Secrets Explained

Alex paced nervously outside Ravenclaw common room the next morning, the night before he had a run in with Lainey Harper and unfortunately for her it had been on a full moon and he had a little problem with that. Regretfully he had to rudely kick her out of the room of requierment as it was getting close to his transformation.. and he could let her see that..

Now the problem was she knew something was up and likely wanted a explination.. he imagined it was easier he go to her then her rambaging trying to find him.

It was early so hopefully he could catch her before class started, he still was haggerd looking.. but he could only go up hill now un till next month.

First thing the next morning after the weird run-in with Alex Nighthook, Lainey started out of the Ravenclaw common room, and who should she run into again but Alex himself? Literally, this time, as she had been looking down at a book in her hand and hadn't seen him.

"Oh!" she said in surprise, blushing furiously as she scrambled to pick up her book. "Alex! W-what are you?-- I mean you clearly don't want to see me!" she told him, collecting herself somewhat.

Alex mentally winced, yes last night didn't go well at all. Even though he kept his mind during the transformation after Lainey left, he was more annoyed with himself then usual.

"Look Lain I am sorry, to before acurate, it is not that I didn't want to see you, it is that I didn't want you to see me" he said hoping he worded that right.

Alex's words of explanation only further served to confuse Lainey. After last night's events, this only annoyed her more; she had enough riddles and mystery for one day.

"What do you mean? You do realise that doesn't make any sense, right?" She shoved the book into her bag and folded her arms across her chest, looking as defensive as she felt.

Alex sighed again, almost wishing he could just tell her but that would rather impulsive of him. Even though it was in his nature to be impulsive.. or so his sister said.

"Only because you don't know the whole story..." he said scratching the back of his head.

"Hey there is some time before next class, I need to take some potions and I will explain.. okay?" he asked adjusting his book bag with his potions in it.

"No point in hiding if from you anymore anyway" he said pointing his head down the hall inviting her to follow him if she wished.

Lainey simply shrugged and adjusting the bag on her shoulder, gesturing for Alex to lead the way.

"By all means, enlighten me," she told him, this time in a slightly friendlier tone than before. His mention of potions reminded her that he was ill, after all, and perhaps he really hadn't meant to hurt her feelings as he had. Besides, she'd stumbled across him unexpectedly, not the other way around.

He led the way outside some how the fresh air made him feel human again easier. He drank down a potion and grimsped at the taste.. "Merlin I hate these" he muttered to her with a chuckle, trying to lighten the mood.

He looked around to make sure no one else was there, on one in sight.. good.

" Alright answer time, First I am sorry if I hurt you last night, and the room of requierment does more what I need then what I want..."

He roled up his sleave showing the new scar he got from the werewolf, "I lied a little to you that night, I got it last summer... on a full moon.. as ouminous as that sounds." he said smiling sheepishly and stalling on purpose, the one part of him that didn't want her to know.

Lainey looked on in concern as Alex downed his potion. She smiled slightly at his attempt to lighten the mood, and then more genuinely at his apology. He'd never really been the rude type, so she was willing to forgive him fairly easily. When he rolled up his sleeve, she reached out and lightly traced the scar there.

"It's canine," she realised, looking up into his eyes. "Full moon?" she repeated, eyes wide. "Last night was a full moon...you can't mean..." But the potions seemed to corroborate what he was so hesitant to tell her. A werewolf...it couldn't be. She'd known Alex nearly her whole life. Things like that just didn't happen...often, anyway.

Alex nodded, "Oh boy was it" he said always the person to try and make a joke even in a dangerous situation... "Canine I mean.." he said looking at her tracing his scar. It was strange really no one had touched it before..Kate was to quimish to and to everyone else it was to personal..

"But yeah, happened last year, out with my sister and we were in the wrong place wrong time. We got away but not before it bit me. So only Kate, my sister knows.. now you. Please Lain you can't tell anyone. It would ruin my parents if they ever found out" it had to remain secret.

Fingers still tracing his scar, Lainey looked into Alex's eyes in mingled horror and admiration. To have been the victim of what could only be a brutal attack...to have kept the secret so long. She had always been on good terms with Alex, but apparently she hadn't given enough credit to him for his Gryffidor bravery.

"Alex," she said, unable to speak further for a moment. That he would tell her, when the only other person who knew had been a witness to his attack...it meant more than words could possibly express.

"I'll never tell," she promised, absolutely sincerity written all over her face. "I'm so sorry!" Although they'd never had a very physical type of relationship off of the quidditch pitch -- typical English stiff upper lip -- it seemed they were breaking all of the rules lately. She shifted her arm around his neck and hugged him for a moment, trying to put all of the reassurance she had into it.

"No wonder it's scarred, have you been tended to for this properly? I've a fair hand for care of magical creatures, treating animal bites included. I'm sure I could figure out something to make the scarring less noticeable, at the very least," she offered, wanting to be of any help at all to Alex.

Alex blinked well that went better then he thought it would.. no tears, no awkward silence, and a promise of silence. The couldn't have gone any better, she was being rather sweet about it really.

"Hey no worries eh? could be worse" he said with a chuckle, though her additude and how she took this certainly cheered him up if anything.

"Yeah... ah I guess healing isn't my strong point" he said looking at the bite mark that went around his arm. Getting the dang thing to stop bleeding had been an accompishment if he had said so himself.

"Do your magic Lain" he said with a wink, "Doubt I can get away with wearing long sleeved shirts forever".

Lainey's eyes followed Alex's, and her eyes widened at what she saw. She hadn't realised the scar continued around his arm until seeing it from the angle she was currently at, and the sight made her gasp in horror and alarm. Seeing the damage more fully made her realise that he hadn't caught some little, unfortunate nibble. From the looks of the scar, he'd nearly lost his arm. No wonder he wasn't worried about the scarrinng -- just stopping the bleeding from such a violent wound was probably difficult enough, and he'd only had his little sister to help him do it.

"Alex! How bad was this, exactly?" she asked, grasping his arm again and examining the scar before looking up at him again, blue eyes shining with concern. "I didn't realise it was so bad! Was this the only injury or is there more that you're not showing me?"

Alex blushed this time as she looked his arm over, she seemed really concered about it even though it wasn't threatening anymore.. just rather ouminous looking. "This is the only one of conciquence, the other cuts healed rather well.." he said as the only other injures he had were scratch marks superfical really.

"Only reason this one was so bad is because well.. it pounced on me. Had no choice but to use my arm to keep it from quite litterally biting my head off" he said with a nervous laugh. It had been a hard night really, his sister was panicing casue she thought he was dieing, he needed all the medical supplies his family had to bandage his arm and stop himself from bleeding to death. Then somehow make Kate swear not to tell there parents, it would ruin them to find out there eldest son was a werewolf.

"It is okay Lain, all things concidered I am glad to be living another day.. Granted things are a little more wild now, but I'll live with it. "Live everyday as if it were your last" that is my motto now" he patting her arm, as the bit certain didn't take his happy go lucky additude.

"If you can do something about my arm I would be greatful, but if it is to severe don't worry about it" he assured her.

As Alex described his attack in more detail, Lainey could almost see it happening before her eyes. How on earth the two siblings had managed to deal with it themselves was nothing short of a miracle, to her. As the wound had healed, there really wasn't much else she could do other than to help hide the scar.

"Essence of murtlap solution. Lots of essence of murtlap..." she muttered, mentally running over a list of ingredients commonly used in healing potions. A bit of research would be required to see if it was even possible to completely remove a werewolf-inflicted scar; they hadn't exactly covered werewolves in class. At the very least, she was confident that it could be significantly reduced, as it didn't seem like Alex had tried too hard to make it fade -- understandable enough, given the circumstances.

"I'm glad you're alive too," she said, trying and failing at making her tone lighter. "Would have been too easy to beat Gryffindor without you." But thinking about what life would have been without Alex wasn't the right idea, either; she hadn't realised how much she'd taken for granted his very presence until she found out how close she'd come to losing it. Their relationship was nothing like the epic rivalry between Jericho and Cole, but they'd known each other for just as long, if not longer, and she'd always considered him a friend. The thought of losing him so suddenly and violently made her feel slightly ill, and she would have hugged him again if it wasn't so very out of character for her.

The ringing of the bell for the first class startled Lainey out of her depressing reverie, and she flinched, nearly dumping out the contents of her bag again.

"Potions! We're gonna be late. Maybe we can ask Professor Hall about stuff we could use for magical bites. I'll tell him it's for my sister," she suggested, leading the way towards class.

Alex couldn't help but smirk as she started muttering about Healing essence and all that, now there was the Lainey he knew.

"You know my team would be offended by that, they can't be that bad" he said jokingly as he poked her in the arm picking up his book bag as well. As much as he would rather continue walking outside in the sunshine instead of going to class. He supposed he had better get to class or else people would start to think he was dieing.

"Class already eh? Time flies I say"

He nodded about asking the professor, "Good idea, from what I hear that kinda thing is his specilty.. sorta Posions stuff like that?" he asked. Potions was not his forte either, he was typical in that reguard, he was better at transfiguration and defense then potions and charms. But again he was decent in charms he supposed... didn't hold that personal interest though. Potions was a bit to tedious for him he guessed, though Professor Hall was alright, and had a sence of humor at least.

Lainey turned around to face Alex, staring him directly in the eyes. "Alex, you are the team," she told him seriously, shaking her head. "And if you ever tell anyone I said that, I'll deny everything," she added with a smirk, returning to a more lighthearted mood.

"And besides, I've put a very talented side together this year. We'll win it all, just you wait and see. Don't think I'll go easy on you," she warned him with a little nudge to the ribs. Proving Alex's observation about time flying right, they arrived at their classroom sooner than Lainey expected, with a few minutes left to spare, which reminded her of the question she would have for Professor Hall after class.

"Yeah -- poisons," she murmured, leaning forward in her seat to where Alex sat in the row in front of her, so he could hear her whisper. "Sometimes bites from magical creatures are cursed -- they never heal properly. But in the last fifty years a lot of advances have been made, and I'm sure he'll know all about it. It's closely linked to his speciality."

Alex smiled, "as much as I approcaite that Lain I don't think I could beat Ravenclaw on my own, and don't worry Actually I was thinking you can go harder on me, appearently looking like crap aside I am stronger now then I was.. so watch out eh?" he said with a wink quietly.

"We can stay after class for a moment and ask, he is your head of house I am sure he would be more then happy to" he muttered back.

"Oh and since you know about this.. it might be a good idea for you to meet my sister sometime. Think she might be relieved someone else I trust knows" he said opening his potion book.

Lainey groaned quietly. "Stronger? For Merlin's sake!...alright well, you asked for it, then!" Mentally, she made a note to up her ten mile runs from every other day to daily; it was unlikely that she could match him with his additional, supernaturally-enhanced strength, but perhaps she could ramp up her speed to even the playing field a bit.

"I was planning on staying after, I'm sure he'll help. I don't see why he wouldn't, I've got a good enough excuse lined up." Just then, Professor Hall entered the room and she too had opened her potions book when his last line caught her by surprise. His sister, hm? She couldn't help but feel a slight meet-the-parents vibe; Alex was known to be pretty protective of Katelyn. Then again, as he'd said -- he let her in on the secret. Why shouldn't she meet his sister, too?

"Alright, just tell me when," she whispered, and then settled back into her seat as Professor Hall started calling roll.

Alex whispered a short message to Lainey, as he thought of a good time she could come and meet his sister.

"I am holding tryouts for Gryffindor Alternates next weekend, Kate assures me she is coming to tryout, you can pop in after the tryout or even come and watch if you like" he said before turning back to his potion book and jotting down a few notes.

Lainey wasn't sure that going to watch the try-outs was a particularly good idea, given that she was the captain of their rival team...but the thought of seeing Alex's sister fly was a tempting one. She wondered whether Alex's flying prowess ran in the family...and well besides, it was only the alternate team, right?

"I'll stop by, sure," she replied, her voice almost lot in the sudden commotion that was everyone clambering out of their seats and headed for the ingredients table all at once. Fortunately it was the perfect opportunity for them to continue their conversation in secret.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea if I go for the whole thing -- I don't want to make anyone nervous -- but I'll make sure I come round before it's over, so I can see if Katelyn's got that Nighthook magic, too," she teased, getting out of her chair and heading towards the front of the classroom, where their classmates were queueing up.