The next morning, Helena woke up from a fitful night's rest. The extra beds in the spare rooms were uncomfortable, and the air around her was dank and filled with the scent of dirt. She blinked a few times and felt dried water at the corner of her eyes. Reality came crashing back down upon her when she realised that Alice, one of her closest friends was dead, and she had cried herself to sleep. Helena squeezed her eyes shut, ridding herself of the thoughts that crept into her mind uninvited. She went to the bathroom and mechanically went through the motions of getting ready, before walking down to breakfast.
After she ate (or, rather, stared and poked at her food half-heartedly), she was surprised to see Kiara quickly approaching her. "Helena," she said, leading her to a slightly more isolated area, "I need to talk to you." Her tone was serious and left no room for argument.
"Uh…" Helena eyed her friendly curiously and, though she hated to admit it, slightly cautiously. "Ok… What do you wanna talk about?"
Kiara smiled, though it looked a little forced. "I just have a few questions for you."
"Oh, cool, what do you want to ask?" Helena questioned.
"So, uhh, you know how Rose died?" Kiara asked, tentatively.
"How do you know about that?" Helena asked suspiciously. She wasn't sure how Kiara had found out, considering Headmistress McGonagall had assured her that word wouldn't get around.
"Never mind that, I have some questions for you about it. First, what were you doing when she died?"
"I was studying transfiguration in the common room," Helena explained, brushing aside her nerves, "And I was going to get Rose, since she said she needed help earlier in the day. But when I went to the dorms, the door was locked. I used alohamora and went inside, but she…" Helena trailed off, wiping away the tears she didn't know had formed.
Kiara's face softened. "Another Slytherin named Elizabeth and I are investigating exactly how she died. Would you like to join us?"
Helena was driven into silence over the offer. She wanted to do it, sure. It would mean really finding out what happened to Rose, and that was something she wanted to know. On the other hand, it would be breaking over half of the rules of the school, and could easily get her expelled. After a long moment of contemplating, Helena finally gave a hesitant, "Sure."
"Cool. Meet me in the potions room at five." And with that, Kiara walked away.
Across the room, Naomi walked out of the Great Hall and towards the direction of her first period, when she was suddenly intercepted by Elizabeth. "Hey, Naomi," she said, smiling, "Ya look a bit more tired than usual. How'd ya sleep?"
"Hi," Naomi replied, smiling back, "I actually stayed up pretty late doing homework."
"For what?" Elizabeth asked. "I don't recall gettin' assigned that much."
"My quidditch captain had the team use up their entire afternoon for practice, so I couldn't get homework done until late last night. I had help though, from Rin."
"The blond one that's really good at charms?"
"Yeah, him."
"Oh," Elizabeth said. "Say, yer a half blood, right?"
"Yeah."
"Do ya happen ta know a lot about muggle technology?"
"A good amount, yeah. Why?"
"I'm in an argument with a friend and they refuse ta take any word from me about muggle stuff bein' better than wizard stuff. Would ya mind pitchin' in and givin' me some counterarguments?"
Naomi paused for a moment, thinking. "Muggles have definitely made better technological advancements in certain areas," she mused, "but that doesn't mean everything in the muggle world is better than what wizards have created. Though a lot of what the wizards use seems to be purely for aesthetic reasons, like quills and stairs instead of pens and lifts."
"But ya do agree with me at the fact that wizards lack knowledge in STEM areas, right?" Elizabeth asked.
"Absolutely," Naomi agreed. "I have yet to see a student born into a complete wizarding family to show an talent in areas involving science, reasoning, and arithmetics."
"See? That's what I said. Nearly everyone I've met can't do long division, much less work with algebra."
"I'm actually rather glad that someone understands this fact, and not just me," Naomi admitted.
"It was lovely havin' a chat with ya, Naomi," Elizabeth said, a half smile on her face, "but we've gotta split. If ya ever find anyone, full wizard or not, that knows a lot about the muggle and wizard world, try ringin' them up with me. I'd love ta meet and have a chat with them."
"Sure," Naomi replied, waving her goodbye as they turned to different hallways.
In the transfiguration classroom, Maya and Helena were talking in hushed voices about what had happened last night. "I can't believe that..." Maya paused and then continued, "that Rose committed suicide. She seemed so happy, what could have made her kill herself?"
"I don't know, but I don't think she killed herself," Helena told her.
Maya looked at the girl strangely. "You seemed so sure that she did yesterday, why do you say that?"
"Well, as you said, she seemed very happy, and had many friends. Besides, don't you think it's strange that there wasn't a note or a clue as to why? I mean, sure, a lot of people don't leave a note, but I feel like Rose would," Helena said, as if thinking outloud.
"Helena, you're acting different. Not so sad, and more determined," Maya said, "What's up?"
Helena shrugged, grasping to come up with an excuse. "I, um, just realized that crying isn't going to help anything. I'd rather search for answers."
"Good point," Maya acknowledged, "I'm going to help you."
"Wait, what?"
"I'm going to help you figure out what happened to Rose. I want to know too," Maya elaborated.
Helena hesitated, "Ok, you can help. We'll tell Headmistress Mcgonagall everything we find out. She'll be able to help us, I'm sure."
After a few weeks, it became that time of year again, where students chose between returning to their homes or staying at Hogwarts. The staff had already begun to decorate the corridors with Christmas decorations by the time most people left the school. The armour would burst out singing different carols the moment anyone walked by, and the walls were lined with large fir trees, all decorated with an assortment of different coloured baubles. However, what was always most exciting, the one that took people's breaths away, was the Great Hall. In it's fully decorated state, the dining area was absolutely stunning. A single, ginormous and grand tree stood tall at the head of the room, draped with silver and gold tinsel, lined with beautifully painted and moving baubles and strings of popped corn. Gentle snow fell down from the roof and vanished the instant it hit the tables. Joyce could only wonder how long it took to make the Great Hall look the way it did.
She was amongst the few that had opted to stay at the school over the winter holidays. Aside from her and Cathy, there were very few other people that she knew were staying at the castle. A quiet Slytherin girl from one of her classes, and two third years that seemed to be everywhere with her, a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw, were students she had seen often around the school. However, Joyce had heard that the older Slytherin had to leave the school halfway through a lesson to attend something or other, as Cathy had told her along with the other mindless gossip she picked up.
The morning of Christmas, Joyce practically jumped out of her bed in excitement. "Cathy!" she shouted, running over to her friend's bed and shaking her by the shoulders. "It's Christmas!"
Cathy groaned and blinked, looking up. "Wa-huh..?" she answered groggily.
"CHRISTMAS! Christ. MAS!" At those words, Cathy jolted awake. "I'll open my presents when you do!"
The two sat down in the middle of the dormitory, unwrapping all of the things that lied at the foot of their beds. Joyce got a load of presents from her parents, along with a bunch of different muggle goodies that seemed fascinating from Cathy. Cathy had squealed when she found out that Joyce got her ten different magic animal plushies that acted as if they were alive. Both of the Gryffindors went over to the Great Hall, where all of the tables were connected to form one large square, which was topped with a heaping amount of different foods. Gigantic stuffed turkey, a huge ham roast, wizard crackers, tubs of mashed potatoes, and so much more were piled onto the tables. The older Slytherin girl was standing on the seats, arms akimbo. She was decked out in enough flannel to give heat stroke to every country above the arctic circle, with colours basically screaming American patriotism. Two white cats were draped languidly on her shoulders, one of them half the size of the other.
"I'm the ultimate cat lady!" she cackled. "Now with Lukas ta my collection, I have achieved the grand honour of Master Cat Owner!"
"Who got you the cat, Luke, or whatever?" the Ravenclaw asked, her holiday sweater cheery and vibrant.
"His name is Lukas," she corrected, "and my brother sent him, along with a care package full of SuperWhoLock merch, a SCOTTeVEST, a bunch of black hoodies, an' a 2016 Panic! At The Disco 'Death of a Bachelor' Tour shirt, since I missed my chance."
"Emo," the younger Slytherin pitched, not looking up from her book.
"I'm not- oh for God's sake! I'm done with ye." Joyce and Cathy found a seat on the opposite end of the table and started eagerly plating things in front of them.
"Oh my god," Cathy moaned as she took heaping bites of the food, "I can finally die happy now. This is so good, it's blowing my mind. I am so glad I decided to stay behind."
"This is really good," Joyce agreed, eating much more reasonable portions of food. "And I'm glad I get to spend Christmas with you."
"Aww," Cathy gushed, nudging her friend playfully, "shucks. That's sweet."
"It's more fun with friends," Joyce shrugged. "My parents would never let me bring over the kids from my neighborhood to my house because they were all muggles."
"What's your house like?" Cathy asked.
"It's really big, but it's empty. There's just my parents and me, along with our house elf, Mimi."
"I'd like to come over some time."
"Sure! That'd be fun." The two continued to eat to their hearts' content as they talked about whatever came to mind. When they finished, the two headed back to the Gryffindor common room, where Joyce proceeded to plop down on the couch's armrest. Her stomach was full and she needed some time and space to process all of the food she had inhaled.
"CATHY!" Cathy exclaimed, running into her and hugging her from behind. "It snowed last night! Do you want to build a snowman?"
"Wait, really?" Joyce flung open the curtains of the common room and pressed her face against the glass. Just like her friend had said, the entire area of the castle and beyond was covered with a thick layer of white, blanketing the grounds and further than she could see. Never mind taking a break, this was indefinitely more important. "Are we allowed to go out?"
"Yeah!" Cathy nodded excitedly, "I asked Professor Longbottom and he said it's totally fine!"
"Oh my god, let's go!" Moments later, the two Gryffindors were hurling snowballs at each other and laughing joyously. It had started out much peacefully, where Cathy rolled and stacked large balls of snow on top of each other, despite Joyce insisting for her to use magic.
"It's more fun this way!" Cathy protested. "Everyone can use magic to make perfect snowmen, but not everyone can make authentic ones from scratch without any help from wands!" After that, the two spent time adding things to the snow man, like pebbles for eyes, a dopey drawn-on smiley face, two twigs for arms, and a Gryffindor scarf.
"Now everyone will know it belongs to our house," Joyce proclaimed. "And all the Slytherins can go cry in their dungeons because theirs aren't nearly as cool as ours." The two continued to do things in the snow, Cathy making a mini snowman to accommodate the big one and Joyce decided to make snow angels. Out of the blue, Cathy had accidentally dropped a particularly large snowball on Joyce's face.
After a deadly pause, Joyce had slowly risen before lobbing a snowball had her friend's head and screaming, "I hate you!" The two then proceeded to chuck and launch snowballs at each other, Joyce opting to use magic and Cathy deciding to hand make her snow spheres of death. Eventually, both of them ran out of energy and collapsed onto the ground in a fit of giggles.
"Hey, Joyce," Cathy said when she managed to regain her breath. "I had this funky dream last night. There was this, like, block of ham, right? It had a honey glazing and pineapple rings too! But it wasn't actually ham! When I ate a piece, it tasted like watermelon! And then, get this, there was a dancing mango wearing sunglasses! Not only that, but there was an apple and an orange as background dancers for the mango! Strange, right?"
"Of course you dreamt of food, you glutton," Joyce teased lightheartedly. "I had a dream, too. There was this weird girl with black hair, and she looked kinda scared for some reason. I don't know. And then she was like, 'You're going to-!' and then the dream ended." Now that she thought about it, Joyce faintly remembered seeing the girl in the halls of the school and even one of her classes. That can't be possible, Joyce chided herself, it was probably just someone that looked alike.
"Woah, that's deep," Cathy commented.
"Nah," Joyce said, "maybe she was trying to say I was going to have a good day or something."
"But then why would she be scared?" Cathy asked.
"I don't know," Joyce shrugged. "Maybe she was trying to say I would eat too much for dinner. Or maybe she was trying to say I was going to eat ham that was actually watermelon."
"Haha, maybe," Cathy laughed. "Wanna go back inside? We should probably get cleaned before we eat lunch."
"A hot bath," Joyce mused, "maybe with flower petals and rose water and vanilla scented candles."
"And a masseuse," Cathy added.
Joyce scrunched up her face. "That's weird, though. Someone in the bathroom with you? Touching you? Like sure, they're massaging you, but you're naked! Doesn't that make you uncomfortable?"
"Well, I mean, now that you say it like that," Cathy said.
The two headed off to the bathrooms, Joyce opting to go after Cathy, who magicked all of Joyce's suggestions into the bathroom. Cathy had never had a more comfortable, relaxing, calming bath in her entire life. When she got out, she replaced the petals, candles, and water with new ones, despite Cathy insisting she didn't have to. Cathy headed back to the common rooms and decided to finally take a short break.
Whilst she waited for her friend to finish up, Cathy made herself a cup of hot chocolate from the powder mix her parents sent her and a mug of hot milk a house elf handed her. Cathy sat down at one of the arm chairs, curling up and sipping as she watched fresh snowflakes drift past the window. The common room was toasty, the sound of the fire crackling soothed her ears, and the smell of cinnamon and gingerbread filled the air. Perhaps it really was a perfect Christmas. It certainly was Cathy's best.
Cathy continued to savour the comfortable silence and warmth for a few minutes as she hummed Christmas carols under her breath. However, as time crept by, Cathy started to wonder what was taking Joyce so long. Maybe she's just one of those people that like taking long baths, she thought, pushing her worries aside. After over an hour had passed, Cathy started becoming worried. Should I go check on her? she asked herself, No, that would be kind of awkward.
When the time Joyce had been gone had hit two hours, Cathy started to panic. Oh my god, what if she slipped and hit her head against the wall? Maybe she has a concussion! Or maybe she got lost and abducted! Or- or- OH MY GOD! What if she left something in the bathroom and went to go get it, but Pennywise killed her! After a solid five minutes of absolute horror, Cathy took in a deep breath. "Think rationally," she murmured to herself. Okay, let's go tell Professor Longbottom-
"Miss Harper?" Cathy turned and saw her Head of House walking into the common room. "Is there something wrong? You look nervous."
"Professor Longbottom!" Cathy gasped, half in shock and half in thankfulness. "Have you seen Joyce? She's been gone for two hours!"
The professor shook his head, looking slightly flustered. "Not recently. The last time I saw her was right as she was leaving the Great Hall with you." These words didn't help reassure Cathy at all. As a matter of fact, they only seemed to make her even more nervous than before.
"Do you mind helping me look for her?" Cathy asked. "I could go to the baths and maybe you could check around the halls?"
"Sure," he nodded. "You should try calming down. There's always the possibility of her getting lost, or forgetting to get something."
"I really hope so." Cathy and Professor Longbottom split apart, the former dashing over to the girls' bathroom. When she entered, the room was completely empty and eerily quiet, save for the quiet sloshing of the tubs.
"Joyce?" Cathy called out, her voice echoing throughout the room as she stepped around, looking for her friend. "Joyce, are you here? It's been two hours! You'll become all wrinkly if you stay in here too long!" She walked around and through the steam rising from the baths, shivering slightly from the cold.
Wait.
"Why is it cold?" Cathy murmured, continuing to look around. She noticed that the windows were wide open and headed over to them. Right as she reached it, she stretched her arm out to grab the handle and happened to look down. What Cathy saw made her let out an ear piercing scream.
(Author's Notes)
Dear Reader-
OooooooOOOOoooh. Hiff clanger. And I'm sorry if the last two chapters have been a bit on the shoddy side in terms of writing. The two of us have a really hard time writing touchy-feely scenes, since both of us don't really experience emotions to this drastic of a level. Lupus only feels different forms of anger and I have no idea how to write out pain. (Personally, I didn't want the story to go this direction, but Lupus said murder was good and I trust her more than I trust myself to work on plot.)
Aside from that, I hope you liked the story. I've been listening to a lot of (tropical) house and some electro swing, but nothing specific. I've also listened to Awesome Mix Vol. 2, even though I haven't seen any of the GotG movies (I should be getting to them this weekend.) That's it for today.
-Luna
(P.S. Kiara has no subtlety or chill.)
(P.P.S. Our characters apparently have no grasp of suicide and depression, even if Rose didn't have problems with either. Please don't get offended.)
.
I already typed this note out, and I'm too lazy to say everything again, so you'll just get a recap.
One. I finished Nightfall, a book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, and after patiently waiting a whole year all I get is another cliff hanger. Ugh.
Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter! We've got much more investigation and murder planned so stay tuned!
Book Rec: Nightfall, by Shannon Messenger.
See you,
Lupus
[She fucked up on mobile lol -Luna]