Ayla was surprisingly excited about going back to Hogwarts. The holidays had been so fun and eventful that she couldn't wait to get back to school and tell all her friends about it. It had been so much fun to spend the whole time with Lexus but it also meant she hadn't seen any of her friends over the Holidays and was missing them all terribly, especially Blake. A flush of heat ran through her body as she thought of her best friend. A part of her hoped he'd never find out about her enchanted kiss fest with that foreign kid.

With her trunk already on board Ayla scoured the corridor looking in every compartment on both her left and right to try and find her friends. As she was about half way down the train she noticed a group of Ravenclaws and spent a little extra time to see if her favourite Raven was amoungst them. However the familiar face she did find was not the one she had been expecting. Ayla backed up so quickly that she actually fell right through the open door of another compartment. Laying on her back Ayla's mind was reeling. Amoungst the group of Ravenclaws was Percy Dervish, the boy she had accidentally fed an enchanted cupcake to which led to some wonderful kisses. She thought he had been a foreign kid visiting for the holidays. How could she not know that he was a Hogwarts student?

Suddenly remembering that she had made a rather clumsy entrance into an unknown compartment Ayla looked up to the occupants of said compartment and a wide smile came across her pixie features. She rolled over onto her stomach and got to her feet throwing her arms around the older Hufflepuff that she had spotted, "Fauna!"

Fauna sat in an empty compartment on a train and stared out the window, lost in her thoughts. Her rat Bernie perched on her shoulder as she twisted a strand of hair around her finger. She'd just gotten her hair cut and the split ends were gone. Her fringe wasn't as shaggy as it normally was, falling just past her eyebrows, but today was one of those days she wished she could duck behind her hair.

Many good things had happened over break. Fauna had spent time with family and friends, and helped run a successful mixer at the RCMC. This morning she wore her new, favorite sweater that she'd received from Tamis, along with the very cute hat that Fergie had sent her via owl. Fauna still didn't know what to make of that.

But while things were great in general, she worried about Devlin. What he'd been involved in and what he'd been caught doing at St. Mungo's. Maybe she was being foolish, trusting that his friends had set him up, but she couldn't give Darcy and Maddie the benefit of the doubt and then throw her own boyfriend under the Knight Bus. Fauna just couldn't do it. And though she felt selfish about it, she worried about handling the comments from other students. People were sure to ask her questions that she didn't want to answer.

When Ayla literally fell into her compartment, Fauna hopped up, blinking at her. She adored Ayla, but the third-year was known to be a bit of a gossip, and she couldn't help but feel a sinking sensation in her stomach.

Then the girl hugged her and some of the worry fell away. "Hey," she greeted her with a small smile, hugging her tightly and then letting go. "You alright? What an entrance, huh?"

Fauna closed the compartment door and hoped that many of the students would find other places to sit.

"How'd your break go?" She sat again, privately wondering if she and Dahlia were still fighting. Ayla had been through a lot this year as well. Battling rumors, birthday party disasters, and who knew what else!

Once her hug was finished Ayla sat down next to Fauna in the plush crimson cushions. She faced the seventh year with her legs curled up under her. She always found it more comfortable sitting cross legged in some fashion, given her small size Ayla's feet rarely touched the ground whenever she was sitting  some where and so it had become a habit to just curl her legs up under her instead.  Her face was beaming and her smile wide. She was happy to to be near friends again. Having been rather secluded over the holidays the miniature gossip queen knew nothing about Devlin and the mess he had gotten himself into. For the time being, it was all about Ayla and the chaos she had gotten up to all on her own.

"I know right, I'm just awesome like that." She smirked letting Fauna know that she wasn't too worry about falling over, especially since Fauna was the only one to see it.

Ayla suddenly glanced over her shoulder trying to look through the glass of their compartment door and into the compartment across from them with the group of Ravenclaws. She turned back to Fauna with a sparkle in her eyes, "Did you know that Percy Dervish was a Hogwarts students? Am I just that out of the loop or is he just that much of a nerd that I've never heard of him before? Is that even possible? I thought I knew everyone, how could I have missed him?" As she went off on her rant she had no idea that she had jumped on a subject that Fauna knew nothing about. Her older friend would have no idea why she was suddenly so interested in the nerdy introverted Ravenclaw but it wouldn't be long before she found out.

Fauna slowly relaxed as Ayla beamed at her. It was good to see her like this, peppy and carefree and like the Ayla she was used to from the beginning of the school year. At least one Hogwarts student was still happy! Fauna smiled back, glancing at the door of the compartment as well. She hoped they could manage to have a compartment to themselves, and chat without worrying about Maeve or someone awful bursting in on them.

It didn't take long for Ayla to glance at her again and launch into whatever news was buzzing in her head. Fauna didn't mind; she welcomed the distraction from her own thoughts. It felt easy to perk up and pretend that they're biggest concern was, well, that Percy boy from Ravenclaw. Ayla's pep was contagious!

"I have no idea..." she murmured, eyebrows raising in amusement. "I know I've heard of the last name before - Dervish. But... oh is that the one who blushes as much as..." Fauna faltered for a moment. She was just about to compare him to Sasha, but even bringing up his name felt wrong, somehow. He'd been through so much. Some acted like his bad luck was contagious, too.

"Er, me," Fauna substituted. "Like me. Why?" She nudged Ayla's arm teasingly. "Do you like him?"

She wouldn't be surprised if she did. She just hoped the nasty rumors about Ayla's love life had died down over break. Ayla just didn't deserve to be called slutty, Fauna thought, especially when she was simply crushing on boys like many third-year girls did.

Ayla giggled and nudged Fauna back good naturedly. She had missed Fauna more than she had originally thought. With all of the horrible things that had happened before the holidays it felt good to be with friends again. She couldn't believe she had forgotten how amazing all of them were, especially Fauna. She supposed she had just gotten so caught up in all the rumors that everything else fell to the side lines. In that moment she made a promise to herself to focus more on her friends this term and forget all about those stupid Slytherins and their even stupider rumors.

"What? No, no. I mean Percy's nice and cute and one hell of a kisser." She felt her cheeks heat up with a blush as her eyes focused back on Fauna. No doubt the older Hufflepuff would be curious as to how exactly she knew that he was a good kisser, especially since she had just finished telling her that she knew nothing about the boy.

"Okay so you know how I was running that bake sale thing at the Winter Festival? Well Percy came along to buy something. He was being really cute and shy and I was kind of flirting with him. He asked me to make a suggestion and I went to grab him one of my Cheerful cookies but I somehow managed to grab a sweetheart cupcake instead. One bite and he was hopelessly in love with me." Ayla let out a sigh and gave Fauna a guilty look, "I honestly didn't mean for it to happen but I figured since there was nothing I could do until the spell wore off I might as well enjoy it right? I mean it's not like I'm dating any one right? Xavier left me for that stupid goth emo Slytherin Bitch and Blake barely even knows I'm a girl so it was cool right?" Her tone suggested that she was actually interested in whether her friend thought she had made the right decision or not.

However Ayla didn't give her much room to voice her opinion before she continued on with her story, "Anyways he was so smitten I didn't know what to do with him so I offered him to help me with the booth and we ended up under mistletoe and one thing led to another and we kissed." She sighed again this time fondly remembering the touch of Percy's lips on hers, "And then get this, while we were kissing I ended up getting some left over icing off of his lips and apparently the icing held the enchantment as well and before I knew I was head over heels for a guy I don't even know. Then that stupid Madame Crabgrass had to show up and ruin everything. I asked Percy to meet me at the Three Broomsticks but he never showed up," She made a cute little pout, "Anyways since then so many other things happened that I barely even thought about it until I saw him. Originally I thought he was a foreign kid, maybe from like Beaubatons or something, since I didn't know who he was, but he's not, he's a Ravenclaw. What am I supposed to do? What if he remembers the whole thing and thinks I was so desperate for a boyfriend I put him under a spell?"

Fauna raised her eyebrows, very amused when Ayla said that she and Percy were just friends, but that he was one hell of a kisser. That didn't sound quite like 'just friends' to her, and she had to cover her mouth to hide a grin.

Ayla explained what she meant exactly, and Fauna listened, trying to keep up with the talk about the bake sale and cheerful cookies and sweetheart cupcakes and emo Slytherins and that guy with the same first name as her last name. It was all complicated and dramatic but that was Hogwarts for you. Though of course, Hogwarts drama lived on even while the students were technically on break.

Fauna opened her mouth to answer her numerous questions, managing a "Well..." until Ayla burst into talk mode again. Her pet rat chattered in her ear as if to say 'is she for real?!' and Fauna just set the rat on her knee and stroked her furry head.

She let out a snort of laughter when Ayla admitted to getting some of the cupcake on her mouth and then falling for the boy who had already fallen for her. It just figured. Funny though, hearing it described from a safe distance like this.

Madame Crabass? Who was-

But there was no time for questions. Ayla told her that Percy never showed up at the Three Broomsticks and that she didn't know what she'd do when she spotted him at Hogwarts. Fauna bit her lip and shook her head, trying not to laugh for the second time.

"Um, well... I'm no expert, you know?" Fauna shrugged and smiled at her."I guess, though- I mean, he's not in your year, right? So it'll be good that he's not in your classes at least. And from what I've heard of Percy..." she paused, tapped her finger to her chin. "He's probably going to avoid you as much as you're avoiding him. Like they say about spiders- they're more scared of you than you are of them."

Well, that was a lame comparison, though she decided not to dwell on it. "And it's not like he bites like spiders do..." Laaaaame.

Fauna laughed then, more at herself than at Ayla, and gave her a one-armed hug around the shoulders. "He's probably just as embarrassed about it as you are. Those cupcakes are dangerous, huh?" She couldn't help but tease her a little.

"But Ayla, you know there are plenty of boys who would kiss you without the cheering cupcake or whatever it is, right?" She nudged her arm, suddenly reminded of the absolutely crazy way she'd acted over break that one time she'd seen Sasha, Fergie, and Merlin help her- Kronos Malivivicus. They'd skipped arm in arm and sang about cocoa. All because of some kind of cheering powder. Powerful stuff indeed! "I mean, 'cause a kiss is just... well a kiss. But you'll still want to be careful, you know?" Oh hell. She was turning into her mother.

Though nervous about what to do with Percy Ayla giggled along with her friend and gave her one of those, 'Did you seriously just say that' sort of look before bursting into more giggles. It was good to be giggling again and it just proved to Ayla that this term was going to be a billion times better than the last one. She was going to make sure of it.

"You know you're right. He's probably like what? A fourth year? Maybe even a Fifth year? I probably won't even seen him again." She gave Fauna a large smile, her braces glinting in the light from the compartment. She knew that talking to Fauna about this was the best idea. Even if she wasn't all that experienced she did always have the best, albeit lamest, responses.

"Gee thanks mom." She nudged her playfully again when she warned her to be careful. Fauna had always been protective of her and while it sometimes made her feel like a little kid she knew it was just Fauna's way of showing how much she cared about her, "I'll be careful though I promise. I definitely don't need a repeat of the whole Xavier thing." She shook her head as if to shake the thoughts loose from her mind.

The shaking caused her hat to fall to the side and Ayla pulled it off the rest of the way. A mess of long curly raven coloured locks fell over her shoulders. for the past three years Ayla had been keeping her hair short in a soft pixie look, only a few inches long at the best. On a whim over the holidays Ayla had let Lexus test out a new potion on her. One that was suppose to cure baldness and while she hadn't been bald Ayla's soft pixie look had turned into a Rapunzel look over night. She had tried chopping it all off but every morning it was down to the middle of her back again. Lexus was supposed to be a potions genius and while she supposed the potion actually did what it was supposed to she was still getting used to having her hair so long.

"So who do you know that would willingly kiss me without the help of a spell, cause honestly Fauna send him my way. I could use a good guy that actually notices me."

Fauna expected the mom comment and just grinned, her smile fading slightly when Ayla mentioned Xavier. She wished Ayla could have been spared all the drama that he'd brought, but felt relieved, at least, that she had moved on and that Xavier seemed to as well.

"So who do you know that would willingly kiss me without the help of a spell, cause honestly Fauna send him my way. I could use a good guy that actually notices me."

"Um..." Oh no, she was supposed to give examples? Nooooo. Taking the question literally, Fauna bit her lip and gave Ayla an apologetic glance. "I don't know many third year boys so I can't really say."

She thought back. "But you and Blake have been study buddies lately, haven't you? He seems to really like sitting next to you in Care of Magical Creatures," she said encouragingly, hoping she wasn't getting the girl's hopes for nothing and making it worse. Please, Blake Knight, have a crush on Ayla, she thought in her head.

"But I guess what I mean, is... a good guy will like you. Even if it's not right this second, it will happen," Fauna told her, about to offer up the example of herself and Devlin, but decided against it for a few reasons. One: Devlin was seen as a bit of a player. Two: he'd just been arrested. Whether it was his fault or not, that didn't look all that impressive. And okay just to be wild here:  number three, Fauna felt absolutely certain that Ayla would not want to wait until her seventh year to find a nice guy.

Who else did she know? Several of the seventh year boys would make amazing boyfriends. Like Miles, Matty, Chance. Especially Chance.

Oh, hell.

Fauna blinked for a second, then rubbed at her forehead, and tried to focus on Ayla again. Third year boys. For Ayla. Stay on track!

Thankfully for Fauna the mention of Blake had caused everything else she had said to fall on deaf ears. Ayla had actually been trying to find Fauna because of Blake (and because of Lexus but mostly Blake) before getting side tracked by her thing with Percy. She hadn't been expecting to find the timid fifteen year old hanging out with the other Ravenclaws and needed someone to help her cope with the increasing feelings she had for her best friend. How typical of her to fall for her best friend it was like some cheesy muggle teenage movie.

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about Blake." She twirled a long lock of black hair around her finger. At least the new length was easier to play with and part of her mind was wondering why Fauna hadn't said anything about it yet while the more dominate half was preoccupied with how Blake had responded to it.

"Okay so Blake has been like my best friend since our first year. He was probably the only boy to talk to me from another house. The past few months we've just been getting closer and closer and I even went to his house for New Years but I seriously think I might be in love with him. Like real love and not just that stupid 'oh he's cute I love him' love that only lasts a week."

She sighed and leaned back against the side of the train compartment they were sitting in, "The only problem is, I'm practically invisible to him. Sure he knows who I am, we are best friends afterall but like he doesn't know I'm a girl or how absolutely wonderful I'd be as his girlfriend."

"What should I do? What would you do?"

Ayla began explaining about Blake and how she'd gotten closer to her best friend lately. When she admitted that she thought she was in love with him, Fauna's eyes widened but she didn't comment. Privately, she felt that Ayla was too young to really be in love. She could love him as a friend. She could have a crush on him. But love? Real love? That was hard for Fauna to believe, partly because she couldn't help but relate everything to her own experiences. She hadn't dated anyone or even kissed anyone until the end of her sixth year. Her crushes before that point hadn't been very strong either, and she'd always struggled to understand why some of her friends went absolutely gaga over boys.

Now she understood. Or thought she did.

She could also understand the feeling of being invisible. And how hard it was to break out of that.

Fauna was pulled out of her thoughts when Ayla piped up with, "What should I do? What would you do?"

"Oh no," Fauna shook her head and let out a short, rueful laugh. "I am the worst person to ask. I really am. I would just mess it all up," she told her, running a hand through her hair and trying not to show how stressed out the simple question made her feel.

"I don't know," she nibbled on a fingernail and thought. Chance had told her he'd liked her. Yet luckily, he seemed alright with just being friends. Fauna didn't know if this was a similar situation or not, and worried about giving her the wrong information, but felt she had to make some kind of suggestion.

"You could just tell him," she said slowly, looking her in the eye. "Some boys... and girls... are very dense. He might not realize you even like him that way. And no amount of..." Fauna hesitated. "Well, he might not look at your pretty new hairstyle and think 'ooo girl'. Or he might, but he might not say anything because he thinks you see him as a friend still."

Fauna looked sheepish. "But, even if you do get the nerve up to tell him. You have to sorta... prepare yourself. He might not feel the same way. Or, he might not be ready to date anyone. Or there could be any number of reasons for why he'd... just want to stay friends. But I mean, at least he would know. And best case scenario... he could like you back. It would all be out in the open."

Fauna tried to sound reassuring, like she knew what she was talking about. Truth was, 'I like you' revelations sometimes ruined friendships. She hoped to Merlin things would work out for Ayla and Blake, but they were young, and well, Fauna was young. Or felt like it. She knew very well they didn't always have the maturity needed to handle romantic complications.

Ayla shook her head frantically causing her new curls to bounce almost hypnotically from side to side. She gave Fauna an understanding smile. She knew her friend wasn't well known for her romantic conquests and there had been a fair amount of controversy over her dating Devlin (mostly because of his reputation) but she still valued her friends opinion and advice even if she wasn't going to follow it.

"I don't think I could tell him. It's not like you and Devlin. You guys are so much older and know what you want and Helga forbid if things go sour at least you guys are graduating this year and might never see each other again after graduation." Her tone was still light despite how worried she was, "If I tell Blake I like him, love him, whatever, if I tell him and he doesn't like me back and it ruins our friendship, we still have four more years of school together and he's in most of my classes."

She leaned back again twirling a lock of raven hair around her finger, "As much as I wish he'd just kiss me or tell me he thinks I'm beautiful or anything, it's not worth the risk of losing him forever. I'd rather spend the next four years with him never knowing how much I like him than spend four minutes without him." She knew she was being dramatic and was probably exaggerating a lot but that was how she felt and she was always honest about how she felt (at least with herself and friends like Fauna)

She straightened up as yet another thought came to her out of the blue, "Oh hey you'd probably know this." Her tone suggested that much like her train of thought Blake was now a covered subject and she was ready to move on. With how frantic her mind was most of the time it probably wasn't a surprise for Fauna that she had skipped onto yet another subject so quickly, " Does the ministry kill unregistered werewolves?"

Fauna was somewhat relieved when Ayla shook her head and decided not to take her advice. Ayla knew the situation better than she did, of course, and Fauna really didn't want to tell her the wrong thing and have it bite her in the bum later.

So she shrugged, smiled, and said, "Yeah, that's true. I mean, 'cause you two do have a lot of school left. So... but who knows what will happen down the road. He might surprise you." She would much rather a nice boy like Blake surprise Ayla than one she couldn't stand, like Xavier.

Ayla then suddenly changed the subject to werewolves. Her question made Fauna blink in surprise. "Er, no. They wouldn't, you know, round them up and..." she shook her head, feeling slightly sick.

"Unregistered werewolves... pose a much higher risk in general though. Because they don't have access to the same, well, resources. So I mean, if one of them couldn't find a safe place to stay during the full moon, or didn't have any wolfsbane, then... they could easily hurt or kill someone. And the capture unit would have to be called in. They'd try everything they could to stop them, besides killing, but... if it came down to saving someone who's human, and saving someone who is a human transformed as a werewolf, well... they'd save the 'humans' first. Even if it meant killing the werewolf. And I guess at that point, it wouldn't matter if the werewolf was registered or not."

There were a lot of problems with that system, Fauna felt. They needed a better way to properly subdue werewolves without hurting anyone.

"But I mean, just being an unregistered werewolf in general... it's illegal, and they'd face fines or imprisonment if found out. That's just when they haven't hurt anyone. If they hurt someone... truth is, an unregistered werewolf is much more likely to be put to death than a registered werewolf is."

Fauna hoped she wasn't scaring her, and studied her face, wondering why she'd asked. She could understand why some werewolves refused registration, even with all the risks. They just wanted to live normal lives. Without discrimination. Without fear. Until the wizarding world got to the point where werewolves had nothing to fear from society, avoiding the registration system would continue to be a problem. It didn't excuse the attacks or deaths brought upon innocent people, but Fauna didn't just assume unregistered werewolves were being stubborn or irresponsible.

It was obvious from the look on her face that Ayla didn't exactly like the answer Fauna had given her but it wasn't any less than what she had been expecting. She tried to give a smile but she couldn't really do it. She hated being serious, it was so rare for her. It made her wonder if Fauna had ever seen her serious but she knew she was the right person to talk to about this especially now that they were alone and everything was so fresh in Ayla's mind. She was sure that once she got back to Hogwarts amoungst all of her friends, especially Blake, she'd forget all about her cousin.

"What about?" She paused and glanced back into the narrow corridor between compartments. She swiftly removed her maple wand and placed an imperturbable charm on the compartment door to make sure no one but Fauna heard what she had to say. She hoped her actions weren't frightening her friend given how out of character they were, "What if they were registered in another country and just not registered here but are still taking wolfsbane every month?"

It wasn't a secret by any means that Ayla was Canadian, especially given her very prominent accent - she found it amusing sometimes that both Dahlia and Erik were starting to have a English lilt to their words - so it wouldn't be a stretch by any means to assume that the other country she spoke of was her home one. She twirled her hair around her finger again biting her lip debating whether she should tell Fauna the whole story or not. Eventually the need to tell someone won out.

"About four years ago my cousin was made a werewolf," She averted her eyes from her friend. No one at Hogwarts knew this, save for her brother and sister. It made her feel bad that she had never attended a SAWS meeting before but in all honesty she hadn't really thought about Lexus until she ran into her in Knockturn, "Werewolves aren't as big a deal in Canada as they are here. They're not native and it's rare to get one. There was a huge outbreak when French settlers first came overseas but it only caused the witches and wizards that came over to hunt them down even more vigorously. We're more concerned with the Wendigo, much more dangerous and much more fatal than Lycanthropy." She paused for a moment surprising even herself with the mini history lesson.

"My cousin is from my mom's side of the family, they're all muggles except her. She had been living with a native tribe of magic users when she was attacked. They sent her home after making sure she wasn't cursed by the Wendigo but I guess it never occurred to them to think about Loup Garous. She was sent back home and the next full moon killed my aunt and uncle." She chanced a glance at Fauna wondering how her friend was going to react to such a situation, "I was only ten at the time so I didn't really understand what was going on. Dahlia actually knows more about it than I do. She went to the trial, wanted to see how the Wizengamot worked I guess. My cousin was put on probation, was shunned by the family, all of the muggle family thinks she's a crazy murderer and my Mom and Dad wanted to keep us away from her because she was Loup Garou - um a werewolf. Then we moved and I never thought much about her after that."

"I spent all of my holiday with her, in her flat in London. She's got this really amazing flat and she's working for this Private Investigator that I'm convinced that she's in love with but I'm pretty sure she's not registered here. She won't even tell me why she moved to London in the first place. I guess I'm just worried about her you know? What if they find her? After everything she's already been through - I wouldn't want her getting hurt again."

Listening to Ayla's story, Fauna suddenly felt glad for the charm on the door. Sympathy and shock made her reactions slow, her expression impassive. But she was listening, and she cared.

The question was what to do about all of it.

When Ayla told her she was worried and didn't want her cousin to get hurt again, Fauna let out a breath and tried to think. The problem with people confiding in her (which happened surprisingly often, lately) was that she suddenly had important information that she didn't know how to handle. This wasn't simple and largely inconsequential like knowing who was dating who. This was knowing that Ayla's cousin was an unregistered werewolf. This was along the same lines of knowing exactly how her boyfriend had gotten into the lockers at St. Mungos.

"It sounds like she's doing okay finding wolfsbane on her own," she said slowly. "But... if something happens where Merlin forbid, she can't get it, or there's a mistake, or she's roaming free one night during the full moon... unregistered werewolves have, like, no protection. If they're caught they have so few rights. It's even worse if they've hurt or killed someone. I don't think she'd ever get a second chance, especially considering her history." Killing her parents. Fauna couldn't even imagine how horrible that must be.

"Registering is sort of like a safety net. It's like... a cage and a safety net all at once. She'd have to tell everybody who she is, and she might very well lose her job. She'd have to go through monthly checkups and always let the Ministry know her whereabouts. But... if a mistake does happen, she'd have a better chance of getting leniency and support, because being registered is seen as being responsible."

Ayla probably already knew a lot of this, but talking it out made it easier for Fauna to decide what she was going to do.

"You have every reason to be worried about her," she said softly, biting her lip. Waiting so long to register in a new country would cause major problems for her when she was found out. Because it was only a matter of time. "Listen, I can... I can talk to her, if you want?"

Fauna ran a hand through her hair and looked at Ayla closely. "I'm not an expert. I've only interned at the RCMC. But I know people, and I can try to make things as easy for her as I can. I can at least explain options, explain how registration works, and get the forms for her and all of that."

She looked down at her hands for a long moment. "I'm not going to... turn her in if she doesn't want to do it." Saying it out loud made the weight on her shoulders a little heavier. "But I can talk to her, answer questions, if you think it would help."

Fauna glanced up, looked into Ayla's eyes. She reached out and touched her arm. Merlin, she hoped she was doing the right thing. 

Ayla gave her friend a small smile and threw her arms around her feeling that a hug would say so much more than any of her stupid words could. Fauna was like the big sister she never had and though she was nervous and frightened she knew that Fauna was right and as long as Lexus was being responsible she'd probably be safe but if she were ever caught it would be her death sentence.

As she pulled away she gnawed on her lower lip for a long moment before turning her eyes solely onto Fauna's, "Thanks." She sighed and ran her fingers through her newly lengthened locks, "I think that'd be great. I'll send her an owl but I gotta warn you, Lexus is great and she seems perfectly normal but she freaked out every time I tried to get her to talk about why she was in London. I know she was on parole but I think something might have happened to her, something bad that made her run." She looked down at her hand, "I just wish she would have talked to me about it."

With another gnawing session she turned back to Fauna with as big of a smile as she could, "So um what did you do over the holidays?" She was desperate to change the subject. As wonderful and understanding as Fauna was, talking about Lexus was actually rather upsetting and with a plan set in place she was ready to move on. She'd never admit it but she really did have a short attention span.