» Go Fish!, Open

[Ismene Swift]

The birds were chirping and the wind whistling in the trees, both of which Ismene could now appreciate after her brief foray into the land of the deaf—an adventure the fourth year had no desire to repeat again any time soon (or ever, for that matter). Playing catch-up in her studies had proved a difficult endeavour, one made even more trying by beautiful spring weather. Too distracted by the sunshine and warm temperatures to remain indoors forever, Issie had fled the library for the grassy shores of the lake, toting books along with her, though the pages had not been so much as glanced at since her arrival.

The fourth year sat on a blanket laid out on the grass—it would not do, after all, to get her clothing dirty—left alone by choice; Loretta was doing something somewhere, and the Hufflepuff was quite content to be on her own. Besides, what was the alternative? Some nosy do-gooder concerned for her welfare? Someone else who felt an overpowering need to attack her? Or someone who chattered a mile a minute, making her regret that she had regained her hearing? Or Miss Ceridwyn Bordeaux? No, for once she was quite content with her own company, and a quiet that was no longer forced upon her.

That much lasted all of ten minutes.

She sighed, having quickly grown bored. What was she to do with herself, actually study?

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[Eli Swan]

Eli didn't steal things; he was one of the few slum kids who was actually trying to be a legitimate citizen instead of just trying to be a living human being. He hadn't ever stolen food, though he'd begged on occasion, and though most of his clothes were hand-me-downs, he'd never stolen so much as a sock. So the snitch in his hands at the moment was rather unusual. He wondered how long it would be before Cash realized it was missing, and then how long after that until he thought to check Eli's pockets for it. Honestly, probably never. Because why would Eli steal Cash's snitch?

Well, that was a damn good question, and one Eli didn't have an answer to, either. He was currently staring at the snitch trying to figure out why he'd taken it. Because it was something of Cash's? That was stupid. Because it was shiny? That was even worse. He ought to return it, preferably before Cash realized it was missing, and then forget about it. He wasn't a thief, and he didn't want to start now, not for something this stupid and silly and childish.

Making a move to put the snitch back in his pocket and return to the dormitory, Eli tossed it up just half a second--which he should have known was a bad idea. Immediately, the thing was gone, thinking it needed to escape a Chaser. Damn--Eli really couldn't lose that! What would he tell Cash?

On his feet in seconds, Eli scanned the sky, firing freezing charms at any glint of gold he saw--or even thought he saw--since he'd never be able to go and get a broomstick and then catch it, at least not before it had disappeared forever. After two or three unsuccessful attempts, he did in fact hit it--which made the little golden ball fall like a dead bird, straight down to the ground... and right onto Ismene Swift, one of the Hufflepuff girls who happened to be sitting on the lawn.

"Sorry!" Eli called to her as he hurried over to make sure she was alright. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you, really!"

[Ismene Swift]

As if fate had heard her desire for an escape from the tedium of nature, it cruelly roused her from her boredom by dropping something that was not as light as it might have been onto one of the hands supporting her weight, causing it to recoil in shock—and some pain—and the girl to cry out, startled. The fourth year leaned to inspect the offending object, judging by its shape, size, and glint that it was plainly a snitch. She had seen enough before to be reasonably confident in this judgement, though a falling snitch, she had to admit, was not something to which the badger was accustomed.

Hesitantly, Ismene picked it up, cradling it in her ‘good’ hand, the offended limb still to wary of the ball that had seemed to assault it. The snitch’s wings were drooped loosely, as if the life had been sucked from it. What in the world was going on?

A boy approached rapidly, apologizing profusely. He was a stranger to her, beyond that they shared classes, and his sudden appearance startled her almost as much as the snitch had done; Ismene had always faced challenges with the opposite sex at the best of times, but now she was facing a boy one-on-one, a prospect that was particularly daunting.

The choice was between shy silence or anger. Anger won.

“Could you not be more careful?” Ismene demanded, plainly distressed. “It might have hit me in the head, and then where might we be?!” The hows and whats were ignored completely, for the moment.

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[Eli Swan]

Eli stopped a few feet from her blanket, catching his breath. "I know," he responded sympathetically to her complaint. "I just wasn't thinking--and I couldn't let it fly away. It's not mine, it's my roommate's, and I can't let it fly off into the Forbidden Forest, you know?" he said, not sure if she was following him at all. He was giving her too much information, but there was nothing to be done about that now.

"I really am sorry," he said again, as sincerely as he could. "I hope you're not too hurt? I'll walk you to the hospital wing if you like," he offered, though he doubted that whatever damage could have been done from a falling snitch would merit that. Sure, it had some time to pick up speed as it fell, but it was tiny, so how much could it have possibly hurt? "Where did it hit you?" he asked, looking her over briefly to see if he could spot any bruises forming, but he had little experience with such things.

[Ismene Swift]

“It does not look as if it’s flying to me,” Issie muttered tersely, no doubt missing his point entirely. Though she appreciated the sentiment behind his words—she would be quite distraught if she lost one of Loretta’s possessions, after all, as it would be a great affront to their relationship—she was still quite shaken by such a near miss. Then again, the fourth year concluded, he was behaving quite considerately in his subsequent treatment of her, and it was not as if any serious harm had been done (though no doubt the snitch’s impact would leave a bruise on her hand.

She sighed. “I am not as bad as that, I assure you, merely startled,” the Hufflepuff offered graciously after a moment of dallying. “Though I would thank you to be more cautious in future—one missing snitch is not nearly as grievous as what might have happened, and no doubt my father would be quite displeased if he learned that school property—” whether the snitch had been appropriated by the player in question or truly belonged to him, she could not have said “—had damaged one of his daughters.”

The father card was not one that she had played since Ixion’s arrival at Hogwarts, though it gave her a small sense of pleasure—as if she was getting away with doing something bad—to issue it now. She held up the injured hand for the boy to see, taking great care not to extend it far enough to accidentally touch him—he was a stranger, after all, and they were as alone as the outdoor setting could allow. “It looks as if it might bruise, though should not be the worse for wear in the long run.”

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[Eli Swan]

Eli frowned when she extended her wrist--and frowned even more greatly when she mentioned her father. He'd forgotten about that; she had been a classmate longer than her father had been the Quidditch coach, but his influence was formiddable, if Cash was to be believed. Eli had very little contact with him, since he no longer took flying and had no desire to play Quidditch, but no doubt having any enemies on the teaching staff, even for classes he didn't take, would not exactly help his plans to do well the next few years of school.

"I don't think I know any anti-bruising charms. Off the top of my head, anyway," he said, wrinkling his nose a minute in thought. "But I'm glad your alright, besides that. I'm sure if you just dropped by the hospital wing sometime Ms. Black could make that go bruise go away like that," he said, snapping his fingers. Then, he spied the Snitch in her lap--not exactly the perfect little smooth ball it had been before he'd accidentally freed it.

"Oh no, what did I do to the Snitch?" he lamented.

[Ismene Swift]

That he could not recall any charms was a bit of a blessing; Ismene was not entirely sure how to politely turn down such help, but proper ladies did not prance about letting strange boys do magic on them, even if it was to help. He was not, after all, a healer or anything. “I imagine I’ll do so,” she affirmed offhandedly, for all that she had no desire to give truth to her words. Ms. Elladora Black was quite frightening as far as the Hufflepuff was concerned, and Ismene had spent more than enough time in the Hospital Wing of late.

The boy seemed genuinely upset about the entire ordeal, and Ismene could not help but feel bad for him. After all, though she did not know the ins and outs of how the snitch had arrived in his possession, he had damaged an object that was not his own—and then more or less assaulted a fellow student with it. “I’m sure it will be fine,” she offered, though her tone sounded more hesitant than comforting. Comforting wasn’t really something Issie did; awkward silence and secret fawning had always been more her cup of tea where her male classmates were concerned.

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[Eli Swan]

Her tone was not at all convincing. Eli put his wand away, eager not to do any more damage to the poor little golden ball, and bent to look at it--though still a polite distance away from Miss Swift. "I didn't know it would do that," he confessed, feeling a slight blush. He was such an idiot; why didn't he think things through?

"Do you know how to fix it?" he asked her, "I mean, your father being the Quidditch coach, you know a bit about all this, right? I don't think I've held a Snitch more than four or five times, even."

[Ismene Swift]

For a moment, the fourth year merely blinked at him. Yes, she knew about quidditch—the more prominent players on the professional teams, broom quality, the rules, the more complicated techniques (at least in theory)—but only insofar as a proper young lady ought to. Hers was a spectator’s interest, not a player’s, and the very idea that she might be useful to do anything more than recite the scores of the latest matches was almost laughable, at least as far as Ismene was concerned. No, the only advice that was coming to mind was bring it to my father, but that would necessesitate admitting to the damage, and besides, her father wasn’t at the school anymore.

“Perhaps...” she began to muse, though nothing relevant followed. She was the one who had been hurt; he should have been helping her (that he had offered to do so was immediately forgotten, as Issie was apt to do)! “You could simply destroy the evidence?” the Hufflepuff offered at last, an idea so far-fetched when voiced by her lips that she was not even certain she had said it at all.

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[Eli Swan]

"I can't do that," Eli said immediately, the despair evident in his voice. "It's his. I'd have to go get another one, and I don't have any money--and I bet whichever one I got wouldn't be the same. I don't know anything about this stuff," he confessed, "I just know enough to watch the games. But Cash is a seeker, he'd know right away. Right?"

It was a rhetorical question, clearly. Even if Snitches were not that distinctive, Eli was certain that Cash would know, somehow, that the Snitch wasn't his. It'd be missing a scratch or a scuff or have a different design on the bottom-left or something and Eli would have to fess up anyway, and he'd be out some much-needed money. "There's no way to unfreeze it?" he asked her, because as the only other person in the area at the time, clearly she would know everything that he didn't. Or at least, in his panic this was his thinking.

[Ismene Swift]

“Well, how did you freeze it to begin with?” Ismene inquired, perhaps more sharply than she might have intended. True, she was not exactly worldly where magic was concerned, being only a fourth year, but even had she been, the Hufflepuff doubted greatly that she could simply proscribe reversals for spells she did not even know the name to. She was still quite content to throw the thing into the water and have done with it—it was not even as if this Cash needed his own personal snitch anyways.

It really was quite ludicrous, in the badger’s mind.

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[Eli Swan]

Eli furrowed his brow, trying to remember. He'd done it in the heat of the moment, a heartbeat where the spell had come almost before he'd had time to think. He had registered that the Snitch was flying away, that he needed to stop it from doing so, and then it had been falling. What had he said, specifically?

"Immobulus, I think," he said tentatively to the Swift girl. "Or maybe Impedimenta? I don't remember," he confessed. "Which probably means that trying a countercurse wouldn't work that well." At best, the wrong countercurse would simply do nothing; at worse, they sometimes lit the object on fire or otherwise distressed it. One boy in his Charms class had actually been chased by his textbook when he tried to undo someone else's moving-word hex with the wrong countercurse, and Eli didn't particularly feel like handing Cash a hostile Snitch in the foreseeable future.

[Ismene Swift]

She sighed, exasperated.

“How do you expect to fix it if you do not know what it was you did to begin with?” she asked, rather aggressively. All verbal paralysis in the presence of the opposite sex seemed to have been discarded when faced with the challenge at hand.

Had her father been at the castle still, she might have taken the device to him; while he would have, doubtless, questioned the snitch’s origins, he would not have punished her for something in which she had no part, and she had not learned this wizard’s name to report back. But he was off exploring, and she was now faced with a problem with little idea as to how to solve it. “Perhaps you ought to explain the situation to the snitch’s owner,” the Hufflepuff offered sensibly at last, “and take responsibility for your actions. If the owner himself cannot right what has been done, then at the very least he will not be perplexed to discover a snitch that is not his own.”

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[Eli Swan]

Eli frowned. What she was saying made sense; if he couldn't remember the spell, it was unlikely that anyone would be able to figure out the countercurse. Drat.

"I don't know," he said, somewhat helplessly, his distress coming through despite the fact that he was with a girl he barely knew and should have been keeping a properly civil face despite his emotions. What she proposed sounded awful; he couldn't just tell Cash that he'd stolen his Snitch and then broken it! At the same time, however, there seemed very little recourse besides this; and she had a point, at least then he would know that the Snitch Eli came up with to replace it wasn't his.

"I expect you're right," he said, voice still heavy with anxiety. "Can I have it back, then?"

[Ismene Swift]

Oh! Ismene had not even realized the ball was still in her possession, and relinquished it, somewhat sheepishly, to the boy. “You shall be doing the proper, honest thing, then?” Though it was phrased as a question, it was delivered as if an instruction. She would not assist in his wrongdoing, no sir. “I have little doubt that, so long as you are honest, whomever the snitch belongs to will not fault you too greatly.” Provided, of course, that the boy’s insistence that the two were actually friends was the case. No doubt he was a lost cause if such a claim was false.

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