Lost & Found | #7 Morning

Tom had just stopped by his dorm and dropped off all the ingredients he had collected. It had been a fairly productive morning, although getting stung by the nettle bush had kind of taken the drive out of him to collect any more ingredients right this moment.

He wasn't going to let something like a little pinprick keep him from his goal of becoming the most accomplished Potions Master in history... he just needed a break was all. Something to distract him and occupy his mind that wasn't Potions related. And he knew just the thing.

Ever since last night he had been thinking about his time in the owlery and the locket he'd found there. When he went to show Amara in the Common Room later, it wasn't in his pocket, but he knew that he'd placed it there. He just knew it.

He'd retraced his steps and hadn't found it, but he was certain it hadn't slipped out of his pocket either. He couldn't explain how he knew it, he just knew. And if he'd learned anything, it was to expect the unexpected at Hogwarts. He wanted to find that locket.

He made his way back to the owlery and found none other than Lindsey sitting outside. Tom felt a huge smile spread across his face and also felt himself start to get embarrassed for that strange reason he couldn't really explain. "Hey, what are you doing here?" he asked her.

Her mention of lariwort sent his mind right back to thinking about potions. The thought of sneaking into the forbidden forest terrified him, but he knew he was going to have to do it eventually if he wanted to get some necessary ingredients.

The thought of going into the forbidden forest with Lindsey, however, sent a shiver of excitement down his spine. They could go ingredient hunting together and Tom would impress her by how much he knew and how brave he was. If anything scary came along, he'd be there to protect her.

Feeling himself starting to get sucked into the daydream, Tom snapped himself out of it to answer her question. "I'm going to try and find that locket we found last night when we were here... it was pretty cool. I want to see if I dropped it inside cuz I can't find it anywhere else. Want to search with me?" he motioned towards the door to see if she wanted to come.

"Oh, erm... okay." He was let down because he wanted her to come inside with him, or he wanted to stay out here and look with her, but he didn't think the locket was out here. Something was telling him that it was still inside the owlery.

He understood her trepidation and didn't push it. Instead he removed his robe for fear of bird droppings and made his way as quietly as he could into the owlery. He knew the owls would be sleeping and tried to be as silent as possible... the last thing he wanted was to be attacked by a bunch of tired and angry birds.

He would search as quickly as possible and see what he could find, then he'd be out of there.

Lindsey smiled at him, really wishing she could go up, but as she looked back down at her clothing, she knew it was a really bad idea. Cleaning charms or not, she didn't want to risk it.

Letting out a sigh, she watched him go up and she started looking around the area, but was beginning go feel like it wasn't here.

Tapping her chin, she started looking around for anything else, anything that might have shown or glimmered in the grasses.

Tom realized rather quickly that coming to the owlery in the middle of the day was a stupid idea. All the owls were here asleep, and the last thing Tom wanted was to be remembered by the Daily Prophet headline "Boy pecked to death by Hogwarts owls." He would come back tomorrow night (not tonight as it was Halloween) and look then.

Tip-toeing out of the owlery, he saw Lindsey looking around in the grass. He admired how tenacious and persistent she was. "I'm hungry, how about you? It should be right about time for lunch. I'm gonna head in." With that he turned to head back to the castle, fully expecting her to follow him.