Prank or Peril (Agilbert/Hope)

[Ailee McDanna]

Ailee headed straight for the Headmaster's office, trying not to worry the mask in her hands in fear of destroying any evidence that Fontaine might be able to get off of it. Maybe she was making a mistake; maybe she was overreacting and this was a prank - a very cruel and quite unfunny one but then, many students had problems understanding what constituted as 'going too far'. She had almost changed paths, resolving to wait until morning but no matter how many times she told herself that she was just being stupid, Ailee couldn't change her mind. There were just too many possibilities and the headmaster had always seemed rather welcoming.

While she had had little contact with Professor Dumbledore before his murder, she had always thought that Agilbert reminded her a bit of the great wizard. There was a great deal of compassion in them both, faces that seemed quite stern at first glance, and even quite impressive beards. Not many people would think to look past their frim countenance, however, to see the kindness shining out of their eyes. Both men were fair but protective of their students; both wishing to make the most of their position - not just sit back and use it as a form of retirement or of advancing to something better.

Of all the things that Ailee had loved when she had first made Ilvermorny her new home, the headmaster had been the first and most comforting 'thing' on the list. He would take care of this; make everything right. If it was nothing, he would be reassuring but if it was something...then he was the one they needed - without a doubt.

When she reached the man's office, Ailee wondered if she had chosen correctly. Would he really be here, this late at night or would he have retired for the evening? And if so, where were his rooms? Would she have to seek them out? Where could she even begin? A strange thing that most people never think about but now that it was important...

Having no other option, she knocked - quite insistently in the hopes that if his private rooms were connected, he would hear the summons. 

[Agilbert Fontaine]

"Enter,' came the call from behind his desk. He had been going over teacher reports and it lasted well into the evening. He had only taken a break long enough to eat dinner in the dining hall before returning to his office. He looked up as Ailee entered, noticing she looked a bit distraught and seemed to be carrying something. He saw another figure approaching through the open door, soon revealing the worried look of Professor Nightingale.

"Professor McDanna," he nodded in way of greeting. "What troubles you tonight?" he asked curiously as the teacher approached.

[Hope Nightingale]

Hope had been getting ready for bed when an insistent paper airplane entered from the bottom of her door and began pegging her in the head until she unraveled it and read the message. It asked her to meet Ailee in the Headmaster's office urgently. She folded up the note and stuck it in the pocket of her heavy cotton robe, tying her sash tight around her waist before she set out. Thankfully her quarters were near the entrance to the staff area, and she didn't have far to go to catch up to Ailee.

She entered the Headmaster's office behind her, just in time as the door closed, sealing them in the comforts of Headmaster Fontaine's office. "Ailee, what's this about? Has something happened?" she asked wearily, looking at the other woman.

[Ailee McDanna]

Ailee had opened her mouth to speak, for a moment frozen. She wanted to fall apart. She wanted to throw the mask at the headmaster and beg him to figure it out and fix everything. She definitely wanted something to drink and start ranting in the Gaedhlig. It was comforting, the language of her childhood and Agilbert might just let her rant long enough to get it out, whether he understood the words or not.

However, she heard Hope a few steps behind her. Her friend didn't know, couldn't know. None of them could. She had to be just another concerned teacher, not a partially-broken, scarred woman who still saw horrible things worse than nightmares in when she slept.

Ailee turned back, a nod to her acknowledge her fellow teacher before approaching the headmaster's desk, gently placing the mask in front of him. Then she proceeded to tell both him and Hope where the mask had been found, in what condition, and what the two prefects had relayed to her - almost word for word, including the light and smell Fortier had experienced, the paint spread across the particular statue, and the difficulty it took to remove the mask.

"I searched the immediate area and found no sign of anyone out of place. The only remnant of the act other than what you see before you was a drop of paint at the base of the statue which had already dried. I called for Hope because it was so near her classroom and Mr. Smith identified the song on one side of the mask was something the students sang for choir. It was my hope that she might give us further insight." Ailee ran through all that she had said - only now remembering the strange thing that Fortier had said.

"One of the boys - he wondered if this had something to do with the Masked Lords. I profess, I did not know what it was that he spoke of so I did not indulge either's curiosity on the matter but is that something that could be behind this? Something we should be looking into a little more closely?"  

[Agilbert Fontaine]

Agilbert leaned forward as Ailee began to tell them what happened to bring her there at this time of night. By the end of her explanation, he was leaning on his arms, fingers steepled in front of his face. As she finished he picked up the mask, running his fingers over it carefully. "This looks to be handmade, likely not something bought," he said, his lips forming a frown on his face. "This, and crimson paint plastered to a statue near the choir room...It would seem this was done deliberately."

He passed the mask to Hope so she could look it over before turning his kind eyes back toward Ailee. "The Masked Lords are an old story. A secret society of masked individuals, tasked with keeping the peace and protection of this school. But I haven't heard any rumblings about the Masked Lords since I was a student here, so I highly doubt that they still exist, let alone would do something so frightening. No, I would say it was someone looking to strike fear into most likely someone in the choir." He turned his eyes to Hope to see what she might add to the conversation.

[Hope Nightingale]

Hope took the mask in hand and immediately felt sick to her stomach as Ailee described what the boys had found. Her fingers traced over the musical note, and then the song that was handwritten in a small scrawl. She didn't recognize the handwriting at all, so it wasn't anyone actually in Choir or Sex Ed. She looked up at the Headmaster and Ailee and shook her head.

"This is one of the songs the choir sings, but it's usually used as a warm up to get everyone synced together," she said, handing the mask back to Agilbert so she didn't expel her stomach contents onto the mask. Was someone targeting her students? Her daughter? The thought made her quite ill, the blood draining from her face slightly. She quickly sat down in one of the chairs before the Headmaster's desk. "You think someone is trying to get the attention of someone in the choir? Who would do such a thing? This is madness."

[Ailee McDanna]

Ailee listened to the Headmaster explanation, relieved that at least that little mystery was solved. However, just because he thought they had disappeared did not mean that they actually had. While back then, they may have been charged to keep the peace and protection of the school, that may have changed with time. It only took one bad generation to corrupt something that had started innocently.

However, that was his problem to deal with. She would keep her eyes open but she would not go prying. When Hope took a seat, Ailee too settled into another, her hands folding tightly in her lap, hopeful that neither would notice her white knuckles as she struggled to keep from shaking or her voice from wavering.

"I believe that this was intentional," she agreed with Fontaine. "The red I saw...I am not an art teacher but had the two young men told me themselves that it was paint, I might have had to look twice to be absolutely certain." Ailee managed to unclench her fingers and put a hand on Hope's comfortingly. "We're not going to let anything happen to Shelby - or any of the other students here." But how could she say that? There wasn't even a direction in which to start looking!

"Mr. Fortier and Mr. Smith were going to investigate the hallways a little further and I did a sweep of my own but found no sign of anything else out of the ordinary. But," Ailee hesitated, wondering how Fontaine would react to this. No, she wasn't going to be ashamed. She had done the right thing. She looked up at the Headmaster, informing him, "I gave them permission to stun someone if they found them out of place. I felt it best to allow them to protect themselves and the other students if necessary. If there are any misadventures because of that, I will take the consequences." 

[Agilbert Fontaine]

"I see," he said as he leaned back in his chair. "I'll take responsibility for that, as the protection of this school, even from within, is my purview. I know, with your history, Ailee, that this can't be easy for you to have found. But I took an oath to protect all who live here and I will stand by that until my dying day." He looked over at Hope, trying to catch her eye. "As Ailee said, nothing will happen to your daughter, nor any other child in this school."

"We shall all stay alert. Report any student who seems to be acting strangely or out of character directly to me," he said. "Until we are sure of what we're dealing with. Hopefully, this is an isolated incident, but if not, it's best to be careful. Hope, you should inform your class in case they might know who did this. Obviously, someone has made an enemy."

[Hope Nightingale]

Hope listened to what Ailee was saying and nodded as she heard what she told the boys. Gideon, she knew well and knew that he would take this situation seriously. She would have to remember to talk to him about what he saw later on. She looked up at the Headmaster and nodded, though his oath swearing didn't make her feel any better. She held Ailee's hand while she tried to keep her cool, but it was proving difficult. The thought that anyone would be out to get her daughter or any of the choir kids made her want to lose it. She cared deeply about all the children that she taught.

When Fontaine told her to warn her class she nodded again, "Yes Headmaster. I will warn them to be extra vigilant," she said, though her voice cracked slightly, betraying her feelings about the subject.

[Ailee McDanna]

It took every ounce of control for Ailee not to flinch at his words. He may have meant them as reassuring but now all she could see was his old body lying broken at the base of Thunderbird tower. He wouldn't be the first headmaster to keep that oath to the very limit.

And he wouldn't. She would remain vigilant. Professor Moody had at least taught his students that much.

When Hope spoke, Ailee heard the crack in her voice - the fear that the woman surely must have felt. Fontaine was wrong. This wasn't going to be hard. She wasn't going to let it be. If this was the situation, then she would at least be prepared for it. And as he said, this could be an isolated incident or, even, a very sick joke - someone getting back at another for a bad break-up or cheating at one of the broom games.

Ailee squeezed Hope's hand gently, unsure of how to reassure her any further than she had.

"Headmaster, perhaps we should have the prefects patrol in pairs for a while - until we are certain about the nature of this incident. Also, I'm not certain if there are any but if the castle contains secret passages, perhaps we could ask a few of the pukwudgies to patrol them regularly at night?" No need to go to the point where teachers were always supervising the students from class to class yet but as long as they were all extra aware during the day. Normally a few teachers patrolled at night anyway and if the headmaster intended to look into the matter further, what else was there to be done?

[Agilbert Fontaine]

"Excellent ideas," he said, his kind eyes looking a little less troubled. "I'll speak to William tomorrow and see what can be done," he said. "Until then, I highly doubt anything else of note will happen tonight. We shall find a way to snuff out any future pranks of this sort, one way or another."

He pushed himself out of his chair and rounded his desk. Very gently he helped Hope get to her feet. "Professor McDanna, can you see that Hope gets back to her room safely? We can't rule out someone targeting her with this sickening joke as well." He guided Hope out of her chair and gave a soft squeeze to her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll find who did this and they will be punished for such a prank."

[Hope Nightingale]

Hope held Ailee's hand tight as she rose and released it as the Headmaster guided her out of her seat. She looked to the Headmaster and nodded, still looking rather pale in the dim lighting of his office. Idly, she wondered how he could see what he was reading with such low light. She looked over at Ailee who had been a good friend to Hope since she had come to Ilvermorny to teach while Shelby was in school. The other woman knew of her hopes and dreams for her child, as well as some of her frustrations.

"I'm sure I'll be fine Headmaster Fontaine," she said, though her voice shook as much as her hands. She was a fully grown witch, so she was not without some skill in which to protect herself. She looked at Ailee apologetically, knowing that the Headmaster wouldn't take no for an answer.

[Ailee McDanna]

"Of course," Ailee agreed, regaining her feet quickly, heading for the door to escort Hope back to her rooms. She had never even contemplated that this could have been directed at the choir director herself. And then she had had her go to the headmaster's office by herself. How foolish she had been, not to think of that!

And once dropping Hope off at her rooms, Ailee would go back out to patrol the halls again. While her shift was technically over in an hour or so, there was no way she would sleep tonight anyway. Might as well use the adrenaline her former fear had caused for something good. "Good night, Headmaster," she nodded deferentially before heading out into the outer office, waiting for Hope to join her.

[Hope Nightingale]

Hope nodded as the Headmaster said a few more reassuring words and then left his office, the door shutting quietly behind her. She rejoined Ailee in the outer office where Mrs. Stewbone typically sat. She looked at the potions teacher and sighed, wrapping her arms around herself as if to ward off any would-be assailants. She took a couple of deep breaths before walking in step with her friend out of the outer office and back toward the staff rooms.

"I can't believe something like this is happening. In all my years, even as a student, I can't remember anything like this taking place," she said, shaking her head. She couldn't believe that she might be a target, or her daughter, or any of the choir kids for that matter. It was a cruel and twisted joke, if joke was even the right word for it.

[Ailee McDanna]

Ailee kept step with Hope, putting a friendly, comforting around the woman's shoulders. "This is a changing world," she said sadly. "Every time someone wants notoriety, they have to come up with something more drastic and disturbing than the last time. But every time someone goes too far, they just expose themselves more. The headmaster is going to find whoever did this; I have no doubts about that, whatsoever. We will just need to remain a little more vigilant until then.

"Maybe if you have smaller groups meeting in the music room for practicing or whatnot, perhaps suggest that they stay in at least pairs or have a sign in sheet so that you will know who will be there and the times in and out - if you don't already have one, of course." That way, if something did happen and someone went missing, the teachers would have a good idea of how long they had been gone for. Nor, if a student went missing from there, someone might notice a little more quickly than they might otherwise.