𝐒𝐎 𝐒𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍; 𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫.

𝐱𝐢𝐢: 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧, 𝐫𝐮𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐬𝐡?

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐘𝐉𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐘 𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑. Lily had cornered Amara just after dinner, hair frizzy and face flushed with excitement, and her sleeves rolled up to the elbows.

"Mar, come quick," she whispered sharply, grasping her sleeves and rolling them back down. "Come to our dorm room."

Amara followed her up the stairs from the Common Room, where she'd been playing Peter in wizard's chess. "It's done?"

"It's done! And it looks perfect—exactly how the book says, really."

"Brilliant," Amara said. "Let's have a taste, then. You still have the hair? I worked hard for that, you know."

Just outside their door, Lily paused. Her pale, well-manicured hand lay on the doorknob. "About that..." she began nervously."

"You lost it?" 

Lily turned back to give her a hesitant glance. "Well, I didn't lose it, I just...well...would you mind getting me another one?"

Amara gaped. She had barely spoken to Evan in the past couple of weeks—not since the Halloween party, anyways. There were small exchanges in Potions and such, when one needed to cooperate, but the tension was too thick and Amara was too scared to break something like that.

Distance was always better; safer.

"Yes, I bloody well would mind," she snapped, running a hand through her long, blonde waves. "There's just no way you lost the hair."

Lily let out of raucous peal of laughter, her freckled face wrinkling up in delighted mischief. "Oh, Mar, I'm only joking with you! No, it's in my bedside table." She opened it, and grinned. "Oh, good, it's only Marlene in here."

"Hey, ladies," Marlene said. She was laying, face-up, on her bed; an issue of Witches Weekly in her hands and several previous issues on the bed beside her. "I'm collecting all of these to send to my little sister, Lindsey—they unsubscribed because having their address out like that isn't very safe. I'm sending them by owl so she can still read them."

"Brilliant," Lily said. She turned back to Amara. "I really thought you'd be up to the task, anyways. I mean, you were all over him on Halloween."

"Prewett?" Marlene asked. "Or Rosier?"

"Both, I suppose," Amara replied with a grimace. "I think the issue would be more him not willing to snog me again. I sort of...left him hanging."

"We know," Lily said dully, shaking her head. "I can't believe you gave up a night with Evan Rosier. He might be the fittest in our whole year."

Marlene set the issue down and picked up another, flicking through it. "Not as fit as Sirius," she remarked.

Lily and Amara sent each other dubious glances.

"Enough boy talk," the redhead said, clasping her hands together. "I say it's high time we have a conversation with the Bloody Baron. I'll go get the Cloak from Potter, yeah?"

Amara approached the bubbling cauldron in the corner of the room, and took a flask from the table beside it. "Where's the hair?" She followed Lily's pointed finger and picked up a small vial, with a thin, dark hair inside it. "Lily, it's best if you ask James when he's alone. I dunno how much he's told the others."

"Wouldn't he tell them about this?" Lily asked with a frown.

Amara sighed. "He's so used to being leaned on—he's not one to share his problems with others."