After having sucessfully avoided her brother Valerian all morning, Danielle had retreated to the lake. He'd been bothering her for the fun of it. To anyone looking on, it was obvious that the siblings just didn't get along at all. They were different in every way that they could possibly be, even in their DNA. Though it was better that way.

As she had crossed the grounds with the afternoon sun baring down on her, she had stuck a bright green lollipop in her mouth. Having had picked out her favorite spot by the lake during her first year, she made her way over to it as if a path was laid out before her and there was no other way to go.

Finally seated under her favorite tree a few yards from the lakes edge, Danielle pulled out her Potions homework that her brother Bram was suppose to be helping her with. But thanks to an argument with Tasha that morning just after breakfast, he'd landed himself in the hospital wing with a broken nose that had a walnut jammed up it.

She sighed, then pulled out her potions book and began her feeble attempt at doing her homework.

Edith was walking around the edge of the empty lake, enjoying the cool air against the bare skin of her arms. It may have been late spring, but it was still quite cold out by the lake despite the bright sunshine over the grounds, and even in the afternoon goosebumps were appearing on her wrists. As she walked aimlessly, looking at the grey-green water which rippled in the centre occasionally - probably due to the giant squid inhabiting its depths - she spotted Danielle, a fellow fifth year Ravenclaw whom she had shared a dorm with for years but had never really spoken to, sitting under a tree with a potions textbook and an acid green lollypop.
Edith smiled, and walked over towards Danielle. "Hey," she said as she approached, "want some help with that homework?" She smirked, knowing that as she was often the top of the class in all her lessons, her dorm-mate would have to be an idiot to refuse - and no Ravenclaw is an idiot.

Danielle glanced up upon hearing a short 'hey', followed almost immediatly by an offer to help with her homework. Though normally she'd really only allow Bram to help her with Potions and on occasion even her older sister Tasha, she knew she couldn't refuse given the fact that niether of them were around. Besides, she knew Edith was pretty good with passing classes and she might actually learned something for it rather than get lectured by her siblings.

"Hey," she replied, after pulling the lollipop from her mouth, causing the potions book sitting on her knee to fall off and close. "Yeah, I'd really apperciate it."

She moved her bag out of the way to give Edith a place to sit, then grabbed her book up off the ground and reopened it to the chapter on the Draught of Peace that she was suppose to be writing an essay on all of it ingrediants and their properties and why those would make up that particular potion.

"Funny, this potion is suppose to calm and sooth you, yet it's just making me more frustrated by the minute," she said, smiling at Edith. She really didn't know what was worse, making the potion or doing homework on it.

Edith sat in the space Danielle had made for her, and grinned at the joke she'd made about the calming draft - yes, she had heard it before, but sometimes lack of originality is by no means a lack of talent. She hoisted the book onto her lap, and replied "Oh yeah, the calming draught is pretty complicated, but there are tricks you can use to get through any essay.
"You see, in the textbook there are already the ingredients and instructions listed. Just rewrite them in your own words and put in some psycho-babble about the effects." Edith pointed to the list of ingredients, which was long and obscure - no wonder Danielle needed help - and smiled. "So, you say something like, 'Lavender is added to the potion early on to help produce the near sleep-like trance that the draught produces when consumed.' "
Edith smiled at Danielle again, hoping that she was helping sufficiently.

Danielle listend to Edith's explanation and smiled when she had finished. "That's a lot easier to understand than what my brother puts me through," she laughed lightly, pulling out her parchment, a quill and ink.

She began to scribble down a rough draft for the potions essay, but stopped mid-sentence to glance up at Edith.

"It's Edith, right?" she asked, pushing a strand of loose hair behind her ear. She took a quick glance at the potions book for the next ingrediant, then worked on something to put down for that one.

Edith paused a moment - a girl she had shared a dorm with for five years was questioning her first name? Well yeah, they weren't exactly close, but no need to rub in her usual complete lack of social interaction.
"Yes, yes it is." Edith said, somewhat coolly, frowning down at the book in Danielle's lap, not making eye contact.
"So, your brother doesn't like you then?" Edith said bluntly, not bothering to conceal the harsh tone in her voice, as she was still quite offended at Danielle not knowing her name.

Though she noticed the tone that Edith used, Danielle didn't say anything about it. She wasn't exactly sure what had brought it on, but decided against asking. Finishing scribbling something down for another ingrediant, she glanced up at the question.

"Well, no, it's not that. It's just that when it comes to helping with homework, he's a real pain in the butt," she told her. "I suppose I shouldn't complaing though. It helps me pass potions."

In a way, she rather enjoyed him helping her with homework, even if it had arguments in it no matter what, but that was the only time they could ever talk when at school. Being in different houses and different years made it hard for them to get any time to chat. And that went the same for all of her siblings. None were in Ravenclaw and though she'd never admit it, it made her lonely.

"Well, whatever you can do to pass class - as long as you don't fail, who cares what you do?" Edith said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger carelessly.
"I wouldn't let the professors know that you have been getting help on your homework, though." Edith smirked; she had not needed help on her homework for years.

"Yeah, it wouldn't be such a great thing if they found out," Danielle agreed, continuing to work on writing the ingrediants down for the homework.

A small frown played across her lips slightly before she spoke again. "But then again, it's not really as if I absolutly need potions to get a job after school. I'm already signed up to be apart of my father company in Germany like the rest of my brothers and sister. We really don't have much choice in the matter," she said, finally writing down about the last ingrediant. "How's this sound?" she asked, handing the parchment to Edith.

Edith looked briefly over the parchment Danielle handed her.
"Yeah, that seems fine. You've got the hang of it now." she passed the parchment back to Danielle, and smiled shortly.
"So, what's your father's line of work?" Edith said, unable to think of anything else to fill the silence.

Returning the smile, Danielle put the parchment into her bag along with the book. "Thanks," she said in reply, then listened to Edith's question.

"It's this German based company called Kael Corp.," she said, closing up the bag, then turning to look fully at Edith. "They do all kinds of things, but mostly they specialize in experimenting and producing wizarding items and potions."

"My father thinks that since it's the families company, that all his children need to work their too," she added after a moments pause. "He's going to be opening an office in London sometime during October, so that's where me and my brothers and sisters will be working once we finish school."

It wasn't that she didn't want to work there. She liked to create things and that's basically what the company was about, but it'd still make her a little happier about starting her career there if she had more of a choice in the matter.