Kazimeriz glared at the boy. "You may certainly clear your conscience with the Headmaster, and may certainly be called upon to do so for the ministry authorities during Devereux's trial. And at that time you shall tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." He lowered his voice to a low growl. "But know this: you no more capable of murder than the whomping willow is capable of teaching my class. And you are no more responsible for those killings than a wand is solely responsible for a spell. You were a tool, Mr. Upstead. Nothing more. Just a puppet used for Devereux's own purposes. You must learn to be strong, however, so that you may never be used in that way again. That you can take responsibility for, and I expect you to do so."

"I killed them," Jake hissed, an ugly and angry, yet hurt look on his face that had never been there before. He did not appeciate being called a tool or anything like that. The only thing he understood was that his hand had dealt death, so therefore it must have been him.

He, of course, believed he was highly capable. He'd done it, hadn't he?

"I'm nnnnot risking anything by ssstaying here," the boy sneered quietly, feeling, for the first time, an angry ball of hate in his stomach. He'd never spoken like this, never in a nasty way. Never stood on his own two feet.

"Are we gggoing to the Ravenclaw ttttable, then?" Jake asked, his voice oddly steady by this point. His mind was just... so fragile.

Kazimeriz raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Indeed we are. Lead the way." he lowered his cane down a step and then stepped down off the dais gingerly.

"Of course, you realize that you are every bit as capable of being used for dark magic as a student of this school as you are if you have yourself expelled... the only difference is that here you may learn how to defend yourself. Expelled, or withdrawn, you choose to let your defensive skill set stagnate at its current level. You fate, of course, is entirely your decision. I trust you will make a wise choice." He began to shuffle toward the Ravenclaw table, motioning for Jake to come with him.

ooc- on to Ravenclaw!

Her godfather did not look good... Alessia was worried. Very worried. She wanted to take him to his quarters to rest, but she knew better than to tell him to go to his room. She sighed and keeping an eye on her godfather, she went to... Ethan Truebridge's side. "How's your jaw?" She asked coldly.

Jake was done at Hogwarts.

Done.

Okay, so he was moodswinging like a pregnant lady, but... HE believed that the whole amulet thing was very unfair. He didn't see the differences. He thought it hypocritical. The boy approached Tate, his eyes teary but furious, and held himself up respectably.

"I wwwant you ttto exppppel me," he said, voice coming out thickly. Jake's face then looked kind of pouty/insolent/FURIOUS/devastated/... hopeless. "Nnnnow please."

"He thinks he's funny." Celandine piped up from behind Jake, smiling quickly at the headmaster and catching Jake's arm up, linking hers with his almost protectively.

"I have your wand." She whispered to Jake. "Come sit with me? Please? I want to... I want to tell you things."

She gave him an earnest look, one tinged with knowing. She knew.

"I'm nnnot joking," Jake insisted, staring at the Headmaster and the rest of the staff with incredibly tearful eyes. He looked down at his good arm and then at the person who had their arm linked with his.

Cela.

Of course, he'd known by her voice exactly who it was...

Sniffling a little, and feeling a tear leak out of the corner of his right eye and splash onto the sling holding up his bad arm, Jake looked down at the amulet she wore. He was resentful of it.

Wait... tell him things?

"I'm not jjjjoking," he mumbled again, but began to follow Cela's lead after an angsty look up at Tate. He'd hear her out.

"You are." Celandine informed him comfortingly as she tugged him away. To a table? Cela found a spot near the big doors and began to talk to Jake in earnest, her eyes wide and serious as she told him her secret and made him an offer.

She could help him. She could.





ooc: what, you didn't think I was going to tell everyone did you? XD

"Not."

Going along with Cela, Jake found himself watching the floor move beneath his feet, not taking anything in until the girl found a secluded spot for them. He looked up at her and tried his best to concentrate, which wasn't so hard to do once he heard the start of it.

Well now... wasn't this interesting?

Ethan had paused on his way away from the staff table to hear the... well, the speech. He supposed it still counted as one. He watched Kazimeriz quietly from the position Truebridge had taken up to one side, quite out of the way. He was glad to see the old man was... relatively intact, but he did not expect the man to appreciate him showing any sort of relief on the matter.

Not that he was.

Or anything.

He turned his head just slightly when Alessia approached and spoke. He didn't register her tone of course. In profile he looked no different to normal, but when he turned to face her, it was clear that his jaw was just the tiniest bit crooked, even if it was now perfectly intact and no longer painful.

"Fine, thank you Alessia. My arm gives me more trouble, though the scarring is not as bad as I expected it to be." His sleeves were long and covered the arrow injury and Ethan did not offer to show her. He wasn't one for sharing 'war wounds' or the tales of how they were earned.

He wanted to ask about Kazimeriz.

"Are you well?" He asked Lupa instead, his voice perfectly polite.

Max had been chatting away at the tables with various students and was showing off his hoof-shaped bruise on his left bicep to those who wanted to see what centaurs did to those who called the creatures 'dumb animals.' It was his way to ignore the dull chatter at the Staff Table and to have a complete audience when Tate announced that Ravenclaw had won the House Cup. He cheered with the 'Claws and even went through a little show of flexing his muscles (yes, victories brought out the annoying jock in him). But enough was enough and he saw a frail looking Kazimeriz following Jakers his way. Did they see that? Yikes! Time to sit with the adults and act like one.

He moved quickly and avoided running into the grumpy old man. And thank Merlin his seat wasn't taken.

"So why the glum faces," Max inquired and looked over at Less and Ethan.

She took her eyes off of her godfather for a moment to look at his face. The jaw seemed... alright. Maybe not the same as before. She turned her attentions back to her frail godfather and was thinking of asking him if he wanted her to look at his arm... but then, looking at the nurse, she thought better of it. She was probably taking care of him.

"Am I... well? Uhmmm..." was she well? Her ex-fiancee had tried to kill everyone she knew, succeeded killing a colleague, and others... and she still didn't know what had happened to Pepe... Student's parents were probably writing to the headmaster to get her sacked... The guilt was pretty horrible... Valon... and even Ethan had gotten hurt. Was she well??? "Yes..."

... physically anyway.

She rocked on her feet not knowing what else to say.

"I always look like this." Ethan pointed out with a small smile, it wasn't quite clear whether or not he was joking but the slightly crooked edge to his jaw was more pronounced when he smiled.

"You know," Ethan began, looking down at his covered arm, "Things will only get better if you let them."

He looked up again, eyes searching out Kazimeriz once more.

Perhaps it was time for him to let things get better too. Let things go.

Violet headed over to the staff table nervously, she walked to Professor Lupa. "Um exscuse me." she said and stuttered a bit but finally made out. "P-P-Professor Lupa." Fake smile. Oh gosh this should be fun because apoligizing is my favorite thing to do she thought sarcastically. And all these other Professors... She kept a distance away from them, with her eyes fixed on them as if at any moment they could attack her.

"Oh... I'm alright Maximus..." She said and smiled at him... right? No glumminess if she smiled. "It's just... my godfather... he seems..." She was going to say frail, but her eyes flickered to Ethan, and then back to Papa Valon, "not himself..."

"He does..." She said with a smirk.

She didn't look at him. She didn't really know what to say, though her eyes seemed pensive. There was a smidgen of a nod and then said "Excuse me..." and she walked to an empty seat... away from Ethan.

She'd just sat down when one of her student approached her... Oh... it was her. "Miss Riddle..." She said filling her glass with water. "Aren't you afraid I'm going to eat raw meat in front of you?"

"Too bad," Max joked and finally was able to say it. "Glad that you're back, mate."

He sighed and wanted to say something comforting but he watched as Less moved to another seat.

Then he leaned over to Truebridge. "Oh, look! We've got a bit of a treat. Let's watch and listen," he whispered and pointed to Violet.

Violet fake laughed. "That's funny. Really funny." she said unenthusiastically. "But no I came to...a-a-a-a-apoligize." she said rolling her eyes a bit.

"Oh?" She said and put down the pitcher of water. She looked up and gave the child her FULL attention. "Go On..."

Yes. It was fairly obvious that Kazimeriz was... not himself. It was also fairly obvious that several people had noticed.

Ethan shrugged, pretending it was not important.

That little smirk spread a little and Ethan's own smile flickered into one, briefly of course. It was gone a moment later and he nodded at Alessia when she excused herself.

"Ah." Awkward. Truebridge nodded, obviously appreciating the sentiment but not one to be particularly adept at expressing it. "I am... glad that... you are glad? That... I am back. Again."

Err.

Yes.

He looked in Violet's direction, just as curious to see where this was going -and how genuine it was- as Vindictus was.

"Its a start." He murmured. Not that words were enough. That particular child had a lot more to do to gain approval than simply apologising to her Head of House.

"Well...I shouldn't have called you a mutt, and say and do all those rude things. I should have gaven you more respect I guess." she mumbled. "So Im s-s-s-s" She stopped, avoiding eye contact by looking at the floor.

Max was now listening intently. "Ooo...same attitude. Do you think Less will snap?" he asked Ethan in a low voice. Then he heard Violet's next comment. He kept his voice low so that only Ethan could hear him. "Oh, man. That was not good. Repeating insults as part of an apology is not the best thing to do. Bite her, Less!"

"S-s-s-s what?" She said raising an eyebrow... "Sorry?" She said sighing, "If you are indeed sorry, then I expect you to be a well behaved Slytherin next term and everyone of them following..." She said and watched her.

"Maximus!" she said in a loud whisper. But she smirked a bit find it funny.

Violet scowled at Professor Vindictus and looked at Professor Lupa. "Yes Im sorry! Gosh!" she said very quickly, then she hid her face with her hands. That.Was.Horrible. she thought.

"No. She's too nice." Ethan answered matter-of-factly. Well she was. It wouldn't surprise him if she tucked every single Slytherin into bed at night and offered them to read them bedtime stories and reminded them to brush their teeth and encouraged them to wear snuggly footie pajamas.

The onesie kind.


... with a flap.

One could alway hope.

"Do you believe it?" Ethan asked Vindictus in a low voice.

Awww...

Alessia smiled and nodded. She fought the urge to open her arms and cuddling the girl until she felt better... Sometimes all they needed was a hug.

"Very well Miss Riddle... I'll be watching you." She said... cuddling may not have been... appropriate at the closing feast.