Well THAT was certainly a relief. Jake sighed, rubbing his eye with the tips of his fingers as his brain worked at a furious pace. LouAnn was not arrested, so Jake wouldn't be arrested. But even now that was sorted, Jake still felt... sad. After everything they'd been through together... she just...

Left.

Without saying goodbye.

Bringing the other hand up to his face too, Jake used them both to cover the lower half of his face, looking back over the grounds with a blank expression. Finally, with a sudden motion, Jake lowered his hands and looked intently at the ground a few feet away.

"Fine," he replied in a low voice. "I'm ffffine, sir. Scared... wuhh-worried," the boy looked up at the man and gave him a wry smile. Just enough to maybe convince him. "I'm fine."

He just needed to climb something. Clear his mind...

Constantine leaned against the door frame again as the boy stated that he was fine, but.. "That doesn't entirely sound like fine to me," he questioned. "Why would you need to scared or worried? Everything is fine again."

Regarding the man for about a minute, which seemed like a long time of silence by the end of it, Jake tried to make his mind up about what to say. He obviously wasn't getting anywhere by saying 'fine' and he was still terrified about the coming term. Plus, Masterson was wrong in Jake's opinion. Everything was not fine.

Shaking his head slowly, Jake tried to think of the right (and short) way to word his fears. "What if..." he started, thinking very carefully as he spoke, so he didn't trip up on the words. Talking slowly helped to. "It all... ha-happens ag-again?" By that he meant the deaths and the nightmares? Or what if there was neither? He could probably deal with nightmares and no deaths, and possibly deaths with no nightmares, but the link between them was scary. "B-bontec-cou... gone," Jake added slowly, having forgotten the details about that... not even knowing if he'd even found out in the first place.

"Ev-everything... is not... fine."

Constantine moved and took a seat on the step, watching as the boy expressed his fear. "Well, I can't blame you for worrying about that," he admitted when Upstead was done. "You can't let it rule your life though; you'll end up worrying about something for nothing. As for Bontecou being gone...I'm sure he's on a lovely vacation. Professor Tate does look promising though," he shrugged.

"Have you visited the nurse? Perhaps you can convince her to get you a calming solution. It could help."

A nice vacation? Jake found that quite unlikely.

"Sure," he said quietly, though he was far from agreeing. Though... if Masterson said not to worry, and there was something about the man that inspired trust, then Jake would try and listen and keep that in mind.

As for Tate... Jake shifted uncomfortably at the mention of that name. He'd be staying out of that man's way. Maybe.

Obsessively flattening his hair, though it was already flat enough, Jake shook his head, ready to inform Masterson that he'd already had his dose of that potion for the day. But had he? He didn't want to have too much of the stuff. But this gave him an excuse...

"Y-yes," Jake nodded, looking reassured. "Yyyeah... I think I sh-should ggggo... Guhh-get a ppppotion."

"Atta boy," Constantine smiled. He stood back up from the front step, brushing the dirt off the back of his jeans. "And, if that doesn't work, come back and we can give the hot chocolate and marshmellow treatment a whirl, alright?"

Returning the smile to the man, Jake held himself taller for some reason... feeling oddly proud after the praise. And that hot chocolate sounded good too. "Sure. Guhh-gotta be ssssugar-free," he pointed out, half-joking. With one last little awkward wave, Jake turned, actually feeling a little better than before he arrived, even if it was about something different. "Ch-cheers, sssir," the boy added, before he turned tail and sidled off, sticking his hands into his pockets as he did.

"Oh dear, I've seen this before..." Chaucer looked very nervous and ready to flee at the slightest provocation. "Two handsome lads go off to the woods and get lost. Then they encounter a little shack that seems harmless enough, but a terrible maniac lives within and spends hours walking faster than the boys can run and ... and... kills them!" Never mind that Hogwarts was well in sight, there was something Chaucer found quite unnerving about the squat little dwelling. Whatever lived inside was either old, ragged, or both. Either way, it was not something he was eager to look upon.
"Let us leave an offering of squirrel-meat or whatever it is those people eat and make our escape now." He whispered to Kellen, a look of dire seriousness on his face.

"Chaucer, I don't think they have an evil witch or wizard on property." Kellen hesitated, remembering what Celandine had said about Professor Duskurk, "At least not outside the castle. I'm sure it'll be fine."

He stepped up to the door and knocked four times, but when he stepped back it was to tuck his shoulder casually behind his cousin's. Not to run, never that, but to nudge the boy forward if and when the door opened. And then, depending on who answered, perhaps run.

Hmmm, he seemed to be popular this year. Closing his book and putting it on the coffee table, his reading glasses placed on top, he picked himself up from the couch. He walked right over to the door and pulled it wide open. "Hello," he greeted the two boys, slightly amused at how they looked ready to flee at a moments notice. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Chaucer looked up at the hut-dweller. Well, he did sort of have a beard. There was hair there anyway. Still, he supposed that calling him a crazed woodsman would have been a gross misuse of the term. Despite the kinder-than-expected host, Chaucer still could not quite bring himself to speak out of embarassment for his previous tirade.

The man probably never even looked hungrily at a squirrel before, much less ate them regularly. It was a little disappointing however that such a conspicuous backdrop was wasted.

Manners are everything old bean, don't go and ruin someone's day because you have a yellow feather in your cap! Stiffly, Chaucer lifted his right hand, but upon remembering the hole in the glove switched to his left. He looked almost paralyzed, and virtually was to the point where even his last thought of 'cap' kept rotating in his head over and over.

It occured to Chaucer just then that he had never spoken with any member of either the staff or faculty at his old academy (outside of the classroom, that is). Come on lad, they're all adults and all adults are like boring versions of yourself, yes? And haven't we spoken to ourselves before and came back all the better? Yes.
This thought relaxed him a little.

Kellen looked up at the man with a look that probably mirrored his cousin's, as Chaucer was quite good at making him paranoid and he'd had the second thought that perhaps Duskurk DID live here, but as soon as his brain registered not Duskurk he relaxed. Relaxed in that he used his shoulder to shove his cousin closer to the man, and then smiled up at him again with a 'I'm the moral support, leave me out of it!' smile, "Chaucer would like to ask you something, sir."

There were many things Chaucer would have rather liked to say to Kellen at this point, but realized that to do so would likely offend the ears of any nearby. Instead, he turned to the man in front of him and attempted to give a confident, toothy grin. "Chaucer Ipswich, sir! A right pleasure to meet you too, whoever you may be." He felt need to give pause when he realized that his voice was a little higher than average. "Ah~ La~ Oh fiddle, there's no helping it. Right then well, Kellen and I - that's him there - were looking for the Greenhouse actually. We ended up at a broom closet before this you know. One should really be given a map when admitted, one really should!"

Constantine looked back and forth between the two boys, waiting for one of them to state what in the world they were here for. Finally, there was an introduction and an explanation for their presence at his house..hut...whatever.

"I'm Mr. Masterson. The school groundskeeper," he decided to introduce as well, delaying himself so that he could stifle back a chuckle. "As for the greenhouses, they're over in that direction." He pointed off somewhere north-west ward. "You see those buildings over there...made out of glass? Those are the greenhouses. As for maps, you'll pick up on this place in no time."

Oh! Very good sir, very good. Mr... Masterson, yes I can remember that. Groundskeeper eh? Will keep up the jolly work!" Chaucer looked over in the direction the man had pointed; indeed the glass was quite obvious and he mentally slapped himself for being so absent minded. He likewise mentally slapped Kellen for not picking up on the buildings as well. Was he not the navigator of this party?

Kellen sighed, the greenhouses really were obvious from this angle, weren't they? "Thank you for your time, Mr. Masterson... and your patience." He imagined that the man probably knew the whole of Hogwarts like the back of his hand, and to have two obviously-not-first-year boys ask directions to visible glass houses would be worth a laugh once the door was closed and the two were gone.

"Come on, Chaucer, maybe we can make it there before dinner."

"Not a problem at all," he smiled, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Oh, a word of caution. The Professor is a little....high-strung. Evil, in my opinion." He shrugged and moved back into his house. "Have fun!" And with that, he closed his door over.

Cadence walked up to the door that would lead her to the person she was most nervous to say hello to. Apparently Masterson had been the one to discover her in the Common Room after she'd destroyed it. Or so she had been told. She felt like she needed to come by... say hello... thank him or... something?

More nervous than she'd ever been for anything in her whole entire life, Cadence knocked gently on the door.

Masterson had busied himself in his little kitchen, preparing himself a tea when there was a knock on the door. He was just pulling the kettle off the flame when there was a knock on the door. "One second," he called as he poured the hot water into his mug and then replaced the kettle on the burner. He ran over to the door.

"Oh, hello Miss Ballard," he smiled, as he pulled the door open. "How are you today?"

Uh oh. He already remembered who she was. Cadence took a steadying breath. It was okay; he's a nice person. Nothing to be afraid of. She put on a smile and said, "Hello Mr. Masterson! I'm quite well, and yourself?"

"Ohhh, I'm surviving," he chuckled. "I was just about to have a tea...would you like to join me? The water's just finished heating."

Hmmm... this might be kind of way more awkward than Cadence expected. Normally, she was very good at talking to adults. In fact, she was better at talking to adults than she was at talking to people her own age. This, though, this was just... hard for her. Nevertheless, she kept up her polite and happy facade and replied, "Tea sounds lovely! Thank you!"

Neo smiled. "Excellent! Come on in..just shut the door behind you?" He scooted off to the little kitchen again and started to make another cup of tea.

"So," he started once he had reappeared in the siting room, two cups of tea in his hands. "What brings you to the hut on this fine day?"

He was soaking wet. He's done what Mr. Masterson had asked him, and then he had went to find the squid after that. Running towards his hut, he didn't even notice that he was freezing, or that he should of probably put dry clothes on so that Masterson did not think he was crazy!

He came to an abrupt stop when he reached the door, took one breath to steady himself and raised his arm to knock on the door.

Cadence followed Mr. Masterson into the hut and shut the door behind her as instructed. Sitting down, she waited, rather less patiently than she normally would have done, for him to return with the tea. At least the tea would give her something to do with her hands.

Oh, he was back already. And was already asking the question she was kind of nervous to answer. She stared at the floor, no longer able to make eye contact with him. "Um... I just... wanted to come by and-and say hello, and um, I also wanted to... to thank you." Okay, there, she had said it.