A Defiant Bunch PV Closed

Emma knew most of the people standing or kneeling at Anna's bed. There was Muriel from her very own dormitory, previously inhabited by Garrick Ollivander, the maker of her wand. She was extremely kind and perhaps slightly out of place. There was Jeronimo, whom she had met during the Lock-In, but she was fortunate to meet someone of the opposite gender who shared some of the corresponding personality traits as her.  

She gave a wave at the one who she had not had the pleasure to meet yet. "Nice to meet you, I'm Emma." She refused to say her full name, she found it tedious and extremely unimportant as her nickname. 

"Is... Is she even awake?"

At these words, Emma fought back words that could have come out her mouth. Annabelle should have at least reacted when she shook her poor leg, but she didn't have the courage to admit her thoughts. What if a not-so-harmless flight ended like this multiple times? Would she have the courage to take a look at another broom?

The brunette pictured the three riding their brooms, and the horrific events that had occurred. She winced as she blinked the image out of her head, possibly for good. After a minute, she had answered, though she hadn't meant to give the event of a dramatic pause. She liked the effect though, after all, she had a passion for acting... and competing.

"I hope -" Emma looked down at Anna's stomach for signs of motion, "Oh! Not dead... haha, definitely not dead... I don't know if she's awake..." She stammered and rubbed her neck anxiously for thinking such demoralizing thoughts.

Annabelle tried once more to clear her throat. She was absolutely determined to get through to them. Jeronimo suggested that the nurse give her pumpkin juice. Anna didn't care for the flavor, but anything would be better than the Skele-grow taste. She definitely agreed that these places should have regular juice though. Hell, even water would work. But the nurse seemed too preoccupied to respond to the boy's request. The injured girl could not see her of course, but she could hear her bustling about, trying desperately to shoo the group of children from the room.

"If you don't leave right now, you'll be in big trouble!" The nurse warned, sounding a bit more desperate than someone in a place of authority ought to sound. "I'm going to get security to kick you out!"

Security? Did she mean the ghosts? Surely there was nothing a ghost could do that the human caretaker could not. Yet she ran out the door without another word. Annabelle turned her head in the direction that the nurse had gone. She was quite worried. What was going to happen to her friends if they were to be caught here? The ghosts might not be able to physically remove them, but they would likely report back to the Headmaster. At best, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff would lose a couple of house points. At worst... well, Annabelle was not quite sure. Suspension? Expulsion? How serious of a crime was it to go into the Hospital Wing after visiting hours?

Then a horrific thought struck her. Would they be given detention? She had no clue what normal protocols were, but the last and only time she had been to detention had been traumatizing enough that she wouldn't wish it on her worst enemy. Professor Lear was completely insane. He'd cast a spell on the students to meet their worst fears... nearly killing both the students and themselves. What if the crazy teacher decided to experiment like that again? Annabelle could not allow that to happen to her friends.

She cleared her throat again, praying that she would be heard. Pain shot through her and she became dizzy. Must...remain...conscious... Anna struggled, opening her mouth ever-so-slightly. Finally she managed to utter one word in a barely audible squeak.

"Hide..."

“Umm... n-no, not exactly... b-but I was watching her at the Q-Quidditch P-Pitch and saw what happened, and wanted to see if she’d be okay.” Muriel answered to the boy, starting to really feel the awkward position she was in, and tried to keep her voice as steady as possible. The truth was however that she was a stranger amongst the group; she’d never even met Anna before now, and doubted that her in turn even knew she existed. But that didn’t mean Muriel could just walk away apathetically after witnessing an accident like that. “I just don’t like seeing anybody get hurt,” she concluded.

She became silent again in the passing conversation between everyone, though shifted uncomfortably at the thought of the girl being dead. And as Emma mentioned her observation, and the Ravenclaw kid his own apologies, Muriel’s mind began to whirl once more. Sure, she might’ve been pressured into flying, but he didn’t mean for anything bad to happen, but can the same go for the Hufflepuff boy? Her thoughts were quickly interrupted when she heard the clearing of a throat. Anna’s awake....already!? She must be really strong. The one word she managed to say slightly scared her however, and she looked up again at the others, wondering what they’d do.

Emma had to admit, the nurse was a scary lady despite her appearance. The saying was true, never trust a book by its cover. She looked around the Hospital Wing at the many sick, broken, or simply just resting people, she felt a bit sorry for them. She returned her gaze back to Annabelle who appeared to be struggling, though she didn't know if it was mentally or physically?

"Hide..."

Great, all she had been trying to do was visit a friend, but not even the Hogwarts nurse could understand friendship. She scanned the room for possible hiding places and looked over to Muriel to see if she had some form of an idea also. 

"Muriel, don't just stand there, go hide." She had been striving not to raise her voice, or even appear a bit rude. It was either get in trouble defiantly or hide while protecting a friend. The brunette continued scanning the room, nothing. Except for the huge gap of space underneath the bed. "Under the bed, sorry Anna." 

Emma dove underneath the bed of Anna's and hit her head on the top. She couldn't help being clumsy. "Hide underneath that bed," she said pointed to the bed on her left. The floor was extremely painful on her stomach, when would the nurse finally leave? Or would she ever?

Muriel slightly flinched at Emma's words before quickly sliding underneath the bed she'd gestured to. She laid there as still as a statue, daring not to fidget in hopes of blending in with the bed's shadow. Was it really that big of a deal to visit after hours? Although she knew the nurse had good intentions, she was beginning to think that she was going a bit overboard with the whole rule thing. We're not causing any trouble staying over for a few hours! Is it that serious that security has to be involved!?

Frustrated about the situation, Muriel's gaze returned back to Anna's bed, wondering how the girl was doing. I wonder if she's still even awake. I bet she'd really like something to drink right now... She thought, remembering the conversation about pumpkin juice. Isn't there a way to conjure up water at least? She thought some more, vaguely remembering her mother saying something to make water spout water out of her wand one day. Unable to remember the specifics however, she gave up and looked back at Emma, who was now underneath Anna's bed.

"What are we going to do?" Muriel asked in a barely audible yet panicked whisper. She had no idea when the nurse would leave, most likely not for a while. What if they'd have to stay hidden until visiting hours again? She wasn't looking forward to that at all. What if they'd get caught? What if the nurse did a quick check of everything before leaving? All the what if's going through her head just made her even more nervous by the second until she hoped that the pounding of her heart couldn't be heard by anyone.

Were they really planning on hiding under the beds? Verla saw them climb under the bed. This was a bad idea, she couldn't afford getting in trouble and losing points for her house again. She wanted to rat them all out, but then she would have made enemies. She silently slid under the bed, and waited for the nurse to leave. She looked at the others under the beds and pressed her lips together, preventing herself from squealing. She was so scared. She mouthed to Muriel "WAIT." 

When the nurse had left, she crawled out from under the bed "you know we're going to have to leave before morning if we don't want to get caught. Anna right? Are you awake, alive?"

She couldn't believe the girl had suggested for them to hide, the beds were so high off the ground, she was surprised they didn't get caught. She was going to be gone by morning, even if they weren't. If she got caught again, she'd serve worse detention. Cleaning windows sucked. She knew because she volunteered to help her mother clean windows once, she never did after that. She always pressed so hard, she was afraid of it breaking.

Jeronimo tightened his face and looked side-to-side. Hide? What the heck did she mean, hide?!?

The Asian boy saw the other girls start hiding under the bed. Well, that was frankly ridiculous. The first place anyone would look to find hiding kids in a room full of beds would be under the beds. Jeronimo was smarter than that. He was gonna hide somewhere better. It would not do to lose House Points when he had done his best to not lose them while not paying attention in class.

The Asian boy looked frantically around the room. He was far too big to fit in most of the cupboards, especially since most of them had shelves of glass bottles, presumably filled with medicine. (For all he knew, they were all bottles of water... He wasn't paying attention.) Jeronimo frantically flung open a closet. Nothing inside. Perfect place to hide.

Jeronimo stepped inside and shut the doors, holding his breath.

He heard the door swing open as the nurse entered. He couldn't hold his breath. Now he remembered that one picture he saw about ninjas and how they didn't actually hold their breath, they just calmed it. Jeronimo tried to exhale as slowly as he could, trying to reduce the noise.

Jeronimo focused on breathing so much that he realized one of his feet were starting to get wet. The boy grimaced and decided to ignore it, and breathed through his mouth. The larger the opening, the less likely that he would make noise.

Hearing the nurse leave, Jeronimo creaked open the door a little. He saw Verla sneak out from under the bed, somehow not caught. She hissed something that Jeronimo couldn't hear.

"Wait, so," the boy said, "What's going on? Is this a serious thing? Sh-should we be going? I don't really know why we're staying here. I-I don't wanna break any rules."

Emma couldn't see a thing underneath the bed, well, except for her very own feet and the face directly next to her. She had to admit it was irrational to hide under the bed, but she generally never thought while she acted on her bear instincts. It was weird, even for herself. She generally overthought everything, yet surprisingly, not this time. She rolled from underneath the bed and stood up and spoke to Verla first, she did make a good point.

"The nurse has terrible eyesight, but still, I'm surprised. Anyway, We'll just sneak out in the morning when she leaves, well she can't sleep at her desk, can she?" She pondered out loud to herself. It was not like the nurse herself could claim a bed to herself, it was reserved for the students of Hogwarts.

She gestured to Muriel, feeling remarkably bossy, yet she couldn't sustain it. Looking around the room, she noticed one person had been missing from the group, well, besides Annabelle herself. Seconds later after a brief 'heart attack', she spun around to the source of creaking wood. Thank Merlin he hadn't left. 

"What's going on? Is this a serious thing? Sh-should we be going? I don't really know why we're staying here. I-I don't wanna break any rules."

Answering him, she turned her gaze from Verla. "I just don't want to leave Anna alone, she's barely conscious. I want to be here when she gets better... or worse," she mumbled to herself. She shot a glance at the door, just to be sure, flashes of presumably illegal ideas popped into her head. Though it may have sounded crazy, she continued to speak. 

"You know, I was actually thinking about locking the door." She said quietly as if regretting her words, her tone slightly devious. As she finished her words she began to fidget with her robes slightly, her bracelet clicking against one another loudly.

Now Verla was nervous "locking the door is a terrible idea." Verla hissed, but she meant well "if we lock the door, what if the headmaster comes and wants to check on the students in here, we would be in even bigger trouble than we would with the nurse. Now I don't know Anna very well, but whatever you decide I'll stick with it, no matter how much my guts say it's a bad idea." Verla said softly but boldly. When the nurse was gone, she'd crawled out from under the bed and sat next to Anna. She really did worry for the poor girl after seeing her fall (if she did fall). Verla decided to make it a promise to stay until Anna was awake at least. "I personally think she wont be up until tomorrow anyway, so we should go to bed and we can be here early in case she wakes up before us. But whatever, serving a detention with friends would be an honor since I don't really have any." She said, and it was true, she only had like two, and they didn't have time for her since one of them became a prefect and then they were dating so why would they want to spend time with her when they had each other?

Muriel slid out from under the bed once the coast was clear, but her heart heart was still pounding and her mind was still frantic. She listened quietly as the others discussed what they wanted to do. The Ravenclaw boy seemed the most skeptical and wanted to leave, Emma wanted to stay, and Verla was sort of up for either way. She stood there for a few moments and decided to think through everything aloud.

“...I’m really concerned about Anna’s well-being too... but I don’t want to get in trouble either. If we stay, we can make sure she’s okay, but also run the risk of getting caught and receiving consequences. If we don’t stay, we don’t have to worry about any risks, but we also won’t be there for her when she’s better...” Muriel said, weighing the options with each of her hands like a scale. She stood there some more with a focused look on her face, trying to think logically. However, it was her heart that seemed to take control instead.

“...I-I’m with Emma. I want to stay and make sure Anna gets better. That’s the whole reason I came here anyway... And even though detention does sound scary, I-I think it’s worth it...” Muriel concluded, though continued to stare at her hands, fearing that she sounded foolish. “B-But we shouldn’t lock the door; that’ll cause us more trouble than good if anything.” She added quickly, agreeing with Verla on that subject. With that all said she fell silent once again and stared back at Anna’s bed, wondering as well if the girl was still even awake.