She knows the Heimlich she won't choke, not Daphne (farsick) wrote in caged, @ 2013-12-12 19:36:00
Who: Regina Avery & Daphne Greengrass. Pseudo-cameo by a bewildered Theodore Nott. What: Daphne finally makes good on one of her kiss threats. Where: The corridor near Slughorn’s classroom. When: Thursday, 12 December. Shortly before Potions. Status: Complete.
“YOUR LIPS LOOK CHAPPED! YOUR LIPS LOOK CHAPPED!”
Daphne stared over her shoulder at the clump of mistletoe behind her. It was hovering just out of reach and stalking her mercilessly down the corridor. If there was one good thing to be said of this situation, it was that the halls were relatively abandoned. Most people had classes right now, and those who didn’t were studying or outdoors or elsewhere. Which, truthfully, Daphne would have liked to be as well. She’d had just over half an hour until Potions, and her plan had been to find a quiet space near a window and enjoy the view of Hogwarts in December while reading over her notes.
And then the mistletoe found her. It had been a peculiar, sometimes annoying, and sometimes entertaining presence all over the castle since Monday or so. Apparently someone had charmed it to follow somebody as a joke, and who knew who’d decided to perpetuate it, but here it was days later and it was still finding a new victim every day. Daphne had not expected herself to be next, let alone as she was washing her hands in the bathroom, minding her own business...and then that voice.
“YOUR LIPS LOOK CHAPPED!”
At first she almost thought that perhaps one of Blaise’s mirrors had escaped the Slytherin boys’ dorms and found her. But no, it was only the mistletoe, here to engage its particular brand of holiday mischief. Banishing spells didn’t work--the thing just flew right back to you--nor did trying to set it alight, or silence it, or transfigure it into something else. Difficult little parasite, this mistletoe.
So it was out into a relatively empty hallway, where the looks drawn by the mistletoe’s loud declarations were few and far between, and Daphne was left to her own devices to wonder just how bad the state of her lips were. It was true, the winter weather was kind to no one’s faces. And that she had spent a good deal of today outside when she didn’t have to be in class. If only she had thought to bring that lip gloss Astoria had given her over the weekend. Maybe the mistletoe would find reason to go harass someone else.
For all of this, it wasn’t terribly annoying. Might even have been funny, if there had been someone else around to laugh over it with. But she was quite alone, and she didn’t think Professor Slughorn would appreciate her shortly trailing the thing into class with her. So, how to get rid of it? As far as she knew, a few others had had luck by finding someone to kiss, which seemed to satisfy the charmed plant and send it on its way. As if someone had heard her thoughts and deemed her worthy of relief, Daphne rounded the corner and was greeted by the sight of Regina not so far along, putting a book away in her bag and looking as if she had no where in particular to go for the moment.
Well, what were friends for, after all? Fighting a grin, Daphne sped her pace a little, the mistletoe haranguing her all the while, and by the time she trotted up to Regina her smile was broad and her voice dancing with suppressed laughter.
“Hey, Regina?” she asked, feigning politeness and rounding the other girl so that they were abruptly and unmistakably face-to-face. The mistletoe followed, hovering obnoxiously just over them, announcing once again, YOUR LIPS LOOK CHAPPED! The very picture of innocence, Daphne inclined her head a little. “Do you think my lips are chapped?”
Without waiting for an answer Daphne shifted her school bag over her shoulder and grabbed Regina’s arm with one of her hands, pulling her friend unceremoniously closer. It occurred to Daphne that this was her first time doing this to someone shorter than her, and she was still fighting a giggle when she dipped her head the several inches it took to press her lips (chapped or not) to Regina’s in a silly, chaste kiss that lasted little more than a second. Grinning like a lunatic, she pulled away and released Regina and took a few steps back like she expected a slap. She licked her lips. Hm. Peppermint.
“Well?” At the very least, the mistletoe seemed satisfied, and had ceased its badgering. Daphne tried to look deadly serious and failed, her mouth and voice quivering as they struggled against a laugh. “Verdict? Quickly now, I’d be so embarrassed if Sluggy noticed, and I’ll have to go all the way back to the dungeons for lip gloss.”
Having been surprised by the approach of her fellow seventh year Slytherin (and the little pest, whose shrill tone nearly made one Regina Avery wince even as it diagnosed the state of her peers’ lips), the look that answered the greeting - or inquiry, she hadn’t been quite sure - was half perplexed, half polite interest. Her mind was on the upcoming Potions class, on the approaching holidays, on who she’d settle next to at dinner that evening, not on the condition of Daphne Greengrass’ mouth.
Her brows had crinkled in amusement at the question, clear where Daphne had been given the idea from the hovering vegetation masquerading as harmless decor, and had been about to reply when the other girl leaned down nonchalantly, pecking her on the mouth and borrowing some of her own lip balm: a most direct way to solve the apparent problem.
Momentarily bewildered beyond all understanding, Regina gawked for a solid second and a half before realizing (in a trickle of amusement that bubbled into suppressed laughter even as they stood there) that the inner eleven year old that Christmas brought out in her friend apparently included childlike innocence - alongside that twitching at the corners of Daphne’s mouth as she struggled not to be the first to break.
Regina maintained composure for all of two seconds before losing herself in helpless laughter, a touch of astonishment in the giggles that grew raucously louder as she realized the mistletoe had, indeed, shut up. Clutching her bag to her, she was enveloped in laughter that brought tears to her eyes, and it was only after thirty seconds that she choked out, “Didn’t we say-- last resort?”
Exasperation barely veiled beneath her amusement, Daphne waved her hands dismissively and smacked her lips together again. She threw the mistletoe a look as it continued to hover in confused silence, and wondered if this meant it as going to latch on to Regina now. A little wickedly, she decided that if it did, she would suggest Regina go find a certain Head Boy to help her with her problem. That might be cruel, though, considering the small-scale assault she’d just dealt Regina’s face. Being made to kiss a person with a chapped mouth was a bit like falling prey to an assault, she thought.
“What do you think this was?” she asked lightly, folding her arms with an air of superiority. “What was I meant to do? Undergo verbal abuse throughout class? You solved my problem.” She pointed at the idle sprig and raised her eyebrows at Regina. The tip of Daphne’s tongue poked out of her mouth again as she gave the residual lip gloss another taste. “In more ways than one. Peppermint?”
Having covered both her mirth and her own unchapped lips with a hand in an attempt to silence herself, she grasped desperately at composure, clearly boggled by the entire exchange, and letting it sink it didn’t seem to be doing either of them any favors, though Daphne at least hadn’t dissolved into laughter. It snuck out around the edges, though, and the Prefect of the pair struggled mightily to match her control.
It settled a moment later as she removed her hand, though an undeniable smirk lingered, her olive green eyes wide with residual surprise. “Peppermint, yes. Though I might have just loaned you the jar, if I’d had the option.”
Almost immediately afterward, her gaze flicked to the mistletoe, adding in a tone that was somehow simultaneously wary and concerned, “This doesn’t mean it’s my turn to be haunted, is it?”
“It probably would’ve just started shouting something else at me. It wants people to kiss, Regina. Actually,” Daphne tilted her head and eyed Regina’s bag. “Do you mind if I borrow it? Now I’m worried I’ve been drifting around all day looking like I just emerged from an arctic trek…”
Regina gave her a sardonic look, the corners of her mouth still quirked, and dug into her bag to retrieve the jar of gloss. More gratefully than she’d let on, Daphne began to dab it onto her lips with an index finger, thinking of how it was making her want a candy cane. As she screwed the lid back on and handed it back, she said, “I’m not sure, though. I think it might have started yammering at you already if it was going to.”
Still eyeing the hovering piece of foliage even as she accepted the jar of lip gloss from her most recent kissing partner, Regina answered, just as warily, but with more resigned amusement than before, “I’m giving it back to you if it does turn out to be the gift that keeps on giving.” Then, wryly, “You can go find someone else to bestow your chapped lips upon.”
Then, as if having second thoughts, or at least the notion not to leave any stone unturned, she turned her attention on the piece of mistletoe, speaking directly at it - almost too directly, as though trying to get through to a particularly dense lifeform. “If you follow me, I will slice you up and feed you to my raven.”
It lingered another moment, seemingly untouchable, then gave a rather pronounced quiver and zipped, as suddenly as a hummingbird might, in the opposite direction down the hall and around the corner from the pair of freshly minted Slytherins.
Daphne wrinkled her nose as if Regina had just tasked her with the most odious duty imaginable. It was with bemused relief that she watched the offending little plant beat a hasty retreat toward the classrooms. Perhaps it sensed an area more densely populated with human life. It would no doubt find a worthy student--or professor? God forbid--soon.
“My chapped lips are for you and you alone, my dear,” she said drily, pressing her now smooth-and-minty lips together for effect. “Chapped no more, though. Lucky you.”
With a sigh, Daphne peered into her bag and poked around at the books and sheafs of parchment nestled within. She supposed she wasn’t going to get quite as much reviewing in after all. It was all right. Her mind wasn’t on classes so much now as it was on being home, the prospect which teased her daily for how close it was. At this point she was far more interested in the upcoming Slug Club party than she was in meticulous review of material she’d had a capable grasp of for a week.
“Doing anything before class?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest.
“I’m glad to have been of service,” came the equally dry response, the only hint of her amusement left lingering in the corners of her mouth which still twitched upward from time to time, and perhaps a vague note of entertainment lingering under the bemusement, having been quite pleased at the sudden departure of that possibility of her own mistletoe haunting.
Eyeing the overly-familiar figure that she had only just noticed down the hall - with curls and a green tie and a vaguely perplexed expression that made her stifle a laugh at the thought of how long he’d been standing there and how bewildered he could potentially be - she answered, heavily sarcastic but with a small shrug, “Other than making memories with you?” Returning her eyes to Daphne, she went on, a laugh bubbling up from deep in her chest, “Nothing. Though,” she motioned with a jut of her chin toward that same figure, “we’re usually here early.”
“Hm?”
Daphne’s eyebrows rose in mild interest and she followed the jut of Regina’s chin, twisting her body around a little to see who ‘we’ was. If Regina had started going to Potions early with Ernie, well, maybe it was time to have some words. Instead, Daphne swallowed the impending tease when she saw that the other in question was a member of student authority, but not the one she’d considered. Well, this certainly made heaps more sense than her left-field guess; Daphne already knew that Regina and Theodore tended to get here early, because sometimes she was with them. Had he been there the whole time?
“Ahh.” She threw a nod his way, as if to say ‘fancy seeing you here,’ and quickly turned back to Regina. Her hand dropped to her bag and picked at the buckle, then she seemed to change her mind and crossed her arms again.
Shoulders twitching a little with another laugh, Daphne twisted her mouth into a grimacey smirk and she handily mirrored Regina’s nonchalance. She tucked some stray hairs behind her ear and quipped, “I’d say it’s a pity he wasn’t around three minutes ago, but then I don’t think he’d have had such a useful supply of lip gloss on hand.”
It was with an amused but considering gaze that Regina studied the other girl, the mild flush of red barely noticeable over Daphne’s countenance as she turned back from greeting their visitor, but certainly not unobservable altogether. She had been on the verge of making her own teasing remark when the girl opposite her dropped the nonchalant retort, one that Regina answered almost reflexively with another lift of her eyebrows, their pulling together even momentarily enough to suggest at least surprise, if not something more.
Though something churned uncomfortably in her middle, her tone seemed mild enough to her as the words came out almost without thinking. “A shame for all of us, really.” Making a great, solid and silent effort to keep any and all hints of possessiveness out of both her features and her voice, she suggested evenly, “Should we join him?”
By now quite sure that it had to be just a few minutes until class would start, and all obstacles disposed of by less-than-conventional means, Daphne blew a long sigh out a corner of her mouth and idly dug a toe into the stone floor. Last class of the day. A week from today, she’d be heading into her last class for several weeks. It was a heartening thought, and she smiled at Regina despite the odd expression on the other girl’s face.
“I guess we should,” she conceded, turning on her heel and tugging her bag into a more comfortable position on her shoulder. “I’d been hoping to do some reviewing...well. So much for that.”
With a vastly entertained expression on her face, one that spoke to a potential amusement separate from that which erupted moments ago at Daphne’s recognition of their audience, Regina gave a soft sigh and, angling herself such that she could slide an arm into the other Slytherin girl’s, replied, “I’m sure there’s still some time,” as they turned themselves around to face the Potions classroom as well as the figure standing there waiting for them.
“At least,” she added wryly, “once we finish explaining what happened to Theodore.” Then again, she doubted he’d actually ask.