Dresden Academy

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Dresden Academy

The Dresden Inquisition

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James Walsh
Who: Prof. James Walsh, Prof. Templeton Morse, Madelyn, Tina, Anastas, Hawthorne, Cinna, Addy, Bernadine, Carly, Marina, Luka, and Sighard.
What: The professors begin the Dresden Inquisition in an effort to figure out who was behind the office party.
When/Where: During the day April 2nd. The respective offices of Professors Walsh and Morse.
Rating: SFW


It didn't take very long for the headmistress to feel her blood pressure reach an all new high. The students had done an impressive job of ruining her office and it was clearly a highly organized effort if only a handful of them had been caught.

She needed to set up the inquisition and she had two professors in mind who could do it quickly and effectively. She let them into her office to see the handiwork done and gave them the names of the students who had been caught covered in paint returning to their dorms in the wee hours of April 1st. From there they could ask the entire student body or simply weed out the obvious troublemakers to make an example of; either way she wanted this resolved.



Walsh opted to speak with students in small groups. He was intimidating enough that he didn't need to play the one on one card. At some point in the day, someone would squeal.

He started with the group of Hudson students who had been caught with paint on their clothes as they snuck back into their dorm. "Madelyn Cooper, Anastas de Kooning, and Christina French," he intoned, looking at them with his usual mask of cool. "Care to tell me what you were doing breaking curfew, covered in paint the very night that Headmistress Hulett's office was vandalized?"

Tina squirmed in her chair. "Painting party?" She offered in a barely audible whisper. That was what Rosenthal had assumed when he caught them sneaking back into the dorms. They thought they'd been caught when he escorted them into the building while talking at them, but it turned out he was very enthusiastically praising group projects and the way that recreational painting really supported personal growth and bonding. They almost couldn't believe their luck when he patted them all on the back and told them to ask him along to their next one, and to sleep well.

"Painting party," Anastas affirmed with a forced smile.

Maddy nodded enthusiastically. "You know us Hudson kids. Crazy about art."

Walsh folded his arms over his chest and stared at them, sweeping his eyes back and forth, waiting for one of them to fold.

Tina was trying her hardest not to shake like a leaf. She'd been covered in treacle fudge more than paint, but it was still a more than clear indicator of guilt. "It's really good for... for bonding."

"I needed the bonding, yes?" Stas said awkwardly. "It is good to know my fellow dorm-mates."

"Yeah," Maddy agreed. "It was a getting to know your resident Russian party."

Walsh nodded. "Mh-hm."

"It, um, really... supported our personal growth." Tina gulped. "Pe-- Professor Rosenthal is going to come to the next one."

"Perhaps you could have the next one before curfew. And maybe not in the Headmistress' office."

"We did not," Stas began...

"It wasn't..." Maddy said over him.

"We would never..." Tina squeaked unconvincingly. She knew she shouldn't have let Marina talk her into going.

"I don't need a forensics kit to test the paint on your clothes and match it to the paint in her office, because you and I we all know that you were there and you were painting and you had friends with you."

Stas leaned back. He could stonewall with the best of them.

Maddy frowned. She wasn't about to sell her friends out, even if she'd have to take the wrap for it.

Tina fought back tears. "Everyone shares the paint in the art rooms..." They really did. Rosenthal tended to discourage 'ownership' until it came to the final product, which was most unquestionably the property of the artist or artists involved.

Walsh shook his head just the same. "Regardless, you were caught breaking curfew. If that was the only breach in conduct I could certainly dole you a detention or two. As it is, I think it might be more fitting to have you clean the mess in the headmistress' office." He almost smiled

Stas groaned, but it could be so much worse.

Tina tried not to look relieved, given the magnitude of the cleaning job they'd just been slapped with. "We won't break curfew again," she promised, because that was at least one thing they definitely could not deny having done.

"Out," Walsh insisted, pointing to the door. "Straight back to your dorm rooms. No clubs today. I'll come collect you for cleaning duty after dinner."

Maddy struggled to wipe the look of horror from her face. They'd be escorted from dinner to clean the office and she wouldn't be allowed to any of her clubs for the afternoon. This sucked.

Tina shot out of her seat and skittered out of Walsh's office as fast as she could. As far as she was concerned, they'd gotten off lightly and she was grateful for it. She just wanted to be out and away from his terrifying gaze.



Morse on the other hand called students into his office one by one. He let them sit there in silence for fifteen minutes if they wanted, but he asked his set of questions, waiting for inconsistencies, weak excuses, and the truth to slide into place.

One of the most likely candidates for this organized rebellion was the last one he wanted to interview. "Hawthorne, please, tell me you had nothing to do with the vandalizing of Headmistress Hulett's office."

"I had nothing to do with the vandalizing of Headmistress Hulett's office," he replied woodenly. It was a flat out lie, but he hoped Morse would let it go. He hadn't been caught sneaking back into University Dorm, but he attributed that to dumb luck more than anything else. He needed to keep his nose clean in this affair lest he get expelled for using up his last chance.

Morse didn't buy it, but he wasn't going to press it with Thorn, not with their summer program on the line. "You don't know how close you are all stepping to the line," he urged. "You know the students stepped over it."

Thorn didn't need to affirm that he was included in the number of students who had stepped well and truly over the line. He nodded quietly.

"Stay out of trouble from this point forward," Morse instructed and dismissed him to call in his next victim for interrogation. "Cinnamynn Thompson."

"Professor Morse." Cinna tried not to look guilty (though she most definitely was) as she slid into the chair opposite the intimidating man's desk. She folded her hands in her lap, then unfolded them to rest on her knees, then crossed her arms in front of her and tucked her hands out of sight.

"Cinnamynn, how close are you to graduating from Dresden?"

She bit her lips shut. "A semester?" Unless she flunked a few subjects or seriously thought about university. "Well, a bit more than a semester."

"I'm just wondering why you'd endanger your graduation by doing something so risky, especially considering how important it is to your parents that you graduate and get a decent offer for a university and a cheering squad."

"You wouldn't!" She gasped. "You can't kick me out! I wasn't even there for most of it!" Her eyes widened and she clamped her hands over her mouth. Fuck! Fuckfuckfuck!

Morse sighed, because this one was just too easy to crack. He made a note on a piece of paper. "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me Cinnamynn? Any accomplices spring to mind? I'm sure they'll give you an easier punishment if you just drop a few names."

She shook her head furiously, hands still glued to her mouth lest anything else spill out. She sat like that for a few moments while she thought very hard about the next thing she said before she incriminated anyone else. "I want a lawyer!"

Morse had to fight the laugh that was trying to break free from his throat. "This isn't a criminal matter," he attempted to soothe her. "You won't be serving hard time, unless you consider scrubbing Headmistress Hulett's hard time. You'd just be saving me a lot of time having to ask everyone else if they were there. I'd be grateful."

"I'm not a rat!" Even if it meant she had to scrub that stinky filthy sty of a room all by herself until it was clean, she wasn't going to tattle on her friends... well, if she could help it. She hadn't meant to tattle on herself but had. "Did... did she kill my Spidey?"

"I believe Professor Crinshlow saved the plant on your behalf, but just barely." Morse wasn't going to get much more out of Cinna and nodded her away. "Professor Walsh will collect you after dinner to clean the office. As of this moment you're not to go to your clubs and you are to report directly back to your dorm room until dinner."

She pouted, but intended to obey. Besides, cheerleading was no fun at the moment and the events committee quite literally had nothing to plan for the foreseeable future. "Yes, sir." At least she managed not to get anybody else into trouble, and for Cinnamynn Thompson, this was quite an achievement.



Walsh called in the next group, easily his most cantankerous group of the day. "Abernathy Ford, Adelaide Legaux, and Carly Travers." The silence that followed those three girls into his office was telling.

Bernadine took a seat closest to the wall. She'd perfected the art of her act, but she hadn't been in quite so dire a situation with a supposed enemy and a real one. She looked to Addy briefly, but then rolled her eyes obnoxiously at her in case Walsh was paying attention. "Can we get this over with?"

"Carly did it." Adelaide shrugged and crossed her arms, throwing Carly a glare that said 'this is for pissing me off lately'.

"Yeah, Carly did it," Bernadine chimed in. Because this seemed entirely like something Abby would do.

"Oh fuck off, bitches," Carly said, not even interested in the fact that Walsh was in the room. "It was those two cunts," she said, gesturing vaguely in their direction.

Walsh cleared his throat, it was the quickest warning he could think and the only one he would offer before practicing his silencio charm on their voice boxes.

Addy snorted. "Ask anyone in the school; she did it and was telling everyone all about it." Then, recognizing that annoyed little hitch-and-cough noise he made when he was ready to unleash on an unruly class, silenced herself. Maybe Carly wouldn't pick up on the cue, and wouldn't that be satisfying?

"I may be a first class gossip, but I'm not the idiot in this room," Carly said pointedly and then found that her voice wasn't working anymore.

Bernadine didn't know about the power of the silencio charm and started laughing. "No, we reserve that title for Legs over here," she said perfectly in character and then her voice shuttered to a halt.

"Oh girls, girls. Really?" He held up his hand because it was useless for them to try and speak anyway. Thankfully Addy knew better. "I don't care if any of you were in the office last night. To be honest, I'm kind of impressed that you manage to live together without burning the campus down." He leaned back against his desk, and racked his brain for a more suitable punishment for these particular students. "I think instead of helping the others clean, you ladies need to spend a little time getting to know each others finer qualities. You'll report to detention this evening with two pieces of blank parchment and writing supplies. By the end of the night I expect two essays from each of you. Both essays will focus on one of your fellow detention mates and will consist of 500 words about their best qualities. No bullshitting. No giving up. You will find something to like, or at the very least admire in each other and you will elaborate upon it. You will do so in silence. If you fail to do so you will come back every evening this week until the essays are finished and meeting my standards. Am I understood?"

Addy was trying not to smirk at being the only one with her voice left, but that triumphant feeling soon vanished. "Are you serious? None of us can do that!" She could write both essays on all of Bernadine's best qualities, but the best qualities of Abernathy (as that was who Bernadine was supposed to be and who the essay was supposed to be about) and Carly? She could manage a sentence or two if she was allowed to bullshit. But he specifically banned that.

Walsh shot her the same warning glance that had preceded his previous charm. "You'll have to try. Why don't you spend the afternoon in your suite playing nice and figuring out what you'll put on paper." He opened his door and gestured them toward the exit. "Straight to your dorm. Straight to dinner. Straight to detention. And you're to stay in each other's company until this is finished. Even if it kills you."

Carly rolled her eyes particularly hard, but as she couldn't speak to argue she just frowned her way out of his office. Come hell or high water she was going to finish those essays tonight. She wasn't going to spend a single moment more that she had to with the hick and the shrew.

Addy trailed after Carly and Bernadine. "It might, you know. Kill us that is."

Bernadine tried to stifle a giggle and then realized it didn't matter. Her vocal chords were still locked and only the shaking of her shoulders indicated her amusement. Her problem was twofold, if only because she had to compose glowing essays on Abernathy's enemies and still keep it true to Abernathy's voice. They all had their work cut out for them.

The two of them stalked off to the dorms in a manner that would appear that they were ignoring each other rather completely; absorbed in texting their friends about the bullshit they'd just been handed down as punishment.

Except, in this case, that just happened to be each other. Fuck me, B. I don't know anything nice about AB except u. Addy tapped out, already wondering what in Satan's handbag she could possibly write about in either essay.

Bernadine tried not to laugh at this, considering they'd just been punished and her voice was starting to come back to her. She's got spunk, she texted in reply. And then: and a moral code that she follows to the letter. It was a start.

Yeah but Carly. wtf for that. No seriously. Addy wondered if 'is a faster means of spreading information than the invention of the telegraph' counted.

She's a crowd pleaser, Bernadine joked. She flicked a quick sideways glance to Addy before ducking into her room. She left her door open even though none of the girls she lived with were about to wander in for a chat. She's got a talent for drama.

Addy wrinkled her nose. Bernadine had a way of taking what was true and truly awful about Carly and phrasing it in such a way that it didn't sound so bad at all. Which made her wonder what the flipside of the nice things she said about her entailed. I wonder what she's gonna write about us.

Trying not to think about it. Then she did think about it. She'll say you're an athlete and that I know all of the most creative curse word combinations. Because at least that much was true about Abby.

She snorted. I hope it takes her forever to think of that and she gets stuck in detention with it for DAYS. She flopped down in her desk chair and looked at the wizarding web idly. Should put up a locked recquest. 500 words of nice things about Carly, will pay.



When Morse called in Marina Beauchamps he hadn't quite expected the level of cheerfulness she brought with her. They were all in a boatload of trouble and she seemed resolutely and determinedly above it.

"I did it. I was there," she confessed before the latch had even shut on the door.

Morse frowned at her. "Did you have help?"

"Oh yeah, all kinds of help. I learned this charm just last week to orchestrate paintbrushes to dance. It's like that Disney movie with the dancing brooms and Chernobog."

He shook his head at her; he was going to get nowhere with Marina. "Report for cleaning duty after dinner. Professor Walsh will be collecting you."

Marina grinned and gave him a thumbs up. After learning that all the Hudson kids were going to be stuck cleaning she thought she'd throw her oar in. They were her favorites after all. She bounced out of Morse's office and back to her dorm, shrugging dubiously to the students who were still waiting for an interview with Morse or Walsh.



They had discussed the possibility of the aftermath. Sighard assured Luka that he wasn't going to take the fall, that in fact neither of them would. He had very little in the way of scruples, at least the sort that would allow him to fall on his own sword, though certainly enough not to impale a friend to save himself.

He suppressed his grin as Luka passed him on the way out of Walsh's office. "All clear," Luka whispered just out of earshot of the professor. His part of the bargain had gone over well. Now it was up to Sighard to keep his mouth shut and his story straight.

Professor Walsh welcomed the student in with a stern look. Luka had been particularly unforthcoming about his role in the destruction of Headmistress Hulett's office, though he had no doubt about his involvement. Unfortunately, short of confessions and the circumstantial evidence against a few of the Hudsons, there was not much that could be done except to wave the students on their way with a very strict warning. Walsh didn't expect to make much headway with this one either.

"Sighard Valemont. Please, take a seat."

Sig popped into the chair facing Professor Walsh's desk. He'd always been rather impressed by the coolness this guy exuded, his bad assery despite being a teacher (one of the enemy). "How's it going today?" he asked, rolling his eyes back to the hallway where students were lined up for the inquisition.

"Some interesting leaps of plausibility in the constant denials. I honestly wonder at how very stupid you seem to think we are." The most refreshing 'denial' he'd heard all day was one along the lines of 'you know I was there, but you can't prove anything and that's the point of this entire exercise'. Because, really, it was. "I don't need to ask why this happened."

Sighard shrugged as genuinely as he could manage. "I don't think you're stupid at all." And that was about as close to telling the truth as he was going to get today. "Student rebellion, huh. Nature of the beast." He smiled, not too much like a cat in the henhouse. "Those crazy kids getting up to shenanigans again."

Walsh closed his eyes and shook his head. These children couldn't even imagine the ways in which they were throwing the fragile respect back in the teacher's faces. Dealing with each of them individually was giving him sound mind to send them each into Hulett's office with a toothbrush and some water in shifts for days on end until the place was clean again. "Let me guess. In your dorm all night. Studying hard."

"Playing chess online with this chick from Brazil," he replied. "I have never wanted to checkmate so bad in my life."

"Of course." He didn't believe this story for a second, but there was nothing to tie Sighard to the crime scene. "I've always found online chess boring, myself. It's nothing on a good set of exploding Wizard's Chess, even with animations."

"Can't play with chicks in Brazil with a regular board," Sig answered. "Unless of course you're in Brazil." Now that would be an alibi. Which would get him into even more trouble. He rolled out his best boyish grin and shook his head. "Maybe this summer. When's your next apparation weekend?" He was this close to being old enough for his license.

"Cancelled indefinitely until behavioral issues are sorted out," Walsh answered smoothly, never once forgetting the subject at hand. "Unfortunate for those who applied themselves over the semester, but you know how it is. Nature of the beast."

"Ah, that is a shame." He shrugged again, because it seemed to be the best punctuation for his sentences. As much as Sighard liked to be in the thick of it when the gauntlet was thrown down he had a feeling that this last gesture was it for awhile. The students would risk another lockdown, or worse. Clearly, they'd gotten their message across. "Did you need anything else?" he asked so politely that it could only be construed as Sighard dismissing himself.

Walsh shrugged back. "Nothing you can help with, it seems." If only they had been able to talk the board of governors into letting them administer veritaserum before these interviews-- now that would have been a totally different afternoon. Far less 'I was in my room studying' (which was a blatant lie on any given day) and much more 'yes I was there and this is exactly what I did'. He couldn't care less about Hulett's office, and was honestly just a touch surprised that this was all they had gotten up to in revenge for her tightening their freedoms. It was their attitude towards the teachers that had nothing to do with it that was getting his hackles up. He shook his head again, and waved towards the door. "Just go."

Sig nodded, holding in the urge to take a bow for one of his finest works of mischief yet. He couldn't take all the credit. Or any of it if he wanted to keep from spending the next three days scrubbing paint off walls with a toothbrush. "Thank you," he said as he skipped out the door.
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