"Derian?" Rafe asked with a raised eyebrow. What could she possibly want with him? "Um...the last time I saw that git he was face down in the lake!" And it served him right.

Heather laughed. "Git? Really?" Alright this was the moment of truth. "Do you think he would-" Heather took a deep breath. "Do you think he would go out with me?" She choked out and blushed immediately. Oh God, what did I do?

" You welcome" Rex told Alice." I will give you specifics later" Rex said to Alice
" Ok. when you have your planner with you is a great idea" Rex explained to Alice..

" Rex helped pick up the girl's books. " My name is Rex Trigwell" he introduced himself to her." How do you like being in Gryffindor?' Rex asked her.

Lexi climbed in through the portrait hole in front of Sabel and shot a glance around. There was a vacant spot near the fireplace that, coincidentally, no one was nearby. Hehe. Making her way over to the sofa she plopped down and pulled her legs up, hugging them to herself as she watched the flames dancing. Sigh. So much to tell Sabel. He was going to be all concerned and stuff, and she hated that, but they were friends... she should share her life with him. Smiling up to him she patted the sofa beside her and said, "This might take a while, you may as well get comfortable."

While Lexi was making herself comfortable on one of the more isolated sofas, Sabel moved over to an unoccupied area and gathered a blanket that was left behind. He took a moment to wrap it around Lexi's shoulders when he moved back over to her, before sitting down beside her, resting his back against the corner between the arm-rest and the back of the couch.

Take a while? He wasn't too sure what that meant or what they were going to be discussing next, so he remained quiet, waiting for her to continue.

at long last!.. that was an exhausting day!..good thing her favorite chair by the fire is empty. she quickly slouched their thinking blankly. she saw her cat Ginger and let it sit on her lap. She storkes it's hair.

Lexi broke her hypnotic stare at the flames to let her eyes follow Sabel as he was his typical thoughful self. Sitting and watching him for a moment after he wrapped the blanket around her she sighed and stretched out, legs flung over Sabel's as she lay her head back and watched the flames from upside down.

"Lots happened since... then. I have been thinking about having the Denver's transfer me to Beauxbatons, Sabel. I don't think I should continue my education here. What with my parents, the Kennedy's, missing or what have you and all of the drama and stress of being here with the largest group of inconsiderate people I have ever met, present company excluded, of course, it is all becoming a bit much for me. I am judged so harshly around here... judged for behavior that, yes it wasn't acceptable to some, but it was due to my mental state. Something that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't control. It is high time I let it all go. It is time I get away from these memories, I think. What happened tonight... That was because of my father. Things he used to do to me..." she said in a soft voice, so as only Sabel could hear her. She didn't lift her head back up, she stayed with her head tilted back staring into the fireplace.

"Thanks Lexi. I really do appreciate it." Alice looked down at the handkerchief and gave it another smile. "Would you mind if I held onto this?" Alice knew it would probably sound silly, but perhaps having something with her that reminded her that Lexi was there for her and understood, even when she wasn't physically there, might help.

Rafe was really taken by surprise. This was really awkward. "I don't know Heath," Rafe said uncomfortably. "He's young, I don't even know if he even thinks romantically about girls in the first place." Though looking back at the time at the lake Derian certainly was around a lot of girls already. "And I thought you were still hung up on this Tyler guy?" Though Rafe would never admit it, he didn't really like the idea of his brother going out with someone that was still in love with someone else. He'd seen how that didn't end too well. "Why would you want to go out with Derian anyways?"

Selina pulled herself through the portrait hall still covered in sweat from her practice for Quidditch try outs. She seemed to be off balance somewhat as she always was when she rejoined the land of the walking. When in the sky Selina was always more graceful and composed than she ever was on land. It was like she was meant to fly. So the sight of the stumbling girl adorned with sweat in her Quidditch practice clothes was quite a sight.

Selina made her way over to one of the old red couches and plopped herself down on it. Her red hair that was now windswept was being pushed around in the headband that she was trying to fix. Looking around the commoon room she saw some straglers that like her were just hanging out in the common room. She knew very few of them and was looking forward to a time when she knew them all by name.

Beths legs ached from standing so she walked towards the chairs by the fire.
"Do you mind if I sit here," she asked guesturing towards a seat beside one that was already occupied.

Emily climbed throught the portrait hole with some difficulty as she was carrying a lot of books she had just checked out from the library. She carried them over and sat in a seat next to a girl wearing quidditch robes. She looked exahusted!
Emily pulled the first book off the pile and saw it was 'Quidditch through the ages'. She opened it and began to read.
'Mabye the girl next to me would like to read it?' she thought

"I am not hung up on Tyler. You don't know what he did to me! I will never go back to him, and I will be lucky if I never have to see his face again. After what he made me do- and he wouldn't let me get away! I tried to run but it didn't work, my parents - I tried!" She was out of breath and started sobbing, but calmed down after a few deep breaths. "I wanted to read the letter he sent me because I wanted to see if he at least felt bad for what he did. But I burned it because I realized that I didn't care anymore. Derian - Derian, I don't know, he just-. I trust him. And you for that matter. But Derian is my age and he's sweet and kind and charming. I want to try at least. I really like him." She looked down at her hands. She hated the fact that she was crying, she was stronger than that. Heather felt ashamed for letting Rafe see her like this.

"Calm down geeze!" Rafe said as he pulled out his handkerchief and held it out for her to take. "So you're over Tyler, I get it, but..." Hmm... Rafe could have fun with this. "Stop crying, please, I think I have a solution." Rafe took out his wand and summuned a small unlabeled pink vial, "Derian isn't very good at expressing his feelings. He likes a woman to take initiative," Rafe said with a grin as he put his arm around her and gave her a light squeeze. He then held out the pink vial, "All you have to do is put this into a drink and he'll tell you how he really feels. And I'm telling you, he's looked at a few girls here and there, but he hasn't looked at anyone the way he looks at you." He placed the pink vial gently in her hands, "Just give it a chance, and you'll see a side of Derian like you've never seen before!" Rafe had an ear to ear smile on his face.

Heather considered the bottle carefully and then stuck it in her pocket. "Okay." She said, feeling better. "I still don't know where he is though. Are you sure he won't be mad at me for doing this?" Heather looked down at the bottle in her hands.

"No, are you kidding?! Derian will probably be grateful that you did this for him," Rafe said with a smile as he watched her pocket the love potion. "This will give him a chance to really express how he feels, after all no one should keep all their feelings bottled up inside, it's torture." As for Derian? Rafe had a feeling he'd be returning to the common room any minute, so maybe he shouldn't be there when he did arrive. "How about I go look for him and tell him you want to talk to him?" As for something to put the potion in, with his wand still out he pointed up the to boy's dormitories and then a couple of butterbeers flew down. "Here, you can put the potion in this and just talk to him over drinks." Rafe really hoped Derian would go for it. He stood up and sat the butterbeers in front of her and left the common room to "go in search for Derian."

"Thanks." she called after him, but he was already gone. Heather sat down on a chair and began reading. She eyed the two portions of butterbeer on the table and smiled to herself as she waited for Derian.

He had passed Rafe on his way to the common room, but his brother looked either too busy or still too annoyed to talk to him just yet. With raised eyebrows, he wondered how long Rafe's menstrual cycle would last and if the two of them would be on talking terms by Christmas break. Dispelling his thoughts with a shake of his head, he muttered, "Flibberdigibbet..." and waited until the portrait swung open all the way before entering the Gryffindor common room. He felt like he had been talking to Elektra for hours and he was really happy with his new friend. Now, if only he could get Chris to come around, he would be happy. He wondered what made the girl so shy around anybody else but him. People were so mysterious as a whole--but womenfolk were especially unfathomable. Derian was pretty sure that he would never understand the female gender.

The portrait closed behind him almost as soon as he passed the threshold. before him, the Gryffindor common room was its typical red and gold self, except for the fact that it was sparsely populated. He grinned seeing Heather sitting there, it had been awhile since he had seen Heather and figured he might as well spend some time with yet another one of his friends before heading off to the boys dorms for a kip.

"Hello there, Heather! I see you have two drinks there, mind if I take one of them and join you?" Hands in his pockets, he slowly ambled over to where she was sitting.

Maybe this isn't the best approach. She thought to herself. She would try at least and then slip him the love potion if he didn't... Before she even finished the thought she stood up and kissed him. Well it is the best way to ask. She thought to herself. She unscrewed the bottle while he was distracted, just in case. She'd wait to see his reaction before putting it in.

Selina turned around at the sound of the voice she had heard down at the lake. She noticed that he had been talking to Elektra earlier and that they had been getting along quite well. But he had quite a temper on him with the boy who had introduced himself to her as his brother. That type of temper was very familiar to Selina. It made her wonder....

She walked over to him and said, "Hello, I'm Selina Skylar... Elektra's friend."

For a brief moment, Derian stood speechless at what Heather had just done, but the other girl, Selina, came over and introduced herself. Fighting the blush that threatened to overwhelm him in reaction to what must have been an accident on Heather's part, he grabbed her shoulders and gently held her upright and away from him, "Heh... y-you might want to watch your step. What if I had not been here to block you tripping?" He smiled at her warmly, again trying to not be too embarrassed, and then turned to Selina.

"Hi, I am Derian Lycaon. Its nice meeting a friend of Elektra's... especially one that's in the same house as me." He thrust out his hand, offering the girl a handshake, "Were you at the lake? If so, you should have come over and joined the conversation. The more, the merrier!"

"Sorry." Heather said blushing. "I really like you and I thought- I wanted to. She was fighting the urge to just kiss him again. Last chance Derian. she thought. After this it was the love potion.

Story of my life. Elyon stared at her feet while Adam and Selina discussed his home life. His answer was simple, but she completely understood how he felt. Her mum was exactly the same, maybe even a little worse. She brushed her bangs out of her bright blue eyes, feeling extremely awkward. She didn't want to talk about home, so she quickly changed the subject. "So are you guys excited for Quidditch?" She blurted out the first thing she could think of. She felt herself turn bright red.

Selina smirked over at the girl... denied. Probably for the better too, Derian and Elektra seemed to be getting on quite well down by the water. Not that she was watching, but Elektra was her best friend and it was always good to keep an eye on things with her.

Turning her thoughts back to the boy in front of her she replied, "I did come and say hi. But you were predisposed with my friend Elektra so I got talking to your brother. That's fine with me though. I mean we are in the smae house. So I have a feeling we will be talking a lot."

Selina grabbed his hand and shook it. He was a nice guy all in all. And Elektra was not an easy person to impress so Seilna knew this Derian character must be a really good person.

"So tell me something 'bout yourself."

Heather's response only served to confuse him more, "Well, I like you too... That's why we're friends." He tilted his head and furrowed his brows at her. Why was she being so... mysterious all of the sudden? When he had first met her, she was frank enough about herself and all the things she had been through at Tyler's hands; he just did not comprehend how the situation had suddenly changed.

He turned back to Selina and shrugged, "Well, where to begin? For starters, I guess, I'm a half-blood. My mom's a muggle and my dad is a wizard-of-sorts, but I don't really get on with him... but, huff-puff! Ask away, and I will answer to the best of my ability." He grinned Selina's casual-but-pointed manner.