Brian Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subplotkudzu) wrote2008-07-26 06:25 am
subplotkudzu) wrote2008-07-26 06:25 am
Entry tags:
and the Root of All Evil IV
...and we're back!
Chapter 4: A Hairy Deal
Next Monday is the first Herbology class for the Ravenclaws & Slytherin. The cross-pollination that Sprout strove for last year has had some lingering effect - the groups are more intermingled here than elsewhere, including Grendel Green wandering over to ask after Juliet (who is as distrustful as ever of the now lanky Slytherin). Castor, Juliet & Jasmyn notice that Roberta is missing just before Peri begins to belittle Juliet.
Like Grendel, the immaculately-coifed Slytherin sprouted and now towers over her foe, not that such physical intimidation bothers Juliet one whit. The incident goes from cutting to threatening at high speed with the students clearing space around the pair for a duel. While Muggle girls might hair pull, Juliet lights Peri's hair on fire (for real this time) with sparks from her wand while Peri's hex makes Julet's hair fall out!
Both girls are undeterred, with Peri slapping at her smoldering hair with one hand while she turns Juliet's shoelaces into serpents with the other. Juliet squirms but doesn’t lose concentration as she hurls the muddy water from a nearby washing tough over her nemesis, knocking her over. A high pitched voice yells for them to stop - Professor Trelawney is approaching, led by Roberta ("it's a set up!" moans Castor) - and Peri gives of a curiously convenient set of wracking coughs, acting much more damaged then she had any right to now that the judging authorities are present.
Trelawney naturally blames Juliet, sending poor burned Peri up to Madam Pomfrey, but is prevented from giving an excessive penalty to Ravenclaw by the clucking of Professor Sprout about Juliet's lost hair. Both girls are given some demerits and Sprout applies some fleurflax oil that, when rubbed in, stimulates hair growth. “The number of times I’ve had to use it after Acid Orchid pollen season, well I can’t tell you.”
Sprout changes up the lab assignments, freeing Jasmyn from working with Zane Zane, whom Castor adopts under the theory that he might as well not drag anyone down with him. Peri arrives midway through class, looking as if nothing had happened, but seems unaffected by Juliet's already-restored hair (though it's not yet to its original length). This round seems a draw.
Over the course of the next week Jasmyn & Castor track down Rowan, pushing the shy girl to try out for Dramaturgy with them. Eventually they succeed, and the trio arrives as a unit for the first club meeting. The usual divisions are present between the tech people and the board-treaders, and this year Castor hangs with the former, his interest piqued in the nuts and bolts of Dramaturgy after last year.
There they learn that Madam Hooch and Professor Ogham have already selected this year's play, as laid out by Ogham "Over Sea, Under Suspicion, based on the novel of the same name but updated to include operatic-style musical numbers. It is the story of murder most foul on a trans-Atlantic voyage at the turn of the century. As you may know, it wasn’t until the late 1920’s that the magus Telford Porter corrected the Apparate spell for functionality across large bodies of water – a traditional witch’s hazard – so prior to that wizards crossing the sea had to do it the Muggle way. Such oceanic odysseys were romantic idylls, where the cares of the world could not intrude. Over Sea, Under Suspicions inverts that, making the voyage a locked room mystery of suspense and claustrophobia as mysterious connections between the passengers are made plain and people begin dying, one by one. At the end, the retired judge Hercules Patriot is able to identify the killer."
As Ogham & Hooch break the group into practice teams to get a feel for the voices available, Castor & Juliet see Professor Night slip in the back, staying out of sight and soaking up the ambiance. Castor beams - another success on the master plan! His face falls a little when Jasmyn nails her practice work: if Jasmyn is too good then how can Rowan shine? Rowan's initial wooden reading has the young mastermind hanging his head, but when given the chance to sing she comes into her own, her voice a woodwind instrument that catches the attention of the whole hall, her posture improving as she loses that shy slouch. Everyone is impressed.
Everyone, that is, except Wolf Rhyordan, Ravenclaw 6th year tech, who voices a loud objection through the applause. To his mind Rowan should not be allowed in the club, given her obvious half breed nature and the chance that it would disrupt the subtle workings of the dramaturgy. “Everyone knows that Dramaturgy is a purely human art, not something designed to handle these sorts of outside influences.” Rowan blanches and flees the room, with Jasmyn following after her. Madam Hooch turns on Ryordan with a cold fury, upbraiding her technical Dramaturgy disciple for insensitivity and his unwillingness engage in such a grand experiment. Ryordan displays his insensitivity in full by continuing to argue that he was technically correct and therefore everyone should agree with him. Before he can dig himself any deeper Castor hits him with a Vox Corax, reducing his voice to croaks and sparing him detention. "He'd thank me later," Castor muses, "if he were wise."
Jasmyn finds Rowan staring out some windows in the hall, drawing strength from a beam of autumnal sun. With many reiterations of their friendship and stories of how the profs were taking Rowan’s side she coaxes the girl back to the theater, where everyone is both glad to see her and embarrassed by the scene. Professor Night descends from the back to reassure the green-haired student, with the admonition that if she wants the theater she must grow a thick skin, and want it, heart & soul, more than anything else. He then turns to Ryordan with a sly grin, “and when will you make any complaint about Ms. Roseacae’s presence here?”
“Nevermore! Nevermore!” croaks the hexed lad, putting paid to the whole scene. As he leaves, Night whispers to Castor, “I always did like that spell.”
Castor racks up another master plan win, and a third as Rowan is cast as Melinda, one of the key singing parts in the show. Better still, Jasmyn’s part won’t upstage her, and his fellow Ravenclaw is in agreement with his master plan. “It’s amazing how easy this is with a little application of mental energy.”
A few days later was the first Wizards Chess & Battles meeting. The usual divisions take place – Lippershey sets up the chess play rota, indicating the point total of the various members, before moving on to the battles club. He tells the new students (those who didn’t get the memo) of his plan to recreate the five major battles of Ragnuck, the Goblin King. This will involve some work: some battles were goblin on goblin, some goblin on giant and the last goblin & giant on wizard. It’s a tricky proposition for the year, but it will keep them busy. “Besides,” he admits “I’m burnt out on large scale Muggle tactics.” To no one’s surprise the club members are willing to go along with this, and he sets the rest of the club meeting to sculpting the first battlefield and getting the figures ready, with instructions to read up on Goblin history and tactics.
Castor and Pollux learn that Goblin Kings ruled over Thanes, who oversaw the individual tribes. The Kings would have aides, called Helpmoots, who would carry messages to their Thanes both in peace and in wartime, so that the King could go for some time without seeing his Thanes while still keeping contact with them (lacking, as they are, in wand magic). The Helpmoots were capable of vast speed, so the King could maintain control over larger armies, later riding on Giant-Palanquins to better oversee the battle. The Goblins also used a breed of Thestrals, called Nightmares, flesh eaters that you could only see if you had never shed blood – children would maintain them and sic them on armies to wreak havoc. Nightmares have since died out. “Darn,” mutter the twins. They sounded cool.
Pollux pulls out several books on Goblin tactics and starts mastering the spells for mini-landscaping and animation – Lachlan and Sky return to their shared room to find a 2 foot by 2 foot, dirt filled flat table that Pollux magically reshapes each day, practicing his goblin flanking maneuvers on the varied terrain.
As the first years are busy with their own plans, Daisy is turning to her music…and other things. Her evening practice is dedicated & frequent – frequent enough that her roommate, Kestra Ravensgale, orders her to “take it outside!” Once alone atop Ravenclaw Tower she begins again, and is joined by the pan pipes from the forest. The practice becomes a duel, with each attempting to top the other with energy and style. Daisy is deeply absorbed, bowing madly, and concludes with a flourish, sweating, shaken and exhilarated. And very much startled at the appearance of a witch on the broom just over the tower’s edge. Madam Hooch!
Daisy does her best to compose herself as Hooch explains her presence: they’re doing a musical this year and there are some “interesting variables” in this year’s cast. “The piece needs to be reworked for the voices while maintaining the sense of constriction from the orchestra, which the vocals release only to have the constriction return. Are you up for it?” While it’s not her normal style, the Ravenclaw agrees to give it a shot.
Hooch beams, “Excellent! I know how I want it to sound, so…” and with that she extracts a large curved brass horn from her robes. Daisy had seen muggle ear trumpets and never understood the term, since the didn’t play anything… unlike a wizards ear trumpet, which played the tune that was stuck in your head. Very useful when you can’t remember the name of the tune and need some help. Daisy took some notes to capture Hooch’s concept, and adds a sidebar to not test the music on Juliet first.
While Pollux is asleep one night Bess hops onto his chest and head butts him into consciousness. There’s a moment of resistance from the Hufflepuff lad before he realizes that if Bess really wanted to go somewhere she was fully capable of dragging him there, and he rolls out of bed and belts on a robe. The grimalkin leads him to an air vent off one of the study rooms and motions to it with her head. Hoping she didn’t want him to climb in, Pollux leans in to listen.
Coming from the vent is a rasping hiss of a voice, clearly lecturing someone. “I don’t care what you think your responsibilities are, you pathetic little imbecile. I don’t care about your job. And neither should you. Remember who it is you work for. Where your loyalties lie. And what punishments will happen to you if you don’t see them through. And if I learn that you aren’t doing as ordered, well, you’ll never have to find that out, will you….” The acoustics don’t let him hear any other voices, and after a few moments it’s clear that there’s nothing left to hear. Bess is beaming, glad to have dragged her owner into something interesting, but being a cat she doesn’t bother to explain what that is.
The next morning at breakfast he tracks down his brother, and sees that Mr. Mommenshanz was in the castle last night. Night’s agent is now looking sunny and happy as he breaks his fast with Dumbledore, who is engaging the loudly dressed man in some serious conversation, with much grand sweeping arm motion from Manny. Now what was he doing here?
Next Monday is the first Herbology class for the Ravenclaws & Slytherin. The cross-pollination that Sprout strove for last year has had some lingering effect - the groups are more intermingled here than elsewhere, including Grendel Green wandering over to ask after Juliet (who is as distrustful as ever of the now lanky Slytherin). Castor, Juliet & Jasmyn notice that Roberta is missing just before Peri begins to belittle Juliet.
Like Grendel, the immaculately-coifed Slytherin sprouted and now towers over her foe, not that such physical intimidation bothers Juliet one whit. The incident goes from cutting to threatening at high speed with the students clearing space around the pair for a duel. While Muggle girls might hair pull, Juliet lights Peri's hair on fire (for real this time) with sparks from her wand while Peri's hex makes Julet's hair fall out!
Both girls are undeterred, with Peri slapping at her smoldering hair with one hand while she turns Juliet's shoelaces into serpents with the other. Juliet squirms but doesn’t lose concentration as she hurls the muddy water from a nearby washing tough over her nemesis, knocking her over. A high pitched voice yells for them to stop - Professor Trelawney is approaching, led by Roberta ("it's a set up!" moans Castor) - and Peri gives of a curiously convenient set of wracking coughs, acting much more damaged then she had any right to now that the judging authorities are present.
Trelawney naturally blames Juliet, sending poor burned Peri up to Madam Pomfrey, but is prevented from giving an excessive penalty to Ravenclaw by the clucking of Professor Sprout about Juliet's lost hair. Both girls are given some demerits and Sprout applies some fleurflax oil that, when rubbed in, stimulates hair growth. “The number of times I’ve had to use it after Acid Orchid pollen season, well I can’t tell you.”
Sprout changes up the lab assignments, freeing Jasmyn from working with Zane Zane, whom Castor adopts under the theory that he might as well not drag anyone down with him. Peri arrives midway through class, looking as if nothing had happened, but seems unaffected by Juliet's already-restored hair (though it's not yet to its original length). This round seems a draw.
Over the course of the next week Jasmyn & Castor track down Rowan, pushing the shy girl to try out for Dramaturgy with them. Eventually they succeed, and the trio arrives as a unit for the first club meeting. The usual divisions are present between the tech people and the board-treaders, and this year Castor hangs with the former, his interest piqued in the nuts and bolts of Dramaturgy after last year.
There they learn that Madam Hooch and Professor Ogham have already selected this year's play, as laid out by Ogham "Over Sea, Under Suspicion, based on the novel of the same name but updated to include operatic-style musical numbers. It is the story of murder most foul on a trans-Atlantic voyage at the turn of the century. As you may know, it wasn’t until the late 1920’s that the magus Telford Porter corrected the Apparate spell for functionality across large bodies of water – a traditional witch’s hazard – so prior to that wizards crossing the sea had to do it the Muggle way. Such oceanic odysseys were romantic idylls, where the cares of the world could not intrude. Over Sea, Under Suspicions inverts that, making the voyage a locked room mystery of suspense and claustrophobia as mysterious connections between the passengers are made plain and people begin dying, one by one. At the end, the retired judge Hercules Patriot is able to identify the killer."
As Ogham & Hooch break the group into practice teams to get a feel for the voices available, Castor & Juliet see Professor Night slip in the back, staying out of sight and soaking up the ambiance. Castor beams - another success on the master plan! His face falls a little when Jasmyn nails her practice work: if Jasmyn is too good then how can Rowan shine? Rowan's initial wooden reading has the young mastermind hanging his head, but when given the chance to sing she comes into her own, her voice a woodwind instrument that catches the attention of the whole hall, her posture improving as she loses that shy slouch. Everyone is impressed.
Everyone, that is, except Wolf Rhyordan, Ravenclaw 6th year tech, who voices a loud objection through the applause. To his mind Rowan should not be allowed in the club, given her obvious half breed nature and the chance that it would disrupt the subtle workings of the dramaturgy. “Everyone knows that Dramaturgy is a purely human art, not something designed to handle these sorts of outside influences.” Rowan blanches and flees the room, with Jasmyn following after her. Madam Hooch turns on Ryordan with a cold fury, upbraiding her technical Dramaturgy disciple for insensitivity and his unwillingness engage in such a grand experiment. Ryordan displays his insensitivity in full by continuing to argue that he was technically correct and therefore everyone should agree with him. Before he can dig himself any deeper Castor hits him with a Vox Corax, reducing his voice to croaks and sparing him detention. "He'd thank me later," Castor muses, "if he were wise."
Jasmyn finds Rowan staring out some windows in the hall, drawing strength from a beam of autumnal sun. With many reiterations of their friendship and stories of how the profs were taking Rowan’s side she coaxes the girl back to the theater, where everyone is both glad to see her and embarrassed by the scene. Professor Night descends from the back to reassure the green-haired student, with the admonition that if she wants the theater she must grow a thick skin, and want it, heart & soul, more than anything else. He then turns to Ryordan with a sly grin, “and when will you make any complaint about Ms. Roseacae’s presence here?”
“Nevermore! Nevermore!” croaks the hexed lad, putting paid to the whole scene. As he leaves, Night whispers to Castor, “I always did like that spell.”
Castor racks up another master plan win, and a third as Rowan is cast as Melinda, one of the key singing parts in the show. Better still, Jasmyn’s part won’t upstage her, and his fellow Ravenclaw is in agreement with his master plan. “It’s amazing how easy this is with a little application of mental energy.”
A few days later was the first Wizards Chess & Battles meeting. The usual divisions take place – Lippershey sets up the chess play rota, indicating the point total of the various members, before moving on to the battles club. He tells the new students (those who didn’t get the memo) of his plan to recreate the five major battles of Ragnuck, the Goblin King. This will involve some work: some battles were goblin on goblin, some goblin on giant and the last goblin & giant on wizard. It’s a tricky proposition for the year, but it will keep them busy. “Besides,” he admits “I’m burnt out on large scale Muggle tactics.” To no one’s surprise the club members are willing to go along with this, and he sets the rest of the club meeting to sculpting the first battlefield and getting the figures ready, with instructions to read up on Goblin history and tactics.
Castor and Pollux learn that Goblin Kings ruled over Thanes, who oversaw the individual tribes. The Kings would have aides, called Helpmoots, who would carry messages to their Thanes both in peace and in wartime, so that the King could go for some time without seeing his Thanes while still keeping contact with them (lacking, as they are, in wand magic). The Helpmoots were capable of vast speed, so the King could maintain control over larger armies, later riding on Giant-Palanquins to better oversee the battle. The Goblins also used a breed of Thestrals, called Nightmares, flesh eaters that you could only see if you had never shed blood – children would maintain them and sic them on armies to wreak havoc. Nightmares have since died out. “Darn,” mutter the twins. They sounded cool.
Pollux pulls out several books on Goblin tactics and starts mastering the spells for mini-landscaping and animation – Lachlan and Sky return to their shared room to find a 2 foot by 2 foot, dirt filled flat table that Pollux magically reshapes each day, practicing his goblin flanking maneuvers on the varied terrain.
As the first years are busy with their own plans, Daisy is turning to her music…and other things. Her evening practice is dedicated & frequent – frequent enough that her roommate, Kestra Ravensgale, orders her to “take it outside!” Once alone atop Ravenclaw Tower she begins again, and is joined by the pan pipes from the forest. The practice becomes a duel, with each attempting to top the other with energy and style. Daisy is deeply absorbed, bowing madly, and concludes with a flourish, sweating, shaken and exhilarated. And very much startled at the appearance of a witch on the broom just over the tower’s edge. Madam Hooch!
Daisy does her best to compose herself as Hooch explains her presence: they’re doing a musical this year and there are some “interesting variables” in this year’s cast. “The piece needs to be reworked for the voices while maintaining the sense of constriction from the orchestra, which the vocals release only to have the constriction return. Are you up for it?” While it’s not her normal style, the Ravenclaw agrees to give it a shot.
Hooch beams, “Excellent! I know how I want it to sound, so…” and with that she extracts a large curved brass horn from her robes. Daisy had seen muggle ear trumpets and never understood the term, since the didn’t play anything… unlike a wizards ear trumpet, which played the tune that was stuck in your head. Very useful when you can’t remember the name of the tune and need some help. Daisy took some notes to capture Hooch’s concept, and adds a sidebar to not test the music on Juliet first.
While Pollux is asleep one night Bess hops onto his chest and head butts him into consciousness. There’s a moment of resistance from the Hufflepuff lad before he realizes that if Bess really wanted to go somewhere she was fully capable of dragging him there, and he rolls out of bed and belts on a robe. The grimalkin leads him to an air vent off one of the study rooms and motions to it with her head. Hoping she didn’t want him to climb in, Pollux leans in to listen.
Coming from the vent is a rasping hiss of a voice, clearly lecturing someone. “I don’t care what you think your responsibilities are, you pathetic little imbecile. I don’t care about your job. And neither should you. Remember who it is you work for. Where your loyalties lie. And what punishments will happen to you if you don’t see them through. And if I learn that you aren’t doing as ordered, well, you’ll never have to find that out, will you….” The acoustics don’t let him hear any other voices, and after a few moments it’s clear that there’s nothing left to hear. Bess is beaming, glad to have dragged her owner into something interesting, but being a cat she doesn’t bother to explain what that is.
The next morning at breakfast he tracks down his brother, and sees that Mr. Mommenshanz was in the castle last night. Night’s agent is now looking sunny and happy as he breaks his fast with Dumbledore, who is engaging the loudly dressed man in some serious conversation, with much grand sweeping arm motion from Manny. Now what was he doing here?