Oz had let Henry go. There wasn't much choice when his whole plan had been to keep Henry away from the rowdy Pecari crowd. The fact that the whole thing was his fault and that, as usual, his plans had blown up in his face were things he was trying not to think about too much. It had been a while since Henry had been near the wrong sorts of people and needed pushing away. At home, he knew not to try. Oz had forgotten how much it hurt to teach him that.
He had done what he'd done countless other times; pushed his feelings down, pasted on a happy smile and pretended he was happy with his life.
It had really hit him again when they had got to the cake. It looked good. It was food. It didn't matter that school kept them well fed, there was something fundamentally wrong about making Henry miss any food, and especially special food. He had asked Xavier if they could save him a slice. He had even managed to transfigure the box down to fit it, and to be decorated with a guitar picture on top.
Once the party was over, he headed out. Now he just had to find a Crotalus who seemed trustworthy. In theory, that was their whole thing, but they also seemed like a lot of jerks with sticks up their butts. He made his way towards Cascade Hall, hoping (but not expecting) to find Henry, or at least someone at Crotalus table willing to make eye contact without giving him stink eye.
On one hand, there was no reason to watch a Pecari walking around looking vaguely lost with a box in his hand. On the other hand, though, there was no reason not to do so, and so Graham did, wondering if someone had put a Befuddlement Hex on the guy or something - at least until this attention was returned.
"Do you need help finding someone over here or something?" he asked, hazarding a guess other than other students behaving badly first.
Oz eyed up the person who spoke. If movies had taught him anything, it was that anyone that clean cut and pretty was evil or gonna get possessed. Still, he had limited options here.
"I was looking for Henry. Looks a lot like this." He gestured at his own face. Even though this guy wasn't in their class, his and Henry's near identicalness was pretty noteworthy. Unfortunately.