Closed Snapshots & Snowballs PV Koko

Date: 10 January 2025
Time: Daytime?
Location: Grounds

Although she had taken a backseat from writing recently in favour of the managerial duties that came with the position of Headliner secretary, that did not mean Koko did not have an eye for journalism. After brewing amortentia by herself for the first time last summer, something had been stuck in her mind. Now that it was nearly February, she figured she might as well write a little exposé. But first, she needed pictures.

She didn't know everyone on the Headliner staff as well as she would have liked, but she'd seen Aly Salinger at Quidditch games, and even better, the two were around the same age. It would be easier to smile and look pretty and not feel awkward around someone she'd at least noticed outside of the Headliner. It would be easier to talk honestly and not feel like she had to be some untouchable beacon of guidance because Aly was, well, right on her level.

Koko had chosen her clothes carefully, as she always did, and just like every other day, she had powdered her face, rouged her cheeks, shadowed her eyelids and applied lipstick. For good measure, she had dabbed a bit of a new lavender perfume she was trying out on her wrists. She had gone to breakfast, and, having a rather empty timetable this morning, she had revised for her Potions NEWT for a bit while snacking on a sticky caramel. Eventually, when the words seemed to swim together all too much, she glanced at her watch and decided it was best to head down to the grounds — best to be early, after all. She only had one item in her hands and one in her pocket as she headed up the stairs from the Slytherin common room, where she'd had to retrieve it.

The potion was a pale pink that contrasted with the soft brown of her gloves. She frowned at it before tucking it into her coat's pocket. She waited, hands in her coat pockets, amber gaze dull as she stared out at the empty corridor before her. However, when she heard Aly's voice, she turned, a small half-smile on her lips. She slipped her hands out of her pockets, potion held tightly with one hand's gloved fingers, and her other hand offered the younger girl a small wave. 'Oh — yes, I'm ready.' She had not had the foresight to bring anything to cover her ears, but with any luck, this would not take very long. She nodded as if she understood when Aly said something about 'white point', even if her only camera knowledge came from quick snaps, nothing professional at all. 'Lovely! I look forward to seeing the finished result.'

When Aly pushed open the doors and a blast of cold air greeted them, Koko had to force herself to keep her smile. This was for the job, for the truth, by Merlin! So despite the discomfort, they would do it.

Koko would head towards a clearing with snow-covered trees and stand beneath one. She would look upwards to try and ensure no snow would fall upon her. Holding up the potion while fighting to keep her hair from getting in her face, she would attempt a pose. 'I was thinking we could do something like this, rather innocent looking, just holding the potion?' She would glance at the ground next, reaching into her pocket to pull out a spare corked phial, this one filled with wine. 'And, well, I don't want to break this, since it's the real thing, but I figured since I'm trying to make a point, wine in a corked bottle is fine. We could break this and perhaps photograph it? Unless you've got a better idea; you're the photographer here, not me!' She would laugh warmly, gently, although perhaps the sound would come out faster than she had intended, spurred on by nervous butterflies in her stomach — it had truly been a while since she had gotten to talk to someone her own age, and she had nearly forgotten what it was like!

@Aly Salinger

The grounds were entirely covered in a thick coat of glittering white snow, as cold and pristine as the Headliner secretary herself. Aly marvelled at both the beauty of the weather and at Koko's bravery as the other girl stepped outside beside her in a skirt that exposed over half of her legs to the biting temperatures of the outdoors - even Aly, who enjoyed a well-put-together outfit as much as the next person, usually opted for trousers in these wintry times of year. The elder girl seemed about as confident in Aly's photography skills as she did with her outfit, and the Ravenclaw's cheeks flushed red, though whether that was from the pseudo-compliment or the cold it was impossible to tell. She would certainly have to live up to Koko's expectations of her if she wished to make a friend of the older girl, or at least keep her position on the Headliner.

The two ventured out into the frozen lawn together, with Koko semi-leading the way towards an area with a small copse of trees. In the far background, the frozen Great Lake glimmered underneath the rare rays of sun that managed to escape through the cloud cover above, and Aly felt herself be simultaneously impressed at Koko's ability to naturally gravitate towards a most beautiful background and also embarrassed that she hadn't suggested it first. "Don't worry about the trees," she assured Koko when the other girl looked upwards at the trees with a slightly worried look, "if any snow gets on you, I can always charm it out. I'm quite good at fixing hair - have to be, with this mane." The corners of her lips upticked in a friendly smirk as she waved her free hand about the pinned-back wild curls that were only partially contained by her white earmuffs.

Koko pulled out two bottles to begin the photoshoot, and Aly's eyes widened at the first and nearly popped out of her head at the second. "Oh - you actually brought Amortentia!" she gasped, nearly unable to unglue her gaze from the way the pearl-coloured draught shimmered so brilliantly within the bottle. Despite having hypothetically learned to brew it in Potions class and having purchased some of the ingredients for it herself over the winter holiday, though she remained unsure as to if she would actually use them or not, Aly had never seen, smelled, or drank the world's most powerful love potion - or any love potion at all, for that matter. The very idea of it being right there was tantalizing, addicting even, and she spluttered her words for a moment before just barely pulling herself back together. "Er, yeah, that sounds good. Maybe we can even get a shot of you pretending to drink one or the other." A disbelieving laugh caught in her throat at Koko's suggestion to break one of the bottles. Did she even know how difficult those two things were to acquire?! "Yeah! That's... certainly something... we could do. Or - or smash them or pour them out; I'm not quite sure what kind of vibe you're looking for here, or if you'd even be willing to waste - stuff - like that."

Mentally cursing the fact that she hadn't thought to bring an empty vial, Aly stepped forward to take one of the bottles from Koko, whichever the elder girl would hand her. "Here, I'll take one - you pose with the other, and we can get started..."

Date: 10 January 2025
Time: Daytime?
Location: Grounds

Koko did her best to focus on the glittering snow and her colleague instead of the biting cold on her skin. Her free hand sorely missed the warmth of her coat's pocket. She maintained an encouraging smile as she watched Aly prepare to work her magic with her camera, an odd little thing that Koko kept finding her gaze darting towards. Its colouring was rather unlike a standard camera; something that looked like stars dotted its body, although she wondered if that had to do with the snow reflecting off of it.

She snapped out of her intrigue when she heard Aly's voice. Both of her eyebrows rose in initial confusion when Aly said not to worry about the trees, but then her gaze darted upwards and she nodded in understanding. Her smile would begin to mirror Aly's — smaller now, but perhaps more real — when the younger girl commented on her talent with hair. 'Oh, I believe you,' Koko said wryly with a warm voice. 'But thanks. I might have to take you up on that.'

With each word came the smallest heaviness in her thoughts, the slight worry that she was going to say something wrong since she simply was not used to interacting with those close to her age, but she brushed it off in favour of continuing to smile and appreciate the beauty of the Scottish winter. The snow glittered underneath the largely-overcast sky, almost beckoning for a youthful game — but it was time for work, always had been.

Koko returned her gaze to focus on Aly, still smiling, although she could not adequately conceal her confusion when the sixth year acted so incredulously regarding the amortentia. She glanced at Aly's face, then at the camera, and wondered what else they would have taken photos of if not amortentia itself. One of them looking lovestruck? Koko glanced at the potion and phial of wine in her hand and shrugged, although she did raise an eyebrow mischievously when Aly suggested she pretend to drink one. 'I could certainly pretend to drink this—' She pointed to the pearlescent potion. '—But I'm afraid this one would be too scandalous.' She snickered while gesturing towards the wine before once again returning her gaze to Aly. Hopefully her attempt at humour would resonate decently.

'Well, I'd be more keen to break the phial of wine. That's easy enough to acquire more of, and it illustrates the point better.' Besides, if she were to be honest with herself, she would rather have the fumes of wine outside the phial than the fumes of amortentia. Although she had brewed the potion herself, more out of curiosity than anything, the idea that a potion could induce infatuation was horrifying. Even if she didn't believe in the tales people spread about the potion, she hadn't felt infatuation before, and she was not inclined to have a taste of it due to a photo shoot gone wrong. She looked down at the phials again, nose wrinkling slightly before her expression neutralised and she returned her gaze to Aly. 'But I do trust your judgement. You're the photographer here.'

Following Aly's instructions, Koko daintily set the phial of wine in Aly's hand, keeping the potion to herself for now. She glanced warily at it before returning to her spot between the trees. A quick gust of wind sent goosebumps to her neck and legs, and she slipped her free hand back into the warmth of her pocket. It was easier to ignore the cold when she was not actively attempting to stand still. Relatively slowly, she lifted the still-corked phial to her lips and gazed at Aly over it, eyebrows furrowed over tentative amber eyes. 'Do you think I need to uncork it, or is this fine?' She moved so that she was nearly leaning against one of the snow-covered trees, attempting to look mostly unbothered while still miming sipping from the potion. 'Unless you've got a different idea?'

@Aly Salinger

Koko was a natural. The elder girl tilted the corked phial to her lips, pretending to drink from it, and (having put the wine in her pocket) after taking a practice picture of the snowy ground to test her white point, Aly pointed the lens at her boss and began to snap away. She darted around the tree against which Koko was leaning, her trigger finger cramping only slightly as it bent and straightened over and over again against the shutter release; with every flash of the camera, the stars and constellations enchanted along its body sparkled and glimmered like their celestial counterparts. The film roll inside whirred slightly as the images imprinted upon it, and Aly made a mental note to develop them in the Headliner darkroom over the weekend during her spare time.

"These are coming out so well," she enthused, wading through the snow behind the tree to lean to the side and get a profile shot of Koko and the mother-of-pearl brew sloshing up against the cork from an angle that would hide the cork behind the older girl's fingers. "It really looks like you're drinking it! Okay, here... take both of them for a second, let's get some pictures of the two next to each other..."

She pulled the wine from her fluffy jacket pocket and handed it off to Koko, snapping a few images of the seventh-year holding the two vials side-by-side. She called out a few directions - hold one on either side of your face, balance one on top of the other like an hourglass, etc. - before stepping forward to relieve Koko of the pearlescent potion in her hand, leaving her only with the wine for the final smashing photographs. The temptation to uncork the love potion and take a big whiff was palpable and pervasive, for Aly had no idea the scents that would appeal to her most as an odoriferous representation of love itself - but she resisted, pocketing the Amortentia and focusing on the task at hand. Maybe Koko will let me take a sniff before I give it back to her, once we're done here, she reasoned, lifting the camera to her eye again. "Okay, hold it out at arm's length so I can get a close-up of the wine with you blurry in the background... now close to your face and look at it like it's the most disgusting thing in the world... yes, just like that!" She stepped back a little, giving her boss a thumbs-up and an excited grin. "Almost done. All right, are you ready for the smash? We'll only get one shot at this, so step forward from the tree a little. I'll count you down, okay? Smash it on three!"

Keeping the camera to her eye with one hand, she subtly crouched while Koko was preparing and picked up a handful of snow with her other. Aly was no artist, but she did have a vision, and hopefully it would come out well. Straightening back up, she called out, "Righto, one, two... three!"

As the elder girl moved to smash the bottle on the snowy ground, Aly threw the snow that she had grasped out into the field of the picture; it arced upwards and forwards, a fair bit of it landing in Koko's hair as Aly snapped quick photographs of the bottle midair as it fell and shattering into a billion tiny wine-tinged shards and droplets as it hit. These are going to be wonderful! Hopefully she's not too mad about her hair...

✰✰✰
@Koko Riddle
Godmod mentions approved by Koko

Date: 10 January 2025
Time: Daytime?
Location: Grounds

It was difficult to avoid glancing at Aly or her camera as the younger girl zoomed around Koko, snapping photographs as if she'd been born doing it. Koko did her best to keep her expression nonchalant while she gazed at the horizon or wherever Aly directed her to, but between shots she sometimes couldn't help but steal a glance at the stellar camera.

She complied with each of Aly's requests, unsure of what else to do with herself. She bit back a shiver as she pretended to drink the potion, but if it were from the cold or a general discomfort of being so close to the pearlescent brew, she wasn't sure. She held a few more poses, easily falling into line with Aly's directions, able to focus on the Ravenclaw's clear words instead of the cold. A small, relieved exhale escaped her when Aly took the potion and left her with the wine. She held the wine out in front of her, and then closer to her while sneering at it, and then her sneer immediately faded as she prepared to smash it, her expression morphing into something excited, an uncharacteristic grin on her lips likely matching Aly's. 'Ready when you are!' she affirmed.

Koko lifted the phial containing the wine, listening to Aly's countdown, completely engrossed in this task just like all the others. She let the wine smash to the ground, grinning wildly as the glass shattered and maroon liquid splashed across the snow like blood, but her grin faded abruptly when her hair fell into her face, snow falling onto her eyelashes, into her mouth, between her coat collar and her neck. She brought a hand up to at least get some of the cold wet horror out of her clothes before pausing and staring at Aly with a renewed vehemence. One could rightly say she was gawking at the younger girl—her eyes were wide with surprise, horror, something shining in them, her cheeks now red from the cold. Keeping her gaze on Aly, Koko crouched down to scoop up some snow of her own. She avoided the wine-tinged snow and the broken glass as she shoved her fingers into the freezing white powder.

'You are on, Salinger,' she muttered under her breath, unsure if she was angry or amused. A half-smile had returned to her lips as she narrowed her eyes at Aly. Koko rose to her feet, hands clasped together to form a rather large snowball, and she grinned at the other girl before starting forward. Her arms moved of their own accord, launching the snowball at Aly in hopes of hitting her (and hopefully not her lovely camera instead).

'Think fast!'

@Aly Salinger

Oh, Merlin. Apparently, Aly's boss had taken the aesthetic snow-throwing as a declaration of war, after spending the barest of moments seeming somewhere between shocked and horrified at finding frozen white fluff upon her hair and clothes. Koko ducked to the ground to gather a snowball in her hands almost immediately, and Aly instinctively took a few steps back, but before she could dodge, Koko's practiced Quidditch swing - clearly honed from years of being a Keeper, like Aly herself had once been - was already halfway through the air. Aly had only enough time to suck in a quick, regretful breath and brace herself only slightly before a giant sphere of cold, wet snow slammed directly into her freckled nose.

Aly stumbled backwards and quickly found herself butt-first on the ground, a chilling and damp sensation seeping into the seat of her jeans, which was altogether quite unpleasant - though no more so than that same feeling of white flakes scattered across her cheeks like constellations. Wiping her eyes and thanking Hardanger for having invented a line of waterproof cosmetics, Aly blinked enough of the snow out of her vision to catch a glimpse of her blonde attacker, which was enough for the Ravenclaw to toss a snowball of her own at Koko. Though she heard the soft thud of the snowy projectile hitting its target, she didn't look at where it had done so, taking the time in which Koko was distracted to free herself of her camera and the Amortentia and setting those to the side so that they wouldn't become victims of what was gearing up to be a good, true snowball fight.

Aly leapt to her feet and finally her vision cleared enough so that Koko was not simply a blonde blob, but rather, a grinning vision of a taunt in front of her. Aly crouched in a defensive position and shot her boss a smile of her own, having gotten over being smacked in the face with a snowball at record speed. "I'm on? You're on!" she teased, preparing to dive for the snow if Koko tried to hit her again (hopefully in a less painful place). "I didn't mean for this to be all-out war, but if that's what you want, Koko, that's what you'll get!"

✰✰✰
@Koko Riddle

Reducio

Rolls from Discord:




TLDR: both Koko's and Aly's snowballs hit; Koko's Alluring and EM fail to proc

Date: 10 January 2025
Time: Daytime?
Location: Grounds

Koko stood back up almost immediately, watching with her chin lifted just slightly and a wild grin on her lips as her snowball went right towards Aly. She found herself light on her feet and in spirit, giggling and even hunching over as she did so. She covered her mouth without thinking, trying to hide her smile, and she let out a small shriek when something cold and wet slammed into her side. The impact was hard even though her coat, but the shock of it only made her wheeze in a foul burst of laughter.

'"All-out war"? I'd like to see you try to beat me!' Her words, although prideful, likely lost some of their impact between giggles. Koko watched with mock suspicion as Aly reached for... something? She didn't have it in her to squint, so instead, she crossed her arms over her chest in a whatcha gonna do gesture.

That was a bad idea. Before Koko even knew what was happening, Aly had pulled out her wand and uttered an incantation that Koko hadn't heard in years. She raised an eyebrow, intrigued, only to flinch, just barely missing a snowball to the face that instead crumpled against the collar of her coat, causing her to hiss in surprise. She stared at Aly, dumbstruck, only to get hit by two more comically large snowballs, one hitting her square in the stomach and another in the forehead.

She glanced upwards and ran a hand through her hair to make sure it wasn't too messed up, and then she bent down to create a large snowball of her own. She was not about to best Aly at her spell game. Sometimes pure physicality was the best way to go. The snow stuck to her gloves, white dusting the pale brown, and Koko swung her arm in what had to be a wildly unpractised throw compared to her earlier one. Her lack of finesse, however, did nothing to stop the snowball from hitting Aly, and Koko let out a triumphant whoop. 'Ha!'

Never mind the fact that she'd been hit thrice. It was the intention that counted.

She snickered to herself, unable to stop herself from retaining her uncharacteristically-wide grin, and readied herself to form another snowball, or to dodge, whichever came first.

@Aly Salinger

Rolls:

Reducio

Aly casts Bewitched Snowballs (DC 15)
d20: 20 + 17 -> 37 -> critical success!
snowball #1:
alluring: d10 -> 5; evasive manoeuvres: d10 -> 6 > neither proc
accuracy: d20: 5 + 15 = 20; evasion: 10 + 10 = 20 -> impaired hit

snowball #2:
alluring: d10 -> 9; evasive manoeuvres -> d10: 4 > neither proc
accuracy: d20: 13 + 15 = 28; evasion: 3 + 10 = 13 > hit

snowball #3:
alluring: d10: 1; evasive manoeuvres: d10: 8 > neither proc
accuracy: d20: 6 + 15 = 21; evasion: 4 + 10 = 14 > hit

Koko is... just throwing a snowball
Accuracy: d20: 8 + 24 - 1 = 31
Evasion: d20: 6 + 11 = 17
Hit

Godmodding approved by Aly's writer.

Her boss's confidence was nothing short of cute. Koko may have had seven (?) years of experience Keeping some hoops, but Aly had played almost every position on the pitch and, short of her lack of strength and stick-thin arms, considered herself to be somewhat similar to a one-woman Quidditch team. Her aim had held true, her accuracy honed from various semesterly changes of keeping and chasing and catching and seeking, and Aly's snowball had smacked dead into Koko's side even as the younger girl had been down for the count with her eyes mostly shut. Instead of retaliating, though, the blonde called out a taunt that just bordered on arrogant and crossed her arms over her chest. Not even reaching for the snow. Not even trying to dodge. Just... waiting, standing there, a target ready to be hit. Begging to be hit, almost.

Well, who was Aly to pass up that kind of a challenge?

Here, though, there was one distinct rule difference from the Quidditch pitch: Aly's wand was in her pocket. And there were no holds barred when there were no refs around to watch.

A few snowballs were formed in the blink of an eye by practiced hands, and then she reached for the left side of her fluffy white coat with her right hand and withdrew the slender aspen stick in another instant. The young Ravenclaw hadn't actually cast this spell in... well, in years, really, not since she'd first learned it in Astronomy during her first year at Hogwarts and then studied it a bit that year for the end-of-school examinations. It came back to her well enough, though, and she raised the wand towards Koko, waving it in a small but direct circle. A wicked smile touched onto her glossed lips as they parted to speak an incantation that would be all-too-familiar to anyone in their second year or older, something Aly had often seen used in this kind of cold... war... but had never used herself, at least not in this context. And, yet, maliciously, it came from her as if she had done so a million and one times before: "Nive Percutio!"

The snowballs - three in number, each solid and well-made so that they would not fall apart midair but only disintegrate upon exploding on a target - rose into the air as if bewitched, because they were, and sped off towards Koko like magicked missiles. The older girl barely blinked, didn't even move, as if she was confident that Aly's spellcasting wouldn't hold true - but it did, the first snowball smacking hard into Koko's collarbone and the second and third giving her the old one-two to the stomach and face. Aly yelped at the last one, automatically starting to run towards her editor to check if she was all right (her once-trained Healer instincts had clearly not quite left her entirely just yet): "Oh, Lear's ears! That looked like it hurt! Are you oka-" only to be interrupted by Koko aiming at her with a wild, chaotic throw of a snowball of her own. Aly yelped again and dove for cover, but not before the snowball found its home on her upper bicep; for being made of flakes of ice, essentially, it really did hurt! Rubbing her arm, feeling the faux fur underneath wet with snow and water, Aly scrambled for cover behind a tree and began to form more snowballs, crouching underneath the branches and hoping that she wouldn't be found...

The two girls continued to battle for several minutes, each landing some hits and missing others; Aly finally could not contain her laughter, wiping snow from Koko's latest projectile from her reddened face, and collapsed giggling into the snow beside her boss. "Truce! Truce!" she called out, pulling her earmuffs from her tangled mess of curls and waving them like a white flag (but she did NOT give up and did NOT surrender, let that be plain for all to see). "I think if we go any longer, I might start genuinely bruising from these. You've got quite an arm on you!"

Date: 10 January 2025
Time: Daytime?
Location: Grounds

With every ice-cold smash-hit of a snowball to her skin, Koko shed a layer of reservation. Her practiced cockiness revealed itself to be playful bravado, her soft smiles widened into grins and her quiet laughter erupted into cackles every time she managed to land a solid hit. Her tightly-wrapped image of herself was falling apart right in front of her—she could have sworn she was losing herself. The thing was, with a giddy grin on her lips and the bright reflection of snow in her eyes, she thought she might very well love every minute of it.

She and Aly met each other projectile for projectile, smile for smile, and despite Koko's lack of proper winter wear, the chill in her bones did not emanate further. She lugged snowball after snowball at the girl she now dared to think of as a potential friend, and she called out tongue-in-cheek taunts every time Aly got ready to throw something at her. The exchange was more fulfilling than anything had been in a long time—it was just as good as observing a solid, bloody round of bludgering, but with twice the exhilaration and joy.

She could have kept going for far longer than their match really lasted. She had crouched down behind a small snowbank, a mischievous smirk tugging at the corner of her wind-reddened lips, when a final sneak-attack from Aly so much as knocked her over. For once, she wasn't offended; instead, a burst of high-pitched laughter joined a giddy wheeze as she fell backwards and landed in the snow. She was ruined—her hair, usually pristinely-brushed, had fallen around her in snow-covered clumps; her cheeks were redder than foundation could hide; and here she was, laughing like a child at a comedy show.

But when Aly collapsed beside her, also laughing, her smile widened, and her elation was only bolstered by Aly's rather lumpy attempt at a makeshift truce flag. A rather undignified snort forced its way out of Koko's nose, which only made her laugh harder, this time to the point of a small—and surprisingly welcome—ache forming in her abdomen.

She turned her face so that her gaze met Aly's, and she offered her fellow writer a self-pleased simper. 'Not my fault you can't take a hit.'

Yeah, she couldn't keep a straight face. Snickering, she added, 'But you're right. It's so cold. If I stay out here any longer I'm going to lose a limb.' She sat up and stretched, causing clumps of snow to fall into her sleeves and collar, which only made her shake with withheld laughter. 'But it was fun. Really fun.' Her voice had softened, the conceited bravado finally gone. Even her bold grin had faded to a small, friendly smile as she met Aly's green gaze with her own. 'Thanks.'

They would go their own ways soon after that, likely into the castle for a warm cup of tea or perhaps a hot bath. But even as Koko readied herself to leave, she couldn't rid herself of her genuinely pleased smile. Maybe it would be prudent for her to spend more time with Aly Salinger.

@Aly Salinger

Thread finished.