Alexa allowed herself to be rocked and have her tears wiped away.But she shook her head in disagreement. "No, Sabel... this is so different. It's like someone wiped my memory or something. All I can remember are the things I heard, nothing that I saw or where I was... It's all blank. I could have been obliviated or something," she said in a panic.

He had been afraid of that possibility. There wasn't much he could say in comfort of it either, just rock her and hold her as his mind raced in circles.

"Alexa," he said after a long moment, "did any of the voices sound familiar?" He hated asking such questions of her, especially so soon after the incident. "Do you remember anything...mean they might have said?"

Alexa frowned and shook her head slowly. "One of the voices seems familiar but I can't put it together... I can't figure it out. And I can't really remember anything they were saying, just that they were talking, ya know. Kind of like when you're dreaming and you know someone is trying to wake you up... you can hear them talking but can't really hear what they are saying. I feel like it's a dream that I am trying to recall and it won't come to the front of my mind," she said in a tiny voice. SHe felt utterly useless. She couldn't give any information that would help anyone. "H-How mmmany others have been hurt, Sabel? I know there were a few of us in the hospital wing that looked pretty beat up... does the Headmaster think that we all got hurt the same way?" she asked, not sur eif she wanted to know the answer, but she needed to hear it at the same time.

Sabel couldn't look at her, his eyes going to the fire and then the floor. It had been sickening how many students had been affected, how many were still affected, how many were scared. The waiting room had been full of students with a piece of the puzzle, but the edges were so frayed it was hard to tell if it would be able to be put back together fully.

"There...are quite a few. I don't know exactly how many. There have been..." He hesitated, remembering the bloody pieces of robes, the badges, the scrap of paper. "...Cloth and badges found. Mostly in the forbidden forest."

His eyes went to hers, searching the blue spheres; he didn't want to say any of this, but he hoped to the good spirits, she might be able to remember something with it. "Toussaint has gone missing. One of the Professors wants to put a Trace on her. Raiden, a friend of mine, said she was going on about the coupons, about Hogsmeade and Hogs Head. He said they got in a fight about it, and he thinks she went there." One of his hands gripped her shoulder, gently, comforting but firm at the same time. "Alexa, does any of that make sense to you? The coupons. Hogsmeade. Hogs Head. The forbidden forest?"

"The Prefect... Cela is missing? I don't know her, but I know who she is. The trace will tell them where she is.... they can find out where any underage witch or wozard is," Alexa said in a hollow voice while she processed the rest of what Sabel said.

"I had a coupon... I went to the Hog's Head... I-I-I saw Cela in there the same day as the sleepover... th-that is when I left, isn't it? It is just coincidence though, right... There is no way Grumps has anything to do with this. He is pretty grumpy and all, but surely he isn't hurting kids," Alexa said, hoping she was right. She had taqken a liking to bothering the grumpy old barkeep. "I need to talk to Headmaster Tate, Sabel... I have to tell him that I went to the Hog's Head too," she said in the same hollow voice before turning to look him in the face.

He really, really didn't want to go back to the waiting room, to the pandimonium so quickly. However, he knew that Headmaster Tate would have the right questions to ask, that the man would know what to do. And while he could give Alexa reassuring hugs, he knew that she would feel more at peace after talking to the Headmaster. There was something about the way adults said things, about how they worded things that gave those of younger age calm hearts.

"Now?" Came his response, searching her eyes.

She simply nodded her head. "You'll come with me won't you? I just need to grab some shoes and a hoodie and we can go there if you'll go with me. I need you there for support, Sabel," she said in a whiney, pleading voice. Wow... she never spoke like that... it surprised her how much she wanted him to be beside her.

With a small smile, Sabel touched her cheek and nodded. "Of course."

Standing, he offered her a hand up, bitting his lip for a moment. "I should probably warn you though, there are a lot of people there. A lot of people who have seen things, or been through the same thing you have."

Alexa tried to smile, but it got mangled on her face... her horrible looking face. Taking his hand she let herself be helped up and nodded her head that she understood what he was saying before placing her hand on his shoulder and saying, "Thank you for understanding why I have to do this."

With that she turned and took off up the stairs to grab a hoodie and some shoes.


A few moments later she emerged from the stairwell and said, "Okay, let's go." She unholstered her wand and held it tightly in her hand as she held out her other one for Sabel to take.

Sabel blinked at her wand and then at her. A sad look crossed his face as he reached out and gently put his hand over hers holding the length of wood. His voice came gentle, quiet, his eyes searching hers. "Alexa...it's okay."

He couldn't blame her for wanting to have her wand at the ready, but at the same time, it disturbed him. He had only see her cast papillo with it, and he didn't exactly want to see anything else come from it than butterflies and flowers.

Alexa let her confusion cross her face as Sabel put his hand over her wand hand. "You heard the Headmaster at the start of term, Sabel. He said for us to stay vigilant, that is the only way we are going to stay alive. I almost died tonight, I am not putting this wand away," she said sternly, a sense of panic rising up in her.

He took his hand away like he had been burnt, casting his eyes to the side in slight shame. He understood. He did. It didn't mean that he liked it. Having a wand out was as much inviting danger as it was preventing it. Still, he understood.

"I'm sorry." He took her free hand gently and gave it a squeeze. "Let's go."

Alexa squeezed his hand in return and said, "It's okay " as she led them through the portrait hole and out into the dark corridor.

Chris was not excited about having to do this. He hated to scare and get the other students worried about things, but they needed to know in order to be safe. He had noticed someone had beat him to putting the notice on the board but he still had had orders after the Emergency Prefect Meeting to come and break the news. He opened the Portrait Hole and stepped in. He noticed a few students were their close by and a lot more set around the various tables and chairs throughout the oval-shaped room.

He waved at the two up front; Alexa, Sabel. he cleared his throat and looked over at his fellow Gryffindor Prefect Gold. "We have to do this." he said quietly to her. He then turned back the the students.

"Hello guys, we have some stirring news. The castle is now on lockdown, and all trips, including Hogsmeade are cancelled." he swallowed hard. "As many of you may have noticed the Ravenclaw Prefect Celandine Toussaint is missing. And there have been many more strange dissappearances and mysterious objects found around the Castle and its Grounds." he looked at the Gryffindors, breathing deeply, he sure hoped Cela was ok.

Turning to look at Gold, he nodded to her to add things and anything that he may have missed.

"We never had these problems at my old school in SweetWater" Rex told the male prefect. " Never put our school on lockdown, we all got a search party and looked for the student or students" Rex explained to him. " This school is becoming a drag" Rex said to everyone and no one there.

Chris was expecting fear and some some questions from a few nervous students but not this.

He looked at Rex with a pained expression. "Yes well rex this isn't Sweetwater, and we have a student, close and dear to alot of us, missing and we do not now if she is alive or dead." he let that sink in.

He then continued, letting this main point of safety go out to all the students. "Headmaster Tate has issued a set of rules for this special lockdown and like the search party you mentioned above, he ordered the Prefects to do extra patrols and make sure the students stay safe." he then listened to the boy's last remark and was a bit put down.

He walked over to the boy and then looked at him with a small sad smile. "Rex, you know it saddens me to hear you think that way about Hogwarts. But you know, the Headmaster, the Professors, and us Prefects only want to make sure that another student doesn't go missing and that everyone will be safe." He hoped that after he showed Rex that he did care, that maybe the gryffindor would brighten up a bit, Chris had noticed that the boy had looked a bit down recently.

Carter, who had put the bulletin up earlier as instructed by the Headmaster was relieved when he heard that things were underway for the lockdown. So Cela was the missing student? He had met her a few times and really liked her. He hoped that she would be found soon. And hoped that she would be found alive.

"Is there anything you need us to do?" he asked Chris.

"Well, i want t "Well, I want to see Cela safe" Rex told Chris. " My point is it is just the prefexts with the teachers looking for her" Rex said to Chris. "Sometime students know more places the the prefexts or teachers do not know" Rex explained to Chris. "See, my probleem is not that the teachers and prefects are looking for Cela, but the teachers and are not looking for other students who are missing who are not prefects " Rex used his sad voice.
Why is one student more important than the others?" Rex asked Chris. " This is why we all got along at SweetWater with teachers and other students for thee most part because we all worked together on the problem" Rex continued talking to Chris.
It is not that I do not like Hogwarts overall, it is just the way some students are left out from helping others nor do the headmaster or prefects or teachers that makes me upset" Rex told Chris. " We are Gryffindors and we always help others when there is trouble, just ask Jason Potter Weasley plus his cousin Harry and others from his family" Rex explained to Chris.
Lockdown seems that the students are the ones who made a mess of the school but it seems not to be our fault" Rex says to Chris. "Why should the students be punished for nothing they did?" Rex asked Chris.
Rex just looks at Chris in utter amazement and sadneess,

Alexa huffed as she climbed through the portrait hole, hearing both Chris and Rex's proclamations. She kept quiet as she slid along the back wall of the room, headed for her dorm. She knew why the castle was being locked down... the students weren't getting hurt inside... SHE knew that... she just didn't know where they were being hurt. She lifted a hand to touch the gash on her face and winced. WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER ANYTHING???

"Alexa, what happened?" Rex asked her. "Are you ok?" Rex asked Alexa.

Chris sighed, he didn't like to be talked back to. Did being a Prefect mean nothing? He looked at Rex and then spoke. "Rex, I by no means think of Cela as being more important than anyone of the other students in this school. I would not have become a Prefect if i thought so. I, like the rest of the Prefects and Staff, care deeply and want to help the students of Hogwarts, so if a lockdown is necissary to keep everyone safe than I view that as a caring and loving gesture that we spend our time and put our lives on the line for you, and not as a punishment." Chris paused he was so worked up. He hated having to talk to someone like this, it wasn;t in his nature, but Rex had practically called him, and the rest of the Prefects and staff, self-rightous people who only cared about ourselves and others like them.

He looked at the boy again. "I do not take nicely to being insulted. I know that there have been other mysterious disappearances with other students, but they have all showed up and are being cared for as we discover them. The reason for so much concentration on Miss Tousaint's absense is that she is still ABSENT. The others hav all shown up." he said he said thinking of the students around the school who have shown up confuses and bloodied up, but they showed up!

"So Rex." he crossed his arms over his chest. "I am sorry for having to talk to you like this but I want to you get that we all care about you and the rest and we want you to be safe, we are not punishing you. But if you feel you can better handle the school's safety plans then I suggest you pay Headmaster Tate a visit." he finished talking to the boy and was shaking a bit. It took all of his energy not to run up to his dorm and loose his cool and probably cry. He had never spoken to anyone like that, but he had never been talked to as if he didn't care for others.
He then turned as Rex pointed to someone that, as the Prefect turned to see, had a large gash on her head. "Alexa?! Are you alright?" he walked over to her and stopped infront of her. "What happened? Come on sit on the sofa, where you can relax and we can get you something to fix your cut." he said holding out his hand for her to join him.

" Glad everyone is found and doing good" Rex told Chris. " I hope Cela is found unharmed" Rex said to Chris. " Oh yeah one more thing , you proved my point" Rex explained to Chris.

Alexa winced as both Rex and Chris noticed her and calle dout to her, Chris coming to stop in front of her. She reluctantly took his hand and let herself be led to the sofa. She shook her head and said, "Chris, Rex... I don't know what happened to me... Me, Reese, Mina, and Nancy were all found really beat up... None of us remember anything. We have all been to the Hospital Wing... Healer AShford said that my eye and the gash on my face would have to heal on their own... she did all she could. It is not as bad as it looks, compared to the stuff she healed." SHe averted her eyes from her fellow Gryffindors as tears welled up in her eyes. She went through the conversation kind of mechanically... she had told it so many times.

Rex hugged Alexa. " look, I know we had problems in the past, but I do not want to see you hurt" Rex told Alexa. " If you have to cry, let it out here in the common room now and none of us will tell anyone about the tuff Alexa crying" Rex explained to Her. " Use my shoulder if you wish" Rex said to Alexa. "Well, I hope Chris and the others find out what is happening to you and the rest of the students" Rex gave a nice smile to Alexa. " I promise not to argue with you anymore b ecause I really missed my little prankster alexa" Rex told her. " Friends again?" rex asked Alexa.

Chris just looked at Rex, could this boy not tell when he needed to keep his snide remarks to himself? Ignoring the last comment, as if it was supposed to hurt him, he turned back to the injured student, and the more important matter.

'Doesn't care about other students my rump!' he thought with a sniff.

Chris looked and listened in shock as Alexa told the names of the other students who were taken and how they were found. Healer Ashford couldn't heal all of their cuts? Well that could be typical couldn' it. Most wounds needed natual heaing he thought. He however was silent as he listened to the other names. He hadn't heard specifics before, but now he knew. "Alexa, I'm glad you are here and ok. Are the others alright too?" he asked her patting her arm comfortingly. He then remembered what Headmaster Tate had said about part of the new things they all needed to do now, find out about things like this. "Oh Alexa, do you remember anything at all about what happened to you; a voice, sound, or shape? And what was the last thing you remember doing before you lost you place?" he asked. He didn't want to sound insensitive, so he kept up a nice smile to hide his worry, but he needed to know these things, everyone needed this so they could possibly get down what happened.