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beyondwandpoint) wrote2020-06-10 10:17 pm
beyondwandpoint) wrote2020-06-10 10:17 pm
Entry tags:
- aaron avery,
- accio,
- akira murakami,
- alberta runcorn,
- antispasmodic potion,
- astoria greengrass,
- banishing charm,
- bartholomew burke,
- blaise zabini,
- blood replenishing potion,
- bubblehead charm,
- calming draught,
- carnivorous capsaicin concoction,
- carnivorous capsicum,
- cleaning charm,
- cleansing charm,
- convesto,
- daphne greengrass,
- dentifricium,
- depulso,
- diffindo,
- dittany,
- draco malfoy,
- draught of peace,
- ella wilkins,
- evanesco,
- fanfic,
- ferula,
- finite incantatem,
- flaying curse,
- full body-bind,
- girding potion,
- gregory goyle,
- harper hutchinson,
- hermione granger / severus snape,
- impervius,
- incendio,
- japanese sticky squid ink wheeze,
- millicent bulstrode,
- mobilicorpus,
- modesty charm,
- muscle mending salve,
- notice-me-not,
- pain relieving potion,
- partial body-bind,
- permissions,
- petrificus,
- petrificus totalus,
- pointer finger,
- potions application spell,
- potions safety,
- potions testing,
- potterverse,
- privacy charm,
- privacy charms,
- protego,
- septuple s,
- sheldon shafiq,
- shield charms,
- slytherin boys' dorms,
- slytherin dungeons,
- slytherins being slytherins,
- snamione,
- ss/hg,
- styptic flick,
- summoning charm,
- theo nott,
- tomasina touchstone,
- torsten touchstone,
- touchstone's triple t,
- vanishing spell,
- vincent crabbe,
- wheezes,
- wingardium leviosa,
- wit-sharpening potion
“beyond wandpoint” 122a by gingerbred
“11 13f Thurs - Out 1” Part 1
Slytherins: Draco Malfoy, Theo Nott, Blaise Zabini, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Daphne Greengrass, Harper Hutchinson, Ella Wilkins, Astoria Greengrass, Tomasina Touchstone
Mentioned briefly: Slytherins: Millicent Bulstrode, Alberta Runcorn, Aaron Avery, Sheldon Shafiq, Torsten Touchstone, Bartholomew Burke, Akira Murakami, Ravenclaws: Morag MacDougal, Others: Madam Lyssandra
Originally Published: 2020-06-10 on LJ / DW
Chapter: 122 part 1
The original version of this chapter exceeded livejournal's maximum post length. It's been split in two parts.
THIS CHAPTER IS A TWO-PARTER. READ THIS FIRST.
Characters:
Slytherins: Draco Malfoy 7S (Prefect, Team Captain, Seeker, Swot), Theo Nott 7S (Swottiest, Nervous Wreck), Blaise Zabini 7S (Keeper (but only in the Quidditch sense...)), Vincent 'Vince' Crabbe 7S (Beater, Inferi Princess), Gregory Goyle 7S (pierced Beater with a lovely voice), Daphne Greengrass 7S (Sparkly! Fwoopers!), Harper Hutchinson 6S (Prefect, Chaser, flash Robe Model), Ella Wilkins 6S (Prefect), Astoria 'Tori' Greengrass 5S, Tomasina Touchstone 5S (Prefect, Potions savvy heiress)
Mentioned briefly: Slytherins: Millicent 'Millie' Bulstrode (Reserve Beater, yes, that.), Alberta Runcorn 7S (Grumpy.), Aaron Avery 6S (Reserve Chaser), Sheldon Shafiq 6S (Reserve Beater, and charm on legs), Torsten 'Tor' Touchstone 6S (sleepyhead, heir to the Touchstone fortune), Bartholomew 'Bart' Burke 5S (sallow), Akira Murakami 5S (Prefect), Ravenclaws: Morag MacDougal 7R (lippy Muggle-born with that lippy), Others: Madam Lyssandra (Proprietress of Dogweed & Deathcap)
Previously:
A/N: A little more robust since it's been a while. (Sorry, life got ugly.) If you know what's what, just skip to the chapter.
Tuesday night. Vince is desperate to leave the Infirmary, especially as Pomfrey still appears to have no Pain Reliever. (Seriously??) That desperation manifests in an unfortunate attempt to teach Alberta and Millie how to use a Mobilicorpus to bring him back to the dorm, much to Vince's near immediate regret and Ernie Macmillan's unbridled delight. The things one sometimes encounters in the castle of an evening... (081 LJ / DW)
Wednesday morning. Slytherin awakes to discover Vince glued to one of the couches sporting an assortment of hexes that truly impress. Still, he seems to be holding up better than Theo, who for reasons almost no one can comprehend lies nearly catatonic in his bed. (091a LJ / DW) Draco had shared a letter from his mother with him that revealed some of the details from last Friday evening; Theo took the news of their assault on a classmate quite poorly. (080a LJ / DW) Everyone but Draco is blissfully unaware of the circumstances, and equally sure Theo has very little call for such a reaction, although Daphne is beginning to have her suspicions. Unable to manage Theo and Vince on their own, the House resorts to the Avada option and sends for the Head. (093 LJ / DW)
Severus is called in to sort matters in the Slytherin dorms, and although deeply touched that the students thought they were avenging him, gives them to understand that the behaviour was unacceptable, if only for practical reasons. (094 LJ / DW)
Harper, the rotten tosspot, has the unmitigated gall to photograph Vince at his absolute lowest Wednesday morning, when he's stuck to a couch in the common room and exposed to the ridicule of the House. Unsurprisingly he takes offence at being made a fool of. It's bad enough being accused of something he can't recall, worse still to have the entire House riled up against him for whatever it was, and beyond humiliating to be left out there in the open, wings flapping for all to see. No, that had been dreadful, but wanting to preserve it for posterity was naturally worse yet. And to do so for a profit? To monetise Vince's suffering? And the little tosser has done it before, too. Vince sees red. Fine, he may be a bit over-inclined to even on a good day, but Harper was clearly taking the piss. Vince does his best to see to it the pictures aren't distributed far and wide and to... express his displeasure at being used for such purposes. And if he manages to teach Harper a lesson in the process? Well it's a school, isn't it? (112a LJ / DW)
Unfortunately Vince's means of expressing that displeasure take the form of a beat down, and he leaves Harper in rather poor shape. If it weren't for the Pain Relieving Potions Tracey had slipped him...
Vince, the old thug, isn't Ella's favourite person at the moment. Going against all her Housemates' advice, she'd given him the benefit of the doubt and gone out on a date with him last year, and when she hadn't wished for a repeat, he'd sent her a Serpent to complain. Fortunately it was a squib, but that doesn't change the fact he'd tried. (Mentioned 065 LJ / DW) That was bad enough, but then he assaulted Harper Wednesday night, and there's also whatever he'd done to cause Professor Snape to have to take a Muggle-born bondmate. And finally, to top things off, he was rude when Daphne tried to help him, joining Blaise in disparaging her skills when her towel Transfiguration went wrong. As if he's one to talk. (121 LJ / DW)
In the wake of Wednesday morning's excesses, Draco appeals to Harper that afternoon to try to convince the others to take things down a level (or ten) so there's at least a chance of winning the Quidditch match against Gryffindor. (104 LJ / DW) He agrees to try, but isn't optimistic, and the boys' impromptu meeting that night only confirms his fears. (113a.1 LJ / DW)
Wednesday night. Having failed (almost completely) to absorb Severus' cease and desist message, Slytherin fifth years Bartholomew Burke, Akira Murakami and Jay Petrel deploy a bunch of hexes in the seventh years' lavatory in an effort to exact revenge for their Head of House. (113a.1 LJ / DW) Two are of particular relevance at the present. The first is a Japanese Wheeze comprised of what is presumably the world's stickiest squid ink that Akira was given by a visiting uncle, and currently Vince and especially Gregory are sporting a fair bit of the stuff. The second is something of a combined effort gone awry, Jay had placed a conditional Transfiguration on some shampoo dregs that Bart had Engorgioed and spread across the floor. The result, rather unexpectedly, seems to be spikes of glass that shoot up from the floor on contact now that it's gotten wet, and for some reason a very far cry from the related sandpaper Transfiguration Jay had applied to the towels. Magic can be strange that way. (121 LJ / DW)
Thursday morning. When Vince's loo roll turns to dust, the seventh year boys realise someone has been interfering with their lavatory, and Blaise sets about trying to detect any further jinxes and hexes. Guided somewhat in his search by Draco's explanation that the castle's substance is highly resistant to such things, Blaise inadvertently overlooks a crucial spell on the floor, but eventually discovers Jay's hex on their towels. (118 LJ / DW) Theo attempts to analyse it. He concludes, not entirely correctly, that water is the trigger, but still has reservations. Vince seeks to clarify the matter and turns an Auguamenti on the towels in proof, soaking the floor, but appearing to settle things once and for all. (119a LJ / DW)
When the floor hex goes off, most of the seventh year boys are injured, and Draco is forced to turn to their Housemates for help. Harper answers his cries for aid and is able to convince Daphne, Tomasina, Tori and Ella to assist. (120 LJ / DW) Ella is attempting to help Theo, Daphne is overseeing a couple of towels that form their bridges over the cursed floor and the Protegos beneath them, and Harper is trying to help Gregory, who has one of those ominous spikes running through his foot. (121 LJ / DW)
Tomasina opens the small purse secured at her waist on a deceptively thin leather strap and begins to leaf through it for the Potion she needs, technically a Draught. The inconspicuous dragon hide leather case was a gift from her grandparents when she first started Hogwarts, a potions pouch - undetectably extended, of course - the best that Galleons (and still more Galleons) could buy. Some purists have been known to argue that it isn't the most favourable of environments for potions, the Head not least amongst them unfortunately, but she can't say she's noticed any real detrimental effects, and it isn't as though she can't swap things out regularly if she ever were to. It may help, however, that her inventory isn't all too esoteric, and the fifth year witch in question, and subsequently the potions she owns, not particularly old.
Severus would think his usual scathing thoughts about her dismissiveness, all part and parcel of why he is certain - if he can only survive the war - his potions would outsell the Touchstones' fare any day of the week, the septuple S only the opening volley. Given that's predicated on his survival, however, their potions empire presumably has little to fear from his competition, he is equally sure. Luckily he hasn't got that altogether right for once.
It isn't even a matter of moments and Tomasina has what she wants - whatever else, she's extremely well organised - and soon she's handing Blaise a Calming Draught to help manage his pain. It was well chosen. She still hasn't any Pain Relief, and isn't altogether certain he warrants it, but the Calming shouldn't keep Madam Pomfrey from doing anything she might choose to with the boy. Well, shy of giving him Peace, but where's the point in that? Ah, or an Antispasmodic, Tomasina's mental index of all-facts-potions supplies, but then it's hardly required here and if needed could be administered directly to the bloodstream at any rate.
Well, by the Mediwitch anyway.
Obviously she herself couldn't do something like that. But no, other than that, Calming wasn't contraindicated.
The seventh year takes the phial gratefully, quaffs it immediately and soon ceases some of his cavilling. Tori, for one, appreciates that fact, immensely. It's not like there was anything else they could have done for the boy, shy of a Stupefy anyhow. With all his whinging and that laugh at Daph's towel Transfiguration gone awry, she'd sort of been considering it, to be honest. Seriously.
Draco still hasn't made it over to where Ella is waiting, perched on a Protego next to Theo, and so typically hasn't seen fit to brief her either as he makes his cumbersome way towards her. No worries. She needn't stand here idle. Vince seems to be all too eager for her attention anyway.
"Why don't you take a seat... You can sit, can't you?" She casts a look in the direction of his still very bare bottom, but can't see any trace of that black goop that would make sitting on Daphne's towel, or anything else for that matter, a very poor idea indeed.
The tenor of the look itself should have been warning enough, but this is Vince.
"I've been sitting since I was a babe." He manages to make it sound like a boast; Harper can't imagine why, except for an absence of other, more boastworthy feats, and even then...
"No, you arse," he admonishes the older boy. "She means have you got any of that sticky gunk. On your arse." When dealing with Vince, the redundancy can be forgiven. And it's best not to leave the insult implied; he's liable to miss it.
"Uh, no." Vince turns to double check, contorting enough that Daphne is back to staring at the ceiling from where she's standing in the doorway. "No, it's all clear."
"Then why don't you sit down on the towel and hold up your feet so I can get a good look at them." Ella sounds the soul of patience, which she isn't quite; she's far too bright to suffer fools gladly. Then again, for their House (everything is relative) she really is a remarkably tolerant person, second perhaps only to Daphne. It's just that Vince has pushed her a little too far for too long, and with recent events...
Vince does as she suggests, and then manages to put his own personal spin on it, legs bent and feet held comically high in the air as he sits there bare arsed on the towel Harper is once again reflexively pleased to have Imperviused when he notices just what's going on behind him. Merlin's fuzzy ballsack. The Modesty Charm Tori had performed leaves Vince's todger covered by a Conjured fig leaf, his bollocks, on the other hand, must surely be extremely exposed in that position. Harper would have spared Ella the sight if he could; as it is, he's just glad Daph doesn't have a clear view of it from her position by the door.
"Oh," Ella tsks ruefully, and Harper can hear the sheer drama dripping in her voice. Oh yes, Vince is for it. "That doesn't look good at all." Harper's only too inclined to agree, quietly certain they both don't mean the Beater's feet, apropos fuzzy ballsacks... "I'm afraid we'll have to start by disinfecting them," she sighs.
Tor would be extremely sorry to have missed this if he had any idea what was going on. Ella's tone was pitch perfect to fuel any Naughty Nurse fantasy the boy had ever thought to have. As the Touchstone heir isn't old enough to have been taught the House Privacy Charm, and all too evidently doesn't seem to have a family one, Harper knows rather more about Tor's fantasies than he'd like. He isn't completely sure if he approves, but it's probably more of a latent objection on principle. Tor is fairly unobjectionable as wizards go, but no one was ever going to be quite good enough for Ella in Harper's eyes. Still, perhaps he'll mention this in passing to torment the boy later. It's only what he deserves for not rising in a timely fashion on his own.
"I think what's required here," and doesn't Ella sound sympathetic, "is a Carnivorous Capsaicin Concoction."
Ouch.
Merlin.
And she said it without bursting into laughter, too. Although... a cackle might be more situationally appropriate, all considered.
Draco freezes in disbelief mid crawl and in their bedroom Blaise grows unusually quiet. Heavens. They know it's a very deliberate choice, there can't be any question about it. The Concoction isn't useless, not by any means, but there are dozens, possibly hundreds of better choices available. Their standing here quite evidently isn't great. Carnivorous Capsaicin Concoction? That standing of theirs may even be wretched. They probably need to focus on being glad they're being helped at all, really. Independently they decide they'll hold their tongues, but they both know they're fucked if that's her first suggestion. Blaise, fortunately, doesn't care anywhere near as much any more, a further benefit to Calming for all concerned. If this keeps up, however, they may yet need to put an end to the girls' help. Because if things continue in this vein... And yet... The seventh years hadn't been in any shape to manage the situation on their own...
No, they're probably royally buggered either way.
The Carnivorous Capsicum was second only to the Carolina Reaper in Scoville Heat Units, but, as the name suggests, had a good deal more... bite. The Capsaicin Concoction, literally an almost obscene distillation of its heat, had been introduced a half a millennium prior. There's a fair amount of scholarly debate whether it was initially marketed for torture or disinfectant, although it did both reasonably well. For completely understandable reasons, of course, it had gone out of favour as antiseptics go almost immediately after its introduction in a move that surprised absolutely no one save the old wizard from the Gaunt line with congenital analgesia who had made the discovery in the first place. He in turn had been rather frustrated to see all his hard work on the Potion go to naught, but then that's rather the point with testing: just because it works for some by no means guarantees it'll work for all. And definitely not safely.
It wasn't a complete wash up, though, not that Gaunt lived to see it. Two hundred years later Glover Hipworth went on to create Pepper-Up; Carnivorous Capsaicin Concoction famously is one of its main ingredients. The key difference in its application therein, obviously, lies in units, always near and dear to a Potions Master's heart. A single drop is sufficient to brew a large cauldron of the cold cure; disinfecting, however, requires rather... more. The fact it's necessary in such a common potion, however, is what leads Ella to hope her request for some will be answered in the affirmative. She raises her voice to be sure she's heard, "Tomasina, I don't suppose you have any Capsaicin with you?"
To her great credit as a Slytherin, the girl doesn't even blink. Well alright, maybe just the once, but anything else would have been sheer inhuman.
"Sure," comes the steady reply. It's clear the fifth year means to play along. Tomasina leaves Blaise to Tori, there wasn't anything much to be done for him anyway, and joins Daphne in the doorway to the lavatory. Again she rifles briefly through her pouch before Banishing a phial to Ella. A quick Impervius of the sixth year Prefect's hands and arms, just to be safe, and a Bubblehead Charm to protect her face and eyes, and she unstoppers the phial and with a delicate twist of her wand sends a small stream of the flame coloured liquid towards Vince's lacerated feet.
They don't have long to wait for his screams.
One thing is absolutely clear to Draco - had there been any doubt - the others may be willing to help the seventh years, but the boys are far from forgiven.
A half-automatic Impervius to his training kit - not that his togs probably merit it, he's well aware of that, but Harper has no wish to end up bloodied like Draco, and in the final analysis, they're all the gear he has - the sixth year had meanwhile used the time to take stock of Gregory's situation. He now thinks he knows how to handle the foot, the... speared foot. Merlin. It won't be pleasant. Freeze the Beater in place, then pull him upwards straight off the spike and then Ella can figure things out and bandage him up. He suspects that's leaving the heavy lifting to her, but then that's why he'd wanted her help. Medical Charms aren't exactly his cup of tea. Of course that still leaves the matter of the stuck hand... Harper hasn't a clue there. Cautious attempts to tug it free do bugger all, which had been obvious really, as Gregory's not inconsiderable weight was hanging by it. That's not to say the boy is fat, he most certainly isn't, not at all, but muscle apparently weighs a tonne, and the seventh year has a lot of it. Harper's examining the tiles for any hint of an idea.
It's not looking promising.
He's about to climb in the shower, ever mindful of the traces of the Japanese Wheeze he needs to carefully avoid, and see if he can spot any sign of a solution from there when Vince starts shrieking.
That interrupts him well enough.
He stops to watch, but then how could he not? Everyone does.
As those more versed in Potions know, in under half an hour there won't even be a lingering trace left of the damage Vince is certain is being done to his flesh. Less than that, even, if Pomfrey gets a Pain Relieving Potion into the boy. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, excruciatingly, just at the moment. And of course he has no idea how long this will last. All in all, not a bad choice on Ella's part.
And she isn't done with him yet.
There's a look of extreme concentration on her face as she applies the stuff, he's a bit of a moving target now, like a man-sized dung beetle, rocking on its back and yowling up a storm.
Vince could swear every nerve in his body has been set aflame with Fiendfyre, and in moments he's sure nothing but ashes will be left. Dimly he realises the screams he hears are his own, but he can't seem to do anything about it. Holy bloody buggering fuck is this painful. It feels like he's been dunked in acid and he half expects the flesh to fall from his bones. It disappoints. This might even be worse than the Crucio. Except there's no twitching, as Draco would happily point out. Brilliant, yes, because that definitely makes it all so much better...
Vince just wants it to end.
Daphne seems about ready to bolt, and yet the sight of Theo there... The others suspended above that cursed floor... She takes a deep breath, adjusts her grip on her wand, her palm suddenly sweaty, and starts thinking furiously about Fwoopers.
It isn't that much of a help.
What's it been, ten, fifteen seconds at the utmost? Far from a minute at any rate. Ella relents fairly quickly, she just isn't built for inflicting pain. Truthfully Harper had been a little impressed she'd even been willing to try, but then Professor Snape is her favourite teacher by far. No, if she's any indication, the House isn't going to take his bonding and its ramifications lightly. Although to be fair, the projectile through Gregory's foot had been sort of a giveaway, too...
Ella quits her onslaught, stoppers the phial, and thoroughly cleans it before pocketing it, ending her Bubblehead Charm and turning her attention to Vince once more. She may not have the stomach for more abuse, but Harper is willing to pick up the slack, "You'll need to rub your feet together to spread the stuff properly into the cuts." Vince may have whimpered. Good.
Draco shoots Harper a look, trying to gauge what this means for the conditional truce he thought they had negotiated... Realistically none of this will keep Vince from playing today, well except for maybe the sticky substance. In fact, the only other thing that might cause problems at this stage is if one of the seventh years were to tell Vince just how unnecessary this all was. That's an odd thought. It only serves to ensure Draco's silence; these days, he's plenty used to keeping secrets anyway. He returns his attention to his Protego and reaching Theo and Ella, and does his best to ignore the sounds Vince is making. He's practised in that, too. Worst case, there's always another Privacy Charm...
"Come on, we've still got the others to see to," Harper eggs Vince on. The older boy cries as he does as bidden, rubbing his feet once, twice, and a third time together before his legs flop, nearly lifeless, back onto towel. He simply couldn't manage anymore. Realistically, in this case, that was the very definition of 'enough'.
Satisfied, if also somewhat uncomfortably surprised at herself and on balance unaccustomedly ambivalent towards her own actions, Ella waves her wand once more to perform the Styptic Flick. Vince's feet, now a deep crimson from the Concoction, are crisscrossed with many cuts. After her charm, the cuts remain, but the blood finally stops flowing. A quick Cleansing Charm to remove the remaining traces of blood that had survived the disinfectant, and then a moment later a Ferula has his feet neatly bandaged. Somewhat paradoxically, she couldn't bring herself to do any less.
The way he's sprawled there, Harper gets the feeling Vince won't be of much use after all. It's probably just as well. Harper is really not a fan at the moment. Any attempt at working together was going to have been predicated on a precarious peace at best.
Draco finally reaches Ella's Protego and carefully joins her next to Theo. His caution is nontrivially dictated by the witch; if he approaches her somewhat gingerly after that display, it's only justified. Ella, on the other hand, has more difficulty with the sudden movement of the invisible shield. Her arms shoot out from her sides in an effort to maintain her balance, briefly thrown off as the thing bobs under Draco's steps.
Harper waits, wand at the ready, until he sees her recover and then suggests, "Why don't you two see to Theo? I'll wrap things up with Vince."
Ella gives Harper an apologetic look. They had initially intended to have Vince help him with Gregory. Now... Well that seems rather unlikely. She'd let her anger get the best of her. Harper just smiles reassuringly back at her. He understands the temptation. Completely.
"Mind the... that stuff," Draco is quick to remind Harper. He seems safer to address than Ella just now.
Harper shakes his head, he isn't stupid.
A Partial Body-Bind on the Beater ensures the traces of the Wheeze on his hand won't inadvertently come into contact with the rest of him. The streak on the front of his right shoulder was unlikely to accidentally connect with much of anything, so that's alright... It's Harper's Mobilicorpus, however, presumably the most painless thing they've done to the boy in the past couple of minutes, that causes Vince to keen in desperation. He may still feel the after effects of Alberta's and Millie's attempt to bring him back to the dungeons with one Tuesday evening. And while Harper has no intention of being gentle, not at all, he'd be very hard pressed to make his Mobilicorpus anywhere near as violent as the seventh year girls' had been, even if quite unintentionally.
'Thwack!'
Almost predictably, Harper steers his Mobilicorpus into the doorframe again. Spread-eagled and supine as the seventh year is, it takes considerable effort to be sure the hand with the Japanese Wheeze doesn't strike the architraves, and the fact Harper is able to pull it off might belie his claims that the Charm is too imprecise. On the other hand, perhaps he'd simply been willing to risk it, and if it happens to move the boy as far as possible from Daphne as he passes? All the better. Daphne would once again be staring ceilingwards, this time trying to ignore Vince's naked buttocks as they go sailing past, except that was only likely to give her a better view. Embarrassed, she chooses to examine her feet now instead. Tomasina, forced to duck, doesn't seem to mind the sight overmuch for her part, although Gregory's arse would have been preferable. Quite naturally.
Harper deposits Vince on the floor of his bedroom with a bit of force and Finites the Petrificus. The boy squeals and leaps for the nearest bed, his feet too tender to stand about. Draco is less than pleased to notice the bed in question is his. Ah well, the elves will surely sort it. And if not, that's what Cleaning Charms are for.
Vince's whinging briefly attracts Tori's and Tomasina's attention, but soon it shifts to the lavatory once more, where Draco is attempting to explain the situation with Theo and what he'd done to help him so far. Blaise takes advantage of their distraction to apply an Icing Charm to Vince's feet. Vince's relief is immediate and he begins to thank his roommate for his assistance when Blaise shakes his head quietly and presses his forefinger to his lips, signalling for the Beater to be still. And then with a slight jerk of his head in the direction of the girls and a small circular gesture of his hand indicates Vince should keep carrying on.
Vince gets the message loud and clear, apparently he should ham it up, and he promptly sets about doing just that, moaning and groaning for all he's worth. He thinks it's because the girls or Harper could have easily performed the Charm and hadn't, and is inclined to agree that exaggerating his discomfort is more likely to get him some sympathy or at least not worsen his treatment. Blaise is evidently clever like that.
While that's true, the Keeper's first thought was that as the pain had been inflicted intentionally, a fact he means to studiously keep from Vince, letting the others know it was now less of an issue couldn't possibly help their collective situation any. He's rather hoping guilt will get the better of them and stay their wands from anything further. They can be soft that way.
Draco tries to recount what had happened to Theo as best he can. Theo had been attempting to detect the components of a Hex when things had gone wrong, that much was clear; as far as Draco could piece together, issues arose from stepping into a puddle Vince had left on the floor. (That earns them some funny looks, but Draco declines to explain. In the retelling it will prove rather unfortunate, but then now also isn't the time for extraneous details.) The Wheeze, that Sticky stuff, had been hidden in the soap (a detail which certainly seems extraneous enough to Ella's mind, Harper however listens with rapt attention; boys).
Meanwhile at the mention, Vince complains once more about the inadequate curse detection to Blaise, who now wonders why in Merlin's name he'd bothered with the Icing Charm for the ungrateful prat as he glares at him on the bed across from his. Bounder.
In the lavatory, Draco continues his account. Gregory had cried out in alarm when the goo began to emerge, no fool or Firstie he. In an effort to escape the stuff, he tried to leap from the shower, and then everything apparently went rapidly to hell.
From the look of the room and the boys, Ella is inclined to agree with Draco's assessment.
Gregory's soaking wet foot exerting pressure on the floor seems to have triggered the Curse, and off it went with wild abandon, starting to radiate to all corners of the room, or near enough as not to make any difference. Startled, Theo naturally had tried to move - who wouldn't? - in the process stepping directly into the aforementioned puddle and greatly exacerbating the situation, and now the vicious thing seemed to respond to any pressure at all. Vince had followed Gregory's lead and tried to exit the shower; properly forewarned by Gregory's screams, however, he'd immediately retreated to the shower's edge - forced to avoid the Wheeze oozing from the soap he'd incautiously dropped on the shower's floor - and with nothing more than a number of cuts to show for it. (Up until Ella's... tender ministrations, he'd thought himself quite lucky this morning.) Theo rather impressively had gotten off Protegos for himself and Gregory, in both cases unfortunately a little too late, but it had kept far worse from happening. Their cries had attracted Draco and Blaise, and while Draco had luckily stopped at the door to assess the situation, Blaise had kept running, Theo's next Protego painfully knocking his feet out from under him, but thankfully keeping him from a skewering of his own...
Which is the point in the recitation when Ella finally begins to press Draco as to the precise nature of Theo's 'skewering', damn it. Circe's left tit. She's getting the impression here that Draco hadn't had them see to Theo first because he frankly hasn't the foggiest idea what to do and then being Ella promptly says as much. She happens to be one of the less reticent Snakes.
Full marks for the sixth year Prefect as her conclusion is spot on, and Draco's guilty blinking in reply effectively tells her so.
"Have you never heard of triage?" She cries, poking Draco in the chest indignantly. It doesn't hold a candle to Tracey's index finger of doom. She may need to learn the spell for that when the witch graduates if she means to be taken seriously. She can't believe he let her faff about with Vince if Theo seriously needed help, and any stirrings of guilt she may have felt about that episode now magnify. "You treat the most injured first!"
He crouches on their Protego to get a better look at the injury, and she unthinkingly follows suit, which is the first time she gets a close enough look to determine what had struck her as wrong all along with the invisible bowl formed by yet another Shield Charm that's holding the small pool of blood at Theo's foot.
It's too small.
That Protego... is... too... small.
There's no way in hell his whole foot fits in there, which is about the time the Knut finally drops and she realises that it quite obviously doesn't.
His whole foot isn't in there.
Growing immediately queasy at the thought, never mind the sight, Ella blanches, all colour leaching from her.
She holds a fist tightly pressed to her mouth as her stomach rebels, and instinctively turns away from Theo and Draco to vomit behind her.
Directly onto the cursed floor.
It's completely reflexive; it clearly wasn't remotely thought through.
She's jackknifed and just begun to retch when Daphne throws up yet another Protego, this time to act as a basin in front of the girl. Draco reacts nearly simultaneously, grabbing a handful of the sixth year's uniform blouse and yanking her backwards towards him with all his might. He knows a variety of charms, sadly often necessary, for Cleaning the both of them up if that manoeuvre goes badly wrong, but the risk the floor poses... Ella's stomach is effectively empty, she hasn't breakfasted yet, and Draco silently Vanishes the traces of bile from the Protego, it's practically a habit by now. He's far too used to it from the Manor. Likewise Daph's Vanished the sick from the basin and ended the Charm before anyone else can respond.
Ella lies there, resting half against Draco's chest, panting from the scare, struggling to catch her breath. At least the shock helps combat the nausea. Who knew?
"Fucking hell, Draco?!" Comes Harper's angry accusation from where he stands, helplessly watching the scene unfold.
"Language," Ella whimpers softly, she's a Prefect after all, but then again, so is he; he really should know better. Harper finds her reaction somewhat reassuring.
"Sorry. I've got her. She's alright," the blond sounds like he himself may have just had a fright, which further helps take the edge off Harper's temper.
"Thanks, Daph," the sixth year adds once he regains some control of himself and it no longer sounds confrontational.
"No worries," she assures him. "Any time." By which she means she desperately hopes it won't be necessary again. Her pulse is racing, she wasn't cut out for this sort of thing, and she's trying to picture Fwoopers, lots and lots of beautiful, gloriously silenced Fwoopers. Not that unsilenced ones should be any more maddening than the past couple of days have been... Merlin. She tries to steal a look at Theo's foot, but Ella is obstructing her view. It's probably for the best.
Draco asks Ella, "Are you alright now? Can we continue?" She nods, still a little weakly. "Just try not to sick up on the floor," he adds. "It's too dangerous."
"Cheers, I gathered as much," she answers drily, and then tries to clear her throat.
Cautiously Daph asks them what's wrong with Theo, because Ella's reaction has her very worried.
"Just mind your towels, Daphne," Draco commands. It's so like him to ignore her Shield Charms. "Everyone needs to pay attention to what they're doing." Well he isn't wrong there. Turning to the sixth year Prefect in his arms, more gently he asks, "Ella, have you got your stomach under control?"
There's something about the sight of her there that faintly begins to register with Theo, a feeling he needs to do something, he must intervene... He's too far gone for that to work, but it's the first time anything has gone noticed in minutes now. Considering the volume of Vince's screams, that says rather a lot.
Ella nods, wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve, as good an indication as any that she isn't doing as well as she'd like them to think, but then it's Imperviused and that's what Cleansing and Cleaning Charms are for. She'll get to them in a moment. Ella rights herself until she's kneeling, unpinning Draco in the process, and clears her throat again. "Tomasina, we could really do with some Blood Replenisher. And I think either a Wit or Girding Potion, if you have one."
At the mention of the latter, Draco thinks ruefully of his plans to brew some for the Reserve Team players today. He'd planned to do so in their lavatory. Looking around, he'll probably need to rethink that... Severus isn't going to be pleased when he hears of any of this.
What else is new?
"I have some Wit," Tomasina replies. She fishes some potions from her pouch and sends them Ella's way. One by one, Draco plucks them from the air and hands them to the girl. The fact Tomasina includes a Touchstone's Triple T for Ella's stomach is a pretty good indicator she'd noted the older girl's rather visceral response to the situation. Ella quietly nods her thanks and quaffs it before applying a Dentifricium and the Cleaning and Cleansing Charms. Already she feels so much better.
Ella looks at Draco and quietly asks, "Do we have the... toes?"
"We do," Draco replies, all business. He points at the Protego beneath their feet, "They're a little inaccessible at the moment." She can just make them out, now that she knows what to look for, between the blood and the glass spikes on the floor. "I suspect we'll need to get Theo to Summon them."
"If he's able," she nods, not entirely certain. "Right. Let's see... Well, we can't use a Styptic Flick, because it might make reattachment a problem."
Daphne squeaks, "Reattachment?" She sounds a lot like Flitwick when he gets excited.
Turning, Ella calls out to Tomasina, "What about Dittany?" Draco can't help noticing no one thought to mention Dittany when they were treating Vince. Again he tries to remind himself to be grateful for the help they're providing. It helps nip any resentment in the bud. For the most part, anyway. Recollecting this was all undoubtably because of Severus' bonding and their role in it does the rest. This year is going to be dreadful.
Well, more so than expected.
Bollocks.
Tomasina answers, now about as pale as Daphne and Ella, "Sounds like it wouldn't be a good idea for the same reason?" It isn't so much a question from lack of knowledge of the material as it is a reluctance to think about the subject matter at hand. Or, um, foot. Tomasina knows her potions, serious injuries a good deal less so.
"Will you be able to use the Styptic Flick on Gregory?" Harper asks, before calling for Tomasina to Depulso him some Blood Replenisher, too. The witch is happy to oblige; useful action is so much safer than allowing her thoughts to wander right now... She's glad Tori can't see any of this from where she's sitting on Blaise's bed. Daphne would be relieved about that too, of course, if she could get her thoughts past Fwoopers, but then that's part of the issue with panic. It really isn't great for rational thought.
"I believe it'll be the same problem as with Theo, so no," Ella answers his question. "It'll just Incarcerous Madam Pomfrey's wand hand."
"An Incendio to cauterise the wound?" Draco suggests.
"No, I really don't think we should," Ella answers, much to Gregory's relief. "She'd still need to treat with courses of Burn Salve, and cauterisation certainly wouldn't fix all of the damage. A Ferula to apply pressure, and then get him to the Infirmary as quickly as we can, I think." Oddly she doesn't suggest Dittany again, although she most likely would have had she seen what Harper has of the Beater's foot.
There's a nervous look to Gregory as he stands there hoping they won't need to disinfect it first. Merlin, after seeing Vince's reaction to the stuff, he sure as hell isn't going to mention it.
Harper gives the boy a nudge and tells him to open up. They makes short work of pouring the Blood Replenisher into Gregory's gullet. With the sticky state of his hands, he really couldn't have taken it by himself.
"Might want to get some clothes on him first," Blaise suggests, his voice wafting in from the bedroom, throwing a slightly disdainful look towards Vince sat there, still wearing nothing but a fig leaf... With a glance at Gregory, Tomasina again tsks in regret, but Blaise has a point. A Notice-Me-Not probably isn't going to be sufficient to the task, oo er missus, and there is the House reputation to consider. For instance the fact almost anyone encountering them is far more likely to take precious House points from Slytherin no matter how justified the reasons for their actions...
"Vince, you could at least start trying to get dressed," Blaise complains. He can be quick to get his nose bent out of shape and has been known to hold a grudge, a Calming Draught won't keep one from that. "We don't want to have to wait for you."
"Can't," the Beater answers succinctly, unimpressed. "Convesto is just going to get the clothes stuck on that stuff," he waves his blackened left hand towards the goop on his right shoulder. That's assuming he were any good at a Convesto to boot, and it's not like one of them could do it for him. A fair few of the boys know hexes for apparel, witches' shoes and colour modifications to clothing being perennial favourites. Aaron has certainly resorted to them on many occasions, but it's different when it's the boy's own uniform they mean to put on or remove as they all well know. Then it gets into permissions and those tend to be a tangle. A Wingardium Leviosa would get them around that in this case, but obviously has none of the precision they'd need to avoid the traces of the hellaciously sticky Wheeze. "And one handed... Plus I'd need to make some adjustments around the..." he gestures again to the streaks on his shoulder.
"Your feet and legs are free of the stuff. You could at least start with some trousers..." Blaise despairs of the boy's intelligence. Regularly.
"Give me a hand," Tori tells the Keeper, taking matters in hers, "and we'll get started on that."
"It would seem I only have the one to offer anyway," Blaise drawls superciliously, his injured wing effectively pinned to his chest. He sounds bitter and the look he shoots in Theo's direction only confirms it. Blaise isn't always the most grateful of people, which makes his annoyance at Vince's ingratitude somewhat ironic.
"Where are your clothes?" Tori asks Vince, ignoring the Keeper. Vince waves his wand and Summons his pants which he hands to her with a wry grin. This was not at all how she expected her morning to go when she and Tomasina set up camp outside the Fitness Room to watch whomever went to train this morning. It may be just what she deserves for treating them as eye candy and nothing more, though.
Progress is surprisingly cumbersome, but with Vince's hand on her shoulder for support, she grabs one side of the garment and Blaise takes hold of the other and they've soon seen the boy... pantsed. Repantsed? Partially clothed. His trousers and belt follow suit. Only once the buckle is fastened, and Vince gives her a bit of a smirk at that, does she Finite the fig leaf she'd conjured to cover him. If it curls a mite too tightly around his member before Vanishing, enough to cause a very visible wince, that might not entirely be coincidence. For a fifth year, Tori isn't easily intimidated by men's smirks, and by boys' virtually not at all.
"I think it might just be a flesh wound." Harper tries to describe Gregory's wound to Ella. He doesn't see any sign of broken bone, which he thinks he probably would, going by the wound, if there were any, and that's the cue for his stomach to do a flip flop of its own. He can feel his adrenalin high abating and he's beginning to feel the exertion. It makes sense really. He'd already overdone it with all the exercising this morning, too... His exhaustion from before is beginning to return. In spades.
Gregory gives him a dark look.
"Sorry. A flesh wound, no 'just' about it," Harper corrects, because he can absolutely understand where the seventh year is coming from here. No, there was nothing trivial about this... And then he has an odd thought: but it might just be 'just'. His mother had apparently been rather a champion of 'just punishment' after the last war. On more than one occasion that's left Harper conflicted, particularly as she may have effectively paid for taking that position with her life. "Point is, that's one of the side effects of Muscle Mending Salve, isn't it? Rebuilding tissues? It looks like a straight forward through and through..."
"Would do, actually. That's a great idea, Harper," Tomasina answers for the sixth year. "Unfortunately I don't have any." She turns to Vince, their best bet for potions in the room. He pauses in the attempts to work a shirt on him without coming into contact with his left hand or right shoulder, a liberal application of Tori's and Blaise's Diffindos and a Bubblehead Charm on his hand coming into play.
"No good, I'm afraid. I haven't got any." It was on his list actually, with a number of other things he was expecting Lyssandra to owl him from Dogweed & Deathcap sometime fairly soon. He'd been a little... under the weather this week and hadn't gotten around to re-upping sooner. He turns to the boy next to him and Blaise, too, shakes his head. Muscle Mending Salve is the sort of thing the Quidditch players logically often have. From the lav, Draco adds that he hasn't got any either, although they assumed he'd have immediately volunteered it if he did. And of course the chances that Theo, the least athletic of the bunch would have some when they don't are virtually nil...
"I have some in my room," Harper finally offers a little reluctantly, but then he's seen Gregory's foot up close. Now isn't the time to be stingy. "I can go get it once we have him free."
"I'll reimburse you," Draco offers immediately, mindful of keeping Harper as onside as he possibly can. After Ella's opening gambit with the Carnivorous Capsaicin Concoction, Draco is happy for anything that looks like genuine assistance. "You too, Tomasina. Sorry, I should have said." The potions heiress, naturally, hadn't particularly worried, but Draco is trying to make up for the oversight. He feels like he hasn't managed anything especially well this morning. Well, except for getting Harper's help. But the fifth year is smirking slightly, and as though it were unclear, a touch slowly, ever so slightly uncertainly Draco adds, "For the potions," because that smirk of hers is a little unsettling. Unfortunately it broadens perceptibly as she further considers his offer, and now there's something a little off about Draco's look that suggests he's curious if she's thought to bill him for the Concoction...
Tomasina thinks she just might. On principle.
"Alright," Ella centres herself on the work to follow, "I have a plan how to proceed with Theo. Draco, why don't you go help Harper? I have this."
"Are you sure?" Harper and Draco ask almost simultaneously. She smiles at Harper once more.
"I've got this," she repeats Harper's usual words of encouragement to him. He tends to say that whenever he's psyching himself up for a Quidditch match. As the youngest player last year, and the only one who hadn't even owned his own broom (which had a way of negatively impacting one's practice time), he occasionally fell victim to a spate of nerves. 'I've got this.' It's since become sort of a mantra for their little chosen family. Ella always seems to know just the thing to say to make him feel better.
Unasked, Daphne has Conjured a towel for Draco before he can even rise to his feet. There's no decoration this time. Apparently in the face of a Conjuration, she's choosing to keep things simpler. Safer. She adds the Petrificus Totalus and Wingardium Leviosa before the lack of ornamentation even has time to register. It subconsciously boosts Draco's confidence in her work before he could question that absence, and he doesn't think twice as he climbs on to it, although best practices would still have had him performing a Protego beneath it. The situation at the Manor and his protracted exposure to it has understandably rendered Draco a good deal more confident in his reaction time and less cautious than Harper and the witches. Not that Draco's incautious, not by any means, but his idea of circumstances warranting such a response is very far removed from theirs. With Daphne's walkways, the floor ceases to be a concern.
Harper begins to fill Draco in on the things he's established as Draco walks towards him and then climbs over the towel that Harper had used to traverse the room. The sixth year casts Privacy for them both - so much easier when it includes oneself - as Draco steps down onto his Protego, his little towel bridge disappearing behind him as he does, the Conjuration ended. Daphne looks nervously focused.
The Protego rocks, briefly, as Draco steps onto the edge of the Shield, but both boys have excellent reflexes from literally hundreds upon hundreds of hours spent training on brooms, and that brief wobble barely registers for either of them, they adjust their stances automatically. From within the privacy of his Spell, Harper continues to explain those measures he's considered, up to and including cutting off part of Gregory's hand if they can't free it from the tiles. He suspects Bart would have had some Flaying Curse for this, but Harper doesn't know one. (Which probably speaks for him, really.) As it is, he's thinking about repurposing a Diffindo.
More than a little shocked, Draco insists, "We're not cutting off his hand."
"Don't be daft, I didn't say the whole thing." Draco still looks mortified. "And they can regrow it," Harper tries to explain, because he isn't a psychopath, and as they're all quite aware Draco has taken the Mark, and if a Death Eater looks at you that way, perhaps Harper really has gone too far this time. Which is sometimes a very real problem with pragmatism.
"And how would he play in the match?" Draco demands, perfectly scandalised.
"Mate." Harper answers, now a little shocked as well, and pointing to Gregory's run-through foot. "Quidditch can't be the priority here..."
"Sorry, no, of course not. I wasn't thinking," Draco apologises. Well he was, but not clearly. Clearly. Perhaps he needs to ask Tomasina for some Wit of his own. Soonest...
"Well unless you happen to know a Flaying Curse?" Harper suggests and trails off at Draco's look. Brilliant, and now he's managed to offend a Death Eater. There are several things wrong with that, but it's too much to unpack at the moment. He tries to regroup. "Because I don't think we can remove the tile, do you?" Harper prods.
Draco thinks about what he'd told the others not half an hour ago about the immutability of the castle's substance. And then he thinks again.
A/N: From Pottermore: Glover Hipworth created Pepper-Up. The Carnivorous Capsaicin Concoction, however, is my own invention, because it really seemed something of the sort should be in Pepper-Up when you stop to think about it. And Scoville Heat Units, if you haven't encountered them before, are a real world unit of measure for the spice of things. 🌶 🌶 🌶 🌶 🌶
NOTE TO SELF: CROSSPOST FAIL. Published on LJ and imported to DW.
LOVE this story!
RE: LOVE this story!
Think I forgot to mention, I also wrote another chapter for the Christmas Spirit universe last month, over on https://christmasspirit.livejournal.com/ if you liked those stories as well.
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Ok on to part 2 🎉
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Not experiencing pain or its (long-term) consequences makes it difficult to be empathetic to others when they are suffering. And like you emphasized in an earlier chapter, it's also very easy to fall into the comparison game.
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Comparisons are just decimating. It often keeps people from speaking up and getting the support they could use, and it sometimes keeps others from being as empathetic as they should be. You shouldn't have to be the worst off to need and deserve a hug, say.
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Pain is real! It is also relative and personal. And it is certainly not experienced only in a physical way. People (magical and muggle) are so quick to judge and compare. Empathy and compassion requires having a certain level of selflessness that isn't normal/natural. We have to fight against human nature and set aside our own issues/pain/wants and focus on some else without thought to "what's in it for me." Empathy is a choice not a feeling. Not easy, but so so needed. No one should have to justify why they need a hug!
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Offend a death eater. Lmaoooo.
Brilliant Ginger!
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Things to add to the list of problems the Gryffindors just don't face in the same measure in their day to day lives.
Thanks, grooot. 😊
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ermagherd~
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