Stall-ing For Time PV Alma Stoll

Alma found herself at the Lavatory after first class. Perfectly normal, right? Surely nothing bad would happen.

“Excuse me, could you help me? I seem to be a bit stuck…”

Oh goodness.

She raced to the stall where she heard the voice coming from, knocking to check if she had found the correct one. “Hello? You said you’re stuck? Oh dear, um…hold on a second.”

She stepped back and fished out her wand from her robes, cheering to herself as she pointed it at the stall door. Wait. What on earth was she doing? She hasn’t learned the unlocking charm yet!

“Okay, okay,” she said, trying desperately to think of a way to get the girl out. “So I unfortunately haven’t learned the unlocking charm yet, we haven’t exactly gotten to that lesson…”

She thought some more and then lit up with her next idea. Reaching up to the braid she wore in her hair on some days, she pulled it out, watching as the wavy curls fell when she pulled out the hair tie. With it unbraided, she was able to snag the bobby pin that was holding the top in place.

Quickly, she slid the pin into the stall through the gap in the bottom.

“My dad taught me how to pick locks before I came to Hogwarts. Muggle magic, y’know? Here, i’ll walk you through it!”


@June Selwyn

June let out a sigh of relief as a voice answered her cry for help. Thank goodness, this person was willing to rescue her. She would not have to spend the rest of her days all alone in a cramped lavatory stall, wondering if anyone would miss her. Creating her own stall society. All they needed to do was cast the simple charm and-

Oh. Or not, apparently this was a first year. A quizzical look crossed June's face. Muggle magic? Perhaps a figure of speech.

June watched as a small bobby pin slid across the floor, picking it up as it knocked against her shoe. "Thank you, really. I appreciate this." She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. “Right then. I assume I start by just... putting it in the lock, right?" June gulped, her hands suddenly felt cold and clammy. Why was this so stressful? Because it was as embarrassing as walking into a dungbomb, that's why. She made a mental note to tell someone about the stuck door once she got out. This was something the new caretaker dealt with, right? June hadn't seen her around much, in fact, she didn't even know her na- Focus, June!

Right. June shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts, bobby pin in hand, awaiting her rescuer's instructions.

She heard confirmation that the girl had picked up the pin, meaning she was ready for instruction. “I’m afraid it’s a little more complicated than just putting it in the lock,” she said. She closed her eyes so she could imagine what the pin and handle looked like from the inside, just to ensure easier instruction.

“Okay, start by pulling it apart - it bends easily, don’t worry. You want the flat side pulled away from the wavy side.” She waited until the girl had most likely followed the instructions. She couldn’t really tell from outside the stall, so she continued anyway. “Okay umm…next, you want to push the tip of the pin into the lock and bend it so that it has just about a couple millimeters bent at the tip.”

While the girl inside was doing that, Alma searched desperately around for another bobby pin. She’d need two to get the lock undone. Don’t suppose many people just drop their hair accessories in the lavatory, do they?

She finally found another after fishing in her pocket for a bit. She slid this one under the door aswell, trying to remember what to do next. “Alright, so you’re going to need that one too. You’re just going to bend that second one into a lever shape - this might take some strength, but it’s doable.”

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@June Selwyn

Bend the bobby pin by pulling it apart. Bend it again using the lock. Bend the new bobby pin into a lever shape. June didn’t think she’d ever heard the word “bend” so many times before. As best she could with only verbal instructions, June shaped the thin metal pins.

“You need.. Strength? To pick a lock?” June gulped. Sure, she’d been doing a bit of training for her new position on the broom racing team, but it wasn’t hard to see that June wasn’t exactly benching anything impressive. “It’s a door, Selwyn, you probably don’t need to be that strong,” she muttered under her breath. “Have you had to pick many locks before? Or are you just.. a hobbyist?” Small talk was a tad awkward in this situation, but it was so painfully awkward enough anyways that June figured a question or two wouldn’t hurt.

June squatted so that she was eye-level with the lock of the door. She peeked through, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever was on the other side, or at least their house crest. She sighed, June couldn’t see anything other than vaguely moving shapes. Drat. “Right, I’ve got my pins ready, I think. Hopefully I did this correctly…” June laughed nervously. “Once I’m out of here I owe you, seriously.”

The girl’s worrying tone about the strength needed to bend the pin was, at the least, concerning. But Alma was never one to judge - she wasn’t exactly superman herself. “Oh don’t worry! It doesn’t take much, just maybe a little bit of struggle…”

She began pacing back and forth whilst waiting for the other girl to finish the instructions given. The questing draws an amused giggle, however, and she stops to answer. “I’ve only ever picked a couple. My dad taught me before coming to Hogwarts - he didn’t…he doesn’t exactly like magic. Thought i’d use less of it if I learned how to fix problems ‘non-magically.’”

She continued her pacing as she tried to recall what step was next. “Okay, so..um, here. Let me give you a visual. So, inside the lock are little pins - or, not pins, let’s call them buttons. You have to push the buttons up in order to open the lock - easy, right?!”

She stopped in front of the door, only now realizing that she was using her hands to narrate the visual, not thinking about the fact that the girl quite literally couldn’t see them. “Okay, here comes the good part. You’re gonna put your lever-shaped one into the barrel of the keyhole and slightly tilt it the direction it opens. So that’s…right, I believe?”

She pictures the stall door inside. There’s the normal handle lock; the one that says ‘occupied’ and ‘unoccupied’. And then there’s the small keyhole under it…for cases like this, Alma assumes. She tried to picture the little barrels inside that her dad taught her about.

“Okay, try to stay with me here - you want to push all the buttons up with your other pin, the one that isn’t already in the keyhole.” She bit her nails in anxiety and waited as all she could do was hope that the girl inside understood her instructions. She was tempted to stir up some small talk, but she didn’t want to distract from the current task at hand.

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@June Selwyn

Who wouldn't want to solve things magically? Sure, June had learned to appreciate muggle advancements the more Monica told her about them (she was too afraid to ask George about anything muggle related), but still, some problems just were solved so much easier with magic. Although, without it, June would just be stuck in this stall waiting for much longer than she already was. Hmm.

"Okay, pressing buttons, I can do that." June stuck the two pins into the small keyhole, rotating the bottom one as instructed. "Just pushing some buttons," June said to herself.

She fiddled with the thing for a moment, before feeling a click. June's eyes widened as she did, in fact, push up one of the button-things. This was... actually kind of fun! If June ignored the circumstances around her, she could see how someone could do this as a hobby. June pushed the pins in further and further, feeling click after click as her heart rate began to quicken. She just needed to not mess it up or break the pins or get stuck in here forever or-

Click.

The door creaked open, no longer held in place by the lock mechanism. With a renewed sense of energy, June pushed the door open, revealing her savior. Who was, embarrassingly, taller than her. Fantastic. June smiled, trying to hide her internal shame at her stature. "Thank you so much, seriously! I'd give you a hug but I need to wash my hands first." She chuckled nervously before briskly walking to the sink, quickly washing her hands and turning back to her first-year knight in shining armor.

The click that echoed through the room indicated a resounding success in Alma’s directions. She can’t say she wasn’t worried the girl wouldn’t make it out, but evidently, she wasn’t as bad a teacher as she thought she was.

The girl stepped out of the stall and she was…shorter than her! It wasn’t a seldom occurence perse, but it was a nice surprise. “Hi! Nice to finally meet you,” she said with a giggle. She watched as the girl thankfully washed her hands before returning, and Alma offered a handshake.

“My names Alma - first-year Hufflepuff.” She smiled. She could tell the girl was a Slytherin from the house crest and green touches on her robes. “And don’t worry about it! It was totally nothing, I’d do it for anyone really.”

Wait. Did that make her seem rude? “Not that- well, I mean, you seem really awesome! I’d just, y’a know, if anyone needs help i’d help them out? I don’t mean to make you feel like you’re not special or anything! Just…um…”

She trailed off, embarrassed to make a big deal out of a small thing. “Anyways,” she said, trying to change the subject. “How about you? What’s your name?”

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@June Selwyn

Alma, as she introduced herself, offered June a handshake which was happily accepted. "Selwyn, June Selwyn. I'm a second-year Slytherin who will never go anywhere without her wand ever again," she chuckled nervously.

Thankfully the underclassman was just as awkward in the situation as June, which made her feel less awkward. Which made her feel bad. Which made her feel nervous. Shut up, Selwyn, you're overthinking again.

With a sigh to clear her thoughts, June began speaking again. "Thanks again for saving me. I was so worried that I'd be stuck in there and have to explain why I was late to Professor Tuesday." June's face fell, her complexion lightening slightly. "Professor Tuesday... Bogies! I have to run and get my things from the charms classroom before class!" With a new sense of urgency and a slight worry that today was simply not her day, June tried wrapping her conversation up as politely but as quickly as possible. "Um, uh, thank you again, really. I'll have to pay you back someday, okay?" She started inching her way towards the door. "Do you like chocolate frogs? I might have a few extra... Or maybe we could have tea on the grounds? Or... something?" June could hear the hallway outside grow quieter as students began to file their way into classrooms. "We'll figure it out later, I'll find you! ThankyousomuchagainBYE!" And with that, June quickly left the room, running down the hall to get her wand. Lesson learned, she supposed.