Just One Wrong Move

[Maximilian Faber]

As another bolt of lightning traveled across the darkened sky, Max sat silently. One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand… A low rumble interrupted his count. The boy’s face remained impassive, but he was mentally doing the math to determine that the storm was less than a mile out. That meant that the rain would be coming down soon. Just as he’d finished that thought, he saw the first drops begin to fall on the window he was staring out of. The drops increased rapidly until the rain was coming down so hard that you couldn’t even see the Herbology greenhouses that were usually visible from the window. Glancing around the student lounge, Max wasn’t surprised to see the number of people inside. With the ominous clouds that had been threatening to burst all day, few people had been brave enough to risk heading out. Instead, they sat around talking or playing wizarding games. There were a few people studying as well, but on a Saturday, schoolwork wasn’t really on people’s minds. Max watched the rain for a few more moments before losing interest. It looked like it would be coming down for a while longer.

Turning in his seat, Max wondered what he should do. He had a book with him, but for once he didn’t want to read. His brother was nowhere in sight. It was likely that he was off studying somewhere or running around in the room. Sometimes, his brother was very smart but other times he acted like he had no sense. It was always difficult to tell how he would wake up. Despite how different they were, Max was fond of his younger brother. They had grown closer over the years, especially since the death of their older brother the previous year. Standing up, Max headed to an empty table. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the deck of Exploding Snap Cards that he had taken from his brother the night before. Opening it, Max pulled out two cards, holding them carefully as he placed a third on top to create the first layer of his card house. When he was sure that they were balanced, he let go and held his breath. Thankful when they didn’t fall, he reached for another two cards to repeat the process. The suspense that at any moment the whole tower might fall and singe his eyebrows was just part of the fun.

 

[Elle Volkova]

It was another miserable day at the Durmstrang Institute, and Elle was sick of being bored. The young girl hated feeling restless, but due to the recent rainy days, Elle had a ton of energy stored up. It was frustrating to try and focus, study and do homework, when her feet could not keep still. Her fingers kept tapping a beat to her favorite tune on the table, her quill beating the table as the kick drum. A 'SHH' came from somewhere in front of Elle, but she could not place who had made the noise. Groaning, Elle packed her things away and left the library, finally coming to the conclusion that she was not going to get any work done. Swinging her bag onto her shoulders (not caring that it almost hit another student on the head), Elle almost ran out of the library. Not feeling like returning to her room, Elle ventured outside, hopeful that the rain would hold off for awhile. Putting her back by a tree, Elle decided to run for a bit, to burn off some energy. It was exhilarating to run again, and feel the cool air brush against her face, her hair whipping behind her. However, only when Elle had got as far from her bag as she thought she could, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by a boom of thunder. Cursing, the young girl changed route and ran back towards her bag, before scooping it up and darting inside - but not before the heavy drops of rain fell upon her.
Elle's heart was beating fast, and though she was sopping wet, she still did not want to return to her room. So instead, Elle made a beeline for the Student Lounge. She couldn't remember a spell to dry herself off, so hoped she would meet someone there who could help her out. Upon entering the room, Elle glanced around, her eyes scanning the room for someone to talk to. Elle wasn't the best at making friends, and wasn't very conversational, yet her eyes landed on a boy who was playing Exploding Snap. Smiling at the thought of a game that would keep her beating heart racing, the girl made her way over to the boy, and sat down opposite him, shrugging her dripping bag onto the floor beside her. "Mind if I join in?" Elle asked, flashing a smile.

 

[Maximilian Faber]

Max had just finished placing the cards when he heard a voice speak to him. His finger flinched and grazed one of the cards. The boy gasped, frozen in place, but thankfully the card did not move. Moving his hands away quickly, the boy’s green eyes lifted to the spot just opposite of where he was standing. The vision before him was…odd. A girl sat before him. A very wet one. That she hadn’t thought to go dry off or something after coming in from the rain made him wonder how much sense she had. In his home, Max knew his great aunt would have cursed him or his brothers if they dared to sit on her sofa while they were that wet. It just wasn’t something that people with sense or proper manners did.

“I guess…if you dry off first. I don’t want you dripping all over my cards” Max replied, the serious expression remaining on his face. He didn’t know what to make of this girl, though he was pretty sure he’d seen her in classes before. He’d certainly seen her around the school before. Just not as wet. Max reached for two more cards, but he didn't move towards the card house just yet. His dark green eyes moved towards the girl once more. “Do you want some help?”he asked, the thought coming to him that perhaps she hadn’t dried off because she didn’t know how. Perhaps she was a bit younger than she appeared.

 

[Elle Volkova]

Elle raised an eyebrow at the boy as he gasped when she spoke. Surely she was not that frightening? Yes, she was wet, but Elle thought a boy would have enjoyed a pretty girl being drenched. It took a moment before she realized he had gasped because she had almost ruined the game for the boy; not that she would have cared too much for that.
The young girl clenched her teeth together as the boy told her she had to dry off first. Did he think that she wanted to be wet? Rubbing her hand up and down her arm, Elle could feel the goosebumps rising on her arm as the chill of the rain started to make itself known. The boy's serious expression had ruined her buzz, and she was thinking of moving on to someone else, maybe someone more polite, when the boy asked her if she needed some help. The brunette flashed him her sweetest smile. "I know I'm supposed to know how to do it, but I can't think of the spell, and I would really just like to not be cold right now. So yes. Please." She added for good measure.

 

[Maximilian Faber]

Waiting for the girl’s reply, Maximilian glanced around the room, noticing that other people were entering the common room in similar condition to the girl in front of him. Why none of them had glanced at the sky before wandering outside was beyond the level-headed boy. It had looked like night out there nearly all day long. When the girl began to reply, Max waited for her to finish before pulling out his wand. He very nearly opened his mouth to point out that she would probably be a lot warmer near the fireplace, but stopped himself just before he did so. Max’s brothers often told him that people didn’t like when the obvious was pointed out to them and that it was rude of him to do so. He didn’t really get why, but he decided to heed their advice in this case. In spite of being drenched and looking very much like a drowned rat at the moment, the girl was still rather intimidating in nature. It was something about her smile that made him think so anyway.

With a flash of a smile at her use of the word ‘please,’ Max carefully picked up his wand from its place on the table. He could think of two spells that would be helpful in this case, but he couldn’t do both spells at once. “If you want to try the draught charm, I can use the hot air charm to warm you up while we both get rid of the water off of your clothes.” He had just learned the charm only a couple of weeks before, but he’d been able to cast it easily enough during class. Not waiting for her reply, Max spoke the words to begin casting the Hot Air Charm. His wand was pointed directly at the girl’s face, sending a blast of hot air into her face as he succeeded in getting it started. “Sorry!” he exclaimed, biting back a laugh. Readjusting his grip, Maximilian directed the air towards the girl’s long brown hair. Judging by the length and thickness of her hair, the task was going to take a while.