Finished Late for curfew

[quote][quote]

There was a lot nice about being a prefect. One of those nice things was the freedom it offered her to be out and about in some measure of solitude that was someplace else other than her private dorm room. She loved the privacy of her room, but it could sometimes feel claustrophobic. Her thoughts and her world were so much more expansive and richly flavored when on patrol, and with practically no one around, her introverted self could happily recharge more quickly.

She had just completed her rounds on the third floor and had stepped off the moving staircase to find herself now on the second floor. The moving portraits on each floor always fascinated her. Some were welcoming; others, not so much. There was one in particular of a frazzled mother who was rocking her baby to sleep each night. AngelFyre had learned to be especially quiet, not that she was ever particularly loud, when in this portrait's vicinity as she had received quite a dressing down her first night alone on patrol from the young mother. AngelFyre had been blamed for waking the baby, and that distressed her enormously, but if asked what had happened, AngelFyre's side of the story would have been that her quiet presence scared the exhausted new mother and she let out a startled yelp and that is what woke her baby.

Blame was not the point here, however. AngelFyre stoically took the scolding and then apologized for the bother. She did make certain to let the mother know she would be passing by each evening so as not to startle her in the future. That made the mother stop her rocking momentarily as she looked AngelFyre over carefully. The corridor was always dim, being lit with nothing but candle sconces on the wall and the occasional candelabra at intersections. The portrait was even darker, but the mother's rocking chair was sitting by a window with the moonlight streaming in, highlighting both her and her baby's face. After AngelFyre's apology, she could have sworn that the mother gave a slight nod and a small, nearly imperceptible smile. Each night thereafter, the mother was no longer startled and they had even become friendly enough that they would have short conversations. Sometimes AngelFyre would hang around so she could listen to the lullaby the mother, whose name she had learned was Bruna, sang to her son, whose name was Arne.

On this evening, AngelFyre made her way over to say, god kveld,^[1] but found Bruna standing by the edge of the portrait, trying to look down the corridor. Arne was fast asleep, his chubby cheeks resting on his mother's shoulder, but AngelFyre could tell Bruna was agitated. She seemed quite relieved to see AngelFyre and immediately started pointing down the corridor opposite the direction from which she had come.

"Et barn gråt!"^[2] Her eyes suddenly flashed to AngelFyre's and Bruna's frustration was illuminated in her dark eyes when she struggled to make herself understood. "Umm - ... barn... is ch -... chi... is child!" she said with what looked like some relief, but kept going. Try as she might to think of the English word for gråte, she could not and resorted to a mini game of Charades. She put one hand up to her eyes and started wiping them and making soft sobbing sounds, to which AngelFyre responded, quietly, so as not to awaken Arne, "Crying? Sobbing? Weeping?"

"Weeping, ja," and she nodded her head yes, repeating "Yes,"vigorously a few times. "Du går, nå! Hastverk!"^[3] AngelFyre was not 100% certain what Bruna said that time, but given the context, her worried demeanor, and the insistent pointing she was doing, it was clear she wanted her to hurry to check the situation out.

"Yes, I will. I will. I will go now. Thank you, Bruna," and AngelFyre hurried off to see just what the matter was. Because she did not know exactly who was crying, or why they were crying... and because this was Hogwarts after all... she remained ever watchful to her surroundings. It took less than a minute to come upon a girl with dark hair, sitting by the door to the Abandoned Toilets. Her knees were pulled to her chest and her was head down with her eyes closed. She did not lift her head or open her eyes at AngelFyre's approach and her heart sank in momentary fear that the girl may be hurt. She could see her shoulders rhythmically moving up and down and she was relieved when it dawned on her that the girl was just asleep.

Having learned her lesson with Bruna, AngelFyre did not want to scare the girl, so she cleared her throat a bit and addressed her in a soothing voice. "Hey, there. Are you okay? Do you need some help? My name is AngelFyre and I can help you if you need it."



^[1] god kveld = good evening in Norwegian
^[2] Et barn gråt! = A child was crying
^[3] Du går, nå! Hastverk! = You go now! Hurry!

@Emiline Hunter

Bold- speech
Italic-though

She woke to a girl's voice, "Hmmm, what..." the girl said sleepily. There was a moment of pause and then the girl's eyes widened, she quickly wiped her eyes and tucked hair behind her ears."Please tell me you know the way to the Hufflepuff Common Room." she asked with a desperate tone. While she was saying this she quickly stood up revealing her crinkled school robes. I've been waiting for hours for someone to find me." Tears started welling in her eyes,"Sorry, its just so cold and I was so frightened."Her voice cracked."Em....Emiline is my name." She looked up at AngelFyre and wiped her eyes. "Also a painting kept yelling at me and I couldn't understand it." she pointed towards the way the girl had just come. Finally, I'm not alone with the shadows, who knew staring at the darkness made it seem more menacing? she thought. While thinking to herself she noticed the girl had Hufflepuff robes. ok, calm down, she is a Hufflepuff. Emiline tried to smooth out her robes but the attempt was useless the girl would need to sort out her robes some other time. "I'm really sorry that I am out after curfew, I got lost and the corridors look so different in the dark and I got distracted in the library. Please don't give me a detention." the girl pleaded worriedly.

@AngelFyre McCubbin

[quote][quote]

Her worry that she would scare the girl soon dissolved as the brunette quickly rallied past that mental fogginess one feels when first awakened and went right to a desperate plea for help. The girl had a lot to tell and she did so in a very short amount of time. AngelFyre listened to all of it and felt badly that a teary-eyed Emiline, as she had introduced herself, had been scared and alone.

"I imagine you were rather frightened, but you are safe and no longer alone now," she said in as soothing a manner as possible. While she was speaking, AngelFyre reached into her enchanted satchel and pulled out a zipper front, navy blue fleece jacket and offered it to the girl as she had said she was cold. "Here you go. You can put this on to warm yourself if you would like. Hogwarts is a lot of things, but warm... especially in the fall and winter... is not one of them," and she smiled reassuringly at her.

"It is a great pleasure to meet you, Emiline. I am not certain if you caught my name when I first introduced myself as you looked to be asleep, but I am AngelFyre McCubbin. Most people just call me AF," and she smile shrugged. AngelFyre found herself closing her satchel, but Emiline's name kept tickling her memory center. She knew she had never met the girl, though she had seen her in their Common Room most recently. "I am a Hufflepuff too," she said with a good deal of pride, "so I will be very happy to help you get back to our Common Room, and bonus! I see no detention in your immediate future." AngelFyre chuckled at her own personal joke there as she was a Seer, but Emiline would not know that. In fact, practically no one at Hogwarts knew that bit of intel.

"I am not in the habit of giving detention to students for getting lost. It happens when you are new, and those moving staircases are a first-year's worst nightmare." Then she leaned over and whispered as if she were about to share a secret of some great import. "Truth is, they can still be a third-year's worst nightmare at times" and she winked. "Come on. I will show you a trick I use that helps me know what floor I am on. Before long you will develop your own mental map of this place and whether you believe me or not in this moment, you, too, will be navigating Hogwarts like a pro."

As she started walking back the way she had come, AngelFyre realized her mouth was a bit dry so she once again opened her satchel, but this time it was to retrieve a lemon drop to suck on while they walked and talked. She made sure to always carry extras in case Simon ever happened to be running low as the boy did love his lemon drops. She opened the baggie and offered one to Emiline and then grabbed one for herself when it clicked in her head where she had heard Emiline's name. "Aha! I thought your name sounded familiar," and she stopped briefly to look at Emiline as a wide smile lit up her face. "I think you know my boyfriend, Simon Kincaid. He told me about meeting you at Diagon Alley, while waiting for me, I think. Something about helping you find a lost sister if my memory serves. Whew! I am glad I remembered that. It was going to drive me nuts otherwise," and she grinned before she turned and started walking again.

"Not certain if it came up that day or not, but Simon is a Hufflepuff Prefect, too. If you ever need a friend or an ear, feel free to seek me out, but you simply cannot do any better than him. And yes, I am biased when it comes to him, but that does not mean that what I have said is not true," and she laughed good naturedly.

They took just a few more steps and AngelFyre stopped. "You mentioned you were yelled at by a portrait speaking another language. If I had to guess, I think you probably met Bruna. She is Norwegian and she is actually quite lovely. In fact, she was quite worried about you and made sure I went off to look for you. If she yells, it is because she is tired at the end of a long day and anything that keeps her baby son, Arne, awake, just makes her day longer and her demeanor crankier. Her portrait is farther down our path, but I do not want our conversation to disturb her, so I can just as easily show you here."

AngelFyre then turned to face the wall and nodded her head at Emiline to do the same. "Okay, so the walls are the trick I used when I first got to Hogwarts to know where I was. Maybe it will help you, too. Now, tell me what you see."



@Emiline Hunter @Simon Kincaid

Emiline noticed that the girl was very good listener, she didn't interrupt and waited till Emiline had finished her mental dump. Then the girl spoke to her in a soothing voice and handed her a navy blue fleece explaining that Hogwarts got cold in fall and winter."Thank you." She said quietly, she was getting a bit sheepish now that she realised that she didn't know the girl's name. She hoped that the girl would reintroduce herself.


The girl smiled and Emiline smiled back to show her that she was comfortable around her. And then the girl reintroduced herself as AngelFyre. Emiline's smile became a grin Yay, she told me her name, I can finally stop just using 'you' she thought happily. AngelFyre fiddled with her satchel, Emiline noticed that behind her eyes she was trying to remember something. (The only reason she noticed this is this is because this is a face that she pulls all the time. Emilie forgets stuff often.) The girl spoke again, saying that she could help find the common room because she is a Hufflepuff. And to make things even better, she said that Emiline would not get a detention. Hope flared up inside her yet again.

AngelFyre came closer to do something, then she whispered in her ear. Those stairs could be a nightmare for third-years as well. Emilie was a little surprised. "Really!!" she spoke with a surprised tone. Then AngelFyre gestured for Emiline to follow her.

They walked a small way, and Emiline got offered a lemon drop. She was halfway to her mouth when AngelFyre suddenly spoke mentioning Simon Kincaid. Yet again Emiline was surprised, "Yes he did mention something about waiting for someone. Wow, what a small world."

AngelFyre spoke again saying that Simon is also a prefect. She offered that Emiline could come and find her if she ever needed help however she thought Simon was better and AngelFyre laughed. So Emiline did too.

Now they had walked a bit further down the corridor, Emilie noticed that they were getting close to where the yelling portrait sounded from. Emiline glanced to the left warily. Then AngelFyre stopped and explained that the portrait is nice really and she just gets crabby because people wake up her baby. "She made you come look for me... Well I guess I owe her my gratitude and an apology." said Emiline.

Now AngelFyre gestured for Emiline to turn and face the wall, she did so uncertainly. AngelFyre said to tell her what she could see. " There is a suit of armour which looks quite worn and dirty but I seem to remember that the one on the first floor was more shiny and looked cleaner. And now I now that Bruna is on this floor not on the floor of our common room. Thank you AngelFyre, this will definitely help later on."She smiled gratefully.


"So tell me a bit more about Simon. How did you guys first meet?" She questioned

@AngelFyre McCubbin @Simon Kincaid

"That is it exactly! You got it. Anything that catches your eyes in the vicinity of the stairs on each floor will help be a roadmap for you, at least as far as what floor you are on. As a first-year, I did the same thing when mentally mapping the routes to my classes. It may sound cumbersome now, but it will help. And like I said, you will know this place like the back of your hand soon enough, even it that is hard to believe given what you just experienced," and AngelFyre smiled reassuringly yet again.

As they began to draw closer to the staircase, AngelFyre put her index finger in front of her lips, indicating they should be extra quiet. "It is really sweet of you to want to offer your gratitude to Bruna, but maybe that can be another time, yeah?" she whispered and then pointed to the portrait. Bruna was sitting back down in her rocker and no longer rocking, as both baby and exhausted mother were now sound asleep.

Once they reached the top of the landing to the staircase, AngelFyre felt it was safe enough again speak in a normal tone of voice without worry. As they stepped foot on the staircase, it crossed her mind that the staircase may take the opportunity to start up its random shenanigans, but to her relief, it remained stationary. As she started her way down to the first floor, she smiled deeply as Emiline asked her about Simon.

"Oh, you better be careful what you ask for, and of whom you ask it!" and she chuckled happily. "Simon is my very favorite thing to talk about, so I could easily go on and on about that boy, but I will spare you the litany of my singing his praises. I can assure you, girlfriend or no, he is a wonderful person," and she nodded her head to punctuate her point.

"But not to leave you completely in the dark, I will say that we met here at Hogwarts, in our Common Room as a matter of fact. It was right after everyone had returned from winter break. I had come in from the Courtyard after having made a snow angel, and when I entered the Common Room, he was sitting in front of the fireplace playing his guitar and composing a beautiful piece of music. It captured my attention immediately, so I made my way over and stood in front of the fire to warm myself, but also to listen some more to the music. He sparked up a conversation between the two of us, and well... it was definitely not love at first sight for either of us... but it was certainly something! Simon likes to describe it as an undeniable magnetism." AngelFyre finally took a breath and could just feel herself getting all kinds of giddy thinking of that night and her boy.

"Annnnnyway, we spoke a while and laughed and made plans to meet the following evening in the Rehearsal Room. It was there that everything changed for the both of us. We have, for the most part, been nearly inseparable ever since, which early on, not going to lie, was not without its problems."

Surprisingly, AngelFyre noted with a great deal of curiosity that she could finally think about that very early time with more happiness than anything else and hoped that that might finally begin to be true for Simon as well. Happiness might have been the end result of their beginning, but she was pretty certain it had not been the go to emotion out of the gate when he used to think about that time given all the hurt and drama that sprang from it. Funny how time had a way of softening and blurring some hurts. Her heart then stabbed her consciousness, reminding her of her more present ache and she could not help but wonder if time could.. or would... work the same miracle on her current grief.

As one foot left the staircase and landed on the ancient flagstones of the first floor, she once again looked towards Emiline and snapped out of her momentary reverie. "Told you I could go on and on about Simon, but since we are now on the first floor and not far from the Hufflepuff Common Room, I shall have to leave the story at that. But, I am happy to report that we are definitely still a work in progress, that boy and I."

Prefect and first-year now approached the barrels. Quickly stepping in front of Emiline, AngelFyre asked her, "I am betting it is safe to assume you can get yourself where you need to be now, correct? I still have to finish my rounds before I can turn in, so I will leave you here, if you do not mind," and she deftly tapped the barrel and did the sing-songy 'Hel-ga Huff-le-puff' in a low voice, just loud enough to get the barrels to swing open and damage no one's hearing.

Stepping back, AngelFyre smiled broadly at Emiline. "I am sorry that you were scared and feeling alone earlier tonight, but I am really pleased to have met you Emiline. Next time we see each other and both have some free time, it will be my turn to ask you some questions and find out all about you. Until then, if you ever need anything, do not hesitate to reach out to me. It is always nice to have another Hufflepuff as a friend. Now scoot! Go get some sleep in a real bed," and AngelFyre waved her good night before turning back around and heading off to finish her patrols.

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AngelFyre has left the thread.

@Emiline Hunter

Emiline marvled the fact that Hogwarts looked so different during the night. The usually bustling hallways now empty and spooky. Emiline was glad she now had AngelFyre, she seemed to keep the darkness at bay just with her presence. As they got closer to the portrait AngelFyre mimed to be quiet. Emiline was a bit confused but as they approached the portrait it came clear. The exhausted mother and child were asleep. Unfortunately, it wasn't the gentle sleep, it was the 'my body can't do this and is about to collapse' kind of sleep.

AF paused when stepping onto the stairs. Emiline had noticed that sometimes they moved, and it was really quite infuriating for a first year on their first day and the stairs took you to the wrong place.

Emiline listened patiently all about Simon. She felt like she was obliged to beacuse he was so kind to her when she was getting school supplies last August.

They had reached the first floor finally. Emiline thought to herself, she would not have been able to find this without the help of this helpful hufflepuff. The older year sung a beautiful melody and the entrance of their common room opened. AF said her goodbyes and sent Emiline off to bed. Just before the two badgers parted, Emiline thanked her and waved goodbye.

Emiline scrambled through the entrance and smiled to herself. She's nice. She thought. She slowly went though the common room and somehow her weary body managed to get her into her bed before she was out cold from the busy day.

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