In the Shadows of Concern

Prim made her way down to the dungeons with reluctant steps, clutching the side stones like her life depended on it. It wasn't that she didn't know how to walk down stairs since being in the school for over a year now meant she'd done a lot of climbing, but she was getting a little more nervous the more tips she took down to the dungeons, she wasn't even entirely sure this was where she would find who she was looking for, she mostly just hoped that it was early enough she would catch him just as he was heading out of the common room. The cool air felt like it clung to her skin, and the shadows seemed deeper here than anywhere else in the castle. She didn't tend to come down here unless she was heading to potions, but the Slytherin dorm was further into the dungeons than she'd ever been and though the shadows were only indicative of the fact she was here very early I the morning it really didn't help her to feel any better about this whole situation, like she could hear Eurydice in the back of her head calling her a traitor.

She didn’t want to be here. In fact, this was probably one of the last places she wanted to be, especially since she was looking for him. Mikael - Eurydice’s brother, the Slytherin prefect with a reputation as cold and cutting as the air in the dungeons. Prim chewed on her bottom lip, trying to steady herself as she rehearsed the words she’d been practicing in her head. “Mikael, I think someone’s been picking on Eurydice…” No, that’s too blunt. “I just wanted to talk about your sister…” No, he’ll think I’m prying! Finally, she spotted him in the corridor ahead, leaning casually against the wall, his prefect badge glinting faintly in the dim light. He looked every bit as intimidating as she’d imagined - sharp features, an air of confidence, and eyes that seemed to see straight through you. Prim hesitated, hovering in the shadows for a moment before she realised she couldn’t turn back now she'd look even more suspicious. Taking a deep breath, she stepped closer, her voice small but steady as she called out, “Um… Mikael? Can I talk to you for a minute?”

@Mikael Nightray ​

Mikael should just leave the @ssh0le. He had no idea why he even bothered to wait for the git. No, he didn't even know why he was out here, arms crossed leaning at the wall and glaring at the entrance to the Common Room. He would have preferred to stay in the dorms but of course there was something as mundane as class today. It didn't help that it was Herbology which meant that he really couldn't just skip out since the class was taught by his Head of House. Of course, he couldn't be just left alone to lick his wounds in peace. But Horror's snide comments in the dorm about his recent breakup were grating on his already frayed nerves. He'd just been about to leave the other Slytherin behind when the Common Room opened the same time a small voice called out to him. He turned his head, his gaze finding a small Hufflepuff, he would have thought a first year if not for the fact that she knew who he was. His gaze narrowed at the girl before he turned his head, nodding at the other Slytherin to go on ahead. Mikael then moves away from the wall, arms uncrossing as he approaches the girl, "Follow me." Had the girl not known his name, he would have assumed she was lost and told her the way back up and out of the Dungeons. As it was, she'd obviously come seeking him out personally, which meant it had something to do with his sister. She would be the only reason a young Hufflepuff would come seeking out an older Slytherin. He leads the girl into a well-lit alcove that would offer them privacy, "There are stairs leading up to the Courtyard that way once you turn right at the second corner," he gestured one way. "Potions Classroom is down the corridor to the left after five the other way," he said as he enters the alcove, leaning against the wall and looking at the girl intently. "Now talk."​

Prim follow along behind the scary Slytherin prefect, wondering briefly if perhaps she'd made the wrong call here. Maybe she should have left well enough alone because maybe he didn't like being interrupted from whatever he was doing by random Hufflepuff's when he was just going about his day. She wasn't even sure why she was following him seeing as he could have lead her anywhere and though she really sort of did know the school a little bit by now, since she'd been here for over a year, that didn't mean she would know it like someone who had been here as long as he had. And then when he started telling her all the ways to escape him as he pulled her into an alcove, she was even more convinced that he was about to murder her for simply looking at him. He had a bit of a reputation for this sort of thing, well maybe not murder as she was sure if that were true he wouldn't be a prefect, but she didn't know much about that so... she swallowed as he continued and then told her to talk. Well, now she really didn't know what to say. What was she supposed to say? She cleared her throat lightly, suddenly feeling as though she was being stared down into submission. "Uhm... it's... about your- Eurydice? I think... I mean I don't know for sure... and she hasn't said anything specifically, but... well you sort of know these things and... well I mean it happened to me when I was in the care home but... and I haven't seen anything to indicate... but I mean when the Headmaster stood up the welcome feast the other day well... and I thought yes, Prim, you should say something and then well I thought I should go to Professor Carter because well he's our head of house... and well you know sometimes people don't want to talk to their adults you know... and I thought maybe Eurydice would more likely speak to you? But I don't know because I mean... well it's something that is... uhm, well, well it's the sort of thing that people don't want to talk about... and, well," she shrugs slightly, unsure how to get where she wanted to go with this, "but you're her brother and... well I thought you should know as well... it's not that I don't trust Professor Carter and I mean he's really nice... but I don't know if he would be able to get her to tell him what's going on because... well I mean she hasn't even told her roommates and... well I mean to be fair I haven't exactly opened up to her myself... uhm..." she swallowed then, looking up at Mikael properly. "I think she's being bullied."​

Mikael didn't want Eurydice getting on his case if a possible roommate of hers got lost in the dungeons after running away from him, even if it was the girl who sought him out rather than the other way around. While he liked to think that he was not capable of scaring away kids because he had younger siblings and a lot of younger cousins, he wasn't about to pretend he knew the mind of a pre-teen. Especially one that could be friends with his sister. He would have sighed if he didn't think the girl might lose her train of thought as she started to talk without even taking a breath. He had to parse out the words she was saying to make some sort of sense of what she was saying.

Apparently, she'd come to him about Eurydice, or at least about something his sister hadn't said anything about. He frowned, if Eurydice hadn't told this girl anything, then why was she here? The girl was adopted, he'll just table that for later. And it's something that involved the Headmaster said about the Welcome Feast. Something that involved the Hufflepuff Head of House. Mikael did not like where this was going. Eurydice could be a little spoiled - then again, who among them wasn't? She was opinionated, and she was certainly not shy. She also knew that she could approach a lot of people in the castle.

Eury had never been shy about asking Kael for help just based on her whims. Nor with Elio. She knew there were a lot of people in the castle she could approach - Hinata was a prefect in Hufflepuff, and Kael had mentioned being friends with Bailey, who was also a prefect. He even mentioned it was fine to approach Horror or Terror if she needed help finding him. Benjamin, their sister-in-law's brother - was the Care of Magical Creatures professor. Uncle Conan was the Muggle Studies professor. Eury should have been able to come to any of them. Was that why she was so quiet during the break? How long has this been going on?

Mikael had practically tuned out most of what the Hufflepuff girl had been saying, which he would have to address later because she'd finally reached the conclusion he'd already arrived to. Calm. He needed to stay calm. "Okay," he said as calmly as he could. "How long?" he asked evenly before clearing it up because people always said he needed to be clearer, and this was important. "How long do you think this has been going on?" Mikael knew that usually, people asked who the perpetrator was, but he thought that the girl either didn't know who would even dare hurt his sister. He liked to think that she would be smart enough to tell him who it was if she knew. That and he didn't trust himself to search out the idiots on a rampage. He needed to be calm about this.​

Prim was maybe a little surprised that Mikael seemed to believe her right off the bat. It wasn’t that she didn’t consider herself to be someone to be believed, but she did sort of wonder sometimes if people thought she was exaggerating or overstating something just because she was adopted. That did seem to be the kind of thing she came up against fairly often. She wasn’t sure she totally understood why, either, it was just one of those things that seemed to happen to her. Even Hazel sometimes seemed to think that she was making things up, not out of any malice, because she thought sometimes that Hazel thought she had an overactive imagination - maybe she did, but she wasn’t imagining this.

“I don’t know for sure” she said, making sure that he took whatever she figured out to say to him with a grain of salt, because she didn’t want to suddenly wake up with someone mad at her for making things up. “Definitely since the beginning of the year, I don’t know if it was before that or anything, but she’s been kind of…” shy wasn’t the right word, because if she hadn’t seen Eurydice before then she might not have noticed, but something seemed off, that’s all she could really keep thinking. Something wasn’t right, something was off. She didn’t like it. “I don’t know who it could be either. Sorry.”​