Gloomy (Dana and anyone)

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Cass slipped on her jeans and a black baby doll shirt that proclaimed the name of a muggle band. She slipped her feet in a pair of clogs and raced out of her dorm room. She was in an awful mood. After days and days of studying, she decided to escape the duldrums of History of Magic and Charms. Her head ached from reading the small print in the Transfiguration books she had gotten from McGonogall, and her fingers were sore from writing many essays.

Padding down the stairs, she held the banister, hoping she wouldn't fall. Everytime she walked down these stairs, she felt they were going to move out from under her. Well, truth be told, they probably would move out from under her. Looking to her left, she saw a doorway she had never seen before. Curious, she walked over to it and began to inspect it. It looked very old, and a bit of dust sat on the doorknob.

She looked to her left and right, and decided no one was watching. She turned the knob and pushed the door open. It was a dark in this corridor, and by the looks of it, no one had darked down it in years.

" Lumos!" she commanded, her wand lit her way. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, and she saw a spider scurry away into a corner. She began to walk down the hallway, hoping to figure out why no one had been down here in ages. The eery gloom was starting to get to her. She was getting scared, but that old Gryffindor pride would never let her back out now. Hearing a creaking behind her, she nearly jumped out of her pants. She pointed her wand at the sound defiantly, hoping to scare the unwanted away.

[dana]

Deciding she had had enough of book-texts Dana moved up to her dormitory to change. Slipping into tight black pants that were very comfortable and a blue sweater and black sneakers, Dana armed herself with her wand and left the common room.
Moving silently down the hallways and stairs Dana reached a secret hallway she knew about it. It was mentioned in Hogwarts: A History, so naturally most people didn’t know it. But Dana was absolutely sure that she would find some creatures to practice on for her O.W.L.s in there. Get some practice. Maybe some boggarts perhaps? Dana doubted there were more dangerous creatures in the hallway.

Dana whispered ‘Lumos’ to her wand, but dimmed the light so it only glowed enough for her to not stumble on the ground as she entered the first hallway and got rid of the ghoul in there with ease. As Dana was returning to where she had started she heard someone opening the door and stepping in.
Wanting to see who it was, Dana crept closer and recognized Cass rather quickly, as she moved towards her. Some floor-board creaked under her foot and Cass whipped around with her wand ready.
“I’m more than willing if you want to duel, but right now I don’t really fancy getting boils or whatever hex you’d send towards me, so I would probably counter with something mean,” Dana stated rather calmly with a bit of amusement in her voice, as she stepped forward into the light, so Cass could see her, “Didn’t think I would run into you here actually. Just curious wondering or were you looking something down this hallway? Most people don’t know it exists even.”

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Cassie exhaled quickly when she recognized her friend Dana. " Damn you scared me. I don't know why I pulled this out. I wouldn't of been able to come up with a hex fast enough to hurt anyone with. I don't even know why I have it at the ready." She put it down, so it was no longer pointed at Dana.

" My hexes are about as good as my potions. DADA and I never really got along well. But, we haven't had the best teachers over the last few years."

Answering her question, " No, I was just wandering. I wanted to explore somewhere new, and I just found it. It seems like no one has been down here in years. What was this place?"

[dana]

Dana grinned as Cass lowered her wand and berated Dana for scaring her.
“Well, not many people come here, so I wanted to see who you are, before showing myself. And you’d be surprised how quickly hexes, jinxes and curses come to mind when you’re in trouble. It almost amazing,” Dana stated calmly with a grin, brushing a spider-web away calmly. Dana was raised as a pure-blooded and she was rather spoiled at some aspects, but spiders had never bothered her and she didn’t mind working or even getting her hands dirty from time to time.
“DADA – well, there could be a better teacher there. Mad-Eye Moody was an excellent teacher none the less and even though I don’t like the guys personality – Snape is the god damned best Potion-master I could ask for,” Dana frowned a little at the thought, “He hates teaching the subject, but think about it for a sec. He revolutioned the whole potions-teaching – in some other schools you spend the first year or two only studying theory – think how much harder that would be. Snape has us brewing from the first lessons and his O.W.L. marks are rather exceptional when looked at the ones from all over the world. You weren’t here then, but in my first year he demonstrated the ‘Expelliarmus’ spell to us. He showed it once and none of the people who saw it has forgotten it and can cast it almost perfectly. Just forget what you know about him personally and think how much character and charisma it takes to have such powerful impact on students. I almost wish I could study DADA under him.”<br>
Dana bit into her lower lip. In a way she even liked the grouchy potions-master and she sometimes protected him from the biting remarks from others. Dana certainly didn’t idolize the man, she just respected the personality.
“Anyway – this just some random hallway. Not really used anymore. Kris told me about it – there isn’t anything bigger than a boggart here, but it is good practice for spell-casting especially for the O.W.L.s I’m taking this year. I figured I could wonder around here a bit and try my hand a little,“ Dana told Cass with a smile pointing towards the small hallway she had appeared form, “Just got rid of a ghoul in there.”<br>

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Cass laughed, " How could I have guessed that Kris knew about this place? I swear, Kris knows about everything around here." She craned her head and looked down the hallway that Dana pointed down.

" Down there, really? I've never seen a ghoul before." Cass' curiousity was beginning to kick in. " Do you think there are anymore mean and nasties down there?" She began to walk in that general direction.

" Coming?" she called back. She headed down the hallway, little clouds of dust formed at her feet. After a few moments, she looked to her right as a wardrobe bounced wildly.

She nicked her head towards the wardrobe. " Should I or you?"

[Debbie]

Chloe was wandering towards her favorite hiding place. It was becoming a bit of a tradition that whenever she was feeling fed up with everything she would come to her passage way and cool off. Besides as far as she knew, no one was ever there so no one ever heard the small explosions when she took her anger out on a few quills

"Lumos." she whispered while she opened the door. She started walking down the hallway, figuring that it wouldn't do for someone to find out about this place now. But as she continued walking, she started to hear voices. She crept quietly down the hallway and stuck her head around the corner. She saw two girls preparing to deal with whatever layed behind the rattling wardrobe. Before she reveiled herself she decided to see what was in the wardrobe and who these people were. After all Chloe Marques never entered a situation unprepared so for now she was just content to wait and watch the scene unfold.

[dana]

Dana grinned at Cass: “Well, Kris reads a whole lot more than a regular occupant of this castle. He could compete with older Ravenclaws with ease and he has a good memory. How else do you think he passes all his classes so well when you take in account the number of lessons he doesn’t show up to? Besides this hallway is mentioned in Hogwarts: A History and he has skimmed the book a couple of times.”<br>
Dana followed Cass after a couple of steps to avoid the dust rising form under her steps as Dana grimaced. Kris had teached Dana to walk quietly and maybe it was because of that, why not very much dust rose from under her feet as they reached an old wardrobe.
“Renaissance, lets’ say about the end of 15th century, the beginning of 16th,” Dana muttered absent-mindedly while looking at the ward-robe, “Doesn’t really matter. There are enough creatures for both of us to practice, and I already had the ghoul, so be my guest.”<br>
Raising her wand Dana muttered’ Alohomora’ and watched as the ward-robe door sprang open. Dana shrugged uncomfortably – it seemed as if someone was watching her, so Dana looked around, trying to find the person. It would take some simple spells to discover the person, so Dana marked it as something that needed to be handled after Cass managed with the creature from the ward-robe. Most probably a boggart, as Dana turned most of her attention back to Cass.

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Cass prepared herself as Dana commanded the wardrobe to open. Dust escaped from its prison. The amorphous shape soon turned itself into a gigantic cobra. Cass' breath caught in her throat as the animal towered over her. Nearly dropping her wand, she regained her composure. " Ridikulus!"

The command had enough power to make the boggart's snake head shrink. I soon turned into a dwarfish clown that began to do cartwheels.

Cass giggled. " Wanna give it a try?"

[dana]

Dana glanced at a cobra without even shrugging. Dana wasn’t afraid of reptiles. She actually even almost liked cobras – they were rather royal snakes in her opinion. She grinned as it turned into a clown.
“Nah, finish it. There are bound to be more boggarts here than this one,” Dana said absent-mindedly tilting her head as she heard some noise coming from somewhere ahead, “I think there is a doxy ahead, heading our way. Nasty little thing, but not very dangerous.”<br>
As if on command a blue doxy came flying around the corner: “Flippendo!” Dana exclaimed pointing her wand towards the small creature, causing it to stop in mid-air before falling on the ground unconscious. Dana hadn’t wanted to kill the creature, but this would do nicely.
“AS I said – nice training grounds. As there isn’t anything above three X’s here. Wizards use X’s to show how dangerous a creature is – 5 X’s it the most dangerous like dragons,” Dana explained to Cass, should she not know it, “Doxys probably have three X’s if I recall correctly. You ready to move on?”<br>
((I couldn’t think of anything the boggart might turn to in front of Dana. I have to think about it a little))

[Caiest Hamilton S5]

((Hope you don't mind my joining))
Caiest sighed as she shrugged out of her favorite shirt. And pulled on one of her other favorites. This one was a skater shirt. It was hot pink and emblazoned the Element logo in black. She scowled as she shoved the other shirt away. Some dumb first year had managed to spill oatmeal all over her first shirt. Checking to make sure she looked fine Caiest made her way out of the dorm room. She made it a point to spend as little time as she could in there. Only problem was that she was running out of places to go.

As she was wandering trying to find a place to go she noticed an older door and it was open. Caiest stopped in front of it debating on whether or not she should go in. She could hear voices they were faint but she heard them none the less and that cinched it. Wand out in case she encountered something very unpleasant she tried to follow the voices. After wandering down dark desserted corridors for about ten minutes she finally reached the spot where the voices were. She took a peek and noticed that it was none other then Dana and Cassandra. "You know I never pegged either of you to be the type to hang around a place like this." She said stepping into their line of site.

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Cass jumped about a foot when Caiest let her presence be known. " God, you scared me to death! Talk about being tense." She put a hand to her test feigning extreme fright.

She smile at the girl. " We're hunting down mean and nasties tonight. You should join us." She pointed her wand at the boggart that was standing in front of her, and she commanded, " Ridikulus!"

The clown's head popped and began to float off like a balloon. Cass guffawed one more time. She said the incantation one more time and the boggart was eliminated.

She turned to Dana." Good one with the doxy. For some reason, I could never get them in class. It just ended up scaring me and chasing me all over the classroom. I thought I would never hear the end of it from the Slytherin's over that."

Hearing a howl coming farther down the hallway, she began to walk in that direction. " Come on, let's see what trouble we can cook up."

[dana]

Dana grinned as Cass practically jumped out of her skin as Caiest came into view. Dana herself had been a bit spooked as well and her moments from casting a hex, but she hadn’t jumped outwardly.
“Hello, Caiest. Stumbled on the door?” Dana said with a smile and a nod in greeting, “And I’m not really hunting down the ‘big and nasty’.” These words were accompanied a by a curious arch of Danas eye-brows towards Cass: “This place offers excellent practice for my practical O.W.L.s.”<br>
Cass got rid of the boggart as she exclaimed ”Ridikulus!" The clowns heads bloated but Dana winced a little. She could hear the small difference of pronunciation better than most students – maybe thanks to the influence of French. And Cass had a small problem with the spell.
”Well, you probably couldn’t get it in the class, cause your pronunciation is a bit off. It’s ‘riddikulus’.” ((It may have been a typo for you, but at least Dana could be smart now ;D))

As the boggart was finished Dana turned and picked the next hallway: “Shall we go down this one? And who wants to handle whatever is in there? Shall we take turns in the hallways? I have handled a doxy, Cass got the boggart – want the honors, Caiest?”<br>

[Tristan MacCay]

Tristan walked down his favourite haunt. The corridor was dark. He could smell the stale air so strongly in this part of the castle. suddenly Tristan heard footsteps ahead and saw a flash of light. it looked like it was from someone's wand. He drew his own wand and stepped foreward caughtiously he listened hard and heard a few words,
"And who wants to handle whatever is in there? Shall we take turns in the hallways? I have handled a doxy, Cass got the boggart – want the honors, Caiest?"

Tristan didn't know who these people were. their voices were female, but that was all Tristan could tell from this distance. He drew closer to the scource of the noise when suddenly his foot stood on his new robes and he fell with a loud, echoing thud to the floor.
a few seconds of silence followed, when....

[Caiest Hamilton S5]

Caiest supressed a laugh as Cassandra jumped about a foot at her appearance. "Jumpy much?" She asked grinning slightly to show that she was just kidding. "And I'd love to join you. I mean who could resist coming up against mean nasty things." She had been about to make a mean comment about Slytherins but refrained as she remembered that the present company actually liked those scum bags. Caiest used to have no problem with Slytherins. It wasn't until Pyro a former friend had stabbed her in the back and given up one of her secrets so that he and some other gang of Slytherins could blackmail her. So the Slytherins weren't on her good side as of now.

Caiest smiled as Dana began going on about pronunciations. She was a true Ravenclaw if she was going to do that in the middle of a creepy hallway. When Dana asked if she'd like to do the honors of going up against whatever was next. "Of course I would. Getting to hex some creature into yesterday wouldn't miss it for the world." She had started forward when she heard a noise to her left. Going over she noticed a boy on the floor. "Oh goody look what I get to go up against." She said sarcastically.

[dana]

“Up against mean nasty things,” Dana muttered with a sarcastic sneer appearing on her way. Most students in the school would use these words to describe Slytherins, but Dana was grateful Caiest hadn’t used them. Dana rarely bad-mouthed other students, so she didn’t allow it to take place around her either. Without a significant reasons her friends and even random people wouldn’t get out of mocking Slyhteirns without biting comments from Dana. And the same applied for SLytherins – in Dana’s presence mocking wasn’t used.

Dana twirled around with her wand ready to hex a moment before a young boy fell onto the floor. Dana eyed him coldly with her eyes masked.
“He doesn’t count as someone you get to hex,” Dana remarked dryly – how come everybody stumbled upon this hallway just now? Usually it was such a quiet and peaceful place with no interruptions.
“Did you get lost?” Dana asked a lot more warmly from the boy. Considering that he was a first year a lot of the creatures here would be above his level. At least half, even when the boy was a pure-blood.

Turning on her heel Dana dimmed the soft glow of her wand once again and moved down the next hallway: “Who is coming, let’s go, who’s not – good night.” Dana didn’t mean to sound unfriendly, but she wanted to get at least some practice today and she was getting none if they just stood still and chatted. Especially if some more people would stumble upon them.

[Caiest Hamilton S5]

Caiest gave a mock disappointed look when Dana told her that the boy didn't count as someone who she could hex. Leaving the comments at that Caiest just turned away from the boy and paid him no attention. It wasn't that she was trying to be rude it was just that with the exception of Dana, Cassandra, and the occasional decent student, she didn't like people. Since she didn't know the boy he counted as a people.

She smiled slightly as Dana told them to come if they were coming and leave if they weren't. "Impatient much?" She asked in a teasing tone as she followed Dana wand out in case the nasties made a sneak attack.

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Cassie smiled energetically as she started to bounce down the hall. " Yes, very impatient." She gave a wicked smile, and pointed her wand down the vacant hall. Hearing a rustle to her left, she pointed her wand at. A box in the corner began to jump up and down violently. " Alohamora!" The lock clicked and the lid began to open. Another Boggart. The large headed serpant reared its head.

" Another boggart." Cass almost yawned. " Caiest, its all yours."

[Tristan MacCay]

Tristan got up off the floor quickly. These most of these girls were older than himself, except for the Ravenclaw with black hair. She didn't seem very friendly though. A few times Tristan had approached her in the common room, but she never spoke to him. She didn't seem a very social person.

The older Ravenclaw girl with brown hair had said somthing and then Caiest, Tristan thought her name was, turned her back on Tristan and began walking down the corridor.

Tristan didn't have many friends at hogwarts. It wasn't nice to be ignored and treated as being inferior , but He was used to it. A few people had acted that way around him before amd there was nothing he could do to change their minds.

Tristan watched as the girls dissappeared down a tunnel and out of sight. With a sigh he began to slowly make his way up the corridor he had come from hoping that one day he would make some good friends.

[dana]

“Of course I’m impatient. I want to get some spell casting done today,” Dana answered to Caiest and Cassandra who had followed her. She really needed the practice she might get here. Noticing that the guy hadn’t followed them, Dana sighed and rubbed her face for a moment. The guy seemed even a bit shy and Dana had seen how hard it was to friends if you were too shy.

Turning around Dana poked her head out of the hallway back and noticed Tristan’s back. Dana whistled sharply to get his attention: “You coming or not? Get a move on it if you’re coming, as we aren’t waiting for you. Caiest is working on a boggart right now – you can join us. We won’t bite. At least not very hard.”<br>
Dana eyed the boy thoughtfully – they wouldn’t mind, if he joined them, but he most certainly wasn’t going to get an other invitation.
“So decide and move one way or the other,” Dana repeated her point and turning walked back where the boggart was and where she had left Caiest and Cass.

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Cass turned back to Dana. " What? Do we have a visitor?" She smiled warmly back at the boy. " We don't bite. I promise."

The boy looked familiar, but she couldn't place where he was from. Suddenly, realization came over her face and she exclaimed. " Hey, your in my year! I remember you at the sorting, you were a bit quiet. You were put in Ravenclaw, right? Well, obviously you were put in Ravenclaw."

She heard a buzzing coming from her right, and she pointed her wand and an incantation exploded out of her mouth. A little blue doxy hit the floor. Walking over to it, she picked it up by its wings. " I wonder if doxy venom is good for anything?" She picked up the little fairy like creature and held it to her face.