| Details for A Vengeful Cup Runneth Over |
| Summary: | At dinner, blood purity brings out anger from the first year Hufflepuff Lissie who spills a cup of cider on the fifth year Slytherin Walburga. |
| Date: | 1940-10-05 |
| Location: | Hogwarts Great Hall |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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It's dinner time, and of course the great hall is filled with the students of various years. Excitement fills the air as yet another week is starting which makes it one more week closer to Samhain and costumes, the cacophony of gossip, laughs and talk spreads. Over at the Slytherin table sits Walburga, talking to her fellow housemates and occasionally giving a stern look at some who pass by.
"And then the thing blew up." Lissie is walking with another Hufflepuff student, doing her best not to trip over her too-long robes. The tiny girl has her ferret draped over her shoulder, and the little furry thing looks about with interest.
Alicia was alongside Lissie and some other Hufflepuff students. "I'm glad to say it's ben a while since I've had something blow up," The second-year student could be overheard saying, "All that time I've been spending in the library has paid off." Alicia would, of course, smile politely if she fell in the line of one of Walburga's stern looks.
"Oh, would you look at that one walking by? The little one with red hair and too long of robes." says Walburga towards her fellow housemates. She raises her voice and snaps her fingers towards Lissie, "You there, the red head. Come here." Alicia though gets a short smile of recognition. "Why hello there, Rowle."
Lissie blinks, turning her head towards Walburga. Her brow furrows, but she takes a couple of steps closer. "Are y'callin' me?" she asks, the Scottish lilt strong in her voice. She reaches up to rub the ferret across its cheeks, then tilts her head to the other side.
Alicia nodded her head slowly. "Hello, Black. You seem in good spirits," Alicia said. She had this 'oh dear' look on her face as she saw Lissie being called out. This could go poorly. Alicia chewed her lip as she tentatively watched what would happen.
The other Slytherins near Walburga seem to be interested in seeing what will happen. As she hears the strong accent, it causes her to scrunch her nose in disapproval but she says "Oh good, you can hear. I wanted to know your name." A glance is given towards Alicia a moment with a flick of her gaze before looking back down at the first year.
"Then y' ken ask me tae come o'er nicely 'stead o' callin' me as my faether calls th' sheep," answers Lissie, catching the nose-scrunch. "One'd think you had nae learned any manners wheer you were raised." She lifts her chin. "My name is Lissie Kier, and I'm a Hufflepuff."
Alicia found herself folding her arms over her chest as she watched Lissie. Alicia gave Lissie a very wide-eyed look when Lissie brought Walburga's manners into question. Oh dear, this was already going to go poorly wasn't it? "She is a Hufflepuff! And I hear she also did very good in her first broomflying class the other week," Alicia said.
Walburga narrows her eyes at the younger girl and there's a slight hush at the table. "Your father calls sheep?" and something causes Walburga to look like she's smelled some terribly old cheese. "How dare you talk to a Black like you're the same as me! I should have guessed it. You're a filthy mud-blood!" as her voice gets sharper and higher in tone at the end, causing a few others to look this way. When Alicia tries to smooth things, it causes a look of irritation over Walburga's face. "You ought to teach your mud-blood housemate a few things on the wizarding world, Rowle, she's like a cat among the pixies."
"Aye, my faether calls sheep an' he shears them an' my mother washes the fleece." Lissie's head comes up and her nostrils flare. "An' I kennae haelp bein' born who I am any more than ye ken haelp bein' born who ye are." The girl's accent sharpens. "But yer right. We're nae th' same. Because, see, ye look down on me because I'm the daughter of a Muggle and a Squib. But I fergive ye fer bein' a stuck-up snotty brat. In the end, I'd raether be Muggle-born than be puffed up about whose hinder I came out of."
Alicia cringed a bit as words like "hinder" were starting to be used. That wasn't appropriate dinner-table language, at least how Alicia was taught! "N-Now everybody," Alicia said with a nervous stutter, the bookish girl trying to put on her most diplomatic tone of voice, "Let's not be nasty. We don't want to get in trouble with the Professors or the Perfects, yes?"
Walburga gasps at what the younger girl says. "You can just keep your forgiveness to yourself, I'm not at all sorry for having absolutely no expectations from your kind except failure." Alicia's diplomacy is almost ignored, but she rolls her eyes and gives a shake of her head to not draw too much attention this way. "Go on to your own kind, Keir. You're as ill-fitted to the wizarding world as your robes are on you."
"An' ye're as ugly on th'inside as ye're pretty on th'ootside," retorts Lissie. "But guess what. I ken lairn. I *weel* lairn. But less'n ye try, ye'll always be a wretched piece o' work. I pity ye." She turns away, stroking her ferret. "Maybe," she says to Alicia, "Maybe if moor people spake up tae people like her, they'd shut it and lairn tae be daecent human beings."
Alicia looked distressed with how the whole thing had turned out. Alicia sighed. "Um. I'm sorry about that," Alicia said to nobody in general; it was hard to tell exactly who she was apologizing too, Walburga, Lissie, all the other students who had to witness this or all over the above. Alicia slowly started to slink away, back in the direction of the Hufflepuff table.
With the little collision of personalities over (for now), Walburga turns to her fellow housemates and begins chatting about something else. "And give me a cup of spiced cider, I'm thirsty." she demands.
<FS3> Lissie rolls Charms: Success (1).
"Sorry about what?" asks Lissie, eyeing Alicia with bewilderment. "Nae yer fault she's a….." Her voice trails off as she hears Walburga behind her. Her nostrils flare, and she stamps her foot, her jaw clenching and her eyes flashing in unconscious echo of her father. She kneels down as if she is tying her shoe, though her gaze is focused on the cups of spiced cider. She whips out her wand and murmurs the spell. "Wingardium Leviosa." One of the cups lifts a couple inches, then drops hard in front of Walburga, tipping towards her and spilling its contents. Then she tucks her wand away as quickly as possible.
Crazy initiating in 3….2….1…..
Alicia went pale in the face, which was a very impressive feat for one already so fair. "Lissie No!" Alicia whimpered. She could /feel/ the housepoints being drained!
Walburga has a full cup of cider spilt unexpectadly right over her lap! Her shoulders raise as her body goes rigid with white crisp anger. "YOU….STUPID….TROLL! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" yells a shrill voice belonging to the Black. That gets a lot of people looking this way and the girls near Walburga cringe, sliding a little away to show it wasn't them.
Wand away, wand away. But Lissie doesn't sneak. Instead she properly re-ties her shoe, then turns back towards the Hufflepuff table, a slow and happy smile coming to her lips once her back is turned.
Alicia looked like she was about to have a heart attack, and things were about to get worse. No doubt /everybody/ is looking over in the general direction. Alicia had no idea what to do. With a shaky hand, she reached into her robes and pulled out a little hankerchief and held it up in the direction of Walburga, offering it to her. "I'm so sorry I'll um give her a talking too," Alicia blurted out.
It doesn't take much to work out that the first year who non-sneakily pointed her wand at the cup and did a worded incantation was the source and after a few moments, students are pointing between Walburga and Lissie. As quick as a serpent strike, Walburga stands up dripping wet and quickly makes her way towards the younger student as a bunch of "oooohs" and "oh no's" are whispered by students. But the angry Black is interrupted by Alicia who seems to stand in between the two. "She ATTACKED me! That stupid mud-blood sheep-for-brains girl attacked ME!" she screams in livid anger.
"Attacked? Oh, weel ye melt if ye get wet? Good tae knoo." Lissie looks up, then glances at Alicia. "And a talking-to? Me? I thought ye were my *friend*. But ye dinnae say a thing when she called me a mudblood. Thanks fer that." She folds her arms. "Ye said ye wanted cider. If ye dinnae want it on ye, best tae be more specific. I only gave ye what ye asked fer."
Alicia looked back at Lissie and looked both guilty and hurt. Alicia mouthed something along the lines of, 'Lissie! Stop!' Alicia was practically begging Lissie to back down. Then, Alicia lookd at Walburga and said, "Please. I know you're angry but please calm down. I know the Professors will sort this out. That's fair, yes?" Alicia was completely out of her element. Playing the violin was much, much easier than all this!
Walburga looks like one could fry an egg on her head, she's so angry. Drawing a deep breath, it looks like she is going to shout at Alicia but then something the girl says has her pause. A slow smile spreads over her lips, discomforting to probably others as it looks not so 'right'. "Yes….yes. You're very right Rowles. The Professors will sort it out. You're all witness! This mud-blood cast a spell unsupervised, the intention could only be nefarious and dangerous. A violation of rules…one who breaks rules ought to be punished." and now she smiles like a cat who has caught the canary over the shoulder of Alicia to Lissie. "You'll pay for this, filthy mud-blood."
"Fair. Theer's very little aboot this tha's fair," answers Lissie to Alicia. "An' yer all witness to the fact tha's Walburga Black's such a coward she has tae pick on first-years instead of girls her own age!" she chirps. Her eyes glitter and she glares at the Slytherin girl. "Have tae find someone more at yer level. Oi. Ye migh' try a wee babby, Black. Theer moor aboot yer speed, aye?" She turns her back on the girl, trying to hide that she's shaking and trying not to cry.
Alicia staid between the two until she was fairly certain that they weren't about to dive at each other's throats. Finally, Alicia went back to the Hufflepuff table to sit down. She was very shaken by the whole thing, and it showed. She more or less ate in quiet.
All that Walburga does is laugh, a rather unsettling sound as she turns around and walks towards the door. Some close housemates hurry behind to follow the Black.