The weather had not been kind today and Aurora’s plans to spend a couple of hours outside in the grounds has been ruined by the rain. Instead she had found herself wandering the hallways of the school trying to find something to do so, or rather someone to talk to about absolute nonsense. She had finished her homework for that week in the morning leaving the afternoon free for the choosing. Whether her homework was correct was another matter but for now she didn’t exactly care.

She found her way along the first floor corridor where she came across the large collection of portraits hung on the wall. They had always intimidated her a little as they seemed to watch her every move and listen to her every word. Not that Aurora did anything against the rules to get in trouble with but still..

She stopped next to a particular portrait which she squinted her eyes suspiciously at.

After many outdoor plans of his were ruined due to the dreary weather, Solomon found himself lost situated in the room of portraits. It wasn’t ideal, as groups of them gave Solomon the creeps, although this time it wasn’t too immediately scary as somebody else was here before him. Solly grinned as he saw an opportunity for some old fashioned revenge, remembering the girl who was watching a portrait had jump!scared him in Diagon Alley.

“BOO!” He bellowed from behind Aurora, suddenly quieting and looking up as he was worried about angering the portraits.

“Hi, sorry.” He whispered to them, before returning a menacing smile towards Aurora. “There, now we’re even.” He informed her.

Aurora was starting to consider striking up a conversation with one if the portraits in the hopes that she could potentially befriend one and learn all the gossip that the school had to offer. What she would do with that gossip she didn’t know. It was quite obvious to the onlooker that Rora had difficulties with keeping her mouth shut. There was no malicious intent behind her but it was very likely that any information told to the twelve year old was very likely to spread its way across the school before long. She luckily didn’t have to consider the logistics of which portrait she was going to befriend and how before she was joined by another student.

Only this student had snuck up behind her and being so engrossed in looking at the portraits she had not heard the pitter patter of his feet before he shouted behind her.

The thing with this tiny 4’5 human was that she could scream. Loudly. What she lacked in height she made up for in pure volume. It was a short but sharp scream that came out of her voice box today that seemed to echo down the corridor and through the stone walls probably not only disturbing the portraits but a few students too. She whipped around to see Solomon stood before her with a smarmy grin on his face. She smacked him on the arm with her bag which luckily for the third year was not full of heavy textbooks but rather just a small bag of snacks for her Pygmy Puff and a cupcake she had just snuck up from the Kitchens.

“That’s not funny, Solly!” she pouted although a hint of a smile was coming through. Had it been the other way around Aurora would definitely have been laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe. “I only snuck up on you because you were getting up to mischief! And anyway I didn’t sneak up you just didn’t see me.” Out came the tongue which poked itself in Solly’s direction.

Her reaction was surprising but also PERFECT. There was something very satisfying when a jump scare like that lands so well. Solomon's eyes widened as her shrill screech sounded the room, and started sniggering at the little thwack on his arm. "Merlin's Beard, hopefully none of those portraits were napping." He rubbed his arm subconsciously but it didn't hurt.

He peered up at those portraits again quickly who must be pretty cheesed off by now. The more he thought about it, the more he started to feel sorry for them. They were real people once, just like he is now. It began a long train of thoughts that could have distracted Solomon for hours if he had let them, but thankfully, he chose to focus on Aurora instead, who seemed to have taken to the joke well judging by that little smile she was trying to conceal.

"Me? Mischief?" Solly mocked a shocked expression before dissolving into laughter. Although back to facts. "Besides, I wasn't doing anything wrong in Diagon Alley!" He insisted. "Brutus just really wanted to stretch his legs." His legs, her legs, they hadn't established the gender of the tarantula, had they?

Had she not been so deep in thought Aurora might not have made such an over the top reaction but it just so happened that she was so engrossed in the paintings that the reaction was entirely warranted. In her mind at least. Obviously Solomon had found the whole ordeal funny and barely reacted at being smacked on the arm. Aurora was luckily not the type of girl to take offended easily and didn’t often hold a grudge either. Solly should think himself lucky that he picked this girl to scare and not some other poor innocent second year.

“If the paintings have woken up I’ll blame it all on you!” she declared proudly. Who were they more likely to believe? A naive sweet little blonde or a stinky mischievous but also quite cute boy. Maybe she should have been a Slytherin with thoughts like those? “I’ll just tell them I got sneakily attacked by a MEANIE.” Despite turning twelve over the summer holidays, Rora had clearly not quite achieved the maturity levels she said she had.

“Yes you!” she poked his nose gently with her finger in a boop. Personal space boundaries were not her thing. “The most mischievous of all Slytherins, Solomon Duck.” To be perfectly honest Aurora hadn’t actually met that many Slytherins and she certainly didn’t know them enough to call them friends. Except Solly. He was welcome on her list. “I didn’t know you could speak Tarantula” she replied sarcastically. ‘Brutus’, who Aurora was still insisting was a female, looked like she had plenty of space to stretch her eight legs. Solly just wanted to cause a ruckus in the menagerie.

A meanie? He raised an eyebrow with a smug smile. “A meanie? Did you come up with that all by yourself?” He was being playful but unaware that his comment was a little MEAN.

Solomon could feel his nose turning pink when she booped it, a similar feeling to when Anna kissed him on the cheek. He didn’t know what to do with those sorts of interactions, he wasn’t used to it. Was he supposed to boop her nose in return? Who knows. He decided to just ignore it this time, though.

The most mischievous of all Slytherins.

Solly liked that, and would pitch it to Anna to add to his already obnoxiously long nickname.

“That’s right.” He agreed. Although, in reality, he knew there probably were better Slytherins than him. Whoever sent that gum flying into his face at the feast, for example. However annoying, he had to applaud them for their sneakiness. He sighed a little as he recalled the event, suddenly thinking about how he could get his own back on this mysterious person. Now wasn’t the time to think of it.

“Come onnnn, he had that tiny cage. Beasts like those should be out in the wild.” Solomon often thought animals should be free, even his own toad, sometimes. “What’re you doing here anyway? I was trying to find something to do as it was raining outside, but it’s so easy to get lost in here, isn’t it?” If Aurora fancied exploring WITH Solomon, then that would make his day much more exciting. Maybe they could venture to the kitchen.

“I wonder if any of these portraits hides a secret passageway?” He pondered.

Yes she absolutely did come up with that amazing insult all in her own head. The problem was that Aurora was a terrible liar and even if she did blame it all on Solly, she wouldn’t be able to insult him too much or the Portraits would see straight through her. “I can call you something MEANER if you’d like?” she smirked at him. Like smelly or a nincompoop. It was his choice.

Rora was definitely a touchy-feely type person. She loved hugs and physical interactions but her Ma had engaged her in a long conversation about how some people didn’t like their personal space invaded. She was trying her hardest not to be too intense when it came to greeting others although some did deserve the biggest hugs anyway. A boop on the nose would now be her new thing. She giggled at Solly’s slight blush but quickly moved on when he did.

“Maybe she liked being in there! She got fed all the time and didn’t have to go catch it herself. And maybe if she escaped she’d grow super big like those Acromantulas and I bet even you are scared of them.” Rora might not have had a fear of spiders but she certainly didn’t want to come across a giant one.

As for what she was doing there? She couldn’t exactly answer that question because quite frankly she didn’t know. “I was bored! I’ve finished my homework and as it’s raining outside I didn’t want to go out and I couldn’t find anyone I knew in the Common Room.” In other words her sister wasn’t around nor her dormies. “So I thought I’d find some places in the castle I hadn’t been before. Maybe you could join me? We could go on a scavenger hunt!” Her speech quickened the most excited she got in her own thoughts.

A secret passage?! Now he was talking! “Do you think so?! Do you reckon there’s a secret password we have to say to one of these paintings?” She was practically bouncing at the idea. “Come on, let’s find out!” she beamed grabbing hold of his hand and pulling him along the corridor to the next group of paintings.

“Meaner than meanie?” Solly exhaled. “Phew, you might hurt my feelings. Are you sure you’re not in Slytherin?” He pretended to not be insulted by that house stereotype, because he personally thought he was the nicest person ever, but he only used this as a silly joke.

UMMMM… “SHE?”

Solomon pressed his brows together into a frown, almost ignoring everything Aurora said about BRUTUS, although talk of Acromantulas caught his attention again. “Not being afraid of an Acromantula would be foolish.” He commented. “But I’d love to see one from afar… one day…” Circling back to Brutus being accused of being a girl, Solly added, “I will ask Professor Haton about how we can find out the gender of a tarantula.” And she should do well to listen.

A scavenger hunt sounded cool, although he’d much prefer to look for insects or different types of rocks outside, Solomon tapped his chin to think of indoor friendly options. “Good idea. How about… we look for all of the house ghosts? Or… all of the house elves?” That might have been his way of hinting his way to the kitchens, but he had often seen the creatures in other parts of the castle, too!

“Yes!” Solly exclaimed, “I do think they’re hiding something!” Before he could ponder on which, Aurora was pulling him to the next few portraits that they hadn’t viewed yet. She was exceeding even his own excitement on the matter! “I’ve been trying to think of passwords, actually…” although he wasn’t going to mention his attempt at Gregory the Smarmy statue. Something about someone’s underpants…

Aurora had nothing against being a Slytherin, in fact her Uncle Bradley and two of her older cousins Alfie and Archie had been Slytherins themselves so it must’ve run in the Ackerly blood but she couldn’t ever see herself in the house of Snakes. “Nope! My Ma thinks if I wasn’t a Claw I would’ve been a Hufflepuff.” Rora was truly loyal after all. Truth be told she could’ve easily fit in any of the houses for she has traits of them all but it was Ravenclaw where her heart was.

Of course Brutus was a girl. Was Solly not listening to Aurora’s information about how much better female spiders were?

As fascinating as seeing an Acromantula would be, Aurora didn’t want to ever be near enough to one to see it. “Can you imagine how big their fangs must be? I bet they could run faster than the fastest human on Earth with those massive legs.” She shuddered slightly at the thought. The twelve year old nodded at the idea of asking the Care of Magical Creatures Professor, hopeful that as she herself was a woman she’d be on Rora’s side.

She quite liked the idea of going around to find the ghosts that haunted the castle. Ordinarily, any young girl would find seeing a ghost absolutely terrifying but Hogwarts was full of mostly friendly spirits who loved to stop and chat about their crazy lives. “YES! Although maybe not just the house ghosts. What if they are hiding in the Common Rooms?” Rora didn’t fancy breaking into the Gryffindor Common Room today. Unfortunately for Solly, Aurora had just come from the kitchen hence the now probably squished cupcake in her bag.

“Hmm.. What passwords have you tried so far?” she asked looking up at the portrait before them.

“Really? I don’t know much about Hufflepuffs other than my friend,” girlfriend???? “…Anna.” And she was borderline insane so it had created a bit of a reputation for the house in Solomon’s mind. As for him… “I’m not entirely sure which house I’d be in if I weren’t in Slytherin.” He secretly hoped that Aurora would give him some insight based on the short time they had known each other.

Solly mimicked her shudder, and in reality he knew that he’d be a great big sissy if confronted with one. “We’d definitely need a broomstick to get away from one, although I’m not all that good on one.” He sighed, unintentionally changing the subject. His skill wasn’t through lack of effort, of course.

Indeed, the castle was full of spirits, but Solomon didn’t know the names of many other than the famous house ghosts. He smirked at her question. “So what? That sounds like an adventure to me.” Breaking into common rooms, that is. He had spent 3 years of curiosity towards them. Somehow he didn’t think Aurora would be up for the task.

UHHHHMMMMM…

Solly stuttered a little. “I, umm… thought of… Wilber’s Underpants.” He snort!laughed a little, then shrugged. “I dunno. It could be anything, couldn’t it? Perhaps there’s a book in a the restricted section about passwords of the castle.” Sounded like another adventure.

What did he mean HIS friend Anna?! Aurora considered pouting at the statement as Anna was HER self proclaimed fairytale loving, bubbly, bouncy bestie! Not that Aurora was the jealous type.. Okay maybe a teensy bit? She couldn’t help it! It was bad enough that she had to share her sisters attention with all those stinky boys she seemed to attract. But Rora always did her best to hide it as she had been taught that jealousy wasn’t a good trait and she certainly didn’t want upset anyone. “Anna is the best” she simply commented in the hopes that Solly wouldn’t somehow be able to read her jealous thoughts.

As for what house Solly would be in? Rora wasn’t entirely sure herself for she didn’t know much about the individual houses other than that everyone she had met so far had been extremely nice. “Well are you brave enough to be a Gryffindor?” He didn’t particularly scream Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw in her non-expert opinion.

Flying was one of the blondes least favourite subjects. She preferred to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground unless she was on the back of a horse. Broomsticks were uncomfortable and inconvenient and there were much better modes of transport. Future Quidditch star she was not. “I’m rubbish at Flying too” she commented. “What’s the point in broomsticks when there’s floos or apparition when we are older? It’s so much quicker.” Although the danger factor wasn’t much less when it came to apparition. She’d heard it was easy to splinch yourself.

A little snort escaped her nose as she heard the attempted password. What kind of password was that? Was that a hint for Rora to accompany him to the restricted section? The problem was that as curious at Aurora was to secret passages and unknown information, she was also the type to not want to get in trouble. The thought of her parents disappointed faces when they found out that innocent little Rory had broken the rules. “Well YOU can break into the restricted section and I’ll just keep a look out to see if anyone is coming.” And then if anyone did catch them she could play innocent.

It was good that she hadn’t expressed any jealousy towards his friendship with Anna, because he didn’t really understand feeling that way over sharing friends. Hand in hand with that, Solly did NOT pick up on any signs that she may be feeling that way. “She is really cool.” And a great potential girlfriend, as previously thought of by Solly. “The three of us should hang out sometime.” Sharing friends. Awesome.

Solomon frowned HARD. “You know, you can be brave and NOT be in Gryffindor.” In fact, it felt silly that your traits should be categorised like that. He knew his own house had had a reputation for evil, although that had appeared to calm down in recent years. “But yes. I do think I am quite brave.” Quite valiant, if you would prefer.

“True, I can’t wait to learn apparation. I suppose flying is good enough until then, but I think I’d prefer to get the train because floo makes me nauseous.” He chuckled. Anyone would think he was a muggle with that attitude. “I really like potions.” Although he wished he was better at spell work.

He could feel himself blushing when she laughed at his password idea, then wondering why he would even mention it to someone else, but he decided to go along with it and laughed with her. “I dunno!! I thought it would be something hard to guess.” Inconspicuous, was the word he was thinking of but words failed him. “Let’s hear your password ideas, then?!” It wasn’t as easy as you might think. Her lack of enthusiasm towards going into the restricted section was a little disappointing.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” He teased.

Aurora clearly wasn’t a brave Gryffindor. Teeeeeeheee.

Don’t you worry Solly Salamander, Aurora wasn’t going to display her teensy bit of jealousy out loud for others to see. Jealousy wasn’t attractive according to her Mums, not that she was actively trying to impress anyone. Not quite yet anyway. Boys were absolutely still stinky.. mostly. “Are you SUUUURE you want to hang out with BOTH me and Anna?” she giggled. The pair together were absolutely like a tornado whirling their way through a room and taking over everything.

“I know that silly!” Rora didn’t stereotype the houses, in fact she had so many friends across all four. “But you were asking what house you’d be in and I think that you’d probably be a Gryffindor. Releasing tarantulas in the middle of a shop does seem like a very Lion thing to do.” You wouldn’t see a Ravenclaw doing such a thing. And Gryffindors were probably brazen enough to do it and get caught like she had caught Solly.

The Claw didn’t have any particular ideas for a password as she hadn’t actually given any thought to it. “I have to solve a riddle every day to get the password into my own common room.” Did he realise how strenuous that was on the brain. “Why don’t we ask the ghosts? They’ve been around for so long that they must’ve heard something.” Or they could do Solly’s suggestion and go to the restricted section..

..which Rora was NOT afraid of a bit of adventure thank you very much! “I’d rather not get into trouble when it was yooooour idea.”