| Details for Pumpkin Carvings and Shadows |
| Summary: | A shadow gets loose in the Library. |
| Date: | 14th November 1938 |
| Location: | Library, Hogwards |
| Related: | Mechanations at the Clocktower and Greenhouse Gathering |
| Characters |
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After a meal, there's a tiny bit of free time, and people usually spend the time studying or gossiping or doing whatever children do when they aren't being educated or forced/ahem given the opportunity to play sports. There are individuals who choose to meet in the library however, to return or check out books or to have a good place to sit and do homework and everything is caaalm as can be.
Dark hair, pale skin and a penchant for moving with as little noise as possible, Cathal's roaming the stacks currently looking for books on charms. There's no real expression on his face as he looks at each book trying to determine what the title is and possible usages.
Cory is siting at one of the desks with stacks of books all around him, he has a few opened infront of him as he's reading all of them at the same time and writing notes down as he does.
There's a certain book on Cory's desk, 'Harold and the Halloween Happening' or some sort and it flips/flops open on its own, pages ruffling a bit.
Selecting a tome about spells and placing them into a book, Cathal begins heading towards the desks setup for studying. Ever since he met the Shadow, he's been wondering just how that sort of magic could be done.
Cory keeps fliping though pages back and forth, he notices the one book fliping on it's on and stops to look at it. "Stgrange, there must be a draft in here." he hasn't heard about the words disappearing yet or a shadow so he's out of the loop for now.
As Cory concentrates on the words, they almost seem to be bleeding together, swirling slowly into a dark swirl against the page as a single line, no longer separate words and then seem to be seeping out of the book…there's a brief flicker of lighting in this area of the library, or maybe somebody just blinked? Either way, the pages of the Halloween book keep flipping and more 'words' seeping out to puddle into a shadowy blob against the table.
Blue eyes catch sight of the black shadowy blob, if Cathal was anyone else they would groan. He steps out into the general area,"Someone should notify the librarian about this…" He says as he steps up next to Cory,"I would of course suggest that you be leaving. If this is the same thing I ran into with the Captain, it will be bad." He says seriously as he tucks the book under one arm.
Cory watch's the lines begins to join togeter and leak off the page, he falls backwards some off his chair and onto the ground as he watch's it, he's so focus on the book he din't hear somebody walk up to him until she spoke. "W-w-what's going on?" he shakes his head some and draws his wand from his robe. "I'm not going anywhere, we Travers aren't scard of anything and we don't run from it."
"Shh! Strings!" There's an insistent whisper from under a table right across from where Cory was sitting and Cathal is approaching and Cillian can be seen crouching. "Get the book! Close it and get it, and be quiet! Do not draw anymore attention?" He's crawling out from under the table with a book, getting to his feet and dropping it and raising his head a bit to get the librarian's attention as she approaches. "Um…" He holds up the book. "I-I am so sorry, I…I think my chocolate melted in my bag a-and it got in the book, I'm so sorry…"
As for the book and the melty words, it doesn't seem like anybody notices much of anything except to give Cathal and Cory funny or annoyed looks and glares at the noise disruption. The shadow on the table begins to take the shape of a jack-o-lantern, complete with creepy face.
Moving to try and do as his captain commanded, Cathal's quick on his feet,"You are being illogical." He says in his simple crisp tones as he works on closing up the book. The Shadow returning, this is such a bad idea. The firstie will just be useless.
Cory steps forward but stay's behind the other's, he looks at the shadow like thing and get's a Idea. "I need a candle or something maybe light will drive it away, seeing it's shadow like."
"I swear, m' always very careful, its only…well yes, Its only chocolate…I-I won't get in trouble will I? Its never never happened before." Cillian glances briefly over to Cathal and Cory before looking back to the Librarian and he nods slowly, making his promises to be careful in the future and to not keep his candy in his satchel and he subtly raises a hand rub the tip of his pointed finger under his eyepatch, almost like he's scratching his cheek (Look/Watch) and then he moves the hand to the back of his head, scratching there with his thumb. (Behind You/) Then his fingers go to his mouth, thumb pressed against his lips (Be Quiet), then he purses his lips as if deep in concentration, thumb still pressed there. (Call the Other/Use the Coin). Language that pirates would know as he keeps the Librarian distracted and walks with her towards where she helps deal with little stains and accidents with books.
The shadow on the table almost looks like its cackling, mouth spreading open before there's a small child shaped shadow on the table, pointing at the Lantern as tiny shadowy bats fly out of its mouth, and the shadow child goes running off the edge of the table…behind Cathal and Cory, there's a boy shaped shadow that can be seen against the side of a book case before the tiny kid shadow from the table suddenly seems to be beside him and then 'vanish' momentarily into the stacks.
Cory looks back and forth from Cillian to the Librarian then back, he's not a pirate so he doesn't understand the movements or just a little slow. "Umm yea the Gryffindor got stuff on the book, we clean it up, he doesn't notice the shadow sneak up behind him for now.
Turning around and reaching into his pocket where he keeps the coin, Cathal attempts to be discreet in his actions. His blue eyes watch the shadow intently until it vanishes into the stacks. "You do not need a candle or anything of the nature. I think the Librarian would be very upset if you brought such." He says before heading off towards the stacks to see if he can locate where the shadow kid went off to right now.
Being as studious as she is, Elise was actually already on her way here when she got the summons. So her arrival is only a matter of seconds. She pushes inside, looking somewhat surprised, and finds the others quickly. "Hello," she says quietly. Cillian being with the librarian gets an odd look, so she checks with Cathal to see what might be going on.
When Emily steps into the library it is because she needs to find a book, not because she wants to do anymore studying. She supposes she can spare a moment to find what she need, and then grab some time to play around. With a skip, she starts across the library, her hazel eyes looking curiously around and pauses, looking to the librarian as she frowns. "Shucks," she murmurs under her breath when she appears to be busy. So much for asking for the book! With a hop, she starts towards the stacks, only to stop as she spies someone from her House and year. "What are you doing, Travers?"
Arriving for another evening of study, Gresham glides between the bookshelves of Hogwarts' library, prying a DADA textbook from between two related texts. He follows this up with a book on Charms, and a book on Magical Law. Books in hand, Gresham heads for a fireside chair, settles into his seat and begins reading.
"Really? That's…I really 'ave to be learning to do this better, the cleaning spell…wow…I love when you teach domestics club, I learn so much from you. You can use something like that on books as well?" Cillian has really monopolized all the time he can with this chocolate stained book before he scans the room to see where Cathal has gone and he nods quickly, saying his goodbyes to the librarian before quickly heading in the direction of Cathal, almost bumping into Emily. "O-Oh me lady, m' so sorry…" He quickly pulls a golden wrapped piece of chocolate from up his sleeve and offers it to Emily. "I am ever so clumsy…" He trails off to take note of where Cory is.
Over where Cathal is investigating, he'd hear a high pitched laughter…tinkling amused laughter, as well as the incoherrant blubbering/sobbing of somebody who's terrified. If he looks to the book he's confiscated, it is a story about some pumpkin monster of sorts coming after a young witch, or it would be if there were any words in it.
The jack'o'lantern shadow on the table, adjusts as a body grows from the large pumpkin head.
Myrus Lowe enters the Library, with a book under his arm to return, setting it on the desk where not a few moments before Cillian was waiting to have his own book cleaned up of a chocolate mishap. The fifth year goes through the motions of turning the book back in, and he starts towards the library at large, where other people seem to be en masse today, headed for the magical creatures nonfiction section. Which ends up to be right behind where Cillian stopped in that aisle. "Excuse me," he says flat toned, trying to sneak by lifting his braced hand to be scratched just under where the brace covers with his good hand. It gets itchy wearing that thing. ONly a few more days of this thing hopefully.
Cory keeps his eyes on the evil looking jack-o-Lantern wishing he has something to scary it away, he's still holding his wand but it's at his side for now, he hear's Emily. "get back before it comes after all of us, maybe we can make a magical fire and that might scary it off?"
Standing there with his hands in his pockets, Cathal's eyes go around as he tries to locate where the shadow has gone, fingering the wand in his pocket as he tries to figure out where they are. "Defiance of logic and reason…" He says seriously.
"Huh?" Emily spins around to find Cillian there, blinking, unaware that she was in the way. Her head tilts as her hand lifts to tug at one of her braids lightly, frowning as she stares at the second year. Ooh, a piece of a candy! Her hand extends before she really thinks about it, but stops mid-way as her eyes narrow. "Wait a minute," she murmurs, retracting her hand without taking the candy. "I'm not stupid, you know. I'm not taking candy from a /boy/." Both her eyebrows wing upwards. "What's wrong with your eye?" she asks bluntly. "Did someone poke you in it? /What/?" She finishes as she whirls around to Cory, perhaps a little too loud for the library. "What are you boys do-" she trails off considerably. "What is-"
"Ye can't jest summon a fire in the middle of a library unless yer /lookin'/ to spend quality time with Pringle. No light, but we 'ave to block the light over it." Cillian speaks softly and insistently to Cory, shoulders raising when he looks behind him to see where Myrus is and he just steps aside with a strained smile. "Ah, yes, mate, go on…heh, nothin' to be seein' here." Then he looks back to Emily. "I'm not a boy! I'm Cillian, I dun much fancy girls now can ye please take the candy, and eat it or the nasty pumpkin will be makin' ye cry." He exhales shakily before making a 'shhh' noise. "M' a pirate." That's all he's going to say about his eye as he searches the stacks to see Cathal.
The laughter and sobbing stops briefly and yes…it defies logic and reason alright as there's a flicker of the shadow rushing behind/past Cathal and then if he looks in that direction it rushes past in the opposite direction, but its not alone, there are other shadows with it in different sizes and shapes, all of shadows…4 more than the original time it was found and the sobbing turns to laughter and giggles. - Oh look, the pumpkin has legs and arms now and is that a pumpkin cleaving knife?
Myrus looks at the group of kids talking about ghosts and things. Pumpkins? He stops looking for what he was looking for and turns around. "Quiet down," he forcibly whispers to all of them. It's less annoying than shooshing. And he looks at the now group of pumpkin things, tilting his head. "What sort of trickery is this?" Raising an eyebrow at them. The question more meant for any of the kids that really can answer that.
Feet don't make much of a sound as he slips up behind the Captain of the Pirates aka Cillian, Cathal has a tendency to sneak up most against Cillian,"I think we should look at the books that were involved so far. There's a pattern." He says in his accent and the words he using a bit at war as he has a heavy brogue but the words are very much not what one would think of from the average Irish lad.
Cory begins to back away from the Pumpkin things, he's not scard or anything he just wants to get away from the sharp knifes. Cory stalks talking in a low voce so he won't get in troble. "Will he attack us if we start moving? The book I was reading before all of this happen was Harold and the Halloween Happening, does that help?"
Emily's mouth has dropped open and her hazel eyes have widened. She's gearing up for a scream, but first she has the fill her lungs with a good amount of air. Well, Cillian isn't acting like one of those /annoying/ boys, at least, and now with that /thing/ there. Library or no, the child lets out a shrill squeal, suddenly circling around behind Cillian to put him between her and the jack-o-lantern, fisting her hands around the material of his shirt. "Don't let it eat me! Don't' let it eat me!" she hisses, her voice dropping dramatically into a whisper. She turns her head and scrunches her eyes shut. "Don't let it touch me, Mister Pirate Boy."
"…you have the book? We've got the Billy finds his Ball or whatever, how many shadows were there? Cuz this means, we only have two of the books…" Cillian murmurs to Cathal after jumping a bit at his sudden arrival. "Alright, we need…to…" He looks to Myrus and just blinks. "What? There's no trickery, what potions do they be 'avin ye take when ye hurt yer hand?" He smiles sweetly before he looks to Cory. "No, in fact ye need to move right now…move towards the exit, dun run just gather yer school tings and make yer was ou-" Then he freezes because he has a tiny girl clinging to him and he exhales softly. "Its okay…its okay, it won't…" He holds up a hand to Cathal like he's vaguely gesturing towards a larger book on the table, then lowers the hand to cover it with his other hand and he nods towards the table. (Cover the shadow). Then he looks to the exit, because attention has been drawn by the squeal and he clears his throat, reaching in to his satchel and squinting a bit, taking a deep breath as he carefully tugs out a jar of…yes, he has a small jar of are those spiders? Whatever they are he quickly tilts it towards the tabletop and shakes a few out before covering the jar and tucking it away. "Oh merlin's beard, I see them to! The spiders, oh me word…c'mon luv, lets get ye out of here. Spiders!" Annnd…cue distraction.
Myrus looks at the shadows, then spies Cillians method of 'distraction' from the spiders, and he just rolls his eyes. Be those shadows real or not, he now assumes them a conjuration by the boy apparently trying to impress the girl. But actually internally he was praising the kid and he uses a back way to get towards the door, he can get that book later. The shadows are dismissed by him completely, unless they try to do something to him.
Cory blinks and wonder's why spider's? he begins to slowly back away but not after grabing his bag. "What is that thing and why aren't we destroing it?"
Moving to grab the book from the table, Cathal tries to drop the book on the shadow in such a way to cover it. The logical thinking lad isn't sure that it'll work but it might distract it from what it is doing long enough for Cillian to get everyone out of the library and away from this thing. "I think perhaps a strategic retreat would be the most logical course of action at this time. We have not figured it out."
"It- It has a knife," Emily squeaks, just above her whisper. Not that the knife is all that scary, but it's the menacing pumpkin thing wielding it that looks scary. "Oh. Oh," she hisses lightly, shaking her hand against Cillian's shirt. "Flipendo! We just learned that spell in class. Use it. Use-" A sharp gasp escapes Emily as Cillian pulls something out, and her eyes widen. Her hands immediately let go of the boy as she stumbles away from him, nearly tripping over her feet a she backs away from the table when those spiders are dumped on top. "Nooooo!" The scream is high pitched as it escapes the child. She shudders with disgust and spins around, squealing as she tears away from the table. "Spiiiiiiiderrrrs!"
Oberon enters the library quietly carrying three books in his left hand. A leather bag, complete with a fine leather strap and silver buckle, is strung over his right shoulder, though the satchel bounces against his right let. He walks purposefully into the room, attention forward and eyes only slightly narrowed. The sound of voices briefly catches his attention, making his head turn and his steps slow.
Alphard was minding his own business. He hadn't planned on staying in the library very long; just delivering a couple of advanced potion books and snatching up something on Vampire. That had been the plan, at least. With his nose buried in one of those soon-to-be-delivered potion tomes, he wasn't paying any sort of attention to his surroundings. Trudging along, and expecting of coures that everybody else should simply clear the way for him. After all, he was Alphard Pollux Black. The one and only.
Spiders. Spiders? The word sunk a horrible cold feeling down his spine. Immediately his forward momentum halted, his nose pulling up from the book, his eyes flickering around quickly to determine a) how many spiders there were, b) how close were they and, c) WHAT WAS THE BEST WAY TO EXTRACT HIMSELF! While still looking cool and collected, of course. Because grown boys weren't afraid of spiders. That was silly.
Cillian just looks over to Emily and just blinks. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! SPIDERS!" He echoes Emily and he takes a deep breath, and then another deep breath, speeding up his breath and then following after emily, patting himself down and shuddering and flailing his arms as he makes a break for the exit, gesturing for Emily to follow. "This way!" And off he goes, turning to just nod firmly at Cathal.
The book comes down…the shadows stop moving there and attention is being drawn to the spectacle, people seeing spiders and others also making little screams and others looking confused and the Librarian makes her way over to handle the silly complaint. He does skid to a stop upon seeing Alphard and he just blinks several times. "RUN, the spiders 'ave /knives/ they almost ate that poor girl." He points over to Emily and then keeps moving. QUICKLY.
"Impendimenta." Cathal says flicking his way towards the shadows to try and slow them down. It worked last time but one never knows when things will work on magical creatures and what not. He definitely needs to work on reading up on all of the things that can cause this sort of thing. Casually he turns around and begins heading towards the exit for the time being.
Apparently Emily hasn't heard to keep off of Alphard's path. She runs right into the sixth year, drawing out the last of her scream in a breathless gasp before she tumbles back and flops onto her rear end. "Agh!" escapes her as her eyes blink, peering up at one of her older housemates. With her screaming and her anxiety, her running, her cheeks are now flushed as she huffs. "You just stopped me. Why would you do that? I got to get away. Uggghhh…" As if she could feel those creepy crawlies crawling all over her, she shudders, squirming, shaking her head hastily. But he is an older student. A boy, but still an older student, and Emily figures that, maybe that would offer protection. So she's quickly scrambling to her feet and scurrying close to Alphard, gripping onto his pant leg as she quivers. New bodyguard! Now this time, don't pull out anything creepy!
Oberon, who is still standing near the exit, watches the events quietly. But not without a rather prominent scowl and narrowed eyes that find the younger students. He watches them, or the few who arrive within his view, as they retreat, cast spells, and… bump into Alphard. Oberon's frown deepends at the sight of the older boy, and his progress halts. He finds a bookcase to lean against, and watches events unfold.
Alphard dumped his potions tomes onto the nearby table without hesitation. Apparently he really hadn't needed that book on vampires after all. The tall sixth year Slytherin still appeared outwardly calm, even if his pupils had dilated and there was a slight paleness to his cheeks. Cold sweat was gathering down his back. But of course he was always pale. Besides, this was the mean Slytherin beater, the nasty bully, the always cocky Black! As if he cared if a bunch of kids were screaming about spiders and flailing their skinny arms.
"Ugh!" Was his response to Emily crashing into him. He looked down at her as if he had been struck by something absolutely disgusting, and when she started pawing at him he shook his leg at her. Like she was some infuriating poodle trying to hump his leg. "Get.. off.. me."
Breathe in, Alphard, breathe out. Breathe in, Alphard, breathe out! They're just spiders! Juuust… spiders. Without a word he turned on his heel and started marching out. If he could just put enough distance between himself and the source of his discomfort, he could pretend it was all just some silly joke. Every step required some massive willpowe for him to remain outwards calm, for him not to look furtivly over his shoulder, for him NOT TO START RUNNING.
And that…is how the Pirates cause a distraction. Days from now, there will be a rumor about eggs being laid in a book and spiders attacking muffins or whatever as order is established but it'll take time but by the time the 'smoke' clears….Cillian's outside of the library, watching to make sure…Emily gets out, sighing and moving quickly to kneel down beside Alphard's leg to offer a hand to Emily. "C'mon, c'mon, we'll get out of here."
…at least the shadows are gone.
Emily's hand slips away from Alphard as soon as he starts struggling, backing away. Gah! /BOYS/! They /never/ fail to annoy her. The child shoots harsh scowl at him and hisses. She starts tearing across the library again when her new protection doesn't hold up to her expectations, muttering, "Dumb boys," under her breath. When she exits, she only stops when she's down the corridor a little so that she can't look into the library - or anything can look out at /her/. She bends over, hands on her knees as she scowls down at the floor. "Boys are sooooo annoying." She rolls her eyes. "/All of them/." As she lets go of Alphard and starts for the library, she narrows her eyes at Cillian before lifting her head in a snub. No way! He had creepy crawlies!
Oberon watches the younger children's progress quietly from his vantage point. Alphard's retreat receives a mild frown, but his gaze doesn't linger. Once people have cleared, he quietly pulls his wand free from his robes and approaches the location the children fled from.
Alphard wasn't retreating! He was.. manfully leaving the library now that he'd done his business. He was obviously just.. above children's play. That was all. Without a backwards glance he was gone.
Unlike others Cathal doesn't look at all upset,"Captain, I think we should discuss this with the others." He whispers to Cillian as the emotionless lad stands there hands in his pockets and looking forward. He doesn't even bother looking at the Captain. Yes. He'll need a book on imbuing charms and hexes involving children's emotions. That being said he'll have to wait for later because right now they caused enough trouble.
Cillian looks apologetic as he watches after Elise and he just exhales softly, closing his eye before he turns and jumps a bit seeing as Cathal is RIGHT THERE again. "Aye, we really 'ave to gather…each other." Then he watches after Alphard, with a small knowing smile before looking back to Cathal. "Also we 'ave to make a basket to send to that poor girl, please find out who she is."
Also, at the abandoned table, there a bunch of spiders crawling around, and by bunch…there are like 3 or 4.
Emily shakes her head hastily, looking back over her shoulder and frowning. She straightens, feeling better now that she's away from all of that. She'd probably carry on down the corridor now, leaving that all behind, but, well, she's looking back. Those boys… She huffs and her hands lift to perch on her hips, a vexed look crossing her face. Obviously they did something. It was /always/ boys' doing. Well, hmph! She spins, chin raised, as she walks down the hallway.