Challenges #079 Trick; #080 or Treat?
Dec. 4th, 2011 11:59 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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hh_writersblockTitle: Forbidden Designated Revision Strategies
Rating/Warnings: PG at worst.
Characters/Pairing: Percy Weasley, Fred & George, Gemma Farley of Pottermore fame.
Summary: While trying to get on with his NEWT revision, Percy grows tired of the constant pranks.
Word Count: 1246
Author's Notes: For Fic Challenge #079 Trick
Registered purchases?: Both
Every so often, the Weasley pranks would get out of hand. As far as Percy was concerned, this happened more or less after each time they did anything. He wasn't surprised to hear they were ducking out of school early. The problem came when they started to interfere with his studying: the NEWTs were the most important part of his school career to date, and clearly Fred and George didn't care too much about their own OWLs, probably to the chagrin of their own friends.
However, these friends seemed to be benefitting from having their spirits lifted by the boys. Percy would look up occasionally over his glasses and see them blowing enchanted bubbles for one of the Gryffindor girls, distracting her as it floated and shimmered every colour imaginable, popping softly at the slightest touch into a shower of chiming glitter.
This was not a work environment conducive to efficient work and revision strategies.
He would have rather spent most of his evenings in the library instead, where he could at least have the support of Madam Pince, but due to the elevated security measures in the school following the escape and sightings of Sirius Black, his duties as Head Boy forced him to assist with the procedures required for school security.
"Between you and me, Weasley, this whole thing is incredibly frustrating," Head Girl Gemma Farley of Slytherin said as the pair of them reenforced the bolts on the front door. "I would much rather be spending this time practicing my Transfiguration than putting barricades up to stop erroneous Gryffindor alumni from smashing the doors down."
"If it makes you feel any better, Farley," Percy confessed. "I'm having enough trouble trying to stop the Gryffindor Common Room from falling to pieces. People don't want to study and don't want to let US study either."
"By 'people', you mean your brothers, right?"
"Of course I mean them!" Percy hissed. "They are being obnoxious on purpose, and it's such a bother! I was practicing my own Transfiguration; Vanishing and Conjuring, you know, and to make a chair appear out of thin air took five swipes of my wand! Five!"
"Wow, that's tragic," Farley said, casting a charm round the door, squelching it. "They're not listening to you, then?"
"No," Percy said, implying don't be stupid from the tone of voice. "They're fifth years; they have their own peers who are prefects and they're not respecting them. Why would they listen to me?"
"You know," Farley said thoughtfully. "In Slytherin's common room we have a great way to deal with troublemakers."
"What, stocks?" Percy said with something that resembled a laugh. "A ducking stool into the lake?"
"Close," she said. "Maybe I can lend them to you and you can play them at their own game."
One of the advantages of knowing the Weasley twins quite well was the foreknowledge that they wouldn't get out of bed until they absolutely had to, especially on a Sunday. Percy woke at the usual time and concealed what Gemma Farley had given him.
The prank was ready, and now all Percy had to do was set the scene.
He waited until that afternoon, when many of the older students were elsewhere in the grounds, and Fred and George were entertaining the younger pupils. "Come on Perce, are you sure we can't tempt you with a bit of nougat?"
"No;" Percy said. "I have eaten adequately at lunch to not require further sustinence until this evening."
"You're dull, Perce."
"Yes, well, some of us want to achieve things in life," Percy explained in a voice as patronising as he could make it. "Right now, for instance I'm trying to highlight my notes for History of Magic."
"Uh, that thing?" George said. "I can't wait to be shot of Binns' drone."
"It's important and quite simple once you get a system in place," he explained. "For instance I have two quills here: one with yellow ink to highlight dates and locations; the other is pink to highlight key points to arise from them. I'm transferring those onto these cue cards so I can walk round the castle with them and revise while on patrol."
"I feel like I'm missing out," Fred said seriously.
"Yeah, Perce: blobs of pink and yellow on parchement are exactly what we needed to add a bit of colour to History of Magic."
"Don't you two have Astronomy practical tonight and Defence Against the Dark Arts theory tomorrow morning?"
"Yeah, but Dark Arts is all about the practical test," Fred argued.
Percy rubbed his temples wearily. "Fine. I'm going to go to the bathroom. Fred, George: I forbid you both the following: don't touch these two piles of notes."
"Wouldn't dream of it Perce," Fred and George said in almost perfect unison.
"Fine," Percy said straightening up. "I need to speak to McGonagall anyway. I'll be back in fifteen minutes."
With that he stepped out of the portrait hole, catching a slight glimpse of Fred and George's identitcal Stepford smiles. Hoping it would work the way he wanted it to, he dashed down the spiral staircase to the ground floor where a girl stood waiting in emerald green-trimmed robes.
"Did you do it, Weasley?"
"It's happening now," he said with a wry grin. "I forebade them as required, and I know they're going to get right to it the minute my back was turned."
"Lovely," Gemma Farley said. "What better way than to play them at their own game?"
"Why do those even exist in your common room, anyway?"
She leaned against the baulistrade. "Apparently it's from the Founder times. Salazar Slytherin had issues with students misbehaving, so he put it in place as a way to control kids who disobeyed a direct order. Only teachers and students with high authority-- Head Boys and Girls, I mean-- can use them."
"Have you ever seen them used?"
"Once or twice," she said. "I've even used them once, too, back before Christmas. Professor Snape gave me lines. For half an hour."
"Sounds about right. Should I head back there, then?"
"Probably should, Weasley," she said seriously, looking a little like Fred. "Have fun."
And Percy dashed up the stairs with his chest heaving with a devilish streak. He wished he had full access to these tricks, but he was honour bound to give them back to Farley once she was done. He opened to portrait hole and saw at once the bait had worked: the younger students were laughing at Fred and George, who were both dangling from above in old stone cages.
"I gotta admit, Perce," Fred said simply. "That was one hell of a prank."
"Yeah, I might admit you're related to me," George piped in.
"Muffliato," Percy said, pointing his wand at the cages. With a few further waves the cages were out of sight, and Percy returned to his usual hobbies of barking orders at smaller students.
At last, he had his peace; he passed History of Magic with flying colours.
Fred and George, both stuck in their cages for 24 hours by default, fell down to the ground the following afternoon, having missed their Astronomy and Defence Against the Dark Arts exams. It was now that they realised that accusing Percy of wronging them sounded ridiculous; nobody would ever believe them.
They couldn't deny it: they were really impressed with Percy, and a little grateful, too.
However, they would never talk of this incident again.
Title: Colouring Books
Rating/Warnings: G
Characters/Pairing: Zacharaias Smith, OC children
Summary: This was NOT how Zacharaias Smith liked to spend his free time.
Word Count:644
Author's Notes: For Challenge #80 ....or Treat?
Registered purchases?: Both
Zacharaias Smith looked out of the window. It was raining again, and had been for some time now. He was stuck indoors looking after young wizarding children while their parents dealt with some errands. He wasn't sure why they had asked him to do this, after all: he had never shown any inclination toward being good with kids, and he didn't even know the families involved. However, it seemed like they had just grabbed the first person they saw and offered him a decent enough amount of gold to keep them out of the way.
He wondered if they knew he was a Hufflepuff. That's probably the only reason they ever asked him to do anything, in honesty: he was seen by his house reputation, something he occasionally resented. His family had been a mix of Ravenclaws and Slytherins, and the pair of them tended to look down on Hufflepuff with a bit of cynicism, and to Gryffindors with a bit of resent. He remembered the day he was sorted as a Hufflepuff; his mother told him she loved him as he was, which was usually her passive-aggressive way of saying she felt a bit let down.
For some reason, he wanted to prove to them that he could be an excellent Hufflepuff and not be a nice, cuddly, starry-eyed pushover. Likewise, he wanted his fellow Hufflepuffs to start making a name for themselves. They seemed frustratingly complacent about being judged by others as being a bit of a joke. Zacharias didn't like jokes.
And if he didn't like jokes, why the hell was he being made to entertain children dressed as a clown?
He resented the outfit, but like he knew: it was excellent money for one afternoon's work. After he managed to sort out one child's constant crying and tantrums and wailing (a well-aimed Silencio did wonders!) Most of the others behaved themselves in silence.
He didn't know exactly what to do with these children: did they need feeding? Changing? He probablby didn't need to change them, most of them were between five and nine years old, but feeding them, perhaps? He wondered whether any food had been left in the cupboards but the idea of walking round a strangers house in a clown costume, going through their fridge was probably not a good position to be caught in.
He had left the kids with crayons and pens and a bunch of brightly-coloured parchment. He tried making balloon animals for the children; after making a giraffe, a poodle and a something-that-might-have-been-a-duck-or-a-swan, he realised none of the kids cared that much; they were too busy drawing.
He enchanted the balloon animals to come to life, and sat down to read a newspaper in the other room. This was what life was about: learning what was going on in the world, making a change, getting the message out there. This was what he admired. He admired childrens' entertainers too, but in the same way he admired dogs with glossy coats.
Deciding to return to the children with a meat pie he had warmed through from the cupboard (after a Gemino spell left a duplicate just in case), he saw the children all looking up at him with equally creepy smiles.
"What do you want?" he barked at them from behind painted red lips.
"We made you a present, Zacharena," one of the smaller girls said, twisting her toe on the spot like she was blushing. Oh great, a crush.
"What is it?" he asked sceptically.
"Open it!"
He opened the card and sure enough, enchanted butterflies all flew around the page. It was a treat they had made for him for no reason other than because he was there and their parents were not.
He felt an odd emotion in his stomach. Remorse? At any rate he would never ever be a clown again.
1246 + 644 = 1890 / 30
Rob//Gryffindor// 63 points + 20 bonus GET!!!
Rating/Warnings: PG at worst.
Characters/Pairing: Percy Weasley, Fred & George, Gemma Farley of Pottermore fame.
Summary: While trying to get on with his NEWT revision, Percy grows tired of the constant pranks.
Word Count: 1246
Author's Notes: For Fic Challenge #079 Trick
Registered purchases?: Both
Every so often, the Weasley pranks would get out of hand. As far as Percy was concerned, this happened more or less after each time they did anything. He wasn't surprised to hear they were ducking out of school early. The problem came when they started to interfere with his studying: the NEWTs were the most important part of his school career to date, and clearly Fred and George didn't care too much about their own OWLs, probably to the chagrin of their own friends.
However, these friends seemed to be benefitting from having their spirits lifted by the boys. Percy would look up occasionally over his glasses and see them blowing enchanted bubbles for one of the Gryffindor girls, distracting her as it floated and shimmered every colour imaginable, popping softly at the slightest touch into a shower of chiming glitter.
This was not a work environment conducive to efficient work and revision strategies.
He would have rather spent most of his evenings in the library instead, where he could at least have the support of Madam Pince, but due to the elevated security measures in the school following the escape and sightings of Sirius Black, his duties as Head Boy forced him to assist with the procedures required for school security.
"Between you and me, Weasley, this whole thing is incredibly frustrating," Head Girl Gemma Farley of Slytherin said as the pair of them reenforced the bolts on the front door. "I would much rather be spending this time practicing my Transfiguration than putting barricades up to stop erroneous Gryffindor alumni from smashing the doors down."
"If it makes you feel any better, Farley," Percy confessed. "I'm having enough trouble trying to stop the Gryffindor Common Room from falling to pieces. People don't want to study and don't want to let US study either."
"By 'people', you mean your brothers, right?"
"Of course I mean them!" Percy hissed. "They are being obnoxious on purpose, and it's such a bother! I was practicing my own Transfiguration; Vanishing and Conjuring, you know, and to make a chair appear out of thin air took five swipes of my wand! Five!"
"Wow, that's tragic," Farley said, casting a charm round the door, squelching it. "They're not listening to you, then?"
"No," Percy said, implying don't be stupid from the tone of voice. "They're fifth years; they have their own peers who are prefects and they're not respecting them. Why would they listen to me?"
"You know," Farley said thoughtfully. "In Slytherin's common room we have a great way to deal with troublemakers."
"What, stocks?" Percy said with something that resembled a laugh. "A ducking stool into the lake?"
"Close," she said. "Maybe I can lend them to you and you can play them at their own game."
One of the advantages of knowing the Weasley twins quite well was the foreknowledge that they wouldn't get out of bed until they absolutely had to, especially on a Sunday. Percy woke at the usual time and concealed what Gemma Farley had given him.
The prank was ready, and now all Percy had to do was set the scene.
He waited until that afternoon, when many of the older students were elsewhere in the grounds, and Fred and George were entertaining the younger pupils. "Come on Perce, are you sure we can't tempt you with a bit of nougat?"
"No;" Percy said. "I have eaten adequately at lunch to not require further sustinence until this evening."
"You're dull, Perce."
"Yes, well, some of us want to achieve things in life," Percy explained in a voice as patronising as he could make it. "Right now, for instance I'm trying to highlight my notes for History of Magic."
"Uh, that thing?" George said. "I can't wait to be shot of Binns' drone."
"It's important and quite simple once you get a system in place," he explained. "For instance I have two quills here: one with yellow ink to highlight dates and locations; the other is pink to highlight key points to arise from them. I'm transferring those onto these cue cards so I can walk round the castle with them and revise while on patrol."
"I feel like I'm missing out," Fred said seriously.
"Yeah, Perce: blobs of pink and yellow on parchement are exactly what we needed to add a bit of colour to History of Magic."
"Don't you two have Astronomy practical tonight and Defence Against the Dark Arts theory tomorrow morning?"
"Yeah, but Dark Arts is all about the practical test," Fred argued.
Percy rubbed his temples wearily. "Fine. I'm going to go to the bathroom. Fred, George: I forbid you both the following: don't touch these two piles of notes."
"Wouldn't dream of it Perce," Fred and George said in almost perfect unison.
"Fine," Percy said straightening up. "I need to speak to McGonagall anyway. I'll be back in fifteen minutes."
With that he stepped out of the portrait hole, catching a slight glimpse of Fred and George's identitcal Stepford smiles. Hoping it would work the way he wanted it to, he dashed down the spiral staircase to the ground floor where a girl stood waiting in emerald green-trimmed robes.
"Did you do it, Weasley?"
"It's happening now," he said with a wry grin. "I forebade them as required, and I know they're going to get right to it the minute my back was turned."
"Lovely," Gemma Farley said. "What better way than to play them at their own game?"
"Why do those even exist in your common room, anyway?"
She leaned against the baulistrade. "Apparently it's from the Founder times. Salazar Slytherin had issues with students misbehaving, so he put it in place as a way to control kids who disobeyed a direct order. Only teachers and students with high authority-- Head Boys and Girls, I mean-- can use them."
"Have you ever seen them used?"
"Once or twice," she said. "I've even used them once, too, back before Christmas. Professor Snape gave me lines. For half an hour."
"Sounds about right. Should I head back there, then?"
"Probably should, Weasley," she said seriously, looking a little like Fred. "Have fun."
And Percy dashed up the stairs with his chest heaving with a devilish streak. He wished he had full access to these tricks, but he was honour bound to give them back to Farley once she was done. He opened to portrait hole and saw at once the bait had worked: the younger students were laughing at Fred and George, who were both dangling from above in old stone cages.
"I gotta admit, Perce," Fred said simply. "That was one hell of a prank."
"Yeah, I might admit you're related to me," George piped in.
"Muffliato," Percy said, pointing his wand at the cages. With a few further waves the cages were out of sight, and Percy returned to his usual hobbies of barking orders at smaller students.
At last, he had his peace; he passed History of Magic with flying colours.
Fred and George, both stuck in their cages for 24 hours by default, fell down to the ground the following afternoon, having missed their Astronomy and Defence Against the Dark Arts exams. It was now that they realised that accusing Percy of wronging them sounded ridiculous; nobody would ever believe them.
They couldn't deny it: they were really impressed with Percy, and a little grateful, too.
However, they would never talk of this incident again.
Title: Colouring Books
Rating/Warnings: G
Characters/Pairing: Zacharaias Smith, OC children
Summary: This was NOT how Zacharaias Smith liked to spend his free time.
Word Count:644
Author's Notes: For Challenge #80 ....or Treat?
Registered purchases?: Both
Zacharaias Smith looked out of the window. It was raining again, and had been for some time now. He was stuck indoors looking after young wizarding children while their parents dealt with some errands. He wasn't sure why they had asked him to do this, after all: he had never shown any inclination toward being good with kids, and he didn't even know the families involved. However, it seemed like they had just grabbed the first person they saw and offered him a decent enough amount of gold to keep them out of the way.
He wondered if they knew he was a Hufflepuff. That's probably the only reason they ever asked him to do anything, in honesty: he was seen by his house reputation, something he occasionally resented. His family had been a mix of Ravenclaws and Slytherins, and the pair of them tended to look down on Hufflepuff with a bit of cynicism, and to Gryffindors with a bit of resent. He remembered the day he was sorted as a Hufflepuff; his mother told him she loved him as he was, which was usually her passive-aggressive way of saying she felt a bit let down.
For some reason, he wanted to prove to them that he could be an excellent Hufflepuff and not be a nice, cuddly, starry-eyed pushover. Likewise, he wanted his fellow Hufflepuffs to start making a name for themselves. They seemed frustratingly complacent about being judged by others as being a bit of a joke. Zacharias didn't like jokes.
And if he didn't like jokes, why the hell was he being made to entertain children dressed as a clown?
He resented the outfit, but like he knew: it was excellent money for one afternoon's work. After he managed to sort out one child's constant crying and tantrums and wailing (a well-aimed Silencio did wonders!) Most of the others behaved themselves in silence.
He didn't know exactly what to do with these children: did they need feeding? Changing? He probablby didn't need to change them, most of them were between five and nine years old, but feeding them, perhaps? He wondered whether any food had been left in the cupboards but the idea of walking round a strangers house in a clown costume, going through their fridge was probably not a good position to be caught in.
He had left the kids with crayons and pens and a bunch of brightly-coloured parchment. He tried making balloon animals for the children; after making a giraffe, a poodle and a something-that-might-have-been-a-duck-or-a-swan, he realised none of the kids cared that much; they were too busy drawing.
He enchanted the balloon animals to come to life, and sat down to read a newspaper in the other room. This was what life was about: learning what was going on in the world, making a change, getting the message out there. This was what he admired. He admired childrens' entertainers too, but in the same way he admired dogs with glossy coats.
Deciding to return to the children with a meat pie he had warmed through from the cupboard (after a Gemino spell left a duplicate just in case), he saw the children all looking up at him with equally creepy smiles.
"What do you want?" he barked at them from behind painted red lips.
"We made you a present, Zacharena," one of the smaller girls said, twisting her toe on the spot like she was blushing. Oh great, a crush.
"What is it?" he asked sceptically.
"Open it!"
He opened the card and sure enough, enchanted butterflies all flew around the page. It was a treat they had made for him for no reason other than because he was there and their parents were not.
He felt an odd emotion in his stomach. Remorse? At any rate he would never ever be a clown again.
1246 + 644 = 1890 / 30
Rob//Gryffindor// 63 points + 20 bonus GET!!!
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Date: 2011-12-05 12:52 am (UTC)I laughed so hard at this. So beautiful.
Poor clown Zacharias.
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Date: 2011-12-05 01:23 am (UTC)and tbh i have NO idea how Zacharaias ended up in a clown costume. He just.... kinda did. By accident. I aint mad tho. trolol
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Date: 2011-12-05 01:24 am (UTC)lol so many of my fics end with me complete baffled about how it get there hahhaha