Grimwold had been ecstatic to return to Hogwarts after the yule holidays - it had been the most boring Christmas he had experienced ever. Both his father and his younger sister Griselda had somehow contracted the magic measles, and his mother, being who she was, had ordered the whole family to quarantine in separate rooms. Grim, who was used to exploring and adventuring, had soon found that there were only so many times he could re-read The Nightwood Pack or re-arrange the posters on his wall. He had wished he had stayed at Hogwarts. The only thing that got him through the two weeks-that-felt-like-years was the yule special of Jasper Warlock that had been on air every other day.

But he was back now, and thanks to his mother’s strict ‘stay in your room, stay safe’ policy, he was measle free and had the whole castle to continue to explore. Over the last two months he had quickly fallen back into his normal routines; staying out in the corridors as late as he could without getting caught; sneaking food from breakfast to try and catch some strange creature at the edge of the Forbidden Forest; or trying to master the bubble charm to be able to converse with the merfolk at the bottom of the lake. And, of course, leaving his homework to the last minute.

Currently he was sitting in the foggy courtyard, wrapped up in his large Gryffindor scarf, and trying to focus on the arithmancy textbook in front of him. He knew he should’ve started his assignment last week, but had forgotten all about it until Rhys had mentioned it this morning. And now he only had a day and a half to write a two foot paper on the importance of the number 9 for the witches of medieval Wales. Not how he wanted to spend a Sunday.

As he was reading (without registering much of anything) his wand slowly slid out of his sleeve. Grim, being too focused on trying to understand a specific part of the text, didn’t notice, until it fell and hit the cobbled floor, sending sparks into his face. With a surprised yelp he fell backwards and off the bench, landing on the damp ground.

“Oh, for Merlin’s sake!”

Allura had been having a good week, her work was done early with the assistance of a few boys,  they had donated their help to her with some classes, not a huge amount but it was useful to have them do it, especially when it helped to get it finished early, one of them offered to go with her during the upcoming Hogsmeade but she did her best to delicately put them down with it.

She was still miffed from the denial by Ollivanders, it wasn't that she hated her wand more just that she wanted something a bit more personal and closer to home. Not that it bothered her or anything, they could of been nicer in the wording. But again, its not that she really cared what the stuck up wandmakers thought. It was her day off, and despite the gloomy weather, she wanted a wander.

So she had been wandering, to get a mixture of time alone, and to get some exercise. Its not like she had much else to do really was it?

But it was upon the entrance courtyard she found where she could have some fun, a boy dropping his wand, struggling with homework, wasting the sunday doing it in a frantic attempt. Certainly a Gryffindor.

She approached casually with a flick of her hair and smiled down at them. "Need some help there?"

Zeta was as busy as she'd ever been in her Hogwarts Career but almost none of that business was schoolwork. Students Against Werewolf Segregation was taking up loads of time, but she was also on Hogwarts Howler which was working to fill the pages for the March issue. On top of that, she was endlessly sketching in notebooks. She was seventeen now, a grown-ass adult, and as soon as she had enough gold and the opportunity she was getting a magical moving tattoo.

It was on her way back from a Howler meeting that she passed the windows that looked out into the courtyard just in time to see Grim Jorkins somehow hex himself in the face. Zeta watched in a sort of stunned non-chalance, like maybe there was a crow walking around with a crisps bag on his head, as that unsettlingly cute Allura from Ravenclaw went to help him. As if a grown-ass sixth year needed help. Zeta rolled her eyes and went around the corner to the door.

"Everyone saw that, Grimsy!" she called, tucking her hands into her sweater against the cold. Zeta quite liked Grimwold Jorkins as he was always up for anything and good for a laugh. One of the more tolerable boys in their year.

“Need some help there?”

Grim had thought he was alone. After all, it was a foggy, early, Sunday morning, and usually the courtyard would be empty at this time. Which is why he was surprised when suddenly a girl addressed him, flicking her hair around. He didn’t recognise her, so she wasn’t in his year or in Gryffindor, but there was something about her that made him want to impress her. He quickly scrambled up from the cobblestone, brushing off his now wet backside.

“I was just practicing the Spell-harvesting spell,” Grim said hurriedly. “I’m going to use it on my next attempt to—”

But he didn’t get to finish the sentence, as Zeta Pepper appeared in a doorway, calling him out on his fall. A slight flush started working his way up his neck, but with his focus now on Zeta, it quickly went away.

“Saw what?” he asked, trying to look as nonchalant as possible, as he bent down to pick up his wand from the floor. The book he had been reading he closed and put on the bench, any thought of homework now completely vanished from his mind. He knew Zeta, being in the same year and all, and was sure that something fun would happen with her around. As for this new younger girl, there was something about her that made Grim want to keep her around. But he wasn’t sure what that was just yet.

Allura grinned, he was tripping over himself at trying to explain what he was doing. The spell she thinks she may know, but only in the context of older students talking about it. So its not as if she would be able to help him, but she may still be able to help in some fashion, even if its just practicing the spell, although the name of it was something worrying, spell-harvesting sounded as if it drained someones magic, she wouldn't want that.

She was preparing to offer to help when another girl approached, she twisted to see them...Oh, Zeta. How drab, she hadn't met her before, certainly seen her about however. Both of them shared the same dungeons and lower hallways, to varying extents with her being a Slytherin and Zeta being a Hufflepuff. Heard her, definitely, she'd heard her shouting in the Great Hall a few times, sounding bossy. Heard of her? Oh yes, if not from her constant busybodying with SAWS, then from the rumour she started spreading after finding out about the werewolf failing to ask her out.

She flashed her a smile, doing her best to keep a cheerful expression on, she likely wouldn't know that Allura was the one who started the rumour, even then it didn't name Zeta directly, and thats if she had heard.

"I think she means you dropping your wand, did it do anything to you?" She asked with a caring, although fake, tone as she turned back to the Gryffindor.

Still from the door, Zeta made a face at Allura's odd fawning. It was just Jorkins.

"Saw you biff it. Are you practicing for Defense?" she asked, still keeping to the relative warmth of the doorway. Professor Storm was on a tear as usual making them all learn to defend themselves for some reason. They had a load of spells to prepare and not everyone had dedicated the time and attention to mastery. Yet.

"It's really advanced," Zeta added with a pointed look at Allura and her impossible eyes.

His quick white lie didn’t seem to have convinced the two witches, to Grim’s big disappointment. At least the younger witch’s caring tone made it seem that she was at least wanting to know if he was okay. Some reassurance in the awkward situation, and for a moment he thought he could move past it. But then Zeta asked if it was for Defense class, and Grim could feel his heart drop.

“For Defense?” he asked, giving Zeta a look of bewilderment and fear. “Did Professor Storm give us homework on it?”

He thought he had missed something important. Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of Grim’s favourite classes at the school (and the one he considered most important for his future career as a Curse-Breaker), and it was usually the only homework that he remembered to do.

“I was going to use it for my next attempt to find the blood-sucking Bugbears in the Forbidden Forest, but now I feel like I’ve missed something.”

He looked back and forth between the two girls.

“What are you guys up to, anyway?”

He loved Sundays, regardless of sunshine or cloud. It was the day of the week that Sylvain reserved for spending time with Feliks - today in particular he intended on teaching the boy wizard how to identify and whittle different kinds of forest wood. But that endeavour was still some time away. The Slytherin was likely still asleep, as perhaps all youths should be on a foggy and lazy morning.

As if to contradict this thought, the Creatures professor was presented with the sight of three older pupils as he crossed the courtyard. He had been into his rarely-used office inside the castle, to collect some papers to be marked in his hut, and was just on his way back via a meandering route.

            ....my next attempt to find the blood-sucking Bugbears in the Forbidden Forest, but now... you guys up to, anyway?”

Jorkins, one of his students, was entertaining a pair of witches. They did not seem to be up to any mischief but Sylvain slowed down to join them anyway. He remembered Ignan once advising him[1] to keep an eye on SAWS, which essentially meant keeping an eye on Zeta Pepper lately.

"Bonjour!" greeted the Frenchman cheerily, smiling at them from behind the looped scarf he wore over a matching jumper; he was looking especially cosy in dark browns and wooly beige. "It is a cold morning to be out, non?" he commented. "And on a day of rest!"

1.	9th Jan - A Column in a Melancholy of Waste

Well there went her chances to learn higher grades of magic, or to get help with anything, she maybe could still get some fun. But that depended on which way this now went, as the bossy Hufflepuff approached closer, teasing him about homework which ruined any real chance of learning something due to his now flustered response at the question. And that was before the Groundskeeper arrived at the scene.

What even were Bugbears? Giant bugs? Bears with bug stuff? There wasn't any bears in this country so she doubted the latter, although you aren't taught about all the dangerous creatures that quickly, which didn't make much sense. Some of the most dangerous things were the best looking, she would know.

"Oh, hell Professor Onuris." She said happily as she turned to bow to him courteously, if she wanted anything fun or entertaining to happen she would need to be on good behavior, especially now a professor was around, they always ruined the mood didn't they?

"I've just been exploring the grounds and what a fantastic job you've done with them."

Zeta would have set Grimsy straight on their Defense assignment but along came Zeta's favorite professor. Professor Onuris had proved such a disappointment. A handsome, rugged, soft-spoken young teacher with a lovely accent who turned out to be nothing more than smug.[1] It was even more annoying how much everyone seemed to love him. Allura began fawning and Zeta felt like she might throw up in her mouth.

"I especially liked the part where that graffiti got cleaned up," Zeta said mimicking Allura's tone.[2] Reports were not confirmed, but Zeta had heard the spray-painted dragon in the courtyard and the anatomically correct troll by the greenhouses had been Allura's doing.

Zeta was getting cold in the doorway and tucked her hands deeper under her arms, but the idea of taking a whole Sunday off seemed like a luxury for first years or the politically uninvolved. "There's loads to do," she added lifting her chin serenely.

1.	13 Jan 2012 - Rapture is Coming
2.	27 Jan 2012 - Rattle Rattle Hiss

“Professor Onuris!”

This was exactly the person he wanted to see. The professor, if anyone, would know how to best approach bugbears, and Grim needed all the information he could get for his next adventure. But he had to be smart about it, he thought to himself, as Allura was exchanging pleasantries. The Forbidden Forest wasn’t called that just for nothing, and he knew if his teacher would get wind of what he was planning, it would all go down the drain.

“How do you go about finding bugbears?” he asked, his thoughts about caution apparently not reaching his mouth quick enough. Silently he bit his tongue, hoping that Onuris hadn’t caught on.

Luckily, Zeta jumped in, mentioning something about graffiti. He had seen it, but hadn’t paid it much mind. It had obviously been done by a fellow student, and there had been nothing about it that jumped out to him as something a future Curse-Breaker needed to pay any attention to. He turned his attention back to the professor, and just started to ask another question related to bugbears, when Zeta cut him off. There’s loads to do? What did that mean?

“Loads to do — of what?” he asked, intrigued. Had he missed yet another thing?

These three were not, he decided, natural friends.

For one thing, they each had singular responses to his approach. Sylvain glazed over the Slytherin's compliment - too similar to the cloying tone of his peers at Beauxbaton - and smiled a little as Zeta asserted there was much to do on this glacial Sunday morning. No doubt she would be borrowing pots and pans from the house elves, to bang on as she woke up her soldiers to prepare for imminent battle at the end of the month.

"Ask me about the bugbears after lessons this week, Monsieur Jonkins," he shrugged as he leaned against one of the courtyard pillars, hands slipping into the pockets of his corduroys. "We will see."

There were traces of what might be bugbear nesting in the forest; they were dangerous beasts, yes, but Sylvain did not very much mind pupils pursing extracurricular research. Under the right circumstances.

            “Loads to do — of what?”

"Ah then you have not heard?" he raised his eyebrows at the young wizard, surprised by Grim's surprise. "Miss Pepper and her friends, they are taking up arms at Hogsmeade on behalf of our werewolf populace."

Sylvain could not help the playful exaggeration. There was nothing disagreeable at all about plans to display displeasure at Zonko's - but the seriousness of Zeta's drive was a little funny to him. "I thought perhaps she might be recruiting..." he nodded at Grim and Allura respectively. "It is a cause most worthy."

"I especially liked the part where that graffiti got cleaned up,"

Zeta had to go, she had heard a couple of whisperings about herself with it, the stupid little do gooders in Hufflepuff, they were useful and nice but they got on her nerves, first that little blond haired one now Zeta was attacking her, what had she done to earn mistrust with the girl? Nothing, unless the feral in Gryffindor had told her about their scuffle,[1] unlikely but she wouldn't put it past her, she had already hit another Slytherin for no reason.[2]

"Atleast its graffiti and not sneaking off to the boathouse with younger club members." She said in a gentle sigh of disappointment, in an attempt to make it sound disapproving of both. Her eyes glancing daggers towards Zeta. Was she really a goody two shoes underneath, or was she just doing it all for attention and reputation? Oh look at the darling Zeta, isn't she wonderful, so kind and noble.

Yeah right.

Grimwold was back onto the topic of Bugbears, which did sound somewhat interesting, especially if told through someone good like Professor Onuris, however he seemed disinclined to tell them now. A shame really.

"Miss Pepper and her friends, they are taking up arms at Hogsmeade on behalf of our werewolf populace."

She tilted her body slightly towards the Hufflepuff's direction, both hands grasped together lightly before she mock counted on her fingers, mouth silently wording out as she counted to three. Was it really a population when it was three people, one of which she was fairly sure didn't live in the castle, the other two seeming like they were more wanting to be anywhere else at all times. She supposed prisoners did count as a population.

"Hey Grimwold, how about we go for some butterbeers during the Hogsmeade weekend? You can tell me more about the spell you're practicing." She said with a delicate and dainty fake tone, an almost serpent like fake smile to match.

1.	The Wolf Bythesea
2.	Slight exaggeration on Allura's part: And the Fire on the Tongue

Zeta was ambushed by her naďveté. She should have expected that word of their upcoming SAWS protest would spread quickly over the last two days, even as far as the staff room. They'd made no attempt to keep it a secret, but that didn't mean Zeta felt completely prepared to justify it to school administration. She wiped a fleeting look of shock from her face and stepped out into the courtyard.

"Arms nothing. Just some kids with signs," she said firmly to Professor Onuris, not sparing, however, a pointy look at Allura. Allura deserved a hex or few for what she'd just implied about her and Lucinda.

More than anything, she was caught off-guard by Professor Onuris's apparent support. "And we're always recruiting. Everyone's welcome."

     "Hey Grimwold, how about we go for some butterbeers during the Hogsmeade weekend?"

Grim’s attention swung back at Allura, and an eagerness to say yes seemed to appear out of nowhere. He still wasn’t sure just what the reason for it being, and he was just about to give her a resounding yes as a response when he realised what Zeta and the Professor were talking about.

Werewolves.

He had never seen a werewolf, apart from in pictures. They had sounded interesting in the Defence Against the Dark Arts class that had covered them a couple of years back, and the arc in his favourite cartoon that involved them had made them sound even more exciting. Maybe this was a chance to meet one?

He turned to Allura and gave her an awkward smile.

“Yeah, sure,” he began. “We could grab a butterbeer. But wouldn’t it be more interesting to go to the protest? It seems really interesting.”