Percy Archibald Dervish.  "P.A.D."  "Frog Man."  "PerDer."  Dork.  Poser.  Chicken.  Nerd.  Loser.  Call him what you will, Percy was trying to blend in and rise in the social ranks of Hogwart's.  The 5th year Ravenclaw was walking with a purpose through the entrance courtyard.  He wanted to be certain to turn in an extra credit assignment.  Little did he realize he'd be sidetracked from his course...

Percy was growing out of his physically awkward early teens, filling out, and maturing.  Yet still, there was that awkward, gawky, little guy that permeated his being.  He was decked out entirely in the by the book, Ravenclaw attire.  Long sleeved, white shirt, blue tie and sweater vest, wizarding cloak, black dress shoes, khaki slacks...the works.  Percy heard some laughter, which snatched away his attention from the pathway.

"Hello?   Err...howdy?  Uhm...heyyyy."

He'd attempted to toss out a friendly, yet cool, laid back greeting.  This certainly wasn't first nature to poor Percy unfortunately.

Erin was laughing at something.  She forgot what it was, but since she saw no reason to stop she would continue doing so.  As she was continuing on her merry way, she heard someone say "hey,".  Taking a look to glance at who it was, she almost stopped.  She was wearing standard Slytherin Robes and then a cutie suddenly stopped to talk to *her*.  Wondering if she should have asked Bellatrix for advice on what to wear, Erin was feeling acutely  self consciousness.  She managed to say,  "Hi," with all the confidence of a mouse.   

She then focusing a little bit on the gentleman in question for as long as she could, which was typically measured in microseconds.  Erin's famous attention span then kicked in, and she decided to walk over to a magical portrait.  Erin investigated a little bit before she saw that it was pointing another alcove.  Once again walking in another direction, she then remembered that there was something she was supposed to be paying attention to.  Deciding it could not be too important, she kept on walking. 

Percy fought a crimson flush flowing up his neck with all his might.  It was as if the girl's returned attention had shone a million spotlights directly on him.  Percy was one of those people that feared public speaking/performing worse than death.  Definitely not an attention seeker, Percy was thoroughly embarrassed upon receiving attention, though...what he expected by throwing out an anonymous greeting was anyone's guess? 

Percy tried to play it cool, remembering that he had to appear calm and casual about everything.  Showing any signs of weakness or timidity or uncertainty was a sure sign at social failure, which he planned on avoiding at all costs!  He reiterated...in his best attempt at a chill greeting.

"Heyyy..."

Shortly after speaking again, Percy realized that this was about the fourth time he'd spoken a greeting.  Luckily this was only the second one that Erin had heard.  However when Erin began walking off with what appeared to be great disinterest, Percy bowed his head and bit the corner of his bottom lip awkwardly.  She was a really pretty girl, one of the Dark girls.  Why would she have been interested in wasting her time with Percy Dervish of all people?   Of COURSE she went on.  He was lucky to have even gotten a moment's notice.  Dorkwad.

Once again hearing that same voice say “hey” Erin wondered why she was walking in circles, especially when there was a boy the other direction.  Quickly realizing that she should grasp the opportunity as long as she could hold onto the thought, she walked over to the young gentleman once again.  Noticing he was wearing a standard Ravenclaw outfit, Erin could not help but think ‘How boring’.  Deciding that if she was going to be harrassing seen with him, he needed fashion advice.  Erin looked at the young man and said,

“You know – you could use a bit more color in that outfit.  Hmm…mind if I try a few charms?” the youngest Dark child asked with an expression on her face that could not melt butter in the summer.  Secretly hoping to make the man presentable if she ran into her sisters, Erin debated what style would look best on him.  She wondered if he could convince him to wear that lovely pink shade which Beatrix used frequently in her hair or maybe charm his pants a lovely shade of bright green that Bellatrix pulled off so well. 

While she was having an internal debate as to what colors to charm his clothes, Erin was fidgeting as if a bunch of ants were crawling on her.  She could not stay still if her life depended on it.   

Wait what?  Did Erin just come full circle and return to Percy?  He looked back up and blinked his brown eyes a few times, as if not quite believing what they were seeing.  And she was giving him fashion advice...or forcing fashion on him?  Something like that.

"Y-yeah?  You think so?"

But at least she was paying attention to him.  Still, it made the young man incredibly nervous.  He remembered something about leaning...so Percy extended a hand to the nearest wall and leaned.  One might have expected Percy to miss the wall entirely with his hand, but no-his hand simply skidded a bit, before he caught himself.  A quick startle, but then the "cool" facade.

"You do color charms?"

Percy was hoping that if Erin tried color altering spells on him...that they'd at least be flattering.  He also wanted to represent Ravenclaw...so hopefully that would be possible as well.  The fidgeting that Erin was doing actually distracted Percy from his own nervousness for a moment.

"Are you quite alright?"

Percy was a kind young man and didn't want Erin to break out in hives or something and go unattended.

(((OOC: I tried to send you a PM, but it kept getting blocked.  Since you are new here, I just wanted to let you know that I will never physically alter or change your character without your permission.  Whether any spell cast upon Percy affects him or hits him is up to you.)))


"Are you quite alright?" the young man asked her.

“Huh – sure,” Erin responded to the man, not really thinking about it one way or another.  Completely ignoring his attempts to be cool since she could not have reacted to his body language if she tried, Erin noticed a suit of armor.

“Oohh.  A suit of armor.  I never get tired of those,” she said, and began to *skip* over to it.  Completely missing the irony of her statement, Erin once again did not know nor care if the gentleman followed.  Being engrossed by the aforementioned plate mail for all of three seconds, she then turned around and remembered she had offered to help the poor man.  Without even waiting for permission from the young man, she attempted a few spells.  With a few swishes and magic words, Erin tried to change his pants to a fluorescent blue, his tie and sweater vest to a metallic shade of bronze, and his cloak into a nice shade of silver .  Not really bothering to see if any of the results she wanted had taken place, she was once again looking for something to occupy her time.   

(( I changed the settings, so PMs should be fine now.  And this is fine and no problem.  Thanks! ))

Percy was truly puzzled by Ms.Erin Dark.  However, at least she wasn't making fun of him!  So maybe Percy was doing a lot better than he thought!  It was a good thing that Erin couldn't read his mind though, or she'd realize how truly nervous he felt!

"That's good..."

As Erin wandered off, Percy watched her.  Uh oh...was she going to put him in a suit of armor?  Somehow Percy thought that would violate the Hogwart's dress code.  Percy's brown eyes bulged as his pants went bright blue, then his tie and sweater vest bronzed over, and his cloak went silver.  Problem with using the latter two colors, were that the material was changed as well into actual bronze and actual silver.  Percy now clutched onto the wall in the heavy, armor weighted cloak, sweater vest, and tie!

"Whoa!  I think...you may have changed more than just the colors!"

"Whoa!  I think...you may have changed more than just the colors!"

Erin heard the statement, but had no clue what the gentleman meant by it.  Figuring that an older wizard would know what to do if she gave him unwanted side effects, she surveyed the young man’s attire.  Deciding he looked entirely too metallic, with another swish and flick Erin attempted to change the color of his tie to bright pink .  Once again not bothering to see how her spell had affected the young man, Erin had once more found something to occupy herself with.  As she was admiring the various arch-ways and architecture of the grounds, she wondered what else there was to do in the area.  Noticing a bench she decided to jump on it and off it a few times before looking for something else to do.  She headed towards the exit, and was looking for the person she had just helped.  She was unable to comprehend why the man seemed to be clutching on the wall a bit harder than normal. 

Erin looked towards the young man and asked him, “You coming?” She was completely unaware that she had somehow managed to transfigure some of his clothes into metal. 

It seemed like Erin either didn't care or understand Percy's present weighted dilemma.  He remained affixed to the wall to keep his balance, and realized this was actually quite a good exercise for arms.  The trapezius muscles were really working too!

"Uh....well, I-I would...but I believe something's gone amiss.  The clothes are...well, they're metal!"

Percy tried every way he could to be polite in his explanation, but the fact of the matter was that Erin had been careless and imprecise with her spell casting.  As she turned his tie to a pink, it remained a metal...an odd, pepto bismol colored pink metal...but a metal nonetheless!

"I don't think that helped..."

Percy reached up to feel his tie, then nearly tipped over and quickly used his other hand again to grasp at the wall.

"No, no.  I'm afraid not.  Still metal!  The cloak...the vest...the tie...all of it!  The pants are alright though at least!"

And now that Percy thought about it...at least she hadn't augmented his shoes, socks, and undergarment.  That would have been an even weightier problem.

"No, no.  I'm afraid not.  Still metal!  The cloak...the vest...the tie...all of it!  The pants are alright though at least!"

Erin considered that.  Wondering if she could reproduce the results in transfiguration later, Erin quickly surmised that it was highly improbable.  For a large number of reasons, though mainly she would probably forget about this incident as soon as she left the room.  Erin then took a good look at the man and was shocked and appalled.  It was not the fact that her spell casting had caused someone discomfort nor was it the rather humorous situation the young man got himself into.  Rather, *she* had changed his tie into an Ugly shade of pink with a capital U.  Thinking quickly, and more importantly managing to hold onto the thought for a prolonged period of time… Erin stared down the evil shade. 

“FINITE INCANTATEM!” she cast with the zeal, righteousness, and furor of a holy-man exercising a demon.  Erin wanted to make sure she eradicated the offensive…thing from the world.  Hoping that no one would need to know what she had wrought, she focused on the tie intently.  She needed to make sure that the shade disappeared from the mortal plane, and was sent back from whence it came. 

Whatever mass of thoughts were transpiring in Erin's head...Percy had no clue.  However, he knew very much that he couldn't walk properly in this condition.  But there was one thing that troubled Percy...the look on Erin's face.  The absolute fury that consumed her once lovely features made his brown eyes widen with shock and trepidation!

"Wh....at's wrong?"

Suddenly...Erin unleashed a furious counter spell with the radioactive rage of 1,000 suns, and all the spells on his person were negated.  This sent Percy tipping over with the decreased weight and he quickly staggered about to catch his balance.  He then slowly turned to face Erin...his lower lip quivering a bit.

"Are you...quite alright, miss?"

"Are you...quite alright, miss?"

As the man turned to him, Erin could not help but let out a sigh of relief.  Silently hoping that something would make the young man forget that she had caused him to wear an absolutely horrid shade of pink, she checked him over once more to see that his clothes had unfortunately reverted to normal.  After forcing the young man to wear a demonic tint, Erin felt that she should at least reciprocate the question about his welfare.

“I’m fine.  How are you?” the young Slytherin asked realizing that the young man had been through a dramatic experience.  After all, she doubted that either of her sisters could make use of that hideous shade.  Erin was sure that she couldn’t.  ’And that poor Ravenclaw had to suffer through it for almost thirty seconds,’ she thought to herself.  Figuring she should at least learn the young man’s name after having put him through all that, she introduced herself.

“I’m Erin Dark.  What’s your name?” she asked him. 

Even if it was a strange...awkward experience, Percy had been through much worse and hadn't considered this too traumatic.  The ugly shade of pink really hadn't troubled him that much.  It was all the immense weight that had nearly buckled him, as well as the awkwardness and embarrassment that seemed to follow every interaction with the opposite sex.

"I'm uh...smashing?"

Percy was glad that Erin finally introduced herself.  He'd been too sidetracked to really even think of it.

"Oh, I'm Percy Dervish.  5th year Ravenclaw.  Pleased to make your acquaintance Ms.Dark."

Percy extended a hand, politely offering it in greeting.

Wondering how anyone could be so unsure of their own health, Erin decided that she would not exactly be all there after having to wear that horrid shade of pink either.  Erin had no clue that it was her presence that caused the young man to be so flustered.  Apparently he would come out unscathed, since his reply to her introduction seemed normal.  After hearing his reply to her introduction though, Erin was anything but composed.

’Oh my god.  A fifth year guy.  I knew I should have asked Bellatrix for help with my wardrobe this morning! she thought to herself.  Giving the gentleman a large smile, and shaking his hand she struggled to come up with something to say.

“So – you know Beatrix then?” Erin asked, flattered that an older cutie seemed to be interested in her. 

When placed in an uncomfortable social situation, Percy was unsure about nearly everything!  So it was not at all surprising that he was second guessing nearly every breath he takes, every move he makes.  He felt like he was being watched by some creepy singer named Sting for some reason? 

Percy was caught unaware and suddenly reassured by the large smile that beamed across Erin's face.  He smiled and shook her hand, but felt a little weak in the legs at that point.  Her skin was so soft! 

"Uh huh...Yes.  Yes I know Beatrix.  Well not personally...but I know who she is.  She seems like a very nice girl.  How exactly are the two of you are related again, if you don't mind my asking?"