Continuation of: (PRP dragoness129/Min <Closed> - Sapherna)

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Rayna got the impression that they were thinking of her in an actual tornado, "There was not actually a tornado itself, just some really strong winds. Perhaps there might have been one fairly near, but definitely not near enough for me to get swept away that far."

The conversation changed to the subject of her birthday, "Yes, I am super exited! It's gonna be great with the ball as well! I may have gotten a present early though." She reached up to stroke the locket while her cheeks were bright red as she thought about the previous night with Lothar. She hoped she was just portraying to Louvenia that she meant the locket. She didn't know how much Louvenia might suspect, but after having to borrow some clothes she was sure Lou would have a pretty good idea.

Lothar couldn't help but smile at her explanation. "Ah so you were exaggerating then. I thought it was weird that you'd be outside during a tornado. That would be very dangerous."

Lothar loved to hear how excited she was for the ball. He noticed her stroking her locket and then her cheeks flushed red. He had to bite his lip when he realized she was remembering their night together. He wondered if Lou suspected how close he and Rayna had become. He was sure she'd noticed something by now. He hadn't been his usual surly self in a long time.


Louvenia nodded at Rayna's explanation. "I bet it was a rather strong wind storm if you thought it was a tornado."

"The ball is going to be splendid! Oh, I was wondering if you'd want some help in getting ready. I have some skill with hair styles, I wasn't sure what you wanted to do with it." She noticed Rayna stroking the locket. "Ah yes, I remember helping Lot pick that out for you." She said with a smile. 'It took him hours to find the perfect one. He normally doesn't care to shop either."

She could tell though that there was something different to their relationship than before. There had been those clothes she had loaned her just that morning after all.

"Oh, thanks for getting my clothes back to me Lothar. I hope they fit you okay Rayna." She said with a slight smirk. She mainly did it just to see Lothar squirm. After all the teasing he had done to her over the years, the tables had finally turned.

"I said tornado winds, I never said the actual tornado itself," she replied looking at Lothar. She turned to Louvenia and nodded, "More than likely."

"Sure! I normally just wear my hair like this. I wasn't really planning on wearing it any other way, but it could be nice," she replied honestly. "Thank you for helping pick it out! I guess he made an exception when it came to shopping for this." She turned and look back at Lothar, her cheeks still very red.

"Oh, that was fast. I met Norie after my shower and she returned my clothes and took your dirty ones to wash." Rayna replied, not even thinking about the fact she had revealed that she had been lacking clothes and what that might mean.

Lothar grinned. "I guess I missed that." He said shaking his head. "I was watching your lips more than i was listening to your words." he added.

Lothar nearly spit out the tart he had eaten when Rayna stepped right into Lou's innocent question. He groaned and laid back in the grass and covered his face. Why did no one ever see just how devious Lou was? It must be her cute smile and innocent eyes that fooled everyone.

"Oh god," He mumbled under his breath.


Louvenia nodded as she finished off a handful of grapes.
"It would definitely be fun to play with your hair, I can think of three different ways I want to try putting your hair up." She said eyeing her purple hair with lustful eyes. "It looks so luscious and thick." She said enviously.

Her own hair was rather fine and it took spells and mousse to keep it up. Which was why she normally wore it down or in braids though she knew tons of ways to put up hair. At least she'd be able to finally put those skills to use.

"Norie does fast work," Lou agreed with a smile.

Her face blanched slightly at the news that she had been in the shower. Her mind struggled to comprehend the fact that she and Lothar had been in the shower together and what that implicated. "Oh umm well that's good. I think we should find something else to talk about now."

For a moment her mind went blank and then she remembered the whole interaction from the day before when Lothar and Rayna had disappeared from the Great Hall.

"Did you hear about the stupid rumor going around about the fight in the Great Hall? Bardsley got into it again with Marco Cartier and got a broken nose for it. At least they both got docked points. Though I heard that Bardsley was talking derogatory terms about Vanessa, so I think he deserved it."

Rayna was confused at first because she had meant after their second individual showers, not the first shower together. "The shower from less than an hour ago, not the shower from earlier this morning..." she quickly slapped her hands over her mouth and her eyes went wide as she realized what she had just hinted at. She gave a quick nod and said, "Yes, change of subject." Her face was even darker than before. She realized now why Lothar had groaned and laid back. She wanted to melt into the ground at that moment. She moved her hands from covering just her mouth to cover her whole face, pushing her glasses up to the tips of her fingers as she did so that her eyes were covered as well.

Rayna re-adjusted her glasses onto her face as the subject changed. "Hmm, I know of Marco because of all the rumors and he is in Slytherin as well. From classes, he seems like one of the nicer guys, but I haven't actually talked to him before. Is Vanessa the Gryffindor from the rumors that they are dating? This school and its rumors though. Who is to say what is actually true or not."

Lothar moaned again and put his hands over his face. Rayna was digging herself in even deeper with every word. He bite his lip and hoped that Lou wasn't going to press for any more from her.

When she changed the subject to a fight that had happened he could have kissed her. He sat up and noticed just how embarrassed Rayna was. She had a bright red face and looked like she wanted to sink into the ground. He wanted to touch her to reassure her but figured that wouldn't help all that much.

He listened to the both of them talk about the fight and frowned. Bardsley had started it? His fists tightened into fists and his eyes went dark. "I think I'll have a little talk with him about that." He said his eyebrow twitching in anger.

At Rayna's next words, Lou's face went scarlet red. Second shower? What had those two been up to? She shook her head to clear it of the thoughts that threatened to cloud it.

She wondered if her face was as dark as Rayna's had gone at her slip up. More than likely.

After telling them about the fight, she nodded in agreement with Rayna's words. Rumors were always flying around and no one ever knew that they were real or just made up. It was almost like they were in a big game of telephone and what had been true got twisted out and reworded until there was hardly any truth to it at all.

She turned to frown at Lothar and his announcement of having a talk with Bardsley.

"Not a good idea Lothar, at least not now. Wait until well after the Ball." She suggested. "after all your hard work on the surprise and the umm..spells for your costumes you don't want it to go to waste."

Rayna could only nod in agreement, she didn't trust her tongue much in that moment. She scooted close to Lothar and tried to ease his fingers out of the fist so that she could hold his hand and try to calm him down. She stared lovingly into his eyes, hoping to calm him down with just her presence.

At the mention of the surprise a mischievous look appeared in her eyes and curled the edge of her lips. She turned towards Louvenia. Perhaps it would be her turn to pry for more information since Louvenia seemed to know some of what Lothar had planned. She grinned a bit more at the thought.

Lothar's fists loosened slightly when Rayna moved closer to him and she placed her hand on top of his. He sighed and let the anger fade away. After a few moments his fists relaxed and he let his anger loose.

"Yeah, sometimes I just can't help but get pissed about how people treat each other. Bardsley knows better and yet he still does this kind of crap."

Lothar shot Lou a sharp look when she started to talk about the work he needed to do on the suprrise. Thankfully she managed to recover and not let anything out. He was relieved that he hadn't told her anything specific about it. Because he had no doubt that Rayna would be trying to get information about her.

"Speaking about surprises, I need to go work on some." He said standing up. "I'll meet you for dinner Rayna. He pulled her to her feet and kissed her on her cheek. "I really want to kiss you on the lips, " He whispered to her running his hand down her back. "However I don't want to Lou to get too grossed out."

Lothar said his goodbyes and then left without a glance back.

Louvenia nodded at Lothar's comment about Bardsley. She was getting tired of his snide remarks to her everytime he saw her. Pretty soon she'd probably snap and hurt him as well.

She was rather relieved to see the positive effect that Rayna's presence had on Lothar. She started to gather up the food they were done with and put it away, as the two of them shared a moment.

She waved goodbye to Lothar before he left and turned to Rayna. "Shall we get this stuff back to my room and figure out what we want to do this afternoon? I figured we could hang out while Lothar is busy and get to know one another better."

Rayna relaxed as she felt Lothar calming down. She didn't want him to get into any fights, especially since Marco seemed to already be shouldering that responsibility and standing up for Vanessa. She still loved that he wanted to stand up for others and protect them, a true white knight. She found it a bit funny that she had chosen fallen angels for their costumes, but it also seemed to fit each of them. Each person had a light and dark side after all.

Rayna was sad to have Lothar leave, but also excited for her surprise and chance at getting to know Louvenia one on one. She nodded her head as he whispered in her ear. She would have loved that as well, but also didn't want to gross out Louvenia. They could have a lot of make up kisses after the ball, along with lots of other fun. The thought put a smile on her face as she watched him leave.

She turned her attention back to Lou and nodded, "Sounds good to me! So what house is Bardsley in? He seems like he causes a lot of trouble."

Louvenia rolled her eyes. "He's a Ravenclaw," She sighed. "Lately he's been losing us points left and right. It's kind of been bothering all the kids in our house. I've heard talk from some of the other guys about kidnapping him and beating some sense into him. I just hope that they don't do something they regret."

She finished packing the food into the basket and then picked up the blanket. "Mind helping me fold this thing up? It's a little hard to do at first with just two hands."

Once that task was finished, Lou put her arm through Rayna's and they walked across the lawn and around to the side entrance. It was getting a bit windier and Lou shivered slightly in the chilly weather.

"feels like it's getting colder, pretty soon we'll have our first snow." Lou said with a happy sigh.

"So, Lot mentioned that he had invited you to come home for Christmas break. That should be fun, we have a lot of fun things we do during the holidays. Would you like to hear about some of them?" She asked.

Lothar had told her that he hadn't told Rayna about his father being a Duke yet, so Lou knew not to mention that. She couldn't understand why he hadn't told Rayna earlier. Rayna didn't seem like the type to judge people on who their family was or to be stuck on wealth status. She figured that Lothar had just not felt like it had been the right time to tell her just yet. Perhaps after the Halloween Ball he'd tell her.

"Yeah, I hope Lothar wouldn't be included in that group. Hmm, so Marco is in Slytherin, so both houses lost points for that fight. If it is all Ravenclaw boys, it'd put you guys back quite a bit more. Not to mention all the trouble that they'd get into for that. I don't really care about the house points and house rivalries. I would just want to do well in my studies and move on from here. Though that last bit has changed since meeting Lothar." Rayna said thinking aloud, while she helped Louvenia fold up the blanket.

Rayna stopped for a moment and slid her jacket off, holding it towards Louvenia so she could slide her arms in. "Here, I actually really enjoy the cold wind," she smiled. "I am used to being outside most days, so it doesn't affect me as much." She turned and looked up to the sky and sighed, "I would love it to just stay chilly so we can enjoy the colorful leaves for a while longer."

She turned back to look at Louvenia as she mentioned Christmas break, "Yes, though he still has to ask his father if I could spend it with you both. Otherwise, I'll just be stuck at Hogwarts all break. I would love to hear about everything! I have had a rather....closed off...childhood." She chose her words carefully, figuring that to be the best way to describe it.

Louvenia could hear the concern in Rayna's voice as she spoke. She smiled glad to hear that Lothar had someone who thought so much about him and wanted him to be better. "Oh no, Lot's been too distracted to give him much thought. Probably your doing." She added with a laugh.
"yeah, the whole rivalry thing is terrible. i don't really see the point of it. The kids that take it so seriously don't seem to have lives."

She couldn't help but think that she had been like that not too long ago.

"Thanks Rayna," Lou said taking the jacket and sliding it on. "This is comfy." She said buttoning it up. On her the coat looked much bigger. "I bet I look like a little girl trying on her mother's coat." She said with a laugh.

She listened to Rayna talking about how she liked the cold wind and the chilly weather. "It is nice out, makes me think of drinking hot chocolate next to a roaring fire." She said rubbing her arms. "The leaves are beautiful, I hope the colors stick around for awhile myself. That's my favorite part of Fall.

Lou smiled at Rayna when she said Lot hadn't asked yet. "Oh yeah, he probably doesn't want to ask too early to seem too eager to his father. Then his father would read too much into it and know he's serious about you. Don't worry, when Alesander Alvesleben hears you've spent all your Christmas' at Hogwarts he'll probably send you a personally written invitation."

She reassured her.

"Well..what do you want to know about our childhood? I don't recall all of it, but what I do I will definitely share."

Lou could tell that Rayna had probably had a traumatic childhood, kind of like her and Lothar had. He with his mother running off when he had been young and her from her parents dying when she had been 7 years old.

"Only the best kind of distraction," she laughed herself.

"I didn't focus too much on the rivalry itself, but I might have gone all throughout Hogwarts without any friends if Lothar hadn't been intrigued rather than repelled by my initial coldness." She thought back to when they had first met and how much she had opened up since then. "I have really opened up for the better since I met him," she mused aloud.

She looked Louvenia over in the coat. "Only a little big, not that drastic," she commented with a smile.

"I'd take hot chocolate sitting outside on a bench as a strong Autumn breeze blows," she commented honestly. Anything that made her feel like her feet were not stuck to the ground was better in her mind. "I love the wind far too much. The colors are a great bonus though."

Rayna's heart skipped a beat when Louvenia mentioned Lothar being serious about her. Her tongue did not want to work and words did not want to form. She only felt pure happiness, a feeling that she had been missing for far too many years now. But why would it be a bad thing if his father knows he is serious about me? She was sure her face was betraying all of her emotions to Louvenia, the happiness then the confusion. She finally managed a nod at Louvenia's reassurance.

"Hmm, what kinds of winter activities did you do? Games you played? Any fun winter traditions? Anything you are up for sharing really. It'd probably be more interesting than me as a child, playing in the snow with the house elves because I didn't have any friends. Watching the geese fly overhead, wishing I had wings." She had a sad look behind her eyes as she recalled her own childhood winters.

Louvenia shrugged and grinned at Rayna's laugh and shake her head. She could only imagine what the two of them were up to, and she really didn't want to imagine anything.

She was glad that Rayna didn't think it was too big for her. "Well good, at least you don't think I'm a pixie. Unlike all the boys." She added with a sigh.

Louvenia was surprised to hear what Rayna was saying. That would have been such a sad and lonely existence to have never had a friend or a chance at loving if Lothar hadn't noticed her.

"Lothar normally likes a challenge," She admitted. "I imagine he was intrigued by you not being easily charmed by his natural suaveness." She said with a laugh. "I've noticed that's changed though, since he's met you he doesn't try to charm people anymore. It used to be second nature to him." She mused.

She couldn't help but imagine sitting outside in the breeze drinking hot cocoa and listening to the leaves moving in the wind. "Sounds like a lovely idea, maybe a bit later we can do that. I'm still kind of stuffed from lunch. How about we take this up to the Ravenclaw Common room and drop it off for Lot's dorm mates? They're always hungry. I can introduce you to them, I'm sure they'd like to meet you."

She noticed that Rayna had gone silent and tried to think back on what she had said that could have cause her long reflection. Oh, OH! She had implied Lothar was serious about her and that he wouldn't want his father know right away. Crap. She should have not said that.

"Rayna, honestly I am not sure why he hasn't told his father. There could be several reasons why. I doubt his father would take your being with his son as a bad thing. In fact I bet he'll be delighted, since Lothar hasn't gotten in trouble since he's met you. You are a great influence on him and for the better." Lou told her. "

They were now inside the Hallways and walking towards the Ravenclaw tower. Lou thought over all they had done for winter. "It depends, most times we'll go sledding, skiing, and ice-skating. There is also the village's Winter Fete, it's so much fun. All kinds of booths with foods, crafts, and games. There's also caroling and the village feast on the day before New Year's day. This year, it'll be my sixteenth birthday. Our house elf Norie has mentioned some party being planned..so I think Lothar's father is planning something big."

Louvenia felt rather sad to hear that Rayna had grown up without any friends. At least she had some House Elfs to keep her company. "Oh, well House Elfs can be good friends to have." She said with a smile. "Having a friend who has powerful magic is a good thing sometimes." She added.

"I'm sure you'll grow more before you know it," Rayna said encouragingly.

Rayna laughed as well, "Yes, I did have a shell up that made me seem a bit cold. Though, I have to admit I was attracted to him when I first met him. Him and his natural good looks. I could easily see past the first line he tried on me. I am glad that he doesn't try to be suave to others, it might make me a bit jealous. I do not mind his white knight, gentlemanliness when he helps others, but if he were flirting with anyone..." she let that last sentence trail off, not even wanting to think about that.

Rayna nodded at the idea of cocoa later in the cool breeze. "Sounds good. Yes, a, uh, formal introduction might be better." Her face went red as she remembered the quick meeting when Lothar had told them to leave the dorm room for the night.

Rayna responded to Louvenia's slightly alarmed tone with a lighter one of her own, "I'm not worried. I trust Lothar will tell his father in time. It is just nice to feel wanted for a change." she smiled sweetly at Louvenia, keeping her eyes closed long enough to hide the pain she felt towards her own father.

She was glad when they were inside and talking about Lou and Lot's happier winters. Rayna seemed to hang onto every word, her eyes sparkling with excitement towards each mentioned activity. "Skating would probably be easier with ice skates, huh?" She laughed at her own question. "That is very exciting! I will be sixteen myself tomorrow, though I probably won't feel sixteen until a few months from now. That's the way it goes it seems."

"Yes, the house elves have been a real blessing. I probably would have died under that tree from broken ribs if Einie hadn't found me that day," she could not keep the bitterness out of her voice so she tried to change the topic all together, "But back onto happier topics. What plans other than a feast do you have for your birthday?"

Louvenia laughed at Rayna's comment. "Oh I don't know, I kind of stopped growing for the last few years." She sighed. "I would like to get at least two inches taller..I doubt that will happen. My mom was pretty short too."

Lou grinned at Rayna's explanation. "He did have a lot of lines he liked to use. I'm glad you were able to see through it." She blinked. "yeah I doubt that will happen. he doesn't have eyes for anyone but you. I've heard the Ravenclaw girls lament over how he'll hold a door open, but won't flirt anymore. I think he's saving that for you." She added winking at her.

Louvenia noted how Rayna's face went red at her offering to introduce her to his roommates. "Did you meet thm unofficially or something?" That's when she recalled the boys had been sleeping in the Common Room that morning. Her eyes widened slightly. "Oh, OH! Sorry I said anything. I'll just try and think different thoughts." SHe mumbled.

"oh good," Lou replied to Rayna's reply. She could feel that the other girl was feeling sad about something. She didn't know any of her family story so she had no clue that talking about Lothar's father had dredged up memories of her own.

Their steps echoed as they walked through the halls, and a few people looked up at them as they passed. "Oh I don't know about that. Rollerblading is much more fun and pretty easy. Lothar and I will have to teach you." She told her. "Though that would be something to do in the summer. Oh, that's right! How exciting!"

Lou got a sudden idea and rubbed her bottom lip with her finger. "Do you have a preference of dessert?"

Louvenia was a bit stunned at the bitter tone in Rayna's voice as she spoke of being stuck under a tree. "That sounds so scary. How long were you there before she found you?" Lou asked, her eyes going wide.

Louvenia was a bit surprised at the sudden change of subject and paused at the bottom of the Ravenclaw staircase. "Well..I am hoping of a horse-drawn carriage ride, and maybe even a low-key celebration with Lot and his father and grandparents. I don't really want anyone else in the family showing up if I can help it."

Rayna blushed a bit more when Lou commented that Lothar did not have eyes for anyone but herself. Her face was deep red as Louvenia came to realized just what she had said. She tried to rub the redness away with her hands while at the same time attempted to bury her face behind her hands. "Oh God, my mouth. Why do the words not stop themselves?" she mumbled behind her hands. Her fingers were open just enough so she could see where she was going still. A few people who passed gave her questioning looks.

Her face slowly started to lighten at the change of subject. Rayna tilted her head at the subject of rollerblading, "What's rollerblading?"

She thought a moment then replied, "My favorite desert would probably be strawberry cheesecake. Strawberries themselves are pretty addicting."

"Einie is a he," she replied casually. She thought for a moment trying to calculate just how long it was, "It was a few hours. I had taken my mother's broom outside to try and fly it, but I fell off. Thankfully there were some bushes below to help break my fall, but I still had a few broken ribs. Einie was tending to the garden like he normally does and found me a few hours later."

As they ascended the staircase she commented, "That sounds pretty fun! Would a horse-drawn carriage be different from the threstral ones we have that take us to Hogwarts? Is your family fairly large?"

"You're not the only one wondering that," Lou muttered in a low voice. She had heard exactly what Rayna had mumbled. She too tried to ignor the looks people shot their way.

Louvenia mentally slapped herself for thinking Rayna would know what rollerblading was. She often forgot that most people didn't know much about the muggle world. Her and Lothar were rather lucky to get to experience the muggle world more than most kids at Hogwarts.

"Think of having shoes with wheels on the bottom of them. You can get around much fastr on them. Plus it's a lot of fun when going down hills." She said with a laugh recalling once when her and Lothar had gone down a super steep hill. "It's almost like flying low to the ground. I think you'd love it."

Lou nodded and smiled at Rayna's reply to her question about dessert. An idea was already forming in her head. "Have you ever baked anything before? Would you like to?"

At Rayna's comment about Einie being a he, she nodded. "Ah okay. Sometimes names don't tell you what gender a person might be. Non gender names make guessing hard."

She couldn't help but wonder what Rayna's father had been up to that he hadn't noticed his daughter missing for that long. She didn't ask though, she could sense that Rayna didn't get along very well with him.

"Well you're lucky that Einie was close and managed to find you."

Lou considered her question. "Probably not much different, though maybe a little more smooth. Plus I can actually see horses, and they're fun to brush out and ride on. "

She wasn't sure what Lothar had told Rayna about their family but figured it couldn't hurt to tell her about her side.

"I have two older half brothers and nephews who are spoiled rotten. I had to throw them out of the family home after they burnt down the family library in a fit. I'm not about to invite them to anything in the future. I'm done with them. They didn't really want anything to do with me, all they wanted was the family coffers." She said rolling her eyes.

The eagle knocker asked her a riddle which Lou had to consider for a long several moments. Dugan showed up behind her and answered it much to her relief. "Thanks Dugan, have you met Rayna yet?" She asked as he opned the door for them.

"Umm I believe so, not formally though. It's nice to meet you Rayna." Dugan said as he followed them into the common room. "So what's in the basket?" He asked curiously.

Lou laughed. "Food left over from our picnic. You and your other Dorm mates can finish off what's left." She told him.

"Sweetness!" Dugan said and called out, "Red, Jace, Henric, Lou comes the gift of food!"

The three boys looked up from their books and their eyes flashing with delight. "Awesome! Lou you rock." Red said setting his book down and coming over to them. "Hello there, you must be Lothar's girlfriend I've heard so much about. I've seen you around a bit. While I go by Red, my name is actually Todd Harris. Probably cause of my red hair." He said with a grin.

The other two boys slipped bookmarks into their books and came over to join them. The dark haired boy smiled and waved to Rayna. "I'm Henric, it's nice to meet you Rayna."

The other boy had sandy brown hair and a chiseled face. "Hello. That'd leave me to be Jace. So...what sort of food do you have in there?"

Rayna's eyes sparkled as Louvenia described roller blading being like flying. She nodded in agreement. It was something she would love to try and add to her to-do list with Lothar during the summer.

"No, I have not. I did successfully boil water and make noodles with help from Miiny, the house elf cook. She helped a lot with it. Sure, I would love to practice baking."

"Yeah, Moe is the other male house elf we have. I don't remember their ever being a Meenie to complete them though." Refering to the Eeni, Meenie, Miney, and Mo nursery rhyme. The house elves' names were spelled with slight variations, but that is what they had been based off of.

"Yeah, actually seeing the Thestrals makes it just a bit more creepy."

"Aww, did you all loose a lot of books? I don't know most of my family, though I think I have some aunts, uncles, cousins but they cut ties with us. Still a pretty small family from my understanding."

She waited, trying to figure out the riddle as well, but it was a challenging one. Her mind started to wander to what might happen if a Ravenclaw couldn't figure out the answer to a riddle. Would you be locked out your dorm for the night? Would you be able to move away from the door and come back a few minutes later to a new riddle? Thankfully Dugan came up and answered the riddle before her mind could wander too far.

"Nice to meet you all," Rayna replied after everyone had introduced themselves. Unsure of what all was left still in the basket, Rayna let Louvenia answer that question.

Lou could see that Rayna liked the idea of roller blading. She had heard that Lothar was planning on inviting Rayna to come with them for their summer break as well. She was rather excited to share new things with her.

Lou wasn't too surprised to hear that Rayna didn't cook or bake that much. "Well if you would like I could teach you a few things. Maybe next weekend we can sneak into the kitchen and bake something." She suggested.

Lou laughed when she heard the other House elf's name. "That's pretty cute. Who named them?" She asked curiously. "was it you when you were young?"

Lou was a bit startled to hear that Rayna could see the threstrals. She hadn't known that before. She knew that only people who had witnessed death could see them. Thankfully she had yet to witness such a sad thing. She felt rather bad for Rayna and anyone else who saw them. At least Lot hadn't witnessed a tragic death, but still to be there when his grandmotehr passed had to have been hard.

Louvenia could feel her blood rate rise at the memory of all the burned and scorched books. "Thankfully there's a spell for restoring books that have been burned or scorched, however there was a good third of the library that they were turned into ashes. There is no way to come back from ashes. Most of the ones that met their untimely demise were ancient texts on languages my father collected for years. Still makes me mad at those little brats."

She couldn't help but feel sympathy for Rayna. She knew what it was like to have family that wanted to do nothing with her. Her mother's family hadn't spoken or contacted her mother had passed away. She still wondered why they had decided to cut her out of their lives.

"Here, find out for yourselves." Lou replied with a grin, holding it out to them.

Dugan reached out to take the basket from Lou and set it down on an empty table and started pulling food out. "Ohh roast beef!" he exclaimed happily when he pulled out the sandwich platter.

Red grabbed up the cheesecake the moment he spied it. "MINE! Back off!" He said shielding it with his arms.

Henric laughed and grabbed the deviled eggs and polished off two of them quickly. "These are fantastic. Who made these? I must have the recipe." He said turning to look at Lou questingly.

Lou grinned. "Our House Elf Norie probably made them. I could get the recipe for you if you'd like."

Jace eyed the food and took the bowl of fruit and veggies and sat down to munch on them. "Red, you'd better let me have at least a bite of that cheesecake. You know how much I love that stuff." he said eying the other boy.

"So guys, what are your costumes going to be for the Ball?" She asked.

Dugan grinned, "I'm going to be the most swash-buckling debonair pirate of the Seven Seas you've ever seen."

Red glanced up cheesecake on his lips and shrugged. "I'll probably not really dress up. I can be a break dancer without much of a costume."

Jace grinned. "I'm going as a rockstar, that's easy enough."

Henric grinned, his dark gray eyes flashing. "I'm planning on being a vampire. Not one of those stupid glittery ones though. Stupid Meyers, ruining vampires with that crap." He scowled and flipped his hair out of his eyes.

"What about you girls? What are your costumes?" Dugan asked curiously.

"Well I'm going as Glenda the Good Witch from the newer The Great and Powerful Oz movie." Lou replied and took a seat on an empty chair.

Jace went over to retrieve another chair from a different table and set it down next to Rayna. "Have a seat, and visit for a bit." He said with a smile.

"Sounds like a plan," Rayna agreed with Louvenia's idea about sneaking into the kitchens.

"No," Rayna said sadly, "It was my father who named them, back before my mother died. He was actually decent back then and had a good sense of humor. That all died the night of my mother's death."

Rayna was sad to hear about the books being burned. She gave Louvenia a comforting side hug. She didn't want either of them to fall down the steps with a full force hug, that would have been very bad.

She couldn't help but smile as the guys dived into the food like vultures. She grabbed a slice of the cheesecake before Red could finish it off and took the offered seat. "Thank you. Lothar and I are going to be dark angels or fallen angels, whichever term you prefer." She bit into the cheesecake and savored it. This stuff would end up making her fat if she could eat it all the time.

Louvenia grinned at Rayna. She had been hoping to find a partner in crime to sneak into the kitchen. She thought it would be fun to teach her how to bake. "Awesome. I can't wait."

Lou was rather sorry to hear how Rayna's father had changed. "Oh that's too bad. Some people just don't do well with losing loved ones and never come back from it."

Lou was grateful for Rayna's hug. It was nice to have someone who could sympathize with her.

"Red, you're going to have to share the cheesecake," Louvenia admonished him with warning look.

Red sighed reluctantly and ate one more piece and laid the rest on the table. "Fine..I was getting full anyway."

The three other boys broke out laughing at this.

Rayna nodded. Her father had changed for the worse. Now he wanted nothing to do with her since she reminded him of her mother.

Once the laughter died down, Rayna asked mischievously, "So anyone know what Lothar is planning for my birthday tomorrow?" She knew it would not kill her to wait to find out. She was just naturally curious though and the curiosity liked to eat at her.

Lou's head shot up at Rayna's question. "I uh am not sure. He's been pretty secretive about it with me. You guys know anything?" She asked pointedly her eyes narrowing.

Dugan grinned, "Sorry little lady, Lot would be pissed off if I said something. Though I do know it has to do with another one of his secret spots." he said shrugging his shoulders and grabbed a piece of cheesecake a second later. "Oh wow, this is good. I can see why you wanted to keep it all to yourself Red." He teased.

Red grunted and ran his hand through his hair. "He's been writing something in secret, not sure what that's about. I tried to peek a few times and he nearly burnt off my eyebrows for it." He replied and smirked at Dugan's. "Yeah, tell me about it."

Henric's face went slightly pink as he finished another deviled egg and tried to look like he didn't know anything.

"Aha, so Henric knows something.." Jace said smirking his eyes flashing. "Shall I interrogate him for you Rayna?" He asked putting down a plate of tarts and leaning towards Henric.

"Anything but that!" Henric yelped and moved to hide behind Louvenia.

Lou laughed and poked Henric in the arm. "Come on, a little hint won't hurt." She told him.

Henric glanced at the other boys, Dugan in particular and raised an eyebrow. Dugan shrugged at the unasked question.
"All right, he had me help him with lugging a mattress to a new secret spot saying it was instrumental in the secret. That's all I helped him with. Though I did spy a list of things that he was sending off to Norie that he still needed yesterday. Some sort of special flowers because he wanted them fresh. That's all I'm going to say, I don't want to give anything else away." He finished and hoped that Lothar wasn't going to be mad at him for saying that much.

Louvenia's cheeks went a bright pink at the mention of a mattress and she coughed. "Well..that's interesting. Rayna you want to go do some baking now? Or should we talk about something else?

Rayna could tell they already had an idea of what was planned by how secretive they were being. She was excited to see another of Lothar's secret spots. He had so many it seemed. She wondered if he had discovered all of Hogwart's secrets yet.

She giggled when Red mentioned almost getting his eyebrows singed off. She could just picture Lothar doing that too, which made it all the funnier.

Rayna was quite enjoying how the guys could easily joke and pick off hints from each other with unasked questions. She raised an eyebrow in curiosity at hearing Henric's hints. She wondered just where the secret spot could be. They had already done it outside, so she wasn't too worried about that. It just made it harder to avoid notice from others unless you could get it completely spelled for protection and privacy.

Before her mind could wander too far, Louvenia piped up. Rayna turned to look at Louvenia and noticed her pink cheeks. She could only imagine that it would be similar to a sister hearing that her brother had sex with someone. Lothar and Louvenia were cousins, but they seemed more like brother and sister to Rayna. She still couldn't really relate herself as she was an only child and grew up away from most of her family. "Sure, baking sounds like a fun experience. Do you want other company?" she inclined her head to the guys. She didn't want to officially invite them as it was Louvenia who had invited herself in the first place.