Unwelcome News {Open to all!}

[lukejordan]

Sitting opposite Lachie at the Hufflepuff table, Trent squinted his eyes to try and cut out the devilish spectacle of bright morning sunlight shining into the Great Hall. He'd woken up on the wrong side of bed, and it was only after his best friend had shaken him for about five minutes and he'd gotten through two cups of coffee that he'd even been able to bring himself to leave the commonroom.

Liander had joined him and Lachlan on the walk down and Trent had enjoyed the presence and conversation of his unfortunately not-so-often seen friend, though even with an initial shot of caffeine he'd had some degree of difficulty showing it and had frankly been somewhat curt and grumpy - which now that he thought about it he should probably apologize for.

But another few cups of coffee and a bowl of steaming miso soup had managed to bring Trent fully back to consciousness, aided by the dulcet tones of Bellatrix Lestrange and Marlene McKinnon as they cackled and shouted respectively (though enough of his sleep-deprived grouchiness remained that he'd been strongly tempted to shout something rather impolite in either of his native languages back at them).

Unfolding his newspaper at long last, Trent's eyes widened and his breath seemed to stick in his throat as he took in the contents of the main headline and forgot for a long moment that he needed oxygen. Before he could realize what a bad idea it was his eyes flashed straight across to stare at Chase, searching for a sign - any sign, please dear Merlin - that his friend already knew and wouldn't have to find out like this.

His heart feeling like it had leaped up into his throat, Trent tore his eyes away from Chase before the other boy could notice his distress and did his best to catch Lachie's eye. Once he finally got Lachlan's attention Trent began doing his best to alert his somewhat clueless friend as to what had happened, nodding his head subtly towards the newspaper and widening his eyes to try and pass the message along.

And then Chase spoke and reached out towards the paper, and as thousands of impossible and equally suspicious ways to destroy the paper before his friend saw it raced through his mind and were dismissed, all Trent could do was close his eyes for a moment and pray that Chase would be okay.

/justify]

[lachlanparker]

Needless to say, it had been difficult getting Trent out of bed that morning. Usually it was the other way around - Trent could usually be found enchanting pillows to sing barbershop quartets so that Lachlan would get up, but today, Trent had gotten out on the wrong side of the bed. After watching Trent down his second cup of coffee, the two of them found Liander and wandered down to the Great Hall.

Lachie was really looking forward to seeing Tay.

Even though they'd been together for quite a while, she still made his stomach do flips. It was hard for Lachlan to actually believe that he was dating her. She could have any guy she wanted, and yet, there she was with him. He bounded into the Great Hall and spied her sitting in their usual seats. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and slid into the seat beside her, grabbing all the food he could find to fill his plate.

Stuffing his third croissant into his already-too-full cheeks, he saw Trent's face drop from across the table. He had the paper in his hands - had something happened? The two friends made eye contact and the message was completely lost upon Lachaln. Was Chase in the paper or something?

As Chase came to sit down beside them, Lachlan couldn't keep it in. "Whah h-dhe hell ish goin' on, Tren'?" he asked, his cheeks still packed tightly with food. He made a grab for the paper, but it was too late. Chase had already gone to grab it.

He saw the flash of the headline and spat out the crossiant in his mouth onto the plate in front of him. Chase's dad had been killed.

[/justify]

[dorcas]

Dorcas was absolutely horrified for Chase. She looked about the great hall, she had to look somewhere else, it wasn't fair to stare at him but she didn't want to leave and even if she did, she wasn't sure she could. She felt like a heavy weight was keeping her in her seat, pinned down until it would all pass over, either that or they'd all have to run away.

Dorcas looked to Gwen and shook her head. She couldn't bring herself to talk. She looked down at her plate, surely his friends would get him out of the hall, surely they'd tell him in private, no way could anyone let him find out this way. And what of his mother? Why hadn't she come here to tell him? Why wasn't he taken out of the castle in the middle of the night? It was dreadful that anyone would have to find out this way. Dorcas just picked up her fork and started pushing her food about her plate. She couldn't eat, she probably wouldn't eat all day, this was just the sort of day that would bring everyone down. Well, nearly everyone.

[bellatrix]

The boy needed a helping hand. So many people were hiding the truth from him and why should they? The boy had a right to know didn't he? At this very moment did he not deserve to know of his father's fate? Bella thought so and despite some discouraging words from her peers around her, Bella felt it necessary that she got involved a little more, helped poor Connors out, he clearly hadn't seen the front page of the prophet yet or he would have had a bigger reaction than nothing at all. Bella, all though she didn't know the boy by anything other than his fathers reputation, felt obligated to help him out, she was a friend to her fellow students, someone they could all rely upon for a helping hand when in a time of need, such as Chase was now.

Standing herself up on her table Bella watched closely, she paid no attention to her fellow housemates, she knew they wouldn't try anything with her, she had a bit of a reputation as being a little on the crazy side and so if any of them tried taking her out, shutting her up or throwing a random hex in her direction for destroying their breakfast, she hoped they were well aware that she would get her revenge, that she would pull out their eyes from their sockets with her bare fingers. Bella was not afraid of getting her hands dirty, or fingers as the case may be.

Cackling again Bella pulled out her wand and started walking down her table, waving her wand about almost carelessly as she started purposely kicking plates of food and carafes of drinks out of her way while she sent every single piece of parchment in sight flying through the air, including the morning Prophet. Bella was not a tactful person and went for fun over subtlety any day of the week, including this morning. This morning was the best she'd experienced in a long while.

Spinning around on the spot, still standing in the middle of the Slytherin dinning table, Bella sent spells flying left, right and centre. Papers through flew the air, finding their way all around the great hall and sparks flew up towards the ceiling that mimicked the outside sky. Green, blue, yellow, purple. All sorts of colours erupted from the tip of the girls wand with loud cracks as they burst above everybody's head like fireworks and scared off any remaining owls and pets the hall held and even though a few students had gone for some silly reason like lessons, the toilet or giving Chase the decency of leaving before he'd seen the paper so as not to have the entire school staring at him when he found out, Bella wanted to make the day as memorable as was possible.

[Liander Hughes]

Liander watched the look that crossed Trent's face and knew that this news was as much a surprise to him as it was to anyone else. So from the looks of things no one had been into their dorm to warn Chase about what had been going on... The boy in question looked around a little confused asking what was going on. Liander saw him reach for the newspaper in front of Trent.

"You might not want to do that..." He trailed off, but it was already too late. The headlines blazed up at them, a large photo of the dead man stared out from the page, the words of the headline seemed to encompass the entirety of the page. No sooner had Chase grabbed the paper than all around them papers and letters started flying up into the air.

Bellatrix strutted down the Slytherin table, waving her wand in every which way and sending anything and everything flying around. Personal letters... new papers that fell to pieces... envelopes... parcels... everything became air born. But, even through the great mix of things, there was one thing that seemed to be in sight a whole lot more than what it should have been. The face of Rio Connors.

Liander looked back to Chase. He was already gone.

[Chase Connors]

Chase could see the look on Trent's face and he knew that whatever it was that had happened, it was clearly something bad. But what could be so bad that it would get this kind of reaction from the whole student body? A professor perhaps? But then, why did everyone seem to be looking in the direction near where he was sitting. Only one way to find out though, right?

He reached for the paper in front of Trent at the same time as Lachie asked what was going on. Whatever it was Lachie had been eating left his mouth, splattering back over his plate. It was then that Chase saw just what everyone was looking at.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment as he saw his dad's face staring back at him from the front page of the paper, and the only thing that crossed Chase's mind was 'I didn't know they'd played a match this week...' Then he saw the headline just seconds before the paper was whipped away out of sight, along with so many others around the room.

Murdered? Who? What did his dad have to do with it all? Maybe he'd been close by... he'd seen it happen? Who knew... The word seemed to momentarily lose its meaning altogether.

... They didn't honestly think that his dad had been...

"Bullsh*t." It had to be a mistake. His dad wasn't dead and it was ridiculous that anyone would think that. Heck! Someone would have told him before now if it was true... Sprout... Dumbledore... someone - any one. Or his mother would have maybe written to him or something if it had happened. Things like this didn't end up in the paper straight away - the ministry kept a hush on things... But his dad was a quidditch player... NO! That didn't make a difference.

No one had said anything about this to him, which meant that it couldn't be true. His dad was probably sitting at home with his mum and Risa right now looking at the headline and laughing, wondering how the Daily Prophet had managed to f*ck up so bad.

No. This wasn't true. It was just that simple. It was lies and the paper was printing false information. But goddamnit! Why wouldn't people stop looking at him like he was some sort of circus freak. It wasn't f*cking true damnit!!!!!!!

Chase pushed quickly from his seat, whacking at sheets of paper that flashed by near his head. All around him he could see his dad's face and the word murdered, like they were trying to force him to believe the lie.

He managed to snatch one of the pages out of the air as he bee-lined towards the door. It wasn't that he believed it, it was just that everyone else did, and he hated that they could think such utter bullsh*t could be true. No, what he needed right now was just to get away - from people, from everyone. He just needed to be alone for a while.

Alcohol... he needed alcohol. It was the answer to everything.

[Emily Prescott]

Bellatrix Black was getting some kind of twisted kick out of all of this and it made Emily sick. She clenched her hands tightly onto the edge of the table, fighting back her own tears and the urge to pull out her wand and curse the hell out of the Slytherin. She had tortured Emily and now she was getting pleasure from Chase’s pain. Emily couldn’t stand it, her body shook with the uncontrollable anger and hatred she felt towards the Slytherin.

“Sick b*tch” she growled, pushing up from her table, ignoring Marlene and Alice. Right now her only concern was Chase. There were flyers littering the air all around them, all of them plastered with the unmistakable, handsome face of Rio Connors. Emily felt her heart constrict painfully again, tears spilling from her eyes, “This isn’t right...” she gasped, her eyes darting around the hall, taking in all the students.

They were all focused in Chase’s direction, their whispers sounding louder than any yelling coming from Bellatrix. Shaking her head Emily looked up in time to see Chase with a paper in his hands and a cold dread washed over her. Casting a quick spell with her wand, aiming it towards Bellatrix and the Slytherin table and quickly hurried through the hall, knocking papers out her way as she went after Chase.

“Chase...” she called out his name, finally catching up to him after batting another sheet from her face, just before he left the Great Hall. Clasping his hand she came up beside him, pulling him to a stop, “Chase I’m so sorry I...”

[/quote]

[Olivia Knightly]

Olivia couldn’t believe it. Rio Connors was dead, murdered. It couldn’t be true. Shaking her head in denial she continued to stare at the front page, blinking her eyes a few times thinking it may change. Sadly though every time she tried, the news remained the same, Rio Connors, the famous Quidditch player, Father to Chase, one of her closest friends was dead.

Pressing her hand to her mouth she finally looked up, taking in what was happening for the first time around her. Fliers littered the hall and when she snatched one from the air a cold feeling washed over her. Rio Connors again. Was this some kind of sick joke? How could someone think this was funny?

“I can’t believe this...” she whispered to Liander, watching with a pained expression and feeling helpless as Chase got up to leave the Great Hall. She wanted to go after him, comfort him, offer him something, anything to take the pain away but her mind was blank. Shock. That was it.

[Sirius Black]

Sirius growled when Bella conjured the fliers. Really, this right here proved it. His cousin had no heart; she was a sadistic witch who got pleasure out of watching someone else in pain. Really he felt foolish for expecting anything else. Gripping his wand tightly in his hand he stood up from the table on which he was sit and raised his arm, ready to curse her only someone beat him to it, sending a spell in his cousins direction.

He barked a laugh and shook his head, turning in time to see who the culprit had been. He found himself surprised to see it had been Emily Prescott of all people. Shaking his head he figured it made sense though, her and Chase were dating, pretty serious he figured. Made sense she wanted to protect him. Turning he saw Chase get up from the table and frowned, feeling sorry for the guy, this was no way to find something like this out.

Biting his tongue he turned to look at the Slytherin table, tightening his hand on his wand and daring any of them to start something. He was just itching to curse someone, though maybe hitting them would feel a damn bit better.

[Noah Whitman]

“This is f*cked up.” Noah sighed, shaking his head as he batted another flier away from his face. Wasn’t the news bad enough? Why did it feel like someone was celebrating this? He shook his head in disgust and pushed away his breakfast, a deep frown embedded into his features as he looked across the hall.

He didn’t know Chase, he knew of him of course but he still felt extremely bad for the guy. Of course he knew Rio Connors, what self respecting Quidditch Player or fan didn’t know him. His skills were legendary. Shaking his head again, Noah ran his hand through his hair and sighed deeply, shooting a look of loathing towards the Slytherin table. Someone seriously needed to teach them guys a lesson.

[Lily Evans]

Lily was in shock. She was no follower of Quidditch but she knew Rio Connors, after all his son Chase did attend the school. Looking up when Emily spoke she frowned, biting her tongue and not commenting when her friend cursed Bellatrix. Even Lily had to admit she had it coming, how someone could be that cruel was a mystery. Shaking her head, she folded up the news paper and pulled out her wand, casting a quick spell to stop the fliers from going through the room. Instead they now littered the floor, though the lingering after effects of both the news and the fliers being released were obvious.

Wiping away the tears that had fallen for poor Chase and his family she shook her head in disgust at the gossiping students surrounding her.

“I wonder what the hell is wrong with some people.” she said, making no attempts to lower her voice as she looked around at her peers who were all looking at Chase. Wasn’t the news his Father was gone enough, here they all were staring at him. It made her sick, so shaking her head she looked away, closing her mouth before she did or said something she’d surely get in trouble for.

[aliice]

Usually, Georgina didn't bother showing up to breakfast in the Great Hall - too many snotty nosed brats around for her liking, so usually she'd just go direct to the kitchens and demand food from the elves there, but that was only if she couldn't be bothered to go out somewhere and get something better. Well, at least in the school there was a guarantee of a free meal, even if it was awful school food.

This morning, however, she decided to go into the Great Hall on a one off, and she was mighty glad that she had. She'd picked up the prophet right at the time that Bellatrix had started cackling like a mad dog, which at first just made Georgie roll her eyes. Then, she'd seen the headline. If it wasn't for the fact that Bellatrix was already cackling then Georgie was sure that actually, she'd have been doing just that herself. Instead she settling on a nice, quiet laugh and a quick charm to change her pumpkin juice into something a little more... tasteful. Alcoholic, she should say.

What a delightful way to start the morning - with news of a death; success for the Death Eaters was always a great thing. This morning it was even better - it was a death that directly affected the school, or at least one of the students in it, which in turn, meant everyone who knew him.

A number of people shouted for Bella to 'can it' and appeared annoyed at her howling. The only reason it annoyed Georgie so much was because she simply didn't like the older girl. Oh sure, they sometimes acted like friends, but frenemies was probably a better term for the two of them. The whole climbing on the table thing just looked pathetic in Georgie's opinion - completely undignified.

While Bellatrix started sending every copy of the newspaper she could see flying up into the air, Georgie decided to add her own bit to the mix, by basically making a hundred copies of the front page of the prophet, which just meant that the dead man's face was soaring around all over the room, not just meaningless prophet pages. The room looked fantastic in all its blazing glory. Then something made it even better.

Someone stood from the Hufflepuff table and all but ran towards the door, and Georgie couldn't help but cackle a laugh of her own when she realized who it was. The very boy in question had just received the best news he was ever going to get in his life, and everybody knew about it.

A blast of light hit Bellatrix and sent her tumbling from the table and Georgie had to scoff back a howl of her own laughter. She was the person responsible standing across the room at the Gryffindor table and snickered.

Standing, Georgie stepped up to Bella and smirked down at her. "Bested by a Gryffindork, and a mudblood one at that. You're losing your touch, B." She quirked an eyebrow at the other girl before strutting her way towards the door, passing Elena as she did so. Smirking even more, Georgie leaned close to her ear. "Just keep waiting." She whispered to her, promise in her voice. Ohh there was just so much good stuff going on right now.

She walked out of the hall just in time to see the Gryffindor girl that blasted Bellatrix off the table trying to talk to the kid with the dead dad. Georgie smirked, again, as she walked past the girl she spoke softly, not looking at her though. "Nice spell, blondielocks, but she won't let you get away with that."

[granton]

Granton was probably the only person in this whole room who had actually bothered to sit and read the full article, rather than just reading the headline and the opening paragraph like everyone else seemed to have done. They all say the name and started looking around and whispering, which would obviously be making things worse for the Hufflepuff boy that he could clearly see was still in school.

The article pretty much said what the title said... that the guy played for Wimbourne Wasps, he was a chaser, he had two kids and was married. It said that he'd been part of an unexplained attack believed to be by a group known as Death Eater, and investigations were underway. There wasn't really anything written in the article to explain anything other that the fact he was dead and they knew the basics of who did it but not the way. Granton had a sneaking suspicion, knowing the Death Eaters the way he did, but he was keeping that to himself.

By the time he finished reading through the article newpapers and fliers and things were flying all around the room, and it was clear that his fellow death eater who was currently marching up and down the table cackling was behind it. Granton just shook his head and slipped his wand from his pocket, just in time to see Bellatrix be knocked off the table from a spell somewhere across the room.

Had this happened a year ago, he would probably have wanted to laugh along with the rest of the group and watch this trouble unfold, but this time, being head and all, he knew that he couldn't do that without repercussions. He had to at least make it look like he was going to attempt to stop all of this.

Standing, Granton hadn't even had a chance to raise his want before all of the flying pieces of paper froze and began to waft to the ground. His gaze locked on a blaze of red hair from the other side of the room and he knew exactly which prefect had stepped up to the job and ended things. Why was it that the muggle born Gryffindor seemed to do more of the work that any of the other prefects around here?

Flicking his own wand, Granton watched as all the papers reassembled themselves and floated into a neat pile on the ends of the house tables. If anyone wanted to pick up their copy of the paper again they could do so themselves, he wasn't going as far as to redistribute the damn things.

At least he'd done something which would at least keep up his image around the school, which considering everything he'd been doing with Elena as of late, was probably required...

[James Potter]

James pushed the other letters into his pocket knowing that he wasn't going to be able too concentrate on reading them right now. There was too much other stuff going on to keep his attention that something as simple as post from home could wait for now. It seemed utterly unimportant by comparison.

James watched as newpapers and fliers flew up around the room, again courtesy of Bellatrix and her twisted ways. He pushed to his feet, hand clutched around his wand but not pulling it from his pocket. What the heck could he even do right now?

He didn't have to. Chase had stood up and left the hall and hardly seconds after the papers stopped and fell to the floor. James looked down the table in time to see Lily lowering her wand and he couldn't help the small ghost of a smile that flickered over her face. Of course... Lily.

Wait, was that a tear? He wandered down towards her just in time to hear her next comment. "Some people value their reputations as masters of gossip more than they value life... or rather, privacy." He slipped into the empty seat next to her, even though she'd probably start glowering at him and telling him to get away, but Sirius was sitting close by, and there were no empty seats near him. James didn't even know where either of his other friends were today...

[talls]

Ferret found herself growling. Jasper was making similar noises from her lap, his fur raised. Her held her wand tightly, her knuckles white. Her eyes turned red as she tried to keep quiet. As Bellatrix made the papers fly around and spread out, she snapped.

Jasper, sensing what she was doing, jumped from her lap as Ferret climbed onto the Gryffindor table. Swinging her want around, she transfigured all the papers into rats, who ran from people's hands and around the Great Hall. Her eyes were demon black now, her hair almost crackling in anger.

Even if Em had sent Bellatrix flying, she sent a spell that made a scorch mark on one of the walls by the Slytherin table. She pointed her wand at Bella. "You need to learn to keep your mouth shut and your nose out of other's business," she growled.