Deja Vu

Chapter 37: Unmasked

Arriving at Night Raven College, you've collected yourself. Your Devildom entourage is as follows;
- You, with a knot in your stomach and fear in your heart.
- Grim, who only knows hunger and annoyance at being on NRC campus again.
- Solomon, who has been surprisingly eager to come along.
- Lucifer, who can't help but to feel worried for you and what the human-realmers might come to as a conclusion.
- Diavolo, who is more excited than he should be to speak with Crowley face-to-face, even though he's really good at hiding it.
- Barbatos, who said "What's the fun of that?" when you asked him to tell you what the outcome of the meeting was going to be. He's in a good mood though. Like he knows something you don't. He's otherwise hard to read, though.

Satan would have come, as he was your only named accomplice, but he had other pressing matters to attend to. You're not sure, but it seemed like he had something planned for Lucifer's absence.

You're greeted at the front gate of Night Raven College by Professor Crewel, who has healed up well and is no longer bandaged. His body's still sore from the damage Crowley did, but he's up and capable of moving as he finishes healing. No more broken bones. He's smiling warmly, which confuses you. "Hello Pup ~ It's good to see you dressing to impress. It seems you're in good hands in Devildom."

"Professor Crewel? I thought you'd be mad at me for putting you and everyone else in danger." The words spill out of you before you can stop them. You've thought almost nonstop about it since the party. You meekly look to your professor who just smiles and shakes his head.

"No, no, no. This is much more nuanced than just the fallout of this whole ordeal. All of us on staff should have intercepted the problem before it ever got as bad as it did. You deserved better, and I think, despite your faults in handling this.. You shouldn't have had to handle that much stress to begin with." He holds up a folder with a stack of papers in it. "Besides, I spent most of my recovery reading the accounts written by your fellow students. So I'm much more intimately aware of just how much was hidden from the rest of the staff by the headmage." His voice sounds angry as he says this. "You're certainly not the one who's earned my irritation in this."

Which reminds you that the professors weren't aware of everything that had been going on. You're not the only one who has questionable decisions to answer for.

You and your entourage are led into the meeting, which is taking place in Crowley's office. The office has long-since been scrubbed of your curse. Barbatos made sure of that. He also commended you on it being particularly difficult to scrub when he did. You weren't sure, but it sounded like he was genuinely impressed with you despite having to clean up one of your messes.

Standing as you enter are Trein and Vargas, as well as Sam. Crowley is in the middle of the group, sitting in his chair. Everyone's expressions are more serious as the room is thick with tension.

The first one to break the tension is Crewel, who isn't letting the somber air affect his mood. He sits down in one of the available chairs and motions for everyone else to do the same. "Alright, let's get down to business. We're here to discuss the prefect, how the school failed them, how they retaliated, and how we as a group are going to progress with this problem from here. I recommend we start with discussing how the school failed them." His recommendation is not a request. He looks pointedly towards Crowley, who feels particularly bad that the professor had to endure a few weeks of intensive healing magic because of his outburst.

Crowley shakes himself of his nerves, and clears his throat, and says ".. Yes. I think that would be best."

Sam motions to you. His expression is hard to read, but by his words, you can tell he doesn't hold any ill-will towards you. "Does the little mischief-maker have anything to start us off with?" You're pretty sure his lack of easily-readable emotion is because of his frustration with the situation. He seemed particularly disturbed at everything he learned at the party.