Locking The Doors Main Story Closed

Mentioning: The Head of Houses.

There was something "off" about Pericles' "offness" this evening. Though his idle state seemed to entail daydreaming, there was something more troubled to his faraway look, with a gentle downturn at the corners of his mouth and a pucker upon his furrowed forehead. It was less dreaming, more simply distracted, perhaps even disturbed. He snapped back to attention the moment Professor Pendrast called for quiet. As soon as there was mention of the missing headmaster, Pericles' sleepy lids lifted behind his glasses. His face scrunched, mouth making a mild grimace. Pressing personal matters? The lad looked around, a slow side-to-side scan, supposedly hoping to see if anyone else nearby was perplexed or unconvinced as he was. That wasn't right. It couldn't be. Why hadn't he announced his leave of absence, or, if he had been in contact with the faculty, why hadn't they heard about it until now? Plott was still here, Lear was still missing. He loathed the idea of leaving before the Headmaster was found. It was an illogical thought: he was just a boy, and it wasn't up to the students to crack this case. Yet he had become possessed by the situation, borderline obsessive, and the idea of departing with so many questions unanswered was a looming, dreadful disappointment. His little heart sunk when it was announced that they would not stay for the summer so he could continue to snoop, but that was not the worst of it.

Pericles' flighty focus was reeled back in by the mention of impending changes, and, as asked, he paid full attention. The familiar face of his own Head of House stoked subconscious feelings of comfort, though that was soon lost. A macabre sense of wonder cast a contemplative glaze over his freckled face when instructions- no, an order, was imparted to the resident dhampirs. What had happened? Was there an attack? Pericles had heard rumors, but found the prospect difficult to believe... until now. Discomfort dipped his thin mouth into an uneasy frown, an unconscious expression of discomfort (nigh guilt, if one looked closely) disturbed his typically tranquil countenance. In an instant, it was gone. Professor Browne, Head of Hufflepuff, dropped that fateful word: hags. Pericles became rigid, transfixed, mood unreadable beneath an intense interest. His stare was still and unblinking, fidgeting and wondering gone. Though he was far too focused to realize it, the confirmation of a coven left his heart pounding. An odd elation ran through him. All the research, the evaluation, the wondering, was validated in a sentence. But the line to follow made his mood plummet.

The Forbidden Forest is dubbed forbidden, for a damn good reason!
The Ravenclaw's cringe looked pained. He appeared ill, more ill than his usual pallor pretended he was, that verbal sting driving away the thrill of mystery. All cravings of curiosity evaporated, weighted by a metaphorical stone of reason. Professor Jensen's cold drone was the nail in the coffin. At the mere mention of the Bootleg Blossom Ball, Pericles' rarer quirk- the one brought on by shame- reared its head by bowing his. His chin dropped to his chest, unseeing eyes locked onto the edge of the table at which he sat. The boy sat silent and stiff, riddled with remorse. His plaintive contrition turned his ears red and kept his head down. Privileges were being revoked. Rules were being bolstered. The threat of expulsion was placed upon the table. And, the young wizard could not help but surmise, much of it was his fault. He had heard about the Bootleg Blossom Ball, even invited some clubs to participate, in part for fear of being a tattle-tale and in part wanting to see what would happen. The same drives had prevented him from stopping his fellow Ravenclaws from entering the Forbidden Forest. He should have been a proper prefect, should have told the teachers about the Ball, should have run for help instead of eagerly entering the forest. People had been hurt. He was a prefect. He was supposed to keep them safe, to enforce the rules, not bend them. He had let Professor Equinox down, his parents, his peers....

People had been hurt. Most were strangers to him, but some, like Xailah, were his friends. Breana had nearly... not made it... in the Forest. The Ravenclaw suffered the shame of a child who thought they were a disappointment, but beneath that, the indignance of one whose puberty was pending, the rebellious little voice that was proud of what he had survived and certain he would do something similar again. He had come so far, learned so much. What was he willing to sacrifice? His safety, yes. But the safety of others? He had gone to both Ball and Forest out of curiosity, but also, he wanted to be there to try and keep others safe without outright stopping them. Was he a letdown, or an abstract thinker? Did he have any right to try and justify his actions?
Both opposing sides of his introspection were equally disappointed with one another.

As one could expect, the wake of this announcement left the House of the Wise trading perspectives, deductions, theories. He tried to hear them, yet struggled to get past the buzz of conflict in his head or the lump of guilt in his throat. Whatever appetite he had entered the Hall with was long gone. His stomach felt shriveled, ears red, head spinning, heart low. Leaving and heading to his dormitory was not an option: they had to move in pairs, now, and he was not wanting for company. Under the faux guise of a "good prefect", Pericles left his dinner untouched. With eyes stinging he stood from the bench, paced towards the door, and tried to simply stand by without drawing attention. An attempt was made to look as though he were merely "guarding" the exit, or waiting by, as a prefect ought to do, to escort students back to their dormitory.

Exiting thread unless intervened.

For the past two years, Noah had lived in Hogwarts trying his best to distance himself from whatever was going on. He wanted to study and not get distracted. His parents had told him to do so. They told him that there were things going on at the ministry that might affect Hogwarts but he was to not worry about any of it as it most probably wasn't going to interfere with his work directly. And he tried, he really did. But as time went by, things were harder to ignore. The tension rose as time went by, it wasn't as bad when he first arrived and it was easier to not even notice whatever was happening but the severity and frequency of things just kept on increasing, confirming Noah's fears that this wasn't just something that would let him live his own life in peace.

Today was proof of that. It had been a long day, Noah found it harder to focus lately, his thoughts and his fear were starting to overwhelm it, but it wasn't bad, it wasn't anything he couldn't control, he could still get his work done fine. Surely, things weren't going to get worst. That's what he had said to himself, surely it wasn't that serious. But here it was, new rules that set the mood for a place in danger of being attacked. Maybe it was his encounter with the mosps at the ball, but he recently started to feel fear more, about how being put in a horrible situation would turn out for him, and to his own distaste, he sometimes ended up thinking about what could go wrong and it did not help his mood.

This just confirmed all of those doubts, things he was ignoring, things he could no longer ignore. He couldn't pretend to be an ordinary kid in an ordinary school, this was far from normal, this was genuine danger. He was aware of the severity of it, although he knew perfectly well the others in the school would still find themselves in trouble despite the professors stressing on how dangerous things were exactly. He sighed, he wished he could help them somehow but maybe obeying the rules was about the best he could do, but he did have an urge within him now, a will to do something.

Of course, it was hard to say if he could do anything, he was rather weak and... useless for the most part. But it's the thought that counts, more so for Noah. He spent all of his time on trying to focus on his academics and nothing else. He had tried recently to become more outgoing and have more fun or whatever, but it hadn't worked well, he had shut himself off to that idea after the ball. But his brain was beginning to become unfocused and dazed. He had no idea what he wanted, he was losing his aim and there was nothing he genuinely wanted (except for the things he just wouldn't accept he wanted.) This, according to him was the reason he was beginning to be reckless, he just didn't care much anymore, about anything. It didn't strike him before but now it was starting to make sense, based on what he was feeling now. Pointless emotions overwhelm him could only be the result of him lacking anything else to have in his head, they didn't mean anything, they weren't the truth, they were just random thoughts trying to keep his head busy... Yes, that made sense.

Now that he thought about it, there was simply too much going on for him to not have anything to be doing. Too much going on for him to lack a purpose, he had to try and help best he could, and he was determined. Just needed to figure out how... He had time, fortunately, no one expected anything of him, he knew that much. That made things easier, at least.

He sighed, it had been a minute or two since the food was on the tables, he had spent a good amount of time just staring at it, having zoned out in thought. He dragged himself back to earth and started eating, he had more than enough time to think about it later... He started eating, although still not paying much attention to it, his mind was still hung up on the thoughts from earlier, turning them over in his head to try and figure things out...

Open to interactions
| Ravenclaw Table |

Interacting with @Mars T'ien

Interacts with @Alan Vanes

"Were you th-there? At th-the ball?"

First of all, Scott was happy to hear that Alan, too, would be joining in on the game activities hosted this summer. He himself had been more than reluctant at first, considering he never really spent the summers at Hogwarts anyway... but he'd eventually decided to stay because of the even bigger wariness he felt about the many weeks he'd still have to spend at home. To postpone that train ride home felt just right, about now.

But despite this pleasant reassurance, Scott's mind was still lingering on Alan's first question: had he been there.

The boy offered his friend a sheepish smile, and looked at him guiltily from beneath the gazes of their professors.

"Well... Yes. For a little while. We shouldn't really lie about it, should we? That'd just be another sin. Two wrongs don't make a right, and all of that wisdom... Besides, like I said, I wasn't there for very long. Stuff happened. Obviously not stuff nearly as dramatic as what happened after I left, only I just realise that now, of course... I always seem to get away, don't I? Happened last ball as well. I suppose I should consider myself lucky, because judging by our professors' words the night didn't end very happily for those still at the pitch.

Am I right?"

Scott took another bite of his food and tried to keep his voice light-hearted. Alan's words about their headmaster missing, too, were still settling for him- because realising that they were actually under compromised protection; that the ball had really been dangerous- well it only made the guilt he felt about joining it grow. And together with it, his guilt about leaving Anastasia there alone.

"And as for your tent question, Amadea Campbell invited me to one. Do you know her? She's in Hufflepuff. It was a kind thing to do..."

closed to other interactions

The young Slytherin walked into the great hall and sat down with the rest of his peers, both of his arms slowly being placed on the table nonchalantly. He looked straight ahead of him and kept silent, waiting for whatever the teachers had to say to be over with. Once everyone had settled, Professor Elaine stood up and began to say her speech. She firstly told every to quiet in a calm tone before going on to tell them about the situation on Lear. He had been gone for quite a while now, even Percy had his suspicions about his whereabouts. But, considering they were confident on him coming back next year they must of at least made a breakthrough. The last sentence she said caught his attention, changes were going to be made to finally protect the children.

That's when the head for Ravenclaw stepped forward to explain the new rules they had to follow, and to say the least a few of them didn't surprise him. The dhampire rule was something he didn't care about by the very least, since they were dangerous individuals none the less. At least Caradoc Browne had something notable to add on the situation. He went on to talk about hags and how the forbidden forest was strictly forbidden, it wasn't new, but the students still needed to be reminded of the dangerous that hid in there. Over the years, his father and ones before him told stories about the forbidden forest, all of which portrayed it as a dark and filled with creatures that would fuel your nightmares. It was forbidden for good reason.

Percy slowly put his head on his arms that lay locked on the table, not listening to the useless information that followed. Hogwarts always had a sense of danger throughout the years, but never this bad. It only seemed to be topped by the Potter days and wizard days, but as far as he knew it hadn't been like this for a very long time. He sat there in deep thought and stared blankly at the table, thinking about something that was dawning on him. It was clear his efforts were being focused on the wrong thing. Lear was going to be found eventually, especially after what he just heard. However, these strange events were going to take time to figure out...

Suddenly, his ears picked up on something being explained by the teachers. They were increasing the amount of people on patrol as well as increasing the risks of being found. He kept a mental note of what the teacher said, just in case he ever decide to dip out. Everything seemed to be changing for Hogwarts, just as it should be after recent events. It was about bloody time...

The rest of the talk was about keeping safe and going home for summer, which he was aiming to do anyway. Although, he was going to be camping out on the grounds in a tent full of fellow pure bloods before going back, a lonely positive out of the many negatives he had recently.

Once the announcements had stopped, vast portions of food appeared on the table in front of them. Percy looked at them expressionless before quickly getting to his feet and making his leave out of the great hall. There was a lot of thinking to do, and his appetite wasn't going to get in the way.

Leaving the thread unless stopped

"Is it like this every year at Hogwarts? Or is this year just like a weird... messed up, scary year?"

"It's like this every year... Though... it's never been this bad..."

"It's like this every year if I'm going to be honest. It's just a particularly bad year... Our house has a thing for fire. But this is really the first time they addressed it to us, that's the odd part to me."

"All of these new rules...they kind of worry me. But, we've always gotten through it in the past. The professors are smart and hopefully, these new rules will help keep us safe. We'll get through this too!

exit ami to [x].

Interacting with: @Jack Burnett @Adonis Thorn
Mentioning: @Opeila Seilun @Evelynn Decipio

@Ileen Knight

Alan nodded with a light smile. "I was th-there t-too", he would admit without batting an eyelash at the statement. He would poke around with the fork in his food before placing it down gently with a sigh. "I have been th-there until th-the professors came so th-they know t-too th-that I had been th-there", he would add to be more specifically. If he were to be asked whether he regretted going, he would have to disagree. He regretted what happened at the ball but he did not regret the desire to have a fun night. If he were to be prompted to such a day again, with some reluctance he would possibly agree after making sure of the events safety. He would not want to get in trouble of course and possibly would prefer and event run by professors in the future, but there was this thing with boredom and exciting parties that would most likely tempt the third year even though he knew the rules; yet he would not want to be expelled either. It was quite a tricky situation they got going on now.

He had abandoned his almost untouched food and tilted his head slightly as he tried to remember who Scott was talking about. If he had met her before then he certainly could not remember her just based on her name so he lightly shook his head at the question. "I'm going t-to share a t-ten with some Hufflepuffs t-too, all first years", he would tell his, probably, best friend in his year with the attempt of a light smile. Not that the year of a person mattered much, at least not to Alan.

Open to interaction
Mentioning @Elspeth Gollens