(1940-04-13) A Find, a Plan, and Gossip
Details for A Find, a Plan, and Gossip
Summary: Maddie finds Pringle's knife and comes into the library to brandish her latest find. She finds Jolie and the two gossip, and discuss future plans for searching the library.
Date: 04/13/1940
Location: Library, 3rd Floor Hogwarts Castle
Related:
Characters
MadelineJolie

Jolie is hunting around on the floor underneath a table filled with books. The books floating overhead leave her un-bothered, but has left her satchel as a nice little weight on top of the books on the table. She does not appear to have found anything for her searching except an old and rather abused looking quill, feather dropping. It makes a poor substitute for a wand as she waves it brandishes it about crawling on her knees and giggling softly.

Madeline enters, humming cheerfully and brandishing a whittling knife as if it's a short sword. After a stern look from Madame Patil, however, both activities stop as she approaches Jolie's position and leans over to peer under the table - head tilted upside down. "Looking for Pringle's stuff?" she asks. "Or yours?"

Jolie peers out at Maddie still brandishing her hard won and tatty looking quill. "Actually, I was curious if anything of Pringle's was here.." she admits looking down at the sad dropping quill in her hand. "But I think this was probably lost by a bygone student. I hate seeing something that might still have a bit of use in it, abandoned. Did you find anything?" She grins in greeting.

"I found this!" Madeline says proudly, showing off the knife. "Do you think it's his? Have you seen him with it? I mean - it could just belong to a student. It was tucked into a model of a- well. I'm not really sure what it was a model of. But it was in the workshop! Could just be someone's tool…"

Jolie blinks a couple of times at the knife. "It's very useful," she concedes. "It's highly possible that he might have lost something like that, but I do not know for sure what he lost." She giggles softly and crawls out from under the table into one of the chairs. Her voice is cheerful but lower than her normal as she tries to pitch it not to carry to Madame Patil. "It is a brilliant find, Maddie!"

Madeline smile cheerfully - she sure seems to think so! "Maybe I'll just keep it," she says in a playfully teasing voice. "Buuuuuut my mother always says we shouldn't take things that aren't ours. So I gueeeeeess I should just give it back. I could help you look for stuff, too. But, you know, that's an awful lot of books for a treasure hunt!"

"Well.." Jolie says pragmatically. "With so many books here, one can't help but find a treasure! Everyone is a winner, Maddie." She beams and nods. "Yes, it's good that you think so. Having a knife about might cause someone to try to cause trouble for you. A certain young gentleman might try to stick himself with it, just to claim you were out to kill him." She quickly hurries past that to gesture to the library. "I have not really looked very far and I've already found this." She wiggles out the old quill trying to revive it before placing it on the table and looking over the shelves and shelves of books. "Have you ever seen Peeves in here?"

"Yeah - but he's not here. He said he was expelled, and now he's not here." Madeline sounds puzzled - and perhaps a bit hopeful, as uncharitable as that may be. "Peeves goes everywhere. I bet he comes in here after hours all the time and knocks all the things down for poor Madame Patil to have to clean up again. And poor Miss Tay- err, Mrs Moody, too!"

"He's not here?" Jolie seems confused by that. She blinks and cocks herself to the side, "He's not pretending to be someone else again, is he? Malfoy didn't believe him when he said he was 'expelled'." She frowns. "I shouldn't give him the satisfaction of gossiping about him. You're right about Peeves, of course. I don't know him well, but I do know he goes wherever he can cause the most disruption."

"But he ought to be here - classes have already started. Or maybe he transfered to Durmstang - I know he wanted to. My mother would probably be a little disappointed in me - but I hope he doesn't come back." Madeline shifts a bit uncomfortably on her feet after speaking so candidly. She knows she's not supposed to say things like that!

"I wish he was Sulegan all the time," Jolie sighs softly. "It's better than wanting to go off to Durmstang to be another dark wizard." She waves here hand through the air. "Still, I'm glad he's not around to bother you or to kiss girls and make them cry." Her nose crinkles at that and she frowns. "Boys are weird and he seemed a bit weirder than most even before he decided to be someone else. So if you were Peeves, where do you think you would hide Mr. Pringle's things?"

"Who'd he kiss and make cry?" Madeline asks - her eyes widening. "That's horrible! They oughtta at least suspend him for that - that's not behaving at all properly." But then when has he ever behaved properly? "Boys are fine as long as they're Pirates!" she declares proudly, before giving the question some solemn thought. "Places inconveniently out of reach," she muses. "Places in plain sight, but that no one ever pays attention to. Like the Headmaster's podium.

"I'm not sure that anyone actually *cried*," Jolie waves her hand and flushes with a hint of embarrassment. "I overheard an exchange or two, and there was Malfoy warning him away from Slytherin girls. He was chasing after Prince in the bookstore one day. I shouldn't gossip…" she cranes her neck trying to look up high, squinting through drifting books and trying to get a glimpse of anything secret or hiding. "Knowing Peeves, he'd probably pick the restricted section since we'd get in trouble if we searched there!"

"Samira Prince?" Madeline asks uncertainly - before letting out a quiet giggle. "Maybe Madame Patil'd let us go if we explained why?" she suggests. "…but probably not."

"Probably not," Jolie frowns a little before a grin comes back to her lips with the start of a plan. "But…maybe we could borrow some arts kids or pirates to help with a distraction so someone could get up there and do a good search? And yeah, she doesn't seem to be bad for someone who has a lot of dark gossip about them, but maybe it was the gossip that attracted Eibon's attention? She didn't really seem interested in him. She actually stepped in and saved me when he was bullying me a little in the bookstore. Not that I was afraid, I wasn't. Not really, adults tend to step in and stop things like that."

"Dark gossip?" Madeline asks in puzzlement. "Samira's nice. She's a snake, but she doesn't treat Muggleborns like they're any different, and she's teaching me how to do some contortionist stuff - it's really neat!" Leaning in, she lowers her voice to add, "Pirates are good at diversions."

Jolie looks this way and that before sharing the gossip, "She told Angelus that he should be worried that the rumors that he'd heard about her were true.." her voice cracks a little. "About the dark arts and he…backed away from her then but was soon off for someone else to take his nasty mood out upon." She grins. "I think she's nice, too, but I do wonder if she hasn't had some access to restricted books." That brings her back to her plan and she glances at the restricted section of the library. "And the important thing is really getting things back where they belong. Pirates don't need restricted books…" but her natural curiosity rings through her voice when she talks about 'restricted' knowledge.

"I can't believe he was bullying, though. I thought he mostly went after little mudbloods. But I guess he goes after everyone." Madeline rolls her eyes - while considering Jolie's other words. "You think she does dark magic? That's like… messing with the dead and stuff, right? I'm not really sure what all is really dark magic. They won't tell us anything, I think, because we're too little."

"Honestly? I know almost nothing about dark magic. Sometimes it's part of the plot of one of my mystery books, some 'dark wizard' is at blame for the murder or the theft, but…" she shrugs her shoulders. "I expect that's like comparing wizarding books about Muggles to real Muggles, authors make things up and without worrying about the facts. My mother claims she does a great deal of research for each of her characters and stories but…" she shrugs. "I wouldn't know a dark wizard if I met one on the street, Maddie. It seems Eibon's upset about his father and he's been striking out at anyone who would listen, but that's his problem. He probably usually restricts himself to Muggles-Born and what he thinks of as 'blood-traitors' in the bullying but it seems he might have pushed a little too hard in his grief. Don't worry about him. If he's expelled nobody needs to worry about him, except he did have his wand when we saw him last. But maybe he did transfer. Maybe…" she pauses to spin her own wild theory. "They sent him to St. Mungos because he's broken in twain with trying to be someone he isn't, Sulegan. That could be considered a disease of the mind?"

"I'd be happy to help with any facts about Muggles," Madeline offers. At the idea, though, that he may be unwell, and locked up at St. Mungos, her expression falls as she abruptly feels rather guilty. "Gosh. You think? That'd be pretty horrid, wouldn't it? But if they can help him…"

"Yes? I will need many facts about Muggles, I need my mysteries to be accurate when I publish them. Someday, I will publish, after I've worked for the Minstry or become a professor or a magistrate." She grins and then sobers at where Madeline's thoughts go. "I don't know what's wrong with Eibon, I could send him Owl post and ask him, but he has no reason to answer me just because I'm interested. I wonder if he would write back if I wrote to Sulegan? Or if that would be good if there is something wrong with him? And, there is something he doesn't have to be so mean or kiss happy. In one of my books they called that: "Doll Dizzy". He's still a just a -boy-, afterall. He doesn't have to be in such a hurry to grow up."

"I'm gonna be treasure hunter and find Merlin's wand, and be the first witch to tame a dragon, and invent new spells, and maaaaaybe, after that I'll go to the Ministry and become the Minister of Magic," Madeline delivers with confident cheer.

Jolie grins at Maddie's plans, "Of course you will," she cocks her head and confesses. "The dragon part sounds particularly difficult so if you do that, you most certainly should publish a book about, not blow your own horn, as much as to let other girls know that things are possible with the right mindset."

"Oh, Gosh, I'll definitely write a book," Madeline agrees with fierce determination and a smile. "It'll be great! But when I'm Minister of Magic - well. Maybe I'll get someone else to write it for me."

"I look forward to reading it!" Jolie says, "I am still having some issues with Agrippa but I let Rhetoric with Momma and her new secretary Mrs. Murklemoon curled up by a fire. I wish I had more talent with animals."

"Oh, Gosh, no, I bet you're fine with them," Madeline says encouragingly. "They're such fun, aren't the-"

The girl cuts off at the sound of someone going 'Hey, Maddie!" from one side (before getting shushed by Madame Patil). She spins in place, then grins and waves her whittling knife over her head. "I better go! But I'm sure I'll see you soon. "

Jolie tosses a wave toward Madeline and goes crawling under her table again. This time she seems to be looking for something she might have knocked off earlier. "Bye!

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