Comrades & Courtyards, Pals & Passageways PV

Yes, Amadea was on board with exploring! Time to set off into the great... um, unknown... Stiffening slightly, suddenly uncomfortably aware of just exactly what the two Hufflepuffs were about to do, Ami took a deep breath and focused on the wonder that adventure could instill, rather than the horror it could bring. 

Come on, it's just a passageway. You'll be fine, stop being such a big baby. You're 12 already, you're not a toddler still needing to hold your mother's hand.

"We'll... we'll be fine. Trouble's got nothing on us, we can handle everything that comes our way- together," Ami said confidently, but in reality, it was more for herself than for Amadea. The passageway seemed to get darker and darker, even with Ami's light, as well as dirtier and mustier. 

Coughing slightly, Ami swiveled around to at least try and get a general sense of where they were, relative to different parts of the castle. While she most definitely wasn't as good as Kyden, she still had a pretty basic sense of direction. "Wait, hang on, so if that's the courtyard," she said slowly, pointing back towards the way they had just come from, "Then this... is... absolutely nowhere near the Potions classroom?"

Time to double-check. Whipping her brand, spankin' new map out of her pocket, she pinpointed the courtyard on it, then located where the entrance to the passageway would've been if Kyden had discovered it previously. 

"Okay, so we started there, walked towards the right for quite a bit, and I think we veered left a little bit along the way..." Squinting at the paper, she traced her finger along where their route would've been, trying to discern just exactly where they were.

"I think," she said slowly, finally coming to some form of a conclusion, "That we're either going to encounter a fork somewhere up ahead or a sharp turn left. It looks like Kyden's already found a passageway leading to the Potions classroom, just not from the courtyard, which means there's already an existing passageway." As she spoke, Ami pointed out a thin passageway at the Potion's classroom, although it certainly wasn't anywhere near them, and didn't seem to snake towards them at all 

"I think this one, the passageway we're in right now, might connect to that other passageway?" she continued, glancing at Amadea for confirmation. "Otherwise, Kyden was wrong and this doesn't lead to the Dungeons or Potions classroom at all."After scanning the map one last time, Ami suggested, "Let's keep walking, see if we turn left at all?"

"Passageway" Counter: 8

Despite Amadea's cool exterior (though was it really that 'cool'?) she was freaking out on the inside. It didn't help that Ami didn't seem to be so confident either. They were heading off into unknown territories without anyone but themselves. It wasn't like Amadea wasn't sure they could defend themselves, even though she was pretty sure they couldn't, but she also just didn't like the idea of being down here.

But she wasn't going to be a wimp. Amadea needed to woman up and start facing things head on instead of running away from them. Be the buffalo, she reminded herself. When she was little, she used to be scared of thunder during thunder storms. Her mother would always tell her the same story about buffalo. Whenever a storm came, instead of running away from the ominous clouds, buffalo would run right into the storm. This piece of information gave Amadea courage and she always reminded herself to not be afraid and to run into the storm instead of away from it. 

She could really use some encouragement right now. Luckily, Ami was leading them, so Amadea didn't have to worry about choosing directions or anything. She had to focus on just trudging through the dark passageway behind her friend, trying not to trip. As Ami tried to reassure her that everything would be okay, it seemed as though she was trying to reassure herself just as much. 

The passageway was becoming darker and dirtier as they trudged on. Amadea had long lost all sense of direction, and was blindly following Ami (quite literally because of the dark). "Um, I have absolutely no idea where we are," Amadea admitted, trying not to let her voice shake. She wasn't scared. "I thought you knew. Crap." 

Amadea tried not to panic. It would just mess with her logical thinking and obviously there wasn't much to panic about except that they were trapped in the passageways with little light and nothing except for each other and their wands. Luckily, Ami had the sense to pull out the crudely made map that Kyden had given the two girls. Shining her wand light on it, Ami was trying to deduce where they were, but judging from the monologue streaming out of her mouth, it didn't seem like the map was much help. 

Thankfully, Ami managed to find a general area that they were most likely in. "Since I have absolutely no idea where we are, I'm going to take your word for it," Amadea said. "Let's continue and see where the next fork in the turn is." Amadea motioned for her friend to continue on her way, leading them down the dank passageway when she felt something brush against her leg. Shrieking, she jumped backward against the cool stone wall, pressing herself up against it. 

"What. Was. That." Amadea asked. Her voice was scarily calm, but inside, she was a mess. Her heart was pounding uncontrollably and she took a shaky breath. Whatever had touched her was small, she assured herself, and wasn't going to kill her. It still didn't change the fact that it was terrifying and Amadea wanted nothing other than to leave the passageways straightaway. But she had to be the buffalo. There was no turning back now. 


 

So neither of them knew where they were going. Fantastic, this was going to end well, definitely. They trusted each other, though, and wasn't that all you needed to survive? At least, according to the fantasy books of the world, that was supposedly all you needed... but this wasn't a fantasy book, this is real life. Let's face the music, Ami- y'all are screwed.

With a slight shiver, and not from the chill of the passageway, Ami clutched Amadea's hand tighter, and the two forged onward. There's no turning back now, not when you've already come this far. This is not scary. You are not scared. This is nothing. Come on, woman up.

Amadea's sudden shriek pierced Ami's ears like a knife- was this what the other two felt like every time she screamed her lungs out? Wow, she'd really have to stop doing that, then. "Amdea? Amadea, what's wron- holy mother of god what the hell was that?" There was... there was something in this passageway with them. Something that was small enough to be stepped on, considering it had only brushed up against her ankle, but still. There was something else in here... something small, and furry...

Moving her wand so the light was cast upon the floor instead of the walls, the beady red eyes staring back at the girls were absolutely terrifying. Ami shrieked, throwing her wand at the creature reflexively. It was too late when she realized that wasn't exactly the best move- the two Hufflepuffs were thrown into darkness, and the only sounds that could be heard were their heavy, panicked breaths and the scurried noises...

The scurrying of rats. They were in a pitch-black tunnel surrounded by rats- and who knew how many of them there were? Ami herself wasn't necessarily afraid of rats, but she also preferred to be able to see them. "Amadea..." Ami said slowly, squeezing her hand tightly. "I hate to ask you for this, but can you cast Lumos so I can find my wand?" She was too terrified to move, for fear that she would kick her wand further away by accident.

Slowly, still clinging on to Amadea for dear life, Ami crouched down, ready to snatch her wand up the moment Amadea cast the spell. This time, both of them would be casting Lumos, because otherwise, the dark would be too suffocating for them to bear- alone. With both of them forging onwards together, nothing could possibly stop them, rats or not be damned.

Now they were both scared and lost. Great. This was exactly the type of situation Amadea didn't want to be in. Somewhere in the back of her mind, some evil voice was saying, This will be a good bonding experience for the two of you. Well, sure it would be. Maybe in ten years Amadea and Ami could look back on the situation and laugh about it. But right now, in the moment, Amadea was just wishing she could be anywhere but here. 

Whatever had brushed up against Amadea's feet had also brushed against Ami as well. That meant there were multiple of whatever it was. "Oh God, Ami," Amadea managed to say her voice trembling. "Oh God." Then her friend let out a loud shriek, not quite as terrifying as a full on banshee scream, but enough for Amadea to jump back, startled from the sound. "What happened?!" Amadea exclaimed, trying not to screech as well. Suddenly, the light that was coming from Ami's wand was extinguished and they plunged into complete darkness. 

"Oh my God," Amadea whispered. There was nothing visible now, except for some shadows and outlines. She tried to stop herself from panicking further, but it didn't seem to be working very well. Amadea could feel her heart beating and her palms were sweaty and cold. Her breath was labored. Amadea gripped her wand tightly as to not drop it, and at Ami's command, whispered, "Lumos." Her hand was still shaking, but somehow the spell worked and a very small beam of light popped out from the end of her wand, illuminating everything in the passageway, including a swarm of small fuzzy rats. Amadea screamed again, this time at the realization that there were rats in the passageway as well. 

"Oh my gosh Ami, this is so terrible!" Amadea shrieked, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to imagine herself in any possible place except for this one. "I am so scared!" She surprised herself at saying this out loud. Amadea really didn't want to be scared and wished she wasn't. After all, in the whole scheme of things, this wasn't such a bad situation. They had light and they had each other and they could find their way out of the passageway, which was exactly what they were going to do right now. 

"Did you find your wand?" Amadea asked in a small voice, peeking through her hand to see the passageway in front of her. "Let's get out of here, unless you really want to keep exploring." If Ami did, Amadea would seriously commend her for bravery, but also want to strangle her at the same time. Amadea didn't want to spend more time down here than she needed to. 

"Rats..." Ami mumbled weakly, her hands trembling. "Why did it have to be rats?" Deep breaths, deep breaths. In, out, in, out. Calm down, there is absolutely no reason for your heart to be beating this fast. You have a spell to cast. Right. Light. They needed light. They needed the light to see, to continue onwards. Did they want to continue on? Of course, they did, it was only natural for 11-year-olds to go where their heart took them.

Concentrate, but not too hard, otherwise, your wand might break. Be precise with your movements, but not so hard that your wrist snaps or your wand flies out of your hand. Magic really was just about finding the perfect balance, wasn't it? Like some massive Goldilocks story, where everything had to be... just right. "L- frick. Okay. Lumos." Yes, success. Her wand was alight once more, and the combined light between the two Hufflepuffs was more than enough to see.

Scared... both girls were scared out of their mind, and both weren't making much of an effort to hide it. Not even scared, honestly, they were way past that point. No, they were shook, that's what they were. The logical half of Ami, of course, wanted to get the heck out of the tunnel as soon as possible, because ew, rats, and ew, rats. The illogical, daredevil half of her wanted to keep going, of course.

At the sight of the lights, however, the rats no longer seemed to want to have anything to do with the redheads standing in the passageway, instead, scurrying off back to the shadows from which they came. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ami pulled Amadea along with her as she continued down the passageway. "We've come this far. We're not gonna let a bunch of stinky old rats get in our way. We're Hufflepuffs, remember? We're unstoppable."

And now, what was this? A slight curve in the walls, a slight bend? Was it real, or simply a mirage? Wait, didn't mirages need proper light to work? "I think... I think we're getting there?" Continuing onward through the passageway, Ami grinned at Amadea excitedly as a fork began to slowly appear. "Aw, hell yeah!" 

This minor victory seemed to be enough to encourage Ami, because she dragged Amadea through the left fork. "We're getting close," she said encouragingly, with another beaming smile, glancing back at Amadea. "I can almost taste it- it'll be worth it, I promise."

This is not okay, Amadea kept repeating to herself over and over in her head. Clearly she could have thought of some more reassuring things to say to herself, but she was trembling all over and it was taking most of her concentration to keep the small beam of light that was coming out of the end of her wand still illuminate the rats scattering beneath their feet. 

Finally Ami managed to grab her wand and the light that now shone out from the combined effort of the girls gave them enough light to see past them and into the passageway. Amadea's heartbeat slowed slightly when this happened. She could see again and everything was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay. They had light and they had each other. Now that the rats weren't bothering them, Amadea felt slightly less scared at the prospect of running into them. She hoped they were like bees; Amada would mind her own business and they would mind theirs and everything would be fine. It was all going to be fine. She kept reminding herself of this as she walked, repeating it to herself silently, following Ami.

Somehow, her friend had mustered up the courage to continue on their adventure. The rats had terrified Amadea so much that she didn't think she could go any farther, but then again, it wasn't like she had much of a choice. Clearly, Ami was going on no matter what and Amadea was stuck in the passageways no matter what way she went. Plus, she would rather continue adventuring with Ami than splitting up and trying to find the way back to her common room on her own. That would only end in more disaster than she had already experienced. So, Amadea pulled herself together and continued walking after Ami. It was all going to be fine. 

She tried to listen as Ami rambled on about how strong they were but Amadea was having a bit of trouble concentrating. She just hoped Ami wouldn't stop talking; her voice was filling the silence and it was comforting. Amadea hoped that Ami had enough confidence for the both of them, since Amadea had lost all of hers after the encounter with the rats. While it was slowly coming back to her, Amadea didn't have that much confidence to begin with, which was one of the reasons why she found Ami so fascinating. The girl seemed to have an endless supply of confidence. Amadea was just hoping that one of these days, some of it would radiate off of Ami and transfer into Amadea. 

"Where are we trying to go again?" Amadea asked after Ami had made a comment about being close. In all of the...excitement with the rats, Amadea had completely forgotten their mission from the beginning. Where had they been heading off to when they began this trip? Was it the Dungeons? Amadea couldn't remember. She just trusted Ami to know the way. 

Supposedly, if you kept repeating a word or a phrase over and over again, it would lose whatever meaning it had, it would lose its impact and importance. Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear... Well, it wasn’t working- not yet, at least. Maybe more repetition would help. It wouldn’t hurt to try, would it?

“Potions Classroom, let’s go there.” Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. “I don’t think I can stand going to the Dungeons, right now.” Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. “Besides, I feel like we should’ve taken the right path if we wanted to go to the Dungeons.”

Glancing back at Amadea, Ami turned so that the girls were facing each other, and that she was walking backward. She adopted a mask of excitement and mischief, as if pretending to be so would really make it true. Why did she do this to herself, to others? “Imagine the look on Valtome’s face if he’s in the classroom when we get there.” Fear, fear, fear, fear... “I hope he won’t be mad... we can just take a peek and then jet out of there.” Fear, fear, fear is dumb, fear makes you weak... “I don’t know about you, but my potions grade can’t afford another drop.”

Huh. Maybe there was something to the myth, after all. The excitement and the mischievous light in her eyes began to become genuine, as her words began to flow more easily. “Imagine! We could make this our secret hideout.” Hey, actually, that wasn’t such a bad idea at all. Nice DIY project to look forward to in their second year, if anything. “Scourgify the whole place, buy a bunch of those floating candles and line the passageway... call an exterminator.” Ami’s nose crinkled at that, but her smile was just as big as before. Flipping her long, long hair over her shoulder, Ami turned back so she was walking forward again. 

Seriously, this girl needed to start watching where she was going, because as soon as she turned around, she ran face first into a wall. Wait! no, not a wall, but a door. Wait! no, not just any door, and door made of rotting wood that broke as Ami slammed into it. 

Would Ami ever learn? Probably not. With a loud, banshee-like shriek, the Hufflepuff tumbled through the door and into the Potions classroom, letting go of Amadea’s hand so she wouldn’t come crashing through with her. Landing on the floor with an oomph, Ami bolted to her feet, checking to make sure Professor Valtome wasn’t in the classroom. 

He wasn’t, but what was possibly even worse was the older student built like Dwayne Johnson glowering over her. “Holy crap, run!” Ami screamed, jumping back into the passageway. “Run, run, run!”

Ami reminded Amadea of their mission, which didn't really change the fact that it was absolutely terrifying and Amadea really just wanted to go back to the common room and sleep. Sleep was very nice. Very, very nice. Much better than this place. But once in the middle of an adventure, you can't turn back. Amadea was not going to be a coward. She would not let this be her. 

Ami kept talking as they walked down the passageway, filling the silence and (kind of) distracting Amadea from her own thoughts. She did have to admit that imagining Professor Valtome's face when they popped into the Potions classroom was very amusing. Though of course, it did give her even more fear as well. Would the professor find their appearance amusing or would they get in trouble? They technically weren't doing anything too incorrect. Amadea wasn't sure if there were any specific rules about not going into the passageways. Even so, she felt as though there was a reason there weren't many people down here. Hopefully she wouldn't be in too much trouble. She wouldn't want her prefect title to be taken away. 

"My potions grade is fine," Amadea commented, hoping she didn't found like she was bragging. "But I hope he won't be mad either. I wouldn't want to be a bad example as a Prefect, you know? Plus, people being angry at me is terrifying." Amadea hated when people were angry with her or disciplined her. While it was important to make mistakes and learn from them, Amadea still didn't enjoy the whole process. Hopefully Professor Valtome wouldn't be mad, or maybe he wouldn't even be in the classroom. 

It seemed as though Amadea's redheaded friend was much more excited about the ordeal than Amadea and was recovering much more quickly from the rats. Already, Ami was planning their next adventures down here, commenting about a secret lair. "I wouldn't be opposed to that," Amadea admitted. The idea did sound pretty great, to be honest. As long as there weren't rats and it wasn't against the rules, Amadea would be down for renovating the place. "Though, I don't know Scourgify. Also,  I don't think if that's allowed or not, not that you wouldn't do it anyway," Amadea said with a sly smile. After all, Ami did have a tendency to want to break the rules...or at least not always adhere to them as tightly as Amadea liked to. 

They reached the Potions Classroom in no time at all it seemed, now that Amadea was feeling less scared. She let Ami go first and pushed the girl forward, peeking around her friend to see into the classroom. Ami tumbled through the door, Amadea sticking her head through it after to find a huge bulky fifth year staring at them. Professor Valtome seemed to be nowhere in sight, but the sight of the mini Dwayne Johnson was frightening enough. Amadea yelped along with Ami, in no way matching her banshee scream, but still a loud volume. 

"C-C-C-C'MON GO GO GO!" Amadea exclaimed. "Run!" She bolted back into the passageway, heart pounding again. She ran until she felt as though her lungs were about to close and stopped, collapsing onto the ground, looking for Ami. 

"Screw you, dirtbag!" Ami yelled back at the student staring at her in utter bewilderment. Scampering back through the passageway, she cackled as she replaced the door right as the student attempted to enter the passageway- not that he would've been able to fit, anyway, considering the size of his massive body.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" Ami called to Amadea, stumbling against the wall as the student pounded his fists on the now-closed door. Scrambling to regain her balance, she shot down the passageway, offering up silent thanks to her dad for training her so well. Even months upon months of physical inactivity couldn't take away the natural athleticism she was gifted with, the talent that she never realized she had to call upon until now. "Keep running!"

Catching up to Amadea no problem, Ami rushed to her side as she seemed to collapse. "God, come on, Amadea... we've gotta keep going..." But, being hypocritical as always, Ami sat down next to her, only slightly out of breath. While their wands had nearly gone out from their lack of concentration on the spell, nothing could dim the wattage of the wide smile on Ami's face, or the mischievous shining in her eyes.

"That... was.. absolutely brilliant," she panted, her laugh maniacal and almost on the brink of hysteria. "Like one of those rollercoasters? The ones that terrify the heck outta ya?" Oof, that American accent getting stronger and stronger. It wasn't her fault, not really- her accent just naturally got heavier and heavier the more tired she was. "But it's honestly the best thing you've done in, what, forever?"

Really, this was one the best things about Hogwarts- at least, in Ami's opinion. The fear that got your blood rushing and her heart thumping, the adrenaline spike she got from the running, the chase... was she an adrenaline junkie? Maybe? Probably. That would probably explain a lot of things, actually.

Taking a deep breath so her heart rate would go back down, Ami slowly got to feet, helping Amadea up as well. "You're not hurt at all, right?" she asked, dusting the dirt off of her butt. Gosh, her clothes were going to need such a cleaning when they got out of this passageway. But, Amadea had seemed to just collapse on the floor, if she had accidentally scratched herself, or her chest had begun to ache... that was on Ami. It would've been entirely her fault, and no one else's.

Amadea had never run faster in her entire life than she did as she bolted out of the Potions classroom and through the passageway. The light at the end of her wand had gone out as she had been focusing on much more pressing things, like running from the fifth year who looked startled but terrifying nonetheless. It was a miracle that Amadea ran that fast and didn't trip on anything. She was known for being clumsy when she was walking in broad daylight and here she was running in pitch darkness and successfully not falling. 

As Amadea collapsed onto the ground, she heard Ami say something about how they should keep going. If Amadea had any air left in her lungs, she would have given Ami a very good talking to, but alas she did not and simply fell back against the wall. After she had caught her breath, Amadea leaned forward, turning toward her redheaded friend. 

"A roller coaster?" Amadea repeated. As she thought about it, she realized that it kind of was like a roller coaster. Typically, Amadea would find a roller coaster much more exciting and way less terrifying, but there was always that fear that you had on a roller coaster as well going up and down. Amadea found it interesting how Ami's brain worked and made analogies and connections like that. Amadea liked having a  friend with a different perspective than she did. It opened her eyes and helped her think with a different mindset. 

"That was definitely interesting," Amadea admitted, shaking her head. "I definitely haven't done anything like that ever before, though I'm not sure I'd jump at the chance to do it again." She was just thankful they hadn't been caught by the fifth year or Professor Valtome. That wouldn't have ended well. Thankfully, everything had (kind of) worked out to be okay. Hogwarts had some kind of magic that made everything like that. While things could be scary and terrifying, they always managed to have an upside. In this case, Amadea had managed to have an adventure without getting in trouble and bonded with Ami in the process. 

"No, I'm not hurt," Amadea reassured Ami. "Are you?" If Ami was hurt, Amadea would feel absolutely terrible and her feeling of relief would quickly decline. How would they explain it to the Nurse? She had a feeling that they really weren't supposed to be down here in the passageways. Hopefully Ami was okay.