futile devices pv katrina walker

Five days since the train crash. Five days and, Katrina was somehow fine? Every other time something bad had happened, it took months for Katrina to return to some sort of normal. But this time, she was functional. She attended classes. She continued practicing for dueling. Her life hadn't really changed. The only things different was Katrina on the inside. She was more paranoid than ever, but she'd come to a point in which she could completely hide it. But now there was also a fire in her, an innate desire for answers. At any cost.

Katrina found herself in the library, bent over a few old books about the history of Hogwarts, mainly the Hogwarts Express. In the past, it didn't seem like the train had ever been stopped like that. It was always functional, never having the caboose blown off. No more answers. Katrina leaned back in her chair, tilting her sore neck side to side. The frustrated third year raked a hand through her hair, letting it messily fall back.

That's when she heard a scream. At least, it sounded like a scream. For a moment, Katrina was paralyzed with panic, not again, nothing could go wrong again, not today, not now. Then there weas the faint sound of sobbing. Bloody hell, someone hadn't just gotten hurt, had they? Katrina left her desk behind, chair left at an odd angle as Katrina went in search of the sobs. There wasn't a sound of a crash, so it wasn't like a bookshelf could have fallen. But maybe there was some sort of attacker. Katrina unstrapped the wand holster in sleeve of her robes just in case.

It wasn't terribly long before Katrina found a young girl bent over against a bookshelf, curled up on the floor, sobbing. Katrina took in the scene quickly, it seemed she hadn't been hurt after all. There was a puddle of water growing on the floor and a soggy mess of paper and ink on the table. At first, it just looked like the girl had possibly spilled water on a few inches of parchment, but surely that wasn't the source of such a breakdown. Katrina re-snapped the wand holster, no attacker, but everything was certainly not alright.

Katrina knelt down beside the girl a few feet away, giving her some distance in case she tried to leave. "Hey, hey, hey," Katrina's voice was soft and gentle, though she was careful to make sure it wasn't condescending, "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

Aspen curled into herself, her sweats soaking up the tea and tears. She toys with her locket, the one her mom gave her for Christmas and holds it tightly as she hears soft footsteps approaching. A girl with fiery red hair kneels down next to Aspen. By the looks of it, this girl is older and more prepared Aspen is able to note, as she watches the girl slid her wand into her sleeve.

The older girl tries to calm her, asking what is wrong. Aspen lifts her head, wiping her face dry with her sleeve. What's wrong? Such a simple question, but how does one word the pain, fear, doubt and anxiety swimming around Aspen's brain. But before Aspen can even try to form a cohesive thought, her mouth works faster than her brain. "I- I haven't slept in three days. Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, it's, it's not safe anymore."

Maybe that is a good answer, maybe this older, braver, fiery girl knows what happened, knows what is going on, and can help. She can explain it to Aspen, tell her it was a prank gone wrong or a test set up by there professors. Or maybe, maybe she has to tell Aspen that no one knows what this is, and that these children have to fight, or they will loose themselves in the darkness as her housemates almost did.

The younger girl looked even younger sitting curled up by the bookshelf. She was fumbling with something by her neck, Katrina wondered if it was a locket like she used to wear. Katrina easily assumed the girl was a first year, small frame, younger look about her. She had long black hair but that was just about all Katrina could identify from her.

When Katrina neared the girl, she was comforted to see she didn’t shy away. Katrina moved a little closer when she looked up, teary eyes meeting Katrina’s. Everything about the girl was telling Katrina that she needed a hug, but she ought to know why she was crying before it came to that. She stumbled out a few phrases, not sleeping, something about Hufflepuff, and lastly, the thing always on Katrina’s mind, ‘it’s not safe anymore’.

Katrina’s first reaction was blunt, no, it’s not safe, it’s never been safe, and it doesn’t seem like it’ll be any safer in the future. But if Katrina learned anything from the last time she had warned a mostly unknowing student, it wasn’t a good idea to be that blunt. “It’s okay, you’re safe right now, I’ll protect you,” Katrina wasn’t sure if the present protection was even something the girl needed, but she was desperately trying to stall until she could come up with the right thing to do. At least her words would likely put the girl at ease enough to relay more specifics.

Katrina scooted closer to the girl, beside her in fact, close enough that she hoped her proximity was comforting and not imposing. “I know the school can be scary,” Katrina started out, with a low voice, still keeping the same gentle tone she’d started with, “Believe me, I know,” Flashes of memories welled up in Katrina’s mind but she battered them down, now was not the time to be dealing with that. “But sacrificing your sleep for that long is not healthy. It doesn’t matter how scared you are, taking care of yourself is infinitely more important than anything else,” Katrina swallowed, hating that what she was saying also applied to herself.

“Hogwarts has never been 100% safe. It’s a school for young witches and wizards to learn magic, and magic isn’t always safe, just like everything you do isn’t always perfectly safe. But it’s perfectly normal to be scared and afraid, especially after something happened that was scary or frightening. Your feelings are completely validated,” Katrina bit the inside of her cheek, she needed something more specific. Vague musings weren’t really going to help. What had she heard about Hufflepuff recently, or the school in general? Certainly the girl wasn’t referring to the Hogwarts Express incident because she specified Hufflepuff. There was the fire a while back, but Katrina doubted this girl would have even been at the school at that time. Wait, hadn’t she heard something about the hags recently? Or the dark magic? Some sort of undead or shadow creatures. Merlin, why hadn’t she been paying more attention?

“Hey, but it’s going to be okay,” Katrina ended, her hazel eyes attempting to meet the girl’s.

Aspen takes another long, deep breath. She is not here to just cry, no, she needs guidance, an education, she needs to understand what is happening. The fiery girl comes closer, promising to protect Aspen, something that while she does not need now, carries more weight than the other girl could ever know.

It seems, it seems this older girl knows exactly what to say, knows exactly how to pull Aspen back down to earth, back into the living world. With one final breath, Aspen unwraps herself, her tears are still flowing, but they are easier to ignore. Something this other girl is saying clicks, it is like, this is not the first time something like what happened happened. It sounds like it has happened before and will keep happening and Aspen, Aspen will not let herself be weak again.

She looks up at the other girl for the first time, "What is... what is all this? Do you know, just anything more than I do?"

Aspen's big, glossy eyes bore into the other girl's. She reaches for her bag and grabs a piece of parchment as it hits her. She has been approaching this all wrong, it is not a multiple-choice problem, no this is a puzzle and Aspen is a master at them.

Banner by Juniper Yu

Katrina was surprised on how her own words seemed to flow perfectly. She noticed the subtle changes in the other girl’s expression. Something was working in her mind. But Katrina continued the reassurance a bit longer. At last, Katrina saw the girl come to a sort of conclusion. It was evident in her features, she had either figured something out, or had come to some sort of conclusion. Katrina didn’t pry, instead let the girl say it out loud on her own.

"What is... what is all this? Do you know, just anything more than I do?"

Well, that was quick. The assumedly first year went from scared, afraid, and defeated right into defiant and searching for answers. Sure, there wasn’t so much of a change on the outside, but Katrina knew the change on the inside, she’d been through that same change not too long ago. There was a point at which everyone stopped passively watching bad things happened and did what they could to actively prevent them.

“Whatever you experienced wasn’t the first bad thing to happen to the school,” Katrina admitted. Her tone had changed from comforting to more of a storyteller’s tone. Most storytellers’ voices, when you hear them, you automatically assume that what you’re about to hear may not be 100% truth, but in this case, Katrina was using the tone to soften the blow of the reality. “I’m a Third Year, but before I was even at the school, bad things were happening. There was a Blossomball, the Spring of my first year, I didn’t attend, but I heard stories of hags, dementors, and spiked punch. Then there was the Masquerade Ball that next Autumn, I attended that one, there were half giants, a huge fire, and several students got badly injured, and one boy, Galton, another Gryffindor, was cursed by some candy of some kind,” Katrina took a deep breath, noting if she needed to soften her tone, the truth was often as scary as any lie. “Then, last year’s Secret Blossomball, there were mosps, I’ve not sure if you learned about them, but they are large wasp/moth hybrids that have a painful sting that leaves scars,” At this, Katrina pulled up the sleeve of her left arm, in the crook of her elbow was a large golf-ball sized scar, the skin lighter then the rest, and the skin was raised up some. Katrina then pulled the hair back from her ear, revealing a smaller mark there as well. “I found out recently that the mosps weren’t a part of any nefarious scheme though, there were just a huge amount of flowers and the mosps who live in the Forbidden Forest were simply curious and when a student attacked them, they retaliated,” Katrina licked her lips, “And then there was the Fall Ball this Autumn, with some sort of enchanted dolls. I don’t know so much about them because I had some personal matters to tend to, but I know they were dangerous,”

Katrina swallowed. There was a lot more to admit. More horrors in the school walls. But Katrina planned to share them in chunks. She had recently been trying to put the pieces together herself, spending long days reading and taking notes and getting eye-witness testimonies of what has been going on. She needed answers, and it was time that Katrina shared some of what she had found to someone other than her closest friends, who even they didn’t know the extent of her research.

Aspen's brain, it was working, thinking, putting together the edges of this puzzle, letting herself be lost in the riddle of it all. Aspen picks up her quill, and begins to take her notes as the older, wiser, hardened girl speaks.

Most of it, it shocks Aspen. Many of these creatures are ones she has not even learned about in class, only heard of in whispers and the back of her textbooks.

By the time the other girl is done, Aspen lets out a disheveled sort of laugh, one that she attempts to cover up with a cough or two. Taking a breath to collect herself, Aspen comes to realize that she had never mentioned darkness, yet was not surprised to hear that it had appeared. This other girl, she is still holding back.

Aspen realizes she is still crying, silent tears cascading down her cheeks, but why is she crying? At the lose of safety, her childhood, her innocence? Whatever it is, Aspen knows, in this moment that it is worth losing if it means being able to help others and make sure that no more first years end up in this same situation, having mental breakdowns in the Library after some detrimental event.

"I took some notes, but something isn't adding up. I need you..." Aspen realizes she never got the other girl's name, but continues anyways, this is not the time for pleasantries. "I need to know what else is going on. In muggle tales, there are these things called hag dolls, could they be the enchanted dolls from the fall ball?"

Aspen herself had not been to the fall ball, she was busy in her dorm doing a jigsaw puzzle her dad sent her. Oh the irony she sees now. But maybe, maybe it was for the best. In November, Aspen was struggling on how to simply write home and tell her parents about her studies, she was not ready for the hell that seems to take place at these school dances.

Aspen slides the parchment over towards the other girl with one hand and clenches the other. She needs to pull herself together, this will not be an easy conversation.

Spring 2019:
Hags
Dementors
Spiked punch - spiked with what?

Autumn 2019:
Half giants
Fire
Lots of injuries
Curses? Candy?

Spring 2020:
Mosps - not part of the weirdness but still hurt many students

Fall 2020:
Enchanted dolls - related to hags?

Katrina spoke slower as she realized that the other girl was taking notes. Letting her have time to write down little summaries. It was almost amusing seeing her do almost identically what she had done several weeks prior. Trying to put together the pieces, figure out the source, see how they were all connected. There was a determination on the girls face, even as tears ran down it. It was scary and frightening, but it was something that had to be addressed to move on. Once that feeling of safety is destroyed, you have to figure out how to move on, and part of that process-- Katrina had deducted-- was figuring out everything and what continued to be a threat.

The girl let out a depressed sounded laugh. Katrina almost matched it, with more of an exhale laugh, dejected and burdened. It was a lot to process. The girl was thinking through something, as evident to the fact that she didn't seem done yet. That wasn't all there was. The girl continued to cry, silently, she even seemed to not really notice it. Katrina had stopped crying over it a long time ago. Instead she packed it away to deal with later, stuffing her emotions away where she almost forgot about them as they brewed stronger and darker, it was dangerous, and it led to Katrina horrible and disastrous outbursts, but at this point it was all she knew how to do. She just hoped she could help this girl never get to that point.

The girl asked for more. "Yes, the enchanted dolls I believe are hag dolls. I haven't ever been face to face with them or really seen much of them and I don't really know anyone personally that has dealt with them so I don't know too much. But I have heard rumors that there are hags in the dungeons of the school. Something about the professors going after them a few months back. But I haven't been following that so much. I think there has been stuff in the headliner about that as well, I might be able to find you a spare copy."

Katrina scanned over the girls list of what she had wrote down so far. Katrina began slowly, "I want you to know that there is a lot more. And I don't want to scare you to the point that you never want to do anything. Almost all of the bad things that have happened are plenty preventable by sticking with friends and not being alone and not adventuring to parts of the castle that are not patrolled by staff people. Always stick to the curfews. And if you are in a group setting, just make sure there is a staff member or upperclassman with you,"

Katrina took a slow inhale. "December of 2019, I had gone up to the Headmasters office after seeing other students go up there as well. Curious, I followed behind. Apparently, the headmaster had been gone for at least several weeks, there was evidence of some sort of break-in. But the headmaster has returned and that has gone back to normal as far as I know," There were also a bunch of Pygmy Puff bones up there but that was far from necessary information.

"This is a bit of a scarier one, but February of 2019, there was a raid on the Slytherin common room. Large spiders made of darkness. My closest friend was bitten by one. The venom was cursed of some kind and spread through her veins. That's why there are some Slytherin students with black markings. The curse never went away. They have to take medicine at the Hospital Wing fairly frequently to keep it at bay but they haven't found a cure yet. That's why we now have patrols at night and the curfew"

"Again with the Slytherin's last summer July 2020, they partook in a fight club for information. It was definitely planned beforehand and there was a lot of hurt caused by it. A student even died. That was the only time I know of that a student died. And again, that is why it is so crucial to never adventure alone,"

"This next one I was there for. This halloween you may have heard stuff about it. I won't go into detail because there was a lot going on that night. But three students, including me, were kidnapped in the Forbidden Forest. I don't know what you may have heard about that night but that's why we had the school wide shut down that night. Never, ever, ever go into the forbidden forest under any circumstances"

Katrina was quiet now. The rest of the things she knew were all rumors. She didn't know anyone in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff who had talked about what they had witnessed. Either they had been some of the luckier ones or they, like Katrina, tended to avoid the topics of it. People don't like to admit when they are scared or when something bad has happened, they would rather pretend it never happened. But it was time things were addressed at least partially.