Paranoia [Louis]

[cordelia regan smith]

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It was the final Hogsmeade trip of October and the first one that Cordelia had managed to get out for. The weather was ok…the bright morning sun countered some of the frigid air that was blowing around. There really wasn’t a reason for the trip, other than that she wanted to take pictures in Hogsmeade and this was the first chance she had gotten all year. Walking along the path that led from the castle to the small wizarding town on the outskirts of the school grounds, Cordelia hurried past a few small groups heading in the same direction she was. Other than the few people scattered here and there, the walk to Hogsmeade and the actual town were rather quiet. She had wanted to stop into Honeyduke’s before it got too busy later in the day, but the lights were off inside and the door was locked. It wasn’t that early was it? Slightly frustrated that her one goal of the day had been postponed for a while, she stood in the middle of the street looking around aimlessly. Looking down at her camera as it swayed back and forth around her neck, she decided that it was better to get the pictures she wanted out of the way first, and then head back to Honeyduke’s later in the day. She would have preferred to avoid the large amounts of students that always wandered around in there, but it was starting to look like that was inevitable at this point.

Sighing, Cordelia turned and started to walk out of Hogsmeade, heading in the direction of the Shrieking Shack. She didn’t know what it was about the abandoned building that intrigued her so much. The idea that there were ghosts in there or some kind of monster was a kind of thrill. All of the muggle horror films had made sites like the shack seem like just another abandoned building. That and seeing the school ghosts all over the place normalized them to the point where she forgot that they were spiritual beings that had long been dead. Finally approaching the end of the path that hugged up against the edge of the forest and the fence that prevented people from getting closer to the shack, Cordelia slid her camera over her head and started snapping a few photos. She wasn’t too happy with how they looked so far, especially from this distance, so she stood right up against the fence and gave it another shot. This wasn’t working out the way she had hoped at all.

Looking around to see if there was an opening in the fence so she could get even closer, Cordelia noticed a small gap that was in one of them. She was pretty sure she was alone out there, so she ran over to the hole in the fence and started climbing through it. Then it happened. Her jacket got stuck. She pulled a few times, hoping it would loosen its grasp on her, but it was useless. This was definitely quite the predicament she had gotten herself in. Hopefully someone would come along soon and help her out, if not, she was going to be spending time later in the day fixing a ripped jacket.

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It was just around Halloween; the perfect time for creeping around the Shrieking Shack.  Zac was still in the Hospital Wing recovering from his infection, so Louis set off for a solo adventure near the abandoned building.  It was early; but Louis had been getting up earlier these days.  Perhaps it was a sign he was growing up; not that he'd ever admit that out loud.  

As he reached the sight of the Shrieking Shack, he saw a blonde girl come close to the fence, camera in hand.  Intrigued, he followed her as she made to duck over the fence.  When she didn't go further, he quickened his face, confused as to why she wasn't taking any photos.  Upon getting closer, he saw that her jacket was caught in the fence.  "Need help?" he called, coming over to help with her jacket snag.  "You're Cordelia right?  Louis Weasley," he introduced.


cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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Intent on getting her jacket unstuck, Cordelia pulled a few more times on the fence but to no avail. All she had managed to do so far was get it wrapped up a few more times on the broken piece of fence that had snagged her. This was rather annoying. Setting her camera down on the ground so she could use both hands, she tugged again. Like the other dozen pulls, nothing happened. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she sat down as best she could and stared at the fence, trying to come up with a way to escape from it. The position she had gotten herself in wouldn’t allow her to take the jacket off, which would have been her first course of action, and obviously pulling on it hadn’t done anything so far. Thinking this over and over again, she heard someone call out to her and ask her if she needed help. That was the last thing she needed, having someone else see her stuck like this. She wanted the help, but didn’t at the same time. Managing to turn her head enough to see the boy that had called out to her walk up, she quickly turned back and tried to rip herself free from the fence, failing again.

“Th-that’s me…” she managed out as the boy introduced himself as Louis Weasley. That meant he was related to Lily right? Strange that she had helped out one of them just to receive help from another. It was probably important to stay on their good side as long as possible. For some reason she felt at ease because of the fact that she knew someone related to him. They had always seemed like good people, she had just never taken the time to really get to know them. That and her father had something against all of them for some reason. She knew all of their parents had gone to school together, but had decided to never push the questions any further than that.

As to Louis’ question about helping her, she thought for a few seconds. Obviously she couldn’t get out on her own, and the next resort would have been to get her wand out and blast either her jacket or the fence away, both which she had been hoping to avoid. Sighing again, she looked up in his direction and decided that his help was better than being stuck here. Even if she wanted to say she could get out on her own, she knew he’d still try to assist in some way. “If it’s n-n-not too much to ask.”

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Louis smiled at Cordelia kindly as she accepted his offer to help. “Not at all,” he reassured her as he got closer so he could see what had caught the jacket. He studied the jacket and the fence for a moment, frowning slightly. Then, he snapped his fingers together. “Got it,” he said excitedly, moving so that he was closer to the fence. He took out his wand and several inches from where the jacket was stuck he pressed it into the fence and drew a straight line. “Okay, so now we’ve freed you from the fence, now we just have to free your jacket from it too,” he said with a chuckle as the piece of broken fence broke away from the rest of it. He stepped back around and pulled out a pocketknife his father had given him. He whistled as he gently tugged and twisted, until finally the jacket was free and relatively unscathed. He looked up at her and grinned widely. “See? No harm done there,” he said, flipping the knife back in its place and putting it into his pocket. He looked up at the Shrieking Shack, then back to Cordelia. He didn’t know too much about her; just that recently his cousin Lily had made friends with her and that she was a year older than his girlfriend. “So now that you’re free are we just going to stand here, or are we going to get you and your camera in for a closer look?” he asked her.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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Surely she could trust Louis in helping her out. Not many people would walk up to her and offer in the first place. Or maybe they would, and she just liked to be pessimistic about it. As she had expected, it seemed like he was going to help no matter what her response was, and it would probably lead to a better result than having her jacket stuck on the fence all day or torn from her tugging on it. Watching him do his thing over her shoulder, she was amazed to see how quickly he had figured it all out. First he carefully broke the piece of fence off from the rest of it, then pulled out a knife and pried the smaller piece from her jacket. She was somewhat amazed at how careful he handled the whole thing too. Given a few more minutes, and if she had her way, that fence wouldn’t have been there anymore. Unfortunately the awful positioning that she had gotten herself into was one of the main reasons for not being able to simply unhook herself, Louis having an advantage from where he was. Throughout the entire process she remained as still as possible, especially upon seeing the knife pulled out. In the past she would have been slightly concerned if someone whipped out their wand or knife the way Louis had, but he seemed confident in what he was doing.

What could have taken her a considerable amount of time to accomplish, took Louis less than a minute. Under normal circumstances she felt like that would be reason enough to be embarrassed, especially after being seen stuck on a fence. It was very…childish? She wasn’t even sure what to consider it since it was such a silly mistake on her part. As soon as Louis said it was done, she immediately sprang to her feet and pulled her jacket around to inspect it. Everything was perfect. She had expected at least a pull, but there was nothing. Louis had pretty steady hands with that knife after all. Nodding her head in satisfaction, she bent back over to pick her camera up, dusting off the bit of dirt that had gotten on it from her vicious fight against the fence. “Th-thank you. I w-w-would have been there all day.” Especially if she had been hesitant about blasting the fence away. The question that followed caught Cordelia off guard. He wanted to get closer to the shack? All she had really wanted to do was get on the other side of the fence. That was extreme enough for her. “I guess getting closer w-wouldn’t hurt…”

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Louis rubbed his hands together eagerly as Cordelia agreed to get closer to the fence. “Excellent,” he said happily, grinning widely. “Let’s go by way over here so you don’t get caught again,” he suggested, teasing her a little bit. He led her to where there was a wider hole in the fence, easy enough for anyone to slip in and not get their clothing caught. He ducked through and motioned for her to follow. “Legend has it that it’s haunted, but my sisters’ boyfriend Teddy said that he was told his father made most of the noises that made people assume there were restless spirits residing in there,” he explained to her. Teddy, of course, had been a baby when his parents had been killed, so like his Uncle Harry, he had to be told second hand of their stories. Luckily, having so many Aunts and Uncles who loved Remus and Nymphadora Lupin, there were plenty of stories to be had.

Louis glanced down at the camera clutched in Cordelia’s hands. “What did you want to get photos of? More indoors or outdoors?” he asked her curiously. He wasn’t much of a photographer, though her and Zac often joked that they should wear cameras attached to their bodies during their crazy stunts and antics so that others could see their insanity. Just definitely not the illegal zipline they’d built at the beginning of the year, an idea Louis was happily surprised he had not been called out for by any professor.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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“O-ok” she responded, as Louis indicated that there was a larger hole in the fence further down that was a little easier to climb through. Following closely behind him, she scrunched her face together when the other hole came into their view. If only she had been a little more patient, and she would have ended up at this part of the fence instead of the one she had attempted to squeeze through. Whoever had created the one she was stuck on must have been really small, seeing as she wasn’t the biggest person in the world, and still almost didn’t make it all the way. Ducking under the new hole behind Louis, she pulled her jacket close to her sides to avoid getting caught again. It was embarrassing to have it happen once, there was no way she was going to allow it again.

Her ears perked up as Louis mentioned the rumors of the shack being haunted. She had heard those before, but hadn’t really thought about it too much. Muggle horror films were way scarier than ghosts and other things that they dealt with on a daily basis at school. If anything, watching out for other people was more important than a magical creature. It was funny to listen to the story though. All rumors had a source, and while the noises in the shack could have easily been from a boggart or other thing, someone making them long ago only to carry on until now was way more interesting. Louis looked down at her camera and she pulled it a little closer to herself as he asked where she wanted to take photos. She had intended for just the outside, but now that they were inside the fence, going inside wouldn’t be a bad idea either. “Inside if that’s not t-too much to ask.” She fiddled with the lens as the got closer to the front door. “W-we won’t get in t-t-trouble if we’re caught, will we?”

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Louis looked back at Cordelia’s scrunched up face and chuckled. “Patience is a virtue,” he said to her half-jokingly. “And no, we won’t get in trouble; the house is technically open to the public. It’s just that nobody decides that they’ve got enough gall to go in there,” he added reassuringly. “You sure you’re a Hufflepuff? You seem awfully brave,” he asked her, hoping she took it as a compliment and not an insult.


He opened the door with a loud creak as he stepped inside first. “Lumos,” he whispered, and the tip of his wand lit up. He gestured for Cordelia to follow as he stepped inside, the floorboards creaking with every step. “I think we have to worry more about putting a foot through the floor than any angry ghosts,” he mused with a chuckle. He held his wand arm up higher, casting the glow on the hallway they had entered. It was a narrow one, with cobwebs covering every piece of furniture, most of which was overturned. “It looks like whatever was in here made a mess of things, but hasn’t been back in awhile,” he whispered. He wasn’t sure why he was speaking so quietly; perhaps out of respect to whatever or whoever used to live there.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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Open to the public. That was all she needed to know. Having photographs as incriminating evidence wasn’t something she wanted to have on her. Louis seemed rather straightforward with everything though, so maybe he was just messing with her. Why put a fence around the place if it was open to everyone? Cordelia decided not to ask those questions since they were practically inside at this point. Going across the fence had sealed her fate, so if punishment was to follow, she’d accept it. She let out an awkward laugh as he said she was brave. Far from it. “M-Muggle horror films are scarier. P-People too…” Cordelia thought that was a pretty good reason. And she wasn’t wrong either. Muggles had some crazy technology that they put into their movies. Funny enough, they called it “movie magic”. If only they knew.

Louis went inside first, lighting the tip of his wand as he did so. She hadn’t realized it was going to be this dark inside, figuring that most of the windows were going to be broken open and a few holes in the walls here and there. Quite the contrary. Unfortunately the type of film she had in her camera wasn’t going to work too well inside, and she’d have to wait for some semblance of light before trying to attempt any kind of photograph. Letting her camera hang from her neck, Cordelia also produced her wand and lit it. That way she could watch the floor as Louis got everything else. She had already gotten stuck in the fence, the last thing she wanted to do was get her foot stuck in the floor. “Th-that’s g-good.” She said in regards to whatever was living there not returning. “Have you b-been in here before?”

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Louis raised an eyebrow at Cordelia’s comment. “Really? Movies are scarier than what can happen in the magical world?” he asked, slightly skeptical. He’d been brought up in a full out wizarding community; he only knew of television and movies from dating Georgiana. He found it hard to believe though that anything shown on that screen could be scarier than what someone with a wand could do in their world. “What’s so scary about them?” he asked as they climbed the rickety steps of the Shack.

Louis watched as Cordelia checked her camera and looked around the room. The lighting would just not do for her photos, he decided. So he went over to one of the windows facing the back and pried off the wooden boards so a shaft of light flooded into the room. “Is that better?” he asked, turning back to face her. “I’ve never been in before no. Around the area sure, but nobody ever dared me to come in here. It’s not a question of being scared to come in; more why would I want to when I could go to Zonkos or the Three Broomsticks instead?” he responded when she asked if he’d been in there before. It was rather surprising that Louis had never stepped foot in the Shack before; out of most of the students at Hogwarts, he was sure people would think he’d definitely been in before.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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“S-Sure. M-Muggles only have their imaginations. They m-make things that aren’t p-possible to s-scare each other. We have r-real things, b-but we have m-magic to s-stop them…” Hopefully that made sense. She had found that people’s imaginations, and the things that they could do with those, was far worse than confronting a magical beast. Muggles lacked the magic component, so they had more creative ways of doing things to make up for that, even though they didn’t realize it. That and their depictions of creatures and beings were bastardized, scarier versions than they actually were. Most of the ghosts she knew would never want to kill someone to get revenge. That was just silly. Still, she had to give it to them, they had a talent for getting so close yet always being far enough away from the magical world that it was almost laughable.

As she answered, they had made it to a set of stairs and went up them. Step by step, it felt like they were going to give way beneath her, but they didn’t. Now that she thought about it, the whole place was constantly shifting, or at least felt like it. That was a strange feeling despite always being too slow and getting stuck on the moving staircases in the castle. By the time she made it to the top of the stairs, Louis had made his way over to the window and taken some of the boards off. A stream of light made its way in, hitting the floor right in front of her. That was actually pretty good. “N-Nox.” Her wand stayed lit. Rolling her eyes, Cordelia tried once more, this time keeping her voice firm. “Nox.” Out the light went. That would have some effect on the photographs, mostly filling in areas that were supposed to remain dark. The untrained eye would never notice, but it would probably bug her beyond belief.

She snapped a few pictures of the light that was coming through the window, catching trace amounts of dust in the air. Under the right circumstances, it was a possibility that some of that would come through in development. Louis explained why he had never been in the shack before as she continued doing her thing. He had seemed rather confident about the whole walking inside bit, so she had assumed this was typical behavior on his end. Apparently she had misunderstood. “Z-Zonko’s and the Three B-Broomsticks are t-too loud…” That and she didn’t see the purpose of going to them on her own. The other stores were usually less crowded, aside from Honeyduke’s, and there was plenty of space around Hogsmeade to walk around and find somewhere quiet to sit. She snapped a few more photos before looking back up at Louis. He seemed to have a good idea where he was going so far. “On to the n-next room?”

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Louis nodded once; he didn’t really comprehend the concept of using an imaginary art form to scare the living daylights out of Muggles. He supposed it probably had to do with that he could completely see Dark wizards using that to their advantage in torturing Muggles, but he didn’t think speaking that out loud was completely necessary. He watched as she took two tries to extinguish her wandlight. “I used to have trouble with that spell too,” he told her, trying to sound encouraging. “Do you think you’ll find some spirits in those photos? I’ve heard that sometimes they can show up in photographs that can’t be seen with the naked eye,” he asked her curiously.

He nodded at her request to head into the next room. “My uncles have told me stories about the Shrieking Shack, one of them gave me a pretty good layout of the house so if I seem to know my way around that’s why,” he told her suddenly. He had realized he probably gave her an impression that breaking into buildings was his bread and butter; Louis was a daredevil for certain but he was not stupid. They walked through and Louis saw they were in what must have been a bedroom, though the heap of moldy moth-eaten blankets on a collapsed canopy could hardly pass for sleeping quarters. “Interesting,” he mused; he reached a hand up to trace some of the claw marks that were imbedded in the wood. He knew Teddy Lupin’s father had come here to transform; he wondered if these marks were left by him, some fifty years ago.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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She wished it was trouble with executing the spell, but it was far from that. Just the stupid stutter like usual. Her mum said that was what made her unique, but she would trade that for pretty much anything else. The only reason her stutter never got better was because it wasn’t addressed until it was too late. She could try and fix it, and sometimes it was okay, but at this stage, there was no fully fixing it other than taking her time and saying everything perfect without fail. If it wasn’t fixed by time healer training came around in two years, then she’d have to give up on it. Mungo’s would never hire someone who couldn’t complete a spell in one go. Cordelia didn’t respond to his comment about having issues with the spell, replacing words with a nod of her head. The question that followed was far more interesting anyways. Spirits in the photographs? She had heard of that too, but was positive that was a muggle rumor because they couldn’t see ghosts and other ‘invisible’ magical creatures. “M-Maybe. A lot of d-dust f-for sure though.” Everything that she could see through her lens finder had indicated that. Dust did look nice on film though.

Onto the next room they went, and Louis continued his earlier story about having heard things about the shack from his family. He did know his way around here fairly well despite being in there for the first time. Being told the layout of a building was different from actually being in it though. It didn’t matter to her though; the building was interesting regardless of whether he had been in there before or not. The new room was even better than the hallway too. What looked like a bed in the corner was completely destroyed, probably in the worst shape of anything else they had seen thus far, and that was saying something. Cordelia paused to take a few picture of the bed and the other objects in the room as Louis walked over to some markings on the wood. She approached it as well, noticing the claw-like scratches. As much as she wanted to convince herself that they were from a large dog, she knew it had to be a werewolf. There were a lot of them at school now, so there was no reason it couldn’t have been from one of them. In a way, it was better that it was from a werewolf than a dog, because one could still be there while the other was most definitely in human form. She wasn’t a huge proponent of dogs since they liked to bounce around and bump into her. “W-W-Werewolf?” Cordelia mused, holding her camera up for a few snaps of the markings.

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Louis just watched Cordelia, not being able to help feeling a little sorry for the girl. Louis was an extrovert in every sense of the word; he could be a little cocky and obnoxious sometimes, but he always had something to say and wasn’t afraid of saying it. He knew Cordelia had a stutter and had no idea what it was like, but he imagined immensely frustrating and difficult. He wanted to say something, but out of fear he would say the wrong thing, he decided to stay silent. He looked around as she commented on all the dust in the room. “Yeah, it looks like it hasn’t been disturbed in a long time, at least this room. I supposed ghosts don’t really need sleep though," he commented, shrugging as he watched her take more photographs.

Louis couldn’t help but grin though when she repeated the word werewolf. “Yeah! My future brother-in-law Teddy Lupins’ dad was a werewolf, and my Uncle Harry told him about his dads time at Hogwarts since...well, his father died when Teddy was a few months old. Since his dad was a werewolf, he was taken to the Shrieking Shack every full moon to transform away from both students and villagers so he wouldn’t put anyone at risk.” He looked around, suddenly feeling a bit eerie that Teddy’s dad probably transformed in this very bedroom countless times. “It’s strange since now there are other student werewolves at the school and I don’t think they have to come here to transform; since the laws against Werewolf Prejudice were passed they seem to be more open and less scared about their condition,” he mused. He watched as she took more photos of the markings. “Where to next?” he asked her.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

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“S-Suppose not.” She added as Louis mentioned that ghosts didn’t really need to sleep. That had been one of the stranger things she had to overcome upon going to Hogwarts: ghosts. Her parents had told her all about them, but that didn’t really prepare one for their first encounter. At least the school ghosts were nice. The talking portraits on the other hand…she could do without them. She liked her pictures still an unmoving. Cordelia continued to snap photographs despite her stumble over the word werewolf. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised over that, maybe because they were so normalized now. While she would never be able to deal with being a werewolf, those that were only had to be careful on full moons. Every other day of the month they were just like everyone else. She had a hard time understanding that it wasn’t always like that.

Changing out the finished roll of film, Cordelia rummaged around for another roll. There was only one left. She hadn’t realized how much she’d taken already. Flicking her fingers out one by one to count when she finished each roll, she ended up with three already filled, this one being her forth. When she was in the zone she virtually ignored how many pictures she was taking. Popping the last roll in as Louis talked more about his friend Teddy, and how Teddy’s father was placed in the shack as a student to transform into a wolf, Cordelia nodded her head. That was a very interesting story indeed. From the markings they had seen, it definitely sounded like it was true. Ghosts obviously couldn’t do anything like that. “At l-least they d-don’t do that anymore.” Snapping a few quick photos of a couch to get her light levels, Cordelia peered back over the stop of the camera at Louis. “B-Back outside? I w-wanted to g-get the f-front again.” And that would be the perfect way to finish up her last roll.

[OOC: go ahead and wrap it up xD Louis can just leave her out front. she'll be fine. probably...]

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