Originally Posted by Ama

Declan did not want to be that annoying person who overheard a conversation. Except he was that person. He was nodding and humming along to what Althea was telling her but his eyes kept drifting back to the familiar girl and the professor. He really should do something about not remembering names. He took the plate of chicken Althea offered. Declan made some kind of approving noise about chicken and paired it up with a wide eye look of starvation before he put the plate down on the table almost instantly.

"Yes, light does have a tendency to shine bright at the most inoportune times," He said quickly to Althea between her speaking and went back to humming and nodding. Hunter? Declan was almost certain that was not his name. "Just vanished? No kicking or screaming? No being dragged by another entity? Just a bright light and poof he was gone?" There had to be a hint in there somewhere. How did people vanish in light? Did he evaporate? Declan switched his gaze to where the familiar girl had indicated her friend had been. He didn't see a pile of dust, shoes left behind or anything. How strange! Declan barely heard the 'date' comment and just nodded along to Althea. He heard condolences somewhere in there so surely his sister was being some brand of sympathetic here.

"May I...say something?" Declan inquired shyly raising up his hand instinctively. He glanced sideways at his raised hand and brought it back down awkwardly. He wasn't inside a classroom. Why did he do that for? "I've read that mirrors can be used to take glances of other realms, which, I mean, aren't this one where we are standing right now. Of course it's usually a one way communication only..." It was a pointless idea and he cleared his throat as he felt his face heat up. "It was just a thought."

He wished he had access to a large mirror--one that wasn't the dirty ones in the boys' lavatory.

"Sorry that I'm not more helpful," he tacked on and averted his gaze. "If you need help looking, I can help." Declan pretty much spent his nights sneaking around anyway. He was familiar with dirty corners of the castle.

Originally Posted by thekraken

The drama was just too dramatic and Althea had no idea why everyone was frantic. She zeroed in on the panicking girl and narrowed her eyes at her. "Don't ignore me, you rude rat, I'm being helpful in your time of distress," she took a gulp of her pumpkin juice and faced her brother again. "Yeah, he just vanished. It was the strangest thing. No kind of struggle at all either." Which Althea found extremely suspicious. At the very least they had a professor to help sort all of this madness out--which is why Althea could not understand how Charlize could continue to panic and complain. At some point someone would have to tell her to be quiet (again.)

She was grateful that Declan found her or else she might have made to matters worse with her unsolicited advice. As he prattled on Althea nodded in tandem with each of his points; she was very surprised that they hadn't considered this method in the first place. Weren't professors supposed to be smart? "He's right y'know, you can trust him on these sorts of things." She supposed if Declan offered his services, Althea would help as well. Hayden was nice (from the brief interactions Althea had with him.) He didn't deserve this kind of treatment at all.

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

Miss Kettleburn was beginning to clam down now, which Gaston was very glad to see. When she nodded in reply to him, he gave her a small smile. "I knew you could," he said, and he couldn't help but beam when she said they should look everywhere. Miss Kettleburn was exemplifying the best qualities of Gryffindor house right now, and he couldn't be prouder! He looked into the girl's eyes, and his voice dropped as he added, "I'm sure this is the last thing on your mind right now, but I'm giving you five points for your courage and devotion to your friend. Now let's find Henry!"

He turned toward the door, expecting Miss Kettleburn to follow, but he wheeled around at the sound of Mr. Kenning's voice. The professor was slightly taken aback when he raised his hand but chose not to comment on it. "Of course, Mr. Kenning. Go ahead," he said, nodding slightly. It was an interesting point he made... if only they had a mirror they could use to contact Henry. Still something the boy said stuck in his mind. Gaston shook his head when Mr. Kenning apologized for not being more helpful. "Not at all, Mr. Kenning," he said. "I think you may be onto something. Do you think Henry was taken to another realm?" He smiled when the Slytherin volunteered to help look. "Thank you, Mr. Kenning; five points to Slytherin for helping."

Gaston heard what Miss Kenning said to Miss Kettleburn, and he was not having that! Could she not see that the other girl was distraught?! She wasn't ignoring her on purpose. His eyes burned like bluebell flames as he shot her a reprimanding look. His instinct was to angrily tell her off, demand an apology, and dock house points, but he thought better of it. The last time he went into overprotective professor!dad mode, it didn't end well! He took a deep breath and calmly said, "That was a very unkind thing to call her, Miss Kenning. The next time I hear name-calling, it will be points loss." Somehow he doubted the girl would want to join them in the search for Henry, but he still invited her. "Would you like to join us, Miss Kenning?" There would be house points in it for her if she did!

Originally Posted by Tegz

Charlotte looked over at the boy when he politely spoke up.

You know, politely, unlike his... sister? Sister. Char didn't know how to respond to his suggestion but she did smile thankfully. Especially at his offer of help.

"Thanks." She said quietly. Really. "Henry would appreciate knowing that people are looking for him." And she obviously did.



Wait... what?

Her?

Charlotte blinked in confusion.

"I'm not rude." What a rude and mean thing to say. Wait... had the girl been talking to her before? None of those names had been hers, and she'd been crying.

"I'm Charlotte Kettleburn... I don't know why you're being rude right now, but please stop." She didn't have time for it, and she was still upset and had to find her friend.



..... points? Char didn't care about those. She just wanted her friend back. Like now. And a rewind to not ruin his birthday. Char was pretty sure that wherever Henry was, it wasn't good. The kitten in her arm squirmed and mewed again and she cradled it carefully.

Charlotte wasn't completely sure why the rude mean girl wasn't losing points right away, but she didn't really want to think about that, plus it wouldn't be fair because probably a girl like that had no interest in earning any points lost back, so it wouldn't be fair for Hufflepuff, but she DID speak up when the professor asked the girl to join them.

"I don't want someone rude and mean to come with us, sir. Not unless she apologizes and promises not to be selfish - we have to find Henry, its not about her." Because you had to stick up for yourself sometimes.

And also...

"Can I go change?" A dress was probably not the best for the search they needed to do, and she needed to be prepared. "And put the kitten somewhere safe? And get my holster. I'll be really quick. We could meet somewhere." And also, she wouldn't mind splashing her face with water, tying her hair back, and getting her game face on. She would search for as long as it took, so she had to get search-ready.