Olly was stood in front of a quite big portrait on a door which looked juuuust like a few she'd just past. Weird. Somehow she always got the impression that at Hogwarts everything was different. There was hardly anything that ever looked the same. Even the windows were different if you looked close enough. So it was quite surprising to find that these couple of doors looked exactly the same.

Maybe she was also just looking for a good distraction though. Maybe.

Crossing her arms in front of her chest, Olly sighed, annoyed with everything at the moment. Especially with the feeling of guilt that slowly spread inside of her. She was SUPPOSED to be studying. Usually she didn't mind that but here it was like she was expected to because everyone else did and she didn't like that. It was probably stupid but more often than not she found herself not studying just because she was supposed to be studying.

Now...this portrait though.

The fifteen-year-old fifth year was on the fifth floor. That was a lot of fives. And it was a good thing that she wasn't a sixteen-year-old sixth year on the six floor because wouldn't that be 666 and bad luck and stuff like that? What would she do next year? Avoid the sixth floor altogether? Oh, lordy. These were the ridiculous thoughts that occupied Schuyler's mind as she walked along through the corridor.

A little superstitious, you could say.

But when her sight landed upon the Hufflepuff standing there before that portrait, these thoughts dissipated and her mouth pulled at the sides just a tad. What was this girl doing? The portrait didn't look all that special. Rather than giving a normal greeting, she sidled up next to Olly, crossed her arms over her chest, and pretended to look as interested in this painting as her friend was.

It was weird. Or at least Olly tried to tell herself that. It was probably just the procrastinating thing again. Soon she'd be standing in the broom closet polishing the school brooms or something. Yeah, no, that was unlikely but this was sort of getting quite ridiculous. Even SHE had to admit that.

Ugh.

Nonetheless, when she heard footsteps she immediately turned her head to see if maybe just maybe a good distraction was on the way. And she wasn't disappointed. Far from really. Her lips curled up into a small grin as she watched the Gryffindor move towards her until she was standing right next to her. What was she doing?

Following the other girl's gaze for a moment, Olly snorted barely audibly before turning around fully that she was facing Schuyler. "It's really not that interesting." The painting. There were definitely more interesting things than this painting. Like, say, herself. Okay, she might have been getting a little pathetic in her search for distraction. "Please tell me you have a reason for coming here and that I can come with you."

To do whatever. Just as long as she had something to do.

As Schuyler mimicked Olly's body language, she saw the other girl looking at her from the corner of her eye. She studied the portrait for a second longer and decided that yes, there was really nothing special about it. A lot of these portraits just sort of ran together after a while. "Really? You don't think it's fascinating?" Schuyler just smiled and dropped her hands so that she was standing normally now, and facing Olly. She slipped her hands into her pockets. Sounded like her friend was bored. Or trying to get her mind off something. "Not really.." She admitted, scrunching up her face a bit. Walking and wandering and maybe a pitstop in the kitchen had been her rather lame plan. "But we can find something to do?"

Something liiiiike.... well, she didn't know. Olly could choose today. And she always had the sweater as a back-up, but Schuyler had a feeling that that big, gray sweater would just put her to sleep.

Olly didn't even have to look back at the painting (she'd been staring at it for way too long already). "No." She gave the other girl an unimpressed look and shook her head firmly. Nope, she'd made sure that it wasn't. Plus, she didn't have to pretend to be interested in it anymore because something more interesting had come along to distract her.

Or not.

"And here I was thinking you were my knight in shining armor." Knightess? Olly managed to look disappointed for a whole second before sighing and sending the other girl a small half-smile. She let her eyes rest on Schuyler a moment longer, not really liking the way she'd phrased that as a question. That suggested that she didn't know what they could do. "Any ideas?" It was worth a tryyyy. Please, Schuyler.

Knight in shining armor? Schuyler smiled and gave a light shrug. "I can try on one of the suits of armor, if you'd like." To be literal about this. Actually, she was half serious and that WOULD give them something to do. But the heaviness of those things would be a little problematic.

Now, did Schuyler have any ideas? She tucked her lips into her mouth for a moment and diverted her eyes. Yes. Yes, she had a couple ideas that had surfaced by now. And yet... "Nope." She shook her head and offered a sweet, but expectant smile. "Looks like it's all on you this time." Sorry, Ollyyy. Not that there was much pressure. Most activities that involved the Hufflepuff usually resulted in a content Schuyler anyway.

Olly looked Schuyler over like she was actually trying to picture her wearing one of those suits of armor. Which she just might have been. "Yeah, no. I like you better like this." Like, NOT wearing anything bulky. She grinned at the other girl, even adding a wink for good measure. "Maybe we can find you a white horse somewhere." Because you know, fairytales, princes, white horses. Yes. Where was she going with this?

Simply watching Schuyler's lips for a moment when she drew attention to them, Olly looked back up to the Gryffindor's eyes once she spoke. Nope. Ugh. She should have guessed that that would be the answer. Though something told her that her friend was being uncreative on purpose. Oh well. "Hmm." She hummed while aimlessly looking up and down the corridor they were standing in.

Yup, not gonna find anything interesting there.

"I could finally show you how to make pancakes." Her eyes were back on Schuyler, a small smirk playing around her lips. This was actually a great idea because 1) food and 2) Schuyler cooking.

It looked as thought Olly was considering dressing her up in heavy, shiny armor. But in the end, it was a negative. Which was probably best because judging by how clunky and weighty it looked to be, Schuyler may have found herself being squashed into nothingness just by the sheer weight of it all. A white horse, though? "Oh, that sounds elegant." Riding off into the sunset on a white horse. Very picturesque. Only she'd never been on a horse. It was a nice thought, though.

But yes, Olly was going to have to choose the cure for their boredom. When the other girl surveyed the corridor, Schuyler shifted her weight and glanced around. Really, there were just portraits here. And they both knew that those weren't proving very exciting. They weren't even talking, for Merlin's sake. But what Olly did suggest had nothing to do with boring hallways or portraits because she suggested cooking. Something that would be fun and actually useful in the future. "Aaah, yeah! Okay. Lead the way, top chef."

Onward. To the kitchens......

Laura was really upset one of her closes friends were leaving at the end of the year and she hadn't spent much time with her but well she would hopefully see her friend before the end of the year.

Laura decided that she was going to sit down and just go threw a book she had brought with a few photo's in, she seriously missed Zhenya and hadn't seen her for ages, though she giggled as she looked at the photo of them both covered in mud and then there was a picture with her and her sister at the station for the first time and then a few other pictures she had.

Minerva decided to make a stop at the Prefect bathroom. She had just finished a study session and some homework so why not go and relax a bit. As she walked along the corridor she mentally started a new to do list of the studying, practices, homework, and prefect duties she had to do. Turning the corner she almost didn't see as someone was sitting looking at something, but tripping over their foot made her realize someone was in the corridor with her real quick.

Looking down she gave a smile, "Laura, what are you doing here?" Pretty far from the common room to be just sitting in a corridor looking at things. Min figured she was meeting up with someone since the only class on the floor didn't have any work, that she could remember. A small panic hit her, was she forgetting homework or something. "We don't have anything in Runes that you are up here for, do we?" hmm that made her a little nervous she always wrote things down. She began pulling out her parchment just to make sure.

Laura was looking at a dew photo's when suddenly she heard someone speaking to her. She looked up and she smiled. "Hi Minnie, How are you today?" Laura had no idea what her friend was doing up her but then she remember her friend was a prefect and had probably been in the prefect bathroom.

Laura listened to her friend. "Oh I just wanted to have some time to myself and maybe I'll see my sister." Laura hadn't seen her sister for awhile and she had no idea what she was doing here. "No we don't have anything." Laura giggled as she saw Minnie get her parchment out. "I'm actually looking at some photo's from when I was younger." Laura said truthfully.

Oh well, few that was a scare and a half. She couldn't be missing homework, because that really wasn't acceptable at all. Putting the parchment back in her bag she looked down at Laura, pictures of what she was younger. Baby Laura, "Little Laura, let me see." She chuckled and put out her hand. She wanted to see Laura has a little girl before Hogwarts. Honestly thought Min could so easily see her as a first year still. How much she had changed.

Plopping onto the ground next to her she pulled a small book out of her bag. "I have a few too actually. I don't show them often, so you should feel special, but these are the most important ones I own." She pulled open the photo book. "Of course none of them will be moving like yours since they are muggle photos, but here I am when I was six." As she looked at herself struggling to hold the one year old a smile crossed the seventh years face. "The baby is my brother Jacob." pointing to another one she felt her stomach tighten as it always did looking at these pictures, "That my mom and dad, it was around Christmas time." Handing over the book to Laura she could look at the rest if she wanted, Min needed a distraction and just grabbed Laura's pictures and looked through them. "These are adorable."

Laura smiled as Minerva sat down next to her and talked about seeing her picture. "I just can't believe how time is flying." Laura said after a few moments pause. She really hoped that her friend would stay for an extra year. "Can't you just stay for an extra year and pretend your my year." Laura asked she was so going to beg her friend and hope that she would.

"I don't normally get my book out either. It's just I spoke with the Head about a career I'm thinking of going in for and then I realised that I was growing up and I wanted to look at these pictures to remind myself of the past." Laura said as she looked at her friends pictures. "These are awesome!" Laura said truthfully.

Laura suddenly realised her friend was looking at a picture of her when she was seven and smiled. "Oh I remember that." Laura said truthfully. "three minutes after that picture was taken, I'd got grounded." Laura said to her friend. "You see that dress is all nice and clean, that was the school photo and me and a friend sort of got into a food fight and you'll see the result on the next page." Laura giggled all the class had got covered in food.

Minerva gave a distant smile at Laura's words. Time flying, it sure was. She would be taking NEWTs before she knew it and then.. shaking her head she didn't even want to think about end of term feast. No she wasn't thinking that way yet. "It really is isn't it." She chuckled and shook her head, "You know I can't do that. I've been going crazy here without Ethan, there is no way I'm doing it another school year, plus you will be in your seventh year and I won't be that far away. I can visit in Hogsmeade and quidditch matches." The Uni she was going to was super close so no problem there.

Oh careers Minerva turned very interested, "Do you know what you want to do?" Laura had never really talked future before this was amazing in Minerva's eyes. She wanted to know what her friend was planning on doing. Looking down at the book in Laura's hands she smiled, "They are all I really have of them, so I think they are pretty awesome too." Seeing the page turn she smiled bigger, "Well that's not all I have of him." The picture of her and Ethan smiling back. No she had a lot more things of Ethan than just pictures.

Looking back at Laura's book she chuckled, [b] "These are great Laura, thank you for sharing them with me. She laughed, "A food fight, only you Laura, only you." Of course her friend would start or be involved in a food fight. Maybe not anymore, but old Laura was always up to something. She flipped the pages some more looking at the other pictures.

Laura looked at her friend. "I know you've been missing Ethan." Laura said truthfully and then hugged her friend. "But I'll miss you loads, Hogwarts just won't be the same without you." Laura pouted. "Remember in my first year when I lost the points for answering a question silly and the Professor made me tell the head of year." Laura thought about that day. "You were the one to help me out by taking me to the head of house." Laura was glad about that. "And you've been there for me ever since. Your like a big sister to me." Laura said truthfully.

"I sort of know what I want to do." Laura smiled. "I want to work with Animals I just don't know if I want to work in a pet shop or somewhere a bit more dangerous." Laura knew she didn't want to work in a boring old place she couldn't do with it. She liked being active and thought working with Dangerous creatures would be good.

"Your pictures are awesome." Laura said before looking back at Minnie. "Oh yeah well a friend dared me to throw a pie at this girl we didn't like and I sort of got her friend and it snowballed from there." Laura giggled and pointed to the next photo which was a group photo of the whole class and the teacher all covered in food. "Guess who accidently got the teacher?" Laura was glad that teacher was nice because he had just smiled and told them all to get ready for the picture.

Minerva nodded, truth be told some days wasn’t as hard as she thought they would be without him, but others she really missed him. “Yeah I do. It’s just been odd this term without him around. I’ve had him here since fourth year.” She had been dating him since fourth year, she really couldn’t believe it had been that long. She hugged Laura back and laughed, “I do remember that. I could have crowned you that day. The more points you lost the more it was driving me crazy, but I knew you were a first year and I knew maybe you just needed shown around.” She looked at Laura and smiled, “I’ll always be there for you Laura even if I’m not here. “ She wasn’t going anywhere when it came to the friendship even if she wouldn’t be in the castle next year.


She listened and smiled as Laura talked about what she wanted to do. [b] “Laura that’s great to have a plan. “Maybe you should talk to the Care of Magical Creatures professor.. Even though I’m not sure she has been around lately.” Had the woman left the school already, Min wasn’t sure. She just knew after their first class she hadn’t seen her. “You should research at the library different jobs that could go with animals to find the best one for you.” There was probably a ton of options she could use.


Min looked down at her book, “Thanks Laura… They are really special to me.” She looked at them many times when she felt down or needed to see her parents. Sighing she leaned against the wall more and looked at where Laura was pointing. “You are a piece of work you know that. No one could ever duplicate you. Which is a good thing. I wouldn’t want more than one Laura.” She laughed with her friend. “You know I think you were the start of balancing me out. I was to boring until you came around. You really did teach me to let loose and have fun. Thank you.” Thinking back a few terms at some of the things they did and how they didn’t get caught. It was amazing they didn’t get caught with the ducks or the wall.

Laura looked at Minnie and smiled. "I know it's odd." Laura sighed, she was still in love with DJ but he had left Hogwarts. "I just looked at it this way when you see them it will be even more special, I always look forwards to seeing DJ." Laura giggled and then winked.

Laura really hoped that was the case. "I really hope that you would just pretend to be a seventh year." Laura giggled. "But I think they know anyway." it had been wishful thinking. "I know and we can owl and stuff next year though it won't be the same you've always been there for me when I needed you."

"I am looking in the library and I'm also going to talk to the COMC Professor when I get chance." Laura thought it would be cool to work with animals and she wanted to have a choice between what she wanted to do.

Laura looked at Minnie. "I ain't that bad." Laura playfully nudged her friend. "I am going to clone myself now just to see the look on your face." Laura stuck her tongue out at her friend and tried to keep a straight face but failed. "Okay so you are right and I'm glad there's only one of me as well." Laura laughed and then listened to what her friend said. "I know and I think you balanced me out as well, because it seems if you behaved and let your head loose now and then you got away with it."

Minerva chuckled at her friend, “Wow did I call that one. You two were so no way would I fall, but look at you. You are smitten over the boy. Just..” She laughed a little harder, “Wow I wish DJ was around so I could say told you so to him. I might send him an I told you so owl, that would be great.” She told the boy a long time ago he would fall in love and most likely with Laura and now look at them. Yep she was right and she knew she was. “Well it does make it more special, but after two years of being together every day it has been an adjustment, but we are on the down hill side of things now. Not too much longer.” Honestly how did term go so quickly.

Min shook her head, “Sorry Laura, I’ve had a great time here, but I am not doing another year. I’m done. No offense to you or anyone else, but I’m ready to move on to other things.” Plus there was no way Minerva Wheatborn would fail, so she wouldn’t be repeating either. “Laura I’ll still there for you, just not here here, I’ll visit at Hogsmeade I promise. I won’t be that far away.” She was going to come visit, she had promised Alec as well and she wouldn’t go back on a promise.

Thinking about it Min felt Laura could really be good at that. “You did pretty good on that OWL too didn’t you?” She thought she remembered her doing well, but that was in the summer so maybe Min had forgotten. “Seems like you are on the right track and if needed Hadley would be a good person to help point you in the right direction as well.” When in doubt go to mama Hadley at least that’s what Min always did.

Cloned Laura, Min blinked at this. “We already have a cloned you really. Your twin sister.” Even though she didn’t know Laura’s sister at all really, but they were twins it kind of was a clone, but not really. “Please I’m glad there is only one of all of us. Could you imagine more of me? There would be no fun in that.” No Min needed to be just one.

Laura looked at Minnie and giggled. "Yeah I think you might be right." Laura had no idea why she had fallen for him she just had. "I just love him because he's so awesome and special." Laura said truthfully.

Laura looked at Minnie. "I know what you mean." Laura couldn't believe her sixth year had gone by so fast. "I didn't get to do half of what I had planned to do this year." Laura then suddenly thought of something.

"I got to go now." Laura hadn't done anything big for Minnie's graduation yet and she was going to go and do it now. she was only half paying attention to what Minnie was saying towards the end before nodding and walking fast down the corridor, she couldn't run in front of a prefect.