hide and seek [OPEN]

[Susan Bones]

Susan had been thinking a lot about Harry, and Dumbledore, and all of the people that doubted the both of them. She wasn't sure what she believed herself, but knew that it was best to act with caution. Her own family had been picked off by the Dark Lord in the war before. She had her parents, and her aunt, but she'd lost her grandparents and a good chunk of her extended family. There was absolutely no reason to think that she wouldn't be on their list if the Dark Lord really was back. She did her best to ignore the chatter in the halls, and didn't give her opinion out freely. But secretly, she was afraid.

She forced herself to focus on school but when that was out of the way, she was practicing defensive spells on her own in empty classrooms. It would, of course, be a lot easier if she had someone to practice dueling with, but it wasn't the best conversation starter, and everyone else seemed to have something more 'important' going on. A school dance, a date, chess club... So she spent time alone reading up on the spells and practicing her wand work.

She was at this now, making use of the storage room on the sixth floor, where she would have more (non-moving) targets... She missed her mark and sent a bookcase falling, the old tomes spilling out all over the floor. If anyone was out there, they were bound to hear it. She could imagine Filch and his cat on their way over, so she breathed in deep and waited. Funny... What trouble could she really get into? There were not any particular rules about it... But she was worried nonetheless. With Umbridge, maybe things had changed.

[Aurora Emilia Miller]

All the talk around the school made Aurora more worrisome than she already was. Was the Dark Lord really back? She wasn't sure what to believe, but seeing as she was in the same house as Harry and had talk to him quite a few times, she couldn't see why he would lie about that sort of thing, which made her even more worried. If the Dark Lord was back, then she knew she had to prepare.

Aurora was afraid, beyond afraid, but she didn't want to be someone that needed to be protected. She wanted to help and not be so much of a burden. So, with that little motivation, Aurora decided to find a space to practice her skills. There was only problem: she didn't know where to go. She couldn't just go to the courtyard and practice in the open space.

Aurora sighed softly, thinking it was hopeless before having something pop into her mind. Wasn't there a storage room on the sixth floor? Maybe that room could be of use. So, with a location in mind, Aurora made her way over to the room. However, as she was getting closer to the room, she jumped at the sudden sound of something loud. She had no idea what the noise was, but it struck fear into Aurora's body. It was clear someone was already in the room. Were they angry? Where they throwing things around? Deciding it was probably best to leave, Aurora turned her back to leave. However, another thought crossed her mind, causing her to stop. What if the person inside fell and couldn't get up because they were hurt? Aurora turned her head slowly back to the door and gulped slightly before deciding to check to make sure no one was hurt.

Cautiously, Aurora reached for the doorknob and pushed the door open. "H-Hello?" She called out before walking inside, where she spotted a red haired girl. Aurora immediately recognized her as Susan Bones. Aurora probably had very few conversations with the Hufflepuff, but they were in the same year and shared some classes, so she was able to place a name to the face.

"Oh, Susan... is everything all right?" Aurora asked. "I heard a loud noise while I was walking by so... I, um, wanted to make sure no one was hurt..."

Tagged: Susan Bones

[Susan Bones]

It was almost as though she felt rather than saw the door open. And as foolish as it was, her instinct was to point her wand toward the intruder. That would go over well if it was Filch or Umbridge... She'd certainly get detention, and who knew what sort of detention that vile woman would have in mind? But when she saw that it was a student, she relaxed. It took another few seconds (and her heart to slow) before she actually recognized who it was.

“No, everything is fine. I mean, I do suppose that the bookcase has seen better days.” She looked at the books spilling out, and decided that the least she could do was replace them. She knelt down and collected them, returning them to their homes as well as she could recall. She looked back at Aurora, trying to summon a smile. But the weight of her family's plight was too much at the moment, and her smile was very faint. “What are you doing up here, anyway? There isn't much on the sixth floor. It's sort of why I decided to come here... I didn't want to be found.”

It sounded like she was trying to get the other girl to leave, but that wasn't it at all. She decided that she was not likely to report her to Umbridge. Gryffindors had a tendency to rebel anyway, and none of them liked the toad woman from what Susan could tell. So she decided to reveal her own reasons for being here. “I thought that I would practice my spell work. Just in case something happens... And I guess that I need the practice.” She laughed a little bit, looking sheepish.

[Aurora Emilia Miller]

Aurora couldn't help but flinch a bit when she walked into a wand being pointed at her. However, when Susan relaxed, Aurora let out a sigh of relief. Honestly, how was she put in Gryffindor? She didn't think she had any bravery in her at all. If the things Harry said were true, then she knew fighting was going to follow shortly after. If Aurora needed to fight, how was she going to do so when she flinched when a wand was pointed her way? She hated being the person who holds everyone back, that's why she wanted to better herself so she could be someone others could count on.

"I was looking for a place to..." Aurora trailed off, unsure if she should reveal that she came up here to practice. It seemed like the whole school was divided into two sides: the people against Umbridge and the people against her. Aurora was definitely against how Umbridge was running the school, but she couldn't make that too public. Aurora didn't think Susan was on the other side, but she couldn't be too sure, so Aurora decided to not reveal it for now. "Be alone as well." She finished. "But you were here first and I don't want to intrude on your alone time." Aurora reassured with a smile. She really didn't mind finding another room and saving her practice for another day. It was only fair since Susan was there first.

However, before Aurora could make her way out, Susan revealed why she was here, shocking Aurora. "Wait, really?" She asked, still in shock. Before she continued to speak, Aurora took a quick look outside the door to make sure no one was around before closing the door and turning towards the Hufflepuff. "I was actually coming to do the same. To be honest, the thought of something happen frightens me, but I want to be someone people can rely on if something does happen. I want to protect my friends, so I wanted to brush up on my spells."

Would it be weird to ask Susan for help? Aurora wondered. They both were here for the same thing and Aurora knew if she had a real person to practice with instead of objects, it would help her more.

Tagged: Susan Bones

[Susan Bones]

So they were here for the same reason. That wasn't exactly shocking, seeing as the school had abandoned any pretense of protecting the students this year. With someone from the Ministry of all places trying to disarm them by not allowing them to learn the spells to protect themselves, she would be surprised if there weren't other people making the time to learn. Even if there weren't darker forces at work, Susan wanted to be able to protect herself if she got into a scrap with another student. It was unlikely, but she didn't want to resort to muggle fighting it out.

“Then maybe we should learn together. I won't know how well I pull off a spell if my opponent can't fight back or defend itself.” She smiled a little bit, traces of worry and doubt in her eyes. “I guess before anything else, if we are really going to do this, we need to have a cover story in case one of us accidentally gets hurt enough that we have to go see the nurse. I'm sure that we will get detention at the very least if they suspect what we are really up to.”

The most logical thing was to practice on inanimate objects until such a proficiency level was reached that there wouldn't be unexpected effects. But Susan wasn't sure how much time they would have. She trusted Aurora not to get too creative with her spells in the beginning. Ha, the beginning? She was already thinking of this as the first of many meetings. But she was so determined... Aurora could still say no, but Susan was intent on practicing. She only had to think of the family she'd never met and her heart was resolute.

[Aurora Emilia Miller]

Though Aurora was relieved about Susan's reasoning on being here, Aurora couldn't help but grow worried once again. Practice on each other? This caused her to panic a bit. She didn't think Susan would intentionally hurt her, but Aurora couldn't help but wonder about possible worrisome outcomes. She was sure they both had decent wand skills, but what if one of them got hurt? How would she explain that? It wasn't a secret that Aurora wasn't the bravest, so how could she explain to her friends and housemates about injuries she might have?

Still, Susan did have a point. Practicing on an inanimate object wasn't as effective as an actual person and Susan was actually willing to have Aurora practice on her. It didn't seem like such a bad idea, especially since Aurora did need the practice. However even though she wasn't exactly 100% convinced that nothing could go wrong, she decided to take Susan up on her offer.

"Okay, I'm in." Aurora replied with a small smile. "But, before we do this, we should try to get our cover story straight in case we need to." She added on before placing a hand under her chin in thought. "Is there anyway we could somehow make up getting hurt in the courtyard or something?"

In all honesty, Aurora had no ideas for a cover up story. She wasn't exactly the adventurous type, so it would be completely unbelievable if she said something about doing something risk and somewhat dangerous. If anything, she thought having a story that involved some sort of accident would be more believable than her doing something like taking on the Whomping Willow. This cover story had to be believable, and not only for her, but for Susan as well. This was not easy.

Tagged: Susan Bones

[Susan Bones]

Susan thought about it for a moment. There were of course accidents like falling off of a broom, or falling down some stairs, or accidentally casting a spell that ended up injuring you. Because of Umbridge, Susan didn't think that the last one would go over well. Accidents with wands did happen, such as waving a wand and sending out sparks. Or those old stories about people losing their buttock to a tucked in wand. But she had a feeling that she would just suspect the worst of any injured student.

“I guess it is hard to say how we 'got injured' when we don't even know what the injury will look like.” An injury with boils would hardly be explained away by falling out of a tree, for example. Or a cut being caused by a rogue quidditch ball someone was playing with. “I have another question for you, only slightly related. Do you know any spells, or have any potions, for if we do get injured?”

She should have thought of all of this earlier, but she hadn't. It was a good thing that Aurora showed up because otherwise Susan was likely to go ahead without enough caution and get herself hurt. Funny... which was the Gryffindor again?

[Aurora Emilia Miller]

Aurora hummed at Susan's response. She did have a point; they couldn't say they fell while running if they both had black eyes or a huge mark on their wrist. It wouldn't add up. "I guess we could just do our practice and if one of us gets hurt, we'll look at the damage and make a story then. Hopefully, none of us get injured though." Aurora hoped. It was already bad enough that she felt like she didn't belong in Gryffindor because she wasn't brave, but now she might have to lie about something that could get her noticed, and she didn't think she was a really great liar.

When Susan mentioned she had a question, Aurora looked up at the Hufflepuff. "Spells?" Aurora repeated before frowning. "Only a few, but they won't do much if we get seriously injured." She said replied honestly. "What about you?" She asked. They were in the same year, so it was probably a stupid question to ask.

Aurora looked around the room and frowned slightly. This was the storage room, so there were objects in here for storage, obviously, which meant there were a lot of opportunities to get hurt by the objects around them. Still, Aurora knew that they had no other way to practice with Umbridge around. So, with a small inhale to get herself in gear, Aurora looked at Susan with a small smile. "You can practice your spells first and I'll defend the best I can."

Of course Aurora didn't want to get hurt, but she would rather have herself hurt than Susan. After all, Aurora did accidentally invade the girl's practice time.

Tagged: Susan Bones