Camille took the scenic route to the meeting, wanting to enjoy the sunshine while it lasted because this was England, and good weather could turn into a thunderstorm at the drop of a hat.

It also gave her time to wonder what was going to occur in this meeting, because if she was quite honest, she had no idea.

Nearly Headless Nick had insisted the participants in the Ghostly Apprenticeship scheme gather in the Great Hall so he could check in with them, but Camille didn't know what she could say about her experience that the Bloody Baron hadn't already told him.

It would be nice to see how the others were getting on, though. She hadn't spoken to Nadine in a while, and she'd never talked to Barnaby or Evan, so she wasn't sure what their experiences had been like.

When she'd inquired this morning, Tulip had offered little on the topic, so Camille presumed she was doing alright.

"Camille! Wait up!"

She frowned, turning to face an out of breath Barnaby who had clearly run all the way from the... honestly, she had no idea where he'd come from.

"Good to see you," he grinned, running a hand through his tousled hair. (Seriously, what had he been doing?)

"Um, y—you know who I am?" She stuttered, cursing herself for sounding so uncertain.

"'Course," Barnaby had the nerve to sound offended. "You're friends with some people I'm friends with."

Camille thought it better to nod and move past it. Other than Nadine, there wasn't much of an overlap in their social circles. (It was probably something to do with the fact that Camille didn't hang around soulless bullies, but she wasn't going to say that out loud. Barnaby himself seemed nice, after all.)

"Have you, um, got any plans for the summer?" She tried. It was almost the end of their second year at Hogwarts, and talking about the six weeks of freedom ahead was a fairly safe topic of discussion.

"What? Oh, nah. You?"

Camille startled. Even though she'd gone through this charade with other people, it was the first time someone had asked her what her plans were in return. "Oh! Well, I might go to France and visit my family over there if my parents can take the time off work."

"France is nice."

"You've been?"
"Not once. Never even seen a picture of it." Barnaby's face lit up as if he'd suddenly thought of something incredible. "Hey, you should write and send me one!"

"Um, okay," Camille agreed, making a mental note to get his address from Nadine at some point. "I can do that. Sure."

He grinned at her, and she found herself blushing.

It was only when he turned around and walked through the entrance to the Great Hall that she realised they'd arrived.

He strolled in without a second thought, leaving Camille to awkwardly shuffle over to stand next to Tulip.

Tulip offered her a small smile in return, but didn't move to start a conversation.

Oddly enough, the only people Camille had seen Tulip relax around were Tonks and Merula, neither of which were obvious choices for her.

From what she knew of Tulip's personality, the other girl was quietly rebellious and would rise to almost any dare she was presented with.

(On second thought, maybe Tulip had more in common with Tonks and Merula than Camille had previously assessed.)

Barnaby offered Tulip a fist bump that she refused and Evan (who was on the other side of the hall) a 'what's up!' that came off as more of an exclamation than a question.

He leant against one of the walls before seeming to remember something and walking back towards where Nearly Headless Nick stood.

"Hey!" He grinned at the ghost, who gave a reluctant smile back. "So, um, Ismelda said she wasn't coming to this meeting because it's for 'losers and freaks'."

Nick puffed out his chest. "Excuse me?"

"I did tell her she was both, but..." Barnaby winced. "Then she ate my Herbology homework."

"Was it a dangerous plant?" Camille found herself asking, curiosity getting the better of her.

Professor Sprout had told her class not to consume any of the things they grew for their assignments unless they wanted to end up in the hospital wing.

"Nope! It was an essay. Used my best parchment too," he replied cheerily. "I think Merula goaded her into it."

"Um." Camille didn't know Barnaby well enough to tell if he was joking or not.

She cast a look at Tulip, whose expression seemed to say 'yeah, sounds like a true story'.

Camille swallowed. Okay then.

Barnaby chattered with Nick until the others had joined them, the Bloody Baron being one of the last to do so.

Camille half-raised her hand to wave at him, and he tilted his head as if to say 'really?'. (She hid a smile.)

The meeting itself didn't last very long as it became obvious about thirty seconds in that Nearly Headless Nick was only hosting it to fish for compliments.

Evan offered up several pieces of constructive criticism which were just plain ignored, and Tulip didn't even try to get involved.

Camille didn't blame her, really.

As she wandered out of the hall, the meeting not having recovered from being declared "useless" by the Bloody Baron, her mind drifted to Talbott, as it so often did.

He'd been acting odd (or, odder than usual) lately, and once the summer exams were over, she was determined to find out why.

It had occurred to her that perhaps Talbott was no more peculiar than he always had been, only she was paying more attention to his strange behaviours now, and once she'd started looking, it was extremely hard to stop.

It was small things first, like he'd spend an awful lot of time at the Astronomy Tower, and that he didn't like owls very much, but he often frequented the Owlery.

That could all be explained away, though.

Maybe he liked the view and the seclusion the Tower provided.

Maybe he had a lot of letters to send.

She didn't know who he was writing to, since his immediate family was dead, but she supposed she should encourage him for wanting to do something remotely social.

After that, she began to pick on less explainable occurrences, like the fact that he kept a jar of live worms under his bed.

Or the eagle feathers she picked off his robes.

Where did he get the feathers from? Why on earth did he need those worms?

Transfiguration practice had been his reasoning.

Weird, but fine.

Then he was missing for twelve hours one day during the Christmas holiday. Twelve whole hours.

The same thing happened in Easter, and the worst part was, no-one else cared.

She found his robes abandoned on the edge of the Forbidden Forest once. He denied, they were his, of course. (Of course he did.)

Camille was done with feeling like a mad woman.

Next year, she was going to solve the mystery that was Talbott Winger. Come hell or high water, she'd get herself an answer.

A/N

hi! I'm well aware that it's been 3 months D:

this is the last chapter in this vault, so the next time I post in this it'll be the next vault & year!

I can't wait to share it with you, any guesses on what it'll be called? ;) (the theme I'm going for is the obvious theme haha)

I hope to have that out before the new year, and to get the ball rolling again from then on!

there will be a significant plot featuring camille (with the investigating talbott stuff) which I'm so looking forward to writing :D

also you can so tell I wrote the start of this during storm weather warnings HAHA (not the ongoing ones, the ones last month, althought the fact that I have to clarify is hilarious)

anyway I hope you're all well and thank you for reading! <3

next time, we will return to our cursebreakers on the train to hogwarts for their third year...