Noticing Ricco had found a convenient little wall-seat (haha), Jake started scanning his area of wall for something to sit on. Nothing. Everything just went... inwards. Tapping his wand against his teeth, Jake became acutely aware of Truebridge being right there, in the room.

But he got... one of those impulses.

Oh yes he did.

That wall looked pretty climbable to Jake.

Without taking a second thought, Jake went straight at the wall and took hold of a couple of the indentations. They were tiny, only small enough for his fingertips to just about fit on... and the very tips of his shoes.

"Hehe," Jake muttered, as he got up about 2 feet from the ground (which was alot higher than his usual 4'5"). Suddenly, though, Jake realised he... probably wouldn't get away with doing that.

Not with Truebridge right. there.

Watching.

Ricco watched as Jake scanned the room to see if there was another ofe of the little sticking out seats for him to sit on, he knew there wasnt as he had a quick look before he had sat down. Continuing to watch jake as he started to look between a wall with many small finger holes and Professor Truebride, he could already see what was going to pen.

awww come on dont do it....

ooh no he didnt...he thought as Jake began to climb the wall, stking his whole head in both palms he opened a space in his fingers so that he could see when Truebridge decided to kill him.

Noticing the light getting a little darker Ricco remembered that there was another Tryout for his team startiing soon, it was the last tryout of the year. "Jake tryout are on soon" he hinted to the boy that was now atleast 2 and a half feet above the ground.

Spidahmannnnnn!!!!!

Yep, that's what he felt like. Oh yeah. Within no time at all, Jake's feet were at the same level that his head was at not three seconds before. But he was getting carried away. "Tryouts... you really think we'll make it to tryouts? No chance," he muttered, reaching out for another hold on the stone, missing completely, and letting go.

"Accchhcckkk," he yelled, putting his arms up to protect himself. He hit the floor and heard something snap... not a bone inside him, as far as he could tell... no.

His wand lay in two pieces on the floor.

Ricco stopped himself laugh as he watched Jake at like that weirdo guy that is in thos muggle films. What was his name again....o spiderman. Then there was a crashing sound followed by a snap as he crashed to the ground. Noticing that it was just his wand that was broken in half he let out a chuckle before taking out hs own wand and quickly hanging out the window.

As he pushed his head further out the window he spotted an owl sittng just along from were he was, pushing himself out a little further to get a better view of the bird he noticed that it was his own bird, Stacey. trying to get further out to reach her he opened both his hands to grab her,

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

He had dropped his wand into the ground below. Knowing that he wasnt losing both his owl and his wand he grabbed Stacey and gently pulled her back into the room were Jake was stll lying on the ground. He was not happy.

...

...

"HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!" Jake burst out laughing, falling back onto the floor and laughing heartily. Sure, he had a broken wand... that thing was useless when it was in perfect condition anyway. But Ricco, the fool... he'd just lost his own wand trying to save a bird... that could fly.

Bwahahahaa.

Oh, good times. "You dork," Jake giggled, picking up the two bits of wand and trying to fit them back together like a jigsaw. Still giggling, he never noticed Ricco's face... that wasn't all happy. At all.

Jake was gettin on Riccos nerves about the whole wand thing, then a thought came to his mind. Whispering to the owl Ricco told her to do something before letting her fly out the window. Sticking his head back out the window he watched as the owl flew down and grabbed the wand before zooming back up to him doing little tricks. Once he got hs wand back Stacey went into the room behind and started to eat some of the owl treats that had been left or half eaten.

"Atleast i have a wand that can perform a spell" Ricco said to the giggling boy as he took a seat on the sticking out rock once more.

Frowning miserably, all possible cause for happiness lost, Jake glared at his own wand, totally annoyed with the stupid thing.

It really was stupid. Like, annoyingly so. Breathing harshly, Jake held both halves tightly in his fist before he threw them towards the door that led out. Scowling fiercely, Jake looked back up at Truebridge and waited.

"Glad to see you are enjoying yourselves." Ethan had been sitting there observing the two Hufflepuffs, their discussion and their antics. "Might I add my input? Well... I'm going to, clearly, so listen. Jake; yes a concern is hurting Anna, damaging the suits of armour and of course controlling and channeling your anger, but also, you yourself might have been hurt and that is not something we wish to see happen." He paused and shot a significant look at the boy.

"Likewise for you Ricco, I doubt you considered the fact that the potions lab is on the dungeon level and the floodwaters were contaminated by several dangerous substances and therefore you might have been seriously hurt too. Not to mention, your insistance in helping was both a hinderance to our efforts and a blatant sign of disrespect by insinuating that your professors were unable to aid the trapped students without your help. There were, incidentally, other ways that you'd have been able to help if you had of stopped to think about it, much like what the prefects were doing. Clearing the dungeons, helping give out pepper-up potion, even sharing your textbooks and things like that."

Truebridge eyed the broken wand and shrugged philosophically. "You two have a lot in common; both of you react without thinking, often in anger. What makes you both so angry at the world? I myself have been called impetuous," He paused, thinking of Kazimeriz, "Even violent, and certainly I harmed my classmates more than either of you have done so far."

Except Ethan, being a Slytherin was cunning enough most of the time to avoid getting caught. Except for the times when he'd done things right in froont of Kazimeriz.

"I was angry. I was angry that I didn't understand people unless they were in book form. I was angry at people that judged me or had an expectation of me that I felt to be unrealistic. I was especially angry that I didn't feel like I could be all the things that were expected of me."

Truebridge shrugged and stood up.

"The last task I have for the two of you today is to make a sign with that sheet of cardboard." He pointed at the large, black cardboard sheet on the table. "Spell out the word 'Sorry' with owl treats which you will glue to the cardboard without using magic."

He gestured at the table where tweezers and glue sat.

"You will do this together." Ethan tapped his wand on the single chair that he'd been sitting on. "Both of you are to place one hand on the back of this chair and keep it there," Which would be the case since Truebridge had just stuck a pretty strong sticking charm on the wood, "Until you have finished working together to make the sign. The sooner you finish, the sooner you can leave."

He liked the sound of his own voice, huh? Blahhhh, all the wordssssss, they didn't really register after the first few sentences... which was good... because the only thing Jake needed to hear was at the beginning. Blah, hurt? How could he have been hurt?

Ah well.

But Jake, being Jake, conveniently tuned in to hear Truebridges little inner turmoil sturrrff. Haha, bad guy. Where was his leather jacket? Bwaha.

"Woah woah woahhhhhh," Jake blurted out, suddenly. "No, mate. I can't... that's... that's apologising," he said, stating the obvious. "Can't... can't we at least write another word?"

Just... not sorry.

Well... Jake could think of plenty of words he didn't want to do.

Ricco just watched as the last of the Quidditch tryouts ended with a sad look on his face, "I hate you" he said quietly aiming it at Truebridge. Now he was not going to listen to that...evil man who had kept him from going to the one thing that would truly have kept him being a really good pupil.

Looking at the chair Ricco just let a little hump escape his lips as he watched his owl eat an owl treat beside him. "Sorry, no can do professor, not unless there is something in it for me" he said still annoyed because he could not go to Quidditch Tryouts.

...

...



"Riiiiiicccooooooooooo," Jake whined, doing his best to act like the little kid and going over to tug at the older boy's sleeve. "Pleeeeeeeease..."

Wait... what?

"I mean..." he corrected himself, turning back to Truebridge. He was preeeeeeetty sure he didn't want to do this, being all Not. Saying. Sorry. and the like. "Yeah, no can do."

Unless... like... you scare me... then I'll do it... or denyyyyyyy.

"What... what I of course mean, is..." Jake babbled, looking from the older boy to the professor. "Is... well... I can't do it alone? Ya know... so... it's a bit..." he trailed off, looking back up at Ricco. "I mean... like... I'm not going to do it because... like... I shouldn't have to..."

Trailing off again, Jake looked between the two again, several times over. "I mean... I mean..." he babbled again, nervous.

Whose side to take?

Ricco just stared at the boy with a blank look....What was this boy talking about , he was just babblng. This boy was going to get them both killed, oh well they would now be able to die together...

wait...

thats not what he wanted and in his mind that just sounded wrong. "Wow Jake....yea what he said" he said slightly flabbergastered.

He could do this.

He could DO this.

"IHAVANIDEA!" Jake suddenly exclaimed, dashing over to the table and reaching over for the glue, laying his hand temporarily on the chair for some kind of stability. As he pulled the glue towards him, Jake tried to pull the hand away from the chair.

But he couldn't.

Sticky situation.

"Uhhh..." he mumbled, pulling at the chair, trying to let go. But he couldn't. "Dammit," Jake seethed, glaring up at EVIL TRUEBRIDGE again before eyeing the glue and (clumsily) holding it so some of it went on his hand. Then, (still clumsily) Jake reached over and gripped Ricco's arm.

Hard.

And theeeeeeeeen, because Jake was like, a total genius, he tugged the boy over and planted the guy's hand firmly on the back of the chair.

"Hahahahahahahaaaa!" he giggled in a kind of insane, evil laughter.

Ricco had completely lost interest in this detention now, then Jake started pulling on Ricco. The first few times he didnt really get a good grip but when he tried again Ricco almost fell over as his left hand hit the sticky part of the chair.

Now he had done it.....

"ARGHHHHHH" Ricco shouted as he pulled as hard as he could on the chair, but nothing worked. Without thinking Ricco grabbed the pair of tweezers and held them up ready to do somethign that he would regret...

"EEEEEP!" Jake squealed (yes... squealed) as Ricco held up the tweezers... looking all scary, like. Both of his own hands were stuck, either on Ricco's arm or the back of the chair. Spotting the other pair of tweezers, Jake bowed his head to the table and got hold of the pair with his teeth, using his tongue to manouver them so they pointed out.

Turning back to face Ricco, Jake moved his jaw so that the (nasty tasting) pair of tweezers opened and shut a few times in rapid succession. "Huzzhhharrr!" he said with his teeth clenched, before jerking his head forwards in a kind of BACK! gesture.

It miiiiiight have seemed like provocation.

...

Have you ever stood for a long time with one hand stuck on the back of a chair and one hand stuck on a large, angry boy's arm? You have? Well... then you'll know you'd rather do what you're asked than stay like that. So, sighing, still with with tweezers in his mouth, Jake started to get to work.

First problem was working out how to get the owl treats. With his left arm across his chest, stuck to Ricco's left arm, which was stuck to the chair... and Jake's own right hand stuck on the back of the chair... you could say he was in a bit of a pickle. Yus. But he still had his health feet, right? Glancing down at the floor, Jake realised there were enough treats nearby, thanks to the moving from the other side of the room to this spot.

"Right," Jake muttered, stretching his short little legs out as far as he could before he started sweeping the treats up into a smallish heap. Then was the mega tricky bit... reaching down and picking up each treat... one by one. Grrrrr!

Reach down as faaaaaaaaar as possible, maybe kinda sort of tugging at Ricco's arm a tad, getting the verrrrrrry edge of one of the treats, and then come back up, and lay it on the table. Repeat.

Over and over.

And overrrrrrrr.

It took an hour at the very least... and Jake was seething at the simple fact that he was in such a mess. Every now and then the treats would drop onto the floor again, and that was infuriating, but he didn't give up. His brow began to show signs of perspiration through the intense concentration he was paying... and he was getting tired.

When he'd picked up what seemed to be enough, Jake, still gripping the tweezers between his teeth and beginning to get cramp in his jaw, wiped his forehead on his arm, before eyeing the glue. How do I do this?

The answer was simple... he'd have to knock over the glue and... well... hope for the best. Yep. Without hesitation, Jake jabbed at the glue with the tweezers, causing it to fall and spill.

S-l-o-w-l-y.

That was the only way to describe how the process was going. Get glue on the tweezers, wipe the glue off THOROUGHLY onto the card in the right place, then pick up a treat, put it in the right place. If he was lucky, he wouldn't have to spend ages trying to manouver the treat off (glue tends to be sticky).

Imagine that process... over and over and over.

Then, of course, Jake had that problem with running out of spaaaaaace...

Disaster.

...

Fiiiiiiiiinally... after what must have been hours, Jake dropped the tweezers out of his mouth and onto the table, but found his jaw was still staying clenched, only opening enough for slight speech and the like.



(He never said he could spell... and you try concentrating.)

"I don't much care if you hate me." Truebridge answered. "And you don't have a choice in the matter, in case you failed to notice, you are in detention. Shape up or you WILL be expelled."

Truebridge shrugged and placed Ricco in a bodybind.

Yes.

Again.

Watching Jake make an admirable effort, Ethan nodded. "Excellent. Apart from the spelling but the point remains the same. You are free to go. And, if you are feeling angry feel free to come talk to me. Do attempt to control your behaviour, I will not hesitate to take another detention with you."

Turning his attention to Ricco, Truebridge narrowed his eyes slightly. "When I let you out of that body bind, and free you from the chair," He flicked his wand and freed Jake, "You will hold Jake's sign and stand against the wall."

Gaping at Truebridge, Jake blinked at the first word the man said to him Excellent. Didn't that mean, like... good?

...

Cool.

"Thanks sir!" he grinned, not really hindered by the warning about another possible detention if there was another display of his temper.

INEVITABLE!

"Spelling?" was the only thing that made Jake's face fall a tad. "Oh... erm..." he stalled, frowning at the sign. But, the smile came back when Jake was released from his sticky situation. He grinned up again and went over to get the fragments of his wand, before leaving without a moment's hesitation.

Ricco would have made a movement if he could but since that he was still stuck in the stupid body bind all he could do was think, "Yes i will behave and ill do whatever you ask"

Truebridge flicked his wand and freed Ricco from the body bind. "Pick up the sign, stand against the wall."

"Yes sir" he said as he picked the sign up and walked over to the wall, knowing were he was going as soon as he was finished here he stood up staright beside the wall.

"Tell me something, Ricco. Do you wish to stay at Hogwarts?" Ethan opened the window and a bunch of owls swooped in, immediately zeroing in on the boy with the sign covered in owl treats. "Don't drop the sign." Truebridge warned.

The owls flapped and scratched and pecked in their eagerness to get at the treats.

Ricco thought about the question he was asked, if he had asked him maybe even a couple of days back then he woul have immediatly said no, but now the school was growing on him. "No i like it here and i wish to stay here, if i am allowed" He said as several owls flew into the room and began pecking at him as they missed the treats, after a while the word 'sorry' couldnt be read at all.

"I liked being a student here too." Ethan agreed, watching the owls swoop and peck and scratch at Ricco in their eagerness to get at the owl treats until the boy was bleeding a little bit.

"It isn't just about saying that you want to be here, you have to show that you do. Words are only powerful for as long as they last." He eyed the sign for a moment, "It's actions that give words true meaning." He paused to let that sink in.


"You need to think about why you do the things that get you in trouble and what you can do to avoid getting so angry about things. If you ever need to talk, you may visit my office any time. I will try to help you if you promise to try to help yourself."

"I will Professor" he said as blood began to trickle down his arm, "I will stay out of trouble". Ricco knew he had to behave but he was startng to wonder what he meant by words are powerful, deciding that he didnt want to ask he lifted the sign up higher so the owls could get to it easier. Then Ricco's little owl called stacey jumped up onto hs arm and began pecking at the treats carefully.

Ethan nodded, watching Ricco intently. "You know with magic that intent is just as important as getting the incantation and the wand movement, right? This is the same with change. Saying that you will and appearing as if you are, count for nothing if you do not truly want to do it. I will be watching you and I really hope that you are up to the task." Truebridge's tone made it clear that he wasn't entirely convinced that Ricco could turn himself around.

He watched the little owl being all gentle and wondered a bit at that. How could someone so angry and violent end up with a pet that appeared to genuinely care for him? "Do you like animals, Ricco?"