Silence Finished

Adam was surprised that the girl wasn't more upset about what had happened. He was never the type to assume things, but looking at her meticulously-organized planner and neat pile of books, he had just thought that Amadea was the type of person who would be....more strongly affected by this type of thing. Cecily's mention of his brother had drawn his attention for a moment, and he nodded in reply. Adam's mind was split so many different ways. One part of him was concerned about helping Amadea clean everything up, while another was internally chiding himself on suggesting such a ridiculous solution as Tergeo. No one knew how to cast that yet! Still another part of him was panicking, praying that they wouldn't get in trouble. Yelling at the Adams inside of his head to fall in line, Adam pulled himself together and focused his efforts on the ink.

"Amadea, you've got nothing to apologize for! It was me that distracted you in the first place. Are you sure you don't want any help? I know that magic was kind of a stupid idea, but we could still help you find those supplies and get the stain out. I know I don't have anything else exciting planned for the day." He'd feel horrible if the Hufflepuff thought she had to clean it all up by herself. Turning to his other companion, he asked, "Whattaya say, Cecily? Up for finding some rags?"

Cecily stood helplessly as the ink continued to seep in between the stones and into the red-haired Hufflepuff's robes. It was a first for the Ravenclaw-- she usually knew exactly what to do, and not having a plan was throwing her off. This seemed like a low-priority situation to freak out about, but the helplessness was nontheless getting to Cecily's head. She surveyed the situation. It was impossible to tell there was an ink stain on Amadea's clothes due to the fact that the ink and robes were the same color, but Cecily felt bad that the girl would have to walk around in damp robes-- well, at least until she could make it to her dormitory.

"Hey, Amadea, do you want to go change your robes in your dorm? Adam and I can start hunting down some rags, and you can catch up to us when you're not covered in ink," Cecily offered. She imagined that ink-stained robes probably would not be the most comfortable to go on a scavenger hunt in. Turning to Adam, she frowned, saying, "Where are we going to find mundane rags in a magic school? Think the house elves in the kitchen have any?"

"Thank you so much for your help," Amadea said graciously. She really did appreciate how much the Ravenclaws wanted to help her; she was almost surprised at how much they cared about this situation. It didn't seem like a big deal to her, though of course she was used to being clumsy. Despite her organization skills, she always managed to ruin it somehow.

She hadn't even considered her robes after being thankful they matched the color of the ink. As she thought about it now, she could feel the cold, damp ink sinking into her robes. That would be uncomfortable to wear for the rest of the day. Cecily suggested she run to her common room quickly to grab a change of clothes while they sorted out a place to find rags. Unfortunately, that meant Amadea had to hurry all the way to the first floor and back up.

"Maybe I should just stay here and help clean up first," Amadea suggested. "My common room is all the way down on the first floor. And yes, I believe the house elves have some rags," she added, answering the Ravenclaw's second question. "Maybe we could all go head down and grab some rags, then I can quickly stop at the common room to change and then we'll come back and clean this all up?"

Adam smiled, happy that the girls were both so willing to change their schedules to help clean up the mess. "That sounds like a plan!" He'd never been down to the kitchens or the Hufflepuff lodgings before, and he wasn't really sure how he and Cecily would be able to follow Amadea at all. She might have to take care of most of that herself, Adam thought with regret. As much as he wanted to help Amadea as much as he could, there were certain school rules that it probably wouldn't be smart to break.

Adam was about to head back through the door when he realized how suspicious it would look if they left a spilled and shattered bottle of ink on the floor. If anyone walked in, it wouldn't look good for the three first-years at all. Tearing a length of parchment from the bottom of the list he had been studying from, Adam took out a quill and smiled distractedly at the girls. "Just leaving a note for anyone that might walk in," he explained.

There was one problem with his plan, though. Adam hadn't planned to do much writing in the empty classroom, and didn't have ink of his own. Looking down at the puddles of ink still pooling on the floor of the classroom, Adam bit back a smile in spite of himself. Well, if it was the only option... Kneeling down, Adam dipped his quill into the spilled ink and scrawled a quick message on the parchment. Holding down the corners of the note with a few books, Adam looked back at his companions with a goofy smile and flashed a thumbs-up. "Alright, now I'm ready. Lead the way, Amadea!"

Adam waited to follow the Hufflepuff girl out the door, trusting that she knew the way better than he did. After all, it was her Common Room, wasn't it? This afternoon really had turned out so much more exciting than he could have predicted.

Cecily watched as Adam knelt down to write a note using the spilled ink. She almost made a comment about how it at least it was still useful, but realised that it would have worked just as well if it wasn't staining the floor.

"Just leaving a note for anyone that might walk in," he explained. He pinned it to the table with a few books, and said, "Alright, now I'm ready. Lead the way, Amadea!"

Cecily started out the door, but stopped to first bend down to brush the pile of shattered glass that used to be the inkpot under the desk. "It wouldn't do do have anyone stepping on that accidentally before we return to clean it up. We don't need to send anyone to the hospital wing."

Straightening up, the Ravenclaw led the way out of the empty classroom and into the corridors. Once she passed over the threshold, she moved aside and gestured for the Hufflepuff to take the lead. "You know where you're going, Amadea. To the kitchens! Well, by way off the Hufflepuff common room." Cecily gave a rare smile, and fell in behind the redhead to solve this whole mess with-- hopefully-- no consequences.

Leaving a note was a smart idea and something Amadea never would have thought to do. She wasn't the best at thinking on her feet in situations like these. At least the stain hadn't had time to permanently leave any damage. Yet. They'd better hurry to clean this all up. Hopefully they wouldn't get in trouble. After all, it was only an accident.

Amadea hoped that she was leading them all in the right direction. The school was quite big, after all, and she still hadn't found all of her bearing yet. That was no matter of course, she would be able to navigate down to the first floor. Probably. She glanced back at the Ravenclaws behind her. They seemed to be following her, so if she got them lost, they were all in a bind. She just continued walking, hoping that eventually they'd reach the ground floor.

At last, they did, coming into the entrance hall. She turned to the Ravenclaws. "How about you guys go to the kitchen and grab some rags from the house elves and I'll quickly change and then we can meet back here and go back to the classroom?" Before they could both confirm, she dashed away, knowing there wasn't much time to spare. She hoped they thought the plan was a good one. She reached the common room and ran into the dormitories ripping off her robes and replacing them with clean ones just as quickly as she had taken them off. Then she dashed back, feet slamming on the stone as she went back to their meeting place.

Adam followed the two girls down through the first five floors of the castle, trusting in Amadea's ability to navigate back to her common room. He'd never been down to the kitchens before, but he'd heard that Hufflepuff house was located right next door to them. That meant that the three of them wouldn't be separated too much when they split up, which was good. Although he'd only just met Amadea, and didn't know Cecily very well either, he thought that they might make a good team. Cecily thought practically, while Adam seemed to make decisions more easily, and Amadea knew her way around the school. Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs balanced each other out well, and the three of them were friendly enough, weren't they? These were two girls he'd have to stay in contact with.

They walked together until reaching the entrance hall, where Amadea turned to the other two first-years and proposed her plan. Adam began to reply with an agreement when the girl dashed off, making him laugh. "Wow, she really wanted to get going, huh?" he asked Cecily, a smile on his face. Hoping not to delay Amadea any further when she returned, Adam and Cecily found their way to the school's kitchens -- the rumors about the fruit painting had been confirmed from the old days of Hogwarts, but it was still difficult to reach -- and waited impatiently for someone to notice them. Finally, after receiving the rags they'd come for, the two Ravenclaws ran back upstairs to meet up with Amadea again.

"Hey! We got them!" called Adam upon seeing the Hufflepuff in the entrance hall. He raised his hand to show off their recent acquisition. "Ready to head back upstairs and hope no one found the ink?" Though he was glad to be fixing their mistake, it made Adam a little sad to know that his small adventure with the girls was coming to an end. He hoped they would still talk to each other again after all of this was sorted out.

Cecily blinked as Amadea rushed off to change her robes while Adam laughed and made a joking comment about it. "Yeah, it's almost like she's in sopping wet robes and wants to get out of them as soon as possible," Cecily said dryly and for no particular reason.

The two Ravenclaws followed the Hufflepuff down the five floors to the Hufflepuff common room, where Cecily and Adam split off from Amadea and made their way to the kitchen-- the rumoured fruit painting did, in fact, lead to the kitchens, but there was still the pesky little problem of getting to it first. They managed to get their hands on some old dishtowels and hurried back to the entrance hall with their fists full of rags. Cecily hoped they hadn't kept Amadea waiting.

They waved down the other girl, and Adam voiced their thoughts: they hoped that no one would find the spilled ink before they could clean it up. Grinning at this adventure, Cecily let Amadea lead the way back through the twisting corridors and shifting staircases to the empty classroom, aka the Scene of the Accident.

Surveying their situation and hoping it wasn't too late to remedy the situation, Cecily looked at the others. Adam and Amadea both seemed like good people, and Cecily wouldn't mind hanging around them more often. Plus, Adam was in her house, and she didn't know nearly as many Ravenclaws as she should for basically living with them. Smiling sadly to herself, for their adventure was coming to an end, Cecily handed Amadea a few rags, and said, "Let's get to it."

Amadea hurried back to the meeting spot, hoping that she hadn't left the Ravenclaws waiting long. She had a bit of a kerfuffle with her sopping wet robes once she had gotten into the dormitory, however she had finally gotten out of it and put on new, clean ones. 

As she rounded the corner and appeared in the entrance to the Great Hall, she saw the other two students standing there. Adam waved a cloth over his head, yelling out that they had successfully found the rags. That was good! 

Amadea beckoned them to follow her, turned around again, and headed back to the classroom. She desperately hoped that the ink hadn't dried yet; if it had, they would have an entirely new situation to deal with. She didn't want to get into any trouble! After all, it had been an accident. She pushed those thoughts from her head; negative thinking wouldn't do any good in helping the situation, so she shouldn't waste any time thinking them. 

She reached the entrance of the classroom and walked inside. Thankfully, there was no one in it. She hurried over to the puddle of spilled ink. She accepted the rag from Cecily and carefully bent down to begin sweeping up the mess. This time, she was careful not to get the ink on her robes as she had learned from the first time that sopping wet clothes don't make for a fun time. 

"Thank you again," she said to them as they cleaned up the ink. "I really appreciate your help." As they finished the job, Amadea realized that this was the end of their adventure of cleaning up the ink, and they would probably just go on with their lives. She wanted to say something to keep this moment from ending, but she knew that everything had to come to an end eventually. She hoped that she would see them around again, they seemed like genuinely nice people and good potential friends. She couldn't find the words to voice this out loud, so instead, she stood and looked around. 

"Well," she said uncertainly, wishing she could think of something else to say, "I guess this is it." 

Following a newly-cleaned-up Amadea to the classroom they'd all started out in, Adam laughed to himself, thinking about how off-track he'd winded up. His goal this morning was to get in some practice on the spells he already knew, and maybe see if he could learn something extra about magic that he could use for Dueling Club. It had been announced a few days earlier that official practices would begin soon, after all, and he had wanted to be ready. Instead, he'd ended up in Hogwarts' basement with a handful of rags and a Hufflepuff stranger. It was so much better than anything else he could've planned for the day.

Adam really liked Amadea, and Cecily too. They seemed down-to-earth, and it was always nice to meet new people, especially those his own age. Hanging out with them would be a nice break from the ever-present sense of competition that came with his Gryffindor friends. Anatole and Eris were great, of course, but a person could have more than two friends, right? Finally, the trio reached the door of the classroom again and Adam shook himself out of his thoughts. He watched as Cecily passed Amadea their rags and the other girl wiped up the spilled ink. When it had all been collected from the floor, the Hufflepuff stood up and thanked them both for helping her out.

"You're welcome!" replied Adam with a smile. "It got me out of studying, so I'm just as grateful as you are. I guess this really is it, huh?" He'd had more fun that he'd expected to have today, and Adam was glad that he'd been able to talk more with Cecily -- and meet Amadea in the first place. "I'm sure we'll see each other around, though, right? Especially if we actually, you know, try to." Crossing the room to gather his stuff from the table he'd been sitting, Adam turned and and opened his mouth to continue when he was cut off by the tolling of the great bells outside of the school. I'm late! he realized with a start, and when the ringing had faded, he quickly issued an apology.

"Well, I've got to go before I'm late again. Nice meeting you, Amadea! And nice seeing you again, Cecily." Striding to the door, he stopped at the door frame as he remembered something he'd heard the other day. "Hey, that BlossomFest thing is starting soon, right? We should meet up there! I bet you we could destroy that maze. Maybe we can hang out at the ball, too!" Trying to calculate the distance to the Potions classroom from the fifth floor, Adam realized that he probably should've left a few minutes before and took another step so that he was out in the corridor. "Let me know!" he called, before taking off down the hallway. He'd see the girls again soon enough -- he was sure of it.

{Adam has left the thread}