---

After making their way up to the fifth floor, the door to Professor Kesali's office swung open with a bang! With a slightly flushed face, from mainly the quick dash through the castle but partly from embarrassment, Kiba stomped into the room. The door swung slowly back to it's position and Kiba hoped it was slow enough for Kesali to come through as he rested against the wall before sliding down to a sitting position on the floor. He was exhausted. Not only did he hardly get any sleep last night, but his little Animagus adventure and the whole situation with Amara was tiring.

Kiba's eyelids were heavy and he felt like curling up into a ball right where he was and taking a long nap, though, he wasn't too sure Kesali would be happy about that. Rubbing his eyes, Kiba groaned and shook his head, keeping himself from falling asleep right then and there. This whole thing was all his fault. He was careless with his transformation, he didn't check for other people properly, he let Amara get to close and he bit her. He wouldn't forget that for a while. He lost his cool too quickly and easily and he fought with a girl. Why was he always so stupid? Kiba banged the back of his head on the wall a few times, not hard enough to damage anything, but hard enough to hurt and keep him awake a little while longer.

“Kiba, I need you to stay awake please.” Gale spoke moving over the books on the floor, and through the maze of boxes. The office wasn’t a mess as much as it just wasn’t finished. There were so many things to sort from the Professors gone by, and of his own collection of strange objects he kept along the way. From strange books to old maps, and as far as a few empty bottles were scattered about the floor. However, there was a large sofa along the window, and a perfect place to sit the young student.

“Amara, I need you to take a deep breath, and try to control your charm.” Gale spoke with a shiver feeling it pull on him, and he glanced over to Kiba, “I’m not certain what happened out there, but I’d like an explanation.  That was so unlike you Mister Attwood, and you as well.” He looked to Amara.

“Why don’t we start from the beginning while I make some tea.” The universal, English way of fixing everything.

Amara lay on the sofa with her knees to her chest while she was trying to calm herself. She slowly opened her eyes as she sensed the smell of books. It wouldn't be wrong to say that she was a bit surprised at the mess in the room, but the amount of books gave her a warm feeling. She closed her eyes and rolled on her back  taking small breaths and urging her heart to relax. The charm seemed to be slowly dissipating.

"...so unlike you..." she thought while mentally scoffing. "And what might you know about me, you fool?" she answered in her mind. She had no idea why she must've called him a fool, but if said out loud, the word would've been full of shame, regret and pity, directed at herself, more likely.

A thought so unlike Amara, flashed through her mind. What if she actually turned the table on the charm? Controlled it? What if she'd get up and start dancing? How will he react? She had never used her ability this way, she actually never used it, unless at practice, and those people had consented to being glamored. And the few times it reacted out of her control, she obviously had no intention of—what? What was she actually trying to do?! Realization dawned upon her and her eyes opened violently, an expression of terror etched in them. Had she actually considered charming her professor? Seducing him? Was she completely out of her mind?!

She quickly lifted her body into a standing position and looked around. That tea seemed to take forever. She went to the desk and grabbed a cup that was on it. Pointing her wand at it, she cats a cleaning charm and muttered Aguamenti at it. She drank the water in a second, cleaned the cup and put it back on the desk. She slowly turned around and walked back to the sofa, she sat down, crossed her legs and straightened her back. Her ability had definitely subsided now, she felt normal, albeit tired and exhausted, but no longer dizzy or nauseous.

She wanted to be out of this place and away from these two as soon as possible. Charms will never be the same again, and she sworn she will make Mr. Attwood suffer, by the cruelest means possible. She was going to become his friend and rip him apart from the inside. She could do it, she studied behaviors enough to know how she was supposed to act. It would take time, but revenge shall be so much sweeter.

"It was my fault, Professor Kesali" she said in her sweetest, most apologetic voice. "I should learn to contain my anger and not take it out on other people, it is not proper of me." She lowered her gaze as to express remorse, and fiddled with her skirt in hope of  sending a message of nervousness and shame.

"Yeah, I'm up, I'm up." Kiba groaned, lifting his head off the wall slightly as if to give evidence to his claim. He threaded and unthreaded his fingers slowly as his eyes trailed after Professor Kesali, making sure not to look at Amara. He could feel himself getting more angry every moment that he thought about the whole ordeal. The weird pull to be near her was slowly subsiding and he could think more clearly now. Not that Kiba ever really thought too deeply into things. Taking his eyes off the professor, Kiba concentrated on his hands again, trying to figure out what his cover story would be.

“Amara, I need you to take a deep breath, and try to control your charm.”

Kiba rolled his eyes, what was that guy going on about? Charm, what charm? What sort of charm was he talking about? A look of utter shock played across Kiba's features as he quickly jumped to his feet, immediently regretting it as pain shot through his body. He still hadn't fully recovered from using his Animagus form earlier. "Ah, what the heck," He winced, hunching over slightly, "What charm? What's going on?"

Now that he thought about it, it was all a bit strange how he was acting before. Sure, Kiba was impulsive and didn't think much before he did something, but he wouldn't act that way towards a person like her. About to open his big mouth, to demand an answer, Amara started talking and Kiba was in shock. She was taking the blame? Seriously? Well, good on her then. If she wanted to take the blame, so be it. But still, even if she was a mental case, it wasn't entirely her fault. He felt kind of bad about the whole thing, plus, he wanted to get the heck out of there and go to sleep, the sooner he fessed up, the sooner he could leave.

"Wait a sec," He said calmly, stretching his sore muscles, "I know she's mental, but it wasn't all her fault. I-I may or may not have been just a teeny bit rude and I maybe insulted her. I just did something that annoyed her. But, again, she's mental. She couldn't even do me one little favor!" Even though Kiba was going to take some blame, he didn't have to be nice about it and he was still ticked off that she wouldn't just keep her mouth shut about the animagus stuff. With a satisfied sigh, Kiba sat back on the floor and awaited whatever punsihment Kesali had in store for them. It's not like he had never been to detention before, but he'd get a kick out of Amara getting detention too.

“She’s not mental! Kiba. Goodness. Will your mouth never end? I think I’ll send you for a hex of silence. Maker.” He huffed and took a seat across from them both,  “And yes Amara, you do need to control your anger. The both of you. It’s not proper nor very becoming of a young lady and a young master.” So spoke the Professor who was wilder than a buck in his younger years, and dressed like a hobo.

“I’ll let Miss Amara explain to you on her time, what exactly I’m talking about. Until then I ask that this subject be dropped. And unless you want me going to the headmaster about your fight then I suggest you both take a big deep breath.” Tea. Tea was always the answer.

At Kiba’s confession Gale smiled, and curled his feet beneath him with his cup of tea between his cold hands, “Maybe insulted her? Perhaps then I’ll have just the punishment?” Looking between them his gypsy ways brought a twinkle to his eye, and the devil’s grin to his lips.

“Then how about that be our punishment? Kiba, won’t you escort the young lady to the Halloween Ball? A perfect way for you to recount your steps, and make up for the insult. And Amara? How about you do nothing but keep your calm? Dressed to match and all.” And there it was.

"...Kiba, won’t you escort the young lady to the Halloween Ball?..."

She didn't even register anything else Professor Kesali had said, the moment she heard those words, the mouthful of tea in her mouth had quickly made it's way down, on the wrong part of her throat. She coughed, silently thanking Circe and Merlin for not spilling out the tea in a most unceremonious display of shock. Calm yourself girl" she mentally berated herself. Her throat had finally seemed to relax and she took her handkerchief to her mouth, trying hard to contain the utter horror from showing on her face.

"I am sorry, the tea was a bit hot" she said delicately.

She straightened her posture, and tried to smile, but a nervous twitch at the corner of her mouth made her abandon the attempt. "Ball... A ball... The Halloween Ball..." her mind was slowly trying to accommodate the idea inside her head. "Me?! ME?! Me at a Hogwarts Ball?!" her hands were now visibly shaking on the cup. How—how will I even do that? There will be so many people. They'll expect me to... mingle! To socialize! Oh sweet goddess, will they make me dance?" she scoffed loudly, completely oblivious to her company. "Now that would be disastrous...." she noted mentally, thinking on the chance of her charm going out of control again, while dancing, nonetheless.

She slowly regained her composure, reminding herself of the task set ahead for herself regarding Mr. Attwood. She will do as best as she could in this little charade, but fooling him, would mean fooling everybody else, so perhaps the Halloween Ball might just be the perfect opportunity for it.

"I understand, Professor Kesali." She blushed instantly the moment his name left her lips, and she tried hard to avoid looking him in the eyes. "Now, this is ridiculous, I must do something about this. Perhaps the library might hold some answers on it." She could just see a title of the sort inside her mind "Ridiculous bodily reactions. Infatuations and how to kill them".

"If that is our punishment, I will accept it and ponder on my actions of today. That, of course" she turned towards the boy "if Mr. Attwood agrees. I would not want to ruin a chance of ha—happiness" the word had left her mouth with a hint of amusement and disgust "such as a ball, if I will only cause suffering for Mr. Attwood."

“She’s not mental! Kiba. Goodness..."

Kiba rolled his eyes and scoffed at Professor Kesali, not mental my arse. Reclining back against the wall, Kiba stared into space as Kesali continued, not really listening to him at all. That is until, he mentioned the Halloween Ball and that fact that Kiba had to escort Amara... while wearing matching outfits. He was sure that he heard him wrong, what type of punishment was that? Well, a good one, considering how much Kiba hated the idea of dancing.

"Woah, hold on a sec." Kiba said, laughing as he shook his head, "I don't think I heard you right. You can't be serious, man. Us? Going together? Matching? What, like going as peas and bloody carrots. No way."

No way was Kiba happy with this, it was horrible! Probably one of the worst punishments he had ever recieved. He had planned a whole night of trouble and fun, it was his birthday the next day, after all. He didn't want to spend precious pranking time escorting her. Besides, he couldn't dance if his life depended on it. He rocked the 'sway awkwardly while trodding on other peoples feet' move.

"Really, sir. I'd rather have detention." He said, jutting out his bottom lip like a child as he silently pleaded with Kesali, "Man, I thought you were cool."

Turning to Amara, Kiba was shocked with how quickly she accepted the punishment. She didn't seem the type to give in so easily. She obviously was not skilled enough to know how to get out of these sorts of situations. She gave in too quickly. If there was one thing Kiba had learned over the years, it was, question everything.

"Are you serious?" He said, narrowing his eyes at Amara, "Enough with the 'Mr Attwood', it makes me seem so... old."