Basement: Laundry Room

[Wilber Winterbottom]

Ever wonder where your dirty underpants wind up? Just down the corridor, not terribly far from the staircase to the kitchen, the door to the laundry room can be found. What you will find in this room will, likely, not be a surprise. Within are no Muggle washing machines or dryers. Instead, front and centre, are large tubs with accompanying wash boards and sticks. A bizarre system of clothes lines fill the back of the room, beside which tables and large hampers await.

If you happen to wind up here on your House's laundry day, you will see your clothes -- hopefully labelled -- and the clothes of your fellow housemates being washed and dried by a team of house-elves. It is not uncommon to hear them bickering with each other or joining together in a motivational song to help make the job get completed quicker. First the clothes are scrubbed squeaky clean with soap and steaming hot water. They are next hung to dry and then neatly stacked on one of the large tables to be folded and placed back in the hamper to be returned to their owners.

Students are always welcome to be proactive and do their own laundry or at least lend the house-elves a hand. There sure is a lot of laundry to do!

[sweetpinkpixie]

Diamond crouched low in the dimly lit laundry room, her fingers expertly sifting through a mountain of clothes that had SOMEHOW tumbled out of the knocked over basket on the ground nearby. left carelessly tossed into the mismatched piles. The sloshing of water as the enchanted tubs self washed the latest load of laundry was a steady backdrop in her quest, but she really could have used a radio on her to play her favorite WWN musical channel. However, that would be counterproductive to the art of subtlety in her search, something she felt she had perfected over the terms. After all, no one expected a teenage girl like herself to be rummaging through the dirty laundry of others, and that was exactly why it worked. Duh.

A stray sock — hers, most likely — slipped through her fingers as she pushed it aside. Socks were for house elves, not diamonds. Oh no no no, she was here for the other things: the forgotten galleons, sickles, and knuts that people always seemed to leave behind in their pockets. It wasn’t much, but when you showed some patience scrounging for every spare coin you came across, it added up. She grabbed a jumper shirt from the top of a heap and turned it inside out. Jackpot. A few coins spilled out, jingling softly as they hit the cold stone floor. Diamond grinned and scooped them up before any wandering house elf could notice as they loaded and unloaded another tub of Hufflepuffs' wash.

But it wasn’t just the money that interested her. Oh no no no, Diamond had a sixth sense for secrets, for little whispers that could be turned into explosive stories for her column in The Quill. A lipstick-stained tissue, a forgotten letter or torn page from a personal journal crumpled in the back pocket of a pair of trousers, the faintest trace of perfume or cologne on a scarf, gross looking spots and stains, an bit of jewelry with an engraving, — these were the clues she lived for. She was certain that someone (hopefully someoneS) had slipped up, left something incriminating behind, and she was going to find it.

And if she couldn't find it then there was always fabrication.

Returning her attention to the pile of Slytherin laundry, so the Gryffindor had deducted upon casting aside 5 or so emerald and silver striped ties, she revealed a small, folded piece of paper tucked into the inner pocket of a set of robes. Her pulse quickened as she unfolded it, scanning the hastily written note. "Perfect," she murmured with a victorious but vicious smile, slipping the note into the pocket of her robes before seamlessly resuming her search.

[Charely Potter]

Dio came here early in the mornings. Not by preference though, for reasons unknown to him, his laundry basket seemed to have missing items. A sock here or there didn't raise any suspicion, because those were easily replaced. A jumper, suspicious, but nothing that told him that something was off. Missing coins and slips of notes... perhaps the elves were still affected by the gray stuff that happened last term? Or something else was going on.

So from then on he started adding laundry to his list of daily tasks. He had to make sure ALL his stuff was taken care of... followed by his sisters, who saw him with the basket and decided that it was the perfect time to ambush him with their laundry for him to sort. Like the big brother he was, he did so without a fuss, for now, ahem.

Squinting into the dim room, he looked for the light source so it could be a little more brighter. He then noticed the room was occupied. Well, this wasn't unusual. Other people liked doing their laundry without bothering the elves in the corner, but this girl was up to something. It was hard to tell what color school robes she could've been wearing, but he witnessed her pocket something from the pile. Interesting... walking over to the nearest free tub, which happened to be next to the large pile on the floor. Didn't take much to deduce what was going on. A diamond in the rough. Perhaps she too was a victim to losing stuff... or something else?

Announcing his presence with the soft thump of his basket laying next to his feet. He began with getting the dark and colored clothing items out of the basket. "So... did you find what you were looking for?" Dio asked.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Diamond's head snapped up, her eyes flickering with a mix of surprise and annoyance as the sound of the laundry basket hitting the ground reached her ears. Her hand instinctively moved to her pocket, fingers brushing against the piece of paper she’d just swiped. She quickly straightened, flicking a stray lock of hair away from her eyes and flashing a confident grin at the boy who had caught her in the act - honestly so incredibly rude of him to be sticking his nose in her business.

"Well, well, look who decided to join the party," Diamond remarked, her tone light, almost casual, but her eyes were sharp as ever, sizing him up. He was handsome, sure, and the way he carried himself and put his robes together implied that he knew how to coordinate more than at least half the Hogwarts population but that was neither here nor there. What mattered was the fact that he’d interrupted her perfectly executed search right as things were starting to get spicy. Again, so incredibly rude of him.

She leaned back against the laundry pile with an air of nonchalance, as if being caught red-handed was precisely part of her plan. "I was just... making sure no one else leaves their valuables lying around unattended. A little public service, you know?" she said, a playful glint in her eyes. "You wouldn’t believe the number of galleons that just vanish into thin air in this place. Makes you think someone’s running a really awful charity." She tilted her head slightly, studying him as if deciding just how much information she’d share. "Of course, I’m sure you’re here for your own laundry and not community service." She gave him a knowing look, an almost sickenly sweet smile pulling at the edges of her lips. Her fingers twitched in her pocket again, but she quickly reigned herself in. She didn’t need to get too distracted by that just yet - even if there was the hint of something else promising sticking out of a pair of designer jeans just off to her right.

"So, did you lose anything... valuable recently? Or is this just your regular laundry run?" she asked, her voice suddenly turning sweeter, as if she was genuinely interested in his story. Her tone wasn’t particularly sincere, but there was a playful edge to it. The laundry room, she thought, was one of the most useful places at Hogwarts. Because DUH, full of the potential of secrets. CHALK full. And now, apparently, full of objectively interesting boys who seemed to notice a little TOO much.