| Details for The Devil and Damsel |
| Summary: | Soleil needs a guinea pig for one of her Costume Potions and picks Balthazar out in the common room and things get devilish. |
| Date: | September 9th, 1937 |
| Location: | Slytherin Common Room |
| Related: | None |
| Characters |
    |
There is a soft curse of, "Damn it." Behind a privacy screen that's used to help block out distractions for anyone trying to study in the common room. But usually it's in front of a desk that's transformed into a little potions laboratory. A very small puff of puce smoke rises above the screen. Then a moment later there is soft clapping and Soleil comes from around the screen with a little mini cauldron and a long stemmed spoon. "Balty, would you try this for me? It's this years Costume Potions. I think I've finally got the red just right." A cinnamon smelling spoon full of something the consistency and appearance of brownie mix is scooped out of the cauldron in her hand to offer up to Balthazar hopefully.
Oh, good, it does! It was really only an educated guess on Llewellyn's part - a less skilled student would probably have still lost track - but he'll take the victory nonetheless. His own wand drawn out in turn, he gestures toward the mini-cloud, sending it slowly fragmenting and trickling down into the tankard— then blinks and turns a little, sniffing at Soleil's brew as it wafts through the room. "Is it for Samhain?" he asks.
Ria get a tad nervous as the mini-cloud begins to precipitate and she jumps to straighten out the tankard so that it captures the rain a bit better. "Oh Llewellyn, please!" she pouts. Of course there was nothing wrong with its positioning to begin with, but you know her. But like her cousin, she too catches a whiff of the concotion. "Merlin's beard that smells lovely." Although a snaky smile indicates that she's pleased with Balthazar's answer. "Wait here," she says to the group and she disappears off to the girl's sleeping quarters for a few minutes.
Looking up at Sunny, Balthazar sniffs once, then twice, and then with only the slightest narrowing of his eyes, he leans forward to take the ladle from her. "If this ends up turning me into a berry, tonight will end very badly for you," he warns her. But, Slytherin pride, his own pride, and blatant curiosity put him in the position of drinking the draught of potion she has offered him.
Soleil bends over to watch Balthazar very closely and looks extremely please when his face begins to turn red. Not angry red more deeper and intense than that. So pleased that she begins clapping when his eyes go all black and two glossy horns painlessly thrust up out of his forehead. "You make quite the dashing devil Balty." She turns the cauldron where there's a small mirror hanging from it. Then her gaze looks to the others waiting for Ria to return before asking, "Is the red - devilish enough? And the horns do they look too much like unicorn horns and not enough like rams horns? I used a modified portion of my unicorn costume…" They look perfectly like devil's rams horns, but she's being a bit of a perfectionist.
Carrying a 2 liter jug of a reddish butterscotchy liquid, Ria steps out of the girls dormitories reading the label until she finally reaches the group. Her head raising up, she stops short in her tracks and covers her mouth when she exclaims, "Holy kneazles! Sunny, did you just do that to Lestrange?" The prefect puts the chug down on the table before getting a better look at her work. Once more the freckles crinkle with her nose which scrunches in slight disgust. "Gods, that's hideous…good job." And to the boy himself she smirks and says, "You look -better- this way Balthazar. Before you were simply grotesque." And then suddenly there's a sharp shriek from the girl's area followed by the breaking of glass and giggling of young slytherin boys. With a groan, Ria turns on her heel and says, "I thought the hat already sorted all the idiots over into Gryffindor." With a fast paced stomping she makes her way over to investigate the scene while calling over her shoulder, "Anyone who drinks from that bottle owes me a butterbeer on the next Hogsmeade weekend."
Balthazar's now jet-black eyes roll ceilingward as Ria offers her taunts. "It's a mirror potion, Ria, it reflects the true visage of whoever is looking at it," he shoots back, not missing a beat. He reaches a hand up, idly feeling and rubbing at the horns. "The horns itch a bit, but otherwise," He studies his reflection in the mirror, turning first one way and then the other, "It's /awesome/," he concludes. "How long does the potion last?" he asks Soleil before reaching for the jug of butterbeer and filling his tankard.
Soleil looks all the more pleased when Balty likes the way he looks. But then when he asks how long it lasts she just sort of bites down on her bottom lip with a guilty 'oh yeah…that… knew I was forgetting something' rather sheepish expression.
The black eyes narrow as the seventh year looks up at Soleil. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Balthazar asks her in a level, almost clipped tone, "Parkinson, how long am I going to look like this, and do I have to go to the Hospital Wing?" He sits up a bit straighter in his seat, his demon lips pressing together in a tight frown.
Soleil melts into soft little mostly inward chuckles. "I was joking. On spoonful lasts usually upwards to an hour. Each spoonful is an additional hour. I am selling it by the spoonful by the sickle. If you want it to last four hours, it's four sickles." She reaches out to take him by the tip of one of the horns and gives it a little affectionate light shake. "You get devily adorable when you get worried."
A quick breath of both relief and exasperation is blown out of his demonic nose, producing a pleasantly menacing puff of brimstone-scented smoke out of each nostril. Balthazar seems not to notice, folding his arms across his chest. "Very funny, Sunny. Very funny." The arms are just as quickly unfolded, as he has to reach up and rub at one of the horns again, as if trying to scratch an itch. "You're just lucky I don't turn your cauldron into a bugbear." Mollified, he lifts his tankard and drinks deeply of his butterbeer.
Soleil scrunches her nose up a little bit at him and then places a lid over the cauldron. "If you do, I won't sell you any." She gives a so there hmph and turns about to go back behind the screen to her little laboratory.
"Compelling argument," Blacktone mutters, only half to himself, as he takes another long sip of his butterbeer. "I may have to get you to help me with my potions homework," he calls over to the screen. "I can help you with transfiguration if you want." Another sip from his tankard and he adds, "Potions are just confusing. All the chopping, timing, temperature taking, I don't know how you keep it all straight."
Soleil leans over to the point where her long dark hair nearly brushes the floor, "It is, isn't it?" She replies to his comment about how compelling her argument is. "That would be nice of you, thanks. Transfiguration…beyond the costuming cosmetically changes always gives me the creepers. Like, why on earth would I want to turn my owl into a teacup?! Honestly." She waves him over which is quite something, to be invited behind the curtain so to speak.
Standing, Balthazar finds that the horns are a bit heavier than he expected, and he's overbalanced a little, but is able to right himself and step over behind the curtain. "Well, those are just exercises," he says. "Imagine someone's wand gets cracked, and their accio spell accidentally turns your new Firebolt into spaghetti! Knowing how to change it back would save you a pile of coin!" He tries to make his own compelling argument, but falls quiet as he enters the girl's sanctum.
Soleil shakes her head, "Well beyond poking my head through the large holes in your argument with things such as, I have a Cleansweep, not a whatever. If someone with a cracked wand were to cast that spell, I highly doubt that a plate of spaghetti would be the lashback. It's more likely to be flung further away than transfigure. But taking your argument less literally, I never said I didn't see the usefulness, simply that I find the warping of something down to it's essence is bordering on something Dark." She pulls at her robes some to gather it around her more after a chill sweeps through her. Behind the screen she has several of those mini cauldrons all bubbling and brewing away. Many of them with chains around their 'necks' each chain hangs a little crafted bit of paper. Unicorn, Mermaid, Werewolf, Inferi, and now she sets about cutting some red construction paper out folding it and bending it til it resembles a devil mask with blackhorns glued on to it and everything.
The tall demon-headed lad that is standing there behind her screen opens his mouth to argue with her, but finds himself singularly unable to do so. Finally, after a moment's pause, he finds something to say and so Balthazar replies with, "It's not Dark. It's the nature of magic itself. Taking the essence of something and working with it, bending it to your will. Dark is how you use it, more than anything else."
Soleil looks up at him, she has this exasperated expression. Like she truly is flabbergasted that that is his rebuttle. "Bending it to your will. Bending the essence of another living creature's very appearance to your will, isn't Dark? It's no different than the Unforgivable Controlling Curse. To clarify, I have very little issue changing this spoon from an iron utensil into a golden comb. But to take a living thing and turn it into a teacup of all the demeaning things…I don't like it."
A sidelong look is given her, made only slightly more menacing given his demonic countenance, but then Balthazar says, "You don't have to /like/ it, you just have to be able to /do/ it for class. Once you've graduated, you can not do it as much as you want. But, when you're out in the woods and there's snakes or scorpions, a teacup is suddenly going to seem a lot more pleasant to deal with." A pause, then his head turns the other way, the sidelong look getting skeptical and curious in equal measures. "Do you know the Controlling Curse?" he asks.
Soleil crosses her arms underneath her chest and still giving him that flabbergasted look, though her lips keep pulling and twitching into a fought smile. She really doesn't find the devil look on him very intimidating. 'The Devil You Know' as They say. "Do you think I would be sitting here having this redundant circular conversation if I did know the Controlling Curse?" Shaking her head she checks an hourglass that's on the table. "There plenty of time to sleep." She stands up and pulls her wand from her robes. She gives a tap to the table, "Securus Maxima." Out of nowhere from underneath the table a tarp blankets over the top of the thing covering all the potions up and appearing to have a vacuum seal-esk effect. Then over those comes some chains that manifest and wind about the table surface like snakes until finally a large lock claps shut. "I have very much enjoyed our conversation Balty, but I really must get at least some sleep in. I only have four and a half hours." As she backs away towards the girls dorm tucking away her wand. "By the way, are you taking anyone for the Samhain Feast? The dancing part of it I mean." She clarifies like she feels she must.
Reaching up to scratch the tip of one thick horn, Balthazar's mouth quirks for a moment. After he has that heartbeat or two's pause, he says, "You, if you'll go with me." Finally able to stop fidgeting with the horns, he lets his hand fall to the side, and regards her evenly with his red-faced, black-eyed, goat-horned visage being that which is inviting her to the dance. "So say yes now so that you can get some sleep, trust me, it'll be great."
Soleil is not able to school her reaction of shock and awe and giddiness that she just got asked to be the very cool and popular and older boy's date for Samhain. "Geee…umm…I wasn't 'fishing' but…" She is very much trying to get herself together, she could chew a hole in her lip for all the worrying of it between nibbling teeth she's doing. "Yes! Umm, ahemm… if you want exclusive access to the demon potion that cost five sickles. Should I put it on reserve? You can give me the money in the morning."
A grin, an easy expression with his normal face, but one that comes off rather demonic with his current visage. "Yeah, if you can stand to be with me all night like this, then I definitely want it. And I'll make sure you have a great time, I promise." His dark eyes shift over to the door to the girl's dorm. "You should probably get to sleep." Trying to pull off cool and nonchalant when you have goat horns growing out of your head isn't exactly easy, but Balthazar tries to stand with some degree of aloof aplomb now that he's secured a date.
Soleil nods and continues to back away towards the dorms, she's a bit on cloud nine at the moment and she doesn't realize she's about to… "Oof." Run into the wall right next to the passage to the girls dorms. But she just makes the best of it and with a wave she roll-twirls along the wall into the hall waving to him as she goes.
Balthazar lifts a hand to wave to her as she goes, then lets out a giant sneeze as the tickle of the potion wearing off hits his nose first, causing his head to snap forward as a demon and then back as the dark-haired Slytherin student again. "Good night, Sunny," he calls to her, smiling at the way she smoothly pivots on one foot.
Soleil's voice echoes down the hall, "Gazoontite!" Then there's the opening and closing of a door. Off to bed she goes.