Yeah no, Bernadette was also NOT gonna stick around and find out what happens when Rosier demonstrated that he could count without using his fingers and toes.

Actually, he probably didn't even have toes. He was terrible and horrible and no good, very bad like that. Like, all of his toes had definitely rotted off him due to the darkness inside him and also because he was basically a Sith. Yeah. So. Bernie had seen Star Wars and could do the Muggle references too, even though her mind was in a million places at once today. Plus all the running all the way over here with Louise was good for her... it shocked her into action and made her concentrate on struggling to breathe due to exercise fatigue.

But now that they were HERE by the tree, and her breath was caught, Bernie was dithering once again. What to do?! How could she help?! Shouldn't they just... keep the Muggles away from this dangerous tree??!! What was the Muggle repelling spell?! She wracked her brain in a panic, trying to recall what in the heck Rosier had JUST taught them. Reparo Muggleborn. No no, crap, that would probably send HER away. Reparifarge Muggletum! Hmm, no, that was closer though, because because because Muggletum sounded right, but Reparifarge was for Transfiguration..

"Repello Muggletum!" Bernie cast, pointing her wand suddenly and straight at the one Muggle with the branch. Of course, she was back aways from the threat of the Whomping Willow, so... it may or may not have worked.

Also, here was Ashley Fox again. Surprise surprise. Bernie honestly did not know why this girl was a Ravenclaw when she clearly had the self-sacrificial tendencies of HER house. Also, Mamie?! Casting on the Muggles?!? That didn't seem right either.

"Stop fighting them! They don't even have magic!!!" Bernie's voice was definitely cracking there. She was... showing some cracks for sure this year.

This was a mess. There was no way that Rosier was actually going to let these Muggles go. They'd seen magic. They'd walked around the castle. Maybe it looked like something other than a castle, but they recognized the tree, the wand, the impossibility of it all. Rosier was going to kill all the Muggles when this was over.

So what was the point?

She pressed her face against Cece's shoulder for just a moment, but then Bernie was there looking EVEN WORSE than Phoebe felt. Time to be brave again. Sometimes being a Gryffindor was so impossibly hard. Could they all have a group breakdown later?

"I think we need to make them leave. No more trying to convince them of it. We tie them up and carry them out the gate and no one stops us. Does anyone know Obliviate, by the way?" Phoebe unholstered her wand and stalked toward the Muggles, who hopefully were tied up and immobile after all those spells cast on them.

People could lash out when they were afraid. Creatures did it, too. And so Cece wasn’t TOO shocked when the muggles took up branches and tried to defend themselves. She stumbled backwards and away from them, wand still trained. They were the monsters in this situation, she’d realized. It’s what the muggles must’ve thought. It broke Cece’s heart. And then the tree was fighting back, too, and spells were being cast at the muggles...This was just going from bad to worse and everyone had different ideas on how to handle it and Cece’s honestly felt like just turning on the spot and abandoning ship. She didn’t want to be responsible for these lives. She was only fifteen. ...Her Gryffindor had apparently gotten lost somewhere deep inside today. Luckily Phoebe still had hers.

”I can’t do that spell. And I don’t know that we should try. What if we mess it up?” Maybe they should’ve just stunned them. Then they wouldn’t be experiencing this panic and the students would have time to decide what to do. If the ropes didn’t work, Cece was going to resort to that. She would.

Dahlia's head was spinning and she was already unsteady enough on her feet. The chaos happening right here in front of her was barely registering with her at the moment. Yes, she heard the yelling and the spells being cast, saw the fear in each and every single muggles eyes. As if that wasn't enough they were now arming themselves with branches, branches that belonged to a very angry Whomping Willow.

None of this was good. Someone else was going to get hurt, Lia could feel it down in her bones. Mamie's somewhat hug and pat on the back was appreciated but it didn't do much good. Neither did the shove that she had given Dahlia to get her to move behind her, it had been unexpected and caused the first year to stumble. It was okay though, no complaints were going to be made, she knew Mamie was trying to complete the class activity.

With something of a quiet sniffle, Lia whispered to no one really, "You're only scaring them all even more." They were all older than her, why couldn't they see that their shouts and spells were frightening the muggles. Of course they were going to try to fight back when they all probably felt extremely threatened right now. Lia didn't blame them in the slightest.

Wiping her face on the sleeve of her robe, Dahlia sniffed once again, stepping forward towards the group of muggles but still far enough back that she was out of harms way. "Hi," she spoke softly willing no more tears to fall so she could hopefully speak. "I can see you're all scared an-and I am too... bu-but I-.. we can he-help.." More sniffles and there were the tears again making her voice crack. Yeah, this wasn't going to go over well.

"Th-there's a wa-way out... pl-please trust us an-and we can all show you.." Lia brushed her hand against her face this time trying to get her hair unstuck from the dried tears. "L-look... I'm putting thi-this away, okay? Ca-can you all pu-put your weap-weapons down too?" She slipped her wand back into its holster to prove she was unarmed. She knew her tactic was not at all what they were meant to do but if it kept anyone else from being killed, she was going to try it.

This was worth a try since shouting and spells weren't doing anything more than scaring everyone and annoying an already very dangerous large tree.

It was a rather conflicting scene. On the one hand, there was an apparent 12-year-old trying to explain they were helping but on the VERY OTHER, there was another that looked about the same age pointing that wand thing at them. The ropes from the spell missed Frank but they sure wrapped poor Jackie up tight. The lady screamed, spurring the others into extreme Defense mode.

They were not so easily fooled. If they were helping, why were they tying them up as the first men had done??? It meant nothing that another tried putting her wand away. They were under attack and would react.

And what was that???

For a moment, they turned at the loud sound that came from...from...had the TREE done that? This entire castle was a death trap!!!

There were many muggles with branches however the one the girl cast at was the only to slow and only because every time he advanced, he was suddenly reminded of something else and would turn....only to run into the next muggle barrier that made him forget again. The poor man ran back and forth within a few feet, unable to remove himself from the loop.

“Frank? Frank what’s the matter?” One asked, grabbing hold of the obviously confused man.

“It was THEM! We have to stop them!!!”. The muggles who had been stopped by both the pleading and the sight of spells being thrown once again began running. Someone grabbed Frank, coincidentally moving around the little barrier put up. They shove and swung at the children to move them out of the way then continued further away—running for their lives.

Perhaps...a more organised effort would work. Patchy half walls of muggle repellent would certainly help no one.

Phoebe sat on the feet of the woman who was wrapped in ropes, to keep her from trying to make a run for it. She was tied, but she was also conscious. "You're safe. Nothing happening here. You and your friends must have had a bad run in with some bad mushrooms in the woods. Don't you know not to eat strange things?" Her tone was almost sympathetic, but the dummies running into themselves trying to get away were a BIT distracting.

The thing that she noticed was that when the Muggles hit the spell, their faces went sort of relaxed and they calmed down, and then they seemed to rev themselves up again. It seemed like maybe they needed to funnel all the Muggles into the bespelled area and then give them a suitable explanation for why they were there once they'd all been comfortable charmed into forgetfulness.

"Cece! Get the ickles to help surround them, and funnel them over... there. Away from the tree. We'll convince them they're having a picnic or something." Phoebe bounced to her feet and tried to hook the tied-up-lady under her arms. She'd drag her over to the picnic spot and untie her.

Woah. Ash fit a VERY surprising amount of bad words into a very short period of time. From what anyone could understand, she was frustrated. And unfortunately, her voice was still amplified. She grimaced and cast the counter-charm. She didn't want it amplified anymore. "We shouldn't cast offensive spells on them. They'll just fight us. Plus they are... kinda justified. In their actions." She tried to corral some of the running muggles towards the "picnic area" with the repel muggles spell. She was having a tough time of it though. They were pushing her back. But she tried her hardest to push them to where Phoebe said. It was a good idea. If they could just.... move.... please... in the directions she wanted them too. People working during stampedes must have their work cut out for them, Ash figured. She didn't want this as her full time job.

Well, the tree was awake now. Hopefully, the Muggles would see that the tree was dangerous and--nope, they were still acting in fear and couldn't be reasoned with. Mamie's own fear was somewhat placated by the fact that her spell had worked. Technically, had worked, in that one of the Muggles was now tied up. But...her intent had definitely not been achieved, because the Muggles were still running around with branches.

She fell to the ground as one of the Muggles shoved her, but was able to react more calmly, now that they Muggles were running away, not charging at them.

Funnel... funnel the Muggles somewhere? Phoebe wanted them to make a wall with the repello muggletum spell to force the Muggles into a certain spot. That...that sounded smart. Mamie nodded, scrambling to her feet. Yes, they had a plan now. That was really all they had needed to begin with, wasn't it.

"Ashley, they're bigger than us. And they're too scared to be reasoned with, magic is all we have," Mamie protested. She wasn't going to disagree that the Muggles were justified, but. Sometimes you had to upset people in order to keep them safe. Like how you forcibly removed chocolate from a dog's mouth if it wouldn't listen to you. For protection. Yes, Mamie was still comparing the Muggles to animals. People were animals, Muggles and wizards.

"I'll go that way," she told Phoebe and the rest of them, gesturing that she'd circle around to the left of the Muggles. She could probably run faster than them, as they were all adults and she was still young and nimble.

It her current state of emotions it was difficult for the first year not to immediately give up and walk away. That was what she wanted to do. Every fiber of her being was telling her to go anywhere else but here, curl up into a little ball and cry until she couldn't cry anymore. And then... more people might die. That couldn't happen. No one else could die.

Her tactic hadn't worked. She hadn't expected it to honestly but she had hoped it would. Whatever they were all going to do, needed to be done soon. Dahlia forced her own tears back, sniffing hard and wiping her sleeve across her face. There would be no magic coming from her but she would try to help the best she could.

Being knocked off her feet onto her bottom was a small price to pay in keeping everyone alive. The shoves coming from the muggles was more than justified in her eyes, they were scared and they were going to fight back. "This way, th-there's an e-exit this way," Dahlia repeated every couple of seconds like a song on loop. She tried to usher the muggles as best she could to the area the older girl mentioned.

It was like being on auto pilot, nothing she was doing really registered in her head fully. At least she was doing her best.

JACKIE HAD BEEN GRABBED!! This was it! It was all over for her! She felt herself being dragged along, realising the others would likely leave without her.

It became apparent quite quickly that they were being herded....like....like cattle. LIKE ANIMALS.

The muggles stood their ground, refusing to move and began swinging their branches once more. They were not idiots. They would not go quietly to the children of the corn.

While you work at your muggle wrangling, a piece of parchment comes floating by. It's size is not much to take note of, but soon enough it speaks and when it does it is the voice of your Headmaster.

On any normal day, getting hit with branches by frightened adults would hurt. Given the current circumstances however, Lia barely felt the contact those branches made with her body. She was already a broken mess so what was a couple more bruises, scrapes and cuts to add to that Whatever injuries she sustained were deserved. Nobody deserved to be treated the way these people were being treated, it wasn't fair and it wasn't right.

When the bit of parchment floated by and the booming voice of their Headmaster spoke, the first year didn't hesitate to do as told. All she wanted to do was get her things and head back into the castle to find her siblings and cousins.

Letting out a breath, Lia turned on her heel and headed back towards the gate. As she walked she cast a quick glance over her shoulder at the group of muggles... what was going to happen to them? The thought alone scared her...

Claudine missed the freedom of taking these walks by herself but the situation could not be helped given her now old living arrangements in the Castle. Besides being uncomfortable about being chaperoned by The Hoods everywhere she went, the girl also missed constantly having her wand in her possession. Stupid Hoods. Stupid Rosier. Stupid anyone who thougt that blood status mattered. And yes, that included her family.

The girl came to a halt some distance away from the Willow and it was regarded warily. Of course there was nothing to worry about as The Hoods wouldn’t let them wander closer. Or would they? Would they enjoy the show if the Willow got violent? Claudine wouldn’t put that past the Hoods; they’d possibly like the entertainment.

Tilting her head slightly, and ignoring anyone else who was with her on that walk, the fifth year studied the ancient tree. It would make for a good sketch.

Quinn was trudging along during the walk—the underground chamber was really grating on his psyche from having been down there for so long, and the walks were barely a respite—when he saw Claudine staring at the Whomping Willow. It was weird to think they'd only met at the Owl Post over the summer since it seemed like forever ago when in truth it couldn't have been more than eight or nine months. The Willow made him nervous and he never got close, and he got especially nervous when other people would get closer than he was comfortable with.

The first year walked up next to Claudine and tugged on her sleeve. "Don't get so close... I don't want it to whomp you," he said, eyeing the tree warily. Plus, Claudine was one of the toughest students down in The Room™ (in Quinn's eyes, at least). If something happened to her.... they would have a way worse chance of being able to escape. If that chance were ever to arise, which seemed unlikely, but still.