Trouble in the Dark PV Charlotte Cadunt Closed

Margo continued to pick her blackberries, contented until luscious fruits almost reached the rim of her tin. She pushed the lid on and sighed. She’d better get back inside- for it was more than a little risky to be out of bed after curfew. Besides, she’d have to be up early to send a few of her precious blackberries home. It would serve as both an apology and a reminder to her parents because their Autumn camping trip wouldn’t happen this year. Both of the White children were in Hogwarts and the magical school didn’t have half term holidays like their previous muggle one did. However, Margo hoped that her family members would remember the fun times they’d had- not that there wouldn’t be more- and a morning owl delivering blackberries would be the perfect reminder. Or perhaps, she thought, you could send an evening owl... But no, then your parents would then be aware of the rule breaking, and they wouldn’t be pleased. 

It was just so liberating to break the rules though, and Margo couldn’t help but pause in order to savour the moment. She tilted her head back to look at the sky above her and smiled. She could truly let go here, let her mask slip away. It was a comfortable mask, of course, and usually more desirable than what lay underneath- but it had the same principal as following the rules, and just then Margo wanted to be free.

Someone cleared their throat behind her and Margo spun around, grabbing her wand from the pocket of her robes and brandishing it in front of her. She was met with the sight of a girl in silver pyjamas and wearing a mustard coloured cardigan. Obviously not someone who snuck out often then. The girl’s clothes held a stark contrast to Margo’s black ones; it had pained the colour enthusiast to wear such a boring outfit, but then, she’d rather be boring for one, solitary evening than be caught. 

In the pyjama girl’s arms was a notebook. Margo could only assume that it was the reason for the girl being out of bed. The only written class that younger students, such as Margo and the girl, had outside was Herbology, so Margo had to guess that the girl enjoyed, or at least cared about the subject. The girl’s back faced the greenhouses, and considering that they were in view from where Margo was picking her berries, she came to the conclusion that they were the girl’s previous destination. It could also be guessed that the girl was a Hufflepuff from the colour of her jumper and her liking for plants- but Margo didn’t want to jump to stereotypical conclusions. She then realised that she was still brandishing her wand in front of her. She couldn’t help but be proud of the reflex- not that she knew many spells to ward off an attacker. With an apologetic glance towards the girl, Margo slowly lowered her wand. 

'H--Hi. Should we go back to the castle together? It--It's getting pretty late and I'd hate for either of us to get in trouble.' The girl said. Margo hated the idea of getting caught aswell, but she didn’t know if she wanted to head back up to Hogwarts with someone who stuck out so much in the moonlight. Call her cold hearted, but it really wasn’t her fault that the girl was out of bed, and she was trying to save both of their skins. They’d have a much better chance of success if they each took their separate paths. 

However, the girl had just offered to accompany her- something Margo definitely would not have done. It would be interesting to have a conversation with somebody so different from herself, Margo thought, and the night was so clear that they’d see another figure from a mile away. So, she decided, she would accompany the girl to the castle, but at the first sign of danger she would save her own skin before helping the girl. 

“Let’s make our way then. It would be just great to be caught at the edge of the Forbidden Forest after curfew.” Margo said, her gaze fixed on the girl. “What’s your name?” She added curiously. She couldn’t keep calling her pyjama girl for the rest of their time together. 

“I’m Charlotte, Charlotte Cadunt.” Margo had to lean forwards to hear the quiet whisper. 

“I’m Margo White.” Margo whispered back, much more loudly. Usually, it was customary to smile after giving one’s name, or at least give some sort of expression. Margo, however, did not. She didn’t want to waste any more time and, besides, kind formalities were boring. That would probably clash rather loudly with Charlotte’s Hufflepuff morals... that is, if my assumptions are correct. Margo smirked slightly at the thought- if Charlotte had a problem with the Slytherin’s lack of enthusiasm then they’d have more than a few things to discuss. 

Margo surveyed the landscape around them at the other girl’s suggestion and nodded her head slightly. “Might aswell.” She said blandly, it was time to get into some real conversation. “Don’t you just love being out here? The thrill of rulebreaking is so refreshing. The breeze in your hair and the scent of the night in the air, it’s magical.” And so is my bad poetry, Margo thought. She wondered if Charlotte would speak her mind. She already knew that the other girl was a little afraid, and not a born rulebreaker, so she supposed that this was a sort of test of character. Thoughtfullly, Margo smirked. Well, she didn’t smirk thoughtfully, she smirked to continue her plan- she was trying to get a rise out of Charlotte. Perhaps this had been why she hadn’t had any good friends back in her old school, she pondered. She found it hard to control the urge to antagonise people.

The Great Lake glinted in the moonlight as the two girls neared it, the breeze swishing through the grass at their feet. As the wind whipped across their skin, Margo smiled her first true smile of the night. She was very taciturn- her moods changing more often than the sun’s rise and fall, and in that moment she was not in the mood for appreciating the beauty of people, but the beauty of nature. However, that was before she caught sight of the mud at the lake’s edge. Ugh. She had already encountered enough mud for a lifetime when with Ruby Cazares, and did not want to repeat the experience with this girl, no matter how much fun it may have been at the time. 

However, Margo had just agreed to go by the lake, and she hated people who went back on their word. She strode confidently after Charlotte... maybe a little too confidently, because her gaze was not where it should have been at her feet. Her shoes lost their grip on the first muddy patch they encountered and Splash! Margo slid straight down the bank and into the lake. 

She hissed as water started to soak her socks and water reeds tickled her arms. She hated having cold feet- there was nothing more uncomfortable. She shivered and froze for a second, sitting in the murky water and wondering what to say to the girl on the bank. In the end she decided that silence was the best option- a conclusion that she had come across very rarely in all of her 11 years of living. Pushing herself onto her feet, Margo scowled menacingly at the water and proceeded to shuffle towards the bank. 

~ * ~

Ruby stared up at the moonlit sky, her chin tilted up, her ice-blue eyes reflecting the multitude of stars above her. It was a cloudless night, and the temperature was rather low, but the Slytherin was prepared for it and had worn sufficiently warm clothes. Besides, she loved the chill of the night just as much as she loved the wonderful fresh smells that accompanied it. Nature in general pleased her, which is why she found herself spending time outside most days. It had always been that way – from climbing trees to splashing in mud, from playing in the rain to lazing in the sun with a good book. She would never give this up.

It was nearing 11:00, and Ruby had finished up the last of her rounds inside. She had come out here to double-check that there were no curfew-breakers outside (although she couldn't blame them for it and would likely have done the same if she wasn't a prefect). Truthfully, though, it was mainly to get a good look at the night and properly enjoy it before she would have to return to her dormitory and go to sleep.

She wandered along with her hands in her pockets, glancing down at her boots as she kicked a small stone out of her path half-heartedly. She was glad that her boots were waterproof, otherwise the dew would have undoubtedly soaked into them and got her feet wet. She was getting nearer to the lake and could make out its gently lapping waves and silvery gleam from here. Thinking she was alone, she had planned to just come and stare at it for a little while until she had to leave, but then she heard sounds that were out of the ordinary for the Hogwarts grounds at night. Her head whipped up as she turned to look in the direction of the noises. The creaking sound of a door, soft footsteps, hushed voices… and then a splash of something that was too large and heavy to be any animal around here that would want to be in the water, except for a human.

Slightly exasperated, she let out a small sigh and made her way over. As she got closer, she could see that there were two girls. When she was standing near them, she realized that they were about her age. She recognized one of them. It was Margo White, a Slytherin in her year that she had seen around. They had also recently had a race in the mud, and that was not the kind of experience that a professional prefect such as Ruby would have wanted to have had with someone in this situation.

She looked between the girls. Barely a second or two had passed since she had neared them. Rolling her eyes, she said in a bored tone, “Detention, both of you.” She raised an eyebrow at Margo's shuffling to attempt to get out of the lake. Perhaps it was an accident and she had just fallen in, but Ruby wondered why her fellow Slytherin had let herself get close enough to fall in in the first place. Margo happened to be in a place where it would be extremely difficult to climb out without help, so Ruby reluctantly extended a hand to the girl. To Ruby, this was not necessarily a kind offer to help. It was, in fact, one of her subtle social experiments. A test of character. Margo's reaction, and whether she took Ruby's hand and assistance, would give Ruby more of an insight into the personality and workings of the girl in front of her.

~ * ~

Margo dragged her fingers through the tangled mess that was her hair and looked upwards. To her surprise, she was not met with the sight of nice Charlotte, but instead, Ruby Cazares, standing perfectly composed at the water’s edge. If this was punishment for her arrogance, then Margo swore she would never utter another bigheaded word in her life. What was the girl doing here? How dare she interrupt a nice moonlit stroll between Slytherin and Hufflepuff, cold and kind. But... WAIT. Margo’s thoughts pulled the emergency breaking mechanism and screeched to a halt. A small badge glinted on the chest of Ruby’s robes and Margo almost face palmed for being so stupid. Only now did she remember the latest Slytherin news. Perfect Ruby was now a prefect- a fully fledged, detention issuing one. Oh joy. 

Now, Margo was a rulebreaker, plain and simple, but she never actually got into trouble. Being caught was annoying, but being caught by someone who you’d recently lost a race to and had just found you in another compromising position was infuriating. Ruby had even sounded bored when she issued them detention! Margo bet it would be a boring detention anyway. Something completely non-creative, proving the girl’s... annoyingness.

One could say that when Margo held a grudge, it usually stuck- as in, wouldn’t come off when scrubbed by the worlds best cleaner kind of stuck. However, she liked to trick the world, so when Ruby graciously offered a hand out to Margo and was definitely not trying to rub it in her face, Margo took said hand and flashed the girl a sweet smile. Just as the smile morphed into an evil smirk, Margo yanked her arm back, and pulled Ruby into the murky water. No words were nessecary to describe Margo’s satisfaction- she couldn’t have gotten rid of the smug smirk on her face if she’d tried. The only sound that broke her continued smugness was the splash of a small body hitting the surface of the lake. How peaceful. 

Of course Margo had slight suspicions that the now wet prefect would be a little annoyed, so she took some precautionary measures and swam slightly away from the casualty. If revenge is always this satisfying, then maybe I should do it more often. She smirked to herself. However, a small part of her that wasn’t revelling in the smugness (a very small part indeed) wondered why Ruby had offered her a hand in the first place. She had been a little mean towards the girl, not that it was at all unusual for her to be so, and the thought of Ruby still being kind after that made her feel even smaller in the girl’s shadow. She wasn’t jealous- she doubted she’d know the definition of that word if it smacked her right across the face with a broomstick- but she did like to be on a least equal ground with her acquaintances. Just then, she felt as if Ruby was at the top of a very steep incline and she was at the bottom... though Ruby was admittedly stuck in a smelly mountain lake, but those were minor details.