Katy watched her wand leave her hand with a sick twist of her gut.  A wand was a witch's best method of protecting herself.  Handing it over while they were already in trouble was incredibly difficult.  She did it though because she was scared and embarrassed and horrified.  There was something about the presence of a professor that made the truth of what they had been trying seem more real.

Katy flinched when Professor Trishna yelled at them.  She wasn't used to being in trouble.  Serious trouble, at that.  What was she going to do?  Her breath became pronounced again as she began to hyperventilate with fear.  But there was one thing that surpassed all of Katy's fears and that was her drive to help and protect people.  With Sasha looking so lost, she was able to hold herself together, despite feeling more than a little fragile.  She moved over to Sasha, her feet making soft crunching noises on the detritus.  She didn't kneel or touch him because they weren't close enough for that but she did stand quietly beside him in solidarity.  As far as she was concerned, they were in this together. 

"We were just trying to talk to them," Katy explained softly even though she didn't know exactly who Sasha was trying to contact.  "That's all, Sir, I swear."

In the fire's absence, the potion was starting to bubble more and more slowly as the heat dissipated from the brew.  Sasha's gaze rested, unfocused, on the cauldron.  He didn't watch Professor Trishna directly but, out of the corner of his eye, he was aware of the man crossing the clearing and stopping by the cauldron.  It didn't take long for the man to come to his own conclusions and the pained and perturbed grimace that flickered across Sasha's features provided the professor with all the answer he needed. 

He still hadn't looked up but, again, out of the corner of his eye he could see the Hufflepuff closing the gap between them.  She stood next to him.  It was Bevans that spoke up first.  She tried to offer an explanation that she seemed to hope would mitigate the situation.  Sasha doubted it'd make that big of a difference.  Or, rather, he doubted it would offer much absolution and, somehow, the overall gesture seemed to lose some of its meaning if it did. 

"It was my idea," Sasha said quietly, but firmly.  Yes, they'd embarked upon the ritual together - and Bevans had very stubbornly insisted on being involved - but it had originated with him.  And, he hadn't tried very hard to dissuade a girl whose name he'd only just found out.  "She found out I'd ... I'd been planning it and insisted on being included." 

He knew, from the man's reaction, that their transgression had been a dire one.  But, that strange empty feeling of loss and regret still vastly overshadowed any guilt or misgivings.  And, most of the guilt stemmed from the professor's reaction and not as much the activity itself.  When Sasha looked back towards Professor Trishna and, again, saw the expression on the man's face, he flinched slightly and his face grew scarlet and he rubbed his face with the heels of his hands. 

Quickly, Sasha shook his head, attempting to back up what Bevans had just said.  "She's telling the truth.  We weren't - it wasn't the full thing.  I was careful about which of the rituals we went with.  I - we were just trying to channel them.  Communicate.  Nothing more!  We do it all the time!  Just ... not this elaborate." 

His fingers gripped the cauldron. It was hot under his touch, though not enough to burn - but enough that the increasing heat was growing painful. The pain was helpful, then - it gave him something to focus on other than his panic and fear...and other than the incredulity at the student's words.

He took deep, audible breaths, a hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose. They didn't understand, did they? Oh, they clearly knew they'd done something wrong, but how wrong was another story...

"There are things you do not do," he said, rather more levelly than he'd thought he be capable of. "There's a difference between gently probing the spirit plane and...and this. The divination rituals involve willing spirits, ones that come of their own choice. This...this just rips them from their rest! You don't do that!"

Maybe it was the two student's backgrounds, but he...did he really have to explain it?

He rubbed his face, his hands still hot from the metal. "We - we'll have to go to the castle. I don't know what'll they do to you two for this but it...it won't be good." He walked to them again, looking at Sasha and kneeling down infront of where they stood and sat. "You two...I don't want to see you expelled. But...try and explain to me why you did this. Please."

Katy frowned and shifted uncomfortably.  Her reasons were her own.  She'd told Sasha but only because he'd insisted.  She honestly wouldn't have told him about her mother... her mother's death, if she didn't have to.  "What do you care?" she snapped.  She spun on her heel and paced a short distance off.  Her arms crossed over her chest and she glared at the shadows.  It was better than glaring at the professor.  He'd mentioned expulsion after all.

Finally she turned back to them, her eyes glittering.  "My mother," she told the professor.  "She died."  Her tone of voices was blunt and slightly accusatory like she was daring the professor to take her as anything less than serious.  "I just needed to say goodbye."  Her voice cracked at the end, revealing how broken she was inside despite her irritated bravado.

Sasha couldn't deny he'd known what they were doing wasn't entirely acceptable.  He'd been extremely careful who to ask about necromancy and had gone to great lengths to hide his extracurricular studies. 

He'd known the practice was considered unsavory and culturally unacceptable.  But, he'd attributed that to the same, cultural uneasiness that muggles shared about the dead.  Death always seemed to be one of those things that people didn't talk about.  But, Professor Trishna was right, Sasha had not known - or, perhaps, hadn't wanted to acknowledge - the full magnitude of the transgression. 

Tears streaming down his face, Sasha shook his head as Professor Trishna offered an explanation.  "I - No," Sasha insisted, though his voice was quiet and lacked any real conviction. "They're ... he said they're all necromancy.  All the same ... evoking the spirits is all one and the same ... it's all necromancy.  And ... I needed to make sure they'd- she'd respond." 

The Ravenclaw's face scrunched and he shook his head, slightly, as the professor asked for an explanation though the gesture was more a mixture of embarrassment and rising panic than a refusal.  "I - are they really- where would I-"  Sasha started to ask, but stopped when Bevans snapped and moved away.  He watched as the girl turned back and offered a short, terse explanation and quickly turned back towards Professor Trishna. 

He shared none of Bevans' animosity towards Professor Trishna and few reservations about explaining - any of those had more to do with the act of explaining than the man present.  Even Bevans didn't know his actual motivations - Sasha didn't know how much of it would surprise Professor Trishna.  During the investigations behind his family's and Ava's deaths, he'd offered little beyond the purely clinical details the Aurors required for their investigations and he had said very little outside the investigative interviews. 

"I ... I didn't know what else to do."  Sasha answered, quietly, the tears coming freely.  "I couldn't- I don't know how else to make the guilt go away."  Other than the memory modification that they discussed in Charms class.  And, that option had terrified Sasha more than the necromancy.  "I need to ... to say sorry.  I need to know if it was her who said what she did and did what she did.  Or, if it was a curse."

In a way, Bevan's brusque manner was easier to handle than Sasha's much more open and tearful one. It wasn't a better reaction, of course; after all, students who yelled back at a professor in a situation like this were toeing the line between upset and, well, asking for an expulsion.

Tapendra rubbed his face as they both gave him the same answer, in effect; they'd been seeking closure. He could understand that far too well, and deep in his heart he remembered the darker thoughts that had flicked across his mind, in those horrible weeks after his wife's death. But he'd never - he never would have done this. It took the cultural differences of Muggleborns, he supposed, to cross that line from thinking about it to doing it.

Bevan's presence was ignored for a moment, though, and Tapendra looked at Sasha and did the first thing that came to mind; he pulled the boy up and forward into an embrace. One hand rested gently on top of Sasha's head, and Tapendra half-closed his eyes. "It's not forever," he said, to both of them. "It...it feels that way. But you'll see them again. I promise."

He sucked his breath in, drawing his wand in his free hand. "We need to go back to the Castle," he said, firmly. "This is above my office to deal with - you'll have to explain yourselves to Professor Storm." And let's hope he's in a forgiving mood.

Katy, who hadn't cried about her mother's death since the day she found out about it, watched on in silence.  She wanted to scream.  She wanted to run across the grounds until her lungs started burning so that the tears would finally start streaming down her cheeks.  She wanted it so badly she could barely breathe.  Anger and jealously filled her heart.  Sasha was crying and Professor Trishna hugged him.  Katy didn't necessarily want Trishna to hug her but she wanted to grieve.  What was she going to do?

She pressed her lips together and gave the two of them one betrayed look and started into the forest.  She was frightened of the Forbidden Forest like any student with half a brain but she dared the beasts of the woods to attack her now.  She'd felt electrified.  She would demolish anything that stood in her way, that's how close to the edge she was.  She didn't say anything to either of the men because she resented them horribly.  She just wanted to go back to the castle to get her punishment.  Then she could be alone.  No one ignored her when she was alone.

Reflexively, the Ravenclaw flinched slightly and stiffened when he saw Professor Trishna reach for him.  But the resistance was momentary and, in the next breath, Sasha let himself be drawn forward into the hug.  The abandoning of the ritual carried nowhere near the weight that the initial tragedy had in this clearing but it felt much like reliving the loss, all over.  And, this time, it felt all the more final. 

In any other circumstance, Sasha would have been intrigued by Professor Trishna's comment - and, perhaps, he'd remember to ask about it in the future.  For now, he cried against the man's shoulder, only half-aware of Bevans presence - or, her sudden departure back to the castle. 

"Bevans."

The name wasn't said unkindly, and Tapendra spoke it somewhat quietly. He still had an arm around Sasha, hand on the boy's head - but his gaze and posture angled him more towards Katy, an eyebrow raised. The darkness of the woods seemed to be closing in around them.

"Come on," he added, gently, his hand extended and smile on his features.

Katy stopped and turned to look when Professor Trishna called her name.  She scowled at his hand.  "Let's go then," she grumbled.  She felt tired and thin, worn out from the emotional confrontations she'd had tonight.  She just wanted to go to sleep now, maybe even stay there until the pain stopped.  She could just bury her head under her pillow and stop letting the world in so that it could ignore her.

The three of them walked back through the forest in a small group for safety, although Katy tried to keep her distance from Sasha and Trishna.  They made it back onto the lawn in good time, she could see the castle's lights shining from the hill above and it made her deeply sad.  Hogwarts was her home now.  She had nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to.  She couldn't get expelled!   Katy paused and stared, distressed that she might be turned out on the street.

It took a few moments but, Sasha gradually became more cognizant of Bevans' retreat back towards the castle and Professor Trishna's attempts to call her back.  He wasn't quite ready to face reality but Bevans was moving towards the castle with her usual stubborn determination.  As Professor Trishna tried to draw Bevans back towards them, Sasha became suddenly, painfully aware of his current, disheveled state.  Grateful for the distraction,  Sasha turned his attention to carefully straightening his clothes and tie and making a desperate attempt to dry and rub his face back to normal. 

Unlike Katy, he waited for Professor Trishna to give the go ahead to start back towards the castle, feeling another surge of hesitancy about leaving the clearing.  The fire was completely cold and dead; the potion now lay motionless in the cauldron.  The night and forest had all but reclaimed the clearing but Sasha's questions still remained painfully unanswered.  Somewhere in the back of his mind, the threat of expulsion still lingered and he had no idea where he would go and what he would do if he was expelled.  It was a terrifying thought. 

He fell into step next to Professor Trishna, pausing just a moment to look back towards the clearing before joining the group heading back towards school. 

Tapendra sighed. Bevans resolved to stomp off on her own, and he followed with Sasha in tow. It didn't feel right, to let Katy be alone and uncomforted in this circumstance - but at the same time, if she wasn't going to let him do anything, then there was no way he was going to force the issue.

They headed through the woods, Tapendra stopping them at the edge of the forest and drawing his wand. The blue crystal set in the handle gleamed in the otherwise dark night as he raised it, his deep voice quietly speaking the incantation for the Patronus charm.

The end of his wand burst with white light, the energy curling out and spreading wide white wings as they formed an otherwise serpentine shape. The flying serpent, an Occamy, hovered in midair before them, long body undulating as they usually did.

"Fetch Professors Storm and Sandusky," he told the serpent. "Tell them that their presence is required in the Deputy Headmaster's office as soon as possible."

With that, the serpent flapped its wings and flew away over the grounds, the glowing white shape weaving through Hogwart's towers before vanishing from sight.

"Well," Tapendra told both of the students, with a sigh. "I'd suggest you both be on the same page with what the story is - that'll help when you have to explain what's occurred to the other Professors."

Katy stopped and turned toward Professor Trishna.  Her halo of curly, slightly mussed and matted hair lit up by the glowing lights of the castle behind her created a rather dramatic scene.  She couldn't decide if she was angry, insulted, or disgusted so each of the emotions flashed on her face. 

"Get our stories straight?  Our stories?  There is now story.  We tried to talk to the dead tonight.  I have my reasons and he has his.  We don't need to concoct some story make this seem like something it's not.  I just-"  Katy stopped talking abruptly and put a hand to her forehead.  She was breathing heavily and beginning to feel light-headed from the stress and  the panic of everything that had happened to her lately.  Katy leaned over with her hands on knees. 

"I just want to get this over with," she said brokenly.  "Can we please just go?"

As the three of them moved through the forest, Sasha turned his attention to picking the small bits of leaves and pine needles from his cloak and trousers.  He had enough experience with standing in front of professors and school officials to know how unnerving the waiting could be.  Looking and feeling like a disheveled, stray dog covered in leaf litter wasn't likely to help any. 

Sasha drew up when Professor Trishna stopped to cast a patronus, feeling his gut churn slightly at the inevitable.  Professor Trishna offered his advice but, again, it was Bevans who was quick off the draw.  Color flooded Sasha's face and he cast an uneasy glance in the Hufflepuff's direction.  If the girl kept up with her lip, she was going to only make things worse.  For both of them.  He never should have let her talk him into letting her help; time - and the girl's stubborn streak - would only tell how much he'd regret that decision. 

"It's pretty straightforward."  Sasha finally spoke up, his voice still scratchy, thin and raspy.  "I'd been ... looking into it the rituals a couple of months and she found out.  Last month, she came and insisted she want to do it, too.  I ... so I started planning the details.  And, told her as little as she needed to know."  Sasha shrugged, looking between the girl and the Professor.  "But, it was originally my idea.  I'd been planning it.  And, I couldn't tell her 'no'."

"Your story, Miss Bevans," Tapendra said with an even voice, "By which I mean you two agree on what happened and do not contradict each other in your narratives. Doing so will incline the other staff to think you're lying." He didn't say it aloud, but he didn't need to - the words and this is not a circumstance were seeming insincere will help you hung in the air.

He sighed, resisting the urge to rub his forehead. Tapendra, who would have not believed that there was no way Sasha said no on any other day, could imagine it now. It was easy to imagine the small girl as persistent. Belligerently so.

"Come on, let's get to the castle," he said, patting Sasha's shoulder and patting Katy's shoulder as well as he passed her. "They'll get more likely to panic if we make them wait."