Reese Upstead was FINALLY looking like herself. She has been moping around the castle for weeks (3 weeks to be exact) since the fight with Torin and during those weeks she neither straightened her curly hair nor even took the time to put on some make-up. But, starting last week, she finally put the whole fight behind her. She started straightening her hair in the morning AND started wearing her make-up again. Thinking about it and looking at her blonde hair, she sort of missed her curly hair right now. Oh well, maybe she'll wear it curly again tomorrow.

Leaving the common room, Reese headed down the moving staircase to the third floor corridor. She continued walking down the corridor, but then she started slowing down. Once she came to a complete stop, she opened her school bag open and pulled out two boxes of chocolate frogs. She stared at the boxes in her hand for a few moments before she continued down the corridor. She opened one of the boxes while she was walking and when she pulled the chocolate frog out of the box, she ate it.

Chocolate.

Torin was standing nervously behind Reese. Yes, he had been stalking her He didn't know what to say to her. He needed to talk to her and apologize. But he was scared to at the same time. Reese thought that their friendship was over - with good reason - but he had never said that to her.

But his actions had spoken louder than words, had they not?

Finally, deciding that it wasn't possible for him to make things worse, he approached her. "Reese, I need to apologize," he said as he was right behind her.

Chocolate. Chooooocolate.

Reese was already eating her second chocolate frog when she heard someone's voice behind her. She jumped slightly and nearly choked on her chocolate. She coughed a few times and when she felt like it was safe (meaning that she wasn't going to choke), she turned to face the person that had come up behind her.

When seeing Torin, her little smile on her face faded into a little frown. She blinked a few times as she tried to comprehend what he had just said. He wanted to apologize to her? Dropped her bag on the floor beside her, she crossed her arms. "Okay," she simply said.

He sighed when she frowned at him. "I'm sorry that I was so mean to you... I was really mad at you.." And I'm still mad now. "But I miss you... I didn't feel at the time that I could really talk to you.. But... I never said I wouldn't be your friend again. I'm really sorry, Reese."

He felt so awkward and paranoid. What if Reese decided to eat him or something? She sorta looked like she wanted to. Eep!

Reese didn't know what to say. She was still mad at Torin since he was mean to her at the lake, but she wanted to accept his apology. Wrinkling her nose, she thought about what to say next. She looked down at her bag on the floor for a few moments, then looked back up at Torin.

"I...I don't know," she finally spoke. "I want to accept your apology, Torin. But, how am I going to know that you won't go off saying my secrets, again? Or how will I even know that your not lying to me, again?" Oh, yes. She was defiantly still mad about him lying to her. "I know you didn't say you didn't want to be my friend, but- you know- I just thought you didn't want to be my friend after you said you couldn't even look at me," she stated.

"Reese, if that was true, you think that I would have gone up to you and apologized?" He understood where she was coming from though. He had a few issues with her and trust too. "But I'm not the same now as I was then. Especially with Bunbury."

He started to walk on again. "But I'll leave you alone now if that's what you want."

Especially with BUNBURY?! Reese thought this day, where Torin would say and/or imply he didn't like Bunbury anymore, would never come. She could never be anymore excited! Sadly, before she could say anything, Torin was walking down the corridor.

"Wait. Torin," she said as she picked up her bag and headed down the corridor after him. "I don't want to be alone," she told him. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life without you being my friend. So, I accept your apology, now will you accepted mine? I'm sorry that I told Bunbury that you liked her."

He smiled when Reese caught up to him again. He gave her a little hug. "I really did miss you, Reese." It was so good talking to her and not being hateful. Or ignoring her.

"I still have a crush on her though. Oh! I have to show you my Herbology homework." He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. Though he was suddenly worried she might get mad at him about it.

Reese returned the hug from Torin. "I missed you, too. Even if it didn't look like I missed you...I did," she told him. It was probably hard to tell if you missed someone if you had been moping around the castle. This whole fight between her and Torin felt like they had broke up. Geez. Like she would EVER date Torin. Okay, that was mean. It was just that he was more like a cousin or something instead of a boyfriend.

"Oh, reallllllly?" she said as she watched him pull it out. "Let me look at it." She grabbed the paper out of his hands and read it. Her jaw dropped opened once she read the part about Reese's Evil Monkeys that steal Bunbury's shoes. She finished reading the paper and looked back up at Torin. "Funny. Very funny," she told him.

He was finally happy again. Especially when she ripped the paper out of her hand. "Isn't it just awesome? Bunbury called me heroic." He laughed. He loved how that woman had a good sense of humor.

Reese reread Torin's Herbology homework. EVIL MONKEYS!!! Reese monkeys. Which are like the worst monkeys in the world. Most evil in the world? Hehe. She wanted some monkey's now. Evil monkeys! They laugh at your fashion sense! They call you old!! She narrowed her eyes at this sentence. Hopefully, Bunbury didn't catch on to that. She wouldn't like a talk with the Professor about calling her old. It was just a joke anyways. She knew that Bunbury wasn't old. 'Cause Reese monkeys like to bite people. Though mostly boys. She started laughing.

"So, my monkeys bite boys? Very interesting," Reese told him. She handed the homework back to Torin right when he said Bunbury called him heroic. "Heroic? Well, you did save her from my evil monkeys," she said with a smile. "You even saved her shoes!"

He laughed as Reese laughed. He was glad that she was enjoying his story and seeing it all as a joke - which it was. "Yep, they do. It seemed fitting to the story." He smiled.

"Yes, I did. I thought it was good to save them there since I couldn't in real life. That's why I also bought her new shoes; I felt bad for that. Though I never gave them to her..." He frowned as he remembered throwing said shoes in the garbage.

Reese raised her eyebrow. Evil monkeys? "Why did they have to be evil?" She questioned Torin. "Can't they be nice monkey and still steal shoes? I mean, it makes me sound evil if I have evil monkeys." Maybe that was just her, but it did make her sound evil. And, she wasn't an evil person, right? DON'T ANSWER THAT.

"You never gave them to her? How come?" She asked. She remembered the talk they had a long time ago when Torin said he had bought Bunbury four pairs of shoes. He seemed so excited about them, but now he was saying he didn't give them to her. But, then, she remembered that he had overheard her and Bunbury talk. "Nevermind," she added with a frown. After knowing that Bunbury knew he liked her, he probably just didn't want to give them to her.

He rolled his eyes. "Nice monkeys don't steal shoes and scare Herbology Professors. DUH, Reese." She really needed to ask him about that one? Seriously? Besides, Reese really was evil. Not that he was foolish enough to say that to her; especially since they were just friends again.

"They are in the trash by the green houses," he said simply.

Reese narrowed her eyes. "We'll they can if I tell them to," she stated. Hmph. They were her monkeys and they can be nice and steal shoes. And, like she recently said, she didn't want evil monkeys because they made her look evil. And, she wasn't evil. Well, she wasn't evil enough to steal shoes and scare Bunbury.

Her jaw dropped open. "You threw them away?" She said. She needed to remember to go look in the trash later. Maybe the shoes were still there. Did Bunbury wear the same size shoe as her? Hopefully she did.

"They are my monkeys though. I created them." He crossed his arms over his chest and then looked at her suspiciously. "You are not taking those shoes out of the trash."

"Ethan!" she said approaching him in the corridor. "Don't walk away from me when we aren't finished with this conversation." She said dragging poor Marcus out with her. "If that wasn't it, then TELL me Ethan... don't just make me guess. I WANT to understand." Did he not get that? "You say I should be able to guess... but obviously I can't. Tell me."

Truebridge turned around, somewhat startled that Less hadn't only followed him out but also dragged Axe with her.

"I'm going to assume, Alessia, that you have always been close to Kazimeriz? That he has always accepted you without question? Even in my first year, when I was lucky enough to have him as my Professor, and I showed a natural ability in dueling and advanced wandwork, Kazimeriz was not impressed. Not one word of encouragement, always derision always... disgust and suspicion, harsh punishments and any special attention was nightmare- inducing." Ethan said all this quietly and calmly, though his mind was recalling the loss of his books and the doubt in his abilities that the old man always showed.

"Even later, when I transferred to WADA," And here Zan looked at Axe, his friend had seen how exhausted and hopeless a young Ethan had felt after tutoring with Kazimeriz, "Even then, nothing I chose to do was ever met with anything resembling a kind word. I don't know what he sees when he looks at me Alessia, but it is not who I am and I have no idea how to remedy that. So yes, acceptance. Respect is unlikely."

"Ever thought you were too perfect? Maybe he was trying to bring you down to earth." She sighed... "No matter..." at least he'd tried to talk to her. He was looking for approval... and her godfather wasn't going to do it now. She squeezed Marcus' hand, "can you take me to the hut?" She asked him sweetly.

"I've never thought that. Perfection only exists on paper." Truebridge answered quietly and nodded at Axe. He waited for one more moment and turned to head back into Caroline's office.

"Yeah..." Reese trailed off. Take the shoes from the trash can? She knew Torin knew what she was thinking, there was no way to get past that. "Okay, I won't," she honestly told him. Glancing down the corridor, she figured it was time to get back to the common room. "I'm going to go now. I'll see you later," she said and then headed down the corridor.

He was a little startled that she was leaving. But she waas busy with OWLs and all, so... "Later, Reese. Good luck with the rest of your OWLs." He smiled and walked off towards the Common Room. Next year he would have those tests. Fun fun fun.

This was not exactly the ending to a very enjoyable day he had been expecting but Marcus, stood beside Less still holding onto her hand and he remained quiet as both she and Ethan spoke to one another. "Of course" he answered and squeezed her hand in return.

Marcus, nodded his head also and gave his friend a somewhat apologetic look. "See you Ethan" he said quietly as he watched walk back into Caroline's office and then taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, he gently tugged on Alessia's hand and began to walk down the corridor.

"I'm sorry..." She said heading for the stairs to the 5th floor to catch the shoot down... "I didn't think that was going to happen."

And earpiercing screech filled the corridor. It was coming from the submerged great hall.