[ open ]

[ddnt]

Who: Everyone!
Where: Beginning in the dungeons and moving up the floors
When: Starting at 6pm (GMT) Saturday, Oct. 22
What: Lost Souls event
Rating: Varying
Warning: likely to contain violence

[ Dinner has just finished and as residents of Hogwarts begin to make their way back to their dorms, some individuals will feel a quick and light pinch. A

Comments

RANDOM CORRIDOR, open!

[kindlymeant]

[Alayne is still trying to get used to this place, with its labyrinthine corridors and moving staircases. Exploring is a bid to do just that, and she's found herself not far from the dungeons - but after seeing Rolo's post, and those that followed it, she's heading back to Ravenclaw Tower.

Wand in hand, robes bunched up in her fingers - habit, the way she'd hold up the long skirts she's used to - the girl runs along a corridor, back the way she'd come. The idea of staying and fighting barely registered as a possibility - she was hardly able, despite the information given she knows nothing of fighting, and besides, it simply isn't her place to do so. Panic shivers along every nerve, but she's calm. All she has to do is get back to the Common Room.

She hazards a glance over her shoulder as she runs, but does not slow, coming now to a staircase.]

[debtsrepaid]

[ Choose your battles wisely was a saying that seemed to apply to Tyrion in almost every way possible. Today is such a day, and while he believes he could have taken on the Inferi with magic at his command, it is best not to test the theory, especially when there were students less skilled than he who would need escorting.

The whole idea is laughable, but he supposes it isn't the time for that either.

To the dungeons then, since that seems to be the direction he's headed in.

Until, of course, he runs into a girl... ]

[kindlymeant]

[She reels, but does not stumble, opening her mouth to give an apology. A child, she thinks she's bumped into a child, but then her eyes fall on him and her chest feels taut, like a dress suddenly laced too tight. Her breath catching in her throat, she steps back, mind racing.

There is no mistaking him. There may be other dwarves, but not with those mismatched eyes, not with that scar - she knows him too well, and well she should.

For a moment, she can only stare.

And then she drops her gaze, lowers her head to shroud herself somewhat with a fall of brown hair. Her hands are white in the black of her robes. He will know. He will surely know. And what then will he do? He might want me dead, like all the rest - Westeros may have been far away, but she's not fool enough to think that would protect her if everything falls apart. Wildly, she finds herself wondering if she could hex him and run.

You have no reason to be frightened, she tells herself, trying to think calmly, the way her father would. You are not Sansa Stark. You are

[debtsrepaid]

[ He does stumble, but just manages to catch himself on the wall of the staircase. A close one.

He thinks to pocket his wand, but doesn't dare, just in case. Not at a time of urgency like this one. He manages a glance around before his eyes land on the girl's face. Her voice sounds familiar, like the faint whisper of "home." Memories too recent, and not soon forgotten. ]

It is my fault, child. [ He straightens his own robes as he clutches his hand, which feels gargantuan in his hands. ] I should have been more alert. You're not to blame.

[ But there's a ping of familiarity in the way she doesn't meet his eyes. It was a gaze he knew well back in Westeros with the Ladies of the Court, but here, few were afraid to stare openly. Here he was not a Lannister of Casterly Rock. Only his status as professor guarded him. ]

[kindlymeant]

[His words seem too good to be true - but they don't make it any easier to breathe, as if that could somehow give her away. She chances looking at him, gaze flicking to his face as if to see a sign there. Could it be that he does not recognize her? The thought seems too much to hope for, but she cannot help but cling to it.

She drops her gaze again.] Are you going to the dungeons, my lord - [a habit she still hasn't managed to drop, especially not when it's him she's looking at] - sir?

[debtsrepaid]

[ My lord sir. He isn't sure if he should feel honoured or laugh. But no one's used the word "lord" since his arrival either. He glances around again before looking at the girl.

Hogwarts robes, brown hair, an awfully familiar face... If only he could get a look into her eyes. ]

I believe I was, but it seems there's a bit of a crisis going on, and all students are supposed to be returning to their chambers. Unless you're heading to vanquish evil yourself.

[ He smiles. ]

[kindlymeant]

I think that would be better left in more skilled hands. [Feeling his eyes on her, she's all the more careful not to meet them.]

I had been looking around, but I was returning to Ravenclaw Tower. ['A bit of a crisis', indeed.] Have they broken in, Professor? The Inferi?

[debtsrepaid]

More skilled hands. Of course.

[ Not his skilled hands anyway. He had no doubt he could wield this new found power of his, but there are others more capable. ]

Last I checked, these Inferi were trying their hardest to get in...

[ "My lord," though. Those words still linger in the back of his mind. Very few people here knew who he was (and he prefers to keep it that way), and neither of them liked him. It was no matter, he has more important matters to attend to. ]

I was just headed back to Ravenclaw Tower myself. I will accompany you.

[kindlymeant]

[And she does look at him again, her expression wary. If he was heading in the opposite direction it stands to reason that he was going to the dungeons, and while she might appreciate the thought from someone else, from a Lannister...

He is not like the rest, she knows. But a Lion he remains, and who knows how time might have changed him?

But she cannot refuse him. That would be all the more suspicious.

After a brief moment of hesitation, she gives a small smile, dipping in a curtsey.]

You are very kind to offer, Professor. Thank you.

[debtsrepaid]

Well, it is not best to linger in such a place, especially with these Inferi on the loose.

[ It probably stands to reason that lingering in the dungeon was probably the worst idea. Heading down there or to Ravenclaw Tower didn't seem to matter at that point.

Nor does this girl's peculiar behavior in light of the other students he had met. But that is neither here nor there, he supposes. His hand grips his wand a bit tighter for a brief moment before he offers her the smallest of smiles in return. Really, this was not what he wanted to be doing on his "vacation." ]

It's my duty as a Professor, is it not? Come, we should hurry.

[kindlymeant]

Yes, Professor. [She is as dutiful as ever, of course - something Alayne Stone and Sansa Stark share. Falling into step with him (though really, she has to remind herself quickly that her long strides could quickly overtake him and so must slow her own pace to match his) she walks in silence up the stairs.

But silence leaves the floor open for him to speak and ask questions, so that and good manners has her speaking up again.]

Will you be joining the other professors, sir? In warding the inferi off?

[debtsrepaid]

[ He hobbles up the stairs next to her, keeping his eye out (for other students, Inferi, professors, he's not sure...).

His mind seems to be elsewhere as he escorts her back to Ravenclaw tower. One of his own house? The thought pleases him, if only a little. (House Pride was a thing here, wasn't it? That didn't surprise him in the least.) ]

It appears I will be. We're under orders, at the moment, to take care of student safety first. It seems Ravenclaw Tower will be receiving guests for the duration of this...invasion.

[kindlymeant]

Slytherin House will be joining us, won't they?

[So she's gleaned from the commuter, anyway. She doesn't know many Slytherins yet, but in all honesty, she'd rather Slytherins than Gryffindors. They have nothing to do with Westeros, but the gold lion on red still unnerves her.]

They're - not human, are they - the inferi? [She's read it, but even with magic, some things still take a bit of getting used to.]

[debtsrepaid]

They will be, yes. It should be a temporary situation, however.

[ Melisandre was associated with Slytherin, wasn't she? Perect... Another "friend" from Westeros. (And yet he found it slightly amusing, in the most depressing of ways.) ]

The Inferi? ...No, apparently not. Wights, I've heard them called as well. A bit hard to believe, really, but I suppose anything can happen when there's magic involved.

[ He smiles again as he walks next to her. ]

[kindlymeant]

[Wights. Will it be grumkins next? I learned that the stories were all false, but now that they run true it is only for the monsters. Somehow, the thought failed to surprise her, bitter as it was.

Somewhat meekly:] I suppose so, sir.

[debtsrepaid]

[ Tyrion's thoughts exactly. Grumkins and giants? And then what? But this Hogwarts was constantly surprising him, in ways both good and bad.

Such were the ways of things, he supposes.

He looks over at her, briefly, before he looks back toward the corridor. ]

Excuse me, I'm just musing aloud. If I have frightened you, I apologize.