What Was That? PV Eris Elcan Closed

Serena bite her lip as the nerves started to set in. She had no idea what in the room and it was kind of creepy. It may have been someone's pet toad... but it could have been a vicious flesh consuming beast. What if it was the Deputy Headmaster's pet tarantula?! Denise seemed well behaved but... the Hufflepuff hated spiders with a passion. "Wh- what do you th- think it might be...?" Serena asked Eris, the hesitation clear in her voice. She was definitely getting nervous and it was like a sinking feeling of dread that washed over her.

"Maybe... we should open the door... B-but it might get out..." She muttered, mostly saying her thoughts out aloud. She wanted to open the door and let the light in. That would make things easier. However, what if it was a creature that wanted to kill all of the boys and they had just set it lose onto the school? And I say boys because if it wanted to kill girls then it had two of them right here to attack... In which case, they should be opening the door to run. Though, with Serena being Serena and the girl in front of being a Gryffindor, they were probably reckless enough to attempt to fight it and save the school. Let's pray it didn't come to that because first year magic was definitely not enough knowledge to help save them now.

She had no idea what the best thing to do now was. This was an interesting situation. The two girls who barely knew each other were stuck together now. I mean, they just found out each other's names! Serena waved her wand around, trying to find something. "Do you hear anything?" She asked, pausing and trying to listen out for some indication as to where it might be or what it might be. The Hufflepuff was definitely struggling here. Perhaps by the time she passed third year, she would be better at these things. Her Head of House was very keen about his subject. It sounded like a lot of fun, she would probably take it as an elective. However, right now, her magical creature knowledge was pretty poor. That Care of Magical Creatures elective would be pretty handy around about now...

They could be heroes of the school if they found the beast. If Eris got over her fear of dying by the hands of an unknown monster crawling around on the floor, she would be able to think rationally. She was, after all, the girl known for ‘curing’ cooties. Another attempt to rid the school of something dangerous wouldn’t be out of character for the young girl. There could be anything crawling around on the floor, and that thought pierced through Eris’s layer of courage, and made her desperately want light to pour into the room. Although, that wouldn’t be a good idea. They didn’t want the monster to get out and hurt anybody else...but it was so dark in the room. It wouldn’t be that bad of an idea to open the door and let the light in..would it?

When Serena voiced out loud that she wanted to open the door and let in the precious light from the hallway, Eris found herself nodding in agreement. It wouldn’t be that bad of an idea to let in the light, right? It would be easier to find the creature with light in the room that came from something besides the dim glow from the two girl’s wands. But if they let a monster out on the school, they both might lose points for their houses. Or, well, kill people. That wasn't good either. But losing points was a worse outcome. Eris refused to let the lousy ravenclaws win, although they did have the most students in the whole school. And Eri Windstone.

Eris went silence, mind and heart racing. What the best thing to do? She was brave enough, she was a gryffindor. She could handle the darkness of the Trophy Room, right? As Serena talked again, there was another loud bang as a trophy fell loudly to the ground.

The noise of metal hitting stone sounded even louder in the darkness, and even worse as Eris's mind raced, trying to figure out what could of knocked the object over. Biting her lip to keep from screaming--she was a gryffindor, and would have to act brave--Eris turned towards Serena and willed herself to sound braver than she felt.

"Maybe we should open the doors?" Eris finally said, trying to sound like the plan made sense. At this point, she just wanted to be able to see again.

Serena nodded in reply before realising that Eris could not actually see her head nod properly. "Yeah, let's open it..." She replied as she started to slowly walking towards the door. Or at least, where she thought the door was. Holding out the wand in front of her. The light from the tip of her wand helped her to see a little better. Making her way over to the door, she pointed the wand towards where the door handle ought to be. Finding it, she started to open the door, "Alright, I'm opening it... Just... look out for anything?" She asked the Gryffindor. 

With any luck, whatever it was would not be dangerous and scary. She would really rather not unleash hell upon the school. Could there really be anything that dangerous in this school though? Surely not. She had heard stories from the Wizarding War era but that was different, surely. There was a dark lord that was trying to take over the world at that point. A dark lord that no longer existed. Surely, this was a safer time and Hogwarts was still the safest place to be. Surely...?

Serena told herself this but deep down, she was definitely worried. It was furry and gross. The Hufflepuff slowly opened the door, turning around to stare at the ground. The light started to enter the room as the girl opened the door. She blinked a little, trying to let her eyes adjust to the new lighting. The whole time she was staring down at the floor towards where the trophies had fallen, just in case she saw whatever it was. "See anything?" She asked as she frowned at the ground. Serena could not see anything, despite the fact the light had fully seeped into the room. Serena waved her wand removing the spell, lowering it slightly now that she no longer needed the lumos. She continued to hold her wand tightly though, just in case she needed it. There was no way she was going to put it away right now. What if they got attacked?

The Hufflepuff stared by the door, waiting for whatever it was to come out. If it wanted to escape the room then it would have to go through her to do so. For some wacky reason, she was actually a little braver than she thought she was. "I can't see anything, I wonder if it's gone?" She asked Eris, glancing over to her and shrugging lightly. 

Following Serena to the door, heart banging in her chest, but outwards appearance rather calm--nerves steadying her just enough to keep her face calm, the light from Eris and Serena’s wand tips illuminating the door knob in a faint white light. There didn’t seem to be anything nearby to harm them, but even so, the girl strained her ears to listen to the silence in the room, but nothing could be heard besides the faint breathing of the two girls. Either whatever was there had gone, or was hiding, waiting to attack the two prefects.

Feeling apprehension sink it’s claws into her gut, the small red head tightened her sweat stained grip on the wand clutched in her pale fingers, willing the faint light to shine even brighter, to protect her from whatever dangers lurked in the shadows of the illustrious trophy room, besides the expectations of thousands of prior students and professors etched in golden statues and trophies.

Hogwarts was the safest place in the world, safer then the streets of London, or the small flat that her parents had lived in with her sister, before the drama of a hurtful family had sunk in, and her mother had gone insane. Nothing could go bad at Hogwarts, not when there was magic that protected them from any harm. Wasn’t that what magic was used for, most times? To protect the students of the school, to teach them about the world, and how to survive in the long term wizarding world. There wasn’t anything dangerous in Hogwarts, not since the Second Wizarding War that Eris had read about in her books. Surely there couldn’t be anything dangerous in the trophy room, although the broken trophies on the floor suggested otherwises.

As Serena opened the door, Eris closed her eyes against the new torrent of light that was seeping into the room, just as the light coming from her own wand finally flickered and died out, no longer useful due to the bright seeping light that was coming into the room. Even though her wand was no longer casting a spell, Eris kept it in her hand, ready to fight back against any monsters that might have appeared out of the shadows of the room, due to the light.

Yet, there was still nothing in the room. There was the fallen trophies, the footprints of a small animals in the dust cluttering the floor of the unswept trophy room, which most likely had been forgotten by an errant house elf, who hadn’t done all their chores for the day. Yet, there was no animal to be seen. No huge animal haunting the shadow, ready to pounce on them.

Shaking her head at Serena, glad she could see the other girl’s features for once, Eris frowned. “Yeah, I can’t see anything. Must be gone, or still hiding.”

A breathe of relief escaped her lips as her fellow Prefect confirmed that the creature, whatever it was, did not seem to be present. At least, it could not have been that big. They were not going to suddenly unleash a dragon or a basilisk onto the school, which was definitely a relief. Though... neither of those creatures would have fit under a table in the first place. "Yeah, looks saf-" Serena started talking before she suddenly jumped a little, grasping the wand tightly in her hand and pointing it into the direction of one of the cabinets. The noise caught her attention.

A trophy clattered onto the floor and there was a sound of scurrying around. She quickly scanned the area, now that was there was more light, "Ah- ther-" Serena started as she jabbed her wand in the direction of the noise. She spotted something moving. A small creature moved on the table top. It had clearly knocked the previous trophy over. Perhaps it had been the cause of all of the noise and commotion. It was small, furry and had a long tail - wait... "A rat?" Serena blinked. It looked like it was either a mouse or a rat. In truth, Serena could not tell the difference between the two. They were both the same in her opinion. She blinked for a moment as she tried to follow it. It moved behind the trophies and scurried out of sight very quickly but she was sure that was what she saw... It was just a rat.

After all of this... it was just a rat? Blinking, Serena stood there. After a moment, she started to lower her wand and visibly relaxed as she realised there was no danger. Her gaze moved towards Eris, potentially catching her eye. Without any hesitation, a grin broke out onto the Indian girl's face and her laughter could be heard echoing down the corridor. She literally bent over, laughing incredibly hard. They went through all of this... for a rat?

The two Prefects had cast spells, attempted to try and 'capture' the creature that was being a nuiscence or potentially one that could endanger the school. "It was a rat?!" Serena cried out between her breathing as she laughed hysterically at the thought of how scared and worried she had been.

"Oh God, tell me- tell me we didn't- panic- over a- rat- aaaaa- hahahaha-" Serena continued breathlessly, pretty much dying at the whole thing. She definitely was overthinking this whole scenario. The whole concept was just baffling to her. Why did she panic so much for a tiny little creature that was pretty harmless? In fact, it was pretty much a pet or a staple animal to spot around the castle. This was an old ancient building, after all, with lots of holes for mice and rats to get into. It only made sense for the creature to be something innocent like this. 

Serena would have continued to talk to Eris but she really was struggling to even breathe. She laughed so hard that she fell over. Literally, the girl bent down and ended up collapsing onto the floor, breathlessly laughing. Her eyes started to water from the laughter as she clutched her stomach. It was just hysterical at this point. It was absolutely hilarious to her that a pair of Prefects had been so scared of a tiny little rat. Well, at least, she had been so scared of the tiny little creature. She could not speak for the Gryffindor. The Gryffindor Prefect was probably not scared at all. Based on her house trait, Serena figured she was a lot braver than she was. Eris was probably chill with the whole thing but Serena knew that she was definitely scared. But that's okay. A Hufflepuff was known for their loyalty, not for their bravery. "Wo- wow, that's- pretty- bad," She continued, through her laughter.

She was tired, this was stupid, and honestly, the idea of a creature eating her and gobbling Eris up for a gnome sized snack was looking more and more splendid by the moment, as Eris's eyelids drooped a fraction of an inch, before she blinked wildly, eyes searching out the locks of Serena's hair. At least, in the belly of a creature, Eris wouldn't have to keep her wand alight, and anything was better than the suspense that coursed through the air of the stuffy trophy room, which hardly felt any less cool, even when the door to the hallway outside was open.

Before Eris could suggest waking up a professor, or finding another prefect to help them. (There was safety in numbers, and if Eris wanted to admit that she needed help, it would be right now, when they were about to get into a brawl with whatever strange thing lurked in the shadows of the trophy room.) Maybe it was just a disgraced student, looking at trophies and wishing it was them. That seemed better than the alternate, which was that there was really a monster lurking around, ready to prey on the two girls. Which, was what Eris's mind went straight too, and seemingly, Serena thought the same way.

The loud crash nearly made Eris jump, but Serena was the first to react, shining the light from her wand onto the creature that had been plaguing the two girls. With bated breath, Eris reminded herself of the spells she had learned, getting ready to fight, before the light shone onto a...rat. Serena called out that it was a rat, while Eris stared at the furry creature in muted shock. She had never seen a rat before, having lived in an immaculate house with a control freak of a mother. She hadn't expected to be so scared when she saw her first rat, and just as Serena started to laugh, Eris joined in on her hysterical laughter, unable to control the wheezing giggles erupting from her small body.

"Did," another laugh paused the sentence as soon as Eris started to speak it, and quickly, Eris gasped for breath, feeling her stomach contract with pain at the sheer intensity of the laughter bursting from her body in short bursts of gasping breaths.

"Did... that really just happen?"

The abursdness of the situation hadn't quite hit Eris yet, and just recalling what had transpired made her laugh even more than before, which didn't seem possible, until it happened, and she was guffawing.A rat, they had been scared of a small rodent with fur and claws, instead of a maw dripping with fangs, or beady eyes. Just a plain old rat, maybe even someone's pet rat, if Eris was being honest. She had imagined that they were going to capture a monster and get an award for it, or maybe die by a monster's hand and go out in glory. But nooo, it was a rat. What on earth? Eris was supposed to be a brave, strong gryffindor, and a rat had scared her. Oh lord, she was never living that down. Another giggle burst from her lips, even more hysterical, as a yawn slipped out with the laugh. It was too funny to even think straight, and her exhaustion was doing nothing to help soothe the hysterical giggles slipping out of Eris's lips. The fear from before made it even more hysterical, and when Serena fell to the floor, Eris let out another roar of laughter, hand reaching out to steady herself on the wall.

"Oh god, are you okay?" Eris managed to choke out, before collapsing into another fit of giggles. "w-we must look like l-lousy excuses for prefects."

Serena clutched her stomach as she rolled around on the floor a little, accidentally knocking off another cup from the table as she fell. She could not help it though, it was just too funny. A pair of Prefects being terrified of... a rat. Of all things! It was not even a scary animal like a werewolf or something that actually had the potential of harming you. It was literally a rat. The worst it could probably do is be a carrier of diseases and germs but nonetheless, it was still such a rat. 

The Gryffindor found it equally as amusing. It just seemed so bizarre. This whole situation. This was Hogwarts - nothing bad or scary was going to happen here. Of course it wasn't. Yes, things apparently happened in the time of the famous Harry Potter but that was the same time that there was the glooming threat of a Dark Lord arising. There was no threat now. The Dark Lord had been killed. Peace had fallen onto this land that they called home and Hogwarts was safe once more. Why would she ever think anything was going to happen here? She really needed to be braver. Being scared of such a silly thing was terrible. What would her mother say? 

Her mother, the pureblood witch that had spent her entire life building up the reputation that the Oberoi family - and now the Towers - was a family of strong, brilliant, witches and wizards that could handle anything. The reputation that they were forces not to be reckoned with. Or at least, that was the aim there. Serena was the force that would probably shatter that reputation in a matter of seconds. Events like this had a good way of destroying any reputations of bravery and fearlessness. Brilliant capable witch? Yeah right. 

Laughing at the absurdity of this whole thing, Serena nodded, "Ah- A- Aa- par-" She was trying to say 'apparently' but - apparently - she could not. Her breathless laughter stopped her from being able to finish the word and formulate anything that made sense, "Yeh" She choose to say instead, giving up with her attempts at making a proper sentence. 

"O- oh god" She mumbled as she panted, trying to stop laughing. Serena sat up, panting softly and trying to calm down as she raised her hands. Her eyes were crying tears of joy from literally laughing too hard. She rubbed them against her sleeve before bursting into another fit of laughter, trying so hard to stop, "I- I can't brea-" Serena tried to calm herself down, despite the lack of success the first time. She looked over and saw Eris trying to steady herself too, through her slightly blurry vision, "Oh- geesh." She continued, suddenly realising how bad it looked. It looked even worse, because they were both Prefects.

Really, they were lousy excuses for prefects - Eris had hit the nail on the spot right there and then. "Wo- wow. Y-yeah I'm okay. You?" She asked, checking up on the health of her new found friend that seemed to share the same terribly embarrassing and dramatic overreaction to the situation. "Wow uh. We probably shouldn't tell anyone about this... should we?" Serena continued, finally catching her breathe again and calming down a little. She could not help but chuckle every time she thought about it though.

OOC: This pre-dates the camp-out... Wow. Those brief moments when Hogwarts was safe...

Eris chanced another giggle, lungs bursting as she heaved up another snort of a laugh. The absurdity of the situation hit her hard, like another gut punch. They had been scared of a mouse. There was no Lord Voldemort out to get them, because Hogwarts was the safest of all places in the world, wasn’t it? To be honest, a part of Eris wished that there had been something magical in the room, something to practice her budding magic on. The girl craved a fight, but still, that part of Eris was brushed aside by the real fear of actually getting hurt and the stupidity of having been scared of a rat. A rat, of all creatures. Eris couldn’t help but wonder why rats were in Hogwarts, considering how clean the school seemed to be, what with janitors and magic to make it look nice.

When another cup fell to the floor because of Serena’s chortling, Eris clasped her hands over her mouth to keep from spitting out as another roar of laughter caused her whole body to double forward Thoughts of a clean school and magical cleaning left Eris’s mind, as Eris’s hands unclasped from over her mouth and she let out another breathless laugh, feeling tears start to pool at the ends of her eyes. Serena and Eris had to be the most stupid prefects to ever grace the planet, but she couldn’t stop laughing to say that outloud, again.

The professors would never let anything bad get into the school, and the fact Serena and Eris had been so scared was even more hilariously stupid. The faint strain of tiredness that had suddenly enveloped over Eris got worse, as she hoisted herself to her knees, but only fell back down again as Serena struggled to say yes.

Stomach painfully hurting from all the laughter that was erupting, Eris nodded her head when Serena stated she couldn’t breath. At least, she assumed that Serena was saying that, as Eris attempted to calm herself down. When she looked at Serena again, another laugh exploded from her lips, and Eris had to rub her hands over her face in an attempt to stop the frantic chuckles that kept exploding from her mouth whenever she took a glance at the brunette hufflepuff next to her.

It took minutes to calm herself down, and when Eris was calm, she had to bit on the insides of her gums to keep from laughing again, chest rising and falling sharply, as the girl attempted to focus on her breathing and stop the giggles threatening to escape.

Prefects were supposed to be the elite of the school, but here they were, rolling around on the floor. Pulling herself up and offering a hand to Serena, Eris giggled and shook her head.

“I don’t think we should, although, it was nice to er, talk to you, or whatever this was. Maybe we should talk again another time, when there isn’t a killer mouse in the room.”

Eris smiled at Serena, regardless of whether she took the hand or not, and yawned. “Anyways, I have to go finish my patrol. See you tomorrow?” The words hung in the air, as Eris waved and walked away, hurrying away in the hopes of not getting caught on another prefect's floor.

imagine believing hogwarts was safe...second year serena and eris can't relate

Serena panted softly, as she tried to calm herself down. "Oh man..." She mumbled breathlessly as she sat up. It was utterly insane that the two Prefects were so sad of a mouse. The idea that something would be in the Trophy Room, something dangerous and mysterious was just a crazy notion after all. There were so many skilled wizards and witches here. Nothing would happen. Nothing could get in, after all. Hogwarts had a lot of barriers and spells on it, after all. It was sad to be invisible to muggles, impossible to apparate into and access. Even the floo portals were restricted and they were watched.

Whilst Professor Lear was a little crazy, she highly doubted that he had any scary magical creatures loose either, now that she thought about it. The most she had ever seen was some Pygmy Puffs in his office and they were pretty much as harmless as a ball of cotton wool. 

She rubbed her nose, still giggling a little. Looking up, she saw Eris standing above her. The girl had managed to get up and was offering Serena her hand. Grinning, Serena took it and allowed Eris to help her up. She stood up and laughed at at the girl's words. "True... We do need to be careful with killer mice around." She joked, shaking her head too as their fear. She simply could not believe they were so scared of a rat. Come on, what was going to happen? This was Hogwarts, what in Merlin's name would happen? It was safe again. There was no Dark Lord anymore. 

"Go ahead, I'll clean up here," Nodding, Serena waved back, "Mhm, I'll see you later, Eris." She replied as she turned back to the room, grabbed the fallen trophies and started to put them back onto the shelf. She checked each one as she did, making sure that they had not accidentally cracked or got damaged in the experience. One of them had been knocked over by her, after all. 

Restoring the room back to its former self, Serena nodded to herself and then turned on her heel and made her way out of the room. On the plus side, at least Serena had found a few friend - and an inside joke that no one else would understand. This was definitely something the two Prefects ought to keep quiet. It would wreck any authority they had if it were to come out, after all. She glanced over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at herself and her stupidity. Scared of a simple rat. It was likely someone's pet. It was such a harmless creature and they had made such a fuss - and a mess - over it. What sort of idiot thought that Hogwarts was unsafe? It was the safest place in the world.

After the Battle of Hogwarts, they had repaired and restored it. They had added far more protection to it. It was safe once more, it had been safe for many years. What in Merlin's name made her think that would change today? A rat? Sigh, she was definitely silly. Serena needed to be far braver, that much was clear. The next time, she would be a lot braver. That was a promise.

[END]