"Just a routine inspection, Miss Greingoth," he smiled and shook his head at the boy. "Mr. Upstead, perhaps we need to discuss a possible leave of absence from the school. Your behavior of late seems to indicate you need more help than our intern healer can provide."

"Behaviour?" Jake asked vacantly, tilting his head at the man. He'd been as good as gold... right? "Leave... my dad's taking me to see some healer at a hospital soon... 'cause for some reason..." he added, a slight smile on his face for some reason, as he appeared to look through rather than at the man. "And... yeah..." he trailed off, realising what the headmaster might be suggesting.

Blinking rapidly, Jake looked around at Anna, kind of begging for help with his eyes.

Anna blinked, then looked at Jake out of the corner of her eye. Surely he wasn't calling for her...was he? But...but...but he'd pushed a suit of armor on top of her, hadn't he? ...so now he wanted her help? She didn't dare face him. Looking at him out of the corner of her eyes was safe enough for her. She wasn't quite sure what to say, but lucky for her, the young Ravenclaw girl gave her a good distraction...with a water balloon. Her eyes grew even wider, if possible, and she waited, her breath held, for the headmaster to come completely unglued. He hadn't seemed to have minded...or noticed, really, though.

She nodded when he mentioned that his stroll around the castle was simply a routine inspection. She started to make a comment, but then he was discussing serious matters with Jake. Leave the castle? More than the healer can handle? But...but...ohhh, Jake was calling for her again. What was she supposed to do? Wave a magic wand? No pun intended there, though. Jake was Reese's brother, though, and Reese was Anna's best friend. Jake was also just a kid. He couldn't miss out on his Hogwart's years! No kid should miss out on that! Ohhh... "No, wait!" she suddenly called out, quietening her voice when she'd realized she was a little louder than she'd intended. "Erm, I...ummm...I'll look after Jake! Yeah, umm...can we try that before we...send him off and stuff?"

Okay... this was sliiiiiiiightly more serious than Jake had originally realised if Anna was reacting like that. Managing to stop any sound from escaping him, Jake drew a little closer to the girl, stepping out from behind the librarian and instead using the head girl as his sheild.

"I'm sorry, Anna..." he whispered, glancing up and down the corridor, fingers twitching ferociously. But he wouldn't cry... nope. He didn't cry like Kazimeriz. Raising one shaking hand, he began to chew on his thumbnail, avoiding eye contact with the headmaster at all costs.

Anna involuntarily froze as she noticed Jake was suddenly edging closer and closer to her. Was he going to hit her? Kick her? Shove the headmaster on her? Was he going to...oh. Her eyebrows furrowed as she realized the boy had now taken to using her as a shield. ...and he was apologizing? This was certainly a different Jake than she'd encountered earlier in the school year. "Ja---Jake?" she asked, looking towards the headmaster, though, instead of towards the boy. What was he scared of the headmaster for? ...because he'd appeared from a tapestry, or because he'd suggested sending Jake away? She reached behind her and gently tried to pry the young boy's hand from his mouth. He wouldn't bite her, would he? If he didn't stop soon, though, he'd chew them all down to the quick...if he hadn't done so already, that is.

"Don't let him take me, don't let him," Jake whispered, eyes brimming with tears that refused to fall as he gazed wildly up at Anna. "No... don't..." He let his one hand be pulled away from his mouth as Anna forced it, but couldn't resist the urge to raise the other hand and chew on his other thumbnail, shaking his head and blinking rapidly, still avoiding looking at the headmaster.

Dani clinged to Jake. "No!!!!" She wouldn't let them take him. No she wouldn't. "I won't let you have him. You can't take him!" She hung on to him and glared at Anna and the Headmaster. They coudn't have him.

She.

Would.

Not.

Let.

Them.

Professor Bontecou's eyes started to glaze over a bit and then he stared over their heads at something that was nothing. After several long moments he blinked and looked back at the students. "Well, this has been interesting, but I really need to get on with my inspection," he said, pretty much just ignoring the whole pleading for Jake session which had just taken place. He strode purposefully off down the hall, still covered in dirt and cobwebs and with wet pants.

...

...

Oooooookay.

"Wh-what was..." Jake stammered, more alarmed by the Headmaster's more recent actions than what had transpired before. That was an abrupt change, and though Jake was RELIEVED he was off the hook, so to speak, it was kind of unnerving. He tugged on Anna's sleeve. "Erm... maybe we should go... see the nurse... and... and then tell her about..." jerking his head in the direction Bontecue had just gone, Jake bit his lip again.

Anna followed the headmaster's gaze to some point behind her, but she never could quite figure out what he'd been looking at. She turned back around and gave him a questioning expression, but then he started to talk and, if possible, confused her even more. She glanced from Dani to Jake to the Professor, waiting for someone to say something that would make the last few minutes make sense, but no one ever did. "Erm...right. Interesting, sir. You have a good day now," she said, watching as he walked off.

"D---did you two happen to understand anything that just happened? If you did, mind telling me, because I happen to highly confused," she remarked. She eyed Jake, then nodded her head slowly. "Oh, right. Nurse. Okay then...off we go. It was good seeing you Dani," she said. She waved and smiled politely the turned to head off.

Nodding as well, albeit a teeeeny bit more frantically, Jake continued to bit down hard on his thumbnail, not realising he was starting to taste blood. "Yes... yes, nurse..." he muttered, going off towards the right direction that he KNEW would take him to the hospital wing.

Well... he'd been there plenty of times before.

Part of him wondered how she would react to the whole thing with the 'leave of absence' and whatnot... but another part jealously realised that she would, in fact, be more preoccupied with the way Bontecou was acting.

Dani just watched them leave and then sat against the wall under the tapestry and closed her eyes. Her head hurt and her stomach growled. She wondered what was back behind the tapestry. The curious little girl was sorely tempted to go exploring.

The common room was too crowded. Much MUCH too crowded. How could a 16 year old boy study in such an environment? Precisely--he COULDN'T. He hadn't gotten his hours in today, and he had divination coming up. DIVINATION! His worst subject! EEEP!

Holding an enormous textbook under his arm, he plopped down in front of the tapestry and opened his book.

Were OWLs over, yet?

Reese dragged herself down the corridor after leaving the food place on the grounds. What was that place called again? The mess tent? It didn't matter what that place was called. She was just glad they had food to eat.

Today, she was not carrying anything in her hands. No books. No school bag. No nothing. She just wanted to relax and not think about OWLs since today was her day to relax. She had already stressed herself the last few days over the exams. Stress was not good. She was trying to get her mind of the exams, but she couldn't. She kept thinking about all the OWLs she still had to go.

She passed the tapestry, but then froze. Was that Jack? She turned back around and then turned her attention to the person sitting on the ground. There he was, Jack Fritzera, who seemed to be reading a book. Maybe he was studying for the OWLs, so maybe she shouldn't distract him. Not knowing what to do, walk away or stay, she just stood there. She hoped he would sense her presence and if he didn't want her to bother him, he would just tell her. Right?

Just as Jack read over a paragraph on palm reading when he noticed someone standing nearby. He looked up and saw Reese standing over him, clearly decided whether or not she wanted to distract him. If it were anyone but Reese, he would have probably been angry, but he liked Reese and...ZOMG she had OWLs too! She knew his suffering!

"Reese!" he exclaimed, jumping up immediately. "How are you? Sorry we haven't talked much...studying for OWLs and whatnot," he said, holding up his book for proof. "I'm stressing hard core over this divination final, I'll probably have to study overtime for it...how many have you taken?" he asked.

Yap yap yap. Jack's brain wasn't capable of thinking of anything BUT OWLs right now.

Reese crossed her arms and looked behind her to see if anyone was coming up. She turned back to Jack, who was still reading that big book. Oh, yes. That was a big book. It had to be at least 600 pages, if not more. She didn't like reading book that big, not that she hasn't read books that big before.

She turned to face the tapestry and tilted her head slightly. This tapestry had a really pretty design on it. She was concentrating on the designs on the tapestry that she hadn't even notice Jack had finally looked up from his big book. When he said her name, that's when she figured out Jack had seen she was standing there.

"Oh, I've been...okay," she answered. Was okay the right word to use? It was. She has been okay except for the fight with Torin and her OWLs. But, at least her and Torin made up. And, here we go with the conversation about the OWLs. Whoo! Oh, yes. She was very excited about talking about the exam that she has been stressing over the past few days. She nodded when he showed her the book. "I see that," she said. "Oh, Divination. I haven't taken that one, yet." She shook her head as she spoke. "Study overtime? Sounds like fun," she sarcastically said. "I've done 5- wait, no- 4 OWLs. How about you?"

"Yeah...I haven't studied astronomy too much yet...I know I'll do good on that one," Jack said, dropping the book on the floor. He could take a fifteen minute break, right? Right.

"I've been practicing my wandwork for three hours a day," he informed her, an insane gleam in his eye as he spoke. "And studying my textbooks for six hours a day if I can help it. How many hours have YOU been studying?" he demanded. The Ravenclaw bit of Jack seemed to be shining through at the moment. "I've only gotten three hours in today, so I'm going to do more tonight after supper--then I need to make up for Sunday, I only got in 5 and a half hours that day..." he said, trailing off, his eyes still gleaming madly.

Reese stepped back slightly as Jack dropped the book on the ground, so it wouldn't hit her feet or anything. "I know you'll do good on Astronomy. I have confidence in you," she told him. She was sure she did a good job on her Muggle Studies OWL. That was her best subject.

O___o Three hours on wandwork? Six hours a day studying from the textbook? Woah. She was unsure to answer Jack's question, because she hasn't studying that much. "Um, yeah, I haven't studied as much as you," she told him. "I study about 30 minutes a day, sometimes even a hour. Just depends on how much I feel like studying that day." Would she study more than a hour? She wasn't sure. She might study an hour and a half, but she wouldn't study more than that.

"Yeah," she said. "But, you know what? You need to take a break. And, I'm not talking about no 10 minute break either. More like a hour. Go eat. Go to Hogsmeade. Do anything but read a textbook." She leaned down to pick up to book that was on the ground. She managed to pick it up and dropped it over closer to the wall (and further away from Jack). Looking back towards Jack, she smiled.

"But...but..." Jack reached forward to try and grab the book from her. "I have to study! I'll fail if I don't and...I need to get twelve OWLs! You don't understand," he said with a slight frown. Everyone in his family had always aced all their OWLs, with the exception of his brother Jeremy who had only managed to get a measley three OWLs (he was handsome, yes, but his head was made of rock).

Hogsmeade did sound appealing, though. But he wanted to bring his textbook with.

Oh, no he doesn't! Reese got between Jack and the book on the ground. She placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him away from he book. "You've studied enough. 3 hours...or 6 hours...or whatever amount of hours you studied, that's enough! You need to take a break," she told him. "Twelve OWLs? Wow. That's a lot, but still. I don't care if I don't understand! All I know is that if you push too much information in that brain of yours, it will explode. And, you don't want your brain to explode, right?" That fact was so wrong! Your brain doesn't explode when you study too much.

"Come on, Jack. Let's sit and talk and not study," she said. "Unless, you want to go to Hogsmeade." While waiting for him to talk, she walked over to the book and sat down on top of it. She wasn't going to let Jack get the book. Nope! You never know if he would grab it and run down the corridor, that's why she sat on it.