Carpe Diem Closed

With @Alina Rosier, @Clifton Troublefield, and @Lindsey Springhall

On a Saturday afternoon not far from the beginning of school, Alexa slipped out of her common room, unnoticed by the others. She walked very deliberately down the hall, as though she had an important destination in mind. She did in fact have a destination in mind, but she wasn’t sure if professors or prefects would exactly call it an important one… Considering what she was about to do…

Alexa wasn’t big on breaking rules, but she loved to explore. She had explored the highlands of her home for years in Scotland, finding caves and creeks and ravines and all sorts of treasures. She hoped she could do the same at Hogwarts, and Alina definitely seems like the type to be game to explore as well. Alexa was going to meet her now in the second floor corridors.

Her pockets filled with snacks from the Hufflepuff common room (admittedly it was mostly chocolate, her favorite), she felt prepared for an adventure. She rounded the corner into the second floor corridor, and saw Alina leaning up against the wall near some study rooms. Smiling, Alexa waved as she approached, and then drew up beside the girl. “I am so ready for an adventure,” she said brightly by way of hello. “How are you today?” She couldn’t keep from smiling, she was so excited.

"Alexa, hi!" she smiled to the girl, glad to see her. "I'm doing well. I can't wait either. In fact, where the bloody hell are Lindsey and Cliff. If they don't get here soon, we girl are just going to have to go leave them out of the fun." Plus there was only so much time in the day.

She looked down the hall but there still seemed to be no sign of them so she went ahead and sat right down on the stone corridor floor. "It was nice to meet you the other day. I'm totally jealous of your red hair. It's more than beautiful." And she really thought so.

So here was a girl that was also sorted into Hufflepuff like her. Sometimes she wondered if everyone in the same house had similarities but they only needed to discover what they were. Then again, wasn't Hufflepuff the place where they put everyone else? She really didn't know yet.

"So tell me of yourself. Besides the farm and horses...although that's cool enough. What else do you like to do? Say, if you weren't going to be exploring with us today since we don't have any classes, what do you think you'd be doing?"

Meeting @Alina Rosier @Alexa Mackenzie and waiting for @Clifton Troublefield

“Oh, hey, am I late!” Lindsey rushed towards the corridors on the second floor. She would meet Alina, Alexa and Clifton there today.
She spent her whole morning doing potions homework in their common room, as well as drinking tea her Chinese grandmother brought her. She looked up her watch. “Oops, I’m going to be late!” She jumped up. A fellow Hufflepuff stared at her strictly. Well, never mind, for I’m going on an adventure!
She really liked her new friends. Alina, Alexa and Clifton were nice, friendly and exciting. It’s great to meet them! Lindsey said to herself.
“Sorry for a bit late…” She said as she arrived. Alina and Alexa were already there.
“Have you seen Clifton?” Alina asked.
“Well no——Mr. Troublefield might be at anywhere now——I wonder if he’s coming?” Lindsey replied.
She loved adventures. But, breaking rules was not her cup of tea. Be bold, but as well as be prudent. That’s what her mother told her. Maybe this was the reason she wasn’t sorted into Gryffindor. Going on adventures, but have rules deep in heart.
Anyway, adventures for life! Especially with friends and family! Lindsey thought, and smiled.

Lindsey inquired whether or not Clifton was coming as Alina put a lemon drop in her mouth. She should have waited until after her statement to do so though because it made her words rather hard to understand. " 'eel be 'ere. 'M sure of it." Which was lemon-drop-in-mouth speech for He'll be here. I'm sure of it. She said it with much certainty in her voice and didn't doubt it for a moment.

She knew Clifton quite well and he'd take up the chance for an adventure. Alina rested her head and smiled but then glanced away. No need for these girls to think she was silly for being so infatuated with the boy.

She moved the lemon drop to one side so she could talk more clearly. "So what were you two thinking? More exploring inside the castle or outside? I'm up for either truly, although I kind of want to do some exploring on the inside. I feel like these walls scream secrets and we can probably weasel some out of the portraits even." Never in her life before there did she see staircases move like that. And her father collected art at home and came from a long line of purebloods, but even her artwork at home didn't talk. It didn't even move.

With @Alina Rosier, @Lindsey Springhall, and hopefully soon @Clifton Troublefield!

Alexa was pleased to see Alina, and very pleased that the other girl seemed happy to see her. When she complimented her hair, Alexa blushed and murmured, “Thank you.” She wanted to say that Alina was beautiful all around, but she felt that that would be weird.

She asked about Alexa and what she liked to do. Alexa answered, “Oh! Well, I really like exploring.” She smiled. “So that’s perfect for today. And I love to read. So if we weren’t doing this today, I would probably take a book out to the courtyard or the lake, maybe just the library. I enjoy all of those places,” she added quietly. She didn’t add that she enjoyed them alone, because there was no one else around sometimes, and she got lonely. But not today!

“What about you? What do you like to do?”

As soon as she asked the question, Lindsey rushed toward them. Alexa smiled at her. “You are right on time. It’s good to see you again!” She was excited to be hanging out with new friends.

Alina said that Clifton would be there at some point after Lindsey asked, and then Alina asked about where they would like to explore. “I’ve been outside a lot,” Alexa chimed in. “It is nice, but it would be great to explore the insides of the castle! Have you ever been to the owlry?”

"We could certainly head that way," Alina responded, thinking the Owlery was a good destination to have in mind. She looked down to her watch and sighed. That boy.

She went and pulled out a piece of paper from her bag and wrote:

Find us. We're on our way to the Owlery. If anyone can trail us down, it'll be you, Clyde.

Bonnie

She used Clyde from their previous adventure when they got called Bonnie and Clyde although she still didn't know what that meant. The two of them would have to go to the library sometime and uncover the mystery.

She then folded the paper up in a particular way and placed it down on the ground where they stood. He would know what it meant and he would know it was for him.

She smiled and then returned to the girls. "Okay, no need to wait on Slowpoke. He'll find us. So the Owlery...." the place where one went to mail letters, mostly to home. She didn't want to think of her father right now and shook her head to flip her hair some and get that thinking out of her head.

"Anyways," she realized that she had zoned out for a moment and it was time to get back on track. "Okay girls, who wants to be the navigator?" Surely she would, she was the leader type. But she could also be a team player.

Clifton tore out of the common room, one hand buttoning his collar and the other carrying his shoes. Chances were they'd already left. But he could at least try to catch up.

His bag thumped against him as he ran down the hall, drawing the confused or concerned gazes of early bird students lazily wandering the corridors. Clifton hardly noticed. He had found friends to explore with and he wasn't going to waste his chance to learn more about this insane school. They were smart friends too, which probably meant he'd get in less trouble. And, of course, this wasn't the first time he'd sprinted down the hall to see Alina.

He skidded around the corner in his socks and narrowly missed crashing into a suit of armor. Then hurried down the hall to the spot where they were supposed to meet. Unsurprisingly, no one was there.

No one but a tiny piece of expert origami. The corner of Clifton's mouth perked up in a smile, recognizing it's shape. He picked it up and unfolded it.

Find us. We're on our way to the Owlery. If anyone can trail us down, it'll be you, Clyde.

Bonnie

He laughed a little to himself. She didn't even know who Bonnie and Clyde were yet. But he liked that she'd used the nicknames. His historian Dad would've been proud. ...Well. About the reference, anyways. There were probably better role models out there than Clyde Barrow.

In any case, they'd chosen a good starting place. He'd been wanting to explore that himself once he'd heard about it. And they'd actually let him know where they were going even though he was coming up on an hour late. Even his parents would've just left him home for that. Home with chores. Maybe it had something to do with being in Hufflepuff.

Clifton pocketed the note and then ran the rest of the way down the hall. After a few more corridors and a small staircase, he spotted the three girls.

"Sorry," Clifton panted, still pulling on his shoes as he approached the group. "My dorm had this big party last night--you know, for finishing first week of school?--and I guess I slept in."

He finished pulling on his shoes and then adjusted his bag. "So. The Owlery, then?"

"A little disheveled today, Mr. Troublefield," she smiled brightly as she adjusted the collar some on his shirt. "I like it." Her eyes met his warm brown ones and she glanced down a moment. "I assume you got the message. Good to know the system works. ...Not that I doubted it."

She then took a stride back and sort of bounced back to where the other two girls were. She didn't want them to feel uncomfortable with her closeness with Clifton although it just seemed to happen often. He knew how to entrance her, even if that wasn't his goal at hand.

"So we first headed toward the East tower, thinking the Owlery was there but got rudely turned around by some older Gryffndor Prefect who thought he was the RULE ENFORCER for Hogwarts, perhaps the World itself," she shook her head. "Do these prefects not know how to have fun?" She looked to the others to see if they'd agree.

"And then we had to wait on one of the staircases that took literally forever. I think it knew we wanted to put it to use and it just wanted a break. I mean we were standing there and just when we thought it was time to give up and find another way, it would creak a little more in our direction. Ridiculous!"

But now they were almost to the West Tower where the Owlery rested and she was glad Clifton had joined their ranks.

Interacting with @Clifton Troublefield, @Alina Rosier, and @Lindsey Springhall

After they had been turned away from one tower by a prefect, Alexa was feeling rather stubborn about finding the Owlery. She didn’t think it was breaking any rules to go there, so she was slightly annoyed (which was a big deal for her) with the prefect for not helping them.

That and the staircases having a mind of their own definitely made things more interesting, or difficult, depending on how you viewed it. Alexa liked that Alina was the navigator; she felt more comfortable following, rather than being the one to make the decisions.

When Clifton suddenly burst around the corner, pulling on his shoes, she smiled brightly at him and waved. He was a good guy, and fun to be around. When he and Alina had a tiny moment together, Alexa turned away to give them privacy, smiling slightly. They really seem to like one another.

When that had ended, she turned back and smiled again at Clifton. “How’s it going, Clifton?” She asked kindly. “It’s good to have you join our exploration party.” She chuckled softly.