Magical Hogwarts

 He didn’t want anyone to get hurt, not if it could be avoided. However, now he was standing here, watching how an unconscious student was carried away. Madame Maxime had already put his colleague and Head of Ombrelune, Gaston Malinat, on probation as she suspected that he had accidentally released the spiders from the catacombs. The only person who could testify that Gaston was innocent was Arsène himself but he would never say anything. While he did feel a little bad for the trouble his colleague was going through, Arsène actually found it quite convenient that nobody suspected him to have anything to do with the strange species of spiders that were quickly spreading across the castle grounds, making life at Beauxbatons quite difficult and dangerous.

Things were getting a little bit out of control but Arsène had anticipated some kind of complications. So far nothing was too far off yet. He could work with the situation given. He was here, close to all his illegitimate children that were unaware that he was their biological father. He was getting to know them. It was only a matter of time until they’d appreciate him and at least see him as a father figure even if not as their real dad.

The only thing was to keep his cover and act the way any uninvolved but caring person would behave. It wasn’t too hard. The man had reached an age where he could look back at enough experience in social situations that he thought he knew just the right things to say.

The student was taken to the hospital accompanied by their sibling and an emergency healer. Once they were gone, Arsène turned to the colleague standing nearest to himself.

“Tragic, isn’t it?” Arsène said, a sad and compassionate expression showing on his lined face. “Magical creatures can be so uncontrollable and unpredictable. I feel the students aren’t really safe here anymore… but what do I know?” The elderly man looked at his younger colleague with a thoughtful expression. “How do you feel about the situation?”

@Gauvain Améliore

 

Gauvain's gaze shifted from the departing form of Natalie Lebrun -- one of "his own" -- accompanying her injured Papillonlisse little brother and the Médicomage, and his eyes came to rest on Professor Dutour, giving the older man a long, unreadable look. The Metamorphose instructor had returned to Beauxbatons after the Elemental Incident in 1997, and had come from a background of security and enforcement in Neroli, so in Gauvain's eyes this apparent egregious lack of oversight was unthinkable. Add to that the youth and innocence of Bastien, the victim... as well as the fact that Gauvain's best friend Gaston was currently under suspicion for the circumstances... and Monsieur Améliore was a very, deeply unhappy man. But as always, his countenance remained unperturbed, all his thoughts and feelings on the subject kept rigorously under control.

"'Tragic' isn't a powerful enough word for it," Gauvain agreed with that part at least.

Gaston had excelled in both Hypnose and Créatures Magiques when they were Beauxbatons roommates as children. When Gaston had applied to be a professor just a few short years after Gauvain had been hired in, Gauvain was elated, despite the circumstances. His childhood best friend preferred creatures, to the point where he had actually read the textbooks for the course even though his parents had not allowed him to take the course; but after his O.W.L.s and his coming of age, he convinced their then-professor of Créatures Magiques to let him sit the O.W.L. late (and pass it, of course) and subsequently take the N.E.W.T. course. So Gaston's mild disappointment that only the Hypnose position had been open at the time was understandable, as was his elation when this year's intended Créatures Magiques substitute turned out to be better at Hypnose, and he finally had the position he had dreamed of.

The point was, Gauvain knew of few others with not only the skill and expertise, but also the caution and wisdom, to properly deal with any type of magical creature. So wherever this spiders had come from, or how they had begun to spread and propagate... it was not the doing of Gaston Malinat.

"I would put my faith in Professor Malinat against any magical creature in the world," Gauvain went on. "You are not as fortunate as I am, Arsène, to have watched his brilliance develop from the very beginning of our time as Beauxbatons students. This was the subject he was meant to teach all along. No, something else is at work here. Whether sinister, mischievous, or just plain irresponsible, I have no idea yet."

He placed one elegant, slender finger up to his temple and brought it down the side of his face thoughtfully. "Who called for the Médicomage - was it you? Tell me again any details you can recall. The smallest thing may uncover a clue of some sort."

 “Yes, I guess you’re right.” Arsène nodded gravely. He was no more a fan of innocent people getting harmed or killed than any of the other staff members. However, he’d accept it as a means to an end. Yet, he wasn’t happy about the incident at all. The poor boy, Bastien, had been in a bad state when help arrived. He could only hope that he’d make a full and quick recovery now.

Nodding again, this time more thoughtfully, Arsène decided to agree with Gauvain. He was right, of course, to doubt that Gaston was to blame for any of this. He wasn’t. The man was very apt at handling magical creatures and had no reason to try and put the school and the kids respectively in danger. He, unlike Arsène, did not pursue the plan of bringing Olympe to move the school elsewhere.

“I sort of agree,” Arsène said after a short moment. “I don’t believe that Gaston had anything to do with it. Thing is, he went down to the catacombs and there are creatures that should be better left alone. Olympe didn’t have much of a choice than to act and put him on probation. There must have been hundreds of letters asking for her to take the initiative and protect the students. Since we don’t know what’s really going on this was a step she could take to appease the parents for now. It’s not like he lost his job and I doubt Olympe will let this happen to an esteemed colleague.”

Gauvain asked for details on what had happened and Arsène gave a shrug and offered his most apologetic facial expression. “Sadly I was not among the first people to witness the scene. When I came out to guide a class down to the greenhouses for class, there was already some uproar and Natalie came to me muttering under tears that her brother had been attacked. A friend of hers had already gone inside to call for our dear colleague Filomena and I only helped getting rid of the spiders that were in proximity to the boy.” He paused, a worried expression spreading across his wrinkled face, “some of them have grown significantly since they’ve first been spotted.” While Arsène had bred this venomous hybrid spider himself, he hadn’t had a chance to see just how big the fully-grown specimen became. It was a little unnerving to see just how big they were now and he wasn’t certain that they already reached their final size.
 

 

Personally Gauvain disagreed with Olympe's disciplinary choice against Gaston, even in spite of the parent letters. To his way of thinking, you needed a fully certified, fully capable, and full autonomous Care of Magical Creatures professor in order to combat an invasion of said magical creatures. He had not argued at that time and didn't see any advantage to be gained by doing so in the future; furthermore Olympe probably knew that Gauvain didn't approve, having worked together as long as they had, but after all Olympe was the one who had the authority to make these decisions, not him, and she was not under any obligation to consult him (or any other teachers) before carrying out summary judgment.

"I see," Gauvain replied regrettably to Arsène's response of coming onto the scene later. He had hoped someone mature - an adult of any age - would have a first-hand account of what happened. Circumstances being what they were, they had to accept the eyewitness reports from the student body with the understanding that details were missed or added unintentionally, personal biases were included in the tellings, and trauma would colour their recollection of events for days if not weeks to come.

"How much larger have they gotten? Precisely, I mean?" he went on with the inquiries, not just of Professor Dutour but of his other comrades and peers that were examining and discussing the scene. He had no fear of spiders, venomous or otherwise; if he had his way, there would be a complete security sweep starting right now with himself at the head of the charge, but in reality the safety of the students and a clear-headed review of the environment surrounding this incident were needed more than an extermination brigade.

 Arsène was certain that Olympe hadn’t put Gaston on probation because she believed him to be guilty. As the headmistress she had to do something to appease the parents and he had a hunch that she might have even told Gaston that she didn’t think he was guilty and that she only put him on probation for now to be able to show some kind of action. He wasn’t sure though. While he did try to chat to the headmistress when he got a chance, they weren’t really looking eye to eye - not only because of the difference in height.

“Yeah, it’s a shame.” He rubbed his chin and then shrugged. “Now I wish I had gone out sooner. Maybe I could have prevented this from happening.” He was at least half sincere now. Although the incident might bring him one step closer to his goal of moving the school to his place he didn’t want students to get injured or killed.

“The last one I saw was about one metre tall. They also move so quickly on their many legs.” There was a hint of admiration in his voice but then he shook his head, a grave expression spreading across his face. “I think the students are no longer safe here. We cannot keep them all locked up, after all.”
 

 

She’d been on her way out for a walk on the grounds when she was intercepted by a wide-eyed frantic student who (after being reminded to take several deep breaths) managed to get out that her friend’s brother had been attacked by a spider and would she please come straightaway.

In seconds, Mina was all business: her experience as Head Healer came roaring back as she Summoned her emergency kit and set off at a brisk pace with the student, asking even-toned but direct questions about what had transpired. Thinking ahead she slipped her hand into the neck of her robes, finding the amulet she wore as a necklace and tapping it once with her wand.
Since the Second Wizarding War in Britain, additional safety measures were put into place at Beauxbâtons for medical emergencies. One of these was that, by means of a Protean Charm on the amulet, Mina had direct communication with L’Hôpital’s Médicomage dispatch center as well as its on-call Emergency Healers. At her signal, several things would happen simultaneously: the fireplace in her office would connect securely to L’Hôpital’s via the Floo Network, a Médicomage would be delegated from L’Hôpital via Floo to help stabilize and transport, and L’Hôpital’s Emergency Healers would be notified of a potential incoming patient.

As the pair stepped out into the weak November sunlight, Mina reviewed what had been discovered about the creatures in the few short weeks since their sudden appearance. Not unlike many non-mammalian predatory creatures, the spiders’ venom was an evolutionary adaptation intended to immobilize or incapacitate its prey. From what Mina could discern from reports, the venom of this particular species contained an anticoagulant: that is, it interfered with the body’s natural clotting factors. It was much more difficult to reverse a neurotoxin; she very much hoped there wasn’t more than one type of venom.

When she arrived on the scene, she was relieved to find the poor child awake with his sister at his side. There was a fair amount of blood, but it was more of a steady oozing trickle with no sign of spurting: that was good. She checked his radial pulse, nodding with satisfaction when she felt it thrumming steadily under her fingers. Likely no significant arterial compromise, then, which was a very good sign.
She spoken soothingly to the terrified child as she finished examining him, talking him through all she was doing as she conjured a long cloth bandage and bound the arm a short distance above the site of injury, creating a tourniquet. It was faster and safer than starting with an incantation, since she didn’t know what exactly she was dealing with, and it would buy her more time to focus. The muscle memory of tying a tourniquet, however, was an all-too-familiar action that briefly and abruptly flashed her back to her time during the Great War – and, specifically, her beloved Marcel.

But she did what many in her profession did best: took a second to compartmentalize, then turned her attention back to the task at hand.

Once she completed her initial assessment and stabilization, she took a moment to more carefully examine him via spellwork. She didn’t have the means to brew a definitive antidote on-the-spot (she’d leave that to her capable colleagues in the Creature-induced Injuries unit), but she did have a mild sedative that would safely slow his heart rate and thus slow the spread of the toxin. Over the years, Mina had also picked up a helpful binding spell of sorts that would (temporarily) further aid in slowing the venom’s progress.

L’Hôpital’s Médicomage (accompanied by a Medi-in-Training) arrived just then, and Mina gave the pair efficient hand-off of the situation as the newcomers did their own brief assessment. Filomena took a moment to examine their surroundings more closely, then, and noted that both Arsène and Gauvain were watching; perhaps they would have some collateral information. Moments later, the now-intentionally-unconscious student was levitated onto a Conjured stretcher, and the quintet whisked back to Mina’s office.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

As the Médicomage, trainee, and Lebrun siblings vanished into the green flames, the elderly witch sighed heavily and massaged her temples.

This was deeply concerning, to say the least.

She had witnessed many concerning things in her lifetime, but few instances were more emotionally-taxing than serious injuries to children. She’d need to report this to Olympe, without question – however she needed more information, firsthand accounts. Was the attack provoked? Any identifiable triggers?
The poor boy had understandably been too distraught to reliably describe what had transpired. And all she’d managed to get from his sister was that she hadn’t seen it happen but did hear screaming followed by a loud BANG, and by the time she was able to see the scene all she saw was her brother lying on the ground. Both would likely need to be gently interviewed again once the dust settled, in hopes of gleaning any additional information that might be helpful (that also hopefully would not traumatize them) – but that would, ultimately, fall to Olympe.

She remembered, then, that she had seen Arsène and Gauvain at the scene: best to start with them.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Healer made her way back outside, offering a gentle word or a light touch on the shoulder to those she passed near the doors to the grounds who appeared visibly-shaken.

It didn’t take long for her still-sharp eyes to find her colleagues.

“Sometimes I wonder whether I am getting too old for this sort of thing,” she remarked dryly, clasping her hands loosely before her. The witch’s brain was already processing what she’d just partaken in, and was neatly cataloguing it away for her to reflect upon and fully-process later. She eyed the pair of men directly.
“Is there a chance that either of you saw exactly what happened?”

 

That was the second time that Professor Dutour had said the students weren't safe here, and Gauvain studiously did not look at his counterpart's face despite the urge to give him a sharp expression and a closer examination. The repetition was suspicious... or rather, it would have been, if he was taking part in a murder mystery with no explanation whatsoever. This was only an injury, a grave one but still treatable, and the cause was known, and moreover as schoolteachers it was their job to make clear judgments about the wellbeing of their students. Gauvain, you paranoid old fool, this is not Neroli, he reminded himself.

Before he could respond either wisely or foolishly, Mme. Bellantoni approached them. Gauvain was especially grateful for her presence on the grounds and for how efficiently she had worked to take care of Bastien until the Medicomage had arrived to transport him. Understandably, she had questions for them - some of the same questions Arsène and Gauvain had already asked one another. "Neither of us witnessed the incident, Filomena," Gauvain replied apologetically. "We've already grilled one another. So far it appears that only members of the student body were anywhere near the incident when it actually occurred."

For a moment an awkward silence rested between the three staff members. None of them had first-hand details about the incident, but all of them had seen enough of the consequences to be aware of the danger levels here at Beauxbatons.

"I... agree with something you've said twice now, Arsène. Though I'm not happy to say it out loud. The palace is not safe for the children any more." He sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead. "Yet what can we do with all of the students until the infestation is dealt with? I hope Olympe knows of some other place where we can house and educate them in the meantime. Interrupting the school term would be detrimental to their development."

Truthfully, he felt quite sorry for Olympe, having to make decisions in response to the situation. He was relieved that it was not his decision to make, but was sure that their dear headmistress was agonizing much worse than the three of them were.

 "My dear Filomena, I assure you, you're not too old. I don't know what the school would do without you." Arsène made sure to sound sincere and he offered his older colleague a little smile. She was a great professor, a skilled healer, and a good person. He wanted her to respect, maybe even like him but he knew that she would not approve of the things he did and had done.

Her question about whether they had seen what had happened was soon answered by Gauvain who spoke for both of them, given that they had discussed the very same matter already. Arsène just nodded along, making a grave face. Yes, it was tragic that a boy had been hurt. It hadn't been his intention at all and yet, it was all working out the right way for him.

Gauvain agreed that Beauxbatons wasn't a safe place anymore and Arsène turned his gaze down, thinking that if he looked the other man into the eyes right now they would betray him and show that he appreciated what the other man had said a little too much.

"I agree with you, Gauvain. We must not interrupt the term." He knew he managed a sad expression now and so he looked up, facing Gauvain first before glancing at Filomena. "I might have a place we could go to. It's obviously smaller than Beauxbatons but with some expansion charms it could do." He didn't intend to press the matter much further now. While he wasn't the most patient man, he knew that rushing things could be detrimental to his goal.

"It is up to Olympe, though. I don't envy her in this situation. It's such a challenging situation that has so much impact on the students. Whatever she decides I'll support her and I'm sure she can count on you both as well. We're all in the same boat and our main ambition ought to be to keep the students safe."

Arsène was so affected by all of this that, in spite of his misgivings, Gauvain didn't want to prolong the conversation any further. "Too true," Gauvain shook his head again sadly in commiseration. "All we can do is carry on until we are told differently."

He glanced around and saw some students watching the three faculty members talking. "To your next classes please, filles et garçons," he said loudly, and the students looked appropriately abashed at eavesdropping and scurried away. He sighed. "I suppose we all ought to be away ourselves, or at least I have a class to teach - I don't know if you're on your break period, Arsène. Filomena, if I think of anything else that I don't realise yet I have seen, I will come and find you. But for now I beg both your pardons while I head back to the classroom."

A little hesitantly, simply because he was more shaken than he would ever display physically or emotionally, he left the site of their poor student being taken away, most of his mind transitioning to the upcoming fifth-year class session, but a part of his thoughts still fixedly reviewing everything he had seen and heard. Bastien deserved as much justice as the teachers could find and give, for their failure to protect him.

[Gauvain out]

Arsène made to flatter her; the corner of her mouth drew up in a small half-smile, and she raised a hand as though to wave him off.
“It would carry on just fine, I expect.”

Gauvain denied that he or Arsène had witnessed the event. Mina nodded slowly in acknowledgement, her gaze drifting to the treeline at the edge of the forest. Part of it seemed to shimmer, due to the webs…
“That is… most unfortunate.”

“I… agree with something you’ve said twice now, Arsène.”
She frowned slightly, her focus shifting between the two men.
“There are worse things than putting a hold on the school term,” she replied mildly. Mina could certainly think of a few. “Though, whatever the course of action, I expect our students will be in for some sort of ‘interruption’ in their schooling regardless.” Indeed, relocating the entire student body could prove to generate just as much turbulence as sending them home for a brief holiday.

Mina listened as the men rehashed their concerns, making a noise of assent at the sentiment that the safety of their students was the paramount concern.
Arsène mentioned knowing a potential relocation site: “Hm,” was all she said pertaining to that. Her thoughts were drifting, away from the present conversation and towards the precipitating event. She knew herself well enough to recognize that she ought to go back to her office and ‘unpack’ this unsettling event before her next scheduled lesson an hour from now.

The brief moment of silence was broken by Gauvain’s abrupt redirection of a cluster of eavesdropping students, and Mina was brought back to the here-and-now.
“Yes, perhaps we should. That would be most helpful, Gauvain. I shall go and report to Olympe now.”
There would be ample time to collect collateral information; no sense in delaying to tell the Headmistress what she knew at present.

“Thank you, monsieurs. Be safe, and stay vigilant.”

With a brusquer nod than her usual to the pair of them, the interim Deputy Headmistress took her leave and made her way back across the grounds – trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach.

[[ Mina out! ]]

“Oh, I think you don’t give yourself enough credit, Filomena,” Arsène said as she waved off his compliment.

They all agreed on not having seen anything that would be helpful and it wasn’t a lie, not even for Arsène who knew where the spiders came from but who hadn’t seen the attack.

Gauvain agreed that the term shouldn’t be interrupted. Filomena, however, rightly said that the students would be in for some kind of interruption anyway. Arsène nodded again, making a worried expression. He was amused how easily he could act appropriately. He thought that he could probably have been a good actor. The corners of his lips twitched as a smile threatened to break through the grave facade.

Both his colleagues excused themselves as they had duties to attend to. Arsène gave them a curt nod.

“I have a class to teach as well,” he admitted. “Please, Filomena, let Olympe know that I’ll come and see her afterwards. I want to talk to her in case she wants to consider a temporary relocation of the school.” He paused and then added, “I’ll see you both in the Grand Hall.” The next mealtime was just a few hours away, after all.

[end]