Catch That Pumpkin! Errand PV closed

There wasn’t much to be said for the evening, at least as far as Nicholas McCowan was concerned. The day had passed without incident, without trial nor tribulation, and now as the sun began to make its gradual descent, the second year began his trek across the courtyards in earnest. He hadn’t much thought as to what he would do with the rest of the day, once curfew finally struck and he was forced to remain in the confines of the Gryffindor common room. For what felt like the first time in his life, he hadn’t the need to study. True, most of his earlier nights had been spent pouring over textbooks in a desperate attempt to force the words from the page and into his head, but he was suitably satisfied with the results thus far. So it was that there was likely nothing to do once he made his grand return to dormitories, and the only logical cause of action was to delay such an occasion to the best of his ability. So it was that he walked slowly.

The courtyard was hardly abuzz with activity as he trekked through it, his school robes still adorned but cast ever-so-awry, an older girl sat and scribbled at a notebook. A darker girl he did not recognise, and thus felt no need to provide the sort of half-hearted greeting he reserved for his acquaintances. Instead, the boy was perfectly content to remain in his own mind, and to dance with his own thoughts, or more accurately present lack thereof, until he made it back inside. The wandering was near-meditative.

Yet, the trance was broken by the sudden sound of a voice. The words were nonsense, catch a pumpkin? Still, he turned his head from its forward position, not that he’d really been looking at much of anything, and gave his attention to the source of the call. That same girl he’d given passing notice to was pointing towards a literal pumpkin, a pumpkin that was running away. He balked for a moment. What? His mind took a few moments to process the scene as it unfolded before him, the gears slowly grinding together to understand the reality of the situation. A running pumpkin, how entirely seasonal.

His legs moved before he even realised what was going on, apparently the call had spurred him into unconscious action. Whatever the name of that instinct was, he did not know, but he supposed he should have been pleased that he did not immediately freeze.

His wand temporarily forgotten the boy picked up his pace, falling into pursuit of the pumpkin alongside the older girl.

“What the hell?” Was all he could get out, the words made somewhat breathless by his decision to speak while running, “Did you do that? Where did you even get the pumpkin?”

It seemed that curiosity and baseless accusations could not be tempered by the relative thrill of the chase.

The pumpkin was fast, much faster than he ever could have anticipated for an enchanted squash and it was all he could do to hope that actually wrangling it wouldn’t be as hard as keeping pace with it.

“Christ defend,” He muttered.

Stats: STA: 12 | EVA: 6 | STR: 8 | WIS: 6 | ARC: 4 | ACC: 6
Abilities: Foulplay | Statistically Relevant
Tags: @Serena Towers, @Alice Grimmshaw & @Avery Mostafa
Word Count: 533

Interacting with @Serena Towers @Nicholas McCowan @Avery Mostafa

Alice took advantage of every opportunity that she had to be outside. The cool, early October air fueled her, made her whole body feel lighter. The bustling courtyard was the perfect place for her to pace, filling her lungs with something other than stuffy castle air. It had become sort of a habit for her to find a different place outside every day to get some fresh air and exercise. She quite liked it, as it was a way to explore, and she had definitely met some interesting people by doing so as well. Perhaps she would run into someone interesting this time as well!

In her head, she was thinking about what she wanted to put in her next letter to her parents - and she needed to write to Uncle Alfred and Aunt Elspeth as well, since Father had said she should and he was probably right, plus it was always nice to keep in touch with them, Uncle Alfred could be quite fun, and Aunt Elspeth always had her favourite sweets whenever she was over at their home. Plus, Aunt Elspeth was a gryffindor, just like her. Maybe her aunt would even send her some sweets if she owled!

Her train of thoughts about letters and owling them places was cut off by some peculiar movement in the corner of her eye. Was that a pumpkin? That was moving? How curious. She observed as a girl, a bit older than Alice by the looks of it, approached the pumpkin. Said pumpkin did not seem to want to be caught. She observed as the pumpkin took off and the girl took off after it, as well as another boy. She only processed a bit later that the older girl had tried to rally people to chase after the... object? Vegetable? Living thing? What was it exact- ah, that didn't matter! Not right now! Alice tightened the colourful scarf around her neck so it wouldn't get knocked loose as she ran and took off after the other two as well as the pumpkin, sprinting joyfully. This was some excitement!

"Where did that thing even come from?" She half-shouted as she ran to catch up, although she wasn't exactly sure that either of them knew the answer. At least the enchanted object was in season. It would be weird if their were enchanted pumpkins running around in like, June or something. As she ran, she couldn't help but be reminded of chasing that darn niffler back at the estate every time it tried to steal her brother's art supplies. She started running harder, hoping that her longer legs would be enough to bring her close enough to the pumpkin to catch the thing before it went and made a nuisance of itself somewhere.

Words: 462

Mod Post
Dice Roll 1d100: 24 - Unsuccessful

It sure enough was a strange sight to see a pumpkin running around, even at Hogwarts. Though the four students in the courtyard were quick on its tail- ...vines? after it had dodged being approached by Serena. Perhaps they were even a little bit too quick to run after it, because before they could even attempt to catch the orange vegetable it came to a sudden halt. With a loud pop it exploded and pumpkin guts went flying covering the group of pumpkin-hunters in sticky, smelly strings of pumpkin meat, sprinkled with a few seeds here and there. Surely a great trick to start off the spooky season.

Reducio

Sadly you did not catch your pumpkin, but rather faced the fate of being too scary for it to handle. You will still be eligible for the reward of the errand as long as the word count is met. Please do continue your thread if you wish to! Thank you for participating

@Avery Mostafa, @Alice Grimmshaw and @Nicholas McCowan

"Of course I didn't bloody do that! I don't know that kind of magic!" She responded as some random boy started to question her, as though she would do it. Serena had no idea how to turn pumpkins into... whatever this thing was! Besides, why would she even do that? That was not a normal thing to do, right? Either way, she continued to chase the pumpkin, kind of glad that the boy was choosing to help her despite the accusations.

She panted heavily, stopping to catch her breath. Oh gosh, was she getting a stitch? Wow, it had been a while since she had run... She really needed to exercise more, "Ow, ow, I- I think it came- from- over- there-" She panted softly, waving a hand towards the castle, as an assumption of where it might have come from in response to a girl's question. It was not a very helpful response but hey, that was all Serena knew.

"Uh-" She mumbled as she tried to think of what they should do. She did not really have many ideas. Maybe if they all dived at it from different sides? Or uh... Could they use a spell? If this was something that had been transfigured, they could untransfigure it but she really did not want to get in trouble by using magic. And breaking curfew was definitely not an option. She had a forge and she needed permission to use it. She looked at the rest of the group, hoping for a response that did not involve getting in trouble.

"Oh it sto-" She started to speak, declaring that it had stopped as she raised her finger to point at it in excitement. However, her words instantly stopped as her mouth closed. The impact of something sticky and slimy on her face forced her mouth to shut. Pulling a face, she wiped her face with the back of her hand, flicking as much of it off as possible. Her clothes were a mess too, "Well... that's officially gross," She announced, trying to wipe as much of it off as possible, "Eh... problem solved, I guess?"

How did the pumpkin even explode? Did they do anything to it? She had not seen any of them attacking it but perhaps they did. It seemed so random. Looking at the rest of the group, "Thanks for trying to help though. Oh- I'm Serena, by the way," She continued to introduce herself, thanking them for their assistance. Hopefully, the owner of the pumpkin would not be mad that it had exploded on them but like... they had tried, right?

Being splattered with pumpkin innards was the exact opposite of Nicholas’s idea of a good time. Well, maybe that wasn’t entirely true, there were things that definitely fell further on the spectrum away from the enjoyable end of the experience spectrum. Being covered in orange vegetable matter certainly wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t pulling teeth either. Besides, he’d already had to experience worse during his summer camp maze ordeal. The pumpkin may have smelled disgusting, but it was nothing compared to a literal pit of rotting vegetables.

So it was that he wasn’t even angry when it exploded and erupted, just annoyed. The boy’s face was entirely covered by that mask of irritation as he wiped the goop off of it, shook his hand, and slicked back his near-curly hair with the muck.

“So it would seem,” He responded to the dark-skinned girl, his face twisting into a grimace, “So it would seem.”

The hunt for the runaway gourd had drawn more would-be vegetable banishers, and the four of them now stood entirely covered in the innards of the temporarily sentient pumpkin. Every last one of them would need a shower, and probably to wash their hair. That last part was especially irritating, he’d just washed the motley brown mop earlier that week.

“Don’t mention it,” He responded to her expression of gratitude, although he wasn’t entirely sure why, after all, she had already stated that she wasn’t the one who had sent the former foodstuff on the loose. Then he blinked, suddenly reminded that it was just generally a polite thing to do.

“Nick,” He answered her introduction with one of his own, the shortened form of the name somewhat unfamiliar on his tongue. Still, he’d started to get used to hearing it, even though his parents had never adopted that particular shortening, and it was beginning to form at least a part of his sense of self.

Nicholas sighed, the noise dramatic and overly theatrical, before he began the arduous process of brushing his clothing of the pumpkin-bits, “Well aren’t we a sight for sore eyes? Bloody hell, looks like Halloween came a bit early this year, hey?”

The joke wasn’t his best, after all, he was hardly the best at telling jokes in any case. But it was an attempt all the same.

Stats: STA: 12 | EVA: 6 | STR: 8 | WIS: 6 | ARC: 4 | ACC: 6
Abilities: Foulplay | Statistically Relevant
Tags: @Serena Towers, @Avery Mostafa & @Alice Grimmshaw
Action: Talking