My little pony.... My little pony... You'll always be maahhh friend.

Why that song was going through Livvy's head...? She had no idea herself. But she couldn't help but wonder how wonderful it'd be to have a little pony who'd always be your friend. Or an owl that would always be your friend. Or a friend that would always be your friend? Wouldn't it be just marvelous?

Livvy thought so.

And why she thought so? It was simple. Fairly simple. And for people that already knew what happened, which was only one, they would know why. But for some odd reason, her horrible and grudging mood had begun turning into a more upbeat and happy one. You'd think she was undergoing mood swings. Just moments before, Livvy was the grumpiest witch on the planet, but now she was as cheerful as can be.

She wanted to have a more positive attitude over the situation, as negative as it was. And plus the Arithmancy textbook said it itself. She, Olivia Zhang, had to gain control over her emotions and stop wallowing... as much as she wanted to. Amazing how much a power a simple glance at her Arithmancy homework could have and take full reign over her senses. She had begun to think more clearly and more... well... optimistically. Just like her good ol' self. She liked the good ol' self. Not the summer self. The old self.

"PEEEEEEEPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Issy's wail followed a black and white streak that darted out passed the Humpback Witch.

Why did he always do this? Once he got to Hogwarts, Pepe le Stinky seemed to think that he had free reign of the castle and took that to mean he was able to run wherever he wished. Running on short legs behind the rodent, Issy ran after the skunklette, waving her arm wildly.

"Peeeeeepeeeeeeee, please!" she pleaded in a wail, but before she could say anything more, she was crying out in pain as she collided with something.

As she lay on the ground, she wondered, dazedly, what she'd collided with. Was it the statue? But... it can't have been? Because the statue would have felt harder and firmer, right? Ooof, but her head hurt so badly. Rolling, she felt herself roll onto something. Squishy.

MERLIN! HAD SHE SQUISHED PEPE?!

But... no... there was no fur... and...

Oh. Ooooooooooh...

Issy did have a nasty habit of running into people. Ag. Oops!

"Oh my goodness!" squeaked the girl, sitting up quickly. Oooh, ow, not good for the head. Glancing around, she saw the black nose of her skunklette, peeking out at her from a few feet away. Blink blink blink.

"Bad Pepe!"

But still... even if one had a good and positive attitude... there was no telling that one would be able to keep the thoughts away still. For the wonderment of Reid's whereabouts appeared in Livvy's mind. Where in the world was that boy? She wanted to know. She was intrigued. Plus... she wanted to sort things out with him. And well. Make things better. Livvy had a feeling that the only way to help her friendship between her and Rachel... was Reid.

But hooooow?

She had no idea. But she, Olivia Zhang, would figure it out. Yes she would. UH HUUUUH. That's right. The girl had more confidence in herself at that moment. Which was good. Low self-esteem never did anyone good.

As the sixth year girl turned around to walk away from the statue, she heard a few horrible wails and a figure running right into her. "ACCK!" Livvy screamed out, collapsing to the ground.

OKAY! SERIOUSLY?! What was up with today? Why did she ALWAYS end up on the ground... one way or another? Apparently... today just wasn't her today.

OOOFFF!

Ugh. The pain.

Something was SITTING on her. No wait. SOMEONE. What was she? A chair? Did she look like a chair to this person? Groaning, Livvy tried to wiggle herself out from under the stranger. She felt rather uncomfortably lying underneath this complete stranger. And plus... her bones were going to crush if she didn't get out from under there any time soon.

But then the person got off and Livvy gasped for breath, her hand to her chest as she patted herself gently. Oh dear. Coughing slightly, she tried to get up. But. Ech. She couldn't. Instead, she rolled back onto her back and just laid there. Ehhh... deeaad. Dead Ravenclaw on the third floor. Dead Ravenclaw on the third floor!

As Livvy bent her head back to stare at the space behind her, she saw this... this... um... whatever it was... staring back at her. ... Was that the cause of her fall? WAIT. No waiiiit... skunky-like beings weren't that big and heavy.

The skunk was, of course, unaware that he had been the whole cause of this Ravenclaw train wreck and thus, he sat there and stared at the girl on the floor. Not the one with freckles, because he knew Issy. It was the one on the floor, panting like she was dead, that intrigued him, because he did not know her. Did she have any cookies with her?

Lifting his black and white striped tail high into the air, arcing over his back, he got up and pattered over to the girl and pressed his nose to hers, almost as if he was looking into her eyes. Which was entirely possible, as creatures born into magic tended to be. The little skunklette climbed onto the girl's chest and peered into her eyes still, his moist nose pressed against hers.

"Pepe!" was Issy's sharp voice, making the rodent jump a bit.

He stared defiantly up at Issy, as though daring her to come near him.

She did.

"I'm sorry," she apologized again. (She'd apologized, right? Her cheeks flushed, just in case she'd not). "He... loves to run and he tends to run away from me." As she crawled towards the girl and skunk, her cloak dragged on the floor and a large pocket bulged heavily and matching nose poked out of the pocket.

Flower was a good skunk. He didn't go running. Hmph. Good Flower.

"See... Pepe just.... gets restless? Admittedly, I cannot make excuses for him but... he looks like he's apologizing?"

Indeed he did. The skunk, nose still pressed to the girl's, now placed a teeny, tiny little paw on her cheek.

It was disaster.

The sixth year Ravenclaw girl, remained sprawled on the floor, lying on her back and staring straight at a pair of eyes. Were THOOOSE the eyes of the rude bumpa? Cuz' she was gonna beat this person UP! NAWWW... she wouldn't. She was too cool for that. Plus. As much as Livvy didn't want to admit, chances are... the person getting beat up would be her. Though. There was no telling. She was quite handy with a Beater bat.

Studying the skunkette as it clambered towards her and appeared to be getting closer, Livvy looked straight back at it. It kept getting closer to her until they were just centimeters away from touching. And then BAM. Contact. The moist nose of the skunk made contact with her own and without meaning to, she sneezed. "AH-CHOO!" muffled in the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

Bleecchh.

And then she heard a voice. At first Livvy thought that it was the skunk, and she was quite surprised to find out that even skunks could talk. Really? But then she stared at the skunk and how it seemed to be staring at something past her.

In moments, a face appeared above hers. WHOA. Human FACE!

Widening her eyes, Livvy glanced over at the girl that had begun crawling towards her and Livvy just smiled and attempted a shrug while lying down. "It's okay. Cute skunk you have there. Is Pepe its name?" she asked, curiously as she cocked her head, watching the skunk scramble around over her head once more.

After what the girl said, sure enough... the skunk pressed its nose against hers once more and places its cutesy paws on her cheek. Livvy couldn't help but giggle and reach her hand out to pet him.

The Humpbacked Witch Statue? What an odd place for someone to ask LouAnn to meet them at. What was wrong with the Common Room anyway? They were both Gryffindors, so what in Merlin's name did they need to exit the Common Room and head all the way down to the third floor for? LouAnn supposed Chris just needed to talk to her without a number of other people around---although for what, she couldn't figure out.

So here she stood, waiting at the Humpbacked Witch Statue for Chris to show up and tell her whatever it was he said he needed to talk about. He was her prefect, too. Maybe he's heard she was a rather dismal student and wanted to tell her to shape up or ship out. She laughed out a loud a little then, realizing that no matter how low of a student she was, no one would ever tell her to leave Hogwarts for good. She hoped not, at least.

Chris was late. He knew he had spent to much time in the Prefects' bathroom making sure his hair was right! After practicing what he was going to say to her over and over again, he finally left, only to discover he was going to be late. He rushed down the staircases to the third floor and skidded to a halt as he turned the corner and saw LouAnn at the Humbacked Witch statue. She looked as great as ever.

He took a deep breath and walked as smoothly as he could over to her. "Hey LouAnn, glad to see you could make it." he grimiced a bit, that didn't sound like he ment it to be. 'Calm down Chris, you can do this!'

"LouAnn you are a great friend and I love to hang out with you. But I was kinda wondering if you wanted to maybe.." he went to lean against the wall with his left hand, but he was too far and he fell face first into the wall!!

"Oww!" he said dudmbly. 'Crap!' He stood up blushing and rubbed his forehead with a nervous grin at LouAnn. "I was wondering if you would like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" he said pretty much asking her out.

Hmm...where was Chris? He'd asked her to meet him at the Humpbacked Witch Statue, right? ...and wasn't this the Humpbacked Witch Statue she was standing at? LouAnn turned around and took in the sight of little witch, deciding that yes, this was in fact the statue she was supposed to be standing at. Maybe there was more that one around the school, though? Maybe there were three or four, and she happened to be standing at the wrong one? But...wouldn't Chris have specified a certain statue if that were the case?

Just when LouAnn had convinced herself that she just might be in the wrong place, she glanced down the corridor and saw Chris quickly approaching. "Oh, yeah, hey, Chris!" she calmly greeted. "Of course I could make it. I didn't mind meeting up with you here. What's up?" Not very nervous at all (for there was no reason to be), LouAnn looked casually at Chris as she waited for a reply. She nodded slowly as he talked...good friend, hanging out...maybe... BAM! LouAnn blinked and jumped back a little when Chris went face first into the wall.

"Oh my gosh, Chris! Are you okay?" she asked, examining him closely to see if there was any blood. If there was, she hated to break it to him, but she had no idea what spell would help that. Luckily for them both, Chris was alright, so there was no need to worry about any spells at all. Except, now there was a new reason to worry. The way Chris was talking, he wanted to ask her out, and LouAnn was always a little nervous when boys asked her to go places with them. She'd had plenty of boyfriends and gone on plenty of dates, but it never stopped her from getting a little nervous anyway. A few seconds later, Chris did ask her to go to Hogsmeade with him. That wouldn't be so scary, though. Hogsmeade was fun and exciting, and she thought she and Chris would really enjoy it there. Besides, Chris was a really nice guy. Smiling, she said, "Oh, yeah. Cool, I'd love to! Thanks, Chris!"

Chris hoped and hoped that she would say yes. All he wanted was one date to prove to her that he was a good guy. He hoped that his lateness wouldn't matter. He hoped that his clumzy fall wouldn't matter. Hey he knew it wouldn't LouAnn was a cool and understanding friend. He looked at her and then wondered if he had even asked her yet. Had he just blanked out? Had the words even came out of his mouth?

Then she answered with a smile as bright as the sun. "Really? Great!" he grinned and ran a hand through his hair, stopping for a second on the bump that was sure to arrive soon. He would have to get that checked out. "So where would you like to go?" he asked as he stood next to her. 'Good be a gentleman Chris see where she wants to go.' He smiled as he looked into her dark brown eyes.

LouAnn smiled and nodded in Chris' direction. It hadn't occurred to her yet that he had actually asked her out on a date. She'd just assumed he thought of her as a good friend and just wanted to have a nice day out of the castle with her. "Yeah, really!" she replied. "Umm...I like Honeydukes a lot. They have a lot of really cool candy." Yup, she honestly had no idea he'd meant this as a date. Had she known, she'd have suggested something a little more like...Madame Puddifoot's maybe.

"Oh! I do need a quick favor from you..." She glanced down and began rummaging through her little bag, searching for that camera she'd gotten from Professor Dumont. It had to be in there...somewhere. She really should look into cleaning that bag out. Once she'd finally dug it out, she raised it to her eyes, centered Chris, and snapped. "Thanks, Chris!" she exclaimed.

Inside Chris could have banged his head on the wall again! He obviously hadn't presented his feelings to LouAnn that he wanted to go on a date with her, not just a friendly outing. Even though he didn't have a problem with that if that was what she wanted.

He nodded a small grin playing on his lips. "Yeah we can go to HoneyDukes, they have the best Ice Mice! And maybe afterwards we can stop into Puddifoot's?" he asked sticking his hands into his pockets and his eyes falling towards his shoes shyly.

He then heard her ask for a favor, "Sure thing." he looked up and smiled. Her camera's flash went off. Perhaps he would take a picture of her in Hogsmeade.

Hearing the words Ice Mice, LouAnn's face lit up. She absolutely loved Ice Mice, so it'd be cool for them to stop off there and pick up a few before heading over to Madame Puddifoot's. Wait a minute---Madame Puddifoot's? Was he asking her on a....oh my gosh! He was! LouAnn blushed a little, then glanced down at her foot, kicking it absentmindedly while she waited for the blushing to go away. She giggled a little, then said, "O-Okay. That sounds fun!" she nervously said.

Did she even have anything to wear? Of course she had things to wear, but---to Madame Puddifoot's? She needed to get ahold of Cela...and soon! She needed to borrow a dress and maybe even some shoes, too! "Thanks for asking me Chris! I need to go find Cela to ask her about something, sooo...I'll talk to you later? We can pick out a day and time to go!" With a little smile and wave, LouAnn turned and headed off to go find Cela.

Chris smiled as he saw her face light up as he mentioned Ice Mice. He made a mental note of that for the future. Then she said yes to the date! She sounded just as nervous as he did. He hoped she couldn't hear his heart pounding in his chest.

Chris looked up as LouAnn thanked him. "Oh you're welcome. Thanks for saying yes." he grinned. He then heard she had to go see Cela. "Oh that's cool well I will talk to you later then and we can set up a time then." he smiled. He waved to her as she left and he sighed. 'I did it!' he thought to himself. And he pumped his hand into the air. Now he just had to go figure out what to wear.

Alice couldnt believe that she was there. She heard about this place before but not been there. Mmm..the place smelled yucky..but still it was a blocked secret passage to Hogsmead. She looked around the desserted place, not worrying abt being alone. Bitting on her bottom lips, Alice was trying to find out any hints of adventures that had happened there before.

Torin was already starting to feel better; apparently that stuff that Fyo had given was a miracle cure or something. And he would have to thank his mother for it.

He spotted Alice then and was curious as to what she was doing standing there. "Hey!" he said as he stopped by her ready for a chat.

Alice jumped. Woof, for a second she felt like her heart stopped in fear. Frowing slightly Alice turned, "Torin!!!!!!!!!!" she moved forward to him with her hands across her chest, "Trying to kill me boy?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

He burst into laughter. He couldn't help it really. Even though he hadn't intended to scare her, her fright was just priceless.

After a moment he was okay again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm just wondering what you are doing standing by this statue." It had been almost like she had been looking for something.

Oh..boy. He was laughing. Meanie! Alice took another two steps and slapped on his arm, well..only mildly. "Dont do that again." she let out a relieved breath and managed to grin now. "I'm..just wondering about this place. If possible to re-discover the passage again" she giggled and looking at the wall as running her hand on it.

"I won't," he lied, figuring that she should know that as Fyo's girlfriend he would want to be mean to her at least once in a while. Besides, the reaction was funny. But a mention of a passage suddenly confused him. Huh? "Come again?" He now had a blank look on his face.

Alice grinned, "Better you, Torin boy.." she said, glad that he didnt mind her gentle slapping. Seeing his confused look on his face, Alice nodded her head, "Yeah, I'm really really thinking of how to make this passage back to usable" she said, still drawing patterns on the blocked wall to see if any marks or somesort of hints.

"Or what huh?" he asked, amused. He had to admit that she was being rather cute right now. And there was a passage by this statue? How had he not known this? "Okay, I feel slow 'cause I was not aware that there was a passage here." He started looking at the thing with a new interest. "Have you tried a spell?"

"Or.." Alice tilted her head slightly, "Or I will have to put a Bakra cap on your head" she giggled, imagining of him wearing that cap and walking around the school. Oh..it would be interesting. Making herself more comfortable now, the fact that Torin was there too and she was not alone now. "Mhmm" she agreed, grinning, "Do you think I should?" she raised her brows quizzically, "Which one? Reducto?" oh..i'd like to use that one, she smiled and rubbed her hand together, excited.

Bakra cap? "What on earth is a Bakra cap?" Was it an Indian thing? Maybe it was. Whatever it was it didn't seem to pleasant if she was using it as a threat against him. "Or maybe it's a secret password," he then moved on to say, unsure as to what spell could possibly work.

Watching his bit cofusing expressions, Alice grinned. "Aw..it's nothing. It's just a cap with goat horns, Ofcourse artificial horns" she explained, "Dont worry, it was an empty threat" she smirked. Poor boy, looked like scared. When he indicated about password, "mmm..what it would be?" she trailed off, looking back and forth at Torin and the wall, "May be...Red Dragon? Or..should we just rub on it like a Aladdin lamp?" she asked through giggles. Oh..be serious Alice.