The "Enemy" Territory

[Charlene Jung]

Charlene had to see for herself what was so bad about Slytherins. Yeah sure, her mom was telling her to stay away from them, no matter what house she got into. A few days ago, she'd sent a letter to her mother by school owl, telling her she was now a Gryffindor, and had received the immediate reply: "Really try not to talk with Slytherins much; they hate Gryffindors. I'm sure you remember what I've told you."

And here she was, wandering around in so-called "Slytherin territory." Oh that rebellious streak of hers...She just hoped her mother wouldn't find out. But then again, there was no way she could. She was whistling her favorite Korean song, a smile on her face, as she leaned against the wall and waited for someone to come by.

 

[Veronica Kealders]

Veronica was lost... again. Her memory was very good, but all these hallways that looked the same just kept screwing her up as she tried to find the way to her house Common Room. Why couldn't there just be a tree or vineyard nearby so that she could remember where the hell she was going. She turned a corner and found herself in another empty corridor, but could tell where she was going. She walked briskly down until she came upon a girl.

Stopping, she turned her head quickly and noticed a Gryffindor badge upon her chest. "What are one of you doing down here?"

 

[Charlene Jung]

Charlene had to admit that she was quite appalled. When the girl had appeared around the corner, Charlene had put on a smile, and had opened her mouth, ready to speak when the girl spoke first. Perhaps this was why she wasn't supposed to be associating with Slytherins. She peeled herself away from the wall with a "humph" and walked toward her, stopping a few feet away.

"Well excuse me for wanting to make friends." She frowned. "I'm Charlene...then let me ask you this. What are you doing down here?"

 

[Veronica Kealders]

Veronica glared at the girl and crossed her own arms over her open robes. The Slytherin badge was covered, but it's not like Veronica actually needed to show it to prove she was not one to be messed with.

"Well, Charlene," she said, sneering the name, "I'm down here because this is where I actually belong and have the right to be, especially since classes are over. A Gryffindor really shouldn't be playing around down here trying to make friends," she said and gave a quick laugh. Those dim-witted students with "brawn" and no brains, she thought to herself. She placed her hands on her hips and flipped her bangs out of her face. "Some snakes might actually be down here lurking, so beware," she hissed and turned on her heel, walking forward again.

((You should say something to stop her, haha ^^))

 

[Charlene Jung]

Before Charlene could stop herself, she yelled out, "Well seeing as how you haven't even got the skills to be down here yourself, I wonder how you even got down here in the first place!" Then she paused and added, "And I'm not afraid of snakes!" She mirrored the girl, crossing her own arms. This girl was undoubtedly a Slytherin. So much for making friends.

(Haha, sorry, lame.)

 

[Veronica Kealders]

Veronica spun back around on her foot and faced Charlene. "What gives you the right to insult anyone, let alone on their own grounds?" she hissed at her. "And it's not like I'm afraid of puny, little kitty cats." This girl was definitely not on her good side, nor would she ever be. Taking out her wand, she pointed it at Charlene threatingly and acted like she knew what she was doing with great strength, but it's not like she knew any magic, and Charlene was sure to know this as well. "I'm surprised you could even see the castle. I thought muggles weren't allowed any. Pretty sneaky for a muggle with a stick," she said and gave an evil laugh.

((Don't worry, mine's lame too, haha))

 

[Charlene Jung]

Charlene glared. "I'm not a muggle. Get your facts straight before you call people names," she snarled, looking at the wand, narrowing her eyes as if she could glare it away. "I doubt you know any magic either so you might as well put that away. Doesn't scare me." She wasn't scared, but in her mind, there was still a tiny seed of doubt. What if this girl did know magic? If she was one of those early starters whose parents taught spells. Her own mother never taught her anything, only spoke generally of magic. She insisted that she wasn't qualified for that, however much Charlene complained.

 

[Veronica Kealders]

Veronica lowered her wand down to her side and it back inside her robe but kept her vision up at Charlene. She didn't like this girl one bit, and she didn't understand why there was already such an affinity against her.. possibly the Brave versus Cunning mutual hatred there would always be? "Why don't you just leave everyone down here alone and go up to you're superior castle?" she scoffed, using air quotes around "superior".

 

[Charlene Jung]

Charlene frowned so hard she thought her face might get stuck that way. She let out a random bark of laughter at the thought, and then closed her mouth awkwardly. The girl was probably going to take that the wrong way. “I never said we were superior. But if you wanna think that way,” she grinned. “I’ve got no problem with that at all.” From all the things she’d heard about the houses, Gryffindor seemed to be the best, although Ravenclaws seemed to have the best chances at making a successful living. Hufflepuffs were rather friendly and seemed to be fine too. And Slytherins, well, as far as Charlene had seen, they sure liked to make enemies.

 

[Rory Tiernay]

(Hope you guys don't mind me joining in! If you do, I can edit myself out)
Rory was, once again, wandering aimlessly around the castle. She found herself doing that alot lately, but honestly, these dungeons kind of gave her the creeps. Before she knew it, she heard voices coming from around the corner. Completely oblivious to...well... everything basically, she naivley decided to try and make friends when she saw they both seemed to be in her year. Putting on her friendliest smile, Rory said, "Oh hey guys! I don't think I've met either of you yet. I'm Rory!" Little did Rory realized that she had just walked into the middle of a Slytherin-Gryffindor face off. To be honest, even if she had realized the two girls were bickering, she wouldn't have understood the reasoning anyhow. As it was, Rory just stood there sweetly, completely, and erhaps foolishly, expecting this to end well.

 

[Charlene Jung]

(I don't mind at all xP)

As Charlene glared at the girl, another girl walked over and began talking. At first glance, Charlene saw the green on her uniform and immediately realized she was a Slytherin. She groaned inwardly. If this was gonna be two on one...she was screwed. But then she realized the girl, who had introduced herself as Rory, wasn't trying to kill her or do anything malicious. She lightened up her stance a little and turned partly toward the girl, raising a brow at Veronica. "Well, I see that not all Slytherins are out to get me," she said cynically.

 

[Rory Tiernay]

Rory shot the girl a look of confusion before laughing, questioning, "Why on earth would I be out to get you? I don't even know you yet silly! That would just be stupid." Rory smiled at the girl, "I'm trying to make friends at this school, not enemies, you know?"

 

[Veronica Kealders]

Veronica glared even more at the girl and shook the bangs out of her eyes so she could have full view of Charlene. "You seriously have some nerve," she muttered. When another voice came from around her, Veronica turned her head swiftly and saw another girl come up who called herself Rory. Seeing the badge on her chest sort of reassured Veronica at the moment, but when she saw how nice Rory seemed to be, she knew her luck was fading. Why did she have to be surrounded by happy-go-lucky girls? "Not all of life can be peachy, dear. That's what makes it life and imperfect and never ending." She moved her gaze back to Charlene and said, "Now, if you two best friends would excuse, I think I'd rather make company with someone of actual value." She looked at Rory and thought for a second, deciding whether or not it might be right to encourage her fellow Slytherin to come with her.

 

[Charlene Jung]

“Yes, exactly. I was also trying to make friends but it’s obvious that I’m not quite succeeding.” She turned to Rory a bit apologetically. “Sorry if I’m in such a bad mood. I’m not usually mad like this or anything. Oh, and I’m Charlene by the way. Nice to meet you.” She gave her a dip of her head, her typical greeting, and then turned to Veronica. “Well, since I seem to be too good for you, maybe you should find someone else. And then I’ll go up to my ‘superior castle.’” She smirked.

 

[Rory Tiernay]

"Wow, I clearly interuppted a right love fest." Rory said sarcastically. She knew most Slytherins didn't appreciate her nice personality, so with this other Slytherin girl, she felt no harm in letting her rougher side take over, "Oh, and dear" she said the word dear in the most sarcastically sweet voice, "you may want to check your facts, because last time I checked, life isn't never ending, it ends, quickly sometimes, I've seen it, so you may want to think twice about prancing around all high and mighty and nasty just because your a big bad slytherin. Ta now!" Turning towards Charlene she completely changed her attitude, "It's perfectly alright, I understand the whole bad mood thing completely" she said with a smile. Its nice to meet you as well, and I think your doing just fine in the friend making buisness. After all, you heard miss thang, apparently we're 'best friends'" She said with a joking smile.

 

[Charlene Jung]

Hellebores belong to the genus Helleborus, which is made up of approximately 20 species of plants. Many of these are poisonous. They are native to much of Europe, like Great Britain and Portugal all the way to Romania. They are quite common, but also difficult to identify. The flowers have five petals or sepals that surround a ring of small nectaries, and these sepals do not fall like they do on normal plants. These plants have a winter and early spring flowering period, and are frost-resistant, as well as many being evergreen. They are also often hybridized due to their bright coloring and mixed genetics. The results of these hybridizations are called strains.

In ancient times, Hellebores, although poisonous, were used by people as purgatives and used in paralysis, gout and other diseases, as well as insanity. Black hellebore is highly toxic and would cause things like stupor, thirst, suffocation, swelling, and eventually possible death from cardiac arrest.