Alexa kind of cringed at the sound of the Tate man's voice and looked up. He looked the same as before... but whatever. Tears were still streaking her face as she said, "G-g-gold was here before me and J-jake, sir. I will wait."


Looking back to Gold she smiled a little sadly and said, "I might need help..." That was all she could muster up the courage to say.

Headmaster Tate? THAT was unexpected. Gold had pretty much forgotten what she had come here, for. She felt like she had been here for ages. AND Alexa's arrival had completely taken her mind off the Arithmancy homework she had come here, for. She could have gone to anyone for it, even Professor Hadley herself, but she wanted to know the Headmaster's full name, and date of birth. Soo yes, she had been here for the homework.

"I guess I just wanted to say hello, sir," she said. "... and do a bit of homework." She turned to Alexa. "You go ahead, I know you have more important things to discuss and -- and take care of yourself." She patted Alexa on the shoulder, and rose to her feet. She didn't want her homework to be the cause Alexa's meeting got delayed. She had been waiting here for a long time, and knew how awful it can be, to have to wait and wait and wait, while other people take their time. Even though, of course, that can't be helped. But if she could make Alexa's wait shorter, that would definitely be worth something. She had just told Alexa she was going to be there to help her, after all.

"I think I'll come another time, sir. You seem really busy, today." She gave Headmaster Tate a tiny but polite smile.

"I've already spoken with Upstead, so I think that must mean it is now Prefect Laksh's turn," Tate gestured toward the door. "Do you require privacy, Miss Laksh?"

Ah, now they were being excessively polite. "I am busy, it's true, but that doesn't mean I don't have time for both of you. Can I do anything for you right now?" He addressed the Gryffindor prefect.

Alexa looked at Gold and shook her head vigorously. "No, Gold, go ahead and speak with the Headmaster, I assure you I can wait a little bit longer. I would like to speak with Headmaster Tate in private if you are here for any other reason go ahead and speak with him... I can wait" she rambled on. Good God... the Tatertot was going to think she was a nutter too. *Sigh*

Alexa gave Gold a little nudge and what resembled a smile to tell her that she was perfectly fine with her going ahead of her considering she had been waiting for like forever.

Right. Then she was going to try to make this quick. "I only wanted to calculate your Life Path Number," Gold said, a little hesitantly. He knew she would need his complete date of birth for that, didn't he? Gold couldn't be sure of course, but she liked Headmaster Tate, had ever since the end of last term, so she assumed he would.

She returned Alexa's smile with one of her own, before picking up her notebook and self-inking quill, and eyeing them.

"September 1, 2034," Tate told her. Hey, it had worked when Toussaint did it, so it would probably work again, right?

"And now... what can I do for you, Miss Kennedy? Welcome back."

Alexa bit her lip to hold back more tears and said, "I kind of like need some advice, sir. And thank you for the welcome, sir." She began to fidget with the tear in her jeans again as she waited for Tate to speak again.

"Yes? I give excellent advice, mostly about how to ask girls out on dates and how to get dungbombs past the caretaker, but I'm game for other good advice. Shall we sit?" He gestured to the cushy sofas.

Alexa frowned slightly as those were the furthest things from her mind when she asked for his advice... but whatever.

Looking the Tate man directly in the eye she said, "Well I noticed last term that you, uh, handled the situation with Grumps... err... Remi with a a kind of skill that must mean you are used to dealing with matters such as those. I guess I need some advice on how to, uh, get past all of that mess." Tears... stupid stupid tears...

"You see, when I left for the summer my Uncle had me sent to St. Mungo's because I was really... messed up... I am having a lot of trouble being back here and facing it all. I spent all this time locked away where the memories weren't as strong, but as soon as I walked through the gates I kind of... lost it again. How do I deal with it, sir. How can I be here and be normal and like not let the memories of what I did overwhelm me?" she rambled on as stubborn tears slipped her eyes. Great... now Tate was going to think she was a nutter like everyone else. She wiped at her eyes and gave him a pleading look... he was the Headdude he had to know the answers to things like this, right? Right?!

"We all have to deal with what happened last term," Tate folded his hands in front of him and gave the girl a pitying look. She should have been here all term, moving on with her peers. "I would suggest you do what it is you're doing right now. Be willing to talk about it when you need, seek company when you don't want to be alone, and remember that you have staff here that will do everything in their power to keep that from happening again."

Alexa nodded as Tate spoke... she understood perfectly well, but it was hard for her to seek the company of the other students. "I feel like an outcast, like a pariah... I am afraid to be around large groups pf people, Headmaster. I think Mungo's did more harm than good, really. Being away from the real world for so long kind of left me to my thoughts, ya know," she mumbled. "I signed up for the Duelling Meetings with Professor Truebridge. He was nice enough to let me sign up late and I think that that might bring some of my confidence back. Right now the only spell I feel comfortable casting is Papillio and well that is rather useless isn't it?" she continued.

Sighing heavily she looked back at Tate and said, "I know I have nothing to worry about here, but I worry that others see me as having gone round the twist..." She trailed off and picked at the hole in her jeans yet again.

"No one here is holding what happened against you. You were simply the victim of a plot, as were your fellows. I think you're expecting too much of yourself as a second year to think you could have done anything last year to prevent this or make it end in a different way. Now, I suggest you take the opportunity to learn to really fight, just as Professor Truebridge is offering, and forgive yourself for all that happened."

Alexa nodded at the HEadmaster and bit her lower lip. THat was all well and good, but much easier said than done. "Thank you for your time, Headmaster. I am sorry to have come here and cried all over the place... I just didn't really know who else to talk to about it really. I have spoken more to you than I ever have any other Professor or whatever... " she trailed off. Biting her lip harder still she looked at him with tears in her eyes and quietly said, "I'm sorry for, uh, trying to attack you and all that... I feel really terrible for everything I did. I know it was Remi controlling all of us but that doesn't make it any easier for me to digest, I suppose."

Rising from the couch a bit shakily she asked Tate, "May I be excused, sir? " And then before she could stop herself she had leaned down and HUGGED THE HEADMASTER. Oh bloody hell... Yeah it was time for her to get somewhere other than there. Not waiting for a dismissal, she released the HM and took off down the corridor highly embarrassed.

"Well... yes," Tate watched the girl leave, giving her a perplexed look. He hoped she'd come back if she needed someone to talk to and couldn't stomach sharing with her friends yet.

Tate stood and headed back up the stairs to his office. Paperwork. YAY.

GOSH! Headmaster Tate was ANCIENT!

But cool. So that was alright.

Gold flipped open her notebook, and jotted down the date of birth. Then she added it, by the method of reduction first, and eyed the number that she finally came on to. One.

Well.

Right. Gold knew what the textbook had to say, about the number. She hadn't achieved an O in Arithmancy, for just any reason. But she flipped it open anyway, to make sure what she had in mind was correct. It was, so she looked back up at the Headmaster.


"Well, according to what the textbook says, your life is basically a path to independence and self-sufficiency, sir. You have strength and willpower as the traits that will lead you to success." But he was already successful, wasn't he? He was a Headmaster of Hogwarts, after all. THAT, is success. Of a completely lovely kind.

"The bit about leadership looks pretty true, too. It says here that life plans to give you a lot of opportunities, to show that you can assume the role of a leader. I think that's pretty correct, especially given that you're the Headmaster." Oh, and courage and determination. That was correct, too! Gold had been impressed, by how Headmaster Tate had handled Remi, end of last term. That was the one reason she had started to actually like him. "Of course, you aren't working in a bookstore or part of the Ministry, but Hogwarts seems like the perfect place, according to your Life Path Number." Mental agility, right? Running a place as quirky and awesome as Hogwarts, definitely required that and presence of mind.

"Sooo, sir, your Life Path Number says that the talents that will help you on your road are resolution, bravery, intellect and other cool stuff like that; and that you'll find yourself in places where you have to lead. Pretty right so far, if you ask me." She was rambling on now, but Arithmancy is so, SOOO interesting. That, and Ancient Runes.

ZOMG! Runes!

OH. Ancient!Headmaster Tate was leaving. Gold frowned slightly, closed her notebook, and turned to look at Lexi. Only to find that Lexi was leaving, too. Giving the girl half a smile, Gold picked up the book she had placed down on the bench earlier and, quietly dropping it into her bag, turned round to head to her common room.

Having passed by the Stone Gargoyles, Raiden paused next to one, eyes flicking around the empty seating area.

The calm was slowly stripping away. It wasn't as if there'd been much of it there in the first place, but now it was slowly disappearing, chips being broken off and disappearing.

This was not good. Not good at all. His fingers worked anxiously, curling and uncurling into fists as he waited for the other two to make their way down.

Hopefully they made it out before that woman did.

Nancy had hurried down the spiral staircase from the Headmaster's Office, simply assuming Oliver was somewhere behind her. Well, he would find his way down here anyhow, what was important now was to find Raiden...before he blew up. Or blew something up. "Raiden?" She asked softly, a slight hint of worry accompanying her tones as she glanced towards the Stone Gargoyles...and found no Raiden.

Uh-oh. Where had he gone off to? After another quick scan of the area Nancy found him - looking even more anxious than before - over at the Seating Area. Quickly approaching him the 18 year old's eyes flickered towards his hands which were repeatedly clenching and unclenching into fists. Not a good sign. So not. "Ssh, Raiden, calm down. It's-" Okay? Err. "-we'll get through this." She ended up saying, throwing her fellow Prefect another worried glance.

Guh, she sucked at this. "So, where d'you want to go?" Because they couldn't exactly stay there. It was way too risky for Lafay to eavesdrop in on them or something. And where the heck was Oliver...he was a boy too after all, he had to know how to handle the situation.

Raiden was staring very resolutely at the floor. Somehow, the pattern of the floor, coupled with his very focused thoughts about the letter in his pocket, seemed to be helping him get his calm back.

It might also have had something to do with the fact that he wasn't in close proximity to that woman anymore.

He looked up when someone came down from the office; part of him expected it to be her, following him to have at him for some offence that was hardly as bad as she seemed to think it. When he saw it was Nancy, however, he let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding and shook his head.

"I'm fine. Really. Just... I can't stand her." There was no pretending otherwise.

His next letter to Emmalee was going to be full of swearwords, he just knew it. He'd have to write it and then crumple it up and rewrite it, just to keep the anger out of it.

"Prefect's bathroom... I'm hoping we can maybe catch Chris or Cela there. At least another prefect. It's not just our house that needs to be told, it's the other prefects too. This affects them too." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. "You realise we just had a meeting in which we were pretty much told we needed to protect the other students from our Head of House? How screwed up is THAT? This entire situation is just..."

It was disgusting. SO. MESSED. UP. And worst of all was that... Raiden couldn't not go to her lessons now. Because if he didn't go, he wasn't doing what he'd told the Headmaster and Truebridge what he would do. And he didn't particularly trust her to not hurt someone; after all, she'd set kids on fire and then balded them for walking into the room. She had a truly envious track record, didn't she.

Oliver had been following Nancy down the stairs but got distracted half way by a overturned cockroach which he watched with fascination for quite some time. 'Lookit squirm!' Gross.. but also hella interesting. hehe.

He got to the bottom and heard the tail end of the conversation: that they were heading to the Prefect's bathroom to discuss the events of the meeting. That incessant chewing of his cheek started again when Raiden voiced what they were all undoubtedly thinking. Protection of their peers. Truebridge had put it quite plainly.

“I think she's making an effort to be nice.” He addressed both Nancy and Raiden with a shrug and gestured back from whence they'd come. “We have to give her the benefit of the doubt.” He said quietly. Really, there was nothing more they could do right now. Right now the three student leaders, as Truebridge called them, had their hands pretty much tied over this particular situation.