Open Scouring and Scolding

[Nicole Fisk]

"Honestly, Ryan," Nicole said hotly, wand still held aloft as she continued trying to scourgify more and more mud from Ryan's poor Charm's book. She'd offered to help him with his Charm's homework and had been appalled at the state of his textbook, pages practically glued together with mud. "No wonder you haven't been able to do any of your reading, this is a mess," She said, clicking her tongue again as more mud was cleared away so she could turn to the next chapter. "Mum and Dad spend a lot of money to buy you nice things for school you can't go around rubbing them in dirt just cause you feel like it." Nicole paused to make sure Ryan was still paying attention glaring when it seemed like he was fussing with his stupid biting school bag instead. "Ryan!" She said hotly, wincing and lowering her voice when she remembered they were in a library.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan scratched idly at his ear as Nicole continued to tell him off. He was glad she was cleaning off his book for him at least, Charms had been rather difficult when half of the material was covered in mud, but Ryan had been kind of enjoying trying to parse out the smeared sentences anyway so it really hadn't been necessary. And he could have avoided Nicole scolding him for 20 minutes too. "I needed something heavy to get the worms," He said with a shrug, still not sure it was as big of a deal as Nicole was making it out to be. She was fixing it after all anyway. But Ryan knew he should probably try to act sorry so she'd stop yelling at him and quickly put down his backpack when she said his name, trying his best to look apologetic. "I'll use a different book next time," He offered, glancing at the nearby library books and flinching at Nicole's following noise of outrage.

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy had been in the library studying for exams that were fast approaching. She had ended up picking up a particularly interesting history book to read instead of her Care of Magical Creatures book she should have been reading. She looked up from the desk she was reading at and saw Nicole and Ryan, or mostly Nicole having a heated discussion. Poppy winced slightly as Nicole nearly shouted her brother’s name. She leaned back in her chair and craned her neck to see what they were arguing about and spotted a particularly muddy textbook and she was able to put the pieces together. She frowned and quickly grabbed up her things and went over to try and hopefully ease some of the tension. “Hello.” she said cheerfully and sat down. “Looks like a casualty in the name of science.” she continued with a small laugh, not sure if either of them would laugh along.

 

[Nicole Fisk]

"In the name of dumb, more like," Nicole said hotly, casting another scourgify spell and giving her wand a small flick of disgust as the mud siphoned away. "Sorry, that was rude, hi Poppy," She said after a beat, giving Poppy an apologetic smile and kicking Ryan under the table so he'd acknowledge her too. "See Ryan, Poppy's in Ravenclaw and she doesn't cover her charms books in mud," She said, nodding to Poppy's own books in the hopes that Poppy would follow along. She knew it was of little use trying to scold Ryan for this now, but she still couldn't believe he'd been so careless with his school things. Or that he'd left the mud on it for so long. Just the idea of not doing her class reading or homework for more than a few days made Nicole's skin itch.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan didn't look up when someone else joined them, focused on seeing if he could find the ticklish spot on his fanged bag again when Nicole kicked him under the table. Frowning at her, he looked over at Poppy, who'd commenting something about a casualty of science. Ryan glanced at his Charms book in question, noting Nicole was at least nearly done cleaning it off. "She sort of helped when we were trying worm charming," He said, thinking back to it with a shrug. "Though it's true, she didn't use any of her books for it, she just asked a lot of questions," Ryan said simply. He hadn't minded her questions though, enjoying getting to explain his research on worm charming even if the interruptions had been annoying at the time. And Augustus had helped too so he could focus on his technique.

 

[Poppy Perkins]

“It’s alright.” Poppy felt her face flush as Nicole complimented her about not getting mud on her books. “Looks like you’re getting most of it out.” she added encouragingly. While at the time she didn’t encourage using the book as a tool, it wasn’t like her own books were entirely free of dirt and water damage. But that didn’t seem like a wise thing to bring up right now, especially after Ryan ratted her out about being involved when the book met its grisly fate. “In my defense, the book was already in use when I stumbled on what was happening. ” She said diplomatically to Nicole. Poppy wasn't sure why she felt it was so important that Nicole know she had nothing to do with the ruined book. Maybe it was just seeing her so angry compared to how she usually was with her friends or maybe Poppy didn't want Nicole to think less of her somehow.

 

[Nicole Fisk]

Nicole tutted again, turning another page of Ryan's charm book to continue fixing it up, though she appreciated Poppy's encouragement. "I just can't believe he spent like two weeks with it like this before saying anything," She said, shaking her head as Ryan seemed nonplussed. Nicole had to pause in her cleaning when Ryan mentioned Poppy had been there for whatever worm incident had occurred to Ryan's poor book, feeling her face flush knowing that Ryan was doing weird stuff again around her friends. "Ugh, Poppy I'm sorry if he ever bugs you with that stuff you can ignore him," She said, giving Ryan another pointed look. That had always been her biggest fear with Ryan starting school, that he would do something weird and everyone would blame Nicole for it somehow. Thankfully Poppy seemed unbothered by it, and she was a little odd herself, but Nicole would die if someone cooler like Tres or Emma had seen whatever Ryan had been up to.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan just shrugged as Nicole continued to complain about the state of his book. It hadn't really bothered him, Charms wasn't that hard or that interesting right now, with them just learning basic charms versus anything really interesting. And he'd known Nicole would probably do exactly this if he asked her for help. Maybe he should have asked another Ravenclaw like Poppy next time instead, she seemed less likely to complain the whole time at least. "I was just looking for worms, I didn't ask anyone to come help except Augustus," Ryan said, pulling his had back when his fanged bag seemed to take offense to him repeatedly fussing with its buckles.

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy frowned a little when Nicole apologized for her brother. “He didn’t bother me.” she insisted, feeling oddly compelled to defend Ryan. “I was curious to see what was going on and it seemed like an interesting experiment."she explained. “Although it seemed to have less than ideal results.” she admitted.