Please help (lochlan and Ptolemy)

Alayna ran up the path to the castle from Hogsmeade with Ptolemy still in her hands. She had ditched her heels after almost falling three times. She would just buy another pair. She ran through the castle to Professor Riddle's office and burst through the door, "Professor Riddle! Please help!" She held up Ptolemy's rat form with tears in her eyes, "He's a rat! That fucking rat turned him into a rat!"

@Lochlan Riddle

Lochlan was marking some papers while most of the students were at Hogsmeade. He was just pouring out a nice glass of wine when Alayna Nott barged in through the door, and the impact caused him to drop the entire bottle on the floor. It smashed into several pieces.

"What are you blathering about, Alayna?" he sighed, irritated as he used to spell to clean up the wine. "Just take a seat and calm down. Tell me what's happened - in English."

@Alayna Nott

Alayna was now crying. She had tears rolling down her cheeks. She sat down and took a few deep breaths, "Ptolemy and I were having a date in Hogsmeade and I guess Chang saw us and got jealous and he turned Ptolemy into a rat." She looked down at the furry creature and sniffled, "Can you please change him back? Please?"

@Lochlan Riddle

He sighed when she turned on the water works. Was that really necessary?

"I see."

He pointed his wand at the rat inside of her lap, and where it was - Ptolemy Rowle now sat - with his arms around her neck and twitching his nose. He stood up, stumbled backwards, and fell onto the carpet with a soft bonk. Riddle pocketed his wand.

"So it was Chang who did this? Lien Chang?" He observed Alayna as he sat behind his desk, watching Rowle scramble to his feet and look around in bewilderment. "That's quite an impressive bit of transfiguration..." he reflected thoughtfully, stroking his beard.

@Alayna Nott

After he got to his feet, he looked from Alayna to Professor Riddle and tried to fill the blank spot in his mind. He had been running over Hogsmeade after kissing Alayna... but everything was rather blurry.

"Why am I here?" he questioned, his eyes switching from wall to wall.

@Alayna Nott

Alayna was relieved when Ptolemy was back to his human self. She rushed to him and threw her arms around his neck. She just wanted to hold him. She didn't know he had that much of an  effect on her. Sure, he was her best friend for a long time and now they had the relationship they did. She had been terrified when it first happened, her heart hurt when she thought she wouldn't be able to get him back from Lien. When Professor Riddle asked if it was Lien who had done it, she nodded, "Yes sir. He's the one who was holding Ptolemy. I told him to change him back and he refused. I had to use a full body bind on him to get Ptolemy back. I released it once I had him. But yeah... It was him. I know it for a fact." She looked at Tolly and sighed, "Chang happened. I had to bring you here so professor Riddle could fix you. He turned you inot a bloody rat!"

@Lochlan Riddle

"All right. If that is what happened, I shall go to find Chang. You two remain here. Collect yourselves, calm down, help yourself to water."

The wine bottle was quite obviously there, uncorked. He gave Alayna a hard stare, as if to warn her not to touch it. When he was satisfied that they would remain there while he headed for the Ravenclaw common room, he exited the office.

@Alayna Nott

It took a while for everything to fall into place, but after a few moments of taking it all in, he finally understood. Yes - that was right. He remembered standing there, and then suddenly being very close to the ground. There was a blissful simplicity to his brain, and all he was worried about was escaping humans - the predators. It was a surreal experience. He hadn't been turned into an animal before. Even as a metamorphmagus, used to changing forms and features, being a rat certainly was very different to that...

"Did you see him do it? Did he just stand out in the middle of the street, in front of everyone?"

He could hardly believe the audacity. Chang really had gone mad.

@Alayna Nott

Alayna looked at Professor Riddle as he left to go get Chang. When Ptolemy asked if she had seen him do it, she frowned, "Well no. But I know it was him. He was holding you when I confronted him. They can check his wand for previous spells cast. They'll find it there." She took another deep breath to try and maintain her composure, "I'm just glad you're ok. I was so scared." She said looking up at him.

@Lochlan Riddle  @Ptolemy Rowle

"Oh it definitely was him. We'd already spotted him lurking there, watching us. I just thought he might have been mad enough to make a show of it."

Alayna really did look shaken by the whole ordeal, and it really was very sweet of her. He hadn't sustained any injury, though. Perhaps he could have, and he wasn't sure if the transfiguration would have been permanent. This was probably good for them anyway, having Chang suffer for his own misery. There was something very satisfying about that.

"I'm fine, my darling. Thank you for getting me back here," he said, putting his arms around her and placing a kiss on the top of her head. "Seeing as we missed out on having a good lunch, perhaps we could see that the elves cook you whatever you like and we could have a picnic by the lake instead. How does that sound?" He held her close.

@Alayna Nott

Alayna closed her eyes as he kissed the top of her head and started laughing while crying at the same time, "You got attacked and forced to be a rat and your concerned with the fact I haven't eaten yet." She wiped away her tears and kissed him firmly on the lips, "That sounds amazing." She lied her head don his chest and just listened to his heart beat, "I love you." She whispered softly, not knowing if he really heard and not really caring. It was more for her. Acceptance and admittance that she really did love Ptolemy.

@Ptolemy Rowle

He didn't really think much of being concerned for her, that was only natural to him. As she leant up against his chest, he let out a small sigh.

"You silly girl..." The tears had to stop. He was perfectly safe. Although he was touched by her concern.

When she had whispered what she had, Ptolemy embraced her closely. "It's always been you, Alayna. You are the girl who is most important to me, no matter if you were with somebody else. So you should know that I adore you, and always will."

This moment was really quite special, precious, and as he opened his mouth to say that he loved her, the door opened. Lien was staring back at them coldly. Riddle was stood behind him. Ptolemy lowered his brow to a frown.

@Alayna Nott

Alayna looked up at him as he spoke and felt more tears fill her eyes. Why's as she so damn emotional)? Was it because she loved him? It had to be. It made sense. She liked the idea of being the most important girl to him. It made her smile. She knew he loved it when she smiled, "I think it's always been you too. Being with Chang didn't feel right. Kissing James didn't feel right. But every single thing I do with you feels right." When the door opened, she turned and stood in front of Ptolemy defensively, not taking her eyes off of Lien.

@Ptolemy Rowle

"Everyone take a seat - you two over there. Chang, over here."

He indicated where everyone should sit and turned to his desk himself, sitting behind it.

"Mr Chang - Alayna here is saying that you used transfiguration against Rowle while you were all visiting Hogsmeade, that you had turned him into a rat. Having just undone the magic myself, I can say that it appears as though this is the case. So. What do you have to say for yourself?"

He looked at Chang sternly, awaiting his answer.

Having already released a lot of his frustration prior to this moment, Lien was feeling relatively calm. He was no longer paying any attention to Alayna and Rowle. However, there was a flash of amusement that crossed his face when Riddle had said 'turned him into a rat'. It was just funny hearing him say it.

But he looked at the Professor straight in the eye and said: "I didn't do it, sir."

@Alayna Nott

Alayna hesitates before going to the seat that she was told to take. She held onto Ptolemys hand as Professor Riddle spoke. There was no way Chang was going to get away with this. But then he denied it. Alayna jumped up from her seat and pointed an accusatory finger at Lien, "He's lying! Check his wand! Have him use veritaserum. It was him! Professor Riddle, I swear. It was him!"

@Lochlan Riddle

He was surprised that Chang denied it. There was, perhaps, some respect he had for him there. He was able to lie so confidently, almost arrogantly, and was capable of advanced transfiguration. It was funny. He'd never really considered Chang as an exemplary student.

"Sit down..." he groaned at Alayna, who had hopped up and was pointing fingers. "The use of veritaserum is prohibited against students, and the priori incantatem spell isn't normally used in these circumstances." At this point, Riddle wanted it to be Chang who was responsible. "So what is your version of things?" he asked Lien.

"I admit that I had seen Alayna and Rowle together, but I had just come from the apothecary at that moment. I had purchased a rat as I prefer to do extractions myself. I do not trust apothecaries to inhume the animals humanely, so I researched on now to do it myself. Alayna had approached me as I held my rat, then I told her it was my pet and put it in its box with food. She accused me of this transfiguration you are accusing me of now, and then when I refused to hand over the rat to her, she hit me with the body binding curse. My rat got away, no thanks to her. Then another rat appeared and started sniffing around her feet, so that really has to be Ptolemy, doesn't it?"

Lien smirked.

"I left without saying anything more, as she had told me not to. I simply wished to return to the castle after that happened."

He blinked.

"The fact that I had a new pet rat and Ptolemy was turned into a rat is a complete coincidence. "

@Alayna Nott

Alayna reluctantly sat down and just glared at Lien. How dare he just sit there and deny everything? He did it so smoothly too. Where the hell did he learn to do that? He had been such a nervous bumbling mess when they had been together? Now he was confident, even borderline cocky. She bit at her bottom lip to keep herself from shouting at him more. She tasted blood. She took a. Shaky breath as she tried to remain silent but it was getting hard, "The only rat in here is you, Chang. If you thought this would get me back or impress me you're mistaken."

@Lien Chang

"Very well. Hand over your wand and we will perform the spell."

Lochlan held out his hand for Lien to present his wand to. Alayna was saying something - he wasn't listening. Nor, apparently, was Chang. He just kept very quiet, waiting patiently for the spell to begin.

"Priori Incantatem." The spells manifested themselves before their eyes, but there was nothing in there that was a human transfiguration spell. In fact, most of the spells were cooking related. Riddle looked at him.

"I see," he said.

He still kept very quiet, watching the spells come out from the wand. Atticus really did have an obsession with cooking and cleaning. Perhaps he shouldn't leave his wand in his top drawer of his bedside table, though.

@Alayna Nott

Alayna looked closer at the wand in Riddle's hands and it clicked. That wasn't Liens wand. She knew that wand. She looked at Lien and scoffed, "You're unbelievable. Do you think I won't know my own twins wand? We got them at the same time. I know it's attis because it's got a knock at the base where he dropped it down the stairs second year."

@Lochlan Riddle @Lien Chang

"Yes, it is his wand. I've been using it for the entire day, as mine is currently at Dervish and Banges."

He wasn't looking at Alayna when he said it, he was looking at Professor Riddle.

@Alayna Nott

Alaynas leg began to bounce as the anger rolled through her body. God she wanted to throttle him. Hex him. Hurt him. She tried to breath. In, out. In, out. She stood and quickly spun around, walking away from Lien and just pacing a bit, "I apologize professor. But if I have to sit still while he blatantly lies, I'm going to either punch him or hex him. I need to be moving." She said as she placed back and forth. She looked at Ptolemy, a fierce look of protection on her face.

@Lochlan Riddle

"It's all right, Alayna. I think I've heard enough from both sides now. You and Mr Rowle may go."

There was no need for Alayna and Ptolemy to be there now. Lochlan already knew that Lien had done it, and it would just take a little while longer for him to get the truth out. Alayna wasn't helping. Chang seemed to be thriving from her anger, which didn't help.

"I shall send you a message through your crystal when I have reached an conclusion to this. Off you go, now."

He stood up, indicating that he was going to start wafting them away if they didn't leave on their own. Lien looked rather bemused, then he looked at his feet.