Welcome to Wolfshaw Academy!

[Mr James Robinson]

It was the third week of school, and far, far too early on Tuesday morning when James found himself slumped over his desk, trying to remember why school started at nine o'clock. He didn't think there was any reason, apart from the desire to make his head hurt. He wasn't hung over, and hadn't gotten a particularly bad sleep the night before; James was just getting sick, and detested the idea of having to teach the sixth-years (who were the most hormonal, and thus loudest, of all the years) this early.

The bell rang from somewhere over his head, and he groaned and covered his head with his arms as the thunder of students moving around on the floor above him started up. He closed his eyes and prayed that somehow all their voices would be lost by the time they got down here.

He hated summer colds.

[Kate Harper]

Kate was yawning, bleary-eyed, as she stumbled into the classroom. Stupid alarm - it had completely failed to go off, and as a result, she had been awake for all of ten minutes, still had a slice of toast in her hand (she had dashed into the dining hall, grabbed the first item she had seen, and bolted off to class), and her hair was still loose.

Dropping the toast on the desk, she pulled an elastic out of her bag and tied her hair back, then took a bite of her impromptu breakfast.

Bland. Needed Vegemite. She winced, and looked up.

"Morning," she smiled tiredly, noticing that Mr Robinson didn't exactly look perky, "You alright, Mr Robinson?"

[Nathan Hamm]

Practically on Kate's heels, Nate entered the room. Dungeon. Whatever. At her comment, he looked over at the potions teacher.

...

And giggled. It wasn't the most manly thing to do, but the combination of Mr Robinson looking so ... hungover and some recent stories about green boxers made the reaction pretty much involuntary.

"Don't worry, Kate," he said in a theatrical whisper. "He's just got a Spice Girls hang-over. Just don't make any sudden movements, or he might start singing again." He gave Kate a pat on the shoulder, then moved on to pick a seat in the front row on the far side of the roomdungeon.

[Mr James Robinson]

James raised his head at the sound of someone entering - it was Kate, who looked just as tired as James felt. Ok, maybe nearly as bad as he felt; she'd have to look like a Hippgriff had run over her several times to look like he felt. She'd have to be pelted with Bludgers from a great height to look like he felt. She'd have to be -

James' thoughts halted when Nate came bounding in, far too energetic for this time of morning.

"Good morning," he said thickly, unable to breathe at the same time as speaking. It was mildly uncomfortable. "I -" He frowned at Nate. "I'm feeling under the weather, actually. Summer cold."

He continued to glare at Nate as he took his seat. He hadn't expected it to be hushed up, he supposed, but it would have been nice if the students could refrain from bringing up the ... incident.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Nate," he said slowly, trying to quirk a smile in the boy's direction. "After all, I'm the one marking your work."

[Nathan Hamm]

"Oh, don't worry, sir," Nate answered from his seat, leaning back in the chair. "I'm always careful with my potions work, and I know an upstanding guardian of fine learning such as yourself would never practice immoral grading policies."

Of course, by the end of that high-faultin' speech Nate had almost forgotten what prompted it. So he just dismissed it. "What're we doing today?"

[Michael Madigan]

Michael strode into the room, though his confident strut was somewhat in vain since there were all of two people in the room, not including the teacher. He nodded hello at each of them, lack of sleep limiting his ability to do much else, and slumped into a seat at the back of the room.

[Rebecca Poe]

With a slight stumble to her walk - which could possibly be from exhaustion, having stayed up nearly all night due to an overdose of after-dinner caffeine that even she was well on the way to highly regretting - Becca managed with a great force of will to enter the classroom without falling over her own feet. A look of wide-eyed surprise came onto her face as she observed those present; Mr Robinson and Kate, both looking as miserable as she felt, an overly cheery Nate, and what appeared to be a comatose Mike. Lovely.

Hadn't Ali been right behind her...? Becca blinked, looked behind her into the empty hallway, shrugged, and trotted over towards Kate, who had yet to sit down. Putting a hand on her friend's shoulder, Becca plopped into her seat, gravity pulling both herself and Kate down - or at least off-balance for the latter. "Sit," Becca said, interrupting herself with a wide yawn. When she opened her eyes her vision was fuzzy, and she blinked blearily up at Kate. "Sit," she said again, before promptly folding her arms on the desk before her, and plopping her head down onto them.

Potions. Good class for sleeping. Did she even bring her books with her? One hand groped blindly around, but gave up after a few seconds. Eh.

Note to self: numerous cups of coffee after midnight = bad.

[Michael Madigan]

Michael perked up a bit when he saw Becca enter the room, and tried to clear the cobwebs from his groggy brain long enough to direct his body out of his seat and into one closer to her and Kate. Kate was an alright girl, but Becca was smokin'.

"Ladies," he said by way of a greeting, giving them a brilliant smile that didn't quite erase the tiredness from his eyes. "How's it going?" Not his best effort as far as flirting was concerned, but hey, it was early.

[Kate Harper]

Managing to smirk a little at the Spice Girls crack, she blinked as Becca wandered in, looking about as buggered as she felt.

"Sit."

Sitting? Sitting was good. Sliding her bag off her shoulder and on to the floor, she flopped down next to Becca, imitating her pose and dropping her head on to her arms. "Late night?" she yawned, "I'm still technically asleep, my alarm clock died."

"Ladies. How's it going?"

As if she wasn't already in a crap mood.

"Michael," she said evenly, "Do you usually try to hit on the unconscious?"

Because if Becca got any more limp, she'd start snoring.

[Michael Madigan]

"Michael," she said evenly, "Do you usually try to hit on the unconscious?"

"Well, makes it easier that way," he replied casually, brushing off Kate's snide remarks as usual. "So what's this about Robinson and Spice Girls?"

In truth, Michael had been present for the entire embarrassing ordeal, having been walking between classes at the time, but this class hadn't started yet and he wanted the opportunity to converse a bit first. He could always ignore Kate if he had to.

[Nathan Hamm]

"Well now, didn't you hear?" Nate asked gleefully, turning in his chair to look back at his house-mate. "I'd tell you all about, but it's rather scandalous and I'm afraid these delicate young ladies here might faint from the shock."

He turned his impish grin on Kate; it would have been wasted on Becca, who didn't seem to even register that people around her were talking.

[Kate Harper]

Kate smiled reluctantly. Michael might have been a sleaze, but Nate was alright. "Fuck delicate," she said elegantly, slouching back in her chair to emphisise her point. "It involved bright green boxers and public humiliation," she added, dropping her voice so the publically humiliated subject of their conversation couldn't hear.

Half-turning, she gave Becca a poke on the arm - partially just to be annoying, partially as a, save me from these adolescant boys! gesture.

[Ali Thompson]

Ali had been following Becca from when they left the common room - she'd been fumbling with her bag while talking to the other girl, then had glanced up and realised she'd gone. Or Ali had taken a wrong turn while absorbed in getting her bag to do up. Slightly confused, she kept walking until she found a staircase to a lower level; unfortunately it didn't seem to end, and she suddenly found herself outside.

Now completely baffled, she retraced her steps to the third floor and found another staircase. This one took her to the second floor, and she finally found herself walking the familiar route to her Potions classroom.

Then, several minutes after losing Becca, Ali danced into the dungeon, happy to finally be in the place she was meant to be in. Never had she gotten so lost; the manor wasn't ridiculously huge, either, so how she found a staircase she'd never seen before she didn't know.

Interestingly enough, Kate and Becca were sitting with Mikey - or, to be more accurate, he was sitting with them. Ali doubted Kate would have voluntarily sat with him; it was no secret she loathed him, and she was pretty sure he returned the sentiments.

"Hi boys," she said brightly, unable to keep the flirtatious tone out of her voice as she dropped her bag on the ground and slid onto the desk beside Michael's. He often annoyed her, but hell it was fun flirting with him! She glanced over her shoulder at Nate and winked at him.

"What are we talking about?" Ali looked at her other friends and smiled. "Becca, wake up," she said loudly. "Kate," she added, grinning, "Push her off her chair."

[Michael Madigan]

"Hey Ali, lookin' good as always," Michael replied warmly, shoving her arm playfully and echoing her flirtatious tone as he turned in his seat to face the girl--if Becca was too out of it to respond to him--which he found hard to believe considering he'd put a lot of effort into his appearance this morning, despite being tired--at least Ali was always fun to talk to.

He was admittedly amused at Kate's less-than-delicate response--it was cute when girls swore-not that he'd ever tell her that of course. If she didn't like him then hey, it was her loss.

"We were just whispering subversively about Robinson's little performance the other day," he continued in answer to Ali's question.

[Nathan Hamm]

Well, this was completely unacceptable! Now Ali had arrived and was also sitting in the back of the room, which put the entire classroom between Nate and the only people he wanted to talk to.

Besides Mr Robinson, but he seemed to be in a bad mood.

With a slightly annoyed grimace, Nate picked up his bag and moved to the back of the room, dropping into a seat in front of Ali. He straddled the chair backward, rested his arms on the chair back and his chin on his arms.

"We were just whispering subversively about Robinson's little performance the other day."

"Though I don't think we really need to whisper," he commented, jerking his head backward at the teacher. "After all, Robinson was there, he knows what happened." He grinned and winked at Kate before returning his attention to Ali. "You're friend there is so jaded she doesn't think the event was scandalous enough to offend her delicate sensibilities. I wonder what she's seen that was so much more traumatizing than Robinson's boxers?"