"Weird," was a very good word to describe my life since I first picked up Myrtenaster and was forcefully introduced to the magical world. "Strange," would be another one. However, I had long gotten used to those. "Agony," though, was the word that best described the first month of my second year at Henway, and all because of Noir in potions class.

I sat at the desk in my chest and looked over the journal entries I'd started making of Noir's potion attacks on me after the liquid ice. Each entry brought forth a seething rage and horrible, painful memories.

Something splashed against my left side. A moment later, I felt electricity flowing through me and I started losing control of my body. Every muscle was moving at once, and I could not scream from the sheer pain, even as I writhed and flailed on the floor against my will. I couldn't open my mouth, and it felt like my teeth were going to break on each other.

Even through the blinding pain and agony, I saw Noir's smug face looking at me. As much as I wanted to punch her, my spazzing body would not allow it.

At some point, Dr. Ocsid showed up and levitated me to his office. "This is quite fortunate," he remarked as he lay me down on a bed. "Not for you, obviously. I just got some no-maj holiday trinkets, and I want to see what happens when they have power!" He held up a plug with one hand and kept my head still with the other. "Oscar! We're going to see some lights!"

"Oooh!" The sound of Oscar scrambling out came from somewhere in the office.

"This may tickle a bit." That was all the warning I got before he put the plug in my nose. I immediately felt a draining sensation as festive lights and music came on. There was an explosion a minute later, sending me flying from the bed and ripping the plug out.

"What-" I took some deep breaths and rubbed my nose, now back in control of my body. "What was that?"

"Hmmm. . . Oscar, go help Weiss back onto the bed."

"Yes, Doctor." The house elf came over and helped me to a sitting position on the bed. "There."

I looked over to where the display was and saw a flaming wreck of wires, lights, and bits of various sculptures. "What the. . ."

"Question for you," Dr. Ocsid said as he came over with a box, totally ignoring the fire. "This says it takes C4, right?"

I looked at the box and used my amazing no-maj packaging interpretation skills. "It takes four c cell batteries. C4 is an explosive."

"Ohhhhhhh. . . Oops." He looked at the burning display for a moment before turning back to me. "How are you feeling?"

"I - ow." I massaged part of my lower jaw just before my arm twitched for a second and smacked me. There was pain. "Ahhhhhhh. . ."

He stuck his wand in my mouth. "Brackium Emendo!" The pain quickly went away and he took the wand out. "Better?"

I gently felt my mouth and felt no pain. "What was that?"

"If you think about it, teeth are just naturally exposed bone, so a bone mending spell works just fine on them."

Something splashed against my left side and everything went into slow motion. I couldn't even move close to normal speed. I slowly turned my head to the side, which felt like it took the better part of a minute, just to see and hear Noir laughing at me in slow motion.

With all the speed I could muster, I reached for my robes. It was still far less than even half of normal speed, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I heard footsteps approaching me and I slowly turned to look in the direction of whoever it was. All I got was a glimpse of an increasingly familiar set of robes. "II'llll bbee ttaakkiinngg WWeeiissss, PPrrooffeessssoorr OOvveerrttuurree," I slowly heard him say.

"IIff yyoouu mmuusstt," Professor Overture said.

"TThhaannkk yyoouu, PPrrooffeessssoorr." Dr. Ocsid gathered my items and slung me over his shoulder.

It felt like an eternity of being carried through the hall before Dr. Ocsid dropped me into a chair. "HHmmmm. . . SSlloowwnneessss. AAhh! OOssccaarr! GGeett tthhee rruunniinngg wwhheeeell!"

"YYeess, DDooccttoorr!" Oscar replied. In what felt like about two minutes, but was actually just twelve seconds according to a clock I saw on the wall, the house elf came back with a giant hamster wheel. "OOnnee rruunniinngg wwhheeeell."

"EExxcceelllleenntt!" Dr. Ocsid rubbed his hands together before moving me to stand in the wheel. "NNooww, rruunn! RRuunn rruunn rruunn! OOrr aatt lleeaasstt ssttaarrtt wwiitthh aa wwaallkk."

I slowly took a step forward, and the giant hamster wheel moved under me. As quickly as I could, I adjusted my balance and kept moving. I didn't know what the doctor was thinking, but as I was in no position to do anything, and since his treatments worked for me before, I didn't stop moving.

Eventually, the wheel seemed to speed up, and I pumped my legs harder to keep pace with it, causing it to go faster. With nothing else to do, I kept at it. After what felt like half an hour, but may have only been five minutes, the slowness was gone, and I was breathing like I was running on one of the treadmills in the clubroom. "Can I stop now?"

"I don't know," Dr. Ocsid snarkily said, back at normal speed. "Can you?"

I thought about my situation and how hamsters got on and off their wheels. I quickly concluded that it wasn't a good comparison, based on the differences between hamsters and humans, namely size and stature. While I thought about it some more, I kept running.

After about ten minutes of running, I remembered something: I was Weiss Schnee. A glance upwards revealed plenty of headroom, so I jumped. At the height of my jump, I put a glyph under me and neatly landed on it. The wheel kept spinning while I stood still, which was slightly disorienting, so I turned to the open side of the wheel, stepped out, dispelled the glyph, and found the doctor. "That was actually kind of fun," I said as I briefly caught my breath. "What kind of potion did Noir splash on me this time?"

"It's called a slowdown potion, though some wizards and witches call it a heavy acceleration potion," Dr. Ocsid explained. "Some places use it as a way to enhance torture and interrogation procedures. Imagine the agony of a lash on your back in slow motion."

I winced at the description. "Ouch." The clock caught my attention. "I'd better get to lunch."

"Don't be a stranger!"

Something splashed against my left side and my arm went limp. "What's this one?" I could only flop my arm back and forth with my shoulder, and even that was difficult. "Come on, move!"

"Where's that strength of yours now, Snowflake?" Noir teased.

I shot her a glare before grabbing my robes off the hook with my good arm and turning to leave. Or I would have, if Noir wasn't holding me back by my limp arm. "Let go!"

"Hmm, nah."

I gave a frustrated sigh. "Fine!" I put all my strength into walking against Noir's pulling. Somehow, she held firm, or so I thought. When she stepped in front of me, I looked back and saw my limp hand resting on the counter. I tried pulling, but it was firmly stuck in place. "How?"

"Epoximise," Noir teased with a wave of her wand. "It's a very useful charm, and so much fun~"

I briefly wondered if I could cut the countertop with a glyph, but I dismissed it. The glyphs were flat, which wouldn't get the shape of cut I wanted, and I still wanted to keep that ability hidden from Noir.

Professor Overture stepped in. "Finite Incantatem!" With that, my hand was free. "Go on to the doctor's office, Weiss."

"Thank you," I said as I left with all due haste.

I arrived at the office and saw Dr. Ocsid relaxing with his feet up on his desk. "Here again, Miss Schnee?"

"My left arm is dead weight."

"Hm. Ahhh!" His chair tipped backwards with a crashing sound.

"Doctor?" I leaned over his desk, but didn't see him.

"Hmm. . ." He was suddenly on my left, inspecting my arm. "Do you feel anything when I shake your hand?"

I watched him shake my limp left hand and arm, and I didn't feel anything. "No."

"Totally numb?"

"Yes, my arm is numb."

"A numb arm. Ah! I know just what will get some feeling back in it!" I followed him over to a cabinet full of medicine and watched him go through its contents. "Let's see. . . Where is. . . Alright, there's that, and that, and this, and this, and a bit of that. Perfect!" He turned around and was holding a syringe full of some weird multicolored glowing stuff.

I took a step back. "What is that?"

"Happiness, sorrow, anger, disgust, and fear. Now hold still." He dashed towards me, grabbed my limp arm, and injected the stuff. "Now your arm should have some feeling in it."

I stood there for a minute while a whole lot of nothing happened. Then there was an explosion of pain in my left arm, as it somehow felt the emotions that had been injected into it. The pain and my agonized screaming lasted for a few long seconds, and then it disappeared as quickly as it came.

As I gasped for breath, I ran my hands over my face. My eyes and cheeks were wet from tears, and I wiped them away. "That was. . . That hurt."

"Well, it was either that, or having twelve hours of a useless arm. Now, I don't know about you, and you are entitled to your own opinions, but I think having two working arms is better than one working and one floppy."

"Yeah, it is. Can I just. . . Sit down for a few minutes?"

"As long as it's not my chair." I followed his gaze as he looked over to his righted chair. "Oscar! That's my chair!"

"Dr. Oscar is in!" Oscar happily cheered from his spot on Dr. Ocsid's chair. In spite of the phantom pains in my arm, I couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the scene.

Something splashed against my left side and I started feeling heavier. I looked over and saw crystals growing off my skin and through my clothes. Before Noir could stop me, I grabbed my things and simply walked out of the classroom.

As I went through the halls, walking became more difficult. The crystals did not stop growing, and I was eventually limping from the weight. It wasn't long before the crystals on my leg joined together and stiffened, forcing me to drag my rigid leg along the floor, creating a terrible scraping sound with each hobbled step.

"Incoming!" Even with the warning, I couldn't get out of the way of what was barrelling towards me: Dr. Ocsid running with a tilted steel gurney. He ran into me and I fell onto it. He didn't stop running until he ran into something, and I flew into something else.

"What now?" I asked, dazed by the landing.

"Oscar, get the gem evaluation kit! We're going to be rich, I tell you! Rich!" He closed a hatch on whatever I was in and it started turning like a dryer in slow motion.

I fell. "Ow!" I fell. "Ah!" I fell. "Oof!" I fell. "Aye!" I kept falling. Soon enough though, the crystals started breaking and the drum started getting faster. My world became spinning pain and noise.

Eventually, the spinning stopped and I was dumped out, along with a whole bunch of, somehow, perfectly cut gemstones. Dr. Ocsid began casting all kinds of healing and mending spells on me and my clothes while Oscar started inspecting the bed of gems I was on. I was content to just lay there in a daze.

After inspecting a few of the gems, Oscar gave his report. "These gems are worthless."

"NOOOOOOOO!" After a few sniffles, Dr. Ocsid recomposed himself. "Well, there's always next time. Weiss?"

"Huh?" I blearily asked.

"I hereby declare you the owner of the bed of gems that you now rest on."

"O-okay," I shakily muttered out, too tired from the treatment to get up.

I was cleaning my potion supplies and minding my own business when who else but Noir snuck up behind me with a chokehold and put a tumbler with a foul smelling potion in it to my lips. "Drink," she softly said.

A bit of the potion got past my lips and it tasted like hot chocolate. The sweet flavor made me act against my instincts, and it wasn't long before the whole potion was down my throat. Shortly after the tumbler was empty, Noir released me, and I coughed a little bit as I recovered. "What was that?" I felt something happen in me that was not the usual pre-lunch hunger feeling. "Oh no. . ."

"You may leave, Weiss," Professor Overture dismissively said as I quickly gathered up my supplies into my chest.

"Thankyou!" I left with all the haste and control I could and made my way to the nearest restroom. As I sat on one of the porcelain thrones and let everything out, I gave Jennifer a quiet thanks for what she'd taught me before quietly cursing her for what she'd done to me.

While I was fuming there, the potion continued its work. It was mostly gas and gut pains tormenting me, and each time I thought it was over, it would start up again.

Something metal fell on my head and landed perfectly in my hand. It looked like a phone made of soup cans, and it had a string that ran up to the ceiling. I briefly forgot about my potion induced gut problems and tentatively held the phone to my head. "Hello?"

"Is this Weiss?" A recognizable voice asked.

"Yes, doctor. I'm-"

"Stuck in the restroom with a troubling trouble troubling you?"

"Yes, that. Noir got a potion in me."

"Professor Overture's patronus told me about it. Fortunately, I know a thing or two about that potion, and how to treat it."

"Tellmetellmetellmetellme. Please!" A loud fart escaped me.

Some snickering came from the other end of the phone. "Oscar! It's rude to laugh at a lady's gas like that!" The snickering laughter was replaced with howling laughter from the house elf. "That's better. Now, Miss Schnee, I have a treatment plan for you."

I took a breath to calm myself and prepared for the worst. "Go on."

"You will spend time away from everyone else and relax for the day. Stress and anger simply prolongs this particular potion's effects. I'm writing up a note to excuse you for the rest of your classes today."

I waited for something unusual. "That's it?"

"Were you expecting me to extract it with a golden syringe sword?"

"I thought it would be something weird."

"Not this time. I could figure out something weird, if you want."

I quickly backpedaled on the offer. "No, no, that's fine. I'll. . . I'll figure something out."

"Excellent! I'll make sure to get some food delivered."

Before I could thank him, I felt something fall on my head. I picked it up and saw the string attached to the soup can phone. The line had been cut. "What am I going to do with this?" My contemplation of the soup can phone was cut short by a bit of abdominal pain. "Right. I'll figure it out later."

Once I felt it was safe to do so, I finished up in the restroom and went to the no-maj fitness clubroom. As I had hoped, I was the only one there. After writing a message out and putting it on my desk for anyone walking by to see, I quickly went to the changing room, changed to my preferred modified swimsuit, and exited to the pool. When I got there, I warded the doors and made the glass solid black. Content that I had all the privacy I wanted, I opened Barb's tube and let her out to fly around while I practiced swimming. I was confident enough that I wasn't worried about drowning.

Eventually, an owl delivered lunch to the poolside: bean and pork burritos with cheesy corn tortilla chips. I facepalmed and decided it would be better to skip lunch. Barb seemed happy with it, though.

Something splashed onto my hair and I instinctively looked to my left, only to see Noir put down an empty tumbler. "What did you do this time?" I asked.

"Something you did to me," Noir said. "Remember when you made my hair glow bright red?"

"You chose to drink that potion," I pointed out. "You never even asked what I made."

She continued as if I hadn't pointed out the obvious truth. "Well, now it's time for your hair to glow like the sun!"

I shot my hand up. "Professor-"

"Yes, Weiss, you may leave," Professor Overture said. "Before you blind us, please."

"Thank you." I quickly grabbed my things and left the classroom, following the more and more familiar route to the doctor's office. The sounds of an intense thunderstorm filled the empty hallways, as they had for a few days.

I was about to just walk into the doctor's office when I decided to stop and look around. The hallway seemed to be bathed in bright sunlight everywhere I looked. I carefully brought my ponytail around and flinched away almost immediately, spots filling my vision. Instead of going in, I knocked on the door. "Doctor?"

"You can come in, Weiss," Dr. Ocsid said. "Unless you're the source of the light coming through the door."

"That's my hair."

"Go fly around in the rain. That storm's killing all the sunlight today." A crack of thunder punctuated his statement.

"That. . . That sounds dangerous."

"Hmm, you're right. Go to the greenhouses! I'm sure at least one of the plants there would just love to drink up that light!"

"Alright." I found the nearest balcony, got my broom out, and looked around for the greenhouses. Through the heavy rain, I saw the faint lights of my destination, and I took off through the downpour, using a glyph as a windshield.

I landed in front of the blue trimmed greenhouse, but I couldn't get in. Professor Rose, looking rather tired, was standing in the doorway. "Sunlight. . ." She wearily said before pulling me into a hug. "Sunlight!" As she held me, she seemed to get more energized.

"Professor?" I warily asked.

"Shush." She adjusted her grip from a hug to a headlock, smothering my face into her oak scented chest. "Breathe."

I got my hands up on her shoulders and tried pushing myself out of her embrace, but it was like trying to push over a solid tree. Whatever it was that had made her part plant seemed to have made her incredibly tough too.

After a few minutes of struggling, she released me. "Thank you, Weiss."

I took a moment to catch my breath. "What just happened?"

"It's been raining for so long, and I needed that shot of sunlight. Why was your hair glowing, though?"

"Noir splashed a potion on my hair. Is it still glowing?"

"No, the glow is gone. It must have been a short duration potion."

"Maybe. I'm heading back to the castle." I put a glyph over me and I had an umbrella for my trek back to the castle. Along the way, I tried to puzzle out just how what I went through in a few minutes undid the potion effects before giving up.

Something splashed onto my hair. I quickly poured my incomplete potion down the sink and stepped away from the counter to wait for whatever effect might happen.

I didn't notice anything until something white started creeping down into my sight. I brushed it aside, only for it to come back longer. "Great. A hair growing potion."

"Professor, may I help Weiss?" Laura asked.

"Me too!" Phoebe added.

"Same here," Jack said.

"I suppose so," Professor Overture reluctantly and tiredly answered. "You four may leave."

My hair was quickly at the point where I was blinded while it was down. I parted it just enough to see Laura reach out for my arm, and I let her have it. After someone picked up the growing mass that was my hair, she started walking, and I followed her lead.

"Weiss. . ." Laura started. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" I asked before spitting out some strands of hair.

"I wanted to volunteer to break up my group so you wouldn't be with Noir, but I didn't want to possibly become her target."

"She wouldn't do anything to-"

"Noir might hurt her to get to you," Jack said from behind me. "Same for Phoebe and me."

"And you have your aura, so you're tougher," Phoebe added. "We don't have aura."

"Ah." I decided to drop the conversation and just followed Laura's guidance. Eventually, we stopped. "What's going on?"

"The doctor's office is closed," Laura said. "It doesn't say when he'll be back either."

"I'll get the salon ready," Jack said. I heard his chest hit the floor and the sound of him walking down the stairs into it.

"So. . ." Phoebe started from behind me. "How are you-"

"I want to beat Noir to a pulp," I growled out before spitting out some hair again. "Never mind everything else, I'd be happy with just that and a haircut right now. Order doesn't matter."

"I can understand that."

A moment later, Jack called up. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, come down with your hair!"

"Shut up, Jack." I carefully went down the stairs and into Jack's chest with Laura's guidance.

As soon as I sat down, I heard a 'fwumpf' of something hitting the ground. "That was heavy!" Phoebe exclaimed. "Wingardium Leviosa." I had no idea what she levitated around. "You've got some soft hair, Weiss."

"Soft. . . Did you just make a pillow out of my hair?"

"More of a bean bag chair. And it's still growing. Laura, do you want to make the cut?"

"I'm not good enough with Diffindo to do that," Laura sheepishly admitted. "I don't want to hurt Weiss."

"I've got scissors," Jack said before making some snipping sounds with them. In short order, I felt them cutting my hair, and I was able to see myself in the mirror.

My eyes widened in surprise when I saw just how long my hair had gotten. I looked back and saw Phoebe laying down on a big mound of the stuff. "How long is it?"

"Long enough to make a mound like this," Phoebe said as Jack continued cutting. "Hey, is there anything we can do with all this hair, Laura?"

Laura thought about it for a moment. "Well. . . Each of us could save a few shortened strands for some polyjuice potion later on."

"What about something like wards that only Weiss could pass through? Or wand cores?"

"Those are ridiculous ideas."

"It's still-oh, it stopped growing," Jack reported.

I looked back in the mirror and saw that my hair was at the length it was in RWBY. "You know what, this is fine," I said, relieved that only one cut needed to be made. "The world seems to want it at that length, anyways."

"Would you like me to wash and tidy it up? We've got time and an excuse if we're late to lunch."

I considered his offer for a moment. "Do you have the morning frost shampoo?"

"Accio morning frost shampoo!" The bottle was quickly in his hand. "If anyone asks, the potion wore out on its own, and then we washed your hair just to be on the safe side."

"It is what Professor Overture taught us," Laura helpfully added. "And it's actually true."

As Jack worked on my hair, which was a very relaxing experience for me, Laura and Phoebe got a single strand of the cut hair and measured it. My hair had grown a hundred feet in just over ten minutes.

I sat down for lunch and let Barb out to take her rightful place on my head. I kept my breathing level and my cold gaze forward, yet aimless, even as a fight started overhead, screeches, growls, and honks drawing attention from everyone in the dining hall.

"Uh, Weiss?" Lily cautiously asked.

"I avoided drinking a goose voice potion from Noir and it got on my ponytail," I flatly answered. "It has a mind of its own and it has done nothing but cause trouble. Grabbing wands, biting ears and noses, randomly honking at people, and that was just on the way here. I don't know what to do."

"Did you check with Dr. Ocsid?"

"I did not like the big pipe wrench and drum of hollandaise sauce he had with him, so I left."

"Why are you soaking wet, though?"

"When I left his office, I landed in my club's pool. Shallow end, thankfully. I stood up, got out, and made my way here."

"Isn't your potions class right before lunch? How did all that happen?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out, and I was there for every second of it." The food appeared and I started on lunch. I ate very mechanically while I held a plate up for Barb. Almost immediately, Barb shifted around and started growling again. "Lily, what's going on up there?"

"Your goose took my knife and is pointing it at Barb." She suddenly started snickering.

I lowered Barb's plate. "What's so funny?"

"You see that?" She pointed to the meat on the table. "It's boiled goose."

The fight overhead stopped and the goose on my head leaned forward. As quickly as I could, I popped a piece of the meat in my mouth. The goose got my lips in its beak in a vain attempt to stop me. While it was holding me, I grabbed it just under its head and got it to let go. I slowly and methodically chewed on the meat while the goose tried to squirm away, to no avail. Once I swallowed the meat, the goose made a weird sound like a dying honk and a deflating balloon, and it turned back into my normal hair.

"Well, that was incredibly lucky," I remarked as I let go of my ponytail and went back to lunch as usual, both for myself and Barb.

I closed the journal and let my hand clench around its spine, slightly deforming it in the process. Off to the side, I saw a piece of parchment with my grades, and they were lower than what I wanted them to be. They weren't bad, but still not what I wanted. My potions grade, especially, was in bad shape. "Why do I even care about this?" I asked myself. "Maybe there's just nothing else to do."

I let Barb out of her tube and she stood on the desk as I started petting her. "What can I do, Barb?" She, naturally, gave no response to the question. "I can't just leave and I can't retaliate without consequences. I need a miracle. And a cream soda."