Plotter
March 21, 2014 12:59 AM
Intermediate DADA by Plotter
A strange stillness hung over the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom on the first Monday morning of term. It was that peculiar atmosphere created by the arrival of the students preceding that of the teacher, and settling uneasily in, unsure how much noise would be tolerated upon their professor's arrival. It was very strange, for the Professors of Sonora were normally punctual to a tee. However, the professor for this class was new (a new professor had been introduced at the feast, had they not? Or was it going to be Professor Valson?) and perhaps that accounted for their tardiness. Another possibility that could never be ruled out with this subject was that some sort of surprise was going to be sprung upon on them to test their reflexes. The room gave no other clues as to the lesson for that day, and that would certainly make a strong first impression... There were possible reasons, definitely, for the absence of a teacher. Although the longer that elapsed, the less likely any of these really seemed.The minutes ticked by, threatening to veer out of merely late and into rude or, worse still, the class having bee forgotten. How long any class would bear up under this was very much determined by the individuals. One thing, however, was certain and that was that the longer any such absence of a professor continued, the more likely it was that the delicate atmosphere would fracture and that dissent and disorder would spill out, anything from outbreaks of louder-than-usual chatter to declaring the class to be clearly over and leaving the room. Paper aeroplanes could very quickly become involved.
Whatever course the students chose, whether allowing their behaviour to slide or waiting dutifully for the lesson to begin, there came a point when even the most devoted academic or strictest observer of rules would probably have to concede that no-one seemed to be coming.
Subthreads: Approaching Mr. Carey (prefect) by Effie Arbon with Anthony Carey VIII and a bit of Henry, Leo Princeton, Crotalus
Waiting around... by Virginia Bellrose, Crotalus
Perturbed. by Rupert Princeton, Pecari with Dimitri Porter, Teppenpaw, Rupert , Ava Fletcher, Aladren, Rupert & Leo Princeton, Ava Fletcher
Not the Professor, but here to help by Clara Abernathy, Pecari
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Plotter
Intermediate DADA
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Plotter
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Henry and Anthony Carey
March 24, 2014 5:48 PM
Really not helping the situation by Henry and Anthony Carey
Henry’s face was as close to blank as it usually was, but he was disturbed by the breaks in routine he had noticed today. Elves running around. People talking about the sky. Professors missing. Even Alicia talking at breakfast, though he had enjoyed the excuse to look at her, since this year, there was no Concert and thus no excuse to sit, at least on a regular basis, where he could see how the light played on her hair and hate Pierce for the way she smiled at him. She didn’t normally talk at breakfast, though, not to the room like that, and Henry didn’t remember any other Head Girls ever doing such a thing, which made it wrong. Out of order. Something that should not have happened.Even Brandon, who did not like order, had known something was wrong. Henry, unable to think, had just muttered at him not to wander off on his own today before hurrying after Anthony, seeking his own security in his cousin’s shadow. And to at least give the illusion that someone was watching his cousin’s back, of course, though Henry doubted anyone who’d been in classes with them this long would think he was capable of it.
Beneath the desk in the Defense classroom, beneath the book he had tried to distract himself with before class, Henry turned his wand in his hands over and over again, frustrated, hating that if it was needed, he was sure it would be of no more use to him today than it had been yesterday, or would be tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. He was the crippled borderline Squib, after all. Not useful, not to himself or anyone else. He had accepted it a long time ago – there was no point in fighting what you could not change – but there were still times when it bothered him, and today was one of them. Things were not right, and there was nothing he could do about it, even if he had known in theory what to do. He didn’t do that, either. Which did not help.
Arbon came over and talked to Anthony about that exact problem, and Henry was embarrassed to realize that Anthony’s suggestion was, in fact, something he could have done. Arbon added more details, and Anthony was just saying, “Yes, that’s an excellent – “ when there was a flash of orange light and Anthony suddenly stiffened. For one second, he had an expression Henry recognized as surprised on his face before his head began to swell and bend and turn orange.
There was a noise, a yell, loud and unhelpful. Henry was startled to realize he was the source of the noise. He scrambled away from his cousin – and then the pumpkin - he thought he realized what it was a second before it happened - fully formed, exploded.
My fault, he thought. My fault. I just killed Anthony. I blew his head off. The Healers could have fixed it, but I just blew his head off. Henry was vaguely surprised, as he hovered on the brink of hyperventilating, to realize how clearly the words were running through his head. I killed him. I was supposed to watch his back and I killed him. They’re going to kill me. They’ll give me back to Grandmother. The thoughts became more frantic than his attempts to breathe when that occurred to him. Got to do something, break into the Potions storeroom, got to do something, I – I – I –
He had squeezed his eyes shut as the words began to race too fast for him to keep up with, not wanting to see all the blood and bone and brains no doubt liberally coating the desk, his own robes, Arbon, Anthony’s corpse, and the rest of the row behind them by now, since the Transfiguration might well have broken when the object it had been cast on did, and was startled when he heard sputtering.
“What in the – “ Anthony’s voice said, and Henry opened his eyes.
Anthony was wiping pumpkin seeds off his face. There was mushy stuff in his pale brown hair, which the juice had made darker than usual. His expression was now one Henry recognized as ‘furious’, and he had his wand in his hand. Henry, still panicking, immediately believed Anthony planned to use it on him, and that was when random inkwells began to shatter.
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Henry and Anthony Carey
Really not helping the situation
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Henry and Anthony Carey
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Effie Arbon
March 24, 2014 11:23 PM
Delegation remains the best course of action by Effie Arbon
OOC – Leo, remember when targeting people with spells that it's up to them whether it hits or not. You can comment on the factors that make it likely to and what will happen if it does. As they would have had to be psychic in this case, and Anthony has run with it, then no harm done, but just bear it in mind for next time.IC
Anthony's face turned a strange sort of orange and began to swell. At first, Effie thought he was turning apoplectic at her audacity in venturing an opinion but then the whole appearance became... well, much more like a pumpkin and she started to suspect fowl play. There was just time for the thought to flash through her head that it was probably the Melofors jinx (she had read about it the previous term and it had struck her as being exceptionally childish but also exceptionally nasty) but, that if it wasn't, she might kill him by trying to remove it. That was what was so devilish about it – the fact that it mimicked a transfiguration meant you could not act upon it with any certainty, for what if the person had performed a transfiguration hoping you would assume it was the jinx and would then proceed to blow up the offending object, which would be the person's real head ? Luckily it was a self-limiting jinx, and put only to a childish purpose, and she had only just had time to consider whether it was that or not before it demonstrated itself to be, in an explosion of seeds and (thankfully vegetable) flesh.
“Scourgify,” she stated calmly, neatly and efficiently sweeping Mr. Carey, herself and the desk clean of any debris.
“Don't rise to them,” she cautioned Anthony softly, as anger glinted in his eyes and he raised his wand. “They're clearly not willing to fight like a-EUGH!” her platitudes ended in a little squeak of surprise as something hit her in the back of the head. Her silky blonde hair now dripped with black and she trembled with fury and indignity. But ladies kept their calm. Ladies did not engage in brawling. And, as ink wells were shattering all around her from some unknown assailant, logic dictated that she was in a losing position even if they did.
“Like a gentleman,” she finished to Anthony, trying to sound as steady as she had before. “I think your plan remains a solid one. Besides which, it left two prefects in this class free. Why don't we make it up to them to keep order here whilst we investigate?” she smiled... almost sweetly. With her huge eyes, blonde hair and gentle manner, Effie's appearance was usually demure and angelic (or akin to a slightly startled deer). But now, between the dirty hair, and some subtle alteration in the eyes – the arch of the brow, perhaps, or the little glint in them – a slightly more wicked streak was suggested.
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Effie Arbon
Delegation remains the best course of action
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Effie Arbon
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Carter Browning, Teppenpaw
March 25, 2014 9:58 AM
I couldn't agree more by Carter Browning, Teppenpaw
Carter groaned at the sound of his alarm clock going off and lazily reached over to turn it off. His return to school had been a welcome one since it helped him half way forget about his embarrassing summer. He visibly cringed as he thought back on it. He had spent most of his summer in Ireland with Channon and her family and while it hadn't been entirely disastrous, there were parts of it he wished he could have avoided. He unwittingly discovered that while Channon may not quite like him very much just yet, she had a jealous streak a couple hundred miles wide where he was concerned.He had written a letter to Wendy, telling her about his arrival in Ireland. He had sent the letter just shy of arriving and had been waiting for a reply. When the post arrived and there's was still no reply yet from Wendy Carter visibly became slightly bummed. Channon had noticed his behavioral shift and had asked him about it. Carter, not really thinking about what he was about to say, blurted out that he had been hoping for a letter from a friend back home. Then Channon had asked whom it would be from and again not thinking about his reply said Wendy's name. He had expected Channon to shrug off the information and mumble something like "whatever" under her breath before bouncing off to do some girly thing. He had not been prepared however for her jealous temper tantrum. "I can't believe you're writing to another girl!" she had screamed at him. She never even let him explain that Wendy was his best friend or anything else for that matter. She had continued to overreact and yell at him for almost ten minutes straight concluding her rant with "I don't want to hear another word about your little American girlfriend while you're here with your betrothed! " she had practically growled at him when she said it.
He showered quickly, got dressed and after making sure he had his book bag headed out of the dorm towards the common room. He was heading towards the door that lead out of Teppenpaw when he caught sight of the elves rummaging through the room whispering amongst themselves. He had only caught bits of their conversation before they disappeared, but what little bit he did hear made him very concerned. What did they mean by "they're missing"? he wondered as he left the common room and headed for his first class of the term. They couldn't possibly be talking about the staff, could they? he pondered. Nah, he shook that thought away as he made his way to class. The thought reared its ugly head when he arrived to class and discovered that the professor was not yet in attendance. "That's strange," he mused to himself as he passed by her empty desk. "Where are they?" The question followed him to his desk. Maybe the professor is just late for once he told himself trying to explain their absence. He nodded at his own reasoning and decided that had to be it. He put his book bag down on the floor beside him and folded his arms over his chest, stretching his legs out under the desk and crossing his feet at the ankles.
He waited for their professor to come strolling through the classroom door as he thought about the elves and their unusual conversation. At almost ten past the hour when their professor failed to appear, Carter began to wonder if they ever would. He slowly unfolded his arms and straightened up in his seat. The elves were telling the truth? The staff really are missing? What the heck was going on around here? Carter didn't have much time to contemplate those before the back of his right arm hurt like the dickens. It almost felt as if something had stung the snot out of him, like a wasp or something. He rubbed the back of his arm as it began to swell up like a grapefruit. He had no idea what color it was turning underneath his school robes and if he was lucky he wouldn't find out. He was pretty certain however that whatever color it was was pretty nasty.
He tried to put the swelling and throbbing out of his mind as he tried to figure out what might have caused the staffs disappearance, but it was pretty difficult. Judging by the amount of swelling and the throbbing it was causing, if Carter didn't know any better he would think somebody hexed him with a stinging hex. He couldn't really think of any reason why anyone would want to other than maybe doing it as a prank of some kind. He rubbed his arm absently as he glanced briefly around the room. He had glanced around initially to try and see if he might be able to spot his jinxer, but that idea went out the window when he spotted Anthony's head taking on the shape of a pumpkin. Or was there a pumpkin growing around his head? Carter honestly couldn't tell. He started to say something when the pumpkin seemed to explode covering everything and everyone close to Anthony in pumpkin guts. Well, maybe it just covered mostly Anthony and Effie, Carter couldn't be sure if anyone else was hit by the innards and seeds.
Carter gaped at the mess for a second and again glanced around the room. There was definitely hexing of some kind going on, but before he could ascertain who the culprit might be he was distracted by the shattering of glass. Carter's attention snapped to the left of him where the inkwell on his own desk had shattered, covering the top left part of his desk in blue ink. The ink was also currently on part of his robes and face by his ear. A quick self inspection revealed that he had apparently not been cut by any of the broken glass. Thank goodness for small miracles he thought to himself as he made his way over towards Anthony, Henry and Effie. By the time he reached them, it appeared one of them had managed to successfully remove all the pumpkin mess from their persons. Releasing a small sigh of relief he continued on towards them.
He arrived about the same time another ink well exploded, covering some of Effie's blond hair with black ink. If he didn't know any better he could almost swear he saw her eyes flash for a split second with what looked like anger maybe, but she had quickly composed herself so he couldn't be sure. He heard her suggestion to Anthony about them going to investigate and had to agree. He wasn't sure entirely what she was suggesting they investigate, be it their unknown assailant or the staff's apparent disappearance, but either way investigation appeared to be their best course of action at this point. Carter stopped just to the left of Anthony and voiced his agreement with Effie. "I think you're right Effie," he told her after asking if she was okay. He had heard her protest when the ink well had struck her and wanted to make sure she hadn't been injured by any of the glass. Once he was sure she was indeed uninjured he continued.
"I agree that an investigation is in order," he told her although he wasn't positive he knew what she had suggested they investigate exactly. Be it their unknown assailant or the disappearance of the staff. Either way they needed to figure out what was happening and quick. "I don't know about either of you, but I'd sure like to know what the devil is going on around here. Both inside this room and outside of it. Just tell me how I can be of assistance."
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Carter Browning, Teppenpaw
I couldn't agree more
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Carter Browning, Teppenpaw
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Anthony Carey
March 25, 2014 5:16 PM
It's an excellent idea by Anthony Carey
Anthony wanted to try out some of the language he had heard Arthur use after one of the experiments his brother no doubt thought he didn’t know about had, evidently, gone very wrong (the strange black…stuff which had resulted had not completely come out of the carpet for three days, though whether that was because of its nature or Arthur’s unfitness for a career as a janitor was something he didn’t know) when the pumpkin broke away from his head suddenly, but he was pretty sure most of it wasn’t meant for times when you knew other people could hear you, and would offend Effie anyway. As she got rid of the remains of the pumpkin for him, he thought offending her was not really something he ought to do even aside from doing so being a breach of manners. His instruction in propriety hadn’t been as harsh as it might have been, but the family had still gone a long way toward working being a gentleman into his bones.“Thank you, Miss Arbon,” he mumbled, turning red as he thought about just how stupid he must have looked. And with Malcolm here, too; no doubt he was already planning a not-quite-insulting remark to make at the first opportunity. In front of a girl, too – the most proper girl in the year, better yet. He was sure it could get worse, but in the moment, he was really having trouble imagining how.
He thought this might mark about the fifth time in his life that he’d really wanted to hex someone, but that was difficult when he didn’t actually know who’d cast the spell at him, so he was just stuck looking stupid, instead of angry and vengeful or at least something which was a little more likely to be impressive than angry and stupid Instead, then, he took a deep breath and nodded, putting his wand down again – he didn’t even remember grabbing it clearly, no doubt because his head had been encased in a pumpkin at the time – only to snatch it up again when Effie’s hair began dripping black, just in time for him to notice that Henry appeared to be seconds away from a meltdown.
A way it could actually get worse.
“Scourgify,” he said, not liking the look in Effie’s eyes any more than he liked the choking sound Henry had just made. “Henry, I’m all right. Everything is fine.” Except that he didn’t even know who’d jinxed him, whether that person had done it just at random or had gone after him for a reason, his cousin was probably behind the destruction of his classmates’ personal property and might do worse if he didn’t calm down, and the person who was supposed to be dealing with this was conspicuously not here. And Brandon had been babbling something at breakfast about the clouds being purple, which was starting to sound more like something that might really have happened this morning instead of like the setup for a very badly-timed practical joke. The only good thing he could think of just now was that Henry wasn’t likely to be linked to the inkwells; since normally nothing here tried to hurt them and so didn’t stress him to the point of lashing out, Henry’s normal performances in class were both weak and controlled. “Or it’s going to be fine,” he added, since there limits to what anyone would accept, and he had to believe Henry was still enough like he had been underneath it all to see straight through that lie, anyway.
He was saved the problem of figuring out how to attract Carter and Wendy’s attention by Carter walking up to them. “Miss Arbon and I were just discussing a plan,” he said. “We were planning to go look for teachers in other rooms, or at least the Head Boy and Girl. She suggested you and Miss Canterbury might try to keep order in here while we did that.”
He couldn’t blame Carter if he balked at that, given the state of things in here, but he hoped it would work out. Because while things weren't really that bad, at least not yet, he had wanted few things in his life at all more than he wanted to be not one of the people responsible for what was going on in here.
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Anthony Carey
It's an excellent idea
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Anthony Carey
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Carter Browning
March 25, 2014 7:45 PM
It is indeed by Carter Browning
Carter found himself nodding at Anthony's comment. It was as good of a plan as any at the moment and it made sense. He wasn't entirely sure how he and Wendy were going to keep the peace, what with the exploding ink wells and such going on. The fact that his arm had swollen up pretty badly didn't help matters any, but he was willing to do what needed to be done despite that small inconvenience. He hadn't made Assistant Captain by wimping out. He was not about to wimp out now."I agree," he told Anthony. "Wendy and I can try to keep the peace here while you and Miss Arbon are checking the other classrooms. Hopefully doing so will answer a few questions and give us a better idea of what we're dealing with." He wasn't entirely sure if it would help, but it was better than doing nothing. "Besides on top of everything else it would appear that we have a prankster here in the room," he pointed out. He knew it was probably obvious to his fellow prefects already, but he couldn't stop himself from stating the obvious. "This might give us the chance to figure out who it is and put a stop to it." He had dropped his voice a bit so that only Anthony, Effie and perhaps Wendy heard him (if she had decided to join them at that point).
"This way, if he or she should strike again, Effie won't end up with more ink in her hair or worse," he pointed out gently. Given what little bit he knew about Effie he was fairly certain she would not be very happy with anything else exploding on or around her. She had appeared to be less than thrilled when the pumpkin around Anthony's head exploded and the ink well hit her. Carter wasn't certain how much more she could take without cracking and to be honest he was hoping he wouldn't have to find out.
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Carter Browning
It is indeed
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Carter Browning
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Wendy Canterbury - Pecari
March 26, 2014 1:32 AM
But...what if something big happens? by Wendy Canterbury - Pecari
Wendy had always been fascinated by prairie elves and had hoped to befriend one. They never seemed to be around very often, however, but today seemed to be the exception. It was with some misfortune that she had decided to sleep in and skip breakfast, as she saw troves of prairie elves wandering around in the halls. She was not a morning person unlike her older sister and that didn’t work in her favor on most occasions. Wendy was tempted to stop an elf and ask why it looked so troubled as she power-walked down the hall, but she was going to be late for class and didn’t want to begin her fifth year on the DADA professor’s bad side, whoever it was going to be. She hoped the elves would still be there when class got out and thought she might even be able to help now that she was a Prefect.Receiving the position had been a large surprise to Wendy. Historically she had never cared t take on the position of authority, and she had never needed to. But she was happy that she had received it; it meant the professors thought her capable despite her consistent yearbook award of Most Dazed and Confused. Wendy was a Prefect along with Carter and that made her happy too. She hadn’t been able to respond much to him or to anyone over the summer. She was getting worse at writing letters and better at texting on her cell phone, and found much more amusement in exploring different thrift shops, traveling, and baking with her mom now that she was old enough. Big responsibilities were not often bestowed upon her since she was the youngest. That was part of the reason why Wendy hadn’t expected to be responsible for something at school; her sister usually did it all.
But Waverly wasn’t in her classes anymore and now Wendy, too, had the shiny badge on her robes that she had almost forgotten to pin on in her rush. As she walked into the DADA classroom, she found it odd that there was no sign of authority in the classroom. Wendy took her seat, slightly confused. In her experience, professors at Sonora were slightly obsessed with punctuality and school itself ran on a disciplined schedule. She looked around to see if anyone else found this strange as well. Effie Arbon and Anthony Carey were talking, and Wendy knew she would have to join them eventually, but put off the inevitable responsibility for just a minute more.
As she waited, she saw Carter flinch as if in pain, and as Carter approached the other two Prefects, Anthony’s head turned into a pumpkin and exploded. Wendy’s immediate reaction was to freeze and stare in shock, her jaw dropping. “What in the world!” she exclaimed and thought she’d better join them to find out what was going on before someone else’s pumpkin-head exploded. If both Carter and Anthony had been hit, there was some telling in who would be hit next. This person, if it was indeed a person, could be trying to get all the Prefects. Wendy gulped, but approached the other Prefects bravely. Maybe there was some loose magic in the school that was attacking all the authority figures. If all the professors were gone, then the Head students and Prefects would be next. Wendy was feeling a little nervous.
Carter was talking about a potential prankster in the room and Anthony and Effie were going to leave to check on other classes. That meant she and Carter would be in charge to control all of these students. At least they were the older ones in their class. Wendy gulped again, unused to so much responsibility and fearful of the loose magic roaming around the room attacking the Prefects. That had to be it. She hadn’t seen anyone break the ink bottles, and while she knew of uncontrolled magic, she didn’t think that could be the reason. “What if it wasn’t a person that was responsible?” Wendy asked, looking at each of them nervously. “What if the magic that took away the professors is now trying to take away the Head Boy and Girl and the Prefects as well? It could be some kind of loose magic, couldn’t it? I mean, only Anthony and Carter were attacked and they're both Prefects. Maybe something broke and now it’s attacking all the authority figures!” Wendy squeaked out her last sentence; it wasn’t a completely crazy idea to her. Magic wasn’t always stable and could cause serious damage. She didn’t understand it completely and she was sure that her peers didn’t either, even the ones who’d grown up with it.
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Wendy Canterbury - Pecari
But...what if something big happens?
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Wendy Canterbury - Pecari
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