A little bit of trouble

Kasey sat in the main common room area of the Ilvermorny keep. It was late and while most of the sane people had gone to bed a handful of late night study students remained awake and hard at work. Kasey fidgeted impatiently in her chair. Why couldn’t these people go to bed already? She had sneaking around to do and sneaking was incredibly hard when there were so many people around.

Earlier in the day she had told Scarlett of her plan to go and investigate one of the corridors in which the lanterns had recently being randomly going out. At times Kasey, and a few other students, had even sworn that darkness was pooling in the corridor. She was confident her friend would come and investigate the situation with her, which in Kasey’s opinion was fantastic. Now if she got busted she wouldn’t end up in detention alone.

Impatiently Kasey glanced around the room again, only two other students remained in the room. She would be leaving soon with or without Scarlett.

When Kasey had approached her that morning about looking through the places where the lights were going off weirdly, Scarlett had immediately agreed to go with her. The castle was behaving so strangely that she couldn't resist. If it wasn't her doing, and wasn't the doing of Kasey or Leo, she couldn't figure out who could have done it. It wasn't as if they were the only creative souls in the school or anything, but they were pretty renowned for it, after six years.

She had decided that, realistically, she needed to at least look at the topic she needed to write an essay on, but that meant that she lost track of time throughout the evening. Glancing up, Scarlett gasped and flew from her chair, hoping that Kasey wouldn't be too impatient. The brunette's curiosity had been piqued and she didn't want to miss the chance to adventure with her best friend.

Hurrying downstairs, she nearly tripped as she tried to slip on her flats. "Kasey!" She called out when she made it into the common room, spotting her friend still sitting there. "So sorry. I was reading for that blasted History essay. Have you started it? We should plan a day to work on that, because you know I never will, otherwise."

Taking a deep breath, Scarlett shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She really needed to talk slower, sometimes. "You ready to go?"

Leo had known Kasey was planning something from the moment she had walked into charms class earlier that day. The way she couldn't seem to wipe the cheeky smile off her face and how she appeared more restless then usual were dead giveaways. And so, Leo had resigned to the fact that he was in for a long night of trying to keep his twin out of trouble.

Since dinner Leo had being staking out the common area keeping well out of his sisters sight while he waited for her to make a move. Slowly students disappeared from the common room and then Scarlett came running in. Honestly it wasn't much of a surprise to Leo that Scarlett would be joining in on the night's adventure. She was Kasey's best friend after all, and after some time Leo had come to find he thought of the mischievous brunette as some kind of friend as well.

It was as Scarlett asked Kasey if she was ready to go that Leo came over, "Did you two really think you could go sneaking around without me?" he asked coming to stand beside Scarlett an easy going grin on his face. Some day Kasey might make his job easy for him and just tell him when she planned to go do something, but obviously until that day Leo would just have to remain vigilant about her actions. Besides a little bit of adventure always livened the normal, boring routine of Ilvermorny up a little.

Scarlett reached up, taking up all of her hair in her hands, twisting it into one big curl. But she released it immediately when she heard Leo's voice, and her hair fell but bounced a bit and went back to where it had started. She almost couldn't look at him, but Scarlett told herself to, lifting her eyebrows at him.

"I certainly didn't invite you," she teased, turning her nose up over-dramatically. She smiled a moment later, though, quite alright with the idea that Leo wanted to come with them. Although it didn't seem like he was doing it for her, at least she got to spend time with both of them.

In truth, what she knew she needed to do was get over him. She didn't even know if Kasey would approve of her interest in Leo, so she had never said anything outright. "Oh well. If we're going to be stuck with you we may as well get going rather than argue about it. We don't want to get caught out after curfew, besides, so having an extra person can't hurt. You can play lookout," she told Leo, patting his arm teasingly before turning and leading the way out of the common room.

Kasey watched as Leo raised his eyebrows at Scarlett's teasing, "What a privilege, promoted from tag a long to look out" he responded in his usual joking manner. Kasey rolled her eyes barely managing to hide a smirk as Scarlett led the way out of the common room. She had figured out some time ago that Scarlett had a crush on her brother and she really didn't mind. In fact she kind of thought it was amusing how the situation was so obvious to her and yet how Leo remained totally oblivious.

Out side the common area the school was dark, after all no one was really expected to be up this late. Which was exactly why this was the perfect time to go and check out the flickering lights. With the kind of familiar confidence that came with breaking the rules frequently Kasey followed Scarlett towards the corridor. "So if this light thing isn't us, what do you guys think it is?" she asked finally voicing the question that had being on her mind since early that day.

It was amazing, really, that Scarlett could surprise Leo anymore. They had been in school together literally for years, and the thought made her smile a little to herself. It certainly didn't feel bad that she could hold his attention that way. She just hoped that it meant something like she thought it did.

In all honesty, of course, that hope was feeble after so long without him showing any genuine interest. So perhaps she needed to give it up, eventually.

Scarlett slowed her steps as Kasey spoke, wanting to keep close together so that they didn't need to speak loudly. "Whatever it is, I bet it's caused the weird stuff happening at mealtimes," she thought aloud. "I mean, I don't think I'm imagining the fact that there's hardly anything being served anymore. And none of it is any good. I guess we shouldn't complain since we aren't making it, but... it's just so strange!"

Feeling inside her robes for her wand, Scarlett frowned as they approached the heavily-shadowed corridor. She knew it probably wasn't true, but she half expected that something would jump out and scare them if they got too close.

Julian had been ripped off. Well, from the moment he met Gwen he'd known she was going to try to use him. It wasn't like she'd tried to hide it. But he really hadn't expected there to be so much work involved in his end of the deal. They were only dealing with children, after all.

He was in the middle of fiddling the lamps when he heard the voices in the corridor. They were working together. That was not the plan. Well, forewarned was forarmed, even if you were only a little forewarned.

"Hey kids!" he stepped out of the shadows looking way too excited for someone living in this school, although arguably, Julian looked way too excited at all times.

He pointed to one of the girls at random ((Kasey)).

"Just who I was looking for. Professor Fawcett wanted me to give you this," he told her, proffering the badge he'd transfigured from a sickle while still standing in the shadows.

Julian had no idea whether Ilvermorny had student positions, but it proclaimed the wearer Class Captain.

Leo had never been much of a theorist and as a result didn't really have any idea on what could be causing all these strange activities. He might have told Kasey as much had they not arrived at the dark corridor. Instinctively Leo took a step forward half placing himself between the corridor and the two girls taking his wand out in the process. Like Scarlett, Leo also found himself thinking that something could jump out of the shadows and the thought set him on edge.

Milton's appearance was so quick and sudden that Leo reacted to it completely without thought, "stupi-" he began only to have Kasey give him a hard whack on the back of the head. "What the h-" Leo began again and then seemed to realise exactly who he had been about to stun. Leo lowered his wand and rubbed the back of his head deciding silence was probably his best defence.

The deputy headmaster seemed somewhat distracted so with any luck maybe he wouldn't realise that Leo had been about to stun him. Or wouldn't care that three students were walking around so late.

Leo was further surprised when the professor shoved at badge towards Kasey. Kasey, a class captain? Kasey didn't even go to class on most occasions. Leo frowned, "Professor Fawcett wanted you to give Kasey a class captain position?" He asked a note of disbelief in his voice.

Scarlett reached out just as Kasey did, but withdrew her hand after Leo backed off. That didn't mean, of course, that she hadn't held onto her own wand more tightly as their superior appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. When he spoke, she frowned deeply. Scarlett didn't remember if she had ever heard of that position before, but it was shocking that any of them would be given a job like that.

Besides that, why wasn't anyone questioning their lack of detention for being out too late? Scarlett wasn't going to call him on it, but the question lingered even after Leo repeated the statement back in surprise.

The real question she had, though, was how they were supposed to get away with checking out the corridor now. Perhaps they should have just done it during the day and not bothered being sneaky? That wouldn't have been half as fun as this would have been, she decided, if they hadn't been interrupted.

"Congrats, Kasey," she said, rather than asking any of her questions. Something told her that lingering around wouldn't necessarily be a great idea. But she also doubted that her friends would miss the tension in her voice as she spoke. "Maybe we should go to the dormitories and play a game or two to celebrate."

Kasey took the badge and studied it. Leo was completely right of course. No body in their right mind would hand a position of responsibility to any of the three present, least of all to Kasey. Actually she didn't even know there was such thing as a class captain at Ilvermorny and a glance at Scarlett told Kasey her friend didn't know either.

As Scarlett hinted that they should head back to the dorm Kasey took one last look at the corridor. But they had been so close! Now the impatient desire to explore was burning inside Kasey twice as strong as before. "Yeah sure" Kasey responded to Scarlett rather unenthusiastically. She wasn't much of an actor. 'I'll just come back tomorrow' Kasey thought to herself as she stepped back from the corridor and making move back towards the dormitories.