Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday [open]

"Gelly belly!" Remington laughed as he bounded over to Gellert, punching him lightly on the shoulder, a little awkwardly. "How are you? A little down?" Remington bent to the side a little and leant closer to Gellert to get a better look at him. "That's a shame. I'm sure there's something you can do to cheer yourself up. You know what I always find helps? A nice bath. Ooh, I've heard the prefect's bathroom's astounding, I should try it sometime. Why don't we go have a bath?" Remington paused, his face scrunching up a little. "Too awkward? Yes, I thought so. Oh well, why don't we take turns? Or we don't have to have a bath at all, completely up to you!" Remington's hands were gesturing wildly, and he finished on a grin.

Harley skulked inside the hall. His stomach had been rumbling for most of the night and he was famished. A trip to the kitchen really didn't seem appealing though. Not only with this so called 'Chamber of Secrets' open, but quite frankly, he felt sorry for the house elves running around after Hogwarts' students 24/7. He didn't like to remind himself of all those miniature slaves working away behind the scenes.

He sat down on the bench at the Ravenclaw table with a thud and started shovelling food into his mouth without a regard for manners.

“Me? Down? Never.” he laughed nervously and punched him back, he stared into his eyes as he leant closer, trying to understand what he meant by let’s take a bath together. Was he…No, it’s Rem, after all. One of a kind. He laughed at himself for judging him, was he any normal? “You know what, we can. We can both wear swimsuits.”

Remington laughed. "Swimsuits! Yes... Why didn't I think of that, I should have thought of that, it's a brilliant idea - hello!" Remington waved at a Ravenclaw who had just sat down. "We're going to have a bath in the prefect's bathroom, would you like to join us?" Remington scooted closer to the eating boy. "You know," he whispered in his ear, "I've heard they have their own mermaid." Remington modded seriously and stood back. "You know, I've met the merpeople down in the Lake, they're really not all that bad - oh alright, maybe not when they're being all -" Remington skwarked something that sounded as though it could have been Mermish. "That was supposed to mean, 'Come with us, you have invaded our territory and we have now taken you prisoner' - or something along those lines at least." Remington waved an uncaring hand. "I don't know all that much in Mermish, not yet anyway, but I am working on it..." Remington took a bite out of his Cake and grinned, oblivious to any stunned looks he may have been getting.

Harley had his mouth full when the strange boy waved. He waved back, with awkwardly sharp movements. He tensed as the boy leant into his ear and started talking about Mermaids. Mermaids in the lake? Very interesting. Not interesting enough to distract him from the utter strangeness of this Claw. Actual mermaids in the bathroom? A load of crap. But he had never been in the prefects bathroom, so how would he know? Still, he was funny and Harley chuckled a little.

"I had a bath last night" Harlow replied after swallowing a huge mouthful of potato.

“Hellooo, yes let this be a claw bonding time, although I should say, I don’t mean THAT kind of..bonding. Don’t be scared. What is your name? Harley, is it? ” he nodded, “Mermaid in the bathroom? Well that should keep us..in check in case we decide to get adventurous. .But, how are we even going to get in there? None of us are prefects… ” he sighed, “Merepeople are cool, they got swagger..I know a bit of Mermish myself. I should probably go and practice sometime..I had a crush on this meregirl once and she tried to kill me, that was exciting. I wonder if she is still alive..probably with some mereguy, why am I so unlucky?” he lowered his head and pretended to cry.

"Had a bath last night? Oh, why should that stop you!" Remington spun around on his heels. "Have two baths in two days! Live life! Mix it up a little! And if that means having two baths in a row, well, what the hell, eh?" Remington frowned at Gellert and stared at him. "What do you mean 'that' kind of bonding? And there's nothing wrong with being adventurous! Where would I be right now, without being adventurous? Not here, I can tell you. And I know the way in, it's simple enough, something to do with a password, I think it's 'freshly pine', or 'pine fresh' or it could even be 'tropical heat,' I don't know." Remington's grin faltered and he patted Gellert on the back a little awkwardly. "Perhaps you didn't say what you thought you did, maybe instead of saying 'I like you', you said, 'I want to kill you and your family'." Remington frowned. "Mermish is a tricky language, very temperamental."

"I'm sorry. Did I say something to upset you?" Harley asked as the Gellert seemed to be crying. He hadn't meant to upset anyone. Oh well, these were quite the strange pair. He wondered to himself what kind of bonding he'd thought he'd assume. Nope, coming up blanks.

"But I don't need to bath. I don't like baths." Harley snorted, shaking his head. These two sure liked mermaids. They should just be transfigured into one for the rest of their lives. That's make them happy. Harley wasn't so interested... he didn't really like the water and was a pretty bad swimmer.

"You don't like baths, who doesn't like baths?" Remington peered at the boy's face. "Stupid question, you don't, of course, I should stop asking stupid questions, shouldn't I, I'm Remington Zabini, by the way, sixth year, who are you?" He was still gazing directly at his face.

"Very observant of you." Why did he stare so much? Yes. He did ask a lot of questions. Harley was starting to feel uncomfortable, he didn't deal with attention very well. "Remington" He said. That was a funny name.

"Harlow Johnson. Fifth year. But I prefer Harley" He tells, scratching his jaw and looking away, hoping Remington would do the same.

"Observant? Me? Oh yes, I'm very observant, I could make a living out of it. Except I already have a living doing something else - well, no, it's not really a living, more of a hobby that I live by." Remington continued to stare. It wasn't until a moment later, he realised. "Oh! Shy? Shy people generally don't like attention. Am I making you uncomfortable? I have a tendency to do that. Harlow, Harlow, Harlow. Harley. Johnson. Why do you prefer Harley to Harlow? Although, if you had to shorten it down, I'm glad you chose Harley - saying Har would just be weird, same with Low, even Row, but why would you shorten it down to Row? That'd just be stupid, you're not stupid, are you, Harley Johnson?"

ooc sorry, I had a phone call

ooc That's perfectly alright, Vine-Gellert.

"I don't... think so" He said. Unsure. The way he spoke made Harlow nervous, he didn't know how to answer. "Harley sounds smoother than Harlow. It has a better pronunciation." This Remington was quite the character, and Harley hoped that most of his questions were rhetorical. Or that he was simply insane. Ravenclaw; House of the Crazy.

"Do you not have a nick name?" Harley inquired, raising an eyebrow. What could Remington be shortened to? Rem... Mingy. Hah. He laughed out loud for no apparent reason.

“What? Let’s go.” he snapped out of his thoughts. “Stop being weird, you two.”

"Stop being weird? I can never do that," Remington grinned, spinning around. "There are very few things that are impossible in this world, and me not weird is one of them. Of course, I don't think I'm weird, I think I'm perfectly normal - well, no, I don't actually, that's a lie, I just think everyone is weirder. And no, my name cannot be shortened down, unless you're a friend, which you're not. Or my parents, my parents call me Remy. Used to call me Remy," he corrected himself. He grew solemn for a moment, before his face lit up again. "Yes, come on, let's go, Gelly, Harley - hey your names rhyme." Remington moved out of the Hall, his walk a little bit more of a swagger than usual.

Harley blinked, staring blankly as they started to leave. He wasn't entirely sure whether he wanted to make friends with these two. Oh, what else did he have to do? What could possibly go wrong? He scooped up his bag and scampered after them.

Just to see their reaction and laugh, he smiled, “Let’s hope we don’t do any wand dueling..if you know what I mean.”

Remington stopped at the door and turned around. "Why would we duel... in a bathroom? Wouldn't a classroom, or here even, be more suitable?" Remington took a step closer and put a hand inside his robe. "If you'd rather duel than have a bath..."

"I don't mean actual dueling, for Merlin's saggy balls sake...You are indeed pure, Rem" he sniggered, standing next to Harley and wondered if Myrtle was going to show up and entertain them.

"Oh." Remington paused, a hand still in his robe. His eyes widened when he realised. "Oh!" Remington looked at Gellert. "Well, if you'd rather do that - no, what am I saying?" Remington slapped his forehead. "That wouldn't work either. Stupid Remington, stupid, stupid." Remington slapped his forehead a few more times. "And pure, what do you mean by that?" Remington said, genuinely curious, stepping up to Gellert and gazing at him. "I'm not pure, not by any means... At least, I suppose, not in the way you're thinking..."

Harley looked from Gellery to Remington, a crease appeared between his eyebrows. "Myrtle?" He groaned loudly. She was so annoying. It was hard to go to the bathroom in peace ever since he'd told her that she wasn't ugly.

Unfortunately, he did understand what Gellert had meant about... duelling. He snorted and shook his head, amused. They should put on comedy performances.

"You do know the password, right?"

ooc; I'm not going to correct that. From now on you are my Gellery. Not Celery. Gellery.