Plotting Against Prats

"Aw, thanks Zaney-kins, I'm flattered," the girl said, voice sickly sweet as she batted her lashes again. It was fun joking with Zane like that, since there wasn't anyone else she'd be quite as comfortable with to do so.

"I know, and I apologize for the sake of your mental health, but the twerps are definitely going to be spending some quality time in a girl's body. In fact, I know just the group of Hufflepuffs to get the hairs from," the redhead stated with a knowing smile.

"As much as I should be insulted by that statement, I can't even deny it," the Slytherin admitted with a wry smile. Knowing her, she'd be constantly be waking Zane up in the middle of the night. If she was bored, if she couldn't sleep, if she'd procrastinated Transfiguration work again and was stuck; Zane was the perfect solution to any of these problems.

"You know," the teen started suddenly, tone thoughtful, "you haven't told me much about that snake-filled family of yours. You don't have to, of course, but I'd be willing to return the favor. Quid quo pro and all that," Vivianna found it odd that as close as they were, the two students had managed to avoid pretty much all talks about families. The witch could only hope that Zane's wasn't filled with people like her father.

"You're fantastic, Viv." Zane grinned, shaking his head lightly at her idea about turning them into Hufflepuffs. "Pure genius."

He had known someday somebody was going to ask about his family - why he wrote so often, but it wasn't to home; why he never spoke of any of them. "It's fine," Zane decided, figuring he would end up telling her sometime either way.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to find the right place to start. "So.. all those letters I write and send to that other school? Those are to my sister, Brianna.." Zane wasn't sure how Vivianna would take any of this - he didn't know about her family either after all - so he went slow and tried to find the right words. "I come from a very long line of Slytherin purebloods.. and Bri is a squib..." He looked up briefly to see if she was following along, then looked down at the hands he'd folded on the table in front of him. "They tried to kill her, but I stopped them. I stepped between her and my father. I still remember my mum saying 'No, don't hurt him. I've sort of.. looked after her since. I can't stand my parents after what they did. Or any of my family really. Sometimes I wonder if mum had an affair, and that's why Bri.." He trailed off. "I guess it doesn't really matter why it happened, but that sure would explain a lot."

He knew if he looked at her she'd see how angry he was about it, so he stayed stiff, staring at the table like before. Zane was almost certain he'd never told anyone at Hogwarts about Brianna before. It wasn't that he never intended to. It was more that the right moment never came up. He wasn't sure if this was the 'right moment' he'd been hoping for, but he knew if anyone was going to leave the topic alone after this conversation, it would probably be Vivi.

The hands that had been innocently resting In Vivianna's lap slowly clenched into fists as Zane spoke. Who the hell did those bastards think they were? And what kind of sick person would be willing to kill their own child? The witch hadn't even known that Zane had a sister, but after hearing that she didn't blame him for not wanting to bring up painful memories.

Moving her chair so that it was practically touching Zane's the Slytherin shifted to lean against his side. She didn't care what others would think of their position, but the male deserved some comfort. Besides, she wasn't adverse to it either, with what she was about to admit. "How old is she, Brianna?" the redhead asked softly, unable to remove the image of a tiny blond girl with huge innocent eyes from her thoughts.

"Right, my family. My dad's a verbally abusive arse, and my mum's slowly killing herself because she can't stand the fact that she married such an ingrate," Vivianna almost spat, her words angry. "But, uh, my aunt and uncle live pretty close. So I practically live with them, I'm sure I've mentioned my cousins at sometime or another," the Slytherin paused here, as if unsure if she wanted to go on. "He's a vampire. My uncle, that is. So my cousins are half. And I love them to death, but it's not easy. Watching people hate them, just because of what they are. I suppose you could relate to that," The girl looked up at Zane for the first time since she started to speak, a glimmer darkness in her eyes.

Vivianna leaned against him as he finished, and he sighed heavily. "She's fourteen now. She was only six when they figured out she couldn't do magic." He closed his eyes tightly. "I made sure she went to a muggle boarding school since the year I came here. I don't want to leave her home with them... It sounds awful, but it's true.." This conversation had started off so different and he almost felt bad for bringing it up at all.

But then she gave a bit of a story about her life and her family in return. She was clearly furious at her father. Zane rested his head on hers briefly as she told him about her uncle and cousins. She looked up at him and he shook his head sadly. "Trust me, I understand. You know, now, of course. So at least we've got someone who gets it. Anyone who treats another person like their nothing.. they're the ones who deserve to be treated like the pricks they clearly are."

He knew he wasn't explaining himself very well, but there it was. Zane hated the whole pureblood mentality, and he was stuck living with it. The only thing that had kept him sane was looking out for Brianna, and attending school at Hogwarts. He couldn't wait until he could have a job at the Ministry or somewhere like that so he could have Brianna either move in with him, or take care of her somehow. It was a bit of a ways off, he of course knew, but he wouldn't give up the idea for anything. Brianna deserved so much more than even he was able to have.

"It's amazing, what you do for her," the Slytherin admitted softly. Because damn, Zane had been practically responsible for another human life since the age of eight. The image of the tiny girl that had been forming inside Vivianna's head had started to morph. Now the girl was picturing a shorter, female version of Zane with big bright eyes.

"I expect to be introduced someday, you know," the witch announced in an off-hand fashion. She was fully aware that such an event probably wouldn't happen for years. But it was a nice thought. Besides, if Zane cared for his sister so much, she was probably a sweet and wonderful girl. While Vivianna didn't exactly have the best track record of getting along with the sweet and wonderful, she thought that she might be able to make an exception.

Squeezing Zane's arm lightly for a moment in a comforting gesture, she couldn't help but feel compassion for the Ravenclaw. In any other person, what she was feeling would be called pity. But Vivianna didn't do pity, so she was feeling compassion. The OWL student knew she'd die if she had to live under her father's roof without her uncle's house to escape to. How Zane must have felt, the Slytherin wasn't even sure she wanted to know. She wondered for a moment how much of Zane's act-now attitude had been born of necessity, just like her own tendency to analyze people. Zane wasn't just any random person though, so the witch quickly told her brain to knock it off.

Zane shook his head in response to the sort of compliment she gave him. "Someone had to." It wasn't like he'd just one day decided he wanted to look after Brianna. He knew that nobody else in his family was going to, and he'd be damned if he'd lost the one person in his family who wasn't a complete rotter.

He grinned and nodded as he replied, "You got it." Her request wasn't unreasonable. Maybe he and Brianna would be in Diagon Alley when Viv was. Or after school when he found somewhere to take Bri and keep her away from the house. Eventually, he knew, he'd have to let her do everything for herself. But it was hard to think about when he'd always, it seemed, been watching out for her.

Deciding that the longer they talked about this the worse it would be for both of them. If they really needed to or wanted to they could always return to the topic later. "So.." He began slowly, "When did you want to start that polyjuice potion? It takes a month, of course, so you'd better have a plan. That or just steal it.." He suggested, tilting his head to the side slightly in thought.

Vivianna was secretly quite glad when Zane changed the subject of conversation. Parents and families had never been an easy topic for her. Shifting so that she was no longer leaning on the male, the Slytherin rolled her shoulders backwards in a stretch. She didn't bother to mover her chair back, however, so the two of them were still seated quite close.

"You forget who you're talking to here Zane," the redhead teased, her voice light-hearted once more. "Brewing complicated potions is what I do for fun. I got really bored back in January, and figured I might as well give it a shot," Vivianna told her friend with an amused smile. Really, the only reason she brewed the potion was because she'd had a theory about a way to make the potion last longer. It hadn't worked, but she had saved some of the original non-experimental batch.

"Not that you know that, considering how possession of such potions is against the school rules and all," the witch stated as a teasing afterthought. She really wasn't worried that Zane would let that knowledge spread, or tell on her.

Both of Zane's eyebrows went up when she explained that she actually already had the potion with her. He chuckled then, glad to be back to their easy way of conversation. "Honestly.. I need to learn not to be surprised by you anymore." He joked, leaning back once more as the stress of the previous conversation seemed to wash off of him.

"You know I can keep secrets." Zane replied, "Besides, telling on you would just get a potion thrown my way. I'd rather avoid that." He feigned seriousness, but was soon cracking a smile. He couldn't really believe how easy it was to switch from serious and painful topics into the ease of teasing. With some people, Zane figured, things were just simple. He decided he rather liked it that way.

"The only question, then," he added, "Is whose hair we get." He brought a hand up to his chin in a gesture of thinking particularly hard. "As much as seeing those guys as Hufflepuff girls might scar me for life, I think seeing them go mental about it would pretty much cancel that bit out." Zane smirked. He couldn't say they didn't do devious things or plan such things often. But he didn't often get so excited about them. It was probably just that he no longer had to be in that negative frame of mind like he had been when talking about Brianna. It also had something to do with making both of them feel more upbeat and less upset. If Vivianna or any of his other closest friends were down, he certainly couldn't be as upbeat as he wanted to be.

"Don't bother," the teen joked, "you'll just end up feeling bad when you realize than no matter how hard you try, I'll always be capable of surprising you." It was crazy how easy it was to be teasing and playful with Zane. The only one whom she had a relationship with that was even remotely like this, was her cousin Garret. Huh, perhaps Zane was more like family than she'd thought.

"I knew it!" Vivianna exclaimed with a purposely straight face, "I knew that you were just staying on my good side due to your fear of my potions brilliance!" Unable to keep a straight face anymore, the witch bust into almost-silent laughter. It was a bit of a joke, how much so many students were scared of her for some reason or another.

"Definitely Hufflepuff girls then. Now the question is, do we go for firsties? Or watch how they react to being stuck in the body of a more matured female?" The Slytherin asked. She knew that this was bordering on cruel, but at this point she hardly cared.

"Fair." Zane rolled his eyes at her jab. He was glad they were back to the easy conversation he was used to. Yes, he was serious about work and things like that, but he also enjoyed letting loose around his friends.

Letting out a loud laugh, Zane couldn't help but reply, "Until you realize that I could just transfigure you into a newt." He joked. He'd never do so, but it was so cliché he just had to say it. He knew she was just pretty much joking, but he also was aware how much truth was hiding behind it. People could seriously be afraid of her.

As for Hufflepuff girls, they had to pick whom would freak out the Slytherin bullies more. "Personally, I'd panic either way. I'm for firsties. Imagine the squeaky voices and screams when they realize what's going on." Zane smirked darkly.