Open Burden To Bear

[Hezekiah Mowry]

The school year had barely started, and Hezekiah was already tired. His life had not been very interesting as of late, and he could not help but think that he was going through a hard time ever since Rama moved out. He tried not to think about it most of the time, but sometimes he could not help but wonder how she was doing. As he and Monty had been patrolling, they heard loud voices. Of course, they went to check it out, as it was a part of the job description. It seemed like there was a bunch of drama going on, which annoyed the werewolf. However, Hezekiah had never seen Monty so angry. Yes, he had seen the man frustrated and had been on the receiving end of that, but this was fury.

Hezekiah saw a girl begin to cry at the entire situation. There was already a younger Hufflepuff crying as well. The werewolf's mind was blank. These were not his kids, so he was unsure on what to do. All of these children were younger, so he was sure Monty knew most of them. "We certainly cannot let fighting go unpunished, correct Professor Pendleton?" Hezekiah looked between the two students who were crying. He looked towards the prefect. "Please escort you rowdy housemates to your house. Ensure they stay there." he told the prefect. He looked towards the Eric boy. "And how exactly was she bothering your brother, hmm?" he asked skeptically. Alice did not seem like someone to cause trouble.

 

[Emily Madison]

Emily continued to batter herself at the teacher standing between her and the boy who had pushed Alice, paying no attention to her surroundings as she tried to fight her way past him. Now that she couldn't reach the target of her fury though, bit by bit the anger began to melt away. The first thought that really came back to Emily was the sound of Alice crying, and it sent another brief spike of anger through her - this horrible boy had made her best friend cry! Processing that Alice was crying was enough, though, for Emily to finally start processing the rest of the scene around them, and everything that had just happened. There were three teachers here - three! And she could hear two people crying, and before Emily really realised what was going on, she had joined them. She slumped, taught angry muscles finally going limp as everything hit her at once. She had been doing so well, it had been years since her last outburst, and now all of that good work was undone. Mum was going to be so disappointed, and it was too late for Emily to do anything now. Putting her face in her hands, Emily started to count her breaths like Mum had taught her to do, tried to calm down, though it was too late to stop crying, still not listening to anything anyone around her was saying.

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric felt more and more cornered as more people started appearing and sticking their noses in. This had gone way out of hand, and he still feared he might start crying. He looked up in alarm at Professor Pendleton's voice, and actually shrank back. He'd never imagined the man could sound like that. He wished he hadn't sent people away, because he wanted Nova here. Everyone else could go. There were some Slytherins heckling Alice, and though it pleased Eric that not everyone was a big fan of his cousins, he was too numb and upset to really care. Eric scoffed when Noel went over to Alice, as if she needed him to reassure her. He wasn't even involved in any of this, he just thought he could help pepole but all he did was make things worse. Eric's mouth felt dry as one of the other professors addressed him, and he glanced at the Gryffindor girl. He was glad to see she was crying now too. She deserved to be upset, it was all her fault. "She shouldn't talk to my brother. She and... her sisters, they think they can be our family now, but they can't. We don't want them after they abandoned us." He said, gesturing to Alice, but really meaning that whole side of his family. But how could they understand? "She was bothering him, I don't know how, okay? But all I did was shove her away. I didn't want her near him." He snapped. "But she's the one who punched me," he gestured to Emily. "SHE started fighting." He still feared no one would believe him, but it was true. "And he," he pointed Noel. "He stuck his nose where it doesn't belong, this has nothing to do with him, but he hates me so he probably wanted to get involved to get me in trouble." Eric's hand moved to his bleeding lip, his eyes now lowered. He was sure he was in trouble, but how much trouble depended on if they believed his side of the story or not.

 

[Nova Valtoria]

Even though Professors arrived, the crazy Gryffindor girl didn't calm down. Nova didn't relax, but wasn't too sure how she felt about Eric moving in front of her. In one sense, it was a sweet - friend type thing to do, but also, she threw a chair at Molly, she could handle herself.
Nova felt her tense body ease slightly when she realized everyone had stopped fighting, but she was still uneasy with the amount of crying that was happening. She wasn't good at dealing with crying people. Nova didn't go, even as the Professors tried to send people away, because she was involved in it now. Eric was her friend, she supposed, and she knew that she had to be there to stand up for him, and support him? Nova knew he was upset, and panicked, wondering how she was supposed to comfort him. How did people comfort each other? The Ravenclaw gently put her hand on his arm for a brief second, before deciding she didn't like it, but at least he knew she was still there.

 

[Connor Holland]

There was so much chaos going on all around, Connor gave up entirely on following what was happening. There were strangers and teachers all around, and everyone was yelling, what sounded like all at once to Connor. The only words he really made out were those closest to him, a girl he didn't recognise leaning down to talk to him. Connor choked and sobbed, trying to get his words together to respond to the girl, but he couldn't catch his breath enough to speak properly, just spluttering out a string of nonsense as he wiped tears and snot away on his sleeve.

 

[Professor Samantha Jacobs]

Samantha tried to understand what the young boy was saying, but couldn't get anything but sobs. Even if this was barely her business or didn't even know the boy personally, she was genuinely worried. She looked up and noticed it was quieter than before. All she could hear was sobbing from a few people. She personally didn't even know what happened, and she honestly didn't care at the moment, she just wanted to help by making the people involved in this feel better? She didn't know. So she decided to rub the young boy's back in comfort, hoping she helped slightly.

 

[Monty Pendleton]

Terrific. Now three students were crying - and the crowd of spectators was growing by the second. What was it about children and flocking to scenes of drama? They were like vultures. Monty paused to take stock of the situation, grateful for his colleagues and their level heads. They were handling this far better than him. "Yes," he said to Hezekiah. Then, to the Slytherin prefect: "Thank you."

He was feeling a little calmer, now - calm enough to listen to the students explain themselves. He was inclined to believe Noel when he said that only the three Gryffindors had been involved in the fight. Nobody else appeared to be injured, ruffled, or particularly out of breath. That simplified things, but only slightly. The story was complex and there was no way of knowing whether Eric was telling the truth. Or was there? Monty turned his attention to the two Hufflepuffs on the floor. One simple solution seemed to be to ask the boy whether Alice really had been bothering him or not, but he barely seemed to be able to string a sentence together. He was obviously in great distress. "Thank you, Samantha," Monty said, relieved she hadn't left when he'd ordered everybody away. "Please could you take him to my office? I'll come and find you in a few minutes."

He turned back to the Gryffindors. "Right. I don't care who started it. This behaviour is absolutely unacceptable and you should all be deeply ashamed of yourselves. What do you think it's going to gain, hm? Look what you've done to that poor boy. Look what you've done to each other." He still didn't quite understand Emily's participation in it all, but he decided he didn't need to. She had punched Eric in the face and cursed at a professor; at the moment, that was all that mattered. "If you have a problem with each other, you sit down and you discuss it. A professor or the school counsellor will be more than happy to mediate. You do not resort to swinging fists and calling names. I am appalled. Quite frankly you are all old enough to know better. I'll removing fifty house points from the three of you. Each. And you can cancel any plans in Brightstone next weekend. Have I made myself clear?" He glanced between the new professor and Emily, frowning. "And I'd like you to apologise to Professor North. If I ever hear you speak to a professor that way again there will be serious consequences."

 

[Alice Briar]

Alice wasn't even surprised to hear Uno's grating voice over the noise, and barely reacted to it. Uno seemed to always be there when something was going on, and Phineas was following her around like her little dog as usual. Alice shot him a glare, briefly. She hadn't expected much from him anymore, but still expected better than this. Maybe she shouldn't have. But they were unimportant. So much was happening, and Alice was trying her best to stop crying so she could focus. A prefect appeared, and that was probably good. The boy who had jumped between Eric and Emily went over to her, but Alice couldn't muster a smile for him. She was terrified for her friend. What if this got Emily expelled? Surely not... but she had been really angry. Almost scary in her anger. Alice spoke up. "I was just helping him with his bag." She said, though Professor Mowry had asked Eric. She just wanted to tell her side too, and mostly wanted to make sure everything was said correctly. Unfortunately, what Eric had said had pretty much been what happened. Still, Alice needed to defend her friend. "He shoved me, which he shouldn't have done, and yelled too. Emily was protecting me..." Her voice trailed off. She had gone overboard with her protection, but she had surely meant well. As Emily started to cry too, Alice moved over to her and put an arm around her. "I don't think she meant to get this angry... her mother works at school, Professor." She addressed Professor Pendleton now, her voice mostly steady even though there were still tears forming in her eyes. "She's the counsellor, I think she could help... she knows Emily better than anyone." Alice winced at the large loss of house points, and glanced at Emily. She hoped her friend would apologize like Professor Pendleton asked. Then things would be over quickly.

 

[Emily Madison]

Face in her hands, the only thing Emily could focus on was her breathing, doing her best to calm herself down, to remember the techniques Mum had taught her. As the fire drained from her limbs, the only thing Emily felt was exhausted. She felt sapped of all her energy, and the only thing she wanted now was to sleep for a long, long time. It was too much to focus on any of the conversation around her, but relief washed over Emily at the feeling of Alice's arm around her. She leaned against her friend, grateful for the support, and it was enough comfort for her to finally start to get herself back together. She wasn't quite sure what the professors were saying, or how long there had been so many of them around, but she tuned back in to the conversation as Professor Pendleton was taking points, wincing at the amount. Oh. Everyone in her house was going to hate her. Emily kept her face hidden in her hands, turning in to Alice slightly, trying to hide her face in her friend's shoulder. Sobs were still shaking her shoulders as Professor Pendleton addressed her directly and Emily froze, trying to figure out what he was talking about. The fight had already become an adrenaline-fueled blur in her mind, and it was a struggle to figure out exactly what she had said to who. Whatever it was though, it clearly couldn't have been good. She looked up from Alice's shoulder, voice raw and damp with tears as she spoke. "I'm sorry..." Emily croaked, unable to quite meet his eye. She lowered her head again, leaning on Alice for support.

 

[Mitchell North]

Still keeping Eric Holland apart from the other Gryffindors, Mitchell listened attentively when everyone started telling their side of the story. It was quite ridiculous how fast these two went at each other's throat, and thought that fifty house points and not being allowed to visit Brightstone was hardly going to stop either of them of going at it again. He hadn't seen anything like this happen during his time at the castle, but knew that if it had, students would be punished more severely. Mitchell glanced to the Hufflepuff when she mentioned that Emily's mother was a counsellor at the school and turned to Professors Pendleton and Mowry, ''As I'm sure you can tell, both seem to be having some sort of anger issues. Perhaps a couple of counselling sessions would do wonders for both mister Holland and miss Madison? We can hardly be sure that these punishments will keep them from going at one another's throats again in the future, or attack other students for that matter.'' the Muggle Studies Professor told his colleagues. Still not sure what he was supposed to think of the way Emily spoke to him, he smiled when she apologised to him. He was sure that she hadn't actually meant to curse at him when he came in between them.

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric appreciated the small gesture Nova gave him by touching his arm. He was feeling shaken by all of this, and wished everyone but Nova would go away. Especially the people gawking. He also wished Connor would stop crying. His sobbing like the world was ending was only making everything look worse than it was. Eric wanted to argue with Professor Pendleton for sending Connor to his office. He wanted to be with Connor. But he didn't quite dare to open his mouth. Professor Pendleton was strict with them, and Eric winced at the point loss. He didn't care about points, but he knew Gryffindors would notice the big point loss in no time. He bet anything his name would be the first one mentioned, as he'd gotten in trouble before. He didn't care about Brightstone, not really. It was fine. He was glad Emily was the one who had to apologize. He crossed his arms as Alice started to talk, scoffing at her words. But truthfully it surprised him she didn't just make something up to make him look worse. He hadn't known the girl was the school counsellor's kid, but he also didn't care. It just meant she was probably going to be treated better because her mother worked at the school. Then the other professor spoke, and Eric flinched visibly when he said they had anger issues. Eric's hands balled into fists. How dare he say that, he didn't even know him. He finally spoke up when the man mentioned the counsellor too. "I'm not going to talk to her mum." He spat. "I'm FINE." He was humiliated, the professor was saying this in front of everyone.