A hairy situation [Turnajaisaktiviteetti]

[Tristan Grimes]

"Weel thare mist be some rule aboot clothes... Itherweys how come th' auld geezer keeps nippin' aboot mah tie," Tristan replied, but his voice lacked the usual edge. He was no longer very sure of his case: maybe there actually were no rules about uniforms at all, and Coates and the rest of the teachers were just bullying him when they complained about his untucked shirt, or loose tie, or any other part of his usually very messy outfit. And besides, if Underwood really was a girl, the skirt would just be appropriate. And based on what the prefect had just said, it did seem to be the case.

Before he had the time to think about what exactly this meant for his argument, Underwood reminded him of their original topic.
"She likes th' moostache! Sae Ah did her a favoor, certes!" Tristan replied readily. "Jist ask 'er!"
He hadn't exactly stopped to ask the old headmistress what she thought of his handiwork, but who wouldn't want to sport such a handsome moustache? Underwood was clearly just being mean and a killjoy and a typical Slytherin, all right! Jealous too, probably. Anthony's threat stopped Tristan's mental listing of the prefect's faults, however.
"No West!" he whined. "Cannae ye jist be fair fur ance in yer lee!"

[Anthony Underwood]

"Because you obviously can't tie your tie", Anthony answered, rolling his eyes. The tie in Grimes' neck was loose and crooked. No wonder 'the old geezer' - who was obviously professor Coates because professor McGregor probably wouldn't even bat an eyelid even if one of the students was naked in his class - had commented about the boy's uniform.

Anthony gave Grimes a dubious sideways glance when the boy claimed that Fenêtre liked the moustache. He doubted the claim. Who would like moustache? Especially such an ugly moustache. He almost felt a shiver just thinking about having a moustache himself. He didn't actually even care that much about moustaches or beards on men. Just not his thing although he knew some girls really liked it.

"Why do I doubt that. Want to go and ask?" he asked Grimes, raising one eyebrow. He was pretty sure the answer would be no. Both from Grimes and the headmistress. However, he'd have to take Grimes back to the crime scene anyway if he wanted to make him clean the mess. Although then again... after the throwing of the paint he was quite determined to get at least one hour of detention for the boy. Just to teach him a lesson about authorities and showing proper respect to them.

"Fair? You wanna talk to me about fair? Which part of trying to throw the paint on me was 'fair'?" he asked the Gyrffindor angrily, "but fine. I'll give you a choice. I take ten points from you and you clean the mess you made - both the floor and the painting - or we'll go to see professor West right now."

[Tristan Grimes]

Tristan kept quiet and looked rather sour as Anthony suggested they go and ask headmistress Fenêtre whether she liked her new moustache or not. It was most likely a rhethoric question, anyway, and it had to be clear enough he wasn't particularly keen on going.

Underwood went on, however, and accused Tristan of unfairness for trying to throw paint on him.
"That was jist self-defence," he mumbled his excuse in a low voice. Besides, Underwood would have deserved to be smeared with paint, for trying his fun and probably everyone else's too since the beginning of the school year, Tristan was convinced of that. Too bad it hadn't worked. Moreover, since it hadn't worked, there was nothing to complain about, right? Jeez, just how fussy could prefects get!

"...no points an' Ah wash them up?" The Gryffindor looked up to Anthony with a mildly hopeful expression, trying to strike a deal. He considered whether to offer to apologize for the paint-throwing incident as well, to sweeten the deal, but came to the conclusion that there was nothing to apologize for, and he wouldn't want anyone to know he had been apologizing to a Slytherin for no good reason. Or for any reason at all, in fact. Besides, it would hurt his pride too much to apologize for something he wasn't actually sorry for. Unless failing to do so resulted in facing a great enough of a peril - say, the wrath of professor West, or a very long detention, maybe.

[Anthony Underwood]

When Grimes dared to suggest not losing any points for what he did if he just cleaned after himself, Anthony snorted like the boy had just said something absolutely ridiculous. Which was kind of true, because the Gryffindor was in no position to be haggling. Anthony knew who was in charge and it wasn't Grimes. Besides, he didn't negotiate with terrorists.

"What? You think this is a street market? Think you'll get a good bargain? 'Two for one, only today?'" Anthony asked the boy, looking a tiny bit amused, "I'm sorry to tell you but you're out of luck today. The happy hour just ended. This is the final offer, take it or leave it." Grimes kind of had a lot of nerve to even try bargaining in this situation.

"And just to remind you, if you choose to leave it, we'll leave for professor West's office right now" Anthony added although he was quite sure the Gryffindor still remembered the threat. He actually wished Grimes would just agree to clean the mess. Of course that would mean he'd have to supervise the whole ordeal - which would undoubtedly be a pain in the ass - but he also knew that professor West wouldn't be too happy with him dragging the boy to her office to be punished. It should be professor McGregor's job anyway.

[Tristan Grimes]

"Fiii-ine," Tristan groaned, the forfeiture accompanied by a fair amount of loud sighs and eye-rolling. The prefect must have thought he was being witty, but Tristan knew for a fact that anyone in an authoritative position - or anyone over the age of 13 or 14, probably - was physically incapable of being funny. With an exception or two, perhaps. People just lost their sense of humour as they grew older. Underwood was clearly a lost cause already. Mac Fhionnlaigh was still hanging on in there, but outside of him the rest of the older student body was about as much fun as a flobberworm on a bad day.

Cleaning the floor and the painting by hand sounded like an awful lot of work, but then again, he had never actually practised any cleaning charms. He had seen several being used by their housekeeper, but couldn't remember most of them. Which was certainly a shame, considering all the elbow grease that had gone to scrubbing trophies in detention over the months. There was one he remembered, though. Scour... scourgi... scourgify, right? Perhaps now would be a good time to practise it! The Gryffindor rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to work. The sooner he got this over with, the better.

[Anthony Underwood]

When the Gryffindor finally agreed to clean the mess he had made, Anthony let go of his arm. He kept his own wand close and ready, though, because he was kind of expecting the boy would still try to run away. Anthony had to admit he was a bit surprised when instead of running for his life Grimes rolled up his sleeves as if he was actually going to start working on the cleaning. He was often ordering people around but they rarely complied.

Anthony was ready to walk Tristan back to the painting when he realized that he could never let Grimes clean the painting by himself. The boy wasn't too famous for his skills in spells and he was only a first-year after all. He'd probably just set the whole painting on fire. And cleaning the painting without magic... he didn't actually even know how muggles would clean a painting of... paint that didn't belong on it. The thought troubled him as there were rarely things that he didn't know. Surely you couldn't just wipe it with a rag.

With a frown on his face Anthony stopped in his tracks. He'd have to deal with the painting himself. As far as he knew headmistress Chino wasn't too fond of the previous headmistress but she'd probably still give him a hell if he'd let Grimes burn the painting. So better be safe than sorry.

"Grimes! You start with the floor", he ordered and pointed at the paint that had landed on his shield charm and dripped onto the floor when the charm had faded away. He wasn't going to stay he was going to clean the painting himself. Would make him look like he was going soft.

"And if you need a mop, that's the broom cupboard", he added and pointed at the door on the far right. Grimes would have gotten a nasty surprise if he had tried to hide there, assuming it was a classroom. While Grimes prepared to clean the whole mess, Anthony crossed his arms on his chest, leaned against the stone wall and prepared to die of boredom.

((Ja tämä oli kai tässä? :D Kiitos pelistä~))