Grant had to give her credit for her determination, at least. He was staring at the chalk diagrams that were still on the walls.
"Fire you? Why would I do that? Then I'd have to find somebody else who likes to spend all day playing in the dirt." Not to mention that even with this second occurrence, she was still fairly low on the Hogwarts crazy-meter.
He'd probably change the locks, though.
"They've got spells that will clean this up for you. It might be faster." Grant thumbed through some papers that had been left on his desk, that now had chalky hand prints on them. One of them had a drawing on it that was probably ruined. "If I move that tank out to the barn, would you start doing this over there?"
Chance doesn't ask why he doesn't just hire Billy Brennan. There's got to be some reason why he hasn't already done that, and after her own experience with her former advisor Dr. Sprinkle, Chance thinks some things are best left unsaid, unasked, untouched.
Instead she says, "Okay, but consider the offer open. And yeah. If you move the tank out to the barn, I think this would probably happen there. I was hoping it wouldn't again. Clearly I was wrong."
She tries not to look at the tank with its eerie inhabitant.
"The barn doesn't need to be cleaned after you're done trashing it." She wasn't in the state that she'd been in when this first happened. It wasn't urgent that he calm her down. With no crisis at hand, he was a little bit irritated.
"I don't want to keep an animal that's causing trouble. We haven't seen any other trilobites here. I could get rid of it, if that would be better."
"Get rid of it how? You can't just flush that thing down the toilet." Chance shivers at the thought. Trilobites propagating in the sewers beneath Hogwarts. (Are there sewers beneath Hogwarts? Chance has never wondered about the plumbing here before.) "I don't suppose you got it from a pet store. It'd be too simple to just return it for a refund."
The trilobite waves its front legs. Chance has never been afraid of insects, and reminds herself of that fact. The trilobite creeps her out all the same.
"Ready," Chance confirms. "Thanks for showing up on short notice, Billy. This was a little unexpected. Can you take us to the place where you found the trilobite that Dr. Grant's been keeping?"
"Second floor, coming up," he said. The search lead them to a corridor on the second floor, outside of an out-of-order bathroom. Water pooled from under the bathroom door, making the crevices in the stone floor damp. Billy crouched at a spot about twenty feet from the door. "I found it here, in the hall."
It's the dampness, the water pooling, that gives Chance the shivers. It's too much like
(inside the waterworks tunnel)
something from a late-night creepy movie. She makes herself go right up to the spot Billy's indicating, and she crouches down beside him, peering at the waterlogged stone like she expects to see trilobites surface from the stone, like it's a permeable barrier between here and the Paleozoic era.
"Maybe someone transfigured something else into a trilobite," she offers. "Not even the real thing." She doesn't even convince herself.
A very polite male voice sounds behind them -- a throat clearing, then a tentative, "Is the plumbing only broken here, or is this a castlewide problem?"
Chance turns to look over her shoulder, awkward when she's crouching. Now she really looks like she's seen a ghost.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything," says Simon Tam.
Comments 42
"Fire you? Why would I do that? Then I'd have to find somebody else who likes to spend all day playing in the dirt." Not to mention that even with this second occurrence, she was still fairly low on the Hogwarts crazy-meter.
He'd probably change the locks, though.
"They've got spells that will clean this up for you. It might be faster." Grant thumbed through some papers that had been left on his desk, that now had chalky hand prints on them. One of them had a drawing on it that was probably ruined. "If I move that tank out to the barn, would you start doing this over there?"
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Instead she says, "Okay, but consider the offer open. And yeah. If you move the tank out to the barn, I think this would probably happen there. I was hoping it wouldn't again. Clearly I was wrong."
She tries not to look at the tank with its eerie inhabitant.
Reply
"I don't want to keep an animal that's causing trouble. We haven't seen any other trilobites here. I could get rid of it, if that would be better."
Reply
The trilobite waves its front legs. Chance has never been afraid of insects, and reminds herself of that fact. The trilobite creeps her out all the same.
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"What?" Billy asked. "We're looking for evil trilobites. How is this not better than spending all day in the library?"
Grant shook his head. "I don't get you," he said, and left it at that because Chance had joined them. "Ready to go, Dr. Silvey?"
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(inside the waterworks tunnel)
something from a late-night creepy movie. She makes herself go right up to the spot Billy's indicating, and she crouches down beside him, peering at the waterlogged stone like she expects to see trilobites surface from the stone, like it's a permeable barrier between here and the Paleozoic era.
"Maybe someone transfigured something else into a trilobite," she offers. "Not even the real thing." She doesn't even convince herself.
A very polite male voice sounds behind them -- a throat clearing, then a tentative, "Is the plumbing only broken here, or is this a castlewide problem?"
Chance turns to look over her shoulder, awkward when she's crouching. Now she really looks like she's seen a ghost.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything," says Simon Tam.
Reply
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