Extra curricular nonsense PV Finished

Elaine usually spent the rare free periods she had in-between lessons in her classroom. It was pure pragmatism on her part. Packing up her few belongings, warding the Office and Defence classroom and walking down to the her quarters in the dungeons would take her all but a couple of minutes, but with the students about during daytime her life was never really her own. The children needed attention, demanded it even on some occasions, and staying in the rooms on the First Floor put her closer to where she might be needed.

When the door opened the witch expected a lost First Year student maybe, a student who'd lost a quill or misplaced a book, someone from a higher year who wanted additional information on one of their assigments. Instead it where two Second Years who entered however, Mr. Bane leading another student inside.

"Mr. Bane," she greeted the boy mildly and waited for a better look at the second student before she nodded to her as well. "Ms. Jones. How can I help you two?"

Was the boy upset? She couldn't be sure with the thick accent in his voice - one that, now that she thought about it, she had never heard quite that pronounced before. Dark eyes watched him as he rolled further into the room, her tattoos moving on her skin beneath the dark set of her robes. They were curious.

Elaine listened attentively as he continued, her face blank. Fights between students weren't uncommon in a boarding school. It had been the same at Durmstrang: young minds, eager, hotheaded, easy to anger and fast to rise to a challenge. Children were children, not adults. Expecting them to react with a restraint and decorum many grown witches and wizards couldn't muster would have been unfair to them.

The word deadly echoed in her mind. Was it exaggeration? Quite possibly. Did  Mr. Bane think of it as such? Most likely not. The truth might be on either side, she couldn't gauge the young man well enough to risk a verdict. Two injured students however, especially if they were in need of medical attention, definitely required a Professor's interference.

"I see." She ordered the papers spread across her desk with quick, efficient movements and then locked them in the single drawer with a mumbled spell and a tap of her wand.

Elaine took another good look at both of the students standing in her classroom. No, she didn't think that she needed to remind them that pranks of this kind would have dire consequences. Mr. Bane especially did not look at all as if this was a game to him.

"Please escort me to the Second Floor, Ms. Jones, Mr. Bane," she told them as she rose from her chair. "And would you be so kind so tell what you know of the happenings in the Abandoned Toilets? As far as I understood they were abandoned for a reason."

While her tone was still even, almost pleasant even, the serious look on the Professor's face made it quite clear that her question was in fact a command. She would not walk into a fight unprepared, no matter if it was between skilled duellists or teenagers, and retelling what they had seen would give the two students something to occupy their minds with that wasn't fear or panic.

Rowan had control of the situation, but when Elaine had asked about what happened Elena figured she was the expert on it, having shown up earliest and actually seen the kid before.

"Thank you Professor Pendrast." Elena's cockney accent was desperately trying to slip through but the girl had enough control that it only succeeded in making some of her vowels sound strange, "The kid, Kaegen Deathmote, he built a bomb in the abandoned toilets. I went in after hearing the explosion to see if anyone needed help, Rowan and a few other kids had the same idea. There was a few kids already in there that were caught in the blast."

Elena fidgeted, uncomfortable relaying the information, "Aurelia Bezuidenhout showed up too, she started telling us to do things but before we could do, well, anything, Kaegen shot a diffindo at her and ran to a stall. Rowan shot a periculum charm out and window and I um, I grabbed Rowan and dragged us both out of the bathrooms."

The girl looked down at her feet, not feeling any remorse at her actions but a little bit of worry that she'd managed to doom a bunch of teenagers. Although she'd probably helped a decent amount by going to grab the professor.

Poor planning on his hands. The charm would barely be helpful to them. To be fair though, he had just been slammed into a wall, so he hadn’t been in the right head. 

At first it seemed Rowan was heading the wrong way as he lead them out of the classroom. Again, the opposite way of the stairs. Though in fact, he lead them to an old door, that looked sorely outdated, in terms of use. When he opened it, it lead to a series of ramps. His way of getting between floors. 

He allowed Elena to do the talking, as he was barely able to be understood the first time. The bad side to having both an accent, and having english as your second language. When he got over emotional, or when his mind was scattered, or even when he just didn’t focus on his words, he became hard to understand. 

“To be fair, abandoned areas are even more interesting to mischievous children.”

He said as they passed through the abandoned hallways he now frequented. They weren’t abaaandoned per say, just out of use. A light breeze passed through a window he had cracked a few weeks back, to vent the wretchedly stale air. It was most likely the professor had only been in here once or twice. 

“Injuries consisted anywhere from light cuts to full on gashes. All by some sort of debris from one of the toilets and whatever pot he had used to make the bomb. It was just inconsistant. Some was white and some was pattered.”

Elaine closed her classroom door magically to prevent any children's hands from entering and maybe touching the wrong object during her absence, and followed the two students as Mr. Bane lead them through the hallways. Ms. Jones had broken her silence and started to recount what had happened within the Abandoned Toilets. The Professor paid close attention, her expression open to encourage the girl to keep talking.

Elena felt oddly calmed by the professor's approval of her actions. She let out a shaky breath and nodded when Rowan spoke, he'd paid more attention to the injured students than the Elena had. The summation had sounded about right though.

Something the boy said niggled at the edge of Elena's mind, and she glanced from the wand to the professor, "There was something else he said too, about monsters."

Elena tried desperately to remember exactly what the boy had said, "I'm going to kill them. All the monsters are going to be dead and I will have been the one that did it."

It sounded terrifying, saying it out loud the same way Kaegen had, it seemed important to know the motives of the kid inside, even if the motives appeared to be insane. He seemed a few cards short of a full deck. That was all Elena was going to say.

"I think that's why he built the bomb, to kill the monsters. Although I don't know what they are, he didn't think it was any of the students in the room when he said it though." Elena swallowed, "I'll stay behind you Professor, is there anything else you need us to do?"

Best to ask, rather than have no idea what to do.

After the sixth column, there was a door. And behind that door, was the hall that lead into the abandoned restroom. Rowan simply pointed to it. Now that the danger was more apparent, his brain went back into fight mode, where he was able to speak more clearly, wasting no time.

"Out this door to the left. The door is unlocked. There's likely a number more injured. It's also likely the male already fled the scene, but you know how to handle this best. Also, take note he was proficient in some of the more advanced spells, so I don't know what he could know."

He did his best to provide her with efficient facts that would help her complete the task, while also not taking up un necessary time. After all, they did not have an excess of the concept. He quietly pushed the door open for the professor, looking back at Elena, who had explained the bulk of it, and nodding slightly. 

"I'll assume you'll call for us if you need aid with getting the injured to the medical wing."

He then shut his mouth, letting the expert handle the situation from there on out, so he would not become a nuisance. 

Rowan has left the thread. (Moved back to The quest begins)

Monsters. Elaine knew her fair share about those. On a child of twelve however a story as this, of monsters, the need to kill them and the action taken to actually do so, was concerning. The boy sounded confused at best and at worst... unstable. Highly so. He'd obviously been a danger to his fellow students, was still, and that didn't speak in the favor of his mental health even if he indeed hadn't actually meant to hurt another person.

"This is... concerning," she whispered but then turned her attention back to Ms. Jones. "A Professor will have a word with Mr. Deathmote, rest assured. His well-being is our priority as well, especially if that is what lead him to injury his classmates."

There was no one in the corridor when they drew closer to the abandoned toilets, nor was there any recent sign of activity Elaine could see. The corridor was like most others in the castle: old, dusty and with the odd picture frame hanging on the walls. So far the fight hadn't spilled outside the toilets yet - or it was over to begin with, but the Professor would see that soon enough.

She took the lead of their small group from Mr. Bane with a nod, calmly walking up to the door he had indicated. Elaine wasn't afraid. Nervous, for all the students' health, but even with knowledge of advanced spells she was not yet afraid of a Second Year student. The worst that could happen was... she didn't like to linger on the possibility of dead students.

"If you see any unfortunate students coming down the hallway I'd like for you send them on their way with a warning from me," Elaine answered Ms. Jones' earlier question. Then she gave a nod to both them, glad again for their quick thinking, and turned to see for herself what had happened in those toilets.

Thread left.

Rowan dealt with the rest of whatever Elena was trying to convey, which was good, as Elena wavered between perfect poetic pep talks and being unable to convey a single emotion properly. Elena nodded at Elaine, even though the boy was worryingly insane, in a way he seemed like a dark mirror.

Insane and too skinny and too pale, believing the whole world was out to get him, seeing monsters in every single shadow. Not too long ago that's exactly where Elena would've been destined to end up.

"As long as he ends up okay too." Elena whispered, maybe the professor heard it maybe not, probably not. Elena was quiet when she needed to be, and when trying to make sure some random insane kid was okay. Best not to let others hear you.

"Yes professor, I can do that." Elena swallowed and nodded a bit more brightly this time, on every single level the girl wished she hadn't left her daggers behind after October. That was a stupid idea and now the girl was planning on being heavily armed every time she left the god damn dorm rooms.

The angel of the alleyways takes care of the broken and the guilty. Elena thought to herself, it was a silly sentiment, but it made her somehow feel less alone.

Elena Jones Has Left The Thread