A New Lead

[Marisol Woods]

Just when Marisol had forgotten all about the Scitorari, the wizard news had exploded with buzz about them again. The muggle-born didn't get the newspaper delivered to her in her mail, so she couldn't catch much of the story, but the rumors that were already spreading ranged from horrific to humiliating, (at least on the Aurors side), to just plain unbelievable. But Marisol couldn't be sure for herself just what was unbelievable in the wizarding world or not, so she had to find out what the story was.

She was too scared to ask Professor Styx, who had inadvertently sent her on the hunt for news about the Scitorari at the beginning of last year in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and she couldn't ask Professor Pendleton after the last time she had asked him for something. She had asked another professor who simply told her she had nothing to worry about and shooed her away, which only made the latina more curious. So after lunch Marisol headed straight for the library, in hopes that the Daily Prophet archives would be updated with the latest on the Scissor people - Scitorari.​

<i></i>

 

[Vex]

Vex rarely went to the library simply because whenever he did, people tended to pack their things and leave. He wasn't sure why they felt the need to do so. If they caught his eyes, he was going to hunt them down and antagonise them regardless of whether they were busy or not. However, today the non-being entered the library for the express purpose of annoying as many comfortable, studying students as he could get away with before someone went and dobbed on him to Kingy. The library was the perfect place to go and find groups of people desiring peace and quiet, and so it was inadvertently made the creature's prime target.

Vex loved his trumpets, though had never had a lesson in his entire (albeit short) existence. But this never deterred him. His long fingers swung the instrument haphazardly as he floated about the room, looking for the perfect spot to place himself. There was some noise coming from one of the small students, and his orange eyes creased from his large, menacing grin. Was it a firstie? It was hard to tell, really - they all looked the same with their arms and legs like that. Some were taller, though, and others walked with their noses in the air. The best determiner was whether they tried to tell him to do something - these were usually older students, or really stupid ones.

He approached the Gryffindor, his eyes narrowing further as he swooped down to be just barely a few inches from her. "Whatcha doin'?" he asked slowly, wondering if it were something fun and, most importantly, secret. Vex loved secrets.​

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol had only just approached the section of newspaper archives when out of nowhere a ghost appeared right in front of her - no, not a ghost, a poltergeist, even worse. Marisol stepped back because he was so close she couldn't focus on him and scowled in annoyance, knowing the kind of things he was capable of. "Unless you have information about this whole Scitorari business, go away Vex!" she muttered quickly.

She didn't want to raise her voice or attract attention, which seemed impossible with the poltergeist around, but the last time she had gotten too excited about finding out information about the secret group Professor Pendleton had warned them not to go shouting about it or be overheard by anyone because it was not in good taste. It did not look well for a student to be so interested in the terrorist group anyway. Marisol tried to ignore him and quietly hissed "Yes!" when she saw that the archives were indeed up to date with the exclusion of today's paper, which would perhaps be added tomorrow. She rummaged through the first few papers and didn't immediately see "Scitorari" in any bold, large headlines and frowned.
​

 

[Vex]

Well, wasn't that positively rude. Whilst easily one of the most rude things in the castle, Vex wasn't much of a good sport. His eyes went comically large at the mention of the Scitorari - a funny little group, in his opinion. As a being that could not be injured, he had no comprehendible fear of them, but the young Gryffindor's secretive behaviour made him want to join. "Scitorari!" he cheered, before covering his mouth and floating down closer to the firstie. Secret. He could do that. She was looking through a bunch of boring papers, and the poltergeist was reading right over her shoulder. "What Scirotari business? Why do you want to know about them? Are you a spy? Ooooo, I don't think Kingy would like you doing this!" he said in a sing-song tone.
​

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol glared at the poltergeist when he cheered happily for the Scitorari. She hissed for him to keep down and thankfully he seemed to catch on that this was a private matter. She didn't much like people reading over her shoulder, especially semi-corporeal beings who made her feel twenty degrees colder, but she was also too excited at the idea of finding out new information that she needed someone to bounce theories off of and Asaiah was not around at the moment. Marisol chuckled lightly when Vex asked if she was a spy and then rolled her eyes at the mention of the Headmistress. "She also wouldn't like you cheering about the Scitorari, and she'd probably vanish you," the Gryffindor threatened. Truthfully she was making things up - she had no idea what Professor King would do or exactly how she would react, she was just going off of how Professor Pendleton had warned her to be more sensitive to the subject the last time she had seemed excited to learn more about the Scitorari.

Marisol could tell Vex was probably not going to go anywhere soon so she decided to explain to him. "I overheard the professors talking about a new Scitorari story over breakfast this morning," she said, still searching the newspapers. It was taking her longer than before because this time she was scouring every page as opposed to just the headlines on the front page - she didn't want to miss anything, and she wouldn't put it past the papers to try and conceal the frightening story beneath other stories. "I think they said it happened nearby in New Zealand," she muttered, "an attack or something? I don't know what they do. Do you?" she asked, looking back up at the semi-transparent ghost.
​

 

[Vex]

Vex puffed his chest. Kingy would never vanish him! He doubted she even could. In retaliation, he blew a raspberry at her with his thumbs in his ears. This quickly changed to dramatic chin stroking as he was let 'in the know' as he liked to think it. The poltergiest loved gossip, and nothing was more gossip worthy than a secret, taboo subject! When a question was posed at him, however, he floated back a little and spun within the air. He had heard a few things around the castle. With his ability to turn invisible whenever he liked, it made sneaking and eavesdropping very, very easy. He was also prone to lying and exaggeration, however. "Ooooh, they're terrible nasties. The worst, some say," he said in hushed tones, looking around as if paranoid that someone might hear. "I'd definitely worry about messing with them if I were all soft and squishy like you are. They've been known to pluck children from the streets - never to be seen again. I also heard that they have hags working with them to help with their nefarious potions!" He spun around her, going through the shelves with his incoporeal body as he did so. "Better keep your eyes open, Little Cub! Curiosity killed the cat, you know." His grin wasn't very reassuring, splitting his face nearly in half.
​

 

[Marisol Woods]

Marisol wrinkled her nose in disgust as the poltergeist blew a raspberry at him but ignored him nonetheless, continuing her fruitless search. She sighed, running her finger down the pages slowly to catch a glimpse of the key word she was looking for. Where was Ctrl

+

F when you needed it; as magical as the wizarding world was to her, some things were still a huge inconvenience. She was glad when Vex seemed to know something about the Scitorari and looked up at him excitedly, her eyes wide with interest as he began talking. She gasped lightly at first but then quickly narrowed her eyes as he grinned maniacally. "You're lying," she said skeptically, although not quite as convincing as she intended. "That's not true otherwise Hogwarts would've locked us up in here for safe keeping," she said lightly, returning to her search. She kept quiet as he pointed out that curiosity often lead to terrible things, which was quite true of how she came to have her condition, and chewed on her lower lip in thought. She just needed to hear what the teachers were saying. "Wait, Vex you can turn invisible right? Why don't you go sneak in the teachers lounge and hear what they're saying about this story?" she whispered excitedly. The chances of him actually relaying factual information were slim but there was also the possibility of some truth to his stories and if she could piece that with whatever was in the newspaper, she would have a better understanding of what the Scitorari did.​