Fire brigade

Everything was so bright at the moment, James noticed, and there was a strange ringing in his ears. He couldn't see or hear anything clearly, and then the pain of his burns hit him, although he wasn't sure at the time what the pain was from. He tried to lift his head a little, but the world swam in front of his eyes, and he dropped his head back done. As the ringing started to stop, he heard vague mutterings, and dark shapes crossed his vision. Soon the world started to come into focus, and he noticed Professor Kingsley above him, but he had no idea what had just happened. He stared around him in confusion at the crowd around him, wondering what he had done.
 
Orwell handed the plant to the professor as she asked what had happened, "They're his fireworks," Orwell stated but was immediately distracted by the fact that Archie speaking quietly, the ravenclaw looked up at his best friend, a look of concern washing over him at the words and the way Archie was holding himself. Orwell walked away from the professor a few of the aloe vera plant still in his hand and noticed as he looked at Archie that Archie was shaking, and it was at this that Orwell, noticed his arm, "Archie" he whispered feeling bad that his friend was hurt, he gently took the boys arm and looked at the burn squinting a little in the light to see it better, "It's okay Archie, it's not that bad, I can help," he told him, looking up and easily meeting Archie's gaze, trying to reassure him with only his gaze. He took the plant and told Archie to keep his arm up, and then began applying the plant to his burn, very very gently so that he wasn't further harming Archie. Once it was all applied Orwell looked back at his friend and just wrapped his arms around Archie and just held him close, trying to give all of his reassurance, kissing him lightly on the forehead as he pulled Archie into the tight hug.
​
 
Willow threw her hands up to cover her eyes as the fireworks exploded, falling backwards. By the time she uncovered her eyes and stood up, Professor Kingsley had appeared and gotten things under control. She looked at the Professor and nodded at Skye dragging her along to go and find a nurse and maybe a second professor. She hadn't seen what had happened anyway, so there wasn't much point in sticking around. She wasn't hurt and there was nothing she could do for those who were. It made more sense for her to remove herself from the situation than to exacerbate it.
​
 
Sloane had been in the great hall when she'd thought she'd heard something. Of course it wasn't until she say a couple of students running through the corridors and shouting something about getting a nurse that she realised that something had happened. She frowned and made her way out and onto the grounds when she realised that there was a group of students on the great lawn. As she got closer she recognised Cyndi and rushed to get there. She was shocked at the state of everything. "Oh my goodness! What happened? Is everyone okay?" She asked as Cyndi applied salve or something to burned students. She wasn't quite sure what happened here, but it didn't look good. She looked at Cyndi, had she been here before or after the explosion? She didn't look injured. "Are you alright?" she asked, wanting to make sure anyway.
​
 
James was busy in the Greenhouses preparing for the new semester when he heard a loud bang from across the grounds. James knew that sound anywhere, someone had lit off some fireworks. James dropped everything onto a work bench and dashed out of the greenhouse out onto the lawn where the explosion had come from. When he arrived at the scene he found a groupbof students along with Cyndi and Sloane and what looked like two students rushing up to the school. Most likely for a nurse tobtreat the students who had been burned. "What happened here is everyone OK?" It felt like a silly think to ask but he needed to ask it all the same.
 
The professor nodded her head as she continued treating the students with minor injuries. "Yes, I arrived after it happened" the professor explained. "Mr. Adams seems to have caught the brunt of it, but no one seems to want to explain how this happened. I think we'll have to punish them all" she explained calmly, though her anger was growing, to the two professors who had now arrived on the scene. She hoped the two girls would be quick about getting the nurse. "Either of you good at healing magic?" she asked, gesturing her head in James' direction.
 
Refusing Hemi firework lighting privileges worked in his favour for two reasons. Firstly, he didn't know the firework-lighting spell and saved him that embarrassment in front of the older kids. Secondly, he wasn't close enough to the fireworks to be blown to pieces from the explosion.

Hemi dived to the ground after the lot was lit. He didn't think to cast any sort of defensive spell as he felt the intense heat burn his skin. He remained conscious but his ears rang from the explosion and he hardly acknowledged the presence of any Professors which was handy as he didn't want to be the whistle blower.
 
It all seemed to happen really fast and Charlotte watched as an older Slytherin had lit the fireworks. Out of first instinct, Charlotte put her right hand out to stop it but instantly fell back with an abrupt force. She could feel searing pain on her hand and felt quite dizzy. She knew that putting her hand out to stop it was quite stupid and wanted to slap herself for it. She probably looked like a fool.

Before Charlotte could get back up again, a professor had hurried over and asked what had happened and so had many other people. She couldn't quite comprehend what was happening and it all happened like a blur. She felt everyone slowly getting angrier and angrier at the whole situation and Charlotte was starting to panic. She wanted desperately to walk away from the situation and leave everything behind but she couldn't quite move and stood up shocked as she saw everyone move about, asking questions and looking for someone to treat everyone's burns. She wanted to scream from the pain on her hand but tried to ignore it, hoping desperately that it would soon go away. She really shouldn't have gotten herself into this.
 
Felix had been sitting in his office, working on some last paperwork the end of the day, he'd pulled the short straw and ended up with more work but having been away the last few days given that he was only part-time it made a little sense, however, an explosion outside his window, brought Felix straight to his feet, he opened the window and tried to see out of it, but instead decided that he should just go to it, much like if he heard an explosion in any situation within the army. He grabbed a bag and stuffed it with various bits and pieces he might need, pain reliever soothing paste, bandages and his wand, he could heal most burns with his wand pretty easily, he didn't think anything would be too bad, or he really hoped not. As he walked out the man knocked on Lucius' door as if to ask if he was still there if he too would come, but mostly he just focused on getting outside, as he wandered out, two girls from the upper years of the school ran into him and he realised that perhaps the situation was a little worse that he'd thought. Felix swore down, this job was more dangerous than his other with some of the way these kids acted. Making his way down to the grounds with the girls leading the way he immediately noticed that there seemed to be quite a few injured but most pressing was a boy on the ground, he walked up to the professor Kingsley and knelt down beside the boy, "Is he the worst hurt?" the man asked in general to anyone willing to answer, he took a moment to inspect the injuries, before beginning to work on them, cleaning up the wounds individually and then healing the various burns with magic, thinking that there would be very little if any scarring on the boy which was likely damn lucky, Felix gave him something to ease the pain which would hopefully also bring clarity, "Right, whose next?" Felix stood up looking for whomever desired to be treated next, he'd leave the finding out what happened to the three professors on hand.
​
 
Sloane shook her head when she was asked if she was any good at healing. She could do nothing beyond the bare minimum cuts and bruises. Salves were her best friend. Sloane looked at the group and shook her head before straightening herself to start taking the stories of the students. "Alright you lot, is someone going to tell us what happened?" Cyndi said they would have to punish them all and yeah, that was probably the best thing to do, but maybe someone would fess up. She looked at each of them. She didn't want to punish them all if she didn't have to. There were a substantial number after all. She watched as the nurse took care of the problems. Clearly the Gryffindor Prefect was deeply involved, as he was clearly the closest. She wondered how Cyndi felt about that. "First years, I'll remind you that detention and points loss could affect your heads of houses decisions when it comes to Quidditch and other extra curricular activities." Would that be an incentive to get them to talk?
​

(Am I allowed to threaten them like that? xD )
 
What seemed to start out as harmless fun with a few fireworks turned into absolute chaos. The heat from the fireworks being set off was so powerful she didn't even get a chance to look at them. She was too busy shielding her eyes and falling to the ground from the explosion with most of the other students. The prefect's shielding charm wasn't as effective as he probably thought. Though, of course, no one was expecting this situation.

When everything settled down, Maddie heard new, stern voices. "Oh no, this cannot be good" she thought to herself when she saw her head of house walk over to group of students. Everything happened so quickly and Maddie had no idea what happened or who started the show. She got up off the ground sheepishly and joined the line that was forming for treatment for the light burns that she had on her forearms. She tried to blend in with the rest of the crowd, trying not to get picked on for an explanation about what had happened.
 
Esmè's eyes narrowed on the professors as they spoke of punishing everyone present. Even though she enjoyed seeing others getting into trouble, it was one of those ridiculous and unjust conclusions adults drew when they couldn't control a situation. Stepping forward, the Slytherin witch decided to speak up, happy that everyone else was either too scared, injured or disoriented to really lay blame on her. "Professors, please." She said in a tone that conveyed her disbelief at their attitudes. Her eyes shifted from Professor Kingsley to Starks as she spoke, unsurprised that the Muggle Studies professor had jumped onto the "punish everyone" bandwagon. The filth loving woman probably lacked the capacity for an original thought. "I think everyone is in a bit of a state of shock. The prefect did just blow himself up in front of everyone." Her eyes left the professors and focused on James, the teen witch shaking her head. "It all happened very quickly, but as I arrived there was a bit of an argument over who got to light the fireworks, and he got impatient and lit them himself, but they all went off at once. I don't know why he thought it was a good idea to carry around all these fireworks, but his actions weren't our fault. I wouldn't be threatening victims of someone else's mistake." She finished speaking and took in a breath, hoping that her excuse would be enough. It was as close to the truth as she could make it, she just hoped other people would back her up. After all, it got everyone out of trouble.
 
Everything had happened so fast, the explosion, the burns, the questions. Hemi could hardly keep up with time as he queued for medical assistance. The burns hurt but adrenaline still pumped through his veins, numbing the pain significantly. He had said very little, deliberately ignoring any questions. Of course the Professors were going to target the first years for information. Their age made them easy targets.

And then someone did speak, an older girl. Hemi listened, the story almost resembled what he remembered apart from one tiny detail. He doubted he could pick whoever lit the fireworks from a line up as he didn't get a proper look at them, but it definitely wasn't James. "That's not what happened." He said after a moment, "James didn't light the fireworks!" Oops, Hemi had broken his vow of silence.
 
A nurse had soon arrived and still everyone was asking questions. It made Charlotte frustrated that people were asking the children so many questions and she wanted to scream really loudly and hope that all her problems would go away. She stood in the line that was queuing up impatiently. Hogwarts was supposed to be a safe place and it was the last place Charlotte would ever expect something like this to happen.

"It was her!" Charlotte exclaimed, adding onto Hemi's comment and pointing her good hand in the direction of the older girl who spoke up. Why would someone hurt themselves on purpose? Charlotte saw the Slytherin sneakily get her wand out and she was definitely sure that it was her. She was the one of the few that did not seem at all affected by it and Charlotte wanted to slap her in the face for telling such lies. It was pretty obvious who it was and Charlotte did not want to get into trouble for nothing because of a stupid lie.
 
Spectacular! It was a beautiful evening for fireworks, Damide thought, and it was so very fortunate that he'd been up in the East Tower exploring to watch them all go off. It had given him quite a scare, initially- weren't these things supposed to be timed?- but the light show made the Ravenclaw firstie gasp audibly.

He stayed to watch until the scattering sparkles drifted into smoke and clapped very loudly when no one else could hear. There were many people far below on the lawn, so it must have been a planned event. They looked so small and vulnerable down there. What an excellent time for a prank ...
Unbeknownst to the naughty young man, there were actual injured students on the Great Lawn as well as Professors and school medics tending to the burnt or stunned figures. What Damide saw was one great target and a bunch of distracted people, so he dropped to his knees to rummage through his pack for 'supplies'. Nothing of real catastrophic value, save three pre-packaged dung bombs. It would be a difficult shot, but he could make it.

The wind whistled as three fist-sized projectiles were lobbed through the window of the East Tower. One hit a stone awning and careered into a neatly trimmed patch of shrubbery; useless. Another hit the ground quite near to the trouble but failed to detonate. The last dung bomb, within which the hopes, dreams and house points of a Ravenclaw boy lay, landed right in the middle of the group. Pomph! it said, quite inadequately, but the evil mists contained therein spread within seconds. It filled the air for many meters with a miasma as foul as the Swamps of Dagobah.
Damide was off, tearing out of the tower and away from the window with giggles trailing in his wake.​
 
Esmè scoffed. "Typical Gryffindor, not wanting to lose points for your house. They didn't just go off by themselves." She rolled her eyes at the Hemi boy, recognising him from the time he'd attempted to sign up for the Students Defence Association. James had tried to look out for the pitiful little thing. Unfortunately, one of the other irritating little first years spoke too, trying to lay the blame on Esmè. The fifth year was baffled, unsure why a fellow Slytherin was attempting to blow her cover story, or why she'd ever think it was a good idea to go against someone whom she shared a common room with. It wasn't going to be hard to make sure that girl suffered for the rest of her years at the academy. But, as the younger girl lifted her finger to point, a smoking bomb landed in between the group and went off with a bang, filling the area with a putrid smoke. The seeress-in-training coughed as the stench hit her nose, but hoped at least it had obscured her in time before the wind dispersed it. "Who threw that?" The girl choked out, wiping at her now watering eyes. Looks like the professors had other problems to worry about now.
 
Cyndi knew that if she was patient, someone would break. And while she had expected it to be a younger student, she wasn't surprised that it was a Slytherin who did it. She could always count on them to save their own necks. Quickly, the children turned on each other, declaring the older girl a liar. Before that could be settled, some very foolish student decided to throw dung bombs, by the smell of it. The woman could only manage one problem at a time and hoped someone inside would catch the dung bomb thrower dirty handed. The professor cast a quick shield charm to prevent anymore from getting through, gagged slightly, and turned to the group. "Hemi, you, and you" he stated, pointing to the two Slytherin girls, "stay. Everyone else, clear out right now unless you have something to add." The professor still didn't know exactly what happened, but she figured the less students involved, the easier it might be to get to the truth.
 
It was chaos, and Desi wished that he could have been enjoying it more. Even though his hand felt loads better with what Professor Kingsley and the nurse had given him, it still hurt. And then, he'd gotten his favorite shoes splattered with dung. As soon as the professor told them to clear out, Desi headed off. He did not need to be involved any longer. He gave one last long look to the Gryffindor who'd said a word, making a point to never trust that guy with a secret. The other first year was worse though, ratting out someone from her own house. Where was the loyalty? It really was James' fault for being bossy and not sharing when he had to know what a crowd something like fireworks would draw. Desi headed for the castle, his nose filled with the smell of dung, his hand still smarting, and his head thinking about the big ideas of loyalty and trust floating around in his mind.
 
As if the night wasn't disastrous enough, some jokester thought it would be funny to throw dung bombs into the crowd. Eurgh" Maddie whined, trying to get the smoke (and the stink) out of her eyes. Before she knew it, her two best friends were confronting an older Slytherin girl and accusing her of starting the fireworks. She flailed her arms and shook her head trying to make them stop talking, but they ignored her and told the Professor it was the older girl. Maddie sighed, she tried to stop them and now, if they weren't in trouble with the Professor, they would definitely be in trouble with the older Slytherin girl who seemed a bit menacing and who Maddie didn't want to get on the wrong side of.

The Professor ushered everyone away, unless they had anything to add. Maddie didn't know who set off the fireworks but she was pretty sure it wasn't the Gryffindor prefect. She wanted to stay with her friends but she knew there was nothing she could do anymore. So, reluctantly she walked back in the way of the castle. Giving her friends sad and sympathetic looks as she went.
 
At first Hemi thought someone had let a bad one rip before it turned out to be a dungbomb. He sheltered his nostrils with his sleeve, usually he would find the prank quite funny but he didn't even smile on this occasion.

Hemi wondered whether he had made the right decision calling out the Slytherin girl. Yes and no, he didn't want to stand by and let an injustice happen, but speaking up made the first year involved in something he had merely been a spectator of. As for who did light the fireworks, Hemi couldn't be sure if Charlotte was right. He hadn't really seen it happen. He had been too preoccupied with trying to light a firework himself, but he wouldn't be sharing that piece of information with Professor Kingsley.

His heart sank as everyone started to file back to the castle. Had he stayed quiet he'd be joining them. He definitely made the wrong decision speaking up for James.
 
Vulcan did not even flinch when Professor Kingsley docked some points. He was pretty much certain that she would hate him if he continued. Vulcan muttered in Bulgarian, "Well, I wasn't lying." The professors arrived, ones that he didn't really know considering he spent a year or two in Durmstrang. The only one he really knew was Kingsley. When demanded what happened, Vulcan did not really know himself, but maybe he could just agree with Esme. Even if she did it, which he would admire her even more if she did, he did not want her to get in trouble with Styx. He did not leave like the others though. Instead, he stuck his hands into his pockets and said, "Professor, I'm certain James blew himself up. It wouldn't be the first time he did something careless, right?" Vulcan knew the trouble the prefect landed himself in this year. The food fight was legendary throughout the school after all. Someone let off a dung bomb, which made Vulcan promptly cover his mouth and nose to stop himself from breathing it in. What he would give to be older and cast the bubble head charm on himself.
​
 
Dungbombs. Charlotte knew instantly what they were as soon as they were thrown. She was very familiar with the prank and chuckled, remembering when she used to play with those things at home. She thought it was quite funny and tried to hide her small laughter with her hand over her nose and mouth. The smell was quite putrid and a small part of her was also frustrated with the person who had thrown the dungbombs because it took ages for the horrible smell to go away.

Charlotte sighed when the professor asked for her, Hemi and the older Slytherin to stay. She really did not feel like hanging around any longer with a painful hand but she was willing to stand up for the Gryffindor no matter what it was going to take. It was only when another boy spoke up that Charlotte felt her face growing hot with anger. "Why would someone just blow themselves up?" she snapped, rolling her eyes at the older boy. "Besides, you weren't even there to see it!" It made Charlotte disgusted that someone was just throwing the blame on someone else for no reason whatsoever. So what if he had done some stupid things in the past? Charlotte knew what she saw and she was fairly certain that it was the Slytherin.
 
Vulcan rolled his eyes when the first year dared to speak to him. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Unless you were keeping tabs on every single person, which is doubtful, then you would have seen my entrance as soon as this boy blew up the fireworks." Vulcan paused for a moment, before sighing, looking bored. "Am I excused, professor? I grow irritated when a first year speaks in such condescending tones and sounds like she knows everything when in fact she knows about as much as we do. Besides, do we even hear James denying what he did?" Vulcan pointed out the obvious there. The only one that would deny it, when it came to who did it, was the person that did. And so far, James was not denying anything.​
 
Esmè spared the younger Slytherin a scathing glance as she continued to rattle on, holding back the urge to blast the little brat off of her feet. Surely they could afford another memorial on the Hogwarts grounds. Something situated right next to that awful rose bush. Perhaps a garden of stinging nettles to truly capture just how irritating she was being. "If you listened, you impetulant little beast, I said he was impatient. Hasty. I'm sure he didn't mean to blow himself up, but he managed to do so following the argument over who should light the fireworks. Why he had them is beyond me, but it goes to show how ill-equipped he was to handle them. It wouldn't be the first time he's made a brash decision. Just because I arrived at the time doesn't mean I had anything to do with his incompetence." The witch snapped back in a harsh tone, glowering down at the smaller child. Her eyes left the girl after a moment and she took a step closer to Vulcan, touching her hand to his shoulder as she affixed her attention on Professor Kingsley. "I won't tolerate further false accusations. May we leave? I'm not having my time wasted over someone else's poor decision-making. This is absolutely ridiculous."
 
The professor didn't think that James was in any kind to confirm or deny anything at the moment. Whether or not that might change once he was feeling a bit better was still to be determined. "Enough" the professor stated firmly to the group that had begun bickering amongst themselves. She really hadn't been in the mood to deal with something like this at all, and even less so now that they'd turned on each other. " Go. I don't know why you decided to come here in the first place, Vulcan" she added wearily to his request. Turning on the two ladies quickly, she made sure they didn't think that extended to all of them. "You two, on the other hand, you may not leave" she indicated to the older Slytherin girl. "Can one of you escort these two to Kalif and explain what happened? Let him deal with them" she stated, asking her fellow professors for help. Cyndi hadn't been there, so there was no way for her to know which girl was telling the truth, if either of them were. She would leave it to their Head of House to decide what, if any, punishment should be handed out. Besides, she had a very injured student here and wanted to be sure that he was going to be ok. Turning in the direction of the nurse, Cyndi called over her shoulder. "Hemi, stay right there. I want another word with you." She moved towards the man to see if he would update her on James' condition.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top