It was on her way back from Charms lesson that Aurora became entirely distracted by the polished glimmer of armour, much like a Magpie attracted to shiny things. She took a detour from her intended route to traverse the long corridor and admire the well-cleaned suits that she could see her reflection in, evidence of the House Elves hard work. The third year was taking her time to stop at each and every suit to see whether she could spot them moving. In fact once she had reached the end she turned around extremely quickly in hopes to catch one of them out only to see nothing at all and wrinkling her nose in response to the disappointment.

She’d heard that during times of conflict the suits of armour often fought to protect the school although the details of which were muggy in her brain considering she got entirely too distracted during History of Magic and would find her thoughts overwhelmed by tall-tales of fantastical adventures rather than the true historical facts of the past. They didn’t seem to be playing ball today however and so on her return journey through the corridor she stopped half way along, rising on her tip-toes to stare into its visor.

..or rather attempt to considering her 4ft6 (and a HALF) frame barely allowed her to reach even the armours head. Instead her nose was sort of smooshed up against the armours chest plate and she was going a little cross-eyed looking at her own reflection.

Was she going to be late to her next lesson? Probably.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lottiepot

It was on her way back from Charms lesson that Aurora became entirely distracted by the polished glimmer of armour, much like a Magpie attracted to shiny things. She took a detour from her intended route to traverse the long corridor and admire the well-cleaned suits that she could see her reflection in, evidence of the House Elves hard work. The third year was taking her time to stop at each and every suit to see whether she could spot them moving. In fact once she had reached the end she turned around extremely quickly in hopes to catch one of them out only to see nothing at all and wrinkling her nose in response to the disappointment.

She’d heard that during times of conflict the suits of armour often fought to protect the school although the details of which were muggy in her brain considering she got entirely too distracted during History of Magic and would find her thoughts overwhelmed by tall-tales of fantastical adventures rather than the true historical facts of the past. They didn’t seem to be playing ball today however and so on her return journey through the corridor she stopped half way along, rising on her tip-toes to stare into its visor.

..or rather attempt to considering her 4ft6 (and a HALF) frame barely allowed her to reach even the armours head. Instead her nose was sort of smooshed up against the armours chest plate and she was going a little cross-eyed looking at her own reflection.

Was she going to be late to her next lesson? Probably.

She wasn't sure why she hadn't thought of it sooner, maybe it was talking with Ramsay about his parental findings, but she had suddenly been inspired to look for clues to her own paternal mystery in the Trophy Room. She wasn't sure if she was disappointed that she had found nothing or relieved, but she was skipping away from the space in any case when she happened upon Aurora trying to hug one of the suits of armour.

Anna had hugged most things that crossed her path, but she could honestly say that a suit of armour had not been something she had found her arms around just yet. And one still wouldn't, at least not fully because her arms were not all that long, as she skipped up behind her best friend to give her a squishy hug from behind. "Aurora sandwich!" she chirped while nuzzling her face in the younger Ravenclaw's hair. "Wait...does it count as a sandwich if the other party involved doesn't use their arms?"

The other party in this case being the suit of armour, of course.

If Aurora wasn’t going cross-eyed from staring down her nose into the reflection of the armour she might’ve actually paid attention to her surroundings and heard Anna’s approach beforehand. Not that she was particularly aware on an ordinary day anyway as any simple distraction garnered her interest. What might’ve come as a bit of a shock for anyone else was met with a delighted giggle by the Ravenclaw for being tackled into a cuddle was one of her favourite things to do. Although this cuddle did have her squished up against a rather hard crust of the sandwich which wasn’t the most comfortable of places to be nor was he actually hugging her back.

“I wouldn’t make a very yummy filling!” she retorted, twisting around to face Anna and give her a proper squishy hug swaying the pair side to side as she did so. “I’d heard that sometimes the suits of armour come alive to protect the school. I was hoping that maaaaaaaybee I’d be able to catch one out! Like when you walk past a painting and can feel their eyes following you.” Only at this school the portraits really WERE watching over them so the analogy didn’t really work but Anna would know what she meant. “But so far they’ve been super sneaky and not shown themselves.” Her petite nose scrunched up like a rabbit.

Anna relaxed her arms a little and also scooted back slightly to give Aurora a bit more room to turn around. As soon as she she, Anna was back in full squish mode and swaying back and forth while doing so. "I dunno, I happen to really like raspberry jam!" she laughed and then released her friend to hop back a step and consider the suit of armour properly. "Oooooooh, I've heard about that too. I think you have to use a spell to make that happen though...it's not like...something already enchanted in their metal and feathers and stuff." Unless maybe it WAS something that was imbedded into their materials naturally like the Sorting Hat was. No one was tapping the Sorting Hat to life at any feasts and sometimes it would talk to you when you visited the Headmaster's office. "OR..." And, unfortunately, her eyes grew wide and sparkled with possibility. "...MAYBE it just needs to be in the correct environment to spring to life. Like...nifflers. When they see money and sparkly things they just go berserk until they have collected it in their pouches. Maybe you have to appeal to their chivalry for them to reveal themselves."

Which clearly hugging them was not it.

There was a brief look of confusion that flashed across her face at Anna’s words. Was she implying that she was the raspberry jam? In which case that was probably an accurate description of the sandwich filling she most resembled personality wise, sweet and sticks to you like glue. Or was she simply just stating that jam was her personal favourite? “I like cheese and cucumber,” Came her reply. Jam unfortunately wasn’t something that was readily available in the Ackerly household, there was too much sugar in it for her Mum’s liking.

Aurora bounced back around to face the suit of armour, linking her arm in with Anna’s before glancing down to see if she was wearing her special bestie socks too in which case they could do a little *bloop* with the magnetic hands. It would become a not-so-secret handshake between the pair, something that only they could do. Did it look a little ridiculous walking around connected by the ankles as if running a three-legged race? Yes. Did they care? Absolutely not.

Anna was full of great ideas to the point that Aurora considered whether she should have been the Ravenclaw. “I wonder what that spell is? Do you think we could find it out and.. do you think they could DANCE?!” she giggled. There was something incredibly amusing about the thought of a dance party in the middle of a corridor with a conga line of suits of armour following behind them. As for appealing to their nature by being chivalrous, Aurora didn’t really know how other than by what she had seen in movies. “Like a curtsy?” She tucked one leg behind the other, held onto the sides of her skirt and curtsied low to the ground.

Anna was marshmallow fluff, absurdly sweet and totally extra, and Aurora was raspberry jam because it was sweet and pink and not red like strawberry jam leaned towards. Aurora was obviously the color pink personified - which was a part of Anna workshopping her a new nickname. No nickname she had ever created for Aurora ever seemed right and maybe that was because it was hard to encapsulate a best friend in just a few words. If she thought about this too much she was going to have an existential crisis at the ripe age of 15 and that was far too young to start with that or at least add another layer on to the layered cake of her fantastically convoluted existence. "I don't think I've ever had cucumber and cheese together before," she mused thoughtfully while tapping her chin. "I like them both separately though. Also cheese and apples go well together and apples are crispy like cucumbers so I see how that could work."

She, unfortunately, was not today as she had forgotten to include them in the wash and thus there were still laid out on her bedside table next to the potted daisy plant she had acquired recently. "I don't know...but there are a bunch of those moving type spells so maybe it's one of those....OH, unless...do you think Tarantallegra could make them dance?" Or did that one only work on things that were made from more organic kinds of materials and not the metallic kind? Anna pursed her lips and considered Aurora's suggestion, which had not been in the same quidditch pitch of possibilities she had been considering but still deserved its own attention. "I dunno...maybe...but I was think more like...how knights are sworn to protect others who cannot protect themselves...so maybe we need to create a situation in which they will want to spring to action?"

The more that Aurora thought about it, the more that she agreed that if she were to be a sandwich filling she probably would be a sweet and sickly jam. Although she did prefer jam to be between two thick sponges and slathered with cream in a Victoria Sponge Cake which unfortunately she didn’t have many an opportunity to consume considering how health conscious her mothers were. It was also true however that any name that her beloved bestie would bestow upon her would be greatly appreciated because it came from the mind of Anna who Aurora thought the sun shined out of. “It’s yummy but the cheese has to be grated and the cucumber sliced thinly and the bread has lots of butter on it.” And then cut into triangles of course. “Oooh and cheese and pineapple! Not in a sandwich though” Clearly cheese and fruit were the ultimate combination of sweet and savoury.

The topics of conversation that came out of this pair were interesting to say the least. It was like they could start an hour long discussion on pretty much anything including what delights were satisfying their stomachs that day. There was a brief moment of disappointment that Anna was not wearing her super special socks but it was fleeting with the thought that there were still over 100 days to do the little ankle ‘boop’ whilst they were still at school.

Aurora’s spell recollection was unfortunately not the best however the spell being on the first year list and the fact that Aurora thought it was extremely amusing watching others dance about had meant that she retained at least some knowledge of the spell. “They have legs and isn’t Tarantallegra the dancing feet spell? So.. yes? Maybe? It’s worth a try!” Who wouldn’t want to see a conga line of suits of armour dancing their way along the corridor? She linked her arm in with her friends and leaned slightly into her side. “Maybe we should try it together and then it could be extra powerful? Maybe they’ll do the can-can!” Her eyes lit up with excitement at the thought.

“Ohhhhhh.” Aurora’s thought process, although similar to Anna’s in many ways, wasn’t quite on the same wavelength sometimes. They both might’ve lived in a fantasy land but Anna’s was full of knights and pirates and Aurora’s was more fairies and princesses. “But.. we’re not IN danger in any way and I’m not sure I’d want to be in danger either.” At least not the amount of danger that would awaken the protectors of Hogwarts.

She hadn't ever considered cheese in such a capacity, her associations with it typically being warm foods like pasta and chili and hot sandwiches and those sorts of things. It also seemed super obvious to her that one could and would eat cheese cold and with fruit...and yet it was an absolutely mindblowing. "We're going to need to have some of these on a picnic on the grounds," she decided with a little bounce and wiggle of the fingers.

And she was going to dwell on and off about how she used to eat sticks of butter out of the refrigerator as a child. No rhyme or reason to it other than apparently infant to toddler Anna had been fascinated with the texture of it.

Truth be told, Anna was considering doing a bit of acting to create the illusion that they were in danger and then see if the suits of armour would come to life...but there was acting and then there was deception and she supposed that her initial plan jostling between the two and landing more on the side of ick rather than innocent banter. Aurora had the better idea in just trying their luck with magic. After all, what was the worst that could happen?!

"Let's try the spell," she agreed with a hearty nod while patting her pockets to find her beech wand. "Which suit should we perform it on? The one you were just hugging since you spent the most time with it and therefore more likely to be receptive to your magic?"

Was that how these things worked? Probably not but it was nice in theory.

It was almost as if these two girls brains were connected in some weird way and that perhaps one day, if she tried REALLY hard, they might actually be able to communicate telepathically because having a picnic and sharing their favourite sandwiches was absolutely going to be her next suggestion. It was strange how despite being from the same country their family’s must’ve had very different cuisine choices but then again, Aurora’s family were a little too health conscious at times and she did sometimes feel a little like a rabbit when she traveled home. “We definitely should! Do you think the Elves have picnic baskets anywhere? And picnic blankets and maybe they could help make us some lemonade?” If they weren’t too busy being the busy bees they already were of course.

Anna could’ve admitted to her butter eating habit and Aurora would’ve probably thought nothing of it. When she was younger she used to sneak chocolate sauce onto her salad and pretend it was balsamic vinegar dressing in order to get away with eating more processed sugar than she should have. Could probably explain some of the reasoning behind the way that she was.

The worst that could happen was another kitchen type disaster like what had occurred last time. With that being said, the pair had seemingly got away with that event entirely and therefore Aurora was feeling somewhat braver over the consequences of their actions. Besides who could be mad when watching a group of suits of armour performing the robot or moonwalking down the corridor like she was imagining in her head. Whether that was achievable with their level of competency was questionable, it wasn’t Anna she was worried about but rather whether she herself was capable of performing.

“I wasn’t hugging it” she protested with a giggle. “I was just looking at him but yes. He’s the first one too so he can maybe create a chain of them?” Perhaps that was going a little too far though and would require a level of concentration she was not prepared for. The Ravenclaw withdrew her wand from the holster and pointed it towards the armour, waiting for her friend to join.