Seeking the Unfamiliar

[Zoe Westwick]

It was disappointing that Zoe had been at Hogwarts for an entire term, and was yet to have a truly paranormal encounter. She knew there were ghosts around the school, but they maddeningly seemed to never be where Zoe was. She was too young to take Care of Magical Creatures, and though Harley had encouraged her to check out the Forbidden Forest, Zoe didn't quite have her sister's guts for rulebreaking. Maybe when she was a little older she would venture in and see what she could encounter. For today though, Zoe had a different goal in mind.

She had heard that the school's kitchens were staffed by funny little creatures called House Elves, and Zoe was absolutely determined to meet one. A little kitchen elf sounded almost too delightful to be true, there was no chance Zoe would let that slip her by. Harley had tipped her off that the kitchens were in the dungeons, but Zoe had told her not to give directions beyond that. This was Zoe's first real adventure, as an investigator of the supernatural and paranormal, and she didn't want to take the easy way out. She was going to search the dungeons herself, until she found the kitchens. Unless... it took a really long time, then she might think twice about asking Harley for help.

For now though, Zoe was exploring the dungeons with a thrill in her heart. She was stepping on every funny looking brick and prodding every peculiar piece of architecture. Surely there was some secret hidden way to enter the kitchens. This was a magical school, a magical entrance was the only thing that made sense. Wiggling a slightly loose floor stone, Zoe wondered idly just how big these dungeons could really be. Surely it wouldn't take too long to search, right?

 

[Theodore Westwick]

Of all the places to explore within the Hogwarts walls, the dungeons was one of Theodore's favorites. He would love to explore the forest with his brother, but the forbidden nature kept them away for now. Today he was with Edmund once again, exploring the depths of the dungeons. When the two found two different paths going in different directions, they silently decided to each take one to see if they would head to the same place. Theodore was just contemplating turning back, as the corridor seemed to stretch on forever, when he heard a sound. He frowned, his mind immediately jumping to sinister explanations. A poltergeist? Maybe some sort of creature? Part of him hoped it would be something like that, but he would want Edmund to be with him for that. On his own, something like that would actually scare him. Hesitantly, he walked on, frowning a little. But the source of the noise wasn't actually anything scary. Not at all. It was a girl.

Theodore wasn't sure what he had expected, but it wasn't the small girl he saw now. He scowled at her from the shadows. Not only was she another student, she was behaving very oddly. He watched her hop around on different bricks and prodding at the walls. Was something wrong with her? As she started to wiggle at a floor stone, he couldn't keep his commentary to himself anymore. "If you're so lost you're trying to dig yourself a way out. No need." He pointed at where he came from. "The way back is that way." He eyed her. "Or have you just lost your mind completely?" A thought occurred to him. Maybe she wasn't actually another student, but some sort of monster pretending to be one. It was the sort of thing that happened in his favorite stories, and much like this girl they never seemed to know how to convincingly act like a human being. She did look vaguely familiar, but Theodore couldn't be sure. He didn't pay much attention to any of the other students. "Who are you?" He asked her cautiously, taking a step back. Tough he wondered if 'what are you' would have been the better question.

 

[Zoe Westwick]

Zoe could hear someone approaching the area she was checking for secret entrances, but she didn't pay them much mind. She had seen quite a few Slytherins passing, and assumed their common room must be somewhere near here. Not worth paying attention to. It surprised her, then, to actually hear someone talking to her, and when she turned to look, she realised it was one of those strange twins from her house. Zoe didn't think she had ever even heard one of them speak, let alone seen one without the other, but this one was by himself, and very much speaking to her. How peculiar. Zoe couldn't quite hold back a giggle at his remarks, giving the boy a friendly smile. Maybe he was just shy, and needed coaxing out of his shell. "You're funny." She said happily, and it wasn't a lie. She supposed her actions must certainly look peculiar to him. "I'm Zoe, I'm in your house. I was looking for the kitchens, my sister said there's a secret entrance down here somewhere, so I wanna find where it is." She gave a loose stone a wiggle as a demonstration. "There's gotta be a trick to get it open, or it wouldn't be a secret." As interesting as the search for the kitchens was, Zoe got a sense that this boy and his brother might almost be more fascinating and weird than whatever she would find in the kitchens. "I've seen you and your brother in class. Which one are you? And where's the other one?"

 

[Theodore Westwick]

Theodore frowned at the strange girl when she giggled, and he took another step back. If she were to lunge at him to eat his face, or whatever, he at least had a better chance of getting away. But when she just said he was funny, he deflated slightly. She probably really wasn't a monster, just an annoying girl. "I didn't intend to be amusing." He said coldly, crossing his arms. "And the kitchens aren't here." He and Edmund had found the kitchens on one of their many expeditions through the school, though they hadn't really been that interested in them. After all, it seemed like most students knew where to find them and went there constantly. Theodore and Edmund preferred places with no students, so the kitchens weren't suited to their taste. "There's no trick, so you're behaving like an idiot for no reason." He stated, rolling his eyes. The interest she showed in him unnerved him, and he glared. "Which one am I? Do you even know our names?" He asked accusingly, even though he hadn't told many people his name so it wasn't really the girl's fault if she didn't know it. "If you need to know, I'm Theodore, and where my brother is is none of your concern." He scowled at her. The way she spoke about him and Edmund made him a bit uncomfortable, like they were interesting specimen to research instead of fellow first years. What unnerved him most was that was the way he and Edmund tended to see others. To have it turned around on himself was disturbing.

 

[Zoe Westwick]

Zoe gave the twin a kind smile when he said he hadn't been trying to make her laugh. "Well, you were funny anyway." She said happily. "But the kitchens are definitely somewhere down here. I wanna find them myself. I figure if there are any sort of magic secret passages in the school there'll be magical ways to open them, like you have to walk past the same painting four times singing the sorting hat song, or walk on the right tiles or something. It wouldn't make any sense for the school's secrets to all be plain as day." Zoe rolled her eyes, as the boy's rudeness stopped being quite so funny. "Well of course I don't know your names, I've never spoken to either of you before." She said curtly. "Theodore. I'll remember that. What's your brother's name, then?"

 

[Theodore Westwick]

Theodore scowled when the strange girl said he was funny. He was NOT. He was unsettling, scary, intimidating, weird. Not funny. "You have a strange sense of humor. Either that or you're just laughing to irritate me." He told her coldly, crossing his arms. "I just told you, the kitchens aren't here. Are you really stupid or simply deaf? I could show you, though I will not. But you ought to take my at my word, you're looking in the complete wrong place." For some reason, it was infuriating him that this girl seemed to simply ignore his information, when the information he had was correct. He didn't even want to talk to her, but for some reason he couldn't stop. Her little eye-roll made him scowl, as she had no reason to be so dismissive of him. "If that's the case. I don't see why you need to know our names now, as neither of us have any intention of ever talking to you again." He said, a little petulantly. "Perhaps my brother can introduce himself, if he ever has the misfortune of being in a conversation with you." He snapped at her. He wasn't sure why the girl was getting under his skin, but he was losing his composure a little bit. She was just weird, and didn't react to him the way he wanted people to react. Maybe it was the absence of Edmund. Maybe him by himself simply wasn't unsettling enough.

 

[Zoe Westwick]

Zoe giggled again. "Oh, I definitely have a strange sense of humour." She said happily. "People say that about me all the time. That I'm a straaaange and unusual girl." She giggled, wiggling her fingers ominously. When Theodore went on she rolled her eyes, folding her arms. "I told you, I don't want to be shown where the kitchens are. My sister just said they're downstairs, so I want to find them myself. I don't care if this isn't the right area, I'll look 'til I find them. Just being shown is boring." She rolled her eyes. Theodore and his brother had probably asked an older student or something. So little sense of adventure. His further comments just frustrated her further. "We're going to have the same common room and all the same classes for the next seven years, but you have no interest at all in talking to me? Really?" She tilted her head. "You're going to get very bored in a place like this if that's your attitude. I think the people here are pretty fascinating, if not as interesting as the creatures. You'll run out of weird bugs to look for eventually, collecting friends is much more fun."

 

[Theodore Westwick]

Theodore snorted at this peppy sweet-looking girl claiming she was strange and unusual. She seemed to enjoy that people apparently called her that, so he decided to burst her bubble. "You're not that unusual," he deadpanned, "just unfunny." He scowled as she said it wouldn't be fun to just be shown. "That's not logical, you're just wasting your time." He informed her. He rolled his eyes. "People aren't interesting. They're all the same, and all horrible." He sighed. "Except Edmund, but he's like me." He wasn't sure why he was saying this to this girl, as she clearly thought she was special.

 

[Zoe Westwick]

Zoe rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore the boy's attempts to insult her. It was becoming obvious that he wasn't very used to having conversations without someone to back him up, and she felt like if she didn't acknowledge his remarks he would probably drop them. His comment about her being illogical actually made Zoe giggle though. "Wasting time is the point though. If someone just told me where I was going I would miss out on the adventure, which is the whole point! Once I've found the kitchens I know where they are forever, I only get the chance to go hunting for them once! Exploring to find secrets is much more fun than just knowing where the secrets are. I want to get as many adventures as I can out of this castle, I don't want to waste any of them, thank you very much!" Theodore's comments about other people made Zoe giggle again. "You're assuming so many things. How do you know nobody else is like you and Edmund if you don't talk to people?" She smiled. "Other people might be a lot like you. Or different, but in funny ways. My friend Stella is very different to me, but she's funny. She gets angry every time I talk about aliens, even though they're real." She giggled.

 

[Theodore Westwick]

Zoe's comments about wasting time being the point made no sense, and the irritating giggle that came with it made Theodore scowl at her. Her entire talk about exploring was stupid. Exploring was fun, yes, but it was a means to an end. A way of gathering information. He frowned at her and then pointed ahead. "The kitchen is that way, a couple corridors and then to the left. Now you can stop wasting your time." How she was a Ravenclaw like him was beyond him. Everyone seemed to act like Ravenclaws were smart, but this girl was hiding it well if she was. "And I know enough to see you're nothing like us. We aren't silly." He frowned at her comment about aliens. "While they are probable, you can't just say they're real when you have no proof." He stated petulantly, rolling his eyes. "There's more interesting things than aliens, anyway, like things that are actually scary."

 

[Zoe Westwick]

For the first time in their conversation, Zoe's interest and amusement with this strange, rude boy shifted over into genuine irritation. Who did he think he was to try and ruin the adventure she had planned to take up the whole afternoon?! How rude. Turning her nose up at him, Zoe folded her arms. "Well, I'm sure I'll get there eventually." She said firmly. "Once I'm finished exploring. I'd hate to miss any secrets of the castle because I was only interested in my destination." Part of Zoe was ready for this conversation with someone so unpleasant to end now, but then he responded to her alien comment, and Zoe just couldn't bring herself to walk away. "Oh, but you're wrong!" She said insistently. "There's a lot of proof that aliens are real! Have you ever heard of Area 51? An alien spaceship landed there, they found it, there are so many pictures! I could show you, I have a book!" She paused. "And I'm not interested in them because they're scary, I'm interested because they're interesting!"

 

[Theodore Westwick]

Theodore felt a little annoyed his attempt at frustrating the girl didn't seem to work too well, though at least he had some sort of effect on her happy cheer. That was something. He wondered if she would leave him alone now, though he knew he could also be the one to break the conversation, but somehow he found that hard to do. He frowned when she said there was proof of aliens. "Pictures can be faked." He told her coldly. "Especially muggle ones that don't move. What about them is interesting? You have nothing to go on, they could be very boring you know." He told her, a little petulant now. "I bet you're one of those people that get scared easily, and if it was scary you'd stop being interested. Just like all the ordinary people." He said, a challenge in his voice now. "What if aliens sucked out peoples brains? Would you still like them then?"

 

[Zoe Westwick]

Although she could tell the boy was trying to rile her up, Zoe was more engaged in their conversation than ever, frustration forgotten. This was the first decent conversation she had had about her theories all year, nothing like boring sceptical Stella. "Well sure, pictures can be faked, but so many descriptions from different people and different places who never would have communicated all match, and they match the pictures too! That's too much evidence to ignore! And muggles weren't nearly as good at faking things in the past before computers. Where would we be as a society if we just ignored everything that might be fake? I'm sure muggles think magic might be fake, but we know it isn't. Life is weird sometimes, you have to be willing to accept that!" Theodore trying to make Zoe uncomfortable actually made her giggle again. "I'd be surprised if they didn't want to take people's brains out, people take animals brains out to study them all the time. To them we're just another kind of animals to study. I'm more interested in scary things, not less. I bet all you and your brother's creepy thoughts put together couldn't scare me." She said, sticking her tongue out.

 

[Theodore Westwick]

Theodore was growing tired of this conversation, as the annoying girl just kept insisting on her own version of the truth, and continued to be unimpressed with him. He frowned as she rambled on about muggle pictures and how they couldn't fake things very well before. "Of course life is weird." He said in reply to her. "But that doesn't mean it's weird in the specific way you imagine. You can't just claim something is real, you have to keep an open mind for any possibilities." He told her with a frown. He himself enjoyed reading about dark possibilities and monsters, but he never thought of any to be real until he had evidence for himself. It's why he loved exploring the woods with his brother so much. Part of him hoped to find proof of things they read about. He had to admit her talk about studying brains and liking creepy things kind of impressed him, as it was unexpected from the sweet looking girl. He had to fight the urge to stick his own tongue back at her, waving his hand dismissively instead. "Have fun finding the kitchens you already know to find. I'm going to look for my brother." He told her shortly before turning around to go back to where he came from.