seeing double
frankly, she’s never had detention before. bea has always been “pristine”, record clean and in the good graces of any professor. she’s nice, after all. soft, after all. a model student, after all. not in that she was extraordinary, but that she was pleasantly plain. yet here she is, suffering the consequences of a misplaced prank, the rage of a jaded caretaker.
truthfully, she’s nervous, heart trembling within the confines of its cage. the school caretaker isn’t known for his good temper or any sort of nicety toward students. as a matter of fact, bea had it on good authority that he hated the entire student population. the fact that detention was being held after hours outside of the castle, pressed on her nerves further.
trepidation licking at her heels, the hufflepuff is slow in making her way out of the castle; feet dragging, fingers clutching tight to the lantern while her gaze wanders, skittish in every bit of sense. she’s watched enough horror movies to know what goes bump in the night.
it doesn’t take long for something to happen, however, bea feels the presence of another creep up just as easily as her heart jumps in her chest—spinning around with enough fervor to smack the lantern against something firm.
“oh.” that groan sounded more human than anything.
sheepishly, (honestly with no small amount of dread), she lifts the lantern, eyes flicking up to drink in however much dim rays of light allows her to take in. vaguely, she feels the small hairs on the back of her neck bristle with realization.
“i’m—ah, sorry, i didn’t see you there. “ bea exhales, teeth sinking into the flesh of her cheek. evidently, she knows that the mounting amount of anxiety is groundless. that there’s no real sense of anxiousness that should be put into carrying out detention. even so, the thought of it, the act of it, however old she was now—still proved to make her feel small.
“are you here for, uh, the thing too?”
— open.