| Details for Black Knight to the Rescue |
| Summary: | Alphard tracks down Fiona and plays the valiant knight. |
| Date: | 31 October 1938 |
| Location: | Ticking Corridor |
| Related: | How's About Them Apples? |
| Characters |
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A tiny brown haired girl is lying on her side on the floor near the boy's bathroom. She's sniffling and holding onto her stomach. Other students pass by, not paying much attention to her as they make their way to lessons. With a groan Fiona pushes herself up into a sitting position. There is a red mark on one cheek and a tear in her sleeve.
"Chocolate?" He'd learned from Tom where they'd left their victims, and after that it was just a matter of a calm and unhurried stroll until he got there. If she'd been absent he would have picked up some runt by the scruff of their neck and sent them to search for him. Luckily (for said runts) that hadn't been necessary. In his hands he had a bar of chocolate. It was infact the exact same brand that Fiona had once offered him when he been limping away from his fight with Douglas.
Fiona looks up and wipes her face with her torn sleeve before she reaches out for the chocolate. "Thanks." She breaks off a piece and sucks on it, letting it melt on her tongue a bit before chewing. "I lucked out. They were too stupid to realise he went to the dorms to change and came here instead, so when I came after them I got it all. Well me and some Hufflepuff boy. Your friends are really dumb, Black. Mean, but dumb." With some effort she pushes herself up from the floor. "But I won't rat them out." She can't speak for the battered badger who hobbled away, however.
He let her have the whole bar, to break off as she pleased. After his massive breakfast, he had finally gotten to the point where any f urther food wasn't particularly attractive. Even if it was chocolate. "Their intellect might not be their strongest suits," the Slytherin admitted with a sardonic grin. "But being smart isn't the only quality you want in a friend. Infact it's pretty far down there, all things considered. So, you need a trip to the healer?" Sometimes they could go a bit far when they really got angry, even if they mostly had a pretty good handle of how much you could beat a kid before it became so serious the faculty got involved.
"I like Grace, she's a bit like that. But not mean." Which is Fiona's way of admitting dim witted Grace is her nicer version of Tom. The girl breaks off a bit more chocolate to eat and looks up at Alphard. "They kicked me a lot. What should I tell Madame Spleen?" The chocolate is helping her calm down some, become less shaken even if she does have an aching soreness that will set in soon.
"Grace?" He had never really bothered to learn the name of the girl he'd sent on the fool's quest to find those Fabled Purple Apples, and even the actual event was already somewhat faded. It was a matter of accumulation; he could only remember so many cruel things done before they all blurred together. "If they weren't mean, I'd have to worry about them growing a conscience and telling me I can't do things. I already have one of those friends, and I can only stand his company in small measured doses. People being self righteous with you gets boring really, really quick." He watched her out of the corner of his eye, but didn't offer any sort of actual physical support. "Misjudged the Staircase, slipped, bounced off a few steps. She'll probably know better, but if you stick to your story she won't pester you about it."
Slowly and while leaning against the wall, Fiona begins to move towards the stairwell, nibbling on chocolate. "Grace was the girl you sent to go find purple apples," says, hoping to jog Alphard's memory. "She spent ages then came to ask me for help. I'm not quite that dense." Not as dense as Grace. "We'd been using color charms in transfiguration and I thought it would be funny to give you a basket of purple apples." Her lips twitch into a grin, because it really was funny until Tom decided to blame poor sickly, wheezy, Nigel Smythe. "I didn't mean for it to make anything else purple. It's a permanent spell, or is supposed to be. Do you think Tom is bright enough to know to go ask a teacher to fix it?" She doesn't sound as if she thinks so, but maybe Alphard will be nice to his friend and tell him. Nodding her head slowly, Fiona agrees, "Slipped on the moving staircase."
It took him a second or two, but then realization dawned. "I remember. The little fat one with the cake." His chuckle was bemused as more of the memory returned to him, including his bemused wonderings of how long it would take the girl to catch up. Or if she'd search all night long until the Professors had to go look for her. "The Fabled Purple Apples of the Greenhouse, only viewable by First Years who really really want apples. Meanie told me I'd been cruel afterwards.. but its funny how people'll tell you that you're an ass, all the while smiling on the inside and not doing shit to stop you, eh?" He shrugged. "I'll let him know.. after the Halloween feast. Anyway, what was I saying? Friends. Yeah. Loyalty, dependability and enough things in common that you won't break apart as soon as you get into a disagreement. Intelligence doesn't really factor into it. Now if you date someone, I'm starting to realize it does."
Fiona nods her head, agreeing with Alphard completely. "It's fun to have people agree with you all the time, but only for a while. Then it becomes boring because there is no challenge left." She eats a little more of the chocolate. "Maybe for stupid people it's enough, but clever people they need more." Her head turns and she looks up at Alphard, grinning, "Maybe somebody should charm Tom's costume so it is also purple, but not until after he puts it on and is heading to the dance."
"Honestly, I never grew tired of it before," Alphard muttered, mostly to himself. It was something that was annoying him, even downright bothering him if he was honest about it. With a grunt and shrug, he let it go. Instead she awakened a sudden mischivious grin from him when he considered Tom all in purple. "Perhaps.." which really meant that, yes, he not only could make that work but probably would. A few innocent pranks never hurt anyone, right? "Do you know a first year named Virgil?"
"Maybe it's different when you're dating," offers Fiona. She's eleven the idea of dating seems anthema to her right now. She takes another bite of the chocolate and looks up at Alphard as if considering something. "Sure, I know Virgil Goshawk. He's even more sickly than Nigel Smythe. Why?"
Alphard had been dating before. Though the level of actual interaction had been shifting over the years as he grew older. Confident (some would say to the point of it being a real flaw), not bad looking, and rich of a good family.. it wasn't as if he had ever lacked attention. "I'd not mind knowing a little bit more about him, if you'd be willing to help. The Bloody Baron has the hate on for him. I'd like to know what he did to earn it."
Fiona nods her head, she can do this for Alphard when he has saved her twice; first from the bullies in the courtyard and then from being left on a lump in the corridor. "I'll see what I can find out. Maybe Virgil did something he shouldn't have or maybe it's because of his family." She slips the rest of her chocolate away. "I like a good mystery." As they near the stairwell she stops and looks up at him again. "If it were up to me I would give you house points for helping me. Maybe I can tell Mopsus."
"Thanks. The Bloody Baron isn't very pleasant when he's, well, pleasant. When he's in a fit about something then he becomes absolutely intolerable." There was a reason even the other ghosts were deadly afraid of the chains dragging apparition. "For some reason he decided I aught to fix it. I don't really go for beating first years, usually. So.." he was trying something other than just grabbing Virgil by the legs and then holding him over the edge of the roof until the kid told him everything. He snorted. "I'm pretty sure Mopsus isn't very fond of me." For which reason he couldn't imagine.. except jealousy of his good looks.. sight.. and general talents. "And it'd go against my reputation. On the other hand.. I do need to claw back those points I lost. I don't really care too much about it, but who bloody wants to be in the negatives? At least have the decency to break even, you know?"
"So I'd appreciate it."
"Sure," says Fiona. "I'll see what I can come up with." She's already thinking about what she can do to solve this mystery. Starting down the stairs she winces and looks up at Alphard. "You don't have to come the whole way with me if you don't want?" Although she sounds like she might prefer it if he did, but it's up to Alphard. "And either way I'll tell Mopsus how you helped me."
Alphard let his shoulder roll with an indifferent shrug. "I've come this far, so I don't really see any reason why I can't go the rest of the way." Besides, she had followed him the whole way to the infirmary, once. It would seem petty if he couldn't do as much in return. And, because she had promised she was going to look into Virgil, he added: "I'll make sure Tom realizes that fragile first years don't need more than one lesson." Because the way his little gang operated, once they discovered a victim they weren't exactly quick to relenquish them.
Fiona gives him a smile. The rest of the trip to the infirmary is spent with bit of idle chatter, nothing meaningful but Fiona reveals she is going to the feast as a giant sweetie and and then ooohs appreciatively over his costume choice. When Madame Spleen takes over her care Fiona explains how she slipped on the moving staircase and Alphard heroically came to her rescue.