She got out of bed and got dressed. Wandering over to where Sarah slept she shook her to wake her up. "You coming to breakfast? We need to get a head start on all those people that want to practice."

Sarah had been sleeping soundly having happy dreams of flying high in the air among large fluffy clouds that metamorphosed into chocolate rabbits that she then was chasing through cloud forests.

"Quidditch?? Breakfast??" she said coming back to earth with a running start at the mention of such important matters. "I'll say! Give me 30 seconds to get dressed and washed but not in that order."

She popped into the girls' bathroom and emerged shortly afterwards raring to go. "Do we want to blow a bugle or something to wake the rest of the House?"

Kat grinned at Sarah. "Well that sounds like a mighty fine idea. Especially as we can't go wake up the boys... Question is how? Would a sonorous spell work or can you think of anything better?"

She waited while Sarah got herself dressed.

Sarah got herself kitted up into black combat trousers and T-shirt bearing a Gothic themed motif pretty quickly. Her hair seemed to have decided to behave itself after the every-way riot it had been on waking.

"Music is a nicer way than actually yelling loudly. I think most will be stirring anyway. The new students were pretty excited last night about the prospect of Quidditch and Raphael was making some pretty fancy moves out there - though he didn't spend much time actually on the broom." she said with a broad grin at the memory.

"Nathaniel was more cautious - he needs more confidence in general. Still they both put their names down for the trials and they'll wanta be included in our practice I am sure. What position are you going to go for?"

She looked ready to leave, "Should we wake the other girls before we go down or be kind and let them get some extra zzzzees?"

Actually anyone who could have slept through all this enthusiasm probably wanted to stay asleep.

Kat looked confusedly at Sarah. "You mean you went out to play Quidditch last night when you disappeared?" She looked concerned. "If you did, then you were very lucky not to get caught in the grounds. You know what the teachers are like on the first night with the policy of feast and straight to bed."

"Oh, no I didn't." said Sarah, "I didn't arrive here until mid-term last year so I didn't realise about the First Night Feast." Sarah looked momentarily troubled but then brightened, "Still we weren't seen and so that's OK I guess."

However, Kat considered the suggestion of music, and produced a small charm to emanate through Ravenclaw tower with a piece of muggle classical music. It was one of those orchestral pieces that started with almost a whisper and gradually got louder. Kat had the plan that by the time the crashing cymbals resonated loudly into everyone’s ears that she and Sarah would be long gone.

"I suggest we go now." She grinned at Sarah. "I think they will all be awake soon enough."

She headed out of the room talking over her shoulder as she did so. "I'm going for seeker, of course. Although I did put my name down for chaser just in case I don't get seeker. What are you going for?"

As they walked away from the room and the swelling music, Sarah responded, "I put down for Chaser as well but nothing else. Oh...except cheerleader. I put my name down for that just in case though." The two girls continued heading down for breakfast.

**************

In Gryffindor House Nimue Hawkwood had woken early. Although she wasn't going to participate in the Quidditch practice that was bound to be high on the agenda of a number of students, she still had a full day planned.

It was sad that she and Kat wouldn't be able to visit Anders for tea that afternoon. She resolved though not to dwell on it. Maybe the explanation for the damaged boats would be found quickly. She realised that with all the excitement the evening before she hadn't had an opportunity to have that 'word' with Marvo.

Also, on her list of 'things to do' was to spend some time with Mahou. The Irish girl had obviously taken far too much of blame on herself for the loss of points last evening and unlike Shinrei - who may well have felt as much if not more - had expressed that misery through tears. Tears Nimue could deal with - maybe because she was prone to locking things away when she was upset.

She hoped she could find a way to cheer her up - the previous night Mahou had wanted to talk with Nimue but it had been far too late and Nimue had fallen asleep almost as soon as her head had touched the pillow.

Having got dressed she stood in the middle of the Fourth Year Girls dorm. "Anyone ready to go down for breakfast?" she said.

She went up to Mahou's bed feeling she might need extra encouragement to face the world, "Mahou? Come on I'll introduce you to Hagrid after breakfast before I go down to Professor Snape if you like. I am sure that he'll tell you all about the forest." She hoped this might help.

Mahou stirred in her curtained bed, squeezing her eyes shut as Nimue went to wake her. Yawning a little, she perked at the mention of Hagrid and the Forest, but even moreso at the mention of Snape. "What -is- his first name, anyway?" Mahou asked, sitting up, her ears long and pointed. "Snape, I mean."

Blushing a little, Mahou looked away. "I be a wee taken wi' him, ye see.." She coughed a little, nervous, and surprised that she actually confided in her. "An' last night I was talkin' ta a tree when Snape caught me." She looked back at Nimue, keeping her voice down so no others could hear. "An' ye saw him pick me up later in th' night.. Oh, Nimue.. It was like heaven." Her strange eyes glittered.

Nimue had come inside the curtains around Mahou's bed. She was a little surprised to say the least by Mahou's remark about Professor Snape. Nimue shook her head, "No, I didn't see him pick you up - all I saw was Luis carrying you."

Yvette had just pulled a dark green sweater over her head, followed by her robes.

"Is it just me, or is it freezing in here?" she said cheerfully to the other girls, and scrambled over to retrieve her hat and mittens from underneath her bed. She put them on too, and looked at her coat with the stare of one facing a very important decision.

Finally, she grinned like a hard- pressed soldier and threw it on as well. "I'm starving." She laughed, and half-heartedly made her bed. "Let's go!"

Madison awoke to the sound of Yvette laughing and urging. "Time to get up already?" She rubbed her eyes and stretched. "Okay, I'm awake...good morning everyone..." Throwing on a dark blue sweatshirt and her robes, she quickly made her bed and was ready to go in seconds.

"Alright...breakfast..." She grinned. "We ready to go?"

Yvette was attempting to force her unruly, curly hair into a ponytail. "Almost!" She finished, and made a face at herself in the mirror before turning back around to the rest of the room.

"Honestly, I think my freckles double overnight." She said cheerfully, and skipped over to where Madison was standing.

Nimue was concerned about what Mahou had said about Snape and would have said more but then Yvette was talking about how cold it was. Nimue stuck her head out of the curtains, "You two go on down - we'll be there in a few minutes."

**********

Shinrei Hikari had not slept the night before. Instead, she had sat meditating on her four-poster until her mind was too empty for her to be confused by what was happening and how she felt about...certain people. And certain things.

At sunrise she quietly left the girls' dorm and went outside to savour the morning air. She might as well have a run at the grounds. She was not surprised when she met other students who were already outside, jogging or briskly walking about in groups, discussing Quidditch.

After her run, she went back upstairs to the girls' dorm to change into clean clothes before going down to breakfast. She heard voices from inside the dorm room. Nimue and Mahou. They were discussing...Professor Snape. Gods. It did not sound like a discussion about a teacher, too.

She sighed and knocked loudly on the door. "It is Shinrei," she said through the door. "May I come in?"

Nimue was about to turn back to talk with Mahou again and suggest she cover her ears - just in case the effervescent Yvette decided to also pay her a visit - when the knock at the door came. Nimue recognised Shinrei's voice.

She knew the girl had been in the dorm last night but why on earth was she knocking to come in? Before she could say anything Mahou had called out 'Come in." and scrambled for her hat to cover the ears.

Mahou jumped at the sound of the knock, and upon hearing Shinrei's voice, she scrambled to get off the bed. She succeeded, but only to crash to the floor with a loud "OOF."

Getting up hastily, Mahou undressed and threw on her school robes: the first thing out of her trunk. Tugging on a hat, the Irish half-elf straightened a little and called out, "Sure, c'mon in!"

After Mahou said she could come in, Shinrei pushed the dorm room open and stepped inside. Nimue, Mahou, Yvette and Madison were all awake now, in various states of getting dressed.

"Good morning," she greeted them, bowing. "It would seem everyone is excited about the Quidditch trials. A lot of people are already downstairs discussing it, since sunrise, as a matter of fact."

She began to gather the shower things and clothes she had placed on the bed. She would not be staying in the room for the weekend and she wanted to look presentable, even if she had not slept a wink last night. There were plenty of things to take care of today.

Nimue hadn't done more than have a shower and was still in her bathrobe. "Sunrise? Shinrei you must have been up early."

She remained concerned about the Japanese girl's disregard for school protocols. Shinrei appeared to only think the rules of her Clan were worth obeying and that she was a guest here rather than a student.

Nimue planned to address this matter with her and try to find out why. Maybe it was a reaction against her dojo upbringing. That perhaps she interpreted the more relaxed atmosphere of Hogwarts as 'liberty city' and that she could do anything she wanted. However this wasn't the time, maybe come Monday she would 'settle down' and if not it would be time for Nimue to speak with her as a prefect.

Nimue turned back to Mahou, "You can dress in something more casual today if you like." She dropped her voice, "and we can talk about that 'other matter' in a few minutes OK?."

Could the little Irish girl have taken a fancy to Professor Snape? Nimue had suffered enough teasing over her own admiration of the Potions Master to appreciate that if so and if Mahou wore her heart on her sleeve she would have more than her half-elven state to be embarrassed about. She was sure however that a sensible talk on the matter would set Mahou straight.

Unaware that Shinrei's hearing was so acute, she continued, "Anyway Luis Verga is quite something isn't he? Very handsome and somehow so sorted out as though he's really seen a lot of life. Being carried by him from the forest must have been a treat. He seems to like you very much. No Slytherin sneers or anything."

Mahou smiled shyly at Nimue's mention of Luis. "He is quite intriguing, aye," she agreed. "He seems ta be th' gentleman, tha' be fer sure."

Shinrei had, of course, very clearly heard Nimue's statement about Luis Verga. She also caught the concerned look on the prefect's face when she mentioned that she had been "out" early.

On her way to the bathroom, Shinrei stopped beside Nimue and Mahou and gave both girls a very un-Shinrei-like grin. "Do not worry about my early-morning exploits so, Nimue-san. I assure you a lot of other students were jogging and walking on the grounds while I was there."

She sobered as the memory of last night's lost House points occurred to her. "Rest assured I do not have any rule-breaking in mind. Far from it. I have already caused enough trouble, for this House and especially--"

Her statement was supposed to end with the name "Jian" but she stopped herself just in time. "And especially to the honour of my Clan," she finished.

"I am glad to hear it Shinrei. You weren't to know that we are expected to head up to our Common Rooms after the First Night Feast. We do cut each other a certain amount of slack but it's handy to know so that your dorm-mates don't worry. I know you can take care of yourself but...."

Nimue wanted Shinrei to feel part of the community and not outside of it so much and so she decided to change the subject, "You also got quite high marks on the Potions exam you did for Snape - will you be signing up for his Alchemy option?"

"My grade was quite satisfactory but not high, Nimue-san," Shinrei replied modestly, "but I believe it would suffice for me to qualify into Alchemy class. I would likewise be taking Duelling, Myth and Folklore, Hidden Talents, Magical Languages and Ancient Runes for options. I will speak to Professor McGonagall today, to ask if she will allow me to take a sixth subject."

Now she felt a little more awake at the mention of school subjects--there were lots of lessons to look forward to and new things to learn.

Blackfoot hopped off the bed and trotted over to Shinrei like the little fox was the most important thing in the world. Her head was held high and her tail horizontal as she made her way over. Plopping her little fox behind down, she looked up at Shinrei expectantly, as if saying 'you know, you -can- pet me.'

Shinrei smiled as Mahou's fox went near her and started giving her expectant looks. Animals were truly more sensitive to a human's true "spirit-nature," beyond the facade that the physical body presented. Shinrei herself had felt the same strange sort of kinship with Marcus Falconer, Nimue's animagus protector she'd met last term.

"Your name is Blackfoot, is it not?" she said to the fox, kneeling down and stroking the animal's soft fur. "It fits you quite well, being so beautiful."

She then stood up. "Well, I suppose I had better go take my shower. I shall see you at breakfast then." With a smile at her roommates, Shinrei was off.

************

Sunday mornings for Anders Grimalkin were like any other mornings since he had left the sanctuary of Hogwarts. He woke up, he lay in bed for far too long, and then got into an abject panic about the fact that he had done no work.

This particular morning, however, he allowed himself the luxury of stretching out and grinning happily to himself. His full-time studies didn't recommence until tomorrow - Georgious had allowed him the weekend off to spend time with Nimue - although that looked like it wasn't going to happen now the students had been banned from Hogsmeade.

He turned over and stared at the pile of law books that took up most of his time. He sighed. That pile would soon be joined by spell books, when he started taking his private lessons from Dumbledore.

Eventually, sheer guilt got him out of bed, and he padded across the ridiculously untidy bedroom floor. Anders Grimalkin was a kind hearted, brave and honest man - but he was potentially the most untidy human being in the cosmos. No matter how hard he tried, the place still ended up as a tip.

He emptied out one of the ashtrays into an already-full rubbish bin and lit up his first cigarette of the day.

There had to be some way of getting to see Nimue and Kat before he didn't have any time left in which to see them. Plotting such things, and also considering the upcoming Quidditch trials, Anders got dressed.

Out of idle curiosity, he closed his eyes briefly and tentatively pushed out towards Nimue, to see if their unique mental link was still intact. The image he projected towards her was one so outrageous in its sheer cheekiness that if it WAS still working, she would most likely blush furiously.

In the middle of her conversation with her dormmates an image came unbidden into Nimue's mind. That it was not from her own subconscious was evident very quickly by its content and she blushed furiously.

She turned away for a second to regain her composure. "I'd better get dressed."

Dashing behind the curtains of her four-poster, she returned the image 'to sender' with an amusing pictorial commentary. She also suggested that *such* a creative mind should be able to come up with a plausible reason to visit the school and that she would look forward to seeing him later before he did himself an injury with such thoughts. She emerged a minute or so later dressed and ready to leave for breakfast.

Anders received the imagery, complete with comments and managed a few blushes of his own. He was glad that their link was still working, tentative and vague though it might be. It made him feel somehow closer to her.

After he'd stifled the giggles, he set himself to some serious consideration about ways he could visit Hogwarts. Perhaps...

Then the idea struck him, and he bounced across the room to his desk, almost tripping over Wilbur, who was enjoying exploring the jungle that was Anders' laundry pile. He picked up a quill and, tongue sticking out in concentration, penned a note to Dumbledore suggesting that he call in that afternoon to discuss Quidditch teams and tactics with some of the interested students.

It was almost totally transparent, but it was an excuse.

He scooted out of the house, pausing briefly to feed the kitten, who mewled gratefully, and charged down to the Owl Office, a veritable powerhouse of enthusiasm. This happy soul was barely recognisable as the dark and angsty young man of a few months ago.

Nice to know that the good guys get their reward, isn't it?

************

With Shinrei headed for the shower and Nimue getting dressed, Mahou looked down at her robes, knowing full well that they were the Hogwarts' robes.

"Aye.. I ken we can dress in somethin' more casual.. so I believe I will." Nodding to herself, the elfin lass strode to her trunk and knelt, rummaging through the thing with gusto. "Where is it.." she muttered constantly, throwing things on the bed.

"Ah!" she exclaimed as she withdrew a pretty dress. It was a deep emerald green, velvet, trimmed in a tan colour on the tight sleeves and flowing hem of her dress. Pulling off her Hogwarts uniform, the girl stepped into the dress, elegantly pulling her arm through the sleeve. She looked at Nimue who had just emerged again from her own bedside.

"Would ye mind tying this up in th' back?" She smiled and stood, talking away. "I think tha' Luis an' I could be friends.. in a way," she mused, her red hair glinting in the light. "I ken he be a nice lad.. he didna have ta carry me all tha' way.."

"That dress is a lovely, Mahou. It suits your colouring perfectly" commented Nimue as she helped the girl by tying up its back. She was briefly reminded of her own green dress that she'd never wear again thanks to the memories it contained of that fateful day in the Forbidden Forest.

Mahou pursed her lips, wiggling her toes. "I wonder if I'll get inta Alchemy.. be there any way tha' I could talk wi' Lord Snape and Lord Headmaster Dumbledore?" Mahou asked. "I would really like tha ken if me old grades in potions would allow me ta be in alchemy."

"Alchemy?" echoed Nimue. "I am sure if your grades are fine you won't have a problem with Professor Snape. Just don't call him 'Lord' to his face - just Professor."

She finished fastening it and stepped away. "Anyway, I'm going to see him after breakfast. Shall I mention you want a word with him about it or did you mention alchemy to him last night? I know he can be very brusque but you get used to it."

Mahou spun around once Nimue was done with her dress, her vivid green eyes glittering strangely. "Oh, Miss Nimue!" she cried, taking the other girl's hands. "I would love it if ye could tall him tha'." She grinned and compulsively hugged her, feeling a jolt of something.. something that felt strange. Mahou left it alone for now, deciding to talk to Nimue about it later.. along with the Snape matter.

"Why couldna I call him 'Lord' ta his face?" Mahou inquired, closing her trunk and sitting down. She began to pull on her soft green slippers. "He be a teacher an' tha' be wha' I always refer ta them as. Lord Headmaster Dumbledore gets th' Headmaster afterwards b'cause.. well.. he is."

She smiled a little and wound the ribbons attached to the shoes around her legs. (think ballet slippers only green) Tying them off with a simple bow, the girl stood and let the dress hang to her ankles. This was casual for the girl who regularly received gifts from her father's home. "B'sides.. professors do so much fer th' students.. shouldna they be called 'Lord' or 'Lady'?" The elfin lass stood and straightened her hat, her slanted eyes lime green and alert. "When do we start Quidditch?"

"I'll mention it to him" said Nimue taking a few moments to brush her hair before they left for breakfast.

"Trust me on this one, Mahou. He would consider it an inappropriate form of address. Far too ....." Nimue couldn't quite think of the word. "Courtly - as though we were in a different kind of situation. Just try to keep to Professor with all of them except Hagrid who is just plain Hagrid and the librarian and school nurse who are addressed as 'Madame'."

Nimue didn't mention that legitimately she herself could be addressed as 'Lady' - figuring wisely that this would only complicate matters and despite Arcadia's declarations to Carina, Nimue didn't flaunt her status.

She turned her attention to the question of sport, "Quidditch? Oh, I don't play but I expect most of those who are trying out for the teams will start practising after breakfast."

Nimue looked at what Mahou was wearing, "However, you won't want to practice in that dress will you - do you have any trousers that you can change into or a robe you don't mind getting muddy? Practice can get a little boisterous."

Nimue had chosen to wear an elegant 'medieval' cut dress in charcoal grey, with a sleeveless overdress in the same colour. Both were trimmed with black and dark red in a Celtic knot pattern. Of course, she wasn't planning to play Quidditch and preferred when in the dungeon area sober colours.

She prepared to leave expecting that the question of fashion on the playing field could be addressed on the way to the Great Hall.

"I donnae ken if I can call him 'Professor' all th' time," Mahou conceeded. Pursing her lips, she tapped them with a finger. "I presume I could try, aye.. hm.."

"I think the main thing is to try to call him Professor." said Nimue brightly trusting that the girl would heed her advise.

She turned and nodded, walking to the door. "Oh, donnae worry abou' me dress, Miss Nimue. I send all me clothes home wi' Da's familiar e'ery week. A bit o' mud willna be too harsh on this dress. Nae wi' who does th' laundry." She didn't want to mention anything about elves..

"Fair enough about the dress..." Nimue imagined what reception she would get if she elected to send her laundry home weekly. Her Mother would probably send her a Howler.

"Mmmmm ...." she didn't quite know how to bring up such a delicate subject, "Mahou, I know you've been at an all-girl's school before this and well to be honest some of the boys will try to look up your skirt if you go flying in a dress. That's all. I didn't like to say before...I mean it's pretty crass but..."

They continued their walk to the Great Hall.