Oh, Merlin. This term was going to be even worse than she imagined. Avalon had to clench her teeth to keep her jaw from dropping at everything happening—from the mouths disappearing to the "liar" marks on the foreheads to poor Kale Trent being tortured. She had to look away from that last one. She had never seen the Crucio curse on a real person before, and it was incredibly difficult to watch.

And then there was the matter of whether or not she was going to answer Rosier's question. Avalon didn't hate Muggles at all. Merlin, her grandparents were Muggles, and they were lovely people. Some of her best friends were Muggleborn. And there are so many Muggles that were smart and kind. She never understood the elitist attitude that so many wizards adopted.

Avalon found herself halfheartedly wishing that she had been hit with that mouth-disappearing curse like Kinsay. Then she'd at least have an excuse not to answer. But if she did answer, she'd have to come up with some lie about why she hated Muggles, and she didn't want her classmates thinking she was siding with the Neo-Alliance. Then again, not answering would surely result in some sort of punishment. This man was not playing around. The "liar" etchings (which Avalon figured would scar for quite a long time) said as much.

One thing was certain: she wasn't stupid enough to talk back to the new headmaster like so many of her foolish classmates were doing. Why did so many of her classmates have a death wish?

All these thoughts raced through her mind as she weighed her options. A part of her wondered if she should just try to go along with it as much as possible to get on the Neo-Alliance's good side. Then, she could get information about them and their plans and try to spot weaknesses in them. A double agent, of sorts. But doing that would require betraying her friends. She wasn't sure if she was ready to do that. At least not yet.

So for now, the Ravenclaw remained quiet, although she had a sinking feeling that her silence would result in some sort of torture.