From the Ashes

Who: Gerard and Haley
When: Wednesday, 4th Period, just after lunch (Nov 4th)
Where: Staff Lounge
What: Dammit, she's good.

Gerard was just burying his nose in one of the bags of coffee beans -- oh, this was totally a Bermeja Mountain blend day -- when he heard a rustle of cloth behind him. Someone else was in the staff lounge, and Gerard hadn't noticed. That was embarrassing. Maybe Schechter had a point about Gerard not dragging himself out of bed on full-moon days.

Still, once he had his coffee he'd be back in the game. He just needed to perform the spell to grind the beans to the right consistency, find the filters, assemble them and the coffee pot in some kind of configuration that would make the coffee come out, wait for the coffee to come out, and then drink the coffee. Then he could go back to lurking in the corridors and avoiding all human contact for the rest of his life.

But no one else should be in the staff lounge right now, Gerard had checked! Adam had a free period, sure, but  he'd definitely know better than to try sneaking up on Gerard the day after a full moon, especially before he'd had his coffee. And Gerard had just seen Brendon heading up to Hufflepuff Tower, so it couldn't be him. Gabe had a free period too, but he was off was doing something mysterious in the kitchens involving gelatin and a Muggle candy one of the students had brought in. Pop Pebbles or something like that. Any other day Gerard would have been intrigued, but his focus at the moment was more on remaining upright and capable of squashing evil if necessary.

Coffee was key. Gerard couldn't squash evil without coffee.

He left off trying to remember the grinding spell -- his last attempt had made the beans perform a weird salsa meringue number, but they were sadly still intact after they'd finished dancing around -- and turned to see who was foolish enough to try to interact with him.

"Oh no," he said reflexively, clutching the twitching coffee beans to his chest. Belatedly he remembered this was a bit impolitic, even for him. "I mean, uh. Healer Williams. Good morning. Afternoon. Er."

Who: William and Nate
When: The Monday after William's Weekend of Isolation (23 Nov.)
Where: Library
What: Questions and research and indirect-message-passing, oh my!

Nate had never thought of himself as a studier. Maybe it was a result of the Hufflepuff stereotype, maybe he was just a bit of a slacker, but he'd always tried to do his homework as quickly and correctly as possible, and never really worried about it beyond that. He'd definitely never voluntarily gone into the library.

He'd thought that he hadn't changed in the five years since he'd been at Hogwarts, but fighting with his teenage instincts during the de-aging had proved him wrong, fairly definitively. He could accept that, probably. That didn't mean he wanted to admit that he was actually doing research for something completely unrelated to any of his classes.

But after his debacle with Delving Into the Infinite Mysteries of the Spark Magnificus, it seemed fairly apparent that he was never going to actually understand anything about magical theory and origins unless he found the right books, and that was why they had a librarian, wasn't it?

Which very neatly fitted itself into another quandary: how to make sure that William was okay, and maybe try to find out what information he could, without being too obvious about it. He'd been thrilled at the first rumours of Saporta and William being completely indiscreet (how did anyone in this school expect to keep any secrets whatsoever? Except for Professor Blackington, but that was only a matter of time) in the hallways, worried at the news that Kara had seen Saporta carrying a Beckett-sized person down to the Hospital Wing, and more than a little unsettled by Gerard's vague report.

And then William had disappeared for the entire weekend. He was a little pale, Nate noticed, making his way through the mostly-deserted library. "William?"

WHO: Adam and Gerard
WHERE: Adam's rooms.
WHAT: Some people need to be havin' a talk.
WHEN: Monday Night (11/23)

Once Mikey had left, Adam finished marking the essays he'd been looking at and stacked them neatly on the edge of his desk, ready to take them out to return them to his students the next day. He looked at his desk, at the shelves nearby, at his delightfully empty ungraded basket. He felt like a rock star, however briefly. He continued tidying up a little bit, shuffling around his office. The last thing he was expecting was someone to show up.

He found a pack of cigarettes underneath the edge of the chair. He blinked, a little surprised. Where the hell had that come from? They weren't the kind that he preferred, and he had no idea where they'd come from. He was puzzling over it when a chime sounded through his office. That meant someone was in his classroom after hours. He moved to the door and whipped it open.