Let the Feathers Fly!

[Brenton Douglas]

October 16, 2008
8:21 am

Rubbing his hands together in a fanatic sort of way, Brenton just grinned to himself. This was hilarious! Or it would be once the plan was set into motion. Ever since the middle of the term of the last semester he'd been thinking of something he could try to do, anything, and he finally figured it out. It was a perfect set up. This Prince-in-training was a failure and he was going to figure it out just perfectly fine!

This was exciting to the Slytherin boy as he stood off to the side just looking at his trick. Nearly every knut he'd traded in pounds for he spent on firecrackers, a few dungbombs, and other silly tricks from the Weasley shop and now it was time to blast them all at once on the owls. Talk about a hoot.

With the dungbombs in place and the firecrackers strategically placed all over the tower, Brenton knew it was going to be perfect to see all of the birds fly around in a storm, feathers everywhere, randomness and chaos, it would be the best!

Now, time for the first victim...

Brenton hid in a corner, waiting for someone with a letter, the invisible lines everywhere, waiting... just waiting...

(Closed)

[Dante Vroom]

Dante headed toward the Owlry, letter in hand. He would get his coffee soon enough. No more of this damned tea, he thought to himself. The letter was marked for his grandmother's house. If anyone had extra coffee it would be Grannie, as Dad never let his personal blend out of the house. Up the final set of stairs he counted down the final steps “three, two, one”. Entering the Owlry he had forgotten how much he enjoyed the hight of this tower. From here you could see pretty far into the distance.

He refocused on his goal, he needed to get this out soon or he'd never get fresh coffee! He stepped just a few steps into the Owlry, when he felt his leg bump into something, it felt like a string...but why?

[Brenton Douglas]

Ah ha! His first victim. Waiting with silent glee, Brenton held his breath and shrank back into a corner. His amber colored eyes were all lit up in the morning rays, but he'd found a good corner to hide in, shrouded in the shadows that crept across the floor and walls, being defeated by the hideous light. Not normally hideous, but it was for the moment considering his plan.

But as the guy walked in, something happened and Brent wasn't quite sure what, or rather why. The first of the many firecrackers fell to the side, and not aimed towards the birds or the ceiling, but right at him!

The dang thing flew through the air right at him, leaving behind a streak of silver. Just before it made contact the darn thing exploded, leaving curly-Q's of green, sprigs of black, and making a ten-foot long imprint of a snake in the air.

Rushing backwards to get away from the rather frightening thing, Brenton fell from his spot with a loud thump and was sure he'd be in trouble...

[Dante Vroom]

It was early still, so Dante had little ability to process what was happening around him. Was that a firecracker he just saw rush into the corner of the room? What was a firecracker doing in the Owlry? Then he heard the thump of something in a corner of the room. He turned to face whatever was there, pointing his envelope at it like a wand, purely instinct. When he saw what was in the corner things started to make sense. This little brown-haired kid was up to something, what he couldn't be sure but Dante knew it was nothing good, probably mischievous. The string he felt on his leg, the firework and a rather large number of owls. Someone was trying to make a fool out of him.

“You there, what in Merlin's name are you doing in the Owlry with firecrackers and invisible string?”
He wanted to sound as official as possible to scare the boy. Though in actuality he somewhat admired the attempt, although it failed. Perhaps it was time for a lesson in practical jokes. “This had better not be an attempt to scare the owls little one,” Realizing that he was sounding more like his own father Dante waited for an answer rather than continue scolding.

He wanted to approach the kid, but wanted to avoid any further traps that might be between here and there. So instead he decided to call him toward him “Come here and do speak up, I fear your firecracker has caused a ringing in my ears.”

[Brenton Douglas]

Yup, he was in trouble. Glancing back at the kid who was asking him what was going on, Brenton tried to slink back even more, finding his back against a wall, literally. But then he remembered who he was, he was a Prince! And no Prince took something like this on the ground, if taking it at all. So instead, Brenton stood up slowly and stepped out from the shadows. He would have to play off his air of a Prince to get out of this one, a Prince never got into trouble, everybody knew that.

"No, I wasn' tryin' t' scare the owls," he scoffed. Like he'd really do all of this just to scare some dumb birds? The Slytherin didn't like owls much, thought they were a boring and common pet, the whole reason for him having a double-ended newt, but he wouldn't set up a elaborate plan just to frighten birds. "I was tryin' t' se' the fireworks off on whoever walked in, you jus' happened t' be the fool tha' did." Did that sound princely enough? He hoped so.

But why wouldn't it have gone off the ground correctly? He had to think about this one. He wasn't done! That was it, he just hadn't finished the set-up yet. However, when he called Brenton forward, the boy just stood there, a little scared of the image of a snake still hovering in the air.

[Dante Vroom]

Dante looked up at the image hovering above him, almost insulted that it was trying to out-due him in being the center of the kids attention. With a single motion starting at his pocket Dante pulled out his wand and dissipated the snake image, and placing it back into his pocket. “Now then, trying to assault me with fireworks huh?”He smiled at the boy's attempt, and was even willing to let the kid get away with calling him a fool, just this once. Dante took several cautious steps forward. “Well, if you're going to do such a joke you really should try to finish your set up before someone comes along.” He put his hands together in the common prayer position. “You have much to learn young padawan” doubting that this boy would understand the reference his smile grew wider. “Before we start your first lesson, what is your name young apprentice?” He had no intention of giving the boy options at this point, assaulting with a firework was all well and fun, but you have to do it right! Plus, this boy could prove useful to Dante, he just had to figure out what made him tick.

Edit: Yeah I need to make sentences that make sense.

[Brenton Douglas]

Amber colored eyes widened when the older boy made the snake disappear. That was so cool! He wished he was better with spells, maybe he could do something like that. Brenton didn't like snakes very much, they weren't ever anything good in the fairy tales he read, so he figured in real life they weren't all that great either. And when the guy started talking, Brenton wasn't quite sure what assault meant, but it sounded like it was a word that meant what he was trying to do.

"I's no' my faul' you walked in t' early," the Slytherin defended his plan. Raising an eyebrow at the boy, he wasn't sure who he was, where he came from, or what he was doing, but he was willing to help? That made everything just fine with Brent. And when he called him padawan his face lit up. This kid knew star wars? Awesome!

"My name's Brenton," he answered excitedly. This kid was going to help him out with stuff? Oh, that would be so cool! Unless he turned out to be a real jerk. "Who're you?"

[Dante Vroom]

Dante's smile at having the kid's name quickly turned into a frown as the boy asked for his own. “My name?” He grumbled, “Dante, and don't you forget it.” He was quiet threw with people not knowing his name around here, perhaps it was time to get some recognition. Something memorable, something, maybe something that would get him in a lot of trouble.

This boy seemed to be interested in such troublesome activity, and judging by his facial expression, was into some of the other things Dante had mentioned. “Let us take a look at what you had set up for this prank, and we'll try to get it to work as intended. But first, the business I originally came up here for.” Dante made a move to the closest owl, still somewhat looking out for any traps remaining in the room. Safely he made it to the owl and sent it on it's way, straight to his grandmother's home. The coffee would be here shortly, he could hardly contain his excitement. A quick spin and he was facing Brenton. “Righty'o then B, why don't ya show me your firework set up and lets figure out the problem with it. Then, we can have some fun.”

[Brenton Douglas]

The older boy's face quickly turned upside down after Brent's question and he wasn't quite sure why. Was he a Prefect and so Brenton should know him? He didn't think so, especially being that there weren't very many of them at the school and he wasn't wearing a badge. But at the order of him not to forget who the kid was, Brenton nodded his head quickly. If this guy was gonna help him, he was going to follow orders. Dante. That was just like that book and that one movie, neither of which he was allowed to read or see.

Excitement shot through Brenton's eyes when Dante told him he wanted to look at his prank. Though, they'd really have to figure out what went wrong the first time because Brenton really didn't know. When the kid was done doing what he was doing and turned his attention back to the Slytherin, Brenton quickly rubbed his hands together before walkiing to where the invisible string had been placed and carefully feeling just above the floor at the owlry entrance to find the string.

"Well, here's where you tripped i' up," he started. "An' this is suppose' t' lead over there to tha' one firework tha' already wen' off. Then tha' was suppose' t' ligh' those ones up over there." Pointing at the opposite corner, there was a small box of dungbombs which was supposed to in turn light up another batch of firework aimed toward the owls to make them all scatter.

[Dante Vroom]

“So a problem with ignition.” Well that should be easy enough to find the problem with. Dante followed B over to the string and continued it to the first batch of fireworks. Sure enough there was a small scorch mark where the firework had gone off. But judging by the extra wire that lay right next to the mark, the trigger for the other fireworks had come undone. He did not want to set any of the rest of the prank off, “could you disarm the rest of the trap for me B? I think I've just about figured out what went wrong.” He turned to the youngster “and I'd rather not have it go off on either of us.”

Not only would it completely defeat the purpose of his help, but probably make both of them look like fools, having this kids prank go off full force as Dante was trying to disassemble and figure it out. He had to admit, this kid was pretty close to getting this to work without a hitch, just one little thought off of a perfect prank, that Dante had almost walked right into. “You did pretty good with this prank B, but you missed just one key thing over here.” Careful not to pull on any of the strings that remained until the kid was back over beside him.

Dante wanted to show Brenton what had gone wrong first hand, maybe even with a small example. It was simple engineering really, he had not allowed for the pressure of tripping the wire to dissipate. Instead connecting it directly to the firework which cause the force to move it, both aiming it at the kids hiding spot, and moving it away from the string to ignite the other fireworks. One or two more knots would have done the trick. Perhaps a small twig to keep the firework from turning. That's what Dante suspected was the cause. But, the kid said he had to rush, so perhaps he would have thought more if he had the time. At any rate Dante was going to teach this kid how to prank people, and get exactly the result he wanted, every time. “So what do you think went wrong?” He wanted to see what kind of mind this kid had for pranks and engineering. Attempting to see what he had to work with.

[Brenton Douglas]

"Yea, sure," Brenton said, getting right to work on disassembling the project he'd set up. It wasn't hard to undo, especially since he'd done this little prank on a few occasion, just never at Hogwarts. At Hogwarts he was a rather good boy and didn't get into too much trouble, or at least tried not to. But in muggle school, on a regular basis for the most part he was in the Head Master's office during the course of a day.

Setting right to work, Brent carefully took the thing apart, making sure not to pull too tightly on the strings he could feel but not see, not set too much warmth in any one particular spot, or just set the darned thing right off. Not only was he pleased this guy was going to help him set it up right, but he was scared of the outcome of it not working out so well. What if he did make it go off without meaning to? Would Dante then beat him to a bloody pulp? Probably, he was bigger than Brenton was, even though the kid had grown a full inch and a half over the summer break.

While he was taking the contraption apart, the Slytherin looked over to Dante when he complimented the thing. That pleased the young boy even more and he smiled, the closed lipped smile he always smiled, but it was a smile.

"Wha's tha'?" he asked curious about what he'd done wrong with this trap. Sure, this one was a little different from his usual one, as he couldn't see half of it, and some of i was put together with magic, hence the fireworks. But then the older boy asked Brenton what he thought he did wrong, and Brent just shrugged, but moved closer to take a good look over his project. Inspecting the thing, he didn't actually see anything wrong with it, then again, that could've been due to his glasses not being on his face, yet again. Those darned things were not things Princes wore and no matter how badly his doctors said he needed them, he refused. He could see just fine, sometimes. Other times he couldn't see a thing, but if he got close enough to something normally he didn't have a problem in figuring it all out. "I don' know, I don' see anything wrong with i'."

[Dante Vroom]

“Nothing wrong with it? Sure, that's why it went off perfectly right?” He turned toward the younger boy shaking his head in disbelief. “It's simple” he pulled a pen out of his pocket, aiming to use it as a pointer. “Here is your problem, this trigger string came undone with the pressure.” He focused on the lose connection and pieced them together. “There, now if we reset this, it would go off on the next person to enter the room.”

He stood from his huddled position and faced the kid and smiled. “But if we're going to set this stuff off again maybe we should leave the room.” Looking down at the mixed shades of brown hair before him, “after all, it seems these fireworks want to take you out more than scare our targets.” He doubted the kid was really as reckless as he appeared to have been.

But he couldn't make to many assumptions, after all, this kid could not see what he had done wrong with his own prank. Perhaps he was not as bright as Dante had originally thought. He shook his head again, he still could not believe that he almost fell for this joke, if it had worked it would have been a rough way to go through the day.

“Set it up again, but this time, add these to the mix” he pulled a small box of snapper fireworks out of his pocket. The kind that make a loud pop when they are thrown to the ground. They had been in a package from his grandmother, he assumed his brother had probably added them to the box. He had intended to hide them around the castle, where people would be shocked to hear the loud pop, but this seemed like it would be just as good a use of them.