A Meeting Post Blossom Ball PV Closed

Elizabeth's wide eyes remained glued on the girl, her eyes showing utter surprise and amazement. "You're a student. From the castle!" she whispered. A slight smile appeared on her lips, and she quickly stood up. "You do not know how happy I am to see you!" She held her wand to her side, and walked closer to the older student, her eyes flickering back to the edge of their little clearing, where the approaching fog was beginning to obstruct her view. They needed to get away from here, to a location that was safer.

She approached the girl. "I'm looking for someone," she whispered. "She got injured during the fire, and she didn't come to the hospital. I think she might have come in here." Elizabeth began describing her friend's appearance, before remembering the doll tied to her waist. "She looks like this," she said, pulling the strange Illowy-doll from its secure position and holding it up for the girl to see. "Her name's Illowy. Have you seen her?"

Elizabeth once again stared at the doll. It was uncanny the precision that went into the doll's details. it looked exactly like her, albeit now with the addition of a small tear that had probably developed when Elizabeth had fallen. Elizabeth felt another chill go through her. She wondered how long ago it was made, deciding that it must not have been that long ago, as it contained the burns her friend had aquired just hours ago. She wondered if there was one for the girl who stood in front of her, or even for herself, despite having only been in the forest for a short time. Could whatever made it be watching them now?

Another chill swept through Elizabeth and her eyes darted back to the edge of their clearing, where strange shadows seemed to leap within the fog. She held her wand up again, pointing it toward the edge of the clearing in case one of the shadows turned out to be something more sinister and charged at them.

The kids weren't saying much, but he didn't mind. Less questions to answer. He could focus on calming his mind, moving forward. There was far too much evil in this forest, far, far too much for him to handle. He had to keep moving, he had to stay confident, strong. And he had to make a choice. Call for the other kids, try to find them and save them? Or just keep walking, be safer, increase their chances of safely returning. Or, more accurately, increasing his own.

He had just decided to keep his mouth shut when Elena ran in front of him, telling him about some kidnapping. Or at least the attempted one. He would deal with that later. The little bright haired girl was clearly running off of a lot of adrenaline. That didn't last long. He pulling her in close for a firm hug, not letting go of the other little girl as he did so, but rather pulling her in a bit closer.

"Don't worry about it right now, I'll grab some other professors as soon as we get out of here and then we'll sort all of this out. It is really good to see you, Elena. Well, let's not waste any time. Tally-ho."

Griffith stood back up, tall. Set his jaw, and then called out to the woods. He was not just going to cower away, not when he could help out some other students. He could fend whatever was out here off long enough for the students to escape. He was confident in that, at the very least.

"HEY! STUDENTS! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, CALL BACK."

And then he kept escorting them all out, out of the forest

Leaves thread with the students, unless he hears someone respond, or is otherwise prevented.

§

Elena wasn't expecting a hug back but she got one all the same, and was very happy with her hug. It calmed her nerves enough that she felt herself finally figured out that the cabins didn't feel as bad as the woods, there was something bad here, really bad, although she couldn't put her finger on it.

"There's something really really wrong here, I can feel it." She mumbled, "It's evil."

Elena didn't know if anyone heard her, let alone wanted to respond to a clearly overtired and hyperactive blue haired teenager that'd showed up out of nowhere but it was mainly for herself than anyone else. Leaving was a good idea, and she gripped the knife looped through her belt a little harder, pulling it out and fiddling with the hilt. Did anyone ever tell Elena not to be edgy? No, this was what all the cool book characters did, so it's what Elena did too. Lord knows she only had a bo staff because Yelena did in that book series, and her owl was named after the main love interest. Next thing you know she'll have a horse named Kiki.

Elena waved at the other girl with her free hand and followed Griffith.

Goes with Griffith if he leaves the thread, otherwise will hang around with him or the other students.

A sudden sound caused Elizabeth to jump and hurtle around, her wand held ready. She almost cast another spell but stopped and stood, shaking, in the darkness.

The sound wasn’t too far off. It sounded like an adult male, probably a professor, and Elizabeth was suddenly overcome with an intense desire to run toward him. She took a few quick steps forward, but then stopped as another thought struck her. What if it’s a trap?

Elizabeth’s head had been filled with stories of aliens, ghosts, giants that lived in the sky, demons, witches that liked to turn children into gingerbread, and all sorts of other crazy things throughout the years in the books and television shows she had watched. Of course, her parents had told her they weren’t real, but Elizabeth’s knowledge of real and fake had been challenged ever since entering the wizarding world just a short time ago when she had discovered she, herself, was a witch with magical abilities. She had learned in the past year that some of the things she had heard of were real, and some were not, and she was still learning a lot. Now, as she stood staring into the darkness, she couldn’t help but wonder if the being was just pretending to be a professor, but was actually something more sinister.

“C’mon,” she whispered to the slightly older girl and slowly, quietly, began making her way the direction she heard the voice.

She hadn’t walked long when she saw the kids huddled around the professor she recognized from the Ball, and she was overcome with relief. A professor was there. They were all safe! She quickly scanned the faces of the other kids. “Illowy!” she practically squealed when she saw her friend clinging to the professor’s arm. Tears streaming down her face, she ran to her injured friend and gave them both a hug. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” she said, half laughing and half crying.

Illowy's only concern at this point was to find everyone who had come into the woods with them, and then to get the hell out. Elena was not part of their initial group, but at least that was one person she was glad was in relative safety. Relative being the key word in this entire situation. Illowy refused to believe she was in any way safe until she was surrounded by the walls of the school once more.

She was pulled into a hug as the Professor tried to offer the same reassurance to the blue haired girl before he stood upright once more to lead them out of this darkness. His voice boomed through the dense trees, calling for any other children finding themselves hopelessly lost before they started walking again.

Then came the last person she expected as she heard someone cry out her name. Just as she turned, all she saw was a flash of blonde hair before finding herself in yet another hug.

Elizabeth?

"What the bloody hell are you doing here, you stupid, silly Hufflepuff?" she smiled softly, hugging the girl all the same as tightly as she could bare, "You're meant to be in the infirmary." a lecture would have to do for later. At least the girl had found them and that was what mattered the most. When she finally let the girl go, Illowy did her best she force down as much of her fear as she could, mostly for the sake of Elizabeth, not wanting her to detect the horrors the snake had already had to bare alongside Isaac.

"C'mon, we're going back. Don't stray off." she warned the girl.

Keeps close to the Professor and the rest of the group to follow

She allowed the younger girl to come closer. She noticed the girls flickering eyes, so she began to do the same. Mimicking her stance, and eye movements. Xailah remained silent, and nodded; letting the girl know that she was in fact a student. And that she was from the castle. A wave of concern washed over her when the child produced a little doll from her side.

Her thin brows knitted together it shockingly resembled Illowy. She pointed to the doll, the tears in her gloves visible. "Yesss. I was with her not too long ago. We got sssplit up when this boy Isaac ran off. A professor went after them." It has the exact outfit that she was wearing and everything. How uncanny. The corners of her mouth pulled themselves into a frown. "Where did you find that? Do you know what that is?" It looked like a voodoo doll, or something used in a ritual. Of course it could have also been a innocent plaything, that was crafted by some delusional child. The last was the least likely.

There was a noise. It sounded muffled. "...And that would be Griffith." At least I certainly hope it is. She recognized the tone, but she couldn't exactly be sure since the sound wasn't clear. She followed after the younger student, only stopping to grab her belongings, and bury the trap that she had made; among some leaves. Griffith and the other students came into view. They looked fine. The young blonde girl seemed to be overjoyed upon reuniting with her friend. But Xailah began to panic. She did a body-count. One, two, three, four, five, six...Thats counting myself and our new friend. Looks like everyone is here- Her narrowed eyes fell on the blue haired girl. You weren't here before. "Where is Dinara? Griffith, where is Dinara?" Alarm bells started going off. She pushed pass the group and back into the fog. "Dinara!" Her eyes lit up like two hot, and angry little embers. "Dinara Lucey, where the hell are you?!" She hissed and spat. I should have just made you go with Griffith. This was not going as planned. Not at all.

Interations: @Dinara Lucey, @Elizabeth Linscott, @Morfran Griffith, @Xailah Alptraum
Mention: everyone else

Illowy stopped when the older Gryffindor girl pointed out the last missing member of their group; Dinara, "Did you not go back with you?" Illowy questioned the cat-eyed girl, "I said stick together!" a bit hypocritical on her part given that both herself and Isaac had broken away from the group in the first place.

Xailah pushed through the group towards the woods, shouting for her friend. For the love of all things decent, don't let me regret this, the child thought. In no way did she want to leave the group by any means, but she certainly couldn't let go of the risk that the Prefect might be lost or hurt out there somewhere. Certainly, if anything else terrible were to happen, at least the Professor was near by.

Illowy looked to her friend, "Stay here." she spoke firmly to Elizabeth, offering a small smile of reassurence. The snake hoped her friend would actually listen as she followed off after Xailah, "Dinara!" she called, "Dinara are you out here?"

The girl nearly change directions when a flash of red nearly scared her witless. Had she not recognized it, the anxious snake would have hightailed it out of there. However, it certainly wasn't the first time she'd seen those red sparks, "Xailah!" she called, the older girl having gotten a ways ahead of her. Illowy bolted sharply towards the dying red glow, and in the midst of it's light lay the Hufflepuff Prefect among the dead and decaying foliage.

"Dinara?" the girl bent to the girl's shoulders, trying to wake her, "C'mon, Puffball, time to wake up now..." she spoke nervously. Something caught her eye. In the child's hand was another doll like the one she and Isaac had found. Unable to help herself, Illowy took the doll, quickly shoving it in her pocket before looking over her shoulder to see if anyone from the group was coming to fetch them, "Xailah! Professor!"

Panicked kids. He hated panicked kids. What on earth did they think would be accomplished by running around and yelling about things? When the girl with the speech impediment fought towards and then through them, and was then followed by the slytherin, Griffith simply herded the rest of the children towards them, until he reached where the slytherin was standing over the hufflepuff. Yay, more drama. She was clearly fine, and breathing. Griffith had been worried, worried sick, but now he was too done with all the running. No, he wasn't going to bother being scared.

He was getting out, and he was taking the kids out of the forest with him, and damnation to all those who thought they could stop him. This situation required a professor with control and confidence, and he had both. Him versus a bunch of frantic kids. It was on. On like donkey kong.

Reaching to either side of him, he started picking up kids and placing them in his pocket, whoever was close enough to grab. They would end up in a little pavilion with a fence all around it, a glorified cage with some nice benches and a hole in the roof that they came from, with a ladder leading up to it. He brushed past the slytherin, and dumped the hufflepuff unceremoniously into the pocket along with any others he had been able to snag. Scotty was going to beam the slytherin down later. After he asked her what she had just picked up.

He had followed her pretty closely, as best he could, but all he had seen was a brief motion as her hand went to her pocket. Well, that and it was bulging. In this forest, that was an incredibly bad sign.

"Did you pick anything up?"

He could have imagined it, after all. And best to gauge the honesty of the students he was travelling with.

"Gryffindor girl, shut off the panic and get over here, we found her. And we're leaving."

Left Illowy outside of pocket to talk to, otherwise, if you were within easy reaching distance of Griffith and didn't move to avoid him, you are placed inside of a caged pavilion. There is a simple lock that leads out of the pavilion into a sort of meadow. Otherwise nothing but a few benches, and a ladder that leads up, the way you guys came. Further along in the meadow there are a few fences, and in one corner of the pavilion there is a locked dressing cabinet.

Note: Moffy would recognize the hag dolls if shown them.

Bet you thought they were voodoo dolls...

These dolls are dangerous. Once held by the person that they represent, these dolls become "attached". Well, attached is a strong word for it. These dolls are sentient and they want to become you, the person that they represent. To do this, they need to kill you. They are those mysterious hands that try to push you down the stairs, raise a bed-pillow over your face while you slumber or replace your tonic with poison. They will never move when they are being watched. If destroyed, broken to a thousand pieces, burnt to a crisp or tossed with stones about its neck to the bottom of the lake, they seem to find their way back the very next day. Sitting on your bed, your dresser or someplace perfectly neat as if nothing had assailed them the day before. 

How do you break this link?

Well, Moffy or YOU will have to do some research. They are harmless to anyone but the person that they represent. The best remedy is to never touch the doll with your face.