Louisa pushed the door open and slipped inside, making sure to hear it close behind her. This was a very secret request. "Hello, professor," she greeted half-solemnly half-formally and walked over to stand before the desk. And no, this chair was too uncomfortable for her bottom, standing up would do. "I hope you're doing well." Louisa swallowed, put a non-existant lock behind her ear - an instinctive move she always did when she was nervous. "Uhh... so, I was wondering if I could find a potion that'd help my hair to grow... fast." Like, magically fast. "I know the one that makes it grow, but I don't want to apply it to a bald spot, I need more of a hair-tonic potion." Was there even something like that? The Ravenclaw grew even more nervous as her request made less sense the more she explained, especially that 1) her hair was already waist-long and even if it's in a tight bun, it was obvious. 2) its color was sure as healthy as any ginger hair, and 3) Lafay doesn't do charity work.

GULP.

Hecate looked up and saw the cut up hair.

"I take it the head girl is very concerned with her looks..." She said a little disgusted. She lit a fire under a small cauldron, and filled it with water. "I assume you've done your duties today as head girl?" She said as she tossed a few ingredients in the water.

"Was this an accident or something you did on purpose that you've regretted?"

.............twitch.

Louisa pursed her lips and touched her twitching eye with her hand, stop! because of cooooooourse that was the way this request would only be interpreted as. She was concerned with her look, yes, but not like that. "It's more than that," she replied sternly, stung.

Her duties as Head Girl? Louisa dropped her hand from her face and let out a ragged breath. She wanted to ask what Lafay exactly meant by that and what exactly did it have to do with her hair problem. But Louisa's nerves were already on edge so she passed. "I have." Watching the woman boiling water and tossing some ingredients in, Louisa's heart started to accelerate; whether it was out of fear, anticipation or just the uneasy paranoid feeling that's been with her all this month, no one knows.

The reason. Louisa hesitated, swallowed and "Ne-" cleared her throat, "Neither." Her eyes went up to look at the woman, to actually see her. Was she to be trusted? Was she going to help? Was that even the potion Louisa was asking for or was it something completely irrelevant?

Hecate summoned a few more ingredients from her stores to her hands. It was like music the way her hands would prep each ingredient without even looking. "Do you want to share with me how it happened then, Miss Head Girl?" She asked as she stirred the potion. The fumes of the potions were traveling upward in a pretty spiral.

... would she? Share with Lafay? Who already think they had a mannequin-wannabe for a head girl. That was bugging Louisa the most, because it was very far from how she really was.

The Ravenclaw rubbed her forehead, plopped down on the hard chair and decided to at least make sure her image in the professor's eyes was not ruined. "I don't know his name..." she said, her own voice starting to feel distant. "H-he... I was there with a friend... and he came.." breaaaathe breaaaaaaathe. "I thought... we were safe..." The spot on the table that Louisa's eyes were fixated on was soothingly blank, helping her to keep all the bottled up feelings inside - well, all but the paranoia. "He said I don't have to wait." The 'he' now was referring to the protagonist in her story, her voice starting to break and her nose starting to run but her eyes stayed tearless.

It was Lafay's movement that snapped Louisa out of it, the girl blinked looking up at the professor; Back to the here and now.

"A payment." Not a beauty dilemma. "My life was spared in exchange of a lock of hair... and another human's life," she choked out, quickly wiping the corner of her eye.

There. The Head Girl wasn't a shallow beauty freak.

The head girl may have been cryptic, but Hecate knew enough to put two and two together. "So you were the girl Josh Carter was trying to protect?" She'd remembered her last name... "Are you any relation to him?" She asked quietly pouring the thick potion into a bottle and corking it. It was still too hot to handle so she waited to hand it to the girl.

Louisa straightened up, her breaths quickening and her eyes finally caving into the tears. "You know? How? Why?" Her hands frantically wiping at her face, trying to unsuccessfully regain that tough act.

Was trying..
In the past tense. The girl's grief started to surface once more. She had killed him! And her professor now knows their Head Girl was a coward - useless witch. "I tried. I couldn't do anything. Ididn'twanttodie. I'm so sorry."

Were they related? She shook her head, sniffing. But they secretly agreed to act as if they were, maybe he never wanted it but Louisa was very pleased to have a Carter within her reach.

"Stop sniveling," She said sitting down and taking a breath. "I know because I saw to it that he went home. Alive." She said and conjured a paper fan. She used it to fan her face. "He's badly hurt, but he's alive, and will heal soon."

She then summoned the bottle of hair tonic. "This is something you just pour on your head, and it will return your hair to it's usual length and luster... actually, it should have more shine and bounce." She held it tightly. "You can have it... but you will owe me a favor." She said and cast a charm around the bottle. "Take it, and you'll be bound to me for one favor. Leave it, and you are free to go."

The girl almost bolted to her feet, about to tackle the woman and shake her shoulders in disbelief. Almost. "Joshua's alive!?" She didn't stop "sniveling", Louisa started to actually sob, relieved, happy. And now she could breathe without the knife stabbing her chest or the rock pressing her lungs. He was badly hurt but alive... that was more than what Louisa expected. "Merlin... thank you.. thank you so much.." SOBSOBSOB. She wanted to hug Lafay! To give her a deep bow! To kiss her hands! Anything!

But the woman's next words cut Louisa's thoughts of gratitude off, the Ravenclaw's sobs slowing down and she ended up just sniffling. Her blurry-with-tears vision was fixated on the professor and the vial in her hand.

A favor? Like... a school favor? Louisa would arrange the woman's potions? Clean her office? Massage her feet?

Or was it something bigger than this?

The seventeen years old slowly wiped her face with the sleeve of her robe, "I remember him. Every time I look or touch my hair, he's right there in my head.. smirking.. sneering.. and.." she took a deep breath, "I can feel his grip on my hair..." Which was why she never let her hair fall loosely on her shoulders anymore.

"I want him out of my head," she told the woman before standing up and taking the potion in her hand.

At any cost, Louisa wanted Atropos out of her head at any cost.

"Good." She said watching her take the bottle and went behind her desk. "Are we done here?" She asked the girl.

Louisa stared down at the small bottle, hopefully that was the solution to her nightmares and paranoia. "Yes." She sniffed, wiped her face again and offered a grateful smile to the Potions Mistress, "I thank you again, professor." She took a second, locking her eyes with the woman before letting out a slow relieved breath and backtracking to the door. "I..I would appreciate it if.. this... stays between us, professor." Not the potion thing, but the incident. It was too intimate and.. personal.

The Ravenclaw turned the door's knob, bowed her head to the professor and left. The rock on her chest was starting to feel much much lighter already.

"I REQUIRE for it to stay between us." She said to the girl. "If the hair tonic does not work on your mind... come back and see me. Good bye."

She then called out, "Next!" to the children outside.

Lex didn't wait much longer after hearing the Professor call for her next set of visitors. She didn't have time to feel all intimidated by the cold walls or the scary undertone in her voice because right now she was upset--no, beyond upset!

Seri said coming here would be a good idea and they could get some help and she sure hoped so! Entering, she left the door open for Seri to walk in too.

Now normally she would have given a verbal greeting to the Professor but Of COURSE she COULDN'T because some bloody idiot of a fourth year went and put a silencing charm on her so instead she gave her a polite wave and an inaudible clearing of her throat.

Seri and Lex had been let into the unwelcoming room, by the woman she would assume was her head of house and potions professor. She looked like a Slytherin. Apparently she took no joy in seeing children and Seri wondered why in Merlin she was a teacher when clearly she took the view that they were wasting her precious time. She almost looked for somehwere to sit or something, but the room was undecorated and cold. There was a single chair and Serenity thought it would be comfier standing thankyou very much.

She was suddenly quite nervous and hoped Lex would talk. Wait, she had a silencing charm put on her! Of course she wouldn't talk. So it was up to her? Really? Mmmckay, here goes.

"Professor, uh.. Lafay, this is my friend, Alexa and I'm Serenity.., and well we were talking when another Slytherin came up and she and Lex were chatting and maybe argueing a little about what me and Lex had been talking about, and they were ONLY argueing because this other girl had been eavesdropping on us and we were just joking about, but ANYWAY, this kid ended up pointing her wand at Lex and putting a silencing charm on her!" Serenity sighed deeply, that had ended up much longer than she'd expected.

She looked up at the two girls. The Slytherin, spoke first "Serenity Wheeler I presume." She knew the names of all her Slytherin students... the other girl she'd need to look up in her roster... "and Alexa... Cambridge?" She said. Hmmm....

She wasn't going to lift the hex herself. Oh no. She turned to Alexa and said "Miss Cambridge, I will get this student to lift her spell off you, and she will be punished severely. Then have Professor Romanos teach you basic shielding."

"Miss Wheeler," and she turned to her snakelette, "who is the Slytherin you are tattling on?" She said nastily. The girl was new, but Slytherins didn't tattle on one another... just on other houses. And now she was angry with the student who cast the spell on the Gryffindor girl. "I want the name." Any snake who got caught by the head snake would be dealt with swiftly and painfully.

She nodded. But how exactly did she already know her name? And then she nodded for Lex too. How did this Professor seem to know the names of EVERYONE? She could understand her house but... that was weird. Seri didn't even know the names of her whole year, or even just the first-years in her house. Probably a spell, she thought. Oh yeah, she'd introduce herself and Serenity wasn't a very common name she didn't think...

She thought it would be funny seeing Ariana be made to take the spell off Lex, though it would probably also annoy her massively. But at least the spell would be gone. Punished SEVERELY? This woman freaked her out.... she knew she SO did not ever want a detention with Lafay. Actually, she was kind of worried about class now. Sigh. She also got the feeling this teacher enjoyed homework...


Woah. Clearly this woman didn't like that she was telling on another snake. Well sorr-eee but Lex was more important to her than some random older kid who seemed to be perpetually eavesdropping on her, in basically EVERY conversation she had she seemed to appear. She really wanted to say that but got the impression that if she did Prof. La-whatever would NOT be happy. "It was Ariana Logan?" at least she was relatively sure that was her name....

Lex couldn't have said it better herself. Literally. She probably would have added some nasty descriptions of that girl. The nerve of her. How dare she hex Alexa Cambridge. She would be sorry. Lex was going to learn that spell and she was going to use it on every single older kid who messed with her or Serenity! They would all be sorry!

She looked over at the Professor when she said her name. Sure she would know Seri because she was in her house but not only was Lex not a Slytherin, this was her first time meeting the woman. If she could talk she would have asked about that.

When she heard what the Professor said she had to fight to keep the spiteful smirk from spreading across her face. She expected the girl to get in trouble but this was even better!! Prof. Lafay was clearly upset about it; good, because Lex wasn't all that thrilled about this either and it was good to know that she wasn't the only one annoyed by this situation. A wide smile spread across her face, however, when she said she would tell another Professor to teach them some basic shielding! That would have been the best! Then they would stop pointing their wretched wands at her before she grabbed one and broke it over her knee. That was a good idea actually and she would consider it the next time an older kid decided to play bully. It would teach them to pick on people their own size!

The tone she took on when she mentioned that Seri was tattling was a rather mean one. It wasn't her fault that some stupid girl had provoked Seri to the point of tattling! She opened her mouth to try defending her at this point but no words came out. This was getting frustrating. How long would she have to wait to have the hex removed anyway because she was starting to miss the sound of her own voice!

Heh, she even wanted her name. She didn't know her name so it was a good thing that Seri did!

Hecate sent her patronus to call the older girl. "And now we wait." She said patiently.

After a few moments there was a knock.

"Come In" she said calmly.

Ariana Walked into the professor's office with a smile on before she noticed evil child #1 and her snake Minion. yet she kept her smile and though she looked tired seemed excited to see the professor "You wanted to see me professor?"

"Yes, Miss Logan, I called you because, from what I understand, you cast a silencing charm on a fellow student. What say you?" she asked looking at the older girl.

" I say that's incorrect professor, I would never do that to a fellow student." she said looking confused as to why she would even ask that. "Hello serenity and.. I'm sorry im afraid i never got your name?" she said being polite as ever. she didnt want to be rude to the other to girls in the room

A small smirk crept onto Lex's face when the girl walked into the room. She could tell that she knew she had been found out and the fact that she managed to keep the smile in place amused her. Heh, not so tough now, huh?

And now she would have to answer Prof. Lafay's question and get the punishment she deserved. The neeeeeerve of her for silencing her in the first place! Lex was not some object you used to practice spells on and she didn't appreciate when others pointed their wands at her for whatever reason they may have had. Looking over at the girl she waited on her response.

It wasn't what she expected.

WHAAAT?!

Lex's eyes went wide as she looked over at the girl who was trying to play innocent. Her mouth flew open and she tried screaming at her to tell the truth but once again...she was under the silencing charm and there would be no sound coming from her until this all got cleared up. She glared over at her, wishing she could speak her mind.

"Alexa Cambridge," she said looking over her roster again. "So are you saying your fellow Slytherin has lied to me?" She said quietly, calmly... no use in getting angry here. "So tell me, what happened? And if you say nothing, know that I will require your wand so I may see it's last spells."

Hecate's eyes came to the child whose voice had been silenced. "I am keeping you under the spell until we are done, so you won't yell." She said smugly. "Just be patient... you have someone to speak for you."

What in the world?! Someone was trying to get into her office without knocking?! Who would try to turn the handle like that...

and then the Headmistress' voice.

Great! What now? Had she set someone on fire and forgotten it?

She cast an unlocking spell and had the door open. "Headmistress Truesbridge..." wait... was that the new Groundskeeper with her? "Gibbons... I would love to give you that word, however as you can see, I'm currently handling an issue... Would you care to have a seat and I can be right with you. It shouldn't be much longer."

Would she care to have a seat? No she would not. However, Anastasia was curious to see how Hecate Lafay--- who had a file in the HM Chambers larger than Peeves' ---handled discipline issues. So she sat, smoothing out her skirt as she politely crossed her feet at the ankles and turned her attention to the children being reprimanded.

Was this about that scuffle at the Slytherin table during the feast? Annie frowned and touched her brooch as she watched the girls.