Broomsticks, Buckets, and Badgers.

Noxienia didn’t make a sound as the door to the cupboard suddenly opened and then was closed. She could hear a boy yelling out in the hallway, something to someone called ‘Black’ about another person called ‘Stonefyre’. She recognized both names, Black being a girl in her house but older and Stonefyre she was pretty sure was on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Nox turned her face downwards, not daring to look up, even in the dimness of the little closet, not wanting to see any light glint in the other person’s eyes if they should turn around. Maybe they wouldn’t even notice she was here and would leave quickly… or maybe, if they did notice her, they would someone nice. Nox had a terrible time with bumping into people and getting told off for it which could be pretty intimidating when you tried to avoid as much social contact as possible unless it was with a certain Gryffindor boy who made happy bubbles burst in your chest even if you weren’t quite sure as to why that was. Oh, where was Zeke when she needed him as a buffer for the rest of the world?

A quick succession of running footsteps passed quickly by the broom cupboard, male voices shouting something about ‘I think she went this way!’ Noxienia held her breath as they passed, hoping to not alert them to the presence of two beings hiding in a cupboard, one of them who seemed like they could be the person the boys they were looking for. Then again, Nox couldn’t be positive of that. Perhaps this other person who had joined her was simply getting out of the boys’ way, or had even purposely come to the cupboard in order to meet up with someone else. It was not unheard of for the closets of cleaning supplies to be used as snog boxes or even… Oh the thought of such things made the Hufflepuff’s cheeks heat up just thinking about it. Oh gosh, she certainly hoped that no one else was coming here right now to do such things.

Should she speak up, just in case? The Hufflepuff wondered to herself, struggling very much with the idea of getting the words out of her mouth. How did one interact with another person who had randomly (or purposely) chosen to hide themselves away in a broom cupboard of all places? She had never been in a situation like this before, despite all her years of stowing herself away until the crowds had tamed in the hallways. Maybe she should just be quiet and hope the other person left and wasn’t waiting on a make-out session. But then… The way the other being was breathing finally clicked into the badger’s brown and she frowned. Was… was this other person scared?

Nox quickly averted her eyes, staring down at her lap and letting her hair fall to hide her face. Her eyes darted around, locking on everything in the cupboard except for Sophia. She hadn’t felt nearly this awkward since she’d met Zeke and that had been one hell of a day in itself. One hand went straight to her hair, wrapping a lock around one finger until it became so tight her finger turned purple and then she released and repeated, over and over again. She pressed herself further against the corner, trying to become quite a bit smaller than she already was, though, the other girl seemed nice enough, another Hufflepuff a bit older than herself… Black, if she was deducing it correctly from the boys’ shouting. Nox was always wary when she ran into someone new who actually interacted with her at all. She had seen Black around quite a bit as they were in the same house and typically, in some of her classes. In this particular case though, she felt extremely overwhelmed by it. There was nowhere she could go to hide if she needed to escape the situation quickly.

“S…Sorry. Y-yes.” Nox managed to get out, her voice it’s usual volume of ‘just above a whisper’. The only time it had ever really raised had been nearly over a month back when she’d had an all out shouting match in the Entrance Hall against that stupid bitch Bianca. The rumors about that had all but stopped now though and life had returned pretty much to normal, though sometimes people still whispered when she and Zeke tried to go for a walk. She wasn’t sure why it was so interesting to anyone else. It wasn’t like it was their best friend was engaged to the awful Slytherin girl. Gulping, Nox dashed her eyes upwards, looking at Sophia but not her face. Just her elbow. “Traffic. You?”

Nox still didn’t look up at Sophia, the hair twirling intensifying as her fellow Hufflepuff sat down on a bucket as well. Rocking back and forth now, Noxienia tried to calm herself further. The quarters were too close and too badly lit but at least Sophia wasn’t directly next to her or yelling at her or anything like that. The older girl was hiding, from bullies, and if she needed to share the spot, then that was fine by Nox. She didn’t want Black to have to go back out into the hallway and face whomever had been chasing after her. So, she shook her head. No. She didn’t mind sharing the hideout, not really. No matter how impossibly uncomfortable and awkward it made her feel.

Not being able to see Sophia very well, Nox tried to bring up what she could remember her looking like. She knew she had brown hair and was a bit taller than herself, but other than that, she couldn’t think of any distinct features, mostly because she had never actually looked at Black’s face. She was sure Black was a perfectly nice looking girl of course, but the only faces Nox managed to glance at on occasion belonged to her five older siblings and her Zeke. “No. Why'd they chase you?” She asked, hoping that keeping up a conversation might make things less awkward, but then again, maybe it would just make things worse.

Nox listened, frowning as she usually did when she heard something that wasn’t very nice. Then again, nothing about bullies was going to be sunshine and rainbows. She had dealt with a few, though nothing as consistent as Black’s by the sound of it. Her only real bully was stupid Bianca, and she could have taken her just fine if given the chance, so long as she was physically sound as opposed to that one time… Shaking her head to get that horrible memory out of it, Nox bit at her lip, still twirling her hair. Round and round and round. She could feel unhappiness in the pit of her stomach and she didn’t like it. “Sad bubbles.” She whispered, pausing in her hair twirling for but a moment before taking it back up again.

Silence filled the cupboard for a couple of intensely awkward minutes before the younger Hufflepuff spoke again, her brain processing what Sophia had said and making an attempt at thinking of what she could say to make the other girl feel better. It was quite difficult to be honest. ”People… People don’t focus on the things that make a person good. Sometimes they only see what they think is bad. But… but there are others.” There. Maybe that would work. Did it make sense? Noxie wondered to herself, not even sure if it had or not.