Felicity was brooding. She rarely took the time to sit somewhere and feel sorry for others or herself, but she felt that this was prime time. She still could not believe that Professor Anima had arranged his room by blood. She didn't want to believe it. And more than that, she did not want to think of Aiden having to sit in a beaten, worn out desk in the front of the room.

Whenever someone motioned emotional girls, Felicity was likely to scoff. But the truth was, at the moment, she could very much use a girl to talk to about the situation. She felt so torn and angry and depressed about the entire thing that she was certain a boy wouldn't be able to understand. She knew Aiden would probably just tell her not to anger the new professor or do anything stupid. But she couldn't help it - she wanted to fight back. She wanted to do something, anything, about the changes that were undergoing Hogwarts.

The only problem was, at the moment, she felt completely useless. She wanted to be a part of some sort of underground revolution, some secret club that was fighting Harshing, Anima, and all the pureblood maniacs out there. The only problem was, she didn't know how one wagered an invitation or if such an organization existed within Hogwarts. So she sat on a large rock by the shore of the lake, ignoring the cold and staring at the frozen water in front of her, thinking so hard she didn't hear the sound of approaching footsteps.

Casey herself was deep in thought. Things weren't going well within the castle walls it seemed. Up until a little while ago she'd planned or sitting through it all rather quietly. But after hearing Finn's story she knew that sitting quietly just wasn't an option. She'd finally come to the conclusion that for the first time in her life she was going to stand up for what she believed in, what she knew to be right.

Casey's mind was in a whir. At the point she was now Finn's girlfriend, which in itself put her in a difficult positon. But then also agreeing to help him by befriending another slytherin she was in a very difficult position. There weren't many people she could talk to at this point, and she wasn't sure that she was ready to yet. She had to figure things out.

Casey looked up, it took a second for her to remember where she was. That was when she spotted Felicity over by the lake. The sight of her friend brought a wave of relief through her body and she made her way over to Felicity. She sat down next to her, noting her grim exprerssion. Apparently things weren't good for her either. "Hey Felicity. What's up?" She picked up a pebble and through it at the ice covered lake.

Felicity jumped at the sound of Casey's voice, familiar though it was. She could not help but be relieved that her friend had come across her at exactly that moment. She was also glad that she didn't have to bring up the fact that things were going badly - Casey knew her, and she seemed ready to listen. A wave of appreciation for her friend crashed over her and she gave Casey a small smile.

"Everything," she declared flatly. And suddenly, the dead feeling that had been growing inside her deflated. She picked threw a pebble at the lake's surface, too, but she threw it with all the strength she could muster, pretending she was throwing a huge rock right at Professor Anima's face. "I can't stand it anymore," she declared hotly, "Casey, everything is wrong. Hogwarts is changing and - and I won't let it!" It was a fairly empty threat considering she had no ideas, but she was desperate. "Stupid pure-blood mania," she muttered, throwing another pebble with force, "Stupid, stupid, stupid. Casey, I want to do something. They can't get away with this. They can't torture students, and treat muggleborns like dirt, they can't destroy Hogwarts!" At her last words she had stood up and threw a rather large rock at the lake; the ice cracked where it hit.

She sat back down, breathing hard, and turned to Casey. "I just don't know what to do," she said quietly, "There has to be something, though. Doesn't there?"

Her eyes were imploring, and she wasn't joking. She would do anything she could to thwart the new regime at Hogwarts. She didn't care if she got in trouble, if she had to serve ten detentions with Harshing - it would be worth it just to get them angry enough at her to do something. She just wanted to fight back - she wasn't the sort to take anything sitting down.

Casey could see the relief in her friend as she recognized Casey. She was glad to of come when she did. It seemed as if Felicity could really use someone to talk to and Casey was willing to do just that. She wondered what was on her mind, probabky something of the same sort, it some small comfort knowing that she wasn't the only one worried about the path that Hogwarts was taking.

Casey listend intently, and couldn't agree more with Felicity's words. "I'm with you on this one. Hogwarts is beginning to lose touch with everything that it's ever stood for. I think we're going to have to find a way to stop this." The fear in Casey's voice was prominant, but the determination was obvious in it too. She wondered what had happened to Felicity that had made her so enraged. For a second Casey verged on telling her own story, but quickly decided that it would be better if she saved it for another time. Maybe later.

"What happened Felicity?" In all honesty, Casey was worried. Apparently things weren't going well for anyone here except for a select few. In any case, this wasn't any good news. Seeing her friend so worked up over this made Casey panic about the whole situation even more.

"I think there might be something we can do. But it could be really hard, and quite possibly very stupid and dangerous." Casey was talking of her plan to befriend Flame. OF course, her reason behind it was to help out Finn, but if they could do that couldn't they get other things done too? She certainly hoped that the plan could work.

Felicity was delighted and oddly surprised when Casey spoke. Instead of quieting words that she didn't need to hear, her friend actually agreed with her! She could hear the quaver in her friend's voice and she wondered what had finally motivated her, if it had been more than just the changes she had noticed. However, she didn't ask. She was more interested to see if Casey knew a way to rebel against the corrupted authority.

When Casey asked what had happened, Felicity smiled slightly. Her friend knew her all too well. "The new Transfiguration professor," she said haltingly, feeling her blood boil again at the thought of him, "Casey...he arranged his seats by blood. It was awful, completely awful. The worst desks were at the front, and he made all the Muggleborns sit there." A lump was rising in her throat, but she held back the tears that were threatening to fall. "Aiden was there...he's a muggleborn. I tried to go sit up front with him, but the Professor wouldn't let me and - it's just horrible, absolutely horrible. Aiden's a better student than me, I'm just a troublemaker, but he's the one that had to be humiliated just because of his blood. I wish I could trade him places, or - or something."

She sighed and threw another rock at the lake, although not as hard as she had thrown the others. Her arm was tiring. She felt as if hope was lost. She didn't know what she could possibly do about it - reliving the class had only made her feel worse. Until, that is, Casey spoke again.

"What?" she asked, her head snapping around, "Why didn't you say so before? I'll do it, whatever it is. I'll do anything." Doing something stupid and dangerous would make her feel so much incredibly better, but she didn't know if she could explain that to Casey without worrying her, so she settled for fixing her with a demanding look. Whatever it was that Casey knew, she had already decided that she was completely up for it.

Casey looked at Felicity and wanted nothing more than to just giver her friend a hug. This was horrible. She couldn't believe how much this was affecting all the students, and in the least likely of places. It seemed that all of her friends were affected by the new regime that was slowly taking it's control over Hogwarts. At that thought she supposed that it would no longer be named Hogwarts if things kept following this path.

A fire burned in Casey, something that she never felt before. She felt completely indignant and wanted nothing more that to rebel. She herself might as well have been a muggle born. She'd been raised as a muggle, considering the fact that her mother's secret had gone with her to the grave. She knew that sooner or later things were going to get worse for her. "This is terrible. This is just ridiculous, Fee. I can't believe what is happening to this place. No one deserves treatment like that. This people.... there all just sick!" Casey said, feeling as if she could cry.

Casey was beginning to feel a little helpless. She might have a plan, but did she really expect it to work? After all, look at who they were dealing with. She felt stupid for ever thinking that her idea might even work. But the hope in Felicity's voice brought her out of her miserable. She had to at least try, if not for Felicity and Aiden then for Finn and the sake of his brother.

"Well. There's this girl, Flame. Apparently she's really close to Harshing. She's been going in and out of there more than anyone else. And Finn.... I know you don't like him, but he's been affected worse than anyone I know.... well we think that maybe we can sway her. We can use her to get to Harshing I think. I just have find a way to befriend her." Casey explained, hoping that the idea at least sounded plausible.

blah hang on.

It was one of the first times Felicity had seen such a change overcome her best friend. It had taken her a while to get to know Casey well enough to be able to notice subtle mood differences, and she usually had to make an effort to do so, not being one for detail. However, she didn't have to try at all to know that the same fire and determination she felt was overtaking her friend as well.

When Casey spoke, a strange mixture of rage and happiness was churning in Felicity's stomach. On the one hand, she was as outraged as Casey. But on the other, she was just so completely elated that her friend was mad about it, too. In a burst of affection Felicity threw her arms around her friend and squeezed. "Casey Bryant, you are absolutely the best friend I could ever ask for," she declared passionately. And she would dare Professor Anima right at that moment to try and do something cruel to any of her friends - she would put a definite cramp in his style.

Casey's plan, however, was nothing that Felicity had expected. However, the usual twinge of annoyance that would have entered her at the mention of befriending a Slytherin, or even of Tatupu, didn't come. Felicity didn't care if she had to go back in time and make friends with Salazaar Slytherin himself. In fact, she even didn't care that she had the sneaking suspicion that Casey was spending more quality time with Tatupu than was at all necessary. To her own surprise, she found herself nodding and ignoring the urge to ask Casey about Tatupu.

"Yeah, I've seen her around," she said, "I mean, I don't really know anything about her, though, and that'll be the first line of business. I suppose if we've got to make friends with her, we'll have to make ourselves appealing to her somehow. What do you know of her?"

Casey laughed, quite possibly happier than she had been all day. Her friend's happiness seeped through, and she couldn't help but feel elated. Felicity's hug made all the difference in the world, it was cheesy, but Casey knew that she was doing something right, possibly stupid, but it was definitely right.

Casey was, however, questioning herself. Finn had said that Flame would be one of those Slytherins who would curse anyone should they cross her on a bad day. She wondered if she really had the nerve to pull off something like this. It was completely out of character and she really had no idea what she was doing or what she was getting into.

"I don't know too much about her. But I know she's into all that pureblood stuff, really into it. And that she's Harshing's little pet. Finn said that she could be the type to just curse me because I'm a Hufflepuff. But he also said that if we really seem to take an interest in her, or even admire her it would be a good way to get her to like us." Casey informed Felicity.

"Do you think we can really do this? We're just a couple of students, going against an entire power. What are we getting ourselves into?" Casey was nervous, and it was obvious. She wasn't cut out for this, but she knew that she had to do something, and this was the only plan they had.

Felicity was now feeling quite upbeat, her heart full of determination, rebelliousness...and hope. It was quite possibly the latter that was the most prominent and the strongest of all the emotions inside her. What had she been thinking, coming here to mope around? Sitting here with her best friend, unhatching a plot to undermine the pureblood mania sweeping the school was a million times better.

Felicity was oddly serious as she listened to Casey's rundown of Flame Lestrange. "Well, I'm a pureblood," she said sensibly, "So that would ensure she wouldn't hex me right off the bat - though I'd like to see her try. I'm not sure how admiring I'd be able to act..." Felicity wrinkled her nose, "But I'm sure I can act interested enough. I mean, I wouldn't have to fake that, now would I? Besides, you're much better at being sweet and all that good stuff than I am. And there has to be something she's really good at - I think I've seen her play Quidditch! We could copmliment her on it."

Felicity was deep in thought when Casey voiced her concerns. She glanced over at her friend; she was feeling quite calm at the moment, though she knew her jitters might come when actually carrying out the plan. "But Casey, don't you see? That's just the thing. What spark is going to start the wildfire if not us?" She looked out over the frozen grounds at Hogwarts. "It might be scary, but I think that what Harshing and all the others are trying to do is way scarier. And I think I would be scared of what I would be if I didn't do anything."

She threw an arm around her friend's shoulders, and her voice boomed with confidence she didn't completely feel. "We can do it," she said firmly, "It's the only plan we've got and we're gonna make it work." There was a moment's silence, and then. "But Case? What exactly are we going to do once we're close to Harshing or whatever?"

Casey was trying to feel more hopeful about the plan. They had something right? And even if it didn't entirely work out then at least they had tried, right? Flame was just another student, it wasn't like they were dealing with Harshing. And she was going into this with Felicity, which in itself was the biggest comfort she had. In many ways Casey was relieved after having shared the idea, because she knew she wasn't alone.

Casey listened to Felicity's ideas. This could actually work, and her hope was growing. "I think that that can work. Do you think we ought to find her at different times? That way we'd look a little less suspicious, and if it doesn't work for one of us then it could work for the other. She's bound to be a little cautious around us though, because we're Hufflepuffs, and I'm not a pureblood either."

She hugged Felicity back, knowing that she was prepared to do whatever it takes. She had her friend by her side, and that was all she needed. There was a spark growing in Casey. She couldn't believe what she was signing up to do, but it felt so good to be fighting back, to actually stand up against something. This was quite possibly the best she'd felt about herself and anything she'd ever done. And for the first time in her life, Casey Bryant was rebelling.

"I'm not really sure. Finn's brother was taken by Harshing and he's locked up somewhere, I think once we find out where he is then we'll have some help.... And maybe by that point we'll have some other students behind us. If we could get Flame on our side I think we could actually do some damage to Harshing. But honestly I really don't know what will happen."

Felicity had not felt so excited and anxious about something in a long time. In fact, she usually didn't feel anxious about anything at all. The last time she could remember was when she had gotten her O.W.L.s, but even that had not been so monumental as this. However, a small smile was playing upon her lips. Action was much better than worrying, that much was for sure.

"Yeah, we probably should," she agreed sensibly, although she knew she would probably be more comfortable with Casey there with her. "So when should we, um, carry this out? Do you wanna try your luck first, or me?"

Felicity knew that this rebelliousness was something Casey usually didn't have in excess, but she loved seeing it in her friend. Most of the time, she would have felt bad for influencing her friend to buck the rules. This time, though, she felt almost proud. She knew it had not been all her doing, but just the same, at least this was a bout of rule breaking she was going to undertake for a good cause.

She was quiet as she listened to Casey, feeling almost bad for being so annoyed by Tatupu. If any of her brothers had been locked up, she was sure she would be quite as annoying as he was. In her mind she saw a glorious rebellion: students strong against Harshing, determined to stop the cruelty that was happening. But it seemed to all rest on whether or not they could become friends with Flame. "I sure hope she takes a liking to at least one of us," she said quietly, not voicing the rest of the sentence...because if she doesn't, I don't know what we'll do.