The Wizarding World

"Should we really do that?" Maxine asked still mindlessly poking her food, "Hagrid is pretty swell, but he is still a teacher. It might not be a good idea to let him know we snuck out to the forest."

She then put down her fork and pushed her plate away, "Well, I don't really mind either way. You two do whatever, I'm not that hungry so I'm gonna go on ahead."

-----
"O-off my chest? That's ridiculous," Maxwell replied, avoiding eye contact with Hymie. "I definitely wasn't involved in any adventures last night, and even if I was, it certainly didn't involve any forests."

"What's up with her?" Will questioned to no one in particular with a frown. Will wasn't exactly sensitive but even he could tell when his friends were acting weird. He shrugged and turned to Jennifer, resuming the previous discussion. "We don't have to tell him we snuck into the forest," Will reasoned. "We can just be like, 'Hagrid, by any chance is there a bloodthirsty chimaera roaming the forest?' and see what he says." 

Then he squinted. "When did you become part of this?" He didn't particularly like Jennifer, and trusted her even less so. But the girl hadn't ratted them out yet, perhaps to save her own skin or preserve Gryffindor's house points.

Jennifer immediately scoffed, "You're in my house, and I've elected to take a more direct approach with you since being subtle has failed me thus far," she stated matter-of-factly. She glanced at Maxine as she left, wondering what could possibly be up with her. There was something odd about her distinct lack of eating. Jennifer shrugged it off, trying to act like she wasn't interested.

"Anyway, Will, you're right. Although that phrasing could use some work, we don't have to say how we know one might be in there," she put down her food, figuring she was satisfied with her food for now. She was mentally berating herself for eating for longer than Maxine. That was simply unacceptable.

----

"Definitely no forests!" Samantha agreed with Max in between bites. She was, as usual, eating like a maniac and only barely managing to make her words understandable by swallowing and talking before taking another bite, "Yep, no rules broken here!"

Hymie stared at Sam and Max for several moments. Eventually, he replied. 

"...ok, whatever you say," he said, apparently just brushing off their suspicious statements. "You dogs missed out on some crazy shenanigans in this joint," 

Hymie then began to tell them the long tale of what exactly he and Bart had been up to earlier. It was a fascinating tale; involving a box of pixies, a skateboard, and a narrow escape from an extremely pissed off groundskeeper. At least half of it could possibly be true. 

"...and we still have no clue what the blowtorch was for," he said, concluding the story. 

"But enough about me, tell me more about that forest..."

Maxwell sighed in relief as Hymie seemed to change the subject to go on a tangent about his supposed shenanigans with Bart. Most of which the boy was sure didn't actually happen. But he wasn't going to be the one to point that out, besides it was fun listening to Hymie's wild tale.

Just as Maxwell was sure his escapades in the forest were long forgotten, the ravenclaw just had to bring it up again, "Uhh.. uhm, there's nothing to tell, because we didn't go to any forests. In fact, there's a forest? I never even knew... heh.. heheh. Okay, we snuck out last night, but you have to promise not to tell anyone."

"Maaaax!" Sam mockingly latched onto his arm as if she were upset with him but she was giggling, "Oh well, hehe. I bet someone as cool as Hymie wouldn't tell anyone," she winked at him to punctuate her statement.

"And I'll just add that it was really fun. Not nearly as fun as your adventure sounded though, I mean we just ran into these adorable exploding bugs, although those were pretty great!" Sam stated.

"That sounds off the hook," said Hymie. "Next time you sneak out; I'd like to go," 

He paused for a moment, looking between Sam and Max. He then amended his statement slightly. 

"I mean, unless you crazy kids are sneaking into the woods to get your mack on. I don't need to tag along for that..."

Winter besieged Hogwarts with an armada of snow. Will had spent most of his time hitting people with snowballs and had become a one-man blizzard with the aid of magic. He'd taken particular delight in hitting Professor Slughorn with large snowdrifts as the plump potions teacher walked beneath trees.

The reason for this was that Slughorn had arranged a party, and Will liked parties. However, he did not like not being invited to parties. To add insult to injury, some of his friends had been invited. Strangely enough they had also been victim of random snow related incidents, although Will had no idea why.

"I still can't believe I'm not invited! I mean, he invites people he thinks are gonna be great in the future right?" He griped, before muttering an incantation and flicking his wand at a pile of snow which shot at an unsuspecting fellow first year.

"Hey, at least your twin didn't get invited before you did!" Maxine playfully shoved her friend with a grin. She wasn't too miffed at not getting an invite. However, she was a bit peeved that Slughorn had banned her brother from bringing her as his plus one. Sheesh, you make one little joke about the guy's name and suddenly you're his least favorite student.

"I still can't believe Jennifer is in the club, what's so great about her? The only thing she's gonna be famous for is having the longest stick in history shoved up her a-"

The blonde suddenly sputtered as a snowball smashed into her face. Looking around quickly, she spotted her brother chatting with his friends looking suspiciously innocent. Must be revenge for all those snowballs that she didn't bother to cover up as Will had.

Jennifer was loafing around in the snow by herself, clearly sulking. She had invited Laura to the Slug Club as a sort of last resort since she seemed like a decent enough person, for a Slytherin. But even she turned her down! Jenny had no real intention of inviting anyone from her own house, they all sort of sucked, and that other girl was pretty close to Maxwell who was already in the club (She checked all of this out on her own).

So here she was, wondering what she was even to do as she stood underneath a tree that she had taken the liberty of removing the snow from before someone had any funny ideas. She'd had plenty of snow dropped on her already thank you very much.

-------

Samantha was snickering at Maxwell's snowball. She wondered if the more hyper of the two twins was going to make a move after that, since she seemed to be on to him, "I got your flank, Max." Samantha said, grinning at her friend in case this turned into a full blown snow war.

Laura sighed as she noticed Jenny loafing around in the snow. Though she didn't really like Jenny at all; she couldn't stand to see anyone looking that dejected. She'd been there before. 

She walked up to Jenny, and smiled at her. 

"Any chance that invitation is still open?" she asked.

--

"Yo, Max Power, you chillin' without your homies again?" said Hymie, arriving just in time to witness the snowball exchange. 

Though Hymie wasn't really interested in Slug Club before; he'd suddenly been interested in joining when he heard there was going to be a Slug Club Exclusive Party. Being able to get into exclusive parties was one of many, many traits required of him as a cool kid. 

So he'd joined the club. It wasn't really hard; considering Slughorn knew his grandmother. He'd also invited Bart as his plus one; though he wasn't entirely sure Bart was even going to show up. Bart wasn't really the party type. 

Of course, he hadn't actually told Sam or Max about his membership. He figured it would be cooler if he just turned up out of the blue.

Will quickly spotted the thrower of the snowball. Maxwell was stood with Samantha looking so not guilty that it couldn't have been anyone but him. If that hadn't been enough, Samantha didn't even attempt to hide who did it, openly laughing at her fellow Hufflepuff's actions.

With a look of complete disbelief: not at Maxwell's actions which weren't quite in character, but at the thought that someone would actually challenge the carnage machine that was the Gryffindor duo, Will scooped up a ball of fluffy white snow and compacted it into a less than deadly missile.

"Well that was silly," He announced, grin firmly in place. After all, this meant war.

Maxwell nodded, "Thanks, Sam. Those two have been bombarding me with snowballs all week." He was pretty sure he almost caught a cold because of them. It also soaked his favorite sweater, which admittedly was fixed with a drying spell by one of the upperclassmen in the Hufflepuff dorms, but still! It was the principle of the matter and was glad to finally get a little revenge for it.

"Oh, hey Hymie," The boy greeted, unbeknownst to him a war was about to start. Then Will yelled and he turned to face him without thinking, "Huh?"

------

Maxine saw Will scoop up a snowball and grinned to herself as she mimicked his actions. Her ball wasn't as compact as Will's but it would hold strong. She typically went for a better scatter with her snowballs.

"Ready?" She asked Will, continuing to grin devilishly.

"I know, that's why I'm gonna help!" She quickly picked up some snow to form her own snowball, seeing the others making their actions, "Look out Max!" she saw that he was just sort of standing there and knew he was in for a hit if he didn't act fast.

No time to lose! Sam decided to take this into her own hands and fire the next shot. She launched a snowball that landed right on Will's head, and she pumped her fist in celebration of the shot, "Oh yeah! Max lets give them all we got! Hymie help too!" she urged the two boys to help.

-----------

Jennifer looked up in surprise, her mouth agape for a moment before she caught herself and stood up, trying to look as dignified as she normally does, "Well, it just so happens that, uh, by mere chance you see..." Jennifer was trying to come up with something but after a moment of fumbling, she shook her head, "Yes, if you wish to come with me then the invite is still yours," Jennifer smiled almost sincerely, being happy that maybe this was her chance to at least have someone who didn't hate her to talk to.

"Sup," said Hymie, chucking a snowball at one of Maxwell's friends. 

-- 

In truth, Laura was a bit surprised to see this side of Jennifer. It was completely different from the impression she'd gotten of her on the train. Aside from her unfortunate beliefs about muggles and such; she was just a lonely girl. 

She decided then and there that she would make an effort to befriend Jenny. Another friend would certainly make things more fun. Plus, she was certain she would only get about a year to enjoy Hogwarts. So she wanted to make sure there were no regrets. 

"I'd be honored," she said, accepting Jenny's invitation.

"Of course," Will replied to Maxine before promptly being nailed in the head with a snowball. "Oh, nahhhhh man!" He darted over to a medium sized but thin dead tree with a build up of snow on it. From his previous escapades he had discovered this particular kind of tree to be rather springy, and when covered in snow it acted as a catapult for devastating amounts of snow related carnage.

He spied Jennifer. Excellent opportunity for some prank action. Samantha was the more immediate threat though, and Will couldn't let the girl get away with the shot she had made before, and he leapt onto the top of the tree, pulling it back with his body weight, before releasing it, unleashing a snowy airstrike on the Hufflepuffs but dropping on his backside in the snow rather unceremoniously.

Maxine wasn't going to get hit this time. Oh no, she made sure to find herself some cover behind a bush. She noticed what Will was doing and smiled, giving him a thumbs up before assaulting the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaw with her snowballs. Her brother ducked behind the pillar of the school before her icy projectiles could hit him. She stuck her tongue out at him, instead turning her attention to Sam. She seemed the most dangerous of the trio. It was up to her to keep her distracted while Will set about climbing the tree.

She could feel her own laughter bubbling up as she spotted the piles of snow heading right for their opposition. However, her brother did something unexpected from him. 

"Watch out!" Maxwell yelled at Sam and Hymie before grabbing the two and pushing them out the way. The large amount of snow piled on him and him alone, leaving the friends he just protected untouched. He moved his hand and wiped the snow from his face. Every inch of his body was now cold and wet. Despite his current state, he helped his two friends up, "Keep your guard up! They're not gonna stop with just this."

"Nooooo, Maaaax!" Samantha reacted dramatically, then looked at the assailant. Time to play for real!

She bundled up a perfect snowball while moving towards cover, she then let loose on Maxine and Will both! She fired off snowball after snowball, with ridiculous accuracy and surprising speed. She found herself laughing after a couple, forgetting the revenge and just going at it while moving side to side to try and avoid as many return shots as possible.

----

"Ah, well of course you're honored!" Jennifer stood tall, "Ahaha, hah, Ahem," She cleared her throat again. She wasn't really sure what to say, "Then uh, we'll meet there at around when the party starts, ok?"

Hymie stared in stunned silence; as Sam became some kind of unstoppable, snowball-throwing machine. Not about to be shown up; he crouched down and scooped up a pair of snowballs. If Muggle movies had taught him anything; it was that dual wielding was always cooler than single wielding. 

He locked on to the two who'd been throwing snowballs at them; and tossed both snowballs at the same time. If both of the snowballs had it; it might have gone down in history as the greatest maneuver ever performed in a snowball fight. 

As it was, one of the snowballs missed wildly; while the other had somehow managed to hit a slytherin girl in the face. While said girl was several feet behind him. Even he wasn't sure how he'd managed that. 

--

"I'll see you then," said Laura, right before she was struck in the face by a snowball.

For a moment she stood there; not sure what just happened. She then turned around to see her friends engaged in a snowball fight. 

"...excuse me a moment," she said, before scooping up a snowball.

--

"I'll apologize later," said Hymie, turning his attention back to Will and Maxine. 

This proved to be a mistake; as a snowball hit him in the back of the head; and knocked his sunglasses off. 

"Ok, forget apologizing. LETS KICK THIS UP A NOTCH!" he said; turning around to face whoever'd thrown that snowball. 

However, this just resulted in another snowball hitting him in the face.

Will decided to go toe to toe with Samantha, letting off a barrage of snowballs whilst allowing himself to be hit as long as it didn't alter his aim. After getting bored of that he decided to do some trick shots: diving throws, behind the back snowballs, between the legs and the like. He experienced varying levels of success, decreasing as his attempts got more flamboyant.

And then he tried a double spinning dive shot - two snowballs as he dived through the air, spinning. He released the snowballs and flopped onto the ground next to Maxine.
-------------
Professor Yamada was sat on a bench, deep in thought eating her lunch - tofu with ground pork in a sauce. One of the few home comforts she had brought with her from her home country was her cooking skills.

She pondered recent events. The teachers were worried, although they weren't letting it out in public, as Hagrid had heard the roar of a chimaera in the woods. Chimaeras didn't tend to live in forests. Too much fire. That, coupled with rumours of some of the students that had leaked up to the staff, had been cause for alarm. 

The ecology of the Forbidden Forest wasn't particularly of her concern, but, although she didn't look like it, Yamada was the head of security at Hogwarts, due to her speciality in non-combat Defence Against the Dark Arts, although when she had been at Mahoutokoro, combat and protection had been two very different things and due to her family name she has been expected to excel at the latter, which she had.

Professor McGonagall had picked her out of the Han-Oni Butai (Japan's equivalent of Aurors), where Yamada had worked as a specialist consultant after leaving school; she had been unable to devote her entire time to the job due to her other responsibilities as a shrine maiden, which involved far more duties than Muggles were aware. Japan's Ministry had been monitoring the Voldemort situation with great fear as even the most powerful witch in Japan was not quite a match for the Dark Lord. Yamada knew that England needed assistance - it was a charity really - and picked her brightest underling as her successor at the shrine. Yamada heard the the girl was not particularly talented but the teacher had faith.

So, with regards to the Chimaera situation, any developments would be investigated by Yamada with the skills she had learned from the Han-Oni Butai. She considered possible reasons a chimaera would be brought onto school grounds. Destruction? Distraction? 'If so, why has no one witn-'

Blam! Blam! Two balls of white coldness hit her, one in her face. She sighed and wiped snow out of her eyes and looked down. The other had hit her food, mingling half with snow and the other half with the floor. She spied Maxine looking over.

"Detention, Miss Hambledon," she sighed, before frowning. There had been two snowballs at the same time and unless the troublesome Hambledon twin had a strong non-dominant hand - or had used magic - there had been two throwers. Carter rose next to his usual partner in crime. Of course. "Mr Carter, detention also."

"But Pwofessor Yamada-sensei-" He started protesting, in a ridiculous appropriation of an Asian accent.

"That's highly offensive," she told him with no real indication that she was actually offended. "Come to my office tonight, you both."

"I have a detention already," the boy said sheepishly, this time in his own voice. At Yamada's quizzical look he elaborated: "I may have thrown a toad at Professor Arginton." Ah. Jane was terrified of toads, although she loved frogs. 

"Fine, the 20th, the day after tomorrow. Both of you."

"Mmm, ahh that's gonna be no good either," Carter said, and Yamada raised a delicate eyebrow. "I have... plans?" he offered, receiving a disbelieving look. Ridiculous, although not unentertaining. She did not dignify him with a response, instead choosing to turn and walk back to the castle.

"Does this mean we don't have to come on the 20th, or we do have to come on the 20th?" Called the boy from behind her but she did not acknowledge him as she walked on back.

Maxine wasn't exactly surprised that once again her and Will were slammed with a detention. She wasn't surprised, either, when her brother spent the rest of the day profusely apologizing to her for starting it in the first place. Nor was she surprised at the earful she got from Jennifer that night in the girl's room. What she was surprised at was that it turned out that the annoying gryffindor girl actually got someone to go with her to Slughorn's party. Further more, that it was someone as nice and cool as Laura.

So, in the day or so leading up to the party, the wheels turned in Maxine's head. She had to crash that party. Will had proposed it before, back when they first learned of it and weren't invited, but she wasn't that interested at the time. Mostly because it didn't seem like it would be fun in the first place. There was no adventure to be found in a party.

While there was still no adventure in going, now she had reason to go. She absolutely had to spy on Laura and Jenny. For Laura's sake, of course, she was about 80% sure that her fellow gryffindor had done something to convince Laura to go with her! A spell or maybe a potion! Whatever it was, Maxine was definitely gonna uncover it.

On the day of the party, before heading off to detention, she stood outside the Gryffindor dorms as she looked over her brother. Apparently, he wanted her opinion on his choice of clothing. He must have forgotten that Maxine didn't have a single fashionable bone in her body.

"How do I look?" He asked tentatively, fiddling with his tie for the twentieth time in the past few minutes. 

The girl shrugged, "Like you're wearing your Sunday's best, shouldn't you be with Sam right now? You should ask her."

"She's still getting ready, plus its kinda embarrassing to ask a girl about my appearance," Maxwell answered, still fiddling with that damn tie.

Maxine stared at him blankly.

"I-I'm not saying you're not a girl, its just different. You're my sister and my twin," He was now getting tangled up in his own tie from sudden burst of nervousness.

"Alright, alright, I get it, just stop messing with your tie. Here, let me fix it, geez I can't believe I still have to fix your tie for you. You should really look into tying spells or maybe clip ons," With his tie finally fixed, Maxine stepped back and smiled at her handy work. Despite her complaint, it sometimes felt good to be the 'good big sister' for once.

Sam was rushing down the stairs from her room into the common area of the Hufflepuff dormitories, "Oh nooo, I made Max wait for so long! I need to hurry!" She made her way quickly through the kitchens and down several different hallways, although she went the wrong way once and had to backtrack quite a bit. 

She finally settled down when she knew she was near where Max said he was heading. The hallway where the party was sure was far away! Sam looked around now that she was close, trying to see if she could find her friend. She saw the two Maxes a little ways down the hall and waved, "Hey! I found you guys!" she made her way over, smiling brightly.

She was wearing a simple blue and white dress, and was clearly ready for a party with her hair up and some light makeup. This was her absolute best that she had packed, so she hoped it did the job well enough.

---

Over the past couple of days, Jennifer had argued with Maxine over her repeated detentions repeatedly, but other than her reprimands she had seemed unusually cheerful. She spent most of the day of the party going over what she should wear, what she should do, if there was something she should make SURE she didn't say, or something she absolutely had to make sure to say. In the end she decided to plan only to compliment Laura on her appearance, so as to be polite, but otherwise didn't have anything important she wanted to say. She didn't really know Laura that well, and the fact she was a Slytherin was something that bothered her quite a bit!

Of course, a Gryffindor HAD been her first invitation. She wanted to invite Maxine if only to try and get an idea of how she dressed for parties. She definitely wanted Maxine to come with her more, and pretty much only because she was a Gryffindor. This being DESPITE her constant problems, and boy did Maxine cause a lot of problems.

Well, in any case, it was almost time to start getting ready, so Jennifer started getting dressed. Despite her issues with Laura and Maxine, she stilled seemed to be more smiley than normal.

-

Around the corner of the Slugclub party's corridor came Jennifer, striding proudly into the hallway wearing a bright crimson dress with some light golden trim. She was sure it was a bit too much, but it was custom made for her almost half a year ago now and her opinion on its appearance had been quite different at the time. Either way, it was still the appropriate dress for this occasion and she refused to let anyone know her own feelings on it.

She looked around for her invited friend, hoping Laura would already be there to greet her, though she didn't see her right away, "She better not be late..."

(OoC: Also Flame if you don't like Maxine being that close to the party then let me know and I can edit it or something)

"Who better not be late?" she asked, from right behind Jenny.

She didn't really seem nervous at all. In truth, she was hiding just how nervous she was. She kept coming up with ways she could potentially embarrass herself or Jenny. She'd even considered making an excuse to blow off the party at the last minute. 

However, in the end she'd put on her dress and headed for the party. It didn't matter how nervous she was; she wasn't going to miss a chance like this. Especially considering she wasn't likely to get many more. 

"So I...guess we should head to the party now," she said.

Will whistled a tune as he came around to the gathering of people. "As much as we'd like to join you cool kids, me and Maxine have some wicked clock watching to do. It is going to be brilliant." He really had to stop getting detained. Although, passing the time had done wonders for his charm work; if Flitwick ever decided to do a lesson on enchanting paper aeroplanes, Will would actually be near the top for once.

"You all look pretty sharp though," he complimented with a double thumbs up, glancing over everyone prepared in their formalwear. He had always found dressing up to be uncomfortable but on the other hand he did like looking good. "Shall we?" He addressed Maxine in his poshest voice.

"You look great, Sam," Maxwell complimented with a smile. His sister nodded her agreement. They all looked pretty nice. She was almost envious of them, almost. She still wasn't all that interested in putting on a pretty dress.

"Don't remind me," Maxine complained when Will arrived. Sitting still for so long doing nothing was absolute torture for the young adventurer. Her only saving grace was that Will would be there to give a fun distraction. Besides, she still planned on ditching, she just needed the right opening. 

"Why yes my good sir, lead the way," Maxine replied, equally as posh as him.

Maxwell waved, "Good luck, you two. Tr not to get in anymore trouble!"

"No promises!" Maxine said back in a cheerful voice.

Her brother sighed before turning back to Sam, "Do you want to go in now?"

"O-oh!" Jenny spun around, but quickly regained her composure, "Right, I guess we should head in then." She smiled, and put her hand towards the party, "I like your dress, Laura," she added, which was more sincere than she had expected to be. She supposed she'd underestimated her invited guest.

As they came around the corner, Maxine and Will were headed the opposite direction, and she saw the others hanging out there. Well, she didn't really know those Hufflepuffs so well though, even if one of them had already declared the two of them as friends.

-

Sam blushed at the boys complimenting her appearance, "Well, you look great as well Max," She turned towards the two who were on their way, "Hopefully you can make it to the next one!" She gave a genuine smile and waved goodbye to them, before wrapping one arm around Maxwell's to sort of mimic the silly poshness of the other two.

"I do, Max. Lets see what's waiting for us!" She had to admit to being really excited. So many people together just to celebrate and have a good time. She noticed Jenny and Laura down the hall and waved with her free hand, "Oh hey Jenny, Laura!" 

Jennifer scoffed, "Don't shorten my name like that! It's Jennifer, and um, hello I guess," she turned away, attempting to make it into the room where the party was before any further interaction occurred. She wasn't going to let this simple girl hold her back from making an impression at the party.

"Thanks," said Laura, blushing slightly. "Your dress also looks good on you!" 

It was at that point that Maxwell arrived. And with his friend. Who was a girl. That she had met before. She supposed Jenny wasn't the only she'd need to get to know a bit better.  

She smiled as Jenny protested her nickname. She'd have to think of a better one. Speaking of names, it occurred to her that she had no idea what Maxwell's friend's name was. 

"Hey...you," she said, attempting to cleverly hide her inability to remember the girl's name.

Noone would suspect a thing. 

--

Hymie, meanwhile, was waiting with Bart; just around the corner from where the party was being held. 

"Cool cats like us have to carry ourselves with a chill demeanor," he said. "That's why were showing up to the shindig a minute late like it's nobody's business," 

He paused for a moment, as if deep in thought. As if he were pondering the meaning of life; and the deep secrets of the universe. He then turned to Bart, and asked...

"Think I should bring my sunglasses to the party?"

Will and Maxine arrived at Professor Yamada's office. The woman herself was behind her desk, reading some ancient looking book about dark creatures, and Will's mind was immediately cast to the chimaera that had nearly cooked and eaten him.

"Wagwan, teach," he greeted as he took a seat, which immediately pulled itself from under him as he sat down, dumping him on the floor. "Ouch," he groaned, "what was that for?" Yamada had clearly done that and he idly wondered whether Hogwarts teachers were actually subject to laws which prevented them harming their students. It did seem like it was frowned upon; Will had heard rumours about dangerous teachers that had harmed students being dismissed, including a vicious werewolf and an unscrupulous former celebrity.

"I don't know the words you use, but I wager they were rude or inappropriate to teachers," replied the professor and Will opened his mouth to argue but then closed it again. She wasn't exactly wrong after all, although he had definitely said worse.

Ten minutes into the detention and Will had prepared and charmed a paper aeroplane. When Yamada seemed particularly engrossed in her book, he launched it at Maxine. It was promptly incinerated by Yamada who hadn't even looked up from her book. "That was pretty cool, how did you do that?" He asked, receiving nothing but silence in return.

"Oh come on, teach us!" He pleaded. He looked at Maxine to encourage her to heckle and generally make a nuisance of herself too. "Don't you think we should learn that cool spell? Why does she hate-"

"Silencio," Yamada sighed with a jab of her wand and Will's mouth flapped up and down uselessly. 

'Ahhhhh, what's happening? She can't silence me, that's cheating! How am I supposed to spout greatness and wisdom now?!' Panicked the boy, half jokingly. Even in his own misfortune he couldn't help but crack jokes.

Maxine's face twisted in mirth as she tried to contain her laughter at Will's misfortune. She didn't try hard enough, because soon she was giggling like mad, "Hahaha, now that is a spell I need to learn."

She imagined all the uses she could get out of it on a certain preachy Gryffindor that shared a room with her.

"Oh, woops," She said realizing she may suffer the same fate as her friend. Quieting herself down, she sat up straighter and beamed at her teacher. She was trying her best to look the perfect angel, but anyone with a good eye could see the tiny little devil horns.

----

"Hi Laura!" Maxwell greeted his friend cheerfully, then gave a polite smile to the gryffindor girl, "It's nice to see you as well, Jennifer."

He looked around the room and one word came to mind. Bright. Bright and golden and so very rich looking. It was a bit more than he was used to and for a moment he worried if he was under dressed. He supposed he should have expected this much from a teacher who prided himself on knowing the elitest of wizards and witches.

Tugging at his tie again, he spotted some drinks across the room. Maybe he'd feel better if he had something to occupy him, "I'm going to get drinks, anyone want anything?"

The question was directed at all three girls, even Jennifer.

"Yeah hello Laura!" Sam completely missed any implication that Laura had forgotten her name. She followed the others in, and was awestruck by the grandiose-ness of it all.

Sam noticed the food where the drinks were, and considered just following him over, but for now? She was with friends she rarely got to hang out with! She'd just have to contain that deep, starving sensation she was feeling and just move on.

"Sure! If they have punch I'll go for that," Sam said.

Jennifer was a little late to notice she was included in the offer. Well, that's what happens when someone is trying to ignore the others she's with, "I'll have the same as Samantha then," she said, which got her a light jab from Sam in friendliness for the comment. Jenny rubbed her arm where she'd been hit, even though it hadn't been hard.