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Pandora's Box Mods (pandoramods) wrote in pandorarpg,
@ 2011-10-26 12:23:00

Entry tags:

!status: complete, ^date: october 31 2003, character: adrian pucey, character: alicia spinnet, character: angelina johnson, character: bianca dunstan, character: cade warrington, character: cho chang, character: dean thomas, character: ernie macmillan, character: hannah abbott, character: harry potter, character: hermione granger, character: jayne dough, character: justin finch-fletchley, character: lavender brown, character: luna lovegood, character: melinda bobbin, character: percy weasley, character: ron weasley, character: seamus finnigan, character: theodore nott, character: tracey davis, character: zacharias smith, npc: kingsley shacklebolt, npc: pandora zurlo

Ministry Gala Event!
Characters: OPEN TO ALL. Please tag with your own character(s) when you comment/they arrive.
Setting: The Ministry Atrium, Level 8, beginning at 7 PM and running until midnight
Summary: It's the Halloween ministry gala/party! Come in costume (muggle or otherwise), in elegant wear, or in dress robes. The event begins at 7PM with refreshments, appetizers, finger foods and cocktails. Desserts are served later in the evening, but the cocktails remain available all night long. There is no full dinner, as it would be quite unwieldy with the amount of people expected to attend. The dance floor is open, a live band is playing, and the atmosphere is almost aggressively pleasant. For safety reasons, wands are being checked (surrendered) at the entrances. Unless your character is on-duty at the party, he or she will not have her wand on his/her person after entering.
Rating: Let's go with R for now, as there will be some dark occurrences later in the evening. We will update as necessary.

The event coordinators at the Ministry of Magic were in fine form in the hours leading up to the start of the gala. Everything had to be perfect, and not just in appearances. The atrium had been decorated in gold and silver, slightly reflective, to capture light and brighten the large, spacious room. The band was in place by 6:30, playing quiet music that set the mood. Off to either side, slightly out of the way, were two cocktail tables, fully stocked. There was also a number of wait staff who would be walking around with trays of red or white wine as well as champagne.

The attention to the decor was due to the head events coordinator, one Ismay Plimpton, who was an absolute perfectionist. With attention down to the very last detail, she was very nearly driving the Minister mad with her questions and comments, not to mention crucial changes. Her voice and general looks had Kingsley Shacklebolt nearly thinking her related to Delores Umbridge, if Ismay weren't so remarkably pleasant and likable.

With his assurance that everything was just fine, Ismay hurried off, gently but firmly reprimanding some poor chap setting candles afloat too low for her liking. The ceiling above twinkled like night stars, and between that, the candles, and the reflective decorations, the room was perfectly lit.

Everything was ready. All they needed now were the guests.

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	11 PM - 12 AM pandoramods 2011-10-26 04:37 pm UTC (link)
	The night is drawing to a close as and the witching hour draws near, the near-perfection of the night may be disturbed. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Harry and Jayne

ilivedtwice
2011-10-29 05:11 pm UTC (link)

Harry was tired, no doubt about that. He hadn't had much to drink in the alcoholic sense, but lack of proper sleep two nights in a row meant he was drained. He should probably have left hours ago, but it was nice seeing friends and not having that pall of worry hanging over him for a while. He'd been concerned about the gala, that something might happen maybe. He couldn't put a finger on the dread, but felt it strongly all the same.

However, now the night was drawing to a close, he thought maybe he hadn't had to worry at all. He stepped away from the crowd, not actually leaving the ministry, just going out to be apart from everyone else. He still had to go and retrieve his wand from security before he could leave, but for now he just needed a breath of air away from everyone. After all these years, Harry still sometimes felt the need to be alone with his thoughts.

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Harry and Jayne

jayne_dough
2011-10-29 05:26 pm UTC (link)

Jayne had woken feeling strangely rejuvenated, considering what had happened to her earlier in the day. She felt normal, though, and had begun to think it had all been one of the strange dreams and visions everyone had been experiencing lately, and had risen from the floor of the storage room and out into the main area. A look at a clock shocked her - it was after 11pm, and she'd been unconscious over half the bloody day!

She knew strange things happened in the Department of Mysteries, but thus far they hadn't happened to her. Perhaps it was finally her turn... and it made her reconsider her promotion. Perhaps it might be time for a change, maybe to Sports and Games.

With a sigh, she went for the lifts, only to find them non-functional. Ah, yes, the party. This meant the stairs, and Jayne was in no mood for exercise. She briefly toyed with the idea of staying overnight and leaving in the morning, but no, she wanted her bed and a good night's sleep.

Down she went, her footsteps echoing loudly in the stairwell. As she approached the Atrium floor, she saw the door open and somebody step through. It must have been someone tired of the crowd and wanting a moment to breath, something Jayne could sympathize with.

"He has one..." the woman's voice spoke into Jayne's mind, causing her to freeze in place and close her eyes.

No, this couldn't be. It had just been a dream.

"I'm no dream, my dear. I'm here to help you help me, remember?"

Jayne's hand tightened on the stairwell's railing. She remembered, but had dismissed it. Suddenly, she felt a soothing sensation over her mind, almost like the feeling of her mother smoothing her hair back.

"It's all right. I'll show you what needs doing. Just relax, and let me do all the work."

She mentally nodded, and suddenly Jayne was swept aside. She continued watching, but... she couldn't say or do anything. Her body wasn't under her command anymore, and though it should have terrified her, the soothing sensation remained, keeping her calm.

"Hello, Mister Potter," she heard her own voice say to the man a few steps below. "Getting away from the crowd?"

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Harry and Jayne

ilivedtwice
2011-10-29 07:15 pm UTC (link)

Harry turned at the sound of a voice and saw Jayne Dough entering the hall. He nodded at her in greeting. "Hello Ms. Dough. Yes, I've been inside all evening. I'll probably be leaving shortly, but I thought I'd have a bit of fresh air first."

He gave her a curious look, noting that her state of dress didn't seem much like a costume. "Were you inside?" If so, he wondered at her choice of clothing. If not, he wondered why she was here.

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Harry and Jayne

jayne_dough
2011-10-29 08:56 pm UTC (link)

He's an Auror, he'll notice things, she thought, for that was all she could do right now. She didn't know whether she wanted Potter to realize something was amiss, or not. At the moment, the calming feeling remained, keeping her distantly aware of what was happening.

"I needed to get something from my office," her own voice spoke to Potter. "Feminine things." Her shoulders shrugged in a casual way that Jayne had never quite managed. "But I figured since I was here, I'd take a look to see what the party's about. What do you think - I'm a witch for halloween."

Jayne was beginning to become envious of Pandora, for she spoke with far more ease and wit than Jayne. In a way, it was what she'd always wanted, but could never do or be.

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Harry and Jayne

ilivedtwice
2011-10-30 12:39 am UTC (link)

Feminine things. Harry's nose wrinkled just a bit. He really didn't want to know what those things were, not at all. Her costume explanation had his mouth quirking is amusement. "Aren't you always a witch? I thought you're supposed to be something you aren't on Halloween."

He hadn't spoken to Jayne beyond that short questioning the day before. She seemed more personable now, though that could easily have been her office face he'd gotten to see.

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Harry and Jayne

jayne_dough
2011-10-30 12:50 am UTC (link)

"Some would say that you be something you've always wanted to be, and luckily, I'm happy just the way I am."

Jayne's hand moved to reach into her pocket. What are you doing?

"Oh, just getting a little something I fetched earlier. I hope you don't mind my borrowing your body while you were asleep..."

The hand pulled out something tiny, nearly the size of a fingernail. What's that?

"It's my box, I need it to collect the memories. Normally it's much bigger, but sometimes a miniaturization charm can make transporting it so much easier."

"What about you? Who are you supposed to be tonight?"

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Harry and Jayne

ilivedtwice
2011-10-30 03:38 am UTC (link)

Harry raised his eyebrows at that comment. "That's a very good way to look at it. Not everyone is so lucky." Harry noticed she seemed both intent and distracted, and he wondered if she'd had something to drink. His eyes strayed to her hand as it moved, but he couldn't see the tiny thing she held.

He shrugged one shoulder, a sheepish look on his face. "Muggle police," he replied. "I suppose not much different from my own day-to-day after all." He gestured towards the rest of the party. "I's coming to a close now, I should think. If you wanted to see what it's on about before it's over, you don't have to let me keep you."

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	Harry and Jayne jayne_dough 2011-10-31 12:08 am UTC (link)
	"Oh, you're not keeping me," Jayne's body said with a smile. "I'm not a big crowd person, to be honest. The better the excuse to put it off, the better." She felt herself bite her bottom lip, and she couldn't help wondering what exactly Pandora had planned. "Um, you've a little-" she motioned to the back of her own robes, "something sticking out." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Harry and Jayne

ilivedtwice
2011-10-31 12:14 am UTC (link)

"I don't blame you," Harry agreed. Crowds around him were usually of the hero-worship sort and sometimes that got overwhelming. Oh all right, sometimes he couldn't hate the fact that being harry Potter meant some things were a bit easier for him - perhaps in exchange for everything that had been terrible and difficult. But he was in no rush to get back into the thick of things. Perhaps he should get his wand now and just head home.

Harry's hand went automatically to his back, mirroring Jayne's gestures. "What?" he looked down, away from her, looking to see what she was talking about.

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Re: Harry and Jayne

jayne_dough
2011-10-31 12:18 am UTC (link)

"It's just a tag," her voice spoke with humour. "Here, I'll give you a hand."

As her body approached Potter, the hand not holding the miniaturized box slipped into her robes and pulled something out.

What is that?

"Just another little something I picked up with your body. Don't worry, we'll put it back eventually."

But before Jayne could even think anything else, she had stepped right up to Potter, and... plunged the object into his throat.

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Harry and Jayne

ilivedtwice
2011-10-31 12:27 am UTC (link)

Harry didn't even feel it just at first. He blinked and suddenly pain exploded across his neck. He managed to turn his head to stare in disbelief at Jayne, but he couldn't see what she'd done, what she'd stabbed him with. Cold spread through him next, and he staggered back groping automatically for a wand he didn't have. If only he had skill in wandless magic, nonverbal magic, something to help right now.

Instead he dropped to the cold floor, but even as he started to breathe shallowly, he felt something strange. Something in his mind gathered, seeped out, and coalesced, hanging in the air like a cloudy question mark. The very last thing Harry Potter saw was another set of features briefly superimposed on Jayne's face.

Twenty two years to the day after Voldemort had failed to kill Harry Potter, this woman had succeeded, and Harry didn't even know why.

The world went dark.

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Harry and Jayne

jayne_dough
2011-10-31 12:38 am UTC (link)

Jayne had never felt such a shock as the sight before her, her own hand shoving something - she finally identified it as a letter opener - into the young man's throat. Not just any young man, but Harry Potter.

What have you done!

"What I said I'd do - get my memory back. See?"

Before her eyes, the whisp of dark, cloudy smoke danced away from Potter's body, and into the tiny box still clasped in her hand.

But- but you killed him!!! You didn't say you'd kill him!

"Honestly, what did you think I would do?"

Anything but kill him. Why? I'm not a killer.

"Oh, but child... I am. And in your body, so are you. That's what they'll think, if they catch us. Now, unless you want that to happen, shut up and let me work."

The letter opener was withdrawn from the body - Potter's body - and secreted into a pocket in Jayne's robes. She couldn't feel it once it was enveloped in the cloth - that was why she hadn't noticed it there. It must have been spelled somehow. She watched impotently through her own eyes as a scourgify was cast to remove any accidental blood spatters, then with a glance up and down the hall, she made an escape into the main room.

But instead of leaving as she'd thought, she was taken to the bar for a drink.

"Leaving would be suspicious. It's all right, I dropped your wand off at security earlier. All the bases are covered, darling."

In horror, Jayne simply retreated further into her own mind and did as commanded.

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Zacharias & Kingsley

overlooked
2011-10-31 01:59 am UTC (link)

He still didn't have any clue exactly what a Paris Hilton was, other than apparently slutty and willing to have it in the back and really anything beyond that simply didn't matter. Zacharias Smith sure as hell wasn't looking for a wife and this would certainly count as turning the night around. There might not have been some big drama happening to keep his interest, but this would do. Smirk on his face, he made his way through the slowly thinning crowds to the back of the hall.

His slutty muggle had told him to meet her in five minutes. It had been about seven, so she would be waiting for him. Or at least she would have been, had she not been distracted by one of friends pulling her aside for a moment - not that Zacharias Smith was aware of the delay. As he slipped out into the corridor by the emergency exit, he was near shuddering with anticipation.

All that came crashing do a halt.

"What the fuck?" His stomach dropped, as he took a step forward, shoes sticking to the...blood on the floor. And some sad looking bloke collapsed on the floor. "Potter, not really a joke in good taste here." It was easier to believe this wasn't real, because it was just absurd. He just wanted a blow job!

Without his wand he was a bit useless, but he knew how to check for a pulse and then Potter and all of his little friends were never going to hear the end of this bullshit. Pranks were one thing but this wasn't even funny. Crouching down next to the body he reached out, only now it looked far too real to be fake, and there was just blood everywhere. (Thank Merlin he had a relatively strong constitution.) Zacharias pulled his mask. It was just in the way now. Reaching over what looked like a neck wound he felt around for a pulse.

Behind him was a feminine shriek, scaring the wits out of him, causing him to topple backward onto his bottom into the pile of blood.

And that would be his slutty muggle.

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Zacharias & Kingsley

pandoramods
2011-10-31 02:15 am UTC (link)

Kingsley was more than ready to make his excuses and leave for the night. He'd known public relations were a large part of the job when he'd become Minister, but there were days when he dearly missed being an Auror and the excitement that came with it.

It didn't take very long before Kingsley was grimly reminded that one always did well to be careful what they wished for.

He'd just stepped out of the hall for a moment when he heard the scream. He might be out of the field, but his Auror instincts were as sharp as ever. He had his wand in his hand in an instant and was racing towards the shrill screams.

What he found stopped him cold, heart catching in his throat.

Kingley barely noticed the scantily clad witch now reduced to ugly sobbing. He eyes were fixed on the unmistakable body of Harry Potter sprawled in a pool of blood. And the equally bloody young man next to him.

Kingsley's low voice, usually unshakable, trembled as he held his wand on the young man and demanded, "What has happened here?"

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Zacharias & Kingsley

overlooked
2011-10-31 02:44 am UTC (link)

And just when he was wondering how this situation could get worse. There was the bloody Minister of Magic pointing a wand at him. Zacharias put his hands up in the air, showing that he was unarmed but what did that matter? There he was, sitting in a pool of Harry Potter's blood without a damn thing to say for himself and that said blood literally on his hands.

All of those snarky comments hung heavy on his tongue. What did it look like? Instead he just went with the obvious. "Harry Potter is dead." The moment he said the words, he realized how ridiculous he sounded. Like some big cosmic joke. The start of dry chuckle escaped him because in now way was this his life. Before it could escalate into anything more, he snapped his hand over his mouth to stop any sound from escaping that would only make this worse for him.

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Zacharias & Kingsley

pandoramods
2011-10-31 03:39 am UTC (link)

Harry Potter is dead. The words were like a blow, though Kingsley could see clearly that, with the amount of blood spilled, there was no way Harry could be alive. Kingsley felt a stab of grief, but he hid it behind a stony gaze and a steady wand as he stared down the wizard before him.

The wizard who was apparently trying to stifle laughter.

It took all of Kingsley's control not to do something he'd regret. Instead he cast a complicated spell, locking the scene - and those within it - in a temporary stasis for the time being. The young wizard and the crying witch were left immobile and unconscious of their surroundings, locked in their positions while Kingsley secured the scene then threw up an obfuscating charm to hide it from view until an investigation could begin. Which be about as long as it took Kingsley to get the Gala emptied out and the DMLE notified.

What was already a long night just turned into the longest night of his life, Kingsley realized grimly as he headed back inside to find the head of the DMLE.

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