The quest for Potions ingredients continues! Remembering that one of her classmates suggested looking for valerian roots around the groundskeeper's hut, Ariadne took the path that was leading from the lake straight there. The thick layer of snow that was still covering the ground was a bit of a problem, however. Ari started to dig under the snow with her hands, but found nothing. She then moved a bit closer to the hut and repeated the process. Aha! This time the plant was there. After cutting some of the roots, Ari packed them in tissue paper as well and added them to her odd collection of potions ingredients. The assignment required five ingredients, so there was just one more left to look for. What could that be and where?

After many hours of flying, not that he didn't enjoy it, Hades made himself comfortable on a lower branch in a random tree.

Now, where could his mistress be? He could, of course, look for her, but the tiny leather bag that had been carefully attached by Mrs Hopkins to his left leg was pretty heavy to carry around the grounds, if he wanted to start looking for young Miss Hopkins.

Being stubborn, Hades simply stood up there, scanning every single figure that was passing. His mistress will have to look for him this time, because he was tired and not moving. Nope.

And... there she was!

Helena was wandering around the pathways, looking for some other disgusting little creatures, just in case Hades couldn't arrive in time. But as she passed a few trees, she suddenly heard a hooting noise.

She looked up and smiled as her eyes met the tiny ones that belonged to her owl, Hades. She outstretched her hand, and waited for him to fly down and make himself comfortable there. "Hey," the girl grinned, as she stroked his shiny feathers. "Thank you," she said, untying the tiny leather bag from his leg.

The owl flew away, probably to the owlery, as Helena opened the bag to find a few bezoars from her mother. She knew this was cheating, but she didn't want to touch more disgusting... things.

Janice is in the mood of doing her Potions Homework.
It's not that hard to find daisies, right? She thought. Then, she scanned the ground for those daisies.
About 15 minutes later, she found a small bush of BUSH DAISIES. She is highly allergic to them, but for the sake of reviving the Storeroom, she decided to do it anyway.
She cast a Bubble-head Charm on her head, and took out a steel knife to cut the plant. She pulled the plant upwards, and cut some of the plant's roots. Putting the plant back to the ground, putting the roots to another jar, and remove the Bubble-head charm, she get ready to leave, and spotted a Caterpillar near one daisy. She took the caterpillar, tucked the caterpillar in the root's jar,and leave the place.

The sound of her wellies comforted Thea. Keeping her eyes peeled, she continued to look at the various vegetation either side of her.
The young Gryffindor gasped in suprise as she spotted daisies almost straight away.
Taking her knife out of her bag, she extracted some of the pretty flowers and got their roots.
Closing the lid of yet another container, Thea beamed. She was done! Heheee. By far, the daisies had been the easiest!

Homework time. Stella walked along the pathways looking at trees and plants, trying to look for roots that are needed for the potions homework. She sat on the ground under a tree taking out the list of potions ingredients. After crossing most of the the ingredients off the list, she looked at the ingredients she can and wants to find.



She sighed and mumbled to herself, "This is gonna be hard." Okay the daisy and valerian roots are the easiest so lets start with them. She dot up and began looking for the roots. She spotted a few valerian plants under an old oak tree. She began picking out of the ground a few plants with the roots and put the plants into a small glass jar. "I'll separate the roots later she ticking of the Valerian roots of her list. She put the jar and list into her small bag and continued her walk.

The pathways were now packed with students collecting ingredients for their Potions homework. But Ari had already finished hers, so the girl was there just to have a quiet walk along the snow-covered paths. She hadn't spent a relaxing day in ages. Even at weekends she would go at the library or write essays. Christmas holidays had been fun, but they already seemed long ago. So Ariadne was delighted to have some spare time at last. She continued walking, gathering some snow in her gloved hands in the meantime.

Jamie was on his hands and knees, and he crawled down the pathways searching for something, ANYTHING, to be acceptable in potions class. Being this low to the floor had its advantages. He could see about one hundred different types of bugs, but not all of them would be accepted.

OOH WHAT IS THAT.

A pure white flower came into view, one that he recognized from reading a potions textbook once. He sprung to his feet, and managed to get there before any other student could snap it up. "Mine." He mumbled, then pulled up the Moly plant from it's roots. Uhh... Hopefully that would be safe in his bag. VERY satisfied with his findings, the third year skipped off to another location, in hopes to find moooore.

As Chloe headed through the pathways on her way back to the potions storage room she spotted a feather. She though it must be an owl feather. However uopn approaching it she realized it had the looks that it once belonged to an eagle. Chloe grabbed the feather and put it in a baggie and labeled it. She then kept her stride in heading toward the potions storage room with just about all the ingredients on the list except the most oscure.

Nika skipped around the castle looking for something to do. She was tired of standing inside and even though it was still cold she wanted fresh air. She tugged onto her scarf as she looked around and took a deep breath full of the fresh air. It felt so nice being outside and even the light layer of snow under her feet was relaxing. Maybe winter isn't so bad after all.

Dianna ended up strolling through the pathways. She was finished with her homework and was free to do anything that she wanted as she please. She hasn't been out for the past couple of days and was pleased to see Hogwarts all covered in snow. Winter has always been her favorite among the four seasons she usually encounters. As she walked further, Di noticed someone familiar. Realizing who it was she went over and tapped the girl's shoulder. "Ariadne! Haven't seen you for a while." Di said smiling at her friend. She felt a little guilty for not spending time with her and to her other friends but just like them she too was stuck with school work and other stuff. Time Management is not exactly Dianna's forte.

Katelynn noticed a girl walking towards her. Wait a minute... that red hair was familiar? "Wait up!" Katelynn said, and run up to the girl. "You're Nika, right?" she said, grinning. They spoke once, and it was kind of a stupid question, seeing as you didn't forget Nika easily. Not only because of her red hair, but because she was always soooo hyper! *mental giggle*

Nika turned around when she heard a voice calling her over. She smiled when she saw that the voice belonged to a familiar face. She nodded happily as the girl asked if she was Nika. Wait... what was this girl's name? She knows it, it's at the tip of her tongue-- "And you're Katelynn?" She said with a giggle and silently thanking the heavens that her memory didn't fail her. "What's up!?" She exclaimed happily.

Gwen decided to take a break from studying and go out. On her way to the lake, she noticed a lot of plants growing on both sides of the path. Suddenly, she remembered the Dittany-plant-thing and started looking for it.

It didn't take her much time to find that plant. The girl collected some of it, placed it in a jar and was ready to leave.

That tap on the shoulder startled Ariadne a bit. The girl mentally scolded herself for that, thinking that a Gryffindor like herself shouldn't get scared so easily. But she was very happy to see Dianna. 'Hi, Di, how are you? I've missed you!' the firstie said, giving her friend a hug, before realizing it was a very Hufflepuff thing to do. 'I've actually been looking for you, I did some research in the library on my family and I found out lots of interesting things. There's something I need to ask you.' the child explained. 'But before that, you must tell me what you've been up to lately, and how has your school year been so far.' the girl added.

Gwen continued her walk, happy that she had gotten the Dittany. As she thought of what other ingredients she could get, she almost stepped on a Tubeworm. Eeeeeew-gross!, the young ravvie thought.

Realizing that the worms could be used as an ingredient, she decided she could grab some. But they are disgusting!, she thought. Yeah, but they would be useful for my homework, she contradicted herself.

After a long break of thinking, she finally decided to take some tubeworms. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!, she kept telling herself. I can't believe I am actually doing this. When looking at the first worm, she wanted to back off. You are so gross, she wanted to tell him.

Eh, that's it..., Gwen thought after having collected some worms. They should be enough!

Katelynn nodded with a grin on her face. "Yup" She chuckled. "Not much, really! Just enjoying life - and.. you know - stuff?" stupid, Katelynn "What about you? How are you?" she asked Nika.
She had always admired Nika's hair. It was so... brave? of her? Well, it definitely was cool? She wondered whe- "Where did you get your hair done?" Katelynn suddenly burst out, and - realizing what she had done - giggled.

"Same here." Dianna said hugging her friend back.

She listened to the girl as she told Di on how she did some research on her family and that she found out a lot of interesting things. She also told Di that she had a question for her. What could it be? Her thoughts were interrupted by Ari asking her how her school year was and what she's been up to lately. "Well nothing much. I've been staying inside the castle for some time now so I thought it would be nice to get some fresh air for a change." Di said. "Fourth year's not so bad either." Di continued with a smile.

Nika giggled. Hehe. Stuff. "Pretty much the same. You know just having fun"and eating chocolate frogs She giggled before adding, "And you know-- stuff." She wasn't mocking Katelynn she was just bringing it up again because she thought it was funny.

"My hair?" She twirled a lock of it around her finger. "Actually I got it done right before this term." Yup, that's right she had brown hair in first term! GASP! "I got it done at the hair dresser-place near my house. My parents didn't get me a birthday present last year because they still haven't figured out how to send owls. So instead they said I can choose what I wanted and I chose to get my hair dyed!" In some ways the color really reflected her personality, or so she was told. "It's my favorite color."

Weird how fond she had become of hugs since starting Hogwarts. As a child, Ari was never very clingy, but Hogwarts had turned her into a much more sociable person.

'I know what you mean. I thought my brain was going to explode with all the homework and stuff. Good thing I finally finished my essays and I had some time to go out.' She laughed at the fourth year comment. 'First year is amazing so far.' the little lioness chuckled.

'I researched my family tree, as I began to tell you, and I found out that my great-grandmother, Griselda Marchbanks, had been Head Girl in her last year, while a Malfoy boy was Head Boy, and they were best friends in school. From the pictures I found in the yearbook I suspect they were more than friends, though. Maybe what Draco Malfoy said to Harry Potter, that the Malfoys knew Griselda Marchbanks well, was indeed the truth. I would like to know more about that man, my great-gran's best friend' she explained, wondering if Di had heard anything from her family.

Teeth chattering, Kita walked along the pathways, wondering where to go. There was the courtyard, where she had just come from, or... the other parts of the grounds. Great(!) She shrugged her shoulders and closed her eyes. Desperate times called for desperate measures right?

Spin, spin, spin...

The brunette stopped suddenly, wobbling on the spot as she did so. Still slightly disorientated, Kita looked up at the path ahead of her. Turns out she was made to walk towards the other parts of the grounds. Putting a hand through her hair, she started walking along the path. She turned quickly and looked behind her. Phew! No one there... so that meant that no one had seen her decide which path to take by spinning on the spot. Now that would be quite embarrassing. Even for the girl who barely got embarrassed.

Turning around again, a small smirk spread across the sixth year's face as her pace slowed down to that of a stroll.

Sarah walked absent-minded towards the path leading to the Lake. She had lots of work to do, and yet she was just walking aimlessly. Something had got into her. She never talked with anyone.

As she walked by, she spotted a patch of some plant. Probably something of medical significance? She shrugged and started walking again. "Wait!" she murmured to herself. "That should help for Potions Homework, how stupid of me to just leave it!" she said. She turned back and moved towards the plant. She bent down and examined them.

"This should be.. hm, Dittany, I suppose" she closely watched it, "and wait, what was it used for?" She tried to remember the points she made in the class. She couldn't remember any. Oh great! She rummaged her bag and took out the neat parchment with the ingredients and the uses. She scanned for Dittany. There it was! She read it out, "Dittany - It's used in healing potions such as the Wiggenweld Potion" she folded the paper and crossed her hand. "Right"

She pulled out a large container, detached a handful of Dittany and put it carefully in the big jar. She closed the lid securely and stood up to move.

Samira really hated the cold. It was so...cold. And damp, with all the snow. Spending most of the summer in Asia had made her accustomed to warm weather, and she missed it. But then again, she did spend some time in Antarctica, too. Now that was truly awful. Compared to that trip, this wasn't so bad. But that didn't mean Samira had to like it. Soon, the Slytherin found herself walking around the pathways. Today was really an uneventful day. With Arithmancy over, and Care of Magical Creatures abruptly canceled-thank Merlin-there really wasn't much to do.

Samira twisted a strand of her new purple hair extensions and continued walking.

Ness was taking a stroll with Puffles her Pygmy Puff. She was heading to middle of the pathways when she saw Kita, and started heading towards her, but before she knew what was happening she tripped over a stone. she got up quickly hopping Kita didn't see, but she was sure she did. So blushing she carried on walking up to Kita. "Hey!" she said when she reached her. "How are you?" she asked trying to make Kita forget about her fall. Her cheeks were still very bright red and she hoped they would get back to normal as soon as possible.

Selina was running down the pathway shivering horribly. She wanted to get back to the castle as soon as possible. A nice warm Common Room visit would be nice in front of the fire and maybe Kurumi would have cookies on the table as usual. One could dream. Then she saw a purple strand of hair to a face that she knew, "Samira!" Selina said smiling and shivering, "What are you doing out in the cold?"

Had people forgotten about the DADA term long assignment they were supposed to do? CERTAINLY NOT THIS ONE. perhaps there are still some who haven't but Heather was determined to see each and every task through. It was still a chilly morning, but she had to do some jogging. Plus, 8 kilometers...it might make her lose the flub she had gained from eating too many sweets.

taking a deep breath at the end of the pathways, she supposed she should run until the other end, right? she didn't know how long the pathways really is, but she supposed it was as long as what is required. Heather turned and started to run as fast as she could, but not to fast; just the ordinary jog she can make.

she decided to think of happy thoughts, to distract the ones looming in her mind at how cold the wind was in her face or how silly she felt running alone.

"Get this over with and go back straight to the dormitories." she muttered to herself. She does have a cat to tend to still. And she wanted to make some muffins for her and her friends. Valentines day was nearing and she thought even friends can celebrate it.