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

[shivving]

Joel doesn't spend a lot of time in the library, but there are some things you just can't do without a little research. He has a stack of books he's planning to take back to his dungeon of solitude classroom when an ear-piercing shriek shatters the quiet of the library.

Dropping the books to scatter over the floor, he makes a mad dash towards the source of the noise, whipping his wand out as he goes. He rounds a bookshelf and stops when he sees Elizabeth standing there, terrified, a thick book on the floor in front of her.

"What the hell is goin' on here?" He has to yell in order to be heard over the screaming.

[uncaging]

"I don't know, Professor!" Elizabeth yells back, but as quietly as she can get away with as she feels somewhat mortified at the idea of having to shout at a teacher. "All I did was open it, and now it won't stop."

[shivving]

Joel swears, though thankfully it's mostly under his breath. He points his wand at the book, flicking it in conjunction with a shouted spell, and the shrieking stops.

In the abrupt silence of the library, he and Elizabeth just stare at the book on the floor for a moment before Joel looks up, as if really seeing her for the first time.

"Isn't this the Restricted Section?" he asks with a frown. "Thought students weren't allowed back here."

[uncaging]

The thick silence returns too quickly, and she can hear the hammering of her heart and the blood rushing through her ears. She's convinced that the book will start screaming again at any moment, and keeps glancing back at it warily as she produces her note for Joel to read.

"Professor Foster gave me permission to read the books in here."

[shivving]

"Foster?"

He takes the note, scanning it, and then hands it back to Elizabeth with a grunt.

"Well, whatever she sent you in here to do, I don't think that book has anything to do with it." He jerks his chin towards the now-silent book on the floor. "Just what were you lookin' for?"

[uncaging]

"I..." She falters, not really sure how to explain and feeling more than a little embarrassed. "My family features pretty heavily in some of these books. I've been given permission to research anything they might have been involved with."

a! THE SPICE GIRLS AND QUEEN, I LOVE THIS SO MUCH

[mettatonvevo]

[Mettaton has been bouncing from one table to the next, taking orders, chatting up more customers, and visiting friends. He's passing by the Ravenclaw table when Elizabeth's lyric sheets spill onto the floor. Initially he makes to walk right on by and not help her pick them up again when he spies the name on one of the papers and stops dead in his tracks.

A wicked smile breaks out over his face, and he scoops up the papers that caught his eye, looking to Elizabeth with mirth.]

I didn't know that the Spice Girls was up for academic study.

(ooc: Mettaton has been humanized for this event, so no robotics for him! I just never got him a faceclaim.)

I'm glad :D

[uncaging]

[Elizabeth tries to make a grab for the papers, but she's not quite quick enough. Despite herself, and even though she tells herself she's doing nothing wrong, her face turns a deep shade of red.]

It's not academic, exactly.

[She reaches out for them again, not wanting to have to snatch them and tear the paper.]

[mettatonvevo]

[Ok, this Ravenclaw is really, really cute. Especially when she blushes. He puts on his best winning smile.]

Then what's it for, exactly?

[He holds the papers out of her reach.]

You can't get a hold of this sort of thing easily here.

[uncaging]

[She glances down at the green and silver of Slytherin that he wears, looking rather uncomfortable.]

You'll only make fun of me if I tell you.

[mettatonvevo]

[He sees her look at his green and silver garb and shakes his head.]

I swear, the only fun I make will be a light teasing at best. Don't let the snake fool you; I'm a muggle born. I know both of these songs by heart.

[He does know these songs, because even growing up on a secluded farm in the middle of nowhere won't stop you from knowing about the Spice Girls or Freddie Mercury.]

[uncaging]

I've never heard of a muggle born in Slytherin before. [She supposes it must happen occasionally, but it's not something she's ever really considered before.]

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.

Great Hall

[goodwoofjames]

Sirius was just about to head to class when stacks of papers cascade at his feet and he stutters to a halt. He's not bothered, though, and immediately bends down to start gathering them up. It's only when he glances up from this that he sees who it is whose papers have gone askew.

"Ah! Elizabeth! I see you've been keeping up on your..." He glances at the sheets in his hand. "Drawing?"

He has no idea what he's looking at.

[uncaging]

Elizabeth reaches down for the papers but Sirius gets to them before she does. She tells herself that it could be a lot worse - at least she'll only get a little ribbing off him rather than a sneaky report back to her family.

"You must have seen some pretty terrible drawings if that's what you see there."

[goodwoofjames]

"I can't claim to understand art. It's far from my specialty." Unless transfiguration could be counted as an art, but he isn't even all that good at that.

"What is it, then? A language?" He's never been good at or interested in those sorts of things, really.

[uncaging]

"Words to a song." She's surprised he's never seen one written down before, and has to remind herself that not everyone goes poking into every book they can get their hands on in the way she does. "Have you ever read a poem? It's set out similar to that."

[goodwoofjames]

Sirius searches the page until he finds the words written out under the graphs(?) making up most of the page.

"Oh! Well, I've heard more poems than I've read, I think. And heard more songs than that, when I can get my radio working. Is this a wizard musician or a muggle one?"

Spice Girls and Queen have summoned Tracer

[traceron]

Lena might be pureblood, but she likes to think that she can be sympathetic any old corner of society. Barring the obviously evil ones. Some are snobs about it and refuse to use even the most basic Muggleborn inventions, which baffles Lena something awful because she wouldn't want to spend the rest of her years using magic to swirl up spaghetti or do logic gymnastics to justify why magic folk came up with forks first, yanno?

Point is, Lena's a pureblood that likes what she likes and it doesn't matter where it comes from. Owing to this open-mindedness, when a Ravenclaw spills some sheets full of lyrics she doesn't have to see the titles to know exactly who the songs are by, excitement mounting right up to the tops of her eyeballs. Really, who wants to restrict themselves to wizard rock when there's so much more to enjoy?!

"Oh, lemme help you love," Lena says before practically spilling out of her seat to gather them up. Some pages are bent at the corners which she'll swear is the floor's fault, flattening them out to hand them back to the Ravenclaw with a bashful look.

"They're brilliant, aren't they? I've got loads of CDs of them."

[uncaging]

"You do?" Elizabeth asks in surprise, then notices the red and gold of Gryffindor that Lena's wearing and assumes she must be muggle-born. She looks a little apologetic as she takes the papers back, rolling them up and tucking them into the sleeve of her robe. "I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with them, other than trying to analyse the words in Muggle Music class earlier."