Figaro scoffed a laugh at Kesali's petulant entrance and having called them all maggots.

"Single file? Is he serious?"

He was. He totally was.  The class of nearly adults, smug, cocksure sixth years were meandering out of the castle like kidlets on a field trip, mittens and scarves and all.  He caught a glimpse of Bran Blackwell kissing former Head Girl Jordyn Dimbleby and he quipped, "Gag me."  Because of Bran, not Jordyn, of course.

As they walked, Figaro tried to 'flat tire'[1] the person in front of him.[2]  He had some sense of what had Kesali all in a knit, mainly being the same reason Zelig was all in a knit last night.

1.	Like when you step on the back of someone's shoe to make it come off, or make them trip.
2.	Anyone! Let me bother you.

Ironically, holding onto this rope made him feel like a dog on a leash.

Since Zel was crouched over and kind of squat-walking along in the procession, he was taking up quite a bit of space in line. This was so uncomfortable, and he could hardly believe everyone was playing along with this. He expected it from himself, yes—but why Alex and Jordyn were holding onto the rope was beyond him.  As they walked, he felt something hit the back of his foot. He stumbled forward and accidentally bumped his head against Raine’s mid-back—
“Sorry.” He murmured in a quick apology.

 Zel peeked over his shoulder. Figaro. Of course. The smug badger looked so amused!

He balanced on one leg and kicked back with the other wildly, hoping to connect with his housemate.

"Ha!" He'd got it.  Zel's shoe slipped off his heel to reveal a black and mustard striped sock.  But almost immediately he had to instinctively jump back and cover his crotch to avoid getting kicked in the junk.

"Oi!"  Fig's jump back disturbed the students behind him.[1] But luckily Zel didn't make contact, although he did effectively communicate to Figaro that he ought not try again.  Or at least not the same thing.   

1.	Anyone! Let me bump into you!

Almost ironically, although Ligeia would never breath this secret to any living soul, there was something comforting about the rope Professor Kesali was having them align on, mad as the class was considering him. Which of course Professor Kesali was mad, Ligeia had yet to meet a person she could not consider mad in some way, herself included. It was irksome when people talked about certain kinds of madness as a bad thing.

Although Ligeia was matured, had known her way around the castle for several years and didn't need to be guided anywhere, there was some relief for her from efforts like the rope. It wasn't always such the case given her albinism, not that Ligeia ever complained to anybody because that was just something a lady never did. When she was younger her nystagmus was much worse; involuntary eye jitters from her pigment-less eyes that prevented her from focusing on one singular point. When she was learning the pathways of Hogwarts she had felt like a wraith hovering over the site of an ongoing earthquake. It wasn't as noticeable now and when Ligeia did feel that her eyes were twitching she would often close them to a near squint or hide behind her dark spectacles.

It was that experience which read a caring gesture into Kesali's actions, beyond her mutual reciprocal delight as the professor's most cherished pupil.

"Wonderful, professor. I've heard that one of the bats I tended during a Creatures field trip and subsequently cared for a few weeks until it was returned home has overcome its lifelong disease. It still coughs, however, but now when it coughs electric sparks fly out of its mouth."

From where Ligeia had settled along the line she found herself behind Zel and Figaro as he made bewildered comments about being in line. Thus she soon found Figaro collapsing into her but LIgeia's was a deeply rooted and unmoving posture.

"Single file also means single pace, Figaro, and I think you'll find that Zel's shoes are not steps." Ligeia had a wide close lipped grin on her face[1] as she beamed at the Hufflepuff, sounding nary cross or uncomfortable at all. "Although if you are in need of a gag I think that can be arranged."

If not from Professor Kesali's out-graded child proofing methods, Ligeia had a binky she used to keep one of her rowdier shrunken heads quiet.

1.	you have a 23% chance of finding such an example on her avatar rotations

He couldn't help the way his lips curled up into a grin when he watched them walk along the rope like he did with the much much much younger students when they couldn't walk down the hall without fighting. Really it was a rather endearing experience, seeing them all in their different walks of life, toddling along together by a single thread. It almost restored his faith in the lot of them, by the way they all went along with his little gag, but then his thoughts were interrupted by Figaro nearly taking down the entire rope.

"That's wonderful. I am very pleased to hear of the little things better health," He smiled at his most cherished student, but couldn't handle it any longer.

The air was cold, and though the rain had stopped it was still very damp; the sort of chill that went straight for the bone. However as soon as the outside air hit him he relaxed instantly,

"Alright children, lead your rope along the walk please, towards the pitch," He laughed lightly, willing to play this game as long as they let him.

In the distance the large bit of hefty mech, but really looked far more intimidating than it truly was. A simple skeletal structure that could move and breathe fire, nothing to see folks, move along.

Raine’s poke was a bit harder than she'd thought. Gracie jumped, spine curving tight as she yelped. “Raine!” But she twisted around, laughing, and swatted at the Gryffindor’s hand as she continued walking on, except backwards.

And then before she could think the better of it, she grabbed it, reeling the other girl in. Her lips peeled back into a wide, mischievous grin. “If I entertain you with rope around, I’ll be using it,” she leered, just low enough for Raine to hear. “Maybe later,” she wiggled her brows before letting go, a lock of brown hair curling at her lip–

A second later, Raine was pitching forward, too hard and too fast for the Slytherin to catch her. “Uh-” Staggering backwards, Gracie’s back collided with the unfortunate body[1] who’d been behind her. Gravity did the rest, dragging her – and Raine – down the rest of the way, until they were landing heavily in a tangle of limbs, cushioned by the person in front.

Speaking of cushioning…

Slightly dazed by the fall, Gracie blinked down at the hand and face firmly planted on her chest– particularly the hand, as it curved over her breast. Ridiculous class and its equally ridiculous professor forgotten, she craned her head… to better flash the hand’s owner a smirk. “Comfortable?” she drawled, visibly amused, eyes darting from it to Raine.

This up close, it was a very good view, she had to admit. It made it that much harder to stay mad at Zel and Fig.

1.	Anyone?  ( ≖‿≖)

Theo awarded the rope a head tilt and a stare. Turning it onto Alex, it cracked into a smile. Consider him corrected: Kesali was a fool—but more so his classmates for allowing themselves to be fooled, unaware that there were no consequences except a disappointed professor. But he followed her to a spot at the very back of the line, anyway. “Coming~” he sighed, and like her he played along.

Shuffling in behind her, Theo leaned in. “I call dibs,” he murmured, his eyes trained on where Gale followed along, wrapped up in companionable small talk with the eccentric Canterbury. And by dibs, the Slytherin meant the exact opposite; he would it the loser’s prerogative, if he was the type to admit he may have been about to– lose, that is. “But we may fight for it if you’d like.”

There was a slight scuffle going on near the middle– Trumble and Sellaphix, as it turned out, predominantly marked by childish endeavors. Theo would sneer, if he could be bothered. As it was, he found himself rather preoccupied with letting go of the silly rope and stepping out of line, Alex in hand, before they were caught in a domino effect instigated by Figaro’s weight; to the surprise of exactly neither, a tangle of groaning bodies rewarded them for their self-imposed exclusion.

Hand in hand, the pair stared at everyone else, their gazes equal parts amused and judging; it seemed merely leaving the castle was to be a trial.

Joy.

---

Raine laughed, not too loudly, appreciating that she was facing her classmate's face rather than back. Not that the view from behind was uninspiring. They were nearly out of the castle now- or at least part of their troupe was while Kesali said something that she couldn't catch.

"That had better be a promi--"

Too late: she flinched, stumbling forward with a grace of which one would later be ashamed; the fall might have been rescued but Gracie still had a hold of her. They fell like a line of awkward, exclaiming dominos: and not simply because of the stumble. The line mostly halted outside the great doors.

Oof! Angrily, Raine clenched her teeth and took in the breath that had been knocked out of her lungs. “Comfortable?” Slant's voice slithered by. With an aching groan (echoed by other victims), she lifted her head off the other girl's chest.

"Like clouds from heaven." Raine smirked before untangling herself. They had landed on snowy earth, not rock. The outside air was indeed freezing. Still kneeling, she looked from the insane skeletal dragon in the distance and then over her shoulder.

Why, in Godric's good name, were they still holding on to the rope? There were at least half a dozen bruised bodies that came out of it in the front!

"Oh, come now!" she exclaimed, hauling herself up. "Zel! Sellaphix! Let go of that thing before I burn it up." It wasn't an unreasonable threat. Just as quickly, the Gryffindor twisted around to the front to glare at Kesali- her cheeks red with exertion. "Professor! If you want to make us joust a dragon that's your bloody problem but we aren't children."

"In fact-" oh she couldn't stop now. "- you're the only bloody child I see here."

Figaro didn't have very much time to gawk baldly at Ligeia's per usual horrifyingly morbid strangeness.  Because the shock wave set in motion along the toddler wire reverberated back and his legs were kicked out under him.

"Swa-? Unph!"  The mixture of reactions from the grounded nearly-adults included Figaro's own sense of Watch The World Burn glee and he snickered as he let Zelig shift out from under his shoulder.  He couldn't have planned it better if he tried! (And he hadn't.  It was all.  Completely. Random.)  Raine, dear lovely lion queen, hollered for him and Zel to remove themselves from the situation.  She was probably right - but give a Fig a rope and he's going to bloody well yank it.

But the fun was stopped up quite short.  Raine was all out shouting at the Professor.  Figaro let out a low quiet, "ooooh..." as he slowly moved to standing. 

It happened so fast!

The next thing he knew, he was being tugged down, down, down—and Figaro was kind of laying on him? He was just thankful that he had somehow landed in a way that didn’t crush Raine and Gracie. They seemed to do that for themselves.

As he squirmed and crawled out from under Fig, he had half a mind to pick his dormmate up and remove him from this tangled rope equation. When Zel stood, he realized that his shoe was still not on. He felt off balance—one foot was clad in a lumpy black and yellow sock, and the other was nice and protected by a worn black shoe whose partner was now missing.

“Zel! Sellaphix!” Raine had said, though Zel heard it all as one name, not two separate ones.

Why in the world did she call him Zel Sellaphix?! His name was Trumble! Was she implying that he and Figaro were married in some way? Zel looked at Figaro from the corner of his eye. Dear god, being married to Figaro would be awful! He understood her point though, he needed to get out of this weird rope-line before more people got hurt. Fair enough.

Then, lovely, lovely Raine was yelling at Kesali? Zel’s eyes widened and he covered his head with his cloak. It was time to go into turtle mode! “Oh no, no no no no no.” He muttered to himself.
 

Amused by the way they all fell like dominos, Gale had started to move to help them all up. He'd let this little gag get a bit far, for sure, but he just couldn't help it. They made it so easy! With a smile on his face he parted his lips to start his reasoning, but was quick to close up when a flash of fire was before him. As petite as he was, he still felt a monster before her, towering over her like he did, and the added armor didn't help the situation at all. His first reaction was to even make sure he was hearing her right, did she just call him a child?

The anger in her eyes was damn near frightening, but he wasn't about to roll over like an omega at any moment.

"Excuse me?" He asked her in a quiet voice, his eye flashing with his own electric energy.

"Would you care to repeat that, Miss Almasy? Because if you plan on pointing out that I am in fact being childish, I would check your tantrum rather fast. I am a Professor at the school you are attending, a school for children." Gale touched his chest, "Alpha--" and then he pointed to her, "Omega." He glared down at her.

"Think real good and hard if you really wish to continue this, and if the answer is yes, then by all means..." He lowered his voice so that it was nothing more than a hiss, "Bring it."

If she had any sense, the stares they were getting from her classmates should have been fair enough warning to cease and desist.

"Repeat myself?" Raine snapped back in a guttural voice. "I'm sorry, did you not understand the first time?" Her eyes flashed with a hateful, condescending light that she oft spied in a snake or two. "You. Are. Acting. Like. A. Child."

There was a brief second of inspiration in which she wanted very badly to say that there were first years with more restraint but even Kesali deserved the benefit of the doubt where that was concerned.

"You couldn't lead a pack of slugworms without accidentally killing them!" she flung her arm in the direction of the dragon. "What sort of teacher throws a tantrum at his pupils?"

Like a wildfire, her thoughts caught on to the use of wolf terms and the Gryffindor thought guiltily of Zel. He had told her about his quarrel with Kesali before. That their professor was making her friend so miserable, letting it get in the way of lessons...

"Omega any day than one of your- your beta!" Was she using those words right, even? "And this-" Raine's wand was suddenly at hand and she flicked it vehemently at the rope; it glowed red in warning. "- is what I think about your childish little alpha tantrum."

The rope burst into flames.[1]

1.	Feel free to catch fire yourselves (or get burnt)

---

OOC: Feel free to say you got burnt, but please don't put the rope out yet. I'd like to do that in my post please. And am a bit busy at work. Post away, your character reactions, but do not come between the fighters. Thanks!

"Indignities?" he said amused with a little snort, head turned halfway back towards Jordyn. "I suppose. Yet, I've heard better from six year olds, right Blythe?" he said turning his head forward, where his cousin was decidedly unimpressed with Kesali's burgeoning madness. Enya, at only six, had dibs on foulest mouth ever... and not in the pleasant sense, either. He was just about to say something else to Blythe when he realized in front of her, heads kept disappearing, and just then the rope in his hand gave a strong tug.

In the blink of an eye, Bran released the rope, pushed Blythe to the sided and without the least bit of concern, violently shoved the person in front of her[1] into the tumbling mass of limbs and bodies in front and dragged himself along with Jordyn a few steps back, effectively putting an end to the human bodies domino. He turned around, checking that both Blythe and Jordyn were okay, and with a truly furious glare, directed his eyes forward. Not looking behind to see whether his friends were following or not, he decidedly stomped forward towards the catalyst of this entire drama.  Stopping to look at the person he had just shoved he muttered a sweet "Sorry, not sorry, hon" and continued to where he could hear—Raine Almasy calling Kesali a child.

Obviously, Bran's face took a less threatening expression at such a positively intriguing turn of events. He watched the exchange between the two with a gleeful sort of smile, bordering on deranged, actually. This was all so absolutely delicious! Almasy, the little fiery time bomb versus Professor Unicorn, gone of the rails. How... superb. Smile still in place, Bran cleared his throat, arms clasped behind his back. "Professor?" he asked, voice sweet and steady. "May I remind you we are still in class? Also—" he waved a hand pointing behind them, nose crinkling at the mess of bodies and the snaking fiery rope.

He batted his eyelashes a few times, smiling angelically at the both of them. "Also" his smile disappeared for a second "we, or well, most of us" his eyes flew towards one Zel Trumble, with a little chuckle "happen to be humans, as such, pack organization and behavior is rendered completely irrelevant, as we lack the genes to respond to it. Not only that, but some might think it's rather offending. Who knows... might even consider it slander" he continued to smile, but looked towards Raine with an arched eyebrow.

1.	Takers? *cackles*

Nightingale saw inside Raine more than ever glimpses of his past, faces and friends that had all perished right exactly where they stood. He knew that anger, he knew that it was not truly aimed at him, but it did not make her words any less hurtful. Yet, just like she he too could put up a shield, protect his feelings by fire. However, it wasn't fire that he brought to defend his stance, and with the single flick of his own wand a deep and bitter Northern wind swept over the stone court to coat the rope with ice. With it the winter child inside him came to life by the way his white hair swept in the wind, his silver eye reflective of the frozen air, and breath like phantoms.


"And how is you think I am throwing a tantrum, Miss Almasy? Because I came in tired from being up most of the night? Because I get just as run down as you all do? Because I do in fact have feelings that get hurt just as easily as yours, despite how strong you pretend to be?" He did his best to keep Zel out of it, but it just simply couldn't help it. "I'm confused and torn, because on any given night I have a student crying on my shoulder, one with shoes that do not fit him, and the other screaming in my face that I have no right to do anything. It's confusing, because my Professors fought a WAR for me, Raine! A WAR! Right here on these very damn steps. The least that I can do to continue that kindness is to buy some freaking shoes to fit a little boy's feet, or offer to tag along for support to a place that has to be very scary and confusing for a teenager--or just be a solid object when all the rest of the world is falling apart.'

'I don't know how to act with any of you. I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. Accused of being a bleeding heart when I offer too much kindness, but the first day I make up my mind to not give a flying rats ass about any of you just like every other Professor is this freaking school, I get accused of being a child.'

'How much do you think you are supposed to matter to me? Huh? Enough that I would lay my life down right here on this steps for you? Yes. I fought for you then, you may not have been at this school yet, hell some of the students here weren't even born, but the entire idea is that someday you would get the chance to attend this school. I was a child then, Raine, your age, while my friends and those I considered family died all around me. Just so you can stand here and belittle me because I woke up this morning sick and TIRED of reaching out to children who like me, had to grow up too fast.'

'All I want in this entire world is for you, and every one of you to feel safe, secure, welcome and adored. But I realize now, no matter how much it pains me, that it's not my place. That I'm supposed to just pretend you are not suffering and walk the other way. I want you to learn and grow in an environment that won't try to kill you. And the sad reality is that I'm not here to love any of you, or to even care what happens to you outside these walls. I'm here to teach you, to ensure that you can survive on your own, but the realty of it is, I do. I do care and I love you all, dearly. I feel that if I don't, who will?'

'I care too much, and if that makes me a child then so be it. But from this day forward, Miss Almasy, and EVERY ONE OF YOU." He cast a silencing spell on Bran's mouth, "I didn't give you permission to speak!' Gale faced all of the students now, and he walked before them like a drill sergeant.

'From here on you will treat me with the same respect that you do Professor Storm, or Professor Reid, you will come quietly into class, and we will learn our lesson just the same. If you wish to speak to me outside of classes then you will make an appointment on my door just like all of the rest. You will be quiet, and you will not speak out of turn. The days of baked goods are over, you are just students attending this school, and I'm only here to teach you. If you have something that is bothering you that does not relate to our class, then that is what the school counselors are for. I will give and take points so fast, and I'm not going to look the other way when you are showing disrespect.'

'BUT LET IT BE KNOWN. That I," Gale struck his wand over the palm of his hand, causing a great shift in the wind, bitter and cold, but bringing with it every still frozen leaf and ice from the surrounding steps to find itself in the jet stream of his rage,

"I have survived MUCH more than your pathetic attempts at bringing me down. That I didn't get here, because I purchased my spot here. I'm a damn good wizard, who is determined to see you through to the end. YOU are students, children. *I* am your instructor, and YOU will either attend this class to learn, or fail. But beyond that you are not my problem." Stopping, he took a deep breath, and in a much quieter voice finished,

"Now get out of my face." He was absolutely exhausted and his heart was broken; but he refused to allow it to show. "Miss Almasy, you earned detention by setting my rope on fire and endangering your class mates. If any of you are burned, then I expect you to report to the healing hut at once.'

'Class dismissed."