Carpe Diem Closed

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

Alexa was shocked to see the wall purple and pink. She didn’t know what a pygmy puff was, but there seem to be a lot of them!

Then Clifton stepped forward for a closer look… And disappeared. Alexa gasped, her mouth hanging open in shock. Clifton, Clifton was gone! Her heart contracted in her chest with fear, and her stomach dropped. What had just happened?

Alina was the first to react, calling out after him. Her calls got louder and increasingly desperate, and then she took a step forward. Alexa reached out to grab her, to stop her, but Alina suddenly spun around, and placed the glowing orb in Alexa’s outstretched hands… Then she too was gone.

Alexa’s hands felt clammy, but she tightly clutched the orb, grateful for its light. And then Lindsey began to speak. She moved to investigate a potential hole in the ground, but stopped, not sure she should go further. Before Alexa could make any suggestions, Lindsey suggested her idea with the airplane, quickly folded one up, stepped forward, and was gone. The second passed, and then another, and then suddenly the paper airplane appeared, soaring upward, and skidding to a stop at her feet.

Her jaw firm, she took a good grasp of the glowing orb and stepped forward. There was no way she was abandoning her friends! She took another step, felt a whoosh of air, and was gone.

She landed on something soft, and with the light around her she could see a little. Sitting on the ground, she looked around in confusion, not seeing her friends. Where was she?

Alina had also landed on a soft surface and she rolled off it. Darkness was everywhere. "...Cliff?" she said a little uneasy, but she felt him reach out and touch her wrist before finding her hand into his own and she smiled. That was a relief. If anything should happen to him and it was her fault...she'd never forgive herself. "Crazy meeting you here," she teased in a whisper.

There was then another thump just to her right where she came from, obviously it was one of the others onto that soft surface. Then there was a faint sound of crumpling paper, and then not too long after, another thump. Did that mean both girls made it down? The glow of the light shown and brought even more relief as she saw both Lindsey and Alexa and then looked the other way to Clifton and squeezed his hand.

The light also now gave name to the soft surface that they landed on. "A mattress?" Sure enough, it was a mattress. There were others down there, and in the dim light from the orb she could see some candlesticks, lanterns, and portrait frames, all without a portrait inside. "It's like a store room," she said, but wondered why there had been a hole in the flooring of the secret passageway they were in from above. Was it meant to keep people out or had the old building just have a case of structural damage? Still, someone had to know of its existence for the mattress to be placed so perfectly.

They walked passed a few suits of armor, who's heads turned as they passed, creaking as they did so, echoing in the large room. On the other side was another archway to welcome them, as if saying come this way, children to show them the way. Once at the opening, they saw stairs that led downward.

Alina didn't waste any time as she began skipping down the stairs, almost as if it were some game or something. But come on, this was exciting! They were inside the walls of the castle, the passageways that most didn't even know about! The staircase spiraled around and around. They almost didn't seem to stop but go on forever but just when she was about to slow down for a moment they reached where there was a large wooden door.

Alina looked to the others and then opened it, forcing her little body against it and shoving it open. Through it they could see a hallway down from one of the open staircase railings. Alina knew this well. She looked to Clifton and smiled because not only was the Hospital Wing on this floor, but so was the Trophy Room. This was the third floor, but not any corridor she remembered being in. No corridor she ever remembered existing as she tried to draw out her map.

She turned around and they came to a statue of a hump-backed one-eyed witch. "Gunhilda de Gorsemoor," Alina read the name underneath. "I read about her," she told her friends. Alina's interest in the world of healing had been sparked that year and it was her topic of interest when visiting the library. "She's the healer that discovered the cure for Dragon Pox." But why did the staircase lead them there, to the statue, just outside the reach of the Hospital Wing. The only route they seemed to be able to go was back up the stairs. They seemed to be at a bit of a dead end.

Adventuring with @Lindsey Springhall @Alexa Mackenzie, and @Alina Rosier

"Dragon pox?" Clifton tilted his head. "What's that? You itch and you breathe fire?" He absently wondered if her patients were the reason she only had one eye.

But he wasn't at all surprised Alina had already read up on the witch in the statue. Clifton had really only thought he liked reading until he met her. Her stack of books was always much taller than his when they'd study in the library. And many of them, he'd noticed lately, involved her interest in healing. It was a good fit. He'd seen Alina's quick thinking in a chaotic situation and, of course, her kindness. She wasn't afraid of much, and that trait was probably just as important as the know-how.

"But why all that just to lead to some creepy statue?" he wondered aloud. He experimentally began trying to press different parts of it, like Alexa had the wall, but nothing happened. Finally he gave up and stepped back.

"I think either it's just a dead-end or we need a password. Any ideas?"

That's when Clifton began to hear the growing rumble of clanking armor. He turned. Then protectively grabbed Alexa and Lindsey's arms and yanked them toward him and Alina as a dozen suits of armor crowded the entryway, weapons at the ready.

The one at the front stepped into the small room.

"Are you not the disobedient students that have created this temporary passage? Intending to return on the morrow?" he said, pointed his sword at each of them in turn. Then, with a great flourish, directed his weapon at the ceiling. "We will not stand for it!"

Sounded like they weren't the only students that had decided to go exploring.

"So what?" Clifton instantly regretted saying. "You're going to shish kebab us?" He couldn't believe a school would have something that harmed students, but the longer he was at Hogwarts, the less he relied on his own real-life logic. After all, he was talking back to an empty suit of armor.

"Tis not the chivalrous thing to do, wee lad," the armour chortled. Then pointed his sword directly at Lindsey's throat. "At least. Not without a running head start."

Clifton's eyes narrowed. It sounded like some setup meant to scare them, like at a haunted house. But with a sword that real he wasn't sure if they were in much of a position to argue.

Alina thought it was all fascinating! ...At least up until the point the armor started to threaten her friends. Her Clifton. And then drawing the sword at Lindsey was a step TOO far. She came up to the front, passing by the others. She wasn't going to use logic on it. It was an enchanted piece of metal.

Maybe a sort of sneak attack would work. All her friends in front of her, it was difficult to even see (being as short as she was) and she stood on the base of the one-eyed witch's statue. Even it was so tall that she had to sort of grip part of the upper structure to pull herself up and in doing so, she must have activated something, because the humpback of the witch slowly began to descend, revealing another secret passage in the wall.

They could either go the way they came, up the stairs, through the suits of armor, through the darkness, and somehow lift themselves from the hole...or they could try this new passage. To Alina, the answer seemed pretty simple. "On the count of three, everyone hurry this way!" She said, and took a quick breath. "One, two....three," and at three she jumped from the base of the statue onto the suit of armor so it tumbled down to the ground.

Adventuring with @Alina Rosier, @Clifton Troublefield, and @Lindsey Springhall.

Alexa looked around at what seemed to be a storeroom just as Alina said as much. Carefully grasping the orb, she stood up and dusted herself off, before looking around the room, her footsteps on the flagstones surrounding the mattress ringing in the emptiness.

After Alina shoved the door open, Alexa followed with the light. But quite soon, after the staircase, it was no longer needed, and she lowered it to her side as Alina introduced an interesting statue. This girl knew so much! Alexa loved to read, but she enjoyed fiction more than anything. She had to find more fiction books inside the library, books of stories.

Alina mentioned something called dragon pox, and Clifton’s response made Alexa giggle. For all she knew that was accurate, but it seemed rather funny.

When Clifton asked if anyone had any ideas considering a password or another way to go, Alexa thought for a moment and was about to answer when she heard a strange clanking sound coming from down the hall. She looked up in surprise, and suddenly Clifton grabbed her arm and yanked her toward him and Alina. He did the same with Lindsey, and they all turned and watched empty suits of armor crowd themselves into the entryway, weapons drawn.

The leading suit of armor and Clifton got into a brief argument before the leader lowered his sword to Lindsey’s throat. Alexa gasped. Surely no statue at Hogwarts would harm a student!

Alina suddenly jumped on top of the statue, which seemed to activate some kind of mechanism that opened the humpback to reveal a new passage. Alina called for them to jump in, before she leapt at the leading suit of armor. She went crashing to the ground with the armor, and it broke into several pieces, the helmet still yelling at her despite its now unconnected body. The other suits of armor stood for a moment in shock perhaps, before they readied themselves to charge. But before they could, Alexa ran forward, grabbed the back of Alina’s clothes, and pulled her upright and toward safety. As the armor marched forward, Alexa shoved everyone else before her into the new passageway, before disappearing into it herself. It never occurred to her to do anything other than protect her friends.

Interacting with @Alina Rosier @Clifton Troublefield @Alexa Mackenzie

Lindsey followed the other three up, but suddenly Clifton grabbed her towards him.
“Hmm…?”Lindsey muttered, being a little distracted in her own world. But she soon realized that they were in danger.
The armors all crowded themselves ino the entryway, weapons draw.
Although they were in danger obviously, Lindsey’s a bit excited. True armors and swords! She hadn’t seen and used one for a long time after getting to Hogwarts.
Her grandmother(a Chinese)’s family, 林 (Lin), had been dedicated to traditional Chinese sword fighting for hundreds of years. Grandma Verna often taught her how to fight like the ancient Chinese people. Lindsey was a quick learner and soon mastered some basics of sword fighting. Her grandmother even gave her a true sword for her tenth birthday. Sadly, she did not take it to Hogwarts.
Clifton talked with the leading armor and seemed having a brief argument. All of a sudden, the armor lowered its sword to Lindsey’s throat.
Lindsey was quite shocked at first, without believing that an armor would harm a Hogwarts student. But the armor seemed serious.
Alina jumped up, and told them to run. Alexa ran forward, trying to stop the army.
“Get back Alexa!” Lindsey yelled, kicked the leading armor’s stomach hardly, using the method her grandma had taught her.
Bang! The armor fell, and its sword flew out.
“Pretty hard isn’t it dear Mr. Armor?” Lindsey laughed, quickly picked up the armor’s sword. “Try this!” She stabbed the armor that was trying to stand up.
Lindsey tried to fight two armors surrounding her at the same time, using the traditional Chinese fighting method. It’s probably better than the European one, as the two armors both fell after her stuck them hard.
However, more armors started surrounding her. She could fight two at one time, but not fifty.
How’s Alina, Alexa and Clifton? she thought.
When she turned round, she saw plenty of armors standing in front of her, all lifted their swords.
Lindsey knew that she was in trouble.

A lot happened at once.

Alina surprised him by first, opening a secret passage and second by tackling the knight. Clifton darted after her, but Alexa beat him to it.

She grabbed the back of Alina's clothes, yanking her away from the angrily swinging sword and directly into Clifton. It knocked the breath out of him a little bit and he nearly twisted an ankle on the base of the statue they stumbled into, but he caught her.

"What were you thinking?!" he breathed in relief. And in awe. He couldn't believe she'd just tackled the guy! He'd never wanted so badly to simultaneously high-five and thoroughly shake someone. The guy's sword was real. And the thin line of blood it left across her cheek was real too.

They hurriedly helped each other back to their feet to see Lindsey already challenging the knights like she'd been one herself and Alexa working hard to fend them off. Alina looked a little frustrated to have been yanked away from the fight so early while the others were still in danger. And Clifton had half a mind to jump in himself, but he didn't like the looks of their chances.

Especially when a fresh wave of soldiers assembled before Lindsey, swords drawn. Clifton's eyes narrowed. There was no way this was the faculty's doing. Whatever students had created this passage obviously didn't want trespassers. And with clumsy student spell work? There was no telling what could happen.

"They aren't going to stop. We need to get out," he said, mostly to Alina but Alexa seemed to have the same idea. Suddenly she was running back, Lindsey in tow, herding everyone toward the secret passageway.

Normally, Clifton would've wanted to make sure they all went first, but he wasn't about to get in Alexa's way. Not with that many sharp things at their backs. So he followed the others inside, resolving he wouldn't go anywhere until he was sure Alexa had made it to, except the passage turned out to be a slide.

A steep slide. Which meant he had no idea if she'd made it until he crashed into the others at the bottom. And then Alexa slammed into him.

They set to untangling themselves and Clifton shook his head with a relieved sort of laugh. Each one of these girls put him to shame, all taking at least one knight a piece.

You could tell too. Scrapes. Bruises. Messy hair. Clifton's ankle hurt a little, but that was about all he had to show.

"I hope I'm never at the wrong end of either of your wands when they let us duel."

"That wasn't so bad," Alina spoke up and the others probably thought she was crazy. She literally brushed herself off, dusting off her clothing and running a quick hand through her hair and looked around. This was a different part of the school than she had seen before and she thought she had gone everywhere that was possible to go.

Well, with the exception of the Forbidden Forest on the school grounds because that was, well, obviously forbidden. She and her friend Meredith Ready had made it a point to dedicate their first year to finding a way into it...and had failed so many times miserably.

But this wasn't that. They were still inside. They were now in some small little narrow passageway, but at least they weren't falling down that slide-like slope anymore! "Let's keep going," Alina said to the others. It really only made sense because the Hufflepuffs couldn't turn back...that slope was much too steep. The only logical sense was to move forward. With Alexa near her, she borrowed back the EZ Glo ball and lit it and they began making their way through the twists and turns of the pathway. They seemed to walk and walk and walk.

No one said much during this time, and Alina wondered if they all were starting to think like she was...this was some forgotten passageway with no way out. Four Hufflepuffs were going to live out their last days there and never be found! But finally they came to a stone staircase and nothing else so once again, only one way to go - up. They headed up the steep stairs and if not for the light with them, they probably would have hit their head on the abrupt stop. But it couldn't just end there, could it?

Alina lifted the light higher to reveal a sort of trap-door and she pushed on it. The others helped push and it creaked open. They climbed out onto the dusty flooring of a new room that had wooden crates and boxes all over and a wooden staircase that lead upward still. Alina glanced to the others, curious where they were.

It was a storage room, but to where? She just was going to look into one of the boxes when se heard a tinkling of a bell from the sweet-shop door high above which caused her to pause. It meant someone was around. Maybe they needed to be careful.

Her hand moved over a logo on the box. "Honeydukes," she said out loud. "That's the name of the sweet shop in Hogsmeade," she had heard others talk of it. She looked at the next box over, same thing. ...Did they really just sneak into Hogsmeade?!

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

After climbing into the statue of the witch, Alexa found herself slipping down a steep slide, crashing into Clifton at the bottom of it. She was having trouble organizing her thoughts. That had been terrifying! And yet… It had also been exciting, and this realization surprised her.

Pushing herself off the ground, Alexa dusted off her robes, her hands brushing over the pieces of chocolate in her pockets. Her hair was a mess, and she reached into her pocket for a hairband to tie back the tangled red mass. Shaking her head as though to shake out cobwebs in her mind, she straightened up, noticing her surroundings for the first time.

First of all, all of her friends were there, and they were slowly getting to their feet. Everyone seemed relatively unscathed, except for a few scratches and bruises. She was amazed they have fared so well, especially Alina and Lindsey, attacking the suits of armor the way they had.

She realized they were in an underground tunnel, that disappeared far into the distance and darkness. She still had the orb in her hand, amazingly unbroken, and Alina took it from her as Clifton made a comment about never wanting to duel the three girls. Alexa smiled shyly. That was high praise, and appreciated.

Alina began to lead the way down the tunnel, which seemed to go on forever. Just as Alexa was beginning to have doubts as to whether or not it would ever end, they came to a stone staircase leading upward. She clambered up behind the rest of the group, occasionally using her hands on the steps. She was bone-tired, but her excitement was beginning to spark again when she saw the trap door at the top of the stairs. Crowding together, the friends pushed open the trap door and climbed into a new place.

She barely had time to register the boxes before she heard the tinkling of a bell somewhere above her, and looked up at the wooden ceiling, wondering. Alina said some strange name, and then an even stranger name, that Alexa figured had something to do with where they were.

“What’s Honeydukes? And Hogsmeade?” She asked, feeling silly for not knowing, but very curious.

"Hogsmeade is the town that we'll be able to take trips in a couple years...it has lots of little shops and one being a candy shop called Honeydukes," she said and realized that Alexa must have also been a muggle-born like Clifton to ask that. She paused for a moment and looked to her red-headed friend. Yes, friend. She felt that and she was happy to have Alexa as one but she also saw the way she looked at Clifton and that she didn't like. It worried her some that they had a muggle-born sort of bond but she'd just have to brush that off because it didn't matter. Trust. She just had to place her trust in Clifton and her friendship with Alexa that such a bond couldn't destroy other strong bonds she had made with the boy.

She'd stop worrying about that and continue on. "They've got ALL kinds of candies...lemon ice lollies, toffees, caramels, butterscotches, candyfloss, sugared almonds, and fruit strips, but also wizarding candies like sugar quills, licorice snaps, exploding bonbons, toothflossing stringmints, pepper imps, and jelly slugs." She was particularly glad to hear they sold lemon sherberts and the lemon ice lollies - with her love of lemon and all.

She thought of all that walking they just did...could that have been the distance from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade? Could they really be in the storeroom for the candy shop of the nearby town? It almost seemed impossible. Alina looked around and while there was a smallish sort of window in a wall across from them, it didn't really seem like any of them could fit through it, even with their small bodies. In fact, she wasn't sure that window could open which meant at some point they either ended their adventure and went back the way they came...which didn't work so much with that endless steep slide and end their adventure, or they'd have to find a plan and go up the staircase, into the sweet shop, and venture out into the candy store and continue their adventure. Their choice was pretty clear.