COMC Lesson 1: Lethifolds Under The Bed

The rain came down in torrents, and Vinnie was running late again.

By the time he reached the door of the barn, his robes were soaked through, his hair sticking in all directions, but he was still grinning like mad. He’d finally figured out how to sneak into the kitchens, something he’d been trying at all week. When Vinnie pushed open the door, he felt a strange tug in his gut. The roof had been replaced by a sky full of stars, the wooden floorboards and hay bales by a regular street corner.

For a moment, Vinnie wondered whether this was a strange new punishment for late students. Perhaps Professor Barlowe had decided he’d had enough, and was now dumping students in the middle of nowhere until they learned timeliness. Vinnie was forced to reconsider when he saw the rest of the class standing there as well. They couldn’t all have been late - could they?

It was then that the cat sitting on the corner transformed into Professor Barlowe, and made his way into a random house on the street. Vinnie wasn’t quite sure whether to be excited or nervous about this development, but ultimately decided on excitement.

Go back to bed, Robert! There’s no such thing as monsters. Vinnie tensed at the words. This family could be in danger. Surely they ought to get there as fast as possible, in case something terrible happened. When Professor Barlowe only continued his explanation, Vinnie relaxed again. He drifted towards standing next to Maevie, another first year he’d seen around before.

“What ever could be trying to make a meal of our little friend?” Vinnie considered the question for a moment. He ran through the creatures he’d seen in the paddock, which was only the ones all students were allowed to visit, as he wasn’t yet a third year.

“Diricrawls can appear and disappear, right? Maybe it’s one of them,” Vinnie suggested. His voice was far too loud for someone who had just broken in. “Oh, or a chameleon ghoul! My mum’s friend has one in his attic.” Neither creature was particularly dangerous, but chameleon ghouls certainly looked monstrous enough - when they could be seen. He wouldn’t be surprised by a Muggle thinking it was one.

Just then, there was a thud. A Slytherin boy who looked to be in his third or fourth year took off towards the sound. Vinnie automatically took half a step in the same direction before he faltered and stopped. No one else seemed to be following the boy. “We should go after him,” Vinnie said to the students at large. “He could get hurt.”

"Or sacrifice her, and we'll make a run for it. We don't have to be the fastest, just faster than her."

Matilda, hobbling along with the class, trying to put a little weight on her leg here and there, heard what Benji had said and immediately pinched him in the side and twisted. “Benji Francine, I will not hesitate to take you out at the knees. These crutches aren't just for walking.”

Rae spoke up, reprimanding her boyfriend, and the subject of Tilly’s earlier assault by pinching. "Plenty of fodder before we get to friends," Tilly giggled and then looked at Rae with a suspicious eye. “I’m not sure that statement was meant to make me feel better…”

"Most of them have shorter legs. We'll be fine." Rae continued, making Tilly look around at the short little students that were all around her. Standing at 5’2” she wasn’t all that taller. This would all end badly, she just knew it.

Thankfully, even though her best friend was trying to offer her up to be the mystery creature's next meal, he let her lean on him whenever she needed. "Don't trample the grass. I believe the owners have been working on it for some time now."

Matilda rolled her eyes, because sure, walking over the turf was what they should be concerned about. Not the screaming child inside the dark house.

"Muuummmmmyyyy, it's back! It's back! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Go back to bed, Robert! There's no such thing as monsters!”

She really didn’t like the sound of this. Racking her brain for a creature that would invoke such a scream one came to mind that she had recently seen in a book. “Have you ever seen an Erkling . Nasty little creatures. I hear they like snacking on little kids…” Tilly’s eyes went around to the trove of first years that stood in their group. “Ummm, sorry. It’s probably a puffskein, totally a puffskein.”

Rosalie Laurence was many things. Responsible and dependable were thankfully among them. The man had his own fair share of justified complaints about the Gryffindor girl, ones he'd taken up with her cousin. Mercifully, within his classes, there were none. He was grateful she and the McCormick boy had taken on vigilance of the younger set. That was one less thing he had to do himself and freed him up nicely to deal with the rest.

It wasn't easy to break an entire class into a Muggle home. He deserved more credit than he often got.

As he had learned to do, Maddox pretended not to hear Laurence #2 with his schemes of sacrificing--his little girlfriend's either. Despite the sensitivity of his hearing, the creature professor understood, at its core, that some things were better not heard. If he remembered correctly, this wasn't the first time the boy had volunteered his classmates as bait.

"Were you just...like I know there's...but...it's not you...you're not...right?"

Maddox raised a brow at the stuttering boy, waiting for him to form a coherent sentence. The anticipation was all for nought when Laurence simply sank back in among his friends. Gazing around at the group, he gained a fair idea of what the Hufflepuff had been trying to say. Had he really not known? Had so many of them? He would have to tell Julia about it later.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and its a poltergeist."

"We've already got Peeves. I never feel particularly 'lucky' running into him."

The girl had a point. Maddox didn't spend too much time inside the castle, but as early as his own days at the castle, he'd never been able to stand the obnoxious bugger. Peeves had proven too much for even his Gryffindor sensitivities. "While a good guess, I don't suppose the boy's mother would be so quick to dismiss the idea were it a poltergeist. They aren't exactly known for their subtlety." Merlin knew they'd been the cause of many 'hauntings' around the Muggle world. "No hidebehinds either. They're not nearly as common as your suggestion implies."

"Maybe the boy's just scared of the dark? I used to think there were things under my bed when I was little."

"Does the darkness usually make loud thuds to the ground?"

The little Hufflepuff's response prevented him from having to address the suggestion himself. Maddox nodded his head in Golding's direction.

"She's right, the dark itself isn't the thing going bump in the night." Not in this case, at least. "Safe to say Robert's got a friend up there who--"

Donahue was gone.

Well, fuck.

A small tick of panic shot through him. It wasn't enough to spur him into action, not yet, but it did force him to pay more attention. They might not have known what was waiting up the stairs, but he did, and if it found the Slytherin before they caught up to him, it might be a...minor issue.

"If he actually dies, do we get let out early?"

"Not the time," he drawled, his rebuke of the girl so mild as to be nearly non-existent. He was far too used to Elliot's humour by now, knowing more than half the time she was never joking. "Wands out, let's move."

The Gryffindor first year (Vinnie) already wanted to. Thankfully, he hadn't been as foolhardy as the Slytherin who ironically lacked the necessary self-preservation to not run headfirst into a situation he had no information about.

"Little Robert might actually have been enchanted to have a diricrawl in his room," he responded to the boy's guess as he led the group toward the stairs. From what he understood, the boy was still trying to convince his parents to get him a puppy. "A ghoul might give him a fright, though."

“Have you ever seen an Erkling . Nasty little creatures. I hear they like snacking on little kids…”

"That they do," he muttered, casting his gaze up the dark staircase, where Donahue had disappeared. "Robert may have had a better time with an Erkling, I'm afraid." Corbin Donahue, too.

---

As Corbin got to the top of the stairs, the hall spread in both directions. To one end, a closed door. To the other, a door that was left ajar, a small night light casting a dim light out into the hall. Through the crack in the door, one could make out the figure of a small boy sitting up in bed with blankets pulled up to his chin. It wasn't a sight the boy would see for long. Something sinister crept along the ground, obscured by the darkness.

Out from the shadows, what appeared to be another blanket lunged. It covered the boy, choosing him for its next victim.

Maddox led the other students up the stairs and onto the landing in time to see this lunging blanket. The man exhaled deeply, understanding the way this...complicated things.

Donahue was primed to be the creature's next meal unless they acted quickly.

"Change of plans, we act now, lesson after. For those of you who didn't do the reading," a few came to mind,"that's a lethifold," Maddox continued, pointing his wand in its direction. "Explanations come later. We can't afford to return to the castle one short." And the boy didn't have much time now that the creature had latched on. He prayed he wasn't the screaming sort. Sticky as the situation was, there were still avenues to make it worse.

The blanket-like creature wrapped around the Slytherin, low rumbles emitting from an indiscernible place.

"Time to see who's been paying attention." He'd give them about a minute. If they didn't effectively chase the creature off, he would have to himself. There wasn't much time to waste, but Donahue had volunteered himself as the training dummy. The man had already taken them all this way. They wouldn't not learn over a minor inconvenience.

Seeing the commotion out in the hall, Robert yelled. "It's going to eat him! Mummy! Mummy, he's going to die!"

Sigh.

"Quickly."

It was officially a race against the clock for more reasons than one.

---

OOC: The second of three updates is here! We've encountered something of an unplanned...situation thanks to our Slytherin friend. Quite unfortunate, some may even say unavoidable. There's no time to second-guess. It's a race against time and a tight window IC, so assume your character only had enough time to cast one spell/carry out one action. Don't worry about being right or wrong (this doesn't affect your final score), just follow your character's lead. You may not assume the success of your spell/action. I will let you know in the next post what ends up working and what doesn't. This lesson will be updated again on September 17.

It was a relief when Professor Barlowe announced that it was time to move. The little boy’s screams and the Slytherin student bolting had made Vinnie antsy. Even if this had been set up by a professor and there was little real danger, he couldn’t help but feel something terrible was about to happen. He followed right on Barlowe’s heels as the class moved upstairs.

“Little Robert might have actually been enchanted to have a diricrawl in his room.” Vinnie would have been too, come to think of it. The ones in the paddock seemed to teleport every time he came close to them. Playing fetch or chasing a diricrawl around in circles instead of a dog sounded like a lot of fun.

The Folwells had owned a crup named Brownie when Vinnie was younger. The crup had been a bit of a terror, ferocious toward their Muggle neighbors and always eating out of the trash. Vinnie had still loved having one. He remembered running down the street laughing when he and Henry were younger, as she barked and chased after them. He would have liked to have another, though his parents had their hands plenty full already with five kids.

When Vinnie reached the top of the stairs, trailing close behind Professor Barlowe, he saw what had become of the older Slytherin boy. He was now engulfed by a shadowlike creature. Something about the way the creature moved unsettled Vinnie. It’s dangerous, he knew instantly, without quite knowing how.

“For those of you who didn’t do the reading, that’s a lethifold.” Vinnie had done the reading the night before. Well, sort of. He’d skimmed part of it before getting bored and running off to do something more interesting. He certainly hadn’t paid enough attention to know the answer to Professor Barlowe’s question downstairs. All that came back to him now was that lethifolds were deadly, and required a difficult spell to stop.

Vinnie didn’t know any difficult spells. He had only just learned the most basic ones, like changing an object’s color and unlocking a door. Being a first year left him ill-prepared for a situation like this. It was unlikely he could defeat the creature with a single spell, if at all.

Yet Vinnie didn’t let that stop him. A boy was in danger. He had to do something. Stepping forward, he drew his wand from his holster and pointed it towards the lethifold. He didn’t have time to come up with a plan. All he could think was that he needed to get the lethifold away from the boy as fast as possible. Hoping it would lift the creature off, Vinnie called out one of the few spells he did know: “Wingardium Leviosa!”

The hallway stretched in both directions from the top of the stairs. Closed door to the left - parents who wouldn't wake until it was too late. Open door to the right, spilling weak yellow light across worn floorboards.

Corbin's boots found the landing and he froze, wand arm rigid. His left shoulder found the wall, pressing hard against the plaster until he felt the roughness through his robes. Every survival instinct his father's house had beaten into him screamed the same word: trap.

The whimpering came again from Robert's room. Small. Terrified.

He pushed off the wall and moved down the hallway, each step deliberate despite his hammering pulse.

Through the cracked door, he could see Robert huddled against his headboard, blankets pulled up to his nose. No blood. No torn sheets. The boy was whole.

But where was the monster?

Corbin reached for the door handle.

A flash of fabric caught his eye, and the darkness moved.

Something heavy slammed into him, wrapping around his chest and shoulders like soaked wool. His ribs compressed under the crushing weight. His wand flew from his grip, clattering somewhere in the darkness.

The creature pressed against his bright yellow raincoat, searching for skin, for a way in.

Darkness tried to cover his face. Corbin yanked his hood up, desperate for any barrier between himself and whatever had him.

The weight of it dragged him down. Corbin hit the floor hard, rolling as the thing wrapped tighter. Both hands clawed at whatever it was pressed against his chest, trying to rip it away. He thrashed on the floorboards, elbows driving back, knees jerking up.

Cold seeped through his raincoat and robes. Not just physical cold - something deeper.

The few good memories he'd hoarded began slipping away like water through his fingers. The feel of a snitch caught cleanly in his palm. The rush of wind on a fast broom. A warm summer afternoon in the castle gardens, sunshine dappled across the lawns.

All of it drained away, leaving him hollow.

Through a gap he could see the kid staring from his bed, eyes wide.

He struggled violently, a scream of rage coming from his lips as he reached desperately for something, anything. His grasping fingers found the bone handle of his potions knife. A gift, almost forgotten.

The silver blade flashed as he drove it forward, pulled back, then struck again. Slashing and stabbing and tearing at the choking fabric with everything he had left.

Elias pressed close to Cassian as they reached the upstairs hallway. The screaming from down the corridor made his knees wobble - not just Robert's frightened cries, but something raw and desperate that made his throat go tight. This was dangerous. Maybe the scariest thing he had ever done. Weren't they supposed to be at school?

The older Slytherin boy was on the floor, thrashing under something that moved like a blanket. The thing made low, horrible sounds as it wrapped tighter around him, and Elias could see flashes of a bright yellow raincoat from beneath the dark creature. The contrast was strange. The bright colour glaring, against the pitch blackness of the monster.

Through Robert's cracked bedroom door, Elias could see the little boy huddled in his bed with his blankets pulled up to his chin.

The professor was saying something about a creature Elias had never heard of, but all he could see was the kid sitting there while something terrible happened right outside his room. The door was still open. He was still vulnerable.

Vinnie's voice rang out with a levitation charm. The Gryffindor had just jumped straight in like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Why hadn't Elias thought of that? Maybe they could lift the creature off the Slytherin boy.

But Robert was still exposed. What if the thing got loose? What if it went after the little boy next?
Robert needed protection - the door, lock the door.

Elias stepped out from behind Cassian, his wand shaking as he pointed it toward the bedroom door.

"Colloportus!"

He ducked back behind Cassian, heart hammering. The spell had come out clearly - he'd managed that much at least.

Maybe he wasn't brave enough to fight the creature head-on like the others, but at least he'd tried to protect someone. That had to count for something.

Tulip rolled her eyes at Benji's comment, she didn't see the cat talking to hime either. She looked around the cat seemed to be missing, and as if the poofed into existance one professor. That was the worst thing about learning in a magical environment teachers could poof out of nowhere when you least expected it.

"I wouldn't take you all the way out here to study cats. That would be dreadfully irresponsible of me

Like that would be unsual at this school... Tulip thought to herself of course the professors would never do anything irresponsible, Tulip had four years of evidence showing all the irresponsible things that had happened just in classes. Unannounced feild trips where just the tip of a very large iceberg.

Don't trample the grass. I believe the owners have been working on it for some time now."

Tulip deliberately moved to stand on he grass she even tapping her foot to generate mud and call worms up to the surface. Yes it was immature, should she have just done as she was told, probabily. The problem was the minute she heard she wasn't to do something she was absolutly going to do it. She couldn't help it, her parents called it defiance, but she was simply being her, Tulips had to Tulip.

Muuummmmmyyyy, it's back! It's back! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Go back to bed, Robert! There's no such thing as monsters," came another cry from the opposite end of the first-floor corridor.

"One of them's right,""Can you guess who?"

"What ever could be trying to make a meal of our little friend?"

Tulip filed in at the back of the group, it seemed a nice house,very small by the standards of what she called home. She heard the small boy whine and his mother she assumed tell him it was nothing. They were muggles they expected nothing and usually got nothing. That wasn't terrible parenting, if it was a wizarding house she would be thinking this was actual terrible parententing.

"Well obviously the kids right or why else would we be breaking in to a muggle house. It's probabily a Bogart or something" she muttered from her standing point at the back. She listened to the list of guesses by other students. They all seemed pretty valid, there was a whole list of things it could be, which was either briliant or worrying in equal measure. Tulip tried to conceal her slight excitement at seeing what sort of creature it actually was. She liked magical creatures she just didn't want everyone to know she liked them and was actually interested in them.

But then everythign shifted and they were told to get their wands out. The demenor of the professor changed something seemed off. For once Tulip didn't argue and slipped her wand into her hand and followed the rest up the stairs heading for a a place where she could see in the door.

Change of plans, we act now, lesson after. For those of you who didn't do the reading," "that's a lethifold," "Explanations come later. We can't afford to return to the castle one short."Time to see who's been paying attention."

Tulip hadn't done the reading, well not on this occasion she'd read about Lethifolds before and because she was actually interested in it she remembered it. If it was a Lethifold she was surprised the professor was holding a question and answer before anyone did anything. She knew they were probabily distant cousins of Dementors and as a result reacted the same to a specific spell. She also knew she didn't know that spell, she'd never tried it, never had the need to, although it was probabily something she'd need later if life.

"Those spells won't work" she yelled "Who knows how to cast a Patronus?" she said looking towards some of the older students specifically Cassian and Rosalie.

"Not the time."

If not now, then when? If not Corbin, then who? It had been a while since the last time someone broke off from the group in the middle of one of the professor's lessons. There was a general understanding that, where you could help it, you wanted to remain where Barlowe was. He was the one with the knowledge on all the creatures that wanted them dead, and if the worst happened, it was the man who would know how to survive or placate them. It was...unfortunate that the kid upstairs was seeing monsters, but until briefed correctly, Rae wasn't trying to join him.

She would leave that for the Gryffindors. Many of them were probably chomping at the bit but had been outsped by the Slytherin boy with the secret saviour complex. Frankly, she was surprised there were more who hadn't felt emboldened and decided to run, too. It seemed like the sort of nonsense many of them would've liked to get themselves tangled in.

Not her.

Rae kept behind the professor at all times. When they ascended the stairs, when they got into the dark hallway on the first floor, there she was, sticking close to the only man who could save them. It was important to remain near competence, and while that could easily have meant drawing closer to either Rosie or Cassian, the pair had already accumulated for themselves a small army of first years they were trying to protect. There was no need to add another to the mix, not when the professor made such a good shield.

The Slytherin skidded to a stop at the sight of her housemate flailing and being taken down by a...a...what did the professor call it? Done the reading? Had there been reading? More and more, the girl was starting to see that the professor's reading suggestions weren't suggestions at all but a warning before he threw them into danger.

Lovely.

Even more lovely? The first years throwing basic spells at the dark creature related to dementors themselves.

Corbin was going to die.

The boy had had a good run. He'd made......a few friends...sort of. He'd...uh...he'd eaten meals in the great hall, bought a wand...um...probably had a crush? Hell, if she knew. Regardless, he'd lived as full a life as he was going to have, and that needed to be honoured. Rather than any attempts at rescue, Rae began conjuring flowers around the scene of the attack. It was the place he would fall, and it was important to lay out flowers in respect.

"Orchideous--!"

"Those spells won't work. Who knows how to cast a Patronus?"

Oh.

Was that how they defeated it? Well then. Nevermind. Note to self, attempt the reading next time, though now Rae found herself stunned and amazed that of anyone present, it was Tulip who knew the answer. Since when did the girl read?

Cassian was very aware of Elias staying close to him. It was a relief, if nothing else. The situation was clearly getting more dangerous by the second, and the boy had learned to stop assuming these lessons were harmless. As often as they weren't, they could end up putting them in the most severe of situations. If he knew where the boy was, it was one less thing he had to think about.

As well as the first years, Cassian was sure to keep an eye on Rosie, too. She wasn't much for the terror lessons, either. Usually, it was the two of them doing everything they could to book it the hell out of wherever the professors took them. Being sixth years now, it meant standing firm more often than running. While he couldn't say he was a fan of this new concept, it filled him with a stirring sense of responsibility not dissimilar from many of the other things that had cropped up in recent weeks.

If he were now in the role of mild protector, he would at least take it seriously.

Being in no rush, Cass took his time following the others up the stairs. Before he got to the top, he could hear the screaming. The sound sent a shiver down his spine and made his stomach lurch. Danger. Of course, there was danger. Would it even be care of magical creatures without it?

He wasn't surprised. He wasn't clueless either. It went without saying that Cassian had done the reading. Even without it, he was well aware of what the creature now twisted around Corbin was.

"Change of plans, we act now, lesson after. For those of you who didn't do the reading, that's a lethifold. Explanations come later. We can't afford to return to the castle one short."

As he reached for his hand, Elias jumped from behind him. He joined Vinnie in throwing spells, making an effort even if it wouldn't work. At the very least, maybe it would slow the creature enough for them to get in some real hits. He took up a defensive stance the moment the boy returned to his position behind him, the tip of his wand lighting up in preparation for his cast.

"Those spells won't work. Who knows how to cast a Patronus?"

"On it!" Cass confirmed, taking aim at the dark shroud that covered the boy. Expecto patronum!"

From the tip of his wand, a flash of bluish silver light sprang forth. It took the form of a hawk, spreading its wings and soaring toward the creature.

Please work. Cassian had a sneaking suspicion that that thing was real and if that were the case, they really couldn't afford any mistakes.

"Plenty of fodder before we get to friends. Most of them have shorter legs. We'll be fine."

Benji grinned, even as Matilda threatened his kneecaps with her crutches. "Rae's right you know, you should be safe," he said with a little shrug, "But even so you'd have to catch me first, and well..." He clicked his tongue, looking down at her bum leg. Tough luck for Ging if she really thought to take him out with them.

With the unimpressed look Barlowe had given him, Benji pushed the image of his mum petting the man on her desk. They were friends, he knew that, but he didn't pet Cassian. Granted Cassian also didn't turn into a fluffy black cat, which may entice him more to do so, but even then! A weird feeling came over the boy and he decided, aside from giving Cass the stuff after class, he'd avoid eye contact with him for awhile.

Rae wasn't sold on the whole Poltergeist idea, pointing out Peeves as all the annoyance she could stomach. He didn't bother Benji too much, aside from when Peeves decided to annoy him in the kitchen and get all the house elves riled up. Toddles despised that ghost, shrieking that he always made a mess of his pantry, and when Toddles was mad, no one got cauldron cakes.

Maybe Rae was right.

"While a good guess, I don't suppose the boy's mother would be so quick to dismiss the idea were it a poltergeist. They aren't exactly known for their subtlety."

True, Benji had to agree. Still, he hadn't studied beforehand and had no earthly idea what the creature up there could be. A bogart maybe? They made loud thumping noises sometimes and appeared terrifying to the person looking at them.

"What if it's another hidebehind? Don't those disappear when you look at them? Maybe that's why his mum thinks he's full of it."

"The kid would already be dead," Benji said with a slight shrug, picking at his nails for a moment.

“Have you ever seen an Erkling . Nasty little creatures. I hear they like snacking on little kids…”

He snorted, his eyes drifting down to the group of first years huddled around Cass and Rosie. He didn't know how those two had been volunteered as babysitters but -

Benji blinked, watching as Corbin, out of nowhere bolted from the group and up the stairs of...whoever's house this was.

"Wands out, let's move."

Finally, some action. It was too bad Ren wasn't here to be offered up as bait, but Corbin was doing a good job of filling those shoes. Could always count on the Slytherin blokes, he supposed. They hurried up the stairs, Benji's wand firmly in his hand, ready to act. He wasn't going to be the main entrée after Corbin had been the appetizer.

"Change of plans, we act now, lesson after. For those of you who didn't do the reading,"

He didn't.

"that's a lethifold. Explanations come later. We can't afford to return to the castle one short."

Great. Benji had no idea what that was. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of sighing, a lot of blanket wrestling. Benji flicked his wand in the direction of the blanket creature. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Rosie couldn't help the smile that lingered on her features when Maevie took her hand and beamed up at her. "Not so dangerous," she tried to reassure the girl, "Just the fun kind. Professor Barlowe likes to keep us on our toes." It was a downplay of epic proportions. Rosalie knew good and well that the danger CoMC - Professor Barlowe running it or not - held was nothing to take lightly. But there was no reason to scare the little girl before she'd even had her first taste of any of it.

"I can't really do any magic yet but I can kick!"

She couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up from her chest. "And bite, I imagine?" She gave Maevie's hand a little reassuring squeeze. Checking to see that Cass had his little motley crew on his tail, she smiled at him. He had always been great with younger kids; in fourth and fifth year they'd be drawn to him - at Quidditch games, at meal times, in the library when he was trying to work and they only wanted his help.

"Does the darkness usually make loud thuds to the ground? Unless he fell out of bed."

The first years were whispering excitedly amongst one another as Rosie listened to the professor negate this idea and that. Not a poltergeist or a hidebehind, thank Merlin -

Before she could realize what was happening, Corbin suddenly shot up the stairs, wand drawn, apparently ready to take on the whole - whatever it was - on his own. Her blue eyes widened as Barlowe began barking orders, and she grinned down at Maevie. "And that," Rosie said quietly, so only the little girl could hear, "Is what my best friend Eira would call, an idiot." A fucking idiot, if she were being completely honest, but Maevie was eleven, and Rosalie had more sense than to curse in front of her.

Pulling the little girl with her, Rosie followed Cassian and his ducklings quickly up the stairs, her wand still tightly in her hand. There was a lethifold - completely swallowing the poor idiot boy as he thrashed. Rosalie's eyes widened, her mouth falling open slightly at seeing the dangerous creature she'd only read about in the flesh. Or...fabric. She wasn't actually sure what it was made of.

Corbin was going to die.

Rae had come to a similar idea apparently, conjuring the boy a bouquet of flowers. Very helpful as always was the little mouse.

She thought fast. She could try a 'reducto', but that risked exploding Corbin with the lethifold. He was about to die anyway, but she really didn't want to be the final cause at the end of the day. She could try to 'accio' the boy - or his clothing which would pull him along with it...she was fairly powerful now with her wandless cast of it.

And suddenly -

"Expecto patronum!"

A bright silvery blue light shot out the end of Cassian's wand, taking the form of a beautiful hawk. A patronus. He had conjured a patronus! She remembered the day he'd asked her to be his girlfriend, when they had talked about what they thought theirs might be. She had told him then, his would be something strong and quiet - and there it was.

It was an incredible thing to behold, pride filling every inch of her for her powerful boyfriend who always doubted himself.

Heart thudding in her chest, Rosie shoved her wand away and held out her hand. Concentrate. Calm. Focused. Everyone around her was shouting, screaming, throwing spells - Rosie drowned it out save for the feeling of Maevie's hand in one and the energy flowing to her other. "Accio Raincoat!" If she could pull the boy to her as Cassian's patronus fought off the lethifold, then all wasn't lost aside from maybe a finger or two.

Bite she could too, as Rosie suggested, but she found that a little yucky. Kicking and scratching. Those would probably be her weapons of choice today, depending on how the night went. Her wand wasn't much use to her yet, unfortunately.

As the older girl lowered her voice to tell her about her friend and that she would call Corbin who had bolted up the stairs an idiot, Maevie's eyes widened in shock. "That's so mean!", she gave back insistently. "He's just trying to help!" Maybe it was a little reckless but it was also really brave.

But as they made their way onto the landing and Maevie saw the lunging creature wrapping itself around the Slytherin boy, the earlier thrill and excitement quickly made way for a real sense of danger. Muffled groans came from the lumping, rolling mass on the ground and for a moment Maevie stood frozen and staring with her hand in Rosie's and her mouth hanging open.

Professor Barlowe's rather sombre mood also shifted to something more urgent, now revealing to them that the thing over there was a lethifold. Maevie had done the reading, had contained about a third of it and had no recollection of any of it right now.

It...was dangerous? Looked weird. A spell that had sounded much too complicated was the only thing able to repel it but due to her lack of skill in that department, Maevie had comfortably skipped that part.

Various spells were already flying through the hallway, lightening up the darkness. The sight of flowers plopping into existence had her head tilt sideways for a moment, unsure of what part of the reading she had missed.

A beautiful, silvery shimmering hawk erupted out of nowhere and Maevie had to actively stop herself from staring to finally do something. Snapping her mouth shut, she urgently darted her gaze about the space, desperate to find anything helpful at all. She didn't really feel like kicking anymore.

To her left, she spotted a vase and without even thinking twice she pulled her hand free of Rosie's and grabbed the thing. Yanking it above her head with both hands, Maevie threw it at the lethifold.

"Take that!", she triumphantly cried with a victorious grin.

A feeling of foreboding came over Catherine as they went up the stairs but nothing to what took hold of her as she looked at the lethifold. She couldn't think, spells and magical principles pushed aside by a survival instinct. She grabbed at the sleeve of one of the older students*, glancing frantically from the professor to the killing creature as it surrounded the boy, Donahue. She'd paid attention to class but that was theory. It looked horrifyingly real.

Meanwhile, she saw that Corbin had reached the landing just in time to witness the lethifold's ambush. The scene was surreal: a creature that looked like a simple blanket was devouring a fellow student. He stood frozen, his hand still on the banister, as the professor's words cut through the tense silence. Professor Barlowe's instructions were clear, yet the terror of the situation made it hard to process.

"It's going to eat him! Mummy! Mummy, he's going to die!" Robert's blood-curdling shriek was high and frantic, a stark contrast to the low, threatening growl of the lethifold. His voice, with a childish dread to it, did nothing but add to the tension and desperation. Donahue's ticking clock of a life, combined with the additional stress of Robert's hysteria, turned an already bad situation into something that was exponentially worse. The lesson wasn't anywhere near over; they were about to swim or sink.
------
*feel free to have your sleeve be clutched by Cate. Or not.

He wanted to be surprised, but Maddox supposed he was a little too busy being horrified by the actions of his students. Watching their bumbling efforts, the man began to think that...just maybe...they would have to put a stop to field trips for a short while--until he could be sure they wouldn't run into another situation like this one.

He had a headache, and it had nothing to do with the level of danger currently present in the otherwise unassuming Muggle home.

The first years, he would spare the larger sum of his judgment for the simple fact that using other spells didn't necessarily mean they didn't know the right answer. Maddox was willing to convince himself that Folwell's 'wingardium' and Everett's 'colloportus' were a result of children eager to help but understanding they didn't have the right resources. It wasn't that they didn't know what spell was required. Yes. Yes, they obviously knew. They simply couldn't. And who could fault them for that?

The peace it brought him to accept that they were only making do was enough to alleviate some of the pressure now building in his temples.

Wingardium lifted both the dark shroud and the boy wrapped inside it off the ground. It caused the cloak to cling tighter in the absence of the ground for footing and destabilised the boy who'd drawn...was that a knife...? The creature folded around the blade, consuming it as quickly as it tried consuming the boy.

The colloportus, while well cast, proved ineffective at locking the door that was still open. The lock clicked, but the door remained unmoved.

Bless his heart, Tulip Asquith knew the answer. Just when he thought the students were lost, the Gryffindor proved that someone was paying attention.

Maddox had no time to revel in this small victory. Not when Elliot was throwing....flowers. The professor facepalmed hard enough to give himself brain damage. He was seeing in real time that there may well be no end to the foolishness after all. He was going to need a drink when his was all over. A stiff one, regardless of what time it would be when they got back to school.

He knew the girl could cast the required spell. "Elliot, what do you think you're--"

"Expecto patronum!"

Merciful saviour, there was hope. Maddox lowered his wand, content in the knowledge he would no longer need to intervene. It had taken some trial and error, but...this was still salvageable. Just as the man started to relax, there went Cuddrun, throwing another spell that would amount to nothing against such a creature. The boy was only outdone by tiny Golding, who was...

"Wait, don't--!"

Too late. His earlier...hmm...concern over Holloway's freezing in place was replaced by a new appreciation for the Ravenclaw if the alternative was a bludgeoning badger. One gave him far less paperwork at the end of his lessons.

The vase the first year Hufflepuff had grabbed was thrown at the lethifold, alright, and it connected with Corbin just as the older Laurence's spell managed to yank him away from the retreating creature. The lethifold writhed and shook, trying to get away from the silvery-blue hawk that circled and pecked at it mercilessly. Seeing his chance, Maddox unveiled a cage he'd planted in the house earlier that week, concealed to prevent the occupants from tampering with it. He undid the top before undoing Folwell's levitation charm to have it drop inside.

---

"Someone check on Donahue. If he's alive, tell him he's got detention until November or my mood shifts. Whichever comes first."

Maddox fussed at the locks of the cage, making sure they were firmly in place for transport. This 'favour' had just become bigger than he'd anticipated, and he was starting to think he would need to have another word with his dear friend. Rising to his feet again, he turned to face the students with an exasperated sigh.

"I think we've all had enough excitement for one afternoo--"

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Oh for Merlin's bloody sake, what now?

Maddox spun the moment Robert's shriek pierced the once again still air. Usually impassive eyes widened at the sight of what had once been the blanket the boy clung to, beginning to wriggle as it tightened itself around him.

"Shit." Marvin hadn't mentioned there were two.

It was the straw that broke the camel's back. The door down the hall flew open. A woman in hair curlers and a bathrobe stormed out in a fury.

"Damn it, Robert! Your father and I have alr--" She froze at the sight of her hallway being occupied by a strange man and several children. None she knew. None she'd invited in. Like a deer in headlights, she stood with wide eyes, sweeping over them. Her breath caught in her chest, her mind scrambling to make sense of this late-night discovery.

"Good evening, ma'am. If you could only--"

"Phil!!! Phil, get up, you lazy lump! Robert! Mama's coming! Phil!! Get up already! There are people in our house! Get the phone! Call the police!"

A man, shirtless and dazed, staggered out of the room next. He rubbed furiously at his eyes, trying to concentrate on the shrill words his wife had been screaming. As if Maddox's headache wasn't already as horrible as he cared for it to be.

Phil shook himself from his stupor, taking in the small crowd gathered in his home. "The hell are you doing in my house?!"

"Helping, I assure you," Maddox drawled, not at all a fan of all the screaming. The man's ears were ringing something fierce, and it only got worse when Robert screamed again. "Pick a problem and fix it," he said to the students, waving them off in one direction or the next. "extra credit if you can make the noises stop."

He pointed to the cage. "Someone get that ready to catch the other one." They'd both fit, albeit a little tightly.

This was still fine.

---

OOC: This is the last update of the lesson before the closing! Turns out the lethifold has a friend who's been a little closer to little Robert than anyone could imagine. The parents are freaking out (and we suppose we can't blame them, much to take in, many questions you see), but we have to contain the scene before this becomes a slightly bigger... inconvenience than it currently is. Have your student either try to help Robert be free of his killer blanket, subdue the parents (with words or spells, Maddox isn't fussed at this point), or be on the team that'll help to contain the dark creatures for collection. If your student would rather stand frozen in fear, that's fine, too! If your student is the one by the cage, feel free in your post to assume the creature was eventually lured close enough. If no one else, Maddox would've seen to that. Just a side note, remember not to assume the actions of the NPCs within the class. For the sake of maintaining consistency, they are controlled by the professor. As before, please also do not assume the outcome of your spell or action. The results will come in the next update. Have fun, I'll be back with a closing post on September 21.

Corbin drove his knife into the creature again and again, but the silver blade grew shorter with each thrust. The metal dissolved where it touched the thing's mass, eaten away like it was dipped in acid. He jerked his hand back as the dissolving edge crept toward his fingers, leaving him holding just the bone handle.

Cold seeped deeper than his bones. Everything good stripped away, leaving only the worst.

He was six years old again. Calling for his mother. Nothing but empty corridors and rooms. Her bedroom door had been left hanging.

Mother? Where—

His father's voice. Stop sniveling. She was gone.

His tongue was glued to his mouth. Couldn't speak. Couldn't ask more questions. Father's wand still raised, almost daring him. There were hours like that. Sometimes days.

Then the silence after. Always silence.

Watching. Calculating. One wrong word and—

The floor disappeared as Vinnie's levitation charm caught him. His legs kicked at empty air. Nothing solid to push off, no way to brace himself or drive his elbows back. The thing wrapped tighter, squeezing harder now that he couldn't fight back. Black spots crowded his vision.

Silver light exploded nearby. A patronus - brilliant, solid, alive - dove at the creature with outstretched wings. The lethifold recoiled as if burned, unraveling from around his chest in desperate haste. The crushing weight vanished. Air rushed back into his lungs.

Something hard cracked against the side of his head. White pain flared behind his eyes as ceramic shards scattered across the floor with sharp little pings. The impact sent his head snapping sideways, stars exploding in his vision.

His coat scraped across the wooden boards with a harsh rasping sound as the summoning spell dragged him clear. The patronus circled overhead, keeping the lethifold at bay as it writhed toward the far corner.

He rolled onto his side, gasping. His head pounded where the ceramic had connected, each throb making his vision blur. The cold from the creature's touch had settled deep in his chest.

Robert screamed again from his bedroom.

Through the haze, Corbin could see the boy's blanket moving. Not falling off the bed - writhing around the kid like a living thing.

Another one.

He had to get up. Had to help.

Corbin pushed himself to his elbows. The world spun but he forced himself higher, getting one knee under him, then the other. His arms trembled violently as he tried to push himself upright.

Come on. Get up.

He made it halfway to his feet before his legs buckled. Robert's cries pulled at him as he crashed back down.

Get up. Stand up. Run.

He tried again, shoving himself up with everything he had left. This time he almost made it fully upright before his knees gave way completely. The cold from the creature's touch had settled too deep, stolen too much.

The floorboards rushed up to meet him. His vision grayed at the edges but he could still hear Robert screaming, still hear the chaos around him. Then there was nothing.

At first paralyzed by terror, Catherine felt a real sense of danger as she watched the lethifold tighten around Robert. She was aware that she needed to take action. She pointed her wand and boldly attempted to cast an Expecto Patronum, remembering the spell the older student had used. She was briefly upset when the spell failed because, as a first-year, the magic was too complicated.

She made two more unsuccessful attempts without giving up. Although she was unable to call forth a patronus, Catherine recognized that she might be able to provide some other form of assistance. In an attempt to calm the parents and restore much-needed order to the chaos, she approached them and spoke to them calmly.

Catherine stepped forward, her voice steady but small, as the mother, still in her curlers, cried out for her husband to call the police. "Please, Ma'am, it will be alright. Our purpose is to assist Robert."

Professor Barlowe was asking for someone to check if Donahue was still alive.

If he was still alive? What?

Elias peeked out from behind Cassian, where he'd been hiding during the whole ordeal of the lethifold attack. The creature was trapped in the professor's cage now, writhing and dark, but the older Slytherin boy who'd run upstairs lay crumpled near the landing. Not moving. At all.

His bright raincoat was torn to shreds, dark stains spreading across the ripped fabric. Blood, maybe?

The screaming from Robert's room started up again, and now the parents were shouting about intruders. But someone had to check on Donahue. Someone had to help.

Elias stepped out from behind Cassian's protective presence, his legs shaking as he crossed the hallway toward the motionless figure. His footsteps sounded too loud on the wooden floor. The boy - Donahue - lay crumpled on his side near the stairs, face pale in the dim light from Robert's nightlight. Elias knelt beside him, close enough to see the cuts across his hands where they clutched something. Close enough to smell copper and something cold.

"It's okay," he whispered, though he wasn't sure who he was trying to reassure. "I can fix this." Repair spells fixed everything, right? Broken windows, torn books, ripped clothing. People were just... bigger things to fix.

He pointed his wand at the motionless figure with both hands to keep it steady. "Reparo!"

The spell crackled through the air. Elias held his breath, waiting for Donahue to sit up, to blink, to say something sarcastic like older students always did.

Nothing.

The boy didn't move. Didn't open his eyes. Didn't even twitch.

"Come on," Elias whispered, voice cracking. "Wake up. Please wake up."

He tried to cast again, putting everything he had into it, but the incantation wouldn't come.

Donahue lay there like a broken toy that couldn't be mended.

Why wasn't it working? Repair spells always worked...

The realization hit him like ice water. His wand slipped from numb fingers, clattering against the floor.

Elias scrambled backward, then spun toward the others, tears already streaming down his face.
"HE WON'T WAKE UP!" he screamed over the chaos. "DONAHUE'S DEAD! HE'S DEAD!"

Everything in the moments after Vinnie cast seemed to move in fast motion. The Slytherin boy rose off the ground with the lethifold still wrapped tightly around him. Vinnie saw a flash of a blade before that too was swallowed up by the creature. A lock clicked. A flower bouquet appeared. Someone summoned a silver blue hawk, which soared towards the lethifold. Vinnie was momentarily impressed by Maevie’s courage in throwing a vase - until the creature ripped away from Donahue, and the vase shattered against the boy’s head.

“The hell are you doing in my house?!” Vinnie heard, and not long after: “DONAHUE’S DEAD! HE’S DEAD!”

There was so much going on at once, Vinnie wasn’t sure where to jump in, only knew that he had to. The older boy who’d cast a Patronus before could do so again, that much was beyond Vinnie. So were any healing spells. He had to calm things down without them, so everyone got out of here okay.

“Professor Barlowe wouldn’t let a student die,” Vinnie tried to reassure Elias. “He’ll be alright. We just need to get him back to the hospital wing.” He spoke with complete confidence, even though he had no idea if that were true.

The boy, the parents, or Donahue? Trusting his instincts that Donahue would be alright, Vinnie moved for the parents. Knowing no spells to do with memory or distraction, honesty felt like the only route he had.

“We’re trying to help Robert,” Vinnie told them, standing a little taller. “Do you see that cage over there, with a creature in it? Another one’s in your son’s bedroom right now. We have to get it out of there safely. You can call the police as soon as we’re done.” He was pretty sure there would be an obliviation before that point, once things were taken care of.

The thought of actually seeing them obliviated turned his stomach.

“We need you to stay out of the way too,” Vinnie carried on. “We’re sort of - experts.” That probably didn’t sound very convincing, coming from the mouth of an eleven year-old. Vinnie decided to be even more direct. “We’re wizards, so we know how to deal with this sort of thing.”

Robert’s parents weren’t likely to believe that either, but Vinnie hoped he could convince them. “I’ll prove it. Look -” He pointed his wand at the father and cast, “Multicorfors!” His intent was to change the man’s Muggle outfit to a purple wizard robe, something that would be hard to dismiss. If that didn’t work, hopefully Vinnie had at least kept them distracted long enough for older students to get rid of the lethifold.

"DONAHUE'S DEAD! HE'S DEAD!"

"Told you so~" came the sing-song tone of the Slytherin girl. Her flowers hadn't been for nothing in the end. She knew what she was doing. Professor Barlowe had insisted it wasn't the time. The man wanted to believe no one would die, and while she wasn't nearly as convinced as Elias on the boy's final condition, Rae relished the moment and the utter chaos that began to unravel around her. It really was true, there was[/s] safety in numbers.

She'd stayed within the crowd and [i]someone else had gotten mauled by a dark creature, then bludgeoned by the matron first year of sugar, spice, and everything nice.

Dead or not, Rae felt it was as good a time as ever for them to pack it in and head back to the castle. Her stomach was starting to grumble again, and while it would likely mean braving the damp grounds to get back to the castle, she was ready for her pre-dinner nap. Those were important if she was to grow, and her height had informed her she wasn't getting nearly enough time to.

Did the professor want her small forever?

Rae stood over Barlowe while he worked to cage the creature, in no small part thanks to Cassian's patronus. No one had told her that was needed. Granted, the readings she was meant to do probably did, but that was hardly the point.

"So...I know this might be a bad time but...about being let out early... We didn't plan this, and Corbin wasn't actually trying to die but..."

The door at the end of the hall yanked itself open so sharply it slammed against the wall behind it. Rae was as impressed as the professor to watch the older Muggles storm out one behind the other. The girl stepped back as the man straightened, looking now to the married pair that asked a whole lot of questions for people in the middle of a home invasion. She supposed there wasn't much else to do when you didn't have a wand.

"Pick a problem and fix it. Extra credit if you can make the noises stop."

That she could do. Rae stepped over their fallen comrade, sparing only a glance at Elias, who tried to revive him with...the repairing charm. She patted the boy on the shoulder as she walked by, trying to encourage him to get up and find something more productive to do. "He's safer on the floor. Leave him be."

Unconscious, her housemate lacked the ability to go after the creature a second time.

Peering into the room, Rae could clearly see Robert's plight. She tutted lightly, wondering how he could've missed that he was wrapped in something that wanted him for dinner. It was a lesson she bet he wouldn't fail twice--if allowed another chance. Cassian could handle it. Stepping back over Corbin, she moved back to the cage, ready to capture the creature the moment it was chased inside.

From there, she watched Vinnie break the statute of secrecy. Brown eyes danced lazily back to the professor.

"I can't wait to see how you fix this one."

She was here for the show.

Cassian wasn't surprised that his patronuse worked. It was a spell he'd spent months practising when he'd first learned it, eager to see what form it would take when he managed a corporeal form. His mind had been buzzing with ideas of what it could be. Something cunning? Something strong? Something so woefully underwhelming that he would have to quit the theatre? All were a possibility.

That it turned out to be a hawk was something he could get behind. After the first time he'd seen it, the boy had tried to do some reading on wizards who manifested such birds, and he had been very satisfied with his findings.

No surprise at his spell had worked, but a great deal of relief. Cass didn't have doubts in his mind now that that was a real lethifold, and if that were the case, it was good to know that his magic was up to scratch to get rid of it.

The boy was pleased at the thought they'd finally be done and heading back...when Robert screamed again. It was like a night of horrors that never ended, and the tension running through him was incredible. It made his muscles ache from the way they stiffened, and his heart had long since fallen into dysrhythmia.

A cozy afternoon reading their textbooks in the old barn, was that really so much to ask?

When Elias popped out from behind him, Cassian became aware of the fact that Corbin hadn't gotten up. Rosie had further aided the boy by yanking him by his yellow...uhhh....raincoat of sorts, but Maevie seemed to have done a number on him first. He would...probably be alright. In the time Professor Barlowe had been teaching there, Cass hadn't actually heard of anyone dying.

Small victories?

No such thing. Out came the screaming parents, and suddenly, there were far more factors to consider. Robert could've been persuaded it was all a dream, but adults? They'd never fall for the old 'we all went to bed and had the same dream, but it was totally a coincidence' spiel. It was likely going to need magical interference of some sort, and not the kind he was comfortable attempting.

Rather than make it his problem, Cass focused on one he could fix. With his wand raised, he attempted the spell a second time. "Expecto patronum!"

Robert, he could...likely save.

The parents? He'd let them be someone else's worry. As it turned out, Cassian Thomas wasn't all that good with parents. The boy couldn't imagine that now would be the time when that changed.