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Hogwarts was too damn big. This tiny, stupid fact was what he was focussed on as he dashed through the halls, occasionally ducking into a side corridor or pausing to catch his breath. There were also too many Aurors in the castle by at least one; he'd had to dodge around the man's patrol.

Tapendra's mind was chaotic, almost to the point of making him not feel his lungs screaming for air or the slight pain of his bare feet pounding on the flag stones. He'd tried to simplify his goal to be 'Get to Ignan, then panic', but it wasn't working. He wanted to scream in panic and rage, anger at both his mother and Prideaux and himself for...well, for a lot of things. Mostly having sold out his father, at the moment. Scream, hit something, and then possibly cry like the gigantic idiot he was, the pathetic one who couldn't keep his trap shut-

The Defense classroom's door finally loomed at the end of the hall. He dashed towards it, glad Ignan didn't have class today, hoping he was in - if he wasn't, he'd have to find him somehow.

He slammed the door open so hard to bounced back off the wall with a loud, booming bang and hit him in the arm. He paused in the doorway, seeing the students looking at him. The three of them floated gently upside down, Ignan's wand leveled at them, one of them holding a book, mouth open as if they'd been reading aloud-

Detention, the logical center of his brain told him. He stood there panting, suddenly all too aware of his aching feet, throbbing arm and burning lungs. He didn't have time to explain anything, really, he didn't even want to, not with students here, and some stupid little part of him was feeling silly for not having changed clothes.

"Ge-get out," he said, taking big gulps of air. "Ignan - need to...talk, to you. Get them out of here!" He yelled the last sentence, shaking visibly in the doorway.

The three sixth year boys had been hanging upside down due to Ignan's charm for nearly twenty minutes. He'd toyed with possible detentions for them, but as things got ever closer to examinations, he liked to ensure these extra meetings with students were met with the relevant educational content. If the blood was running to their heads, hopefully their memories would be strong as they recalled the information in their examinations, otherwise he'd turn them upside down again as an aide-mémoire.

These three were enterprising. While students faced each other in pairs before their classmates to learn keenly how different defences led to weakness to different attacks with practical demonstration, they were quietly aiding each other. While the first stood to face an opponent, the second and third took turns to make swipes at the first's opponent, tripping, hexing shoe size. Their attempts came more bold and by the time the third stood before his opponent, Ignan had successfully identified them as a trio, and ordered their detention.

Academic cheats at Durmstrang had been punished by other students quite often, or thrashings to a wand hand that made it swell until the wand could hardly be held. The temptation to carry that out for these three had been strong, but instead, he'd confiscated their wands as if about to order them to clean by hand, and then swept them up by their ankles to the rafters.

Stood below, he had them read and recite definitions from their text book, hexing the relevant individuals each time they made a mistake. Their heads hovered a good twelve feet from the floor, their shins and socks were on display as their trouser legs headed towards their heads, and their ties dangled around their ears. Most notably, their faces were bright red, though Ignan doubted that was just the way they were hanging.

Trishna's entrance almost made the third student drop the book, and it made Ignan jump, stood by his desk, hand on hip with his wand in hand, the other propped on the desktop.

"Ge-get out, Ignan - need to...talk, to you. Get them out of here!"

It was unlike Tapendra to shout, and the state of him put immediate fear into Ignan, who looked from Trishna's face to the doorway behind him to check if he was pursued. Without question, he raised his wand to the three students and they fell unceremoniously to the floor below with a heavy thud and a trio of yelps.

If it was a peril to the students, Tapendra would not have ordered their removal, he would have fetched for Ignan instead. Which meant it was a peril to the two of them, or to Trishna alone. Either way he looked a state, sides heaving, shaking.

"OUT!" Professor Storm barked. The second looked to pause to ask for their wands, but the first hauled him by the shoulder towards the door shaking his head, advising better. The three would remain in the top drawer of Ignan's desk until they thought it safe to return. Instead they cast worried glances between the two professors and staggered out.

The door slammed behind them almost as forcefully as it had opened, and items in cabinets rattled. Ignan performed the wards wordlessly on the door, the same ones he had used on the door in the hospital hut while he had spoken to Georg, then turned, grasped Trishna firmly by the upper arms and sat him down at Ignan's classroom desk, letting go and facing him, wand still in hand.

"Talk, Tapendra." He spoke firmly, looking the younger Professor in the eye with unwavering intensity.

Tapendra let himself be led - any protests of the student's treatment quelled by the fact that right now, he frankly did not care - and might have treated a student the same. He fell into Ignan's chair, still shaking, and stared up at Ignan with his eyes wide.

He opened his mouth and stammered - not sure where to begin, trying to start somewhere and failing. He swallowed, slumping forward with his head in his hands.

"It's Mum, she's...she's..." He swallowed, paused, and took deep breaths, his fist against his forehead, trying to get his thoughts into order. "An Auror wrote to me the other day. I hadn't told you, hadn't had the chance - I didn't think it was...anyway," He had thought it was a big deal, but that didn't have much to do with this.

"He came to talk to me today, asked me about mum - about Azorma. Asking where she'd gone, what she'd done, why she hadn't contacted me, what - what made her leave and what he did, and...oh Merlin, I don't even-" He'd have to explain everything, to make him understand why he didn't want to believe it, and yet he did want it to be true-

"She's alive, Ignan, the Aurors have her," It came out in a rush.

Trishna fell to pieces under his gaze. Either something horrific had occurred (yet no blood all over him, and all his limbs present, no wolf beating down the door) or Tapendra was losing grip on reality. It reminded him distantly of hysterical colleagues who had been tortured by the dark wizards in the Black Forest, the ones Ignan had documented carefully and learned from.

He tried not to let his expression change as Tapendra referred to his mother, and then an aurora, but he was almost sure his expression twitched, his pupils dilated a little more, and his form incline towards his colleague more closely.

At Tappy's explanation, Ignan turned his head to one side, initially disbelieving, allowing his mind to repeat what had been said. After a moment, quite sure Tappy had said what he had said, Ignan turned away, walked a few paces, his back to Tappy, and put his hand to his mouth thoughtfully.

"They're quite sure?" He asked finally, still hiding his expression from Tapendra. "Not some trick?" His voice was distant, his mind was already busy trying to work out how this could be. It didn't match up - he'd seen her be killed. The Italians had confirmed it to him, that was why he had no reason to hold out on assisting them - that and the treatment - because without her, he'd have lasted less than a week. Either the aurors would have killed him before he got out of custody, or the fraternities Ignan and Azorma had crossed would have tracked him and taken their pleasures in torturing him.

"What else did they say?" He asked, turning a little to look back at Tapendra over his left shoulder, his right hand still around the point of his chin, and his wand pointing down his arm.  His eyes were worried, defying his relatively calm expression. He didn't want to contemplate what would occur if this were true, until he was sure.

"No, I'm not sure, that's the problem," he said, not having raised his head. "He said he'll try to let me see her, but all I have is his word, and..." He trailed off, rubbing his face yet again. "He said that she'd attacked outside the Ministry - that fight on the 15th, the one the Prophet reported, that was her. She nearly killed one of the Aurors - this Auror who talked to me, his name's Trevelyan, she nearly killed his partner - and he said Vedir Prideaux was there too, she tried to kill him and they got her." Prideaux - the name made his blood boil.

"I..." He paused again, then stood up so he could pace the room, rubbing his hands up and down his arms. "I've got enemies, Ignan, people who'd want me to slip up. I'd like it to be true, that she's alive, but it - it could be a trap, to see what I do, and then I'll have broken the contract and the girls and I'll wind up in the catacombs like the others," his voice was jittery, quick.

"And if it is true, she's going to Azkaban and everything still gets dredged up!" He growled and kicked one of the desks, the thud on the wood echoing in the quiet room.

Ignan committed the details to memory as swiftly as he could, the 15th, Trevelyan, Vedir Prideaux (hadn't Johann mentioned that last name to him before?) He stayed quiet, weighing up the best way to to confirm these matters were true or false. Azorma was a metamorphmagus, it would be difficult to confirm her identity, and yet why would someone impersonate her?

Behind him, Tappy got up and paced the room, rubbing his arms like an unsure, cold teenager as he explained he had enemies. Ignan watched him silently.

There was one way he could try and clear up this matter, and that would be to show Tappy his memory of Azorma's death, but looking at the state of the man, he felt it really wasn't the way to achieve anything at that moment. Nor, did he feel comfortable sharing that moment of his life with anyone else, particularly as it then revealed what Ignan had done.

No, he must push aside everything he worried about coming to light right at that moment. If the aurors knew enough about Azorma and wanted to look into her associates, they would have come to him at the same time as Tapendra. Instead they had just come to see him, and written to him first, given themselves and him time to see if he would react.

No, he was Tapendra's friend, even if at that moment he felt rather more like a father figure. The way Trishna had bolted into the room, the way he was dressed were all rather more reminiscent of the students they taught, and it didn't help that he'd quietly realised that had things turned out differently, he could well have been in a position to be considered Tapendra's step-father.

Therefore, if he was being watched and looked for in a trick, they would have seen him flee to Ignan to be reassured by his friend of a terrible fright. Nothing more.

"Tapendra." Ignan spoke, his own voice becoming steady as his thoughts reached a conclusion on how he should proceed.

"What do you think? Does it make sense, given what was said?" He turned to his friend properly. "Don't," he raised a hand, "don't concern yourself about anything between us, this is about you until the aurors come knocking on my door, and if they do, that is my concern."

He lifted his jacket from the back of his chair where he had taken it off before the detention, and stepped towards Tapendra, covering his friend's shoulders in the grey suit jacket which was too broad in the shoulders. It would both provide a little warmth to the shocked Tapendra, and also serve as an act of reassurance.

"Have there been any other indications that your mother was alive, or returning to England? Anything unusual, dare I suggest it, dreams?"

Ignan had not slept so well since the boggart, but he had put it down to dredging up the past. The Storm family were not seers, their number were very close-minded in that sense.

He took the jacket wordlessly, pulling it tighter around him. He sat on one of the desks, long legs dangling above the floor.

"But it could easily be about you - what if this is faked, or even if it's real...what if it's a trap for you? He mentioned 'What the Europeans have on her', and while that could mean her other crimes, the moment they look into Italy..."

He steadied his breathing, closing his eyes - and then speaking in calm, measured tones. "It doesn't make sense. If you saw her die, she can't be alive. It doesn't work like that. If she was alive, why didn't she try to rescue you or contact you? One of you is lying. It...it has to be him. It just...it makes more sense if this is a trap for one of us."

Tapendra smiled vaguely. "I'm awful at Divination, Ignan - no dreams.  Nothing. If she was here she didn't contact either of us, and both of our names is in the public spectrum. She has to have known both of us were here, and yet she did nothing. That doesn't seem like her...not the her I knew, anyway."

He shuddered. "And Trevelyan asked me about...before. When Georgiana was born. That - if he's after Italy, that's an odd direction to go in. So it's...probably a trap for me, or both of us. I don't know. I told him...told him some things. I sold out my father to him, to see what he does." He laughed, bitterly. "I'm not a very good son."

As Tapendra settled on one of the desks, pulling Ignan's jacket around him, his older friend put a few feet between them and placed both hands on his hips, inclining his head slightly to look to Tapendra's expression, listening.

It was very touching Tapendra worried for him above his own worries about why his mother had been arrested, but Ignan felt incredibly guilty for inducing it in his colleague without intending it.

When Tapendra, with his eyes shut, mentioned the fact that either Ignan or Trevelyan was lying, the thought of the memory nagged again. It would be one way of showing Tapendra he wasn't lying, though it appeared from what he was saying at the moment, he did believe Ignan.

"… why didn't she try to rescue you or contact you?" Tapendra had said too - Ignan could think of a few reasons why Azorma wouldn't have wanted to. Firstly she'd have wanted to kill him, and if she somehow was alive, he suspected she could have been in cahoots with the Italian aurors, and his exile from Italy became her attempt to free him.

"We cannot always protect those we love." Ignan replied gravely to Tapendra's guilt at giving his father's name. "He may know more than you, by co-operating with the law, you are only doing what you can. The Trevelyan character, we shall have to watch what he does." Ignan let out a small sigh and looked to the floor between them a moment.

"The important part is to try not to panic. Don't contact people you think he may talk to, as it may reveal your panic. Did you tell Trevelyan that you thought your mother was dead? Do you think he suspects you thought such?"

Ignan did bear in mind that up until their uncomfortable discussion over the boggart, Tapendra believed his mother was still alive, and would have therefore straight believed Trevelyan otherwise.

"Ben won't know more than me, he's...he's not really stable. Got obliviated a lot and not treated for it..." He smiled again, in a vague way. "I just...Trevelyan asked if I could give him some names to help, said he was on my side and I..."

He sighed. "I told him she was likely dead. Didn't say how I knew, exactly - told him it was a logical conclusion based on the lack of any kind of contact, but that I...wasn't comfortable believing it. Said I always thought that she was alive." Which was true. He hadn't wanted to think of her as being dead. "He didn't tell me she was alive straight away - just asked me questions and then revealed it, after awhile."

"Trevelyan said to see how he treats Ben and then decide if I trust him. I told him to his face I couldn't trust him, you see." He put his head in his hands. "I'm such an idiot! I panicked, when he told me she was alive - assumed it was a trap, got angry, yelled at him for being one of Prideaux's cronies out to trick me. For all I know he is, and my father will be in trouble now, and then..."

"Tapendra." Ignan uttered quietly as his colleague's thoughts began to spiral again. "Calm yourself."

His expression changed from steely interrogation to concern and he stepped over and perched to the right of his friend on the desks, and placed his left hand gently between Tapendra's shoulder-blades over his jacket.

The man was still shaking and the emotional response surprised the older wizard. Tapendra's interchange with Trevelyan had been more deeply distressing than Ignan believed on hysterical explanation and hunched body language. Ignan was so used to student hysteria being over something so small, that he took everything with scepticism.

"If I could tell you what to do, I would, but I think the situation is a little more complex than I am aware." He patted Tapendra's back once and dropped his hand to the desk behind him. "You don't have to explain, but if you tell me what would help, or what you need, I will make necessary arrangements."

Perhaps Johann would be able to use his nosy nature to find out more about Trevelyan, and could remind Ignan why he'd mentioned Vedir to him the other day. It was clear Prideaux caused Tapendra a lot of stress with regards to the situation.

"What we cannot do, is go back and fix what has happened. We will have to make do with what has happened." Ignan explained, looking to his left to Tapendra, his voice a lot more calm than his own thoughts which contradicted themselves at the back of his head. The temptation to use legilmency, or hunt Trevelyan down and obliviate him were already calculating, and he pushed them back. No, things would have to be done above board here. 

He slapped himself across the face, the sting to both his hand and cheek helping him focus. "I'm sorry, I'm..." He was a lot of things. He smiled at Ignan suddenly, his expression oddly sunny. Ignan's touch on his back was odd, but reassuring, especially coming from him.

"Mum always told me: Don't get scared, get angry," he said. "It's odd, being both. Haven't felt like this in...a really long time." He clenched and unclenched his hands. "I'm sorry I'm so upset, I always try to stay calm, keep level headed..."

He let his breath out in a rush and looked up at the ceiling. "Explaining...that's...look, Ignan." He wondered if this was a good idea - at the moment, he didn't care. "Promise me this: you won't speak of this to anyone, understand? If it's all coming back and you're involved because of her, you need to know, but..." He sighed. "I don't talk to anyone, about this. Maybe that's why I'm so...it's been inside for over a decade, now, I even lied to Georgiana about it."

Setting his jaw, he looked at his hands. "I said I'm scared - I've got good reason to be. The only reason I'm here right now, alive, is because I have dirt on Prideaux. And he knows it. If I let what I know get out, it'd ruin him. I traded that fact, plus my silence on it, so Georgiana and I could live. If I hadn't, after Mum left, I'd have been killed."

Ignan smirked a little at Tapendra's quotation of his mother. That sounded like something she might say. He kept quiet again while Tapendra explained, or at least vocalised some of his thoughts.

Perhaps the more he spoke the more calm he would become, even if Ignan was a little confused at present.

When Tapendra asked him not to speak of what he was going to say, he gave a solemn nod.
"You have my promise." He added to clarify but gestured for Tapendra to continue without hesitation.

Behind Tapendra, Ignan's hand clenched, mirroring Trishna's moments ago.
"Prideaux, as in the Governor for this school?" He asked almost rhetorically. "Did he force you to make an unbreakable vow?" Thoughts began to pick up in Ignan's head, firstly that Tapendra had been threatened for his life at some point - but more pressingly, that this information was sworn to secrecy, and not even Ignan would press Tappy to elaborate on what exactly the secret was.

"Tapendra, this knowledge, which you cannot speak of, did it come to the front of your mind while you were with Trevelyan, is it now?" Ignan asked, concerned. "I don't want to know, what it is, but if its something which is could cause you ruin, you do not want anyone claiming the information without your consent in the meantime." He turned away and stared out at the room, bringing his hand back into his lap and thinking hard.

"If Prideaux is so much of a threat, he can be taken care of." He added coldly. "He will not threaten you, or your family if I can help it."

"Yes, the Governor. That Prideaux," he said. "No, he didn't force me or vice versa," he added, his smile turning to the odd, nasty smile he'd worn while talking to Jonas. "He wasn't in a position to, when we had our talk. I'd have killed him if he'd reached for his wand, let alone tried to make he swear anything like that. I nearly did."

Tapendra tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Yes, it did - I had to tell him the basics, nothing a crony wouldn't know, just stuff any Auror could find out of their ow-Legimency. Shit." He punched the desk next to him. "Shit!" Damn, he'd even thought for a brief moment, of the night in the car...

He calmed himself again, trying not to think of that. "I don't think he did anything, I didn't feel anything, and...I hope he didn't."

Ignan's response, though steely, got him the sunny smile again. "Thank you, Ignan," he said, quietly. "I...I really appreciate that. But he's not so easy to take care of. If killing him was all it'd take...Merlin, I'd have done it myself, gladly."

He stood up from the desk, pacing, stroking his beard. "Have you heard of the Runespoor smuggling? It's been happening for years, hell - you and Mum probably worked for them at some point. They're a big issue and they're very powerful. Got a lot of ties in the Ministries...Prideaux's one of the ringleaders. If he dies, a lot of very nasty people are going to want to know who did it, and the bastard," he spit the word out with more hate than someone like he should have been able to muster, "Is an upstanding citizen. I know he's a ringleader, I can sodding prove it. I wish I could just kill him, I really do - I'd feel so much better."

He tossed his hands in the air, letting them fall to his sides limply. "And he's Georgiana's father."

Tapendra appeared to understand Ignan's concerns over legilmency. Though Ignan remained suspicious of his younger friend's smiles over Ignan's wish to dispose of Vedir. If Tapendra knew how Ignan had once been so capable of doing that, and perhaps still was, Ignan very much doubted Tappy would be so happy.

Tappy's outbursts as he paced were met with silence from Ignan who listened and watched, his blue grey eyes watching the Astronomy Professor pace.

"For every ringleader, there is another very willing to take his place and monopolise should they fall. That is the difference of that side of society. They will only work together for their individual gain, the moment one is crushed, the others will feed on it." He reasoned levelly, thinking of how the opposing groups had often fought each other, and been glad when Azorma and Ignan took a group out. Yes, the families had wanted to seek revenge, but it appeared in this case, Georgiana and Tapendra were family.

In the back of his head, a quieter part of him acknowledged the fact, Vedir was therefore, a former lover of Azorma. He had never doubted there were many others, but he had never known them.

Looking past Tapendra to the hour glass sat on his desk, he estimated the time that was left for what would have been detention.

"Killing him in the short term is going to do no good, you're quite right, so given your recent news, what do you think you'll do?" He asked Tappy instead, keen to prevent Tapendra making any rash decisions given his alarm.

If he wanted Ignan to propose a plan, he'd have to disclose a little more. Fair enough, Ignan would trust Tapendra for miles, but as this potentially caught Ignan into the equation for his previous actions, he had to watch his own back - however much he felt for Tapendra. After it all, it might come to a point, as he had explained to Georg, that Ignan had to sacrifice his life as it stood for now, to protect them both. Fleeing would be a better way to describe it.

He sighed, pausing in his pacing - looking to the ceiling. What would he do? There were a lot of things he wanted to do, most of them rash, panicked. Now wasn't the time for that; acting rashly would only make things worse right now.

"I don't know," he admitted. "The best thing to do right now would be to....find some way to get information. Without them knowing I'm doing it. I need to know what Trevelyan wants...if he's actually on our side then he could be useful. If he's not, he's another enemy like Prideaux - one that can waltz into the school with ease."

The girls weren't safe, that was for sure. Had they ever been? Not really, no, but...

"I just...we had a deal, Prideaux and I. If I'm perceived as a danger at all, he'll do...something. I don't know what. I've got one card against the man and if I play it, well, there goes my protection. It'll ruin him, but I'll still be dead. The girls, too - probably you, as well. I'm sorry, Ignan," he added. "I don't mean to drag you into this, it's just..." He sat on the desk again, clearly calmer - less jittery, but also hardly at ease. "What can I do?"