Haphephobia

Utter Madness

Dinner had so far been a calm affair, and Adeline couldn't help but feel a little put out by it. Both Professor Snape and Professor Quirrel behaved like they usually did, one brooding and the other nervous. Her silvery blue eyes had switched between the two of them every few seconds as she mechanically nibbled on an apple, nodding her head every now and then to show Hermione and Ron that she was listening to what they said, or at least pretending to. Professor Quirrel stood up from the head table early today, and both Snape and Adelines gazes snapped towards the twitching man that stuttered out something she couldn't quite make out over the noise in the Great Hall before he disappeared through a side door. What could he possibly be--- ''Don't you think so too, Adeline?'' Hermione's question cut through her observations, forcing the young elf to drag her gaze to her friend, who gave her an unimpressed stare. ''Did you even hear any of what we said?'' With a sheepish smile and an embarrassed blush, Adeline shook her head no. ''What do you mean, 'we'? Only you were talking! Besides, no one would listen to a rant that long, 'Mione. We're not all super nerds.'' Ron ground out with a mouth full of food, flapping his hand through the air as if she should have known that all along. Hermione turned red and huffed, crossing her arms as she gave him a snooty look. ''Manners, Ron! You eat like a right pig.'' 

Adeline smiled fondly at the argument between her friends, listening to them bicker back and forth for a moment before she decided to use their distraction to sneak out of the Great Hall and see what Professor Quirrel was up to. Casually, after stealing a glance at her surroundings, Adeline waved her hand in a certain motion, wandlessly and wordlessly covering herself in a strong notice-me-not charm. She hoisted her bag on her shoulder and started her short trek out of the Great Hall towards the Third Floor Corridor. She had a feeling that all the mysterious things that have happened so far had to do with the ominous corridor the students were barred from visiting. She gave it a lot of thought during dinner, and decided that if Headmaster Dumbledore made her the second Head of the Order of the Phoenix, then she had as much right as him to be in that corridor. She would venture inside to see what all the fuss was about, and maybe, just maybe, she might be able to put an end to the mystery of the broom incident.  

The corridor was eerily empty and cold as Adeline made it there unnoticed, making her wonder if it ever had been used properly before this school year, to begin with. A simple 'Alohomora' opened the door for her, and she snuck inside and closed it behind her before she dared a soundless 'Lumos' that made a little ball of light float in front of her. She froze in her spot, staring into six sharp, predatory eyes that were attached to Three. Separate. Heads. ''Merlin's balls..'' She breathed out in shock, watching as the lips of the dog-like creature curled up and exposed rows of sharp teeth and fangs almost as big as she was! She cleared her throat some and shuffled closer, big eyes staring at the beast. ''Hello there, you wonderful creature. What madness has befallen the Headmaster to lock you up in a school full of children?'' Her words came out in a slight accent, a tad raw from unuse but nonetheless beautiful and captivating. She used her verbal power to its fullest extent, watching with a sad smile as that one measly sentence lulled the dangerous creature to the state of a domestic pet as it lay down in front of her, pressing the snout of the middle head into the hand she held out towards it. Adeline arched her fingers and pleasantly scratched the skin and fur until the beast let out a rumbling growl in satisfaction. ''How curious. I will have to find a way to bring you to the Forbidden Forest so you can roam free. Perhaps protect my herd of deer?'' The young elf murmured softly to herself, curious about which spells she would need to use in order to establish a form of communication with the creature before her, to befriend it if it would allow her to do so. She gave it one last pat on each of their chins before her silvery blue eyes went back to the task at hand; observing the room. It took her only a handful of minutes to find the trapdoor underneath the giant creatures' paw, and with a flick of her wrist, the limb was levitating above it. She unlatched the door and dropped down inside of it, landing squishily in the dark.