SEB: Sign of the Pegasus

It had been quite by accident that Fiona first discovered the room. The day after her detention she'd returned to the Indoor Garden to see if she could find any more pixies like the one that red haired first year found. There'd been nothing. Instead, quite by accident, she discovered something else. Something which would be of use for the next Students Exploring Beauxbatons club meeting. It really was quite perfect and she hurried off to discuss it with her co-leader and make plans.

On the day of the scheduled meeting she waited until all the members had gathered in the Indoor Garden at her request. She smiled secretively at the speculation on some faces. "Hello fellow explorers," she said in greeting, "this year is the start of our first actual exploration. Right here in this garden is a statue." Fiona waved a hand in the direction of the pegasus which had been the help of her discovery. "Now watch this." She held up her wand and tapped it on the head. "Step back," she warned as the floor opened up to reveal a staircase. "Lumos. Everyone is going to need a little light going down those stairs but I'm not sure what is at the end. That's right. I'm as in the dark as the rest of you." She paused. "That is unless anyone here has found this room before." Fiona waited half a second for someone to brag before holding up her lit wand. "Let us begin our expedition into the unknown."

As not just a member of the Students Exploring Beauxbatons club but a co-leader he couldn't miss the meetings. Thankfully he loved the meetings so he never thought of skipping one anyways. He was even happier to learn that this year they were leaving their room and going out to actually explore parts of Beauxbatons. He wasn't sure where they were going yet but him and Fiona were exploring to find the perfect spot for their members. He was overjoyed to hear from his head leader when she said she finally found a place, she said there was something in the indoor garden, he remembered reading something in an old copy of the SOP clubs articles about an abandoned something under the statue in there. He was sure that was what Fiona had found there, and he was more than ready to follow her and their members down to check it out.

Stark walked into the garden where he found his head leader waiting for the other members. Once everyone was filed into the garden in front of the statue Fiona started the meeting. He watched as she tapped the statue and it opened up showing a staircase leading down. The strawberry blonde lit his wand and waited for anyone to speak up about possibly finding the room before, no one did, "I remember reading something by Sawyer Johnson about an abandoned room down there." He said when no one answered. He then started following her down the stairs with his wand lit and turned around every so often to make sure the other members were keeping up.

"Really?" Fiona asked. "You'll have to tell us more once we get down there," she remarked. Having never been much of a reader of the Student Organised Press she had no idea what the article may contain but now Fiona realised that it might not be such a bad idea to be better informed. Who knew what else might be in there to lead them to another discovering.

Fiona would have loved to be at the front of the pack but she decided someone needed to be at the back to make sure the straggles didn't get too far behind. The stair case which had been revealed spiralled downwards. "If anyone's feeling giddy rest your hand against a wall," she suggested and taking her own advice did that very thing. With a spiraling staircase she could see nothing up ahead other than the people immediately in front of her and stairs.

Finally they reached the bottom and were in a cobwebbing room. "Wow," she breathed. "I wonder if this was another house common room. One which no..." She stopped and broke off. "Hey who's burning parchment in here?" Fiona hurried over to the fireplace and tried to pull one out only to have it turn to ashes in her hand. "So much for that," she grumbled and failed to notice it was parchment again back in the fire.

Stark simply nodded at Fiona's comments about his comment about the SOP article, "It didn't say much actually." He said feeling like now everyone thought he was an expert which he wasn't. Despite his now slight insecurities he still continued on the exploration. He was a bit surprised to find that Fiona wasn't leading them but then noticed she had taken up a spot in the back, that was a good idea to make sure no one got left behind, he should have taken up that spot as the co-leader how stupid of him. It was too late to insist on them switching places now, those behind him were practically forcing him down the stairs.

Once they reached the bottom of the spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever there was a collective breath as everyone took in the room. "Everyone move into the room so that everyone can get down off the stairs." He instructed the members who all seemed frozen at the base of the stairs successfully blocking the rest of the traffic. They all moved towards the walls and finally Stark saw Fiona come into the room and knew that was the last of them.

He was shocked to find that instead of saying anything to the members she ran towards the fireplace in the room and reached into the fire. "Fiona be careful!" He called out to her as he quickly followed her, he paused though when he saw she was unharmed. "Oh I think this is the fire they mentioned in that article. The farewell fire or something like that the legend says only seventh years can put letters in there before they leave." He explained, of course he was only relaying what he had already read somewhere else. Supposedly younger students were supposed to be able to read the letters but the one she had grabbed didn't seem to allow that, perhaps that part of the legend wasn't true.