The first floor classroom was occupied by four sixth-year students. Two of them were hauling their steaming counterpart up off the floor after drenching them with water to put fire out. The fourth stood nervously at the Professor’s left elbow, trying to concentrate on the critique of an essay on the desk before them.

“You have only described, you have not explained, nor compared or provided reference.” Professor Storm explained, dragging his quill tip across the parchment to cross out swathes of pointless writing. "Third years could write a decent explanation where you have not. Better four inches of useful content than half a foot of drivelled description. Wasted, pointless-.“

With an irritable sigh the Professor shook his head and cast aside his quill in favour of his wand and let the essay burn to a crisp in midair.
“You’ll resubmit by first lesson tomorrow and-.” The sandtimer on the desk turned over, indicating a new hour and the school clock rang two o'clock distantly. “- you will write it as I expect a sixth year in my class can. Now, out all of you. I require my classroom.” His head snapped up to regard the student beside him who did a little jump and scuttled away with the other three who noisily scooped up their bags.

The classroom door banged closed behind them and Ignan took a moment to enjoy the relative peace and quiet, blue eyes turning to the tall classroom windows to his right. The sky was obscured by thick cloud, the sun futilely attempting to break through the rain which thrummed against the glass, swept by winter wind.

By the time the classroom door opened again, there was a brown glazed teapot steaming on the desk at the head of the class, accompanied by two mismatched teacups leftover from various crockery-smashing practicals.

“Almasy.” The Professor greeted, unable to quite hide the comparatively upbeat greeting from him at seeing her. She had seen him first thing, amongst her seventh year cohorts, and he had seen her about at mealtimes, but they had barely a moment to pass more than a nod. “Do you mind locking the door? Dissuade further visitors…” He gestured gently with a hand from his seat, having moved towards the left hand end of his desk, another chair to his right. “Hopefully the smell of burning flesh has dissipated by now… one of the sixth years.” The patch of water on the stone floor had very nearly dried.

The teapot lifted itself from the desk at a precise flick of his ebony wand and began to pour, steam tumbling up into the air above.
“I had not anticipated to see you so soon.” The Deputy Headmaster watched the younger witch carefully, "Change of plans?"

"Good afternoon Professor."

Raine Almasy locked the door as it shut behind her, the sound of it clicking into place lost to that of rainfall across the grounds and against the castle walls. She smirked at the reference to her sixth year counterparts but underneath the mess of fiery curls, the rest of her expression was more cheerful than mean.

Merlin - she missed their Defences teacher! Compared to her past few months of training with Ira this was... incidentally, a port in the storm, for lack of better wording. And he was one of her favourites long before that at any rate.

"It wouldn't be Hogwarts if somebody isn't presently caught on fire." Raine lowered her satchel bag to the floor and smiled at the older wizard before she took a seat, primly tucking her ankles under the chair. "Thank you," she waited for the teapot to lower itself before reaching for a mug with both hands.

She could feel his scrutiny as the question was posed. Harmless enough. The Gryffindor appreciated its courtesy, which allowed for her to either get straight to the point or talk around it. Raine frowned a little as she set herself the task of conversing - duelling was so much easier than words.

"You could say that. It was a disagreement in... our outlooks on life. My aunt and me, that is. We didn't quite-" she warmed her hands around the mug, waiting for it to cool. "- see eye to eye on specific subjects."

Such as, oh, murder and kidnapping and werewolf boyfriends. Normal adolescent things. She glanced up from the tea to fix Professor Storm with a calculative look: trying to think of how she could talk about what had happened without actually discussing it.

"Would you believe she's a worst temper than me?" Raine raised her eyebrows in light humour, although the wry smile faded quickly from her lips. "It's a cold temper. I couldn't stay with her. I think she might be malicious."

A pause before she remembered her manners. "I prefer it here, kidnappings or not. Have you been well, sir?"

Almasy did not deliver a very direct answer, which led Ignan to believe that Raine’s return was more her own decision rather than her guardian’s. He met her gaze but did not comment, allowing the silence between them to require filling by the young woman.

“Would you believe she's a worst temper than me?”
“Hrm?”
"It's a cold temper. I couldn't stay with her. I think she might be malicious.”

His silver eyebrows dropped thoughtfully at that observation, and here came the change of subject. It wasn’t beyond his imagination to believe that Raine might have fallen out with her family and run away, though one normally didn’t run to school, but from it.
“The same old,” he replied gently. However fond he was of Raine Almasy, his personal life of marriage, and domestic arrangements were not appropriate topics of conversation. “A few new faces here since you left, though some of us don’t change.” Professor Storm sipped gingerly at his tea. “You are bucking the trend with returning, considering recent events.” He gave her a small nod of appreciation. “Back for the last few months.” He hadn’t stopped studying her since her comment about her aunt, looking for signs of hurt, scars that he’d not noticed before, ticks. He wasn’t as observant as some he knew, but in his role, and despite his personal interests, he had a duty of care.

“Has your time away changed your mind about your plans?” The Professor asked, outwardly showing no signs of suspicion, more cordial conversation, though that in turn would be enough to provoke suspicion in most of his students.

This was painfully awkward. How was she going to ask him about Ira if she couldn't say it straight? Raine nodded absently as he plainly told her how little had changed in these halls , only half listening.

Gracie and Alex, along with the odd letter from Zel, had kept her up to date on the comings and goings at Hogwarts. And Witch Weekly never failed to both inform whilst simultaneously misinforming its readers of 'news' - she was glad those things would not derail from her main reason for being here, although mildly distressed that Storm was difficult to distract in that sense.

He would figure out something was not right, even if she did not say so out loud. People like him were attentive to life.

It reminded Raine of her aunt in the best way; trying to think of Ira as entirely malicious was not possible. Even terrible people possessed commendable traits... and terrible people who got away with their crimes possibly possessed the most.

“Has your time away changed your mind about your plans?”

That sounded more like something Counselor Biladeau-Yukawa would ask, trying to prise open someone's jaws over biscuits. Raine sipped her tea to prolong a pause before she placed the mug back on the desk and breathed in with almost farcical seriousness. "No, reinforced them rather " she cleared her throat.

"Professor, I have a question I need to ask that involves my aunt but I suspect... she might know if I asked anyone else. I'm not sure who I can trust. It involves the kidnapping over Christmas." The Gryffindor sat straighter and leaned forward, hands on her lap. "May I posit it as a hypothetical question?"

"No, reinforced them rather."
"Good." The interjection from the Professor was not a direct intention to continue speaking, but expressed within the single word that he was pleased she was still intending to become an auror. It would be a great shame if she should deviate from her intended vocation.

"Professor, I have a question I need to ask that involves my aunt but I suspect... she might know if I asked anyone else." The cup of tea, which had been on its journey back for another sip to quench a thirst from talking to the sixth years, paused and hung halfway. This sounded a little ominous.

"I'm not sure who I can trust. It involves the kidnapping over Christmas. May I posit it as a hypothetical question?" As much as Ignan detested students electing to tell him things, they did once in a while. Raine Almasy didn't appear to be the sort to weep, which was something he couldn't abide with. Not that he saw it as a significant sign of weakness, rather more that he had no idea what to do other than to dismiss students who did so he didn't have to deal with it.

The teacup reunited with the saucer, and the Professor returned his hand to rest upon his folded leg.
"You may." He gave Raine a nod, deciding not to address her as Almasy just that moment.

Raine tried not to feel a prickle of pride at Storm's approval - she very much had her mind set on training to become an Auror, regardless of what authority figures might think, but it helped that the strictest of professors considered her capable of it. Sometimes she wondered if Donovan was scarier; but then she always remembered him as the strange, taciturn ship captain in south east Asia and the illusion rather ruined itself.

Professor Storm set down his tea, which meant business. The Gryffindor brought her thoughts together and breathed in slowly.

She realised - only for a second - that she was frightened; that the dominant emotion she had been neatly stepping over since leaving London was fear, fear of what would happen if her aunt acted on some sadistic whimsy again. But it was only a second. Feeling fear for any longer than that would mean paralysis.

"If someone you loved were really a criminal-" Raine began. Fair eyes, shared with her older relative, fixed themselves on the steam rising from Storm's cup. "- if they'd done a malicious thing to your friends in spite of being nothing but kind to you.... that is to say, maybe done those things because of you. To impress you or something stupid like that."

A pause as she wrinkled her nose characteristically and looked up at the Defences teacher, sighing. "I don't know what the right thing to do might be." Bringing up the kidnapping earlier probably made it obvious to him that she was talking about the perpetrator of Zel's kidnapping but she wanted to be clear rather than dramatic.

"I found out about- about what she was, and I left London. And I have what I think might be evidence against her but I haven't the least what she'll do if I go to the Aurors." Raine felt a weight lift off her chest for having admitted that - the not knowing part. "She's crazy."

Raine didn't mean it lightly at all. She knew now: Aunt Ira was crazy and that was what made her so unpredictable. 

"If someone you loved were really a criminal - if they'd done a malicious thing to your friends in spite of being nothing but kind to you.... that is to say, maybe done those things because of you. To impress you or something stupid like that.”

Almasy’s gaze had turned to somewhere around his teacup, while his studied her carefully.  He had not a lot to do with Zel’s disappearance over Christmas, but had dealt with whatever Hogwarts had needed to provide - the incident happening during the school holidays.  As an acquaintance of the Trumbles through the boy’s late father, he had been rather concerned, and tried to think of any historic links to provide reason for it.

This hypothetical question was clearly not so hypothetical, so the Professor listened carefully. If Raine knew something of the kidnappings, then it would be better she spoke with the aurors who had investigated it.  But when it came to family, and family who Raine had been staying with…

"I don't know what the right thing to do might be. I found out about- about what she was, and I left London. And I have what I think might be evidence against her but I haven't the least what she'll do if I go to the Aurors. She's crazy.”

The statement hung in the air a moment, the Professor’s expression showing genuine concern.
“You have done the right thing.”  He spoke at last, quietly.  “You are safe here, Raine.”  He never used the student’s first names ordinarily, but now seemed the right time to.  To differentiate Raine from her aunt.  “If someone I love is really a criminal,” he began carefully, looking off to his left as he considered, "then however much they love me, or that I love them, does not change the fact that they have done wrong.” That gave him a strange feeling to say, considering Miranda was very much in the same position as Raine, only unwittingly, and Ignan had not kidnapped a young person in recent history.

“However, I would be cautious to understand was exactly has been committed, so as not to jump to any conclusions.  False accusations, well meaning as they are, are damaging to both parties, and accusations without firm foundation are easily explained away.”  He looked back to Raine levelly. “I never distrust gut feeling, even moreso in recent times of oversight.  What crime is it that you believe - hypothetically if you feel it safer - the person who love has committed?”

Between her own uncertainty and that of Zel's, it was reassuring to hear from Professor Storm that she had done the right thing - he did not sound thrown off guard or confused or even angry at the fact that she'd not gone straight to the authorities. This was the best evidence of having done the right thing, better even than him saying so. She knew that he would be neither here nor there with the Ministry, which she was only interested in trusting once installed in their ranks and aware of their priorities.

The kidnappings had made an exhibit of where the Ministry's priorities were these days. "I never distrust gut feeling, even moreso in recent times of oversight," Storm seemed to echo the thought. "What crime is it that you believe - hypothetically if you feel it safer - the person who love has committed?"

Raine reached for her mug, distractedly looking for something to do with her hands as she noted the seriousness of this exchange. Everything was much more serious than usual in this classroom; it was full of realities she couldn't ignore by curling up next to Zel or sparring with Gracie and Alex.

"She has kidnapped my friend and trapped him someplace inside her home. I've been in it. I've seen the... there was a mirror, it was in the papers[1]."  A pause, because she couldn't keep the image from resurfacing in her mind. "I know those things almost for certain."

The Gryffindor hoped she wouldn't ever have to see Zel in his werewolf form again - not because it repulsed her but because she sensed he wouldn't like it. Her only comfort was that she was an animagus and would have survived the slaughter that the doppelgänger did not.

"Everything else is conjecture. I found wands in the room where Ze-- where he was held." Raine sipped her tea, it was cool enough now not to burn her lips. "Other things that looked like they were taken. I know that murderers do that sometimes. At least the muggle ones," she made a dismissive gesture - telling of her general attitude towards her mother's muggleborn heritage. "They keep things. I took the wands with me and we've hidden them in the Room of Requirement."

Realising that she hadn't clarified her partner in crime, Raine smiled weakly at the Defences professor. "Zel and me, I mean. We thought it was the safest place for now."

1.	Werewolf Kidnapper Taunts Ministry's Finest - February 17th

"She has kidnapped my friend and trapped him someplace inside her home. I've been in it. I've seen the... there was a mirror, it was in the papers. I know those things almost for certain.” Professor Storm was quiet, watching Raine carefully. Whereas he did not doubt her in telling the truth he did worry about influence, impression and placed memories. "Everything else is conjecture. I found wands in the room where Ze-- where he was held. Other things that looked like they were taken. I know that murderers do that sometimes. At least the muggle ones. They keep things. I took the wands with me and we've hidden them in the Room of Requirement. Zel and me, I mean. We thought it was the safest place for now.”

There was a long pause while the Deputy Headmaster thought carefully on his words. There was no avoiding that this would need to be reported. He had made that mistake in the past, allowed the influence of an outside party sink its claws deep into a student to the point they were begging not to have it disclosed, despite the severity, citing personal risk.

“You have been in the place in which you believe your friend to have been trapped?” He asked, though rhetorically, repeating back to assure he had it correct, and also so Raine could hear how it sounded, “And have seen a mirror you believe to be the same as the one placed in the Ministry.” His gaze was unblinking, hopefully conveying enough sincerity to show he was not mocking her. “And the only tangible evidence are wands you have placed in the Room of Requirement?” He lowered his gaze a moment. “How does it sound in reverse? I am not questioning your judgement, Raine, only that if what you believe has happened, is true, one needs firm evidence. One might rely on the aurors to achieve this, but well…” He offered her a momentary sad smile. Had he been a more caring sort, he might have offered words of comfort.

“Those wands are not safe in the Room of Requirement, not if they are your only source of confirmation that is not based upon the memories in your head. Both of which require safer containment.”

It was mess. That was how everything she had said sounded, in reverse, and Raine's fiery eyebrows drew together in worry. Hearing this from Professor Storm made the case for telling the Aurors all the more compelling: Zel wanted to but he wouldn't without her agreeing to it. Adon Eleor. A peculiar wizard whose interaction with her aunt  in December implied some unspoken tension[1].

"I know," she admitted with a heavy heart and  put down the tea she had not really been tasting anyway. "I don't know where else to keep the wands - the dorms are too accessible. On my person,perhaps. But I realise I can't keep them for very long."

Just thinking about them as evidence made her feel nauseated. Raine suspected that the longer she had the wands the less useful they might be to the investigation.

She didn't want to look at Storm in the eye - it made her feel too much like a little girl who didn't know what she was doing - so the Gryffindor glanced down at her hands instead, nails pressed into her palms. "Aun-- Ira will expect me to be in touch with the Aurors, I'm sure of it. Zel tells me we can trust one of them. I want to wait and see."

Raine cleared her throat and finally looked up. "Do you think I should write all this down? Signed testimony, just in case something happens to me?"

1.	And all your kin and kinfolk - Dec 22nd

Hearing it back unsettled Raine, and the Professor swallowed gently, giving her time to think things through. He would willingly sit there all afternoon to let her reason it out. He had the time, even if she did not.

"... Ira will expect me to be in touch with the Aurors, I'm sure of it. Zel tells me we can trust one of them. I want to wait and see. Do you think I should write all this down? Signed testimony, just in case something happens to me?"

"I think that would be a very good idea." The Professor replied without hesitation. "Not because I think for any moment something would happen to you, but more because a written statement helps rationalise and focus the situation from the mind to paper." He reached back to pull open a drawer of his desk and offered several sheets of crisp new Hogwarts-headed parchment to her.

"There is no avoiding telling the aurors. It is the right thing to do, and if you do not, then you are withholding evidence and helping her." He slid the drawer shut. "If your aunt did abduct Trumble, then the aurors will look at the rest of the Almasy family. Just look at the Gamps. Rotten from within, and an auror daughter." In his comparison, he had forgotten Raine knew the family through her dorm-fellow, and pushed on. "As for the wands, if you fetch them to me I can hold them securely until you both present them to this... trusted auror."

At the sight of the proffered parchment, Raine felt her thoughts settle: it seemed to make up her mind for her. She knew what she wanted to do now, or at least what she wanted to do to begin with. Professor Storm's confidence helped supplement her lack of direction, and she reached into her satchel to pull out a self-inking Eagle feather quill.

The young witch drew her chair a little closer to the desk and sat straighter as she lined up the sheets to write her statement. A glance up at their Defences teacher.

       "If your aunt did abduct Trumble, then the aurors will look at the rest of the Almasy family," he warned. "Just look at the Gamps. Rotten from within, and an auror daughter."

That only made her feel bad for the Gamps, and especially for Ariadne. Raine would not have known about her aunt if Ira didn't essentially lead her to it. People were so much more than what they presented themselves as. She nodded numbly in agreement, however, because Storm was right about one thing: The Aurors would look at other Almasys.

She wrote in silence. Her testimony began with the night she discovered the room[1] and a description of what she had seen in the mirror. Zel's werewolf form, the black room, the victim. It was easier to write than she thought. The violence was distant and almost artful; she didn't mention that bit.

"Alright." Raine lowered her quill as she arose from the memory, blinking as it dissolved into the relative safety of their classroom - she had ended with Layton letting her leave the house. "I...um. Should I fetch the wands right now?" she picked up the quill again and signed her name at the bottom, then glanced at her wristwatch. There was still time before she had to be anywhere else.

1.	Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done - Feb 17th

"We can collect them together." The Deputy Headmaster stated, less of a suggestion by the straight way in which it was spoken.

While Raine had written, he had sat quietly, finishing another cup of tea. He had poured another for her, but her task had kept her completely occupied as he had suspected. The gesture had only been polite. He did not feel like continuing with any of his own work or reading something from his desk as she worked, feeling it would trivialise the matter. Instead, he had gazed into middle distance, thoughtfully considering options.

His fingers neatly procured the parchment from beneath Raine's fingers, numbered the pages, leaving a total. Beside Raine's neat signature he signed As witnessed by Ignan Salus Storm, Deputy Headmaster, Hogwarts School, and the date. All was done with grim exactitude, old procedures and securities of years past coming back to him. His wand tapped three times on the parchment, which faded and then vanished.

"I won't read it." He assured Raine, "unless it eases your mind. It is in a safe place, and will be moved to a far safer one this afternoon."

He lifted his jacket from the back of the chair as he stood, slipping it on.
"We won't speak of this outside the classroom, so I should say this now. You must speak with Mr Trumble and explain what has been done, and then you... or we... as it be, shall inform the Ministry." He tried to even out his frown as he looked to Raine, and attempted in a softer tone. "My door is always open to you both. Even when you leave this school."

Awkward a moment as that was, he nodded sharply, and headed for the door,
"Now, the wands."

Raine tried to school her expression so that she looked less like someone being escorted to Azkaban and more like her regular self, nodding once at the instruction that they go to get the wands together. She watched Storm deal with her testimony and felt light-headed for a second. Merlin,  what had she just done?

Damned her family name? No. Ira had done that. Nonetheless, she could feel herself losing some control on the future as she watched the parchment disappear.

All she could do was trust that this was the best course of action until it proved itself true. "You can read it if you'd like," the Gryffindor replied before finally looking away from the space where it had been. "Might be better, the more people who know."

That she could trust, anyway. Raine picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder as the older wizard continued - they would go back to pretending that the world was turning the way it should. She hoped Zel's worries would be eased by this meeting in the meantime. Adon could wait until Raine felt it was safe enough.

      "My door is always open to you both. Even when you leave this school."

Raine blinked, remembering herself. The tension in her brow disappeared momentarily at this unexpected kindness and she found that smiling wasn't impossible after all. There were Ira Almasys but there were also Ignan Storms. Both terrifying she supposed. "Thank you, Professor. Really."

And then it was back to business. Raine saluted at Storm's back as she followed him out, leaving behind the empty classroom and a mug of tea that would soon go cold.