[Corridors] Fortune's Painting [open; Dean]

[joanann]

There was tension everywhere. Jo-An had been feeling it more then ever and that she was actually feeling it was something shocking. Jo noticed a places' atmosphere like a flower notices a tree a few thousand miles away. It wasn't the sort of thing that penetrated Joan's frame of reference. But now adays, with the stories she'd been hearing around the castle, it was hard to ignore something as obvious as the very tangible tensions that streamed through the school. Jo didn't care for it much but couldn't think of any way to make it any better and this annoyed her greatly.

Still, life continued as best as it could. Classes were still on and exams still loomed and Jo was determined to be prepared for it. She wasn't going to let a few killer suits of armour ruin her chances of actually over taking her brother's record scoring in her OWLs. She was contemplating this as she strode very purposefully down a corridor on the fourth floor. She'd just had Transfiguration with Prof Casaubon who she rather fancied and was rushing back to her dorm room to fetch something that seemed important right up until the moment she rounded a corner and there was no more corridor to go down.

The tall blond girl nearly walked straight into the dead end a foot around the corner, her nose just brushing the cold stone as she stopped, dropping the books and papers in her arms. Jo's grey eyes scanned the dead end wall that blocked her way, the odd brick that was used, the strange painting she'd never seen before hanging on it and the strange way it seemed to radiate heat. This last bit stumped her so much that she nearly forgot about her scattered pages of Transfiguration notes. She took a step back, to get a better look at the warm wall and she heard the crunch of parchment under her foot. She quickly looked down, lifting her heal, and saw her notes.

"Oh! Right." The strange appearance of the wall was temporarily put aside as she knelt down and started gathering up her things. Just then, she noticed another set of hands gathering pages that had flown further then her reach while she knelt. Looking up, she recognized the boy who was helping her … or at least she thought she did. She gave him a small smile before standing up, pushing her thick blond pony-tail over her shoulder again, before advancing on the boy and grabbing what was her from his hands. "Thanks," she barked and turned back to the wall, staring at it with a slight crease on her smooth ivory forehead.

[Dean Hogarth]

Dean did not know why he had bothered to leave the common room this morning as things just seemed to get from bad to worse with every step that the poor Hufflepuff took. His original plan of going to spend some time in the library (as a certain Astronomy teacher was on duty that morning) had be ruined by some smart arsed Gryffindor turning the third floor corridor into a jungle. In sheer determination to get to the library, but in pure fear of making his way through the jungle in case a tiger lay in wait, Dean headed off in search of the portrait that had the secret passage behind it. He had heard Neth mention that a grumpy wizard wearing blue was the passage that lead to it…the problem was there were a lot of grumpy wizards wearing blue in the castle.

But the Hufflepuff was determined to show Professor Owen (over a year of marriage and he still could not bare to call her Hubbles) his star chart that he had spent three week drawing up. The problem was even being the rather pathetic specimen of a male Dean still had a few inbuilt habits and one of them was that he refused to ask for directions. As a result most of the morning had been spent with Dean walking around the castle sheepishly trying to find this portrait to the library and sadly not succeeding. In fact Dean found himself at part of the castle he did not recognised as there seemed to be a wall where there was not meant to be one and the Hufflepuff was about back track when the blond haired he had been walking behind walked into the wall.

Doing a double take Dean just stared at the Ravenclaw in disbelief someone could walk into a wall but then the blue trimming of the girls robes seemed to shout at him and before Dean knew what he was doing he was on his hands and knees helping her pick up all her papers. However with the harsh thank you that she snapped at him he got the sinking feeling she would not be telling her Head of House about this perfect Hufflepuff who helped her. “N-no p-problem.” He stuttered as the tips of his ears started to burn a deep red. Nervously looking over his shoulder Dean thought about making a quick escape when he noticed that the girl seemed to be looking at the painting with a frown spreading across her face. Following her gaze Dean squinted so that he could get a better look at the detail of the portrait, his mouth hanging open slightly as he read the small engraved bronze plate that was mounted on the extravagant frame.

“Fountain of Fortune.” He muttered. “What is that?”

[joanann]

Joan-Ann was well known for her violent outbursts but this poor Hufflepuff would only have ever seen the back of her head as in class Jo's head was always (well, most of the time anyway) bowed over her books, furiously scribbling notes as the teacher prattled on about this or that or the other. That was the only place she'd ever seen this guy too so she didn't even know his name. There was usually the other one with him though, that other Puff that was always staring at her. Jo couldn't understand what it was with boys but most of the time they seemed really stupid.

Just like this one.

As the blond took her things back he seemed to cower in front of her, as though expecting a smack for being helpful. Honestly! Joan had already put it out of her mind, however, when she turned to study the strange painting. She was used to the castle reshuffling its stairs, making the occasional door disappear but creating an entire wall with a painting on it was something she hadn't even heard of. The castle certainly was going out of whack and all she could do was stand by and watch.

The Hufflepuff muttered something that Jo didn't hear. She gave him a brief smile, turning her head towards him but her eyes stayed on the painting, studying it closely. It was just as she noticed the engraving that the Puff read it out loud, otherwise it's likely she'd hardly have noticed. His question made Joan round on the boy, standing with her books resting on one hip as she stared at him for a moment, trying to see if any answers could be found in his face. Her eyes narrowed, her brow creased into an intense frown, and her voice was low as she spoke. "You haven't heard of the Fountain of Fortune?" she drawled as though the words tasted dirty in her mouth.

Suddenly she began to laugh. She threw her head back and laughed. She laughed as she began rummaging around in her bag for something and as she pulled out a small, leather bound book and pushed it into the boys hands she was still laughing. It was a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard that her father had given her for her last birthday. "It's a children's story," she explained, suddenly serious again as she threw the flap back over her bag. "The story goes that there was this magical fountain that gave you good fortune but it was in this magical garden and only one person could swim in it if they could get to it on the one day of the year the walls around the garden would open; the longest day of the year, no less.

"In Beedle’s story there are three witches who agree to help each other get to the fountain. One accidently hooks a knight on their way through the wall and the four of them end up on the other side of the wall. Together they go through these sort of check-points, three of them, before they can get to the fountain and when they do they find that what they were wanting cured had been cured by the journey and they all live happily ever after. Of course, it's one of of Beedle's more boring books as no one dies but it's a cool story anyway."

Joan turned back to the painting at the end of her synopsis and took a step closer. "See?" she said, looking back over her shoulder to the Hufflepuff, "there are the three witches … and there! There's the knight! See?" Jo reached back and grabbed the boy's wrist, pulling him closer so he could see but as she did a gantlet popped out of the painting and grabbed hold of her own wrist. It pulled! hard! Jo was wrenched off her feet, dropping her notes and books all over again, and into the painting as she pulled the Hufflepuff along with her. The knight had a firm grip of her wrist though she thought he was rather preoccupied with being dragged along himself. They were being pulled threw a massive crowd of people, all pulling and pushing to get ahead of the rest, but the three witches, the knight and the two Hogwarts students sailed through everyone and were soon on the other side of the wall, just as it closed up.

The knight let go of Jo’s wrist and she fell to the ground, huffing and puffing. "What in Merlin's name just happened?" she barked at the ground as she lay with her forehead to the ground. "Please tell me we’re still in Kansas…"

[Dean Hogarth]

As the Ravenclaw handed over the small book towards him Dean took the precious item carefully, if there was one thing in the world that the Hufflepuff had a respect for and it was books. They were the first form of communication; they allow people to share their thoughts, their feelings and helps you escape into a different world that would never truly exists. Carefully turning each page with care Dean’s eyes darted from side to side as he soaked in the words from the pages but also making sure that he paid attention to what the blond haired Ravenclaw was saying to him. It was no wonder he had never heard of any of this considering History of Magic did not tend to cover fairytales of the wizarding world, which would be the equivalent of them teaching Cinderella in muggle schools. Dean would have happily sat down on the floor there and then with the book and read it from cover to cover and most likely enjoying every second of it, but it seemed the Ravenclaw had a different idea and roughly took hold of his wrist dragging him forward to get a closer look at the painting.

Swallowing hard trying to keep back his nerves Dean did as she instructed looking at the three witches and then to the knight that she was now pointing out. Problem was he never got a proper good look at it as his feet where no longer on the floor of the corridor of Hogwarts, he was actually being pulled by the Ravenclaw. The sound of wind rushed past his ears and automatically Dean’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut and his bony fingers tightened them selves around the small leather bound book and the wrist of the Ravenclaw. Just as suddenly as he had been swept off his feet the poor Hufflepuff had landed on the floor with a bump, his eyes were still closed as he refused to open them more in fear that he would empty the contents of his stomach out of travel sickness.

Through the buzzing noise in his ears he could hear the Ravenclaw make a joke and for once she said something that he understood. Slowly opening one eye Dean was half expecting to see a yellow brick road and houses made of lollypops but sadly not he just saw the metal boots of a suit of armour. Letting out a small whimper Dean quickly scrambled to his feet, his chest heaving up and down as he looked around the strange land in a state of complete and utter fear. “W-Where are we?” He squeaked as his eyes finally landed on the three witches that they were also with. One looked old and sick, another slightly younger and her clothes were dirty and hung loosely off her thin figure and the third was younger still and in Dean’s eyes was beautiful. Her blond wavy hair cascaded down her back and her blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight but her face was forlorn and even Dean, the witless wonder when it came to the opposite sex could tell she was suffering from a broken heart.

The silence that filled the morning air around the garden sent a shiver up Dean’s spine and as the angry glares of the first two witches past over towards himself and Jo Dean took a nervous step to hide behind the Ravenclaw to use her as a shielded from their poisons glares.

“Only one can bathe in the Fountain!” Snapped the old witch. “It will be hard enough to decide which of us it will be, without adding another three!”
“Then I shall withdraw outside the walls once more.” Stated the knight, his whole voice and manor showed how deep his nobility ran and as Dean looked around nervously at the other four females he would be left with he too tried to act like the noble male, but his voice betrayed him as the pure fear of the situation he had been dragged into took over.
“I t-too sh-shall er…go w-with him.”