Oh My Gosh I am sooooooo sorry it has taken me this long to update how long has it been? opps...I just haven't had the inspiration and well honestly life's been hectic!! Well enough of me talking =-]

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and if you do...well it'd be pretty amazing if JKR's reading this, but some how I kinda doubt it =-b

Chapter Sixteen: Loran

November 25th, 10:30

"Hey Lils?" Loran asked.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing for Christmas?"

"Having people over, same as always, why?"

"Because my parents are out of town for business during break and I was wondering if I could spend Christmas with you guys."

"Sure, I don't see why not, I'll write to Dad tonight. What is Lysander doing?"

"He's just staying here with friends."

"Okay."

"Have you gone down to see Neville yet for the Herbology project?" Loran questioned.

"Not yet, do you want to be partners?"

"Sure, what about Amber though?"

"She's working with Megan."

"I thought you hated her?"

"I do, but Megan's the nicest of the lot and she is friends with Amber…"

"Ah, so should we go down to see Neville later?"

"Sure. What homework do you have?"

"The History of Magic homework and a Divination prediction chart."

"Hugo and Amber have to do that too. It looks really stupid."

"It is."

"I'll be right back, I've got to return these books and get the next set," I informed her.

"How much are you reading? Didn't you just get all those books a couple of days ago?"

"Yeah, but I'm mainly just skimming through them. I'm trying to find information on Edward II. All I could find was that someone who I'm assuming was his son (it said Edward III) was charged for torturing and killing muggles at age thirteen."

"Are you serious? That is one messed up kid!"

"I know, right!" I replied, "I'll be right back."

I returned the five books I had checked out, went over to the wizarding history section, and got the next five on my list. When I came back to the table Loran had a complicated list of numbers drawn out on a piece of parchment, not on like what we do for Arithmacy (but this looked more confusing), and seemed highly frustrated.

"18x2 is 36 not 34," I pointed out.

"Right, thanks, that makes more sense now."

"No problem. Hey, what's going on with you and Alice?"

"I don't know. I know I've been acting stupid…she just gets to me. I don't…I haven't really been in the best mood lately either…and then when she's talking it just bugs be, I don't even know why; I think it's the way she talks. It sounds like she thinks that she is better and smarter than I am," she replied.

"Well even if you start the fights at least you can own up to it," I told her. "When I asked Alice, all she said was that you bothered her and that there was know chance that you'd be friends. Wait, why have you been in a bad mood?"

"It's nothing…"

"No Really, I want to help. That's what friends are for."

"I honestly think you're the one who needs comforting."

"Your point? Just because I have a messed up life doesn't mean that T can't help you."

"It's not a big deal," she persisted.

"Then tell me, please?"

"Okay, well you know how I said my parents are going on away on a business trip, well…actually only my mum is," she told me.

"Where's you dad?" I asked cautiously.

"He and Mum got into a fight again…"

"But Christmas is a month away; surely they won't still be fighting then."

"I don't know…I haven't exactly told you everything…it was more than just the once that they fought over the summer."

"Don't worry about it, everyone fights sometimes, even my parents do."

"Yeah, but you're dad's never left."

"He left!" I gasped trying to hide my shock so she wouldn't feel as bad.

"Yeah, my mum sent me an owl the Thursday before last."

"Aww, I'm sorry, everything will turn out ok though."

"No it won't; my parents are probably going to end up getting a divorce…"

"You don't know that."

"No, but…"

"I'm not saying it can't happen, all I said was that everything will turn out ok …well, that's not all I've said. I'd be a pretty boring person if…." I stopped talking; Loran was giggling, my plan worked! "See you are fine, even if you're not always happy, you're still fine."

"But how do you know that everything will be ok?"

"Because, it just will, even if it's not in the way you want it to happen now, everything will be ok, because there are always going to be people who love you and will help you get through everything. I know this is hard to believe, honestly, I'm having trouble believing it too with everything that's going on with me, so are my brothers and my dad, but it really helps when you're able to believe it."

"Thanks," Loran replied giving me a hug. "How about we go down to see Professor Longbottom, Divination's too boring."

"Sure."

"Let's go."

"Hey, what does Lysander know about your parents?"

"Nothing…He just thinks that they're going to be away on business over break, but well he does know that they've been fighting, I mean he was there all summer," she informed me. "Why?"

"Just wondering. He isn't that little though, he's nearly thirteen."

"I think Mum was planning on telling him either over Easter break or pulling him out some weekend."

"Fun Easter," I commented dryly.

"That's why she's leaning more towards pulling him out for a weekend."

"Do you know what the Herbology project is supposed to be on?" I asked for two reasons: one – to change the subject and two – because I honestly wanted to know.

"Not really, but we're going there now, so I'm assuming that we'll find out," she replied.

"I figured that much out," I replied jokingly.

"Why were you looking for Albus last night?"

"I just wanted to see what he was doing, because at first I wanted to ask him if he knew if…well what food James pranked, and then after he ran away, I wanted to know why. It's not even the first time either, the past couple of weeks he's been very secretive."

"I wonder what's up with him."

"Oh I know. It's not like Albus to be secretive."

"Maybe he has a secret girlfriend," Loran exclaimed.

"Oh totally," I laughed.

"Anything's possible," she joked.

"Okay, but that still doesn't make it likely."

"Hey, how long does the History of Magic paper have to be?"

"A foot."

"That's not bad."

"No, it's not; therefore, you should've already done it."

"Oh, shut up."

The rest of the walk to the greenhouses was filled with more pointless conversation.

"Hello girls," Neville greeted.

"Hello professor."

"Hi Neville."

"Are you guys coming down for your Herbology project?"

"Yep."

"Okay, well the two of you are going to take care of these four plants for a month. Plants 1 and 2 are muggle plants, and plants 3 and 4 are magical. You will fertilize plants 1 and 3 with which ever of these muggle fertilizers are best and caring for it in muggle ways. While plants 2 and 4 will be taken care of in any magical ways you can find for improving growth of plants. I would suggest having one of you come down every morning and the other every evening. You have to keep a log of what you do to each plant using exact amounts. At the end of the month we will compare the results of the whole class and see which plants to the best in which circumstances."

"Sounds fun," I said.

"That would be the hope," Neville replied. "Well I've got a meeting that starts in five minuets. You guys can stay for a bit though; Alice is in the back reading."

"Alright."

"I'll see you two later."

"Bye," we chorused.

"Let's look at the muggle fertilizers," Loran suggested.

"Alright, there are five different types…" I said.

"This on says to add 5mL to each plant every other day and to add 5mL if water once or twice a day."

"This one says 2mL everyday with 4mL of water."

"This one says the same thing as the first one."

"This one says to add a tablespoon…what's a tablespoon?"

"No idea," she replied. "This one says to add 4mL every other day and 5mL of water everyday."

"Let's go with the one that says to add 2mL everyday," I suggested.

"Alright…that one's called Magic Grow, should we try putting in more than 2mL?"

"Sure, let's say one day we put 2mL in and the next day we put 3mL in?"

"Okay, should we do that now?"

"No, let's do it tomorrow morning so we can do the magical stuff to the plants at the same time, but let's go ahead and water them all."

"I'll get the water from the tap for plants 1 and 3 and you get water magically for the other two."

"Alright, let's just put in 2mL in now though, that way we can put more in tomorrow morning with the fertilizer. Aguamenti."

Once we added the water to our plants we left to return to the library to make our log and research magical ways of enhancing plant growth.

"Why on earth is the fertilizer called 'Magic Grow' if it's a muggle fertilizer not a magical one?"

"Well, muggles don't believe in magic; they're basically saying that it's amazing…it's like magic…"

"So it's just like a saying?"

"Yeah, I think it's just like something they do to make people want to buy theirs over all of the other fertilizers."

"Oh, okay."

Around 3:00

"Hello," I said sitting down next to Hugo and Anthony in the common room where they were playing chess.

"Where have you been all day?"

"With Loran: talking, doing homework, starting the Herbology project."

"You two are working together then?" Hugo asked.

"Yep, and I'm assuming that the two of you are working together as well?"

"Yeah, it's a total joke though."

"I'm going to try; I think it looks fun."

"Of course you are."

"Why isn't Anthony taking?"

"He's still trying to beat me at chess; we've been playing since lunch."

"So does that mean that you haven't done any of your homework?"

"Yep."

"You do realize that you're going to be up all night finishing it right?"

"Yep."

"Gahh! Why won't you two do your homework early?!?"

"Because, we're The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, now will you please let me concentrate on the game?"

"Wait, back up…The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything?" I asked while Hugo began to crack up.

"It's from a Christian muggle TV show for little kids called Veggie Tales."

"And how did you know about it?" I asked Hugo.

"He told me last week when I asked him if I could copy his Charms homework."

"Nice, what's the show about?"

"Well it's a bunch of animated talking veggies…and a couple of fruit, who act out bible stories or other made up stories about God."

"There are pirates that don't do anything in the bible or something?" I questioned.

"No, but the whole point of the show is to make the bible fun for little kids, and there are these silly songs in between the two shows that are on each DVD and that's one of them."

"Sing it!"

"No."

"He wouldn't sing for me either."

"Please!"

"Oh, fine I'll sing the chorus…we're the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything! We just stay home and lie around. And if you ask us to do anything, we'll just tell you
…we don't do anything.

"And then it goes on to where each of them say things that most pirates do but they haven't, and the third one instead of saying 'pirate-y' things says a bunch of random things that he had never done…then one of them yells at him for it and asks the third what his opinion of the matter is and that guy replied that he looks like Captain Crunch – the mascot for a cereal – and then the two of them start fighting and the one guys sing about more random things he's never done…"

"Oh wow," Hugo and I said simultaneously.

"How do you know all of that?"

"My younger sister loves them so I hear them so much that I've got a couple memorized."

"Are you going to sing any?" Hugo teased.

"No, but maybe if we go over to my house for Christmas break I can show you some."

"Fine."

"Now Lily will you like read or something so I can concentrate on beating Hugo?"

"Never gonna happen."

"Fine, but after this game you two are going to start your homework no matter the winner," I replied pulling out one of the books I had just gotten from the library. "And I don't care if you two are singing pirates of not, you're doing your homework," I added upon seeing Hugo ready to retaliate.

"Lils, you're worse than my mum when it comes to forcing people to do their homework," Hugo informed me.

"Come on Lils time for dinner."

"Wait one more page until the end of the chapter."

"Fine."

"I quickly read through the last page and then answered, "Now was that so hard?"

"Yes, I'm starving!"

"Gosh, is your stomach all you ever think about?"

"Not all…"

"Let's go," Anthony said.

"I still don't understand why you won't let us read through your Charms essay, we don't get the concept!" Hugo pestered as we climbed through the portrait hole.

"Because, you'll just end up copping it."

"Your point?"

"I will help you, but no copping."

"Gosh."

"So Anthony, how were those chess games?"

"Shut up."

"It's okay. I've only beaten him twice."

"Well, I've beaten my self several times," Hugo teased.

"You've beaten yourself?" Anthony questioned.

"Yeah…he plays himself when no one else wants to. Oh and Hugo, I don't think that's something you want to brag about."

"Wow."

"Hey, sometimes there's nothing better to do!"

"I'll take your word for it."

"You should try then maybe you'd stand a chance at beating me," Hugo smirked; I laughed.

"Thanks Lils."

"Anytime," I replied with a teasing smile."

"So, what on earth were you and Loran doing all day other than Herbology, because I know for a fact that you already had all of your homework done," Hugo asked.

"Helping her with her stuff, editing my charms paper, talking…"

"Is that all girls ever do, talk?"

"No, not all."

"Isn't that the same answer Hugo used when you asked him if all he ever thought about was food?"

"Oh, Shut up and eat!"

"So, what were you two talking about?"

"Stuff, oh she wants to know if she can stay with us over Christmas break, speaking of which, I need to write to Dad about that."

"Her whole family?"

"No, just her, her parents will be…away, and Lysander is staying at Hogwarts."

"Cool," Hugo exclaimed.

"Yeah."

Dad,

Loran was wondering if she could stay with us over Christmas break. You heard about Luna and Rolf, right? Luna is going to be away over break for business and yeah.

How are things at home? School's fine. Fred's drilling us like crazy for Quidditch, not that that one is a surprise.

Lots of Love,

~Lily~

It would mean so much to me if some one would review =-] I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! and a Happy New Year!