I can't. I can't do this anymore. I thought I could stand it, but going home, being away from all of this for just the briefest of bits, it made everything all the more unbearable. And it's only going to get worse from here.

There's a line, where I can understand things up to that point. I can understand punishing people who are actively objection. I can even understand using someone's friends against them when they're doing so to try and force their hand. But what I can't understand is cruelly laying into someone who has neither done anything against you nor said anything that amounts to more than suggesting that the way you're going about things is too harsh. Especially when it is. That was just... There's no words for it that I can think of right now. Just, all of it.

Is everyone all right?

How much do you think we can fudge our family trees without Carrow catching on?

I thought I could ignore it, but it keeps getting harder and harder. It was bad enough when they hurt Xander. He kept telling me that it was all right. It looked worse than it hurt. That it was just part of the lesson. That he could take it fine, and I didn't have to worry about him. I knew he was lying, but I let it go because he was trying to be brave, to give me less to be frightened about, but if this afternoon was any illustration of what they're going to be doing for the rest of the year, them cursing fourth years under the pretense of education is going to be the least of our worries.

They could have killed anyone in those jars. Drowned them, or even with a idle slip of the hand... I'm sure nobody would be able to survive being that small and crashing into shards of broken glass larger than their head. They could have killed anyone of those people that they held captive, and I'm not entirely sure they wouldn't have if someone they'd captured them for had refused.

Book burnings, flagrant cheating, ritual torture, lengthy sessions of misinformation.

And it's only going to get worse.

I hate the fact that I'm grateful to be back here. I hate that spending time with my family over the holidays was more like an agonizing chore than actually something I could enjoy. I hate that I have to watch what I say around everyone, both here and at home, and when I can't take anymore and do speak up, I end up smacked back down. At least a handful of points taken for reminding those duffers that brooms and books are delicate and should be treated with care and respect wasn't so bad, compared to what could have happened.