One ghost is worse than seven devils

Why do accidents always happen when you're trying to imperceptibly do something?

Although the castle was still half-empty, students already started returning from their winter holidays so their coffers were all over the place, and the worst time has not come yet. Hallways were quite empty, as Milena strolled through the castle she could only see a few groups of students chatting here and there, and a couple of loners, as well as Milena herself, walking with their head in the clouds. However, this Hufflepuff girl did what she did the best, lately – she ignored all of them, walking at a steady pace with her chin raised up and straight back, Milena oozed confidence, though she was everything but confident.

She left the common room half an hour earlier, leaving the book she read on the table closest to fireplace she took her wand and got out together with a group of younger students, she split as soon as they passed the kitchen area, when she turned into the left corridor while the group continued straight, at first she walked aimlessly, just wanting to keep her feets moving and her head clear, but after she passed Miss. Sierra on hallway, their Quidditch coach, Milena decided she could go out and practice flying. The problem was that she wasn't sure whether she can do that, even since there's no official flying ban, she doubted her professors would be delight to see one fifth year student flying around alone, even if that student is a member of Hufflepuff Quidditch team.

Deciding she'll use the 'Accio' spell to call her broom from the broomcloset rather than expose herself to risk of being caught, she approached the stairs crossing to jog. When it was too late to stop she noticed glittering surface of the stairs as well as Peeves hovering above them grinning like a Cheshire cat. Her feets slipped and she lost her balance falling down the stairs. She barely had enough time to cover head with her arms when she felt the first punch of cold stone hitting her ribs, Milena clenched her teeth to stop yelp.

A few seconds afterwards everything was over and she found herself lying on her back and looking into a ceiling through Peeves who now came closer to her, once his mission succeed. She didn't have enough power to yell at him, so instead of that she raised into a sitting position with one hand holding on to her ribs while she touched her forehead with the other hand feeling something warm and sticky on her fingers. Blood. Awesome!

Can anything ever go as she planned?

Toby was thoroughly exhausted in the best of ways. The boy had been stressing, and had automatically gone to do the only thing was practically always guaranteed to calm him down. Stripping out of his school robes and tugging on track pants and a sweatshirt, the werewolf had headed out for a run.

If asked, the teenager would have no idea how long he'd been outside for. Time tended to blend together while we was running, hours feeling like minutes and minutes disappearing altogether. The Gryffindor had very little homework, a rare thing, probably his teacher's way of trying to get the students to start thinking about studying for their end of year exams. Toby had no intention of doing that, certainly not yet. The tests wouldn't be anything like the OWL's he'd suffered through last year, and Toby couldn't be more glad. He could only imagine how bad the NEWT's were going to be.

Instead of being stressed over classes or homework as per usual, Toby had been fretting over something else entirely. Frank Longbottom. The other boy shared a dorm with Toby, and before very recently had slipped by the werewolf without so much as a thought from Toby. Recently, however, things had changed. Frank was constantly popping up in Toby's thoughts, even in thoughts that shouldn't have in any way related to the other teenager. It was out of control. Completely out of control.

Toby had been walking back into the school, pleasantly out of breath and hair a mess, when he saw a girl take a nasty tumble down the steps. Toby had always excelled at healing, having spent years learning all he could on the topic and becoming impressively proficient at healing most wounds as a result.

Instinct taking over, the boy ran over to the fallen Hufflepuff. Quickly taking note of the blood still escaping from her forehead and hand pressed tightly to her rubs, Toby dropped to his knees beside her.

"I know it looks a little scary," he said, immeadly jumping into helping the girl, not even thinking that he should probably introduce himself first, "but head wounds always bleed more. Healing is my specialty, I can totally fix that for you, won't even scar. Then we can take a look at your ribs, alright?"

Pulling his wand out of his trousers pocket, Toby pointed his wand at the witch's head and waited for her consent before casting. The werewolf could only hope that the pink-haired girl didn't have a concussion. They'd need a potion, if that was the case.

(OOC. I'm SO sorry for waiting :/ )

Most of the people wouldn't do what Milena did after her fall – she started laughing. Although her head was pulsing and her ribs hurt every time she inhaled, she still laughed. This wasn't something healers could fix, well they could cure her wounds but they couldn't fix her, hysterical laugh was shaking her chest.

Of course that nothing couldn't go as she planned, she was sure she'll somehow be late on her own funeral. Really, it would be pity if it wasn't so funny. She wiped the blood away from her eyes and sighed, in her current position she will never come any nearer to Quidditch field than she is now. Awesome, it will be amazing when she fails on the first Hufflepuffs match int he year, sensational. She could already picture mocking 'Hufflepuff Quidditch Capitan failed in her first game as Capitan.' Awesome, there's no other word to describe it. She whimpered and leaned against the fence slowly gathering the courage to stand up, or to start breathing normally again, whichever happens sooner.

She glanced up, hoping she'll see Peeves somewhere, though she didn't know why is she searching for him at the first place, not that he will help her even if she asked him, not that she will ever ask him for any kind of help, he was the one guilty for her current state, at the first place. After brief overview of the hall Milena concluded the ghost is gone, even since she knew he left after she fell down, she realized how cold and empty the halls are only after she noticed absence of the Peeves. Maybe it's time to admit she's miserable, Lena laughed bitterly. Maybe, but she couldn't picture better occasion for her to tiptoe back to the Hufflepuff common room, and go straight to bed. Well, she should wash the blood away from her face, but that wasn't necessary.

Okay, her chance to disappear without being noticed just flew away with the wind.
She frowned as she saw the student rushing to her. No. No. No. No. She wasn't in the mood for speaking with people, especially not students.

Every her muscle tightened when the Hufflepuff girl saw who exactly is running towards to her. NO! Don't come any closer, please. Please. She silently prayed that the boy will change his direction. Even since she never spoke with him before, and knew nothing about him, not even his name, she knew just one thing and that one thing was enough to make all the other things he might be completely irrelevant – he was absent during period when werewolves, vampires and every other non human beings were banned from Hogwarts. That means, he's one of them. And if there's even the smallest possibility he might be a werewolf, she'll be damned if she let him touch her.

"Do not come any closer." She stumbled while trying to get away from him. Eye in the eye with a student that might be a werewolf and she completely forgot about the pain. She still felt it, every little spot that hurt her, but ignoring the pain was easier when you had some reason to the so. And she was glaring at her reason at the moment.