17 February 2012
Friday at 7pm
4^th floor classroom

Zeta was trying not to be nervous and her usual method was to replace the nerves with a sort of fireball, spicy pepper confidence. That, however, had not gone over well at the last SAWS meeting[1] when she'd been unable to deescalate an argument. So, this time she had a big mug of caffeine-free herbal tee and was dressed down in cozy trousers and sheep slippers. Anything to be calming. The desks were pulled out of their haphazard rows into a loose circle and there was a nicer teacher's chair at the front by the desk. She'd carefully wrote out the club's rules on the blackboard. She leveraged her artistic proclivities into especially neat cursive with illuminated numbering.

1. Werewolves are people, not a threat
2. Be respectful
3. In the pursuit of justice sometimes school rules need to be broken

Next to it, a copy of the flier announcing their guest speaker.


As ready as she could ever be, she took her perch on the large desk at front and bounced her knee until people started arriving.

1.	5 Jan 2012 - And the Fire on the Tongue

The same thought kept going through her head as she was walking towards the meeting. That its going to be like the last one. No, it wouldn't. It would be worse. She's going to attack someone again, that person would of been saying worse things. And it would be infront someone of authority, she'd get sent to Azkaban, or detention. Or Battersea. None of them seemed like great places to go to, especially when she wanted an apprenticeship as soon as possible and you know, head of the werewolf wing was not someone you wanted to anger.

Atleast however it was not leading up to a full moon this time, this should help. She'd researched about the head, well, she read a newspaper article from the assurances since the attack at the safehouse. Well, she'd read the headline. Well saying that she had heard someone say that they were a werewolf. That was...a type of research wasn't it? It was certainly a lot more then she put into reading about Werewolves since she was turned, some people explained to her in the hospital and upon returning to the country but she wasn't really in the mood for listening, more numb then anything. And since then she hadn't read any books as she was too occupied with school work or in general being afraid of what she'd read. It didn't help there were so many books on the subject and that some were false.

She was scared of what she would find out.

She tried to make excuses but she was, and she knew it. Its suffice to say that was another reason why she was worried about the SAWS meeting, finding out more about herself and incase she asks a dumb question. But maybe she'd be justified if she asks a dumb one and say that the book was false or she'd heard conflicting things? Although she'd already found out some things like silver is somewhat painful to her and that she can eat chocolate. She hadn't yet braved Grapes however. There were some questions she wanted answers for but she wasn't sure if she could ask them, sure she knew the headmaster would answer things, but she didn't want to ask him some things as they were more awkward and she didn't want a long rambling lecture about the topic.

She was hoping to be late to the meeting, well not late, more in the last few to arrive. she had even done a little hunt for Greer to say to her that it was a thing and she maybe should come. But it seemed like she wouldn't be one of the last to arrive, and that made it awkward. Lucinda pulled the hood over her head as she started to enter, then pulled the string tight to hide herself and attempt to not be noticed by the person staring straight at the door. It was..a tactic certainly. Not a good one she would admit but there was an attempt.

Once into the threshold of the class she realized that there was no point hiding her face, no one else would really go in like that so its not as if it would ever not be obvious. She pulled the hood open then down and gave a meekish wave towards Zeta. "Hiiiiiii." She said in a light but awkward tone as she situated herself ontop of a desk to the corner of the room. She still felt so bad about trying to ask her out, and she still felt bad that she had restarted SAWS for her, anything that happens is like its on Zeta and so anything that happens to Zeta is due to herself.

Ravenclaw Frank Sellaphix was exactly on time. He'd been tempted to arrive early to make sure he got a good seat, but he'd been held up trying to find a fashionable scarf to wear (he chose light blue). The thing was, though, he was really curious. Frank and others including his friends Cosima Early and Eirene Antonopoulos had missed the first meeting because they'd caught Praecantatio Deliquus and had spent a week in the Infirmary recovering. He'd kept up on schoolwork, but he'd had to wait until after they could cast a spell before he could get the full story of what was going on. Frank was old enough to know that his parents helped werewolves and of course Figaro had werewolf friends; SAWS just seemed like the place to be.

Frank slid into a seat at the front and got out a notebook and wrote the date at the top of the first page. He might have continued to copy what was on the board, but Zeta spoke to him.

    "You actually brought a notebook?" Zeta asked.

Frank looked down at it then back up. "Yeah? Why not?"

   "To take notes?" she said a little amused. "It's not school."

Frank put his hand protectively over the notebook. "I know. It's interesting though."

Eirene walked in, still dressed in her Ravenclaw uniform, her bag slung over her shoulder, as if she were going to an evening class. She'd taken some time after dinner to freshen up and to braid her hair again, and thought she looked nice and presentable after a busy Friday and a long week of studying.

She strode past the first few rows of desks, habitually moving towards the front. Then she paused at the sight of Zeta perched in her sheep slippers - was that a joke? - and assessed the rest of the room.

This was not class. Not mandatory. This was drama club pieced together with glitter and grit. Eirene's gaze skipped over the snacks on the table and even the rules listed on the blackboard. Where was the guest speaker? Bruce Ballentyne was new to her role at the Ministry, but she'd had interesting things to say in the Daily Prophet article, and Eirene assumed she'd have interesting things to say to a group like SAWS. In which Eirene was not officially a member.

She was here for the guest-

Lucinda! Lucinda was in the corner, wearing jeans and a hoodie.

Was this really how students ought to greet a Ministry Head?

But Lucinda was here! In the corner.

And Frank was here! At the front of the room.

Standing in the middle of the aisle, Eirene glanced between Frank and Lucinda.

A first-year student cleared her throat behind her. Eirene moved to let the young Slytherin pass to the front.

Frank had a notebook. Frank was prepared. Frank was making chitchat with Zeta. Good! Eirene didn't have to.

She swerved and headed down the row, towards the corner. With a glance at Lucinda, she set her bag by the seat next to her.

"Evening," Eirene said brightly, rummaging in the bag for her quill and a blank scroll. "Did I miss the memo for casual Friday?"

Sulwen paused by a seat in the front row. She hadn't brought a notebook, or a quill, or anything that the Ravenclaws seemed to bring to every optional meeting. She'd just had time to don a green Slytherin sweater over her usual uniform.

Were the Ravenclaws aware that the guest speaker couldn't award points?

Still, nothing bad happened around students who took notes. In fact, the closer she was to the guest speaker, the less chance for shenanigans. Sulwen took a seat next to the blond Ravenclaw boy. Snotsalix, she'd heard someone call him in the halls.

"Hi Zeta," Sulwen piped up quietly. She'd worried in January that Zeta might be mad at her for dashing out of the first SAWS meeting early. In the Great Hall later that month, Zeta had given Feliks the stink eye before the flier fight had started, but she hadn't said anything afterwards about the first-years getting involved. Sulwen didn't think she had, anyway. She'd been distracted by Gwenna Trevelyan's horrible, awful comment about her father.[1]

Sulwen rested her elbows on the desk and her chin in her hands and gave her a small, uncertain smile.

Rule number 2: be respectful.

It was the only rule on the board that she wholeheartedly agreed with.

1.	“You’re just saying that because you’re mad that my dad arrested your dad!”

Tim had an eagle eye out for the instigator of the unhinged preliminary SAWS meeting. Showing Pepper solidarity, Zeta’s cousin was all set to show up, despite what happened last time. Perhaps even more so because of it. He wanted it to go well for Zeta, and for the likes of his classmates.

Speaking of, he passed by Lucinda in her hoody, perched on a desk rather than at one. The younger Ravenclaws had turned out, Frank Sellaphix complete with notebook. Tim wondered if his housemate was intending to take minutes. He’d have guessed Eirene might offer, as he clocked her too. Tim had forgotten they were both in isolation in the hospital wing during the last meeting.

“No fourth then?” Tim uttered quietly, nodding to the blackboard, “Don’t be Acrux.”

Frank turned in his chair and watched his friend Eirene head over to sit with Lucinda instead of up front with him. Better Eirene than him; he knew he shouldn't think it, but Lucinda unsettled him. They'd never even met, but her reputation had travelled and she seemed chaotic (to put it nicely). Such charitable thoughts at a SAWS meeting, he chided himself and turned back front.

A firstie he recognized as Sulwen from Slytherin took a seat next to him and he acknowledged her with a, "hey."

Then Tim Pepper arrived and Frank caught his mumble clearly enough as he was nearby.

“No fourth then?” Tim uttered quietly, nodding to the blackboard, “Don’t be Acrux.”

At first Frank didn't catch oh, but oh right, he meant Rigel Acrux the Infamous.

"Oh, I  - no, I don't see it," he said blandly. "When's the guest speaker coming?"

"Hi, Sulwen," Zeta responded. Sulwen had been at the first meeting and then got mixed up in the thing in the Great Hall a month ago. If a twelve-year-old could be stoic, Sulwen was. But at least she wasn't jumpy or into biting her classmates like some of the others. There was a first year called Bean Bum Bobbie or something like that - they were going to be a class to beat ...

She heard Frank ask Tim where the guest speaker was.

"The Headmaster will bring her up, but we don't have to wait to get started. There's some shite to go over first but there's still a few minutes. Have biscuit."

"Every day is casual friday if you're brave enough." Lucinda sighed, she'd learned that the hard way at one point, just because you can wear casual clothes doesn't mean you should, especially when you're then asked as punishment for wearing casual to write an essay on a 600 word book on the life and times of a wizard who thought it was possible to teach Mandrakes to speak and have casual conversation. She supposed she was lucky, another student apparently got told to do it on a 2000 word book of someone who thought Newt Scamander made up half the creatures in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.

"Did I miss the note on...taking notes?" She asked as she saw her taking out a quill and a scroll, its only the head of Werewolf department isn't it? Its not like the minister is coming, sure they're a werewolf also but its not exactly like they're going to be tell them much, or well, anything that you won't find out from a werewolf or reading right? It goes against what she was thinking herself of what she wants to ask, but she was doing this cause she couldn't bear to read about it in a book.

People were filing in, she did her best to hear things, all she really heard was that the Headmaster is coming, that couldn't be a good sign could it? Surely they'd remember their way around Hogwarts, it was hard to forget the castle after spending so many years here, or atleast it seemed like it that it must be that way. So many year spent here you'd always remember something, like going to your house from classrooms. Did she really have to see Knox today?

"Yes, in fact, it's called a planner," she smirked at Lucinda in a way that was somehow both teasing and smug. "You make a note to take notes." 

Eirene glanced at the front where Tim had joined Frank, Zeta, and the first year.

Lucinda likely had no inkling of the deliberation that had gone on in Eirene's head a few seconds ago, and the deliberation from the past few days, as she'd weighed whether it was worth going to SAWS to meet a Ministry professional or if it would be better to focus on her studies.

Eirene certainly wasn't going to insult her by telling her.

"Have you met Ballentyne?" Eirene asked as she unfurled the blank scroll on the desk.

---

"Hi," Sulwen said again, even more quietly, surprised that Zeta knew her name, and that the older blond boy had acknowledged her, and that Tim Pepper was here. Though Tim and Zeta were related, she kept forgetting that. She knew him as a studious sort who'd been nice to her at dueling club.

At a loss of what to do or say next, Sulwen went to get a biscuit.

---

In another part of the castle...

More than a month had passed since Knox Greyfriar had first and last met Bruce Ballentyne. It had been early January that she, still new in her post, had asked to meet with him and they'd together come perilously close to destroying everything.[1]. They'd managed to avoid that and instead had found in each other a potential like-mind. With all that had happened later that night, the two hadn't had any further opportunity to speak. It was young Zeta Pepper who'd arranged for Greyfriar to encounter Ballentyne again.

"They've organized this all on their own, I assure you," Knox Greyfriar said as they worked their way up a long staircase. "I say this only to warn you should anything happen, there will be no one to save you."

1.	9 Jan 2012 - As Mr Dungworth Says...

The Hogwarts castle was unsurprisingly familiar, but that didn’t deter from the strange feeling that Iona Ballentyne hadn’t been inside for almost 26 years. And then, may have run up the stairs, taking a few at a time. Today, she gripped the rail with her left hand, and used her cane with her right, hoping they weren’t several flights up.

The previous night, when Iona had told her wife about today’s planned visit to throw herself at the mercy of the students’ questions, Zora had laughed. Laughed and laughed and laughed. Of course, she had; the only dealings Iona had had of teenagers was their own daughter, and the odd young staff member on Level 4 who she barely spoke to. Bruce was cool, she could chat to kids surely.

“What are you expecting them to do, Greyfriar? Question me to death?” The werewolf asked, pausing mid-step for a moment to draw a breath. She was, as usual, dressed in combat trousers, boots, a shirt and a green canvas jacket. Her wild hair was loose and freefalling, a lion’s mane of red curls. Certainly, she didn’t appear to be your usual ministry official.

Several minutes later, and a few aches along the way, and the two werewolves were pushing open the door to a classroom where a small group of teenagers appeared to be waiting. The kid at the front of the room, was she wearing slippers??

“Evening.”

Zeta looked up when the door opened and gasped a little. It was Madam Ballentyne! Zeta had never seen anyone like her. Wild red hair, dressed like a dragon-handler, and leaning on an intricate cane. Rugged and pretty at the same time. Behind her, the Headmaster loomed in the door looking like he had a secret.

He spoke up with a brief introduction.  "That's Zeta Pepper there and these are the rabble."

Then he directed his comments to the room. "Show Madam Ballentyne a nice time, you lot. I expect her to be returned in one piece."

And with that, Greyfriar backed out of the room, and slowly ominously closing the door behind him.

Zeta slid off the desk and snapped her fingers at the group. "Shh! Shh!" 

Then she turned her attention to their guest.  "Welcome to SAWS. Really happy you could come. We've got a chair. Everyone, hey - this is Madam Ballentyne from the Werewolf Wing and she's come to answer questions because last time half of you didn't know a moon from your arse."

She delivered the last comment with a smile, remembering that opening her last meeting with 'shut up' hadn't set the stage very well.

"I figure we'd just get going. This isn't class so I don't want us raising hands.  If you have a question, I guess, just ask it. Does anyone want to write stuff down?" she couldn't help but glance at the Ravenclaws.

OOC - I think to help keep the thread moving, we can do shorter posts (if you like) with a couple questions in a row if that makes sense to the story. We can play it by ear.

Eirene gave a smirk and had a note to...tell her to take notes...Ravenclaws were weird, she preferred her method of mostly understanding the class then asking people after to help with understanding the rest over having to write. You were distracting yourself by writing! But she asked a question then, she quickly shook her head. "No, I only really know Greer and the headmaster."

The person was here! She looked...very professional. More so then herself, she's only seen a couple of werewolf capture members, they were plated in silver and wore tactical clothing, so she looked in theme. Was she really there to go and capture her? That was a dumb idea, they wouldn't have witnesses if they were to go for her. It was more relieving then someone in a stuffy suit though, reeking of cheap perfumes and cologne that they wear to make them seem like they have money and are posh. She had a cane to walk which she found interesting, was that from her attack or was magical healing not as good as she thought?

Zeta in her fluffy slippers that might make some fall asleep if they count her steps, was talking about questions and not to raise hands, that was just asking for trouble wasn't it? How much chaos would this bring? She needed to speak up before people drowned her out! She had a few softball questions she could ask, she had a big one to ask but she didn't want to ask it first. Her hand shot up out of classroom survival instinct before it dropped again quickly.

"Can I have- I mean, can werewolves have children?" She didn't exactly want her to know she was a werewolf right now, she probably messed up by saying I, but she felt if the head knew she may alter the answer or not be as upfront. She didn't even want them, why would she want kids? Ever? But at the same time she doesn't want to have the option removed if she still has to go through other things, and who knows she may get hit in the head and change her mind.

Greyfriar’s departing words and demeanour were ominous, a fact that only caused a slight roll of her eyes from the witch. He was known to have a penchant for being overly theatrical. Each to their own, she supposed.

With a sigh, Bruce carefully lowered herself into the spare chair at the front of the gathering, coming face to face with the bunch of youthful expressions.
“Difficult distinction to make.” Bruce responded to the moon comment with a playful smirk as she propped her cane against the arm of the seat and sat back.

"Can I have- I mean, can werewolves have children?"

A young witch asked. Bruce didn’t miss the ‘I’, but didn’t acknowledge it, either. She knew Hogwarts had werewolves. She’d be pretty bad at her job if she didn’t, after all.

“Yes.” She replied simply, with a small nod. This question wasn’t ever something she’d personally considered before. Waverly was adopted and she’d been 40 at her own attack. “The curse doesn’t transmit vertically, that is, from mother to child. Or father. It’s just a little more…complicated.”