Don't be suspicious PV Colin McOire Closed

Attire: Usual off hours kit: Slytherin pride, neck ring, kilt, no shoes. Nothing fancy!

Reducio

Colin looked up from sticking yet another one of the buggy goggly google eye things that Alora had brought from home on the stolid suit of armour. "These look awful creepy, Alora. Look!" He tapped one of the eyes with his wand and the wee black circle inside the clear dome danced about. "YEEP! They keep staring at me no matter where I stand! Whoa. Muggle magic! How do these things stick without a sticking charm or spellotape?"

"Who's that?" his partner in minor mischief asked.

One of the first things he'd noticed about Alora, during the sorting, was that she too wasn't wearing any shoes. Or socks. Her feet were as bare as his. He knew of one older boy who regularly went about discalced. He'd watched with some interest as she stuck these goggly eye things on various statues around the common room. They certainly made the statues look weird and creepy! Almost as soon as he asked her what was up, Alora explained that she had hundreds of these things that needed sticking. And a cunning plan soon evolved to do some minor redecorating of certain parts of the castle.

It came as no surprise to Colin that this corridor --- the one that led to Gryffindor Tower --- would suffer most from their prank! Wait til the kitty cats caught sight of their new decorations!

Colin padded over on his bare feet towards where she was standing. Just in time to see the huge life sized portrait of a woman swing closed. She began to sing. Colin's face screwed up as the sonic weapon assaulted his ears. "Oof! I've heard only one voice sing like that before! She's surely one of my best mates, Alora, but I wouldn't recommend her singing either!"

"Oh, wicked! That's the Fat Lady! Wait. We're on the fifth floor right. Yeah, so, this is the entry to Gryffindor Tower. I've only been along to this place here I think twice. She wouldn't let me in either time. That's bollocks. Alora --- wanna see if I can stick a couple goggle eyes right on her entry denying face?"

@Alora J. Graves || Mentions: @Sophia Nelson | @AngelFyre McCubbin

It was rare for Alora Jean Graves to leave the common room without her docs, or anything that didn't give her a height advantage. Around the common room, she'd grown comfortable enough to be barefooted, and though it was undoubtedly cool against her soles, it felt oddly pleasant. Almost familiar, yet there was something about the carpets and the roaring fires that warmed the place up. Even though everything from the eerie glow from the large windows giving onto beneath the black lake to the fact that they were in the dungeons pointed to humidity and coldness, there was something warm and comforting nonetheless. Just like students like Colin made her feel like she belonged, so when he had encouraged her antics out of their common room, she hadn't given her extremities a second thought.

"Adhesive," she said. "They're basically stickers," she explained, and turned from her work at his comment and looked at him deadpan. This is what he considered creepy? This? In a world of bats' wings, eyes of newt, bogey flavoured beans, and all, plastic googly eyes were the creep factor. She shook her head. “We sleep in dungeons for pete's sake!" She exclaimed. “They’re cute, and silly, creepy is knowing there are human sized spiders in the woods,” she reminded with a juvenile roll of her chocolate brown eyes.

Alora had to close her eyes to tune out the singing and count on her fingers. Corridors, stairs, tapestries. Five. They'd ascended five floors indeed. “Fifth sounds right," she nodded, but he was already talking ahead, and she blinked at him and then watched the fat pink-faced lady. She might have drawn a parallel to Miss Piggy if she'd been blonde. The thought made her smile, but not as much as googly eyes on a lively portrait. “It's not like I could reach her to do so," she chuckled, but it hadn't stopped her from noticing a notebook on the ground and giving it a couple of googly eyes and a sharpie note that read Hi, I'm Book!. Watching her handiwork, she paused and looked at her partner in crime.

“Do moving portraits feel?" she asked him curiously, tapping her index to her lower lip. She wasn't mean, she didn't want to hurt the portrait. “Like do they have a notion of pain, tickling, the like?" Somehow she doubted whatever her final answer was, he'd do as he pleased, but she wanted to have her conscious clear in the end. She shifted in her misfits tee she'd inherited from her eldest sister, and grabbed a few more googly eyes from the pockets of her black leggings.

@Colin McCoire

"A dee sieve," Colin repeated. He looked closely at the goggle eye that Alora had given him. "Yeep! It's sticking to my finger!" Colin couldn't help but cry out. Out of all the scores of the weird little eyes that he'd helped put up on the walls and doors and suits of armour, he'd not yet managed to get any stuck to himself! He flailed his left hand about ineffectually and managed to drop the pack of mesmerising eyes he'd been holding in his right hand. He held his finger up in front of his crossed green eyes. "I always thought sieves were for straining things! So a dee sieve makes them stick? Is it like spellotape? Or is it a charm?"

He gave Alora a quizzical look when she said that the goggle eye things weren't at all creepy. "We sleep in dungeons for pete's sake!" she said. “They’re cute, and silly, creepy is knowing there are human sized spiders in the woods.”

Colin shook his head. Girls were so weird! "But look! These things --- stare at you! All the time! And anyway, acromantulas aren't that bad. They're just big spiders, you know," he said matter of factly. "Just don't go messing with their lairs and they keep to themselves!" He shook his head again as he crouched down to retrieve the dropped packet of googly eyes. "Yeah, these are definitely creepy!" He shook the packet and all the little eyes woggled around, then came to rest staring at Colin!

"I noticed during the sorting ceremony you weren't wearing shoes then either. Me, I've never really gotten on with shoes. There's another lad, Dan, he doesn't get on with shoes either. What about you?" Colin looked around suspiciously, just to make sure no one was around to hear. "Mind you, I'm surprised more kids don't go around barefooted! It's great for sneaking around the castle without making a sound! And it gets even better! You're still new here, but if you pay attention to your feet, you'll be able to tell where you are without even looking! You'll recognise the worn stones of the different stairways and the gouges and pock marks in the charms classroom or the duelling room!"

Colin drew his wand from his kilt pocket and got a couple of big googly eyes from the packet. He smiled as Alora asked him if portrait figures felt pain or tickling. "Psh. Maybe this one could do with some tickling!" Colin paused, as he thought about her question. It was a really good question. "Hm! I don't really know if they can feel pain or not. It's well known that portraits can be damaged --- they can be torn or burnt or cut. I mean, they're just painted on canvas or wood. But the people inside the portraits can leave and go to another frame, right? I bet you'd have to go into the portrait world itself in order to hurt a person in there!"

Colin tasted the air for a moment to determine if anyone, other than himself and Alora, were sneaking around the Gryffindor corridor. He could easily scent himself and Alora. The air in the corridor was otherwise fairly clear --- for all good lion cubs had scooted through their cat door some while ago! Smiling, he gave his wand a swish and flick: "Wingardium leviosa!" The goggly eyes rose up from Colin's outstretched right hand, and with a gentle motion of his wand, let them fly across the intervening space until toop! -- toop! they landed on the face of the singing Fat Lady!

@Alora J. Graves

@Colin McCoire

September, 20th, 2022

The way he repeated the word made her wonder if he was being silly or perhaps he was a bit slow. Either way, there they were; this was fun, and Alora wasn't one to judge having fun. When he further spoke, she slapped her palm to her forehead and chuckled. The wizarding world was a rather interesting place. Did they not have adhesives? "You don't have tape in the wizarding world?" she asked, somewhat incredulous at this thought. "Wait, does that mean there's like... a spell to glue things? Is it permanent?" Her mind couldn't help but go places that might not have been the most pleasant for those involved.

A shiver racked her tiny frame as he mentioned large hideous eight-legged, eight-eyed creatures capable of speech and sentience and still having no remorse to feed on human flesh as innocent enough. "I'll definitely need to learn to shoot fire out of my magic stick..." she grumbled as he poked the eyes some more. She knew it was a wand, but why call it as such when she could clearly choose a much more entertaining term for the length of wood that had chosen her? "Yknow, she moves a lot, might as well give her eight eyes too, she certainly has the berth for it!" Oh yes, Alora had certainly just called the Fat Lady...fat. Though there was a hint of malice in her young chocolate gaze, it had everything to do with the idea of transforming the pink-dressed woman into a spider-esque canvas than mocking her weight.

At his question, she smirked and looked at her bare feet. Though she usually wore shoes outside of the common room, excitement abound. "Six hours on a train in Docs was a bit much for my feet," she admitted with a bit of a flush to her cheeks. "I don't usually go without my platforms. I need every inch I can get! Nature had not favored her, and though her siblings had certainly jokingly said her mother must have had her with the dwarf she'd dated, Alora now found herself wondering if she should be looking into her lineage. Was there a wizarding world equivalent to 23 and me? Would they kick her out if she were part goblin or imp?

"You don't have tape in the wizarding world? Wait, does that mean there's like... a spell to glue things? Is it permanent?"

Colin gave Alora a look of pure and incredulous confusion. "Wh---What are you talking about Alora? Helloooo! Permanent sticking charm? Spell-o-Tape? These are basics! Honestly! That's what Prefect Ironwoods used after the start of term feast for Sophia and Gem's detention with Sparkle Girl, a sticking charm! I heard she stuck their hands together and made them clean up the mess they'd made! With ordinary mops! Oh, I wish I'd seen that!"

Colin laughed when she called her wand a 'magic stick'. That was such a muggle thing to say! "Fire? Do you mean incendio? You'll learn that one soon enough! And there're other ones too! And it's a good charm to know, too. Great for duelling, and ---" he leaned in close and whispered "--- great for fending off acromantulas when you're out wandering the corridors at night, lassie! Heheh!"

Alora looked down at their feet when he asked about her not wearing shoes. Colin looked down as well and nodded when she said that wearing shoes for the whole train ride was a bit much for her poor feet. Colin wiggled his toes in sympathy. "Aye. That makes sense!" He laughed again when she said she needed every inch her Doc Martens gave her! "Now lass, don't fret about being wee! In this place, you'll soon enough discover the advantages that towering heights, such as my own, do not afford! For example --- a lad like me always sticks out, right? Teachers, Prefects --- whenever some disaster occurs, everyone's eyes just gravitate towards the likeliest target! Meanwhile, there's always some short prankster nearby having a laugh! Huh! It's given me quite an undeserved reputation for rule breaking! Anyway, I expect you'll grow taller soon enough. Unless you're like a Half Goblin or something!"

Alora did make a wonderful suggestion, however, and that was to give the Fat Lady extra eyes. Colin's smile turned into a sly smirk as he opened up the sack full of goggly eyes and began flinging them at the miscreant portrait. At last he held the empty bag and said to Alora: "Alora! There! What do you think of that!? The Gryffs shall be so miffed!"

The Prank of the Miffed Gryffs!

Reducio

@Alora J. Graves || Mentions Cassandra Ironwoods

@Colin McCoire

September, 20th, 2022

Questions hummed under her skin and rushed through her veins. Beneath her breast, her heart rate accelerated as she tried not to allow her imagination to run amok as he explained. With magic in the air, it was hard to keep steady. And then he spoke of Prefect Ironwoods. She didn’t like the sound of that punishment. It wasn’t fair, she knew that much, but she lacked the vocabulary to properly express how or why. Something she might come to verbalize in a few years.

"That sounds...horrendous," she responded, incapable of shaking how appalled she was by that story he spoke of.

Incendio. Such a fun word. Perhaps she'd give it a try someday while out of sight. As he spoke, she listened and tried not to let her mind wander. Dueling, spells, fire...and then he had to shatter it all with the mention of those spiders again.

"In the corri...THEY COME IN THE CORRIDORS?!" Her voice was more of a shriek as she came to that conclusion, gripping his arm as he had spoken quietly in her ear. Spiders were one thing, giant talking ones were another, and that was not okay. Was nothing sacred? "Colin, tell me you're joking." It was more a plea than an inquiry.

Her toes dug into the carpet of hallway as he wiggled his toes. He did have a point about her height. It certainly did offer an advantage. "I suppose it does offer some..." she began and paused. "Goblins..." she thought and remembered the creatures from the bank she'd gone to with her aunt. "Wouldn't I also have pointy ears and like wrinkly skin or something," she asked, trying to figure it out.

At least they had one thing going for them, and that was the redecorating of the portrait. "She's certainly miffed," she giggled at the sight of the scolding woman. "I think this might be the part where we run away giggling," she grinned.

Colin laughed at Alora's reaction to Soph and Gem's detention. "And that's nothing my friend! You've heard of the old punishments, right? You know they keep chains and thumb screws and racks and stuff down in the dungeons!" He lowered his voice: "For particularly naughty students, they say!" What Colin, ah, forgot to mention was that those particular punishments hadn't been used in nearly a century!

"KRIK! KRAK!" Colin held wiggled his thumbs before Alora's face and made horrible cracking noises to try and frighten her.

But his eyes widened when the girl started screeching about acromantulas in the corridors. "Whist lassie! Houd yer gob!*" Colin looked around the dimly lit place and strained his ears to determine if someone --- unwelcome --- was skulking about. "Lassie," he whispered; "if you wake up a Gryff Prefect, you and me both are gonna lose our thumbs!" He was starting to feel a little anxious that they'd been here in the one spot for too long.

Colin smiled even more broadly when Alora wondered about her height. Or rather, lack of height! He was used to wee girls by now as most of his girl friends were several inches shorter than him. He gave her a quizzical when she asked about folks with Goblin ancestry: "Goblins... Wouldn't I also have pointy ears and like wrinkly skin or something?"

He smirked and twitched her hair away from the side of her head. "Tsk. Tsk. Well, lassie I wouldn't say your ears are all that pointy!" His anxiety had reduced somewhat. Alora was fun to be with and she liked a bit of adventure!

As they stood back admiring their handiwork, Alora grinned and said: "She's certainly miffed, I think this might be the part where we run away giggling!"

Colin nodded agreement and began giggling too! "Aye, lassie! I can't wait to hear what the likes of Keith and Finn will have to say about their dear portrait being pranked! I agree with you, Alora: this was fun, but let's make ourselves scarce!" And with that, he turned and began the long journey back down to the Slytherin common room and the dorms beyond.

Reducio

Whist lassie! Houd yer gob! --- Shut it, girl!

@Alora J. Graves || Mentions @Sophia Nelson | @Gemima Sable | @Keith Moore | @Finnegan Conner