After Dinner

Ew. Ew. Ew.

Thalia Pierce could still smell it on herself. The dungbomb that had went off had been simply catastrophic. And the heat coming from the common room's fireplace was not helping at all. The blonde wrinkled her nose as she plopped herself down on the couch, not bothering to head up to her dorm. What was the point? She'd only make her dorm smell and she did not need people on her case about that. She pulled off her shoes and rolled her eyes, at least all her classes had come and gone so after she was done freshening herself up (and now that she thought of it, she had to find her wand- which she had lost at some point), she could curl up in her bed and read a nice big book until she fell asleep.

And woke up with a book indent on her face. She allowed herself to tune into her location- noticing that it was quite busy for a Friday night and she smiled. Maybe she could get someone here to help her find her wand? That might keep her busy for a while. Plus, who was she to deny a little help? She certainly needed it. The blonde then realized that she wasn't going to get any cleaner just sitting there and made the begrudging decision to trek up to her dormitory and change into another outfit. She sniffed at herself discreetely as she stood up after putting her flats back on and headed up into her dorm room. Tossing her bag down on her bed, she immediately grabbed some clothes out of her trunk and began to change. Her dorm was almost silent as she pulled on a new collared shirt and the only sound you could hear was the ticking of a clock.

Pulling on a new skirt, she then glanced at herself in the mirror before nodding. She looked alright. Not as good as she would look with a bit of effort. But she was only going to go and find her wand. She hummed as she slid her feet into another pair of flats before grabbing her messenger bag and skipping back down into the common room. Yep, she thought, Still a lot of people here. Why don't I just ask the first one I see? She closed her eyes and spun around in a circle, her finger pointing outwards- hoping that people weren't really paying attention to her- and opened them  when she had come around to a full stop. And that full stop had landed on a person. She walked up to said person, with a smile plastered on her face, and tapped them on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, but are you busy?" she didn't wait for them to reply but merely soldiered on. "I need help finding my wand...?" She trailed off, a pleading expression on her face.

Casey was being to regret not finding some place more private to work. There was a vague, horrid smell about the common room tonight that was making him ill, though mitigated somewhat by the calming green light from the lake. Until it was dark. Then, any efforts to move would just take up time before he would have to return to the common room to sleep. So he stayed.

It was not homework Casey was busy with, that had been finished long ago. Rather with his invisible writings he made plans, though that gave way to observations of other in the common room. An activity he was doing more frequently than he realized.

One piece of evening entertainment was provided by Thalia Pierce. She was one seventh year Casey could never peg being unusually spite-free for the house like Vulpes Connor but she was also a rarity for seemingly being able to fit in any house. Falling asleep in books, skipping, and changing clothes this late in the day. Quite unusual.

After she left the common room and returned Casey noticed over his shoulder that she was twirling now. He returned to his writing. There was a pang of nausea as that horrid smell seemed to renew. Casey sat rigid to control his bodily responses. Then the tap on the shoulder.

Pierce. "Excuse me, but are you busy? I need help finding my wand...?"

"Are you kidding me?" Casey began. According to his practices, The Casey O'Doherty Guide to Magical Might should he ever want to write a book to help people perform magic (only to stunt their growth so they could never better him) knowing where your wand was at all times was first chapter, first year stuff. To find a seventh year that had misplaced her wand was amusing, unbelievable and almost exasperating.

Still, this might be something more entertaining before bed. "Where was the last place you had it and what magic did you perform with it recently?"

Thalia had not thought this out well had she?

Apparently, spinning around in a circle would not help her find the nicest person who would help her. But it did find her the smartest person who would help her. Casey O’Doherty. One of the fourth year Slytherins. But she did have to admit, begrudgingly albeit, that he was incredibly smart for being so young. Her smarts had come from reading tons of books and trying- not always succeeding- to absorb the knowledge like a sponge. Thal bit on her bottom lip, trying to think of the last place she had seen her wand.

Maybe the Potions Corridor? No, that was when she had had it! She was certain of it! But then again, she couldn’t be certain of anything really. She tended to be awfully forgetful. The blonde furrowed her eyebrows as she searched through her memories- trying to think of when she had last had it in her hands and what spell she had cast. Oh that was easy! … Well no it wasn’t. She still couldn’t remember what the last spell had been and she was no closer to figuring out the location. Thal shrugged a bit, before catching a whiff of herself in the air and wincing. Blergh, she was definitely going to have to take a nice, long bath after she found her wand.

She shook her head, shrugging her shoulders. “I have no idea” she confessed, a twinkle in her eyes as she thought of all the places it could be. Oh, what an adventure they would have! “But…. I do know the place where I was before the dungbomb went off and all the confusion ensued” she paused for a moment and glanced around, her eyes distracted by the sparkling of someone’s jewelry. “I was standing in the Potions Corridor!” The blonde waved merrily towards a friend and turned her attention back to Casey.

Thalia rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “Sorry about that” she said, glancing down at her fingernails. "But thank you for agreeing to help me" she beamed at him. "It means so much! I  mean- normally people would just be all like 'Be responsible and find it for yourself'!' But you were nice enough to agree! Well not nice enough per say-"  She stopped, realizing that she was babbling and decided to let him speak. That might be a good idea.

Casey was beginning to feel that he was a prefect and Pierce was an especially clumsy first year that he had to look after. Which was exceedingly incongruent given the clashing of age gap and observable maturity levels.

Another point of why Casey was not interested in being a prefect.

He sighed inwardly, contemplating how even that could be a simple Occlumency exercise for when you didn't want someone to no you were exasperated with them. Not that Professor Storm seemed to do that much for he was always quick with correction when a student was out of line.

As Pierce continued into some kind of blissful innocence usually seen in spacey, free thinking Ravenclaws she revealed that the odd smell plaguing him was in fact a dungbomb. "I see..." Or rather, I smell and it's going to make me yack in five minutes if this keeps up. "So this dungbomb going off is the last significant event of the evening you remember. And you had your wand at this time?" When faced with a dungbomb Casey would have attempted shielding, banishment, vanishment or a bubble head charm if all else failed. Perhaps in the confusion Pierce's wand had been knocked away.

Dark Lord, now she was applying him with sentimentality and a stealthy sort of insult that he was normally never this nice. True. He was willing to let it slide although he had yet to figure out any tangible benefit from helping her. What was the phrase, 'Just for kicks?' Not that Casey imagined repeatedly kicking something would get you want you wanted.

"Potions is just around the corner," in that figurative sense of Slytherin House occupying the same quadrant of the dungeons, "and I suppose summoning won't work while we are in here."