Jeremy. Thank you.

His shouting was just what she needed to give in to excuse and release some of the budding tension inside her. Explosively. Jesus was quite lucky that her sights were set on the other boy or else his leaning in to whisper his soothing suggestion could have ended very differently. Instead the Wampus sneered at him and clicked her tongue against the back of her teeth. Perturbed, to say the least. "Then you better keep talking," she gritted out between shallow breaths, her eyes still locked on her target.

Thankfully he did and with some choice words to Aurora that spared her any necessity to respond. The Horned Serpent's comment was interesting. Why would the sight of a ghost cause any sort of unusual physical or emotional reaction? Clearly she had not spent much time within Hogwarts if she had forgotten already how it felt to be in the presence of a specter.

More and more competitors began filing in and each wore varying degrees of physical stress as a reaction to the potion that had all ingested. She could only infer that the daydream each individual had experienced (the intensity) was somehow in direct relation to their form now. Although she knew personally Kyle's posture had to do with other means as was her own reaction while still in the room.

A reaction that Dora Umbridge repeated and just around the time that Irene began turning into a fairy princess about to faint. And then there was Madelyn shouting yet again despite the exhausted and sickly appearances of others which was only made worse by Jesus speaking to the fellow Wampus. The chaos that began to ensue around her was of no one individual's fault, but her agitation and slightly weakened state from her enchanted slumber had her even more on edge than usual. Her hand had even twitched in the direction of her boot holster when she found it occupied by the warmth of another rather than the smooth surface of cherry wood. Her head quickly snapped to his and cold eyes narrowed because what did he think he was doing and why did he think another piece of caramel candy was desired?

The worst part of all was that it was working.

Only her eyes moving to meet his, Valerie began begrudgingly unwrapping the second caramel just as Headmistress Hawthorne demanded all's attention for the announcement of the results of the second task while paying no heed to the emotional and physical state of herself and her fellow competitors. Pawns. That was how this entire competition made her feel. Like a pawn. And those who remained grinning and unaffected at the moment (the likes of Brenton and Aurora) were the most eager sheep for the slaughter.

Her eyes moved to the display as the caramel helped with that lingering bitter taste in her mouth from the first task when she saw her score and that five way tie for second place. And in this task there was a four way tie for first place. How quaint. Levi Kenning slipping in standings was surprising and she found her eyes flickering towards the Gryffindor curiously before her light eyes rested on the other Gryffindor with a tight lip smile of sorts. So now she found herself in a three way tie for second place over all and was trying to allow that subject to settle in her stomach. Something proving difficult as all she wanted to do was leave.

Seeing as the woman herself was leaving, Valerie took that as her cue as well. Which was why in the next moment she was sliding her hand free from Jesus' and quietly stood while once again ignoring the No-Maj teen romance movie reenactment happening before her eyes. She did happen to catch that one Hogwarts champion (Tejashree, was it?) fleeing and for a brief moment felt a bit of a stir in her chest. Enough of one that was hard if not impossible to ignore.

But then without saying another word (and dropping both caramel wrappers in Jesus' hand) and took her leave of the stands as well.