Death on Grounds

[Charles O'Sulivan]

Alphie nodded her head and said she was feeling fine. Charles didn’t argue, but he was sure she wasn’t telling the truth. He was about to suggest they grab a quick drink or snack when the guy she was talking to earlier returned. Rudely, he stood between them and said, “Excuse me. I believe the lady was talking to me. Why don' ye run along and play?”

His voice was dripping with disdain and patronization. Annoyed by his his rudeness and arrogance, Charles was taken back for a second. While he quickly contemplated, Charles recognized him. The new star soccer jock from the Shetlands. Name was Sean or Jean. Charles normally avoided the arrogant jocks as they had a tendency to try to give him a hard time or push him around. Charles hated the former and hurt the jocks for the latter, but that meant Charles got into trouble which was something he had happily avoided the last few years of his life. Thinking quickly and getting his anger under his control, Charles interjected , “Now, I don’t know what your problem is, bran or sveen, or whatever your name is, but apparently your manners need severe attention. Anyways, Alphie, I just wanted to see how you were doing. Haven’t had a chance to talk to you since the sunset, but I have wanted to a lot. Looks like you’re busy now, but, if you’re free later on, c’mon by the library. Gonna be studying there most of the day, and I’d love to spend some time with you.”

Charles smiled to himself. At first, he had wanted to give Sean a big Appalachian ass-whupping, but he was more content with his veiled insult. Bran was Gaelic for dog and sveen was a borrowed Norse word in Gaelic for boy. If the jock was smart enough, then he would get the insult. If not, then it was a free shot, and, even better, he didn’t look like an asshole in front of Alphie who looked uncomfortable to Charles. The last thing Charles wanted was to get into a pissing contest in front of her. From their conversation, he didn't think that she look well upon such childish behavior.

Retreating before the jerk could rally, he said, “See ya later, Alphie. Have a nice day, Sveen.” Charles waved at them and chuckled as he walked away. It was always fun messing with the jocks.

[Sean Wallace]

Alphie didn't seem to be overly comfortable with two guys fighting over her, but she didn't tell Sean to leave. In fact, Charles was the first to leave. Sean smirked at that, taking care that Alphie didn't see him doing so. Any insults Charles had for him were lost in translation, literally. Sean could care less what he was saying anyways, he was leaving. This left Sean with Alphie. he turned back to her, the smirk gone from his faec and a smile brightening it.

"Ye want to go get some food? Tha's a good idea. Le's go somewhere. I have a car, we can go to the mall and grab somethin' there. Get out o' the school for a bit, that sounds nice doesn' it?" He smiled warmly and turned to wave goodbye to the departing Charles.

"Later Grizzly Adams. Kill a squirrel for me too." He laughed and rolled his eyes to Alphie, hoping his prestige as the soccer star would allow him to get away with such things in her eyes.

"Wait until ye see my car. It's brand new and so very nice." He tugged her arm playfully and grinned again. "C'mon. We can talk soccer strategy on the way."

[Fionnghuala Ramsay]

“Now, I don’t know what your problem is, bran or sveen, or whatever your name is, but apparently your manners need severe attention. Anyways, Alphie, I just wanted to see how you were doing. Haven’t had a chance to talk to you since the sunset, but I have wanted to a lot. Looks like you’re busy now, but, if you’re free later on, c’mon by the library. Gonna be studying there most of the day, and I’d love to spend some time with you.”

Alphie frowned slightly at this. She wasn't a fan of confrontation in any circumstances whatsoever, preferring just to ignore anything that could lead to argument. Charles seemed to be sincere in his words, and Alphie simply nodded in response. She couldn't commit to leaving aside any time for meeting him in the library, as she had a Transfiguration paper due that she hadn't even started, Cheer practice, and at least an hour of both Lacrosse and Soccer to make her feel better, and that was just that day alone!

She looked slightly confused as Charles used two words with which she was unfamiliar. 'Bran'? She was sure that it wasn't meant in the context of the stuff that people on a healthy kick would eat, so what was the other definition? And 'sveen'? That wasn't even an English word!! Was it...? She didn't have time to think about it in much detail before Charles excused himself from the conversation. "Oh... Yeah, bye, Charles." Alphie replied, somewhat distracted as she attempted to work out what it was Charles had meant by those two words.

As Sean smiled brightly at her, she couldn't help but lose the frown that was on her face. She moved some of her hair behind her ears as she listened to Sean, glad that the majority of the jostling crowd had disappeared, so it was very much quieter.

"Ye want to go get some food? Tha's a good idea. Le's go somewhere. I have a car, we can go to the mall and grab somethin' there. Get out o' the school for a bit, that sounds nice doesn' it?"

"Umm... Well, I was just planning on going to the canteen... I'm not really dressed for going out... And are we even allowed off campus, especially after what just happened?" Alphie replied, gesturing in the direction of the canteen.

"Later Grizzly Adams. Kill a squirrel for me too."

It was times like these that made Alphie feel really stupid. She didn't understand what Charles had called Sean, and she didn't understand why Sean had called Charles what he did, and the reference to squirrels particularly confused her. She tried not to show it, though, as Sean rolled his eyes to her, and she giggled quietly, not wanting to hurt Charles' feelings.

"Wait until ye see my car. It's brand new and so very nice."

"Well...." Alphie started, but Sean hadn't finished.

C'mon. We can talk soccer strategy on the way."

This changed Alphie's tune a little. "Well, if we're going to talk soccer, then I guess I can be persuaded." She laughed, letting herself get tugged along by Sean. "I mean, we've got a match in a few weeks, and, in all honesty, not meaning any offense to you or anything, we're hardly the best team in the league."

((Can't be bothered changing accounts, lol. I'm late. I'll edit later if it's a problem.))

[Sean Wallace]

Alphie didn't seem sure that she wanted to spend the time with him, but Sean wasn't relenting. Finally she consented and he grinned. She was worried about being able to leave campus. He certainly had things to show her. Cheerleaders shouldn't ever be this sheltered. Apparently the squad didn't have "rebellion" practice. Well, Sean had an inside track to breaking the rules and a safety net built in. It was like he couldn't get into trouble if he tried.

"We are the best team in the league, I cannae believe ye said that." He said it scoldingly though with a grin on his face. He led her to the front of the school, dodging the Aurors, teachers, and fellow students with a practiced grace. "We got the best forward in the country, me. Everyone on the team is quite good. Even Lance is an above average goalie when he isnnae pouting about somethin' or another." He laughed, enjoying the dig against Lance. He truly despised his captain.

They made it out of the school and to the stairs near the front door. Sean waved for her to wait where she was, and started to walk off. "Let me get my car. I'll just pull it around."

(will continue in new thread at the mall)

[Jean Unruh]

Dr. Unruh had been filled in on the situation by the administration as well as the aurors. The latter had not been co-operative until they were told who he was. Several of the tactics employed by himself and the other members of the Immortal Five were still studied by most auror programs. His initial examination of the body led him to the same conclusions as the aurors. Wizard perp but didn’t use magic. Interesting but alarming.

As he combed the male dorm, he was alert for danger, had cast several protective charms on himself, and kept his wand loosened in its sheath as he was directing the recently sleeping students from their dorms to the auditorium. The few would be sleepers who protested were awakened with the combined aguamenti and glacius charms. The nigh frozen water always got the sluggards out of bed in a hurry. As he ushered them out of their rooms and into the auditorium, Jean fell deep in thought. There had been hints of darkness creeping in, but Jean had loved the smooth sailing of the last few years and thus had ignored them completely. No longer. As much as he loved his routine, this was way too overt to ignore. The funny thing was that the majority of the teachers were not looking to increase security that much. Jean guessed this naivety was due to the fact that most Americans had not experienced the horrors of the Death Eaters up close. Jean had and knew that dark arts had to be taken extremely seriously and dealt with as quickly as possible.

As he sat there listening to Tseng give his speech to the student body, Jean nodded along with Tseng, thus giving any student watching him the impression that Tseng was telling the truth. Jean understood that the last thing anyone wanted was the student body and their parents freaking out about the situation. If the faculty and the aurors played their cards right, then they would be able to ferret out the perpetrators with the student body being largely ignorant. Now some of the more inquisitive or perceptive students might see through Tseng’s smokescreen, but they would be few and easy for the staff to deal with.

Jean stood up after Tseng left the stage and headed for his office and storeroom. It had been awhile since he had done inventory. Although he had set some spells preventing students from plundering them, Dr. Unruh wanted to do an actual inventory count to make sure. In the next hour or so before his class, Jean finished counting all the small inventory that he did keep. A few minor and harmless potions ingredients were missing as well as a few odds and ends, no doubt the work of some students making a small prank to a professor. Gathering a few objects he had pulled from locked chests in his defense closet, he made his way back to his office. Quickly before any students arrived, he set up the various dark detection devices in his office. Sneakoscopes, a foe glass, and secrecy sensors were among them. Taking a few of the sensors with him, Jean hurried to his classroom. He barely managed to set a few of them up out of sight before the students arrived.

Every period, he was forced to reinforce Tseng’s speech at the start of his class, but Jean had expected that. After the day of teaching was over, he brought out his wand and began to go over his dueling exercises. He was rusty at least to his own standards. Ce n’est pas bon! This will have to be remedied. he thought as he continued his dueling katas. Perhaps Mr. O’Hara would be interested in few friendly spars. Making his way to O’Hara’s office, he began to whistle “La Marseillaise”. Jean felt years younger as his blood flowed with the excitement. The old warhorse had awakened.

[Maggie Watts]

Maggie knew when she woke up that something was amiss. The night had been a restless one for her, full of nightmares and half-visions. She’d given up on sleep at about half past five in the morning, but at seven, she still wasn’t even dressed. She spent the hour and a half digging through the divining artifacts that Nathan, her former mentor and the former divination professor, had left behind. It was moments like this that made her feel helpless and useless. Moments of near-revelation, where she was teetering on the edge of witnessing something important, something she could prevent; when the last piece of the puzzle was nearly within her grasp, but… even so much as she’d studied and as many methods as she’d tried, she couldn’t force her own hand.

The inability to gather more than a vague feeling that something was bad, a slight tang in the air that seemed to herald a storm coming made Maggie feel physically ill. Various scrying pools turned up nothing more than murky signs that confirmed just what she was feeling. Crystal balls uselessly displayed some swirling fog and the tea leaves were busy telling her she’d meet a tall, handsome stranger soon and that she might run into a stray dog. Sucking in a hopeful breath, Maggie had called upon her forte – fire. She stared into the flame, meditating on the feeling in the pit of her stomach, but… nothing. The flame flared once, and then died down, showing and telling her nothing useful. (Although she was supposing she might end up with a pet dog soon, because the fates seemed pretty certain there’d be a stray dog hanging around her.)

Patient as she was and gifted as she was, Maggie found these sorts of situations to be overwhelming. Despite having devoted much of her adult life to developing her craft, she felt as if she hadn’t accomplished a damned thing. Being unable to bring a vision or feeling to fruition made her feel inadequate, unaccomplished and so frustrated she wanted to cry.

She didn’t get enough of a chance to dwell to the point of tears, thankfully. Maggie was interrupted from her efforts by an owl pecking at her window. She let the thing in and took the message from it, frowning at the official stationary. Apparently, five minutes prior, her brother had headed out to the school – there’d been a murder on the grounds. He’d sent an owl to her ahead of him because he wasn’t sure he’d get the chance to see her, and he wanted to make sure she knew.

Maggie dressed hurriedly after reading the note, but once she was dressed, she hesitated a moment – the feeling had not gone. It had gotten less intense, but there it was, lingering like something on the edge of her peripheral vision that she just couldn’t see. Again, she didn’t have much time to sit and ponder, because as soon as she’d gotten her shoes on, Tseng called for the staff to start rounding up students.

While she couldn’t say she fully agreed with lying to the students, she at least saw the logic behind it and kept herself from saying anything more. As it turned out, Maggie didn’t get a chance to see her brother that day, because he was busy giving the body a fuller examination back in his own facilities. For the rest of the day, Maggie busied herself consoling students and feeding Tseng’s story to them, though her expression and mannerisms might have given something away to the cleverer of her students.