9:00am
7 October 2011
Corridor outside of the 4th floor girl's bathroom


A scream interrupted the hustle of kids flowing to their first class of the day. Out from the girls' bathroom, her wet feet slapping on the cold stone, was a sudsy-haired, red faced Zeta Pepper.  She was nearly naked, dripping, and wrapped in a striped towel. She shuffled into a knot of students and stood behind someone tall.

"There's a man in there!" she wailed, pointing to the bathroom door with one hand, holding up her towel with the other.

She wiped soap from her eyes, and pointed again.  Why weren't more people more upset?

"There is a Death Eater in the girls bathroom!"

She's just been minding her own business, having a bath in a tub she'd not yet tried. She had candles, and a book, and some incense - taking a languorous Friday morning before her first class at eleven. She'd never noticed a bathtub in this particular bathroom before, but Hogwarts was a funny place, and one day, there it was. A large clawfoot tub, surrounded by a half-wall sort of partition.

Zeta had looked up from her book when she thought she heard someone in the room with her, but she hadn't heard the door open. Then she saw him. A hulking, craggy stranger with a silver mask just standing in a corner staring at her. Now, she watched the door, horrified he'd come out and kill them all!

Kyson was strolling through the corridor on his way to Runes when he heard the scream. Many of the students around him ignored it or gave the sopping red head strange looks before continuing on. No one seemed to care what she was going on about, many rushing around hoping not to be late for classes. Kyson on the other hand was happy to be distracted, especially when said distracted came in the form of a practically naked damsel in distress.

Ky caught a hold of Zeta, his hands on her bare shoulders, "Calm down Pepper, there's no death eaters anymore."

He had no idea why the girl would think there was something so absurd in the girl's bathroom. The war was long over. Anyone that had been a Death Eater was dead, locked away or no one had seen them since the final battles. Sure there were still dark and possibly evil wizards out there (both Kyson's sisters were Aurors, he knew that much to be true) but even if they did still exist they wouldn't be able to get into Hogwarts, let alone the Girl's bathroom.

On the other hand, this did afford Kyson a moment of chivalry, one that may have a some intriguing rewards to it.

He drew his wand, "Shall I check for you?" Ky adopted a charming smirk he had seen on his older cousin's face more than once. He could totally woo girls if he wanted to.

Oh my gawd. The look Zeta gave Kyson Cavanaugh as he took her by the shoulders like a wizard about the shake the vapors out of a hysterical Jane Austen character...! She shrugged him off.

He didn't believe her! Kyson was a good guy but he was delusional if he thought...!

"No! Bollocks, Kyson, I'm sorry, but you are no match for a Death Eater! We need an adult!"

One hand on her towel, Zeta began a sweeping motion with her other arm, clearing a wide perimeter around the door and blocking through-traffic.

"Do not go in there! There's a Death Eater in the girls bathroom! Get back!"

Kyson scoffed as she brushed him off. They didn't need an adult. He was going to be an Auror, he could handle an imaginary Death Eater. He walked towards the bathroom after to moved away from him and occupied herself with warning any passerby that would listen. On one hand he still wanted to be chivalrous. On the other, now he just really wanted to know what the heck was going on. When her back was turned to him he snuck inside, wand still drawn.

Moments later Kyson came running back out of the bathroom, screaming himself. He was moving backwards and finally tripped, falling hard on his backside onto the stone floor. His wand skitted across the floor as he desperately tried to put as much space between him and the entrance to the Girl's Lavatory as he possibly could.

"Holy bloody hell, Pepper!" He looked back to his fellow sixth year, "That was no Death Eater!" He kept scrambling until he was pressed against the wall opposite. The adrenaline coursing through him was keeping him from thinking straight and drawing up the obvious conclusion as to what had just happened to the pair of them. Instead, his fear settled in, "There's a full on fekkin' Werewolf in there!"

If the small crowd of students gathered didn't believe Pepper's cry of Death Eater they absolutely flipped out about Kyson's alarm of werewolf! The chatter grew, some kids screamed, others ran off shouting for a Professor.

"That's not possible! It's daytime!" said a Ravenclaw.

"It's a Direwolf, dummy. Direwolves exist!" retorted another.

"No, Ky! I saw a man! Not a werewolf! A big man in a silver mask and black robes and he just stared at me and," Zeta spoke rapidly, a frantic tirade. "Werewolves don't transform in the daytime! It's not even a full moon! It's a Death Eater. Someone call the Aurors!"

Her voice had risen to a high-pitched keening.

"I'm going in!" A Gryffindor (of course) was visibly mustering the gumption to go in, rolling up his sleeves and shrugging his shoulders.  "I was in Dueling Club. I got this."

"Oh my god," growled Zeta. Thick!

He was making his way from the library, where a stack of wayward Creatures textbooks had been unlatched by some mischief making entities. Single books were simple things to handle but in big flocks they could prove troublesome. They'd left little bite marks on the sleeves of his large, woolly sweater. Sylvain had helped the Librarian strap shut each one before he noticed the time.

It was nine in the morning and he was running late for a lesson with the fifth years. But even in his rush, it was difficult to ignore the loud and high voices just down the corridor.

  "...not possible! It's daytime!"
            "....don't transform in the daytime! It's... moon...a Death Eater...all the Aurors!"
  "I'm going in....in Dueling Club. I got this."
            "Oh my god."

This was a disturbing. Sylvain had a paranoid turn of mind, particularly when it came to Direwolves, and mention of a Death Eater did not reassure him either. He quickened his pace.

"Non!" the Frenchman immediately exclaimed, directing his exclamation at a Gryffindor who was just about to enter the lavatory. "What is this? Direwolf? Death Eater?" he stared at the students. They were spooked and panicked. It did not take a lot to do this sometimes.

Still, he would not jump to conclusions. "Bien, someone explain. What is happening?" It looked like the fifth years might have to wait a little longer for their lesson.

Zeta squeaked! A grown-up had arrived as she'd commanded, but Zeta had forgot to consider she'd rushed out in a towel. But embarrassment would have to wait. (Was that one of the Hufflepuff mottos?)

"It's a Death Eater," Zeta said over top of everyone now babbling about werewolves.  She held her towel more tightly as she told her tale with authority as a senior student who'd discovered the threat. 

"I saw it. I'm taking a bath, and then suddenly I look up and there's a man just staring. He's got a mask on, just like a Death Eater. I run out, but then Kyson goes to check and he gets everyone started on this werewolf business.  Which is honestly irresponsible. Kyson."

Professor Onuris had quickly became well-liked by most of the students but he didn't look very old. Zeta found herself wondering what his dueling credentials were. A hippogriff was one thing, a Death Eater was another.

"Oi, it was a Werewolf!" Kyson shouted back while jumping to his feet before remembering he was wandless. He made a mad scramble for the length of wood, moving around some of the other students before straightening up again and looking to his accuser, "Don't believe me fine, but I know what I saw!"

He waved in the direction of Professor Onuris, "But why don't we have Capitan Shirtless check it out for us?" Kyson wasn't really about disrespecting Professors but he was pumped full of adrenaline and scared out of his mind. He wasn't exactly thinking straight. Besides if he didn't want to gain himself any nick names, he shouldn't have taught a class topless!

Death Eater or Werewolf. These two were not like one another, which gave Sylvain his first clue about what might actually be hiding in the girl's bathroom. He looked between the two students who were making the most noise: Cavanaugh was in his lessons but the other one was the Howler girl, Zeta. Excitable but not stupid.

            "But why don't we have Capitan Shirtless check it out for us?"

Sylvain sighed, now having long overcome the instinct to blush. Being around teenagers did that to you. He thought nothing of being shirtless on level four - but here? A crime! He drew his wand and gestured at the pair of them.

"Go find me an empty chest or trunk, immédiatement!" The other students crowded around the entrance of the bathroom but he did not stop them: if there was a Boggart inside, the only thing keeping it there was its reluctance to expose itself to too many fears at once.

Bracing himself for what he knew might be laying ahead, Sylvain ducked into the lavatory with his wand held before him. And then the floor shook. Once. Twice, sending shivers up the bathroom fixtures. He paled as he stood by the sinks and stared up at the great Mountain Troll lumbering at him from the showers. The telltale detail was that he knew a real troll could not fit in here.

The wizard stepped back slightly but didn't retreat.

"Riddikulus!" Sylvain exclaimed, waving his wand as you would a whip and sending a loud crack! through the air. Almost immediately, he snorted. Thick lines appeared on the sides of the troll, followed by leathery black cords in a criss-cross pattern. It was shrinking.

It was turning into a puppet! A large, clumsy looking puppet that couldn't control its movements and kept slamming into the bathroom stall doors. Sylvain laughed and watched the troll's dumb face deepen even further in its confusion. It stumbled forwards, then backwards, uncertain.

Sylvain quickly turned and left the lavatory, turning around to shut the doors. That was enough to spook the Boggart. He looked over his shoulder. "Boggart!" he exclaimed through a grin.

"Go, go!" Zeta passed along Professor Onuris's orders for a trunk to a pair of Hufflepuffs, who scampered off feeling brave. When Sylvain did shortly disappear into the girls' lav, a hush fell over the small crowd in the corridor.

Everybody jumped together when there was a thump from inside, then another. Then they heard Professor Onuris shout some sort of spell. Before anyone could say anything else, he emerged! Unscathed and, grinning?

"Boggart!"

Zeta's jaw dropped and she face-palmed. There were giggles of relief (and disbelief) that the crisis was nothing near as grim as a Death Eater or Direwolf.

"I can't believe it! I can't believe I fell for that!" she laughed. "It looked so real..."

That was the point of Boggarts, of course. And now she felt a bit exposed. Her greatest fear was apparently Death Eaters intruding her hygiene. And Kyson was apparently kept up nights about werewolves? That seemed problematic. They were just people, she thought to herself. But wait.

"Wait - what was it for you, Professor? Sorry, excuse you -" Zeta had to step aside for the girls who'd returned dragging an empty trunk.

"Professor, what did the boggart transform into for you?"

Kyson watched the Hufflepuff girls run off for a trunk and he scrambled through the crowd together as close to the door to the bathroom as he could. His previous bravado no where to be found. Normally he would have charged in alongside the Professor but he was still pretty shaken from the first time he had so boldly done so.

He jumped with everyone else and felt his fear rising again. When Professor Onuris reemerged, Kyson was confused by the smile. What could he possibly be smiling about?

When he exclaimed that it had been a Boggart, a wave of relief was visible through the gathered students. Some were laughing, most smiling. Everyone seemed to feel as if a huge crisis had been diverted. Kyson, however, was feeling anything but relief.

His chest had tightened and his face heated up. The rush of adrenaline from earlier was only serving to fuel his emotions, "That's, that's not right . . ." He swallowed hard and violently shrugged off a fellow Slytherin that had touched his shoulder to tell him it was all okay now, "It's not okay!" Kyson had just faced his greatest fear and he was not okay with it, "I am NOT afraid of werewolves!" He could feel his face heat up even more and could only imagine how red he had turned, "I'm not! My da-" He swallowed hard again, "My Dad's a werewolf. I'm not,  - I'm not afraid." His voice trailing off as it began to fail him.