Exceedingly conscious of the fact that it was a full moon, Sasha had slipped out of the Ravenclaw tower with the wooden, thestral-emblazened box under his arm.  As usual, the pending full moon had been a strong motivator to stay indoors but solving the mystery of the box was proving to be almost equally as strong.  Once the week got stared, there'd be no time to really sit and work with it so he had to do it now or wait until the following weekend.  And, there was at least 4 hours of sunlight left and he'd have both Baldur and his wand with him.

Baldur trotted a few steps ahead as they left Ravenclaw tower and descended the staircase.  For once, Sasha's backpack was relatively light - only a couple of library books and a notebook.

The box had become a somewhat constant companion.  Though Sasha stopped just short of dragging it around the classes, wherever he studied, the notebook and the box were usually close at hand.  He was constantly brainstorming ideas to try and there were four growing lists of possibilities in his notebook.  They were grouped into four separate categories: magical methods, mechanical methods, chemical/other material methods and miscellaneous methods.

He had collected a substantial list even before the image of the thestral had appeared on the box.  That image had opened up a whole new wealth of ideas and possibilities.  A few had already made their way to the lists but Sasha had decided he needed to go to the source.  Since his conversation with Raine[1], Sasha had started spending an increasing amount of time around the school's herd of thestrals.  Now, he had even more of an excuse.

Sasha reached the bottom of the staircase, held the door for Baldur before heading through himself.  He passed by several clusters of students from various schools before heading through the front door out onto the school grounds. 

1.	Once Upon A Midnight Dreary

It wasn't often Tapendra was found outside at these hours; usually, the tall man was rather elusive, staying in his tower for much of the day and only emerging at odd hours when everyone else was in class or in their common rooms. He didn't even turn up for meals that often, though he'd been making more of an effort to do that this year.

The fall air was crisp, and certainly aided the man as he walked the grounds; the coolness of it being refreshing, even a bit exhilarating. He'd walked out here to think, and think hard - not that he didn't usually, but he'd been supplied with a particular corundum that wasn't going to solve itself.

The creature had been a present for him, originally. And it was...well, it was a good present. Very honorable, and he was touched that the Kanika servants had chosen to send the pup to him. But at the same time...he didn't need a dog, nor did he have time for one. Especially one like, well...

So what to do with it? He couldn't send it back, and he couldn't sell it. Re-gifting seemed the only option, and he had a candidate, but...would she even take it, much less like it?

He found himself by the Thestral pens, mostly via wandering aimlessly, and he leaned on the fence, one foot on the lower rail. The rather terrifying horses were friendly enough, he supposed, and when they gathered around him he gave in and stroked a few of their leathery, bony noses. He tried not to let his mind cast back to why he could see them.

When footsteps approached, he looked over the horses' shoulders towards the castle. He was mildly surprised to see Sasha there, but greeted the boy with a bright smile  - as if the tension between them wasn't still sort of there.

"Odd to see you outside, Sasha," he said, patting one of the Thestrals again. "Everything alright?"

About two thirds of the way between the castle's outer wall and the thestrals' pen, Baldur broke away from Sasha's side and loped ahead with a telltale eager wag to his tail.  He'd clearly caught whiff of someone they knew up ahead.  It was a pity dogs' reactions didn't differentiate much between their group of companions.  Baldur treated most of Sasha's close associates with near equal eagerness, regardless of where they fell on Sasha's scale of familiarity. 

But, it seemed chances were slim that Biladeau woman was lying in wait by the thestrals.  She seemed far too bubbly, far to saccharinely optimistic to be hanging around creatures that only showed themselves to those familiar with death.  Raine seemed a more likely candidate.  Or, Professor Hagrid. 

Sasha would have thought Professor Trishna was as much an unlikely a candidate as Ms. Biladeau.  Luckily, though, hew as a much more welcome surprise.  Baldur, having apparently sufficiently greeted the Ravenclaw Head of House, had already started wandering slowly down the fenceline, sniffing curiously at whatever peculiar scents he came across.  The Ravenclaw offered the professor customary awkward grin and a shrug as he leaned against the fence, reaching a hand out towards the creature closest to him. 

"Ein Esel schimpft den anderen Langohr,[1]  "I haven't ever seen you out here, either."  Especially not by the thestrals. 

He lifted the box, turning it to show the newly formed image of the thestral, and nodded his chin in the direction of the closest thestral.  "It appeared a couple days ago.  Either they have something to do with getting this thing open or the tournament people are intentionally laying out false leads.  It seemed just as logical to work here as it did elsewhere."

Not to mention, his brain was holding on to just enough fuzziness that working amidst the noise of others was harder than usual.  "And, sometimes being inside isn't as nice as one hopes.  Especially on mornings after birthday parties."  In those instances, solitude was sometimes very welcomed.

1.	Literally, "A donkey calls the other longears" - a variation of the pot calling the kettle black.

Tapendra's smile was unfazed by the awkwardness, and he patted Baldur happily, always glad to see the dog. Baldur was quite different from the dog stashed up in his office, really - friendly and happy and energetic.

He didn't know what Sasha said, but ended up politely shrugging it off, assuming Sasha's phrase simply meant what he'd followed with in English. He patted the Thestral on the nose one last time and walked over to the boy, leaning on the fence with his arms crossed.

Tapendra looked at the box as Sasha lifted it. Truth be told, he didn't know the way to open the box, either; telling the teachers had apparently not been on the list of things to do, this time around. He supposed that was wise, as far as the tournament staff were concerned, because he doubted he'd have been able not to tell the boy, or give him hints.

"I don't think it's a false lead," he said, thoughtfully. "They have something to do with the next task, so ideally you're supposed to open it between now and then. I'm not sure what it means, though." He frowned, rubbing his chin. "It could be a metaphor, of course. But probably wise to start with the real thing and then go abstract..."

He didn't have to think too hard to realize why Sasha could see the skeletal thin horses. That was depressing, of course, but not quite as depressing as why Tapendra himself could see them - well, at least from Tapendra's point of view, anyway. He quickly diverted his thoughts.

"It is pretty crowded, yes," he said, neutrally, looking up from the box to Sasha. He wanted to ask a lot of things - like why Sasha had been avoiding the tower, how he was doing - but instead he settled for, "Have any ideas you're going to try, then? I can let you into the pen." He smiled and winked. "Teacher's permission. Just don't tell Hagrid."

"It would seem kind of cruel and pointless, otherwise."  Going through all the trouble to rig the boxes so they displayed the suggestive thestral image just to lay a false trail seemed pointless.  If the tournament people were so intent on keeping them from opening up the boxes, they could have just not given them the boxes in the first place.  The end result would have been the same.  Sasha had to assume, like Professor Trishna suggested, that the tournament officials wanted them to eventually open the boxes.  With some difficulty, yes.  But, they presumably weren't looking to make the task impossible. 

Sasha had enough of a tendency to read ahead in his school books that first seeing the thestrals on his return to school during the previous January hadn't been a surprise.  He'd been expecting it.  Seeing them had simply been just one more indication that everything he'd been experience was real and not some surreal nightmare.  In some strange way, seeing the thestrals pulling the wagons at Hogsmeade station had been more of a comfort than anything. 

He'd accepted being able to see the creatures as some sort of morbid consolation prize.  And, yes, if Sasha was anything, he was predictable.  The vaguely equine form of the thestrals was enough to cement his early fascination with them.  He'd heard rumors of students riding them before; he'd be lying if he said the thought hadn't crossed his mind. 

Professor Trishna's recommendation drew Sasha's thoughts back to the task on hand and he nodded, dropping his bag to the ground and pulling out the notebook.  "I've got a lot of that covered," he assured the Professor, flipping the notebook open.  The results of his previous brainstorming sessions had been grouped into several different categories and a full page had been devoted to each.  On the top of three separate pages, the titles Physical traits, Behavioral traits and Symbolism. 

Sasha smirked, slightly, when Professor Trishna offered to let him into the pens and tipped his head forward.  "It would save me from having to climb the fence.  I'd already planned on taking full responsibility, anyway.  Thanks to Figaro, Professor Hagrid probably thinks I'm a bit off, already, anyway." 

Technically speaking, it was a moderately bad offense for students to sneak into the beast pens - especially the beast pens run by a certain half-giant of a professor. Merlin knew what Hagrid kept off in the woods; it was likely that any students sneaking off to visit those would return with fewer limbs, or not at all.

Tapendra wandered over to the gate, pulling out his wand and touching the end of it to the lock. The lock sprung open, glowing for a moment as the magic took hold. He swung the gate open with one hand to let Sasha through, closing it behind them.

The Thestrals wandered over, interested as always in human company. The horses - despite their slightly distressing odor and appearance - seemed to act basically like...well, horses. Tapendra had forced himself to get over their appearance years ago.

He hopped up so he was sitting on the top rail of the fence, hooking his legs around the lower rail to balance himself.

"What did Sellaphix do this time? Other than setting fire to the Potions dungeons or something." Who hadn't heard about the things Sellaphix got himself (and other students) pulled into? The Hufflepuff was a terror, and Tapendra almost missed having him in his classes. Like Erik Collins, what his answers and essays lacked in factual accuracy they usually more than made up for in humor.

He didn't add that if Hagrid found someone off, he was being a tad judgmental. Tapendra didn't mind the giant man; he'd been a familiar figure in his own school years, after all. But Hagrid was, at best, a bit of eccentric side.

"Well, they're friendly enough," he said, petting the nose of one of the Thestrals as it came up to him. "What's your first test?"

Sasha lifted his bag with one hand and slung it over his shoulder and stepped into the thestral pen.  Once inside, he let both fall to the ground against one of the fence posts to free both his hands to greet the creatures. 

He'd been around them, and conscious of that fact, for several months now but sitting behind them in the school carriages was, thus far, the closest he'd gotten to them.  It was thrilling to be standing there, amongst them.  Two bolder males stepped up towards him first, reaching their long necks out to sniff curiously at his shirt.  A broad grin stretched across the Ravenclaw's face as he reached out slowly to pet one of them. 

Professor Trishna's question brought a bright blush across Sasha's face and he ducked his head.  Normally, Sasha would never dream of confessing the pointless and idiotic plan Figaro had devised to a professor, let alone a Head of House.  Though Sasha hadn't the slightest idea what reality was or what was even appropriate, it had been some time since Sasha had last truly regarded Professor Trishna as simply a professor. 

"He's taken it upon himself to become my ... how did he put it?"  Sasha turned back to the closest thestral as he spoke, running his hand down the creature's neck.  His hands knew the contour and feel of a horse's neck well enough; the differences in musculature in the thestral's neck stood out vividly under his hand.  "Professor of Taking the Piss."  Sasha whispered, as if scandalously whispering a profanity in front of a professor.  Which, technically, he was.  "I'm sorry, sir." 

"He wants me to experience getting a failing grade in something so ... he talked me into blowing off an assignment we have for Professor Hagrid?"  Sasha's blush deepened as he glanced, uncertainly, in Professor Trishna direction. 

Sasha's attention was directed back to the task at hand and he returned to his bag and the box.  "Well, starting with the obvious..."  Sasha tugged his backpacking tin out of his bag and flipped down the latches.  Doing his best to avoid touching the stuff, or wrinkling his nose too much, he shook a still wet and oozing bloody cut of steak out on the lid of the box before holding it out and letting the closest thestral eat it off the wood. 

The thestral had already been sniffing curiously at Sasha's shirt.  As the source of the scent that had first caught its attention was revealed, it gave an eager snort and started forward.  Nostrils flaring, it leaned closer, extending its neck as it delicately took hold of the raw steak with its teeth.  The air puffed from its nostrils again in a sort of happy-sounding puff, and then it had snatched the bloody meat away and was trotting off across the pasture, head held high aloft with its dangling prize.

And behind it, as the thestrel's breath caressed the wood, the lid began to slowly slide open...

There was a flash of light, white and blue, and then a sort of whooshing sound.  Tiny lights exploded out of the box, coalescing into a burst that spiraled upwards, until they finally settled into a kind of faint, ghostly shape.  In the bright sunlight of the afternoon, it was hard to make out any details of the figure, but its eerie voice, though faint and ethereal, was easy to hear.


Its message complete, the ghostly figure slowly faded away until it had disappeared into the bright light of the afternoon.

Beyond where it had been, the herd of thestrals was beginning to gather, all of them with their attention fixed on Sasha as if they were hopeful that he might have brought more treats.

Sellaphix had convinced Sasha to fail an assignment?

Tapendra had a momentary conflict. Should he be annoyed, or give Figaro a pat on the back for his world-class persuasive skills? Perhaps Sasha was being blackmailed. Yes, that seemed more likely than another student just... convincing him to fail...

Well, maybe. He frowned, expression more puzzled than upset, and leaned forward as the Thestrals approached the offering of meat. "Why in the world would you want to fail? Is Professor Hagrid's class not -"

That was as far as he got before the box opened in a flash of blue light. Jumping in surprise, the ghost's message was punctuated with a cry and a crash as Tapendra, dignified as ever, fell backwards off the fence and slid a short ways on the leaf-littered ground.

He scrambled to his feet to get a look at what exactly was going on, staring in surprise at the ghostly figure. The message was...well, it sounded straightforward enough, but without context, he wasn't really sure what exactly it meant. And this was a Tetrawizard Tournament message; Merlin knew that half of it was probably metaphor.

The light dissipated, and Tapendra leaned on the fence again, brushing leaves out of his hair.  "Well...that was faster than I expected," he said, shaking his head. "Congratulations?"  He seemed more bewildered than happy.

Sasha's attention had abandoned the box, entirely, in favor of anticipating of whatever Professor Trishna's reaction to Figaro's stunt might be.  A subtle, amused chuckle, a dismayed shake of his head, a recommendation to see the Healer - those all seemed equally likely candidates.  It hadn't even crossed the Ravenclaw's mind that Professor Trishna might respond harshly or angrily.  Despite years of habit, for once, Sasha hadn't felt subconsciously compelled to brace for any sort of intense reprimand.   

But, before they could get much further than the half-issued question, the box in Sasha's hand opened.  He didn't have a clue what, exactly, had prompted the box to open.  It could have been the blood from the meat, it could have been the meat itself - or the thestral's interaction with the box.  But, whatever it was, it had worked. 

Now, something ... or someone ... was drifting free from the confines of the box like some morbid, ghostly version of a genie released from it's lamp-prison.  Sasha chanced a quick glance back towards Professor Trishna ... who was lying flat on his back, not an immense source of reassurance ... before the figure's voice captured his attention.  He listened intently to the specter's verse, worrying less about interpreting it and more on committing it firmly to short term memory. 

The moment the figure dissipated, Sasha darted towards the fence and knelt over his notebook, quickly transcribing the poem onto the pages opposite the list of tests. 

"Ja," Sasha agreed with an awkward grin, looking up from the page when he finished scribbling.  It had figured it out much faster than he'd been expecting, too.  And, he was glad he'd tried that option before some of the more unpleasant ones - which ranged from attempting flight to thestral manure. 

"And, I'm letting you get the twigs out yourself, this time," he added, grinning slightly before turning back to the page, now mostly ignoring the cluster of thestrals that were picking curiously at his clothes.  "It seems pretty straight forward.  Now, we just have to see who the champions are."  And, puzzle through the riddle but Professor Trishna still wasn't allowed to help. 

Tapendra laughed as he pulled a small twig out from behind his ear. "I thought we'd agreed to never speak of that again, Sasha," he chided, though he clearly wasn't upset. Well, not that upset, anyway. That had been a very nice favor on Sasha's part, but...it was hard to contextualize in a way that didn't make him extremely uncomfortable. He'd never ask anyone to help him think about it, either. Best no one knew, too. No one.

"Hopefully our next set of Champions are prepared for..." He rubbed his chin. "Whatever that implies. Sounds like they're going to be dealing with something...interactive?" Spiders certainly were interactive by the words' definition, admittedly, but - "Something that'd try to mess with their heads? Hrm..."

Well, it was up to Sasha for now. Tapendra couldn't do much to help him officially, though he doubted he could do so unofficially, either. "I can certainly help you puzzle it out, but..." He smiled, sheepishly, "I'm terrible with riddles, unfortunately. Which has nothing to do with why you don't see me in the Ravenclaw tower much," he added, hastily. Or why he'd slept on the Ravenclaw stairs more than he'd like to admit when he was a student.

He resumed his more comfortable lean on the fence when he was confident he was mostly twig free. "Still, you didn't - well, I didn't finish asking. What's got you wanting to fail an assignment? Is Professor Hagrid's class not satisfactory?"

Sasha read over the page several more times before folding it and carefully tucking it away in his bag.  "Seems fairly straightforward," Sasha concluded, straightening up.  Unlike Professor Trishna, he'd always done fairly well with logic puzzles.  It was one of the things he liked most about helping Johann with reviewing translated contracts and such at the DoIMC.  And, truth be told, it was kind of how he approached homework - most assignments were just viewed as a collection of time-sensitive puzzles. 

"I don't think this will be the last puzzle in this task.  I suspect this task will rely more on logic.  I bet if I'd ended up in this one, rather than the last one, I'd probably score higher."  Sasha flushed and glanced down at the wooden box, finally setting it on top of his bag.  It was now nothing more than a keepsake.  A really nifty keepsake - one he had every intention of holding on to for quite some time, but still just a keepsake.   

He had been trying extremely hard to fully convince himself that the importance of scoring lower than four other competitors paled in comparison to having completed the task - and having done well.  'A' for effort wasn't a concept that had every existed in his house - there was either winning or loosing.  Cognitively, he knew it wasn't fair to apply such standards to an event like a tournament task but old habits were hard to beat.  He would be lying if he said he hadn't give a fair bit of thought to trying to figure out where he'd gone wrong - or what he could have done better.

But, there was no doubt those standards applied to academic achievement.  Sasha flushed when Professor Trishna brought up Professor Hagrid's assignment, again, and shook his head. 

"I didn't want to fail the assignment," Sasha insisted.  "I don't know ... Figaro kept going on about how 'barmy' I'd gotten and how I was ... I don't know.  I don't even know what 'barmy' means, but I knew it wasn't a compliment.  He kept jabbing about how I couldn't live without my non-class schedule and then he asked what's the worst that would happen if I actually failed a test for once.  Because I'd, you know, done something other than study." 

Sasha shook his head and turned to pet a couple of the nearest thestrals.  The explanation could just as easily be making matters worse, rather than better.  "I don't know.  It felt like he was slipping.  Disconnecting or something. I thought I was losing another friend.  So, I went ... I told him I'd go along with it." 

Tapendra frowned, resting his chin on his palm, elbow on the fence line. "I wouldn't count on that," he said, in a tone he hoped was reassuring. "If that little message is any indication - it might not be logic getting tested. The last Tournament tested a student on more...emotional terms, after all." In fact, logic could possibly be a trap in this next task; he had as much of a guess on that front as Sasha had.

Sasha, thankfully, explained what had been been going on with Figaro...to some extent. Tapendra looked at him, lips pressed into a worried line.

He wasn't quite sure what to think in that. He would be lying if he said he didn't think Figaro had a point; while Sasha's dedication to schoolwork was applaudable it was also completely insane.  These were the only years he'd have to be young, and he spent most of them holed up somewhere desperately studying. And, well, the world wasn't going to end if he didn't ace everything.

At the same time that didn't mean he should just fail to see what it was like, either.

He chewed his thumb thoughtfully, before answering carefully. "Barmy means insane, eccentric or foolish," he clarified, since he'd been called it enough to know...because he'd looked it up. "He's not exactly wrong, Sasha. You have been studying like you're possessed, you know. It's why Maiko follows you like an angry hen."

Lowering his hand, he looked up at the sky for a second. "I don't think you did a bad thing, if that helps," he said, smirking, "I just wouldn't take Sellaphix's advice on...oh, most things. He'd an interesting boy, but..." He shrugged.

Still, that wasn't the important part. "Did it help? With the disconnected feeling."

Sasha cast another glance towards his bag but left it, and the transcribed poem, alone.  There was no doubt he'd find himself hunched over it for extended hours in the coming days but sometimes some riddles where best left to sit and simmer.  It was like those Where's Waldo drawings - the more you sat and actively looked for the ill-dressed bloke, the harder he was to find.  But, he seemed to pop out of the page the moment you let the image drift to the periphery of your vision and brain. 

"Oh."  Insane.  Eccentric.  Foolish.  Sasha couldn't help but think that described his sister more than himself.  But, perhaps, barmy was in the eye of the beholder.  Figaro would probably think Jacoba was normal.  They'd probably get along quite well, in fact. 

"Maiko?"  Sasha repeated, staring at Professor Trishna blankly.  It was only by studying the context clues that Sasha was able to determine who Professor Trishna was talking about.  "You mean Ms. Biladeau?" he asked, just to be sure.  He was sure he'd heard her first name once before but, since then, ma'am had pretty much become her official title.  Ms. Biladeau was used only when he needed to be more specific. 

Sasha shook his head tersely, his brow suddenly furrowing.  "She's stalking me.  And, I don't know how to get her to stop. She's hardly an angry hen...hens stop pecking at you when you get away from their food or chicks.  She ... won't stop feeding me like a boar she's fattening for slaughter.  She kept cornering me in your tower.  I don't know what she wants - and every time I ask, she just gives some psycho-jumble help-you-be-all-you-can-be-daisy-chain, warm and fuzzy quatsch.  Ignoring her doesn't work.  Humoring her and answering her stupid little 'how you feeling' questions doesn't work.  And, I'm not going to cry in front of her.  I don't know how to make her go away!" 

The Ravenclaw took a deep breath and let it out, slowly.  That stupid assignment.  Did it help him feel less disconnected?  Not really.  It had just further illuminated the fact he couldn't not do it.

"Well, I definitely didn't do a bad thing," he admitted, shrugging dismissively.  "I didn't ... I couldn't stop worrying about the assignment so,... that's what I went to see Professor Hagrid about.  I turned it in a couple days early.  I just ... I asked him to play along when I didn't turn it in on the first.  It's unlikely Figaro would find out, anyway." 

Tapendra frowned at his description of Maiko. Admittedly, he didn't yet know the woman well, but certainly sounded like something she'd do.

Still, in some ways, Sasha did sort of need someone to follow him around and make sure he ate. Tapendra, with a slightly guilty twinge, realized he really should have been the one doing that - and it was, frankly, a lot easier for him to do it than for Maiko to do. Maybe he could cut a deal with the woman. Besides, Sasha might be more accepting of it, coming from him.

And it'd give him more chances to keep and eye on Sasha with this Kronos thing...

"Do you want me to talk to her?" He asked, eyebrow raising. Part of him was a bit amused - perhaps cruelly so - at the idea of Maiko stalking anyone; from what he knew of her, he doubted she'd be very good at it. Probably about as good as he'd be, really.

He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes when Sasha revealed his solution to the Figaro issue. That was...a very Sasha thing to do. "I see," was his neutral response, head cocked slightly.