Peering into the spare office, Apollo surveyed the room for a moment before stepping inside. Good enough, he thought. He simply needed an empty room where he could test out some spells with his wand without affecting too many people, and this seemed out of the way enough to suffice.

Ever since his wand had been hit by a stray spell during the Dueling Club activity the day before, it had been acting differently. Nothing too out-of-the-ordinary thus far, but he could feel the difference in the sluggish way it responded to him, or in how it didn't quite perform as he intended even with spells he had mastered in first year.

Fortunately, it was nearly time for the Christmas holidays, so he would be having his father, a wandmaker, examine it once he got home. Getting a better read on the state of his wand would be useful though. The more information he could give his father, the more likely it could be repaired. And he was certain it could be. Surely it would not need to be replaced entirely. Given the option between keeping his wand or acquiring a new one, Apollo would prefer to keep it. He liked this one.

Grabbing a borrowed goblet from his bag, he knelt down to set it on the ground. Aguamenti seemed like a harmless enough spell to test. Glacius had crossed his mind as an option too, but he'd decided against it. Ice could be damaging or harmful if it hit another person, or himself, especially if it came out too strong. Water in its liquid, at least, was less immediately damaging, and hopefully could be more controlled.

Goblet in front of him, Apollo pulled out his wand and aimed it into the cup of the goblet. "Aguamenti," he said, imagining a gentle stream of water flowing from his wand into the goblet.

Nothing.

Hm.

"Aguamenti," he said again, keeping that image in his mind. And water ERUPTED from his wand, the force of it knocking over the goblet and the wand slipping from his hand.

Newly freed, the wand was flung about the room like an unruly water hose, water gushing forth continuously, soaking the rug, splashing off the walls. His robes were soaked too, but that didn't stop him from chasing after it. Grabbing for it, it kept dodging him, flinging one way and then another and another and another. The floor was quickly growing slick from the water, which only made it even more difficult to grab his wand.

Merlin's socks, this was embarrassing.

Xerxes heard a commotion as he was walking down the Sixth Floor Corridor. It was coming from an used classroom on his left. As he opened the door and began to ask "Is everything ok in he.........", a powerful jet of water sprayed him in the face. The floor, being slippery by this point, seemed to fall out from under him.

This was far more than he had bargained for. From the floor, Xerxes looked up to see a boy trying to grab a wand from midair as it spouted the jet the water that had slapped Xerxes in the face a few moments ago.

Xerxes took out his own wand and cried, "Finite!". The jet of water stopped at once. The wand fell to the floor with a dull splash.

Diamond swept into the spare office like she owned it because, well, in spirit and most certainly in her head, she did. A glittering orange notebook tucked under one arm, quill in the other, her heels made satisfying little clicks on the stone floor. She’d come to polish off her next Witch Weekly articles in peace and reread her Ministry acceptance letter. Maybe sip a butterbeer ― she had purchased a bottle during the last Hogsmeade weekend and it was just taking up space in her trunk currently ― while she worked. Maybe manifest her Pulitzer with sheer presence alone.

What she had not come for was—

"WH—!"

In a split second, her foot met the glossy, soaking-wet floor, and gravity betrayed her. Down she went. Arms flailing, notebook flying, the back of her robes catching like a cape before she landed with a resounding splash on her back. The shock of cold water soaked straight through her layers and into her soul. Worst of all? Her hair. Her hair. Her beautifully styled, just-moisturized curls now frizzing into war with the universe.

A strangled yelp followed by silence.

...and then...

"EXCUUUUUUUUUUUSE ME—" she snapped, sitting up, soaked through and fuming, as a rogue jet of water ricocheted off a bookshelf behind her. Her eyes locked onto the source of the chaos and felt absolutely NO sympathy for either of these misfit anklebiters.

"Are you dueling a mermaid in here? Stupidly trying to make your own swimming pool? Or just trying to murder everyone's dignity one puddle at a time?" she growled, dragging her soggy self upright with all the grace she could muster. Which, given the circumstances, was still about a hundred times more elegant than anyone here deserved.

They were lucky she didn’t press charges for Crimes Against Hair.

And then another travesty was noticed.

"UGH! Of course...OF COURSE. Because of you lot I’ve broken...no, shattered several nails and I’m fairly certain at least three vertebrae are misaligned. And for what? A slip-n-slide spell in the middle of WINTER?" She tossed a soaked curl over her shoulder with righteous fury. "I always knew you Hufflepuffs were chaos in cardigans. All that wholesome energy is just camouflage for clumsiness."

She paused just long enough to wring out her sleeve with a theatrical sigh, eyes narrowing. There was only one Hufflepuff she didn't mind hanging around her all he wanted and he wasn't even technically a Hufflepuff anymore.

The rest? On probation. Indefinitely.

Xerxes had barely recovered himself when another, older student walked in to the unused office and she herself fell over too. When she got up, she began to tirade both himself and the other student; who hadn't even had time to respond to Xerxes yet.

"What are you yelling at me for? I just walked in a few seconds before you did. When I arrived, a wand was spewing a jet of water everywhere. I'm in the same boat you are. So I'd thank you to tone it down with the reprimands, if you please. And I'm looking up the spell to clear up all this water right now. So just a moment......" Xerxes said, a little indignantly.

Xerxes rifled through his textbook, looking for a spell to clear up water. He could probably use a Vanishing Spell, but that was far beyond the Transfigurational capabilities of a First Year. So in the meantime, he perused the book for an Evaporation Spell or Drought Charm that would suffice.

Here’s to a nice quiet day, she mused to herself as she moved around the vaulted room. Aurora was busy straightening up and setting things in place in her classroom for an upcoming lesson when she couldn’t help but hear yelling coming down the sixth floor corridor. Grabbing her attention with a jerk of her head in the direction of the door, the transfiguration professor quickly moved to investigate the disturbance with a sigh. What in Merlin’s beard was going on? Had she jinxed herself that easily? Even without the raised voices it wasn’t hard to pick out the source of the noise…a spare office that wasn’t too far away from the Transfiguration rooms.

Of course the scene she was greeted just outside the room that was supposed to be empty certainly wasn’t what she expected, water having already seeped across the threshold. Though thankfully she managed to catch herself with both hands on the doorway before she could slip on the water- soaked floor, the woman carefully picking her way inside to see three students in the middle of the roughly contained chaos. A quickly placed impervious charm keeping the edges of her robe from soaking up liquid. “Wuid anyone care to tell me jous what happened here?” she asked the two Hufflepuffs and Gryffindor combined just a tad perturbed. The Scottish woman was keeping her temper at bay for the moment…but it was probably best to not try it.

It was just his luck that other people happened to be around to witness this.

Then again, perhaps the luck was more good than bad. Apollo was not adept at wandless magic yet, and his wand had proven that it would ignore his actual intentions anyway, so perhaps it was beneficial to have another person around to assist.

He was soaked through by the time the Finite was cast, but still he was careful as he stepped across the room to retrieve the now fallen wand. "Thank you," he said to the boy.

Wand in hand, he took a moment to study the room. Under ordinary circumstances, he would cast something to vacuum or dry up all of the water, but given the current finicky state of his wand, it was wiser not to. Perhaps seeking the help of a professor would be-

The entrance, and subsequent fall, of an older girl interrupted his train of thought. Apollo was about to offer an apology and a hand to help her up, but...she kept talking. A lot.

"Or just trying to murder everyone's dignity one puddle at a time?" "Of course, that was my intention," he said, his face remaining neutral, but there was a dry humor in his tone. He had certainly murdered his own dignity in this moment - or rather, his wand had. Only the pink shade of his ears belied his embarrassment.

He only half-listened to the rest of her complaints - though he did note the alliterative description of "chaos in cardigans," which he found amusing - and to the boy's indignant response. Apollo's attention was instead taken up by looking around the room, assessing the damage. It was then that he noticed the overturned goblet, and he picked it up in his free hand.

And then...there was a professor, right on time. This would save him the trouble of seeking one out.

"This is my fault, professor," he answered without hesitation. "My wand has been behaving strangely since it was hit by a spell in Dueling Club yesterday. I'm not sure what spell it was, but it wasn't from my dueling opponent." It had come from a different direction, and he assumed it was an accident, mostly because he did not see a reason for someone to target him maliciously. Either way, he would not accuse anyone without evidence. "I was attempting to gauge how badly affected it was. I thought Aguamenti would be a safe spell to test out-" he held up the goblet "-but my wand took it to extremes." As seen by the state the office was now in.

Xerxes chimed in after Apollo had finished. "Then I came in and saw what was happening, so I immediately cast 'Finite' on the flailing, spraying wand to stop it. And it WORKED! But then some other girl came in a slipped a little, I think. Then she got really upset......and then you came in Professor."

He looked around the room. It had all happened so quickly. You wouldn't know just by looking at it that not a few moments ago, the room look perfectly normal. It was amazing just how quickly it could descend into a state of utter chaos.

"So I believe everything is alright now, we just need to clean up a bit. But no harm done, really. I'm just a first year, so I don't know how to clean stuff up with magic yet. But if someone could teach me, I'd be ever so happy to learn."

Viv had only intended to poke her head in and get some quiet for sketching—but instead she got a face full of freezing backsplash and a front-row seat to the most unexpected magical hose fight this side of the Hogwarts kitchens. She slipped in behind the commotion just as that older Gryffindor student flew (graceful in theory, dramatic in practice), and Viv winced in sympathy—though secretly admiring her fury. She actually had a point about Crimes Against Hair.

Viv leaned against the doorframe, dripping at the cuffs and watching the scene unfold as if she’d stumbled into a comedy of errors: a runaway wand, flustered Hufflepuffs, a very cross Gryffindor, and now a professor casting Impervius with a sigh that said this had better be explained in three sentences or less. And then there was Xerxes, bless him, who was so eager to help that Viv almost handed him her Drought Charms notes right away.

But mostly she just smiled to herself. Because only in a castle full of twelve-year-olds wielding wands could you walk into a mystery office and discover an unintentional indoor monsoon.

Oh. No. He. Did. Not.

Diamond blinked once, slowly, as if giving her brain time to process the sheer GALL of what had just occurred. A first year. Speaking to her. Like that. The audacity. The unbottled, unfiltered, never-should-have-been-in-the-same-room-as-her nerve.

She planted a hand on her hip, soaked hair clinging to one cheek like a tragic heroine wronged by untrained children fate. "I beeeeeeeg your pardon?" she drawled. "You think you’re in the same boat as me? Look here pipsqueak, if you were on a boat it’d be a paper one sinking under the weight of that attitude." Her heel made a satisfying little click as she shifted her stance and jetted her hip out a bit more. "And unless you’re hiding seven years of magical education and a sense of respect under that soggy robe, I suggest you ziiiiiiiiiip it, flip to whatever page you like, and kindly stay in your lane before I give you a practical lesson in the art of biting off more than you can chew."

The pink-in-the-face Hufflepuff's words only served to aggravated her already flamboyant rage and Diamond's arms were already halfway in the air before the professor even finished her question. "Oh, finally," she announced, exasperation radiating from every soaked strand of hair and even more so from each syllable. "A voice of reason. An adult. Someone who might actually care that I am drenched in flippant wand water and verbal disrespect."

She pivoted dramatically to face Apollo with a manicured finger pointing directly at him. "This one, Professor. Yes, the very one trying to look all noble now," she began. "JUST seconds before you walked in, he said and I QUOTE... with all the deadpan flair of someone confessing to the more egregious of crimes over tea...'Of course, that was my intention.' His intention, Professor!" She gestured around at the puddle-riddled floor, the sopping desk legs, the curtain that was still dripping steadily into said puddles. "So unless he was talking about some other catastrophe in progress, I think it’s fairly clear that this Hufflepuff here fully admits to willfully drowning this office in the name of...I don’t know, performance art? A personal vendetta against dry carpets?"

She flicked water off her fingers with a grimace. "Not to mention he nearly took out my spine. And if that’s not an egregious offense worthy of immediate detention, then honestly WHAT are we even doing here?"

At least a quick explanation was given by Mr. Finch-Selwyn without the need of further nudging. That was a good sign, for the quicker a situation was assessed, the quicker it could be put to right. Which given how it already had brought in a professor and two fellow, no three fellow students in less than desirable circumstances, the woman having noticed a young Ravenclaw leaning near the door, it needed to be dealt with. Especially the offensive wand that Aurora certainly knew could cause issues if so wrecked with misaimed magic.

Well, the young Mr. Cadwallander had already taken care of the immediate issue with his well-placed finite. Good…good. However, it seemed the eldest student in the mix wasn’t pleased with the fourth year’s details, proceeding to give her own interpretations of the younger student’s intentions which only made her raise an eyebrow. “As I dae not have any concrete evidence of it being anything mair than an unfortunate accident, I dinna think it requires a detention, Ms, Marchbanks,” she remarked simply, though a look between Diamond and Apollo sent the wordless message that it there was evidence in either direction, it should be brought forth.

“Of course the more pressing issue tis cleaning up,” she mused finally moving again taking in the whole room once more as if picking a course of action for the scene. “Best to use the drought charm on the floors and hot air charm for the rest,” Professor Stone added as she turned back to the four students. “Mr. Cadwallander, Ms Awning, follow along so ye can learn the spells---in fact that’s have ye four pair off. Ms Marchbanks and Ms. Awning work on drying up the puddles while Mr. Cadwallander and Mr. Finch-Selwyn air out the various damp items with the hot-air charm.” That would keep the older students separate and not fighting and each would lead a younger student.

“Oh and Mr. Finch-Selwyn…do keep a good grip on your wand and focus to be careful against any further mishaps,” she instructed before taking out her own wand to help with matters. The transfiguration professor aiming at the nearest pool of water with a well-placed drought charm, her wand tip moving in the clockwise ‘d’ movement as she cast.

Sure of her actions, Vivienne blinked twice as Diamond's monologue progressed, uncertain whether to applaud or offer the Gryffindor a towel and calming draught.

A diplomatic nod was given during a theatrical trial, as if recording proceedings. She crouched beside a stubborn puddle, demonstrating her presence and eloquence in the midst of the proceedings.

With a careful flick, Siccatus softly manipulated the water, causing it to vanish and curl away, demonstrating the power of a swift action.

With a faint smile, Vivienne glared sideways at Diamond, stating that her hair is still winning the war. With a quiet focus, she returned to her task, methodical and precise, amused by the chaos that Hogwarts always seemed to conjure.

Xerxes nodded as Professor Stone instructed the students on what to do. She seemed very fair and very reasonable. But there was just one problem, Xerxes did not yet know how to perform the Dry Air Charm.

"Begging pardon, ma'am. But could someone show me how to perform the Dry Air Charm? I haven't learned that one yet. It would be much appreciated." Xerxes explained sheepishly. He didn't often like asking for help, except when it was absolutely necessary. But he didn't see any other way to complete his Professor's instructions without outright asking for help. So he did, in this case.

At least his fellow Hufflepuff was honest. Apollo did note the silent arrival of a younger Ravenclaw, but his attention was immediately arrested by the older girl continuing yet another monologue...and he was again baffled, though his expression remained as neutral as ever.

Either she did not understand sarcasm or she was willfully twisting the truth, and both options puzzled him. All of this because she had slipped and fallen? It seemed like so much effort over something so small. He did not care about the possibility of detention - if the professor deemed it appropriate, he would obviously complete whatever task he was given, and then he would move on with his life and his studies as usual - but it was interesting to him that this was what her mind apparently jumped to.

He supposed fragile egos were not limited to people at Durmstrang. A disappointing thought.

Apollo dismissed that thought process for now, deciding it unnecessary to argue the facts with the older girl when Professor Stone seemed to understand the situation. Now the focus needed to be cleaning the room, which he agreed with.

"Of course, Professor," he said. "I'm afraid it might be too great of a risk to test my wand though, at least until I can get it repaired over the holidays." Considering it had caused all of this with just the water-making spell, he wasn't sure it would be a good idea to test it with the Hot-Air Charm. What if it again disregarded his intentions and somehow burned him or someone else? Granted, of course, the professor was here now, and she could likely handle whatever mishap his wand created, but it still felt wrong to him to risk it.

"I can show you the Hot-Air Charm though," he offered to the younger Hufflepuff boy. "And I can assist with holding the items that need drying." Like the rug, for instance, to ensure that every part of it was fully dried. "The incantation is 'Siccare aerem,'" he continued. "And the wand movement is sort of...similar to a cursive W, I suppose, with the middle of the W a bit taller than the rest." He demonstrated that movement with his wand. "It takes a little getting used to, but I'm sure you'll master it."

Xerxes greatly appreciated the older boy's assistance with the Charm. He too thought it probably wasn't a good idea for the older Hufflepuff to use his broken wand at the moment, so this arrangement would suit them perfectly.

Xerxes raised his wand and uttered the incantation as instructed. "Siccare Aerem!" he said, tracing the exact wand movement the older boy had shown him.

At once, a jet of (presumably) hot air rushed from the tip of his wand. Xerxes slowly moved his wand over every inch of the damp rug until it was as dry as the desert sands.

"Wow, thanks a lot. That worked really well. You're a very good teacher. My name is Xerxes. Xerxes Cadwallader. It's nice to meet you." he said, smiling at the older boy.

"Is there more we can help dry?" Xerxes asked, looking around the room for more items to dry off.