Room 308, Thursday evening

[smartestone]

Hermione was writing. A lot. Several pages in her notebook had been covered in her own handwriting, and years of writing superfluous reports far longer than they would have ever needed to be in any universe meant that her wrist wasn't even tired. If anyone asked, she wouldn't tell.

Crookshanks and Wadsworth were fed, she'd already checked her voicemail, and she was fully prepared in case anyone's hand was bleeding.

[Open!]

Comments

[smartestone]

"She's getting desperate," said Hermione, shaking her head vigorously. "We can't react that way back to her. It would only make things more out of hand."

[the_merriest]

Rikku nodded. "Yeah. And ... and then I'd be just as bad as her, you know? I mean ... you know what I mean."

She took a deep breath. "Is that ... a good sign, at least? That she's desperate? I mean, does that mean she's losing control and whatever we're doing is working, or does that mean she's gonna snap and start just ... raging?"

[smartestone]

"I'm not sure," she frowned. "Both, maybe. What happened to her office could have been much worse, really. It might mean she'll slip up soon, but I just hope she doesn't completely lose it in the process."

[the_merriest]

"Yeah," Rikku said in a low voice. "That'd be bad all the way around. So ... so what do we do? I mean, how do we get her to leave without her ... I don't know. Snapping. Hurting anybody."

[smartestone]

"I'm hoping she'll listen to reason," she said. "I'm fully expecting to be called down sometime, and I've been doing plenty of research. Or we may just have to pad her office."

[the_merriest]

Rikku raised an eyebrow. "You, uh, you really think you're gonna ... talk to her, and she'll go, 'oh, right, I'm crazy and evil, my bad' and just pack up and leave?"

[smartestone]

"Oh, no. But I've spent the last few weeks looking up all of the American laws she's breaking."

[the_merriest]

Rikku burst out laughing. "Oh, that is awesome! Do you think it's gonna work? Ooooh! There's a cop-guy in town! And I might have gotten one of my teachers arrested but he totally deserved it 'cause ew, what a perv."

[smartestone]

"You... what?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku giggled. "You know those guys who hang out outside the convenience store? They're kinda supposed to be teachers except one of them keeps saying rude stuff to the girls so, you know, when that cop-guy dropped by, I totally told him that." She sighed happily. "Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little? But still."

[smartestone]

"Oh, them!" Hermione said. "I'm surprised they've never been charged with anything, actually. It wasn't too big an exaggeration, was it?"

[the_merriest]

Rikku burst out giggling. "No, he, uh, he always makes rude comments about the girls anyway? I just changed it into really bad pick-up lines and pretended I didn't get them. And like I was traumatized?"

She cleared her throat and looked tearful. "Officer, I don't understand. How can he give me rides? He doesn't even have a mustache."