One thing about Marcus, he was an extremely patient man. His friend had barely said a word through the whole trip from Azkaban, to his house and then to Hogwarts.

He of course had to decided to fill in the silence with useless bits of information about what had been going on at school...which wasn't much. And then of course he had to tell his friend about his wife being pregnant and how excited and nervous he was about becoming a father and so it had gone on.

Now here they stood in the headmaster's office and Axe looked at his friend and smiled faintly. "She's good like that. One of the many reasons why I married her." Marcus shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back onto his heels, giving Zan a searching look.

He wanted to ask but he bit his tongue. His friend would tell him when he was ready.

"Yes. She is. Kind." His first reaction was to inquire whether or not Iliana was fat yet but it occured to him that would be tactless. He needed to remember these things.

"I..." There was another careful pause, like Ethan had forgotten to sort his thoughts out before starting to speak. "... how are the students?"

His hand continued to flex and without looking at Marcus, Ethan began to pace restlessly around the office, just looking.

Not the response he was looking for but that was Zan for you. "The students are fine." Well that wasn't exactly true. Didn't he just witness first hand about half a dozen injured kids in the hospital wing before he was sent out to retrieve his friend.

"Well some of them seemed to have gotten into some fights. It looks as though they had been dueling each other. But they are all saying that they can't remember what happened." Marcus shrugged as his eyes followed Zan's pacing of the office. "They probably didn't want to get into trouble or at the very least let Duskurk know." But from what Lawson had been hearing, the man had been teaching them underhanded tactics.

"Other than that it has been fairly quiet around here. Which is unusual in itself."

Zan froze where he stood and turned around slowly.

Fights.

Dueling.

Can't remember.

He gave Marcus a flat stare.

"How many of them? Has it not occured to you to wonder why they cannot remember? Especially considering the events of last term, the same events which led to my being incarcerated."

He began pacing again, with more agitation. Tate had said he'd make sure the students would be safe, that was the point. Ethan muttered to himself under his breath. So much for vigilance. Speaking of which, where was Kazimeriz? Surely the old man wasn't losing his touch so much to not suspect that something was wrong? Tate's fault. It was.

Ethan kind of had the urge to hit Casey.

The thought made him pause. That was odd, he wasn't generally prone to violent thoughts.

Quietly he gathered his thoughts and straightened his back, then he sat down after shifting the chair so his back would be against the wall.

Marcus held up his hands in surrender but he returned the stare. "I remember quite well thank you Zan, I ended up at St Mungos in a coma, remember." He dropped his hands and threw himself into the nearest chair and muttered under his breath something that may have sound like ungrateful git.

"And before you get on your high horse about me not doing anything, I only just found out myself and then I was told I had to go and get you immediately. And I have no idea why you were incarcerated since you haven't bothered to offer up any information."

Merlin!

Where did all this come from, Marcus was laid back and never got riled but he was feeling a little unappreciated right now and he was rather peeved with his friend's behavior.

"There were about six of them and one of them was Jake, so don't you dare think that I don't care about what is going on but I haven't had the time to process anything yet." He gave his friend a pointed look and then turned his head towards the headmaster's desk and wished the man would hurry up.

“I remember.” Ethan answered quietly, his hand still flexing. He sighed, grinding his teeth a bit absently, though not at Axe, it had just become a habit while he'd been... away.

“If you read the Daily Prophet you would be aware I was arrested for murder and for the use of… unforgiveables.” Except it was a student who had been using his wand, Copernicus Kettleburn who had been imperiused by someone as yet unidentified. And Ethan certainly had not been responsible for the deaths of the three students and their former co-worker the term before. Had nobody bothered to… find out what had become of him? Ethan supposed that he only had himself to blame since he had always had a penchant for disappearing without announcing his whereabouts.

"And for jaywalking.” he added absently. Apparently that had been on his rap sheet.

Ethan shot Marcus a quiet look, wondering if he could name the other students who were affected. It concerned him that Jake Upstead was once again in trouble, but if there were five others… it was a bigger picture thing.
And perhaps more were at risk.

"Tate asked me to... do this. Hoping to flush the true culprit out, hoping that... they'd think they'd got away with... everything. So they'd think that they were not being watched. Whoever... they are." Ethan finally offered and then grew silent again, his hand still flexing in silence.

Marcus let out a frustrated sigh, Zan knew very well that he did not read the paper. Not anymore. Not after some of the stuff they had written about him when he had been with the band and after that when he had decided to leave. They had printed some pretty crappy things about him and so he hadn't wanted to read the thing since.

Turning his head, Marcus looked his friend square in the eye. He knew his friend could have a temper when he wanted to but he didn't think he would actually kill someone. "Who are you protecting?"

Because that was the type of thing that Zan would do. Just as Marcus would and has on countless times. His lips twitched into a small smile about the jaywalking crack. That was probably the one charge that would infuriate his friend the most.

Axe's eyebrows shot up into his head and then he felt a raw kind of anger boil his blood. "Well that obviously didn't work now, did it?" What a stupid idea and so that was why Tate was here and...

"Is that why they hired Duskurk? Hoping he could help figure out who was behind this? Evil minds think alike and all that." Well that hadn't worked either. All that man had done was to terrorise the kids with his unorthodox teaching methods.

"I don't know how it's being done. None of the kids seemed to have anything in common as far as I know anyway. Let's see besides Jake, there was young Tiberius, another Ravenclaw by the name of Madison, um Dylan Denver he's a fourth year Slytherin, Oliver Greenwood another Slytherin and the Hufflepuff quidditch captain Miranda." Yep that was all of them.

Tate strolled into the office, giving the two men a welcoming smile before he seated himself behind his desk. He appeared unconcerned about Truebridge's appearance or the tense stance Lawson had taken, although truthfully... they were of concern. Both of them.

"Gentlemen. Both of you can have a seat. Professor Truebridge," he emphasized the title. Of course Zan was coming back. "It's good to have you back. In terms of the reason you were asked to leave, I assume you've heard from Professor Lawson that we were successful. The perpetrator from last term has struck again." He steepled his hands. "As for the promise I made you, I'm afraid I have been unable to keep it. Several students were injured, which was my major motivation in bringing you back. I need your help if we're to keep him from killing anyone else."

Yes. Axe had it in one. Ethan was indeed protecting someone but he wasn't about to say anything about it in case Tate had his office magically bugged.

"Send a criminal to catch a criminal." Ethan agreed, his expression thoughtful. Three of those names he did not know. New students this term he assumed since Truebridge had always made the effort to know his students.

Up until Kazimeriz had fired him of course.

And then came Tate.

Ethan stood up slowly, not out of respect however.

He inclined his head, that part was respectful at least, then after hearing what Tate had to say, Zan took the few steps between where he stood and where the 'headmaster' had sat himself and punched the man in the eye.

He recoiled at the punch just slightly, but Tate's expression did not change. "And now that we've got that out of the way..." He glanced at Lawson. "Do you want to hit me too? Perhaps later?"

He leaned over his desk, steepling his fingers. "You are understandably upset, Professor, and I would normally welcome your thoughts on what we could have done differently aside from enforced military rule of the student body. But I'd like to skip straight to the part where we work out a solution."

And man. His eye hurt. That was going to leave a mark.

Truebridge returned to the seat that he had moved so that the back of it was against the wall.

"Apologies. I'd have hexed you but I still have not retrieved my wand." Ethan flicked a non-existant piece of lint from his jacket and was once more his deadpan and apparently emotionless self.

"Have you made a list of the injuries and symptoms the effected students are presenting?"

That punch?

Felt good.

When Tate walked into the room, Marcus' jaw clenched it took a great deal of effort not to lunge across the desk and throttle the man. But it looked like there was no need for Zan had beat him to it.

And man it was quite a punch.

Marcus lent back in the chair and smirked at the Headmaster, "Yes perhaps" he agreed, very much wanting to punch the man in the face right now but he would probably still gain satisfaction in punching him later.

"I just can't believe that you knew all this and still put the kids out there as bait." And one of those kids had been Jake and that really made Marcus angry. "And would it have killed you to let the rest of the staff know what was going on?"

"Healer Ashford has been documenting the injuries, and I invited Professor Lawson along for his expertise in the Dark Arts field," Tate leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms across the chest.

It was meant to be menacing.

"From what we've heard so far, the wounds have little in common except that they seem to have magical origins, rather than from a fall or Muggle scrape, and are consistent to my mind with intense dueling without supervision. My men often sported similar wounds after dueling sessions. Some of them had dried blood on their wounds, some fresh, so it appears that there is a window of time they were gone. And most significantly, several of them are dirty. Very dirty. I suspect they were outdoors, which means the castle has not been breached."

The yet hung in the air.

"When you get your wand, Professor, you will not use it on me. I brought you back to help, not to hinder."

"And you... you only get one shot, so make it count. I don't answer to you, and I don't have to explain why things went this way. I will, however, say that the children were never bait. I am one man, and you are a fully functioning adult so far as I can tell. If you want to point fingers, explain to me how a man with your skills and experience failed to recognize Voldemortist, failed to realize children were missing, and failed to protect the students in a field you purport to be trained in. Perhaps if you weren't so distracted by your office romance, you would be able to do your job."

Now. Breathing. "Now we're done blaming each other, let's move on to actually getting something done."

It was possible that Ethan muttered something under his breath that sounded like 'Gryffindors.'

Possibly.

He also found himself inwardly reacting to the idea of a not-Caroline healer in residence, but he remained silent on that point.

"Have their wands been tested?" Truebridge inquired. Just from what he'd heard the dueling conclusion was what he had arrived at also. "Axe... Marcus mentioned they do not appear to remember anything." He paused heavily, "I can't say I am a fan of memory altering charms, or the Imperius curse." He tapped his chin thoughtfully, his wand hand still flexing without him being aware of it.

"From when were these injuries first noticed? If it occured outside the school... how many Hogsmeade weekends have there been?" You know, while Ethan was in prison and all.

He glanced at Tate and then at Axe.

"No reason to use my wand on anyone yet." He too, left the yet hanging.

... heres hoping that Marcus did not choose now to get worked up over the very pointed jab the headmaster had made. Truebridge had no room to talk himself afterall.

Talk about shifting the blame.

With an extremely calm manner, Marcus stood up from the chair, turned on his heel and strode towards the door. Those comments didn't even warrant a response from him.

And as he exited the room, he made sure to slam the door on his way out.

Tate watched Lawson leave with comment, although his brow was creased in frustration. He was too used to berating soldiers who had to take it and not used to employing tact. It wouldn't do any of them any good to drive wedges into the staff.

He would have to speak to the man later.

"There have been two Hogsmeade weekends. The injuries happened after the first but before the second, I believe. If they're linked in any way... I suppose we should be paying attention to the comings and goings of the students right now."

Anything else? "As for testing the wands, I haven't taken that step yet. The Healer only recently brought this situation to my attention. Perhaps you would take that on yourself?"

That had been... very Kazimeriz of Tate. Ethan regarded him coolly after watching Lawson leave and appeared to relax in his seat just slightly.

"I suggest on all future Hogsmeade weekends, the village and its surrounds are patrolled. All the staff need to be aware of the situation so far so that they may take note of strange behaviour in classes. Likewise I think the prefects should be informed that something is going on, so they know to report any odd behaviour of their housemates."

He nodded once in agreement. "I do not mind doing that, however I'd like to know specifically what you want from me now. In what capacity am I here? The staff is at full compliment, is it not?"

"That's fair. I'm not sure we shouldn't just discontinue the Hogsmeade weekends, but I hate to tip our hand that we suspect something," Tate mused, sinking back into his chair and giving his chin a rub.

"I can meet with the prefects and notify the staff, of course. And I probably need to chat with Lawson before he feeds me to the thestrals. As for you..." Did he really have to spell it out? "You were only asked to lay low to put the culprit at ease. That's worked, and he or she is in too deep to disappear again. Aside from that, I didn't intend to leave you there for any longer than necessary, and I honestly need an extra pair of eyes and hands. We can't oust Tommy Boy yet..."

Well? Suggestions welcome. "A supplementary class would be sufficient. Something defensive."

"Defensive." Ethan repeated and after a long moment he simply shrugged. "You are the headmaster.... and I will no longer have that... probation on my record?"

He really had to go fetch his wand. Truebridge looked down at his hand, which was still flexing absently.

"I will help in whatever capacity I am able." He added quietly.

"Perhaps dueling? Help to get the kids prepared for whatever it is that will come their way," Tate leaned back in his seat. "And I can promise your record will be completely cleared. THAT is a promise I can keep."

It was good that Zan was back. Very good. An extra set of eyes could be the difference. "Glad you're home, Zan."

"I suppose." Truebridge agreed and clenched his wand hand into a fist. Annie had his wand, right? He could only assume Tate had done that much.

Home?

Well... he supposed in a way maybe it was. Maybe.

"Where shall I... perhaps a desk in the dueling arena will be sufficient." He murmured, realising that this would not be the first time he was technically office-less.

"Or an empty classroom in the Defense suite, but it will put you awfully close to Thomas. However much space you need, we'll provide it for you." Because honestly... making a man go to prison really earned him more than just a black eye.

"You should have warned me about Caroline, Zan."

"Whatever suits." Ethan was not particularly worried, as long as he had somewhere to himself.

"Warned you?" That... did not compute. He gave Casey a puzzled look. Why would anyone need warning about an Avalon?

"She's a firecracker," Casey informed Truebridge, unable to suppress the pleased smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "She yells at me. About you. Appreciate that."

And he really did appreciate it. Too many calm, porcelain women in the world and not enough with a bit of fire in them.

"She yells at a lot of people. Often about me. I am not sure that I see your point." Ethan just looked at Casey, clearly waiting for some sort of clarification or explanation.