A Forgery of a Destiny Hufflepuff Only

Picking up the phone, Arthur was amazed to get a dial tone- and that the number he put in actually worked. For once, he considered himself lucky that he didn't have a cell phone for most of his childhood, and was forced to memorize all the numbers he might need- including his mother's work. As the phone rang, he put a hand over the receiver and shouted over to Dorothy, "Did you try Alohamora?" he asked, recalling the unlocking spell that he'd read about in his charms book (the window had only opened an inch when he tried it). He didn't notice Marissa's somewhat more frantic efforts on the next window down..

As the second years who had disappeared down the tunnel returned and began to address the group, Arthur waved a hand, pointing to the red object in his hand, and mouthed 'I'm on the phone', hoping they would tone it down a bit. When Serena started screaming, he sighed and turned towards the wall, putting his finger in his other ear as he tried to listen to the voice of that had just picked up on the other end;

"Hello, six-north this is Karen can I help you?"

“Oh! Hello!” Arthur said, a little surprised that actually worked. He didn’t recognize the woman’s voice, which was odd. He spent a lot of time at the hospital and he knew all of the receptionists and nurses by name and voice. Still, it was completely possible they had just hired someone new. "Um.. Can you get Emily Morgan please? This is her son." he explained.

He hadn't heard most of it, but stray sentences of the second year's conversation did catch his ear. Do you even know where we are?! That was a good point. They couldn't do much to stage a rescue if they didn't even know where they were. Quickly, before she left to get his mother, Arthur added, "Oh! Could you tell me what area code this is calling from?" he asked, hoping the request didn't seem too strange to her.

Putting a hand over the receiver to block the sound, he sighed out deeply. He'd been low key freaking out this whole time, though he tried not to let it show. But the prospect of hearing his mother's voice, of letting her figure this out and tell them what to do, even if she wasn't there, was massively comforting. Maybe it was the naivety of a child to think that their parents could solve everything, but at least he knew there'd be someone out there trying to help them. He tried to think of what he was going to say... He didn't want her freaking out. And he knew all this magic stuff wasn't really her cup of tea to begin with. They just needed some way to contact the school, to make sure the other teachers knew they were missing, or that someone was actually looking for them. Maybe she could get in touch with his father.. He would probably know.

As he waited for the person on the other end, he noticed the scroll that Howie had put down next to the phone. Holding the phone between his shoulder and ear, he picked it up curiously, and started to read. Before he could finish, however, another sound distracted him.. of breaking glass.

Looking for the source of the noise, his eyes fell on the shattered glass. That alone wasn't terrible- that was one way to open a window, after all- but the shuddering in the wall that followed made his heart drop. Abandoning the phone (now his mother was definitely going to freak out!) he moved over to the window and grabbed Marisa's arm, pulling her away from the crumbling wall.

He didn't know what the extent of the collapse would be, but not being here to find out seemed like the safest course of action. "We need to get out of here!" he said.

Actions: Try to reach his mother, read the scroll, pull Marissa away from the window

Addressing Serena and the sand castle gang.

Howie would throw his arms up in a dramatic display of frustration. “We can’t do nothing Serena! Professor Lear will be all alone. Look here! The letter says he doesn’t know how many have been influenced by the mask and glove. It could be a suicide mission.” The young boy would begin to pace as his emotions heightened along with the sound of his voice. “We don’t know much, but it wouldn’t be the first time students stood up in defense of the school. I’ve read the stories!” He would point at Serena as he tried desperately to drive his point home. “Hogwarts needs us! And we need you Serena!”


The former prefect would continue to question his plans. “No...I don’t have a plan. You’re a good leader though. Help me. And look here, on the note!” Howie would grab the parchment from the table near the phone. Arthur was trying the phone. “Professor Lear told us. It says we are in the Netherlands. We aren’t too far from home. Surely we can contact someone.” The phone! Howie spun on the spot. Arthur seemed to be in conversation with someone. Lear had left them a way! 

“Arthur! Is there someone on the other end? Ask them where we are.” Howie would call out to him, but he had turned his back and was plugging his ear to hear better. Howie went to tap his shoulder, but a crashing sound stopped him in his tracks. One of the other students had smashed a window somehow. Fear gripped him as the sandy wall around it began to crumble. Arthur too must have noticed as he called out for them to escape. Panic drove Howie forward. The whole building could come down on top of them! “Everybody run!” The boy would scream as he ran towards the crumbling wall and jumped out of the building. Better to fall to his death than be buried alive.

Actions: Continue to plead with the others. Panic as the wall crumbles and attempts to jump through the opening to escape.

Laila just stood by a wall watching the older kids argue. She crossed her arms and started to whistle. tapping her feet on the floor. She heard Arthur talking into the phone. Laila walked over to him. "Arthur if you're not just talking to yourself and you are actually talking to a person on the other end, tell them to track down where the phone is" Laila told him. 

Laila was waling over to where she was standing before before something made her jump. Then, she started hearing Arthur and the other second year yelling "Run!". Laila turned around and saw that the wall was crumbling. The place was falling apart. 

Laila moved away from the wall a lot, and said to herself, Don't worry, it's just sand, and this is a just a field-trip. It's probably just some special effects the professors would never let us get hurt what's the worst that could happen? But she did not seem to be listening to herself, and she ran.

She ran to the telephone to take it with her, and she ran to the tired- looking girl and said to her "We have to get out of this place now!" 

Arthur nodded at Howard's question. There was someone on the other end, and he was already working on getting their location, though not in the way Laila seemed to think could happen; "They're not the FBI, Laila, you can't just track down a phone's location from anywhere," he told her. He had to remind himself that she was probably wizard-born and didn't know how a phone worked. The most that they could do was tell him the number he had called from (if they had caller ID) but at least then he could ask his mum to look up the area code on the internet and give them a slightly more narrowed down view of where they were.

If they'd all been able to wait for just a few more minutes, he probably could have gotten them in touch with someone who knew magic too. He didn't know if there was a 'phone tracking spell' or not, but he was sure they'd be able to figure out some way to find them. Sadly, a few minutes was more time than they had. He wasn't sure taking the phone with them was going to do them any good (it wasn't cordless, and lifting it from the table alone was probably enough to rip the line out from the wall) but maybe it was magical in some way and could operate without a phone line or outlet.

In the ensuing chaos, he wasn't sure if it was better to retreat further into the castle and wait for this section to stabilize or to try to escape, as Howard had, out of its crumbling side. The decision seemed to have been made up for him, however. As people had been saying from the start, it was better to stick together. "Follow him!" he said, pointing after Howard. He tried to usher as many as he could out of the hole where the window once was, then finally followed him out himself. Fortunately, he'd seen already that it wasn't a far drop. Onto sand, with any luck, they should all be fine.

Actions: Exit via former window.

Nobody had any idea what they were doing, most especially Lear. Battered, bloodied and weary already Solomon had apparated onto the tracks. He was normally such a cautious and methodical man, not that it had been apparent in some time as the cracks had been growing for some time and now that they were exposed there was going to be no filling.

Hogwarts was a long ways off, he took a meandering step forward. "I hope the kids will be ok," he muttered out-loud. It was that uncertain, sinking feeling one has when they release a traped creature into a still dangerous environment and they hope for the best, never knowing how long the injured rabbit or bird survived before another predator just as dangerous as man dug their claws in. The not knowing was what was going to help him sleep at night.

The train was almost gone, he would see the red caboose in the distance and a stream of smoke. Soon enough they would be out of Hogwart's reach. He looked ahead, he was returning to Hogwarts. The brisk fall air bit at his nose and he lifted his bloodied hands to his face and exhaled a puff of warm, moist air into his hands. The warmth a temporary respite. It would take him a few hours to get back to Hogwarts, no doubt by then the Professors would have discovered his duplicity.

Good... Let them come for him.

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Ami had a terrible plan, the sort of plan that gets you killed. Stand on top of train and... check out the other cars? Have an epic showdown with the villain who also decided that the top of a train was the best place to chill?

All the same the skylight was her point of interest, she would climb on top of her trunk, likely teetering as the moving train continued to travel down the tracks to London.

Better plan... blow up the roof then check out what is up there. So what would the girl do? She would practice the word, the letters jumbled together in some semblance of the right order.

"Cofrigo."

No, that was not right.

"Confringo."

She repeated, adding the enunciated N. Still nothing.

SAY IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

"Confringo!"

Ami would cry as she tumbled off the trunk she was standing on. The spell was well above her skill level, it was reasonable to expect nothing however the train lurched as the girl fell off the trunk. The wheels screamed, the train itself groaned before it lurched violently to the right. The girl would find herself launched to the right as well as the train itself was overturned and started to tumble off the tracks. The sound of broken glass would fill the car, a hailstorm of diamond-like shards would rain down on Ami.

What had she done!

The train tumbled, bouncing like a toy across the frigid landscape being toss by an angered toddler. The earth itself gave way, leaving a trail of exposed earth that revealed the path that the train slid down the hillside. The train would slide about one-hundred feet off the tracks.

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Riley would make a revelation, they were part-way across the world in Sweden. Normally a terrifying prospect, but not so much to those used to magic. The Hogwarts Express traversed space that was not connected by tracks. It was the power of magic, this senseless wonder that many of these children had grown accustomed. The only problem now is that their passage back home is blocked.

She would notice the telephone. Solomon grew up in a different time than they had. In four short decades the world had exploded in terms of technology, the information revolution would prove to be a modern renaissance to future historians. There was a time where there was no internet. There was no portable communication device that linked every living being less an exceptional few together.

Riley wanted to go back, find her way back to school. To the place where risk and learning awaited her, two very good reasons to stay here and play in the sand or in her case the snow.

The clouds were quite ominous, a darkness that seemed to blanket the horizon. A howling wind would blow just on the other side of the wall. The snow-covered field would only deepen in the coming hours.

So Sweeden...

Frost was left wondering where the other half of their house went? Another ice hotel room? A sweet beach vacation for a bit of contrast? Poor Frost was not very helpful but she was present, engaged and well... being Frost.

Frost was not there for her brawn or her brains, she was there because she was loyal and believe it or not it was her best asset. One could be lost, confused or in a hopeless situation but with Frost there they were not alone.

The others... they just stood there and spent all this time being lumps.

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Arthur was able to effectively use the muggle device known as a rotary phone. Different from the conventional push-button phones that he might have been accustomed to, one pressed then rounded a semi-circle until a terminal point was reached. There was this satisfying noise that button phones have failed to replicate.

"Hello, six-north this is Karen can I help you?"

In the background Howard would try to yell some sense into Serena. Yelling fixes most things, just not Serena.

“Oh! Hello! ...Um.. Can you get Emily Morgan please? This is her son."

"Emily Morgan?" The receptionist repeated. "Yeah, sure." It would appear that she did know someone by that name. "She is just in a room with a patient, let me put you on Park Two."

Howard would make a request. “Arthur! Is there someone on the other end? Ask them where we are.” Arthur was thinking the same exact thing.

"Arthur if you're not just talking to yourself and you are actually talking to a person on the other end, tell them to track down where the phone is" Lailaflora added.

Looks like everyone had pretty much the same idea.

"They're not the FBI, Laila, you can't just track down a phone's location from anywhere." But still, getting a little bit of information is not so bad. "Oh! Could you tell me what area code this is calling from?"

It was useless.

He tried to get a bit of extra information out of her before he was put onto hold. Little did he know that it was unlikely that she would know. While some hospitals did have caller ID, many did not. Physicians don't enjoy having their private phone numbers known. It often leads to harassment as nurses bypass their office and call their household or their personal cell. Sometimes these numbers get out to patients if they are written down, that is when things get bad.

Then the phone would fill with music, terrible elevator music. There was an eternity between the last word from the receptionist and the sound of the elevator music ceasing but in reality only 6 minutes has passed.

"Hello, this is Emily."

The voice was indeed his mother's but it was also distance as the phone dropped and Arthur rushed away from the corded device. The plastic would click onto the floor and she would hear her son's distant voice shout "we need to get out of here!" Then the sound of crashing earth and breaking glass.

With walls made of sand -- it was only logical that things would start coming down.

Yes Arthur -- your mother is going to be freaked out.

Howard would dramatically leap through the fractured fall. It would be as if he ran through a waterfall, the pressure could be felt but there was no barrier. The fall was not far, thankfully they were not given a penthouse suite. He might not have landed gracefully but he would land in the sand. There were other people outside, enjoying the sun in bikinis and trunks. Umbrellas would shade large beach towels and there were people enjoying another sunny day. And then there was a dramatic boy and a collapsing sand fortress.

Some people were just standing there idly for what felt like almost 2 weeks but in here only seconds had passed. The building, well at least this room was collapsing onto itself. Arthur would follow Howard's lead, hardly a madman and find safety outside of the building.

The others were no so lucky. Yes, the building was safe. WAS being the important word here, the building was not intended to be man-handled. Sadly the Professor could not account for poor decisions made by the children.

Buried 'alive' -- those that did not attempt to escape while they had a chance. They would be plunged into darkness. A weight would press around them, pinning them in place. They were not dead, but there was only so much air in these places. Howard knew well what it was like to be buried but he was in a comfortable coffin. The same amenities were not offered to those trapped here.

Landing in the soft sand (they really weren't all that far up) Arthur stumbled and rolled, but emerged unscathed. He pushed himself up on his arms, greeted by the sight of.. An ordinary tourist beach. There were... people here? Could they see them? Was this another 'hide in plain sight' kind of thing like Diagon alley? It didn't really look like it though...

Pushing himself self up on his knees, he frowned in confusion. Was this place magic or muggle? It was getting harder and harder to tell. At first a life-sized sand castle seemed fantastical enough, but it had an ordinary phone in it and an ordinary menu card. Getting an idea, he looked down at the face of his digital watch that had been on the fritz since arriving at Hogwarts to see if it would work here. The phone worked, but he wasn't sure if that counted.

As he turned around to talk to the others, he realized with a sinking feeling in his stomach that Howard was the only one there. None of the people that he'd urged to jump from the crumbling building had made it out.

Scrambling to his feet, he ran over to the collapsed pile of sand. "Someone call 999!" he shouted to the other bystanders, the muggle part of him taking over. Though of course, if he thought about it, it would obviously be a different number here. He didn't know emergency services for the Netherlands (where Howard and the scroll mentioned they were) but hopefully they would get the idea.

Dropping to his knees again by the pile of sand, he started scooping it out to the side, trying to dig the others out. After every few seconds of digging, he would reach an arm into the sand as far as it would, hoping it would touch something that felt alive.

Were they the only people in there? he suddenly wondered. Or were there others they'd buried under the collapse?

Actions: check if digital watch is working, confuse some tourists, try to dig the others out of the sand.

Interacts with Howard and Marissa

Her screams came too late. Her words were not heeded. Howard argued with her, Marissa ignored there. There was chaos everywhere. Everyone was doing their own thing and Serena had no idea how to get them to just stop for a moment so they could think about things rationally. “You’re calling it a suicide mission and you think it’s a good idea to drag first years into this?!” She argued with Howard, not understanding the rationality behind his words. She understood his need to protect people, of course she did. Serena had friends back in Hogwarts that she could not leave alone, especially if all of this was happening and if it was worse than they were led to believe. However, rushing in headfirst was a foolish thing to do.

Rushing in headfirst was how Serena almost died in her first year. She had to convince them to stop acting and start thinking for a moment, it was the only way. They were not Gryffindors, they did not need to recklessly run into a situation with a foolish sense of bravery and courage that would later just be labelled as ‘stupidity’. Howard claimed she was a leader. A good leader. But she was not. If she had been, she would be able to control this room full of people. She would be able to get people to stop screaming and rushing around for just one moment. The Head Girl was just a failure. She had no control in the matter, how could she lead them? Howard claimed she was a good leader and even he failed to listen to her right now. “And how do you propose we get home from Netherlands?!” She asked, “Have you stopped to even look around and find a portkey or the floo network?” Serena asked, not sure if anyone even had.

But it was too late. Her words and questions were not heard. Marissa did not listen to her. Her scream was too late. “RUN!” She screamed as she dashed forward to try and grab Marissa’s arm and pull her away from the crumbling wall. Those moments felt like forever for her. Two weeks, in fact. They felt like they had lasted two weeks but in reality, it was only a few mere seconds. Serena’s dive was in vain, however. Although she had told Howard to be careful and cautious, the Hufflepuff did not listen to her own advice. She tried to pull Marissa out, even if it meant going closer to the falling wall. There was no way she was going to make it out now…

Within an instant, everything came crumbling down. She was swallowed once more by the darkness that she feared the most. Once again, Lear’s event had turned sour. He had tried to help them by bringing them here, right? Yet he had failed. This place was not safe… Serena felt the weight press down on her back as she tried to flee the scene. She struggled to move. The fear overcome her body. There was no space to even scream out. Serena was trapped in a world of darkness again.

And the darkness, once again, won. Her world was quiet, her sight disappeared, her body could no longer move. She felt the pressures of the building on top of her but could not do anything to remove it. The experience was not like the camp out, however. She knew she was trapped in the sand. It was not the shadows attacking her but the sand… Her mind wrecked over the options. How did they get out of this…? Serena had been… buried alive?! Her hand shook slightly, her body wanted to sob its heart out. But alas, she could do nothing but internally freak out.

What went wrong…? How did this happen, yet again…? Hufflepuffs were doomed…

The darkness had won… No. This was not over yet… Serena had no idea how to move a bunch of sand. Was it even possible? There was a lot of it. But laying here was not going to help either. She had to do something, anything to try and get out. “Wingardium Leviosa,” She whispered, trying to avoid choking on the sand that was pressed up underneath her face and all around her. She struggled to move her wand but she tried as best as she could to cast it on herself. What happened when you levitated yourself and had a lot of sand on you? Serena had no idea. But if it worked, she would find out. Even if it was bad, it would be better than being buried alive and left to die, surely. No one was coming to save them… Professor Lear was on his way back to Hogwarts to save others and all of the other students could be trapped too, for all she knew… She had no choice but to try. It was try or die, right now.

Serena kept casting the spell, repeatedly attempting it as she silently prayed for it to succeed. It had to work. Something had to work. Anything... Please, she silently begged as her eyes started to water. She hated the darkness. Her heart trembled, her body started to shake. The dark was where everything went wrong, always. The dark abyss terrified her. It was awful.

The Darkness had already beaten her once. She had little hope for her chances this time but she had no choice. If she had not been saved last time, she would have died. If no one came for them this time, she would die. She had to at least try. She had to use every spell she knew, even if it killed her… Because even if she did not, she would die. This way, there was at least a chance of survival.

ACTIONS:
1. Get trapped in the sand
2. Attempt to cast Wingardium Leviosa [Levitation Spell] whilst trapped, though it would impede her wand movements so probably fail.

OOC: Sorry this is so late! I replied to some things from the last round and combined the two.

Interacting with Reid and Frost, Mentioning the rest of the room

"Am ah glad to see ya ma friend!" The ginger in a relieved tone exclaimed quite excitedly. He allowed Frost to take the scroll from him and then stay close. He looked around again and most seemed to be either staying where they were or still panicking. 'Well Quinn me boyo looks like ya gotta try and keep this icey team together. Let's hope we can all...stay frosty He visibly began to lightly laugh. Oh sure that pun would soon get old, but still it was quite funny for what it was.

And to be honest everyone could really use a bit of a good laugh. They were all scared, Feck Quinn was scared! But he had to constantly remind himself 'What would would Brannigan do?' Those words constantly ran through his mind. They were the only words that were really keeping him going in this sort of situation. They were as much words of comfort as they were a source of strength for the young curious ginger.

He turned his attention over to the bright red phone. He had scene one of them before at his grandparents. It was their landline and they preferred the vintage style of the old landlines so they never upgraded to cordless. It was then that an idea sparked in his head.

"Of course! How could ah be so thick headed! Reid Frost that telephone over there. We can use it to call for help. We could contact someone we know to get in contact with the school and tell them this whole brutal situation." His eyes shined with a bright flame lit behind them. It was hope. Hope to get out, hope to escape, hope to be rescued.

He glanced back over to the window looking at the ominously dark sky. "I think trying to escaped from here...at least at this very moment would be an extremely bad idea. What do you all think?" He ran his thing fingers through his thick curly locks sighing and trying not to let the fact that was he was a wee bit scared show.

Action: 1) Try to calm the room down again. 2) Announce his plan to use the phone to call for help to the others. 3) Suggest they stay where they are for the moment.

When you are twelve years old, sheltered from too much of the world, and something goes incredibly wrong because of you, your first instinct is to hide. To run away. To make sure that no one knows that what happened was because of you. Whether it be from a wrong answer in class, a bad throw in gym, a stumble in the hallway- you carry your head high and pretend like you didn't do it, all the while running away from the black hole you created.

Ami would've loved to run away from her problems now, but she really couldn't. All she could feel was the lack of solid footing, the roaring sound of something going horribly wrong, and she threw her arms up in front of her face as the skylight shattered. Instead of just the skylight shattering like she had intended it to, the entire train just decided to pitch itself over, like it was just down with not moving anymore. Maybe there were, like, physics or something involved? She didn't really know- she was never the brightest girl.

What she was good at, though, were physical things. Intuitive things. She tucked herself into a ball, placing her hands over her exposed neck and she tumbled along. She could feel the glass shards digging into her skin as she tumbled, wincing and allowing herself to cry out softly. As the train finally skidded to a stop, Ami could only lay there, tucked into a small ball, still in shock about what she had just done.

Wiggling her fingers and feet, she could determine that she at least still have all of her limbs. Slowly, she would extend her body, to figure out if anything was wrong, if she had gotten cuts that needed attention from the glass, and just how she could get out of this train wreck. To the best of her knowledge, she was still by the train- but the steam and the creaking noises weren't good omens. She needed a way out of here, and fast. Her hands reaching for her pockets, she desperately looked for her wand. Blast it, where was it...?

With a pang, her other students came to mind. Were they okay? If they weren't, shouldn't there be screams and such that she could hear? But no, there had been nothing. Where were they? Well, wherever they were, she hoped that they were okay.

ACTIONS!

Fall with the train, tucking herself into a protective ball
Check herself for injuries, examine the space around her for an escape

Check for her wand
Worry about her fellow students