Surprise! PV Alec M Fin

'Morning,' Dealla had greeted him, it was cheerful, almost too cheerful. At least too cheerful for the type of relationship they had. He couldn't remember any full on conversation they had ever had outside of duelling besides the apology conversation that had been oh so agonizingly painful for Alec's sense of pride. Alec would raise an eyebrow at her in reaction. He would swallow, followed by his chuckling, He would look upwards from his plate on the table, turning his head to look over at her, he managed a small wave in turn. Reaching for his glass of orange juice he would take a sip from the glass.“Ah, hey there, good morning, Prince.” Alec responded with a hum. Digging into his food after he had greeted the other.He was in a good mood, he'd be hunting down George after this to tell him how the night had went since he'd seemed so invested the last time Alec brought up twirl the flagon with him. Speaking of twirl the flagon... Finishing his current bite of food, Alec would speak again. “How are you? Still recovering from last night's whole debacle?” Alec asked raising an eyebrow, a chuckle would escape from Alec's lips remembering the absurdity of the events of the night before. He shook his head, “what was that anyway?”

Alec would glance down at his plate and with the fork he had in hand he would pick at the food he had left on it glanced down at his plate, with his fork he would pick at the food left on it. “You seemed so...” He paused, trying to think about the right way to word what he was saying without upsetting Dealla, there were many words he could have used, they all didn't have the best implications, maybe-“-so worked up last night. Was it because of the stuff with Warren and...” Another pause Alec could swear he knew her name. He'd seen her a couple times before. Hadn't she been in his cabin for summer camp last year? “-and you know, Erin?” Alec asked, it wasn't his place, it seemed the correct conclusion since the two were together though he needed more of a reason as to why Prince would up and flipendo someone that wasn't involved, don't get Alec wrong he the chaos was interesting to watch unfold, the problem was he knew it wasn't prince. Prince was too good. Prince was not the type to flipendo people that had nothing to do with her out of nowhere.

Alec was thinking back to all the strangeness of the night, Dealla's flipendo had set of blaring alarms in his head, it made him feel like they were at a ball where everything devolved into chaos and vicious attacks once again. Some of the students here could be so violent. Dealla mentioned having information that might be relevant to him, and something about being unsure he'd be happy to hear it. With the mess the start to his summer had been he felt that is this point there was nothing that could top it. In his mind he could likely be able to easily shrug whatever this was off. “You do? Why- okay uh... Shoot away then, Prince” If it was relevant to him of course he was going to want to hear it. He set down his fork, taking another sip from his glass of orange juice.

@Dealla Prince

Already chomping down on her first bite of toast - she wasn't used to being awake this long before breakfast - Dee wriggled her fingers at Alec in greeting, then reached for the jug with pumpkin juice to pour herself a glass. Washing the toast down with a big gulp of juice, Dee shrugged off his question. It had been a rough night, no doubt, but she was mostly over it. Mostly.

"Which part?" she quipped back. The short time she'd spent at the event had been packed full of surprising turns, so the question was a valid one.

Alec's further inquiries had her simmering down a little. Worked up was putting it gently; while she'd always had a mouth that was too fast for her brain at times and a temper that could light up like a wildfire, rarely had things veered so off course, and into so many different directions. "No," she replied, then reconsidered, tilting her head to one side. "Well, partially. Still not thrilled about that part. Erin, that's her name?" She'd never talked to the girl before, never consciously interfaced with her, not that she would have been likely to recognise her if she had. "Either way, Jack and I worked it out, we're good." Possibly better than good. Their relationship felt more solid now, like she could lean on him more.

"But that's not what I came to talk about." She pointed the knife she'd been using to spread jam on a third piece of toast at him. Where had the first two gone so fast? "I came to talk about your bad choices, not mine." Not that she'd call Jack a bad choice, of course, and anything before that had also worked out rather favourably in the end. Except for one thing, which was probably not quite as resolved yet. "That girl you kissed yesterday, Marion? The first one, I mean, the redhead. What do you know about her?"

@Alec Mason

Alec nodded as he scarfed down more bites of food.“Yeah Erin, at least that's what was said,” at least it's what people had called her before. Maybe it did better to actually walk up to her and ask her what her name was. Alec would not be doing that. “She's kind of strange, don't you think?” She seemed less strange this year but who knows. People have a tendency to not change as much as others would like to think they do. She mentioned her and Jack were fine now and Alec nodded again. He assumed he was supposed to response and would make an attempt. “Good for you two,” Alec said though his tone seemed unsure and the way his eyes seemed to linger on her implied he was trying to see if that was the right response. However Prince took the chance in this moment to turns the tables on him. Alec was surprised to realize this is where it had been leading the whole time. Gosh if Dealla wanted to take her anger out on the situation about someone take it out on the girl who kissed your boyfriend. “My bad choices?” Alec repeated. What did she think he had done now, anyway? Alec wasn't the one slobbering over her boyfriend. She made it seem like it was worse than that! Alec could swear he hadn't done anything terrible to anyone this time around! If it was payback for what him and Nic did to that one new kid in their dorm last year it was a little late to be making complaints about that.

Alec was trying to think back, as he was incredibly confused as to what the other could have been possibly referring too, no matter how much he thought back he still came up with nothing. “Merlin, Dealla, what exactly do you think I've done?” People hated it when they had to hand to answer to you huh? Then Dealla brought up an older girl from the night before. More confusion. Alec decided his best response was a quick quip because he was starting to feel like he was supposed to be catching onto something but hadn't caught onto the thing at all. “Oh you mean the one you decided to Flipendo?” For no reason! Was Prince just snapping that easily these days? What had changed since their duel? He was silent for a few moments as he mulled over everything, and silent for the dramatic effect, before he would finally at long last give in and off up a serious answer. “Absolutely nothing,” was he supposed to know anything about her? If so, someone had neglected to tell him this, as people seemed to be do often times to him these days. Like Prince herself. Was she purposely leaving suspense?

Alec let out a breath looking up, “do you have a point, Prince?” Alec asked. Followed by him smirking and gesturing to the knife in her hand for her toast. He would chuckle, “or can I eat my breakfast without you continuing to point your jam knife at me as you talk?” It was vaguely threatening though in the end he knew it wasn't her intent. The older girl was mentioned, how was she involved in Alec's alleged bad decision-making. Maybe Prince just thought the small age gap was weird. She could be rest assured Alec would have never gone out with that girl. Or any girl... or boy, or living thing ever. Alec was aware how hard it was to appease a snake, and surely appeasing a person was harder then appeasing a snake. He was getting off topic. Alec shook his head to clear his thoughts. What had they been talking about again?

@Dealla Prince

Dee paused again, thrown off track. She hadn't come here to talk about Erin, since that was apparently her name. Was she strange? Dee supposed so, people didn't usually tackle someone down at spin the bottle, then freeze up for a couple of minutes before moving in on their first victim's girlfriend (even if said girlfriend had made advances first). Why were they talking about this again? "...Sure," she replied, feeling like she should at least somehow acknowledge his question, before honing back in on the reason she'd actually come here, passing over the questioning glance he gave her in reference to Jack without noticing it. Why would she talk to him about her relationship? They weren't friends, she'd go to Aly with that stuff.

Alec seemed immediately defensive about her offhand comment, which was honestly kind of entertaining. He was fun to tease when he wasn't viciously spouting poison at you. "Yes, your bad choices," she confirmed, raising her eyebrows at him. "Although I don't think you're aware of which choices in particular I'm talking about. Yet. Out of curiosity, which bad choices do you think I'm referring to? You must have something in mind."

But no, that wasn't why she was here, either, as he soon reminded her. Focus, she could mock him later all she wanted. "Oh, you did do it, don't you worry about that," she replied, then nodded vigorously when he confirmed that he knew who she was talking about. Honestly, that had been a good spell. Her aim had been on point, although she was still concerned about possible consequences. It would have been better to have Marion retaliate right away, have it all out in the open, rather than flee the scene; for her nerves and paranoia, at least. Nothing, that's what he knew about her, apparently, and it was about what Dee had expected. "And I do have a point, and you just confirmed that my presence here is very necessary." For emphasis, she took another bite of toast, before setting down her glass, and on second thought also aforementioned knife. "The knife shouldn't scare you, at least I'm not pointing my wand at you. This time."

She cleared her throat, then her voice and face became more serious. Last time she'd told someone about this, it had gone over rather well, as in George had immediately taken her word for it. Would Alec be the same? Only one way to find out. "Yeah, that girl you kissed was Marion Davenport - not sure if you've heard the name, she was one of the three kids that allegedly saw Harry Potter kill Dolores Umbridge - or at least she used to be. I have it on good authority that at least for the past year, probably much longer, she's been something... worse." Dee lowered her voice a little more. There really was no getting around the hard part here, so she might as well just come out with it. "Hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure you snogged a hag last night."

@Alec Mason

Dealla seemed to be rather amused as he continued on his subject on his bad choices. If he was going to be honest, he had quite the long list of bad choices. Though he'd rather save the going through of that list for another day. In turn Alec folded his arms across his chest. He knew for a fact none of them were recent. Alec's gaze moved away from Dealla and the table, face flushing slightly at being called out, “I don't. That's exactly why I asked.” Alec replied pointedly. The answer could only do to make him look worse in the wake of this whole situation. He was a terrible liar. At least even he was somewhat aware Dealla wasn't here to call him out on his incredibly long list of morally questionable and objectionable actions. She confirmed that Alec did indeed do what she thought he'd done and the Gryffindor rolled his eyes at her. “Not helpful,” he muttered, Alec still wanted to know what he was being accused of. Alec said he knew nothing of the girl, asking if Dealla had a point, wanting her to get to that point. However once again she would give an answer that wasn't helpful. She said she had a point, said Alec had confirmed why her showing up here was important. Alec had joked about the knife and what she said in turn was that he was lucky it was not her wand. How kind of her.

Dealla cleared her throat, suddenly becoming more serious. Saying she was one of the witness to the Dolores Umbridge murder. Truthfully Alec had never followed up on any of the news there though he remembered how big it had been at the time. Prince said she had been, for the past year at least, something worse then a kid having been allegedly witness to murder. There was nothing Prince could say about the girl that Alec would have cared about he was already surprised he'd let himself feed into gossip for this long. She said she hated to break the news to Alec(Alec had a feeling whatever the news was she was pleased to be able to be the one the break it to him), followed by the accusation that instead of a strange girl who had allegedly witnessed murder, Alec had snogged a hag.

Out of all the news Dealla could have broken to him, that didn't even make it into his top fifty list for what it could be. He paused, “you're kidding,” he spoke his eyebrows furrowing, eyes squinting at Dealla as he stared. Alec knew older girl were strange, it was no reason to claim them a hag. That was a huge accusation! Dealla couldn't say that out of nowhere and expect Alec to believe it. Why did Dealla believe it? Alec thought she was from the intelligent house! Prince had to know she was very well feeding into rumors likely to harm someone. Besides how could a hag get around without being found out from people, besides Dealla of course? Weren't hag ugly? Alec didn't exactly have beauty standards and know what aesthetically appreciating a person was but he knew hags didn't look like that. They were supposed to be disturbing, not average. The girl was creepy but again, pretty much every older girl he'd ever met was that way.

The young teen took in a deep breath, he'd stared at Dealla long enough to realize one thing. “You're serious...” He brought his voice to a low tone, quiet and barely above a whisper. Did Dealla actually buy into conspiracy theories? Alec had taken her as the type that would. If it wasn't Dealla buying into a conspiracy theory though- Alec's face stayed neutral, followed by a horrified look flashing onto his face, instinctually Alec shoved his plate away from him in his small moment of terror but by the time he had shoved the plate away from him he face had returned back to normal.

Reducio

Alec could accept the hag theory as true, if it were true it cleared up many a strange thing about that night. “That would-” Alec spoke and stopped himsef, was he actually going to take it seriously or admit to taking it seriously? Even if it did explain a lot? He glanced away again. “How... How do you know she's a hag, or- or at least that she's been one?” Alec asked frowning. Alec could not look at Dealla, in this case it was for the better, how bad was it for him to have possibly kissed a hag and not realized he'd kissed one? “You- you can't take an accusation like that lightly. Do you even have any proof?” Despite the sickening feeling of reality sinking in on him he would not be willing to buy into what Dealla was saying just yet. He wasn't going to simply take her word for it.

@Dealla Prince

Fine, admittedly, maybe Dee had been drawing this out longer than necessary. It wasn't her fault that his reactions to her entirely unhelpful responses were so entertaining, though. Few people were that easy to tease, at least without them immediately snapping. And it wasn't like telling him a few seconds earlier would make any difference, what done was done.

There was a slight twinge of guilt in her stomach anyway, not for now, but for yesterday; she'd known, she'd been the only one in the tent to know. It had been her responsibility to stop it, and she'd failed. So it was her fault, more than Alec's or anyone's.

Looking at Alec now, however, he seemed fine. There were no obvious signs anything was wrong with him. Perhaps... perhaps she'd been overreacting? After all, Marion was staying at this camp as a student, she had dozens of opportunities every single day to harm people if she wanted to, and she didn't. Still, there was this small, niggling voice at the back of Dealla's head, asking why Marion would be participating in an event like that without ulterior motive. Why would she? For... fun? It seemed hard to believe.

She shook her head at Alec's initial response. "Wish I was," she replied softly, for the first time in this conversation without an amused edge to her voice. Wouldn't it be great if it were all a joke, the dark things lurking around Hogwarts and creeping closer really gone, just a shadow that one could jest about.

Staying silent for the time being, Dee gave Alec a moment to process, to respond. She'd finished her last piece of toast so she just propped her chin up on her hand, watching him, the reactions playing across his face hard for her to read.

It sounded far-fetched, she could imagine. She'd been given, if not solid evidence, at least strong indications that Flash was telling the truth when she'd first found out, without a name back then. Jack had told her about the student hag's identity months later, and it had been easier to swallow then; because she'd known that someone had to be it, and because she trusted Jack enough to believe. Not everyone was that easy to convince, she'd found that out in the past year, too.

The moment the implications became clear to Alec was obvious, a disgusted expression crossing his face for just a second, but the corner of Dee's mouth quirked up involuntarily in response. "Wash it down with some orange juice?" she suggested, helpful as ever.

That would what, she wondered, curious about the conclusions he'd drawn, but decided to focus on his questions first. She owed him that much, probably. "Got good reason to believe it, at least," she replied. "Your kissing buddy likes giving presents every now and then." She paused. "Curses, of sorts," she clarified. "I've seen their effects, and I believe who they said has done it. Marion, I mean. And there's... many strange things going on around her. Boys who she was friends with, who had black, cursed blood. Who died... last year, or longer before that."

Dee chewed on her lower lip, thinking back to Vladimir and Victor and the things she'd seen. She'd always been mistrustful of Vladimir, and she didn't think she'd been wrong to be, but she still regretted not asking more questions when he'd still been around. The last time she'd seen him had made her think that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't as bad as she'd inadvertently assumed.

She looked back at Alec, eyes thoughtful. "I don't know how much you know," Dealla said slowly. She'd always felt like she didn't know much at all, but thinking back, over the last three years, things had just... accumulated. Little encounters, hints, things she'd read, things she'd heard. Things she could share.

Her eyes trailed from Alec's eyes to his mouth. Not in the way she sometimes looked at Jack's lips, with the growing impulse to kiss, it was more clinical, trying to find something wrong. "Did you notice anything?" she asked. "Was anything weird about the kiss, or after... are you feeling any different?" How quickly were hag curses supposed to take effect? She didn't know.

@Alec Mason

The other told him of curses. Strange things that happened around the supposed hag that were hard to explain, black cursed blood, death. Wow not exactly pleasant sounding... Alec shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he listened to Dealla speak. She said she did know how much he knew, and Alec shrugged he didn't know anything at all. If was the first time he had ever seen the girl.

Alec made a face, his features scrunching up in a way of disgust as Dealla asked about the kiss, ask if he had felt anything weird after, and having to think back to the moment in his head. Alec looked uncertain. He nodded slowly, “It was weird.” He hadn't been thinking too much about it at the time. Alec had been too caught off-guard at being called adorable. You would have thought that as a future fourth-year 'adorable' would not be the preferred term for people to use. “I don't know how to describe it in a way that wouldn't want to make you barf at the thought.” Part of him felt nauseous at the very though. Alec would half-laugh half-scoff as he ran a hand through his hair, “I guess it seemed normal to me, at first. It really shouldn't have now that I'm thinking about it.” This kiss had been weird, gross, uncomfortable in a way that made his skin crawl as he thought back to it.

It wasn't normal he wouldn't say anything of course, maybe the girl had some weird condition she was embarrassed about. It also had resembled his past experience in a way, slightly off but he thought nothing of it. “I- I thought it was something else, some other reason, it's not important. The hag stuff makes it make more sense than what I thought.” Alec's last kissing experiences before apparently kissing a hag had also been uncomfortable, it also made his skin crawl, not in the same way. The ones before had been uncomfortable among other things because of Alec's reaction to receiving a kiss. With the hag it had been the whole kiss itself.

Prince had spoken if curses, she seemed to be trying to make sure he was not cursed or something else with the say she looked to be inspecting “As for after. Not really?” Alec answered, his tone unsure, he didn't know what he needed to be looking for if he felt weird after the kiss. What was weird in this case and what was normal? Alec would awkwardly rub the back of his neck as he spoke, an old anxious habit. This situation was more than enough to make him anxious despite how well he had been doing. “by my lips was just barely itchy and tingly.” Alec would add thoughtfully followed by him shaking his head, “nothing out of the ordinary though,”

Alec would tell her it was nothing out of the ordinary then he would feel the need to explain why what symptoms he had given weren't out of the ordinary. Alec wasn't sure if he was doing this for Dealla, or for himself, trying to assure himself in order for him not to worry. “Sensitive skin, sometimes the makeup people wear irritates my skin,” that was a long story. One he was not willing to explain more than he already had. George liked to do makeovers, he'd given Alec one this summer. The makeover was sort of a failure since Alec couldn't sit still and got mascara on his cheek however it had helped Alec realize how sensitive Alec's skin was when it was irritated over use of some of the products. Alec had no idea what, he should have probably looked into it though.

@Dealla Prince

The more Dealla spoke, the more distressed Alec seemed to become, which... she couldn't blame him for, honestly. It was a lot to take in, or at least she assumed so. She'd never had a conversation like this, one where someone just told her the terrifying things that had been going on for years now, all at once, out of nowhere, and expected her to believe or even deal with it.

Alec's comment about not making her want to barf drew a snort. "Tooooo late for that," she commented, picking up a handful of berries from a nearby bowl and popping one into her mouth. "The thought alone makes me want to throw up. On you, preferably." Truth was, it took more than this to upset her stomach these days. Two years ago had been different, she'd thrown up and cried herself to sleep after following a burnt body to the Hospital Wing after her very first Blossom Ball, but a lot had happened since then. She wondered if she'd have a similar reaction now. Either way, talking about a hag, kissing or not, didn't do the trick.

What he said sounded a little troubling, however, although she quirked her eyebrows at him when he said he'd thought there'd been a different reason. "Well," she said, eating another berry, "be careful, I guess? If anything's strange, go to the nurse."

A slight pause, Dee contemplated what else to share. What might be helpful. He seemed to be blissfully unaware of much of what she'd witnessed, and she almost felt bad destroying that kind of innocence, not that she was sure how he'd managed to maintain it for three years. But, well, he'd kissed a hag and now he had to live with it. It was all she could do to try and give him pointers so he didn't get himself killed. "You know, there were students that were bitten by cursed spiders in our first two years at Hogwarts? That was... it's complicated to explain, but it also came down to a curse. Their blood started turning black, there were black marks and veins around the bites, and their flesh looked like it was starting to decay or something... what's the word, necrotic?" She'd witnessed several of her duelling teammates being bitten, it hadn't been pretty. Thankfully they had been cured rather quickly. "I don't... I don't know if hag curses all display the same way, but just... if your veins turn black or something seems just slightly off... better not risk it."

@Alec Mason