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Iko

Iko watched glumly as the shimmering, colourful bubbles blew out of her wand-tip in a steady stream, rising up into the crystal blue sky in a pretty rainbow. Under normal circumstances, she'd be squealing with delight and jumping up to pop the bubbles, giggling as they exploded into colourful sparks. But for once she wasn't in the mood. She wanted to be in the mood. Merlin's beard, the main reason she was practicing this stupid spell was to get herself in the mood. But, for some reason, her tried and true method of raising her own spirits wasn't working when she really needed it to.

She groaned and rested her wand on the grass beside her, ending the spell. Honestly, what did she expect? That a pretty charm would honestly be enough to lift the fog of gloom and guilt that had been laying heavy on her mind since last night? She told herself that she was being ridiculous. For Merlin's sake she hadn't even been the one who killed Aimery! That was all on the werewolves. She hadn't come up with the plan either, she could thank Jacin for that. She wasn't even anywhere near him when he died! And come on, if anyone deserved death-by-savage-werewolf-pack, it was Aimery Park. So why did she still feel guilty?

"Practicing your Charms now?"

Iko groaned at the familiar snarky voice as Kinney made his way towards her.

"Should I be concerned that the famously irresponsible Iko Violets suddenly has an interest in doing well at school?" he asked sarcastically.

Normally, Iko would retort with a snappy comeback and they'd go back and forth in a ping-pong game of insults for the next hour. But, as has already been established, Iko wasn't feeling up to her normal antics.

"Just leave me alone Kinney." She sighed, standing and walking down towards the lake.

Kinney jogged up beside her, his eyes narrowed with… worry? The thought almost made Iko laugh. "Uh, I was kidding before but now I'm seriously asking if you're alright."
"Of course I'm alright. Feel free to leave now."
"Well, you're acting very strange for an alright person."
"I just don't have the energy to deal with you right now."
"If anything, that's more proof that you're not okay."
Iko glared at him. "Why do you care? You hate me, remember?"
"Despise is more like it." Kinney corrected.

"Whatever, you don't like me. Why worry so much about my wellbeing?"

"I'm not worried, I'm just curious as to what could make you act so quiet and gloomy." Kinney said, "That way I can recreate that situation, and we'll finally have some peace and quiet around here."
Iko raised an eyebrow at him. "I think you need to work on your persuasion skills because no-way am I telling you why I'm down now."

"So you finally admit that you're feeling down!"

"But still not going to give you the reason."

"Does it have something to do with why the teachers have sent some of the students to find you?" Kinney guessed.

Iko stopped in her tracks and stared at him, a slight tingle going over her eyes as they changed colour (because apparently her eyeballs didn't get the message that they are supposed to stay one colour). "What?"

"One of the teachers pulled a couple of students aside and asked them to look for you. Gave a description and everything." Kinney told her, "I didn't recognise the kids themselves though. They were just some of Jael's charity cases."

It took every ounce of acting skill Iko had to keep her face blank with confusion. And that's saying something, because she had a lot of skills with acting. Jael's charity cases were just the school's way of bringing in werewolves, and if a teacher was asking those students specifically to look for her, that meant it probably wasn't because of the enchanted spit balls she sent after Professor Gertman last week. But there's no way she could tell Kinney that. The guy was in serious competition with Kai for "World's Biggest Teacher's Pet". If he found out that Iko had been helping with a plan to wrest control from the headmistress, he'd almost certainly report her and her friends, and that wouldn't do any good for her current situation.

"Hey, I just remembered, I left my Charms book in my dorm room." Iko said with a grin she hoped didn't look too wide and fake, "Better go grab it."

Kinney raised an eyebrow. "You've never cared about forgetting your textbooks before. If anything you forget them on purpose."

"Well, you know, we've got N.E. coming up and all that stuff. I mean, we're already in the winter holidays! Not too far now 'till we reach those exams. I gotta be at the top of my game or my mom's going to kill me."

"The exams aren't for months yet Iko." Kinney told her, but she was already running across the grass and to the castle.

Once she was sure he couldn't see her anymore, she darted into the shadows of one of the archways. She quickly scanned her surroundings, checking for any onlookers, student or teacher. And found none. Not that she was surprised, after Wolf's rampage not many students ever left the comforts of their rooms. Still, it pays to be sure. Now, she won't have to worry about people seeing her when she used her, ah, gift.

Her skin tingled as a ripple grew across it, leaving a much paler colour in its wake. She fingered one of her blue braids and watched as the strands of hair unravelled and a honey-blonde tint spread across them. She added a slight curl, just to be safe, and shortened it to shoulder length. Next, she had to alter her build, trading in her curvy, robust figure for something more graceful and petite. A few small adjustments to her face and voila! Iko had disappeared. All that was left was an unassuming (yet pretty) girl standing in an archway. Well, except for her outfit which was now completely the wrong size, but that would more likely work in her favour than against it, since everybody knew Iko wouldn't be caught dead looking anything less than perfection.

"Right." She said, her voice much higher than she was used to, "Now let's find out why the school's looking for me."

A/N: Iko to the rescue! She's going to be a bit of a star for the next few chapters, because Iko is awesome and hasn't received enough spotlight in this story.

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