Picking up the thread, A Dare Options

[evlpez]

...rolled around the corner of the building.

Mundungus Fletcher had a bad habit of being out in the alley behind the Hog's Head at the most inopportune moments. At this particular moment, he was adjusting his long, red wig, hitching up the stockings under his witches robes and cursing the Barkeep for having such a long memory. As he stooped to flatten the hem of his robe, he noticed the tiny ball of thread laying in the dirt.

Never know when something like this might come in handy, he thought as he picked it up and began winding it and following the thread weaving along the ground toward the front of the pub.

"Oi Missus," came a lecherous growl from several feet behind him. Dung froze as he recognized the voice as that of a former business partner he'd rather not have recognize him.

"Hey, Lassie!" The voice neared. "I'm talking to yeh, Poppet. Yeh should be more polite ter friendly gentlemen when yer alone in a dark alley."

Dung chuckled a bit. The old con-man hadn't lost his way with the ladies, that's for sure. He idly continued winding the thread while he waited for the man to get close enough. Sure enough, he was suddenly grabbed in the behind and he jumped in mock surprise and whirled, his wand ready.

"Dung! You deadbeat, you owe me..."

What he owed, he never heard, though he remembered. The stunner was so swift that the old man fell back unconscious before he could finish. Time for that meeting now, Dung thought, estimating that he could meet Remus and be gone before his friend woke up. He tossed the ball of thread at the smelly man on the ground, turned on his heel and pulled down the black veil of his witches hat before stepping out into the brightly sunlit street.

The thread hit the old man on the nose and rolled off his face onto the ground where it...

[hermione_dg]

...kept on rolling and rolling and rolling. However, it soon rolled right under the boots of a rather large man on his way to the Three Broomsticks for a nice chat with Madame Rosmerta and a large Odgen's Old Firewhiskey. Hagrid fell rather unceremoniously to the groud for the second time that day.

Hagrid picked up the little ball of string, and then realzed that this was probably the Ball of String of Doom that all the professors were going on about. He decided to take it back to the school so that Professor Dumbledore could deal with it. He brought it back up to the castle and was near Dumbledore's office when he tripped over the thread that was dangling out of his pocket. Once again falling rather hard that day did not please Hagrid, but he was going to get this thread to Dumbledore.

However, at that precise second Hagrid noticed that one of his many pockets was empty. Then he saw them, six or seven dormice were scurrying across the hall. He jumped up and ran after them, forgetting the ball of string in his haste. The ball of thread sat there for quite sometime, until...

[elf_girl_87]

...Ron almost tripped over the ball of string. He glanced down and picked it up, "This must be what Harry and Hermione are going on about." He thought.

He stuffed the ball into his pocket and headed for their next class. It wasn't until he got to the dungeons for Potions class that he found out that the pocket that he put the ball of string of doom in had a hole. The string could be anywhere...

[zymurgy]

Snape grimmaced as he saw the string laying in the hallway. He remembered, angrilly, what had happened the last time he'd tried to pick it up. Nevertheless, Snape wasn't the sort of man to be cowed by a string of all things, so he gritted his teeth, and picked it up. He began to roll it as he went along, following it towards the entrance.

Suddenly, a dung bomb went off in the next corridor. "SNAPE!" yelled Filch's voice, "It's POTTER! He's getting away!"

Snape concidered quickly: Which was better, destroying the String of Doom! or getting a chance to murder Potter in the line of duty? Potter. Definitely.

He let the ball fall and sprinted off in the direction of Flich's voice. The ball of string began to unroll, sprawling out untill....

[hermione_dg]

...it came to a stop in the middle of te entrance hall. Luna Lovegood looked down and quickly picked it up.

"Oh, string, maybe this is the Ball of Thread of Doom that everyone's so worried about," she said. She shrugged and started to wind up the little ball of thread.

She was rather preoccupied with the string, and bumped rght into a group of girls huddled outside of a classroom. She dropped the thread in surprise.

"Why did you come and knock into us like that, Loony Lovegood?" one of the girls taunted angrily.

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to," Luna said calmy, apparently the insults had no effect on her. She glanced at them, then went back to her daydreaming.

She forgot to pick up the string before she walked off, singing "Weasley is Our King" under her breath. It lay there for a short time, and then...

[McGonagall's Cat]

Pansy Parkinson hoped none of the others had noticed it. She surepticiously nudged it with her toe, guiding it away from the rest of the students until she felt it was safe to pick it up without anyone seeing. Quickly she stashed it in the inner-most pocket of her robe and continued on her way to the Slytherin Common Room.

Once inside she looked around slyly. Two of her fellows were skiving off class, playing an underhanded version of Exploding Snap in the corner, but otherwise the area was unpopulated. Still, she didn't feel this place was acceptable, too many prying eyes. Anyone could walk in. What she needed was a very private place... smiling coldly she calmly walked to her dorm.

Carefully checking under all the other beds, behind the doors, inside the wardrobes, and locking the door, she eventually permitted herself to settle in on her own bed. She pulled the rather ordinary-looking ball of thread from her pocket.

"What magic do you hold that the whole school is in an uproar trying to find you?" she addressed the thread. "And what is it worth to them that I now possess you?"

Being a true Slytherin, she plotted the most advantageous route of action. Deciding it prudent to check the lay of the land before putting this plan into action, she pulled her wand and began to cast an invisibility spell onto her prize to ensure that none of the others could steal it from her.

Unfortunately when the spell touched the ball, instead of disappearing as she expected (she was quite excellent at spells afterall) it exploded into a huge chaotic tangle larger than a basket. It flew up to the ceiling and unraveled itself in great looping swirls, then zigged and zagged all about the room. It swooped at her, entwining a bit of itself in her hair. She shrieked and swatted at it as though it was a bat, and ran around the room in a most un-Slytherin-like manner. The string re-grouped, twirling into a ball about the size of one used for tennis, whereupon the panicky Pansy swatted it into fireplace. The pot of Floo powder was knocked into the melee from the mantle. Green flames sprung up and the thread disappeared to...

[Riley]

Hermione Granger was working away, quite alone, when she heard something land in the Gryffindor common room fireplace. Annoyed as she was by this interruption she went to see who, or what, had entered via the fireplace. She was certain that whoever it was was certainly not allowed, and she was just going over pages of Hogwarts: A History in her mind when she found herself staring at a small ball. This small ball was made of string and was no bigger than a tennis ball. Curious, Hermione bent down and picked up this object, which to her looked unmagical and nothing out of the ordinary.

But if her years at Hogwarts had taught her anything it was to except nothing was ordinary until investigated fully. She sat down on one of the comfy chairs near the fireplace and started to examine every nook and cranny of the string ball. While doing this she started to wonder how this object found itself in the Gryffindor common room and what it actually does, if anything.

After about ten minutes of studying the ball she placed it onto the table, her mind wrapped in thought of what the mysterious object could be, and why she was so determined to find out its secrets. Eventually when she came to the conclusion that there was nothing special about this string ball and it just happened to find its way into the Gryffindor common room's fireplace wasn't anything to be bothered about.

So, she picked up the object and chucked it into the bin as she went back to her homework. But, when she started to read again, her mind wandered back to the strange string ball and its possible magical properties. She kept looking over at the bin.

"Stop it Hermione, pull yourself together," She told herself out loud as she let herself look over to the bin for the fifth time. Shaking her head and taking a deep breath she continued to read.

However, curiosity got at her again and again. Finally she shut her book and walked over to the bin. Pulling the small ball out she raced back to her pile of books until she found one called 'Mysterious Magical Objects.' Placing the ball onto the desk, she started to flip through the many pages, scanned the 'S' section, no 'string balls'. She went back to the 'B', maybe something about string balls there...

"Beach Balls, when your's blows you up instead of the ball...no...Bowling Balls, knocking everything over instead of the pins, no, no, no..." she continued to look through all the sections until she slammed the book onto the table in frustration.

She picked the string ball up from the desk and stared at it, as if willing it to do something, anything remotely magical.

After a while she snapped, "FINE! Fine! You...you stupid string ball you! If you want to play games and be an infuriating little ball then FINE! I've had it, you've distracted me from my work long enough!"

And with that Hermione rushed to one of the open windows and threw the string ball out of it with all her might, not noticing the few people in the common room staring at her as if she had gone mad.

[McGonagall's Cat]

The Thread flew through the air for a magically excessive distance, landing soundly in the Raven Nest. Young Ravens scrambled to look at it, but the two larger Ravens drew back for a moment in horror. They remembered hearing what devastation it had wrought at Hogwarts in the 1970's, what havoc they'd heard it was currently wreaking there again. Before any of the flegling Ravens could be corrupted by the foul influence, the two wise bigger Ravens kicked the ball of Thread out of their Nest, watching it fall, making certain it bounced far away, toward.....




for Riley and Gin

[Riley]

Fang was out with Hagrid as usual when something hit him on the head. He was dazed for a moment before he went to look what it was. He saw a small object and bent down for a sniff. But before his nose even touched the surface, Fang had backed away, as if alarmed by this small string ball. He eyed the ball carefully until he was at a safe distance. Hagrid called him, but Fang couldn't leave this object for anyone to find. So he dashed back to it, dug a hole and pushed it inside. But before Fang could fill the hole, Hagrid was by his side growling, "Come on Fang, what's this, digging here? Dumbledore won't like that! I haven't time for this Fang, you should know better! Come on, I'll have to fill it later...." So, Fang had to leave the open hole...

[timeturner]

LONGBOTTOM

Neville Longbottom wandered slowly back to the castle, alone as usual. He felt a certain contentment after finishing his favourite class- Herbology. Just as he was pondering the properties of the Puffpod, he stepped into a hole, tripping and falling flat on his face. Neville got shakily to his feet, brushing debris from his robe. Seeing the ball of string inside the hole caused him to laugh. Better to trip over a ball of string when no one is looking, than to trip over Malfoy's outstretched foot in the presence of his classmates like yesterday. Neville reached into the hole and pulled out the ball. He began winding the loose string around the ball, but stopped suddenly when he heard shrieks of terror coming from the castle. Neville clutched the ball of string and ran towards the horrible screaming. The shock of what greeted him at the castle caused him to drop the ball...

[McGonagall's Cat]

Fred


...Which rolled lazily under the feet of several fifth year Ravenclaw girls who were staring straight ahead at a flyer of The Weird Sisters that had just been posted.

It announced that the band would be playing at the upcoming Halloween Ball. In the picture, Kirley Duke would lean forward, winking at a different girl each time, as he belted out some raucous (though silent, in this case) song. Every time he did this another girl screamed as though she'd just won the Irish Sweepstakes.

"Disgusting isn't it?" Ron mumbled to Neville who stood there in open-mouthed shock.

More and more students flocked to the spectacle.

Fred, suddenly beside Ron and Neville, motioned with a quick nod that they should follow him. Unfortunately, or perhaps very fortunately, neither Ron nor Neville caught the hint. Fred shrugged after a second try and started off toward the stairs.

At that very moment one of the Ravenclaws obliviously kicked the string as the whole gaggle giggled at the reaction of a swooning friend.

The thread ricocheted over, low and fast. It wrapped around Fred's ankles like a rewinding bobbin and he fell with a resounding, entirely unnoticed thud. The girls squealed again, obliterating the colourful phrases flowing from Fred's mouth.

He reflexively drew his wand, pausing only long enough to not shoot himself in the foot, and cast a containment spell on the errant thread.

With sudden realization, Fred grinned wickedly. He raced off to the balcony on the fourth floor and waited. At the exact right moment he dropped the string squarely onto....

[zymurgy]

Professor Vectors head.

Professor Vector, however, was too busy wondering what effect, if any, wind resistance could have on Avada Kadavra, to notice that the ball of string had lodged itself onto her hat.

She continued merilly on her way, and had nearly reached her Quarters, when a bit of string intruded itself in her line of vision.

Reaching up, she gave it a slight tug. This dislodged the ball of string from her hat, and caused it roll away from her, unraveling completly.

With a cry of horror, Professor Vector realized that in her hand she held the end of the Ball of String of Doom.

"I must contain it!" she thought.

She began to roll it up, while mentally calculating how long the string was, using the area of the original ball for reference. She had nearly reached the end of it, when...

[McGonagall's Cat]

The Hufflepuff Quidditch team came barreling around the corner. Six athletic students mowed down the willowy Professor sending the thread flying into the air.

It careened off the nearby Portrait of dancing Mediaeval Courtiers, causing them to shout and shake their fists. Several were helping a rather dazed-looking Lady back to her feet.

The Thread banged into a suit of armor with a resounding gong-like "bong" that echoed longer than the abject apologies the Team was using in an attempt to mollify Professor Vectra.

It ricochetted across the hallway, skidded through a window and fell several stories onto....

[zymurgy]

... onto Mrs. Norris.

Mrs. Norris had no idea it was the dread Ball of String of Doom she was handling. To her, it was simply the best thing that had happened since Filch's left shoelace came undone during a staff meeting.

She batted the string to the left. She punted the string to the right. She rolled in it. She even tried to eat it.

Eventually, she had herself so tangled in it, that she was stuck. Frantically, she twitched. Pitifully, she howled and mewled for assitance.

Assitance did indeed come, in the form of ...

[McGonagall's Cat]

...one of the School's homely brown barnowls. This owl had been part of the School's cadre since the early 1960's and was becoming a bit feeble.

Hesperus thought he was dropping onto a tasty hare, but upon encountering the scrawny Mrs. Norris entangled in the string, he merely snapped ahold of a piece of the offending twine and flew up toward the Owlery. Unfortunately, this twirled the hapless cat like a top and threw her dizzily into the shrubs.

The Thread streamed out below the ancient owl, snagged on the Whomping Willow and was jerked from his grasp. It looped down over.....