#19 Mortal Cold Decay

Apparently, neither of them had considered knocking on the door to let Filch know they were there. But they weren't alone, either -- as a rather unfriendly meow soon indicated. Mrs Norris sat in a shadowed corner nearby, just watching them and occasionally being vocal about it. 

They could hear hurried footsteps, as various students headed for the relative safety of their common rooms. One set of footsteps headed their way, heavier and less frantic. Then Filch came into view, carrying a mop -- which was soaked with something blue and sticky. Handiwork of Peeves, no doubt.

'Right. You lot,' he said sharply, spotting the two Gryffindors. 'This way.'

Filch led them nearby to the Trophy Room, which was a place of dread for anyone given detentions. If Saoirse or Tobias had ever had a detention with him before, they'd know what kind of dreadful options awaited them in that room.

By some miracle though, it didn't appear to involve polishing. The room was in a bit of disarray, with various trophies or displayed items on the floor or piled together. Whatever happened during or before the explosion at the Pitch seemed to have affected some areas of the castle as well. They were lucky he didn't take them to the library or they may never see the light of day again.

'Match trophies to nameplates. Don't you dare break anything,' Filch said, while Mrs Norris sat by his boots to lick her paws. 'Organise the cabinets, sweep and mop the floor until it shines, and keep out of trouble. I'll be back to check on your progress soon. Behave yourselves.'

He marched off, not even caring that most of the trophies or plagues were quite heavy for an 11 year old child to lift -- let alone carry and carefully store on a stand. Team work would go a long way here.

Toby would've liked to have gone straight to his dormitory and hidden under his blankets on his bed. Maybe if he went to sleep, he'd wake up and find that tonight had all been a bad dream. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be so lucky. The indignant meow of a cat put a stop to any such thought and Tobias sent a glare towards the scruffy feline.

It would be so unfortunate if she got shut in an empty classroom all night. Such an unpleasant mistake.

His thoughts were disrupted when Filch eventually appeared, mop in hand. Ugh. The man clearly hated the majority of students and the feeling was mutual. Even the way he spoke to them had Toby scowling, not appreciative of it at all. Though he held his tongue, his night was going bad enough and he didn't need to land himself in another detention.

Trailing after Filch and Saoirse, he held back a groan when they were led through into the trophy room. The room was a mess due to the recent explosion and they were expected to clean it all. Toby doubted they'd be in their beds at a reasonable hour, especially due to the weight of some of the items they were expected to move.

Once Filch had left, Toby picked up a small trophy and examined the name plate before tossing it into the pile carelessly. This was going to take hours. Saoirse didn't seem to be the slightest bit disheartened by their task. Running around placing some of the smaller awards back in their appropriate places.

"Yeah... Sure" he muttered, testing the weight of a larger trophy before beckoning for her to give him a hand. "It's not like they could use magic and get this place sorted in five seconds or anything" they just liked to punish them with manual labour. "I hope some of this crap got damaged in the explosion" then maybe they'd think about securing the awards properly.

Reading the name on the plaque, he readied himself to lift it when Saoirse was ready. "I don't think I ever thanked you... For standing up for Joe" he mumbled after a moment of silence stretched between them "that was really neat, you didn't have to" he was willing to take any punishment for his best friends, but he didn't expect others to do the same. It had been unexpected when his housemates had taken steps to back him up, but he'd been glad of their support.

Considering how eventful the night had been prior, the detention was rather dull work. The hours went by at a mind-numbing pace, and not even Peeves was interested enough in them to cause some kind of ruckus -- as far as they knew, anyway, since they hadn't seen or heard him at all.

The only interesting thing in the whole sorting, mopping, rearranging task was Tobias coming across a Quidditch plague for Ravenclaw, from years ago -- in which Alan Twiggs was listed as their Keeper. He didn't recognise any of the other names.

Finally, when their arms ached and boredom pushed their limits, Filch returned with Mrs Norris. He seemed rather surprised to see them, as if he either expected them to run off and cause trouble elsewhere or he'd forgotten they were there.

After giving the Trophy Room a careful inspection, he nodded and begrudgingly said they were free to go. A good thing too, considering the late hour. They were surely exhausted by now. Since they were both Gryffindors, Filch decided to escort them to their common room entrance -- not taking his beady eyes off them for a second, until they disappeared behind the portrait of the Fat Lady.