Picking up the thread, A Dare Options

[McGonagall's Cat]

<title- Lavender First Picks Up The Thread>


As Lavender Brown walked down the steps to the Common Room from the Girls Dorm She noticed

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Crookshanks

playing with a piece of thread. He seemed to have found the begining end of the thread on the steps and was rolling around, tangling it into a snarled up knot. With one swat it hurled into the Common Room, where he playfully attacked it again.

Lavender was going to breakfast and not particularly interested in the thread, until it wrapped around her ankle as she tried to walk over to her best friend Parvati Patil who was sitting near the fire waiting for her.

"What is that?" Parvati asked as Lavender untangled her foot.

"I don't know what's going on with it. I just noticed Hermione's cat playing with it on the steps over there." She answered pointing toward the stairs.

Parvati picked it up, noticing that it ran out of the room through the Portrait Hole. Since Crookshanks had lost interest and was now sitting on the rug near the fire licking his paw, she began to wrap the loose thread around and around the knot, forming a tiny ball.
She and Lavender followed the thread along, through the opening, down the hallway, wrapping the thread around the small ball as they went. They chattered on about having been invited to Trelawney's room for a private reading later that day.

"I can hardly wait!" giggled Lavender. "I just know she's going to tell me that cute Ravenclaw boy is destined to be in my future!"

"Well, I'm hoping to learn how many puppies my Mum's dog will have when she has her pups next week!" Parvati said enthusiastically.

As they turned the corner, still giggling and planning for their "private tea", the thread lead them to the top of one of the moving stairways. As they stepped onto it, it began to move. Parvati shreiked, almost losing her balance with the lurch, and the small ball of thread went flying through the air to






OK, here is the challenge: You have to pick up the thread, whoever you are, follow it a while through some interesting rooms/places/situations, and hand it off to (another character)...

who then picks up the thread and continues to wind it around and around into a ball as they continue through some interesting rooms/places/situations, and hands it off to (another character)...

who then picks up the thread and continues to wind it around and around into a ball as they continue through some interesting rooms/places/situations, and hands it off to (another character)...


The same character can pick it up again later... They can do many amazing things while it is in their possession... we can each write as many scenes as we care to write...


Go ahead! I DARE YA!!!

Through January 18th, 2004. 
Vote for favourite scene Jan. 19, 20, & 21 - so be sure to TITLE your scene to make it easier for all of us to vote for the intended one!
edited 1/18/04   This is now on-going       No time limit.

[evlpez]

Seamus

Suddenly realizing that he'd neglected to pay the proper respect owed a Professor of Hogwarts, Dobby left in a blink to prostrate and punish himself in an appropriate fashion.

Nearing the bottom stair of the grand staircase, Seamus Finnegan was having an animated conversation with Dean Thomas on their way from their last class of the day. Seamus was vehemently defending the merits of Quidditch over muggle football when he suddenly got an eyeful of fluffy thread.

"What the-!?" Seamus exclaimed, clutching his eye and batting away the hanging thread.

"All right, Seamus?" Dean asked, "Look- I have to go meet someone. See you later."

Seamus nodded, knowing that Dean was off to find Ginny Weasley, his current love interest. Seamus held the thread and his eyes followed it up the side of several staircases. Looking around to see that he was now alone, he pulled out his wand and aimed it at the thread. He thought a moment about what spell he wanted to cast when he noticed the thread moving. Entranced by its hypnotic swaying as the end floated into the air he pocketed his wand and ran up the stairs, careful to keep the thread in his sight.

As he reached the top floor breathless, he desperately grasped the end of the thread threatening to slip away. It stopped moving then. Seamus's face screwed up, puzzled, and he looked around to see if he was at the butt end of someone's joke. Seeing no one, he turned his thoughts back to Ginny and Dean as he began winding the thread around his left index finger, picking up the slack and following it down the empty hall. Ginny had grown into a fine lass. She was fiery and passionate, a trait - like her red hair- that Seamus was certain came from his own homeland. He couldn't deny the twinges of jealousy he felt when he saw Dean fawning over her. She deserved someone better, he thought. Better than Dean- even better than himself, he thought sadly. He smiled as his head filled with imaginings of her red hair flying, her face afire with fury as she battled Death Eaters with Harry, Ron and Neville in the Ministry last spring. He wished he could have been there to lend his wand, maybe even save her life.

As he turned the corner, he was brought out of his reverie. The thread was wound around a large, heavy clay vase underneath a portrait of Sir Cadogen.

"A-ha! A worthy foe! En Garde, you pimply.." the knight started, charging forth.

Seamus interrupted him. "Hello, Sir Cadogen. What are you doing way up here?"

"Oh, it's you, Sir Finnegan." Cadogen was crestfallen, his challenge unanswered. "The Great Dumbledore asked that I set my vigilance on this hall." His voice lowered, "Strange goings on, you know. His Highness depends on me to keep a watchful eye and report back to him."

This was a usual response, Seamus knew. Sir Cadogen was frequently moved throughout the castle at the request of whomever his loud, late night questing had disturbed most recently.

"Well don't let me keep you." Seamus muttered as he drew his wand, intent on freeing the thread from this vase. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he incanted, swishing and flicking. The vase stood unmoved, to his surprise and frustration.

Cadogen flinched at Seamus' wandwork and muttered something about seeing a man about a dragon before fleeing his frame for shelter.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Seamus shouted then as he pulled the thread with his other hand, freeing it. The vase flipped up and smashed on Sir Cadogen's painting, which was mercifully unharmed. Seamus looked in disappointment at the great clay chunks and shards on the marble floor.

"Mister Finnegan. As a sixth year, I'd have thought you'd mastered that charm by now. In fact, I recall passing you in your first year based on the level of improvement you showed in class." A small, cheery voice called.

Seamus turned to see Professor Flitwick marching soundlessly toward him. His head lowered and he dropped the thread.

"Please see me this Saturday morning for a tutorial, Mister Finnegan. In the meantime, you don't want to miss dinner."

Seamus nodded and ran off, red-faced. Flitwick surveyed the damage and repaired it swiftly with a few swishes of his little wand when he noticed a thread at his feet. He picked it up and chuckled at the new diversion, winding it and following it further down the hall.