Munchies

Jack raised his eyebrows again. The Headmaster? He's delt with the man before. He grinned. What was the headmaster going to do? Jack had been easily passing all his classes, so he couldn't just kick out one of his best students. And with the O.W.L.S coming up, Jack was sure he couldn't have to leave Hogwarts.

"Why do I need an escort?"

He asked innocently, stuffing his hands in his pocket. It looked like he just felt like stuffing them in their,for no real purpose, but Jacks held tightly to the Instant darkness powder in between his index finger and middle finger. Jack then raised his free hand in the air as if he was a 3rd grader asking a question.

"You still need to keep your part of the bargain. I believe that was, ah, your name?"

He lowered his hand and shoved it back into his pocket, walking past Amelia and stopping at the door. signalling her to hurry up.

“Because you’ve already proven yourself untrustworthy,” Amelia snapped back at Jack when he inquired about why he needed to be escorted back to Ravenclaw tower. He had asked it innocently, but there was nothing innocent about this one. Amelia wasn’t usually so snippy with her peers when she found them out after curfew – it was the school rule she broke most often, afterall – but Jack was really grinding on her nerves. He seemed to find extreme pleasure in pushing her buttons, or at least figuring out where they were. And with Amelia, most of the buttons were labeled annoyance, so he had a good shot at getting what he wanted.

Snapping at him seemed to have no effect on him taking her any more seriously, because soon after she replied he was mocking her again, raising his hand tentatively as if this were some kind of classroom. Assuredly, if this had been a classroom, and she the teacher, Amelia would have given Jack detention and thrown him out ten minutes ago, cutting off the problem at the root, so to speak. But as it was, Amelia did not have the power to dish out detentions. She did, however, have explicit privilege to use unforgivable curses in her role as a member of the imperium squad. Though Amelia would not usually consider this, if Jack kept it up, she just might be pushed outside of her normal limits.

“Oh yes, because you were so good at keeping yours,” Amelia barked, making no attempt to roll her eyes as Jack walked right past her to the door that separated the kitchen from the corridor. Standing there, he gestured to Amelia to hurry up, which only exasperated her further, and she sighed heavily as she stepped out into the corridor and pulled the kitchen portrait closed behind her.

“It’s Amelia, now let’s go,” the older Ravenclaw girl said hastily as she attempted to usher Jack down the hallway that would lead them to the stairs.

Maybe knowing my name will give him enough reference to let him know that he really ought to just shut up… Amelia thought, knowing that any rumors Jack might have heard about her wouldn’t be about how great of a friend she was or how nice it was to talk to her; the rumors concerning her were far more likely to involve the words “Ice Queen”, or perhaps involve a story about how she had turned her wand on someone who had said just one smart comment too many. It had happened before, and there was very little keeping it from happening again now.

Jack grinned. He couldn't help it. He hadn't had this much fun bothering someone since he left to Hogwarts. He hopped out the portrait door and spun around, waiting for her to follow.

"C'mon, where are you taking me first? Common room or Headmasters office? I wouldn't mind the Common room first. I haven't had a decent sleep since three days ago when I.. ah.. er, never mind, you don't need to know what I did."

He said tentivley. He wasn't about to get that going. Jack bit his lower lip and turned back around, walking toward the Office. He didn't want to talk about everything that happened in his life. She was already asking his name, wasn't that enough? He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, and relaxed. This was a piece of cake. And Jack liked cake.

“I already told you I am taking you back to the common room,” Amelia said exasperatedly, only stopping herself from cursing him because he was finally moving in the right direction, and because he seemed defenseless. If he had a wand on him, he would have pulled it out by now; no witch or wizard liked to be defenseless in the face of a wand, and Amelia had not been hesitant to show hers. Then again, no witch or wizard liked to be without his or her wand either, and for some reason Jack had found himself in the kitchen without his only source of magic. Not exactly an intelligent move, which likely explained why he hadn’t been following Amelia’s line of conversation either.

“I am not waking up the headmaster in the middle of the night to tell him that someone was out of bed after curfew. If I did that every time I encountered one of you, the headmaster’s already standoffish nature would likely take an unfortunate turn for the worse,” Amelia said, talking mostly just to keep Jack from talking, though it wasn’t working, because he went right on talking over her.

“And I am also not taking that bait,” Amelia said, brusquely cutting him off when Jack mentioned whatever may or may not have happened three days ago. They were on the third floor by now, and the boy was trying to jerk her chain, but Amelia was too tired and irritable to start in on a conversation like that. First of all, no matter how unintelligent Jack had presented himself to be thus far, no one was foolish enough to bring up past offenses to a disciplinary figure without a reason behind it, and Amelia doubted his reason was a good one. And secondly, Amelia simply didn’t care. Her job was to enforce that rules when she actually witnessed them being broken; whatever Jack had done three days ago didn’t matter now, and the sooner he realized that, the better.

Jack looked at her confusingly.

"Bait?"

He asked her innocently. HE wasn't trying to set up bait, but that sounded like a good idea. He really didn't want to get in trouble or anything. and he would go with anything to delay his punishment. Jack looked back at Amelia and pulled Piceloe out of his pocket, and set him on the ground, slipping the powder package in his mouth. Jack motioned for the rat to stay behind the conrer with his head and the rodent skittered off. He stood up, and straighetend his robes. Jack looked at her.

"C'mon I wanna get some sleep."

Amelia was really getting tired of all the feigned innocence from Jack. Every time she caught him trying to pull one over on her, he made it seem like he was completely oblivious. This was especially frustrating because Amelia knew it wasn’t true, and because it was nearly 2:00am and she just wanted to go to sleep. She should never have followed him into the kitchen in the first place. If only she would have just pretended not to have seen anything, she could already have been in bed now.

As if his innocence routine were not enough, Jack was also stalling as much as he could. The latest tactic in the routine to avoid getting up to Ravenclaw tower seemed to involve stopping short and digging in his pocket. Amelia was ready with her wand in case he pulled out another projectile – it might not be a candy bar this time – but instead, he pulled a white rodent from his pocket and set him on the ground, Jack’s hand obscuring most of the creature. Amelia had never really understood why anyone would want a rodent for a pet; they were not at all useful, and there was plenty of potential for someone else’s pet – a cat, or owl for example – to swallow yours in one bite.

Amelia wasn’t going to comment on any of this, however, because she didn’t want to be sucked into another dead end conversation with her housemate. Instead, she tapped her foot impatiently until he stood up, rolling her eyes heavily when he told her to ‘c’mon’ – which isn’t even a word – and nudging him ahead with her wand.

“Whatever, just move,” Amelia said pointedly, her impatience showing full force now. She wasn’t going to give this kid any more chances; her tolerance had dropped to its absolute lower limits and there was nothing left. If he tried anything else, he was going to regret it. Amelia was dangerous even against someone that was armed; a bratty kid without a wand could hardly present any kind of challenge she couldn’t face.

Jack looked at her with irritation.

"Don't poke me. Please and thank you."

He walked ahead of her, making sure she couldn't see the smrik on his face. As they wandered to the corner. Jack looked around. finally seeing Piceloe sitting on the shoulder of a statue. He grabbed the packet in the rats mouth, and threw it at the ground, right in between him and Amelia. The Instant Darkness Powder blew up in front of them, filling the whole hallway with inky blakness. Than,doing it as quietly as possible, he sprinted away.

He dashed the way to the common room, making sure to take his rat with him. He was running blindly, and kept running into stuff. But he knew Lumos wouldn't work. it was a powder at its work. Jack just stumbled to a hallway where he could see, and ran down it, hopeing Amelia couldn't see him, and that she was trying to get out of the mess still.

((OOC: I'm confused:

Jack Kubin said:
He said it soothingly, the grin still visible on his joylite face. He just wished he hadn't left his wand in his dorm. He had chosen the least likely night anyone would be in here, but of coure, someone had to be here.

How do you have your wand now? I understand the instant darkness, but it seems impossible that you somehow got your wand when you were supposed to have left it in your dorm.))

((Whoops, completely forgot. Sooooo sorry. Ill edit that out. My bad ><))

((No worries. With the edit, it looks fine.))

“I’ll do what you ask when you decide to do what I-“ Amelia began, but as she should have anticipated, Jack wasn’t listening. Instead, he moved ahead of her in the hallway, completely leaving her behind and she took longer steps to keep up. They were on the fifth floor now, and there were only two more flights of stairs and a corridor separating her from freedom of his dead weight. It was this thought of freedom that kept her from cursing him in the back as he moved swiftly ahead of her.

He rounded the corner first, only two steps ahead of her, but those two steps made all the difference. When Amelia made it to the adjoining corridor, Jack was standing facing her, and for a split second she could see the look of triumph on his face. Then she heard a bang, and everything went black. Amelia put her arms up in front of her face, trying to bat away the smoky darkness, but it was no use. When her attempt at Lumos failed to improve her vision any, Amelia knew what she was dealing with. One of those Weazley Wizard products, no doubt.

Protego totalum Amelia whispered, casting the defensive spell around herself in case Jack got any funny ideas. Judging by the faint sound of footsteps, though, he wasn’t sticking around to do any damage. He was just trying to get away, and when the blackness didn’t dissipate, it seemed like he would succeed.

I hate this job, Amelia thought angrily to herself as she fumbled through the darkness, feeling her way to a wall and then following it. She was frustrated at being outsmarted by someone she regarded as wholly unintelligent, and was mentally kicking herself for not cursing him earlier and just making the whole thing easier. Next time she would know better.

The darkness began to dissipate after she had walked 25 meters or so, but by the time she could see well enough to get a bearing on her surroundings, Jack was nowhere to be found. As she had guessed, the obnoxious kid had disappeared while she was figuring her way out of his well-timed prank, leaving Amelia with only one real option. She wasn’t going to go hunting around the castle for the delinquent kid that had already given her so much trouble. It simply wasn’t worth it. She would report the incident to the headmaster in the morning and let him deal with it as he saw fit.

For now, she was going to bed. And it would be a lot faster getting there without Jack Kubin.

((Amelia exits.))