Open Some Things Don't Sit Right This Close to Midnight

[Celia Vuong]

((open after a few replies))

So far, things were not going as planned. For one, she was still stuck in this place. Celia had been so sure she would've managed to leave by now, whether that be via a dramatic prison break or her parents suddenly getting some common sense and transferring her out. But no, she'd been forced to abandon her escape plans after realizing she couldn't just Google Maps her location, and her parents weren't even responding to her letters. It was time to escalate things. She needed become such a nuisance that the school was forced to contact her parents.

Tonight, that meant breaking curfew. Celia had spent the past few hours lying in bed, waiting for most of her roommates to fall asleep. Staying up hadn't been too difficult. With so many people in the room, there was always at least one person sniffling or rustling their sheets. Some days she still couldn't believe she was being forced to share a room with a dozen other girls, like she was living in some military boot camp or a Victorian orphanage. But the task was also proving to be incredibly boring since she couldn't while away the hours by scrolling through her phone or reading — even the penlight on her keychain wasn't working here.

After she was sure her roommates were asleep, Celia quietly slipped out. Thankfully the hallways were deserted. She couldn't get caught now; she needed someone to find her after she'd managed to get out of Slytherin complex. The common room also seemed to be empty. It was too big and too dark to properly check for other students, but at least it sounded quiet. She would just have to hope for the best. Celia quickly strode across the room and seized the doorknob, yanking open the door. The hinges squeaked loudly and she froze, wondering if anyone had heard her.

 

[Caleb Thorne]

It had taken Caleb a few tires to slip out of the Slytherin common rooms after curfew. Mostly because he thought the dungeons were kind of creepy at night. But he had gotten over that quickly and figured it out the best way to slip out unnoticed. It was a shame the only good time to sneak out was in the middle of the night. It usually left him exhausted the next day but he wasn't above using lessons and an excuse to nap. Before he had gotten to school he had imagined befriending his roommates and sneaking out with them, but so far none of them seemed worth the risk to bring with him. Caleb slipped out of his dorm room quietly, which was the easy part. He still had to get through the common room, which was not the easy part. You never knew if someone would be camped out and blow your cover immediately.

Thankfully tonight the coast was clear and he padded quietly across the dark common room to the door. He was almost there when he heard what sounded like someone else entering the room and he made the split second decision to quickly duck behind a nearby couch to see who it was. When he knew he was out of sight, he peered over the top and saw it was another first year but a girl, who was also apparently trying to sneak out. Caleb held his breath as she touched the door nob and pulled the door open. The hinges squealed and he winced. "You have to pull up when you open it." he hissed from his spot in the shadows, frustrated with her lack of finesse. He sighed and got up quickly to join her. "Go!" he whispered and ushered her through the door and reached out to close the door silently behind them, careful to lift the door to take the weight off the hinges.

 

[Celia Vuong]

She had gravely miscalculated. There was someone else in the room. For a second, Celia just stood in fear, her heartbeat too loud in her ears to make out what the voice was saying. Though she wanted to get caught, that didn't change the fact that she still dreaded the inevitable scolding and punishment. As she tried to think up an excuse for being out this late, a boy rushed forward from the shadows and practically pushed her out the door. She had no time to think; she just followed his directions out into the corridor as the door closed silently behind them.

Celia gaped at the boy, finally registering that he was her age and likely not a prefect. "What are you doing?" she asked at her normal volume. Her voice echoed off the stone walls, and she winced. Somehow it seemed wrong to disrupt the silence, and though it would make things harder for her, she lowered her voice to a whisper. "It's after curfew, you should go back inside before anyone sees you or you'll get in trouble," she warned, still unable to piece together what had just happened or why this boy had helped her sneak out.

 

[Caleb Thorne]

Caleb was quite proud of his well executed escape and when turned back to the girl he did a double take behind him to make sure they hadn't run directly into a professor or prefect. But no one was there and his confusion grew until she spoke at a volume that was far too loud for the empty corridor. "Keep your voice down!" he whispered yelled at her and made a cut it out motion with his hand. Caleb listened closely to see if he could hear anyone coming but it seemed clear for now. Thankfully the girl got the hint and lowered her voice. "What am I doing?" he asked incredulously. She had been obviously been trying to sneak out but was now blaming him? Unless she wasn't trying to. He wasn't sure what was going on anymore but he decided to play it safe and look apologetic. "Where you...not trying to sneak out?" he asked and scratched the back of his head. "No one's around. Everyone's asleep." he said confidently and tried to make her feel better. "This isn't my first time." he added proudly and shrugged, trying to look perfectly cool and collected.

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia continued to stare at the boy, still unsure what exactly he was doing. As he tried to reassure her, she suddenly realized that he was probably some troublemaker who had been trying to sneak out himself — something he confirmed when he bragged about having been out before. Celia wasn't sure if running into him was a good thing or bad thing, but there wasn't anything she could do about it now. Maybe he could even prove to be helpful.

"No, I was... thanks," she said, trying not to think about how he was probably the kind of person who she would've automatically disliked if she were back at her old school, in her old life. She'd always been more of a rule-follower, too worried about black marks on her spotless record to do anything too rebellious. "But why are you sneaking out?" she asked, genuinely curious as to why anyone would want to risk a detention. It was too dark to even properly see anything. "Do you know where the prefects usually patrol?" she asked, suddenly realizing that if she had that information, getting caught would be much easier.

 

[Caleb Thorne]

Caleb relaxed when she admitted she had been trying to sneak out and he was glad he hadn't accidently kidnapped her or something. He glanced down the corridor and wondered if they were just going to stand there all night but he froze when she asked why he was sneaking out. He scratched the back of his head again and laughed lightly. "I don't know." he shrugged. "It's fun. And it's cool to see the castle at night." he offered. It was the best he could come up with. Caleb didn't spend a lot of time thinking about why. He could and it was fun. that was good enough for him.

He tried to play it cool when she brought up prefects and stroked his chin as if he were in deep thought. "Usually they don't come out till a bit later. But we're kind of sitting ducks if we stand in front of the door all night." he said confidently. It was partly a lie. He hadn't figured out the prefect schedule yet but he hadn't run into them yet so he had to assume it was the truth. But he also wasn't particularly scared of them. Despite his interaction with Sydney on the first night, they didn't seem that bad, and he was still fairly certain he could use her hexing him as some kind of blackmail. With out waiting any longer he started to walk down the corridor and gestured to the other girl to follow him.