Noise

NEWTs were still a ways away, but studying for them was driving her mad. A few people had already required calming draughts but damn it, Jasmine had made it through OWLs without them and she was going to get through NEWTs without one too. That meant she was a walking ball of frizzy stress who had several thick, heavy books with her at all times. Jasmine always did well in class, but school work and magic never came easy to her, she had to work hard to earn her marks.  She studied in corridors before classes, during meal times in the great hall and late into the night. There was no more playing Quidditch, her most favorite hobby, and she'd drawn away from old friends mainly because they were tired of being snapped at by the tired and frustrated Gryffindor and having a row with them would distract from her studying. 

This morning Jasmine was chased from the common room by a noisy group of students still celebrating in the afterglow of a Quidditch win from the day before. The library was impossible to study at, as well. Too quiet, the rustle of book pages and scratch of quill against paper quickly got under her skin. Instead, she sought out the solace of an empty classroom where the only ambient noise came from her. So she thought. Ten minutes in to her blissfully quiet study session there was a rattling coming from a cupboard door. 

The Gryffindor's gaze snapped up and she watched that cupboard rattle through narrowed eyes. How. Bloody. Dare. It. How dare it interrupt her bloody study session. "Stop it, Peeves! I really have to study!" She shouted at the cupboard, perhaps stupidly because when has that poltergeist cared about other people's grades? It likely would have just egged him on, if it were him in there. It rattled again, this time a little more desperately and Jasmine went to investigate. The cupboard door was locked and when she laid her hand against it she could definitely feel something moving inside of it. Not Peeves. Definitely not Peeves. 

Jasmine's mind blanked out completely when she tried to recall what creature could possibly be inside. It was a creature. She'd read about things that liked to haunt cupboards. Bloody hell, but she couldn't name it. Couldn't recall the name of anything, it was like her brain had been so overloaded that it just went completely offline. How ever was she going to pass her NEWTs when she couldn't bloody figure out what was in the cupboard? 

She had to study now more than ever. After giving the cupboard door a quick kick and a "Quiet down in there, you git." she retreated back to her books. It lasted for a few good minutes before the rattling picked up again with a vengeance. With a huff she packed up her books and slammed her chair back under the table before exiting the classroom in search of a new place to study. Jasmine didn't know of anymore empty classrooms or a tower that wasn't occupied but other frazzled seventh years so she plopped herself right outside the door, in the corridor and resumed her reading.

She could hear the faint rattling, even through the door but the lioness could almost ignore it. 'Til the shuffle of footsteps was added to the dissonance of normal castle sounds and boggart rattles. By the time the source of the footsteps rounded the corner and came into view she was holding he quill so tightly in her fist that she thought it might snap. Jasmine was millimeters away from snapping herself. Merlin had apparently smiled on her, though because the footsteps were from "Professor Lupin!" she called, scrambling up to her feet, knocking aside the defense book she was reading.

She'd never been so happy to old, tired looking man. "Professor! There's something in there, can you take care of it? It's um..." Nope, still couldn't pull the name of it out of her head. Maybe her brain had binned that information in favor of something else.. Maybe she didn't have the brain capacity to know everything she needed to know for NEWTs at the same time. Holy Puffskeins. The anxiety was like a hard blow to the gut, knocking all the air out of her. Her heart began to race, not in a good way like it did when there was a quaffle speeding at her, but like it did that night when she got drunk with Cassidy and didn't know what to bloody fucking do. "It's a..." Words! She knew words, and she knew what that was back in the cupboard.

"It's um...a....I can't remember!" She finally admitted, bursting into tears and slumping back against the wall to slide down it so she could sob among her mountain of books. "I don't know what it is! I can't remember! But I can't bloody study with it making all. that. noise!"