Walking time bomb PV Erin Ryan Closed

A giant ginger was pretty hard to miss. Erin had had her eye on him since the dance. A Prefect twice now, a giant to boot and of course a likely associate of a one Reid Kovacs. She had suspected him of malevolent intent for some time, a first year head boy and Prefect whom was quietly dismissed from his duties only to disappear with hardly a whisper and to return months later as if nothing had happened. Similar could be said of this big boy. She was only five foot one, he had over a foot on her and they were in the same year. He was a Prefect for House Hufflepuff twice now, earning the coveted role early on in his academic career also. He also was quietly dismissed from his role to disappear into the alleged void only to return months later as if nothing had happened besides the gaining of a few inches.

Erin was following the hot-tempered Irish boy through the halls, attempting to memorize his patterns and glean something from them. Besides being incredibly boring, possibly because he was aware that he was being followed, she had learned little of him that she was not already aware of. The stand-out part-giant was not much for hiding or stealth. Erin would look behind her, nobody there for the moment. "Hey Prefect!" Erin shouted, not that Quinn was particularly far away he was simply tall and she needed to be certain he could hear her all the way up there. "You're the other tall Prefect," she was referring to former Prefect Hugh Lowe. What was it with this place and part-giant Prefects anyways?

"And friend of Kovacs?" She took a step forward. He might recognize Erin, she was a girl with a reputation, the worst kind. At least the kissy ones were good for snogging. Kovacs had a connection with the masked boy Ben Ecking-something. Some morose twerp. She did not trust either of them, the whole feel-sorry-for-me sympathy bit that Ben was playing up or Reid the steadfast friend that seemed to not give a single fuck that the masked boy terrorized the grounds for months. Should have been her having that sort of fun, she would have done something real neat with that. Low standards, almost as low as the average self-esteem here at Hogwarts. People seemed to hold a grudge against her just fine, but not poor Ben. She mentally shrugged. It was likely because they were in on that. Jokes were always funnier when you are part of the joke, rather than the recipient.

"What's your connection to the masked boy and all of the disappearances at this school?" Erin called up to him after checking behind her again. She did not want anyone there just yet, but she wanted this interaction to happen in the halls. In a public space. Some place where this big boy would think twice before he did whatever he did (or allowed to be done) to those other students to make them vanish. 

The scene looked like a rendition of David and the Goliath, only David was way prettier in this version. That was the weird thing about the teenage Veela, her beauty was about as skin deep as it got. Her stance indicated she was half-ready for Quinn to lash out rather than verbally respond. Sadly, Erin was out-matched by the giant. She was incredibly strong for a young girl, but she was no part-giant. That was what the corridors were for, the minimize her losses if this became a physical altercation. While there were likely rooms and unused spaces along the periphery of the corridors, there was traffic and odds were on her side she hypothesized. 

[quote]

Erin was either incredibly brave or exceptionally stupid bringing attention to herself. She believed Quinn to be at best complicit in the student disappearances, at worst an active contributor. He was bigger than her and her main asset was her strength, not her magic. While she, like every student in Hogwarts had magical potential, hers was for the most part unrealized. Well, nobody was going to be able to claim that she was a coward but they could question her sanity. 

Thing is, she had another asset. 

Quinn was playing stupid. Acting as if he had never heard of half of the things she mentioned. He was full of shit as far as she was concerned. "Personal reasons," she echoed. She did not hide the fact that she did not believe him in the tone she chose. "My mistake," she shrugged. "I just assumed that" she frowned "someone would be straight and not bullshit me." Dumb. Confrontational. Ballsy.

"You know full well that only a fraction of the people we started the first year with made it to the second year. Only a fraction of those have made it to this coming year," a truth. She took a suicidal step forward. Did she have a plan? She always had a plan, right? "Some come back.," her eyes traveled the length of him. Merlin he was huge. "But different," her gaze upward. She was referring to not just Howard, the scared boy that came back viscous and violent. Marcus, the 'Lord' of the DeWynter House, was gone for the better part of the year. His amour propre intact, he was not nearly as forthright as he used to be and while he was back he was hardly the worthy rival he once was. Reid Kovacs, probably the evil leader of whatever insidious cult was forming beneath the school's notice, was also gone after excelling in so many ways. His return quiet, his presence mundane. His presence almost escaped even her notice. 

 "Besides getting bigger," she stated the obvious "I am curious to know what in you has changed Prefect Healy." Erin looked behind her, she wanted to know if anyone was coming. Nobody yet, that was fine but her uncertainty or perhaps assumed anxiety was showing. She was not the type to express second thoughts unless their was something to be gained and there was nothing here. Did she think she could take him? No, she was almost a foot and a half shorter. Unless the boy was emaciated, this thick was likely thicker than the Slytherin. It didn't fucking matter. She had a plan. An incredibly dumb plan, but a plan none-the-less.

In the end he was still just a Hufflepuff.

She was not playing fair. Not that she ever did. She would attempt to reach for his tie or another article of clothing that she could reasonably reach. Her shoulders about level with his waist. The point was to elicit a reaction from him of course. She was not going for his wand, either of them. 

If he did not react:

"Do you really think that," her fingers would rub the cloth between her fingers and give it a gentle tug. "This is going to really end well?"  For who? For him? For her? For someone else? Her hand would reach towards her waistband.

 If he did react:

She does not attempt to evade his reaction, she would stiffen and take the full brunt of his response if any. 
 

[quote]

His accent was awful, it took the Slytherin several seconds to translate his spoken word to something that she could comprehend. "Touchy," she complained when he asked her to unhand his tie. Still, she complied. 

He is not afraid of me.

He had also called her a bully. "This is the first time we have even talked. Accusing me already? Why? Because I don't trust your claim? Because I touched... your tie?" She looked at his tie, he was clean and neat but he was not what she would call overly so. Perhaps her pure-blood heritage had a different perspective of vanity. "Honey, you have not seen anything if you consider a tête-à-tête and a bit of tie fondling to be bullying." Of course Quinn was right, she was prodding at him, trying to elicit a reaction from the giant ginger. She lifted her hands to either side as if in mock surrender, "but I will try to behave just for you darling."

Erin's vernacular had changed over the course of this brief interaction. She was using terms of endearment such as 'honey' and 'darling' but her words would feel as anything but. She had done this to Howard before as well to set him off, to test his reaction or lack thereof. By being compliant. By using the right words. The wrong words. An imprecise tone to set the alarms off in his head. 

He claimed to know nothing about anything. She did not believe him one bit. She never changed her pose as she gave him a smirk in reply. She was choosing her words carefully. "If I knew more than there were many and now there are few, I would say so," she claimed. She was of course lying, she knew something. Or rather, she thought she knew something. "Unless you are one of the death witches the Ravenclaw warned me about," she added. Kaegen had made the farcical claim with a slingshot to her head. As far as she was concerned, the cancer patient had no reason to lie. Did she think that Quinn was a Death Witch? It was a firm maybe. 

Little did Erin know, she was closer to the cause of -some- of the disappearances than she knew. It was the hags. Some of the students did legitimately leave for other reasons, such as possibly Quinn, Howard, Reid and Marcus; whose absences were indeed abnormally long but unrelated to the actual disappearances happening concurrently. It was a coincidence and nothing more, but Erin was seeing patterns in the stars when there was none. "Not like you would admit it if you were one of them. A very Death Witch thing to do," she claimed, not that she was an expert in the least but her mind had fabricated some of the details and created a mental profile that she was searching for parts that might fit. 

"But I can see the pattern," she continued. "The way these first years keep getting Prefect for no real reason. How a first year even got Head Boy" she was referencing not only Kovacs but also Towers with that statement. She was not wrong in being suspicious, there was no way a first year would have the magical expertise or the earned trust for such a position and yet since her admission to this school it was nothing but trust for these relative unknowns with elementary or remedial magical skill. She clenched her jaw as she moved her gaze upward. It was a bit of a strain to look Quinn in the eye. "I want my friend back," she announced. She was referring to a second year -- Thomas LeStrange. At least he should have been a second year had he not disappeared after allying with her. He disappeared after her altercation with Howard where the crazed Hufflepuff tried to gut her like a fish. "We both know I a'int no hero, but I will get my person back," she declared with an air of determination.

[quote]

She made her demand -- she wanted what was hers. At this moment she defined Thomas LeStrange as hers. She was not the sort of person to step down easily, even if it was a situation that was not in her favor. She was the sort of girl that was able to twist literally anything into something she wanted, even a few broken bones. The girl was simply not right but Quinn was a damn crazy person. 

Quinn started to laugh like some sort of madman. That did little to convince her that he had nothing to do with the disappearances. A cold chill ran through her, had she finally found the culprit. What did he do to them anyways? By the looks of him he might have eaten them. "Good God man," Erin muttered somewhat flabbergasted. "The hell did you do to them?" Even Erin had her limits, she was a brute and a bully, a massive bitch really but there was a stopping point for the teen. 

Quinn would turn to run, there was a moments pause for the Slytherin. She did not expect him to flee, it took her a moment to even realized that he was departing. Like a student daydreaming instead of listening in class when the professor finally calls on her, she snapped back into awareness. "Wait!" She shouted and then pursued. Erin was much smaller than Quinn, over a foot difference in their height and probably a hundred pounds separating them unless he was emaciated. That would not slow down the fearless and potentially foolish youth as she rushed down the corridors after Quinn. "I am not letting you get away!" She called out after him. This was hardly a playful game of chase although it might have seemed as such considering the big one was running from the small one.

If Erin did somehow catch the boy with a stride that probably close to doubled her own she would attempt to tackle him. How effective that would be? Hard to say, she was not very big. that was of course why she was going for the knees. Small, comparatively and ridiculously strong, in terms of strength she might have met her match. A consideration her arrogance had barely regarded. If she knocked him over she would... well, she was winging it. Try to keep him down but with the lacking leverage weight would afford her, any victory that she enjoyed would be short lived. "Where... are... they..." Of course they were nowhere that Quinn knew about, the reckless part Veela had the 'wrong man.'

If Quinn did dash away and ultimately escape, Erin would scream after him "I AM GOING TO GET YOU!" As Quinn rounded a corner and she lost sight of him. Tired, gasping for air she would rest her back against the random corridor hall she ceased her pursuit in and catch her breath. She would find him, the school was big but it was not that big.

[font="Monotype Corsiva"]"Don't follow mae!" He yelled back, breaking out into a full blown sprint. His long legs led to greater strides which allowed him to quickly lengthen the distance between them. In a matter of seconds he rounded the corner and kept booking it. He refused to be caught, all the while unhinged clown like laughter could be heard. Loud and unnerving with the last haunting words for the time, "Until we meet again little snake!"

The very tall and possibly demented Hufflepuff had left the scene with more questions then answers. Who was he really, why did he do the things he did, but most importantly was he involved in whatever plot the young snake thought him to be in. Well that was truly only for Quinn to know and the little snake to find out. Perhaps sooner rather then later?

Well for that answer only the fates, if you believed in them, really knew that. But who was to say life is long the events in it numerous, and for a currently sprinting Hufflepuff....dangerously unpredictable and terrifying. Such is life, such is school, such is magic, and such is the mind. Unpredictably fantastic, and unapologetic in its rewards.[/font]

I assume you got away with the post, if not please just let me know.

Quinn was much bigger than her, Erin was hardly over 5 foot. Her little legs would try to pursue him, she was fast but he was faster. He would round a corner and the Slytherin would dash after. Discretion was a non-concern for the girl as she shouted at his back and shoved her way past anyone that might have gotten in her way. She lost sigh of him before she lost track of him. She was following him by sound, he was laughing like a degenerate madman. She would round a corner but he had already rounded two more. 

He was too far gone.

He was too far away.

Erin would some to a stop down an empty hall and plant her hand against the wall. Breathing heavy she would slump against the wall, in a battle of attrition she would lose. Erin was more like a bomb, she had one good explosion and then she was done. "Dammit," she muttered out-loud and let out a cough.   

"Where the hell am I?" She complained to nobody in particular, she was the only one there. She looked back the way she came, she would have to retrace her steps back to corridors more familiar. 

Just five more minutes she internally announced. She closed her eyes and took a few calming breaths. This sucked. Her brain was full of dirt and worms that wiggled and bit. It was impossible to concentrate, she was getting fucking stupider by the second. She was physically powerful, it made up for her lack of magical skill, but her greatest power had always been her ability to read people. To understand them. To know what they were going to do before they even did, to act or rather react almost proactively. Now she was so far into her own head, impulses and sheer force of will were all she had. Her jaw quivered, her eyes burned. 

Not right now you damn idiot. 

Think, fucking think.

Quinn was huge and fast. She should have been thankful that he did not stay and try to take her down, she would have lost in a fair fight, she was just too dumb to be scared [Fearless]. Instead she was sad. Not because her plaything ran away, she was seriously intending on extracting what she wanted to know from him by force. She was sad because she missed her... friend? Yes, friend. She did not understand the concept fully, but there was this desire to protect him in a reciprocal manner. Now missing, like so many others, she might have casually noticed the absence of the others but it was only for Thomas that she actively looked. She hardly even noticed that it had been weeks, no months since she had seen Paracelsus. She presumed he was avoiding her. She was probably not wrong.

The part-Veela would pull herself to her feet. Defeated for the moment, she would turn back towards the path she came.

Attempting to Leave Topic - Unless your intention was to continue.