A Wolfsbane

Alex muttered as he cut up some ingrediants for his wolfsbane potion, he didn't have the talent for potions, he was more for wand work and flying... but Potions.. It was very tedious almost more then he could manage.. and now here he was, brewing one of the more advanced potions in the wizarding world.. But that was not to say he was any good at it yet..

"Ow! Bloody..." he cursed as he accidently sliced the scaple through the side of his thumb. He conjered a bandage over it and continued back to work. Cresant moon had just passed and it was night by night nearing full moon again.. He needed to have it made correctly before then...

It seemed easier when Lainey brewed with him, for all his jokes about Ravenclaws and Gryffindor intelegance, Lainey certainly was bright... and at any rate her company made the process easier....

And he had her skilled hands to take care of the Wolfsbane.. despite it being the main ingrdiant in the potion, in its raw form it was quite posionous to werewolves... hence its name. He often wondered how anyone thought to use it in a potion to help them.

But the tricky part was to prepare it with out getting himself sick with it, so he slipped some thick gloved on and a mask and started cutting at the plant. It was going to be a long day, funny enough.. he was currently skipping Potions class to get the potion worked on.

When Alex didn't show up for class, it hadn't taken Lainey very long to figure out where he probably was. With the full moon nearing, she would bet her life he was up in the Room of Requirements, probably ruining their half-finished batch of Wolfsbane potion with one of his sincere but inept attempts at brewing. As the students around her began getting up for ingredients, she used the distraction to pop a brightly-coloured pill into her mouth.

Obviously prepared for the effects of the pill, she managed to aim for the trashcan when she started puking rather noisily. Lainey had Nosebleed Nougats and Fever Fudge as well, but it was the Puking Pastilles that tended to get students out of class without any argument from professors. As predicted, she managed to grab her bag and run out of class without anyone stopping her for an explanation, and as soon as the door slammed behind her, she popped the other half of the pill, sighing in relief. After a quick stop at the loo to freshen up, down the corridor and up, up, up the stairs she ran until finally, she arrived outside the Room of Requirements, which let her in immediately.

"I knew it!" she exclaimed, marching right up to Alex and snatching the Wolfsbane out of his hand. "Do you have a death wish?" she demanded, shaking her head and nudging him out of the way with her hip. "You've nearly ruined it," she continued scolding as she gently pried the knife out of his hand.

Alex out a grunt of a laugh as he was pushed aside by Lainey, he should have known she would figure out where he was and what he was doing. "Aww come on Lainey I was careful, can't be that bad" he said moving the mask off his face now that Lainey started to take over the preparation of the curcial plant.

He then looked at the time, "Hey you skipped to? Dare I say I am becoming a bad influence on you?" he asked joking as he gave his potion a stir as it looked to be getting too thick to early... Still needed the currently being prepared plant.. "I hope Professor Hall wasn't to disappointed you had to skip out" he said a smirk on his face.

"It is almost done and it doesn't look completely ruined yet" he said feeling like sticking his tongue out at her, though the spark in his eyes could be just as effective.

"It would have been that bad," Lainey insisted, hurriedly chopping up the Wolfsbane in perfectly even chunks. Potions wasn't quite her specialty, either, although her expertise in Herbology did help her a great deal and was probably the reason she was better than Alex at brewing. At the very least, she was good handling the plants. Once she dropped the Wolfsbane into the cauldron, the potion thinned out instantly, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's worth skipping class to make sure you don't accidentally poison yourself," she countered, stirring the cauldron. "And I don't know what Professor Hall thought -- I took a Puking Pastilles and ran out before anyone could stop me. I'm not you, you know -- I couldn't think of anything else clever enough to get me out. You're definitely the troublemaker," Lainey agreed, a smirk slowly crossing her features. Perhaps he did influence her more than she thought.

"And I'm clearly the potion-brewer because, have you gone mad? Not ruining it is not good enough -- okay, you didn't poison yourself, well done! But if it doesn't work, it's equally bad, Alex. There was no reason to rush, we'll finish it in time, I promise," she told him earnestly, stopping her stirring to look up at him. "Have I led you astray yet?" she asked.

Alex sighed and laughed and shook his head, " Never Lain, old habits die hard I guess, keep thinking if I do it enough one day I will get it..." he felt bad sort of, asking Lain when he was sure she was busy enough to help with his potion. He wondered why he she was so dedicated to this now. Was the fact he was a werewolf change that much of what she thought of him and for the better?

They had be rivel type firends before he had told her... now it was different she was a close firend now... perhaps this pack conection was more then he thought.

"Troublemaker is my middle name, or so I hear" he said with a laugh and saluting her. he didn't do much to leave class.. he wasn't the type to make trouble with teachers... well the good ones anyway. On days he needed to leave a class he made a funny show of it.. Playing a harmless prank on the nearest tateltail he could find.. or he would simply not go.. But that was the problem, he normally wasn't one for that... So it was interesting with all the new ecuses he tried to think up. Mostly all harmless sillyness and not really paying attention to class until the professor kicked him out.

"Havn't had that bad of luck with it actually... only ever gone without a working potion a few times since I was infected, and I always made sure there a ... back up plan in check in case the potion failed" he said carefully taking the Wolfsbane stained gloves off his hands and throwing them away.

"Oh and your potion for healing my scare worked rather well" he said rolling up his sleeve, the scare was still clearly there, but it was much calmer then it used to be, and some of the smaller teeth marks had healed completely.. "Looks like a normal dog bite now" with light amusement.

Lainey smiled sadly at Alex; she had no plans to break the news anytime soon but it seemed very unlikely that he'd ever learn to brew it correctly by himself. He'd been getting along okay with Kate's help, but he was just too impatient and heavy-handed for the fickle potion. She wondered what he would do about that once he left Hogwarts, and no longer had Kate or herself to help him...the thought made her panic for a moment, and then she managed to push past that unpleasant thought and pay attention to what he was saying.

"That's good. Back-up plans are always good," Lainey shrugged, nodding as she set the ladle down on the table and turned to Alex. Her fingers lightly traced the scar as she examined her handiwork. It was vastly improved; for some reason she blushed, and she hastily withdrew her hand from his arm.

She was noticing more and more that they both seemed to find excuses to make physical contact...of course, it was all for show. They had to maintain the image of a couple. The problem was that it was becoming habit, and Lainey caught herself reaching for Alex's hand even when they were alone.

Alex arched an eye brow at Lainey and chuckled, he supposed that was the issue with the new fake dating they were doing. He kept telling himself they were firends, but yet the act wasn't so hard anymore. He liked Lainey and he knew it, but he wasn't supposed to right? "I know.. the whole fake dating thing is odd it's it?" he asked taking note of her blushing face and reaction to his arm. It was cute actually.

"Again thanks for your help Lain," he said as he patted her shoulder. And yet he sighed for moment.. he couldn't rely on Lain and his sister forever... it was incredibly fustrating. He glanced at the calander on the wall that showed the moon phases, Thinking...

"You know I got a letter from my father earlier, requiered to return home this christmas, for a party, says he wants to introduce me to someone.. Merlin knows what that means with him.. But in any case the party is dated on a full moon, I debabting telling him I can't go, for some non sensical reason reason... Any ideas?" he asked likely scratching the back of his head.. He and his father had been on strained terms especially since he was bitten.

"Yeah," Lainey replied softly, looking back down at the cauldron to avoid eye contact. The truth was, she wasn't quite sure how she felt about the whole situation. She could very easily see the necessity of it -- keeping Alex's secret was of the utmost importance -- but it was confusing her feelings about him.

There was some part of her that was aware how nice his hand felt in hers, and she'd always known he was a good-looking wizard, but for so long they had a very cool relationship. They'd never been rivals the way Cole and Jericho were, but that almost made it more difficult; Cole and Jericho there'd always been tension and explosive energy. Like Alex, she wondered why their relationship had changed so drastically so quickly.

Was it truly a simple matter of knowing that he trusted her with something so important? She certainly did feel an obligation to him for that knowledge, but it wasn't at all unpleasant. If all the world knew about his condition, she would still help him, so clearly it wasn't just the issue of keeping his secret, it was something more than that. There was something that simply drew her to him irresistably, and she wondered if it was some kind of wolfy thing she couldn't understand. It never occurred to her that perhaps the internal strength of character Alex had demonstrated throughout his ordeal might be removing certain prejudices against him she hadn't even realised she had.

Prejudices such as his House, but also the fact that he was an American and therefore slightly foreign to her. She'd always kept her distance, and now here they were, a whisper away from each other and talking about his family. His predicament was a difficult one, but a solution quickly sprang to mind. After all, what was the point of fake-dating if they didn't make it seem real to his family, right? His parents were probably the most difficult and most important people Alex was going to need to fool.

"Well, why don't you come to my house over break, then? I usually invite a few friends over anyway so I know my parents will agree, and you can tell your dad that I absolutely insisted on bringing you home to meet my parents." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Lainey wondered if Alex himself would even agree to this arrangement, never mind his parents. After all it was one thing to pretend-date at school, but to bring him home? It would blur the lines between their real friendship and their pretend relationship even more, but if it helped Alex, she'd just suck it up and learn to sort out her feelings for him.

Alex couldn't help but blink in surprise, stay at her place? really? not just use it as a excuse, but really go there? What about his transformation? He couldn't transform in Lainey's parents house. Could he? Would that be safe for them?

Many doubts went through his mind, he knew Lainey ment well it would solve his problem with his parents, but it brought up another string of concerns. He didn't know where he would transform or i he could do it with out Lainey;s Family noticing.

"I.. Don't know Lain.. are you sure?" he asked actually going to her parents would be a bit more then pretending with this.. It would make actually pretending even harder, would her family see through it?

"It would certainly solve my issue with my parents, thats for sure" he said sheepishly to cover up his nervousness about it. He didn't want to hurt her feeling over the issue..

"But I mean.." he paused looking at there nearly done wolfbane potion. "I would transform at your place or?" he paused looking confused, after all he never thought this would happen before..

"I wouldn't want to cause complications" he admited still not sure if he was wording any of this right.

Alex's words made it even more difficult for Lainey to raise her eyes from the cauldron, whose contents really were not that riveting. It seemed like they were each dancing around the same question: how far was too far? At some point they would have to address the elephant in the room, but til then neither seemed at all comfortable with the subject. Which was saying something, really, because after a few months of being together constantly, there was little else that was off-limits.

Of course, it was the one thing Lainey thought about the most, the whole while wondering whether or not Alex thought about it too, or if it was just her making wild leaps in her head. Though there had been plenty of opportunity for it, nothing had ever happened between them; surely if he liked her, he'd have acted upon it by now? Then again, she'd always thought of herself as very confident and forthcoming in general, and she hadn't had the courage to say anything either.

She enjoyed their time together too much to risk ruining it by making Alex feel like he owed her something for her help. Help that was progressively getting them further tangled up in each other's lives in strange and confusing new ways...Lainey sighed and laid down the spoon, careful to continue avoiding Alex's eyes.

"Of course I'm sure," she started, wiping the spoon slowly, as if it required great attention to detail. "The truth is that the estate is far too large for only thr-- five, people," she amended, having momentarily forgotten the recent addition of her older brother and neice. What Percy would think about Alex, she didn't even want to stop to address at the moment. The main point was that her parents wouldn't mind, and it would be a safe place for him.

"There's a -- when I was little, I got rather...pouty, about the fact that my siblings has a secret door leading into each other's room, and I didn't have anything cool. So my father added a playroom to my bedroom, that's hidden away as well...it'd make the perfect place for you hide during the transformation. If that's not...you know...awkward for you or anything. It'd just be....well we're....of age, and my parents wouldn't...I mean, they'd just assume....it would be very unlikely that anyone would come looking for you, there. And impossible to stumble across by accident. But if you don't -- and you know, it's fine, of course -- there are other places you could go, that aren't...in my room..."

Of course, it was impossible that her awkward, fumbling little speech could conclude with anything other than a brilliant blush, and Lainey's cheeks rushed to betray her horrible embarrassment. It wasn't often that she got the overwhelming urge to hide under a rock but if she had her wand in hand, she'd probably have also had to worry about accidentally conjuring a minor avalanche on top of her head.

Alex bit his lip a moment, he could tell Lainey was uncomfortable, avoiding his gaze paying attention to anything but... But he could hardly blame her they were in a odd situation, made awkward by there own action and possible feelings. He leaned forward observing Lainey as she rather determindedly looked intently at the stiring spoon or the potion. He thought about her proposal, stay in a hidden room with in Lainey's own bedroom? It wasn't the assumed idea of her parents that alarmed him. The thought of being so close to her while he was trasformed was a... well he wasn't really sure the word for it. He had never transformed like that. True he would be under the wolfsane potion effects.. he wouldn't harm anyone or anything.

Yet still he never transformed with anyone that near before, he couldn't put Kate in that situation, knowing how affraid of transformed werewolves she was right then.

He paused in his musings and looked over at Lainey again, noticing her blush and how uncomfortable she seemed. Yet then it occured to him she must trust him alot... to let hm transform inside her house.. In her room no less.

"Lain.. It is alright thank you. Where ever you can put me will be just fine with me" He said hoping his acceptance would ease her tension. He could charm the room just in case just in case bits and pieces of his wolfy traits got out once or twice.. He was known to howl or growl even under the potions effect.

Though he was curious, if he was going to be in her room, and concidering the fascade they's be trying to put up. Would she be with him when he transformed? he opened his mouth to ask then he closed it again changing his mind.

No she couldn't be.. even under potion he was still dangerous.. he didn't know when bits of instinct would escape him when another human was in the room.. he didn't want to risk it.

Alex was so preocupied with his wolf problem he hardly allowed him self think about what was happening with he and Lainey. Perhaps he had already resigned himself to the fact he cared about Lainey, shared a link with her.. Member of his pack, werewolf or not... and even if he only admitted it to himself.. She wasn't just any member either, he could kiss her right there... but no he couldn't. He didn't want to hurt her or scare her not after everything she had done for him.

He then moved his hand to turn down the flame under the cauldron, he may have been useless at preparing ingrediants for a potion, but he had seen it done so many times he knew when it was ready to set and cool.

"Potions done Lain, and once again I couldn't have done it with out you of course" he said grinning patted her knee for a moment.

"Alright.... I will write my father back, tell him whats happening" he said shifting back to there previous topic. "Hopefully the man won't make things difficult.." he commented. sometimes he wasn't sure if his father suspected something for not, there were time he challanged everything he did.. He hoped it wouldn't happen this time.

Lainey simply nodded in response, relieved that the more awkward aspects of their conversation had been resolved or at least laid aside for the time being. She felt reassured enough to turn and smile at Alex when he extinguished the flames; the potion was in fact brewed to (near) perfection. There was no reason at all for her to worry about how his transformation would go, and the thought never entered her mind.

Instead, she wondered whether or not her animagus form might be ready by the time Christmas came around. True, she wouldn't be registered until the end of the school year at the very earliest, but it wasn't exactly like Alex was a registered werewolf, either. Only the week prior she had succeeded in holding her wolf form for an entire hour, though the experience had exhausted her. With more practice, it wasn't entirely unreasonable that she might be able to sustain the transformation for one night. After all, going forward it was just a matter of stamina, not skill, and Lainey wasn't a trained athlete for nothing. She only hoped that Alex would be pleased by her little surprise -- his "real" Christmas present, in her view.

"It's no problem at all," she replied as she carefully measured out the potion into a slim potion bottle. "I'm sure your father will be a bit put off, but there's really nothing more we can do. It's not like we could just clone you and send your copy off in your place while you--"

Lainey froze almost comically in midair, ladle still gently dripping wolfsbane potion harmlessly back into the cauldron. It had finally occurred to her that they could, in fact, make a copy of Alex to parade around during the full moon -- granted that they could decently imitate his voice and knew enough about him.

"Polyjuice potion..." Even if his father didn't object, and they didn't have to resort to sneaking in a fake Alex to his parents' fancy party, it would likely be very handy to keep people off his scent for good. It wouldn't be necessary every full moon, just high profile nights every now and then to keep suspicions at bay. As Kate and Lainey were the only two who knew his secret, however, such a ruse would be quite difficult. Obviously they both knew him well enough to pass for him in a pinch -- if it weren't for the clearly feminine lilt to their voices. Alex's lower baritone would require some creative spell-working to imitate, but it could possibly be done.

"What do you think?" Lainey asked breathlessly, not realising she hadn't voiced her entire idea aloud.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together on what Lainey was thinking, Though Alex found it cute how she seemed to think he read her mind.. But with the comment on making a clone of him and the mention on the famous potion, he figured he had a good guess.

He laughed a moment and looked at Lainey pretty amused, yet a great amount of admiration.

"Lainey if your thinking what I think you thinking, then I think your a genious" he said grinning as he gave her a quick hug.

"Briliant!... now we need someone to take my place, you can't obviously.. Kate can't either as she is also expected to attend..." he said musing.. Then a thought came to him, Sydney was his best firend in the school.. who was a guy anyway.. He hadn't told him about his issue yet.. But he had the feeling Sid would figure it out one day...

"I think I have someone in mind.." he said still grining.

It was amusing how little actually needed to be said between the pair of them anymore -- or would have been, anyway, if Lainey wasn't engrossed in thought over Alex's suggestion. Truthfully, she hadn't considered Sydney as an option, due to the fact that only Kate and herself currently knew Alex's secret. She also didn't know or trust Sydney nearly as well as Alex did.

"Are you sure? Sid?...Alex, listen. You're right -- if we could get him to agree to it, that would be perfect. But there's no guarantee...." She bit her lip and set the ladle down, trying to phrase her fears as kindly as possible.

"If he doesn't take it well...I just, I mean there's always memory charms I guess but there's no telling what he might say or do beforehand and it could change things between you, you know? And me too, I guess. I can't speak for Kate but I'm not sure either of us could forgive him if he hurt you."

Alex blinked impressed she knew who he was thinking of, and was touched by her concern, though he didn't think it needed worring about.

"No worries Lain, He isn't like that, worst thing that could happen is he would be ticked I didn't tell him sooner." he said with a mild chuckle. The thought of Sid behaving.. 'badly' about it just didn't seem very Sid like. " And he won't say no to a party either" he said amused at the thought

He hadn't told Sid for the same reason he hadn't told anyone else.. protection for everyone. But now that bag of worms had been opened with telling Lainey, if Lainey knew, Sid himself would declare he had the right to know to.. and who knew what other crazy yet honorable ideas he would get, like a animagus..

Yes Alex's faith in his firend was Great.

He glanced at Lainey wondering what she would do exactly if by some very small chance Sid did betray that faith... He wasn't sure how he would react himself. He was no slouch, and would take care of it personally.. But of course he highly doubts this would happen.

"I will talk with him tomorrow" he said calmly not the least bit worried now. He Supposed telling Sid after telling Lainey, it was less tense as he hadn't been sure how Lainey would respond exactly, where Sid he could almost see it.