The Final Circle

“So, tell me about how often you are taking these, we can’t have this happening on a regular basis.” Polly laughed, waiting until Felicity had left to start replying. ‘Well you see, when I take the potion, it tends to counter balance my other... condition... so I decided not to take it, I think it’s the wolvesbain... seeming as it’s a full moon in a few weeks and all...’ the older woman seemed less than impressed. ‘I don’t care if you have places to accommodate me during the process! I’d run to the damn forest or eat some kids if it suited me! I’m just warning you about the other effects... fine! On your head be it... Listen...’ she leaned into the woman. ‘You think you can rustle up me a little something without the wolvesbain...? I mean I know it’s kinda the main ingredient... alright alright... Goodnight Professor.’ She hopped off of the cold stone table heading towards the main hall, hoping to find some strapping young man to show her to her room.

Agni declined the offer to walk her back to her room, saying that she’d stay there reading for a little longer. She watched him walk out, a strange feeling in her stomach, shaking her head, she crossed the room to an armchair in the darkest corner of the room, the whole corner was lined with wall climbers, exotic flowers and magical plants of every kind. It was like some kind of greenhouse. The people in her house had come to accept it, if not ignore it. She was just about curled up when she heard the door creak open. ‘Halloo? Anyone in here? Gawd this place is creepy...’ Agni sat up. ‘Everyone’s gone to their rooms...’ The girl stepped into the light, her hair was ruffled up a bit, like she had been in some kind of fight, and judging by the blood on her face she had been. ‘Gosh, it’s an epidemic... wait... you haven’t been in a fight with Jacob have you?’ Polly looked at the strange girl. ‘Um... who’s Jacob...? Never mind, know where 2nd floor 1st year female dorm 7 is? I’m totally new. This is Thrisdin right? Oh my god, is that a Yailia? They’re so rare!’ Agni was instinctively wary of the girl, but loosened up after mention of one of her favorite plants ‘Yes it is, my father gave it to me on my fourteenth birthday... yes this is Thrisdin. I’m Agni. I’ll show you where it is.’

Cael stayed with Finn that night, it looked like he may have had a fractured rib and a broken jaw but the nurse was seeing to it. He didn’t sleep much at all that night, which led to him being irritable in the morning when Finn wasn’t well enough to go to breakfast with him. Sat in the great hall on his own, he noticed what people were shouting at the lad that caused Finn some trouble the night before. Ludovic frowned, he didn’t like what they were calling him, and it was obviously bothering him. Glancing over that table, he also noticed the blonde who had caused the trouble. He picked up his golden plate which hosted whole meal toast and walked over to the Thrisdin table, hoping the Professors wouldn’t notice him. He sat down next to the girl, feeling her tense as soon as he did. ‘Please do not affiliate me with the vulgar behavior of my companion. What he said was inexcusable, however I have come to apologize on his behalf.’ He gave her no pause to speak ‘However, I caution you to leash your dog next time. Perhaps he doesn’t deserve the taunts, but he hospitalized my friend, and his temper is to be watched. Enjoy your breakfast.’ He left her, throwing away his toast and making his way to potions.

Polly woke up late, which was usual after one of her more violent attacks. She looked to the clock tower through her dorm room window and cursed. She was late for her first potions lesson. Dressing quickly, she soon found her way to the classroom. All eyes sought her out as soon as she entered the room. She managed to alter the school uniform to be dangerously close to pornographic. Her skirt was figure hugging and as short as it could be without showing anything. Her black silk tights led down to a pair of dangerously high heels. Her white shirt buttons were almost redundant, so much so, that Jimmy (wherever he was) would be more covered. She sat in the only available place, next to the girl she had met the night before. ‘Hay Agni, don’t mind if I sit here do you?’ turning around, she waved to the girl Felicity sitting with Frat-boy near the back.

Potions class seemed to go quickly for Ludovic, he hardly spoke to Felicity, and nearly fell asleep in his cauldron. He was not in the best of sorts and would be visiting Finn in one of his free lessons after Classical studies. He kept his head down mostly because the girl that had molested him the night before seemed to be in his lesson.

‘Girl, you seriously need to dress up a bit more if you want your man to notice you! Seriously! You got a free next?’ Agni looked a bit sheepish ‘Yeah, we have break next... the day’s schedule has been interrupted by Thrisdin’s endurance team practice...’ ‘Fantastic, well, I’ll get you kitted out.’

Agni was in Herbology before anyone else. She stood in the greenhouse freaking out. ‘I look ridiculous... I’m going to get eaten alive... I hope Jacob doesn’t come to Herbology either... maybe he’s ill... maybe nobody will come...’ at that point the Professor walked in. ‘Ah miss Belle... I almost didn’t recognize you... the ball did you some good I see?’ she smiled, almost passing out with embarrassment. ‘Well you can get started if you like; we’re only pruning Accachi plants.’ She nodded hurriedly. Her new fried Polly had raided her uniform box and raped everything with a sewing kit and scissors. She was now stood in the Greenhouse wearing a ridiculously short, pleated Thrisdin skirt (Blue and brown tartan) with a cream woolen V-neck vest that was supposed to go over a shirt. Polly had refused to give her a shirt. Her shoulders were cold. She had her rustic brown scarf and her beige and blue Thrisdin cloak draped around her arms though. She had managed to put her foot down, refusing to wear heels and instead putting on her old tattered converses and her large framed black glasses. Head first into her work, she hardly noticed Jacob come in. Looking up to him, she glared and then ignored him completely for a while. ‘I’m not talking to you because you started a fight with Finley. Yes I found out Jacob! He has apologized... in a roundabout way. You need to apologize too! You put him in the hospital wing Jacob!’ she was turning a darker shade of pink the angrier she got. ‘You... YOU...!’ she slammed down her potted Accachi on the wooden bench. ‘Prune your own bush!’ She stormed out (having finished all her set work) she felt ridiculous but kept on walking. She was only angry because Jacob had hurt himself and was incurably stubborn. She’d never felt so hacked off with someone in her whole life and she didn’t like it. Leaning against a wall bathed in sunlight, she thought about going back, she just wanted to be with him all the time, he was her first friend ever and he made her laugh and cry and just absolutely boil with rage. She sighed ‘what on earth is happening to me?’ She took off her glasses to rub her eyes. Opening her eyes again, she nearly jumped out of her skin to see Jacob there. ‘What do you want?’ she frowned grumpily, spotting her scarf and cloak that she had left behind in his hand. ‘Thank you. Now... go away.’ She took her things off of him and threw them to one side. ‘Because I’m trying to be mad at you Jacob. You didn’t have to do that, you’ve just gone and hurt yourself and I’m not worth it okay?’ she hoped that he wouldn’t pick up on the hint of concern for him that was letting itself slip. She stared directly at the floor, knowing too well that if she looked at him, she would start feeling weird again and would most probably go red. ‘You’re wasting your time with me. I’m not important, you should just go and find somebody else to fight for.’ She couldn’t help her voice sounding almost sad, but she was, there was no way she could run away from facing him, she had backed herself against the wall. With a large sigh, she looked up to him, her features captured in the sunlight.

Sat in potions Felicity didn’t notice who she was sat next to, at first, however when she opened her book and it lapsed over onto the person sat next to her Felicity looked to her side to see Ludovic. She said good morning but then didn’t speak to him again, last night she had gotten a little tipsy and could excuse being more relaxed around him, but now sober she was back to herself, just wanting to get the theory work done as soon as possible, there was of course the option to use the cauldrons that day but Felicity was tired and instead began to read about potions much higher in difficulty than she was capable of doing. Every so often Felicity looked over to the new girl, Polly a little confused. She looked like the kind of girl who she would despise. Her uniform was disgraceful at best, Felicity couldn’t imagine walking around like she was but also thought it was incredibly ballsy at a school of stature and excellence, and so far nobody had said a thing to her about it. Felicity liked ballsy but decided that for now she was going to keep her distance from Polly, Felicity wasn’t good at instigating friendships and assumed Polly to instantly glue herself to the popular girls, who would no doubt fall in love with her sense of style.

Felicity left to her 4th Level defences’ lesson with Professor Laurendale talking to her quietly, through the corridors the conversation changed from counter-charms to what happened the other night. “Felicity, do... do you know what happened last night?” Felicity looked to her teacher. “Well, no not really professor...I just saw her in there crawling around as if she was possessed, blood soaked.” Professor Laurendale nodded. “That’s pretty much what happened Felicity, Polly was indeed possessed by something, it’s part of her condition, amongst other things of course.” Felicity didn’t quite understand. “What do you mean?” Professor Laurendale turned into her classroom with a knowing look. “Now, I am not obliged to answer any more questions about her condition, In fact I have specifically been told not to answer any more. But of course you can ask Polly herself.” Felicity looked a little disappointed with her answers. “Now, shall we beginning, I am assuming the others probably had a little something to drink and will not be joining the lesson for quite some time.”Felicity nodded, raising her wand ready for her Professor’s curses. Felicity’s speciality wasn’t defences but she had a knack for it and knew that it would come in handy for when Duelling season started after the Christmas holidays, everyone always seemed so focused on the offensive charms and attacks, but Felicity had decided to work the opposite way and it had fared well so far for her.

Jacob still managed to get to Herbology a little late; he had lost time in the Headmaster’s office but it seemed that everyone was running a little late as well, only Agni and a few others were in the room doing their work. “Alright Professor?” The professor looked up to Jacob “Just get on with your work Elladora, no slipping into last year’s routines now...” Jacob shrugged his shoulders, his jaw feeling a little stiff from last night, he stood next to Agni who had only looked up at him and then away again “Hello to you too.” Jacob laughed picking up one of the oddly coloured plants and looking at it funny. “What are we meant to be doing? I don’t like the look of this one...” Jacob finally caught on to the heir of tension and, “Why aren’t you talking to me, I need help here...” Jacob didn’t expect Agni’s outburst. “Whoa, what are you going on about?” Jacob crossed his arms. “I’m not apologising to the scot.” When Agni started turning a darker colour Jacob caught on at how angry she was and wasn’t so shocked as she ran out of the classroom. “Agni!” Jacob shouted after her, leaving is bush to be pruned by an un expecting first year whilst he chased Agni with her cloak and scarf in his hands, seeing that she had left them. Jacob lost track of her for a moment but found her standing in the sun, it was then that he finally noticed how little she was wearing today, it shocked Jacob; not used to seeing that much of Agni. He walked up to her slowly. “Uh... here...” He spoke quietly, not wanting her to blow again. “Go... why?”Jacob was about to turn around but he heard something in her voice that made him stay, it made Jacob want to ignore what she was saying. “Agni...” He took a step forward, placing a hand on the wall by her shoulder he gently lifted her chin with the other hand. “You are worth fighting for, you’re my friend Agni and I fight for my friends until the end.” He smiled a little before standing properly, he leant down to pick up her cloak and scarf, “You look cold, I’m not surprised in what you’re wearing.” He genuinely didn’t understand how girls could wear short skirts and things in the autumn; Jacob felt the cold too easily. “Well...” There was quiet again, “I suppose I could apologise, for you anyway... I’ll see you after lunch? We have our first divination lesson...” Jacob left towards the Great hall for lunch, feeling a little strange after talking to Agni.

Felicity came out of her lesson exhausted; Professor Laurendale had let out all the stops, perhaps she had been in a feisty mood. Felicity fell onto the Somery table and ate soup and bread slowly, staring into the grains and grooves of the long table, she looked up to see that Ludovic was opposite from her with his friend who had been recently discharged from the hospital wing. Even being as tired as she was Felicity couldn’t help but laugh at Finn. “What?” Felicity looked away again at her soup and got her things together for her Divination class; also known as the biggest waste of time known to wizarding kind, only a few people could actually do it without making things up, so for those who weren’t gifted like Felicity, it was a doss lesson where she did nothing, nothing except perve on the new teacher, who by the majority of the school’s female population was something to behold.

Though Felicity wasn’t too interested in a man who would be off limits and a waste of time, he was still nice to look at; she had seen him once or twice in the halls. She showed up early but most of the front rows were taken up by whispering girls, Felicity went for the back of the room and opened her books. She watched Polly enter the room, wondering whether her condition happened to help her divination. As the rest of the class entered they were followed by a tall man, flurry of whispers swept the class room. Stood at 6’4 and well built , the man introduced himself. “Good afternoon students, my name is Professor Sparrow, and I will be guiding your through Divination for the next year.” He hard deep brown hair pushed back from his face and slightly to the side, slightly tanned you could tell he wasn’t originally English. “Shall we open out books to the first couple of pages? I know you all know the majority of this but it’s good to have a quick recap.” James Sparrow scanned the class with his dark hazel eyes, noticing all of the girls staring at him intently, it didn’t make him uncomfortable anymore, in fact it made the class easier to teach, and his grades were constantly up because somewhere between staring and whispering it seemed the class actually paid attention. James never honestly understood the girls infatuation with him; he was aware of his looks but from a male perspective he could see there were just as attractive guys in the upper years for them to ogle.

“Agni...” the way he spoke her name sent a chill through her, like electricity, she couldn't explain it. He took a step toward her, putting his hand up on the wall beside her, she turned her head to look at it but his hand caught her chin, directing her gaze back at him. “You are worth fighting for, you’re my friend Agni and I fight for my friends until the end.” His words should have been comforting; to finally have a friend was good, wasn't it? Despite this, when he said it, disappointment ran through her, she didn't know why. She smiled weakly in reply to him, taking her cloak and scarf from him. “ You look cold, I’m not surprised in what you’re wearing.” She frowned, he was now criticizing what she was wearing, she knew she felt stupid and now tried to fight back tears again. “I suppose I could apologise, for you anyway... I’ll see you after lunch? We have our first divination lesson...” and with that, he was gone. She was left feeling cheated for some reason, and it confused her no end, just as she was about to start crying again, a loud voice came from around the corner. 'Getting cosy are we?' she turned to see the three girls from the night before that she had considerably offended. 'I'm sorry, I was just going.' but before she knew it, she was surrounded. 'I don't think so darling... got some new clothes have we? Huh, slut. Playing around with Elladora, told you so Louellen...' 'I didn't believe you at first, but I guess you're right.' They laughed, getting closer, two of them grabbed her by the arms, Angi look terrified, but that was soon knocked out of her after the first punch, a second one came harder, she braced herself for another, but it didn’t come, she opened an eye to see the three girls frozen... literally frozen. She wondered what was going on until another voice sounded. ‘Hay Girl, you sure are busy huh?’ She turned to see Polly approaching her. ‘I sure am glad I decided to skip Alchemy today, you got some hot cake boy toy around your little finger and you still manage to get beaten up... tsk tsk tsk...’ she grabbed Agni and pulled her away. ‘It’s okay, they’ll unfreeze soon.’ They walked up towards the common room. ‘So, how long you got this man crush for then?’ Agni looked at her absolutely mortified. ‘We’re just friends...’ Polly laughed, looking down to the little elf girl. ‘Pfft, just friends? So are me and Prince Harry...’ ‘Prince who?’ ‘Oh never mind, let’s get those cuts sorted.’

Cael sat with Finn while he signed out, his arm in plaster. ‘Man... I’m going to kill him...’ he grumbled walking out, Cael laughed ‘I don’t think so buddy. If you want to get back at him, better think of another way.’ His eyes sparked as he thought of it. Finley laughed ‘Why... what do you have in mind lad?’
They finally reached the main hall just in time for lunch, sitting down at the table, Cael had to cut everything up for Finn, although he pretty much guzzled it whole anyways. Felicity sat down opposite them, and Cael was suddenly very aware of everything. However, when she started sniggering, he wasn’t about to let his best mate be laughed at. “What?” ‘Shut up.’ He growled before lifting himself off his seat and walking away. He had to leave early to get to go to his next one on one training with his attack teacher. Finn got up soon after, he was exited for divination, due to the fact he was a storyteller divination was one thing he was really good at without having to try.

Polly helped Agni clean up her cuts from where the girl’s ring had caught her paper-like skin. ‘Man, so, just because you’re different they hate you? That’s totally whack.’ Agni nodded, wincing as Polly touched her bruises. ‘See, I used to get bullied like that, but now I’m kickass.’ Agni smiled. ‘Look girl, you gotta cheer up, nobody’s gonna want you if you’re miserable all the time.’ The girls walked together to Divination, getting there early and sitting together also. Agni wanted more than anything to sit with Jacob, but Polly had insisted on the ‘treat him mean’ method, whatever that was. They hadn’t gone to lunch, but since Agni was an elf, she didn’t get too hungry; Polly on the other hand was about ready to eat a whole person. The Professor walked in, and Polly almost died with perverted glee. She was now going to enjoy Divination.

Felicity watched Finn walk into the divination class and found him sat diagonally in front of her; she couldn’t help herself but laugh. She had recently assumed that Ludovic was the brains and he was the brawn, however by the look of his bruises it didn’t seem that way anymore. But for now she sat back and listened to her new Professor Sparrow, as did the majority of the class, all wide eyed, some frantically taking notes in order to impressed, but Felicity just sat and stared un shamefully. Not interested in him particularly, just thankful for something nice to look at. There weren’t that good a male population in her year and those who were worth looking at had at least six vicious girls after them.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, as you will see in your text books there are in fact several forms of divination, and each of you will have your individual preferences that will work for you. My two favourites for example are Cartomancy and Crystal-gazing.” A couple of girls whispered in agreement with his preferences. “But of course like I said each is to your own, I am simply here to guide you on your journey of un clouding what the future holds for you. Well you all look like bright people in my opinion, shall we start off with something simple?” James turned to a tall set of drawers behind him and pulled out a large bag of tea leaves. “A little tessomancy, now as I pass you out a portion of this, please look through your text book here to refresh your memory as to what symbol could appear in your cup.” Felicity turned the page;

Acorn - "windfall, unexpected gold"
Club - "an attack"
Cross - "trials and suffering"
Falcon - "a deadly enemy"
The Grim - "death"
Skull - "danger in your path"
Sun - "great happiness"

It seemed simple enough, she never got anything from Tessomancy as it was, perhaps a couple blogs of congealed tea leaves stuck to the side, but she could never read anything from it. James instructed his class to set their teacups on their desks and with his muslin bag on leaves went to each student and placed enough in their cup to begin with. He often tired to avoid eye contact with the students, he had a little bit of a nervous streak; especially at the start of a year. And having tend of girls staring at him at once was a little uncomfortable, though all were exceptionally polite. Though there was one girl who almost demanded his attention, looking up to two girls as he gave them their tea leaves he smiled. “And how are you finding the year so far? Interesting? Well I hope I can make it interesting...” He looked at the taller brunette girl, there was definitely something different about her that he liked, she didn’t melt in her seat as he walked past, James was a little impressed, if not interested by her. But of course he would remain professional.

With tea leaves in his cup Jacob got something almost straight away, Tessomancy was a speciality of his, he didn’t even have to look in the book to know what he was seeing. “A cross, in line with... a skull.... but there is a sun, yes that’s defiantly a sun!” Jacob was pleased, he wasn’t sure as to when any of what the leaves suggested would happen but it did look very interesting. He called over the professor who came over quick enough. “Sir, I was wondering; what do you think this could mean, for me anyway.” James looked into the student’s cup and raised his eyebrow, “Well it certainly is interesting, Trials, pain and happiness... well to me it would seem that you are going to have overcome some sort of danger and unhappiness for a great happiness...” James kept looking up to the American girl but only briefly, not wanting to be seen doing so, she had a strange aura about her. “Or turning things on their head...” James turned the cup around, the sun now above the darker symbols. “Perhaps what you see to be a great happiness is going to lead you down a path of ganger and pain?” Jacob looked into his cup intently trying to think about what it could mean, he was best at dream interpretation, but you couldn’t do that in a class room too well. Every so often Jacob looked up to Agni sat on the other side of the room, wondering what he had done wrong; she was acting distant and he didn’t really like it , not only was he confused but he was rarely ignored by girls.

Felicity as usual had nothing come up, in prep school she was told she wasn’t taking any of it seriously, or that she wasn’t concentrating but once again she had nothing but a few squiggles and perhaps a club, but she was sceptical of an attack or anything that came out of the cup, so leaning over to Finley who was impressing the girl next to him Felicity spoke quietly. “So, got yourself beaten up by a boy with shade in his blood? No shame in that I suppose... can’t help it...” Felicity laughed as in his ear softly as the tension around them changed, the atmosphere cooler. “What? Well perhaps you will just start fights with girls now instead... what?” Her voice got louder, her accent more prominent; people knew it was her. “I’ll be the first to take you on McDognhue, trust me; no half blood has ever won a fight, or a duel for that matter against me.” James saw the two exchanging heated words and slowly walked up the aisle of desks, watching the pair. “But Finnley it’s true!” She said in a mock-innocent accent “Don’t you like me calling you names?” She saw the professor coming so decicded to wrap up her little rant. “Well perhaps you shouldn’t go around calling other people names, take what you give Finn, take what you give.”

“Excuse me miss,” James stood behind the Irish girl’s desk. “Can I ask what’s going on here?” Felicity turned around. “Why yes professor Sparrow, you can. I was simply telling my good friend Finley here that he should know that being good at divination gets you nowhere in life, except of course if you want to be a teacher. And that he should stop being a little man bitch and perhaps throw a few decent punches.” Felicity couldn’t help herself, James sighed. “Out Miss Moran.” Felicity stood up with her books in hand. “You don’t have to tell me twice!” Practically skipping to the door Felicity was halfway out of the door when she turned back and looked Jacob in the eye “And you, shady. The dark and mysterious type was cool a decade ago.” James had had enough “Out!” slamming the door. Felicity wasn’t bothered about whether her professor passed on her behaviour, she was bored of being on her best behaviour, she didn’t frankly care if she wasn’t allowed home for Christmas, at least she could have a holiday to herself without fretting parents comparing her to her brother. She had free lessons for the rest of the day so decided to sit outside in a courtyard and go over her countercharms that Professor Laurendale had insisted that she work on before the next time that they met for a Defence lesson.

James turned to his class with a sigh, “And on that, interesting note I will end the class, I hope you have had something to think about and I will see you tomorrow where we will look at Ovomancy! And I will be setting a little quiz after that! So please go over your notes and we shall start as we mean to go on.” Sat at his desk he watched the American girl leave his classroom over a text book, wondering what he found so different about her; it was right in front of him but James couldn’t quite put a finger on it.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, as you will see in your text books there are in fact several forms of divination, and each of you will have your individual preferences that will work for you. My two favorites for example are Cartomancy and Crystal-gazing.” Polly had studied the text book during the summer, there was nothing overly difficult in it, but then again, Divination came easily to her, given her condition. She listened to his voice, smiling at the sound of it to herself, her long eyelashes shielding her eyes from the flickering candles inside the dark room. “But of course like I said each is to your own, I am simply here to guide you on your journey of un clouding what the future holds for you. Well you all look like bright people in my opinion; shall we start off with something simple?” As soon as the tea leaves came out, Polly instantly groaned. The grim, it was always the grim, no matter what was going to happen to her, the grim was always there. Nobody ever died, but her life was so full of dead people that she guessed it couldn’t help but pop up in the simplest form of Divination. Given the fact that she could already predict what was going to happen, she turned her attentions elsewhere, namely, Professor Sparrow. He was a young man, but he had old eyes, like they had seen a lot of things, she liked that. There was definitely something different about the way she looked at him in comparison to the other slobbering girls. It was more like she was assessing him, giving him the Manhattan sweep but in a much more serious way. He was taller than her, and she was tall at around five foot ten. His broad shoulders suggested physical strength, which left her altering the different ways that she would have to take him down if such an occasion arose... As he approached her table, she sat up a little, her unusually coloured deep vermillion eyes stared him down like he was a threat. ‘Good Morning!’ the girl next to her chimed as he came towards her, she seemed like she was oblivious to everything, that’s why Polly liked her, innocent. “And how are you finding the year so far? Interesting? Well I hope I can make it interesting...” She smiled a little, her sharp canines bared. ‘Oh. I don’t doubt that.’ She held his gaze longer than should have been comfortable for him, looking into his soul, or so it would have seemed like. Finally, he broke the eye contact, leaving her smiling. It would have been a bad sign if he didn’t.

Agni felt awkward and shifty sat next to Polly, she was so tough. The aura around her was very hard. She may’ve looked immaculately pretty, but still her eyes were cold, nothing like Jacob’s. She always felt relaxed around him; he had away with her that would reassure her. But at the moment, she just felt on edge. Divination was something she had always wanted to try. A lot of her people were good at it, the simple stuff that is, palm reading and tea... reading. They were called gypsies by the non-magical people. Swirling her water around for a bit, she glanced over horrified at her new friend. ‘YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DRINK IT!’ Polly laughed. ‘Chill girl, I’m thirsty. Besides, I already know what it’s going to say.’ Agni looked at her with sheer awe. ‘Wow... you’re good.’ Polly snorted through her tea. ‘Ah kitten, you’re so cute. Now shush. I’m listening to what’s going on.’

Finn was exited for his first Divination lesson; believe it or not, he was actually rather good at it. Sitting in front of Olivia Westcott on one of the single desks, he opened his text book. A hiss caught his attention from behind him, causing him to freeze up. “So, got yourself beaten up by a boy with shade in his blood? No shame in that I suppose... can’t help it...” ‘Is that any of your business Moran?’ he growled, knowing too well her family’s history. “What? Well perhaps you will just start fights with girls now instead...” ‘When I find one, I’ll tell you.’ “what?” He smirked, attempting to turn back around. “I’ll be the first to take you on McDognhue, trust me; no half blood has ever won a fight, or a duel for that matter against me.” Finley’s blood boiled. ‘What did you call me you little bitch!?’ He stood, turning round to her, his wand drawn. “But Finley it’s true!” He grabbed her by the front of her shirt, pressing his wand up to her neck. ‘Want to repeat that!?’ “Don’t you like me calling you names?” she seemed to be relishing in his anger. Just as she finally spat her last few words, Professor Sparrow came over. Finley let go of her, his wand still grasped tightly in his hand. As the teacher sent her out, Finley’s blood boiled. He was a big guy, totally ripped and when he was angry, it wasn’t pretty. He glanced at Elladora, finally deciding to pick up on Cael’s idea to get back at him for what he did.

Agni frowned at what was going on. Poor Finley may have been wrong in what he did, but he didn’t deserve that. She followed him as he left the classroom, calling for him. Finley paused, turning to look at her. ‘And I suppose you’ve come to gloat too?’ he growled. ‘N...no... Um... I was just going to say that... well...I’m sorry for what Jacob did. And I know what it’s like being a half blood... I probably don’t look like much of a half blood but I am and it’s not nice when people say things about it. I get that it’s a touchy subject... anyway... sorry...’ she turned to leave but Finn caught her wrist gently, pulling her back around to face him. ‘Thanks Agatetcher, for the record, I’m totally sorry for what I did, it was out of order, and I know you don’t mean to hang around with a loser like him.’ She smiled weakly at his comment. Finn leaned into her a little more, never being the one to be subtle. ‘I like you Agatetcher.’ He whispered his voice low enough for only those close by to hear. ‘And I’m not going to hide it.’ He leaned into her, his large hand on the side of her face, kissing her gently. He pulled away again, dropping his hand and looked down at her with a smug expression. ‘See you around.’ He walked away, feeling awfully manipulative. And it felt good.

Agni wondered what just happened; she was left standing on her own on the staircase completely confused and upset. At that moment, the person she least wanted to see turned up. ‘Well well well! Who would’ve thought...Kitten’s a cougar!’ Agni turned to Polly who was stood with a smirk on her beautiful face. ‘I... I was only trying to say sorry... and to... Polly... what if Jacob finds out... he hates Finn... oh...!’ her bottom lip was trembling again and Polly couldn’t help but feel motherly. ‘Hay... hay kitten! Don’t cry! Don’t waste your tears over men hay? They’re not worth it. Besides... I think something fishy’s going on here... I’ll talk to them...’ Agni looked up to her with mortified eyes. ‘What... no...!’ ‘Don’t you worry precious... oh... hold on... I’ve forgotten my bag.’ She ran back up the stairs without a second look to Agni.

Polly walked back up the stairs slowly towards the divination room, opening the door loudly to see Professor Sparrow still at his desk. ‘Sorry, left my bag.’ She smiled, walking over to her desk and picking it up. ‘Say, is your name James?’ she had a funny feeling come over her. ‘Mmm thought so.’ She slung her bag over her shoulder walking towards the door again, pausing before walking out. ‘I think we’re going to get on very well, you and I.’ she said, not turning around. Turning her head casually, she looked him up and down with her dark eyes. ‘Goodbye James.’ Without more of a word, she left, closing the door behind her.

Cael had spent the rest of his morning seriously training with a Professor his attack spells, attack was much more attractive to him than defense, defense was the coward’s way out in his opinion, plus, he was a much more aggressive dueler. Coming out of the practice room drenched with sweat and littered with small cuts, he felt satisfied that he had got in a good practice. After showering and changing, he made his way happily back down the stairs with a new skip in his step when he skipped right into Finn. ‘Hay man! What the hell! You could’ve broken my arm again!’ Cael laughed ‘Oh shut up you pansy...’ just at that moment, the molester came running around the corner. ‘Yo! Dude, yeah you... oh hay there frat boy. How’s it going princess.’ She winked at Ludovic who frowned in distaste. ‘Anyways, Can I talk to you a minute handsome?’ she said, turning to Finn, who looked like it was his birthday. ‘Yeah sure...’ Cael frowned ‘Hang on a minute. I thought you said we were going to play some cricket while it’s sunny? Sorry yank. He’s busy.’ Polly narrowed her eyes, a smile playing on her lips ‘Is that how it’s going to be then? In that case, I’ll watch. Come on!’

Polly sat outside watching the two lads thinking about how she was going to handle talking to the dark haired bloke. The meathead she could handle the other guy she had no plan of what to say. She watched the boys play their game for a moment before getting confused. ‘Hold on a second... is this a deformis game? You know a non-magical one... how lame. Anyhow, You, chunk- what game are you playing with my girl Aggs?’ Finn caught the red stitched ball, looking at her. ‘What game would you like me to play with her?’ she smiled in a patronizing way ‘How about the stay-the-hell-away-from-her game. Listen up Bub. If you want to keep your dick in a safe environment, you stop playing this game right now.’ She turned to leave. ‘How about I keep my dick in your safe place huh?’ Ludovic sniggered behind his witty friend. ‘Nah you just keep it in your boyfriend’s ass. See ya!’ Ludovic erupted with laughter. ‘Oh God! She got you there!’ Finn looked unamused ‘She was talking about you idiot.’

Agni had left to go back to her room but got distracted on the way, finding herself in the Herbology section of the library reading a book on exotic water plants of the Outer Hebrides to calm herself down. She figured nobody would find her in the Library, mostly because she was sure most of the louts in her year didn’t know what a library was. Her wand was on the desk next to her looking new still. She didn’t really use it a lot, not at home anyway, and she was pretty convinced that it still hated the elven part of her and that’s why it played up sometimes. It must have been about dinner time, because the lamps were igniting and it was getting dark. She was still really cold, having left her cloak in her room when she went back for her gloves and not being bothered to go back up there again. Her large framed back glasses cast shadows on her cheeks as she read in the dark. Finally, she decided it would be best to get some food. In the dining hall, most people had gone, which suited her just fine, Polly wasn’t there, which only put a weight on her mind as to where she had got to.

Polly arrived in the dining hall pretty early, spotting the Jacob lad sitting on her house table ‘How convenient.’ She muttered to herself. He was surrounded by lads, the typical male group that she was used to chatting up in bars. She walked over to them, looking at one cute baby faced blonde that was sat next to the person she wanted to speak to. ‘Hello Boys.’ She drawled, as sexy as possible. A couple of them wolf whistled, some just stared, mouths open. ‘Mind if I sit here darlin?’ she asked Jacob, not really worrying about his answer. As soon as she did sit down, a funny feeling came over her, there were a lot of spirits hanging around him, and not good ones either. ‘So you boys all second years then?’ a few replied ‘That’s nice, it’s my first year here, I don’t really know my way around, perhaps you lads could show me?’ they all jumped at the chance. ‘Great, I’ll meet you in the common room in about ten minutes? I just have to speak to this handsome young man first. Go on. Run along.’ They did as they were told, even though she had no intention of going to the common room. She offered her hand to him ‘Polly Ephemera. And you’re Agni’s... friend... right?’ she frowned ‘Well, she might be talking to you if you weren’t so... sorry. Anyway, did you even notice how good she was looking today? I’ll have you know it is my business, I’m her friend, I want to know what guys are messing about with her.’ She smiled ‘Well, I just thought I’d let you know that a lot of guys are interested in her, and if you don’t want to lose her...’ she looked him up and down, he was definitely a strange one, if she were Agni, she’d much rather go after the Redhead, but she was in no position to judge. ‘Alright, if you don’t care who’s messing about, I guess I’d better not tell you that she was beaten up earlier by some girls in the higher year and she’s pretty shaken up by it all. I guess I also better not tell you that she’s totally coming out with bruises and everything. Oh and eh, I’m not going to tell you that I saw that beefcake of a redhead trying it on with her earlier either. Now, since I haven’t said anything, I think I’d better go sit someplace else and eat.’ She got up and sat at the other end of the table, tucking into a nice plate of raw steak.

Ludovic stared at Felicity at the dinner table in the great hall, hardly eating anything. ‘She said that?’ Finn nodded his mouth full of food. Cael frowned. He took a sip of water from his goblet. Just as he was about to go over there and give her a piece of his mind, the headmaster rose from his seat and silence fell. ‘I am here to announce, that tomorrow, there will be a collapsed day and also the same with the day after, due to a Knest match between the Thrisdin and Somery houses. Teams are able to practice during the day, and captains should report to the main field a little earlier in the morning for a briefing. To make this perfectly clear; this is the opening match of the season. Both Endurance and Escorial games will play.’ Cael smiled to himself, finally a bit of fun.

After Agni ate, she continued up to the common room, to her surprise, a group of lads were just leaving, all looking very upset with themselves. She waited for them to go past before walking over to her little corner, assessing all of her plants and going on to water some. She changed into a large tee shirt, letting her hair down and taking off her glasses. She sighed, sinking back into the chair. Her face was sore, one of her eyes had turned a deep shade of purple, and her lip was still bleeding a little. It was nothing she hadn’t had before though. She wondered what Jacob was doing but assumed it was probably something to do with the Knest match in a couple of days. She hoped he’d do well, but couldn’t help herself miss his company. She rubbed her wrists gently, red burns there and further up her arms from where the other girls had grabbed her, she was just glad that Polly had been there.

Jacob looked at the blonde girl sat to his side, he wasn’t sure what was going on, but like the rest of his friends Jacob was only too happy to oblige. He nodded at being in the second year, not that it made much of a difference; practically re taking the whole of the first year again. “To me?” Jacob’s pleasant demeanour shifted slightly, looking a little more cautiously at the rather attractive young woman. There was something about her that he immediately picked up that he didn’t like, or perhaps he didn’t fully understand. It were as if something dark was hanging over her, but not in the same way as he had seen others have- it almost looked like an extension on her person. Evidently no one else could make this out around them so he shook it off; perhaps he was going to have a funny turn of sorts. “Yeah I…” Jacob wondered how she knew so much about Agni. Jacob hadn’t anticipated Agni having many friends; she hadn’t mentioned one and here was a girl telling him all about how she was being harassed without him even knowing. He thought it to be a little suspicious, he nodded along with what she said but it was obvious to see that he didn’t like what she was saying. When Polly mentioned Finn he was almost convinced that she was trying to wind him up into having another fight. He wasn’t going to have any of it. He let Polly leave and turned to his food and had suddenly lost his appetite. He wanted to go and find Agni and let her know how he felt. Jacob had feeling or her, he wasn’t sure about them, but he knew he was there something there. Jacob had always been good with girls in the sense that he knew how to kiss them and how to get them into bed. But with Agni, he didn’t feel like that, she gave a small feeling in the core of his chest that he wasn’t used to. His mind was taken off of the whole subject by the announcement of the Escorial and Endurance teams playing for the next two days, however he looked to the Somery table and wasn’t impressed at the thought of having to play against Finn again. Jacob hadn’t been on top form at the trials but he had that small all painful feeling that Finn was still better than him at Escorial, though he bit his lip at the very thought and would never admit it aloud. As Thrisdin’s new captain he would have to meet with his team members tonight and get things sorted for the next morning. Escorial was to be played in the afternoon tomorrow whilst the Endurance team practised for their challenges the day after. He spotted a few of his team mates and told them to meet in Thrisdin tower for a little game plan in a couple of minutes. The word was going to spread around quickly so Jacob decided to make his way out of the grand hall, briefly spotting Finn and wondering why he had that sickly smug expression on his face.

Felicity had hardly touched her soup when the Grand hall was getting busy, she hadn’t been able to perfect a rather complicated counter charm and it was frustrating her no end; however she still looked like her overly miserable self sat in the middle of the long table with their being two spaces free to her left and one to her right. Not that she particularly cared; she just had that particular counter curse in her head, repeating over and over lumari-ellutio. Used not only to deflect darkness but to fire it directly back at the attacker themselves. The charm wouldn’t be magnified on deflection, but it done properly was often too quick to be avoided. Pronunciation wasn’t the issue it was timing the deflection. She looked up towards the head master as he announced the endurance teams of Somery and Thrisdin were to compete. Felicity smiled and had suddenly regained her appetite, not wanting to feel faint for the next two days. She also looked up towards Ludovic after the matches were announced and was a little surprised to see the smile on his face, he wasn’t looking at her but she was certain he had been looking at her, Felicity felt eyes boring into her and it wouldn’t have been anybody else. With the announcements done, Felicity stood up and decided to make a quick trip towards the library before going to the common room later. The library was quiet, a few higher students studying for exams but little else was going on. She only wanted some potions books to go with her theory lessons and was quickly out of the dark bookshelves. The library made her a little uneasy, but she was never too far away from a lamp or perhaps a window.

Jacob shook the hands of his team mates who were stoked to play Escorial the next afternoon; they had scheduled a couple of hours of practise in the morning, not getting in the way of lunch of course and were feeling confident about playing. One member of the group brought up the subject of what were to happen If they were to start losing. Jacob decided that if any of the other team members wanted to actively encourage the game their way then he wouldn’t say anything, but he wasn’t going to. Agni would probably be watching and he didn’t want to upset her. He climbed down the stairs of the common room to notice that the few of left were sat at tables with their heads in books. But he did notice Agni was still there, in the corner. He walked over slowly, smiling tentatively “Hello.” As he got closer Jacob started to notice the bruises and realised what Polly had said was true.”What happened?” Jacob looked concerned sitting by her. “Are you alright? I mean you sorted out my face,” He pointed to the bruised eye “But I’m not so good at the same thing..I could take you to the hospital wing if you’d like?” He shrugged, “Alright but…” He trailed off, not wanting to finish off his sentence, he wanted to say that he was worried and he cared; but he didn’t want to scare the girl off. He was rather close to Agni; he hadn’t noticed it until he felt her breath against his arm. “You don’t really sleep much do you… well… not in your own dorm that is…” Jacob didn’t think he could cope with a shared dorm either. “I’d let you share my room, but if any of the professors found out, you’d get in trouble, so would I, I guess…” The head master would certainly make it look like Jacob was being chastised but he and Jacob’s father knew each other; he assumed that was why he had gotten away with things that other students would be expelled for. “Well if you are staying for Christmas you can always use my room, I am going home…” Jacob didn’t want to go home but he had to. His father always insisted on some form of family reunion over the Christmas period that Jacob couldn’t stand.

Felicity had books tightly pressed against her chest by her arms as she entered the common room. The Somery room was surprisingly busy; Felicity stared down another first year boy into giving up his seat. It was a dark leather armchair which she had no trouble in getting comfortable in, sitting in it sideways, her back resting against one arm, her legs hanging over the other. Opening one of the thinner potions books she flicked through with one hand, using the other to keep her skirt in place, though every so often she would get engrossed in a paragraph and her grip would loosen, showing a little more of her leg than she would have liked. She also noticed that every so often that same feeling of eyes boring into her neck, or perhaps this time her leg. Felicity looked up, noticing that Ludovic and his friend that she had taken great pleasure in teasing had entered the common room, or perhaps they had been there all along, she didn’t know. But she as ever wanted to start something, especially with Finn so left her books on the leather chair and floated over to the pair. “Whitehall, where are the endurance team meeting tomorrow for practice?” She sighed. “You’re the captain, you ought to know. Have you gone to Professor Laurendale and asked her what the task it, you’re allowed to know just over 24 hours in advanced for the inter house matches, a griffin you say, interesting. Perhaps I should read up on them.” Felicity turned to Finn and mockingly fluttered her eyelids. “Oh, and good luck to you too McMcDognhue, don’t hurt yourself and just try your best.” Felicity turned on the spot, her dark caramel hair following with a delay, taking her seat again and crossing her legs over the arm of the chair, wondering if the book she had that had the harpies in had anything interesting about griffins, having never seen one in real life before. As an hour or so went by the numbers quickly thinned out and Felicity found herself to be one of the only few left, along with some upper years, Ludovic and Finn and a few girls who were hovering around them. Felicity was struggling to focus on what she was reading and thought it would be best to go to sleep, she slid off of the chair and stood in one swift motion and with her books again pressed against her chest in order to keep them up Felicity took to the stairs, she looked to her side as she walked up, she could just see Ludovic through an internal window on the staircase, she paused for a second, still curious about him, but his head started to turn in her direction. Felicity quickly looked away and carried on up the stairs, having to get to sleep for the next day.

Jacob left Agni in the common room at around one in the morning, he had lost track of time and remembered that they were going to have to get up and actually engage in the morning instead of sleeping in a text book so he lay there in bed, voices whispering around his head, some voices he knew, some he didn’t. He clenched his fists in frustration, his again-sharp nails digging into his skin lightly this always happened when Jacob needed to sleep, ghosts of his past, ghosts from his father and so on down the line would repeat what they said before they died, their last words. Some were chilling where as other were quite peaceful. But Jacob was used to it, so even after tossing and turning, he managed to sleep and get up on time for breakfast, as did, as far as he could tell, the majority of the school, excited for the day to come.

Agni jumped at the sound of Jacob's voice, her heart quickening in pace and her breathing getting faster, she felt like she was going to pass out with embaressment when he pointed out her injuries. 'Oh, nothing happened... just some girls... beat me up...because of you...' she was kind of mumbling again like she normally did when nervous. 'Yes I'm fine... NO! I mean... no thanks, not the hospital wing... it's fine i'm used to it. I heal pretty quickly...' He had gotten closer and cloer to her, and now she could feel him almost touching her. She had her head lowered so he wouldn't have to look at her bruised face. The least thing he would need was to be worried about her before the match. “You don’t really sleep much do you… well… not in your own dorm that is…” she shook her head 'No, i can't... the other girls stay in there... I... I cant really cope with it.' she was aware that she sounded pathetic, but then again, that's what she was. “I’d let you share my room, but if any of the professors found out, you’d get in trouble, so would I, I guess…” she giggled nervously, sounding even more stupid and therefore turning a deeper shade of red. “Well if you are staying for Christmas you can always use my room, I am going home…” she smiled, looking up to him, not noticing how close their faces were. 'Oh that's very nice of you but I'm going to spean christmas in Leon with Papa. We are very close.' she smiled, turning her head away quickly again.
It must have been early in the morning when Jacob left her. They had talked and talked, but just seeing him leave was like a weight off her shoulders, the atmosphere was so tense for her, she didn;t quite know what was going on, but she couldn't help but be excited to watch him play.

Ludovic and Finn had gone back to the common room almost immediately to discuss tacticks for the Knest games the next day. Ludovic's attention was soon divided when Felicity walked in. His eyes followed her like a hawk, he had a dangerou look in his eyes, there was just something unsettling about it. He looked away when she started to turn her head. “Whitehall, where are the endurance team meeting tomorrow for practice?” He sighed, turning to her again. 'We were just discussing that Moran.' “You’re the captain, you ought to know. Have you gone to Professor Laurendale and asked her what the task it, you’re allowed to know just over 24 hours in advanced for the inter house matches", his lip curled in distaste toward her, he replied. 'Of course I have, do you think me an incompitant fool? We have to attain a feather from a griffin. Not that I am in any way obliged to let you know before training tomorrow.' "a griffin you say, interesting. Perhaps I should read up on them.” 'Perhaps you should.' he turned back to Finn. 'And so as I was saying...' he was rusely interruped again by one of Felicities snide remarks. 'As I was saying. If we meet you for a couple of hours earlier on the grass plain behind the allotment.' they talked a little while longer about the styats of the other team, Finley was like a walking information book for things like that. Finally, Ludovic noticed Felicity getting up to leave, he watched her go, her athletic figure wasted under the matronly uniform she sported. He turned his head back again to look at some girls that had been apparently talking to him. Just as he did, he felt eyes boring into the back of his head, turning slowly, he just saw the feet of Felicity dissappear up the stairwell. He smiled to himself.

The morngin came quickly enough, and Polly felt it her duty to go and find Agni in the morning. She was in her chair in the common room, and Polly had the sneaking suspicion that she may have slept there again. 'Girl what is wrong with you? You'll get a damn crick in your neck from all that sleeping funny.' Agni rolled her eyes 'I'm an elf. We sleep in trees. This is nothing.' Polly crossed her arms 'Don't get smart with me. Now come on, its breakfast.

They sat together, eating completely opposite things, Polly a still mooing cut of beef and Agni a bunch of white grapes. 'Does his eyes look even to you?' Agni groaned 'not this again, seriously, you're obsessed. 'This is a serious qyuestion Aggs, do they look even to you or not? Life and death here.' Agni turned to look up at the Professors table at the top end of the hall 'As far as I can see... yes... why don't you just go over there and ask him yourself?' Polly looked mortified 'What hay mister, are your eyes even? shut up doofus... dont you think before you speak? Gees.' Agni laughed, the first time in a long time. 'Anyway. I'm going to talk to him during the match.' Agni looked horrified 'What aren't you playing?' she laughed angrily 'Pft no. Stupid Professors said something about the safety of the other students... they dont know what they're talking about...' Agni smiled 'Well, better get a move on, looks like he's leaving.' Polly turned and within a second was crossing the room.

Making her way out of the great hall, she saw Proffessor Sparrow walking down the coridoor, him being way ahead of her, she decided to shout for him. 'Proffessor!' that did the trick, she walked up to him, her uniform still unnacceptably... everything. She didn't care though. 'I was meaning to ask, with the Ovomancy test, will it be modular or will it be compulsary to pass... I wouldn't want to be held back...' she stared him straight in the eye. Her unusual eyecolour usually startled people, but he didn't seem phased by it. She liked that. 'Oh I see. I'd better study hard then... then again, Playing hard is so much more fun.' she smiled as if her statement were nothing. 'I assume you'll be cheering for Thrisdin. We'll need all the help we can get with our dismal teams.' she reached a hand up to his lapel, pulling off a speck of dust and flicking it away onto the floor. 'Mmm.' she smiled again 'Well, I guess I shall see you in the box tonight. Goodbye James.' she walked away confidantly. He was definately what she had been looking for.

Felicity had a difficult night’s sleep, she had the thought of Ludovic seeing her looking at him when she went to bed, if he ever said anything she would blatantly deny it. But the mere thought of inflating the guy’s ego infuriated her; when Felicity got out of bed she decided that for the practices and the match she was going to stay one hundred percent focused on endurance. It was why she was so enthused about schoolwork and wasn’t going to let a rich boy make her falter. A shower cleared her frustrated mind and Felicity was dressed and ready to go to the endurance practise. As instructed she was in her full endurance kit that the school had given her after making the team. Unlike her uniform, the endurance kit was near skin tight, it had to be; loose fabric would just snag or get in the way. Felicity only had a wand in her pocket as she strode down the halls, her hair still around her shoulders, people looked at her puzzled knowing that the endurance match wasn’t until tomorrow but Felicity knew exactly how the Somery team worked, like a pack and were determined. This meant every hour that could be spent would be spent and Felicity was all for that. She made it outside and saw two of the Somery team, one being Ludovic and the other a third year who seemed to be just as enthused as they were. Walking up to the pair Felicity pulled her hair back into a ponytail. “Hello.” She said quite shortly, looking behind her to see that no one else was coming out onto the field. “You did tell them now didn’t you?” Felicity didn’t want to be waiting round for the whole morning; the other team would be in the forests already. “Who am I kidding, they’re Thrisdin, and they won’t run over anything until tomorrow…” On the positive side it meant that the Somery team would have the day to practise undisturbed. Finally a few minutes later people began to drip onto the field, a few of the Escorial players turning to the other corner to meet with their respective captains.

“Oh, hello Miss Ephemera.” James turned around, not surprised to see Polly behind him, her accent very much giving her game away. “Ah, I’m afraid it’s compulsory to pass, tea reading earlier was compulsory, the easiest too. I didn’t call it a test, I didn’t want to scare the weaker ones into the foetal position just yet, you know?” then again, Playing hard is so much more fun.' James smiled, he was a little surprised at her comment, but he couldn’t say that he didn’t mind it, so he let it slide for now. “Yes I will be, but from the last I heard the Thrisdin Escorial team were very good last year…” James didn’t flinch as Polly got closer to him, but he was conscious of who was around him. “I’m sure you will.” James nodded and watched her walk on. Behind her, James couldn’t help but watch her absurdly short skirt swish from side to side, he smiled to himself, continuing to his office; she was definitely what he had been looking for.

Jacob was nervous. Being the first match of the season he felt it was essential to win, and he was going to give all he had to ensure that they did. Somery had a brilliant line up for their Endurance team so there was little hope for Thrisdin there, but he held hope for Escorial; apart from Finn, their team was pretty average. Jacob just hoped that Finn fluked it. Out on the pitch he saw Somery team were already assembled on the main pitch, Jacob along with his team walked straight towards the Somery team and up to Finn shook his hand. “We’ll take the reserves pitch for the day; see you on the field tonight.” Jacob’s handshake was tight, and there was a look in his eye that was only directed to Finn, but other than that he kept it all very civil. If he kicked off during the match he could be suspended until Christmas or worse kicked off of the team for the rest of the year. The Thrisdin team made their way to the reserves pitch and practised hard all morning, Jacob not letting up on his team for a moment, he had to win this; Agni was going to be watching.

The team of eight followed Ludovic into the forest, this time it was lighter so Felicity’s confidence didn’t waver, people were murmuring between themselves until they decided to split up and track a griffin in pairs and return in three or four hours. It would give them an advantage if they knew what way they were headed tomorrow. Felicity looked around to see everyone automatically paired with their good friends, she sighed knowing who was left. She didn’t mind for a change, she guessed he would know where griffins would be, so did felicity, but she hadn’t encountered anywhere on the school grounds that truly matched their habitat description. But then Laurendale wouldn’t have put it on the task if it were impossible. “So then Whitehall, what’s your strategy for this, tomorrow I mean. Splitting off again?” She listened to Ludovic as they walked, as a pair they were confident endurists in practice, but only tomorrow would really demonstrate the new team.

Evening came around quick enough for James, he hadn’t seen the last Escorial teams play much, so this year it would be interesting to see how the games went. As a professor he was able to stand at the front of the box, reserved area and all. There were no other teachers where he was stood, moreover he seemed to be surrounded by girls and the occasional strange boy but out of the corner of his eye he saw Polly and her blonde friend, her friend was struggling to see so he decided to call them both over. “Stand in front of me, important, watching your first Escorial match.” The blonde elf girl seemed grateful but he couldn’t see Polly’s facial expression as she was stood directly in front of her. The box was crowded, she was pressing up against him, but James didn’t complain, he watched Somery start the game off. “Enjoy the match,” he spoke quietly through the roar of the crowds in Polly’s ear. “I’m sure you’ve been studying hard all day…”

Ludovic woke in the morning to the sound of his alarm, a quaint charm he had cast the night before that was now flying around his room in the form of a bird singing at the top of its voice. Cael groaned, rolling over sleepily and grabbing his wand from the bedside table, pointing it at the singing charm, which promptly burst into flames and evaporated into a cloud of floating dust. The young wizard grunted, pausing before pulling the covers off of himself and exposing his body to the cold air. He shivered, before jumping up and preparing himself for the day ahead, the sun just barely rising.

Finley was already out on the field, he was known to be a slob and a lay about, but he was hot on physical fitness, he had a gym room at his home in Scotland and was pretty well into muscle building. Along with fitness, sport was Finn’s next love. His arm was still in a sling and a cast, but that didn’t stop him from jogging. Finn met his best friend by the courtyard after a few laps of the field ‘What took you so long princess? Lazy arse, I’m tellin ya.’ Cael only grinned ‘Yeah whatever, just get going.’

It came around time when the other team members where showing up, Finn had promised to help out tomorrow morning with training, but right then, he decided to take his team elsewhere after the brief encounter with the Elladora boy. Ludovic however, was too engrossed in Felicity, although not showing it through his obsessively callous personality. ‘Good morning Moran, Litheus, Smith.’ He greeted three, but there were only two others visible ‘Please Smith…’ a voice came from the air ‘just warming up boss.’ An imp-like figure surfaced from thin air, his blonde curly hair and his slight frame. ‘ Right, then can we please get started, just a couple of hours exercise, feel free to use any powers you may have if it’ll help. No serious training, just forest training.’ The two third years seemed to nod, respecting the authority Cael had over them instantly, everyone had heard what he did in order to save the girl in the tryouts.
They headed out into the forest, it was dark, even though the sky was clear. The air was cold which wasn’t great with Cael’s kit, his mid-thigh black shorts and his sleeveless black and green tight shirt. He had of course noticed what she was wearing. In her usual clothes she was nothing wonderful to look at physically, however in her athletics uniform, she came alive. “So then Whitehall, what’s your strategy for this, tomorrow I mean. Splitting off again?” He didn’t give any clear response for a moment, instead looking around him in the forest. ‘If we pair up into smaller groups with people who are matched in similar powers, then we will get to the Griffin more efficiently. Seeming as we have no powers specifically, but are both equally determined and equally matched in charms etcetera, we will be a pair.’ He paused. ‘The reason not many of us were there this morning, is because some of us are trackers and were in the forest early to try and get a head start.’ They were deep into the wood now, his eyes had turned from their boring brown to a milky yellow, his pupils slitted like a cat. Ludovic turned to look at Felicity, taking a breath in before speaking again ‘shall we run?’

The Escorial game was about to begin, Finley had been training hard with his team all afternoon, whipping them into shape so they were just barely acceptable. He stood in his uniform, leather ball in hand, his arm un-bandaged and hanging limp to his side. He would play with a broken arm, even if it killed him, stepping out onto the field, the roar of the crowd soon eased his tensed stomach, he looked across to the blue and bronze colours of the Thrisdin team and grinned at Jacob, then looking up to the Somery box and winking at the women screaming for him.

Polly spent the rest of the afternoon talking to both herself and Agni, and Agni just stayed quiet. It was cold outside, she had managed to talk Polly into letting her wear a pair of trousers, she didn’t feel the cold very much, but all the same she didn’t want to get the flu. She didn’t want to admit it, but she couldn’t wait to see Jacob play, he now had a reputation in her books of cheating, she liked things done properly and wondered if he was going to care about that. They got to the stands a little late, the place was already packed and she was having a hard time seeing anything. ‘He’s dark isn’t he… and his eyes are symmetrical…’ Agni finally snapped ‘Well it’s alright for you! You’re ninety percent leg anyway, I can’t see a darned thing!’ it was at that point, the Professor intervened “Stand in front of me, important, watching your first Escorial match.” She smiled with relief ‘Oh thank you Sir, thank you very much!’

Polly didn’t so much as smile as she moved her way through the crowd to stand in front of Sparrow. His box was pretty full to, so, pressing her body up against his, she looked down to Agni, her eyes were fixed on her man, so she had no intentions of turning around any time soon. Fantastic. She pulled her hand down the side of her leg, feeling for her wand which was in a leather belt hooked around her thigh. She pulled it out quietly and then, dropped it to the floor. ‘Oops.’ She muttered, bending over to pick it up off of the floor again. She came back up with a flick of her hair, turning around to face the older man ‘Sorry about that.’ She whispered ‘I’m terribly clumsy.’ Her gaze flickered down to his mouth and back up again to stare into his dark brown eyes. She held his stare for a moment before turning away to watch the game, a smirk playing on her lips.

The game was in full swing, in the first half of the game, flight was banned, it was purely a physical sport. Finn’s non-magical father had got him into rugby when he was younger, which certainly helped with Escorial. Finn had the ball in one arm, shouting at his team member to cover for him whilst he ran for the end zone, he couldn’t use his other arm, it was in too much pain after being bashed into by some lousy player of his during practice. He thought it was going to be an early lead purely three minutes into the game, until he saw Jacob. He didn’t know quite what happened, it all went on so quickly. Finn saw Jacob draw his wand, he had nobody covering him so dropped the ball and drew his with his left hand, being right handed, he didn’t set himself up for the best of deals when a charm came hurtling from Jacob and ricocheting off of Finn’s collarbone, he saw the other guy make a leap for the ball, so tried to intercept, he misjudged it, and landed on his arm with a spine-chilling crunch. The crowd dropped to hisses and boo’s as Finn screamed out in pure agony. The medics were sent in, and play was suspended.

Ludovic who could see everything that was going on from the lower Somery stand, shook his head in anger, Finn had always been thick skulled, but to play with an injury already was idiotic in that brutal game. When news came back of a broken collarbone and a compound fracture in his friend’s arm, he promptly sat, all hope of winning that part of the tournament over. The ref stood. ‘Seeming as the Somery have received a crippling injury to their numbers, it is mandatory that Thrisdin send one of their higher players to the bench for the entire game.’

Felicity stood in the changing rooms after having a shower before the Escorial match. They had successfully found the griffin tracks and had a very good idea as to where it was going to be, the tight-knit cooperation of the team pleased Felicity. At the start of the year she had been a little worried that nobody was going to take endurance seriously and just like at her prep academy in Ireland she would be dragging the entire team along with her. It seemed to be the case for the thrisdin team who hadn't even come out to track or talk tactics; they were either incredibly good or incredibly lazy. She didn't care either way, Somery would be better by far, losing was something that felicity didn't take lightly. She removed her athletics uniform and replaced it with a her out of school clothes, which left near enough everything to the imagination; a pair of dark jeans that weren't quite skinny fit, a long sleeved shirt that masked her curves and for when she was in the stand a thick coat. Felicity didn't really sensitive to the cold but hated wind chill. She had been persuaded to watch the match, originally going to sit in the common room by the fire and feel warm and comfortable, but now she had to endure a pointless match of Escorial, she didn't really care which team won, she just wanted something mildly exciting to take her mind off of the match tomorrow; Felicity wasn't showing it but she did have a few first match nerves. She had been the best at all endurance skills on her prep school, now she also had to rely on other peoples better judgement and felicity wasn't a very trusting person.

Jacob looked up at the heaving stands and felt the new wave of adrenalin coarse through his system. He had missed this feeling all summer, he looked to his friends in the second year and those in the higher years who were also itching to go, Jacob hoped that the first years were sharing their enthusiasm- they looked nervous but that was never a bad thing on the first match. "Come on then! Let's get out on the pitch!" the entire team cheered in reply and they ran out towards the centre to meet the Somery team. Lucinda was stood in the Somery box but wasn't watching the match, what some of the students were doing was far more interesting, she started off with the box she was stood in, noting the two endurance tryouts. Ludovic seemed to be content watching the game much like the others, but then there were the few like Felicity who looked as if they wanted to be anywhere else, much like Lucinda herself, she couldn't bring her snakes out to the matches as it was too noisy and in the autumn and winter far too cold. Scanning the other boxes the front rows of thrisdin caught her eye. Polly in particular, but she returned her focus to the game as it kicked off.

Jacob was in the Escorial zone, he had pumped himself up and when the chance came up for him to strike against Finn there was no way that he was going to miss it he pointed his wand faster than he could think and cast a charm stronger than probably needed but he looked up to Agni knowing that it was still within the rules. He was ready to intercept the ball but held back as another team mate lunged forward, both teams stopped with Finn's cry of pain, most looking extremely concerned but as the medics ran onto the pit Jacob's expression didn't falter. The thrisdin team now had a decision to make, they stood on the pitch very sure of who they had to get to leave the pitch, but the captain wasn't going to have any of it. "I'm not going off! Why not James? Come on, I can't direct you guys from the sidelines!" but the team weren't having it. 'They lost their captain Jacob, it's only fair right?' Jacob looked up to the boxes and where Agni was stood, she was only small at this distance but he knew then. "Alright." he sighed ' I suppose so." the team cheered him off of the pitch and the game could continue. He sat on the bench and with an unhappy grumble watched the game continue, well, until he began to run away with his thoughts, even with all the roars of the crowd he could hear the whispers all around him, voices of the recently passed, for once it seemed to soothe him stopping Jacob from hitting the player next to him.

James Sparrow had difficulty paying attention to the game at hand, even with the exciting revelations, there was something about Polly besides her looks that made her automatically attractive, but even with her teasing he couldn’t do anything, the students in his box weren’t the problem, but he could feels of another teacher on them. James was always one to appear professional in public. He would have to wait for the privacy of his classroom or office to even take notice to what she was doing. At least Thrisdin were winning, he could try and clap his sexual frustrations away; the gods knew he wasn’t going to let even a whisp of them show to any of the students, especially Polly. Bringing his hands down from clapping a Thrisdin point James let the tip of his finger linger on the base of the brunette’s spine, he didn’t look down to her as he moved his hand away, instead looked out at the players and with a small smirk commented. “What a brilliant game to start the season, wouldn’t you say so girls?” He immediately had several girls around him nod and agree with him but they weren’t really enough to captivate his attention.

Felicity had sat down after all of the excitement with Finn being taken off of the pitch; she had always enjoyed a good injury whilst watching sports. She would have been more suited to the roman styled sports but Escorial was doing fine for now; besides the second half was in swing and the end was near. Hugging her coat tightly she narrowed her eyes at the score board; it seemed that Finn was the team’s only brilliant player and Thrisdin were set to win the match. “Bugger.” She whispered, not pleased at the thought of Somery losing, but the same wouldn’t happen tomorrow, she knew it. Every so often she looked over at Ludovic quickly; he had caught her attention, since practise earlier he had been on her mind, just flickering in and out. He was a good leader and she respected that; that was all. As the game ended the crowds cheered and the Somery box got up to leave, again, Felicity looked again over to Ludovic but this time he was looking back. A little surprised she quickly looked away and walked down the wooden staircase to the floor rather quickly. She didn’t want him to get the wrong idea about her; but even she wasn’t too sure what that was herself.

Agni stood against the front bar of the stands, almost hanging over with anticipation, finding her lungs as the ref shouted out his decision ‘THAT’S INSANE! HE WAS PLAYING INJURED SUSPEND HIM! WHAT’RE YOU PLAYING AT?! Descendez de la hauteur! Ma mère ne pouvait faire mieux et elle est morte! HUH!’ she stopped, catching her breath when Jacob looked up into the stands at her. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but after he held her gaze for a moment or two, he turned away, nodding at the rest of his team before walking off the pitch. ‘No! What are you doing…? Jacob…’ her voice trailed off under the roar of the outraged Thrisdin team and the gloating Somery supporters. All Agni could do was remember to breathe as play continued, not being able to draw her eyes away from Jacob’s dejected face.

Ludovic knew that there was next to no chance of Somery winning the match now, even though they had definitely improved since he watched a few of them practice a few days ago. Finley must have either worked them hard or put the fear of God into them. Ludovic had the feeling it was a little of both. Despite his patriotism for his house colours, he couldn’t help but feel a little cheated when the Elladora boy was sent off the field. The was something about him that made him interesting, he wanted to watch him play, sighing, he sat back down again with the twins, they were obviously more avid watchers of women than they were of the sport, looking around, pointing and laughing, eventually, he couldn’t help but join in, they were a fun pair. ‘The redhead, yeah her, I mean, look at that rack!’ Cael laughed with the other two guys while the game was still going on, right up until Iliad pointed out Felicity. ‘What about Moran eh Cael? Seem to be getting pretty friendly with her.’ Arius started next ‘Yeah man, she’s uh, well I mean, when you look at her, there’s not much there…’ Iliad started again ‘She dresses like an old woman’ ‘the dress she wore for the ball’ ‘I know man, what was with that!?’ the two chuckled to each other. ‘That’s enough.’ Ludovic’s temper was increasing with each word they said against her. ‘But then huh, but then, when she came out for training this morning I mean…’ ‘Wowzer man… she’s got some body on her...’ ‘Built like a damn panther…’ ‘I said that’s enough.’ It wasn’t very loud, but the threat in his voice was enough to kill. ‘Sorry boss,’ ‘yeah sorry boss.’ They piped down after that. Cael couldn’t help but feel bad for the guys, spoiling their fun. ‘Look guys, sorry but she’s a team member yeah? You don’t talk about the team like that.’ They nodded in agreement, getting his drift as it were. ‘Besides, she’s a good player and I respect her for that…’ the twins looked at each other, grinning slightly ‘Alright guys, yeah, you win, she did look pretty hot in her kit…’ ‘Yeah man!’ they all laughed together, standing up once more to make their way out of the stands. The match was over and as inevitable as it was, it still stung that Somery lost. Just as Ludovic stood, he looked over to where Felicity was, his signature stone cold glare not moving from his face. She looked away pretty quickly, perhaps she was busy thinking about the game, perhaps not, either way, he would see her for the endurance challenge.

Polly could feel that Professor Sparrow was holding back, she liked the idea of him squirming; she was always the first one to start playing games. She pressed herself up against him hard, using the excuse that there was not enough room in the box. The end of the game came, she was pretty happy that her team won, but more happy that she’d managed to wind her catch up just enough for her to move to stage two of her plan. She totally ignored him when the girls started swarming, instead turning to find Agni missing. ‘Aggs? BabyG?’ she wondered where she had gone, but imagined that she would catch up with her later. Instead, she caught up with the Felicity girl from the other day. ‘Hay, hay Felicity… Girl Hold up!’ she finally managed to grab her. ‘Hay girl, listen, I’m looking forward to endurance tomorrow, and between me and you, we all know that Somery have a better team huh? I mean, I saw you out there today practicing, that Frat boy makes a good captain huh? My house are gonna fit in a couple of hours before the game tomorrow and that’s it! Pathetic, if I were captain… anyways… I was thinking, I like you, you helped me out the other night… I’d probably be dead or something. We’re gonna be friends you know, I can just feel it. Come on girl…’ she leaned in a little closer, taking her arm ‘Now, you know you’re the only chick here that knows about my condition yeah? Who else is gonna help me out when I fall off the band wagon again?’ she smiled, letting her arm go a little ‘Wanna meet my cat? I don’t really know where he is… He’s called Jimmy… if you spot him tell me, he should be wearing a jumper… anyways, good luck tomorrow!’ she winked, walking toward her dorms.

Agni had gone straight from the box at the end of the game to the changing rooms. She held her breath a little before pushing the door open. Some of the lads already had their girlfriends in there, snogging their faces off, other boys were laughing and joking with each other, some noticed that she was there but didn’t really take an interest. She soon found Jacob sitting on one of the benches, but, much to her disappointment, the girls that had warned her to stay away from him were already there, he seemed to be enjoying the company. She looked at him, smiling briefly, the smile not reaching her eyes. The girls turned around ‘Oh look, it’s the mongrel…’ ‘what do you want elf?’ they all giggled with each other, Agni was staring at the floor, not wanting to see Jacob’s reaction. ‘I… I just wanted to congratulate the captain on his team’s performance today…’ the girls laughed again ‘Well, how pathetic. Run along now, you’re wasting Elladora’s time.’ She half curtseyed, half nodded before turning and walking out pretty quickly. She didn’t know why she felt so hurt, normally comments made by girls like that didn’t bother her so much anymore, but seeing them with Jacob made her unusually edgy. She went straight back to the dorm room, but after finding it too full of people after the house’s victory, she left for the dorm rooms, knocking on Polly’s door only to find her room empty. Feeling dejected, she decided to go and have a walk outside.
Being on her own outside in the dark was a surreal experience; she hadn’t been outside in the dark since astronomy, and even then she was with other people. She found herself by the lake, dipping her feet in the cold water calmed her down. A shimmer came across the surface of the water, and her father’s face appeared. ‘Papa!’ ‘Agni dear, is that you? How’s it going?’ ‘Yes, it is, it is fine…’ ‘Are you outside? It’s very dark.’ ‘Yes I am, how are you Papa?’ she said, changing the subject quickly ‘I am fine dear, the house is quiet without you dear, I have been keeping myself busy for missing you!’ she smiled ‘It was quiet with me there Papa! It is the Christmas holidays soon, I can come home yes?’ he laughed, the wrinkles around his eyes showing ‘Yes of course… there is just one thing, the Lodge asked for you specifically, they are having some English speaking bookings and Lori is away in Malibu… I am sorry but it would help with your funding’s too, they would like you to come back a few days earlier, apparently they are some big money clients…’ she smiled weakly ‘Yes of course Papa, I will be back when you send for me.’ He laughed ‘good, good, well I’m glad you are getting on well, I will see you in a week and a few days, your holidays are longer than prep school yes?’ she nodded ‘Fantastic, we will have a lot of time to spend together! Goodnight my darling!’ the message cut off, and Agni sighed ‘Goodnight Papa.’ She was left on her own again thinking about the prospect of having to work over her holidays. She liked working at the lodge, but was hoping to get to spend a little more time with her father.

Jacob left the pitch quickly, a little irritated from not being able to play more than five minutes of the match but looked forward to seeing Agni after; he was going to look for her in the common room after he had gotten all of his things together but it couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes before the girls began to flood the room. Thankfully Jacob had gotten dressed by the time a group of girls happened to swarm him, he didn’t expect it seeing as he hadn’t actually played let alone gain the team any points, but still; he wasn’t going to turn them all away. “Hello girls.” Jacob grinned as they sat down next to him, one leaning over him from behind; all singing his praises. “Oh Jacob, you’re so noble.” “Say what?” He laughed, the girls continued. “Yeah great sportsmanship, you know taking one for the team like that.” Jacob laughed, not one to turn down a compliment. “Well you know, it was only fair, the poor Somery boy didn’t stand a chance against us with that Finn on their team, let alone without… it was nice to at least give them a chance.” The girls giggled whilst Jacob straightened his tie. The next time he looked up Jacob noticed Agni in the room, whilst the girls glared he gave her a little smile, he was happy to see her. But before he could arrange to see her later the other girls had shunned her away, which Jacob wasn’t pleased about at all. Standing up rather abruptly he said bye to the girls and hurried down the hallway but couldn’t see Agni, he would have to drop his kit back to his room before looking for her, and perhaps she would be in the common room like always. But when he got to the room, there were a great deal of people congratulating the team but Agni was nowhere in sight, Jacob quickly left looking for her but she wasn’t anywhere, Jacob began to worry a little hoping that those girls hadn’t found her before he did.

James left the box rather quickly too, Polly and her friend had vanished early so he was left to make sure all of the students left the box safely on his own, he didn’t mind as nobody wanted to stay out in the cold for much longer and no doubt somewhere someone would be providing some quiet alcohol. He wasn’t there more than half an hour and then made his way to his own room; no doubt he had left some papers or assignments to be marked last minute but comforted himself in knowing that he had some fire whisky to finish whilst he did so. James’ room, much like the other teacher’s rooms were at least triple the size of the student’s even those who paid for their own room, James had a study in the corner of his which he liked to use more than his office, that way students couldn’t disturb him. Pouring himself a drink James tried to focus on his work but he kept thinking about Polly, she had been pressed so tightly against him that James thought he could still feel her there. Setting the drink down, he sighed with a little laugh. “Come on now not too eager, keep the ball in your own court.” James picked up his quill and continued to mark the tea readings.

Jacob didn’t feel like sleeping yet, he felt somewhat guilty about almost dismissing Agni around the other girls, he didn’t mean it but he could tell she was upset; her lingering aura was paler than normal so he wanted to make sure that she was alright. He decided to look around the Herbology labs, he hadn’t really known her to go outside at night but then they didn’t know each other that well yet either. He sneaked into the Herbology lab, some of the plants rustling in his presence, she wasn’t there. “Hmm.” Jacob looked out of the windows over to the lake in the grounds, it stretched a long way into the woods, Jacob wandered what it would be like to follow it all the way back to its source but as he looked at the lake more intensely he noticed a figure. At first he thought it was a professor but he recognised the figure’s hair and climbed out of the open window, tumbling onto the grass outside, and running up to the lake but stopping at the water’s edge. “Agni, what are you doing out here?” He gestured for her to come back. “I went to find you, should have seen my face when you weren’t in the common room, I thought you had disappeared…. No I wouldn’t want you to… Just come back yeah?” Once she was on dry land Jacob put his arm around her, looking out at the lake. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to watch me play a full match, I mean I was going to play by the rules for you and all… sod’s law, don’t you think?” He laughed, maybe it was fate telling me to pack in being a good sportsman and just storm the field… I’m joking! It was nice to see you there though, made me want to do my best.” He held her a little tighter, noticing the wind pick up. “Always good to impress… hey are you sure you’re alright out here? Even I’m a little cold.” Jacob wasn’t going to take no for an answer, “Come on let’s at least go inside somewhere, doesn’t have to be the common room, it’s heaving in there. Hey I have an idea.” Jacob took Agni’s hand and led her to where he had been in the Herbology lab, Jacob helped her in the window and followed, shutting the window. “There, at least it’s a little warmer…hey you have trousers on.” Jacob gave Agni his robe to put over her shoulders. “I bet this is your favourite place to be here, why do you like plants so much anyway, if you don’t mind me asking of course; it’s just an unusual thing, never really known anyone to actually enjoy Herbology before.

Felicity was pleasantly surprised to see Polly again, she had taken her to be the type of girl to be a stuck up ingrate; she was pretty enough to be one. But Felicity was happy for her quick departure, she didn’t go up to the common room for long, people were moping around about the loss of the match and she didn’t really want to talk to anyone, back in her shared dorm Felicity lit her candle and once in her night clothes she opened a book on mythological creatures she saw Ludovic take out of the library before and read up on griffins for a while eventually falling asleep with the book still open on her chest. She needed the sleep. The next day was going to be tiring for her but there was a part of Felicity that couldn’t wait to win, she could feel it. The morning came quickly and Felicity was ready to go with the break of dawn, dressed and fed she made her way out onto the grounds to have a pre match run, warm her muscles and so on. After checking her wand was in working order she walked back over to where the team were supposed to be meeting, to see that Ludovic and Finn were stood there before anyone else, she walked up behind the pair. “Morning.” She stood a few feet away and smirked at the bandaged scot. “What’s cripple doing here? Alright, calm down…” She laughed smugly, starting to stretch out from her run, sliding down into the splits, she looked up at Finn. “What, you never seen a girl stretch before? Poor lad.”

Agni took her shoes and socks off, dipping her feet in the lake a little, hoping that there wasn’t any flesh eating fish swimming around in there. She was just leaning over the edge a little when she heard a voice behind her that made her jump out of her skin. ‘Oh!’ she exclaimed, jumping up and turning in one swift movement, then proceeding to back away pretty quickly without her shoes “I went to find you, should have seen my face when you weren’t in the common room, I thought you had disappeared…” she looked behind her quickly before turning around to look at him, taking a few more steps backward ‘Well, maybe that would be easier, if you want that… I could disappear right now I am good at it…’ “No I wouldn’t want you to… Just come back yeah?” he snapped at her, jumping a little, she did as she was told however, walking back towards him again and looking down at her small muddy feet “I’m sorry you didn’t get to watch me play a full match, I mean I was going to play by the rules for you and all… sod’s law, don’t you think?” it sounded like he was nervous around her, she figured it was because she walked in on him and some girls earlier ‘Yes… it was very admirable, letting your players play on however…’ she trailed off, mumbling a little like she always did “Maybe it was fate telling me to pack in being a good sportsman and just storm the field… I’m joking! It was nice to see you there though, made me want to do my best.” She frowned at him before realizing that he was joking, although not finding it very funny ‘Yes well, you did very well at sitting throughout the game…’ she grinned a little, wrinkling her nose at her own joke. “Always good to impress… hey are you sure you’re alright out here? Even I’m a little cold.” she shrugged ‘I am used to the cold now, it is nothing really, I am fine outside by myself, you go inside now if you are cold’ When he insisted they go inside somewhere however, it was evident that being on her own that evening was not going to be an answer.

He grabbed her hand, and her heart seemed to stop a little, she was worried for it at first thinking that perhaps she was having a stroke, but soon calmed down, that was until he led her to the window. ‘We cannot break in! This is imbecilic! What if somebody does find us? I would be sent home surely? Jacob? Jacob!’ He wasn’t listening, instead standing there waiting to give her a lift up. She rolled her eyes, ignoring his help and climbing up herself, then holding an arm out the window to help him through too. She then delicately hopped down from the side, managing to miss any of the pots that were there. One on the floor, she looked around for a light, not being able to see any, she looked for her wand, only to realize that she had left it outside with her socks and shoes. She damned herself, slowly sinking to the floor. She looked up at him as he commented about her clothes ‘Polly said that it was acceptable to wear trousers in winter, but only three times a week, not that it matters to you, they are not your legs. I don’t need it thank you... on second thoughts; I will sit on it…’ she took his cloak from him with a smile and sat on it, so she wouldn’t have to sit on the cold floor. He sat down next to her, and started talking about how strange she was for liking plants. ‘No, I prefer other places; it is just my heritage you know? My father is a Botanist, and with my mother loving to receive flowers from men, it was a perfect match. And with me being part elven, I have powers to grow plants, it makes me feel good at something, where I am usually useless at everything else… you have seen me in potions!’ she giggled a little at her joke, remembering how awful she really was at proper magic. Her trousers were rolled up to her knees, she felt down her legs with her hands to then hold her small feet, some of her toes had silver toe rings with strange markings on, and she had a silver anklet with bells attached on her left ankle. She turned her head, which was now rested on her knee, up to look at him. ‘And you Jacob, all you are interested in is sports and girls…’ she laughed loudly ‘do not look at me so disgusted, I was just making a joke! I am sure you are interested in other things also, like… food?’ she giggled, wrinkling her nose again, her eyes sparkling. Agni sat up again, pulling the silver thread from her hair, un-plaiting her hair and letting it hang loose over her shoulders. She sat a bit closer to him ‘You are cold, you would not last long where I do live, it is always cold there…’ She was tired, really tired, not used to staying up so late. He was leaning up against a cupboard, so she decided to curl up, not much space on the floor meant her head resting on his lap. ‘I apologize, I am so tired, perhaps this way it will keep you warm?’ she sighed, closing her eyes. ‘You are my only friend, you are very special Jake.’ The way his name sounded and rested on her lips was strange, but not in a bad way. There was something affectionate about it. Before she knew it, she was asleep

Cael woke up early in the morning, putting his endurance kit back on from the day before to go for a jog around the lake. It was a strange lake, not overly large, but rectangular, a stone pavement framing it, sunken into the grass. It had a strange air about it, a mist clung towards the centre and never left, even on a clear summer’s day, the lily pads were huge, big enough to hold a person, as were the flowers in spring, however nobody would risk standing on one of the leaves, just in case. Ludovic jogged until the sun came up, when he took a shower and put on a clean set of endurance wear, this time his more expensive set, bought for him by his father. His black top was tailored to be like a second skin, made from the skin of sharks and dragon plates woven in with soft fabric, it made it waterproof, thermal and pretentious. His shorts were ordinary men’s endurance shorts, only the most expensive designer ones from the sports shop in Caspell Lane, where all the students went to purchase their stationary, clothes and perhaps anything else you’d need to start Wizarding College. Under the small shorts was a pair of longer, just above the knee shorts made from the same skin tight material as his shirts. Sewn on were Somery’s colours and the coat of arms, all done by hand. He certainly looked the part, his hair suitably ruffled and his lips pursed in a scrutinizing pout, however instead of going straight to the field, where his team would undoubtedly be waiting for him, he walked up towards the hospital wing, opposite the library. Once through the doors, Madame Ustee showed him to his mate’s bed. ‘I warn you, he’s been grumpy all night… and a bloody pain…’ rounding the screen, he saw Finn hunched over some kind of human game thing. ‘I hope that’s my water!’ Madame Ustee grunted, rolling her eyes at Ludovic. ‘Actually mate, you owe me a favour.’ Finn looked up, his eyes wide for a moment, paused in thought (which was a rare sight) ‘Ow… ow me arm argh… so much pain!’ Ludovic wasn’t impressed ‘Get up.’ Finn glared, his plan having been foiled ‘Come on mate, I’ve had a rough night, I’m in a lot of pain!’ still Cael wasn’t budging. ‘Fine fine… get me a chair.’

Cael finally turned up to practice, pushing Finley in a wheelchair, apologizing to the rest of the team who were there on time. The twins stood together, their special powers bouncing off each other, then Litheus and Smith, and finally a fourth year and a fifth year, Dean and Oliver, who were the main trackers, they were walking about nervously as Ludovic was told they always did seeming as the teams weren’t allowed anywhere near the forest the day of the game. There was only one person missing, and they couldn’t start until she was there. Finally, Ludovic sent his team off for a jog, not wanting them to be stood around for any longer. Thankfully they were all serious about it, respecting a first year as their superior. Finally she turned up. ‘What time do you call this Moran? Never mind stretches now .’ as she started pointing out Finn, Cael got more and more irate, she was wasting time. ‘Now Moran!’ as she did what he said, Cael beginning to stretch also, Finn watched her like it was his lucky day. His arm was wrapped up and in a sling to lift the weight off of his collar bone, but his eyes were stuck on Felicity. ‘Nah I’ve seen the women stretching, just not seen them do that kind of thing without me very often.’ He winked at her, which only made Ludovic more disgruntled. The rest of the team turned up, which gave a perfect opportunity to explain Finn’s everyone. ‘Okay guys, this is McDognhue, he’s going to be helping us out with a little training this morning… yeah I know he may not look like much at the moment guys, but just bear with me. Come on mate, like we practiced’ Finn nodded, then looking up to the group. ‘It’s a warm afternoon, endurance is starting, the place where Somery are meeting, the crack of the starting charm sets off and you go. But where do you go? You’re a team of eight, against another team of eight, all looking for one thing, or perhaps two things, perhaps it’s a timed challenge, you’re pumped up… your adrenaline is going...’ as he spoke, visible reality seemed to melt away, he moved his hands apart, creating a small square in front of him which mirrored one being made around the team. As he looked them in the eyes, drawing them in with his words, a forest grew around them, the whole place darkened, until they could no longer see Finn, only hear him. ‘Good luck guys.’ He was on his own, a tiny virtual world in front of him like a board game, with the team members running about in it, as small as ants.

Cael turned to his team members with a grin on his face ‘If we cent get into the forest, we’ll grow one eh?’ The team seemed pleased with his decisions. ‘Okay, so we’ll split off now, Dean and Olly, if you track anything, signal us like we planned, the rest of us will scout about for Thrisdin’s team to disarm them or stall them until you let us know. If any of us find the Griffin on our travels, go for it, then signal us to get out Remember, this is only a training exercise, no nasty’s in here, only getting used to being back in the endurance, we’ll be running, climbing, swimming, dueling, you name it, be on your toes. See you in two hours.’ They nodded and turned to their partners, starting in different directions.

Agni’s eyes flickered open in the morning, her feet feeling a little chilly, but the rest of her so warm, she looked around, finally seeing the source of the warmth. Jacob’s arms were around her as they were both curled up in a tiny space on the greenhouse floor. During the night, the plants had created walls around them, flowers opening to the mere presence of elven blood. She smiled a little, before catching herself smiling, what was she doing? She had broken into a greenhouse, with a man, and slept there all night! She barely knew the chap, but, somehow, there was something right about it. In any other circumstance, with any other person, she would have been feeling absolutely terrible, somehow, with him, she didn’t. Her mind began to wonder however, she thought about how angry he’d be at her when he woke up, about maybe how disgusted he’d be with her for even being in the same space as him. She looked up to the window they’d crawled through with a sudden look of horror ‘Oh Gosh, oh no… my wand… where’s my wand…?!’ she rummaged around in her pockets. During the night, the window had closed. They were heavy and she couldn’t possibly open it by herself, finally remembering that she’d left her wand outside the night previous. Trying to stay as still as possible, so as not to wake up Jacob, she lay back again, trying not to shake too much with fear or anticipation of his waking.

Polly waited all morning for Agni, she looked for her in the common room, the grounds, her dorm, but finally she gave up, instead deciding to go mess about with some of the Professors. ‘Please sir? I’d be really good, I’m totally flexible, I’m real good at handling wands too…’ she was rubbing them all up the wrong way, but he was having none of it. ‘For the last time Miss Ephemera, no, you cannot join the Endurance team, your condition makes you a threat to the other students, which reminds me, are you taking your potions regularly?’ she rolled her eyes ‘ Not you too Sir, I thought we had an understanding?’ ‘Ephemera…’ ‘Fine, yes I am, but I keep telling y’all it has an adverse effect once a month.’ He sniffed, glaring down at her ‘Your personal hygiene is of no concern to me, this conversation is over. Good Day.’ She growled, watching him leave ‘That is not what I meant! Ugh, why does nobody listen to me around here!?!?!’ She flung her arms in the air, turning around and storming down the corridor, she thought about perhaps going to visit Professor Sparrow in his room, but then thought against it. Hungry and on her own, she took to the main hall, where food was served to her in the plenty. She had a cup of warm thick red liquid which anyone would mistake to be warm tomato juice, but wasn’t, the charms on the tables made sure that every individual student’s needs were catered for, which included Polly’s. She finished her meal, and then sat there as her empty plates dissolved into nothing. She sighed, tight high-waisted short skirt and almost transparent black shirt was pushing the boundaries of uniform, although she did have her Thrisdin cloak wrapped around her arm.

Cael had found himself leading Felicity into the darkest part of the virtual forest, it was damn near pitch black. He didn’t notice however, his eyes instantly adjusting to enable him to see. It was Felicity’s change of pace that notified him to the lack of light. ‘You have a real problem with the dark don’t you?’ He said, flicking his wand so it lit up at the tip. Listening to her more than rude answer, he turned away. ‘Whatever, just trying to make conversation.’ He honestly didn’t see why she put up a front all the time, or perhaps it was that she was just generally rude. ‘I think I’m going to swap forms for a bit, seeming as we’re not really talking anyway. His Panther form was what everyone recognized as his anamorphic form, nobody really knew he was a skin walker. ‘It means you won’t have my wand light though, and you probably won’t be able to see me, seeming as I’ll be black… and climbing.’ He raised an eyebrow ‘Oh, so now you’re talking to me huh? I don’t understand you women, so… bloody fickle…’ he grinned, knowing that would set her off.

Jacob’s eyes flickered open every so often, but he didn’t want to get up. He wouldn’t care if a lesson was going on around him, for Jacob undisturbed sleeps were few and far between and he could feel the warmth of Agni next to him. But after a while of knowing she was awake Jacob couldn’t help but fidget. One of his friends was on the Thrisdin endurance team and he had promised to be around for it. Jacob personally couldn’t understand why anyone would want to do endurance. For one it was pretty dangerous; and he wasn’t too fond of purposely putting himself in harm’s way, secondly nobody cared to watch the match anyway, it wasn’t up in your face, you had to watch on screens and even then the screens didn’t stretch that far into the grounds so if the action moved any further than the lake then the crowd would be sat looking at scenery. Nope, Jacob was all about the glory, the cheering fans and the fun; not an extreme Scavenger hunt. Jacob took a deep breath In and opened his eyes. “Well, good morning.” He smiled rather sleepily still- he could tell there was some discomfort between the two, but the stone floor wouldn’t have done much good. “You okay?” Jacob pushed himself to sitting against a wooden cabinet, still keeping Agni close. “There’s no real rush you know, the school doesn’t have any lessons today, no professors will even be in this part of the school today, they are probably still in their bed robes drinking fire whiskey and what not.” Jacob winked. “But I’m sure it’d be nice to shower and get something to eat? The Endurance match isn’t until in the afternoon so I could meet you in the great hall for breakfast in a bit? Yeah I have to go and watch, friend on the team…though… our team is never that good, Somery are Endurance powerhouses; especially with some of the first years, sorry any sport gets me talking, come on I’ll walk you back to the dorms, no one will be around now, its fine.” Jacob wasn’t going to take no for an answer and led Agni to the greenhouse door. “What? No?” Jacob laughed unpicking the lock. “I’m not going to make you climb out the window again; besides the endurance set off point isn’t far off. If Professor Laurendale catches up I can guarantee we will have detention for six weeks…” Jacob ran a hand through his already ruffled hair. “ Trust me, you do not want detention with Laurendale, most professors make you sit there or write lines, but Laurendale, oh no, she gives first years a 4th year potion and doesn’t let them leave until they are successful in creating it! Once I was there until three in the morning, I never want to see that hour in front of a cauldron again!” Back in the warmth of the school’s main building Jacob walked Agni into the common room and in turn to the dorms. “I have to split off, but see you later of yeah?” He didn’t really mind if she said yes or no, he noticed how Agni succumbed to pressure. “Well don’t worry about it; I’ll see you when I see you…perhaps not in the lake next time.” He smiled and walked back down the hall to his own separate room.

Jacob threw himself onto the bed and found that though he had slept the majority of the night, he was still exhausted; he made every effort to appear perfectly normal to Agni, even though she was part elf herself. It seemed to be his family’s way, to be unexpected in order to strike when people were off guard; but he had no need to manipulate Agni. “Stupid bloody habits.” Jacob groaned into his pillow with half a mind to beat his covers with his fists, but, refrained. He definitely had his father’s temperament, which was never a positive quality.

Felicity smirked at aggravating Ludovic; it was just the thing to break her nerves. As the rest of the group gathered around the injured lad, Felicity watched a square of light appear around their feet in front of Finley. As it grew wider it seemed that all that was outside of the square melted away into nothing and from this nothingness a new world began to form around them, it wasn’t too dissimilar to the real school, but you could tell from a few things that it was Finley’s doing, namely the weather, even through the dense leaves she could notice a few spots of sunlight on what was a cheerless cloudy day previously. But looking around everything was eerily like the schools forest, Finn was good at this. She followed her team further into the forest and as instructions were given she instinctively followed Ludovic further into the woods, they didn’t have to track anymore, and it was all up to the two higher years to do that now. Felicity’s aim was like the other to disarm and protect the trackers, to find the griffin and claim their victory. They had already decided in the practice yesterday that they were going to remain partners; Felicity was hardly going to disagree, Ludovic may rub her up the wrong way at times but he was excellent at casting charms which seemed to compliment her skills in countercharms and defence. As they ventured deeper and deeper into the woods she couldn’t help herself in slowing down. As her sight failed her Felicity’s other sensed seemed to pick up, so much so that she became a little edgy, a little slower than her partner. But as his wand illuminated a small space between them her same stone cold expression was donned. “Piss off.” She spat, very certain with her words. How dare he!?!? She was admittedly. But he wasn’t going to know her weaknesses. “Well why should you do that? You’re hardly going to be able to cast an accurate charm or defend yourself against an incantation as a cat and…” He cut her off, irritating her further. “Oh whatever, you pompous git! Women!? Fickle!? I’ll give you bloody fickle in a moment you good for nothing-“ It had to be her heightened hearing in the dark, a twig must have snapped for her to look past Ludovic’s shoulder and see the tip of a wand spark. It must have looked as if she were about to stab him but instead shouted “aguamenti!” over his shoulder counteracting the stream of fire that was headed their way. Felicity jumped forward past Ludovic, “Expelto-Evanesco!” The wand of the opposition was now gone, in fact it re appeared on the floor beside him but a little bent. The Virtual Thrisdin player vanished as he was disarmed. Felicity turned back to Ludovic. “ Oh dear Lucy, did you forget you pack your wand in your purse today?” Felicity laughed, but it wasn’t in the same way as the cruelly made fun of Finn or Agni, or any of the other half bloods. The signal for the griffin being sighted was called, Felicity turned to her partner and nodded to follow his lead. She could laugh all she wanted but he could see better in the light and they both needed to get out of the forest for the team to win.

The team were successful in their tracking and capturing of the griffin, as soon as they had done the same square that lit up before re appeared and with the sound of Finley’s voice the team re appeared in front of him. Everyone’s reaction was near enough the same, stood in awe a few commented, “Two hours already, bloody hell.” “That was amazing!” “So I didn’t really climb that? Oh my…” But Felicity stood by one of the other first years and quietly moaned to herself. “Let’s just hope its as simple later on….”

In the grand hall it was time for lunch and the room was just as full for the first evening they had arrived. Talk was mainly centred on the up coming endurance match and who would win the mini Knest tournament over all. It was all down to points. Jacob was badgered into listening to his endurance team moan about how little practice they had; he didn’t have much sympathy for them. After fifteen minutes or so he walked down the long table to look for Agni, who he eventually found sat with her brunette friend, not sure if he was intruding Jacob sat opposite next to one of the third years he knew from animal care. “Alright mate?” “Yeah you?” Jacob nodded, eating bloodied meat; he looked up to Agni, not really registering what the sight of the blood would do. “Either of you going to watch the endurance match?” Jacob said quietly, a little distracted by Polly, there was the same strange hum in his ears from before; there definitely was something different about her that he wasn’t sure of, but he ignored it, he had come down to see Agni. “I’ve been roped in and all, brotherhood support and some other excuse.” He finished off his plate and wiping the small drop of blood from the corner of his mouth he shook his head a little; obviously uncomfortable with Agni’s company, “Well, that’s…where I’ll be and all, see you later.” He smiled a little as he got up to return to his friends who were leaving towards the woods.

Felicity ate slowly, not wasting her time with conversation; she stared intensely into her pasta, needing the carbohydrates for later on. But as usual one of the second year girls had to make a comment. ‘They’ll go straight to your ass Moran.” Putting down her knife and fork calmly, Felicity crossed her arms and leant across the table. “Oh really? Will they now? Hmmm. At least I have a arse, y’know?” The girl laughed, a little confused. “No really, I have an arse, and the pasta’s gonna go to it…. But whilst I’m kicking Thrisdin arse, I’m looking fabulous.” She gestured to her figure, still In endurance uniform. “So go ahead and eat your three leaves of lettuce sweetie, it won’t make you and your curve less physique any less repulsive.” Felicity sat back down and quietly picked up her knife and fork again and continued to eat whilst half of the table went silent and a few of the girls opposite taking their distraught friend outside. “What?” She spat at those who were staring, looking up towards Ludovic as her eyes focused on her food, preparing for the match.” Felicity didn’t stay for much longer, the whispers and snide comments getting irritating. Finishing her lunch she began to make her way towards the Endurance start off point. A lot of the Thrisdin team looked panicked but the Somery hoard stood as a singular unit, ready for Professor Laurendale to cast the charm. They had an hour time limit to capture the griffin, there was only one and the first collective team to claim it won.

James decided not to go to the Endurance match, last time he had in the summer it went wrong and the students couldn’t get what they were after, and for hours there was no signal of who won, meant he was stood there for hours bored witless. But on his way to the restricted part of the library he bumped into the two girls he had let in front of him the night before. “Ah missà Belle and missEphemera…” He nodded, “Remember to study well for your ovomancy assessment tomorrow, I am quite the strict marker, I don’t want your first grades to be poor, though I am positive that they wont be if you work hard. I see you aren’t going to the Endurance match… perhaps if you get the time… I will be in the library if either of you have any… questions…” He made direct eye contact with Polly as he disappeared into the library.

When Jacob spoke, Agni jumped out of her skin ‘Oh my gosh, sorry… you made me jump… yes I’m alright… we should get going before somebody see’s…’ she looked around a little jumpy still “There’s no real rush you know, the school doesn’t have any lessons today, no professors will even be in this part of the school today, they are probably still in their bed robes drinking fire whiskey and what not.” she giggled a little at the image he painted; she turned her head at his next comment ‘Are you saying I smell? Of pond weed thanks to the lake I should suppose… You’re going to the Endurance match?’ She looked up into his face as he rambled on about sports ‘Yes, you hear… no, excuse me… sound , so excited when you speak about sports…’ she couldn’t help but wish he sounded like that when he talked about her ‘Meet me for Breakfast? Hmm yes I should suppose so, If Polly is not looking for me, she will most probably grab me and change my clothes agai… What are you doing? Are we not leaving from the window? You mean we could have gone through the door last night?!’ She smiled, watching him run a hand through his hair ‘I would never leave the potions room if that did happen… I am a hopeless witch…’ she smiled a little sadly before catching herself and looking up to him again with her huge amber eyes. He walked her over to the common room, where the stairs led off to separate dorm rooms. They stood opposite each other, something a little awkward about him ‘See me later? Yes you will see me later…’ his reply confused her a little, but she smiled politely anyway, watching him go before going to leave for her dorm room, still a little perplexed. Polly however, caught her on the way.

‘Where the hell have you been girl!?’ Polly crossed the corridor to her frightened looking friend. ‘Oh god, I know that look, what have you been doing huh?’ a highly amused look came across her face as she folded her arms and watched the girl squirm ‘Uh… I was… in the greenhouse… with the plants… Have you changed your hair again?’ Polly found her fumbling hilarious ‘don’t you go be changing the subject now!’ ‘I NEED SOMETHING TO WEAR!’ Agni resulted to a near death punishment to get away from the subject; it seemed to work ‘Doll! You have come to the right person BabyG!’ she grabbed her hand and dragged her upstairs.

Ludovic was right, his back chat did set her off, and he grinned, being ahead of her so she wouldn’t be able to see. When she started squeaking in her endearing accent, he turned around; the amused grin however melting when he heard the twig, even though he knew that there was someone behind him, he still thought she was going to zap him. She jumped past him, eliminating the virtual player with finely tuned skill; it was nice to feel safe to be able to just watch her play and not having to save the woman’s ass. When she turned back around to him however, her smug grin irritated him no end. “Oh dear Lucy, did you forget you pack your wand in your purse today?” she laughed, but before she could do anything more, with the most threatening look of anger come over him, he grabbed her arm, turning her around and pulling her back into him, wrapping his arm around her so it pressed tightly against her neck, holding her shoulder as he Threw out his arm, ‘DEBILITO!’ a virtual player who was only perhaps a metre away was sliced in the arm, a horrifyingly real scream sounded as blood spurted from the cut, the player dropped to his knees, and dissolved into nothing. He gripped her still as they both breathed hard against each other with the shock ‘Didn’t see that one, did you Princess.’ He growled his voice low in her ear. He let her go, pushing her back a little as the signal sounded, walking away from her frustrated.

Finally, it was lunchtime, Polly had dressed and undressed and dressed Agni up again, until finally they were both sort of happy with the decision. With her small black leather skirt and ripped Pink Floyd tee, the back threaded together with ribbon and safety pins. Along with tight curls, she had shaved a section off her hair off, making her look like a cross between a rock goddess and a Russian supermodel. Agni however was still a little more conservative, she was wearing a pair of her friend’s dark skinny jeans which were really more like boyfriend fit on her, rolled up at the bottom, she had her hair in a plait and wore her large black, thick rimmed glasses along with a plain white tee, overall, it was stylish, or would have been if Agni had any self-worth. They made their way down to the Hall for Lunch. Polly spotted James as soon as she walked in, smirking at him with her viciously pointed canines, ignoring him again as she went to sit down. Agni spotted a few girls glaring at her and Polly, and for some reason, it didn’t look mean for once, it looked almost, adoring. They sat down on the Thrisdin table, her platter of freshly cut vegetables and exotic looking salads appearing, Polly’s food however was a slab of raw steak, the smell of it was enough to make Agni wretch, but she could deal with it, she was eating it quickly enough. ‘Hay Aggs, Lover boy’s coming over.’ Polly whispered, watching his walk over. The space around him was unnerving, not the physical space, but the spiritual one. Polly could see daemons and spirits that haunted all beings, they were everywhere all the time, but none of them touched him, some even recoiled as he walked past. She lowered her eyes as he sat; ripping into her steak, blood dribbling down her chin. ‘Hi Jacob!’ Agni chirped happily, he seemed to ignore her however, tucking into his meat. Agni stared down at his plate of food, the smell filling her lungs. It was overwhelming. She watched him as he ate it, he was looking at Polly, they had a lot in common even if they didn’t know it as he asked if they were going to be at endurance, she stood. ‘Excuse me, I have to leave…’ Polly watched her go, silence resuming between them. ‘The meat makes her feel sick.’ She said plainly. ‘I believe your name is Jacob Elladora. I’m Polly. I don’t think we’ll be going, but I’ll let her know anyway.’ She was a bit cold with him, as if she understood him, but didn’t like it. There was some unspoken knowledge between them.

Ludovic had a healthy bowl of porridge and banana, along with another bowl full of Carbonara and then loads of milk, Finn laughed at him ‘Man, you’re stocking up for the winter, pretty big meal for an exaggerated game of hide and seek aint it?’ he chuckled to himself, Cael looked around to him ‘Exaggerated? My my that’s a big word for a guy with such a little brain!’ Finn frowned, then continuing to eat his BBQ ribs. Whitehall watched Moran mess around with the other girls; he smirked, liking to watch her like that. She looked up to him, and his smile dropped to a look of pure hatred. He stood up, bid Finn farewell, and made his way towards Somery’s starting entrance.

Agni sat in library, Jacob had been so cold with her, she hated herself for staying in the greenhouse with him, it was like he didn’t like her anymore. She dropped her head against the desk, groaning in annoyance. Sooner or later, Polly found her, sitting beside her and giving her a pep talk, just as it was getting rousing however, Professor Sparrow turned up. Polly obviously turned all attention from Agni to him. ‘Mmm, yes, we have been studying. Although with all this Knest business, I don’t know well I’ll do.’ She smiled at him as he walked away, watching him go. She stood quickly, placing her chair under the desk as she spoke ‘You should er… go watch endurance… see if you can erm… find some other man… or something, I’m just gonna…’ she went off in the direction that he left in. Agni sighed, she might as well go to the match, maybe she would give Jacob a piece of her mind, or maybe not.

‘Okay team, just like in practice okay? No doubt we’ll be going on longer though, they may not look much, but most of them are pretty extreme when it comes to charms and countercharms. Don’t get sloppy. If you can handle the animal on your own, great, if not, signal Litheus, he can hear what you’re thinking. Whatever you do, don’t signal physically, got it? Good. Along with the feather, Laurendale told me this morning that there should be a charm or trinket or something on it somewhere, get that too if you can. Alright team? Let’s do this!’ A roar of approval came, followed by silent stretching and warm ups, finally the time came, and the starting signal was sounded. They printed into the forest, leaping over logs and fallen branches, and soon losing sight of the other pairs. Finally, after running a considerable way into the forest, it became too dark to see, Cael illuminated the tip of his elaborate and distinguished looking wand, breathing deeply from the run. ‘You eat enough?’ he grunted, his eyes darting around him, ‘good… Shut up… I hear something…’ he turned his head quickly to the sound of a small rustling sound, pausing in the moment somewhat. ‘Just a fox, keep going. He was frosty with her, his pride was hurt a little earlier in training, but he’d got over it, he just felt she’d work better if she wasn’t trying to compete with him. ‘I can speak to you how I like, I’m your captain.’ He turned around to look at her ‘If I were being antisocial, I would have totally ignored you by swapping forms. You should at least be grateful that I’ve permitted you to use your light.’ He knew that comment would wind her up. ‘Oh shut up will you? You may be good looking, but you sure are obnoxious.’

Polly found herself in the darkened restricted area, the shelves were closer together, and taller so the spaces to walk were small and confined. She could get lost in a place like that, but, with her heightened natural senses due to the potion she was drinking for her condition, she could just tell where he was. She picked a book off a shelf at random, putting it under her arm as she turned the corner to where Professor Sparrow was sitting, his head bent over, pouring over some thick looking encyclopedia. She didn’t say anything, just walking around him slowly, her killer heels clicking against the wooden floor. She dropped the heavy book she picked up on the desk with a loud thud, before looking at him. ‘I’ve got a question.’ She mused, lifting herself slowly up to sit on the desk, showing more leg than would be possible, seeming as she was so tall. ‘Where were you when your mother died?’ the question was so quick, so shocking, that it sounded strange coming from such a calm, pretty face. ‘I know that because I know that. Didn’t anybody ever tell you it’s rude to answer a question with a question?’ Her neck twitched a little, causing her head and shoulder to jump. ‘Alright alright, it’s none of my business.’ She paused, looking him up and down before taking a breath of cold air in and throwing her head back towards the ceiling. ‘Do you work out James?’ she asked, no care for formalities where he was concerned ‘Mmm… I like a man who takes care of himself. And from what I can see,’ she lifted her head again, her stare connecting directly to his ‘I can tell it’s paying off… Sir.’ She let the last word roll off her tongue, as if the word were some delicious taboo.

Cael laughed coldly at his teammates retaliation ‘Me?’ he walked up to her, his body pressed right up against her threateningly, his face right up in hers ‘You ought to take a look at yourself, you don’t scare me at all, you’re pathetic.’ She slapped him hard across the face, and before he could think, he retaliated, back handing her, putting a lot of power behind it too. Silence broke as he looked at her, his breath rapid from the adrenaline. ‘I…’ he couldn’t find the words. Ludovic had no problem with hitting women, as far as he was concerned, they should be treated like any man should in an argument or duel, they certainly wouldn’t refrain from hitting men anyway, however, hitting her was strange, he almost felt guilty for doing so. He put his wand away in the leather casing strapped around his forearm, and walked up to her. ‘We can sort this out later, right now we’ve got a task to d…’ at that moment, an almighty screech sounded.

Agni went outside towards the lake, she had suddenly remembered that she had left both her wand and she shoes out there the night before. Kicking herself for being a terrible witch, she went to look for them. Once by the lake, she found that her shoes had been made into a home by a small Kappa, but her wand was, thankfully, still intact. She picked it up and slid it into the jean pocket. Then, her feet still bare on the dewy grass, she walked over to where the Thrisdin starting post was. Surprisingly, there weren’t many people there, which made it easier for her to spot Jacob, she thought about joining him, but decided not to, not wanting to anger him with her stupidity. To her surprise however, a couple of first year girls came up to her. ‘Um excuse me…?’ one of them asked, Agni turned like a frightened rabbit, believing she was going to be hurt again. ‘Sorry, we just wanted to say how pretty we think you are…’ Agni thought her heart had stopped for a second ‘P…pardon?!’ They smiled at her ‘Yeah, we saw you on the first day remember? We stood near you… anyway, you and Ephemera are totally stunning, we’re so jealous…’ they were cut off by a harsh voice ‘Don’t be, you pure blood is much more valuable than her fake beauty.’ One of the second year girls that had taken to hurting her whenever nobody was looking turned around. She snarled at the other first years ‘Now scram, go watch the screens.’ Agni looked up to the other girl, she was pretty enough, but scarily butch ‘I… I just came to watch the game…’ The girl spat in her face, leading Agni to cower a little ‘Shut up elf, did I tell you to speak? Your kind aren’t welcome here you understand?’ Agni’s eyes were welling, up, memories of former schools flooding back to her ‘I’m sorry, Please don’t…’ ‘I said shut up!’ The girl raised a hand to her, Agni shut her eyes, waiting for the pain, but it didn’t come. She opened her eyes again sheepishly, her whole body shaking. Looking up however, she saw the look of fear on the girl’s face. Jacob had somehow stepped in, and caught her arm, he was staring at her, and then he said something but she couldn’t make it out for the sniffles and the sobs. She looked to the floor as the girl near enough ran away, holding a hand across her eyes and her other arm wrapped around her waist as she shook, thankfully she had stood a little away from the other people so nobody else as far as she was aware saw what happened. ‘M…merci…merci bien Jacob… Je suis tres, desolee… d.. desolee…’ She looked up at him a little timidly, thinking that he would only hate her more for interrupting the game, she felt so pathetic all the time but couldn’t help but cry.

Cael turned on his heels to see a rearing animal, beating its wings and thrashing its claws only a few yards away. Ludovic looked up in awe at the majestic creature ‘Griffin…’ he breathed, as it came to stand on all fours again, from the corner of his eye, he saw Felicity draw her wand ‘Stop!’ he shouted, holding a hand out to her, the creature looked at him, its screeches silencing. The captain of the endurance team looked down, making an odd sound, as if he were clearing his throat yet grasping for air at the same time, then he looked up. Staring the creature straight in the eye, he mimicked the sound of the beast, the eagle calls that came from its mouth were almost identical, it stepped forward. What he was doing seemed to be working for a moment, conversing with the creature seemed to be calming it down, however he must have said something wrong, because before he could take another step, the animal had swiped its claws across his face. Cael dropped to his knees in pain, clasping at his face with shouts of anguish. Still he held his hand out to Felicity, imploring her not to harm the creature. ‘Immobilization…!’ he shouted, still in pain. ‘SING! THEY LIKE MUSIC!’ the creature was getting closer to him, like it was ready to attack again ‘JUST SING MORAN!’ The Griffin was just about to take another shot when Felicity must have started singing. Ludovic couldn’t hear it over the sound of blood pumping through his ears, but the attacks weren’t coming. He was now laid on his side, his breathing heavy, with great difficulty, he drew his wand from its holder, and pointed it at the creature. ‘Immobilus!’ he shouted, and the animal stood frozen. Ludovic scrambled to his feet, still clasping one side of his face, his other hand clutching his wand. Blood was starting to seep through his fingers, but he tried to ignore it. ‘Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine, just get a feather… No you have to cut it at the stem, from its neck… hurry!’ Cael walked around the animal until he found what he was looking for, wrapped around the Griffin’s tail, was a tick golden thread. He took it, and turned to Felicity, signaling her to run.

He didn’t know how long it must have taken to get out of there, all he knew was that, the pain was being ignored by the sheer elation of the game. They fought off some Thrisdin on the way out of the forest, even with their superior knowledge in charms; they managed to beat them quickly. They could see the light of the thinning trees, a sign that they were close. They roared out onto the open field, Cael falling onto the ground, thrusting his fist in the air, the golden thread wrapped around it. They had won.

James was spilling his brains over the thick book in front of him, if truth be told he had already read the book before but he got enjoyment out of re reading, there was always something that you could miss the first time around, and no more than a quarter through he had already noticed things that he hadn’t picket up the first time around. He didn’t plan on finishing it during the day but there was no harm in getting a good way through, he had just reached the forbidden art of Necromancy- Magic of raising the dead. It had been something that James had always found fascinating. He knew people who had dabbled in the dark art, but himself had done well to stay away from; if the academy or the wizard’s board divination caught even the slightest hint of it around him James was all too sure that he would lose his job and face imprisonment due to being around such malleable minds. There had been recent headlines about students trying it and there being disastrous effects. James flicked through the paged quietly, one hand holding the weight of his head. He could hear the sound of clicking heels but just assumed it to be another professor, but the loud thud of a text book being dropped besides him brought James out of his daze to look up at Polly. “Hello there.” He didn’t look too phased by her being in the restricted section; he rather liked her rebellious nature and wasn’t going to hinder it. “A question?” James’ attention quickly went from Polly’s face to her leg, but he didn’t look for long. Instead he a little taken aback by her question. “How… how do you know about that?” He was put a little on edge by her question; she could have easily been making it up to wind her professor up, but there was something about Polly that he felt as all the more supernatural. “Yes, well, It really is none of your business is it?” ‘Do you work out James?’ James could sense her playful nature and went along with it. “Well…” He drew a breath “I like to take care of myself…” a small smile played at the corner of his lips. As she eyed him James leant in closer to her, looking up slightly. The candle light dancing along his face, illuminating his strong features before plunging them into shadow. He opened his mouth to speak but the sound of footsteps was nearby but he didn’t flinch, as a riding teacher walked past the pair James sprang into action. “And now you see Miss Ephemera,” He pointed to the large book he was previously reading. “Deformis tend to think that Necromancy is to do with the devil, but they are, as you know very mistaken, though it is a forbidden branch of modern magic it is only so because of the malpractice of witches and wizards far before your time.” As the professor walked away he winked and closed his book. “No, I’ve never partaken in Necromancy.” As James stood he got ever so close to Polly, his leg brushing hers. “Now I really must be going…” James picked up the book and held Polly’s gaze for a moment, it felt a lot longer than it was, but he eventually turned around to head back down the aisle with a smile. “Make sure you study later, I’d hate to keep you behind after tomorrow’s lesson.”

Jacob sat on the grass with a few of his friends who were guilt tripped into watching the game, they didn’t look impressed but then only the other halves of the Thrisdin and Somery players did. Jacob had pulled on a black zip up hoodie as the wind picked up, as the two teams were sent off Jacob closed his eyes, a little tired. Wondering how long it would take for the Somery team to kick their arses. He continued to chat to his friends eyes closed and didn’t notice Agni in the distance.

Felicity was full of adrenaline for the match, so much so that she wasn’t in the mood for Ludovic’s awkward small talk; she just wanted to focus on winning. But her lack of cooperation started something. “Don’t speak to me like that.” She was getting more agitated by the second; too busy on the lookout for anything to try and be polite to her captain “More like and antisocial dick-head than a captain…” The insults came very easily to Felicity, they were casual for her. “Oh that’s rich coming from the rich coming for the egocentric snob!” He was beginning to make her blood boil ‘You ought to take a look at yourself, you don’t scare me at all, you’re pathetic.’ Felicity had just about lost it and didn’t know what came over her, Felicity slapped Ludovic across his cheek with a lot of force, so much so that it hurt her hand to pull away; she hardly expected to have her actions reciprocated. The crack of his hand against her face silenced her. Felicity didn’t look up at Ludovic, she didn’t say anything.

Jacob opened his eyes as his friends nudged him, “Look, your friend is over there.” They weren’t judgemental of Agni, they weren’t bothered so much about race like the girls, his group of friends just assumed it was less about race for the girls, but more about the attractiveness and talent of the other girl. Jacob looked over to see Agni not too far away, she was talking to a few other first years, he thought it was a little unusual but nice; but the nice feeling didn’t last for long. He recognised one of the girls close by and stood. “Back in a moment…” His friends didn’t really mind, too busy throwing grass at each other and small incantations on each other. Jacob walked over slowly, not sure what was going on, but Agni’s facial expression wasn’t a happy one; he was a little worried and decided to go and check out what was going on, and it seemed not a moment too soon. “Hey!” He shouted, lunging at the second year and grabbing her arm mid punch. “Get lost will you?” He said firmly. Letting go of her harshly then looking at Agni ‘M…merci…merci bien Jacob… Je suis tres, desolee… d.. desolee…’ Jacob didn’t understand much French but he could tell she was upset. “Hey, don’t cry…” Jacob didn’t feel awkward, instead he placed his arms on her shoulder blades and pulled her into him, letting her cry for a moment, he was just happy to have stopped her getting hurt.

“I know her, she’s useless at most things, no not like you…. You aren’t useless… not at all…” Jacob smiled now sat besides Agni a little further away from the others but still able to see the screens. He pushed away a few stray hairs from her plait. “How are you now?” Jacob could sense Agni’s nervousness, she always was a little on edge and he wanted to know why. “Well, with me and your friend Polly about, they will get tired soon, you just need to stand your ground, the majority are all talk, granted that beast wasn’t but the rest are snide comments…” An arm around her shoulder Jacob smiled as he held her close to him, watching the last few minute of the game.

It almost seemed impossible for a griffin to have caught the pair off guards but it certainly had happened, Felicity’s wand was out quicker than the beast itself could move but Ludovic urged her to hold back. Felicity wasn’t one to take orders especially after what had just happened but she knew very well that Ludovic was better with creatures than she was, but what he was doing was very odd. Felicity was in stance watching what they were doing intently, signalling Litheus of what was going on and where they were. Ludovic must have agitated the beast as it swiped his face, she panicked a little. “Shit shit!” She went to move to Ludovic but the creature screeched madly so felicity didn’t move. “I…. what!?!” Felicity say the blood streaming down his face and took a deep breath, starting to sing, she wasn’t used to it and cringed but it seemed to do the trick, it kept the griffin quiet enough to for Ludovic to immobilise it and Felicity get the feather. With Ludovic on his feet they began to make their way back. They were in sight of the cameras now as they fought against some of the Thrisdin team, Felicity focused on getting Ludovic back so she only disarmed them and counterattacked, she they had won, that was all that really mattered to her. Surrounded by teachers Felicity held the feather with Ludovic’s gold thread and the game was over. She took a few breaths, no longer concerned with her captain. Felicity stood with the rest of the team as Ludovic was taken to the infirmary and they left towards the changing rooms. Changed back into her dark jeans and vest top Felicity made her way back to the dorm, a few people congratulated her on the way up but she didn’t really acknowledge it, as her adrenaline wore off Felicity regained her quiet composure, her hand brushing where Ludovic had hit her before. It was a little tender, a pale purple bruise.

Her dorm was empty still, Felicity took the time to run a bath, the bathrooms were all eerie in the dorms but felicity didn’t mind. She stepped into the warm water and submerged her entire body beneath the water, her dark hair swirling about her face; she opened her eyes under the surface and looked up the rippling edge. The warmth seemed to remove the tensions from her muscles; she felt frustrated with the day’s events and had to keep herself away from Ludovic or his gimp in case she punched him square in the nose. She didn’t want to let him get the better of her but as she sat up for air her bubbling anger returned. She looked back to when he had hit her and cringed, she had just stood there like an idiot; unable to react to him, if it had been anyone else she would had taken them to the floor in an instant and beaten them black and blue, but he had left her stunned and Felicity didn’t think she could blame it on the match. Later in the afternoon Felicity was dressed and clean again, but she was still angry, the more she thought about that had happened the more she wanted to walk straight up to him and humiliate him just as he had in the forest. But she knew too well that when it came to the moment she would just go berserk at him. Ludovic wasn’t like a girl that her slicing words could hurt, that annoyed her too. But it was near enough time for dinner, she took the long way around to get to the great hall. Again a few people congratulated her on the team’s win, but she just nodded and continued, thoughts running havoc about her mind, so much so that when it came to the hall being full of people Felicity hardly ate anything, when people attempted to speak with her she didn’t even look up. As the headmaster stood however everyone looked up in silence.

“I would like to congratulate all of those who took part in the Knest tournament, it has been a very productive two days and I have enjoyed the results and I would also like to congratulate the winning teams. Would the Thrisdin Escorial team please stand for a round of applause.” Jacob stood alongside his team and gladly took the round of applause he hadn’t played for long but it was definitely a group effort, they sat down and the applause faded. “I would also like to congratulate the Somery team for their rather exciting win” Felicity stood and quickly looked to Ludovic and noticed that his face was fixed, but she didn’t look long enough to notice anything else. Once the head master had finished his speech about the Christmas holidays Felicity stood up and left the room, not having touched her food. In no mood to eat anything.

She made it half way along the corridor before she noticed that she was being followed. Felicity had a feeling of who it was before she turned around. “What do you want?” She spat. “Actually, I don’t care what you want.” She turned to face him. “No, NO shut up!” She advanced on him strong, no holding back, she may have been shorter than him but she had a strong grip. Felicity grabbed his face with one hand and pressed her nails into his cheek tightly. “How dare you, how bloody dare you….I swear…. I swear you touch so much as touch me again I will personally tear each of your fingers off.” Of course she was speaking out of anger but she appeared deadly serious. “You’re pathetic you know that? Even I can’t stand you, girls only like you for your looks, but they don’t hide who you really are.” Felicity let go of Ludovic and turned around, wanting to walk off her anger before she knocked out a fellow first year.

Polly could hear the footsteps long before James even had an inkling of their presence, however she was less concerned about who saw them. She didn’t even pretend to look remotely innocent when the other Professor walked past. ‘And what about you, have you ever dabbled in Necromancy?’ she smiled, but not an ordinary smile, it didn’t reach her eyes, they were cold and deadly serious, as if she were analyzing him. “No, I’ve never partaken in Necromancy.” She smiled again, knowingly. ‘Mmm yes,’ she said in reply ‘It is getting late.’ As his leg brushed against hers, she stood, their faces close and their bodies touching. He held her gaze, if only for a moment, before turning to walk away. She smiled at the teacherly reminder to study, before disappearing around a corner. She watched the space where he left, and couldn’t help but think that if he had not dabbled in Necromancy, that he had often considered it. She found her way out of the maze that was the library, managing not to get caught, she trotted back up to her room, searching around for Jimmy. ‘Pus, pus pus… Jimmy? Hay Jimmy?’ she frowned, when Jimmy ran away for a while in the past, it was usually a really bad omen.

The next thing Agni felt, were Jacob’s strong arms pulling her into him, she grabbed onto his shirt, wrapping her fingers around the cloth as she cried into him, feeling absolutely pathetic.

She found herself a little later, sat on the grass next to her friend, sniffling and listening to him try and cheer her up ‘I am alright now, at least my face is not smooshed thanks to you. No doubt I will be much more uglier by the end of this year.’ She smiled, her nose a little red and her head on Jacob’s shoulder. “Well, with me and your friend Polly about, they will get tired soon, you just need to stand your ground, the majority are all talk, granted that beast wasn’t but the rest are snide comments…” she nodded her head, the cool grass between her toes. She hardly ever worse shoes, instead a delicate silver anklet with tiny bells was fastened around her ankle. She sighed, only hoping that what he said was true, leaning into him comfortably, her cheek on his shoulder. In elven culture, feeling comfortable in a friendship is shown by physical closeness and awareness, it’s what often got her into trouble in previous schools. While he was watching the game, she promptly fell asleep

Cael went to dinner feeling hungry after a good day of endurance. He was surrounded by women telling him how brave he was, and his ears were only filled with sounds of Finn glorifying his return from the medical wing. ‘I mean, mate, half your face was ripped open! I thought you were gonna die!’ his insignificant ramblings were ignored as Ludovic ate his warm soup and looked up at Felicity. He regretted retaliating, it was his father in him, he was an old fashioned man who believed that women should be used for three things, cooking, cleaning and… well… procreation. Cael cursed himself for what he did. He stood when his name was called, his expression still cold, trying to mask the pain of the healing charm that was working in his face still, he had been expressly told to rest for the night, but that didn’t stop him following after his team mate as she stormed out of the room, only wanting to say sorry. It was evident however; that she wasn’t going to even let him speak. She grabbed his face violently, causing him to hiss from the cut he received earlier. He looked at her, stone cold as she spat her insults. Finally she let go, which was a blessing in itself, he could already feel his wound opening again, and he didn’t want his face to get scarred. As she walked away, he watched her go, his lip curled in distaste, she was so rude, and he wouldn't tolerate rudeness, especially from a mere woman.

Agni woke the next day to a strangely familiar room. She sat up, looking around her immaculate dorm room, a little confused. Ignoring the confusion (such a common emotion for her as it was) she dressed in clothes that Polly picked out for her the day before and made her way to potions. Once inside, she took her normal seat near to the front of the class, smiling to herself thinking about the night previous. Hearing somebody sit next to her, she looked up from her book with a wide smile, expecting to see Jacob, the sight of Finley shocked her a little and her face fell 'Oh I'm sorry Princess, didn't mean to scare you, do you want me to leave?' Finn had been thinking about her all night, finally he realized why she looked so familiar, he had played with her as a kid, their fathers were friends and she stayed with them a few months while her father was away. He was laying on the charm speaking softly and smiling. She seemed to react well to it, nodding slowly. 'Yes, sorry, you may sit here...' she was cut off by him, as usual 'I remember you now, sorry I was always bad with...' 'faces... you were always bad with faces...' he grinned broadly before laughing, she did too. 'Hay so, I thought you'd need help with your potions here huh Aggy?' she smiled at the sound of the name he used to call her. As the lesson progressed Agni was amazed at how much she learnt from Finn, he really was smart, not that he could be bothered to show it. It was perhaps the first time that she had ever actually enjoyed alchemy, leaving the class without doing much wrong. 'Aggy, maybe I could help you catch up with your potions work? I mean, I'm going to pass anyway, lets face it, I'm pretty awesome, how's about it Princess?'

Polly had a three hour private Specials lesson in the morning, where they taught you how to use your unique powers safely and efficiently, she was bored out of her mind however, and even weedled her way out of the first two hours to go to her potions class. When she got there, she spotted an empty seat next to the Moran girl that did so well in the endurance the previous day, or so she was told, she sat down, grinning at her enigmatically. ‘Hi there. I figured you’d rather have me sit next to you than that slimy Frat Boy, there’s some strained aura around you… just thought you’d like to know.’ She looked ahead at Agni, who wasn’t sat next to Ephemera, but instead the meathead from the Escorial game, she didn’t look particularly happy about it, and neither did the Elladora lad, she smiled to herself.

Cael turned up to Potions to find out that his seat had been usurped. He looked at the American with a snide look before sitting down behind. They had gotten through about half an hour of the first practical lesson when Cael spotted an opportunity, slipping his wand out from his pocket discreetly, he pointed it at Felicity's cloak draped over the back of her stool. 'Ignatio.' Her cloak spontaneously and viciously caught alight, sending the girls into a frenzy of panic. He stood up, walked over to her bench calmly just as it turned into a dangerous situation, and pulled the burning fabric off of them, throwing it onto the floor and tipping a beaker of water onto the top of it before waving his wand a little over it. The flame diminished just as Professor Laurendale walked into the room again. 'Don't worry Professor, it's all under control now.' he smiled before turning to Moran 'you should be more careful.' he muttered, his lip curled in a malicious grin as the American held Moran back from him. He turned around, going back to his desk.

Agni had sat outside with Finn in her free periods, they had studied and reminisced but most of all laughed, she didn't go inside for lunch with Finn, instead staying outside to go over what he had taught her.

Finn had a great time working on Agni outside, he grinned as he walked away, thinking about how much it was going to wind up Elladora. He walked into the great hall, his hair ruffled and a few shirt buttons undone, his tie loose around his neck. He knew Elladora was in there, so vindictively unbuckling his belt and unbuttoning the top of his trousers, he walked in, a cocky grin on his face, making direct eye contact with the boy whilst buttoning his trousers back up again.

Jacob didn't turn up on time from potions to herbology, which was usual, he always took his time, however unusually, the Professor was late also. She sat at the end of the greenhouse next to a peculiar looking plant, pruning its leaves and talking to it like a crazy woman. People were staring at her and laughing, but to her, they were the crazy ones, mostly because she found their faces hilarious when the plant started to talk back. ‘Hay! Watcha looking at!? Never seen a talking plant before?! Beat it!’ Agni giggled a bit before chastising the plant ‘Shush will you? You can be quite intimidating sometimes! You have scared them off now!’ ‘Good!’ it replied ‘I don’t like them, snotty kids who know nothing about us plants, not like you Agatha.’ ‘Agatcher.’ ‘Whatever.’ Jacob walked in, but it wasn't Agni who recognized his presence, it was the plant. 'Hay Agatha! Aint that the guy you were sleeping with in here the other night?' she looked up horrified to see Jacob standing in the doorway, an equal expression on his face, and everybody else's 'No Ghettous-Ganominus. it is not. In fact, I have no idea what you are talking about.' 'I should hope not Miss Belle. Breaking and entering is a serious crime and is punishable with even suspension. I would expect this from you Elladora... but you Miss Belle? Do not be sucked in by his faceless charm.' the Professor looked Jacob up and down with a look of pure distaste for tainting his favourite student. 'Now should we begin?'

The evening came, and the last lesson of the day was divination. She saw her new friend Felicity off, shaking her hand after discussing what she was going to do about Frat boy. She climbed the long staircase, knowing that Felicity was only suspended for another lesson before she could join in again. But for now, Polly was confidant for her Ovomancy test. Walking into the warm room, one eye on Agni's fancy-man and the meat-head, she sat down. She had a thick full fringe, her dark red eyes framed by it, it fell around her face completely straight and just past her shoulder blades. It looked as if the shaved patch from the night before had completely disappeared. She watched James walk in, all teacherly with his glasses and papers. The tests began and while people were hurriedly practising, Polly sat back, her feet on the desk and her tanned legs shamelessly on show. Before long, she could feel eyes watching her. Turning her head slowly, she saw the red haired lad eyeing her up. 'You want something Honey?' she asked patronisingly, her accent dripping with sugar. 'You must be pretty confident if you're not practising. What's your name Princess?' she smiled, her eyes flickering to the second pair of eyes watching her very closely. Picking her legs up off the desk and leaning over, her unbuttoned shirt showing more than it should have, the boy's eyes lit up 'You must be pretty confidant if you're staring at my tits instead of practising.' he turned away a little, as if insulted. 'Oh and Honey? I'm not your Princess.' Polly turned around to Professor Sparrow's voice. 'My feet are off the desk, look with your eyes not with your memory, that's your people's problem.' she was referring to the divinists, her voice was insulting but her eyes said different. 'My turn, I get it, lets go'

The test took five minutes top, she had easily done it next to perfect, only stalling once. She looked up to the Professor, completely triumphant, only to see his unamused face. 'See you after? SEE YOU AFTER!? I did that damn perfect, you just find somebody who can do that better! You're not arguing with me? Sure as hell you're not.' He walked away and she was left livid, sniggering to her side. 'What do you want?' she growled, looking at the Scot. 'You're looking at him.' 'What?' she spat. 'You told him to find somebody who could do it better, well, I just did. Full marks Princess.'

Polly watched blonde after blonde leave with less than perfect marks in their test and farewells of 'nice try' and 'study harder next time' until she was the only one left in the room. She heard the door slowly push shut. She stared straight ahead as he paced around her desk, it wasn't until he was stood in front of her that she reacted. Standing up with speed, she leaned over her desk and grabbed his collar violently, pulling it towards her. 'Don't Ephemera me. Now I know for a fact that you let out girls ten times worse than me through that door. I did damn good on that test.' Her face was pushed lose to his, she snarled at him, holding his gaze, his dark eyes looking relatively calm as she threatened him. Before long, she let go, instead dragging her hand down his shirt until it hovered just above his belt. 'What do you want Professor?'

Felicity half expected to be followed by Ludovic as she stormed away from the scene but she wasn't surprised to find herself by the astronomy classrooms all alone. She continued up the stairs towards the astronomy tower itself. It wasn't so much of an astronomy tower as an extension of the school's attic space; it was the only part of the upper castle that was permitted for student use, and even then it was with a member of the school's faculty. But Felicity was ready to fly off of the handle with some force, she had managed to keep some of her temper under wraps with Ludovic but the fact he hadn't fought back infuriated her. He was incredibly sharp witted and forceful at times but he hadn't used it, she had been left looking foolish and irate. Perhaps she had been. Felicity shook her head as she looked at the several telescopes and magnifying glasses, that wasn't it. She was never going to be pushed around by anyone, especially a guy. After a while Felicity stretched her arms and thought it best to sleep, she was tired to say the least after the endurance match. She was definitely going to have to fit in some extra training after lessons.

Jacob had found his way into the lower part of the castle, the old school before a fire swept at the turn of the century, making it largely unsafe for teaching (a few rooms used now again around the edges, the rest, storage.) he had seen something that had unsettled him, angered even. He had made his way down to the cooler levels of the castle in order to get away from people and calm himself, but it wasn't working. Jacob began to pick up his pace and could feel his heartbeat in his chest. Faster and faster, it felt fit to burst. A cold wave of panic swept over him, the corridors getting narrower with each turn he made, his mouth was dry and his jaw aching, but it wasn't water he was seeking. Jacob stopped and slammed a fist against the wall, the anger mixed with panic making it hard to focus, his peripherals at the mercy of darkness that seemed to surround him. He desperately fought against it but as he leant against the cool stone wall, his breaths short and pained; everything went dark. It felt as if he had blinked but as Jacob struggled to focus he noticed his hands weren't the same, they were red, bloodied and dripping. "No'" he gasped, scrambling to his feet and rubbing his eyes, smearing the blood across his face. "Oh shit...oh." He could hardly turn around to the agonised sobbing, blood splattered up the wall, mixed with frenzied handprints. What had he done?

Jacob threw himself from his bed, his thin bed sheets near enough stuck to his chest from cool sweat. He looked about frantically from left to right all about the room before looking at his hands; they were clean. Jacob didn't remember a dream ever being so vivid, even awake with his candle now lit his heart was racing. It was the middle of the night but Jacob was sure he wasn't going to be able to sleep after that. First thing that morning he was going to have to find Professor Laurendale. She would know what was going on. Jacob skipped breakfast and went straight to her office, knocking on the door loudly and waiting for it to open itself.

Lucinda had been waiting for her visit from the younger of the Elladora siblings, his older sister having just passed her final exams; she had been no trouble at all when it came to Lucinda’s area of expertise. Jacob however she had seen a little too much of last year. There were only a few potentially dangerous students at the school and the majority of them could be helped through expert training and the occasional potion. Jacob was one that couldn't really benefit from a potion; any form of sedation seemed to aggravate his 'issue'. As the door opened to Professor Laurendale's office Jacob looked up around the high walls, not a lot had changed on the year he had been at the school, the terrarium that housed her snakes was still constantly open allowing her dearest companions to roam about the herb and ingredient cabinets, books and strange artefacts; Not too fond of the snakes Jacob walked straight to the centre of the room. 'It's happening again.' It seemed apparent from his bloodshot and tired eyes that something was amiss but Lucinda didn't have to look up to know he was troubled. 'Have a seat Mr. Elladora; tell me, what precisely happened?' She could practically taste the discord in the air that seemed to be emanating from the first year, and so could her snakes, making their way back to their terrarium.

The meeting had over spilled into their first lesson which annoyed Lucinda a little, she was had a duty to those students who needed assistance but her third year potions class was notorious for causing havoc so she sent Jacob on her way who was later than normal for animal care.

Felicity didn't have a first lesson so didn't bother with breakfast, not worried that someone would come looking for her and found her still in her pyjamas flicking through an unmarked book about the history of mermaid activity in the western hemisphere, not particularly interesting but better than sitting in the library in the cold or the grand hall with the general sneers, no, her bed was comfortable enough until she decided to amble into the silent showers of her Dorm's communal bathrooms and get ready for her first class of the day; potions.

Leaving her hair down Felicity couldn't tell who was coming up to sit beside her that is until she heard that distinctive American accent. Felicity nodded when Polly smiled but then went about opening her books. "You bet." but just as Ludovic was mentioned she glanced over her shoulder and watched him enter the classroom, she nearly physically grimaced, now genuinely glad that Polly had sat next to her, making Felicity more incline to talk to her. "So, where are you from, I mean in America that is." She leant to one side watching Polly, nodding as she spoke about places that she had never even heard of, Felicity was terrible with geography, only just knowing the capital of Ireland and England, the rest she hadn’t been bothered to learn, Felicity didn’t even look at Ludovic as he waltzed into the room. ”I know… I know…” Felicity whispered to her new American friend but the shrill shriek of a girl behind them alerted Felicity that her cloak was on fire “Holy mother of-“ Felicity could hardly turn around to see the flames before the cloak was ripped from her and soaked. Felicity turned to see Ludovic and immediately saw red. “Why you little!” She shouted about to swing at him when she was pulled back by Polly which only seemed to aggravate her more. “Miss Moran, would you please turn to station immediately- Miss Moran! If you do not return to your station immediately you will find yourself with three days detention, do I make myself clear?” Felicity kicked away her cloak and nodded. “Professor.” Leaning against her book Felicity’s knuckles were white, she was now going without a cloak, not going to tell her mother to send for a new one as she would just fly off the handle and pull her out of school all together or something like that.

Jacob walked in a little late, his animal care Professor insisting that he make the time he missed at the start of the lesson, but luckily Laurendale wasn’t around yet. He looked tired, the bags under his eyes a little more noticeable than usual, he walked in with his head down, expecting to sit with Agni and give her a hand with potions to make it fair that she helped him in Herbology but Jacob looked up to see Finn in his usual seat. On the outside Jacob didn’t make too much of it, sitting next to another Thrisdin boy and talked about the Escorial, but inside he was angry, he had been so nice to Agni, protecting her from that sleaze, near putting his place at the school on the line and there she was smiling and chatting away as if she didn’t have an unsociably shy bone in her body. Jacob was a little aggressive in making his tincture today.
Jacob watched the pair walk off at the end of the lesson and could hardly believe what he saw, “No matter.” He thought to himself, he had to arrange some Escorial training as it was anyway so wouldn’t be free until after divination. At lunch however he watched Finn walk in the room, the pair was fully aware of each other’s presence. Jacob didn’t break eye contact until he had sat down. Felicity however had spent her free hour running, she wanted to release her pent up aggression and just before lunch had a cram defence lesson with Professor Laurendale, which she knew would spill over, which didn’t matter much, she had arranged to say hello to Polly before she went for her Ovomancy test. Which wasn’t until the end of the day.

Jacob slowly made his way to the greenhouses after lunch and was surprised to see that their Professor was late. But Jacob was far more surprised to see 'that bloody plant' he mumbled to himself. 'Hay Agatha! Aint that the guy you were sleeping with in here the other night?' "Jay Jay, ohhh Jacob, hey there boy don't ignore your old buddy!' Jacob simply shook his head, his eyes wide open with shock he could sense his professor behind him now and only wished for the ground to swallow him up. Making his way to a seat, close to Agni but not right next to her,’Daymn boy, what's got you in a twist? Oh yeah Ag, Jay and I go back, always brings the gurlies to the green house, know what I'm sayinn'?!' "Seymour..." Jacob could hardly look at Agni, the rest of the class were making too much of a racket to really notice, though the few nearby couldn’t help but look over their shoulders with a smirk. He hadn’t yet said a word to Agni, nor did he want to. Practically dying with embarrassment. "I swear I will put you outside in a moment..." But the plant quietened as their Professor instructed them on the their next task, Jacob as always not listening but wasn't sure whether he should ask Agni for help; seeing as he hadn’t spoke coming into the class. So instead he sat staring at the wriggling plant in front of him, hoping that there was a slim chance that Seymour would keep quiet long enough for him to get to divination without being suspended. When Agni tried to speak to Jacob he only looked up briefly before looking back at the plant as if it were something he had never seen before. Sure enough the end of the lesson came and Jacob was pretty quickly to leave, but he could hear her. “Just, go away.” He muttered sternly, speeding up towards Divination, knowing full well he hadn’t even opened a book for his test next. He sat on the far side of the room near the doors leading out of the room, doing his Ovomancy test and practically acing it.

James began to regret setting the practical test, he hadn’t realised how many were in his class and this was surely going to take the entire lesson. At least he didn’t have to prance about the room trying to keep the students entertained. Today they were the ones trying to impress, most doing well, all practically passing a beginners standard, but near the end as Polly came forward James decided to have a little fun, seeing as she had been such a tease the day before, it was his turn to wind her up. “Well… I know you have gained a positive result…but… I think you lacked effort in your technique, if you would stay behind after class I would be-.” He had to keep a strong lip in order not to smirk as she kicked off “I won’t argue this with you…” He left and waited for the classroom to empty before returning to her. “Miss Ephemera…” Even as she grabbed his collar he kept his cool, a small smirk playing at the corner of his lips as her hand wandered. But as their eye intensified he spoke quietly, in a stern tone. “I want you to put more… effort into your practise” He stood over her, twiddling a quill between his fingers. “Perhaps then you will make full marks…” His student was close enough for him to feel her breath, any close and they’d be- “You can go now Miss Ephemera.” James pulled away, walking towards a tall cabinet, no longer facing her. He heard the door shut and finally smiled eagerly, sorting his ingredients, he had found someone to play with.

Felicity sat at dinner without her cloak and felt extremely bitter about it, but after her run in the late autumn air she found that the castle was warm enough for her to be comfortable. She didn’t dare look up to Ludovic who was sat with his Scottish friend; she thought for a moment and as if a light had been lit in her head she knew what to do to really irritate Ludovic. She could start in divination tomorrow too, knowing the girl who sat beside Finn had taken her previous seat. Staring down at her plate Felicity smiled to herself.

However there was little to smile about for Jacob, sat with his friends he was quieter than usual and blamed it on being knackered from not sleeping and practise, he guessed his friends were too busy with who snogged who to care. He did look down the table to Agni and couldn’t help feeling guilty for pushing her away earlier. He had probably upset her too. If Polly hadn’t been there he would have gone down and spoken to her, but he was wary of Polly watching him, so decided to see if Agni would be in the common room late that night.

Agni didn’t look as Jacob walked over to his place, staying a little more away from her than he usually did. She wanted to shut out what the plant had said, and was doing a good job of it by getting on with her work, adding bamboo sticks to the Memor plants before pruning them and delicately separating the new shoots. She noticed a very negative energy around Jacob, something was bothering him but she didn’t want to ask, instead she glanced over to him, he wasn’t doing anything, just staring at the plant with a bemused look. ‘You have to… um… never mind, I will do it…’ she reached over and took his plant from him, working on it quickly before placing it back in front of him, still he said nothing, she frowned, turning away and muttering to herself ‘Pas même un merci? Eh bien, vous pouvez faire vous-même que je n'ai pas d'aider les gens ingrats.’ She carried on with her own work, and when she finished early, began to do all his plants too, loading them up on her side of the room when she was done. ‘You really could be good at this you know.’ She muttered towards him, not really caring if he was listening or not ‘you just cannot be bothered because these plants can do nothing for you, these ones are mostly for medicine, take for example these Memor plants, they are for bites… although perhaps the only person who is very interested in this is me because you are ignoring me for some reason.’ She finished off just as the bell sounded for next lesson, he seemed to want to get away from the greenhouse quickly, so much so that he left his jacket on the bench, she scooped it up and ran for him ‘Jacob… Jake you left…’ “Just, go away.” his harsh tone shocked her a little, she recoiled at the sound of it, her eyes wide in shock, she let him walk away before breaking down a little. ‘Miss Belle? Are you alright?’ she looked up to the herboloy teacher with a concerned look on his face. ‘Yes, I am alright… may I… I mean, would you mind if I spent some time in the greenhouses next door? Just for an hour?’ he smiled, quickly agreeing and walking away. She spent the next half hour tending to all the plants, making sure they were healthy and watered before leaving for the common room with a few extra clippings.

Polly’s eyes were fixed on James, until he distanced himself. Her eyes bored into the back of his head for a moment as they stood in silence. She pulled her wand out of the black leather holster strapped to her leg and waving it over her wooden desk, leaving a message burnt into the oak. She walked out after that, closing the door behind her and making her way to the great hall for dinner. She smiled to herself, imagining his face upon reading the message. ‘Don’t try and humiliate me again. I’m not your play toy.’
She met up with Agni in the hall, who was sat by herself. ‘What’s up chicken?’ She asked, instinctively glaring at the Elladora boy. ‘Jacob told me to go away. I was only trying to give him back his jacket.’ Polly rolled her eyes ‘Oh for goodness sake, you’re starting to sound like a broken record… what you need is a good party.’ But she wasn’t listening ‘perhaps it was because I let Finley sit in his seat in potions… I must go and water the common room plants…’ Polly frowned ‘you’ve hardly eaten anything!’ ‘Not all of us have to eat a cow to survive!’ she called as she ran off.

It was getting late, and Agni had changed the common room into a botanical garden, there were blooming flowers in beautiful colours all over the room, on every window ledge and table. People seemed to be happier with them there, and so did she. On one wall was a climbing plant with deep blue rose like flowers that people tied ribbons to, like a natural mascot of the Thrisdin house. Agni picked up one particularly dark looking plant, its leaves were an almost black, covered in thorns, and its flowers were a deep purple, hauntingly beautiful. With it in hand, and Jacob’s cloak draped over her other arm, she walked up to one of his friends, taking a deep breath before catching his attention. ‘Alright darlin?’ she nodded ‘Um… yes… I was just wondering if you would put this in Jacob’s dorm room for me please?’ he looked her up and down ‘and what would I be getting out of that huh?’ she cleared her throat a little ‘I uh… could talk to Polly for you?’ his eyes seemed to light up ‘consider it done.’ He took the plant ad cloak off of her ‘hold on, I have this too…’ she handed him a delicately folded pale blue paper crane, it was enchanted so it would unfold when he touched it, on it was written a message on how to use the plant. ‘Deadly nightshade/Belladonna. The fumes it gives out stop nightmares and induce sleep. I hope it will help.’ The lad took it from her, nestling it in the leaves of the plant and beginning to walk away, still with a huge grin ‘My name’s Sam by the way, Sam Griffin.’ She nodded before watching him disappear, she then continued to cut the dead leaves off the blue rose wall when she was approached by a couple of girls ‘excuse me?’ Agni turned, her eyes a sparkling amber ‘We were just wondering if we could have some of these flowers… for out rooms?’ she smiled. ‘Oh um… yes of course… wait here a moment…’ she turned to walk into the small storage cupboard which was now overrun with shelves of flowers, coming back with two small pot plants. ‘Here you are, they will last longer if they are still growing.’ The girls eagerly took them from her ‘Oh thank you! Belle is it?’ she nodded ‘well...’ the other began ‘we just wanted to say that we really don’t like what Clarisse Kolier is doing to you, she’s not very nice at all.’ ‘yeah,’ the other one added ‘we try and ask her to stop but she won’t listen to us.’ Agni smiled ‘thank you for trying anyway.’ They both thanked her for the plants before walking away. The next thing she heard was a deep familiar voice. Agatcher jumped, turning around to see Jacob. She took a step away from him a little, a tad scared of him from the reaction he gave earlier. ‘I’m sorry Jacob for earlier, if I did anything to upset you, I did not mean to make you angry at me…’ she didn’t look at his face, reverting back to how she was around him when she first met him.

Polly didn’t go right back to the common room after dinner, instead she sought out Felicity, planning on making her a close friend. She sensed a dangerous air about her. She soon found her however, just in time, she was about to go off into the Somery common room. ‘Hay there Moran! Yeah come here will you?’ she smiled as she came over, lowering her voiced ‘look, I’ve been here for about a month and I’m already bored of this place. I’ve been thinking that we need some kind of party but I can’t do it on my own.’ She grinned at the other girl’s eagerness. ‘We’ve only got a few weeks until the Christmas holidays, now, I can do something about rallying troops into joining us but, smuggling illegal goods, if you get my drift, is not my forte.’ She laughed loudly ‘I like you Moran, I can tell we’re going to be friends. Oh and, don’t worry about where we’re going to have it… let’s just say the keys to the astronomy tower might just go missing… never you mind how I’m gonna do it. Anyways, see you later… oh and Moran? I’m going to send you over some clothes, no disrespect or anything, but a body like yours should not be hidden.’ She winked, turning to leave.

Cael felt suitably revenged after the night previous on the Moran girl after Potions. The Griffin cut on his face had opened up again, it had now been loosely stitched by bloodied thread, a deformis solution seeing as there was a limit on the amount of magical healing the medic could do to a first year within a month. His magical creature’s lesson was enlightening, but he soon got busy during his free periods. Sitting outside, his green and gold striped scarf wrapped elegantly around his neck, his hair looking immaculate as usual and his steely grey eyes staring out over the misty hills, his thought was interrupted. ‘Lost Whitehall?’ he looked up to a beautifully groomed blonde. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and she had an air of superiority about her. ‘What are you doing out here Greene? Surely you’d rather be in the stables?’ she laughed, the sound like bells ‘Was that a dig Whitehall? And please, call me Lara.’ He shook his head, standing up next to her and offering her his arm. ‘Now Larissa, why would I do that when you are so fond of calling me by my first name?’ she laughed lightly, taking his arm ‘Ludovic dear, you know me too well.’ They walked with each other for a while around the grounds before going to dinner together, they had been friends since they were young and there was a long line of inter marriages between the Von Whitehall’s and the Greene’s. He had his arm around her during dinner, glancing occasionally at Felicity, his apathetic look disappearing where Larissa spoke ‘Who are you looking at Darling? Another woman?’ He smiled ‘Just Moran, and you could hardly class her as a woman’ the people around them laughed, their educated accents sounding superior to the chatter around them. He kissed her cheek, his eyes locking with Felicity’s as he did. Finn laughed ‘Greene, how come you came so late?’ he shouted, a mouth full of pheasant. ‘We were on holiday in Galapagos with the Livington‘s,’ ‘oh really? With Perry? How the devil is he?’ a familiar voice came from behind and a grin lit up on all their faces’.

Jacob kept his head down at first when Agni spoke, half in regret for snapping earlier but he was still heart for what she had been doing with Finn, he felt he had put a lot on the line for her and didn’t want to see her hurt again. But getting angry with Agni wasn’t going to help at all; she seemed as delicate as the flowers she tended to. “I…” He still didn’t really have the words to say to her. “I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He looked up and saw that he had upset her. “It wasn’t fair, I’m sorry.” Looking very tired Jacob put his hand out to Agni, as if to take her hand but he stopped himself, not wanted to startle her, maybe she thought he was going to hurt her now, like the others had been. Retracting his hand, Jacob gave her a half smiled and turned up to the stairs to the private rooms.

Felicity nodded along to her new friend’s plans, elated at the idea of causing a little havoc more than the party itself, but she was more than happy to oblige in providing the required ‘ingredients’. “Hah, I’ll have them by tomorrow morning.” As felicity turned around she raised an eyebrow at the thought of wearing anything different. She looked at her uniform and didn’t see anything wrong with it. “Hmm.” Felicity wasn’t completely unreasonable; she would see what was brought over. In the morning however there was a packet in her room, opening she gawped at what she had been given to wear, there was so little. At first she refused straight out to wear any of it, the skirt not even near her knee, the white school shirt was sleeveless and looked at least a size too small for her, but with a deep breath she tried it on and stood in front of the flaw length mirror of the dorm bathroom she watched the other girls walk past in shock and jealousy, then she knew It was a good idea to wear what Polly had asked her to, it would help with later on in divination. But for her defence lessons she had first Felicity was going to have to wear her jumper and new robe, knowing too well that Professor Laurendale would throw a fit and insist her changing.

Jacob looked at the plant that was in his room in the morning and lay back on his bed, it hadn’t stopped his dreams at night but they had kept him asleep for a full eight hours; so if not a little stressed from his dreams Jacob felt considerably better. He got dressed quickly, not wanting to be late for Herbology that morning. He in fact turned up early and was able to meet Agni in the greenhouse before the professor arrived. “Thank you, for the plant, it kind of helped me out a little.” Jacob sat where he was supposed to sit, next to Agni and smiled. “Where… and how did you sleep?” Knowing that she would have rathered being in the common room. Other classmates started to arrive and for a change that plant didn’t want to bother him, but he knew that could only last for so long. But the lesson went well, the pair was still quieter than they normally were and Jacob didn’t want to talk about the day before so he didn’t really look her way unless he needed help, but as he did he smiled. After the lesson he walked part of the way into the corridors but had to part, having a second year charms lesson to attend to. Nodding in agreement to seeing Agni in divination later that day, just after lunch even.

Perry Livington stood tall at the entrance of the Grand hall, looking into the room full of students; he had just arrived so not in uniform. A small briefcase- like back swung by his side as he caught sight of a few familiar faces. Grinning he stood behind the red-haired scot and put one hand on his shoulder as he leant into the table. “Look at you all, so neat and studious?” He chuckled to himself. “I apologise for not arriving sooner, father insisted that we travel through china for a few months, that I wouldn’t have the time to do so until I graduated.” Perry sat next to Ludovic. “Ah it’s brilliant to see you chaps, tell me Ludovic, how was your summer? Hardly saw any of you at all. I was beginning to think you had been held captive by some humans or dogs or something ghastly.” Their section of the table laughed buy Perry looked further along, gawping "Speaking of ghastly... Larissa tell me have the poor people forgotten how to make clothes?" he was pointing down at Felicity subtly as he spoke quietly, Felicity didn't notice, after sitting down to a bowl of soup she found it was too hot for her jumper and had self consciously taken it off, leaving her robe over her shoulders trying cover herself a little. " I know I know, it's terrible, sad even. But I must love you and leave you, the trip has left me tired and I want to get changed, feel like part of the gang and all that, cheerio!" and as quickly as he came him Perry had swished out of the hall, he had been placed in Somery.

Felicity hadn't seen the girl who was sat next to Ludovic before and just by the way she sat Felicity didn't like her one bit. She caught the blonde glaring in her direction and just looked away, Professor Laurendale had worked her fourth year defence extra hard that morning and wasn't in the mood to start something off, besides they looked pretty cosy. She shouldn’t have cared about that either, Ludovic laughing and smirking with other people, he had always been extremely cold with her but she accepted that was his nature and reacted in the same way, but it seemed that with people in his own financial bracket were more deserving of his attention. Just thinking about it brought up an odd feeling of jealously within her. She couldn’t stand him anymore yet the thought of him being around others was infuriating. The chimes signalled the near end of lunch so felicity stood with her jumper around her waist (it being a lot longer than her actual skirt) and made her way up several flights of stairs to divination, rolling her eyes at the male attention. People she had never met were walking past, winking and smiling. Felicity sat next to Polly in divination and before the professor came in she sighed. “Do you actually get a kick form all of them staring, really?” Felicity laughed, watching Finn as he walked in and sat a row behind them. She’d work on her little game but for now the lesson was starting.

James came into the room quickly with a certain spring in his step. “Ah hello again ladies and gentlemen, I’d first of all like to congratulate you all on passing your first assessment; except for Felicity who will need to complete this assessment by Wednesday next week. But I would like you welcome you back to the class.” Felicity didn’t say anything but just looked him up and down. Not her type could see his game a mile off, but she kept herself quiet and listened to the rest of his instructions. “Today, you will have an hour to look through your text books at the interpretation of dreams and how this affects certain aspects of other divination techniques, such as the readings like you have been doing, or visions and such the like, I won’t bore you with my spiel any longer, I’ll let the text do that for me, but you can work in groups and help each other out, just keep on subject.” After pacing about the classroom he sat down behind his desk and was reading a divination book himself, but of course he kept flickering over to Polly, herm message was still engraved on the desk and it had just encouraged him to play more, but of course not in front of the whole class.

Felicity stared into the book hopelessly, for once she genuinely didn't understand what was going on, divination could be so contradictory for time to time, and the fact she had no interest in it whatsoever wasn't helping, she looked to Polly first but she seemed a little preoccupied, daydreaming maybe, either way she was staring ahead and felicity wasn't going to disturb her, this did give her the ideal opportunity to talk to Finn however, everyone knew that he was perhaps the best at divination in the school or at least the lower years. She looked behind at him, but had to flick a piece of paper to grab his attention, "Come over here. Fine." Felicity stood up, doing very well at not insulting him once the entire time speaking to Finn, in fact she was very nice, leaning over him, pointing into the book. "Well you're the only one who get's this and I was just wondering if you could explain this one thing to me." She leaned further onto the desk and smiled, it seemed to be working alright, considering the last lesson she had wound Finn to the point of drawing his wand. She didn't listen to his explanation but afterwards nodded and smiled "Yeah everyone's right, you are really good at this." Then sitting back at her desk she waited for the lesson to end. The part shade lad wasn't sat too far away, at first she thought he was looking at her, but after a moment it became obvious that he had his eyes on the elf, she wondered for a moment why he hadn't just sat with her but then reminded herself that she really didn't care and watched professor sparrow instead.

At the end of the lesson Felicity looked behind her and smiled to Finn as she left, not really saying much more to him, she had practical astrology with him later that evening and would continue there, but for now she was going outside to practice charms She had the first lesson of it in a while and wanted to make sure she has been keeping it up to standard, she was far better at defense than attack but she still wanted to ace her lessons, sat outside in a courtyard and pulled her her jumper back on; being away from Polly and the Autumn air being notoriously cold. Opening her charms book Felicity held her wand carefully and concentrated on a particular charm, the control and manipulation of light, but not too soon after starting was interrupted by the sound of chatter, she looked a little irritated, specifically using one of the more run down parts of the school to get away from people, looking up she saw a blonde girl on Ludovic's arm walking across. Her stare bore into the back on their heads, but she quickly looked back at her book; her face illuminated by her wand as the evening set in, soon it would be dinner then Astronomy.

Jacob smiled to Agni as he left the divination class room, he had wanted to sit on the same row as her but with Polly and the girl from Somery sat there he didn't want to intrude, he was beginning to feel that Polly didn't like him, but that didn't really rank as a concern at the moment, he had a charms assessment next and was practicing to himself as he walked, in the halls he walked past Finley and took a deep breathe, he was going to try and be civil for Agni's sake but he just didn't like him at all, there was nothing to like. He left his charms lesson pretty smug for just passing, high-fiving a few of his friends as they ate dinner, but of course his attention was mainly on Agni; Jacob waited this time to finish his food before walking down to Agni, this time sitting besides her. "You have practical next, with Laurendale right? Well I'm helping out with setting up the telescopes before hand, don't suppose you could come and help me? Some parts are fiddly and if I get it wrong she will kill me." He laughed whilst looking very serious.

Felicity didn't bother with dinner that evening, not wanting to have to watch the elites at the end of the table laughing and ridiculing "You're gonna have to get over that y'know..." She moaned to herself going up to the astronomy tower when the chime had rung. A few strays filed in behind her, complaining about how many stairs there were, she was glad of her constant exercise then. There were telescopes set up all around the room facing outwards to the clear night time sky, tonight was the first real practical lesson. "Students if you please, stand by your telescopes and get ready to focus, Miss Moran you may take the telescope between Mr. Mcdognhue and Mr. Whitehall, now hurry, you two over there now, Miss Lovrety you may stand next to Mr. Livington" Perry was having one hell of a time so far, his lessons weren't too taxing yet, he had no desire to join any team or activity which meant endless socialisng, stood by his family friend Larissa he chatted to those around him about his travels. "Chaa, you know what I mean? And there we were stood over the canyon and well, wouldn't you know it? The servant fell right in, gone in a flash, pity really." The group laughing. "Come now, you are here to note the night sky, you will be tested on this tomorrow!" The room went silent again, Felicity looked around before leaning over to Finn and whispering "I don't know if I should tell you this, but there's a small party going on up here soon, thought you might like to go? Don't tell anyone..." She smiled and looked back into her telescope at the night sky.

Agni nodded at Jacob’s reaction, taking it to be true, she smiled as he walked up towards his room however, hoping desperately that the plant would help him sleep a little more, he looked so tired all the time, his eyes were dark and troubled, she didn’t like it. After clipping a few more plants, she sank down into her usual armchair. She pulled out a book, it was old and tattered, the tanned pages were dog-eared and the deep burgundy cover was fading. It was her mother’s; the writing was unlike any other, with strange symbols and runes. It was elf language, old and strange, but of course it came naturally to her, as did French, English however, was a different story. Reading through her favorite stories, a shadow moved over, blocking her light ‘I didn’t know you could read Elf.’ She sighed, closing her book and placing it on the floor before standing up to face Clarisse ‘Bon Nuit Clarisse, Ca’va?’ the larger girl frowned, ‘don’t you ever shut up? You’re not in France now little piggy.’ The common room chatter lowered to a dull murmur as everyone began to listen in. ‘You make me sick. Coming over here, thinking that you can just come into this place with your disgusting, filthy blood.’ HEY! Leave her alone will you?’ the room’s attention turned towards the door, where an angry looking Polly was stood. ‘Calm down Polly, it is okay.’ Agni sounded a little different, as if she was trying to control her tone of voice; she was shaking a little too, as if terrified. ‘Oh, getting your little friend to fight your battles for you huh? We should’ve killed all your kind when we had the chance.’ Suddenly, Agatcher couldn’t keep it in any longer, a loud crack sounded across the now silent room, she had slapped her right across the face, and as the girl turned back, her hand raised in anger, she was met with three wands in her face. ‘You will leave me alone, because I am not wanting to take any more of this… this…’ ‘abuse. ‘ thank you abuse, from you anymore. You are unintelligent and a bully.’ The second year girl looked livid, but essentially defeated. ‘Come on Ares, pack it in.’ the voice came from the suddenly more attractive Griffin, jumping in at the sign of Polly. Clarisse backed away grumbling, walking up the stairs to go to her private room and inevitably speak to her daddy.

As chatter slowly resumed, the three of them got to know each other a little better, however not before Polly made sure everything was absolutely fine. ‘Woah girl! That was great! I didn’t know you had a backbone!’ Agni giggled a little, in awe herself ‘neither did I… oh gosh, now they are all going to come at me ten times worse! I really do not care! Hah!’ she was laughing like a crazy woman, it was at that point, Polly noticed the lingering presence. ‘Oh hay there cutie… do I know you?’ he seemed to turn a bright pink, totally endearing for somebody of his stature. ‘N…not yet, but soon I hope.’ Polly smiled, seemed for once, flattered ‘Awh, ain’t you a sweetheart!? What’re your name hunni?’ Agni got in there before he started stuttering. ‘This is Griffin, Sam Griffin, one of Jacob’s friends, I promised I’d introduce him to you.’ Polly grinned, ‘Oh you did huh? Well I’m glad you did.’
The common room eventually being filtered out, Agni curled up in front of the fire, exited to see Jacob in the morning.
Cael went out after dinner, leaving Perry with Finn and the walking in the grounds with Larissa arm in arm. ‘So, have you missed me Darling?’ he didn’t reply, it didn’t seem to phase her however, she just continued talking ‘You look different since we last met, no doubt more handsome.’ His face twitched, a hint of a smile ‘no doubt’ ‘and of course more intelligent’ ‘of course’ she sighed, the tension between them straining her patience ‘but your demeanor hasn’t changed, still as frosty, still so… up tight.’ He looked down to her; she was quite a lot shorter than him. ‘Up tight? Mm.’ he paused ‘Do you know where my room is?’ she smiled, a slick, enigmatic smile ‘Of course.’ He unlaced his arm from hers, putting his hand back in his pocket, and walking away ‘Be there.’ He didn’t even so much as glance back.

Lying in bed, Polly looked down at Jimmy’s empty box and sighed, she was hungry and lonely, getting bored, she got up to go to the mirror, looking at herself, she sighed, picking up a pair of razor sharp hair-dressing scissors and holding them up in the light.

Morning came, and there was a flurry of chat in the common room. Agni was already awake, munching on some Hungarian lettuce leaves that she grew a few nights before. ‘Have you seen it?’ ‘Yeah, I can’t believe she just chopped it all off’ ‘I know, not even done by a stylist’ ‘it looks so good’ ‘I hate her’ ‘would it look good on me?’ Agni generally ignored the murmurings, getting herself down to breakfast dressed in an androgynous crisp white shirt and black pressed trousers, her hair was iron straight, this outfit was approved by Polly before being chosen, apparently, it made her look ‘edgy’ or something. However she sneaked on an old pair of Chucks and her knitted Thrisdin scarf before making her way to the great hall, once inside, she could see what everybody was talking about. ‘Oh my Goodness… where has your hair gone?!’ Polly waved her hand absent mindedly to her friend’s comment, instead enjoying a bloodied slab of unrecognizable meat. ‘It’s… It’s all gone…’ Polly then laughed at the elf’s stunned and somewhat distraught reaction ‘Nah, there’s still some there see?’ she ruffled the cropped pixie cut she had given herself. It looked good; in fact it looked damn good, it was just a shock for everyone. After eating from fresh fruits for breakfast, Agni said goodbye to her friend and made her way, a little late, to Herbology. Once there she was utterly surprised to see Jacob there too. ‘Uh, my Gosh, Jacob, you are early…’ “Thank you, for the plant, it kind of helped me out a little.” his eager thank you’s seemed genuine, and there was no awkwardness around them anymore, at this, Agni smiled a little, her eyes lowering to the floor as she blushed bright pink ‘Oh. Oh is nothing, I am just happy that it helped a little.’ His eyes were dark as usual, but they seemed a little brighter today. “Where… and how did you sleep?” she giggled a little ‘Ah I slept in front of the fire in the common room, my sleep was alright, although one of the coals did jump out a little…’ she unbuttoned her cuff and rolled up her sleeve to reveal a sore looking burn. ‘No, it is alright, If I continue to work I will soon forget.’ The lesson seemed to go quickly, when it finished she agreed to meet him in divination, one lesson a fortnight was compulsory seeming as she wasn’t taking the long course. Being the daughter of an elven priestess, she didn’t believe in divination, the power of astronomy and nature always seemed more powerful.

Finn sat at breakfast with Perry, chatting about the good old times. Perry didn’t know anything about Finley’s half-blood origins, if he did, or in fact any other friends of Whitehall knew, they would probably dismiss him immediately. The toll sounded for the first lesson, and they were all left wondering where Larissa and Cael were.

The day outside was clear but frosty, Cael was perched on the cold stone windowsill of his private castle room, crouched down on the balls of his feet wearing only a grey pair of loose boxer shorts. The window was open, flooding the room with freezing air, but he was happy leaving it open, enjoying the nicotine of a straight, breathing in the toxins slowly, holding them there for a brief moment before letting them go, the smoke leaving through the open window. ‘Don’t you know that is terribly bad for you?’ he let out another breath of cigarette smoke, ‘Oh, you’re awake.’ With a flourish of blonde hair, the beautiful young woman rolled over, putting the white sheets up around her naturally tanned skin ‘Mmmm… you really are just the same Ludovic.’ He hopped down from the ledge, stubbing the end of the glowing cigarette into the stone. He opened a closet to pull out some clothes, dressing quickly ‘Put some clothes on.’ He grunted, straightening his tie and leaving the room for his first class.
Divination began and Polly sat with Felicity, Agni sat in the corner with another first year who was also doing compulsory divination. “Do you actually get a kick form all of them staring, really?” Polly laughed ‘Girl, don’t hate be cus’ you ‘Aint me.’ She looked down at Felicity’s borrowed clothing. ‘You know what, that get up isn’t showing you up right. I mean, if you had spider legs like me then maybe you could pull it off… I’ll get you something else.’ The lesson started, Polly hardly looked at James, making a mental note of what she was going to do to him later on. Felicity however seemed distracted.

Finley sat a row behind the Ephemera girl this time, not wanting her wrath released on him while he eyed her up. He was reading through his text book however when there came a scrunched up piece of paper flying onto his desk. He looked up to the desk in front, surprised to see the Irish girl turned around, mouthing for him to go help him. He shook his head however, motioning for her to come to him, she did, standing up in the sort skirt making her athletic body look a little too sexy, not that he was complaining. "Well you're the only one who gets this and I was just wondering if you could explain this one thing to me." she pointed at a passage in the text book, he noticed it a bit later after looking her up and down for a while. ‘Ah, it’s referring to the history of the Romaine people and how they interpreted the dreams of the Deformis. What you have to do later on is grab your partner and have a go at interpreting an obscure example, these here…’ he sounded bored, explaining this stuff was like teaching the two times table to adults for him, easy and laborious ‘are relative to these here.’ She was smiling, latching on to everything he was saying, he found it a little odd seeming as she seemed to hate his guts only a day before, but went along with it while it lasted. "Yeah everyone's right, you are really good at this."

Agni stared at the book, struggling to understand some of the big words, let alone the theory. She found the teachings utterly pointless and was really starting to panic. The first year sat next to her had left early for some reason or another, so now, she was just sat despairing on her own, head on the desk. At the end of the lesson, she couldn’t wait to leave, near enough running out of the room, she was followed by Finley however who was going to help her with potions revision in their frees again next. They agreed where to meet and then went their separate ways.
Out in the grounds, Cael and Larissa were walking arm in arm, having two free lessons in the morning together, they decided after a while to go and visit the stables, they used to ride together in the forests out by her home in Devon. Walking across the grounds, her chirping in his ear, he glanced over to the side of the lake, he spotted somebody that made him smile, it was a cruel smile, but still the most emotion he had shown all day.
Dinner came along pretty quickly for Polly, she had been doing some research in the library between lessons and was concocting an elaborate plan. She came into dinner late, all eyes on her as she entered the room and the thick smell of envy in the air. She spotted Elladora and his friends sat on the Thrisdin table and walked past them arrogantly, however a small voice stopped her in her tracks. ‘Y…your hair looks n…n…nice Miss Polly.’ She stopped walking to the sound of jeers and teasing from the lad’s friends. ‘Wayyy! you look real purdy haha! You’re such a loser Griffin!’ ‘Yeah Grif, come on, she’s way outta your league!’ she walked over to them, clearing her throat and surprising a few of them, ‘Excuse me boys, may I sit here?’ that seemed to shut up, they shuffled up a little, leaving some room next to the blonde for her. A plate appeared in front of her, but she was more interested in the lad ‘Hay sugar, you’re the guy from last night? Sammy right?’ he scratched the back of his neck, obviously nervous around her ‘Sam yeah…’ His friends were stunned at his stroke of luck. ‘Well, Sammy, ever been out with an American before?’

Agni watched Polly with Jacob and his friends for a moment, smiling at her confidence, only wishing that she could have an ounce of that. She then turned away to eat her leafy dinner. She was infatuated with a stick of celery when a voice made her jump out of her skin. "You have practical next, with Laurendale right?” ‘Zut Alors! Jake! Yes, I do have…’ “Well I'm helping out with setting up the telescopes beforehand, don't suppose you could come and help me? Some parts are fiddly and if I get it wrong she will kill me." she smiled ‘Yes… I mean Yes! I will help… shall we go?’ she nodded and stood up over the bench. She had changed after the study session with Finley from the trousers to a pair of black leggings, the crisp white shirt now un-tucked and layered with a chunky knitted cardigan. She climbed the stairs with him, not a lot of conversation until they reached the tower. Agatcher caught her breath with the beauty of her surroundings; the tower was built in an octagon shape, with thin pillars holding up the glass roof, the alcoves made by the pillars, the night sky was clear and the stars were bright and shining. She hadn’t seen the stars in so long, and had a longing to see them. As an elf, she was drawn to the stars with some magnetic like pulse that was borne deep within her. She stood there for a moment, her breath visible in the chill of the night. ‘It is beautiful…’ she whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek. At the sound of Jacob’s voice however, she wiped the sparkling silver tear from her face and turned to him with a smile. ‘Would you like me to get it? Those screws are small…’ she took the tiny copper screws from him and started assembling the telescope on the other side of the small alcove. She laughed at his question ‘How can I do it? They are not that small!’ she stood up to look at him, coming around to his side of the alcove to show him the miniscule parts. ‘Maybe it is just because you are so big… yes you are! Look, look at your hands… well compared to mine… see?’ they were pushed up together in the tiny space, she held up her hand to him, when his skin touched hers, the room suddenly felt a whole lot quieter, she became aware of how close she was to him, feeling his breath on her cheek. She had left her glasses on the other side of the room and now her large amber eyes sparkled in the night, looking up at him, catching her breath with how close he was. Her heart wracked against her chest, as they stood together under the stars.

Jacob didn’t have astrology, it was only a first year compulsory subject; after that you could choose and seeing as he passed it last summer he didn’t want to listen to Laurendale repeat the same stories of the stars, how the demorfis gave each constellation it’s name and so on; he could remember almost all of the winter constellations and their stories. He looked down at his hand as he left the tower; her hand was very small, he could still feel it, as if they were still pressed together. Jacob closed his eyes briefly, he wasn’t feeling too well it were as if he was a little nervous, but he couldn’t place it on anything; when he thought about Agni he felt this almost unease, he didn’t understand the feeling. But his puzzled thoughts were interrupted by one of his teammates, Sam Griffin. “Hey! Mate!” Jacob looked over to him with a grin, walking into each other and slapping the other hard on the back. “ Up for a little Escorial tomorrow, a couple of the guys were thinking of an inter team match; you know, to keep us all on our toes?” Jacob nodded as they walked towards the common room “Yeah, sounds like a laugh to me, I haven’t got any spare time until after lunch though, is that alright?” He looked over to his teammate “Well, I’m meant to have animal care then Sam….uh… you know I’ll skip it, professor Fludwin is in the infirmary anyway, a nasty bite or something. Yeah, alright, two-ish on the Escorial pitch mate, get Simon and his lot in on this, I could do with a laugh…say, you and Polly yeah?” The conversation quickly became a little lewd but as the pair reached the private rooms Jacob changed his tone. “Me… and Agni? Oh, no.” “Sorry, looked like you two were quite into each other, night.” Haha, yeah, night man.” Jacob replied with a nervous laugh and closed it door. He hadn’t really thought of Agni that way; not that he couldn’t see her attractive side it was just there were thing about them that were extremely different. He wasn’t sure if Agni even knew what he was; Jacob looked like a normal enough wizard and if his eyes weren’t so dark and if he left his nails to grow sharp he could easily be mistaken for a full blood. But he wasn’t. He liked Agni a lot, but he was uneasy of getting any closer; unsure if he had gotten to close already.

I couldn’t be any later than six thirty and as Perry strutted though the private hall towards the common room he knocked on Finley and Ludovic’s doors chirping. “Come along gentlemen! I don’t want to get lost again like I did last night after Astrology. How was I supposed to know that was an all girl dorm!?” He shuddered whilst reflecting aloud. Perry waited for five minutes before dragging the pair down to breakfast, he was a little startled to see how noisy the grand hall was; being used to his private breakfast room, his sparkly mood was dampened. He sat besides Ludovic and leant into the table "This is worse than the stewards quarters...you'd think that they would have enough food in their mouth to keep it shut." his snarky comments were interrupted by the eating of his mildly seasoned French toast. He looked around the hall to see people falling asleep in their cereals, but at least they were eating something that resembled breakfast, he looked to his friend Finn half in shock and half in delight. “How can you eat that much?” He laughed “You’ve just only got up!” He sat and listened to his friends exchanging anecdotes of the term he had missed, it was almost like a catch up session for him to suss out who was who. But then as he talked to Larissa he heard the mumbling of Finn to Ludovic and with his keen gossiping ear Perry gasped “A party? Oh I do enjoy parties!” And with that, half of the elitist group had invited themselves to the tower on Saturday night. “Oh Finn, be a chap and show me to the potions room? I can’t help but get lost when I stop to look at the awful décor in this place…” There were several “Cha!”’s in agreement as the clock gave call for first lesson.

Jacob had sat with his friends discussing the practise match later in the day when Polly walked past stopping their conversation and having all of the group gawp, it was partly at Polly and how everyday she seemed to get better looking but they also gawped at Sam for being able to grab a girl like that. After she had sat down they guys jeered and hit Sam on the back, who rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin; Jacob was adamant that Sam thought he was dreaming. Jacob was in a consider ably good mood that morning, having been able to get nearly a full night’s sleep he had energy and was able to scoff his breakfast down and catch Agni as she was leaving the grand hall. “Hey.” He wasn’t sure if she had been watching them jeer at Sam and Polly, “Polly is alright, not really my type but even less Sam’s.” He chuckled a little to himself, “But I have to say, don’t think I’m creepy or anything.” He looked at Agni with a smile. “You are looking really uh, pretty.” Not the best at compliments he opened the potions room door where Professor Laurendale was already making something, paying no attention to the pair walking in. “No, I mean it” Jacob couldn’t help but smile, insisting to take the cauldron next to her. “What? Now you’re avoiding me are you? You haven’t sat next to me in potions since the third lesson, don’t make me sit next to Max, he really does sabotage your potion.” The room filled and Jacob heard Finn come I, he didn’t turn around but smirked a little as he opened up his books to the pages on the board.

“Oh shit!” Felicity cursed, falling out of bed in a panic, she knew It was far later than what it should have been. Picking herself up out of the crumpled pile of sheets on the door floor she ran straight into the dorm bathroom pulling off her shirt at the same time. Felicity was heading straight to the showers and thought that she could just make it to potions when she collided with a shower rail and everything went hazy and then black.

Potions seemed to be taking longer than normal for Professor Laurendale; hardly being able to keep her eye off of her watch she was beginning to grow tired of having to explain simple directions. “No, you don’t cut it like that Donneric, you go diagonally or you will lose half of the liquid on the knife!” She sounded stern but not intimidating. “Class, please be careful with the ryhn extract, it can be rather volatile when mixed improperly…Oh Donneric!” The class giggled as the first year’s cauldron went up in smoke, alongside the majority of his tie and collar. Jacob looked up and then over to Agni, “How are you doing?” Jacob himself nearly done. “What are you doing in your study lessons before lunch? Oh… well I was just wondering, no Sam and I were going to sort some stuff out, don’t worry.” He lied, a little aggravated, but he kept quiet, finishing his potion. Donneric was being ushered out the room with sympathetic comments when Lucinda turned back to face her class, noticing Felicity was missing but not making an issue of it, assuming she had some reason. “Well done to those who finished their tinctures on time, I will remind you that there is a written assessment on Friday morning so I suggest you learn these procedures before then; just a hint.”

“James.” Lucinda said after the divination teacher walking through the hallway after lunch. “James have you seen a first year, Felicity? Firery Irish, darkish hair?” James shook his head. “She was meant to see me for a rescheduled assessment but never turned up.” The pair began to walk to the Somery common room where only a few Somery students were sat about, they walked straight into the female dorm wing, checking a few dorms before finding her on the floor. “Good heavens.” Lucinda knelt down and could see she was still breathing. James raised an eyebrow “What happened here?” But Felicity hadn’t reached full consciousness. “What? No, I told the….leprechaun specifically not to put the seed in… why three pence a bunch fine sir…” Her eyes fully dilated and not focussing. James picked up the half dressed first year and carried her through the school towards the infirmary whilst Lucinda went to get to the bottom of what happened, going from first year classes of the girls who were in the dorm. Her hands a little stained with Felicity’s blood Lucinda spoke quietly to a few professors but other than wishing the student they hardly knew well there wasn’t much information. “Oh hello professor, I appologies Mr. Whitehall, is it possible that I may have a word for a moment with your professor?” Lucinda turned to face the rather exasperated man. “Ah Herbert, I just needed to let you know about an incident that had been made apparent to me this morning. See, Professor Sparrow and I found a first year girl unconscious and possibly stupefied in the dorm showers with a few rather serious head injuries, you see we only found her a while ago and aren’t sure how long she he had been there. You taught second year charms this morning, I was wondering if any of the Somery girls had mentioned anything? No? Well do let me know.” Lucinda left without saying goodbye, now late for her defence class.

Jacob saw James carry the Moran girl past and couldn’t help but snigger, he had heard so many rumours in his first year about Professor Sparrow and under aged witches he could only imagine if some people saw this. Sadly that was the only thing to brighten his free lesson. Sat in the Thrisdin Common room Mark, Alex and himself were surrounded by a few girls from the first and second years asking questions about Knest and Escorial which they were only too happy to oblige with but Jacob couldn’t help but think about Agni and how she was probably giggling with Finn about potions whilst he continued to sleaze. But next was Animal care which he wasn’t going to do.

James too was a little late for a lesson he was covering. The students were aware that the lesson wasn’t going to be practical so assumed it was going to be a relaxed lesson but as he entered it seemed the room was in a bit of a stir. “Right come on now, sit sit.” James clapped his hands loudly. “Page 394 if you please, today you have been assigned to look at the darker side of the lore in preparation for practical work on your professor’s return.” James sat behind the desk with the same textbook himself and sighed. “Not everyone’s turned up, shame this looks quite interesting…” A ringletted redhead gasped at the news her friend whispered. “Sir! Is it true you found a student dead today! In the dorms!?” Jacob sighed. “No, just badly injured, now let’s keep on subject shall we? Look at this, werewolves. Now what on earth is your professor going to be showing you to do with werewolves.” Quick enough the students weren’t reading but fireing questions at James bout werewolves. “Have you ever seen one for real sir?!” “You bet I have.” “Weren’t you scared?” “A little.” “What happened!? Were you hurt?” “Come on, that story is for another day…” He looked at Polly from the corner of his eye, she didn’t look quite right. ”Hmm…How odd…” He thought, silence over taking the room again.

(OOC NOTE; Felicity will remain unconscious in the infirmary until late in the night. Up and walking by early morning, present at lunch and after lunch lessons. Won’t admit how she really wound up there, won’t bring it up at all when asked Get snappy.)

Finley seemed to skip up the stairs to astronomy, Perry being back lightened his spirits a little, they had always been tight friends since Cael introduced them at a party, he dreaded to think about what would happen if they ever found out he was a half-blood however. On the way up, he passed the Elladora boy, grinning a little maliciously. He loved playing games with his rivals, messing with their heads a little. It mucked up their performance on the field, and with his team, he would need all the help he could get. Plus, there was something he didn't like about him, he was creepy, and too straight edged for his liking. He thought about the practice his team had planned for the next day after lunch while Cael was away in animal care or something useless like that. Just as he reached the astronomy tower, he realized he was quite late, everybody was already being sorted into alcoves, he did what Laurendale told him quickly as to not draw atention to the fact that he was late. Being put next to Moran, he grinned a little. 'Felicity aint it?' he whispered, leaning into her. She nodded "I don't know if I should tell you this, but there's a small party going on up here soon, thought you might like to go? Don't tell anyone..." he smiled 'Princess, would I do that? You're looking...' he looked her up and down before getting smacked over the back of the head by Professor Laurendale 'Alright! I can'ne see anything! This is'nae workin! I'll be workin with Moran now... Professor! I can'nae stand back while this wee lass is havin a hard time!' with the agreement from the older woman, he walked around to Felicity's alcove, 'Och! you're pointing it in the wrong direction Princess... let me help you there...' He put an arm on either side of her, reaching down to the telescope, his body pressed up against her, he looked through, repositioning it toward the stars they were supposed to be studying. His face pressed against hers, he grinned 'there you go Princess, you can'nae miss it now.' He dropped his hands to her waist as she bent over to look through the telescope, feeling like an absolute god.
Cael looked over to his side where Felicity and Finn were getting close. He could only see glimpses of them through the wooden shutters, but what he could see, he didn't like. He could hardly concentrate on the stars, his grip tightening with every Scottish utterance. It seemed that suddenly, the lesson was over, Cael took a meticulous amount of interest into putting away all the tiny pieces of the equipment until he was the only person left in the room, or so he thought. 'Hay baby, what's got your feather's ruffled?' he ignored Larissa as her silken voice called to him, instead carrying on with his packing and polishing and tidying away. 'Come on Darling... I know you, I know when you're angry, tell me?...' he closed the box and stood up, still facing away from her. 'You can tell me anyth...' just as she was about to curl her arms around him, he turned pushing her away from him, she fell to the floor, her head smacking against a stone column with an echoed crack. 'Don't you get it?! What is wrong with you? I don't want...' he looked at her, his voice dropping to silence as he saw what he'd done. She was terrified, looking up at him in fear as she clasped the back of her head in pain. His face softened, seeing the tears rolling down her face. 'Lara... I'm so sorry... shhh... shhh...' he cradled her in his arms as she sobbed, kissing her head and feeling totally remorseful. He stoked her hair, luckily the bash to her head didn't break the skin, she was bruised but not bleeding. 'Shhh... shhh Lara... it's okay, i'm sorry, Cael's sorry, shhh... come on now, it's alright, Cael didn't mean it... Lara's okay, Cael's sorry, shhh...' he kissed her head again as her crying stemmed to a stop. 'Come on now, let's get you to bed...'

It was about six in the morning when Perry knocked on his door, he hadn't slept a wink that night after he put Larissa to bed. Getting up out of the lavish four poster, he stretched, washed his hands and face in the small stone basin under one of the windows, and then dressed, still being faster than Finn. 'Morning.' he grunted, his eyes squinted to look at Perry through the light. 'Why are you always so chirpy? Its Thursday Morning... no human should be this awake.' at that moment, Finn's door burst open 'Morning Lads! Cael! You look like you hardly got a peedie sleep last night! Poor bloke. As for me? Damn my hand and I had some fun over that wee lass Felicity last night if you nae'get wat'ay'meen!' he laughed brashly, elbowing Cael in the ribs. He wasn't as amused as Finn and Perry however. 'It was only a joke man! Aye... the crack in this room is bristling this morning!' The three walked to breakfast together, Cael distinctly quieter than usual. Sitting down at the table, Ludovic was relieved to see that Larissa was already there, laughing with Pippa Hornberry. She looked up to him and waved, a smile on her face. He waved back, crossing over to sit with her. When the group sat, Larissa and Cael on one side, Finley and Perry on the other, Finn commenced to eat as much as he could as quickly as humanly possible. They all listened to Perry's amusing anecdotes, Ludovic however more interested in his wholemeal toast and jam. ''How can you eat that much?'' Finn turned his head, his mouth full with half masticated pork. 'I haven’t eaten anything yet today! I'm starving!' “You’ve just only got up!” Finn shrugged, continuing to eat his breakfast. 'Where's Moran?' Ludovic muttered, upon hearing the quiet question, Finn exclaimed 'Oh that reminds me! The lass asked me to a party...' “A party? Oh I do enjoy parties!” with a look of exasperation on Cael's face, and confusion on Finn's, the whole table had instantly invited themselves. 'Shite...' the Scot muttered 'I promised I wouldn't say anything...' Cael was getting increasingly fidgety, his eyes glancing up to the Thrisdin table and back to his barely eaten breakfast. Finally, he stood. 'Excuse me gentlemen I've... forgotten something...' fists clenched, he turned to leave 'Where are you going Darling?' the soft voice of his companion uttered from behind. He turned with a forced smile 'just back up to the common room Larissa. No need for you to worry.' She eyed him suspiciously before smiling. 'Well, hurry up, its potions soon... although... I won’t be in the same class as you will I?' Larissa was a dab hand at potions, she had been the best in prep and now was heading toward being the best in Astoneara. Cael swiftly left the dining hall, heading towards the female dorms in the Somery common room, he wasn't about to be messed up by an Irish, middleclass witch who didn't even turn up for breakfast. He wanted to know exactly where she was and why.

The next morning during breakfast, Polly decided to sit with Sammy again, he was sweet, a real cutie, but not really anything serious, more of a play thing for her. Her hair was longer that day, more soft, curls reaching to just about the bottom on her ears. She engaged in conversation with her man as soon as the boys stopped congratulating him. 'How are you baby?' he swallowed a little, clearly still terrified. 'Uh... fine fine...' she smiled broadly 'good... under the table, she had her hand placed quite high up on his thigh. 'So, Polly right?' her head turned sharply to look at the boy opposite who was speaking, her icy stare boring into him 'yes hun?' 'how come... i mean is this...' he waved his finger about, indicating her hair 'is it extensions or something?' 'No. They're wigs. I'm actually bald.' 'Really?' 'No! God you English are gullible.' 'Looks nice.' muttered Sam, apparently spontaneously growing a pair. 'Thank you baby, I know.' she kissed him roughly, before pulling away and taking a drink from her goblet like it was nothing. She looked over to Elladora, glaring him down for a moment before getting up 'well, very nice seeing you boys, but I'm very busy.' she turned again to Sam 'see you later hun.' She walked out, only briefly stopping to sat hi to Agni before leaving or the library, a place she wasn't all too familiar with.

Agni hadn't had a very good sleep that night, she was restless, and even fell off the chesterfield a couple times. To top it all off however, she crashed into a girl from Somery on the way to the hall, she was pretty angry, shouting at her stuff that didn't make sense like 'you didn't see me' and 'if you even tell one soul' along with various other threats. Agni's arm was bruised in the particular shape of a hand where the girl had grabbed her. She was wearing a white shirt under her blue and brown Thrisdin cloak, as well as an 'almost-to-the-knee' (Polly's words) Thrisdin colours tartan pleated skirt. Her hair was down for once, and all her silver piercings were in her ears, she also refused to wear contact lenses for when she was concentrating like Polly had told her to, instead putting on her large black rimmed glasses. Those with her white socks and blue converses made her look more like Agni than a Polly look-alike, but still having enough of Polly's influence for her to stand out. She sat down at breakfast in her usual place, too intimidated by Jacob's friends to sit with Polly. After eating nearly a whole bunch of white grapes, she started walking towards potions, at that moment, she turned to the sound of Jacob's voice. 'Oh hello.' she said quietly, not looking at him much seeming as he looked particularly good that morning. 'You guys have met my friend then?' she mused quietly, turning to walk with him. “Polly is alright, not really my type but even less Sam’s.” she grinned 'Yes, she is going to eat him alive. He's too nice for her. You are more his type then?' she teased “But I have to say, don’t think I’m creepy or anything.” she smiled, still looking at the floor as she felt his eyes on her. “You are looking really uh, pretty.” she nearly fell over with shock 'Hah! Tu pleasants!? No, you really are good with the joking Monseiur! Pretty... haha...' she walked through the heavy potions door he was holding for her, still a sad giggle in her throat. She sat down, putting her heavy fabric satchel on the floor and sitting in her seat. He leaned over however, hands on the desk, she couldn't avoid looking up at him now, his dark eyes holding hers for only a second “No, I mean it” it was a good job she was sitting down, she made an odd little squeak, her face turning the colour of flamingos before she quickly looked away, trying to stay conscious. 'Um I... I'll m...m...move' he pulled her down “What? Now you’re avoiding me are you?" 'No no I...!' "You haven’t sat next to me in potions since the third lesson," 'But!' "don’t make me sit next to Max, he really does sabotage your potion.” she sighed, 'D'accord... but if my potion goes wrong, I will blame you.' she kept her head in her books as Finn walked in.

Polly was rifling through the alchemy section in the library, getting particularly frustrated with the Dewey decimal system when she heard a clattering of books a few rows down. She naturally went to investigate, being the inquisitive(nosey) sort, she soon found a girl bent over trying to pick up a fallen sack of books. Polly walked over to try and help her, but was soon shot down. 'Back off. I've got this.' Polly sniffed at the girl's snarl 'whoa there silver, only trying to help!' 'Yes well, I don't need your poxy help.' Polly laughed coldly, backing up as the girl stood. She must have been about her age. 'Bitch hankering for a fight?' the girl only confronted her further 'Darling. Do you even know whom you are talking to?' 'Would it make a difference if I did?' 'I am Larissa Elizabeth Greene, middle daughter of William Harold Greene and soon to be wife of Ludovic Von Whitehall!' she looked triumphant during the split second that Polly was shocked due to the outburst. That moment was brief however as Polly soon burst into uncontrollable laughter 'Aha! Hahahaha! You're Frat Boy's bitch? Pffffttt! Oh... Ohhahahahha!' Larissa looked less than impressed. 'Oh... HA! I... I’m so sorry your royal highness ma'am... I totally didn’t... I totally... AHAHAHAHA!' she was rolling around on the floor clutching her sides. Larissa sniffed, turning on her heels, her ponytail flicking behind her to walk away. Just at that moment however, the laughter stopped. 'Although, I guess you're lucky. He's a great kisser.' Larissa stopped in her tracks, 'WHAT DID YOU SAY!?' turning around, he wand drawn, she was met by Polly, her wand already held up against her neck. 'You listen to me, DARLING. You play with fire, you get burnt. And we don’t want your pretty little face melted now do we.' the other girl looked genuinely scared, and so she should have been, Polly was genuinely terrifying. 'Now, you're gonna help me with some potion making I need doing.' 'and why would I do that.' growled the blonde through gritted teeth. 'Well...' laughed Polly. 'I know how jealous us girls can get, especially when we suspect hubby's been playing around with other girls.' Loretta's eyes flashed with concern, but then froze over again. 'And? What's your point?' Polly still had her wand pressed up against the girl's throat 'My point is, Lady Marmaduke, that I can tell the difference between a simple stupefy spell, and, say, poison... I know you're a dab hand at potions Missy.' 'I... what? That's preposterous! I don't know what you're talking about! I had nothing to do with the Moran girl!' the rumour had spread around already that Felicity was in the medical room stupefied, nobody really cared though, not many people anyway. 'Of course you didn't Pinkie Pie! I believe you... many others wouldn't...' Larissa was horrified, pulling away from Polly's grasp, she was taller than her, and quite intimidating, and she hated being touched by other people. 'What do you want from me.' she growled. Polly smiled 'oh, nothing much... just this.' She held up a piece of paper that had been ripped out of a potions book. 'Wha... that potion is...' 'I know what it is. Can you do it for tomorrow morning?' 'Tomorrow morning!? Do you know how difficult this is, I mean... the yellowroot alone will take hours to...' Polly yawned 'look, doll, I didn't ask you how hard it's gonna be, I asked if you can do it.' there was a pause, the room was stifling as they held each other’s eye contact. Larissa looked away to the floor, and then slowly smiled. 'Yes, of course.'

Finn sat next to Cael in potions seeming as there were empty spaces. It was almost the end of the lesson, and Cael was trying hard not to bite trough his tongue, Finn had gabbed on about how he thought he was close to god-dom on the women front and how he was completely irresistible to even the Irish's cold front. He had just finished boasting about his rippling muscles when Ludovic snapped 'Shut up will you?! I don’t care about how good looking you are, or how many women want to sleep with you or whatever the heck Felicity bloody Moran said to you, just shut up!’ Finn looked at Ludovic coldly for a moment before grinning ‘Ah! Had me for a second there!’ he laughed, clapping him on the back ‘Just because you’re stuck with Larissa who has about as much sex drive as an inflatable doll. Hahaha.’ Cael exploded, standing and screwing up his potion notes. ‘Argh! IDIOT!’ he exclaimed, kicking over his stool before storming out. He had finished his potion anyway and was in no mood for putting up with Finn’s deformis ways. He walked out of the dungeons, (his potions class being 10 minutes close to finished anyway) and straight up to his scheduled defence class in one of the empty duelling rooms. He burst in, the professor a little startled ‘Ludovic… isn’t it a little early for?’ ‘I know. Keen is all.’ He ripped off his cloak and blazer and threw them on the bleachers, drawing his wand from the leather strap around his forearm. ‘One request, we’re doing attack today. I can’t stand…’ ‘Defence… you cannot stand Defence… precisely why we will be practicing it today ah ah ah! No, we are not going to argue about it, I am paid to tutor you not to pussyfoot around you Mr Von Whitewall!’ ‘Whitehall.’ ‘Whatever, come on! Let’s go! Unless you’re scared!’ before he could say a moment more, Cael blasted a particularly nasty attack spell at the Professor, who expertly dodged it out of the way. ‘Haha! Very nice Whitehall! But you’re on the defence today! HA!’

Cael was half way through his defence class, his shirt clinging to his body with sweat, when they were interrupted. “Oh hello professor, I apologize Mr. Whitehall, is it possible that I may have a word for a moment with your professor?” he waved his hand about in a nonchalant manner ‘do whatever… you want…’ he gasped, trying to get his breath back from the rigorous training. Cael went toward the bleachers to grab a small black towel from his bag. It had his first and last initials stitched on in golden thread, he wiped his face with it, he usually had no time for defense, in his opinion it was only invented so cowards wouldn’t have to fight, but seeming as it was compulsory, he thought it best to try and improve, just in case he found anybody who could possibly beat him in a duel. He was just pulling off his tie, loosening a few buttons when he heard something interesting. The Professor came back with a puzzled look on his face. ‘What was that?’ Cael asked, being genuinely inquisitive for once instead of not giving a damn. ‘A first year Somery girl was found unconscious this morning… Mr Whitehall where are you going?’ Ludovic grabbed his bad, knowing something was wrong ‘I… I think it may be one of my team members, she wasn’t at breakfast this moring.’ ‘We aren’t finished Mr Whitehall!’ shouted the older man in reply, making his way out the door, he called back ‘we are now!’ an overwhelming relief that he’d gotten out of defense masked by a sick to the stomach feeling of guilt.

Agni didn’t go to lunch; too busy going over the potions Finn had left her to practice. He was a brilliant tutor, but had no respect; she tried to sit a little away from him but ended up with him practically sat on her lap. It made her a little uncomfortable to be around him but if it’d help her understand potions, she’d grin and bear it. He left her just before lunch, something about getting the best seat, but it was nearing the end, she packed up her things, and headed towards the stables. Once she arrived there however, there was a bunch of students stood around the side. They all dissipated eventually, leaving her faced with a note nailed to the wood. It was written in scrawled handwriting which she couldn’t really make out, pulling out her wand, she tapped it twice and the note spoke ‘Due to unforeseen circumstances your practical lesson will be replaced with theory today in room 412. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.’ Agni smiled, room 412 looked out onto the practice field for knest, she’d heard from a girl who was talking to a girl who knew a guy who was brothers of one of the Thrisdin sport team members that they were training there after lunch. She liked watching Jacob play, especially when he played fair.
Agni entered the room of the cover theory lesson, groaning to realise that there were only single desks and that it was already very warm. This seemed to work to the advantage of some of the female members of the class as they took of as many items of clothing as possible for the benefit of the divination teacher who was covering. He had his feet on the desk and seemed to be suffering from the heat as much as she was. Polly however, was the only one still fully dressed. For once. She waved to her on the way in, she nodded back, but they were sat on either sides of the room. Agni wasn’t really listening until Professor Sparrow mentioned werewolves.
Polly wished she had never turned up to her magical creatures’ lesson that day, sitting in the third row, slightly to the right of James, she was finding it difficult to hide how uncomfortable she was. “Weren’t you scared?” she looked up to him, her ruby eyes boring into him, waiting for his response. “A little.” she looked away again, disappointed with how he replied. Disappointed for once with him, up til then, she had been impressed. ‘Pardon moi Monsieur, mais, why are we talking about these… these, werewolves and such… they are not creatures, they are people no?’ Polly couldn’t take it anymore, she didn’t want to hear his response, or any more chatter about werewolves, he hated them, they were perhaps the only thing in the world to scare her and she didn’t even like talking about them. She picked up all her books of her desk, scooped them into her arms and left, quite calmly, without attracting very much attention from the rest of the class. She decided to have another look for Jimmy, trying to put off the inevitable.

Agatcher watched her friend leave, wondering what got a bee in her bonnet before turning her attention out the window onto the field, she saw Jacob’s team standing there and smiled, however they were confronted by another team, Agni bit her nails a little, terrified as to the evnts that were about to unfold.

‘We booked this space, ye’can’nae just stroll oon and take it yer big headed…’ ‘Woah mate…’ one of Finley’s fully suited up team members dragged him back away from the Thrisdin captain to stop him from head-butting him. ‘Look mate, if you want this field then we’ll move onto the smaller one…’ ‘No! I can’noot believe! You spinless… This is why you don’t win nae’anything you lazy gits! And you! If you’nae back oof I’m’a batter youuh.’ He stood right up against him, his face pushed in his aggressively, they were about the same height but Finn was much broader. It was kicking off, Finn laughed in Jacobs face at his comment ‘oh yeah just because the elf’d rather spend more time w’me huh?’ he grinned leaning in closer to him ‘can’nae wait til she be screamin my name.’ As the whole Thrisdin team jumped on their captain to drag him away, the same happening on the Somery side ‘come on then! Touched a nerve eh shade boy!? Come on then! A match? SEE YOU ON THE FIELD SHADE! WE’LL DESTROY YOUH JUST LIKE IMMA DESTROY HER!’ no practice would be going on that day, the Somery team did a good job at dragging Finn away, but were now wishing they had just let them grapple instead of agreeing to a death match just days before the end of term.

Cael ran all the way to the medical room, slowing down only when he walked through the door, seeing her instantly. She was laid in bed like an invalid. Walking down the tiled floor towards her, he tapped his wand against his leg, a bunch of expensive looking flowers then appearing in his hand. He reached her bed and stood over her for a moment, his face stony as usual. His brow then furrowed as he placed the newly grown flowers into the empty vase on the bedside cabinet, afterward turning around to stand next to her. A twinge of a smile played on the corner of his lips as he looked at her, gently, he picked up his hand and brushed away a stray length of ebony hair from her face. It looked like a simple stupefy spell, but it must have been expertly cast and must have caught her off guard for her to be in such a state. Cael watched her for another hour or so, wondering when she was going to wake up, then sat down in the visitor’s chair. He fell asleep soon after, being there all day. He was stretched out, the heel of his right foot on the floor and his other leg crossed over it, his hair unusually ruffled and one arm crossed to the t=other which was propping up his head when he was jolted awake. Opening his eyes sleepily, he looked up to the bed, Felicity was awake and staring at him, his guard down after being just woken up, Cael smiled. It was a rare and dazzling occasion when Ludovic Von Whitehall smiled, but when he did, it could light up a room. Realizing where he was, he quickly frowned again, sitting up and resting his elbows on his knees, his fingers running through his hair. ‘Good. You’re awake…’ he looked at his watch ‘bloody hell… I missed magical creatures…’ he muttered, standing. ‘It’s late. Goodnight.’ He muttered, not waiting for her to say anything. He walked away from her bed, only stopping to turn and say simply ‘Get Well.’ Not get well soon or, hope you get well, just, get well. It was more of a demand than a well-wishing, but that’s just how Cael was.

“Right guys, let’s get this going!” The Thrisdin team cheered as they were split into two teams, Jacob’s with a blue band on their arm, Sam’s with a yellow band but with Jacob’s back turned to the other side of the pitch he could hear the scot from a while off and rolled his eyes. Admittedly he hadn’t booked the pitch but Sam said he had asked the other team whether they were practising so Jacob wasn’t going to go down quite so easily if Finn continued to shout in their faces. Turning around he said quite calmly. “Sorry what?” Other members of the team were trying to interject what was going on but it was soon made clear that Finn was only concerned with Jacob and Jacob was only concerned with Finn. Something inside in Jacob was starting to boil, he could feel it; almost like a physical heat. “Batter me, HAH.” The pair in each other’s faces the rest of the teams didn’t know what to do with themselves, a few looking out for professors, some edging the pair on and the rest just trying to keep the peace and keep the pair apart. Pressed up against Finn Jacob jeered maliciously “Come on you filthy scot, if you want to go, go.” ‘oh yeah just because the elf’d rather spend more time w’me huh?’ Jacob’s stomach began to drop, he wasn’t going to bring Agni into this, he wasn’t going to allow it “Shut it.” Jacob growled as he got closer, two feral dogs about to go for each other’s throats. ‘can’nae wait til she be screamin my name.’ Jacob snapped, his hands out to rip Finn’s throat. “You bastard!” He felt a sharp force pulling him back but with his teeth bare and eyes clouding, Jacob was going to fight against them with every ounce of his strength. “I’ll kill you! You filthy scot! Not only will I tear you limb from limb your team are going to get it. YEAH YOU HEARD ME DEATH MATCH, 17TH FILTHY SHIT I’LL DESTROY YOU!” The team dragged the pair away, Jacob still seething and ready to go at Finn, if it weren’t for a lot of his team being weight enthusiasts Jacob wouldn’t have been able to restrain himself, even back in the changing room he paced back and forth. “Jay, it was banter, trying to rile you up like that.” But he would hardly listen, “Come on Jake, seriously, you won’t be able to play at all if you’re all jacked up like this!” Jacob let out a long exasperated sigh and sat on one the benches, unlacing his shoes. “You’re right guys I know…” He took a deep breath in, knowing he should have acted better than that, knowing that all of this was going to get back to Agni anyway. Sam sat beside his friend and with a playful punch to the shoulder she grinned. “You know what you need, you need some alcohol. Something to settle the nerves or whatever. There’s a party on Saturday, can’t say where yet in case any of these lot here find out. You can some with me.” Jacob first refused but as Sam continued to convince Jacob that it was a good idea he agreed. “I’ll go.” “Nice none.” Jacob wasn’t so sure on the whole alcohol thing but was warming to having a laugh like had last year.

Professor Laurendale sat in the infirmary office over a cup of hot chai and asked the head nurse. “So, how bad is she?” The nurse shook her head. “She’ll be completely fine in a day or two. You say you found her in the showers?” “Yes.” “Well, by the look of it she was about to get in the shower and she was caught by surprise, its not so much the charm on her that is the problem, it’s the head injury that she sustained twice. We can’t tell if one is from the fall onto the tiled floor or if it was inflicted. But either way we are keeping her unconscious in order to heal the crack in the skull. We can’t use the more potent potion on first years.” Lucinda sighed. She wanted to think that the silly girl had just slipped on a wet tile and knocked herself unconscious, but like most things in Lucinda’s life, nothing was going to be that simple. “Well thank you Margret, you really do wonders. We’ll find out what went on her.” Margret didn’t really look as if she cared but still nodded a thank you.

Jacob sat at dinner looking over at the Somery table with very dull eyes, as if he was plotting how his next encounter with Finn was going to go. He was going to have to get Agni’s help too for this, after finishing his chicken pasta Jacob nodded to Mark who took his place. Jacob walked down to the end of the table where Agni was and not even sitting down whispered, “Can I speak to you in a minute, outside?” Jacob waited to finish and then walked Agni out onto the balcony they had been on the night of the ball and leant on the stone ledge. “I feel a little bad asking this.” He didn’t mention what happened earlier with Finn. “But you know that you gave me that plant for my sleeping?” Jacob hated to lie to Agni but he didn’t want to sound like a complete psychopath. “Is there any sort of plant that you know of that can help to calm, I don’t know, nerves or something like that? Just when we go for our Christmas holiday my Father insists that we go riding and well, I get spooked and so does the animal of choice…” He sounded like an idiot. “I didn’t want to go to anyone else, you understand me and stuff…” Leaning into his palms Jacob laughed. “I must sound like the biggest dork you know right about now.” Jacob turned to face Agni and once again they were closer than they had anticipated, for a moment Jacob leant in closer; it was an impulse, but when he looked down at Agni he turned away a little. “I’m Uh…” He couldn’t think of an excuse so changed the subject completely. “Speaking of plants though, what do you think of that talking one?” “Yeah whatever its name is, I just think he is a total pain, you saw what he did the other day.” Jacob smirked, being able to laugh about it a little now that he and Agni were speaking. “I hope you have a good Christmas holidays, what will you be doing with your father?” Jacob listened but stopped her mid- sentence, starting to feel rain. “Let’s go up to the common room.” Jacob sat in one of the corners by the fire underneath one of the plants that Agni must have placed in the common room. “Well, my family aren’t much for celebrating occasions like Christmas so we tend to go away somewhere and it changes from one year to the next. Like last year,” Jacob shuddered, “We went to Germany and well, I just spent the three weeks being force fed oddly coloured meats and my Father and Mother trying to compare my siblings to certain ‘prestigious’ leaders. Yeah I have siblings. A younger sister and brother, then there is my older brother…” Jacob’s tone of voice dropped a little. “It’s just the whole chasing his shadow scenario, he was the team captain all his school career, perfect grades and a perfect life I guess. “For a shade anyway. “ I don’t know if he will be joining us on our mystery holiday, who knows.” Jacob had the distinct feeling that he had been talking too much already. “So, do you have any siblings?” “Ah, okay.”

Felicity woke up with what felt like the most horrific headache she had ever felt. She went to close her eyes again, wanting to sleep but the sudden realisation that one moment she had wanted to have a shower and was now in a bed prompted her to sit up. Looking around it were a if she had been admitted to hospital. However, that didn’t shock her as much as seeing Ludovic sat beside her fast asleep. Her rustling of the covers must have woken him up. “Uh…” Felicity couldn’t really make out any words, being extremely confused. But before she could gather her thoughts he was gone. Felicity lay back down with a sigh, where on earth was she? It felt like hours before a nurse came up to her. “Oh you’ve woken up, Margret, she’s awake!” Felicity sat up and saw a little old lady shuffle over. “How are you feeling my dear? Well silly question.” “Where am I?” “Miss Moran you’re in the infirmary after being found unconscious in the showers of your dorm, you had been stupefied as well.” “What?” “Yes my dear, well you need your rest, a few professors need to speak to you in the morning.” Felicity flopped back under the covers, wondering what was going on.

Jacob sat with Agni for the majority of the night, it had to be at least be two in the morning before he realised the time and stood up, helping up Agni whilst doing so. “I’ll let you go to sleep now; I think we have divination in the morning.” He nodded sheepishly and turned to leave, but the impulse that he had fought off at dinner made him turn around. “Uh...good night.” Jacob kissed Agni on the cheek and went up the stairs quickly to his private room automatically kicking himself for doing it, but there was still a bit of him that felt great. Falling backwards onto his bed Jacob closed his eyes and didn’t bother to get changed, genuinely exhausted he didn’t use anymore or Agni’s plant and fell asleep pretty quickly, but he was soon to regret it. Jacob could see the Moran girl in front of him in what looked like a sauna and he tripped her up, but there was no remorse, pointing a wand at the back of her bleeding head he cast some sort of charm on her and left, leaving a bloody footprint. He woke up in a cold sweat, looking around the room; he began to panic if that was what happened. It had to be only five in the morning when Jacob had showered and was headed towards the library; he wanted to find out if that was possible for his kind, so see suppressed acts. There was no reason for him to have done it but there was that horrible feeling of doubt in the pit of his stomach. Jacob stayed in the library well into breakfast and had to run in order to cram a piece of toast in order to make it to divination in time. He saw Agni ahead of him but decided to keep his distance for a moment; he was tired and didn’t know how she had reacted the night before. Even in divination he sat in the row behind her, reading through his text book, surprisingly enough they were covering dream interpretations. He looked up to her every now and then but also kept an eye on Finn as well, his half asleep state helping him keep a calm mind.

James sat on the front of his desk and decided to give his class a little free roaming. “Well your general topic until the end of term will be dream interpretation when I will need a paper on an analysis of a dream, preferably your own. “ James looked at Polly slightly quizzically; she had acted so strangely to the subject of werewolves, the rest of the students were either repulsed at the idea or genuinely intrigued. But Polly, she upped and left, almost as if she wanted nothing to do with the subject. “So if you would be able to start recording a few of your dreams that would be excellent, we are very gifted, the Demorfi are only capable of up to 7 dreams a night and even then they are unable to remember the vast majority of information, we witches and wizards are able to dream and almost infinite amount of dreams, but only a few hold a message; that is what is being taught here, how to locate and get the most from your dreams today.” The girls giggled and smiled as James walked around the classroom, checking on the students notes.

Felicity was awoken by the buzz of the infirmary, new students stumbling in with broken wrists and paper cuts. The deputy head came around to see her and ask questions but Felicity couldn’t remember a thing, she just sat shaking her head. “I swear, if I knew who had done it I would say, but I can’t! Bloody ‘ell” A few hours later Maggie allowed Felicity to go and get dressed for Lunch and the rest of her lessons which for a change she had no objection to. Having the flowers that she had been given taken up to her room Felicity had a uneventful and much needed shower before getting dressed in what Polly must have left her the other day. A leatherish skirt and an almost see through shirt to go with it. Felicity made it her own however with her Somery over-robe and dark boots. Walking down to the hall she wasn’t surprised to see that no one acknowledged her recovery so as always she sat down to a chicken salad and cranberry juice, looking around. She heard one of the other first years, the one she had mocked the week before mutter ‘whoever did it obviously did a crappy.’ She could have been talking about her tacky extensions but Felicity took it to be her. Looking up the table she saw the entire elitist group and smiled at Finn, as she did Felicity flickered her glance over to Ludovic where her smile dropped and she looked back at her food. She didn’t understand why he had been with her last night; she didn’t like it and a part of her expected the worst.

Felicity had a free lesson before potions so decided to go and pay a visit to her divination professor, leaving the grand hall after lunch Felicity wanted to catch up with Polly. And let her know that she was still going to get what they needed for the party the next day. Felicity smirked, it didn’t matter where she was she was still able to find a way of accessing alcohol; she wasn’t a fan of drinking that much either, it was just the fun of smuggling. The halls were just getting a little busy when she turned off to the small corridor where professor sparrow’s room was and forcefully opened the door as if she was only there for business; but, her ego was quickly deflated at the sight of her friend stood over a very much paralysed professor. “Uh… Polly, I don’t mean t’ sound like a kill joy but aren’t men a little more cooperative conscious?” She quickly closed the door behind her pulling a chair over the handle to keep it closed. “Oh right, that’s fine then… but where is he going to go? I bet he had afternoon lessons.” “ No we can’t take him outside, everyone is still moving about… uh… how about back there?” Felicity pointed to a door at the back of the classroom, it was a larger storage cupboard, they would be able to drag him into until the effects of whatever Polly had done to him wore off. “What did you do anyway?” “Hmmm, creative.” Hauling the body of Professor sparrow into the cupboard but not locking the door Felicity looked back towards the front of the classroom, “I’m going to shoot off, Laurendale wants to see me before potions next.” Felicity was gone in a flash, Polly giving her the creeps. Dawdling into Potions a few minutes early Felicity sat nearer the back, but her potions master still saw her. “I’m alright now thank you professor. Just wish I could remember what happened y’know?”

Agni, of course, watched all the events on the field unfold with a disapproving eye, sighing as she watched Jacob being dragged away from Finley from the entire team. She couldn’t hear what was said, but would inevitably hear Sam’s side of the story when Polly and he went out for a walk with her after magical creatures was finished. She couldn’t help but worry about Jacob however, she’d never seen him act so angry, and she wondered what Finn had said to him to get him so riled. Agni turned to look at professor Sparrow; she’d heard other girls fantasies’ over him because of his apparent good looks (not that she cared much for them) she had also heard the rumors about him and underage girls, he just seemed too lackluster for her, like he didn’t really care about anything. ‘Professor,’ she said, standing above the noise of the babbling girls ‘These people, the ones you insist on calling creatures… how do they become this way?’ it was a good question, in her opinion, she wasn’t going to spend her time bored, she might as well get some education out of her stay. The day passed pretty quickly for Agni, before she knew it, she was sat at the dinner table eating her plate of whole vegetables seeming as she was especially hungry, she was just about to crunch into her last carrot when Jacob came over, whispering for her to come with him. She looked up to him, then looked to the carrot she held in her hand, shrugging and standing up, bringing the carrot with her. She walked outside with him, looking up at him with her sparkling amber eyes whilst surreptitiously chomping on her carrot. He seemed a little shifty and didn’t look at her much like he was hiding something, unfortunately, she knew him too well, and the fact that he didn’t mention the fight earlier wasn’t helping his case either. She listened to him nervously blubber on, still chewing her carrot, looking as gormless as ever. ‘I think I have the perfect plant, but you will have to crush and powder it yourself…’ she said her mouth still full with carrot. ‘I am the biggest dork I know, and you sound nothing like me with your silly accent.’ She giggled a little, her nose wrinkling. Jacob turned, although, he didn’t gage how close he was, ending up being very close. She had a mouth full of carrot and swallowed it as his eyes caught hers, they were so dark and mysterious, she wished she could just have a glimpse into his mind sometimes. He leaned into her a little, catching her off guard as she leaned back. It seemed to snap something in him as he took a step back from her, not even explaining himself “Speaking of plants though, what do you think of that talking one?” she smiled, regaining both breath and composure ‘Ghettous Latinate?’ “Yeah whatever its name is, I just think he is a total pain, you saw what he did the other day.” Agni smiled ‘it is a terrible gossip and so…hmm… I forget the word… it reminds me of me of the first year dryads.’ She frowned, only moved to laughing when he smirked. ‘With my father? I won’t be, he um, well let us just say he has this nasty habit of offering my services at work before asking me first, I shall be working at…’ he interrupted her however, speaking of rain although she felt none. They went their way up to the common room, people came and went but it felt like they had been there for just minutes. He was jabbering on about his family and what they did during Christmas, she smiled and nodded, truly fascinated with all that she was telling him, she was almost on the edge of her seat. When he asked about her family, she didn’t really have much to say. ‘No, no siblings.’ She excused herself for only a moment to get changed, coming back with a pair of leggings and an overly large white grubby tee-shirt. She had plaited her hair over her shoulder and came back to sit with him, her delicate feet bare. She sat next to him, listening him talking about his house and his family and the holiday’s he’d been on, she found it fascinating, getting to know him more, but when it came to talking about herself, she didn’t really know what to say ‘I live in the… how you say… de montagne eh… well, I live in the snow for half of the year, and then the other half I live in a small village with my father… my mother died just after I was born. Nothing really that interesting.’ She was glad that he changed the subject, not wanting to draw any more attention to herself. It must have been early in the morning when she began to yawn, a little while before she sunk into the chair and laid her head on her shoulder, her eyes clouding with tiredness, she had just finished her third yawn in a row when he stood. “I’ll let you go to sleep now; I think we have divination in the morning.” she nodded, stood up with him and smiled ‘Yes, we do have it first I think. I hope you sleep well Jacob.’ She mused with a yawn, touching his arm a little sympathetically. He turned to leave, but turned back again, like he’d forgotten something. “Uh...good night.” she smiled again, the night was a little cold but her skin generally didn’t register temperature, however her eyes opened wide as she felt his warm kiss on her cheek. She didn’t know what happened, she must have stood there, hand raised to her cheek lightly, for over half an hour before sinking into the brown chesterfield, the largest grin on her face.

Polly woke up in the morning after a pretty uneventful day, it was the party the night after, and she had to get the key to the astronomy tower from Professor Sparrow or else the whole thing would be a complete flop. She dressed in something mildly modest for once, a pair of skintight brown thick leggings, showing off pretty much every curve of her long legs. She teamed this with a translucent cream shirt and her Thrisdin tie tied in a bow loosely around her neck. She had unpicked it and made it so the silk was soft and malleable. Her hair was pinned back with an extraordinary amount of bobby pins, with tight pin curls and victory rolls. She knew how to show off her body, whilst still looking classy, she could dress like a slut without looking cheap. Today however, she looked a million dollars. Quite literally. Polly quickly packed all of her books into a small clutch bag, quite an accomplishment, however the bag had a charm on it, making it almost as big as a backpack. Making her way down to the common room, she thought about Jimmy, she hadn’t seen hide nor… well, skin of him since she arrived there She was worried about him, but couldn’t really do anything about it. He was a free roaming cat who went where he pleased. Walking down through the common room, it was pretty full of people bustling about, but she soon spotted Agni, walking over to the chesterfield and poking her in the arm. She was fully dressed, but fast asleep. ‘Hay girl… wake up…’ the elf woke with a start ‘Oh, excuse moi, Grindelia! Oh… Polly, it is you… I was just… coming…’ she said amid yawns, Polly smirked a little, about to say something smarmy when right on cue her man popped up. ‘Hay Beautiful, ready to get some breakfast. Oh hay Agni… man you look rough bro…’ Polly punched him in the arm ‘ow…’ ‘she’s not a bro, she’s a woman…’ ‘sorry bro… ow!’ ‘Right. Let’s go, breakfast… Aggs! Wake up girl! Sheesh! You stay up all night or something? Come on!’ Polly turned to stride out, her power walk next to legendary. She had gotten down the third staircase, Agni and Sam trailing behind when somebody bashed into her. ‘Hay! Watch it!’ she growled, her face softening when she saw Larissa look back with a grin on her face. Polly looked down to the small bottles in her hand and grinned. ‘Sammy kitten, come here…’ he ran to her like a lost puppy, grabbing onto her outstretched hand. Divination was going to be fun.

Finn found himself sitting with Perry in the morning again, only this time absolutely fuming. ‘I know! He was all leave me aloone! Yer scum bag I bet he dan’ae do it my arse, he went up there just after his wee breakfast, he’s jealous though ye cannae tell. He’s a stone, a stone!’ their conversation was cut short by the entrance of the power couple who sat down. ‘Morning boys.’ Larissa mused ‘Looking forward to the party tomorrow night? I am, it’ll be ruddy good to get some real drink around here.’ Finn was glaring at Cael who seemingly didn’t notice. ‘Shush Greene.’ He demanded, both of them sitting down simultaneously, like robots, at least Larissa had a little colour to her. ‘Yes Perry. I did hear about the Moran girl, terribly unfortunate.’ Ludovic muttered into his tea ‘dick.’ ‘Pardon Finn?’ Cael asked, looking up, a semi-grin on his face. Finn ignored him.

Polly walked hand in hand with Sammy to divination, making him sit with her, leaving Agni to sit on her own. Agni looked over to Polly and Sam, he was bright red, and looked like he was trying desperately hard to concentrate, but whatever she was saying to him clearly got him flustered. She sighed, looking to her book. She had dreams, but not many, being an elf her dreams were more abstract, more swirling colours and lights than hidden messages. Divination always had her struggling, just like potions, magical creatures, charms, defense, transformation, and anything else that required magic. She rested her head on the desk, being absolutely shattered, she didn’t sleep a wink the night before after Jacob left her, but now she was tired. He hadn’t spoken to her once that morning. Just as she was dropping off, she heard a voice. ‘Bonnie Agni! Having some trouble there?’ She looked up, dark circles under her eyes. ‘Hmm?’ Finn was calling across the classroom ‘I said are yooh having some trouble?’ she nodded sadly, her head almost hitting the desk with fatigue. ‘What page are you on?’ she looked to her text book ‘HaAnmaaR uhh… quarante-deux… uh… forty two, sorry…’ she shook her head, the tiredness confusing her. ‘It’s alright Princess! Yooh cann’ae help but ask! Turn over the page, you’re nae lookin at the elven translations.’ She looked down to her book. ‘Wizard dreams… hmm…’ she smiled at her idiocy ‘Merci Finley.’ He smiled ‘anything for you Princess.’

Polly put her hand up lazily once he mentioned dreams. ‘Sir, I don’t have dreams, no I don’t have any. Not one. Should I interpret Sammy’s instead?’ She looked James straight in the eye, her gaze unwavering, waiting for him to look away, she refused to break eye contact. The lesson ended, Sam seemed pretty happy with himself, Polly less so. He had to go to a second year charms lesson and Agni was going to herbology or something, she had an hour to kill before lunch, and she knew exactly what she was going to do.

Cael had been given the cold shoulder by Finn all morning, his closest friend was ignoring him for some reason. He had a study period first, which he used to do just that, however he couldn’t help but think about the Moran girl, he wanted to talk to her, find out who had hurt her, he only wished that he had gone to find her that morning instead of being distracted by the Bluemoor brothers and dragged off to potions, he could have done something, could have stopped it from happening. Sighing, he put down his quill. Larissa was starting to get on his nerves, she was there every moment with him, checking up on him, making sure he wasn’t paying anyone else attention but him. Thankfully she was in Further Alchemy, so at least he had some time for himself, even if it was spent studying.

Polly had spent her free lesson walking around the grounds, she wanted to get to know the place if she was having to stay there for the rest of her teenage years. The day was cold, and Polly didn’t do well with the cold, she was used to the sunny beaches of Hawaii and California, not the bleak winter days of some castle in who knows where. She was wrapped up in a big chunky blue knit, fuzzy earmuffs, a pair of leather gloves and some fur lined boots and still she was cold. After roaming around for about forty minutes, she couldn’t stand it any longer; she was freezing her limbs off and bored out her brains. ‘This English weather is balls. So’s the food. And the landscape. A whole load of balls.’ She grumbled to herself, removing all of her layers in front of the fire in her room, dressing down again and looking at herself in the mirror. She smiled, then turning to the mantelpiece and gently picking up one of the vials of liquid that had been passed to her in the corridor. Her nails were long, natural of course, and totally immaculate, she did them herself, she had a lot of time on her hands. Slowly unscrewing the metal cap and delicately downing the disgusting liquid. Once it was down, her insides felt like they were burning, but she knew it would do her good, then, as delicately as the last, she uncapped the second, taking more time to lace her mouth with it. It stung a little, but wore off quickly, smiling, her red lips curling across her perfect teeth. ‘Show time.’ She muttered, making her way towards James’ office. Once outside the door, she breathed a little to calm herself down, then, knocking once, and walking in, shutting the door with a quiet click behind her. ‘Professor Sparrow…’ she breathed softly, watching him stand, his eyes infatuated with her. ‘No it’s alright, sit.’ She walked around his desk slowly, her brown heeled boots clicking on the stone floor. She sat on the corner of his desk, clearing his papers out of the way, her legs looking even longer as she crossed them over each other. ‘Oh Sammy? Yeah, we’re an item. But I don’t see how that’s any business of yours Professor.’ She looked down, smiling before standing up again and standing in front of him ‘sounds to me, like you’re a little jealous… Sir’ she said, looking him up and down whilst pulling him to standing by his tie ‘I’ve heard the rumours… underage girls? Shame on you…’ She had both hands on his tie, slowly loosening it until she took it off, instead wrapping it around her own neck and turning her attentions back onto him. ‘Oh but… I think you are jealous, and you know why…?’ she smiled, looking down again, her body pressed up hard against his, her long eyelashes shielded her crimson iris’, ‘Because you know I want something from you.’ She looked up, their eyes meeting, and it was like he couldn’t contain himself anymore, he kissed her, roughly, causing her to catch her breath it was so sudden, forgetting what she was there for and enjoying the moment. He lifted her up onto the desk, slowly laying her down, she hurriedly unbuttoned his shirt as he did the same to her, suddenly however, she realized what she was doing there, and wondered why the poison wasn’t working yet, panicking, she bit him with her razor sharp canines, slicing open his tongue. He retracted, obviously as blood filled his mouth. ‘Sorry.’ She grinned, looking up at him as he looked at her confused ‘Shh baby, I didn’t do anything… well, not much.’ He stood shakily gripping onto the table, she sat up, looking at him sympathetically ‘oh boo boo, didn’t I warn you I’m not your play thing?’ He grabbed at his throat, looking quite pale, dropping to his knees; she stood over him ‘poisoned you? Good guess. But don’t you worry hunnybun, it’ll only last a day… or three… it didn’t affect me because I took the anti-venom before the poison so I’m safe, so sweet of you to think about me though… it was almost a shame to stop you…’ she dropped to the floor with him, buttoning up his shirt again, kissing his neck as she did so. ‘Oh and… not everything I said was a lie; I did want something from you…’ She dug her hand deep into his trouser pocket, pulling out his ring of keys. ‘The key to the astronomy tower.’ With her final revelation, he passed out on the floor. She kneeled up, looking at him for a moment, stroking his face with the back of her hand. ‘Such a shame.’ Just after she had stood, the door flung open, Polly jumped to see the Moran girl standing in the doorway. “Uh… Polly, I don’t mean t’ sound like a kill joy but aren’t men a little more cooperative conscious?” The American rolled her eyes ‘shut the door will’ya!?Sheesh girl!’ she quickly did as she was told ‘He’s not dead. Just poisoned. And for your information I wasn’t going to take advantage of him… not while he was out anyway.’ “Oh right, that’s fine then… but where is he going to go? I bet he had afternoon lessons.” She hadn’t thought of that. ‘Um… it’s alright, I can forge handwriting pretty well, I’ll stick a note on the door... could we bury him somewhere… I guess that only works with dead people huh?’ Felicity looked horrified. “ No we can’t take him outside, everyone is still moving about… uh… how about back there?” she looked behind her to the broom cupboard. ‘Great idea.’ Together, the girls dragged his dead weight into the closet, leaning on It with all their strength to shut him in. ‘What did I do? Poisoned him… it was supposed to knock him out for a few hours but I think I gave him too much… anyways, I got these.’ She held up the keys to the astronomy tower.