once upon a time (open/multi)

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It was shortly after Jerome's birthday, but he hadn't really celebrated it. It seemed a shame, as he had more friends this year, so perhaps they'd felt let down by him not organising anything. Everyone knew that he wasn't the type to throw a party, as those always seemed to get out of hand - no matter how hard you tried to keep everything low-key and alcohol-free...

He'd read in the Prophet that the cinema was doing a showing of some animated classics, so he'd sent a crystal message last Thursday about meeting up at the weekend and seeing them together. Some of the invitees he didn't know extremely well, but he'd invited them anyway knowing they'd probably enjoy the films. It was just nice to get out and get lost in another story for once.

Jerome was in the lobby of the cinema, having purchased his tickets and was now considering which popcorn to get.

"Maybe we should just get a large one of each?" he suggested to someone who'd turned up.

Once he'd seen the light from both of their spells hit their targets, Thius gave her a quick kiss and apparated them out to the outside of Madam Puddifoot's.

Once they were out of the darkness and back into the light provided by the overcast sky, Thius burst out laughing. "That was brilliant, babe! Let's get one of the couple's desserts to share."

@Bellona Lestrange

As she started to snuggle into her Wadeykins, Tiernan had suddenly become a pig.

She immediately emitted a potentially glass-breaking shriek.

Cherry was thinking nothing of her surroundings.

"It doesn't look like they're showing Mulan," she remarked to Lien as chaos ignited nearby.

@Lien Chang

Sierra giggled a bit at Jerome’s statement as popcorn kept hitting her as they threw it at him. She didn’t mind, really. Then all of a sudden something happened. Her hands flung to her face and she gasped as she felt the painful bumps where her skin had once been smooth. She heard a squeal and then a scream and figured she could make an escape to see what had happened to her face. She stood quickly and spoke in a slightly panicky tone. ”I need to go.” she said, still trying to hide her face and hoping the darkness of the room would aid her as well as the chaos going on in the back of the room.

@Jerome Estrada

He calmly lifted up the arm rest, then heard a pig snorting. That couldn't have been Marilyn...

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

What sounded and looked like an actual pig was squealing and rushing around their feet, knocking over popcorn, seemingly appearing from no where. The first thing he thought of doing was punching it in the snout, but it was already pushing him out of his seat onto the floor.

Now MacKenna had gone too far. He had had his moment of shouting in the cinema, now it was his time to shut up. But as Jerome turned to silence him with a spell, he'd jumped up from his chair when he saw him sprawled on the floor, a pig squealing and kicking frantically down the staircase.

Too bewildered to actually do anything, he'd heard Sierra say something then. Turning to look at her fretfully, she appeared to be covering her face, as though wounded.

"Are you okay?!" What the hell was going on? "I'll come with you!"

The pig running around the cinema could wait. Sierra could be seriously hurt.

@Sierra Longbottom

Lien wasn't paying attention to the film that had started, or heard what Cherry said. The sudden commotion could hardly be ignored, as MacKenna yelled out and Marilyn had screeched. He thought he'd seen a pig snorting. The watchers in their vicinity were all frowning, hushing, yelping in surprise.

McLaggen had disappeared, and now there was a pig careening down the stairs. Lien put two and two together rather quickly. Wand out, he pushed his way out of the row, and followed in pursuit of the McLaggen-pig as it scrambled out into the corridor.

In his seat, Lazar fainted.

Harrison turned his head back after hearing all of the noise and got up.

"Hey! You kids! What's happening? I'm trying to watch the movie!"

"No!" She exclaimed when Jerome suggested that he go with her. She couldn't let him see her like this! She was sure she looked horribly if the feel of her skin was anything to go by. She didn't even realize how panicked or sharp her statement was as she tried to hurry passed him only to be caught up in the commotion and nearly knocked on her bottom as she tried to reach the door. Instead, she fell into someone else. Whether it was Jerome who had decided to follow her anyway or someone else who was reacting to all the chaos with the pig... How did a pig get in there anyway? She still tried to hide her face as she exclaimed. "Don't look at me!" And tried to scramble back up onto her own two feet without much success.

@Jerome Estrada

Why did it sound like a pig was oinking?!

Something soft fell into her lap before she had a chance to register what MacKenna was yelling about though.

"Lazar!"

He'd fainted onto her! She grasped his arm gently, and shook him.

"Lazar!"

@Lazar Tremlett

He couldn't see anything, but all of the noises were muffled and he could vaguely feel the physical sensations.

It was going to be a few minutes for him to even snap out of the momentary syncope.

@Layla Cartwright

Jerome was utterly perplexed that Sierra had snapped at him, and was gaping at her. Far from offending him, however, it only made him more worried. Just as he was about to pursue after her, Harrison Jetson appeared from several rows in front. He was simply too flummoxed to try and explain to him what was happening - not that he even knew what was happening.

"Something happened to Sierra--"

Where had she gone? He'd taken his eyes away from her for two seconds...

@Harrison Jetson

Thalia couldn't have arrived in stranger circumstances. She'd entered, happy as larry, sporting popcorn and a drink to share with her friends...

Then a pig almost charged into her. She screamed in surprise, her concessions flying everywhere, then her cousin whipped past, wand aloft, charging after the pig. Bewildered, she continued into the screen, trying to search for her friends, when Sierra fell onto her.

She helped her up, and got a glimpse of her skin that wasn't being shielded by her hands. Thalia gasped. "Girl's bathrooms! Come on!" She started tugging her away before she, or anyone else, could protest. Jerome looked as though he was going to follow when she hissed at him: "No boys!"

@Sierra Longbottom

Sierra was relieved when she heard the voice of the person she had literally fallen into. She peeked through her fingers and saw Thalia helping her up which must have allowed Thalia to see what had happened to her. She heard her gasp then the command to go to the girl's bathroom along with the tugging at her sleeve. She did her best to follow along while still hiding her face, relieved when Thalia held Jerome off. She didn't want him to see her like this! Why did something like this have to happen to her? Only when they made it into the empty girl's bathroom did she let her hands drop from her face. "I don't know what happened! One minute I was sitting by Jerome and everyone was laughing because everyone was tossing popcorn. The next second I'm like this!" She sobbed.

@Thalia Tremlett-Chang

"Do you know what happened?" Harrison questioned Jerome as he scanned the immediate environment.

"Is the pig involved?"

The bit of light from the screen illuminated the corpse paint on his face.

@Jerome Estrada

Mackenzie was about to start the muggle teenage cliche of a make-out session in the cinemas when suddenly her boyfriend was gone and replaced by a squealing pig that was crawling all over her. She let out a scream and scrambled her way up on top of the chair, "Stop stop stop! Don't harm him. It's Tiernan! Somepne turned him into a pig! Don't hurt him!" She kept shouting at everyone trying to ensure her boyfriends safety.

She winced while looking at her skin. Poor Sierra! Someone had done a very nasty bit of magic on her, but she had no idea if it was a spell or a potion slipped in a drink. Although she pulled her into the bathroom, Thalia had no idea what to do. It wasn't a good idea to draw out her wand and start pointing it at Sierra's face though.

"Don't worry - everything is going to be fine!" she insisted soothingly, and started desperately flicking through her bag. Maybe Marilyn had a better idea of what to do? Or...

"Lien!" she gasped suddenly, "Sierra - he might know what t'do. I know he's a boy, but... I haven't got anything that can even cover it up!"

@Sierra Longbottom

"I-- er, yeah, I don't know where that thing came from..." he began to explain to Mr Jetson, and then Mackenzie gave the explanation. Jerome grimaced.

"Chang went after him. He's good at transfiguration! He'll put him right," he assured Mackenzie, but was still worrying about Sierra. He knew that she hadn't wanted him around, and Thalia had snapped at him, but he couldn't just kick back and continue to watch the film knowing she might be suffering.

"Sorry," he told Jetson, before bolting towards the exit himself.

@Harrison Jetson @Mackenzie Riddle

Mackenzie was practically trembling. But she had no clue if it was from anger or fear. Maybe it was both. She looked at Jerome with her jaw clenched and her brows furrowed, "Who the hell did this to him?!" But then Jerome was gone. She screamed in frustration and stomped her foot before looking at Jetson, "You're an auror. Go do your bloody job! Fix my tiernan!"

@Harrison Jetson @Jerome Estrada

Hurling himself through the building, chasing after a pig - this wasn't what he'd expected from a trip out to the cinema. He'd managed to corner the animal behind the ticket booth before it made its way out onto the streets: the witch attending the booth had screeched and ran away in surprise.

"Reparifarge!"

The pig's squeal of alarm turned into a grunt of rage, and McLaggen was sprawled on the floor of the booth, scrambling up, wondering how he'd got there from the screen room.

"Looks like you really pissed someone off," Lien said, pocketing his wand.

Although it didn't really appear to be the case, Harrison responded, "Just as long as it's under control, Jerome." He was actually surprised to not see his son or Faye with the group, but he assumed that they might've had other plans.

He didn't know what his children were up to on Hogsmeade weekend. As Jerome bolted out, one of Riddle's children, urgh, came up to him screaming. Harrison stepped back and simply replied, "It's my day off, and Jerome told me that Lien is working on fixing him."

What could he do to improve their situation anyway? It was probably just a prank.

@Jerome Estrada @Mackenzie Riddle

Phaedra was just coming out of the bathroom stall when she heard the crying of a younger girl and her friend. For a moment, she stood there wondering what to do or say; as she lived over in Blackrock, she still wasn't the most familiar with the people of wizarding Britain, and it didn't help that her half-sister rejected her.

She looked at the girls and smiled at them. "Bonjour, the two of you. Are you okay?"

@Sierra Longbottom @Thalia Tremlett-Chang

"Thanks..." he groaned, swirling giddily as he finally managed to raise to his feet.

After several apologies, Tiernan made his way back to the screen with Lien Chang, who told him that it was likely an adult or a seventh-year who did the transfiguration, as it was fairly advanced. He couldn't think of any adult who would want to turn him into a pig, so it must have been a student. Someone from the Slytherin quidditch team? (Tiernan was a little dense when it came to making sense of these things, as he thought he was universally liked).

He arrived back to the screen. MacKenna was laughing at him, and Mackenzie looked disturbed.

He simply collapsed back into his seat. "Turning me into a pig isn't going to make Slytherin win the quidditch cup..." he muttered angrily.

@Mackenzie Riddle

Thalia wheeled to look at the young woman who appeared from the stalls.

"It's my friend - she's- she's... well, look..." she added, gesturing to Sierra uneasily. "Do ye know what it is?" she asked the stranger, feeling she could trust her.

@Phaedra Cocteau