A Secret Mission Abandoned

He could feel his chest heaving from the short period of exertion. He was fast and good at running, but it still took it out of him, mainly because he was trying to yell why running to catch their midnight pursuer's attention. Pressing further against the chilly stone wall, Jack waited in silence. A minute passed....not even a whisper or the sound of footsteps...did his plan to distract the 'monster' fail? How could that be! Jack had made sure to be especially obnoxious!

After waiting another minute or so, Jack finally exhaled an annoyed sigh. The others must have messed up and hidden poorly! C'mon! Jake is so tiny! Why didn't George stuff him into a cupboard or something! That's what Jack would do (Even if he didn't fit). Slowly he peaked his head around the corner of the corridor to make sure that he wasn't followed. Sadly(?) is was empty. Those two buttheads probably are getting caught. Mr. Warren guessed that he had to play hero again. His first attempt was less fruitful than he expected, so why not make a second attempt?

With a quick and hurried step, the young Hufflepuff speed-walked back to the point of their initial contact. Turning right, then left, and before he had the chance to retrace anymore of his steps, the words echoed out into the hallway.

"You! Uh... you're pretty!"

Jack's eyes lit up with a spark of hope, yet that was before his mind processed the words. Who in the world was he calling pretty? Was he talking to Jake? If so, that would be a super weird thing to say to somebody else in a dark classroom.

In the flurry of confusion that was Mr. Warren's mind, a single thought cut through the white noise. George wouldn't have been talking so loud if he was afraid of getting caught. In a significant logical leap, he knew something was wrong. The nark must have found them! With the supernatural speed of a child who's friends are in trouble of getting in trouble, he dashed forward and into the dark abandoned-not so abandoned classroom!

Seconds after sprinting into the classroom, Jack crashed into what was a somewhat confusing scene. There George stood, facing a red-haired girl, whom Jack could only assume was a prefect. George was right one thing, he would have to agree that she was 'pretty.' However, the time for thinking was over. Taking action was the only thing he had left to do!

Pressing even further into the run, Jack ran up behind the dhampir girl, wrapped his arms around her waist, and attempted the most substantial bearhug/ strongman grip he could muster. Bracing himself for resistance, he bent his knees and tried to lift her off the ground! "George! Run! Run your skinny butts off!"

Interacting with @Jack Warren | @Jake Morris | @George Henry

Opening the door, she jumped a lil when hearing something hit a desk. 'Ee!' Surely, she was supposed to expect that someone was in there. The dancing armory from earlier still hadn't gone from under her skin. Why did everything have to spook her this night? 'Wh- Show yourself!' Nico exclaimed. Her voice nearly broke. Was there actually someone in here or was it a big rat? Were there rats in Hogwarts? Maybe it was something worse... Gah, Nico. Keep your cool. Whichever it is you can handle it.

Carefully, the young prefect set a few steps inside, keeping the door behind her wide open. She needed a quick escape route if she got chased by... whoever or whatever was in here. Cautiously, her eyes scanned the many desks. It was so dark in here... Could use some light. Light was good. Slowely, she grabbed her wand and softly spoke the words using the correct hand movement: 'Lumos..' At the tip of her wand, a faint light lit up, casting shadows left and right. Good job. You once again succeeded at scaring yourself.

'I said sho-' Suddenly, someone shot up from behind one of the many desks. Causing Nico to jump in surprise once again. 'Wha!' He held his hands up, trying no to look like a threat.

"You! Uh... you're pretty!"

Huh. What kind of ... For a moment, Nico stared at him puzzled. Her wand aimed at him, trying to see his face more clearly. 'Who are you? What are you doing out here? It's way past curfew.' Odd. Was he one of the students she heard earlier? Or was he someone else entirely just... hanging out in a dusty... quite abandoned classroom? 'Are you... by yourself?' Her voice sounded slightly shakey. They couldn't know that she was scared. What if they took advantage of that?

Before she could get an answer, some fast feet approached the doorstep behind her. What now...? Nico wanted to turn around, to see who this new challenger was at this time of the night. However, she didn't get a chance. 'I hope you have a real good exc- EE! Let go off me!' Seconds later, her arms were locked tight against her body, her feet slightly lifted from the ground. Instinctively, Nico tried to squirm and turn. It was scary to be held in an embrace which was clearly supposed to sabotage her.

"George! Run! Run your skinny butts off!"

Bingo. 'Get your hands off of me!' A red dot lit up in the center of her ice blue eyes, some red pearly tears welling up. She felt cornered. Helpless. As she tried to wiggle her way out of the other boys arms, she tried to kick him in the shins with her heels. Hopefully, her mary janes had an effect on him.

Poor Nico seemed terrified when George jumped out from behind his desk. That dancing suit of armor probably had something to do with it, yet he couldn't bring himself to feel guilty about it. That tarantallegra had been cast in self defense, as far as he was concerned. He had never meant to be a threat to her, and he demonstrated that with his palms out to her - innocent and unarmed. She would be lenient, hopefully, and Jack would come back to find Jake when they were all done. What more could he hope for? The idea of them getting out of this without at least a detention was laughable. George had never pondered whether hogwarts would be able to send letters home to his parents about his behaviour, and with that thought in mind, he started to dread the summer even more.

"I'm sorry! I know it is, but... I forgot... my stuffed animal in class today," George said, his eyes growing larger as he gave his saddest puppy-dog look to the Slytherin. This one didn't seem like the ice-cold image of pure rationality that he often associated with the house of snakes. She looked scared and confused. Hopefully she'd take him for just another lost badger, misguided, but not malevolent. Quite like Jake, he realized. "I just wanted to come find it so I could get to sleep."

"I'm by mysseeaaAH!" George reacted with just as much shock as Nico when Jack burst in in a flurry of action, sweeping Nico up in a bearhug. Her kicking legs swung out violently as she struggled against her captor. George looked on in absolute shock. For the first time in the adventure, he truly wanted out - there was no thrill in terrorizing this defenseless prefect. Perhaps prefects really were just kids, as he had thought. But it was too late now. He ran over to the desk where Jake was hiding, grabbing onto his arm and trying to pull him out and up to his feet. He gave the young boy a tug in the direction of the door. "Run!"

It didn't feel right for him to leave them behind while they were fighting. What if things escalated and someone got hurt? They were in for a world of trouble. "Jack - you're hurting her, stop! Just leave it and run!" He gave Nico a sympathetic frown - hoping that she wouldn't hold it against him too harshly if the boys at least ended up in detention. The boys minus Jake, that is - George was in a hurry to try and escort him out of the room and get him running in the direction of the Hufflepuff commons.

A wand-tip broke the darkness. The room filled with creepy shadows, and Jake hugged his knees tighter. Illuminated in that light was...a girl. She said 'curfew' and that was when Jake knew that this really WAS a girl, not a monster or anything like that, because no monster talked about curfew. No, this was authority. This was the rules. Such a thing should have filled Jake with relief. It did, sort of...he'd just never been on the wrong side of it before.

And Jake was still shaking,

He watched from his hiding spot beneath the desk as George began to confess. But that was weird...he didn't tell her about the secret mission or anything like Jake had expected. He talked about something that Jake never would have expected him to talk about: plushies. So...so which was it? Was it possible that the secret mission was actually just a plan to get back a secret stuffed animal the whole time...? One Jake had never even heard of? For a moment, he found himself believing the bigger badger's words, and gaped at him in a new light. But wait...that just couldn't be...He had woken George in the night before...and he had certainly never SEEN a stuffed animal. It must have been a lie. A lie to protect the secret mission. It wasn't secret if you told anybody. But did that make it ok to lie to a prefect? Even if Professor Browne and the badger society HAD sent them, they still weren't supposed to lie. Not to each other even, but to a prefect even less. It would have been like lying to his parents.

And if you weren't supposed to LIE to a prefect, what happened next was about as large a violation as Jake ever could have imagined (quite a bit larger, in fact). Suddenly two arms appeared and grabbed the prefect around the waist! Jake might have thought they were under attack until he heard the voice. He knew it was Jack, he would recognize his voice anywhere, but grabbing a prefect?! He wondered if maybe this girl WAS some kind of monster, and only Jack knew about it but she sure seemed human as she struggled and fought.

Then Jake startled as an arm grabbed his - but it was just George, yanking him to his feet. Jake bumped his head on the underside of the desk, and rubbed at it with a pained whine. There was no time though - he could cry about the bump later. This was life or death...The pull on his arm made him stumble forward. 'Run!' his bunkmate said.

Jake tried...he really did...but he was stunned at the sights that he was seeing. The prefect looked like she might get hurt, and if she didn't then Jack surely would be given detention for a whole year. None of it made SENSE. None of it was supposed to be happening. His frightened brain still wanted him to run, but his legs seemed unable, needing to see the situation broken up. As if by leaving the two in the darkness behind them the unthinkable might happen. "B-but..." Jake interjected, as he felt Georgie pulling at his arm.

A few very long seconds ticked by.

For the stupid first year, terror was not even a factor. For what reason would Jack have to fear the darkness or other people or the unknown? He didn't have to think about his future. All he had was the here and now.

The red-haired prefect wildly yelled for him to unhand her, while his grip stayed firm. The hard thudding of the heels of the wooden heels of her black leather mary janes slammed against her captor's shins. The sharp sting of pain ran up his legs to his knees. He could handle this; the pain was a normal thing for the boy. Another thing not the be afraid of. Why in the world is she not stopped writhing around like a tiny snake? It was an absolute pain, not grip even tighter. He didn't want to hurt her.

His whole plan was to restrain her while the other boys left, but there was just the slightest issue. The other boys stopped right in front of the tangle of arsehole and prefect.

The smart one, George, was trying to talk the way of his predicament, which clearly wouldn't work. It was obvious. They were committing a violation to the school's policy, and there wasn't another way around it. No offense to Jake, but almost everybody would take a 'secret mission' type lie would never work. They have way too many ways to check if they were lying. Nico's exertion was slowly but surely wearing down the boy's arms. He could hear the cry for him to let the girl go-

That was straw that broke camel's back. All will to hold on had failed him. Pain may be a welcome friend for him, but only a friend he should be forced to proceed through life with. Years of hardening his outer shell had given him the shield he needed to protect and hide away his weaknesses.

The second his arms were free of the girl, he flew towards his new friends. No matter what others might think, Jack already felt responsible for them. So again, sacrificing himself for these two beautiful fools. He made sure to stay as the median between the newly released Nico, and the two NOT RUNNING Hufflepuffs. With an intense look at George, he spoke, "Common room, now. I've got this." Jack was serious.

@George Henry | @Jake Morris | @Jack Warren

Overcome by fear and loss of control, Nico wiggled wildly - nearly to a point where she wanted to give up and just cry. What a scene that would've been... She was so overcome with panic that she didn't even notice a third Hufflepuf popped up from under the desks. What on earth was going on? She just wanted to be able to move again. To run away if she had to.

"Jack - you're hurting her, stop! Just leave it and run!"

Another name was dropped. As she helplessly struggled, George looked at her. He gave her a look that felt sorry that things had to go this way. Maybe he didn't mean to... But why were they out here in the first place? One student would maybe... make sense. But three?! The smallest of them held tightly onto a plushie. That much she could tell looking though the red drops that started to roll down her cheeks. Was that what they were looking for? Then why even hold her like she was going to attack them? Nico knew better. There was a reason why she got selected for being a Prefect. She knew violence wasn't the answer to everything.

The tallest of them finally gave up on restraining her. The little dhampir had quite some stamina -- definitely if she was cornered and afraid. The moment he dropped her, she stepped his toe hard before setting some steps back. Away from all of them. 'W-What are you guys DOING?! It's already way past curfew!' She started sobbing softly. The scare got to her in an intense manner. Her once professional posture was replaced by that of one more fitting for her age. A scared little girl. Her lip quivered as she tried to wipe away her tears, but they kept on coming. She wanted to be strong but being here alone, with no one to back her up, really felt scary. 'You better have a REAL good explanation for this...' She sniffled and tried not to sink on the floor.

Jack finally let go of Nico, and George regretted wishing for it immediately. She stepped on his toe and backed off - thankfully placing Jack between the boys and the prefect. It wasn't supposed to go like this - the poor girl looked terrified, and suddenly George felt as if maybe he was the monster in the dark that people ought to be afraid of around here. But there was no time for feeling sorry - that could wait until everything was said and done. And the only way that would happen was if someone ended up in detention. It wouldn't be him.

"We were just looking around! You scared us!" George said, lobbing the accusatory tone back at the poor girl. He put an arm around Jake, evidently protective of the smallest of the four of them. He tried to nudge him backward - trying not to let the girl get a good look at him. Jake was the student who deserved a detention the least, out of probably the entire school, let alone these three. Ah, well - if he got it, it was his own fault for coming along. That wouldn't stop George from feeling guilty about it, though. "And you don't need to worry, because we were just on our way back!"

He tugged on Jake's arm again, trying to goad that frightened part of Jake's brain into taking action. The time for talk was over, now was the time for running. This time, it was no longer a suggestion - he was essentially trying to drag Jake by the arm and run him out of the room. "You heard the lady, it's time to go back to bed!"

Maybe the stubborn boy would really go, this time.

Jake was scared, but the weird thing he was noticing was that everyone was scared. The prefect who had tried to stop them (it was starting to seem like maybe there were no monsters after all) looked as scared as the boys, and then...was she...crying?

The little Hufflepuff stared up at the authority figure with the tears in her eyes, something he had never seen before. It was such a surprising sight it took him away from the issue of Jack's stomped toe, the issue of whether or not a secret mission would get them out of trouble, and the tears that still glistened in his own eyes. He didn't know what was wrong. He looked around wildly. Was there something else around? Or did it have something to do with them? Had Jack hurt her? He hoped Jack hadn't hurt her. George put an arm around him and nudged him backward, and Jake stood behind his taller friend. It still felt safer to hide there...but he peeked his head out to get a glimpse of the girl, a sight that was haunting him more than anything.

But George said it was time to go, and tugged on his arm, and the urgency with which he did it compelled Jake's feet into action. He wanted the safety of Scamander dorm - his bed, his blanket and Freddie. Running was something that Jake was good at, and now he found himself running once more - out of the classroom, then down the hall, one bare foot pounding on the castle floor. He had lost a slipper, though he didn't remember when. Then they turned the corner and plunged themselves back into blackness. Little feet skidded on the floor as Jake came to a nervous stop. His hands reached up and squeezed George's arm, unwilling to lose grip because then he'd lose sight and not know where the other badger was. He stumbled forward at the tugging. "The light...!" he squeaked, staring forward into the dark - the creeping blackness of the midnight castle.

Gah! She stomped on his toe! With spewed curses from the boy. The red hot throbbing ached wildly as he continued to step between the prefect and his friends. The red streaks on the girl's face made it clear that she wasn't planning on playing hardass on the boys. Her attempts at being scary were fruitless, however. The bloody red tears were off-putting at best, but that was about it. Jack couldn't help but feel a little bit of pitty- but no! She's the ENEMY! Rules are the enemy, and she enforces those damned things! No sympathy! He shook his head as Jack tried to refocus on not letting the boys get caught. "You are gonna stay here with me, I think."

Jack was impressed by George's accusatory retort. Stuff like that always had an excellent chance to take people aback. Super smart. AND FINALLY, the others started to get on their way. Jack let out an internal sigh of relief as he drew his wand. He wanted to send the message that he wasn't going to budge as his friends fled. With a hardened resolve, Jack straightened his back and waited for a possible bad ending to come along. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jake hesitate. Internally he demanded that he move without any more complaint

@Jack Warren | @George Henry | @Jake Morris

"We were just looking around! You scared us!"

What?! If Nico hadn't been scared to the bone because of the tallest boys surprise hug, she might've admitted that she probably surpised them. But they were the ones who most likely cast a Tarantallegra at her. She sniffled as the accusation hit her in the wrong spot. See? You're just a monster. Everytime you think you're not, you make a mistake, which proves once more that you are indeed, just a monster.
Flashes of her days at Muggle school appeared in her head. Children who cried when they saw her, they pushed her around, called her names,... And all she could do, was cry.

Back in the horribly lit corridor, standing infront of a boy who was way taller than her. Nico glanced up at him, tears still rolling down her ghostly white cheeks. Was she such an easy target? Couldn't even a badge like this protect her? She had to face it. A title wouldn't shield you from a bad time...

"And you don't need to worry, because we were just on our way back!"

The voices of the two other boys faded as she started to stare at the assaulter. A soft red glow started to appear in her eyes. A fiery core in the center of her ice blue hues. 'Are you truly going to threaten me?' Don't be fooled. She was shivering. The darkness of the empty halls crept close to her, as the shadows cast by the nearby torches danced on the walls. Nico didn't let go of Jacks gaze. Was she in the wrong to catch these boys? But they were out after curfew... Sneaking around in the corridors... Exactly the type of peers she needed to keep out of the darkness that filled the castle after 10 pm.

Slowely, the dhampir straightened her back and walked up to the tall Badger. 'I dare you...' Her once scared shivering voice was now cold and collected. Once the tip of his wand nearly touched her, she stopped.