"That's crazy!" Jacob said. Lots of coincidences here. Kinda cool! He almost wanted to ask Brent what he'd thought of Aunt Regina -- Headmistress Hawthorne, that is -- when he'd taken her DADA classes... But he thought better of it in the end. If Brent hated her, it would be really awkward for Jacob since the truth of the matter would come out eventually, even if he didn't mention it at first. And if he liked her, then it would seem like Jacob was sucking up to be his friend. So... The outcome would be weird either way. Still, he was curious. Maybe he'd just let it come up organically... And he meant that this time, not like the weird Ilvermorny outburst.

"Ah, fourth year... I remember it like it was yesterday," he said, grinning to let the other boy know he was just teasing. A year's difference really wasn't that big of a deal. Strange, it wasn't his intention to try and make friends when he started the conversation. Brent had just looked like he was dying... But Jacob was glad he wasn't because he seemed pretty cool so far.

And then suddenly... What the heck?! "Prote--!" Jacob began to cast a spell reflexively, raising his wand as something... black?... began bouncing at full speed toward the two of them. But wait, was that... Ink? He lowered his wand without even thinking about it to get a closer look, and a black ball of ink smacked him right in the knee before bouncing off and hurtling in the opposite direction. More of the balls kept appearing, almost like they were multiplying.

"Ouch! What in the world?" he said, rubbing his knee and looking incredulously at the bouncing black things -- and then at the boy who stood at the end of the hallway that the balls had appeared from, his wand arm outstretched. The balls seemed harmless enough, apart from stinging a bit if they hit you, but what was going on? And was it really ink? That didn't make any sense. Ink would just splatter. But it sure looked like ink...

He pondered this for a moment before he noticed Brent sitting on the ground (how had he gotten down there? Jacob hadn't seen it happen). "You alright?" he asked, reaching a hand down to help the boy up.

He looked at the end of the hallway toward the culprit other boy, almost as if demanding an explanation, but without saying anything to him.