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Sapphire wanted to rush in like the other students, but she knew that the Professor was going to be mortified over this whole ordeal. She clutched her bag tightly. A few more Professors had joined the fray now, and one had sent another student to the nurse's office. Sapphire wanted to go help, but she didn't know anything about this kind of thing. Cuts, scrapes, blood. She could fix that. This... This was different.

She swallowed nervously. She needed to leave. She needed to get out of here before Professor Pendleton woke up. She didn't want to contribute to his embarrassement. She took a deep breath and turned, heading back the way she came. Her plan was to head for the Hufflepuff hallway. She needed to see Ollie- now. He could calm her back down. She knew it.

She dared one last glance at Professor Pendleton. Please, please let him be okay.
 
As by degrees the fog began to recede, Monty became conscious of a familiar voice above him. Odette. Why was Odette here? His eyes drifted open and closed, exhaustion wrestling with his consciousness. No - he had to stay awake. Something was wrong. A sense of rising panic pervaded the hall, of which Monty could see little past the black holes in his vision. His heart began to palpitate. Had he fainted? Just seconds earlier, he had been standing, though he could not remember where he was, or tell how much time had really passed since then. It could have been six seconds, or sixty - perhaps longer. All he knew was that everybody was staring at him.

The crowd of legs suddenly parted, and two sets more approached. Monty felt Cyndi's hand in his, and though he was humiliated to see her, something like relief edged in past the confusion. It was OK. Cyndi and Matt were here. Except that it wasn't OK, because he had let Cyndi down, and he was tired, too tired to respond, or to move, or to do anything but lie there uselessly, pathetically, an embarrassing spectacle. He shut his eyes, but could not block out the world; the hallway chatter was growing louder, more distinct, his memory returning in scrambled pieces. He felt sick again, and cold, though his skin was clammy with sweat. Instinct urged him to move, to get up; fatigue insisted he stay put. This was it. This was the end of his career. He'd reached the lowest of achievable lows. And the strange part was, the thought comforted him. With nothing left to lose, he didn't have to pretend any more. He didn't have to pretend he was OK. It was over.

Almost. Fear and embarrassment snatched away his short-lived relief as he remembered where he was. Removing his hand from Cyndi's, he curled more tightly in on himself, shielding his face with his wrist. Matt had told the children to leave, but nobody seemed to be leaving. Why was nobody leaving? Why couldn't everybody just leave him alone? Tears brimmed rapidly behind his eyelids. His wrist muffled his quiet sobs, though he could not help his shoulders shaking, or disguise the pain distorting his face. He didn't even try to stop it, to spare himself or anybody else the humiliation. He couldn't. The emotions he had tethered for so long were finally loose from their chains, and he was too tired to hold them back.
 
October had never known relief as great as seeing Professor Kingsley and Matt take charge of the situation. Now there was someone here who could actually look after Professor Pendleton properly. She stepped back, a little surprised when Matt told her to stay, but it was also something of a relief. Even having told others not to gawk, October didn't really want to leave herself. She wanted to know Professor Pendleton was going to be okay. While Professor Kingsley was looking after him October overheard a couple of younger students gossiping, and her blood boiled. "Weren't you asked to leave?" She said in a firm undertone, turning on the two younger Slytherins. "Professor Pendleton is clearly having a medical emergency, this is no time to gossip and joke around. I suggest you run along and give him some privacy!" Turning back to the main focus of the commotion, October was surprised to see that Professor Pendleton seemed to be conscious now, and... crying? Her heart broke and she looked away quickly. October didn't know what could make a teacher cry, but it certainly wasn't something half the school should be witnessing. He deserved more dignity than that.
 
It had been a completely regular day for Nixon until he approached the great hall to get snack. Professors and students yelling in all directions was definitely not part of a regular day for him and the commotion caused him to pause his steps and look over to the crowd curiously. Despite the professors telling the students to leave, only a few from the group actually followed the instruction and it made Nixon wonder why they weren't moving. Was there some cool but gruesome sight to see? Did one of the magical creatures kept by the professors escape and the crowd was gathering to catch a glimpse of it? Nixon's curiosity soon got the better of him and he stepped closer to see the source of the ruckus. Unfortunately he could not get a good look without trying to get even closer.​
 
Lunch duty Bella often found worse than at night. During the day, kids would talk to you, or just be loud in general. She didn't think she was ever as loud or abrupt when she was that age; it just went to show how different the world was getting. Having enough of the outside, Bella stepped into the Entrance Hall, her eyes immediately landing on a commotion. Hoping it wasn't some sort of fight, Bella kept her hand on her wand as she made her way over to the gathering crowd. Thankfully, there were already some Professors there, but Bella's eyes widened at the sight before her. Her deputy was on the floor, and she wasn't sure, but it was possible he was crying. This was definitely not a sight anyone wanted the students to see. Bella marched her way over and stood in front of Kingsley and Ward who were helping. "Alright, clear off the lot of you. I'm not afraid to give out detentions or take house points from anyone who lingers." Bella snapped, before looking at the couple of students who were standing close. "That goes for you two as well." Although Bella hasn't really spoken to Pendleton before, she had wanted to impress him, as he was the deputy. Now she felt like she needn't bother.
 
Mervyn was still feeling shaky about the whole thing, but he nodded enthusiastically at Leda and Zennon's input. He opened his mouth to respond when he was abruptly interrupted by an obnoxious Ravenclaw. "I don't see yous goin' anywhere," he pointed out, not understanding why he couldn't stay if she could. The Gryffindor glanced down at the professor again, wondering if he'd woken up yet. Was he crying? That wasn't right. This wasn't a joke. Even Mervyn could see that. Another professor arrived then, threatening to take points from anybody who didn't leave. Mervyn motioned to the Slytherins, glad they were being told by someone of authority and that he didn't have to suggest leaving himself. "Come on, let's go. I don't fink we should watch this." Whether his friends came or not, Mervyn was out of there.
 
Emilia didn't dare to look at Professor Pendleton again, and when a Ravenclaw girl told some other students to leave she realized she should go as well. Still holding Analei's bag, she made her way out of the great hall just in time to hear another professor tell them that she would be taking house points. She was glad she was already leaving. She would take Analei's things to the common room and wait for her there.
 
Odette felt relief when the professor's eyes opened, at least he wasn't dead. That had been her biggest worry, but that wasn't the case thankuflly. But her worry soon returned as he didn't look like he was okay. Maybe he had been poisoned? Made some mistake with one of his potions? Why weren't the professors making him better? To her horror, she then watched as he started to cry. Immediately she was reminded of their conversation when she had been the one that cried. He hadn't made her feel bad about it, even though she had felt vulnerable and horrible. Averting her gaze, she wished she could return the favor. But another professor butted in and instead of helping him she started telling them to go. Odette glared at her. "Who cares about stupid house points or detentions!?" She snapped. "I just want to see if he's okay! Why aren't you helping him instead of chewing us out?"
 
Zennon was about to continue the conversation when he was suddenly looking at an older Ravenclaw who seemed to think she was entitled to the hall and could do as she pleased. Zennon rolled his eyes at her and nodded at what Mervyn had said. "This isn't you're house, you don't get to tell me what to do, hey." He turned to the professor and wrinkled his nose up at her. For a start, she taught a subject he thought was useless and he didn't appreciate being threatened when he actually hadn't done anything. "Yeah, well we wanna know he's alright." He said as he rolled his eyes at the Professor, though he'd turned his head as he did so. Another student, older than him, said much the same thing and Zennon nodded at her. She was right. Zennon wanted to know he was alright, that was all he wanted... mostly.
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It was getting too crowded now. Clara sighed, shook her head and headed back out the way she had come. She was planning on going outside today, but people were blocking the way, so she was just going to have to go another time. This wasn't her kind of crowd and the Professor wasn't dead, so that meant he was probably going to be fine. No one seemed to be calling any emergency st mungo's nurses or healers, so he clearly couldn't have been too bad.
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Geo hadn't meant to summon the contents of the Great Hall into the corridor, but she looked on in shock as numerous students and professors proceeded to join them. Glancing back to Professor Pendleton, he seemed to be waking up, but it wasn't long until people were stepping in to tell the students to clear out. Geo wanted to stay and help the crowd control, but at the mention of losing house points the tables were turned. Most of the Hufflepuffs were already on their way out, but spotting Nixon lingering around, the third year wasn't about to watch him get their house into trouble. Moving past the boy with a slight punch to his arm in jest, "Anyone who can beat me back to the common room gets a chocolate frog," she yelled, before darting off down the corridor. She'd actually been given a horde of frogs and since she rarely ate chocolate she needed to pass it off anyway.
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It was difficult not to find the situation in the Entrance Hall funny, and it was taking some effort for Solomon not to laugh as he watched on. This felt almost like a long time coming, and here everyone was, fussing over the old potions professor like he was on the verge of death. It was absolutely ridiculous. It's as if no one's heard of a healer." The metamorphmagus thought with a roll of his eyes. So he'd taken a fall, it was hardly as big a deal as everyone was making it out to be. Unless dark magic was involved, which he highly doubted, there was little need for all this. A potion or two and he'd probably be fine, surely. People fainted, it happened. Chances were, magic could fix it ninety-nine percent of the time.

The Slytherin kept his distance, but watched on, looking forward to telling Merrill about it later. Everyone was clamoring for their part in the attention, that human craving, like the Ravenclaw girl who he supposed magically thought she'd gained Prefect status and could tell everyone else present what to do. It was curious to see that for some reason, one of the professors was picking favourites with who could or couldn't stay with old Pendleton, so he couldn't be surprised that she was riding on the power. Even more curiously, they were being ordered to their common rooms...why? Because an old guy had fallen or fainted? It wasn't like the school was under attack from dark forces. They all had better sh*t to do than sit around in their common room, though apparently Geovanna could think of nothing more exciting. Typical who thought pink hair was a thrilling use of power. In any case, he stuck around at a distance to see if, or when anyone would actually move the guy to the Hospital Wing instead of blabbering on. It was a shame he hadn't signed on for the Monthly. This would've been riveting to write about.
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Knowing that he was at least conscious when he pulled his hand from her grip, the woman breathed a sigh of relief. As Monty began to cry, sob more like, Professor Kingsley summoned a small towel to her side, not caring if it hit any students on the head on its way. She'd now heard them told twice to make room and move away. Casting a spell to wet the cloth with cool water, Professor Kingsley placed it on the back of the man's neck and held it there. "The nurses should be on their way" she said to the man, not wanting to move him since she didn't know exactly what had happened or if he'd hit his head. "You'll all be of more assistance if you clear out so the nurses have room once they arrive and aren't forced to weave around you all" she said pointedly to the group that still surrounded them in spite of the professor's requests. "Ask your Head or visit the hospital wing later for an update when he is alright" she insisted, before turning her attention back to her friend.
 
Though some students actually headed her warning, Bella's blood boiled when the little brats snapped back at her. How rude and disrespectful! And how were they helping - standing around and gawking? She rolled her eyes, remembering that losing her job would probably be the least of her problems if she hexed the two who remained. When Kingsley spoke, Bella smiled slightly, happy that the Head of House at least understood what she was trying to do. She folded her arms and glanced between the two, waiting for them to leave. "Don't tempt me, children." How daft were they, that they couldn't see that she was helping more than them by clearing everyone out? Rather than just standing there, probably embarrassing their Deputy even further.
 
Matt was a little disheartened that after his words, he only spotted one student leaving. Mentally, he thanked the young Slytherin girl for at least listening to him. He noticed that Monty was crying, which made his stomach clench. This had to be horrible for the man, whatever it was that was affecting him. If only it hadn't been so public. With some pride, he noticed October tell off some students for gossiping, but his attention was soon caught by Professor Matthias that came to help him. Her message about leaving was a lot... clearer than his had been. He had never been the best at being strict, and that was very clear to him now as more students listened to her. He tried to be glad about that, but it did make a small dent in his confidence. There were quite a few stubborn kids, though. And he sighed. "I know you want to see if he's okay, but like Professor Kingsley said, you will hear about it from your head of house later. Professor Pendleton needs some space. You really are helping by leaving so we can take care of him." He explained patiently, looking at the girls standing closest to him but also a younger boy who seemed somewhat less sincere to him. But maybe he wasn't being entirely subjective, as he had been one of the kids October had told off.
 
Leda's face dropped a little when Mervyn decided he'd had enough. Who was meant to hold her back now? The Slytherin wasn't going anywhere, no matter what the Professors were blabbering on about. She had a good enough reason to want to stay, after all recently finding out the she was related to the Potions professor gave the second year more reason that most to be able to say she deserved a spot in the corridor. Some people here were just standing around because no doubt they were bored, but Leda had slight genuine concern for the man. That and she wanted to see how else this panned out and what other secrets she'd uncover. As Mervyn left the scene, the Slytherin felt unnaturally alone, but glanced to the other boy in her house who seemed to have similar thoughts as she. Leda didn't know who this new blonde professor was, but she certainly had no place telling them what to do. Professor Kingsley was doing her best to handle the situation, and stepping out of the way of anyone coming down the corridor, Leda couldn't see why she wasn't able to just remain where she was. Monty had started crying by which point Professor Ward was trying to talk to the students with about as much passion as a rubber glove, and glancing to the younger Slytherin Leda couldn't help but agree. "Sure, and if you need to send a second person to the hospital wing, I suppose you'll be jogging there yourself?" she questioned, her arms still over her chest as she was adamant there was no way she was leaving just yet. "You need us," Some of them at least, anyway.
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Arvel was among those who didn't immediately leave when told to - not even when threatened with detention. He wanted to leave, really he did, but he was transfixed by the frightening scene that had unfolded before him. Only when Professor Pendleton started to cry did something shift. His mum cried sometimes, when she watched something emotional on the television, but he'd never seen a grown man cry like this before – much less a professor. He knew without consciously thinking it that this wasn't something he was supposed to see, and without waiting to find out what was wrong turned on his heel and ran back the way he'd come. His trip to the greenhouses could wait for another day. It would be some time before he could pass through the entrance hall again without thinking about his Potions professor lying on the floor, crying.
 
It did not take too long before Lucius Verdelet heard about the news of the new Deputy professor collapsing on the ground. Luckily, Lucius did not have anyone to treat so he bolted from the hospital wing. It was around this time he wished that the school had an elevator, or at least let him apparate on school grounds. Eventually, Lucius arrived to the scene, seeing students still there. "All right guys, stand clear!" boomed Lucius as he approached Professor Pendleton. He knelt down on the clear side of him, and he spoke softly, "Hey, Monty. It is all right. Can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?" Lucius held up three fingers, to see if his vision was compromised or not.
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The coolness of the damp towel brought Monty some comfort and relief; he let his mind focus on the sensation, desperate for any distraction from the crippling humiliation, and from the feeling that the entire world was falling apart around him. Everything he had worked for - everything he had cared about - had been for nothing. He had failed. Again. Just as his stepfather had predicted. Though Monty had long stopped agreeing with the cruel things he had been told as a child, he had never quite been able to shed the acquired feeling of inadequacy; it was impressed upon him like the marks made with indelible ink - he wasn't good enough. He was useless. Incompetent. And in his chronically sleep-deprived state, with several months worth of stress weighing down upon him, he was struggling to think of any proof to the contrary. It was no wonder he had snapped.

The nurse arrived, jerking Monty back into reality. He had for the most part stopped crying, though silent, empty tears continued to dampen his face. Three fingers. Lucius held up three fingers. Monty glanced at them for a short fraction of a second before fixing his gaze to the ground again. He didn't want to talk. He was too tired - and anyway, what difference would it really make? Fresh tears sprang suddenly to his eyes. "I can't," he choked. "I've ruined - everything - haven't I?" All he'd had to do was tell somebody he wasn't coping. That was it. Instead, terrified of what Katherine would think, he had bottled everything up, pushed it down, kept it in, until the pressure had become too much. His face screwed up with pain. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do. I'm so tired - I'm so tired, I can't - sleep, I can't think, I can't - I'm so scared - I can't do anything. I feel like I'm breaking. Please help me. Please." A dizzying relief overcame him as he finally admitted he couldn't cope alone. "I don't know what to do."
 
Marcella was completely oblivious to what was going on around her as she headed to the Great Hall, she was used to forgetting what time it was, she frequently ended up being the last person to leave the dorm as most of her dorm mates had given up on her years ago and so she'd had to fend for herself. However, as she made her way down the stairs, she paused she she noticed an uncommon number of professors all in one place. Curiosity piqued, Marcella headed over until she saw something that she was sure was going to be with her for the rest of the year, if not her life. Professor Pendleton was laying on the ground and he didn't look great. A tear sprang to Marcella's eyes as she thought about her own health when she'd taken time off school. She didn't know quite how he felt, surrounded by people, the embarrassment must have been overwhelming. Marcella wiped her tears and turned away immediately. The complete feeling of uselessness and loneliness would have been frightening for him she was sure. Being sick, being unable to help yourself in a weak moment was something no-one wanted and she knew that, even should he recover to full health, it was something he would carry with him forever. "You can do it, Professor." She whispered as she decided to forget about her food for that day and head back up to her dorm. She didn't need to see this, no-one needed to bare witness to a human being in such a vulnerable state. It just wasn't right.
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Nixon barely caught a glimpse of the figure laying on the floor before Geo blocked his vision, punching his arm on her way out of the crowd. He scrunched his face into a frown, turning to glare at the girl as she darted down the corridor. After finding out that the source of the commotion wasn't a creature or something gross, and only a person in need of help the last thing Nixon wanted was to eat, let alone eat a chocolate frog offered to him by Geo. No matter how hungry he was moments earlier his appetite had been ruined and he would never take up an excuse to spend time with someone on the Hufflepuff quidditch team. He decided to heed to the professors' demands anyway however and headed away from the crowd, though he chose to go outside to the great lawn instead, wanting some fresh air.​
 
Odette found it pretty easy to ignore all the professors trying to talk her into leaving, choosing to focus on Professor Pendleton on the ground. The nurse arrived and she watched as he tried to help. Finally, someone was helping. Surely he would figure out what sort of poison the professor had taken, he would make it all better. But then Professor Pendleton talked again, and Odette got a horrible sinking feeling in her stomach. This wasn't a poison or an illness. This was something else entirely. The hopelessness in his voice made her feel cold, and she glanced around at the others. Finally, she understood why everyone had to be cleared. Why they were being sent away. But Professor Pendleton had always seemed so steady to her, so reliable. This wasn't anything like him. Finally, she couldn't watch this anymore. Turning away, she pushed her way past a few others to get away from this situation. If it was her lying there, she knew she wouldn't want anyone to see it.
 
The corridors of the castle seemed almost alive with chatter about something going down in the entrance hall and it didn't take much for James to put off studying and instead he followed the commotion to its source and couldn't believe what he saw. Professor Monty Pendleton, on the floor, surrounded by Professors and students alike. James looked around and saw students who looked like they just wanted to have a nosey at what was going on. There were some students and Professors trying to get students to move on but so far not many had done so. "EVERYBODY CLEAR OUT," James yelled as he began to try and shoo people away, shoving his prefect badge in the face of anyone who argued back. "SHOWS OVER EVERYBODY MOVE ON," James was glad that he was able to shout as his blood was boiling over the fact so many students had taken to just sitting back and watching. "Professor," James began addressing his head of house Professor Kingsley. "How is he?"
 
Leda was trying to get a good look at what was going on as more people still arrived to gawp at the Professor. It looked as though Monty was finally beginning to wake up and speak, not that the Slytherin could hear from where she was stood. Before she could attempt to lip read however, a boisterous older boy, began yelling around the entrance hall for people to move, showing off a prefect badge in the process. He wasn't Head Boy, and he wasn't a Professor, so why he thought he was going to get anybody to move was anyone's guess. When he approached the second year, Leda frowned at him in shock. Not only was he shouting but now he was right up in her personal space. Without thinking, one of Leda's palms made contact with his cheek, in an effort to get the boy to stop talking and get out of her way. It shocked herself to slap him, never having resulted to anything like such before, but Leda was furious that he'd tried to intimidate the students to leave. Even once he'd moved away her eyes were burning too hard for her to focus her attention back on the Professor at hand.
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Things were happening so quickly, Professors were appearing all over the place, and though Professor Pendleton seemed to be being looked after, there were still students, including herself, milling around. While she agreed with the younger student about not caring about House Points being taken, she did think it was time to leave. Other students were appearing though, and the Professor seemed to come to, talking to the nurse that was there. Falon bit her lip, turning to walk away as she was sure he didn't want anyone else to hear what he was saying. At that point, James had turned up and he was shouting at everyone to leave. Falon had to roll her eyes, thinking that the Professors were already doing that, but then a small Slytherin girl hit James. Falon groaned loudly, like that was going to help the situation at all. Being a Prefect, Falon doubted James would react, and when he had moved over to the Professors, Falon stormed in front of the girl, folding her arms and glaring at her. "Piss. Off."
 
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