They have three snowball fights in the week leading up to Christmas, so really Franziska has no one but herself to blame when she wakes up the morning of the twenty-fourth with a stuffy nose and a slight headache.

"I'm sick." She declares into her pillow, and then groans miserably when her own voice makes her headache worse.

"I'd like to request a bed change, I don't want to catch whatever she has." Tonks declares immediately, and Franziska can hear the sheets from the metamorphagus's bed rustling as the girl tries to inch away despite the already present gap between their beds.

"I'm not feeling great either." Leona grumbles from across the room. "I vote today is stay-in-bed-until-the-Christmas-Feast-tonight day."

"I second the motion." Franziska agrees.

Jemma sighs. "Okay you two, you stay in bed then. Tonks and I will see about getting some soup or something from the kitchens."

Franziska hums in thanks. Being in Hufflepuff House has endless upsides, the least of which is the proximity to the kitchens and the endless snacks it contains.

She drifts back into a light doze, and her dreaming is only interrupted when Jemma returns with the promised soup.

"Chicken noodle, fresh from the pot. The elves say that they hope you feel better soon, and if you'd prefer they not clean the room today they'll let you sleep."

"House elves are the best. I'm gonna start spreading word of their excellent deeds." Leona declares, wriggling free of the blanket prison she'd managed to wrap herself into in her sleep and reaching out for one of the bowls Jemma is holding.

Franziska eases up as well, resting on her elbows and smiling gratefully as Jemma sets the second bowl down on her bedside table.

"Do you want me to check in on you later, or are you good?"

"We'll entertain ourselves, go have fun." Leona decides for them, though Franziska agrees. She knows Jemma probably would like having the responsibility, but she also doesn't want to be looked in on like a little kid. It's just a cold after all. Nothing she can't handle.

She falls back asleep once she finishes her soup, and wakes up hours later somehow feeling worse than she had before.

She groans, and after a moment of no response manages to raise her head to glance at Leona's bed. She's somewhat surprised to find it empty, but her head hurts too much to think about why that might be. Instead she decides to lie back down and fall back into a restless doze.

The next time she wakes up it's to her roommates returning, presumably from dinner but Franziska honestly has no idea what time it is.

Jemma is immediately next to her, placing a hand on her forehead and frowning. "You're absolutely burning up Frannie. I think you ought to go to the hospital wing tonight. Oh, and I brought you some water and chicken broth from dinner." She adds, gesturing to the side table. Franziska hadn't even noticed the food, but she feels a bit sick at the thought of trying to swallow anything at the moment.

She just nods, too tired to form any words, and turns over in her bed intent on falling asleep again.

"Oh no you don't. Food, water, and then hospital wing. I think you've caught a flu bug." Jemma says firmly, grabbing Franziska by the bicep and easing her into a sitting position. "The rest of you, get to the common room and someone go tell the house elves we'll need a clean up in here in about fifteen minutes if it's not a bother."

Franziska isn't really able to pay attention to the conversation due to the room spinning around as she leans back against her pillows.

"Alright, you don't have to have all of it but please eat at least a little." Jemma instructs, holding a spoon full of broth to Franziska's lips. The brunette reluctantly lets the liquid in and manages to gulp it down, though the sensation is less than pleasant.

Jemma sighs. "One more? Please?" She coaxes softly, and Franziska reluctantly complies.

"You'll be a good mom." She mumbles once she no longer feels like she's going to eject the small amount she'd consumed onto her covers.

Jemma flushes. "Drake said so too. I really don't know how I'm going to..." She trails off and shakes her head. "We'll bring the water with us. Come on, on your feet. Just for a little bit, I promise."

Franziska whines in protest, but they do somehow manage to get from the Hufflepuff dorms to the Hospital wing across the castle. By the time she collapses into one of the cots, Franziska's world is whirling around her and she's definitely going to be sick.

The illness takes five days to clear up enough that she's allowed to leave the Hospital Wing again, and she's quite disappointed that she'd completely missed Christmas in her feverish delirium.

"Now no more going into the snow young lady." Madame Pomfrey says sternly as Franziska prepares to head to the Great Hall for lunch. "I know New Years is soon, but you are to remain indoors and warm, you're not completely healthy yet. It was quite a nasty bug you picked up."

She's said so a dozen times already, so Franziska knows full well at this point. Still, she manages to hold her tongue on a sarcastic response and merely nods.

Madame Pomfrey smiles. "Good. Now run along, I'm sure you must be quite hungry."

Franziska laughs. Understatement of the year. She thanks the Matron one last time before finally leaving the stark white room and practically skipping to the Great Hall in her eagerness. Thanks to her stuffed nose and general nausea, she hasn't properly enjoyed a meal in nearly a week and she's looking forward to it.

"Frannie! Hey, you've been released from the cage!" Leona greets cheerfully when Franziska arrives, a few minutes late, to the meal.

Franziska smiles. "Yep, though I have to stay inside. No more snowball fights."

"Or going to Hogsmeade I guess." Tonks adds with a frown. "We were going to go tomorrow, but I guess we can wait until the end of January."

Franziska shakes her head firmly as she fills her plate with way more food than she logically knows she can eat. "Don't change your plans on my account, I can hang out with Nabila and Fiona, or Fitz and Evie. I've got friends other than you guys you know." She grins teasingly. 

"Well, if you're sure!" Tonks perks right back up. "I'm going to buy out Honeydukes while there's no line!"

"You'll have to beat me there!" Leona challenges eagerly, and Franziska just giggles and digs into her meal as the two loudly claim dibs to the different brands of candy carried by the sweet shop.

"I've got to get a new broom care kit." Tyler observes. "My old one is nearly out of polish."

"That's because you over polish." A new voice pipes up, and Tyler's sister Lola slides in next to her brother. "Honestly, you use a good fifth of the whole jar every time you open it. I don't know how you aren't slipping off the broom everytime you get on it."

"You can never be too careful! Polishing prevents the wood from decaying!" Tyler insists, and Lola ruffles his hair playfully.

"I'm messing with ya bro, chill. How are the rest of you holding up? Ready for OWLs?"

"Not even a little bit." Tonks declares, and Lola laughs.

"Yep, sounds like fifth year. Well don't worry, the profs are great about doing some review right beforehand. And you've got a good Defense teacher as well so your class is definitely going to do better on that exam than ours did."

"Only a fourth passed." Tyler informs them. "Lowest average on the Defense OWL in years."

"I'm in a year with a bunch of dummies." Lola confirms with a laugh. "But I sat down for a reason. If you guys are going into Hogsmeade you have to get an adult, or anyone over the legal age, to accompany you."

"And you're offering?" Donaghan guesses, flipping his bangs out of his face as he does. Franziska isn't sure how she hand't noticed but his hair has gotten almost absurdly long recently. Lola winks at him.

"Shaggy over here got it in one. I need to pick some stuff up myself, so it's a mutually beneficial arrangement. Interested?"

Cian frowns. "Did Professor Sprout say we needed an adult with us?" He asks skeptically, looking to Jemma who had been the one they'd elected to ask about Hogsmeade trips over the break.

She nods. "She mentioned it, yeah, but she also said she'd go with us if we couldn't find anyone. I was just going to ask her tonight, but if Lola is okay with in then I won't bother her."

The rest of the meal is spent talking excitedly about plans for Hogsmeade, which Franziska can't really participate in. Instead she focuses on savoring every bite of her first solid meal in nearly a week.

The rest of the day is spent studying, during which Franziska learns that all the Gryffindors that had stayed over the break are also going on the Hogsmeade trip, so she resolves to go sit with Evie at dinner and ask if she wants to hang out the next day.

Thankfully, Evie hadn't had other plans, so the next day the two girls see their friends off and then head into the castle to explore and chat.

"Willow says my wand technique is improving really fast, which is awesome. I'll probably be able to start learning some sixth year charms after the break." Evie declares excitedly. Franziska had learned recently that the destructive girl's secret to not being quite so destructive is to keep her wand busy. According to Holly, Maple wands enjoy learning new things and can get antsy if they're left dormant for too long. So Evie spends most of her free time studying ahead in charms class in order to keep her wand in line.

"It's kind of weird how wands apparently are semi-sentient." Franziska remarks in reply. "I mean, I know the wand chooses the wizard so that ought to be a clue, but the deal with your wand seems particularly odd."

Evie laughs. "Willow says it is. The combination of Maple wood and a Dragon Heartstring core is pretty volatile apparently, so it's not really a common combination. Still, I like my wand, I know he'll have my back."

Franziska would comment on the 'he', but her own wand is decidedly female so she can't really judge. "Fair enough. Still, I like my wand. I can't imagine where my grades would be if I had to spend study time entertaining my wand instead."

"That's why you don't have my awesome wand!" Evie declares happily. "Oh, but speaking of, did you want to hit the library for a bit? I've been wanting to do some research on Veelas."

Franziska nearly trips over the air. "I- Um, what? Why?"

Evie gives her a look. "Because Professor Greengrass said we'd be looking at them after break? Did he not tell your class?"

Franziska shakes her head. Still, she had been planning to look up her heritage anyway. "He didn't, so I guess if I study them now I'll have a head-start!"

Evie grins, all suspicion gone from her expression. "Heck yeah! Show the Slytherins who's boss!" She laughs. "Race you to the library!"

"Evie! You're going to fall down the stairs again!" Franziska shouts, but she's laughing and Evie is already halfway up the corridor.

The study session prooves extremely useful for Franziska, and she finds herself back in the Creatures section of the library several times over the next few days.

"Hey, Hogwarts to Frannie. Time to remove your nose from the book and rejoin the real world for a bit."

Leona's voice drags Franziska out of the paragraph on Veela charms that she'd been reading. "Oh, sorry. What's up?"

Leona laughs at her. "Merlin's beard you're out of it. It's time for the New Year's Feast! And Evie invited us to the Ravenclaw tower so we can watch the Muggle's celebration from their window without going outside!"

Franziska blinks, and then glances at one of the nearby windows and is surprised to find that yes, it has gotten dark and yes, she hadn't noticed at all.

"That's really nice of Evie to do." She replies, closing the textbook and picking up her bag.

"You going to check that out?" Leona asks curiously as they make their way to the front of the library.

Franziska shakes her head. By some miracle Leona hasn't figured out her Veela heritage yet, and she'd rather keep it that way so she only studies this particular subject alone in the library. "Just going to reserve it. Evie says we'll be working on identifying higher level dark creatures like Veelas and werewolves when classes start up again so I want to make sure I know where all the good books are. My grades in Defense have never been great so I'm taking advantage of the good teacher while he's here."

Leona hums. "Makes sense. But no more studying today! It's New Year's Eve and we've barely seen you the past couple of days you've been in here so much. From now on until school starts the Hufflepuff class is a fun-only zone!" She declares firmly, and Franziska laughs.

"Okay okay, I'll stop studying so much. OWLs are just stressing me out I guess."

"Amen to that." Leona groans. "I'm mostly just trying to not think about them while I can. It works for me."

They join up with the rest of their classmates, as well as the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws who had stayed over the break, in the Great Hall and the whole year ends up squishing themselves together at the Hufflepuff table.

"How is it still cramped when over half the school is gone for break?" Tonks complains as she's accidentally elbowed by Fiona when the red head tries to get a second helping of cranberry sauce.

"Sorry." The Gryffindor apologizes.

"Hufflepuff is the biggest House, so we always have more people staying than anyone else." Leona explains in response to Tonks's question.

Franziska frowns. That sounds wrong to her, considering how empty the dorm usually is during breaks, but she doesn't comment. Tonks isn't wrong that it's a bit crowded, so maybe Leona is right.

Regardless, Franziska mostly just feels content. For once break hasn't been lonely, and even if she did get sick for a lot of it it's completely worth it in her opinion.

The whole group stays together for the most part even after dinner, hanging around the table and playing Exploding Snap and gobstones until Professor McGonagall informs them that if they don't leave they'll have to clean up the stink from their game themselves. They end the day up in the Ravenclaw Tower's male dorms, earning some strange looks but Franziska doesn't care.

The fireworks are beautiful, and she wants to take full advantage of the company - she knows next Christmas will be lonely once again.

Clary and Finn return from break, and school picks up again like it never stopped. Rajani kind of hates it. Now that she knows what school is like when there are no classes, her usual relief at returning is somewhat lowered.

Still, it's good to talk to Clary, and even Rajani can admit it's pretty cure that she'd gotten Lenox the autograph of rising Quidditch star Daniel Kingsley as a late Christmas gift. He's absolutely thrilled with it, and Clary has fun refusing to tell anyone how she'd managed it.

Discussions about break quickly end, though, as classes dive right back into new material with no breather to ease back into the swing of things.

"Fifth year is the worst." Clary declares during their first weekend back. All the fifth year Slytherins have gathered in the library to work on their assignments and help each other as needed. "I remember when the first week back from break didn't include any homework."

"Because it was last year." Queenie points out with a wry grin. "I know what you mean though, having an essay due already next Thursday is jarring."

"Do you think this is how it will be from now on?" Alasdair wonders aloud. He and Cadfael are sitting at the end of the table, but they're both surprisingly involving themselves with the rest of them. "Or will sixth year give us a break like the last few have?"

"Sixth year there are no exams." Eugene points out. "It's all focus on preparing for the NEWTs in seventh year. So I'd imagine that it will probably be even more intense since we'll never stop learning new material."

"Break starts early though." Nia points out with a grin. "While everyone else is dying over midterms we get to relax."

"I'd imagine we should be using that time to solidify what we learned up to that point." Lenox points out. "NEWTs are worse than OWLs after all."

Elspeth grumbles something under her breath and Nia snorts.

"NEWTs are indeed total gryphon ." She agrees cheerfully. "That's why I'm taking as few as I can get away with. So I'll get to relax." She grins cheekily over at Lenox, who just shrugs in reply.

Rajani just shakes her head in amusement at the banter, still half-focused on the Herbology notes spread out in front of her. The talk about NEWTs does stir up a slight tendril of nerves though, as she still doesn't really know what she's going to tell Professor Snape during their career consultation in a few months, and that discussion will determine how many NEWTs she'll need to take.

She pushes aside the brief concern and refocuses on the assignment in front of her. The future can be worried about when she's not completely lost as to which plants are deadly and which ones just look like they should be deadly.

She does think that whatever job she decides to pursue, it won't involve Herbology if she can help it.

Another massive downside to school starting again is that she's not seeing nearly as much of Ed, especially as he's also caught up studying for his NEWTs. And she doesn't even get to see him on prefect patrols since Bill and Willow are still trying to avoid pairing people from the same House.

She decides to pester Willow about it when she has an evening patrol with the Head Girl on the second Monday back from break. She thinks the Ravenclaw will likely be more cooperative that Weasley would be, considering the animosity between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

"So how come I never get to patrol with the Slytherins?" She asks, keeping her tone as light as she can manage.

Willow sighs heavily. "You do sometimes, don't exaggerate. You get to see the Slytherins all day-"

"But I don't. I haven't seen Ed or Lucy or Gabi since break really, and I don't think I've talked to Trevor since the train ride in. Sure I see Eugene but we're the same age." She interrupts. "Between studying and patrols I basically don't have the time to talk to any of them."

Willow sighs. "I'm sorry Rajani, but we're trying to discourage the House divides. Last year's Head Girl and Boy paired people from the same House and it resulted in a lot of avoidable strife."

Rajani sourly thinks that only a particularly stuck-up Ravenclaw would use the word 'strife' but she keeps that thought to herself. "I get that, I do. But completely separating the Houses from themselves doesn't seem like the best resolution either. Mostly I'm just annoyed every patrol that I don't get to see my actual friends ever."

"The point is to make new ones." Willow replies briskly. "I'm sorry Raj but this is how we're doing it. If you make Head Girl you can do things your way." She glances over. "I do get it, you know. I don't get to see much of John, Terrence, or Jill and all four of us became pretty close last year." She adds.

Rajani frowns but lets the subject drop. The comment Willow had made about her being Head Girl has soured her mood even further. As much as her parents desperately want her to be given the honor, everyone already knows it's probably going to the overly goody-two-shoes Jemma Finnigan from Hufflepuff - she doesn't stand a chance.

She heads straight back to the dorms when they finish, but she has a hard time falling asleep, and even once she does it's far from restful.

She's still exhausted the next morning and ends up zoning out completely during Muggle Studies. Thankfully Queenie is willing to lend her her notes from the class to copy down.

"You're really out of it this morning. Bad patrol?" Her best friend guesses.

Rajani groans. "Willow refuses to pair me with any Slytherins for future patrols, and she reminded me how disappointed my parents are going to be when I become the second daughter of two to fail to make Head Girl."

Queenie hums in understanding. "Well it's not exactly fair is it? We're in the same year as Jemma born-from-the-rules Finnigan. I suspect that girl was cloned by the school and grown to be the ideal student. No way someone that sickeningly good actually exists. She's got to have skeletons somewhere."

Rajani snorts. "Maybe they'll come out before seventh year. I think I stand a chance again Fiona and Amelia if that happens. Amelia is too socially awkward, and Fiona can be too aggressive at times when she's mediating disagreements."

"Typical Gryffindor. Speaking of, how is the oldest Wealsey as Head Boy? Have you patrolled with him yet?" Queenie asks curiously.

Rajani shakes her head. "I've been with every other lion though, and if he's like them I have no idea how he made head boy over the Hufflepuff."

Queenie laughs. "I'm guessing you haven't patrolled with 'the Hufflepuff' either if you don't know his name yet." She teases.

Rajani rolls her eyes. "I know it, it's just one of those really bland names so I forget. I'll see it on the patrol list if we're ever partnered so it's not a big deal if I don't remember when we're off duty."

Queenie hums. "Sometimes listening to you talk I'm almost glad I didn't make prefect. It sounds like it's a lot of hassle, though being able to put in on my resume later would have been nice."

Rajani laughs. "That's what I keep telling myself every time I'm paired up with Tabs." She admits. "If I'd known this was what was waiting for me, I might not have challenged you to the role in the first place."

Queenie snorts. "Oh please, of course you would. We both would, being prefect looks good to employers and you get to take House points from Gryffindors. There are plenty of upsides."

"You don't need the boost to your resume, your grades will speak for themselves." Eugene announces as he walks over to the two, sitting next to Queenie and resting an arm over her shoulders comfortably.

Rajani glances at it jealously for a moment, wishing Ed didn't have class so she could have someone to cuddle with as well.

Queenie grins and leans into her fiancé. "That's sweet, and also very true, but it would still be nice to have 'Prefect' on my resume. For bragging rights if nothing else."

Eugene laughs. "Fair enough. I certainly enjoy pulling the prefect card on Lenox and Cad when their debates get too heated and Alas and I can't sleep through them."

Rajani has heard tell of said debates a few times in the past, though only ever in passing. She hadn't thought they were actually anything to give any attention too but apparently that assumption had been incorrect. "They get that bad?"

"Cad hates losing and Lenox is really good at twisting words, so it can get a bit less debate-y and a bit more fight-y sometimes yeah." Eugene doesn't sound concerned. "It's all good though, we all still have each other's backs and what not. It's actually pretty fun when it's not a fight though." Eugene adds thoughtfully. "They both have really different ways of viewing... everything really. You can learn a lot listening to the two of them."

Queenie looks as intrigued as Rajani feels. "I may decide to drop in on your dorm sometime then." Queenie decides. "I'm always up for a good debate."

Eugene laughs. "If you come the rest of the girls probably will too. I'm not sure oru dorm will actually fit all ten of us."

"Els and Nia might not come. Depends on how social Els is feeling." Rajani points out. "But you're probably right. You should just move the debates into the common room so everyone can weigh in."

Eugene is already shaking his head before Rajani finishes the suggestion. "Cad hates having an audience. He barely speaks outside of the common room, haven't you noticed? He was worse before his brother passed, but he's not quite up to public debates I don't think."

Queenie pouts. "Well he won't get better if he doesn't at least try. But fine, we'll just have to have our own secret dorm-only debates, right Rajani?"

Rajani grins. "Absolutely." She agrees. 

She and Queenie have to head to Ancient Runes shortly after, bidding farewell to Eugene and heading up to the fifth floor.

"You feeling more awake now?" Queenie asks, and Rajani is relieved to find that her confirmation isn't a lie. She feels significantly more alert than she had in Muggle Studies.

Which is especially important as Ancient Runes is still the class she has the hardest time keeping up with. Even with her full focus several of the concepts they're studying completely fly over her head.

"There is no way I'm going to pass the OWL for that class." Rajani groans as she and Queenie, joined by Cadfael and Finn, head out of class to the Great Hall for lunch. 

"It's not all that difficult if you understand-" Finn starts but Rajani glares at him.

"Finish that sentence, I dare you." She grumbles, and he puts his hands up in surrender.

"I can help you study?" He offers instead, and she sighs.

"If you can manage to reign in your superiority complex for an hour, that would be wonderful." She agrees.

"I can help too, if you want." Cadfael mumbles, almost too low for Rajani to hear at all. "I kind of get it, though maybe not as well."

"We can all study together. Ancient Runes is a hard class." Queenie declares decisively. "But we can worry about that when OWLs are closer. For now I'm more concerned with getting to lunch because I'm starving."

The week continues in much the same vein, complete with Rajani barely seeing Ed at all around both their studying and Prefect patrols. It isn't until Saturday that she finally catches him in the common room and invites him to study with her in one of the empty classrooms.

"So how was your week, seeing as I haven't seen you for any of it?" She asks teasingly as they make their way through Hogwarts' winding corridors.

Ed grimaces. "Exhausting. And I was paired with Tabs for patrol Wednesday so that was fun. Thankfully I'm with John - Ravenclaw seventh year - tonight, and he's much less... well, you know Tabs."

Rajani laughs. "I don't envy you at all. I was with Willow and Daniel this week, and while I can't say either was particularly enjoyable they're certainly not Tabs."

Ed makes a face though. "Gryffindor though. Daniel is a big Quidditch fan, he wasn't still pissy about that game last year? I didn't even know Bill and Willow were pairing us with the lions again."

Rajani shrugs. "We didn't talk at all, which worked." She replies. "That's generally my game plan whenever I'm patrolling with any of the lions."

Ed snorts. "Fair enough. I get antsy if it's too quiet on patrols so I couldn't do that."

Rajani raises an eyebrow as they finally find a classroom to work in and start moving the chairs out of the way. "Even with the Gryffindors? I mean, I get they aren't awful or anything but I never really enjoy talking to them when I do either."

Ed shrugs. "I mean, my oldest brother was a Gryffindor. I get how their brains work. Did you know Collette can do twenty-six pushups in a row?"

Rajaini raises an eyebrow in disbelief as she pictures the tiny sixth year Gryffindor. "No way, that's muscle? I always figured she was jush chubby." She admits, and Ed nearly drops the chair he's carrying he starts laughing so hard.

"Don't tell her that, she'll challenge you to an arm-wrestling match and you'll have bruises for days."

Rajani glances over at him in amusement. "This sounds like an anecdote." She points out with a grin. "Were those bruises physical or just to your ego?"

Ed blushes slightly but he's smiling as well. "If Lucy hadn't mocked me for it for weeks afterwards it wouldn't have been so bad. It's funny looking back on it now though." He admits.

"Lucy was there?" Rajani can't help but prod a bit. She doesn't recall this happening at all but she knows logically that Collette had only become a prefect the year before, so the incident must have occurred while she and Ed were dating, or at least almost dating.

Ed nods, pushing the final chair out of the way and scanning the room to be sure they'd cleared a good area in the middle. "The prefects had a mini party at the end of last year so everyone saw. I'm not sure if Bill and Willow will do it again this year, but I don't see why they wouldn't."

Rajani hums. "Well, enough about prefect duties. We've only got a few hours before your study session with your friends right? We better make the most of them." She really doesn't like how little she's able to see her boyfriend - but at least they have a little bit of time to themselves. However minimal it is.

Ana spends the month of February (and the very end of January) with another mandrake leaf in . It is exactly as frustrating as she remembers it being, with the added irritation that January twenty second, the day she'd put the leaf in , had been somewhat clear as far as winter in Scotland goes.

But it's also easier in some ways. She doesn't have to go through another week long learning curve of figuring out how to eat without swallowing the leaf, and speaking is ever so slightly easier. Not enough to let her properly enunciate the barrage of new spells they're learning, unfortunately, but enough to voice her opinion more often than she had in November.

This is especially useful during the now-daily study sessions their group is having, which continue to collect more people as the snow slowly transforms into slush. Ana mostly sits at the end of the table with Finnigan ignoring the newcomers, but she does sometimes answer questions if people's stupidity is irritating her enough to be distracting.

Amelia's boyfriend (and they've finally stopped trying to deny the label, which is refreshing) is one such distraction. While it's clear Henry really does want to improve his grades, likely to impress Amelia, it's equally clear that he's never tried very hard in the past, putting him squarely in the group that Ana mentally refers to as the 'utterly hopeless', the other member of which is Jerome.

This group once again irritates her during an afternoon session one Wednesday halfway through February. She's trying to go over her notes from Transfiguration, idly mimicking the wand movements for each new spell with her empty hand, when Henry leans over the table and asks Shaun, who's next to Ana, why the wand movement matters so much in each spell.

Ana would have sighed if she could have. Instead, she lowers her hand, shifts the leaf, and looks squarely at Henry with as much disapproval as she can manage.

"That was covered in first year. Transfiguration. Magical theory." She states shortly. She then proceeds to grab a blank piece of parchment and scrawl out the basic formula for magic. She shoves the parchment at Shaun. "Explain to him."

Henry looks a bit chastened, and Shaun is frowning at her, but honestly Ana doesn't care. How Henry hasn't been held back a year yet if his grasp of the basics is so shaky is beyond her, and she has zero patience for anything at the moment. Honestly Henry had gotten off easy thanks to the mandrake leaf.

She resolutely goes back to her notes, determined this time to not be distracted by the idiocy around her.

She's not quite successful, but she doesn't bother speaking up again. The leaf is good for that much at least.

Since they have a brief sleep-in the next day she decides to stay up late, slipping away to the library and settling by one of the large windows, searching for glimpses of the night sky through the cloud cover to try and add to her Astronomy assignment for the week. She gets back to the Ravenclaw common room just before curfew, getting an amused look from the sixth year prefect as he passes her on his way to his patrol.

"Good timing." He grins, and Ana does give him a nod of acknowledgement before heading up to her room. She's learning not to be rude, but as she doesn't know him she feels no need to engage in conversation either.

The next several days pass in much the same way, with Ana getting more and more irritable as the full moon draws closer and the sky stubbornly refuses to clear up at all.

Amelia notices it as well, of course. "What are you going to do if it's overcast on Monday?" She asks during breakfast Saturday morning. They'd arrived to the meal late due to their Astronomy lesson the night before, so they've been forced to sit at the end closest to the doors, and thus furthest from the warmth of the fireplace.

Ana doesn't deign to move the leaf, instead responding with a sharp shrug and a glare at her food.

Jerome hunches into his winter cloak before deciding to add to the conversation. "That would really if it was. But you could try again in March, right? And you'd still have April and May to study for the OWLs afterwards."

"March is quite wet though. It could be raining again." Shaun points out.

Ana huffs wordlessly. Of course, she does fully intend to try again in March, but she also knows that Shaun has a point, unfortunate as it is. In all likelihood she won't be able to achieve her animagus transformation until the next school year - not that she wants to accept defeat just yet. One more month, and then she needs to start putting OWL studies first. She's already, to her mind, dangerously behind as it is.

They spend the entire day in the library, and Ana at least knows she'll likely do well on her History of Magic OWL, since the leaf doesn't prevent her from memorizing the endless list of dates they'll have to know. Still, it's little consolation considering she has no intention of taking the class at a NEWT level due to it not being required for Curse-Breaking. Still, an O is an O so she keeps herself apprised of the material. At the very least it keeps her from feeling completely impotent.

The next day she meets with Professor McGonagall to go through Animagus review, and she can tell that her professor is as pessimistic about the next day being clear as she is.

"I'd recommend we stop after this, and try again next school year." McGonagall says at the end of their session. "We wouldn't want your OWL grades to suffer and March is quite intense in so far as the new spells you'll be learning. I'm sure Professor Flitwick also would appreciate you being fully able to communicate during your career consultation."

Ana frowns. She wants to try one more month (and apparently she's already resigned herself to cloud cover the next day), but if McGonagall says she shouldn't then Ana should respect that. Her professor knows better than she does how difficult the OWLs will be, loathe as Ana is to admit that. However, she merely hums noncommittally in response before packing up her things and leaving the Transfiguration classroom.

She habitually sits by the window in the library, spending almost as much time glaring at the grey skies as she does at her Potions notes. Professor Snape had recently announced that the only way to continue on to NEWT level Potions was to earn an O on the OWL, which while Ana is sure she can manage it's still extra pressure building up at a time when she already feels ready to explode.

She tugs idly at her necklace (there's a matching bracelet now though she still keeps Eric's gift clasped around her wrist. No need to give anyone (her parents) further reason to think she tolerates Alec whatsoever) and sighs heavily through her nose. The whole month has been awful and with what seems like it's going to be yet another failure Ana is feeling utterly terrible. Not even this quiet study session is helping ease her frustration whatsoever, and it's affecting her ability to focus properly. She eventually gives up on furthering her Potions work and leaves the library to wander the halls, trying to draw up a map in her mind. She's rather certain mapping all of Hogwarts would be nigh on impossible, but trying at least lets her focus on something.

The day is incredibly unproductive in the end, and Ana is more frustrated knowing that even if she'd tried to do anything more she still wouldn't have gotten very much done.

She's starting to wonder if becoming an animagus is even worth all the hassle.

As expected, the next day sees heavy snowfall and not even a glimpse of the sun, nonetheless the moon. The leaf is deposited in the trash and Ana pointedly refuses to talk to anyone as she knows all she's capable of at the moment is snapping angrily. Two months wasted, and she's desperately behind in her practical knowledge of their new spells.

She spends the day quietly debating with herself whether or not she'll start up another month with another leaf. The parts of her rubbed raw by the dual failure argue to focus on her OWLs as McGonagall says (and maybe just drop the whole idea), while her pride insists that she can't just quit - she's a Vulchanova and she's better than that.

The whole thing is exhausting and she ends up telling both parts to shut up so she can focus on her final class of the day. It's a Monday, so that means her last class is Defense Against the Dark Arts just after lunch. She struggles to fully pay attention during the lesson, but she manages a decent Impediment Jinx which does make her feel ever so slightly better.

Then Professor Greengrass asks her to stay after class - and she's never been asked to stay after class, only the students who are obviously struggling are asked to stay after class - and that small victory no longer feels particularly worthwhile anymore.

At least Professor Greengrass is polite enough to wait until everyone has left before starting to talk to her. She's not sure if she could handle him calling her out on her obvious recent failures in front of her classmates. It's bad enough that Shaun has been giving her pitying apologetic looks all day.

"I've been appraised of your situation with your Animagus tranformation." Greengrass begins with no preamble. "I noticed you were speaking clearly again today so I wanted to catch you before communication became difficult again."

So far this isn't going how Ana had expected, but she doesn't relax just yet. It still easily could be a discussion of how poorly her grades have become in the past few weeks.

Professor Greengrass smiles at her. "Don't look so tense, you're not in trouble. Your grades are still all Os and Es, but since you haven't had a chance to work practically in a month I thought I'd tell you about one of my seventh-year NEWT students. Her name is Iris Tonhaven, and she's interested in becoming a teacher."

Ana has no idea where exactly this is going, but she's itching to leave so she can start catching up in her practicals.

Greengrass seems to notice her impatience. "The point is, Iris is an excellent practical spellcaster - she was the first to produce a patronus in her year, and has a strong grasp of wordless spells so I thought perhaps you could work with her in order to speed up the process of perfecting the spells we've learned in the past month."

Ana blinks, frowning. She doesn't like the implication that she needs any help to catch up with her studies, but on the other hand Iris being good at wordless spells does pique her interest. The seventh year might be able to give her some tips for her own future attempts at silent spellwork.

Finally she nods. "I suppose it could be a mutually beneficial arrangement." She agrees carefully. "My schedule is rather haphazard, but if she'd like to meet on the weekends I can likely find some time."

Professor Greengrass looks quite pleased. "Excellent! I'll tell her next time I see her."

Ana thankfully is allowed to leave after that, and she pushes what she's most certainly not going to refer to as a tutoring session to the side of her thoughts so she can focus on going through the spells they've been learning in the past month, finally being able to properly form the words needed to complete the casting.

However, by dinner she's thinking about it again, and the idea of having accepted help, even if it is from a NEWT-level student, doesn't sit very comfortably in her gut.

"So are you still pissy?" Jerome asks cautiously as Ana stabs at the chicken on her plate.

She glares at him in reply, and he holds his hands up defensively.

"Sorry, it's just, you've been really mad about everything lately and I thought maybe once the leaf was out you'd feel better. I miss when you weren't like this all the time."

Ana just glares longer, and Jerome sighs and drops his hands.

"Well alright then. Amelia, could you help me with my History essay then?"

Immediately Ana feels a slight stab of remorse. Jerome had just wanted help, and she had been a bit rude.

But if she's honest with herself just the idea of helping Jerome is making her tired, so she's overall glad that she's not going to be stuck explaining the same thing to him ten times and instead can focus on her own work.

She ultimately doesn't pick up a new leaf that night. She needs to focus on OWLs, she tells herself as she lays staring at the ceiling and feeling generally icky. She needs to be able to learn all the new spells they'll be going through in the next few months as they come.

They're perfectly legitimate reasons, but Ana still has a very difficult time falling asleep that night, the sense that she's giving up weighing heavy on her mind and keeping her gazing at the fat snowflake falling past the window until long after midnight has passed, and the decision can't be reversed.

The rest of the week continues to drag by, though Ana slowly finds the ugly knots in her stomach begin to ease as she works on the previous month's spells and arranges her first meeting with Iris for Saturday afternoon, while her friends will all be at Hogsmeade. She still isn't particularly thrilled with the idea, but she also has realized that if she learns the tricks for wordless casting then then next time she has the mandrake leaf in she'll still be able to keep up with her classes, both theoretically and practically.

That particular realization does a lot of the work easing the giant ball of stress that has been making her so irritable. By Friday evening she even tempers her pride long enough to apologize to her friends for her behavior.

The situation is of course far from ideal, but Ana at least feels like maybe she hasn't quite given up. She's just reassessing before diving back in. And when she does dive again, she'll be ready.

The shift from February to March is almost jarring. One day the ground is blanketed in a soft covering of crisp snow, and the next everything is half-melted mush that manages to get into Myr's boots and soak his socks no matter how carefully he watches his step.

"Early spring is the worst." Evera groans, peeling her shoes and socks off in the middle of the common room and tossing both haphazardly in front of the fire. Myr quickly shifts them to avoid anything catching fire.

"Technically spring starts on March twenty first." Nabila points out, dropping her outer cloak over the back of one of the chairs, the hem of it dripping onto the floor.

Evera sticks her tongue out. "Late winter is the worst then." She corrects sarcastically.

"It will probably freeze again in the next couple days." Charlie observes with a slight groan as he falls into the chair occupied by Nabila's cloak.

The Arabic girl frowns at him. "I was going to sit there." She points out.

Charlie grins innocently. "Were you? My bad. There are lots of other chairs you could use."

"Flobberworm." Nabila grumbles as she takes the seat next to the one she'd wanted.

Myr decides to head straight up to the dorms to change out of his damp clothes entirely. It's the end of the day on Friday, and they're just in from Care of Magical Creatures which is their last class. Myr decides it's perfectly reasonable to pull on a pair of sweatpants and a random tee he usually wears to bed. He'd been tackled into the snow by one of the Crups they'd been studying during class and he thinks he's earned the right to be as comfortable as possible.

"You do know we still have to go to dinner?" Brandon points out when Myr rejoins his friends in the common room. "You're okay going down in your pyjamas?"

My shrugs. "I'll toss a robe over top. Plus I haven't showered, and I don't feel too bad getting this stuff dirty." He adds, scrubbing at some of the dried dirt on his forearm.

"That Crup was pretty excited." Evera laughs. "I thought for sure you'd be coming back with a new pet!"

"Owen would hate that." Myr points out, but he's smiling as he picks a seat as close to the fire as he can. "As would Kallie I'd imagine."

"Oh, one hundred percent." Drake agrees when Myr mentions his cat. "I mean it took forever for her to get used to Owen, a Crup is out of the question."

"Speaking of cats, I'm thinking of adopting a Kneazle." Nabila pipes up. "Do you two have any advice on that? Cats are pretty different from Kneazles obviously, but they're closer than Erumpents so you'd still know better than me."

"Don't bring it to school, Kallie will try to kill it." Drake replies immediately, with an accompanying Cheshire grin.

Myr is content to sit back and listen as his friends banter back and forth around the fireplace until it's time to head down to dinner. He figures he's earned the rest - and that he could use it as well.

The next day Myr puts on his Gryffindor Quidditch uniform and joins the team for a pep talk in the common room. It's their first match of the New Year, and instead of the usual Ravenclaw match-up the teachers have switched the lineup, so they're up against Hufflepuff. If Myr remembers correctly, the change is to be a permanent one, to give Ravenclaw time to recover after playing Slytherin. It makes sense, as far as Myr is concerned, but it does mean they're up against Lola earlier than anticipated.

They're also against the statistically best team of the year, but Charlie, being a Seeker himself, is a bit more focused on his blonde rival.

Myr honestly tunes out while Charlie hypes up the team, instead finding himself glancing over at Jacob Fawley and Evera, who are standing a bit too close if they don't want anyone else to catch on to their fling. Ever since he'd found out about the two of them just before midterm exams, he's been more acutely aware of the changes in their interactions, and it's making him a bit embarrassed that he'd not noticed anything before Bill had pointed it out.

Aside from standing so close together, the two don't bicker like they used to, instead resorting to more playful banter and teasing. And of course, they're playing better together as well. Myr thinks that only Drake would be dense enough to not noticed that Evera and Jacob tend to pass to each other far more than either passes to him.

Hopefully they'll quit that particular new habit during the game - Myr may not be a Chaser but he's relatively certain that biased passing can't be good for the game.

"Ready? We've never played Hufflepuff in the slush before." Fiona asks as they leave the common room and head down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Myr shrugs. "Will it make a difference? It's not snowing, and we won't be on the ground." He points out.

Fiona shrugs. "Take off won't be fun. But I suppose you're right, I can't imagine playing in a snowstorm like Ravenclaw and Slytherin had to first year."

"Ice storm actually." Charlie corrects, sidling up next to them. "Exponentially worse." He grins. "We've got this though. We may have lost to Slytherin but our team is more than ready to make a comeback!"

"Hell yeah!" Drake cheers.

"And I'm going to be extra careful about Bludgers this time!" Oliver adds confidently, and Evera ruffles his hair playfully.

"You better, you've got to show them you can't be messed with!" She informs him with a grin. "The school still hasn't gotten to see what you're capable of!"

The energy during breakfast is quite high as they quietly go over some of their newer plays and debate which ones will be most effective against Hufflepuff. Even Myr is feeling confident as they walk onto the pitch, and he's usually the most reserved, always mentally prepared for the worst even when hoping for the best.

One of the Hufflepuff beaters waves at him cheerfully, and he pointedly ignores Fiona's giggle as he returns the gesture, just to be polite. The same beater had supposedly be flirting with him the previous season, according to Myr's red-haired friend, but he personally just thinks she's a good sport.

Then they're in the air and he has more important things to worry about, including the fact that the slushy ground is causing more hassle than he'd expected it to.

The gray mush from the ground has attached itself to the players' boots, and it randomly drips off of their shoes and occasionally onto other players. Myr is spending at least as much time warily eyeing the shoes above his head as he does scanning the pitch for Bludgers.

Some of his teammates are less wary than he is, and both Drake and Evera get mush in their hair before thirty minutes have passed.

Myr is finally hit just before the hour mark. He's diving after a Bludger when something splatters into his hair and drips into his eyes, forcing him to pull up and clear his vision or risk flying into something. He shakes out his hair a few times, feeling slight nausea curling in his stomach. He'll definitely need a shower after this.

The Bludger is long gone by the time he's gotten rid of as much of the slush as he can manage, and he resigns himself back to scanning the pitch, now extra wary of the players over him.

The one positive of the game, in the end, is that Oliver manages to stay conscious and actually does quite a good job for his first full game, blocking more Quaffles than he lets pass. It's not enough though, as the Hufflepuff Keeper does a decent enough job that when Lola catches the snitch two and a half hours in, it gives the badgers a twenty point lead and the win.

"I couldn't let you show me up in my last year." Lola jokes as she shakes hands with Charlie. Myr glances over to see how his Captain takes the light jab, but Charlie doesn't look that upset.

"Fair enough. It was a good game overall."

Oliver gets several congratulations from the Hufflepuff players as they go down the line, and the second year is beaming when they head back into the locker room.

Charlie is less pleased, his polite smile dropping the instant the door closes. "Girls hold up before you go to your half of the change room." He instructs, and Evera and Fiona share a look before turning and rejoining the group.

Myr leans against the wall, certain that the post-game talk is going to be much longer than any of them had been expecting going in two hours before.

Sure enough Charlie has critiques for all of them. Myr is half-amused to note that he caught on to the fact Jacob and Evera aren't passing to Drake as much. For his part Drake looks both surprised and hurt when Charlie calls them out on it, while the couple looks nervous and ashamed. Evera glances at Myr as well, and he holds up his hands. He hasn't told Charlie a thing, and she seems to get it as she looks away again.

Myr is called out for losing focus, which he admits is fair. He still desperately wants a shower to clear out the gunk that he can still feel clumped in his hair. He keeps his explanation to himself though - Charlie is getting increasingly irate as his lecture goes on and Myr doesn't really fancy that frustration being turned too fully onto himself.

It's only forty six minutes later that Myr finally gets his shower, and he swears it's the nicest one he's ever had.

He's the last to finish changing back into his usual school uniform, so he's surprised when he runs into Oliver still in the locker room. The second year is sitting on one of the benches, scribbling away in a journal. Myr watches him silently for a few minutes before clearing his throat.

Oliver jumps, very nearly dropping the journal onto the wet floor but catching it just in time. "Oh, hey Myr. I didn't hear the shower stop. Am I in your way?" He starts to stand, but Myr quickly shakes his head.

"No, I was just heading out. What are you still doing here?"

Oliver grins excitedly and holds up the notebook. "Well, Percy had this awesome idea, and since he got me the notebook I don't really have a reason not to do it, you know? But well," He suddenly looks a bit embarrassed. "I'm hoping to be Quidditch Captain when you all graduate, and Percy suggested I start writing down all the good plays I see, and also take note of how Charlie addresses the team after both wins and loses, so I can figure out what sort of Captaining style I want to use, you know?" He's a bit red, but he's smiling again. "I was just adding some stuff I saw Hufflepuff doing before I forget. Their beaters are really in tune with each other. Not that you and Fiona aren't!" He adds hurriedly, and Myr laughs.

"It's fine, I was definitely out of it a bit today. That's a great idea, I'm sure you'll do well as captain." He replies warmly, and Olive beams.

"You think? Oh, and Perce wanted me to ask - sorry, Percy, he says he doesn't like nicknames anymore - if you could help us go over Charms tomorrow? Since your usual study session would be today but there was the game and all so-"

Myr quickly cuts him off. He knows how Oliver can go on if you let him. "That would be fine. Usual time I presume?"

Oliver nods. "Yeah, that would be great! Thanks a ton Myr, you're the best!"

Myr can't help grinning back. As frustrating as Oliver and Percy had been first year, he's found that he's come to enjoy tutoring the two of them most weekends. And if he's honest the review is helping his performance in his own classes as well - his grasp of magical theory has improved dramatically since he's had to figure out how to explain it to the two boys.

He runs into Headmaster Dumbledore the next morning on his way down to breakfast to grab something to eat before the tutoring session.

"Good morning Mr. Cadwallader." The Headmaster greets with a warm smile, and Myr feels blown over that apparently Dumbledore knows who he is.

"Um, good morning headmaster." He stutters out.

"What wakes you up so early on a Sunday morning?" Dumbledore continues walking along with him as if the entire interaction isn't messing with Myr's head in a major way.

It takes a moment for Myr to collect his fleeing thoughts enough to form a proper response. "Well I tutor a couple of second years and we usually meet on Saturday but because the game went so long we switched to today instead." He is ridiculously proud of managing that entire sentence.

Dumbledore chuckles warmly. "Well that's very thoughtful of you Mr. Cadwallader. I won't keep you then, enjoy your breakfast and your tutoring session."

"Um, yes sir." Myr manages to get out before darting ahead of Dumbledore into the Great Hall.

Percy is already perched at the Gryffindor table, flipping through his worn copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One. Myr is pretty sure he recognizes Charlie's handwriting in the margins of the textbook as he takes a seat next to the second year, but he pretends not to see as Percy quickly snaps the book shut.

"Good morning Myrddin. I'm sorry the game didn't go well yesterday. Oliver was quite disappointed." The youngest Weasley greets him. "And was that Headmaster Dumbledore coming in just behind you? Were you speaking with him?" He can't quite hide his intense curiosity, though he does try. Myr thinks it's rather amusing.

"I was, just about our tutoring session. It was all rather sudden - I've never spoken with him before." Myr admits, snagging three slices of bacon as a tray of them passes their seats. "Oliver not up yet?"

"He'll be here shortly I'm sure." Percy responds easily. "Oh, good morning Professor!" His posture suddenly shifts to full attention and he smiles almost professionally, though as usual Myr finds the expression almost comical on his pre-adolescent face.

Myr turns to see who Percy is addressing. "Good morning Professor McGonagall." He greets his Head of House with some surprise. He never sees her at the students' tables except at the start of the year when she's handing out schedules.

McGonagall nods in greeting. "Mr. Weasley. Mr. Cadwallader, this is your time slot for your career consultation. They'll be in my office and I expect you to be on time."

Myr accepts the paper she hands to him, willing his hands not to shake. He glances at the parchment once she's left - March 16, 11:15 AM.

That's the upcoming Thursday. Myr has four days to prepare for the consultation - and he still has no idea what he wants to do.