#7 - Not Dead Yet

Jacob followed Grace's directions, soon spotting the snuffron on the table of stuff. Well, everything was "stuff" in that room, but those were more specific.

Despite the serious moment, he snorted in amusement to Grace's words. 'I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure no one really fancies getting hit with jars,' he said. 'Also these blighters are pretty tough. I doubt you hurt it much - more like annoyed it.' Jacob spoke as if he clearly remembered his snuffron lesson from last year, when really it was more of an educated guess.

He aimed his wand carefully, demonstrating his rarely-seen serious side. Jacob may be amused by Grace and enjoying the chance to do something exciting, but he hadn't lost sight of the fact the snuffron could do serious damage and he had to protect the first year. Grace needed his help, especially since she didn't know the spell to defend herself.

'Keep your guard up,' he warned her. 'Tersus perito.' He cast the spell, putting all his will and focus into it. If he failed, one of them was going to end up with a would-be lethal bite. That would certainly put a damper on his afternoon.

Grace listened a little to Jacob's talking about snuffrons, and was somewhat disappointed to learn that she must have just annoyed it. And she thought she had a chance a defeating it with her wits and the one useful spell she knew. Well, she hadn't tried spraying it with water, but she had a feeling that would have also been useless.

She stood tall, her own wand at the ready in case there was danger. She listened to the spell, and as expected, it was not one she had even the most basic idea of. She stared at the snuffron, eyes wide as it fell backwards, Grace's eyes tried to keep track of where the box was while also watching the snuffron. It was kinda scary, how it cracked and became dust.

Grace ran over to where the box had gone, in the wooden buckets, and looked them over. She was about to put her hands right in and start digging through them, but hesitated. That had landed her in the Hospital Wing last time, and though she had become considerably more bold since her first few days at Hogwarts, Jacob was right there after all.

"Do you wanna help me check these out? I dunno if that guys had friends..." Grace sighed. This was harder then it had seemed at first.

Fortunately, nothing sinister or otherwise hid among the buckets Jacob kicked. He managed to break a few of them, and there was some chittering nearby as if something else fled the noise, but so far it seemed Grace could go ahead and search through the buckets in hope of locating the box.

Grace jumped, startled that Jacob had just kicked those buckets like that instead of doing some cool magic thing. She was about to scold him, but nothing came out of the boxes anyways. She still wondered what would have happened if another snuffron had been in there.

"Thanks," she said, searching through the buckets to find her box. Or, well, the box. It was hers enough that she would like it. "I'll see you later" she waved, her eyes still on the buckets, but she turned to see him searching through some books.

Grace's mind wandered to the key as she looked through the buckets. What if she needed Jacob's help again? She decided she'd wait a little if there were more snuffrons. That way, she could tell Gerald what she'd learned, and maybe the box would do something special when she touched it. Or had she touched it already? Her memory of it was a bit foggy, thanks to the focus-grabbing bite.

Grace looked at the key, then looked inside the rest of the box. She tried to recall if there had been anything in her vision following the key, or if she had seen any doors recently that it had belonged to. She didn't think she had, but she decided she'd wander around the school later to figure it out.

Next, she picked up the key, hoping that it would somehow also give her a vision. Was that possible? Or maybe it was a Portkey. Her mother used those sometimes, but Grace had never seen an actual key be a Portkey.