened to her recount her summer, grinning incessantly. ”Oh, really? Where did you guys go? I don’t think I’ve ever really been hiking before. Not on purpose anyways. There was that time I got lost outside my grandpa’s house, and wound up wandering in circles for hours, but I don’t think that counts, haha!”

His eyes lit up when he spotted Vin waving, and he practically threw his arm out of socket returning the gesture. Skip and Scamp, not so fond of the mini-earthquake that his exuberance had subjected them to, made him aware of their displeasure by digging their claws in a bit, almost simultaneously. ”Yeow!” He did an awkward little dance in the aftermath of it as they scurried about, repositioning. It didn’t hurt so much as it surprised him. What had Lloyd said? Oh!

His brow knit up, lending him a bit of a resemblance to his ferret’s as suspicion showed itself on his features. Did she really think he’d go and print something secret she told him? No, she couldn’t think that, he would never! He decided she was joking, and relaxed a bit, but then she made her fairly hasty exit, barely giving him time to say good-bye himself. Huh. It didn’t make much sense. It wasn’t like she didn’t get along with Naire or his sister or Vin, as far as he knew. His tongue poked out from between his lips, a sure sign that he was thinking hard about the conundrum of his friend’s behavior.

With his teaspoon-sized attention span, Lyle didn’t have much of a chance of figuring it out with two of his best friends approaching, along with Myra, who Lyle actually found sort of intimidating, what with her being smart, and better than him at Quodpot, and a girl. ”Ohheyguys!” He said the words so fast that they sort of bled together, and even though they were nearly upon him, he darted forward to meet them, beaming. ”I was looking for you!” he exclaimed to Naire. Fortunately, they were outdoors… otherwise someone might have had to tell him to use his indoors voice. His eyes flicked from Naire to Myra to Vin, and his cheeks grew just a bit scarlet. Skip and Scamp poked their heads out of his sleeves, sensing something was up, but then quickly engaged in a tactical withdrawal when they spotted Kaplan.




”Well, you are the most complicated guy I know,” he replied to Flint with a brand of scathing dryness that the other boy would have no trouble interpreting. More or less, it said this: You’re getting off easy, boy-o, because I’m actually a little irked about the sudden cancellation and tonight's disappearing but I know you would only do it for good reason, and if you don’t want me to ruin you in front of these two girls, you’d very much better come clean before we go to bed. In a nutshell. Bliss and Summer would likely be unaware of the subtext of the tone of voice; he was a snarky bastard almost constantly, but rarely employed it with Flint. It would also probably show that Justin, in his own contrived way, was somewhat hurt by the secrecy.

Just like that, the bit of subtle moodiness passed, and he was grinning, nodding in reply to Summer, offering the Betterbeers. To Teek, he extended his free arm, offering it as a perch if the owl was so inclined. He wasn’t nearly as good at reading animals as he was people, but Cougar tended to do the same thing when he wanted to roost on the Vulpes bean-pole.

When Garrett went to quaff his vial all at once, Justin reached out and slapped him on the hand. ”Ep ep ep ep. Not the intended mode of use.” He shook his head. ”Three drops in anything but milk or orange soda; four if you’re feeling adventurous. I call it Betterbeer.” He quickly glanced between the two of them, always curious about how his branding was working out. He wasn’t about to let Flint drink it all and turn into some kind of werewolf for who-knew-how-long, but he had no qualms at all letting him grow some mutton chops. Flint could take a joke, he knew well. ”You know, you’re entirely too trusting about drinking stuff I give you. For all you know, that was magical date-rape juice.” He grinned enigmatically as he continued. ”Mmm, the musical number went well. The needs-to-get-laid club didn’t seem to approve, but overall, it was a success.”

He spotted Bliss coming towards them and upnodded to her. The plot thickens! His eyes wound up bulging as she bear-hugged him, and if Teek had alit on his arm, he would somehow manage to keep it extended so that the owl didn’t get crushed in the process. ”Woah there, She-Hulk. Happy to see you too.” He returned the embrace, one-armed and not nearly as fearsomely, and then offered her a vial of Betterbeer as well, repeating his instructions, less the four drops part. ”And I don’t know what place you’re referring to. I was out picking flowers.” He said this, of course, despite the conspicuous absence of any flowers.

He eagerly drank in the slight awkwardness of her greeting Flint and then realizing her sister was there. ”Mmmmhmm. Heading back to the common rooms,” he agreed. Again, Flint would no doubt catch the fact that Justin hadn’t mentioned anything about his just happening upon the two of them exiting the library together. ”Oh, Bliss, how was your summer? Not her,” he added, jerking a thumb towards Summer. ”You know. Your break.”

Vance Abernathy – Not Amused

The desire to physically strike Lee was almost overwhelming when he noticed a certain protuberance, but Vance had the sneaking suspicion that physical violence would have the opposite of its intended effect. Pointedly looking anywhere but at Lee, he did his best to maintain a thin smile. Bellona was particularly smug, so he had a feeling no good could come of whatever this was. A gift, she’d said in the hall. She certainly wasn’t being remotely pleasant, so it couldn’t be a token of affection that he’d have to suffer through accepting graciously. He almost wished it was. It would have been an amusing diversion to see Lee and Bellona claw at each other for a while. When she spoke so dismissively of the Beauregard, he thought his wish might very well come true.

Of course, that was before he noticed the rectangular bit of paper in her hand. An envelope. With his family’s seal. His expression didn’t change in the slightest, even as he ground his teeth together. A missive from Nevaeh, most likely, before her… accident. Even more likely, it contained some tidbit of information that didn’t gel with the story he was selling. It was the only possibility he could think of that he actively needed to worry about, but if it was indeed that…

His attention turned to Lee, in the wake of his whisper and her “request” for privacy. ”I need you to await me in my room, please, since apparently discretion abounds tonight.” His tone could scarcely have been drier, on the final phrase. Being dismissed would surely irk the saucy boy, but then of course, Vance had dismissed him to his bedchamber. He put a mental image of Lee rifling through his undergarments aside, pressing his lips into an even tighter smile. ”This shouldn’t take overly long, and then we’ll be able to speak.”

He hadn’t noticed Wahl even before the Concealing Charm; the boy might as well have been furniture, so far as Vance was concerned. With the spell in place, it would have taken a parade of acromantulas streaming toward the dumpy boy’s seat to call Vance’s attention to him. He was waiting now; waiting to see if Lee would go without a fight, and without upsetting Bellona, whom he did not want too upset at the moment. Just enough, actually, to suit his purposes.

His eyes slipped to the potentially dangerous witch. ”You know,” he drawled, slight amusement flickering in his eyes. ”The common room is an interesting choice for a private conversation. They do call it common for a reason.” Let her think he didn’t suspect anything, for now; after her haughtiness, he had to at least make a semblance of putting her in her place, lest he weaken his position if it came to a negotiation. Plus, it would go a long way towards smoothing things over with Lee for him to witness Vance returning a bit of her trademark bitchiness.

As Vin and Naire took off in boyish conversatioon, Myra relaxed a little. Naire had definitely been about to ask her something about Lee and Vance, but how does one describe a paralyzing fear of another human being without sounding ridiculous? Or was it fear? Myra’s brow furrowed for a moment, but she decided to cast it off. She and Naire could talk later in the commons or something. Besides, she was currently with the two people she felt utterly and completely safe around, her very protective twin brother and the only other guy Myra felt comfortable and secure around.

Melvin half shrugged at Naire's comment about missing the ship, his own form of “you win some you lose some” via body language.

“Dude, cut me some slaaackk,” Myra couldn’t help but internally roll her eyes as Vin brought out the “surfer boy” in Naire while she was reprimanding him. Vin just chuckled warmly at Naire’s mimicked pose of Myra right behind her. She turned just after Naire had stopped making fun of her, completely missing the mockery and Vin shared a lopsided and laughing look with Naire. “The year’s only begun. I did get some good shots of what you missed.” Vin and Myra both chuckled at the face Naire pulled, Myra’s soft soprano giggle like bells above the boy’s lower tones. Still giggling she managed, “I hope you’ve got a picture of that face, it’s the epitome of our evening!”

As Naire turned and slow-mo ran in the opposite direction, Vin scooped up Kaplan (who began to purr contentedly despite being upside down) and continued the ruse, pretending to slow-mo run in the other direction, tucking Kaplan under his arm like a football. Myra, who had somehow become utterly lost in the conversation, was unsure what to do with herself and stood silent and awkward between the too of them. As both boys ended seemingly simultaneously, Naire relaxing back to lean on the stairs and Vin readjusting the cat so that he looked more comfortable, Myra shuffled her feet. Vin chucked her under the chin, “What’s up buttercup? Why so serious?” He looked at her, then threw a questiong glance at Naire, “She been like this all night?” Before Naire could answer Myra just smiled in her dainty way and shook her head, “I’m fine, you two are the odd ones. Antics in the hallways? Really.” Her mock disapproval was ignored by the boys. Vin grabbed Myra, pulling her under his shoulder in a side hug, “Ah sis, I love you.” He kissed her temple, then followed Naire’s gaze as he focused over the twins’ shoulders. Nonchalantly glancing back he smiled cooly and set Kaplan back down as Lyle sauntered toward them

Myra’s smile dropped to that of a polite acquaintance, but Vin clapped him on the shoulder when he arrived, bringing him into the group, “What it do man? How was your summer?” Myra moved to the other side of Vin, to stand between him and Naire and tried her hardest not to fidget with her shoulder bag, a little nervous as the not as familiar male entered the group. “Hi Lyle,” she said in her mellifluous
way. Kaplan intertwined around her ankles.

The large grandfather clock in the hallway chimed at them and Myra bit her lip, It’s way later than I thought it was! And Near and I still have to figure out the riddle before we can even get into the commons. Glancing around, she found that they were the only ones in the hall. Almost inaudibly she mumbled “Uh, you guys it’s kind of getting late…” but it was too quiet to hear over Lyle's excited, "Ohheyguys!" Vin chuckled, and ignored the chiming, “Done any good work towards liberating the elves? I was talking to a witch I met over the summer about it. She was really nice and is a part of some… insert whatever elf saving acronym here. Anyway, I name dropped for ya, she said she’d be in touch. I think her name was… Monika something.” He had a relaxed smile for Lyle, scratching Skip’s head as he was the closer ferret. “Oh, and do Near and I have a story for you to put in The Scrivener.” He winked conspiratorially at Naire. "I was looking for you!" Vin smoothly turned with Lyle to Naire, interested.

Myra, who had gone silent and was blushing slightly, shifted a tiny bit, unsure whether to stay and chat with the boys (who she knew could be at it way past curfew) or get inside. She’d probably end up breaking curfew a lot this year, as she always ended up doing. The one rule she was less conscious of breaking because her love of Quodpot prevailed and she could only ever practice at night, when no one was around and her homework was done. She spared a glance at the hall headed toward the Vulpes Commons.

If anyone would think that Bellona was a stupid fool, they should think twice. The ambience between the Abernathy boy and the Venator girl was heavy and thick with malicious glints in eye and smirks. Somehow, Bellona couldn't quite figure why Lee had to even be asked to go away when he wasn't invited in the first place.
"You know,” he drawled, slight amusement flickering in his eyes. ”The common room is an interesting choice for a private conversation. They do call it common for a reason.”

Bellona sat up straighter, her chest proud and her chin lifted as if she was going to sing an opera. Fidus on the other hand jumped off the velvet couch and stretched, it let out a small yawr and rubbed its body on her legs until it decided to pass by Lee like a hunter and roamed off around the common room. It hopped and caught a spider and pounced it with it's small paws and continued to roam, finding something else to entertain her when it heard a small squeak, a mouse hole just right beside where Caden Wahl was supposedly hidden with a charm. It sneaked and waited for it's prey to come out of the hole.

Bellona continued to toy with the letter when a sly smile escaped her lips, You wound me feelings Vance, did you really think that I'm that easy to fool?" She stood up and brought out her wand, perfectly lined and symmetrical made as if it was a machete made for hunting yet as cold looking as hard steel. She then swished it and spoke, "Muffliato!" And without even bothering of Lee was still there she kept her wand and brought out the letter. She trusts that only Vance could see what was written.

Bellona took her seat once again, this time not caring if anyone else would walk in even if they are having a conversation. She had read the contents of the letter more than 10 times already yet every time she does it again, goosebumps fill her skin and makes her throat parched.

It read:

"Dearest Bellona Venator,

It has been a few months since we saw each other. It would be well if you send me greetings to your parents and mention that I miss your father's jokes but all the more you mother's cooking.

But I shall keep this letter short and simple my dear,
You see I've seen some good potential in your talents as a Pure Blooded Arietem.
One could not deny that you are truly a Venator. "

At that point, Bellona could have thought that Neveah had bothered writing her a letter over the summer. But as she continued to read the letter, anyone who would read the letter would be surprised.

"You see- there is so little time left in my life young girl,
It seems to be that old age doesn't come easy, especially when it comes to physical things like Dueling.
Yes I do know a list of charms that you kids would dream knowing
But I believe some tasks are left for younger people like you.
You must be wondering why I'm writing to you- when I have two grand children.
Neveah however is- not with us right now while Vance- well the boy I think spends too much time under his mother's skirt.
If you are further interested in what I have to say- send me an owl.
But do not speak of this to anyone.
I'd appreciate if you would burn this after you have made your decision."

Then it was signed with simply with the Abernathy patriarch's initials, Vance's and Neveah's grand father, then was sealed with wax and mounted with the Abernathy Sigil.

She waited and watched to see how Vance would react. She remembered how the hair on her nape had all stood as she read and re read the letter. Why would their grandfather want to meet with her? Perhaps Vance has the answer.

Just then her concentration was interrupted when Fidus yelped and started scratching the wall. It was like it was trying to get at something. Bellona stared but couldn't quite know what has happened to her fox. "Fidus?" She called but the Fennec fox continued to scratch the old wooden wall, leaving marks.

Savant kept on circling the gem he had drawn, trying to figure what it was that he saw earlier when his thoughts were interrupted by a gasp. The boy, quick as a threatened snail, closed his sketch book and looked to see who was peaking. When he saw that it was Emerson, he opened it again and gave off a sigh of relief. "Man, you've gotta stop sneaking up on people. It's creepy!" His voice, though soft, was clear and crisp as the fire crackling by the common room of Cervus.

He continued to sketch but then paused and looked at his friend and spoke, "I saw something peculiar earlier. I'm not sure if it was there all along or the couple took it from somewhere." He was obviously referring to the subject of his sketches. "What or how do you think they looked like?" he asked, doing another probable face sketch for the woman. It was the woman in the painting that he barely had a look at, even if it stood sideways. It was always that a part of her picnic hat had obscured the viewers from looking at her face and it was always the man who spoke to the students (with his back facing them) while she just giggles, or whispers to the man or even ate.

"Come to think of it, I haven't heard her say one word to us," he brought up the thought even if it was silly to spend so much time thinking about such things.

Lee’s Perspective

"Must you bring a stranger? I'm thinking you wouldn't want anyone to see my small gift. It isn't really something to be shared to other people." Bellona said, her sarcastic, cold words rolling off without any remorse or regret or want for more warmth. "Really Vance, this isn't a matter for the little boys and girls, I suppose you ought to grant this meeting some more privacy than what we have right now," She said. She played with the letter envelope with her fingers, edging the sides one by one and exposing the broken wax with the Abernathy's sigil on it. "Though if you want him to know what's in store then I guess I can't really do anything- But do you?" She asked coldly and continued to pet Fidus' small head while the Fennec fox stared at Lee with it's sharp eyes.

The truth was that Lee had no problem getting up and leaving. He would just as easily go to his own dorm, cuddle up between Stonewall and Longstreet (his wolves, not the generals), and sleep until he forgot about all the hardships of the day. But he felt an immense responsibility to Vance, and he would only move if Vance wished it.

Lee had long noticed Caden in the back, since he walked in, but that was no stupendous feat. Lee noticed boys. It was what he did. Oftentimes, friends would stop and shake their head (half in amazement) as Lee would point out otherwise unnoticeable and not-so-astonishing young men. Even after Caden’s concealment spell, Lee wondered why Bellona (the queen of mean and complete anal-retentiveness it seemed) and Vance (the snobby, paranoid prince of perfect) couldn’t notice Caden. Caden was a cute boy, but Lee knew that Caden didn’t like Lee, so he tended to avoid Caden. Lee hated internal-Arietem conflict, and there was enough of that these days.

”I need you to await me in my room, please, since apparently discretion abounds tonight. This shouldn’t take overly long, and then we’ll be able to speak,” Vance said to Lee, with a slight smile on his face and a spark in his eyes. Lee could tell that Vance was up on the ready. Lee, having been overly stoked by the chance of going to Vance’s bedchamber (a feature – single suites - of the Arietem dormitory that exemplified Arietem esteem and prestige), felt as though his dreams were finally coming to light. He had only been in Vance’s bedchamber once, and that was to bring Vance a piece of candy he had taken from a Ferre kid. Vance’s bedchamber was at the top of the tower, and probably the most ornate and lavish of all the bedchambers, with gold and silver heavily gracing every corner of suite. Now, Lee could go up there and wait in Vance’s bed, maybe Vance was finally going to declare his undying love!

The Beauregard, the unofficial head of his own family, bowed his head in obeisance to Vance and said, “Yessuh, Vanz.” With that he rushed off to the staircase. At the foot of the stairs, he heard Vance say, ”The common room is an interesting choice for a private conversation. They do call it common for a reason.” Hmm… Lee could tell that was Vance’s way of apologizing, and Lee took in his heart that Vance – at the root of his black, mysterious heart – held some amount of affection for Lee.

Stopping off at his bedchamber first, Lee opened the door (never caring to lock it – if somebody wanted to steal something, oh well he didn’t own shit, and if somebody wanted to rape him during the night while he slept, haha they better be good) and meandered on through his suite. It was simple and plain, something that most everyone would be startled at, having experienced the Beauregard’s high regard for himself and his family. The only things up on the walls were pictures of famous Beauregards, especially Pappy and Mama and General Beauregard, and various Southern heroes, and of course the Confederate flag. Above his plain bed was a crucifix, a gift from his Mama one day back in New Orleans. If it weren’t a gift, Lee would have long thrown it away, having accepted that Catholicism or any religion were just falsehoods. Lee was perhaps Arietem’s most outspoken atheist, something that pissed off many such as Îrem, and certainly had even gotten Demetrio to flare up a bit.

Gathering Stonewall and Longstreet, Lee left his room and walked up the spiral stair all the way to the top, finally reaching the golden doors with the Abernathy seal emblazoned upon them. Truly beautiful and unmistakably Vance. Lee attempted to open the door, but no budge. He tried a few spells to unlock it. No budge. Finally, he said, “Open!” to which the doors obeyed and revealed the lavishness of the Abernathy suite. There were papers and books thrown across everywhere, perhaps in Vance’s midnight frustrations, but they could never take away from the richness. Lee truly envied and admired Vance. Granted, Lee couldn’t hope to be rich when the entirety of his inheritance AND the two that held on to it were completely destroyed.

Vance’s bed, near the back, was the classical feudal lord’s bed, with rich silk sheets and velvet curtains. Pulling back some of the curtains, Lee hopped in Vance’s bed, resting the three heads of him and his two dogs upon a small pillow. Lee realized how large the bed was then. Lee had hoped all of this meant what he thought it meant…

Naire shrugged, giving up the battle as soon as it started. "Yeah, guess so." He spoke to Melvin, toning in to him missing the ship. His face scrunched up as he frowned. "For your information, I keep myself out of almost all of my pictures. Besides, my faces are only reserved for my friends." With a resolute nod, he stretched fleetingly, his feet shuffling against the floor as he shook his head.

"Nah, I haven't been with her all night, so I don't particularly know. But mainly she's been a good little girl." As he watched Vin pull Myra to himself in a display of affection, Naire cocked his head, a huge grin sprawled across his face, one eyebrow cocked as he splayed his arms out wide. "Yeah, I love ya too, Myra." He then made a move forward to hug her, but then chuckled, putting his hands back in his pockets and leaning once more against the railing.

Naire took a split second to watch Lloyd move past the small group up the stairs. Something seemed slightly off with her, but he didn't linger on it for long. Lyle was demanding his attention as of now.

"Yeah, what'd our little scribe dig up over the months of absence?" Chopstick chirped, hopping onto Naire's shoulder and peering over at Myra with his large eyes before tilting his gaze elsewhere. Particularly up at the stairs to the common rooms. The avian watched the slim silhouette of Lloyd disappear behind the rest of the staircase.

The bird drawled out another hoot, jabbing at Naire's ear. "Yow! Ya little thing." He exhaled at the owl as he flickered from the boy's figure and up the stairs. "Looks like Chopstick is pretty ready for bed." He commented before listening to the others. Almost as soon as he said it, the large clock began to toll, but he stayed to finish their little run in.

Naire chuckled, nodding in agreement to Vin's comment on their little story. "Oh, have you now? Need pictures already? Like I said, give me a wee bit of slack. It's only the beginning of the year!" He flailed his arms in exasperation, then hinted on a smile to show he was kidding. "But really, it is the first day, and I wish not to get in trouble. Lyle, it'll probably have to wait till the morrow, forgive my absence." He grinned again, and took Myra by the elbow. "Night guys."

And with that, he practically dragged Myra along with a short wave to the other two guys, quickly scaling the stones. Once they were out of earshot, he poked her in the side. "Lyle doesn't bite, ya'know." He tsked at her disapprovingly.



Lloyd silently hopped from step to step, Dorremoon sharing in her voice and the feline's gaze fixed ahead of her. The torches flickered in the darkness, lighting the way sparsely for the straggling students of the first night.

There was a soft thunk every four steps by the violin case at her thighs, supported by her right hand, her left softly clutching the railings to support herself. She was lost in her thoughts as her figure listlessly continued the ascension. It was no more than going through the motions, having almost little to no realization of doing the actions. And where were her thoughts based? On her relations of course.

She was trying to figure out how she could possibly grow a bit closer to the people she knew while still staying relatively comfortable and herself, but mainly they were on Lyle. Of course they were simply friends, and he didn't show anything other than that, but it was still difficult deciding on what to do about it.

In all honesty, she just wanted this day to be over. Now, she really was excited to be back, but it was probably just the ride over that was making her tired. Not to mention her very uncouth run in with Lyle. Lloyd's thoughts returned to how he had reacted, yet struggled to defend the theory it might have just been chance at the way he reacted.

Lloyd settled that she'd just have to find a new place to practice, further away from the castle. Perhaps she could find a place in the cliffs, like when she went hiking. That'd be ideal for certain. A soft sigh escaped her lips, and then Naire's owl hooted, surprising her. She nearly fell down a few stairs from the response, and the small bird alighted on her violin case, which was then brought to the front of Lloyd's being. "Chopstick." She muttered, remembering the name. That would probably mean that Naire himself was heading up soon. All the more reason to make it to the Ferre painting.

After shaking the case a couple times in attempt to upset the owl's balance, Lloyd finally huffed, stamping her foot on the ground and overturning the case softly. The owl seemed to spill from the object, and flickered off. She sighed with relief, and then walked the final distance with Dorremoon to the common room, whispering the password quietly, and then she slipped inside, heading to bed.

Caden Wahl

With the Beauregard boy gone, things began to look serious and Bellona was as vicious as ever. She clearly had something that gave her some kind of power over or against Vance. Not that he didn't deserve to be knocked down a few pegs but this whole situation appeared to be, at least from where he sat, a matter between the house of Abernathy and Venator. All useless bickering amongst prominent families, the air of superiority they all took over others, his own family included, annoyed Caden.

That matter was clearly private as Bellona addressed Vance's concern by placing an unfamiliar charm around their chairs. A soft buzzing filled the room but Bellona continued to speak outside of Caden's ability to hear. Not that anyone could see but he furrowed his brow, he was certain that this was no spell in any book he'd ever read but it didn't surprise him to see the likes of Bellona delving into shifty magic. He was always terrible at reading body language or lips so he quickly grew bored, but this fox of Bellona's presented a problem. He wasn't sure if the animal could tell if he was there or not but if could somehow alert its master of his presence, he might find himself on the wrong end of a nasty hex. He tested the water, dropping a hand close to the fox as it scratched beside his seat, the fox didn't seem to notice his fingers dangled in front of his snout. Caden slowly crept from the chair making sure to maintain the charm around himself, and the chair for safety's sake, a new chair suddenly becoming visible could possibly alert somebody to his attempted eavesdropping.

The fox brought Bellona's attention to where Caden stood, he froze. The spell worked best when the caster was absolutely still, allowing himself to completely blend in with the surroundings. He didn't dare move until she returned to her conversation.

Emerson Caldwell

The book snapped shut and Emerson's view was severed as Savant started and looked behind him frantically. Emerson laughed at his reaction and swung into a chair next to his pal. "Pfff, I was just admiring your work, Monsieur Degas." He threw out the first famous artist's name that came to mind. "You know, it's not often that one of us common scribblers gets to view such fine art in its most raw form." He spoke lightly leaning over to watch the effortless scratches take shape into beautiful women.

"I saw something peculiar earlier. I'm not sure if it was there all along or the couple took it from somewhere." He was obviously referring to the subject of his sketches. "What or how do you think they looked like?"

Emerson focussed on the ring, squinted at it searching his memory for anything. "You know, I've never stared at the painting that closely before. I really don't know if I've ever seen that before," he indicated to the ring," but I'm sure that big BOOK OF MAGUS GREX might be able to tell us something about the painting, if you're really that curious." Emerson wondered why Sav was so dreamy today, as in head in the clouds dreamy, he understood that Sav was artist and far more observant than himself, but it was the first night and he going on about the subjects of the painting like he'd been struck with inspiration or something. Whatever caused Sav's sudden interest must have caught Em as well as he had another idea.

"Oh, another much cooler way to get intel on paintings and stuff is to ask the other paintings! They gossip about each other all the time. You wouldn't believe what a portrait of a Navajo medicine man told me about Lady Durante, well I don't speak Navajo so I don't really know what he said, but I'm sure it was nasty. He smirked and clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder.

Flint totally would've downed it, too, had Justin not intervened. He was... perhaps too trusting sometimes. "What, you mean I gotta make it myself?" he said, raising his eyebrows. "This Betterbeer better beer worth it," he returned fire in deliciously punny fashion, accompanying the lame jest with a silly exaggerated wink and a finger gun from his right hand.

He was more than a little glad that they were on their way back, and talking about anything other than what he knew Justin was dying to talk about. Flint knew Justin occasionally enjoyed seeing people squirm in awkward situations, but this one would've been a little much for Flint to handle right now, with things as they were. He already felt weird enough from the hug Bliss had given him. He had hugged her back, of course, though it wasn't one of his best, and he couldn't help but crack a grin at Justin for the ridiculousness of the whole scenario while she had her arms draped around him. It was like she had gotten even closer to him ever since they mutually broke up. And then there was quite a bit of tension between the two sisters. Again he felt badly for dumping things on Summer as he had. She had wanted to help him, yeah, but he'd put her in a difficult position all the same.

Teek had gladly floated down onto Justin's offered perch, giving him a hoot in thanks before visibly narrowing his amber eyes at Bliss. Flint sighed at his owl. "Hey featherbag, where'd your manners go? You know Bliss."

He gave an unenthusiastic hoot, before turning a one-eighty on Justin's arm, to face away from Bliss. "Jeez," Flint remarked, "speaking of the needs to get laid club, Teek here's just upset because he didn't get to woo all the little first-years tonight. He'll come around."

It had been quite a long evening, all things considered. Flint was looking forward to adding three drops of milk or orange soda to the Betterbeer, downing it, and then crashing into the nearest bed. He wondered vaguely if all the others days were going to be this long this year. Surely not.

Wait... had he said anything other than milk or orange soda? He'd have to check.