The school, the school, the school is on fire...

[liquidsky]

Who: Anyone who wants in on it!
What: The school is on fire.
When: Days 420 around sundown and after.
Where: The school in Odin's district.
Rating: We'll see!

The sun is slowly going down and Barty Crouch jr is in Odin's district, as he's been every day for a good while though, since he first realized how easily Will Graham fell into habits. The difference is that today he isn't headed to the cafe they always meet at right away. Instead he stands leaning against a wall, ever now and then glancing at the school and waiting for a sign. He has placed the mirror - a present from Albus Dumbledore himself - in just the right position fixed it to the corner of a building and waited for the sun to hit the reflective surface at the right angle.

Dumbledore had talked of smoke and mirrors and now Barty had found the right tinder. He waits until he can see smoke, faintly but there. It would be another hour, he suspects, maybe even more before the fire spreads far enough to be noticed. But it would burn, of that he had no doubt.

It is starting to get dark when he takes the mirror back, making sure to remain unseen, and he heads down the road to meet Will. He doesn't know if anyone is still in the building he just set on fire, he doesn't much care either way. The flames would rise high and Severus Snape would feel the heat.

[OOC Notes: I purposefully set this up like an event log, so just like for them, feel free to make a header comment detailing what your character is doing at any given time. If you want to do any more last minute plotting, head on over to the plotting post! Also, here is the IC post with some of what led up to this if you want to read up and/or still tag in! I backtag forever. Slowly.

If your character has been near/around/in the school before the fire started and would thus be a suspect and/or suspect other people he or she has seen, you can play that part out here too!

Times: Before the fire, during the fire, right after the fire. ...duh.
Places: The parts of the schools that will be affected are: The library, the auditorium and several classrooms as well as Evy's office.
Obviously you can also have your character be outside the school or in the hallways or any unaffected part if they want to use the chaos to, I don't know, mess up Snape's office a little.

I just ask that no one saw Barty do what he did, so we can have more fun with various suspicions cast about.]

Comments

[albuquerque]

The moment she takes a sip, Severus takes a brisk seat next to her.

"You're certain you didn't accidentally...?"

Start the fire. He doesn't particularly care to be slapped again, however, and so is hesitant to finish the sentence.

[proudofwhatiam]

Evy knows she should be glad to have company, even if she doesn't feel particularly strongly on the subject just then--but she doesn't want the company of an interrogator. The look she shoots him is pure poison. Don't ask me a third time.

[albuquerque]

He steels himself against that look she's giving him. Pressing his lips into a stubborn line, an equally stubborn look of urgency on his face, he adds, "Did you see anything? Anything suspicious?"

Of course, perhaps it would be best if he had this conversation with her once she's got back use of her voice, but--

He's too frantic to let that conversation wait.

[proudofwhatiam]

She shakes her head, wondering if there's a universal signal for I was busy marking essays. Nothing comes to mind, so she settles for taking another pained sip of water and then looking over at him, eyebrows raised slightly. Did he?

[albuquerque]

The severe but pained look he gives her says it all: he didn't see anything, either, and has no idea how this nightmare could have happened. Perhaps, once the furor is over and he's had some time to clear his mind, he'll be able to think more clearly about it, but right now - all that's rattling through his mind is numb shock.

"I left early," he says. "I smelled the smoke from my house."

For a moment he sits there in vacant despair while staring at his school. Maybe he would have seen something had he not gone home early.

[proudofwhatiam]

Her thoughts feel scattered and half-considered; the one thing that comes to the surface easily is I wish Jonathan were here. He wouldn't know what to do--he'd probably have a bottle in hand--but he'd be here. Severus Snape is a tolerable companion at the best of times, but at the worst, he isn't the greatest comfort a girl could ask for.

And even if he were, he still wouldn't be her brother.

A long moment later, she recalls that Snape's spoken, and that she probably ought to make some reply. But there aren't many simple words she can think of to say to him just now. She reaches over and pats his knee, a little hesitant, but--well, there's not much she can say, is there?

[albuquerque]

The touch to his knee snaps him out of it: he quickly looks down at her hand, then at her, and he sits straighter as he forcibly reins himself back under control.

He'd said he wanted to take a look at her. That's what he should do. Keep busy.

He takes hold of her hand and upturns it to palpate her pulse on her wrist. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

[proudofwhatiam]

Perhaps that wasn't the right thing to do, touching him. The last time she happened to do so, he hadn't taken it especially well, either...but if he isn't going to try to bite her head off for it, then that's all she cares about.

She lets him take her pulse--how nonsensical, taking the pulse of a dead woman--and shrugs at the question. After a moment, she points to her throat. Nothing else seems particularly damaged, so far as she can tell.

[albuquerque]

Satisfied that her pulse seems steady enough, he quickly checks her fingers for any sign of discolouration, checks her nailbeds to ascertain that they're not blue from lack of oxygen (and yes, he knows she died in the fire, but - checking her over is better than nothing), and then he quickly checks her eyes for irritation.

With that, he's off the seat again; he snatches up the plastic cup from her hand, hurries back over to people handing out water, gets a refill. When he returns, he resumes his seat beside her, cup pressed into her hand - and just as he opens his mouth to order her to keep drinking, he's suddenly overcome with a violent coughing fit that sounds like it's coming deep from within his chest.

[proudofwhatiam]

Evy lets him fuss over her without complaint. Aside from the few moments he's poking at her eyes (not literally, thank goodness), it's easy enough to ignore. She stares off into the middle distance, trying to think of little in particular.

The world comes back into focus when she hears him coughing. With a horrified expression, she thrusts the cup back at him, her hand at his back in case...well, she's not sure what. Perhaps to brace herself against him. He can't possibly think she's going to sit here and sip her water when he's in danger of losing a lung to that wracking cough.

[albuquerque]

It takes him a good minute or so to recover himself; his head is spinning by the time he does, and his lungs hurt. He can taste smoke and ash in the back of his throat.

Shrugging away Miss Carnahan's hand on his back, he also nudges her cup back to her. "Drink," he rasps. "I'm fine."

Setting his elbows on his knees and dropping his head into his hands, he makes himself take a few deep breaths. "Whoever did this to my school..." he mutters with bitter anger.

[proudofwhatiam]

Oh, you have got to be joking, Professor. Evy's more than sympathetic to your worries, but she's not going to sit there and watch you gasp for breath and then claim you're fine without question.

(It's easier, anyway, to think about a momentary difficulty someone else is having. It means she doesn't have to think about everything wrong with her.)

She shakes her head and reaches out for his hand, intending to draw it away from his face and put it around the cup of water. Everything she might say to him beyond for goodness sake, Severus, drink this is too complex for pantomime.