How to Snatch a Snitch (Nikki, Open)

This was a really bad idea.

Mordecai carefully pushed his way through the heavy foliage, doing his damn best not to make too much noise as he pressed onward into the Forest with nothing but his wand to guide him. Yes he was a teacher therefore considered more intelligent than the local student body and yes he was an adult who was well aware of his actions. So why was he wandering around in the Forbidden Forest alone?

That is a very good question.

And the answer would be because of a hippogriff. A rather stupid glutinous hippogriff who Mordecai liked to call DeadMeat. During his early morning flying exercise, which he liked to perform alone before anyone in the castle had a chance to wake up and bother him, he had run afoul with a rather pea-brained fowl. And it was just his luck the brute decided to make a nice snack of his lucky golden snitch. He had that snitch for the last 38 years of his life and he wasn't about to lose it now to some over-sized feather duster.

Secretly he was happy that none of the students could see him as he crept his way from tree to tree. DeadMeat was up ahead. He could feel it.

"Come to old Morty you endangered dodo." He muttered under his breath as he held his wand aloft. A simple summoning charm should do the trick.

Nikki had been wandering and looking for food in the forbidden forest for quite sometime now. She'd started give up. She was tired and just bored. She wish someone was here with her. Sophia...or Daniel...Andrian...Wished he was alive. Anybody. She'd even want to make friends with Lord Voldemort!!
She saw a deer and grinned. She wasn't supposed to eat them though..they'd kill her. She just liked to hunt and disturb them but not harm in anyway.
She heard a voice and foot steps. She climbed high into a tree and watched a man mutter and walk around looking for something..or someone.

Mordecai paused for a minute, his head tilted to the right as he listened. The wind was whispering through the treetops in an easterly direction. Right, it seemed to say, go right.

Well, when was he ever one to disagree with the wind? Giving silent thanks to the whispering pines Mordecai kept his wand close as he carefully made his way forward, Indian stepping as he went. Not so much as a twig snapped to give his position away as he crept forward and began to crest a small gully. DeadMeat had to be on the other side. And as luck should have it the wind was in his favor, coming toward him and bringing with it the sickly sweet smell of decaying flesh.

Bingo.

Just over the rise was where the tawny hippogriff made its nest. Bones of long dead kills lay scattered all over the shallow valley and piled high in the center beside two tall-standing yew trees was the biggest nest Mordecai ever saw. Nestled among the thick branches was none other than the satisfied DeadMeat, gnawing his way through half a dead badger carcass clutched greedily in his talons.

Alright, all he had to do was get the Snitch and get out.

"Accio Snitch!"

Mordecai hissed quietly between his teeth as he pointed his wand in the brute's direction. Like a charm DeadMeat let out a squawk of surprise as a tiny golden ball flitted its way up his throat and zipped out of his beak before the hippogriff even knew what was happening. The snitch hovered in mid-air for a moment and seemed to give itself a good shake in an attempt to rid itself of the various stomach juices that clung to its frail silver wings before it zipped to the left and then to the right before winging its way right into Mordecai's upraised hand.

It was all too easy.

"Hello m'beauty." Mordecai chuckled to himself as he closed his fist around the golden ball and tucked it away in a pocket where it would be safe from marauding mouths. Now, all he had to do was go back the way he came without crossing paths with anything unfriendly and then he'd call it a day.

But DeadMeat wasn't as satisfied as Mordecai with the situation.

A fierce hiss caused Mordecai to pause and look over his shoulder. Standing in front of his nest with his feathers ruffled out in an impressive display, DeadMeat let out a ringing call as he pawed at the ground with a foreleg, leaving large furrows in the dirt. He snapped his beak at the air and there was no mistaking the look in those bright orange eyes. The hippogriff was calling him out.

"You don't wanna do that mate." Mordecai rubbed his chin as he turned to face his aggressor. A disgruntled grumble from the creature clearly stated otherwise. Mordecai arched an eyebrow as he locked gazes with the hippogriff and he could have sworn that the tawny brute narrowed his eyes at him.

Cheeky bugger.

"Right then. Ladies first." Mordecai sniffed as he shoved his wand between his broad belt and shook out his shoulders to loosen them. This was going to be a non-magic dispute, just the way he preferred them. Little did that hippogriff know that Mordecai was just crazy enough to toe the line with him.

Hello er man...Nikki chuckled. She felt so insecure and just shy because she was surrounded by two grown men and she was only a 4th year...Supposed to be a 5th. I'm Nikki and er you're both whom? Hmm...They both looked like good guys. The one with the beard she thought was funny and the other guy well...Just an innocent firebird bartender, wasn't he? I saw you at the firebird the other day...you served my sister a drink...Yet no one served me! She shook her head at how disgraceful the firebird had become.

"Sorry folks this'll only take a minute." Mordecai called over his shoulder while his eyes never left the dangerous figure in front of him. He was aware of people somewhere behind him, probably a little to the left judging from where the voices were coming from. However he wasn't stupid enough to let that divert his attention from the situation at hand.

DeadMeat let out an angry hiss and snapped his beak shut in an agressive display. Mordecai narrowed his eyes and pulled his lips back into an honest-to-god toothy snarl. Bring it.

Most wizards would have called him a lunatic, a moron, or some other colourful phrase but Mordecai didn't buy into any of it. He'd faced off with bigger and nastier in his time and he wasn't about to let some feathered upstart get his goose. All he needed was to teach this brute who was boss and then his Hippogriff problems would come to an end. He knew how to handle tough guys and it was clear that DeadMeat thought he was the cock of the forest.

Well this cock was about to get blocked for good.

DeadMeat trilled out a cry as it charged straight for Mordecai. Instead of going for his wand Mordecai just stood stock still, legs spread in a fighter's stance and waited. He had his eyes locked with the hippogriffs. Not a really smart move. DeadMeat seemed to think so too and lowered its head as it tried to ram Mordecai to kingdom come. Mordecai stepped aside at the last possible moment and lashed out with a haymaker that nailed the hippogriff right on his lower beak. That threw DeadMeat off track and before the creature could stop itself and ran headfirst into a very large and very sturdy oak tree. Mordecai could practically see the little stars twirling around DeadMeats head as the hippogriff went down for the count having knocked itself out by its own shortcomings.

It kind of reminded Mordecai of a bar brawl back in Syndey where he had been up against a much bigger and less intelligent bloke. Head to the wall. Ahhhh it never failed.

"Well that's that." Mordecai dusted his hands off and looked up. "Enjoyin' the show?"

Nikki put her hand over her mouth, she was smiling and letting off too many laughs. Why, yes I am, it's funny plus cost-free! She sat in the tree more comfortably and watched the 'show.' Been a while since she laughed this much and smiled too, it was too much ..happiness. She never thought she'd have that word in her vocab since everything.