RELEASE THE BLUDGERS!!! PV Atlas Reid Closed

Jack was in a foul mood. Since he was wary of being around Flash and Selim - especially as of late with Valentine dinners and dungeons and birthdays on his mind - and Ruka was back in Cardiff, Wales being homeschooled, the Slytherin hated to admit it, but he was lonely. He was angry at himself for being lonely as well as having grown so complacent with his companions in his first year that he had forgotten what it was like to be lonely. Thus, he believed, he may have lowered his tolerance of loneliness in the past year by constantly being surrounded by people who didn't completely and utterly hate him.

Well, if he was back to being on his own like in his first year, that meant he could go back to the same activities he used to do on his own. Like antagonizing people. Causing mischief. Playing pranks.

Not that he had felt like playing pranks much lately. Still, he felt the need to do something with all his restless energy. He wanted to take a stand. Perhaps Howard White's behavior in the Small Hall at suppertime - burning all those Hogwarts Headliners with his partner-in-crime, Falentra Black - had inspired him. Whatever the case, an idea came to mind; one that wasn't so easily dismissed.

As it so happened, he'd had a very similar idea before. During the Blossom Ball of Spring 2020 the previous year, he'd thought that maybe if he'd released the Quidditch bludgers on the Quidditch pitch where the ball was secretly being held, the students would panic and go back to the castle, effectively canceling the ball. That hadn't quite worked out the way he'd meant it to...but if at first he didn't succeed, why not try again?

Of course he had less reason now to release the bludgers when there was no ball being held, but ever since Kyle DeRook had saved him from that stray bludger the first time he'd learned of the frightening objectes, he'd thought the things should have been condemned and banned. Quidditch just wasn't a safe sport to play in his opinion - not even for the people in the stands watching - with bludgers whirling about. The balls were made of metal, for Merlin's sake! As if their thin leather covering would prevent them from braining someone upon full-force impact!

For this reason, Jack decided on a plan. He would sneak into the locker room where they kept the Quidditch supplies, steal the bludgers, and...release them into the wild. With any luck, the things would take to their newfound freedom like birds and it would be ages before they could be caught again or replacements could be found. Quidditch matches would be postponed indefinitely.

Unfortunately for Jack, while he was knowledgable in many things, he failed to understand the proper workings of the spell that caused the bludger to behave (or not behave) like a sentient creature. How was he to know that they weren't locked away simply to keep them from escaping? He knew they attacked people, but he assumed that was only if they were provoked like the one Kyle had beaten with his beater bat during training. He hadn't stuck around long enough to know that their sole purpose was to go after people, provoked or not.

Even more unfortunately for Jack, all he knew of where the Quidditch supplies were kept was that last Blossom Ball, they had been found in the boys' locker rooms. As a muggle-born kid who wasn't familiar enough with the Quidditch training pitch to know the boys' locker rooms from the girls' locker rooms, he caught a closing door and snuck in after one of the players preparing to change for practice. It was dim in the locker rooms, but he wasn't about to light his way; not when he was trying to keep a low profile.

Let's see...I think they were somewhere high up last time... he thought, scanning his surroundings. The sight that met his eyes, however, was the pale contours of...was that someone's back?

What the...what's that mark? he wondered, squinting as he crept closer for a better look. So long as the person's back was toward him, there was no danger of them seeing him, right?

Nevermind that there was bound to be a mirror in a changing room.

@Atlas Reid