(1941-07-02) Lorcan Takes Flight
Details for Lorcan Takes Flight
Summary: Lorcan discovers that he has wings. Oscar and Soleil try to help.
Date: 1941-07-02
Location: Concert Green
Related: St Mungo Announces New Magical Bug
Characters
LorcanOscarSoleil

It's no secret for anyone who ever observed him twanging away on a guitar at Hogwarts that Lorcan Parkinson has a soft spot for music and fancies himself some kind of musician/aspiring rock star. The early evening finds him lounging on a blanket on the green lawn, munching on a French baguette filled with jambon et fromage. There are several other people on blankets around him, some in smaller groups or as couples but occasionally others on their own. If they share one trait it's a preference for black clothing, black hair and too much eyeliner.

The audience reflects the band on the stage, three skinny young men in equally black clothes playing instruments with a wispy black-haired girl in a bright-red dress howling into the microphone. The lyrics are barely comprehensible but seem to involve a lot of anger and hurt. From time to time Lorcan pauses consumption of his baguette to lean forward and scratch the skin on the uncovered part of his lower leg, looking irritated.

Oscar Foxhall may not be a Slytherin, and he may not get along with many Slytherins, but he does love music. And indeed, the band seems to be playing his sort of tune. The oversized Hufflepuff trods heavily through the Concert Green, a beautiful spruce guitar slung across his back. Beautiful, it is, except for the bone-white letters "Half-Breed" branded onto it. He slows when he spots Lorcan, drawing nearer and nearer, his movements a bit hesitant.

And then he takes a knee just outside his group of black-clad friends, unslinging his own guitar. Carefully, after listening, he begins accompanying the band with muted strings, mimicking their chords, keeping his fingers gently over the wires to prevent the sounds from floating too far or too loud.

Soleil has been sent! Unfortunately for both Soleil and Lorcan, their mother is of the opinion that it's going to get much too cold out for Mrs. Parkinson's little boy to be out on the Green without his over robes. The red ones that have been sunbleached in the mud room to the point of being a lovely shade of pink. The robe is slung over her arm as she approaches the group of mal contents. One side of her face pulls in a wince at a particular screachy moment from the singer but she shakes it off. Stepping around people sh finally gets to her baby brother and her free hand rakes her fingers through his hair. "Mum didn't want you to get cold." The pink over robe is draped over his shoulder and it's clear that she is getting a bit of satisfication in this bit of hazing of her brother. Spying him itching she slides a hand into her own pristine white cashmere looking over robes and pulls out a little canister of ointment, Parkinson Potions Anti-itch cream and repellant.

Lorcan is lost in admiration of the guitarist who looks like he stepped right out of a Nosferatu movie with his slicked-back hair and huge black leather coat. He does notice the kid nearby starting to fuss with his own guitar and begins to glare at him, but before the song is over and he can start shouting at him, suddenly his sister is upon him. Almost literally. "Oh for fucks sake.", Lorcan mutters and rolls his eyes, then his shoulders to shake off the embarrassing pick robe. "Go away! You don't appreciate music! I'm not cold." He glares more when she pulls out the canister and shakes his head. "I tried that, it hasn't worked. It just keeps itching and it's getting worse.", he mutters before the singer launches into a new loud shrieky song killing conversation.

Oscar just smiles over at the other boy in response to the glare, damningly complacent. The arrival of Soleil excites some interest, and he examines the prim young lady with the avid gaze of a sixteen-year-old boy. He cannot help, either, from sniggering good-naturedly at the pink robes and their inevitable reception. "Looks so good on him, though," murmurs the Hufflepuff. "And it is chilly." He's speaking loudly enough to be overheard, though the words are ostensibly directed at his guitar. He's playing the same notes as the musician on stage, but there's something subtly different — the rhythm is a bit off, the tones are a bit twangier, a bit more sad than angry.

Lorcan squirms under Soleil's grip and seems glad when she goes away to pester Oscar instead. In fact he smirks a little bit. But then Sunny is back with her canister and he tries to shift away from her. "It's no big deal, I don't need you to fuss over me.", he grumbles and extends an arm to keep her at bay. At the same time the singer on stage reaches an opera-like crescendo that might shatter the odd glass or two without needing magic. Suddenly Lorcan's extended arm twitches and shakes as if he's having some sort of seizure and instead of fingers touching Soleil's shoulder, black feathers gently stroke her face. "What the hell?!", Lorcan squeals and tries to jump to his feet, except that the previously itchy leg is suddenly shrinking very much… and going black.

Oscar eyes the robes dubiously, then looks up at Soleil and grins. The big Beater says, "..Well, I'm not quite certain they'll fit, but.." He sets his guitar aside, reverently, and rises up onto his knees. Fortunately for Oscar — and for the robes — they're designed to be rather loose-fitting and voluminous. He barely gets them over his head, and has his arms through them, before he hears Lorcan's cry. Staring over, his mouth half-open, the Hufflepuff doesn't speak for several beats. "I've heard about this," he finally says. "But I've never seen it!" He looks fascinated.

You can't work at Parkinson Potions, supplier of St. Mungo's potions and not hear about the new epidemic going around. "Oh Lorcan!" Soleil gasps out her brother's name. "Not you." He's a little punk - sorry enui mal content - but she loves her little brother and realizing that he's about to go through some stuff makes her just as full of ennui. She leans back trembling to wait out the transformation before she tugs her long sleeves over her hands to try to gently scoop up the feathered creature up into her arms so she can get him to St. Mungos quicker than a raven's caw. "Help me with the clothes?" She asks Oscar, whom she does remember, he's also not like the others, so she immediately trusts him the most. Not to mention he's wearing Parkinson Property so keeping him with is important to get the robes back eventually.

The sudden shrinking of one leg makes Lorcan lose balance and he goes splotch into the grass. In the struggle to get up, his second arm is suddenly turning into a black wing as well, resulting in much angry flapping around in clothes that seem to fall into themselves in a big heap as their owner shrinks in size. "Sunny help me!", Lorcan squeaks with panic in his eyes, but it's the last thing he can actually say. The transformation completes with his head turning into that of a black crow, his mouth extending into a beak. The crow caws almost hysterically, flapping to get free from the restricting human clothes. Meanwhile, heads are turning to watch the spectacle rather than the group on stage.

"Of course." Oscar's on his feet and moving over, his wand in hand. "It might be easier to cut them off him. We can't let his wings get trapped." But he's hesitant to destroy the bird's clothing, instead crouching down to try to gently disentangle him. "It's going to be alright, mate," he tells the crow. It seems the most natural thing in the world, his speaking to a crow. "Just don't peck me, alright? We're going to get you over to St. Mungo's, and they'll have you right fixed up in a hurry. It only lasts a bit, they say." He keeps up this chain of prattle as he works, glancing over at Soleil and including her in the reassuring look. "Everything's going to be just fine. No need to panic, now."

Soleil has tears in her eyes, "I'm here Lorry, I'm here, it isn't permanent, it'll be alright. I'll take care of you." She ssshhhes in as much of a soothing way as she can with her own rattled nerves. With her covered in cashmere hands she tries to carefully pluck up the crow, "Stop your flapping. Hold still Lorry!" Gasp, "Don't you peck me!"

The crow has no intention whatsoever to be calmed and to be held. He flaps and pecks at any hand trying to get near him until his wings are free from the clothes… liberating him to fly off into the skies, accompanied by the soaring notes of the singer on stage. He can be seen circling the concert grounds for a moment, but then he is gone.

Oscar narrowly avoids becoming the next casualty of the epidemic, his hands surprisingly quick to dodge at those pecks. And then the bird is off, flying who-knows-where, and he turns to look at Soleil. "I.." he says hesitantly, swallowing. "Well, I'm certain that he'll be fine. No need to worry." His tone is somewhat unconvincing. "Just a bit of a fly-around, right? Nothing he hasn't done on a broom a hundred times."

Soleil realizes her brother is going to be a stubborn little bastard as he has been since this new phase of his and he's not going to come quietly. Unfortunately her covered in her sleeves hands are too slow on th draw of her wand. She did have aim to Petrificus Totalus him but by the time she's able to get wand in hand she can't tell what bird is which. She stomps her foot on the clothes on the ground. "You little shit!" Sunny never curses, prim little lady that she is, so she must be very upset. "What am I going to tell Mum? Sorry, Lorcan didn't want the robe, he was too busy turning into a crow!?"

Oscar grins at this, then realizes that grinning is probably the wrong reaction and so draws his brows together very solemnly. "Well, I suppose that could be one way to go about breaking the news." The words are perfectly deadpan. "You might also try running about hysterically and screaming. Find that often answers surprisingly well, when speaking to parents." His lips twitch again, and he fights to hold that grin in check. "Least the band's stopped playing, hey?"

Soleil swoops her hair up into a pony tail and glares up at the sky in the approximate spot she last saw her brother flap away towards. "Small favours." She mutters darkly about the band stop playing. She scoops up her brother's clothes and then flaps them about angrily at the crowd. "Show's over, return to your ennui, nothing to see here!" Her eyes go towards the sky again, "I need to find him…" in her embarassment and rush she does forget about reclaiming the pink over robes from Oscar. "Thanks." Is quickly mumbled at him for his help before she starts weaving through the crowd to follow the rough flight of her little brother.

Clad in his newly-stolen, far too small, pink robes, Oscar stares after the woman and the crow. "Good luck with that," he mutters under his breath. And then, louder, calls "You're welcome!" Crouching down to grab his guitar, the Hufflepuff heads off in the direction of Merlin Square.

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