"We could go talk to Professor Forrester." Nicholai agreed, it made sense since he was their head of house. "Or..." Nicholai paused, "If you trusted me... I could have a look first..." He wasn't sure she would, since both she and Will had been fairly weird about his friendship with Anna.

The thought reminded him of the amortentia in his pocket and he frowned slightly. He couldn't use it, could he?

Camira frowned a bit at his suggestion. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, per se. It was just that she wanted to be a part of all this...whatever it was. Oh well.

"I guess that would be okay", she said uneasily. "Though may I ask why exactly Cassandra wants you to drug Anna with love potion." It sounded a bit suspicious and if she was going to trust him to do this, she needed to know what that was all about...especially because it involved Anna.

Nicholai nodded slowly in resignation; getting the feeling that she didn't quite trust him not to try bagging all the glory or something.

"She wants to ensure Anna and Cale Newell do not get back together. She wants to drive him off too..." Nico paused and admitted, "I don't know if I can do that to her. She is my friend and she trusts me. I'm meeting Kitten soon actually... for a picnic in the grounds. Trying to help her move on... and give myself a much needed distraction."

This was all too weird. Why did Cassandra want to drive of Newell? In fact, why did she care about him at all? Hmm. She must have some reason. She wondered what Nico needed a distraction from, but she didn't ask. She didn't want to fully shove herself into his business afterall, even though she seemed to be doing a smashing job of it so far.

"Right. Well, my suggestion would be to listen to Cassandra and stop acting like a Gryffindor", she said with a shrug. Hmm, probably not the best way of wording that, but whatever. It was true. "I expect you'll tell me if you find anything in the restricted section?"

Nicholai glared at her for a second.
"I'm not acting like a Gryffindor. The points I earn are for Slytherin. And of course I'll tell you. And Will." Nico added pointedly, "Though Kitten will probably want to come along... especially if I'm going to give her this." He gestured at his pocket where the vial sat.

"You don't seem to trust me, Camira."

Camira forced herself not to say anything. She couldn't afford for Nico to be upset with her.

She gave a little shrug. "Don't take it personally. I don't really trust anyone", she said casually. "Besides, it's not like you need my permission." Gah. What was wrong with her. She was usually only this way with other houses.

"If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't have shown you that scroll", she said, managing to sound friendly this time.

Good one. When had it mattered to have people trust him? When he found out that Kayla didn't. Nico forced himself to relax. Well that was weird, she went from telling him she didn't trust anyone to saying that she trusted him after all. Nico sighed and leaned against the wall.

"Fair enough. What made you show me anyway?" friendship? He wasn't entirely sure about that.

He pushed himself off the wall and stood up straight, regarding Camira and managing a half-smile.

"I don't suppose you have any chocolate frogs?"

Hmm. What had made her show him. She wasn't sure herself. She gave him a shrug. "Do you need a reason? Isn't it enough that I did?"

Chocolate frogs? Was he hungry? She opened her bag and looked inside. She had two. "I have one. Why?" Yes, it was a lie, but there was no way he was getting all her chocolate frogs.

"I guess not." Nicholai agreed.

"Kitten's favourite." Nicholai responded with a slight frown- if he was going to do this, that'd be the best way. "I don't have any though... I don't eat sweet things."

Nikki walked down to the dungeon corridor, on the way down to the slytherin common room, she couldn't help but think about everything Kayla had told her. Why had Nico done something like that to her? he really liked her last time she checked. She shrugged it off and kept walking until her ears were filled with a buzzing, it had to be a spell, the Muffliato one.

She kept walking, ignoring it, it obviously wasn't her business. She turned her head and gasped softly. There he was was, Nico, standing there talking to Camira, the girl she had met last year. She stopped in her tracks and looked at him, "Nico?" she asked softly, wondering if he had heard her.

Oh. She grabbed one of the chocolate frogs out of her bag and handed it to him. This was all still very surreal.

Oh goody. Someone was coming...and she wanted to talk to Nico. What a surprise. "Stupid fangirls", she muttered quietly to herself. Hmm, the girl looked familiar, but she couldn't place her. Oh well. Not like she cared anyway.

Nico looked up and got rid of the Muffilato spell as he saw Nikki.
"Thanks Camira," Nico took the chocolate frog and pocketed it alongside the vial.

He turned back to Nikki and offered her his trademark rakish smile. It'd been so long since they'd talked...

Nikki shook her head, she didn't know whether to call him an idiot or to slap him. She decided what she was going to do after a second. She walked up to Nico and lifted her hand. She slapped him across the cheek, as hard as she could, which wasn't really that hard. "You are the biggest idiot I know, Nicholai Toussaint" she told him before stepping back, she suddenly thought it was a stupid idea to do that.

Nicholai's head actually turned under the force of her slap, which surprsed him. No expression showed on his face however and he slowly turned to regard her; a tiny bit of anger sparking briefly in his eyes.

"Not the usual greeting I get from you, sweetheart." Nicholai drawled and leaned against the wall; resisting the urge to panic and conjure a mirror to check if his face looked okay.

A little hurt that the first greeting from a friend he hadn't seen alot lately was a literal slap in the face Nico regarded her balefully; his hand twitching slightly as if indecisive about drawing his wand.

What the hell? One second they were talking and all of a sudden someone was slapping him in the face! Really though. She glared at the girl. "Do you mind? It's very impolite to slap someone while they're trying to have a civilized conversation with someone." Goodness, what next? And how random was that?

Nikki looked as Nicos head turned, she saw the anger go through his eyes but he didn't do anything, not even draw his wand... yet. That was something she thought he would do right away. She felt a little gulity for hitting him but she really couldn't help it.

She sighed when he called her sweetheart, now she really felt gulity. "Well, it's not every day you hear you broke my friend's heart, Honey" she replied, drawling the last word out like he had. She still couldn't get over the shock that he hadn't attacked her.

She looked down at his hand as it twitched, “don’t you dare draw that wand Nico” she warned, if he did, she would probably never speak to him again, but then again she had slapped him. She turned to the other girl, "do you mind staying out of it?" she shot back before turning back to Nico.

Nicholai's eyes shifted to Camira, a tiny bit of guilt cutting through the anger as he heard Nikki's response. Ohhh she'd talked to Kayla.

He shifted a little closer to Camira, an unconcious grasping at support.

"I did nothing wrong. She said she never trusted me. And since when were you more her friend than mine?" Nicholai almost pouted at the thought- he liked being the popular one. He was suddenly very aware of the photographs in his pocket.

He closed his hands into fists and with a fair amount of effort folded his arms across his chest as if he was forcibly holding himself back from drawing his wand.

Nico had broken some girl's heart? Well, it's not like it was a surprise, though it usually wasn't his fault from what she could tell.

Gah! She was so sick of these rude people! "Yes, I do mind, actually. Seeing as you barged in on our conversation, I think I'll just do whatever I'd like, thank you very much", she snapped. Stupid girl.

Who in the world were they talking about?

Oooh. Nico did not look happy, not that she blamed him. She put her hand on his back in an effort to be reassuring. She wasn't used to seeing him upset, other than that one time at the library. Stupid stupid girl!

Nikki crossed her arms across her chest, "how did you do nothing wrong?" she asked him, "you were kissing those girls" she shook her head when he said Kayla had never trusted him, "Are you serious Nico? she trusted you so much, you hurt her and she hurt you" that's what Kayla had told her. Since when was she what? that's just low, "I never said I was more her friend but you stuffed up big time" she told him, "you're too caught up in yourself to realise" she added softly.

She watched him close his fists and the other girl put her hand on his back, that girl was getting on her nerves but she ignored her, she didn't need two fights, besides that girl was on Nico's side, she probably didn't know what was happening.

Nicholai offered a small smile at Camira, but cringed at the tone she took with Nikki. He hated when his female friends fought with one another.

"Kissing them huh?" Nicholai frowned and pulled the pictures from his pocket and shoved them at Nikki. "Looks bad doesn't it? And a picture is worth a thousand words as they say- there could never possibly be another explantion could there?" Nico spoke bitterly and gestured at the pictures of him with Anna, Mari and Carmen.

"I have no idea who took these or why they were following me but Kayla had made her mind up that I'd done something wrong...." he looked at the pictures, "or three somethings apparently. You know these could have just as easily been pictures of you and I, Nikki- you know people have misread our relationship before. And you know what I figure now? If I gotta do the time then I'm gonna do the crime."

Nicholai turned and actually punched the wall before turning back and looking between his housemates. "She told me she doesn't trust me and that she never did!" He pulled out his wand and held it for minute before using it to scourgify the blood on his knuckles.

"I guess thats what happens when you let someone get under your skin." Nicholai commented quietly, "Kayla definitely did that. But it won't happen again." He smiled darkly, "In fact, I have a date with Anna Greingoth a little later."

Camira craned her neck so that she could see the pictures. Wow, they looked…wow.

Kayla?! As in her Hufflepuff-but-really-Slytherin friend Kayla? He mouth dropped out in shock and it was only after she thought about how unattractive it must look that she managed to close it. “Nico, what is going on”, she asked, suddenly very annoyed. He didn’t care if he broke random girl’s hearts, but Kayla was not a random girl. “What did you do to Kayla?” She tried to keep her tone neutral, but there was still an edge to it. She didn’t want to take sides though. She knew Kayla had a tendency to read into things. Maybe Nico had a valid explanation.

She jumped when he punched the wall, annoyance and suspicion suddenly gone. “Nico, please”, she said worriedly. And he’d made himself bleed. Not good at all. Why did stuff like this always happen around her?

A date?! He’d never said it was a date. Apparently though, he hadn’t said a lot of things.

Nikki looked at him when he shoved the pictures in her face, "So, you're thinking I believed it straight away? that I didn't try to tell her someone could have editted them or something?" she shook her head. She looked at the pictures again, she knew Kayla had made up her mind but it didn't mean she had. "You're proving her right... 'by doing the crime' now" she told him, using air quotes around some of the words.

She watched him turn and punch the wall, he seemed truely upset, angry about it even. "Nico..." she said softly before standing forward after he had cleaned his knuckles. "Nico... if she didn't trust you... why would she be so hurt?" she asked quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder. She was feeling so bad for what she had done, she needed to apologise.

She heard his comment and she flinched away from him for a second before putting her hand back to his shoulder, "Nico... I'm sorry" she said softly, before he spoke again, Anna, he was seriously... well she didn't know how put it nicely, "You're my best friend... I don't want to loss you" she whispered, she had stuffed up, hugely, but still Kayla was hurt, but so was Nico.

Barry was wondering in the dungons why? Barry had no idea he`d been wandering around the school for no reason at all scince he had finished anylising the book of letters which had dissapeared when Barry had looked for it in the morning so now he was just reading over his notes over and over and well for some reason he wondered into the corridor and bumped into some girl probly only a little older then him . His notes fell onto the ground but Barry stared at the girl trying to figure out where he knew her from

Nico turned to Camira, she knew Kayla? Oh great now she'd realise that whole thing in the library before the reading was about Kayla.

"I didn't do anything! She came to me with these photos of me with my friends." Nico stressed the word and glared between both of them, who he'd certainly been 'friendly' enough with in the past for the casual observer to get the wrong impression. "She was 100 percent convinced without an ounce of doubt that I'd done what those photographs suggest. And you know what gets me the most? Of all people, Cale the idiot NEWELL believed me where Kayla did NOT."

He looked at Camira, a darkness in his eyes, "Please what? Stop acting like a Gryffindork? or maybe I'm a Dramapuff this time- I hear you don't particularly like them. And I know you have been judging me for my friendship with Kitten!" Nicholai ran his hands through his hair in irritation.

"What difference does it make anymore?" Nicholai swallowed roughly, "Anna is a good friend of mine who has managed to be there for me and BELIEVE me despite the fact that I'm a Slytherin and she's a Gryffindor. She's my friend so why should I not spend time with her?" And drug her and possibly ruin her life.

Nicholai closed his eyes, stroking his signet ring until his agitation had dispersed. He opened his eyes again and they were slightly dead.

"I told her. When it all began. I told her that I'd break her. And that I'd enjoy it." Nicholai looked at his boots for a moment, "I was wrong. She isn't the broken one at all. And I don't even care anymore."

He pushed both girls away from him a little more roughly than he needed to and started to pace back and forth. He whirled around suddenly and looked at Nikki.

"You are my best friend too. You and Maddox... and even he is eventually going to chose Kayla over me." Nicholai sighed heavily, thinking of the flying class.

"I don't need anyone." Nicholai added, "But Kayla does." She needs people who care about her that she can trust." He smiled bitterly, "Did you girls know, that Kayla loved me? Past tense." Like his mother, who had used those exact same words. "She loved me but doesn't trust me. Should trust not come first? I trust her still!"

Nicholai paused and slumped against the opposite wall, his wand somehow in his hand and he twirled it, providing a certain level of comfort. Where was Maddox when you needed a good duel?

"I don't give up. I haven't. And I won't." Nicholai smiled darkly, "But first I have to find out who took those pictures."

Oh my. She regarded him critically. So, either he was lying or he was set up. After a minute, she decided there was no way he could be lying. He was just too upset. Too far gone from his usual “cool, calm, collected” attitude. She was still going to stick up for Kayla though, even if she was a bit upset that Kayla hadn’t told her any of this.

“Well, I’m sorry to say, but the pictures look rather convincing. Besides, Kayla has…trust issues”, and rightly so, she added silently, thinking about that whole bizarre Helios thing. She was about to offer to talk to Kayla and let him know that she believed him when he started on her. She didn’t care how upset he was. That was not okay. “I don’t believe who I like or dislike is any of your business”, she said coolly. “It’s an interesting assessment though, seeing as Kayla is my friend.” Really now. Oh, and here he went about the Anna thing. “As for Anna, we’ve settled our differences and I’m actually quite fond of her in my own way, so do NOT propose to tell me what’s going on in my own head.” Why did she have a feeling this was going to get out of control?

She flew back a bit and hit the wall. Oh no. Nico did not just push her. That was something she would absolutely not stand for.It took her a moment to recover, but when she had, she walked over to wall he was currently slumped against and punched him straight in the mouth. Hmm. Her aim was a bit off. She was actually going for the nose. “Do. Not. Ever. Touch. Me. In. A. Violent. Manner.” She could barely get the words out. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that he was extremely upset and didn’t mean to hurt her. It took a few times of repeating it in her head before she calmed down enough to not punch him...again

“Nico Toussaint, you idiot. If you would stop with the lashing out for even a damn minute you would have realized that I want to help you and I have no problem talking to Kayla and seeing if we can’t get this sorted out”, she said firmly, but sincerely. Really. Boys. Sometimes they were so much trouble.