Ding Dong Bell. Look Who's in the Well!

Sebastien glanced at the watch. He was walking two hours already, waiting. There's been rummors among werewolves, that some pack will attack Hogwarts Express, and that would take place tonight, for ten minutes, actually. He came here, to Hogsmeade, to think about that, also he needed to move further from his brother. He loved Christian, but sometimes he was annoying as hell.

Bastien slowly walked in the direction of the castle, still undecided whether to help. Why would he? While his schooling that castle was like living hell to him, he hated it, hated professors, most of the students, the offensive willow, simpler, every stone which was built in it. So, why's he heading now? Honestly, he had no idea, he was never a saviour, or wanted to play superhero, wrong brother. Yet, he was still walking, slowly, he has enough time to reach it if he want to, or to turn back if he decides so. No one is here to stop him.

Smile appeared on his face as he passed unexposed portion of the road, he was always a good liar, but not good enough, he had his reason, only he didn't want to admit it. That rumors he heard, they described a werewolf quite similar to that which turned him unwillingly. The one who made him the same beast like one who killed his mother. And Sebastien never liked forgiving, he was him not because the innocent children, they are schooling to be witches and wizards, he thought they can use their wands, their brains and help themself. He's here because of him.

When he saw white gleaming of someone's patronus he started to run, not waiting to hear what is saying. Bastien knew that, already. This Slytherin made his decision – he's going to try to stop him. One part of his brain knew he wasn't skilled or strong enough, and that he might die because of it, but he didn't mind. He decided and he's going to hold on it.

He stopped when he reached the Black Lake. They blew up a viaduct. Hogwarts Express was partly in the lake, started to sink, locomotive and the first few carriages is already in the water, and the others will be pretty soon, too. He reached for his wand, unable to look away from the scene started partly walking, partly swimming to train.

Khaat was watching James, raising her wand, trying to figure whether or not she could hit him with a killing curse from this distance. He was calm, unphased. He blew her a kiss and apparated out. She wasn't sure where he went.

"Over here, Sweetheart!" she heard him call. She looked in every direction. She heard him whistle. He was on the shore--on school grounds. He and his pack. "Miss me, Darlin'?"

"Oh, God!" Marcus breathed out softly, his grip on Khaat tightening. He felt his blood run ice cold. She turned to him. His gaze was fixed on where the train had gone down.

"What?" she asked him. "What is it?"

"My children. They're on that train too," he said. "We weren't going to send them this year, but then....and...then there's Poppy....Oh, god!"

"Go!" she told him. "Go!"

"I can't! My orders...." he began. She twisted hard against him and, for the first time, she intentionally tried to hurt him. She kicked him, hard, with the stiletto heel of her boot. He hadn't seen it coming. She apparated to shore, down the shore away from the train, away from the students.

"Damnit!" Marcus cursed. He knew exactly what she was doing. She was going to distract James. She was going to try to buy everyone some time. At every cost, do you understand, Belby? The conversation that he'd had with Robert rose like an emergency siren in his head. He had to choose. Duty. International and national security. Or his children. Choose now, Belby.

"James!" Khaat shouted. James turned and saw her unguarded. His eyes grew wide.

"Kill the others! Don't touch her. She's mine!" he bellowed to his pack and raced towards her.

Khaat hoped to hell she knew how to run, and she hoped she could remember whether or not werewolves could climb trees. And she hoped she didn't have to find out if she could climb a tree one handed. Okay, so this whole distraction thing wasn't planned out for shit.

Everything for Nick that had happened within the last couple of minutes had been one big grey blur. He remembered getting on the train earlier than most, and reviewing his lesson plans, now which are destroyed, but everything from the derailment, to being pushed underwater and frozen in fear, to being dragged onto the rocky shore, was just one big grey mesh.

Lets just take in our surroundings and take it from there he thought to himself. Looking down twords his left thigh he noticed that there was a deep looking gash, a piece of metal, wood, or glass must have caught his pants and sliced right through layers of skin, as far as he could tell though, the bone was still unexposed. Other than a few cuts on his arms, and rips in his pants, that was the only major injury that Nick had obtained.

Luckily Nick's wand hadn't fallen out of his boot. He slowly sat up and reached for it, before pointing it at the gash on his thigh "Vulnera Sanentur" he casted. Nick could only hold the spell for about a minute and a half however, before becoming too weak to keep the spell going. The cut did look better, and it had nearly stopped bleading completely.

After a few minutes of breathing, and gathering the strength to stand, Nick was on his feet and slowly limped along the jagged rock path that would lead him to higher ground. In the distance, Nick could see streams of light, spells, and other injured people. Mainly students. After a minute of hobbiling along the path, Nick's leg had finally given out. He was now laying on the ground, frozen in pain. Hopefully someone would see him, and hopefully it wasn't someone that would make his injuries worse.

For a minute, all was light laughter. For a moment, the bright lights of Hogwarts could be seen from the windows of the train as it diverted from Hogsmeade to the school itself. For a second, all had been well. Then, as the yellow glow of the lights overhead flickered and the train stalled, shaking its carriages from side to side, nothing was well and all harmony had been split and ruined seemingly irrevocably.

Baldric’s arms spread out, once bracing him against the seat upon which he was perched, the other shooting to grasp at the overhead basket that held some inconsequential pieces of luggage. Smoke rose up past the windows, the scent of sulphur filling his fragile lungs. Then at once, what followed was water as the metal groaned and tumbled towards earth, following its brother into the dark depths of the lake.

Grappling for his wand, Baldric managed to throw up a bubble-head charm over his mouth and nose as the carriage dipped down into the waters. Blinking to get used to the change around him he battled to keep his cool and attached similar charms to the strained cheeks of first and second years unable to help themselves. The elder ones seemed to be doing the same within his compartment and with a charm he threw the door open.

Out in the corridor there was pandemonium as the water continued to rise. The windows in his compartment has smashed, a stray piece of limestone having cracked and shattered the glass. It was through that the water spilled and after pulling out the inmates and slamming the door closed, Baldric found himself surrounded by water that steadily, steadily rose until it swallowed him up whole, the closing of the door having been utterly for naught.

Brandishing his wand, the ex-Gryffindor waded as quickly as he could, half walking, half swimming through the corridor, assigning charms to the faces of all those who he passed without. He found himself soon within another carriage entirely, his eyes seizing left and right. He did a double take in one compartment, however. Keiran. Sending a few people out, a flare spell alighting towards the door he’d entered through, Baldric seized the door and with another spell slammed it open.

Baldric began by casting the charm, doing his level best to regulate breathing before pulling at Keiran’s robes, tugging him through the door. Looking about himself, Baldric took a second to think before pulling the elder man through the carriage and then through the door he’d entered in through which by now had separated from the other carriage as the latter had descended to the lake floor.

Once free from the carriage, Baldric could kick his legs, propelling them to the surface of the water. Once his head broke through he pulled at Keiran more forcefully, grabbing him out of the water. Sulphur still specked around and the smell of magic was thick in the air. Bracing the elder man against his own frame, Baldric wiped away the bubble-head charms.

“Okay,” he exhaled, wiping his hand across his face, clearing his face of the water as he tried to ascertain where they were. They weren’t far from shore, admittedly, but enough to give Baldric pause. “Keiran,” he turned his gaze onto the elder man. “Keiran are you with me? Mate! Look lively. Got a bit of swimming to do yet before you can pass out, mate.”

Cynthia began to cough, waking with a start. A set of hands rolled her onto her side and the splash of water from her mouth pattered onto what sounded like wood. The first year opened her eyes, which proves difficult as they were stinging from the dust that had been gusted from the lake bottom upon the impact.

She continued to take deep breathes and soon the shivering sensation had overtook the shock of whatever was happening. Her greys taking in the scene noticed that she was in a wooden row boat sailing to the shore. A boy with a mop of brown hair that was drenched and glued to the side of his face where he'd pushed it from his eyes was rubbing her back.

'Are you alright?' He offered but Cynthia didn't reply for the action surrounding her was too distracting. Other little boats, much like theirs, were loaded with soaked students taking them to shore whilst others were returning to the site of the sinking Express after depositing their dripping passengers at dry land. Besides them in the water were the scariest looking creatures Cynthia had ever seen. They had mad yellow eyes, wild green hair and strong arms supporting unconscious children and taking them to the shore.

'They're merpeople.' The boy told her upon noticing how fixated Cynthia was upon them. They're helping Professor Cooper bring the trapped students to the surface.' And sure enough when Cynthia glanced over at the wreckage a woman emerged at the surface with what appeared to be an upside down goldfish bowl atop of her head heaving a soaked student into a wooden boat with the help of one of the merpeople.

Their boat soon scrunched along the stoney shore alerting Cynthia and the older boy in Ravenclaw robes that they were safe. Someone came hurrying towards them, wrapping warm blankets around them.

'I'll take them up to the castle.' Came a dreaded voice that made the boy freeze in horror. The gaunt figure of Alexander Nott came into view grasping hold of Cynthia and the Ravenclaws arm.

'Relax Bertie I'm not going to hurt you.' So the boy was called Bertie, Cynthia noted. However onw thing that stumped her was the fact that this man couldn't be long out of Hogwarts, heck he looked old enough to still be a student but what was he doing dry if he was a student? He wasn't in robes either. In fact, who were all these people?

'Who are you? Who are all these p-p-people?' Cynthia asked through a set of chattering teeth much to Berties pleasure as it took the focus away from him and his sudden feeling of impending doom as Alexander's grip hardened.

'I work for the ministry in the Being Division,' he began, 'Although I recently moved to Hogsmede and heard the commotion. These people are people that live in the village and have come to help. Your deputy headmistress sent word to the local pub asking for help and naturally word got around.'

They had now reached the stone steps that led up to the great oak doors. Leaving the students there, to Bertie's relief, Alexander headed back down the lawns to the lake - he still hadn't seen Anastasia and was starting to get a little anxious. Bertie meanwhile led Cynthia up the steps and into the great hall.

'Usually you sit at your house tables, but you haven't been sorted.' He told her awkwardly not too sure what to do. However he soon realised that the few who had made it up to the castle were ignoring tbe table rules and were huddling with their friends, glancing anxiously to the door when they entered hoping they had been one of their friends.

Cynthia, who didn't reply to Bertie, felt herself be led to the table closet and sat down besides him. In spite of all the choas going on outside of the castle it was hard not to be amazed at how Grandiose this room was. Cynthia hadn't cared much about the castle, she had been more focused on what she would learn, but evidently overlooked this as she sat in awe gazing from the levitating candles to the golden cutlery to the enchanted ceiling.

(Ooc: amelia is still helping bring people to tbe surface so she hasnt noticed khaats arrival,sshe isn't ignoring that situation just a little preoccupied!)

Theodore Nott had been in work late. Being a lawyer it sometimes meant that he was drawn into work at odd times, whether that be for client arrests or because the Ministry requested him on an urgent case. It seemed that today had been one of those days. A suspected member of the werewolf pack, who happened to be Theodore's client, had been captured and brought before the department of magical law enforcement with charges against him for 'conspiracy.' What nonsense. In fact, the whole shenanigan was nonsense lately as it soon became apparent Theodore's client was as much a werewolf as Gideon Pierce himself. This wasn't the first time Mr Nott was getting rather tired of his work in the legal sector.

Working as a lawyer sure had provided his family with additional wealth, allowing his children to have the latest model broom, first class seats at Quidditch games and expensive robes from the most luxury of pure blood accredited designers. Yes. Theodore couldn't deny the wealth hadn't been appealing but had it been exactly necessary? In all honesty, no.

Both his parents were serving a life sentence in Azkaban, along with Pansy's Mother to boot, meaning their wealth had already been passed into Theodore and his brother. They may have had to share some of that gold but it would have provided them with enough to sustain a life of luxury working a less stressful, less demanding job. The wizard had always fancied the idea of returning to Hogwarts to teach, perhaps one day becoming Headmaster, but his wife had forever shot this idea down. 'You'll never be around for the children!' Was her response. Not that this was a decent excuse now that all of their children were at Hogwarts or had graduated.

In a twist if fate had he been at Hogwarts as a Professor Theodore would have been with his children when they were most in need. Allyson and Anastasia were both on the Hogwarts Express, the Hogwarts Express that was currently sinking to the depths of The Blake Lake.

You could argue that it was lucky Theodore had been in the Ministry seeing to a time waster of a case or else he wouldn't have been around to hear of a warning from the Hogwarts Deputy Headmistress. Of course it wasn't his job to respond to their call of aid, he was a lawyer and a private one at that. None the less Theodore had apparated back to the Nott manor. Pansy needed to know. They both needed to be there. What if something had happened to his precious Allyson and Anastasia?



Meanwhile, in the master bedroom, Pansy wasn't alone. Upon the departure of her husband, and knowing that he would be out of the house for a while, the witch had invited round one of her more secret friends. A male friend. A male friend with whom she'd promised to show a good time to after an interview about his discovery of a new use of dragons blood. Oh how she liked her powerful men.

'Pansy! Pansy!' Theodore's voice shouting through the house caused her to jump, much to the misfortune of the man in her bed. Her husband was back. Why had he come back so early? Surely he was still needed at the ministry?

'Hide!' Pansy spat, reaching for her silk dressing gown and wrapping it around her whilst the man (whose name she had already forgotten) scuttled through to the en-suite.

'Yes?' She called out, departing the bedroom and coming face to face with her husband in the hallway.

'Pansy, it's Hogwarts. The train, it's, it's gone into the lake! Our Ally! Our precious Ally!'

'Calm down!' Pansy called silencing his disjointed, breathy rambling. To any Mother the Father completely ignoring the fact more than just one daughter was in danger would have bothered them, Pansy had learnt different. Anastasia wasn't Theodore's child. She knew it. He knew it. Of course the witch had hoped Theodore would treat her as his own, that had been his promise, but Anastasia and her 'Father' were too different. They shared no similarities nor had anything in common besides the dark hair, not surprising given the fact Anastasia Nott didn't have the Nott genes but nobody else was aware of that.

'Take some floo powder and go to The Three Broomsticks, see if you can help out. I'll follow you.' The death eater ordered her husband calmly watching him stutter some ridiculously incomprehensible whimpers before running down the stairs to the fireplace in the hallway. In a flash of green he had gone.

'You need to leave.' Pansy told the man in her bathroom as she returned.

'But, we were only just-'

'I have a story to swag and you won't be here when I come back.' Pansy interrupted before leaking the en-suite and slipping into more acceptable attire. Perhaps Pansy was a little cynical. There her children were in mortal danger, possibly drowning at the bottom of The Black Lake and here she was more interested in making history upon the front page of The Daily Prophet. Naturally there was that part of her that was worried, anxious for her children but right now she was a daily prophet reporter not a Mother. She couldn't let her maternal feelings cloud her journalistic skill, not after losing the article about the Hogwarts reforms to another journalist. If there was one thing Pansy hated more than a muggle born half breed it was someone who beat her to a story. Not today, however, would that be happening.



The scene was beautifully disastrous. The sounds of screams were like music to the witches ears. Students were being given CPR on the sure, hopefully a few deaths would pull at the heartstrings of readers; James Blood and has packs presence would strike a bit of fear into the readers, additionally it would provide her with a chance to rant about the ministry's mixed priorities; there were villagers and ministry wizards there to help the students up to the castle to safety, a community of Herod never failed to make a good read and spark a bit of confidence in readers and, the most important piece of them all, the viaduct had collapsed and the train had plummeted into the deep murky waters of The Black lake. It would make a perfect story.

A sly smirk curled from the corners of Pansy's lips as she simply stood with her parchment and quill documenting the drama amidst the chaos. Perhaps when things died down the opportunity to nab a few quotes would rise. Nothing tasted better than power and right now the power to inform the rest of the wizarding world was entirely in her hands.

(OOC: sorry if my writing is really sloppy it's late here, I'm tired but was too eager to send Pansy in! Now it's goodnight - I also wanted to throw a bit more of an idea about her husband out there. I've been debating about claiming him for a while)

Zada was beginning to realize it was much too quiet here. She didn't even hear normal underwater noises. Something was wrong. She was a bit disoriented and a bit dizzy.  Her bubble head charm was working, but she wasn't sure she exactly remembered casting it.

She found her wand was still in her pocket. She drew it and lit it. Destruction was everywhere. She moved through the rubble as best she could, having to go forward, unable to go backwards in the car to find the two students she'd been seated with. She didn't know if they were still there, if they were dead, or alive.

She pried open the door to the first compartment she came to and cast bubble head charms on the students she found there,  She fired her wand at the outside wall of the car to blow a hole in it and guided the students out of the hole, pointing them towards the light of the surface.

She would stay until she had found all the students she could manage.  She went to the next passage and found the door jammed shut, the students panicking and running out of air. She could not budge it without magic and without risking even more harm to the students trapped inside.

She was still yanking on the door when a strong hand pushed her hand out of the way.  She looked up, not expecting to find anyone here. She recognize the face of a Lupin man. Well, that wasn't exactly correct. Some jokingly called him Mr. Khaat Lupin.  He was the trainer of the Ministry aurors, Brian Quinn.

She yielded to him. He physically forced the door of the compartment open. The two of them cast bubble head charms on the students and pointed the three of them to the opening in the car.  They were about to go to the next compartment when Zada glanced back in the compartment and counted four bags.  Four? They'd only found three here.

She turned and went back into the compartment.  She needed to be sure. She pried open one of the upper luggage compartments and found the tiniest student she believed she'd ever seen. The itty blonde was unconscious.  

Zada drew her out of the compartment, and when Quinn saw there was one more,  he came back. He saw the child was unconscious. He cast a bubble head charm over her face and laid his hand on her forehead to start the child's breathing again.

Coming conscious, the little girl panicked and wrapped her arms tightly around Zada's neck. Zada wasn't used to that. It wasn't how people ever reacted to her.  

Quinn pointed to the child and then to Zada, and then he pointed to the opening in the car. He wanted Zada to get the tiny child to safety.  He was remaining behind.  Zada nodded, intending to return to help.

She swam out the hole in the car and up to the surface. The child still clinging to her neck, Zada broke through the surface of the lake, expecting to hear voices, noises, chaos. She saw it all around her.

But she heard nothing. Nothing at all.

It happened too quickly for his taste.

For ten minutes, ten short minutes, Brice had finally gotten a little bit of sleep. He had been studying crazily before that, mainly because it'd be his first year in Hogwarts. Maybe, just maybe, he drank too much coffee. But just maybe. For some minutes, he was looking through the window, slowly closing his eyes, relieved.

And then, he was suddenly woken up.

The sound of a professor screaming made him jump, and instead of doing what she told him, he stood up, looked through the window, and... wait what? There was a huge hole where he supposed was the railings. If it wasn't for the warning from the professor, he'd think it was normal, it'd probably be some secret way to the castle. He spent those moments without shock or panic, but then, noticing how the train was moving fast. They were heading towards a huge body of water, probably really cold. It was time to think.

He started to panic a bit from the speed, so he thought. He could break the window and jump from the train. That'd be extremely stupid. He'd probably kill himself, or get really hurt. He didn't want to die. He couldn't die. He had things to change in the world. He had to get out, and quickly. He opened the door, leaving his trunk behind, but taking his cat, Leala, with him. He knew that the train would fall into the water. The priority was escaping with Leala, and then... he'd see. Although he lived in a nicely hot weathered city, he could stand the cold more than a normal person, much more, to be honest. He found that weird, but extremely good.

And then...

He felt something change. the first wagons were starting to fall. He opened the door and ran towards the last wagon, finding an window on the corridor, standing right in front of it. He didn't care if he had to break it. The time passed faster than he thought. To him, barely a second had passed, he had sinked. The people around him were yelling and screaming all over the place, more than before. He was also kind of scared, and really anxious. Suddenly, the window broke. He didn't see the reason, as he was turned around, but the sudden icy cold water hitting him gave a cold down his spine. Knowing that Leala would lose her senses after the water got to her (He read that in some books about cats), he rose her up, and extended his hand to some students coming back. He pulled them up towards the broken window, telling them to go for it. He knew they probably wouldn't stand the cold, but he was doing what he could. One person accepted, and he decided it was too late.

Less than a minute after, the compartment was full of water, and he was swimming through the cold water, feeling extreme cold, but standing it in knowledge that he'd die if he didn't. It'd take all his breath to survive, but he had to. He swam up, and found that actually to save himself it would be easy. The top of the train was right there, and he swam up, standing on it and dropping an passed out Leala on a little bit of dry "land". He went down into the water again, completely soaked. He entered through the window he came from, extending his hand to the people in there, pulling one out, but one of them didn't want to come out, since his friend passed out. He pulled the first one out, and he swam quickly to the top.

He was being a hero. It wasn't what he wanted. Soon the people in there would drown, though. The professors had gone right past them. Brice knew he himself would probably suffer from severe hypothermia, but with the strength left in him, he went in there and grabbed the drowning student. He thanked god that he had enough strength to even be able to pull the student anywhere. He knew that he wouldn't be able to do anything after that, but he'd save as many lives as he could meanwhile. He took the boy away, swimming up the train, leaving the friend that was still awake there. He dragged him up top, as the other boy who was there pulled him up. He went down one last time, extending his arm to the girl, pulling her up and going to the top of the train. His vision was distorted. He heard them talking about something. He was feeling an weird sensation of heat and cold... and he felt some hands over him as his vision blackened... and he passed out.

For the second time in just over a month, Keiran Hayes found himself next to dead, believing that he'd lost his shot in life. Everything was muted, and his eyes stung slightly from trying to see through the watery haze. Obviously, breathing wasn't an option considering he couldn't even right himself to think properly. Thus, no charms would be cast to ensure his survival. A blow to the head as the train flipped made it that much more difficult, of course, to focus. The leg that was damaged proved all that much more unhelpful, considering he couldn't quite get anything to do what he wanted it to.

A bit of blinking done, Keiran found that a blurry figure was pushing open his compartment door. Black spots appeared in his vision as he was tugged through the doors, desperately holding tight to his affects as the figure pulled him to the surface. Water was heaved from Keiran's lungs as he coughed, trying to gasp in as much air as he could. A familiar voice sounded at his ear, and Keiran did all he could to show his agreement. Bad leg or not, he was definitely interested in getting to shore. He could sit on the sidelines and cast whatever was needed, if nothing else. It sounded unhelpful, he supposed, but with everything that had gone on previously, it would be a terrible mess for him to try anything else. So Keiran wrapped his wand arm around Baldric's shoulders and did what he could to assist the effort.

--

Katherine had started moving again the moment she saw a blonde head break the surface of the water, tugging along her old professor as best as he could. She needed to get to shore. That first year had clearly not been found, as the girl had not surfaced with the others that Mr. Hayes's savior had sent up, charms and all. She couldn't think about it, though, so she started towards the shore, ushering the newly surfaced students along with her. If she could get them into the castle before the werewolves noticed, maybe they would have a better chance at making it without further fright or injury, if any had sustained them.

From her office on the fourth floor, the youngest new professor at Hogwarts heard the explosion, muted though it seemed to her ears. Something was terribly wrong, she knew, so she bolted to the window - or, rather, did her best given her situation. She wasn't too very far along in her pregnancy, but she was overly cautious, just as Kaiden would have wanted her to be. Still, Adrienne stared out the window as the school year literally started with a bang. Worse, she could recognize some of the people from where she stood - Amelia flying off to help, Aurors when they popped up, and even professors who she knew well enough to recognize even from a distance. Although, truly, it wasn't as far as one might have thought, considering her office was at the end of a corridor.

The one person she didn't see, however, was her mentor of sorts and ex-professor, and Adrienne knew immediately that he had been on board. Melissa - the new Professor Hayes - was already here, but he was yet to arrive. And the blonde probably had no idea. Adrienne took to the floo in her office, not daring to waste time with running the three flights of stairs that she really ought not run up at all, ever. A breath later, she found herself on the seventh floor, in the Divination office, searching wildly for Millie.

When she finally caught sight of the just slightly older professor, Adrienne blinked once, swallowed hard, and tried to take a deep breath, but just ended up blurting out, "I didn't see Keiran. The train - it's been attacked, and he's not come out yet. I mean, it's a mess down there, but you know as well as I do that I would know it's him if he surfaced. Millie, he's still in there."

Eyes wide, breaths coming short and frightened, Adrienne was eternally grateful that Kaiden hadn't been involved. But now Millie would be torn between watching her children or ensuring that her husband - already damaged though he was - made it back to her alive. Back to their family alive. "If you need to go, I'll watch them. I want to help, I do, but Kaiden would throw a fit if he knew I went down there in my condition. So, really, you can. Just don't get yourself hurt, too, even if Keiran does. Don't do anything rash or anything that could get you in trouble. You have to think of him, but... also of the twins."

Why she felt she could give advice or warning was honestly beyond her, but clearly Adrienne had gone and done it anyway. What right did she have? None. But it was fear talking, and pain for Millie, who, in Adrienne's mind, had always been someone who was good and truly kind, and the picture of a strong Gryffindor. And, really, it was the best she could manage just then, not having a clue what Millie was feeling or dealing with. She ducked her head, owning none of the bravery that the blonde in front of her did - or, not when she felt she had offended someone, at least. Color rose in her cheeks, wishing she could take back the last bit, but knowing that, in the moment, it was just something that was bound to escape.