(Untitled)

[anathema_witch]

Date: 10th January 2001
Status: Private - Anathema, Bill, John, Loki
Setting: The library
Summary: Anathema, John and Bill plan out strategies to break the curse on Loki.

Comments

Started new comment because I can't see the subject line for the previous ones anymore.

[no_npc_here]

He'd never meant to treat Anathema as a waitress - he'd just assumed that since she seemed to be in charge of the hospital wing, she'd best be able to conjure up some food. Not in the literal sense, of course.

"Thanks," Bill nodded at Anathema with a smile. Toasting the bread to his favourite shade of gold-brown, he carefully sliced the toast into suitable soldiers.

Watching the scene unfold in front of him, Bill was reminded of his time in the infirmary. Chuckling as he dipped his soldiers into his egg, Bill said, "I'd eat something if I were you. You don't want to discover that Anathema has a dark side who loves forcing food down her patients' throats." He had, with one of his previous Healers.

[no_npc_here]

"It's supposed to be more of a tingly feeling, although I suppose you can describe it as 'pins-and-needles'." Bill had learnt the peculiar Muggle term when his father had developed an inexplicable fascination with it. "Have you used a wand before?" Bill asked John.

[dangeroushabits]

"Once," John nodded. "We had this annoying blond kid hanging around for a while. He pulled one on me and I grabbed it and thwapped him with it." He smiled wryly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Didn't know what it was at the time. I set his hair on fire."

---

(Re-posted due to slight typographical error)

[anathema_witch]

"You set a kid's hair on fire just by hitting him with it?" Anathema looked down at the innocent piece of wood in her hands a wondered at what other things it could do. The possibilities seemed endless.

With a slight shiver at the thought, she handed it back to Bill, handle first.

[no_npc_here]

Bill took back the wand and nodded. "That can sometimes happen when you have a strong enough intent - you probably didn't like him very much, did you?" Bill said with a lop-sided smile. "A blond kid, eh? His name wouldn't be Malfoy, would it?"

[dangeroushabits]

Intent, now there was a word John recognized in a context of magic. "The very lad," he chuckled. "And no, I wasn't what you'd call impressed. Poncy little git, inn'e? I have no idea where he got off to, though."

[no_npc_here]

"Let's just say that my youngest brother had the misfortune to be in the same year as him in school. And the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree," said Bill. "He was here? Now that is interesting. We'd all thought that he was somewhere else, recruiting for ... well, let's not talk about that."

"I think I'm about rested enough now. Let's have another go on something else, shall we?" Bill dug out another quill from his satchel and placed it on the table. He waved his wand, muttering, and a live and rather confused-looking chicken appeared on the table where the quill had been. "Huh. The guy who sold me the quills said that they were made from pigeon feathers. No wonder he was selling them so cheaply."

[leucemic_god]

"A chicken!" Loki exclaimed in delight. "Come here, pretty birdie!"

Of course the poor chicken being a non flight capable bird would have had no way to get from the table onto Loki's bed even if it had wanted to. It had more immediate problems to puzzle over than the mystery of human speech, though and completely ignored the god.

[dangeroushabits]

John eyed the chicken and then Loki with a mildly perplexed expression, and then shook his head. Sometimes it was better not to even try and figure things out. "Right," he said to Bill, "I think we should be just about set for a final dry run, if you're up for it."

[no_npc_here]

"Yes. Although I think we should perhaps curtain off Mr. Loki, seeing as how he seems so attached to the chicken and all." Bill approached the chicken cautiously - he certainly didn't want to get pecked, and some chickens could be vicious.

With much squawking and a flurry of feathers, Bill managed to get the chicken into the circle and secured it in the middle using a binding spell.

[leucemic_god]

"Oh, please don't hurt her!" Loki exclaimed when he heard the squawking. He couldn't see the chicken anymore and just what was Bill intending to do with her.

"If you're going to cook her, just kill her fast and be done with it!"

[dangeroushabits]

"We're not gonna cook her, Loki," John said, checking a sigh. "Unless I'm completely out of my reckoning, she shouldn't even feel a tingle."

[no_npc_here]

Bill smiled, then turned serious. "Mr. Constantine, Anathema, I think I might need your help on this."

"You saw how tiring it gets even when I was just undoing the most basic Gordian Knot on that egg, so I'm going to teach you to hold the Knot in place if I ever need to take a break while I'm breaking the curse on the chicken," said Bill. He lit a candle and placed it on the table. "I have a spare wand here," withdrawing said object from one of the many pockets in his robe, "so why don't you take it and try to follow what I do," said Bill, looking at John.

Bill waved his wand in a series of loops and curves, and at the final moment said, "Desitio," pointing it at the candle flame. The candle flame immediately froze in place. "Finite Incantatem." The flame flickered back into life.

[leucemic_god]

"You can't put that curse on her!" Loki exclaimed. "If your experiment doesn't work, it'll kill her slowly and painfully!"

Okay, so she was a chicken and the natural fate of a chicken was to be eaten. They weren't particularly admirable animals either, but they were still soft and feathery and Loki hadn't had something to pet in much too long.

[dangeroushabits]

Looking more than slightly apprehensive, John accepted the wand, and grimaced as that odd tingling sensation ran up his arm. Not quite the same as the last time, maybe, but similar. He hoped this one liked him better than Draco's.

He watched and listened carefully as Bill went through the motions of his spell. It didn't look too complicated. "All right," he muttered, frowning slightly as he dutifully repeated Bill's gestures and the accompanying phrase, which he translated in his mind as something roughly equivalent to Freeze, fucker.

A stinging pulse of power nearly made him drop the wand, and the flame promptly turned into a flame-shaped piece of ice, toppled off the candle, and shattered on the table.

"Um," he said, rubbing the back of his neck with a distinctly sheepish air. He handed the wand carefully back to Bill handle-first. "Maybe you'll want to have Ana do that bit..."

[anathema_witch]

"Well, I would be willing to give it a try. Hope the chicken is alright afterwards though."

She wondered briefly if chicken was on the menu tonight after this little experiment or whether or not it would work.