From the Ashes

Who: Adam and Greta
What: Discussions about inappropriate conduct and the many uses of bludgers
When: Friday, January 15th (the day before the Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin Quidditch game)
Where: The DADA office

There were exactly 47 ways for a Quidditch player to get injured without actually falling off his or her broom. At least, that was the number Greta had come up with in the last half hour, although she couldn't remember if it included the number of individual finger bones that could get broken by a Bludger. All in all, she needed to do something other than obsess about the number of tragic accidents she might have to prevent on the Quidditch pitch tomorrow. It wouldn't be so bad if she were convinced that the players were taking the risks seriously, but when she had tried to talk to the teams about defensive flying during their last practices before the game, no one had even been paying attention. She'd even caught three of the Hufflepuffs going over their "teacher ratings" in the middle of practice - which turned out, much to Greta's embarrassment, to be detailed ratings of a the professors' relative "shaggability".

It might not have been so bad if Adam Lazzara hadn't been rated more highly on hair than Greta herself. It was insultingly inappropriate in all senses of the word.

Professor Lazzara was not in Greta's good books at the moment. Whatever Z might say about tutoring, she was spending far more time in private with him than any student should with a professor. And hadn't there been some rumour about Lazzara spending time in Hogsmeade with a blonde? It was all just a little too suspicious. Greta glanced at the clock. It was only just after five - Lazzara should be on his own - unless of course he had any after-hours tutoring sessions this evening.

Well, she couldn't do anything to stop the students from bashing each others' heads in tomorrow, but maybe she could have a quiet word with Lazzara about what happened to people who took advantage of her friends. She headed off for the DADA office before she could change her mind. Pounding on a door would do wonders for her stress, anyway.

WHO: Adam & Z
WHERE: the DADA classroom & surrounding areas
WHAT: The World's Most Awkward Tutoring Session. Ever.
WHEN: (BACKDATED) Monday, December 28 - afternoon

Even though this session had been scheduled for weeks - much like the session the day all of them had ended up beneath the mistletoe in the first place - Adam wasn't looking forward to trying to teach Z Berg anything. Or even looking her in the eye. If he could do that. He wasn't really sure he could look her in the face after having had to kiss her - and after all the dreams that he'd had thanks to Hogwarts's lovely, monstrous hybrid of dreamvine and mistletoe.

Adam kind of hated everything about Hogwarts sometimes.

That was precisely why he was sitting at his desk in his office, feet up on the corner, radio on and eyes closed. And okay, if anyone knocked and wanted to know what he was doing, he was reading. Hey, look, there was even a book open on his lap, okay, no one needed to know that he was really watching the insides of his eyelids. He was just trying to find his zen, was all. And brace himself for an hour or so of trying to get Elizabeth Berg to apply practical Dark Arts Defense with skill and finesse.

He needed the rest.

Who: Gerard and Mikey
Where: Mikey's office
When: Wednesday 23rd, late evening, after lights out/patrol
What: Brotherly chat about goings-on


This whole 'enforcing school rules' thing was not nearly as fun as it was cracked up to be, and it wasn't exactly cracked up to be the most super cool fun job ever. The only good part of being co-head of Gryffindor, from what Gerard could tell, was getting to give points every now and then. Fuck yeah, Gerard was enjoying the hell out of that  -- he'd given 20 retroactive points to Slytherin today to Prim for keeping a cool head under pressure, and she'd actually smiled at him. A facial expression out of Prim! Gerard was the coolest ever. But he also had to take points, and that sort of sucked, especially since he usually had to take them from his own house. Boris MacGregor was such a weenie, and if Gerard ever caught him goading second years to try and 'climb the Whomping Willow, it's a rite of passage in the name of bravery, no really,' Gerard was going to take way more than points, that was for fucking sure.

He sighed and rubbed at his eyes, nodding to the exhausted-looking Ravenclaw prefect that was out on her own patrol, and then continued up the staircase. The kids were all acting weirder than normal these days, or so it seemed. Maybe it was just that he was paying more attention now that his responsibilities had shifted slightly, but still... They were all so twitchy, and hormones were flying left and right and upside down, like drunken hippogryffs in heat. The school was full of teenagers, fine, that wasn't so abnormal, but Gerard didn't remember it being this bad. The Gryffindors were all tied up in knots, and there was way more shouting and deeds of incredibly stupid derring-do than usual going on, in his expert opinion.

He'd seen Mikey's office light glowing in the darkness as he'd flown patrol, and hey, what the hell. If Mikey was up, Gerard was totally going to crash his grading party, or whatever was going on. Co-heads of house meant that Gerard didn't have to dither about this shit on his own, right?

Knocking perfunctorily on the door, he shoved his head in the room. "Hey, Mikey--" He paused, and then grinned gleefully. "Dude, are you a-fucking-sleep?" Hiiilaarious, and also total payback for all the times Mikey had made fun of him for passing out on his comics and getting backwards-inked Batmans all over his face.

Who: Audrey, Adam, Z, and Nate
Where: random icy corridor
When: Tuesday 22 December
What: evil mutant mistletoe! (and ice skating)

Tuesdays without Gryffindor/Slytherin 5th years were fast becoming Audrey's favourite kind of Tuesday. She was headed up to the owlery after breakfast, blissfully enjoying the freedom of not hearing William and Ellsworth bickering, and so was completely taken by surprise when she rounded a corner and her feet shot out from underneath her.

Laughter rang out as soon as she hit the ground, from a group of students who appeared to be using the hallway for ice skating. Just because the gods frowned upon Slytherins, Ellsworth was there and laughing the hardest. Audrey rolled her eyes and used a low-hanging portrait to pull herself back upright.

"All right, professor?" One of the Hufflepuffs, Susannah something, called out. Audrey flapped a hand at her.

"Yes, fine. How long has this ice been here?" She asked the group at large. Several shrugs went around. "Okay, easier question, how long have you lot been sliding around on it?"

"We just found it this morning." A Gryffindor prefect said. He looked a bit sheepish to be caught skating around in the corridor like a firstie in socks. "Prim did a spell for detecting dark magic, she said we should be safe."

Prim nodded firmly when Audrey glanced her way. She had to admit, it was more likely this was the same malfunctioning charm still causing snowdrifts in the staff room than some sort of evil plot. And it did look like an awful amount of fun.

"Yes, all right, don't let me ruin it." Audrey said. "Still, least you could do was put up a sign or something." She edged carefully back around the corner to whisk up some kind of warning.

WHO: Brendon & Adam & anyone else who wants to go caroling
WHERE: The entrance hall of the castle and Hogsmeade village
WHAT: Caroling and the spreading of CHEER to all and sundry.
WHEN: Christmas Eve (Thursday, Dec. 24)

Adam hadn't bothered to attend any kind of dress rehearsal for caroling. Especially since Professor Urie's idea of caroling seemed to involve costumes and sequins and this was not Mardi Gras, it was caroling. Also, Urie's owl had said something about the dress part of dress rehearsal.

Urie could wear all the dresses he wanted, but Adam wanted no part of that. It was too cold for dresses, besides.

He arrived in the entrance hall a bit earlier than intended, but since he and Urie were in charge of this whole thing, it was just as well. He sat down on the steps to wait for more people to arrive so they could head off caroling.