Trapped in the Throne Room PV Astoria Middleton Finished

"How funny would it be if your parents attended one of my family's balls or gatherings? For all we know, they may still be in contact with one another without us knowing it!"

Astoria's parents arranged balls? Simon had never been to a ball before. He wondered what it would be like, and especially attending a ball held by magic folk. He imagined there would be a lot of enchantments involved in the decor and perhaps levitating glasses of champagne... What did you do as a kid at a ball?

"That's true. My dad is perhaps not the most social type though, in general. Bit of a hard-working loner. I believe he saves whatever energy or lust for company he has left to meetings at his work and to me, my mom and my sister. But when he's with us or when we have guests in our house, he is very social and gives it his all. They would gladly accept an invitation! I've never been on a ball before..."

Simon lifted his knitted jumper a little bit to get som air under it. It was getting hot as they got closer to the fireplace. Since the room was relatively small, as compared to other rooms at Hogwarts, the fireplace was doing a good job at warming it up.

"Spreading my wings as in, allowing me to have some space from my parents... Let's just say, when you have parents who are like mine in the Ministry, they have high...very high expectations. I feel they have expectations for me to meet..."

"Oh, now I get it. I can relate to that, actually... Well, at least they can't control what do you on your spare time at Hogwarts." Simon smiled. "Honestly, I'm glad I bumped into you, Astoria. It seems like we..."

Simon was interrupted when a loud metallic 'Bang!' echoed through the room. He jumped and turned his head towards the iron-grate door. It had closed. Simon leaped towards the door and tried to open it, but it seemed locked.

"Hey! Open up!", he yelled, to whomever had locked it. He turned his face towards Astoria: "That's weird. Why would they lock it? The Trophy Room is supposed to be unlocked even after curfew and it isn't curfew yet!"

Then his eyes wondered over Astoria's right shoulder, to something on the other side of the room. He frowned and pointed.

"Was that armor statue in here earlier?"

The armor statue was shining in the light of the dancing flames in the fireplace. Simon instantly got the feeling that it was looking right at them. Weirdly, it had a brown sack on its shoulder. Then from all of a sudden it moved. The armor statue put its hand in the sack, pulled something out and threw it towards them. Simon instantly crouched behind a glass cabinet and made sure Astoria did the same by placing a hand on her head and pushing her in front of him. A purple balloon passed over their heads and popped against the wall behind them, water splashing all over the plates, over the floor and over their backs.

"Oh, no!", said Simon but could not help but smile.

This was certainly not what he had expected, but perhaps precisely what he needed after a tough week of studying... Another water balloon splashed on the wall and they could hear the armor statue changing its position to try and flank them.

"Go! Go!" He pushed Astoria in front of him again, urging her to move to the next cabinet as the water balloons came flying towards them. One of them hit the cabinet and water splashed over their heads. Astoria's nice looking hair was instantly soaked.

Interacting with @Astoria Middleton

"What do we do?! How are we to get out of here?"

"I'm not sure! Let me think, or if you have any ideas...!", said Simon with a mixture of stress and amusement in his voice.

As they moved to the next cabinet, it was hit hard and fell over. Broken glass and trophies bounced all over the place. But that was not all. A suspicious but familiar smell entered his nose and he remembered that time he and his fellow Ravenclaws had been bombarded with dungbombs in the Ravenclaw tower on their way back to the common room. Apparently, the armor statue had more than water balloons in its sack!

"Watch out!", said Simon as they hurried to the next cabinet, trying to avoid the broken glass and slippery water on the floor. "It has gone for the heavy artillery now – dungbombs!"

He did not mind getting hit by water balloons, but dungbombs were more unpleasant. Besides, if he got hit his clothes were going to stink from the laundry basket when he returned to his dorm.

"Are you okay?", asked Simon as they crouched behind the next cabinet, tightly squeezed together. When he looked at Astoria he could not help but to laugh a little: "Oh my, you are soaked! But we should be glad it's only water. Where is it now?" Simon peeked through the glass. The armor statue was once again repositioning.

He silently reviewed every piece of information he had stored about the Trophy Room, as yet another water balloon was hurled at them, popped against the wall and wetted their clothes. He knew that there was something of importance in there, but he had forgot what it was. Think, think, think.

Interacting with @Astoria Middleton

"Dungbomb?! What in the world is a dungbomb?!"

"Let's just say it's what's causing this smell, and you wouldn't wanna get hit by them!", Simon exclaimed.

When hiding behind the cabinet, Simon finally remembered what he had forgotten. There was a secret passage in here somewhere! He had remembered it, not from the point of view of the Trophy Room, but in the context of getting quickly from the fourth floor down to the third floor. That shortcut led down to the Trophy Room, which meant that they should be able to get to the fourth floor from here.

"Follow my lead", said Astoria from all of a sudden.

Simon woke from his thoughts and got up on his feet, unsure what Astoria had planned. But what she did next, Simon did not expect. She leaped not away from the armor statue, but straight for it! With one of the trophies in her hand she slammed the statue behind the back of its knee, making it fall over. The sack with water balloons and dungbombs landed on the floor as well a couple of feet away. With a surprisingly aggressive kick against the statue's head, the helmet loosened and rolled on the floor. This was their chance.

"Simon! Now, do something! Let's get out of here!", Astoria commanded, her voice full of adrenaline.

Which is the biggest portrait in the room? Simon thought and quickly scanned the room. One of his strengths was quick and logical thinking when the moment required it, and when he spotted the biggest frame in the room, only a foot above the ground, he decided that must be the secret passage.

"The portrait! Come on!" He grabbed Astoria's wet hand and rushed towards it.

In the corner of his eye he saw how the statue got up on all four and when they reached the portrait he could hear the metallic sounds behind them. The portrait depicted a man with a pointy hat and big a mustache. Simon did not hesitate; he put his fingers on the side of the golden frame and pulled. With a 'Click!' it swung open, revealing a tight passage up a square shaped staircase.

"Go, get inside!", commanded Simon and put his hand on Astoria's back to urge her to go in first.

He closed the portrait behind them, the passage becoming almost completely dark, and hurried after her, unsure whether the headless armor statue was going to chase after them. They went up the staircase as quickly as they possible could, keeping their hands out to feel the walls and the turns. When Astoria suddenly turned right in a T-crossing, he ran straight into her around the corner, pressing her against a railing as she had stopped on what appeared to be some sort of french balcony with a windy viewpoint of the many towers and wings of Hogwarts.

"Ops, sorry! Dead end", he said. "Don't look down. Come on. Let's go the other way instead!"

Interacting with @Astoria Middleton

Simon turned around and realized that Astoria was not following him. She was still standing at the balcony, completely still. He went back to her.

"Hey, what are you doing? Come on", he said, pulling her shoulder a little.

But Astoria's had frozen at the railing. He looked down over her shoulder and saw the courtyard, far, far below them. The trees and the statues looked tiny from up here. Simon understood what had happened to Astoria, as he himself felt that familiar feeling in his stomach.

"Hey. Hey!", he said, trying to get her attention. "Listen to my voice. Just move backwards from the railing. It's okay. Just move backwards."

But Astoria was not moving. Simon listened towards the staircase to hear if the statue was following them, but everything was completely silent. He realized it had probably surrendered in the Trophy Room. Turning his head back to Astoria, he took her head in his hands and turned her face towards him.

"Hey, look at me", he said with a determined voice, looking from one eye to the other. "It's okay. We managed to escape! The fourth floor is this way." He nodded over his left shoulder and tried to give her a comforting smile. "Now, follow me."

He grabbed her hand again and pulled her along with him with enough force to break her trans. There was only one more stair before they reached the end of the passage and his fingers went from only feeling stone to suddenly feeling wood; the backside of a portrait. He gently pushed the wooden board and with another 'Click!' it opened. They were met by the warm and soothing light from the burning torches and candelabras in the corridor. Simon looked from right to left. The corridor appeared to be completely empty.

"We made it", he said with a wide smile. "There's nothing like a little late night adventure, right? You didn't get hit by any of the dungbombs, did you?", he asked, despite knowing that she did not (otherwise he could not have been near her without wrinkling his nose, but Astoria only gave off a smell of mild shampoo or such, probably because her hair was completely wet from the water balloon fight).

Interacting with @Astoria Middleton

"Where in the world did that armored statue come from? How did you know about that passage? Just...what happened...to me? Simon... Thank you. Just, thank you!"

Astoria seemed to still be in shock but he could tell that she was slowly coming back. Maybe this little adventure had been a bit intense for her, Simon thought. However, he was impressed how well she had handled it. He would never have thought that Astoria of all would have performed a counter-attack like that. That was actually very brave of her.

"No need to thank me! I didn't know you had trouble with heights. I'll make sure to remember that. I don't know about the statue though, maybe some one was controlling it just so tease us, or it was that ghost... But I remember that we talked about secret passages in the Ravenclaw common room so we would not be late to classes." Simon chuckled. "I know, a Gryffindor might have discussed secret passages for secret passages' sake, but, yeah, that's the Ravenclaws, I guess."

He ran his fingers through his wet her and dried his face with his sleeve.

"Anyway. We'd better head back to our dormitories before we catch a cold, or get caught. It must look like a complete mess down there. But as far as I can tell, we did not do anything wrong, but I think it's for the best if we don't mention this to anyone. It could be our little secret?" Simon looked over his shoulder. "I believe I can get to the West Wing from the end of this corridor. Closest way back for you should be to head back to the Grand Staircase, so... I guess this is where we depart for tonight."

He said 'for tonight' because he hoped this would not be the last time they hung out together. There was still so much he did not know about her, and he had really appreciated her company.

"If you'd like..." said Simon and swallowed. "I mean, if you're not busy or anything... We could, like, meet up this weekend perhaps? And continue from wherever we were when that statue interrupted us."

@Astoria Middleton