Mikey looked at Maria, a look of anxiousness on his features. What was wrong with Maria? Probably best not to ask her though. He'd just met her and they were already a couple. That was moving fast but being able to confide in one another was going way too fast for two little first years. Mikey looked down at the flowers in front of him and continued drawing his landscape. Finally he was finished with it. One more to add to his portfolio. Then he came up with an idea. And idea Maria probably wouldn't have been too happy about but it was an idea. He just wasn't sure it was a good idea to ask her. She didn't seem in the mood right now. But he really wanted to ask her so desperately. "Maria?" he asked cautiously to get her attention. But he still wasn't sure he should ask her the question. Sure, he was artistic, but he wasn't sure if Maria would allow him to draw a portrait of her.

Maria looked up slowly. "Yes?" she asked. She was fighting back her tears as her mind was filled with violent memories.

Mikey gulped and shook his head. "It doesn't matter" he replied.

Maria sighed and unconsciously laid her head on Mikey's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm just being moping. What is it that you want to ask me?" she questioned, her Italian accent thickening.

Mikey smiled and put his arm around Maria. "It doesn't matter. I'll ask you another time" he replied.

Maria couldn't hold it in anymore. Her shoulders trembled as she began to tell Mikey her life story.

"When I was nearly six weeks old, my mother and father got into a huge fight. My mother got violent, and landed my father in the hospital. They got a divorce three days later. Papa took me and we moved to a different part of Italy. Venice. But no matter how much I ran, Mama always found me. She took control of my life. Finally, when I was seven, my father took me to Britain and I met my aunt and cousin. Willow and Ad. My uncle, Lucas, had just died the previous week. My father and Willow came to an agreement. Since Papa looked like Ad's father, and Willow looked similar to my mother, they married. But now they can't get along, only two years after they were married. Papa's gotten violent like my mother, and both Willow and Ad have ended up being hospitalizied. And now Mother wants to drag me back to Rome. And I only just got here" she said.

Somehow she had ended up crying on Mikey's shoulder, which was soaked.

Mikey listened as Maria spoke of her life story. He didn't know what to say. And he though he'd been through a lot? Not nearly as much as Maria had. He comforted Maria as best as he could, his shirt soaked from where she was crying on it. Good job she didn't have make-up on. Uncle Alex would've killed him if he got make-up stains on his clothes. Never a good thing. Not around Uncle Alex at least. "It'll be ok" he assured knowing Maria probably didn't think so. But he didn't know what else to say. He was only eleven. He wasn't good at comforting.

Maria finally stopped crying and at up. She stared at Mikey for a while, then smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry. Now your shirt's soaked" she said softly, looking down a little. She hummed a part of a song. Family Portait. Her life story.

Mikey looked at Maria and sighed. "It's ok. It'll wash" he commented. Well it would.

Maria nodded and wiped her eyes. She pulled Mikey in for a tight hug. "Thank you" she whispered.

Mikey smiled and returned Maria's hug. "You're welcome" he replied.

Maria pulled away and kissed Mikey gently. "Now I know how Ad felt" she chuckled.

Mikey smiled at Maria and returned her kiss. To him, kissing a girl didn't feel weird at all. It just felt like a sugar rush. "In what sense?" he asked, confusion clear on his boyish features.

Maria smiled, a barely visible blush gracing her pale skin. "How it feels to actually know what real love is like. Its something between Ad and I. We both feel like we grew up not knowing what it felt like to be truly loved. Until Justin stepped into Ad's life, she was alone. And the same with me and you" she explained, hoping it wasnt too confusing.

Mikey listened as Maria spoke. "Fair enough" he replied not knowing what else he could say.

Maria nodded a little. "Yeah, I guess so" sh said, then looked up. "So, what is it you had wanted to ask me?" she asked, tipping her head to the side a bit.

Strolling down a path into the student garden, Aurora gazed at the plants, searching for dittany or peppermint. Aha! She tied her long, red hair back with a green ribbon, knelt beside one of the beds and donned her gloves. She separated the peppermint from the other mint plants and used her shears to cut off a few sprigs from each peppermint plant, careful not to take too much from any of them; she didn't want to kill them. She took the box from her pocket with the Augry feathers in and wrapped the peppermint in thin tissue paper, placing it next to the Augry feathers and closing the box.

Dittany... hmmm... She walked down the path some more until she arrived next to the magical herb bed. She knelt beside it, looking for dittany. She eventually found it, hiding under a particularly excitable foxwort plant and trimmed it a little, wrapping the trimmings in tissue paper and putting them with the peppermint and Augry feathers. She loved this little box, it had been a gift from her brother. He had put an Undetectable Extension Charm on it and it had come in very useful in transporting her... creations. Even so, it was already half full with the feathers and plants. Probably room for a few more ingredients though.

Would Professor Bentley have asphodel in this garden of hers? Ariadne should have asked her that, but the girl could probably find some without help and besides, that would have taken up a lot of time. So here she was, walking in the garden, looking through her Herbology textbook, trying to find the plant which resembled the one pictured in the book under the title 'Asphodel'. After approximately 15 minutes, Ari found said plant and bent down to cut some. This made her feel beyond guilty. Even if this was the students' garden, she still felt as if she was doing something forbidden or wrong. Nevertheless, Ariadne went through with cutting the plant and added it to the peppermint in her bag, after having wrapped it in tissue paper.

Mikey half-smiled. Now he was pretty bored. Back to drawing maybe? He looked at Maria. "I was going to ask if I could draw a portrait of you" he told her.

Maria smiled. "Of course" she replied sweetly.

Penny walked around the garden for about 30 minutes, in awe of all the beautiful plants.... Paying better attention now to the plants, she spotted the Valerian plant.... kneeling down beside it, she tugged gently on five of the plants pulling them up by the roots....

"Whoohooo, four down...one to go... she said to herself with a smile..

Wandering along the path, Thea rubbed her arm. Was she allowed to go wading into the plants?.. Well.. it was for homework!
Passing a particularly colourful clump of flowers, she stopped to peer at them. Bending over slightly, Thea grinned as she spotted around five plump caterpillars snoozing in the weak sunlight.
'Sorry guys..' she murmered as she picked them up one by one and put them into another container, only ths one was filled with leaves and such. 'Make yourselves at home!' she told them.
Taking one last sniff from the flowers, she turned on her heel to head for her next destination.
Her thighs should be rock solid after all this trecking about. Sigh

Mikey smiled. "Thanks" he replied. Mikey opened his sketch pad to a clean page and sat so he was looking straight at Maria and began sketching her.

Maria smiled and sat perfectly still.

She had had enough practice to do that. She had sat through so many sessions of having a family portrait painted, she knew the artist by name.

Mikey looked at Maria continuously so that he could get every angle of the portrait perfect. Finally he was finished.