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

[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.

[uncaging]

"Just a little." She smiles wryly, sure that he understands as well as her that they'd have to be more than just a little terrible to warrant ending up in this part of the library. "I'm hoping to find something- anything -in here that I can use against them. I'm not going back there."

[postictal]

That's...not what he expected to hear, but it doesn't mean he can't understand or even commend it. If his family hadn't prematurely ditched him, he might've had it in him to do the same - ideologically, anyway. Financially and physically, it might've been more of an upward trek.

"Well, uh...best of luck, then," he says, and he means it.

[uncaging]

"Thanks." She smiles up at him gratefully, wishing that there were some easier way to achieve what needed to be done. "You too, with the potions I mean. And the sleepwalking."

[postictal]

"Yeah," he says, a little on the wry side, but still landing in the territory of sincere. She's definitely been a little nicer about it than most people he knows. Which is...refreshing, and also more than a little disarming.

"Thanks."

With that, he'll probably shuffle awkwardly out of her way and get going. He's not really one for prolonged conversation.