Iselin came down from the girls dormitories wrapped in her blanket and went to go sit by the fire. She loved it being cold outside... not inside and for some reason she was freezing at the moment. She needed some hot soup or a hot boy to warm her up a bit. sadly though she has neither at the moment but the fire was nice. She sat on one side away from another student who was on the other end of the couch. She gave her housemate a warm smile before turning to watch the flames flicker. so pretty.

Marsha was currently sitting in front of the fire. She wasn’t really cold, but she had to admit to loving the fire. Although the fireplace here was much bigger than her one at home in Wales, it did give her the feeling of home that she had been missing slightly lately. With a warm sigh, she pulled her feet up onto the sofa in front of her and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on her knees.

Oh, look a student.

She saw the smile and grinned back. ”Hi,” She said almost softly, she didn’t want to disturb the other girl or the fire since it was crackling away so lively. She would have sworn that the flames were dancing if she had to - look at it enjoying the music and life. Hehe.

She turned her head slightly so that she could lean her cheek against her knees instead of her chin and continued to look at the flames. The heat was lovely, she felt it soothing her, she had gotten lost again earlier and this time Adi hadn’t been there to save her - she’d simply had to keep hunting until she had found something she had recognised and re-orientated herself. Darn staircases.

Homework time was the WORST time. Zander Adair was not a fan. But then again, was anyone a fan of homework? Ravenclaws, probably.

Merlin, he was hungry.

Wait. Focus. Homework. He was here to do some of the potions stuff. Right. Potions. Only, he really didn't feel like writing that entire essay... Though both options included an essay this time. Unfortunate. He really needed to talk to Culloden about that. Maybe the man would change it if he saw Zander's sad face. Homework was the WORST. But also that would involve having to talk to Culloden and Zander had already made enough office visits this year thankyouverymuch.

Soooooo potions.

Doing homework in the common room, being rather noisy and crowded, was not particularly the best idea. But unfortunately, everywhere else was pretty much full, and Natalia never fancied studying in the eerily quiet library. SOOO... she was going to have to adapt to a little noise.

So, what first? Natalia had finished both her astronomy and divination homework the night before, having taken the easier 'boring' route of writing essays instead of performing much more interesting practical tasks. Perhaps for her other uncompleted homework, she should consider taking the experimental option.

Popping on one of the comfy-looking red couches, Natalia grabbed out her to-do homework list. So... done that, finished that... okay, potions homework. Oh, this should be fun, switching her concoction with another student's, but whose?

Stretching her neck and glancing around the room, Natalia was in search of a possible partner for the homework project. Hmm... everyone else seemed busy... HEY! "ZAAAAAANDER!" Mwahaha. There was no running away from her now. "Whachu doing right now?"

The Gryffindor looked around the Common Room, hoping to find someone to swap potions with. That way he could avoid doing the HUGE essay, and just do the little mini-one. See, this Sixth Year knew how to strategize. Only there wasn't anyone around who looked like they weren't already busy... That was until he spotted Natalia. Of course Zander quickly looked away after spotting her because Merlin forbid SHE became his homework partner.

... Of course.

The world really hated him, didn't it? GUH.

Though he was entirely pained and REALLY didn't fancy a conversation with the girl, he smiled at her all the same. Being friendly to his housemates was apart of the job description. Unfortunately. Well unless that housemate was Zahra 'cause there was no way Zander would ever try to be friendly with her. But Natalia was a transfer after all. Maybe she was just trying to find her place. Doubtful. "Hey Natalia," Merlin please call in back up.

But "ZAAAAAAAANDER" was better than "the-stuttering-Prefect" so he'd take it. "Erm..... Was just about to start some potions homework," see something boring that she probably didn't want to sit around for. "What about you?" he was greatly hoping that this was the end of their little conversation. Not that he didn't like her or anything... But he just wasn't her biggest fan, okay?

What a surprise to Natalia that the Stuttering Prefect actually took the time and energy to reply to her. She had half expect Zander to look the other way and pretend he didn't hear her. The Lioness could discern the slight reluctance of the Prefect to interact with her. But, that was EXACTLY what made this FUN!

Potions homework? What a coincidence! Giving Zander a little cheesy smile, Natalia rolled open her scroll of parchment labled "Potions Homework #1" and showed it to Zander. "Same here!" Aaaand... hopefully he saw it coming, because Natalia was planning to ask him to be her partner, whether he liked it or not. "We should do it together!" He couldn't reject her now, unless he already have partner, or lie about having a partner. Well, if he lied about having a partner, then he wouldn' t be able to finish his potions homework at all. SO, there was no other route he could take, MWAHAHA. Natalia needed a partner desperately, so, it looked like Zander would be the one!

"What's your potion?" Natalia rummaged in her bag and grabbed out a small crystal phial. "Mine's Anger." She was curious to see what effects her potions could enact.

You know if it wouldn't have been rude, he actually wouldn't have taken the time and energy to reply to her. Y'know, look the other way and pretend he didn't hear her. Actually, no that wasn't like him at all. He even acknowledge Zahra Kettleburn so that was saying something. Natalia was... quite the character, but she wasn't anywhere near Zahra level. Also no where near Aegis Dane level either, so y'know what? Nat wasn't all that bad. Even if she did give him a horrendous nickname that Zander Adair would always fight against.

Ahem.

So anyways. Yeah, potions--Oh man. She was working on potions too? Uh oh. That only meant, "Oh uh... Sure?" Okay maybe he would've preferred the essay. Especially since her potion was anger and he was actually trying to avoid that one. SIGH. Somethings just never go the way you'd want them to.

But unfortunately, he was sort of stuck, wasn't he? Sigh.

"Oh well, mine's excitement," he held up the vial so that she could see it. And he worked 'specially hard so YOU'RE WELCOME, NATALIA.

When Zander agreed with an uncertain 'sure', Natalia grinned even wider and prepared to exchange potions. Even if he DID hesitate to make a decision, Natalia would have grabbed his potion from him anyway. Typical Natalia.

"Switch." The fourth year demanded said simply as she handed her phial over to the prefect. She wouldn't say that her concoction was the best, but it certainly wasn't as bad as those that EXPLODED in class. She might have made some minor mistakes here and there along the way, but overall, she had CONFIDENCE.

"Go on!" Natalia urged to prefect to consume her potion. With a quill in hand and her notebook in the other, she was ready to jot down any effects that might manifest visibly.

Zander gave her the most skeptical look as he followed her demands and took the potion from her hands, giving her his in return. Wait. A. Minute. Who said she was allowed to be the one in charge? Zander was OLDER and PREFECT. Something was not right here. Zander didn't like it at all. Except.... They did have to switch since it was a part of the homework assignment and it was a good thing that she was so ready to do it and -______-

Man.

There was really nothing he could do about it. So yes, he followed instructions. But no, he wasn't happy about it. For the record. He just wanted that to be clear thankyouverymuch. Hmph. "Hold on," Merlin, why was she in such a rush?! "It says here," he pointed to his notes. "That a full dose is half a water glass... in any liquid..." Alright, easy. He had a waterbottle in his backpack. So he reached into the black bag and pulled out his water bottle, eyeing it for dosage. "Alright, here goes nothing..." Okay, it looked like it was around half a water glass... Well it definitely wasn't anymore than half so here he went. Ahem.

He poured the emotion potion (lulz) into his bottle, shaking it up a bit in case because that's what his mother always did with jugs of orange juice? And then he began drinking it. Zander wasn't the biggest potion-after-taste fan so he downed it as quickly as he could. "I actually don't feel any different, huh. I wonder what went--" he stopped in the middle of his sentence, suddenly feeling some sort of SOMETHING going on his head. Merlin. It was like someone set fire to the place because suddenly he was getting very hot. And VERY angry. "HOW COME I HAD TO GO FIRST?" He didn't mean to take it out on Nat...

But it was the anger potion and *mellow*. She was just the only one around.

He pouted, crossing his arms and giving her a nice hard, stare. "THIS ISN'T FAIR. You've got to take MINE now!" He narrowed his eyes, urging her to go on. How come she got to call all of the shots? It was infuriating. It was horrible. It was completely and utterly unfair. It made Zander want to throw a chair across the common room or something. MAN SO ANGRY. Ahem.

Oops?

What was with that reluctant look, Zander? The Lioness ignored his glare and beamed with a smug look. Whatever was going on in his mind, Natalia didn't care as long as he DRANK THAT POTION. She just wanted to finish the homework assignment, okay? If it weren't for the fact that she was required to finish homework, Natalia would be outside enjoying the sunshine. But nope, she had to be here pleading highly suggesting Zander to be her partner and finish this activity.

Hold on? Why hold on?

Natalia couldn't help but to roll her eyes in impatience as Zander pointed out the instructions in the notes. WHO CARES. Just drink the potion already! Missing one dose of liquid was not going to kill anybody. The fourth year decided to not to consume the instructed amount of liquid, because she just had a cup apple juice fifteen minutes ago.

"Ermm... I don't think you have to shake that." Natalia couldn't recall the professor instructing them to shake the emotion potion before consuming. Perhaps he did, and perhaps Natalia had simply not pay attention. But whatever, Zander already finished his carefully-planned routine and drank it. GOOOOOD.

At first, Natalia's eyes lingered hopefully on Zander's face, searching for any evidence of anger that might manifest. COME ON, potion, COME ON. The fourth year's face fell slightly when the Gryffindor prefect opened his mouth and claimed that he didn't feel any emotional changes...

WHOA. WHOA. WHOA. WAS HE TAKING HIS ANGER OUT ON HER?

Forgetting all about the fact that Zander just drank an anger emotional-changing potion, Natalia stomped her foot while still sitting on the couch and stared BACK at the prefect. "Well, you AGREED to it because you didn't oppose it at first and WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME." Natalia found it quite uncomfortable to watch people SHOUT at her like that.

"Take yours?" The Lioness raised a skeptical eyebrow at the still-emotional prefect. Glancing at Zander's vial, containing excitement emotion potion, a whole list of unfortunate possibilities arose in Natalia's mind. Anger and excitement? They didn't sound like very compatible emotions, no, especially not in the same room.

But maaaybe Zander's enraged expression was beginning to worry Natalia. He appeared to want to... burn the whole castle down or something. Perhaps it would be best to fulfill his wish before he could act out his anger for real. "Fine, I'm drinking yours." Natalia announced before uncapping the vial and gulped down the potion. Feeling slightly strange when the last drop of liquid emptied down her throat, the fourth year merely gave a shrug before going back to jotting down notes of Zander's behavior.

"That's so COOOOOOOOL." Natalia exclaimed as she hastily recorded the exact words Zander had shouted seconds before. "The potion actually WORKED! I seriously thought it WOULDN'T because I thought I messed up SO MANY TIMES." The effects began small at first, manifesting on the emphasis on certain words.

Why was he yelling at her? WHY was he yelling at HER? Wasn't it quite obvious as to why? Actually... Why was he yelling at her exactly? .... Uh. Well there WAS a reason. She was just making him so. He just felt so. Really it was all her fault that he was... Uh. Zander had zero explanations but it was for reasons, okay? "Well if you've got to know," he replied with a snarky tone, clearly annoyed and frustrated by the question. "It's because you just..." Actually, come to think of it... Now Zander was starting to get angry about not knowing why he was ad at her?? Uh.

"I just need someone to take out all this rage on!!" he said that angrily too, by the way. Just too much frustration locked up in one Zander. This couldn't possibly be healthy. He was sure of it. And just as he felt himself get to the boiling point, the anger starting fading down a little bit. More annoyed than just plain angry. This was really weird.

Especially so when Natalia started going on about all her fun. This wasn't fair. He had made the excitement potion for himself. Not so that someone else could take it and give him a potion that he didn't want to take. This was so dumb. And it was making Zander even angrier!! His face was starting to turn red again as a sign. sigh. Felt like major mood swings or something. Meanwhile, Nat looked like she just got a brand new puppy or something. "Could you stop the enthusiasm? It's making me feel even worse. Like I want to punch something." Uh yeah, definitely the potion talking here..... sorry Nat.

Toddles was in the dorms cleanings yes Toddles was. Toddles walks his little feetsies down to the lion's den. Toddles notices studenties and Master Zander. Toddles sees Master Zander. Toddles grins and must says hi to Master Zander. Toddles wants to knows if Master Zander has any candies. Toddles sees Master taking potions and Toddles not knows whats it is. No Toddles does not.

Toddles goes to clean couches of foods yes Toddles does. Toddles notices new studenties as wells. Toddles never seens befores no Toddles not.

So clearly, Zander in his current condition was DANGEROUS. First, he announced that he needed to take out ALL HIS RAGE on someone. And that someone, at the moment, had to be Natalia, because she was his one and only partner. She couldn't exactly blame him for being angry, because she chose to brew the potion.

Glaring at the prefect with a bit of confusion on her face, Natalia began to notice Zander's rather rapid change of emotion. Was the fluctuation... normal?

Natalia knew that since he was bound to feel angry, she should react more... passively around him - but this was easier said than done. Her enthusiasm made him want to punch something? WELL HOW RUDE. Instead of growing annoyed as she usually would have been, the Lioness continued to carry that bright smile on her face and giggled - half reacting to Zander's red face and half for no reason. GIGGLES.

Oooh... an ELF! A HOUSE ELF!

Completely ignoring her homework partner, Natalia sprang up from her seat and rushed over to the house elf in such a hasty manner that her left shoe flung off her foot and flew Merlin-knows-where (Zander's lap? Dunno). Never mind that now, because NATALIA HAD NEVER SEEN A HOUSE ELF BEFORE. EVER.

"Aww... you're SO CUTE!" Natalia approached the elf and poked him slightly on the nose. WHEEEEEEE. SHE JUST TOUCHED A HOUSE ELF. "What's your name? Why are you here? I though house elves weren't suppose to appear in front of people? Are you in charge of the Gryffindor common room? Do you change my bed sheets? You do my laundry right? YOU'RE SO CUTE."

Okay, Natalia must've really screwed up this potion because Zander was getting this anger stuff in waves. And not the good kind of waves either. When they died down he felt calmer, but still angry. And then there were the TIDAL waves that hit all at once bringing a flood of RAGE. It could probably be seen on his face too, as he kept glaring and then going back to an annoyed expression just to go back to GLARING. It was more confusing than anything else, but also very ANGERING. He was in a RAAAAAGE. So much angst. Zander angry. Zander SMASH. Ahem.

And that giggling. It was making things TEN TIMES WORSE. Incase Nat was wondering, y'know. The more she giggling the angrier he got. "Could you quit that!????!!" SWEET MERLIN. WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY???

He hardly even registered any emotions when Nat sprung up from the couch and ran towards Toddles (oh hi, Toddles sorry for what's about to happen this is all out of his control ahem). And then... The shoe flew up into the air and Zander couldn't do anything about it before it hit his stomach, nearly missing his head on it's way down. OH THIS WAS WARRRRRR!!! The Gryffindor jumped up from the couch, shoe in hand and STORMED all the way over to Nat and poor little Toddles. "DID YOU THROW THIS AT ME?" Um. It was more of a demanding, angry tone that it was an inquisitive one. Basically sounding more like a 'YOU THREW THIS AT ME' than anything else.

"AND YOU," he pointed the shoe at Toddles in the most accusatory manner. "I haven't got any chocolate frogs for you to take." Was he glaring? He was so glaring. Uh oops. "I was just trying to do my homework and you both had to interrupt me with YOUR stupid giggling YOUR impeccable timing,"... *mellow*

Toddles sees mistress talks to Toddles yes Toddles does. Toddles hears mistress asks Toddles many things. Toddles ish confuzzled. Toddles bows to mistress. "Toddles miss.." Toddles says names yes he does. "Toddles helps all studenties. Toddles helps manies as Toddles cans. Toddles walks around castles to helps and cleans. Toddles does everythings with other house elfsies. Toddles not does it all alones." Toddles nods and begins to dusties couchies and fire place.

"Does mistress needs anythings? Toddles can gets snackies from kitchens?" Toddles says. Toddles wants to helps yes Toddles does.

Toddles hears Master Zander yells at Toddles. Toddles not knows why master yells at Toddles. Toddles is a good elfsies. Toddles wimbles his lower lip and begins to cries. Yes Toddles does. Toddles never gots yells at by a master.

"WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

Toddles cries out and runs out of commons room. Toddles will nevers bother Master Zanders again. No Toddles wont's.

Natalia felt she should at least feel a bit concerned at Zander's emotional... turmoil. He was angry, first of all, and many things could go wrong in the hands of an ANGRY person. But this was suppose to happen, wasn't it? It was the ANGRY emotion potion at work, and it was working WONDERFULLY. Well, sort of. There was something slightly off about Zander's expression... like he wasn't completely angry one moment; then in the next second, he looked like he was REALLY thinking about throwing someone in the lake.

Quit? Quick what? There was NOTHING to quick. GIGGLES.

Well this time, it seemed like Zander was REALLY offended. Seeing one of her shoe in Zander's hand, Natalia merely flashed another melodramatic smile and reached over to grab her shoe. "Thanks Zander!" She simply slipped into her shoe and turned back to the house elf. And no, Nat did not throw the shoe on purpose. Why would she do that? Did that seem like something Nat would do?!

Snackies from kitchens! "OH YES PLEASE!" Natalia bobbed her head up and down excitedly. She didn't know they were allowed to do that. It wasn't illegal to steal food from the kitchen during non-meal times? "I would LOVE snackies, THANK YOU DEAR TODDLES DOODLES PATOOTIES- WHERE DON'T LEAVE!"

Before Natalia could finish what she was about to say, the house elf wailed and ran out of the common room. With the cry still echoing in her ears, Natalia turned toward Zander and was determined to shout at him, angrily. But perhaps it was the potion that prevented her from growing completely angry when she yelled at the prefect. "You didn't have to YELL at her!" Poor Toddles... the expression on his face when he sprinted away! "ESPECIALLY DON'T TELL HIM THAT YOU HAVEN'T GOT ANY CHOCOLATE FROGS FOR HIM." It wasn't anger that arose from within her. It was... just rambling, mostly, really loud rambling. "NOW YOU SCARED POOR TODDLES AWAY, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT." Again, blaming but not angry.

Now both of them were shouting, one angry (very emotional sensitive at the moment) prefect and one very hysterical (more like melodramatic) fourth year.

"But I do hope he'll come back soon!" Look at that, one swift change of tone. "HE'S SO CUTE... it's still all your fault, Zander!"

Hadn't Zander told the girl to QUIT IT??? Yet she was STILL giggling. Merlin. It only made Zander angrier. You know, the absolute worst part of this potion was that it amplified his anger and made it hard to experience any other emotion. So though he would've normally had a logical outlook on the situation well at least a semi-logical one, he couldn't even think properly straight. There was just so much blood pulsing through his head. Or was that just his body heating up from all this yelling? Uh.

But never mind that, the House Elf was almost as bad as Nat. And Merlin, poor elf just happened to show up at the absolute worst time possible. And instead of feeling guilty about making him cry, Zander only got even MORE annoyed. It was the potion. It was blocking out his ability to feel remorse. Actually, he felt GREAT now that the elf was gone. But still angry. Angry that the elf had to come interrupt in the first place. Or maybe he was just getting angry at himself for making the elf cry??? Or MAYBE he was mad at NATALIA for being utterly insufferable.

Well whatever it was, he was angry. That much, he was certain about.

"UGH!" he let out a grunt in exasperation. "I can't take this anymore!" He glared at her before storming a few steps away. "If you need me-- TRY NOT TO." Zander was going to HIS ROOM. To get away from Nat. From the crying elf. And from anger, hopefully. How long until this potion would wear off because Zander was definitely going to feel absolutely terrible about it when that happened.

Oh goodness gracious. Potions homework was the absolute worst.

Whether Zander was angry or annoyed, or both, Nat couldn't tell. It didn't matter much to her what he was feeling, as long as he was definitely not going to throw her in the lake or something.

L-leaving? Leaving so soon? "Hey hey! No walking away Zander!" Natalia caught up with the storming prefect in an instant, hopping RIGHT in front of her bitter partner before he could walk any further. Hands on her hips, the fourth year stuck out that grinning face of hers CLOSE to Zander's sullen one and let out a strange giggle again. "We gotta finish this homework! It's OUR homework now, since we're partners!" Had he forgotten already? "COME ON, LET'S GET BACK TO WORK!"

Without turning back to see his reaction, Natalia casually grabbed Zander's wrist and attempted to DRAG him back to his seat. "Please cooperate here, Mr. Zanders!" The fourth year flashed another innocent smile at the prefect. "Potions homework is fun, isn't it!? ISN'T IT?!"

Yes. Yes he WAS leaving so soon. Zander couldn't take anymore of this. He was starting to get a headache. A headache that may have actually been due to some major moodswings and a very wonky potion, but if you asked him it was all HER fault. And Zander had found just another reason to be angry at her, so you could probably guess how well his day was going. Not well, by the way. Incase it wasn't obvious.

"We can finish it later, Natalia." Yes, yes he was FULL NAMING HER. This was serious. Actually no, probably not given the fact that she couldn't stop that stupid giggling. He rolled his eyes at her as he managed to slink his wrist out of her grasp. "I'm going up to my dorm. If you need me... Well actually, don't." And with that he put his hands on her shoulders and gently moved her aside so that he could begin climbing up the stairs.

"And it's not fun. I hate it." and with that, he stomped all the way upstairs.

... Oops?

It was what she got for brewing a stupid anger potion in the first place.

Izaac made a quick stop to the dormitory to dump his school stuff on his bed before treating himself to the sofa in front of the fire. He didn't spend too much time here actually. Boy loved bed too much. Standard. And to be honest, he was a bit hyper this afternoon after a very exciting hike through the grounds.

He watched the fire, wide-eyed, on another planet, and bit his fingernails absentmindedly.

Bored.

He should go to bed. But first he had to stare.

Marsha had been studying, flopped out on her bed for the last two hours. It was now the last place that she wanted to be, even though bedtime was probably within the next hour or so. However, until then she was going to NOT study… Hopefully find either Zak or Lance or Rusty and hang out in the common room… maybe she could convince one of them to play exploding snap with her. Hehehe.

Moving down the stars, she did a quick sweep of the room before finding the curly mop of Zak in front of the fire. Hehehe. WHEEEEEE.

Bouncing around people and weaving through the room, the Welsh girl flopped onto the sofa. Her head landed on his leg and her feet (which were encased in black fuzzy slipper-boots) rested on the other arm of the sofa.

”Oh well, haaaaiiiii.” She said, looking up at him grinning wide. ”I hate studying… but at least its interesting studying about magic.” SIGH.

With a loud CRUNCH of his nail, Izaac quickly tucked his hand away underneath his butt so he could hide it when someone joined him on the sofa. Biting nails was embarrassing, but half of the time he had no idea he was doing it. It was only Marsha, though, so the apparent head touching the leg was allowed. Wait. Was it? Zac didn't dare maneuver himself in case she moved it off. But the hand he was sitting on was beginning to ache so he did pull that away. He grinned. "Hi."

Awkward face closeness.

Yes.

Umm... "Which class were you studying for? I haven't even done that today." He was still grinning. Avoiding classwork was an achievement apparently.

Clasping her hands over her stomach, Marsha grinned up at him, then turned slightly so the top of her head was closer to his knees/her shoulder so that they were almost kinda sorta not really looking at each other properly. Oh well, whatever. She was comfortable. She would cope… and Zak didn’t normally complain about being a pillow for her so… whatever.

”I was looking over my stuff for potions. In class I couldn’t quite get my potion to work, it was slightly too light in colour... I was trying to see if I could figure out what I did wrong so that next time I attempt it I can get it right.” Well, she had been doing that, and then she had gotten distracted by Charms. Charms always seemed to interrupt and distract her.

”That’s okay, as long as you remember to get your homework done.” She grinned at him. ”Though, enough about classes… wanna play snap?” Or you know… anything else.

Izaac's eyes averted to the fireplace when Marsha looked right up at him properly. Not that he was uncomfortable, but too much eye contact was always awkward. Still, he looked back at her when she spoke of course. Which was a lot.

"Did you find anything?" He asked, just 'cause he was struggling a bit with most of the classes, too, potions included. And besides, potions was AWESOME so he wanted to know as much as possible!! "Yeah I guess so..." Homework was worse than classes. "It's real hard, though... don't you think?" Maybe he needed a tutor. Or maybe it was just because he was a magic newbie.

SNAP?! Zac shifted a bit in his seat but grinned, "Sure!" ANYTHING BUT HOMEWORK.