Event The Fall Ball (The Hunt) Finished

Sarah could practically feel the excitement buzzing from Paisley, mirroring her own emotions. She too was excited, naturally curious of anything unusual, but there was also apprehension niggling at the corners of her mind. Don’t forget what happened last year, she reminded herself. This was a school, one which the professors tried their best to keep safe, but there were times when it wasn’t. Like the fire from last year or the close call the Slytherin girl’s had had in the dormitories in February, things Paisley hadn’t experienced. In all, Hogwarts was a safe place, but it wasn’t unheard that bad things did happen here.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the mild worry, Sarah focussed on the excitement bubbling in her chest. She was surrounded by students - she was with Paisley - nothing bad was going to happen as they followed the crowd out into the corridors. She watched as students set to work on the task laid out to them, the apparitions earlier words coming back to her. And if you need my help, call my full name. But what was his name? And where had that cat gone?

Due to how close the girls were, Sarah felt as Paisley shivered, glancing at the girl and noting her bare feet. She’d almost forgot the pair had kicked off their shoes earlier in the evening, the memory feeling like a life time ago. She felt the chill of cold stone against her toes, seeming only to notice it now. Perhaps I should suggest running back to grab our shoes, she considered, though was quickly distracted by Paisley’s words.

“No, it’s not bad to find any of this exciting. I could never resist a mystery,” She replied with a chuckle as she watched her friend nearly drop her wand. The action briefly reminded her of the boy who’d interrupted them when they’d first met. Her fingers absently traced the shape of her wand beneath her gold waistband, easy enough to grab should the ghost’s warning’s become reality. She’d not dampen her friends spirits by suggesting there might actually be some real danger here, but she’d be ready to react if needed. “Besides, you’re a Gryffindor. It’s practically your nature to run head first into dangerous situations,” She grinned, before adding with a sly grin. “We snakes like to plan before diving into trouble. It’s why we’re the superior house.”

She listened intently as Paisley tried to explain what it was like for none of this - for magic and ghosts and magical ghost quests - to be the norm. Not that Sarah had herself been on many actual magical ghost quests, but it wasn’t something surprisingly out of the blue like it would be for those who’d grown up surrounded by muggles. “I might be used to magic, but I’ve never followed a horse-riding ghost and his glowing ghost cat into a potentially dangerous mystery quest before,” She smiled, fingers tapping against her thigh as they moved further along the corridor. Sarah kept her eyes peeled for the cat she’d seen skitter out of the ballroom. Though Paisley’s final question caught her off guard, causing her to turn to face the younger girl with a sad smile. She’d been thinking the same thing. It was one thing for Paisley to admit to that, but Sarah had been here a year longer.

“Same here. And I have you to thank for that,” She admitted, the hurt she’d spied on Paisley’s face earlier flashing back into her mind and making her speak before she could hold back the words. “What I said earlier, about your jokes and having friends, I didn’t mean it. I actually happen to really like your jokes and, well, you’re probably the closest friend I have here so if anyone struggles in the friend department, it’s me.” The words were ineloquent but true and though it probably wasn’t the best time to be saying them, she meant every word. “Now, we need to work out what that ghost’s name was,” She added after a short pause, catching a glimpse of translucent fur and a tail turning a corner. The cat. “Look, over there. I think I saw the cat from the ballroom,” She said, pulling Paisley in the direction she pointed.

FOR MOD
Action: Alexa attempts to cast Reparo upon the portrait, and questions its occupant.

Open to Interactions!
Mention @Cassandra Ironwoods

Why were they always late? Because their writer fell asleep before writing this last night rip. That was the thought that pounded in Mars' head as they ran after the crowd. If they'd just been a minute faster, maybe they wouldn't have to run so damn fast.

They could see the tails of the last person in the crowd round a corner, but they assumed whatever had been leading was likely long gone. Mars picked up their pace, tugging their wand out of their belt as they ran. They had a feeling that it'd be necessary.

Finally, the shadows that they'd been following halted. They let out a sigh of relief, turning to find the crowd stopped in front of a massive painting. This was the reason they'd stopped? What was—Mars' eyes widened as they caught sight of the painting's inhabitant. Could paintings... bleed? Maybe, and maybe they could feel pain too, judging solely from the expression on his face.

Mars thought it might be good to go and help but then... what could they do? Step into the painting? Grimacing, they melted themselves into the crowd. They knew Cash had come but they figured it'd be a better idea to figure out what was happening.

Worming to the middle of the group, they finally caught sight of what'd been leading them. A spectral cat, playing with another cat. That cat... Tiger? They smiled softly while looking at him before their eyes flitted back to the painting. The man really looked awful. A twinge of pity went through them again, but they didn't know enough to act. For now, they'd wait and watch.

ACTION: Catching Up with the Crowd, Staring at the Portrait
I asked permission from the wonderful @Dealla Prince
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STA: 5 | EVA: 7 | STR: 3 | WIS: 7 | ARC: 5 | ACC: 8
Parseltongue Adept • Prodigal Charms

_{Banner Credited to the amazing @Amara Dragamior}

As Henry Knight: Main Character

Open to Interactions
interacting: @Kara Capricorn | @Søren Silverwood | @Piper Clark | Cassie Heather _{@Lucia Fox} | @Heather Blair Moretti | @Scarlett Aden | @Martyna Romero | @Starlee Kennedy | @Cassandra Ironwoods | @Alan Vanes | @Calanthe Choi
Mentioning: @Jade Sunshine | @Lily Cawthi | @Rohan Fog | @Alexa Mackenzie | @Hanako Tone
Action: Casting Lumos Maximum, following the cat, taking the leader role with Kara
For Mods:

Reducio

Stats: Stamina: 5 | Evasion: 5 | Strength: 5 | Wisdom: 10 | Arcane Power: 5 | Accuracy: 5 | Total: 35
Abilities+Race: Prodigal Charms Learner+Werewolf

Pendant
Brooch

Henry kept his eyes peeled as he followed the ghost cat with Kara as they started to from a group of other students as well; some he knew while others he didn't. As Henry was looking around, he watched as the girl; Cassie Heather whom he didn't know the name of try and cast the revelio charm on the candy but failed however maybe that way a good thing and it was just a piece of candy as he spoke to her, " nice job with the spell but it's probably just a regular piece of candy with no secrets hidden," Henry then remembered she wasn't with them when the found the candy and passed her his own with a smile before turning to Kara and saying " so the candy was a failure, looks like we ready just have to follow the cat that may be a patronus and figure out the riddle."

Henry then heard the paintings speak back to Søren and they were quite helpful, while they didn't give any names or anything they offered advice ending by saying to save them. Henry wonder what could they be afraid of as he asked the Kara and the rest of the group " what do you think paintings will be afraid of?" Henry then heard the voice of a girl, Calanthe Choi, speak to Søren about how his idea on asking the ghosts was dense so he replied to her " at least he's helping solve the riddle, what have you been doing to help us?" Henry then turned his attention back to the group as he spoke to Søren, " the paintings were pretty helpful mate, what do you think could frighten them through? Maybe a outsider or maybe their pulling a trick on us?"

Another joined their group, this one seems like a first year from her excitement of doing the hunt so Henry as he searched listened to the girl, Martyna Romero, speak which wasn't that helpful but any help was more then accepted. Henry then smiled toward her as he spoke to her " hey, I'm Henry by a chance do you know Lumos? Not that the dancing feet charm isn't helpful, it certainly is in a duel," Henry then turned his attention to another familiar face which was Heather who spoke to Kara first then turned to him in which Henry replied, " around the beginning of the year we started dating," Henry then smiled toward his friend as he answered her ask question, " of course you can join us, the more the better especially in situations like this Heather." Henry then looked after his friend and saw her date, Rohan with her and he just smiled at him before continuing with his search.

Henry then saw a fellow dueling member who he knew as Starlee walk near him and their dueling captain, so Henry offered the girl a friendly smile as he spoke toward her in a low voice " glad to see more duelers here and after tonight I keep forgetting but on weekends a few of us get together to practice if you would like to join us," Henry then looked around and saw at the back another friendly slytherin face; Cash so Henry smiled at them before seeing his friend and fellow animal lover; Alexa, again he smiled at her before turning back and looking for clues.

Henry then saw a small cat pounce forward toward the ghost cat, the cat reminded Henry of his own kitty; Loki who was sleeping on his bed in the snape dorm at least he hope. Henry watched as the ghost cat took a swipe at the cat before turning to see that cat belonged to Alan, he met him one or twice before but anyway Henry spoke to him " hey Alan," he started with a friendly greeting before continuing " maybe your cat is the key to this riddle, maybe he got it right and try to play with it or maybe he knows something about it that was don't?" Henry then turned back toward his group and spoke to them, mainly Kara through, " it plays or interacts with other creatures like cats and Slytherin's," Henry laughed a bit toward Kara as he slightly mentioned Hana before continuing " so it's probably not a patronus, maybe it is a ghost. Do you think it's like the ones known are traveling ghosts or do you think he stays here at Hogwarts? As anyone see him or her around before?"

Henry then followed the ghost cat to a painting with a portrait of a gloomy scene with the figure on the group surrounded by a puddle of blood. Henry felt horrible for them as he took out hid wand and started to thunk how think could help the figure, Henry the spot to the group " can we help them? Does anyone know anything about moving portraits? Could we help them? Do you think simone purposely painted them like this?" Henry then figured they may need a bit more light as he muttered " Lumos Maximum."

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[font=times new roman]OCTOBER 16TH
Roleplaying as PC, Scarlett Aden
Interactions @Lucia Fox (as Cassie) @Lindsey Springhall @Kara Capricorn @Wyatt Starkey @Lily Cawthi @Martyna Romero @Henry Knight @Heather Blair Moretti
Open to Interaction

A familiar face popped into view, and as soon as Scarlett heard the joking voice with only a hint of friendly sarcasm in it, she knew who it was. "Cassie!" said Scarlett joyfully. "Merlin, I tell all of you that I hate nicknames with a passion, and then the infamous Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin comes along and calls me 'Lettuce'." She laughed along with Cassie as her friend did her usual comedy act. Danger and tragedy? Best one yet.

"Ah, our spells always falter sometimes," remarked Scarlett. Cassie wouldn't be let down by this though. Feisty and gung-ho people were never let down by stuff like this. At least, she hoped they weren't. Scarlett herself certainly felt rather disappointed when she failed, but Cassie was a different person. It was a sign of their faltered friendship, the fact that Scarlett didn't know how Cassie would react anymore. Scarlett cast a half-hearted wave towards Henry, before turning back to the group.

She looked at the sweets, trying to determine anything unusual. They just seemed like...ordinary sweets. Scarlett popped the sherbet lemon in her mouth before she could stop and hesitate. It tasted like lemons - obviously. Perhaps they were just sweets, leftover from the Goblin' It Up event.

A blonde then came along - the first-year-second-year Ravenclaw Scarlett had met at the lake. She seemed nice enough, though acted rather odd around her. She had a rather sharp tongue as well, a feature than Scarlett respected. Sarcasm could do you wonders in this world. "Thanks," said Scarlett with a genuine small smile on her face. She couldn't let herself get too distracted from the mystery, so didn't feel like it was the time to rekindle annoyances. "You don't look so bad yourself."

Scarlett looked at the acid pop and the Toothflossing Stringmint. Was she right to have eaten the sherbet? It could be poisoned for all she knew. Suddenly, a voice jumped in from out of the blue and Scarlett barely managed to not have a heart attack from the surprise.

"Oh hi Tina!" said Scarlett with a wide grin on her face. Her bubbly personality was infectious. "This thing is definitely not organised. And making things dance is cool! Tarantalegra, right?" She laughed internally (in a friendly way, not a mocking way, obviously) as Tina attempted to guess the ghost's name. Cornell Mustard? Fabulous.

Scarlett noticed the cat padding along, and said quickly to the hunting party, "Guys, c'mon and follow the cat!" She then raced after it. Henry was already ahead as she arrived at the portrait. "'Ello there Knight," she cracked, with no hint of unfriendliness. Perhaps their situation was getting better. Scarlett then saw the inhabitant of the portrait they were gathering around. He was lying on the floor with a pleading expression, blood pooled around him.

Her eyes widened. She felt a sort of pity for the guy in the portrait. Scarlett reached a hand up to gently touch the portrait - just on instinct - and asked it, "How did you get in this situation? Who did this to you? I - why did the cat lead us to you and do you know anything about a ghost rider and -"

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Action Ask the portrait man for information, eat the candy
Stats Stamina | 7 | Evasion | 5 | Strength | 6 | Wisdom | 6 | Arcane Power | 9 | Accuracy | 7
Abilities Prodigal Charms Learner, Fearless

Interact with: @Medea Darkwaters, @Henry Knight, & @Cassandra Ironwoods
Mentions: @Alina Rosier

Nick left the Rehearsal Room with Medea, where the group of students had already gotten quite a bit of distance away. He ran up to the group, spotting Alina Rosier, one of the girls he had met a month ago at the Great Lake, where they ended up having a game of tag in the rain. She seemed to be very preoccupied with the chase, though, so Nick passed her. He made his way forward, making sure Medea stayed with him.

Near the front of the crowd, Nick saw Cash and Henry, both of them taking the roles that he expected from the to. Cash was following along, but they were clearly a bit done with the whole situation. They were riding in style, though, wearing an awesome Slytherin inspired outfit. "Hey Cash, crackin' outfit." Nick said in passing to them, not knowing if they wanted to talk to everyone or not.

Henry, on the other hand, was taking this chase much more seriously, talking with everyone about a bunch of stuff, most of which he didn't understand since he had just gotten there. He seemed to be like the best source for figuring out what's going. "Ayy Henry, any idea whit's going on right now?" Nick said casually. He seemed to be taking on a lot of the burden of figuring out what's going on with the cat, but hopefully he could make time to explain the situation to his friend.

Action - Joining The Hunt, trying to figure out the situation

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⚘=======Dress=======Mask=======Shoes=======Hair=======⚘

Open to interactions!
Interacting with Louis Mochizuki, Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin, @Henry Knight
Mentioning @Scarlett Aden
@Heather Blair Moretti @Lucia Fox
English | French
Gorgeous post header by Lana Monet

Jacqueline hurried after the group of students that had just left the ballroom. Louis was right behind her. When they reached the corridor, the french girl saw that a bunch of Hogwarts students were discussing what they thought the riddle meant. Before she could head over and say something, however, Jacqueline heard Louis speak and turned to face him instead. "I'm sure about this," she told him, her eyes bright and excited. "Louis, I promise. . ." He was really worried, she realized. Some of her enthusiasm fading, she bit her lip, unsure of what to do. Jac appreciated how much he cared for her and her safety, but sometimes she wished that he would just let it all go for a bit.

The rest of the group outside in the hall had begun to toss theories out on who they thought the ghost was and Jacqueline was beginning to feel a little impatient. "You don't have to come if you don't want to," she finally told him. "If you're going to stay here and investigate this mystery with me, than let's go over there. If not, you can go back." Her voice was a little cold, but Jacqueline needed him to understand how she felt. This could be the adventure of a lifetime--there was no way she was going to miss out on it. The carefree attitude she had been able to maintain these past few days at Hogwarts was starting to fade away, replaced by an uncertain, distant one once more. Not able to wait any longer, she sighed and turned away from him, determined. "I'm going."

The minute she turned away, regret hit her hard. Still, she was intent on doing this, and she wasn't going to be held back by anyone. It was time things got interesting anyway, she thought. Jac was distracted from these thoughts, however, when she heard a boy speak up: ". . . maybe it could be someone from another school? That could make sense, sneak into Hogwarts from a different school to cause chaos but the question is why?" She immediately turned to glare at him.

"Are you accusing the other schools?" she asked him in English. "If so, I can assure you, Beauxbatons is not the school doing all of this. However, I cannot say the same for the others. . ." Jacqueline didn't really wait for a response and instead focused her attention on listening to the other student's theories about the ghost and the cat and whatever else they thought was important to this hunt. Hearing another girl speak with a french accent, Jac looked around for the source of the voice. It wasn't someone she particularly recognized, but she assumed they also went to Beauxbatons. Were they the only two from their school willing to help figure this whole thing out? Suddenly, someone began yelling out random names. Jacqueline supposed it was one was to do things, since the ghost rider had said something about calling his full name, but she doubted it would get them anywhere. Just like she had thought, nothing happened. Hopefully she'd stop screaming soon. . .

Hmm. . . who could the ghost be? Jacqueline wondered to herself. All the students had been thinking of the Headless Hunt crew, but then decided that no, the ghost hadn't seemed beheaded. This got Jacqueline thinking though, and she voiced her opinion aloud. "Do the ghosts of the Headless Hunt keep their heads off their necks the whole time? Isn't it possible that he just had it on his neck then? To confuse people or something?" She wasn't very sure about her theory, but it could be true. She wished she had someone to talk to. . . she didn't know very many people at Beauxbatons yet, and the people she did know didn't seem to be here. Of course, Louis may have been here if she hadn't left him behind, but. . . Jacqueline pushed that thought aside and followed the rest of the group as they followed the cat to a painting.

To Jac, the painting didn't look that special. It was huge, that was true, but nothing else about it was very. . . eye catching. When she looked a little closer, however--something that was a little hard to do with everyone crowded around it already--she saw that the figure inside the portrait was on the ground, bleeding. Jacqueline looked around the hallway at the other students to see what they thought. She heard many trying to question the figure himself, something she wasn't sure would be the best idea, since he didn't seem in the condition to talk. One girl, a redhead Jac remembered seeing earlier, was asking the figure many questions. Still, she seemed focused on the task at hand. . . Seeing a few others examining the portraits around the hall and not just this one, she did the same. Noticing the other girl from Beauxbatons she had seen earlier, Jacqueline walked over to her with a bright smile on her face. "Hello, you also go to Beauxbatons, right?"

For the mods:
Action: Entering the Hunt, searching the whole hall for more clues
Stamina 6 | Evasion 6 | Strength 4 | Wisdom 7 | Arcane Power 6 | Accuracy 6
Lovely Creature
Allies: Cassie Heather McGregor-Martin and Scarlett Aden

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The spell had failed, oh well.

"Ah, our spells always falter sometimes," Scarlett had said, to which Kara nodded her head in agreement. Kara of course remembered her faulty attempts at spells in her own first year.

"Nice job with the spell but it's probably just a regular piece of candy with no secrets hidden," Henry had said to Cassie, but he then started to talk to Kara.

"So the candy was a failure, looks like we really just have to follow the cat that may be a patronus and figure out the riddle."

Kara put her hand on her chin in a thinking position, then spoke.

"It is true that a patronus can be a messenger when needed, but the cat never spoke, only the ghost did. It's also true that the candy may be just plain old candy as Scarlett seems fine." Kara pointed to Scarlett, who had popped a sherbet lemon in her mouth.

Apparently, Henry had overheard some other kid, but she didn't, cause he turned the group and asked,

"What do you think paintings will be afraid of?"

Kara turned her head to the portraits, then directed her gaze to Henry.

"Maybe they aren't scared, I mean, they're paintings. But they could be trying to warn us like everyone else here in this castle it seems." She inquired.

She crossed her arms, looking around, till a girl bumped into her with a moon costume, pushing her slightly, so she glared at the girl profusely.

"Hiya guys! Hi Scarlet, remember meee?" The girl chirped.

"Do they normally do stuff like this to spice things up? 'Cause I think that's well cool! Are we doing spells? Oh my gosh, yessss! I can make things dance, ya know! It's realllllly funny. Like really."

All right, this girl was really pissing her off. She was acting like a two year old. She understands that the girl is cheerful. But it was the wrong time for that.

"Excuse me?!? You really think this is cool? Are you that ignorant. This is real, and this is serious. We all have a possibility of death right now and you think that this is some joke? Well guess what, I have experience here at Hogwarts, and this is not some facade, so you best straighten up and help, or leave right now moon girl!" Kara scolded her, making sure to emphasize the nickname she gave the the curly haired girl.

"Also, be wary of others around you. When you flailed your arms around like you were drowning, you almost smacked me straight in the face. Hmph" Kara huffed gruffly, crossing her arms. Kara rarely yelled, but when someone pisses her off enough, she will.

"This thing is definitely not organized. And making things dance is cool! Tarantalegra, right?" Scarlett had acknowledged the girl much more calmly that Kara.

"Hey, I'm Henry by a chance do you know Lumos? Not that the dancing feet charm isn't helpful, it certainly is in a duel," Henry had said.

A few moments after Kara scolding the moon kid, Heather had showed up.

"Here you were guys!" Heather said, she then turned to Kara "I'd called you out just before you left the ballroom, but you mustn't have heard me."

"Oh" She said, looking at Heather with a slight guilty look, but it would be hard to notice "Sorry I didn't notice you, my head was in a the game apparently."

Heather then turned to Henry, and from their conversation, she figured out that Henry has a girlfriend.

"Good for him I guess..." She thought, her own head trailing off to Hanako, but she shook her head, snapping back into reality.

"I hope you all don't mind if I tag along with you, right? So, what did you find up until now?" Heather rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Of course. It's good to have more hands on deck." Kara said.

"Of course you can join us, the more the better especially in situations like this Heather." Henry had said.

Suddenly, a the ghostly cat had appeared. She made eye contact with it, her own chocolate brown eyes widening, but then, a cat had leapt through it, most likely trying to play with it.

Henry had already talked with the owner of the tabby cat that tried tackling the ghost cat, but he turned back to the group.

"It plays or interacts with other creatures like cats and Slytherin's," He had also hinted about Hanako to her, to which she laughed at softly. She leaned in to whisper in his ear.

"You know, I still have to 'protect' him from cats. Heh" She then leaned away.

"so it's probably not a patronus, maybe it is a ghost. Do you think it's like the ones known are traveling ghosts or do you think he stays here at Hogwarts? As anyone see him or her around before?"

Kara wasn't even listening anymore, she was instead following the ghostly cat to a portrait. She looked at it, and her eyes widened. The person was bloody, barely conscious, still trying to hold on to it's painted life.

"Why'd you lead me here?" She whispered under her breath, looking at the cat, but no response was given, only the ominous silence, till Henry showed up beside her.

"Can we help them? Does anyone know anything about moving portraits? Could we help them? Do you think someone purposely painted them like this?"

"I don't really know much, but it seems that they're in a lot of pain." The person in the painting may not have been alive, but she still felt responsibility and sympathy for them.

She turned to the group remembering something.

"When I was still getting here, I had passed the ghost, and I saw an emblem on his cloak. It was a wand and a bone crossed, can someone ask the other portraits if they recognize that symbol?

She gingerly touched the painting after Henry had attempted to cast Lumos Maximum. It felt rough, like dry paint and the material on a canvas.

She kneeled down to the cat, and looked it straight in the eyes. She took off her mask and put it in her pocket.

"Come on girl, you gotta help us out. So far, you haven't been that helpful." She sighed in defeat, putting her head down. But something random popped her head.

"I'm gonna call you Star." She said, sticking her hand out, beckoning the cat to sniff her hand, trying to create friendship, maybe if someone had a relationship with Star, she would actually help out some more.

Action- Touching the painting and trying to befriend Star (the cat)

Stats
Stamina: 4 | Evasion: 6 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 8 | ArcPower: 7 | Accuracy: 6