"Hello my lovely Hufflepuffs," Professor Aimee Torres Rosario said with a warm smile, "for those of you whose attention may have wandered during the feast, I'm your new head of house and I can't be more excited. I'm sure you all are as well, though likely you are even more excited to get settled in. The password for the term is 'Waddlebird.' If anyone of you are in need of anything please don't hesitate to ask me or your prefects who for this term are and . Now I'm sure having an adult around will cramp your styles so I'll head off." She waved her wand and a table loaded with yummy foods and drinks appeared. "Enjoy everyone and again welcome to or back to Hogwarts." With that she left.

Blade Edwards entered the Hufflepuff common room. Was it really already 9.30 at night? The curfew annoyed him and the new student wasn't overly happy in general. In his hands were a rucksack which he'd filled with foods form the kitchen and the other hand held a musical instrument in its case. it was a clarinet to be precise. Blade had found a dungeon in which to practice in peace. He didn't know he new house well, in fact he could only think of three which he'd met. He sighed inwardly as he debated on finding a corner to study or go to the dorms.

(( Come and join me ^.^))

The common room door opened and Toru slid gingerly from the barrel door onto the warm wooden floor. Their tri-colored hair was slightly damp and pulled into a low curly-ponytail draping over their shoulder. The curfew didn't bother them so much as other students, however changing the common room password would take getting used to. Hogwarts: A History stated that the Hufflepuff password never changed from the rhythmic tapping as always. Perhaps it had something to with the curfew? There had been rumors of something possibly dangerous going around the older students. Maybe changing it was a security thing?

The small Hufflepuff was lost in thoughts and was completely unaware someone was in the common room already. Most students were lingering in the corridors to delay the 9:30 rule. Being distracted they bumped directly into a mess of long red hair and the back of another person. Startled they took a few steps back and bowed apologetically. "I-I'm sorry... I w-wasn't paying attention...!"

[img align=left]https://i.imgur.com/VBhg0t3.png[/img] Emmy was lounging in her favourite squishy armchair by the fire, watching all the students, old and new, file into the common room. Some looked nervous, some looked excited to be back and some looked bored and tired already.

Emmy herself was happy to be back, though she was feeling very sleepy herself. She'd spent most of the night before hurriedly packing her school trunk, having left it till the last second like the procrastinator she was. Her brother had been ready three days ago, the keener. She yawned as she observed the others, alternating between stroking the belly of her excitable scops owl, Elliot, who was perched on her knee, and eating several sweets she'd already taken from the table laden with snacks.

Blade froze when someone touched him--no, bumped into him. He was glad he had a good grip on his clarinet case. He let out a little "oof" but managed to keep his tongue from going off on the person. He turned around to see Toru, whom he'd met at the Great Hall. "just be careful," he said in a mild tone. If it happened again, he wouldn't' be so patient.

He sighed. There was a girl sitting in a squashy looking armchair he noticed until a very light grey (lilac) haired cat came up to him and rubbed around his legs mewing for attention. "Don't try to kill me Wisp, I feed you," he said to the cat.

Toru did feel bad about bumping into him, but seeing it was the rude boy from this morning, they didn't feel too bad. They apologized again softly, "It wasn't intentional." They could tell from the boy's tone that it was more of a threat should it happen again.

However, they started acting very strangely when the cat, named Wisp, came to rub on Blade's legs. Toru was very tense and refused to take their eyes off the ball of lilac fluff. They quickly took several steps back and pressed firmly back against the wall. It was obvious there was something about Blade's cat that struck an absolute chord of terror with the small Hufflepuff.

Sauvage waltzed into the most wonderful place in the world - the Hufflepuff common room, of course. She was wondering the degree of wrongness it would be to escape curfew, considering she was a prefect when she looked up to see a terrified Toru staring a the feet of the boy () who had offended her earlier that day - as she had equally offended him, she reminded herself. She waked up slowly to Toru and without touching them asked, "Eez everyzing alright?"

"Yeah, I know," Blade said though his voice didn't sound overly convinced. He picked up his cat after setting the clairnet and bag down, and held him noticing Toru's look of terror. "Dude are you afraid of little Wisp here?" he asked. Then Sauvage came up. Was it because she was a prefect or didn't trust Blade perhaps? She obviously wasn't talk to him but to Toru so he remained quiet.

Toru squeaked softly and hid behind the Prefect, peeking around her like a scared child from behind their mother. Sauvage could feel the other trembling softly as they watched the cat seriously. "I-I am..." It was unsure of they were answering Blade's question or if trailing off into oblivion with Sauvage's question. Either way they seemed spooked.

"Aw, you poor thing. It's alright..." Sauvage looked up at Blade, wondering what he must think of her. She whispered to Toru that there was nothing to fear. Then she held out her hands to Blade and said, "May...I?" She nodded her head towards the cat. Of course, she could have used her own cat Citrouille to make the point, nut Sauvage thought she might be able to use this moment to smooth things over with Blade as well.

Blade shrugged and handed Wisp to Sauvage. The lilac cat was purring.

Sauvage took the cat from Blade, whispering a thank you as she did, and cradled the cat in her arms. She kept a distance from Toru in order to not scare them further, but still trying to make a point. "I understand eef you are scared now, but know zat ze cat does not mean you 'arm." She thought for a moment on this. "Unless eet eez zat you 'ave forgotten to feed ze cat. Zhen eet might mean 'arm." She continued to pet the cat as she would her own. Cats and horses were just about the only animals Sauvage knew how to handle.

Toru felt a small pang of betrayal as their Prefect shield defected to the enemy lines underneath the fear which was now pounding in their ears. They could tell Sauvage was saying something but their ears were ringing between the loud thumps from their heart obscured the message. A dark ring was beginning to form around the edges of their vision as they tried to pull air into their lungs. Luckily Sauvage was kind enough to not bring the cat closer and cause instinct to fight or flight. Toru closed their eyes and started taking deep breaths to calm down, counting backwards from 10 slowly in their head in Japanese to try and calm down. They wouldn't be any good to themselves or anyone else wound up and panicked.

[edit]

"It doesn't appear to be going well," Blade said stating the obvious.

"Oh, wow, look at zat. You are so right. Thank you." Sauvage said to Blade in an almost too-sweet voice. Setting the cat on the ground to scurry away in the opposite direction, Sauvage moved slowly towards Toru in order to not frighten them.

"I am sorry, Toru. Eet was not my eentention to frighten you furzer. Would you like hot chocolate? We can set by zee fire."

Once Wisp was out of sight did Toru fully begin to relax. The pounding in their chest slowly dulled to a rhythmic thump against their ribs. "I-It's okay.. I-I don't handle c-cats well..." They mumbled softly and took a few final deep breaths. "C-Cocoa sounds n-nice." Toru gave both of them a timid smile, though they hadn't moved from the wall they were still glued to.

Sauvage smiled sweetly and nodded, stepping out of the room and returning a few minutes later with a copper tray. The tray balanced four thick clay mugs filled to the brim with rich hot chocolate, also decorating the tray was an array of toppings: marshmallows, peppermint sticks, ground nutmeg and cinnamon, freshly whipped cream, and even chile power. She placed the tray on a wooden table between the couch where she sat and the armchair where Emmy was lounging. From there, she waited expectantly for the two to join her and nodded to Emmy, inclining that she join them with the drinks.

Blade shrugged. He watched as Wisp sauntered off to his dorm as if the cat was quite proud of himself. "Wisp is gentle," he said to Toru even though he wasn't facing in that direction. 'Cocoa? Sit by the fire? Good lord its the summer. Even France isn't that cold.' So far he was struggling to understand Sauvage. He mused as the girl left so by the time he picked up his belongings, Sauvage had returned with four hot chocolates. "Thirsty are you?" he asked with his eyebrow raised.

"Oh, eez eet zat I counted wrong?" She made a show of counting again, pointing first at Toru, then Blade, then Emmy, and finally herself. "No...eet eez four." She smiled at proving herself confident in simple math (though truthfully she was just trying to handle the situation with as much ease as possible). Then her brows came together in a worried expression. "You do not want any?" She asked Blade. The fireplace was not lit, so it was not as if the underground room was sweltering. In fact, it was quite pleasant in the summer time down here, making it easy to enjoy a warm cocoa.

((haha he can't even say anything :P))

She was inviting him? The teen just looked at her deer in headlights.