All Toby was seeing was that frown. It didn't have to be huge for him to notice it, in just the same way that Toby's parents' sighs and frowns only had to be miniscule to make him worry, and same with Soph, and Ella, and even Botros, and... yeah. He quickly looked away, back to his hands that had at one point gone back to fiddling with the thread again. Toby concentrated on that, finding it more productive than to focus on the feeling that he had been the one to make the patient Professor Dakest frown.

Isn't it ironic, how excuses on how you can't help yourself end up as excuses as to how you can't help others?

Toby wasn't sure if it was the words, or the tone, or the fact that these were the professor's parting words before he stood, or maybe a mixture of all three, but it hit him like a ton of bricks. He simply sat there for a moment, stunned into silence and stillness. And thank Merlin he was still looking straight down at his hands, because Toby suddenly didn't trust his eyes not to betray him in more ways than one.

The words were probably meant with the best intentions, perhaps to spur him into trying for other people's sake, but the only way Toby took it was as a sign of his total failure, and not the sort he could just brush off so easily. For reasons, Toby always put a lot of his self-worth into helping others. He was a Protector. And he'd failed today, because he'd tried to put his own needs first (which he very seldom did), and it hurt. It didn't matter that nobody had needed his help. He'd still failed. And now his sense of self-worth had just plummeted right through the floor.

The clap on the shoulder went almost unnoticed, but it did serve to jolt the Hufflepuff into action at last. As Dakest walked off to see to other students, Toby finally pushed himself to his feet. But rather than rejoin the main group, he walked quickly through the room, head bowed low as he ordered himself to let no tears fall just yet, and out the classroom door. Only when Toby knew he was clear of the classroom did he break into a sprint, down the corridor and out of sight.