Eli nodded soberly. "She totally set 'em on fire, for being bad in her class. One kid even died." He wasn't sure how true that was, but that's what he had heard from another kid whose older brother's best friend's sister who was cousins with the best friend of the kid who died. MMmhmm. So it had to be true, there was a reliable source!

He fidgeted. Where was the professor? He was getting tired of doing the Fidgety Flamingo dance, standing first on one foot and the switching. "If he is evil, how do we keep him from killing us long enough to get the bammer stopped?"

Mmmhmmm.
No way! Anni said, totally shocked. She wasn't sure she totally believed Eli, but a few other kids had mentioned the fire as well, so maybe it was true.
Heh. He still thought the Proffessor was evil. 'Hmmm. Well, if he really does try to kill us, I can cast a decent enough Patronus' she told him. Well, it was OK. A huge phoenix bursting out of a wand ought to scare someone enough, right?

Eli's face lit up. That would save them from evil for sure. "Wow! That's amazing! Can you maybe-- ow! -- teach me that later?" He could do a few simple charms and even a hex or two - little ones - and one or two really small transfigurations. A patronus, now that would be SOMETHING.

Anni was incredible. Absolutely incredible. She was probably the best witch at the whole school. "Why did you come late in the year, anyway?"

Anni smiled
'Sure I can. It'll be fun, without the hammer' she said, giggling. She made another grab for it, but no luck. Darn muggle tools. 'Huh? Oh, I transfered to Beauxbatons originally, from Salem in America. But they kicked me out - something to do with failure to comply with dress codes and other rules. So here I am. And I have to say, I do prefer Hogwarts'

Anni made it all feel better, even his aching toes. He grabbed for the hammer too, and missed, but giggled along with her even though it bammed him on the fingers. "Ow!" he sucked on his knuckle. "Well, I'm glad you came here, anyway. My cousin goes to Beauxbatons, and they are a bunch of snooty snoots! " He grabbed at it and missed again.

"I like--" The way you look? No, that just sounded all wrong. Ew. He didn't like-her like her, he just... "I think the way you dress is really creepy." he said with a smile to convey that this was a high compliment. Eli liked creepy, just not evil.

Anni smiled. Stupid tool, it really was hard to catch. Grr. She laughed out loud when he described the Beauxbaton's students 'Yeah, that's about right' she said 'You know, it's weird. They expected me to be the most popular 'cause my dad's the richest, but then they all hate me 'cause I dress differently' it really was weird. And shallow. She giggled again at his next comment 'So you think that's a good thing, right?' she said, unsure. 'Cause that's the look I go for. Creepy's my thing'

Eli nodded. [b]"Creepy's a goooood thing. I like creepy. Except like, boggart-creepy." He lost his balance a little, and grabbed her shoulder for balance as he switched feet. "Sorry."

"That's really illogical. Maybe they are just-- ow! -- jealous?" he asked as the bammer hit his toes again. "I might be jealous, except my real dad is super rich, too, so I know how that goes." He nodded with sympathy. Eli didn't know who his real dad was. For all he knew, he WAS super rich. Weirder things had happened.

'Ah, that's good then. Or I'd have to kill youuu!' Anni smiled, helping him back to his feet. That hammer was probably affecting his balance. 'S'ok' she said, smiling at him 'Hmm, maybe. But I don't really care what they think. I'm cool and they just don't know it' *que evil smirk*

Eli nodded. She most certainly was. "And you're amazing at magic. A full patronus is really tricky!" He hoped to the other foot, making the hammer miss his toes. He had almost gotten used to it. BAM!

"Ow! Okay, maybe not.

Anni grinned. Cute kid.
'Thanks' she said, blushing slightly. She just knew that was going to look so weird on her paler-than-pale cheeks. Darn. Grrrrrrrr. that hammer was really getting on her nerves. She was going to find who'd cursed it and give them a piece of her mind after this. Grrr.

Truebridge returned to his office and was surprised to see two students waiting for him. Particularly since he didn't recognise either of them.

He stopped behind them, observing silently for a moment.

"Can I help you two?"

Eli grinned back. "I'm serious. A patronus is a really big deal! You must be a really powerful witch. If the professor tries anything funny, all you'll have to do is whip out your wand and WHIZ! BANG! curse him clear back into Azkaban and--"

He stopped cold, sensing someone behind him. The purple hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

--and he's right behind me, isn't he?" he whispered. The hammer smacked down on his toe, like a gavel sealing Eli and Anni's fate. He was too scared even to yelp. He slowly turned around and came face to face with Professor Truedeath, the Professor of Azkaban.

Eli was struck mute with fear. He glanced at Anni then back at Professor Truedeath, his eyes huge. Terrified.

Gulp!

Meep. Let's hope the Prof didn't hear that. Meep. Anni smiled anyway, ruffling Eli's hair affectionately and smiling at the the Proffessor
'Hello, Sir' she said 'Actually, yes. Eli here, as you... may have noticed, has a magical cursed hammer following him around, and we were wondering if you'd be able to un curse it for us, please?' she said

Eli nodded and gulped. Anni helped him get his courage back, though. "The slytherin bullies did it." he chimed in. "They jinxed me, too." He hoped that any murderous rage from the professor could be redirected to the she-snakes. Logically, it WAS all their fault, and Eli really did believe that they had been the ones to jinx the hammer. It never occurred to him to think that the Muggle Studies professor might actually be the culprit behind his bashed up toes!

"I see." Truebridge, completely unruffled by this revelation, eyed the hammer and then each of the Ravenclaws in turn.

"Slytherin bullies you say?" And just who was that supposed to be then? "Naturally you must have done something to provoke these... bullies. Perhaps you'd care to tell me what happened?"

He opened the door for his office and gestured at them to enter. "Take a seat."

Anni smiled and walked through the door, holding it open for Eli and the Proffessor before closing it and stitting down in one of the smaller chairs.
'Uuuh, the Slytherin bullies. They chased him down the first floor corridor after Muggle Studies. They seem to think that he stole a hammer, but they actually stole loads of tools. One has two screwdrivers' Anni blushed and dug in her pocket 'Had two screwdrivers. She was about to throw one so I took them off her' she put them on the desk in front of the Proffessor 'And one has another hammer, I think. But they trip jinxed Eli down the corridor, and now the hammer's following him around. Do you know a spell to fix it, Sir?' she asked

Eli followed them into the office reluctantly. He looked around, rather impressed and intimidated by all the antique items in the room. Obviously aside from his professor as murderer the professor enjoyed a thriving side-business as a master thief.

He listened to what Anni said and nodded. Better not to bring up just now that he HAD stolen the hammer - not bammer, as he had thought the Muggle studies professor had said, but hammer - as protection against the slytherins.

"They wanted to hurt me in Muggle studies because I messed up their drama time with Professor Lawson, they were being all girly and weepy- no offense, Anni." he knew Anni would never sink to such depths, she was a girl of the Awesome variety. Like Ellie. "So I left and they followed me, and chased me and jinxed me and now the hammer is chasing me just like them, trying to break my toes." He sulked. It was all their fault. Nasty Slytherin she-snakes. His toes hurt. He hated them.

Anni was really kinda angry at these Slytherin girls now. They sounded so... mean. Horrible bullies. Why would third years feel the need to pick on a little firstie like Eli? It just wasn't necessary...
'Oh, uh, none taken' she said, giving the boy a smile

Truebridge eyed the screwdrivers and then looked at the hammer and then between the two Ravenclaws.

"Yes. Naturally."

....

"Drama time?" That needed an explanation first.



ooc: I had no internet for the past few days, sorry about that. It imploded. I was displeased.

Eli wiped his nose. He stood rather like a flamingo, changing from one foot to the other to try to avoid the hammer's attacks. He wiped his eye. He wasn't crying, he wasn't! It was only that his eyes were getting watery from the pain of his swollen toes squished up in his shoes and NOT due to the fact that he was terrified to talk to the Professor of Azkaban.

He definitely wasn't crying. Nope.

He nodded at the professor. "Drama time. Well, there were three Slytherins, I think seventh years probably. They were all getting tragic about -ow! - the muggle studies professor. He said he got fired, I guess for stuff he was doing with muggles- I think he broke the statute of secrecy and is in a lot of trouble with the Ministry? So he's leaving and taking his -ow! - wife with him, and they pitched a sad about it." Eli rubbed his nose again and switched which leg he was standing on. "I was kind of stuck in the room because I hammered my robes accidentally and so I asked the professor for help and they decided to try to kill me because they're murdering Slytherin snakes and I interrupted their drama time." He cringed a little at that- after all, wasn't the Professor of Azkaban a murderous Slytherin Snake?

"The professor loosed me and I ran - ow!- away but they followed me and jinxed me and now they basically want to make me dead, and they are hammering me to death so I -ow!- suffer as much as possible before I die." That was a good summary of events as seen through the eyes of Eli Jarod, though the details were not exactly accurate. He had left out a few key bits of information, such as the fact that he had stolen the hammer.

Truebridge could not think of a single seventh year Slytherin who would get tragic about Lawson. He did try, his expression forming itself into a frown as he considered it. But no, Axe tended to have the younger ones gravitate towards him. There were probably reasons for this but considering Ethan Truebridge and Marcus Lawson had been friends for... Ethan was mildly surprised to realise they'd been friends for more than twenty years now, well he supposed he was just used to whatever behaviours the other man exhibited that made him make friends with children so easily.

The 'stuff he was doing with Muggles' part was mildly alarming, Ethan supposed, but then he was fairly certain they'd both grown out of doing stuff with Muggles long enough ago that it was probably a misunderstanding on the part of the boy Eli. A few things clicked into place in a vague sort of way. Marcus and Iliana had both at some point or another either voiced what Ethan was now belatedly realising had been discontent as well as a desire to spend time together as a family, with the little child thing, Ava. Small children, babies in particular, tended to be somewhat alarming to Truebridge considering the way they communicated was through the instinctual cues, gestures and expressions, that Truebridge had trouble picking up on.

"Axe is not, nor has he ever been a Slytherin, a snake or a murderer." Truebridge commented almost absently. He was thinking this one through, eyes on the hammer as it did its thing.

Eli shot Anni a look. This guy was clearly off his nut! So much so that Eli forgot to be afraid of him for the moment.

"Not axe, ham-mer." he corrected, pointing to the tool and speaking slooowly. Obviously the Professor of Azkaban was a bit befuddled, perhaps due to too many snogs goodnight from a dementor or whatever it was they did to them, sucked his brains out or something. "And I didn't say it was a Slytherin or - ow! - a murderer. The she-snakes that - ow! - cursed it are the murdering, jinxing, cursing Slytherin snakes. The tool is just a ham-mer. But it's -ow! - killing my toes."

Got it now? He looked at the professor to see if he was at all able to comprehend what Eli saw as a simple concept. The slytherins, in the first floor corridor, with the hammer and trip jinxes. No axes were involved in the attempted murder of our beloved hero, Eli Jarod, first year purple-haired Ravenclaw.

Eli was beginning to believe that this professor was not going to be much help. Nutter. At least he wasn't murdering them. Yet.

"Axe is Lawson." Truebridge explained, voice equally slow and tone precisely echoing that which Eli had just used, which was more odd when one considered that Truebridge tended to speak without inflection at all.

"You're going to stop the hammer yourself." He informed the boy gravely. "Do you know the freezing charm, immobulus?" Everything was a lesson to Truebridge after all.

He hummed a little, quite in time with the movements and the occassional banging of the hammer.

Eli shook his head.

"I'm not really good with my wand just yet. My strength is in my superiour Ravenclaw intellect." There was a trace of haughty pride in his tone.

BAM! The hammer struck again. He howled in pain, all the snobbery gone from his voice. He kicked at the hammer, making contact painfully with his big toe, and howled again.

An excellent display of that superior Ravenclaw intellect, old chum!

Truebridge stopped humming.

....

........


...................


"I see."

Strange child this one.

"It is part of my job to remedy that." The wand part, and the part where yet another Ravenclaw thought they were superior despite the hourglasses making it clear that claiming such a thing simply wasn't enough to make it true.

"Assuming you are willing to learn that is. And if you are not willing to learn from me, I think I'll summon the head girl, she's a Ravenclaw after all and she has one of those superior instinct things and is quite proficient with her wand." More than proficient even. But Truebridge wasn't one to gush over or take credit for a student's skill. He was also perfectly serious.