Don't be suspicious PV Hanako Tone, Colette Simmons Closed

[font=PT Sans]No matter how he acted like he doesn’t care about his little secret Parselmouth club, he’s a softie when it comes to it. Unfortunately, he just had to care. Couldn’t even sit still when he heard peculiar rumours of the new librarian. Now rumours usually only amused Hanako. Hearing trivial gossip and seeing them get out of hand was an entertaining pastime for the boy.

To his horror, there was this particular rumor that didn’t allow him to crackle in laughter. Rumors of the librarian being a Parselmouth. He was someone who would do anything to get out of work. But choosing to ignore this rumor would probably give him more work than he wanted. So, he dug deeper. And boy, did he find some facts that supported the rumor.

For one, there was talk about her having a pet snake. Snakes are naturally drawn to Parselmouths. While she could’ve just been a snake lover, he had another rumor that made him think otherwise. Apparently some students have heard her whisper strange things. She was either destined to be a librarian, or she was talking in a language not everyone understood. Possibilities of it being Parseltongue? Undetermined.

That’s why he called in one of the newbies in the club, Haley Rose. She was the first Parselmouth he recruited and one he knew would be interested in a mission like this. Probably because she’s a Gryffindor. They just thrive on events like this, don’t they? Whatever the reason, it definitely would be an interesting one if Haley is in it. Not to mention, Hanako was rather bad with words. Sneaking around sniffing out rumors was much easier than tricking someone (an adult at that) about their dark heritage. Perhaps her social skills were better than his. Hopefully.

The mission started off with them tailing Miss Simmons around. As expected, his partner in crime was excited about this. Not even letting him greet her before making him get into spy position. “ Sorry but our target is in our sights” she said. Hanako rolled his eyes but decided that the mission was more important than retorting back. They continued following the librarian who so far didn’t seem to notice them ( at least that's what he assumed since she hasn’t screamed at them yet ). “ Do you really think she’s a parsel?”

“ With the current evidence we have? Not enough to be certain. But I do hope she’s not. Do you understand how troublesome it would be for us if she could enter that place as easy as we do?” he whispered back, eyes still glued to the target. While mostly a childish attempt at being a secret society, his club was good. For the most part, at the very least. Sure they didn’t follow some rules here and there. But to be forced to shut down because a teacher found out about it and decided that it wasn’t following Hogwarts rules and regulations. That would be a shame. Not to mention very embarrassing.

He continued his job and helped his partner in crime by giving her better eyesight with his binoculars. To which she didn’t seem to appreciate enough with how surprised she was about it. “ Are you really that surprised?” he inquired sarcastically with a smile. “ My eyesight is bad. You’ll be the eyes in this operation, got it? If anyone asks about these things, tell them that I’m just the charming fella that thinks the clouds through the library windows look much better than seeing them outside. Okay?” That was a lie. He was tired enough digging deep into the rumours. No way in hell was he going to pay extra attention to the target as well.

Haley then decided to enter enemy territory: the library. She seems really into this mission. He’ll eventually get used to all her dragging around. When she pulled him in to match her pace, he almost stumbled and dropped his binoculars. Who would run in a library?! He lost the opportunity to call her crazy and just decided to go along with it. “ Oh-yes. And I want to watch..birds..?” Then he remembered he didn't know this place at all.

He so rarely visited the library that it looked like an unfamiliar room to him. Hopefully, the librarian wouldn't notice how out of place he feels. He looked around the quiet room, wondering why anyone in their right minds would take a job in this boring place, before quickly walking after Haley, who seemed more familiar with the place than him. “ Hey, Droopy. I know you care about your homework and all, but listen. The birds outside look great as heck. Why don't you take a look?” he then would try to put the binoculars in her hands. A signal for “ You’re the eyes of this operation. You look for the librarian”.
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@Haley Rose@Collete Simmons

☼☼☼
Interacting with: @Hanako Tone|@Haley Rose

Ah, the art of sneaking around. Colette had mastered it rather quickly in her youth and it became a vital skill upon adulthood. Picking locks, blending in with the surroundings and always knowing where to go to make a quick get away, these were the abilities she’d honed and tuned so finely they were second nature.

Today she was walking in open daylight in the territory she claimed. There was no discretion in her step, relaxed posture and the soft click clack of her heels first echoing through the halls, then muffled by the lush carpeting of the library. There was no need for her to be discreet here, this was her comfort place.

But apparently, someone or two someones decided that it was necessary today. However, discrete and sneaky probably weren’t the words to describe them. They were about as unnoticeable as a bull in a China shop – or at least to Colette they were.

Her ears picked up their faintly shouted whispers and the shuffling of their feet as they followed her around the castle. It seemed as though they were students. Did they have something to ask her? Perhaps they were too shy? Or perhaps they were just odd children who wanted to spy on the adults around them. Why they decided she would be today’s specimen of observation she did not understand either.

Quietly humming to herself, she began taking books off of the tables and stacking them on the trolley to be reshelved. Perhaps she would humor the young spies for a while. But she would not make anything easy for them. With an added spring in her step she pushed the books around the maze of the library, deliberately taking odd routes and turns to try and throw them off. She decided she would confront them later. For now, they would be taking an unintentional in-depth tour of the library.

Hana's reply ran through Haley's mind. "But I do hope she's not." The red-haired girl only made an approving "Mhm." To his statement, but thought about his words for some time. Would it really be bad? Would it not perhaps even be an advantage to know an experienced Parsel. To be able to ask questions that one could finally get an answer to? To have an adult who would finally understand? But maybe Hanako was right, maybe she would ruin the whole club and the unique place of Parselmouths. She didn't know which would be more likely and before she could have racked her brain any further, she focused back on her mission, after all, they had to find out if there was any truth to the rumours before they could speculate on further consequences.

"Please DON'T watch birds." Haley replied admonishingly, trying to suppress a giggle while shaking her head at him. They had to be as inconspicuous as possible or the whole operation would backfire. What the two spies didn't realise, however, was that they had already been seen through. But who could have guessed otherwise? The two urgently needed to improve their spying skills, perhaps the two sarcastic and non-spying students should be sent to a how-to-be-a-good-spy training camp. But until that happens, the two remained in the belief that they were doing this job extremely successfully.

"Stop calling me Droopy." Haley hissed through gritted teeth. Rolling her eyes, she picked up the binoculars. She knew what he was trying to tell her, yet she wouldn't conspicuously stroll through the library with binoculars. She might have been crazy, but she wasn't THAT crazy. She stowed the good thing in her bag and it didn't go unnoticed that Hana looked more than lost. Gosh, don't Slytherins read books? "Come here." She directed Hana to one of the empty tables, walking past the shelves, she grabbed a random book and placed it on the table in front of him, where she just pushed him down onto the chair by his shoulders to sit down. "Just...just act normal." She whispered to him, looking at him worriedly for a moment. It seemed like Hana was not only totally lost locally, but that he didn't know what one would do in a library. She let out an exasperated snort through her nose, flipped the book open in front of him and turned his head so his eyes were on the book. "You'll be my back-up eyes." She whispered to him further and turned on her axis.

The library was like her second home here at Hogwarts. Not only was the redheaded Gryffindor fond of books, but she spent her time here doing homework and often with Simon, as it was hard to spend time outside with him, especially in the summer. She knew every shelf and aisle (except for the forbidden section). While placing Hana, she had lost her target for a moment, but while Haley walked quietly through the aisles, it wasn't long before she had it in her sights again. She tried to follow her as unobtrusively as possible. Here and there she stopped briefly and took a book from a shelf. By now, three books were piled up on her arms and just as she was looking at another one, she watched the target stow another book on the shelves.

Suspiciously, Haley frowned. Something was not right here. She was putting the books away completely without system and taking unnecessary steps. Her route through all the corridors made no sense and Haley decided to make a small retreat. Her first thought was that the new librarian should know her way around this library like she knew her own western. Her second thought was that she was, after all, new and might have to find her way in and her third thought was that maybe she had noticed the spies after all. No, that couldn't be possible, could it? Surely it was due to the second thought...hopefully.

Haley went back with her three books to the table where she had placed Hanako and sat down opposite him. She took a quill and parchment from her bag and opened one of the books. Wanting to appear as inconspicuous as possible, she reported the situation to Hana. "Nothing. She was just putting books away. No humming softly to herself, let alone whispering in parseltongue." Haley shrugged and looked apologetically at her spy partner. She didn't know how else to find out anything. She kept the other realisation she made to herself for now. Perhaps she had imagined it all or, which was her hope, it was due to the fact that she was simply not yet well versed in it.

[font=PT Sans]"Please DON'T watch birds." Although she was clearly amused, Hanako failed to share the same expression. How dare she. He thought about this over. Apart from reading books, was the point of libraries not to look at birds? It’s so silent.. And there’s windows..so..? Haley laughing just rubbed off as an insult to his commitment to this mission. Albeit it was not a lot to begin with. But still! He’s trying his best.

"Stop calling me Droopy."

“Ah yes,because the more you tell me not to, the more I’ll be less inclined to say it. You know me very well~” He couldn’t understand what was so wrong with Droopy. Wasn’t that one of the 7 dwarves in that Snow White fairytale? They’re amazingly hard workers, and good singers. At least, in the Disney movies they were. Why Haley would be so against this nickname, he will pretend not to know and snicker about it.

Just as he noticed Haley had better navigation in this cursed place, he was less reluctant to the idea of being dragged around. One could argue being dragged about would look more suspicious, but it was better than watching birds. Because according to Haley, it was weird. Whatever his thoughts, he could not deny he needed to rely on her for this. While Hanako’s short attention span could barely catch up to the librarian, he saw Haley’s eyes were trained on her. And it seemed like Haley noticed this too.

Thus, she left him near an empty table without so much as an explanation. Was this her way of telling him the useless kid should just stay back? If so, he had no complaints. “ Left alone, again. How upsetting“ he mumbled without a thought, before plopping down on one of the empty chairs, fumbling with the binoculars as he patiently waited for his partner in crime to come back.

Soon, she reappeared frazzled and with 3 books. "Nothing. She was just putting books away. No humming softly to herself, let alone whispering in parseltongue." she reported. “ So… you lost her. Brilliant” Hana wasn’t able to hide his bitterness, but thinking about it more, he wouldn’t have done a better job than her if they switched places. The librarian was slippery. Like a snake. Another thing to take note of. Although, he didn’t think Parselmouths were naturally good at that. If so, they wouldn’t be this close to failing their mission already. Survival of the slippery-est, and they already lost.

Hanako didn’t bring in quills and parchment as Haley did, so he opted to grab one of the books Haley brought in, making sure it was placed where people could see the cover and know he’s reading. Unaware that the book cover and its contents were upside down. Nobody would be suspicious of a kid reading a book that was upside down.

“ Well, I suppose we’ll be here for a while then.” he dejectedly mumbled, before his eyes suddenly brightened up. “ Wait. Maybe we should make her angry” with his upside-down book, he peered closer to the girl and continued with a loud hushed tone. “Okay wait, hear me out. I met Inland Taipan¹ Mars T'ien here only because they were stressed out. And you as well! You were having a breakdown.’ It just comes out when we’re stressed, right? So let's make her stressed! It’s perfect!” the more he spoke, the more he was unable to keep his volume to the minimum. He had felt useless all day. But if it’s about pissing someone off, he’s your guy! Finally, he could do something to help the mission. “ Just give me ideas, and I’ll do my best “ he said, a bit too enthusiastically. “ We just need something enough to let her slip a little~“ he trailed off, pitching his fingers close together in hopes she got his message. 'Hiss', he meant.
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¹)In the club, people are given codenames to use. Mars Tien's is Inland Taipan

Interacting: @Haley Rose
Mentioned: @Mars T'ien and @Collete Simmons

@Hanako Tone | @Haley Rose

Her tenure at the library proved useful during Colette’s current predicament. So much so that she’d intentionally missed a few shelves with the objective of going back to them later. From magical artifacts and Merlin, to and oracles, the witch did not falter, and just carried on without giving away that she suspected anything amiss. Her young pursuers still followed diligently, clearly still incredibly invested in their designated target.

Perhaps she should talk to the other members of staff to have more activities to keep students occupied with other things than the mundane work of the Hogwarts staff. She found it highly unlikely that they were aspiring librarians if they were being this secretive as well.

Then, an almost offensive noise caught in her ears.

It was slight, almost a whisper, but definitely meant to be hear. A hiss, about as clear as a mother trying to teacher her child what a snake was supposed to sound like. She would have been offended. She probably felt like she should be. Is that what people thought Parselmouths sounded like? It felt incredibly too stereotypical. Then, she stopped in her tracks.

Did these children know?

Did everyone know?

It could have been that she did not do the best job of hiding it, and perhaps a large adult snake wasn’t the easiest thing to hide. But she definitely wasn’t going around telling people.

What were these amateur sleuths trying to achieve? Perhaps they were only trying to confirm a rumor. Perhaps they were trying to flush out a snake… or a Parselmouth. Perhaps they were curious. Either way, she wouldn’t have it. It was best to nip the rumors in the bud. She would let other people know, but it would be on her own terms. With a purse of her lips, she bit out, “If you have a question, I’d prefer you speak to me directly than hiss at me. I’m not a cat, I don’t think you are either.” She deadpanned as she turned around to face her tail.

*ooc note: Hana's dialog colour changed from teal to purple. Heads up!

Reducio

He turned away from their target with closed eyes and pinched his arm. Definitely not dreaming. Hallucinating in the library was unlikely. It suffocated him with its studious aura, but not to the point of hallucinating. Sharp eyes looked directly at him and his partner. His skin crawled and he wasn’t able to hide his nervousness. A ‘deer in headlights’ look wasn’t a look Hana liked to wear, but that was the best description to describe him at the moment.

“H-hey” he whispered to his junior, wary eyes still locked with the librarians. “ Tell me we heard wrong and she isn’t looking at us “. His uneasiness didn’t actually help with being as quiet as he would like. The librarian would have no trouble hearing his hopeful delusions. Hopefully, Haley had more guts to face the situation than Hanako. As of now, there were no traces of his usual carefree nature. “A ghost. It’s a ghost right? Right?”

Another indication of how much he cared for the other Parselmouths in his own way. Being found out so easily… not only was that embarrassing beyond measure, but it meant he had failed at protecting his fellow Parselmouths. If the librarian turns out to be living flesh and not an unusually non-see through ghost, he was in a dangerous position to be in. The only comfort he had that kept him for turning on his heels and making a run for it was the young Gryffindor next to him. He could only handle enough embarrassment daily. There was an uncomfortable feeling that Rose would not be able to let him forget the time he fled the library if he ran out right now. A future he was not so willing to live in.

He took a deep breath and gripped his binoculars tighter as he brought it to his eyes, directing his gaze toward the librarian. Why? Because he was optimistic in his own way, and he hoped to truly see a ghost through the lenses. Even if the librarian made no reaction to this, her very real sight of her gave him literal chills.

Most likely not a ghost. That’s not good. He needed to remind himself it wasn’t game over already. They still didn’t get to confirm if she’s a Parselmouth- nor did she know Hana and Haley were one as well. Their interactions will simply be more..direct from now on. He glanced towards Haley for input, not daring to look back at the librarian.

@Colette Simmons@Haley Rose

As if it wasn't bad enough that the two students had been exposed, Hana was now acting even stranger than he already was. But back to the beginning - the two were obviously not good at playing hide and seek and their whispering was not overheard. In retrospect, though, it wasn't a surprise either; the two young students had perhaps not been quite as adept as they might have hoped. But even if they had, Haley would never have expected Miss possibly a Parselmouth to confront them so directly and snappishly.

"Didn't know a cat sounded like that." Haley said somewhat annoyed to Hana, looking at the Librarian with a raised eyebrow, trying to cover the fact that they had been caught red-handed. But instead of the two of them playing it cool and pretending not to know what she meant, Hana fell to his madness.

"Hana!" whisper screamed Haley to her partner in crime through gritted teeth. "She can hear you." She remarked with an annoyed sing sang voice, trying not to completely freak out. She was the newbie here, not Hana. She would have the right to go crazy now, but now it was she who had to keep her composure, and most importantly, take the stand and step on the emergency brake to stop the car from crashing full force into the wall.

But while Haley tried to step on the brake with all her might, Hana stepped on the gas with all his might. Haley's eyes grew big when she saw Hana take the binoculars. Her eyes were huge and she had big eyes anyway. Her mouth dropped open and she looked at him in complete bewilderment. You would think Haley had seen a ghost now and slowly she began to shake her head. "What the actual f-" Haley stopped mid-sentence and remembered that next to them was the real problem. Completely annoyed, Haley grabbed the binoculars and fired them at the table. "Stop it!"

Laughing nervously she turned her head now to Miss Simmons "Um, sorry, he's..a bit confused today." Haley smiled at her uncertainly, knowing that Hana had hit the gas pedal too hard and nothing could save her from the painful impact, but she tried to let the airbags minimise the damage. "Well, we were actually just going to study and do some homework." She pointed her gaze at the books on the table in front of them. "Like probably everyone here." She shrugged her shoulders and tried to act innocent. After all, it was the most normal thing in the world and with any luck Miss Simmons would now start thinking herself crazy or paranoid. After all, it was not usual to approach a couple of students who were merely learning out of nowhere like this.

All the two needed was a little luck and they would somehow get out of this situation unnoticed. But still, the two had a mission, they wanted to find out something and Haley wondered if she should ask about the hissing. Would it be too obvious? She would have liked to ask, but it seemed unwise and for now she slurped the question down. "So sorry if we were too loud...or made cat noises." Haley looked at Hana and gave him a confused look, as if this statement from the Librarian had been totally crazy. "We'll try to talk a little more quietly." Haley said and with a little luck she would believe the two spies and they could go on trying to find out something about the rumour.