A Little Help? ||Open||

[daisy]

The rain poured down upon the roof of the castle. Daisy could see it bouncing from where she stood on the grounds. It was the be inning of Spring so what more could one expect from Scottish weather? It wasn't as if this time of year was overly sunny, but they could at least hope for just overcast or a couple rays of sunshine, but not today it seemed. Today rain was the only thing they'd get and the only thing they could hope for was that it would lighten up a little bit, though as the thought possessed Daisy's mind, a bolt of lightning filled the great black sky, illuminating everything, temporarily blinding Daisy once it disappeared the twilight became black once more from heavy clouds. The low rumble of thunder soon filled Daisy's ears and she knew that the storm had just started, and that it was very nearly overhead.

Running carefully up to the castle and the stairs to the main entrance of the castle, Daisy found she was wet from head to toe and she knew that if Filch caught her, she was going to be dead meat. He didn't exactly appreciate sopping wet foot prints everywhere and drips of water leading through the castle, and for it to trek back to the Hufflepuff common room, would probably lead right to her, because she'd be the only recently soaked Hufflepuff in the common room. If only she knew a spell to make herself invisible and visible at will, or, even easier she assumed, a spell to dry herself. It would save a lot of time and effort that was for sure.

Coming to the door, Daisy pulled it open and stepped inside, the rain sounding so much louder now that she was inside, listening to it pour on the roof. The large oak door shut with a few loud clicks that imitated one big one. Daisy didn't care though, she was used to it by now. So Daisy stood in the entrance hall, wondering what exactly she could do now. She'd either have to wait until she dried off a little or for someone to come to her rescue. Tea was over about half an hour ago so no one would be hanging around the great hall so it looked to Daisy like she'd just have to wait a little while to dry off only now she realised she was starting to shiver from the tip of her drenched hair to the tips of her frozen toes.

[Liander Hughes]

Liander had been lost in his thoughts for what felt like hours, and it seemed as if he'd let the entire day just drift past him. He'd even missed dinner, now that he'd realized what time it actually was. He'd missed dinner by quite a while, too..

Sighing, he pushed himself off the window ledge where he'd been sitting for what felt like hours. His legs were jelly underneath him and he was left with a numb sensation from his butt down from sitting in one position on the cold stone ledge for so long. He'd been distracted watching the clouds rolling in as the latest storm approached.

At least he wasn't outside though, because the rain seemed pretty nasty today. Then again... what did he need to be outside for when he was sat next to an open window? Liander sighed. Seemed he had rather damp clothes after all, and he was only noticing it now.

Time for a warm shower... then maybe a trip to the kitchens for a snack. He still didn't have full feeling back in his legs but he hobbled towards the staircase anyway. The first thing he noticed on the way down was the cold breeze that wafted up. Why was the door open?

It was then he noticed the red haired girl slipping inside and closing it behind her. She was soaked to the bone and shivering, and while he hadn't been outside himself, he was feeling the cold from the outside too - open window and all that...

He also realized who she was. He couldn't for the life of him remember her name, not that he ever could with names, but he did recognize her as someone in his house. She was a fellow Hufflepuff... fourth year, maybe?

"You're looking a little chilly over there."

More than a little damp too... just as well Filch was distracted with Peeves from yesterday...

[daisy]

Daisy looked about, shaking and starting to freak out a little. What was she going to do? Where was she going to go? There was no way she'd be able to get back to the common room and not get into trouble. Filch would surely find her, if not in person then his blimming cat would do him the honours. How old was that pest anyway? Daisy wished she could be more direct at solving her problem but she'd always had problems with getting distracted, even within her own mind.

A voice came from by the stairs. Someone had walked in front of her as she'd stared off, wondering about Filch's cat. Merlin she hoped it wasn't a prefect. It was, it had to be. She was going to be in so much trouble, she was pretty sure it wasn't past curfew but she was making the castle a mess and if it was a Slytherin that had caught her they wouldn't hold back on dishing out a detention and deducting some points.

"I ... uh ... s-s-s-sorry." Quickly, her brain rushed, think up an excuse, a good excuse!. "I'm just ... I mean, I was going ..." Daisy was not a good liar, especially when she felt she was under pressure and the risk of a detention and losing points certainly warranted pressure and unease in the pit of her stomach. "Please don't give me detention!" The words flew past her teeth and out of her mouth so fast they were almost one word. Daisy wasn't the most eloquent of students nor graceful and as she started walking forward, about ready to beg on her knees, her freezing knees had a better idea, they buckled beneath her weight and she fell to the floor, smashing her right cheek to the stone. Yeah, she was definitely going to have a bruise there later tonight she thought as she looked up and realised that the boy was in her own house and she had a feeling he wasn't a prefect. Brilliant, now she seemed pathetic, clumsy and stupid, what more could possibly go wrong?

[Liander Hughes]

Liander watched from where he was near the bottom of the stairs when the girl jumped at the sound of his voice. She seemed to be a little panicked and flustered, as well as soaked and freezing. Her skin looked almost blue from the cold which clashed nicely with the red of her hair. She actually looked about ready to keel over.

He listened as she stuttered and stumbled over her words, raising an eyebrow slightly. It actually took him a couple of seconds to be able to decode her words as she spoke them so fast. Did she think he was a prefect? "I'm not a-" He didn't get a chance to finish speaking before she tripped, crashing hard into the ground.

"Shi..." He forced his legs into gear and jogged over to where she was on the ground. It looked like she'd gone down pretty hard... had she hit her head? It had looked like it from where he was standing... He couldn't see blood though, so that had to be a good sign. "Sh*t... are you okay?"

Liander didn't really know what to do. It was like one of those awkward 'do I or don't I?' situations where you just seemed to hover and wonder. He crouched down next to her, but she seemed to be...okay. "I was going to say, if you don't want to get in trouble for being soaked the best thing to do is wander down the dungeons and make a puddle outside the Slytherin common room but... maybe you should just stick to a drying spell and a few hours in front of the fire..."

[daisy]

Daisy swung herself about and sat up on the floor. She gently touched her finger tips to her cheek and winced a little. She was a natural at falling, if she hand't of turned her face she would have fallen flat on her nose and broken it, something she'd done a few times in her life. She was an absolute klutz, managing to trip over thin air, tiny stones, her own robes and trousers. At least time it wasn't exactly her being clumsy, more her knees being cold and refusing to hold her weight up, but she promised them in her mind that if they could get her to the common room, she wouldn't stand around contemplating what to do, she'd just lay in front of the common room fire and dry off.

"I'm okay, I fall all the time." Daisy mumbled as she decided that staying sat on the floor was the best idea at the moment. She wasn't quite ready to get up yet, her head was a little dizzy and in her experience she knew there was a slight chance of a concussion, but she wasn't going to mention anything to the boy that was speaking to her, she didn't want to be a bother. She knew how to deal with herself in this situation, she was a bit of an expert now.

"That sounds so good. Do you know any drying spells?" She asked thinking that this guy wasn't a prefect and he definitely wasn't a Slytherin. No Slytherin was this nice. He had to be in her house. He was very familiar looking and was nice, not that other houses couldn't be nice but Hufflepuff's just all had an air about them that was quite inviting, it was warming and welcoming but that could have been just because she was also a Hufflepuff and had never had a bad experience with anyone in her house, only people from other houses.

[Liander Hughes]

Liander frowned. "We've covered it in class not so long ago but it's... complicated." You'd think such a helpful and handy spell would be an easy one, but it was actually really complicated. It had taken Liander forever to get it right, but even then he'd only succeeded in casting it twice. "It's the kind of spell with the whole 'swish flick twist' nonsense to it."

Why couldn't spells just be simple? It would be so much easier if every spell just needed 'a movement' not a specific fancy twirl or well angled flick or whatever. Life would be so much easier all 'round.

Liander looked down at the younger girl's robes and saw just how drenched they were. His were only just say damp yet he could feel the chill from them as they were. "I could try but no guarantee it'd work..."

[daisy]

Complicated? That was just Daisy's luck really. She'd never been a lucky girl, always unlucky, clumsy and the spells she was always in need of had to be complicated. She smiled appreciatively at the boy and shrugged her shoulders. "Thanks very much but it's okay, I'd hate for it to go wrong and burst into flames or something." She said cheerily.

Feeling okay enough Daisy started pushing herself up off the floor. She wobbled a little as she stood alone, no longer using the floor to balance herself as she had when her hands were spread flat upon the cold surface but she managed to find her footing and smiled, proud of herself for not falling.

"You don't know if Filch is about, do you? I'd hate to lose Hufflepuff any points." She asked, hoping that Filch was at the far end of the castle, miles away from her and the puddle she'd noticed she'd left on the floor.

"Maybe if I ran I wouldn't leave too much of a trail and it would dry up before Filch even found it." Somehow Daisy didn't think that plan would work. One she'd nearly knocked herself unconscious and broken her face and two, Filch always found things out, and fast. "No, that wouldn't work. Any idea's?" She asked the non-prefect Hufflepuff. Hopefully he would have a plan what with his extra years on this planet.

[Liander Hughes]

Liander laughed and shook his head. "I've never been been unfortunate enough to set something on fire unintentionally before, so more like it just wouldn't... do anything." That was what usually happened with that spell anyway. It either worked or it didn't. If it worked? Fantastic. If it didn't? Nothing was really different.

As the red haired girl started to push to her feet, Liander held out a hand, unsure whether she was going to start wobbling over again or not, but she seemed to do okay at standing herself upright again, so he kept his distance, standing and moving a step or two away to give her some space.

"Flich is still trying to scrub rainbow colored goo off everything in the trophy room after Peeves decided to have a little fun last night." He knew himself that there was nothing worse than getting caught by Filch at a time like this, but today, luckily, he was being kept busy out of the way somewhere. "I repeat my earlier comment - go via the dungeons. It takes a little longer, but it makes them look guilty."

Well... that was providing that there were no Slytherins on the prowl down there looking for trouble, and no one suspected what was really going on. But then, you could sometimes get away with just saying you were going to the supplyy cupboard for supplies since there were simply none available in the greenhouses. Oh the art of bullsh*tting... Where would he be without it?

[daisy]

Daisy laughed "It's not you, it's me, I think I'm cursed sometimes. You'll do the spell perfectly and I'll just burst into flames." She explained. She had the worst luck no matter who was around, she hoped someday she'd marry someone with perfect luck to balance her out a little or else she was going to be doomed to a life of house fires, burglaries and Merlin only knew whatever else she might be exposed to when living alone. Both her parents were lucky and she was sure that was why she was unlucky. Two lucky's made an unlucky.

Daisy's skin was bumpy all over, she looked to her arm because she could feel the goosebumps but she couldn't really see much in this light, she'd have to hold her arm up to her eyes really closely to see the bumps but she'd look like a little more of moron than she already did if she actually tried. She'd seen her skin goose bump before, she wasn't missing anything special.

"I think I just want to get warmed up. I'm pretty cold. Do you have a towel you could dematerialise or a spell to cover my trail?" She asked, as much as getting the Slytherin's in trouble was fun, she didn't much feel like a trip all the way into the dark depths of the dungeons, she wanted to get in front of her common room fire wearing dry pyjama's, a warm dressing gown and cozy slippers.

[Liander Hughes]

Liander had to laugh. "Dramatic." He grinned. Sounded like this girl was a little on the unlucky side at times, but at least she could laugh about it. "If that's the case are you sure going near the fire in the common room will be safe?"

One thing was clear though, she looked absolutely freezing. "I think Filch should be the least of your worries. He hasn't left the Trophy room all day, and it doesn't look like he's about to leave again any time soon. Peeves really made a mess of things for him." He glanced down to the puddle on the floor around her which seemed to be steadily expanding. He hadn't realized it, but the waters edge was actually reaching his toes now. Liander blinked. "Woah... Are you sure you didn't knock it all off when you fell? It looks like you're brought half the lake in." He laughed and glanced back over her clothes. They still dripped. Was that even possible? Blimey...

[daisy]

Daisy nodded with a smile. This guy was a little funny, wasn't he? "I think it's magically protected so that students don't burn and catch on fire otherwise I'm sure I would have had a few accidents. I've had a few falls next to the fire but never in. Just bad luck sending me a friendly reminder to be more careful I suppose." Daisy liked to talk, she was a bit of a chatter box and it got worse when she was nervous of out of her comfort zone.

"Sounds dreadful!" She said "But I suppose that's sort of good lucky for me! It's nice to be lucky once in a while! It doesn't happen very often! The last time I was lucky it was at a saturday at Hogsmeade when I got the last pink donut at Madam Puddifoot's!" She said proudly. It was very rare lucky things happened to her, she either had no luck where everything was just plain and ordinary or bad luck where everything all day went badly.

"I'm going to back to the common room now, hopefully the drips will stop before I get too far." She said, she had no luck of that happening but it was worth a try, maybe she was having a lucky day today? It would be the first one in ... well ever really.

"Well thanks for your help. Maybe I'll see you in the common room, unless you're walking back there now because then you could walk with me if you wanted, I don't mind." She rambled as she started walking towards the regular path that she took to the common room, water dripping behind her, a puddle left where she had been standing. She was cold, shivering and and soon she'd probably be in trouble.

[Liander Hughes]

Liander let that thought play over in his mind for a minute before nodding slowly. "That would make sense... it would explain why I didn't set my clothes on fire at that party before Christmas even though I was almost shoved right into it..." Usually he wasn't too clumsy so he didn't really thing about things like that, but it made sense that there'd be a whole load of spells and enchantments in place to ensure student safety that no one even knew about.

It quickly became clear to him that this girl like to talk, but her babble was quite cute considering how small and sopping wet she was in that moment, and she just reminded him of one day when he was younger and one of his little sisters had ran in after being caught in the rain and she'd babbled none stop about something she'd seen in the garden. This girl was definitely reminding him of then right now.

"The pink ones seem the most popular, but I'd chose the minty ones any day. You'd think they'd taste awful but it's like heaven in a bite." Damn... he knew what he'd be doing the next time there was a Hogsmeade weekend, which should only be in a few weeks time if he was working it out right. It was usually on Easter weekend, which he was pretty sure was towards the end of April this year.

Liander waved hand in the direction they were going and walked after her. "I sat in front of an open window so I'm a bit on the damn side myself. I was heading that way now." He watched as the puddle continues to grow as she walked and he shook his head in amusement. How much water could one girl hold?

He couldn't wait to get inside and changed so he could get himself sat in front of the fire because he was really starting to feel the chill in his bones now too. "Mmm... I thinking a hot chocolate stop on the way..." Hot chocolate sounded lovely right about now...

[daisy]

The thought of someone being pushed into a fire horrified Daisy. She gasped a little and her eyes widened as she stood there shivering. She really needed to get warmed up but she was distracted and couldn't help but ask "Pushed? Like on purpose or was it an accident because if it was on purpose that's a really, really wretched thing to do." Daisy didn't stop talking when she was on a roll, luckily for this nice guy, she wasn't on a roll, she was just a little scared at the thought of one of her housemates being okay with pushing someone into a fire, even if it was playful or and accident.

Daisy was a fan of the pink donuts but the green was like toothpaste for her. She just didn't get the appeal of it but she appreciated that others enjoyed them. Perhaps if she ever had enough money at any one given time while at Hogwarts she'd buy lots of donuts and put them in the common room for her housemates! She liked to do kind things and she liked to make other people's days a little more cheery, after all, who wasn't cheered even a little by a free donut?!

As they walked Daisy looked up to the window the guy pointed to. "Oh, you really have had your fair share of cold rain this evening then. Were you sat there for long?" She asked. She had her arms folded across in front of her, hugged tight against her body but it didn't help at all. Her arms were wet, her clothes were wet and her entire body was wet. There wasn't a dry part of her body, not even her face stayed dry for long as her damp red hair dripped recycled rain droplets onto her cheeks.

"Hot chocolate?" Daisy was confused. "Where are you going to get hot chocolate from now?" She asked, wondering where in the hell they would get hot chocolate from right now! She wondered if he had temporarily neglected to remember the time. The Great Hall was closed and she wanted to go back to the common room to warm up.

[Liander Hughes]

Liander laughed. "I think it was more of a drunken stumble from someone passing by than anything intentional, don't worry." It certainly hadn't someone that Liander knew by name... but then, he didn't really seem to know anyone by name. He knew faces though, and the guy who'd bumped into him wasn't someone he knew. In fact, Liander wasn't even sure the guy had been a Hufflepuff, but there had been a lot of students from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw joining in the party that night, invited in by friends.

"I was sat there a lot longer than intentional, yeah. I got a bit lost in thought." And ended up watching the rain, but not actually taking notice of the fact he was getting rained on himself, despite being inside. He'd been far too distracted for his own good.

Puddles followed them as they walked, and Daisy just seemed to look colder and colder with every step.

Liander grinned somewhat smugly. "Do you mean to tell me, that even after 4 years as a Hufflepuff, you have still yet to be shown the entrance to the school kitchens?" He reached over and placed a hand on the 4th years back, guiding her off to the right. "I think it's about time you learn. You can't call yourself a Hufflepuff without ever sneaking into the kitchens!" Every house seemed to have their own 'thing' for the Hufflepuff it was knowing the easy way to get food.

[daisy]

Daisy let out a quiet sigh of relief. That was good to know but people really should have been more careful and what were member of other houses doing in their common room? Did people often sneak into other peoples common rooms? Huh, she'd thought she'd seen a Ravenclaw girl sneaking out of the boys dorms once but just put it down to a mistake on her part but maybe she'd been right. Daisy thought about it a little, drifting off in her own thoughts as she thought back. The common room had been busy. the girl was in hufflepuff robes but they were at least three sizes too big for her and she'd been carrying a Ravenclaw uniform in a paper bag but Daisy had noticed that part of the uniform had been slipping out of the bag at the time and she'd seen blue and a bit of the Ravenclaw crest. But that lead to the question of what would a girl from Ravenclaw be doing down in a Hufflepuff boys do....ooooohhh. Daisy blushed and then turned bright red. People didn't really do that sort of thing at school ... did they? Daisy blushed harder. Apparently they did and now she was matching her hair.

Daisy sort of slipped out of her thoughts and looked bewilderedly at the boy she was talking to. She didn't want him to think she was stupid so she had to say something. Repeating what she heard seemed like a good idea and might give her time to contemplate what to respond with. "Sneaking into the kitchens?" Daisy blinked. Was he suggesting they do it or had he just done it? "Sounds like fun." She smiled. That was an acceptable answer. If he was suggesting it then they could do it, no worries, right? If he said he'd done it then what fun that would have been for him so a totally acceptable response but what if he'd been talking about something different? Daisy felt warmer because of her blushing, in fact she could have sworn her cheeks were on fire and embarrassing herself by not paying attention to what was said didn't help the scarlet-ness dull down. Still she kept on walking and hoped the guy hadn't noticed her not paying attention and having bright red cheeks.

"I'm Daisy," She said a little louder than she had anticipated. "by the way." She said a lot quieter, if she was going to be potentially breaking into the kitchens then surely she should know who she was doing it with and maybe they'd have fires and butterbeer! That would warm every inch of her up!