A House Homecoming for All

Tiera had never been one for occupying her mind efficiently for over twenty minutes at best; she\'d been left alone sitting stiffly in Dumledore\'s office for about twice that and was beginning to notice her bum go numb. The chair was just high enough for her to oscilate her legs lazily in it in a vain attempt to be cute for the portraits of the old coot\'s predecessor\'s who merely scoffed and turned away once she looked up at them looking at her.

Heaving a great sigh and deciding that he\'s probably forgotten her after all, Tiera sashayed around the veritable pillars of parchment throughout the overly bright room in contrast to the clutter and scrounged for something interesting to poke. Around the endge of the windows, oeverlooking the great Quiddich pitch, she stumbled (quite literally) upon a very antiquated version of a telescope; it looked nothing like what she was used to with high falutant latin transgression its side and a few runic symbols her and there so she supposed she\'d better not mess with it.

Temporarily freed from the constant containment that was her arch memesis, boredom, Tiera neared the other side of the office in a blur of haste as she spotted Jessica looking much more awed than she did as she was lifted up the vertically alligned tunnel to being introduced to Fawkes. Grinning broadly for some company, Tiera rushed up to the still secluded Slytherin and hugged her derisive scales blithely.

\"How\'ve you been doing so far?\" Jessica asked, pulling away first to step quickly towards Dumbledore\'s desk and gently touch a quill resting quaintly on its side.

\"Okay - Flitwick\'s annoying and Sprout thinks she\'s my mom, but with his voice and her job, how could they not be?\" Tiera shucked her sneakers on and off in the middle of the room as she spoke, unaware of the figure behind her closing in preditorally.

\"Oh, that\'s too bad! It\'s a shame, Andrew not getting your suitors because you know how he loves all that history in HP,\" Jessica quickly scanned the room and briefly quirked her mouth in a half grin/smirk behind Tiera as she was precoccupied with her feet, \"he told me he ran into you last night-\"

\"Yea, well you would like all this stuff, Jess - you and your obsession with anything and everything Harry Potter!\" Jessica\'s pale face hardened in response and went flat and illumined in nonchalance.

\"You didn\'t have to laugh at him you know, have you ever been in the presence of a ghost, hmmm?\" Jessica\'s brow furrowed,
\"Do you know how frightening and desperate it can be?\"

Tiera scowled back and quit her constant fidgeting whilst Jessica propped the book back up on its shelf where she\'d found it.

\"You know I\'m really looking forward to those screaming books, like in the first movie,\" Jessica lightened up, making her way back toward the chair next to Tiera\'s. Tiera suddenly noticed a spot of dark around her shadow on the floor and raised an eyebrow quizzically before recognizing what Jessica\'s garrulous preamble was all about.

\"Oh my God, Jess - I do not want to turn around, do I?\" Jessica smirked outright and wryly at Tiera\'s new honest display of fear and winked at the spector behind her, placidly floating and observing the situatio
Be
Before Tiera could prepare herself, Peeves shot up from beneath her chair and nullified every single false hope of mercy she had ever believed Jessica could possess and went straight into a shrieking fit so intense, Jessica had to step away and cover her ears. Of course, Peeves\' own cochophany of wretched wails didn\'t make matters any better and as per usual, Jessica\'s plan for revenge backfired in her face as evey Slytherin\'s is wont to do most of the time and she ended up being the on e to suffer most from temporary loss of hearing.

Downstairs in the Great Hall as Minerva was pouring Albus his morning tea, he leapt to his fet, thoroughly disjoining his knarled, osteoarthritis ridden knees and exclaimed randomly, \"I knew I\'d left something in my office!\" and rushed up to the second floor at a snail\'s pace.

Usually prohibited form Dumbledore\'s office, Peeves was having a field day after enunciating every spell to get through the multitude of wards Albus had cockihly installed in front of him, never considering one could easily be tempted to break in and pilfer one of those nifty and archaic astronomy tools. Now that another opportunity had arisen for Peeves to make mayhem for one of the most highly revered and attested wizards of the century, he would not waste it in the least.

Sweeping about followed by the ceaseless wailing of Tiera, Jessica\'s supposed victim after some boyfriend of hers got scared of the Baron (hell, even he was scared of the Baron sometimes - sadist that he was) and had laughed in his face about it, Peeves blew a few raspberries in her face, dousing mousy hair with ectoplasm verte. Jessica didn\'t seem to be enjoying his performance as much as she should have so he began to sing a lively jig about snake charming in the middle east as he thought it would be appropriate all things being considered; instead, she just crawled underneath the Headmaster\'s desk and pressed her hands more firmly against her ears.

The faint footfalls of approximately four feet tapping in unison were heard just below the entrance to the office and all three entities waited, crouched or floating with bated breath. Sure enough, the magical staircase/elevator ascended and Dumbledore finally stumbled in completely out of sorts, reaching blindly for a hand hold or something to steady his teetering frame.; behind him squatted a titterring Flitwick, going on about raucous Canadians and their shannanigans.

Peeves quickly scooted off through on of the walls as Jessica clampered out form beneath Dumbledore\'s stinky work enclosure only to find a pile of rotten and half-eaten lemon drops growing mould from the neglectfulness of senility. Tiera rushed into the old man\'s arms like the pitiful baby she was and sobbed into the musty robes until her eyes were red.

\"Whatpenepened in here?\" Dumbledore queried, his eyes reg ong on Jessica\'s admitedly guilty face suspiciously.

\"Peeves just snuck up on us is all, sir,\" Jessica grinned, mentally presaging her own detention. Tiera straightened up as she stil had enough conviction to point a finger and spit vehemently.

\"It was all her fault- she called him in here!\" Dumbledore gasped and the twinkle from his deranged eyes disintegrated.

\"How dare you break through my protection charms! I thought I didn\'t invite you! Detention! Report to Prof. Snape\'s chambers at seven o\'clock tonight after supper!\" Jessica\'s face fell immediately as she nodded and sauntered out looking forlorn and vendictive until she was sure she was out of both their peripheral visions\' outside in the coridoors.

With a lilt in her voice and a spring in her step, she was heard humming down between the throng of overly zealous Ravenclaw teachers\' assistants and up to the common room to wait for Andrew before supper. She couldn\'t wait to tell him - she had a date with Snape!