Restricted Section

"Yes you can and you will." Horatio chuckled. "All I want is one favour in return."

Comprehension dawned on Viper. "Ah, bribery." she nodded with a small smile. "Very well, what would you like?"

Horatio shook his head. "Not bribery... a gesture of goodwill as we do not know each other very well." He stuck his pipe back into his pocket.

"Would you be willing to let me see your potion that you used with Edwin?"

Viper stiffened. Had Eglantine mentioned the potion Viper designed for Edwin? And which one? The real one or "real" one...

"The vitamin potion?" Viper inquired, for once deciding to play dumb. "With all due respect, Professor, the potion won't work as well for you. It is designed for small children..."

Horatio decided to play along. "No, not that one, the other one, my dear. Eglantine mentioned something about DNA?"

Viper raised an eyebrow. "DNA? Professor, I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about. If Professor Delanquar mentioned such a potion to you, she should be the one you ask about all this."

Darien and Celina entered the library.

Darien glanced around at the various books and sighed.

"I will start lookeeng..." Celina wandered down the first aisle.

Darien followed, more slowly.

"Diana, let's go," Helena said. "I'm bored."

"Wait!" Diana said looking at the current book shelf before her. "I know it's here somewhere..."

Celina spotted the Gryffindors at the end of the row and grinned slightly.
It was an evil grin.

"Dari!" She called, plucking a book at random. "Look at zis one?"

Darien wandered down the row and noticed Diana. He immediately became enthusiastic about the book, and stood closer to Celina than he normally would.

"Yes, it's-"

"Perfect." Celina finished, smirking.

Diana heard the french accent and a very familiar voice. She stood utterly still. No they couldn't be here...

"What's wrong?" Helena asked.

"Look behind me and tell me Darien isn't there." Diana said hushedly.

"Darien you mean your loser ex?" Helena said looking behind Diana. "Yeah, he's here, I didn't know he could read to be honest. Who's that girl he's with?"

"Let's go." Diana said pulling her bag from the floor and dragging Helena.

"No wait." Helena stood her ground.

Celina smirked more broadly at Diana's escape attempt.

"'Allo again...Diane is eet?"

Darien glanced up, then back at the book once more.

Diana inwardly swore as Celina identified her. "It's Diana," she said knowning she did that on purpose. "We're just about to leave actually."

Helena stood her ground. "Hello Darien."

"Ah, what un shame..." Celina faked regret.

Darien looked up. "Hello..."

His eyes flickered to Diana briefly, then to Helena.

Diana avoided his gaze and became rather interested at a nearby book.

"Yeah we should go, need to buy a dress for the ball and all." Helena said.

Darien's gaze became cold. "Well you two Gryffies have fun with that." He looked back to the book.

Celina smiled frostily and waved goodbye.

"We will." Helena smirked. "Come on Diana, Boris is waiting in the Great Hall."

Darien ignored the Boris reference and feigned reading the book.

Celina raised an eyebrow. "Eet is not ze ball yet you know...'Ow long does it take you to walk down ze stairs?"

Darien barked with laughter. "They are Gryffies..."

"Oui, d'accord..." Celina smiled sickeningly back at Darien.

"The Great Hall is used for more then the Ball." Diana said folding her arms. "What? Don't you french eat?"

"I wouldn't if I were french, don't you lot eat slugs?" Helena laughed.

Celina tossed her hair back from her face. "Non, we eat only what is tastee, we are not afraid zo try new stuff zu eat."

Darien made no comment, due to his recent encounter with eleonore...

((lol.))

"Well, each to her own," Helena said. "Though, I don't like your taste." She said looking straight at Darien.

"Believe me when I say the same..." Darien replied, glaring at Helena and Diana in turn.

"Now now Dari...Eef everyone agreed ze world vould bee a mess..." Celina put a hand on his arm, still smirking at Diana.

Diana stared at the physical contact between Celina and Darien and felt heat rush in her cheeks. She glared at Darien. He was hanging Celina just to spite her.

"You know," Helena said at Celina. "I don't think I caught your name."

"Nor did I catch yours..." Celina smiled. "Celina ees my name..."

Darien glared back at Diana. She'd hurt him first...He was going to make sure she knew it. His eyes burned with anger, and he felt both guilty and better when she blushed slightly. Revenge...on someone he loved...was weird.

While part of him wanted revenge...part of him just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.

"You can call me Hel." Helena smirked.

Diana just wanted to cry... And smack Darien. She'd asked Nicolas about Celina and found that she was a Pureblood... Something she wasn't. Course Darien always said he never cared about that but a part of her was never really sure and he asking Celina only verified it.

Celina returned the smirk. "Very well, 'El."

Darien returned his gaze to the book on the table. His desire for revenge was slowly being eaten away at by guilt.

And the Slytherin side of him didn't like it. Not one bit.

"Guilt is for Gryffindors" he recalled Ana shouting at him years ago. Maybe she was right. Maybe the sorting hat was right...

Why did he have to have two halves?! They never actually worked as a whole! They just tried to kill each other all the time!

That was when Darien decided he had issues.