Well yes, that was true...

Pushing away from the door, arms still crossed, she leaned against the sink next to Marilyn, thinking it over. "Then...we shouldn't let her think we've deceived her." Which they may have technically done, but if they played their cards right, this could all be fixed.

Looking towards the blond Slytherin, Evelyn raised a brow. "If you're up for it of course. You look as pale as a ghost right now..." Good Merlin...

Sighing, Marilyn did her best to relax...Her heart had felt like it was going to beat out of her chest.

Yes, a plan. They seriously needed a plan.

"I'm not scared of many things...but she really terrifies me." Wiping the back of her hand against her forehead, she inhaled...exhaled...a few times slowly. "She just looked ready to murder us both..."

Yea, Lafay's intimidation had worked, rather sincere or bluffed.

"This is probably going to start a Slytherin/Hufflepuff house war...So, what are you thinking?" Hopefully she could come up with something good. Marilyn's brain was in a state of disfunction at the moment.

"Murder?" Nooo. Maim or torture slowly? Yes.

Shaking the thought away, Evelyn turned around and looking into the mirror, leaning her hands against the side of the sink as she thought about before her gaze flickered over to Marilyn in the reflection. Hmmm. "For one, we should probably think of what to say to any possible question that they could throw at us." From both Lafay and Hadley. "You know...so you don't go into panic mode and turn pale and sweat like you are now?"

Nothing personal or anything. Just getting ready for the possible battle up ahead.

Nodding, Marilyn ran her fingers through her hair. Yes, if questioned...she could NOT start sweating.

Cassie really was turning her into a bleeding Hufflepuff. Had that been part of the plan, too?

*scowl* "Okay...So, I imagine classes with Hadley are going to get decidedly harder for the both of us from here on out...just wanting to point that out...I'm not so much worried about her...as I am Lafay."

On second thought..."If Lafay thinks we've deceived her...is she even going to give us the privilege of questions before she starts slinging hexes...?"

She didn't really think much of classes until Marilyn suggested it just now. What was Hadley going to do? Give them long equations to figure out? Lafay on the other hand...

Staring into the sink, the Slytherin frowned for a moment, recalling a particular moment when Lafay had practically threatened her with expired veritaserum for something she didn't do. Imagine what she'd do for something Evelyn actually deserved. A split second later though, she had the smirk back on her face and shrugged her shoulders. "It's a good thing we have that dueling club coming up then, huh?"

"Come on...you think the Headmaster would allow his Professors to use hexes on us? Her job would be at stake." Meaning...they couldn't be THAT harmed while she was in her angry dragon mood.

Marilyn eyed Evelyn for a moment, wanting to believe what she was saying...but not finding the will. This could get very bad. The blonde was deeply aware...

Which lead her back to what the Head Girl had suggested earlier...They needed to think of possible excuses they might need to use.

"I hope you're right...but just in case...I'm going to play the deeply offended, paranoid card. If Lafay asks us why we honestly believed that..." Okay..."I'm going to say that the actions from everyone as of late torwards our house have been less than desirable..."

Did it makes sense? *face palm* She really hated being in trouble...REALLY hated it...

Well, that was one way to put it.

"Well yea, we'd have to play that card." Maybe not 'extremely' paranoid, but something of the sort. "But not to the point where it looks like we're making it up. Which, we technically aren't but..." She couldn't quite tell if Marilyn was all on board. Evelyn didn't particularly want everything to look...planned.

"So, besides the new rule in the dungeons, and the happening from earlier today..." Pausing mid-sentence, she ran her hands through her hair, frowning once more. Her thoughts had frozen. "What exactly else had their been?" Apparently Lafay thought she was only talking about the Hufflepuff house, which she didn't really care to be honest. It was just, they had very little evidence to back up their cards.

She had pink hair.

She had pink hair that won't turn back to its normal colour.

...

WHY in the world did Nora have to practice those spells?! And why won't her hair just turn back? Yes, she liked the reddish - dark pink shade, but she couldn't just walk around the castle looking like that!

She snuck into the girl's bathroom, with her hair hidden under a knit cap, and took it off only when she was sure that there was no one around. Wasn't it enough to be the weird girl with a lizard as a pet, instead of an owl or a cat? Did she really have to have PERMANENT pink hair as well?!

Holding her wand and staring at her dark pink locks, she finally closed her eyes and tapped her head twice. "Intaris." She opened her eyes to find it looking the same. Why? What was wrong?

...

After a few more times of trying, she was about to give up and go to professor Magnus or someone (but surely not professor Lafay, because she had a feeling that the head of house would just turn her hair green to match her house colours)...

... she opened her eyes to face her light brown hair.

It was back! But what took it so long?

Never mind that. As much as Nora liked the spells, she knew she won't try them again. Ever.

Jez lent on the sink and stared at her reflection in the slightly cracked mirror. She was too young to be worrying about these things ... Her appearance was one of them. She had never really been bothered about it before - her waist-length black hair, startlingly violet eyes, and skin still tanned from spending part of the summer in south France. A few freckles dotted her nose, but not too many. One of her older brothers, Keegan, had called her pretty in a tomboyish way, and her younger brother, Than, had called her average, maybe favouring the ugly side. Jez had simply slapped Than playfully at the time, but his words now rang in her ears as she stared at herself, seeing what other students must observe regularly. Her hair was in bad need of a trim, and was just scraped into a tangled ponytail without really being styled. Her eyes were too bright for her face, so it looked lie two big purple beacons were peering out of her face. Some of those freckles could be pimples ...
Jez backed away from the mirror, shaking her head. She was being ridiculous. She was being paranoid. She was turning into one of her older sisters, the vain Desdemona, or try-hard Eris. Jezabel Black wasn't vain or a try-hard. She was ... average. Or she tried to be.
Maybe she should try harder.

Thank Merlin the bathroom was empty when Presley walked in. That was, at first glance she didn't notice another person. She stepped squarely in front of the biggest mirror, and stared determindely at her own refelction. "My goals for this week are to remember to take deep breaths when situations get out of hand, and to make more friends than enemies." It seemed to Presley that this week she'd been making more enemies than anything. Though the situation with Elliot had improved. That was a good start. She studied her reflection. Her long light brown hair was curled beautifully, and her hazel eyes stood out because of how large they were. They made her face unproportional. But Presley didn't mind. Supposedly guys liked big eyes. She was too short. Everybody thought her a firstie, though she was twelve now. That was okay too. At least, that was what Presley told herself. "You are beautiful" she lied to her reflection. This was a task that she had to do. Her therapist would check up, Presley knew it. So she constantly had to tell herself that. Once a day. It was a task that was set to her. Like homework, and Pres couldn't leave a task unfinished. So she lied. Everyday, looking into the mirror, she told herself that she was beautiful. Hopefully someday, she would come to believe it.

Rose had followed MJ all the way down the corridor and up the first staircase, telling her how ugly she was, how awful it was to have to share a home and a family with her... MJ tried to keep telling herself that it was just the potion making Rose say those things, but they still hurt. Professor Lafay said that the potion should bring out the person's true thoughts about you. Was that what her sister really thought of her? MJ couldn't have felt worse about her own self if she'd taken the potion instead. MJ tried to keep the tears behind her face, where they belong, but the effects of the Hate Potion were too much for MJ's already fragile self-confidence to bear. She flopped into the corner of the girls' bathroom, not even bothering with a stall, and let the tears take over.

The door of the girl’s bathroom swung open, and the second year came in silently. She was really in the mood of making fun of people today. Smirking, she headed over to one of the mirrors. Only after a while, she heard a familiar voice not very far from where she was standing. ‘P-resley?’, the young Ravenclaw mumbled, more like to herself. Biting her lip, she tried VERY hard not to laugh. But it was hilarious to hear the girl talking to her own reflection. Oh, this was more than Gwendolyn could handle. Covering her mouth with her cold hand, the second year hoped Presley hadn’t noticed that she was about to burst into laughing. Come ooooon- who talks to himself in the mirror?!!?

‘HAHHAHAHA!!!!’, she really couldn’t help laughing. Finally deciding that she sould show herself, she came closer to Presley. ‘Hello’, she said, trying very hard to keep a straight face. After having greeted the girl, Gwen was ready to pretend noting happened. GAh! This is so hard!, she thought, now wishing she hadn’t approached Presley.

Presley whipped around at the sound of laughter, and saw Gwen enter the bathroom. Presley's face got very very red. She couldn't believe that Gwen, of all people had walked in on her talking to herself. "I--uh-hi." She said awkwardly. She took a deep breath and regained her composure. "How were your holidays, Gwen?" If Presley just moved on past this as if it had never happened, perhaps Gwen would as well. Presley wanted to fall on her knees and beg Gwen never to tell another soul what had just passed, but Presley Black did not beg. Especially since the situation at home was rocky enough right now. If word of this got around to her father, Presley would be in so much trouble.

Trying extremely hard to keep a straight face, the second year looked at Presley. While biting her lip, Gwendolyn noticed the girl’s face was turning red. Meh… better not mock her anymore. Enough is enough!, the young Ravenclaw thought. ‘My holidays?’, she repeated, still grinning. Nice change of subject, she wanted to reply, but didn’t. ‘All right… I suppose. I spent a lot of time at home. It was nice just spending time with my parents…. How ‘bout you?’, Gwen asked her friend.

The girl tried to arrange her hair for a while, glimpsing at the mirror. Then, just when Presley was starting to feel better, and probably think Gwen forgot what had happened, she went on talking: ‘So…. What enemies do you want to make friends with?’

Presley's holidays? This one was going to have to be a careful answer. "Luna came home with me, and we had a lot of fun. My father hosted the annual Christmas party this year. That was dull, as usual." There. A descriptive answer, not lying, not letting on the rest. Gwen, nice as she was, she definitely had a hidden evil side.

Or maybe not-so-hidden. Presley thought, as Gwen brought up the incident again. Presley decided to not give her any fuel, to not let her know that this bothered Presley. "That's not what I said," she replied cooly. "I said I wanted to make more friends than enemies, not make friendswith my enemies." Enemies could stay enemies, and Gwen was quickly drifting toward that fence. But Presley was calm and collected. She'd not done anything that anyone could make fun of her for. Except Gwen, and if Presley didn't care, didn't let it affect her, hopefully the girl would get bored with it quickly. Everyone else, upon hearing this news, probably wouldn't even care. 'Okay, so Presley talks to her reflection, who cares?' It wasn't something like 'Presley picks her nose and wipes it on the walls.' Because that..was disgusting. Nobody but Gwendolyn Greene could find any way to use this against her, but that went back to that not-so-hidden evil side.

‘That sounds great’, she admitted. Glimpsing at her friend, Gwendolyn felt her eyes were going wiiiide. Why is she looking like that at me?

O______________o

Really now- don’t tell me you can get upset just because I’m mean? Sure I’m a rude, insufferable know-it-all (or like William calls me, a pureblood spoilt brat), but I’m not that bad… am I?, the young Ravenclaw thought. Meh… making fun of people just happens to be a fun activity.

Oh…okay?! Why do you keep looking like that at me?, Gwendolyn thought, hoping Presley would stop it, because it started to freak her out. ‘Why?’, the second year mumbled, after having listened to the other girl say something like ‘make more friends than enemies’? Having a few enemies is great. You can practice spells on them. Tee hee….

Gulp.

Okay, now it’s getting really personal!, the girl thought. Am I an enemy to you? Why?, she asked herself, but then realized the answers to those questions were kind of obvious. Shall I apologize?, Gwen asked herself, but, against her will, she raised her shoulders. Meh…

‘Right… um….’, she began talking, willing to finish the sentence with a ‘I’m sorry’, but she just couldn’t. ‘…How are your classes going?’

Presley smirked. She'd just very obviously made Gwendolyn Greene uncomfortable. It was kind of a nice feeling. She felt a little powerful, having turned the tables so completely, from her feeling embarrased to Gwen feeling...well uncomfortable. Why? "My father always says that having enemies can only get you so far, but having influential friends can get you everywhere in life. Who knows how influential these people might turn out to be in the future? I just figure I'd better make as many of them my friends as possible." That was why, Gwen. Because people with only a few acquaintances and many many enemies, were never elected Minister of Magic. Were never hired as healers, because healers had to be nice to people, and they were definitely never promoted to top secret jobs. But of course, Presley didn't say that, she just smiled sweetly at her...friend? Were they even friends anymore after what Presley had just done? She wanted them to be, but she wasn't sure how Gwen would react to the whole situation.

Ah, classes. So Gwen didn't hate her. Presley shrugged. "They're pretty boring. It's mostly stuff I've already covered with my tutor. So I spoke to the Headmaster about jumping a year, but he doesn't want me to miss my first year of electives, so he said we'll revisit the subject at the end of next year." That had made her father so angry. He still refused to answer a single letter of hers. Normally he at least had someone write a brief response saying he'd recieved the letter at the very least. But he wasn't even doing that anymore. Not after that huge fight on Christmas Eve. "And for you?" Presley returned the question to the other girl.

Trying not to feel bad that Presley stared at her, Gwen raised her eyes and looked back in the mirror, just so she would avoid the eye contact. Oh, come on… this is ridiculous!, she decide and limpsed back at the other girl. Psh.

‘Hmm’, she only said as answer to Presley’s remark. ‘Maybe… maybe not’ Okay- I shouldn’t start arguing about this too. That would be pathetic. ‘So I guess you are close to your father?’ There, she speaks of her dad all the time, they have to be close. Moreover, listening to her father’s advice shows that she actually thinks he is right. Or that she has to do what he says… Hmph.

You don’t need to be nice to people… Where would all the Slytherins end up if their jobs depended on how nice they were?!, she wanted to say, but bit her lip. Not because she was afraid of anything, but because she had probably already been mean enough.

When listening to Presley talk about the thing with skipping a year, Gwen rolled her eyes… more out of reflex. She didn’t mean to be rude- nope- it was just her way of being. Meh… ‘Obviously’, she only said, as the other girl mentioned she had already talked to the Headmaster. He’s probably sick of all the people asking to skip a year, the second year thought. That was the reason she didn’t even go to the Headmaster to tell him that. ‘Um… I-‘, she begann saying, and then stopped, trying to decide if this was indeed a good idea. Oh, well- here goes: ‘- Why do you want to skip a year so badly? I get that you are bored, but you can NOT possibly know everything.’ You just can’t. And you are ready to skip a year like that…? Hmm…

‘Did you ask the Professors to give you some extra work?’, she then suggested. Like- they should know you want to do more, right? 'But...', Gwen begann saying- 'I don't think skipping a year is based only on your knowledge... but also on your maturity level and things like that'

For me? Well- first of all I didn’t try to do any stupid decisions about skipping a year, she wanted to reply, but didn’t. Enough is enough! ‘All right, I suppose. I really enjoyed the potions and transfiguration classes.’ After making a short break, she added: ‘Oh, and I absolutely love the duelling club!’, she said, this time full of excitement.

How did she get that Presley was close to her father out of something like that? Because it definitely wasn't true. "My father hardly knows I exist," she replied bluntly. "We aren't close." That should end the subject right there. Presley had said the words as if she was finalizing the subject, and there was no more to be said about it. Because regardless of anything, Presley would not be telling Gwen anything else.

The second question was unquestionably linked to the first. But Presley didn't want to tell Gwen that shewanted to skip because her Father would pay attention to her if she did. No, Presley simply shrugged. "Mytutor says I'm performing on a fourth-year level. I want to learn as muc as I can, and perform at the highest level I can." Maturity level? Presley got that she was the youngest in her year, she knew that. But tat didn't mean she couldn't be more mature than them. She actually enjoyedintelligent conversations with the older students, like Philip, and everyone else. She could think on a higher level and be mature. Was Gwen attacking that? And saying that Pres was immature? "My tutor has been sending me work to do that is more on mylevel for a while now, and I have talked to a few of the teachers about it." Pres wasn't stupid. She knew that she could do more, and she had been.

Oh, the duelling club. Presley wished she had been there for more of it. But they'd barely been told to split into partners when she'd felt so sick, and had to leave. Everyone had been raving about it, and Presley dearly wished she hadn't missed it. She nodded at Gwen. "Yes, I heard the duelling club was veryfun. I wish I'd been able to stay." Odds were good Gwen knew she'd gotten sick. They shared a dorm after all.

Minerva quickly came in from the Gazebo and rushed straight for the girls bathroom. Tears coming down her face. She wasn't sure why she was upset, but something in her just broke. She turned the water on and splashed her face.

Ronnie slowly walked into the bathroom, and felt her heart just drop down to what felt like the pit of her stomache. It was the girl, crying at the sink. She sighed and walked up to her, lightly putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You alright?" she asked softly.

Minerva jumped not realizing someone was near her. It was Harvey's new girl well maybe Minerva wasn't sure what happened after she left. "Oh yes I'm fine. I have been ill the last few days and I guess going out side for that long was just a bit to much."

Coming out from one of the leftmost toilet at the Girl's bathroom, Erin heard a sob and someone consoling who was sobbing. She knew that voice and she was sure it was a voice of a close friend. She hurried toward the door and there she was, looking down at one of the sinks. "Minerva?" asked Erin. Something wrong happened and maybe, this Gryffindor girl was only a concerned citizen. Or maybe, she thought wrong.

Then came Harvey in her mind. Why would Minerva cry like this? Minerva would laughed so hard because of Harvey and Erin was sure that Minerva could also cry this hard because of him.

Oh no now Erin was there watching her cry. "I'm fine Erin, really I am. I have actually been sick the last few days I went to the Hospital Wing only two days ago. I thought I was feeling much better, but being out in the cold made me feel sick again so I came running in here." Minerva washed up her hands and face then grabbed a towel to dry them. Minerva looked at this new girl. "I'm sorry we don't even really know each other do we? I'm Minerva and this is Erin." Minerva looked at Erin and gave a weak smile. "I feel so embarrassed I was actually well.." She looked at the new girl should she tell Erin what she was doing in front of her? Minerva was never one to hold back "Well I was actually being support for Harvey at the Gazebo he was about to tell Ronnie, isn't it? Well anyway he was about to tell Ronnie he liked her. I am hoping I didn't ruin that by getting sick." Minerva felt horrible. "Ok let's get back out to Harvey he needs to talk to you."

"Oh! You're sick?" asked Erin disappointed with herself because she'd never really paid enough time with Minerva. How she missed her! Squeamish! Moving towards her direction, Erin gave her a peck on the cheek. that's what friends do, right? "If you're still sick, I can take care of you," said Erin looking really concerned and ashamed with her close friend.

Then, Minerva tried to introduce the girl to Erin. Ronnie it is. "Hello Ronnie!" said Erin waving to the girl who looked like her age. "What year are you?" She didn't even recognize her from before.

Support? For Harvey? So, she's the new girl. Erin hadn't spoken to Harvey as well about his current personal issues such as his lovelife. "Oh! Hi!" Erin repeated.