Mystery in the Halls Closed

Today, Cass roamed the corridors with a reluctant destination- the dreaded school library. It was certainly not by free will that they were here, but they supposed that they should probably have a go studying at least once. So far, they had been avoiding it like the plague and had only been there once before way back at the beginning of the year when they were exploring the school for the first time. Who would voluntarily go into a place filled with that many books?

But still, they had to pass first year (though they had never heard of anyone failing it before) so they had to study at least once. Though they reckoned they could probably con the examiners, surely any event that happened in 1842 was a goblin rebellion. It was always a goblin rebellion. They were starting to wonder why. Perhaps they should pay more attention in history of magic. Who were they even rebelling against anyway?

The dreaded place of study was quiet today (a shame. some chaos would have made it more fun) as they slipped through its wide doors. Dragging one hand along a bookshelf, they wandered the maze of shelves in an attempt to find a quiet place where they wouldn't get distracted. It was unlikely to remain a quiet place for long if they were in it though. That's when they heard the noise. It could only be described as a thud, perhaps a book falling or someone dropping something.

Still, desperate for entertainment as they were, they made their way towards it. A strange scene greeted their eyes. A small hufflepuff girl with blond hair knelt besides a bag with its contents spilled out onto the floor. There was a notebook besides it, and a quill that must have had an extremely bad day. No one was writing with that thing again anytime soon, and probably for the best. It looked like it could cause some injury if you accidentally poked yourself in the eye with it."You need a hand?" they asked her. Perhaps she had dropped her stuff.

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Ruby looked up at the voice, her eyes meeting those of the student who had approached her. She recognized Cass, a fellow first-year, though they had never really spoken before. Cass's offer of help seemed genuine, and Ruby decided that an extra pair of eyes might be useful.

Thanks. She picked up the leather bag and the scattered items, carefully placing them on the nearby table. She motioned for Cass to follow her as she moved closer to a lamp to better examine the notebook. The initials "M.A." became clearer under the light, embossed in gold on the red cover. Ruby noticed that the ink on the edges of the letters was still a bit wet, as if the initials had been recently added.

Ruby's fingers traced the initials once more, her mind racing. Who was M.A., and why had they left in such a hurry? She glanced at Cass, who seemed equally intrigued.

I wonder who this belongs to. She carefully opened the notebook, expecting to find more notes or sketches. Instead, she found only one diary entry. The ink on the entry was also quite recent, still slightly glossy under the light. The rest of the pages were blank. This seemed very strange.

Ruby's heart pounded as she read the entry. The handwriting was neat, but there was a sense of urgency in the words. She turned the diary in the direction of Cass, so he could read with her.

22nd of April

While I didn’t think it was possible for me to make enemies, a blue-robed girl has taught me otherwise for the past week. Victoria and I were assigned a group project on the Gargoyle Strike of 1911, and naturally, I took the initiative and outlined our approach.

Of course, Victoria had to swoop in with her holier-than-thou attitude, red hair blazing like she simply knew better than anybody. She didn’t simply disagree with me, oh no, she had to make it personal. Her words cut like knives as she accused me of hogging credit and trying to undermine me.

Who does she think she is, talking to me like I’m some foolish ignorant? Her condescending tone was enough to make my blood boil. I tried to stand my ground, but she just wouldn’t back down. She has made an enemy today, and she’ll forever regret ever crossing me.

Victoria may think she’s won this battle, but mark my words, I’ll have my revenge. She’s underestimated me for the last time, and this time I won’t settle for shrinking her book.

Until next time,

Margaret

This was no ordinary notebook. Ruby flipped through the blank pages, confirming there were no other entries. It was puzzling and unsettling that someone would have such a detailed, recent entry and nothing else.

We need to find M.A.. This could be important. She looked around the library, half-expecting someone to appear and claim the bag, but no one did. Do you know a student named Margaret?

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She was doing his homework in the silence of the library. The silence of the library was very peaceful. A noise broke this silence. When Tori quickly stood up in surprise, the bottle of ink on the table spilled on her and her little finger. As a result, it spilled onto the parchment she was writing on. Without paying much attention, she got up and went to where the sound was. She couldn't help but think that maybe someone was injured or worse.

When the voice went there, she looked at the ground and saw that a Hufflepuff girl and Cass, whom she had met at the Owlery, were there. The girl had a book in her hand, pointed at the light. When she looked at the table, she saw that there were some items and a broken quill. She went to them with concern.

"Hello. Is everyone okay here? I mean, I was wondering when I heard a noise. Isn't everything okay?"

Her eyes shifted to the notebook as he spoke. Her eyes were wide open when she saw what was written. This was Margaret's diary. They didn't get off to a good start with that girl and eventually became enemies.

"Is this Margaret's diary? Is that perfection-obsessed girl here? Are these her belongings?"

@Ruby Night
@Cass Ito
@Giselle Lam
@Margaret Adamson

interacting with: Reducio @Ruby Night, @Cass Ito, @Margaret Adamson, @Victoria Lena Jones

Outfit: Reducio

Date: Reducio 27th April 2024

After a long day of classes, Giselle sped down to the grounds, hoping for a child but otherwise peaceful afternoon. Suddenly, s as soon as she remembered that she left something in the library, Giselle hesitantly changed her direction and headed there instead. Yawning, she beckoned herself forward and pushed opened the door.

As she entered the room, she saw three people cowering over a notebook. Walking closer, she recognised them - Ruby, whom she went to honeydukes with; Cass, whom she officially met at the abandoned toilets, and finally, Tori, one of her besties, and the absolute best troublemaker ever. Her eyes shone upon the notebook - for real this time. Her eyes sparkling with curiosity, she gazed at it in wonder, chancing upon it.

Hey guys! Mind if I see this for a second?

As she took the notebook from them, Giselle started reading. While I didn’t think it was possible for me to make enemies, a blue-robed girl has taught me otherwise for the past - She then frowned rather uncertainly, trying to guess who it was. But she would never know the answer until she read on.

- week. Victoria and I were assigned a group project on the Gargoyle Strike of 1911, and naturally, I took the initiative and outlined our approach.

Of course, Victoria had to swoop in with her holier-than-thou attitude, red hair blazing like she simply knew better than anybody. She didn’t simply disagree with me, oh no, she had to make it personal.

Giselle then stopped. At that point, questions were blaring in her head. How could my bestie do that - no, it’s bit her. What did this mean? What’re we supposed to do? Is this a clue of some kind? Who wrote this?

Still, she read on. At the end, she smiled. At least she’d gotten one answer to her questions.

[quote]Until next time,

Margaret

Guys, I think that this a clue of some kind…

Her voice trailed off. She didn’t exactly know what to say about that, and that was until she adopted another piece of parchment on the floor. She then held it up for the other there to read.

‘Ness Draught’

3 measures of Firewhiskey, 4 woodlice, 2 Sprigs of Skurvy Grass, 2 Spider Legs

She then frowned, not knowing what to do for her next move. She just shrugged, and waited for the other three to answer.

If this stuff didn't belong to the blond first year, then whose was it? People normally didn't just leave their stuff lying around the library unless they were running off to go fight great evil or something. Or just extremely forgetful, but this was a lot of stuff to forget and it didn't look like trash to them. They followed the girl over to the table, and ran their hand over the notebook.

M.A wasn't necessarily an uncommon initial, but still they wracked their brains to see if they could remember another student with the same name."I'm not sure" they told her "I don't know anyone with those initials, but the schools a big place". Leaning over to read it, they slowly worked their way down the page. Reading was normally the most boring thing on the planet, but special occasions called for special measures.

This was something strange, thats for sure. There was a chance that they knew the Victoria M.A was talking about- they had met a Victoria Lena Jones up in the owlery one morning, but surely she was way too nice to be anyone's enemy. To threaten her as well was a step too far. To leave something this incriminating lying around was suspicious, almost like someone had wanted them to find it. Probably not them specifically, but perhaps the other first year? There was a chance someone was trying to start a fight, but also a chance they were just overthinking things. Best to keep quiet for now.

"And no, never met whoever she is" they replied to the girl "Im Cass by the way". Almost as if she was summoned, none other than Victoria Lena Jones came around the corner. Talking about this Margret girl to, almost definitely the same Margret. "They might be" they dramatically slid the journal across to Victoria. She was followed by Giselle, another firstie Cass had encountered before. They gave her a friendly smile and gestured for her to join Victoria by the journal.

She was quick to hold up a piece of paper, and Cass mentally filed away how perceptive she was for later. Sometimes they hated how calculating they could be. Eager for a distraction from their sudden change of mood, they leaned over to read it. What on earth was a Ness Draught? It did look torn, so it was probably the end of another word. The ingredients meant that they could probably figure out what if they just had a potions book on them. Their location however meant that they had books all around them. "A drought is a potion. We should grab some potions books and see if we can figure out what she might be trying to brew, and then go from there" they said to the group.

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Ruby looked at the Slytherin next to her.
I'm Cass, by the way.
Hi there, I'm Ruby. I have seen you walk through the corridors, but we never actually spoke, I guess.

She heard a sound and turned around to see where it came from. A Ravenclaw girl came around the corner towards them. Ruby also didn't know her. Maybe this are her stuff? Behind her followed Giselle, who also joined them at their table. They all took a look at the diary. But it didn't belong to any of them.

"Is this Margaret's diary? Is that perfection-obsessed girl here? Are these her belongings?"

So you now the owner of the items? Maybe you could give them back to her? Ruby made the suggestion, but something in the tone of the girl's voice told her they were not really good friends. She wondered what had happened there.

She saw Giselle bending down and picking something off the floor. Apparently they didn't see it there the first time. She looked at the piece of parchment, but couldn't make much out of it. She recognised it as a part of a potion, but being a first year, it didn't look as a potion she already learned. Cass proposed they should look for a potion's book.

I know where they are, I will get some books so we could search them to find the right potion. She walked towards the shelf with potion books, careful not to be too excited or walk too fast. She didn't want to be expelled from the library. Being curious as she was, she wanted to know what was going on.

She returned to the table with the other students and dropped some books on the table.
Come on, guys. Let's all take a book and start searching. Maybe it will tell us something if we find out which potion it was. She grabbed the book closest to her and started to scan the pages. Eventually they would find the right one.

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Tori looked at the Hufflepuff girl. They had not met and he had told no one about his disagreements with Margaret.

"We don't get along well with him. By the way, I guess we haven't met yet. I'm Victoria. What is your name? And believe me, it never happened that way."

She didn't want the girl to get wrong information about him or to make a blind start. Hufflepuff didn't have that many friends and was always open to making new ones, but she didn't want this opportunity to be spoiled by Matgaret's writings.

When Giselle arrived, she smiled at the girl. She was her best mischief partner friend. She went to find some more things in the bag. She had a really bad feeling inside.

When Giselle found a note, she remembered that it was a potion studied in class and began to rummage through Margaret's bag. When he found the potions book inside, she started to leaf through the pages. When she found the page, she showed it to the others and started talking.

"This is Dizziness Draught. If one takes a full dose of one of these, the person taking it will experience dizziness and loss of balance. So if it's going to be done, it might be best to put it in food or something."

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Ruby listened to Victoria, as she explained about the Dizziness Draught. She was glad someone knew which potion it was, so they didn’t have to waste their entire day searching all these books. She put her book back at the top of the pile next to her. Her mind wandered a little, as she flipped through the pages of the notebook one last time. On one page she discovered a single red hair.

Look, guys, there’s a red hair in this book. This could be important too. She showed the hair to the rest of the group.
I’ll keep it safe with me, if that’s all right. She took out a glass vial and put the hair inside.

Giselle gathered her stuff and said something about the abandoned toilets.
What do you want to do there? Do you think we could find something there? But I think it’s a good idea to leave the library. We need to find Margaret and ask her what happened.

She followed Giselle’s example and gathered all her stuff from where she was sitting before. In her head, she kept going over everything that had happened so far.
This is so strange. There has to be more to it. There has to be something we can do. But Giselle is right, we need to leave the library to find the girl and the truth.
She returned to the rest of the group. She saw Giselle smile. Maybe she came to the same conclusion as her.

Do we need to brew this potion? And if we do, how do we get the ingredients and where do we brew this? She looked back at Giselle. The abandoned toilets would actually be perfect I think. Good idea. She smiled back at Giselle. This could turn out to be more fun than she expected. She started to go to the door, and waited for the rest to follow.

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