A VanCleaf Debrief PV Finished

@Jo Morgan

Casting an earnest look around the room left little to be desired. By all appearances, the common room had cleared out surprisingly quickly. In all honesty, Evelynn might have expected the investigation still to be going in full force by the time they had returned. It hadn't been that long that they had been gone, had it? Evelynn wrinkled her nose. The only explanation that she could muster was that the majority of the students had reconvened elsewhere: perhaps to investigate the Headmaster's office, or conduct research in the library. Yes, that must have been it. Even still, it wasn't particularly helpful for her current predicament.

Then a light-hearted chirp sounded from across the room, drawing the steely gaze of the redhead. It was the girl that had gotten the whole story wrong, Evelynn reflected. The wrinkle of her nose was quickly replaced for a pursed lip. Well, it wasn't like she needed her brain, just her brawn. But by the looks of it, the girl was lacking there as well. Ah well, it wasn't like Evelynn could be picky at this point, and she certainly wasn't one to judge physique, being the little weakling that she was herself.

"Yep!" she chimed back, unrushed.

Waiting for the girl to gather and tidy her things, she allowed her own gaze to wander the common room again, half in, half out of the portrait, and all the while ignoring the angry protests of the fat lady chiding her for her alleged indecision of wanting to go in or stay out. It wasn't until the girl approached and made her way out the portrait hole that Evelynn retreated with an appreciative smile and a, "Thanks."

The latter was immediately drowned out by the shriek. Ah. Yes. It occurred to Evelynn then that she probably should have warned the poor girl. She knew, of course, that the second-year was fine, but that didn't mean someone else just coming onto the scene did. Which was quickly evidenced by the rush with which the would-be detective fell upon the prone form. It was almost comical, really, the way she fussed. She asked at least four questions, stammered a few other comments, and then seemed to try to both lift and assess the unconscious girl all at the same time. Evelynn's mother would have been chuckling, she knew, just like she did any time she watched one of "those dreadful hospital dramas".

"She's fine!" Evelynn announced when her sense had finally caught up to her. "At least I think she is. There's no use taking her to the hospital wing though," she rationalized, joining Jo at the body. "We just came from there. Anyway, she was drinking a potion on our way back. I think it might have been a calming draught or a sleeping potion or something because she started yawning pretty quickly, and then… well…" Evelynn looked down at the sleeping form, frowning, and then back up to Jo. "She just…lowered herself here and decided to lie down to sleep. I think she was a bit disoriented at the end of it. She called me Marla."

Evelynn gave a helpless and unconcerned shake of her head. "Anyway, we just need to get her up to bed, I think. Let her sleep it off. Do you know the Levitation Charm, by any chance? Or any other spells to suspend a body? That might be the easiest way to do it…I don't know about you, but I don't much fancy trying to carry her…"

”She's fine! At least I think she is. There's no use taking her to the hospital wing though. We just came from there. Anyway, she was drinking a potion on our way back. I think it might have been a calming draught or a sleeping potion or something because she started yawning pretty quickly, and then… well… She just…lowered herself here and decided to lie down to sleep. I think she was a bit disoriented at the end of it. She called me Marla."

“Do you know the Levitation Charm, by any chance? Or any other spells to suspend a body? That might be the easiest way to do it…I don't know about you, but I don't much fancy trying to carry her…"

Interacting with @Jo Morgan and @Meenauh Silmataurea's unconscious body

"You're...joking, right?" Evelynn asked cautiously, brows rising towards her hairline at the suggestion of using the Knockback Jinx.

The girl had to be kidding. The Knockback Jinx was dangerous. It was a dueling spell. Not a chant of everyday practicality and convenience. They could do some serious damage if they attempted such antics. Already, she envisioned the elder student's lifeless form bouncing zig-zag like a ragdoll down a corridor, bouncing off suits of armor and into walls and catching on doorways. Like a game with a sub-par physics engine. That's what would happen if they tried using the Knockback Jinx; Evelynn was certain.

"Nope. No way," she said, vigorously shaking her head as though to erase the option from thought. But then again, Evelynn didn't have any other spells in her repertoire that could serve them in this time of need. Of course, if she had, she'd have managed this task on her own without calling for aide. Pursing her lips, she glanced down.

"I assume it was the school nurse that gave it to her," Evelynn said after a moment. "She was coming from the Hospital Wing. I wasn't with her at the time, though, so I didn't hear if he said anything about it or not."

She was only half focussing on answering the questions. Most of her was trying to puzzle out how the heck they were going to get this lump of flesh back to bed. Dragging. Rolling. Pushing. One on the arms, one on the legs. Nothing really seemed ideal, and already Evelynn could feel the effort and awkward posturing that would be involved. Especially with that portrait hole. Why couldn't she had just fallen asleep on the other side of the stupid entrance? Then she could have just stayed there. Like a guard dog. A guard lion. To trip up any students who thought it a good idea to try to sneak out after curfew.

A low sigh punctuated the silence of her thoughts.

"I think we'll have to carry her..." she stated, the tone of her voice nearly as lifeless as the sleeping form beneath her gaze. "We could drag her to the portrait...then..." She groaned in frustration. "I don't know how we're going to get her through it. I guess one of us'll have to climb through and pull her up while the other sort of pushes?"

This was stupid.

"Nope. No way."

"I think we'll have to carry her...We could drag her to the portrait...then... I don't know how we're going to get her through it. I guess one of us'll have to climb through and pull her up while the other sort of pushes?"

Interacting with @Jo Morgan and limp noodle @Meenauh Silmataurea

Evelynn was not at all for the idea of leaving the elder lion there, helpless, just begging to be attacked, while the two went off to find help. For one, she didn't know what time it was at that moment. She had foolishly left her watch on her bedside table for some reason, and for all she knew, they three of them could very well be out after curfew. Well, probably not. It had barely reached the border between afternoon and evening by the time the red-head had skipped out from the common room in search of her upperclassman, and surely not too much time had passed during their trek back to the dorm. But that meant it was likely sometime around supper, and where normal students were likely to be hungering, that surely meant the more nefarious variety were as well. And what better time to go on the prowl than when most students would be in the Great Hall for their evening meal?

She was just about to counter the suggestion, to attempt to conjure some reason other than her true fear, when Morgan suddenly changed her mind. Attempting to veil the sigh of relief as simply a heavy, preparatory breath, Evelynn nodded her resolve. "That's probably for the best," she agreed. "I can see no point in troubling them," she reasoned, weakly, although somewhat curious as to why the sudden change of heart in her dorm mate.

"Right," Evelynn said again, more to herself, than to her counterpart, hurrying forward to try to collect and lift the unconscious girl's feet. "Lordy she's heavy..." she commented with surprise, taken aback by the dead weight and slipping out one of her mother's habitual phrases of exasperation.

It wasn't as though she'd ever had to drag a body around before, and the brunette had appeared so lithe when animated. Accusatory eyes pierced the unconscious face, as though somehow this was her fault that she and Morgan were now being forced to exert themselves in order to deal with her. Not even a few steps later, temptation reared its ugly head just to drop Meenauh right then and there and leave her to her fate. How much of an imbecile did she have to be to down a sleeping draught before even getting back to the dorm? If it hadn't been for the fact that she had already solicited Morgan's help, and the guilt she would surely face if anything were to happen to the limp noodle if left alone, Evelynn might have done just that. But her word had been implied, and her determination — however much she might be regretting it in the moment — set.

"If only we knew the Levitation Charm..." She complained with no small amount of pining after several horribly awkward steps of desperately trying not to trip over the hem of the girl's robes. "She'd better owe us after this..."

Once they'd staggered their way over to the base of the portrait hole, Evelynn let Meenauh's feet and legs fall gently (mostly) to the stone.

"It'll probably be easier to try to pull her up and through if we face her to the wall..." She said after a moment of surveying the entrance, trying to picture how the heck they were going to accomplish the maneuvering to come. "One of will have to go through and try to pull her up while the other supports and lifts from the bottom." She paused, her scrutinizing gaze shifting to Jo then in an attempt to gauge which of the two was the stronger. "You should probably be the one to pull," she concluded. Neither of the two seemed particularly burly, but Evelynn at least knew what little she had of her own strength stemmed from her riding legs.

Sorry for the delay in the response. Got quite a bit backed up with replies.

"It'll probably be easier to try to pull her up and through if we face her to the wall... One of will have to go through and try to pull her up while the other supports and lifts from the bottom. You should probably be the one to pull."

Interacting with @Jo Morgan and the lifeless form of @Meenauh Silmataurea

Admittedly, Evelynn hadn't expected her suggestion to be negated. Nor had she anticipated that counterpart would just dive right in to carrying out her own modified strategy. As a result, there was an obvious delay where the red head sort of just stood by, head sort of jerking straighter as she watched on with furrowed brows to observe the brunette's progress. It seemed a very tactless game, this hoisting of a ragdoll form. She could only imagine what thoughts would be immediately popping into anyone's mind that just happened upon the scene. It was like a scene from a movie where an accident had occurred and two very unprepared and guilty parties were attempting — with great difficulty and poor success — to hide the evidence. Which, she supposed, really wasn't all that far from the reality.

"I… Oh right," Evelynn hurried forward to do as requested, bending at the knees to grab firmly at the legs and lift. "Are you sure this won't hurt her…" she asked, not entirely on board with this gravitational plan. It seemed likely to her that the unconscious victim would hit her head on the downward fall on the other side. "Maybe you should pop through to make sure she doesn't… well… get twisted or concuss herself or something? Perhaps we could pull cushions from the couches to soften the landing?"

Evidently, however, such notions had come too late as the now helpless upperclassman indeed fell to the clutches of gravity. A brief moment of panic seized the young red head as she felt the legs being pulled from her grasp as the torso slip through the portal and down the other side. Hurrying forward to prop herself through the portal, Evelynn spied the crumpled heap of the figure at the base of the portal.

"Well…" she proclaimed, accenting the ambiguous thought with a hum. Well, indeed. Although she didn't at all look terribly comfortable, the hoisting didn't seem to have woken or disturbed her. And on the plus side, she was at least in the common room now. "I suppose the hard part is done, now…" She glanced over to the girl who had come to her aide. "I'm not sure which dorm is hers… Perhaps we can just bring her over to a couch?"

"Thank you, by the way," she added, lifting herself dextrously through the portal much as a gymnast might hoist themselves over a horse box. "I know I've heard it in class, but I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name," she admitted, palms idly smoothing down the front of her robes before crouching in preparation to grab hold of the girl's legs again. "I'm Decipio. Evelynn Decipio."

"I'm not sure which dorm is hers… Perhaps we can just bring her over to a couch?"

"Thank you, by the way. I know I've heard it in class, but I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name,"

"I'm Decipio. Evelynn Decipio."

A chuckle resonated in Evelynn's chest at the thought of the upperclassman waking up in an unfamiliar bed sprinkled with crumbs. Her amusement quickly shifted to borderline incredulity as the image really set in, however. She'd assumed the girl had been joking about the eating of food in bed. But…was she not? The thought of actual crumbs in the bed sounded rather revolting. She disliked the feeling of them on just her clothing, any sense of their presence quickly met with a subtle — or not so subtle as the case may be — brushing of her clothing until they were perfectly devoid of scratching particulates. But she let it go without questioning so as not to come across rude.

Plus the follow-up comment was one that definitely plucked at her argumentative side.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Morgan, but I think I would very much have to disagree with you about the halls. Just last month, someone was attacked by a vampire in the owlery and brought into the Hospital Wing all bloody… She'd had a fighting chance, too, from what I understand, which was the only reason she was… still alive." She quickly shook the image of the crimson-soaked girl from her mind, her expression grave as she glanced to the helpless brunette. "I.. Couldn't imagine what would have happened if she had been happened upon while she was unconscious. No… there's definitely worse things than Slytherins roaming those halls at night…"

She squatted to grab the girl's legs again before hoisting them up again. "As for who she is… I'm not really sure… A friend of Xailah, and a friend of Marla. And she seems to be in the same year as Marla since when she was talking to me as though I was Marla, she mentioned going up to our dorm.."

Now that they were in the common room, Evelynn didn't feel quite the same level of urgency as she did in the open halls. She took her time walking the girl over to the couch of choice. Or as much of her time as she could while also battling the desire to get the arduous task over and done with. Despite the unconscious girl's relatively petite stature, she was heavy. Evelynn was hardly built for heavy-lifting. A bit of light stretching was in order.

"Anyway… Did you guys figure out anything else about the tapestries or anything in the last little bit? I'd left shortly after she—", she nodded her head towards the unconscious one, "—fled to the Hospital Wing."

[font=century gothic]INTERACTING WITH @Jo Morgan[/font]

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Morgan, but I think I would very much have to disagree with you about the halls. Just last month, someone was attacked by a vampire in the owlery and brought into the Hospital Wing all bloody… She'd had a fighting chance, too, from what I understand, which was the only reason she was… still alive. I.. Couldn't imagine what would have happened if she had been happened upon while she was unconscious. No… there's definitely worse things than Slytherins roaming those halls at night…"

"As for who she is… I'm not really sure… A friend of Xailah, and a friend of Marla. And she seems to be in the same year as Marla since when she was talking to me as though I was Marla, she mentioned going up to our dorm.."

"Anyway… Did you guys figure out anything else about the tapestries or anything in the last little bit? I'd left shortly after she fled to the Hospital Wing."