Friendship is... PV Ravenclaw

10th September 2026

It was late enough to be the perfect time for an evening snack, so Jessamine made that her mission instead of sifting through a stack of parchment. The unread paperwork left in an unceremonious pile on her desk, she meandered through the common room and outside. She was just nimble enough to avoid tripping over a number of students, but that agility did not extend to agility of thought: she did not realise what had happened quickly enough to stop the door from shutting behind her.

It closed with a mocking thunk, and Jessamine bit back a swear, instead glancing sheepishly at the students. Whoops.

The situation didn't seem great. The number of students surrounding the door could very well have started to fill up the common room. Most looked confused, or frustrated, or angry, or – bloody hell, injured. Jessamine's sheepish attempt at a smile faded abruptly as the gravity of one student on the ground and the other cradling an obviously-broken hand set in. Merlin's beard, she thought tiredly, instinctively making her way to Fawkes first.

'Miss, ah, Miss Chaos, let me have a look at your hand.' Usually she would have asked politely, but frankly, with Nick passed out and no other real adult in sight, there was no time for pleasantries. She kept an eye on the bandages, silently appraising them, and nodded wordlessly. Without even bothering to produce her wand, Jessamine instead crouched next to Fawkes, murmured, 'Breathe, breathe,' before waving her hand and uttering a soft-spoken incantation: 'Brackium Emendo.'*

It was a spell she'd cast plenty of times in schooling, though that had been many years ago now. She had no doubt it would work. 'I'll be back. If it gets worse, talk to Mr Zaphiere. Please, for the love of whatever you find holy, do not punch anything again.'

Yes, she was going to toss @Zach Zaphiere's name in the ring of responsibility. Zero hesitation whatsoever. She was half of the mind to tell Zach he was in charge, given that she wasn't 100% sure about Aurora's likelihood of actually keeping an eye on the others, plus the fact that she seemed about to leave. And though Aislin was a prefect, she was also, what, twelve? Aislin's sole responsibility, at this hour, should have been either patrolling or getting ready for bed.

Though she'd had plenty of confidence in the Bone-Mending Spell, she had little to none in her ability to lift Mr Jameson. The boy was taller than Jessamine herself. She stared at his prone figure for a moment before getting her shit together and snapping her fingers. 'Levioso,' she muttered, and he lifted into the air. She began to direct the path down the stairs and to the Hospital Wing by a steady movement of her hand in the air.

Casting a glance behind her, she would attempt to meet the gaze of as many of her students as she could. 'If I come back and suddenly all of you need medical help, I will not hesitate to give you detention. Don't do anything stupid. I'll be back in like five minutes.'

*Fawkes, if you want this to be rolled for, let me know. The attempt itself was confirmed to be okay in DMs, likewise with the godmodding of Nick.

Interactions: @Fawkes Chaos
@Nick Jameson
@Zach Zaphiere

Mentions: Aislin Darragh, Aurora Ranvier + those noted in interactions.

mentions; Ravens date; 10/09/26 location; Ravenclaw tower wc; 602/200 speech; #573e65 - Mikaela. outfit; Click me ooc notes; Pls someone interact with her

Today was... effective. I had classes. I studied. I even was willing to eat dinner like a normal person and go to sleep early, and all the Saints knew I needed to go to sleep today. I'd study tomorrow. Tonight, I wanted to sleep three years. And a sandwich. I also wanted a sandwich.

Neko had been meowing at me since... since lunch. The food I usually had for him on my bag since last night suspiciously disappeared (into his belly, for sure) and now he was hungry. Hungry because he hadn't eaten properly in two hours. Poor little thing, he was dying from starvation.

I hummed, distracted, as I walked over the stairs of the tower. In nights like this one, I hated my house. Why did we need to live so... up? Couldn't it have been like Slytherin's or Hufflepuff's, down there where stairs are not a problem? My legs were hurting, and Neko's constant yelling was not helping at all in the situation.

My head was low, I almost bumped into our Head of House. I saw myself forced to look up to her. "Oh, good night, Miss Lancaster." I greeted, politely, bowing my head at her, following my path, leaving behind my head of house and my floating- wait.

WAIT. Is that Jameson? I turned around, but they had already disappeared. Huh. I must be really sleepy. I'm daydreaming now. I heard people speaking up there. Weird... at this time, everyone's usually coming from dinner or-

I reached the end of the stairs. There was Fawkes (what happened to her hand?), Tina, the prefect, a bunch of others I didn't know... And a closed door. No. No, no, no... This looked like the start of a joke. A bunch of ravenclaws and a closed door.

Well, let's see what the riddle is. Can't be that hard, right?

"What is friendship?"

Ah, shit. It was that hard. Okay. Friendship. Like the one I had with Sky or Robin or Jay or Tina or... yeah, them. Friendship is a bond. But no. This is a riddle. I was good with riddles. I could do this. The door didn't want anything poetic, nor something literal. This is the kind of thing the ravenclaw door would do in a random thursday.

"Friendship is the bond that connects people." A second. Two. Meow. Nope, nothing. "Something unvaluable." Nope. I give up.

My bag stopped moving and I felt something falling next to me. Yes, Neko, I'm stressed too. The cat started yelling at the door. I rolled my eyes. Sure, because the door understood cat language. After a few more seconds, I sighed.

"I'm too tired for this. C'mon, Neko, we can sleep somewhere else." I started walking, but my cat didn't move. In fact, he sat there. And kept yelling at the door. "Nekoooo..." I called him out again. Nope. With a final, defeated sigh, I sat down in the stairs. Well, this was going to be a long night. I accomodated myself with my back against the wall and my bag at my feet. If this was going to take long, at least I'd take a nap.

ABILITIES. 's grace; Evasive Maneuvers; ability three; ability four; ability five; ability six; ability seven

She knit her fingers together, squeezing them in a meticulous rhythm as time passed, before a boy (@Aaron Schwartz) came by.

"Yes," she admitted to his first question, quietly. "I promise I belong here, I just- I just didn't get it right." Saturnalia was sure to clarify, especially since she wasn't wearing her usual robes, having already changed into her pyjamas (and not expecting to get locked out of the common room. She did her best to convey to him what she said, not remembering the precise wording. The Eagle had seemed to be pretty lenient if you had a good answer or had the right idea, but evidently not today.

"Hi, Aislin," she greeted @Aislin Darragh back. She bit her lip as she looked over to the door- if Aislin got it easily, Saturnalia didn't want to look stupid to her new roommate. That would be mortifying. However, she had a feeling it might not be that simple.

"On a scale from Manticore Glue to spooked billywigs, how stuck are we?"

Saturnalia gave that same slightly confused, slightly scared stare that she had given the Eagle when it gave the riddle.

"I have no clue what either of those are," she admitted. She couldn't tell if it was an Irish thing or a wizard thing that her mum hadn't told her about. "I don't know that it's hard, it's just... weird."

She went back to wringing her hands, giving them an opportunity to figure it out.

Quite a crowd was starting to gather as @Xio Arcana joined the group, already angry at the door knocker. It was mostly lower-year students... presumably trying to get back before curfew.

Curfew...

Saturnalia's stomach dropped. She wasn't wearing a watch, and there was no clock anywhere nearby, so she couldn't tell how close they were to curfew. She really did not want to get into trouble just for not being able to get into the common room! She bit her lip a little harder as her hand reached into her pocket, fiddling with the cap on her toothbrush. Being stuck like this, the only thing should go do was try not to panic (a near impossible task) and be as helpful as possible.

"It'll only let you guess once," she told @Marigold Wesley- she had figured that out for herself pretty quickly, the last time she got a riddle wrong. Luckily, that time, she hadn't been stuck for long, an older student only a short ways behind her to solve it.

This did not seem to be the same situation.

Saturnalia went back to focusing on her breathing, which was going surprisingly well before @Fawkes Chaos showed up. You see, it wasn't the mere act of her showing up, but rather, what she did shortly after- punching the Eagle. Saturnalia understood the frustration, and perhaps if she was a little more violent, she would have done the same. And yet, that still wasn't the cause. No, after Fawkes punched the door knocker- which made an awful, terrible, breaking noise- she drew back her hand to reveal a large cut. Saturnalia clasped her hands over her mouth, stifling a quiet scream as tears ran down her face, even though she wasn't the one hurt.

"Maybe we should get a professor..." she started, shaking slightly in her spot. At least a slightly more sensible student, @Tina Carilla, came around and helped bandage Fawkes' wound- which was good, because Saturnalia didn't normally carry plasters around, and especially not when she was in her pyjamas.

She curled her knees up to her chest, holding them close for comfort. This night was awful. She scratched at her wrists, trying to bring some sense of security. She just wanted to go home- either one would be fine, just not here. She missed her mum. She missed her dad. She even missed her brother. But she was stuck here- quite literally.

A boy, @Jeremy Slater, determined that the entrance to the common room was broken, and she had to agree, though she didn't mention that to him, too busy wiping her tears on her knee. He seemed to be one of the few logical ones in the group- not a fan of Xio's latest attempts to be some sort of circus ringleader or something.

Luckily, a few moments later, an older girl (@Aurora Ranvier) came to their rescue, boasting of her intellectual prowess and riddle-solving abilities. However, the door still didn't swing open to let them in, and as quickly as she came, the girl was gone, without a chance for them to even ask for help for the girl with the broken hand.

Saturnalia was starting to be convinced that she would have to spend the night out here, if they didn't all get detention first, for not being back by curfew. She managed to wipe her tears on the backs of her shaky hands so she can see, and stand on equally shaky legs to move her spot to a windowsill, close enough that she could still see the action going on, if someone were to save them, but it was up enough that she didn't feel as claustrophobic, so it was a fair trade off for the several attempts it took her to get up there. @Andrea Woodburn seemed to share her first initial instinct, also taking up a spot against the wall like she had.

She continued watching the several personalities that came to join their motley crew, even as her tears blurred her vision. She had believed that the worst of it had already happened with the one girl punching the door knocker, but it was still not the worst of the night yet to come. A boy, @Nick Jameson, was so enraged by the riddle and not getting it right that he slammed into the door. Saturnalia let out a gasp before the boy started playing the guitar (which she thought was NOT apt for the situation) and he fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, he's dead!" Saturnalia cried, rather softly considering the gravity of the situation, as she panicked, seeing the boy on the ground. She didn't know what to do when someone died. She thought there were supposed to be adults around for this kind of thing, but there wasn't anyone around, and no one seemed to be going to get any help. She would have gone herself, but, now being on the windowsill, she was sort of stuck where she was, the crowd having grown large enough that she would have a difficult time getting out.

Luckily, a girl ran off, to what she presumed was to get help. But a few minutes later, Tina returned with a stack of books to search for an answer, rather than seeking out help from someone who might actually know what they were doing. She seemed perfectly content to just leave the poor boy on the cold stone floors.

At least Aislin had some sense to her, now noticing the girl with the one who had punched the door, offering to take her to the hospital wing and taking some sort of charge, which she was grateful for.

Luckily, there was soon another older student, @Zach Zaphiere. He actually seemed to know what he was doing. It was starting to get quite loud, so she couldn't hear what he was saying exactly, but she heard the word "healer" thrown about, so surely he either knew what to do himself or was trying to get one there for them. It calmed her enough that she wasn't crying as hard, but her shoulders were definitely still visibly shaking and she was having a difficult time catching her breath.

Even without all the other extraneous nonsense going on, the door was still proving to be difficult, evident by @Mikaela Foundling's attempt to answer. Even the next girl, @Aster Gillespie, didn't have an answer, even though they both seemed so much more confident with it than Saturnalia could ever hope to be.

The first boy that had joined the group finally took his attempt at answering the riddle, giving a fairly logical answer before coming to the conclusion that the Eagle was poisoned in some way.

They were never going to make it back in.

Just when she had given up all hope and went back to crying into her knees, Saturnalia heard the quiet squeak of the door opening. But just as she looked up, hope clinging on to her heart, it was shattered again as the door closed with a loud thunk before any of them could react.

Though she was surely dehydrated by now, somehow Saturnalia's eyes continued producing tears. She never cried this much at home. It wasn't that far into the semester, surely she could call it quits and go home like nothing had ever happened? She didn't have friends, really, either- she was sure no one would miss her.

At least through all her crying she was finally able to recognize the redheaded woman who came through the door, it taking probably minutes too long for her to realize that was their Head of House, Professor @Jessamine Lancaster. She didn't stick around for long though, doing what was likely the responsible thing and tending to the injured students, whisking the unconscious boy off to the hospital wing.

She at least took the time to address the group of students waiting outside, threatening them all with detention- Saturnalia didn't hear what for, but, like seemingly everything else going on, it had her panicking. She was going to get detention for being stuck outside the common room, she knew it, and they only had five minutes until then.

Breathe Saturnalia, breathe, she reminded herself, trying her best to follow the pattern her mum had taught her years ago. In for five, hold, out for five.

It didn't seem to be working, though. It was more like in for one, hold for none, out for half of one, back in again. Her breath was shaky and erratic, much like the crowd. She wasn't sure how much longer of this she could take, especially with the crushing anxiety of imminent detention from their head of house weighing down on her. To make matters worse, she was pretty sure her fish was going to die, because she hadn't fed it yet today, because she normally fed him right before bedtime. Now, being 11 years old, she didn't quite know that it didn't work like that, so she was convinced that she was going to get back to her dormitory to find Titan belly-up in his bowl, proving to her mum and dad that she wasn't responsible enough for even a fish, let alone a toad, and she really wanted to prove that she could be responsible enough for a toad.

The knees of her pyjamas were wet from all her tears. Her eyes were surely as red as her hair. She made up her mind that as soon as they got back in, she would be sending each of her parents a letter to come withdraw her and bring her back home. Even another girl, @Mikaela Hendricks, couldn't answer, further solidifying her plan.

So Saturnalia went back to trying to calm her breath, digging her fingers into her forearms for support and stability. Answering the riddle seemed like an impossible task for anyone, just as impossible of a task as slowing her racing heart. She tried not to think of her fish, dying alone in the common room, but of course, trying not to think of something just shoved it further into her consciousness. She turned her face towards the stairs, rocking back and forth as she waited for their head of house to return and hopefully getting them out of this mess, out of this disaster of a night, even if it meant getting detention in the process.

Breathe in... out. In... out. In... out.

𝕭rookline lingered near the library door for a single moment before heading back up the stairs. It was dark. Already almost 21:00—half an hour before first through third years have to be in the dorm. Novels that’ll take you to another world were off-limits at this time. The brunette had decided tonight will be an early night.

Going up the stairs by two, she relapsed the day in her mind. A week and three days in. Brookline already had tons of homework to do. And tons of racing practice. She had thought third year had Great-Lake-portions yet fourth year had to be worst. The homework was definitely more than last year’s. She had been working on an History of Magic essay (Oh my Merlin, how tedious a class could be!), and she needed a break. More than a damn pitiful break.

She climbed yet another flight of stairs. Being in the house of Eagles meant, their roost is all the way up in the castle. It could be three more steps or five flights! Three years of climbing these horrendous steps meant sore legs. Brookline anxiously twisted the navy blue cuff on her sleeve. It was rather odd being back at Hogwarts. As much as things were somewhat better at the chilly castle, she had started feeling off. Almost as if she had someone watching her. But she knew absolutely no-one was watching her. She was safe. The Welsh girl knew she was safer at Hogwarts than anywhere else. She just didn’t know why the sparse hair on her neck rose when she was strolling around the corridors alone. Brookline skipped the trick step, her feet skillfully leaping over the illusion.

Soon she turned to the last flight of stairs. Brookline rounded the corner and - she was already fantasizing about getting to her dorm and getting to read more than half of the night - she was greeted by the sight of five or six underclassmen. A gasp almost escaped her when she had the foresight to suck it back in. She took a few steps back. Into the shadows. If anyone was glancing behind them, they might think the poor upperclassmen was scared of humans. Correction: Brookline was afraid of what would happen. To them. And her. She backed into a corner, where no-one would see her, but she could spectate everything.

The students were mostly first years, and one second year. Pretty sure the second year was the one of the perfects. Darragh, her surname if Brookline remembered correctly? She wasn’t sure what a group of students gathering around the door to the common room. Usually you answer the riddle and the door allows you to come in. If you didn’t know the answer or don’t answer correctly, you had to wait. Odd, the brunette thought. This many people and we still haven’t guessed the riddle. God. Curfew’s soon.

“Friendship is... uhm, loyalty?”

Brookline redirected her attention to the light-haired girl trying it out. Apparently the eagle knocker didn’t like this answer. The first year kept trying, all her guesses had silent reactions. Well, shittttttt. No book for me.

The same girl asked how long the eagle had been quiet and another girl who had perched herself on the banister, had answered in a rather loud complaint. The first year had continued yakking on, rambling on all about how she was ready for bed and everything else. She had sable-coloured hair and a beautiful shade of light brown skin. As much as the underclassmen was shrill, Brookline just hoped the girl wasn’t always like this. It would be hard on her ears.

Just then another student came to the entrance, and she tried the riddle. Long dark curls rolled down her back. Just as Brookline was ready to step out of her hiding place, the door didn’t open. She had to stifle a well-deserved groan. The next thing she knew, the girl rammed her fist into the wooden door, and Brookline’s face stretched in pure horror. Just because you couldn’t answer the door properly means you punch the door? And she thought she got angry! The red-head who was sitting against the wall started crying, her fingers dragging along her wrists. Brookline frankly didn’t blame her.

The brunette watched as the girl pulled out her wand, and uttered a word before crouching down, with the wand dropping from her hand. The wand rolled across the grey floor a few feet away. Crimson blood dripped onto the floor. Brookline ripped her gaze from the girl to another girl (this second year had cast Ferula on the other second year who had broke her hand and Brookline was glad) and a boy trying the riddle also. They also didn’t solve it. The Welsh Ravenclaw wanted to scream. Of course if she did, she would give up her hiding spot. True to be true, her hiding spot probably wasn’t as good as she thought it was.

Then, just then, her racing captain came! Perhaps Zach could help them solve this damned riddle. He instead went to the girl who punched the door. It was rather selfless, if you asked Brookline. She was pretty sure the fifth year was one of those healing interns. She was glad that there was someone here knew more than one healing spell. The Welsh Ravenclaw had tried being an intern once a year or two ago but it just didn’t cut out to her. She wondered if it was because she didn’t do much of the work or she just didn’t enough hours in her day.

Another person Brookline knew came into the picture. It was Aurora! She hadn’t see her fellow broom racing teammate for a whole after the seventh year wasn’t on the team anymore. At least the older girl was a part of the team again now. After their two seventh years graduated last year, Brookline wasn’t sure how their team fare now. Roro tried the riddle and even she couldn’t get it! The young Quinn was so very sure the older Ravenclaw could ace it. Two more students came by. A girl who didn’t try the riddle and the other, a tall boy came up with a definition that she definitely thought was right. And it wasn’t. Brookline silently mourned. She could be in her dorm by now. Wait—what the hell is happening now?—she had almost missed it. The boy foolishly ran into the door, his head connecting with the wood. The first year instantly crumbled to the concrete floor. Oh, ouch. That shit had to hurt. The boy crawled to the other side, and clutched his guitar he had clearly brought with him, akin to a lifeline. He started to strum a few notes, before the boy slumped to the floor.

Ohhhhh, God. Brookline inhaled sharply. Ohmigodohmigodohmigod oh my God. If she wasn’t hiding right now, she would be pacing and pulling her hair out. Oh Merlin. Oh shit. This was getting bad. She thought that girl hurting her hand was bad enough. The crying student with copper curls had moved to the windowsill, her light voice calling out, “He’s dead!”

Shitshitshitshitshit, her thoughts collided together and Brookline gulped. She knew the younger kid was not dead, for sure, but anxiety still stirred in her chest. It made her throat close up, and she wanted to cry as well. She watched as the girl with black hair scribbled in her notes at each person’s attempt. The fourth year remembered that the first year was cheering until the boy blacked out. Did she think it was funny? That it was a competition between the eagle knocker and student? Brookline crossed her arms and had half a mind to chew this underclassmen out. She didn’t though. That would mean speaking with others. She was not quiet ready for that, that was for darn sure.

The same girl who had bandaged the brown-haired girl’s hand had ran and fetched some books from the library. Did she seriously think that they could ever get some guidance and answers from there? Did she actually? Clearly the eagle knocker was looking for one specific answer. It was a riddle, for crying out loud! Everything that students were saying, were technically correct in Brookline’s mind, but it was not the puzzle’s answer. She sighed. They were probably going to be there for a very long time. If no one knew the riddle, or it could just be impossible. Someone had to be quite clever to figure out the riddle. Perhaps it was twisted? she thought, her hand going to her chin. She wondered. It could be what someone treasures in a friendship. Or it could be something else entirely. Could it?

A blonde boy entered the ever-growing crowd near the Ravenclaw common room entrance. How many more students needed to get to their warm beds before curfew? Obviously this never happened before. Well, Brookline was quite sure it had happened where someone answered wrong or didn’t know. It probably just shaved escalated to this level. Or at least for her, it never did. She usually always guessed correctly. Probably due to sheer luck, if you asked her today. The boy asked what the riddle was and tried his best to answer. Still, the door decided not to swing open and let these sleep-deprived Ravenclaws in. Perhaps the door could notice that there is about a dozen students waiting at curfew and let them in. Should just be a kind soul and open up.

Again, a still rejection from the door when a young girl tried. A first year boy who had been here, voiced his response. A lengthy one, Brookline would say, a bit like the answers you’d see on OWLs. He also provided a solution to why the door was not opening. “I don't know if it possible, but could it be that the knocker is poisoned in a way?” The Welsh Quinn narrowed her eyes. There was no way that the door was poisoned, but she did like how this first year (Glasses Boy, she decided she would call him) thinks. There was no shadow of a doubt that Glasses Boy is one of the witty. She decided to step out and give her reasoning why the knocker would be not poisoned. As she tried to walk into the opening, her striped sweater got caught on a portrait hanging on the wall. Brookline had no idea how the material got hooked onto a frame. She silently worked on it a moment before it finally released and she could exhale again. For a second, her mind thought she was stuck. The brunette approached the fellow Ravenclaw, and make herself known to the surrounding group.

“I am not quite sure that this door would be poisoned.” Brookline glanced at Glasses Boy, trying to be as kind as possible. She would hate to be rude to someone’s face. She really hoped they could understand her as well. Her Welsh accent could be thick sometimes. “As much as that was smart thinking, it is not likely. I do not think anyone would try to poison a door either. I’m sure, though, the riddle is meant to make us think. As everyone probably had a correct answer, the eagle knocker is looking for only one.”

After she spoke, Brookline remained quiet. She was surprised that she even brought up the nerve to speak so calmly to these fellow housemates. Then the door began to open. Did someone just so happened to crack the riddle without her hearing? The fourth year was ever so happy. She was finally going to be able to get in her dormitory, be able to tuck herself in bed with that novel she wanted to read. There was no intention to sleep, that is. No nightmares for her, tonight. A woman walked across the threshold and let the door close behind her. It was Jess, the Ravenclaw’s HoH. Shit, Brookline thought. As much as she wanted to be mad, she knew it was not their head’s fault. How could Mrs. Lancaster know that there was students awaiting outside? Surely, the HoH would of definitely thought everyone would answer the riddle correctly or already been inside the common room. Jess went to the girl with the broken hand first, calling the girl by her surname, Chaos. Well, she certainly lived up to her name. The Ravenclaw HoH healed the girl with a spell and then raised the unconscious boy with Leviosa, most likely bringing him to the Hospital Wing. Brookline was really glad those who were injured were getting help now. The red-headed woman took her time in threatening her students with detentions if anyone was stupid. Of course Brookline knew not to be foolish. She hated looking like a fool, anyways. She just couldn’t say anything for the rest of her housemates. She wondered how they ended up like this.

Another Ravenclaw showed up with the most adorable black cat ever. As the girl processed all the Ravenclaws and the door that would not open, her cat kept meowing. Brookline thought it was so precious. Poor thing was probably hungry. She wished she had some treats on her. If she had her Enchanted Satchel, perhaps she would have came better prepared. Guess she could just be lucky she had a sweater on and not a boring T-shirt. As she glanced around—she wasn’t quite sure to do now, she felt very anxious—she caught notice of Chaos’s previously dropped wand. It was lying on the floor near the stairs. Brookline turned to the wand, and picked it up. She rolled it around in her fingers a few times before walking over to the brown-haired girl. She was probably still in pain, Brookline guessed, squatting down to hand the wand.

“I believe you dropped this?” She asked, Brookline’s palm spreading out to show the wand. If Fawkes was blind with pain, the brunette would just set it down the floor beside the crouched girl. If not, she would let Chaos pluck the instrument from her hand. Brookline was hoping the students around her wonder how she knew where Fawkes’s wand was at when she literally just appeared. Hopefully no-one will notice. Although, she did notice the red-head’s behavior, and she noticed the girl’s sore eyes. Perhaps she is riddled with anxiety as well?

Brookline exhaled. She was not ready to stay here all night. She couldn’t.

hiding and handing back @fawkes chaos’s wand // 2,407 (?!?) words september tenth, 2026 // occ brookline’s thoughts and actions are not my own and are used for the purpose of her character. mentioning @saturnalia sutton-smith and everyone else who has posted (too many to tag ;-;) but also interacting with @aaron schwartz.

mentions Reducio @Tina Carilla @Fawkes Chaos @Mikaela Hendricks (the usual three) @Saturnalia Sutton-Smith

outfit Reducio

OOC notes Reducio I see i’m a bit late…

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Riley hurried as fast as should could (without tripping) up the stairs. Even though she’d rather not admit it… Riley had dozed off a little during her light-night study time. When she awoke, she rushed off, afraid that she would be sent to detention because she was out of her dormitory after curfew.

To Riley’s surprise, there was a swarm of kids outside of the entrance to the dormitory. What is happening..? she wondered to herself.

Riley surveyed the crowd, again surprised that there was quite a range of students gathered there. The could spot a few first years, who were surprisingly short, and a few presumably older students- the ones who seemed to loom over the crowd of shorter students.

Riley seemed to stop in her tracks when she spotted 2 familiar faces. Riley ran over quickly. “Tina! Mika!” They both looked slightly concerned, but also happy to see Riley. She was about to ask where Fawkes was when she spotted her last dorm mate. ”Fawkes, what happened!” Fawkes had gauze wrapped around her leg, and by look on her face, it seemed that something not-so-great happened.

Riley looked around. She may have been sleepy, but she could’ve sworn that everyone had the same concerned expression on their face. She walked up towards a girl that seemed to be in the center. ”What’s happening?”

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Word Count: 222/200

Actions: Stats: Wisdom: 8 • Evasion: 7 • Arcane Power: 6 • Strength: 5 • Stamina: 8 • Accuracy: 6 Abilities: Lovely Creature | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6

Floating banner made by Jay Valkyrie

Date: September 10th, 2026
Time: Evening
Location: Entrance to Ravenclaw Common Room, Hogwarts

Xio corrected her observation per Tina, nodding enthusiastically as she scratched out the previous record and quickly scribbled the proper number where it needs to be:

"Ah, you tell nothing but the truths! In the name of science we must remain accurate!"

Eagle door: 1 2 / Student body: 0

Xio did not move to pick up a book from the pile now stacked near the door, she had no interest in directing her attention to anything other than the cluster of poor birds who simply wish entry into their precious roost.

She minded the seconded year who suggested the cluster look for a written answer, watched the fifth year provide medical suggestions for the injured students, a first year take their best shot, then another, and another. It was a triple!

Tallys: |||| |||| ||||

"Hooooo-eeey! This tally depiction is just beautiful. I'm gonna frame it and place it somewhere where we can all look back on this and laugh!"

Xio said at first with excitement but quickly shut her mouth the moment she noticed the Head of Ravenclaw exit the Ravenclaw Common Room and nearly tripped over the sorrowful birds hard at work at gaining access to the cursed bird who was the only thing preventing all of us from preparing for a restful night.

With an impressive chuckle, she watched as the Head of Ravenclaw took assessment of the situation, and immediately tended to the wounded/unconscious of the cluster. As she levitated Nick and began taking him to the medical wing, Xio took this opportunity to hop off of the banister and move over towards the corner of the space, doing her best to stay out of the way but in the center of all the action still.

Then a second year took an attempt with a friendly midnight cat, which Xio was tempted to pet but decided to let it be, but her attention was quickly drawn to the fourth year who then took their attempt but focused back onto Fawkes who was still recovering, and finally a second year approached wondering why the cluster of poor Ravenclaws.

A wicked grin spread across her face in excitement as she updated the Tally sheet:

Tallys: |||| |||| |||| ||

"C'mon down and try and see if you can solve the mystery! Do you have what it takes to rescue your birdmates?! We've already hit rock bottom, we can only go UP from here, right?!"

OOC Notes: Man, what a thread XD

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━made by Lily Clarke

w/c: 280		date: 10th sep 2026		location: outside the birbs' common room
interacting w/: the birbs		outfit: school uniform		speech:"Kai", Thoughts

Kai had missed the stairs three times in a row. How does that even happen?

She was too busy drawing near the window after astronomy class that she’d completely lost track of time. She felt completely exhausted and was really mad at herself. The drawing could have waited till she reached the common room, but no, she had to finish it right after class...

The stairs had started moving again by the fourth time she had almost made it. Unable to take it anymore, she jumped to the other end, tripping, falling, and maybe bruising herself.

That was awfully dangerous... Oh well, at least I don't have to go all the way around again.

It was already pretty late after curfew, and she'd probably get points taken from her house, or even be sent to detention if someone saw her.

As she hurried towards the Ravenclaw tower, she saw a professor levitating a boy towards the Hospital Wing. She couldn't make out who they were from the distance, but she knew something had happened near the towers.
When she finally made it there, she noticed a large bunch of students gathered around the common room.

Why are they gathered around here?

They were all Ravenclaws, she could tell by the blues of their robes and the few familiar faces she could make out from the crowd.

She could even see a girl @Fawkes Chaos standing with her hand bruised, and another girl @Xio Arcana who was taking tally marks??

Usually, Kai would just stand near the crowd and try to figure out what was happening on her own, but she didn't feel like it right now.

“Why is everyone standing outside? What's going on?"

Jeremy was still dismayed that his perfect riddle solving hadn't worked, and that they were STILL stuck outside. Even worse, nobody was listening to what he said! He'd TOLD them it was a riddle, NOT a definition, but everybody kept giving REAL answers. There had to be some kind of trick to it, a trick so clever, that not even a RAVENCLAW could solve it. He just didn't know what it was. He walked side to side, hand over his chin, trying to think and turn the word 'friendship' into something else, something clever. Something tricky.

Nobody else seemed to be thinking that way though (Jeremy had been so proud to get into Ravenclaw, he didn’t know what was going on with everyone else). There was one prefect who had motioned at him when he'd said it (@Aislin Darragh) SHE seemed to be on his side, and so instantly she became his favorite prefect. But nobody else seemed to be listening at all. And after one girl (@Fawkes Chaos) had probably broken her hand on the door, and another boy (@Nick Jameson) head-butted the door, played the guitar, and then passed out, Jeremy realized that Ravenclaw house might not have been all that it'd been advertised as.

“Guys, if you’re gonna hit it, you should kick it, that hurts way less,” Jeremy pointed out, demonstrating by kicking the door.

Still, nothing made Jeremy more upset than the older girl (@Aurora Ranvier) who came up, guessed that friendship is when two people are friends, and then walked away saying she was very busy and that the door was broken. Jeremy hoped that's not what HE sounded like when he'd said the same thing.

“How’d she get in our house?” Jeremy wondered out loud. He could only imagine the riddles that he'd be solving when he was that old, and how helpful he would be, in situations like this one. “HEY YOU COULD AT LEAST HEAL THEM, WE'RE DROPPING LIKE BILLYWIGS OVER HERE” But she was gone, probably not even hearing him.

Luckily an older boy (@Zach Zaphiere) eventually came and actually knew how to heal - he was going to take care of those of them that had fallen tonight. Jer WAS happy about that, because he'd been a little worried, but he pointedly did not raise his hand and looked away when the boy asked somebody to take the fallen boy to the hospital wing. He did wanna make sure the boy was ok but he really wanted to solve the riddle and still felt like he was the only one who could.

Suddenly, the door began to open! Jeremy stared at the boy who had spoke last (the one who had talked about poisons) like he had two heads (@Aaron Schwartz). Cmon, no WAY it was the poison thing...!

But no, it was their Head of House, @Jessamine Lancaster! Now they were saved for sure. Unfortunately she closed the door before any of them could go in, helped Fawkes (phew...), threatened them with detention, and left. Jer stared after her. Maybe she had let the door close on purpose. She probably wanted to train them to be better Ravenclaws. Maybe their test scores had dropped last year.

“Maybe they’ve given us the hardest riddle they have, and if we don’t solve it, we’ll be thrown out of Ravenclaw house,” Jer wondered idly. That was going to be rather unfortunate for Ravenclaw house, because so far it was looking like it was going to be very small group after tonight, if that was true.

@Xio Arcana seemed like she had a future at a carnival, making people step right up to throw a ring on a stuffed hippogriff. Jeremy had noticed her when the boats had taken off, and how excited she'd been to be at Hogwarts. She seemed just as excited to be stuck out in a hallway as she had been to be boarding an awe-inspiring night-time boat-ride. He wondered if she got this excited every day, like if she threw a celebration every time she ate pancakes for breakfast or something. Her tally DID show how poorly they were doing though, and guess after guess kept coming, and still NOBODY was listening to Jeremy. As one by one everybody guessed, Jeremy couldn't contain himself.

“Guys you’re doing it wrong! You’re doing it wrong!” Jer called out, helpfully. He wasn’t really used to having to make himself heard over a whole crowd, and he didn’t really know how you were supposed to do it. When everybody talked at once, was the only way to be heard to talk louder?

Maybe it was for the best nobody paid attention, because he didn't actually know the answer yet. He just walked around some more mumbling stuff like "Friendship. Friend-Ship. Friend's-Hip?" Maybe the hip of the door knocker's friend? Like another bird?

"Could it have something to do with...um...with another eagle's hip?" he asked, perhaps sounding a little like he'd lost it, and maybe he had - it was hard to twist a three word question into a clever double-meaning or trick.

His pacing and thinking had led him over near where @Saturnalia Sutton-Smith was curled up in a ball. He had seen the quiet girl around the common-room, and didn't remember hearing her talk much before tonight, but he had never heard anybody sob so much.

“Excuse me, can you please try to stop crying? It’s making it very hard to think.” the boy said, politely.