Alice walked into a classroom and smiled taking a seat. There were so many people everywhere else she went, which actually wasn't a problem except the fact that she had still yet to really talk to someone. It was her last year there and she had absolutely noone to talk to. She smacked her head against the desk.
 
      "It's simple Alice, just go up to someone and introduce yourself." She muttered to herself before shaking her head and smiling.  "You've made it this far on your own.." Pulling out her sketchbook, she began to draw the scenery outside. When she finished drawing one tree she threw the pencil down unable to finish and pulled out a muggle book from back home.

     After about five pages she had to set the book down as she already was getting bored. She just layed her head down and began daydreaming. It was nothing in particular that was happening in her head. She was just sitting back in the hills of Ireland with a faceless nameless friend beside her.
     "What do you want to do now?" She said in her head and in the real world out loud.
   
     

     

Figaro went skidding down the corridor from the library.  A suit of armor crashed and clattered into pieces after he tripped on the shaft of its nasty ax.  He had to get hid and quick or that creepy librarian was going to hang him by his ears for what he'd done.

When he came upon a door, he rattled the handle.  Unlocked! He quickly ducked inside, locked the door from the inside and dropped to the floor. 

The room was streaming with light from the windows and he yelled in surprise.  There by the window was a girl, her hair shining in the sunlight.  At first it looked like a silvery ghost, but then he let all the air out of his lungs with a whoosh.

He shook his head and laughed.  "You killed me, Alice.  What are you doing?"

Figaro relaxed against the door still breathing hard from the flight.  Alice Anra was a seventh year in his house, and dare he suggest it - even quieter than Fauna Blake.  Some of the other girls in Hufflepuff thought she was stuck up.  Fig could get that from her, but it didn't really bother him.  She nearly never talked to anyone, but since Figaro talked to everyone this wasn't an unusual scenario.

"You studying?"

Alice gasped as Figaro, a boy from her house ran in. It seemed she startled him by just being in there.
 He started talking to her, which absolutely thrilled her. They never had really spoken but she knew of him.
    When he asked if she was studying she didn't know whether to tell the truth or to flat out lie so he would leave. After a few quick seconds of thought she realized that she didn't want to be alone and shook her head.

     "I'm just drawing is all.." She smiled shyly. "So.." She asked walking towards him, "Why is it you're so out of breath Figaro? Are you alright? "
    Her shy smile faded and soon became one of fascination and curiosity. "Is this your hiding spot because um if you want me to go it is really no problem at all..I wouldn't want you feeling like I'm taking over your spot or anything..Er I'm sorry. I honestly have no people skills and was excited you spoke with me."
     
     She started collecting her things and looked at him smiling brightly. "What on Earth did you do?"

As one socially awkward teenager to another, Figaro seemed totally oblivious to Alice's own brand of social ineptitude.  For as all-knowing as Figaro was, he wasn't the sharpest about subtleties of things not said and body language.  So he was entirely unflapped.

He shrugged off Alice's offer to clear out by getting up from the door and sitting on the desk next to where she'd been sitting.  Given the invitation to tell a story, he was ready with the tale.

"Okay, since you're not studying...!"

He flourished his hands grandly and flashed his eyes with drama.  "I was in the library.  Working on that charms essay about summoning spells Fleetfoot has us working on.  So I get this idea, right? Just how much can you Accio at once, right?"

He was nearly laughing in anticipation of his own wit.  "Okay, right? So I get my wand and I Accio the reference section.  The entire reference section!  I was just all: Accio Reference! And like Kaboosh! - "

He mimed grandly with his arms and made all the boyish explosion noises with his mouth that he could.  He smashed his hands toghether and pointed to imaginary books flying through the air.

"Like a hundred enormous books come barrelling out from that alcove by Mr. Morgan's office.  It was chaos," he said proudly.

"Wicket chaos."

((My original post got eaten))

"Hide me. hide me, hide me!"

Ayla was racing down the corridor as fast as her feet could carry her. She was running away from a small pack of girls laughing wildly as she went. The pack was actually a group of her own friends who were chasing her down to get her to explain why she had done what she had done. She felt that she didn't need to explain herself, she never did and besides it wasn't as if this was the first time she had done something like this. The girls chasing her had known her long enough to know that this was almost a regular occurrence for her. Ayla prided herself on her ability to do so.

She skidded to a stop outside a classroom on the fourth floor she knew she be empty. She knew that there weren't any scheduled classes within it and it was usually empty. Most students preferred more open and populated areas to hang out or study within. A surge of panic hit her when she jiggled the door handle only to find the door itself to be locked. She glanced down the corridor to make sure her firends hadn't made it this far before whipping out her wand, "Alohamora!" She opened the door and swiftly closed it behind her once again latching it. She was still laughing and it had taken her a while to catch her breath.

In those moments of wild laughter Ayla had caught sight of Figaro and smiled, "They're going to kill me. Brittany's all pissed off because I sent Xavier a love letter n her name and she freaked when she found out. Everyone's going crazy but it's stupid, it's not like I haven't done this kind of thing before. Hell, I'm the whole reason Kevin and Felicity are dating." She calmed her breathing a bit more glancing out the window in the classroom door to make sure her friends hadn't caught up to her. This was something she did often. She saw it as a way of helping her friends out. She was such a suck for romance and had often contacted her friends crushes pretending to be them to find out what they really thought of them and about nine times out of ten it worked out for the best, "Besides Xavier thinks she cute so no harm done."

Ayla looked back at Figaro and seemed to notice for the first time that he wasn't alone. A sparkle of intrigue appeared in her eyes and her lips spread into a wide enough smile to show off her braces, "I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Her tone implied that she was embarrassed for having stumbled into a possibly intimate situation but the look in her eyes suggested that she was thrilled at the prospect of being the first to know about a juicy piece of gossip. Afterall there really wasn't much anyone knew about Alice.

Alice listened to Figaro's story with intrigue. He was a little trouble maker but it was something she found way to amusing. When he got to the part about all the books flying around she couldn't help but audibly giggle and shake her head. She covered her mouth snickering and kept listening when the door handle started to jiggle.

     Alice sat still glancing wide-eyed at the door. If he got caught would her only friend go away? Luckily it was just another Hufflepuff, Ayla. She had a bit of a reputation that Alice couldn't help but hear about. It was never anything to extreme though.

   When she had started telling her story Alice's head drooped and she stared down at her twiddling thumbs until she had asked if she was interrupting something. Alice looked up blushing and saw the hunger in her eyes. Standing Alice shook her arms and head."N..no what? No. Nothing going on. We just met." She sat down knowing that it probably made the situation sound worse.

  Alice started laughing, not really used to talking with people so she usually laughed at awkward times. It was a funny situation though so she felt there was no need to explain herself. "I guess I should really go shouldn't I?..I mean if you guys want to catch up or something."

Ayla was quickly becoming Figaro's female counterpart.  Both of them were in the business of their classmates and ran their mouths so often, they might have been separated at birth.  Naturally, Ayla and Fig tended to get on, even though she was two years younger and a bit annoying.  He knew the same could be said of himself sometimes.

Figaro was about to show the same awkward disgust after Ayla insinuated that he and Alice were in the middle of some secret tryst when Alice did it for him. 

He hopped down off the desk and punched Alice on the arm.  "Just met? What the hell, Alice," he demaned amiably.  "c'mon! we've been in Hufflepuff together five bloody years and now you're all 'we just met'? C'mon, lady.  You play at being all shy and stuff, but you and me - we've met before."

He crossed his arms and turned back to Alya.  He rolled his eyes.  "Just met: psh!  No one's interrupting nothing.  No one's got to go running off."

"So who's taking who to Halloween, eh?" he asked as he went over to listen at the door.

Intially Ayla was a little disappointed that there wasn't any new gossip for her to spread around but any time spent with Fig was a blast. She knew that people often referred to the both of them as one in the same and it seemed the more time they spent together to better things got for her. She knew sometimes her energy and bluntness could annoy people but that was bound to happen in any kind of situation. Put over a thousand students in an ancient castle int he middle of nowhere for almost ten months straight and you're bound to get on a few people's nerves. Luckily so far her encounters with Fig had been nothing but fun.

Ayla couldn't help but giggle at Fig's little outburst. She understood where he was coming from though. Even though she couldn't remember having ever talked to Alice before she instantly knew who she was and she had no doubt, judging by the look in her eyes, that Alice knew who she was. Ayla crossed the room and put her arm in a casual friendly manner around Fig's shoulders, "Don't worry Fig, she'll never be able to forget you ever again." Ayla gave Alice a wink.

Ayla gave Fig's shoulder a squeeze and hopped up on one of the other desks crossing her striped legs at the ankles. The subject of the Halloween dance brought a whole new light and sparkle to her eyes. She knew Alice was being jumpy but there was no way she'd be able to slip out of the room now, she was stuck with the two most notorious Hufflepuffs in the school.

"Well personally no ones asked me but if I play my cards right I think I can get all of my friends their dream dates." She smiled with a sigh. It was always the case. She was so busy making her friends happy and making sure their romantic enterprises followed through that she rarely had time to pursue guys for herself.

"What about you guys? Fig any lucky lady you'll be terrorizing for the night?" She winked at him then turned to Alice, "How about you Alice, do you have any sweetheart to wait on you hand and foot?"

 Alice smirked at Figaro's little hissy fit and shook her head. "I mean we don't know eachother very well and I don't know I was just trying to get her to not think we were doing anything wrong is all. I meant no offense to you." She giggled.
 
     Obviously she hadn't been paying much attention to the people in her house. She didn't know who was friends with who or who was dating. It just made things easier, which seemed to not work so well considering she was now being yelled at and interrogated at the same time. Much to her surprise she found it extremely entertaining.

    When Figaro asked about the dance Alice snickered. She had barely even noticed there was a dance occurring let alone try even talking to a guy about it. She rarely spoke to anyone let alone someone of the male variety.  She definitely didn't like Ayla talking about hooking all of her friends up. She knew that it was something Ayla liked to do but it must have affected her love life as well.

     "No I haven't really thought about it I guess, and I most definitely haven't been pursued." She smiled warmly. It's not that she never thought about dating it's just she never worked up the nerve to start a relationship. She didn't think she was hideous so it wasn't really a self confidence issue.

   "I guess I would like to be asked  myself and not do the asking."  She shrugged taking her seat again. She could assume they weren't going to let her leave even if she had wanted to.

Alice was so aloof, Figaro wasn't surprised she didn't care about the dance.  And Alya was so ... Ayla that he wasn't surprised she was obsessed with the dance.  And Figaro, being Figaro was unfocused and unfluffed as ever.  Or at least was trying to be.  It wasn't a week earlier that Fauna Blake, a seventh year, had nervously asked him to the dance.  And it wasn't twenty minutes after that when Devlin Matthews convinced him to call it off.  Love was complicated and caused bruises. He was done with that.

"I say you want to go with a lad, ask'm! If you're meant to go with other girls, just do that.  All this mucking about just makes people... mad."  He stuck out his tongue and made a face.  He'd brought it up, but now he was sort of regretting it. 

"You know what is a bit mad though: Professor Ramsay and Professor Fleetfoot.  I heard from Kari Strong that she saw him down by her office at night.  Wasn't as if it was a staff meeting either," he said. 

[I spoke to Alice about this taking place on October 28th]

Ayla nodded along to Figaro's take on dating for the dance. She knew she could very well ask a guy to the dance but as good as she was at setting her friends up with their dream guys she was equally bad at asking guys out for herself. Besides the only guy she'd remotely be interested in going with this year she was sure had no real interest in her. She had barely spoken to Blake this year even though they had almost every class together. It was easy to see in just his body language alone that Figaro was now regretting having asked the girls about the dance and so Ayla didn't mind when he changed the subject.

With the subject switching to the rumored affair between the two Professors Ayla's eyes widened and her smile was soon ear to ear. She looked like a little kid on Christmas morning when they first see the mountain of presents waiting for them to rip open, "Oh my God Fig, you should have been on my Muggle Studies trip. Fleetfoot and Ramsey showed up for the trip together, well they tried not to show up together but it was so obvious then Fleetfoot actually admitted he had just spent the night in Ramsey's chambers. He didn't even try to hide his sex hair."

Ayla was beaming. She had no idea what Alice's take was on the gossip that floated around the school but she was proud of herself to be able to provide Figaro with what she believed was definitive proof that Ramsey and Fleetfoot were shacking up. She had done her best not to say anything while they were on the trip but she was sure the two Professors had managed to sneak out in the middle of the night to have some alone time.

  Alice did notice the sudden amount of uncomfortable in the air and was just fine with changing the subject. She just didn't know why they were so entertained by the news of the teachers.

     "I don't get it. Why is it such a big deal? I'm being serious, I swear I'm not trying to be a jerk."  She didn't know why people seemed to be so interested in other peoples personal lives. "I...um nevermind. I'm sorry about that. I should just keep my mouth shut."

     She sat uncomfortably at the desk. They didn't want her to leave but she thought she was doing a terrible job at keeping with the conversation so she decided to just pretend she cared about the teachers or other gossip.

     "So um, tell me about how you get people together like you do Ayla. I mean does it always work out? I hear you're really good at it.You should help me out.Or...Do I actually have to have someone in mind?"

Figaro hadn't been allowed to go on the Muggle Studies trip, having been in some trouble and being required to serve detention.  But it wasn't until now that he truly truly regretted it.

"No!" he laughed loudly at the incontrovertable proof that two of their professors were boyfriend/girlfriend. "Sex hair?! Ha ha!"

His laughter abated with a giggling sigh.  "Ho my god, Ayla.  That is rich.  Can you imagine them two doing that.  Bollocks...!"

When Alice spoke up, he didn't really get what she meant.  It was hilarious; that was the big deal.  Grown-ups whose job it was to separate snogging students doing the snogging themselves? It was the greatest scandal ever!  But he just shook his head and rolled his eyes.  Alice and Sasha would get along well.  Sticks in the mud, both of them sometimes.

He beat Alya to Alice's question with his own question for Alice. 

"Why, Alice? Have you got someone in mind?" he said with a teasing smile.  His mind ran over the seventh years.

"George? Devlin? Eddy Klint? Trent? Leeeoooon?"

Ayla easily joined in the laughter with Figaro. Unlike Alice, Ayla understood the irony and pure enjoyment in the situation. It was wonderful when adults got caught doing something that they shouldn't be doing. Adults especially teachers were supposed to be spotless, they were allowed to give out detentions and were required to tell students when they were doing something wrong. Ayla absolutely delighted in the fact that they weren't the perfect godly creatures they would have you believe. It was golden enough to know that adults could act as horny as hormonal driven teenagers but to have concrete evidence that they were shagging as well? Ayla couldn't explain her glee, all she could do was laugh along with Figaro.

Ayla hadn't really expected Alice to understand. Ayla didn't mind the quiet older Hufflepuff, most people thought she was weird Ayla agreed she was awkward but thought she was just misunderstood. She was still giggling when Figaro explained why it was so funny. Ayla was glad that he had taken point, she didn't think she would have been able to do it herself. She'd probably have to stop every few words to continue laughing again.

The girls interest had piqued once again. Not only was Alice giving her a chance to explain why she was so awesome but she was also insinuating that she was interested in Ayla's little cupid service. Although Figaro was taking this opportunity to tease Alice like only a boy could Ayla was delighted in the prospect of being able to take quiet little Alice and turn her into the belle of the ball with her dream guy on her arm.

"Do you have someone in mind?" She was sure her tone of excitement was enough to let Alice know that she wasn't joining in on teasing her. Her legs were swinging in rhythm on the edge of the desk she had perched upon, "Name anyone and I'm sure I can make it happen, the magic of love is my specialty." It was probably her only specialty. She did well enough in school and wasn't flunking any of her classes but she didn't exactly excel in any of them either.

  Alice was enthralled by just how interested they were in who she liked. She didn't like the thought of disappointing them but had to.

    "I'm afraid I don't...really like anyone. I don't know many people except..well..you guys..I don't know if I'm supposed to like someone funny, smartt, or just handsome. Am I supposed to think of a type or what?" As clueless as she was about friendship she was even more oblivious to romance.

    "I was kissed once but that was an accident. You know in movies where someone trips into someone else's lips? Well that happened to me. When I was five. He hit me, said I had cooties, and pulled my pigtail."

    That was literally her only romantic encounter ever. "That counts doesn't it? I just haven't even tried seeing any other boys here. Figaro is the only one that's really spoken to me." She laughed looking at Ayla.

     "So tell me..please. What are dances like? I've never been to one."  She really didn't like sounding so clueless but asking was really the only way to find out. Of course, she never thought of actually taking action.