It seemed as though her precautions were in vain once again down to the Quieting Charm she had placed on her feet prior to her approach of the Whomping Willow. Seeing as nothing (not even a dust-composed defensive form) was coming for her, the sixteen year climbed up and fully inside the Shrieking Shack and grey eyes fell on the parchment on the floor. Giving her wand a swish and flick to levitate it up off the ground for her to read, the Wampus groaned after only the first few lines.

A riddle. A word riddle. This task was coming down to a word riddle.

Pinching the tight skin on her forehead between her thumb and middle finger, Valerie read over the instructions once. Twice. A third time. Empty words to her mostly. Particularly if she continued to just stand idle in the frame between this room and the next. She took a quick glance over her shoulder and noted the stairs leading up, but first she ought to see what was here on the first floor. And if anything matched the description of what the riddle was hinting at. She hated these things. Hated poetry in general really and no matter how many time Lachlan had attempted to introduce her to genres that she should find interesting, she continuously found herself put off by flowery words and whimsical rhythms.

“To every boy and girl cherished at the castle,” she read aloud as the parchment floated alongside her while she walked forward. Something to do with piglets and building houses? Was that meant to recall thoughts of the Three Little Pigs? Seemed more plausible than This Little Piggy. But this item was something that Hogwarts students cherished? That meant very little to the Wampus, so rather than focus on the what she opted to focus on the where (a trapdoor, a particular score). Which sounded an awful lot like she needed to play a pinball game, but she doubted this dingy old building housed that sort of thing and the mention of them all alluded to more options than a pinball machine could supply.

Turning left and stepping into a bathroom, her eyes drifted from the parchment to the clogged bath and the murky water within. Wrinkling her nose, the pointed her wand at the water and cast a silent Tergeo on a whim to rid the bath of the unnerving liquid. Nothing on the parchment indicated she would find anything there, but she felt the need to. “Across the sea,” she mused while giving the bathroom another scrutinizing look up and down. “Am I meant to assume that means it’s from North America? They have lost items relating to Hogwarts and Illvermory?” But of course dust could not respond to her musings, not that she expected it to to begin with. But would that not just be quaint to have two items representing the schools meant for each champion to find.

The sarcasm was think even in her internal monologue.

Leaving the bathroom and heading out into the large room once again, she walked around the perimeter for the sole purpose of understanding her surroundings and weighing her options. She did take a peek inside the fireplace and even paused to charm her bluebell flames to rise up inside it to illuminate its interior, but ultimately continued around the room. The rotten food made her think of Deathday Parties to be quite honest, but it was a fleeting thought as she kept walking slowly about and into the kitchen. Glancing over her shoulder and swatting one of the bluebell flames away so she could see the parchment more clearly, Valerie reread the hints to the second clue and its location while particularly honing in on the clockwise versus counterclockwise description.

What was that supposed to even mean? Had she already mentioned how much she loathed word riddles and poetry and just this sort of thing in general?

Pinching her brow in agitation once more, she approached the stove specifically. Was this too obvious with the mention of gas? She had helped enough at home in the kitchen to know that a full counterclockwise movement meant the closed direction when it came to gas regulation. But was that not the opposite of what the riddle was saying? Ugh she hated this and she had only been walking around examining things for no more than ten minutes.

Leaving the kitchen for now, Valerie opted to go check out the upstairs next with her bluebell flames and parchment floating alongside her like loyal guard dogs. Muttering to herself (shockingly about how much she hated this) as she ascended the stairs, the stopped when she spotted a grand piano in the middle of the room and a slight spark triggered in her head. Grey eyes quickly looking back to the first clue (whatever the hell pigletted Hogwartians cherished) and reread the bit about the location. The dust covering infernal cough bit meant nothing to her as this entire place fit the description, so she ignored that bit. “...you might need a particular score. Try them all, and you will see. Something is off…” Stepping closer to the piano now, her pale fingers ran lightly over the dust covered keys not yet pressing down on them but did quickly take note that it was missing several. Particular score...musical score...try them all...something is off...meaning that some keys were off or she was going to have to try and tune an old piano?

Ugh. Why could she not just be waging battle with the Whomping Willow right now? That sounded and felt more appealing to the Wampus. Far more appealing.

Starting at one end of the piano, she decided to do just that: push down on every single stupid key and wait to see what happened.

If anything.

Ugh.