Disheartened: A Nice Way of Saying Defeatist

How annoying was this? Cass is in such a rage, and this is the angriest she has ever been! Yes, harsh words but true. How stupid of the stupid sorting stupid mc stupid hat to put her and Raven in opposite houses. The only consolation she had was that she was very very close to the kitchen which would allow a lot of sneaking to get Pureé, but that was only a small boobie prize. So unfair.

What was more, she was so certain Raven had been wanting Slytherin. Cass isn't too sure why she doesn't like the house, but she thinks that there being a snake as their 'mascot' is a contributing factor.

And there was no way the common room was around here. She'd checked every last flagstone (and also counted them just for the laughs), she had checked most of the candle brackets (but reeled back every two or three when the flames looked too big and burning) and then thought, what the hell, there's nothing else to check. It was a dead end.

So she sits on the floor and brings out a piece of string, making a cat's cradle. She grins at the thought of what she's going to do this sunday night. Cass is waiting for him to come out of the Common Room.

Noah was lost, he wasn’t very good at this finding your way around Hogwarts thing yet, and it was starting to annoy him. He knew he was in the dungeons, he could tell that because there were no windows unless he had found some dark, damp corridor somewhere further up in the castle, but he was pretty sure that this was the dungeons.

He hadn’t really been going anywhere in particular, just on a little wander to see what he could find, he figured that was the best way to go exploring, it was also the best way to add to his collection of cool things. Last time he had ended up out by the lake and had found a chocolate frog card lying on the ground.

He continued to meander along the corridors of the dungeons trailing his hand along the wall, he thought that as long as he kept moving he would eventually bump into someone who could tell him how to get back to the Gryffindor tower, or at least somewhere that he recognised. Luck seemed to be on his side when he turned a corner and saw a figure sat on the floor.

“Um, excuse me,” he said politely moving closer, “I don’t suppose you could tell me where I am and how on earth I’m meant to get back up to the castle do you? I got kinda lost and if I’m honest I’m beginning to need the toilet.”

Cass freezes in her place. Should she be sat here? Is this even a place that's permitted? She's not even a Slytherin! She shouldn't be down here!
I was doomed the minute I was placed in Hufflepuff.
Trying to maintain some bravado and confidence, Cass decides that if he asks her what house she is in, she is a Slytherin. And. Yes. Slytherin. Cass. Yes.

"I don't want to keep you, so I'll keep it brief," she says, holding onto the wall and standing up, all less than five foot of her. "You've gone entirely the wrong way. This is the bottom of the school. Isn't Gryffindor like... at the top of the school?"

Cass isn't sure. Being a Gryffindor sounds nice though.
"I could take you up there, if you'd want, because I have an ace sense of direction that my brother and Rave are jealous over; he got lost at a birthday party -his own, too, actually we shared it, because we have similar birthdays- and I could've found him like that," Cass says all this extra quickly, trying to get her pre-meeting jitters out of the way. There's something about having to get off on the right foot that really nags at her. First impressions always last.

Deciding that she really doesn't want to stay here to wait for Raven to say uncongratulations for making it to the snake house, she puts her bag on her shoulder and shrugs.

“Oh I know that,” he laughed, well he sort of knew that he was in completely the wrong direction but he would go along with acting as if he did, “I just can’t figure out where the stairs are, I’ve been wandering around down here for ages, just wandering you know, and well my sense of direction is appalling I can’t even remember whether I turned left or right to come down this corridor so finding my way back is a bit of a struggle.”

When the girl offered him help he couldn’t help but grin, maybe he had found a nice Slytherin, she was down in the dungeons, so he guess that was which house she was from, or maybe just another student that had gotten lost like him, but no, she said that she had a good sense of direction.

“That would be great,” he fiddled with the things in his pocket, there was always something there, usually a stone, or a button or a coin of some sort, muggle money was cool, they had so many different shapes and sizes, “Otherwise I think you would be able to find me wandering down here still lost next week.”

He began to follow her along the corridor, letting her lead the way, because he was as useless as a helicopter ejector seat.

“So what’s it like living in the dungeons?” He personally thought it was too dark down here, he preferred the warm cosy feeling of his Gryffindor common room, it was always full of people, and living down here must be always dark and depressing.

"Oh, I see what you mean now. You sort of need stairs to go up don't you?" Cass grins warmly. She didn't think of that. "Maybe the makers of Hogwarts need to do a guide map or something. Tell you what, when you get back to the Lion Den, why don't you do that in case of this happens next time? Highlighting all the staircases and the boobie trapped ones, all that stuff." Cass brushes down her skirt which seems to have gathered an awful amount of dust from the floor- it makes sense, she supposes- and widens her eyes when he says he'll be seeing her down here probably some time soon.
"I'll write it down on my hand just in case you decide to, anyways."

Cass goes ahead in her stride; she knows to take the moments of being a leader as savoured. Treasure them. She's much too used to skipping around getting in the leader's ways usually. Skipping in general is pretty fun too though. She freezes a little and walks more rigidly when he asks what is's like living as a Slytherin.
"oh, erm," she clears her throat. She can feel bubbles. "You know. Spiders, double boil and trouble, all that stuff. They're- um, thinking of having me transfer houses, you know."

The Hufflepuff points stridently ahead and grins. One floor down.

Noah nodded and smiled, he agreed stairs were the best way of going up, and usually the only way, unless you were able to cast Wingardium Leviosa on a person, but he didn’t know if that was even possible, and anyway stairs were always the easier option.

“A map does seem like a good idea, but with those silly staircases constantly changing you would need one that moved too,” he shrugged, “I guess it would have to be enchanted, a bit like our photo’s. Did you know that muggle ones don’t even move, I find that rather weird.”

He continued to follow the girl and while to begin with he had tried to remember where she was leading him, he soon gave up, because he had lost track after a couple of turns. Instead, he mindlessly followed, a bit like a puppy dog following its owner. The girl could have been leading him on a wild goose chase for all he knew, but her confidence seemed to tell him that she knew where she was going, although that place could have been a Slytherin ambush for all he knew.

“Urgh, that doesn’t sound nice,” he ran a coin across his knuckles as he walked, his grandfather had shown him how to do it when he was younger, and although he hadn’t perfected it yet, he still liked to practice, he was better with the smaller coins, the larger galleons were a bit too big for his fingers, but through practice he knew he would get there eventually. “This place reminds me too much of potions, and that is one subject I can’t stand, I just don’t get it, and I get myself all confused. In the last lesson I ended up with a bright pink potion that shot purple sparks, it was meant to be green and frothy, I think I must have gone wrong somewhere.”

After pointing in the direction of where they're next going, Cass laces her hands back up into a cat's cradle, slowing a little so she can talk a little easier to him now. She's a lot less flustered. He hasn't hit her over the head with a frying pan yet, anyways.

"An enchanted map? Wow. That sounds brilliant. We should ask a Professor to do something about that. Who would you ask, though, that'd be the question. Defence Against the Dark Arts? You know, against getting lost in the dark? I don't know..." she wavers, thinking that sounds now said out loud a little quite a lottle stupid.

Cass listens to the sound of their footsteps together make a little tune and she hums mindlessly along, weaving her fingers in and out of the wool. She likes that the Gryffindor has a need to keep his fingers busy too. Makes her feel more at ease. And look! The coin trick! She's tried doing that for ages. Maybe she needs to find a knut with less bumpy sides or something like that. That's probably it.

"Nah, I don't think I could bottle potions," she said, sadly "it's too much practical stuff. I'd go spare, and end up hurting someone, and that makes my fingers curl."

Her cat's cradle was a little messed up now. "Too much responsibility and I explode. That's why everybody has to tell me what to do. No authority, and no thoughts of my own, that's how I like it. A Lemming. That's it!" Cass laughs at the thought, thinking shes anything but a lemming. A sheep, maybe, to the point that it runs away from the flock and eats a custard sandwich.

He followed her directions and was a little pleased when they slowed down a bit, he wasn’t really in any rush to get anywhere, except for the problem with his bladder and he was sure that he would be able to hold that for a while longer.

“Hmm, I don’t know,” he shrugged and watched her play with the bit of string, he had no idea what it was, he guessed it was some sort of girl thing maybe, “We could ask the charms professor too, because it would have to be charmed or something. I have no idea really just throwing ideas out there; lessons aren’t really my best thing. I keep up most the time but I’m not one of those know-it-alls that seems to think they are better than everyone else.”

Noah quickly realised what he had just said, and hoped that this girl wasn’t one of those people, otherwise he would have a lot of digging to do to get out of the whole he had just forced himself into. He was mainly referring to that stupid Slytherin he had met in the library the other day.

“I agree completely,” he nodded, “I don’t understand why I chose to take it, my mother is always making them at home, so I guess I thought that it may have come naturally to me, but no, it seems that I didn’t get the potion’s gene. In fact I don’t take a lot after my mum; I’m more like my dad everyone says.”

It was true, he was supposedly the splitting image of his father when he was younger, and their personalities were very much the same. Both of them often getting into trouble with Noah’s mother, causing chaos in the house one way or another, she would often threaten them both with sitting on the naughty step, although he hadn’t had to do that in many years.

“So you’d rather just follow someone else’s lead?” Noah asked a bit curious, “Doesn’t it get a bit frustrating sometimes, always having people telling you to do things? I know I get annoyed when people, tell me to do stuff that I don’t particularly want to do. Rather try and make my own decisions if I can, but I don’t mind asking someone for help if I have to you know, sometimes you can’t rely on just yourself.”

"Oh, charms professor! I didn't think of that, actually. Why didn't I think of that?" Cass says as if she's missed the most blatant thing in the world. Actually, she isn't quite sure how the Gryffin has made the assumptuous leap, but she's sure there's reason in it somewhere.

"Yeah, I know exactly how that feels, or only too well. I struggle. I know I do. But if I make it through the day and I still have a smile on my face what's the point in complaining?"
Infact, Cass is a strident believer of shutting up and baring it. Baring anything, actually. No need to cause a fuss?

Cass takes this time to think of this boy as someone other than a Gryffindor; up until this point she had just thought of him as a lion lost, but now he was talking about family. It sort of kick started her brain into focus that he was pretty much in the same boat as her, only without a compass.
"I think I took my Mum's features and put them in a Daddy about way. I think. My brother looks the absolute spitting image though of my Dad. You really can mistake them for each other, which is awful," Cass grins, remembering needless times when her brother and father had banded together to prank her once and for all when hers had been getting slightly out of hand.

"I don't know," she said, genuninely unsure. She guessed seeing as he sounded curious she might as well try to explain herself. "Sometimes it's better just to do things without questioning them. At least if you're not the leader of something you can choose to be the leader of yourself rather than everyone. I'm not sure. Sometimes it's fun to lead, but I like sitting back and watch other people fall over because I've tied their shoe laces together while they're saluting," she says wryly, purposefully stopping and looking down at his shoes.

"Third floor stairs," she says, pretending to cackle.

Noah liked the girls outlook on things, it seemed that she didn’t let things get to her too easily and had the optimistic view that he tried to hold, but sometimes it just didn’t work, especially when people started to get on his nerves. He always tried to keep his cool and be polite to most people, but when people started to push at his buttons he would lose his temper.

“Oh so a bit of a prankster are we?” he gave a small sideways grin, he wouldn’t call himself the avid trouble maker or prankster himself, but he did like to have a little fun now and then, although he sometimes ended on the wrong end of the trouble himself.

He listened to her explain, and noticed him look down at his shoe laces which he noticed to be coming undone already. He wished he knew a spell that just kept them done up tight, he always seemed to be bending over to redo them, or if not, tripping over them himself.

“Wait,” he glanced at her as she laughed, “You mean to say that were you, you’re the reason I ended up tripping and knocking over that suit of armour? I thought that had been Peeves or someone, I didn’t even notice.”

He gave her a mock glare, he had to admit it had been rather funny looking back, but at the time he had felt rather foolish. Although it was probably his fault that the boy’s bathroom had ended up really slippy after he had left a tap on by accident and had somehow managed to cover the floor in water. He still insisted that he had turned it off, but he was easily distracted so there may have been the small possibility that he had somehow left it running.

"Now now, Mr Gryffindor, you know fully well that the code of the Prankster's Court set by the bretheren hundreds of years ago fully states that you never reveal yourself as a prankster to another potential prankster- or so I've heard," Cass says offhandedly, trying to keep her cool.

Cass at this point when he looks at his trainers sets her laughing senselessly. "Oh, Mr Gryffindor, you flatter me too well. Your laces were undone the minute you came by the corner. You needn't live so recklessly to get your kicks," Cass wipes a tear under her eyes and sighs happily.

She's pretty sure that wasn't her, because she's mainly been focussing on trick steps with sweets nearby, but she's sure she knows one perso who might have been up for that. "I'll say guilty by association," she shrugs, stuffing the string in her pocket after the knots seem too endless.

“Mr Gryffindor,” he laughed, he had been called several things before, Lion Boy, Cub, but never before had he been called Mr Gryffindor, “You can call me Noah and just so you know,” he lowered his voice to a whisper, “you’ve just pretty much admitted it.”

He raised an eyebrow at her fits of giggles, glancing from her face to his shoes and back to her face again, he couldn’t help but join in with her laughter.

“I see, so there are more of you around that I need to keep my eye out for,” he glanced over his shoulder and pretended to act paranoid, “I’m gonna need eyes in the back of my head now aren’t, I’m a walking target.”

He pulled his robes over his head to cover his head, continue to laugh stumbling down the corridor unable to see. Noah didn’t mind acting the idiot sometimes, there was no point being serious all the time like some of the Slytherins and Ravenclaws seemed to be.

Cass doesn't like the name Noah. It makes the boy sound like a preacher. She doesn't think it's kind to tell him this however. Maybe it'll grow on her. After all, names are cold cases until they've been worked in. There's going to be a lot of time to get the name warm, she decides.

The Hufflepuff shakes her head knowingly, "oh no, not at all. I'm just one to throw curveballs. You'll never know if I am. You've got to keep the secret, okay?"

"I wouldn't say more of me, rather more of them," she corrected smugly, grinning again. "I'd say that would be a good idea, but if you were doing that to get them every where else just in case you've already been plastered with pumpkin in the head by that point."

Cass holds her hand out to Noah to try and stop him. Putting your robes over your head when you're in the corridors of Hogwarts and there's about four trick steps every floor."I wouldn't do that-"

“Secret? What secret? I know nothing,” he chuckled from beneath his newly formed hood, “Not even veritaserum would work on me.”

Noah laughed a bit more at the mention of having eyes all over his body, and the thought of being covered in pumpkin. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to get on the wrong side of them, whoever them was.

“You’ve got a point,” he pulled his robes back down so that they sat normally, well they were a bit longer than he had hoped, but his parents had insisted on getting them slightly bigger, because ‘he would grow into them’. “I am somehow capable of walking into things even though they are right infront of my face, I cannot really concentrate on more than once thing at a time. I mean last week I was just walking and nearly ended up walking into the black lake, I was watching this girl crawl across the ground, it seemed as if she was looking for something that wasn’t even there. I think she’s a Hufflepuff, I have seen her acting weird several times.”

Noah thought that he was beginning to recognise where they were, although one stone wall didn’t look much different to the next. However it was starting to get a bit noisier and voices were starting to travel towards them, from what he imagined was the entrance hall.

“Um,” he was going to ask a question, when he realised that he didn’t know her name, “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name. What can I call you? I’m sure you wouldn’t like ‘Snake Girl’.”

When Mr Gryffindor says something that begins with a 'V', Cass tries to look like she knows what she's on about. However, the laughter she has coming from trying to look like she knows what he's on about is genuine. She never tires of having things go way over her head. Or rather, they never tire.

"I have that!" Cass says excitedly, standing still on the staircase. Luckily, it's a non moving one, but that probably didn't register in her mind anyway. "Do you like, watch and carry on walking? Apparently it's not being able to multi-task, and it's also not an illness- I checked. But my Mum does say she has a very Obtuse Daughter," she says with her toothy smile again messing with the folds of her robe she has tucked over her bag.

She takes back a whistle when he asks for her name. Cass has always thought that giving away your name was a very sacred thing. She's heard of some cultures changing your name and she really hopes that she doesn't ever have that happen to hers. It is too big for her to fill in for now but she's hoping in the near future maybe she'll be able to pull her socks up. Giving it to the people in the carriage was purely from jitters, and now she looks at Mr Gryffindor next to her and sighs.

Barely any time passing, she mutters almost defeatist, "Cass. And why would I be a snake girl? Toad girl, my friend. Toad. Wait. Frog!"

“Yes,” he grinned, “My body kind of switches onto auto pilot while I’m distracted, however the auto pilot has no idea where it is going and often leads me off course. Really should pay more attention, but then again, where’s the fun in that?”

Noah noticed that she seemed a bit reluctant to give her name and hoped he hadn’t over stepped the mark, he would just rather call someone by their name rather than just yell noises at them until they noticed.

“Well you said you were in Slytherin right, so I guess you must have already been called snake girl once or twice,” he asked slightly confused, he knew he had been called ‘Lion Boy’ several times, not that it was a bad thing, he was proud of his house, it was just rather impersonal, “Frog? Toad? What? Now I’m confused. Not that it’s hard to do. But yeh, I’m confused.”

He had to quickly hop up a step when he noticed her do the same thing, he guessed it was one another one of those trick step things, he really had no idea about the mysteries of this castle, but he was rather determined to find out for himself. He didn’t mind going on a little adventure, get lost or get in trouble, there was no point in living life on the quiet safe side of the fence. He always thought it more fun to hop the fence and go exploring.

Cass thinks about auto pilot for a moment, while on manual. It's okay, as long as you don't have anything living in your pocket, in your hands, or a drink with no lid. She shrugs at this thought.

This sounds like the perfect time to say that she isn't a Slyther. Infact, she turns slowly and grabs a hold of his elbow, and leans down so the portraits with hard of hearing can't hear.
"Noah, I am not a Slytherin," she said ominously, darting her eyes to the side and back for effect. And then she went back to walking up the steps. They were on the first floor staircase now, and were almost at the top. That's a dramatic twist. She likes that idea.

"Oh, nothing. I just have a frog called Bradley. Well, he might be a toad. I'm not sure. I don't know. He does like the idea of being a frog though," she admits.

When she turned and stopped him by grabbing his elbow and pulled him out of the way, he wondered what he had said to cause her to act like this.

“Wait, so you’re not a Slytherin?” Noah was confused, why would she claim to be one house when she was part of anther, “So what house are you from then? Not that it really matters, I’m just curious to why you would lie. Don’t you like your real house?”

They continued their way up the staircases, Noah knew where he was now but he didn’t mind having some company. He also found that if you travelled in pairs or groups then the older students didn’t push you around too much.

“A frog? That’s brilliant,” he grinned, “Well I have no idea how they tell the difference really, I guess it doesn’t really matter does it? I have an owl called Jupiter, but I’m pretty sure that Bradley wouldn’t like to meet him, because Jupiter would probably eat him, no offence.”

At this point, Cass feels a little bashful. And mostly guiltly, and quite mean.
Her face falls, and she tries to say something apologetic, although she's not sure how well it comes across.
"Because- I thought you'd find it odd a Hufflepuff wandering near where the Slytherin dungeons are supposed to be. It was a stupid thing to say. I panic!" she says, thinking that makes more sense than anything.

"Yeah, that's the reason I'm leaving his species a little left to the imagination. He'd only get angry with me if he was a toad. Doesn't like toads. Probably thinks they're too warty or something like that. He's a superficial person," she adds matter-of-factly.

Jupiter sounds like a nice name for an animal, Cass decides, although she promises that she won't steal it for another pet. that would be unfair.
"Cool," she says warmly, dodging yet another trick step, "my cousin was named after one of the moons. I think my family just like Astronomy."

Guessing from Mr Gryffindor's name, his family liked arks.

Noah’s curios face turned to one of slight amusement as Cass tried to explain herself, he found it funny how she seemed to get a little bit panicky about it.

“Hey, no worries, I don’t mind. To be honest I hadn’t thought of it,” he shrugged, “I mean, you could have been going for a wander, or seeing a friend. Although I have yet to meet any Slytherins that would be worth being friends with if I’m honest, although I don’t want to stereotype.”

Noah hadn’t had any nice experiences with any Slytherins, he had only met a couple and they had all immediately taken a dislike to him just because he was a Gryffindor. He liked to give people a fair shot but when they wouldn’t give him the time of day he was quick to meet them and give them just as good as they got.

“Well that’s interesting, I have no idea if I’m named after anyone or anything,” he shrugged again shoving his hands into his pockets, “My family is rather boring I think. I mean nothing special that’s all, but I think I prefer it that way.”

"I could tell you a fair few things about my best friend," she gushes, "but I'm not quite sure who Stereo Types is, and I wouldn't want to contradict myself. He's a brilliant person, I'm just not sure if he fits the Slytherin ideal. I don't know, in some ways, yes. I can see why you wouldn't take to them, though. Not many of them are nice. Or at least, the ones I've met. Never count all your lizards, though until they've leapt."

"You should ask around, ask your Head of House or something. Mine's really knowledgable. I think yours is the dancy one. She has hair in a bun all the time. Bird something. My friend Elouise in third year calls her Mermaid but I'm not quite sure why." Cass skips up the top steps and looks to check on which floor they're on. She think it looks like the fifth.

And she thinks that if she walks him up to Gryffindor tower room then she'll end up being marooned outside and then someone will come by saying they don't know where Ravenclaw tower is and the whole charade shall start all over again.
"Do you know where you are now?" she asks.

“Well I guess there are always exceptions to the rule,” Noah mused, he had to admit that there was bound to be a couple of nice Slytherins out there, one quarter of the school couldn’t all be cold and mean as if cast from a Slytherin mould, there were always those that had defects, and it was just that this time round it was those that didn’t fit the pattern that were the better version. “I’ve seen that some of the older Gryffindor’s in my house are not what you’d expect of a Gryffindor so I assume it’s the same for all the houses.”

Noah wondered how the Sorting Hat really did it, how he was able to determine what house would better suit a person just by sitting on their head. If he sat on someone’s head all he’d figure out is how patient they were until they threw him off.

“Yeah, Professor Sparrow,” Noah nodded, he had seen the Head of House in the common room a couple of times and also had a stern talking to last time the rest of the boys in his house had to see who could eat the most sweets before they were sick, he couldn’t help it if the other boys were pansies and couldn’t control their stomachs, “Mermaid? That seems a rather weird nickname to name one of the professors.”

Noah glanced around the floor and recognised one of the portraits of a sleeping wizard with one ear a lot larger than the other and recognised it as the fifth floor.

“Yes, fifth floor,” he smiled, “thanks Cass; I’ll see you around, perhaps when I next sneak down to the kitchens.” He grinned and turned and began to walk off in the direction of the Gryffindor tower, he glanced over his shoulder and waved.

Cass waves as Mr Gryffindor does so. That's all she does thinkingly, the rest is a lot of drifting back down the corridor and looking at portraits with a wide open mouth.

None of the faces are familiar and this makes Cass a little add, with a sprig of melancholy. Yes, this is a terrible hell laden corridor. At this thought, Cass quickens her pace a little, not entirely sure once again why it is.

All of this pace quickening and melancholy and portraits and waving has left Cass' thoughts very cluttered, which is probably why the next time she realises where her feet are taking her, it's too late and she's facing the knocker of Ravenclaw common room and is a little dizzy.

((OOC: awesome meeting you Mr Gryffin!))