Potions Supplies Store(Attached to Daigonally)

Kiara walked into the potion supplies store she was running short on potion ingredients for her healing potion and she need to get some more before full moon.

She also wanted to try a potion she found in the Lestrange Library to help with the wand that was bound to Eglantine, it had potential to work...

"Do you need any help miss?" asked to clerk.

"No thank you I am perfectly fine" she answered.

"You sure?" he asked.

Kiara nodded "Yes I am sure... thank you"
"What is with this guy?"

"Oh well.... I will be over there it you do..." the clerk sounded quite disappointing.

Kiara shook her head and muttered "weirdo"

Viper entered the Potions Store with a list in hand of all the ingredients the school stores needed. She entered the store in a rather pleasant mood before she noticed who was the clerk for the day: Artie MacGillicuddy.

"Professor Viper!" he exclaimed in a highly irritating, overly cheerful voice. "How are you today may I help you with anything?"

Viper winced in reaction to the unusually high-pitched voice. "No, thank you, Artie. I've been here quite a few times, I daresay I know my way around." she replied, quickly moving towards the back of the store to avoid him.

Kiara looked up at the familiar voice of Viper and she hid a smile as she dodged the overly helpful store clerk.

Walking over to her in the back she said "You would think he would know we know what we are looking for by know" she said in amusement and slightly annoyances at the clerk to Viper.

"So how is your day beside running into Mr Sunshine and Daisies here?" she asked.

Viper gave a small smile when she noticed Kiara walking beside her. "Alright, I suppose. Would have been alot better if this store just had a mail-by-order system..." she rolled her eyes, picking up random ingredients as they moved. It was then that Viper noticed that they were not the only Hogwarts Professors in the potions store. Miranda was near the entrance as well, being tortured by Artie.

"Ms.Maecer, hello. How are you?" Viper called out, intending to "save" Miranda from the annoying clerk who couldn't seem to get a clue. The odd thing was, the polite smile plastered on Miranda's face, which was eerily familiar. Similar to a certain "courtesy smile"...

Miranda shot a grateful look at Viper, walking past the clerk to join the other two. "Ah, Kiara, Professor Viper. This is a pleasant suprise. I trust both of you are well?" she inquired warmly with a genuine smile.

Kiara nodded to Miranda 'Yes Miranda, I am good, just out getting supplies for some potions of mine"

She suddenly saw something familiar in Miranda, but she shook head ignoring it as coincidence.

"You hear potion potion shopping as well" it wasn't really a question but she didn't know what else to say.

Miranda nodded. "Yes, I've run out of eagle talons. I must say, Diagon Alley has changed quite a bit. I haven't been here in nearly twenty years but now it seems I'll need a map!" she chuckled.

Kiara smiled "i would say Hogwarts has changed more.... have managed to get around alright?"

Then there was something she wanted to asked Viper she kept on forgetting "Oh and Viper, seeking of potion ingredients what have you done with that troublesome heart?" out of plan curiousness.

"I'm learning." Miranda replied with a smile, though an eyebrow raised at the question directed at Viper.

Stealing a glance at Miranda, Viper shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about..." While Viper didn't have anything against Miranda, she certainly didn't trust her with information such as that.

Noticing the change in the atmosphere, Miranda sought to change the subject in favor of a lighter one. "So did you both start working at Hogwarts around the same time?"

Kiara nodded "almost I was here before the term started, Viper was hired not long after the term stsrted" Kiara answered letting the heart be forgotten about.

"It seems so long ago actually... may how much has happened since then"

Viper nodded silently, thinking of all the events. It seemed a lifetime ago since she had begun at Hogwarts...

Miranda raised an eyebrow in confusion. Part of her wanted so badly to ask which of the whispers that had reached her ears had been true. However, remembering what had happened during her talk with Eglantine, she was careful not to make the same mistake twice and appear too nosy. She decided to stay quiet in case one of the two women voluntered any information, or moved away from the current topic.

Kiara laughed slightlly "I still remember when you and Eglantine were at eachothers throats, now look kinda hard to discribe your guys relantionship no huh" she said quitly.

In fact she now that she thought about it she didn't even know how to catagorize her and Vipers relationship.

What were they?

"Hum kinda like that with us to isn't?" she asked curious what Viper thought.

Viper shrugged. "Professor Delanquar is like your mother, Professor McKevin is like your father, Sevastyan is like your brother, and I'm your next door neighbor." she concluded with a smirk and semi-amused tone at how the staff seemed to form a family circle with Viper on the outside. The thought didn't bother her in the least. In fact, at this point in life, Viper could easily shrug it off with no hard feelings.

Miranda couldn't help but laugh softly at her daughter's analysis, though she could detect a hint of truth in the statement. Perhaps her reputation was true to its word..."Relationships don't need a name to exist."

Kiara nodded to Miranda "I hope so..."

Glancing at Viper she said "I would say alittle more then just a neighbor Viper we have been through to much for that...."

Viper laughed. "Colleagues then?" Though she was a bit unsure if that was a step-up or step-down.

kiara though about it for a moment, "Yes we are that" she nodded.

Yet in the back of her mind that still didn't seem right either...

"Firendly colleagues?" she offered.

"Most of the time...." she finished after a second though.

"Sure." Viper shrugged, the corners of her mouth twitching at the addition to Kiara's statement. "Having differences of opinions don't make people unfriendly. Just different."

Miranda nodded silently, wondering what exactly the differences were and why they would be interpreted as unfriendly....

Kiara nodded "All depends on how well those opinons are carried out I suppose"

Then the Mr Sunshine came wonder over to them, He looked positivly bored and they only costumers he had.

"Are sure you Ladies don't need a hand?" he asked desperatly.

Viper rolled her eyes and sighed in annoyance while Miranda fought the urge to do the same, practically carving her courtesy smile on her face. "We're fine." she nodded.

Desperately trying to ignore the increasingly irritating clerk, she turned her attention back to the other two witches. "So what careers were you two in before life at Hogwarts?"

Kiara waved the annoying clerk away...

"We don't need help.. thank you"

She smiled at Miranda's question, "I used to be a Auror captain, was one of like 10 years. Just retiered form the post last year... medical reason"

Miranda nodded in comprehension, with an "O" shape on her lips. "I see." She turned to Viper for her response, although she already knew the answer.

But before Viper could reply, Artie butted in once more. "Oh she got fired from her Potions Lab. Huge business, all over the papers." he nodded earnestly.

Viper glared at the clerk, along with Miranda. While the counselor's patience was in great supply, the clerk really was starting to get on her nerves. He even managed to vanish her courtesy smile!

"I was not fired, my department was shut down! Shut down by the damn Minister you voted for!" she hissed, moving further into the store, desperately trying to resist the urge to hex him. After all, think of all the stories that could be conjured from an ex-Potions Department Head attacking a Potions Store Clerk?

Kiara bit her lip, it wouldn't do to have Viper get into trouble for attack a innocent and very dense potions clerk, so then with a bit of wandless magic she made the bell on the door of the potions store door ring.

"Oh it looks like you have new costomers why don't you go "help" them?" she said in the same fake cheerful tone of voice she used when Hermione Granger-Weasley has been obliviated.

Turning to the two other ladies infornt of her she said " Come on lets lose him" she whispered as she walked to a diffent part of the store. Picking up a vile of snake Venom on the way, used for anti-venom to the common venomous snakes in the hogwarts area, not that she would need much as it was nearly winter.

"Anyway... What about you Miranda? any other past jobs beside counseling?"

Miranda stiffened. She had deliberately inquired excessively of other's lives to avoid speaking of her own. Slowly, she shook her head. "No, I was always a counselor in some form."

Kiara raised her eye brow slightly confused as to what that ment, "Oh? what do you mean by that?" she asked.

"Well there are always those that need someone to talk to, and that is essentially what counselors do: be there to talk and support."

It'd be a lie to say Miranda served as a counselor to her sons though. Oh no, anything like that would be seen as mollycoddling to a pureblood dynasty, a fault that would lead to weakness. No, a parent's role was to breed, train, and plan. Nothing more.

Kiara blinked and nodded, 'But where does the counselor go when they need someone to talk to?"