What Are You Doing?

[Signy Forstrom]

Although Signy wanted to stick to all of the rules, she had spotted the forest out of window during one of her classes and firmly decided that she wanted to go to the forest. While she didn't want to break the rules, she did really want to go. The young hufflepuff was sitting in the class, just staring out at it, her knee was bouncing up and down in excitement and nervousness, she wanted to go and more than that she wanted to go outside, because she had spent so much time inside over the last few days with classes and just wanting to be ahead of the work that she needed for classes, or thought she would need, which she didn't in the end need. Mostly because they hadn't needed it at all, there was no need, they had just done so much introduction and since she was currently in a class where they were just doing that. The girl decided then that she would do just that. As soon as they were dismissed the girl rushed from the room and then headed to the dorm, switching from the uniform into more casual clothes, things she didn't mind getting dirty and then in a rush headed outside.

The girl didn't stop running until she reached the outskirts of the forest, her gaze sat on the darkness within the trees, she could almost sense what lingered within, she could feel it. She had been in few forests growing up, it was just the farm she had lived on, but this was so entirely different, it felt different. She suddenly felt like she could understand why it was a forbidden forest. It felt like something was off about, something dangerous, but as she was about to turn away, knowing that the lake was not too far from where she stood but just as the blonde was about to turn to leave she spotted someone, a little older than her in the forest, "Hey!" she called out to him, "You're not supposed to be in there," she continued but it seemed like the boy hadn't heard her, and after a little huff walked quickly over to where the boy seemed to be bent over the dirt, "Hey! The forest is forbidden, what are you doing?" she demanded, a hint of curiosity in her tone at the last part and in her desire to have him not be in the forest she scarcely even realised that she herself was now in the forest.
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[Xavier Jeffreys]

Xavier's favourite pastime was digging for bugs in the school grounds and regardless of the rules, this included the forbidden forest. The Hufflepuff had known the forest was out of bounds from his very first year at Hogwarts, and every year following as the headmistress always mentioned the forbiddenness of the area during the start of year feast. But of course Xavier disregarded these constant reminders and continued entering the forest time and time again on his journeys to search for bugs. He simply could not help it when the forbidden forest was one of the more forested areas of the school, with fallen logs, rocks, and moss everywhere being a home to potential new bug friends. It was the perfect place for his searches and though he did not venture deep into the forest, nor visit it every single day, it was one of the best places he could go when he wanted to meet larger, more interesting and unique bugs that he couldn't find anywhere else around the school.

That day, Xavier had chosen to enter the forbidden forest and upturn a set of small boulders he had discovered during a previous visit. He was sure that there would be lovely beetles or even worms hiding under them, thus being why he planned to work as hard as his body would let him to move each of the boulders. The only problem Xavier faced was that despite their size, the boulders were deceptively heavy. It wasn't a simple grab and lift situation like he initially thought it would be. The boy resorted to kneeling in the dirt, not minding that the soil was covering his knees and falling into his oversized gumboots as he began to dig a small hole in front of one of the boulders, thinking it would help him at least shift it along the ground slightly. He dug as much as he could with his hands, too focused on his task to hear that someone was calling out to him until they approached him and their voice became significantly louder and impossible to avoid.

Xavier stopped his movements and looked over his shoulder, seeing a girl in his peripheral vision. The girl was blonde so he knew it wasn't Zara and therefore was not opposed to standing up and turning around to respond to her while continuing to hold clumps dirt between his hands. "I know it's forbidden. I'm just looking for bugs." He answered, simply. Unsure of how else to respond. He eventually realized that though he knew nothing of this girl, she could very well tattle tale to a professor of his rule breaking. He dropped the dirt he was holding and dusted his hands together before holding an index finger in front of his lips and saying "Shhh. Don't tell anyone I'm here." using this as a precaution to stop the girl from telling on him, if she was that way inclined. He knew people that would tell on him, but didn't want to assume the same thing about this girl. She at least seemed nice at a first glance and had not yet said anything about him being disgusting which was more than he could say for Zara who he had encountered under similar circumstances.

sorry that this took so long!​

 

[Signy Forstrom]

Signy was a little confused when the boy looked up at her with dirt on his hands, she didn't mind what he was doing, more where he was doing it, the forest was forbidden and therefore no matter what they weren't supposed to be in the forest. She frowned at him as he began speaking, wondering why he wasn't looking in other places around the grounds that weren't forbidden, it wouldn't matter if there were more bugs here the rules stated that they weren't supposed to be here and if he just worked harder in other areas of the grounds then he would've found them already. He would've found what he wanted rather than just taking the easy option. She didn't think it was right for him to tell her not to tell anyone, but she approached him curious to see what he was doing, or more to find out specifically what he was doing, so despite her better judgement informing her to stay out of the forest because she could get into trouble for it she decided to go to see what this odd boy was really doing.

Signy approached with a little caution, but looking curious at what he was really doing and she noticed that he had a dirt on his knees and he was literally digging a hole in front of the boulder so that obviously he was trying to move the boulder. She shrugged "I won't tell but you could just dig elsewhere you know?" she had some loyalty to the people who were her age and she was sure she'd perhaps seen this boy about Hufflepuff but she reached down and put her hands on the boulder and with a small heave moved it out of the way and then looked around it to the ground underneath, "Is that better?" she couldn't see too much but she was happy to help him get what he wanted, she liked doing a little work to help him, "Why are digging here? Are the bugs really good here or something? I mean the forest is forbidden so you'd better have a good reason for being here when you shouldn't," the girl continued still holding the stone in place as she spoke, not minding about the weight of it since she had lifted rather heavy thing in the past with her hard work in her family's farm, so it wasn't like she minded the dirt and lifting, and she was more just curious about why he was doing this, and why here.
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[Xavier Jeffreys]

Xavier's jaw dropped open in shock as the girl spoke to him. She was both accepting of his actions and helpful towards them, which was refreshing. Zara was usually dismissive of everything he did, judging him for every speck of dirt on his body rather than asking why he searched for bugs and always branding him as disgusting. When the girl said he could dig elsewhere, he shook his head. "I can't. The bugs are more interesting here, and more rare because this is the most forested part of the school." He explained. He opened his mouth to explain further but was soon silenced by the girl as she placed both hands on the boulder, moving it to one side. He momentarily stood still, dumbfounded by the action, however he then moved to look at the exposed ground where the boulder once was. Multiple bugs scurried to dig new homes in the dirt and he dove to capture them in his hands to no avail. He did his best to capture them though his actions were too delayed.

When she asked again why he was digging there, he repeated himself. "My reason is that the bugs are better. Didn't you see them? They were so beautiful." He said. He frowned momentarily in thought before saying. "Hey, if you move the boulder some more, I might catch them. Then my trip here won't be a waste." He was hopeful this girl would continue to help, despite breaking the rules by being in the forbidden forest. "There was a beautiful blue beetle somewhere." He added, hoping she would use her strength and the hole he dug to move the boulder further while he attempted to find the blue beetle. He hadn't seen the bug before and was eager to capture it.
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[Signy Forstrom]

Signy had never minded getting her hands dirty so hadn't thought of it as an issue, wasn't thinking it would be surprising to him that she would do it, she just wasn't overly surprised that the bugs he was looking for in this forbidden bit of the school and it did confirm what she already thought. The bugs in this magical area of the school would surely be more interesting to the boy that the ones in other areas. She wasn't entirely sure why they would be, but she trusted the boy in front of her easily and believed him when they said they were rarer. She lifted the boulder, moving it to the side and jut watching the other boy curiously, despite the fact that he was collecting or looking at bugs and they were in the forbidden bit she could help but admire the way he was paying attention to them, a sense of determination and focus clear.

She was therefore a little surprised that despite his concentration and the fact she was asking what were likely annoying questions he did opt to answer them, and she didn't agree with what he was saying, "Bugs are just bugs," she didn't find them particularly interesting, and she didn't have the same interest in them as this boy did, but she respected how much he cared for them, how interested he was in them, even in the few words he spoke, so without too much question, she did as he asked, lifting the rock to the side and then looking at the ground below expecting to see the bug he was talking about, maybe the blue beetle would be as he said beautiful, she wanted to see it, to see if it was beautiful. Signy was always happy to have her opinion change, she was always open to such things, "Can you see it?"
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[Xavier Jeffreys]

Xavier was dumbfounded by the girl's willingness to help him. He was not used to anyone besides Ares or his other Hufflepuff friends supporting his love for everything involving insects and nature, so to see someone he didn't know react curiously to his interest rather than scrunching their nose in disgust was mind blowing for him. It made Xavier curious himself to get to know the girl so she could accompany him on bug hunting missions in the future, though such a thought was soon interrupted and replaced by the task at hand when the girl moved the boulder again. The blue beetle was then one of the only things on Xavier's mind as he saw the creature continue to move from the exposed ground to hide underneath the boulder. He knelt in the dirt to dig in the spot he saw the bug flee to, but soon realized it was too far gone underneath the rock where his hands could not reach. He wanted to curse his slow reaction time but instead kept his mouth shut and his brow furrowed in concentration.

"Stand back a little bit." He told the girl as he stood up and pushed the boulder from the other side. This time the blue beetle was nowhere to be found. Xavier instead decided to move the boulder again from the other side one last time, before forming a different plan of action. He was a seasoned bug hunter by his own definition and believed he knew when a different approach was needed. He walked to the other side of the boulder where the girl was standing. "We should both push it back at the same time, okay?" He suggested while placing his hands on the boulder and moving one leg behind the other to balance himself. "I'm Xavier by the way." He then said, smiling as he waited until the girl was prepared to push the boulder with him.​

 

[Aeon Summers]

Padding across the border of the Forbidden Forest, the animagus made his rounds, ensuring students didn't attempt to enter areas of the school they weren't supposed to. It wasn't the most enjoyable of jobs, but with his current grading up to date, he had little else to do but stretch his legs and enjoy the time he had until his next class. Aeon's paws sank into the yellow grass with each lazy step, his vision no longer showing the colour spectrum he knew as a human, and he yawned tiredly, not expecting much to come of his patrol. That was, until a small girl ran directly across his field of vision and, after a brief moment of hesitation and some sort of communication with someone further inside, entered. Oh boy. Aeon thought, slowly making his way toward the section of treeline the girl had disappeared into. By the time he caught up with her, he took note of the second student already present. It seemed like everyone wanted to break the rules today.

As the older of the two introduced himself, Aeon wandered out from behind a tree, shifting into his human form in the same movement. "Nice to meet you, Xavier. I'm Aeon. But I'm sure you two already know that." He beamed a toothy grin, his pointed canine teeth still transitioning into their normal state to fit more comfortably in his mouth. "This is the part where you make up an excuse to get out of trouble, and then I deduct house points. So what have you guys come up with, hm?"

 

[Signy Forstrom]

Signy was pretty keen to help out the boy who was looking for bugs, she didn't mind holding up the rock that she had. It wasn't too much of a struggle really for her, she was just easily able to lift it, it was easy, a little heavy sure but it was fine nonetheless, not something she was visibly struggling with. The girl didn't even mind the little lapse of silence and the fact he didn't seem to mind much, it was fine to her. Signy had often sat or worked with her father speaking about this that and the other thing even though he wasn't overly interested in what she had to say, but listened and made noises when appropriate. Signy knew this boy wasn't anything like her father, but it was why she didn't mind so much that there were the little moments of silence. At his instructions she moved around and helped to push the boulder out of the way. And when she was just about to tell him her name, they were interrupted by a professor.

Signy had known that the forest was a forbidden place and she shouldn't have gone in, but she had, she had made that decision to go in, but it hadn't really factored in her mind that she could actually get caught, that she might actually end up in trouble, and she was left with a choice, her father had always taught her to be honest, but she didn't really want to lose house points and there was no telling that he would believe any truth that she said to him, "We were looking for bugs because the bugs in the forest are better than else where," it didn't sound too ridiculous when she said it, but she was pretty sure the professor would think it so, "We were only going to stay ten minutes at most," which was a sort of lie, she hadn't planned to remain in the forest too long, but there had been no time frame, "Sorry sir,"
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[Aeon Summers]

Summers scratched his head for a moment as he considered the response he'd gotten. It was certainly different from any excuse he'd heard before, that was for sure. "You were...looking for bugs. Why?" He questioned, so taken aback by the fact anyone would go into a restricted area to find some insects, of all things. The only critters he could imagine dwelled within the forest weren't entirely pleasant or worth the time. "Nevermind, it doesn't matter." He shook his head and stepped back, gesturing the way he had come, up toward the castle. "Ten minutes or not, this area is out of bounds, specifically for your safety. Now, the two of you can lead the way to Professor Stark's office, and we'll see if she thinks any further punishment is necessary. Off we go." The man waited for them to start heading back while following from behind, ensuring they reached their destination.

 

[Xavier Jeffreys]

Xavier was waiting for the girl to introduce herself back when a professor interrupted them. He stood back from the rock, then looked the man up and down curiously, noting the canine like features on his face becoming more human. He didn't specifically know who Aeon was, but was observant enough to realize this was one of the professors and he and his new friend were caught searching for bugs red handed. He looked from Aeon to his friend as she explained they were looking for bugs, and nodded in agreement, about to open his mouth to explain further when the professor said the excuse didn't matter. Xavier frowned at this, not understanding why the professor would waste breath asking for an excuse just to decide it wasn't worth the time to listen. He then shrugged, thinking it would be a further waste of breath for him to question this when the professor already suggested they make their way towards their head of house. "Alright then. Let's go" Xavier said, walking in the direction of the castle alongside his friend, hoping she would introduce herself before all of this was over so he had at least made one new friend out of the day.
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