-- After 2:00PM. -- -- Outfit. -- -- Hairstyle. --

One of the heavy doors of the Castle creaked open, a small figure slipping through with stumbling steps. Ungraceful and jittery. Beatrix Dark wasn't known for being elegant. But as she adjusted herself and closed the door behind her, the pathetic entrance could have easily been forgotten. That was how the strange girl was, after all. She had her deranged moments, but she could smoothly pass off as cute right afterwards. Though there wasn't really anyone who could have witnessed her performance... She still felt confident.

Beatrix liked taking walks around the school. Of course, it was rather chilly out. Well, freezing... But Beatrix had never learned her lesson about wearing jackets. The castle was much warmer than she expected. But it didn't sooth her icy fingers. She decided it would be best if she were to bounce her way upstairs and grab a coat. Lunch was over, much to Bea's dislike, so the girl would have to raid her stash of mini-cakes and possibly scavenge around her dorm room to see if anyone left an untouched warming potion laying around. Beatrix wasn't typically a vulture, looking for food... But she hit survival mode from being out in the Forest for hours.

Her steps stuttered and she stopped to wipe dirt off her boots. She accidentally smudged her face with the mud by flicking her blonde fringe out of her face with the same hand. But she hadn't noticed. A cutesy smile soon curved Bea's lips and she fixed the bow in her hair. She was feeling a lot better, compared to the past few weeks. Things weren't troubling her as badly as they were.

She was happy-Beatrix again. Though that wasn't always a good thing.

She had hurt her wrist real badly during the Quidditch game a few days earlier. Lucky for Beatrix, there wasn't too much damage and the wrap around her right wrist would come off within a few weeks (Perhaps more, thanks to Bea's ignorance of trying to work with it even after it was broken). It was still a bit painful. But Beatrix hadn't crashed into the ground like Edmund had. She had to remind herself that every so often so she stopped feeling sorry for her lil' broken wrist.

A few people began passing through the entrance hall, so Beatrix decided to start moving again. One person chuckled at Bea's smudged, makeup-less face, but she paid no mind to it. She was settled back into her confident, let-them-laugh ways. One of the few traits that people thought was admirable about the tiny girl. She was also supposedly sweet... But Beatrix liked to believe she was a psycho/rebel.

Though... In some ways, she was batshit insane. But at least she was nice about it.

Erin had recently finished lunch.  She was going to head back to Slytherin dorms, but she saw a spider on her way there and decided that she really did not need to head down to the Slytherin dormitories at that very moment.  Though she was wearing a Slytherin uniform that she had charmed to be fluorescent green and black rather than the standard house colours, it was mostly covered up underneath a thick, wool coat which was beginning to make her slightly uncomfortable.  Wondering if she should just take off the coat or head outside, Erin decided to do the latter.  Though she did enjoy Care of Magical Creatures as much as the next witch, she had no desire to traipse through Scotland in winter.  Placing her cloak over her right shoulder, Erin tried to remember what she was doing. 

When she was trying to remember what she was doing, Erin saw her sister try to sneak in the great hall.  The door creaked a little bit, so Beatrix’s entrance was noticed by a fair number of people.  Erin was sorely tempted just to let Beatrix deal with the mud on her shoes, mud on her face, and walk around like a fool all over the place.  Unfortunately for Erin, she needed something from her elder sister.  And Erin did not know anywhere else she could get it. 

Recognizing that Beatrix had hit one of her happy moods,  Erin figured now would probably be the best time to ask her anything.  Unfortunately, Erin could not figure out what to say.  Hi, I know we never talk to each other – but I need help on getting one of your dorm mates to ask me out.    To Erin, that sounded like it would go over about as well as battling dragons with fiendfyre.  She could not see it working.  Erin then started thinking of dragons, and wondered what they ate in order to produce so much fire.  Wondering if the CoMC professor would know, Erin did not even realize she was off in la-la land.

Her musings on the nature of dragons was interrupted when someone bumped into her.  Ignoring the person who bumped her, Erin once again shifted focus.  Once more looking at Beatrix, Erin wished she had more of Godric’s courage.   Realizing that it was now or never, Erin skipped over to Beatrix.  She stopped a few yards in front of her older sister.  Knowing that any manipulation she tried would have a low probability of succeeding; she decided to ease the conversation in gently.

“Bea - can we talk for a bit?” Erin asked her sister in a tone that made it sound like she actually wanted to talk about something less trivial than boys.  As Erin waited for her response, she realized that it probably was not enough information to go on.

“It’s about one of your house mates,” Erin added on as an afterthought. 

Of course, the clatter of someone skipping caused Beatrix to focus more on her surroundings. And Beatrix watched in horror as her younger sister, Erin, approached her. Her smile turned into a slight frown and she stopped at the exact moment her sister halted. 'Rin was a lot like Beatrix. Childish, cutesy, addicted to bright, shiny colors. But as the cold blue eyes of the oldest Dark sister scanned the youngest, she hated to ever admit the girl was anything like her. She looked too much like their mother... Even though Beatrix did, too. Another thing she would never admit. Of course, it was all a bit too much for Beatrix. Her still-childish mind could never get over the small differences between the two girls, no matter how much they were alike. A typical sibling rivalry.

“Bea - can we talk for a bit?”

Bea's judging eyes stopped surveying the younger girl. Talking with a ditz didn't sound appealing to Beatrix, but she sounded too sincere for the sister to snub her away. Family was family and Beatrix would feel awful if she were to push her away with such an innocent request. Beatrix wasn't mean. Especially not to her own blood. She pushed a lock of silver-blonde hair behind her ear and shrugged, "Of course... Something the matter?" She asked, though her tone seemed a bit testy. Of course, if something was truly wrong Beatrix would try her best to help. Especially if someone was teasing her. Beatrix would have to claw someone's face off, no doubt.

“It’s about one of your house mates,”

The faces of her house mates flooded into Bea's mind her her brow quickly furrowed. There were only two people that Beatrix thought she could be talking about: Blake Knight (Since all the third year girls seemed to swooning over him) and Devlin Matthews (Because he was known for being awful). Neither of those people were someone Beatrix wanted to talk about. Since Blake was too good of a friend of Bea's and she would never throw a good word in for Erin, and Beatrix, in no way, could ever challenge Devlin. She was a small girl. She would die. Did Erin want Beatrix to die?

Of course, she was clearly overthinking again. It was probably someone else, right? Beatrix needed to stop clouding her thoughts with all that rambling, else she may form an ulcer of some sort. Worrying herself until she was sick... Beatrix pushed her thoughts away and shrugged,

"Sure. Who is it? Are they bothering you?" Beatrix asked, much more pleasantly than before. Her first instinct was to hex whoever was bothering her sister, but then she remembered she was a prefect. She had to stay in line. Well, maybe a little hexing wouldn't hurt. But then Beatrix tilted her head... Perhaps this person wasn't bothering her. Perhaps she was just looking for some info on some person for whatever reason. Perhaps suspicions or... Perhaps Erin wished to team up with the twins and reek havoc on some scrawny house mate of her's.

But then she remembered... 'Rin wasn't smart enough to actually think up a chaotic shenanigan. Even if she did, the Ravenclaw would most likely immediately tell Erin 'No', and then tell her 'That's why you're in Slytherin. You have the ambitions, but lack the smarts'. But that was mean. Beatrix would never say that out loud. She liked Slytherins. A lot of her friends were Slytherins. She pushed her thoughts away once more, her frown fading and face becoming blank. It was probably about Blake, she settled. Or some other boy in her house... Beatrix didn't know Erin all too well, but she couldn't think of anything else Erin would approach her for.

Erin noticed the grimace on her sister’s face as she approached and inwardly cursed.  While she was Slytherin enough to prefer being feared rather than being respected, she doubted that her older sisters did not fear her.  Yet.  They probably never would, but that would not stop Erin from having delusions of grandeur.  Nor would it stop Erin from trying to attain that status.  Still, Erin was surprised when her sisters asked a question that seemed…protective.  About the last thing Erin expected was Beatrix offering to look out for her.  Erin figured that Bellatrix was finally rubbing off on her evil twin sister.

"Sure. Who is it? Are they bothering you?" her older sister asked.  Erin was unable to repress a smile at the comment.  Though she and Beatrix had more issues than most magazines to work through, Erin could not help but feel a slight warmth in her chest at Beatrix’s proclamation.  Wondering if this was what talking to her sister was supposed to be like, Erin continued the conversation as normally as she could.

“No.  Actually, I am trying to get him to notice me more – ooh – I like the bow.  Do you think it would look better on you in yellow?  Hmm…,” Erin started.  As she was debating which colour Beatrix’s fashion accessory should be, she tried to remember what it was she was doing here in the first place.  Deciding it could not be too important, Erin once again looked at her sister’s face. 

“Speaking of fashion, do you think fluorescent green and black is the way to go or should I try something completely silver?  I’m trying to get Percy to ask me out.  Eh anyways,” Erin started, once again becoming distracted by something.  Continuing, she asked Bea if “You want me to help you clean up a bit?  You have some mud on your face,” Erin commented in an offhand manor, completely forgetting her train of thought.

As Erin awaited Beatrix’s reply, she started to look at her surroundings.  Unable to resist, she immediately started scouring the area for objects of interest.  She noticed a few statues, but nothing really grabbed her attention.  Then she remembered she was supposed to be doing homework for transfiguration.  She had a test later in the week.  She got about five feet before she remembered that a) she was supposed to be taling to her sister and b) that the spider probably had yet to move.  Making an about face, she once again turned to her sister.

“Sorry about that – I remembered something and then remembered something else.  So, you were saying?” Erin asked, hoping for a prompt on where they were in the conversation.  This time Erin did manage to stand relatively still.  She still had to tap her toes and hold both hands together in order to stay focused, but she managed to keep her attention on her older sister.  However, it was extremely obvious that Erin was struggling to stay in one place.  As Erin tried to keep her mind focused on the issues, she could not help but wonder if she had a mistake in suggesting that Beatrix change the color of her bow to yellow.  Erin thought that maybe she should have suggested something less Gryffindorrish.  Like a shade of bronze or silver.