One Day I'll Fly Away (5th, Battle Strategies, Lesson Four)

Ashleen swallowed hard and reminded herself that nothing was going to happen to her if she walked into the room. Nothing at all.

After all, nothing had happened when she walked into the other classrooms - they were classrooms for gosh shakes. So why was it that she was stalling out, outside of this one. She frowned glancing into it. She supposed that it was darker than the others, more shadows...

But, still... it was just a classroom. There wasn't even anyone in there - as far as she could see anyway.

"I-I," she bit her lip staring at the floor, her head shaking slightly. "D-don't want to. I-I can't... I j-just can't."

Tre looked past her into the classroom, his eyes calculating and mistrusting. He'd had to deal with the probability that anything could be anywhere, but it wasn't comforting him. Not in the least.

"Shhh.." He soothed, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her to his chest. "You don't have to go if you don't want to." His fingers rubbed soothing circles into her spine, and he hummed a small tune to calm her. "Nothing's gonna harm you... not while I'm around..." He sang softly, just below her hearing. "Nothing's gonna harm you, no sir... not while I'm around..." He squeezed her gently. "If you don't want to go, we'll leave. Easy."

Ash frowned, leaning into the embrace, ignoring the room for the moment and focusing on that, "N-No. I have to-I have to go.... I just-just can't-can't-"

She swallowed and let out a long breath trying to remove some of her tension with it.

"Its just a classroom right?" she gave a shakey laugh that wasn't really all that convincing. "Lets just... If I just...like a band-aid..."

She frowned for a moment, her eyes darkening as she looked at a room and muttered to herself again.

"Like a band-aid."

"Like a band-aid." He mused softly, following her inside. "Ripped right off." He slid into a seat, pulling her onto his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist. "See? 'ts not that bad."

Ashleen - after tensing as if she was expecting the room to cave in on her upon walking in - relaxed slightly as she found herself in the boy's lap.

"'Supose," she muttered softly, still looking about the room. She was having to remind herself to breath - she just needed to calm down and.. "I don't think the p-professor will l-like me sitting here."

She was pretty sure most professors prefered their students to use an actual seat... not another student.

It was yet another class where Ksenia saw the couple. Something happened to Ashleen, she could tell just from the way she was sitting and the fact that she sat on Treshawn's lap just reinforced that. The Slushatel hasn't talked to them since the incident in the Hidden Passage, didn't want to talk to them more like it. They were not her friends. They probably would never become her friends. Because at this point they couldn't understand each other.

That is why the girl didn't say anything as she sat herself behind them in a different row and prepared for the lesson silently.

Henrick came out of his office as he heard voices in his class room, which instantly caught his attention. As he looked down to his watch he realized it was in fact, time for his class - so he thrust the double doors to his office open. Once he was in the class room, he pulled out his wand and wrote his name on the board, and turned to the students and caught their attention with a clap. Three students, that wasn't particularly bad, considering the boring content of the class for this particular lesson. It was time for the fifth years to receive their final lesson of the year, which would lead to their oral and practical exam - which he hadn't even created yet, but he would get to it. "Alright. Welcome to Battle Strategies. I can tell by your thoughts, dear, that you are clearly traumatized. Please sit there if it actually helps you, just don't let it interfere with my class, entirely." He said as he sped to the front of his desk, not really attempting to hide his power anymore - the telepathy or the fact that he was impossibly fast. "Now then, does anyone remember the war that happened long ago - the Iraq War? Can anyone tell me methods or weapon strategies that were used in it? Or how magic was actually involved? Each correct answer will gain your house five points. The clock begins now." He said, as he leaned back to his desk and turned an hourglass upside down and stood there, his hands folded behind his back as he awaited answers.

Ash jumped as the doors were thrown open, the action sending her pulse racing, and her blue eyes widened even more as she swallowed and tried to calm down. Of course, the fact that he clapped only a few minutes later did not help the matter at all.

She merely jumped all the more, even if the sound was rather light, and wouldn't have bothered her in almost any other mental state. She cowered away from the man as he addressed her, even if his tone was civil, and his words more or less friendly.

He was too... forthright, and not-not...

She looked at her lap, and again, as she had with classes before, focused on the question, "There w-were suicide bombers who would... would sacrifice themselves for, for their cause. They were willing to die for... for whatever it was they w-were fighting."

Ash had begun running her hand nervously through her hair, as she spoke, focusing on a spot on the wall instead of any person in the room."