A/N: Heeeey! thanks again to Sinattea for her amazing review on the fourth chapter and thanks for all of you who are loving, reading and following this fic, it means a lot :) The action is coming, you just sit tight ;P


No rest for the wizard

"So everybody remember what they have to do?" Raven asks the troops sitting in front her.

"Each of you has a plan. Each of you will communicate to the others. If one's attempt fails, their successor has to move on to their plan and so on until Goober Boy and Disturbing Teeth are getting it on very much away from the inside of my head, okay?" This time, a fierce blond Ravenclaw addresses the troops.

Emma had had her share of headaches and unwanted empathy for months now. The faster Erik and Charles were banging each other, the faster Emma's mind will go back to its regular Charles-free state.

All seated in the Room of Requirement Raven had conjured up, (a safe place to keep Charles and Erik out while they plotted their demise) the troops, consisting of Charles and Erik's varied assortment of friends, all reviewed their plans and started making necessary preparations.

Sean would go first with idle suggestion, asking Erik questions, implying how much of a good person Charles is, etc. Next on would be Alex, charged with making Charles and Erik meet "accidently" at every possible occasion, magic used in scarce non-conspicuous instances since Alex is not really all that bright and the Slytherin prodigy that is Erik is very much able. If that fails, in comes Darwin. He is supposed to brew small courage philters and introduce them into the targeted boys' food so they finally confess to one another.

If that fails, Moira takes over. Moira and Erik bonded over their blood status and the fact that both of them have been chosen as prefects for their respective houses, it wouldn't be hard for her to convince him and Charles to meet with her outside curfew hours (when it gets to a certain point, Moira is supposed to announce that she's "really tired" and "ought to go back to the Hufflepuff basement. Erik, you make sure Charles gets to his room safely when you go back, won't you?"). She's also a really good occlumens so Charles wouldn't be able to read her thoughts, not that he would but still.

Now the big guns would be Emma. She's the final solution, the plan Z, if all else fails. Her method is somewhat unorthodox though. She plans to merge Erik and Charles' minds, allowing them to see each other's thoughts about the other. In other words, or Emma's words, it's a mind love sharing fest. It was that or torture.

―X―

At morning, in the Great Hall, there were falling and twirling leaves in the bright October sky depicted by the enchanted ceiling. The four long tables were lined with pumpkin pies and corn bread as well as festive decorations betraying the approach of wizards' most favored holiday, Halloween. Young Erik Lehnsherr, fifth year Slytherin at Hogwarts, was sitting at his house table alone, revising notes for a Potions exam he was to take this afternoon. He had barely been able to memorise anything; every time he thought about Potions class, he thought about the messy haired Ravenclaw that took seat beside him. His cheeks would slowly flame as his lids would lower and his gaze would haze, mouth slightly open, mind fresh with the memory of one recent dream or thirty. He would bask in the lust and heat of his own thoughts until a red-headed lump of freckles bashed into his daze.

The mellow-tempered character that was Sean, a fifth year Hufflepuff at Hogwarts, had just crushed the bubble of delicate lewdness and carnal affection Erik had built for himself without realising. Sean would later learn that his interruption was counter-productive to the task he had been given. He'd been given a day after which Alex would take his place, also given a day and so on until the Daft Duo had finally hooked up.

And so began the ominous aura that would follow Erik for the whole week.

It seemed harmless at first, Sean posing observations on how much cheerier Erik had been for the last few weeks. Erik started to doubt Sean's intention when the red-head mentioned blue eyed Ravenclaws. For being about as subtle as a brick, Sean had not been discovered by Erik. He'd been suspicious, and the Slytherin was wary, but he had not been discovered.

Staying until he had an excuse to leave, Sean implemented, suggested, but nothing took except for the increasing pressure behind his back at Erik's cold glare. At the end of the day, he had failed his ultimate mission. All the implications he could have planted before he was coerced into his common room had resulted in some motivation but no action.

They still had time, he told himself. They had known all along that it would need more than a ginger lacking discretion to bring the two students together. But they still had time.

Objective was set before Halloween.

Emma had decided that in all her strength, she would not be able to tolerate a single Charles at Halloween. Why? Well, Emma was a bright girl. She had known Charles long enough to know that he was not always a happy drunk. In periods of longing such as this one, he became a whiny drunk.

Knowing full well there would be alcohol to knock out all the unicorns in the Forbidden Forest, she was intent on having a happy, non-pining Charles if he was to be around that much l liquor.

Her computing mind and evil genius would ensure the two idiots' union; much like Charles himself would do if he was put in the same position, for entirely different reasons of course.

As cold as she might have seemed, Emma was one to actually care about the people she loved. Charles had been one of the few to crack her frosty armour and nestle into her heart. She was doing this out of annoyance, of course, which is totally not pretence by the way, but she was mostly doing it out of love. And partly pity because Charles was a nasty whiny drunk. The only thing she could use as her advantage, if ever the failure probability margin of 0.0000000001% had doomed them to an unsuccessful matchmaking before Halloween, is that whiny or happy, Charles was a slutty drunk.

With the sun far gone and the moon up high, Alex steeled himself for tomorrow's big mission.