A Really Bad Idea

[Ulysses Viteri]

The Dungeons​

As many nights before, Ulysses Viteri had left Ravenclaws common room hours ago when the last student went finally to bed. His curiosity and thirst for knowledge couldn't be contained. While he knew there were more things to find out, it was impossible for him to stay idle and stay in the tedious common room. He loved wandering around the empty corridors, visiting new locations, finding new secrets. For him there was something new every day and he enjoyed that. He had searched all the floors and just yesterday he had discovered the beauty of the towers. The view of the night sky from there was astounding. Ulysses never returned back to his dormitory. He lied down on a balcony's floor and gazed the sky all night, until he got too tired and fell asleep under the blanket of stars.

While he keenly wanted to return back to the tallest tower and spend his night there, he had one more part of the castle to explore. Ulysses had heard horrific stories about the Dungeons from other students. Some of them were supporting that the place was haunted as it was used for dreadful tortures in the past. The ravenclaw knew of course that ghosts existed but they were nothing like haunting or tormenting the living. At least the ghosts at the Great Hall didn't look like that case. Regardless, he had been venturing for quite long in that notorious series of corridors, cellars and chambers. There was definitely an eerie silence but nothing spooky. Fires were burning on the torches, providing light but also tremulous shadows on the stone walls, yet Ulysses wasn't afraid. He wasn't sure what exactly he was expecting to find there. Torturing devices? Human skeletons? So far he had encountered none of them and soon he lost interest.

Ulysses decided to head back to the Ground Floor. He couldn't wait to climb back at the top of the castle and stay under the starry sky for the rest of the night. Thanks to his great sense of orientation, he managed to find his way out of the Dungeons. He almost felt relieved for climbing up the stairs leading to the Main Entrance but the figure that crossed the hall in front of him chilled his blood. It was a miracle that he wasn't caught out of his bed all this time but it seemed this stroke of luck was going to come to an end. Ulysses held his breath and remained still in the darkness provided by the corner formed by the stairs leading to the Grant Staircase. He noticed that the shady stranger wasn't an adult but a students. Upon better observation, it turned to be a girl around his age and she was carrying a couple of boxes. Uli sneaked out of the shadow's safety and vigilantly approached the girl. "Hey!" he said in a quite voice but his whispers were carried around the hall. "Shh! It's okay. I'm not going to snitch you. Sorry for sneaking up on you like that." he tried to reassure the girl before reacting unexpectedly and getting both into serious trouble. "Where are you going? It's not allowed to leave the castle." he stood between her and the large, double door leading to the courtyard. She was intending to get outside before he interrupted her. It was obvious that whatever business she had at one o' clock after midnight, that was outside the castle.

 

[Doriana Strati]

Doriana put the last guinea pig in one of the two boxes she had brought with her. In the pitch darkness of the back room of the transfiguration classroom, the only sound that could be heard was the sqweeking of the animals in the boxes. In one of the two wooden containers she had included a few different species of rodents as well as a couple of tortoises. In the other one she had carefully placed jars including insects. Primarily beetles and snails. All these small animals were victims in her innocent point of view. They were used during transfiguration classes for research and they were sitting through the transfiguration spells of hundrends of inexperienced students. The first year gryffindor was shocked to find this out at her first transfiguration class. Doriana was brought up by her father with strong ethics about the respect humans should exhibit to animals and nature. She might was only eleven years old but she was familiar with the term 'splinch'. The girl had witnessed her older cousins, attempting to vanish a gnome in their grandmother's courtyard. It didn't end up well for the poor creature which left behind a few teeth and an ear. This incident had traumatized her innocent soul and she had sworn to herself that she would do anything to her power to make sure that no creature would suffer like this.

She departed from the transfiguration class, loaded and vigilant. She had made a bad start from the first day at Hogwarts when she received her first detention. The gryffindor was well aware of the risks of being out of her common room after curfew but she considered this worth the shot. It would be more convenient if she was going to release birds. She could just do that by opening a window in the classroom. For these small animals she had to make sure they were safe away from the castle, somewhere that the transfiguration professors were going to have a hard time to find them if they were going to search for them. Doriana was determined to venture alone in the most forbidden parts of the wizarding school. There must have been a good reason for the school's forest to be called forbidden but she felt brave enough to enter it in the cover of the night.

The girl reached the ground floor without unpleasant encounters. After midnight, the castle was dead silent so she was carefully with every step. The boxes were heavy now with all these animals in them and she was slowed down but as she was stepping down the last stairs taking her to the entrance hall, she pushed herself to reach for the exit's double doors. Her heartbeat raced when a whisper echoed across the hall and she was certain she was in for trouble. A boy approached her and her hopes raised that she could make it out of the castle. "Shhhh!" She instictively urged the boy to be quite but her instigation travelled across the spacious room. "Good then. Stay here and out of my way." She responded in a rude way but this wasn't who she was. She was just too scared that their echoing whispers were going to invite unecessary intention on her that she needed to move on. "Head back to your common room before you get caught." She suggested as she pushed open one of the heavy doors and got out with the boxes.

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

It was the first time that Ulysses was coming across another student during his late night wanderings. He didn't know the girl, it was the first time he stumbled upon her but for finding her there, it could only mean one thing. They were both up for some exploration. The girl though looked like she had a specified goal. Uli's green eyes locked on the boxes she was carrying. She was definitely taking them somewhere. Apparently this wasn't in the castle. His polite pointer was met with rudeness at the beginning but the girl must have realized that and then advised him to go back to his common room if he didn't want to get caught. Stunned by her act of resistance against the rules, he stood there watching her slipping out of the castle.

Ulysses looked around him anxiously. A terrible, brooding silence followed and was only broken by the ticking sound of the enormous pendulum clock. He glanced once the stairs leading to the Grand Staircase and eventually to Ravenclaw's common room and then at the double door that closed behind the girl. He was well-informed of the rules but he couldn't just let her wander around the grounds, alone in the dark. It could have been a subconscious, cheap excuse to just join her in whatever she was up to. Whatever the case, the next moment he found himself pushing the large doors and stepping into the licit zone of the castle.

The Ravenclaw first year caught up with her as she was crossing the deserted courtyard and cast a wand-lighting charm. "I'm coming with you." He announced when he was finally walking by her side. Darkness swallowed the two first years as they left the courtyard behind them and stepped onto the damp grass. Thanks to the orb of light on his wand tip, they were able to watch their steps. "Do you need help? I could carry one of these." Uli offered with building excitement gleaming in his eyes. He gestured at the boxes she was carrying. "I'm Ulysses. Ravenclaw." he said, not really conscious of where she was taking him. He was excited to be doing this with someone else. Exploring alone the vastness of the school wasn't that thrilling compared to having a partner in crime. "So, where are we going?" he wondered after they had wandered off, farther away from the castle. "And...what's in the boxes?" he continued asking curiously.

 

[Doriana Strati]

Doriana's stomach clenched into a tight coil as the breeze of the night caressed her flushed chicks. At the same time her heart was pounding fiercely in her chest, with an unprecedented adrenaline rush pumping too. Just at the end of the courtyard she was going to blend in the darkness and she was going to fare unnoticed. Her heart skipped a beat when she heard the approaching footsteps on the courtyard's cobblestone. "Merlin's pants! Do you want to give me a heart attack or what?" Doriana gasped but quickly grasped in midair the wooden box that slipped from her grip. She sighed relieved both for not dropping the box and for being followed by the boy and not by a professor. She took a moment to study the boy who insisted on following her. He had genuine, green eyes and Doriana couldn't help but notice the orange flecks surrounding the dark pupils. After an uncomfortable moment of inspection for the boy, Doriana decided to let him follow her if he wanted to. "You can come if you must but it's at your own risk." She warned him. "Come. Time is galleons." She started walking again and urged him to keep up with her pace.

Now that they had left the courtyard and walked out of the shimmering light of the burning torches, she glanced with wariness the light radiating from his wand's tip. "If I were you I would have noxed that light." She suggested and shot a brief, edgy look at the castle. Someone peeping from one of those windows would have been seeing an orb of light floating across the grounds right now. It could draw unwanted attention on them but at the same time, it was helping her to find their way. "Yes, thank you. Take this one." she handed him one of the boxes whike he was chivalrous enough to help her. "Doriana. A gryffindor here." She said in return and memorized his uncommon but fine-sounding name, while her attention was mostly focused on finding her whereabouts.

After a few minutes...

The girl relaxed a bit when she finally discerned the darker outline of trees against the starlit sky. "To the forbidden forest." She answered to him casually like it was the most common thing in the world. At the same time, her eyes that had adjusted to the dark were constantly scoping their surroundings for the slightest movement that could indicate trouble. For a brief moment he looked back at Ulysses when he asked her what was the content of the boxes. "Yours has mainly rodents." She revealed once more casually. "Oh, and two tortoises in a smaller crater I put inside!" She added and stopped in her tracks, surprised on how quickly they reached their destination. The boy's wand was illuminating the ancient bark of several trees forming a line. It was the tree line of the forbidden forest. "I'm going in there. Lumos!" She flourished her own wand with difficulty as she was carrying that wooden box and cast that comforting light. "Ulysses, thank you for your help but you don't have to come with me." She smiled, genuinely grateful for his company and assistance. "You could get in trouble because of me. You should return to the castle and stay safe." She advised him and nodded at the box she was carrying, for him to place his box on it.

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

"Sorry." he apologized for jumping out at her like that. An awkward minute lingered longer than necessary as she seemed to be weighing in her mind whether to let him come with her. Ulysses looked back at her grey eyes with the same persistence. Her warning wasn't enough to daunt him and return back to the castle. "Sure!" he replied excited for joining her. The dreamy boy gazed the night sky freckled with stars and then at the smudgy illumination of the torches at the courtyard behind them and in some of the castle's windows. The breeze was cool but it just made him feel alive. "But how are we supposed to see where are we going?" he wondered and looked at the castle like she did. He understood what she was afraid of but stumbling on something and get hurt or get lost into the night, were a few unpleasant outcomes he didn't want for their exploration.

Ulysses gladly received one of the two boxes to carry it. It wasn't too heavy but carrying both of them for some time was going to be straining. "Pleasure to meet you." he nodded as she shared her name and house and he adjusted the wooden box in his arms to carry it more comfortably. "This is unbelievable! I've never visited the grounds at night!" he claimed enthusiastically for breaking the rules for the first time. It felt so liberating. However, his excitement was abruptly extinguished as soon as he noticed the charcoalized versions of the forest's daytime treetops. "Wait what?" he said when Doriana confirmed that they were heading straight into the forbidden forest. "Which part of the word 'forbidden' is hard for you to understand? You know it's out of bounds, right?" he searched on her face for a sign indicating that she was joking but determination was all he found. Ulysses was in for another surprise when Doriana told him what was in the boxes. He remained speechless and actually felt something stirring in his box. Once more the girl was serious about what she had stated.

"Could you at least explain to me why are we smuggling these animals outside the castle?" Ulysses tried to get at least a shred of rationality from what they were doing. "Don't tell me we just swiped the lab rats used in transfiguration class?" he rolled his eyes, already knowing that this was exactly the case. "Why are we going to set them free in the forest?" he continued bombarding her with questions. Even if Ulysses wanted to turn back and return the animals back to the classroom, it was too late now. The silver bark of the first trees, were aglow with the flickering, golden light of his wand. More light was shed on the edge of the forest when Doriana cast the charm as well. He listened to her thanking him for all the help he provided. At first he looked at her, admiring her fearless spirit but also, disapproving her reckless intention to venture on her own into the forest. A warm smile stretched slowly in his face afterwards, when he realized how kindhearted was the girl's act. Doriana seemed to have made up her mind and there was no way he could change that. He had no other choice but to accompany her. No way he was going to leave her alone. "This is a very bad idea so I'll have to stick around and watch your back." he kept the box in his arms. He wasn't going anywhere.