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Paige sharply turned around. Everything seemed to be getting to her nerves. She was acting so strange, as if she was being controlled by another being. Paige took a deep breath before offering Astra a seat on an old potato sack that lay beside the lamp. "I'm not too sure, I'm afraid, the door just will not budge! I have tried everything and there is no luck, but it's strange... stick your hand inside and tell me what you think," she said, gesturing for Astra to reach her arm into the hole.

The girl did as Paige had asked her, this time a little more politely than before. All of a sudden, another large screeeech noise blasted across the cold room, sending shivers up the two girl's spines. Something told Paige they weren't the only ones in there, and she had a feeling Astra was thinking that too.

She tapped Astra, who was still peering into the hole, on the shoulder and pointed to a small hatch in the roof. "Possibly that is our exit," she whispered, ensuring whoever... or whatever... had joined them wouldn't hear their escape plan. Paige crossed her fingers, praying it wasn't a prefect - they'd be doomed! But right now, a prefect was the easiest option to go with. Who knew what creatures lurk in a dark, creepy dungeon.

@Paige Mallary

Astra felt inside the door. Sure enough, felt like a lock. "It... feels like a lock, but I've never-" she began, but was cut off my another loud screech, much like the one when the door opened.

She whipped around, her hand going for the wand that... was not there in her pocket. She almost swore aloud at this cursed turn of event. Bloody hell. What in the world could that be? As far as she knew, the dungeons were mostly empty. Had been for a while, especially after the 90s, when her parents, aunts, and uncles went to Hogwarts.

Paige tapped her on the shoulder. Astra turned in a defensive stance, her fists clenched and ready. The older girl pointed to a small opening in the ceiling. "Possibly this is our exit," she whispered. Astra nodded.

"But how are we going to get up there?" she whispered back. The ceiling was far up. Astra glanced around, noticing all the crates around. "Actually, I've got it. You listen out for any more noises." She ran to them, moving as quickly as possible, an impending sense of doom driving her forward. She stacked the crates in a pyramid structure that reached about twice her height by the time she stopped stacking.

She scrambled up the new structure. Close, but she couldn't quite reach the hatch. Jumping was a very unsafe and risky option. She stared down at Paige, who was watching the hall with an anxious look on her face. "Hey, could you come up here and give me a boost? I'll pull you in after me," she said in a hushed tone, but loud enough to where the Ravenclaw could hear her.

Paige glanced down the hallway once more at a hooded figure who rushed past the corridor, sending her hairs to stand on end. Quickly climbing up the crates, one of her feet slipped, but thankfully she fixed herself. Should she tell Astra about the figure? No, it'd be better if she didn't know.

Paige gave the girl a sharp lift, and something small came tumbling down. A SLYTHERIN TIE!? Astra was a Slytherin! She was probably here on purpose - trying to lure Paige in so that she would get caught by a prefect. Had she done the wrong thing by letting her up first?

Paige looked back, ensuring nobody was behind her and reached her arm up, waiting for Astra to pull her up. Her legs began to wobble, the boxes as well. Was there something inside, insisting to come out? "Astra, pull me up! Quickly please, I'm losing balance," Paige said, looking back down at the crates that now had black goo gushing out of the sides. It grew, creating a large puddle on the stone floor, almost as big as an elephant. She reached her arm up; praying Astra would grab hold of her. If she was anything like the other Slytherins, then Paige didn't have much of a chance. But something told Paige differently, as if the girl wasn't like the other Slytherins.

@Paige Mallary

Paige boosted Astra up, and the young girl pulled herself into the hatch. It was dark, she couldn't see a thing. Once again, a wand would be very useful in this instance, she thought dejectedly. As she scrabbled into the small hole, she felt something fall from her pocket.

She glanced down, dragging her feet in. My tie?! Her eyes widened in horror as she saw the green piece of fabric float down to the ground. Paige also looked upon it in horror. Why was my tie in my pocket?!

Astra was unable to dwell on this, though, as the crates underneath Paige began to shiver and tremble. With fear in her eyes, the girl looked up at Astra with a pleading gaze. "Astra, pull me up! Quickly please, I'm loosing balance," she said, her eyes falling to the crates. The bottom most ones had black slime oozing out of them, speed growing. A puddle materialized on the dungeon floor, about the size of an adult hippogriff.

Astra felt around in the dark for something to hold on to. There seemed to be an edge of a wall or something beside her. It felt like wood, and she tested her weight against it. It held well. Bracing herself against that, she stuck her hand out to Paige. "Grab my wrist," she instructed, "not my hand." Paige stuck her hand up and Astra latched onto her with a strong grip. She pulled, leaning her bodyweight back.

Paige was light, unsurprisingly, and Astra had very little trouble getting her to the hatch opening. She found she could stand in this area. "Do you have your wand on you, perhaps?" she asked Paige in a low voice. Astra hoped the Ravenclaw had forgotten the tie. She didn't want any stereotypes to get in the way of their escape. And while she didn't expect Paige to be petty about it, she also didn't want mistrust between them. For all Astra knew, she could be interacting with this girl far more than this accidental dungeon meet-up. Plus, enemies were a bad thing to have.

Paige felt around her pockets. Nothing. She could have sworn she slipped her wand in there, but perhaps it had fallen out when she had almost tumbled off the crates back in the dungeons. She tried to forget that now though, afterall... they were no longer in the dungeons, instead they were in a new place - a dark tunnel with multiple possible exits. It was like a giant maze you would find in a horror movie back in the Muggle world. This left Paige and Astra confuddled. There could be hundreds of tunnels, they could be trapped in there for years even!

A loud dripping noise interrupted Paige's thoughts, and the girls continued to stand in silence as they had done when they had first met. Why hadn't she stayed in the dormitory? It would have been so much safer than this. What if they knew the girls were missing? Afterall, they could be awake by all means. There was no telling whether it was daytime or nighttime, the only visible thing was the bright white sclera of the eye.

Paige felt as if she could trust this Slytherin. If she was untrustworthy, she would have left Paige down at the crates to die; but she didn't. Something told Paige she was different from the other Slytherin students she had encountered within her two years at Hogwarts.

"Well, should we split up?" Paige hesitated, "we will cover more ground."
She wasn't sure if this was a good decision, what if one person made it out whilst the other remained lost? It was up to Astra to decide the next move, Paige had done her part.

Astra squinted into the dark as Paige gained her balance. It seemed they were in... a secret passage? Astra's eyes strained, but all she could see was shadowy shapes flanking one middle row of darkness. It seemed like a tunnel. Like one of the passages Aunt Aces told us about?

Her aunt had been a troublemaker at Hogwarts back when she was a student, and liked telling stories about her escapades.

Paige's glasses glinted slightly from the faint light below. Astra looked out the hatch to see that the goop had apparently hardened, reminding the girl of tar or asphalt. That's weird.

"Well, should we split up?" Paige asked in a hesitant voice. "We will cover more ground."

Astra shook her head violently, before remembering that Paige couldn't see her. "Not in this darkness, no," she said. "Especially without wands." She was glad to have knowledge in this area from some rather... interesting adventures with Roderick and her cousins, especially now that she was feeling wide awake again. "I'll go first. You keep your right hand on the wall and your left hand on my shoulder. Tell me if you need to stop or anything of the sort. We'll be moving kind of slowly since we can't see." Astra keeps her eyes on Paige's silhouette, not ready to turn her back until the older girl has answered her.