Ayla rubbed her hands on her jeans as she excited the kitchens. As per usual she was a mess of confectionary proportions. A fine layer of flour clung to most of her clothes and her hair. Her fingertips were a purple blue colour from food dye and there was a smear on her cheek that was very possibly chocolate.

She needed a shower and a change of clothes. Her creations had already cooled and had been decorated. They could be served during dinner that night or saved for a later occasion, for now she was done with the kitchens. As she head down the dungeons corridor she paused outside the entrance to the Slytherin Dorms. She had been avoiding nearly everyone since the incident out on the Quidditch pitch. Especially after her 'fight' with Esther or whatever that was. She hadn't been able to apologize to Alistair yet. She knew that Fred deserved her apology more but she hadn't found the right time to do so (and he lived in the same house as her)

There were so many other barriers standing in her way of reaching Alistair though, least of which was her lack of knowledge as to how to get into the Slytherin house. What if he wasn't in? What if Esther was? Or any of the dozens of Slytherins she didn't get on with? Both the Head boy and girl were from Slytherin, was it against the rules to try and gain access to another house's Dorms? She didn't think so but to be honest, Hufflepuffs were so laid back about it they'd let anyone in even if it was against the rules.

She tucked a curled lock behind her ear. Most of her turquoise hair was braided backwards so as not to cause problems while baking but a few strands were too short to go along with the rest. She chewed on her lower lip readying herself to either go forward to Slytherin house or turn back towards Hufflepuff. Before she could make a decision the entrance to Slytherin opened.

Jonah yawned. He closed his Arithmancy book with an air of finality, done studying for the moment. He'd found himself spending far too much time doing just that, studying, recently - his fingertips were permanently inkstained and he hadn't been outside in days except for Herbology.

But for now, he was done studying. He had slogged his way through two chapters of review and knew that he was reaching the limit of how much productive work he could do in one sitting. So he put his books back in his dormitory, said a quick hello to his cat Malka, and decided to go for a wander. He could use with the exercise, and it would feel good to stretch his legs after so much sitting.

As he swung the common room door open, he found himself face to face with a disheveled-looking Ayla Collins. He had most of his classes with the Hufflepuff prefect, and recently her name had been coming in more common room conversations than usual - mostly Esther's. Jonah looked over his classmate, noting the smear on her face and dusting of what was probably flour on her clothes. Must've been baking.

"Helping out the house-elves, Collins?" he asked in lieu of a proper greeting, "Or did you get all dressed up to come see someone?"

A healthy pink glow spread across her cheeks at the greeting Jonah offered. She had no idea why. It wasn't like she was embarrassed by the state she was in. She had spent most of their fourth year looking like this whenever she wasn't in classes. Perhaps it was just the way he had phrased it, as if this was her getting dressed up (as the daughter of a famous fashion designer, needless to say when she wanted to be dressed up, it was fantastic) Or perhaps it was the notion that she even would get dressed up to come see someone from Slytherin.

"Just baking." She offered him a sweet little smile. She could have done much worse than Jonah Lassiter. It could have been Bellatrix Dark or even Esther. That being said Jonah was still a far cry from Eli (the only Slytherin she was certain was her friend) and he certainly wasn't Alistair - though she wasn't sure what she would have done if he had been. Despite her intentions to apologize for turning him into a squirrel she didn't think she'd handle it all that well.

She seemed to suddenly realize that she was still standing in front of the Slytherin Dorms with no real reason as to why. She wasn't ditzy enough to play it off like she had lost her way and by admitting she had just been baking she essentially shot down the idea of her having come here looking for someone. What she needed now was a distraction.

Ayla looked Jonah over and noticed the faint ink stains on his fingertips, "How's your OWL prep going?" Oh my merlin, studying? Really? Did I really just ask about studying? Lamest diversion ever!

Jonah smirked to himself at Ayla's blush, though he knew better than to make anything of it - he got the sense that her affections lay somewhere in the Alistair... debacle. He didn't know the details, just that the Hufflepuff prefects were involved, his housemate got transfigured into a squirrel (hilarious, in Jonah's opinion), and Esther blamed Ayla. He wasn't clear on whether or not Esther was actually involved, but she'd involved herself anyway, it seemed.

He smiled back at her, all charm. He didn't know Ayla very well, but he knew she'd made herself scarce for most of last year. Something to do with bullying or some such thing, he thought. Regardless, she was a prefect now, which added "useful" to the list of qualities he applied to her - a good person to have in his corner.

Just as Jonah was about to ask just what the Hufflepuff was doing outside of the Slytherin common room, she asked about OWL prep. Jonah groaned, wiggling his inky fingers. "Horrid, honestly," he said, "I've spent hours studying but I can't tell if anything is sinking in. I'll be so happy when this torture is over," he added, stressing the word 'torture' in an overdramatic tone in an attempt to garner a laugh. He wasn't kidding, though, his eyes ached from staring at his notes and trying to decipher his spidery scrawl.

With a self-deprecating smile, he asked, "And you, how are you holding up? Test prep stealing your soul?"

Ayla let herself smile. She didn't know Jonah all that well, despite having spent the last five years in classes together. It was comforting to know that in a one on one situation he wasn't stuck up and pompous like Esther or Bastion. Perhaps she really needed to give the Slytherins a break. Or at least allow herself to get to know a few of the nicer ones better. Jonah was certainly working himself onto that list at this rate.

She let herself chuckle at his exaggerations. Then he turned the question around on her. She bit her lip and sort of shrugged, "well Quidditch season is over so I can't use that as an excuse anymore, and Prefect duties only keep me so busy. Truth be told I've pretty much been avoiding it all. Hence the-" she motioned to her current state of disarray, "I just really suck at studying. I never end up retaining any of the information and then it gets itself all muddled together and by the time exams come I'm a wreck."

"Nope, I am much better off just not studying at all and going into the exams fresh." She wasn't lying either. She was great at the actual tests as her E average showed, there were even some subjects - like Charms and Transfigurations - where she scored O's on a regular basis.

A blush rose to her cheeks again, "I'm also kinda easily distracted."

Jonah was pleased to see the smile on Ayla's face. It meant he was doing something right, he thought. Besides, cold and shriveled though his heart may have been, he got some pleasure out of making other people laugh. Sometimes. Other times he didn't care at all. But for the moment, he was getting some gratification from being nice to Ayla, so he'd call that a win.

"Truth be told I've pretty much been avoiding it all."

He nodded in understanding. "Maybe if we pretend they don't exist they'll go away and bother some other hapless students," he joked, before tilting his head in thought. "If you ever do feel like studying, we could do some together? There's only so much you can get out of staring at your own notes. Sometimes it helps to work with someone else." He spoke from experience - he always did better on exams when he'd been able to discuss the material with someone else instead of turning his own notes over in his head.

He raised an eyebrow. "You're a lucky one, then," he said, "I can't imagine what I'd do with all that free time." He was only half kidding; studying had taken up so much of his time recently he had a hard time remembering what he'd done in his free time earlier in the term. It felt like all eternity was study.

"And may I ask what's distracting you these days?" He had a guess, but wanted confirmation.

Ayla chuckled softly at Jonah's joke. If only. School would be loads more fun and engaging if they weren't constantly stressing out over exams. It was part of the reason she was looking forward to their sixth year so much. No OWLs, no NEWTs and she had complete control over her class load. She was still undecided as to which subjects she was keeping and which ones she was dropping (though some of those decisions may end up being out of her hands if she bombed any of her OWLs)

Her eyes widened a little and she could feel her blush deepen when he offered they study together. She didn't think any of the boys in their year had offered to study with her. Was it an euphemism? Or was she just reading into that too much? After all he had mentioned that he was having trouble studying and she had practically bragged about being really good at taking exams. This was why she needed to get out and start dating again, so she could tell the difference between someone being nice and someone hitting on her. Though even if he was, flirty Slytherins were almost always trouble.

"And may I ask what's distracting you these days?"

What a loaded question. Before she could stop herself Ayla smirked, "Making a complete and utter idiot of myself?" She realized too late that she had actually said so out loud. At least blush matched nicely with her turquoise hair. She chuckled nervously, "I uh turned Alistair into a squirrel the other day and I've pretty much been avoiding everyone ever since."

Jonah smirked. He liked Ayla, he decided; she was easy to talk to, and a prefect - and she blushed easily, which he found amusing. He wasn't flirting, per se, but he wasn't exactly not flirting either. It was sort of his baseline existence, somewhere between serious and flirtatious. It would be fun to see how she reacted if he actually did flirt, but that was a game for another time. He didn't want to push it. Besides, the conversation was finally getting interesting.

"Making a complete and utter idiot of myself?"

Bingo. This was what he had been wondering about, having only the vaguest idea of what had actually happened surrounding the Alistair Incident. Ayla turned Spectre into a squirrel? And Allie hadn't mentioned it? Unforgivable. Not actually, but Jonah was honestly surprised he'd managed not to hear about it. He shared a dorm with Alistair, for god's sakes, how did he not know about this?

His eyebrows shot up, lips curling into a grin. "That's bloody hilarious," he snickered, "Was it on purpose?" He wasn't sure how she could have managed to accidentally turn Spectre into a squirrel, but if Pepper could accidentally turn Watkins into a lion[1] it must be possible. More likely, Alistair was being an idiot and brought it upon himself.

1.	Take a Bath in a Teacup

Ayla scoffed, " of course it was on purpose." Her expression suddenly softened when she realized that he wasn't questioning her Transfiguration skills (which were nearly impeccable) and more the ridiculousness of the situation. At least someone was laughing. Honestly if Fred hadn't freaked out and fallen off his broom they all would have been laughing.

"He did make a rather adorable squirrel, well flying squirrel to be exact. I wanted to give him at least something if he fell off his broom." It had seemed rather brilliant at the time and Fred had even asked her to do it.

She groaned and ran her hands down her face, "then everything went to hell." She looked down and caught a glimpse of chocolate on her hand. Confusion washed over her petite features until she thought of what she had just done. She frantically rummaged through her pockets and pulled out a compact, opening it to look at herself in the mirror, "Holy Helga how long has that been there?!" She started to wipe the chocolate off her cheek. She was definitely lucky he wasn't Alistair.

Jonah grinned. "Please tell me he deserved it," he chuckled, still grappling with the mental image of Alistair in squirrel-form. He could imagine his friend's chestnut hair translating spectacularly into fur, though his face was decidedly too square to look very squirrelly at all. He supposed Transfiguration would take care of that, though.

"A flying squirrel? That's even better." Jonah shook his head, smiling fondly. "Of course he fell off his broom, probably too busy making eyes to watch where he was going," he laughed. The gentle teasing was a sign of affection from him, though Alistair wasn't there to appreciate it.

He bit his lip in an attempt to keep a reasonably straight face when Ayla realized there was chocolate on her face. Hiding his smirk behind a hand, he answered, "Since you got here, at least? I thought you knew." He had figured if she was already covered in flour, she wouldn't mind a little chocolate in the mix.

Despite how nervous she had been feeling about the situation earlier, having Jonah laugh off the whole thing actually helped her relief some tension. Maybe she was making a bigger deal out of it than she needed. Sure Esther was going to be hell to be around but that really wasn't anything new. If she was lucky though, Fred and Alistair would see it like Jonah did.

She rolled her eyes at herself and finished cleaning up her face. There wasn't much she could do about the flour for now. She'd also have to scrub the food dye off her fingers but there had been something about the smudge of chocolate that really set her off, "I am such a mess." She shook her head with a soft smile, " no offense Jonah, but I am so glad you're not someone else right now."

She tucked away her compact and looked back to him biting her lip. She contemplated asking the question that was on the tip of her tongue. She figured she might as well, she  couldn't make much more of a fool of herself, could she?

"What do you mean he was too busy making eyes?" Despite having lived in the country for nearly five years now, she still found herself getting used to some expressions.

"No offense, Jonah, but I am so glad you're not someone else right now."

"None taken," he answered with a smile. He took a moment to wonder who she wouldn't want to see her - probably Esther, or Alistair. He watched her face, trying to guess what she was thinking - he was no Legilimens, but he could read facial expressions. The pause, the lip caught between her teeth, the way her eyes flicked around as if looking between two objects... Making a decision, he guessed.

And with her decision made, she asked, "What do you mean he was too busy making eyes?"

Jonah frowned internally. Was it the phrasing she didn't understand, or something else? Aloud, he said, "Making eyes, you know, being all moony over someone and not paying attention to what's going on around. Fawning over them, like, you know..." he didn't really know how to explain it, it was just a thing.

"Oh." Ayla practically face palmed. Of course that was what he meant. It wasn't even a foreign phrase, she was just being daft (although if asked she would totally use that excuse) However this brought up a completely new problem. She knew he was just joking, as evidenced by him laughing and all, but even still was he talking about her? "OH! Oh no no no. No, Alistair doesn't . . ." Then again Jonah hadn't been there, he didn't know that Esther had only shown up after the boys had fallen off their brooms. Maybe he had meant her - the thought turned her stomach.

She faked a smile, Not wanting to embarrass herself anything further by asking if he really thought Alistair could have been making eyes at her. He would know, the two were mates and room mates. Boys talked about that sort of thing didn't they? No, she was not going to ask him about that. That was not even important, nope not even a little . . . She just had to keep telling herself that and she might actually believe it.

She needed to save a bit of face though, " unless of course you meant Fred, well then duh! All the eyes." What? What did she even say? She rolled her eyes at herself and blew out an exasperated with, "I am not in my right mind today."