Weekends really were a lovely time. Everyone and everything was more relaxed, or at least everyone and everything that mattered was. This certainly applied to Rose Black, who had traded the stuffy school uniform in on this fine Saturday afternoon for a pair of skin tight jeans, red platform shoes, and a sparkly red top that hugged her tight and let just enough skin show that it was easy to imagine the rest.

Now she just needed someone to do the imagining. She was outside, because it would be less likely that a professor would see her like this and put her in detention or somewhere worse for being too provocative. It was likely one of the last truly nice days before the deluge of autumn rain set in, which would be followed thereafter by winter snows, and then spring rain. They might not actually see the sun again like this until April or March. The beautiful weather meant there was no shortage of budding wizards and witches for Rose to practice her charms on. She just needed to decide what seemed like the most fun today.

And what seemed the most fun, in the redhead beauty’s mind, was taking someone innocent and making them scream her name. Or any name they wanted to scream, really. It was more the idea of teaching someone how good it felt to have a tongue wrapped around your naughtiest places that made her excited.

The gods were apparently on her side, because there seemed to be just such a person lying in the sun near the edge of the lake, doing homework or practicing quidditch strategies, or some other useless and bookish thing like that. She tossed a towel onto the ground next to the person, purring down at them from above. “Mind if perfection joins your little piece of grass?”

Skyler had been struggling to somehow contain her ever growing mountain of homework that was steadily growing out of control. It might have helped if she had paid even a second of attention in classes lately. But no. Her lack of sleep was starting to take it's toll on her, and it was all she could do to actually stay awake during classes, much less pay attention to what was going on in them.

This was probably not the best thing, all things considered, but the teen didn't exactly feel especially like sleeping when surrounded by snakes. And sleeping with Draco wasn't exactly an option, so..yea. At any rate, her normally steady pace at keeping up with her school work and in classes had started to suffer. So she was attempting to actually accomplish something by trying to force her brain to focus.

The brunette has started in the Slytherin common room. Where she lasted about ten minutes before the most that was getting accomplished by the Slytherin was her ability to not hex Parkinson into the next year as she laughed loudly and annoyingly with that smug look on her face. She comforted herself with the fact that she would be getting the last laugh with that one and moved on to the library, which wasn't much better with Granger giving her the glare of death. The student commons had been full of a a group of witches who apparently formed some kind of fan club revolving around her Gryffindor boyfriend, and she didn't stay longer than it took to realize that.

Sky had no clue what to even think about that last one, and finally decided to take to the outdoors. Maybe the fresh air would do her some good. At the very least, she might not feel so inclined to go back and use her wand on each and every witch in that room fawning over the very thought of Harry. She tried to tell her brain that wouldn't help her get any work done. To which it responded that she could always practice the new spell she was learning in Defense.

By this time, the Slytherin Prefect was already out on the grounds, and there was no way she was turning back now. Sighing in a frustrated manner, Skyler chose a spot next to the lake. She had gone to throw her book bag down, but thought better of it at the last second. The last thing she needed was for her books to get covered in ink or something. With her luck, it was highly probable. Thankful that it was Saturday, which meant there was no need for a stupid skirt to be on her form, Sky sprawled out on the ground on her stomach, pulling out her Charms book and tried to read the same chapter for the fourth time.

After her fourth attempt where all she managed to do was read the same sentence over again and not comprehend what she was reading, the teen was beyond frustrated. She was so not going to get anything done this way. Glaring down at the thing as if it was all somehow the book's fault, she barely heard the sound of approaching footsteps. That only served to further annoy her, because it was especially important that she be aware of her surroundings at all times lately.

Skyler turned her glare up a notch when she was practically purred at by an older witch she knew by name and face, but had never spoken to. The brunette didn't bother containing her snort, even as she continued to glare with those purple eyes of hers. Looking the girl up and down, the teen didn't look very impressed, especially given what the other girl referred to herself as. "When perfection gets here, I'll let you know." She responded with ease and a tone of disinterest and distaste, rolling her eyes in dismissal to the older Slytherin, turning back to her book.

“My, my, my. If it isn’t the next reigning queen of the snakepit,” she smirked down at the girl, flopping down on the grass without an invitation. “Maybe bad eyes are sexually transmitted, and your scarred weirdo is ruining yours,” she purred. It probably wasn’t the best idea in the world to open with a cutting joke at the expense of the witch’s new boyfriend, but Rose was a natural born charmer, so she was banking on being able to say whatever she felt like and then talk her way out of it after. That had always worked for her in the past, after all.

She wiggled a bit, getting comfortable and giving the younger girl a good enough view in the process, if she wanted to look. Unfortunately, she seemed to have no desire to look at the older Slytherin for any reason. Part of Rose wanted to seize control of the girl, promise not to say a word to her hero boyfriend, and show her just how good being with another girl could be. Unfortunately, that would be entirely the wrong move with Skyler Riddle. Even if young Riddle were into witches and single, sleeping with her would be the wrong move. Rose pouted at the thought.

She got control of the emotions, and her lust, and spoke slowly and quietly, so that the dark haired girl would have to actually listen to catch what the redhead was saying. Such a technique generally ensured that the listener hung on every word and remembered the conversation long after it was over. “If I didn’t know better,” she began slowly, “I would say that a certain young witch is moving herself into position to gain some of the power that her ex-boyfriend is quickly losing in our fine house.”

She gave that statement a little bit of time to sink in before she moved on. “Now, I realize that it might look like LeBeau is the proper way to go about that. She has to badge, for one thing. But, a little secret, that badge means that the Professors, especially Dumbledore and Snape, like her. The snakes that matter rarely agree with those two about anything in regards to power.”

She paused again, giving time for Riddle to once again think about what she was saying before she went on. “There are some of us that are better liked, and better at influencing real people, not teachers. Just say the word, and we’ll talk.” With that the redhead fell silent for good for now, waiting on the younger girl to make a decision.

Skyler gritted her teeth when the older Slytherin took the initiative to plop down anyways, ignoring the obvious dismissal the brunette had given just moments before. Clearly her day wasn't done being bad, and the fact that the red head just ignored her grated on her already twisted nerves. Her almost mocking compliment and jabs at her boyfriend did nothing to soothe her mood either, and if looks could kill, the book she was glaring daggers would've died a hundred times over by then.

The teen did her best to try and calm her aggravation, and might have been ignoring the other girl for all anyone knew as she forced her face into a look of impassiveness. Meanwhile, behind the vibrant eyes, the wheels in her head were turning, her excellent hearing picking up every word. Concentrating on what Black was saying was the only thing keeping the teen from reaching over and pulling the older girl's revolting hair out by the roots, but it didn't make the impulse to do so go away by a long shot.

However, they did serve to amuse the fifth year. Greatly. And Skyler found herself wondering why Black was even a snake. Sure, the older girl might have made some valid points. Might have. But either she was dumb enough to think they negated the points she didn't mention, or was just dumb enough to not see them at all. In the end, the brunette was left with that the red head was just dumb, and that made her almost snort. In fact, she did snort, and rolled her eyes for good measure.

It was clear to anyone with a brain that the brunette was definitely on a mission to dominate the house of snakes, and it was going to happen regardless of who got in her way or who moved out of it. There was no question about who would end up at the top of the hierarchy there, and anyone who questioned it was simply foolish. Furthermore, the so called 'little secret' that Black decided to share wasn't so much a secret, and it was actually something Sky was banking on.

While the teen didn't trust LeBeau farther than she could throw the Head Girl, their recent arrangement suited the two snakes rather well, and since Sky virtually held the power in that relationship, the brunette didn't feel at risk at being stabbed in the back so much. It had also already occurred to her that the meaning of the badge meant that a certain amount of faith and trust had been placed within the Head Girl by the authority figures of the school, which could only work in Sky's favor if she ever really needed to exploit that. It was true that most of the snakes rarely agreed on the distribution of power when the came from any authority figure, but the brunette had yet to see any snake disrespect LeBeau and live without a scar to go with the tale.

It was that fact alone that had the younger witch forming a grudging respect towards the Head Girl, and which also made her a solid investment in Skyler's eyes. So Black actively working to disrupt that only served to further the dislike the brunette already held toward her, and to ring the warning bells that had already been chiming in her head going off like a tornado had rocked them to life.

Snakes never offered anything without expecting to gain something out of it. Except for maybe herself. Skyler seemed to be an odd kind of snake. Of course, she wouldn't ever refer to herself as a fail snake. There was clearly a reason she was Slytherin after all. Maybe several. The teen just didn't really put them on display alot. It didn't mean that in the back of her mind she wasn't always planning on her next move. Well, she planned on what outcomes she wanted. The rest she kind of ended up throwing together along the way. It worked for her. Besides, things rarely went according to plan, and one couldn't possibly plan for all the things that could possibly go wrong.

In the end, Skyler could only shake her head in amusement at the red head's expense, even as she continued to not give the older Slytherin any more direct attention than necessary. "Black, you are so barking up the wrong tree. Aside from the fact that everything you just said I've already thought of, which means you're bringing absolutely nothing to the table for me, I've seen how you influence people, and why they like you. It's not really my style." With that, the brunette finally turned her head enough to give the older girl a harsh glare, a promising look in her violet eyes. "And if you ever make the mistake of insulting either Harry or Draco in my presence again, I will make certain there aren't any pieces of you left to influence anyone, starting with that mouth of yours."

She watched Riddle’s face as she went along, but there wasn’t much to be learned from it. This girl would be a hell of a poker player and fit in well with parts of the circles Rose had been raised in. After a brief flash of anger when Rose had sat down against her will, her face was basically unreadable through all of what Rose said to her. It was not going to be easy to put herself in the proper place in the castle this year if she couldn’t tell what was going on with the most important new player, and the one that almost everyone else seemed to be spinning around in one way or another.

That was only confirmed when the younger girl finally opened her mouth. The redhead supposed there was probably a way that that could have gone worse, but she was sure that she didn’t want to know what it was. “Your boys and anything else of yours are safe from my tongue,” she said, raising her hands in apologies. She would have to remember to speak more carefully around this one. She seemed to have a kind of quick rising anger that was not entirely normal for a snake.

“As for how I influence people and what I bring to the table, I’m sure I would be capable of surprising you, if you were willing to let me,” she said, giving a nonchalant shrug, but getting to her feet anyway. She knew when it was best to leave it alone and live to fight another day. “I can be really useful, even if you can’t see my body or have no interest in it whatsoever, and I rather think you’re the right side to be on in whatever it is that’s coming down the chute. Keep me in mind, and find me if you have need of information you can’t get, support from those who might not like you, or…the stuff you’re thinking of as my influence. I’m good with that, too.”

With a smirk and a wave, she walked back off in the direction she had come from. She had done all she could, or at least all she was willing to, here. It was time to be somewhere else before she said something to set the hot tempered younger snake off and ruined any chance she had of joining her team if she wanted to later.