The evening had come out nicely for Roland Dylanis. Laying himself across one of the comfortable, squashy couches that lay around the comfortably-insulated Hufflepuff basement common room. Enjoying one of a few fruit tarts he'd nicked from dessert during dinner, Rou had cracked open his copy of Hogwarts, a History in order to help him with his studies regarding their trip to the lake and meeting of the Hogwarts colony of merfolk. Steadily toeing his shoes and socks off as he did so, Roland was finding information from the book regarding the Second Task during the 1995 Triwizard Tournament, during which the merfolk of the lake were the ones used as the obstacle for the school champions in their challenge.

This bit of information, the boy thought, could be useful in completion of the assignment assigned by Professor Jowd regarding the lesson from earlier today. He continued munching, having to wipe crumbs off of his pages every now and again, as his feet fiddled about while he was deep in thought. In his mind, the beginnings of his essay formed in regards to the assignment given at the end of the class' little visit to the merfolk of the lake. Taking small notes on the opposite pages, Rou absentmindedly chewed on the stem of his quill, using a small Inking Charm to refill the tip whenever he ran out as opposed to keeping an inkwell nearby.

One thing I do miss about home, thought Rou, remembering that he had to use pens and pencils for writing as opposed to these archaic quills.

Earlier in the day Heliotrope had been present at the first years' History lesson because of her unique skills. Not only had Professor Jowd been thankful of her assistance, the merpeople of the had a means of thanking her as well. And on the whole, gifts from merpeople theoretically boiled down to three tings, this one being the most common.

Heliotrope had disappeared to the second year girls' room just shortly before dinner, from where she now emerged. To say she had skipped the uniform was an understatement in light of the oversized and haphazardly arranged jumpers and sweaters, the camouflage of hiding in a laundry basket. That wasn't all she had. There was a girding sound as she traced the other end of a bundle on a stick across the carpet, nearly knocking over a potted plant.

When she got to the fireplace she knealt down to begin unwrapping the bundle, tied tight in lake greens. The soles of her deceptively large feet pointed towards the ceiling, marred by some of the grime of the day. Heliotrope's toes flexed as she unwound the bundle, first spreading out and curling.

The bundle, once unwrapped, was a two and a half foot pike on a stick, mouth to tail. Heliotrope leaned forward to stick the stick spit over the flames, then settled back to her kneeling position, staring at it.

His classmate from the earlier class session had come into the common room; Heliotrope, he believed her name was: A second-year who was the offspring of a rare and unique human and merman pairing. From all looks of things, she was just like a fellow human being with pale gray skin. There were freakier-looking people living in Swansea than this girl! Perhaps she'd inherited great traits from both species, but the only real difference was that her toes and fingers contained fishfin-esque webbing between them as opposed to just extra skin like the genetic condition that was found in some humans.

She knelt at the fireplace and pulled out a fish she'd apparently gotten from the lake earlier and hung it on a stick over the fire. Rou was rather thankful that the smoke from the cooking fish wouldn't wind up wafting into the common room lest it begin to smell like the Slytherin common room was said to smell like! He briefly observed her movements in action, noting the dexterity through which her hands and feet moved as well as the fact that she seemed less graceful on land as she did in the water earlier today, before looking back down at his book and taking notes.

He shyly smiled at her from his book, which would only become obvious if she turned around to look at him.

Heliotrope knealt watching the fish. In truth she did not really know what she was doing. She had grown up eating fish raw, cooked fish only ever from the Great Hall tables. The fish gift had placed her on the other end of an old custom, so she was trying to do what the landdwellers would do with a fish.

She picked up a firepoker, giving the pike a few experimental jabs and rotations. It didn't seem like all of the heat from the fire was staying with the fish. Or the smoke. Smoke was important, was it not? Smoked fish.

Heliotrope stood next to the hearth, regardless of the heat as she bent over to stick her head up the chimney. The other hand with the poker went up the flue as well. Bangings could be heard and then...

A small shower of ash plumed out of the fireplace after Heliotrope closed the flue. Beyond the smell of ash that meant the smell of the fish became more concentrated.

She was obviously seeming to have issues with the cooking, almost as if it were her first time to do so. Though his training hadn't reached that level yet, Roland knew it was only a matter of time before his grandfather had the boy doing survival treks in the wilderness in order to learn self-sufficiency, and as a result, he had taken to learning a bit of cooking from his grandmother. Scrunching his toes at the thought, Rou continued to focus on his studying and taking notes while his feet continued to idly play with his shoes.

Rou's shoes fell off his feet as he heard some rustling from the hearth and a rush of ash and smoke came rushing into the common room from above. Peering over the edge of his book, Rou saw that Heliotrope had took it upon herself to clean out the chimney, and in the process ash fell all over the place. Rou knew no spells for this sort of situation, and he'd rather not have the school's caretaker possibly giving him a heckling over this. The boy set down his quill, notes sheet, and book as he sat up on the couch and began checking to see if anyone else had joined them; Glad that he didn't see any of the House prefects or somesuch, Rou rose to his feet and began to try and fan the ash and smoke back toward the chimney.

"Um, Helio?" he said quietly, not wanting to sound rude as he lightly coughed from the debris, "You wouldn't happen to know a spell for this situation, would you?"

Another use for freaky translucent inner eyelids was to keep ash out of ones eyes. As was Heliotrope's case when she disturbed the contents of the flue. It left her looking grayer than usual along with the fish. Though the ash was mostly soft and slippery.

Soon enough one of the even younger than her human spawnlings she recognized from the class today was asking her for a spell to fix this. The fish seemed fine, if ash covered, so it must be the ash that settled outside the grate.

The thought for a spell brought a pause but she had one to mind.[1] "Aquamenti," Heliotrope incanted, a stream of water from her wand splattering the stone floor of the un-carpeted section.

1.	Death From Above - May 6 2009

"I guess...that works," Rou said uncertainly as he watched Helio cast a simple water spell. Washing the ash was probably the best she, as a second-year, would be able to do, anyway. It's not like he had anything in mind to begin with, but Rou couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy if any housemates found the rugs and carpets soaked from them having to clean up the ash. Pulling off his socks and setting them with his shoes off of the floor, Rou drew his own wand and decided to help however he could.

"Aguamenti," he muttered, helping wash away the settled debris from the flue. He was still wondering, however, how they might get the stuff out of the carpet. Of course, they might just have to leave it to the caretaker and just not take any credit for dirtying up the common room this evening. He made his way over to Helio to ask a quick question. "So, where should we be washing this mess? Back toward the hearth?"

As Heliotrope held the spell to spray water an odd, bluish light faintly radiated from her wand and hand. Turning at Roland's question her hand swept with the spell to get his shoes wet.

"That would put the fire out," she said. She still had yet to experience what the importance of cooking a fish like so would be, as water continued to piddle from her wand. "We can wash under the water runs out. That takes a while."

Roland was startled and hopped backward when Helio's jet of cold water splashed upon his bare feet and caused him to get a chill all the way up his spine. He heeded her warning, however, and ceased his spell after a time of them having to get the ash on the stone floor washed away to a better location as they kind-of cleaned the Hufflepuff common room. He set his wand away before heading back to his couch from earlier. He had no towel to dry his feet with, so he just decided to leave his socks off, anyway. His fellow Hufflepuff didn't seem to mind, in any case.

"Well, that was interesting," Rou said as he sat back down and pulled his book back over for reading.

"It certainly was." Came a voice from behind them. Belle stood not too far away, but far enough not to be noticed. There was no telling when the sixth-year had gotten there, or how long she had been there.

"Perhaps I should stop walking around the castle barefoot.." She whispered softly, coming closer. As usual, she had a kind smile on her face and a book tucked against her chest, "How are you two this evening?"

Belle was not one to converse with others often, but when she did, she always inquired after them. She asked if they were doing alright and if there was anything they might need. Belle tried to show people, especially younger students, that there was always someone around that cared.

For a moment Heliotrope seemed more lethargic than usual, 'usual' being her slowly movements during parts of winter. Even with the ash gone and her wand held loose at her side there was still the spattering of water dribbling from her wand like a faucet left on in the bathroom.

"I am fine," Heliotrope said, which she had come to understand as the proper response to the question. Not that the ash swamp by the fireplace brought into existence by her actions was a usual common room occurrence.

Rou recognized the voice instantly and craned his head over the back of the couch to see that Belle, the very same girl who'd mended his horrible injury a little over a week ago, had entered the common room and was getting a nice view of the situation that Helio had created earlier. Rou blushed as he heard her unintelligibly whisper as she approached while Helio answered Belle's question. There was something embarrassing about Belle finding him in odd or dangerous situations twice in a row, now.

He pulled his book closer to his face to keep his head completely hidden while he clenched his toes from the embarrassment. He'd let Helio and Belle have the conversation. He would contentedly remain on the sidelines and pretend that absolutely nothing had happened...

Belle smiled, and perched herself on the arm of the couch. She withdrew her wand from the pocket of her robes and pointed it at the ashy mess by the fire.

She swished it in the air, "Scourgify." And the 'swamp' was gone, leaving the common room floor once again spotless. Belle put her wand away and turned her attention to the younger students, "Neither of you were hurt, right?" Her brown eyes swept them both over for injuries, lingering on Roland a little longer than Heliotrope. She'd started to unconsciously check up on him every now and then in the passed week or so. Belle kept and eye out for him, making sure he was alright after his incident on the docks.

"No, I am not hurt," Heliotrope said, wondering what was supposed to have been hurtful in the common room. Swamps were not hurtful, as much as wet ash sludge could be called a swamp. Things in swamps were different and could be hurtful.

Water continued to piddle from her wand, soaking down the side of her leg.

"I'm okay," Rou grumbled from behind his book as he continued to press his nose as far into the tome as he could manage without it being obvious. He intensely read and took notes as his means of avoiding to have to talk to Belle at all. His knuckles grew white from his holding onto the book in the process.