Ronnie walked into the common room, feeling very worn out and tired. She walked over to a comfy chair and sunk into it. It was soo comfy...she began falling asleep...

"And yours can't have the meaning of self expression?" Kurumi asked arching an eyebrow. "Have you ever tried stepping back and seeing what GOOD you could do with your abilities?" Sure, dealing with the time and future was a complicated one, but there was a lot Selina could do.

Her eyes widened a bit when Selina showed her the tattoo, which had probably triggered the third year's most recent slip into the unknown. "But Selina...you can control it now. That itself is amazing," she continued. Merlin knew how many years away Kurumi was from gaining any sort of control over her own abilities. Most likely, this had something to do with her refusing to accept them. Perhaps, in her own odd away, Selina was accepting hers and that is why she could control them now.

"For Merlin's sake Selina, I am not telling you to forget that she ever existed," Kurumi said softly shaking her head. Now THAT would be the biggest dishonor. "But, you can't let that dictate your entire life. You remember the story I told you about my best friend, Hitomi, the one who left me because of what I could do. Because of what I AM?" She paused for a moment. "If I let that incident of her throwing mud in my face and kicking me along with everyone else dictate my life, I wouldn't be here sitting with you Selina. I would have locked everyone out." Perhaps the red head would see this as a weak connection, but Kurumi had come to learn that turning everything into a pity party for one, not letting go of the damage of the past, well...doing that wasn't going to give you a future.

Selina was somewhat taken aback by Kurumi's abrasive reply. Perhaps the little third year was in fact having an influence on her lioness sister. Kurumi was not the same girl she had met on the knight bus three years ago. She was different, stronger. Yet, Kurumi was still herself in every manner of the word. Her miniature outburst on Selina had startled the third year and at the same time made her sort of glad. Did Kurumi even see how strong she was? How powerful she was?

All of the things Kurumi was saying though wounded Selina internally. She knew there was some validity in what Kurumi was saying, but Selina had never healed, she had never mourned, she was still very damaged. There were years of ignoring her sister and what had happened, years. Now that it was all coming to a head Selina wanted to press it all back down, let it fall back into the crevises of her mind and never escape. If she lied to herself that everything was okay and knew internally it was all her fault, life was a little easier.

Then Kurumi said something that made Selina pause- she could do something good with this curse.

Tears started to brim in her eyes and every single wall that Selina had put up, sheltered herself in came crashing down in front of Kurumi. Selina had never let those walls fall for anyone. Kurumi was the first and, if Selina had anything to do with it, she would be the last. She hated being so vulnerable but she had never grieved, never done anything to cope with what she had done. "Kurumi... my sister is dead." The weight of those words finally settled into Selina's skin like the tattoo on her shoulder, "Danny is dead."

Fiona dragged herself up the stairs towards the girls' dorms. "Finally, it's nap time!!!," she thought excitedly. It had been a bit of a tiring day having to deal with some nutty teachers. "Well hopefully I can get in a few minutes of sleep before dinner," Fiona sighed as she pushed open the door, "or maybe not." Fiona looked around the room to see several bizarre scenes. One girl looked like she got the snot kicked out of her while several other girls chatted throughout the room. Fiona dropped her backpack on the floor and slumped against one of the corners of her four-poster bed.

Kurumi leaned over and hugged Selina. A smile crept across the prefect's face and she was grateful that her face was now hidden from the girl's view because she was sure that Selina would take it the wrong way. All Kurumi could think at that point in time was IT IS ABOUT BLOODY TIME!

Kurumi had always admired Selina for being brave and strong, but she was strong to the point of idiocy sometimes. It was nice to see that the walls had finally come down. That the red head trusted Kurumi enough to show her her vulnerable side. Kurumi squeezed her friend tight, glad that finally she could return the favor and friendship that Selina had always shown her more times than she could count.

"And there is nothing you can do to change that," she said softly. Sure, it was blunt, but Selina really just needed to let that sink in. She needed to grieve so that she could move forward with her life. "Selina...I can't even begin to try to understand how you feel about this and, I know you don't want to...but what you need to do right now is cry. I don't care if my uniform looks like I have just gone through a typhoon, you can cry on me until you can cry no more." And then Kurumi would conjure her a glass of water to prevent her from being dehydrated.

"Fair enough. But why did nessie beat you up?" Lilly asked inpatiantly.

Rose glared at her little sister. 'It's none of your business, Lilly.' Rose growled before going to her bed and hiding under the covers. No-one believed her. She didn't care though. She knew she was telling the truth. She let a tear fall out of her eye.

"Alright alright."Tiffany said with a little disappointment. She told Ella to turn around and she smiled cheerfully.

"No need to be so moody. You know I have a natural talent for nosiness." Lilly scowled.

Selina hugged Kurumi so tightly she was afraid that she might make her friend burst. She kept back the tears that had fallen earlier when she relayed the story of what happened to her sister, but she could feel, by the lump in her throat, that the tears wanted desperately to break free and fall down her face like a waterfall.

When Kurumi started to speak soothingly into Selina's ear she wiped her nose on the sleeve of her robe and sniffled. She didn't want to get Kurumi's uniform all dirty. Not now. But then Seilna started to really listen to what Kurumi was saying. Never once did she refute the facts- Danny was dead, Selina had killed her, there was a hole in the Skylar family now because of it. Yet, even though she knew all of these things hearing Kurumi say it made them more concrete. It was a fact and Selina had to learn to cope with all of these things, but she couldn't continue to ignore them. She had to cope with them.

So she nodded into Kurumi's shoulder and started to softly cry. It was light as the patter of rain and she held her friend fast. When Kurumi made a joke about the uniforms she laughed a little through her tears and just held onto Kurumi tighter. She was the sister she had now and, although she would never replace Danielle, Selina was glad to have Kurumi with her.

She whispered to Kurumi, "Thank you... you know, for letting me cry." It wasn't much, but anyone who knew Selina knew that that statement was a big deal. She thanked someone for forcing her to be vulnerable and she was admitting weakness in the fact that she cried.

But best friends were sisters God forgot to give you. And you can be yourself around your sister.

Rose skipped into the Second Year dorms and picked up her broom. She usually used her broom. It was a Firebolt. She usually used it to dance with. It was a great dancer. She waltzed with it around the room happily. Yes. She was HYPER!

Sitting on her bed, Charner stared blankly at her feet. Bare, and of course clean, they wiggled and curled before straightening again. Toes were fantastic things; good for picking up objects or tiptoeing to trouble. But what was more fantastic, was the fact that she could change her hair now!

Any style! Any color! It was a salon's dream....except that it would put salon's out of business. But oh how much easier it was! And less costly. Personally, she wouldn't mind if they went out of business; if she didn't have to spend her money, she wouldn't. Plain and simple.

And the best thing about the transfiguration spells? It could be wacky!!! And she oh so loved wacky. So much she had kept her blue-streaked-spiked-to-dangerous-length-hair for several days. Only when she had gotten frustrated having to duck and twist awkwardly through door-frames to accommodate it, had she finally removed it. Of course, it had never crossed her mind a simple recasting of the spell could have fixed that problem. Reflection told her so, which was the beauty of hindsight: lessons for the future.

And now, she got to practice again! Massive, winning grin and excited toe-wiggling.

Occassionally, she had practiced the movements while sitting on her bed. A tap for to create and two taps to reverse. Simple really. It was the names that were tongue twisting. Felintas and Intaris, Ristaris and Intaris. Felintas reminded her of a feline or felon, both which had massive hair changes; the feline by constant shedding and the felon by need of disguise. Ristaris reminded her of risk or stars, where stars sparkled and there was an extreme risk of coloring hair, not so much in this case but if one went the muggle way of hair dye....oooh boy. Intaris was the more difficult one to figure out, but eventually she had decided that 'into trouble' worked well as a relationship, and given one needed to get out of trouble once they were in it, she could see the need of reversal; thus, it was the key thought process for casting the reversal spell.

Those mussings alone had taken her some time to figure out, but the last half hour of contemplation had been on what style and color of hair she had wanted. At first, the assignment had seemed easy. Practice changing your hair. Wicked-awesome-bean sauce!

The problem?

There were just sooooo many options.

So, she had settled on the idea of changing her hair once a week. Then, she could filter through her ideas and give each of them a chance. The one she wanted this time however, was purely experimental and admittedly, a bit of a childish fantasy.

Long, long, long golden hair. The muggle story of Rapunzel had always been her favorite, and since she had been young, she had always envied the heroine's hair. Now, she could have it.

Her toes wiggled again in excitement as a slow breath left her. She had to concentrate. Had to imagine. Had to see the end result. Know the intent. Another breath. Her toes stopped wiggling. Her eyes closed Her hand came up with her wand. She gave a tap to her head. "Felintas."

There was a brief tingling before she felt her hair starting to grow, past her shoulders, past her shoulderblades and down her back. A grin spread. "Felintas." It started to grow faster and faster, pooling about her. She didn't dare open her eyes. She wanted to see the end result. Brown hair that was as long as Rapunzel's just didn't fit. So, she cast one more 'Felintas' spell before lowering her wand. She could feel the last prickles of growth on her scalp, but how long her hair was, she didn't know.

With another breath she lifted her hand again. Golden hair, like the wheat fields of fantasy stories. A tap to her head. "Ristaris." She couldn't feel the change this time, but she was certain it had worked.

A sigh of content, a wiggle of her toes and she opened her eyes.

.........................O.O!!!!

There was hair everywhere!!!! While she had expected it to pool around her, she had not expected it to cover her bed and fall over, onto the floors. It draped over her pillows and hid itself under her bed. If she moved she'd end up dusting her entire section of the common room!!! And what was worse?

It wasn't GOLD! It was a sickly, pale greeny gold!!! The color a bad blonde dye went!

She was MORTIFIED! Crying wasn't even an option. She had to do something, and fast. If anyone saw her like this..............

Scrambling off the bed, Charner hopped and tripped and stumbled about the mass of hair. Her toes got tangled and her ankles got tied. She didn't know where to start. What to do. And so, she did what she had always seen Rapunzel do. Bending over, she madly worked to gather up her hair into her arms. By the end of it, she felt like she was carrying one duvet and two pillows, and more billowed onto the floor behind her. But she could move, and that was good enough. Without hesitation or delay, she raced towards the bathroom. It seemed, the most logical place to go.

Lilly yawned loudly. She sank on to her bed lazily, then got up, got changed, and got under the warm covers. *Yawn*

"Hello everyone!" Anna walked over and sat down on his bed. "Somebody wants to sweet? They sent me a box of candy and I was the only one of its obviously not apartement." She smiled at getting out of the bag a small box of burgundy color.

Candy she take from her uncle Andrew, who was a great pastry chef! "Do not be shy, come on up." Anna liked sweets, but could not eat them one, because it was not greedy.

Kourtney ran upstairs to her room to freshen up a bit just before dinner was due to be served in the hall. Dropping her bag of books on her bed, she peered into a nearby mirror to check her appearance.

Slowly, a mischievous smile overtook her features. The professor had said to practice...

With a tap to the top of her head and a single word "Felintas!", Kourtney's curly hair became iron straight and swept itself back into a ponytail.

She nodded with satisfaction, tucked her wand away, and bounded out of the room. She was starving!

Selina could feel the weight of the hate potion in her robes as she stalked up the stairs to the Gryffindor Girl's Dormitory. As soon as she reached the top step she took a deep breath and opened the door to the dorm. Everything was the same as it had always been. Ironic, especially because everything was about to change between the two best friends.

As is if walking through molasses, Selina glided over to her bed. She took a seat on the red comforter and crossee her legs Indian style. Then she took the potion out of the bottle and fiddled with it in her hand... now to wait.

Kurumi had returned to the common room just in time to see the red head make her way up the stairs. Kurumi was not looking forward to this at all. Reluctantly, Kurumi made her way up the stairs and to her dorm room where she leaned on the door to open it instead of pushing it. Seemed to drag out the time more that way.

"H-Hey," she said slowly, removing the bottle from her pocket and sloshing its contents around with a small shake. Her potion had taken on a dark purple potion similar to the color she imagined it would be if she were to wear dark gray contacts over her violet eyes. "Ready to, um, hate each other?"

Who knows, maybe they brewed their potions incorrectly and nothing would happen at all? Wishful thinking.

Selina looked up, slightly startled, when Kurumi spoke up from the door frame of the Gryffindor Girl's Dormitory. However, once she saw it was Kurumi she relaxed a little. That feeling did not last when she realized that Kurumi being there meant that the two would soon be hating one another. How could Lafay even contemplate doing this? It was not healthy for best friends to hate one another. The whole concept completely defeated the point of the word- best friend. But she was not going to argue with Lafay, her word was law.

So she stood up from her bed and walked over to Kurumi. She stuck her hand out with her potion as if to demonstrate that they should switch, "As ready as I am ever going to be. You?" This was horrible. They were going to hate one another.... or Selina's potion was going to blow Kurumi up. Either way, it was going to end badly.

Kurumi swallowed and nodded before handing over her potion to Selina. "S-S-Selina...remember what Dragon Lady said," Kurumi mumbled. Yeah, there was no need to be completely polite right now since it was just the two of them in the dorms for now. "The ability to hate someone can come from the very fact that we care about each others...so...if things get really bad...it just means that we like each other a lot, right?" She looked at her best friend for confirmation. Selina really was the best thing that had happened to her. Kurumi had thought that about many people at Hogwarts: Adam, Lexi, Cam, Salander, Treyen...but none of them had made the impact on Kurumi like Selina had. In fact, a few of those people had done more damage to her than good in the end.

Kurumi took Selina's potion and removed the top. "Kanpai," she said meekly as she pressed it to her lips.

It certainly didn't taste like Quidditch pitch, nor did it have the smell of it. It was more...musky and had a texture like spoiled pudding. She should have known she couldn't rely on Selina to do this properly.

o__________________________O

Where had THAT thought come from!?

"Essence of Selina tastes like something a troll got stuck on the bottom of its hideous molding foot," Kurumi said wrinkling her nose. "You really are RUBBISH and potion making, you know. I have a reputation to keep up you know."

OOC: kanpai is the Japanese word for "cheers"

Selina looked intently at Kurumi and could see in her eyes that the older Prefect was just as nervous as Selina. When she started to speak Selina nodded her head along with everything Kurumi said. It was true. Everything. Kurumi was the best friend Selina had ever had and was the kick in the butt that she needed. The girl in front of her was never afraid to push Selina to be herself even when Selina did not like the person she was; she was never afraid to let Selina just let her walls crumble after they had been up for so long, but most importantly Kurumi loved Selina like a sister even after she knew what had happened to Selina's real sister. THAT was true friendship, "I know... and just so you know, you are my best friend. Hold onto that, no matter what happens down there, okay?"

She traded the potion with Kurumi and uncorked the cap. She took one sniff and wanted to throw up. It smelt like bleach and cookie dough. The WORST combination ever. And Selina had smelt some pretty odd things on the pitch. She lifted the potion and said, "Cheers." With that she took a swig and had to refrain from throwing it up.

She started to cough and muttered, "Merlin Kurumi. This potion is as OCD and bland as you are." In fact, the taste was so bad she put her hand out to rest on Kurumi's shoulder, "Blimey its awful."

"OCD?! Do you know how illogical that sounds?" Kurumi snapped back when...

HOLY HIPPOGRIFF FEATHERS SELINA WAS TOUCHING HER SHOULDER!!!

Kurumi's left hand flew across her front and shove the hand off her shoulder and her violet eyes locked on Selina's and a low growl rumbled in her throat like that of a cat's.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! I DON'T WANT TO GET GINGERVITIS!"

It really would be the end of the world. Walking around looking like THAT.

Selina rolled her eyes when Kurumi shoved Selina off of her shoulder. Little micromanagy-perfect-Prefect-Princess. Ugh, Kurumi made her sick. Merlin, forbid she wasn't perfect- maybe that was why she was so afraid of catching "gingervitis".

Then Selina smirked and started to stalk toward the Prefect with her hands outstretched reaching to touch her, "What are you so afraid of little Miss Perfect-Prefect-Pompous-Princess? That you are actually going catch the attractive gene? If anything you should be begging me to give you some of my genetic code, chamelon." Seriously what was that? The fact that Hollingberry always changed her form was revolting to Selina. It was so not natural.

That....hurt...

Kurumi's chest heaved and she bit her lower lip as Selina's words struck her like arrows. "THAT was low..." she said jumping to her feet. "That hair color must come from brain rust." She reached down and picked up a pillow. "I don't want any of your genetic code THANK YOU. Why would I want the code of someone who KILLS?!?!"

Both hands clutched her pillow and she swung it around with a humble force - somehow, she didn't have the full strength that hatred SHOULD have...which was odd to the fourth year.

And...was her skin itching a bit?

Selina felt all of the breath in her lungs escape her in one low blow. She couldn't breath, couldn't catch a breath. True, Hollingberry was a spineless little teacher's pet, but she never thought she would sink that low. It spoke volumes for her character. Fine... she wanted to play that way- Selina would bring the heat.

Then a pillow hit her body and Selina's jaw snapped open. Did she seriously just do that? Oh... IT. WAS. ON.

Selina jumped onto her bed and grabbed her pillow and smacked Kurumi back, Rather be that than a helpless failure in the love department. Who should I bring up first? Adam? Treyen? Connor? The list goes on Kurumi."

Kurumi's eyes narrowed at THE FREAK. Rust for brains and some freakish ability where you could see the future and essentially spy on people's dreams and desires. All the FREAK had ever been was nosy and pushing. She was a pusher and probably sold unicorn blood on the black market. She was shifty like that. Probably should have been sorted into Slytherin really.

OOF! The pillow connected with Kurumi's back and she hunched forward.

"Oh, that's rich! Like you are any better! At least I showed that I am a GRYFFINDOR and told the person I liked that I did! What did you do!? You hid in the shadows pining over them like some love struck kitten instead of taking charge like a lion should," Kurumi spat. Oh yeah, she was going there too. "You are always preaching to me about standing up for myself and being honest. Well, you know what Raggedy Ann, Simon probably would have never gone for you anyway. Would have been too scared that he would catch on fire from your personality AND hair."

Now it was her turn. Kurumi wound up and swung her pillow towards Selina's head with as much force as she could muster.

However, she began to feel...odd...and her skin was becoming more and more itchy by the second. Was it possible to become itchy from hatred?

It didn't matter, what mattered was whacking Raggedy Ann across her snooty-hypocritical face. However, her skin was beginning to take on an awfully red tone that had nothing to do with her abilities.