“beyond wandpoint” 123a by gingerbred
Jun. 17th, 2020 01:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beyondwandpoint“11 13g Thurs - Out 2” Part 1
Severus, Slytherins: Draco Malfoy, Theo Nott, Blaise Zabini, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Daphne Greengrass, Harper Hutchinson, Torsten Touchstone, Ella Wilkins, Astoria Greengrass, Tomasina Touchstone, Hufflepuffs: Ernie Macmillan, Others: Rita Skeeter, Riona Rosier
Mentioned briefly: Slytherins: Aaron Avery, Róisín Rosier, Akira Murakami, Ravenclaws: Morag MacDougal, Hufflepuffs: Justin Finch-Fetchley, Megan Jones, Others: Crookshanks, Sunny, Rory Rosier, Marnie Edgecombe, Harrison Hedley
Originally Published: 2020-06-17 on LJ / DW
Chapter: 123 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 PART FIRST.
ALSO, THE LAST CHAPTER WAS A TWO-PARTER. DID YOU READ BOTH PARTS?
Characters:
Severus (HoS, Potions)
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), Torsten 'Tor' Touchstone 6S (sleepyhead, heir to the Touchstone fortune), Ella Wilkins 6S (Prefect), Astoria 'Tori' Greengrass 5S, Tomasina Touchstone 5S (Prefect, Potions savvy heiress)
Hufflepuffs: Ernie Macmillan 7H (Head Boy)
Others: Rita Skeeter (You-Know-Who), Riona Rosier (Róisín's mother, Rosemary's sister-in-law)
Mentioned briefly: Slytherins: Aaron Avery 6S (Reserve Chaser), Róisín Rosier 6S (Makeup Maven, her aunt Rosemary died in the last war before after bonding Willem Wilkes), Akira Murakami 5S (Prefect), Ravenclaws: Morag MacDougal 7R (lippy Muggle-born with that lippy), Hufflepuffs: Justin Finch-Fletchley 7H, Megan Jones 7H (the Muggle-born who quite sensibly left), Others: Crookshanks 'Crooks' (Hermione's half-Kneazle), Sunny (the Snapes' house elf), Rory Rosier (Róisín's father, brother of Rosemary, who died in the last war after bonding Willem Wilkes), Marnie Edgecombe (Marietta's mum, a Floo Network regulator), Harrison Hedley (Proprietor of Curl Up and Dye, Hair salon, Hogsmeade)
Previously:
Sunday evening. In an effort to ensure Draco won't be in Miss Granger's classes until after the news of their bonding is announced, at which point he believes she'll enjoy more protection, Severus has Sunny... nudge the boy down the Grand Staircase Sunday evening. (Severus catches him, obviously; he's hardly some kind of monster.) If Severus is able to enact a spot revenge in the process, well he certainly isn't averse to efficiency. (Mentioned 054 LJ / DW) Draco is unaware of Severus' role in his... accident.
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)
The girls put pressure on Róisín and are able to get her to agree to question her father about his sister Rosemary, one of the last known individuals to have gotten bonded. As that ended in her death in the last war, it's an incredibly sensitive subject for the family. (083b LJ / DW)
Wednesday Morning. Megan Jones' parents remove her from Hogwarts to keep her safe. And unbonded, for that matter. A clear advantage for having engaged parents if ever there were one, and not simply Obliviating them, say. (Revealed 096 LJ / DW) Sybill adds some anxiety to the situation by telling her students 'Megan Jones will face great peril before reaching the safety of her new home.' (Mentioned 100b LJ / DW)
Wednesday at lunch. Trying to ascertain a point of magical theory on irregular spells and wrong-handed casting, Severus manages to give Goyle the most ridiculous curlicued snake's tail at lunch. And again, if it serves to punish one of the seventh years for their involvement in Miss Granger's abduction Friday, who is he to object? (099a LJ / DW)
Wednesday after lunch. Wayne Hopkins inadvertently hexes Housemate Justin Finch-Fletchley while aiming for Draco, and Justin now finds himself with one head surplus to requirements. They are not, as platitudes go, actually better than one. (100b LJ / DW)
Gregory's backside can't seem to catch a break. Having only just recovered from the strange snake's tail, he makes the mistake of the Scourgifying his rear instead of applying a Cleansing Charm and promptly... ends in the Infirmary. (101 LJ / DW)
Thursday morning. When Crabbe fails to appear in the Infirmary overnight due to his allergies, Severus sends Sunny to determine what's gone wrong with his attempts to Banish the half-Kneazle's fur to the rotter's bed. Sunny promptly returns, positively twitching in excitement. Severus, deciding he could really use a peaceful morning, stubbornly declines to ask why. (119b LJ / DW)
Severus needs to make some adjustments now that the half-Kneazles has taken up residence with him, beyond things like the leaping ledges, that is. Appropriate texts in hand, he sets about to do so, but is interrupted by a worrisome upset to his wards. (121 LJ / DW)
Not quite recognising his limitations - although to be fair, Harper really couldn't have been expected to anticipate that his morning would take the turn it has - the Prefect has now overdone it once and for all, and begins to black out. Not great, to be sure, particularly in the vicinity of the seventh years' cursed lavatory floor, but definitely worsened, non-trivially, by the fact he has a variety of spells in place in the room that others are currently depending on. (122b LJ / DW)
Ella, presently pouring the rest of a potion down Theo's throat, wobbles briefly as the upper Protego she's standing on, Harper's, vanishes beneath her feet. Telling, really, because that was unquestionably the last thing likely to go. Daphne can see her most clearly; her cry, "Ella!" comes at almost the same moment as Ella's "OooH!"
Draco whips around and tries to adjust his Protego under the girl, it's the bottom one in the stack, shimmying it back and forth to compensate for her movement, steadying her once more in much the same way he'd steady Firsties' brooms when they were learning to fly, at least for those who made it to Slytherin without previous experience. He's robbed of any chance to feel pleased with himself and immediately regrets the extravagance of that gesture when he now finds himself struggling to keep Gregory in place and finally notices Harper beginning to slump forward against the Beater almost in slow motion. The black streaks of that damnable Wheeze coating the shower seem to multiply and expand now that he needs to actively avoid them - not that they actually do, of course - but he's certain they're everywhere he looks and Draco swears quite colourfully. MacDougall might even have been impressed.
Gregory screams about "The floor! The blood!" his excitement doubtlessly warranted - certainly after his last experience with the apparently cursed flagstones - despite the Calming he'd taken. As Hermione knows only too well, those Draughts only do but so much good, and this was a situation that absolutely justified becoming a little louder. Draco finally registers the problem there - for fuck's sake, the foot - hastily conjuring... something... a lump of cloth he affixes to his roommate's wounded limb with what is possibly the world's sloppiest Incarcerous. With some exertion, he's able to shift the Mobilicorpus holding Gregory, moving the Beater forward and out of the way in a bid to give him better access to the sixth year Prefect, worrying all the while he won't manage in time...
Before he can do anything else, Daphne has a 'Mobilicorpus!' of her own on Harper, which is good, all considered, as the Binding Hex keeping the towel Draco is standing on rigid had just noticeably begun to go, and his focus has shifted radically. The Wingardium Leviosa holding it aloft keeps that from being quite as dire as it initially feels, the surface resembling nothing more closely than a trampoline, not that it offers any consolation at that instant, or that Draco had ever spent time on one to make the comparison.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Daphne's Hex beats Draco to it, followed immediately by another, and soon both towel bridges are as rigid as they ever were.
"Is everything under control now?" He asks. Surprisingly calm. That would be the difference experience makes.
"I think so," Daphne pants, her nerves raw and she sounds it. "Harper had both of the Full-Body Binds on the towels and some of the Protegos. I've adjusted accordingly." And those latter apparently silently, too. Daphne is another one of those who get underestimated, but then the Head had had her practising Protegos until she could almost do them in her sleep.
Draco moves Gregory closer, clearing the way for Daphne, and she begins ferrying Harper from the room. The sixth year rouses fairly quickly at the movement; it's frankly far from smooth. He'd swooned, nothing more; he'd over-exerted himself, physically more so than magically, but either way... He'd overdone it and had a bit of a spell, and it will embarrass him greatly when he's feeling better and has time to think about it later. Sometimes his pride gets the better of him. Daph has already seen him safely halfway through the room, and her intention is clear, she means to put him on the bench. Idiot boy that he can be on occasion, Harper immediately begins to grouse. "I'm fine. I can still help."
"You're not," Ella answers for her as she gives Theo the rest of his Potion, and already planning her lecture to Harper later in gory detail. He can be such a numpty sometimes.
"And that's no room not to be fitter in," Daph adds, the strain evident.
Tori can't help thinking it's no room to be dealing with at all unless one's on top of things, and Daph sounds positively frazzled. She leaves Blaise to manage Vince by himself (not that that should go well) and goes to stand with Tomasina and Daphne, wrapping an arm in support around her older sister's waist, and leaning her head against the girl's shoulder. The seventh year's spell isn't nearly as good as Harper's Mobilicorpus. It's part of her repertoire, but only just, and she simply doesn't have the practice having never needed to move an inebriated parent to his bed, say, and certainly not on the reg or with aforementioned parent's wand due to concerns for the unReasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery. She manages, however, to get Harper through the doorway without striking the frame, but then presumably she'd put a little more care into avoiding collisions than Harper had with Vince and Blaise.
She lowers Harper gently to the floor beside her, Tomasina immediately moving to help prop him upright, just in case. At the moment he kind of looks like he might need that. Come to think of it, it's not the first time she's had to do that this morning, either. They'd sort of forgotten to worry about him in the heat of the moment.
"You need to get some chocolate into him," Ella tells them, mistaking Harper's state as purely magic related, but then she hadn't seen him earlier. "Draco?" She prompts, because he's the most likely of the boys to have some on hand. She holds her wand upright, close to her body, almost as though suggesting she'll continue work only once he's seen to Harper's needs. She probably doesn't mean it, especially not as she's helping Theo, but there's little point to testing it anyway, although Draco can't help wondering sometimes - purely intellectually - how far the witch would be willing to push things for her friend. Either way, he doesn't need further prompting to Summon three Chocolate Frogs.
Because he also isn't the brightest of Lumoses this morning - in fact, he may just outright be a Nox, all considered - he then throws them to Daphne.
She's probably the least athletic of their year. By some stroke of luck, she catches the first, fumbles and secures the second, and fairly predictably the third threatens to fall on that horrible floor. She can picture it already, and panicked she throws the two in her hands behind her into the safety of the bedroom and scrambles to catch the third before it can hit the flagstones.
She's visibly trembling by the time she has it and hands it over to Harper, and Draco can't decide if he should direct his disparaging thoughts towards her or himself for throwing the chocolates in the first place. He's saved from having to decide when Ella asks him to shift Gregory into position so she can apply the Bandaging Charm to his foot. "Just until we're able to get the Muscle Mending Salve on him. Then I'll re-bandage it," she explains. It's probably for the best, really considering the bleeding. She kindly refrains from commenting on his sad attempt to staunch the blood flow, although she smirks ever so slightly as he Finites his Conjured cloth and its bindings.
Tori picks up the other two Frogs and waits patiently while Harper unwraps the first one. "Who did you get?" Vince asks conversationally from Draco's bed, having forgotten to moan once he realised the others weren't paying him any attention. Blaise isn't in the least bit mistaken in his assessment of the boy's intelligence.
"'Whom'," Tomasina corrects as she leads Harper over to the nearest bed to sit for a spell.
"Old Swoopstikes," he replies between bites of chocolate. Merlin is that good. He doesn't get chocolate often. The week is shaping up nicely in that regard, if possibly only in that one.
The answer comes as a surprise, a reminder that Swoopstikes merited a Chocolate Frog card in the first place. It's hard to remember sometimes that the temporally challenged portrait in their common room is of the man who banished the Lethargic Lurgy from the wizarding world three quarters of a century ago. Still, a Slytherin card is always taken as a good sign. It could just as easily have been Dumblebore.
Daph tears her focus away from the boy and his Frog and turns back to the bathroom. There's still Gregory and Theo to worry about, and they need to see Draco and Ella safely out of the room, too.
Ella asks Draco if he'll be able to manage Gregory on his own. He looks doubtful. "The Mobilicorpus is out with all the stuff on him..." And it goes without saying the boy can't walk like that.
"Even with a Petrificus?"
"Ella, seriously, look at the amount of it. If he gets stuck to the doorframe, there's no conceivable way we'd be able to Reducto him free. So only if you're absolutely sure you won't connect with anything. Harper's Mobilicorpus is the best..." And Harper was clearly not going to be much of a help any more. The sixth year throws them an apologetic look as he begins eating his second Frog. The third he surreptitiously pockets to give to Hunter later along with the trading cards.
"Whom did you get this time?" Vince asks, with a significant glance towards Tomasina.
"Merlin," Harper answers, anticipating the result.
Several heads bob as one. "Lucky," Vince tells him sincerely, which is kind of funny, because Harper really isn't feeling it just now.
"Daphne is going to have to help me get him out of here," Draco concludes, but Daph's not really listening to him at the moment.
Ella had shifted her position, either when things got sort of shaky with the Protego, or when she was attending to Gregory's foot, it hardly matters, because now more of Theo is visible. More of his foot that is. Except half of it seems to be missing. (It later transpires that he's only lost his toes and not much more. Daphne, however, fails to find that much of a consolation as she's happy to tell anyone who suggests otherwise.) She's practically in tears just from looking at him.
Draco tries to get her attention, but still she stands there, stock still, staring at what's left of Theo's foot... She's had a shock - a couple, really - and she isn't good at this to begin with. She'd been drilled long enough to do what was required, when it was required, but with the emergency past... She looks like she could use a dose of Calming of her own. Unfortunately no one thinks to suggest it.
In a fairly logical escalation, Draco begins to yell at her, "Daphne! Merlin's beard, concentrate!" To be fair, the stress is getting to him, too, and he had been standing on the towel when it began to sag. No matter how cool he appears, the shocks of this morning haven't left him completely unaffected and the stress has shortened his fuse. And here the dafty just stands there like a useless pillar of salt. Well, a trembling, useless pillar of salt, not that he's sure that isn't a contradiction in terms...
In response to his yelling, Daphne's shaking becomes even more obvious, and when she finally turns her gaze to Draco, still standing there in his bloodied shirt, she's able to manage only a single word. "Fwoopers." It's so absurd he nearly laughs, and so frustrating he wants to slap her out of it, and it confirms everything he's ever suspected about the daft girl and then some, she really does have Fwoopers on the brain.
Harper tells him to, "Stop it," and arm clenched around his stomach - he thinks he pulled something trying to hold Gregory's weight up - he rises and shuffles to the lavatory doorway once more, meaning to try to drum some sense into Draco. He's clearly unsteady on his feet, and Tomasina just shakes her head. Boys.
Tori pips him at the post, however. "Daph, why don't you take over with Vince's shirt?" Blaise had quite obviously failed to make any significant progress without her - she's not even sure he'd tried, lazy sod - and cloth frankly wasn't her bailiwick either. If anyone in the room was best suited to manage the now tattered uniform, it was Daphne.
"Shouldn't I..." she gestures towards Draco, who had demanded her help. Harper has his wand pointed at the seventh year now, and sketches a hint of the House Privacy Charm with the tip. Draco gets the message; it was clear enough, if not a threat with actual weight - he knows the Finite, when all is said and done - but he's to keep quiet if he wants their assistance. It's exceedingly frustrating to be reliant on the others like this. Not that he doesn't also sort of respect Harper for standing up to him, but that doesn't make it any more convenient at the moment.
"No," Harper tells her as firmly as he presently can. "Draco has Gregory free. We'll just help him out of there."
"You'll do nothing of the kind," Ella objects in no uncertain terms. "If you're feeling well enough to be up and about, you're going to go get us the Salve." Given the blood wards on his trunk, no one else present was going to be able to. "Tori, Draco and I can manage. Tomasina can watch over us from the door." The fifth years haven't had the Head's private DADA instruction yet, so Daphne isn't sure she finds the proposal altogether reassuring. Harper looks about as convinced as Daph does now, which amuses Ella slightly despite the circumstances.
"Your Protegos are in place?" Tori chimes in. Daphne nods, but she's still whispering something about Fwoopers, so she's probably not truly satisfied as yet. "Then we'll be fine," she assures her sister brightly. Having just seen Harper pitch forward and Ella wobble in there, Daph's less sure about that. The room seems plenty challenging. "I'll be fine, really," Tori reassures her once more.
"Could you widen the towel?" Harper asks, slouching against the doorframe for support. Not that he isn't given to that sort of thing anyway, but generally noticeably less so in Daph's presence. "So they could walk three abreast and manually help Gregory out of there?" With all the magic at their disposal, sometimes physical solutions occur to them rather late in the scheme of things. Still, better than not at all. Daph nods once more, looking a little less unhappy and no longer murmuring about Fwoopers, which is presumably progress.
"Well there you go then," he assures her with a lopsided grin as she makes the changes. "Safe as houses." At least as long as no one stops to calculate all the weight her Wingardium Leviosa is now expected to carry in one spot at once. Details. There's little point in making her nervous. Well... More nervous. And that's what the Protegos were for.
Daphne assists Tori up onto the now rather wide stretch of towel, and she joins Draco and Gregory without any further ado. Harper still doesn't seem inclined to leave; Ella can well imagine why. Not that she doesn't appreciate the Daph-whispering, of course not, but she's about to remind him of the much needed Salve when Blaise speaks up, "Hey, Harper. Gregory's still waiting on that Muscle Mender." There's a note of reproach to it, and the sixth year supposes he's not doing much of anything useful, really.
With a slightly regretful, "You're alright here?" to Daphne that makes Ella and Tori smirk to themselves, he waits for her assurances before heading to his room to fetch the Salve. It's only as he makes his way down the corridor that he really begins to feel how much he'd overdone it.
Merlin does his gut ever hurt.
Tomasina, wand in hand, takes up her post at the door again now that Harper has vacated it, and with a soft, "Daph?" and slight jerk of her head, soon has the seventh year going to attend to Vince.
Tori and Draco have a bit of trouble trying to figure out how best to take hold of Gregory's arms, there's quite an amount of the black gunk spread over the largely naked boy's head and torso, but despite his deshabille, Tori and Tomasina have ceased to see anything funny about the situation. The blood seeping through the bandages on his foot certainly helps see to that. Tori suggests the Bubblehead Charm for his hands to render them as harmless as Vince's; no sooner said than cast. It's one threat less, and with a little more wrangling, not long after, they have him supported and begin to head for the exit.
It's not fast going, but it's completely uneventful, and they've soon made their way to where Tomasina waits at the door. Helping them down off the towel is a little tricky, it's hard to know where exactly to grab Gregory... Despite the worrisome circumstances, Tomasina can't help noting he's every bit as solid to the touch as he looks. What a pity she can presently derive no real enjoyment from that discovery. But then that's what wank banks are for. And imaginations, because there's much about the scene that will require highly selective editing.
Tor is running about their room in something of a state, hurrying to get ready when Harper enters. "Merlin's bloody bollocks, Harper!" That's starting off well, Harper thinks with a sigh. "You were supposed to wake me."
Wordlessly Harper shuffles through the room and sinks onto his bed. Tor continues to whinge, he's going to be late to breakfast, and heavens only know what Aaron will have left for him to eat... Given he could just as easily ask the girls to pass over anything that might be missing from their platter - this is Hogwarts, not home - Harper has difficulty mustering any sympathy for him, and the pain in his stomach and the trials of his morning do the rest. Finally he snaps at his roommate. "Fuck's sake, Tor! You're sixteen. I'd expect you to be able to set your own Tempus by now."
It's a bit of a sore spot, because he really isn't much good at those. The Tempuses go off, not always at the right times, disturbing the entire room, and all the while Tor sleeps blissfully through them. It's considered in everyone's interests if the boy doesn't try to set one, and Harper - something of a natural choice as the consummate older brother and their Prefect - usually sees to waking him when he's done with his morning callisthenics.
A little offended, Tor continues grumbling to himself.
"Shut it, would you?" Harper half groans. "I need your help." Tor still looks put out, but Harper has his attention, the admission uncommon enough coming from him. "Ella needs something, and I need you to bring it to her." In light of Tor's interest in his friend, Harper isn't sure if that was unfair, but it was true enough and the reaction is predictable. Without further objections, Tor rushes to finish getting ready, magicking final touches into place. Meanwhile Harper crawls to the end of the bed, leans over and begins to rummage in his trunk until he has the Salve, explaining the situation next door in broad strokes as he goes, and any residual resentment Tor may have felt melts away as he listens.
"Here, take it to them, would you? I need to get ready myself." He tosses the little jar to the boy. Tor catches better than Daph, but only marginally. There are reasons he never went out for the team despite being very good on a broom.
Harper is looking a mite peaked, and Tor hesitates, "Are you sure... I shouldn't wait for you?" He'd meant to ask if the older boy needed any help, any more help, but Harper can be funny about people assisting him sometimes. Prickly. It generally seems best to avoid the direct approach with him on the topic.
"No." Harper sees through the ploy easily enough, and tries to persuade his roommate, "If you're going to help the others, then I won't need to."
It works inasmuch as Tor feels less guilty about leaving him there like this, but he still isn't completely convinced as to its advisability, and so he stalls once more, giving Harper a chance to consider getting ready and joining them, "I had some ideas as to how to organise the potion purchases..."
"No worries, Tor. It'll keep. Vince is headed to the Infirmary anyway." Harper dismisses it.
"But we could have asked Smith..."
"Tor, if you're going, go would you? They're already waiting."
With a shrug, Harper is smart and old enough to know better, Tor finally does as asked.
Daphne takes in the ruins of Vince's uniform, and Blaise has the good grace to look a little sheepish. "We couldn't afford to let it touch that..." He waves towards the black gunk on his roommate's shoulder.
"Yes, I'm well aware of the issues.
"And you thought rendering his shirt little more than rags was the answer?"
"Well Tori did much of it.."
"Oh, by all means, Blaise. Blame my sister. The fifth year. I'm so glad to see you have things well in hand here," Daphne scolds him. She may still be annoyed that he'd laughed at her failed Transfiguration. Tomasina smiles a little to hear it, because Daph appears to be getting over her shock. Keeping busy, focusing on manageable tasks seems to work that way for a lot of them.
He's about to play the 'only one hand available' Exploding Snap card when she continues, her disappointment clear, "What would Professor MacGonagall think if she could see this?"
Frankly that was one question that hadn't crossed Blaise's mind at all this morning, and there had been quite a few. Who cares what the old Moggie thinks? Daphne really does have Fwooper madness. But he wisely bites his tongue and watches her work. She takes in what she can see of Vince's skin, walking around him and inspecting him closely. The glistening black substance seems limited to one of his shoulders and left hand. The hand in question is still safely covered in a Bubblehead Charm; unfortunately the spot on his shoulder doesn't lend itself to a similar solution. She makes quick work of mending his sleeves, and soon they're as good as new. If questioned, she'd inform them that Madam Malkin's assorted charms have largely been compromised by this assault on his clothing, but with access to house elves who wash and press their uniforms daily, that's less likely to go noticed just now. Hmm. Considering it obvious, she doesn't think to mention it. What do people think they're paying for after all?
"I need to apply a kind of Sticking Charm to attach the shirt to your shoulder so we can button you up," she finally informs Vince.
"A Sticking Charm?" That's one of the last things he wants right now, more things stuck to him...
"Yes, a Sticking Charm. To make the fabric adhere to you all around that... goo without touching it. There's no other way to work it, because as long as it's free to move, it's liable to get into that patch."
He appears patently unconvinced.
"Do you want me to do this or not?" She demands, not exactly kindly. She's having some difficulty not picturing Harper as he was laid out on the floor after Vince got through with him last night, and it shows.
Vince looks appalled at the suggestion and turns for reassurance to Blaise who can only shrug. Fwoopers or no, he has the witch in Transfiguration and Charms and she's very good at both. And even if she is rather obviously irked at the boy - no subtlety to that witch - she also probably doesn't have quite the temperament to pull off something like Ella's use of the Carnivorous Capsaicin Concoction. He shrugs again, and then finally nods, deciding it's Vince's own fault if he doesn't know his own mind better. He has the girl in Care of Magical Creatures where she's been out-performing him for over six years now. He should be able to gauge this for himself.
Vince still looks unsure and so Daphne begins to explain. It's the same charm that had held up Róisín's dress at the Yule Ball. (As a rather slightly built third year at the time - she'd accompanied Val's older cousin Val - she hadn't had a whole lot else to hold the strapless number in place with. This charm had fallen more in Daphne's purview than Róisín's, although the sixth year has since added it to her arsenal for obvious reasons.) Even three years later, Vince can recall the gown well enough, she'd looked quite fetching in it. And she certainly hadn't run around the House in dress robes for days after, which is a good sign. If Greengrass had managed that as a poxy fourth year, presumably she's even better equipped to do so now. So he agrees, and she immediately sets to work, chattering somewhat automatically to relax them both as she does.
It's the work of moments to apply Diffindos and the Adhesive Charm around the area on his right shoulder. The Fabric Reknitting Charms to repair all the rents her sister and Blaise had caused take a little longer.
"You shower with your wand?" she starts up, idly trying to make conversation.
Tomasina can't help a faint giggle-snort from the doorway. It helps, of course, that Vince hadn't been badly injured, but she may also be succumbing to nerves just like the others had as she watches Tori help the boys across their makeshift bridge. The whitening of her knuckles on her wand suggests it anyway.
"You don't?" Vince asks, briefly worried this is the person he's trusting to manage his clothing for him. To be fair, Gregory and Blaise don't shower with their wands either, which he seems to be conveniently forgetting. Some of that is about their different experiences these past few years. For Blaise, the confidence he can Summon anything necessary wandlessly plays a contributing role. But for Vince, a substantial part of it is down to the image he wishes to project, feels he needs to project. It's worth noting, however, that not even Draco showers as dogmatically with his wand.
"What did you think the wandholder was for?" Vince demands incredulously. Daphne hasn't much by way of an Exploding Snap face and clearly hasn't the foggiest what he means. Reassuring. "Those two snakes above the soap dishes?" He prompts, because if she's never seen them, then he needs to begin worrying about her vision, too...
Merlin, she thought they were purely decorative... Live and learn. There's obviously no need for a witch to apply things like Depilating Charms in the showers after all...
Her obvious cluelessness aside, she makes much faster work of his top than the others had. Somewhat won over, he Summons his tie, which she knots about his neck, and his jumper and robes soon follow suit.
"I'm going to have to cut them around the patch as well," she informs him a little ruefully. Given his shirt looks almost as good as new, he fails to see a downside. It might have helped had he ever paid attention when he did his uniform shopping at Madam Malkin's each August. Instead he gives her his blessing and she gets to work, this goes even quicker than his shirt. One sleeve sliced to accommodate the Bubblehead on his hand, another Reknitting Charm to repair the Diffindo. One cut suffices to slip it on him and manoeuvre around his shoulder as well, and then some more artful Sticking. She has to put her hands on him often as she works, and there's something somewhat intimate about it. It doesn't seem to register much, which is sort of funny considering how skittish she'd been before. It undoubtedly helps that he has trousers on now, but having a job to do, something she's good at, too, provides some distraction as well.
"And the bare spot?" He asks, pointing with his Bubbleheaded hand towards his exposed shoulder when she's done.
"Glamours," she responds with a smile and sets about applying them.
"We couldn't have done that for the whole thing?" He asks, something of an ungrateful nit.
"It works on small things," she shakes her head. "It's meant for tears. There's only so much I can cover up." Vince being Vince, he manages to construe that as some kind of compliment, and Daph doesn't feel like arguing.
She's rather pleased with herself as she finishes, finding her response quite professional, not that she expects to be able to actually pursue this or anything else professionally, but still. It was a good effort. That vaguely triumphant feeling holds until she turns around seeking the others' approval, only to find an effectively naked Gregory waiting for her.
"Can you sort him next." It's more of a statement than a request; Draco seems to be handing out assignments. Their roles are established enough that she doesn't even become especially annoyed at his audacity. She simply sighs and resigns herself to the job.
Tori takes advantage of Draco's continued presence for the moment to go to the nearest of the boys' trunks and drag it over for Daphne to sit on as she labours, at least once she's finished ascertaining there's none of the sticky stuff on Gregory's back. Unfortunately given the gunk is on the front of his thighs as well, she'll have her work cut out for her. A seat should make things at least a little easier.
Draco shoots Tori a disapproving look for the presumption when she first grabs the trunk, reminds himself again that they're helping and he needs to just shut up and be grateful. And anyone not wanting their trunk moved really should have set charms to ensure it, now shouldn't they?
"Can you take over?" He asks her, indicating she should help prop Gregory in place so Daphne can work. There's no reason not to - quite the contrary - and so Tori does, and Draco returns to the doorway to the lav.
It's the matter of only another moment for him to widen the towel that leads to Ella and Theo, then he joins them and applies a Mobilicorpus to his friend and carefully begins to steer him by hand to his side.
"Wait," Ella stops him. "I'll need to tighten the Protego." She gestures to Theo's foot. His wince as she casts the spell answers Draco's unasked questions as to why she hadn't done it before. Presumably it couldn't be helped. At least she appears genuinely unhappy to have inflicted any pain this time...
Once Theo is in place, and with one hand firmly clapped to his arm to keep his friend floating there, Draco extends the other to help Ella climb up next to them. She has to tease Theo's wand from his grasp before she's able to take his hand; he hadn't relinquished it once throughout his ordeal. Gingerly she places it in its sheath, noting he apparently reaches for the wandholder much as she might her slippers when she rises in the morning, assuming he doesn't sleep with it at any rate. Given it's Theo, that's less likely to be an affectation, and it provides an insight she'd rather not have had into his home life. She tries to tell herself he seems relieved once she's stowed the wand. It distracts from thoughts of his reasons for wearing the sheath and provides some consolation for the discomfort she knows her Protego is causing him.
This trip across the towel proves much easier, and Draco can't help thinking it should have occurred to him when they were trying to help Gregory. He makes a mental note to at least attempt to apply the solution for getting the boys to the Infirmary.
Tor walks in to the seventh year boys' room and one of the strangest scenes he thinks he's ever seen in the House, and there have certainly been some noteworthy challengers for the title over the years. A bunch of people are scattered about the room, most of whom seem to be watching Daphne and Gregory, worth mentioning primarily because the Beater is naked as the day he was born - oh, save a judiciously placed fig leaf; he'll have to ask about that later - and Daph's sat there on a trunk before him, neat as you please, face at, erm, fig leaf height, studiously examining his thighs, which for some reason have viscous black streaks on them. Huh. That will probably be Akira's Wheeze as Harper had mentioned. Well. Tor always wondered how that stuff would work.
Good to know.
Which of course doesn't quite explain why Gregory is naked, or what Daph, easily the most demure individual in their House, is doing there, erm, well, yes, examining him.
Studiously.
Quite.
Definitely the words for it. He'd had it right the first time, he congratulates himself.
All considered, it's probably best Harper isn't here for this...
Although... Tor might just tell him about it later on to get some of his own back for that dig about his Tempus...
He advances into the room and casts about for Ella, not seeing her immediately. Tori, for some reason, has her arm wrapped around the naked Beater. He hadn't been able to see her clearly from the entrance. He isn't sure why the sight surprises him, really. A naked Gregory? Wild Thestrals probably couldn't have kept her from him. Tori's frankly incorrigible, a budding reprobate. He's merely glad his sister hasn't joined in as well. Speaking of, Tomasina notices him and waves him over to the door to the loo, and sure enough, there's the witch he was looking for, too.
Ella is strolling along with Draco across some absolutely enormous towels - all perfectly sensible, Tor's sure - hovering in the middle of the lav, the both of them holding hands with a floating Theo, who is bobbing in the air between them like some manner of living blimp, albeit a rather thin and gangly one.
Not even the Weasley twins had thought to use one of those for advertising, and Merlin knows they were aggressive.
Maybe he can nick the idea for the family business...
Tor could ask what the Salve is for or who needs it, but he doesn't. (It doesn't help that he thinks of it only in terms of a sports aid.) Instead he can't quite resist the temptation to wait until Ella and her entourage join them in the bedroom to hand her the Salve personally. Thankfully it doesn't take long at all. "Harper asked me to give this to you," he tells her, which isn't entirely correct. But to be fair, he hasn't a remotely accurate idea of what happened to Gregory or how bad his injury had been. The floor of the lav looks even worse than Harper had indicated, and he silently hopes the seventh years will get done for the damage. Not, he supposes, that if the Head didn't already have them serving detention for the rest of their lives for the bonding debacle that this should be that much worse...
Of course with priorities being as they are, one never knows.
Ella takes the small pot from him gratefully, and if his fingers linger against hers perhaps a breath too long in the hand off, well, he's only a wizard. With a soft word of thanks - she has the nicest voice - all too quickly she brushes past, kneeling at Gregory's feet, which may just have put her even closer to a certain fig leaf than Daphne is.
Suddenly Tor doesn't feel quite as much like teasing Harper after all. Serendipitously, Harper doesn't presently feel much like teasing him either.
Ella seems to take no more note of her position respective the offending greenery than Daph does. But then this is the first time she's seeing Gregory's foot up close, and his wound does rather command her attention. She Imperviuses her hands once more, better safe than sorry, and sets about Vanishing his bandages and applying the Salve, which she then pockets to return to Harper later. Carefully she massages it as close to the wound as she dares. There's the telltale 'Oooo!' as Gregory's foot first turns redder than Vince's had from the Capsaicin Concoction that assures them this was a well brewed Salve. Soon the red gives way to some truly hideous stripes, and rather incongruously, especially now that she can see the extent of the wound, Gregory giggles to accompany the 'Aaah!'.
He must have caught something in her expression, because he's quick to explain, "Sorry, I'm ticklish." The stuff must tickle something awful then, but that's also a good sign.
The tissues begin to knit together slowly, almost as though Daph had placed one of her fabric mending spells on it, not that they work that way obviously. Encouraged by the first signs of success, she asks him, "Can you lift your foot so I can come at it from the other side as well?"
Much like an Abraxan waiting to be shod, he promptly lifts his foot, angling his calf backwards so the sole of the injured appendage is facing upwards, and Ella repeats the process with the excess Salve, oh so gently rubbing it in from beneath. For a moment, Tor almost envies the boy, which is about the time he decides he really needs to get that impulse under control. Merlin's fuzzy Knutsack.
It's unclear if he's actually successful in that undertaking, or it's down to the simple fact that Daph seems to have taken some decisions and begins magicking Gregory's clothes into place. Either way, Tor certainly feels a lot better when the fig leaf vanishes from view.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-06-19 10:42 am (UTC)And this...
The fifth years haven't had the Head's private DADA instruction yet,
Of course he did that. Of course! This is now canon.
My internet!!
Date: 2020-06-28 04:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-12-30 07:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-03-06 05:30 am (UTC)I am dying to know what will happen next — will Severus find out? (Of course he will) Is Sunny watching it all? Too bad none of them thought to call for an elf, they seem remarkably capable of helping out with all manner of things. But I guess maybe elves would have reported it all to I don't know, someone?
Loved it, great job, on to the next! :D