…… Had Phoebe James called her a dumb girl? Nina was not amused. Also not amusing? Nemesis Upstead’s end take on the story. Fortunately for them both, by the time the activity was outlined, Nina had forgotten why she was so incredibly not amused. She also had something new to be upset about given that her flashlight had an even number on it. Meaning bubak.

While classmates geared up looking around with their lights on, Nina stayed back on the outskirts. Lurking. She could lurk.

Phoebe’s constant flickering of her flashlight made her such an easy target, and Nina did not want to wait around to find another. So she did what anyone in her position would do: try to sneak up on the younger Gryffindor! Her bunny slippers made the sneaking difficult because they liked to squeak squeak squeaaaak.

But!!!! She approached SLOWLY to quiet it all down. Finally, when she was riiiiiight behind James, she reached for the young girl’s shoulder.

Every intention of LEAVING before he got roped into playing some background character or doing literally anything related to acting, Eiji had himself halfway through the door by the time the headmaster had corrected him. Only the headmaster seemed a bit confused himself so...did that count as reason enough to bolt? The Slytherin had precisely zero incentive to paint...grass. Or paint anything for that matter. Defense Against the Dark Arts and Crafts indeed. As clever as the words of that one little Gryffindor had been, Eiji was NOT here for this.

Also, there were not frogs. If anything there was a rabbit. At least that was the fable he had grown up hearing but WHATEVER. That was an answer for his little sister to offer up, not him. He was still trying to calculate his exit. There was no way any of this was going to help him for his NEWTs...if those even ended up happening.

WHY were people eating corn? Gryffindors. H O N E S T L Y. And that frog girl's birthday. Great. Could he leave now? Especially now that Bernadette was singing.

Blowing out candles was easy enough to manage while he made his way back around towards the door - since he had to double back once the headmaster called him out - so he was doing that when his path crossed with Missa who...well, he had no idea what THAT face was for but he blew out the candle just beside her. "Not a clue." But then she was off collecting things as instructed because...of course she was. Apparently no sneaking out with her then.

Only problem was that now that it was darker in the room he couldn't SEE anything but the circle the headmaster was forming around him...for story time. Nooooooooooooooooo thank you. Eiji instead reached out until he felt a wall and then he began patting it until he found himself in the corner of the room...which wasn't where he was HOPING to end up (ie THE DOOR) but it would do. Hood up on his robes, the seventh year slid down the wall to sit in the corner and...may as well settle in for a nap...

....it was night time, right? It was dark and all and...how had he ended up in this corner again? Whatever. He felt grumpy and didn't want to deal and there were people babbling nonsense way over that way....and then Eiji was jumping where he sat when one of the voices SHOUTED about an attack. Which had Eiji rolling away from the wall and patting his pocket for his wand which....wasn't on him. Wait...where was his wand? Had he dropped it? Must have dropped it...so back towards the area he had rolled away from he went, patting the ground looking for the wand he had forgotten he had not even brought with him in the first place since magic was not a thing at the moment.

Was he in class still? Plum forgotten that too. Just...casually over here looking for his wand.

Heath noticed the thumbs up Islay gave him and returned it with a slight smile, but his smile instantly faded upon hearing a couple of girls (Phoebe & Ivy) shriek and squeak. Feeling slightly guilty, he shot the pair apologetic looks and mouthed, Sorry! He didn’t really mean to scare anyone; he was just deeply in character.*

Blink, blink. Well, this story just took a very weird turn! Heath listened, waiting patiently for another dramatic opportunity to jump in and get things back on track, but Headmaster Trent ended the story before he had the chance. Wait, that was it? No fighting, no one getting attacked by the bubak? Wow, that was… anticlimactic! But there wasn’t time to dwell on the story’s disappointing ending. He rummaged through his bag for a quill and parchment to take notes before he completely forgot everything the headmaster said about the bubak. He was dutifully jotting things down when one fact in particular captured his attention. That cart sounded pretty cool! He wished he had a cart drawn by black cats, or any color cats really. Ooh, what about a cart drawn by Loth-cats? He wanted one of those!

Upon hearing what the defense against a bubak was, Heath was kind of glad magic wasn’t working. Even if it was, he knew he wouldn’t be able to produce a patronus in the timespan of a single lesson, so this saved him the humiliation of failing in front of everyone! He did, however, wonder what form his patronus would take if/when he ever managed to produce one. Wouldn’t it be neat if it took the form of something like a wampa or a sarlacc? Obviously that wasn’t possible, but it was still fun to think about. Wait, what were they talking about again? He’d completely zoned out! Oh, right… the bubak.

Heath listened eagerly to the instructions. The more he heard, the less it sounded like an acting exercise, and the more it sounded like a game of tag, only with flashlights and costumes.Okay, so even numbers are bubaks; odd ones are wanderers; no roughhousing… No problem! Heath was well versed in stage fighting, so it wasn’t necessary - and even if it was, he wouldn’t do it. The no screaming rule, however… that was disappointing. Way to suck all the drama out of the activity! Now he’d have to work a lot harder to convincingly play a frightening bubak… assuming he got to play one at all.

Please be an even number, Heath thought as he looked at his flashlight. He’d rather not play a quiet, fearful wanderer, thanks! That was too much like his real personality. He read the number on the bottom, and… 16. Yes!*

He looked around, mentally forming a plan of attack, and decided the best strategy was to use the element of surprise. He turned away, walking toward the tallest part of the cornfield. It was only when his back was turned that he adjusted his cloak and put his mask on so that no one would be able to tell if he was a wanderer or a bubak until they were right upon him. He stuffed the flashlight in his pocket for now and hid behind the tall grass, arms outstretched like a scarecrow's, just waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

Avalon was in the middle of jotting down comprehensive notes about the bubak when she forgot what Headmaster Trent had just said about the creature. She paused, mid-parchment, trying to recall what he said about how the bubak lured its prey. She had definitely read about it, too, but now she couldn't remember. Oh well. She'd just have to read about it again tonight. The next part of the activity seemed strange, but at least there wouldn't be any real bubaks involved. And thanks to the absence of magic, she wouldn't have to attempt to produce a patronus charm. Avalon wouldn't even know where to begin if she had to do that.

Glancing, down at her flashlight, she saw the number 9. So she'd be a wanderer. Avalon held the flashlight in hand, flicking it off for now, as she made her way into the fake corn.

Isla peeked down at her flashlight. Ohh, fourteen. BUBAK IT IS! She cut off her flashlight and secured her mask in place. She wandered off into the darkness of the room and stood there pretending to be a scarecrow. Or a bubak. Or a whatever it was.

Pretty soon, she saw a wanderer coming along. Isla squinted her eyes in the darkness of the room, but she still couldn't make out who the wanderer was. Well, she saw the girl's face, but she couldn't quite put a name with a face for some reason. Must be a new kid or something.

Regardless, she was a bubak, and the new kid was a wanderer, and that meant Isla needed to attack her. When she came closer, Isla jumped out of her hiding place. She pretended to attack like a real bubak would, but what she was actually doing was showing all her teeth and making an attempt to tap Avalon on the back. She didn't know what else to do to make herself seem like a real bubak, but there was growling and teeth-showing and the whole nine yards.

TAKE THAT, WANDERER!

SPOILER!!: Bernie <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

Bernie was doing a GREAT job of being a scarecrow, in her humble opinion. But as soon as she saw a green-clad classmate with NO mask take off into the cornfield, she made her move. For some reason, which she couldn't quite remember, she had strong feelings about this classmate. Wasn't her name Claudine? It was either Claudine or Jolene, and Bernie did NOT get along with her.

But why? Did it matter? Bernie tried not to breathe too heavily as she put her arms down and started creeping along behind Jolene. No roughhousing, the Professormaster had said. But was it really roughhousing if she just ACCIDENTALLY caused Claudine to pee her pants from fright? Hehe.

Sneaking up behind her, Bernie bared her teeth and leapt forward, both arms aiming to tag Claudine on the shoulder blades. She ALSO may or may not have made a big RAWRRRRRR sound, as Gryffindors (and maybe Bubak?) are wont to do.

Claudine wrapped her arms around herself. She wasn’t cold. No, she just felt like it. And suddenly she forgot what she was supposed to be doing. Um... ??? A frown crossed her face as she thought furiously. What was it that Professor Whats-His-Face had said again? Find something? And shine the torch in their faces? Yes, that was it! She had to find something… no, someone. But whom?

That was the million galleons question, folks.

Wait.

What was that sound?

It came from behind her but they didn’t sound like footsteps. They were more like soft crunches. That still meant they belonged to someone, right? Before she could process any further thoughts, there was a loud RAWRRRRRR and she was tapped in the shoulder area. In a split second, she spun around, torchlight beam spilling in the face of some random girl.

Was this whom she was to be find?

Aboli though bubaks sounded cool. Both the SOUND of the name and the way they were. Cool cool cool. "Maybe in my next life I can be a bubak and eat people's souls." She muttered under her breath, flickering her flashlight on and off below her chin. She chilled THAT out, though, because it might burn out her flashlight, and she didn't need Headmaster Trent to get mad at her for something so silly. Her flashlight had a neat ole' 25 on it, and so she was a wanderer. She began creeping around, flashes of light here and there penetrating through the darkness as her classmates attempted to combat the bubaks!

THIS WAS FUN.

Aboli crept along, hearing motions nearby...when...she...TOUCHED something with her foot, squeaked, and heard Isla's roar - only instead of flashing the flashlight in ISLA'S FACE - she accidentally expecto-patronum'd a beam of light into AVALON'S FACE.

Did this mean they were both dead? Soulless? WHAT?

D'you know what was more terrifying than being stalked by a giant invisible scarecrow bone man who wanted to eat your soul?

Being stalked by something that squeaked. Squeak. Squeak squeak. Squeaksqueaksqueak. "KILLER MOUSE!" she shrieked as she turned to bolt for the door. WHAT KIND OF PLACE WAS THIS WHERE MICE KILLED INNOCENT GRYFFINDORS?

And there was the murderous mouse herself. Phoebe shrieked again, more quietly this time, since she recognized the mouse. Nina. "I'm caught. Thank you. I'd rather catch anyway."

What?? ........ Killer mouse???? WHERE???

Nina gasped in surprise when the girl SHRIEKED. Um, Phoebe, shrieking was Nina's thing. But otherwise, the killer mouse mystery seemed to resolve itself. She was also quite grateful that they were swapping places civilly because Nina would rather be a wanderer anyhow. At least this way she could avoid having to sneak up on people. Staying hid sounded easy enough too.

"Good luck," was all she said to Phoebe as she took off her mask and walked away.

Squeak. Squeak. Squeak... went her slippers as she wandered off into the maze of tall grass. She'd just.... Hang around for a while.

Bernie GASPED! as the flashlight shone on her, feeling like an opossum caught in the headlights of a car. She also froze for some reason, because she felt like she really had a spotlight on her and also because she didn't remember what was supposed to come next in the activity.

After what felt like FOREVER of pretending to be an opossum caught in the headlights, Bernie tugged off her mask. "You can shut that torch off now," she informed Jolene. Ah, now it was coming to her. It also helped that she saw Phoebe getting attacked out of the corner of her eye, ha. "I'm a wanderer now and YOU'RE a Bubak. Good luck." Then she took a few small steps back into the corn and essentially disappeared, her own flashlight off for now as she wandered around.

Uhh… what was he doing here? Heath had completely forgotten! Obviously he was supposed to be acting - why else would he be wearing a cloak and mask? But who was he playing? He had to stop and think for a minute. Oh, right… the bubak, scarecrow-like thing that attacks children. Jumping Jawas, that was embarrassing! He hardly ever forgot a single line, let alone his entire role!

From his hiding place in the cornfield, he watched the scene unfold around him. Truth be told, Heath was in no hurry to switch parts, but he was afraid he'd get into trouble if he didn't at least try to "catch" someone. More importantly, that wouldn't make a very convincing bubak! He remained motionless, waiting for someone to wander near enough to touch, but he soon realized that tactic wasn't going to work. Every time he saw a new target, another bubak got there first!

If he was going to stand a chance at catching his "prey", he'd have to move. Following the path of the tallest grass for cover, he slowly inched his way along until he spotted the Gryffindor prefect (Carsyn). Now if he could just sneak up behind her without her hearing him… Taking care not to keep his footsteps as silent as possible, he crept closer and tried to tap her on the shoulder.

The story was actually not too bad. At least, that's what she thought based on the little that she could remember. When the professor summarised the traits of the bubak and defence method - a patronus, ugh - she jotted down as much of it as possible. She also made sure to write "DADA Bubak" clearly on top of her page of notes, which would help to jog her memory during revision in the future. At the professor's words, she looked down at the flashlight she was holding (since when did she own a flashlight?) and noticed the number 8 on it. An even number, so she was a big bad bubak. She grinned and listened attentively to the rules, determined to remember them well.

After putting on her mask, she went into the cornfield excitedly, her arms outstretched like a scarecrow. It felt good to be the seeker and not the hider. The dark setting and what she just heard about the bubak would have been enough to frighten her enormously if she were a wanderer. Unfortunately, she was also a terrible bubak. She had walked through the field too confidently and quickly that she missed any wanderer who might have been hiding in plain sight. She now found herself at a corner of the room ... aha, there was someone here on the ground! Of course, she should have checked the edge of the field first, because kids are likely to hide there. She howled like a wolf for some reason and reached out to attempt to poke the person on the shoulder.

Naya was just getting into the creepy, weird story when the Headmaster called it to an end. So did the kids get eaten or not? She wanted to know. Anyway, it was time to talk about the bubak and the Gryffindor was listening intently. This creature was definitely made for spooky stories.

They were moving on and the activity/game seemed interesting. Naya looked down at her flashlight. Odd. She was a wanderer. She’d kind of prefer to be a bubak because they did the hunting. Being a wanderer was scarier because someone was inevitably going to jump out at her. Whatever. She was going to do her best to wander and hide and not get bubaked.

Naya went amongst the tall grass and tried to hide. That was kind of impossible, but she was going to give it her best shot. Flashlight at the ready, she crouched down and tried to listen for any approaching bubaks. If she could hear them coming, she could get away........hopefully.

Still lurking in the dark tall grass was a certain Nemesis Upstead, having decided at some point that it was probably a better idea to stay still and let the wanderers... wander. In their direction, specifically. That was what they'd decided, yes. And then... forgotten. And then half remembered. Nem knew they were hiding and meant to grab someone, but for the life of them could not remember why.

Not that it mattered; this little Upstead had years of this kind of thing under their belt. It was practically second nature. Or... first nature.

And look at this; wait around for a victim, and then two come along at once. Nem cocked their head one way to follow the squeak-squeak-squeak of footsteps, and then the other way towards the regular sounding ones and grass-swishing coming from the direction that they'd heard Grantham's Gryffindoring. As much as they wanted to go for Bunny McSqueakfeet, Probably-Grantham was closer, and getting closer still, so Nem quickly made up their mind.

They waited for a moment longer, still and silent, before suddenly leaping at the wanderer who passed, aiming to latch right onto them from behind like an almighty kraken.

Rules? Easily forgotten. For real this time.

Bernie was just wandering into the corn, not really remembering what she was supposed to be doing besides getting her steps in for the day, when a SOMETHING aTTaCkEd!! her back. OF COURSE she let out a SQUEAL of surprise not fright, she was NEVER AFRAID OF ANYTHING EVER.

"EEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeehehehehehehee!" Her scream devolved into a giggle quickly enough, and Bernie turned on her flashlight and waved it around as she tried to see who was on/attacking?! her back. Was she playing along or actually trying to shine her 'patronus' on the demon spawn who had got 'er? Who could tell, really? "WHO IS IT? WHO'S THERE?" Obviously shouting was CALLED FOR in this ATTACK. Kale's dad would understand, surely.

Back to the scream-giggling. "EHEHEHEEEEE AM I GOING TO BE DRAGGED INTO THE CORN TO DIE NOW?!?" Important question for the BUBAK(S?!) WHO HAD GOT HER. Bernie may or may not have been fine with acting out a full murder. She was inspired by Phoebe, clearly.

Why was this corn so tall?! Avalon had to use her arms to forge a pathway through the stalks. And the grass kept hitting her in the face. A few times, she heard what she thought was rustling behind her, but it turned out to just be her own feet moving through the field. The Ravenclaw had just paused for a moment to listen for any "bubaks," when a growl sounded from behind her. Immediately, she whipped her flashlight up toward the predator. "EXPECTO PATRO----" But then there was a beam of light shining in her own eyes. Avalon squinted into the beam, using her flashlight hand to cover part of her face from the bright light. The delay gave her classmate enough time to grab her.

Avalon turned around to see Isla and Aboli. She let out a laugh. They must have gotten their signals crossed. "Ooo, a three-way capture!" She flicked off her light. "I guess we're both bubaks now?"

And with that, Avalon grabbed her cloak and mask. Now she had to be the bad guy. Her stealth skills were probably a little better than average, but it would be hard to catch people through all this corn.

Islay peeked at her flashlight and saw the even number on the light. Okay, cutting off the light she wandered, slowly, into the corn field. Standing stock still like a scarecrow as she made her way to the taller part of the cornfield. She was ready to capture any unlucky soul that made their way into her little trap...lair, whatever it was.

Sure, she didn’t want to make the sounds but the young brunette stood there. Okay, baby noises. She needed to lure these poor wanderers into her trap. Opening her mouth she let out what sounded like a startled little cry. She needed to make it sound like a real little sad crying helpless infant.

That random girl Claudine realised that she knew her {after the mask came off}. What’s her name again? Graham? Beverly Graham! Yes, this Slytherin was quite sure of it. “Sorry,’’ she mumbled and snapped off the torch. Her eyes definitely must have reflected confusion at Beverly’s words. Beverly got to be the wanderer and she got to be the bubak? That must be what Professor What’s-his-face had told them earlier but he had just forgotten. “Thanks for reminding me, Beverly.’’ Claudine said as she put away the torch and put on the mask.

Who to target now?

Oh. There was a wanderer {Naya} looking to sneak away. Perhaps Claudine could catch up to her. She set off as quietly as she could, taking the path that she had seen the wanderer take.

Being a bubak was really fun, Phoebe had discovered, mostly because she got to seat herself in the dark and let people creep around her and the fact that she was there was a SECRET. She wanted to flick her flashlight in their faces, but none of them were close enough to touch and she had to touch them, right? That was the point of this game?

And then she heard someone coming right past her, right within reach of where she was crouching. Phoebe waited until she was nearly trod upon, and recognized that the wanderer was Naya. NAYA. One of her favorites!

Still going down! Phoebe reached for the girl's ankle in the dark, not realizing that it was going to be absolutely terrifying to be grabbed that low out of nowhere.

For some reason, Naya forgot that she was supposed to be staying still while she was hiding. She started to move through the grass, trying to stay low. Creeping along, Naya was trying to look out for any.......what were they again. Oh yeah bubaks. Unfortunately, her mind started to wander. She started thinking about where Cole might be right now. Too bad for her because at that moment, Naya felt something grab her ankle.

Stumbling slightly, Naya reflexively turned her flashlight on. It was too late. She had been caught. No more wandering for her, at least for now. As her light flashed, she got a look at the person who caught her. “Fifi”, she said to her housemate (Phoebe). “I guess you’re a wanderer now.” She couldn’t help but smile at her former partner. But now, Naya had to go on the prowl. Turning her flashlight off, she started to walk further into the cornfield. She was a bubak now and she was going to have to find a victim of her own.

Carsyn was trying EXTRA HARD to CONCENTRATE on remaining quiet and was doing a mostly good job of maintaining her distance and vigilance. Although the squeaky noises of someone's feet was rather distracting to the cause but the Gryffindor would like to say she was actually doing pretty well.

It was when she decided to adjust her position because her hands were cramping up from resting on them in the cornfields that she sat up to shake them out and she felt it. A tap. "Eeeeeeeeek!!!" she flicked on her light to shine to see her attacker. "Expecto patro---" she started but it was too late. She knew it was.

"Oh. Heath. Ya got me. Soooo i get to be a bubak now I guess??" And the light was back off as she went to scope out a victim.

It was tempting, just so very tempting to stay clinging on like a human backpack and not say a word, and maybe see how long it took to be thrown off their victim's back. But Nem was lovely - the loveliest little demon spawn you ever did meet - and refrained. Sort of. A bit.

"It'S tHe MoNStER," they replied, not trying to disguise their voice so much as just try to make it all hissy and evil and sinister, which was obviously very difficult for their lovely self.

Death in the corn did sound like a pretty solid plan, although someone should probably tell this Gryffindor that it wasn't a good idea to give any future attackers ideas like that. But that was a Stalactite Tent job, not a Nemesis Upstead job. They jumped down from Definitely-Grantham's back and got to dragging. "TiMe tO DiE." Just trying to make it an authentic experience.

... Whatever experience it was they were emulating, anyway.

In the darkness of the classroom, it was really hard to figure out where everybody was at and who was playing what role. Isla had pretty much thrown out the idea of 'Constant Vigilance' and being aware of her surroundings long ago. Her gaze was only focused on the wanderer in front of her (aka Avalon).

So because of that, Aboli caught her off guard when there was a sudden flash of light spreading across Avalon's face. Huh? Isla actually stumbled a bit and had to catch her balance before looking up to see what the outcome of her attack was. Apparently...she'd attacked them both? Well, that was a little unexpected, but okay. She laughed along. "Well, that was easy. Two for the price of one," she said. She waved them both off and headed off to attack somebody else. "Welcome to the dark side," she said over her shoulder.

So it was dark, which was working against her, and there suddenly seemed to be a full classroom of bubaks. Was anybody a wanderer anymore? Isla supposed she could switch roles, but that wasn't exactly covered in the rules, was it? Had the professor even given them rules? She seriously needed to work on her memory skills...

EEEEEEEEHEHEHE the monster was TALKING TO HER!!! This was almost as good as that one time when she'd first met an acromantula in the Forbidden Forest... FIRST met being the keywords here because that meeting had quickly gone sour, as this one...er, might also go...but no one here was an ACTUAL babka, er, babushka, er.... whatever they were called...

"Hehehe," Bernie giggled again. Mostly the monster attacker just sounded like a Slytherin trying to do Parseltongue. She blink-blinked and tried to aim the flashlight on her attacker as they started dragging her into the corn, but her aiming skills were pretty awful, and the light from her torch mostly just bounced on and off the hanging moon. "TIME TO DIE," she repeated, louder, almost in agreement. "OHHH NO." Definitely scared here. Who was playing this babushka, by the way? They were doing a wonderful job.

BUT. Was she supposed to be fighting or crying or something? "Do the babkas make the baby noises?" Bernie wondered aloud, just to nudge her attacker along, "or do I get to make the baby noises? Because I didn't make baby noises when the spiders tried to attack me. But SOMEONE did."

JUST SAYING. She might've had short-term memory loss like everyone else in this place, but she remembered Kale's dad being VERY wigged out by the spiders... Kale's dad and that girl Jolene, she thought? Or maybe it was another professormaster; she couldn't remember all the details. They were fuzzy.

So...were the HELL was his wand?

Eiji continued to pat around for it when, embarrassingly later, the lack of screams of anguish and doom registered with his brain that there was no actual attack going on. If there had been he would have been dead by no, surely. Which then got his brain kicking into gear a little more and something jolted his thoughts into remember he was in class. Or drama club. Did he take drama club? Was that something Trinetta had weaseled him into? Wait...were he and Trinetta even on speaking terms at the moment?

Uuuuuuuuuuh.

Hearing a HOWL, the seventh year quickly moved to stand and sort of turn at the same time when his eye came in direct contact with something - a finger - that had moved in for the poke. "ARGH," he barked as he recoiled back a bit, slamming his back against the wall and covering his eye with the palm of his right hand. "What was that for?" His one good eye narrowed in the darkness to try and make out the who...and it took a while for his eyes to focus in and that time was thankfully long enough for him to forget why his eye was evening narrowing. "Jina?" That was her, yeah?