Closed Sneaking and Exploring

[Rosie Archer]

Set at the beginning of S2

Rosie had been disappointed when her last attempt to go into the forest had been a complete wash, the weather terrible, the mud thick, and really they'd given up. But the weather was nice again, and so she'd arranged with Jingyi to go check out the forest. They had agreed to it, and her interest in it wasn't diminished. She had told him a time and to burn the letter after reading, so there was no evidence of it. Now she was just waiting. It was sunny and warm, better conditions by far. It had been dry a couple of days, so she felt sure they wouldn't end up in mud bogs, but the downside was that they were probably a lot more noticeable. Hopefully no one was watching the forest too deeply, but if they did, her excuse would just be exploration of flora, and she had a book that would help back it up. It just would remain against the rules to have done it. She was waiting, opting for a spot a little away from the entrance, thinking this better to wait than right in front of it. ​

 

[Jingyi Huang]

Jingyi was still a little surprised that Rosie had even brought up the idea to head into the forest. She hadn't seemed the type, but Jingyi guessed he was wrong about that. Unfortunately, their first attempt hadn't gotten very far thanks to the weather, but not they were going back for a second shot. He was pretty excited about it, putting on some dark clothes with the intent to try and stay hidden among the trees before slipping out of the common room to get to the meeting place. He obviously hadn't told anyone where he was going, then again, no one had even bothered to ask in the first place. It didn't take him long see Rosie, grinning a little as he wandered over to where she was waiting for him. "Hiya," he offered casually, slipping his hands into his pockets, "You still up for this?"

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie wasn't waiting overly long before she spotted Jingyi, she tried to not make it too obvious that she spotted him, if only to stop anyone from noticing them too much. The Gryffindor glanced towards as he finally got close, and she gave an excited smile. ”Yes!” she replied excitedly. She had her wand in her pocket and was very ready to use it if they needed to. ”I don't think anyone's patrolling,” she said with a little doubt, she hadn't seen anyone, but she had no idea what methods the professors used to know and stop students from exploring – if they did. She took a step towards the forest. ​

 

[Jingyi Huang]

Of course, he was quite pleased to hear that Rosie wasn't having any second thoughts about this. Because if she had been, then Jingyi would have probably just gone into the forest himself and left her behind. He'd come all this way, after all. No point in turning back now. "You been keeping watch long?" He did have to wonder, "Might look suspicious to be hanging around here for too long." There could very well be a Professor or prefect loitering nearby just waiting to pounce on any students trying to sneak into the forest.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie shook her head at him, she had been outside for a bit, but not long. "I'm outside a lot. I don't go into the forest, but there's always interesting fauna outside the forest," she explained, which was her way of saying that she was often just out in the gardens and people would be used to seeing her. But she continued to make her way towards the forest. She was sure that no one was actually watching it. "How was your break?" she asked as they got to the forest's edge, she just pressed forward. She was curious since she'd seen Xinyi over the break and wondered if the two had taken the time to catch up. ​

 

[Jingyi Huang]

"No I mean, like," he paused, quickly glancing around, "We're close to the edge of the forest, so someone might think you were scoping the place out or... whatever." It was never a bad idea to be too careful about these things. They were planning on breaking the school rules and getting caught would likely mean some kind of punishment. So, Jingyi would rather avoid that if he could. But he was quick to follow behind the girl, shoving his hands into his pockets as he went. "It was, um... fine I guess," he was quick to deflect as she started asking about the break. "I saw Xinyi and it was... yeah."

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie frowned a little, having not realised that it could perhaps look like that, but she shook her head, with a bit of false confidence that no one had seen her or made note of her, so they'd be fine. If someone had, she hadn't noticed it. She nodded quickly at the forest as they were wanting in it. She wanted to ask more about how things with Xinyi had gone, wanted to know if they had managed to resolve or at least talk about any of the things which had been bothering them both. "I saw him too, but spent most of my break in the garden" she replied. "Everything was in bloom," she said, not linger too much on it, despite how much she wanted to. ​

 

[Jingyi Huang]

Jingyi just liked to be careful about things. The last thing he wanted was for their little trip into the forest to get cut short because they hadn't been careful enough. He wanted to do a thorough investigation and hopefully not get caught by a nosy Professor or prefect in the process. And if they did... well he already had his excuses lined up. Hopefully some of which were marginally believable. "That's... nice," he didn't really know how to respond to that, shrugging a shoulder almost uneasily. "Did you just... watch the flowers or something?" Sounded incredibly boring to him, but he didn't want to offend her or something so decided to keep his mouth closed.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie was sure that Jingyi was going to find her very weird if she answered the question, but she did. "Yeah," she said, with a slightly shy tone. "I talk to them, sing to them, prune and de-weed," Rosie said. She knew that the latter half of what she said was more normal than the former half, but they were things that she did. "I know most people find it weird and Aurora calls it boring, but I've never been bothered by other people thinking it weird," she tried to explain without going into any specifics as to why she did it. ​

 

[Jingyi Huang]

What he found more weird than just sitting and watching flowers, was the apparent revelation that she sang to them. Jingyi wanted to say he found that incredibly weird. But he held his tongue, thinking better of it as he adverted his eyes to look where he was going. The deeper they were going into the forest the darker it was getting. "No, I guess if you enjoy doing it," he didn't really know what else to say, awkwardly shifting his shoulders.

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie nodded eagerly, she did enjoy it, and would always do it. Though Rosie was sure that Jingyi was being polite about it, even if he had called her, or it weird she wouldn't have minded, she'd never mind. But the focus wasn't really on what Rosie liked to do most days while she was outside. Instead, it was on this place, this forest, where it grew darker, and they went deeper. She took out her wand from her bag and cast lumos, giving them a little more light. "I wonder if the founders of this school gave the trees more, so they could grow to these sizes," ​

 

[Jingyi Huang]

He didn't really say much, only giving Rosie a sideways glance as she pulled out her wand and cast a lumos. "You need to be careful," he did have to point out, "The light makes it easier for any Professors or prefects to spot us." And the last thing Jingyi wanted was for this adventure to be forced to come to an unhappy end because they happened to get caught being somewhere they shouldn't be. Though he did look up at the question, scrunching his nose as he squinted into the darkness above their heads. "I just think these trees have been here for centuries. Loads of time to grow."

 

[Rosie Archer]

Rosie nodded, she didn't really want to be without a light, forests were dark and when they were dark it was more difficult to actually see, but she knew it would make them easier to spot. She thought about the spell dimming and the lumos became less bright. She glanced at the trees around them and gave a little smile. She stepped closer to one, lightly touching the bark and just feeling the energy of it. It was nice. "These tree will probably remain here for centuries after us. Some of the deep ones at least, provided nothing happens to them," she pulled away from the tree and followed him.​