[jan mp] trick or treat? [zina]

7th January 2004

Classes were cancelled! Ruslan could hardly believe he'd heard correctly when he'd first heard the news. Surely it was a trick and they were going to have to attend some seminar or compulsory lectures instead? But no, the school was celebrating Kaliady, which was a holiday the young boy had not actually heard of before, but if it meant he got the day off lessons he was all for it!

Not only that, but they were allowed to go into the village and dress up and play tricks...and as far as Ruslan was concerned, that meant dressing as something with wings and taking his broom, because any opportunity to practise flying had to be seized with both hands! Unfortunately, not many of his fellow first years had brooms or the expertise to consider being flying beasts, but he'd waited outside the Grand Hall for Zina before breakfast and asked her if she wanted to dress up with him, and now they were going to be meeting up in just a few minutes before heading into the village.

Ruslan was very pleased with his costume. After some thought, he'd decided to dress up as a giant billywig, and not just because it meant that the greater part of his costume was a bright blue bedsheet tied around his neck and secured at his waist by a belt. No, it meant that he could practise a particular spinning manoeuvre that he'd been trying to get the hang of for the last couple of months. Obviously it was usually performed horizontally, but Ruslan felt sure he could attempt it with the broom almost vertical.

He took a look at himself in the dormitory mirror as he put the homemade hat on his head. Not bad. The 'wings' dropped a little, but Zina probably knew a spell to put that right, and even if she didn't they would probably stick out and spin around when he did the triple spiral turn, so that would be fine. He was just adding the final touch - blue eyeshadow, kindly donated by a sixth year housemate who said she'd been given it for Christmas but hated the colour - which he smeared liberally across his cheeks before being elbowed out of the way by a fellow first year (dressed as a kneazle) who said he was hogging the mirror.

Ruslan laughed, elbowed his friend back, and then, chucking the eyeshadow onto his bed, headed down the stairs ready to meet his sister. From there they would collect their brooms and - assuming there were no adults watching, because they hadn't actually specifically got permission for this in case someone said no - fly to DÖttrar Vik to take part in the festivities. As he reached the third floor an excited Ruslan stopped a respectable distance from the Krov quarters and waited for Zina to make an appearance.

@Zinaida Shishkina

So, the final event of Kaliady was here. With the recent events that occurred so far during her fourth year at Durmstrang, Zina was not going to turn her nose up at anything that was a celebration. She had never really heard of it before, as she wasn’t too familiar with Belarusian culture. However, with it apparently being important enough that classes were cancelled to celebrate the final day of it, Zina looked it up in the library to learn more about it. She was grateful for the extra day to catch up on homework, at the very least, though she felt a tad guilty about her original plans. She was originally not planning on doing anything to mark the occasion, rather going to spend the day holed up in the common room to do her schoolwork, and maybe get an extra session or two of flying and working on the beams in. Not really celebration worthy.

However, after breakfast, Rusya had come up to her to ask her if she wanted to dress up with him, so that they could go into Döttrar Vik for a trick or treat style. She found that she couldn’t say no to him, especially since he’d suggested that they incorporate their brooms into their costumes somehow. Zina found it was impossible to refuse his proposal, especially as she was realising that with nationals beginning to appear on the horizon in the next few months, that she was taking flying a little too seriously. Thank goodness that she had Rusya to remind her that their sport was also supposed to be fun too.

She was quite excited to see his costume. Zina didn’t think that her youngest sibling would hold back with his outfit, and therefore she couldn’t either. Zinaida felt she had to match his enthusiasm. It took her a long while to decide what to be, thinking first of an augurey, and then a fairy or perhaps a fwooper or a jobberknoll. Eventually she decided on an occamy in the end, mainly for the sake of her obsession with blue. She figured since she was an artistic flyer that she would be able to contort and create some unique moments that would be flexible enough to mimic the serpent-like movements of the creature that she had chosen.

Using the mirror to aid her, Zina waved her wand over her catsuit in order to change the icy blue colour it usually was into a more turquoise and teal colour, like the occamy. A long purple scarf was attached to her back, and charmed to stay up as if they were wings. She was quite proud of the fact that she had even managed to make it so that the ‘wings’ flapped every so often. It had taken several tries for her to get it right. Zina looked at her reflection in the mirror, smiling at how well she had managed to get the colour of her catsuit to blend in with her makeup. No visible part of her skin was its usually pale pink colour, and was instead a vibrant teal, with purple lipstick to match. Pleased by her reflection, Zina twirled in the mirror, giggling as her wings flapped in response, and she rushed down out of the dormitory and out of the Drakonya Krov common room, eager to meet her little brother and grab their brooms.

As she stepped out into the corridor, Zina scanned it for her little brother and when she spotted him, Zina beamed with delight. She was glad she had put lots of effort in, as Ruslan clearly had too. She practically skipped towards him, arms wide open. “Look at you, Rusya!” She gushed, as she wrapped in a quick hug and let go again. “You look fantastic! Are you a… billywig?”

A couple of older boys exited the Krov quarters and glared at Ruslan, but he remained where he was, meeting their gaze with what he hoped was a friendly smile. There was nothing in the school rules that said he wasn't allowed to stand here and besides, if anyone challenged him he had a perfectly good reason for being there. "I'm waiting for my sister" was on the tip of his tongue, but the boys apprently decided that picking on a first year wasn't worthy of their time and they walked past, leaving Ruslan undisturbed. A group of first years exited next, and Ruslan said hello to them because at least he recognised them, and they obviously knew Zhenya and Zina so one of the girls stopped to chat, asking if he flew like his sisters. Ruslan grinned and said of course he did, and then the girls' friends called back and asked if she was going to spend all day chatting up the Klyk, and she blushed beet red and ran after them.

The door opened again and a bright vision in similar shades of blue to his own stepped out. "Zina!" he exclaimed as she turned in his direction and immediately scooped him up in a hug. The first year was glad he'd made such an effort. If Zina thought he looked good, then he was sure he did, and the boy seemed to grow an inch in height with pride. "Yes! I thought it would be a good opportunity to try the horizontal roll...except if I do it vertically it'll look like a billywig" he explained, then looked at his sister's costume. "You've got wings! How did you make them move like that? Can you do it to mine, too?" he reached out towards one but drew his hand back at the last minute in case he somehow affected the spell and stopped them from working.

Then he hesitated. Ruslan hadn't studied many magical creatures yet and he didn't actually know what Zina was dressed as. She was obviously some sort of bird, but the only sorts he could think of were eagles and augureys and he was pretty sure neither of those were teal blue. "Oh! Are you a dragon?" he asked, dancing round behind her to look at the wings more closely "You look amazing!" Oblivious to his error, Ruslan could only think now of getting their brooms and heading down into the village.

"I've saved up my allowance so we can get some hot chocolate later" he said, because he hadn't actually been into the village yet and for all he knew the villagers were poor and wouldn't be able to give them sickles in exchange for a performance, running a little way down the corridor and then turning back "Are you ready? Shall we go get our brooms now?"

“Oh! Yes! That’s a genius idea, Rusya!” Zina replied enthusiastically as her little brother explained his logic. He was right though, if he did it right, it probably really would like a billywig. It was quite smart actually.

She smiled proudly as he noticed her wings, glad that her effort was being appreciated. “It took me a while. The spell is quite tricky.” She noticed how he reached for one of her wings but withdrew his hand, and she giggled softly. “You can touch them, don’t worry.” Slowly, she pulled out her wand with a little mischievous grin. Making his wings stay up properly and maybe flap every so often looked like it’d be a little easier than her own. “Hold still then,” Zina offered as she twirled her wand in her hands, moving around Rusya to look at his ‘wings’ properly before muttering under her breath as she tapped the wings.

Eventually, they perked up a little bit, and though her intention was to make them flap properly, she smiled as she noticed that they actually sort of made lots of tiny movements instead, which was probably more appropriate for the billywig. “There. How do you like that?” She asked, as she put her wand away again.

“Thanks! I’m not a dragon, but you’re close!” Zina laughed. He wasn’t really close at all, but Zinaida wasn’t going to discourage him. “I’m an occamy,” she explained, “you’ll probably learn about them at some point in class soon. They’re fascinating creatures, I think you’d like them.” Zina wondered if she should run back into the dormitory, grab her textbook and show him but there was plenty of time for that later, she supposed. This day was meant to be fun, and Zina didn’t want her little brother to think she was boring.

“Hot chocolate?” Zina gasped with a growing beam on her face. Rusya was so sweet sometimes. “I’d love that.” She added, but Ruslan was already somehow halfway down the corridor. “Yes, I’m ready!” Zina gave a little skip along the corridor to catch up with her brother. She gave a little look up and down the corridor to see if anyone was watching them, she still wasn’t entirely sure that this was something they were even allowed to do. However, it was worth it to have some fun and let off some steam.

“Yes, let’s grab them now. Race you there?” Zina asked with a grin, as she already started jogging her way through the halls before her brother could even react.