Main Story Related Library De-Liberation Open

Bastille arched a brow as he watched Eve contemplate whether or not she was going to share with the class (for she really had collected quite the audience, hadn't she?), rocking back subtly onto the hind legs of his chair. He knew by the way her expression shifted towards determination and what he liked to call know-it-all-ation that she had made up her mind, and he smirked down at the table top as she launched into a lengthy explanation of what she was up to. 

Which was... not horribly interesting, though not exactly surprising, either. Of course Eve would be up in arms about the drama around Hogwarts and about Potter's nonsense. Didn't she have some sort of Freedom club set up towards investigating it all? His attention drifted across her scattered books, notes, and clippings as she went into an even longer explanation of the chaos she had laid about the desk, his head tilting slightly as he angled to read some spines and headlines. He was still vaguely listening, after all, but he had somewhat tuned her out when she started in on the recent event recap and the questions of how their peers weren't as invested as she was. 

After all, he'd already decided that he would leave all of the problem solving and riddles and trying to locate obscure clues to Eve unless directly asked; he wasn't horribly interested in it and, besides — he was more suited for research. Hags, that he could do. Combing through random House papers that he didn't even want to read to begin with, let alone hunting through them for something that somehow, someway, related to this shite-show? No, thank you. 

"Right," he announced when she was finished, shrugging his shoulders to assert that he supposed he was in, and then he went about tuning out the chatter around them and pulling her sketch of the Tapestry of Desire towards him. He studied the details of it absently, tapping the word's briefly — á mon seul désir — and skimming over the various arrangement of animals before he slid the notebook back towards her. A quick glance over her tomes showed that she already had the obvious texts out, so after a beat of thought Bast was sliding out of his chair and disappearing into the stacks without a word. 

When he came back, it was with a bit of an odd choice of study: a record of past and current Famous Wizard cards in print as late as 2017. He supposed it wasn't exactly a perfect edition, given that it was a few years outdated, but that was fine; Bast sincerely doubted that there would have been any significant additions in the last two years, anyway. Content with this for now, he settled back down across from Eve and started flipping through the records, marking pages with stray bits of parchment as he read. 

Although there were over 101 cards in existence — according to the note ascribed in the introduction — he didn't really think it would take too long to sort through them all. After all, the majority were familiar enough figures to skim through and pass over entirely; and, as Eve had jotted down in her notes, Hags were pretty bloody distinctive beings. So, he got to flipping, and after a while he had several entries bookmarked to circle back to. 

When he was finished, he flipped back to his marked pages and started to jot down copies of the relevant parts of the entries, absently noting stray thoughts underneath each one as he went.

Babayaga — "Russian hag who dwelled in a hut that stood on giant chicken legs. Ate children for breakfast — and presumably for lunch and tea."
Russian Muggle folklore, Baba Yaga

Cordelia Misercordia — "British hag who lived in the Middle Ages. She represented the hags at a fourteenth century summit of the Wizards' Council."
Latin, mercy, pity, compassion

Honouria Nutcombe — "Founder of the Society for the Reformation of Hags, possibly a Hag herself."

Leticia Somnolens — "A spiteful and vicious creature, Somnolens was jealous of the daughter of the local King and tainted a spindle with the Draught of Living Death. She then tricked the young princess into pricking her finger on it, sending her into a deep sleep. Her plan was foiled, however, by a young wizard who smeared his lips with Wiggenweld Potion, and then kissed the princess, curing her and bringing her out of the sleep."
Muggle fairytale, Sleeping Beauty
Latin, sleepiness
Drought of Living Death?

Maladora Grymm — "She used a Beautification Potion to transform herself into a beautiful woman, and married a king. She used a charmed mirror to compliment her looks and reinforce her self-image. However, she became jealous of the most beautiful girl in the kingdom and plotted to get rid of her by using a poisoned apple."
Muggle fairytale, Snow White
Muggle Brüder Grimm
Beautification Potion?

Old Mother Hubbard — "Hag who lived in the Middle Ages. She used to lure stray animals into her home and then starve them to death."
Animals, tapestry? 

Leaning back, he studied his notes before flipping the parchment around and sliding it across to Eve. He'd zoned out for a while there, content to let everyone else go about chittering about the drama and study their own things while he searched. He was not much of a group activities person, really, but now that he had something to spectate over he was engaged again. 

"Lots of known Hags have inspired some Muggle fairytales. I'm going to go see if there's anything in the stacks about Muggle lore, see if I missed any; you reckon you know any off the top of your head with unicorns in them?" he asked, leaning forward to tap the Tapestry sketch again. "That's the only thing I found that might relate to all this nonsense, 'less it's got to do with the French on there."

Bastille shifted, pulling Eve's notes towards him again, and added, "That, and there's all this rubbish about missing potions ingredients. Do you know which ones, specifically? Couple of these Hags had Potions associated in their history." He absently waved towards the sheet he'd handed over, before looking up once more to consider Eve contemplatively. 

Speaking directly to @Evelynn Decipio, generally including everyone at the table / open to interaction.

Interactions: @Thora Larkston | @Dan Palmer | @Evelynn Decipio
Mentions: Bastille Aurelius

The library had always been a place full of curiosity and knowledge for those who wanted to glimpse through the books that were tucked in several rows of bookshelves. It also happened to be a nice place to relax, although that also could have been said for many other places in the school. But for Saskia, it was also the one of the frequent places that she went to study, if she didn't feel like going to the common room or outside on the grounds. But for today, it was going to a place where she would simply wander around the library for no apparent reason. Maybe she would have found some interesting books if she ever got to it, but that wasn't the main goal. It was just another spur of the moment that would have filled up her time.

Just as she was about to walk in, she was met with the sight of a Slytherin girl of who she had the pleasure of seeing around a few times. "Hi, Thora," she replied, a grin forming on her lips. She was happy to see a familiar face once again, especially one who was a rather pleasant presence. "I was about to go ahead anyway. I'll follow you inside."

The last thing Saskia was expecting when she walked into the library was a full-on investigation. Yet that would have been the first thing she would have witnessed as she took that first step inside. Quite literally too. There were a couple of people already crowded around a table that was directly lined with the entrance of the library, as if they were supposed to draw the attention of any newcomers that were interested in poking their head in on what was going on. And as if that wasn't enough, more people came in. She only recognized Dan, the Quidditch Captain of Slytherin, but everyone else were all new to her. She didn't seem to have time to greet the others, as the redhead, presumably the leader of this meeting, started speaking up.

She was talking about the strange events that had transpired in the school, as well as outside of it. Lear's disappearance, while it was something that oddly wasn't talked about that much, was still one of the odd things the girl had noticed for a while now. There was only so much she could know about what could have possibly happened, but there were enough weird things happening for her to have some speculation of it. The hag wasn't a surprise too. The half-giants had invaded the ballroom months ago, and they were probably related to the hag in the Forbidden Forest as well. She had only glanced through the Daily Prophet, and so she didn't have the time to fully analyze what might have happened, but she had also heard a bit of what had happened over the news. Hopefully it would have been enough to give her context for this meeting.

Thinking was not her forte at all. She would have rather just gotten something over with without questioning much about it. She was only able to get studying and by extension, research done if she needed to get it done and if she was fully focused, but other than that, it was hard for her to stay still and think. Her mind was drawing at a blank and she didn't want to appear stupid just because she didn't know how else to process the information in an intelligent way.

She only had a surface level knowledge of hags so that was one thing she couldn't help much on. The other Gryffindor seemed to have a better idea about them anyhow, so there wasn't much she could add on to. As much as she wanted to assist the group in some way, she didn't have the slightest clue on where to start. "It would help to know more about the specifics of what happened and try to connect each of the details together. That way, we have a better idea of what we're dealing with," she mused, taking in what Dan had said. "The Room of Requirement could be a good idea. It'd be worth a try if it hasn't been done before. The Room of Requirement was a place that she wasn't fully familiar with, although she had already known about its existence for a while now. If it worked like how she thought it would have, maybe it would have been a useful asset in their plan. But that was just an assumption for now.

Turning back to the redhead, Saskia offered a smile. "Is there anything else that needs to be done? Any specific research we need to do or maybe some investigations around the school?" As of now, she didn't have the brightest of ideas on what to do yet, but if there was something she could have done, she would have been more than happy to help out.

Interacting with @Bastille Aurelius, @Dan Palmer, @Saskia Nicholson, @Jacob Harman, @Ruka Tân, @Alan Vanes, @Thora Larkston

By the time she had finished her brief spiel, Evelynn could already tell that she had almost lost Aurelius. He had hardly been looking at her while she was speaking, after all, his attention drifting along the various spines of her texts and the contents of the papers collected in various piles. When he offered his, "Right," the red head couldn't help but fix him with a ruminative look, wondering if his comment had been an exclamation of dismissal, or one of determination. Given that he rose to take a closer look at her notes on the tapestries, however, she elected to believe the latter and slid her notes for his easier perusal, and shifted her attention to the Slytherin Captain as he spoke up.

"I didn't want to dive in too quickly," Evelynn admitted, lifting a hand to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. It was all she could do to contain and control the jolts of vibrating energy that seemed to have begun coursing through her shoulders and down her spine. For once, an annoyance at being questioned had nothing to do with it. On the contrary, the boy's implied queries served only to stoke her excitement. She'd been dying to collude upon this topic with literally anyone else willing and knowledgeable to do so. Or if not knowledgeable, then eager to investigate and intellectual enough to pose probing questions. "I could give you the answers to all of those, bu—"

She cut herself off, tilting her head with a quizzical expression, for the boy had asked whether she had attempted the Room of Requirement. Having never heard of this particular location in the castle, Evelynn wasn't sure if she had heard him right. It certainly hadn't sounded like any room of which she was familiar. Unless he was referring to some sort of supply closet. But then she couldn't imagine why anyone would bother to give a name to anything that wasn't some sort of grand space. The only named rooms within the castle she could think of were those such as the Great Hall, the Library, the Rehearsal Room, etcetera. Not even the classrooms had their own titles.

It was during this brief pause of pondering the nature of the room that the Hufflepuff Captain — who until now had been a rather quiet observer — spoke up. Evelynn flicked her gaze to her to listen, then nodded. "There is definitely quite a lot more to all of this than what I just said," she affirmed, fingers of her left hand drumming twice against a stacked pile of notes. She was just about to offer Saskia a more thorough response when the voice of someone else made itself known.

"I hope that we can prove Harry's innocence. How are things coming along with the investigations?"

Stormy eyes searched for the source, quickly landing themselves upon a young Gryffindor with brunette hair. Evelynn cocked a brow, eyeing him curiously. She'd seen him around the common room now and again, but was otherwise largely unfamiliar with him. What was more, she was quite certain that he had neither been present at the common room during the initial investigations, nor in any of the Liberation meetings that followed.

"They're coming along a little slower than I would have liked," Evelynn admitted with reservation, still trying to discern the intent behind the boy's words.

He seemed nice enough, however. Earnest, even, she might have said. She consciously smoothed down her reflexive defence. Regardless of his lack of involvement in anything of which she was aware, she had to acknowledge that it didn't preclude him from having found out information from others at some point. In fact, it was quite likely that he had. Nor was there anything strange about his approach, she assured herself. She was the founder of the Liberation Club, after all. It would only make sense that there might be those who recognised that and sought her out for updates on the progress.

"Nice to meet you, Harman," she answered with a small smile, lifting her hand to shake Jacob's. If there was anything unusual in the way that he was looking at her, she didn't provide any outward indication of having noticed it. "I'm Decipio. Evelynn Decipio. This is Aurelius," she motioned to Bast, and then to each of the others that followed as she continued with the quickly facilitated introductions, "Larkston, Nicholson, Palmer—" She hadn't needed an introduction to know who the names of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin Quidditch Teams' captains. "—Vanes, and—"

She cut off. Up until now, she had been familiar enough with the names of everyone present to at least be able regurgitate their surnames without hesitation. As she arrived at Tan, however, she had to stop. She didn't actually know what his name was.

"—actually, I'm sorry, I don't think we've met," she apologised, now speaking to Ruka. "What was your name?"

When introductions were finally set and cleared out of the way, she would return to the topic previously discussed with Nicholson and Palmer, only this time addressing the group as a whole.

"If you'd like, I'd be more than happy to tell you everything I know. It would be nice to have another point of view, if I'm honest. Or as many as possible, really," she added, glancing to everyone in turn, before settling on Aurelius as he posed his questions. "I'm not sure about unicorns…The only unicorn story I can think of is the Last Unicorn. Although I think there was actually a hag in that story, now that I think about it," Evelynn murmured thoughtfully, brows pinched as she tried to recall the story. She ended up giving a slight shake of her head in the end. "I can't think of how it went. I'll owl mum and let you know.

"As for the ingredients,"she continued, her tone turning grave, "yes, I do know. Powdered root of Asphodel, a sophorous bean, a new phial of Infusion of Wormwood, green Valerian root, and an entire sloth brain. In other words, ingredients for the Draught of the Living Death…" As she spoke, her gaze panned over the notes that Bastille had so efficiently taken. Truthfully, she was more than a little taken aback. Never would she have expected him to be a half decent student. Yet here he was. Playing the role quite studiously. She tapped a finger upon Leticia Somnolens. "And Professor Price is already making sure that the school has a good stock of Wiggenweld Potion.

That settled for the moment, she turned back to Saskia and Dan. "But…What's the Room of Requirement? I've never heard of it."

Bastille preferred to mind his own bloody business, personally, and therefore took no issue in ignoring the majority of the students circling around their table and offering input, commentary, and questions. This was, after all, Eve's club; he wasn't technically a member — he didn't think, anyway — and had virtually no social obligation to engage with the others unless they spoke to him first. The only thing he really supplied indirectly was a mild, "Bast," in clarification after Eve ever-so-stiffly introduced him by surname. He rarely even mentioned his full name, let alone the last.

And then he went back to tidying up his notes, only checking back in once Eve's attention had wandered back in his direction. He nodded absently at mention of the Last Unicorn and made a mental note to investigate, rocking back onto the hind legs of his chair as he considered his list. His gaze snapped back up as she clarified the stolen ingredients, intrigue rising at the confirmation that they were connected to the Draught of Living Death. Fine: he could admit that a good mystery was interesting. 

"Huh," he murmured thoughtfully, dragging his notes back towards him to circle the information and jot down the new connection. He tapped at the list idly with the tip of his quill and looked back up, his attention sliding briefly to Saskia as she offered to help with direction. "I'm thinking we might look into this Leticia a little more. There's a lot in here that's reminiscent of the Muggle fairytale of Sleeping Beauty; might not hurt to see if there's any other connections in those stories that we can find." 

He scrunched up his nose in thought. "Isn't there a horse in that?" He shot Eve a smirk and added, "Maybe that's our unicorn."

Interacting directly with @Evelynn Decipio, mentions @Saskia Nicholson, & open to interaction.

Interactions: @Evelynn Decipio | @Saskia Nicholson | @Dan Palmer

Being more than eager to help, Thora couldn't help but feel a small smile spread across her face as Evelynn accepted her offer. Good. It struck her as a bit funny when Decipio began referring to everyone with their surnames - she didn't hear that much around the school - but frankly, she didn't mind as much as she might've in other circumstances. People who knew Thora's name knew her name, and those who didn't, well, didn't need to know.

"Hey, Dan," the girl greeted her Quidditch captain absentmindedly as she tapped the pads of her fingers on the desk over which Evelynn's belongings were spread. It was too bad she hadn't thought to bring parchment, or a notepad, or even her diary or sketchbook with her. There were certainly things to be learned and ideally written down, especially when Evelynn started mentioning something about the tapestries in the common room. Obviously, Thora had never been in the Gryffindor commons and had no plans to go anyways, so unlike those the redhead was addressing, she'd no idea what she was talking about.

"Evelynn, do you have notes about discoveries you guys made in the Gryffindor common room that I could take a look at? Since I can't… go in there…" Thora would input when Evelynn finished. Okay, so now she was getting serious. The Slytherin knew that once she dove into the plot, collecting all the information she could, she wouldn't be able to stop. Not easily. She knew full well that time wasn't a resource easily found based on her other commitments, but this seemed important enough. It'd work out. Thora'd make it work out.

The constant drumming of her fingers would slow to a stop as Dan and Saskia spoke up about looking in the Room of Requirement. Now, that was a name Thora didn't hear often. Plenty of researching about Hogwarts (among other subjects, of course) that the girl had conducted out of curiosity before more pressing issues surfaced had revealed a certain room on the seventh floor.

The two reasons why Thora had yet to explore it? Well, she never really needed a room to herself, the castle being so large and there always being the grounds, which the country girl preferred to staying indoors. Besides, simply the fact that it was so easy for one in the room to be caught by authority was enough to deter Thora. She hated being the one in trouble for not being able to get away with something, or the one facing the disgrace of a detention deserved. But now that the idea was out there, it might just be worth the risk if they had to try entering the room for the sake of the investigation. Maybe.

"If we do need to try the Room of Requirement, we'll need to be careful, though," Thora muttered to the two Quidditch captains. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, though, when Evelynn asked what the hidden room was. Though she'd raised a reasonable question, as the Room of Requirement was invisible to those who did not know how to summon its entrance, Thora was a bit surprised that she hadn't come across it in her studies, which the Slytherin suspected was extensive due to the thick pile of notes she'd already amassed. The snek herself knew what it was and where it was, but she'd asked Dan and Saskia. They were probably much more eloquent, anyhow.

But just as Thora opened her mouth to ask how she, too, could be of help, it dawned on her. She'd first met Evelynn on a quiet Friday evening in the dungeon corridors. It was there that she'd first agreed to jump in. It was there that she'd agreed to talk to Marion - a girl suspected to be part of the entire confusing plot - in hopes of gaining information. Thora had yet to fulfill her promise in the form of a one-on-one conversation (or interrogation, depending on how you wanted to view it), and having not seen the third year anywhere since the spider incident, the chances of her being able to do so were getting slimmer and slimmer.

In other words, she'd failed. For now, at least. There was just one thing she had to do, and given the past month, she'd nearly forgotten about it. Thora supposed she could talk to Evelynn alone once she actually was able to track down Marion, but now? Now was still time to get to work. "Anything specific you'd like me to do?"