Why Were You Not Expelled? PV Kaegen Deathmote

Kaegen was staring at the wall, concentrating. He could hear the dropping of water to his left, a faint splashing sound to his right. He was in the dungeons to be alone, to hide in the dark clammy catacomb-esque maze that made up the underbelly of Hogwarts. He was practicing his hate, more than anything else. He was trying to contain his hot anger and just call upon his cold hatred. He needed that hate, more than anything. It was the closest thing he had to a purpose.

And as he focused on the hate, on that little blue flame that burned colder than the fiercest snow storm, he could almost feel that very same hate start to flow from him, into the room. The air would grow colder, the torchlights began to flicker. An ominous, terrifying presence began to make itself known. The feeling you were being watched, but magnified tenfold. The feeling that you were about to be killed, that a man with a knife was right behind you, matching your steps perfectly, dodging to the side when you turned to look around.

After a minute he heard someone coming. Hurried steps pattering on the stone floor. His first thought was to run, or hide. He had time, he could be gone before the figure arrived at this place. It was the safer option, that was why he always took it, right? But hate oftentimes gives confidence, and this time it did as well. He stood by the side of the corridor, and glared off into the gloom, where he knew another boy was coming from.

"what do you want."

It was a quiet, whispery, slightly raspy voice. The kind of voice that suggested that the user probably couldn't be any louder if he wanted to. The creepy kind of sickly voice that matched perfectly with his chalk white and sickly grey wonton wrapper skin. Kaegen looked like a corpse, and sounded like one, was small and skinny and exhausted and terrifying.

Lamik picked up the pace as soon as the dread started building up in his stomach. It felt like he had crossed the border of an area in Hogwarts that was terribly cursed. It couldnt have actually been that, of course, as students had to go through the hallways every day to get from classroom to classroom. Because of this, Lamik ignored the suddenly chilly air and the shiver going down his spine and continhed walking, sure that the unconfortable feelings were just his over active imagination making a bad place feel worse. He stopped dead in his tracks when he suddenly heard a voice though, and nearly fell over when he saw where the voice was coming from.

Kaegen Deathmote. That was his name. The kid who planted a bomb in the abandoned bathrooms- who tried to kill people for no apperent reason. "How...?" Lamik said, his voice far shakier then he would have liked. This one boy was the cause of so much pain and suffering- how could Lear have let him stay after all that he had done? It was a danger to other students, other professirs, and everone else. Lamik took a step forward towards Kaegen, heavily considering pulling his wand out.

How? How what? How was he still alive? How was he this powerful? This weak? How was air a thing? How did water taste differently depending on it's temperature? Simply saying how like the boy, for that was what the approaching person was, did helped nothing. He had given a pretty simple question. "What do you want" Was pretty easy to understand and respond to. You simply stated your intentions and then the conversation kept going or didn't. Why didn't this boy understand that? Had he not heard?

Kaegen tried again, gradually becoming more annoyed. His gums started hurting, and he could feel anger welling up. The ravenclaw did not have the most stable of emotions on the best of days, and the best of days were few and far between. He was a powderkeg, a loose cannon that reacted at the drop of a hat. Kaegen was dangerous back when he was so full of fear that moving one foot in front of the other was a herculean task.

Cold hate is calculating, wise, and malicious. Hate is an entirely different beast, one of the most deadly and powerful of emotions, hate is a wicked tool, so long as you do not let it burst out into anger. Kaegen didn't move, but rather stood there, staring, as he repeated his question

"What do you want."

Hesitantly taking another step forward, Lamik repeated the word: "How...?" He took a few shaky breaths before continuing. "How are you still here?" The idea confused Lamik. He always thought that people like Kaegen were punished as soon as they did something bad- not all of them, of course, but kids at school were usually caught and expelled doing something like what he did. Lamik watched the boy carefully, readying himself to pull out his wand and cast a spell at any moment. He had no doubt that Kaegen was still dangerous, but the blonde Gryffindor wasn't planning to just run. That wouldn't accomplish anything.

As for the question asked, Lamik had no idea what or how to answer. He didn't even know where to begin. He didn't want anything. He needed things. He needed Kaegen to leave Hogwarts. He needed him to be arrested. He needed therapy from a psychologist. He needed Hogwarts to be a safer place than it currently was and most likely always has been. Lamik seemed incapable of being delivered those needs and was in fact quite certain that he hadn't seen the worst of what happens at the school. He needed to talk to his Head of House about it and he needed to do it soon.

"And who could stop me from being here? Who would try, and exactly how would they succeed?"

This man clearly expected him to be gone or dead, and that meant he had reason to believe Kaegen should be gone, or dead. That could mean nothing other than that this boy in front of him was caught up in the death witches, in the monsters, in the perils of this school.

"You? Could you? Could you stop me? Could you even try?"

Hate was boiling into anger, that dangerous anger that robbed the little boy of everything. Sense, reason, his friend, humanity even was taken from him. He could feel it rising, and he fought to keep it down. No, he had to focus on hate. Take the molten anger and forge it into a blade, a cold, sharp blade that wouldn't overreact, that wouldn't blindly cut down whatever was in front of him. He would take a deep breath, and count to 10. No, 20. 20 was safer.

Kaegen followed his plan to a tee, taking a step away from lamik, although his face didn't waver, or show signs of anything remotely conflicted or weak. He was trying to control his anger, true. But the anger was still there. His quiet, shallow breaths didn't sound deep at all either, they just sounded... there. Like actual breaths, which was an improvement over his usual quiet, shallow intakes of air.

Lamik took a shaky breath and shook his head quickly. Now was not the time or place to risk aggravating Kaegen. No- now, he had to keep up an act. The important part was getting on his good side and hopefully leaving unscathed. "What? No, of course not. I-" Lamik clenched his fists tightly enough for it to hurt, doing his best to keep his voice steady. "I'm just surprised, that's all. I thought you went away. I couldn't stop you though, even if I wanted to. I was worried."

Though everything Lamik had said carried a meaning that was completely made up, the words themselves were technically not lies. He didn't want to try to stop Kaegen, because he knew that he couldn't. He wanted one of the professors to stop him. He was definitely worried too, but not that Kaegen was gone. He was worried that he wasn't gone. Unfortunately, his worried had come to pass. Facing the boy that he hated, that he feared, Lamik felt extremist relief when he started backing away. On the other hand though, if Kaegen left, Lamik would miss what could possibly be his only chance to learn what made the boy tic.

Confusing, and pathetic. Kaegen felt the urge to growl, to snarl, to show how much better he was. But he stopped himself, clipping that train of thought in the bud, and off the tracks. That was the way of the human, the way of the dog, it was not his way. If he was going to challenge this boy it would be calmly, it would be with purpose and diction.

"You're lost. There's nothing this far into the dungeons, nothing but sorrow and endings. Nothing and no one here could get rid of me. Not now, not ever. I'm as much a part of this castle as the walls themselves. I am the barbed arrow that they cannot pull out. I will be there when you die, and I won't even know your name."

Just keep breathing, just keep breathing. In and out and in and out. This boy was nothing, Kaegen could kill him, he was pretty sure of that. It wouldn't be hard to hide a body, the dungeons were vast and labyrinthine. He could smell the stench of corpses even now, much farther down the passages. There was something obviously down there, probably more than one. Rats, maybe. Bats or students or something. Something decomposing. This boy could join them and no one would notice, right? Would anyone care if they did?

Lamik barely managed to hide the shock that coursed through his body when Kaegen spoke. He knew that the boy was crazy, but he didn't expect him to be so direct about it. Still, Lamik really hoped to not have to fight, so he stood his ground and kept his face even. "My name is Lamik Fillestar, by the way..." The boy only realized how stupid an introduction was after he had said it. Unfortunately, introducing himself came naturally when someone spoke about not knowing his name. A side effect of doing his best to befriend absolutely everyone, Lamik made a mental note to work on ending the habit.

Deciding that he was about to do his best to exit the situation, Lamik continued: "And ya, I probably am lost. Maybe you could show me the way back?" This time Lamik did wince at his poor choice of words. The boy had no idea why he would ask the Ravenclaw to stay with him, much less do it while granting Lamik a favor. Of course, Lamik wasn't lost. He had gone this way countless times before, but disagreeing with Kaegen seemed like one of the worst things that he could possibly do at that moment.

"An eye for an eye. I will show you the way out in exchange for a favor later. You seem pretty worthless, but I will not be blinded."

It was an afterthought. He didn't really want to leave the boy down here, because as much as Kaegen's blood beat with the cold fury of a thousand harsh teachings, and as much as his brain dissected everything with something so near clinical ferocity he had a heart, somewhere in the twisted black web of his soul. It was not enough of a heart to offer something for nothing, even something so simple as a way out, but it was enough to offer a trade.

Besides, he was starting to worry. It was less fear more anxiety that had started to make it's presence known. He didn't trust anyone, not by a long shot, but he did acknowledge that others had skills he could potentially exploit to further his own ends. And although this boy looked utterly pathetic, or rather because of that apparent weakness, he felt that this might be useful, in one way or another.

He could remove the boy from the picture, sure. But why not simply place the boy in a more appropriate part of the picture?