Greylock walked into the History classroom, and Sofia greeted him with a wave as usual, before she did a double take.

He was wearing a large bow in his hair, clipped to what little ponytail he could make with his hair. Honestly, that would have been quite enough to garner attention in this school, but it was also a terrible bow. It was plaid patterned, with… probably? ..the most present color being a navy blue, with orange, yellow, and green accents in the worst placement possible. On paper, consecutive colors like that ought to be a good palette, but somehow this bow made it look terrible.

Which also made the bow very recognizable, unless someone else had awful impulse control and visited Dunwiddee regularly. Not that everything from the village shops was bad, far from it - the quality was good, hand-made with love rather than with magic… but the things made from ends and pieces were often - interesting and nearly unique was a good way to put it.

She opened her mouth to try to say something, but he just gave her a wink and turned to go to his seat.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Sof," came Shauna's voice from Sofia's other side, "but- Greylock's bow. That's yours, isn't it?"

Sofia had to take a moment to blink at Shauna. "I know you guys pay attention to things, but I've literally never worn that how do you-"

Shauna shrugged and said, "Just observant I guess! So, like… How'd he get it?"

That… was a very good question. "I don't take it anywhere, so he couldn't have gotten it from a bag or-" Sofia put a hand to her lips and leaned heavily against the table as she realized. "She visited the dorm yesterday. Was it yesterday? Maybe the day before? He was even going through my things. I thought he was just teasing, making me uncomfy…"

"Your things," Shauna said, "like, the stuff on your bed and your dresser and coat-hooks?"

"...Where he was right next to his own coat, hanging on my coat hook, yes." Sofia looked towards Greylock again, but he was facing towards the front of the class, mostly. Something about the tilt of his head made her think that if he had prehensile ears, they'd be tilted towards the back of the class, though.

Shauna crossed her arms. "I wonder how this will affect the odds. Like, what does this even count as? Well, gotta tell Mabel anyway. Good luck getting the bow back~ ooh, I should bet on that!" Aaand she was off towards Mabel.

Eventually the professor entered and the class settled down, but even he was taken aback by Greylock for a moment. "Far be it for me to knock unconventional headwear," he said, tipping his own stovepipe hat and earning a giggle from the students, "but you may be wise to be wary around other professors."

Class itself was uneventful, but afterward Sofia managed to catch up with Greylock. "You've made your point, Grey," she said, half laughing, "you can take the bow off now."

Greylock made an exaggerated shocked grimace and said, "Why, I have no idea what you're talking about!"

With a roll of her eyes, Sofia said, "I'll give your coat back. You could have just asked." Though this was admittedly more amusing.

"Whooo said anything about that? I just like bows, and I'm not taking this off." Greylock tossed what little hair he had, threw her a grin and a wink, and walked off.

No tutoring session was scheduled for today, and Sofia was caught up on the rest of her schoolwork so she had free time.

Her classmates thought she was a bit silly for not wanting to spend time outside, but probably would have teased her more (good naturedly, of course! But nonetheless…) had they known she'd gone to spend it with Cedric and Greylock anyway.

"So, hey," she said during a lull in conversation, "the little Escapade last night didn't… go very well. I'm sorry about that." She glanced at Cedric, who sat at his desk and occasionally wrote something down. He only grunted in response, but she was more reaffirming that his eye really did look better… thankfully. "So I was thinking maybe smaller things would work better as dates, and probably no Grey? At least not all three of us at once that was - difficult to coordinate." She looked to Greylock this time, who sat on his bed reading through his lines for the play… still wearing her hair bow.

He nodded, thankfully. "Sounds for the best, I get enough of Grump-tick while holed up in here."

Cedric shot him a look. "It's still Cedric, and that one doesn't make even a modicum of sense."

It was still a bit of a shame that she hadn't been able to determine the specific relationship status between these two on that failed date, at least. Oh well.

"Sooo, I was thinking a tea date! There's not much that could go badly with that, and since you didn't like the cafés tea, we could probably just stay in and I could make you something from scratch." Sofia grinned at Cedric, knowing full well that his back was to her where she sat on his bed.

"Mmm. You could make a terrible tasting tea and cause me to whip something up on the fly." Then Cedric scrunched his mouth to one side and touched the end of his pen to his chin in thought. "Well, even that sounds rather interesting, I suppose. I approve."

Sofia clapped her hands together and said, "Ah-mazing!"

"...Come again?"

With a nervous chuckle, Sofia said, "Oh, ah, that's just- a thing I did when I was little and apparently still do sometimes if I don't think about it. Little-me's catch phrase, I guess?" She shrugged, then realized Cedric couldn't see. "I dunno, sorry. I'll just - let you finish your homework and bother Grey a bit, how's that sound?"

Cedric's smile was sincere, even as he said, "Yes, please bother the ever-living daylights out of him."

So Sofia walked to the other side of the room - not that she especially needed to, Greylock could clearly hear her from where she'd been, but it was the principal of the thing! And anyhow, it gave her something to talk about. Rather than asking to work on lines with Grey that would end up bothering Cedric more rather than less, she picked up a box that sat on Greylock's dresser. "Ooh, a present?" she asked, looking at the plain brown paper and twine covering the box. "What's it for, I didn't think your birthday was coming up, is it?"

"Nah, it's in July. Why do y-" Grey looked up from his pages and stopped himself short before lunging forward and taking the box from Sofia's hands a bit more roughly than she'd have expected, and placed it back on his dresser.

There was a pregnant pause as Sofia looked to Greylock for any explanation, and he offered nothing but a slowly growing grin. When he did eventually speak, he pointed out the window and said, "Look, a distraction!"

Unable to hold back a laugh, Sofia had to take a moment before asking, "What?"

From his desk, Cedric said, "It's probably just another of his rainbow of rubber ducks. I don't know why he gets as self-conscious as that over them."

"Why didn't you just say so, Grey!" Sofia said. "I wouldn't make fun of that! Though I'm a little surprised you'd care about something like that."

Greylock laughed and shrugged, but didn't say anything, which seemed a bit odd.

Cedric sighed. "You may as well drop it, Sofia. He's very protective of his fancy - what was the company's name again?"

"That's not very relevant, is it?" Greylock glanced at Cedric and continued, "But yes, I don't-"

"I know!" Cedric cut off, "Amoral Wyvern, that was it. I still don't understand why a business selling ducks would name themself after a dragon, though I suppose if you were to classify a cockatrice it would be a wyvern, and a chicken is approximately a duck, in some respects…" Cedric trailed off and went back to his work.

Sofia was more interested in the first half of his sentence. She leaned in close to Greylock and whispered, "That's not a duck, is it."

With a sigh, Greylock sat on his bed and said softly, "So you're aware of the reputation."

Sofia sat down next to Grey, closer than she normally would, but this topic called for more discretion than usual. On the other hand, that was stranger than usual too, given what she now… knew about Greylock.

"So, are you going to tell him?" Greylock didn't avert his gaze, but the way he crossed his arms and his slight blush made it clear that he was actually embarrassed. Imagine that, Grey, embarrassed.

May as well use that, rare as it was. Sofia raised an eyebrow and gave a sly smile, and said, "That depends. What's in it for me?"

Greylock's eyes widened. "Um, I don't-" They were even starting to get a bit shiny.

"Sorry, it was a joke, a bad one I guess. You're fine. I didn't mean to make you upset." Even if it was a bit vindicating getting some of her own back, it would have been a lot funnier if he was not Legitimately Upset.

A few blinked away Greylock's threatened teariness, and he said, "I am sorry you had to learn this about me, at any rate."

Sofia was surprised that her first reaction to that statement was that she wasn't. That wasn't terribly appropriate to say, though, for so many reasons. After what was probably too long of a pause, she said, "It's fine."

Startling both out of their whispered conversation, Cedric said rather loudly, "Now what are the two of you conspiring about?"

"Nothing!" came both voices simultaneously.

This caused Cedric to actually look up from his paper and turn their direction, squinting at them. "Silence from you two is nearly as suspicious as it is from it is from a toddler…" He snorted and went back to his page.

Suspicious as it might be for Greylock and Sofia to be quiet, them being loud wasn't particularly helpful either. They could go up to the tower to practice their lines, or get into whatever other mischief they'd like, as long as it wasn't here.

Now that they were gone, Cedric felt he might be able to make some progress… any progress, really… on his Dark Arts and Wicked Wizardry homework. An essay on the rise and fall of the wizard Grindelwald, largely.

And by 'largely,' Cedric at least partially meant that he didn't understand what else the assignment was asking. Was the point here to understand where the man went wrong? Was it asking what kinds of magic he employed, or a personal history, or the fact that said personal history seemed to Cedric to heavily imply that the man was gay or at least bi? That much wasn't overt, but the way his letters to Albus - well, it seemed more than just friendly. Was this supposed to be some sort of condemnation of that? Or was that even a thing back when these two had lived, this homophobia? Of course, that didn't really affect modern interpretation of these facts.

What was the conclusion he was supposed to be drawing from this? Why were they learning about this, anyway? Last year's DAWW had focused largely on defense against the titular magic, teaching just enough to be useful in a pinch.

Cedric sat for several minutes in the silence, writing and scratching out words at no faster a rate than he'd been doing while Greylock and Sofia were at least keeping him company. Frustrated, he suddenly stood up from his chair and kicked the desk, stubbing his toe for his efforts.

He paced the room. The class was DAWW, so probably just focus on the actual magic. Maybe a bit about how suspicious the man himself was, even before he Changed or what-have-you.

Speaking - or rather, thinking, whatever - of suspicious, what in the world could Greylock and Sofia even have been talking about?

Wormwood wasn't even summoned and tangible, but Cedric could easily imagine what he'd suggest. They're planning something. Greylock's suspicious of you, after last night in the greenhouse. He's assumed the worst - which you know is accurate. They're just waiting for you to be out of the picture.

No, no, that wasn't reasonable. They like… The two of them like surprises. They like escapades, gallivants, like last night. That wasn't very fun, but that was bad coincidence, nothing more.

Was it?

Of course it was! It had to be. Right? ...Sofia had been awfully silent last night, for having been the one to suggest the outing in the first place. What was she playing at?

No, it was just bad happenstance. They liked him, for whatever reason. Sofia even adjusted her date ideas to fit him better, when things like last night happened and it wasn't fun for him. Well, it wasn't fun for anyone, but she changed her behavior to make sure he was comfortable. Usually. Right? Or had he imagined that?

Either way, tea would be nice. In the draughty tower or here, or even if she did end up just taking him to the cafe and having earl grey steeped either too long or not long enough.

An image popped unbidden into his head. Sofia and Cedric sat at a table in his father's Royal Sorcerer workshop, though it was redecorated to suit Cedric's tastes. An older Sofia was half-smiling at an older Cedric, whose teacup was half empty and whose throat was closing up.

Cedric hit the wall in frustration. That was Wormwood's idea, not his. Of course, the familiar was just a part of his own essence given physical form… but that was beside the point. "Familiarus Comhericus!" A poof of green smoke, and the offending harbinger of doom appeared. Cedric opened the window, pointed, and said, "Go! Go out there and bother someone else, I need to work."

The bird tilted his head and Cedric thought he raised an incredulous eyebrow, though of course that wasn't possible. Wormwood wasn't really an animal, but birds don't have eyebrows to raise. At any rate, he hopped to the window and flew out.

With a sigh, Cedric flopped back into his desk chair. He opened a drawer on one side of it and stuck his hand in, fishing about blindly for a moment or so before he remembered that, right, his journal was still gone.

He really needed to get a new one, he could really use it right now. Cedric wasn't sure if he wanted to pointlessly doodle or get out his thoughts onto paper so they'd leave him alone for a little bit, or maybe just make another tea recipe for disaster.

But getting another one would be admitting that the first one wasn't coming back, would be admitting that the best case scenario was that it was destroyed.

That there was a decent chance that someone had found the blighted thing, had seen what was inside it. He didn't even know what that entailed - the book was a few years old at this point. There was definitely compromising material in it, but what exactly? The tea recipes were probably the most vile meaning, but given his mislabeling encryption ought not to be incriminating, at least. But what else? He'd definitely used it to blood-let his emotions a few times, but Merlin only knows what those situations were.

He didn't label it with his name, so at least it wouldn't be obvious that it was his… probably. Anyone who knew him would likely recognize it if they read - though obviously it wasn't Greylock or Sofia who found it, if anyone had. They'd have given it back.

Right? ...Could this have been what they were conspiring about?

...No, that was unlikely. They'd give it back, no muss no fuss, and be sorry about what they'd read or whatever.

If, on the other hand, Sascha found it…

...she'd have already used it, honestly. So it was probably fine.

Unless she was biding her time until opportunity arose to make it hurt the most.

For the rest of the evening, Cedric couldn't banish these thoughts, these things he knew were nothing but paranoia, but couldn't stop thinking regardless. What if what if what if what if.

He hadn't made any more progress on his paper by the time Greylock returned for the evening.