Title: All You Need Is A Little Help (Sometimes A Lot, But Who's Counting)
Pairing: Brittany Pierce/Santana Lopez, Unholy Trinity friendship
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Glee. But if I did, I would let people on my list write it.
Spoilers: None.
Summary: I guess it’s immediately her fault, but in the long run, it’s theirs, because why the hell are they taking so bloody long?
A/N: Written for Day 6 of
Unholy Trinity week Brittany’s playing with her wand again. It’s made of dogwood, reasonably springy, 12 ¾ inches, with unicorn hair as its core. It’s also excellent at doing charms. Or is that just Brittany?
Her wand is using the tea in her cup to trace letters in the air.
S…A…N…T…A…N…
“Brittany?”
The voice startles Brittany and the stream of water drops to the ground. Brittany sits upright, dropping her long legs to the ground instead of leaving them on the table.
“Thinking about her again, aren’t you?”
Brittany blushes a little.
“What are you doing here, Quinn? Rather a long way up from the first floor now, aren’t we?”
Quinn rolls her eyes and walks to the chair in front of Brittany’s desk.
“Cut the bullcrap B. Ask her out. Go on a date. Make her swoon into your arms.”
Each statement leaves Brittany more and more flustered. She adjusts her robe.
“It would be completely unprofessional, Q.”
Quinn scoffs. “Please B, you don’t give a crap about professionalism. And the students won’t mind. I have a mind to think that that Weasley girl and Lovegood have been pairing the two of you up.”
“I-what?!”
Heat is rushing to Brittany’s cheeks. Blue sparks start coming out of her wand, so she immediately lets go. There’s a smile on Quinn’s face now.
“It’s bloody obvious B. Come on, ask her out.”
Brittany leans closer to Quinn and whispers.
“What if she isn’t gay?”
There’s a twinkle in the Transfiguration professor’s eye.
“You’ll never know until you find out, will you?”
Santana’s conjuring patroni. It’s sort of hard doing this actually, when her patronus is a raven, which is the first syllable of Ravenclaw, which is the house Brittany’s in. Actually, everything reminds her of Brittany. Bloody hell, even the memories she uses to conjure up patroni have Brittany in it.
It’s confusing, when someone gives you the best moments of your life, even when the said someone leaves you sad and full of wanting.
“Santana?”
“Mhmmmm?”
Quinn Fabray comes into her view. Santana puts down her wand, giving up patronus conjuring for the time being. It usually comes so much easier to her, with her wand being 10 ½ inches long, made of willow, and with dragon heartstring as its core. Santana’s pretty proud of its characteristics, since Ollivander told her this wand only chooses the magic user with the potential for greatness. Now, she’s starting to wonder if he was wrong. How can someone so hung up on a single witch be so great?
“I still find it amusing. That wands with dragon cores are the easiest to turn dark, yet you’re the one teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts.”
“Mhhhmmmm.”
Quinn sighs.
“You’re still thinking about her, aren’t you?”
Santana nods.
“Have you ever considered, I don’t know, asking her out?”
Santana slumps into her chair.
“Mmhatifaygtitolwrng?”
“Sorry?”
Santana twiddles with her fingers.
“What if I read her wrong? What if she’s just like that? What if shsntgey…”
“What?”
Santana’s voice is barely above a whisper.
“What if she’s not gay?”
Quinn places her hands on her hips, glaring at Santana.
“The Lopez I know almost pushed me of my broom during a Quidditch match. Wonder where she is now.”
“Beaten to death by the Whomping Willow called her feelings, probably,” Santana says hopelessly.
Quinn reaches across the table and slaps Santana.
“You twat!”
“There we go,” Quinn says smugly. “So, Lopez, what do you plan to do?”
“I will set a dementor after you.”
“That wasn’t what I was expecting.”
“Blast you Fabray. Leave me alone!”
Quinn rolls her eyes and leaves the room. Santana sees a hint of a smirk as she exits the door.
“Okay students, group yourselves into three.”
The class scatters and students run around the classroom, looking for groupmates.
“Everyone has a group?”
“’Cept for me, ma’am.”
Brittany looks at Neville. Poor, darling boy. She cannot comprehend why no one wants to group with him. She reminds her of Santana a bit, when she wa-no Brittany. Stop.
She looks around, and sees Harry, Hermione, and Ron. They’re the ones who treat Neville the best.
“Just join up with Mr Weasley’s group, Mr Longbottom.”
The trio welcome him into the fold. They’re a nice bunch of kids, even though they’re pretty much magnets for trouble.
Brittany claps her hands.
“Okay class; we’ve been practicing Accio and Depulso for a couple of weeks now. Time to test it out on bigger things. I want each group to choose a member to practice on. The two others will use one spell each on the chosen one-of your group, not Harry-and after two minutes, switch functions. Stop, however, if one of you feel nauseous. Understood?”
“Yes, Professor.”
Brittany smiles.
“Good. If you guys get it right, it’s pretty much like levitating. Oh wait, don’t start yet.”
Brittany mutters a quick Locomotor and moves the tables and chairs aside. With a swish of her wand, she summons huge cushions she keeps in the closet of her classroom and lays it across the empty spaces.
“Okay. You may now begin.”
The class starts moving. Brittany roams around to observe how each group is doing.
Several have managed to banish their group members to the cushions, while one group member managed to summon their classmate, causing them to crash into each other, but the rest haven’t even lifted their test subject off the ground. The aim of this exercise was to control the strength of the spells, so that the summoning and the banishing would cancel each other out and cause one member to levitate.
“Concentrate! Magic is the art of gathering energy and letting it do your will! Feel the energy around you, in you, let it flow down to your wand! The wand concentrates it, makes the process more efficient, but the power is from you! Will the energy to do what you want it to do!”
The Gryffindors are finally getting a hang of it. There are a lot more crashes and thumps now.
“Good job everyone!”
Brittany sees a flicker of movement near her desk. She turns around, and sees Harry levitating several inches of the ground through the power of Hermione and Neville. Ron is nowhere to be found.
Brittany calls the attention of the class.
“Students, this is how you do it! Fastest group of all my classes! Five points to Gryffindor!”
She sees Neville smile shyly. Such a sweet boy.
“Okay everyone, back to work!”
Brittany looks back at the group.
“You guys think you can make Mr Potter whirl around?”
“Professor Pierce, I don-”
“Quiet Harry! Think of the extra points.”
Should Brittany tell her to let him down? Nah. Harry looks fine.
“Okay Neville, you just keep on, while I just…”
Hermione moves her wand hand in a circle, causing Harry to spin faster and faster.
“You may stop now Ms Granger. That was excellent. Five more points!”
Hermione grins.
“Thank you Professor Pierce.”
“I think you should let him down. Mr Potter looks a bit green.”
“Oh! Okay Neville, on three. One…two…three!”
Harry drops down on his feet and stumbles, Neville and Hermione rushing to catch him.
“You alright, Harry?”
“Ugh…never been better, Professor Pierce.”
Brittany nods, trying not to giggle. It’s fun, trolling the students a little. She turns back to the rest of the class, but then she sees a shock of red hair-
“Mr Weasley! Where have you been?”
“Quick trip to the loo, ma’am.”
“Without even bothering to notify me?”
“I needed to go badly, you see.”
Brittany’s suspicious. His eyes look bit shifty to her.
“Very well then. Next time, however, I will have to force you to rub Lord Tubbington’s back, understood?”
“Er, yes ma’am?”
“Good.”
Brittany nods and continues to wander around. Everyone becomes a bit better, she supposes. The students are travelling back and forth in mid-air, but less crash now.
She checks the time on the clock. Oh. Three more minutes left.
“Everyone! That’s enough!”
Several thumps and almost-cuss words were heard throughout the room.
“You guys are getting pretty good, but you still need more time to practice it. Next meeting, okay? I’m allowing you to bring safety equipment! Bye guys!”
“Bye Professor P!”
The classroom empties, and Brittany finds herself alone. It’s going to take several minutes for her next class to get in, so she walks back to her desk and leans back.
Bloody hell.
She didn’t give their homework back, did she? Eh. There’s always next meeting. Just to be sure though, Brittany checks the desk’s drawer. The papers are all there. Wait. She sees something glint in the light.
Brittany reaches in, and feels the corner of a box. She grabs it and lifts it out.
It’s a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Is there more? Brittany reaches in, and-Merlin-Fizzing Whizbees! Her favorite! Wait. Why were they there?
Brittany opens the box, and finds a card. It has something on it.
Have dinner with me? Meet me at the Astronomy tower. Tonight, 10 pm.
The handwriting’s familiar.
No, it can’t be.
Nevertheless, Brittany’s not going to miss it.
The students are gathered around a tank full of murky water and swamp plants, the contents which she got from the Great Lake last weekend.
Santana’s pretty sure Filch hates her for the pile of mud she tracked into the castle.
Santana pretty much doesn’t care because she’s sure Mrs Norris was the one who mutilated her book. You can’t just buy The Shadow of the Wind around here, for Merlin’s sake.
“Ravenclaw! Does anyone know what this tank contains?”
Usually, most of the class would be raising their hands by now, but it seems that none of the students read in advance.
“I never thought that I’d see the day when not one Ravenclaw would know the answer to a question.”
Murmurs rise from the students. Merlin, she just loves riling people up.
A hand slowly goes up.
“Yes, Lovegood?”
“It’s a Grindylow, ma’am.”
“Really now? What makes you say that?”
“Well, it resembles the bottom of a lake, ma’am. And it has plenty of weeds, which grindylows are known to make bed in. Though sometimes it is believed that they come up at night to communicate with the Crumple-Horned Snorkack.”
The classroom fills with snickers. Luna was such a quirky girl, and people would bully her about it, even though she was wiser than most of them combined. It reminded her so much of Bri-no Santana. School hours, remember?
“Silence. Only Ms Lovegood was able to answer the question, so all of you have the right to keep quiet. Thank you. About your answer, Lovegood, I’m not really sure about the last bit, but the rest is quite correct. A point to Ravenclaw.”
Santana walks towards the tank, the students’ eyes trained on her. She grabs the bucket and a jar of enchanted fire from the side of the tank, and climbs the steps in front of her. She drops the jar first, and then gets fish from the bucket and drops them in as well.
She jumps down and places the bucket down. Using her wand, she shuts the curtains closed.
“Everyone. Come closer.” The room is dark, the only light coming from the lantern submerged in the tank. The class clumps around the container, and Santana starts feeling a little squashed.
Suddenly, there’s a burst of movement, and the water demon appears. Several students gasp.
“Fuck!”
“Language, Page!”
“But yo-”
“I’m an adult, now quiet!”
The class stare at the grindylow, mesmerised by its gruesome features.
“Grindylows are small water demons that live at the bottom of lakes in Great Britain and Ireland, and are usually found in weed beds, as told to us by Ms Lovegood earlier. As you can see, it has green teeth, pointy horns and long fingers, which are used to strangle their prey, which consists mostly of fish and other sea creatures, though some might follow Professor Berry and eat healthier substitutes like algae. They are violent and aggressive towards humans, but merpeople are known to keep some as pets.”
Some laugh at her allusion to Rachel, but most are still trapped under the creature’s spell.
“Can anyone tell me why they are classified as Dark Creatures?”
Several hands shoot up.
“Randle!”
“Some are known to devour humans.”
“Good. Sometimes, especially when food is scarce, grindylows come up and drag people to the bottom of the lake, using their fingers to strangle the victim as they go. What does one do when captured by a grindylow? Fawcett.”
“One must break their fingers, ma’am. Their fingers are strong, but very brittle.”
“Good. Seven points from Ravenclaw.”
“Wha-but-ma’am?”
“I’m the professor, Fawcett. I get to do what I want to do.”
Mutters are heard throughout the classroom once again.
“If you want me to dismiss you, the room must be silent.”
The sounds die immediately.
“Very good. You are now dismissed. Oh, and eight points to Ravenclaw.”
The class leaves with sounds of confusion. Merlin, does she love riling people up.
Lunch is in an hour or so, but she still has to meet with Granger and her gang for an “extracurricular activity”, whatever the bloody hell that means. Knowing them, it’s probably going to cause a lot of trouble whatever good intentions they have for it, but they do consistently well in her subjects, and Santana was a troublemaker back in the day as well, so whatever.
She’s just going to take a little catnap.
She turns towards her desk when she sees Luna near a globe, looking for something on the floor.
“Ms Lovegood? What are you still doing here? Don’t you have class?”
“Oh yes ma’am. Potions. But I seem to have lost my earrings. Have you seen them? They look like dirigible plums.”
“Oh, uh, aren’t you wearing them?”
There’s a thoughtful look on Luna’s face as she examines her ears.
“It appears so. Thank you Professor Lopez.”
Santana smiles, a real one.
“No problem, Ms Lovegood.”
The girl exits the classroom, and Santana’s alone.
How about that catnap?
Santana dives into her chair and places her legs on the table and-shit. She pushes something to the ground. She stands up and looks around to see that it’s…a box of sugar quills? And Drooble's Best Blowing Gum?
They’re her favourites, but hardly anyone knows that.
So who sent her this?
There’s a note attached to the box.
Have dinner with me? Meet me at the Astronomy tower. Tonight, 10 pm.
Should she?
The handwriting looks familiar though.
It can’t be…can it?
She guesses she’ll just have to find out tonight.
Quinn’s having lunch at the Great Hall, and there’s enough sexual tension in the air to make even Seamus Finnigan blush.
I guess it’s immediately her fault, but in the long run, it’s theirs, because why the hell are they taking so bloody long?
So yeah, if they glance at each other one more time, Quinn swears she’ll have to check herself with a pregnancy test.
Oops. Okay. Quinn’s breaking that promise because these two can’t seem to stop.
All she wants is to finish her bacon without mothering octuplets.
“Anything of news guys?”
“No.”
“None that I can think of.”
The group settle into an awkward silence, and she’s pretty sure the rest of the teachers notice.
“I have a bit of a headache. I’ll excuse myself for the rest of lunch.”
Santana stands up and leaves the Hall.
Quinn turns to Brittany.
“Do you think she’s okay? Are you okay?”
Brittany’s looking a bit green.
“I-I think I have to go too.”
Brittany leaves, and now, Quinn’s sitting with two empty chairs next to her. Well, at least she can finish her bacon in peace.
She dexterously punctures the piece of meat with her fork, and, using her knife, she slowly cuts off a fragment from the rest of the heavenly viand, immersing herself in the sound of crispy protein separating crispy protein. She brings the viand to her mouth, anticipating the blast of cholesterol goodness when someone taps her on the shoulder.
“What is it now?!”
She blushes when she realizes it’s the Headmaster. He’s standing there with that calm smile on his face, though Quinn sees a twinkle of amusement in his eye.
“You seem to be enjoying your meal, Professor.”
“Er, uh, yes Sir. The castle elves have outdone themselves today.”
“I see. Crisped to perfection?”
Quinn’s mouth waters. Dumbledore can be cruel when he wants to be.
“May I have a piece?”
Quinn has to nod, because he’s the bloody headmaster, but she whimpers a bit when he takes the whole thing.
“Oops. I’m sorry Professor. Looks like you’ll just have to ask the elves for more,” he says with mirth.
So. Bloody. Cruel.
“Anyway, these matters aside, how goes your plan?”
“Er, what plan?”
His eyes twinkle in delight.
“Your plan to get Professor Pierce and Professor Lopez together, of course.”
“If you don’t mind, Sir, ho-how do you know about that?”
Dumbledore chuckles.
“Everyone and their mother knows about them, Professor. They’re not exactly subtle.”
“I mean about my plan. Sir.”
“Oh. Well, Professor, you don’t just become the Headmaster. You have to have a few tricks up your sleeves. Ten pm, astronomy tower, correct?”
“Bu-but-”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure the venue’s private.”
Oh. Bloody. Merlin.
She scans the tables and sees Potter’s group ready to leave. Conveniently, Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley are with them. Quinn excuses herself from the faculty table and almost glides to where the group is standing.
“Not that I mind, but did any of you lot tell the Headmaster about my plan to get Santana and Brittany together? Er, Professors Lopez and Pierce?”
“Professor Dumbledore has a lot of tricks up his sleeves, ma’am.”
“I know that, Mr Potter, but surely he couldn’t have found this out without any of you telling him…could he?”
The amused looks they have on their faces say otherwise.
Quinn sighs.
“Can I trust him when he says that it’ll be private?”
“Absolutely professor.”
“Did they receive the packages?”
Quinn remembers her best friends’ unusual behaviours.
“Judging from how they’ve been acting, I would have to say yes.”
“Do you think, professor, that they’ll follow up with the meeting?”
“Knowing them, probably. They’ll recognize my handwriting, though I doubt if they know it’s mine. You must have noticed that the only times I write are when I write the letter scores on your requirements.”
Ginny grins.
“That’s good. It’s a bit embarrassing really, watching your two professors trip on their feet around each other.”
Hermione gasps.
“Ginny! Professor Fabray, you’re not going to tell Professor Lopez that, are you?”
Quinn smiles, shaking her head.
“Don’t worry Ms Granger; I tell Santana that all the time. Okay, you lot; here’s the final leg of the plan. Do you know what these are?”
Quinn takes something out of the pocket and shows it to the group.
“Er, is anyone else seeing rolls of parchment, ‘cause that’s all I’m seeing.”
“Well, you’re half right Mr Weasley. Here, hold this. You too, Ms Weasley.”
Quinn hands Ron one of the parchments, and another to Ginny.
“Open it up.”
Ron does, and as the scroll unfurls, Quinn takes out her quill. She gives it to Ginny.
“Write something down.”
Ginny does, and Ron immediately drops his parchment.
“Bloody hell! It was heating up!”
“Look at it now.”
Ron opens it up. In Ginny’s handwriting, it says: RON WEASLEY IS A BLOODY GIT.
“Hey!”
Ron looks outraged.
Hermione looks impressed.
“Protean Charm?”
Quinn nods.
“So here’s how the plan goes: Luna, you position yourself in the common room. If you see Professor Pierce exit the room, write it down on one of the parchments. Same goes for you four,” she looks to the rest of the group.
“If Professor Lopez sneaks out, alert me at once. Understood?”
The group nods.
“Thanks, guys. You don’t know how long they’ve been dancing around each other.”
“Well, professor, if it makes us embarrassed, it must drive you bonkers.”
They don’t know how right they are.
Quinn looks at the parchment.
The Eagle has left the Cage? Seriously? Well, at least Luna was decent enough to write She’s beautiful in the next line.
She feels the paper burn as new words are written on its surface.
The Lion is Leaving the Den.
What is up with kids today?
The paper burns again.
She’s bloody gorgeous.
Ron!
Quinn’s willing to bet a galleon that Hermione wrote the last part. Is it unprofessional if she pairs up students?
Quinn shifts under the Invisibility Cloak she borrowed from Harry. They’ll be coming in at any minute.
Any second now. Any second now…
There. Footsteps. Quinn turns as still as a statue.
It’s Santana. She’s in one of those muggle gowns. It’s black, and flowing, and it fits beautifully on her frame. Her hair falls in waves around her face, which is touched up by a bit of make-up, but otherwise is left natural, which Quinn thinks looks the best on her.
She does, in fact, look gorgeous.
Quinn watches as Santana stares doubtfully at the stairs leading to the top of the tower, and holds her breath until Santana takes the first step.
Target One has gone up. Now for Target Two.
It takes a couple of minutes, but eventually, Quinn hears once again the shuffling of feet, A few seconds later, Brittany’s in sight.
She’s wearing dazzling white dress robes, which look just as amazing on her as the gown did on Santana. Her hair is let loose, though swept to one shoulder, and, again, her make-up is kept to a minimal.
She’s beautiful.
Brittany disappears as she goes up the stairs.
On hindsight, Quinn never did tell them to dress up.
It’s just a couple of minutes past ten, but Santana has a sinking feeling that she’s been pranked. Of course, the set table and the glowing orbs around observatory pad would say otherwise, but she’s really not sure that Brittany’s even gay, let alone likes her.
Brittany climbs up the stairway, each step causing doubt to settle further and further into her system. What if this was just some sort of prank?
She’s doesn’t even know if Santana’s gay, much less if she likes her.
Santana hears footsteps, and she looks at the entrance of the tower. Brittany’s there. She looks breathtaking.
Brittany’s head rises above the trap door, and she sees Santana leaning against a telescope. She looks awe-inducing.
The two women just look at each other. Eventually, Santana grabs a hold of herself and leads the way to the table.
They sit, and smile shyly. Brittany looks at Santana, and says, “I guess we should order dinner now?”
“I guess so.”
They call out for food, and it appears on their plates. They eat, at first in silence. They aren’t done drinking in each other’s presence.
Somewhere, five minutes into the meal, they stop what they’re doing and blurt out thanks.
“Thank you for the Fizzing Whizbees.” “Thank you for the sugar quills.”
A look of confusion settle on each of their faces.
“I never gave you Fizzing Whizbees.” “I never gave you sugar quills.”
A moment passes, and the looks of confusion turn into aggravated realization.
“Quinn.” “Quinn.”
“That bloody twat, I never thought she-”
“I can’t believe she’d do this to me-”
“-I may have almost pushed her into the Whomping Willow that one time-”
“-okay, I might have accidentally set her runes homework on fire-”
“-but she can’t just set me up to embarrass myself in front of someone I like-”
“-she bloody well knows that I like you; why did she have to-”
“You like me?” “You like me?”
Santana’s heart is beating faster. Brittany’s head gets a little fuzzier. They both nod their heads.
Bloody Fabray. After they get their hands on her, they’ll have to thank her.
Quinn’s cleaning up her last class’s work. It was pretty successful overall. She feels a tinge of regret at turning the butterflies into a block of wood, though it is quite easy to do so. Not only is she attuned to transfiguration, but her wand as well as. It’s made of mahogany, 11 inches, unyielding, and with veela hair as its core, almost perfect for that specific branch of magic.
“Need any help, Professor?”
She glances away from the butterflies to see that Harry and his group have decided to stay. It surprises to see that Ginny and Luna were joining in as well. Brittany and Santana have been dating for nearly a month now; what do they want?
“No, thank you. Don’t you have anywhere else to be, you lot?”
“It’s an extracurricular, Ma’am.”
“What is?”
“Hold on a sec.”
The group rushes out of the room, and Quinn wonders if they’ve finally gone wacko. She returns to her work, when suddenly the sounds of running echo into the room. She turns around, just as someone shouts Expelliarmus!
Red light blasts the wand out of Quinn’s hand. Seconds later, she finds herself hanging in the air by her ankle upside down.
“Hey Quinn.”
Santana and Brittany come into her line of vision.
Uh-oh.
“Remember when you tricked us about a month ago, Fabray?”
“I-If you’re going to thank me, this isn’t really the best way, Santana.”
“Thanks Quinn. Really. It’s just that Santana and I, we’d like to return the favor. Rictusempra!”
Quinn feels tiny fingers run across her body. They increase in multitude and intensity, until Quinn laughs.
“Bloody murder! Merlin! Bloody hell, make it stop, make it stop!”
“I don’t know San, should we?”
Tears are coming out of Quinn’s eyes, and her breaths are fast and lacking.
“Hmmmm…I don’t know Britt…Should we? What do you think guys?”
Santana’s shouting to some people outside the door.
“Keep us out of this, Professor Lopez! We’re only here for the extra house points!”
Santana shrugs, and her wand points dangerously at Quinn.
“I told you I’d have my revenge if you interfered, Fabray.”
“I-oh god-got you together-merlin!-didn’t I?”
Santana looks to Brittany, and they start laughing like fools. Eventually they sober up, saying a goodbye to Quinn as if they didn’t just attack her.
She guesses she’s cleaned up enough for the day. Let Filch take care of the rest.
She leaves the room, and finds Ms Weasley and co staring at her as she walks out.
“I never knew you were the type to dye your hair pink, Professor.”
Accio - charm that summons an object to the caster
Depulso - charm tused to send the target to a certain location.
Locomotor - causes the named object to rise in the air and move around at the will of the caster
Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans™ - jelly beans of every flavour imaginable
Fizzing Whizzbees™ -large sherbet balls that will cause a person who sucks on them to float a few inches off the ground
Argus Filch - caretaker of Hogwarts
Mrs Norris - Filch’s cat
Sugar Quills™ - sweets made to resemble real quills; sold at various sweet shops;they can be sucked on secretly by students in class
Drooble's Best Blowing Gum™ - allows the consumer to blow bluebell-coloured bubbles, which will not pop for days
Protean Charm - allows copies of an object to be remotely affected by changes made to the original
Muggle - person with no magical abilities
Whomping Willow - a rare, beautiful, misuderstood plant; Santana can’t help but fall in love with it
Expelliarmus - used to disarm another wizard
Rictusempra - Causes an extreme tickling sensation that, in the case of Draco Malfoy, made him drop to the floor laughing.