This was fresh on my feed, so sorry if you’re actually done playing but I’d love Time After Time: Caro
7 April 1915 - midnight
Caro sits straight on the edge of the wooden bench. The small room with the ancient stone walls and the arched ceiling is cold, despite the mild spring night engulfing Pendleton Estate. She shivers slightly, drawing her shawl tighter around herself.
"I still don't see why I had to come," she says to her husband, who sits in the bench next to her, immersed in the sketchbook lying on his lap. He is always like this when he draws - the world could burn around him and he wouldn't notice.
Now, he glances up from his sketch of the Pendleton Chapel's stained-glass window in the candlelight.
"You're my muse," he says as if it was the most simple explanation in the world. "Is it so strange that I want you by my side for a moment of inspiration?"
Caro stifles a sigh. She could be working right now, should be, actually. There was this new poison the Ministry had commissioned and which was long overdue. Fogging the mind, invoking enough nausea to cause submission, but no lasting effects. She almost has it to perfection, but one thing was still missing...
Her eyes trail over the lit candles and up the overly tacky, gilded cross Brady's ancestors have hung above the altar. Her eyes widen.
"Myrrh!" she exclaims, gathering her skirts as she hastily stands up. "Oh, what a fool I've been!"
Brady looks at her uncomprehendingly. "Pardon, my love?"
"I must note this down immediately. No, better. I must try it."
Not giving her husband another look, Caro has swished out of the chapel before Brady can even close his sketchbook. Looking after her, he shakes his head and chuckles to himself.
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"Jimmy and I understand the pursuit of the beautiful and mysterious… but why are you chasing something that wants you dead?" Brady huffed as his eyes followed the twisted and gnarled branches of the willow tree as Lysander Mercury led the boys closer to the mysterious hole in the ground.
Ignoring Brady's protest, Lysander began to explain how the boys were about to embark on their most fantastic adventure. "See, I found the tunnel when I was drawing under the tree. I was trying to dodge the branches. They pack a nasty wallop, but the drawing turned out to be one of my best. I have no idea where it leads, and that is why I called for you fellows. I think the trail might take us somewhere interesting."
Brady rolled his eyes and turned back to Lysander. "You tried to sketch it while it was kicking your ass? I worry," he smirked dryly.
"It is, sorry, it is… often how he does his best work," Jim suggested in Lysander's defense. As a fellow Keeper, Brady understood the logic but wasn't convinced.
Lys nodded at the keen observation and picked at the scratch on his face left by a rogue branch. "I tried tickling it like the pear in the kitchens. That only made the tree fight harder. However, when I fell, my wand landed in this knot over here and…" Lysander motioned to the subdued tree as he slid a branch into the knot. "Tame as can be. My best guess says it takes us right into the candy shop's backroom! If it does, the sugar quills are on me, fellas!"
Jim shook his head and gestured to the tunnel. He was less optimistic about the result of their pursuit but willing to make a day of the adventure, so long as the trail didn't lead to the creepy old house at the edge of Hogsmeade village, by his calculations, it seemed like a possibility. "You first, P-pendleton."
"Lumos!" Brady called as he jumped down the opening in the ground, disappearing entirely into the darkness. "Come on, fellas! The drop isn't so bad," he groaned as he moved out of the way to make room for his incoming friends. Lysander dropped near Brady first, and Jim landed with a thud moments after. "Alright, boys. Let's see where this leads."
With their wands aglow, the boys set out down the tunnel's twists and turns until they were deep under the grounds of Hogwarts. Brady speculated they might end up near the Slytherin Common room and that he would indeed need to kick the boys out. While the Hufflepuff boys were used to living underground, they disagreed with Brady's sense of direction and thought they were following the train tracks to Hogsmeade though there was no rumbling in the ground overhead to support either theory.
The boys had been walking for several minutes when their journey took a complicated turn. The three would have to agree on what to do when the path they were following split into two trailheads. One seemed to be paved with elaborate tiles and looked as though it had been well maintained through the years. "I've never heard anyone mention a secret passage under the castle," Lysander noted, "but it looks like someone must be taking care of the place."
"If you heard of it, it wouldn't be a secret passage. Would it?" Brady challenged, pointing his wand down the glittering and inviting hallway. "This one looks nice. Let's see what happens."
Lysander turned to Brady but didn't shine his wand onto the well-maintained path. "No. It's obvious that whoever uses this tunnel wants us to take this path. Which means something better has to be down the other tunnel. The pretty one probably takes us back to Hogwarts. Straight into detention. What do you say, Jimbo?"
"W-well," Jim looked hopefully at the shining white tiles that reflected from Brady's wand and then to the left at the dark and dreary trail that lay beyond Lysander's wand. "If someone is hiding… hiding something worth finding, Lysander's idea w-would stand to reason. Although, are we certain we want to find whatever it is?" he raised his palm to his forehead, hoping he wouldn't need to break any ties in the decision ahead.
Brady swung his wand in Lysander's direction. "Yes, we are. All the best stuff is underground. It's why Slytherins and Hufflepuffs live there. It's why Caro works in the dungeons. And do not get me started on the basement of the Louvre!"
"We won't," Jim and Lysander said in unison, knowing that Brady would never stop if he recounted the story of his childhood travels and his earliest memories of his artistic ambitions. It wasn't the first or even the tenth time Brady's account of the museum would be told, and the boys were certain it wouldn't be the last. Snickering as Brady began to drone on as he marched ahead by wand light, the boys mouthed and mimicked the identical telling of the story they had come to memorize.
Brady propelled forward with a thud and a groan as he tripped over a block in the path. It appeared to be a large lock that had once been attached to the door at the end of the tunnel. The door had not been fitted with a new lock and was ajar. Lysander lit the path ahead as Brady scrambled to find his wand and his composure after his stumble.
All three made their way up the rickety wooden staircase from the cellar and found themselves standing in an abandoned bedroom. Brady grinned, at least he hoped it was abandoned. "Is anyone home?" he called. He was immediately shushed by the other boys.
"There are no windows," Lysander observed. "Do you think this is the one that we can see from Hogsmeade?" He searched each room for a door to the outside and found nothing. "It always looked more intimidating. This looks like a dollhouse. No worse than your sister's dollhouse, Jim!" he said with great relief.
Jim shuddered. "You don't understand the h-horrors those dolls have seen. Ivy had to turn her dollhouse into an asylum when Ethel d-decided she was too old for dolls and gave them all to her," Jim shuddered. "They're mostly rehabilitated. However, Charlotte may never recover from her shell shock. Things are touch and go."
Lysander and Brady watched with scrunched noses as they became momentarily invested in Charlotte's recovery. "Right, then. Best wishes to Charlotte," Brady nodded before shaking the thought from his mind. "Now, since we have found ourselves unharmed and at the end of the secret tunnel, what do you propose we do with this place?"
"We cannot just walk in and m-make, sorry, just make it our own," Jim suggested as he looked around the room. Years of dust and neglect had taken a toll on the place, but it was nice to know the boys had a secret place to study or work without being bothered or interrupted. "Can we?"
Lysander picked at the scratches on his face. "We can, but should we? This place is dreadful. Perhaps it was abandoned for a good reason," he suggested.
"It has potential. Potential to be less of a mess. Isn't that what everyone always says to us, anyway? 'Stop it, now. You're making a mess!' At least this can be our mess. We can paint the walls, bring in a few lanterns and turn it into a gallery or a studio or both?" Brady observed as he pointed out the possibilities contained within the walls of the rickety old shack.
Jim raised an eyebrow at Lysander. The two seemed to have a mental conversation, silently arguing the benefits and pitfalls of the situation at hand. After much silent deliberation, Jim nodded. "Alright, but… what, what shall we do to keep it a secret? If we are displaying work here, we sh-should be certain nobody can just walk in," he suggested. None of the boys were keen on sharing most of their art projects with those outside of their arts club, especially the unfinished work. Secrecy would be of utmost importance.
"We do what we always do, lads. We create. It's what we do here. So, when someone asks what this shack is for, we create... make something up. Something so horrible and terrifying that nobody will ever want to come near this place. It doesn't even have to be a consistent story. Just enough to generate rumors to haunt even the bravest students. Maybe say it's haunted?" Brady suggested to his cohorts with a mischievous grin.
"All of Hogwarts is haunted," Lysander scoffed.
Brady slumped his shoulders in thought. "Then, we'll have to get more creative. This sounds like a good reason to meet right back here on Saturday at midnight. Bring snacks, butterbeer, art supplies, and your best scary stories. It is going to be a long night but the story has to be so terrifying that nobody ever wants to find their way in."
"Well, then, here’s to the perfect story for our hideout!” Lysander smirked.
A/N: What would Brady do without his best pals, Lysander & Jim? Probably sit in my drafts. What would I do without their creators @slytherindisaster & @the-al-chemist ? Probably sit in my drafts, actually. Thanks, darlings, for letting me borrow your sweet and talented Goobers. I love this trio.
