[ ooc: With a little help of
@Misaou we kind of made a collab post to make this faster.
Also, note for everyone; you have a week to wrap up whatever you're in middle of. We're time skipping to the party or we'll never get there. Sorry not sorry.
]
[glow=green]
⊱ Hospital Wing ≫ Hospital Corridor ⊰[/glow]
The azure blue eyes of his half-veela friend flickered to meet his ice blue ones that were filled with questions that demanded answers. And when she did finally answer, she was quite the frank one about it, dropping it to him like she would regard him as an idiot to even consider otherwise;
"Obviously not."
Then as she turned her attention back to Garaile, Jay could not hide the little twitch on the left corner of his mouth, as her ever curt attitude amused him. In the beginning when they had met, she had been all smooth talks and Daddy's Good Girl-politeness and spiced with occasional well placed playful flirt. Which of course had turned out to be a completely fake personality to try to get into his good graces, for whatever reason he could not quite fathom. No matter, the contrast was of the Sabrina Gallagher from few months ago to the one he now personally knew up and close today, was almost ridiculous. But he liked her real personality far better than the one she had originally offered... Not that she needed to know that, though. Now only if other people outside their little social circle would know how
the Sabrina Gallagher behaved around him, they would be flabbergasted.
Garaile looked like he was about to waste more air again, but Sabrina stopped him by grabbing his tie and pulling him down on her eye level, not bothering to stand up herself. Her behavior was commanding, as she was pulling another one of those Boss Lady moments flawlessly, demanding respect from the two hooligans in the room. Even Jay felt it, and was only glad that he was not the one on the other end of that tie. He scuddled back on the bed and leaned on the bed's post, listening in on their quietly exchanged conversation with half interest as he tried to find a comfortable position.
"Oooh, hot, princess~"
"Lele, darling, I love you really, but I've grown tired of listening to you and Jayden bicker back and forth like children. You know just as well as I, that my time is precious. I have things to do, people to see. We both have only two hours before the party so let's move this along now, shall we? So if you'll excuse me I'm going to steal Jayden now. I do expect you to keep this a secret, for now at least."
Jay had looked up at the mention of stealing him away.
Now we were talking! Finally something worthwhile! His eyes darted between his housemates in still silence, urging either of them to speak so he would know how this would play out. Garaile eyed him briefly, before winking at him like the two of them would have been partners in crime now, and then proceeding to play some seductive moves on the half-veela. Jay's eyebrows knitted together in silent disapproval of the idea for having to place any amount of trust on the Weasel at all, and moved his gaze away from the two, feeling the urge to vomit for having to watch them flirt up close. Garaile would definitely rat them out. Or
weasel them out, he guessed...? In
any case, this just spelled out bad idea from the get-go.
But surprisingly, the Scriven boy decided to play along with Sabrina's scheme. When he was done eyefucking her and being all Hollywood suave, he spun away like a ballerina, and then regarded Jay with a brief
"It was nice talking to you, Everdragomir," before he started making his way out of the Hospital Wing obediently. It was rather... suspicious. Jay watched him go, wondering what kind of dirt Sabrina got on him to have the young journalist wrapped around her finger like that, but the puppeteer in question turned to him and demanded his attention.
"If you want to get out of this hell hole I expect you to make haste. I'll distract the wench over there," she said in a quiet voice that had Jay leaning towards curiously, making him feel all giddy inside, like they were together in a conspiracy against the matron. Sabrina pointed at the aforementioned, her voice commanding as she continued to lay out the instructions for him to follow;
"You should be able to fix up everything over here to make it look like you're still here and escape at the same time. Don't mess up."
Now the crooked smirk was pulling up the left corner of his mouth again. Jay saluted her lazily, and whispered back to her with his still a little hoarse voice that was in the point of cracking.
"Aye, aye, Captain."
She patted his leg, pleased with his co-operation. Then she suddenly reached her hand up and pinched her chest, and hard. Jay blinked in confusion, not understanding what in the name of Merlin she was doing that for. And quite frankly, it looked a bit painful. Before he could question if she had gone mental, she got up and started approaching Madam Pomfrey, meaning that their secret operation had already begun. Jay remained seated on the bed, his brain kicking into new gear, looking around in the room. He knew that he only had few seconds to form an escape plan, and even if Sabrina trusted him to handle it and Jay himself was aware that he was more clever than the average, the expectations were quite high! She should have at least given him few minutes to--
"Madam Pomfrey! I just remembered, I need you to check something out for me."
Oh, for Merlin's sake... Jay shuffled around in the bed, trying to move as quietly and unnoticeably as possible while Madam Pomfrey raised her eyes from the parchment. Sabrina was now standing in front of her table and had her full attention, but she could still see him over Sabrina's shoulder and notice he was acting suspiciously, if he made any hasty moves. Jay frowned, picking up the pillow from behind his back, eyeing them. She needed to get her away for a minute, or he could do nothing. But she already had it covered.
Putting her excellent acting skills to use, she feigned surprise and concern, making Jay finally realize why the hell she had been pinching herself.
"I've had this mark on my breast since yesterday and I didn't know what it meant. I hope it's not something serious!"
That got Madam Pomfrey concerned. She glanced at Jay, who froze and tried to look as innocent as possible -- which was not easy with a face like his, mind you -- and then turned to Sabrina, addressing her.
"I'll see what I can do, my dear girl. Come to my office and we'll have a look."
The elder woman stood up, brushed her robes down and beckoned Sabrina to follow. The moment she turned her back, the half-veela snapped her head towards Jay, mouthing an obvious
'Go, go, go!' to him before she followed after the matron. But it was really unnecessary, because the moment Madam Pomfrey was in the office, Jay was already up and about. Shuffling quietly, he darted between the empty hospital beds, glad to be the only patient at this time, picking up pillows on his arms from random beds here and there, and trying to make it look like their sheets were undisturbed. Even the soft touch of the pillows against his bandaged arm made him wince and ache, but he endured it quietly. When he had enough pillows, he shuffled back to his bed, hearing a quiet conversation from the office, as the door was left ajar.
"Please remove your shirt."
"Yes, Madam."
That made him almost stumble on his feet as his gaze immediately flew towards the door. Damn it, hormones! Now was not the time to imagine his half-veela friend stripping! Shaking his head and giving himself a slap on the cheek for a good measure (because obviously if he was not going to do it, Sabrina would if she ever found out), the boy flipped away the blanket and started pushing pillows on the bed. He tried to make them into a shape that would resemble his body lying under the covers; the oldest trick in the book.
"The skin looks a bit irritated, but that's about it. It's nothing to be worried about, sweetheart."
"Really? Thank goodness!"
"Yes, but because of the red splotch, I'll give you some of my ointment I made for rashes. Here you go, just add it to the red area at least once a day and always right after a bath."
There was a sound of footsteps, making Jay freeze. Shit! Were they done already?! He was not! Quickly, he threw the blanket over the pillows, and at the same time the door opened a bit as Madam Pomfrey had grasped the handle.
"But is it alright if I use it more than once a day if I feel it's too dry and irritated?"
Hearing Sabrina suddenly call out to the matron to stop her entering the room just in time -- otherwise she would have seen him still standing next to the bed with a lump that was supposed to be him -- made Jay almost topple over with relief. The adrenaline was making him jittery, and his instincts were high strung. Madam Pomfrey had stopped, her hand still in the door handle, her head turned in Sabrina's direction as she gave her the answer that it was fine to use the ointment more than once a day and it would do her no harm. In the mean time, Jay picked up his shoes into his healthy hand and made a mad dash past the office door as quietly as he could. When he saw movement in the corner of his eye, he dived behind one of the beds, not too far from the door to the corridor. But it was only Sabrina, stepping past the matron and buttoning her shirt. Her eye landed upon her dark haired companion who was trying to desperately hide his big frame behind one of the beds. Her blond eyebrows pulled into a frown, and she glanced over her shoulder at Madam Pomfrey, who had thankfully stepped further into the office to retrieve something because she was not behind her, and Sabrina snapped her attention back to Jay, her expression irritated. She moved her mouth, not making a sound, but Jay was able to lip read her perfectly.
'What the hell are you still doing here! Get out!' She pointed furiously at the door, and Jay stood up, now pointing back and forth between the door and the office, trying to explain wordlessly that it was not his fault.
'I'm doing my best here, but--'
'Get. Moving. Now!'
'Okay! Fine, fine! God!'
Jay shook his head with a roll of his eyes, and proceeded to jog out of the room -- almost. Suddenly, just before the door, Madam Pomfrey ducked into the room making Jay dive behind the pillar on the very last moment. The old woman approached her table and sat down, turning to look at the beds.
"Oh? Seems like Mister Everdragomir finally settled down and realized that sleep heals like I told him it would." She said in what sounded like a pleasant surprise.
"You've got that right Madam. He's really irritating, but if you manage to get it through his thick skull, he might sometimes actually listen." Sabrina said with a singsong voice, making Jay frown and make a face at her remarks. She was
fully aware that he was listening.
"Thank you so much Madam for helping me out, and taking care of my friend. I'll take my leave now, good day!"
"It was not a big deal, this is what I'm here for, Miss Gallagher." The old woman simply stated, and by the sound of it, she had picked up again her quill and started scribbling on the parchment. The sound of Sabrina's steps approached where he was hiding, and soon she was there, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Madam Pomfrey was not looking, before she nodded at him and opened the door to let them both out. Jay slipped past her, and relaxed only after Sabrina closed the door behind them and they had jogged down the Hospital Corridor further away.
The half-breed boy sighed, dropping his shoes on the outdoor floor that was radiating freezing cold through his socks to his feet. He pulled his tennis shoes on, breath turning into steam as he was breathing in the crisp autumn air that now smelled like freedom and rotting leaves. Then, he turned to look at Sabrina behind him, his face stale and voice sardonic as ever.
"Irritating? Thick skull?"
To his great relief both Sera and Luke quickly let go of the earlier tense mood. The smile of the Hufflepuff returned, gracing her features again as she moved over to the foreigner's side. To August's great surprise she even offered to play an accompaniment with the prefect, something he hadn't expected her to do because of her shy nature. It surprised him pleasantly though, glad to see the girl growing more confident in her own talents. The answer of Luke didn't faze August too much. He knew that he would end up helping out the blue-haired lad anyway if he were to bump into the prefect again inside of the music room.
August began laughing after how Lucas had acted, which only helped him grow even further embarrassed. It wasn't a very loud laugh, but even so it was quite expressive. The Turk put a knuckled fist against his lips and shook his head and imitated Luke's words, to which Luke furrowed his eyebrows with slight anger and annoyance, he always hated being on the receiving side of mockery. "
From the corner of his eyes August could see the annoyed face of Luke. Displeased with being pushed to the side and displeased to be laughed at. Not that August cared about how the prefect felt at the moment. As soon as his fingers touched the piano the male lost himself in another world, moving his hands over the keys on instinct, as if it was the only thing he knew how to do.
The sight that the double doors reveal behind them is stunning. There is a large room that is decorated with eerie beauty; the color theme is red and black, and there is lots of silks and satins and velvets used, candles and red roses everywhere to bring forth a Gothic ambience. There is a lounge area with various booths and seats and plush pillows, with lots of room to dance and socialize in the middle of the room and more intimate corners reserved for snogging that is bound to happen. Snacks, drinks and candies of all kind are sprinkled around the room, the tables nearly bending under their weight; and few suspicious looking steaming cauldrons filled with punch that most likely has something else in it than just juice alone. The cauldrons were steaming white fog that dripped from their sides to the floor, that was like a thick lazy mist in their feet as the astonished students walked further in. Money had not obviously been spared while organizing this party, as the furniture seems to be high quality antique, and many wondered how they had managed to bring everything in here without anyone noticing that something odd was afoot. Few know that actually most of this furniture is provided by the room itself. With only some decorations, food and beverages have needed to be brought in here. The students step in and ogle around, murmuring and exclaiming in admiration of the brilliant work that has been done to make this happen.
