Corin turned towards the threshold of the Headmaster's office, welcoming the brightness of the room from the dimness of the spiral stairs. Icy blues scanned the room quickly, getting a feel of the man that sat the other side of the desk. Approaching it, he held his hand out and introduced himself "Headmaster Gaellen Tate? I'm Corin Vanderbilt, Department of Mysteries."

"Mr. Vanderbilt." Headmaster Tate stood and grasped the man's outstretched hand, giving it one firm shake before dropping it. He fell back into his own chair, gesturing for his guest to take the chair across the desk.

"I appreciate your coming to visit me like this. I know it's more kosher to attend to Ministry affairs at the Ministry of Magic, but as you know... it's difficult for me to just up and leave."

He returned the handshake with one of his own then shook his head slightly on the Tate's last statement "Oh its quite understandable Headmaster, school year has just started, I can imagine how hectic it must be for you staying on top of the students' needs and education, keeping them out of trouble and all that." Not to mention his staff heh.

He glanced behind him quickly and, spotting the seat, eased into it. "You sent a message mentioning that you need to have something examined?" he asked, taking the rolled parchment out of his coat-- the letter Tate owled him earlier that week.

"Indeed." Tate removed a locked box from inside a locked drawer - a precaution he'd had to take after the baby house elf had stolen the orb from his office. He set the box on top of his desk and opened the lock with a few murmured words. Inside sat the orb, completely unadorned and un-embellished.

"We found this... item on the grounds last year, and several people foolishly handled it. I have a concern that it might be one of the receptacles used to store memories, like you keep at the Ministry."

The silver-haired man leaned forward in his seat as the Headmaster opened the box and revealed what it held. For a second Corin was taken aback-- it looked like a prophecy orb, or at least something very similar in appearance. He was about to ask how it had come to their possession when Tate started to explain....

...Which had Corin taken aback the second time "Other people have held this? With their bare hands?" he repeated, couldnt quite believing what he was hearing. He paused for a moment as the sounds of students going about their classes wafted through the open window, his eyes going back to the orb held safely in the box. He stood up and drew near it. Orbs are orbs and for the most part they all look pretty similar, but Prophecy orbs have something about them thats very specific. "How.... How many people have held this? And have you had any incidents of individuals acting...." Insane? Batty? Bag full of cats crazy? Wait this is Hogwarts, crazy is somewhat the norm ".... unusual-- you know from how they usually behave?"

"Several professors and a Hufflepuff," Tate explained, as if the fact that the kid was a Hufflepuff explained why he'd picked up a strange orb thingy. It did, at least to Tate. "But it was missing for a while, between when Vindictus found it and it showed up again, so any number of people could have handled it. And one of my house elves was chucking it around at the feast a few weeks ago... probably others touched it then too."

Sigh. It was just mortifying to explain to this Ministry man that he'd let something dangerous into the school and failed to lock it up safely... twice. TWICE. "But no. No unusual behavior. Or no more than is to be expected when hormones and ego compete in small teenaged packages. I haven't seen any symptoms of madness." Because he knew what sort of spells were put on prophecy orbs.

Several Professors, a Hufflepuff one or more students, and a house elf. Corin’s eyes slid to the side. Hmm this orb has gotten around.

BUT the Headmaster did say there were no incidents of madness, at least not the kind he was concerned about. He eyed the orb thoughtfully "Went missing for a while ..." he mumbled. That could be a variety of things-- people kept it locked up in the dorms or in their rooms like it belonged to them; or this was misplaced around the castle, for something this small that was easy. A small thought played at the back of his mind that the object could move around on its own, but at this point in time he paid little attention to that possibility.

Wait did the Headmaster say "Your house-elf was chucking this around?" What like a quaffle? "Would you have any idea if this orb might have been dropped? If it is a prophecy orb and it cracked its possible that the contents may have leaked out." And therefore that orb was nothing more than an empty shell.

His hand hovered over the orb then stopped short "Have you touched this yourself Headmaster, bare hands or not?" He knows Tate mentioned the Professors, but he couldnt help but ask the question directly to the man himself.

"It went missing for a few weeks after Max found it, but then it turned up again later. I kept it locked up all summer." Tate knew his tone was growing sharp, but he was the Headmaster and had done his duty to keep the orb under wraps once it was in his possession.

Except when the blasted elf stole it.

"Look, I didn't touch it. I put it up once I found it. Can't you run some tests or whatnot and see if it's dangerous to my students or not?" And now he had run straight into impatient. He was a doer, and this was all talk and no action.

Yes he can tell that the Headmaster was getting impatient, but Corin wasnt about to get rushed into declaring something safe or otherwise on an object that may or may not be a malfunctioning prophecy orb.

Or something else entirely.

He looked around the neat office for a moment "I cant quite run the battery of tests in your office Headmaster, not unless you want me to make a mess of things." Yeah damaging the Top Man's office wasnt really part of his agenda today. "But maybe I can run a few diagnostics..."

He drew his hand back from the orb and instead flicked his wrist to bring out his wand. Silently he levitated the orb out of its box and suspended it in mid-air, spinning it around slowly as he observed, taking its physical measurements-- height, weight, density. As he did so he realized that the orb didnt have a single scratch on it, nothing that would say it was damaged.

Good, because whatever this is it means its still working. Also not so good because it means it can still do whatever Tate was afraid it might do.

He paced around for a moment staring at the floating orb. He sooo wanted to bring this back to the Ministry and run as much tests at his disposal. "How about... stimuli..." he murmured as he held out his wand and cast a charm to heat up the orb, gradually building up until the orb was enveloped in flames. With a wave of his wand the flames died down.

No change on the orb thus far.

He then tried a charm to cool the orb all the way to the point where it just about froze. He peered into the orbsicle suspended in the air, then waved his wand to get rid of the frost.

Orb looked exactly the same as when he first saw it.

He crossed his arms before him and turned his head to Tate, both baffled and amazed at the mystery before them. Then he had a thought. He turn back to the orb and held his wand aloft, then with a wand stroke uttered a revealing spell.

Staaare. Anything?

Merlin. The man was KILLING him. If not literally, than figuratively... Gaellen Tate was on the edge. If the Ministry Man took much longer with this fun little game of 'what can I make the ball do next', then he was probably going to end up being ejected bodily from the school. Through the Headman's window.

Calming breaths. Yes. No one was going to die today.

"Anything?" PLEASE, DEAR MERLIN. PLEASE.

The revealing spell descended onto the orb, its glass surface crackling and illuminating before promptly settling back down to its usual clear state."Well there you go..." Corin mumbled as he finally saw some kind of reaction from the otherwise dormant orb.

So what does he know about this orb so far?

That many people have touched it.
That there were no report of madness that seemed associated with it.
It doesnt look damaged.
And that there is definitely some kind of spell cast on the orb, possibly on its surface or emanating from within.

Corin levitated the orb back into its box, then turned to towards Tate "Well... its not a prophecy orb, at least not the typical kind. I'd actually like to take a closer look at it back at the Ministry, although of course thats entirely up to you if you would turn it over to us." he wasnt going to seize it, but he will file a report with Alexander. If the Minister wasnts the orb taken into custody then he will cross that bridge with Tate at a later time.

"I don't mind you taking it," Tate's shoulders sagged. Still no answers, but at least it wasn't a prophecy orb. There was less of a chance kids would end up going completely bananas.

"But just to be clear... is it causing any harm to my students and professors? Should I be worried?" More answers, please.

Corin nodded silently and replaced the box lid over the orb. He turned towards Tate just as the Headmaster asked the second question. He pressed his lips together as he shook his head, shrugging slightly “Its hard to tell, not without more information… more tests to figure out what it is and what it does. I would be submitting this to the Ministers office first… get the paperwork done on it. Given that its an orb of unknown origin and purpose, the Minister would likely want to take a closer look at it.”

Tate's shoulders went up at that, at the suggestion that the orb was going to go off into some waiting room at the Ministry while it waited for people to know how to handle it or who's job it was to deal with it. And all the while he was going to sit here at the school and not know what he could or should do for his students. Just sit and wait.

It wouldn't work for him, not like that.

"I appreciate the offer, but I think I'd rather deal with this myself. I have other professionals I can consult for the spells on this orb, but at least I know it isn't a prophecy orb and is unlikely to make anyone go crazy."

Tate stood and offered his hand. "I do appreciate your coming in today."

The silver-haired man nodded his head again “Wish I could’ve given more insight into that orb….that is one peculiar case I’ll give you that." he said as he gave one last look at the box that housed the orb. He shook Tate's hand in turn and gave a small smile "Thank you for having me Headmaster. It was great to see the ol’ Alma Mater again.” And with that, Corin turned for the door and made his way out of the Headmaster’s office.

Tate entered his office and hesitated in the middle of the room. The patronus from Cece had met him on the way up, and his mind was a jumble with possible courses of action. Owl St. Mungo's for assistance. Owl the Ministry and confess they'd let this go too far. Owl the parents to come and retrieve the students before anyone else fell ill...

None seemed like the best option. Tate was a man of action, and those all let other people do the hard parts. It let him play the victim and sit back and wash his hands, and none of those things worked for Gaellen Tate.

Finally, he crossed the room and put his hand on the locked box containing the mysterious orb. It was all to do with this little glass ball, but... what? And why? And how could they get it to stop?

He sighed, scooping the box up into his arms and pressing it against his ribcage. Might as well take the vector straight to the infected students. Perhaps someone there had a brilliant plan, and if not... they'd owl everyone. Mungo's, Ministry, and the parents.