05 🎠 Wit beyond measure

[uncaging]

Who: Elizabeth and OPEN
Where: Hogwarts
When: Throughout the event
Rating: PG for that creepy screaming book from first movie
Summary:
The Story:

a) The Great Hall
Elizabeth arrives quite late in the lunch period looking rather out of breath, having ran to the great hall straight from one of her extra-curriculars in the hope that there will still be some food left. She glances furtively around the hall as she enters, wanting to avoid certain of the older Slytherin students who'd let it get back to her family that she was participating in the Muggle Music club on her lunches the year before, and she knew that if it was found out she was still attending there would be serious ramifications at home. As she seats herself at one of the long benches of the Ravenclaw table, however, the lyrics sheets for the songs she's been learning at said club today spill out of her bag all over the stone floor.

When she's finally settled she tucks into her lunch, juggling her food with one hand and the book she's currently reading in the other, leaning over the diners nearby to get another serving of chocolate pudding.


b) The Library
She makes sure that the special permission slip she's been given is prominently displayed as she makes her way through the stacks to the Restricted Section. This is her third foray into the shelves of forbidden dark arts books, which she's gained permission to study ostensibly due to her thirst for knowledge - though really she wants to learn as much about the evil sorts of magic her family has relied on for centuries in order to both shoulder what she sees as her share of the responsibility for their actions and so that she might better combat it.

A large volume catches her attention, black and silver, overshadowing the other books on the shelf. Her curiosity is piqued, and though she has to stand on the tips of her toes to get the book down she manages it, resting it on one arm while she opens through and flicks through the pages.

Almost immediately, the thick library silence is broken by a piercing scream of utter malice and agony. The pages press forward, paper forming into a writhing, shrieking face. Elizabeth screams herself, dropping the book on the floor and bending to slam it shut, but it doesn't even muffle the sound.


c) Wild card
I'm happy to write up a starter for your character anywhere around the castle, grounds, or Hogsmeade - poke me on plurk or PM me. Otherwise feel free to make a starter in the comments!

Comments

library

[postictal]

It's not like Tim's got a lot of reason to linger in the restricted section. Does he have a prevailing interest in topics of a dark or unusual nature? No, not really. Does he frequently get assigned research in those areas? Nope, almost never.

So why's he there now? Well, it's kind of a complicated question. It kind of has to do with stuff of the non-magical variety, actually. Or rather, with curing afflictions that might be non-magical through magical means. He's been through every book in the health-related sections, tomes on anatomy and neurology and craniology, and there's been no luck. So he turns to this, and he turns to permission slips and material that he knows he's allowed to engage in, being a seventh year, but is he wrong for being downright unsettled as he peruses the shelves?

Given the way a shrill, bloodcurdling screech causes his heart to judder painfully in his chest, Tim is thinking no, no, he's not wrong for thinking that at all.

He skids to a halt just at the edge of the disturbance, and his expression pulls into one of distaste. Oh god, the book is screaming. He doesn't even care why it's screaming, or what the other student standing there was doing trying to take the thing out, or why the library carries the goddamn thing in the first place.

He jabs his wand swiftly in its direction.

"Silencio!" he snaps, and the book, while continuing to howl away to its nonexistent heart's content, makes no noise as it does so.

[uncaging]

It takes Elizabeth a moment to realise that the screaming has stopped, as she cowers there with her hands clamped firmly over her ears, her heart racing. Eventually she straightens up, staring warily at the book as though expecting it to begin screaming again at any moment.

"Thank you. I should know better than to expect the books in here to behave."

[postictal]

"They can be real pains in the ass," he mutters, stumping over to scoop the book up as it continues to scream soundlessly, the printed letters over its face forming a grotesque substitute for any sort of skin.

He proceeds to try and just...awkwardly squish the book shut, with little success. The face won't go and press itself back into the page.

"What were you trying to do with this thing, anyway?" says Tim, in between grunts of exertion as he continuously tries to cram the thing onto the shelf, to little avail.

[uncaging]

"Read it." Elizabeth quirks up a little smile as though that should have been obvious. She moves a couple of other books off the shelf so it will slide on more easily, thinking the flatter, more cooperative books will be easier to cram back on afterwards. "I wasn't looking for any book in particular, I have permission to read in the Restricted Section and I was looking for something new... that one just seemed to call out to me." Right before it literally called out and scared her stiff.

[postictal]

Short of a Shrinking Charm, Tim's not sure what complicated set of requirements are necessary in order to get the damn thing to get back into its place and stop screaming bloody murder.

"I'll say it did," he mutters, with a scathing look in the book's direction. "Least you got - " Grunt. " - permission. Most people these days just seem to sneak in willy - " Huff. " - willy-nilly."

[uncaging]

"I used to sneak in too," Elizabeth admits, feeling rather proud that she was only caught a couple of times. "I was so glad to finally reach seventh year and be able to go about things properly instead." Not that she wouldn't have stopped sneaking in if she'd been refused permission, of course.

[postictal]

Tim would, for what it's worth, be rolling his eyes at her confession if he wasn't so bent on shoving the damn book back where it's supposed to be. At last he just gives up, tossing the thing onto the nearest stool, levering out several thick tomes from the surrounding shelves to dump unceremoniously on top of it. The accumulated weight eventually manages to flatten it shut, and he breathes out a sigh of relief.

"Why?" he asks at last, quizzically. "Why's this the new big thing for kids to do? Is it just the thrill of sneaking in to where they're not supposed to be?"

[uncaging]

Elizabeth's face falls slightly, unable to help feeling that he's accusing her, and for one spiteful moment wanting to grab the book from him and open it up to scream at him again. The urge is gone as soon as it was there, and instead she looks at him in curiosity.

"What's your problem with it? It's not like I'm a child."

[postictal]

"No, I'm just - " He realizes too late that his diatribe aimed at the world at large might sound too much like an indictment against her, personally, and goddamnit, this is why he doesn't have any friends.

"I was just making conversation," he finishes, inadequately, opening a hand. "Sorry. Uh. Yeah. Sorry."

[uncaging]

It certainly didn't sound like just making conversation to Elizabeth, but she doesn't want to get into an argument either, especially in the middle of the restricted section with who knows what waiting to jump out of the next book at them. "It's all right," she replies a little stiffly.

[postictal]

"I get dinged for it a lot," he adds, unnecessarily, and oh my god Tim stop talking. "Guess I got a dirty record, so that makes me more...suspicious, or something. I dunno."

He's, uh, not doing so hot, is he? Yeah, no. Mostly just digging that hole in deeper.

[uncaging]

Elizabeth looks at him a little worried, but mostly curious. "What do you mean, a dirty record? Do you get in trouble a lot?"

[postictal]

"I sleepwalk," he says tiredly, with the weariness that comes from making this admission semi-regularly. "Some people are more forgiving of this than others."

He also can't really talk about the fact that the janitor is way more of a softie than he lets on, as he's pretty sure Rocket would skin him alive for saying it.

[uncaging]

"I'm sorry to hear that." She looks it, too, genuinely sympathising rather than seeing him as odd in some way for it. "I can imagine that must cause all kind of trouble, especially when the staircases decide to move."

[postictal]

"Oh yeah. Some days it means you end up on the grounds wondering what the hell you did."

A lifetime of dealing with the same shit, variations of the same tired theme, has at least given him the ability to deflect and downplay. It can't be all that bad, can it? Not if he's capable of joking wryly about it.

[uncaging]

"Is that why you're in the Restricted Section? To find a way to stop it?" She's fairly sure using dark magic on such a condition would only make things worse.

[postictal]

"What?" He blinks, brow furrowing. Why would she - but, uh, yeah, then he remembers. Context is everything. "Oh. No, I was just...school project."

[uncaging]

She's pretty intrigued even by something so innocuous. "What class is it for?"

[postictal]

She actually seems...interested. Weird. Or maybe not weird, but he's not used to anyone expressing genuine interest.

"Potions," he says, managing to sound quizzical even if he isn't the one asking the question. "There's some pretty advanced stuff out there. Might as well do something with it, right?"

[uncaging]

If anything, her interest grows at that. "There are so few people that look into advanced potions, and I'm sure there's so much out there to be discovered. It's a very worthwhile endeavour."

[postictal]

"I guess." He's not sure what to say to that, other than to simply accept the words for the comfort they no doubt are. People don't say things like that and mean them with any sincerity. They don't.

"What about you?" He swiftly diverts his attention to Elizabeth, turning the conversation to something that isn't centered on Tim. "What've you been, uh...working on?"

[uncaging]

Her gaze shifts from him to the floor as the conversation turns to her own motives for being in the Restricted Section - she quite enjoys being anonymous like this, instead of the distrust she gets from so many of the students for her heritage on the one hand, and the derision of Slytherin House from deviating so far from their dark path on the other. But Tim's shared his problems, so she figures it's only fair to divulge in return.

"My family are in quite a few of these books. I've been given permission to read up on them."

[postictal]

"Family, huh?" He keeps his tone vaguely interested, resisting the urge to sharpen it at the intrigue of her having family there. Plenty of people have shady pasts and weird histories. Part of being magic, he imagines.

"Guess that'd be pretty interesting." He scratches the back of his neck in the absence of finding anything to do with his hands. "I mean, maybe I've got a few in here too. I dunno."

It's doubtful, honestly. He's Muggleborn, Mudblood, and his parents do their damnedest to pretend he doesn't exist.

[uncaging]

"It's possible," Elizabeth concedes, glancing rather apologetically at him for if he did have any relatives in the restricted section. "If so, I truly hope they aren't as bad as mine."

[postictal]

"Shitty family?" He drawls the words out wryly, plainly unsurprised. He's used to that - to having people who don't give a damn about you, and having to deal with the collateral damage of their apathy.