Since when were lessons mandatory? It was a good thing that this wasn't Ancient Runes or something else she didn't like because she would be figuring out a way to dodge that. Had she missed something? As she walked into the room, she noticed the professor wasn't even there. Snort. This seemed real important. Mmhmm. Sure it did.

Adi was there though. She hadn't been able to spend as much time with him as normal because of all the extra studying. Without missing a beat, she walked over to him. "What's going on?" Something was off, she just didn't know what. Fortunately for her, Adi was a prefect and he had to know things. AJ wanted answers.

Mandatory lesson? Ophelia had only been here for two short years, but even SHE knew that lessons weren't usually mandatory. And there was just something.... off in the air at Hogwarts. For the last few days it just all felt different, and not in a good way. Just like a bleak rain in the middle of a beautiful spring. Something that was just turning in her stomach and squeezing as tight as it possibly could.

And the worst part was, there was no reason for this feeling. Things seemed normal around here, despite the bleakness. In fact, the blonde was doing her best to ignore the stupid feeling outright and dismiss it as paranoia. It was just her tweenage mind making up stories to make things around Hogwarts more interesting.

Looking around, she saw her friend Austin and all but ran over to him. Maybe he would understand. He was older, and she would admit begrudgingly that he may or may not be slightly wiser. If anyone would understand the strange feeling in her stomach and the bleak feeling in the air it would be this loser. The loser that she liked. Liked a lot. Okay she might have a tiny puppy crush on him. It was okay, the child was coming to terms with it slowly. Agonizingly slow. And maybe once Ophelia was more coy and cooler, she could drop a few hints and see if he possibly liked her back, maybe?

But that would happen a lot later. Maybe never.

"Announcing the lovely, and adorable, and totally and completely awesome Queen Blondie!" What a way to introduce yourself. Laughing, the second year took a piece of straightened hair and tucked it behind her ear, trying to bring attention to the fact that she actually did something with it. Because that never happened. Cough Cough.

"Hey Blue Eyes. Do you know why we have to be here? I mean defense IS great and all, but why mandatory?" Maybe he could answer the question. Because that was an important question.

Austin's ears perked up at the sight of Ophelia. He was happy to finally see her in a class. Even if it was mandatory. Something was different about her though. Was it the odd air hanging around the school? No, no this was different. The air in Hogwarts was an odd, sad, murky air. It was one that made it hard for the Ravenclaw to breathe sometimes. Maybe he was over exaggerating, but it has been harder for him to breathe the past few days. It was the strangest thing. Maybe it was just Austin being dramatic. This was different. The third year felt some sort of weight lift of his chest. Like he could breathe again. This was a happy air that was around her.

He chuckled at her entrance. "Well hey there Blondie, you look different today." He blushed, noticing that what he said could be taken in a bad way. "A good different I mean. Uh, not that you don't look good before, but just that you also look good today." Get it together Austin. He took a second to recompose himself. "I really don't know. Classes aren't usually mandatory. Something is wrong Ophelia, I can feel it." He looked at her, concern in his blue eyes. What was going on?

Ben wasn't sure what or how he felt about this. A MANDATORY DADA class when one hadn't been scheduled all term. He had assumed something had been up with Romanos seeingas the woman had been at the opening feast AND at the opening night festivities in the Gryffindor common room. And then...nothing. Not that the other classes and subjects hadn't been keeping him busy enough to not really care that they weren't happening. And Defense was hardly a subject he was good at.

And now they were having a class...on the orders of the Headmistress.

After what had happened.

The fifth year swallowed in realization that the events within the Forbidden Forest were the cause for the class. Which made him even more reluctant as he made his way down to the DADA classroom. He slipped inside and saw only students...no professor as if yet. Benny moved to take a random empty seat, noting the presence of his three friends at various points of the classroom.

But to say he was a touch distracted would be an understatement.

"I said to bring your wands AND your common sense."

The Headmistress POPPED into visibility from an invisible seat near the windows, her wand already out and pointing around the room. Not pointing at students, no, just at a few lingering yoga mats she hadn't noticed earlier. Any mats remaining in the room were quickly transfigured into desks, so that there were enough for all the students. This was going to be a big lesson and everyone had BETTER have come prepared to learn.

Which, already, she had her doubts about. "Common sense might mean something different to you than it does to me, but I have years of unfortunate experience to teach me to be wary of an empty room inside Hogwarts," she continued, gesturing for the students all spread out around the room to start SILENTLY taking their seats. She began to march up and down the aisles between desks, her hard, red snakeskin Choos emphasizing every point of her lecture with a click and a clack on the floor.

"I want to see your wands out and at the top of your desk. Parchment and quills should be in hand to write down what I am going to teach you today. There will be a lecture with questions and answers and then a practical portion at the end. I expect you all to WAKE UP," she smacked the desk of sleepy-looking Hufflepuff Prefect Adi Rehman with her wand, causing a puffy, stinky cloud of yellow sulfuric gas to zoom straight up his nostrils, "and LEARN SOMETHING today. You will raise your hands when you wish to speak and will wait to be called upon. There will be no side conversations or discussions when I am talking. Points will be rewarded based on the quality of your participation, and yes, there WILL be homework. Are my expectations clear?"

The Headmistress had returned to the front of the room by now and took up a slight lean on the corner of the teacher desk, which was where she had been sitting whilst invisibly watching the students enter. "First question: What did you all do WRONG when you entered the classroom today? I don't want general answers; tell me ONE THING that you, personally, did, and what you SHOULD HAVE DONE had you been thinking along the lines of constant vigilance?"

Yes yes, a few kids had cast a wary eye around the room. But there was no real LEADERSHIP among these children, except for perhaps... the two girls who had opened windows. IF one could call that leadership.

Dear Merlin! Margo was slightly terrified about what was going to happen at this lesson. She instantly felt like she needed to sit up straighter, so she did. Man the headmistress was acting as if they were going to be attack in this classroom at the at second.

So hurrying so as not to catch her eye, Margo brought her wand out on to her desk, along with a piece of parchment and a quill so she was ready to take notes. Okay, now to think about the question that the headmistress had asked.

Margo was a little nervous. She wasn't sure what the heck she was going to say, or even if it was something right, she was terrified of this lesson already. So raising her hand, Margo took a stab at it. "Well, when I came into the classroom and looked around I noticed there was no Professor." Margo said thinking about what she had done when she had first arrived. "But, a reveal charm could have been asked to make sure that there was no one lingering, such as yourself, in the invisible side of things." Whew....Margo was worried about the response the headmistress was going to give her. "I think that qualifies under constant vigilance."

Upon finding her seat, Cora sat up straight, quickly placed her wand atop her desk and pulled her parchment & quill in front of her as instructed. The Headmistress meant business and Cora wasn't about to disobey. The feeling that she had upon entering the room had settled completely in her stomach and it was there to stay. The feeling of fear soon joined it.

She thought about how she entered the room and frowned slightly. She had looked in before as a precaution but that hasn't been enough. To be aware of one's surrounding was one thing, but she had opened herself up to anything when she had just walked in without the thought of how she was to protect herself if something was to happen.

Slowly, she raised her hand and waited to be called upon.

"Before I entered the classroom, I looked inside to see no professor present and entered without thought. I should have had my wand at the ready and entered the classroom prepared for anything."

Yes, that qualified didn't it?

Zoe took a seat at one of the desks that appeared where a yoga mat had been as the headmistress indicated for them to take their seats. She set her wand where it was to be set and took out quill and parchment just as said. Her eyes were on the headmistress as she passed where she was sitting. Errr what had she done wrong? come to class? Well she figured the class would be good at least one more time before she finished at Hogwarts. Not having a DADA class this term had made her studying up on her defensive skills more outside class. With wanting to work with dragons she needed to make sure she was ready in that aspect!

"Not searched the room for any dangers that might be lurking?" she asked raising her hand.

CALLED IT

Dante totally called it. Look at that. Headmistress was invisible, in the classroom, and totally just did some cool zappy thing to Adi with her wand. That was totally the technical way to say it. Who was alright and got a hi from Dante. But he should have known better than to sleep in a empty classroom where there was to be a class in here. Some of these Professors knew how to prank. Which was awesome with a capital A.

Well he took a seat because Headmistress was on a mission and just like he thought before this class would be the exact opposite of fun. Unfun. Yeah unfun. With all the hand raising and and all the rules. Despite that she was actually cool right now. Something about the way she was so demanding or something. Dante did not know. Uh...Dante did something wrong entering a class inside the school....what? And what was this constant whatchamacallit. Looks like some younger than him knew what it was. Talk about awkward. And Headmistress did not want general answers but she wants an answer.

Dante was confused.

Well the only thing he could think of was he did not greet the invisible Headmistress..Professor. Could he call her Professor or did he still have to call her Headmistress when she is being all Professory. But he could not know she was in the room being invisible and casting a revealing charm would ruin the fun of it all. And he was not that good at it. Just don't tell anyone. He was going to stay quiet because saying 'I should have greeted the Invisible Headmistress/Professor' sounded like something that would get him what happened to Adi.

Staring idly at the teacher's chair, Norah had been just about to open her mouth to ask somebody what was going on when HOLY BANANAS THERE WAS A PERSON THERE. She jumped a little before looking around quickly to make sure nobody had noticed, but that was probably unnecessary because the Headmistress was already doing the lecturing thing. Sigh. Maybe somebody should go into the dictionary and rewrite the definition of 'mandatory' as SCARY, because that was definitely what this lesson was.

She took a seat in the middle and took out her boringest most un-sparkly ink in the hope that the Headmistress wouldn't notice her and yell things. Were her expectations clear? Yes. Scary? Yes. And to make it even worse, the Headmistress was asking mean questions with words she didn't even know. What's vigilance, anyways? Norah put a hesitant hand in the air, brought it back down again quickly, and put it in the air one more time with her eyebrows scrunched together. Pleasepleaseplease don't call on her PLEASE. DARN it. Now she had to say things. "I didn't have my wand out in case there was something scary in here." Which there WAS, but she'd get in big trouble if she vanished the Headmistress, if she could even figure out how to do that. "But Headmistress, what does vigilance mean?"

... If they were being taught not to trust empty rooms inside the castle, Toby found himself instantly wondering why this place was still running as a school. The Headmistress had just basically implied that there was danger within the walls and for perhaps the millionth time Toby found himself wishing he could go home. Though... at the moment that was possibly slightly to do with the brusqueness of Truebridge, who Toby found intimidating at the best of times.

All of that remained unsaid, though, and Toby silently and obediently placed his wand on his desk, though he kept glancing at it as though preparing to have to suddenly grab it in case Truebridge sprung a surprise attack!exercise on them. His fidgeting became more pronounced than usual, too; a result of the on-edge atmosphere, maybe?

If there was one thing Toby was certain of, it was that he felt pretty uncomfortable at all of this. Of basically being taught to be constantly alert and prepared for danger. A difficult lesson to learn when you were always so trusting of everyone, when you didn't believe in concepts such as 'evil', and as such never saw much of a need for 'constant vigilance'.

What should he have done when he entered the room? One answer stood out in particular at this moment; turned back around and gone straight back out. But, again, there was no chance he'd say THAT out loud. Toby did his best to suppress that thought, and all other negative thoughts with it, as he raised his hand to answer.

"I didn't..." he began, not really knowing how he was going to answer yet. There was a split second of a pause, before he backtracked and started again, knowing what he wanted to say now. "I looked around when I came in, but I didn't pay much attention to what I was seeing, so I should have done that. Though I wouldn't have seen anything invisible in any case, so... I could've..." Uhhh...? "... used magic to check the room?"

Toby's eyes flicked to the corners of the room, already feeling ill at ease and maybe a little paranoid. Merlin.

Kate was glad she was on the opposite side of the room when the Headmistress popped into view. It had startled her enough as it was. She couldn't imagine how the people on the other side of the room felt. Kate was suddenly reaching for her wand, not because she thought she needed to use it, but because after what the Headmistress said, she sort of thought it was expected of her to have it out.

Besides, who knew who else was lingering around the room?

Kate cast a suspicious glance around before chiming in, hand raised to answer. "Well, I just innocently assumed that just because this is a classroom inside a school I've been attending, that it was safe, and I didn't need to have my guards up," she said. "I should have been thinking along the lines of defense just in case something unexpected came up."

Sophie was scanning the grounds below, observing that there wasn't a soul in sight when someone approached her and Soph turned, offering Zander's other best friend a small smile at his concern. Just as she opened her mouth to respond and had turned to scan the room for the best available desk, the Headmistress made herself visible A FEW FEET AWAY AND WAS REPRIMANDING THEM. SWEET MERLIN.

At that sudden movement and noise, Sophie's wand was out of her arm holster and in her hand, but she let her guard down the moment she processed what was actually going on. No danger, unless one considered a very heated headmistress to be fearsome. The fifth year didn't waste any time moving quickly to slide into the nearest available desk, then set her wand on the desktop and removed her notebook and quill from her bag at lightning speed. Make no mistake here - she wasn't afraid of the woman herself, but she respected her enough and knew her tone meant business, so... no room for shenanigans. Though... as the woman continued along, Sophie's brows furrowed - were her expectations clear? Soph gave a very clear nod of her head yes, wanting the Headmistress to be SURE that Soph, at least, was actively participating, see? She knew what was up. It was hard not to visibly react further when they were all accused of having done something wrong - really, being told they were having class and showing up to find the professor not there yet wasn't anything out of the ordinary. That actually happened quite often, in fact, and if they were supposed to be on red alert any time they entered a classroom that didn't have supervision right from the get-go, well...

Then they were living their lives wrong all the time.

So Sophie didn't feel bad about that, no. About... not having greeted someone or taken a seat, because they were never given instructions on what to do - they weren't mindless drones who had to enter a classroom and sit and wait for someone to tell them what to do. No, Sophie stood by her action of going to the windows and letting some fresh air in - at least she was actively taking in her surroundings and being aware of the state of the room, hmm? The room hadn't been used all term, and if anything, she thought what she had done was good. She was responding to her surroundings. Better than those who just went to a seat and sat down without giving anything a second thought.

What HAD she done wrong then, hmm? What was Truebridge looking for that they had all done incorrectly? Soph considered this for a little while, weighing the others' answers, before finally raising a tall hand and trying not to let the woman's fierce gaze intimidate her when she was called upon, "I think it's important to be fully aware of one's surroundings, Headmistress, and be actively in the moment, not just wander into a classroom and go through the motions of sitting down and twiddling your thumbs. That's why I opened a window - 'cause no one's used this classroom for months and months and fresh air would do us all good, and, well, it's actually not super uncommon for us to arrive at a class before the professor, so that part didn't actually concern me - but I suppose it should, yes, and I should always be considering the what-ifs, yes? S'best not to get too comfortable in routine. That's dangerous in itself, 'cause anything can happen, anywhere."

She paused for a brief moment, squinting and wondering if that was too general or if the woman would scold her for not admitting enough fault, so she added quickly, "Since there was no adult supervision and anything could've happened, I think it could've been better to... I dunno, I still stand by my decision to not sit down right away, but rather than opening a window, I could've stood over there to get a clear view of the room and have my wand out and be fully aware and present and suspicious of all things? 'specially since I'm an older student, s'important for us upperclassmen to be looking out for the younger ones. Be good leaders and all that and set the example."

This...is what Beverly needed. Exactly what she needed. A woman's strong presence and words. Especially after what had happened to her housemate. It'd left her all...feelsy. Beverly did not enjoy that one bit. Gripping her wand with a cold, trembling hand, she placed it on her desk. Then after a moment she reconsidered and gripped it again. It seemed to stop her hand from trembling.

Her gaze stayed on the Headmistress, and she wondered how the woman could hold her ground. Every time someone spoke or her mind reminded her of Gregoire she'd feel a lump in her throat. Beverly pushed it down, though, and right now, she was opting to try and act like the Headmistress. Maybe that would help her feel like herself again.

Of course, Beverly was always on her toes. When you were raised by a man who believed there was always something hidden in the shadows, you were bound to doubt them. It was embedded in Beverly. And when you had a brother who'd attended Hogwarts and didn't trust its walls and reminded you to stay vigilant every term, you were bound to doubt and stay vigilant, as well. Beverly had not had her wand out when she walked in, but she had been aware of the shadows and walls.

The Prefect raised her hand. "I was aware of the room and who was inside, and because I assumed it'd be a normal lesson I did not bring my wand out. I shouldn't have quickly dismissed the idea of threats. That just because it's a familiar room and a professor would show up soon, we were safe." She was admitting she'd be wrong, why lie, you know? The Headmistress had probably noticed she didn't have her wand out when she arrived. And the woman was probably going to go on about how Beverly didn't do her job properly and....Beverly felt defeated.

Janelle jumped when the Headmistress surprisingly revealed herself. Oh, this was unusual. The Headmistress was teaching the class and she was on the warpath. She almost made Bellaire seem tame by comparison. Janelle sat down and did as she was told. She had her wand out and her quill and parchment ready.

What had she done wrong upon coming to class? Janelle didn't know, but she took a few minutes to think about it. The room hadn't been empty when she arrived so she didn't expect any danger. It was also not the first time that a classroom had been Professorless soooo that didn't draw her suspicion. She did observe her classmates, but she didn't see anything unusual.

Janelle decided to take a whack at answering the Headmistresses question, so she raised her hand. "To me, constant vigilance means always be on the lookout for danger. Since I wasn't thinking about there being any danger in the classroom, I wasn't on the lookout for anything in particular. If you don't stay on your toes, you can be caught by surprise.........like we were when you appeared. Bad things can happen if you aren't prepared."

It wasn’t the Headmistress who suddenly became visible near the windows who had made him grab his wand, it had been Sophie’s sudden movement. He had been waiting, rather impatiently for her to answer his question when Sophie made him jump and he too had grabbed his wand in a hurry, not pointing it anywhere but he felt more secure when he had some form of defence. And when he looked back he saw that the Ravenclaw had already vanished to one of the nearest desks.

With a sigh, Kevin did not pocket his wand back and walked to the seat behind her and sat down. He watched and listened to the Headmistress as she walked around. Had she used some kind of spell to make her high heels click clack louder on the floor or was it just too quiet? One quick glance around, it was the latter. Ugh writing? Seriously? Uuuuuuuuuuuugh! He wanted to complain, he REALLY wanted to but before he could open his mouth she slammed the desk of Adi and used some kind of spell on him. Yeah, he wasn’t stupid . If she did that to Adi who he knew was in pretty good terms with the Headmistress, imagine what she’d do to him? It would make Quigley’s threat of binding and locking him in a closet sound like a joke, he was sure.

So, he stayed quiet and picked a quill and placed a parchment in front of him. He did perk up at the mention of practical portion though.

First question…what had they all done wrong. He even raised his hand because the woman was intimidating at the moment and he didn’t want to risk detention right now. Mostly because he really wanted to know where this *class* was going to. “I entered the room with no thought other than this being a mandatory class. It was strange but I didn’t think anything of it and just went inside without looking around. What I think I should have done when keeping vigilance in mind is to have my wand at the ready and maybe even check the surroundings……” he said.

Angel was waiting for anyone really to come into the classroom when the Headmistress voice boomed out from behind her... oh she was scared now the Headmistress sounded like she was on the war path, she was totally scared as she put her wand and parchment on the table and made sure that she had her quill ready. So they were going to be having homework after this lesson, that was if the Headmistress let them go, she had a strange feeling the headmistress would keep them all here for a month until she got her points across.

Angel listened to what the Headmistress said and she raised her hand. "We should have used lumos to light up the room to make sure that no one was around lurking in the corners." Angel was totally scared as she spoke. "That way you are always prepared for anything that might happen, because unexpected things can happen from out of nowhere." Angel was being truthful there, having an angry Headmistress at the back of the classroom was totally unexpected.

O_O

The Headmistress was MAD. It actually made Lux feel nervous, which was never a nice feeling.

Ashamed that she had not been more diligent before entering the classroom, the redhead placed her wand on the desk. Sometimes she just assumed certain places would be safe without thinking that there might be lurking dangers. This was going to be quite the lesson, and she was sure that there would be a lot of note taking involved. It was also best to be super careful not to do anything that might anger Headmistress Truebridge more.

The first question wasn't surprising, and Lux raised her hand to answer. "I didn't consider that there might be anything dangerous in the classroom, so I didn't have my wand at the ready. I looked around enough to see that the Professor wasn't inside and I saw some of my friends, but I didn't pay attention for any dangers because I just assumed a classroom would be safe." Thinking about it, her logic was rather silly because with all the strange things that happened at Hogwarts, a threat could be lurking ANYWHERE. It wasn't just the Forbidden Forest that was dangerous.

The sudden loud statement made by the familiar voice of the headmistress was enough to bring the Gryffindor back to the present. Okay so Benny had been taken by surprise and hadn't expected her to really be in the classroom. Did that necessarily mean he didn't have common sense? He didn't think so but that was his train of thought not the woman's. Already seated, the fifth year needn't heed her silent instructions but he did notice what she did to his best friend.

Ouch.

Biting back a sigh, Benny listened to intently to what was being said supposedly for their benefit, his wand on the desk before him. There was parchment and quill as well, but not much notetaking given not much had been said that was new as of yet. Yes...she made herself perfectly clear.

No more miss nice headmistress.

What did he do wrong? "I trusted others." As in the fact he believed that whoever was to teach the class wasn't going to be pulling tricks like hiding under a spell of invisibility. But he wasn't going to go into the exact details aloud lest run the risk of getting in serious trouble because of his words.

The headmistress was here. You knew that there was something wrong when the headmistress was teaching a mandatory DADA lesson. If that wasn't enough, it was a bad sign that the headmistress' first question was what had they done wrong. Had she done something wrong?

Penelope took her wand out and put it at the top of her desk. Now she could- Oh. There was one thing that she hadn't done yet that she usually did before class started. She hadn't gotten parchment and a quill out yet. After getting out parchment and a quill so she could take notes, Penelope raised her hand. "I didn't have parchment and a quill out before class, and I should have been ready to begin taking notes immediately when class started." Maybe that wasn't what the headmistress meant by things that everyone had done wrong. Penelope was always ready to take notes at the beginning of class, so that was one thing that stood out to her as something that she should have done. She was going to start taking notes now.

SPOILER!!: notes

-be wary of empty rooms inside Hogwarts
-constant vigilance
-Question 1: What did we do wrong?

Adi dropped into a seat after a while. Seriously, he felt as though he would fall asleep on his feet. But he figured he'd be a whole lot comfortable if he dozed while sitting. Not that he planned to do so but it was hard to keep that in mind right now. Luckily, his girlfriend arrived not so long after him. Talking to her for a bit would help him stay awake. Yup. "Hey, AJ. I'm not so sure. It must be something serious though.'' Why else would it be mandatory? Oh look. Benny. Hiiii, bestie. He got a wave. Absently, Adi propped his left arm up by the elbow on the desk and rested his cheek against his palm, his eyes closing. Nope, AJ wasn't helping...

Was he dreaming? Adi thought he heard the Headmistress's voice in his way to dreamland but this was DADA... Romanos should be here. Heh. He MUST be dreaming. Or so he thought until the SHARP sound that was a wand colliding with his desk had him practically jumping out of his seat.

WHO? WHAT? WHEREEE WAS THE METEOR THAT HAD CRASHED INTO HOGWARTS?

Wide awake now and not once teeny bit of sleepiness in him, the fifth year stared up at the Headmistress. Oh. So he hadn't been dream- COUGH!COUGH!COUGH!SPLUTTER!SPLUTTER! WHAT was that HORRIBLE thing he was inhaling?!

Adi clamped his hand over his nose and mouth. Gosh! He was disrupting the class. COUGH!SPLUTTER!COUGH! He frantically fanned his other hand in front of him to get rid of the cloud of stuff that was killing making him cough. Fortunately for him, he seemed to be breathing better air now. And he was able to pay attention to the red headed woman.

The Hufflepuff raised his hand. "Sorry about that, Headmistress,'' he said sincerely. What? It wasn't his fault he had to study, attend classes, be a social badger AND do prefect duties? But he didn't mind. He liked his schedule all full and not having to waste time. It was just that there seemed to be less hours in the day now. "I looked around the classroom as I always do, greeted to Dante and Heather before taking a seat.'' Adi paused to take a moment to will away another cough. That yellow thingy's pungent smell was still very much lingering in his nostrils. "I should have looked around better for any signs of others in the room?'' Were there telltale signs of invisibility? Were the other professors' there toooo? Or perhaps the Hogwarts ghosties?

Now Adi was on the lookout, scanning the room with his eyes.

COUGH!COUGH!

*Watching the headmistress Noah took in her words. He had his wand and note taking things out on the desk at the ready. He did find it odd when he first came in that there wasn't an adult around. At her question Noah looked down a little ashamed. He had known the boy who died in the forest and since then had been a little low. Raising his hand he answered one of the many possible answers to the loaded question that was just asked.*
"I did not take a proper account of my surroundings. I assumed that there was no danger."
*And why wouldn't he? It was a bloody classroom after all. But his fathers voice saying danger is everywhere rang in his ears.*

Aaannnd the Headmistress was in the chair at the front of the room. She did not look happy, and as she spoke, it showed that she really was unhappy about something. It seemed as though the whole school was being punished for it. But why? Austin hadn't done anything to get in trouble since the beginning of the term. It was something he was proud of. But something got the headmistress' knickers in a twist. Although he wasn't going to say that allowed.

Yellow smoke? From the wand? Merlin's beard... What was going on? Now the Headmistress was poisoning students?! Or... just waking them up? It looked like poisoned gas to him. But surely the one person who was supposed to ensure their safety wouldn't harm them? Right? Well, just to make sure, he pulled out parchment, his mother's Pheonix feather quill, and his wand.

What did she mean that everyone did something wrong? From the looks of it, every student walked into the classroom the same way they would any class. Austin was getting a little annoyed. Why was she yelling at all of them? What in the mind of Merlin happened to cause this? Not everyone gets in trouble, so there was no need to yell at them all. Surely she'd make some first years cry. Austin Moore had a thought to not answer at all, just sit there and watch what the other students do. But even doing nothing could cause him to get in trouble, and he was not going to scrub another set of armors again. So he raised his hand and waited to be called on before answering. "Well, I walked in and sat by myself. If someone were to burst in, I'd be a first target. I should have already had my wand out in case something happened." Hopefully that was enough to calm the Headmistress. She really needed to take a chill pill.

Mitchell nearly jumped when the Headmistress appeared. Why was her wand pointed like that? Scary headmistress was scary. He quickly got out a quill and parchment and set it out on his desk. He then put his wand on the edge close to his hand. He did not want to be some object lesson about not having it within arm's reach.

He looked down at his wand. What did he do wrong? Apparently he didn't think he'd be attacked on castle grounds with no warning. ... and really... was that so bad? It's not like he'd been wandering around looking for trouble. Why would you do that anyway? There was enough everyday stuff that could happen.

... too soon, Phillips, too soon.

Get it together.

He looked at the Headmistress and didn't answer. He didn't feel the need to. Constant vigilance and checking every corner of a room in a school where they weren't expecting anything to be were two completely different things.

You know what? Nope.

Big.

Fat.

FREAKING.

Nope.

Needless to say, Grayson had pretty much been in a foul mood ever since he'd heard the news from Ruby and, more than anything, he didn't wanna be here. No. He kinda just wanted to sleep all of this off, whatever this happened to be. But the word 'mandatory' and his mum's reaction to him not attending classes was something that made him stay here.

Hardly flinching when the mat was turned to a desk, the boy squared his jaw as he lay his wand down on the table and kept hold of his quill. Jeez, this was gonna be a PROPER lesson?! Taught by Truebridge HERSELF?! He'd have been more inclined to stay if it had been Culloden or someone. Dude would've been comforting. And none of this was. No.

What had he done wrong? PSH. He was Grayson Whitlock, how many things COULD he do wrong?

Don't answer that.

Yeah, so the hand was going up in the air. "Like the guy," Nod at Benny, "said, trust is always what gets you down. It's what got me down. I trusted that an empty classroom meant that nothing was lurking and that there might be a possibility that this class was forgotten about. Kinda goes against the constant vigilance thing and all." Shrug. "Should have looked out first. Armed myself first. Look out to see if anything's gonna jump at me and endanger me first." Because Merlin knew that this place wasn't exactly all flowers and rainbows and skipping through a field of daisies.