A Horrible Encounter

[Charlotte Owens]

Charlotte loved the idea of Hogwarts. It was extremely big which gave lots of opportunities for Charlotte to explore. Recently, she had found herself outside of the castle exploring the forbidden forest or having a break beside the lake. That was always fun but today she was exploring its corridors and admiring the castle's beauty.

Skipping along, Charlotte noticed an empty room. Not only was it just a room but it was a classroom with the usual tables and chairs. It appeared abandoned and it seemed like no one had taught in it in years. It intrigued Charlotte so she entered, making sure no one was present. The thought of discovering an abandoned classroom made Charlotte wonder what other secrets the castle has. She has seven years to explore it all but was rather unsure if she'd be able to find all it's secrets within those years.

Her fingers traced the nearest desk. 'How long could this have been here?' she wondered, noticing all the dust on the furniture. It felt ancient and like Charlotte has just stepped into a time machine and went back a few years. Hogwarts has been here for a long time so it wouldn't surprise her if it was one of the first classrooms ever to have been made. But why is it abandoned? What's wrong with it? It made Charlotte question her safety in this room and why she was even there.

 

[Rome Savage]

Rome Savage was beginning to realise that at Hogwarts things ran a little differently than they had at home, she had never been able to lie to so many people, never hd she or her twin been faced with the chance of just being able to have constant fun. Her exploring the castle had lead her to many amazing places and it was with her brother that she did most of them. As much as she had thought about the merits of them being in different houses, Rome was so pleased that they hadn't been split up. It was nice to just have to sit in the common room and wait for him, rather than awkwardly standing outside his common room. She didn't have to worry about not doing well in classes if she had him to copy from or to just help her. Which was what she had done that day. Rome had waited patiently for her brother, so they could go get breakfast and then do a little bit of exploring. She hadn't been sure what they would do but with no classes on that day, she wasn't particularly worried about things like that.

After they'd eaten, Rome had decided to drag him along with her as she explored trying to find something for them to do, she was the ideas person, she jumped in and Cairo usually followed, she was the big sister, though there was only about ten minutes between them, something short. She looked after him, in the same way he did for her, but right now it was up to her to find something to do, and she was coming up blank, that was until she'd hit the second floor and noticed a girl, whom she knew from the common room, walk into the strange classroom. Rome looked round at her brother a smirk clear on her face before she just half marched to the room, she opened the door and marched inside with purpose, pretending to be shocked when she saw within the room, "What are you doing?" she demanded harshly, "You aren't supposed to be here, Professor Styx said we could have the room during this hour, get out," she spoke pointing to her brother, feigning anger in her voice and taking a defensive sort of stance as she waited to see what her brother would do and then what she, this girl, would do.
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[Cairo Savage]

There were some days when Cairo could eat his weight in food and there were other days when Cairo ate barely anything. Today seemed to be the latter because when he entered the great hall to have breakfast his stomach was certainly not up to the task. He ended up managing an apple and a piece of toast, taking his time to eat although he was forced to swallow the last part of his toast whole as Rome dragged him towards the rest of the castle for the task of exploring. The stone walls were very much alike in places, and since he had begun to understand the castle's layout, Cairo had realized how easy it was for a first year to become lost. It seemed too easy, in fact. Like the castle had a vendetta against every single student that lingered in the halls and changed itself endlessly in the same way the stairs moved unpredictably. It almost made the task of exploring every inch of the castle mandatory, because if there was one thing Cairo wanted to avoid it would be getting lost without Rome to lead the way.

Cairo followed his twin's steps silently up flights of stairs that he did not bother to count, and further into the corridor as the sight of one of their fellow first year Slytherins caught his eye. He mimicked Rome's smirk and nodded towards her, remaining silent as he continued follow her lead into what he assumed was a classroom. As Rome spoke, Cairo folded his arms across his chest, observing the other girl with an expression that made him appear conceited. His brow furrowed as Rome's words faded into nothing and it was only then did he choose to add his two cents to whatever web his sister was weaving. "Do you think she's trying to eavesdrop on our plans?" He questioned, turning slightly towards Rome.​

 

[Charlotte Owens]

The whole idea of exploring this room by herself flew out of Charlotte's mind as two other Slytherin first years decided to walk up to her, rudely asking her to leave. She felt infuriated. How could they say such a thing? They seemed as though they were twins and looked very similar to one another. Charlotte's friend Daniel had told a story to her about a pair of Slytherin twins but she didn't think they'd ever target her. Charlotte isn't usually one to get bullied so this just happened to be her lucky day.

Charlotte laughed at them, folding her arms across her chest. "Oh, yeah?" she said, eyeing them both with hatred. If they thought they were going to get away with this then they were delusional. "What on earth would two first years need this room for? And where is a note or any proof that Styx said you could have it? Who said he was in charge of this room anyway? From the looks of it, it seems rather open to me." It all seemed like a lie and Charlotte was never going to leave this room. She'd stay there all day if she had to.

 

[Rome Savage]

Rome was definitely glad to have Cairo with her, so that what ever she did was backed up by someone else. She didn't have to consult him on that, instead she just knew after so many years of it happening. She looked round at her brother, at his words, and then glared slightly at the girl, looking back at her brother with a small fake expression of worry and concern. She glanced round at the girl, her mind quickly forming a plan about it, forming a plan around what was happening, it was always a little difficult in the beginning to form the plan so quickly, but that was part of the joy of it. She never knew where they'd end up, or if they'd even get away with it, but she was definitely going to try it. The young slytherin lowered her voice as she spoke to her brother, "Don't say anything important, Professor Styx said we could have the room," the tone was supposed to make it seem like she was only talking to her brother, but she was speaking loudly enough for the other girl to probably hear them.

When the other girl spoke, Rome just looked round at her, and feigned an expression of outrage over being implied to be a liar. She shook her head at the girl, "I don't have explain myself to you," she told the girl, deciding to close the distance a little between her and this other girl, making herself look a little more threatening, "Since, I'm so nice, how about you look at this," the girl had gone into one of her pockets and pulled out an envelope, which she held out for the girl to see, although tightly so that the girl couldn't take it, it clearly had two names written on it formally. It was just a letter from their parents to them but she had no way of knowing that, "Now, how about you get out and leave us, or I'll go get Professor Styx, or even just a prefect and then you'll have them to answer to,"
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[Cairo Savage]

Cairo nodded to his sister, and smirked slightly at her words like he had a secret to keep. The exact secret which he assumed was the underlying lie of Rome's entire impromptu plan to bother the other first year. A plan that Cairo still had yet to clue into though he knew that he would slowly begin to understand as he observed his twin's actions. He knew Rome from the inside out, and could read her like a book for the most part. However her plans were unpredictable and there was no way he could read the future and predict what it could turn into. It depended on how the other Slytherin girl reacted which was something Cairo could not predict no matter how fun he knew it would be to have the ability to read her mind.

He continued to stand back, the small smirk still on his face as he allowed Rome to threaten the other girl and shove her letter from their parents towards her in what he assumed was a way of backing up her lie with something that seemed to be partially true. The envelope, dotted with ridiculously neat, cursive writing, did appear to contain formal note if its actual contents were unknown so the action made a lot of sense in Cairo's mind. He stayed silent as Rome intimidated the girl further and only began speaking when Rome's last words faded to silence. He stepped forward, in an attempt to take part in his sister's intimidation tactics, though he knew he could never be near as threatening as Rome was. He was the quieter twin after all. But he attempted to forget this fact as he opened his mouth to speak. "We have no problem bringing someone else into this." He stated. "So you better leave if you know what's good for you. Slytherin doesn't need to loose more house points because of some stubborn idiot that can't leave an empty room for an hour."​

 

[Charlotte Owens]

Charlotte stood there rolling her eyes at the two other Slytherin first years. They had no right to talk to her with such attitude and it disgusted Charlotte that they even thought of trying to mess with her like that. If only they just asked nicely then she'd leave. But now they were stuck here arguing until one of them wins the fight.

As the girl took out an envelope with neat handwriting on that was addressed to them, it made Charlotte reconsider her actions. But what on earth could two little first years need to be doing in an unoccupied room? It made Charlotte curious and she really wanted to know what was happening.

"Then go and bring Professor Styx in here! I'd love to have a chat with him!" she exclaimed. In fact, that was a lie and she'd actually rather avoid that man as much as she could during her time at Hogwarts despite him being her head of house. The girl seemed like she had something to hide and Charlotte would not leave until she found out what it was.

Charlotte nodded at the boy after he finished speaking. "Yes, I agree I am a stubborn idiot. You don't need to tell me that more than once." she replied, chuckling. She knew herself more than they did and she'd wish they'd just leave her alone. What was so good about an old empty room anyway?

 

[Rome Savage]

Rome had a slightly more openly aggressive than her brother, she didn't want to be calm in this situation, and yet it really was requiring her to be so. She kept her eyes on the girl as her brother behind her agreed with what had been saying, emphasising the point that she had been making, keeping her back from doing anything too much, it was why it was probably better for her to have her brother to really stop her from doing anything too bad, after all, Rome didn't want to get kicked out of the school, she didn't imagine their parents would like that much, but she wanted to assert herself, and she liked messing around with the girl in front of her, she just like messing with people. It was fun, and school all about fun and so that's what Rome intended to do. The young slytherin smirked at her brother's words, this girl was stubborn, but really that was what they wanted.

When the girl said that they should go get Professor Styx, she glared a little at the girl, "Oh you don't believe me?" she said in a small tone, and then glanced at her brother, just as she continued agreeing that she was a stubborn idiot, "Perhaps this stubborn idiot needs to be shown her place, I mean, what possible reason would you have to not believe us," she took the smallest step towards the girl, not sure how to do this, trying to hold herself back a little, she spoke loudly enough so that her brother could hear it, but she kept herself vaguely threatening, "I mean, come on now, don't be a stubborn idiot, we booked this room, that is unless you want to, you know join us in what we booked this room to do? You wouldn't mind that brother, would you?" she turned to him slightly with a falsely sweet smile. She of course had no plans for this room, but it didn't mean they couldn't have some fun with this girl, "What do you say Miss I'm a stubborn idiot?" she was almost challenging her to accept it.
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[Cairo Savage]

Cairo could not tell where Rome was going with this. She had moved from her usual threatening stance and tone of voice to something that almost dared the other girl to join them and quite frankly, he was clueless of what to do or how to continue backing up his sister. They had no plan bar what Rome could conjure on the spot and having to uphold a lie with another student by their side and nothing more than a letter from their parents they used to feign proof they were supposed to be in this empty room was something Cairo knew would eventually lead them to a sticky situation.

He was tempted to clasp his hand around Rome's shoulder, dragging her away from the room before she reacted in a way they couldn't lie their way out of. Though he stood fixed in his spot, unmoving and unsure what he was supposed to do besides continue to back up his sister and accept the consequences if she screwed up. "I wouldn't mind at all." He said, sounding reluctant which was probably the most honest sounding he had been since he entered the great hall and was sorted by his sister's side. As Rome challenged the girl to join them, Cairo simply refused to say another word, choosing to stare the other Slytherin down instead. It was his own way of daring her to join them though he still felt a sense of unease over what would happen next.​

 

[Charlotte Owens]

Charlotte smirked each time the girl had tried to rub in her face that she's a stubborn idiot. It wasn't offending Charlotte at all but at least it was amusing to the girl. "Yes! Of course I want to join you in what you're doing! That's why I'm still here!" she exclaimed, happy that they finally gave in to her. "I'll just stand over here in the corner and watch you!" She skipped over to the back corner of the room and folded her arms, leaning against the wall. She felt particularly excited that she was going to watch something probably no one has ever watched before and thought herself lucky that they were letting her watch.

She felt uneasy as the boy stared down at her. What was their problem? They acted as if they were going to start murdering someone right in front of her. Nonetheless, if they did anything against the rules, Charlotte would be able to get them into trouble. 'They better be careful.' Charlotte thought as she stood there comfortably against the wall. She knew this was going to be fun.

 

[Rome Savage]

Rome wasn't sure what she was doing, she was challenging the girl to stay and part of really wished that she would, even though she had no idea what she was going to do. She was coming up with this as she went along and she knew that her brother didn't know where she was going with it. She never really knew. She just watched the girl lean against the wall, and then turned to look at her brother and smirked, oh he wasn't going to like this, he wasn't going to like this one bit, but Rome's mind was at least made him for the next bit that her mind had decided. So, she cleared a little bit of space in the centre of the room, and then put a chair at the center.

Once this was done, she walked over to the other girl, grabbed a fist full of the girl's shirt at the shoulder and then dragged her over to the chair and made her sit down in it, "Stay," she told her before looking over at Cairo with a smirk, walking back over to him. She wasn't actually planning on doing much more, aside from maybe box the girl in. So she began moving tables towards where the girl was sitting, "Just you stay exactly where you are, while my brother and I set up," she motioned towards him to start helping her in what she was doing.
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God mod pre-approved.

 

[Cairo Savage]

Cairo was still entirely clueless to what Rome's endgame was. He took a step back and let his sister take the lead of this scheme entirely, watching intently as Rome cleared the center of the room to place a chair and wincing slightly as she pulled the other girl to sit on it. When Rome began to move tables and other pieces of furniture around the girl and motioned for him to help her, Cairo shot her a momentary look of confusion that almost asked her what in Merlin's name she was doing and how she would get herself out of this if it went sour. Though he quickly shrugged the expression away and just gave in to her whims, doing as she asked, knowing that he would ruin her plans if he refused to co-operate or displayed a hint of the uncertainty he was feeling over this.

Cairo sighed as he moved around the room, picking up pieces of furniture and stacking them around the other Slytherin in a circle. As he stacked the dusty chairs and tables, his mind wandered and he realized exactly how much easier this would have been if he knew any levitation spells. It bothered him that even during his fourth week of classes he had yet to learn anything useful. He and Rome had attended school so they could learn how to use magic in the first place and still not having learnt a thing apart from magical history and theory about the dark arts was slowly causing Cairo to question if Hogwarts was worth the effort. He sighed again and shook his head as he moved an old chair to the Slytherin girl's left before choosing to introduce himself. Stacking furniture had quickly become tedious so as he and Rome were in the process of trapping the girl he thought why not make small talk and attempt to draw suspicion from his sister's plan. "I'm Cairo, by the way." He said, choosing to use his real name instead of one he had made up on the spot because he knew he would see the girl around the common room and in classes too often to be able to get away with it. "What's your name?" He asked as he stacked another old chair to the girl's left.
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[Charlotte Owens]

The amount of hatred that Charlotte had for the other Slytherin girl increased rapidly as the girl grabbed onto her shirt and pulled her towards an empty chair in the middle of the room. Charlotte was not something that could be dragged around like that and she hoped the Slytherin's filthy hands would never touch her like that ever again. She wanted to scream or try and flail her way out but she simply followed her orders, intrigued to what exactly they were going to do.

Telling her to stay, the Slytherin grabbed some tables and surrounded them around Charlotte as if they were setting up some type of game. If what they were doing was 'top secret' then why was Charlotte put into the middle of this? She watched as the girl's brother followed her actions and began helping her in stacking furniture around the chair Charlotte was sitting on. She could have easily ran away from the situation by now, leaving the twins to do something that was none of Charlotte's business but instead, Charlotte sat there watching their every move.

The whole thought of what was happening escaped Charlotte's mind when the boy started talking to her. This time he was trying to make polite conversation and Charlotte was unsure whether or not this was still part of their plan. He introduced himself as Cairo and wanted to know Charlotte's name. She wasn't sure if she trusted the pair but just the first name couldn't hurt, right?

"I'm Charlotte!" she exclaimed, glad to have actually gotten something out of the situation other than the fact that she just met a pair of twins that were probably the most hated Slytherins in the whole school. "So... what exactly are you doing? If someone walks in on this, it would be quite hilarious." She chuckled. "I mean, what would you do if you walked in on a couple of first years stacking furniture around another first year? I'd think it was completely bizarre! What about you? What would you do? Is stacking furniture fun!? Can I have a go after you do!?" She felt kind of left out just sitting there and hoped the twins would let her have a go. After all, it seemed like a fun game to play anyway.

 

[Rome Savage]

Rome had been stacking furniture, it was not particularly high, or fortified considering it was just old furniture, that this girl wouldn't have too much trouble getting out of, Rome was sure, but she knew that the girl hadn't liked being grabbed by her and she probably wasn't enjoying this. Rome just continued walking round, pushing this in towards the centre of the room, as if clearing a path, or circle for them to walk around her. She looked at her brother as he introduced himself using his real name, why was he doing that? She could understand a little bit of honesty maybe it was a good thing, but she didn't think it could be, however, she wasn't even sure what she was doing so perhaps this was the better thing to do. And it seemed to calm the other girl, who then introduced herself as Charlotte, of course there was no way of knowing if the name was real or not, but Rome didn't particularly care about that. She was just creating this path for them to circle around her, leaving her in the centre of the room which made no sense but Rome really didn't care about making sense.

When the girl had finished speaking, or well, asking question, "Oh thank goodness, it stopped talking," she said loudly and with a tone of boredom in her voice, addressing her brother more than the other girl, she didn't so much as acknowledge the girl was even still in the room as she spoke, "God, her parents must just want to constantly kill her, what with all those questions over something so simple that we're doing can't imagine what living with her must be liked," she continued returning to stand next to Cairo, she had no objective with this, but she figured that until she came up with something, or that they just left her, it might benefit from them being able to just be a little mean to the other girl. She glanced back to the girl, Charlotte, "So Charlotte, who hates you more, your mum or your dad?" she asked, not even caring about the fact she was using a tone of disgust at the girl, "Or have they killed themselves to not have to listen to you and your incessant questions and badgering?" she just continued, looking at her brother to see if he might join her in the insults but thinking that he might just stay silent about it, she wasn't sure, Rome didn't even know what she was doing with this girl, maybe making her cry would be a good end to this.
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