Rainy Day Explorations. PV Ben E Closed

 "Perhaps that could be it," Felicity considered, leaning her head side to side as though the idea was the tennis ball in a game of tennis in her mind. It could be true that she meant the meeting the two would have when they were prefect-ing around Hogwarts. She didn't believe it, but she let the topic be at ease for now. She didn't need to be in all of Bloom's business. She wasn't nosy, and she didn't want to get involved. She had her own drama and everything that she had to personally deal with, so she was more than able to stay out of Bloom's.

 She grinned at Ben, wiggling her eyebrows at him a little bit, "Trust me, if I break the rules, I'll make sure you won't catch me. Bloom, on the other hand..?" She joked back, then nodded along to his directions, snickering a little bit as he mentioned a ghost, and running away. "It's okay, Benny, I'll be there to protect you this time." She teased, pulling out her wand for extra emphasis. She was pretty sure that spells couldn't even hit a ghost if she tried. She was quite excited to see her first ghost, actually. After all, she never did find one in the Abandoned Toilets with Stassie, a fellow Ravenclaw student.

 She walked up the stairs, one at a time, holding on to the railing so tightly that if she didn't continually move her hand up as she walked, her knuckles would be white. She was deathly afraid of heights, and magical, moving stairways didn't help her case. Flying lessons would be more than difficult for her, she was sure. She'll never go higher than three feet out of fear - hopefully. She hoped that she wouldn't be surprised and unable to control the broom, and have it go flying everywhere, so on and so forth until her untimely death.

 So, yes, you could say that heights were not her strength in life. But that didn't matter once she reached the top of the staircase, and ran off of it quickly, hoping that it wouldn't move while she did so, causing her to stumble or, like, break her leg. Only bad things could happen when you're high up was Felicity's conclusion. Nothing good, whatsoever, would be able to come out of it. She was sure of it. She sighed a little bit, then turned around, to look for Ben, making sure that he was coming along.

Ben was more than glad the topic of Bloom had passed. It would have to be addressed later with the girl herself, but for now he was happy to just do some exploring. The Ballroom was a really cool place to look at architecture and some old stuff. He was a bit of a nerd, obviously, so that interested him a ton. Maybe there would even be people there for them to watch.

What do you do in a ballroom? Is it a place to dance? Have parties? I should ask but I might sound dumb.

"Please, protect me oh mighty Felicity," he said sarcastically with a bit of a laugh at the end. "After you."

He followed Felicity up the stairs who seemed really awkward about using them. At first she was super slow the whole way up as if she was injured, but then she suddenly got very quick. Ben watched in utter confusion as he came up behind, trying to be kind and not pass her. Once she jumped up to the floor and seemed to shuffle away from the stairwell quickly, he realized. This made the Scottish lad laugh at his friend as he came up behind with no issue.

"They should install an elevator for you," he joked as he approached. "Stairs don't seem to work with your feet."

More snickers escaped as he pointed to a pair of large, decorated doors down the hall. He motioned for Felicity to follow as he took the lead this time. Felicity was a fun friend to have around but he yet again wished Bloom was coming with them as well. The Ballroom was pretty and he wanted to see Bloom there, because she would enjoy it of course not because he thought she was pretty too.

Bloom is pretty isn't she? Wait, no, this is what they want isn't it! Out of my head!

 The girl scrunched up her nose at the boy, almost as though it were in disgust, but it was more from annoyance. He was making fun of her fears, and it made her huff heavily, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked over at the prefect, unimpressed. "I'll get over my fear one day," She harrumphed as she continued to walk forwards now, hopefully in the direction of the Ballroom that Ben was talking about. She wasn't sure where it was, at all, so a guess was the best thing that the blonde could do. She glanced at either side of the hallway, wondering to herself - was she going the wrong way?

 She looked back at Ben with small frown, disappointed she would have to admit her complete lack of navigation around most parts of Hogwarts. She would need a compass to get around the castle flawlessly at this rate. "I have no clue where I'm going, why don't you lead?" She asked, gripping her hands together behind her back tightly, as though it were padlocked. She wasn't the best with admitting that she wasn't the best with something, especially considering she thought that it would upset her father if she were not the absolute alpha of every topic. When, in reality, her father was just proud of her for doing her best.

 The hallways on the fourth floor seemed much more polished than the second floor. The ceilings seemed to be a little higher - that or she's just too short to notice - and there were fewer paintings on the walls, strategically spread out to make it as visually pleasing as possible. She enjoyed this floor's hallways much more than the cluttered ones of the second floor. These ones would cause her less headaches from the constant whispering, as well. At least, she hoped so. This would most likely be the place where Felicity would spend her rainy days from now on - there were less windows now, too.

By the time Felicity asked Ben to lead, he had already decided to do so. He knew she was unfamiliar with their destination so it only made sense. Nonetheless he could not help but snicker some more as she 'decided' to let him lead. Her little fake, maybe real, anger also amused him so he was laughing a good thirty seconds before finally responding verbally.

"It's a good thing your head is attached to your body, don't want to lose that too." Ben made the unfortunate joke at the wrong time, he would soon learn.

The doors to the ballroom appeared before them quickly as they had not been too far away from it. He turned to Felicity with a soft smile, proud of himself for remembering where this thing was located. His memory turned to the first time he opened the door late at night and saw nothing but ghosts. That was terrifying.

Ghosts don't come out during the day anyways, right? They move.. this could be fine. Yeah totally fine.

"The door itself is even fancy. Wouldn't think they put this in a sch-" mid sentence Ben nearly screamed as he stumbled backwards suddenly. "Fu....dging... frogs of... hell..."

A ghostly body poked out of the door but it was missing its head in some kind of cruel irony. The body disappeared but the scare was accomplished. Next, the head poked through and laughed at him, seeming detached from any body. Ben was trying to be tough but it was failing pretty miserably after the first jump scare.

"Lose your head huh? Attached huh? HA!" As the ghost finished speaking, his head popped back away moment before the entire ghost walked through the door. "Two students going for a romantic walk to the great ballroom? Wonderful!"

 Before the blonde was able to respond to her friend's tease, a body popped through the doors that they were facing! She squeaked, jumping back as her arms retracted back into her chest. Oh, god, she hadn't really suspected that there would be a ghost in the Ballroom! She was speechless, as she watched the figure went back through the door, only to put the head through. Oh dear, this was certainly traumatic. She would never be alright with ghosts again. She couldn't even go into haunted houses with her parents on Halloween! She took being haunted all too seriously. It was sort of annoying - and by sort of, I mean very.

 "A-A ghost!" She finally stuttered out once all parts of it were through the door. She was more than startled, but she hadn't stuttered once since she first arrived at Hogwarts. Her friends from the train helped well enough with that. She felt a blush come to her cheeks as she cleared her throat, and she took a step forwards. She was pretty sure that her father had told her about the ghosts in Hogwarts, but she couldn't match their names, descriptions, and real appearances together. Then again, wasn't Nick the only headless one? Or nearly headless? Could this possibly be him?

 "Erm, hello, we-we're not romantic. No way." She responded, only just now catching the romantic walk part of what the ghost had said. She could feel her cheeks further heat up, and a huff escaped her lips. "We did just want to see the Ballroom, though, would you not mind?" She asked, kind of like it were for permission, when in reality she could just walk right through the ghost if she needed to. The thought alone sent shivers trailing down her spine. She didn't want to have to do something she didn't need to.

It was hard not to laugh now, despite being a bit spooked. The ghosts were not supposed to be scary beings but nonetheless Ben was not a fan. In Muggle culture that was something to be feared and he would not get over that so quickly. As it spoke to them he realized that the ghost was something he had read about before. Hogwarts had these friendly ghosts that talked to students.

So weird, so gross, just... no.

"You must be... headless Nick?" he said slowly, trying to force a smile at the apparition before him. "Not a romantic walk, just showing a friend around. Can we... go in?"

"HEADLESS NICK?" The ghost laughed hysterically at the name and threw his head back, quite literally, as he did so. "Nearly-headless, as you can see. And sure. Just walk through me to get in. Nothing wrong with going in."

Ben stared at the ghost, especially the neck where his head was hanging by a thread. It was disgusting to say the least. The muggle-born struggled to keep his cool but he also noticed Felicity seemed unhappy. He could keep his man card as his dad would call it, while still chickening out. It was the perfect avoidance.

"Actually, you know, class starts soon and we promised we'd get there early," he glanced at Felicity and hoped she got the hint. "You know us, Ravenclaws, right?"

He swore the ghost rolled his eyes on his still detached head from laughter before waving them off. Obviously he was disappointed he couldn't prank the new students more. Unless Felicity didn't take the hint and pressed ahead. Then he would have to give his man card up. Did ghosts take those? Did Wizards have man cards? Was Ben weird? Probably.

Just when I think I'm getting used to this place...

 The girl couldn't have helped but to jump whenever the ghost began to speak. It just felt so surreal.. that since it was real, she was a little caught off-guard by it. She noted to herself that she was right about the ghost's name being something like Nick, so that was a plus. At least she was able to get something right. She glanced at Ben as he (Nearly Headless Nick) mentioned that the pair would have to pass through his entity, and Ben was quick to follow up on that  bit before Felicity was able to get her own response in, but that didn't stop her from nervously laughing as Ben spouted lies.

 "He's lying," She blurted, not being able to help herself. She was so far from the best liar, that she could hardly ever even back people up on their lying. When she did succeed in doing so, it was quite a surprise, for one of two reasons: she hadn't laughed or got set off into a ramble (rarely), or the person was just too spaced out to notice her reaction (more likely, just as rare). She looked at Ben, kind of like she was saying 'sorry' through her facial expression, though she wouldn't say so out loud. 

  "If you would just let us through..." She trailed off, and attempted to just walk around the ghost. Of course, if Nearly Headless Nick had wanted, he could have forced her to walk through him, but she hoped for the opposite. She glanced at Ben, and rose an eyebrow. Maybe she would be able to just go into the ballroom? She hoped if she were, he would be brave enough to follow her. She doubted the ghost would truly leave them alone after they passed to the Ballroom, but hopefully they would be able to make the best of it.

Ben cringed hard when Felicity called out the lie. She was not much of a partner in crime. That at least meant she was trustworthy. This also meant Ben had to man up and enter the Ballroom anyways now that she wanted to enter. It wasn't that he was a coward, but he wasn't one to willingly face his fears or try to be brave for no reason. Often he found himself over-thinking very simple processes.

Come on ghost, step away so I don't have to walk through... please...

"Well if you ask so nicely," nearly headless Nick said as he popped his head back into place. "After you, my lady!"

The ghost took a few 'steps' to one side and made a dramatic bow for them to enter. Of course, a dramatic bow meant his head slid off slightly. That sent another shiver down Ben's spine, but he tried to hide it. If Felicity was looking she would still see it though. Felicity took a few steps inside, opening the door outwardly. Ben was actually a little impressed she would charge ahead despite the excuse Ben offered to get out. She would be a good friend to have around and if she was so adventurous because that's what Ben needed.

If she is bad at lying, does that mean the date thing is real? No not this again.. Do I like Bloom? Bah I don't want to think about it!

Ben tried to follow Felicity in once the door was open, but the Ghost thought he was funny. As soon as Ben stepped forward towards the Ballroom, the ghost 'accidentally' moved in front of him and the Ravenclaw prefect passed through the cold, ghostly body. Ben froze instantly and his eyes went wide. Nearly headless Nick could be heard laughing as he passed through the wall back into the ballroom, leaving a petrified Ben behind.

"I... I hate ghosts..." he muttered after getting a hold of himself. "What do you think of this place?"

The Ballroom opened up in front of them, and despite there being ghosts, it was beautiful. Ornate designs and decorations made it a place that separated itself from the rest of Hogwarts. This was a place for things like the famous Yule Ball and more. Ben was fascinated by it and knew a lot of work must have gone into it over the years. No wonder ghosts liked to hang out here.