Lily sat calmly at the Hufflepuff table as her eyes scanned over her schedule, and she took another bite out of the roast beef sandwich she decided would be enough to quench her appetite. Her eyes were practically sparkling diamonds as she looked over her schedule. Next class: Herbology. Energy and adrenaline was pumping through her veins in excitement. Her favorite class, right after a full stomach, nothing better she could ask for. But, when her eyes landed on the next class, her last class for the day, she could feel the excitement and pleasure drain from her face, growing pale. Those sparkly diamond eyes dulled to a mute ocean blue when she read the dreaded words: Charms. God, why had she signed up to continue that class? She knew why- not to let down her parents. Although Lily knew fully well that the work she did in her herbology class was enough to make her parents beaming, she still felt as if she needed to show them she was truly a great wizard… and conquering her fear of charms was her best course of action. “What is on your mind, Lily? You seem upset?” A male’s voice interrupted Lily’s nightmare and she looked up.

There were quite a few boys who now crowded around her at the table, from different houses too, as her eyes scanned across the different yellow, red, green, and blue trim of the uniforms. They all seemed so concerned about her sad expression. But before she could get out a squeak, another voice sharply pierced the air beside her. “Beat it, leave the poor girl alone. Can’t you see her life is crumbling before you. The decency!” The girl rose to her feet, preparing to pull out her wand in a threatening way. Of course, the girl with emerald eyes and slicked black hair would never use it against these boys, it would be enough to scare them off. Whatever little trance that had drawn the boys to her table seemed to be broken by the sudden aggression from the other girl, and the boys turned on their heals and booked it away. Lily turned her head to who was possibly her polar opposite, and best friend, Slytherin Adele Amberlin. “Oh, Adele! Why did you have to go and scare them off? They were just being friendly and concerned…” Adele couldn’t role her eyes harder without her head popping off her shoulders.

“I swear… If I weren’t your friend, you’d be taken advantage of by now.” Lily tilted her head at the comment, raising an eyebrow. Exactly how the two became friends was beyond that of most of the students in the dinning hall. Adele was known for being short tempered, bossy, demanding, and all around a complete bitch. How did she become friends with the sweet angel, Lily? Well, fact of the matter was that she was probably the only girl at Hogwarts that wasn’t envious of Lily’s natural Veela charms that drew in all the boys. Primarily since she wasn’t jealous of the lost attention- she batted for the other team, anyways. While plenty of girls hated Lily for causing their crushes or boyfriends to turn their heads in the halls, Adele couldn’t care less. Adele, being the natural leader, she was, felt a need to… perhaps protect the poor, unaware Lily from the boys of Hogwarts. Lily just giggled at her best friend’s ferocity, continuing to eat her sandwich and letting out a sigh. “Why couldn’t my day end with my favorite class, Herbology? Rather than charms… I’m going to be terribly bored after being so excited and having a blast…”

Adele glanced over her friend’s schedule, sighing to herself as well. “Truly a shame… and I don’t have these classes with you, so you’d better keep your wits about you.” But Adele’s warning seemed to fall on deaf ears, and Adele simply rolled her eyes. “Unfortunately… can’t help you much out there. You know that Potions is my true skill. I’m lucky that I get by with the grades I do in Charms.”

Lily groaned, placing her head on the wooden table, lifting her head and letting it drop a few times. Adele jumped slightly, grabbing Lily to stop slamming her head on the table. “Gonna give yourself a concussion like that… Perhaps you can try and partner up with one of the gals in Charms… or perhaps a boy, they’d be more than willing to help you with your problems.” Adele seemed to roll her eyes and Lily smiled a little. “I can hope… but I’m afraid I’ll be more trouble for them than they need… You know how I hate being a nuisance…”

Lunch was drawing to an end, and the two friends parted, Lily waving eagerly to her disappearing friend as she rounded a corner to the dungeon for potions. Pushing away the worries and troubles of charms, Lily practically had a skip in her step as she made the way to the green houses for Herbology, a small gaggle of boys following close behind her. Each of them seemed to be enchanted by her. “Let me carry your textbooks, Lily… Or your backpack!” A few of them tried to help and Lily giggle, shaking her head. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me!” But the boys seemed a little too insistent as they stood in her path. Come on, at this rate she was going to be late to her favorite class.

It seemed that Lily was quite in a predicament with all these boys around her. They were all so kind and trying to help her out, but right now they would be more help by parting and letting her get to class. But the sea of young men seemed to quickly disperse as a dark haired boy stepped through, shooing them away. She instantly recognized the young Gryffindor- Noah! They weren’t friends, by any means, but Lily was not one to push away friendly faces. The boys all seemed to heed his warning about running late to class, and they all seemed to take off in different directions. Wait, not even all of them were going to Herbology! Some of them walked with her in the opposite direction of their own classes to try and help her. Too kind. But as they dispersed she was left with Noah, now playfully smiling to her about getting to class on timer.

Lily brought her hand to her lips, softly giggling. “I really am trying, Noah! Everyone just seemed a little to insistent to help me out.” When Lily turned her attention back to the greenhouses, a thought quickly popped into her head. Noah! He was in the top of his class for Charms last year, perhaps he would be willing to give her a hand? She walked a bit with him towards the green house, playing with her blonde hair. Would it be too much of her to ask? She didn’t want to be more time and trouble for him to handle. But, if she recalled correctly- Noah didn’t even know how to tell the difference between a normal rose and a flesh eating Nordic rose. And that was something they had to learn as first years! And as far as her memory could go, he was never very good at Herbology. Perhaps… they could work out a deal of being study partners.

“I’m so excited for Herbology, today. I can’t wait to see what species we get to interact with today.” The reached the greenhouses which were full of lush greenery and plants. A short, rather plump, woman stood at the front of the greenhouse they entered, handing out dragonhide gloves. “The specimens we are dealing with today are known for spitting lethal toxins. So please, be wary! If any gets on your skin or in your eyes, drop everything and come to me. We will have to wash you up soon so the acid doesn’t burn you.” The professor spoke up, now handing out dragon hide aprons for everyone to wear to protect themselves from possible acidic burns. Lily was eager pulling on her gloves and apron. She pulled back her long blonde hair into a high and tight ponytail, grinning towards Noah.

“Thank you for helping me out with those guys back there… Why don’t we partner up?” She smiled sweetly to him, outstretching her hand to take his.

Lily chuckled softly at Noah’s adamant behavior that he would somehow get maimed in the process. “Sily, Toxic Ivy doesn’t maim people, it spits poison as a defensive mechanism.” She shook her head, as if he were silly for not understanding how the plants worked. But she had to try and put herself in his shoes. She wondered if he was as bad at Herbology as she was at Charms. That would mean he really, really, really didn’t know anything. But, there was confidence in Lily as she stood up, guiding Noah with her to a table, to sit down, and observe the potted plant in front of them. Picking up a pair of goggles, she fastened them over her head and eyes, handing another pair to Noah. “You may want this.” Before turning her attention back to the plant.

It looked like pretty normal ivy, a small play with a few vines sticking from the soft soil. She pulled up a notebook and began to jot down notes. The leaves were a slight yellow in the center, the edges turning green. So, it was still technically a sapling. It had the signature three main branches, and several smaller, thinner vines sprouting from the main parts. She continued taking down observational notes on the species, sliding her notes towards Noah. “A lot of times, our hands on experiences will teach us more than textbooks. For instance, our Herbology book this year only talks about full grown Toxic Ivy. But this is a sapling. As you can tell by the leaves.” She moved her finger closer, pointing it out to Noah. As her finger drew close, one of the long vines wrapped itself around her index finger, squeezing it. However, the toughness of the dragonhide gloves made it hard for the plant to squeeze. It wasn’t fully grown, so it was relatively weak.

“This also means that the toxin it produces isn’t nearly as potent as our Professor says it is. It is when they are in full maturity we need to be more careful. At this point… it’s venom would more than likely just irritate the skin.” She made a note of this on her paper as well, easily breaking her hand free for them plant. The plant started to reach it’s vines around, trying to find something to latch on to. Now finding Noah’s hand and starting to wrap itself around his fingers and palm. “It behaves like most normal vines. The base isn’t strong enough to support its weight, like flowers other plants can. Vines depend on having support to climb to get more sunlight.” She watched intently as the plant found itself a nice spot to relax on Noah’s hand. Lily reached her hand over, placing her hand on top of Noah’s. Now, to most people, it would look as if Lily was making a move towards Noah, as if to try and hold his hand. But in fact, she was trying to cautiously pull the vines off from being intertwined with his fingers. But there were plenty of faces around the room who shot Noah rather mean glares at, what they assumed to be, Lily’s sign of affection. “I think it likes you!” Lily teased him with a kind smile.

Lily was shocked, caught off guard from the sudden shout of excitement from him. He took her hand so quickly. She was what he needed? Help him with his class? She couldn't help but smile, chuckling slightly. Wow, he was so sweet. And he was only just realizing the initial intentions that she was having with getting close to him. Not that she was using him! She couldn't dare imagine using someone, like Adele had no issues with herself. Lily genuinely wanted to get to know Noah, and befriend him. The fact that he had a reputation for being one of the best Charms students was just an added bonus. The plant in front of them started to sputter slightly. Obviously greatly disturbed by the sudden outburst of Noah as well. With her free hand, that wasn't being held by Noah. She quickly grabbed her notebook and turned it up vertically. And just in time too, as the plant began to shudder and a small stream of greenish, gunk came spewing out of the tip of one of the vines. It hit her notebook, rather than either her or Noah's exposed skin. And Noah's outburst didn't only attract the attention of the Toxic Ivy plant. It seemed that some of the young men's eyes in the class were once again glaring at Noah. Why were they so angry with him? Was it because he had startled a few plants? As other Toxic Ivy plants began to react too. The professor at the front of the Greenroom spoke up quickly, but with a hushed voice. "Mr. Ashford! Please keep your voice down! And exclamations to yourself!"

Lily couldn't help but giggle again, covering her lips with her free hand. She let the notebook sit back down, as the Toxic Ivy was also begin to calm down. She was what he needed? It was such a sweet compliment. “Of course I’ll help you with this class, Noah. Er, if you don’t mind helping me in Charms, that is.” She was a bit reluctant to admit that she was bad at it. In fact, she was purely awful. She could never get the wrist movements just right. The flicks, or the correct movement of wand waving. How she made it this far through Hogwarts without failing was nothing far from a miracle. And she was going to need more than a miracle this year for her to pass. “I truly am a lost cause when it comes to Charms… But I’ve heard you’re really good at it! Just about best in our class! It would really make me happy if, you could help me out in it as well?” She gave him a sweet grin, her bright blue eyes sparkling.