View Single Post
Old 01-25-2016, 03:44 AM   #11 (permalink)
Cassirin

Site Manager

MO
Manticore
 
Cassirin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: *Nom nom nom*
Posts: 43,196

Hogwarts RPG Name:
Mercer Branxton
Ravenclaw
Seventh Year

Ministry RPG Name:
Genevieve James
Minister's Office

x7 x8
Default
Made of Awesome | Ern-la the Best-wa | TZ's Apogee

SPOILER!!: Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Casey O View Post
*chanting* scorBUS scorBUS scorBUS.

Honestly, I am so impressed by the fluidity of your language and diction. It's lovely, Tegategz.
I feel weird commenting on Tegan's comments but I BET SHE SAYS THANK YOU. Also... I guess keep your fingers crossed for your ship? Yes?

Quote:
Originally Posted by pundantic View Post
Poor Nera. She's doing her BEST, Scorpius.

lol jk I love this and I'm so glad you guys are finally posting.
Nera is my faveeeeee, so keep your eye on her. And I love you and I'm glad you're reading <3.

1.4 The Prefect Compartment

Gemma's nose wasn't broken, although the little Ravenclaw required a chocolate frog, reassurance that her slightly swollen nose wasn't hideously disfiguring, and a hug. Rose was good with all of it except for the hug, mostly because she wasn't willing to get blood on her school robes minutes before seeing Yates and the other prefects. And because anyone who was more concerned about whether she was still pretty than over a possible deviated septum really didn't deserve any hugs. In an inspired move, Rose encouraged the line waiting for the food trolley to hug Gemma en masse, and she escaped toward the front of the train.

Because they had only recently departed from King's Cross, the corridor was still crowded with students swapping compartments and looking for the perfect seat for the journey to Hogwarts. Most students didn't have the foresight to mark out a car well ahead of time, or else they didn't have a mother who checked traffic patterns and planned multiple contingency routes to the train station. Rose was both a planner and the daughter of a planner. And really, the granddaughter of a planner. She was doomed to checklists and flowcharts from birth, it seemed. There was comfort in order, in spite of those git-faced people who insisted stupid things like 'routine is the last refuge of the unimaginative mind.'

She was imaginative. One had to be when one wrote three versions of the same potions essay.

The student numbers thinned out as Rose reached the middle of the train, and it wasn't hard to see why. Slytherins. Everywhere. For reasons known only to them, they enjoyed sitting together as a form of mass intimidation. It was a fortunate thing that the trolley lady traveled the length of the train with her wares, because most non-Slytherins wouldn't be able to brave this nest of vipers just for a pumpkin pasty. Nest of vipers. Rose raised her head, shaking back her tidy auburn curls and chortling inwardly at her own punniness as she stepped carefully over extended legs and bags tossed into the aisle. She was a Gryffindor, and a Weasley, and certainly had what it took to make it past a snake or thirty. Not quite brave enough to inform the older Slytherins that they were creating a fire hazard by blocking the aisle, perhaps, but she did manage a prim 'pardon me' when she stepped over Rigel Cadwallader's feet and nearly fell into someone's lap. Her eyes didn't shift from center until she cleared the car.

Can’t ignore any rule violations if they go unnoticed, after all, and sometimes discretion really was the better part of valor.

She hadn't needed to look around to realize something important, though. None of the Slytherin prefects were present, which meant they were already on their way to the prefect car. Waiting for her. As soon as the door slammed behind her, Rose broke into a most unladylike jog. The few remaining students who hadn't managed to find a seat dodged out of her way, and Rose actually cleared a trunk left in the corridor by several inches. She tossed a hurried, "Get that trunk out of the corridor before someone falls," over her shoulder, but she didn't bother waiting to see if her directions were followed.

"Late, Weasley." Against her own better judgement, Rose's head jerked up at the cool drawl from the Head Girl, and she fish-faced for a moment. What was that Muggle sporting expression her mother used? Strike one. So much for starting off the school year on a high note with the highly intimidating Acantha Zabini. Her expression was almost lazy, but there was a coiled energy in Zabini's posture as she leaned against the windows. The girl gestured Rose into a seat with the barest flick of her fingers.

Rose lifted her chin, but she obediently strode to the bench and squished in next to Adlai Thomas. "I'm not actually late. Fred isn't even here yet." The lazy expression disappeared from Acantha's eyes, but Rose continued to stuff words into the silence in hopes that finding the right ones. She wasn't intimidated by the scary Snake. "Plus, I got distracted on the way. Gemma Ackerly may have broken her nose. And there was blood everywhere. All over. She was... really upset..."

The low chatting around her continued unabated, a clear indication that no one was moved by her story. Or perhaps that they refused to show undue interest and be perceived as taking sides against their Head Girl. Acantha's gaze swept back to the door and the lazy look reappeared. Rose, realizing she was not the intended prey, gave a sigh of relief and sank back into her seat. Fred was in hot water.

"You fixed her up, though? Gemma?" Gracie Egerton, Ravenclaw prefect and Gemma's classmate, asked under her breath as she leaned around Adlai to see Rose more easily. A single blond curl fell into her eyes, and Gracie pushed it impatiently out of her face. "She's a bit..."

"Hysterical?" Rose guessed, dropping her own voice to match Gracie's. Adlai leaned in as well, completing the tiny circle of conspiracy right there in the prefect car. "She's fine. I doubt anything is broken, plus she got to be the center of attention since she was hit right in front of the trolley. She might view it as a positive experience. The Girl Who Bled From Her Face."

Adlai snorted and Gracie sighed, and all three of them earned a flicker of attention from Acantha. It shut down Gracie right away, but Adlai was made of sterner qualities. "Did you see Fred out there? I'd lay money on the fact that he's doing this just to drive her 'round the bend. He'll manage to waltz in here seconds before she melts down. Nothing she can do about it, either."

"She won't melt. If this is a power thing..." Rose screwed up her nose. Of all the crazy things that were true about her cousin, he wasn't really an idiot, no matter how he played it. Vying for power with a Slytherin, especially Acantha Zabini, was like debating politics with a jarvey. Pointless. "He's just playing. Messing with her. Seeing how far he can push her."

"Before she has him put down?" Gracie gulped, clearly taken in by any one of the stories that passed by word of mouth about the family of their Head Girl. "I heard..."

"She isn't..." Rose began, but they all went silent as Fred finally graced them with his presence. He was all cheerful grin and cocky swagger, letting the door slam shut behind him as he entered the carriage. If he was sorry for being late, he didn't look it. In fact, he simply looked amused to find them all watching him, some with open disdain and more with genuine worry. It felt as if there wasn't quite enough air for all of them to share, and Rose took a gulping breath.

"Acantha, pet. You look tense." The collective inhalation acted as punctuation, and Fred somehow interpreted that as approval. In truth, Rose definitely did not approve. He was late. He wasn't sorry. And he called Acantha Zabini PET. Like she was a little crup puppy or something. If he tousled her hair, someone was likely to lose a hand, and Rose had no confidence that Fred had the skills to stop it from happening.

"Fred. Meeting?" Rose raised a finger to get his attention. Nothing yet from Acantha, but Rose suspected the girl was working hard to keep from ripping Fred in half or letting her head spin fully around on her neck. Perhaps if they could somehow stumble their way into the actual prefecting part of all this pain, some of them would be lucky enough to escape the inevitable bloodbath with their lives intact. Probably not all of them, but the ones closest to the door.

Acantha shoved off the window and stalked across the carriage on graceful cat feet, which Fred took as invitation to begin talking again. "So first thing, that whole big list that Molly handed out last year. Do you lot still have that?" A few prefects, including Rose, pulled the thick roll of parchment from their robes. Across the carriage, Yates waved his high above his head, but Rose was more hesitant. Something bad was going to happen.

Fred snatched the roll from Yates' hands and tried unsuccessfully to tear it in two, although the sheer bulk of Molly Weasley's treatise on prefecting kept him from doing more than severely mangling it. Grunting in effort, Fred tugged out his wand and lit the roll on fire before handing the small blaze back to Yates. "Yeah. It's all rubbish. Toss it out."

Rose slipped her parchment back into her robes. Boring and long-winded as Molly may have been, her instructions on how to do the job were invaluable. And Fred was a prat.

"Weasley..." Miraculously, Acantha's voice didn't drip with rancor, although there was something dangerous in her stillness. Didn't panthers freeze up like that just before they took down their prey? Fred raised an eyebrow at her, and everyone else in the carriage seemed caught up in this weird drama.

Everyone but Rose, who wondered why no one else seemed to care that Yates Shacklebolt was pretty much on FIRE. The boy stared at the flaming bits of parchment flaking to the floor around his highly polished shoes, and at the last moment, Yates dropped the whole flaming bundle and stomped out the fire himself. His expression was clear; he wondered how that had just happened to him of all people. He'd been set on fire by the Head Boy, and no one had noticed or cared.

Was anyone else having an amazingly good time?

"Hey, Fred?" Yates kicked the smoldering bits to the center of the car as he scooted forward in his seat. Tired of being ignored, Shacklebolt was back in the spotlight. Tiresome of him. "I don't know if it helps, but I took the liberty of sketching out some suggestions for patrol schedules. There's a brief clarification of the curfew rules and expectations on the top. You're welcome to it if you'd like. I thought I'd just put it together as practice." The 'for next year' bit was unstated and unnecessary, as was the grin that spread across Yates' face, very broad and very white and very annoying.

"Yeah? Brilliant. Get a copy to everyone here. And... meeting adjourned. Get out of here." He aimed a low kick at the Hufflepuff nearest the door, and the prefects scattered.

"WEASLEY." Acantha's voice rose sharply, and Rose ran with all the rest. Live to fight another day.
__________________
★ Dawn ★

Awakening ★ Spiritual ★ Hopeful ★ Honest
Cassirin is offline