She merely arched an eyebrow at her comment on the status of their friendship, her smile curling into a half-smirk. "Not necessarily rude and tactless, depending on the way you went about it. Doing so would have proved you had cared about the subject, at the very least." she shrugged. "I cannot change your actions, and particularly your past actions. In my opinion it was just unmannerly of you." No, she was not going to let the prefect get to her.

Marco held a text book and some parchment to his chest. He had his quill and ink on his robe pocket. He wanted to do his Herbology homework in private, but of course he needed the cactus thing. He snuck into the student gardens, hoping the cactus was in here. If it wasn't he would have to look elsewhere.

He spotted that the gardens were not empty. He quickly stuffed the book and parchment under his robes. Dia, Xana, Cassandra, and that guy Marco had met once, yet had forgotten his name. Alan was it? Oh well it wasn't important.

"Erm...I...um," Marco said. He started backing out the door. "I'll be leaving."

"You have a right to your opinion, Black, no matter how misguided it may be. In my opinion I was the one who was being slighted and made an effort to be gracious about it. If you do not mind, however, I've reached my limit on this topic. If Apedemak wishes for my company, he will respond for himself." She said becomming a little more annoyed at the girl speaking for him.

She saw Marco out the corner of her eye, but didn't say a thing. Apedemak had wanted some time alone with the three of them and Cassandra wasn't going to call her friend over and seem rude.

Xana listened to Diabolica as she scolded the prickly Prefect... She didn't understand why Trelawney was retreating so swiftly, as Apedemak obviously cared very much that she be included in the discussion about his plant and what it meant-- was she so selfish that she couldn't even take a few moments to listen to her friend?

Xana noticed Marco entering the area, as Apedemak stood there holding his very revealing plant. Awwwwkward.... she thought. "Please excuse me a moment. I will be right back." she whispered to Apedemak- Diabolica and Trelawney were too deep into their mutual venom to likely be paying attention, and she wanted to keep Marco from seeing Apedemak's plant unless he wanted to share it with the Quidditch captain. She met Apedemak's golden eyes and nodded a moment, hoping he understood her actions. She didn't want to upset him.

She moved over to Marco, noticing he had his text and parchment, but no plant. "Hey, there, Captain..." she said in a soft voice, approaching him and hopefully distracting him from Apedemak and friends. "I see you have your text... What are you working on?"

From a distance, Xana could hear Trelawney ranting. She sighed inwardly. I'm surprised her soul plant wasn't a venemous tentacula. she thought.

"My text book? I don't have my textbook," Marco said, crossing his arms across his chest to hide the book mark. "I was just...er...looking for...er..." Oh what use was it? Someone had caught him actually going to do some extra work. He tightened his grip on his chest.

Xana raised an eyebrow. Perhaps all that flying at high altitudes was getting to the lad... "Herbology textbook." she said, pointing to the book he was trying to hide and grinning. Was he actually embarrassed to be making an effort in herbology? "Why, Marco Denver, I do believe you're plotting on studying herbology. Don't worry- I won't tell a soul." She grinned. "Is there anything you need help with?"

Marco looked at where she was pointing. He quickly attempted to push the book round his body. Instead the parchment fell onto the floor. It had his picture of a cactus on it. "There's no book there," he smiled. He hadn't noticed the loss of parchment.

"I am not studying Herbology," Marco sighed, "And I don't need any help."

Oh...kay... Xana could respect his desire to continue in private. "Well... okay. If you change your mind or find you do need anything, I'd be happy to help, though... Just so you know." She started to back away and noticed his parchment, and leaned down to pick it up. "You dropped something..."

Marco sighed. He knew he needed help. He always needed academic help. But he wasn't about to tell everyone. "Thank you for the offer Xana. But I can manage." He looked at the work he had dropped. "Oh. Um...that is my journal," he said, looking at the floor, "Thank you."

"I know you've got everything under control, and didn't mean to insinuate that you don't. But the offer stands if you find you need a little, I'm happy to help you." She handed him back his journal with a friendly smile. "How have you been, anyway? It's been a while."

Apedemak knelt and returned the precious plant to the box and affixed the lid in place before speaking in a low quiet voice. “The venom is not necessary. There is a curse within my blood; its manifestation takes the form of an entity that lives within my body which at times can take control. The soul mirror acutely represents the duel nature of my being and the relationship I have with this Constant Companion. Diabolica and Xana know of It because it attacked them.” The Sudanese boy let the statement hang in the air as he returned the Soul Mirror’s box to his haversack.

"I had attempted to avoid it." She told him speaking of the venom. "And I am sorry, about your affliction, I had no idea. It explains why your Konkagami is so unique and beautiful. "I didn't mean to sound as if I wasn't interested, Apedemak, I was merely excusing myself from a conversation I didn't feel I was welcome to join."

"It is a poor host that invites a guest into a home in which they are not welcome. I would not have shared this with you if I did not want you involved." He offered a small, gentle smile.

"And I thank you for that, sharing both your plant and your affliction." She said. "If you wish, I will stay a little longer."

"Thank you," Marco smiled weakly, taking back his journal. "I have been better. But then again, I have been worse. Less things to worry about now. I just hope I pass my NEWTs. I don't think Father will be happy if I fail. How about you? I haven't seen you, in like, forever."

"I can imagine; I'm sure you won't fail though." she smiled. "I've been... incredibly stressed out, truth be known. But things are getting better now. Looking forward to graduating and everything that will come after Hogwarts. Or at least everything that I hope will come after Hogwarts." Her smile became warmer as she thought toward the future. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Apedemak putting away his plant, and she relaxed a little. His privacy had been protected; she was glad.

At his first words, Diabolica began to mentally back down, looking expressionless at Trelawney for a moment before turning back to Apedemak. "I apologize for my behaviour towards Prefect Trelawney." she sighed inwardly. It was hard to apologize for merely stating her opinion... but apologizing to Apedemak was easier, at the very least.

She had attempted to avoid it? So I'm instantly made the villain of this situation? she thought, throwing a riled look at the prefect. For Merlin's sake.

Tia wandered into the student gardens and sat down on one of the benches there and looked at the bunch of students chatting wishing she was more popular

Lima was wandering around the gardens without much to do. She was bored and none of her friends seemed to be around. Sighing, she decided to turn around and head back to the Common room. Maybe she could write some song lyrics or something.

But as she was just going to do that she spotted a girl sitting alone on a bench watching other students. This girl looked familiar to her, but it was hard for her to place who exactly she was. Then it suddenly hit her. This was the girl who she met at the Hufflepuff table recently. Her name was Tia as far as she could remember. But Tia hadn't noticed her yet.

She started to slowly walk towards her and sat beside her on the bench. "Hey Tia, what's up?" she asked casually.

Tia smiled at Lima and said "Hi Lima not a lot have you heard about the students who were animals they are turning back to normal"

"Yeah, I'm excited about that too. Especially Lexi because poor Vannah has missed her so much." She sighed. "Plus it will feel a lot safer without the wild animals roaming about everywhere." She gave a shudder at the thought of the wildcat sounds she had heard from the pantry by the Common Room.

Tia grinned and said "Yeah my friend Excelsior has already returned to normal and it is great to see him there are still many students who are yet to revert back to normal but it cant be too long before the school is running back as normal"

"Oh, that's great! I don't know him, but I'm glad that he's back." Lima was starting to think that she really should become less of a loner. She mostly just hung out with her cousins and boyfriend. "So what have you been up to today?" she asked casually. She just wanted to make small talk right now. She had had more than enough excitement recently, thank you very much.

Tia grinned and said "I havent been up to much what about yourself?"

Cassandra raised an eyebrow... Some apology! she thought. She was apologizing to Apedemak and not to her. Like that wasn't an obvious attempt to gain his favor... which was unlike Diabolica...

And then it hit her, Dia wasn't just smitten with the Sudanese student, she actually was developing feelings for him!!

Cassandra's lip curled into a smirk as Diabolica looked at her.