For A While

Marcus traveled back to Hogwarts from St. Mungos. His day was pretty busy and interesting. Well, for one thing, there had been a murder. Athena Goyle had murdered her stepmother in a duel that took place in the hallways of St. Mungos shortly after Gregory Goyle's death. After he entered the castle, he made his way to the Headmistress' tower. He muttered the password to the statue and it admitted him up the staircase and into Amelia's office. "Hello, headmistress," AMarcus said with a bit of charm in his voice, knowing that she knew that he always calls her Amelia.

"There's been an incident. Not long ago, Athena Goyle in Slytherin murdered her stepmother shortly after her father's death. The duel took place in the hallways of St. Mungos. Khaat and Brian witnessed it but failed to stop the duel before the casualty occured." Marcus was completely out of breth. After he caught his breath, he continued talking. "So Athena won't be attending classes, or school for that matter until further notice. I'm starting an investigation on the murder. If I can have your help with it, I would deeply appreciate it."

Amelia was in her office, one hand supporting her head, which rested heavily after a long day. In her other hand, she was holding a quill, posed over a letter to the Minister of Magic, with whom she never thought she would have direct correspondence, and if she did, she certainly didn’t think it would be at the age of 19. She was reading and re-reading sections of the letter, hoping she was coming across as mature and responsible. The young redhead had always thought herself to be those things before she became headmistress, but since taking on this huge new responsibility, she was beginning to realize just how young and immature she really was.

She had been sitting so long alone in the silence of her office that she jumped visibly in her seat when the charm went off to notify her that someone was approaching her office, and she had only a few seconds to pull her cardigan tighter around her shoulders before Marcus walked in, greeting her far too formally for their relationship. Although Amelia would not describe the two of them as being particularly close, they had worked together last semester, and she identified with him slightly because of their shared age bracket. She had asked the rest of the staff to please not address her as headmistress – it still felt foreign – but as Marcus proved, they weren’t giving in to her that easily.

“Hello, Professor Dakota,” Amelia responded with a hint of humorous ire in her voice. She knew he was intentionally calling her by her more professional title, and she wasn’t unwilling to do the same to him, “What brings you here tonight?”

Marcus wasted no time answering her question, and true to his ministry-appointed form, he got straight to the details. This was something Amelia liked about Marcus; he didn’t dally around or try to sugar-coat anything. His news could definitely have been better – a student of Hogwarts performed a murder, unquestionable because of the witnesses. Amelia’s eyes grew wide as she took in all that Marcus said, taking a deep breath to try to steady herself as her mind began to whirr with the information.

Athena… only a year younger than you, you know. Something must have pushed her over the edge to lead her to kill her mother. Making yourself an orphan at 17 is no laughing matter.

Amelia felt particularly unsettled by the fact that Athena had killed one of her parents, even if she was a step-parent; although Amelia struggled at times to find common ground with her own parents, she knew she would never kill them. She couldn’t. They had, at times, made her life very difficult, but they were also responsible for much of her success.

But now was not the time to be focusing on her own home life. At least parts of this job were easier for Amelia, given her personality trait of getting down to brass tacks. The mandatory social components, however… not so much.

“I am disturbed to hear this, but I am glad to be aware of the situation. Thank you for coming to me,” Amelia said, keeping her eyes level with Marcus’ as she pushed her unfinished letter aside and pulled out a new piece of parchment from the drawer in her desk. Her head was pounding with tiredness and sinus pressure, but so was everyone else’s; Amelia just kept telling herself it would pass, and she pushed through the illness like she was asking her students to do.

“Of course you can count on my support in arena in which you may need it. Straight away, her Head of House will need to be informed, and if you believe it will help your investigation, we can have some of her peers brought in to give witness to her behavior in the recent weeks. But I concede to whatever you feel would be the best course of action,” Amelia said with an incline of her head, both because it was practical to let a professional handle this situation, and also because she didn’t think she could take the lead on one more thing right now. She was in over her head already.

(((its her stepmother that she killed. her mother is already dead. ill reply soon. )))

(Psst. But technically it's her mother. The Wizzing World don't know otherwise it would be common knowledge that Athena isn't legitimately Goyle's. They have no idea about her biological mother, bar a certain few.)