Open Toad-ally Alone

[Hester MacGillivray]

Hester felt like her world had collapsed around her all at once. She was a responsible pet owner, she knew she was. Big Douglas had never wanted for anything, never been injured or sick, lived in the lap of luxury for his entire beautiful toad life. He went practically everywhere with her, pampered at every turn. She had studied hard to make sure she was caring for him properly, read book after book about caring for toads and other amphibians, taken care making him a lush and comfortable habitat when he was alone in her dorm, and made sure only to feed him the finest of foods. Ever since he had entered her life, Hester had dedicated herself totally to Big Douglas.

And now he was gone. She had left him sitting on an arm of her chair in the common room while she was in the bathroom, and when she had returned Big Douglas was nowhere to be seen. Nobody around seemed to know anything, and a thorough, desperate search of the common room had turned up nothing. Nor had her search of the dorms. Or the corridor outside. Or the corridor past that one. Or so on. Big Douglas was gone, without a trace, and Hester didn't know what to do with herself. It had been a struggle even with Blue's support to stop crying long enough to write the notes she was now hanging on every wall in the school, clinging to hope that someone had seen something. They had to have. Hester didn't know what to do without him.

 

[Brooke Townsend]

Brooke hated how harried she felt this semester already. It couldn't bode well for her upcoming OWLs but she was refusing to let it show on her face, grit her teeth in a tight smile as she had to brush past another group of Hufflepuffs on the way to the library.

She slowed at the sight of a familiar mess of curled hair, straightening her posture in preparation to breeze past completely unaffected when she spied what Hester was actually doing, reading the note pensively. So her beloved toad was missing; Brooke couldn't say she was personally distraught at the news, considering Hester had essentially picked a frog over her friendship, but it was enough to make her pause. Perhaps if Hester never found the dang thing she could almost be tolerable. "Do you know what happened to him?" Brooke said after a moment of deliberation. Let it never be said Brooke Townsend couldn't be magnanimous in the face of someone's trouble.

 

[Hester MacGillivray]

Hester wasn't paying much attention to the people around her, focused on her task and trying to contain her grief. She only realised Brooke was nearby when she heard the Slytherin's voice, frowning slightly as she turned to look at Brooke. "Like you care..." She grumbled, hiccuping with a small sob and wiping her eyes quickly. She didn't want to cry in front of Brooke, but there wasn't much choice to be had in the matter. "You're probably happy he's go-one..."

 

[Brooke Townsend]

Brooke had worked hard to compose her expression into one of polite concern but she felt the facade immediately begin to crack at Hester's response. "What did I do that was so terrible that you think so horribly of me? All I did was try to help you," Brooke snapped, turning away from Hester's poster to face her with an angry huff, her outage tempered somewhat by the wet look in Hester's eyes. It wouldn't do to be seen making Hester cry, even if Brooke had never done anything wrong, so she bit her lip, swallowing down the sharp, ugly feeling from Hester's accusation by force. "Do you want help finding him or not?" She said shortly instead, crossing her arms and looking away. It was as good as an olive branch as Hester could expect and if she wanted to continue being a brat it was no skin of Brooke's nose. The stupid toad could stay lost.

 

[Hester MacGillivray]

Hester choked in sudden disbelief at Brooke's outburst, staring at the Slytherin so aghast that her eyes forgot all about tears. "You're kidding?! You insulted my best friend!" She snapped, turning on Brooke with fury she had never felt for anyone else before. "And now you're acting like you care enough to help find him? Yeah right." She snapped, glaring daggers at the other girl. "You're horrible, and I don't want anything to do with you. Just leave me alone. I don't have time to deal with you and look for Big Douglas."

 

[Blue Hoshino]

Blue had been racing around the school in the hopes of trying to find some information on the disappearance of her friend's toad. She was very worried about what could have happened to Big Douglas, and didn't even want to entertain the idea it could be something bad. She held her Gregory close to her chest and hoped that he wasn't suffering too much from the absence of his best amphibian friend. Frustrated at the lack of leads, Blue went to go find Hester in the hopes that some miracle had occurred and frowned slightly when she saw what was happening. Blue was not very good at conflict. Or yelling. Hester was generally a very loud person from Blue's perspective, but it was a nice loud. Brooke's way of speaking made Blue's brain feel scratchy and bad inside. She stared blankly at the Slytherin and drifted up to Hester. "Asked some of the paintings. Not very helpful." she said, mournfully. Somebody had to know where Big Douglas had gone and Blue was not going to rest until her human and toad friends were reunited.

 

[Brooke Townsend]

Brooke bristled at Hester's response, barely resisting the urge to start shouting. "Excuse me for not wanting to sit at the same table some great dirty toad is eating bugs at! It's just rude and I was trying to be nice about it," she said hotly. "Fine, suit yourself, see if I ever bother wasting my time on you again," Brooke snapped, something sharp twisting in her stomach. Served her right for trying to be charitable to someone like Hester who clearly would never learn; she was just going to be rude and loud and weird for the rest of her life. "I hope you never find your stupid frog," she muttered, pushing past Blue without acknowledging her. Brooke's throat felt hot and tight and she wanted to be anywhere but here right now.