"Yup... I do." she said. Wait! Was he trying to dump HER?!? Oh No no no... that wasn't happening. "Yeah I wanted to tell you, about Hogsmeade... I'll be washing my hair then... so no FuddyDuddyPuddyfoots. Sorry..." There! She wasn't getting dumped! She dumped him.

For the absolute first time since he'd been back at Hogwarts, a gleam appeared in Ethan's eyes, "You don't want to go to... Fuddy duddy..." he cleared his throat, "I was meaning to tell you that I don't really like..."

"What? What don't you really like?" She rolled her eyes... this was like sitting with her father... She should just growl and scare the living daylights out of him....

"Pie." Ethan supplied, slowly standing up and looking at Less, "Are you sure... you feel alright?" The eye-rolling was... alarming. Was she about to have a fit? What was with beautiful women always showing just that little bit of crazy? Or... a lot in this case. Split personality disorder for sure.

"How can you not like pie?" Weirdo! She rolled her eyes again. "I'm perfectly fine... I think it's time I go look for my boyfriend..." She said dropping the word... that'll teach him to try and dump her. "I'm outie!" She said walking out the door.

----------

Less skipped into the Staff room... there was an amazing bowl of sweeties in there and all she wanted was sugar at the moment... "Liquorish Wands!!!" She said grabbing a bunch and stuffing her face.

Taking out her frustrations out on the door, Macadrian flung it wide open and stepping into the Staff Room with a cold look upon her face. She surveyed the room and spotted the Ancient Runes professor stuffing her face with Licorice wands. What in the world?!? Is that what I looked like last term when all I could do was eat, eat, eat? Gross.

With a flat tone and a look of confusion, "Ahem, Ms. Lupa? May I interrupt your, um, eating for a moment? I have an important question to ask of you."

"Hi!" She said offering her a half eaten liquorish wand. "Want some?" She said excitedly. "We really should keep a blood pop or two fer me in here..." She puffed out her chest and said "I am a professor too you know," She giggled and kept eating the liquorish.

Macadrian shook her head, "Uh, no. Thanks. Not hungry." No, definitely not hungry. Not for food, anyway. Hungry for answers, perhaps. Wait. Did she just say a blood pop for her? Ew. She likes those things? I remember when Max slipped one of those into my bag last term and I accidentally ate it. YUCK! It tasted like rust. How could she like those things? Odd woman. Very very odd. She seemed so normal when I first met her. Hmm. How deceiving appearances can be...

Macadrian stepped toward Less into the Staff Room, neglecting to close the door behind her in her confusion over Lupa's behavior. "Uhhh, yes. I am aware that you are a professor too, considering we've been working together for the last few months." Shackleton eyed Lupa suspiciously. What is up with this odd behavior?

She needed to get answers and didn't have time for Less's confusing actions. While she doubted Lupa had the answers she was looking for, Mac needed to at least ask, "Do you by any chance have any idea who deducated all those points from Hufflepuff House?"

"Oh yeah! Me!" She said nodding... "That bad Jack Mosier... He was mean and he hurt Raiden... Uhmmm I forget his last name... Like Kururururururururu... Yeah... He hexed him... so I took points." She said digging her dirty hand in the bowl for some ice mice... "That's what us professors do... Oh Yeah... how many 0's in a gagillion?" She asked.

Macadrian's eyes went from large with curiosity to narrowed in anger. "You? You did it? You took thousands of points away from my Badgers?" Uh ohhhh. Here comes the den mother. "I beg your pardon? A Hufflepuff student was being mean and you seemed to think that warranted the deduction of thousands of house points? You can't possibly be serious."

Macadrian voice was beginning to rise, both in volume and in pitch, "That is NOT what we professors do! Perhaps the Headmaster didn't properly instruct you on the appropriate usage of house points as rewards and punishments, but I assure you that you've blatantly abused your privileges as a teacher. How dare you treat my students with such a lack of consideration after they've suffered so deeply the loss of a fellow Badger?"

Was she... MacShack was yelling at her. Alessia's bottom lip started to quivver. Her eyes got real wet and huge. "But... But... I... But..." She dropped all the candy on her hands and began to cry. "I... I'm a professor tooo hoo hoo hoo... I can take points away... you are being mean, and you shouldn't yell at me cause you're a collegue, and I'm gunna tell!!! He was mean, there is no hexing allowed and I was just defending another student!"

Was she... crying? Oh dear. She hadn't meant to make the woman cry. Macadrian thought she was tougher than that. Lupa had seemed it upon their first meeting, but now the woman standing before her looked so fragile, so emotional. And she was whining like a child! Clearly, this woman was not used to being spoken to so firmly.

Forcing calmness into her voice with her teeth clenched, "Ms. Lupa, will you please calm yourself and have an adult conversation with me? You may be a professor, but that doesn't mean you can do whatever you wish to whomever you wish. We follow guidelines and rules at this School, even as teachers. Certainly, you were right to punish Ms. Moiser. He deserved to have points deducted and several nights of detention issued for trying to harm another student, but you've overpunished him, not to mention the other students of Hufflepuff who have done nothing wrong! That is hardly fair to them, don't you think?" Macadrian was shaking with the effort it was taking her not to yell at this woman. Seriously? Who in their right mind would think it is okay to take away thousands of points for something as simple as a fight between students?!

"You... I... " She sniffled the snot dripping down to her sugar covered upper lip. She wiped it with the back of her hand letting a string of it pull until she sniffled again. "You believe I was right?" Well that was good, right. "Uhmmm... so if you were me..." she said shoving the half licked acid pop she'd dropped on the floor into her mouth, "How many points should I have taken? Like 1000?"

Macadrian tried to hide, albeit rather unsuccessfully, her revolt at the stretchy snot emanating from Lupa's nose. Closing her eyes so that she wouldn't have to look at it, Shackleton replied, "Well, the punishment should reflect the crime." She opened her eyes and saw no more tear-boogers. "What hex did Mr. Moiser perform exactly? And did anyone get hurt? Without knowing the details of the event, I can't say exactly what punishment I, myself, would have doled out. Although, even a thousand sounds a bit excessive, to be honest."

"Uhmmm it was a bad word hex. Raiden called me all sorts of bad words, cause Jack had hexed him. And I put him in detention but then Raiden wasn't talking and I realized, cause I'm smart, see, that he was under the influence, are you ok? Does your tummy hurt... Sometimes when my tummy hurts I close my eyes and I count to 10... Anyway Yeah, and Jack knew about the hex, but he didn't tell me and he was all I didn't do nothin... and I was like, Ya hah, he he was like nah ah, so then I was like 5000 points, and he was like... MEANY and I was all like," and she stuck her red covered tongue out to her, "and then he said he was going to come talk to you..." Bahhhh... that's how SHE remembered it anyway.

Macadrian felt dumber with each moment spent inside that room with Lupa. As her IQ dwindled, Macadrian spoke briskly, "Let me get this straight. Moiser cast a Vulgar Language hex on Raiden and then denied it, so you took away 5000 points?" Mac raised her brows with skepticism that anyone could think that such an offense was worth even a 50 point loss, let alone 5000.

"So, no one was physically injured and no lasting damage was done? In that case, I would have given Mr. Moiser several nights of detention and a deduction of no more than 15 or 20 points. I'm going to ask you to reconsider the number of points you've deducted, and if you won't, well, I may just take up this matter with the Headmaster." Or into my own hands, even if it means 1000 points to the next 5 Hufflepuffs who great me with a polite 'hello.'

Alessia narrowed her eyes at the woman. "500" she said.

Macadrian stood to her full, and formidable, height, shook her long blonde hair over her shoulders and stared down into Lupa's face, "Thirty."

"Twenty! Final Offer!" Alessia said determined and trying to match MacShack in size... and failing.

Macadrian was about to counter with another offer, when Lupa dropped her own below the number Mac had just requested. Wow, this one's something special alright. "Deal! Twenty points it will be. Pleasure doing business with you." Macadrian smirked. That was too easy.

SHE'D WON!!!! YAAAAAAAAY!!!! Less began dancing around all silly like, and once MacShack wasn't looking, she dumped the bowl of candy on her robes as she held it up... Right... now to get these back to her office!

Macadrian turned her back on the dancing Less, rolling her eyes at the woman's sillyness, but a smile upon her face nonetheless. Hufflepuff had their points back. What on earth possessed the Headmaster to hire such an immature woman to the staff?

As usual, Max was the first to arrive in the Staff room and he immediately found the nearest mirror. He stood there gazing at himself and making faces. Oh, this room has horrible lighting! He turned his face slightly and kept on checking himself out. And this mirror is OLD. The reflection isn't sharp . . . just kinda grainy . . . and strange.

Tony walked into the Staff Room, he had heard that there were gonna be games in here or something. He was afraid he would be the first one here, he hated being the first one! but Max was here first. "Hey, Max," Tony called out. He blew a large bubble with the muggle chewing gum he had stuffed in his mouth. "So, what games are we gonna be playing in here? Are we gonna do hide and seek and that kind of stuff?" Tony was good at hide and seek. He always knew the most awesome places to hide.

Max whirled around. "Yo, Tony! I've got a couple of dungbombs," he grinned and plopped down on the couch, hanging one leg over the end of it. "Or we could turn one of the corridors into ice and ask Peeves to help out or something. Got any ideas?"