on the oddity of visual effects

[Elisabeth McKnight]

@Aurelia Vernon
Mid-Christmas break
Ducking well to the side of the innocent looking mistletoe sprig, Elisabeth huffed in indignation, wondering if she would be able to incinerate it without getting caught in it. Deciding that avoidance was a better part of valour in this case, however, she wandered toward the spot she supposed she would find her best friend in, given that Rorie was taken with experiments of the potions kind, thankfully from what she could smell one of those they have covered in class, and thus it made sense for them both to be using one of the potions labs for the same. Warily checking the doorway for proverbial trap of the mistletoe type, she peered in.

“Is it safe to enter?” She questioned, knocking on the door to attract the other girl’s attention. Potions being a strength of the other she did not have, it tended to take Rorie’s entire concentration if it was difficult enough, but this one looked to be fairly easy, and Ellie was in the mind to practice a few of those herself.

Nodding with a grin to acknowledge a chaperon passing by the classroom, the Gryffindor ensured the door remained open and impatiently tapped her foot, waiting until the other girl would acknowledge her presence. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t seen each other in forever, but sometimes it certainly felt like it, especially when Rorie was as distracted as she was. Peeking over to her best friend’s cauldron, Ellie grimaced at the green smoke coming out from it. “Is that supposed to be happening in this case?” She couldn’t help asking, as she knew well that was an odd one, at least, that she could recall.

  

[Aurelia Vernon]

"Of course, why wouldn't it be?" The girl answered from her spot by a cauldron as she cut up some sort of ingredient. "Do stop that tapping, it isn't entirely ladylike as it could be considered rude," she admonished absently as she tossed in the remaining ingredients, never one to give up her constant struggle at having her best friend appear a bit more proper.

"Yes, it is, that means it's done," she chirped, setting it aside to settle. Moving away from it and towards her best friend, she gave Ellie the most critical look. "Is there something you wanted to tell me?" She asked, wondering if Ellie would deign to inform her about a certain incident she had been told of.

  

[Elisabeth McKnight]

Pouting at the admonishment, Ellie decided there was worse that could be done. “I don’t do it all the time,” she protested lightly, knowing her best friend wasn’t going to give up on her attempts to ensure Ellie herself was as lady-like as possible. She supposed she could comply with some of that, especially during the Etiquette lessons, but in her mind, Rorie took them far too seriously for her own good.

She then had to give the cauldron a look that was most curious indeed. “What’s it supposed to be, not another Amortentia you plan to experiment with on poor creatures of Hogwarts, I hope?” She asked, sidestepping the question for the time being, but turned an innocent look at the critical one Rorie was giving her.

“I can’t imagine I can possibly know what you’re talking of,” she chirped, though in fact she supposed she could and did. If it was about those sprigs again she was going to set one on fire the minute she saw it. After all it was enchanted to make people kiss, not fireproof!


@Aurelia Vernon

  

[Aurelia Vernon]

"You do it often enough for me to comment on it," Rorie replied readily with a long suffering sigh. She was mostly teasing but she was a good enough actress that Ellie might well fall for the act.

"Oh no. Love potions are contraband so I am quite lucky to not have been caught." It had been a stroke of luck indeed.

Talk of Ellies kiss was much more fascinating than talk of her past experiments so Rorie dismissed any more talk of the toad she had enchanted. "Is that right?" She asked with a quirk of her eyebrow. "What slight have I done to not be informed by you of what I know," she declared, most dramatically.

  

[Elisabeth McKnight]

Ellie giggled at the long-suffering tone from her friend, recalling that both she, and the other ones, sometimes did comment on that habit of hers too often, then quirked up an eyebrow in utter bemusement.

“I have no idea what you can possibly mean,” she declared in equally dramatic tone at Rorie’s most dramatic question. Well, yes, she was lying because she had a certain idea to what it was, but she didn’t really want to discuss it. Really, she had no wish of discussing mistletoe, kisses, and anything of the sort, and the longer she could drag it out and avoid the questions, all the better in Ellie’s opinion. "Though that really does depend on what you know."

  

[Aurelia Vernon]

"You know exactly what I mean," Rorie declared as she brushed a stray strand of her hair out of her face. "You," and before going on she made quite sure there were no eager ears about. "Kissed a boy." And before she even had one. Not that she relished giving it to any old boy she was stuck with.

  

[Elisabeth McKnight]

“Oh, you mean that.” Ellie rolled her eyes, giving an altogether a too dramatic sigh. “Not much of a one, I’m afraid.” Said boy, in her opinion, proved to be too much of an annoyance, and she rather hoped she wouldn’t be crossing paths with him again any time soon. “Really, it only has me wanting to catch that darned poltergeist in his own pranking games, if anything.” If she could do it, well, it’d be quite the distinction, at least in her opinion. As it was, for now she didn’t even have an inkling of a plan for it.

  

[Aurelia Vernon]

"Yes, that," Rorie confirmed with a roll of her own eyes. Not much of a one, what did that even mean. A kiss was a kiss was kiss, wasn't it? "There's no way that you could, he been around forever and you only been around for fourteen."

  

[Elisabeth McKnight]

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to try,” she huffed, glancing over at her friend’s cauldron as it let out a belch of steam. “Just imagine the glory you get if you manage to pull one over that one!” Not to mention that she had it with the darned poltergeist, but she wasn't going to mention that just yet.

“And not forever, just a couple thousand years,” she corrected. “I think he appeared ‘bout same time as the school did.” And to what purpose, no one would know, though Ellie wouldn’t put it past him to have made annoying every single passer-by the goal of his existence. That was a poltergeist, after all, and Hogwarts was just fortunate enough to have one…not. At least not in her opinion.

  

[Aurelia Vernon]

"I can imagine it. I can also imagine the payback," she stated haughtily as she tidied away her potions things. She'd rather some dastardly deed not be done to her best friend unless she was the one doing it.

"Oh, don't be so literal. That might as well be forever."

  

[Elisabeth McKnight]

“But of course, any self-respecting prankster would ensure there was a payback if they're pranked,” Ellie sniffed at Rorie’s haughty tone, though she was more amused than everything else. Breaking into giggles soon enough, she waved a hand. “Details, details. Point is, he’s here, and a nuisance!” The mistletoe in question alone was quite troublesome, in Ellie’s opinion. “I bet that mistletoe’s his handiwork,” she added with a huff.

Thankfully, Peeves didn’t repeat his pranks if she remembered it right, but she shuddered to think what he would come up with next. Something fun like the fireworks in the Great Hall, she didn’t mind, but this mistletoe prank was merely a nuisance as far as Ellie was concerned.

  

[Aurelia Vernon]

"It most likely was," Aurelia said in agreement. "What was it like though? To kiss a boy, I mean?" She was curious but also glad she hadn't experienced it first hand. She'd rather her first kiss not be forced from her through some stupid enchanted plant.

  

[Elisabeth McKnight]

Well, at least there was one thing they agreed on, that was something. “Short,” Ellie huffed. “And the boy was a prat.” She was most certainly not going to elaborate on it! “I don’t think I’d like to be kissing any more boys in near future, Rorie,” she added in mild amusement. The altercation between her and Mr. Ross certainly ensured that much, so she didn’t count it as big loss at all.