From his desk, Tate glanced up briefly and frowned at the door. A guest already? Interesting. "Enter," he intoned and waited for the door to open.

"Have a seat and state your purposes." No reason to waste time, was there?

Nate poked his head around the side of the door, just double checking the Headmaster's presence, before his entire body followed. "Good day, Headmaster Tate," he said politely, moving in to stand behind the chair that resided in front of the man's desk.

"I'm sorry if I'm wasting your time, I just wanted to stop by and say a quick hello, and good luck this term." You know, with running the school and all. We must be a pain to deal with... he added to himself. He figured that Tate already knew what he had meant by that.

The agitation that Nate was experiencing may have been visible on his face, but he couldn't tell exactly. It still bothered him that he couldn't tell anybody about Team Wolf, but the rewards of sparing others' lives outweighed he, Jez, and Pam all getting out alive at the expense of other people. Nate had sworn to Jez and Pam, though, that he wouldn't tell, so he fought against the urge to just burst out and tell Tate everything.

"Ah, the Firestarter," Tate glanced up and gave the boy a smile. "Have a seat. Start any fires over the summer, or have you finally resigned yourself to putting them out." Putting out fires was more satisfying anyway.

Tate pointed out the tea tray that stood ever ready on the edge of his desk. "Biscuit? What can I do for you?"

Nate chucked lightly as he took a small biscuit. He was hungry, but modesty was usually better in social situations. "Maybe I lit one or two..." he admitted with a small smile. Yes, he had. And it was fun.

What can you do for me? Nate pondered that question for a minute, taking a seat across from the head man. "My parents were recently killed in a fire," he said meekly. This was the point where Nate had to be careful not to spill too much information, but he still truly needed somebody's help.

Just like that, was it? The firestarter attracted fires, and was a bit too blase about the death of his parents for Tate's comfort, but all he did was pause in pouring the tea. "Condolences. You don't have to be here, lad. If you need time to grieve..."

He was free to go home.

Nate slowly shook his head. "No, I need to be here," he said quietly. It's safe here. "How else will I be able to fend for myself later on?" he covered quickly. It was sort of true, anyway.

"I can understand the desire to keep yourself busy and distracted," Tate gave the boy a nod. Everyone handled loss differently, it was true, and he oughtn't judge the boy for wanting to be here.

"Do you worry about having to fend for yourself?"

Nate looked up at Headmaster Tate, slightly confused. Did he seem like he worried? "I... erm..." he stuttered. He didn't know what to say to that. Might as well be honest. "...I guess I do, but I haven't really noticed until now. I got naive, I guess, and started worrying about protecting my friends without regarding myself. I was raised by a family of jewelers, so my parents were always well off from the day I was born until, well--" he sniffed a little, but refused to cry. Not even shed a tear. "--But now they're gone, I have to accept that. In my mind, I have to watch out for all of my friends and myself now." Wow, that was easy for Tate to get out of Nate. Was the Headmaster also the acting school psychologist?

"You don't. There's something admirable about loyalty and about covering the back of your friends, but you need to manage yourself and your needs. Leave caring for the well being of the students to me and to the other professors." There was no reason the Firestarter should add insult to injury by getting an ulcer while grieving his parents.

"When you leave Hogwarts, you'll be well prepared for the real world."

"Where will I go?"

He didn't have a house, he didn't have any family, his closest thing to family didn't have a house anymore, and he couldn't be sure that Keegan and Des would survive to the end of this term let alone his seventh year...

"Once you graduate? You'll have to figure that out in due course. You have plenty of time to decide what you want to do, and many job opportunities offer a signing bonus or living accommodations that will set you on your feet. But, as I said... plenty of time to worry about that." He was a second year and didn't need to be worrying so about the real world.

Nate shook his head again, this time looking a little worried. "No, not after I graduate. After this term, where will I go? I have no house, no other family, my friends--" he caught himself before he revealed too much, but his voice still cut a bit unnaturally. "--My friends can't accommodate me. I have literally nowhere to go." Unless he wanted to just go sacrifice himself to Jared right away, but he was sure that neither Pam nor Jez would very much like to see him dead.

Oh, hmm. That was a different matter, and one that Tate wasn't able to handle himself. No family or friends to take him in? It was impossible to believe the Ministry hadn't already tried to handle the issue, since he was clearly underage.

"What does the Ministry say?"

Nate bit his lip nervously. He had been dreading that question. "What if I haven't told them, and wouldn't like them involved?" he posited, which was true: they didn't want the Ministry involved at all. "Like, by any means whatsoever."

"I don't know what you want to hear, boy. You want me to solve a problem but tie my hands when I try to help. You know I'm bound to report to the Ministry the fact that you are an unsupported minor, and if you don't have someone to take you in, they'll place you into foster care or a group home. It's unfortunate, and I'm sorry to tell you this, but at least it will not cause your education to cease."

So basically... you can't untell the Headmaster, much as he wished it.

Nate's eyes widened considerably, mostly from fear. "F-f-foster care?" he stuttered. From what he had read, Voldemort had been a foster child. Not to mention that he would be vulnerable in foster care. "What if I can find someone?" he asked hastily, "What if I have other family that I don't know about, or something?"

"Then you can go ahead and look. Live with them. It isn't like I'm hoping you'll end up in a group home or something," Tate shrugged. He was adopted himself, so he felt for the boy.

"If that's all, perhaps we can reconvene after you give it some thought? I'll put off contacting the Ministry for now."

Nate nodded, a small smile crossing over his face. "I'll be writing out to see, and I'll be sure to let you know, sir," he said as he extended his hand for a farewell handshake with the Headmaster. After all, he had forgotten that when he had walked in. "Thank you," he added with another small nod before heading out towards the door. He had seen others waiting down below when he walked up. "Good day!" was the fleeting call of Nate's voice up the stairs as he descended to the floor below. He had some letters to write.

And... good day. Tate watched the boy depart in due haste before he turned back to the door in anticipation of his next visitor.

After walking up the moving spiral staricase with Kurumi that led up to the Headmaster's Office Auggie tentatively knocked on the door and then slowly opened it, stepping inside and held it open so his Prefect friend could join him.

"Headmaster Tate, um it's August Goldstein and Kurumi Hollingberry." He started off queitly. "Well uh see we found something while up at the Observatory last night and Professor Roslund thought we should come talk to you about it."

And he left it at that. Kurumi could further explain things. August would just look around the office from where he stood right now, he hadn't ever been in here before.

Walking up the spiral staircase with August, Kurumi felt oddly calm about seeing the Headmaster. It probably had to do with this not being her first visit her and, well, the circumstances this time were far from what they had been previously - Mr. Ikenna and house elves, separately of course.

Kurumi smiled as August introduced them and then reached into her bag for her piece of parchment with all their observation notes on it. "We discovered a comet, Headmaster," she explained as she handed him the parchment to see for himself. "Professor Roslund thought that perhaps there might be some connection to Hogwarts being a thousand years old."

Tate took the parchment, although he certainly gave the two students a quelling sort of look. Really? They wanted to chat Astronomy with him?? Hmm. The world must be ending if he was considered the authority of anything of the sort.

"I see. Um..." Tate turned the sheet around to study it carefully. "And why exactly would it not just be a regular comet? What did Roslund say exactly?"

August hadn't expected the Headmaster to have a party and a ton of people waiting in the office for the two lions to arrive to and be congradulated on their efforts but he still expected a little excitement on the man's part. Now Auggie felt a tad bit embarrassed.

"Well you see sir, Kurumi and I were up in the Astronomy Tower doing our long-term Astronomy homework when we saw what we thought was a comet. Then Professor Roslund came up and told us it was in fact a new comet, that we had just discovered." He then pointed at the parchment that was now in the Headmaster's hands.

"We named it and then Professor Roslund said it may have to do with Hogwarts's 1000 year anniversary and we should talk to you about it to see if there's anymore meaning to it and if so perhaps..." he trailed off a bit and then mumbled the words, "daily prophet article." Maybe Kurumi could remember more of what the other professor had said.

Yeah Tate had definately burst August's bubble of excitment. The man must not like comets.

Kurumi sort of just stared at the Headmaster for a few moments. Thankfully, August filled the potentially awkward silence with a bit of explanation, but it was still sort of awkward. Clearly, the Headmaster wasn't an Astronomy sort of person - which made sense since he used to be their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Discovering a new dark creature or cursed object on campus may have tickled the man's fancy, perhaps? Certainly would have helped keep up the promise of no dying and all that. You know, finding something harmful and reporting it to him.

Kurumi tried not to giggle when August murmured about the Daily Prophet and looked back up at Headmaster Tate. "Professor Roslund also said that we needed to get your permission to permission to take more measurements and to get the Goldberry comet recognized." Although, Kurumi thought that Professor Roslund could have given them permission since it was his equipment they would have to use, unless there was some sort of special stamp or signature needed from the Headmaster for whatever purpose.