#6 Totally Not Hiding

After the Charms field trip that made her all the more thankful she no longer took certain other classes, Amara had thoroughly showered and changed into fresh clothes. Despite it basically being the Christmas holidays already, as that was her last class until after the break, she still wore her usual school uniform. 

Brewing potions always made her feel better, and helped organise her thoughts. So she'd spent some of her time in the Dungeons -- far used to the colder temperature down there, despite having only added her robes for warmth. A scarf could get in the way and become dangerous when brewing, and she didn't see the point in mittens (which also tampered with her brewing ability) or beanies until it was cold enough to snow.

A few basic restocks done, and Amara dropped everything off at her dormitory. She put a few things in her pockets, then even left her bag behind. It felt freeing to enjoy her time without it, as she wasn't even interested in collecting ingredients or studying right now. She was too tired, anyway. That trip took a lot out of her.

Unsure how to spend her time though, Amara found herself on the Grand Staircase. She lingered a few floors up, not really bothered by the moving staircases. It occurred to her that the Ravenclaw brat from that morning might be competent enough to seek her out again, and she had no intention of making it easy for her. It was embarrassing, to even consider going somewhere to wait for the kid.

Why did she care? Amara huffed. No, so what if the brat succeeded? She wasn't going back on the deal by being hard to find. It was a matter of her reputation. Yes, that's what it was. Amara couldn't be easy to track down. And worse, she couldn't seem idle. She had totally important things to do, rather than waste time helping out some brat.

So she wandered. Steering clear of the 7th floor, the Lion's Den area, Amara picked floors at random and strolled through interesting-looking corridors. Some of them she hadn't seen before or in a long time, so it wasn't exactly boring. She was at least careful not to get too lost.

Eventually, she sat on a bench in a corridor with a lot of landscape paintings. In effort to look busy, as she totally wasn't trying to hide from a kid at all, Amara got out a notebook and went over some of her plans for the holidays. She shifted on the bench to look more casual and comfortable, as if she'd been there for a while doing very important things.