Torture Chamber. Who's idea was it to have a bloody Torture Chamber? Like what even?? Who did things like that?? A place with the word torture in it? Her father would NOT be pleased and in fact she planned to owl him the moment she was out but for now she would go with it because she'd seen Airey, he was a witness that she was still breathing when she got down here!!!

Without protest, she entered the room and tilted her head curiously at it all. Chains on the walls...hellooooo Mr. Creepy Suit of Armoooor. It got a small wave. Just a small one. This wasn't the room she was in last time.

Lex turned to face the woman and her rug and cleaning stuff. Pffft, she couldn't be serious but this didn't surprize her. All she'd done since school started in September was clean. Another evening of it wouldn't kill her. Dinner was soon so she wouldn't protest much. Dinner meant ice-cream and no her.

Oh.

A thought suddenly hit her, making it a little hard for her to keep a straight face. In all this, she'd won. Heh. Sure she was here but she still had all the gems and they still had nothing but a single Topaz to go off of. Smirk.

Ivy walked in after the Gryffindor, shut the door and locked it tight. With a flick of her wand, Ivy unrolled the rug that she had purposely made dirtier and harder to clean for this occasion and dropped it on the floor. She set the bucket of soapy water and the bristly scrub brush next to it.

"You will scrub this rug until it's completely white again, using only the bucket and the brush." Ivy then set the mysteriously covered box on the floor and took the cloth off the top. It was a clear, glass, indestructible box. On the inside was a big, giant bowl of delicious ice cream. "You can have this when you're done... if you finish before it's melted, that is."

And before she forgot... "Your wand," she demanded, hand out and waiting for the girl to hand it over.

Lex looked down at the rug. There was NO WAY that had ever been white. Yeah right. Not with the way it was looking. She made a face at the dirty thing. How was she meant to get that clean? If she couldn't do her own laundry then how was she meant to get the whole rug white again??

Oh right, with her wand that the Professor had neglected to take from her. That's how.

Even knowing this, it still didn't make her stop making faces at the rug. It was kinda ugly too. Didn't this woman have any taste? Not that she'd be saying that outloud any time soon. Mm-mm. She'd learned from past detentions that things always went better when you pretended to go along with everything the Professors were saying.

So yes Professor Knox, the mat would be cleaned, courtesy of her wand--

JGKDGDKYF!!!

ICE-CREAM!!!! Lex was now practically bouncing. Sweet, delicious, cold goodness. Oh. Merlin. She nodded enthusiastically. "Sure thing! I could still have it melted though, I don't mind." Ice-cream was ice-cream and did Lottie get some too--

HUH? WHAT? Fudge, she remembered the wand. Reluctantly Lex unholstered it and handed it to her. No matter, ice-cream was at stake. This WOULD get done. Nodnodnod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Lex looked down at the rug. There was NO WAY that had ever been white. Yeah right. Not with the way it was looking. She made a face at the dirty thing. How was she meant to get that clean? If she couldn't do her own laundry then how was she meant to get the whole rug white again??

Oh right, with her wand that the Professor had neglected to take from her. That's how.

Even knowing this, it still didn't make her stop making faces at the rug. It was kinda ugly too. Didn't this woman have any taste? Not that she'd be saying that outloud any time soon. Mm-mm. She'd learned from past detentions that things always went better when you pretended to go along with everything the Professors were saying.

So yes Professor Knox, the mat would be cleaned, courtesy of her wand--

JGKDGDKYF!!!

ICE-CREAM!!!! Lex was now practically bouncing. Sweet, delicious, cold goodness. Oh. Merlin. She nodded enthusiastically. "Sure thing! I could still have it melted though, I don't mind." Ice-cream was ice-cream and did Lottie get some too--

HUH? WHAT? Fudge, she remembered the wand. Reluctantly Lex unholstered it and handed it to her. No matter, ice-cream was at stake. This WOULD get done. Nodnodnod.

Ivy took the wand from the Gryffindor's hand and tucked it into her coat pocket. Then she pulled out a simple, miniature folding chair she had in her purse and charmed it back to normal size.

Sigh. Of course she would eat it melted. "Don't get your hopes up," she said dully, pulling out a stack of homework on a clipboard that needed grading. She pulled out a pen and scanned over the first page.

"Tell me," Ivy began, not looking up from the paper. "Why are you in detention today?" And be smart about that answer, girl...

Don't get your hopes up.

Yeah yeah yeah, she wasn't even listening anymore. There was a LOT of ice-cream in that box, OKAY??? Treats spoke louder than people in her book. So yes, even melted, she would have that ice-cream and the world would be a haaaappy place. GRIN.

She got down on her knees and picked up the brush.

Scrub. Scrub. Scrub. La la la la--Ohhhh? Questions??? She didn't even bother looking up at the woman who was too busy with...work? She didn't know, she didn't care; ICE-CREAM and she was wasting time BUT she had a question to answer.

Oooo, one she knew the answer to!!! This was nothing like classes!

"I'm in detention because I refused to drink veritaserum sprinkled in tea." She paused her scrubbing to BEEEAAAAM up at the woman. That was all she had. Back in Mr. Vinteren's office he said drink it or have detention. She didn't drink it then BAM detention. There wasn't much more to it.

Lex glanced over at the ice-cream! Eeeek!! SCRUB. SCRUB. SCRUB. Also, if she was gonna ask questions, could they have at least been important or interesting? This was all routine and boooooring. SCRUB.

Ivy glanced down at the girl briefly to make sure she was doing her job and then returned her eyes to her homework grading. She almost sighed, but held it in. "You don't know what was in that vial." Just saying. It really could have just been water.

"Be more specific," she ordered. Ivy knew Alexa knew the answer she was looking for and she would wait until she got it.

Ugh.

Be more specific? It didn't get more specific than that. Lex paused her scrubbing and gave the woman a look. News flash, that's what Lottie said was in the vial and Lottie was hardly ever wrong so guess what? THE VIAL CONTAINED VERITASERUM! We all good on that? Mmkay. Great. Moving on.

She took a few more scrubs of the brush on a particularly difficult stain. Just getting the minor frustration out before trying again.

Repeating trivial things annoyed her, you see.

"Specific?" SCOWL. "Let's see, I was put into detention because I refused to drink an 'unknown' vial of something that would have supposedly made me 'stop' lying," Because there were just SO MANY potions that did that, "about something neither of you Professors had any actual evidence I was lying about because to this point neither of you have come up with any SOLID," and the rug got an EXTRA HARD scrub here, sorry, just trying to keep it in, "proof that I do, in fact, have more gems in my possession."

That better? She had an ice-cream to win and didn't like being bothered with stuuuuupid questions.

SCRUB. SCRUB. SCRUB.

She could finish the rest of the detention in silence if that's what it was gonna take.

... Ivy was not amused. She did not show her impatience or irritation, however. She actually just kept silent as she continued grading papers in her lap, keeping her comments to herself as the Gryffindor continued to scrub away at her rug.

The ice cream was melting, she noticed at a glance. Quite quickly, too.

Taking a look at the rug, Ivy saw Alexa making progress, except the more she scrubbed... a long, dark red line showed up. Strange, it looked just like the letter...

I

Oh? No comment there? Guess her answer was accepted. It was the right one too seeing as really she didn't do anything and neither did Lottie. This detention was just as pointless as the one back in her first year. Again, not something she'd mention. Professors didn't like when you said stuff like that.

And she got her wish! Working in silence!!

Eh...

It kinda made this all seem extra boring. Her attention span was already suffering back in the office and now this?? Gosh, had no one ever heard of keeping their guests entertained? YES she was a guest here. What other business did she have down here but to keep the woman company and help her out with her rug. Really, if she'd just asked, Lex would have been happy to help her get clean. This whole elaborate detention thing wasn't necessary.

Glancing over she caught sight of the ice-cream--

dhvkhgdf!!!

NUUUU!!!!

SCRUB. SCRUB. SCRUB. The more she scrubbed was the faster it melted. Well not really but her imagination was a powerful thing when it came to ice-cream. At one point, she dropped the brush and just started clinging to the box, cradling it and rocking back and forth. "It's okay little guy. I'll make sure you get eaten...don't go melting like that, it'll be okay, honest."

Oh? Was that...a letter in the rug? "NEAT!!!!" Lex dropped the box and crawled back to the rug. When'd that get there??? Poke. Poke. Oh right, maybe scrubbing. She got right back to that but really, a letter. "I didn't do that." Just in case the woman was getting ideas.

Ivy actually got some good work done while Alexa was scrubbing, but she always watched the Gryffindor out of the corner of her eye. So, of course, she noticed the insane child cradling the box of ice cream like it was her baby. Ivy refrained from rolling her eyes. "Get back to work." Merlin, these children were crazy.

The more Alexa scrubbed, the more the ice cream melted and even started to look... smaller. As if the amount of ice cream was shrinking. Huh. And the more and more Alexa scrubbed, the more amount of red lines showed up...

I MU

When the woman said nothing she was beginning to think the words were meant to be there. So...the woman carried around a rug that spelled words if you scrubbed it? Or maybe it was the design but it was so filthy you couldn't tell? Whatever the case there was an 'I'.

She glanced up at the woman who was ordering her back to work but after following the woman's quick gaze she noticed the box of ice-cream she'd just tossed.

EEEEEeeeekkkkkkk!!!!!!!

It was getting smaller, smaller without her making it smaller and all soggy from melting more! No!! She STARED over at it...it...it was calling in the sweetest of sugar voices; begging her to save it from the evil that was the box. It didn't want to melt. It wanted to be eaten. Suuuuugar. sweet delicious ice-cream that contained sugar. Lex lowered her brush again and reached for the box. "Don't melt so fast, I'm working hard for you..." She whispered, cuddling it to her face.

This time when she picked up the brush again she didn't put the box down. SCRUB. SCRUB. SCRUUUUUB. SCRUBSCRUBSCRUB. There it was. Talking to her again. Alexa looked at the box for only a minute before she proceeded to lick at it. The cold against her tongue was heavenly. If only she could taste it. With every scrub she took another lick of the box.

Iiiiiiiiiiice-creeeeeeeam.

LICK. SCRUB. SCRUB. LIIIIIIICK. Oh? More letters? I MU....? Okay then...

"Get your slug off a tongue off of that box!" Gross! Ivy flicked her wand at Alexa and zapped her tongue with a teensy tiny, pretty much painless amount of electricity. Just a warning. A little trick she learned over the years...

With that, Ivy summoned the box and put it on the floor next to her chair. "Do not move away from that rug, or so help me, I will glue your knees to the floor." Her eyes glared into Alexa's forehead. She was so 500% done with this.

The rug was still dirty, though, and now said...

I MUST NOT

Lex jumped at the sudden protest of the Professor.

Bliiiink. Slug?

"My tongue's made of slugs now??? COOOOOL! Did you do it when I entered the room earlier?? How come I never noticed?? You SO have to teach me how to do that before I leave! Is it like...uh...a hex or something??? I'm good at learning those. It won't take long--honest--HEY!"

THIEEEEEEF, she stole the ice-cream!!! ICE-CREAM THIIIIIIEF!!! Like what even?? "I wasn't done licking that." She informed the woman. Sure she couldn't taste it but that didn't make it right. Lex stuck her tongue out, trying to get a good look at it. "Is it wiggling on it's own?" She asked the woman. It sounded a bit distorted but she could probably still make out what she was saying. Slug tongue, hehehehe. "Is it wiggling now?" The zap was long forgotten actually but "Will you teach me to zap people tooooooo???????"

That. Would. Be. EPIC!!!

"Okay fine." No moving away from the rug. She got back to scrubbing. LOOKIT!! Words!!! "I...must...not...hey Professor, are you in the habit of leaving reminders on your rug? I think there are memory charms that could do a better job, unless of course you look at the floor a lot. Daddy says people who do that have low self-esteems. Do you? It's okay, you can tell me, it won't leave this room. I'm like a pyschologist...or was it psychiatrist? The point is, I'm a good listener, just ask anybody--er...no, don't ask just anybody. I could give you a list and you could maybe ask them but gimme some time to talk to them first." And while she spoke she was busily scrubbing away at the rug.

What was the Professor not meant to do?? Was it steal candy???? Eyes on you Professor Knox. Well actually eyes on the rug she was currently scrubbing but she was now suspicious.

"Stop talking," she muttered. Oh, but no, the Gryffindor was too busy yapping her ear off to even notice. Ivy stared at her as she rambled on. "No," she said flatly. No, her tongue wasn't made of slugs, no it wasn't wiggling, no she wasn't going to teach her how to zap people. No, no, no, NO.

Ivy's knuckles turned white from the grip on her clipboard. WHY in the world had she taken Cambridge? Oh, she would have given anything to go back in time and ask for Wisteria instead.

Suddenly, the clipboard in Ivy's hands snapped in half. Whoops. "STOP. TALKING." Ivy's loud voice echoed off the dirty walls. That was an ORDER. "This detention is a message to you. I want silence until I say so. Nod if you understand." It was clear she was just a bit upset... Or extremely ticked off.

"Back to work," she ordered, glowering.

On the bright side, the rug's message was almost revealed...

I MUST NOT TELL

"You know what Daddy said is good for people with low self-esteems? Ice-cream, ice-cream and candy. I don't suppose you like either but I'm just saying it would make a world of difference because like--"

O_____O

Well excuse us! Wasn't someone just snappy today? Ruuuuuuuuuuude. Lex blinked at the broken clipboard. She was about to ask if she could give it a try too but then the whole 'no talking' thing happened. Silence though, how very boring. She was gonna miss her voice. She obviously would. Alexa spoke of things that people liked hearing and soon she'd be begging to hear her speak again so for now NODNODNOD, understood!!

Lex GRINNED over at her before she got back to scrubbing. Now that she knew the message was for her she wanted to know what it was saying. So far all she got was that she shouldn't tell. Pfffft, Alexa cambridge was no snitch. She wasn't about to tell on anybody.

How rude of her for even suggesting it.

Lex got back to scrubbing while she played several songs in her hand. After a while she was there dancing and wiggling on her knees and scrubbing simultaneously. Head banging, air guitar in place, she was rocking out on that rug. But of course, she was still very much scrubbing. Just small breaks in between scrubs because her arm was starting to hurt. After another air guitar selection she paused to blow kisses at the ice-cream. Soon enough. SCRUBSCRUBSCRUB.

Merlin's beard, this child was literally insane. There really was something wrong with her and all Ivy could do to stay sane was fix her clipboard and ignore the girl on the floor. She noticed with another glance that the ice cream was completely melted and almost gone. Oh, darn.

Finally, the scrubbing seemed to be almost done and the message was revealed. With Ivy's luck, Alexa wouldn't even notice or care or pay attention. But at this point, she just wanted out.

I MUST NOT TELL LIES.

"Have you learned something today?" she asked before adding, "Answer wisely..."

Wiggle wiggle scrub scrub wiggle scrub scrub. It was like a pattern yo! A really cool dance move that got her through the rug until it looked like it was legit clean. fgbfkugfd!!! LOOOOOOK, a white rug! You are SO welcome Professor Knox!! Nodnodnodnodnodnod. She didn't get off the rug yet though because she was told she'd have her knees glued.

Still.

HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE???

Not many people could say they'd had their knees glued--could she be the FIRST?!?!? A game was only fun if you were allowed to go first. She'd have like...bragging rights or whatever!--EEEEHHHHHH? The ice-cream!! Where had it goooone?? She worked SO HARD for it. The bloody rug was white and her arm was sufficiently paining her! She WANTED ice-cream!!! No fair!!! Lex flopped on the rug and threw the brush back into the bucket. Now she was just staring and WIBBLING at what should have been her ice-cream. Sniffle. It was so beautiful while it lasted and the glass licking had been so good.

At first, she didn't look at the Professor even though she'd asked her a question. In fact, she kept staring at the ice-cream for a while before she actually decided to speak.

Answer wisely... That was code for 'tell her what she wanted to hear so they could both leave'. She could do that. "I sure have Professor. I've learned a lot today. First off scrubbing makes your arm sore." She paused, trying to think of anything else. "The faster you work is the faster ice-cream melts, you have enough strength to break clipboards, I'm allergic to this detergent," true, she'd get up and show her her knees that had been burning from kneeling but you know, threats, her knees were red though, in case she cared "no one actually dies in detention, boxes are possibly not meant to be licked. I think the most important though is that lying is terribly wrong and not condoned at the school. It's a horrid habit that shouldn't be practiced and it annoys those being lied to." She gave a small nod. "Lesson learned."

She even added the sweetest smile she could conjure up. "Erm...could I still have the ice-cream even though it's melted?"

Finally finished with Wisteria's detention, Erik decided to stop into the room containing Cambridge on his way out. He was concerned that Ivy might have accidentally breached the bounds of acceptable detention decorum this evening. She had a habit of doing that.

All seemed well though, when he walked in. He smirked at the sight of the lesson spelled out on the rug and took up a lean against the wall by the door, his arms crossed and his sunglasses still on.

Could the girl have the ice cream? He looked to Ivy to see what she would say.

Watching the girl, Ivy's face remained emotionless, though she felt her insides bubbling up again. Thankfully, Alexa said something useful at the end. Yes, lying was bad and a horrible habit and not condoned. Ivy almost sighed with relief. "I'm glad you understand." And glad they could finally get out of there.

But first... Ivy nodded her head toward the remaining puddle of melted ice cream. "Have at it," she said dully, scooting the box forward and opening the top. Hell, what was she going to do with a puddle of ice cream?

That was when she saw Erik walk in. She gave him a look before standing up with her no-longer-broken clipboard. "We were just finishing up..." Sort of.

Of course Lex understood. In this life, you only got by if you told people what they wanted to hear. She could tell that Professor Knox had reached her limit so she wouldn't keep her down here much longer, hence, saying what she knew she wanted to hear.

Could she get up now?

HEY!! MR. VINTEREN!! HE CAME. Lex beamed over at him. Did this mean Lottie was out? Well that was a relief. She'd felt nothing but horrible knowing her best friend was being punished for something she had nothing to do with. She survived! Yay!--bhkdfkfvdykc!!! SHE COULD HAVE THE ICE-CREAM!!!

Er...what was left. Lex waited for the box to be opened. Wibble, this wasn't much....but it was ice-cream so she stuck her head inside and went to licking the inside. Much tastier than the outside. Mhm. They should try this. After hearing the next thing the Professor said, she removed the box, revealing a face covered with spots of ice-cream. "We're done? I can go now?" She stuck her finger into the box and wiped at the corners greedily. "Can I have my wand then?"

Just finishing up? "I see," Erik replied with a wink to Ivy. He watched with some disgust as Alexa more or less climbed inside the box in pursuit of the ice cream. He really needed to watch what he did around Hogwarts. Her addiction could be dangerous.

Or...it could be beneficial. Heh. He was smirking alright now. "Just a few follow-up questions, before you go, Alexa," he spoke up from the wall. "Wisteria confessed her part in your thievery. She wasn't sure ov everything, though. How many gems total did you take?"

Ice-cream. Sweet, delicious, goodness. How she missed you. Lex was busily working her way around the box, not willing to leave even a drop in the box while she waited on her wand but then...follow up questions...? Since when had that become a rule? Was it more about what she learned. She'd probably just repeat everything she'd told Knox, just saying.

"Okay, go ahead." Again, distracted by ice-cream--

LOTTIE DID WHAAAAAT???

Blink. Well...she supposed that wasn't so bad. Lottie was completely innocent in this whole thing. She didn't expect her to get in trouble for her. It was something she'd forgotten to tell her. If it came to it she was meant to clear her own name. Lex looked over at him, only slightly interested in the question.

Right now, there was ice-cream on her fingers and she was having a grand time getting it off. Finally she gave an indifferent shrug. "I dunno." Was she meant to be counting? "I guess it was quite a bit if I got to fill both my pockets and have a whole nother pocket too. There wasn't any time to count though because the Grounds Keeper was checking up on people and it might have been risky work. Everyone wants gems, you understand. I couldn't give you much more of an estimate than that though. Sorry. If it helps the amount had me grinning!" Lick. Lick. Lick

"Could I have more ice-cream while I answer questions?"

Ivy was smirking now, too, since Alexa was so preoccupied with devouring the melted ice cream. It was rather... disgusting. But it worked, didn't it? She was spilling her answers and details out. Ivy glanced at Erik. Wow, they must have had a lot of gems then. She wondered how much they were worth...

"And what did you do with them after you took them?" Ivy asked, blatantly ignoring the Gryffindor's question about ice cream. Her mind was elsewhere.

Lex scowled first at her fingers and box that now had no ice-cream, then over at the inquisitive woman who liked asking questions more than she liked answering them. "Can I have the ice-cream or not?" This was a serious question, much more serious than heeers. Hmph.

It wasn't a question she was willing to answer either but oddly enough she felt a compulsion to. Like there was nothing she could do but respond. This type of honesty...she didn't like it. Her eyes shot to Mr. Vinteren before she fixed her gaze on the woman again. What did she do with them? Took 'em and ran? What else was there to do? Stay and show 'em off?

"After I took them I made a run for it, no need to stick around with the goblin and it's sword. Pity it hadn't broken the Snake glass, I would have taken those as well," Stop talking! Stop talking! Stop talking! "but I suppose you mean after after after that in which case I divided them up and quite frankly haven't the slightest idea where to find them. I don't suppose you speak kneazle, do you?"

That might have helped them quite a bit.