A potion? Vashti raised an eyebrow. "I guess there is," she replied slowly just before Louisa's next question, which caused both of her eyebrows to shoot up. "Right now?" Though Vashti wasn't sure she even wanted to make a potion for this. Were they allowed to make potions outside Potions class? And even if they were, what if she messed up, tired as she was? Just because she wanted to stop thinking for a short amount of time didn't mean she wanted to lose the ability to think forever, or whatever a messed up potion would do to her.

Now? Of course! That should put the spotlight on the forbiddenpotion rather than the vial of Love Potion Louisa had under the blanket. "Yep. That makes it even more exciting! Come!" She jumped out of bed and grabbed Vashti's elbow. And guess what? They could use that giant book about powerful potions and how to make them irreversible. That one caught her naughty eyes weeks ago and no harm in having an anti-headache potion irreversible right?

"Let's get to the library now. Maybe we can even go to the prohibited section!" She squeaked happily, forgetting about Vashti's reaction, "Come on!!" She tugged on her friend's sleeve. FINALLY, she was about to 'widen' her horizons. *shifty*

Vashti's eyes widened. Louisa was serious?! "What?! No!" she whispered loudly, struggling to keep her voice down and her feet planted on the ground, resisting her friend's tugging. "We're not allowed out of the common room after hours!" She tried yanking her arm out of Louisa's grip before grabbing the girl's arm with her free hand so she couldn't run off. "We could get in serious trouble for sneaking out, let alone breaking into the Restricted Section."

Louisa was jerked a little when Vashti caught her hand. What was wrong with her friend? She so should slip a drop of that potion into Vashti's Pumpkin juice one day... you know when someone loves you, they'd do anything with you. Not keeping arguing! Louisa sighed and stood where she was, "What's wrong with going out? Why do they even keep us in here? I don't trust grown ups to follow their rules!" She broke off realizing what she's just said.

That went out wrong. She didn't want to say that. She was just mad at her mother. She was mad at Marina too. Well, she was mad at everyone in fact and bottling it all in didn't help. Louisa felt the tears swelling in her eyes and she quickly wiped them and climbed back to her bed. No need to struggle with someone as good as Vashti. And good meant bad in here, hmph.

Vashti opened her mouth to speak but stopped when that final statement came out of Louisa. She closed it, biting her lip as she watched Louisa suddenly wipe at her eyes and get into her bed. Silent, Vashti walked a couple paces to the bed and sat gently on the edge. She turned so that she was facing Louisa.

"Why's that?" she asked softly.

Louisa hugged her knees, forgetting about the hidden vial between where Vashti sat and herself, and rested her chin on her hands. "I don't know. Nobody cares enough about.." me. But she didn't say it. It made no sense and she wasn't about to babble nonsense to Vashti. Instead, she dropped the spotlight on her friend, "Do you?" She demanded, "Do you really think that our parents, the closest grown ups to us, care so much that they do stupid things and make us just go with it?!" She knew this might hit a nerve on Vashti but she didn't care not when her anger had risen to the surface.

Vashti had a feeling that she knew how Louisa wanted to end that sentence but decided not to push her to keep going. As it turned out, Louisa didn't need any prodding to continue. Vashti's expression hardened. "My parents do care, and they don't 'make me go along with' anything," she said coolly, talking normally now, no longer caring about keeping her voice down. She also no longer cared about trying to separate her parents with verb tenses. As far as she was concerned, her dad was still here, if not physically, and she was going to talk about him as if he was, especially now, when Louisa was accusing both him and her mum of things that they didn't do.

Louisa sighed when Vashti answered rather defensively. She shot a look at her friend before answering, "Well not all of us are that lucky." Wasn't Vashti's father dead, anyways? Why did she refer to him as well? Louisa thought better of commenting on that. She didn't want to hurt her friend despite the anger she was feeling, "Listen, I don't care if you think I'm a troubled child or whatever. I've heard that a lot and from almost every person I try to talk to but when I say I don't trust others to care for me enough, it means I have my absolute reasons." She sternly looked at her, sooner or later she was going to tell Vashti that so might as well do it while other people were asleep. It gave the speech the right spirit.

"I didn't say I was lucky," Vashti responded immediately. She didn't consider it lucky to have a dead father. It was the very opposite of luck, really. She sighed, looking away for a moment then turned back to Louisa as she continued speaking. The fifth year was silent for a few moments, considering how to answer. Finally, she said, "Do you think that I care about you?"

Louisa didn't respond to Vashti's first answer. Her friend was being vague a lot and she wasn't in the mood of dwelling in others' lives. Not now anyways. However, when the question was shot at her, she blinked. Louisa hadn't expected that. She swallowed before answering, "I.. I didn't mean that." She dodged. Vashti obviously cared for her. Three years and no matter what stupid idea Louisa had she always was there for her. Even Kitty liked her friend, the naughty stubborn cat. And that proved her idea to be wrong. Sometimes, Louisa didn't like being wrong and today was one of them. She just shrugged, "I think you consider me as a friend, yeah."

Rachel tried to smile at her friends, they were helping her a lot, "Thanks guys," she said, "I really mean it." she said, giving a tiny smile at them. She knew that at some point it would have to happen, but she didnt even get to say goodbye to her! Her friends were being kind to her, in a way that nobody ever had, she was greatful to have friends like them. Rachel remembered about Presley's mum, she knew how it felt to lose somebody dear to her. Luna was lucky, but she was being really sympathetic to her, at least she had her dad.

Vashti nodded, a bit relieved to know that she wasn't one of the people Louisa didn't seem to trust. They had been friends for a few years, after all. "So then, do you trust me enough to know which rules are worth abiding by?" Like not breaking into the Restricted Section. Or staying out of Knockturn Alley. The ones that would prevent them from getting thrown into detention or getting killed. Those were the kinds of rules that were good to follow.

Presley almost started crying herself. She knew just how much pain Rachel must be in right now, and to hear it in a letter? It would have been slightly better had her dad come to Hogwarts to tell her, but he hadn't. Though Presley was sure he was a nice man, she couldn't help feeling a bit resentful toward him for this. "Rachel, if there's anything you need, or want, do not hesitate to ask. I can get your homework for you if you don't feel up to class, I can make you sweets, I can just listen while you talk, anything. I mean it. And I'm sure Luna too." Presley glanced sideways at her friend. Luna would definitely be up to the task of helping Rachel through this tough time. Presley knew just how important those things were to somebody in this situation. She knew how sometimes a passing person asking how you were doing could either make your day, or make you start bawling your eyes out. She didn't want Rachel to have as rough a time of it as Presley knew it could be, and she was determined to do anything to make this even the tiniest bit easier for her.

''Yes defently'' Luna looked at Rachel she didn't like to see her like that all sad and crying of course she didn't know how it felt but she cared an awfull lot she hoped that Rachel would feel better to be happy soon but she knew it was going to take a while for her to settle in with the situation she felt really upset for Rachel now she was also tired but she didn't want to go back to sleep not with that in her mind ''Rachel are you going to be okay!'' said Luna after a while

Louisa's head snapped toward Vashti once she finished her sentence. She should've known it! Vashti was playing the nice trusting friend who wants the best and blah blah blah... well, Louisa wasn't going to fall for that. "No! Sometimes we have to break some rules to get what we want! Nobody every cared if they break more important things.." Say like marriage or their daughter's heart, "..might as well break some stupid school rules. But if you don't want to, you're free. I don't want to force you." She shifted quickly in her position sending the vial to the carpeted floor with a small thud.

Merlin's Beard! Louisa's eyes widened and bent down, grabbed it and hid it under her pillow looking expectantly at Vashti. Think of something to say, quick!

Sigh. Again. "You're right," Vashti said, trying not to sound exasperated at this point. "Sometimes you have to break some rules to get what you want - if what you want is the right thing. Right now though? Now is not one of those times, especially when it's for something like-" Thud!

Vashti stopped at the sound, her eyes moving in the direction it had come from. A potion vial...

She was unable to get a good look at it before Louisa grabbed it and tried hiding it under her pillow. "What was that?" Vashti asked, eyeing the girl.

"Nothing!" Louisa burst out quickly and looked around to see whether her slightly raised voice woke anyone up. Nope. They were safe. She slid the vial under her pillow and rested her right elbow over it without too much force, "It's just.. something someone gave me." That was true.. well half true but she didn't want Vashti to know about the Love potion! She might get rid of it! And lying to her friend was awful... even Louisa couldn't bare that.

"Nothing," Vashti repeated skpetically, raising an eyebrow. "Then why are you hiding it?" What else could Louisa possibly be getting up to? Vashti wasn't sure she wanted to know. But of course she did. Louisa might not care about breaking rules and getting into trouble, but Vashti did. Causing trouble didn't exactly help solve whatever problems the third year had with life - it would only add to them. And Vashti knew this.

"Thanks guys," Rachel said, "Theres no need to make sweets for me, Presley," she told her friend sniffing. She tried to procese it all in her head, but it was too much. The funeral would be soon, and wy didn't her dad come to Hogwarts to tell her, the letter made it worse, he had said that she could go to Luna's house, but after the funeral, how unsencitive. "I think that I will be OK in a while. I just need to get used to it all." Rachel said to Luna. Rachel sniffed, and wiped her eyes on her sleve. She hoped that she would be able to go to class, but wasn't very sure if she could. She knew what to do, she would write back to her dad and tell him what her friends had said, he didn't seem that upset in the letter, but she knew that her father never liked to look soft, even if he felt it, he would always talk as if it didn't hurt him at all.

Luna went to her bed to get a box of tissues for Rachel she had them cause she had hayfever ''Here! have these'' said Luna sitting back down on Rachel's bed and then handing her the box ''Are you sure you don't need anything Rache!'' said Luna looking at Rachel with concern

Vashti's skepticism was obvious.. and reasonable since she'd seen most of Louisa's plans, the third year herself thought so. She sighed exaggratedly and took the vial from under the pillow holding it between her hands, "Fine." She snapped, "Aurora, someone I met in the summer, gave this to me. She belongs to a very powerful family in Potions." Louisa said casually after the snap she didn't want to scare Vashti away.

However, the essence of the Love Potion should stay unfold. Fingers crossed that Vashti wasn't so good at Potions and she wouldn't recognize the silver liquid inside. It wasn't a finished Potion yet... Aurora told Louisa what to do before using it so that people wouldn't recognize its content- Louisa's own request.

Rachel was thanking them like the sweet person she was. Presley smiled at Rachel. "We'll always be here for you Rach. For anything. You know that." Presley would be. Her loyalty was undying and she would never abandon a friend, no matter what. She'd been having her difficulties with William, but that didn't mean she didn't want to stay good friends. Rachel needed her help, and Pres would be there. She scooted over to her bed and pulled out a bar of chocolate she'd been saving for a rainy day. Pressing them into Rachel's hand, she explained, "chocolate always makes me feel a little better. Here, have this."

Vashti's expression did not change even as Louisa finally explained what it was and where she had received it. Well, sort of explained anyway. Vashti was sure there was more to this story than just that, and she wanted to know the rest. Especially if this was another of Louisa's rule-breaking plans. "That still doesn't explain why you were trying to hide it," she said, crossing her arms.

That girl never lost hope in her life, did she? Because Louisa's patience started to run out. And she was a PATIENT person. Hmph. Letting out another sigh she leant her back on the pillows behind, the vial still between her hands, "Because I didn't want you to see. You'll probably say that taking this from a stranger was wrong." THERE! She confessed.

Happy?

Pouuut.

Vashti sighed again. It was too late at night for all this. "Well, yes, it's not very wise to take a potion from someone you don't know," she said slowly. "But I suppose you know her now and you're friends?" It was more of a question than a statement because she had no idea if Louisa had even spoken to this Aurora person since she'd received the potion. She paused for a moment then, glancing briefly out the window at the moon. Her eyes turned back to Louisa after a few moments. "Just what kind of potion is it, though?"