pilfering poltergeists

[Shayna]

"Peeves!"

The shrill scream of Catalina Alvarez echoed throughout the vast expanse of the hall, bouncing off the walls like some sort of elastic rubber ball. Cat's cheeks were flushed a bright rosy pink, her doelike chocolate hued eyes flashing with uncharacteristic rage.

"Peeves! Give it to me right now, you goddamn Poltergeist!" Helplessly, Catalina swat out at the ghost who cackled mercilessly and flew up even higher until his vaporlike head was nearly touching the ceiling.

"Poor Catty-watty, can't catch me now can she? Can she?" he trilled, swooping down again close to her. She reached out with her other arm and made a futile attempt to grab her book back from the Poltergeist's arms, but to no avail. The ghostlike creature grinned again before floating around her head, just high enough so that Catalina had simply no chance of reaching him.

"Peeeeeeves!" she wailed again, searching in her robe pocket for her wand. Unfortunately, only seconds afterwards did Cat realize she had foolishly left it in Transfiguration, and there was no hope for retrieving it as it was on the second floor. Catalina knew that if she left Peeves, he would take her book and destroy it, no questions asked.

"Come and get it! You know you want it!" Peeves giggled, blowing a raspberry right in Cat's face. Suppressing a scream, Catalina swat out at him again, only to have the poltergeist fly up even higher.

"Aw, come on, Peeves! My Astronomy essay is in that book! And I have Astronomy in approximately ten minutes and six seconds!" Maybe if she played the sympathy card, it would work.

But alas, it didn't. Peeves, grinning manically, clutched her leatherbound book even tighter and swooped around the hall.

At last, he grinned manically with a cry of 'can't catch me!' before swooping into the nearest room: which just so happened to be the trophy room. Catalina paused within seconds of storming in there, and all the events of last night swirled unpleasantly through her mind. That damned Masking Charm...a strange feeling similar to guilt settled over her, and Cat bit her tongue.

This was deceit. And Cata didn't do deceit...she had only acted rashly out of heat of the moment. What if Filch found out? What to do now? Should she escape? Eventually, however, the desire for her Astronomy book overcame everything else and she entered, wincing in preparation for what she knew was going to be a mess of dung everywhere.

"Can't catch me!" Peeves continued to sing, clutching the book. But Catalina had forgotten all about her textbook now. What really baffled her was that the room was entirely clean. Merlin. She whirled around the room in surprise, half expecting to wake up from some sort of strange dream.

Who had done this?

[Brandy]

Dylan walked through the Great Hall with The Bloody Baron. The Baron did not talk to many students at all, but he associated with some Slytherins whom he felt were worthy. They were discussing the witch trials of the 16th century in England and the effects that they had on security in Hogwarts when Peeves came zooming out of the trophy room with a book floating along beside him.

"PEEVES," the Bloody Baron said in a very stern voice. "What are you doing with that book?"

"Peeves was just havin' some fun, yes sir, some fun. An icky Gryffindor Mr. Baron sir," he said nervously.

"Peeves, return it," he said as he glared into the eyes of the polterguiest.

Almost immediately he dropped the book and he floated off through the ceiling. The Baron hardly looked as though the events had phased him a bit. He simply went on explaining that the witch trials were a great reason why Hogwarts has the many enchantments that it has today.

"Of course there was the fact that they didn't want unauthorized wizards to come in when they pleased, but the anti-muggle spells really went into effect during this time."


Dylan seemed to be taking in every bit of what the Baron was saying. He didn't need to know any of this for class, he was just very interested in the ideas behind the history of Hogwarts.

"Thank you Baron," he said with a smile as he sat down at the Slytherin table.

"You're welcome Dylan. Anything for a descendant of one of the oldest pureblood families that ever exsisted," he replied as he flew off in the same direction as Peeves had gone.

Dylan remembered the book and he picked it up. When he opened it he read the name Catalina Alvarez written on the inside of the spine. Isn't that the girl from the other night? he wondered to himself. He knew she had to be and he got up and handed the book to a group of girls that he recognized as in her year.

"Here I found this on the floor," he muttered before turning away from a throughly shocked group of seventh year Gryffindor girls. He then went back to his seat and he began eating his supper.

[Shayna]

Still baffled by a mixture of resentment at Peeves and confusion as to who the bloody hell cleaned the trophy room, Catalina stood there quite simply for a few moments, face contorted in a frown. For one, class started in...was it five minutes now? Yes, that was probably right, and Peeves had stormed off with her book. Not only that, but the mystery of who exactly cleaned the trophy room was boggling her mind.

"How confusing," she muttered to herself, before uneasily glancing down at her wizard's wristwatch. "Four minutes left. Joder," she swore quickly in Spanish before exiting the room. Cat needed to find Peeves immediately or else she'd quite literally die.

"Hey!" Catalina suddenly called out to her fellow dormmates who seemed to be approaching her. "Have any of you seen Peeves? He has my book and I have Astronomy next--"

"No," piped up one girl, producing a battered copy of Advanced Astronomy which in turn made Catalina sigh with relief, "although we do have your book."

"How in the name of Merlin did you get it back?" Cat questioned, taking the treasured item eagerly and pocketing it. Another girl shrugged.

"Oh, he gave it to us," she informed Catalina without seeming to think much of it. At the mention of this much esteemed person, the girls began giggling wildly before composing themselves. "Of course, he's a Slytherin," mentioned another girl passively, "right bloody bloke too. All Slytherins are," she added vicsciously to make up for the betraying giggles they had performed earlier.

Catalina's blood went cold. If her thoughts were correct--

"Oh! We saw him coming out of the trophy room this morning, he looked really tired and whatnot. Had bird dung all over him," said a girl without making too much of it. "Anyways, see you later Cat! We need to get to Charms." Unbidden, the girls all left in one big group, leaving Cat there slackjawed.

It couldn't possibly be true. Last night he had insulted her until she thought there had been no insults left in him...and he had cleaned up the mess all by himself? It /wasn't/ true. Yet Catalina knew deep within that it was and that she had an apology to deliver.

Which was exactly why she was in the Great Hall thirty seconds later, a look of unmistakable confusion crossing over her face as she trudged over to the Slytherin table in pursuit of him, only to be met by many murderous glares along the way. Finally spotting him, Cat mustered up all the dignity she had left and coughed to get his attention.

"I...er. I heard what you did," she began hesitantly, "and I really appreciate it, although there was no need to do it...I was the one who performed the Masking Spell, after all. But anyways..thanks. It was amazingly kind of you."

[Brandy]

Dylan listened to her talk and he didn't seem to show any interest in what she was saying. He took a bite of his mashed potatoes before looking at his friends. They were all surrounding him with confused looks on their faces. They couldn't understand why a Gryffindor would be thanking him for anything.

He hadn't intended on her finding out what he had done. How could she have figured it out? Why had she gone back to the trophy room? Was she afraid of getting into trouble?

He had to regain his composure. All of his friends were looking at him. They were watching him be nice to a mudblood. This just wouldn't do.

"I haven't the slightest idea what it is that you're talking about," he said coolly as he picked up his tray to put it in the garbage. He figured that if he pulled her away from his friends he wouldn't be as embarrassed as if she mentioned it in front of everyone. "I didn't do anything for you," he finished as he dumped his tray into the garbage before looking into her eyes.

For a moment he couldn't breathe, but he had to. He had to pull himself together and forget about her. He had to tell himself that she wasn't worth it. He was destined for more than a mudblood, he reasoned with himself.

[Shayna]

Catalina's gaze sharpened with every word he spoke. She was making herself late for Astronomy, all because of him! And anyone who spent three seconds with her knew that she revolved her life around school. Bastard. All gratefulness that she had felt towards him suddenly disappeared.

Coolly adjusting the Hogwarts tie on her white button up blouse, Cat regarded the Slytherin with a definite change in her demeanor. "I see," she answered back, "so the fact that you spent hours cleaning up the mess in the trophy room after I performed the Masking Spell on it doesn't mean anything? If that's your definition of not doing anything, then by Merlin, I'd love to see you being generous."

Her frown deepened as she looked around at the Slytherin table, being given immense glares from all sides.

"I thought that that we--Gryffindors--were wrong," she said conversationally, "I always believed that Slytherins weren't all bloody bastards, but you proved me wrong. For once in my life I was proven wrong. I can't possibly imagine why you would hate me though...is it something I said? Did? Or maybe because I'm a...oh, what's the word you call it? Oh yes, a Mudblood." Her gaze narrowed even more. "As I'm obviously causing a lot of embarassment for you now, I'll go, shall I? I'm ten seconds late to Astronomy."

[Brandy]

As she turned around to leave him he wanted desperately to tell her the truth. He didn't think any less of her than he thought of himself. After all, he was a mudblood too. His father, whom he had never met in his life, was a muggle. His mother had been murdered for what she had done and her husband, the man he pretended to love, the man who he pretended was his real father, was in Azkaban because of what had happened.

After thinking for about a minute, he called out to her, "You wouldn't understand. You Gryffindors are so self righteous. You all think that you've got everything figured out. Well let me tell you Miss Thing, you don't know anything at all. You pride yourself on knowing and correcting others, but you don't even stop to consider what it is that you're doing. You alienate others because you think your way is the only way. Get over yourself," he muttered before pushing past her and heading for the door.

He was so angry with her. She hadn't really done anything wrong. The only thing she had done was thank him. He just didn't know how to handle this sort of thing. He had been told his entire life that he was beneath everyone, that mudbloods were the scum of the earth. He had to put on this front that covered up his deep self loathing and in order to do so, he treated others poorly. He hadn't ever had one of them come back and be so kind to him. How could he ever explain this to her? He knew that he was right when he said that she wouldn't understand.

[Shayna]

Catalina's frown deepened at his words, but she refrained herself from saying anything because in some strange way...she knew he was right. Gryffindors had a tendency to be self-righteous; their bravery and determination to do good was what normally caused to the inflation of ego commonly seen among Gryffindors of all ages. Still, she felt hurt that he had suggested such a thing. "That's not true," Cat said quietly, following him. She refused to let the issue stand as it was. "Don't pretend as if you know everything about Gryffindors, because I assure you, you don't. I noticed that you only pointed out all our negative traits. What about our good?" she questioned him persistently.

"We think Slytherins are rotten, lying, cheating, cunning bastards and that's true, considering the way you and your friends hate me since I'm Muggleborn. But you also went back and cleaned that trophy room, so there's allowances on both sides." Catalina regarded the Slytherin--whose name she did not know--with a slightly kinder expression despite the venemous words he had thrown at her earlier.

"But if you're not willing to acknowledge that then I'm wasting my time," Catalina finally shrugged, "some people refuse to change their opinions. At any rate, I'm late for Astronomy and I can't allow myself another detention. But once again," she paused, looking at him straight in the eyes, "thanks."

[Brandy]

Dylan took in everything that she had said. He knew she was right. He had placed her in this little category before he had gotten to know her, but he couldn't have behaved any other way right?

When she said thank you again, he muttered, "You're welcome." When she was a little further away, he walked around and stood beside her. Then he did it, he went for it. If you would ask him ten years into the future why he had said it, he still wouldn't have had an appropriate answer for you. There was no rhyme or reason, he just felt like it needed to be said.

"And for the record,," he started as he looked at her through the corner of his eyes, "I don't think muggle borns are muddbloods," Before she had the chance to respond, he started walking as fast as he could in the direction of the door.

[Shayna]

Catalina stood dumbfounded where she was standing at the Slytherin's comment after he caught up with her. She mused momentarily about going after him and questioning as to what exactly he meant by it, but dismissed it as something silly--probably inducing more insults--and decided that Astronomy was more important at the moment.

So, with one last glance at the Slytherin, Cat trudged up the stairs that led up to the nearest tower.