alittlemirror | wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure

wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure

To say Jade is displeased would be an understatement. It's not that he cares about this detention tarnishing his record, no. He doesn't really care about his record. What he does care about is how it cuts into his studying time. He had just come across a particularly fascinating snippet on the nature of death and the soul...

(And besides, those Hufflepuffs had started it with their incessant chattering. They're like a less annoying version of Saphir, and nobody had ever really objected when he hexed Saphir. And it's not like he used a serious hex; he just sealed and removed their mouths. Easily reversible, if they knew what they were doing - and knew how to use nonverbal spells.

After all, what kind of first-year doesn't know how to use nonverbal spells?)

But someone had taken offense to his hex, and now he finds himself trudging to Professor Rammsteiner's office, growing increasingly irritated at the loss of his study time. From what he's heard of detentions, they usually entail doing useless, mundane tasks easily accomplished with a little creative wandwork. He's thought about ignoring Professor Rammsteiner's orders more than once, but he's also been told that it would just lead to more detentions and thus a bigger waste of time.

Oh well. He's here now. With one last irritated sigh, he raises his hand to the door and knocks.

"Professor Rammsteiner? This is Jade Curtiss."

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There's a brief moment in Heine's mind when the comforting weight disappears, and he begins to rise, his mind clearing as he puts thoughts together, remembers discomfort and worry—and then there is the weight again, pushing everything else out.

Heine sits quietly on the bed even after Jade is gone. Resting. Tired. After a pause he moves to lie on his side in the blankets, aware that he's naked and sore and filthy but more concerned with rest. He's so tired.

By the time Jade comes back Heine has his eyes closed, breathing slow and even. Eichel is on the other side of the room, having pulled on a robe, but occupied with a set of papers he's reading.

He feels better after he's done. Still tired, still sore and aching, but at least he's clean. He notes, with some satisfaction, that Professor Rammsteiner is right where he had left him, and resting like he was told to. He can't tell if he's asleep or not, but that doesn't matter; Jade shakes his shoulder lightly.

"Go clean yourself up and put your clothes back on," he tells him, curious to see how far his power stretches.

The shaking doesn't rouse him, but the command does. Heine sits up, gets out of bed. Come is still on the insides of his thighs, and a little more drips out down his leg as he walks to the bathroom at a slow pace.

Cleaning up doesn't take too long. He stands in the bath to wash up, dries with a towel, and goes back out to... put his clothes back on, of course. After pulling his shirt and pants back on the weight is even better, more distributed. Socks and shoes go on last, and he stands there, quiet, looking at the wall. He feels more put together when he isn't so exposed. Safer. He feels calm and safe, if a bit tired, when he doesn't have to think.

He watches as Professor Rammsteiner heads to the bathroom, feeling vaguely uneasy. Was this how he had looked to Professor Eichel earlier? A messy wreck, yet still somehow enticing?

He isn't sure how he feels about that, but that's hardly a new feeling. Dismissing those thoughts, he heads over to Professor Eichel instead, trying to read over his shoulder (unless he's told not to). He doesn't speak out until Professor Rammsteiner steps out, looking strangely...normal.

Jade shakes his head slightly. Of course Professor Rammsteiner would look normal, why wouldn't he? But there's something not quite right about him either. Has he ever looked so calm before?

No. Not really.

Straightening, Jade dispels the protective charms he had cast earlier.

"We should be going. Good night, Professor." He doesn't even look at Professor Rammsteiner, just motions for him to come along with a brief flicker of thought.

It's a rather dry paper on magical field theory, regarding the possibilities that witches and wizards gather their power from an existing neutral miasma that contained far more power than any one person could control. Receptivity, it suggests, is what differentiates wizards from Muggles, and it's passed through heredity. In Eichel's view, Durmstrang may lend itself towards pride and pure-blooded bias, but new ideas should be at least considered, and he doesn't mind Jade reading over his shoulder. He acknowledges Jade and Heine leaving with a soft 'good night'.

The halls are nearly silent now in the late night. Heine follows Jade with quiet footsteps, just behind his shoulder.

They reach Professor Rammsteiner's room with no trouble. If it's locked, Jade breaks it with a simple charm and usher them both inside, locking the door securely once they're in. Professor Eichel had taught him to be careful.

He's tired, and Professor Rammsteiner's bed looks inviting, but there's one last matter to resolve first. Does he get rid of Professor Rammsteiner's memories or not?

He watches Professor Rammsteiner quietly, trying to gauge his thoughts. It's impossible when he's in this state. Which means...

Tentatively, he relaxes his hold on Professor Rammsteiner.

Heine is standing there, in his room, looking at the ground. It's fine—until the weight lifts, and too much floods back in. He blinks a few times, back straightening and shoulders tensing.

They'd had sex again. With Eichel. Heine looks at Jade, but only for a second, before emotion overwhelms him and he draws in a sharp breath.

"Get out." While he'd been Imperiused, they'd—Heine's hands are damp, with fear or shame, he isn't sure. He just knows he can't be in the same room as one of them anymore. Even if it's Jade and not Eichel. Even if it's his student, and not his professor, someone that he's done wrong by too. He wrenches the door open from where he's standing, unable to bring himself to lay his hands or magic on Jade even for the sake of throwing him out when he feels the nails of his ghost, clawing open his spine.

"Get out of my fucking room." For a second his voice has almost an echo to it, and his eyes fix on Jade, wide and furious.

He can see the change overtaking Professor Rammsteiner even before he speaks. It's a subtle thing, just a darkening of his expression and a stiffening of his posture, but even that little is enough for the change to be obvious.

Professor Rammsteiner's reaction is probably going to be unfavourable, isn't it? Jade braces himself.

He isn't disappointed.

Coolly, he raises his wand again. "Obliviate."

It's better for him not to remember. He can't handle it; that much is obvious. If, if, they need to discuss this in the future, it'd be easier without all these emotion-laden memories to cloud Professor Rammsteiner's judgement. He already has poor judgement as it is. They don't need any more complicating factors.

Before he reacts, the spell hits Heine.

For a second he tries to talk, but he blinks and can't remember what it is he'd wanted to say, and why. The tense apprehension at the base of his spine is still there, but he can't remember the cause.

Nor can he remember why Jade is in his room or why he feels weirdly sore. He decides to address the first problem for now, trying to pick his way through the fog that still surrounds all of his thoughts.

"Did you need something?"

There. Much better. Jade looks at his handiwork without a shred of remorse, then shakes his head.

"It's fine. It can wait until morning."

He feels very tired, all of a sudden, the events of the day catching up to him now that things are starting to stabilize. He should leave while he can, but (perhaps unwisely) he lingers.

"Okay." Morning's fine. He should probably get to sleep, anyway. He finds himself holding his posture a bit awkwardly, feeling an occasional sharp discomfort in his lower back. His shoulder kind of stings, too. If he didn't know better, he'd think...

...wait.

"What time is it?"

There's a brief pause before Jade answers. "Late at night."

It's an odd answer, coming from him; he keeps careful track of the time, and usually has a good idea of what the current time is. Tonight, however, he finds himself at a loss. How long had they spent in Professor Eichel's rooms? It felt like hours, but surely it can't be that long.

"You should sleep," Jade adds, a subtle layer of command in his voice, as if he's speaking to someone still under the effects of the Imperius Curse.

For a second, Heine just stares back at Jade. His mind still hasn't fully cleared, and the urge to just... agree is certainly there.

"Yeah... I will." Heine starts turning away to go towards his bathroom, pulling at the neck of his robe and shirt to see what it is that's hurting his shoulder like he'd gotten bitten there. "You should too."

He watches, impassive on the outside, but inside he's busy thinking and planning. Can he safely leave Professor Rammsteiner now? No, better not to risk it.

"Can I stay?" He asks, his tone as neutral as ever. He isn't asking for anything unreasonable, after all.

Heine is distracted, wracking his memories to try and make sense of things. Why had Jade walked back with him, after the ball? They hadn't talked since that time Jade spoke to him, to say that he would be studying with Eichel from then on.

"Did Professor Eichel..." He pauses. Had he been there? How long has it been? Not answering Jade's question he looks at the clock in the corner of the room. Four in the morning. When he left the ball it had only been about midnight.

He'd lost time.

Heine turns back to Jade, a combination of confusion and near-panic in his face.

"It's four already." His voice has a sharp edge, discomfort clear.

If there's one thing he's learning tonight, it's that Professor Rammsteiner is capable of a far greater range of emotion than Jade had previously thought. Anger, fear; Jade watches him curiously, detached as a scientist studying a particularly interesting specimen.

"Really?" The time is a surprise to Jade as well. He hadn't realized they spent such a long time with Professor Eichel. "Then we should sleep."

Subtly, he flicks his wrist, wand dropping once more from the sleeve of his robe to his hand. He had been hoping that there wouldn't be a need for more spells tonight, but he'll do what he has to in order to keep Professor Rammsteiner under control.

He feels nervousness, a certain sense that there is a hunt, primal instinct crawling on his back. Heine's hands clench and unclench as he goes to the window to look out at the sky, like that will tell him if the clock is correct. As he walks over he feels something odd, yet not wholly unfamiliar—the sensation of a slick, wet substance on the insides of his thighs.

For a long moment he just stares unseeingly out the window. The urge to turn and tear into the other person in the room is almost too much, and not entirely his own. Heine has to fight it; his shoulders tense even further in the second before he turns around and sends a wordless spell at Jade, aiming to just grab him and pin him to the wall—but the force is too much and certain to at least bruise.

When he sees Professor Rammsteiner tense, some instinct tells him that something is about to happen.

It still doesn't prepare him for the feeling of being suddenly shoved back by an invisible force, his back slamming against the wall. It sends a jolt of pain through his already sore body, and he lets out a low grunt.

Then his wand is up and raised, hurling a stunning spell at Professor Rammsteiner.

Heine, holding Jade back with one hand, blocks instinctively, using his other hand to throw up a shield. The spell glances off but he stumbles back a step before recovering.

Jade hadn't tried to explain. He'd taken away his memories, for what reason Heine can guess. He'd been used again and even if—even if he had given permission, he can't remember giving it.

The pressure Heine is exerting on Jade's entire body moves upwards from his torso, concentrating almost entirely on his shoulders and neck. He tries to catch his breath, unable to find the words to speak. Even looking straight at Jade he still doesn't understand.

He can feel the pressure crawling up his body, pressing down against against bruised skin, choking the life from him. Fear, primal and instinctive, crashes through his mind. He cranes his neck, trying to escape from that crushing force, but it only seems to press down upon him more firmly.

His head is starting to spin. Jade forces himself to focus. His arms haven't been restrained - he lifts his wand hand, Conjuring a stream of Fiendfyre in an attempt to startle Professor Rammsteiner.

Heine is still fighting down the instinct to consume it all, to press harder and crush the very life out of the one who'd tried to control him.

But both ways are wrong. Heine is looking at Jade without seeing him, and when the Fiendfyre streaks towards his face he drops all of force he's using to pin Jade against the wall so he can divert the flames around himself.

The pressure around his throat disappears, and Jade sucks in air in a gasping breath. If he didn't know better, he'd almost think Professor Rammsteiner had been trying to kill him.

(Is he?)

The Fiendfyre wreathes Professor Rammsteiner in a circle of snapping flames. Jade doesn't fight Professor Rammsteiner for control over the Fiendfyre. Rather, he takes advantage of the distraction to point his wand at Professor Rammsteiner again.

"Imperio."

The Fiendfyre jumping up and licking at his sleeves can't be warded off by normal spells, but Heine smothers it with a sharp movement of his hand. The cost is that he can't defend against the Imperius Curse.

Weight settles once more into his mind as the last flickers of fire disappear. This time, Heine knows he's supposed to push back, to resist... and he tries. His expression twists and he takes a small step back, halfway raising a hand.

It's not working completely, but it's not failing either. Jade takes a step closer, his neck aching, but not letting the pain distract him.

"I just want to talk," he says, pushing his will onto Professor Rammsteiner. Now that he's not under attack, he's beginning to realize more and more that there's something odd about Professor Rammsteiner's actions. And there was that moment earlier, when Professor Rammsteiner had spoken, where it seemed like there were two people speaking...

Heine looks at Jade. But his gaze is sliding around, never quite focusing. With Jade's additional exertion, his blinks slow in frequency.

"I..." He backs up one more step, going off-balance when he bumps a hip against the bedpost. There's a feeling at the small of his back, half the pain from being fucked (he recognizes what it is now), half a simple pressure, like a hand rubbing at the base of his spine. The sensation spreads up to his shoulderblades and his back straightens.

Things finally slide together, clicking into place. Heine looks at Jade, eyes clear but empty.

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