SEB: Preparing for the Worst

Fiona was good at procrastinating. She was as good at that as she was at maintaining a messy room. It was unfortunate that her talent had also bled into the organising of a club meeting, one in which there was no time to go exploring one of the cool places of Beauxbatons. Instead she chose a dull topic to discuss. She really meant both her and her co-leader, Stark. They had come up with the topic together. Now though the members were assembling and the time for the meeting was beginning.

The sixth year stood and smiled at her fellow club members. "Hello everyone. Sorry about the delay but I lost my organisation and only just found it again last week. Welcome back to all those long standing members and welcome to our new members. For those of you who don't know us, I'm your club leader Fiona Miller and this is my co-leader Stark Green." She waved her hand vaguely in her co-leader's direction. "Today we are going to talk about the dangers we may encounter on our explorations and how we can prepare to avoid them. I'm sure many of you have heard about the Troll which lives in the dungeons or the Vampire which was loose in the school one year." She smirked as she added mysteriously, "I've heard there is another vampire still among us but enough of that. We are here to discuss avoiding danger. One way is to make sure there is at least one seventh year with us because they know the most magic and can be pushed to the front." Too late she realised that would be her next year. Maybe she could hold off on the actual exploration until after she graduated and Stark will be the seventh year. "Does anyone have any other suggestions?"

Serah considered vampires again. It seemed like just yesterday that she and Linette had talked about them.

She had told Linette about her trip to Romania and how she hadn't met any vampires. But thinking about one being in the school made her nervous.

She hadn't considered the fact that Beauxbatons could be unsafe. She'd seen the ghosts in the school and they were friendly (Maybe with the exception of Wendy, who only caused trouble). And she'd even been in the dungeons and had no trouble.

But then again, Fiona could be making a joke. Serah had never met her before.

But Serah just hoped that someone else had an idea. After all, Milan was in the club and Milan was always full of ideas.

Stark felt bad that she hadn't helped Fiona more this year with the leading of the club. She was now apologizing for the delay and took the blame but he could have certainly reminded her. He had been so happy to receive the prefect badge in the mail this summer and he had been working so hard to be the best prefect he could be that he just forgot to remind her. So with the lateness of it all they were forced to gold a regular and boring discussion only meeting.

Though it was a boring talking meeting it was a pretty important thing to discuss. There were a lot of dangers in exploring, because exploring meant going somewhere unfamiliar, and that is dangerous. Stark had gathered his closest friends together before to go look for trolls in the dungeons, Stephanie, Mabel, Fane, and Stark hadn't found anything but they were still prepared to defend themselves. He stepped forward when no one spoke up. "I think lumos and protego are the best spells to know when exploring. Lumos insures you can see no matter where you go, and protego is a defensive spell instead of an offensive one that might send another creature into offensive as well." Stark stated before backing up again.

Milan kept quiet. She didn't want them to think she was too impulsive and rash to bring on the adventure. Just when she opened her mouth to say "Bring garlic?" Stark beat her to speaking, to her relief. His words were much better than what she would've said. Personally she wasn't too worried about trolls, they couldn't be hard to find and were supposed to be really dumb. The vampire though, made her slightly shiver. "What kind of vampire are we talking about? It is harmful, no? Is it sort of like a typical Muggle lore vampire, you know, drinks blood, half-bat, darkness?"

She really couldn't come up with some wiser plan than Stark's, though she was a bit disappointed they weren't learning jinxes. "We could at least learn a Stunning Spell, just in case," Milan suggested. "Aren't there any other....potential enemies we might run into?"

"I'm not sure about bats," Fiona said. She certainly couldn't recall bats really having much to do with vampires other than speculation, "but certainly blood and stuff. Have any of you noticed how much garlic is in the food?" She hadn't but it would be interesting to see if she could trick anyone into believing they'd tasted a lot of garlic at meal times.

Fiona nodded. "Oh yes. A stunning spell is very useful. Well other dangers can be certain ghosts or poltegeists. The latter being more harmful than the first. And cursed objects. Paintings sending you off in the wrong direction. And..." She finished off with a shrug. "Well I'm sure one of you can think of something else we may have to watch out for on our travels around the palace."

"If you need more light than L-l-lumos, maybe the Fire-Making Charm," Serah said, remembering the charm she had used to catch a desk on fire in Transfiguration. "And mmmaybe the Freezing Charm if there is a lot of stuff attacking-g you."

She had to admit, her favorite incantation was 'immobulus', so she used it way more often than she needed to. Same with 'incendio', which she used a lot less often.

"There can't be many creatures running around, c-can there? Wendy's the only troublemaker that I've seenn," Serah asked, shaking her head.

'No reason to be afraid,' Serah assured herself. 'Schools are the safest places.'

"No, but I think I tasted something funny in my chocolate mousse the other day," Milan replied, frowning. She sure didn't want any garlic chocolate. "Maybe we could coat our wands in garlic?" she joked.

"Yay, more jinxes," cheered Milan, although in truth she couldn't recall performing any Fire-making or Freezing charms. It was probably a testimony to how little she paid attention in Charms class. "Um....are we going to use a lot of charms? If so, we're going to need some review."

She thought for a while. Milan had fantasized a lot about the mysteries lurking in the castle, but she decided to speak one that had been on her mind for a while. "Are any ghosts....harmful? They can't stop us, can they?" she shivered. She'd never been quite comfortable with the ghosts.

Milan suddenly lit up. "Oooh! Does someone know how to Apparate?" She turned to Fiona eagerly. "Can you bring someone along while Apparating? It could be useful."

Wendy? Fiona's ears perked up at that. Having never had the misfortune to come across her, she'd forgotten the poltergeist existed. Of course. That was what happened to her second year text book. And dad put it down to Fiona's carelessness. Right now though she had a meeting to continue on. Well possibly end since time had somehow escaped her.

"Ghost can't," Fiona replied, "but it feels cold if you let them walk through you. Wendy on the other hand..." She let that sentence hang. "Let me put it this way. Poltergeists aren't ghosts. They're...something else." They were hard to explain and it was made harder by the fact that Fiona had never met one. Just heard her reputation.

She shook her head. "You can't apparate in the castle and you don't get taught until you turn seventeen anyway." It really was quite thrilling to think she would soon be learning how to apparate but right now there was a meeting to finish. "Anyway everyone you've all brought along great ideas and suggestions. Next meeting I promise will be a good one. We may put our theory into practice. Practice those spells so you will be prepared for a little exploring." Now all she had to do along with the help of Stark was come up with an idea. The best meeting ever to finish off her final year at Beauxbatons.