The bibliophile and the trouble magnet

[Rafael Fedorowicz]

The sky was still star spangled when Rafael sneaked off the castle and he was staring at a pulsing star while making his way through the Great Lawn. The Hufflepuff preferred early morning contrary to night hours that his Gryffindor friends used to be slightly more active. Despite their efforts to make him join them during their late night ventures, Raf preferred to stay out of trouble and visit the grounds only when the constant fight between dark and light was in favor of light. He didn't really like dark and on the flip side he loved to watch how fast the black veil of the night was turning into a canvas of flaming colors. Rafael had to wait for a few more minutes to witness the sunrise. For the time being he was guided by the faintly outlined landmarks of the school's grounds and the strobing star, pulsing the colors of green, yellow, blue and red. The boy smiled when he thought of Perseas and Rhiannon. What would think his Gryffindor friend if he was going to know that although a Hufflepuff, he still had an adventurous side? Rhiannon on the other hand would be disappointed in him and would advise him for the millionth time to follow the school's rules. It was a good thing that none of them knew about his early morning activities and a bigger smile pressed his cheeks knowing he wasn't going to be tempted with extra, recklessly adventurous ideas or be reminded of the rules.

The truth was he wasn't after the kind of adventure a Gryffindor would really consider an adventure. Rafael had recently discovered a new hobby he would actually finding really interesting. Along with his fondness for the fine art of potion making, collecting herbs and other ingredients had come to clip together and offer him a chance to spend creatively a few hours per day. He was now holding a herbarium, an old, leather book once belonging to his paternal grandfather who he had never met. A few pages were filled with a collection of preserved plant specimens as well as other possible potion ingredients like fungi and bark specimens. It even had small pouches enchanted to store generous amounts of seeds and bigger specimens. Once Rafael had found this heirloom the night before his return at Hogwarts, he decided to finish his grandfather's work and fill all herbarium's blank pages. There was no better place than Hogwarts' gardens and this was exactly where the timid Hufflepuff was heading to.

Rafael was returning back to the gardens every morning with a new list of flowers and plants he was intending to find and collect specimens from. This morning the list wasn't that long as he was searching for a few rare plants, a nice addition to his collection. While it was still dim, he took out his wand and casted an orb of light on its tip to be able to search among the different trees and bushes. Minutes passed and the large glowing sphere rose slowly into the dull morning sky. Rafael had managed to find most of the specimens when he felt the warm touch of the sun on his face. Up to the point when the fiery colors of the sky dissolved into azure blue he had found all of them except from one. The second year checked his list and frowned. The fruit of a platanus wasn't going to be an easy task. Not only he wasn't sure if he was going to find any in the gardens but it was also the height of the tree which would make the obtainment a tough one.

The sun had climbed higher in the sky when to his surprise he found a lone platanus standing next to a bench. Rafael used his free hand to protect his eyes from the sunlight as he looked up high in search of the tree's fruit. The aggregate balls were hanging from the tallest branches and the Hufflepuff gulped when he realized he had to climb up there. For grandpa... He nodded and placed the herbarium on the tree's roots. He hugged the thick trunk and placed his feet on a couple of gnarls to move on to knots and bark holes until he reached the first sturdy branches. Slowly and carefully he made it close enough to the coveted specimen. When he felt safe enough he tried to reach the closest fruit hanging above him. His fingers could barely touch the rough skin. Rafael pushed himself and stood on his toes for a moments. Finally he clutched the fruit but the smile of contentment left from his face when he realized he couldn't get back down to the solid ground. Climbing up was effortful but climbing down seemed impossible now to Rafael. Not sure what to do, he sat on a branch. He had started feeling dizzy already because of the height when he heard someone approaching. Dry leaves crunching under shoes.

 

[Rhiannon Archer]

For Rhiannon life was lived in a certain order. she always took the same seat in classes, she had set times for doing things and she didn't like it if that was interrupted too much without her consent. for example usually she spent the hour from 4-5 reading, outside in the garden if the weather was nice or the student lounge if it wasn't. however yesterday she only spent 30 minutes reading because it was spring and the spring flowers were just starting to come out so she had spent the other half an hour taking photos of them. Unfortunately she had gotten so into the book she was reading that when it had started to rain she had ran inside and forgotten her camera leaving it on her bench. Like most things that are forgotten it wasn't until that night when she was lying in bed trying to get to sleep that she remembered it and by the it was too late, even if she hadn't been in her pyjamas she wouldn't not have gone out, it was damp and after hours. deciding that she would go before breakfast and pick it up the following morning she rolled over and went to sleep.
the next morning she woke up at her usual time and frantically showered and dressed (slowed down slightly when she out her poop on inside out and but he shoes on the wrong feet) before going down to the grounds in order to be back in time for breakfast. quickly she walked to her bench and saw her camera sitting there where it had been left looking the back reflecting lightening sky with a large dew drop on the centre. Lucky for her it was a waterproof camera so a little rain wouldn't make much difference other than maybe a smudge on the lens. picking it up and wiping it off she switched it on and took a couple of random photos just to make sure it was still working one of the sunrise and one of the garden. It was only then that she realised that she was not alone in the garden as this abnormal hour of 6:50 (she liked to have breakfast early and spend an hour in the library before class) up in one of the trees was a boy. a boy that she knew. "Raf. What are you doing up there? have you been up there all night?" she said curious as she walked over. she wondered why on earth Far was in the tree, had he been out all night, had the stratis twins left him in there, somehow she wouldn't put it past them. As she approached she raised her camera. this was too good an opportunity to miss. her mum kept asking her about friends at the school, she did have some but not that many and she could see the look n her mums face part way between being glad that she had some and sorry that she hadn't got any more. maybe a few photos would stop her worrying. besides it was an interesting angle and the lighting was perfect, dawn and dusk always had the best lighting any photographer would say that. "smile" she said before pressing the button and taking a shot of the boy at the top of the tree.

 

[Rafael Fedorowicz]

Who could be possibly visiting the Gardens so early in the morning? Rafael couldn't help but wonder. Perseas and a reckless adventure of his sprang unintentionally in his mind but Rafael shook of the thought right away. The Gryffindor was too adventurous for such a plain location like the Gardens. Forbidden Forest was certainly a more likely candidate for the particular person to venture so Rafael dismissed the idea as the footsteps were getting closer. It was another familiar face that appeared at the scene. It was Rhiannon McGowan, a fellow Hufflepuff and Raf had hanged out with her quite a few times last year. She was mostly talking about books and their classes so he still didn't know her really well.

Rafael wanted to shout for help from the branch up on the tree but he hesitated. He was going to look silly if not pathetic for being unable to get down. Trying to find the right words to gain her attention he watched her approaching the bench next to the tree he was occupying, to collect an object that looked like a camera. Rafael was so absorbed in his specimens collection that he didn't noticed the camera on that bench. He guessed she had forgotten it the previous day and she had just returned to retrieve it. It was a convenient coincidence for Rafael as she could help him get down. Rafael never managed to call for her help as she noticed him first before managing to utter a word.

"Hello Rhi." He greeted her with a weak smile, awkwardly sitting on the uncomfortable branch. "No. I just climbed to...umm...to get something and...and, I'm stuck here." He explained as briefly as he could but his friend looked more interested in something else.
"What? No." Rafael groaned as Rhiannon turned her camera towards him and pressed the button. No matter how good the angle was and everything, he surely had the most awkward smile on his face. He didn't expect her to take a picture and have a moment of fun. A more predictable reaction from her part would be to scold him for climbing so high above the ground, risking limps and other body parts from a fall. "Now that you have captured this awesome moment, could you led me a hand?" He asked. "There's a ladder outside the storage hut." Rafael referred to the wooden hut at the entrance of the Gardens. The gamekeeper was storing there the gardening tools and equipment. "Do you think you can get it, please?"

 

[Rhiannon Archer]

Out of Character:

sorry i totally forgot about this thread and sorry the reply isn't too goof.

Rhi realised that Raf wasn't that keen about having his photo taken, she was about to delete it as it was a little blurred however his request for help distracted her from the process. she looked up to see how he was stuck. "you know what goes up must come down so you will end up down eventually" she said not really that helpfully. she hadn't quite realised he was stuck. however when he said that he was stuck she tried to figure out why.
Rhiannon looked up at Raf and it only took her a moment to realise that he had his hands full of a book and some kind of fruit on his hand. "of course you cant climb down. you have your hands full and cant hold on to the tree. she said listening as he instructed her to get a ladder. "I am not going to run after and get you a ladder just pass the things down and then you will be able to climb down on your own. I can help hold them if you want" she said taking her wand out ready to summon them down meaning it would be controlled and she should be able to catch them. "the store cupboard is always locked" she had walked past it a fair few times and knew it was always kept locked.

 

[Rafael Fedorowicz]

Rafael had embraced the tree's trunk tightly and he was avoiding to look down at her. He hadn't realized that he was afraid of heights up until now. "Great! I wonder how exactly I will end up down eventually." His fear was bringing some sarcasm out of the Hufflepuff boy but it was unintentionally. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was holding the platanus' fruit in his hand. He was just scared to climb down the tree when he couldn't find a foothold to begin his descent. Rhiannon wasn't helping much and she refused to bring the ladder from the storage room that was just a few yards away. Rafael thought that his fellow Hufflepuff was never going to do something that had even the slightest possibility to get her into trouble. He had to find his way down on his own but with dizziness clouding up his mind was hard for logic to prevail in his head. Then the idea hit him and he tried to pull his wand out of his pocket. Just when he had it in his hand, the branch he was standing bended and snapped. Rafael yelled as he started falling and his hand dropped his wand to instinctively search for another branch to hold on. His fall was interrupted with the rip sound of cloth and he ended up hanging from the end of a branch that had hooked the collar of his t-shirt. Relieved that he didn't end up on the ground as his wand did but also afraid that his branch wasn't going to hold his weight for long. "Maybe you could cast 'alohamora' on the store cupboard or do something else before I burst like a watermelon on the ground." he closed his eyes and avoided to cast a mere glance at the distance separating him from the ground.