Okay. That was more than just a coincidence, and Chloe grinned broadly at the door, even as she pulled her wand free and extended it in front of her. Maybe she was going to get eaten by a ghoul or something, but she'd be as prepared as possible. Actually, she could be much more prepared, but as prepared as a fifth year with a passing grade in most classes but no exceptional interest in learning to stay alive COULD be.

"Okay, so I'm here," Chloe addressed the darkness. Was that a darker shape or was she crazy? Or maybe both? "Please make my death swift and painless, and tell my mum I love her. And feed my dog bacon at least once a week. And Lumos Maxima."

Daisy could hear that the shuffling object had been impeded by her spell. However, she had this sinking feeling that this wasn't going to last. She turned around to face the sound of the shuffling and pictured in her mind a very happy memory involving her and her family. "Expecto Patronum!" Her sparrow-shaped Patronus appeared from the tip of Daisy's wand.

It hadn’t taken long for Stasya to realize that her wandlight wasn’t making much of an impact on the darkness. Even the glowing nameplates over all the doors were giving off more light than her wand was, and she’d extinguished her wandlight nearly at the same second as t5wo things had happened. Jessa had defended Emmalyn’s decision to look inside her room and the door in front of herself had creaked open. That wasn’t creepy at all, and she kept her wand ready even as she’d first peered inside the room and then taken a few steps inside. On first observation, this reminded her of that soucouyant lesson from two terms ago, but also her fear of getting lost in the forest. But, the difference was that she wasn’t going to let that stop her.

Even as the shuffling had started, she stepped forward until she thought she was near the center of the room. The idea of casting Homenum Revelio flickered through her mind, as she tried to stand entirely silently, listening to the shuffling. Except, she couldn’t be sure it was a human and she didn’t know if the spell worked on creatures too. That and she was ninety percent certain casting Lumos again wouldn’t do any good either. Light would be good, though. Even if it just made her feel better, so she quickly, and as quietly as possible, murmured a charm while pointing her wand toward her hand. “Flammae Caeruleum.”

Bluebell flame in her non-wand hand, she slowly turned a circle in place, still trying to determine where the shuffling was coming from. Maybe whatever it was would be afraid of fire. Hopefully.

Or she could go back to trying to cast Homenum Revelio.

So that was it then? There would be no Professor suddenly making an appearance to tell her she didn’t have to go into the room that had her name on it? No last minute intervention that would have her seeing the man as a hero despite him being the one to put her at peril.

Well then.

Jessa remained at the door watching the others enter. The door with her own name remained invitingly open but the Ravenclaw took no steps toward it. In fact, she didn’t move away from the door. Going inside wasn’t up for debate, not for her but she had a feeling that remaining outside wouldn’t have helped by much. She would miss out on whatever Professor Hirsch had planned.

That’s when the idea hit her. Of course she could still go in. The sixth year turned on her heels and headed down the corridor. She didn’t stop going until she’d hit the discreet section of wall on the 7th floor that housed her lab. Rather than enter, she ended the disillusion charm placed on the doll that stood guard then hurried back to the Defense classroom. It didn’t seem like she’d missed much.

Jessa sat cross legged on the floor just outside the classroom door and tapped her left eye to activitate the charm she’d applied to link her eye to that of the doll’s. She set Jane on the floor, placing a hand over her right eye to avoid the double vision then led the animated doll through the door by way of audio command. The radio placed in the doll would ensure that no matter how far she got, she would still be able to hear and comply with her commands.

From her spot on the floor, Jessa took in the dark room the doll now entered. Huh. Good thing she hadn’t opted to go herself.

Now what was this all about?

What was going on? Bel was definitely intrigued. A liiiiittle apprehensive, only because she wasn't that great with her wa--wait, she DID have it right? Bel patted herself down and then relaxed in relief, extracting it from her pocket and eyeing up the door with her name. She looked left and right, watching other kids go in their rooms and then she took a deep breath and opened her door.

It was DARK. The door shutting behind her made her jump, but she wasn't TOO worried. Professor Hirsch wouldn't do anything bad to them would he? She was PRETTY sure he wouldn't anyway. Bel tried a few different light spells and nothing seemed to work....

..........what WAS that shuffling????????

Was it a boggart? She hadn't mastered riddikulus yet!

Bel took a moment to assess if there was any weird mood altering situation going on. Like if it was some dark creature, like a pogrebin or a dementor or something that would make her feel different from normal, but so far it was just the sound of shuffling.

Honestly? She actually felt like she'd be better off without her wand. Then she could kick or hit whatever it was if necessary. But she kept hold of it and turned her head curiously, tracking the sound as it moved around her.

Lumos wasn't proving helpful at all. At least not from her position outside of the room in front of her. Cautiously Rylee stepped forward into the room the door slamming behind her causing her to jump slightly. Right away she was greeted with DARKNESS. A deep dreaded darkness that could only mean one thing... trouble.

Rylee stepped backwards pressing her back up against the door, her eyes shifting all around the room hoping to catch a glimpse of something. Having no clue how big the area was or what could be in front of her she probably shouldn't move from where she was... yet. And her eyes weren't adjusting quickly enough to the darkness for her liking.

The shuffling wasn't at all expected but she knew something was going to happen. Even so that didn't stop her heartbeat from quickening ever so slight and the grip on her wand to tighten. Her mind raced through every spell she knew for something that could work... a way to see through the darkness and find the source of that shuffling noise which could be anything! Was there a point in trying Homenum Revelio or SpeRevelio again? Probably not.

Uhhh... she couldn't just stand here and hope whatever it was went away! She needed to help herself... fast...

If Lumos wasn't going to work maybe bluebell flames would. Plus her wand would be free to use should she need it. Pointing her wand at her right hand she cast, "Flammae Caeruleum!" Holding her hand with the small dancing flame on her palm out in front of her she tried to find the shuffling sound that seemed to come from everywhere!

The only thing coming to mind right then was to protect herself first. If she couldn't see what the thing was OR where it was she could at least prepare herself for the attack.

"Loricatus!" Rylee spoke clearly while twisting her wand in her finger tips and giving it a little flick silently praying the armor would form on her as it was supposed to. Not to mention that it would hold up for a bit so she could figure out a better plan of action!

The third year kept herself tight against the door, willing the stupid thing to open again as she tried to control her breathing. If lumos wasn't working she wasn't sure what would, she'd failed to properly cast a patronus yet, and she was sure lumos maxima would have the same result as the first. Hearing the shuffling come closer she gulped slightly, not sure what to do in the slightest.

Josie kept her wand held towards whatever was coming closer, "Whatever you are you can't be worse than my monstrous siblings." And maybe trying to convince herself more than the monster that was off in the distance. But really, could anything be much worse than the 10 younger children all ganging up on her because she was deemed in charge for being the oldest?

As it got closer she tried to aim several different immobulus charms towards it, just in case what ever it was decided to try to prove her wrong on not being worse than her siblings.

Oh. The door was open now. Hattie frowned, leaning in, but not actually moving, to see what was going on. She couldn't actually see anything. That was a warning sign already. She knew by now to not go into a room where she couldn't actually see anything. Why on earth would someone go in to a room where they couldn't see what danger might be ahead of them. So honestly, Hattie had already made her decision. That she wasn't going to get into the room. Not if she didn't know what was in there, or what she might be facing. She couldn't be that prepared if she didn't know what she was facing, or couldn't even see if there were any obstacles in the room.

She did though, cast a few lighting spells, to see if she could see into the room. But none of them worked. She sighed, shaking her head. Yep. She was not going in there. Not until she had worked a way of how to get some light working. She could hear that shuffling, and she did not want to come face to face with it in the dark. Surely that was an advantage for whatever was in the room. In that case she wanted all the advantage she could get. So she stayed where she was, even though it wasn't much lighter here.

Now.... to work out what she was going to do next.

Ok, Ok, Ok

He just needed to take a deep breath and calm down. This was still a class and there was no way their Professor would put them in life threatening situations. But even when he tried to calm his mind for not over thinking what it was that made the shuffling noise, he noticed that it was getting closer.

In his sheer panic, the Ravenclaw forgot about his wand and the fact that he was a magical person who could perform magic and he TRASHED his arms and legs wildly around.

PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH KICK KICK KICK PUNCH KICK PUNCH KICK!

He was flailing like a mad person in a pitch dark room. Auror material right there if he had to say so himself.

Was the source going to stop moving?

No.

It continued to move from her grip, wriggling this way and that. It even tried to grip onto her wrist and push her away. There was a lot of force applied here and it was clear that it wasn't going to go down without a fight.

The question is: are you?



At least the boy was trying.

He might be happy to know that the patronus charm did a little bit more than the wand-lighting charms did. Not only did it provide the room with a bit more light, but it also helped him see where the source of the shuffling was.

But before anything else could happen, the source moved away from the light and tried to blend in with the darkness. Even worse, the light from the patronus was... very slowly... starting to die out...

Pity it didn't illuminate exactly what the boy was facing.



The shuffling continued but with the use of the Silver Shied Spell, she might be happy to know that it wasn't going to come any closer. The source tried, several times, to shuffle even closer but the shield was doing a good job of protecting her.

Just remember: it wasn't going to last forever.

The Light charm was a little less successful. There was light, yes, but it didn't do anything to illuminate the room or the source of the shuffling. There was a small ball of light at the end of her wand and, if she looked closely enough, she might've noticed the source dart from left to right to avoid the light...

... To make matters worse, the light started flickering after a few seconds before dying out completely...



She wasn't going crazy.

The darker shape shuffled about the room. It went from left to right and even tried to move around her. It shuffled closer and closer....

The tip of her wand lit up with a small ball of light but it wasn't enough to light up the entire room. It did make the shape seem darker than before but there was no way of seeing exactly what she was dealing with. Almost as if it was a shadow moving around. The source darted around in an attempt to avoid the light and blend in with the darkness.

As for the light, it flickered after a few seconds before dying out completely.

Think fast.



The sparrow-shaped Patronus flew up into the air but unfortunately, it cast very little light on the scene. If she looked closely enough, she might notice that there was a darker shape in the room that was trying hard to avoid the light from the Patronus. It shuffled away in a completely different direction, trying to blend in with the darkness.

And the Patronus? The light from it started to die out as well....



Clever. Very clever.

The flames did what the wand-lighting charms couldn't: it helped to provide a bit more light. But it was not enough to illuminate the entire room and certainly not enough to illuminate the source of the shuffling.

The source of the shuffling moved closer and closer, causing the shuffling to get louder as it approached her. The difference was that, if she looked closely enough, she might be able to notice a darker shadow moving about as well...



Also very clever.

The door might've closed behind the doll but she was still able to see everything that went on inside. Pity the room was so dark that it was difficult to see anything.

But there was a sound that might've reached her ears. The sound of a strange shuffling coming from within the room, one that got louder and louder as the source started to approach the doll...



Very clever observation. And she was right: whatever was in the room wasn't going to make her feel different from normal.

Unless, of course, she was scared of the dark.

The source of the shuffling changed directions: it darted from the left.... to the right.... and then around her. To make matters worse, the sound was getting louder and louder, as if whatever was making the noise was getting closer and closer towards her...

Maybe hitting it was a good option... if she could get the aim right.



Bluebell flames did help... kind of.

The flames that appeared provided her with a bit more light, but it was nowhere near enough to illuminate the entire room. It was as if the darkness was pressing in on her more than the light was projecting outwards. But, it did help her to notice a small shadow creeping about and avoiding the light as much as possible....

The shield was a good idea because it did keep the source of the shuffling at a distance away from her. But remember: the shield is only temporary...



The source of the shuffling wasn't going to take in the words that spilled from her mouth. It couldn't understand it, after all. All it did was move closer and closer...

The Immobulus charms were a good idea but unfortunately, with the source moving around, it was much more difficult to hit it with the charm than it would be in light. She might not know it but one flew inches past whatever it was but wasn't good enough to immobilise it completely.

Concentrate. You're nearly there.



Maybe staying back was a good idea but it wasn't going to help her much if she wanted to try and defeat whatever was inside.

The sound of the shuffling grew and grew, as if whatever it was was trying to get closer to her. However, there was a small pause when the shuffling stopped..... and then shuffled around at a safe distance.

Are you going to stay safe or let your curiosity get the better of you? The choice is yours.



Anyone who was looking in on this might've thought the boy was mad. Some of his punches and kicks failed to land on anything: the source of the shuffling was just too fast. It dodged and shuffled this way and that to avoid being hit. It was much harder to aim in the darkness when you couldn't see your target, right?

However, the last punch might've made contact with.... .... was that a jaw?

There was a small pause when the shuffling stopped..... but then continued to move around him again.

Keep it up. You're nearly there.


OOC: You guys are doing AMAZINGLY! I'm completely in awe of all this creativity ugh

Just to let you know: you have roughly 24 hours left until I move on with the lesson.

Keep up the amazing work ^^

The closing of the door had been an issue in that it made things much harder for her to see. There was very little in the way of light and it had her feeling like she may have herself been in a dark room. It didn’t take long for the feeling of being overwhelmed to arise and it forced her to remove the hand from her right eye at the risk of the inevitable headache the double vision would cause. Now, she could visually remind herself that she wasn’t the one locked in a dark room.

The radio, being essentially two way (a feature so she could send Jane to find her friends and pass on messages without her having to leave her lab) made it entirely possible to hear the shuffling.

Curious.

Jessa instructed the doll to stop walking and instead make several turns. Whatever it was, in this dim light, surely she’d be able to see it if it got close enough—exceptionally close to the point of contact. Momentarily she worried for the sake of her doll, not wanting it to be destroyed but she rationalised that the Professor wouldn’t set them up against anything that could severely harm them.

Whatever damage would be fixable.

Jessa squinted, as if this action might allow her to see more clearly but now she wished she’d attached some form of light to the doll before sending it in. She’d be hard pressed to see whatever it was but it didn’t stop her from having the doll turn all the same. Eventually, she would see something, right?

The darker patch was definitely there, although Chloe's light just seemed to agitate it. Or at least, it seemed to be actively avoiding her light. And maybe that was the answer? Maybe Chloe could sort of... drive the dark patch away from her and trap it. Assuming it was corporeal enough to trap.

And not super dangerous.

Chloe cast a bluebell flame charm at her feet, where it burned safely without catching fire to anything else. She moved a foot to the left and cast it again. Over and over, leaving a line of flames in an arching pattern, with the darker patch on the other side of the flames and the door at her back. Was it working?

She was starting to get out of breath and her arms were aching with effort. The thing would not stop fighting. With each wiggle and squirm, her arms only tightened on the thing. She could feel its efforts increasing and wasn't sure how it seemed to be gaining strength after all the effort already exerted.

"STOP!!!" she screamed at the thing. "Stop fighting and I won't hurt you." It was a fairly empty threat. She wouldn't be hurting the thing either way and she had gone too far to stop and let it hurt her. The thought of how mad she might have made it by this point turned her stomach.

She was in it for the long haul and would NOT be giving up. No. That thing could throw whatever it had at her and she was not going to let go. The fear of what might happen if she let go was far worse than the known of hanging on. If only she could see what it was that was in the room with her.

So the light spells weren’t having much use, even as more and more students joined in on the spell casting. Neither did the revealing spells some of the other students had added into the mix. It was getting frustrating and Septimus was beginning to wonder just what they could do. Besides wait for Professor Hirsch or enter the named rooms that is.

As if reacting to his thoughts in some way, the doors each creaked open, the one marked Septimus Nairne no different from the others. Weird. And making him more torn by his curiosity and caution, something that appeared not be a problem with some of his classmates as they walked towards their doors to investigate.

Did he dare enter his?

After a couple of minutes of deliberation, the Ravenclaw found his feet moving tentatively closer to the door seemingly belonging to him. Wand in his hand and at the ready of course. Just because they were in a classroom and this could potentially be involved in a lesson, that didn’t mean it was definitely entirely safe. As he got close, he noticed it appeared to be even darker inside and just as he crossed the threshold of the room, he was enveloped in darkness as the door closed behind him.

Septimus spun around in response, surprised by the action. However the sounds of shuffling from the other side of the room spun him around towards it once more. What in Merlin’s Beard was going on?

It was in that moment, Maddie started to feel panic rise inside of her. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath and released it out slowly. This is only a class. I'm not in any real danger. This is only a class. I'm not in any real danger. Her heart was pounding louder and faster by the second, but she managed to open her eyes. Even though she was met with darkness, it made her feel better that if she was able to shine any amount of light on the object, she'd at least see it with her eyes open.


"L---Lum---," she tried, but the words wouldn't come. Come on, Maddie. "Lumos Solem!" she called out. She didn't know what else to do. Even though she was almost on the eve of her fourteenth birthday, she felt seriously unprepared for this. If this didn't work, she was officially screaming at the top of her lungs and yelling for help.

Not really. She'd want to, though. Hirsch? Hirsch? ... You out there somewhere? This isn't funny, you know.

One thing she’d learned from her little experiment: the bluebell flames didn’t exactly provide much more light than her wand had. Stasya wasn’t about to give up, though. Even if she had to cast a lot more bluebell flames just to hopefully make a dent in the darkness. Just enough to find out what exactly was causing that shuffling, and on that note, she knelt down to place the flame in her hand on the ground. At least she knew she wasn’t about to burn a hole in the floor, no matter how tempted she was to use Incendio instead of the safer charm. She trusted Professor Hirsch enough not to willfully destroy his classroom, but she still cast the bluebell flame charm a few more times for good measure, until she had a decent size blue campfire going by her feet.

Maybe if she just stayed in one spot, the shuffler would give up and go away. At least it could back off into whichever corner was furthest from her to wait until the actual lesson began. Because she did happen to catch the slightly darker shadow as it obviously got closer. New idea. “Do you like cookies?” Maybe bribing the shadow shuffler would work. Besides, they couldn’t actually have a campfire party when the bluebell flames didn’t give off heat. She didn’t have marshmallows anyway.

She kept her wand at the ready though. In case the bribe didn’t work and the thing kept shuffling toward her and her fire.

Dorian became more and more frantic when his wild flailing punches and kicks didn't land any hits. Of course, being in a dark room was not in his favor as humans could not see in the dark. OH! He could use a spell on himself so that he can see in the dark! BRILLIANT! ......How though? He didn't know any spell of that kind and he wasn't an complete idiot, he knew that wand lightening and fire did not work judging by how they had started in the classroom all together.

Strange how all this punching and kicking to keep whatever it was that was in the dark room with him off, was actually keeping his mind calm enough to think of an solution. That was, until he felt his knuckles make contact with....something and he knew he had hit whatever it was that was there. But instead of feeling victorious, the Ravenclaw shrieked.

He had had a small thought in the back of his mind that perhaps this whole thing was a psychological training and that nothing was there in the first place but when his hand came in contact with something and then it continued to move around him again he NOPE'D

"I WANT OUT, GET ME OUT" Before he had a complete mental breakdown. If the thing here with him was completely harmless he was going to KICK the Professor. Flying kick style. Ok not really cause he wouldn't dare BUT STILL.

Where was that stupid door?!

Patrick shuffled forward, everyone else had been in their rooms, he was the only one but this all just gave him a very iffy vibe. he shuffled forward a few more steps glancing in the room every few seconds then darting back out to the rest of the room in hopes that he might hear Professor Hirsch announce that something less crazy would be happening for the day.

Stepping almost to the doorway he noticed shuffling in the room and felt like his breath was stolen. "Absolutely not I refuse." taking a big step back Patrick crossed his arms and waited. He did not have a death wish, although would Hirsch think he was a wimp?[b] "Ah, who cares, I nearly died once in this room hard pass."[b] He shrugged deciding to plop right down where he was at to wait out the rest of his class mates.

Maybe attaching some form of light would've been a good idea but the light might not have lasted long or allowed her to see as much as she, probably, would've wanted to. Instead, all she could see was the darkness pressing in on her.

But.... if she looked closely enough..... she might be able to see a vague darker shadow.... one that was pressing in on the doll just as much as the darkness was....

Think fast, young Ravenclaw, that shadowy figure wasn't going to stop anytime soon.



Very, very clever idea.

And one that was working.

The flames burnt in an arching line around the room. Collectively, they did very little to light up the entire room properly but they did provide some kind of light to the situation. And, even better, the shadowy figure was now backing away from the flames as far as it could go. There was a pause, as if it was deliberating where to go but then decided to stop altogether.

No shuffling, no approaching, no movement whatsoever.

Well done.



Seeing what was in the room would've made the situation easier, wouldn't it?

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. What made it worse was that the source of the shuffling, the thing laying beneath her, was still putting up a fight. It was almost as if it was trying to test just how far she could go with her strength. It wriggled..... and writhed.....

..... and then stopped. Completely.

No movement, no shuffling.

Have you defeated it? Or is this part of the plan?



What was going on?

Good question.

As he stood there, the darkness pressed in on him from all sides and the sound of the shuffling continued. If he listened closely enough, he might even start to notice that it was getting louder and louder, as if whatever it was was getting closer towards him....

.... Pity it was too dark to see what he was facing and where in the room it was.

But that shouldn't be too much of a problem, right?



The light that she had produced wasn't as strong as it could be. It joined with the previous light spell she'd had, causing it to shine a little brighter than before, but it wasn't strong enough. Nowhere near strong enough to what she needed.

Confidence, kid. Confidence.

The shuffling continued but it was doing its best to avoid the small patch of light near her. It wasn't going to give up, though: it was just going to find another way.

Maybe she should do the same...



The bluebell campfire didn't do much to illuminate the surroundings but there was a bit more light in the room now. It wasn't enough to show her exactly what she was facing, not when the source of the shuffling was so intent on keeping to the darkness.

Until the question came.

And then there was a pause, as if the shadowy figure was considering her option.

And then the shuffling continued, this time keeping a safe distance from her and her campfire.



Oh?

At the sound of his voice, another door opened, one on the other side of the door he had entered in in the first place. One that led to a well-lit room...

Deep breaths, kid. Deep breaths.



It wasn't a wimpy option to not face something that could, potentially, hurt you. Not at all. The source of the shuffling continued but, with no target in the room, it simply moved around and about as it pleased. Almost randomly.

Maybe it was a good thing he decided to wait because he didn't have to wait for very long....

Wow.

Just..... wow.

Hirsch had, of course, been standing on the other side of the rooms: watching everything that was going on. He expected there to be an array of defensive strategies in place: some people would've wanted to attack first and think later, others would've come up with a plan and then attacked. What he didn't expect were the number of people who simply refused to take part.

And did Stasya offer cookies?! Did she have any on her?

Anyways.

It all seemed to turn to chaos when one Dorian Katharos, who had landed a solid right hook on the shadowy figure, screamed about being let out. Screamed, not said in his usual tone of voice. Hirsch's eyebrows shot right up and it was probably because of this that he let the door on the other side, his side of the room, open up.

Maybe this was a sign.

The Defence professor glanced down at his watch before drawing a horizontal line in the air with his wand. At once, every shuffling in the room came to an immediate stop. A flick and the doors opened up, doors that were on the other side of the doors they came in and ones that led to a much larger space. One that, they'll be happy to know, was better lit than what they were in previously. To make things slightly better, the walls for the rooms the students were in seemed to melt away, revealing very little space and a single dummy.

Figured out the source of the shuffling yet?

The larger room was empty (of course), apart from the mats that lined the floor. On the single desk on the other side of the room stood multiple glasses of water and three boxes: one of which was open and two that were closed and locked. The one box that was opened contained slabs of different kinds of Honeydukes chocolate from the very sweet to the very weird.

And who was standing next to the desk? Professor Hirsch himself.

Time to greet the class? He thought so. "Hello and welcome to another Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson," he said, clapping once to get their attention, "Before we move on with the lesson, I wanted to apologise for the activity. I know it must've been an awful, panic-driven experience but I promise that there's a reason behind it. Because of the high level of emotion, I want everyone to come up and grab a glass of water and a slab of chocolate and make yourselves comfortable on the mats. Make sure to take some deep breaths as well." This was very important.

"Firstly, I wanted to say well done on tackling the dummy in each room. Each of you had a different approach to the lack of light and I'm glad to see that you used your brains to work around the situation. It's not easy, it's never easy, but I'm glad to see so many of you being vigilant before and during the room experience. Well done!"

"Now," Dramatic pause, anyone? "I wanted to ask: what did you learn from that? What would you do differently? What could you, maybe, improve on?" Let's get those brains thinking.


OOC: Look at you guys go! That was amazing!! *so so proud kjhfdgkhdf!*

The question is super simple: what did you learn from that? What would you do differently? And what could you improve on?

I'll move the lesson on tomorrow (or later today for me *eyes time*) at 10pm GMT+1.

Thanks, you guys ^^

What.....in Merlin’s beard.......was that.....?

Jessa squinted into the darkness, noting the subtle darkening in shade that suggested—or rather confirmed—the presence of something else in the room. It wasn’t fear that gripped her, but intrigue. Now she wished even more she could’ve introduced some light and a part of her wanted to be IN there to get a first hand examination done but she would settle for what she could get.

The shuffling continued to get louder and the Ravenclaw could feel her own muscles tensing with anticipation as if she was the one in harm’s way.

Then it was all over.

Wait what...?

Jessa placed a hand over the eye that connected to Jane’s and watched as the room opened up before her. The walls came down, a wide room opened up and there standing by a table with the usual mats placed all around was the Professor. Was the exercise over already?

With a hand still over her left eye to once again prevent the double vision, Jessa got up from her spot on the floor and moved closer for the official beginning of the lesson. On the way to the Professor she collected her doll, inspecting her briefly to ensure the unseen entity hadn’t gotten to her in some way. It was yet another disadvantage. Her skin wasn’t connected to that of the doll’s. She’d never be able to get an entirely accurate feel for any situation by sending Jane.

Not particularly traumatised, Jessa decided against the refreshments, instead tapping her eye to end the charm and return her vision to normal. “I’d be more prepared, I think. This exercise has taught me that while Jane serves her purpose of surveillance, I may need to tinker with her charms a bit to make her more versatile. Either that or animate another doll specifically for circumstances that require a fully functional witch or wizard—at the very least a doll with greater ability for interaction.”

Probably not what he meant but it WAS what she learned and now she had a new project to work on.

Emmalyn continued to struggle and thrash around with the unknown attacker? She couldn't exactly call it an attacker since she was the one that initiated the attacking. Maybe that wasn't the best idea. However, she kept it up with all her mite. Then...nothing. The thing just simply stopped moving. She froze, arms still wrapped tight around it, and listened for any sort of clue that it was still alive. If it had been alive to begin with. There were far too many things it could have been to even start guessing.

Before she could figure out the state of health of her opponent, another door flew open and light was all around. Professor Hirsch was talking to them, directing them to get chocolate and water. Emmalyn, however, was unable to loosen her grip around the now known dummy. Her arms trembled and she was on the verge of bawling over the relief that she wasn't going to die and she hadn't just murdered anything.

The entire ordeal had ended far too abruptly for her to fully process that it was just a staged test of her reactions. The disappearance of the walls around and the new light flooding in made her squint while her eyes adjusted to the brightness.

Her mind was faster in rejoining reality than her body. As she lay on the floor, arms still tightly wrapped around the dummy, all that ran through her mind was that the next time she'd be sure to lead with a punch or a kick before flinging herself upon a possible attacker. If she'd only disorientated her opponent first, it wouldn't have been able to fight back as hard.

The door opened and Chloe skipped out into the big room. She didn't seem shaken, although Chloe wasn't one for showing negative emotions. It was a good sign that she took the water and chocolate without question and settled on a mat without a word.

"I think I might be afraid of the dark now, sir. Does that count?" Chloe nibbled the edge of her chocolate. It had a toffee crunch in it, and it made her happy... but it didn't quite dispel how uneasy the darkness had made her.

Maddie waited for the sunlight from her spell to come. She was starting to think there might be a Devil's Snare shuffling around in here with her, and if there was, the sunlight should get it. At first, when the light did come, she thought her spell had finally worked. Panic rose inside of her once again, as she prepared herself to face the Devil's Snare.

Only, none of the above happened.

Except for the light. There was light, but it hadn't come from her wand. Everything fell into place, as the Hufflepuff adjusted her eyes to the new scene before her. A dummy?! Had she known that, she would have used Immobulus a long time ago!

Also--oh, heyyy, Professor! "That was fun! Can we do it again?!" she greeted. Now that she knew there'd been a dummy in the room with her, she had so many new ideas! "Thanks for the chocolate and water!" Her energy was returning to her now that she knew she wasn't going to die alone in some mysterious room in the castle. She grabbed a selection of refreshments then headed into the much more welcoming classroom.

So what did she learn? She raised her hand. "Had I known that had been a dummy in the room with me, I'd have cast...maybe Immobulus? Something in the back of my head thought maybe you were in the room, too, and no way am I casting on a professor! Plus, I didn't think it'd be too smart to cast when I didn't know what I was casting on," she said. "I think I'd like to be better prepared, too. Why wouldn't any light spells work? What would we do if that happened to us outside of class?"

It was then that she noticed Emmalyn, lying somewhat lifelessly on the floor. "Professor! Emmalyn!" she said. She abandoned her treats and stood looking toward the girl. She didn't know whether to run to her side or to wait for someone more experienced to help out.

So far the only thing Stasya had learned from the activity, since she was hoping that’s what the little creepy dark room/shuffling mystery being was, was that no matter how many times she cast the charm and added to her little bluebell campfire, the room didn’t really get any lighter. At least, not in a ‘now I know what exactly is lurking in the room with me because I can see it’ way. Although… had the shadowy figure actually stopped when she’d asked if it liked cookies. Because she was totally willing to sacrifice some of her stash if it meant being left alone…

The shuffler was obviously keeping away from her, though, so maybe it didn’t like cookies. Or tall blonde fourth year prefects, hopefully. She was staying ready for anything either way, except she really hadn’t expected her surroundings to basically melt away gradually, let alone the door to freedom that had opened up in front of herself. The fact the shuffler had been revealed to be a dummy answered several of her questions, in any case. Plus, now she knew where Professor Hirsch was.

“Hi Professor Hirsch,” she said, giving him a grin as she walked up to help herself to a piece of chocolate and a glass of water. For once, she wasn’t going to question if the offering had an ulterior motive, since she trusted him.

Hmm… going to take a seat on a mat and nibbling on the chocolate, she thought about the questions. “I learned that it’s better to do whatever it takes to stay calm in a strange situation?”, she offered after a moment. That and it doesn’t hurt to distract whatever is stalking her. Not that she particularly wanted to be stalked by mystery beings in the darkness ever again.