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Laura was also wandering the halls, her treecat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treecat) and Dr. Grant's kitten (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1471954.html) in tow. She hadn't been able to find Dr. Brennan or Dr. Sattler either, and Dr. Malcolm was as much in the dark about their disappearances as she was. That just left roaming around in search of clues.

"Hey," she called to the confused-looking boy up ahead. "You looking for someone too?"

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Jaime stopped at a T-intersection that hadn't been a T-intersection before and was debating which way to go when he heard someone call out. Surprised, he turned to see a blond woman he didn't recognize with two cats - wait, what was that gray one? - walking up behind him. "Hey," he greeted, glad to run into someone friendly; he remembered all too well what happened the last time he'd gotten lost in the hallways. "Sort of. I've gotta find my House first." He made a face at the T-intersection. "Doesn't help everything changed while I was back home."

He tried and failed not to stare at the gray treecat; the scarab supplied the name, but for once he managed to not blurt out information he wasn't supposed to know. "Uh, hi. I'm Jaime. You know how to get to Gryffindor from here?"

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"Hi Jaime. I'm Laura, this is Galahad, and this is Dog who I guess I'm cat-sitting," she said. "I'm looking for her owner. Yeah, it does that, and it's a real pain in the...um. I just came from Ravenclaw; Gryffindor is, ummm.....Thataway." She pointed up the center of the T.

"You wouldn't've happened across a guy, about yea tall, probably wearing jeans, plaid flannel shirt and a hat, would you? We're missing one."

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"Nice to meet you." He grinned at her omission. "Yeah, I noticed that. 'Course, been gone three months, so I should've expected it." Looking the way she pointed, he nodded. "Cool. Thanks." Not staring aside, he was curious why she had an alien cat on her shoulder. "Uh, what kind of cat is he?" he asked, indicating Galahad. He winced at the scarab's indignant retort that it had just told him that.

"Don't think so. You're like the second person I've seen since I got dumped back here and the first one wasn't the flannel-wearing type. And it was a she." He hadn't even gotten her name. Oops. "What's his name? Maybe I met him, I can tell him you're looking for him if I see him."

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"Yep, that'd do it. Whole new castle in three months, easy." She grinned. "He's...unique around these parts, as far as I know. A friend here took me home with her for a visit, and he sort of adopted me - long story."

She nodded. "It's Dr. Grant, the Care of Magical Creatures professor, if you've met him. If not, he's definitely the denim-and-flannel-wearing type, works outside with the menagerie most of the time. If you see him, could you tell him Dog got out and I've got her?"

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((Sorry for disappearing, RL stuff came up. And yeah, I know they won't find Dr. Grant, but I figured Jaime would want to help look if he was missing.))

"Whole new castle? Oh, man," Jaime said, smiling. "I'm doomed." He looked at Galahad with interest, but kept his hands in his pockets. He didn't have any experience with cats, and didn't want to be rude. "Cool. Most of the time, it's a long story."

"Dr. Grant? Yeah, I took his class a couple weeks before I got sent home. Kind of like Bio lab, except not boring." There was nothing boring about dinosaur or dragon bones, and Dr. Grant had at least been nice about their fishing for answers and his lousy notes. "Sure, I'll tell him. He's not in his office or anything?" he asked, worried. Hey, he'd been yanked out of here without warning, maybe Dr. Grant had too. And maybe once the scarab got its act together, it could help find him.

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"Noticed that already, huh," she agreed. "Yeah, the one class I had with him, I ended up riding a kelpie - that's like a water spirit that manifests as the biggest, realest My Little Pony you ever saw. He's not in his office or the Magical Creatures shed or his apartment, and he never lets this character -" she nodded at the kitten, "- out the door without a fight. If you do see him, tell him I've got Dog and to owl me, please?"

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Only here would that one not make him blink. "My little sister would definitely go for that." Of course, she'd probably try to take one home, and wouldn't give that up without a fight. "We had to figure out the difference between dragon bones and dinosaur bones. Dr. Grant didn't want any live animals then." Which was just fine with him.

"Will do." He turned to go, but hesitated. "You want help looking? I don't really have to be anywhere now. Probably way late for anything I had to do last time I was here." And maybe the scarab would have better luck homing in on one person. It was updating its maps, but it was slow going, and at least this way he could be somewhat useful.

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"Yeah. He's got...mixed feelings...about dinosaurs, let's say."

She smiled. "That's okay. You need to get settled again. Just keep watch for him while you're on the way to Gryffindor, okay? The castle's so big, the more eyes I can get looking out for him the better."

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Jaime smirked. "Nnnnot complaining. Wouldn't wanna be around live ones myself."

"Okay." He glanced back up the corridor again, knowing he was just putting this off. Three months was long enough, but if time worked the same way as before... he wasn't even sure if Lola would still be around, much less not have moved on by now. Of course, he'd have to find out for himself. "Hope you find him soon. I'll keep an eye out."

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"Thanks, Jaime. Good luck finding Gryff!" She waved and headed onward, and Galahad bleeked a goodbye as well.

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And as he comes around the next corner, why, there's Batman, standing in the middle of the hallway, staring off into the distance. But when Jamie shows up, his gaze immediately locks on the young hero, his lips tight. "Blue Beetle."

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((AHAHAHAHA this is going to be interesting. Especially since I'm assuming at this point he hasn't made the trip to Titans Tower yet. Is Tim carrying the gun at the moment, and can the scarab point that out? I think Cassie was messing with its scans in BB #18, so it probably couldn't ID Tim's genetic match.))

Jaime jumped in spite of himself. Sure, he'd known there was someone around the corner, but this was the absolute last person he'd expected to see. "Batman?" He glanced around anxiously, hoping there was no one else within earshot - true, he probably had the worst-kept secret identity ever, but he didn't want the entire world to know. Something Batman ought to understand. "What - what are you doing here?"

He didn't ask how - it was Batman, after all. Still, Jaime couldn't shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong.

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(No, he ditched the gun in his room, if only because it'll end up causing more trouble then it's worth.))

"Jamie." Batman seems... okay, he always seems emotionless, but somehow, he seems even more so then usual. Grimmer. Darker.

"The same thing as you Jamie." Behind his cowl, his eyes gleam. "I'm studying magic."

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((Heh, that'll just drag this out even more, then. *is working off memories of Brave and Bold 3 here*))

Jaime didn't think it was possible for Batman to seem scarier. Apparently, he was wrong; he couldn't even manage a smartass comment this time. He was positive he was missing something here, but what, he had no idea. Yeah, Batman was supposed to be scary, it was his thing, but... ugh. Like he knew anything about Batman.

"Studying magic? I'm just trying to find somebody. I keep getting yanked back here, I didn't mean to come here in the first place. Story of my life, right there." He frowned, perplexed. "Since when do you care about magic? Um, not that you shouldn't, but I thought you were more into knowing how to stop it than how to use it. Not like I know what I'm talking about, and... man, I need to stop talking now."

Okay, he couldn't bring himself to wax smartass, but the babbling reaction was familiar. His brain and his mouth just needed to stop ignoring one another lately.

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Batman simply watches Jamie blather, keeping it all in his head. "Who are you trying to find, Jamie?"

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Jaime was about to answer, but paused. What was with the interrogation, and why did Batman care, anyway? It was no surprise that he didn't answer Jaime's question, but he couldn't see why the person (or people, rather, there was a handful of people he was hoping were still at Hogwarts) was relevant. At all. Again, that feeling of wrongness was eating away at him and he didn't know why.

"A friend. A couple of friends, I don't know if they're still here anymore." Wait, did Steph know he was here? Did Batman know she was here? If she was still here, he'd have to tell her what he'd found out. "Anybody I knew when I was here three months ago who isn't crazy," he amended.

He decided not to mention Steph, in case Batman didn't know, or if she wasn't here anymore. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell Batman "hey, I met one of your dead colleagues here, except she isn't dead anymore." Too many opportunities to really put his foot in it there, and that wasn't the way someone should find out about it.

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"Have you met the others, here?" Tim cocks his head to one side. "There are a number of younger heros here already."

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"There are? Could have fooled me," Jaime said, surprised. Steph was the only one, as far as he knew. He'd met several metas, but just because you were a meta didn't mean you led a double life. "Then again, maybe they're just better at keeping their identities secret." Which was easier when your powers didn't have their own opinion on when was the best time to come out.

He bit his lip. "You know Spoiler's here, don't you?" Call it a hunch. And the fact that Batman would've made a point of knowing.

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Batman reacts impassivly. He's talked with her already. "I know, Jamie. We have talked." Damned Blue Beetle. That scarab has given them a hard time.

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Which also meant that Steph was still around. He needed to send her an owl the first chance he got. "Good," he said. "That you talked." And didn't find out about her secondhand from the rookie who couldn't shut up. He figured that after all this time, Batman couldn't possibly have missed that - but Hogwarts was weird that way. Assuming this really was Batman.

He might not have questioned it if not for his brief detour into the Sorting Room that had turned into a discussion on strategy and deception, to be honest. Besides, the scarab had notified him that there was a human with a familiar genetic signature up ahead earlier - but it couldn't tell him where it recognized the signature from. Given that it had actually tried and failed to supply that information (instead of simply neglecting to tell him), something was amiss here.

But he couldn't figure out what, and he was at a definite disadvantage, and he needed to get back to his room - if it was still there - and get his bearings. "I gotta - I gotta get going," he said. "Need to find out who's still here and let 'em know I'm okay. Didn't get a warning when I got sent back home." He started down the hallway again, stepping to the side in the hopes that Batman would let him pass.

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Batman doesn't move from his place in the hall, merely nods at Jamie. "Do enjoy yourself."

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Fortunately, the hallway was wide enough ~~and Jaime was skinny enough~~ that he could pass Batman by without having to brush past him. Which he wasted no time in doing, of course. "Uh-huh. I mean, yes, sir."

He hurried up the corridor, glancing uncertainly behind him until he came to the moving staircases. Maybe it was just his imagination. Maybe he should have actually asked Batman about the Reach, how that rocket's payload could have stopped them, all the useful information he'd been wanting to ask. But there had still been something weird about that conversation. He seriously had to talk to Steph the first chance he got.

The second a staircase going up stopped at the landing, he hopped on it and jogged up the steps as it moved. Once he was out of sight, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Then realized he was on the wrong floor.

"Aw, dammit."

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Lola would have been lying if she'd said she hadn't wondered where the heck Jaime had gone. It had been a few days since the last time they'd met for lunch in the Great Hall, and she hadn't even bumped into him in the common room at all after that. It was odd. She'd taken a quick trip to the Popcorn Room to see if his name was on the plaque, but had to her relief found the place free of any such notices. So at least Jaime wasn't a movie snack. Small blessings. Still, no girl is ever happy when her boyfriend disappears without a word or trace, so Lola had taken to random walks around the castle, leaving things to fate. She was pretty sure that she'd know if Jaime was hurt somehow, so she wasn't too worried. Sometimes Hogwarts did stupid things... It was just annoying. Not being able to talk to him. She missed him. He'd better have a good reason for disappearing on her, that's all she was saying. The wrath of La Sanchez was a rare thing, but she'd bring it out if she found he'd just blown her off.

But when Lola suddenly and for no explicable reason saw Jaime further along the same passage she was travelling, she forgot that she could very easily be irritated at him, and instead let out a happy squeak in surprise, running up at him. To fling her arms around his neck, of course! It was the only way to greet people when you were happy to see them!

"Jaime!" she beamed, and it was the kind of smile that would take a while to fade. Any angry feelings would just have to wait. "Where have you been?"

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After the last encounter he'd had, Jaime was a bit apprehensive about who he would run into next. All that apprehension dissipated as he heard a squeak and suddenly found himself with an armful of Lola. The scarab hadn't bothered to tell him she was in its range, but he really didn't care as he hugged her back. She was still here, she hadn't left, and that was really all he cared about right now. "I oughta get sucked into a Mother Box more often," he laughed quietly into her hair, relaxing unconsciously at the familiar scent. "Missed you."

He finally did pull back, reluctantly, enough to talk to her and not her hair. "Sorry. I got - I got randomly dumped back home. Couldn't figure out how to get back here til I got yanked off course about an hour ago and crash-landed here." Not complaining so much now. "Didn't know if I'd ever get back. I'm sorry it took so long."

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Mm. Lola sighed happily as her fingers combed through his hair - wasn't it a litte longer than she remembered it to be? - and she pressed her nose to his neck, breathing in the smell of him. Okay. Feeling much better, now. "Missed you too," she smiled. "Seemed like you were gone a lot longer than just three days..." It had been three days, right? Yeah, it sounded accurate enough. One day to wonder, one day to worry, and one day to start wandering the castle looking.

Ah. So it was one of those things. An out-of-his-control thing. That was a relief, knowing that he hadn't made the decision to leave on his own. She felt herself relax some more as she listened to the story, head tilted slightly sideways. "It's okay," she assured him lightly. Her fingers had gone from just running through his hair to lazily play with a strand of it at the back of his neck. That was quickly becoming a habit of hers. "You're back now. So how were things in El Paso?" Out of all places he could have ended up, at least he had gone back home. Good for him!

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Most of the time, it was an out-of-his-control thing, really. Which could get frustrating. "Crazy," he answered, which was an understatement. "In a lot of good ways. And some bad." Like Brenda. "And some just plain crazy." Like when he'd been turned into a dentist again. "At least, my folks weren't freaking out. I got dumped in my back yard five minutes after I left, so..."

It was then that her earlier words suddenly registered. "What, three days? It's only been three days here? I was - I was home for three months!"

Deja vu, all over again.

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Lola blinked. She was about to say something about his story on being home, but she never got around to it. "Three months?" she repeated, blinking. Three months was a long time. Things changed in three months. Judging by the hug he was still happy to see her, but... He could have met someone else. And stuff. In that time. Which would be fine, because he hadn't been dating Lola for that long, and without knowing how to get back...

Angel or no angel, sometimes Lola was still very much a girl.

"How did..?" she began, and then groaned a bit, rolling her eyes. "Right. Things can always get weirder. I shouldn't even be surprised anymore. Especially not since I'm kind of used to time behaving in odd ways," she added with a little smile. "Guess the universe is looking out for you, if you return to a place without any time passing... Less fuss that way."

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Jaime nodded. "Three months." Three insane and long months. She was right that he'd met someone else, but there hadn't been any stuff. One and a half dates was really about as far as he and Traci had gotten before she'd given him an easy out. (The half, of course, was the night they'd gone chasing after Eclipso.) Traci had figured out even before Jaime did that he was preoccupied with somewhere else, with somebody else. It hadn't ended badly - they still talked, thank God for that - but it hadn't gone anywhere to begin with, really.

He smirked. "Yeah, believe me, I know. Guess it could've been worse. I was worried I'd lost another year and you'd left or something," he admitted. "Guess I didn't miss too much, then? Least, I hope I didn't." There was only so much weird you could cram into three days, even at Hogwarts.

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With all her knowledge about how time worked (well, her limited knowledge anyway; presumably only the archangels knew everything there was to know about the T-word), Lola had a bit of a hard time fully comprehending that though she felt they'd only been apart for three days, he hadn't seen her for ninety. Mind-boggling. Gah, time and dimensions and everything, it was giving her a massive headache sometimes...

She smiled, raising her hand to stroke his cheek. "It'll be a while before I go anywhere, babe... Here is where I'm supposed to be." For the foreseeable future, anyway. Protecting the castle. Balancing the forces of good and evil. All that jazz.

Lola thought for a moment. "Not really... I mean, you did miss Brice moving in with Mel, but that just meant that there were a lot of boxes in the common room and they walked around with big, stupid grins on their faces all day long." She laughed a little. "So, not so much. Thank your lucky stars you didn't miss the play." Then she would have been angry. Who she would have been angry at wasn't quite clear, but angry anyway. There would have been kicking of things.

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Jaime didn't have anywhere near the knowledge of how time worked that Lola did, but he could completely understand the headache. He'd been there, and having one night be a year for everyone else was enough of a headache for a lifetime.

"Yeah, I'll bet they were," he said, remembering what he'd seen of Mel and Brice around the common room. "Would have helped if I was there." They might not have needed the help, but it was the principle of the thing.

"The - aw, the play, I almost forgot about that!" He slapped a hand to his forehead. "Yeah, I'm really glad I didn't miss it." There would have been kicking of himself. "They ever set a date for it?"

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Of course he would have helped. Jaime was a helping kind of guy. Lola rewarded the offer with a bright smile. "Well, you had a valid excuse for not being there... They had people helping."

She shook her head, looking a little tired. This play had been going on for a while, now. "No date yet. The director's had some, uh, issues, apparently. We're not really sure when it's going to happen, but we're waiting with baited breaths. So!" Aaand she perked right up. "You heading for Gryffindor right now?"

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"Issues? He didn't disappear too?" Seemed to be a trend - first him, and now Dr. Grant, and since it had only been three days here that seemed kind of strange. "Or just being weird?" Aside from being roped into set painting once, he hadn't had much to do with theater at his high school. But he did remember the director was a little flaky, so maybe that came with the territory.

He grinned, feeling a lot less tired than he had been ten minutes ago. "That was the plan. I kinda... forgot how to get there," he admitted. "Hey, it's been three months. A really crazy three months."

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Lola laughed a little and took his hand in hers. "Well, the stairs have switched places a couple of times since you left... I'll show you. Was on my way over there anyway." Not exactly a lie. She had been on the way to the common room, or would at least have returned there eventually, but she had taken a very long detour around the castle. But now, she had no objections at all to getting back to Gryffindor. She'd found her boyfriend!

"He was gone for a little while," said Lola as she nodded down the hall to indicate where they should be going. "We had rehearsals led by a bunny." The angel sighed. "Don't ask. Then the real director came back, but he seems a little... yeah. Maybe weird's the word. Or just eccentric." She grinned. "That's more acceptable to be, right?"

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"Couple times? I caught an intersection switching over while I was looking." Jaime squeezed her hand appreciatively. He had been on the right track until he'd been distracted by Batman. Maybe not the one he knew, he still wasn't sure.

"Rehearsals led by a... y'know, I'm not gonna ask, 'cause the first thing I thought of was from Monty Python and the real thing is probably weirder." Hopefully not as dangerous, but likely to be stranger.

"Maybe? It's just a word," Jaime pointed out as they started down the hall, still holding hands. "Around here, I don't think it matters much."

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"I apologise on behalf of Hogwarts," said Lola with another throaty laugh. "You'll get used to it again."

They finally found a staircase. Lola gave it a suspicious look at it creaked warningly, but thankfully it stayed in the same place. At least she hoped it would, and they wouldn't end up somewhere totally different from where she'd intended... Her voice was a little absent when she asked, "What's Monty Python?" Lola was from 22nd century South America, so alas, she had never heard of this particular brand of British comedy. She just noted that it was kind of a funny name... But what did it have to do with bunnies?

"Being eccentric is for rich people, I heard somewhere," she said, smiling vaguely at a portrait of a young girl in an old-fashioned hat, who grinned and cheerfully waved back at her. "Normal people are just plain crazy... Ah well. You're right, it doesn't matter here."

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Jaime looked up in surprise. "You don't - man, someday I'm gonna set up a movie night here or something. If I could figure out how." Provided he could get around electronics' tendency to not work at Hogwarts. And not get distracted by the constant weird. "Uh, they're a British sketch comedy troupe. Before my time, but their stuff is classic. I got friends who can quote every sketch they've done." He grinned. "I'd explain the rabbit thing, but I either wouldn't make sense or make it not funny anymore. You kind of have to see it."

They passed a portrait of a boy about Milagro's age, who stuck his tongue out and made faces at them. Jaime briefly stuck his tongue out at the kid in kind and smirked at him as they continued down the hall. "Or for people who are trying to pretend they're normal," he added, thinking of the big gaping hole in Tia Amparo's house and wondering where she told Brenda her money came from. "Hey, I think I actually know where we are." First hallway in hours that had looked familiar, too.

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Ah. Well okay. Lola nodded a little thoughtfully. There were wards one could put around the electronic devices to shield them from the magic bouncing around the place, but where one would get a DVD player around here she had no idea. Still, her face lit up at the prospect of movie night. "That sounds like fun! I'll bring the popcorn," she offered, and then tapped her chin with a pensive look on her face. "Maybe you could Transfigure something into a DVD player? I'm not sure how you do it, but there's probably a book about it." There were books about everything!

"Yaaay..." she cheered with a grin, first aimed at the boy's portrait and then turning to Jaime. "You can lead the way now, then. It'll be good practice for you." She gave him a friendly push. "We'll get those orientation skills working again."

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The mention of popcorn actually made him laugh. "Y'know, I didn't want to eat popcorn for like a month after I got home. Couldn't really explain why, either." He'd told Paco and Brenda about Hogwarts, but he hadn't gone into the weirder details like popcorning or the magicked food. ~~They'd just have to find out about that first hand if they ever showed up.~~

Jaime thought about that for a minute. "Transfigure something? ...Probably gonna have to work up to that. I'm kinda out of practice." His wand had been in his room when he'd gone down to breakfast that morning. Hopefully, it was still there. "Remember wards and screening weren't too hard. ...As long as the scarab doesn't try to help, anyway." Or if certain loud bystanders didn't throw things at him while he was trying to do it.

He grinned at the push, taking the lead as they passed a few more portraits that he recognized. "Here's hoping." Turning right at a fork, he was pleased to note that the turn did lead them down a familiar hallway, and in a moment or two they came upon the portrait of the Fat Lady. The door, for once, was closed. "...um. what was the password again?" Didn't help that half the time when he was at Hogwarts the door had been left ajar anyway.

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Lola made a face, but she grinned anyway. "I can still eat popcorn, which is kind of weird since I've actually been popcorn... It's not as bad as you'd think, really," she added cheerily. "It's kind of relaxing, but you totally ruin your clothes afterwards... And it took me days to wash all the butter out of my hair." She automatically ran her fingers through her dark curls, grimacing at the memory. It had been pretty gross. For a while there, she'd been worried that her top had been completely ruined. Which would have sucked, since it had been the sparkly Flying High top that Mel had given her for her birthday. The House-elves were miracle workers. There was probably some sort of magic trick to getting particularly hard stains out.

She gave his hand an encouraging squeeze. "Magic's just like riding a bike, babe. You'll catch right up." Lola paused, glancing a little at his spine. "How's it going with the scarab? Is it any easier to handle?"

And there was the door. Good! The request for a password threw her a little, and she blinked while trying to remember. She'd only had to use a password a handful of times in the past, and she was just never prepared when it was time for it again. After a few second's of thinking, Lola brightened. "Oh, right! Golden Snitch!" She gave the Fat Lady a sunny smile.

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"...I'm just gonna take your word for it on that one." Steph had tried to explain it to him, but he just couldn't picture Lola popcorned. Or covered in butter. Well, maybe the butter part, but now was not the time for his brain to be going there.

Jaime smirked. "Yeah, but you weren't around for my first try at screening conversations. That was, um, interesting." To say the least.

He rubbed the back of his neck at her question. "It's... not gotten any worse. Hasn't had any major freakouts lately, but I haven't really been able to figure out much more about it." Or what its creators were up to. "But it's been listening, which is good 'cause I've had enough stuff to deal with at home already."

The door swung open, allowing them to enter the Gryffindor common room. "Wow. Looks the same. Which is normal since it hasn't been that long here." He was going to have to get used to that. They crossed the common room and started up the steps to the dormitories. "So my room still oughta be here, too." Because if they cleaned it out after three days, that just wouldn't be fair.

((And off to class. Night!))

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Sometimes it was lucky Lola had lost her ability to read minds when she showed up at Hogwarts. Jaime's thought about her and butter would have caused her to blush something fierce, and been completely lost for words. Now she remained blissfully unaware.

"Oh yeah?" She tilted her head, looking slightly amused. "Interesting in a good way or a bad way?"

The news on the scarab, the angel took with apparent calm, nodding once. "Small favours." His hand was squeezed again, silently comforting.

Lola nodded. "Oh yeah, the room should be just how you left it." A room had been waiting for her when she got back from popcornhood, after all, and she'd been out of Hogwarts for a whole lot longer than Jaime, that time. Weird how the Houses appeared to have unlimited dorms... Considering how many people lived alone in a room, shouldn't they be running out of space soon?

There was not a lot of time to ponder this strange phenomenon, because soon they reached his door, and Lola stopped, turning towards him. Before she could help herself, she had put her arms around him and given him another hug, less enthusiastic than her first but containing no less warmth. Her cheek rested against his shoulder. "I'm really glad you're back, Jaime," she told him in a quiet murmur, before pulling back and gazing up at him, a pleased smile on her face. "There. All done cheering now, I promise."

((Night!))

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Jaime was lucky she couldn't read minds. Had she picked up on that, he'd have been even more embarrassed and wanted the floor to swallow him up.

But since she couldn't, her question only brought on slight embarrassment. "Depends on who you ask," he replied. "I, uh, kinda managed to screen Tomo to herself. Fixed it, but she wasn't happy. My tutor tried to help, but she thought it was hysterical." He might have agreed, but May wasn't the one Tomo was trying to kick.

"Yeah, really." He smiled, appreciating the comfort, although the smile still seemed a little bit worn down. He was happy to see Lola - he'd missed her like crazy - but he couldn't help but feel he'd deserted his friends. Right before he'd been pulled back, he'd been thinking that he just needed to get away from it all. It was like something, somewhere, had taken him literally, even though he hadn't meant it like that.

Jaime had been wondering about that, incidentally. Probably a good thing he didn't have a roommate - trying to keep the scarab under wraps would have been next to impossible. Or it would have just been constantly awkward and his roommate would have thought he was crazy. Maybe the castle just sort of grew new space? It changed its hallways around enough.

He hugged her back, sighing into her hair, glad for the comfort and just happy to be around her again. "Me too," he said sincerely. For the first time since he'd smacked into the earth outside the castle, he meant it. "You free for breakfast tomorrow? So we can catch up?" There were a few things he had to talk to her about, but it was late and he was actually starting to feel like he could finally sleep once his head hit the pillow.

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Much like Jaime couldn't imagine Lola as popcorn, Lola was having trouble thinking of Tomo as quiet. Such a peculiar thing was almost too much to wrap her mind around. "It sounds... yeah, interesting," she said, eyes sparkling with badly contained mirth. "Sorry. I'm having some trouble picturing Tomo quiet..."

She smiled. "Breakfast sounds good." Poor Jaime, he looked exhausted... Well, travelling time and space presumably took a lot out of you. Lola leaned in and planted a little kiss at the corner of his mouth. "Go and get some sleep, babe; you look like you need it. Want to meet up in the common room or the Great Hall tomorrow?"

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Jaime smirked. "Trust me, she wasn't quiet even when we couldn't hear her talk. Surprised we didn't get kicked out of the library." Between Tomo pounding on things and starting fights and stealing stuff and May giggling uncontrollably, they hadn't been the most unobtrusive group. And that was before Maia showed up.

The kiss took him by surprise, and he blushed a bit in spite of himself. He'd thought he'd gotten over that, but hey, three months. "Great Hall, maybe? I gotta send some owls first, let some people know I didn't drop off the face of the earth." And ask Steph about a certain disturbing cape.

He opened his door and blinked as he saw the room. None of his stuff was missing - in fact, there was a lot more stuff. His schoolbooks had somehow appeared in the stack on his desk, and he could make out Ted Kord's book sitting on top. Other than that, it was exactly as he'd left it. (Upon further inspection, he would discover a great deal of his belongings had appeared in there, but the books were all he could see at the moment.) "Huh."

Turning back to Lola, he smiled gratefully. "Guess I'll see you tomorrow, then." Barring any more random disappearances, which he didn't plan on dealing with any time soon. He squeezed her hand gratefully before reluctantly letting go. "Thanks. For, y'know, being here." And for not being just a dream, he silently added.

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She nodded, all smiles and sunshine. Heeeh, she'd made him blush... There was an odd satisfaction in that, and it sort of made her want to kiss him properly just to see what he'd do.

Tomorrow. Right now, the poor guy needed to rest.

Lola gave him a friendly biff on the shoulder, but her face was soft. "Hey. Angel. It's kind of what I do," she pointed out gently. "I'll see you tomorrow. Sweet dreams." And no disappearing again! Once had been bad enough. She blew him another kiss, took a step back, and her fingers curled in a light wave. "Night."

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