The one they call monster open Closed

The blue haired girl, the one that he vaguely remembered, lane, or something, came closer and leaned up against the wall, asking if he wanted to leave. Well, yes he wanted to leave. He wanted to already have left. But with her? That was textbook trap. If he searched up "how to lure someone to some dark room and then kill them" this tactic would probably be the first thing he'd see. She finished explaining what he had been trying to just a bit ago, telling the others that he was dangerous, that they could tell he was dangerous.

He could see the brown haired Gryffindor take a deep breath, he could clearly hear the air rushing into her lungs. So this was it, she was about to charge. This was the moment that would determine life or death between the two of them. He would dip down and to the left, cutting up, going for her side, and then leap away. But the rush never came, instead he heard a huge, bellowing apology that made him rear back, standing up dumbly as his eyes blinked away the black.

An accident? Yeah, that... that made sense. He wasn't sure why he had believed the girl, why the shouting made any difference. Maybe it was just because he was tired, or shocked, or didn't know what else to do, but he tried to rail his mind back on a track with a little less conflict. He had just been walking. Some people had come up to say hello. That was all there was to it.

The brown haired girl introduced herself as gristle, or something, and apologized again for interrupting his... conversation? What conversation had he been having? Did she mean the question he had been about to answer with lane?

The little boy's arms fell to his sides as he took a few steps quietly away from lane. Leaving together was still high up on his red flag list, and standing too close was probably not a good plan. The little red rings that circled his pupils were clearly visible again, and the adrenaline had started to wear off when the girl from the library came in, telling the rest of them to clear out, to leave. Were they threats, about to attack him, and she was telling them to not? Should he thank her, or worry that this was another one of those traps, just more cleverly orchestrated.

He stared off at the girl with the crossed arms, wondering why she hadn't talked, or done much of anything. Most of the people around him had done something, either talk or bump or try and lure him away with chocolate. She had done nothing but watch, as far as he could tell. Kaegen nodded his head towards the group, quickly. An acknowledgment that he wasn't hostile. Even the darkness around Kaegen seemed to slowly dissipate. Now, he was more lost and confused than anything else. And trying to get a bearing on the situation.

§

There was a moment, a millisecond where Elena's brain screamed at her to run, and for a moment she was going to, then the feeling was gone. It was like she was snapped back to reality with all the subtlety of a bright pink rubber band, but all she'd done outwardly was blink a few times and look strangely worried before going back to cocky and amused.

Elena stared at Raine and almost started laughing, finally someone bothered to say what Elena herself had been thinking, beautiful. It had seemingly shocked some people into silence while leaving the others to wonder what the hell was going on. Elena unwrapped a chocolate frog and started munching on it.

Griselda? Interesting name but honestly wizards had horrid naming conventions so it wasn't like she didn't expect someone to show up sounding like a musical villain, so that was fine. Elena started humming something about emperors, it was an edgy type of day she supposed, and just leaned back to find out what was going on.

Like maybe the Ravenclaw would do something, she'd been curiously silent, or the new girl Raine was bound to be entertaining. She quickly found herself getting rather bored, "Hey has anyone ever read Magic Study, or Storm Front?"

Oh my. People had gathered around the three like they were puppets, waiting for a show to begin. However, Millie didn't want to put on a show. She felt more nervous, like she was glass, waiting to shatter. She had no problems with being social, that wasn't it, but it felt as though everyone here was pushing her limits. To the max.

Suddenly, she felt her body shift slightly, and looked around to see who had bumped into her. River had quickly apologized, and Millie waved it off like it was nothing. The other girl, Miss Elena, claimed that the boy was dangerous, and that others were scared of him? That didn't make very much sense, but when other people (and a lot of them) began showing up, Millie had a sudden feeling that Miss Elena was right.

There was River, the extremely brave girl who helped her, Isaac, and Alan, during that owl situation, a new girl named Griseldis, and then another girl who shouted at the three of them to leave, and Millie was so close to sprinting away, she was shocked she didn't. It wasn't as though the small boy, Mr. Kaegen, was scary, it was that these people were so surrounding.

Millie quietly reached her hand into her pocket, and felt the handle of her wand. She didn't pull it out, but she didn't let go of it, either. Raising her voice, just loud enough for everyone to hear, but quiet enough to not shout, Millie picked her words even more carefully.

"Sorry for bothering you, Mr. Kaegen, I hope I didn't make you upset," She turned towards the small gathering of people. "I think Ms. Raine is right, though. We should probably leave him alone." Had she not known many peoples names, this speech would've been so much more difficult. "It's not nice to make other people anxious."

With her mini-speech, she turned on her heels, and walked away. She didn't want to make anyone feel bad, and she certainly didn't want to make anyone mad at her. That was the worst.

Euphrasia Millie exits thread

Corridors seemed to make up most of the castle. Some were static, others disappeared. It was a maze, and though she had stopped thinking about it, quite versed in her specific destinations, her deambulation through them was candid that day. She'd received her latest set of Os, and marched forward with a pep in her step as she held her head high, worthy of a Rowley as her father would have demanded of her.

The blonde hadn't truly been looking for anything or anyone, but some sort of gathering was occurring ahead. Members of all houses seemed to be conglomerated near the previous Ravenclaw prefect. She had remembered him, he had all those nifty riddles. With the bob of a head she gave him some acknowledgement, and though she had been about to dart and run away as she might have on many an occasion, she paused at a blue girl's words.

Stood in the middle of it all, she turned around to make a few steps towards the girl that stood so close to the one she might have avoided at all costs under any circumstances. "Did you say Magic Study?" she blinked. "As in Maria V. Snyder's Magic Study?" she pressed a little more hopeful. Had someone else in these walls read the books? Was there another in this entire school that she could gush over with young adult fiction that surpassed most of those within her grade? Her mother had sent over the first book and soon after the second. Only recently she'd been enthralled in Fire Study, and none had seemed to understand the bags under her eyes from being so enthralled by a text. Granted, usually it was a school tome, but every so often, she did indulge.

Lane changed the topic, talking about some books that he hadn't read. He didn't read very well, he never had. He read slowly, and only with difficulty. It had gotten a bit easier over the years, but not easy enough to make reading a book at all enjoyable. He hated laboring over the words, stringing them together to make awkward sentences. It wasn't his thing, but it was what the school required of him, so it was what he did.

Kaegen scooted further down the wall as the taller girl apologized for bothering him? She said that she agreed with Rain, which was the name of the library girl, that it wasn't nice to make people... anxious? His mind stumbled over that word, registered what it was, what it meant, and was not happy. Was that what she thought he was? Nervous and scared and weak? Unsure of himself? No, he was not unsure of himself, he knew that he was strong, powerful. He was a predator, he was Kaegen Deathmote.

His relaxed arms started to tense right back up, mouth pressing together as he bent his knees just a little, enough to give him room to move if he needed it. It was hard to move fast when you were starting from a standing position, it was better to have just that little bit of leeway. He wasn't planning on attacking, and at this point didn't think that anyone else was going to attack him, but it bothered him that two of the girls there in front of him thought that he was pathetic.

Rabbits. Rabbits were anxious. Did they think he was a rabbit? The girl who had just apologized left as quickly as she had come, so he directed his slightly accusatory stare at rain. She thought him weak? Really? He made sure not to answer the question about the book, so as not to appear ignorant, and instead decided to still say nothing.

Interacting with everyone

Raine watched as the other Gryffindor girl, whose name she never caught, left the corridor as quickly as she came. 'Good. One less blockhead gone that won't possibly get hurt if Kaegan loses it.' she thought as she relaxed herself a bit. She noticed that a Ravenclaw was glaring at her from across the way with her arms crossed and Raine just looked the girl up and down, challenging her with her eyes and daring her to say or do something. The little Gryffindor was not a fighter by any means, but should that sassy looking Ravenclaw try something she wouldn't hesitate to take her down.

Or just let Kaegan have at her. That could work too.

Then came another Ravenclaw who, at first, was just minding her business and walking by, until the Slytherin girl mentioned a book and the girl did an about-face and came over to the little group. Raine rolled her eyes and groaned. 'For a bunch of Ravenclaws, they're really stupid. I thought we Gryffindors were the foolish ones.'

Shaking her head in disbelief because it seemed as if no one was reading the air there, Raine moved away from the group a bit- if anyone got hurt it wouldn't be her fault- she turned around to look at the only boy in the group with a neutral expression. There were no books that would explain how to handle Kaegan Deathmote. He was a conundrum, but not impossible. All one had to do was read up on a bit of Psychology, something Raine had chosen to do after her first meeting with the kid in the Study Room months ago. There was just something about his behavior that had piqued her interests and she wanted to know more about him. So she asked her parents to send her a psychology book on behaviors.

It wasn't a strange request as Raine was known to read random things that most people wouldn't find interesting. In her readings, the girl had found out that paranoid people tended to react rashly and at times are quite irrational and tend to find it hard to forgive others. They also tended to be more vigilant than the average person so she knew that she had to show vulnerability as well as make sure she didn't show any expressions that he could possibly read as pity. Who knows if that would just set the kid off? Besides, no one liked to be pitied. It was slightly degrading.

Leaning against the wall on her side, she crossed her legs and arms loosely before addressing the boy. "What's new with you, Kaegan? Are you enjoying the rest of the term or are you about as ready as I am to get out of this place for a well deserved holiday?"

§

[font=Book Antiqua]Elena looked amused at how worried some of them seemed over Kaegen, or for Kaegen in some strange cases. Not that she hadn't been wincing earlier at all the shouting and stuff but it was almost funny. Maybe after all the crazy stuff that'd happened had finally made her crack, her lips quirked in amusement at the thought. Yep definitely cracked, finally.

Someone knew the book? Oh my lord in heaven that was out of the ordinary, "Why yes absolutely, I love that series. Even named my owl Valek."

Elena glanced at Kaegen again. The kid'd fallen silent, which meant that they probably weren't in any immediate danger, Elena hummed some more fiddle music to herself. At what point did she start considering herself the Amazingly Unlucky Student's Guide To Kaegen Deathmote. Probably after she stopped properly being afraid of him. Oh lord she was most certainly suicidally idiotic at this point.

But then again, WWVD was in play, What Would Valek Do? Obviously stay here and figure out what was going on with Kaegen, a puzzle to solve, the books were all about puzzles weren't they. A strangely large amount of Ravenclaws had shown up though, although only the Gryffindor had met him before. That left exactly one person who knew vaguely what to do if he went off the rails.[/font]

Reducio

Interacting with @Raine Sage and @Kaegen Deathmote

Another Gryffindor girl with beautiful dark wavy hair suddenly came between them, her eyes shined full of bravery and the whole aura she gave was really fierce but in a good way. She seemed to be immune to the heavy cold presence the pale Ravenclaw boy been given for a long while ago. Another person with the fearless ability like me? Griseldis thought in awe and watched how she acted a bit like a Prefect would do, shooing the other girls to leave the boy alone.

The Slytherin girl simply looked amused and didn't care about it, the Ravenclaw girl with red hair frowned and stepped away, she looked defensive to what the wavy hair Gryffindor girl just said, well...her words were slightly unthoughtful but she understood that the girl only wanted to help the boy to calm down. The girl Millie, right? She only apologized to the boy for bothering him and left. Didn't even get the chance to get to know her. The pretty Gryffindor with wavy hair turned around, her voice became gentler when she began to speak to her, "I'm sure that he heard you. Don't worry. When he's calmed down a bit I'll let him know that you didn't mean to bump into him." After the girl told her that she will make sure to let him know that she really didn't mean it, she let out a relieved sigh, "Thank you." Griseldis gave her a bright smile and thanked her. "I'll be heading back to my dorm room now, and next time if we meet each other again I'll treat you to some tea and snacks." She said honestly to the wavy hair Gryffindor girl, then she turned to look at the silent Ravenclaw boy one last time, she didn't know why he seemed so lost and lonely.

Griseldis waved goodbye to the group and walked quickly back to her dorm, however, she forgot to tell the wavy-haired girl her name. But who knows, they might meet again one day.

Griseldis Edelhardt left the thread

He had done research a few weeks back. It had been because of an overheard conversation about houses, and it had gotten the little ravenclaw thinking. Why had the hat chosen ravenclaw over the other three? This thought hadn't really crossed his mind in all the time spent in Hogwarts simply because there were so many other things to worry about. Was he going to survive until the next day? Was he going to kill or be killed, was his friend okay, all worries that were slowly dying down.

Rain, the library girl, mentioned that the ravenclaws were stupid, clearly implying that they were supposed to be smart. That checked out with what he knew, which begged the obvious question: was he smart? Probably, or else he wouldn't be here. But then again, he had messed up quite a few times. Like that one time that he had...

Kaegen's thoughts trailed off, the train forcefully derailed as soon as he realized where it was going. Thinking like that led to the dark place, the place that he could not afford to go to, or even touch. He knew that it would drag him down like the tar pits, drag him so far down that not even the most powerful magic could save him. Thoughts were dangerous, thoughts resided on an entirely different plane, an entirely different battlefield. A battlefield that could not be ignored.

But his mind was soon dragged off by conversation, because he was summarily asked what was new with him, and also if he was looking forward to the holidays.

"Nothing new. Just Hogwarts. I have until the end of term to get ready, before I leave for the fens. There's someone there I'm going to kill. Not very excited though. And you?"

No, he was not excited. Not excited at all. Truthfully, Kaegen was terrified. But that feeling was growing old, and his mind was numb to the ever present fear and uncertainty. He would win or lose, die or live. It didn't matter, one way or another. If he didn't show back up to Hogwarts, he knew of at least eleven students that would breathe sighs of relief. It would be nice to come back, though. Learn more, see more. Do more.

The brown haired girl that had bumped in to him excused herself. Kaegen tried to take a deep breath and get some idea of her smell so he could have a better chance of recognizing her again in the future, but failed utterly. The hallways stunk of mildew, and plastic soap and muggle product. Muggle magic could be wonderful, but it could also stink.

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