Constantine seemed to be biting his tongue as he considered the answer to give back to Jack. He had his own theory; it was a crazy one...but it was his theory. The signs were all there for it, but he had no place to express it just yet.

"Yes," Constantine finally nodded, "yes...I do believe that these two murders are connected." He sighed and stood up straight. "I need all the prefects to prevent anymore people from coming near this. Miss McKenna, if you could be so kind,...I need you to levitate and take this body to the Hospital Wing. Go straight into the Ward. I hear Avalon's back, but ignore her. I will explain to her. We just need to get this body moved from here before too large of a group begins to form..."

Rafe finally realized what was going on. "What are the professors going to do? The Headmaster?" Rafe finally snapped out of his mental break with reality and snapped back into what was going on. "This is the second... the second innocent life...why wasn't this prevented!?" Rafe was yelling at this point. He felt like nothing was done since the discovery of the first body and why should this time be any different. "Are we just going to pretend like this didn't happen like the last time?" Rafe's eyes were getting teary-eyed. What if it was one of his friends under that blanket next time...LouAnn, Jack, Ari, Lucy, Kat...

"Who's going to be next?" A single tear streamed down his cheek. He quickly wiped it off, sniffed and stood up straight.

Noticing more people filtering into the area .... the other Slytherin Prefect, the groundskeeper ... Dominic just maintained that tight grip on his wand as he glanced around each of them. If any of them tried to take his life, well there would be problems...

Wait ... what was that first year saying? Muffliato? Shadows? Interesting... Jake? Wait, Jake was a Hufflepuff; at least if it was the Jake he thought the boy was talking about. This didn't make any sense...

Nor did it coincide with Jack's story about stumbling on the dead body while trying to find his frog. Just coincidental finding? He wasn't the murderer? But then.... it all just seemed TOO much a coincidence.

Two Hufflepuffs ... murdered ... it definitely was connected ... and HE was definitely going to be on guard, as well as WARNING his fellow Hufflepuffs of the dangers that lurk at Hogwarts. His housemates were not safe anymore.

Dominic almost missed the words the groundskeeper spoke briefly. Prevent people from coming near this? But he needed to do something else; he and Tamzin needed to speak with Professor Shackleton. There was NO MORE prolonging this. Looking towards Raiden, the seventh year bit his lip, eyes flickering from the Slytherin to the groundskeeper. "Uh... Raiden? You could manage, right?" He sighed, and looked towards Masterson, speaking in a low voice. "Because I'm fairly certain I should be speaking with my Head of House about safety concerns seeing as this is the second fatality my house has suffered." And even more if you don't count this year.

Nod. Nod. Nod. "Of course sir." She agreed.

Eh.

Evolette immediately reached for her wand, securing it in her fingers before she pointed it at the body, and levitated it into the air, careful to make sure that no one was too close, so that no one would knock the body back onto the ground.

That was just... disrespectful.

Yeah.

As she started down the hall, she was reminded of levitating a sleeping Garret Crocker to the hospital wing. Heh. He drooled on her, and called her "Mum", and yet, she would have done that five times over, instead of doing this.

Had the Head Boy really just asked Raiden to handle this situation in his stead? Really? REALLY? Raiden stared at him, utterly nonplussed. He was the HEAD BOY. Mr. Masterson had just... told them to take care of this, where was he running off to? Surely meeting with Miss Professor Shackleton-Clark could wait until they were done? THERE HAD BEEN A MURDER.

"Dominic, I don't..." In truth, he could probably handle it by himself. Raiden was a big boy, after all. He wasn't some small child who would stand there just staring at the wall. But Mr. Masterson had told them to keep students away and while Raiden was growing rather fast, he wasn't sure he was imposing enough to keep them away... actually.. Eh. "Go ahead. I got it."

Was Jack staying with them? He could help as well, if so. Raiden looked at the older boy, hoping he was okay. And not about to throw up.

A few yards away, a tiny little figure stepped out of the shadows, tears streaking down her face, her body shaking uncontrollably. Her eyes traveled from student...to student...to Mr. Masterson. Finally, though, they landed on...Abby. LouAnn watched as the Head Girl carried the body away...the body that...no, it just couldn't be. She needed to leave...to run away...to never come back here again. She was losing herself deep inside the forest of her mind, and she was terribly afraid it was too late. Without another thought, LouAnn whirled around and ran off down the corridor and out of sight. The only evidence that someone had ever been standing there was a fallen, wrapped Cockroach Cluster...LouAnn's favorite candy.

Jack was not going anywhere. He was going to sit right here in this spot until the crowd had cleared off, and Abby had been taken to the hospital wing and been shown attention. He didn't think his legs were going to work if he tried, anyways.

He looked up as Dominic started going on about talking to Shackleton...did he think they were targeting Hufflepuff? He wasn't exactly sure if that was the right track...it could have been a total coincidence that they were all Huffies, but that didn't mean that there WASN'T a mass Huffie murderer on the loose. Either way, Jack wanted as much company as he could get until the whole situation was taken care of, so he was not leaving, even if the Head Boy was. Nope. Not for a while, at least.

He sniffled as he sat down on the ground next to the tapestry. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He did NOT think this was what was going to happen to him when he woke up that morning. Not at all.

Something about the way Raiden looked at his initial reaction to asking if he could handle things made Dominic second think his decision to speak with Shackleton this second. Sure he NEEDED to speak with her pronto, because the murder had been ANOTHER in HUFFLEPUFF... and surely if it had been Slytherin, Raiden would be wanting/feeling the same thing. But the fact was that Raiden was still a new Prefect... and this wasn't a Slytherin murder. This was his housemate.

And even though Dominic knew he ought to talk to Shackleton quickly, he also knew that Raiden needed him too. But that didn't mean he couldn't schedule something ... Using one of the few ways that the seventh year knew how, which admittedly he wasn't very sure he could even do it. He'd only made a vague shape before, but never a corporeal ... and yet it was that or nothing at all, so he had to try.

"No Raiden, it's okay," Dom sighed, agreeing with the boy. "Just give me a second."

A second to compose himself, as the Head Boy squinted down a ways in time to catch a small figure in the shadows. But before he could decide on an action to take - or even if she was real - before he could decipher ANY of it, the tine figure was gone and out of sight. Weird, the seventh year frowned, trying not to think too much on it, as he shook his head.

Focus. Happy memory.

"Expecto Patronum," he cast softly but confidently, as a small four-legged silvery creature emerged from his wand, and with his bidding, scurried off with an important message towards the second floor....

And now that that was handled; he could stay here and monitor the area with the others.

Ohh, why didn't he have something to hit the Denton boy over the head with. A magazine or SOMETHING. Constantine settled with grabbing the boy's collar instead and pulling him in so that he could talk to him without others hearing. "Listen up, Denton. I don't care if you're king of the world...or the lowliest thing no the face of the earth; I also don't care if you're supposed to have tea with the queen, the next time I or a staff member tells you to do something, DO IT. No if, and, or but's about it, alright?"

With that, he let go of the Head Boy and started to follow Evolette to the Hospital Wing, but his eyes glanced upon someone standing some distance away. He wanted to call out to her, but before he even had the chance she took off. She really wasn't making his job any easier.

Figuring that he'd go get her right after setting up the dead body with Avalon, he turned and continued to follow her the Head Girl to the Hospital Wing.

He was here to stay, but the last thing he expected was for the Groundskeeper to grab him by the collar. Dominic was a GROWN WIZARD; legal age in the Wizarding World and sure he'd missed the deadline in applying for apparition license, but still, being manhandled by the groundskeeper seemed ABSURD!! The only advantage was that at least he hadn't scolded him for others to hear, but they'd still seen him being spoken to (even if blinded to what it was about) and undoubtedly would ask. Humiliating; that's what this was. And ultimately, he NO WORDS as response to that except that he WAS king of the world; or at least King of Hogwarts xD

"Uh huh." He finally answered vaguely enough, reminding himself that in just mere months he'd be graduated and wouldn't have to listen to a staff member telling him what to do again.

Oh good... And then, with that, the groundskeeper had started off after the Head Girl towards the Hospital Wing. Sighing, the Head Boy sat down against the wall - completely forgetting that the floor was a grimy place filled with oodles of germs from people's shoes - and pulled his knees up, wrapping his arms around them, thinking. On what he WANTED to say Masterson, but couldn't ... and other things ....

Raiden watched Dom's patronus scurry off, barely noticing when Mister Groundkeeper Masterson grabbed the older boy's collar and started muttering to him. When he did turn to look at them, however, he could only guess that Mr. Masterson wasn't exactly singing praises in Dom's ear. The look on his face wasn't exactly in favour of good things. A small smile tugged at the corners or Rai's lips, despite the tense situation, and he turned away from the Head Boy before the ghost of an expression could be seen.

He moved closer to Jack ans squatted down in front of him, chin resting on arms crossed over his knees. The older boy looked shaken up, and rightfully so. The slight smirk faded into a look of concern.

"Are you alright, Jack?" He asked, chewing on the corner of his bottom lip. "Just calm down, okay? It..."

It was a proper scary situation. What if the person was still around? With a slight tap, Raiden's wand slid invisibly into his hand as he looked left and right. He was, truthfully, probably just as scared as Jack, even without having been the first to have found the dead person.

Jack was somewhat thankful that the Head Boy was going to stay...the more people there were in the area, the safer he felt. What if the person who had done that to Abby was lurking somewhere still, just WAITING for Masterson to leave so they could attack again?

It didn't seem very likely but, ya never know.

He jumped slightly when he realized that Raiden was talking to him. Was he alright? That was a very good question. He was still a little shaky, and every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was Abby, lying there with that blank look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm...I'm fine, thanks," Jack said, managing a little smile for Raiden's sake. It was somewhat true--he had definitely been much worse before. So much so that he had gotten his asthma all worked up. How embarrassing!

"I'm just a little shaken up," he added, sighing and running a hand through his hair. He needed Reese...then, at least, he'd have someone to cling to and make him feel better.

He probably COULD do that to anyone here but...they were all dudes and that would be like WHOA awkward.

Jack still didn't look okay. And he looked a little bit more shaken up that Raiden liked to see people. Rolling backwards on his heels, he sat down properly on the floor and scooted himself over to sit next to Jack against the wall. Idly his free hand rubbed back and forth over his wand holster as he tried to think of a way that he could help.

Ooooh.

"Do you think a calming draught would help?" he asked softly, removing the small vial he carried from the side of the holster. He'd almost forgotten about it; he hadn't needed one in so long that its existence there had gone largely unnoticed. "I have one... I haven't needed one in a while, so you could have it if you need it."

His father had told him not to give them to other people, in case he needed them himself... but he was doing a lot of things this term that his father didn't approve of. What was one more? If he didn't need it right now, after the whole... dead person thing, then surely he wouldn't need one for a while.

Satine snuck down the hall, glancing over her shoulder repeatedly. She had never been so mischievous in her life and inside she knew this wasn’t what she should be doing but someone else spoke to her and made her focus again. She flicked her wand and quickly hung up two posters and then scurried off in another direction.

Photos!: WOLF-Wizards Opposed to Lychanthropic Freaks Sings

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Jack tapped his chin. Hmmmm, maybe a Calming Draught WOULD help. Yes, that sounded like an excellent solution...his hands were all shaky still and despite the fact that he had to use his EMBARRASSING inhaler, he still felt a little nervous and light headed. He didn't think to ask the Prefect why he had one in the first place...he was just thankful he had it.

Suddenly, a small movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention...he heard a noise, like the sound of a poster unrolling, but was that REALLY what it was? Or was that just what he THOUGHT he was hearing? What if...WHAT IF THE MURDERER HAD RETURNED?

"Help! They're back! They're back!" Jack exclaimed, freaking out immediately and jumping behind the nearest suit of armour, attempting to drag Raiden to safety as well.

"Dom! You're the oldest!" he exclaimed, leaning forward and nudging the Head Boy with his foot as he sat against the wall. "SAVE US! It's your DUTY!"

Had Raiden not been in a state of hyper-awareness, he might not have heard the slightest sound of the posters the girl was handling. However, sitting at the scene of a murder... made one strangely aware of one's surroundings.

Head snapping to catch the person, Raiden pushed himself away from the wall, moving swiftly into a crouched position with his wand in his hand. It was a girl, young most likely if one went by her stature...

And that was all Raiden saw before Jack grabbed him and tried to pull him toward 'safety'. A slight grunt of surprise came from his mouth as he found himself looking at the wall, on his butt once more; it took him a few seconds to readjust his viewpoint, and by then the girl was gone.

"Jaaaaack stop," Raiden yelped, one hand flailing slightly to catch the wall. "It was just some girl, stop!"

Why had she run away though? And what had she just stuck up on the wall? He'd thought he had caught a flash of a very unique hair colour just before Jack had manhandled him...

"Oh." Jack said simply. Apparently whoever had approached them before was gone now, so Jack jumped out from behind his protective suit of armour.

"Well, girls can be murderers too, ya never know!" he told him before sitting back down on the ground. His heart was beating a BAZILLION miles an hour now after that little scare. He ran a shaking hand through his hair and sighed.

Calm down...whoever did this is probably LONG gone by now...just some kid wandering the halls, that was it that probably was...PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!

"I thought I heard posters unrolling," he added, in case the prefect was going to go investigate some more.

...Oh?

Wordlessly, Raiden slipped the calming draught out of his holster and held it out. Jack Fritzera... definitely did need it.

However, he nodded his head at the poster bit. He'd definitely heard paper or something being unrolled. That was probably why she had been looking at the wall. Slowly he stood, his eyes staring down the hall.

"I think she stuck something up," he said softly, taking a few steps in that direction. His wand was still clenched in his hand, half-raised just in case.

The second he saw the posters, the tense look on Raiden's face faded into disbelief, and then quickly changed to disgust. Wizards Opposed to Lycanthropic Freaks? Surely... this was just a joke that girl thought was funny. Even though it definitely wasn't.

"What the hell is this?" Raiden muttered, glancing at Jack. "Jack... look at this. It's just... what in the name of MERLIN..."

It seemed like everything in Hogwarts that could go wrong was doing so at once. Murders, and really shoddy attempts at raising anti-werewolf sentiment. What was next, meteors falling on their heads?

YAY! Calming Draught! Jack definitely needed it after that little mishap. He gulped it down as Raiden went to investigate what the girl had stuck up on the wall, immediately feeling the effects of the potion as he gulped it down. He sighed and a small grin formed on his face. Thereeeee. Everything was all better now...the murderer surely wasn't around anymore! He had nothing to worry about! All was good in the world again.

He stood up and walked over to where Raiden was standing, examing the posters the girl had hung it. He read it over and wrinkled his eyebrows. Freaks? Well, that wasn't very nice at all! BOOOOOOOOOO. Werewolves were just PEOPLE, they were definitely not freaksss. Poor Lupa and Bontecou.

"That's horrible!" Jack muttered with a frown. Why was everyone so obsessed with these werewolves lately? They hadn't caused them any trouble until the incident last term, and it's not like they were causing any trouble NOW.

"It definitely is," Raiden mumbled, his fingers brushing around the edge of it. Was it stuck up with Adhaero? They'd learned how to undo that, right? The frown on Raiden's face got darker as he tried to remember what the counterspell was... "Jack, do you remember how to undo Adhaero? If they're stuck up with that, then they should come right down."

What would they do if they weren't, though? They couldn't just leave them up, they were so mean! At least Jack seemed to have calmed down. It was much better for Raiden's own nerves to have Jack not all flaily and scared. It was also better for his sweater, because it meant that Jack probably wouldn't grab him by it to drag him behind suits of armour again any time soon.

Blink blink. How did you unstick things again? Jack remembered learning it in charms but it was SUCH a long time ago...he vaguely recalled the lesson, and he was pretty sure it involved a lot of glue. Yes, that seemed about right. "Is it...Avexis?" he said, wrinkling his eyebrows in uncertainty. Couldn't hurt to try right?

He was VERY thankful that the Calming Draught had kicked in so quickly, because he was highly certain that he would NOT be able to perform this charm with shaky hands. Nope, not at all.

"Avexis!" he muttered, watching as the top corner of the poster twitched before falling off the wall just slightly. Shrugging, Jack stood up (without much effort, considering that big growth spurt thing that had happened over the summer) and started to peel it off. Finally, he managed to get the poster down without much magic at all, and he read it over again, frowning as he looked at it.

"Why does everyone have all this werewolf-hate lately?" Jack wondered aloud. He felt like everyone was against the werewolves these days. Sure, he was expecting a FEW people to react angrily to Lupa's accident last term but not the WHOLE school.

Avexis, riiiiiight. That had been one of the spells he hadn't brushed up on in the summer. Murmuring the spell as well, he started taking down the other poster, resisting the urge to crumple it into a ball as soon as it came loose into his hands. He was fairly sure of who the person putting them up was; there was no disguising hair that colour, after all. Her name, he couldn't remember, but... well, he was sure he knew who it was by the hair, at least.

"I don't know," Raiden admittedly, a slightly bothered tone creeping into his voice. It made no sense that so many people disliked werewolves, just because of the incident. It wasn't like it was Professor Lupa's fault, and they hadn't known she was a werewolf until then. Any other time she would have been completely under control with that werewolf potion. "I don't like it. At all. People are discriminating against them because of something they can't help." His wand hand absently brushed against his chest; he too, had his very own illness that he couldn't help. "Nobody had a problem with Miss Professor Lupa before they found out, and nobody had a problem with Mr. Headmaster Bontecou either. It's senseless."

"Exactly. It's not like Lupa attacked him on purpose," Jack said with a sigh. He was going to say that 'it wasn't like people asked to be werewolves' when he remembered that some sickos actually DID want to become werewolves? Why would you subject yourself to something like that when there were others who would give anything to get rid of their curse?

"I guess people are just scared--they're looking for someone to blame. It's that mob mentality thingy, I think," he added with a frown. Jack was sick of all this anti-werewolf stuff. Couldn't people put it all past them and move on?

No, of course not. They'd probably think that HE was crazy for suggesting such an idea. "People should start looking past the werewolf thing and focus on them as human beings!"

"Miss Professor Lupa was always really careful with controlling her werewolf thing, obviously. Since we didn't exactly have her going about attacking students or roaming the forest or anything before. She only didn't take her potion to show us... and you're right. It wasn't her fault, what happened." He paused and looked at Jack, instead of the poster in his hands; looking at it had gotten him more than slightly bothered. "They've got an illness. An illness that doesn't have to be a threat to others if it's handled right. If students are gonna be rude and cruel to them for it, then what about the rest of us? Other people have illnesses they can't control. It's the same thing, more or less, do they want those people to feel ostracised as well? Do they want them gone? I don't understand why they seem to think of them as less than human, or why they're afraid of them. Miss Professor Lupa doesn't look like she's about to snack on a student in class, why should anyone be afraid she'll do it?"

He was starting to rant a bit. His words stopped abruptly, and he shook his head. It wouldn't help anything for him to get worked up over it. Poster still in his hands, he motioned for Jack to follow him back to the place they'd been sitting. Maybe a little farther from the armour this time, though...

"Jack? Do you know any younger girl students with really really dark red hair?"

Jack followed him and sat down against a nearby wall, still looking at the poster that Raiden had in his hands. "Yeah, she was trying to teach us, it just...went badly wrong," Jack said with a frown. It was really unfortunate how this whole thing had played out, and part of him even wished that Bontecou and Lupa had never even arranged for that little demonstration. If they hadn't done it, none of this would have happened. People wouldn't even know Lupa was a werewolf and things would be calm and peaceful--by Hogwarts standards, at least.

"Exactly, as long as they handle it and keep it under control, they're completely harmless!" he exclaimed in agreement. "Lupa went a whole year before that incident without a single accident and no one even knew she was a werewolf. They're still their normal selves, they just have...a little problem they need to take care of each month."

Hmm, a girl with red hair? Jack wasn't exactly sure...all the people that kept popping into his head just had normal red hair.

"No, but there was some Ravvie who had purple hair," he said. "OH WAIT! I think she just dyed it...it might be red. I can't really remember," he said with a small frown. Curse that blasted memory of his!