After Sunday's revelation that Verity had not completed enough GCSEs to continue onto her A-Levels, she realized that she leaned more on the chaotic side of the spectrum than she had previously thought. But people always mocked the lawful good paladins anyway - at least that's how she justified magicking test scores in her head. And she discovered that Maiko always had her back, no matter how murky the grey area. But that was neither here nor there, as she tried to remember the exact location of the Room of Requirement, where she was supposed to meet Sasha. For the past ten minutes, she had simply been wandering around the seventh floor wishing really hard for a room to practice combat spells. A painting of a man making a vain attempt to teach trolls ballet caught her eye, and the gears in her brain began to turn. It had been a couple years since she had last needed the Room of Requirement, but thankfully this time she was searching for it under less melancholy terms.

Pass by... three times, right? Verity pondered, and she recalled that it was opposite the tapestry. I need a room for Sasha and myself to study and practice spells. She repeated the thought as a mantra, and then jumped in glee when the door appeared in front of her.

"Tidy!" She exclaimed, and looked around before entering the room, making sure that no one was around before she entered.

There were target dummies lined up in the room, and Verity brought out a hummus platter from her bag, as she doubted that Sasha had remembered to eat, but had noticed that he always would go for hummus when it was available. The somewhat gluttonous Hufflepuff had made it her personal mission to make sure that the Ravenclaw didn't forget to eat. As she waited, she brought out a Psychology textbook she borrowed from Maiko and read about psychosomatic disorders.

Unlike the Hufflepuff, the Ravenclaw didn't need to jog his memory to remember how to find the Room of Requirement.  He'd spent many evenings in that shifting chamber over the past year, either pursuing his own study purposes or reporting to a practice session with Eamonn or, on a few occasions, Mr. Morgan.  The Room of Requirement was far more impersonal than the Astronomy Tower but for activities like this, it was much more ideal.  Especially since Professor Trishna probably wouldn't appreciate dueling spells being blasted around the tower, even in the name of studying.

It wasn't that far of a trek from the Divination tower to the Room of Requirement - only a couple flights down from the tower itself and a short sprint over.  Even so, Verity still made it to the room several minutes before him and had the honors of mentally 'setting it up'  the space.  As the door to the room opened up, the Ravenclaw slipped inside and glanced around. 

"Space to practice spells must be a default setting," Sasha commented as he glanced around the space.  Right down to the unceremonious picnic table, the room looked very similar to how it did whenever he and Eamonn used it for practice. 

After setting his bag down on one of the benches of the picnic table and crossed the room to the line of practice dummies.  "It's not there," he commented aloud as he inspected one of the center dummies.  Apparently the setting was the same but refreshed for each specific user. 

He returned to the table where Verity sat with an obviously non-magical textbook (easily recognizable by the shiny, plastic, non-leather cover).  Psychology.  Hummus.  Pavlov would be giggling about now.  "Don't you find that stuff, you know, creepy sometimes?  Like ... do you really want to know that much about a person?  I mean, getting in your own head is bad enough.  Doesn't it...sorry." 

Verity heard the door open, and the slender girl beamed when Sasha walked in, though the blond Ravenclaw seemed to be distracted as he examined the room. She wondered what memories this place held for her friend, and frowned slightly out of concern.

"What's not there?" The Hufflepuff inquired. For having so much of his life chronicled in newsprint, Sasha remained somewhat of an enigma to Verity.

When he questioned her about her interest in psychology, Verity chuckled. "No worries. My reasons for wanting to study psychology are rather... personal, and aren't due to any particular desire to delve into someone's brain - though I do find learning about how other people's thought processes work to be fascinating. But, I mean, what good is taking care of our physical bodies if we're all broken inside?"

Verity shrugged and shook her head. "But I feel that while psychology isn't inherently creepy, reading about certain disorders or individuals can be rather disturbing..." The Hufflepuff trailed off and closed the textbook. "However, we didn't come here to discuss Psych 101. You were going to teach me how to knock the stuffing out of these dummies!"

She flashed her most winning smile and practically hopped out of her seat, ebony wand in hand.

“I come here sometimes to practice,” Sasha explained, carefully avoiding mentioning he usually practiced with others.  And the nature of the practices weren’t, always, completely above board.  Or even remotely above board.  “A couple weeks ago, a chunk … fell off.  That damage seemed to stay on the dummies I’ve used since but, I guess, new partner, new dummies.”  The Room of Requirement was definitely an odd place. 

"But, I mean, what good is taking care of our physical bodies if we're all broken inside?”

The Ravenclaw froze, for a moment sinking into his own thoughts.  He could feel his mouth grow dry and his mind defensively ground to a halt.  Finally, he took a deep, shaky breath.  “Yes!” he finally said, a little too vehemently, welcoming the change of topic.  “Knock the dummies.  So, starting point…” 

Sasha tugged his own purpleheart and black limba wand from his bag and followed to the middle of the room.  It seemed so strange to think he was helping anyone with defensive wandwork.  For his first four years of Hogwarts, it had been his weakness and a mismatched wand hadn’t helped.  For most of those four years, he'd considered himself a pacifist.  Could he remember that?  Insisting on never lifting a hand against someone, even in self-defense?  Now, after many hours of careful practice with a wand that was not only well-matched but that he’d won off another wizard, it was a very different story.  It still felt very strange. 

“Alright.  Let’s see where you are.  Pretend the two middle dummies are … dark wizards … cornering you in Knockturn Alley.  What would you do?"  Sasha gestured with his wand towards the two practice dummies. 

Verity quirked her head at his comment, and pursed her lips. She felt like there was something he wasn't telling her, but the Hufflepuff didn't want to pry. However she still couldn't help herself entirely. "New partner? Will your regular partner get jealous that you're spending time with someone else? Who is obviously tidier than they are," she stuck out her tongue to convey that she was being facetious.

Sasha was definitely behaving rather oddly, his exuberance shocked her, but Verity let it go. Focus, Verity. She imagined the middle dummies as extremely dark wizards, and thought about what she would do in that situation. Probably get myself killed. No, what would Hermione do? She fought countless dark wizards and witches. In that situation, she would have no chance against them in a duel, but if she could cause a distraction...

Avis. She thought, and a swarm of small birds flitted about her. She'd always loved the spell because it made her feel like some sort of Disney princess. Oppugno. She flicked her wand towards the dummies, and the flock dive bombed into the targets with unerring accuracy. Verity placed Expulso on the conjured birds, causing each one to explode in a blast of blue light, peppering the dummies with firecracker explosions. With each explosion she had to remind herself that the birds were merely conjurations, and not living creatures.

The Hufflepuff tilted her head, and looked over at Sasha to see his reaction. She could tell that the Expulso Curse 's power suffered from her silent casting, but she hoped that it would have provided enough of a distraction for her to run away.

"I would be using this moment to run away," Verity gestured with her thumb behind her. "Umm... Was that okay?"

"New partner? Will your regular partner get jealous that you're spending time with someone else? Who is obviously tidier than they are."

A brilliant blush spread up the Ravenclaw's face, almost reaching his ears and, for a brief moment, he sought the easiest (and therefore most literal) answer and shook his head dumbly.  "It- um...no?  He-..."  Of course, Eamonn was highly unlikely to be jealous and Mr. Morgan had been somewhat begrudged about the whole scenario.  But, Verity wasn't being serious so, belatedly, he realized a serious answer was unnecessary.  "No.  Nothing like that.  It's more like the student becomes the teacher.  I think they'd be fine." 

The Ravenclaw shook his head but glanced at Verity once before shaking his head, again, and fixing his attention on the dummy.  By then, the small flock of birds had darted across the room and were descending upon the motionless dummy and were fluttering and flapping around the motionless figure's lifeless head.  A moment later, the tiny birds exploded in an array of tiny explosions and the Hufflepuff explained she'd be making her escape.  Which was all well and good if there was an escape route and the tiny explosions were enough to distract the assailant. 

"Assuming the spells I saw were the ones you meant to cast, that was good.  They all seemed clean.  The explosions probably were only strong enough to annoy the attacker, but that might be enough to get away."  It wouldn't have only angered a werewolf further.  "Though-" 

He crossed the room to stand next to the avian-assaulted dummy.  "-the benefit of a nonverbal spell is the element of surprise.  It doesn't give the other person an opportunity to think of a way to counter the attack.  If I'd been the attacker, the few seconds the birds flittered around your head would have been plenty of time for me to prepare a counter.  If I'd thought to explode them before you had a chance to send them my way, you couldn't have run.  I would have you.  Better not to produce anything a faster or stronger wizard could gain control of and use against you."

"If I were to come after you, you want to incapacitate me before turning your back on me.  What could you use?" 

Verity sighed and smiled when she spied the rosy tint spread across Sasha's face. Apparently her promise that she wouldn't fluster him would be harder to keep than she previously imagined. Though she didn't actively try to cause that reaction, so she didn't think that it should really count. She remembered the young boy who had been as reluctant as she was to use offensive spells, but assumed that his experiences over the past year would change most people.

His critique of her spell chain didn't come as a shock to the Hufflepuff, though she had been rather proud of herself for thinking of adding in the explosions. But what he said made sense, and she felt slightly foolish for giving into such a childish flight of fancy as pretending to be a princess. She brushed her wavy hair away from her face, and pursed her lips tightly as she quickly wracked her brain for a spell that would stop an attacker in their tracks.

"I could use the Full Body-Bind Curse, so then you wouldn't be able to follow or make motions with your wand?" Verity disliked the question in her voice, and wished that she was more capable in Defense Against the Dark Arts, as she refused to drop the class as that would be admitting defeat.

The Ravenclaw nodded, grinning in approval.  “Yes.  That’s better.  If your goal is to inhibit the assailant and get away, the first spell you use should limit their ability to retaliate and be near impossible to counteract.  Body-bind would be effective at that.  They couldn’t chase you and, yes, it would limit their casting ability; non-verbal magic often requires accurate gestures just like the spoken version.” 

Most.  But not all. 

She was on the right track and Sasha wanted to continue encouraging her.  These were all concepts they’d touched on back when Professor Mainwaring was their Defense teacher but, like many of his classmates, the what ifs of finding himself actually needing to use the information had felt very abstract.  He’d paid attention for the sake of passing exams and getting top grades, not because he thought it would save his life.  He hadn’t taken that part seriously; it had been bundled into the hazy it won’t happen to me naivety of youth. 

“A body bind is good.  What else would be good for inhibiting an attacker?  Especially assuming a magical attacker?  Even more so than being able to move their wand?  What’s our most important tool in a magical attack?"

It was strange for Verity to be receiving help with academics, even with Defense Against the Dark Arts, generally her theoretical knowledge of spells allowed her to still be the tutor instead of the tutored. Yet, oddly, she felt at ease with Sasha assisting her, and not as though she failed. His smile at her answer caused her to grin in spite of herself, as if she had just received high praise from a Professor. She did hope that he would notice that she had planned the room to include a cauldron, and a well stocked cabinet of ingredients to every potion that they had covered in class, though. While it was debatable whether she or Theo were better, her affable demeanor usually resulted in her being the more preferred Potions study buddy. Not that she assumed to have time tonight. But, she found herself enjoying Sasha's company, and hoped that this could be a regular thing.

"What's our most important tool in a magical attack?" When Sasha asked that, Verity resisted the urge to smack herself for failing to go for the most obvious tactic. Naturally, she would make things more compicated than they had to be.

"What is our wand?" Verity answered the question. "I'll choose First Year Knowledge for five-hundred now, Alex," she shook her head and smiled. "Expalliarmus is the spell to use in that situation, huh? I have a habit of disregarding the simplest solution." But then she felt a sense of uncertainty. "I might also go with Silencio, depending on how adept they are at non-verbal magic, that could also hinder them."

Verity frowned at her lack of confidence, and chewed on her bottom lip.

The Ravenclaw's eyebrows lifted as he waited, eagerly, for the Hufflepuff's response.  When the answer came in the form of an American gameshow - there in the middle of the transformed Room of Requirement - the contrast between the two caught Sasha off guard.  He was motionless for a brief moment and then started laughing. 

The laugh wasn't one of his usual, awkward, barely-more-than-a-chuckle laughs.  It was one of those contagious and entirely irrational laughs that was completely out of scale with the situation.  He honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed like this and that, in itself, seemed to fuel the humor.  Further egged on by an unexpected rush of stress being relieved, the Ravenclaw had to turn away, cross the room and sit down at the picnic table.

"That wasn't even the answer I was looking for," he said between breaths, the admission only seeming more humorous in his current state.  He tried to force his breathing to slow to a more normal rhythm and, gradually, the laughter started to ease.  When his voice finally started sounding more normal, Sasha finally shook his head.  "I'm sorry.  Really, I am.  I don't know ... that usually doesn't happen.  I-"  He had no explanation. 

A few more deep breaths and Sasha's attention quickly turned to, probably needlessly, making himself presentable after that momentary outburst.  He ran his hands through his hair and over his shirt, smoothing out any stray hairs or wrinkles that laughing might have somehow left in its wake. 

Verity's mood changed from confused to indignant as Sasha's laughter continued far longer than she felt was truly necessary. And she cursed herself because when she became angry, her eyes started to water. The Hufflepuff felt that he was laughing at her ineptitude towards knowing how to react towards dark wizards cornering her in some shady alleyway. The truth of the matter was that Verity had never actually been in a fight. Ever. She had no problem with casting spells, but put it in the context of a battle, and her mind drew a complete blank. And she hated that she had such a glaring weakness.

She turned away from him and tried to blink away her angry tears, as she didn't want her crying to become a thing whenever she and Sasha hung out. As she gathered her breath, Sasha seemed to be calming down slightly.

"Are you done laughing at me?" Verity asked, turning back to him. "I'm happy that I was able to be so amusing."

Her snappy tone was not totally unintended, but she felt slightly ashamed. "I'm sorry. What answer were you looking for? The only fighting that I've ever done has been in video games, and the two duels that I was forced to do for participation... that I subsequently lost. These fists know no fury..."

Verity sat down with Sasha at the picnic table, and smiled wanly. She hadn't witnessed Sasha laugh like that in... ever. So at least some good came out of her being a complete failure.

As the laughing started to fade, Sasha became painfully aware that Verity hadn't also found the situation humorous.  In fact she seemed upset.  Angry?  She'd turned away from him.  Was she ... was she crying? 

Sasha blinked and stared at the Verity's back, his mind racing to figure out what he'd said.  Or, where he'd went wrong.  How was it possible?  He hadn't really even said anything!  It was ... okay, sure, it had been more laughter than was really normal but hadn't she made a joke?  How did this ... how did he ... was he cursed?  Maybe dark magic did taint you somehow and leave a mark that just made you ... wrong.  Or, different.  Or - Despite Professor Trishna's reassurance, maybe he could no longer relate to his classmates. 

"I wasn't-"  Sasha lifted his hands, helplessly.  "I - I didn't ... it just.  The juxtaposition of it.  The idea of a game show.  Jeopardy.  Here.  In the room of ... I don't know.  It just - caught me by surprise..."  Sasha's voice trailed off as he sighed, shaking his head.  "It'd been a long time since ... I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have ... shouldn't have laughed.  I should have had better control." 

This was just one more reminder of why emotional control was so important.  He'd wanted to feel normal again - like he could just relax and ... do normal study stuff.  But, emotions just got you in trouble.  He'd learned that well enough growing up.  They just lead to errant magic, repercussions and hurt feelings.  He knew how to suppress them - how to keep them in check; he'd just dropped his guard.  So stupid.  "I'm sorry.  I won't ... do it again.  I wasn't laughing at you, though.  I'm just not - not very good with this stuff."  Normal people stuff. 

He could feel himself withdrawing and walling up behind well practice barricades.  "I was just ... if you can catch the attacker off guard, confundus can go a long way.  All magic originates in our mind.  Confuse that and ... maybe you can escape without anyone getting hurt.  But ... you know.  Maybe this isn't a good idea.  I thought ... maybe I could do the whole normal hanging out stuff."  He could feel his own chest tighten and he shook his head.  There it was.  That anticipation of rejection.  And the urge to run before it happened.  Like he'd said to Clarencieux.  Lonely was preferable to making people cry. 

"Maybe, I'm just too broken on the inside.  I'm sorry." 

Sasha wasn't laughing at me, and my sensitivity just botched everything! Verity felt new tears, and cursed her emotional response. But it was like she saw just how deep his loneliness went, and she shook her head vehemently when he said that he couldn't just hang out normally.

"No, it's not your fault. I am just a silly, over-emotional girl. The laughter just brought me back to primary school for a moment. Please continue to laugh, you have a nice laugh," she tried to explain all in one breath.

"Maybe, I'm just too broken on the inside."

Verity acted instinctively. She hugged the Ravenclaw tightly, not intending to let him go. Hot tears swelled from her closed eyes, and she knew that Sasha would probably hate the contact, but she didn't know how else to explain her feelings. Every time she attempted to speak, she was choked by a sob. She berated herself for the tears, but that did nothing to stop the waterworks. Eventually she managed to get enough of a hold on her emotions to pull just enough away to look into Sasha's eyes. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she somehow managed a smirk.

"Sasha, you are stuck with me. I've decided that we are going to be best friends," she hiccupped due to the remnants of her crying. "No one else even knows who X-23 is."

Verity had gone from angry to crying to reassuring to ... complimenting his laugh.  It seemed like she was almost crying, again, though it seemed he was no longer at fault for the tears.  It was enough to make his head spin; he was never going to understand girls if they were even comprehensible. 

It had been some time since he'd had a near panic like this outside of the safety of the Astronomy tower or, certainly, in the presence of other students.  Since the debacle of Halloween, he'd tried his best to keep his distance from classmates.  But, the laughter a moment before had been fueled by the release of long-since pent up emotions.  Watching Verity melt into a new wave of tears wasn't helping him carefully fold and layer those emotions back into their box.  He desperately wanted to plaster that everything's in control mask back on his face but the Hufflepuff wasn't letting him. 

Reflexively, Sasha closed his eyes and flinched, stiffening when Verity first reached for him.  But, after a few breaths it registered that she was only hugging him.  Hugging him and crying.  Awkwardly, he took a deep, shaky breath and forced himself to relax.  With the relaxation came a few tear tracks of his own.  Apparently, the bottled up emotions were using any avenue at their disposal to escape: laughter or tears.  Unsure what he was supposed to be doing but well aware he should be doing something, he wrapped his arms around the Hufflepuff and awkwardly patted her. 

"I mean.  Wouldn't it be a little weird to walk in here one day and find Alex Trebek standing in here?" he offered with a lopsided shrug when Verity finally stepped back.  "I mean...just picture that.  It's like a weird Star Trek holodeck episode."  He reached in his pocket for a clean (perhaps a little embroidered and embossed) folded up handkerchief and handed it to the Hufflepuff.  He swallowed against the lump in his throat and, with the compulsiveness of a duck after a windstorm, turned to preening his hair and clothes and even buffing the edge of a shoe back in order. 

He wanted to believe Verity when she insisted he was stuck with her - and he did believe she meant it.  Now.  Here.  Most people usually did in the moment.  He knew it would end.  Some day.  It usually did.  Regardless of the hard earned cynicism, though, he did appreciate the sentiment and he was willing to accept it for however long it held true.  And, at least even he could see now wasn't the time to question it.  "Thank you." 

"And ... you shouldn't ..."  He hesitated, aware that, in his nerves, he'd become self-conscious of what he was saying again.  Professor Storm would be berating him for the stuttering.  He rolled his eyes, frustrated at himself.  "Why would I laugh at you for not knowing this stuff?  I mean, I'd ... I rather you didn't.  Or, didn't have to.  Or - I hope your fists never know any fury.  I'd give anything to go back to that.  I should be dead, four times over and I don't know why I'm not.  I keep looking over my shoulder, expecting it to catch up with me."  And, he was still there in the lion's den.  "If I seem too light-hearted about any of this, trust me - it's because...it was a relief for this just to be class.  Not-"  he took a deep breath and shrugged. 

For a moment, she was worried that he would push her away, but then he wrapped his arms around her, and she felt him relax. Verity held a lot of stock in the healing power of hugs, and felt relief flood through her body as he uncertainly patted her back.

It's like a weird Star Trek holodeck episode.

Verity laughed so hard she snorted at the ridiculousness of the thought, and buried her face in the fancy handkerchief he offered her in order to hide her embarrassment. Snorting was absolutely mortifying, and she wiped her face with the cloth before looking at him again, and he seemed to have regained his composure, too.

She was sure that part of him thought that she was lying or just claiming that she would stick with him due to the heightened emotions. Who wouldn't? They hadn't really seen or interacted with each other in a long time before the other day, but when he had left before, Verity had been surprised by how upset it made her. But he accepted the comment, and she smiled brightly.

As Sasha explained how he hoped that she would never have to experience danger or have to fight, her hazel eyes softened, and she was about to grab his hand as a comforting gesture, but refrained as she had already thrown herself on him, and she wasn't sure how much more physical contact the poor boy could take in one sitting. But she felt a sense of resolve form in her stomach. "I might not be particularly helpful now, but you don't need to feel that you have to deal with everything on your own. I'm here for you."

She bounced up, remembering the present she had spent much of last night preparing. "And... to mark the beginning of our being co-captains of the friendship ship, I actually made you a present. It was just something you mentioned the other day, and I experimented with a lot of charms to make sure that there were no ill effects, or a bad taste..." The Hufflepuff dug through her bag and brought out a pumpkin pasty. "It's a one hundred percent, guilt-free pastry. And it doesn't even taste lowfat! Technically, I brought the hummus and veggies to be eaten beforehand, but life is short, so eat dessert first."