Her only regret up to this point in the day was that this trial would take away from time that could be spent in the potions laboratory. Aside from that, she was very much looking forward to witnessing the absolute take down of the Hogwarts' student population.

This wouldn't be a fair trial. It was as simple as that. They had no proof, nor did any of their antics speak highly of them leading up to this moment in time. Desmaris had clearly made up her mind and the étudiants de Beauxbâtons? Her angels.

For all of these reasons and more, Aesha made her way into the hall with absolute confidence. She paused briefly to politely bow her head in respect to her Headmistress, before finding her seat at the table. Fortunately, her placement was beside Luc and not the child with powder flying off her hair.

Trinetta hadn't been surprised when she got a letter - she had offered to testify on Eiji's behalf, after all. Most of it relied on being a good character witness which was going to be a challenge as Eiji didn't help himself much in that department LET'S BE REAL but if she got Missa to also testify with her, there was no doubt in her mind that they could establish that Eiji would never have destroyed the decorations - and by extension, crushed Missa's hopes and dreams.

Unfortunately, that had all gone out the window as soon as she saw what the letter said. She'd been SUMMONED? For a CRIME? SHE WAS ON TRIAL?

Yes, it was true that the Ravenclaw prefect had made some...questionable decisions in her past. Cast a raincloud over her dormmate's bed? Tricked Eiji in to thinking she'd destroyed his favorite childhood toy? Nearly drowned a few people in the boathouse? Sure. But that had been before her prefect days, and since then she had been SQUEAKY CLEAN. She was a changed woman! She had done NOTHING wrong.

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

To say that Nettie was annoyed was an understatement. As she walked in to the Hall, she was prepared to defend herself. This was just getting absolutely ridiculous and she was not going to stand for the abuse at the hands of the Beauxbatons students and headmistress any longer. Her hair was perfectly curled with her BEST Ravenclaw blue headband, which matched her pristine uniform perfectly. She practically SASHAY-ED in to the ball, carrying herself with an air of confidence because she was ready to get this stupid thing over with.

As she had proven before, Trinetta Gladin was not to be messed with if you got her REALLY upset. And she was UPSET.

She walked over to her seat, turned and sat down, crossing her legs and sitting up straight. So, when were they going to get this disaster over with?

Missa wondered how on earth the crazy beaux queen was allowed to run a school - that was honestly all she wondered as she made her way to the Inquisitorial Hall, the neatly folded letter-of-summon in her hand. Surely, this was not how you ran a school.

Over all though, she felt very calm - angry, but calm. A thing that escalated further as the first face she saw when she entered was Luc's. Giving him the death glare, on reflex, the fifteen year old looked around and gave a silent nod to the headmaster - before quietly making her way over to where her name was - conveniently right next to Eiji. She gave him a small smile before sitting down.

No way was she thinking this trial would go fairly at all. So she was prepared - prepared to actually lose and then actually commit the crimes they will end up accusing them of today.

One thing Carys was absolutely sure about? That her fellow Hogwarts students would never have willingly destroyed all the hard work they’d done getting decorations ready for the ball-that-now-was-not-to-be. She was still rather heartbroken over her work being destroyed. It was almost like her actual, other artworks being torched, actually. Art was destroyed and it broke her heart…but she fully believed her schoolmates didn’t have it in them. Besides, it wasn’t like there wasn’t plenty of evidence to prove that the Beauxbatons headmistress didn’t want them there. Yes, they made mistakes. They were teenagers, kids even. They weren’t perfect, and she was willing to make a bet the Beauxbatons kids weren’t perfect either. She was nearly willing to make a bet that it was all just their attempts at kicking them to the wolves. Or whatever was still at Hogwarts keeping them from being able to go to school there.

She had tried to make friends with the Beauxbatons kids. And she was at least ninety percent certain that Hogwarts kids had never tried to get rid of visitors. Invited visitors. As such, she did give the headmistress of Beauxbatons a polite smile as she stepped into the hall and made her way over to the seat next to her sister. “Bonjour madame, Headmaster Trent,” she said calmly, giving their own headmaster a nod along with the smile. She was fully on the side of ‘This wasn’t fair’. Or, as Carsyn had said, it was ridiculous. That Beauxbatons boy was definitely ridiculous. Anyone accusing first years of serious crimes was ridiculous. Anyone accusing Lucas of any crimes was ridiculous.

Twin telepathy was definitely going to happen during this. Silent disapproval.

She was ready to put this behind her. After the horror of the last hour finding the arena in chaos, Giselle was all too sure of how she wanted this to end. It was why she’d obliged with the trial so soon after the discovery. If she could have them out before dinner, things would be all the better.

Giselle’s posture remained rigid as Malachi joined her, her expression giving way slightly at the appearance of her own students before returning to the uncompromising and unimpressed look. Did Malachi see the look of defiance several of them gave her? It was enough to fuel her rage. Why would she want that sort skulking around her castle?

To those who’d bothered to greet her, she returned the courtesy with a polite but detached nod of her head.

“We will begin zhe trial. Zhis will be conducted in an orderly fashion. No shouts, no screaming. Zhis is not ‘ogwarts.” As many of them constantly seemed to forget.

“Mes chers,” She looked to her own students, “we will begin wiz you. Tell me again ‘ow you came to your certainty zhat zhis waz zhe work of zhese ‘ooligans.” From the little she’d heard on the way over here, it was truly gruesome.

Finneas was..... concerned. So many of his students were up for trial and it was a complete catastrophe to say the least. He quickly slipped into the hall just before anything had officially started and bumbled his way over to a seat in the background. But oh boy, oh boy! This was very not good. So many first years.

Lucas????????????? No. Finneas didn't buy this one bit. Something fishy was going on here. It was a FLUKE. The whole trial was a FLUKE.

He would be listening to the proceedings with utmost care. A LOOPHOLE. There were always loopholes. Finneas always read the fine print, he'd know. Anyway, anyway, anyway. He waited for the Beauxbaton students to present their case. A FISHY case, had he mentioned that bit?

Lars was not early, no. He never was. In fact, he was barely scraping on time as he sauntered into the room, dark eyes already narrowed as they picked up on Hogwarts robes. He was not very bothered with fairness as it stood, and if framing got this group of pests out of his hair, he would do it without blinking.

He offered the headmistress a shallow bow as he took his place. Almost as an afterthought, he dipped his head in greeting to the British headmaster. Some of them had class, even if it wasn't the English.

At his cue, he exhaled sharply, and turned his gaze from the headmistress to the students. "It iz cleer, 'eadmistress, zat zhey have been exhibiting very... unzettling tendenziez zince zhey arrived," he said. "Zhey aggravate zhe enchanted tea setz, on a good day. You would remember also how I brought you to when zhey destroyed our Observatoire, I remember zhat one -" he paused to jerk his chin at the boy in the green house (Kaiser) "- tried to run."

"Zhey are a dis'onourable breed, Madame. Violent az well." His upper lip curled into a sneer. "Our students 'ave been looking forward to zhis ball, we crafted zhese decorations. Why would we deestroy our hanziwork?"

It was time then? This certainly was not the way she wanted any of this to unfold, but unfortunately nothing had gone according plan since its very inception at the beginning of the term. And so, if a few innocent students were convicted today, so be it. Aesha had no moral qualms. Besides, getting rid of their ungrateful guests would be one less thing to worry about.

The sixth year eyed Lars in such a way to indicate that she thought his lack of punctuality to be irresponsible. This was his mess, after all. You would think the boy would do more to cover his own—

Ah, they were starting. Excellent.

Aesha waited patiently as Lars gave his testimony, straightening her back in anticipation of her own performance. Lars, was that all? She could do much better than that. Again, she spared a look at him before returning her humble gaze to Madame Desmarais. ”Madame,” she began, bowing her head ever-so-slightly. ”The ones in the red robes,” she paused before looking over at each of them. One [TakemetotheBurrow], two [BanaBatGirl], three [hermionescorpse], and the sneezing one, in the ridiculous gown [Corpsirin]. ”I saw them frequenting the arena, thrice this past week alone.” She tucked back her hair as she continued, ”I thought nothing of it. I assumed they were checking the decor, curiosity in anticipation of the long awaited ball. I know now that I was clearly mistaken, Madame.”

She punctuated the point with a sad look down at the table. A ball which, as far as anyone was concerned, she was very much looking forward to. ”And the two in my common room,” this time, she looked up at the two girls [Samia], [Lissy Longbottom]. ”Ombrelune treated them with utmost hospitality, Madame. I should have said something when I heard them whispering about ‘Eiji’s plan,’ but I did not know this Eiji. I did not want to assume ill of our guests. You ‘ave taught us better than that. I 'eard them conspiring, but I did not think they would ever do such a thing to disrespect your gracious 'ospitality, Madame. I still do not understand why they would do such a thing, we... we..." she let her voice catch for a second. "'ave been nothing but welcoming.”

And that, Lars, was how it was done.

When they made their appearence, his dark eyes lingered on the two girls in the raven house [Lissy Longbottom, Samia]. Or was it the eagle house? Couldn't even get their own mascots correct, Hogwarts was beyond a joke. It was a shame really because they weren't bad looking. But obviously Beauxbatons had more superior looking girls, girls with better taste.

He rolled his eyes ever so slightly when Lars rolled up late. Typical Lars. Could he do anything without screwing it up? They needed to get this spot on. No mistakes.

At least Aesha was putting some effort into her testimony. The same couldn't be said for Moreau. All the same, he made sure to nod gravely at all the right places during their tales of conspiracy and destruction.

The ones in red had been testified against, so had the girls in blue, so when Luc stood confidently to his feet to make his own testimony, he focused on the green-clad boys [Felixir, sweetpinkpixie]. "I overheard these two in the library. They spoke of 'teaching the french a lesson' and said it had to be something big, something that would make a statement. I heard them contemplating making the rose garden a target..." Because anyone and everyone knew the rose garden was Desmarais' pride and joy. "But then they settled on sabotaging the ball. They said they were going to recruit others to help them pull it off... I suppose they chose these younger students because they are more easily influenced."

He paused and looked somberly towards his Headmistress.

"I am sorry I did not think to report this earlier, madame."

OKAY but NO.

No. No. NO!

Cecelia STILL didn't even know WHY she was here and WHO even WAS this older girl claiming she'd been FREQUENTING the arena THRICE? Who even SAID thrice? The blonde looked confused, eyebrows raised, shaking her head the WHOLE time the liar spoke because ACTUALLY, NO, SHE HADN'T done that. She didn't even GET to see the decorations, but if THOSE kids had anything to do with making them, they were PROBABLY just as rotten as THEY were. THESE kids who so BOLDLY made up LIES about kids they didn't even KNOW, THEY were the dishonorable ones and the first year looked over at their headmaster, wanting him to defend them, defend their SCHOOL. She hadn't even stepped foot inside Hogwarts yet, but she felt SO defensive of the place in that moment that it took EVERYTHING in her small body to stifle the urge to yell at the french students. She knew from experience that it would ONLY make the headmistress favor them more than she already did.

This was SO UNFAIR.

The anger building up inside her, the frustration bubbling at the surface was enough to bring hot tears to Cecelia's eyes, but she WOULD not cry. The French students would probably LOVE that.

... Okay, well, he'd work it out for himself, he supposed.

A curious mix of people had apparently been summoned. Kaiser was perhaps most surprised by the presence of the student beside him, Cecelia Summers, a first year who couldn't possibly have a criminal bone in her body. Then there was Dakest, who fit into the same category. Even Phoebe, while a little much sometimes (see: that... costume?) was not a bad kid, not even remotely. He couldn't even begin to take this thing seriously given that they had all been called in as suspects.

Of what crime, he still didn't know.

Kaiser continued to have no idea about the charges right up until the Beauxbatons students started to speak. Something about the observatory situation immediately came up, and Kaiser had to fight very hard to not roll his eyes at the French boy's [Lars] words. He had a retort ready, but held his tongue, figuring Trent would allow them all to defend themselves in due course, or at least fight for them to have the chance.

... Though it became much harder when the Beauxbatons kids started spewing outright lies. Except it was not anger that surged through Kaiser when it was claimed he conspired with Eiji - about the ball? sabotaging the ball? is that what had happened? - but amusement. Just at the utter ridiculousness of it all.

"'Solid evidence'," he muttered to himself under his breath, shaking his head incredulously as he looked from that one boy [Luc], who had just spoken, to a point on the wall across the room. He had to, or he would have just laughed in his face, and that would be... bad. Probably.

So, knowing that he had not planned anything with Eiji, and therefore that the French boy was lying, it made a lot of sense to Kaiser that he was likely behind it. Otherwise, why lie? It wasn't much of a leap to start believing that the others were in on it too, either.

Though he was perfectly content to sit and stare at the wall until the adventures in make-believe were over, Kaiser did briefly glance sideways at Cecelia to see how she was taking the accusations. Not well, judging by her overly bright eyes. Under the table he shifted his foot over to try and give hers a comforting nudge - Merlin knew if he tried to squeeze her shoulder or nudge her arm, it would probably be labelled evidence against them, somehow. But Kaiser would hate to see Cecelia upset, or even angry, over something as trivial as this, and so tried to be as comforting a presence as he could be.

He returned his gaze to the point of the wall, crossed his arms across his chest, and waited for his turn to speak.

So this was a TRAVESTY of justice. Was it time to object? Should she have prepared some statements based on law books in the library? Because she couldn't find any when she looked (not very hard) and she'd ended up building a fort out of atlases instead. Atlasii? Big big books.

Phoebe kept her hands folded tightly in front of her, small pink fingernails cutting into her palms because she was trying SO hard not to interrupt or argue or react in a way that would embarrass Mr. Headmaster. Why were they so keen on blaming them? She'd tried so hard to be good, and she'd been nice to everyone and she'd done her homework. And those mean students were going out of their way to make up terrible stories about them.

She turned morose eyes on Eiji, Kaiser... even Nettie. "Is it time to object? I don't understand why this is happening." Surely one of the bigger kids could make it better.

Cole silently slipped in through the doors of the inquistorial hall and took a seat among the audience seats we’re quite a few Hogwarts student’s we’re gathered. He wasn’t one of the accused summoned, but he felt a great need to show support for his Hogwart’s peers on trial. It was a riddikulous affair and why Cece and Pheobe and Lucas and Eji we’re suspected of doing the horrible sabotaging of trashing a common room, an observatory, setting fire to the kitchens and now ruining ball decorations was unbelivable. Cole had been there and seen the fire first hand. None of his peers could have been responsible for starting that fire. It was much more likely that it was the french student’s doing in fact Cole was certain of it. They needed to find proof for that though, but how?

Noble had taken the hour before the trial to do a little investigating, and slipped into the Inquisitorial Hall just moments before the Headmistress started proceedings. He strode behind the row of Hogwarts students towards the Headmaster, a frown furrowing on his features as he saw the collection of accused students on their labelled chairs. Two first years, Cecelia and Bernadette, that hadn't even been in the arena at the time of the crime, and Lucas Dakest who he was pretty sure couldn't swat a gnat without apologising to it.

...and what had Phoebe James done to her hair? Assuming she'd done it to herself, of course. He wouldn't put it past one of the Frenchies who were now testifying to have done it as part of a cruel prank. Hopefully it was just talcum powder, and not something worse. The last thing they needed was her fidgeting and itching her way through proceedings.

The testifying soon started, without even properly identifying the charges the Hogwarts' students faced. This was a most irregular trial, that was for sure...and a terrible precedent to set students for understanding the criminal justice system. No wonder the Headmistress questioned his teaching. As for their first, er, witness, Lars? That was circumstantial evidence at best...but more like irrelevant to the case at hand. He looked to Trent, before back to the Papillionisse. He could do some cross-examination of the presented evidence, no? "I believe some of the Hogwarts students also helped with the ball decorations, did they not?" He looked to his own students for confirmation. "So why would they destroy their own handiwork?"

Noble had questions of the others too, given his background and strong preference for scientific evidence over hearsay. "Know how, exactly?" he asked of the Ombrelune (Aesha) about the Gryffindors' activities near the duelling arena. "Didn't you arrive to the scene after the Headmistress, just ahead of myself?" Knowing in Noble's mind meant she'd caught them red-handed. And as for 'Eiji's plan'? Noble looked over to the Slytherin a moment, lips pursed, before looking to the two Ravenclaws, Missa and Trinetta.

He'd follow up on that in a moment, because now the Bellefeuille (Luc) was accusing Eiji too, alongside Kaiser. And though perhaps he could see the latter doing such a thing, he wasn't convinced that the boy really cared all that much about the ball to actually do so. "Perhaps you could be a little more specific, for the purposes of the trial? When exactly did you both hear these conversations? Just so we can get our timelines clear."

Nettie wasn't sure how this was going to go - apparently it wasn't like a REAL trial, and instead just a free for all when it came to Beauxbatons students and their testimony. One after another spit out lie after lie, and the only reason she hadn't completely rolled her eyes out of her head was because she was too focused on listening to each and every word they said. She wanted to make sure she found - and exploited - the holes in their stories. She had already picked out one in that one girl's story about Missa and Nettie's supposed conversation about Eiji.

She looked at Phoebe and reached across to give her a reassuring squeeze of her hand. "It's ok, we'll be able to defend ourselves here soon," she whispered before turning back to the trial, waiting for her turn to speak.

That pile of dragon dung? It was expanding and he was pretty sure that all of Beauxbatons was going to drown in it.

How did these people even know his name? Was it from stories Jade had shared? His irritation with the whole situation only continued to grow as more and more of the Beauxbatons students spoke. Words, for the record, were not solid evidence and this entire trial was going to be solely based on he said she said...and it was already obvious what the outcome of this was going to be. That Beauxbatons headmistress had already made up her mind.

Honestly, anyone who knew anything about him could tell you that sabotage of this degree was far too much effort than he was willing to put out. In fact, if they wanted to talk about effort, he was infuriated that the effort had had put into asking Missa was now wasted. And Eiji Rasting hated waste - something Professor Noble could easily attest to giving his meticulous efforts in Potions and his attempt to use literally every part of every ingredient that passed through his hands. Spoiled potion? Eiji was spiteful for days after.

While he was making every attempt possible to look unaffected by what was being said, he couldn't help but roll his eyes and being named the 'mastermind' to the whole thing and that he and Kaiser hung out in the library at all. Did he groan too? Yes, yes he did...but it had been entirely unintentional and he hadn't even realized that he had done so...but it was entirely instinctual when it was alluded to that he was using Phoebe and Cecelia as pawns in some scheme.

He only ever did that sort of thing when it came to schoolwork he deemed as busy work. Trinetta could attest to that...if she had sorted out that all that kanji 'teaching' he had done with her was for that purpose.

He briefly caught the gaze of Professor Noble and sighed heavily. It was nice, he supposed, that the professor was trying to bat for them ... but it also just felt pointless. His hazel green eyes shifted to Missa beside him and sighed yet again.

Bernadette was still SHOCKED and CONFUSED at being called to attend this petty gathering, especially when the Beauxbatons student (whom she'd NEVER even SEEN before) accused her of ruining....

............................decorations???!

This trial was over some dumb DECORATIONS??!?!??

"I've never even been to the arena," Bernie mumbled to Phoebe, who was sitting nearby and who looked the most OFFICIAL out of all these so-called officials (besides Noble of course). Even Trent was kinda letting her down right now, because he was being TOO QUIET and wasn't STOPPING THIS j'accusing! These French kids sure liked to snitch, didn't they? And she wasn't talking about Golden Snitches. Maybe they just all had overactive imaginations. She for one hardly ever hung out with Cece and Phoebe, because those two knew each other from a long time ago, and Bernie was doing SUCH A GOOD JOB of laying low since the Gargoyle Incident of '99.

But it didn't matter what they said, right? The Headmistress was just going to kick them all out anyway? She rolled her eyes and clutched her wand tighter, her arms still crossed and her posture still pretty pupset.

Thank the sun and stars for Professor Noble, though. He was strict, but he seemed pretty fair, AND he was doing all the detective work that was CLEARLY lacking here. And look, Schmoe was here! Schmoe! Maybe he'd accidentally save the day again... he knew she'd NEVER skulk around the arena. Trent would know this too. It wasn't even on her unfinished MAP, like, c'mon.

Was Aesha at all surprised that their Potions Master was quick to jump to his students' defense? Of course not. This had been anticipated. This Professor Noble had voiced his concerns back at the arena too. Aesha looked at him, lifting a single brow and showing no signs of guilt. ”I saw them frequenting the arena many times before today,” she replied easily, leaning back in her chair.

It took every bit of restraint she could muster to hold herself back from rolling her eyes at the man. ”I didn’t record the date and time of the conversation,” again, she replied unfazed. ”It took place a little over a week ago, after dinner. But I did not think your students would do such a horrible thing. It felt presumptuous to record such details at the time.”

Alright, that had been enough out of that girl - Trinetta's patience, already very thin to begin with, had finally broken. It was obvious that the Headmistress was not going to make this a FAIR trial - the only reason it was still relatively civil was due to Noble stepping in, it seemed. She was very appreciative of the grumpy old man for trying to talk some sense in to this.

However, she wasn't sure the Headmistress was going to relent and actually GIVE them a chance to defend themselves. She could easily see the Beauxbaton students wrapping up their stories and the Headmistress immediately ending the trial and declaring them guilty. SO. Nettie was taking her chance now.

She stood up and cleared her throat, raising her hand like she was in class because...how did she do this?? She had never been on trial before, and this seemed the best way to interject. Not like there was going to be cross examination or anything. "Excuse me Professor Noble, but I object!" she called out. Yes, she knew THAT at least.

"For the past month or so, I've been studying in the library for OWLs after dinner every night. The only time I'm in the Ombrelune common room is when I'm passing through it to get to and from the dorms," she told him. "Missa and I never had such a conversation, and I'm sure my fellow classmates could attest that they've seen me studying at my usual spot near the bay window in the library every night," she said confidently. In fact, she'd probably spent more time in that window, sitting on the cushion and staring out at the grounds, than she had at any other place in the school since they'd gotten here.

She had more flaws to point out in their stories, but she didn't want to push it too much. For one, had Eiji and Kaiser EVER spoken to each other? Also, if Eiji had been planning some sort of revenge on the Beauxbaton students as they claimed, he'd be much more clever about it, and it would involve a potion of some sort.

She'd keep that info to herself though, because that wasn't going to help them at all.

Giselle clung to every word her students spoke, believing them in their entirety. What reason did they have to lie? The ball was for them. It had been planned before any news of Hogwarts students coming to share the castle. Her darlings had all been quite excited and in the end had put a lot of effort into it in the final days.

The concern was clear across her face as she listened, imagining the scenes described with vivid detail. Yes, she could SEE them plotting and scheming.

But then....the Potions Master...."It iz not your place to ask ze questionz." She turned her head next to the Ravenclaw Prefect. "And YOU cannot just speak because you say you object. You must wait for your objection to be sustained or overruled. Zhis insubordination will not stand. You will be quiet."

Was that so difficult to understand?

The Headmistress took a breath to steady herself as the last of the testimonies came in. Reluctantly, she turned to the Hogwarts mass.

"Now zhen, 'ow do you lot answer for zhese crimes? Are zhere any character witnesses among your peers?" Those seated on the benches watching. Did they have any input to give? Lies most likely, but a fair trial was a fair trial.

"Speak up or forever 'old your peace." She wouldn't wait all day.

Kangaroo court was right. With the French students being the figurative kangaroos with all the conclusions they were jumping to. "Obviously, no one taught them the saying about making assumptions," Dalia whispered to those sitting nearest to her while the French students were doing just that. Worse than that though was that the only professor of theirs that had spoken up for the Hogwarts students so far was Professor Noble. What even?

Finally, the Head Banshee gave the floor over to Hogwarts. Standing and making a slight show of smoothing down her skirt, she began to speak. "I must begin by admitting that I don't really know the accused that well, being a foreign exchange student. But, this is all very circumstantial evidence, no? And by such biased parties." Okay, so she might've snuck a peek at Papa Carter's university texts over the holiday. "Surely, in the interest of making this a truly fair trial, there should be some investigation, taking of fingerprints, ex cetra by non-biased parties?" That sounded right, anyway. "As for that one's" she was pointing at the only French girl in the room "claim of making Hogwartians feel nothing but welcome here, well I haven't felt very welcome since the whole incident with your, what did you call them? Rosez?" she pronounced the word with an overly exaggerated French accent that wasn't exactly helped by her Cuban one. "In fact, I think my fellow Hogwartians would agree that we've been made to feel like nothing but thorns in your side ever since that day. And now with this whole kangaroo court thing....well I'd say this is just a ploy to get rid of us. Which, why did you even agree to take us in if you were only going to treee-at us th-th-is way?" she finished, her voice catching on the last few words, eyes filling with tears. Was she acting? She would never tell. But Frenchies, that was how you did it. And yes, she realized that technically she wasn't one of the accused, but in a way, wasn't this whole thing just a condemnation of their whole school?

Okay... Phoebe, with the eyes... ugh. See, Kaiser could handle stuff like this. It didn't anger or upset him, it was just absurd. But a lot of the other students, and especially the first years, well... they might not be used to being viewed as delinquents or criminals or anything like that, so they were bound to find it upsetting. And that was the thing that bothered him. It made him seethe, actually, but luckily, Nettie was quick to reassure the first year, so Kaiser just nodded his agreement, keeping his mouth shut until he had a chance to think over his words carefully.

At least Noble was stepping in, being the voice of reason and-... ah, of course. Desmarais wasn't allowing it. Why would she allow any sort of logic or reason in this 'trial'? Kaiser shook his head. Disappointed but not surprised.

Leaning forward ever so slightly in his chair, he tapped his fingers lightly on the table - hopefully they would leave smudges. Soon, it was his turn to talk, and talk he did, his accent becoming more pronounced than it had been in quite some time, as his irritation started to seep into his voice. "As for me leaving the observatory-" He hadn't run at all. "-I was going to look for a professor." Actually, that wasn't true, but it was only a white lie. He had been making himself scarce so he didn't get seen in a wrecked observatory and be saddled with the blame, which, judging by how this was going, was exactly what would have happened. Well, it was happening anyway, but still. "But it is understandable that perhaps this student is confused, as he did not appear until after Professor Sandhu was already there, and I was about to get some paper for her. But I do not know what that has to do with this. I do not know even what 'this' is."

Yeah, sure, they had accused them of sabotaging the ball, but Kaiser still didn't know exactly what had happened, what he was defending himself over. He just knew he hadn't done anything that remotely fit the bill. Also? Why on earth would he and Eiji have conspired in the library, where anyone from Beauxbatons could have heard them, when they currently shared a dormitory and common room? Kaiser wanted to point that out, but had a feeling it could easily be turned back around on them, and so refrained. "Eiji and I have planned nothing; I have never heard him mention the ball. And I am not so selfish as to sabotage an event that many of my friends look forward to, just to 'make a statement'." He broke out the finger quotes for that. "That does not interest me. Anyone who knows me well will tell you this. But where is this solid evidence? I have not yet seen any." Was it clear? That he didn't consider any of these witness testimonies to be classed as such? Because he didn't, and it was laughable that anyone would.

Actually, speaking of which... "Do you have a pensieve at this school?" Was that a thing schools had? Kaiser had only read about them, and he knew that the British Ministry had at least one for investigations and the like, so clearly they were useful in verifying witness statements and everything. Beauxbatons fancied itself as being all that, despite lacking many of the facilities that Hogwarts had, so maybe they at least had a pensieve? "Perhaps we can see some of these things that these students have... ah... witnessed." Except that they wouldn't, because the Beauxbatons lot hadn't witnessed anything. At least in Kaiser's case, and he was willing to gamble on the idea that the same went for the other 'suspects'.

As more and more students from both schools filled in, Ewan couldn’t help but see a mixture of emotion throughout the room, from worry to out right anger. Sure, he was pretty annoyed but couldn’t they at least control themselves? I mean, don’t let them see they’re getting under your skin. Pathetic.

“This school is ridiculous” he mumbled to Carsyn as she joined him now for the briefest of seconds. “Don’t worry, I didn’t do anything so what can they do?” he continued, as a reply to the patting of his hand. He may be the one on trial but he wasn’t going to be found guilty. After all, how could they find him guilty? He was just sitting in the stands at the time minding his own business.

Ewan sat quietly, his gaze focused on the head monstress as the trial began, his eyes Watching closely for any inkling of dirty play and yet, he still managed to miss the majority of what happened. Between the “ZHEY DID THIS” and “ZHEY ARE GUILTY” and a whole bunch more of “ZZZzzZzZz”, Ewan couldn’t help but lose track of their arguments, which to be honest, was a blessing because it was all hippogriff dung.

Raising his hand first, he then stood up to speak, making sure that he was heard. “Look, this ball may have been planned for your students but we wanted to go and have fun too. A lot of us have bought robes and dresses to go so can you explain to me why we’d do that?” his voice getting louder as he spoke now. Not usually one to really stand in front of everyone, he took a second to compose himself before he continued. “It could easily have been someone from here. After all, we all know you want us gone. How do we know it wasn’t an inside job?” his eyes lingering on Lars, Aesha and Luc. The trinity of terrible. “And as for why I’m here, I have no idea. I was in the stands doing absolutely nothing but reading”. The truth was, he didn’t know if it was one of his fellow Hogwarts students but he wasn’t about to sit there and not object. He didn’t exactly know Eiji all that well but Nettie? She was his prefect and he was nothing if not loyal to Ravenclaw. “You give us some proof. Some actual evidence that links me or anyone else here to the crime then you can start blaming people but until then, don’t jump to conclusions. That’s not how the law works”.

“Headmonst-…. Headmistress” he added at the end. After all, his mother did in fact, not raise him without manners.

Oh, good. Nettie was finally objecting, and even though the Headmistress didn't seem to appreciate the effort, it was now the Hogwarts' students chance to defend themselves. That led her to believe that the objection had been the exact right thing to do, and Nettie had moved over into 'chief barrister' position in Phoebe's eyes. It wasn't like anyone else but Noble had tried to defend them.

Not even the Headmaster, which made her heart HURT.

She was happy to defend herself, though, and Phoebe raised her hand like she was in class. Oh, nope, no one was calling on her, even at her politest, so when there appeared to be a lag in the action, she stood up. She should stand on her chair, right? To be taller? Somehow, her instincts were quelled, and Phoebe kept both feet on the floor and merely puffed out her body like she was SURE she'd seen someone do in court before.

"I would like to speak on my own behalf, although anyone who knows me knows that I am not destructive on purpose and that I'm rubbish at magic and couldn't even do the stuff people are saying we did. I did bring my wand, though, and I know you can check to see if any nasty spells were cast with it." She went silent, considering, then added, "I did accidentally levitate Cece's pillow out the window when I was trying to practice levitation, but I just gave her mine so if you see that spell in there, it was an accident." And sorry, Cece.

What else? Maybe she should tell them that her grandparents and mother and father would vouch for her, and her grandparents were former Hogwarts professors (and a Headmistress, and way more famous than this bossy lady) who KNEW she was a good girl and her mother was pretty scary and knew a LOT of nasty spells but never used them on people so she was very trustworthy and her father was just the best human ever. Or her brother, who probably even the French kids liked. Him and Tavie could vouch for her. But seriously, WHY WOULD NO ONE VOUCH FOR HER? Maybe she really wasn't a good girl.

"In conclusion, I... just don't understand why people are lying about me. I never did anything to them except exist, and that's a silly reason to blame someone falsely for ruining decorations. Especially 'cause I wanted to go to that ball." A big old tear trembled right in the corner of her eye before rolling down her cheek. A real tear too, because SHE WAS INNOCENT and no one believed it.

Carsyn gave a small smile as her sister joined her. She was going to be good during these proceedings which even though had barely started, the fourth year had the small instinct that this was not going to be fair; for the love of Merlin, there were FIRST YEARS present as part of the accused. Another reason she knew this to be ridiculous.

That one Lars boy who arrived late and began the testimony, unzettling tendenziez zince zhey arrived?? UHM... OKAY, where is the proof in this? Surely she may have only been fourteen, but they were the visitors. They were trying but could literally only do so much if their hosts were unaccommodating. Carsyn was fairly sure that when they - Hogwarts- played host to the Americans, they didn't act like a bunch of stuck-up teenagers who tried to poison them with feather-growing water. Also, they, the hogwarts students were looking forward to the ball as well. It was one thing that had common ground for, so why would they destroy something that they also wanted?

And there was the pretty Luc boy, who apparently even though he was a pretty boy, he was quite dumb. Rolling her eyes, they rested gratefully on Professor Noble who seemed to be trying to defend his students; one of the few professors. Couldn't he just conveniently slip some veritaserum into the French kids pumpkin juice to have them confess the truth? Except it would be unethical, but what were ethics when their hosts did not seem to be abiding by such things?

The headmistress seemed to not care for the interruptions by the potions master or Nettie and quickly shunned them, barely offering them an opportunity to explain themselves. Which seemed now was the moment to address a loophole, as so many of her peers had already. Standing up once there was a moment of quiet, her gaze was mostly between Luc and the Headmistress, as she spoke, "Teaching the french a lesson? Hardly. Since we've arrived, myself and my peers have done nothing more than want to learn French to be able to better communicate in a foreign place. The thing about eavesdropping," Which was what Luc had done, "is that things can easily be misinterpreted especially if you don't know the original context or you hear something in the middle of a conversation. If you truly were concerned by conversation spoken, it would have been wise to address the parties in that moment because something that happened over 'hearsay' and weeks ago, where it was just one person supposedly hearing something, hardly proof for anything." Also little white lie was that she had zero interest in learning the language, but she knew some of classmates were studying up on it over the summer.

"Why would we sabotage something that would create a sense of community? A sense that we are welcome here for the first time since our arrival? Something that was meant to be in place of quidditch" Her fists clenched as a way to keep her emotions in check, but literally all Carsyn wanted to do right now was hex someone. Or destroy something for real. And sure she wasn't technically in the 'we', but a blow at her peers was a blow at herself.

"Thank you for listening." And she sat down again, hoping, praying, that the Headmaster would offer some sort of defense.