TriNymphs - Chapter Twenty-Two - Ever Again (Disclaimer on my homepage)(And thus the consecutive updating ends, this is my favorite chapter though...)

Alex had promised herself that she would not talk to Chelsea ever again after she ruined her chance to find something to do. 'Something to do,' here meaning, 'go after the troll and possibly be killed'. And after she told her sister 'screw you' in response to some comment she made about checking if someone could hear them before saying something that could get them expelled; she fully intended to keep that promise.

And she did. Until first thing the next morning. That night they had both been brought back into the clearing that Lyssa had visited so often in her dreams the previous year. The triplets were the reincarnates of the Pleiades, a group of seven sisters who were nymphs. Atlas was a Grecian Goddess and the mother of the Pleiades, when she needed to talk to the sisters she would meet them in the clearing in their dreams.

Or, it that wasn't an option, she would appear as a floating head made out of light. She had used the clearing option that particular time; all three would have to be asleep for what she was going to do.

The last one to arrive was Chelsea, as usual. The Slytherin-Gryffindor Quidditch match was coming up so there were extra practices for the Slytherin team. Flint was actually starting to make them work hard; Gryffindor was the only team that he saw as competition. She collapsed on her bed, and immediately saw the clearing.

"You're late," Atlas said, irritation evident in her voice.

"Well blame Flint, he made us practice late. Besides you didn't set a time!"

"Why the hell are we here anyways? I want to go to sleep." Alex whined.

"From this point on I am going to be training you. Usually I can find another Nymph to do it, but they've had to keep hidden more these past few years," she added bitterly. "Damnable prejudiced wizards."

"Could I take a rain check the next few days? I'm exhausted; we're going to be practicing almost constantly."

Atlas scowled, "Fine." and Chelsea disappeared from sight.

"How did she do that?!" Alex exclaimed.

"She didn't do it; the only way you can get out of here is if you wake up, or if I let you."

The next few hours were spent practicing. Lyssa was gone in the first half hour, after being attacked over and over again. Atlas eventually accepted that she could not get Lyssa's powers to kick in as of yet. So she let her go, and Lyssa slipped into a dream which thankfully had nothing to do with the damnable clearing.

Meanwhile Alex, the last of the sisters left with Atlas, was being taught how to make pre-existing plants grow bigger. Atlas was much more patient with her, and seemed to favour the most caustic of the sisters. After a few hours she had made some progress. The plant would grow, but it took a while.

She was sent back to her own dreams at two in the morning so she could get some rest. After she talked it over with Chelsea when they both woke she vowed never to talk to her again, ever. She went to down to breakfast, then grabbed some toast and signalled for Lyssa to meet her outside. They spent the time talking about the new training they would have to undergo. After that topic had been exhausted, Alex brought up the troll. As she was no longer willing to talk to Chelsea, she needed to find someone else to investigate with.

She decided she would ask Lyssa once, and then if she refused she would go it alone. Lyssa did refuse, Alex didn't bring the topic up again and the two went to class.

At the end of an uneventful day of classes, Alex's promise to herself (not to talk to Chelsea) was still unbroken.

Until an hour later when Draco, their little brother, walked up to her and asked about something he had heard her say on Halloween. Something about portals, and having gone into the forbidden forest. They had promised to explain later to avoid a nearby Prefect overhearing them then telling a teacher on them for going in the forest.

Draco knew nothing of what had happened last year except that each of his sisters had disappeared for a time, and reappeared at Hogwarts. So naturally he was curious about what had happened and why they had gone into the forest, if not for detention. He expected some great adventure story, and approached Alex as soon as he remembered that she and Chelsea were supposed to tell him about that. Alex told him to wait there so she could get Chelsea. Alex didn't know what she could say without giving anything else away.

Chelsea was at Quidditch practice. They were in the middle of a practice that ran from the end of classes until it was curfew and they had to go inside. Alex had waved her down from fifty feet in the air, where she had been circling. She flew over to Alex, catching the snitch on her way down. She was not about to leave practice, Flint would kill her. He made her work the hardest as she was the only girl on the team.

When Flint saw the sisters talking he yelled, "Get back to work Black," over to Chelsea. The triplets went by their mothers' maiden name. They always had; when they were little Alex had asked why they still went by Black if neither of their parents did. Mr Malfoy said it was because they hadn't been married when the girls were born.

Now that Chelsea knew he wasn't their real father she figured it was just because he didn't want it to appear that he was connected to them in anyway. This would have been much easier accomplished if Narcissa wasn't so fond of family shopping trips and outings.

Chelsea kicked off the ground, leaving her sister behind after refusing to ditch practice. She let the snitch go and waited for it to fly out of sight before continuing her practice. This was not good for Alex, who had no idea what to tell her adoptive brother to explain what he had overheard her saying; without giving anything else away, that is.

Alex reinstated her personal promise not to talk to Chelsea ever again, and this time she would make it work God damn it! Now that all foreseeable emergencies had been addressed there was no reason for her to talk to her anyways.

Alex went to find something else to do; she couldn't explain everything to her brother alone after all. He would figure out she wasn't coming back eventually. Probably. She decided that this was a wonderful opportunity to go investigate the troll. No one was going to help her anyway, so she figured she might as well start then.

She had somewhat perused the dungeons already and found nothing. So she sat by the lake and used the time for brain storming. She had no leads and no ideas.

So eventually she gave up on that, and decided to go see what was in the third floor corridor that she wasn't allowed to see.