It was after hours in the Hogwarts castle, and the heavy rain was whipping against the castle’s windows. Most of the candlelit corridors lay deserted, the students that regularly frequented it now spending time in their respective common rooms. That’s where the students were supposed to be, either studying, sleeping, or just hanging out, but that small rule had never really bothered Grimwold. He was currently sneaking quietly through the corridors, making sure he avoided both ghosts and professors potentially out for an evening stroll.

It had only been two weeks since Grimwold had returned for his penultimate year at Hogwarts, and he was already out on a new adventure. His mother had asked him to stay out of trouble[1], which is why he had planned his little excursion after dark. Surely, fewer people would be out and about, so there was a smaller chance of getting interrupted. Yes, executing his plans at this hour would definitely abide to his mother’s request.

The reason for this little trip had taken root during a History of Magic class two days earlier when Professor Greyfriar had mentioned a Sir Bredbeddle Greene. Turns out, Sir Greene had owned an enchanted viridian suit of armour that made its wearer gain superhuman strength. Wearing that armour he had successfully killed the Dragon of Overton-on-Dee, and gained the trust of the local muggle farmers. Of course, they didn’t know Sir Greene had been a wizard. Grimwold wouldn’t have thought much more of the story if Professor Greyfriar had not mentioned that the suit of armour was currently on display in the Hogwarts Armoury. That’s when a plan started to emerge.

So that was why Grimwold was currently sneaking through the third floor corridors, tugging along his reluctant partner in crime. His wand held up in front of him, lit with the lumos charm, he could barely conceal his excitement.

“Come on then,” Grim said, a twinkle of adventure clearly visible in his eyes. “We’re almost there. It’s just through the next corridor”

1.	[Sept. 1] Trying to collect all the pieces....

Winifred knew that she wasn't supposed to be out sneaking around. Especially after already having a sit-down earlier in the day with the headmaster about her misbehavior in the first two weeks of school. But Winnie was bored- and when a boy asked you to go do something adventurous you didn't say no. Especially not when he wasn't a bad-looking boy. Besides, adventure sounded fun and Winnie apparently already had a penchant for breaking the rules this year. What was one more infraction to add the list? At least this one wasn't as bad as some of the others she'd been pegged for earlier in the day.

She was close to him as he led her through the corridors of the castle. The story that had captured his attention about the suit of armor was a good one. Winifred always enjoyed the stories about wizards interacting with muggles. She was hoping to work with the muggles someday. Hopefully. If she managed to graduate and the Ministry of Magic didn't laugh at her abysmal school record.

"I'm coming," she said quietly. "I'm right behind you. I just can't get my wand to light up. It's finicky. It hates me a lot. You know I'm not very good at magic. Everybody knows that." Winnie crept a little closer. "You're not going to try to put the armor on, are you Grimwold?" the Hufflepuff asked. "Because I'm not sure that I think that would be a very good idea..."

He had felt that he might have been going out on a limb when he asked Winifred to join him to the armoury, but Grimwold had still not been that surprised when she had said yes. After all, she seemed to get tangled up in as many messes as he did, so she had been his ideal candidate. He wasn’t sure if she had fully grasped why they were going, as he had been so excited when he was trying to explain that most of it had just come out in a jumbled mess. But she had said yes nonetheless, and here they were.

          ”You know I’m not very good at magic. Everybody knows that.”

Grim stopped for a second and turned around to face the Hufflepuff.

“It’s all about wanting it to shine,” he said, holding his wand between the two. “Look. And then remember to move your wrist, just so.”

He did a movement with his hand to illustrate. Lumos was one of the spells he was best at - mostly because he used it so often whilst he was out on his nightly adventures, and he had perfected it. At this point he could even perform it nonverbally. He shot the girl a smile, hoping he hadn’t offended her with his explanation, and turned around to continue down the hallway.

          ”You’re not going to try to put the armor on, are you Grimwold?”

Grim gave a short, happy laugh.

“Well, of course I am, Winnie,” he said, now tugging her along again. “Do you realise what we could do with it if it actually works? There’s this place behind a mirror on the fourth floor that seems to be caved in[1]. With the help of the armour we could actually move the stones and see what’s behind it!”

1.	Second one out of the known 7 secret passages out of Hogwarts

Winifred watched his demonstration and simply nodded. She didn't try to do it again. Even if her new wand wasn't as cantankerous as the old one the last thing she wanted to do was end up over-illuminating or creating some kind of explosion that would draw a lot of attention their way. "I'll try it later, Grim. I don't want to mess it up and bring any undue attention our way, you know?"

She smiled a little when he tugged her forward again and when they were finally in the armory and he had assured her that yes, he was going to put it on, she wondered how he'd manage that without getting them caught. "Armor is loud Grim. And it's heavy. How are you going to get it on without making a lot of noise? Just taking it down could make a racket. Do you know any charms to sound proof?" she asked. Winnie didn't. But the fact she was taking charms at NEWT level was nothing short of a miracle- everyone probably knew it. She'd spent her fourth and fifth years studying really hard just to get average at wandwork- even doing something theoretically on par with her level was still really hard for her.

But then he mentioned something about a caved in wall on the fourth floor and Winnie had to admit that the idea of knowing what was behind it was tempting. She was always curious and the idea of knowing something others didn't was exciting- because that didn't happen every often. And Winnie wasn't getting too terrible a feeling of foreboding here. Just regular nerves.

"How do you even know the armor is going to fit?" she further added. "They're custom made to fit people you know. And if you're too short or too tall or too broad or too skinny or anything it won't fit right." Winifred Oliver as the Voice of Reason never, ever happened.

“Don’t be such a glumbumble, Winnie,” Grim said as they reached the armoury. “We’ll never know if it fits, or even works, if we don’t try it!”

The armour gallery was a long room, almost like a corridor, with numerous suits of armour lining the walls. They came in all size and shapes - some missing a leg; some shining in colours metal usually shouldn’t be; and there was even one that had plates sticking out of the back that seemed to be for some kind of wings. Grim could barely hide his excitement as he let go of Winifred and started walking around the room.

“We’re looking for a viridian one,” he said as he went around, studying the metal bodies. “I’m pretty sure that’s a shade of green. Some of them seems to have a plaque underneath. Help me look! You’re a ‘Puff, you should be able to find it.”

He winked at Winnie and started from the left hand side of the room, looking intently at every plaque and trying to discern what was written. Some of the writings were so old that they had almost gone, and the dusk outside didn’t help much. Also, exactly what shade of green was viridian?

"I'm not a glumbumble," she retorted. But he walked away to look at suits of armor and told her to help him find them. Winnie sighed a little and moved away from Grim. He was just so excited about all of this it was hard to rain on his parade. At least something bright and shiny green should be easy enough to find, she figured. Once Grim started searching for the armour she followed suit.

Once a few yards away from him, Winnie pulled out her wand and winced  a little as she cast lumos. Winifred of course fully expected it to not work or to backfire, but instead her wand lit up as it was supposed to do. Going to the other end of the room she started looking from there, thinking they could meet in the middle. Winnie wondered if the armor would still be new-looking and shiny or if it would be busted up looking as old as it was.

The little plaques were hard to read in the dim light- but Winnie wasn't about to try to make her wand shine any brighter. But as she made her way across the back wall of the armory Winifred smile when she found exactly what they were looking for. It was almost emerald in color and still bright. It looked well polished and well taken care of. And- best of all- it looked like all of the pieces were there. She still wasn't sure that any of this was a great idea- but Winnie wasn't going to be known as a glumbumble and she wasn't going to rain on Grimwold's parade if she could help it.

"I found it!" she called out- probably with a little more volume than was necessary considering the fact the room was so quiet and they were going for stealth. "But it's in a glass case, Grim. It's not just out like some of the others one are."