Kimber was stunned by the words that had just left the boy's mouth. With a flash of pure rage in her eyes, she put her hand to her heart as if physically struck and said, "How dare you, Carter." Of all the mean things someone could say to her, no one had EVER sunk so low as to throw Thomas in her face. She prayed that he would never have to experience that type of loss for himself.

Her next words were so cold that if she had tears to cry, surely they would have frozen on her cheeks. "I do not need you to love me."

When Lafay snapped at him to SHUT UP just like the Librarian Lady had done before, this time Josh could not hold the sarcastic snicker escaping his mouth. ''For your information, professor, i am sixteen'' then the boy began, quite unlike the Potions Mistress, looking calm and confident ''And yes, there’s no way i can deny the fact that my experience at anything cannot be compared to yours in any way'' Maybe except fighting wandless, fist to fist, shoulder to shoulder but mentioning that, now, was not really necessary. ''But i don’t think it means that you are capable of seeing what i know or what i do not know, don’t you think so? Unless, of course, you have a great power of being able to read the information in others’ brains.''


''I know what you want. You want me to answer this question the way you would like to hear it. Like that: ‘oh i have been the greatest idiot throwing cauldrons at my friends during classes and losing those very precious points just because i am a jerk who cannot hold his temper or cannot keep his fists to himself' '' stopping for a moment the Gryffindor boy laughed for a short time then went on ''This and nothing else. Other than this i must shut up. But this statement is not true. No man with a right mind would do those for nothing. If you can, for once, bring two neurones together and think, you might be able to figure this fact. Also, i don’t think you have the right to order me to shut up because; as Uncle Ryan says, he is an ex-Auror, even the most bloodthirsty criminal has the right to speak as much as he wants and defend himself. But, ah, look at this! I am only a boy who got detention for acting inappropriately during a class and you hate me as if it was me who slaughtered your dead mates''

Looking at the two women with narrowed brown eyes, Josh kept breathing heavily since it was getting harder and harder to breathe in the tube because of the unbearable smell and increasing heat. Heat, he could deal with but that smell. Ugh. Looking away for a moment, he spat again because there was also a horrible taste in his mouth before he opened his mouth to speak again with a way softer and calmer but cold tone this time ''I lost a loved one, too. Maybe not that kind of a loved one. But still a loved one. She was my sister and…'' yet he stopped when he realised that the semi-liquid sewage that his legs were buried in to the knees was getting hotter and hotter. It was even boiling. Boiling. So, the Gryffindor fixed his eyes on the boiling bubbles for a couple of minutes before looking up at the women with a bitter and fake half smile ''Now this is serious. It’s getting too hot here. I already took off most of my clothes for that matter. You don’t want me to take off my pants, do you?'' Of course, after this he needed not to comment on the words of his head of house stating she did not need his love. Meh. Everyone needed his love. They just liked to deny it all the time.

"Flobberdung." She said and another expel of gas sound with more sewage fell on the boy. This time she was ignoring him. Not talking to the boy. She looked at the chest deep hot sewage and turned to her collegue "That's right... we did have corn last night."


ooc: It's hard to be menacing with my current siggy/avvie.

Kimber wrinkled her nose at Hecate's disgusting observation and pointed her wand towards the tank again. "Flobberdung," she muttered.

Not at all surprised that the liquid had reached shoulder level, Kimber shook her head disappointedly. "Are we going to have to drown you in sewage, Carter?" What a waste. Pun intended.

Josh was waiting for the answer to his question about if he needed to get rid of his pants, too when another shower of that disgusting thing hit. Of course, he did his best to protect his face which did not work much. ''Well...i take this as a 'no' '' he said looking at the chest level hot and stinking substance. And he looked back at Lafay, he was excepting her to yell at him however something surprising happened. She did not bother to say even a single word to him and instead spoke to the other woman as if...he was not there.

What?! What was that? Josh hated to be ignored. People might snap, yell or throw whatever they they'd like to throw at him but being ignored was the worst of all which meant that there was something wrong. If his words made even Lafay act like this, it was apparent that he needed to calm down and reconsider his acts.

Actually this made him reconsider everything he did starting from the day he told Evelyn to forget him, in deep silence, his eyes on the Potions Mistress but mind was far away from the dungeon place until another flow of sewage came in a sudden.

Huh?

He was so lost in though that he had not even heard Madam Donovan say that word.

Yes...

Maybe he thought he was right with all his words but apparently as right as they were, they were also full of mistakes. One did not have to say the wrong thing always, to consider it as a mistake....Apparently.

Unable to look down this time, for now the sewage was pretty close to neck level, the Gryffindor felt that it also got way harder to breathe, not the mention the continuously rising heat. He did a huge mistake and sniffled as Madam Donovan spoke which caused his eyes got watery again and his sight got blurred.

The boy just stood in silence for a couple of minutes, unable to speak, though he really wanted to answer his head of house's question. Then, he swallowed and collected all his remained ability of withstand to speak again. ''I...'' he swallowed again ''I...am not afraid of death, so not afraid of being drown in anything.'' Completing the sentence was hard, also this time, naturally, there was no tone of sarcasm or protest in his voice. ''I wish it would be for some better cause though. But if you want to kill me, i understand, i deserve it''

And again though he did his best to prevent it, another little tear shone on his dirty cheek yet ignoring it he went on. ''But there's a problem. I was the one who left Evelyn. So, i'm not sure if she has yet managed to forget all about me. If not, my death might be hurtful to her and i don't want her to feel that way just because of me. I'm not going to repeat that mistake.''

Silence fell again and the Gryffindor boy just blinked at the two women. ''I'm sorry for disrecpecting you, as well. Ask anything you want. And i want to ask something, too. Can i ask you a question...'' he looked at Lafay but since she preferred to ignore him, his brown eyes gazed back on Donovan ''...Madam?''

Hecate was about to ignore him again and give him another nasty shower, then she heard the boy say he deserved it... The boy didn't deserve to die... He was being a little drama lion... and they say the snakes are the Drama Queens. However, the boy did deserve the punishment and this, he quite clearly understood.

... and he apologized for the disrespect.

She simply looked at Kimber. The boy had a question for the woman, and not for her.

Kimber glanced at Hecate and then up at the boy. "Your apology is a start, Josh." Yes, she'd even use his first name if he was ready to be respectful. "But this is not the time for questions." Unless of course, she was the one asking them. "I will allow you ONE but choose your words wisely," she warned. This was as close to a second chance as he was going to get.

Lafay...did not voice any words again which annoyed or mostly dissappointed the Gryffindor boy again. Of course it did not always mean that one was ignoring just because he/she did not speak but since it had been obvious before that she ignored him, this meant she was still ignoring him. He had implied that he understood the mistake in his acts, also he had apologised for what he had said so far...then what else did she want to forgive him? Pfft! Women. They did never forgive you easily unless you managed to find something good enough to feed their ego well.

Yet unfortunately Josh had no idea what would feed Lafay's ego. She was hard to figure out and pretty unpredictable. For instance, as he knew every female individual loved compliments but this woman, so far, hated even the slightest attempt of it when he tried. Therefore, not knowing what to do about her, the lion boy only eyed her some then turned back to Madam Donovan.

Maybe he could manage to try the same on her...wha? What? ''...is a start?'' Josh repeated looking surprised so forgetting about all the previous thoughts. He was already swimming in boiling hot sewage, what more could they do? Or what more were they planning to do? Now, he understood why they did not kill him. Because killing him was going to end the suffering which might be regarded as a favour to him. Perhaps. They were thinking that way. Too bad he had made his head of house and favourite professor hate him that much. But also it proved that he was pretty skilled at that; making people hate him. Not to forget the example of Evelyn for that.

Choose your words wisely. Well...he always did that, did not he? Obviously not according to them. Fine then, for once in his life, Josh was going to play the game with others' rules. There was nothing else left to do, after all, all his attempts of defense were nice examples of ridiculous failures. However he still want to understand the reason of that rage, he knew his, and want to know theirs so since he had only one chance to ask a question, he decided to ask the one about ghosts some other time. If he'd have any, of course.

''Thank you. I wonder, Madam, is there any other reason you hate me that much other than those point losses?''

Hecate shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Really, Carter... I know I speak for both of us when I say, no one hates you." She shrugged a little and added. "In fact... I sort of... like you, which was why I was so angry at your willingness to lie to me. Once this detention is over... I want you to write a letter to Morgan and to Salander... both very apologetic. I want to see them first, and then you will send them." She raised her wand and the sewage cooled down. She looked over to Kimber and waited for her to add anything.

"Wow! I love how I supposedly 'hate' a kid just for making them serve detention," Kimber murmured to Hecate, clearly unimpressed with his accusation.

"Carter, I am not here to win the Housecup and neither are you. It has ALWAYS been your bad choices that have concerned me, NOT your points." Though his housemates may feel differently.

"After you are cleaned up, you will report to my office for further instructions."

Kimber sighed. There was nothing more to say.

She turned towards Hecate, gave her a respectful nod and exited the room.

She shrugged at Kimber and followed her with her eyes as she left.

She pointed her wand to the tube and the sewage began being sucked through the floor with a disgusting slurping sound. Although the boy was still drenched in the stuff, the quill he was holding was in perfect condition.

She waved her wand again and the tube rose through the ceiling.

Hecate was used to nasty smells, but Carter WREAKED! "Master Carter, you are free to go back to your dorms and shower. I want to see those letters on my desk by sundown." She ordered.

The Gryffindor boy looked from one woman to the other and vice versa suspiciously. No one hated him? To be honest that was hard to believe. But seeing that it was voiced by Mistress Lafay, now his gaze stopped on her, Josh had a reason to believe it. And....she...liked him! Well, sort of liked him and that was pretty enough for the boy apparently as it made him smile despite the disgusting situation he was in. ''I never meant to lie to you, Professor. I just failed to keep my word, unfortunately'' and that was because of the instant temper he had felt at that time.

And...hmmm...what? Huh? Writing letters to Jake and Salander to apologise? No. No. No. That was a no. Not only because it was going to harm his coolness but also Josh knew he had no such skills like writing something...like that. Plus, he had no idea what else he could write to make it look apologetic other than 'I'm sorry'. Moreover he doubted Lafay would consider a large piece of parchment with an 'I'm sorry' a letter of apology. ''But professor...'' he began to protest but when he felt the sewage cooled down, the boy preferred to close his mouth so she'd not get angry at him again. All right, he was going to at least try writing them.

When his head of house spoke, Josh moved his gaze to her and not knowing what exactly made him do it, he nodded at her. Bad choices. It was the truth that he had made a dozen of bad choices lately, most of all were quite hard to make up for. Pff. Now he had to visit Madam Donovan's office too. What further instrurictions? Was she planning to make him clean the toilets or the whole library? Oooor maybe she was just jealous that she learned he loved Lafay and could not love her and she wanted to fix that somehow. Hehehehe. ''Yes, Madam'' Josh replied her obediently trying not to laugh at the idea in his mind. Then she was...gone. ''It was nice to see you too'' then he murmured after her before turning back to his favourite professor.

When another weird sound echoed in the dark room, for an instant Josh thought that another showe of sewage coming though there was no reason for it at all. But then he did not need much time to see that, instead it was all leaving the glass tube. Finally! Theen he saw...

O_O!!!!

...the quill! It was all sewage-less, unharmed and just looked the very same. This made the boy forget everything else for a minute or more, just looking at the quill. Merlin! Now he was so happy. Smiling warmly and widely, the Gryffindor approached the Potions Mistress and attempted to hug her yet quickly remembering that he was covered with sewage, he took a step back instead. ''Sorry. I just wanted to thank for whatever you did to my quill''

Detention was over. He was free to go now. Nice. Looking back at the woman with his dark brown gaze, he gave her an apologetic smile before turning back to the spot he had been sitting and picking up his robe, shirt and tie. It was time to leave...or...to get rid of this dungeon place. Therefore sniffing a little, he nodded at the woman and started walking to the exit yet halted at the half way. This was rude, leaving her there alone. Yes, it was. Regarding it that way Josh turned back to Professor Lafay again, still smiling, and indicated the door ''After you, professor''

Hmm...

She raised an eyebrow... the boy was smiling... and she shook her hear. "Very well." She said with a sigh. She stepped out and mumbled, "You are welcome..."