Iliana stared at Kayla incredulously. "You've got to be kidding." She said, not sure if she was actually relieved or more worried to learn he'd ended up back at her hut. What did that mean? How scared was he to wind up there? Even though her leg screamed out against it, Iliana pressed on, ever-increasing her pace as she got closer.
Professor Morgan saw Ross standing outside her door and sighed. "Ross can we talk about whatever it is later. I'm a little busy right now?" She said, going inside her door and giving him a quick smile and 'Thanks' before closing it behind her.

Once inside, she quickly scanned the room. Her breathing had quickened, her chest heaved up and down. ... She frowned. "Jake!?" She called out, noting nothing out of place and no Jake in sight. Just then, Vincent came whirling out of his cage, flapping his wings erratically in front of her and then zooming under her desk.

Jake, underneath the desk, froze when he heard voices from outside. Craaaaaaap!!!!! He held his breath, determined not to move or make a sound. Hugging his knees tightly, Jake nearly had a full-blown heart attack when the door opened and they entered.

Sodeadsodeadsodeaddeaddead...

Hearing his name, Jake screwed his eyes shut, as if the sound of his blinking would give him away. There was a strange kind of flapping sound, and that evil bloody yellowish BIRD was there.

Youuuuuu... Jake was able to think in a bizarre moment of calm. I'm a seeker you know... I could do things to you that never used to be illegal...

Kayla followed Professor Morgan into the hut and she too scanned the room. "I somehow don't think he's going to make it that easy Professor" Kayla made her way deeper into the room and looked around, she knew exactly where he was and so she stood directly in front of the desk. "Just a suggestion but you might want to seal the doors."

Bending down so that she could peer under the desk, Kayla spied Jake cowering like a frightened little rabbit. "As fun as this has been Jake, your game of hide and seek is now over. So why don't you come out from under the desk and talk to Professor Morgan, she is most worried about you" she gave him a reassuring smile and decided now was not the time to tell him that she would pull him out by force if she had to.

Iliana drew out her wand and quickly sealed up the doors, thankful to Kayla for the idea. She then followed Vincent over to her desk and threw herself to the floor, screwing up her face as her leg sent bolt after bolt of pain all the way up to her hip. Maybe it was a bit more than a nasty bruise after all. She stuck her head under the desk and let out a huge sigh of relief. "Jake honey, come out of there." She pleaded, holding her arms wide open. "Are you okay?"

Seal the doors and windows? That made Jake seem soooooo trustworthy. Merrrrrr... Turning away from the evil snidget for the moment, Jake stared ahead of him and waited for them to give up, assume that the snidget was an evil little liar. Grrrrrrr.

HOLY SMOKIN' TUMBLEDRYERS!

Suddenly, Kayla was there, staring right at Jake, and talking. Bah, words... Hide and seek? I don't think so. Shaking his head, Jake pushed himself further and further back, even though he'd already backed up as far as was physically possible. "Noooo," he whimpered, frowning a tad. "Go 'way..."

EEP! What is this? See-who-gives-Jake-a-heart-attack-first day?! Jake suddenly thought to himself as Professor Morgan appeared as well, a weird look on her face. Jake was sorely tempted, at first, to crawl out and into her arms, but then he realised. That was what they waaaaanted... yeah... good cop, bad cop, evil snidget...

Jake shook his head as an answer to both questions and pushed himself further back, glaring at the snidget... It was soooooo tempting...

Kayla watched Jake's face and she could tell that he did not trust them one little bit and now he was retreating further back under the desk. Eh... like that would stop her. She glanced at Professor Morgan for a moment and knew that her leg was hurting more than she was willing to let on and Kayla was not about to let the woman hurt herself anymore.

Taking a deep breath and hoping she wasn't about to get into trouble for this, she squeezed herself under the table and belly crawled her way to Jake. "You don't like to make things easy for yourself do you?" she panted. "Now Jake, you can come with me quietly or I am going to make life rather hard for you" she grabbed him by the robes and held tight. "Professor, can you pull me back out please, I have Jake?" she looked at Jake for a moment, "It's for you own good you know."

Iliana was not pleased to say the least. She knew that Jake was scared and she hated herself for making it worse. "Jake honey, no one's here to hurt you." She said, urging him to trust her for once.

She nodded fervently as she saw Kayla crawl underneath the desk. One thing was sure, this girl was brilliant. "Be gentle with him Kayla." She called to her, pulling her out slowly. When they were both finally out from under the desk, Iliana scooped Jake into her arms and hugged him tight. "Jake I have been so worried about you." She said, as a tear rolled down her face.

Eyes widening as Kayla reached in and grabbed him, Jake started to struggle.

What WAS it with WOMEN and MANHANDLING?!

Easy for myself? I can't heeeelp iiiiiit...

"I said NO!" he shouted, please Kayla's ears were close in the vicinity to his voice, which came out nice and loooouuuud... But still, she grabbed him.

Flailing about, Jake thrashed as Professor Morgan pulled Kayla out, who ended up pulling Jake along. This was NOT his idea of a perfect day so far, and to think, not a couple of hours ago he was on the third floor pretending to be a plane. Allie was soooooo in for it.

But, Jake was totally bamboozled when Professor Morgan didn't thwack him upside the head or banish him from the castle but instead... hugged him?

Listening to her words, Jake became even more confused. "What?" he choked out, not returning the hug nor trying to escape. "Why?"

Feeling herself being dragged out by Professor Morgan, Kayla grabbed onto Jake even tighter as he continued to thrash around. Really she had taken care of adults twice the size of Jake, did he really think he was any match for her.

Standing up she watched as Professor Morgan embraced Jake in a tight hug and she raised an eyebrow but said nothing. "I'll just go and make us some tea, so you two can...talk." Kayla moved off into the kitchen but made sure that she could see both Jake and the Professor, just in case he tried to make another run for it. She would stay out of it until Professor Morgan, asked her for assistance.

Iliana released her hold on him and searched his face. "Jake you can't be serious?" She asked in disbelief, wiping the tear away. "You ran away and I had no idea where you were. And I had NO idea if she'd hurt you." She looked Jake over, paying special attention to his shoulder until she was satisfied that he was okay. "Can we get up off the floor now and talk about it?" She asked. "I swear, you never have to go back to that Hospital Wing ever again."

"Thanks Kayla!" She called out over her shoulder, feeling completely grateful to her.

Frowning, Jake looked up at his professor. "But why would you be worried about me?" he asked, puzzled. Strange person. Totally strange... not safe. Jake closed his eyes, looking towards the door again when he opened them. They's sealed them, hadn't they? How crappy. He was stuck there.

"I don't want to talk," Jake mumbled stubbornly, but getting up anyway. He supposed, deep down, he DID need and maybe even wanted to talk, but they weren't getting him that easily.

But wait... never...?

"You... you promise?" Jake whispered, staring at Professor Morgan with wide eyes. Was this a trick? What... how?

She was nice?

Iliana gave him a tortured look as she pondered over his question. How would she ever get him to understand? "Jake, why wouldn't I be worried about you?" She asked. "You are one of my students, right? Of course I care whether or not you get hurt or frightened." She felt like telling him that he was even more special to her, being that he was her favorite, but years of teaching had taught her long ago that showing favoritism in the classroom was a recipe for disaster. Instead she hugged him quickly once more before trying to stand. It took her awhile, but after a few failed attempts and some interesting facial expressions, she was back on her feet and making her way over to the fireplace. She couldn't help but smile at the way she was able to hide her limp from Jake (and Kayla). The last thing she needed was for him to feel guilty on top of everything else. (or for her to worry).

Once seated, she looked over at him and patted the seat beside her, secretly praying that he would come and sit down without any trouble. Please, PLEASE! Just this once. She wished, having no more energy to run. "I promise Jake!" She agreed. "Never again. For as long as I'm teaching here at Hogwarts." If Jake ever needed fixing up, she was more than capable of handling it herself. After all, she wasn't about to let six years as a Healer go to waste.

Keeping a blank look on his face, Jake's brain gears worked intently to try and make him understand the situation. People weren't supposed to worry about him, it was why he ended up getting away with so much at his primary school, until they kicked him out... but nobody needed to know that just yet, especially considering the irony of the reason. "Mkay," was all he said to acknowledge that he'd heard Professor Morgan.

Watching as Professor Morgan went to sit down by the fireplace again, Jake cast a furtive glance towards the door. It would be a fruitless attempt, trying to escape, and he had the feeling that staying wouldn't be such a bad idea right now. There could be a rabid nurse out for his blood somewhere. Not good.

One step... two steps... Jake let his feet s-l-o-o-o-o-w-l-y carry him over to where the teacher sat, thinking about her words. For as long as I am teaching here at Hogwarts. Oyye, that never ended well in Jake's mind.

He sat down cautiously, fidgetting and playing with his hands for something to do, as well as staring pointedly down, ignoring Professor Morgan until she decided to speak to him. He MUST be in trouble by this point, he'd kicked a chair at the woman, for crying out loud. I wonder what happened to that chair... Jake nodded at the promise, a little disbelieving, but willing to wait and see.

When Jake finally ambled over to sit beside her 'OH THANK MERLIN!!' rang out in her head so loudly that she was almost surprised no one else had heard it. She let out an audible sigh of relief and looked over at Jake, studying his expression. He still seemed terrified. She had to get to the bottom of all this. So far from what she'd witnessed, it seemed that Jake hated hospitals (no real shock there), equally hated Allie Johnson and possibly Cameron too. He seemingly feared everyone, especially yours truly and could it be…Vincent as well? With that thought, she gave the snidget a sad smile and whistled for him to come over. Feeling neglectful of him, she quickly pulled out her bag of seeds and passed him a couple when he landed on her shoulder. Then she kissed his tiny head and turned her attention back to Jake.

"Thanks for coming over here, Jake. I much prefer the sofa to the cold, hard floor." She said, unsure of how to start. Then throwing caution to the wind, Iliana blurted out, "Could you please tell me what's going on with you lately? I'd like to try and be there for you if I can."

Seeing that everything seemed to have calmed down and that Jake was at least staying put for the moment, well he couldn't actually go anywhere anyway. Kayla busied herself with making the tea, she could hear both Professor Morgan and Jake talking and she wondered whether maybe she should step outside.

Carrying the tray of tea over to where the two were sitting, she placed it on the table and looked at Professor Morgan, concern still etched on her face. She had seen the way the Professor was favouring her leg and Kayla could tell it was more than just a bruise. "Maybe Jake, would feel more comfortable talking if I wasn't in the room" she gave Jake a fleeting glance before turning back to the Professor. "I could take Vincent for a walk outside if you like?"

Jake flinched as Professor Morgan whistled for that Snitch of a Snidget [/pun] to come over. He was still furious with the bird for revealing his location, but that was besides the point right now. Still, he eyed it evilly, feeling a surge of something he couldn't quite place. All he knew was, he didn't like that thing.

Shrugging one shoulder, as he couldn't get back into the habit of using both, Jake listened to Professor Morgan, squeezing his eyes shut at the final question. That was just... so...

Jake leaned back in the chair, running his fingers in abstract patterns along the arm of the sofa, feeling the material brush his fingertips. It was so peaceful and calming. Jake closed his eyes. The day's events had at first exhausted him, but now he was wide awake, and painfully aware of every thought that was brought up with that one question.

Opening his eyes, still leaning backwards, Jake gazed at his Professor. "It's too much," he whispered. Glancing at Kayla, Jake closed his eyes again. "No, I just can't handle this... I want to go home. I miss my bedroom, I miss my house, I miss being alone all day..." Jake took a deep breath and tried not to break down. "Ever since I came to this place I've been freaking manhandled by too many people, shoved about so THEY can move ME around," COUGHAllieReeseKaylaPlymouthProfessorMorganCOUGH "And people think they can pick on me like that. Someone swung for me, missed me, and swung for me again so I got a black eye, another person, Plymouth, tried to flush my bloody head down the toilet because I followed the rules in Defense Against the Dark Arts. And THEN a Gryffindor PREFECT had the nerve to tell me he'd turn a blind eye to the whole thing..." I handled that one, though... for now...

Jake took a couple of deep breaths, heeeeeeeehuuuuheeeeeeehuuuuuheeee, and continued. "And then I saw Set die..." he whispered these words, staring at the wall opposite him. "And Professor Kazimeriz... he might need the memory, and I keep seeing it, him falling and stuff... It's so horrible... and... and..." And if someone killed him, and they find out I ratted them out... I'm dead too... And if it's a disease, I touched Set's face, I have it too... and I'm still dead...

Two salty tears ran down Jake's face, and he looked between the two females. "I hate it here."

As Kayla brought the over the tea, Iliana could see how worried she still looked. Shoot! She thought, tucking her hair behind her ear. Kayla wasn't buying her little performance at all. She smiled, thanking her for the tea and considered her offer. "Actually Kayla, that's a wonderful idea." She said, looking back and forth between Jake and Vincent. Privacy was probably best and Vinners seemed more than comfortable around Kayla. "Here you go." She said, handing the snidget over on two fingers. "Its cold out there though. Don't freeze yourself."
Professor Morgan watched as Kayla took Vincent outside, deciding to take her chances leaving the door unsecured. She listened intently as Jake started to tell her about the awful things that had been going on for him here and felt her heart start to break. It must have been just horrible. Being so young and so far from home. At least for her first year at Hogwarts she had Alain and Viviana here with her to keep her from feeling homesick.

"Oh Jake, someone hit you?! WHO?!" She demanded. "Who’s been treating you this way?"

"Plymouth Morgan?" She asked, sure there was only one. "And Cale!?! But why would he do such a thing?!" She asked, visibly angry. She lowered her head in an effort to keep it together, refusing to allow herself to get worked up again. But Cale knew better. She was a Gryffindor darn it, same as he! And a prefect, allowing a fifth year to torment a firstie… The very idea sickened her. Oh her poor Jake.

When he mentioned Set, Iliana shivered and lifted her head. She had had no idea that Jake had to bear witness to that tragedy. But it made perfect sense. He was a Hufflepuff after all. She looked over at Jake mournfully and threw her arms around him again, this time pulling him close. "I didn't know…" She said, trying not to cry. When he muttered, I hate it here... It was more than she could take. She wiped the tear away quickly so that Jake wouldn't see.

Jake sniffed a little as his eyes glazed over with unshed tears. It was all way too much, and he'd never dealt with stuff like this, at least not on this scale. Squeezing his eyes shut, Jake clenched his fists, wishing he could go back to staying in his own house on his own, everyday, like he was used to.

Questions... questions...

But then, she hugged him... Jake didn't pull away or even ignore the embrace like last time, he leaned into it, thankful for any kind of support with his emotional state right then. Only then did he get to answering.

"J-J-Jack M-Mosier," he stammered out, trying to keep his voice steady and failing miserably. "He got d-d-detention for it, and stu-stuff, but he... he... he's just sooooo intimidating if i s-s-say s-something that he doesn't agree with... or l-l-look at hiiiiim the wrong way, whatever that means," Jake added, feeling the tears slide down his face. He hated when people told him he gave them a look, or that he had an attitude, because he just couldn't do those things. "Even in classes, Muggle Studies and Arithmancy... he uses his h-height to g-go all intimidating, s-s-squaring up to me and st-stuff." Jake made sure not to point out the boy had also 'helped' fix his arm.

"Yeah," Jake sniffed, pouting miserably at this point. "We had a wizard tag thing game, and I played by the rules, I swear! He wore a badge! She wore a badge! She got me FIRST!" Panicking, Jake tried to get through the fact that he had not been in the wrong at all. "And Plymouth... he got me in a headlock, and dragged me to the boys room, and made the girl watch, and tried to make me say sorry. But I wasn't sorry, I wasn't wrong... Then... Cale? Yeah, him, he came along as Plymouth tried to give me a swirly, and Plymouth went back to class, and Cale said he would totally ignore whatever Plymouth did if I didn't apologise, but I wasn't wrong, I swear to you," Jake sobbed, the tears coming thick and fast. "He said he'd do it himself... and Plymouth scares me... I panicked when he left, and kept throwing myself against the stall... because I'm a spaz... an idiot... the weird kid..."

Jake gulped again, pushing himself further into the embrace, covering his eyes with his hand, which was covered by his sleeve. "You weren't supposed to know," Jake whimpered, taking a couple of steadying breaths, and again failing to calm down. "People want to know stuff... not many know I actually SAW it, just that I came across him and screamed... some people have been trying to corner me and talk..." Jake pressed harder on his eyes. "I don't deal with pressure very well."

Jake had never been able to deal with pressure, always ushered away from stressful situations, allowed to deal with things in his own little world, whilst everyone sorted the bigger problems. After years of that, Jake couldn't get used to the new way of doing things, and the pressure had slowly crept up on him. If only...

Iliana hardly knew how to react with the flood of information she was getting. It seemed like this whole term had been one problem after another for Jake. And all this time, keeping it all inside… It was horrible. With the twins, she could just give them a hug and wipe away their tears and everything would be all better. But little sister troubles were trivial compared to all this.

"I still can't believe he hit you." she said tearfully, pulling a tissue from inside of her robes and handing it over. Still the more she listened, the more her heart continued to break. It was a relief to feel him holding on to her. To her it meant that maybe she was at least some comfort to him. Though when she saw the fear in his eyes as she spoke of Set's death, Iliana knew that there had to be more she could do. Pulling away and looking at his tear streaked face, she smiled sadly and said, "I can take those memories away for you, Jake. And bring them to Professor Kazimeriz myself. Then maybe you wouldn't be so haunted by that day."

Accepting the tissue, which is something that he had NEVER been able to do, Jake rubbed his eyes clumsily with it and hiccoughed. He couldn't believe that either, nor could he believe that Jack had then had the audacity to act like he was totally good and not remember.

"It's... fine," he mumbled, though in his head, he knew it really wasn't. Wow, all this lying would cause some meltdown with his brain soon. Hogwarts was bad for his health. "I just... wish he'd stay away from me..."

At the Professor's last words Jake leant back against the arm of the sofa and looked up at her, suddenly exhausted like he always was when the slightest tear was shed with him. He shook his head slowly. "He wanted to talk to me about it, Professor," Jake explained. "And also, I don't think he would be very happy... afterwards, maybe," Jake whispered. The fact was, knowing he had known, but not being able to recall would drive Jake absolutely mad. Worse than knowing, but he couldn't say that, now could he. "It's fine," he mumbled, looking down at his hands solemnly, hoping she wasn't about to get mad.

She looked at him earnestly, as a grieved expression crossed her face, and said, "If it's not… come and tell me." The bitterness was not apparent in her voice, but it was there just the same. Her gaze fell on the nearby window; watching as fresh snowflakes clung to the slumbering branches of an old oak tree just outside the glass. Reaching inside her robes again, Iliana pulled out a tissue of her own and absently dabbed at her eyes. She couldn't remember when her tears had started to fall but shrugged it off. It wasn't important.

Leaning forward, Iliana poured herself a cup of tea and sipped at it quietly, thinking about what he had said. She wished there was a way to prove to Jake how brave he'd been. Much older students would've crumpled under the weight of his problems. Instead Jake acted valiantly. "I'm very proud of you." She said finally. And left it at that.

Kayla slipped quietly back into the hut and stood still in the corner so as not to scare Jake into not talking to the Professor. She didn't want to intrude but it was too cold to stay outside and poor little Vincent was shivering as she held him in her hands.

Well she could not help but hear what Jake had to say and her eyes narrowed slightly and the anger bubbled up inside her. That bloody Jack Mosier was at it again and quite frankly she'd had enough of him. And this whole thing with Plymouth Morgan, oh now she had two reasons to have a go at that little snot. She had been itching to for ages now, with the whole Cela thing and now Jake! Oh and Cale Newell will be having a talking to as well, what kind of Prefect just turns a blind eye to this sort of thing.

Kayla knew Jake, was suffering from what he had seen of Set's death and it would be a lot for one eleven year to deal with. Eh...she had seen stuff like that before she knew how to close her self from that stuff now. She cleared her throat to let them know she was back in the room, "Sorry I had to come back inside, Vincent here was getting cold" Kayla turned to Jake. "I couldn't help but overhear and if it would make you feel better I can accompany you to Professor Kazimeriz if you like. He asked me to escort the younger years around anyway" she gave a small shrug, "Up to you of course, I - I have witnessed people dying as well" she confessed.

Still staring blankly down at his hands, Jake took a large breath in and nodded. "I will," he murmured. "I'll try, in any case."

Pressing each of his finger tips together over and over again in a sort of rhythm, getting faster and faster, Jake bit his lip in worry. "What happened with that chair... am I going to get in trouble for what I-" Jake broke off, staring intently at Professor Morgan's face. He'd caught sight of a movement out of the corner of his eye, and had turned to look around, and now wished he hadn't. "Why are you crying?" Did I hurt her? Jake thought worriedly, for this was the first time he could remember feeling bad about making someone upset. "What did I do?"

Hang on... wooooahhhh... Jake stared incredulously at Professor Morgan for a second, shocked. "You... proud? Of... of... of me?" Jake didn't understand. He'd been acting like a coward and a total imbecile, people hated him and then he turned up here acting like a complete infant. Shaking his head, Jake opened his moth to say something, but a noise startled him.

Listening to Kayla with slightly wide eyes, Jake nodded. "Yeah, I mean, please... He told me to go see him in private to talk about it, but I'm pretty sure he meant because of all the others in the office by that point... I'd really appreciate it when I go... but a couple of girls were taking him to see that mirror... on the 6th floor..." Jake shook his head to stop the nervous rambling, and just nodded, before his voice broke up again. At her next words, Jake didn't know quite what to say. "You... you did?" he asked quietly, pulling his knees up and hugging them. "That's..." he looked to the Professor, unable to finish his sentence.

Empathy; not Jake's strong point, even if the situations did have small similarities.

Kayla gave Jake a reassuring smile, "It's no problems at all. I seem to get on quite well with Professor Kazimeriz, so I don't think he will mind." That might be a little presumptuous on Kayla's part but she had never had a problem with the DADA professor. They both seemed to be on the same wave length at times and so she understood him and respected him totally.

She nodded at him, "Horrible, I know" she finished for him. "Death is a hard thing to understand and the reasons behind it even harder. But you have to try and move on Jake, otherwise it's going to torment you for the rest of your life." Kayla moved forward closer to Jake and the Professor and she placed Vincent back onto Professor Morgan's shoulder and took a seat by the fire. "I know that sounds harsh and I don't mean it to be but I learnt to move past it because if I didn't I would still be in my bed crying my eyes out."

When Professor Morgan heard Kayla enter she turned towards the prefect and waved her over. "Oh goodness Kayla, you must be freezing. Come over by the fire and get warm." She fussed.

Then she glanced back at Jake and gave him a reassuring smile. He was still noticeably upset but she felt like they were making progress. When he asked about the chair, Iliana felt another sharp stab of pain run through her leg and made a mental note to splint it as soon as she was by herself. "The chair?" She asked. "Oh, never you mind that chair." She said, shaking her head. "A little overturned furniture never hurt anybody." Unless of course it smashed into you with alarmingly force… she thought.

At Jake's question, Iliana shoved the wet tissue in her pocket and shook her head. "You didn't do anything Jake, I'm fine. Today's just been a very long day." She explained. "And I'm being a silly, emotional woman." She laughed, mocking herself and feeling genuinely silly for her little display in front of the students. Very professional Ili.

"Of course I'm proud of you Jake. You've been through so much and yet you're here, talking to me and trying to work it out. That's very grown up of you." She explained. "Granted, you did run from me…" She added, pulling his wand from her pocket and rolling it between her fingers. "But I think that's out of your system now. Either way, you'll be needing this back now I suspect." She said, handing it over to him and giving him a wink.

"Oh... and about that detention I gave you earlier… Nevermind that. I think you've been punished enough. How is your shoulder now anyways?" She asked, wondering why she hadn't just fixed it herself that first day. Well, lesson learned.

Lifting the bird from her shoulder, Iliana wrapped both of her hands around his teeny body and held him close. She sat quietly, watching Kayla's interaction with Jake and going over the day's events in her head. The simple fact of the matter was, Kayla had been the true lifesaver that day. Without her help, who knew how things would have turned out. Or if she’d have even found Jake at all. And now there she was, helping Jake again.

When she finished talking, Ili reached over to take her hand and said, "Thank you for those kind words Kayla. And for everything else you’ve done for me today. You’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty. Take 20 points for Hufflepuff." She said, wishing it were more. Though she hoped that Kayla understood the meaning behind the points and the deep gratitude she felt.