| Details for Moustache Mischief |
| Summary: | Madeline plays a prank on Colton, and offers him a chance to use Pringle's whittling knife. |
| Date: | April 17, 1940 |
| Location: | Gryffindor Common Room |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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Madeline has been idly wandering the castle for a while - whittling knife in hand - but Pringle has been scarce. This doesn't seem to bother the cheerful second year who bounces through the portrait hole while humming a song to herself. Hush, hush, hush - here comes the boogie man!
Colton is sprawled out on a sofa next to the low burning fire. Several crumpled up pieces of paper are strewn about the fireplace in different stages of burnt. A Defense Against the Dark Arts book is opened and lain over his face. A notebook and quill are splayed out on his lap. His fingers are stained with ink and the book does very little to completely muffle some snoring. N.E.W.T.s seem to have tuckered him out. It's not like him to miss out on a Hogsmeade Weekend. Maybe he's been asleep for a while?
When Madeline spots the sleeping Colton, the girl falls silent, and creeps closer curiously. She tilts her head to ee what's written on the strewn about pages - or at least, what's still legible. Between their burnt state and high level she's not gathering much from them. Then her gaze falls on the quill on his lap. A mischievous look creeps over her features. If she's reeeeeally careful… Setting down the whittling knife, she tries veeeeeery carefully to slooooooowly lift the book off Colton's face without waking him.
Colton only snorts a bit when the book is lifted from his face. A bit of drool glistens in the corner of his mouth and within the book where he had written a not has transfered to across his nose. He takes notes in short hand and most of it is also in Shelta words too, but in bits and parts they are about the Chimera and Lethifold primarily. Including little sketches of the dark creatures.
She gets the book off, and Madeline has to struggle to resist the urge to jump up and down in response to her success - that would wake him for sure! Besides - that was the easy part. Now it's time for the tough part! After studying his book for a moment, and then the mark already on his face, she gets an idea! She looks for a piece of parchment she can mark up, then draws a curling mustache on it with the quill. Then she caaaaaarefully tries to press the scrap of parchment on under his nose - without smudging it too much or waking him. It's possible! … right?
Colton snorts again this time blinking and rolling his face off to the side leaving him with half an inked mustache. "Wot!?" He blinks and squints bleary eyed at Madeline. "Pidge, huh? Wha?" He was rather brain fried from study before he fell asleep. It makes for a very poor confused Colton woken up thusly from his map.
Drat! It didn't work! Madeline looks disappointed - but then tries to smooth it over with an apologetic smile. "I, errm, thought you'd sleep better without your book on your face. You, umm, you've got a little smudge on your face - just there. And, finally, she can't resist the urge to giggle as she looks at his half-mustached features. If only she'd managed to get the whole thing on!
Colton is finally shaking the grogginess off and he squints at her spoting the mustache paper in her hands. Then he leans his head way back to look at his reflection in a near-by window. He chuckles and looks back at Madeline squinting at her more. "I see." His eyes are rubbed and he sits up and clears a spot for her to sit. Then his chin is lifted up and his upper lip is actually presented to her. The old prankster is as disappointed as she is that he ruined her prank. So he lets her finish applying his mustache while he rubs the other smudge from his notes off. Don't want to detract from such a fine mustache!
Madeline snickers when Colton lets her finish the job, and she's more than happy to press it into place. "You can't expect me to just let you be when you fall asleep like that!" she says cheerfully, as she carefully presses on the other half. "There! I think it looks great. You should go around like that every day! I'm sure none of the Professors would mind." She lets out another giggle.
Colton grins and pretends to twist one end (the drier side) of his ink mustache. "Oh sure, I'm sure they would love it." He turns to look at himself in the reflection again and gives a proud nod. "Well done Pidge. So what are you up to, besides ruining some beauty sleep?" A squint is aimed at the clock before his eyes widen realizing he's been out for a while.
"Oh, I was down in the workshop, poking around at some of the projects (did you know someone seems to be working on a chair that changes sizes for whoever sits on it, but I don't think they've got it quite right yet) and I found this!" She leans over, rummages around… and comes back up with the whittling knife. "Do you suppose it's Pringle's?"
Colton takes the knife with a bit of a frown, it's pretty clear that he recognizes it right away. "It is. Should take it to him, quick like, less yee be docked points like Angus."
"Well - I haven't run into him yet! He wasn't in the library, or on the roof, or by the club room…." Madeline protests. "…sure you don't wanna whittle something with it, first?" she adds, grinning with amusement. Somehow, she imagines that Colton could come up with something horribly amusing to make using Pringle's knife!
Colton laughs dryly and reaches out a hand to give her hair a ruffle while he passes the knife back with the other hand. "Very sure. I lose any more points and Kimiko'll use that thing on me bits!" He winks down at the second year and then starts to gather himself up more and put away his study supplies. "I'm gonna head out to Hogsmeade before it gets too late. I'll walk yee down to Pringle's Office. If nothing else yee can leave it an' a note on 'is desk."
"Awww!" Maddie protests. "What're you letting silly ol' points frighten you for?" But she takes the knife back, and even helps to gather up the papers. "I liked it at the beginning of the year when we had negative points. That was fun!" the rest of it wasn't, obviously. But the negative points had been grand! "Wish I could go into Hogsmeade with you," she adds more quietly. "But uncle Perry didn't see any need to pick me up so soon after the holiday. Oh! Did you know Rena got married?!" Again!
Colton smirks. "Yeah, well… I don't want to face Kimiko's wrath again. She's scarier than Pringle to me." Because he can't wrap his mind around how something so cute can go so formidable in a blink! He stores his things away in a quick trip to his room and then starts to lead the way with another ruffle of her hair. "House points are a matter of pride, if you're not careful and just lose points to lose points, it gets your house turned against you. Look at what happened to Douglas and Angelus and Julian… we don't want to end up like them, now do we?" He might be a scallywag and not give a hoot about points, but he does care about the feelings of those around him (especially Kimiko). "Come on. Let's get this turned in…"
"When've I ever lost points just to lose points?" Madeline answers. "Losing points for writing on the dungeon walls was fun, though! Even if we did have to wash it all off again, later." She bounces down the stairs alongside Colton, happily chattering away as she adds, "We should go exploring the labyrinth again! You could hide something down there, and then come with me when I go looking for it. I have chalk now, you know. It'd be fun!"
Colton ruffles her hair some more before crawling out of the hole behind the Fat Lady. He blows the Fat Lady a kiss and then starts down the stairs. "Yeah, though say, do you think your family would let you go on an adventure with me this summer? To celebrate graduating I'm going to go camping in Avalon and see if I can find King Arthur's tomb. They have a whole section of caves and catacombs that are really safe and tourists are allowed to explore. Thought you might like that…"
There's almost a hush here at the top of the stairwell, all the bustle of students and grinding of gears going on below muted by the total silence above. Occasionally a particularly loud clang of staircase connecting to its landing, or a spike in laughter will reach the ears, but it fades and is quickly forgotten. It's never too silent here in the corridor because very often a stuffed lion's head will look left, then right and then give a thunderous roar before being chided by those in their portraits for startling them.
"Wow - really?" Madeline asks, her eyes widening and an eager smile growing on her features. "That'd be really keen! I'm sure they'd be alright with it! Erm - my uncle may want to come along, maybe. But, well, you are an adult, so maybe it'd be okay…"
Colton grins in response to her delighted reaction. "Really, truly." He nods in a way that makes a silent promise and crossing of his heart. "Whoever wants to come along will be grand. Just grand, Pidge."
"Great! I'll let my mum 'n da 'n uncle know about it - so I can go! Wow - I can't wait for summer, now!" Madeline beams cheerfully. Even though - summer'll mean no using magic for months. She does hate that.
Colton laughs brightened up more and more by her reaction. "Just can't bring Muggles I'm afraid, resort rules. Even if we are just camping and not using the resort." Because he and most of his friends couldn't afford to stay at the resort!
"Even the parents of Muggleborns?" Madeline asks with some surprise. "Even if they're allowed to know about magic? That seems unfair. That means Muggleborn kids can't go at all, if they can't find someone to take them!" She chews on her lower lip gently before musing to herself, "Maybe Adam would want to go, too…" He'd have no one to take him!
Colton nods with a shrug, "Yeah, it's a sacred space of a sorts and you know how some people can get normally… imagine how they'd get about muggles being there. Sort of like Hogsmeade Village… It blows, but that's the rules there. Maybe when I'm big and rich, I'll buy the place and change the rules." He winks down at her "Adam, sure, anyone really, so long as they won't need a bunch of hand holding." His 'gentle' way of saying 'No Erica' he doesn't want to spend the whole time coddling kids that are sobbing homesick.
"Not if I buy it first!" Madeline counters brightly. "I'm gonna be rich when I'm a famous dragon tamer - you wait and see. I've been reading more about dragons lately - they really are neat, aren't they?"
Colton tucks his hands away into his pocket and nods as they take the stairs down. The seventh year explorer seems to have the pattern almost down to memory, almost, so he does have to stop now and then and wait for another level to grind into place. "They really are. When yee become a dragon tamer, ye should keep one in the ruins under Quinnland Castle. That would be fantastic."
"Not sure it'd be nice to keep one under the castle," Madeline muses thoughtfully. "I mean - if you let him go in and out, sure. They do like caves - some of them, anyways. But they gotta get out, and hunt, and fly. I best they could even go crazy, otherwise. It'd be like locking Mischief up in a cage all the time!"
Colton nods along as she explains. "Sure, when we aren't home…which is often… it can soar about and stretch out all it likes. Just don't wish it to make my lilest monster of a brother or sister a snack, right?" When they hit the bottom of the stairwell it's not a very far walk to the Caretaker's Office. Pringle is in fact not in and so Colton help Maddie with writing a note and wrapping it around the knife like a present and leaving it for his arch nemesis.
"It'll be tame, so they'll be fine!" Madeline answers brightly. "…you know, probably. I wouldn't let them go wandering around alone, though, with the dragon around. Just to be sure." After leaving the knife, Madeline walks with Colton as far as the gate - chattering cheerfully about her many exotic plans for her own future. She has to stop at the edge of the campus, though, and watch a bit sadly as her continues on without her. "I'm practically a third year," she mutters. But practically is not good enough. Letting out a sigh, she starts back towards the castle again.