December 11th, 2008
9:30am
Hogwarts Lake Edge

"Everyone stand completely still or I will dock two points from your midterm grade." Graham shouted in his gruff voice.  They were a rough and tumble bunch with only a couple of sweet spots in between, though mostly overshadowed by the catastrophe of their first class.  It would take the entire year to train his first years, to make them competent at anything outside of starting trouble, but he was beginning to have faith.  They had behaved decently during the classroom lectures, or at least as decently as he could expect.  He was ready to give them a second chance.  However, it would not be in his greenhouse, at least not yet.

They stood at the lake edge, Graham and his rag-tag group of first years, the landscape being significantly altered by magic.  Instead of the sublime, rambling landscape, the area was more similar to a tropical jungle.  Wild vines grew where there were not, some even already snapping at the children.  A few of his choicest plants, a few dangerous specimens, and a couple that would guarantee the chance of a passing grade were interspersed among the greenery giving the area a different energy altogether.  It wasn't often that he allowed his plants the reckless abandon of an uncontrolled environment, the chance to sink their roots back into the wild soil; today was certainly going to be interesting indeed. 

The classroom lectures had bored the children, and several had spoken delightedly of the moment in which they would no longer need his classes.  It was time to wake them up, to show them the dangers and wildness of the field.  For once it would not be a question of whether Graham could handle the children, but whether they could handle him. 

"When I give the signal," he spoke over the crowd, eying their anxiousness with pleasure, "You are to explore the area of a fifty-foot radius.  There will be purple flags to mark the boundary. If you step outside them, I will know, and I will fail you." He paused a moment to look decidedly at Mairead.  "Within the boundary are over eighty different species of plants that we have studied over the course of the semester, including the aquatic varieties along the lake.  You are to identify as many as you can.  List its name, either scientific or common, briefly describe the plant and its characteristics, and give two of its magical properties."

Graham turned and pointed at a spider-like structure on the edge where jungle met beach.  A large, purple, crushed velvet armchair seemingly teetered upon six wooden legs that held it six feet in the air.  "I will be there.  Observing." This time, he directed his stern gaze upon Keegan Kearney.  "If there is trouble, you will be ejected from the zone and fail your midterm.  That aside, only the rules of nature apply."

With a rare smile, Graham paused, enjoying his god-like power.  "Go."

-- Uniform. --

Aglaia listened, closely, as Professor Bombay spoke. She wasn't so great at planting and knowing what all those plants did... But she knew names at least. She could get some sort of credit even if she didn't know where the plants were suppose to be planted, what they did, and all that useless information, couldn't she? Aglaia was a Dark Arts type of gal. Not a get-down-and-dirty-with-Herbology kind of gal. People who did that all for a living were probably dirty. Graham Bombay was simply proof of that. But Aglaia knew not to speak those words out loud, even though she really wanted to. She wouldn't let her grade suffer by a slip of the tongue.

"If there is trouble, you will be ejected from the zone and fail your midterm.  That aside, only the rules of nature apply."

The Slytherin's dark eyes immediately turned onto Keegan and Mai. He was clearly speaking to them. What other students would cause trouble? Besides Aglaia of course, but the difference was that she didn't get caught. And she definitely had some trouble planned for this class. A malicious smile formed on her face as her death glare found itself on Serenity Lee Thornton. Ohh, this shall be a fun class.

Bombay told them to simply "go" and Aglaia's notebook and quill immediately shot up to her face. She glanced around and immediately started scribbling; Abyssinian shrivelfig, Chinese Chomping Cabbage-- That was definitely trying to eat Aggie's cute shoes, eeewwww-- Bouncing Bulb, Screechsnap, Flitterbloom-- Or was it Devil's Snare... No, the Devil's Snare was hiding out over by the Venomous Tentacula. What an awful combination! Aglaia scoffed and quickly kicked off running to start finding more plants.

She scribbled down descriptions (Not that detailed, but still descriptions) and found herself by the actual lake itself. She wasn't so great with Aquatic plants. But might as well get them done first so she could get the easier ones later.

Aglaia jotted down "Gillyweed" but that was all she really knew. Why didn't she study harder!? Her eyes landed on Serenity again... Perhaps she could get her to give her the answers... Better yet, she could force her. Aglaia waited, patiently, behind a mundane bush. She bit her lip. This should be fun.

Keegan had taken up his usual spot in the back of the class, his tie undone and his hands shoved lazily in his pockets. Hushed whispers and restrained laughter could be heard filtering from his general vicinity, despite the fact that class had already commenced. In fact, the murmurs seemed to grow louder when Bombay insisted that everyone be quiet and stand up straight. He didn't straighten up either. What did good behavior matter in this class? Bombay hated him anyways.

"...So we could get a cookbook er somethin' an' send 'er cookies to fatten 'er up..." Keegan was murmuring to himself absent mindedly, recalling his plan on how to torture Wakawaka. He almost completely missed the instructions had he not felt a glare boring into his right temple. It made him feel slimey, so he knew it must be Bombay. Glancing at him, he heard the last bit of the instructions. "If there is trouble, you will be ejected from the zone and fail your midterm.  That aside, only the rules of nature apply."

"Rule's o nature..." He snickered, elbowing the guy next to him and wishing that it was Mai. She would have laughed. Where was she anyways? She hated this class, but surely she wouldn't skip out on the midterm. Frowning, he glanced behind them at the school, in case she was on her way, before looking out over the field. Most of his classmates were already scrambling for the plants and scribbling in notebooks. It was then he realized what the lesson was. Really? Plant identification? Was this the boy scouts or a magical school, because he had a feeling they would be learning how to tie knots and help old ladies across the street next. Funny, he couldn't picture Bombay as a boy scout. The creepy guy who watched the boy scouts, maybe.

When Knight flew past them and into the field as fast as her overpriced sandals could carry her, Keegan glanced around for Mai once more before shrugging "I suppose I better get started...Can't be THAT 'ard. Like pickin' fecking daisies..." He rolled his eyes before making his way into the field. Ackie seemed to know what she was doing, so Keegan followed a little behind her, picking up what remained of the plants she left behind. Some of them he remembered the names to, but quite a few were made up. With plants like Gillyweed and Mandrakes, who could tell the difference?

Eirene listened very closely to Professor Bombay's instructions, a pad of parchment in one hand and a quill in the other, poised between her fingers as if this were a duel. She shot a worried glance at the Gryffindors when the professor told them not to go past the purple flags, convinced they would try to lure her to the edge and push her just for the pleasure of watching her cry.

Admittedly, being out in the wilderness with the plants snapping at her feet made her extremely nervous. She hadn't minded learning about the plants in a nice, safe classroom setting, and she'd had an easy time memorizing facts and identifying them from a book. Out here, however, plants - or worse,  bugs! - could bite her and attack her and ruin her shiny shoes! But her mouth was set in a grim line and her eyes gleamed with academic fervor. She would get an O in this class if it killed her!

If it did kill her, she promised to haunt the Gryffindors with a vengeance.

The moment Professor Bombay said 'go', Eirene flinched, and spent the first few moments turning around in a circle and wringing her hands. If she'd known the midterm would be like this, she would have worked out a strategy! Eirene finally began identifying the plants nearest to her, writing down both their common names and their scientific ones (just to show off), and then starting on a paragraph or two (or three or four) of description for each. Precious minutes passed, one of those spent erasing a crooked 't', and then Eirene let out a squeal of distress and glanced around at her peers and their pages and pages of plant names with mere sentences of description, some of those even incomplete sentences! Her gaze narrowed in on another first-year's wrinkled parchment, her wobbly handwriting going in every direction, her quill clearly not sharpened. Eirene's eyes bugged out of her head. It was not fair! The child with her abominable handwriting had identified more plants than she had!

If she had all the time in the world, she was confident she could identify each and every plant here, and even write essays about them, but the fact was, this was a timed exercise. And Eirene was falling behind!

Face flushed, she tugged her foot out of the grasp of a persistent vine and headed for the lake area, an area she'd researched thoroughly ever since she'd almost been pulled to a watery demise on the boatride to Hogwarts.

Eirene barely noticed Aglaia lurking by a bush, but she did see Keegan and Mairead, and passed them by with a delicate sniff, determined to ignore the barbarians.

She bent carefully by one of the species of seaweed on the shore, and began writing a description of it in neat, tidy cursive script.

[Uniform]

Serenity Lee did as firmly instructed: she did not move. Her nose itched badly, but the professor would probably chew her out for forcing him to take points from his own house because she scratched it. He started talking and she felt something inch along her leg. It startled her, but Professor Bombay specifically told her to stand completely still! The longer he took to explain it, the higher the vine crept until he said the word "Go!"

Serenity Lee squealed and tried to tug her foot loose from the plant, but it tugged back. She took out her wand as an instinct and raised it to fire on the plant when she realized that she had no clue of what spell to use. It even tightened its grip with each further attempt to free her leg. That first clue there was enough to cause the girl to stop wiggling around. The girl was nearly in tears. She was trying to relax, but the more she panicked, the worse it hurt from the death grip of the vine. For a few minutes, Serenity Lee was doing her best not to attack the plant. It belonged to Bombay, but after it gave a jerk and sent her to the ground, the Ravenclaw decided she'd had enough. She was being dragged along the ground until she once again raised her wand threateningly.

"L-Lumos!"

It was the only light she could think of to shine at the plant and make it let go, but to no avail. Her Lumos light wasn't bright enough to affect the Devil's Snare that was perched happily in its extremely dark shadow. Serenity Lee grew more embarrassed by the second that she couldn't defend herself against the plant.

"Professor! P-please professor, can you get it off me?"

The child was lifted up into the air upside down, bawling as she also tried to push her skirt down--or was it up?--to keep from showing off anything underneath it. Her wand dropped and she found herself defenseless. At this point, failing the mid-term exam was her first choice over being squeezed to death by Devil's Snare and consumed as a snack.

Venora MacGregor shifted her weight from foot to foot as her eyes regarded the Ravenclaw Head of House and their Herbology professor. She wasn't sure what to make of him following the entire semester's worth of events. One moment he seemed to despise all first years following the fire that had been set. And then he seemed to temper off a bit following the Halloween Ball....or maybe that was just towards Dahlia who had saved him from the evil caramel apples and anyone associated with her got a slight boost in favor as well.

Or maybe it was residual from the sleepover in the Astronomy tower where the usually high strung professor was able to relax a bit. Venora wasn't sure, but she wasn't questioning it. She dutifully stood next to her housemate and friend, Dahlia, and waited the next instructions.

The moment he said fail, her eyes went wide and she reached out and grasped Dahl's hand before squeezing. Venora wasn't a worrier about her classes--she was happy to just squeeze by with a passing grade--but she didn't want to do so poorly where she would be kicked out of school. Her daddy would be so disappointed in her, especially if Camden did well.

When they were set loose, Venora finally the hand she had held and started to search in her bag for her notebook. The artsy Hufflepuff set about creating an organized table to keep track of the information. She was good at making things like that look nice, even if the information contained within it wasn't always correct.

Looking brightly over at Dahl, she said, "Want to work together? Let's go find Serenity Lee and see if she wants to work with us." Venora glanced around in search of her Ravenclaw friend but was horrified to see her dangling upside down, at the mercy of one of Bombay's beloved plants.

"Lee Lee!" The Hufflepuff rushed closer, her notebook falling to the ground and promptly forgotten about. Instead, she instinctively reached for her cedar wand and was intent on pointing it towards the vine that held her friend when she tripped. Her fingers tightened around the smooth shaft and as she thudded against the ground, a flash of light surged from the tip of her wand and nicked the plant just above it's hold on the Ravenclaw. "Awwfff!"

---

OOC: Venora's wand previously belonged to her mother, and is said to work well for love magic and defensive magic, with her mother using it as an Auror. As a first year, Venora does not know how to effectively channel these properties, so this was purely by accident. I'm thinking it didn't do any damage to the plant....but maybe it's enough to have it release Serenity?

Charles was busily looking for the different plants. He'd spotted Gillyweed, an abyssinian shrivelfig, Wolfsbane, what looked to be a bouncing bulb, devils snare, dittany, what turned out to be a flitterbloom, which Charles expected would cause some measure of panic amongst the other students, being that it resembled Devil's Snare, a flutterby bush, a particularly loud honking daffodil that made Charles wish he knew a Silencing Spell, Charles also spotted a mandrake, which made him glad he'd brought earmuffs along, in case some dumb troll dug them up and a puffapod. So he knew he'd seen about 10 plants so far, and thought he had them correct. now to look for the other 70. he was determined to get an O for this class.

Dahlia was actually rather pleased with this sort of exercise. It was a great challenge to be set loose in the wild with only their own wits about them and be able to identify a large array of plants. Dahlia was confident enough that she'd be able to do very well during this test. She was hoping to get an O but she figured she wouldn't die if she only got an E, afterall there were eighty different species of plants out there for them to identify, it wasn't completely absurd to think she might not be able to get to all eighty of them.

At Professor's Bombay's signal Dahlia walked into the mid term area with her notebook at hand and began identifying everything she could see from her current vantage point. She looked up briefly when Venora asked if she wanted to work with her. She opened her mouth to respond but wasn't sure what to say. She loved Venora but she didn't think they'd be allowed to work in teams for the mid term and she couldn't afford to lose any marks if Bombay thought they were cheating by helping each other out.

Unfortunately she didn't have to give an answer. Venora had quickly found Serenity in order to complete their trinity but the poor young Ravenclaw had fallen victim to Devil's Snare. Dahlia looked longingly at the list of ten plants she had already been able to identify and placed it carefully on the ground. She then withdrew her wand and marched up to what she imagined was the base of the Devil's Snare plant that was holding Serenity Lee in the air. With an elaborate swish of her wand Dahlia created a cluster of blue bell flames, the one thing she could think of that she was really good at and was something the Devil's snare hated. If she was lucky she had set the fire close enough to the plant that it'd drop it's prey.

Keegan's 'Guide' paused behind some bush and caused him to halt as well. How was he supposed to finish his midterm if the person he was cheating off of wasn't doing her job? Surely she couldn't expect him to do it himself?! Frowning, he kicked a patch of dirt and nearly stumbled back when it moved. A slimy looking slug like creature... or was that a plant?... wriggled at him. It looked familiar, but he couldn't remember the name.

As he was trying to figure out what was wriggling at his feet, he missed Serenity tripping into Devil's Snare. It wasn't until he heard her shout that he glanced up. His first inclination was to run and help, but Venora and Dahlia got there first. How did that happen? He didn't think that she was clumsy enough to fall into Devils Snare. This thought in mind, he paused, his eyes narrowed a bit and he glanced over at Ackie. She was still behind the bush and that raised red flags in Keegan's book. If it was a guy, he would have assumed a bathroom break. But Ackie was far too prim and proper to do that, especially during a midterm. That could leave only one thing, as far as Kee was concerned.

She was messing with Serenity again. That girl was worse then Eeewfie. Frowning deeply, Keegan spontaneously hatched a plan. Reaching down, he pulled the black slug like plant out of the ground and snuck up behind her. Without much ado, he unceremoniously dropped it on her head. Ignoring the painful boils that were raised by touching it, he smeared it into her hair. There, Serenity was vindicated. And if Aggie wasn't the cause of Serenity's misfortune, then this was just vengeance for future crimes. Call it a preemptive strike.

((The plant he put on her head is a Bubotuber. It causes painful boils when handled directly. )

Aglaia was about to slip out of the bushes when Serenity got caught in Devil's Snare. She could immediately run over and snatch up her paper... But the lame little Hufflepuffs were already there. Perhaps if she petrified them she could steal their papers, also. Not that the Hufflepuffs were even smart, anyways. Maybe Dahlia, but she had that stupid hero-complex that made Aglaia gag. Which was what she felt like doing when she witnessed her step up so pompously to help the Freak girl.

Gosh, was Aggie lucky to not be apart of those folks.

But that was the plan. She would steal their papers, copying down all their answers, and then continue on her merry way. Though Aglaia couldn't exactly trust the Hufflepuffs, Serenity should at least have some useful information. Then again, she was stupid enough to get caught in Devil's Snare.

Before she could even step out of the bushes and approach the girls, she felt something slimy fall on top of her head. It rolled down her forehead and plopped right on the ground. "Ugh! That's so foul!" Aglaia turned around to see a smug Keegan standing behind her. She rolled her eyes, "Nice try, Kearney. But it takes a lot more than that to bother... Me..." Aggie stopped as she started feeling a strong pain on her forehead and down the side of her face. Her hands quickly shot up to see what was happening and she felt, to her pure horror, boils beginning to form on her face.

It was then that Aglaia screamed on the top of her lungs. And it was then that she grabbed Keegan by the arm. "You stupid mudblood! Look what you did to my face!" She shouted, her dark eyes glaring up at him. She had to make him pay. Aglaia glanced down at the water and knew exactly how she could "make him pay". With one large, hate-filled push, Aglaia shoved Keegan into the lake next to her.

Her hands shot up to her face again and she refrained from crying. It wasn't fair! She was the prettiest girl in the whole first year! Why was everyone so jealous of her? And why did Keegan always try to hurt her? Of course, this time he definitely succeeded fairly well. And Aglaia was always insulting and torturing his friends... But she didn't know what the problem was. Aglaia really wanted to scream for Bombay. But then he'd see Keegan in the water and BOTH of them would get bad grades. She would simply ask Bombay for help after class. She could still manage the rest of the hour in complete pain and embarrassment, right?

Her reaction wasn't as dramatic as he had hoped, but then, perhaps he should have used a real giant slug. Mentally, he noted to find, or engorge, a slug for the next time. Despite her lack of horror, he couldn't help but grin as she turned and rolled her eyes at him.

"Ugh! That's so foul! Nice try, Kearney. But it takes a lot more than that to bother... Me..."

As her voice trailed off, his eyes widened and his smile faltered for a moment as he watched ugly red boils rose up on her face. After seconds she looked like a burn victim and she must have known because she let out a scream of horror. His grin returned and he started to laugh so hard that he nearly doubled over, pointing at her now deformed face as he attempted to voice how hilarious she looked. It mostly came out as gibberish, but he didn't need words to get the point across: Ackie was uuuugly.

"You stupid mudblood! Look what you did to my face!"

"I don't see anything different about it... It's just as ugly as all--" He started to retort, smirking, when she suddenly flew at him in an uncharacteristically physical reaction. Her hands slammed palm first into his chest and Keegan, having been caught off guard, tumbled backwards in surprise. He attempted to throw his arm back to catch himself when he realized there wasn't anything TO catch. Instead, he tumbled backwards into the lake.

It was bad enough that it was December and that the lake was already slightly frozen, but it was made a million times worse when Keegan's fall broke the thin layer of ice and the black water under it pulled him under. It wasn't exceptionally deep, a bit deeper then Keegan was tall, but that wasn't the issue. Keegan couldn't swim. In fact, he was terrified of it.

As the icy darkness enveloped him, Kee let out a horrified gasp. This gut reaction proved to be the worst thing he could do because the involuntary intake of breath took in more then air. As the brackish water filled his lungs with a frozen fire, Keegan proceeded to panic. He attempted to swim to the surface, but in his fear, and because of his inability to swim, he wasn't able to find the hole he fell into. Pressing his hands against the thin but still ungiving ice, he felt himself starting to fade

It wasn't long before the first-years encountered trouble! Eirene took out her wand when the Devil's Snare dangled Serenity in the air, but she was too afraid to use it. The memory of their first day of Herbology class sprang unbidden to her mind, and she stood frozen, watching as Dahlia and Venora rushed to action. They seemed to have everything under control! They didn't cause fires when they tried to help. Feeling insecure about her spellcasting abilities, Eirene turned back to the plants by the water and was about to pocket her wand when she heard a loud scream.

What now?! Eirene considered ignoring it - she needed to identify these plants! - but then a splash sounded, mere feet away from her, and Eirene quickly backed up to see the cause of the disruption.

Aglaia Knight had just pushed Keegan Kearney into the water! Eirene's eyes widened when she saw Aglaia's face, covered in boils!

For a moment, she debated between helping Aglaia, and getting help for Keegan, who had disappeared beneath the surface of the lake. A sympathetic shiver went through her. Eirene put down her supplies and her wand, and rushed towards Aglaia.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," she told her in a panicked whisper, glancing at the lake again and wondering why Keegan wasn't coming back up.

"Go get the professor!" She ordered Aglaia for the first time in her life. A thin layer of ice coated the lake's surface, and Eirene started tiptoeing on it, then crawled on her belly towards the hole.

She couldn't see anything in the murky, dark water, but plunged her arm in the hole anyway, wincing at the icy cold that sent pinpricks of shock through her. Eirene grasped Keegan's arm, his hand, she wasn't sure what, and started trying to pull him up.


(OOC note: Deleted my last post and posted a new one to better reflect what was going on )

Charles had been buys identifying plants,when he heard someone shout. Looking up, he saw Knight push Keegan into the lake. He reacted instantly, rushing over to the lake, which was freezing over Keegan. Dropping his bag at the lakeside, he carefully went over to the hole. seeing Eirene was reaching in, he nevertheless reached in himself to grab onto Keegan and help pull him up.

As the first years began to spin in confusion at what to do now that their leash had been dropped, the plush spider-chair ambled over, squatting down that Graham could sit comfortably before being lifted up into the sky.  His plants were taking revenge on the children, already.  It was a shame they latched onto little Serenity; she was one of his more promising and tolerable Ravenclaws.  As she cried out for help, Graham paused a moment, torn between assisting the young girl or letting her learn.  Although it wasn't as if the Snare would do anything too terrible to her. 

"Use what you know, Serenity," he called down from his perch, "Fend for yourself.  Are you a witch or not?"

As the Hufflepuff Brigade rushed to her aid, Graham watched their attempts to rescue the girl.  Of course, flames.  They would always resort to flames.  Although Venora's tactic was a bit more intrusive, he preferred far more to the blue lights gathering around the snare.  Thank Merlin he had spelled the plants before bringing the children; otherwise the entire grounds would resemble a Judaic lake of fire. 

Graham pulled a small roll of parchment formerly lodged between the cushion and arm of the chair, pausing only to pick off a few pieces of lint.  He dug a quill from the other side, wet it lightly with his tongue, and began taking notes. 

Dahlia - Bluebell Flames.
Venora - Variation on Lumos
Serenity - Required Assistance/DS

His gaze flickered to the lakeside edge where of course there was more trouble brewing.  There went Keegan, into the lake.  Graham looked at his wrist, the bottom of the small hourglass with barely any sand in it.  Five minutes.  It had only taken five minutes for hell to break loose.  At least they were exceptional at something.

Agalia - Unable to Identify and Handle Bubotuber

If the young girl carried herself with more grace and compassion, Graham might have felt sympathetic.  Of course the first year was always difficult, but everyone had to spend some time at the bottom of the food chain.  Graham had done his bit, and moved on.  Now it was her turn.  A couple of days with the boils would suffice to knock her down a peg or too, Merlin forbid she decide to become another Aileen Reid.  The Knights were good stock, she'd bounce back.

It seemed two of the children were already pulling a third out of the lake. He heard little Eirene shout for him, but remained unbudgingly upon his perch.  The boy was fine enough, the kids had grabbed hold of him well enough.  "Fine day for a swim, eh?" he shouted down at the group, "Hurry up now, you're missing all the fun."

At first, Aglaia was rather smug about actually shoving the boy into the lake. But when he didn't surface, her hands dropped from her face and she stared at the hole in the ice. He still wasn't surfacing. Why wasn't he surfacing? Pure horror began to rise in Aglaia as she realized something: She killed him! She was too young and pretty to go to jail! She stepped forward to help him, just as the other students had... But she felt like if she bent over she'd throw up.

"Go get the professor!"

Her eyes narrowed and glared at Eirene, but she knew she had to listen to her. Aglaia started off towards the Professor, much more quickly than she did when class first started. She flung her hair into her face (Reminding herself of Serenity, ewww. That must have been why the Thornton girl always covered her face: Ugly boils) and stopped in front of Bombay, completely determined.

"Professor Bombay," She started, trying not to bark at him, "Keegan Kearney fell into the lake and he's not resurfacing," Aglaia swallowed, hard, "I think he's stuck under the ice, you have to help him," Aglaia wouldn't normally feel sympathy for the Gryffindor boy, but when it came to life and death, well... Aglaia wasn't so heartless to actually watch someone die because of her own personal revenge. The boils would go away, right? If Keegan died, well... They couldn't bring him back, could they? Not that she really cared...

But then Aglaia glanced down at Bombay's notes and her currently hideous face twisted into a scowl. "I know how to handle a Bubotuber! Keegan threw it at my face!" She snapped at the man, completely forgetting that someone was drowning at the moment. Even the slightest sympathy Aglaia had could be wiped away for herself.

It wasn't fair that Aglaia would have to have points taken off because Keegan was stupid and... Well, drowning at the moment. "W- Anyways! If Keegan dies in your class, I'm pretty sure you're going to get fired," Aglaia told him, matter-of-factly. Not that she really knew that. But it was safe to assume.