8: You get remedial work or duties to set you right. Gain +1 XP and a CONSEQUENCE.

"Obviously," you start to say, struggling to keep a quiver out of your voice, "we were simply defending ourselves, those awful little mons- er, we are not supposed to call them monsters any more, yeah...? those awful little people were already starting to torture my fellows when we struck back..."

Barbara Torch stares hard at you. "There is a thing called proportionality, Miss Weber! The last thing this house or this school needs is to be the site of the Wizards for the Ethical Treatment of Elves latest campaign! You couldn't have just stunned them? And besides, Milly Cherrywood over there did even worse with..."

"Indeed," Porcinilla cuts her off. "that is the thing; at the end of the day, the elves were self-defense, but since there were slayings we had to investigate with divinations - and what it revealed was quite incriminating. Let me see here." With her free hand she pulls out a scrap of paper and flicks it open.

"Theft of a magical beast from the laboratories. Inducing fellow students to engage in para-bestiality with said magical beast by fraud..."

Kinzie lets out a shrill, vicious cry that makes you wince and avert your gaze. "Fran, you DIRTY FAH-CKING CUNT! We had a deal! Lemme go, I'm going to drop kick the bloody little princess out the nearest window!"

A tossed off silence spell cuts her off and Porcinilla continues. "Theft of a crystal ball from the divinations classroom for recording purposes," That one confuses you until you hear Bertie's nervous chuckle. Damn it - you'd specifically denied his request to do such a thing!

"...which necessitated a search of your personal effects and revealed that several of you - Kinzie McMullins, Milly Cherrywood, and of course Franziska Weber herself, had some tremendously illegal spellbooks hidden in your quarters. Three out of the four forbidden spells between you - and you girls aren't even two years into your schooling yet!" She shakes her head in disbelief. "After that, your theft of those hazardous rituals intended for 6th years and above is almost an afterthought."

She pauses and crosses her arms. But then, just as you are seriously considering whether your next step is going to be trying to break out of this infirmary before you're sent off to trial and possibly prison, Mistress Porcinilla smiles and shakes her head, laughing softly.

"How fortuitous it is then, that fully three of you thieves and black magicians - young ladies Weber, Collier and Cherrywood - all come from some of the richest and most influential caliber of families, while the lowborn ones," she glances at Bertie and Kinzie, "by some luck both have relatives in the Perjurors - you know, the magic police. Now, I would love to be a noble and wise sage who metes out reward and punishment based on nothing but merit," she says, rolling her head and putting a finger on your chin, then squeezing Felice closer to her considerable chest, "but a school has needs, and I have enemies - which means I need rich, powerful friends. Oh, I don't suppose you've ever seen this side of me before? Well - you want to live without the benefit of the rules, then you don't deserve the honest path of contrition."

You gulp.

"Thanks to your long nap, representatives of several of your families have already had time to come here on urgent flights... slowed down a bit, I suspect, by the sheer weight of gold they'll be bringing to cushion you ladies' fall from grace."

You find yourself stumbling along with your fellow condemned students in a daze. Even Kinzie hasn't the werewithal to shout more threats or profanities at you as you're all led into the Headmistress's private drawing room. Barbara Torch departs, leaving you alone with the leader... and much to your dismay, the first time the heavy mahogany doors swing open to admit a visitor to the college, it is a member of your family... it is only with slight relief that you note that it's your older brother rather than your father. Emphasis on SLIGHT relief... he's even taller and more intimidating than you remember the last time you saw him three years ago..