Adam looked up at the sound of the classroom door opening and smiled when he spotted that it was Louisa. He waited until she sat down before he said hello and flipped open a Defense Against the Dark Arts book. "Defense Against the Dark Arts," Adam said with a little smirk. "My goal is to get an outstanding on the O.W.L.s in that subject if I can. Ultimately what I would like to start trying is to produce a patronus, but I've been a little nervous to attempt that on my own. Other than that I've mostly just been working on standard defense spells." Adam let out a little sigh as he looked down at the book. "What about you?"

Vashti was read-walking again. She balanced one of her textbooks on her arm and held her wand in her right hand as she walked down the hall. She needed to find a good empty classroom that she could practice this spell in. As she glanced up from her reading, she spotted Classroom Eleven and, remembering that it was usually empty, she reached for the door and pushed it open. This would be a good place to practice this spell to protect herself from-

"Oh."

There was already someone in here - two someones, actually. The last two someones that she wanted to run into at this moment.

"Sorry. Didn't realize anyone was in here." Time to find another empty room, yeah?

"Charms. I love this subject and didn't really study much. Besides.." She poked her bag with one finger, grinning, "..we have a metal egg to look after this term. I want to know more about that." She was about to elaborate on the subject in case Adam missed that class or something but the door opened once again and the Ravenclaw casually looked at the person joining the room....

..NOT.

She frowned and looked back at her book. She was not going to answer to Vashti, that older girl shot her a look the other day at the common room even though Louisa was not mad at her at all, heck she felt sorry for her the last Quidditch game and was about to go down to talk to her unless professor Bentley was about to pass out.

If Vashti was waiting for an answer, she could take it from Adam. Hmph.

Pixxi ran into the classroom, holding her hand to her chest while breathing heavily. She looked around and found her friend Nessie with two bottles of pumpkin juice in her hand. She looked a bit impatient. 'No wonder,' Pixxi thought. She had been late, again. "I-I'm sorry I'm late, Nessie," Pixxi said while bending forward, her hands on her knees while trying to regain her breath. "I got caught up with... stuff." Pixxi didn't want to tell Nessie the secret just yet.

Adam was listening to Louisa as she explained that she was studying for charms and the lovely metal egg that they were taking care of this term. Adam had his tucked away safely up in the boy's dormitory. He was about to comment back to Louisa when he heard the sound of the door opening. Turning to look he spotted Vashti, whom he was very surprised to see, and he could tell from her look that she was also surprised. Adam shot a glance towards Louisa to see that she had a frown across her features, the usual one Louisa got when she was stubborn and refusing to back down. Honestly, this was silly. Adam had seen how much Louisa was concerned about Vashti at the game, so obviously her no longer wanting to be friends with Vashti was completely untrue.

"You can stay here if you'd like. There's plenty of room at the table," Adam said with a warm smile. Yeah...really the question was a rhetorical one because the girl was not leaving until her and Louisa had worked out whatever issues they had. It was very apparent that the two missed each other's friendship, and if he could help save it then he was going to! Although neither Vashti nor Louisa could see it Adam had pulled his wand out and was holding it against his side.

Vashti glanced over at Louisa who was obviously ignoring her, and her Ancient Runes assignment popped into her head. Now was as good a time as any to act on it, right? But at the same time, Vashti really didn't want to do it right now - she'd rather put it off and work on this spell she wanted to practice. And this spell was sort of personal, something she'd rather do alone. If she apologized and she and Louisa became friends, wouldn't Louisa want her to stick around? And Vashti couldn't possibly refuse to hang out with her if they only just became friends again.

Her thoughts were cut off when someone finally spoke - Adam. He didn't mind her staying? Well of course, he didn't. "What I'm trying to do doesn't really require a table though," she replied, managing a smile for him. She did appreciate his attempt at being polite.

Louisa shot Adam a look as he invited Vashti in. What was wrong with him? Didn't he know that those girls weren't really friends anymore, moreover he was the one to toss dungbombs at her before! The girl didn't say anything, though. She looked down at her book and remained silent.

Vashti, too, seemed to be acting all neutral toward them both which was a good thing. Louisa looked at her from the corner of her eye without turning her head. VASHTI WAS SMILING AT ADAM! B-b-but she was almost as mad at him as she was at Louisa at the whomping willow. The younger girl felt a stinging feeling in her eyes and she sniffed loudly, not because she was going to cry of course, but her nose decided to get runny so suddenly. Yes, that was it.

Carrying his backpack, Josh walked in this deserted Classroom Eleven which was not used...or well...used for things other than classes and plopped the bag on one of the nearest desks right before opening it and taking the Ancient Runes book out with a bag of runes. Yes, he was indeed going to do his homework and he did not want to be seen by anyone doing so hence why he was alone in this classroom.

Placing the book on the desk and opening this particular section for galdr thing, he started to eye the options to choose among. What could he do? Hmmm. He did not want to fail this thing so the Kenaz option seemed to be fine since the duelling expert said his wand was good for fire related magic, Kenaz was supposed work well with him. It also said there that Fehu was fire too. Hmm. But Kenaz was a more controlled form and yeaaa a controlled fire would be better in a classroom. He did not want to set anywhere on fire.

Reading the galdr for Kenaz a few times to memorise, the Gryffindor picked up the particular rune from the bag and sat down on the stone floor. He did not want to set any wooden desks on fire either. Then he pointed his wand at the floor and said ''Orchideous!'' making flowers, enough to make a bouquet, sprang from the tip of his hazel wand falling in front of him, on the floor. Now it was the time to use this rune.

Holding it in one hand, Josh pointed his wand at the pile of pretty, colourful flowers. ''Kenaz kenaz kenaz, ku ka ki ke ko, kun kan kin ken kon, ok ek ik ak uk, kaunnnnnnnnn...''

Okaaaaay this sounded really ridiculous however it seemed to have worked as...the flowers were burning with orange-red flames.

Kaunnnnnnnnn...

An unused classroom, was it? Well, that definition was enough for João to eye the classroom suspiciously. Sure it was a HUGE castle and there were probably just too many rooms to use, but an unused classroom, right next to the Greath Hall? No, that just wasn't logical. And of course, he was going to enter to see what was going on inside.

Pushing the--no, pulling the door (no one saw his failure, right?!), he stepped inside. Before he could take in what was inside, someone started chanting... that made him...

"Ha ha HA! What are you doing?!"

Normally, he wouldn't have laughed. He wouldn't even have asked. But the words were so funny that...

...that they caused a fire.

With his good humour evaporating with the heat of FIRE, he talked quickly almost to the point of ordering "Aguamenti it NOW!" Although he tried his best to conceal his fear, it was as bright as...

FIRE.

Smiling a bit, Josh was watching the flowers burn as the flames grew and he was about to add more flowers with that spell when the door was suddenly opened distracting him.

Gah!!! Someone was there!!

Yet, hopefully it seemed to be only this Slytherin boy with a thousand names ooooor...not so hopefully since he had started to laugh at the Gryffindor. Alright. Josh knew the galdr sounded ridiculous but NO ONE could laugh at a studying Josh Carter like that. So, the lion boy narrowed his eyes at the boy and opened his mouth to warn the snake about laughing at him again however seeing the fear in the other boy's eyes upon seeing the fire a little smirk appeared on his face...only to vanish when he ordered him to aguamenti it.

No way!!

''This is my homework.'' Josh said jumping on his feet to protect the fire in case the boy would try to aguamenti it. He needed to see if it worked well enough. ''And unfortunately the water spell does not work well with me.'' then after shooting a momentary glance at the flames, he looked back at the Slytherin ''And don't you dare to ruin my work otherwise, i'll...'' well...what could he do? ''...cast the same spell on you!''

Not that he would set anyone on fire. He was not that evil and he was not Lafay. Yet the boy seemed to be scared of fire so maybe he would not dare to move ith this threat.

Adam could practically feel Louisa's glare searing into the side of his face after he invited Vashti to sit with them, but Adam kept his glance away from her. He could that Vashti was looking a bit timid about the whole thing, but not angry which was definitely a step in the right direction in his opinion. At least, since she didn't just turn around and stomp out the other direction that meant that she was at least willing to be in the same room as Louisa, right? "Oh?" Adam responded curiously to Vashti not needing a table for what she was going to work on. "Well...there's plenty of room in here for you to work on whatever you need to work on," Adam said with a little nod. "After all we're only using this table, so the rest of the room in pretty much open," Adam said with a nod and an encouraging smile.

It was right at that point that he heard Louisa sniffle rather loudly. He looked at her, half expecting to see tears streaming down her face since that definitely sounded more like a cry sniffle than a cold sniffle in his opinion. "Come on Louisa. I know you're not happy that the two of you aren't talking," Adam said, just above a whisper so that only she could hear him. "And being the stubborn individual I know you are, I know you are going to try and deny it, but as your friend it is my duty to try and help where I can, and I am going to help you two." Adam shifted his attention back to Vashti.

"I know you need to study and all, and so do Louisa and I, but perhaps you'd be willing to have another go at trying to mend things?" Adam asked. He still had his wand at his side, though both of them still couldn't see it...

Vashti saw the look Louisa was shooting Adam, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It wouldn't help matters at all. She didn't want to make things any worse than they already were - and they were pretty bad already.

And he did have a point - there was quite a lot of space here that didn't include the table Louisa and Adam were sitting at. Was he purposely making it hard for her to excuse her way out of this? Probably. He was the one who'd been trying to get her and Louisa to apologize back at the Whomping Willow weeks ago. "Well..." She trailed off when he continued speaking. She heard Louisa's sniffling too, but she figured it was better if Adam addressed it instead of her.

And then he brought it up - trying to mend their friendship a second time. And again her Ancient Runes homework popped into her mind. Look at the situation from the other person's perspective. She'd done that. Apologize. Forgive. That, she still needed to do.

Vashti sighed and shut the textbook that she was still holding. Her attention turned from Adam to Louisa. "Look, Louisa," she began, keeping her voice calm...and sincere. That was one of the other things that rune had influenced her to write down. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for taking that love potion. Even if I was only doing it for your own good-" Annoyance rising. Deeep breath. "-I still shouldn't have done it. Stealing is wrong no matter what someone's intentions are. So I'm sorry... I really am."

That...felt good, honestly. Even better than telling Louisa what she didn't like about her had been. At least she could let go of all this now, even if Louisa didn't accept her apology. Vashti's conscience was cleared at least. She'd done what she needed to do.

Nessie raised an eyebrow. "stuff what kind of stuff? You sound kind of suspicious. I'm not sure I like it Pixxi." Nessie looked down at the bottle bottle in her hands wondering if she can actually go through with it. "Anyway it's fine I'm just glad you made it."

Louisa looked up at Adam when he whispered something to her, she was still frowning and wanted to punch him in the face because Vashti smiled at HIM not her long-term-best-friend. But he was saying something sensible. Louisa didn't nod at him because he spoke next to Vashti who took a deep breath and struggled for words.

Was she going to do that Ten-Things-I-Hate-About-You phase? The younger Ravenclaw wanted to hold this hard attitude toward the love-potion thief.

...but no, Vashti was apologizing. For real. Louisa's eyes widened at hearing the sorry word. She could swear that throughout three years of their friendship, Vashti had never said it before - well, not in front of Louisa. And it did wonders, that word.

"Yeah.. thanks." The girl croaked before clearing her throat and standing up, "I am sorry, too. You know for.. shouting at you, throwing those dungbombs and.. speaking to Anakin about it." Who, to her great annoyance, didn't believe her but it was worth a shot. At that time.

With a deep breath, Louisa lifted her head to look at Vashti, look and smile subtly. She'd missed this feeling she got when her old friends were around, that she didn't have to worry about heading up to her dorms and bumping into her roommate. It was refreshing, really. And because she missed all this, she walked toward Vashti and hugged her, slowly and gently. Yep, they were doing firsts today.

'No, don't worry,' Amara replied, suddenly taking an interest in Fizzy's black coat of fur and looking at it intensely, her face slightly scrunched up.

'Well, actually I didn't choose it...' she went on. 'My - adopted father did. Hogwarts is way better though. I was here once before, at the Triwizard Tournament.'

Adam sat there listening to Vashti's apology, which he thought was incredibly nice considering during their last attempt at mending things neither of them had really wanted to apologize at all. He turned to look at Louisa who looked like she was about get up and clock him in the face. He was glad to see Louisa's features soften though and her eyes widen as Vashti apologized. He guess she hadn't been expecting those words from Vashti either! Adam was going to give an encouraging nod towards Louisa to say something back, but it really wasn't necessary since Louisa had already turned towards Vashti and started speaking.

And as Louisa stood up and went over to Vashti, giving the girl a hug Adam got a little grin of satisfaction on his face. Well...it looked like he could help save their friendship after all! Deciding that his wand was no longer necessary to lock the door, since Vashti hadn't tried to leave, Adam tucked it back into his pocket. Deciding to give the girls a moment to speak in private if they wanted, Adam flipped open his Defense Against the Dark Arts book and began reading.

Pixxi waved her hand impatiently, "Oh, it's nothing. What are we doing today?" She answered a little high-pitched and distracted. She was looking at the pumpkin juice bottles in Nessie's hands and she wondered if they were suppose to drink the pumpkin juice or if she was gonna die from dehydration. "Can I have some pumpkin juice, please? I just ran through the whole castle." She straightened up and looked at the cold, delicious juice and hoped Nessie would give her one of the bottles.

"So, you chose Hogwarts?" asked Erin clearly engaged on Amara's story. Well, it was not like her life. Hogwarts chose her but maybe, she got her letter too. "Have you got yout letter though?" It was frustrating to go to a school you chose and then end up in some strange Dark Arts teaching school. Durmstrang based from the history books Erin read, she was not fond of it.

She was adopted. How sad was that. At least, Erin had met her biographical parents especially her Mum before she was gone forever. "You're adopted? How's that like?"

Homework, was it? A homework that consisted of FIRE?! WHAT did the teachers of Hogwarts think they were doing, letting the children work with FIRE?! Getting a zero or not, João Marcelo Mendonça Nascimento Teixeira Neves was NOT doing such a homework. Period.

Taking an involuntary step backwards to keep safe from the fire when Josh jumped, his hand travelled to his wand, clutching it fiercely in case Josh attempted something silly. He sure wasn't deaf and had heard the rumours about this reckless boy from the other Slytherins. It was better to be at utmost attention.

...come again?

"You--you cannot--it's against rules--you--" Time to draw the wand? Definitely.

Of course, as he was kinda experienced in this...fighting branch, Josh could tell the very moment when one prepared to get a hold of a possible weapon. And the weapon with the wizards was a wand at ninety-nine percent of times. ''Wo!!!'' so the Gryffindor raised a hand to make the Slytherin boy stop.

Had not this Slytherin too much guts for someone who did not have the current advantage with his supposed fear of fire? And he was even imagining of drawing his wand to the King of Lions. Apparently he needed a lesson. Normally, Josh would not have bothered with that and walk away since it had already been proved that the fire rune spell worked however the lion boy felt like he actually enjoyed being a little bit of evil this time so he decided he could enjoy it a little bit more. He knew this snake boy, after all and no one could say that he was an innocent one.

''You would not dare'' he said smirking and pointing his already drawn wand at the boy with the rune in his other hand while approaching the boy close enough to slightly press the tip of his wand into his cheek.

What?

''Rules?'' now this could only make the boy let out a very loud laughter. ''I don't believe you have not heard anything about my history here.''

Vashti was relieved when Louisa seemed to accept her apology and was even giving one herself. This was nice, not having to be at each other's throats anymore. She hadn't realized it, but she did miss having Louisa as a friend. She really did.

She was a bit surprised by the hug but accepted it all the same. This mean they were officially friends again, yeah? "Thanks," she said, and it was intended for both Louisa and Adam - Louisa because she'd accepted Vashti's apology and apologized in return, Adam because he'd been the one who kept trying to get them to apologize in the first place. Without him, this might not have happened...or at least it might've been another few months until it did.

Pulling away, she looked at both of them with a smile. "So what're you guys studying?" She was curious.

Louisa pulled away from Vashti with a big smile and a flushed face, "I missed you..." She backtracked to the table and sat down, "You have missed a lot, too." Yep, because Louisa's life was just so exciting and fun to follow. Bleh. "Did I tell you that me and Jwaw are officially dating now?" Beeeeeam. "Adam too!" The girl said quickly, "Not dating us, too. No. I meant he's dating someone as well." Yep! Because Vashti was really a gossip kinda girl. Heh.

..oh. Right. Study. "I'm going to study Charms, you know, we have an egg to take care of." Chuckle. Okay, that sounded a bit...weird. "You?" Adam would prefer to talk about his study on his own, right? Maybe they'd get to know each other too! Vashti didn't seem that angry with him, anyway.

Adam smiled warmly at the sight of the two girls hugging, and gave a little nod of the head to say "you're welcome" to Vashti's thanking him as well from looking over Louisa's shoulder. He shifted his chair slightly as Louisa and Vashti came over to sit down at the table with him. He could tell already that Louisa was happy because she started telling Louisa about the fact that him and her both had significant others, and what she was studying. Adam couldn't help but chuckle slightly to himself...really he wasn't entirely sure that Vashti knew much else about Adam than his name and the fact that he was that persistent kid that wouldn't stop pestering them both until the forgave one another.

"I'm working on Defense Against the Dark Arts and studying for the O.W.L.s," Adam said with a little nod. "My hope is to eventually conjure a Patronus but I haven't tried it yet. What are you working on?" Adam asked.

Louisa had missed her? "I missed you too, Louisa." Vashti smiled. She kept the smile up as Louisa told her that she was dating "Jwaw," though she couldn't help the small, internal twinge of - jealousy? annoyance? Because how was it that Louisa, a fourth year, was able to get an official boyfriend before Vashti ever did? It was petty, and Vashti wasn't proud of it, but she wasn't going to act on it and she certainly wasn't going to argue with Louisa about it. She'd only just mended her friendship with the girl and she didn't want it ruin it again. So she ignored those thoughts.

"That's really awesome. Congrats to both of you," she said, grinning. Because it was awesome that both Louisa and Adam were dating someone, even if Vashti was the odd one out with her almost-nonexistent love life.

She nodded when Louisa said she was studying Charms. She did remember their professor saying something about taking care of an egg, though she couldn't remember what exactly they were supposed to do. Obviously she'd have to look through her notes again. And Adam was studying DADA? For the OWLs? Poor fifth year boy. The next thing he said caught her attention though.

"That's...actually what I was studying just now - how to conjure a Patronus," Vashti answered, holding up the book she'd been carrying so they could see the title and cover, which clearly had to do with Patronuses and dementors.

Oh. So they both were working on the same ADVANCED spell. Ahem. Louisa quickly piped in raising her hand absently, "I saw Dallin do it!" Yep, she was going to show off a bit. "Last term, we were studying right here and he tried many many times but couldn't get it, until that last time that I kept cheering for him and all that the silvery mist formed a head of a dog." Louisa was looking from Adam to Vashti, excitedly, "He was so happy and let me try it too." Needless to say she failed terribly since she was only a third year back then. BUT she did know what they were talking about so... she wasn't the young one here.

Ahem.

"Vashti, is Anakin mad at me?" Because I nagged him about you being a thief and to be careful around you...not to mention the love-potion part.