Gaston nodded, smiling slightly when Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne said he was fine. He wasn't sure he believed it, but he wasn't going to pry. His smile quickly vanished when the curses happened, and his bright blue eyes darted helplessly around the room, taking in the chaos. He felt utterly useless! Unsure what else he could do, he tried to comfort poor Abey, but suddenly...

WHACK! He quickly withdrew his hand as Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne struck it. Blink, blink. Did that really just happen? His hand stung for only a moment, but the sting it left on his heart was going to last longer. His lip wibbled for a split second, but then the shock in his eyes quickly turned to anger. His eyes flashed like blue bell flames as he returned the boy's look with an equally ferocious one of his own. That was absolutely uncalled for! He started to tell him off but decided against it. He had a feeling that anything he said now would fall on deaf ears, and he wanted to make it crystal clear that this behavior was unacceptable. He would wait and summon the boy to his office after they both had time to calm down.

Gaston turned away sadly. He was tired of watching these people take their frustrations out on each other! First Myrtle, then Paul, and now Derfael... He just wanted to leave this mess and be alone with his rising emotions, but that wasn't an option, at least not until Hawthorne got here. Maybe he could volunteer to owl St. Mungo's? He went to stand beside his wife, the only one in the room he trusted not to lash out at him at this point.

He nodded approvingly at Mr. Carter as he tried to snap Miss Tyler out of... whatever was happening with her, but then Miss Cambridge started sending spells at her. He was going to reprimand her, but Hawthorne was seeing to that. He acknowledged Kalen's answer to his earlier question with a look, but Hawthorne had already sent a patronus.

Wait, what? For the second time in mere moments, Gaston was in a state of disbelief as Hawthorne asked him to comfort Miss Tyler. The emotionless headmistress was now showing more kindness and compassion than two of the nicest people at Hogwarts had during this entire disaster of a rehearsal. If he didn't know better, he would think he'd dropped into a parallel universe where everything was backwards! But there was no time to dwell on his shock right now. He nodded in reply to Hawthorne's instructions and quickly turned his attention to Miss Tyler. Hirsch's nod of acknowledgment was also returned, though he was too distracted by everything else going on to fill him in on what happened.

"Sam?" he said, approaching her cautiously lest this should turn out like the last time he tried to comfort someone. She didn't strike him as the type to lash out, but he once thought the same thing about Paul and Mr. Ashbury-Hawthorne. At least she seemed to be coming around now.. That was a positive sign. Nut his eyes widened with concern when he saw how unsteady she looked. "You're in the Room of Requirement," he answered her question, bending down to her level. "Here, let's sit down... Do you think you can make it to one of the seats?"