Professor Shackleton-Clark's jaw dropped as she watched Jake's reaction. The boy's reaction seemed genuine, and yet, she knew that he did it because she watched him do it. How is that even possible? He couldn't possibly be that good of an actor. Hmm. One more mystery to figure out about Jake Upstead. Could it be a brain tumor? Maybe she should send him to the nurse before detention... Maybe she should consult her healing books first to see if his symptoms actually were consistent with a brain tumor. It could be some other form of mental illness. Split personality disorder? Bipolar disorder? Schizophrenia? Hmm. And then the whole slew of diseases that affect only witches and wizards... it could be anything!

Macadrian's eyes were slightly glazed over as she considered all of these possibilities until Jake mentioned Abby trying to steal something. And then he just snapped at her! Ok, so Abby was trying to steal something beginning with an 's' ... something she thought Jake might have on him or with him. Hmm. Socks? That seems too trivial to have generated this type of reaction. Sweets? Maybe. Kids did get all bent out of shape about their candies. Eh.

It didn't seem like she was getting much more out of him right now. But she had every intention of using their multiple detention sessions to get as much information as she could. And maybe she'd question Abby while she was at it... "Mr. Upstead, you may go now. I'll see you in my office shortly."

Breathing harshly for a while, Jake went quiet, on the verge of panic. MacShack seemed to be thinking.

Not good.

But at least he was free to go.

It didn't take anything more than those words for Jake to just sprint down the corridor, pushing up the hood on his jacket as he did so. He left his bag behind in the classroom, along with whatever was in it, and also his barely written notes all over the floor.

But he was oblivious. He just needed to chill before going to her office.

Wesley was the last to leave the Arithmancy classroom. After the sudden dismissal she just had sat there, mouth open like a fish, trying to put everything together. Maybe it was the fact that she didn't get anything that had to do with runes, her lack of sleep, the exhaustion that always seemed to appear right before Winter Break, or maybe...all of the odd things happening lately, but it seemed as though everything was spiralling in a whirl of fuzzy colors and incomprehensible thoughts she could only barely grasp before they slipped out again and floated away.

Whatever the reason, it had taken her a couple minutes to pull everything together, and then, as her eyes drifted around the classroom one final moment before leaving, she caught sight of Jake's things. He had left them when Professor Shackleton-Clark had tugged him out the room.

Jake- he had been so angry lately. Something was wrong. Biting her lip worriedly, Wesley had walked back and re-stacked the notes that where scattered around the floor, adding them with the rest of his parchment and ink and various belongings.

Once finished, she had closed the door silently behind her, intent on dropping the things off at the common room...probably to some other Hufflepuff boy so he place them in Jake's dormitory.

But it appeared she wouldn't have as far to walk as she had thought. Professor Shackleton-Clark and Jake hadn't gone any farther than the outside corridor.

Catching just the end of the professor's final sentence, Wesley contemplated on giving the boy his things as soon as he was free. But then- maybe not. She didn't want him to think she had stolen them so...

perhaps she should just anonymously drop them off.

Her reasonings where answered as the pink-haired boy took off.

Mac was about to head back into the classroom when she saw Wesley with an extra backpack in her hands. "Wesley, I'll take those things, please. I'll be sure to return them to Mr. Upstead this evening. Best be off to your next class. You don't want to be late." Mac had a feeling the answers to some of her questions just might lie within the confines of that bag and she was going to get her hands on it, one way or another.

The Hufflepuff's face turned brick-red, as Professor Shackleton-Clark looked at her. Oh dear. Oh dear. I shouldn't have been staring. It wasn't any of my business. Oh please don't get-

"Oh." Wesley blurted when the professor spoke. She wasn't in trouble at all. And here she was thinking that- the 12-year-old shook her head slightly, trying to stay on track. Especially since her Head-of-House was addressing her. "Right," Wesley spoke, holding out the bag, and then quickly pulled it back, hugging it to her chest, "Wa-wait Professor. The-there's this d-doodle a-and p-please don't get m-mad at J-jake. H-he's not f-feeling well, a-and it c-can't be what y-you think it is b-because he, he's not a b-bad p-person."

If only she had pocketed the violent sketch earlier...or ripped it up. But- but it had been on his notes, and he needed those notes! She shuddered, remembering how the one figure attacked the other, wandless one.

"P-promise y-you won't b-be angry," Wesley pleaded.

She couldn't believe what she was doing. She was talking back to a teacher. Opening her mouth to say sorry, the tiny child quickly bit her lip, hard. Professor Shackleton-Clark had to promise. Or else she wouldn't give it back. She'd run away. Wesley didn't want Jake to get in any more trouble, and if the teacher got angry at him because of the drawing, then it would be Wesley's fault. It would be all her fault, and Jake would hate her.

Ugh.

This...was getting tiring. A part of LouAnn had started to realize what was happening to her---and it frightened her. She'd dreamt about peculiar moments and then later put an odd assortment of puzzle pieces together. What she'd come up with was quite disturbing, especially for a typically innocent fifteen-year-old child.

The other part of her, though---the more dominant part---didn't care about anything other than the drawstring bag she'd been carrying around with her ever since the first week of school. The original seven runes had turned into six, all thanks to the one depicting the sun that she'd hidden inside that stupid blue box she'd found inside the headmaster's office.

At this moment, the dominant part of her had her back on the second floor heading towards the office that had given her more headaches than the mountain of homework she had waiting for up in Gryffindor tower. If she could just get this over with, she'd be down to five and maybe things would begin to get a little easier. That was the other part of her talking, though. She pushed those thoughts aside and allowed a sly, evil grin to play upon her lips.

Showtime.

The key to getting the password to the Headmaster's office was just going to be... standing there long enough to overhear it. Hopefully. Copernicus had been spending a LOT of time lurking around the second floor, too much to make him comfortable.

When Louann appeared, he jumped for a moment and looked guilty. No, wait. She was one of his. "Hello, Louann. What are you doing inside when there is snow to enjoy outside?"

At the sound of Copernicus' voice, LouAnn stopped walking rather abruptly. She showed no sign of being startled or pleased by another's presence, and the look on her face remained the same as it had before. For a moment, though, the thought of what she was attempting to do made her give the boy a rather angry look, a behavior that'd become typical of her the moment she had realized what she now possessed.

She stared at him a few seconds longer then blinked once---a slow, short movement that at least acknowledged she had heard him. "Hello, Copernicus," she finally replied. "I have a few things I'm needed to do inside first. What's caused you to be inside?"

"Working for the cause," Copernicus shrugged, but his eyes were on the corridor around them. Just about anyone could wander by, so he wanted to be sure they weren't overheard.

"I need to find the password to the Headmaster's office. Are you doing work for the cause TOO?"

The corners of LouAnn's mouth tugged their way into a small smile when Copernicus mentioned how he was currently working for the cause. The werewolf cause, yes. Of course that's what he was doing. He was part of the Bontecou Mission, wasn't he? "Ahh, I see," she said, taking a deep breath before glancing around the corridor just a little. She wasn't used to progress being halted during one of 'Rune Outings'.

Then again, this was Copernicus, and LouAnn was as obedient to him as she was to the force behind the runes she was holding. It was an odd little mixture of obedience she'd had to train herself to get used to. "The password, hmm? Would you be interested in a little deal of sorts?" she asked, pulling the familiar little bag out of her pocket and digging through it for a few seconds. She finally pulled out a rune with an eyeball-type depiction on it. She glanced at it for a few seconds before holding it up for Cope to see.

"This little rune is meant to be placed inside the headmaster's office," she said, her eyes traveling towards the stone gargoyle for just a moment. "During your mission, would you mind placing it somewhere...sort of secretive for me? Maybe...inside a plant? A box? A picture frame?" She twisted the rune a little, allowing a tiny gleam of light to bounce off it for a split second. "I think you'll find that in agreeing to do so, you get what you want, as well. It's a win-win-lose situation, only it won't be us that lose."

"I put the rune somewhere and it'll get me into the office?" Copernicus clarified, eagerly holding out his hand for it. Well, now... wasn't this handy?

"Louann, this will further our cause? Whatever this rune is for? What sort of powerful magic are you doing here?"

"No," LouAnn point-blank answered, replying to Cope's first question. "When the rune is in your possession, you'll find that entering the headmaster's office is as easy as entering any other room found within these walls. Once you're in, please repay it by tucking it safely away in a place you're sure no one will think to look for it."

Her facial expression grew expressionless while she considered the answer to his second question. After a moment, she spoke up, giving him her answer in a rather round-about way. "The rune will get you into the office, and that is what you aimed for in order to further the cause, yes? I would think a member of Team Anti-Bontecou wouldn't stop to question matters."

Copernicus wrinkled his brow. He couldn't fault her logic but the fact that Louann was employing logic... was interesting. Still, he needed entry to the office, so he'd let it drop.

"And it will let people who are WITH me enter as well?"

LouAnn couldn't help but smirk a little when Cope completely dropped the subject and moved on to further questioning his entry. Victory had arrived. "Mmhmm...the rune will simply give you the password you need to open the door, regardless of who's on the other side. What you do once it's open is completely up to you," she answered. "You could let the whole school inside, for that matter." She shrugged, knowing he wouldn't want to do that. Still, for what it amounted to, he could if he so desired.

A thought occurred to her, and she glanced up at him, a tiny hint of concern in her eyes. "Oh, and Copernicus? Could you do me a favor? When you leave the rune, why don't you do it when the others aren't looking? You know, keep this a 'between you and I' sort of thing," she said. "Hmm...?"

"I can keep your secrets, Louann, because I know you're keeping mine," Copernicus smiled grimly. Now that he had the rune safely in his pocket and he no longer had to worry about the entry to the office, at least, he was feeling more relaxed.

"I can't wait to see what your team does. And mine... soon. Very soon."

Hmm...LouAnn never thought of things the way Copernicus had just put them. He can keep her secrets, because she's keeping his. "Why Copernicus Kettleurn, I do believe we've just blackmailed one another," LouAnn said, now slightly amused at the way their conversation had progressed.

"Oh, we can't wait to get started. Doesn't it feel rather...powerful? I mean, we're working towards ridding the school of this filth," she said, a little gleam showing in her eyes. "We'll be watching and waiting for your sign for us to get started. Good luck with your implementations...although, I'm positive you'll succeed."

"As soon as you see our posters around the school, you can go ahead and take action," Copernicus decided. "Expect it at any time."

"Oh, that sounds simple enough," she said, nodding slowly and making a mental note to tell Torin, Tibi, and Cam this latest bit of information. "Aye, Captain." She eyed Cope's pocket, the one she knew to now hold the rune she'd previously given to him. "...thank you. If you need any more assistance from me, you know where to find me. I'll be happy to help the cause in any way I can."

"Excellent. I'll see you later, Louann," Copernicus gave her a little dip of the head before turning back to toward the stairs.

Well, that had been easy, hadn't it? When Cope was halfway down the corridor, LouAnn called out a goodbye to him. "Alright, Cope! See ya around!" she said. LouAnn oddly felt as if a weight had been taken off her shoulders. Two runes down...five to go. Now that she thought about it, going outside to be in the snow did sound rather inviting. With a smile on her face, LouAnn turned and left the corridor, as well.

Arianna zoomed into the corridor. She was wearing her army boots, favourite piece of her wardrobe ever, and the school uniform. She kept ripping pages out of her notebook. She didn't exactly know why or how, but somehow she managed to draw little hearts on every corner, and little A's and T's laced together in spirals.

She was so annoyed that she had become her worst nightmare, and most of all, that Rafe thought, even though he tried to hide it, that she didn't stand a change. She blew a few strings of her hair out of her face and leaned against a wall, trying to calm down. After all she was 12 now, and that meant she had to behave more lady-like'ish.. sort of.

Alex was wandering down the corridor, her sleek black skirt and blue shirt fitting her perfectly as she glided down the hallway. Her white blonde hair was back in a ponytail and bounced slightly as she watched. She sighed a bit, her mind on Damon, whom she hadn't seen in awhile, and Copernicus.. and thoughts for their little mission..

She distractedly looked around and noticed the surly girl she had met earlier in the courtyard. "Hello." She said smiling as she made to glide past the girl.

As the blond girl she had meet in the courtyard passed by her she had a sudden moment of inspiration " Hey, you're a girl!" she exclaimed stupidly, bumping away from the wall and intersecting her. She chuckled a little embarrassed by her outburst and corrected herself " I didn't mean to throw that at you" she said " I just meant that you look like what girls should look like!". She wasn't sure it she would be up to it, to help her, but nevertheless she tried " I don't look a girl do I?" she asked opening her arms showing her clothes.

Alex blinked a second as they young girl shouted. "Why yes I am.." She said gliding to a standstill as the younger girl stood in front of her. She briefly eyed her before tilting her head and listened to what she had to say. "Do I really? Well thanks.. I think.." She said a small smile coming over her face..

"Well umm.." Alex was trying to be tactful, but frankly the girl was a mess, her hair needed to be brushed, and those bangs needed to get out of her eyes, and those horrible boots would have to go.. Alex was mentally making her over in her head.. "No.. I am sorry you don't.. well except for the face and the hair." She smiled a little.. "Do you want some help?" She asked her gray eyes sweeping over her clothes.. Merlin!!! Who wore clothes like that anymore?

"Well I..." she said nibbling her nails " I don't have much money, this clothes are pretty old, my sisters always make their own.." she threw her hair over her shoulder, looking at the girl. She scratched her nose, talking her glasses out " Then I have this.." she was sure she must have been looking insane.

"And boys.. what is the big deal about them anyway? Why can't they just like us and that's that??" she was so confused, she had never experienced that before, and she didn't want to tell Paola, she knew she would mock her for the rest of her life, and her mother.. her kind sweet mother, would make such a big deal out of it. Why am I babbling?

"Yes" she ended up saying, answering the girl's last question, "I surely need help, I'm a mess!" she said on another outburst of confusion " I don't know what to say, what to wear, what to think!?"