Ravenclaw Common Room.

Rachel was sitting in the Common Room, in a comfortable looking light blue chair beside the fire reading a novel. There were only a couple over kids in there, and they were a small group of fifth year girls, preparing for their OWLs coming up later in the ear. They were completely unaware of their surroundings.

Rachel's attention shifted towards the door of the Common Room, and she glanced at Selia. She had heard about Selia getting detention, and she was curious to see how it had went.

"How was it?" she asked.

"Detention? Horrible. They hung me from the ceiling and whipped me. Do I know you?" Selia said, going and sitting down on a seat next to Rachel- her ankles were hurting- but she quickly sat up straight, because her back was throbbing. "You seem familiar."

"Oh, it could have been worst. I got some really bad burns-looks they're going to scar. Great, I'm going to have nasty scars all over my arms and back. But anyway, I'm Rachel. I'm a friend of your older sister." Knowing Selia, she avoided mentioning she was Karin's older sister.

"You look like Karin.." Selia mumbled, staring intently at Rachel. "Nice to meet you. But, what did you get burned for? How did you get a detention?"

"Well, one of the Carrows caught two first years-actually, I think one of them is in our house, but anyway- she caught them in the hallway out of class, and they claimed it was the their free period. But she didn't believe them and threatened them with detention and I stuck up for them and well, the rest is history."

"You have a boyfriend. It's that Nicholas. I know you, you're Rachel Monaseem! Oh, please please please give me advice, Miss Monaseem. Please! Your family has such great luck with guys, with you and Karin. Please!"

"Um..." she turned a little pink from embarrassment. "Err... what KIND of advice, exactly?"

"Romantic advice. Oh, you have to help me. Please!"

"Well Selia," she looked over at her carefully, studying. Even though she was sixteen, she seemed to be so innocent and careful. "Since you're being so generalized, there's only one thing I could tell." She took a deep breath.

"You can't force a guy to love you. But, you can help him along the way."

"That's only part of the problem," Selia muttered, frowning. "I know he doesn't really like me anymore, but I still really like him.. And my friends, they all hate him. He's one of the muggle-born haters and one of our friends, uh, wasn't able to come to Hogwarts this year because he was muggle born.. All my friends really hate him. And, Miss Rachel, I don't know what to do- my two best friends are friends with him, Karin and Holly, and while I don't want to be friends with Karin anymore, Holly's just being horribly mean to me and I've been horrible back to her and it's horrible- and now my only friends are guys, and you can tell I don't belong with them, Miss Rachel, they've always just been friends together and I just intrude and I'm the only girl and it's absolutely abhorrent. And, they hate the guy I like. What do I do?" Selia said, looking at her with wide eyes.

"Um..." Rachel looked very intimidated at this whole ordeal. "Well uh... I've never had this much drama when I was a kid, but uh..." she sat for a minute, thinking, racking her brains, going into Ravenclaw nerd mode...

A minute later, she had come up with her great answer.

"You could find new friends?"

"I couldn't.." Selia said. "They've been so nice to me, and I really do like all of them. On one hand, the boys that I'm friends with now are so nice, but the girls that I used to be friends with are so mean.. Would you be my friend?" She asked, shoulders slumping.

"...Why not?"

Selia smiled widely, got up, and hugged Rachel. "Thanks. You're a really nice person too.."

"Really?" Rachel looked a little happy at that comment. "I've never rally thought of myself as one. But thanks."

"You are. You're really sweet. You might look like your sister, but you're not like her." Selia sat back down and smiled. "So, how are you getting along on your NEWT studying..?"

"To tell you the truth, I haven't even begun yet. I'm not enrolled in many classes this year. What are you taking, anyway?"

"I've got all the core classes, plus Divination, Astronomy, and I was lucky to get into Care of Magical Creatures. It's... a lot of homework. I don't spend much time out of the dorm at night."

"That's really good! I wish I was more studious... I was in my younger years... then I got a boy friend, and lots of bad studying habits I haven't been able to break since then."

"Yes, I suppose there's something to be gained by not having a boyfriend."

"Yeah, sure. There's a lot." she said shrugging, not really paying attention. "Do you need any help with your schoolwork?"

"Um, no, I'm a little behind on the Astronomy charts, but those are easy enough, and due at the end of the week, you know. I usually try to keep the regular classes' homework done faster than my extras.."

"If I were you, I'd start with my hardest subjects and work my way to the easiest. I do that still, and it works!"

"Really? That sounds like a good method, I'll try it sometime."

"It works!-What's your best subject?"