OOC Note
This is a Werewolf attack thread. Due to its nature, it has restricted entry; currently only the students and teachers listed below are particpants. If you want to participate, please PM Fauna Blake, Jonas Trevelyan, or Liadán Ó Móráin. The detentions were assigned in this thread.

Note: Despite Georg's words at the end of the IC post the students will not be entering the forest proper.

Teachers
Ignan Storm
Georg Kirchlehner

Students
Figaro Sellaphix
Jordyn Dimbleby
Freya Jansdotter
Bellatrix Dark
Eveline Chancelier

---

This takes place during the last study break, from 4pm - 6pm.

Georg privately felt he had been looking forward to this rather more than Ignan had, but both he and Ignan were looking forward to this far more than the gaggle of annoyed students they'd be taking care of. And given the tendencies of the two professors if left to themselves for too long, they had every right to worry.

The Forest was a place he'd been interested in check out since his arrival - notorious for its dangers. There was supposed to be an Acromantula lair somewhere in it; Georg, who had never seen one, was curious to find it. It'd make a lovely addition to the classroom, he thought. Maybe if he posed it fighting with the dragon...

Sadly they weren't allowed in, and while he could see the logic of that, it was still something of a disappointment to him. Ah, well - there were always the weekends.

It had been a long day of classes and he had to honestly admit that he'd rather be relaxing right about now - which made him feel old, yet again. He shook thought of new interior decorations from his  mind as he and Ignan left the castle. The sun was starting to  sink towards the horizon as they met their students outside the castle, Georg frowning at the group. Mostly girls - that explained the method, at least. It still seemed rather a lot for punishment over a dress code violation.  It just seemed such a hassle. Durmstrang would have been quicker and possibly more brutal about it. But that was why Hogwarts did this, he supposed - softer school indeed. They'd chosen a punishment he had to admit was amusing, given the crime...

"All of them for a dress code issue?" he remarked to Ignan, eyebrows raised at the size of the group. His tone was one of surprise tinged with amusement. "Take it seriously here, don't they..."

He stepped forward towards the group, arms spread slightly. "Well, then, students. You're to be sent with Ignan and I into the Forest. Let this be a lesson to all whom wear their skirts too short - yes, Sellaphix, I mean you! - and those who dye their hair silly colors.  Shall we get going, then? I trust you're all ready..."

Hufflepuff was having a Snap tournament today in the Commonroom.  A bunch of people had got together and made a bracket and got some really volatile decks together and... Figaro had detention.  For something so incredibly stupid!  He would own in that tournament and they all knew it.  But instead, he was trudging through the wet and the cold behind Professors Storm and Kirchlehner.  He couldn't help but resent Bellatrix and Eveline who'd got him into this mess, but at least with more people it'd not be a total bore.  Solo detentions were way worse than group ones.  The professor hovered over you and you couldn't even talk about anything.  But in a group, it was at least sort of fun.  Freya was always good for a laugh, too.

Professor Kirchlehner's joke fell onto Sellaphix's cold, resentful glower.  "Ha ha.  I'm here for swearing," he corrected, making sure everyone was clear on that. 

But hold the Floo..."The Forest...? But it's going to be dark by the time we're through - we're not allowed in the forest."  Ava'd been murdered in the Forest.  A werewolf lived in the Forest.  There were likely bugbears in the Forest.

"Can we not?" he asked, unable to hold his tongue.  As mouthy as he was, he did not want to go in there and the panic came through his voice.  Just a little.

Of course Eveline had heard the stories about what happened when the two eccentric professors were let out of their cages…or wherever they were kept when not teaching.  True, most of the rumors were too absurd to be taken seriously.  Certainly she trusted that despite what some younger students might say, neither of the former Durmstrangs would go so far as actually trying to kill their students. However… there were some very real and definitely unpleasant things which had happened. Such as that disastrous lesson when Professor Storm got his arm Splinched…She turned a bit green, just thinking about it. 

"Well, then, students. You're to be sent with Ignan and I into the Forest. Let this be a lesson to all whom wear their skirts too short - yes, Sellaphix, I mean you! - and those who dye their hair silly colors.  Shall we get going, then? I trust you're all ready..."

Eveline chuckled. Maybe this detention wouldn’t be so bad, at that. If nothing else, with these two professors along…not to mention Bella and Friday…it would certainly not be boring. For that matter, she had to admit, even Sellaphix could be fun on occasion.

But evidently not today. "Ha ha,” he responded to Professor Kirchlehner’s joke, “I’m  here for swearing."  Like that somehow makes him better than everyone else, thought Eveline. She met Figaro’s glare with one of her own, remembering how he’d carried on when she kicked him, acting like the poor innocent victim who hadn’t done a thing. And it wasn’t like she’d even kicked him all that hard. Though it wasn’t for lack of trying…

But despite these thoughts,  she found herself agreeing with Fig when she heard where they were going. "The Forest...? But it's going to be dark by the time we're through - we're not allowed in the forest."

Like Sellaphix and no doubt everyone else, Eveline couldn’t help thinking of  Ava Grosvenor. "Can we not?"  asked Fig; and Eveline nodded involuntarily.

“Couldn’t we do something else?” she pleaded. “You know…sort  Flobberworms  without gloves?  Or…scrub up the Potions Room, after the First-Years get done with it?”

Standing among the group with her fellow detention buddies, Bellatrix waited impatiently. She walked around, scuffed up dirt with her flat-heeled combat boot, and hummed cheerily despite the situation. Among the group was Miss Prefect Dimbleby, Annoying Evie Chancelier, Cheeky Sellaphix, and Masculine Mansdotter. The crowd, at least, wasn't full of people she absolutely despised (like Harping Harper or Lady Branwell), though the group did seem to have a lot in common: the dress code incident.

When professors Storm and Kirchlehner arrived, Bellatrix turned on her heel and remained silent except for the anxious cracking of her knuckles. She took another good look around the group, frowned, and returned her attention to Professor Kirchlehner.

"Well, then, students. You're to be sent with Ignan and I into the Forest. Let this be a lesson to all whom wear their skirts too short - yes, Sellaphix, I mean you! - and those who dye their hair silly colors.  Shall we get going, then? I trust you're all ready..."

There was a giggle at the comment about Figaro and she grinned maliciously at him. However, the snide remark about hair made the darker Dark twin subconsciously reach up and play with her pig-tail of platinum blond hair streaked with blue.

"Ha ha.  I'm here for swearing," Figaro had defended.

"And I'm here for jinxing him," her head picked up proudly.

Obviously, Bellatrix still maintained that her classmate still deserved everything he'd gotten from herself, Eveline, and the Deputy Headmaster. She was right proud of her out-burst mostly because the event had marked that she was still Bellatrix Dark, vicious and quick to hex as ever, and that her magical powers had not, as she had previously believed, disappeared. The break-up with Xavier and the Valentine's Day Ball incident had put her in a deep depression, but now she was back and doing well in her classes. Well, some of them. Charms wasn't her best suit and it seemed that she was still having trouble defending against the dark arts since, after all, her talent lied in using them.

"The Forest...? But it's going to be dark by the time we're through - we're not allowed in the forest."

"Couldn’t we do something else? You know…sort  Flobberworms  without gloves?  Or…scrub up the Potions Room, after the First-Years get done with it?”

The complaints of going into the Forbidden Forest surprised Bellatrix; she gawked at them both with raised eyebrows. Personally, she couldn't understand why they were so bent on avoiding the forest when over half the student population spent their entire career at Hogwarts trying to get into it. Or maybe that was just her and Beatrix? The forest fascinated the Dark twin (hardly a surprise to anyone) and she refused to let them persuade the teachers to let them do something else.

"What's the matter, Sellaphix? I thought a loud-mouth like you would love the chance to smart off to a vampire." That wicked, scheming grin of Bella's spread over her face like a cheshire cat. "Besides, it's not what's in that forest that you need to worry about, it's what's going in with you."

Scaring students was one of the best parts of being herself. She gave out her usual creepy, maniacal laugh that had started up in her 3rd year when her "reign of terror" had started. Rarely, people ever heard her laugh normally and although her true laugh was more pleasant and not so terrifying, Bellatrix enjoyed her games of playing with people's minds. Unfortunately, since her classmates were so used to it by now, she worried the effect might wear off if it hadn't already. The uneasy mirth died away and left the Slytherin girl in a fit of giggles as she clapped her cousin on the back.

"I'm tugging your wands. I can't hex you with these two ol' bats around. No offense, Professors."

Clearly, Bellatrix was in an extremely good mood tonight. She was only joking with the teachers and everyone else and honestly had no bad intentions towards anyone. The fresh air was doing her wonders, the excitement of going into the forest was working her energy up, and it seemed her luck had finally switched on her: everything was going a lot smoother than it had been in the past 2 months.

"Couldn’t we do something else? You know…sort  Flobberworms  without gloves?  Or…scrub up the Potions Room, after the First-Years get done with it?”

Ignan smirked at the suggestion.
"Well, once you've done these tasks, perhaps you can do those too, Chancelier." He replied, hands tucked deep into his robes, allowing Georg to take charge of the group. The younger man had the energy, Ignan was instead enjoying someone else delivering the witty comments for once.

He paid less attention to what Dark had to say after, his eyes preoccupied watching the edge of the forest in the ever lengthening grey shadows of the early spring afternoon.

"I'm tugging your wands. I can't hex you with these two ol' bats around. No offense, Professors."

"We've been called worse, Dark, but that's not an invitation to better it. Shall we get on?" He gestured by turning, hands still within his robes, and led the group through the first line of trees and into the dimmer light beyond. Up ahead were the thestral pens.

"This is a task to be done without magic, as I'm sure you anticipated. We will confiscate wands if you're incapable of doing such." He warned in a steady tone, taking his hands out of his pockets and unlatching the gate. The thestrals turned and raised their heads to regard them.
"Shovels, bags. Fill the bags with the droppings, and deposit them in a line here along the fence. Makes for good fertiliser. Don't leave the gate wide open, and do hurry up, this has to be finished today, and we'd all like to be able to eat dinner."

Giving the students each a long, unimpressed look, he held an arm out to the shovels and bags, holding the gate a foot open with his other hand.

With any luck, they'd get on with it, fall over a few times, and Ignan and Georg could lean on the fence while Georg smoked his pipe.

Freya wasn't particularly stoked about traipsing about the forest with Professors Storm and Kirchlehner, either.  She wasn't (necessarily) afraid of werewolves, but there were worse things in there--or so rumor had it.  Otherwise the forest wouldn't have been forbidden for generations before the werewolf showed up.

At the same time, she had to put a good face on it.   She was about to say, 'What, afraid of bowtruckles, Sellaphix?'  But then Evie wasn't afraid to admit her fear so she immediately felt bad and kept her mouth closed.

She was glad she had, because then Bellatrix was off, not only bashing Figaro but demanding the account be straightened that she wasn't here for dresscode violations, either.  Her momentary feelings of solidarity vanished.  They were there to serve a detention, not to stand up for their rights as young adults and human beings.  They were just a group of stupid kids who didn't know when to keep their mouths shut...

For once, she and Figaro were in precisely the same category.  "Back off, Bella," she muttered instead.  "It's a reasonable question."  She gave Fig--erm, Evie--a tight smile but the professor was already answering.  Though he didn't reassure them they'd be in no danger, or that he'd make certain to protect them--as any good teacher surely would have done--he did reassure them they weren't going any further into the forest... at least not yet.

Instead, it seemed they'd be shoveling manure from an empty corral.  Freya had no clue why he didn't want them leaving the gate 'wide open' but that was the least of her problems.  Her docs would be ruined.  Maybe they weren't supposed to use magic on the job itself, but...

Freya slid her wand from her boot upper, tapped each toe and murmured, "Impervio," as quietly as possible...

When she stood up again, she said more loudly, "Invisible cows.  Terrific.  Wish their poop was invisible too.  Too bad its not also unsmellable..."  She wrinkled her nose in disgust and looked around.  "So where are the dragon-skin gloves?"

Ah, discipline was certainly lacking at this school, that for for sure. As was respect for your elders.Georg scowled at the whining, drawing his wand.

"No magic, Jansdotter," he said coolly, as the girl enchanted her shoes. He removed her spell with a wave of his wand and considered taking their wands entirely, but thought better of it; for now the children could keep them.

"No gloves, either! This is not meant to be pleasant work and you do not need gloves to shovel. And pay attention in class, Jandotter, there's no such thing as invisible cows," he added, as he and Ignan locked the kids in the pen and leaned on the fence. He was lighting his pipe when one of the thestrals walked over; as grotesque as the things were, he couldn't held but stroke its nose gently as he puffed his pipe up and blew a smoke ring.

"Hrph. Children," he said, with some feeling. "And this is an easy detention, by all accounts..." he added, shrugging at Ignan.

"Oh yes..." Ignan agreed with a nod. "Though we're not allowed to do the sorts of things we were subjected to as students." Not that Ignan recalled suffering many detentions at school - for one he had been the Headmaster's son, which had protected him somewhat from staff who didn't want to justify their reasons before his father, secondly, he hadn't been particularly mischievous at school, and had rather been kept busy, and thirdly, he had known the consequences of any serious behaviour would potentially have been worse than his counterparts when presented to his father for responsibility.

Georg had also attended, six years later than Ignan had, and also under his father, and had been a student when Ignan's mother had thrown herself from the tower. Although the two of them hadn't known each other at all well at school, they had exchanged stories about such over the years they had travelled together.

"I can remember my father collecting three boys for creating explosives for detonation in an exam, stripped them naked and tethered them to a wall in the dungeon before illustrating to his favoured obteils, myself included, how best slice flesh in the right way to cause either intense pain, or slow bleeding... I believe the three of them still would carry the scars today, which he claimed were due to birching." Looking back on it now, knowing his elderly father was more likely to sleep a good portion of the day than inflict pain on teenagers, it seemed like an entirely different person.

His expression suddenly changed to one of mild amusement, given that the thestrals had taken an interest in the students and were approaching suspiciously to sniff at their pockets.
"I didn't think to ask who could see thestrals. We should have laced their pockets. I'd imagine torment by a friendly, invisible animal nibbling at your pockets could be quite infuriating, yet amusing to witness."

Eveline was not amused by Professor Storm’s response to her suggestions. After all neither of those things would have been her idea of a ‘fun’ detention. Not that she had much idea of what detention was supposd to be like…until the dress code business, she'd never really been in trouble. Although, the way she and Professor O’Morain had been getting on lately, she supposed it was inevitable. It seemed he’d forgiven Fauna for disagreeing with him; but somehow that did not appear to be in the cards for Evie. She shrugged. O’Morain had no say in how she did on her NEWT’s. A few more months and she’d be graduating anyway…

"Back off, Bella…it's a reasonable question." 

Evie replied to Freya’s smile…was it a nervous one? with one of her own. She was learning not to take Bella’s wisecracks personally, but at the moment she did feel  a certain sympathy with Sellaphix. Perhaps because it was only a couple of weeks since the Werewolf Assembly, she felt somewhat…exposed.

From what Professor Storm said next, it seemed they were to be shoveling manure. Evie could see and smell it, though not the creatures it came from.  "Invisible cows.  Terrific.  Wish their poop was invisible too.  Too bad its not also unsmellable..."

Evie suppressed a giggle, not wanting to offend Freya.  She had missed the Invisible Creatures lesson, having been sick with the flu, so she didn’t think of Thestrals. However…she did know it wasn’t cows. She’d smelled cow dung once or twice during trips to the country; and this  was far, far worse. It smelled vaguely like some of the rotting substances they’d used in Potions class…and from what she could see it had no grass in it.

“ So where are the dragon-skin gloves?"

As Evie was standing near Freya she heard the Impervio spell and thought it was a good idea. But before she could come up with one of her own, Professor Kirchlehner spoiled the fun.

"No magic, Jansdotter. No gloves, either! This is not meant to be pleasant work and you do not need gloves to shovel. And pay attention in class, Jansdotter, there's no such thing as invisible cows."

If they’re invisible how would you know if they exist or not? thought Evie, smirking.

"Hrph. Children.” Evie jumped. Had he read her thoughts?

"And this is an easy detention, by all accounts..."

"Oh yes...Though we're not allowed to do the sorts of things we were subjected to as students. I can remember my father collecting three boys for creating explosives for detonation in an exam, stripped them naked and tethered them to a wall in the dungeon before illustrating to his favoured obteils, myself included, how best slice flesh in the right way to cause either intense pain, or slow bleeding... I believe the three of them still would carry the scars today, which he claimed were due to birching."

No way, thought Evie, looking suspiciously at the two Professors. It’s just the old When-I-was-your-age-I-had to-walk-six-leagues-barefoot-in-a-blizzard-pursued-by-dragons-all-the-way lecture…

"I didn't think to ask who could see thestrals. We should have laced their pockets. I'd imagine torment by a friendly, invisible animal nibbling at your pockets could be quite infuriating, yet amusing to witness."

Thestrals!  Of course!

Now that Evie was (reasonably) sure that she wasn’t going to be eaten by whatever was making those rotting piles, she went into the paddock and picked up a shovel. This was going to be a smelly nasty job…but how hard could it actually be? She scooped up a fresh, reeking pile…just a small one, to begin with…and paused. It wasn’t that heavy really, but…what was she supposed to do with it? Professor Storm said to put it in bags...only, how were you supposed to do that while holding a shovel? She supposed she could ask somebody...Freya? to hold the bag open for her...but what if she accidentally dumped a load on Freya's boots? Not good, not good at all...

But wait! There was a wheelbarrow over there, just on the other side of the fence from the two teachers. Yes! they could put the manure in the wheelbarrow first. Then one person could hold the bag...standing well out of the way...while the other dumped the wheelbarrow into it! And that way they'd be done well before dark!

It should be stressed here that Eveline’s intentions were entirely good. After hours and hours of polishing the frames of Headmaster's portraits, and all the other boring jobs Encantado had dumped on her and Freya, the last thing Evie wanted was to get on anyone’s bad side ever again…not the Deputy Headmaster, not Encantado, not her detention mates, and certainly not the two Professors. She’d got herself in enough trouble this term. She was going to do the right thing from now on, turn over a new leaf, etc. etc. and etc.

When she flung the first shovelful toward the wheelbarrow, she was surprised and pleased  at how good her aim was. It made a nice little arc and went straight into the barrow.  So...she filled the next shovel a bit fuller and did the same thing, with the same results. Then she did it a third time, and a fourth, each time increasing the load by just a little. Every load hit the wheelbarrow perfectly. She wasn't too bad at this, she told herself. So…she filled the fifth shovel as full as she could manage, and flung it again...

However…Evie had never before done any hard labor. So…she did not know that when one picks up too large a shovelful of manure…particularly fresh…moist…manure…it might have have a tendency to slide. And if this should happen in the midst of flinging a pile…the resulting trajectory just might be a bit high...

She froze as she saw where the manure was headed.

"LOOK OUT!"

So it was to be poop.

Part of Figaro wanted to whine some more, but the louder part snorted out a laugh.  "Thestral poop...?"  He immediately wondered, as he followed past the treeline, if you could see thestral poop.  Figaro couldn't see thestrals, but as the pen came into view, the poop was clear as day in glistening black piles. 

Despite his lingering fear of being out in the woods when a full moon would be rising in just around an hour, Figaro was more disturbed at Ignan's description of the 'good old days'.   He was about to say something to Freya next to him, but something brushed against the back of his neck.

"Eyah!" he startled, whirling around and wiping at his neck.  It was wet as if a dog's wet nose had grazed it. He looked around, with an expression mixed with uncertainty and amazement.

"Are there thestrals in here right now?"  He'd assumed they were out... pulling carts or eating spiders or whatever it is they did.  He laughed with nervous excitement and looked around at the professors and his classmates.

"C'mon - are they here?"  He'd seen drawings - they were gnarly.  But everyone said they were pretty friendly.  He held his hand out into the empty air,  "Oi, thestrals... where are ya...?"

He was standing next Freya who appeared to be fussing over her boots and he nudged her.  If there were thestrals this poop thing would have to wait.  This here was a run out the clock situation.  Play with thestrals until it started getting dark. 

Jordyn was having a panic attack as it was.  She had never had a detention before, which was absolutely horrifying, and to top it off she had to do the detention in the forbidden forest.  What was this?  It was absolutely disgusting and she didn’t want to get her uniform dirty and she didn’t want to get her shoes dirty, nor did she want to come across anything disgusting or frightening, really!  She hadn’t even done anything that bad.  She just screeched at the creepy groundskeeper or whatever he was anyway, and that was well within acceptability, considering.

Figaro had called them slaggy, after all, and Jordyn did not want to be lumped with the other girls in this detention.  She was a fine, upstanding, citizen.  The rest of them were weird.  Very weird.  Wrapping her arms around herself, she felt the bite in the air and the sense of dread welling up in her chest.  This was absolutely ridiculous. 

“I do not want to go in there,” Jordyn pointed out, perhaps just as a for the record sort of comment, but one nonetheless.  She was not a fan of creatures, she was not a fan of darkness, and she certainly wasn’t a fan of dirt – all things that were available, in abundance, in that forest. 

Beyond that, Jordyn was disgusted with the way in which Bellatrix was acting, like this was some sort of game.  She rolled her eyes at the girl’s comments, making sure that she was well within vision of the freaky-haired git.  She wasn’t scared of the Dark Twins.  They were just show-offish and wanted attention, at least that’s what Jordyn presumed, from their complete lack of social graces and understanding of appropriate standards of personal grooming. 

It really wasn’t the appropriate way to be, considering their own housemate had died in this very forest.  She could be at least a little respectful of a fallen Slytherin.  Again, that lack of social graces thing.  Besides, it was a detention, it wasn’t supposed to fun and no one should mouth off like that in front of professors. 

Of course, the orders of Professor Storm were even more egregious.  Invisible cows.  Invisible cows with non-invisible… gross.  She could feel her stomach churning already, the color draining from her face, particularly as it was declared no gloves.  She looked down at her hands – the kind of hands that had never had to do manual labor ever. 

“Professor,” she chimed in, rubbing at her upper arms, trying to restore the warmth of circulation to her body, “I… can’t do this.” 

---

Sorry if this is vague and bad, but I just got back from a break and trying to catch up on life...[size]

Georg gave the group a look that indicated he was pondering applying Merik Storm's idea of detention.

He smiled at Ignan. "An interesting Headmaster, your father - the rumors of that detention kept the dregs in line for years. The worst I ever got was ten lashes for accidently ruining a Professor's private documents..." Being in The Oberteils had had benefits beyond special dorms. A Dreg would have gotten a hundred for the same transgression...

Reflecting back on the punishments of Durmstrang made the children's pitiful whining all the more grating, and Georg fell back on his standard response - barking orders.

"Yes, Sellaphix, the Thestrals are present! Ignore them and get to work or I'll keep you out here 'til after dinner." Having snapped at Figaro, he and Ignan had to duck sideays to avoid Eveline's wayward toss.

"The bags, Chancelier - use them! Listen to instructions for once in your silly life!" he snapped again, and he and Ignan took their spots on the fence again, Georg looking quite miffed.

This made Jordyn's plea sound completely petty and he scowled darkly. "I am quite sure, Miss Dimbleby, that you are physically capable of using a shovel to pick up dung. If your delicate sensibilities are offended by actually having to work, then I suggest you redefine your senses very quickly or we'll find something even more offensive for you to do, understand?"

"Ah, we'll make a teacher out of you yet." Ignan told Georg, impressed with the way his old friend and new colleague took matters into his own hand, dealing out the verbal dressing-downs without him needing to raise a finger - just dodge dung. Chancelier had probably aimed that their way on purpose, he didn't doubt.

"Its normally me growling at the students. Though, I have a knack of being unavailable for detention in comparison for some of my counterparts." Folding his arms upon the fence, he watched the students passively, his eyes watching the background instead.
"Only, given what's happened in the past couple of months out here, I think the others consider us to be the most prepared to fend off the unknown. Rather like old times." Glancing back behind them, Ignan tried not to think too much about the state of Sasha and Ava when he and Tapendra had discovered in the forest.

Shoveling dung into bags without magic sounded like a task only the two genius professors Storm and Kirch could come up with. The most dull, the most inane, the most foul thing they could do to these students was to shovel dung. Well, better that than bubotuber puss, she supposed. With a shrug, Bellatrix had followed the group in and stared at the magnificent lizardy-horses. She eased over to one and reached out to pet it.

"Wotcher, buggerlug. Easy, now," she whispered and tentatively caressed the hard tip of its nose. "You're a right beauty, aren't you?"

Bellatrix had no idea that appearing to be petting thin air and talking to herself only added to her crazy portrait that people painted of her. When the others started work, the Slytherin girl also picked up a shovel and started piling it in. It was a good thing she wore tattered clothes for this. Honestly, she'd been expecting them to assign something worse like collecting bubotuber puss or babysitting children. She'd even stashed a couple of pieces of left-over lunch in her pockets just in case they had kept them past the dinner hour. That proved to be a horrible idea since one of the Thestrals kept sniffing around her bum.

"Oi," she whispered, "would you cut that out? Knock it off!"

"LOOK OUT!"

She looked up in time to see the professors dodge the bit of poo that her cousin had flung. Bellatrix went into a state of maniacal giggles when there was a sudden ripping sound. She cried out in surprise, dropping her shovel, and whirled around to see the Thestral trotting off with part of her cloak: the pocket that contained the chicken, which fell out onto the ground.

"Oi, you bloody, thieving creature, you can't just steal! I'd have given it to you if you weren't so bloody thick!"

There was no use in chasing after it now; the pieces of chicken had fallen to the ground and she sighed in disappointment. That was probably amusing to the professors. Muttering to herself, she started shoveling up the dung quickly and tossing it into the wheel-barrel. Her area was getting less dung-filled by the minute. Finally, she stood upright to breathe. Her back was starting to hurt and just as she did so, the Thestral came back looking for more. This time, he had a friend. A mare was now nudging at her other shoulder.

"Stop that, would you?" Bellatrix was trying to be angry with them. "I'm trying to work."

Figaro had to nudge her because Freya was busy shooting dark stares at both older men.  When he brought her back to the here-and-now, she was forced to make a very hard decision.  She rolled her shoulders, cracked her neck sideways as one did right before a fight, and trudged angrily toward the fence, fists clenched...

Once there, she sat down right in front of the professor, took off her boots with a sharp tug, tied the shoelaces together and hung them over her neck like a scarf.  Narrowing her eyes in an "I'll get you for this" stare, she shot a final glance at the men then ignored them entirely... squishing through the corral in her stocking feet to collect a bag with a vicious jerk, snapping it open and holding it for Fig... then couldn't help but glance back to smirk when Evie nearly pegged the self-righteous old snarks with a pile of manure.  She giggled and barely remembered not to even think about trying to hide her smile with her hands as she normally would.  Yeeuck.

"Thestrals?" she asked and glanced from the old men to Fig, who'd said as much, too.  She couldn't help her wide eyes.  She swallowed hard, glancing nervously about.  It galled her to admit that she hadn't paid attention in CfMC class-- although how Storm could know that was beyond her.  He wasn't the one who should know about invisible cows, surely.  "Thestrals are... they're carnivorous aren't they?  I mean-- they eat meat.  And we're... we're meat aren't we?" she demanded.  Oi, thestrals, where are ya?  Yeah, that would help, she thought.  If she had a horse to ride to Fig's rescue, she knew exactly what she'd do at this very moment... keep riding.

Bella unwittingly answered her question when her pocket tore and a partially-eaten chicken fell to the ground.  Freya stared as something nibbled invisibly at it, rolling it around.  She shuddered, too nervous to even be disgusted with the Slytherin girl who insisted she couldn't take part in this detention.  "Fig... Evie?  They don't eat people... do they?"

She could be excused, at least.  As a fifth year, they wouldn't be studying thestrals until second term.  But she'd heard horror stories from the older kids, who knew kids who knew kids who'd seen them-- but only after they watched a classmate eaten, since thestrals were only visible to folks who'd seen other folks die...