Closed After Hours PV Lexie Sereno

This is a terrible idea, Lexie thought, as she crept through the dimly lit corridors of the magical castle. It was an hour past midnight, at least she thought it was. She had been tossing and turning for hours, thinking about her family, but mostly her mother. Lexie finally grew sick of the stressful thoughts, and started venturing the halls, not sure where she was trying to go. Leaving the dorms after hours definitely wasn't allowed, but she didn't care that much, even if she probably should have.

The thrill of breaking the rules was intoxicating, and it let her ignore the consequences she would face if she was caught. Thinking about where to go, her mind immediately went to the hardest places to get to. Go big or go home, right? She imagined herself going to the Forbidden Forest, or the Room of Requirement, but little did she know she would never get there. Lexie barely knew how to get to her classes, let alone places that were obviously restricted.

Trying to be quiet was a struggle, she kept cringing when she stepped on a creaky floorboard, or almost tripping on the moving staircases. It didn't help that Lexie was lankier than most people her age, so if someone was awake that fateful night, hiding was not an option.

Suddenly, she saw a silhouette of a person and nearly jumped back. It was slowly walking towards her, and she froze in fright, before the light of a nearby lantern illuminated the person's face. Short brown hair, thin frame, and an equally shocked look on his face. Lexie let out a sigh of relief when she realized it was a student, a first year, and then the confusion set in. "Who are you?"

Though she tried to look defensive and hard, a traitorous smile crawled onto her face at the absurdity of the situation. Two first years, out of bed in the middle of the night, and from the sheer fright on his face, both apparently terrified of being caught. The terror on the boy's face melted away, as he probably realized the same thing Lexie did-- neither of them could ever tell anyone about this, unless they wanted to screw themselves over.

Lexie's face turned a shade redder as the boy, who eventually introduced him as Rebecca, reprimanded her for her loud words. She laughed at the obvious irony of his next few sentences, but tried to cover it with a cough and gave him a dismissive wave. "Oh, shut up." As she was about to introduce herself, she heard a sound, and turned her head. It was only a slightly open window, but the sound of the whistling of the wind made the atmosphere eery, and sent shivers down her spine.

She looked back at Rebecca, forcing her face to look more relax than she felt and mumbled, "Nice to meet you, I guess. Lexie, Gryffindor, first year." She averted his gaze, thinking of a valid excuse of why she was out past curfew. It wasn't about not getting in trouble, but she wasn't going to tell someone she had just met all about her family problems. "I don't see how it's any of your business, but I was just getting some fresh air. Care to tell me why you're out this late at night?

Lexie had always found the historical rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin very interesting for many reasons. For one, the similar traits both had, like resourcefulness, pridefulness, and an absolute disregard for authority. The last one seemed especially prominent that night, as Lexie stared at Rebecca's outstretched hand, weighing the limited options she had. "Deal," she finally said, and they shook on it, and she failed to stop the unintentional smirk from forming on her face.

An awkward silence filled the room, which didn't pair well with the ghostly atmosphere, so Lexie broke it. "Any idea where we are?" She looked around, trying to figure it out for herself, but most of the corridors in the castle looked identical. "I tried to keep track of what floor I was on, but I have no idea now," she said, before muttering, "Moving staircases was a great idea."

She realized suddenly, that it was possible Rebecca was planning to get somewhere, and didn't intend to take Lexie with him. She hoped that wasn't the case since at that point, she was glad to find some company to explore the darkened castle. Managing to ignore that thought, Lexie heard the sound of somebody talking and jumped in alarm, grabbing Rebecca's sleeve and yanked him with her as she started away from the voice. It took her a few seconds to realize it was one of those pesky ghosts, floating about the castle. "Sorry," she muttered and let go of his sleeve.

A pale ghost who Lexie didn't recognize floated by, talking to herself like she was drunk which she might've. Once she was out of earshot, Lexie let go of the breath she was holding and ran her hand through her hair, something she did when she was nervous. Though Rebecca told her it was fine, she felt bad that she yanked him so hard, but the thought faded as he asked her about going to the Gryffindor common room.

"The common room? Sure, why not?" she said with a devious smile, just thinking about it. "I wonder if we could sneak you in, since you're not wearing your Slytherin robes. We'll see, I suppose." With further thought, she realized that might be impossible since the Fat Lady might not let him in, plus it might have magical boundaries to stop students from other houses from entering.

Now to figure out how to get to the common room. Lexie was pretty sure that she only went down, and according to Rebecca, they were on the third floor so by that probably wrong logic, they had to go up. "Up, we go then!" she decided, and turned to the left where a staircase led up. She looked back at Rebecca, and waited for him to follow.

Making her way up the staircases and creeping through the corridors, Lexie tried to think of more conversation to end the deafening silence. They were supposed to be quiet, but at some point she would rather get caught than be stuck in an uncomfortable social situation. Luckily for her, Rebecca started ranting about the layout of the castle.

She had to remind herself to whisper as she said, "I never thought of that. I suppose us Gryffindors are lucky, but I've always wanted to be in Slytherin. Mostly because the other houses are so..." She shrugged. "I mean, Hufflepuffs are so weirdly optimistic-- at least the one's I've met. And the Ravenclaws are... pompous." Realizing that made her seem completely prejudice against half the students in the entire school, Lexie added, "I mean that I just don't get them."

She sped up her pace a bit to distract from the awkward sentences she had just said, and nearly tripping on her own shoe. Deciding to just change the subject back to things she found easier to talk about, she went with something she was currently doing. Rule breaking. "Anyway, next time, we're going to the Slytherin common room, alright? I need to see the terrible circumstances you Slytherin's are under," she joked and gave him a playful shove.