"Why," Greylock half-sobbed in Sofia's general direction as Twilight pulled Pinkie off of him.

Professor Higgins' voice came from offstage, calling out, "What the devil - who had the brilliant idea to try a partial polymorphic charm in the middle of line reading?" He walked on stage and huffed, surveying the scene. Greylock was still on the floor, where he'd landed when Pinkie had fallen on top of him; Twilight had finished helping Pinkie up, and held her steady on her shiny new goat legs. "Stage hands, stay to clean up. Everyone else, leave. And Miss Pi, do be sure to remove that charm before you're out. Don't come back with it on until you've got your legs under you properly."

Finally, Sofia managed to come back to reality, and rushed over to help Greylock up. He didn't really need her help from a physical standpoint, but his blushing grimacing face belied his otherwise calm demeanor.

"Any other lad in school," he finally managed to say, "and probably a few girls would have loved to…" Greylock waved a hand dismissively towards the stage as they walked off it, towards their bags. "Why did Pinkie have to fall chest first into meeee…" Sofia patted Greylock on the back, not sure what else to do… or how serious his complaints were.

All the way back to Goodwyn House, Grey continued to whine. Not as much, and definitely drawing it out a bit longer than really necessary at this point.

"You know, it's almost a shame I didn't get the leading lady's part," Sofia said at one point, "at least I'm not as busty as she is."

Greylock crossed his arms and pouted, well, theatrically. "Oh yes, then I could be only half as traumatized. That's how that works, isn't it?"

It didn't take them too much longer to get to Grey's and Cedric's room, and they immediately set to getting the room ready for Sofia's and Cedric's tea date that evening. They moved Greylock's desk to the center of the room and covered it with a sheet as a makeshift tablecloth. Greylock cast a fireproof ward on the lot as Sofia looked at her list of herbs - a modified amalgam of several of the tea recipes Cedric had written in his journal.

She'd spent several days preparing this, trying to strike that balance between something he was likely to actually enjoy and something she could call her own blend - not to mention plausible deniability. Granted, only some of the ingredients were things Sofia had been able to find in the greenhouse, so this was the first time she'd actually be trying the tea herself, assuming - ah, good! The single ingredient in every one of Cedric's tea recipes was something called 'Emerald Dreamroot,' which Sofia hadn't heard of, but Cedric had a jar of it in his cabinet, sure enough, as well as Oleaster and dried Black Manaberries, which she was at least passingly aware of. They also smelled more strongly bitter than she was expecting, which was kind of odd. At any rate, they both appeared often enough through the different blends that she'd added them to the list, so into their cups the herbs went.

Greylock both conjured the fire for the kettle to sit on and the water to fill it, which was a bit embarrassing, but they both agreed that her control was - well, it was so much better than it used to be, at least, but mishaps here would be more trouble to deal with than it was worth. Finally, though, it was ready. "I'll go fetch Cedric from his tower, then. When you two are done canoodling and you're heading back to Crage, tell me. I'll be in the common room. Enjoy~!" He grabbed his bookbag and was gone before Sofia had a chance to protest his word choice, though she hadn't especially planned on it anyway.

Sofia lit two candles from the flame that warmed the kettle, turned the overhead lights low, and sat to wait. Not for very long, thankfully. "Hey, uh-" She started to greet him, but stopped - were pet names appropriate at this point? ...Probably not. "Hi, Cedric. I hope you like it?"

Cedric's gaze swept across the display before him, and he said, "This will take a while to clear away," but his smile and soft tone gave away his… Was it pleasure? At least he wasn't displeased, anyway.

That was still a valid point, though. "Don't worry," she said brightly as he sat down across from her, "I'll take care of it."

Cedric raised an eyebrow. "Really? These desks are quite unwieldy."

"Eh," Sofia said, and shrugged. "I mean I'm not like a farmhand or anything, but doing most of the chores around my mom's house, not to mention helping her with work - I'm not exactly a shrinking violet." For emphasis, she put up one of her arms and flexed.

Cedric's other eyebrow joined its raised partner, and Sofia could feel herself blush a bit. Before he could say anything, though, the kettle began to whistle, prompting Sofia to pour the boiling water over the dried herbs and berries in their cups, and earning a 'thank you,' from Cedric in the process.

Which seemed a bit odd, but perhaps it was the date setting, or that Having Tea is a Super Classy Aristocratic Activity, or whatever. Anyway, Sofia wasn't complaining; she smiled and did a quick bob of a curtsy in response.

"Impressive technique on the fire charm," Cedric said, "and an extra layer of fire-proofing it feels like?" He poked at the edge of the desk experimentally.

With a nervous chuckle, Sofia answered, "Weeell, Greylock did both of those, actually. I'm better at control these days but - wouldn't want to burn down the dorm by accident, right?"

Rolling his eyes, Cedric mumbled, "That might not have been so bad…"

"What?"

Cedric blinked and didn't react for a moment, before suddenly sitting more upright in his chair. "Joke! That was simply, ah, nothing more than a poor jest on my part, I apologize." He laughed weakly before continuing, "And anyhow, the native wards on the building should be strong enough to stand up to anything a student could produce, even with your-" Cedric's eyes flicked down for a moment towards her chest, "enhancement."

Sofia let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "I… see. It's sometimes hard to tell when you're joking, which is fine! But you've always got that same tone of voice." She picked up her spoon and stirred her tea - not quite steeped yet it looked like, though there was the possibility she hadn't put enough herbs in for it to steep any darker than this. "But, um, that's good to know!"

Cedric nodded and took Sofia's lead, beginning to stir his own tea. "Patience is a virtue, as is caution. It was likely wise, going about it all as you did, and I applaud you for it. I don't tend to be cautious enough, and that-" He grimaced. "I didn't intend- well, yes, caution is well advised." Cedric looked down into his tea, and stirred a bit more.

Sofia put her spoon to the side and instead wrapped her hands around her mug, soaking up the warmth, but couldn't think of how to respond to Cedric's halting speech. What had happened to the easy chemistry they used to have?

Cedric continued staring at and stirring his own tea, clearly contemplative. She hoped she did his style of blending justice, given that she didn't have the opportunity to experiment with the actual results at all before tonight. She lifted her mug to her lips and inhaled, and… had to fight the urge to cough. It smelled less than pleasant, unfortunately. Too bitter, with a twinge of something slightly nauseating, enough to cause a tickle in her throat.

Sofia forced a smile to her face as she put it down, slowly, intent on hiding her disappointment and distaste. She'd never been a fan of tea, especially without honey, but she hadn't thought to bring any from one of the mealtimes. But Cedric loved his tea… What was the phrase? 'Bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword,' that was it. She could power through an unpleasant taste if it meant connecting deeper with Cedric. And who knew? Maybe, once she got over the initial reaction, she'd come to like it herself.

"Well," Cedric said suddenly, "It's been, what, four, five minutes? It ought to be ready." Sofia nodded at him, who didn't bother to nod back, just went directly to drink his tea.

Sofia was too distracted to drink her tea immediately. Instead, she asked, "How do you like it?"

Cedric drank, swallowed, and stirred his tea, though he seemed to grimace a bit. Beaver dams. "Delightful," he said, somewhat strained, clearly not used to lying like this. He stirred his tea and took another drink, at which point Sofia finally remembered she had her own tea to drink, that this wasn't about watching him try to enjoy her apparently badly-mixed tea.

There was a slight sloshing noise, and Sofia looked back to Cedric to see him spitting his tea back into his cup. "Sofia. What the devil are you playing at." Heh, that was an odd curse for Cedric to use, one that while magical was actually considered a curse around non-magical folks, that would have caused her mom to chide the speaker, saying 'Language!' On the other hand, hadn't Professor Higgins just used the same not an hour ago?

Silly, how her mind would wander. "Oh, c'mon, it can't be that bad," she said with an altogether too self-conscious chuckle, too aware that she'd messed up. Still, time to do or die - despite the impending foul taste, she grinned at him and lifted her mug to her lips.

Before she could drink, Cedric had snatched the cup away from her. He sniffed it, for some reason, like it would be any different than his own. With a grimace, he lifted it to his own lips, and spit the sip back into the cup. He didn't return the cup to her side of the table when he set it down, he only asked, "S- Sofia, are you... all right? Do you need to talk? I'm frankly the worst at, at all that but I- this isn't-"

Sofia sighed. "All right, I get it. The tea is bad. I'd expect something this dramatic from Greylock, maybe, but isn't this a bit much?"

Cedric blinked. "If you're not- then why-" His breathing was laboured, now. Sofia hadn't noticed given he just sometimes had trouble breathing for No Particular Reason it seemed, but this was a bit much. And given the stilted talking, the breathing, and the fact that now he was just leaning his face on one hand, staring blankly at the desk…

"Are- are you all right?" Sofia asked. "Are you running a fever? I suppose if you're already hot, tea wouldn't really be the best idea…"

A rather unattractive snort came from Cedric. "No, I'm not, but a fever isn't the issue here. If you could tell me what, exactly, you put in our tea, I'd be much obliged."

"I can do you one better, I have the list here. Not sure what that has to do with anything, though?" She dug out the paper she'd written the ingredients on and placed it on the desk. "Do you need me to fetch one of the nurses? I can get a cold compress or - well, if it's not fever, whatever else you need."

Cedric took the list, and looked at it. "This is clearly not what-" and then cut himself off, as his eyes widened. "Emerald- Did you, by any chance…" He paused, and looked up at her, teary-eyed, shaking, and clearly not all right. "Did you use the herbs from my collection?"

That wasn't what Sofia was expecting. She blinked, then shrugged, saying, "I had a few of my own from the garden, but the tea guide I found had some weird ingredients, and I saw that you had them, so- yeah. I'm sorry, I'll replace them-"

"Out." Cedric pointed to the door.

"What?"

"I need time. Get out of- where did you even get this list of herbs? Dreamroot in tea, that doesn't even-" Cedric blinked, and waved a hand in the air, frantically but pointlessly. "Beside the point, there isn't time for that. Please leave."

Sofia moved towards the door, though slowly. "All right. I'll - I'll be in the common room if you need me."

The fireplace in the common room was starting to die down, as it was getting late, but it still gave off plenty of light and warmth, keeping away the bitter cold of the early December night. Goodwyn House students largely kept themselves to themselves, even when they chose to work in communal area. So long as it wasn't with the riff-raff, Greylock supposed was the sentiment. At any rate, no one took issue with him pacing about, reading lines to himself by the fire.

When Sofia approached him from behind and lightly touched his shoulder, he visibly jumped. A glance at his watch, then, "What, so soon?"

She shrugged, but looked off to one side as she said, "Yeah, he didn't like my tea I guess!" She tried to laugh it off, but Greylock didn't buy it.

Greylock put his script aside and said, "I'm sure he appreciated the effort, nonetheless," ushering Sofia to one of the comfy chairs about the room.

"I don't know?" Her mouth scrunched into a sideways frown. "He was acting really upset, like weirdly so? And I mean, it was definitely the tea that set him off. We were fine, talking, a bit of comfortable silence."

Sofia paused, and Greylock had to prompt, "Yes, that sounds fine, but…?"

"But then he tried the tea and he's suddenly acting weird - kinda like he was sick? - and shooing me out of the room. I'd say maybe he was upset that I used some of his herbs, but he didn't even ask about that until he'd already started shooing." She shrugged again. "On that note though, maybe don't go back yet. I know that was the point of me telling you when I was out, but he said he needed some alone time."

"Hmm." That sounded… moderately alarming, honestly. Maybe-

"Also, I said I'd stay here for a bit if he needed me, but I hadn't thought about the fact that you're the only other student I know in here, and I don't know if I'm allowed to be here right now but without you here I wouldn't even have a good excuse, so there's that."

Greylock nodded. "Good thoughts. As for Cedric, do you know if he had a more stressful day than usual, or… something?"

Shaking her head no, Sofia said, "No idea, actually… I don't think I saw him at all before the date, actually. Was he acting weird when you got him from his tower, then?"

Not particularly, to be honest, but… "He wasn't full of vim and vigor, but no, he wasn't shooing me away, or the like."

"Maybe… maybe the bad tea was just the straw that broke the camel's back, though?"

Greylock found himself nodding again. "That sounds plausible." A bad day, able to keep it in for a while but a minor thing not turning out as hoped sending him into snippy territory. "...On the other hand," he said after a moment, "you said he was acting sick?"

Yet another shrug from Sofia - that was about the third one, wasn't it? "I guess? Like, weird breathing, leaning his head in his hand like when you've got a headache… Maybe his other hand was shaking?"

...Anxiety reaction, on top of everything else- "Cedric is probably quite all right," he said to reassure himself as much as Sofia, "but I think we'd better ought to check on him."

Sofia started, "But he said-"

"I know," Greylock interrupted. "Still, we'd better ought to check on him." He grabbed her wrist and started pulling her along, back down the hall.

Cedric watched Sofia leave, watched her close the door behind herself, and heard the click of its latch. He took a deep breath, two, then hit the desk with his balled fist.

But there wasn't time for anything else. It wasn't a large dose, but Cedric had had a whole swallow before he recognized the taste wasn't just a bad blend of flavors, but a remarkable blend of poisons. If he hadn't had his fondness for wormwood - 'Emerald Dreamroot,' as he mislabeled it on his shelves - if he hadn't known the taste of that all too well, perhaps…

No, there wasn't time. He needed-

Well. There were a few options here, actually. The danger to Sofia had passed. That had, truthfully, passed as soon as he took her cup away, in a bodily sense, though had she lingered there would have been no avoiding the nature of what, exactly, she'd brewed for him, and that wouldn't do.

Cedric looked at the mostly full cups of tea on the desk. He… He could just…

No, Greylock would find him. ...What would be left of him. No. Cedric pulled out his miniature cauldron and dumped the deadly tea into it, for lack of a better receptacle. ...For that matter - Cedric looked at the herb list again. Nothing in here was immediately caustic, which was good. Expelling it was nasty and painful business, but a bit of heaving and the acrid smell of stomach acid in his cauldron was honestly a small price to pay.

Even with that done, there wasn't much time, Cedric didn't know how long any of these poisons took to work and he didn't want to find out. He needed to make the antidote quickly. He faltered often, having not prepared any plans to back out, having assumed he wouldn't need them. It was only a small dose, only one gulp. Still, the "oleaster" here, which was in actuality oleander, could do a great deal even in small doses; and "Black Manaberries" were deadly damned nightshade.

Charcoal. Did he even have any, was that a potion ingredient sometimes? Maybe? ...Thank Merlin, he had it. Mislabled as anthracite, which ironically would have also worked. Hard to mistake charcoal for anything except perhaps actual coal. ...Another unpleasantness, but this was hardly the worst he'd dealt with.

After he scrambled about to gather and ingest anything he could think of as an antidote (that wasn't toxic on its own, anyway), he ran through the list in his head to make sure he didn't miss anything. When he decided that he hadn't, he slumped down in his chair.

This was all his fault. He generally was protective of his herb collection in general, but he'd allowed Sofia to take what she liked of some of the harmless herbs for her pot pourri or as incense to burn, or whatever she used it for, he couldn't even remember. It was still a bit rude that she'd just raid it without permission, but he'd given her no reason to think that doing so would be dangerous. Which was… the point the the mislabeling, to an extent, but she'd made a point that their tea date would be in his specific dorm room. What had he been expecting? His lack of necessary caution had put her in clear and present danger - the only saving grace being the fact that she didn't know that.

This couldn't happen again. Before he really knew what he was doing, Cedric had summoned a ball of fire, and flung it at the cupboard at the end of his bed, where his herb collection lived.

While the cabinet itself was just fine, the shockwave of the magic knocked over several glass bottles, and their dry contents caught fire with little problem at all. With a small… laugh? Sob? Cedric wasn't sure - he summoned more, and his entire collection was burning.

And still, he flung small fireballs, at his cauldron, at the kettle, at his desk, at the wall, at his bed. He only stopped when he collapsed onto his bed, exhausted.

Sofia stood behind Greylock as he opened the door to his room... to find it much more on fire than she remembered. And rather smellier.

It wasn't a blazing inferno, by any means. The cabinet on Cedric's side of the room was actually burning - or, more accurately, its contents were burning, while the wooden structure itself remained, as everything else, scorched or slightly sizzling at worst. What about the wards Cedric had just been talking about?

Cedric sat on his bed, staring rather blithely at nothing in particular.

Greylock took a step toward the other boy, but hesitated. "Cedric, are you… all right?"

"This is fine! I'm fine. Everything is just coming up roses!" His eyes may have met Greylock's, they may not; Sofia wasn't sure. They didn't quite seem focused, though.

There was a moment of silence before Greylock said, "That was a courtesy, Cedric. The room is on fire."

A dramatic shrug preceded Cedric's answer, "Well, it's only a little on fire." Cedric started to laugh lightly, though after a moment the heaving breaths sounded more like sobs than laughs. "I couldn't break father's wards if I tried…"

Sofia looked to Greylock for any kind of indication of what to do - but he seemed as much at a loss for words as she was. Eventually, she managed, "Weee… should probably do something about the fire."

Grey nodded, and they both went around the room and conjured water to stop anything sizzling from getting any worse, and the burning herbs - that's what the smell was from, then. Sofia doused the lot, causing the smoldering heap to give one last cough of smoke before settling into a mound of ashy mud and broken glass.

That last large puff of smoke finally caused Cedric to stir. "S-sofia, you- you probably shouldn't be breathing that oh Merlin you shouldn't- neither of you should be- don't breathe that smoke, that can't be-" He continued babbling incomplete sentences for a bit.

That didn't sound good, but there was a relatively easy fix to that, at least. Sofia went to one of the windows and opened it, looking back at the room in time to see Greylock put a hand on Cedric's shoulder, telling him, "Deep breaths, Cedric."

"So, Cedric. I…" Sofia sighed, but pressed on. "I really hate to push, but what exactly about those herbs made you rush me out of the room from the tea, and made you panic like that just now?"

Cedric's eyes widened, and he looked over to Greylock by his side. Grey said, "I'm afraid I have to second that, Cedric."

"Y-you see, there's, there's a perfectly reasonable… explanation…" Cedric looked between Sofia and Greylock, and around the room. "It's- ah-" A few more moments of looking around, until he sighed heavily, shook Greylock's hand off his shoulder and covered his face with his hands. "It was poisonous," he said softly, or at least that's what Sofia thought he said.

But that couldn't be right. "I played around a little bit with the tea recipe, but I didn't use anything that wasn't already part of a pre-written ingredients-"

"I mislabel my collection, mostly to deflect suspicion against me having such poisons. From authority or, I'd hoped, the both of you." Cedric's head had sunk further down, such that his fingers had combed through his uncolored bangs, and Sofia could barely see his eyes, tightly shut. "Your recipe, once run through my cipher, was impressively deadly. You're rather lucky I caught on when I did."

Greylock sat next to Cedric and looked teary as he reached out towards, but did not touch, Cedric. That… seemed like an odd reaction to Sofia. "Please tell me there's a reasonable explanation for why you'd have enough poisonous herbs that you'd need to hide them."

Cedric scoffed, or maybe that was just a cough. "What do you think, Sofia."

Sofia bit her lip and looked away. She'd been afraid of that. "I know you're not exactly popular, but who could you even hate enough to- to plan to-" She'd have to report this to someone, wouldn't she? Have to tell authority about a failed-

"Who!?" Cedric interrupted her thoughts, finally pulling his head back up. His long bangs hung askew in front of his face, but they didn't cover the redness of his eyes. "You think I'm capable of murder?" He barked a mirthless laugh, and looked away from both of them. "I don't know if I'm offended or complimented. No, I'm just, a c-coward. I just… wanted the coward's way out." His eyes were closed again, and he looked like he was bracing himself for a physical blow.

It still didn't add up, though admittedly Sofia lost the thread of this thoughts at the end there. "All right, but that still doesn't-"

This time, it was Greylock who interrupted her, saying, "Sofia, don't."

"Greylock," Sofia said, "aren't you concerned that Cedric has several 'impressively deadly' herbs for some mysterious purp-"

"You dense girl!" Cedric's voice cracked as tears finally started to trickle down his cheeks. "It was only ever for me. I-in case I could stop being afraid of the, the physical pain for long enough to just drink the lot and b-be done with it."

"...Oh." Oh Pantheon above. "I'm so sorry," Sofia said, leaning heavily on the desk next to where she stood, trying to deal with this information. Greylock just sat with one balled hand over his mouth.

Cedric turned away from both Greylock and Sofia as he wiped his eyes, though tried to make it look like he was just pinching the bridge of his nose. "Yes, well." He gulped, took a moment, then continued, "Now that y-you both know how awful I am, and my means of, of doing anything about it is gone, could you perhaps just leave me to my misery?"

"No," Greylock answered. "I told you a while back that I won't leave you, and I'll still stand by that." He reached to take Cedric's hand, but the latter just shook it off. "And anyhow, this is my room too, you might remember."

Sofia didn't really think now was the time for jokes, though she could appreciate the attempt; Cedric didn't seem to, given the scowl he gave Greylock. "We don't want you to be miserable," she said. "We're here to help-"

"And a fine job you've been doing, haven't you." Cedric huffed. "Just, just tell me, 'oh, wow, I love you, don't be sad!' And it's all better, right? You hardly even know me, y-you've pushed me to-" He had to pause to sniffle, after which he angrily gestured to his face and glared at Sofia, then quickly looked away again.

It was a moment before Sofia could answer, "No, I wouldn't say that." That was at least partially because she was, at best, half-sure that her feelings toward Cedric could be called love rather than infatuation, especially with how things had been going lately… but that wasn't important right now.

Another sniffle from Cedric, and he said, "So, what exactly is your thought process here? Stand around and w-watch me fall even further into this- this p-pile of shame, offering your pity?"

"No, of course not!" Sofia took a breath and a moment, and… "Yeah, I don't know how to help, though. I want to be here to help you in any way I can- tell me, how can I help?"

Cedric scoffed. "Of course you don't know, you barely know the second thing about me. You can help by just getting out."

"Really? You're mad at me, for not knowing you." Sofia crossed her arms, pointedly not moving from the spot. "I've been trying to get to know you better, Cedric. I've been trying to set up times outside of lessons to spend time, I've been setting up tea dates. I don't even like tea! Cedric, I've been trying to get to know you." Sofia sighed. "Every time I try to talk with you, you change the subject, or just, oh, well, what if we kissed instead! Like yes that's nice but it doesn't really make for a meaningful friendship, let alone romance."

"So it's my fa-" Cedric cut off his angry reply, and started again sounding rather defeated. "Zeus, It is my fault." He collapsed back onto the bed and curled his legs up on to the edge, lying curled on his side at the end of the bed. "Why even bother? I'm just, I-I-I'm fundamentally broken. Nothing to fix, I'm just! Completely rotted through! You'd be better off leaving before I muck up again and hurt you, again."

Oh no, no no- each moment Sofia talked to him, she was actively making things worse and worse, Cedric had been right about that much. But leaving, especially now, would be implicitly agreeing with the statements preceding it, disconnected as they may be, and it just seemed like a bad idea.

Greylock managed to find his voice before Sofia did, this time. "Cedric, you are not broken. I - ah, that is, you mean the world to me, you know - just as you are. I will not leave, no matter what you do or don't succeed at, and I don't believe Sofia would either." He took a breath, and looked towards Sofia for confirmation.

"Um, yeah." Sofia decided to go with that for the moment, though she really did need to have a serious conversation… at some point where she hadn't driven Cedric into some kind of depressive episode.

Grey looked back to Cedric, and leaned over to put a hand on his shoulder. Cedric didn't shrug it off this time. "Figuratively, anyhow. Literally, I believe she may get into trouble as it is, for being out of her dormitory so late."

"Oh, no, I don't mind-" Sofia stopped as Greylock made a face at her. Oh, oh this was an out to get her out of there to prevent more damage without doing damage on the exit, probably. "That is to say, I'm only a message away if you need me. Any time, day or night, I promise - but for tonight, I should probably just head back, yeah. Good night?" She finally started backing up toward the door.

Cedric could barely be heard as he mumbled, "It's a night, anyway."