Dinner was very good! Everyone had been in a sour mood all day though, or did it just feel like it? People were very dour this morning, she didn't know why but everyone felt off, also why was there a puddle by the Gryffindor table? Did someone wet themselves? She didn't see how that would make everyone upset, it didn't smell. Someone said there was a water fight and another claimed they were fighting, it all seemed very normal. But people kept mentioning a flier but no one said about what it was.

It was all very annoying when you were out of the loop on things, having to catchup never felt nice. She had arrived a bit late to breakfast, but she had her reasons! Very good ones, ones that beat everyone elses reasons!
She just hadn't figured out what they were yet.

She wasn't late to lessons though and that was all good. Not like she can be late with two free periods before her first one but nonetheless.

Now was the true relaxing time of the day, dinner was too noisy as usual to discuss anything and there was still that dour mood, mostly over the Gryffindor table so it was nothing she should be worried about, but it presented new opportunities she could exploit.

"Ooooo Noooooriko~!" She sung out as she hunted down her favourite dorm mate. She was there at breakfast, or atleast had been there longer as by the time she had left the bedroom Noriko was gone. So she should be a valuable source of information on this matter. Now where could she be? Back in their room? Maybe. But she could be about the common room!

To her the common room had always been fairly odd, the hallway for a start leading in was always freezing as they're in a dungeon, it didn't feel nice being locked in a dungeon. And despite the efforts of the numerous candles and fires, it always looked dark inside. And the place always smelt slightly of fish, she wasn't sure if it was cause of what people were eating, some of the people. Or the fact that there was a giant wall of glass that could cave in at any moment from a spell going wrong and the entire lake would flood in and kill them all.

She loved the common room! But it wasn't as bright as she'd like. She'll have to give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

Aha! The Noriko had been sighted and she made her route!

"Found you!" Allura said happily as she spread her arms wide and flinged herself at the poor girl for a hug.

Noriko had returned to the common room after dinner, claiming one of the low-backed leather sofas that sat in front of a tall window that looked out into the lake.  This late in the evening, the eerie green light that streamed in through the windows was a darker emerald than usual, casting all sorts of strange, dancing shadows across the stone-lined room.

Once upon a time, the mysterious common room with its huge glass windows and eerie gothic decor had terrified Noriko.  She'd been aghast that this was where she would be expected to spend much of her free time, and had spent her first week at Hogwarts running through it with her eyes squeezed shut.  But now, after four years in Slytherin, the foreboding tints of green light and the ornate iron lanterns felt strangely like home.

She'd been alternating between puzzling over her Divination homework and giggling at the giant squid, which was putting on quite the dazzling display outside in the lake as it jetted around in circles, its body dancing with shifting, shimmering colors, when the attack had come.  Noriko let out a surprised squeak as her roommate tackled her with an enthusiastic hug, sending pages of parchment flying into the air.

"MMPH NPMTHPH!" she exclaimed in muffled horror, her face half buried in the sofa's uncomfortable cushions.

It took a moment for her to squirm free, at which point she rushed to frantically recover her notes.  Noriko snatched the last page off the floor, giving a sigh of relief.

"Hullo, Allura," she said, finally favoring her dormmate with a smile as she began to sort the parchment back into numbered page order.  Of everyone in Slytherin House, the friendly witch was easy to forgive for making a mess of her careful organization, especially on a Friday night.  "I didn't know you were looking for me."

Noriko was here! And she got a hug in! All was going well! She did spill her papers though which wasn't good, that was never good but she didn't suffocate so that was another positive! Three positives was a win! The opposite of three strikes! Once she had wriggled free, Allura had backed away from the squeeze of the hug and let go fully so she could recover from the attack.

With her friend ba- She isn't your friend ... With Noriko back to organization, Allura moved to the back of the sofa and behind the spare space on it. With a look over the papers Noriko was working on, a smirk filled her face. "Who's the boy you're giggling about?" Was it Noriko who giggled? There were alot of first years so it could be one of them, but it should still work. "Is it...hhhm." A joking grin overpowered the smirk. "Oooh I didn't know you were so into Kyson!" She teased, with a hope that she would see the wink. Kyson is too cruel a joke.

Was she looking for Noriko? Of course she wasn't, not anymore atleast. She found her! Silly her. With a "Hup!" She climbed over the back of the sofa and bounced onto its cushion, both her legs crossed as she aimed herself to face towards the fellow slytherin. Now was the time that separated the Slythies from the Hufflepuffs. It was serious business, as now it was time to gossip. A very good hobby to have she would imagine, you can make careers out of it. Just look at the Witch Weekly copies that get passed around like the plague as everyone is too embarrassed to even touch it. Made by that...whatever gamp. Even her dog wouldn't tear it up in fear of being seen with it.

"Nor~ E~ Ko~!" She said excitedly, then leaned forwards towards the poor roommate. "What happened at breakfast? Like I walked in, and there was puddles on the floor, people looked upset. The mummy didn't look happy, but when is he ever...Did the Gryffindors get into a fight and I missed it? Did Ravenclaws summon a cloud? Were Hufflepuffs trying to make a fruit smoothie but forgot milk and fruit so used water?" It sounded like something that they would attempt as her mouth raced faster then her mind could catch up.

At Allura's teasing, Noriko's face instantly turned bright red.  Giggling about a boy?  Quickly, she looked around the room, trying to make sure that none of their housemates were listening in.  Kyson Cavanaugh was one of the popular sixth year students, who spent most of his time either studying or laughing with his friends.  He'd never noticed Noriko, and Noriko would certainly have never presumed to giggle about him.

"I wasn't giggling about a boy --" she started to say firmly, but Allura had already moved on.  Relieved to have moved on past any mention of Cavanaugh, Noriko was quick to respond.

"I think it started with those anti-werewolf fliers that were sent around," she answered, frowning slightly at her friend.  "But then some kind of fight broke out at the Gryffindor table -- that's where the werewolves are, you know," she added, a little uncomfortably.

Everyone knew now that eccentric Lucinda Temple in their year was a werewolf; the news had spread like wildfire across the school after the disastrous SAWS meeting.  Even so, calling her one still felt mean.  The same went a little less for Greer Grant, who had returned to Hogwarts in January after her parents had been arrested for hiding her after she'd killed people.  Noriko still wasn't sure how she felt about werewolves, even after talking to Zeta Pepper, whom she respected, but having them around all of the other students at Hogwarts just didn't feel safe, especially when one was already a murderer.

But it probably wasn't smart to vocalize all that to Allura, who was bubbly and easily excitable.  Noriko shrugged. 

"One of the  werewolf girls and another of the Gryffindor girls were rolling around and biting each other, and then the professors came running over and yelled at them to stop.  They lost twenty points for Gryffindor," she finished, more than a little smugly.  She'd checked the house point hourglasses immediately after leaving breakfast.

They lost points! This was good news! Great news even! It means Slytherin's only real competition were the book nerds in Ravenclaw, atleast to her guessing it was, she could be wrong but it did mean Slytherin are near the top now. She could always try to find a way to make other houses drop points, she'll have to start thinking of that soon, the werewolf girls seemed to like attention so she can play to that. Of course there was always a good old house raid, but that was far too risky to sneak into their house and steal something to lure them out after dark. So much could go wrong.

And it was about werewolves. Great, it was never anything pleasant was it? Did she feel sorry for them? Sorta, but they were so annoying. And dangerous, sure the headmaster was a werewolf but he was an adult and kind. Teen Wolves had the problem of being werewolves and going through puberty, which was ew. If you were already annoying during that time just add on the fact they can explode at any moment. It made them worse. And one of them had already killed someone, the other was a total bi-

Allura nodded her head and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah the grumpy girl who lost her friends and well...the..." She tried thinking of a word for the younger one that didn't sound too mean. "Forcibly taken to school...after a certain..." She wasn't fond of the idea of having her her, and it showed in her tone. She had killed someone! Sure it was in her werewolf form, but how was she to know if she hadn't been aware at the time. And what happens if they don't manage to get out of the school? Just have a murderer and a girl with no friends running about all blood hungry?

"What was on the fliers and..." She looked into Noriko's eyes, trying to tell what she was thinking. "Tell me honestly, between us girls." Her voice lowered. "What do you think?" Noriko was her friend, she wanted to make sure they were on the same page here, no matter how many people she talked to or tried to be friends with, she needed the one person to be her rock she can anchor to, and who better then the one she sleeps in the same room with.

One of the first lessons that anyone learned at Hogwarts was that it was safest to keep one's thoughts to oneself, especially when it involved controversial subjects like werewolves.  Noriko still hadn't forgotten that disastrous Halloween dance during their first year, when SAWS had spiked the punch[1] and turned everyone who drank it into hairy wolf monsters.  As a much more worldly fourth year, she understood now that that wasn't actually how lycanthropy worked, but the traumatic incident still stuck in her memory.  Werewolves were scary and complicated.

When things like next year's prefect assignments were on the line, it was far smarter to stay out of the werewolf debate entirely and let the newest incarnation of SAWS wage their battle against...whatever it was that Zeta Pepper thought they were fighting, now that werewolves were allowed back at the school and they even had one as their headmaster.  Still, Noriko hesitated.  It was hard to say no to Allura.

She bit her lip for a moment, and then reached into her book bag to find the flier that she'd tucked into her History of Magic textbook.

"Here," Noriko said, passing it to her housemate.  "I ended up with one by accident."

That was a lie, but a small one -- it just hadn't seemed right that the professors had decided to confiscate all of them before anyone had a chance to understand what they were.  It also bought her time to decide if she wanted to give her real opinion -- and time to decide what her real opinion was, since she still didn't feel sure.

1.	It was actually spiked by Devlin Matthews.

Noriko had a flier? She hadn't actually seen one, it wasn't...well designed. Too drab and boring colour palette. It didn't stick out, maybe some glitter here and there could make it work. But that was her trying to make it look nicer, it wasn't meant to look nice, it was meant to scare. She felt a cold sliver creep into her heart and ensnare it. It was not wrong, they were dangerous, and as the sliver tightened..maybe they shouldn't share the school? I mean would it be so difficult to ensure the safety of everyone else if the two were somewhere else? She didn't...hate the two, she barely knew them. But they did pose a danger..right? And even the Headmaster was never able to predict everything, what if they can't get to the ministry one day? They could just roam the halls or the grounds! And the moon could rise early! She's seen it in the daytime with the sun out! When there are classes on!

She slowly slid the flier back towards Noriko, not wanting to keep it any longer and unsure if Noriko wanted it back really, either way she tried to keep it somewhat covered so others couldn't see. Her face looking equally disturbed...but guilty looking. Of course they deserved education also, and it wasn't something they wanted. And she is also not fully human, but being half Veela and being a murderous killing machine were different, although she'd not mentioned her birth mothers species, there were some good guesses and some people had rumoured it when she started being able to make boys buy her sweets on a whim. But she'd never said it.

She looked at Noriko for any sense of what her reaction is, both were around during the previous SAWS and fiasco but somehow Allura had managed to avoid some of that, namely the punch. Just don't drink the punch, her mother always said not to. Although now she was sure it was about something other then fake werewolves.

"So...what do you think?" She asked in a lower tone, close to a whisper as she tried making sure no one else heard or notice. "I won't tell anyone. I'll even tell you a secret of mine if its easier." She said in a very serious tone for herself, most of her excited energy is just...gone, replaced with her guilty look.

Noriko slipped the flier back into her History of Magic textbook and carefully shut the cover.  After everything that had happened at breakfast, she'd surely lose points if she were caught at it, but Slytherin wasn't like the do-good Hufflepuffs or the rule-loving Ravenclaws or the nosy Gryffindors.  Surely if she kept it squirreled away, none of her housemates would tell on her.

She'd tried to avoid her dormmate's second question, but Allura wasn't prepared to let it drop.  Noriko paused, concern knitting her brows as she considered her friend's offer. 

Slytherin traded in secrets.  The students here were much more subtle than those she knew in other houses; it was one of the reasons that she liked Eirene, who never bothered to hide what she thought of anything.  Normally, her best friend in Ravenclaw would be the first person with whom she'd share her thoughts on anything.  But Eirene had been spending an awful lot of time around Frank the previous semester, even before they'd both been stricken with the magical measles on the way back to Hogwarts and had been relegated to the Hospital Wing together.  And it was awfully hard to say no to Allura.

She glanced around the room, just to make sure that no one else was close enough to listen, and then lowered her voice to match her housemate's.

"What's your secret?" she asked curiously.  It was probably something to do with who had a crush on whom, or which students had been sneaking off together.  Allura always seemed interested in that kind of thing, even as Noriko stayed more focused on her studies.

Noriko was hesitant to tell, it was understandable she guessed, they were a hot topic at the moment and with the disaster of a week ago still in some peoples minds, it made sense. No one really wanted to give their tea about something that could get them shouted at, although by the hesitance it seemed Noriko was on the same sort of wave length as her, unless she is massively fond of Werewolves and was nervous to tell Allura, it was possible that Wendy the Werewolf had rubbed off onto her given her love for the radio show.

What secret to tell her though, it wouldn't be much if she just said her opinion on Werewolves, if anything it may make the other Slythie dislike the idea of telling her even more. She knew a few crushes that she hasn't told her yet, but those weren't that interesting and wouldn't be good to swap for this, they were too tame. She knew some weird things like who still picked their nose, one student who didn't know that Stars were real and assumed they were some weird muggle invention that flies without magic. There was a juicy scandal she knew where she saw one a couple of 7th years going to the boathouse together but he was dating someone else, but that was soon to be common knowledge anyway when the other student hears the whispers going about.

The other problem is they didn't match the type of secret, in the information business, when you traded secrets you needed to match, something personal for something personal. You want to know who was caught in the boathouse with your boyfriend? Why don't you tell us about the girl you were caught with underneath underneath the quidditch stands? Tit, for tat.

By now she had made up her mind of what to tell, she was just stalling herself mentally despite the fact it didn't take too long for her to think all of this, she knew it mostly off heart, it was always good to memorize the code of ethics in information brokering after all. "How about one bad secret, and one good secret for your secret?" She said in a chilled out tone.

She moved onto her knees to get closer, she didn't want everyone to hear did she? That would ruin the point of trading secrets. Once close enough on her knees she leaned in near to her ear, in a gentle whisper, only a hint of teasing in her tone she said. "Bad secret, you look cute when flustered." She let off a sly smirk, the second would be harder for her to say, people had guessed it, rumoured it, but confirmation was better, besides Noriko wouldn't spill it out, and some of the rumours were funny. One boy called her a goddess, she laughed it off and reminded him she was only a mere mortal but she was flattered, she was very..humble like that.

In a quieter tone, one that was hard to hear for anyone further away but clear enough for the listener, a skill many slytherins perfected she was sure, along with many houses but for different reasons, Hufflepuffs for where food was stored, Gryffindors for betting, Ravenclaws to keep their tips in their little circle. But for her information and teasing. She whispered. "I'm half Veela."

A risky move given the ecosystem of Hogwarts, but she trusted her, and besides even if she blabbed, it had been rumoured and she knows...or atleast hopes she knows how to counter rumours.

Allura's first secret made Noriko blush.  It hardly seemed fair -- it was just her housemate teasing her in her usual flirty manner, which definitely qualified it as a bad secret but also didn't make Noriko inclined to trust her. 

But then Allura leaned in closer, lowering her voice even more, and whispered her second secret.

"I'm half Veela."

Noriko stared at her, her eyes wide.  She didn't take Care of Magical Creatures, but everyone knew a little bit about Veela.  Muggly the Bear had even done a WWN safety special on them a few years before, which had warned young listeners not to go home with strange witches that they didn't know, especially if they happened to be especially attractive or threw fireballs at you. 

What did this mean?  Was Allura even telling the truth?  Being half Veela didn't seem like the sort of thing that someone would lie about, but maybe this was just a prank, a plot to see if Noriko was still as gullible as she'd been as a little first year.  Besides, rumors had persisted about her housemate for years, but Allura had always laughed them off before.  Why would she tell Noriko this now?

Because she was trading, Noriko thought as she swallowed hard.  A secret for a secret.

All of the questions that she might think to ask felt stupid now.  How long have you been half-Veela? had an obvious answer, Can you shoot fireballs from your fingers? seemed a bit rude, and Does anyone else know? didn't really matter.  Even asking if Allura was teasing her seemed a bit silly.  There was no one else around to see, and even if Allura liked to flirt and bait people sometimes, she was never outwardly mean.

"Oh," Noriko said at last, because it seemed like she ought to say something.  She swallowed again, shifting awkwardly.  Allura had certainly told her a secret, assuming it was true, which meant that she was honor-bound to share her own in return.

But knowing her housemate's secret also begged the question of what Allura thought about werewolves.  If she was part-Veela herself, maybe she felt a sort of kinship with them, even if they were different kinds of creatures.  Maybe she was testing Noriko, trying to find out what she thought so she could spread it all over school.  You weren't supposed to be suspicious of werewolves.  Muggly the Bear had had a special about that, too.

"I don't think werewolves are bad," Noriko started uncertainly.  They weren't bad, and everyone knew it wasn't their fault that they'd gotten bitten, but that didn't mean that they were nice.  Everyone knew how snappish and grumpy Temple had been since she'd come back to school in the fall, and Noriko had just seen the other Gryffindor werewolf start a fight at breakfast. 

"I just, um...I'm not sure if it's safe?" she ventured hesitantly, risking a glance at Allura.  "They seem kind of...angry.  Do you think it's dangerous, having them here at school?"

The bad secret worked like she wanted, she was cute when flustered! She was cuter then herself, if she focused on boys she'd be taken instantly. Maybe if she ever showed interest that could be her new project. Although she'd have to leave the room to help Noriko or they she was pretty sure they give the poor girl much attention...if its girls though then she would be golden, who could say no to her?

The good secret she was taking well, not much of a verbal reaction, she probably did expect it or she took her out of left field, both very different ends of the spectrum but either way it wasn't a bad reaction, she'd need to change topic to it soon likely to help her process it maybe, but thats fine as she got what she wanted from her, it wouldn't be good to linger incase they were heard.

On that note, Allura let out a sigh of happy relief. She felt the same way. A gentle smile came across her face as she shuffled back into her cross legged position, much comfier then her knees. "We're on the same thoughts, at very least...can they not go the day before? Less chance of you know...being hairy some of the time?" She said in a slightly quiet tone.

She cleared her throat gently. "I am to guess you have a few questions for me now? Given how I sort of pushed for you to tell me, I'm open."  At the very least it'll be fun to see what the two of them can get up to.

Allura's idea seemed perfectly reasonable to Noriko.  Why couldn't the werewolf girls go to the Ministry a day early so that there was no chance of anything bad happening at Hogwarts?  That seemed like a smart precaution for everyone to take.  At least that way, if something horrible went wrong, the professors would have a whole extra day to figure out a solution and get them somewhere safe.

Noriko glanced down at her History of Magic textbook that hid the forbidden flier.  The words on the leaflet had been harsh and cruel, but it still seemed wrong to cut off all conversation about whether or not the werewolf students were dangerous.  Part of her wondered if that was because Headmaster Greyfriar was a werewolf himself; maybe he wasn't so open to talking about it because he felt like it was an attack on him.

As her housemate cleared her throat, Noriko glanced up at her, startled.  A few questions?  She had no idea what it meant to be part-Veela.  Could Allura shoot fireballs from her fingertips?  Was that why she seemed to be so popular with everyone?

"How does it...work?" she asked hesitantly.  Now that she'd been given permission to ask, more questions started to spring into her head.  "Does anyone else know?  Was it your mother or your father who was one?  No," she said, suddenly catching herself.  No one ever talked about boy veelas.  "It has to be your mother, right?"

The questions were...fairly safe so far, honestly she'd been expected to be asked if she could shoot fireballs from her hands, she couldn't as far as she knew, it just seemed to be the aspect of being the best looking girl in the room at the time and bringing all the boys to her yard, but her milkshake wasn't what was asked really, well one of the questions related to it. But she should probably start with her parents.

"Well, yeah my birth mother is one, strict mum works for ministry I think and is boringly human." She said, disregarding the part of if her dad was Veela, she would say no as she is human still, but she knows nothing about her dad, for all she knows strict mum was her dad, she acted like it half the time so it was probable in her mind. "I think mum works as a model maybe? She has the body type for it and I don't want to think on any other work she may have."

The meat of it though, how did it work? She guessed by magic, she hasn't really had the talk with her parents and wasn't fond of the idea of it, it was awkward enough sitting in a large room of people as a kid infront put things on vegetables let alone one on one. "You mean how does magic work? One of the worlds great mysteries." She gave off a weak smirk as she leaned back, did she wanna discuss her charm? She guessed she had to sorta. No reason not to right? Helps Noriko.

"I do have the charm, if you haven't noticed some boys cannot keep their eyes off me, not just them being boys either." She rolled her eyes, they were annoying, she knew none of them actually liked her, it was all just cause of her charm and how she looked, otherwise they wouldn't be near her ever, atleast with girls there was a good chance of them not caring for her looks, maybe that explains why Veela stay together often.

Allura was always so bubbly and confident, and even now, after sharing her great secret, it seemed as if nothing could phase her.  It made Noriko feel silly for being so worried about sharing her own secret when hers had been so mild in comparison. 

It was clear that Allura didn’t think so highly of her situation, though.  At the other witch’s blithe dismissal of boys and their attention, Noriko couldn’t help but let a giggle escape.

“Well, you are popular,” she pointed out to her friend loyally.  Allura was pretty, too, which she was sure the boys noticed.  Maybe her part-Veela-ness explained some of that, but it didn’t affect who Allura was.  Noriko had no doubt that the boys in their year would have had crushes on her even if she was just a normal witch.

It made her feel a little strange, thinking of her friends and boys.  Eirene sort of had a boyfriend now, too.  Noriko had liked Frank, but the rumors that had spread about the third year and her best friend made her feel a little unsettled inside.  If Frank got up the guts to ask Eirene out, did that mean that Eirene wouldn’t bother to spend time with Noriko anymore?

But it was rude to think about those things now that she was here with Allura.  Noriko paused, trying to push any thought of Eirene or any hurt that her best friend would rather spend time with her sort-of boyfriend than with Noriko out of her head.

“Can you use it on purpose?” she asked Allura curiously.  That could be useful, especially for a Slytherin.  “Like, can you make them like you more? Or does it just happen naturally without you trying?”

The slightly trickier questions given to her were things that she was still unsure of, she'd gone through what she can and cannot do, she was pretty sure how her charm worked but it was difficult to judge for herself, it was tricky to tell when someone is infatuated with you from how you should look or if it was because of how they thought you looked from the charm. She was certain her distrust of people came from the fact that she couldn't tell if it was due to people really liking her or from the charm. And then it was breaking down if it wasn't from the charm to if it was cause she wasn't horrible looking or her personality. It was just easier to assume no one truly liked her until she got to know them much better. Even then no one likes you.

"Well." How would she start this? She wasn't sure herself! At the very least she can tell what she knows, its better if they were on equal terms of this, she got something potentially dangerous from Noriko, being part Veela was close to herself but it wasn't dangerous knowledge really was it? After all if others found out they'd just be more cautious around her. But even then its nowhere near as dangerous as opinions on werewolves. And she wanted to have her friend know, nicer to have someone to talk to that isn't your mother.

"So, as far as I know, I cannot control it. Its just, sort of there? I don't feel much different, so I think it may be just always or when I try flirting or something? I don't control it as far as I am aware." She gave a little smile, her legs uncrossed as she moved to relax backwards in the couch, she wanted to lay more cool and in a way that wouldn't give her pins and needles in her legs.

She laid back in the couch with one arm over the back of it, not exactly caring right now how un-elegantly she did it or looks afterwards. She wasn't trying to impress anyone and as far as she was aware right now, no one was watching other then Noriko so she didn't care at all if she laid back un-ladylike. Her parents weren't going to tell her off.