Kyle briskly walked onto the green grassy environ that was the area by the forests and the lake at Hogwarts. His face was no longer bloody, though his nose was still broken. Kyle had managed to stop the profuse bleeding but his nose was still broken. The pain had subsided to a dull and barely noticeable one, and since Kyle was so pissed off he didn't really notice it.

Devlin Matthews was the biggest joke at Hogwarts. He thought he was so cool, with whatever businesses he was apart of and how he played wizard games with the Headmaster himself, and of course hooking up with Nicola in a closet. Of all the places Kyle had to be, of all the times in the day, that was by far the worst combination that could have happened. The image just was not going to get out of his head easily whatsoever, and would probably haunt his dreams. This did not help his mood as he thought Nicola was slipping away from him.

Finally reaching a place which was farther out from the school and didn't have anyone around, Kyle dropped his wand from his jacket sleeve and shot a blasting charm out into the trees, resulting in a loud bang and splinters going every direction. Kyle muttered a charm which dampened the sound around the area so nobody who was not within the charm's field would hear the noise loudly. To anyone in the distance it would be barely audible. This of course did not protect against someone looking from above, perhaps a window in the castle, but there was only so much Kyle could protect against. Kyle angrily hurled three more charms at the tree, bringing it down and farther into the forest. This was an incredibly therapeutic method of dealing with anger, though the poor trees did get the bad end of it. After several minutes and several trees later Kyle started shooting his signature spell, one of dark origin -- Effodio. The unmistakable brilliant purple light filled the air several times as the cracks and booms resonated within the silencing charms area.

Kyle soon realized that he had brought down six trees, and he ought to stop lest Greyfriar finds him and does some yelling. Kyle would have to look up a spell to put the poor trees in their original state once he was back in the Gryffindor Tower, though he wasn't sure if they would heal so easily after dark magic had been produced. Kyle sighed as he walked over to a stump and sat down, taking out his second wand. This one was quite different than his first, it was white with intricate design. His sister's old wand, as well as a family wand. It looked so strange when held up to Kyle's dark red wand, and the cores inside couldn't have been any different. He hadn't shown many people his second wand, few even knew of its existence. On occasion Kyle would pull the two out and ponder their histories, what they had cast years ago, the destruction or healing they may have caused, and the people themselves who used them.

Fauna was minding her own business and collecting a few flowers to press into her sketchbook when she heard a few strange, muffled pops towards the edge of the forest. It almost sounded like someone was apparating, but she knew that shouldn't be possible. She gave the edge of the trees a wary look and continued on her way. A moment later, bright, purple lights rose from the trees like smoke. Fauna froze. She looked back at the castle, knowing the sensible thing to do. Finally, Fauna decided she'd just catch one quick glimpse of the scene and then run back to a professor if it was needed. She nodded, gulped, and moved towards the area that had grown ominously quiet.

In one hand, she gripped her sketchbook and the flowers. In the other, she toyed with a long striped scarf that swirled with the colors of a peppermint stick. Her wand poked out of her ratty, paint-splattered jeans that Inika had snorted at this morning. When she reached the clearing, she stopped so fast that she tripped over her own feet. Five, no six, trees looked like they had been blown up or transfigured into matchsticks. Some were split clean down the middle, others in half, and still others were smoldering. She took a step back, her eyes wide. Then she spotted a figure in the middle, sitting on a tree stump. Even from the back, she knew it was Kyle because of his leather jacket. His head was down and he had this dejected air about him. Fauna felt a rush of sympathy.

Slowly, she walked closer to him, wondering if he'd been dueling with someone or saving another unicorn. She'd heard about that. What she hadn't heard about was Nicola, Devlin, and a certain closet, as she'd been outside all day. Fauna stopped fidgeting with her scarf and let it fall back over her red capelet. Her mum had knitted it for her a few years ago, and whenever she wore it, Ollie liked to chase her around the common room and call her 'Little Red'. A laugh bubbled up in her throat at this thought, but she stifled it.

"What did these trees ever do to you?" Fauna asked from a few steps away, a slightly teasing tone to her voice.

"What did these trees ever do to you?"

Kyle was in such deep thought he didn't hear the steps behind him. He startled a bit and grabbed his wand, but hearing a familiar voice relaxed his muscles. He turned around to see Fauna Blake, and sighed with relief. "Oh, it's you." He said kindly. "I was worried the Headmaster might come and... well..." He said motioning towards the trees which could hardly be called trees now. They had been so deformed, one might have taken a photograph and called it some strange and twisted work of art.

"Oh. Trees. Well... long long story, but the trees themselves did nothing." Kyle said with a chuckle, now in a slightly elevated mood when compared to how he had felt earlier. "I'm sure you heard about Nicola and Devlin..." He said frowning. It hadn't been long but he figured over half the school knew about the incident now. He realized that his nose was still throbbing, and that he probably would have to visit the Healer after all. Why, he should just pre-schedule appointments every couple days at the rate he was getting himself hurt.

With a swish of his wand Kyle tried to repair the destroyed trees, but to no avail. Some of the splinters came up and got back together, but ultimately the wreck of a site the two students were at wasn't fixable. Kyle sighed with frustration.

Fauna watched Kyle try to repair the damage, shaking her head sadly. The cluster of dead trees just looked wrong amongst all the signs of spring and life on the grounds. She looked down at the sketchbook and plants in her hand, then walked to the middle of the area.

“Nicola and Devlin, Nicola and Devlin,” she chanted to herself, trying to remember if she’d heard anything lately. “No, can’t say that I have.” She bent down to inspect the tree that was least damaged, and wondered if they were all right. Nicola was Kyle's best friend, so if something had happened to her, it made sense that he was upset by it.

Fauna frowned, distracted by what she saw. She took out her wand, which looked so much like a twig or splinter itself, and attempted a few charms. The bark, the outermost portion of the tree moved feebly. On closer inspection though, it appeared dead inside. 

Fauna’s frown deepened and she stepped back rather hastily. “Uhhhh, well,” she stalled, not out of nerves but because she was thinking. “Professor Gunnar might know something, or have some healing potions. He’s probably our best bet." Like Kyle had said, Greyfriar would not be happy, especially since they were so close to Remembrance Day. She didn't even want to think about what the Herbology professor would do. Nico was definitely the safest option.

However, she couldn't help but worry about what spells he used to cause this much damage. A chill went through her and she gave him a funny look.

Fauna did a double take. “What… what happened to your nose?”

It looked horrible. Numbly, she sat down on one of the tree trunks, still staring. She noticed then that Kyle held a wand in his hands, but it wasn't one that she'd seen before.

“No, can’t say that I have.”

Kyle frowned. He couldn't not tell her what happened now. Why did he have to mention it? He could have thought up a more creative excuse as to why he was destroying trees. "Er -- well. I'm sure you'll hear about it". He said uneasily, "But it involves a closet, and half of their clothes missing..." He said looking down at his feet with a mixture of sadness and anger.

Kyle watched as Fauna feebly tried to fix the trees just as he did but it ended up futile in the same way. He had really created some destruction.

“Professor Gunnar might know something, or have some healing potions. He’s probably our best bet."

"Eh... I appreciate the suggestion but to be honestly I think someone has alerted Greyfriar already and... I don't really care." Kyle said sadly. "Just add it to the list of stupid crap I've done over the years." He said, staring into the smoldering wood.

"But anyways, what brings you to the forest's edge?" He asked, his tone a little happier than it was a minute ago.

“What… what happened to your nose?”

"Ah." Kyle said, touching his painful nose. "A gift from Devlin Matthews... see I er -- well, walked in on them while they were in the closet and he gets claustrophobic? I don't know." He said with a smile, laughing at Devlin's reaction now that it had passed. "But he's a fool for doing it... if I hadn't had my wits about me, he could've ended up like these trees." Kyle added, though regretting saying it as it made him sound like a psycho. It really was his fault that he had the wild reputation that he did.

Fauna had listened vaguely as Kyle mentioned something about a naked closet, or a closet with no clothes, and thought perhaps the closet was empty and this was the new way to describe it. It made sense to her. A closet with no clothes in it would certainly be a naked closet. But somehow she knew that’s not what Kyle was so upset about.

So she sat on the tree stump, staring at his nose as if she expected it to sprout leaves or fall off his face. She simply nodded when he explained that Greyfriar probably already knew what happened to the trees out here. The headmaster had that sixth sense about him when it came to troublemakers. If he wasn’t so against the idea of Divination, Fauna would have told him a long time ago that she thought he might have the ‘inner eye’.

Then everything started to make more sense. Well, almost. Fauna was of the opinion that being claustrophobic was a sorry excuse for punching someone. A little line appeared between her brows and she was about to say something sympathetic, when he suggested that the Matthews boy could have ended up like these poor, smoldering trees.

Fauna gaped at him. Why, oh why, did he have to say that? She shifted uncomfortably and scratched her head. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Greyfriar came running out towards them now, she thought, peering into space with an expression of mingled unease and hope.

No Greyfriar. Not yet, at least. She looked at Kyle and softened slightly. He probably hadn’t meant what he’d just said, she reassured herself with her typical naivety.

“A punch in the face, would be… an unwelcome gift, I think,” she said with a sad attempt at humor. “That’s really not fair!” she declared after a few moments. “Especially since you… and Nicola… I thought you,” she bit her lip. “Nevermind.” Even Fauna knew that Kyle liked Nicola, along with the rest of the school. She didn’t want to make him feel worse though.

“Um, so I’ve just been out here drawing, like usual,” she waved her sketchbook and the few plants she had in her hand. Fauna hesitated, then handed him the book. “Here. You can look through it if you want.”

She suddenly became very nervous. Fauna only showed her drawings to a select few people, so she didn’t know why she’d just handed him the sketchbook like that. It was more of a journal than a sketchbook to her. Fauna silently cursed at herself for her desperation to shift the topic away from broken noses and for how she felt sorry for people too easily. She pretended to be very intent on studying the plants in her hands.

Thankfully, nothing in there was very incriminating. It was full of plants from the school grounds, animals and creatures she studied in her Care of Magical Creatures class, portraits of people, portraits of Inika with the hair of Medusa, the beginnings of musical compositions, and a very detailed study of a werewolf transformation- her face paled and she looked at Kyle with wide eyes. If she snatched back her book now, it would be incredibly rude. She thought frantically, hand clenching the plants. The girl she’d drawn changing into a wolf had just been a girl. She hadn’t had Ollie’s features, and the setting was different too. She’d drawn a forest instead of the Armor Gallery. Fauna relaxed ever so slightly and breathed a sigh of relief.

Kyle noticed that Fauna had taken special interest in his nose. He probably looked utterly ridiculous. But what did it matter? Kyle was almost always injured in some stupid or obscure way. It was his nature. Always getting into fights, or breaking something. But he had good traits right?

Why of course he had good traits. Impeccable taste in music primarily, and once one got past his rough exterior he was a nice and caring person. Most of the school did not think this, nor would ever think this. To everyone else, Kyle was an unstable psycho heading the same direction that his brother did. But so many people had such perfect little lives, they've never felt the sort of pain that Kyle had. Losing a family member because of another family member... the most convoluted sentencing one could ever be given.

This made Kyle think of Gavin, who had apparently lost both of his parents. In front of his eyes too? At least one was. Maybe that's why he was such a bitter git. But he did have his own posse -- mainly Alex, Devlin, and of course Michael. That group was always together and had to be up to something of questionable nature. Kyle needed to find out before he graduated.

Kyle noticed Fauna's uncomfortable switch at his mentioning of what could have happened to Devlin. Damnit! Why did he have to act like that? "No -- no. Just blowing off steam. I wouldn't..." He trailed off uncomfortably. Great. Now his only new potential friend thought he was a loon too. Let's start a petition, get him institutionalized. That would be sweet. Kyle hesitated at Fauna's mentioning of him and Nicola. "Is it really that obvious?" He asked a little weary. "Ah, well. I'm not in love or anything. Contrary to what that prat Gavin would say... oh." He added with a frown.

Her visible emotion switched to a sort of nervous state. Was it that Kyle was looking at her work? He understood though. Some people didn't want their hard work to be rejected. But Kyle didn't have to lie in this situation. "This artwork... it's fantastic!" He exclaimed truthfully. "You're really good." He smiled.

She took her sketchbook back with a grateful smile and pulled her knees up to her chest so she could rest her head against them. One hand fiddled with her ratty old shoelaces, and the other traced the rings of the tree stump she sat on.

Her head tilted towards Kyle, she marveled at how comfortable she suddenly felt, among the dead trees and with a boy who seemed troubled and sad. It was strange, but she thought she might want to get to know him better. Fauna’s few friends had always been girls, and she’d never befriended a boy before. Perhaps it was because she was surrounded by females all the time at home, with her mum, her sister, and her grandma. Even her rat! She felt more lost than other girls her age about how the male mind worked.

Fauna considered his words about Gavin. It must not be easy for Kyle, when his best friend spent so much time with a group of guys he couldn’t stand. Fauna didn’t know much about Nicola, but she knew that the girl was almost her complete opposite: a tomboy, one of the guys, blunt and direct. She was sure there were more layers to Nicola though, just like there were more layers to herself that other people didn’t see.

“Must not be easy with that group hating you like that,” she commented, then went red in the face. “Well, not hating, uh… more like not getting along.”

Fauna raised her head slightly. “I bet you’re looking forward to getting out of here soon…?" She asked with a slight, hesitant smile. Fauna didn't know what graduating would feel like next year. Right now, she was dreading it, because she had no idea what she wanted to do or who she wanted to be. Perhaps that was why she found it so natural to make friends with the younger students, like Ollie. She wasn’t ready to grow up. She wanted to stay inside the nice little bubble she’d created for herself, something that had taken her years to make at Hogwarts, but now that it was there, she didn’t want to leave.