From the Ashes

Who: Staff and TAs
When: Monday morning, January 25
Where: The staff lounge
What: Staff meeting about upcoming bad press

Enough people were present for Brian to start the staff meeting.

“Right, so I know things have been a little hectic-” Brian ignored the snorts and someone’s laughter and continued. “Yes, I know, it’s been fucking insane. You all knew that by the end of your first week and didn’t resign then, so suck it up. Hazards of the job and all.”

He waved his wand and a proof copy of this morning’s Daily Prophet shot out. It zoomed around the room for a few seconds before docilely floating next to Brian. He ignored the paper and its antics.

“I imagine that most of you have been ignoring the letters to the editor and op-ed pieces in recent issues of the Prophet, since no one actually cares about typographical errors and mis-attributed photographs or what barmy wizards think about Ministry polices. Time to start paying attention now.

“Some disgruntled parents and Hogwarts alums have been writing in, mostly to bitch about what we’ve been doing with the school. I’ve got a stack of letters about that on my desk, I’m sure most of you have gotten a few since you started. Someone’s been organizing them in a group, Concerned Wizards of Britain. They’re starting to make more noise and get some attention. They petitioned to meet with me and the Board of Governors this weekend about some of the decisions I’ve made-staff I’ve hired. Obviously, I’m not just going to give in to their whims and Rita Skeeter’s protégé got wind of the story. It’s front page of this morning’s Daily Prophet.”

Brian duplicated his paper and sent the copies whizzing around, one for each person present. One of the headlines screamed

“DO WE TRUST OUR CHILDREN TO FOREIGN WIZARDS?”

Below that, other headlines read:

“Is "Change" a good thing? Does Hogwarts need a new perspective?”

“Must we reinvent our school?”

“Where are all the British professors?”

Brian let everyone take a moment or two to read the headlines and think about them.

“So, the school’s under attack in the paper. Mostly it’s focused around my decision to hire foreign-born staff and keep Professor Saporta as the Head of Slytherin in light of hiring Professor Asher. It’s bullshit, we’re figuring it’ll blow over soon, but I wanted to tell you all before copies start getting distributed in the Great Hall.”

Brian collected his copy of the paper and rearranged his robes slightly. “So, I’ll be in my office dealing with Howlers and letters if anyone needs me. Owl or fire-call me if something comes up you can’t handle.” With that, Brian left the staff lounge.

Who: Gerard and William
When: January 3rd or so?
Where: The library
What: Post-traumatic werewolf disorder

With the students returning, there was slightly more to be done in the library than there had been for the last month. William had put the necessary class texts on hold, placed another literature request with the headmaster, and was re-sizing some of the bookshelves to better suit the needs of the collections they housed.

It still wasn't nearly enough to keep him distracted from thoughts of the past few days.

The sight of movement in the doorway made him tense and move half-behind the nearest shelf before cautiously looking out. It wasn't Z, for which he was grateful - Bob had declared him patched up and released him from the infirmary with nothing more than a few dull aches, but he still had no desire to get into another fight. It was, however, someone nearly as unfortunate. Gerard.

Gerard, the secret werewolf.

Who: Nate, Gerard, William, Jon
When: New Year's Eve
Where: Out on the grounds
What: The hunt

It was freezing outside. Scotland in the dark time between December and January, of course it was. William had a heavy woolen cloak and a warming charm in his winter boots, but even that wasn't enough to cut the cold seeping through his many layers of clothing. He wasn't planning on staying out here long, at least. No more than an hour or two.

Bob's warnings had been frustratingly paradoxical. It would be best to quarantine him away from the students in case anything went wrong, but too dangerous for him to leave the grounds. William had decided on a walk around the outer wall of the castle, footfalls crunching quietly in the snow. It was peaceful out here, and he knew enough charms to avoid frostbite. The moon hung pregnant, full and round in the night sky. He could pick out an abundance of constellations from here, and wished briefly that he'd invited Mikey along for the walk.

It would have been too dangerous, though, if anything went wrong, and too cold, besides. Knowing Mikey, he would have agreed in the spirit of friendship, when he could have been curled up with Spencer in front of a roaring hearth. The potion Gabe had promised to attempt wouldn't be ready for another half-day, at least, so for now William was on his own, walking the grounds outside the castle.

WHO: Adam & Gerard & Z
WHERE: the DADA classroom & surrounding areas
WHAT: SHENANIGANS
WHEN: New Year's Eve (Thursday, Dec. 31)

Adam, being prone to getting into trouble when the mere thought of boredom set in, had spent the day locked up in his office, scribbling away at a myriad of notes and research. He was trying to compile them into something that made sense (he had been for years - he was an extremely unproductive researcher). So if time got away from him, that was totally understandable.

That was why he was running late for a hot date with a hot lady as he tried to stack all the mess scattered around his office and get everything locked up whilst paying attention to personal hygiene (not awful, even though there was a big smear of ink on his cheek) and the state of his clothes (dismal).

He got his jacket caught on the doorknob of his classroom on the way out, and had to stop to untangle, swearing all the while.

Who: Gerard and Bob
Where: Warded containment chamber on the third floor, and then... well. That's the problem, isn't it?
When: 12/31, and the moon is rising
What: See above

It was a boring fucking room. Well, it had to be, because even with the wolfsbane potion, Gerard usually went fucking stir-crazy when the transformation hit, couldn't resist tearing around and biting and clawing and ripping until he'd tired himself out, stopped itching to run. Much more sensible to stay in a barren little room, nothing to destroy in it but himself, he knew that, but knowing it didn't stop the wait from being a total demon-balled dickdrag. Nothing to read, nothing to do, nothing to do. Not even a window to look out of. Just pacing, and more pacing.

He could feel it, the moonrise tugging at his bones and nerves and veins. Hot. Itchy. Fuck, soon now. He reached the east wall and turned again, hands flexing, and then he grimaced and spit to the side, and that was just an extra little jolt of misery, wasn't it, that taste, that fucking taste. He normally took the wolfsbane in a series of shot glasses, let as little touch his tongue as possible, but the taste had really lingered this go-round. Spitting again -- useless, he could still fucking taste it, bitter and cloying -- and then he reached a wall, and turned, stalked in the opposite direction.

Soon soon soon, he could feel it, but it wasn't -- he hit a wall and stopped. It didn't make sense, his skin was usually rippling by now, his spine shifting. It didn't -- he didn't understand, and he was so hungry. Fucking hell, fucking room, fucking walls. Walls walls always walls. He bared his teeth and slammed a fist into the wall -- fucking wall -- and then froze.

Fist. Hands. He had hands. He licked his lips -- lips, not snout, and then slowly smiled, wide and toothy. Well. This was -- this could work. This was convenient, this was sneaky. He didn't do sneaky, because sneaky was not what tearing someone's throat out with your teeth was about, but he'd been locked away for so long, and this -- this was a gift, a chocolate-covered blood-filled cherry just for him, and he was going to take it. He could smell them, the wizards and witches, just out of reach, and oh yes. He looked like a lamb, but he had teeth, and they were going to be sorry for all these fucking walls.

He pondered his options, flexing his wonderful, lovely, opposable fingers, and then looked around himself. There. Door. Locked, locked with bolts and with magic, but he could do this. He was going to figure this out, except then he howled in outrage as his knees came in sharp contact with the floor. Two legs now, two legs. Keep it together, remember how the humans walk and talk and taste, mmm. Taste.

Staggering back upright, he glared at his feet and shook himself until the body felt -- he knew this, yes, he did. His human self knew this, and he would take that and use it, pathetic whiny human knowledge. He shoved at the door, snarled and then shoved again, and again, and harder, with his rage and longing for open spaces and running and teeth and things to tear, and it opened. Swung right open, easy as biting into a bunny.

Gerard stared at the empty corridor for a moment, hardly able to believe it, and then giggled in delight and bounded forth, licking his teeth. This was going to be fantastic.

Dear Scrabble Team 'Skipped A Few Classes in Primary School',

There is no such thing as a netbook in the English or Latin languages. To give you the benefit of the doubt, perhaps you meant notebook, and one of your intended letters inconveniently fell off the board and the word rearranged itself into incomprehensibility. Possibly you were thinking of a neti pot, but while those are currently in existence (albeit not as a solitary compound word), neti books almost certainly, to my knowledge, are not. No one in their right mind, flexible Indian yoga practitioner or not, would attempt to use any sort of book in such a manner.

Your score has been penalized accordingly.

P.S. If this has anything to do with the Worldwide Spiderweb, please remember that Muggle slang has no place in civilized Scrabble games. Do try to spell with some decorum.

Who: Gerard and Mikey
Where: Mikey's office
When: Wednesday 23rd, late evening, after lights out/patrol
What: Brotherly chat about goings-on


This whole 'enforcing school rules' thing was not nearly as fun as it was cracked up to be, and it wasn't exactly cracked up to be the most super cool fun job ever. The only good part of being co-head of Gryffindor, from what Gerard could tell, was getting to give points every now and then. Fuck yeah, Gerard was enjoying the hell out of that  -- he'd given 20 retroactive points to Slytherin today to Prim for keeping a cool head under pressure, and she'd actually smiled at him. A facial expression out of Prim! Gerard was the coolest ever. But he also had to take points, and that sort of sucked, especially since he usually had to take them from his own house. Boris MacGregor was such a weenie, and if Gerard ever caught him goading second years to try and 'climb the Whomping Willow, it's a rite of passage in the name of bravery, no really,' Gerard was going to take way more than points, that was for fucking sure.

He sighed and rubbed at his eyes, nodding to the exhausted-looking Ravenclaw prefect that was out on her own patrol, and then continued up the staircase. The kids were all acting weirder than normal these days, or so it seemed. Maybe it was just that he was paying more attention now that his responsibilities had shifted slightly, but still... They were all so twitchy, and hormones were flying left and right and upside down, like drunken hippogryffs in heat. The school was full of teenagers, fine, that wasn't so abnormal, but Gerard didn't remember it being this bad. The Gryffindors were all tied up in knots, and there was way more shouting and deeds of incredibly stupid derring-do than usual going on, in his expert opinion.

He'd seen Mikey's office light glowing in the darkness as he'd flown patrol, and hey, what the hell. If Mikey was up, Gerard was totally going to crash his grading party, or whatever was going on. Co-heads of house meant that Gerard didn't have to dither about this shit on his own, right?

Knocking perfunctorily on the door, he shoved his head in the room. "Hey, Mikey--" He paused, and then grinned gleefully. "Dude, are you a-fucking-sleep?" Hiiilaarious, and also total payback for all the times Mikey had made fun of him for passing out on his comics and getting backwards-inked Batmans all over his face.

Who: All staff and teaching assistants are invited
When: The night of Thursday the 24th, after the great caroling expedition
Where The ballroom
What: Staff Christmas Party

The swimming pool has been frozen for skating and other icy ventures. There is a small ski ramp that the headmaster had installed for the occasion after seeing a Muggle moving photograph depicting the joys of sliding down a mountain on enormous wooden shoes. He's dubious, but the Muggles seemed to be having a good time, and he thought it might lead to further bonding.

There is light, fluffy snow falling over the newly-made ice rink, and over the holiday tree from the Forbidden Forest also enjoying the party in one corner of the room. The decor is red-and-white striped peppermint, with Chilly Icicles and other delicious candy treats scattered throughout the ballroom. Among the refreshments provided are egg nog, hot cocoa, cookies baked with love and inexperience by the younger students, and enthusiastically flaming plum puddings. Beware the fruit cake; the trasgu cooks mixed up a few of the ingredients when collecting the necessary assortment of candied fruits.

There is a green shadow on the ceiling in the far corner that looks suspiciously like mistletoe. Schechter has given up on trying to control the stuff. It's a harmless tradition, after all, and everyone here is an adult.

Stockings are on the wall and the kids are in bed. Have an awesome time.

Who: Gerard and Gabe
Where: The corridor outside the library, immediately after this conversation
When: Early afternoon, Thursday, December 24th
What: In which Gerard and Gabe are both in bad moods


Gerard was a little unnerved by how empty the corridors were right now. Normally at this time of day he'd be lurking around the Great Hall, watching the students go back and forth -- it was a good way to keep an eye out for shifts in the currents of the school, to observe the sometimes hilarious patterns of the teenaged population. But most of the students had gone home for the holiday, and the ones remaining had no set schedule. Gerard was at loose ends.

He'd pretty much been kicked out of the common room that morning by the Gryffindor kids that had stayed -- he'd told Mikey he'd make a terrible head of house, Gerard thought grumpily, barely resisting the urge to stomp down the hall. He had some semblance of stealth and dignity left somewhere; he wasn't going to stomp. But Bob was doing some mysterious experiment in the Hospital Wing and Gerard had been informed he couldn't participate for reasons of Healer-patient confidentiality. Which sucked a lot, especially since there seemed to be an awful lot of explosions involved in whatever it was Bob was doing. Gerard was valiantly not investigating, but it wasn't exactly improving his mood to be excluded, even for a good reason.

He'd patrolled around the grounds for a bit, watching a snowball fight and an extremely disorganized Quidditch match, and Frank doing something really mysterious with a planter that seemed to require a lot of explosions -- everyone was getting to explode shit except Gerard.

It'd been a shitty couple of days, and Gerard had just wanted to relax and watch the epic trainwreck that was Peaches and Byron and Geoffrey's odd interhouse threesome, or to listen to Bob explain the implications and variations on the Aperio charm, or to blow something up. He could have asked Frank if he needed a hand -- but Frank already thought Gerard was a complete nutter without Gerard flying down out of nowhere and begging to explode things.

Fuck it, he'd thought. He'd go pester William and see if they'd gotten any new medical journals in. Maybe see if he wanted to duck out of the library for some coffee and talk over all the shit that'd been going down. Besides, Gerard was getting a little worried about William, to be honest. He'd looked sort of peaked lately, and, well, everyone was stressed at the moment, but Gerard wasn't entirely sure William was over the whole Veelification ordeal, or that cursed knife from way back when, come to think of it. He rounded a corner, pondering the best way to pry William out of his library stronghold and into the staff room where there was caffeine and biscuits, and then skidded to an abrupt halt, startled. Gabe Saporta was leaning with his back against the closed door to the library, head bowed, looking like... well, like someone had stabbed him.

"Hey," Gerard said, approaching warily, fighting the urge to snap his wand into his hand just in case there had been actual stabbing going on. There was no blood, but this was fucking Hogwarts -- you never knew. "Are you... is everything alright?"

Who: Gerard and Spencer
Where: The Forbidden Forest
When: December 20th, early enough to be grumpy.
What: Christmas Tree Hunting.

"No offense," Spencer said, as they trudged along the crisp, snow-covered ground to the first stretch of trees. "It's just that, you know, the Forbidden Forest has a bad rap, don't you think? I haven't seen anything scarier than Jon's Hippogriffs out here, and, I mean. Baby twin Hippogriffs." He gave Gerard a meaningful look, because Spencer was a mature adult, and he'd stopped getting starry eyes over the baby Hippogriffs quite some time ago. Really.

"Anyway," he added, "you've been coming out here with me for months and we haven't seen anything." He scratched his chin. "I'm starting to feel cheated. Maybe we're just not going in far enough or whatever? But basically, I still think this is Schechter punishing me for the whole fireworks thing." He nodded just once, decisively. That had been the original point of an argument that had gone on rather longer than he'd meant it to, and he smiled sheepishly at Gerard.

The first few trees loomed up in front of them, unexpected as the Forbidden Forest always managed to be, and Spencer breathed in. All arguments aside, the forest was always a little frightening. Spencer and Gerard were on a mission, though, to spread holiday cheer. If that meant trying to coax a few particularly grumpy pine trees out of the forest, well. Spencer was a professional.

[Owl to Professor Way]

Professor Way,

I'm sure you have noticed the current absence of a Head of House for Gryffindor. It is a situation I would like to remedy before the spring term, and as the sole member of the teaching staff originating from that House and most qualified to take on the additional responsibility, I would like to offer you at least an interim position as Gryffindor's Head. You have the skills, discipline and knowledge to be a great asset, both to that House and to the school.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will also be sending a similar query to Auror Way, as he has more time available and is in a strong position of leadership. You do not have to respond immediately, but I would appreciate a decision by the first of January.

Sincerely,
Headmaster Schechter



[Owl to Auror Way]

Auror Way,

I am in the process of selecting a Head of House for Gryffindor. Normally that position would go to a member of the teaching staff, but you are in a unique position of leadership and experience that I feel would benefit the students and set an example for the entire school.

I am also extending an offer to Professor Way, as he has had more experience working one-on-one with the students and is more familiar to them as an authority figure. I believe both of you would make a fine Head of House, and would welcome either of you to the position. Please let me know of your decision by the first of January so that we can make any necessary arrangements before the spring term.

Sincerely,
Headmaster Schechter

WHO: Brendon & Adam & anyone else who wants to go caroling
WHERE: The entrance hall of the castle and Hogsmeade village
WHAT: Caroling and the spreading of CHEER to all and sundry.
WHEN: Christmas Eve (Thursday, Dec. 24)

Adam hadn't bothered to attend any kind of dress rehearsal for caroling. Especially since Professor Urie's idea of caroling seemed to involve costumes and sequins and this was not Mardi Gras, it was caroling. Also, Urie's owl had said something about the dress part of dress rehearsal.

Urie could wear all the dresses he wanted, but Adam wanted no part of that. It was too cold for dresses, besides.

He arrived in the entrance hall a bit earlier than intended, but since he and Urie were in charge of this whole thing, it was just as well. He sat down on the steps to wait for more people to arrive so they could head off caroling.

Who: Z and Gerard and a pack of other unfortunate older students
When: December 20th
Where: The Forbidden Forest
What: Gathering Fuel for the Yule Bonfire

Gerard still had a lot of misgivings about this plan. Surely the professors could be the ones to go searching through the Forbidden Forest for the appropriate fuel for a bonfire, but when he'd approached Schechter about it, the Headmaster had just flapped a hand absently and told Gerard that the holiday magic would prevail and that the innocence of the students was an absolute necessity. And then he'd gone sprinting off after that damned wooden reindeer again, hat flapping in the breeze. Yes, terribly reassuring, Gerard didn't think.

Now he had to lead a pack of teenagers through a Class-Q Magical Forest in search of untouched Yule timbers, and hope he didn't lose any of them to winter nixies, or hoarspiders, or Merlin knew what else. Peachy.

He stamped his feet in the snow sullenly and took another drag of his cigarette. He'd posted the notice to the student House Boards last night, and if no one showed up, he was just going to assume he was on his own for wood-collecting duties and enlist one of the nixies to help do his bidding. He was reasonably sure he could tame one if he just got enough hawthorne berries. That didn't sound half bad, actually. Surely nixies were relatively innocent, in the long run.

But no, there the students were now, tromping towards him through the snow, looking like sodden, unhappy crows in their school robes. As Gerard peered at them and scented the breeze, he abruptly felt much, much better about the proceedings. Maybe this evening wasn't going to be complete crap after all.

"Z!" he called excitedly, waving his lit cigarette like a beacon. "How in Hades did you get roped into this mess? I thought you had better sense than that."

Who: Everyone is invited to attend
When: December 20th - December 21st
Where: The Great Hall, Entrance Hall, and Courtyard
What: Yule Vigil

On the longest night of the year, all lights in the castle will be doused with the exception of one main bonfire in the Great Hall, which will burn throughout the night. The vigil is a time for reflection on the past year, preparing to face the new year to come. Those who keep it will not sleep until after they watch the sunrise.

Since this is an all-night event, feel free to start multiple threads and jump around as you wish. It's a good time for telling stories, remembering lost friends, making amends, setting new goals, and resolving to change for the better. No one is required to attend or to stay for the entire night if they do not wish to do so.

The bonfire is in the Great Hall, but the doors are open to the Entrance Hall, which will spill enough light outside that people can mingle there. The Entrance Hall is an easier place to have more animated conversations without disturbing the solemnity of those gathered in the Great Hall to reflect in the firelight. The Courtyard is lit by the moon and stars, and is a good place to go for those who feel the desire to commune with nature, or who need a breath of fresh air.

Who: Anyone and everyone!
When: Sunday morning, December 20th
Where: The staff lounge
What: Weekly staff meeting. Let's get this holiday party started!

"So Professor Saporta will be in charge of decorations," Brian concluded, still without any idea of how that had come about, and hoping it hadn't actually been his decision, as he feared it might have been. "Professor Smith can handle the trees, and that should put us in good stead for the end of the week. Hogwarts has a seasonal decoration charm, which I can put into effect now, that should save us all a great deal of trouble."

He cast the charm, the castle recognizing his authority as headmaster and bending neatly to his will. Garlands sprung up around the sideboard, crystal icicles glistened overhead, and a sprig of holly landed neatly on the tea tray. Excellent. "Professor Urie will be accompanying the carolers to..."

Snow began falling lightly in the staff lounge. One the sideboard, a festive wooden reindeer ornament leapt to the floor, charged beneath the table, and dashed through the door with a squeal, singing "FA LA LA LA LA," in a high-pitched festive wooden reindeer voice. As Brian opened his mouth to speak, a shower of miniature candy canes fell out of the air to rain down on everyone's heads.

"For fuck's sake," Brian said. Overhead, a candy cane wobbled loose from its perch on a twinkling icicle and smacked him on the nose. "Keep going," he ordered, pointing back at his staff, and went off down the hallway in a swirl of headmasterly robes, following the singing reindeer.

Who: Jon, Gerard, William
When: Last Wednesday, following this and this
Where: Inside questionably fine art
What: A magical menagerie

William wasn't sure what had happened. One minute he'd been with Pete, and the next he...hadn't. He'd fallen, his legs getting tangled up in something as he passed through the door of the temple ruins they'd discovered, and he'd registered grass and nearby running water before he hit the ground hard enough to drive the air out of his lungs. It could have been worse, he thought, pushing himself up on slightly shaky hands. He could have fallen headfirst into a rock and split his skull open, or into the water itself and drowned.

There was no temple in sight, and no curious rabbit-eared equine, and no Pete. There was, however, a garden gnome, sitting on a nearby rock sunning itself without apparent alarm at his abrupt arrival. And a gargoyle carved out of the rock, William noticed a second later. A bat-winged gargoyle funneling water from the stream, upon whose bank William appeared to be resting. A low growl caused him to spin around, flailing for balance on the ground, where he saw a griffin lounging on the grass between two towering trees, its beak stretched wide in a gaping yawn and leonine tail lashing lazily behind it. There was a pegasus not far from it, and a winged creature the size of a cockatrice that William almost mistook for a dragon until it stretched its wings and he recognized it as a wyvern. A wyvern, so close to a pegasus? With a gnome undistressed by the proximity of a griffin?

He tried to stand up, only to find that his legs weren't cooperating. More than not cooperating; bound and weighted. He struggled in blind panic for a second before looking down to try to free himself from whatever was holding him prisoner, and registered with shock the presence of gleaming green scales and delicate webbed fins.

"Oh bollocks," he said faintly in surprise.

Who: Gerard and Audrey (the non-Tentacula one)
When: Tuesday afternoon (12/1)
Where: outside the Divination classrom
What: Welcome to Hogwarts! Please mind the blood-curdling jinxes and zombie elf remnants.

Class should be ending soon, Gerard thought, listening to the scuffling in the room overhead. The trapdoor would fall any moment, and the students would make their escape. Well. Maybe escape wasn't quite fair; Gerard hadn't really gotten a chance to meet the new professor, but no one could possibly be worse than Trelawney, with all the incense and rot. Gerard had only caught the drapes on fire once, and it clearly hadn't been his fault, but the woman had treated him like a pyromaniac or something for years afterwards. And ugh, the amount of tea she'd made them all drink, sickening. Not that Gerard didn't appreciate caffeine -- he just preferred not to drink watery, bland rubbish and then poke around the dregs for hours searching for enlightenment about the future. Surely coffee grinds would have worked just as well, but Trelawney'd acted like Gerard had suggested murdering children and poking about their entrails when he'd brought it up.

Anyway, he couldn't smell any incense or any other kind of smoke wafting down from the classroom now, so that was definitely a point in Professor Kitching's favor. He'd spotted her notice in the staffroom that morning as he'd refreshed his flask of coffee and he'd thought, hell, might as well lend a hand, right? Welcome the new staff to the castle and all, share with them the joys of living amongst bizarre curses and potential undead doom. Plus, well, it wouldn't hurt to scope things out. Very likely she wasn't a polyjuiced Death Eater or anything of the sort, but it never hurt to check. Gerard had some free time between monitoring the wards on the western grounds and his chess date with Betsy and Bob at 4; skulking around the North tower and the surrounding environs could definitely be penciled in.

He tapped his foot against the floor and pondered whether or not he had time to sneak a cigarette. There was a window right there -- but no, Schechter would probably somehow sense it and come flapping down from the headmaster's office and feed Gerard to the squid or something.

Who: Gerard & Jon
When: Wednesday afternoon
Where: Some random countryside?
What: Now there's a question that needs answering...


It took Jon about twenty minutes to realize that he wasn't supposed to be on this particular road. Actually, he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near a road at all. It's a little fuzzy, but he recalled being a bit worried that he hadn't seen hide nor hair (ha!) of his damned dog all day. When he'd gotten around to seeing if anyone had, most of the adults had been notoriously unavailable.

That, Jon realized, should have been his first clue.

He winced as a rock dug into the bottom of his flip-flop. The road, unpaved, was deeply rutted and definitely not conducive to his chosen footwear. Digging the offensive item out, Jon nearly tipped over when a sudden burst of muted music sounded from up ahead. A second later, he noticed a small cave buried into the hillside. Already wary, Jon crept closer until he was standing right at its mouth.

Silence.

He was about to turn away when the noise came again. Definitely music. Cautiously, Jon stuck his head into the cave a little.

"Hello?"

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.

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."