Snow’s Little Hiding Spot

@Snow Jones

When the first-year Slytherin entered the toilets, he had no idea someone else was already occupying a stall. He came there regularly to avoid bullies (though they often found him anyway) and read his books as well as study and do homework away from everyone else. He tried to avoid other students when working on his schoolwork - not only because it was difficult to concentrate around others, but because he also didn't want anyone catching on that he actually worked hard to keep his grades up. From the beginning, he had worked hard to create a carefree, class clown image for himself and he did everything he could to maintain that image. So far it seemed to have worked pretty well.

On this particular occasion, Jack was attempting to write up a poem for someone. He paced the length of the bathroom, tapping the end of his quill against his chin as he stared at his blank parchment. He would have liked to compliment the person, but he hadn't even met them, so it was difficult to think of what to say. Jack wasn't particularly skilled at flattering people and he certainly refused to lie. If he could just think of how to start, he thought the words would flow easier after that.

Perhaps he could use the fact that he hadn't met her to his advantage; call her elusive or something. Compare her to a unicorn or some other creature thought to be admirable. As the woman was rumored to be pretty ancient, perhaps a unicorn wouldn't have been that bad a comparison after all. Going over to a stall, he opened the door absently, still staring at his parchment as he tried to think of the first words he wanted to put down.

Snow stabbed the paper with her quill. A failure, she thought, feeling angry. Just a plain failure! She felt her anger raise higher and higher. Can’t she do anything right?
She sighed and looked up at the ceiling. Hot tears started to come to her eyes, but she swiped them away. She decided to go and leave her brother Andy a note about her House. She started to get up when she heard footsteps. She ducked behind the musty old toilet and almost threw up. Gross! she thought. She sat up and smacked her head as a boy walked in. She crawled out from her spot behind the toilet and said coldly, ”Do you mind?”
She knew she sounded harsh, but why did people always have to invade whenever she needed alone time? She crumpled up the paper in her hand. ”I’m in here. Please go away..”
She had two handful of phrases that she wanted to yell at him, but she kept her mouth closed. She didn’t want to come off ruder than she did now. She stood up, knocking her ink down. It spilled all over the bathroom floor. She sighed. Why was she so clumsy?

@Jack Burnett

@Snow Jones

Head bent over the paper in his hand, Jack jerked it up immediately at the sound of someone hitting their head. The sight of a girl crawling out from behind the toilet in the stall caused him to abruptly back up out of it, startled. It hadn't been her tone of voice that surprised him so much as her choice of a hiding place. Feeling a little guilty, he gave an awkward smile as he scratched the back of his neck. "Uh...sorry. You weren't, um...using this stall, were you...? I mean for...well..."

He let his sentence trail off, thinking he might have discovered the answer to his question already from the ink that was spilled. "Oh...you're here to write, too," he remarked aloud, moving to see if there might have been any toilet paper or paper towels left around. "You wouldn't happen to know that one cleaning charm, would you? I know it was in my Book of Spells, but we haven't covered it in class yet, so I'd probably mess it up if I tried." If not, one of the many other students who came by there or the castle's caretaker could surely take care of the mess later.

"Say...what are you writing? Is it for school or fun?" He tilted his head. "Or maybe writing to someone...?"

”Why do you want to know?” said Snow bitterly. ”And I don’t know any Cleaning Spells.” Snow looked away from him. She remembered reading about Cleaning Spells, but she didn’t remember any of it. She couldn’t even read it right. She wished she had known what it said as she looked at the now fairly large puddle of ink on the ground.. ”Is this where you always go?” she asked.
Snow stared at the ink. ”Huh. All jumbled like my rotten brain.” she mumbled under her breath as she stood up. She looked at her robes. She needed to wash them. They were covered entirely with ink. She pushed past the boy, wanted to get out. She hadn’t remembered there was ink on the ground, however, and she slipped and landed on her back in the ink.
Can’t I do anything right? she thought hopelessly, laying on her back. She didn’t want to get up anymore. All she wanted to do was write her letter. But now she couldn’t even do that, she had trashed her robes and her ink, and she still couldn’t spell right. The tears started coming again, but, like before, she swiped them away before the boy could see.
@Jack Burnett

"Call me naturally curious," the Slytherin boy answered, undeterred by the girl’s bitterness. "Or nosy. Anyway, I guess it doesn’t matter so much if this is cleaned up or not, given how messy it was to begin with in the first place." Chuckling softly, he lifted the edge of his robes as he took another step back from the ink. "At least our robes our black, so stains don’t really matter." Not that wizards and witches didn’t have some magical remedy for stains too, he was sure.

Scratching his head at the miserable-seeming girl, the redhead relaxed his arm holding his parchment and quill at his side. "Well, I come here pretty often," he admitted. "Maybe not always, though. Otherwise it’d be too predictable."

Her self-depreciating words caused him to frown slightly, his thick brows furrowing. "Hey, no need to be so down on yourself. What’s the matter?" he wanted to know. A small, inner voice warned him against his urge to ask her if it was something he could help with, reminding himself that showing kindness to others usually didn’t end well. He didn’t resist as she shoved past him to escape the stall, but his jaw dropped as the Gryffindor slipped in her own ink and fell on her back.

"Shit, are you okay?!" he asked, crouching down next to her to check for any bleeding or signs of broken bones. "This is just…not your day, is it?"

@Snow Jones

Grace went into the place that everybody calls the Abandoned Toilets and went to study since there was loud stuff going on in the library and the common room and everywhere else. She noticed there were two other students there “Ummm hello?” She said to them “Why are you here?” she noticed ink on the ground and used a small mop she brings with her in her sack to clean it up “Are you alright?” She asked them both, touching her special hair pin with a black crescent moon and two blue and white ribbons streaming down the bottom of the moon. 

“I won’t tattle on you, I promise I’m not like those other obnoxious Ravenclaw that love to tattle on people because Ravenclaws “always” follow the rules.” She said, noticing she was talking too much and they would probably get annoyed, she noticed they were Slytherin and Gryffindor “Sorry” she said “I’ll just go read” she sat near a wall and opened her book, her wide green eyes reading the words fast she had the urge to look up and say “So, are you happy about which house your in?” and she did, but the moment she said that she regretted it “What’s wrong with you Grace!?” She thought. 

Grace blushed “Sorry” she said quickly and went back to her book “That’s why I stick to books, they understand me more” she thought.

Snow wiped away some more tears and sat up. ”I’m fine.” she said, feeling guilty and a bit grateful. Why was he being so nice? She didn’t deserve it. “Thanks.”
She stood up, and noticed the ink on the ground disappeared. She looked up and saw a blonde Ravenclaw.

When she asked if she was alright, she just glared at her. She felt annoyed again. Is this ‘Abandoned Toilets?’ It seems more like ‘Popular Hiding Spot For Nerds!’ she thought, and felt a bit ashamed. But she probably wasn’t ever going to get privacy around here.

“I won’t tattle on you, I promise I’m not like those other obnoxious Ravenclaws that love to tattle on people because Ravenclaws “always” follow the rules.” the girl said, and Snow raised an eyebrow. “Guess I’m not the only one who thinks her fellow House members are obnoxious.” she said to the girl, her expression softening a little.

When she saw the girl walk into a corner after apologizing, Snow felt a bit sorry for her. She glanced at the boy, then looked at her. The girl suddenly burst out, “So, are you happy about which house you’re in?”
Snow looked at the book in her hand. I could never get into Ravenclaw, she thought.
They all can read advanced textbooks while I cannot even read children’s books.
Then she thought about the question. That wasn’t something that Snow was happy to talk about. She turned to both the boy and girl and said, “What’s your names? Mine’s Snow.”
She smiled a fake smile.

“I’m Grace, Grace Mint. I’m a half-blood” Grace answered Snow’s question “And for a place called the Abandoned Toilets it’s a bit too much a popular hiding place maybe they can renovate it to be a second study-“ Grace stopped herself, noticing she was talking to much.

“So, why are you guys here?” Grace asked “I’m here to study, I’m not good with loudness and many people and that’s what’s happening wherever I go” Grace looked back at her book but for some reason it wasn’t in her hands!!!

“Where’s my book?” Grace asked, scared that they got caught, but nobody was there other then Snow and the Slytherin boy “For some reason whenever I study when or where I’m not supposed to, there’s always somebody that I can’t see doing something!” Grace complained. Grace took another book from her bag and threw it somewhere “You can’t hurt me” said a slithering voice. “Wh-What?” Grace stammered. She looked at the other two students but they seemed to not hear anything, Grace took a deep breath “Me and my stupid imagination” Grace thought. Grace thought many not kind things about herself, like her being a nerd or how much a coward she is, she was blaming it on that. Grace shivered, she is one of those people who get cold very easily, she is always colder then others.

Suddenly things just got a whole lot more awkward. A third student walked into the bathroom - a blonde Ravenclaw girl - and started asking a whole bunch of questions. And I thought I was nosy. She asked them so quickly, she didn't even seem to wait for an answer before moving on to the next, making Jack wonder if she even really wanted to know the answers at all.

Then she seemed to assume they thought she was going to 'tattle' on them, though for what, he wasn't sure. He didn't have time to ask, anyway, because soon after, she apologized for - again, who knew what - and went to go sit and read by a wall. Noticing the Gryffindor girl look at him, he looked back and shrugged, unsure of what to make of the newcomer.

It wasn't a few seconds before the blonde had looked up to ask another question and then, again, apologize for no reason. Jack just stared. When the Gryffindor avoided the Ravenclaw's question, the Slytherin raised a brow at the former, but said nothing. He wasn't impressed by her fake smile, but he grudgingly replied, "Jack."

Well, if Snow was alright, then she had no need for him. The girl who said her name was Grace said she wasn't good with many people, either, so all the more reason for him to leave. Three was a crowd, anyway, especially in the cramped, filthy bathrooms. Furthermore, Jack doubted he would have been able to get his poem done there with the girls chattering away.

Frowning at Grace, who was talking about somebody she couldn't see, Jack spoke up. "Yeeeeah...I think I'm going to go now," he told the girls. "If you aren't good with too many people, then probably best I leave. Good luck studying," the boy said, holding up a hand in farewell as he made his way toward the door. Perhaps that supply closet he liked to frequent would be empty and quiet enough for him to concentrate...

@Snow Jones & @Grace Mint