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The Hippogriff Conundrum; Open
Topic Started: Mon Aug 15 20:56:12 GMT 2011 (339 Views)
Anemone Wright
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Anemone had spent a fruitless week looking for something interesting to do around the school. With so many people generally giving her wide berth due to their issues with her so-called attitude (bunch of babies), she didn't have many she would exactly call 'friends' and even fewer she'd consider true allies. Besides, with school not yet in session, her pool of candidates was even smaller than usual, which left her quite a bit of time on her hands.

Not that she hadn't found some things to amuse herself, but when left to her own devices, she fell back to exploring the school, taking advantage of the empty rooms and corridors -- not to mention the lack of classes and schoolwork -- to give the place a thorough going over. She hadn't uncovered much, however. A few new shortcuts that might come in handy when she was running late for class, but nothing that was particularly interesting.

In fact, she'd all but given up the hunt when she stumbled upon her first real development. On her way to the library to amuse herself for at least a few short hours, she noticed something that seemed a little out of place. A statue of a hippogriff stood along the stretch of hallway, blocking a door that she could have sworn wasn't there before. She was more certain of this than she might have been otherwise, since she'd spent an hour or two exploring this floor only just earlier in the week. Surely she'd have noticed something as intriguing as a blocked doorway, right?

Drawing her wand from her sleeve, more out of habit than immediate desire to use it, the young teen approached on the statue, head angled to one side as she gave it a curious look, trying to figure out what sort of secret it might hold. "Who are you then?" she murmured aloud to the stone creature, not entirely ruling out the possibility that it might talk back -- this was Hogwarts, after all. But rather than wait for a response, she turned her attention to the door instead, trying to figure some way she might get near enough to open it… but the statue clearly made that impossible.

"Oh move, you great smelly git," she ordered the statue in a louder voice, already growing frustrated with its refusal to cooperate and make her exploring that much easier. Other than her own pet owl, she had no great love of animals, since they usually tended to be smelly and dirty. At least a stone one seemed like less of a threat, but it wasn't getting her any closer to her goal either.
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Michael Nox
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Although he'd spent his previous years at Hogwarts sleeping in the dungeons, Michael was certain he would never get used to the damp, dreariness of the Common Room. Though it suited him just fine when he needed to study or read a book, and honestly, he was sure the cheeriness of any other would be worse, sleeping there had left him feeling awful that morning. He greatly missed the comfort of his bed at home that day, and consequently felt he needed to leave the familiarity of the dungeons for a while.

Making his way to the fourth floor, fully intending to spend his day at the library, Michael was surprised to see Anemone Wright blocking his path - much like that stone Hippogriff was blocking hers. He knew her name only because it was hard not to when housed together, especially when one had a reputation as she seemed to. Stopping abruptly, he crossed his arms over his chest, regarding her as if she had no sense whatsoever.

"I doubt you'll get a reply," he said impatiently. While some of the castle's decor jumped at the chance for conversation, Michael believed others were purely ornamental. "After all, you might not realise this, but you are talking to stone."

It took Michael a moment to realise that the Hippogriff was blocking a doorway, and his eyes suddenly brightened. "Your wand's out." He was aware that his voice had lost all annoyance. "Blast it to pieces if you have to."
Edited by Michael Nox, Sat Sep 3 22:46:24 GMT 2011.
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Anemone Wright
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Anemone looked up from the stone hippogriff to see who was speaking to her. The impatient tone didn't exactly thrill her, but she was at least glad to see it was an older housemate and not some impertinent Gryffindor or Hufflepuff daring to speak to her like that. She didn't necessarily like it from a housemate, but somehow it was more acceptable coming from someone she deemed an equal, whether or not they deemed her as much in return.

"Yes, thank you, Nox, for pointing that out. Think my chances would be better if it were a live hippogriff?" she replied in a sarcastic tone herself, rolling her eyes. If it were an actual beast, she wouldn't be getting anywhere near it. Thank Merlin it was only made of stone.

She was about to explain just why she was talking to a stone creature when Michael seemed to spot it well enough for himself. She smirked just faintly as she noticed how his attitude changed, but she refrained from another snarky comment. Truth was, she needed the help, since she wasn't getting very far on her own. He had two more years on her, which meant he might actually have some idea how to go about fixing this.

After rolling up her sleeves, she pulled out her wand and gave a slightly indifferent shrug. Didn't matter to her if they had to blast the thing to pieces, so long as they didn't get caught. Somehow she doubted the professors would accept them destroying school property just to get at a doorway, but honestly, statues should know better than to go around blocking them in the first place.

"I've been looking all over the school, and I could swear this doorway wasn't here before," she added by way of giving him extra motivation to get the darn statue out of their way. "Bet it's hiding something."
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Michael Nox
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The sarcastic reply made him smirk, and Michael shrugged. "Much better," he agreed and walked over to get a better look. It wasn't as if he knew whether or not the doorway was ordinarily there - as many times as he'd walked past this floor, he never paid attention. In fact, even if he had, he would have assumed it led to something uninteresting. Broom closets, for instance.

"The doorway I can't be sure of, but the Hippogriff? That's a bit out of place. Here," he brandished his own wand easily. Blasting it to pieces was a quick solution, but Michael figured they'd try something quieter first. Anemone could have destroyed the thing if she wanted to, and her inhibition had somewhat rubbed off on him.

"Depulso!" The banishing charm should have worked at the angle he was at. Michael remembered performing the spell quite perfectly in Charms last year after weeks of practice. However, the Hippogriff was as still as ever. What was more curious was any spell Michael tried seemed to rebound off the statue. When he'd finally given in and tried the blasting curse, it had reflected off the stone and hit a rather unfortunate and unsuspecting portrait frame instead.

Irritated, Michael turned to Anemone at a loss. "Well, that's that." He studied the Hippogriff again, mostly to avoid the girl's gaze, when an idea suddenly came to him. Despite feeling very stupid, Michael turned and faced the statue head-on. Keeping eye contact, he bowed very slowly.

It took a moment, but eventually the statue began to slide away, leaving the door unobstructed. Looking completely pleased, Michael turned to Anemone and grinned. "Sort of like a riddle."
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Anemone Wright
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Anemone rolled her eyes when he replied to her rhetorical question with a straight answer, but her annoyance was really only surface deep. It was the sort of thing she wouldn't tolerate from a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, but coming from an older Slytherin, some sarcasm was only to be expected.

"I'm sure about both," she insisted in a slightly know-it-all sort of tone, giving both door and statue a dubious look. Taking a step back, she gestured for him to go ahead and try whatever he had up his sleeve, since she was out of ideas after yelling at it and calling it names.

When nothing happened, she arched her eyebrows slightly, torn between idle amusement and frustration that the darn thing still wouldn't move. She tried a few spells of her own, but quickly cut that short and stepped back, covering her head, when his blasting curse went bouncing off. Frankly, she was relieved it ended up taking out the picture instead of her.

Blowing out a heaving sigh of frustration, she glared at the creature, half wishing she weren't so stubborn so that she could give this up. If Michael hadn't joined her, she honestly might have just left it and pretended never to have noticed it. But now giving up would mean admitting failure, and she couldn't have that.

When he suddenly started bowing to the statue, she gave him a dubious look. Care of Magical Creatures had not been first on her list of electives, since she deemed it both dirty and useless, a thoroughly bad course to take. The only animal she cared for at all was her own owl, and even that was limited to occasional visits, since she hated the stink of the owlery.

So it was much to her surprise when the bowing actually worked. She tried to cover her amazement though when Michael turned to look at her, giving him a one-shouldered shrug. She could have done that. Still, she had to give him some credit: "Good thinking," she granted. Giving the stone creature a dirty look, she slipped past it to try the door, finding it unlocked. She supposed the statue was all the protection it needed, really. Turning the handle, she pulled open the door, peering into the blackness beyond. From the ambient light of the hall, she thought she could make out a flight of stairs.

Looking back to Michael, her eyebrows arched again as though to ask 'shall we?' "Better not be any live hippogriffs down there," she muttered. But despite those misgivings, she brandished her wand again, muttering, "Lumos" to cause the tip to light up. She assumed he wasn't going to suggest that they give up now.
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Michael Nox
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"It was, wasn't it?" Despite his words, Michael's expression had softened into merely curiosity. He peered into the door after her and frowned at the darkened space. He hadn't caught sight of anything until her wand was lit, but there it was. A spiral staircase leading downward from where they were. It seemed to be a rather arduous journey, seeing as how Michael couldn't decipher anything below them. It was all a deep, black, nothingness.

"Live hippogriffs? I'm worried about far worse." Michael grimaced, but followed her lead and lit his wand. The steps were sturdy, and for that he was thankful, but it took them several moments to finally reach the adjoining room.

He was alarmed when the darkness washed away due to the sudden burst of candlelight. They flickered on one by one to reveal a large, circular space, probably the size of three or four classrooms. Michael stepped forward, sending Anemone a wide-eyed glance as he did. "It seems you don't have to worry. It looks like nothing is live down here."

They were standing off to the side of a huge stage, circular like the room, with a wooden floor. Surrounding it, huddled in large, iron cages along the walls, were magical creatures of all kinds. Michael even recognized an angry-looking dragon in the far corner. Only, like the Hippogriff, they were all stone. An exotic magical menagerie of sorts. Or a museum.

"Think this is just for decoration?" Michael asked Anemone, gripping his wand a bit tighter. Besides being stone, the creatures looked far too real, the expressions on their face too lively, to be merely decoration. Besides, Michael wasn't about to admit it, but he was sure he saw the dragon's tail moving.
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Random Event!
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There is a decent amount of magical fireworks stuffed behind one of the caged statues.
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Anemone Wright
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While Anemone was willing to grant him a bit of good thinking for bowing to the hippogriff, she wasn't about to go on and make a big deal about it, so she simply nodded to his rhetorical question, her own attention shifted mostly to the dark space beyond the now open door, especially since Michael didn't seem too worried about discussing how clever he had been to get it open.

She gave him a sidelong look when he mentioned things worse than live hippogriffs. "Either way, dead is dead," she stated with a grim finality. Despite that risk, she didn't really hesitate before moving towards the doorway, her wand held high so that she could see as far ahead as she possibly could. But the winding stairs made it impossible to see further than the next bend.

Shrugging a shoulder, she used her free hand to lift the hem of her robes and began to slowly descend the steps, careful to make sure she didn't lose her footing. The stones felt a little uneven to her feet, but at least nothing gave out beneath them. "Here goes nothing..." she muttered, drawing in a deep breath and then going silent as she focussed on just making her way down without killing herself. She was rather fond of living.

She made a little sound of surprise as the first of the candles flared up to meet them when they finally reached the bottom. It wasn't a scream -- truly it wasn't. She'd deny that fact to her grave if he was mean enough to bring it up later. The light should have made things less creepy, but somehow, the lack of inky blackness didn't really do much to dial down the creepiness. The way it flickered and danced over the stone figures made them look like they were moving... At least she hoped that was a trick of the light.

"I've seen weirder decorations, I guess, but... Does it seem weird to you that stone statues are being kept in cages?" she asked, glancing to Michael and trying not to sound worried about that fact. But it did strike her as somewhat ominous. Usually you only kept things in a cage if they could escape or do something when left free.

Feeling like the diricawl was staring at her, she moved her head from one side to the other, trying to see if she could break its stony gaze. Carefully, she took a few steps forward, wand still held tightly aloft in one hand. "What's that then?" she wondered in a completely different tone of voice, having caught sight of a brightly-coloured bit of... something tucked in behind one of the cages. She pointed to it and gave Michael an expectant look. Surely, she wasn't going to march over there and look -- it could be dangerous.
Edited by Anemone Wright, Wed Sep 7 20:35:49 GMT 2011.
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