blue ((open))

As the stars twinkled above, Discordia was hard at work coming up with a makeshift sharp object; she was forced to become more creative with her tools with the increased surveillance of her possessions. Her dormmates were often kept on edge as being targeted for practice purposes during the overnight hours was like playing a game of Russian Roulette. She hummed to herself as she bashed the object against the tower wall in an attempt to sharpen it. The material was one she was unacquainted with; she would have to experiment with it until it was adequate for her purpose.

Hearing a noise from the steps, Discordia scurried to find a hiding spot. She wasn't going to let herself end up in detention and lose her precious experiment if she could help it.

It was Lien's turn to do patrolling that evening, and he was loathing every minute of it. Getting tired of roaming the seventh floor over and over, he decided to go up to the astronomy tower. Nothing was stopping him, technically. There could be students up there, which was exactly why he put off going there. He didn't want to have to deal with stragglers. They never just did what they were told.

When he got up there, he was thankful that it was empty. He gazed out of the open window.

@Discordia Lestrange

A prefect. It was a prefect. Depending on who it was, it could very well be the perfect subject to study. The footsteps sounded strict; she wouldn't know how to phrase how she was able to determine that outside of years and years listening to the way her peers navigated Hogwarts. Some were louder, some were quieter. If she was around them frequently enough, Discordia would know who it was at the first sign of movement.

It was Lien Chang. The dear Prefect who's been said to be pissed about not being Head Boy. It was a magnificent opportunity! Poking her fingers through one of the holes within the wall, she attempted to lure a rodent out to sic on Chang. This would give her time to take him by surprise. "Go towards the window, dear mouse," she whispered to the rodent that wasn't much of a mouse.

"Bite him."

If only she had her piranha up here...

@Lien Chang

He was thinking back to Alayna's party, and his cheeks were burning again from remembrance of the humiliation. That had all been Potter's fault. He had lured him into taking some obscene drug, had him down to his pants and, thus, put Alayna Nott off of him for good. Next thing he knew, she was with Ptolemy Rowle. He was so angry, and so embarrassed, sometimes he thought he would crack and burst: destroying everything in sight.

The cool breeze felt nice against his cheeks.

But then something big came from the corner of his eye and he drew back in shock at the sight of a big, fat rat. It went straight for his fingers, and nipped his index. "Argh!" Disgusting! Where had it come from?! Was Potter responsible for this too?

His finger was drawing blood...

@Discordia Lestrange

Discordia's eyes tracked the rat as it made its way towards her housemate. Success! She began crawling around the premises almost crab-like trying to remain undetected. It was important to go right at it while her subject was occupied elsewhere.

She pulled out her wand, pointed it at Chang, and whispered, "Incarcerous."

@Lien Chang

Was it rabid? Perhaps he should go to the hospital wing, just in case.

No sooner had he thought that, however, and something tethered around his ankles. He'd gone to take a step forward but couldn't, and ended up falling to his knees. They hit the hard floor and throbbed, but as he looked, his legs were binding together as well. And his wrists. And he fell right over, struggling against the tension.

He looked around desperately. That Lestrange girl was standing there with her wand in hand, pointed at him.

"What are you doing?! Stop messing around!"

@Discordia Lestrange

"You'll be normal in no time." Discordia looked down admiring the work of the binding spell. It did good at minimizing movement. "Cooperate, and you'll be good as new."

She kneeled down beside Lien and allowed for her long, lacy sleeved to rub against the floorboards. "I'm just fixing you up..." She pulled the makeshift instrument she was working on out of her pocket.

@Lien Chang

What was she talking about? He'd heard things about what she was like - that she was strange, and was thrilled by having a room full of sleeping students to experiment on every night. That all sounded like a load of rubbish, until now. When she bent down near to him, he was troubled by how beautiful she was. That made him hesitate. In a potentially life-threatening situation, he shouldn't be hesitating.

"Get away from me!"

He struggled and managed to roll himself away from her clutches, but it wasn't very much. His wand was in his pocket. He tried stretching against the restraints to try and reach it.

@Discordia Lestrange

With the object in hand, she pulled out one of the makeshift shanks she had stashed in her other pocket. Screech. Screech. If she was to do a precise job, Discordia would have to ensure it was as sharp as possibly be. Health standards were the last thing to come to mind.

"Hi, little worm. Soon you'll come out of the cocoon good as new."

She pressed the object around her wrist watching it scratch a small layer of skin off. Sufficient. Turning to him, she began moving it towards his nostril. "Here comes the bird. Caw. Caw."

@Lien Chang

His wrists felt as though they were turning to fire, trying to stretch towards his wand. Perhaps if he could manage a non-verbal spell at this point, he could succeed in getting her away from him - buying him some time, at least. But the sort of situation he was in: it wasn't a controlled environment where he could perfectly meditate a spell. He was distracted by the thudding of his heart, and the fear griping away at him.

He tried to cast a Levicorpus spell. It failed. His wand wasn't far from his reach, but he couldn't make contact with it.

Desperately he stretched away from her, wriggling across the floor as far as he could go.

@Discordia Lestrange

She clenched the instrument tightly as she watched her dear subject squirm and squirm.

"Looks like somebody's a little impatient," Discordia cooed. The straps. They needed to be tighter. She wasn't going to let this one go so easily.

Crwaling after him, she attempted to pin down his leg. "You're not going anywhere, little worm..."

@Lien Chang

He didn't want to have to resort to pleading, but...

"Help!"

His voice rang out into the night, but all it did was alert some birds nesting on the roof.

What was the next thing to try? Biting her? Spitting at her? Reasoning?

"Discordia... don't do this." He tried to look at her - right in the eyes. Was there a glimmer of humanity? Any at all?

@Discordia Lestrange

Knowing damn well he was risking another detention, James meandered around the seventh floor flinging his yo-yo around. Simple, easy entertainment that wouldn't draw too much attention. It was one of those nights that sleepiness was a foreign concept to him, and he wasn't going to force it at this point.

Then he heard some sort of cry for help. Was he hallucinating again? Damn, he didn't realize the effects could linger for so long. How many hours ago did he take that substance anyway? It was right before supper... James somehow got the feeling it was for real. Eh, maybe he did have some sort of moral compass for emergency situations. Still didn't make him like Harry.

He paced around the floor some more until it hit him where the sound was coming from. James raced up the stairs trying to figure out what the screaming was about. Could've hurt his ears if he was more alert.

"Bloody hell's happenin' in 'ere?"

James was unable to get a good look at who or what was involved.

Those pleas meant nothing. This was his fate. It was his fate to be fixed. It was his fate to be cured of all sickness. It was her fate to be the one to carry it out.

Her eyes had little twinkle in them except for the reflection of the few lights in the tower. Discordia was so close to starting the procedure when she was suddenly hit in the back with a yo-yo. Her nerves stung and she fell back cursing in tongues.

"Who was that?" she shrieked trying to numb the pain by rolling around.

@Lien Chang @James Potter

Of course it would be him coming up here at this time. He didn't want to think of it as a blessing, but he welcomed the presence of anyone at this point. That shiv was heading straight for his nostrils, and would have dug into his brain without anesthetic potions.

"Potter, what are you doing? Stun her!"

Did he need hand holding through everything, he thought, bitterly. He couldn't help it. His incompetence wasn't useful to have around right now.

@James Potter

"Oi, I just got up 'ere!"

Of course it had to be Chang. It just had to be all Chang, of all people, being the damsel in distress. On the other hand, successfully saving his sorry ass may give him more of a pass whenever he acts out. It was worth the risk.

With Discordia now distracted, he pointed his wand at her. "Stupefy."

He walked around until he found where Chang was all tied up. Those ropes suited him. Wait. What the fuck was he thinking? He undid the straps with his wand and lent his arm. "Do ye need help up or are ya not gonna appreciate my generosity?"

@Lien Chang

Before she could dare to go nuclear with the shiv, everything suddenly turned black. Those meddling fools! She was so close to great testing subject. So close to one person being cured.

Watching her fall to the ground, Lien was free to breathe a sigh of relief. How could someone so beautiful be so utterly twisted? Then again, he'd heard rumours about the Lestrange family.

When the ropes were loosened and removed, he looked up at Potter with a dark look in his eye. If he thought this was redemption for causing him all that embarrassment the other night...

"I can manage," he muttered, getting to his feet. Luckily he hadn't long been in tethers to really cause much damage.

Once he was stood up, he looked down at Discordia.

"What are we going to do about her?" He didn't know what exactly she was going to do, but it wouldn't have been friendly. "I don't understand why she's still allowed to go to school here. I've heard others say that she tries to hurt them."

He was just trying to disguise the fact that he was shaken by saying all this.

@James Potter

"Whatever ye say."

Chang always had to put him down in some form, huh? Rolling his eyes, he put his wand back and loosened his grip on the yo-yo. 'Didn't know how long ye were in bondage like that."

What if Discordia had been torturing him for hours? James was doing the very least to help. He glanced at her stunned body and then back up at Lien and shrugged. "I dunno. Could take her down to the hospital wing and pretend she's concussed."

Would Healer Ashton or whoever was working at this hour believe that explanation? Then again, it was a Lestrange, they'd just go with it, he assumed.

"Money, I'm guessin'. She's the oldest in my class. Think she shoulda graduated some years ago."

@Lien Chang

"Hm. Or we could just leave her here. But that's not what I meant," he said, with a sigh, "I mean who am I supposed to tell about this, and who will actually listen and do something about it?"

Of course. Money had everything to do with everything in this world. It was a depressing thought. He just wanted to do the best he possibly could.

"What's the point."

He said it all of a sudden, looking out of the window.

"People like her - and like you - get away with whatever you please. If I'd done the same things you'd done, I'd be stripped of my wand and kicked to the curb." The stark harshness of reality for ordinary folk like him. It made him so mad.

@James Potter

"Nobody really, why ye think there's so many fights?" James asked as he began kicking Discordia's body under a nearby table to make some attempt at concealing it. "Coverin' up the evidence."

Gotta have some laughter.

Huh. He didn't realize it was that bad for Chang; guess there was a reason for being so officious and uppity to the point of annoyance. When it came to Faye, that was her whole personality, but she was easy to charm out of it with adequate attention.

"Bein' a Potter ain't what it's cracked up to be either. Yer forgettin' that Fred got his wand destroyed. Could be worse, y'know? He's a drop-out while yer still 'ere doin' your thing."

This was his chance to be on more amendable terms, he supposed.

@Lien Chang

"That was his choice, though."

He vaguely recalled the incident when he was in his younger years at Hogwarts.

He said it wasn't all it's cracked up to be, but Lien didn't believe him. See, he knew that James had talent and that he did not have talent. He wasted away hours studying trying to mimic the greatness of a talented person. Someone always managed to do better than him.

Why was Potter being nice to him, anyway?

"Sometimes I hate this world and how it works. Sometimes I want to throw caution to the wind, and just act like everyone else." He smiled in a self-depreciating way.

@James Potter

"Love him, y'know, but we were all tellin' him to not be too stupid. It was his fault he didn't care enough to wait a year or two 'til he could use magic whenever."

Moving over to the window, he looked outside over Chang's shoulder. Hm, his build was just as appealing under all of that formal prefect stuff. Why didn't he embrace it more?

He patted him on the back a bit too hard. "Then act like it. I dunno what's goin' on with ye, but yer young, enjoy it. Why ye think I offered pixie dust?"

"Ye should appreciate not bein' in the papers since conception. Everyone expects me to be like 'Arry and my namesakes when I don't wanna be. It's a drag." This was making him crave a cigarette.

@Lien Chang

He was surprised that James thought Fred went overboard. Obviously James still enjoyed being a wizard, and couldn't think of a life without magic. Just as he was contemplating this, however, there was a heavy thud in the centre of his back and he almost jerked forwards.

He rubbed his shoulder. "I think you offered it to me so that I would make an absolute fool of myself."

Was he wrong?

"I'm sure what whatever you do decide to do, you'll be successful at it though. You were born with that kind of talent."

@James Potter

"Ye think I'd do that?" James inquired. What a major misread of his intentions! Then again, he couldn't help that there was a rift between them to begin with. Prankster vs Prefect wasn't the most conductive dynamic towards something friendly. "Nah, we were at a party. Just thought you had a fun side that needed to come out, y'know?"

He thought he was helping...

"Would ye be sayin' that if I wasn't born a Potter?"

It was an honest question; being born in that family placed him on a pedestal he disliked most of the time.

@Lien Chang