It just had to be fire didn't it? Closed

Between the "Hi, daddy" from his son in front of him to the "You have a son, Professor Noname?” coming from his left from his student, Artemis didn't know who to scold first.

'Professor Noname? I know the boy forgot my damn name but to give me such a ridiculous one as a replacement... No...that is the least of my worries right now.' Artemis thought as he scowled and placed his hands under his son's shoulders and lifted him out of the chest.

"What are you doing here, Yuya? How did you get here? Where's your mother?" Artemis asked his son but the child wouldn't answer as he was readying himself to start crying. Artemis wasn't in the best of moods to deal with the waterworks. Turning to his student, he inhaled deeply and addressed Alan.

"Mr. Vanes, I am quite aware that you have forgotten my name," he pulled out the piece of paper he had written on earlier. "However, giving me such a rude name in return is quite disrespecful." He handed the boy the piece of paper and turned the boy around by his shoulder to guide him back to the classroom.

"For homework tonight, you will write my name three-hundred times and I expect to see it with your homework on my desk Monday morning. Now," Artemis placed the boy back inside of the warded area. "I do not know what is going through your head, Mr. Vanes, but you must concentrate. I know that you can do this spell, Mr. Vanes. I..."He looked back at the doorway leading to his office where his son was still standing, sniffling and wiping at his eyes. With a scowl, Artemis turned back to his student. "I have to return to my home to contact my wife. I don't have a clue as to where she's at nor do I know how my son managed to get here without her, but I know that she's probably in a panic. Muggle communications do not work in the castle so I must head home."

Artemis looked back at his son, then at Alan, then at his son again. Releasing a frustrated breath, the Charms Professor swiftly walked over to his eight-year-old and gently, but firmly guided him to the chair directly outside of the warded area. "Sit here and do not move or bother Mr. Vanes. Understood?"

Artemis waited for a teary nod from his young son before focusing on his student once again. Pointing at the toy from earlier, and then at the other copies of the toy nearby. He then said to Alan, "When I return, I expect to see at least two or three charred action figures, Mr. Vanes. If not, not only will you be writing those three-hundred lines, but you'll be writing a 6-foot essay on Incendio and the importance of concentration when not only casting a spell from any subject," Artemis paused as he turned around to face the door to his office with his back to the young Gryffindor, then cleared his throat as he added, "You also won't get to enjoy the box of snacks I had planned to give you for a job well done."

The man didn't wait for a reply from the younger boy and moved across the room again, only stopping to check his son over again and press his forehead against the little boy's own, before heading into his office, leaving the little boy to stare at the older one. This move he was making was absolutely irresponsible. Leaving his eight-year-old son with his twelve, maybe thirteen, year old student who was practicing with fire...it was madness, and he knew that he'd probably get an earful from his wife when he finally managed to reach her on the phone, but he knew that he needed to breath first. His boy was safe. That was all that mattered. And Mr. Vanes was in a warded area. He reassured himself of this before he tossed the floo powder into the fireplace and called out his home address.

Nothing would go wrong.

[quote]As soon as the words had left the Gryffindor's lips he had slapped his hand in front of his mouth. He had not meant to say this out loud, he never meant to. It was just how he thought of the professor, as for the Gryffindor this professor had no name yet. So what else to call him tha the professor with no name? Alan still began to inwardly panic and apparently that feeling was justified, because the professor did not seem to be pleased at all. Even worse. He called Alan out for behaving rude and disrespectful, which the young boy did not want to be seen as. Well he wasn't exactly an angel in every case. but who was really completely nice? Yet being called disrespectful was bothering the second year, but he kept his mouth shut, not wanting to make it worse. He was sure if he would be to say something now the tears that were gathering n his eyes would start to pour down.

Alan gasped upon hearing that so called homework. Three-hundred times? But Monday would be in two days and he still had to study for the other subjects and the end term exams! How was he supposed to do that? He bit his lips, protesting would only make it worse, especially with how mad the professor seemed to be at the moment. Alan was pretty sure he could talk the professor out of that punishment... if he was lucky and if the professor ad calmed down some.

Alan was watching carefully as the professor guided the young child od towards a chair in the classroom and told them not to move. Yuya was the name, right? Alan needed to remember, because as it seemed the professor planned to leave him alone with his son and Alan would have to talk with the cute boy. He briefly glanced down at the folded piece of paper in his hand and pocketed it. For now he would not need it, he had a child to take care of, because as soon as the professor has left the room the child began to break down. The sniffles became sobs and againsst better judgement the second year, who was only a child himself quickly walked over to the kid and squatted down slightly.

"Yuya was your name, right?", he asked gently as he reached into the pocket of his robe and pulled out a wrapped up Chocolate Frog. "Your dad will be back soon, I promise... why are you crying? Want some chocolate?", the second year hold out the Chocolate Frog, encouraging the younger boy to take it with a soft smile.

"So Yuya, can you tell me how old you are?", he asked to distrat the child from his worries.

Yuya's sobbing had begun the moment he heard the fireplace roar to life in the other room. He didn't want to cry, but he knew he was in trouble. He had touched the feather thing his mum had told him not to touch. But he was so bored at his grandparent's house. He wanted to come back home and play with his toys and go outside and play with his friends. He knew that the feather would take him back home, and he remembered his dad telling his mum that she just needed to say the word, "Portus" and it should work...so he touched it.

The sick feeling he had felt when he and his mother first traveled by the feather came and went, and the next thing the little boy knew, he was in a large room with a lot of fireplaces and a lot of people walking by him. Some stopped to look at him. Most continued to walk by as if they didn't notice him. Either way, Yuya was scared and all he wanted was his parents. Moving into the nearest hole, not realizing it was a fireplace, the eight-year-old squeezed his eyes shut and made one wish.'I want my daddy.'

Soon he was swirling and moving again and then tossed out into a room, rolling until he hit the desk in the middle of the room. That was when he heard his father's voice. He had did it! But then he suddenly became scared and chose to hide instead. He knew he was supposed to be with his mother. If his dad found him here, alone, oh he would be grounded forever.

Now he was sat in the big room with some big kid and he was alone again and he was scared. He just wanted his mum and dad. He looked up when a shadow appeared over his form and he warily watched the older boy bend closer to his own smaller body. "Yuya was your name, right? Want some chocolate?" he had asked as he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a Chocolate Frog, holding it out to him. Yuya looked at the piece of chocolate, then back to the boy, then back to the chocolate, then to the door that his father had left through. Taking the piece of candy, Yuya nodded and mumbled a watery, "Thank you." and clenched the case in his two hands tightly.

He looked up at the older boy again. "Where did my dad go?" he asked, sniffling again after the question.

The older boy had smiled softly. "Your dad will be back soon, I promise... why are you crying?"

Thinking about what he had done, Yuya's face crumpled up again and his tears started anew. It took a few moments for him to calm his sobbing down to answer the older boy's question. "I-I wa-want my dad! B-bu-but he's going t-to be mad at me," Yuya wiped at his eyes, hiccuping as he wiped at his face with his arm. "I left mummy. I d-didn't mean to, I swear! I touched th-the feather th-thing daddy gave her and now...and now she-she's in Japan and-and I'm here!"

Yuya started crying again. He just wanted his parents. And his toys. He just wanted to go home, but now he was here with this boy. He managed to calm himself down again, sniffling loudly. He then stareted playing with the Chocolate Frog box in his hand, completely forgetting that the older boy was in the room, until the box opened and the frog came alive. Just as the frog jumped, Yuya plucked it out of the air and bit its head, nibbling on the chocolate sweet and sniffling. He startled slightly and looked to the older boy when the boy said, "So Yuya, can you tell me how old you are?"

Swallowing the chocolate in his mouth, Yuya looked up at the older boy, his brown eyes with hints of green in the meeting the eyes of the older boy's and replied, "I'm eight. I just turned eight in March." Looking past the boy now, Yuya noticed that his toy was standing by itself. Turning around in the seat, he saw that there were five others just like the lone one across the room standing behind the desk chair. Looking back up at the boy, he asked, "What are you going to do with all of these copies of my Joe-man figure?"

Alan took a look at the cute little child, or well he did not think the boy could be much younger than he was. Maybe a few years, making Alan wonder if he had experienced accidental magic yet. He probably knew about magic or he would not have appeared through the floo network. Alan was smiling lightly at the child, he could not show any sadness in front of this child. He needed to make the kid happy, not only because he thought the Professor would be mad if something happened to his son, but also because the second year did not want the child to be sad.

The kid's acceptance of the Chocolate Frog flooded the Gryffindor with relief, because he was a strong believer that a bit of chocolate could solve anything and if not, it would at least cause a bit of happiness. So Alan waited for the smaller boy to react in any way. ”Your dad went to talk to your mom, can you tell me why you ran away like that? Did you miss your dad?”, he asked, as he could understand that reasoning. Thinking back he had pulled similar actions, like suddenly running through the Ministry after running away from his mother, because she had been busy with boring paperwork.

”In Japan? You came all the way from there? That's impressive for your age, that means you must be a strong wizard!”, he explained to cheer the young boy up. ”And I don't think your dad is mad... he is only worried. Something dangerous could have happened and your mom is probably worried sick which is why your dad is going to talk to her”, he tried to think of something to make it reasonable, ”Imagine your parents leaving the house without saying you were they go and you wake up to an empty house... scary, right?”

Alan smiled. So he was right, the boy was younger by a couple of years, which if he was honest, was adorable. Alan felt like a big brother at the moment. He never had any siblings and always wanted a small or bigger brother so they could play together with action figures or go on adventures. ”Your dad wants me to burn them with magic... Do you think that sounds cool? I could make them dance first, if you want that!”, he mentioned with a grin, ruffling through the younger boys hair. If Alan did not know he was the professor's son, it would not have been hard to guess either. The face had the exact same structure, just with a childlike charm and almond eyes. The eye color as well was different, but the mimic was spot on; be it frown or smile.

Yuya's eyes widened and his mouth moved into an "oh" shape when the older boy said that he was going to burn his toys. "Burn them?" he whispered and then he was asked if he thought that was cool. "Yeah that's cool! I wanna try!" He exclaimed cheerfully as he shoved the rest of his melting chocolate into his mouth and left the seat. His chocolate covered hands were leaving tracks everywhere. Looking at his hands, he realized that he didn't have a napkin or wet wipe, so he did what any little kid would do.

He wiped his hands on his white shirt. It was already dirty anyway, right?

Looking back at the other boy he raised an eyebrow, a facial quirk he learned from his father, and moved his head in a "come on" gesture. He moved into the warded area where his toy was but didn't move next to the toy. He called over to the older boy. The kid seemed nice, and he was just trying to make him feel better by saying that his dad wasn't angry. But Yuya knew that when his dad found out about his touching the feather without his mom that he would be standing in a corner for forever!

It actually wouldn't be forever. More like ten to fifteen minutes, but to Yuya it would feel like forever.

Yuya also couldn't imagine his parents leaving without telling him. His mum took him everywhere and when his dad was home on the weekends they always did everything together. His dad would do magic like making bubbles or making his toys fly so he could chase after them and other things. He loved his dad.

Looking back over to the boy who was taking forever to come to where he was standing, the eight-year-old asked, "What's your name?"

He would try to get the boy to let him borrow his wand, even though he knew he wasn't allowed to touch anyone's wand. Still...he had to try right?

"My daddy would let me use his wand to cast magic. Can I try with yours?" He gave the older boy an entirely innocent look. If the kid said 'no' then Yuya wouldn't push for it. He knew that he wasn't allowed and he didn't even know what spell the kid had to cast to set his toy on fire. But he just really wanted to see magic.

Alan was glad that the smaller boy would not be sad about the task he had been given by the professor and was the opinion that it would be cool. Knowing this would also make casting the spell easier, because he would not end up with a child crying for his toy to be repaired and hating him forever for what he did to it. Children could be pretty unforgiving. He watched smiling as the boy at the chocolate frog that nearly melted in his hands. Alan was about to offer him a tissue, but the boy was faster and already wiped his hands off on a white shirt, making Alan cringe slightly. Now it was obvious that the child had gotten some snacks, but who cares. Kids should get as many treats as possible!

Alan was grinning at the child and went over to him. The professor had said he warded the classroom, right? So nothing could go wrong since everything was warded. The fire would extinguish on its own and Alan had nothing to worry about. Even if the spell got out of control it would not spread and would not be long lived. He watched the child, who was smiling. Alan wondered if he was a dreamer, he certainly seemed like one.

”My name? Alan Vanes, but just call me Alan- I'm only a child after all”, he offered. His next words made the young boy worried. ”Even if your dad does that, which I doubt, you should not tell it anyone. You could bring your dad into lot of trouble saying this”, he explained. He remembered wanting to hide his mother's wand once as a joke and when he touched it all lights in the house shut off and that had been rather scary for the young boy. He would not be able to sleep in his room alone for days.

”So, stay behind me while I cast, so you won't be hit by the spell, okay? I can show you another trick later where you can help!”, he explained before turning to face the toy.

Even if your dad does that, which I doubt, you should not tell it anyone. You could bring your dad into lot of trouble saying this”

Yuya pouted slightly at the small repirmand but then shrugged it off. The older boy, Alan, was correct. If he used Alan's wand, heck if he even touched it, his dad would be right mad at him. And if what Alan said was true, the little boy surely didn't want to bring any trouble to his dad. He didn't want to get him in trouble or arrested. His mum had told him one time that if he touched his daddy's wand and did magic that his dad would be sent away. Yuya didn't want that! He loved his dad very much!

Of course, the little boy didn't know that it was just a story his mother told him to make her little curious son keep his hands to himself and to learn not to touch what did not belong to him. Artemis would be in trouble if Yuya happened to use underage magic, but it most likely would be nothing more than a reprimand or a fine. It could also be brushed off as underage magic.

Bouncing on his feet, Yuya followed Alan's instructions of standing behind him as he eagerly waited for the older boy to cast the spell. He didn't care if this toy was destroyed. He just wanted to see magic being done. He always loved watching his dad use magic and seeing another kid do it would just so cool!

"Do it! Do the magic! I can't wait!" he said eagerly with a smile on his face.



Meanwhile in the Vernatis household

Artemis paced as the line on the other end of the phone contiunued to ring. This was the second time he had called his in-law's house miles away from his home in Somerset and he still hadn't received an answer. He needed to get through to his wife and let her know that Yuya was safe. But while that was one concern off his list of worries, wondering about Yurina's state was also concerning for him. She must be frantic with worry and Artemis wouldn't blame her is she-

The line picked up.

"Hello?"

'Artemis? Oh my goodness, Artemis! It's Yuya! He's...he's gone and I...I don't,'

"Yurina...Yuri, love. Calm down. Yuya's just fine. He somehow managed to find himself flooing into my office at the school and he's perfectly fine and healthy. There's not a scratch on him." Aretmis ran a hand through his hair as he reassured his wife over and over, both in English and what little Japanese he knew as his wife was rapidly speaking both languages over the phone.

'Are you sure he's fine, Artie?' Yurina asked over the line again.

"Yes, I'm sure. He's in my classroom right now with a student of mine praticing a spell,"Artemis said with a sigh.

The man, of course, may not have realized just what he had said as his mind was currently on the issues at hand, but had he thought about what he was saying before he said it, he would have realized that telling his frantic wife that he had just left their eight-year-old son alone with a student that was practicing magic was probably not the smartest of moves. He would have realized that after his wife had just watched their eight-year-old son 'pop' away via portkey, and she had no idea where the boy had gone, that telling her Yuya was alone again in a place she wouldn't be able to reach him even if she were in Europe, was not a very good idea. However, with as smart as Artemis was, he was still a man who sometimes didn't always think things through fully.

Silence reigned over the line for a moment until Artemis called his wife's name, to which she responded with a question. 'Artie, you've told me this before but I think I need a refresher on some information.'

"Anything, love. What's the matter?"

'You've mentioned before we moved to England that Ilvermony couldn't allow electronics or other regular items into the castle due to some conflict, right? Am I correct to assume that Hogwarts, with all of those children with volatile magic held within those walls, is the same as that school in America?' Artemis heard his wife's calm voice through the receiver and he wondered where she was going with this conversation.

"Um...yes. The magic in both places conflict with day to day Muggle electronics," he answered.

'Honey, at this very moment...WHERE THE HELL IS OUR SON?! Did you leave him alone at the school with another child while you came home?!'

Artemis moved the phone from his ear as his wife ranted in Japanese at him. He could barely understand her when she became like this. "Yu-Yurina, I came home to tell you that he was safe. It's not as if I could have sent an owl. It would have never gotten to you in time."

'Artemis Vernatis, you listen to me right now. You hang up this phone this minute and go back to that school and be there with our son or I will risk the damned storm brewing outside and fly home to personally kick your ass! Do you understand me? Let there be one mark of spell damage on that boy, Artemis..." The woman seethed on the other line, trailing off to let her threat hang.

"I-Yes, Yurina. I'm leaving out, right now. We'll contact you soon."

A click was all Artemis heard on the other line and inhaling deeply, he turned off the house phone and exhaled on a frustrated sigh. Why on earth did he tell his wife that he left Yuya alone? And with a student no less?

"At least I didn't say how old my student was," the Charms professor muttered. He quickly went upstairs to the bedrooms and pulled out a suitcase from his bedroom closet. Taking it into his son's room, he flicked his wand and allowed all of the necessary items that belonged to his son to fly and sort themselves neatly into the bag. Yuya's t-shirts, shorts, trousers, and jeans, some pants, a second pair of trainers, and some dress shirts all sorted and folded themselves into the bag neatly. Artemis then flicked his wand at some of the boy's toys, shrinking them and having them fit into the bag as well as some of Yuya's books. Closing the bag, Artemis then shrunk the suitcase and put it into the pocket of his robes.

Leaving the room, the Charms Professor made his way back down the stairs and went to the fireplace. Grabbing some powder, he tossed it into the fireplace and loudly and clearly said, "Hogwarts: Artemis Vernatis' office!"

As he stepped through into the flames, he hoped that he wouldn't be returning to an office of flames.

Alan nodded at the younger boy and sighed. Inwardly counting to three he would raise his wand, do the movement and say the incantation. ”Incendio!” So far so good nothing extraordinary happened as a jet of flames sprung from the wand and engulfed the child-sized action figure in flames. But it took a single cheer from the child behind him for his concentration to waver as the flames got too strong. The center of the flames would slowly bleed into a blueish color as cracks appeared on the toy. Quickly breaking the concentration completely he stopped the spell from causing more damage.

Yet the damage was already done as the flames sprouted higher, licking at the wooden interior of the ground. Why would it not stop after the fire was casted, the professor said he took precautions. Smoke began to spread and an awful smell of melting plastic filled the room. The action figure would crumble together as its parts would fly through the room, followed quickly by the flames who did what flames do; beginning to spread. He shook his head and stared at the younger boy. It seemed that at one point even the wards produced by the professor failed when a piece crashed into the area where the chair stood, Yuya had been sitting on a couple of minutes ago.

Finally unfreezing, Alan grabbed the child by his hand and fled from the scene, bursting through the door as he hoped for the professor to arrive soon. Alan really would like to think he already knew the Extinguishing spell, but in his panic he could not think of anything that could stop all this from taking place. Just when he and Yuya were outside of the classroom and a couple of feet away, standing in the corridor, he would let go of the kid's hand and stop.

”Bloody... that could have gone so very wrong-” he gasped for air, before looking over the younger child. He seemed fine, Alan was fine too and finally the Gryffindor allowed himself to laugh lightly. ”This... this could have gone very wrong, I think your dad has done a mistake with his charms or he- he forgot that I only know how to make flames and not how to stop them!”, he would look over to Yuya, a bit more serious now, ”You are fine, right?”

By the time the professor would arrive in his office, the classroom would be filled with smoke and an awful smell of plastic. Not to talk of the interior and furniture which would need a couple of Reparo and some cleaning.

*At Hogwarts*

Yuya cheered as Alan set the action figure on fire and jumped around excitedly. This was amazing! He actually got to see magic being done! The little boy clapped and cheered as the fire grew and the toy melted, but then his smile slowly ebbed away as the flames turned blue and the wood beneath where the toy had once been was turning black. Soon a piece of the toy cracked and flew far into the room, landing on the chair that his father had told him to sit in before.

Eyes wide, Yuya looked at the older boy. "Alan...I don't like this anymore," he said softly as he moved toward the older boy. The chair burning seemed to have not only registered in Yuya's head that this was now a dangerous situation. The room was quickly filling up with smoke as the fire quickly began to spread and Alan finally grabbed the boy's hand and dragged him out of the room and into the corridor, slamming the classroom door behind him.

”Bloody... that could have gone so very wrong-”

the tall boy said but Yuya didn't respond as he was still worried about the fire within the room.

This... this could have gone very wrong, I think your dad has done a mistake with his charms or he- he forgot that I only know how to make flames and not how to stop them!”

Yuya twisted his face to look as if he had eaten a lemon before he looked at the older boy. "I don't think daddy messed up his charms. He's a master, after all. But...maybe that was why he told me not to move. Maybe I broke something." The boy cocked his head to the side. "Why didn't you tell my daddy that you couldn't put out the fire before he left? Maybe he didn't know you didn't know how to put the fires out."

Yuya shrugged as he said his opinion and looked at the door which now had smoke seeping through the opening at the bottom of the door. He bit his lip as he hoped that his dad would be alright when returned to his office. Spontaneously, the boy moved to the door and opened the door a bit but was shocked at the heat that hit his face. The door was quickly slammed shut again and he felt himself being pulled against some fabric, but Yuya managed to catch a glimpse of his dad standing in the middle of the room.

'Don't burn up, daddy.' the child frantically thought to himself.

*Hogwarts: Artemis' office*

The moment Artemis stepped out of the fireplace and into his office he smelled smoke. He looked behind him and all around on his person to see if maybe some lingering flames got caught on his robes but he wasn't on fire. 'So where is the smell coming from?'

Inhaling again to try to determine where the burning smell was coming from, Artemis coughed violently as the smoke began to enter his lungs. Looking up through narrow eyes, the Charms Professor could see smoke seeping into his office through the bottom of the door that led to his office. Eyes wide, he ran to the door. The boys! What the hell happened in the short time he was gone?! Where were the boys?

Looking around his office and coughing again, Artemus called out, "Yuya! Alan! Are you in here?!"

No answer came and so he moved over toward his quarters and called out again. Again he received no answer and that brought more worry to the man as he briefly thought the worst of the situation. 'What if they were stuck in the classroom? Damn it!'

Rushing through the two rooms, Artemis moved to the door leading to his classroom. He could see bright light flickering from under the door, which meant that the fire was closer to his office door than he liked. Taking out his wand, he waved it in a complicated movement to cast a shield on the door frame to prevent the fire from entering his office and subsequently destroying everything, and then cast Protego which would protect him from most of the fire damage that he knew would be done to his person as he walked through the door into the other room. Since the flames in the room were created by magic, it was still considered a spell and would hopefully reflect off of his shield. If it worked, it would be something he could discuss with Professor Pendrast...if he survived this.

"Why the hell didn't the kid put the damned flames out?"the man gritted out before taking a deep breath and opening the door to the classroom. A wave of heat seeped through the protective shield but the flames that went together with the heat bounced off the shield. Strangely enough, it was the same shield he had put in place where he told Alan to practice the spell. Why the hell didn't it contain the fire in that one spot?

When the brightness of the flames cleared from his eyes, Artemis looked around the room, his wand still in front of him and holding his shield in place. Searching the room, he couldn't see the boys and the panic he was feeling before was beginning to raise its ugly head. What if the boys passed out from smoke inhalation? What if...

He heard a shout and turned to the front of the room where the flames were minimal. There he saw the little face of his son and then the door slammed shut quickly. Relief instantly filled Artemis. The boys were safe. They were in the corridor, albeit still too close to the room, but they were safely in the hall. Knowing that they were safe, Artemis dropped his shield and turned to face the nearest flame. Point his wand at the flames, he made the wand movement and cast the Extinguishing Spell on that particular set of flames, allowing the mist to smother it out completely. Not canceling the spell, Artemis turned to his right and continued to smother out the nearby flame pile and the one after that.

A slight burning sensation tickled his neck and he quickly reached his hand back, wondering if he was on fire and didn't realize it. His hand pulled away and he saw a clump of his hair crumple and fall away. The heat from the fire spell must have been too much and his hair began drying at a rapid pace. After putting out the recent fire pile, Artemis pointed his wand at himself and cast Aquamenti to keep himself as safe as he could. Smoke inhalation was still a thing and he knew he would have to visit the Hospital Wing for something for that later. Moving across the room, Artemis continued to use the Extinguishing Spell on all of the flames until eventually everything was thankfully put out and smothered.

Breathing a bit more heavily than he should due to the smoke that was in his lungs, Artemis used more magic to cast Aquamenti on the wooden surfaces in the classroom in case there were still fires lingering. One that was finished, the man coughed heavily and harshly as he made his way back to his office door. Everything was intact in there, as it should be since the charm he placed was still intact. Shedding out of his robes, Artemis tossed it into his office, not caring where it landed and turned to head to the entrance of his classroom.

Opening the door roughly, he saw Alan holding onto a teary-eyed Yuya and Artemis breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly knelt and started patting each of the boys down. "Are you both alright? You weren't burned? Did you inhale the smoke?" Artemis asked, his voice raw and scratchy from all of the smoke he inhaled.

After realizing that neither boy was harmed, the man- rather uncharacteristically- pulled the two boys into a tight hug, not caring that he was most likely soaking the two of them from when he doused himself with water. Pulling the two of them away, Artemis looked directly into Alan's eyes and asked, "Why didn't you put out the fire? You do know Extinguo, don't you?"

He would be very surprised if the boy didn't know the spell as he was positive all first-year students learned the spell in Herbology, but Artemis was mostly asking for knowledge sake as he knew it wasn't the boy's fault. He shouldn't have left him alone learning a damn fire spell. Any child, hell any person, would panic if a fire started getting out of control. All that mattered was that they both were safe and Artemis gave Alan's shoulder a gentle squeeze as he said, "Thank you for keeping Yuya safe."

”I thought that he knew-” he exclaimed, before shaking his head in frustration, when Yuya asked him why he did not tell the professor that he did not know the Extinguishing Spell yet. Professor Sorrel had never taught it to them while he was still a first year and only currently it had been added to the curriculum of the first year due to the events happening at both the Blossom Balls. ”He told me I would not have to worry, that the fire couldn't spread, but the wards might have weakened when he left,” he tried to explain to the fearful child- ”You did not mess up the charm, Yuya... He told you to sit on the chair so that you would not get in danger, because that area was away from the wards.”

Alan just shook his head and quickly pulled Yuya away from the door, as he could not be okay with even letting him close to the danger zone. How could he possibly explain to the professor if Yuya had as much as a scratch? He could never forgive himself and the professor would surely hate him for eternity. Maybe he would be kicked out from Hogwarts for failure. Alan shook his head, forcing himself not to think like that as he waited together with Yuya. From the inside of the classroom he could hear a lot of noises such as shouts. When he could decipher their names being called, Alan gently hold the other kid's wrist firmer so that he would not run to hi father.

”Your dad will be all right, Yuya. You said he is a master so he surely will not be troubled-”, yet his voice was shaking ever so slightly, as his fearful eyes were directed towards the thick wooden door. Thin layers of dark smoke would seep through the slit at the bottom of the door. Relief flooded him, when the door opened and the professor stepped out of the room. Alan could see no light or fire in there, but it could merely be hidden by the thick clouds of smoke that made seeing the actual damage impossible. Yet as soon as the door had opened the smoke started to thin, escaping through the newfound opening of the room.

Alan stared at the professor and seeing his face twisted in worry and horror, made Alan think he had failed whatever his task had been. He had failed to cast the spell, failed to take care of the man's son and he had failed to not get the room damaged. As soon as arms were wrapped around him and the younger boy, something in him began to crumble down into bits of nothing. As if with a snap of a finger the adrenaline left his blood, leaving him devastated and exhausted.

Hearing all the questions, Alan just shook his head meekly, his tired eyes checking the professor's state for injuries or similar. He could not even feel relieved when he found none, as the raspy voice of the professor was alone his fault.

”U-hm... P-professor w-would it bother you to continue this in the office?”, he asked shyly, his voice shaking and it was obvious by the way he was acting that he was fighting to be strong and to not show tears. He wanted to be strong, because Yuya was already worried enough and he could not fail again. He would answer the professor's questions if they were alone in his office, but the thought that other students could see him like that in front of this smoky room made his cheeks burn with shame.

Alan just nodded, when the professor thanked him for keeping Yuya safe. He looked at the young boy and forced himself to show him a smile, but while it was honest, it showed the exhaustion from those events