Seeking: Bodyguard

[Annalisse Childs]

Annalisse had been hanging up flyers in the corridors all morning, using her free period while everyone else was in class so that she wouldn't be caught. She didn't want anyone to know who had made the flyers just in case it could get her in trouble. Avoiding the headmistresses office was at the top of her list of things to do.

The flyers read as follows:

BODYGUARD WANTED!
Muscles and fearlessness required,
Slytherin and/or upperclassman preferred.
Method of payment TBA
Interested parties please meet in the second floor corridor by the suit of armor at 3PM


So here she was, milling around the second floor corridor by the suit of armor and trying to be inconspicuous. She hadn't been able to think of any way for the candidates to secretly inform her of their interest, seeing as she didn't want to attach her name to the flyer, so this was the best she could do. She would just have to keep an eye out for tough looking students.

[Amber Black]

Amber had been walking around out of boredom. Considering she didn’t have many, if any, friends (not that she needed company in the first place) and she was avoiding doing her favourite thing in the world: flying. Mainly because she was focusing on her studies since she was a sixth year. It was far too important. She would have time to fly during the holidays, maybe with her brother if he decided to visit the manor since he moved out the other day.

Amber had just been down at the kitchens getting something to eat. After flying, food was probably another of her favourite things. She avoided eating too much though so she wouldn’t get fat. Not that she cared about her appearance that much. Amber also went down to the lawns and the lake to get some sun and watch the giant squid resting in the shallows of the lake water, splashing around a bit. Now she was walking through the corridors when something caught her eye.

Bodyguard wanted? Amber was about to scoff and continue walking when something else on the flier caught her eye. Method of Payment? She would actually get paid to be someone’s body guard? She took hold of the flier and looked at what the requirements were. Well, she didn’t have muscles but she knew some ferocious curses that would be helpfully. And she was a little stronger than she looked, but not overly. Fearlessness? That was definitely her. She wouldn’t mind attacking a first year picking on another first year and such. Slytherin and/or upperclassman preferred...well she suited both of those didn’t she, being a Slytherin and probably one of the oldest students in the school?

Now usually Amber wouldn’t consider something like this, but if she was about to get a few sickles or galleons out of it, why not? It sure beats a summer job working at the laundry in the Leaky Cauldron. That made her wonder if they even had a laundry job at the leaky cauldron and it would probably be easy using magic, but only if you were over age. Looking back at the flier, Amber tried to find a name on it. Not finding one, Amber looked up and down the corridor. Maybe there had been someone she hadn’t seen earlier. But apart from a few suits of armour and paintings there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Although the flier does say that interested parties should meet on the second corridor at 3PM. Well, she was in the second floor corridor, but not having a watch she had no idea what time it was. Maybe if she just hanged around for a bit to see what would happen.

[Annalisse Childs]

After waiting almost a half hour, Annalisse was worried that her flyers had gone ignored and she would have to continue fending for herself. Unless one of the confused looking first years that had passed by here were trying to answer her call, but she wouldn't want a first year as a bodyguard anyway. Pursing her lips, she tried to think of how many of those first years she had seen pass...perhaps if this failed she could just put together a first year army. Even if they couldn't defend her, they could at least be a distraction, right?

Noticing a girl that had been hanging around the area for a few minutes now, she looked her up and down. Slytherin, older...was she holding one of her flyers? Success! Now, to get out of here without bringing attention to the two of them...no telling who could be watching.

"Hey!" she said, waving to the girl as if she knew her. Most unfortunately she didn't think she'd ever seen the girl before in her life, so she was unable to follow up her greeting with the girls name. She smiled as she walked up to the girl, gesturing to the flyer as she mumbled, "walk with me?" Hoping the girl would get the hint, she began walking down the corridor, away from the scene of the crime.

[Amber Black]

Amber was still half contemplating whether or not she really wanted to do this. Sure, there was money involved, but it all depended on how much. Amber was about to walk off when a girl greeted her. Now, Amber wouldn’t have too much of a problem with people greeting her except this girl greeted her in a way as if they knew each other. Immediately Amber glared at the girl. At the same time, she was also curious as to if she actually did know the girl and who she was. Maybe they had a class together? Though, Amber made sure to never really talk to anyone during classes. The girl didn’t look too old either, but at the same time not too young to be a first year.

“Walk with me?” the girl asked Amber and she also gestured to the flier. Then it dawned onto the Slytherin. This was the girl that had obviously put around the fliers. This made Amber quite amused. Why would a person, who wasn’t even a first year, need a body guard? Not to mention it was a Ravenclaw too. Ravenclaw’s were usually quite clever so she could always be able to probably put a jinx on her enemy or something. Or maybe she just wasn’t a very good Ravenclaw. Maybe she was constantly attacked by a group of older students and had no one to actually help her. Amber left the flier where it was, deciding against taking it with her. Amber followed the Ravenclaw and had her arms crossed as she now looked curiously at her, taking the younger girl in.
“Why do you need a bodyguard?” Amber asked that came out in more of a patronising tone than it was meant to.

[Annalisse Childs]

Anna was a bit taken aback when the girl glared at her and considered just walking away, but then she realized that this meant that the girl was intimidating and that was obviously something one would want in a bodyguard. This girl would definitely be better than any first year army. Then again, first years would be significantly easier to control...or trick, whichever worked best. She wrinkled her nose lightly and shrugged it off as the girl thankfully decided to follow after her, finally realizing who Anna was.

Hearing Amber's question, Anna pursed her lips as she tried to formulate an answer. "Well, I can usually take care of myself," she started, seeing as the flyer may have implied otherwise. And the girl's tone implied that she believed that she couldn't."But I don't know if you were at the start of term feast, in case you missed it I was harassed by the new headmistress for no good reason and, well, I wouldn't like to run into that problem again. Not that I plan on running into her path very often." She sighed, looking up at the girl. "Have you seen her yet?" she asked, somehow thinking that this girl would be smart enough not to go up against the headmistress. Most people probably were by now after the spectacle at the feast.

[Amber Black]

Amber tried to remember what exactly had happened at the beginning of term feast. Had she been there? Of course everyone would have to be there. Maybe she had been too busy eating to pay any attention or remember what had happened. Amber stayed quiet though, as the girl continued to talk, then she asked Amber a question. She asked Amber if she had seen her yet. Who was her? Amber thought for a moment before realising she was talking about the Headmistress, of course.
“I haven’t seen her face to face yet,” Amber said. Though she knew if she did meet the Headmistress there was no way she would cross her. Amber thought that if she were Headmistress, she’d probably be very similar to the current one. In fact, Amber was sure that if she were a Professor she’d probably fall under the category of an ‘evil’ professor, as the students were calling them these days. To Amber all those Professors were, were strict and demanded respect. It was fair, but there were younger students who didn’t seem to like it. Amber also secretly thought that the Headmistress probably had a very good reason for harassing the Ravenclaw. Maybe she was being snobbish or simply annoying. However, Amber didn’t voice her thoughts.

“So what would your body guard do?” Amber asked, “I doubt anyone would help you if you ran into a problem with the Headmistress. That would be suicide.”
Amber thought back to the flier, trying to remember why she had considered this job in the first place. “Any other requirements for the body guard? What sort of spells they need to know? Their magical abilities? Oh, and the pay,” Amber then remembered that money was the reason she had thought about doing this, “how much would the pay be?”

[Annalisse Childs]

Anna opened her mouth, about to explain what her ideal bodyguard would do, but then Amber continued speaking and confirmed her thought that the girl was far too smart to go up against the headmistress. Frowning lightly, she shook her head as the girl asked about requirements as far as magical abilities went. "No, I can do spells. I mean, you probably know a lot more because you're older, but I'm fine with all of that. I've got the magic but I'm lacking the intimidation factor. Or, well, the brawn." She glanced down at her own scrawny frame and allowed herself a small laugh. "The person I need would probably have to be very stupid, to be honest," she said, then quickly added, "Which I can tell that you're not." Maybe Slytherin was the wrong way to go. Gryffindors were the supposedly brave ones, and sometimes brave translated into stupid. Maybe a student was the wrong way to go altogether.

"This was a silly idea, I should have known that there's no one dumb enough here to stand up to the headmistress," she mumbled, frown returning to her face as she looked down at the floor. Perhaps she'd suffered some brain damage from being submerged in that pumpkin juice for such a long time. That would explain why she wasn't doing as well as normal in classes, and why the Hufflepuffs were outshining her. At least that was a little reassuring.

[Amber Black]

Amber listened to the younger Ravenclaw. She talked of how she lacked the intimidation factor and brawn. Of course, Amber wasn’t too brawny herself. Amber was, of course, bigger than the younger girl seeing as she was the older of the two. Even then, she was hardly someone anyone would go to if they wanted to muggle duel, unless they wanted easy competition. But she could probably manage to break someone’s nose if they annoyed her or made her angry. This was considerably easy when it came to talking to Amber. She thought about how she might need anger management classes but then pushed that thought away. She was perfectly fine. At least, she hoped she was. So, maybe she was a little angry here and there and could get annoyed very easily but it wasn’t like she had killed anyone...yet.

The girl then said she would need someone stupid. This caused Amber to raise an eyebrow. Luckily, the girl quickly added she could tell Amber wasn’t stupid. If she had been any slower to say it, Amber may have shown her exactly how many more spells (and maybe a few curses) she knew more than the younger girl. This made Amber think about exactly how she would have cursed the girl. She probably wouldn’t have done anything particularly nasty like Sectumsempra. That would cause too much trouble. Maybe she would have used calvario to make the girl bald-headed. That would have been particularly entertaining.

“No really?” Amber replied sarcastically as the Ravenclaw said it was a silly idea, “if you don’t like the Headmistress maybe you should consider transferring.” Amber had once again used a rather rude tone. It’s not that she meant to. She was just annoyed the Ravenclaw had gone to all the trouble with making the fliers and putting them out. “On the other hand,” Amber said, “instead of a bodyguard maybe you should just consider having friends in high places. Or make friends who can get you out of trouble through brains instead of brawn, especially if you’re not capable of doing it yourself.” Getting out of trouble by being calm and reasonable was always the best way to go. Sometimes, you still could get into trouble but the consequence wouldn’t be so bad if you explain the situation. Unfortunately, it seemed like many younger students didn’t realise this.

(Sorry for the late reply. I've been busy.)

[Annalisse Childs]

Seeing the girls reaction to her stating that she'd need someone stupid to help her, she was quite glad that she had thought to add in the fact that this girl was not, in fact, stupid. The intimidating factor didn't seem like such a good thing anymore, she couldn't very well be afraid of her own bodyguard now could she? And this girl seemed like she might go off at any minute. This didn't seem like the best situation if she was trying to keep herself safe.

Anna huffed as she mentioned transferring, not particularly enjoying the girls tone. "Transferring mid-term? I've already started all of my classes here, anywhere else I'd be behind. I'm not trying to repeat the third year." She had to stop herself from rolling her eyes, lest she anger the older girl and get herself in more trouble than she'd already gotten. Besides, she was looking for a bodyguard so she could stay here. Any more problems and her parents would surely pull her out of the school, what if they never let her go back to school, Hogwarts or otherwise? They weren't particularly fond of some of the things she got up to when she was practicing her magic.

Anna's fists clenched as the girl implied that she wasn't smart enough to handle her problems herself, at least that was the way she took it. "I have plenty of brains, thank you," she scoffed, narrowing her eyes and just about ready to walk off. In her opinion, all of the brains in the world wouldn't help against that woman. "But when you're being punished for trying to break up a fight, it becomes rather difficult to decide what exactly trouble means. I would never be so stupid as to cause trouble right under the nose of every professor at the school, but at the time it seemed like a good idea to put a stop to it." She crossed her arms and glanced at the girls hands, making sure she wouldn't try to curse her when she wasn't paying attention. Gosh, she was afraid to even walk away with her back to the girl.

((Don't worry about it, I've been pretty busy too!))

[Amber Black]

Amber held her tongue when she considered actually telling the girl that they weren’t quite in the middle of the term. Sure, they were well in, but there was still a month or two before it could be considered mid-term. At least that was Amber’s opinion, but maybe it was different for other people. She had to wonder whether other schools were in front of Hogwarts when the girl said that anywhere else she’d be behind. Was she saying that maybe Hogwarts wasn’t a good school? Amber’s brother had gone to Beauxbatons and was a couple of years older than her. However, she always seemed to know as much as he had when he had been in the year Amber was in. On the other hand it may have been because he told her lots of the things they learnt about and their mother taught them both things as well. So Amber couldn’t be quite sure.

“I’m sure you do, being a Ravenclaw,” Amber said when the girl told her that she had plenty of brains, “maybe you just lack common sense.” Amber figured that probably wasn’t the best thing to say. But she couldn’t help it, it just came out. On the other hand, Amber thought that she could have at least worded it differently. Amber tried to come up with something to say that wouldn’t make it sound as bad, but decided to leave it. If the girl got angry at her, so be it. What was it to Amber anyway if a Ravenclaw disliked or even hated her?

The edge of Amber’s mouth twitched with amusement as the girl went on about being punished when trying to break up a fight. She wasn’t completely sure why, but Amber found it rather amusing. Maybe because of the girl’s tone or the way she worded it all. Perhaps it was the fact that the girl had even bothered trying to stop a fight if there were enough Professors to handle it. Amber started to laugh and said between her laughter, “Well learn from the experience then. If Professors are around don’t bother ending a fight when they’re there to do it. ” Amber managed to stop laughing quickly. Still with a grin on her face, she continued, “I’m sure your intentions were good, but it wasn’t the best thing to do. Should’ve just let them be.” Amber then shook her head at the girl’s silliness.

[Annalisse Childs]

Anna wasn't even sure if she could argue the fact that she was lacking in common sense because she was still standing here talking to this girl. Any sensible person would have walked away by this point, wouldn't they? Obviously the girl lacked a filter and blurted out every rude thing that ran through her head. If the Ravenclaw stereotype fit Anna, the Slytherin stereotype definitely fit her. She hadn't even learned the girls name yet, and at this point she didn't really want to. If she would allow her, Anna would much rather walk away and forget that this conversation had ever happened.

To make matters worse, it looked like the girl even found amusement in her plight. Slytherin to the core, this one was. While the advice following her laughing fit was probably good advice to take, the meaning was sort of lost in her crude execution. "Yeah, laugh it up," she said, rolling her eyes but holding her tongue so she could hopefully exit the situation gracefully without fear of a cursing.

"Well I think I've seen enough," she mumbled, putting her hands on her hips and making sure her right hand was within reach of her wand. "Thanks for your um...interest, but I think we've established that this isn't really going to work out. So I'm just going to go." She nodded her head and walked passed the girl, walking determinedly away from her but then realizing she needed to be going in the other direction. With a small groan she glanced behind her to see if the girl had gone on her way yet so she wouldn't have to walk passed her again. That might be a little awkward.

[Amber Black]

Amber’s eyebrow raised when the girl said to “laugh it up”. It was something her brother always said to her if she was laughing at something stupid he had done. Although, he always said it good naturedly and Amber was pretty sure the younger girl wasn’t too impressed. She even rolled her eyes at Amber which actually caused Amber to grin at the girl. Amber seemed to suddenly be in a better mood. Maybe it was from her earlier laughing or the girl abruptly reminding her of her own brother with her choice of words.

Amber hardly registered what the girl was saying. She noted the girl’s hand going near her wand. It was once again Amber’s brother who had taught her to keep an eye on where people had their hands. If it was near their wands, she had to be ready just in case. When they were children, her brother also taught her how to take her wand out of her pocket in literally a millisecond. Of course, they practiced with sticks that they found in the backyard, not actual wands. Nevertheless, it was what made Amber incredibly fast at pulling her wand out when her hands were nowhere near her pockets.

The girl then walked straight past her. Amber hadn’t quite been listening to what the girl had said. She had been thinking about her brother. What had the girl said? Something about it not going to work out? That was it? Not that Amber was going to complain. In fact, Amber figured the girl was lucky she was leaving now and hadn’t left before. After all, Amber may have just hexed her five minutes ago. Amber turned her head slightly, about to call after the younger girl, but then decided against it. She then stood in the middle of the corridor, trying to figure out where she had actually been going before finding that ridiculous flier. She looked up and down the corridor and realised she needed to go in the direction the other girl was walking in. Amber took long, fast strides and quickly reached the younger girl. Amber stopped and said, “I’m Amber by the way,” before continuing to quickly walk into the direction she was heading. Whether the girl chose to call out her name was up to her. Yet, Amber figured she would probably be able to find it out one day.

[Annalisse Childs]

Seeing that Amber was walking in her direction, Anna was a bit nervous. Was she going to chase her down so she could curse her? Shake her down to get the payment that the flyer had promised? She was walking quite fast, catching up with her quickly now that she wasn't moving anymore. It would be useless for her to try to take out her wand now, sit was a sitting duck. Yep, she was a goner.

As Anna had expected the girl stopped her stride right in front of her, she cringed lightly as she began to speak but...had she just introduced herself? After all of that? She raised an eyebrow and gave the girl a quizzical look, too stunned to respond. It didn't seem like the girl was too beat up about it though, for almost as quickly as she had come she was gone, far out of earshot before Anna regained her ability to communicate like a normal person. Turning away from the direction that Amber had walked, Anna walked quickly down the corridor in pursuit of the Ravenclaw common room.