Ida figured that Cliff wasn’t holding out for any special kind of target, so it pleased her that this opportunity presented itself so easily. These girls were the type to wrinkle their nose at Ida and take her presence as a threat, and like Cliff, it infuriated her to no end that they always had life so easy but still acted like entitled snooty bitches rather than be kind. The former Ravenclaw figured his chuckle was an affirmation of the plan anyway.

Only – do you trust me? Ida’s brown eyes turned up to meet Cliff’s, and she blinked at his smile. Something about the question tickled something in her chest, and Ida barely managed to eek out a response like a question, “Yes?” when he tapped her head with his wand. Oh, when it came to anything magic she absolutely did not trust him – but with her flinch a perfectly good bubble head charm materialized, and  Ida’s lips cracked into a smile that she was sure looked all sorts of distorted. Their distorted reflections in the mirror already looked plenty silly– this just added a cherry on top. Since she couldn’t actually bring her hand to her mouth now with the charm, Ida had to bite her lower lip to stifle the bout of giggles at what they were doing. This was the most ridiculous use of her afternoon she would have never imagined. …And she found she rather appreciated it.

“Worth a shot,” she agreed, and carefully set the candle down in a surreptitious corner. Now or never – the girls were getting closer and easily within breathing range. With a glance over to Cliff in final confirmation, she lit the candle with a flame from her wand. The yellow light immediately turned jet black the moment it touched on the candle, and Ida started up and back to watch it burn. Soon, the candle turned to a regular yellow flame again, and the wax at the very top started to melt. It cast a disorienting bouncing glow across all the reflections. Ida backed away, bumping gently into Cliff as she did so.

“Wait – what?” she didn’t process his question when it was first asked, gaze rather riveted on the candle – but she heard him loud and clear. She twisted her head to glance up at him with a pronounced frown. “Are you mad? Why would you blow it up!” Though of course, her mind was already turning over the possibilities. “It could possibly scatter the curse with each of its pieces. Each of those pieces might have less potency? Anyway it’s too valuable, let’s at least see what it does…?”

Caught up in her absent reasoning with the madman, Ida nearly missed the girls making their way into their mirrored corridor. In alarm, Ida grabbed Cliff and pulled them both around the mirrored corner, where they could hide and peek out at their behavior. It was a dead-end mirrored corner, so they didn’t have a whole lot of room to squeeze in – but at least it afforded them some time to spy the effects before they were caught.

“Whoa,” one of the girls had stopped right were they stood a few moments ago, frowning at her old-self in the reflection and touching her face. The giggles were gone, replaced with a look of general confusion. “When — when did this happen? Mia…. I don’t like this room, it’s weird…” The other girl had come in as well, and kept rounding in the same spot, touching all the solid mirrors that weren’t exits. Clearly, they hadn’t been keeping track (although Ida’s heart froze in that moment, realizing – she didn’t account for if the maze changed at all?). Just then, a shriek issued from the one named Bonnie. “Look at my hands!”

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