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Bunching her messy, rebellious curls inside her black witch's hat, Aurelia Valentine looked around the corridor near the Fifth Floor. Making sure that the coast is clear except the Victorian ghosts hollering while having a fencing duel right in the air (“taste my victory!” one hollered proudly, donning his tattered red suit. “Taste my arse, you buffoon—” one taunted as his moustache twitched before their swords clashed again), the young Hufflepuff witch tiptoed as she bridged towards the North Tower. Clucking at the sound of her leather shoes, the young badger bunched her curls inside her witch's hat as it cascaded ungracefully down her back again. Rebelliously. This stupid hair is very much thick that the witch's hat can't even handle the darned weight.

It's January 2, Thursday. Tomorrow, students that spent the holidays in their homes will come back in the castle through the Hogwarts Express. Taking advantage of the sparse number of the students that stayed over for the holidays, Aurelia sneaked inside the North Tower, her deep brown eyes scouring the area first before hiding behind a curved wall. The young Hufflepuff witch has to maintain her anonymity if she plans to break gazillion rules posted in the pillar of the Entrance Hall. Her heart pounding in her chest, Aurelia assessed her attire again.

Aurelia Valentine is wearing a black witch's hat that the school required for them to buy (the young badger did not see a reason why a witch's hat is requisite when the students seldom wore the weird clothing. However, it helped her purpose today and she has no regrets), her usual dark green turtleneck sweater underneath her billowing winter cloak, jeans and her school leather shoes. The young Hufflepuff witch has to wear the stupid hat as her bushy hair is noticeable from, perhaps, miles away, and other students will recognise her with the hair alone. Her leather satchel dangled at her side; however, it doesn't contain any materials necessary for academic work.

What is she doing in the North Tower, you may ask. True, Aurelia despised the multiple floors as well as the turrets and towers of the castle, as it is not only massive; it's also like hiking the Mt. Everest without any hiking materials whatsoever. Her body is not built like that. Being massive is one thing, but getting lost is another. Nevertheless, the young badger memorised the shortcut towards the North Tower yesterday for a mission impossible. Aurelia plans to sneak inside the caretaker's office for reasons she will later reveal. A mission impossible, until today, where her cards clearly favoured her. The Hogwarts caretaker, Ruckus Weems, has to fish out a Gryffindor student in the Great Lake for brazenly skating over the brittleness and frozen surface of the lake right about this moment, leaving his office unoccupied and ajar from the hurriedness required of it all. Her plan will commence today, or not at all.

“You’re doing the right thing; in the guise of rule-breaking, of course,” Aurelia tried to soothe herself, her eyes peeking at the slightly ajar door of the caretaker's office with an apprehensive look in her face, the sound of her shoes clicking from the stone steps of this part of the tower echoing and bounding around the circular walls. One should take account of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle, which she had read when she was 7. Robin Hood had to steal from the rich to give to the poor. Aurelia had to sneak in to show her appreciation. It doesn't make any sense, but to the young badger, it made perfect sense because she would have hated to engage herself in a social interaction like a normal human being would. Gods, here she goes again from limiting herself because of her social anxiety. If she wasn't anxious around people, then the world would be all rainbows and unicorns for her.

Letting out a breath of trepidation, Aurelia immediately entered the caretaker's office with a head bowed low, deliberately obscuring her face with the roof of her witch's hat as if someone will see her up here in the North Tower. Prevention is better than cure, everyone in the Muggle World always say and the young Hufflepuff witch believed so too. As if picking up the fact that the caretaker might be on his way already, Aurelia dropped her leather satchel on the stony floor, kneeling before it as she take out the large magic lantern and ribbon-like wings meant for keys to fly; things she bought from the black market organised by a few Gryffindors for an incredulously high price.

Aurelia Valentine appreciates the caretaker, Ruckus Weems, very much. She noticed that he was inherently quiet, and his face always contorted into something akin to a tortured expression, slightly, whenever he had to issue detention for mischievous students. She had heard somewhere that the caretaker loved to collect things and that before taking his current job in Hogwarts, he was secretly a pirate that sails the seven seas in search of a treasure trove. It's enough hogwash to raise an eyebrow, and the young Hufflepuff witch did not believe that rumour even for a second. If she had to draw out an assumption for the sake of it, she'd think that the caretaker was a librarian instead.

So she plans to sneak in to give him a few gifts for the holidays. Aurelia couldn't bear the thought of giving it personally to the caretaker as instead of showing her appreciation, she might snap to him instead. Anxiousness of social interactions did make Aurelia go for a defense pretty quickly. To avoid that awkwardness of a situation, the young badger resorted to rule-breaking instead. Hey, she's just a girl. If that's not enough reason then that's everyone's problem, not hers.

Picking up her leather satchel again which lost its weight from the heavy magic lantern, Aurelia placed the magic lantern and ribbon-like wings meant for keys to fly on the caretaker's aged wooden desk. Magic lanterns such as this will help for any patrolling duties the caretaker had to do every day, especially at night. It is very heavy though, Aurelia had to support it with her two hands to even lift it up. Of course, an adult can lift it up no problem. The ribbon-like wings are, indeed, meant for keys. To prevent forgetting about it or to prevent anyone from reaching for it or worse, steal it. She bought this initially because of a key being sold in the black market that is rumoured to open the caretaker's exact cabinet for things he had to confiscate or perhaps for the cabinet where his collection resided.

Feeling like she was the one being stolen from instead of the caretaker, Aurelia had this urge to steal the rumoured key from the organisers of the black market. They were older though, and once the sellers perceived that you were interested in a certain item, they try to sell it to you at an unreasonable price. Rolling her eyes, the young badger makes do with precautions instead, like these ribbon-like wings. Taking advantage of an unknowing person like that, have they got no shame. Considering all reasons though, the school banned so many products. Especially prank products. However, surely those products have harmed the students before, and the school surely doesn't ban products for unseemly rationale. Right.

Her mittened hand (yes, mittened, because who knows if the Wizarding World also had top-tier forensics team in the Ministry of Magic too?) reached inside her leather satchel again, taking out a few books. Her battered copy of The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery as well as The Art of Collecting Art by George Lois, placing it on the desk alongside the magic lantern and the ribbon-like wings. Aurelia loved her copy of The Little Prince as it was one of the few books she first received when she was a child. Risking her identity too, as she long signed that copy at the back cover with her name. The Art of Collecting Art had been from her mum's library as Aurelia didn't know what the caretaker actually collects. So she went to art instead; her mum had to owl this copy too. The young Hufflepuff witch didn't know if the caretaker will appreciate the selection, but it would do to pass the time, of course.