Sincerely, Me PV Pt. 3 Finished

When would she ever learn? Pushing people was never the answer, and these were the consequences they had to endure because of her foolhardy actions. Amadea falling and dropping her book seemed to be the last straw, and she got the heck out of the library without even looking back. 

Flashing her best apologetic smile at the librarian, Ami grabbed Cecily's wrist and dragged her out of the library, placing her own two books on a table on the way out. Stopping outside of the doors, the group stood clustered together, all three of them rather rattled. 

Shoot. This wasn't going as planned. If the librarian wouldn't believe them, who would? Everyone would think that they were crazy, let alone actually believe their tale. "It's not your fault," Ami said, reassuring Amadea. "The librarian's just mean and cranky."

Or, the girls were all going insane. "Do you think anyone would actually believe us?" she asked anxiously, wringing her hands in a grandmotherly fashion. "I mean, surely the Headmaster has something better to do with his time than entertain our possible hallucinations..." Even the librarian had written them off as crazy- what made Headmaster Winslow any different? Who else would accept their crazy story?

Amadea was still shaking. She hated being yelled at and she hated being in trouble. She wished she could go back and pretend that none of it happened. Of course, she was blowing things out of proportion but it was hard to put things into perspective. The three girls hustled out of the library. 

Of course, the librarian hadn't believed them. But then again, if a librarian wouldn't believe them, who would? Amadea was losing hope very quickly. They were never going to solve this mystery unless they wanted to scour through the books that were...still in the library that they weren't allowed back into. 

"Sorry," Amadea said for the millionth time, as if it would change the fact that they were stuck outside of the library doors with no answers and no leads. They didn't even have anyone to go to. For all Amadea knew, they could just all be hallucinating the same thing. Maybe there was some odd gas in the air that was near them and caused them all to believe there was a weird fish-like creature in the Great Lake. Or maybe it actually did exist and they were the first ones to have ever seen it. Whatever the case was, it didn't look like the girls were going to be able to find out what it was. 

"I hate being yelled at," Amadea admitted, now that she had finally stopped shaking. "And to answer your question, I don't think anyone would believe us. The librarian was our best bet, considering she's probably one of the most well-read people at Hogwarts. If anyone were to know anything about it, it would be her, right?" Amadea hung her head in misery. She wanted to ask the Headmaster about it, but she didn't think it would be worth his time. Why would he listen to three first-years about some odd fish in the Great Lake? Of course, there were fish in the Great Lake! It was a lake for crying out loud! The more Amadea thought about it, the more she began to figure that they should just leave the topic alone. They could just forget they saw anything in the first place. It wasn't like it would change much if they forgot about it, but if they started telling people, they might get labeled as crazy. Amadea definitely didn't want that to happen. 

Cecily stumbled out of the library, dragged along by Ami, all thoughts of their mission replaced by sheer terror. She was not a fan of adults-- and certainly not ones that were yelling at her. Now, books left behind, banned from their only source of research, they were stranded. Cecily was beginning to wonder if this was really worth the trouble. From the look on Amadea's face when they first encountered the creature, the Hufflepuff would be forever scarred and would most likely stay far away from the lake for the next seven years. Plus, she would probably never speak to the librarian again either. Maybe they should just give up their search altogether.

She would never say it to Ami, fearing for her life, but maybe they were hallucinating. But then, how could they have all hallucinated the exact same thing at the same time? Some sort of gas in the air? It was all too improbable to be a figment of their imagination. This cemented in her mind, Cecily changed mindsets completely for a second time. They were getting to the bottom of this if they had to head directly to the top of the administration tower, Headmaster Winslow himself, to do it.

"Somehow, I doubt that anyone would bother to listen to three first-years running around with a wild story about a mysterious semi-solid ghost-fish-creature they saw one time in the Great Lake. So...what now? We have no research, no leads, and probably no one who's going to believe us. What can we possibly do?"

She could already feel her spirits deflating. What she had hoped would be a happy, cheerful outing with two new friends had turned into a flat-out disaster, complete with something from another world and a mad librarian. Definitely not her idea of an ideal day out with potential friends, but, they'd make the best of the situation they were handed. They had to.

Casting a sympathetic glance at Amadea, she tried for an encouraging smile, although it was more than likely that it came off as more of a leer. "It's not your fault," she said, referring to the catastrophe with the librarian. "She just probably hates students." And she really, truly believed that it wasn't Amadea's fault. After all, who could hate such a sweet, lovely child but an absolute, utter monster?

"So, no one's going to believe us. Is that our conclusion?" Ami folded her arms over her chest, mouth set into a hard line. You're going insane, some back corner of her mind whispered, vicious and entirely unwelcome. You just made it up, didn't you? But no, the fish wasn't just some figure of her imagination- Cecily had seen it too, and had also freaked out.

Oh, if only phones were allowed at Hogwarts! She could've easily taken a picture, and everything in the world would be right again. "If no one's going to believe us, I don't want to be known as an attention-seeking lunatic," she said sharply. She would do some research on her own, she was sure, but she couldn't risk a bad reputation at the school, not with six more years to go. "I say, we just keep quiet. I think it's for the best, anyway."

It seemed as though there was no solution. Amadea had smartly gotten them kicked out the library, leaving all of their research behind, as well as any opportunities to find other books that could help them. Amadea shook her head, partly in anger at herself and partly trying to rattle her brain around. Maybe it would spark some ideas. Unfortunately, it only managed to make her dizzy, which was not the result she was hoping for. 

"Exactly," Amadea said, agreeing with what both Cecily and Ami were saying. It was almost unbelievable to Amadea herself, and she had seen the creature with her own two eyes. If even she almost found it unbelievable, how could anyone else in their right mind believe them? They were out of options and still with no answers. By now, Amadea was no longer angry about being kicked out of the library and being perpetually terrified of the librarian for the rest of her time at Hogwarts. She just really wanted to know the answer to the question that they had been researching: what the heck had they seen? Was it real? Was it a ghost? Were they hallucinating? What was it doing so close to shore? 

"We definitely shouldn't mention this to anyone," Amadea agreed. "I don't want to be labeled as the class lunatics." Maybe they could figure out how to solve the mystery on their own. But for now, Amadea knew that they just had to stop thinking about it for a while. Maybe they could go have some fun and eat food or something and go back to trying to think of a way to solve the mystery after.

Cecily gave a weak smile. The two Hufflepuffs were right-- no matter how convinced they were that they had seen this creature, they really just barely convinced themselves that they weren't just crazy. And besides, they had just been forcibly removed from basically their only source of legitimate research, and no one in their right mind, especially an adult, was going to believe a trio of small first-years going on about a ghostly lake-creature they were only pretty sure was real.

"Yeah," Cecily reluctantly agreed. "Maybe it is for the best that we just let go of this for now." The last thing Cecily wanted was to be seen as the hallucinating outcast for the next six years at Hogwarts. "I mean, we could always come back to it later. Maybe sleeping on it will give us an idea, or maybe something will come up." She said this with hope, but deep down, she didn't really believe a word she was saying. All she really wanted was to solve this mystery and get it over with, but logically, realistically, it would probably never happen. There just wasn't a lot of easily-located information on ghost-fish things, and if they were the first people to see it in hundreds of years, who knew when it might surface again? They were really, truly out of luck.

Sighing heavily, Ami smiled sadly at the two girls standing in front of her. It was a shame that such a lovely day would have to come to such a bitter end, but at least they had become closer because of it. Closer, right? Closer, as in, together, we are maybe, kind of, sort of hallucinating together. Maybe not the best type of statement to make, but they were closer, that much was for sure.

"It's a pact," Ami said firmly, digging around in her pockets for some sort of pen and paper. Pacts, as she had learned from countless TV shows, were never legally binding unless it was written down on fancy-looking paper. Fishing out a crumpled sheet of parchment and an old pen from the inside pocket of her jacket, she smoothed it out against the wall, before scratching across it- We solemnly swear that the events of today will remain top-secret and FYEO. Sincerely...

She signed her name under it with a quick scribble and passed the pen and parchment to Amadea. "If we happen to come up with any ideas as to what it could be," she continued, meeting the other girls' eyes with her own, "We can talk about it- but only to each other. Never to anyone else." Biting her lip, she added, "I'm really sorry the day ended up like this. And to think, we would traipse down to the Great Lake to enjoy the sunshine... we need a picker-upper, desperately."

Amadea hated this feeling. Usually, she was able to stay optimistic and look for the best in any situation. She would find something to make light of the problem. Unfortunately, Amadea felt hopeless. She couldn't think of any positive outcome from this. They still had no idea what the creature was or if they were going crazy and they had ruined their relationships with the librarian. Amadea was tempted to go in disguise next time she needed a book from the library. The librarian might be old, but Amadea had a feeling that her memory was as sharp as ever. 

The adventure was coming to a close, and Amadea couldn't decide whether she was relieved or disappointed. Sure, they didn't crack the case, but all Amadea could think about now was getting something to eat. It had been an adventurous day, for sure. Thankfully, the girls seemed to all sense that the day was coming to a close. "Alright," Amadea said. "So we all agree not to bring this up unless we're together and alone." While Cecily brought up a good point about coming up with something if they had a night to think about it, Amadea still felt hopeless. If she couldn't think of anything now, she doubted she could come up with something later. Who knew, though? Maybe Cecily or Ami would come up with a brilliant plan in their dreams. 

"I know," Amadea said. "A pick-me-up sounds like a great idea. Got anything in mind?" 

Cecily scribbled her name underneath the haphazard pact Ami had drawn up. She wasn't quite sure what "FYEO" meant, but she had trust in her new Hufflepuff friend's contract-writing abilities. As she handed Ami the writing utensil, Cecily felt a strange mixture of feelings; although she now had a secret weighing her down, it felt like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders to make way for a bit of minor elation. She had a real secret with real friends. Maybe she wasn't destined to be a friendless bookworm farm girl forever.

She smiled as her Hufflepuff friends suggested a pick-me-up, because that's really what they were doing when this whole adventure began. Was it really only this morning that she had met Ami? It had only been a few hours, but it already felt as though the trio had been friends forever. Maybe there was one good thing to come out of this escapade: Cecily had actually made a third friend, and based on the contract they had just signed, the friendship would last a long time. It was kind of an incentive, the contract, because now if they stopped being friends then they would keep this secret in their minds forever, never talking about it to anyone, and probably end up going insane. Cecily had never met any insane people, but judging from the books she'd read, it was not very pleasant. So, friends they would stay.

"A pick-me-up sounds fabulous!" Cecily grinned, excited at the prospect of getting to spend more time with the two Hufflepuffs. The three were friends now, and that meant they were supposed to spend time together, right? Besides, the Ravenclaw was positive that a little distraction for a while would make them all feel much better-- plus, it was always easier to think about things logically when one's emotions weren't skyrocketing. Not that she was still thinking of trying to crack the case. "Maybe we could get some dinner at the Great Hall? I don't know about you two, but I'm starving."

Cecily suggested grabbing dinner together, and almost as if right on cue, Ami's stomach grumbled. Blushing, Ami tried to laugh it off, although it was fairly obvious that she was still embarrassed. How rude! Her mother would have been absolutely appalled, if she had been present. "I guess that solves our problem," she said hastily to cover it up, a wide grin spreading across her face. "Magnificent Great Hall, here we come!"

She glanced back at Amadea as they continued onward through the hallways, a small frown dotting the edges of her expression. What was up with her today? Normally, Amadea was the decisive one of the two, making sure that Ami stayed out of trouble but still got her daily fix of fun. But, today, she was quiet (which was normal) and neutral (which was definitely not normal). She didn't voice her opinions, but instead, went along with the other two girls- and that was extremely odd. Ami didn't like it.

She genuinely liked Cecily, on the other hand. For someone whom she had just met mere hours ago, she had found her way into Ami's heart ridiculously quickly. She was smart, as was expected from someone from Ravenclaw, but she was also sensitive, noticing others' emotions and reacting accordingly. She was a good friend, for sure, and was exactly the type of person Ami would've hung out with in America.

As she practically skipped down the hallways, Ami couldn't help but smile as she considered the two girls beside her. Hey, they were practically a squad! 

Ami exits the library, and thus the thread.