Kellen walked along the ground floor of Hogwarts with Chaucer in tow, still in search of the greenhouses. They weren't silly, they knew they had to be outside, but the castle was huge and they were looking for a way out besides the front doors.

He noticed a door off to the side and thought it might be a serving corridor. House elves had to get around somehow, right? He opened it and actually had a foot inside before his eyes picked up on the cleaning equipment.

"What an odd location for a broom cupboard..."

Chaucer looked positively outraged at the sheer audacity of the cupboard which, he figured, was purposely made to appear as a regular door. "Why is everything something here? Sometimes up will take you down, east will take you north and I was brutally bombarded by a picture flying away from the wall!" Kellen had explained that it was necessary to keep the House entrances covert, but Chaucer was never one to appreciate things that could not be ascertained from glimpsing them. As can be imagined, he was never too fond of trick gum either.
"Well..." Chaucer said, a little defeated, "is there anything interesting at all in there?" He poked his head over Kellen's shoulders.

Kellen turned his head to look at him, "Just stuff to clean with. It smells like it needs a good drying charm in here, though. Come on, let's keep going before we get mould up our noses."

He stepped back and closed the door.

Sherri wandered at a relatively slow pace, on the ground floor of Hogwarts. Evidently, this was the only thing she had seen so far. She never even thought of traveling upwards unless it was to the common room in the highest towers. Sherri was rather cautious about the staircases as one had changed on her while heading upwards. For now, the ground is where she was stand.

One on the ground floor, she saw two students, much older looking that she, staring at a door. With a slight tilt of the head, Sherri advanced over to them. "Might I ask, what are you two looking at?" It looked like a regular door, in her opinion. Then again, with a castle like this, mostly everything wasn't what it should have been.

"GAH! Looks-a-lordy girl, you gave me a fright!" As remnants of Chaucer's unflatteringly high pitch echoed down the corridor, he patted down his hair and jacket in a fastidious manner. "No - nothing in there. Well, there are things in there, but nothing worth looking at unless you had some strange longing for the world of brooms and other cleaning things. But then, only muggles use brooms for strictly sweeping... who on earth thought it would be okay to ride upon what you clean with? It's like a joke that went too far!" In truth, Chaucer had never thought much on the subject and decided there that the best course of action would be to twiddle his long hair in contemplation.

"Bah, more on that later I suppose. What are you doing here alone? Do you know where the Greenhouse is? Well outside, yes thank you, but rather where is a door around here that will take us outside?"

"Quite the sick joke," Sherri snickered. She took broomsticks as fascinating objects as she had read Quidditch Through the Ages several times, rather than the sick joke that the boy before her was making it out to be. "I suppose it would be a good disguise if any sort of muggle entered a wizarding family's home. They would assume it was an ordinary cleaning utensil."

Sherri felt discouraged. Perhaps being a newcomer had its disadvantages as she hadn't known where doors led and where each of her classes had actually been. The boy was looking for the greenhouses. The only things she could figure out were the seventh floor and which staircases had led to the ground floor. Sherri wasn't too familiar with much. "Sorry, I'm only a first year. I would only suppose the entrance," Sherri answered, a small thumb pointing in its direction.

"Bah I say! But not to you dear, to this whole institution! It's a sturdy old thing and the dark atmosphere is romantic in itself, but blast it all why, tell me, WHY does no one think of a map? A pamphlet? Maybe the occasional exit sign? Anything!" Chaucer's old school was only constructed in the early 1900's and was quite modern as far as wizard academies went. While the idea of living in an ancient laberinthine castle initially roused his imagination, now it seemed to be a right bother to merely navigate from one floor to another.

And would it have been such a sin to label the broom closet more appropriately? Who in history had mistaken such a thing for an actual door before?

"Well there are only two ways out of a maze: one is to have the foresight to bring along a piece of thread, but since I am lacking there, I must instead follow alongside a wall until an exit presents itself." He made a melodramatic sigh; at this rate, it would be dark before they reached the Greenhouse.

Sherri shrugged. It would have been convenient to have a map of the school, despite the never-ending staircases (in these cases, mostly led nowhere but empty classrooms and forbidden corridors). "A sign would be helpful, indicating where everything is instead of asking a prefect that would likely just snicker and wander off aimlessly," Sherri answered, almost sarcastically. In the event of asking a prefect, the chances of that happening were fairly high. Asking anyone else, same concept.

"I'm sure I can assist you in finding the greenhouses. Then again, I don't know how helpful I'd be, but it would be prudent for future references," she insisted. Sherri hadn't even known there were greenhouses until today, however, that fact mustn't be brought up. For now, Sherri could do some navigation outside her routine of the common rooms to the Great Hall.

"How noble! And yet, we must decline..." Chaucer looked over at Kellen, already halfway down the hall. Always so impatient, that lad.
"... rather, we are not sure how long we will be out for or if we even decide to stick it out! We wouldn't want to be held responsible for imposing a bad impression on a younger student." He gave pause and looking closely at her face and taking her height into consideration. "Well I assume you're younger anyway. And a lady at that. I would be remiss to endanger your reputation miss...?"

Evelyn stepped into the cupboard, quickly closing the door behind her. It was a lot bigger than she was expecting. But I guess they have a lot of brooms to store in here. Evelyn wasn't exactly sure why she had followed Wesley in here. Perhaps she was just curious to find out why she was hiding, or perhaps she wanted to see if Wesley needed her help.

She couldn't see Wesley in the darkness. "Wesley?" she whispered as quietly as she could. Maybe there's a secret passageway in here and she's already gone. Evelyn ran her hand blindly along the side wall, hoping to feel for some sign of where Wesley was.

Wesley practically dived into the mops, sending some flying but, in the process, successfully burying herself.

The Hufflepuff crouched in the damp corner, biting her lip and hoping that, if the door opened, it would be Evelyn and her friend and NOT Professor Bunbury.

The third year had smushed herself against the wall as best she could, holding her breath when the door opened. Please don't let it be the professor. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please don't-

If the lack of heal clacking answered her prayers, Evelyn's voice was a sign from the Divine.

Small brunette head popping out from behind some mop heads, Wesley whispered back, "Evelyn!"

For a split second, the Hufflepuff considered casting "Lumos," but then realized it was better dark. If an unusual light was shining from the closet's door, Professor Bunbury would find them. Instead, she reached out and grabbed the girl's outstretched hand, tugging on Evelyn's arm downward.

"We've got to hide. Where's your friend?"

Evelyn jumped when she heard Wesley whisper her name, and she had to clasp her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming as Wesley pulled her down to the ground to hide amongst the mops.

"I told her to go find my friend Hayden. We lost her coming up from the lake," Evelyn whispered as quietly as she could, "Who or what are we hiding from?"

"Good." Wesley whispered, glad the other girl was far away from the Staff Room.

"Professor Bunbury." The name alone explained everything.

Except for...Evelyn hadn't had Herbology yet. "She...wears these heals. And a lot of pink. She's scary." Wesley nodded in the dark. "I heard her yelling about Azkaban" her last word less than a whisper, the Hufflepuff paused, shuddering, and continued, "If she caught me outside that room -even you guy's, though you weren't doing anything - I'd - We'd all end up in detention."

Wesley was going easy on Evelyn. She wasn't going to scare her friend with what she really thought the outcome would be: the E-word. If they stayed here for a while, and made sure all was clear, it wouldn't come to that. It couldn't come to that. Wesley wouldn't let it.

"We just need to wait it out. That's all. It'll be okay. Everything'll be okay."

Evelyn frowned. She really liked Herbology and had been looking forward to learning it here. But if the teacher was scary, that wasn't a good thing.

Azkaban!?! What were professors doing talking about Azkaban!?! Evelyn shuddered, at the same time as Wesley, just at the thought of what she'd heard about the place.

"What exactly happens during a Hogwarts detention?" There had been no detention at Evelyn's old 'school' and she'd never heard from her relatives about Hogwarts detentions. Her dad had put people on detention before. He made them write out a four pages of notes, just using one of his Muggle pens, no charmed quills. Or he just kept them in so they missed half their lunchtime. None of that sounded all that bad to Evelyn.

"If she did catch you eavesdropping, then I'll take the punishment as well. I was with you, I knew what you were doing and I didn't tell you to stop. And I kind of wanted to join in, too." Evelyn couldn't help but smile on that last sentence. Even though she could get a detention for this, she couldn't hide that she was having a little bit of fun, hiding out in the broom closet with Wesley.

Wesley thought about Evelyn's question. And found she had no clue. The idea fell down her throat and stomach with the discomfort of a swallowed-whole sweet. "I don't know," she whispered, "But, I bet it's absolutely awful."

Absolutely. Mind beginning to drift onto what 'awful' exactly meant, Wesley squeezed her eyes tight, trying to cut off her tangent of thought.

Listening to her friend talk, Wesley's eyes popped open. She reached out for Evelyn's hands but only grabbed a fist full of wet mop. "No! The 13-year-old said a tad bit loudly, "I mean- no Evelyn, you mustn't! We," the tiny girl began to sputter, " - us - the Hufflepuffs - we're going to win House Cup this term! I can feel it," she gripped the mop harder, "And detention means losing points - it has to. It'll be bad enough if I get caught, but if you do - we'll lose. For sure." And Wesley wanted that butterbeer SO BAD.

Evelyn took a really deep breath, having to work to fill her lungs. Was it the lack of oxygen in the cupboard or was the fear of getting caught finally making her feel anxious?

She wasn't a competitive person, but Evelyn agreed that winning the house cup would be nice. "If you say so," she frowned. It didn't seem like the honest or fair thing to do, but if that's what Wesley wanted her to do, then she would do it.

Neptune was hungry, but she didn't want to go into the Great Hall. She'd been making very, very slow progress. Having peeped into every other door she came across down the corridor, she made no exception for the broom closet.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

Her feet had led her, unbeknown to Daphne Hopton, out of the Gryffindor common room, down the moving staircases and towards the vicinity of a broom closet. The blond wasn't sure why she had suddenly found herself here, staring at the back of a familiar blond head.

Walking up to the smaller girl, Daphne reached out and placed her hand on top of her golden crown of hair. "What are you doing there, Neptune? Lost something?"

Wesley nodded, leaning back, tense yet slightly relaxed. Soaking up the safety small spaces brought, she took a deep breath, then slowly stood up. "I think," she said, "We're safe. You stay here. I'll check."

Tiptoeing over to the door, she reached for the nob, but pulled back as it began to turn.

...

...

...

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

Stumbling backwards, Wesley fell on her bottom.

She knew it. She knew Professor Bunbury would find her. She just knew it.

Oh dear Merlin. It wasn't Professor Bunbury. Those blue eyes were not hers.

Standing up quickly, Wesley moved forward, "S-s-sorry. Eve- I mean," wincing at her words, the Hufflepuff prayed her friend was still hidden. Just because this -these girls weren't the Herbology teacher didn't mean -

Well, Professor Bunbury was a teacher wasn't she? So she could, like, transfigure into a student if she wanted to.

"I m-m-mean, I'm just - I n-n-needed to find s-some...I needed a b-broom. I s-spilled some-something, and I-I needed t-to, I mean! I n-need a mop. I need to m-mop - mop it up." Wide eyed, she gave a weak smile, and shook her head up and down in a nod.

Behind her back, the 13-year-old crossed her fingers. Because it never hurt.

Startled, Neptune jumped back and never got a chance to answer Daphne. What she was doing suddenly was unimportant. She took refuge behind Daphne, since she was older, more experienced, and well... not a Bott.


"We didn't ask what you were doing! We don't care. But you should apologize for startling us!" Neptune sent the deranged young woman a VERY dirty look. NYEAH!

Surprised, Daphne jumped but did not budge. Instinctively, she began drawing Neptune behind her but the girl was quicker (and smarter) and had already settled behind her. What was it with Ravenclaws and using her as a shield as of late? Glancing at the younger girl over her shoulder, Daphne sighed.

"Honestly," she began, dusting off her skirt and looking ahead of her into the cupboard and the frightened looking girls. "You have a wand, don't you? Why don't you clean it up with magic? This is a magic school after all. If not, the house elves will take care of it."

Raising a questioning brow, Daphne turned her head slightly. "Is there something wrong?"

Why was she asking? She didn't normally care for strangers. .... So why was she asking? "At the very least, you should apologize to Neptune. You scared her." And you should be ashamed! tsk tsk. She's just a little girl.

Mind a-flutter as the older girl, who somehow had come to the front, began to question her, Wesley scrambled for a believable response. Something they would understand without question. Something simple, something....

Eyes popping suddenly, the Hufflepuff bit her lip. She knew what she was doing. She was lying. And lying was bad. Lying was very, very bad, and Wesley was a bad girl for lying. Lip beginning to quiver, the 3rd year bit it harder. She hadn't lied since, since before she could remember. But she must have lied at sometime, for if she hadn't, she wouldn't have known it was bad. Moving her left hand to clutch the crossed right, digging her nails into it, Wesley looked up, speechless once more, teeth forgotten and mouth open like a fish.

But she was saved. Saved as the older girl (and the younger one) demanded an apology. Wesley had never scared someone before, but the unfamiliar situation was over-ruled by the familiar path her words must take.

Tilting her head to look the hiding, small girl in the eyes, as was respectful, she spoke sincerely, high voice flowing without a stutter, "I'm very sorry for startling you. It was entirely my fault, and I shall never do it again." Giving a bow of the head, Wesley felt her shoulders and hands relax. Face blank, she looked her at two peers expectantly, for either acceptance, rebuff, or, as was sometimes common when the apology was for nothing severely bad, the nothingness of being ignored.

Neptune took Daphne's hand - just in case it wasn't safe yet - as she moved out from behind her. "Well, I should think not. Jumping out at people from closets is just rude. Besides, if you need something cleaned, you should just leave it for the house elves to do. That's what they DOOOO."


DERRRRRRR. Neptune rolled her eyes at the girl before giving Daphne a can you believe this girl?? look.