Kurumi continued to stare rather uncomfortably at Nessie's face. Namely at her eyes but the almost 20-year-old was really trying not to stare too much because she herself hated it when people stared at her. "Um...y-yes...your eyes," she nodded as her eyes refocused just a little. Her eyes went that color sometimes, but it was only when she was really really mad. It had only happened once or twice, assuming her memory served her correctly. "Is that...a charm?"

Kurumi returned the hug enthusiastically and gave her a few pats on the back before she pulled away. "I'm glad I had the time to," she smiled. "Final exams are coming up and Seraphia has been recovering from her surgery so I've been on call at the reservation since I am her primary caretaker." Having raised her from an egg and all. "It's still weird being back. Feels like just yesterday." She paused to look around at everything. It all looked so fantastic. She missed helping with planning these events and just being a student. She loved where she was in life now too, of course. "How have you been?"

Another glance around and she saw that the man really was still at Hogwarts. Thank Merlin this was after Selina's time at Hogwarts. The letters from her best friend's seventh year had already had enough rubbish about someone who looked like James Bond being at the school. Being in his classes probably would have killed the red head. "How are lessons?"

Eliza, Kurumi and anyone...
 

It was to warm to wear that hat that Minerva had on her head, but after what her and Ethan had just been through she wasn't ready for the looks she was going to get with her new hair style. She knew she should take the rest of the potion, but for now she would just stick with the short hair. Blue eyes looking around to see if anyone she knew was there staring She spotted the snacks and her stomach did flips. No.. she wouldn't be eating anything that was for sure. Part of her wished she would have kept the ice cream she was working on though.. That would have been the best option, but even that option made her stomach turn at the moment.

She had to admit though even after everything she felt alright. She hugged Tillstorm, hugged Lafay, got her hair burned off, almost went crazy not knowing what they were doing to Ethan, but she was here and she would be alright. Seeing Kurumi, Minerva gave the older girl a small wave. She wondered how she was doing, but didn't want to interrupt anyone's conversations. Really she was super late and everyone seemed to be having fun. Maybe she should have just stayed at the Bean challenge with Ethan. That was were she was really needed to support him, but her own selfish sick feeling made her walk away. The thought of him eating those washed through her memory.

She turned and saw Eliza and smiled. "Hey Eliza, not doing any of the challenges?" As she moved towards the girl she couldn't help feel like the dread was lifting a bit, how was it moving away so quickly. A quick thought of the ice cream she just ate came and went quickly. No..no.. Ethan must have been getting to her to think such crazy thoughts about that wonderful ice cream. Sitting down next to Eliza she turned. "What's new?"

Eliza sat fiddling with the lace on her dress and her collared necklace. She'd really tried to get into the whole mood of the event, but somehow she just couldn't feel creepy or spooky tonight. All she felt was happy and bouncy and excited. Her eyes kept following people as they walked by, watching the way they moved and talked to each other. She liked to observe, and she said quietly smiling to herself about how much fun everyone seemed to be having.

After doing this for some time, she heard a familiar voice call her name. She spun in her seat and saw Minerva coming up to her, and in a hat, which was a little odd since it was April but as far as she knew, her friend might be cold. "Hey Min! I'm so glad to see you!! How are you? I've missed you while you were, um...in, well yeah, but it's good that you're here now!" She scooted to give Min a spot on the bench next to her. She pulled herself away from people watching to give her puffer friend her full attention. "I thought about doing the pie challenge, but I'm just so full right now I don't think I could. Now if there was an ice cream eating contest, you could bet your buttons I'd be there, but alas..." She trailed off and gazed at the challenges. "Is that Ethan at the Bertie Bott's challenge?" she asked, straining her eyes to see. Now would be a good time to use that spell Airey taught us... But, she soon turned back to Min and didn't want to magnify things if she was also going to be focusing on things right next to her too.

She leaned back in her seat slightly and rested her elbows on the table. As she turned her head to the side she noticed something strange. Wait...where...? There was a lot of hoodie on her friend's back but not much of anything else...something more specific. Something she was used to seeing all the time but it just wasn't....Her HAIR?!?! Immediately trying to hide her discovery of this, she took a good hard look at the ground. How do I ask about that? What happened to her? She was a little worried, but she had an idea and it didn't seem so bad after all. "Min...? Um...what happened to your, uh, hair? Did you get it too sticky with ice cream or bubblegum and couldn't get it out?" Cause she had done that before and her mom had cut her hair right off. She grew it back for her of course, but it had still been a startling thing to see.

See Eliza had the right idea. Why wasn't there ice cream at this event. There should be. Where was professor Flamsteed. He had to have the ice cream with him or Daichi. They were both good at getting ice cream when needed. "Well Ethan and I got here as soon as we could. Honestly I almost didn't come. That de.. that was rough." She looked down towards the Botts challenge to make sure Ethan was doing alright. She couldn't imagine how he must be feeling right now. Her stomach turned thinking about it and she wasn't the one that had to eat the jelly beans or the bugs. Shuddering she turned back to Eliza trying to focus on the event not the detention. "Has anything exciting happened so far?" That was what she needed excitement, fun even. She needed to get her mind off of things and have a good laugh or something. "Yeah he is in charge of that event. I'm glad he was able to make it over." This was his last few months he needed to be having a good time, not she shook her head and pushed it all away.

Or she thought she pushed it away until she heard Eliza notice her hair. "Oh you noticed that." She really did need to just suck it up and charm it longer or risk taking the rest of the hair growth potion. "I.. well umm.. you see." how did she even explain this. She tugged self consciously at the hat. Why did she come again. "Well Professor Lafay kind of had me hug a plant that was on fire and it burned all my hair off." She didn't meet Eliza's eyes, she was humiliated enough as it was. She didn't need to have students and the rest of the staff seeing it. Even though glancing at the two board of governors and professors she wondered if they would be interested in hearing about this detention. She really liked both of them, but after everything that happened in the detention was not sure who to trust anymore.

"YOu don't have any ice cream do you or would want to maybe go get some. I'm feeling like I could really use some comfort right now." She gave a smile without looking at Eliza.

Unable to resist the delicious flavor of happiness and joy in the air, a pair of dementors came swooping out of the forest. Their long bony grey fingers reached out from under their black cloaks as they grasped at the air as if using it to pull themselves towards the source of their hungry rattled breathing.

Gliding without a sound, they flew towards their victim - one Arithmancy professor - bringing more icy chills with them. The dementors began to feed on the professor, moving closer and closer to the woman with each pass.

Tobias was quite cheerfully keeping to himself as he watched the events. He didn't feel much of a need to join in because watching was fun enough. As an even bigger chill than usual ran through the air, Tobias pulled his coat even tighter around him and glanced around as he stood and bounced on the balls of his feet to try to keep warm. Seriously? Why so cold?

He was a significant distance away from Hadley, but that didn't prevent him from seeing what was now going on.

The Hufflepuff froze as he saw the creatures advance on his Head of House. Lots and lots and LOTS OF NEGATIVE VIBES RIGHT NOW. Tobias was not only terrified but felt downright sad from the effects of the dementors, even at this distance. He felt frozen to the spot, however, and could only stare on in horror, confused and scared. He didn't understand what was happening and he was finding it impossible to stay cheerful. Why had he come here? This had been a bad idea. He wished he'd stayed at the castle.

Was this supposed to be happening? What WERE those things?

Minerva was cold.. See there was a reason she had a hat. Well now she could say she did. Whoever kept turning the cold up for their ice cream was wonderful, but did that mean there was ice cream there? She hoped that it did. Starting to look around she wondered who would have brought it. "Eliza, where do you think we can find the ice cream." It had to be here, it was now cold and kind of sad.

Really sad actually, why did she come to this thing. Turning she froze.. Only a few rows away something shadowy was on Hadley. What.. was.. that a dementor. A scream left the girls lips, a scream louder than the one from earlier when her robes were on fire. This was Hadley, no one hurt Hadley. The woman was like her mother, she had taken that mother place in Min's world since her own mother passed second term.

She felt horrible, cold, sad, the sadness and defeat of earlier didn't even compare to the way she felt now. Her mind was racing, but wasn't moving at the same time. She just wanted to curl in a ball and cry, but this was Hadley. She pulled her wand, but she had never done a real patronus. She hadn't practiced enough. She tried to think happy, but nothing was coming.

Pointing at it she tried to think "expecto patronum" nothing happened. Come on Min you have to help her. Minerva sat cold and stricken with fear watching in horror, not able to do anything but grip her wand. She felt hopeless and helpless.

They were all they had to each other? Alec... frowned slightly once he heard that little piece of news. It sounded like him and his Dad, sure, but it made the boy slightly sad that his pseudo-sister didn't have a proper family. One where she was treated like a princess. "It's great that you two are so close," And you didn't need two parents to be a family, yeah?

Also... Manolo. He seemed awesome. Alec burst out laughing at the older man's exclamation, all feeling of nervousness at the man's presence now fading. Who could be scared of someone who called cupcakes 'amazingly delicious'? "Yeah, they are!" GRIN. "You think we're allowed to take as many as we like?" That didn't sound like a bad idea.

And Awar agreed too! The sixteen year old turned to her and opened his mouth to say something but before he could, the girl was attacking his nose with icing! "Awar!bear!" he gasped dramatically, "Are you calling for an icing war?" He grabbed the nearest cupcake, dipped his finger into the icing and started spreading it on the girl's cheek. There. Sheepish!grin.



The jelly incident? That just confirmed what Alec had been guessing about Kace and his love for jelly. He grinned at the boy and nodded back. "You have a favourite flavour of jelly?" he asked, right before taking another bite of his cupcake. Also, jelly... didn't it go really well with ice cream?

"Really really!" Nodnod. "They had a kite flying one one term..." Thinking about that one did bring about some bittersweet memories which Alec wasn't going to dwell on. Nope. ... Erm, hold the snitch. Winter one? "What do you mean, mate?"

Not. That. Scary? Was the dude secretly a Gryffindor? Oh, there was no time to ponder on that because Kace was thinking about going inside! Yeah... Belle was going to kill him if this happened. "Erm... maybe?" he said, shrugging, "But whatever's inside might not be very friendly and that wouldn't be nice..." ... Could he distract the dude with ice cream or...?



But before Alec could think much on the prospect of ice cream and it's ability to distract people, things suddenly became... cold. Cold and foggy, actually.

"Do you guys feel that?" he asked, his eyes moving from Awar-bear to Manolo and then to Kace before looking around at the area in general. Did anyone else feel that too? That was a good que--

Why was Minnie screaming?

... Oh.

... BLINK. BLINK. STARE.

The Hufflepuff froze in his seat and stared at the outlines of the creatures, trying to make out what they were through the fog. It was difficult and... things were making it hard to think properly. Things like the cold and the sadness that had been swept over him so suddenly. It also didn't help that every happy memory seemed to have vanished from his brain either. But... he couldn't look away either. Nope.

... What in the name of Superman's super senses were Dementors doing here? BLINK.

His grey eyes widened and a tear slowly slid itself down his cheek. He tried to shake off the sound of a woman's voice in his head, instead just watching as the creatures advanced... towards... "H-Hadley?" BLINK. Must. Save. Hadley. And get out too. And why were they here? And... and...

... STARE.

Alec and Min too... sorta XD
 

But before she could decide where to put her energies, she felt a terrible coldness creep over her . . . her skin prickling with sensations ... her energy ... her joy ... everything seemed to close in on her .... her air felt constricted and tight....

Icy chills swept over Fina as she heard distantly small cries for her name. Vaguely, she knew what she needed to do, but as the icy chills swept through her, her happy and energetic thoughts seemed to dissipate .....

"Expecto Patronum!" she called, weakly albeit, cutting through the iciness.

...

Okay... okay, definitely not supposed to be happening then, if these responses were anything to go by.

Tobias felt completely helpless and scared and just SAD SAD SAD and there was too much sad and he couldn't cope with the sad because he was NEVER SAD. And Hadley... Hadley was an adult and she was meant to stop bad things and being sad was a bad thing and it wasn't stopping. Briefly the AUROR acronym from that seminar flashed in his mind, but Tobias couldn't think straight and couldn't even remember what it stood for. He just continued watching and hoping that something would happen. A strangled sob escaped his throat but he barely noticed... someone had to help her.

HADLEY.. NOOOOO, Alec/Tobias...
 

Minerva was at her feet some how.. How did she get standing she didn't remember. Oh she half remembered wanting ice cream, but now all she could think of was that horrible detention and how it made her so scared and sad. How she never thought she was getting out. Why were these thoughts coming back so strongly and why couldn't she get her thoughts to focus. SHE HAD TO SAVE HADLEY... She had too.. She couldn't save her own mother from that plane crash, but she had to save this one..

But.. how was she going to. She was whimpering again, just like in the dungeons she could hear herself this time at least. She wanted to sit back down, but she was fighting herself to sit.. no she had to stay standing. She glanced around seeing all her little badgers, Alec.. She needed to get Alec out and then little Tobias.. everyone else, but she just wanted to sit and cry and be sad. She lifted her shaking hand and tried to think of happy, but her mind wasn't happy it was sad very sad.. "Expecto Patronum"

A silver spark and that was all nothing.. she couldn't do it..She was failing Hadley, she was failing her little badgers.. She was failing and hopeless and helpless. She sat down and curled in her little ball just like in the dungeon in the corner. She just wanted the sadness to go away, but she had the feeling it wasn't going to. She just watched in horror not able to move anymore and whimpered.

So...he wasn't a Gryffindor or anything...but Dylan wouldn't have been able to stand not knowing what was really going on. Also, he was hungry...and was hoping to steal food while he was over this way. So, see...there might have been some ulterior motives...The Slytherin didn't feel bad about it, though...

He really did NOT want to eat pie. Quidditch diet would NOT be broken. Not by him...

...but as he neared the Viewing area...with their dull glowing lanterns...something was wrong. It was...colder...as he got closer, which seemed really weird. It was March, after all. It shouldn't have been THIS cold. Why was there frost on the ground?

...

......

.........

......The first thing he noticed was Minerva Wheatborn trying to cast a patronus...and Professor Hadley, too...

Fear gripped his insides...

Where was the Headmistress? Other professors?

They needed to.....escape...

all this STUFF
 

Kurumi didn't have time to hear how things were going for Nessie when other horrifying things were beginning to happen. She felt cold all over, like someone was rubbing dry ice all over her body and then flashes of her mother in her final moments, Treyen's letter blaming her for everything, and so many other nightmares from her life began coming back.

What was....

...and then she saw Professor Hadley and the Hogwarts alumna froze in place. What were dementors doing at Hogwarts?! Kurumi worked with dragons all day long and looked fear straight in the face on practically a daily basis because of it, but nothing could have prepared her for this.

Wand out, Kurumi cast a silvery hedgehog towards the cloaked creatures, but did not linger long to see the result. She already knew in her head that she was far too frazzled to have produced a proper one to fend off anything.
And then there was a frozen kid. Probably a first year by the likes of him and Kurumi swiftly made her way toward him and grabbed his hand. "Hey, I'm, going to get you out of here," she said with as brave a smile as she could muster. And then she saw Minnie trying her best to conjure a patronus and...Dylan...frozen.

Still holding on to the Hufflepuff's hand, Kurumi began to hastily lead him away from the scene, passing Dylan on the way and elbowing him to knock him out of his daze. She knew he did not fancy her much anymore, but she really could care less right now - and in general but that was besides the point. "You need to get the students away from here and find a professor," she whispered. He was a student leader and a seventh year. This was more his place than her's.

She would just take care of this one since he looked especially frightened while Kurumi herself was shaking.

Professor Hadley....

Sooooo, running over here had been a mistake. Sky slowed down, feeling cold and sad and lonely all at the same time. Just basically just a general sense of doom. Plus, memories that she'd burried, like when she'd been pulled out of Hogwarts her second year and her father's subsequent nervous breakdown. Breathe, Carter. You have to do something. But what? Then she saw someone she thought looked familiar from her first couple years at Hogwarts elbowing a frozen Dylan. Uh-oh. Frozen Quidditch Captain. "Expecto Patronum!" She barely managed to cobble together enough good, happy memories to produce a weak boa constrictor patronus.

Yeah, that's not going to be enough.

The rattling breathing of the two dementors only intensified as time progressed. Silvery creature after silvery creature hurtled itself towards their cloaked scabby bodies, but to no avail. Try as you might, young ones, seems as though none of you have a happy enough memory to power your patronus this time. One dementor veered off of the female professor, sensing the presence of others, while the other continued to get closer and inhaled more deeply as it did.

It'd been a while...since his DADA practical...and that maze in Arithmancy...and those had been boggarts!dementors. This felt so much stronger then that...This felt real.

There was a drop in his the lower part of his stomach...

Dylan...was actually scared.

People were hitting him...but it seemed so far away that he couldn't fathom a response. All he could really think about was West and Theo...and his teammates...and Beezus...and Jake...

Wait...

He HEARD Jake...and Anya...

Anya was talking to him.

BLINK.

She was telling him to cast...but his insides weren't cooperating. He still felt frozen to the spot...but there was a Jake. Jake was right in front of him and perfectly okay. "Jake......"

He shakily pulled his wand and tried to center himself. The boggart!dementors were never this strong...This sort of emotional and physical drain was almost crippling...He couldn't move...

The Slytherin felt....something tearing from his own throat...but he couldn't hear what he was saying. It was all muted.

"I...can't think of...anything...."

Tobias was dimly aware of more people springing to action around him, and so no longer felt bad about not being able to do anything, but that wasn't doing anything to stop him feeling sad and alone and... just... hopeless. He had been sad before, briefly, but Tobias had NEVER felt anything like this, not that he could remember. And this was the worst thing ever.

Then there was someone else, and she had hold of his hand. After a further moment, Tobias dragged his eyes away from the... thing and the situation and looked at the girl type person who was right there. He had time to give her a wide-eyed nod before she led him away.

Tobias kept looking back and just staring at the thing. How was it possible that it could make him feel like that? Tobias' main skill was always managing to find happiness in a situation, but now...

The lady was saying something to that Slytherin quidditch captain, but Tobias wasn't really focused. He was just... scared. He held on tightly to the girl's hand and trusted that it was going to be okay now.

Eventually, Tobias kinda sorta found his voice. "What... that... the... it..." he tried, getting all jumbled. "What's..." Tobias started again but found his voice quickly gave way to another choked sob, so he stopped trying to talk and focused instead on trying to think of a happy thing. He was usually so good at it, but now he was wondering how he'd ever found anything happy ever.

They were extremely scary, but the sadness was scarier, and why weren't they going away?

"Iwantittostop."

Manolo smiled at the young hufflepuff. He liked him. He was sneaky as himself. He leaned in and jokingly shifted his eyes, "If we can't, no one has to know?" Am I right? Wink.

Awar giggled and squealed. "Well, it seems you have declared it!!" She went for another cupcake, but stopped when she got the presence that something was not right.




She heard Alec asking if she felt something and she did. She noticed her breath was noticeable. She was scared and there wasn't in reason in hiding it because others were just the same.

Manolo pulled his sister and the two younger puffs closer to him. He couldn't believe his eyes. Dementors. On Hogwarts grounds. Unbelievable. "Stay close, Awar." He pulled his wand out at the ready.

He couldn't... think of anything.

Dylan couldn't think of anything.

Jake stared at his best mate, his grip getting slightly tighter on Anya. Dylan was a Slytherin if there ever was one, and to Jake that meant he was basically a Gryffindor but not as attractive or hot-headed. There was no way the guy could be scared, right?

...No, there was. Because Jake was feeling it. Fear and hopelessness slowly clawing at him from the inside. But that was because he couldn't do anything. He'd never been able to cast a patronus. Every single time he tried, the silver mist was all he'd been able to coax out of his wand. He knew for a fact that Dylan could do it, though.

"Shut up," he said, hitting Dylan's arm with his fist. "Shut up and cast the damn Patronus. I can't do it." Looking down the only slight height difference between the two of them and into the Slytherin captain's eyes, Jake gave him a LOOK. Jake couldn't cast a Patronus and he was feeling pathetic and the hopelessness was getting worse... Dylan had to do it. To make up for what Jake lacked in the protective department.