‘Hmm?’, she mused, tracking down the source of the voice. She eventually managed to spot another girl. She looked kind of familiar, but the seventh year couldn’t figure out what her name was. But anyway- Wasn’t she a Gryffindor? Gwen was almost sure about that.

Oh. She still hadn’t answered the question. ‘Umm... not really’ Erm. ‘I mean, they’re alright. Just not my favourites’ Yeah, the ducks were alright but she was not a big fan. She preferred cats. And dogs. ‘Do you?’

‘Have we met before?’, she finally asked. It was true, she was AWFUL at remembering names, but she did remember the people she had met. So anyway- just asking.

Jp let his canary out for some air. It fluttered about as JP sat listening to the other students speaking. He charmed some stones to race about his feet as he sat and watched the ducks.

In the brief moment of waiting for a response, Penelope glanced out over the duck pond again, just scanning to see if the ducks were doing anything interesting besides swim or waddle around. They didn't seem to be though, and the Ravenclaw was replying now, so she turned her attention back to her.

And she apparently didn't particularly like ducks. At least she wasn't overly enthusiastic about them. Which was fine with Penelope because she wasn't either. "I like them well enough I guess. But they're not my favorites either." They were cute and all, but she didn't see anything particularly great or fascinating or interesting about them. Probably why she didn't come here much.

Oh, that was a good question though. Had they met before? Penelope really wasn't sure. "I dunno...I don't really remember it if we did." Which was...probably bad if they had, but she was assuming she wasn't the only one who forgot since the girl was asking. "But I guess we can say we're meeting now." And she'd probably remember it later on this time. Hopefully.

Hecate went out to the duck pond.

She had an empty sample container with her.

She was looking around for something... but what...?

Minerva had decided to walk down to the duck pond. It was super chilly, but she just wanted outside. So why not head to see well what was left of the ducks. Walking towards the pond Minerva looked curious.. was that Professor Lafay. She got interested, the last time she remembered having a run in with Lafay outside the classroom was with a baby dragon.

But there was no dragons around, so she wasn't going to be trying to get anything like that today. Then Min remembered how empty the ingredients room was so maybe she was looking for something for a potion. Minerva continued closer, "Hello Professor" Looking around she turned and looked back at Lafay, "do you need help with anything professor?"

"What?" She said coming out of a daze. "Miss Wheatborn... uhmmm... yes... you might be able to..." She lifted a lilypad and then put it down... "The ducks are up.......................... to something, but I don't know what..." She said looking around still.

Minerva watched her curiously. What was she doing, really was she wanting water for a potion, or maybe even the plants around. Seeing her pick up a lily pad Minerva really thought that was it. Yes she was looking for ingredients not big deal really but then she put it back down.

The next thing Professor Lafay said made Minerva tilt her head with a questioning look. "Their up to something professor?" Looking out at the pond, Minerva was more confused then ever. They didn't look up to something, but maybe she was misreading them. No. no their ducks how could ducks be up to something, "What do you think they are up to professor?" Was she going to have to go get Healer Tillstorm, because at the moment she thought maybe Lafay had lost it a bit..

"What?" She said snapping out of a daze... "Who is up to something? Miss Wheatborn, I'm not sure what you are talking about. But if you'd like to assist me, I've given one of the ducks a... enhancement potion? Anyway... there should be some dung with an orange sparkly hue." She duplicated her container and handed it to the girl. "I want it..." if Firth found out she'd given his ducks a potion...

... Well... Anyway. "Look for it."

Minerva was taken back by her what.. she was the one saying the ducks were up to something. "Well the ducks Ma'am you said they were up to something." That is what she said.. right, Minerva started second guessing, maybe she heard Lafay wrong.

Here eyes widening as she heard Lafay say what she was doing, now she knew she heard her wrong. She gave what to a duck? Taking the container from Professor Lafay Min felt this odd feeling rush over her. She was seriously looking for poop... duck poop... Poop that was orange, honestly had the woman gone mad.

Minerva did an inner sigh and decided she would help her without questioning any further. "Do you think the duck would have been closer to the water or on the grass somewhere?" Hopefully she would have a starting point for them to look.

Hecate ignored the girl's first question. "It would have found a quiet spot to... do his business... this is going to work well with my unction..." She added the last to herself. "Come on child. Look, LOOK!"

After checking briefly on Bonny, Ali made his way towards the duck pond to check on more of the creatures under his care. As he approached, he noted that there were already two other people there. One appeared to be... Hecate? Indeed. And with... It appeared to be Minerva Wheatborn. Yes, that was it.

But what were they doing? He slowed his pace and unconsciously began to walk quietly. They were both bent over, rummaging through the brush. Deciding that it was too strange to ignore, he closed the distance between himself and the pond and made his presence known.

"Hecate, Minerva," he said by way of greeting. "I'm wonderin'... well, i's jus' that i' looks like yeh're both, well, UP........... ter somethin'." And he wouldn't necessarily put it past Lafay to harm his ducks somehow.

Minerva heard it in her voice, she was getting annoyed or irritated, she had heard that voice many times and only once it was directed to her. She didn't want in that hot seat again, so she put her head down and began to look.

Where to look though was the problem.. Who was she kidding she was looking for POOP that was the problem, but ingredients were ingredients. As she looked she wondered if they had to stay quiet, could they.. umm talk while they looked. Deciding against it, Minerva made her way up towards a tree, maybe ducks liked to do their thing next to trees. As she went around the tree she spotted something that wasn't the typical little and black...

"Professor.. professor.. I .." Just then she heard another voice and turned, Oh no it was Mr. Firth. What if he thought she had done the potion on the duck or that she helped Lafay do it. She just gave a small smile, because honestly she hadn't done anything wrong, just helping a professor pick up duck droppings. "Hello Mr. Firth. Up to something? Why umm no, I was just helping Professor Lafay look for Duck poop, you know normal potion ingredient that already comes out of the duck." she decided it was time to stop talking before she was put into a potion by Lafay.

Hecate jumped! The Hot!Scot!!

Merlin this was not what she needed right now.

But Minerva started talking and she wasn't doing bad.

"Right... just normal... boring old dung." And she smiled wide as she said it.

Right. So Between Minerva's stammering and Hecate's lengthy pauses... Oh, and that SMILE. Definitely up...... to something.

"Well, in that case, I'll help yeh look," he said, returning a smile that was not completely genuine. Suspicious? Paranoid? Yes.

He walked to the far side of the pond, away from the other two delinquents searchers. A shimmery substance caught his eye after a few moments. Was that... "ORANGE?"

He pointed at the specimen.

"Hecate. Wha' have yeh bin doin' ter my ducks?"

Minerva looked to Lafay.. Alright do your magic.. or well your charm.. well just do your Lafay ways and hope for the best, but Professor Lafay agreed with Minerva. Giving a small smile Minerva thought that was great.. but of course she did they used dung in potions, so why wouldn't that be believable.

She turned to Firth and the smile left her face he was not looking like he bought it at all. He was going to help, well if she found it first and somehow scooped it up without touching it then he wouldn't find it. Yes that was her plan and she began looking again, but soon froze.

Firth found the orange poop.. She looked to Lafay and then back to Firth and well kept etching a little closer, because it was orange duck poo for goodness sake she was kind of curious.

Ooooo THE DUNG! Orange, and did it sparkle? She tried to look, but Firth was going to be accusatory? "Me? I think you may want to ask Miss Wheatborn here... She may have fed the ducks something, I think you need to deduct house points from Huffllll-OOOOO IT DOES SPARKLE!!!" She said and pushed her way past the groundskeeper to retrieve the dung.

Right. Minerva was on the grounds all the time, so he saw nothing strange about her being here at all. On the other hand, he had never seen Hecate outside the castle before now. And she had been smiling and pausing suspiciously.

Then when she went crazy about sparkles, she as good as admitted her guilt in Ali's eyes. "Hold on there, now!" he said, struggling to stay between Lafay and the bright orange poo. Whipping out his wand, he Banished the clump to an empty jar in his hut. He wasn't letting her have what she wanted before he heard what she was up to.

"I want an explanation before yeh go pickin' that up! Wha's this all about?" he demanded.

No one.
Messed.
With his ducks.

Crazy Potion lady say what.... Minerva stood there looking dumbfounded as Lafay just threw her under the bus until a word shot out of her mouth points it was one thing since first year that would get Minerva fired up faster then anything.

"Wait.. I didn't do anything.. I would never give the ducks anything. Professor I was just helping you when I saw you down here. There is no way I should have points taken for helping you find Duck Dung." She quickly stepped closer to Firth knowing that talking back to Lafay was a death wish waiting to happen but panic hit when the word points came.

Then she looked to Firth who seemed to not believe her anyway, but who would after she got so distracted by the.. well. yeah it was kind of interesting the way it sparkled, but it was obvious it wasn't Minerva that did anything once Lafay did that. She kept her closeness to Firth for safety reasons and watched as he banished the dung away and asked for an explanation.

Well she was keeping her mouth shut, unless points came up again...

Wow, that Puff sure was a fast talker. "I believe yeh, Minerva. Don' worry." She wasn't the one who has some SPLAINin to do. If it weren't for him being somewhat upset with Hecate, he would have chuckled, if only internally, at Minerva sidling towards him. He probably would do the same thing in her position. After all, Lafay was trying to pin the blame on her.

Cue eyebrow raise. "Sooooo, Hecate?"

Merlin's Beard! He'd just pulled his wand out on her! She took a step back, but before she could know it, he'd banished the dung.

He'd magically moved the pile of stinky, sparkley, orangy worderfulness! Somewhere where it could get contaminated? Maybe? Would it still have the same properties now that it wasn't manually removed? Would it be ruined now? She didn't know.

She'd still try it.

And then the child threw her under the Knight Bus... The kid should have been a Slytherin with the speed she covered herself with.

"Some Hufflepuff you are..." She said under her breath...

"Oh, keep your skirt on, Firth." She said with a smirk. Even though he didn't have his kilt on now, he did wear one. "Your ducks may have... accidentally... ingested something that made their dung more..." valuable? "enriched of nutrients. They are fine..." She said rolling her eyes. If he had ruined her specimen, she'd just take one of his precious ducks and transfigure it into a cauldron during the daytime so he'd never know!

... He certainly was pretty when he was angry.

Giving a small sigh of relief she smiled, but still stayed close to Firth. She hated being on the bad side of Lafay and she figured she would be now that she let her take the fall, but there was no way Min was going to let her house get points taken for something she did not do..

Watching Lafay carefully she couldn't help notice her niceness towards the groundskeeper, maybe it wasn't niceness maybe she was just trying to figure out how to get the duck doo doo back.

Then she thought Lafay said something to her and without thinking, "Did you say something professor?" biting her lip quickly, she should shut up before making Lafay anymore mad. Maybe she should even get the heck out of there.

"Should..should I umm leave you two? I..I probably should get back to the castle." She pulled her coat tighter trying to seem cold.

Excuse you, Hecate. Alistaire Fergus Douglas Firth did NOT wear skirts. "Firs' of all, Hecate," he said, stressing her name while still attempting to be polite. "I's a kilt, which yeh should know was a very manly form of attire in th' olden days." Though muggle tourism had turned it more into a cheap form of souvenir up and down the Royal Mile of Edinburgh and degraded its prestige. But enough about that.

"Second of all, if tha's all it is, then there's no problem. Though I do wish yeh would've let me know ahead o' time so I wouldn' worry." But... no blood no cobbing, right? With another flick of his wand, the Banished dung appeared back where it had previously been.



Ali was not in a good mood, since apparently people thought he wore women's clothing.
Yes, the child should probably get back to the castle. He wasn't all too happy with the girl for possibly being in on this scheme, and it was starting to get dark anyways,. Hold on... "Wait jus' a minute... Yeh're out mighty late, maybe even pas' curfew." And that meant... "Yeh're out of bounds without proper identification, yeh are!" Tut tut. "Le' me see yer ID."

Yes, this new happening had driven all thoughts of the Potions professor from his mind.

"I did." She said, but shrugged as if it didn't matter anymore.

Should she leave them? Alone?! NONONONONO!!!! She didn't trust herself to be ALONE with the groundskeeper... She had too many... Charms and Hexes that she'd love to try on him... Like on that eyebrow of his that kept shooting up... She was tempted to-

MERLIN NO! SIERRA! ALEXANDER! ARIADNE! SIERRA! ALEXANDER! ARIADNE!
SIERRA! ALEXANDER! ARIADNE! SIERRA! ALEXANDER! ARIADNE! She just kept loudly in her head.

"You have not been dismissed" She hissed at the girl with her wand out. She was ready to cast incarcerous at the girl just to keep her there... Which oddly was one of the charms she was thinking for Firth...

Mer-LIN! That brogue of his got stronger when he was mad... She loved it and bit her lower lip thinking about it...

MERLIN! NO! She had to stop testing potions on herself before she came out on the grounds! It made her more susseptable to... HIM!

Pshhh not a skirt... "Firstly, do you see pettycoats under my skirt?" Then very dryly added, "It's 2080, not the olden days, Alistair..." she spoke his name each sillable slow and rich, "Secondly, excuse the pun, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck..." It's a skirt! She smirked. Well... she knew it wasn't, but she just had to see him fume over this... Maybe the brogue would get so heavy she wouldn't understand him! "And thirdly, I didn't want to bother you... knowing that what they 'accidentally' ingested wasn't... harmful..."

... Riiiiiiiiight.

Ooooo SPARKLEY! The Dung was back. Well, it was magicked there and back, she'd banish it to her own office... no need for manual things now. And she cast the spell making it vanish from it's spot.

Oh, good... the Tattlepuff was in trouble. This she would stay to see.

Minerva watched as it seemed that Lafay upset Mr. Firth, well saying a guy wore a skirt could do that now couldn’t it. She really just wanted away from Lafay before she used them both for ingredients. Why in sixth years didn’t she learn her lesson yet to just stay away from the lady, but she knew it was because even though she could be horrid mean, Minerva respected her and enjoyed potions. Then when Lafay told her she wasn’t allowed to leave Minerva fidgeted a bit, but stayed close to Firth it was safer near him then away from him anyway while she was in spell arrange of Lafay.

Minerva jumped at irritation in Firth’s voice towards her that wasn’t there just a second ago. What the snitch happened, he wasn’t now thinking she gave that to the duck.. She would never do anything to hurt animals and wait.. late.. past curfew. She looked around it was still light out, it wasn’t even that late. She looked all kinds of confused at him, but stumbled through her bag pulling out the ID.
Still looking at him scared as if seeing a dementor and confused, Minerva handed him her ID, something she had never been asked in sixth years to do. They both knew her and they both knew she was never in trouble.. ever. ”Here sir.. but has curfew hours changed? It was pretty early still when I left the castle and I haven’t been out that long.” Maybe with the goblin mess they changed curfew or something.

Glancing at Lafay she looked down quickly, because she knew the woman was probably highly enjoying all of this.

He mostly ignored Hecate's jabs at him. He wasn't going to stoop to that level. Plus it definitely wasn't a skirt. KILT, woman. KILT. "Glad ter hear it," he muttered after hearing that it wouldn't harm them.

He nodded with approval when she Banished the contents in question. Fine. He wasn't sure he wanted the strangely colored detritus around anyways. It was just... odd...



She was definitely looking jumpy. Good. Serves her right, he thought. When she produced something, he looked at it briefly before speaking once more. Irritated, he gave her a stern look. "No, curfew hasn' changed. But as yeh can see, yeh're clearly not in the castle, an' as yeh can also see, i's clearly starting ter get dark."

He shook his head slightly. "This is clearly a fake, an' a bad one a' that." Which means she had some explaining to do.