Feeling Murderous (Briony and Richard)

[Briony Romain]

As soon as the meeting with 'JJ' was finished in her office she immediately went to seek out her husband, she knew that with the baby she couldn't afford to stay angry or have high stress levels, but this was something that she felt needed to be vented, otherwise it would just build up and she would need to go on a huge killing spree.

Which would not be safe for the baby.

Knocking on his door, Briony huffed to herself and gritted her teeth, her nerves flaring up everytime she thought of what she had been accused of, and what the woman had implied to her, about the fact that she could have done more to protect the girl, when the girl hadn't wanted protecting.

[Richard Romain]

Richard had been working when he felt some of the perimeter wards in the classroom before his office being tripped, telling him that someone was coming to his office. He took a sniff of the air to try and tell who it was. Immediately he could tell that it was Briony so he smiled.

However the rather violent knock at the door told him that his wife was not best pleased about something. Wondering what could be the matter, Richard opened the door and looked at his angry wife in concern,

"What's wrong meine leibling?" he asked her, wrapping an arm around her to hug her as he led her into his office, "What's happened? Are you alright?"

[Briony Romain]

Briony walked into the office as soon as Richard opened the door, shrugging off his arm as she did so, there was nothing that he could do right now to make her feel better, she had physically wanted to rip apart the person who had visited her in the office today, but she thought it was best to get her husbands advice before she did so.

"You know what I just found out?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in anger as she stepped around the office, gesturing around the room with an angry hand, almost slapping the wall as she walked past it "That Anne Jones killed herself today. Isn't that great?"

And when she stopped walking she smiled angrily and almost felt like punching something, the sheer disrespect from the woman in front of her had been the most annoying thing, she had almost wanted to do several things, but she stopped herself before her thoughts went down that road again.

"And you know what else, some jumped up Professor starts screaming at me because I don't start crying or something, and then, had the absolute nerve to say that I know nothing about the situation she was in! I offered the girl protection which she denied, I put up posters about the person harming her, she said that I didn't do enough." she growled.

[Richard Romain]

Richard blinked when Briony shrugged off his arm and entered his office so abruptly. Apparently whatever it was that had put her in this mood was something rather big. He could almost feel her desire to kill someone in the air and he had no intention of being that person, although he knew she'd never do that to him,

"No, what did you just find out?" he asked, dreading the answer somewhat. When she told him, he blinked a few times before frowning, "Truly a shame. I believe suicide is the choice of the coward but it is a shame someone so young is dead. But that wouldn't get you this angry. You were helping the girl, I know, but if that was all it would just have you upset."

The angry smile she flashed him told him that it was definately not all. That was the kind of smile she used when she wanted to kill muggles to let her frustrations out. When she spoke of someone disrespecting her and belittling what she'd done for the girl, Richard's eyes narrowed,

"So let me get this straight. Some professor decides that because you're not bawling your eyes out that you don't care? And then questions whether you helped the girl enough?" he growled slightly, "If memory serves you've had some sleepless nights over helping that girl. You could do no more without restricting her free will. Who would dare say you didn't do all that you could?"

[Briony Romain]

Briony glowered seemingly at nothing, but she decided that she was acting out like this because she was upset and hurt that someone would think so little of her, even if she acted like she didn't care, and she looked at the reality that it was a stupid reason as to why the girl did it, she believed that it was something that was going to play on her mind for a long time.

"I believe it is the work of a weak person, a terribly weak person who can't even ask for help when they need it, she had done so before, things were offered, she declined, I asked Lolly to keep an eye on her, she did so." shaking her head, Briony growled and punched the wall.

At the little summary that Richard gave of what had happened, Briony nodded her head and she frowned, her hands hurting so very much after the punch, and looking down she realised that she had cut some of her knuckles but she didn't mind that at all, it was all good to help her calm down.

"She told me I was intimidating, that people are scared of me and don't wish to talk to me." Briony whispered lightly before anger took her again "And she had the nerve to tell me that I didn't know the hardships the girl suffers, I wasn't about to tell her my personal life, but I let her know how out of order she was."

Quite calmly, Briony smirked darkly and turned to face her husband; "I want her dead."

[Richard Romain]

The way she was glowering at nothing made Richard frown a little bit more. He hated anything that caused his wife this much distress. And he could tell that it was something that would not go away for some time. That left only a few possible solutions and one of them would result in quite a bit of pain for whoever had angered his wife,

"You gave her every possible method of help available for you to give. You couldn't very well follow her around all her life to make sure she didn't do anything stupid." he reasoned quietly, "And you did more than what was required of you when you asked some students to keep an eye on her when you couldn't. You did all that you could but suicide, aside from being cowardly, is a personal choice. No one can ever be to blame but the person themselves."

Watching his wife punch the wall, cutting up his knuckles pretty bad in the process, Richard sighed a little bit before moving closer to her. He held her hand in his and closed his eyes. Both of their hands glowed as he healed her knuckles. Waving his wand, his bookcase turned into a punching bag should she feel the need,

"Well the fact that the girl went to you for help several times before disproves that argument." he told her confidently before frowning. He and his wife knew true suffering and neither of them had bent to the pressure and 'escaped' like Anne had. He scowled slightly, "The woman does not know that of which she talks."

He looked at his wife for a few seconds before nodding,

"Made to look like an accident?"

[Briony Romain]

Briony stood by the wall and she rested her head against it, she would not break down and she would not cry, there were just so many things that the woman had said that had stuck a chord with her, it was something that always got to her, when people said that they didn't want to talk to her, that she was scary. Briony would never show this however, she always kept it inside.

"I absolutely detest people who think they can shout me down, tell me that I'm cold, that I'm emotionless, when they don't know my story, they assume that I'm just like that and there was nothing that happened in between that process, they only see what they wish to see."

Wiping her hand across her eyes Briony wiped away a few frustrated tears, and she bit down hard on her lip, her hands now healed she felt the desire to cause herself pain to distract from the emotional feelings that she had been made to feel as a result of this.

"She mentioned the fact that I would say different if this was my own child, it reminded me of...of what happened before." she said, her teeth biting down so hard on her lip that it started to bleed profusely "No leave her, she's not worth the effort, just fire her." she muttered, Briony lost in her own thoughts of her dead child, of her own childhood, and it made her bob slightly to and fro.

[Richard Romain]

Richard knew that Briony was hurting over the things the woman had said but he also knew that she was too angry for him to try and calm her down. Right now she didn't need someone to calm her down, she needed someone who would let her take her frustration and anger out with them nearby,

"The second you shout you've lost the argument because your voice has to speak louder than your words." he sighed a little bit and shook his head, "No one will know the pain you went through Briony. Not me and not anyone else. The pain that made you into the woman you are today is something only you can feel. No one who doesn't understand your pain should have the right to try and judge you."

As Briony cried a few frustrated tears, Richard reached up and wiped a few of them away himself. He cupped her cheek gently for a few seconds before slowly taking his hand away. She was still too angry for him to try and take her pain away,

"That... that is across the line." he breathed coldly. The fact that they had lost a child should have been a topic that people stayed the hell away from. Especially for Briony, who had experienced carrying the child only to lose her. He gritted his teeth a little bit, "But I want to kill her."

He was seething now. The fact that anyone would make his wife this angry and upset made him see red. He was about to storm out of the room and kill the woman when he saw his wife. She was within a stones throw of breaking down. He set his wand on his desk and moved closer to her. Richard looked her in the eyes and wrapped her up in a hug, just holding her.

[Briony Romain]

Briony looked up at Richard, she was getting to the point where she was hoping that things were going to stop anger wise, but she did not want to cry, it was something that was not going to let her mood go down, but she could already feel that she was not going to be able to keep herself from crying, it was what being so comfortable around her husband did to her, she could let everything out.

"Well she didn't know what I have gone through, it just hurt that she expected me to be depressed about the loss of a child which was very sad, but there was no need for her to die which has frustrated me above all else, her reasoning was idiotic! She did it because someone she loved was with someone else, that what she said in the letter." fuming now, Briony wiped furiously at her tears, angry with herself for crying them.

Needing Richard here with her Briony gripped his wrist and shook her head, she didn't want him to leave, she didn't want him to go and do anything she would regret later, but what she did know is that she wanted the girl gone from the castle, and she wanted her gone fast.

"You can't, not now, I need you." she said quietly, holding his wrist more gently now "Please."

What made Briony heart broken more than anything else was the fact that she had picked up on the fact that she was scary and intimidating to children, it played on her fears of not being a good mother, of turning out like her father, and she hugged Richard close, beginning to cry;

"I hate being like this, I don't want to be scary but it's who I am, I don't want our baby to be afraid of me!" she wept

[Richard Romain]

Richard could tell now that the anger was beginning to disipate and Briony would soon open up to him. It was really the most flattering of compliments that she felt secure and comfortable enough around him that she would let out her emotions. It spoke volumes of how comfortable they were with each other that both of them could cry with the other around,

"Different people react differently to things, she should have accepted the way you dealt with it." he agreed before shaking his head, "Then she was not truly in love. Being in love means wanting the best for that person no matter what. Even if they're happiest with someone else."

He felt her grip on his wrist and his will to leave and hunt the person down vanished. It wasn't in him to leave his wife alone like this. She needed him here with her and he would not leave her, not when they could better plot revenge later,

"Don't worry." he said quietly, "I'm not going anywhere."

He held Briony tightly to him as she began to cry, began to let all of her pain and frustration out. Richard held his wife as she released her inner most self, the self that had to be protected. The self that was so fragile. He stroked her hair as he held her,

"Our baby girl won't ever be afraid of you." he assured her quietly, "She will think you're the best woman in the world, just like I do. She won't be afraid of you. 'Mother is the name of god on the hearts and lips of all children'... you will be her world Briony, she could never be afraid of you."

[Briony Romain]

Briony nodded her head, she had never been a very emotional person, not in front of others, only in private with people that she trusted above all others, and even when she heard news that she was pregnant, she was still not truly happy until she was at home with her love, it was now that her true emotions were revealed, and the woman had done more than anger her, she had shaken her, and if was for that reason that Briony wanted her gone.

"She should of. It is a very well known fact that I do not do emotions, I just do not react how people would expect me to act, the woman didn't even know the child well, I would accept this and adapt my approach if it was someone like Sofia, her guardian, but..." sighing Briony rested her head on her husbands chest.

Feeling a lot more relaxed now that she was being comforted by her husband, Briony still cried, but she did not make any noise, she stayed quiet, as if she was afraid that someone would hear her and think badly of her for doing such a thing when she needed to be strong.

"Are you sure Richard? Are you sure she won't be afraid of me, I couldn't bare it if she was afraid of me..." she whispered "I don't want to change who I am, but people who say that to me, make me so unsure of what I am doing...I believe that it was the fact that my past was brought up, even when she didn't know what had happened to me in my past, this girl is not the only girl in school who has hardships, look at Charlotte, look at your apprentice Senium."

[Richard Romain]

Richard knew that Briony was not an easy woman to hurt, not with all of the defences that she had, but when things really did hit home they never really appeared to hurt her on the outside. On the outside she often remained the same but they peirced her armour. She hurt on the inside and she only ever showed inside the armour to him. Because she knew that no matter what, he would not judge her, he would only accept her,

"You are a controlled person. To someone like her you weren't reacting at all but to me, even in the presense of others, you might as well have been sobbing." he played with her hair gently, "She should have known. She didn't or she ignored what she knew. Either way... she will pay for her ignorance."

When Briony continued to cry but didn't make any noises, Richard knew that she was afraid of someone else finding her like this. Of hearing her like this. Reaching down, he cast a silencing spell around the room so that it was soundproof before going back to simply supporting his wife,

"I'm sure. She won't be afraid of you Briony, I promise you. She will love you and think the world of you." he assured her quietly, "You don't have to change a thing Briony. Act with her as you act with me and you'll neverr have to worry about changing. She'll love you the way you are. As for Anne... others have dealt with worse and survived. You and I are proof of this. Charlotte is proof of this. Senium is proof of it."

[Briony Romain]

Briony although she shouldn't do, felt very comforted by Richard and what he was saying to her, there was something perhaps to be done in the morning when she had calmed over the ordeal, there was a difference between acting on impulse in a hit ad killing someone extra, and doing the same in the school environment, things were different.

"I am sure that we will think of some way that she can repay me in the morning, we want no rash actions now do we, otherwise, that could jepordise my position at the school, and we do not want that in the slightest, not when I've worked so hard to be here."

Seeing that Richard had now cast a spell around the room, Brioy felt a little bit freer in what she could say and do, her anger was now dissappated and she just had to deal with the aftermath, which she usually got rid of by killing people, however with the child she could not, she couldn't drink either.

"Do you have some of that muggle coca-cola Richard?" she asked, blinking away her tears "I know that we are proof of how people can be strong, and what happened to the girl was nothing, and what does she know of love, it was a crush for god's sake." she sighed.

[Richard Romain]

Richard could tell that he was succeeding in comforting Briony and that made him smile slightly. If he could do nothing else, Richard was glad that he could help Briony feel less self conscious and help her to understand that he was there for her no matter what,

"I'm sure we will... perhaps bring back the thumb screw torture the old caretaker was so fond of?" he suggested lightly before nodding, "You're right though, we don't want you to get much damage from this whole thing. Not when you've worked so hard to be who you are."

When she asked for some coca-cola Richard nodded a little bit. His wife had stopped drinking and smoking while she was pregnant so coca-cola had become somewhat of a staple for whenever she was feeling down. He held up a hand and two bottles of coca-cola appeared on the desk nearby. Another wave and a small box of lindt mini chocolate eggs appeared in a box for her,

"Got some chocolate as well." he told her as he helped wipe away some of her tears, "I'm afraid I don't know the background to this story, what happened?"

[Briony Romain]

Briony couldn't help but chuckle weakly at what Richard said to her, there were all sorts of things that he could have said at that moment in time, but this one managed to make her a little happier, and she thought about the Nurse that they had managed to hire, Frank, and if he still needed more body parts.

"Ah no, we should just give her to Frank, Frank would love her I'm sure, and she would get cosmetic surgery for free, and an extra spleen, and maybe another eye added in somewhere." Briony smirked, it was a funny sight to think about.

Seeing that Richard was now getting her the drink, Briony cracked open the lid and started to drink deeply from the bottle, it felt so good to be able to have a boost like this, it was almost like she was drinking nicotine, which couldn't be good...

The chocolate eggs, one of her favourite brands, made Briony smile for a moment, before th conversation was dragged back to Anne;

"Well she showed me the note that she wrote and it was that she couldn't bare to be apart from the one she loved, and she hated seeing him with someone else." Briony rolled her eyes "That's what I don't understand, just go out find another man make him jealous until he comes back, don't wallow in self pity."

[Richard Romain]

Richard smiled a little bit when he saw that he'd managed to get Briony to smile, if only a little bit, at the idea. He had to admit it had been a long shot on his behalf. He hadn't even known the old caretaker after all, the only things he knew about the old caretaker were the horror stories students told amongst themselves,

"Ah frankie boy..." he chuckled lightly at the idea, "And she's just as likely to be stitched up together with a dog in one of his weird experiments into making different animals."

As he sipped at his own cola with a small smile. The one muggle thing that Briony seemed to love more than the wizarding equivalent was coca-cola. Not that he could blame her. The stuff was positively addictive. It was probably all the sugars but he couldn't find it in himself to care. He sighed a little bit,

"That's not love. That's infatuation with maybe a hint of obsession." he shook his head, "If she truly loved him then she would have been happy that he was happy. No matter how much it made her hurt."

[Briony Romain]

Briony smirked lightly, the idea of Jessica being chopped up and made into various different animals was one that at the moment was quite appealing, however, she knew that she would more than likely get into trouble for doing such a thing, and put the thought from her mind.

"One good thing Frank was good for, getting rid of people that you do not like." she smirked "Although I think I should tell you that I suspended the woman for three weeks, was that wrong of me?" Briony asked, humming a little.

She hoped that she had not made a bad choice in doing that, she would have had the womans corpse strewn up in her office like an eagle if she had her way so three weeks suspension was quite a large step down in her books.

"Well regardless of the whole love thing, she mentioned how she was going to be tortured and she'd had enough of it and all that, well if she'd accepted the help from me in the first place maybe this wouldn't have been so bad?" she asked with a sigh

"And apparently she'd tried to jump off the astronomy tower and none of my staff told me that, I had great delight in pointing that out to the woman, that if she had told me that, I would have put charms on Anne to prevent her from doing anything of the sort again. But of course she didn't, so this has happened."

[Richard Romain]

He saw Briony's smirk and chuckled a little bit to himself. Richard was tempted to tell her that with his alchemy he could fuse Jessica with an animal if she wanted him to but decided against it. It was all very unethical and left kind of a bad taste in his mouth,

"Yes and hiding their bodies. Never once found the remains either." he raised an eyebrow before shrugging, "I don't see the problem with that. Blaming you for the suicide of a student is just plain out of line after all."

Richard hadn't really met Jessica so he wasn't really inclined to feel sorry for her. And as for the way she'd distressed Briony, well that put her close to the top on his shit list. He shook his head a little,

"I think she just wanted a way to escape but she wasn't willing to ask for help." he shrugged a little bit, "Unfortunate but not unexpected. No one goes through tough times alone unless they push people away. She pushed people away, people who would have helped."

Richard blinked a few times before scowling,

"If that had happened in Germany the girl would have been institutionalised." he shook his head, "I hate Germans. With a passion. But even they know what Jessica doesn't; you protect a suicidal person from themselves."

[Briony Romain]

Briony often had mixed feelings when she remembered Frank and how he had just left the school without a healer and without any notice, it seemed to be something that all her old staff liked to do, and it was just plain annoying, problems with the staff obviously had not gotten much better over the years that she had gradually managed to replace the old staff.

"Good I'm glad, I would not like to think that I let my anger cloud my judgement that much, after all I need to be professional with matters concerning the school. I would try to take my frustrations out on other peoples heads but...I don't think that would be good for the baby."

Patting her stomach a little, Briony smiled, it was almost due now, and she had hoped that she would have been able to see Lucia more than she had been currently, but she didn't really mind, there was nothing that was going to happen to her now that would put her at risk.

Returning her mind to the situation at hand Briony smiled lightly; "Indeed, but what's done is done, and we need to handle this, I suggested that we keep the whole thing private, this becoming a public scandal would be a disgrace to the girl and the school."

Briony waved her hand at what Richard said;

"Apparently she didn't know until today, but regardless someone must have known to tell her, and that someone was an idiot for not coming forward."

[Richard Romain]

One of the many reasons that Richard respected Briony as much as he did was that she was so talented in so many areas. She was magically and physically skilled, incredibly intelligent and so many other things. But one point that stood out was her ability to run a school like Hogwarts despite any and all difficulties,

"You never let your anger cloud your judgement Briony." he told her with small smile, "You're very good at keeping yourself professional. As for the frustration relief... killing people would probably not be good for the baby. You'd have to ask the healer for the clearing on that one."

Looking down at Briony's baby bump, Richard couldn't help but smile. He was going to be a father in but a few days if Lucia was right in her prediction. Richard placed a hand on the bump and stroked it gently. He nodded a little bit more seriously,

"Yes we should have only close friends and relatives informed." he paused, "I think we should impose a small rule on the students. It's no good keeping it private if the students who know can tell their fellow students and their parents. Perhaps the threat of detention for... not respecting the death of their classmate, will stop them talking about it."

He clucked his tongue at what he was being told, shaking his head slightly,

"I swear to god I've taught people who did more research than that woman." he joked lightly, "And I'm talking about third years doing an end of term project."

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