More Bad News PV Asteria Knight closed

Asteria slipped out of the Ravenclaw common room. It had been a bit of a taxing day for the young Ravenclaw so she needed some time to herself for thinking. It wasn't that anything bad had happened, it was just ordinary. A bit too ordinary, in fact. Enough to make it sort of boring. When she first came to Hogwarts, Asteria couldn't have imagined there ever being a boring day but as the school year continued on, she realized that even Hogwarts had its boring days just like anywhere else.

She took her time making her way down the stairs and into the corridors. There were so many interesting things to inspect in the corridors still, even though she had already gone through them many, many times before. Her hair shifted to a teal color but her eyes remained a natural color. Asteria was improving at her ability, slowly but surely. It still wasn't especially good and it tired her out if she did it for too long. It was sort of nice not to have her appearance changing all the time.

As she entered the fifth-floor corridors she decided to do a bit of people-watching. Asteria pressed herself to the wall and observed the people passing by. Huh, a Slytherin on the fifth floor, right before curfew? How strange. Wasn't the Slytherin common room in the dungeons? She didn't want to meddle with his business but she didn't have much to do at the moment. Perhaps she should follow him? It would be fairly easy to blend in with the other students who happened to be walking around at the time. Unless he turned around, it would be fairly hard to notice that she was following him.

Why did she want to follow him again though? He was probably just going somewhere to meet up with someone or something like that. She could even go to the library to pick up a new book or go back to her dormitory to relax. But no, her curiosity got the best of her causing Asteria to choose to follow the guy. What if he is going somewhere interesting though? One could never really know unless they try to find out which was exactly what she was going to do.

@Flash Holmwood

Reaching his destination, Flash mused on about what he wanted to do with the room for the day. He thought it might be nice if outside it was snowing rather than raining. It wouldn’t have the same ambient noise that he so enjoyed, but the view would be beautiful. He had tested the mechanics of the room a bit, with wildly different results. Sometimes he had to back out right away and start over, having made something altogether wrong. There was something about what he needed, rather than what he asked for. Magic was sometimes so powerful and yet so whimsical, one would think it had a sense of humor.

Pacing in front of the area where he expected the door to appear, he thought about what he desired. For snow, he asked for his room to be in complete solitude… he hoped something like that wouldn’t backfire and end up being something eerie instead. He wouldn’t know until he opened the door and checked.

As the familiar door to his bedroom magically apparated out of thin air, he opened it and looked around inside. He planned to wait and see if Burnett would show up, but wanted to make sure the room hadn’t turned into some kind of hellscape by wishing for the wrong thing. It looked perfectly fine. The same room as he had been perfecting over time, only light powdery snow falling onto the windows like the enchanted magic they were.

Smiling and satisfied, Flash closed the door again to lean against the wall and wait, only to catch a figure of someone he didn’t recognize at all around the corner. His smile vanished, along with the light joy floating in his previously carefree heart. This was bad, no, worse than bad, it was an emergency. He walked urgently over to the girl, his face serious with a hint of fear. Whether she tried to flee or stayed still, he would get to her. He was a runner, after all.

”What have you seen? Who are you?” Flash’s voice was monotone and loud.

@Asteria Knight

Asteria quietly followed the boy, making sure that she stayed a ways back so that he couldn't hear her. It wasn't the first time she had followed someone, after all, so she knew the drill. Hopefully, he wouldn't catch her. That would be one awkward encounter which she hoped to avoid. The best choice then would probably be to run and hope he couldn't catch her before she could take refuge in the Ravenclaw common room.

That's not going to happen though. Asteria was confident in her abilities to stay hidden so she continued on following. It seemed like the boy had come to a stop and was now pacing around. She crept closer, observing the odd behavior. It seemed like a strange thing to be doing, especially while not in front of anything in particular. Wait, was that door a second ago? How did he just do that? He appeared to be around her age so it wouldn't make sense that he had mastered such a spell and besides, he didn't get his wand out. How did that even happen? The young Ravenclaw couldn't put quite her finger on it. Perhaps if she kept observing then she might find out.

It was definitely a real door, the boy was able to open it. Why did the boy know of this thing? Her mind was full of a whole bunch of questions. Asteria slowly walked closer to the door, being careful not to make any noise. Even the smallest squeak could potentially give her away.

Not that Asteria had to worry about that that now, it looked like he had already noticed her. Oh great. Just great. She could enact her plan she thought of earlier and flee but that way she would never learn about what this door thing was about. That would probably be the safest option but she didn't really want to do that. Instead, the first-year decided to face the boy's question. "Why does it matter?" Asteria retorted. Based on his actions, she could guess that he didn't want to be caught. "And if you don't want to be caught, perhaps you should lower your voice a little."

Interacting with: @Flash Holmwood

Once he caught up to the girl and saw her look of bewildered defiance, Flash knew he had to quickly change tactics. Her fight or flight response had been triggered by his approach, but her mind had chosen ‘fight’, perhaps by nature of the fact that she could tell that she had the upper hand. Or… perhaps Flash was giving her too much credit.

Either way, she must have seen something. In fact, wasn’t it likely that she had been following him? Was she someone sent by Vladimir to watch his movements? Well, that seemed somehow ridiculous too. She was rather tall for a girl her age, but slight and pale. She had bright teal hair and lavender eyes, something that doesn’t occur naturally. Was she using a spell to change her appearance, using contacts to change her eyes? It was terribly suspicious, but at the same time, didn’t her bright blueish hair make her easier to spot?

Whether she was a spy for the hags or just an independently curious student, she seemed to hold the keys to Flash’s continued happiness, and possibly much more. He couldn’t just panic and demand answers from her, because that would only end up giving him nothing in the end. She already seemed ready to push back, so Flash had to figure out what she wanted to hear before information about the room got into the wrong hands.

”Ah, you’re right. Forgive me, I was a bit startled.” Flash was honest, quieting his voice and breathing through his nose. He wished he could take back his clear urgency, but that cat had already been let out of the bag. ”I hope I didn’t distress you. But, even then, I am in a difficult position now. Without knowing who you are, I don’t know who you might tell about… this.”

What a difficult position, after everything he had been through this year, why hadn’t he been more careful? Or worse, was this brightly haired girl able to get past his radar by nature of her own skill? Was she dangerous?

”My name is Flash, if you don’t mind sharing your name…?” Flash would offer his hand to shake if she seemed open to proper introductions. By this time, his worried face had evened out into something a bit more blank and inquisitive. ”Is there something you want from me?”

It was a dumb question, but he needed to get her talking. More than anything, he needed more data about what kind of person she was, through her choice of words, or her body language. Even without her telling him outright, those things would key him in on whether he should feel fine or terrified. He had defaulted to terrified, but it wasn’t currently evident on his face.

@Asteria Knight

"Why do you think I would plan to tell anyone about this? What good would that do me?" Asteria asked, her hair shifting from a teal to a pink tone. The only time she would really even think of telling was if someone was asking her directly or if she needed to show it to someone. She just couldn't see the point of pointlessly snitching on someone. It was best to keep the information for later use, just in case she might need such a thing later.

If she could find out how the boy... no, Flash did the thing then this room might be a good place to study sometimes if it was truly a secret room. The library was a great place to study because of all the books but there were too many people a lot of the time. The dormitory was great since there were fewer people but it was tiring to trudge all the way down to the library and then back up to the tower again, especially because of those nasty moving staircases and missing steps which seemed to double the time it took to go an already far distance.

"Asteria," she responded. The Metamorphmagus wasn't really in a mood for small talk but Flash had asked her name directly so she should probably respond although she didn't especially want to. "Is there anything you want from me?" Wasn't it obvious that if she had just witnessed him summon a door she would be the slightest bit curious how on earth he did it? Or like, what it looked like inside? A part of her just wanted to bombard him with questions but that was probably not the best idea.

"What is that thing and how did you get it to appear like that?" Asteria asked, pointing at the door. She figured that was the way to get the most information out of him with the least amount of questions. Hopefully, he would comply with her questions and give her the information that she desired. If he didn't she would have to try to get the information herself which wouldn't be bad but it didn't satisfy her curiosity in the same way. The Ravenclaw might not ever find out that way actually so she would definitely prefer if the boy would just answer her questions.

Interacting with: @Flash Holmwood

Her answer was interesting, to say the least. She talked as if her point of view on the subject should have been obvious. It certainly wasn’t, was snooping around in other people’s business normal where she came from? It wasn’t as if he could condone her for the activity, since he spend a good deal of his time lurking around himself. At the very least, it seemed she wasn’t intending to go run to a prefect… as long as it didn’t directly benefit her to do so.

It was almost funny to have it used against him, he could almost see himself reflected in the girl’s brash confidence in grabbing the upperhand the moment it was given to her, until Flash noticed a change in the color of her hair. At first he thought it was a trick of the eye, but then her hair transformed from the bright blue of a summery pool to a softer, warmer pink, even seeming to grow as it changed. Had she cast some kind of magic? People he talked to didn’t usually change hair color on the spot. Still, it had happened subtlely enough that he wasn’t made to jump or pull a face of surprise.

He had heard of a race of students that could change things about themselves, but it wasn’t something people really talked about, and he had never met one himself. Even if that was what she was, he didn’t actually know anything about them. Flash didn’t like things that he didn’t understand, he should have been more prepared for something like that.

At least she had given him her name. A nice one at that, though she seemed to want to get that part out of the way as quickly as possible. What was clear, at least, was that it seemed she had little interest in who Flash was or what he might have been up to. Instead, as Flash was starting to realize, she was enamoured by the door instead. Enough that she wanted to forego the dance of shuffling expectations before settling on a the topic she wanted.

Flash could respect that, he tended to like people that were more direct. For some, he had to drag their minds along a veritable dog show obstacle course before they divulged the information he wanted. This was better, she was rapt in curiosity about a door appearing out of nowhere in the castle. Flash would have been much the same in her shoes. Still, it wasn’t something he wanted to show to just anyone, let alone a stranger. Even if she didn’t intend to talk, who was to say she didn’t have some kind of horrible intentions?

”The door…” Flash looked behind him, of course it was still there. Inside, the room was still the same. Flash wasn’t the kind of person to lie just because it would make the present easier for him. He knew it always came back to bite in the end. ”I had hoped you wouldn’t ask. I have good reason to want to keep it a secret from as many people as possible. Even just making one exception scares me.”

Flash chose this narrative for a few reasons, though as with most of these kinds of spur of the moment situations, he had to go out on a limb. Her interest in the door over what seemed to be his intention to break the rules was a good place to start. He didn’t know why she was watching him in the first place, but she likely wouldn’t leave unless she got some kind of answer. If he explained everything he knew and how to summon it, she would have all the power to do with it as she pleased. Instead, the narrative needed to instill in her the same fear of misuse that Flash had, and his position as a victim. It was the first thing he could think of on the spot.

”But I have no choice, do I?" Flash’s tone had not raised, nor had his face grown any sort of particular expression. Perhaps he would have done well to look more victimized, but he wasn’t particularly expecting her heart to bleed for his plight. He couldn’t just hand something over just because someone asked him to. ”Instead of demanding I answer, why don't you tell me my options?”

@Asteria Knight

Ugh, he clearly wasn't going to make this easy for her. She would probably have more luck with him than just researching it though so she should probably just try to get the information out of him, even though he basically said he didn't want to give it. Normally, Asteria would have left him alone by this point but the potential information was too interesting for her to ignore. She wasn't even asking for why he was dealing with this ....thing, just what it was and how to use it, something perfectly normal to ask someone with a strange door.

At least at the current moment, she had no intention of being a tattletale. If she were to report this thing, that would probably minimize her own chances of using the room, if she wanted to use it that is. She could never be too sure what was inside. It could be some strange thing that was completely useless to her and she was just wasting her time right now.

Why would he want to keep it a secret though? It was just another part of the castle. Anyone could stumble upon it somehow probably, it was highly improbable that in a place with a ton of people, there would be no others that knew of a secret room unless it was a highly elusive one or something.

Flash seemed quite intent on keeping it a secret, for what reason, Asteria did not know. It could just be because he wanted it all to himself to do whatever he was doing with it or it could be that it was actually dangerous and he didn't want anyone else going there.

Even if it was dangerous, Asteria could probably escape whatever danger was inside. Flash seemed to be willing to go inside so it couldn't really be that bad. Even if it was bad, it was good to know of its location so she could avoid it. There were plenty of reasons she could think of not to use it but she couldn't come up with a single reason not to know of it at least.

So he wanted options. If she wanted to, she could just say tell me or tell me but that would be dumb. Dumb was the last thing Asteria wanted to come off as at the moment, it wouldn't really give her any advantages. "Well, is it magical in any way or not?" That seemed like a good first question to ask in this situation.

Interacting with @Flash Holmwood
Sorry for the delay, I was super busy this weekend.

Asteria took a path that Flash hadn’t really accounted for… blowing past his words and reasoning like they were nothing. She really was quite motivated, he could almost admire her thirst for knowledge if it wasn’t currently giving him a headache. Why couldn’t she fall for his words like other girls her age? Well, Flash had never backed down from a challenge before, he could still find the most ideal outcome he could manage with what he had. She was stubborn, curious, sure of herself… it seemed there would be no option but to reveal some information. He just had to make sure what he said would be true, but useless.

”Yes, it’s magical. There’s a room in there, a bedroom.” Flash looked over his shoulder to where the door still was. He wondered whether the door might disappear if he gave it enough time. It wasn’t something he knew to expect though, so he had to assume it would stay until he was done with it. She might have been surprised that he was suddenly forthcoming, but he planned on using that to his advantage. ”You can look if you like, but please don’t step inside.”

If she opened the door, she would just see the beautiful cabin room. The washroom off to one side, and a big window with lightly falling snow being illuminated by the glowing hearth nearby. It’s a peaceful scene, like an old rustic painting that might end up on a tasteful Yuletide card. It might have made her incredulous to what ‘danger’ he may have been warning her about earlier, but whether she decided to completely disregard his warnings and step inside would tell him a lot about who she was.

@Asteria Knight

Why would there be a random bedroom on the fifth floor? Was he lying about it? What sort of magic did it have? Asteria's mind filled with questions. Based on what she had seen before, she figured it had some sort of appearing magic but what else? There were still so many potential options for what it could be. "What sort of magic does it have?" The twelve-year-old asked. She just had to go and see what it was, her curiosity was killing her.

Asteria lept at the invitation to go look inside. She opened the door, carefully. It could be a trap that Flash was trying to set for her, knowing that she would want to look inside or some sort of prank. If it was, she did know his name. The Ravenclaw wasn't normally the tattling type but she wasn't a big fan of pranks either. Well, she wasn't a fan of being pranked. On occasion, Asteria might set a prank but never without a good reason and never an overly simple or boring one. Those types were too simple and low-effort for her style.

The first-year scanned the interior of the room. It seemed like what he said it was, a bedroom, quite a nice one at that, perhaps somewhere where she might even like to stay. Who's was it though? Was it Flash's? A professor's? Someone else's? Why couldn't she go inside? Yet again, Asteria's head was filled with questions. "And why shouldn't I?" She questioned. What could stepping into a room do? Perhaps it still was some sort of a prank and the nice exterior was just a facade.

Interacting with: @Flash Holmwood