Twas a Festive Knightmare Pv Closed

The holiday season was always one that most students of Hogwarts looked forward to for various reasons. Some did perhaps for the gifts they might recieve, the younger years squabbling over what their parents might get or for the older kids, perhaps it was the temporay relief of homework that they werer constantly being reminded of at every nook and cranny.

Elena Jangleton however could expect no such thing.

That didn't mean she didn't take joy in the festives however, the castle was thrumming with energy and it felt just right she had to join with all of that noise and just like every other year, the staff had gone all out in decking out the school to give it that wintery theme.

The lights, the stockings, the house elves truly did not get enough credit or at least Elena suspected it was them who were charged with the decorations. She didn't think the professors would be going around laying out every inch of the school with decorations.

Those two didn't add up in her head, she thought as she walked the hall curiously glancing at the rigid statues or rather, knights would be the more appropiate term that stood guard over Hogwart's halls. She had once tried to establish whether the blasted things did anything else than move.

She'd been rewarded with an half-answer, she thought she'd saw one of them shift a little bit or that could be her mind playing and it had been one of the secrets of this school that Elena thought that would be taken to the grave.

She stopped besides one of the suits deciding to try out a theory. The funny hats and all, it made them look sort of amusing in a way as she looked the visage of the warrior up and down almost thoughtful in a sense.

"I like your hat."

She told it wondering if she'd get a reaction. She had tried it before only to be met wtih utter silence and Elena didn't expect anything else but it was worth a shot, right? It was one of those mysterious unawnsered questions that the Gryffindor would exhaust all options in solving.

What were the odds?

What were the disgusting, minuscule, utterly ridiculous odds that out of everyone, literally anyone in this giant ass castle, that no other than Elena freaking Jangleton would be one of the last people to waltz down this particular hall just as Elsian was getting ready to call it a day?

Just thinking about it, quite literally pondering whether this should be his last scare of the day or if he should push on for another few before calling it a day and crawling out of this horrible armor. Either Elena had pissed someone off and earned a disgusting amount of bad luck or Elsian was doing something wonderfully right and some deity was throwing these opportunities at his feet. Maybe it was both. Maybe neither. All he knew was he had a beautiful opportunity here.

He also knew she was so gonna be pissed when- if-

If she found out it was him.

Which meant he could not freaking ruin this by chatting her up and immediately responding to her compliment no matter how tempting, staying still, perfectly still, it wasn’t hard if he just let the armor hold him in place and thank God for that because she was currently stopping in front of him and watching like a bloody hawk! Like she knew-

He was about to fucking shake out of his skin; this was terrifying.

But no! Screw that, he wasn’t about to break!

He waited. He waited and waited and waited. Waited until finally she lost interest. Maybe looked less suspicious, or less expectant, or even looked away, turning to one of the other suits or walking away; he’d waited.

And then when she finally did one of these then, and only then, did he make a move, limbs practically shaking with phantom jitters as he slowly drew up to step off the little pedestal and placed a heavy, cold, armored hand on the older girl's shoulder as the little bells jingled merrily, tauntingly in the empty halls and Elsian-?

Muffled, distorted from under the helmet came a,“thanks I made it myself.”

And then he screamed.

Loud and jarring, practically a god forsaken wail rattling within the heavy metal and festive bells; it’d done the job of scaring a few others enough to get them jumping right out of their skins a few feet into the air. A sound that he was pretty sure he’d never be able to do without the way the armor distorted it.

It’d made for a truly hilarious sight. And Elsian couldn’t help but feel proud of the way he didn’t immediately break character and start howling with laughter at the reaction he got out of miss hotshot here.

Well, either these inanimate knightly pillars had been trained extremely well or maybe they just didn't like her. Whatever the reason, it was clear the only response that Elena Jangle was going to get in response to her compliment was nothing but utter silence.

Not that she had expected anything else really.

It had gone pretty much like this that first time with Opeila although she had sworn they had seen something more promising that encounter, this was just plain dissappointing but then again, standing face to face with one of these things was not about to make them inclined to reveal anything.

Not if they were guarding the secret that every Hogwart's student was dying on the inside to know about although she had engrained it in her head that she would be the first one to find out.

"Well, I tried."

She said more to herself than anyone else turning around sighing not getting more than a few steps than felt a hand, cold to the touch and strong too suddenly clamp her shoulder causing her head to swivel back around in a question.

It was the talking that threw her off. "Wha-?"

Followed by the assualt on her ears that caused the brunette to flinch, produce a shriek of her own at being taken so off-guard as she stumbled back a few steps keen to put as much distance between her and the knight.

"What's your problem?!"

She knew plenty of things about these metallic warriors and one thing was certain, they didn't make it an habit of giving students heart attacks. Elena was coming to a dreadful conclusion in her hand as she locked a glare with the blasted thing.

"Oh, now you're just gonna go all quiet like that didn't just happen?!" She demanded, her voice rising with every pitch, insulted now as she retraced her steps.

"Last I read, it doesn't say anything about you guys talking in Hogwarts, A History." She put forth jabbing her wand into the metallic chest as if hoping it might give her some answers.

Magic could open doors, reveal secrets and unlock those paths that didn't want to be found.

"Which means.." She paused as if letting the truth of her words sink in.

Someone was going to pay a terrible price.

"Flipendo!"

He stifled a wild laugh as she stumbled away, struggling for a moment to calm the hell down before taking a step forward, following. Walking, even slowly in this armor was loud. Loud and slow-ish and with very little room for more grace than basic movements.

That didn’t stop him from chasing after the girl with clanking, inelegant movements that probably looked more like the armor had been possessed or was being pulled by invisible strings than anything else. Which, kinda, worked in his favor right now as he chased after the girl for what would have been a few fun, silly moments for him as he stifled snickers and laughter as his own shrieks died down in the face of her own.

What a reaction! A shame nobody else saw it, but at least he would be able to look back on this shenanigan fondly when telling others. Preferably later, much much later when his actions could no longer have consequences due to how long ago it’d taken place.

He didn’t answer. Refused to as he gave up the chase in favor of slipping back near his own temporary pedestal, shoulders shaking and eyes watering in mirth as a snicker broke loose. Elsian had to brace a gauntlet fitted hand against the cold stone wall as he began to fight the urge to double over in the armor, knowing he’d totally be done for, but it was hard not to lose his collective shit when Elena started to get that worked up! He’d gotten her good, not even she could argue against that!

But oh boy, was the jig up. He was able to straighten himself, deep breaths he reminded himself, and looked in her direction just as she harshly jabbed a wand against the metal plating. If it hadn’t been for the weight of this entire get-up he likely would’ve stumbled back.

That was bad, he knew that was bad. A small voice in the back of his head is saying,‘this is a bad idea!’ but he could barely hear it over the even louder voice screaming ‘make the stupid joke now!’

“-what can I say, getting the others to talk is a real knightmare.”

Oh he was going to pay a terrible price.

“Oh cra-”

A yelp tore past the helmet as the spell sent him flying, some other nice suits of armor breaking his fall with a loud clang of metal filling the air as he and the metal all toppled over, crashing into a heap of tangled limbs and armor on the floor. Pieces of metal went everywhere. A helmet scattered here, a gauntlet there, and Elsian found that he had indeed lost a gauntlet and foot piece somewhere in the painful experience. He groaned, wincing at the feeling of the armor jabbing into his newly revealed arm from where he was half lounging, half buried in the pile. That was definitely going to bruise. He was going to bruise, his bruises were going to bruise, his whole body, one big bruise.

“Oww-” he whined, fumbling to sit up, armored hard to his helmet. At least the armor shielded him from the other armors.

“I know the joke was bad but I think that was a little overkill.” He complained, voice still slightly muffled from the helmet.

There were a lot of things about this situation that made it unappealing and his tendency to crack probably the most horrendous jokes known to man didn't exactly help things as Elena affected not to hear him. Any more of those and she just might have a tendency to follow up on her earlier spell. He was lucky perhaps that Elena Jangleton valued her magical education or she might have opted for a more damaging choice.

She had a slightly suspect feeling of who possessed such a capability to pull off something so incredibily foolish. No, in actuality, Elena was pretty sure she knew as she kicked aside a bit of metal glaring down at the supposed fallen knight.

"Some knight you are."

The jig was up, she had spent hours among hours in this castle trying to unravel the mystery of Hogwart's armored defenders and not once in her lifetime had she ever head one of them utter a sound of pain or any vocals for that matter.

That was not about to change now as the objective was very clear in front of her, unravel the identify of her mysterious attacker who should consider themselves very lucky that they had suffered the simple effects of an Knockback Jinx.

"Right then, you gonna take that silly thing off or we gonna keep playing this game of where you still amazingly somehow still attempt to brainwash me into thinking you're a big hulk of walking metal?" It was said as a challenge really, she almost wanted him to try.

"Oh, who I am kidding? You'd probably love for that to stay on and get away unscathed but most unforunately for you.." She closed the distant propping down so she could stare into the narrow eye slits of the helmet, her hands reaching out in an attempt to grab it by either side.

"Now then.."

If her attempt would prove successful, she'd try to wrench the helmet off and send it flinging away bouncing against the walls to gaze upon a face that she had become all too familiar with too many times.

"Elsian Cox."

Weakly he shoved at some of the armor covering him. But it was a lot in his newly bruised and thrown state and was rather slow going all things considered. “Who’s to say…” he began, flapping a hand in the air, “that I’m not a suit of armor come to life?” Upon seeing Elena stalking towards him however the lazy boy's pace magically doubled; knowing you were looking your demise in their angry, ruffled state was great motivation apparently. Who knew!

The metal clinked sharply, the hollow clangs of the armor pieces smacking into stone and against one another as Elsian freed his leg. “Well-” He scrambled, trying to wrench his other arm free, but alas it was not meant to be, lady luck favored Elena this round apparently. Hot shot had already landed a hit once, he did not look forward to a 2nd hit if he could avoid it. “Now I wouldn’t say I lov-” A squawk and fumble of his hand going to try swatting the others hands away, he barely freed his arm to try and shove the others hands away but not before he was unmasked like some 2nd rate villain from Scooby Doo.

He took great pleasure in making the process as annoying and unagreeable as possible as she wrenched the helmet away. “HEY!” He complained, wincing at the bright light of the halls without the helmet. The light, it burned!

He hissed like the 2nd rate cartoon villain he’d become. This was his life now, his villain arc, cruelly ripped away by Elena via meddling kid shenanigans.

… “Elena.” He said back with a nervous smile. “Fancy, uh-” A cough into his armored hand. “Fancy seeing you here. What are the odds!”

Silence. He was staring death in the face.

Goodbye future.

Goodbye naps.

Goodbye homework he waited till the night of to do.

No…No this wasn’t the end! He still had one last chance- Hopefully she still feared Kitty.

“KITTY JUMP ON HER!” Of course there would be no Kitty jumping on Elena, nope that was a straight up lie. Instead if she looked away or so much as flinched he’d take the chance to grab his fallen gauntlet in hand and throw it at the other.

“YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!” He screeched, grabbing another stray piece of armor, this time a helmet and simply chucking it at the girl as he scrambled up atop the pile and mess of armor in a noisy clatter and scrambling away away away-! “Take this! And THIS!” A leg piece thrown towards her feet, sure to hit her toes or shin if she didn’t dodge.

He threw himself towards his bag and wand.

You would think that for someone like Elsian Cox that reveled in making other people's daily dalliances a hurdle and incovenice, he could at least try to put some effort into the justifactions he attempted to clear his actions with but one thing was certain, there was no way he was talking his way out of this one.

"Well, well, now why am I not surprised to see you here?" Elena said with a humorless smile gauging the face of her supposed attacker, well, attack was really a strong word of putting it but with Elsian, there were never any gurantees.

"You know, it's funny. I got to thinking, who would be so foolish as to attempt something so half-baked and unplanned that it would end in nothing but diaster and you know who popped to mind?"

Elena wasn't really looking for the answer, the question wasn't meant to be replied to mainly because the answer was staring her straight in the face but perhaps, she had forgotten one contributing factor to this equation that always worked in Elsian's favor.

Every. Single. Time.

"NO!" The brunette yelped not even caring to gauge if there was an actual eight legged horror arachnid scuttling it's way towards her attempting to put as much distance between her and wherever the blazes that pet was.

Because if Elena knew one thing, Kitty already took great humor just like her master in giving students heart attacks, the Gryffindor did not want to find out what the spider would resort to if it witnessed it's master being accosted in such a aggresive manner.

Metal flew through the air as Elsian hurled his gauntlet, helmet and a few other curious items at the girl, a few of them finding their mark enraging her further and not helping his situation any.


The audacity.

"Spider or no spider, you've defintely done it now."

She watched as he hurled himself towards his stuff in a desperate attempt to avoid her wrath as Elena resorted to a simple Levitation Charm to levitate some of the armor pieces he had bombarded her with to send them screeching right back at Elsian.

Two could play that game.

She wasn't quite through with him.

Fumbling. He was fumbling, metal making his feet slip right out from under him, hands and knees slamming painfully into the floor and bits of armor. He cursed, bag opened and contents spilled over the floor, then cursed again when he couldn’t find his wand, fingers rushing to shove metal and junk aside in a hurry.

Nothing. No wand. And didn’t that just suck.

“Cra- OW!” A dull pain spread through his arm where armor had hit. A pained and dramatic screech filled the air as Elsian looked up only to see hellfire in the form of shiny armor coming right for him. “Hey stOp- oW!”A gauntlet smacked right into him, arms coming up to fend off a few of the parts as he yelped and yelled, one hand lashing to his side wildly to find something, anything, to defend himself with as a few of the other parts slammed into the nearby surroundings. There was without a doubt he was going to be in soooooo much pain after this but at this point running was no longer an option and even if it had been he wasn’t so sure Elena wouldn’t just immediately hunt him down and finish the job 5 minutes later.

His fingers brushed a chest plate and he hauled it up just in time for the very same helmet he’d thrown at her to slam into it with a dull clang. Holy crap. She was so pissed and he was so so dead. All while this stupid armor was weighing down his escape!

He practically ripped off the remaining shoe and leg piece still on him, shaking it away as he smacked another armor piece right out of the air with the chest plate he held but it was heavy and he was weak and slow and this would so not last another hurricane of things thrown at him if Elena decided this was her new war tactic because apparently shed stolen his idea and was apparently way better at it than him. Which, hah. Terrifying!

The arm guard was next, thrown to the side as he went to stand with his improvised shield. Maybe to just throw it and hope it knocked the wand outta her hand? But then familiar wood caught his eyes, half hidden under armor strewn about on the ground like scattered war debris. Still balanced on a knee he scooped it up and stood up and with whatever little energy he had left threw the chest plate at Elena's stupid head. It wouldn’t be much, but it would be enough to whip out his wand with a rushed, “Fumos!”

It wouldn’t be much. Definitely not enough to stop anymore flying projectiles aimed at his head but it did make it harder to see, let alone aim. And Elsian was quick to use the sudden cover to duck away and tear the rest of the ill fitting armor off to reveal his normal clothes. He grabbed his bag, slipping it on as he shoved things back into it with the grace of a man with a hungry dragon nipping at his heels, which was to say none at all. He twisted on his heels, wand aimed forward but the problem with this spell was that it made it hard for everyone to see. Which, y’know, kinda made it hard to see where you were going.

He swallowed, wincing at the small ringing sound of his foot brushing metal as he slowly tried to inch alongside the wall out of view. No luck. He glared at the barely visible ground now.

Well, fortune favored the bold or whatever right?

He dashed forward. And barely avoided clashing right into Elena as he did, skidding sideways and slightly hitting a suit of armor still standing with a skittish smile as he caught her eye. Crap crap crap, “Flipendo!”


…



…he’d panicked okay!?

It’d definitely worked, that much could be told by the sound of metal crashing somewhere near where Elena had been as he began to immediately run. But whether the spell had hit Elena or hit the armor near Elena…he couldn't be sure. But staying to find out was just plain stupid!

If you had asked Elena Jangleton on any average day if there was something she wished she had done better or if something she regretted, she probably would have said something along the lines of how she wished she had sent a few more hexes towards Elsian Cox.

Today however was not any average day, the boy had most certainly awakened a monster in her, the Gryffindor side of her as she decided what punishment to levy on the boy. It wasn't the fact that she hated him, no,no, it was the sheer fact that his foolishness was so infuriating and so incovinent at times that, well, perhaps better not to finsih that sentence.

"Oh?! You think that hurts?! Wait until I-" She got barely though her carefully crafted threat before being greeted with a faceful of smoke as presumably, the culprit made to steal away under his magicked smokescreen.

And now, he was running. After raining down his daily nusiances for the day on his typical victim, he was going to vanish and Elena Jangleton was going to be damned if she let that happen because it did.

Every. Bloody.Time.

No, today would be different.

And he had the audcity to flash a smile at her in the course of his escape, was he enjoying this? She reckoned if death itself was staring him in the face, he would be one of those without a bother in the world.

"Expelliarmus!" The brunette bellowed slashing her wand through the air to counter the Knockback Jinx he had so kindly put her way to stop her and perhaps hopefully, disarm him of that wand of his that she thought he had no rights to have especially after his daring actions here today..

"Okay, buddy, you want to dance? Let's dance." Smoke or no smoke, the hurried footseps of his reached her ears quite easily and the occasional clang of metal hitting flesh because he was just as blind as she was in this.

Oh no, she wouldn't be chasing him but Elena was going to make sure his frenzied seeking for some safe haven out of this warzone that they had turned this into would be something that he would rue for the days to come.

"Reparo!" She watched as the broken and damaged pieces of the suit of armor righted itself back together glancing in the general direciton he had gotten off to keen to set her newfound minon after him as Elena shouted after him.

"I think you forgot something, buddy!"

And she was going to hand-deliver it to him personally as a grin spread across her face. It wasn't a welcoming sort of smile, it waas the sort of mad grin brought on by sheer anger and frustration as she embarked on her misson to take him down a notch or two.

"You know, I've heard the Dancing Feet Spell can have some very interesting effects." Elena began slowly speaking as she began to walk forward.

"Been wanting to try this out for a while so I guess I can thank you for that but if I were you, I'd start looking for your littely hidey holes because no form of magic is going to save you from one of Hogwart's own."

And with that, her beautifull idea came into fruition as she pointed her wand at the suit of armor which stood rock still as if awaiting her command. "Tarantallegra!" She shrieked watching with joy as the mediveval-like figure jolted to life dancing it's way in Elsian's direction.

It didnt' need to do anything, Elena reckoned but just the sheer sight of that would be enough to probably make Elsian reconsider his options for victims or so she hoped, there were no assurances with him.

"Have fun with that one, why don't ya?!"

Oh, this was going to be a sight she enjoyed as she followed the suit of armor's tracks in it's hot pursuit of their culprit.