Still holding the box as if his life depended on it, Josh walked into the office of the Potions Mistress with thet familiar determined and confident demeanor he had yet the difference was: it very obviously lacked his usual cheerful air.

Once he was in he gave the woman a curt nod ''Hello, Professor Lafay'' before standing at that certain spot he liked to face the woman from, in front of her desk. He knew there was that chair but...he was not going to sit uninvited. So...there was nothing he could at this point yet, as a result he just stared down at the box he was carrying

"Carter..." She said worried. "What can I help you with."

The moment his last name was pronounced, Josh looked up quickly and blinked a few times. Hopefully he could still remember why he was there so taking a deep breath he replied the woman's question. ''Professor, i need to talk to you...about a private matter.'' VERY private indeed. As a result he hoped those girls behind would respect it. ''Is that okay with you?'' Maybe, she did not want to listen to a Gryffindor's private matters anyway. She was not his Head of House after all so he felt like asking. Eh...

''Here...'' then he said walking forward, placing the box on the table and opening it. ''...i brought you these. Owl feathers in case you still need them and...'' he hesitatingly indicated the flowers and chocolate resting beside the owl feather into the box before leaving them there and taking a step back. ''Do you have time?''

She cast privacy charms on their area and looked at him. "I have time." She said and waited.

She had time.

This was...good. ''Thank you.'' the boy said as he watched the Potions Mistress casting magic around. He knew that was for privacy for he saw her doing it before and he was grateful for it. No doubt he was because he did not want to hear the exeggerated and twisted versions of what he was going to talk to the woman in the corridors of the castle.

And once the Potions Mistress seemed to be done with it, Josh stared at her face and took a deep breath. ''I...'' where he could start with? ''...still remember what you told me when we discussed about this scar i have, professor. And since then i have been behaving accordingly. But...'' stopping for a moment he swallowed. ''...i have found out that you...i...we were wrong professor. She does not want me...at all. So i...i don't know what to do. I have no reason left to...you know.''

ooc: Using white fond for things others can't hear

Merlin's beard...

"Flores said she doesn't want you?" She asked him. Seemed unlike her... she'd put up with him all this time... "So she was the only reason you were trying to remain alive? Did you not hear in my previous class how your friends picked you to save from a fire?" She smiled sweetly to him, and it was genuine. "Wasn't I part of the reason? Don't you realize I'd be upset if I found out something happened to you?"

Had Evelyn said she did not want him? Well...the answer to that question was complicated since she never said it openly and/or directly but with her behaviour, the boy got the impression that she implied it. ''Umm...i...'' she would not freak out to know, right? ''...i proposed to her and she turned it down. She said she could not...do that. Since then it seems she does not want me around.''

Then what the Potions Mistress said about herself being one reason did actually make Josh blush some. Had she been aware of that? He knew her place for him was way different among the other professors and he sometimes behaved to show it however he never thought she'd bother to realise it. ''Professor...i...''

Now, he did not know what to say and feeling weirdly shy, the Gryffindor looked down at the floor, avoiding her eyes and smile. Then he thought he had better avoid commenting on that too if he did not want to sound silly. ''It's not that i'd go and get myself killed on purpose, mistress. I am not that hot headed anymore or, well, i try not to be. But it feels like there's a huge emptyness inside me, right now. I have dedicated myself to her for years. And now, i don't know what to do. And...i am afraid of what i might try to do.''

Like he had said, he was trying not to be hot headed.

"You know what you could do...?" She said and smiled. "You could find yourself another girl. A nicer girl... a hufflepuff maybe?" Not the Lovegoods one... she apparently was offlimits... "That Gibbins girl, she's cute... and I'm sure there are others who have shown you... they are interested?"

When Lafay started to speak again, Josh became all ears knowing from the first sentence that an advice was coming and it seemed he really needed some advice however when he heard the rest of what she was saying, his dark brown eyes became wide and widened even more as she kept talking.

What???!!

Like seriously???!!!

''I...'' eh? What? He was still...surprised that the woman had really suggested that. ''...no way! That's...i...no way!'' Okay. Breathe and speak properly, Josh Carter.

*breathe*

''I...i can't, professor. I don't want a nicer girl. I don't want any other girl. There are...well...right. There are girls but. NO. It feels awfully wrong. It'd ve very unfair for the girl anyway because i don't think i can see anyone else that way.''

And for the sake of Merlin!! Mia was his friend.

"Look, I'm sure there are no girls as good as Flores right now... but the best was to get over her, is to find someone else." She said and shrugged. "There is always someone else. And you never know... you may find the one. And if Flores really was your true love, then she'll be back. You can't force her to marry you when she isn't ready."

That was no joke, right? The Potions Mistress was not kidding. She seemed pretty serious and it...stressed him a great deal. Because he knew Lafay would never speak of anything pointless or anything that would not be the words of sense. So, fell into a very deep silence considering the idea or doing his best to be able to consider it. But...he even failed to picture himself with someone else in mind.

''It is not about her being better than others or her being good or bad or whatever. I love her for who she is, professor, i have known her for years. I believe it is beyond looks and qualities. Even though she does not want me right now, i know i WILL feel like i am being unfaithful if i ever try to be with someone else. And...i never meant to force her into anything. That's why i feel guilty.''

Still all stressed about the idea, Josh looked up at the dark ceiling and took another deep breath before looking back at the woman. ''If...if i really need to get over her, there MUST be another way.''

"Josh." She said using his first name. "What I tell you now, will remain in the strictest confidence between you, and I. If I hear this story repeated anywhere I will know it was you." Her privacy charms were the best in her arsenal.

"When I was in school, I was in love with the captain of the Slytherin quidditch team. We'd been friends since I was a first year, and we became best friend, but he'd only had eyes for the prettiest girl in school. He proposed to her at the end of his seventh year and when I found out, from his own sister no less, I stopped talking to him." She sighed. "They married and had three kids... and I moved on. Eventually, I too married." Three times, but she wouldn't tell him that if he didn't know. It wasn't important to the story. "Nearly three years ago, he came back into my life. He divorced his wife..." She smiled and blushed slightly. Hecate never blushed. "We started seeing each other, and although we broke up for a few months... we are now... back together."

She smiled. "Do you know what I'm saying? Where I'm going with this? He too proposed when he was your age, and it didn't go the way he wanted." She tried a different angle. "Even though I was in love with him, had he proposed to me... I'd have said no, and not because I didn't want him, but because I wanted to fulfill my dreams. My ambitions. I am a Slytherin..." She said. "We were always meant to be... we're proving that every day."

Becoming very quiet again when she said his name, Josh just blinked at the Potions Mistress as she began telling her...very private story of experiences. ''No one will know about it, professor.'' Of course, this Gryffindor boy was known to be very loyal to those he cared for and that included Professor Lafay.

Her slight blush that apparared on her face as she told him...those..., of course, made the boy raise his eyebrows surprisedly but he was more focused on the fact that how much he had in common with what she just told. Like well...friends since the first year, in love for years, proposing in seventh year. It was just that the prettiest girl in school was Evelyn to him...and he did not know about the future. He did not and he hoped it'd not turn out like that for himself. Or wait...it probably would never turn out like that anyway since the Head Girl turned his proposal down.

And when Lafay explained what she wanted to point out by telling this private story, Josh thought he had actually begun to understand. Most of the things were still confusing to him in his mind yet at least now he had little bits of ideas about what he was supposed to do. ''I never intended to be an obstacle for whatever goal she wants to fulfill in this life when i decided to propose to her but...i think i see what you mean. I'll just go an apologise to her for what i have done then...''

Then what?

''...then i should try to flirt others to get over things?''

"Why don't you start telling her that you are willing to wait if her answer isn't necessarily 'no,' but just 'not right now'. If then her answer is indeed no, see what other fish are in the sea." She said to him, the inflection in her voice was more matter of fact, than reflecting the tenderness her words were showing him. Maybe it was a defense mechanism, maybe she wasn't capable of it, but tenderness was not Hecate Lafay's 'thing.' "I was that other fish..."

Ask her what she meant and behave accordingly after getting the answer. That did indeed make good sense and somehow it made the boy feel like the might still be hope for him. Maybe he was not hopeless and doomed to be alone forever. ''I will try that, professor.'' Of course, he was willing to wait till whenever she'd feel herself ready and the answer was still a 'no' as in a real 'no', he was going to leave her alone if that was what would make her happy no matter how difficult it was for himself.

''Thank you for your time and...'' smiling a bit, he stopped for a moment. ''...i don't know the captain you spoke of but i can tell that he did a huge mistake by putting you in the position of 'the other fish'. I would not have done the same.''

And now....it was time for him to leave. So he took a few steps closer to the door.

''And thank you again.''

She smirked... everyone knew her captain... they just didn't know he was hers.

She lifted all the wards, and said "You are welcome."

Where were the others?

She peaked out. "Are you two coming in?"

"Come on... let's get this over with." She said.

Nodding at the younger Gryffindor that was invited in with her, Kurumi followed the grumpy Potions Mistress into her office and bowed politely before heading towards one of the chairs. Let's get this over with.... Merlin why did she have to be so grumpy? Kurumi would certainly try to make this quick.

Kurumi had tried to keep a more positive and less intimidated appearance in front of the woman, especially since Jonathan spoke so highly of her, and it helped that Professor Scary Face intimidated her more. Him and his potential vigilante work he did when he wasn't teaching History of Magic.

Hopefully the younger lion didn't mind that she would speak first. "Thank you, Professor Lafay," Kurumi said with an odd sense of confidence and lack of stutter. "I just wanted to give this to you." She bent down and reached into her bag for the small container that held the bits of moldy wood she had collected from one of the raised flowerbeds in the destroyed greenhouse three after the snow dragon had flooded it. She handed it to Professor Lafay. "I...was hoping that perhaps it would be able to shed some light on the magical compounds of the snow dragon. I've never seen wood mold over so fast." It had been less than 24 hours even. Kurumi would have brought it to Professor Glass, being the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, but seeing as she had left the premises, Kurumi thought that the Potions Mistress would be the best to ask.

Potions did, after all, require intensive knowledge about the properties in organic materials.

...

She looked up at the girl, unamused.

Really?

She sighed. "I am not sure what your Goals are Hollingberry. I don't know what exactly this moldy wood is... or how it related to the snow dragon... or how you got your hands on it. And how fast is fast. You should really speak to the Creatures and Herbology professor. Herbology for the mold and Creatures for the dragon... I could tell you what the properties of this mold would be as they related to potions..."

Kurumi stood there sort of frozen in place. That was what she had wanted the Potions Mistress to look at...how it would work in a potion. If it worked in a potion one way, then that was certainly revealing about its properties as a whole, right? Besides, they had used bread mold in a lesson once, so the fourth year was under the impression that Professor Lafay knew a thing or two about mold. "I was actually hoping that was exactly what you could do..."

"I would go to the Care of Magical Creatures professor, but they never seem to be around." Kurumi had actually never met them. Besides, it wasn't a real dragon but a snow sculpture that I had come to life. Big difference. "I also thought of seeking the advice of Professor Glass, but she seems to be away as well... the dragon was enchanted by some means." Which meant she ought to go talk to Professor Schirmer.

But the prefect seemed to have a few questions to answer. "This mold formed in less than 24 hours. I found it while I was cleaning greenhouse three as a request from Professor Bentley to all students. It is from the remains of a raised flowerbed."

But, if the woman thought that Kurumi was wasting her time, she would gladly scamper out of her office.

Hecate examined the mold and looked up at the girl. "This would be useful in some for of healing potion..." She said and touched the mold. "The spores are still fresh... which is odd for it having been freshly removed."

Kurumi sat their in silence as Professor Lafay examined the mold and tried not to actually laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of this situation. Perhaps the only good thing that had come out of all this was that she actually wasn't stuttering in front of the woman. Yay! Still, Kurumi never thought that she would be in the Dragon's Lair discussing mold.

Healing potions? Well, that wasn't too surprising since they had used bread mold her second term to brew Vaxifloo.

"Still fresh?" Kurumi repeated as she leaned a bit forward to see if she could see anything. No such luck. Kurumi didn't know much about mold. "Does that mean that the mold is still...growing?" Didn't being exposed to fresh air kill mold spores over time? At least, her mother said that often enough.

"Did. I. Stutter?" She said in an annoyed tone... though in truth she was containing laughter... stuttering... to Hollingberry... Merlin, she was going to lose it.

"Yes, the mold looks as if it is still growing. You said this is a specimen from the Snow Dragon? How did you get this? Where did you get this?"

"No, professor," Kurumi said, not stuttering herself. Although, she had to admit that she would consider it an accomplishment if she managed to make the woman stutter.

And...she was being asked to tell her where she had found it and all that again? "Well, as I mentioned earlier, I found it in greenhouse three during Professor Bentley's extra credit assignment. I removed some leaf debris from one of the raised flower beds and found a sapling that had somehow managed to survive the flood from the snow dragon melting, and when I removed it...I saw that the flowerbed was beyond repair and that is when I spotted the mold."

Hecate shrugged.

"Maybe the snow dragon was freezing it and wouldn't allow it to grow at this speed..." she said and looked at her. "I'd have to test it in different variation of an antibiotic potion, so I can see how affective it would be."

Kurumi sort of just sat there when Professor Lafay spoke again. "The snow dragon was freezing plants as it walked...until a student cast Incendio and melted it anyway." Which had caused the flood in the first place.

When Professor Lafay spoke again, Kurumi took that as a cue that it was time for her to leave the office. "I suppose I should get going," the fourth year said as she bowed her head. "I am not sure if you need an assistant for your experimenting, professor, but I would be willing to help." Kurumi wasn't the best at potions, but at least she wasn't Selina.