Open Morning musing

[Penny Wills]

Even though she was plenty involved, Penny's grandmother wanted her to be more involved in school life. Sure, she wasn't exactly a member of any extra curricular groups and she'd quit Quidditch after one season, but that didn't mean she wasn't involved. She understood that her grandmother was trying to help Penny handle her thoughts about being at Hogwarts mixed with uncertainty about what lay ahead for her after she graduated next year. It was complicated and she needed time to think and fresh air would help. She decided to skip the morning timetable of classes to wander the forest. It was supposed to be "forbidden" to go there, but so was skipping class and she wasn't too worried about that either.

She found a good path to walk on the outskirts of the forest where she could walk without being visible from the castle. She felt better being alone with nature where she didn't feel so trapped inside her own head for once.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan had mostly accepted that he wasn't going to find any evidence of the basilisk that had been in the forest. Short of sending a letter to Lysander asking him exactly where he'd hatched it (which even Ryan could guess was probably a bad idea), he'd had to face the fact that any evidence had either been cleaned up by the ministry or lost into the forest ecosystem long before the new year had even started, let alone this semester as well. Still, he wasn't about to let it go so easily. If he couldn't find evidence from the previous attempt to grow a dangerous creature out in the woods, maybe he could catch any student copycats.

He'd been crouched behind this particular fern all morning, having already accused a particularly startled wood pigeon of black magic, when he heard someone else wandering the path nearby. "Aha!" He said, leaping to his feet and stumbling from the underbrush behind the person who'd walked past.

 

[Penny Wills]

For all the bad press it received, the forest was actually a pleasant place to be and Penny wondered why she didn't spend more time here until someone jumped out behind her. Penny spun 180 degrees and bashed her shoulder into a tree in the process.

“Ouch,” she winced, rubbing at her shoulder, “What you do that for?” Swinging her good arm, Penny tried to hit the Ravenclaw as payback for her now sore arm.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan knew it wasn't exactly likely he was going to catch some sort of nefarious dark wizard out here but he was still pretty disappointed that he'd only apparently found some random Slytherin. Though he supposed Lysander had just been some random Gryffindor until he'd hatched a bloody basilisk in the forest so looks weren't everything.

He started seriously reconsidering his assessment however when the girl fell into the tree nearby before taking a swipe at him in retaliation. "Hey, hey who hits people, at least use your wand," he said, trying to step back out of arm's reach, arm raised to protect himself before he got a face full of leaves from a low hanging branch he'd stepped into. "Guh, I was just-" Ryan swatted at the branch, trying to wrangle the leaves out of his face, "- I was trying to catch a dark wizard. Or something. What are you doing," he said, crossing his arm and frowning, though the effect was some what ruined by the number of leaves now lodged in his hair.

 

[Penny Wills]

"Oh, would you prefer that I stun you instead?" Penny snapped back, only to watch the Ravenclaw become embroiled by leaves and branches. She cracked a smile, she couldn't help it. Especially when he said he was looking for dark wizards. "I haven't seen any this morning, have you tried looking when it's dark?" Penny suggested, she thought helpfully. "Oh you've got a little something -" She signaled to his head, "-In your hair." She added, "Yep, just there." It was an easy distraction to not answer his return question.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

"Maybe," Ryan said mulishly. He didn't particularly enjoy being stunned, having spent a few weeks in their third year getting his roommates to stun him to see if he could somehow mentally revive himself via pure force of will. Ultimately, it'd been a failed experiment, but he had gotten pretty good at at least controlling which way he was falling.

He scrunched up his face as the girl made what he could only guess was a joke, hoping it conveyed he was unamused. "Yes, but then I can't see anything, can I?" He said, clicking his tongue in annoyance. "You sure you're not trying to raise another basilisk or something? You are a Slytherin right?" He said, peering at her a little closer before frowning and swatting at his hair, dislodging a few more leaves. "Though I guess last time it wasn't any Slytherins involved at all. But still," he said, trying to rein his thoughts in from the distraction, focusing back on the girl instead of the rain of leaves.