| Details for It All Comes Down to This… |
| Summary: | Drama in the Entry Hall. Will Medusa be suspended? Will Douglas be shamed? Will Cillian ever trust Elise again? Tune in tomorrow, same bat-time, same bat-channel. |
| Date: | 1938-11-11 |
| Location: | Entry Hall |
| Related: | http://wandw.wikidot.com/log:1938-10-26-under-the-boats |
| Characters |
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It is well before dinner, a good hour or so and the Entry Hall is empty save for Medusa who is peering at the House Point counter of all things. Not one who usually cares about house points it is an odd thing for the Gorgon to be paying attention to.
Elise is wandering through from outside, holding gardening gloves and an apron, and a small bucket of tools with mauve-coloured handles, all well-used. She sees Medusa, hesitates, and tries to sort of blend into the walls and slide past, obviously hoping not to be noticed.
"You can't steal them," Douglas advises as he exits the main hall and spies Medusa. "Trust me. I had this plan all worked out in third year. Climb up, prise the top off the hourglass, replace the gems with fakes, and run away for a holiday in Barbados."
So far the midget goes unseen, Medusa's attention is more focused on Douglas. "Of course you would," she says with a bit of a sneer. "Run away and avoid all your problems. Well this is a problem you can't run away from." Her hands on her hips she turns towards the Gryffindor. "Everyone said you were a waste of my time, a waste of space, but I didn't listen and look where it got me? Just like you, Douglas, to make it so I'm the one in trouble. I'm the one that's late."
Elise freezes, unable to totally sneak away when there's an interesting and dramatic row happening right in front of her. She holds her breath and stares, eyes wide, her gaze darting between Medusa and Douglas.
Douglas holds up his hands, backing off. "Whoa, whoa, steady on, Malfoy. Your timekeeping has never been my problem, so don't you go blaming me! You'll only get a few points lost, anyway. Just go look apologetic and you're golden, aren't you? Who is it? Viridian?"
Medusa huffs an incredulous breath. "How can you stand there and pretend you don't know what I am talking about?" She turns her back on him, crossing her arms over her chest. If he wants an answer he will have to work for it.
An overheard conversation from a while back, and the subsequent threats from these two is well-recalled by Elise. Suddenly realizing what day it is, her eyes narrow in suspicion as she looks between them.
Douglas rolls his eyes, grabbing for Medusa's shoulder to turn her back to face him. "What? Like it's my fault? You said you didn't have any classes this morning, anyway! How am I supposed to know your bloody timetable?"
"I'm not talking about classes you….dolt!" Medusa rolls her shoulder out from under Douglas' hand as she looks up at him. Raising a hand she doesn't smack him but points towards the main entrance, "I'm talking about what happened in the boathouse."
"What happened in th…" Douglas begins, exasperated, before suddenly trailing off. He swallows, eyes flicking down Medusa's body. "Oh. Ohhh." He glances around the entrance hall, sucking on his teeth. "Look, not here. We'll fix it. We can go see Spleen or something. Not here, though."
Elise seems to catch on a half-second after Douglas does. Her face turns bright red and she makes a sort of "Meep!" noise, squeaky and surprised. Now she's not sure if this is a trick or what.
The least stealthy entrance EVER! Cillian is making his way down the stairs, idly crunching down on a raw carrot as his satchel bumps against his thigh and he tilts his head to the side curiously as he notices those who are gathered and how the atmosphere is tense.
Medusa starts to lean into Douglas as if she believes him that everything will be fine but then suddenly they are no longer alone and she stiffens. Wrapping her over robe tightly around herself she looks to see who it is. "Just great. Just bloody great," she mutters in a tone that implies she is blaming Douglas for the two second years being there too.
Douglas runs a hand through his hair, messing it up even worse. He points to Cillian, then Elise, then to the exit, jaw set. "Go. Now."
Elise's mouth falls open. "You… you… you're…" she looks down at Medusa's midsection, her cheeks pinken up even more. And then she glances over to see Cillian coming down. "Cil!" she says. Her eyes are wide. She looks to Douglas when he orders her out, and draws herself up. "Fine. I'm sure loads of people will want to hear this, anyway. How fast /will/ this rumor fly, I wonder?"
Cillian raises a hand to point towards the exit and then the stairs and then the great hall and repeats replies. "Open. School." Then he shrugs and continues on his walk, just looking between the two older students. "I really could be carin' less about ye two ya know…yer older, and ye 'ave older student problems. There's always some type of drama going on and in the books, Medusa wasn't that bad of a person until somebody be doin' somethin' to her." He waves a hand vaguely and takes another bite of his carrot, waving a hand to Elise. "Did ye be doin' some interesting gardening?" Then he cringes when she's standing up to the other two, facepalming. "Ye dun /tell/ people yer going to spread a rumor…"
"Of course she'll spread a rumour. That's what she has been desperate to do all along," Medusa looks down at Elise literally and figuratively. "It will make her feel powerful, so she thinks. Tell the world and maybe people won't think of her as the poor girl who might die from licking a toad but instead as the one who made a Malfoy suffer." Hugging her arms tightly around herself she still manages to look a little haughty. "That's what you want isn't it, Harper? To not fade into obscurity as just another statistic of your curse. Problem is…I don't think the object of your affections would like it so much if you went ahead with what you're planning."
Douglas takes a few deep breaths, glancing between Medusa and Elisa, then over to Cillian with a 'fuck do I do now?' look. "Harper, if you open your mouth, I will actually end you," he decides, face definitely turning a shade of grey as he chews on his lip. "And I fucking mean it, too. This isn't a fucking game."
"Well, they've no call to be /nasty/ to me, have they?" Elise asks Cillian. "They could have just said, 'Please don't mention this, Elise, we'd take it as a great kindness.' And I wouldn't have said a word. Not a word. But how am I supposed to react to rudeness?" She crosses her arms. And then just /glares/ up at Medusa. "You have no idea what you're talking about," she grinds out. "I'll have you know… I heard every word you spoke in the boathouse that day. Everthing. But have rumors been spread? /No/. Despite the /threats/ you leveled against me, your secret was safe from being spread." She pauses. "And oh, wait. Today is the eleventh, isn't it? Wasn't today the day you were planning something? Something that would make you lots of money? Was this it, then?" She looks suspiciously between the two older students. She backs away from Douglas half a step at his words, and the color drains from her face.
Cillian's eye darts between Medusa and Elise before looking over to Douglas with the eye widening as he…/threatens/ one of his crew and then Medusa is doing her thing and Elise is /speaking/ and then she admits to have heard things and he just has to drop his carrot and finish making his way down the stairs, staring before he raises his voice. "ENOUGH! Oh my BLOODY HELL, what is /WRONG/ with ye LOT?!" He points to Medusa. "Iffen yer ill, m' sorry, if ye need chocolate or anyting please to be lettin' me know." He points to Douglas. "I will personally go to the head of our house and up to the headmaster if I have to and mention ye /threatened/ a lower-classman because I dun care 'ow many secrets ye may have, when you threaten somebody who can't protect themselves from ye, yer not /worthy/ of the Gryffindor house and ye bring /shame/ to us all. I look up to ye, not only because I'm short because ye put yer trust in me and showed me that there's honor in helpin' yer fellow housemate, even if ye dun know if ye can." He points to Elise and crooks a finger. "Mousie, ye /would/ pick today to find yer voice. Please come, stand beside me, c'mon…" He holds up a finger. "I 'ave a feelin' this all has to do with love and fear and the two dun really go well together but there's /enough/ shi-badstuff going on in the world for ye all to be addin' to it! I mean Merlin's beard, can ye hear yerselves?!"
When Elise admits she had been lying to them Medusa doesn't seem the least bit surprised but she does give Douglas a pointed look and again lays the blame at his feet, "I told you she was lying. She probably ran and told all her little friends or at least him," a hand flicks towards Cillian. She turns to the small boy now, "Get off your high horse midget and think. You little girlfriend there threatened me. She's the one who was clearly sneaking around us again hoping to spy on us and over hear private things again. You want to point fingers, look at Harper." The Malfoy girl hasn't so much as even pointed a finger at Elise, let alone moved near her. "Doulgas asked you - alright he told you both to leave - and then she threatened me. But fine. Take her side. Go ahead. I'm sure she is innocent and sweetness and never has done anything underhanded like make a promise that she will keep secrets for people and then share those secrets the minute that she is away from them." Medusa stamps a foot as her eyes water as if chastising herself mentally before continuing, "Just be careful what you trust her with Cillian because she is already keeping secrets from you. It isn't a big leap to giving away your secrets to others."
"Shut your fat little Irish cakehole, paddy," Douglas decides, waving Cillian down offhandedly. "Save your lectures for people who care. I've got bigger issues than you, so be a good little mick and fuck off."
Elise scuttles, mouse-like, right to Cillian's side just as he bids her to. "I never promised," she says to Medusa. "And I only told Cillian because you threatened me and I was scared of what you'd /do/. I didn't tell anyone else, I /swear/ it." She's starting to get somewhat frantic by this point. "And — and I wasn't trying to overhear anything private! You're in the bloody Entry Hall and I was just walking by!" She holds up her gardening tools. "It's not my fault you started talking about this in the middle of school! /Anyone/ could have overheard!" She gasps, positively shocked at Douglas' words.
Cillian looks between Medusa and Douglas and then back to Medusa and then back to Douglas as he just stares at the former as if he's been kicked in the stomach and he swallows hard, shaking his head. "Wow." He chokes a bit and takes another deep breath. "Yer both adults. Yer what we 'ave to look forward to becomin'…" He looks to Medusa, his Irish accent giving way to an extremely polished British one. "I've done nothing but show you honor and told my crew to do nothing to either of you, you're a dark lady and a knight…I took no sides." He trails off. "No." He swallows. "You're adults.." He shoots a betrayed look over to Elise as well, his eye watering up before he takes a deep breath. "We're supposed to protect, and defend…and make things better." He just shakes his head slowly and backs away from them all including Elise, slowly just shaking his head before he looks over to Douglas and narrows his eye. "I looked /up/ to you." His jaw sets. "I am going to find another adult." And he turns to head off.
"You did too promise," Medusa argues with Elise, "you just don't want Cillian to know you broke a promise. But fine. Do what you want to Harper. You will do anyway, right? You want to run around and tell everybody, get me expelled?" She waves a dismissive hand. "I have more things to worry about than you." She draws in a shaky breath and calls after Cillian, "Wait. I'll come with you. There's nothing for me here anymore either."
Elise follows Cillian. "Don't listen to her, Cil," Elise pleads. "She's just saying hurtful things because she's scared. I'd /never/ betray you!" She starts crying. "I haven't even spoken to Madam Patil about the b — anything!" She shakes her head. "I never promised! You wanted me to, but I didn't! I /didn't/!"
"Malfoy, I'll go with you," Douglas offers, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "I mean… you know. We'll sort it out. Look, kids, we've got stuff to deal with. Go play or something."
Cillian pauses to look over his shoulder at Medusa, staring for a moment and tilting his head. "If you do have a big secret, perhaps you should instead act as though everything is normal and begin to plan for how to cover things up…" And then he looks over to Elise as she's following as well. "Ye dun threaten people when they be scared, it makes ye no better than a /bully/. Ye can use words as weapons but only when ye are protectin' somebody else." He informs the young girl. "Ye will always be a pirate Mousie, but ye need to go 1 whole day without talkin', I've done it before..its like 'avin' yer sword taken. Go one full day without talkin', and then you'll know how powerful words really are. Except for like in classes. " Then he looks to Douglas, narrows his eye and then turns to Medusa to offer a small golden wrapped bar of chocolate. "I need to go find the professor." He waits to see if she accepts before taking off running. Busy Busy boy.
Medusa looks at the chocolate and at the boy and leans over to leave a coral imprint of her lips on Cillian's forehead. She whispers to him and then walks away, holding her chocolate closely.
Elise is crying, knowing full well she disappointed Cillian. But she nods, willingly accepting his conditions. And she claps her hand over her mouth, turns, and runs away, presumably toward the Ravenclaw girl's dorm.
Douglas rubs at his face as he's left alone in the entry hall, finding a spot at the bottom of the stairs to just thump down to a seated position.