···· Servant, Not Me!, Emily, Belladonna, Ignan

[Emily Foxglove]

What a commotion, what with the building damaged by that accident in the floor below. Emily had circled the building several times, listening to the gossip and increasingly outlandish tales on how the little explosion had happened in potions, but none of them were entertaining her very far.

Even her usual haunts of Professor Morley, the healer or the vampyric Professor Rosewater was proving useless. The Healer was out, and the other two going about their usual duties of sorts. Bored, Emily had sought out the headmaster, only to find his offices and rooms empty, and him nowhere inside. Frustrated, bitter, she had drifted down to the entrance hall in the hope he might reappear or something interesting might happen.

Post by Fiona

[Belladonna Harpur]

"Merlin it must be dreary to be dead." Belladonna leant over the bannister rail of the stairs in the entrance hall, peering down through the ghost. Everyone had rather become accustomed to seeing the ghost wandering around the university now, but up until now, Bella had rarely had a chance to speak to it. Ghosts piqued her curiosity.

"Belladonna Harpur." She greeted, extending a hand, and with a smirk, withdrawing it. "How might I address you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

[Emily Foxglove]

"Merlin it must be dreary to be dead." Emily turned in the air, and regarded a first year student leaning over the stone bannister watching her. She had watched this one more than once, she looked promising, and she could play the violin with such bewitching talent.

"Belladonna Harpur." She greeted, extending a hand, and with a smirk, withdrawing it. "How might I address you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Emily Foxglove." Emily replied floating a little closer to Belladonna until she was the same level, hanging in mid air. "And I know who you are, nothing much gets past me in this building." She folded her arms and smirked. "Not even your sleepy audiences."

There was a little noise as a few students passed through before descending to the Dragon House dormitories below. Emily regarded them keenly, finding nobody of note she turned back to Belladonna.
"Not running along with your classmates then?" She asked, looking Belladonna up and down.

[Belladonna Harpur]

"Emily Foxglove. And I know who you are, nothing much gets past me in this building. Not even your sleepy audiences."

Belladonna fixed the ghost with a sceptical stare. So what, they wouldn't shut up, and she had things to do... what harm was it to send house mates to sleep?

"Not running along with your classmates then?" The ghost asked.

"Well, clearly no." Bella replied quickly, narrowing her eyes. "Though you make it sound like I'm intruding in your space, where you have the whole of the building to roam to your heart's content. If you have even retained the concept of a heart." The Dragon student sneered. "You do tend to pop up where you're not wanted I suppose."

[Emily Foxglove]

"What is the use of talents if you do not use them?" Emily sniffed in response to Belladonna. "If I have to be stuck in this place, then I can at least go where I want and when I want within it. You should hardly moan - you're able to go anywhere in the world!"

The ghost shot Bella an acrid look, and folded her translucent arms, sweeping away from the staircase, making the relics on the walls of the entrance hall rattle on their holdings.

"You just run along to anywhere in the world now!" She snapped shrilly.

By Nate

[Belladonna Harpur]

Belladonna laughed, an oddly musical cackle, and tossed her hair over her shoulders.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? Leave you alone. Why don't you just float through a wall if I'm so irritating?" She asked, raising her eyebrows in challenge.

There was a stalemate between them. Neither moving.

"Because we're both waiting for the same thing, aren't we?" Belladonna asked, smirking. "You're waiting for him."

[Emily Foxglove]

"I don't know who you're talking about." Emily sniffed, turning her back on Belladonna again and raising her nose haughtily. "I wouldn't be waiting for anyone."

Curses, she'd worked it out, she knew, like most of the castle's inhabitants had eventually realised, that the University's ghost who had finally emerged and agreed to help, was indeed in league with the Headmaster.

"So what if I am? Why are you waiting for him? He's a busy man!" Emily folded her arms and glared. Behind them, the front doors to the building opened with a deep rattle and creak.

post by Kit

[Ignan Storm]

Ignan Storm blinked away the damp feeling that had prickled in his eyes. It was the wind, and not Merry's words that had done this, he decided, placing a gloved hand on the door and pushing them open gently.

Within the University's grand entrance hall, the light shone and filled the room with warmth. There was still a faint smell of cooking, dinner which was in an hour, was well underway in the kitchens below them. The grey, rainy sky outside melted away in the building, though the cold hung on, as did Merry's grip to his wrists, if only in his mind.

There, in the centre of the entrance hall were the steps, and Ignan identified Belladonna Harpur stood on them, leaning over the rail, as if speaking with the University's ghost, Emily Foxglove. He regarded them both with his grey eyes and nodded to them, before starting forwards towards the stairs, peeling his gloves from his hands.