What Boredom Leads To

Anthony left the Ravenclaw common room in a huff. He was so entirely bored out of his mind, that it should be illegal. He really had no one to talk to up there, and even if he did, he wasn't really in the mood to talk to stupid people.

He strolled down the corridor, hoping that something exciting would happen along the way. He peaked around a corner, back to the wall, ninja style, and crossed his fingers that someone was doing something fascinating. Perhaps he could watch on as another student was being berated by a teacher, or at that precise moment, a charging hippogriff was bee-lining in his direction. He screwed up his face and sighed loudly when nothing happened.

Walking on, he heard a commotion not to far off; a commotion that seemed to be heading in his direction. He darted his eyes back and forth, to try and find a good hiding spot, and it was then that he saw the empty classroom.

Andy pulled back the door, which gave a small squeak of protest, and ducked in, closing the door so that only a crack was left; a perfect place to watch on and not be noticed.

Natalie clanked along the hallway, stumbling with every step. There didn't seem to be anyone around, so she didn't feel very bad about making such a commotion, but it would be potentially awkward if a teacher came along since she was pretty sure that it was against the rules to dismantle a suit of armor, even accidentally, and then don the protective gear.

She advanced down the corridor brandishing a rod that normally held up a tapestry which she had accidentally knocked down in her temporary blindness after the helmet from the suit had fallen onto her head. She hadn't planned to dress up like a knight that day, but the helmet was already on her head, so it was only natural that she also adorn the boots and run around for a bit.

She held the stick in front of her, swishing it like a sword. "En garde, ye scurvy dog," she growled at her imaginary opponent. "Oh wait, that's pirates. Scallywag? Nope, still pirates," she said to herself.

She shrugged and swiped the stick at the air in front of her. "Come on, you coward, fight back!"

Andy stood rather perplexed at the sight in front of him.

He blinked and then blinked again, allowing some time for his brain to process what just happened. He really did not expect so much noise to come from one person, but then, now that he thought about it, a suit of armor did make quite a bit of noise. What Andy didn't understand was, why on Earth was the girl wearing a suit of armor in the first place?

He opened the door, hearing the familiar squeak, and stepped back out into the hallway.

"I'm pretty sure you're channelling pirate lingo there," Andy called to the retreading girl with the loud, and heavy looking helmet and boots. "Something like, "I challenge ye to a duel, ye foulest of men' is more Knight sounding. I think, anyway."

Someone was saying something to her, but Natalie couldn't really understand what it was until she turned around. It was a boy that she was certain she hadn't met before, meaning that he probably wasn't a Hufflepuff, unless he'd been hiding from her in the common room.

"Well in that case, I challenge ye to a duel, ye foulest of men," she said to the boy, striking a defensive pose. "Arm yourself, and we shall fight!"

Andy laughed, "I'm a little underdressed for such a tournament." He looked down at his own attire, thinking that a blow from that stick she was holding would sure hurt without some armor. She didn't have any real armor either, but he wasn't the one wielding a rod made from some sort of metal. Besides, it wouldn't be gentlemanly of him to fight with a girl, no matter if she was the one who challenged it.

"How about we introduce ourselves first, before we begin to bash each other's heads in," Andy said with a smile. "Anthony McGuire," he said, starting the introductions off.

The rod slipped out of her hands and crashed down onto the floor; it was heavy and slippery and it was a wonder that Natalie had managed to keep a firm grip on it for so long in the first place.

"Nice to meet you Sir Anthony McGuire, I am Sir Natalie Olivier," she bowed deeply. Obviously, she wasn't actually a Sir, she would have been a Lady, but Ladies weren't allowed to be knights.

"If you're not going to fight, at least try the helmet on," she said. She removed the helmet and plonked the oversized piece of armor on his head. "Cool, right?" she grinned.

Andy just about jumped when the rod crash landed to the floor. He looked around to see if anyone had come out of the classrooms when they heard the noise. They seemed to be safe for now; but judging by what had just happened in the space of three minutes, he wasn't so sure their safety would last.

He grinned at her introduction,"You don't look much like a Sir, but nice to meet you all the same, Sir Natalie," he said, still smiling. This girl was the most random person he had ever met, but Andy didn't mind in the slightest. In fact, it was refreshing to have someone so unpredictable to talk to.

Away with thought and not entirely paying attention, Andy's full focus was brought back when he felt a large and awfully heavy weight placed on his head. It took him a few moments to realise that the girl had placed her helmet on him.

"Cool, right?"

Andy, finally processing properly, nodded. It was actually pretty cool, except that he couldn't see a damn thing.

"I can see why you wanted to try this on. I feel invincible!"

"Exactly. You could fight a dragon or something," Natalie said.

She looked around for a moment. No one seemed to be coming, so it seemed they were safe for the time being. She reached out and poked him on the shoulder. "Dragon got you!" she yelled excitedly before taking off running down the corridor, the heavy metal boots clunking with each step.

Andy nodded and took on a defensive stance that seemed to be somewhat appropriate when wearing a large, heavy, metal helmet.

"Fear not, gentle maiden. I shall slay the dragon, henceforth!" Andy cried, and then charged after Natalie, engaging in her game of "tag."

Andy had clean forgotten that they were in the middle of a corridor, playing a game of childish tag wearing a collection of items that were once from a suit of armor. He shrugged. If they got a detention, so be it. This was too fun to quit, and Andy hadn't had this much fun in ages. Besides, what was more fun than running blindly into the walls of a castle, playing tag in the middle of the day? Really?

Natalie continued to run, giggling all the way, until she came upon a flight of stairs. Stairs! The natural enemy of clunky metal boots that were 10 sizes too big for the person wearing them.

She turned around and ran in the other direction, trying to take advantage of the fact that it was difficult to see out of the slats of the helmet's visor. "Oh no, the dragon is getting away! Help, who will save me?" she cried dramatically, taking on the role of damsel-in-distress.

Jasmine was on her way to the Great Hall when she heard an awful noise coming from somewhere nearby. She raised an eyebrow and knew that her curiosity would not be quenched until she found the source of the god-awful noise.

She found it rather quickly. Looking down at the base of the stairs, Jasmine saw a brunette with large metal boots running away from the stairs. Jasmine groaned at the stupidity of this girl until she saw, following behind her was a boy with a helmet on his head. Jasmine really had to wonder why people like this were even allowed to study magic. Surely they were too stupid.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jasmine called to the boy, knowing that the girl probably wouldn't hear her.

Andy stopped running, when he heard a new and entirely unfamiliar voice call out to him. He inwardly groaned. He was busted by a professor for sure. He slid the visor up and peered out of it, seeing, not a professor, but a surly looking girl of about his age, at the top of the stairs. Andy shrugged, happy that it was not a professor.

"Not much," he called up to her, "Playing Tag," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He slid the visor back down over his eyes and raced off to catch up with Natalie, thankful that he could follow the sounds of her clanking, or else she could have been anywhere in the castle by now.

Natalie couldn't hear much over the clanking of her boots, but as she glanced behind her to see if Anthony was getting closer, she noticed that he was quite a ways behind, talking to another girl.

"Oomph," she probably should have either focused on where she was going or stopped running, for she quickly lost her footing and tripped over the clunky metal encasements on her feet.

Jasmine shook her head. How ridiculous, she thought as she made her way downstairs. Jasmine was only 11, but she had more sense, and was far too mature to play tag, and definitely not within the castle. She had to wonder about the next generation of witches and wizards; if these two were anything to go off, the world was in dire trouble.

Jasmine shook her head again in disgust and decided to get some fresh air before dinner. Perhaps she'd check out the Quidditch Pitch. She hadn't been there as of yet, and the idea of exploring sounded like a good idea to her. Perhaps she'd run into Alli again. Jasmine knew that she had to tell the fellow Slytherin all about this; she would definitely get a laugh out of it.

She looked over just in time to see the brown haired girl take a tumble and had to laugh. Stupid and clumsy. How hilarious, she thought. Jasmine opened the large double doors and walked through them, still laughing.

Andy saw through his helmet that the girl was heading down the stairs. He wondered if she wanted to play as well, but as he noticed the look on her face, the idea of playing with them seemed to be the complete opposite of what she wanted to do.

He shrugged again. He didn't want to play with someone who didn't enjoy themselves anyway, and she seemed the type to suck all the fun out of life.

Andy half wanted to yell out to her to take the stick out of her arse, but decided against it. She seemed like the kind of person to go and tell a professor what he said and Andy wasn't keen on doing a detention because of that girl. He'd keep his profanities to himself, or find James or Elise and tell them about her.

He put that girl from his mind and looked around, noticing that Natalie was on the ground, further down the hallway. He ran up to her. "Hey, you alright?" he asked her.

Natalie bounced up off the ground and onto her feet again. "Just dandy," she replied cheerfully. "It's not really a game until someone falls on their bum anyway."

She half expected the girl to join them, although it seemed that it had been foolish of her to think that someone like that would play tag. "Little Miss Grumpy-pants gone then?" she asked.

Andy laughed. "I hadn't thought about it like that before," he admitted, but had to agree. The best games involved people carrying around like lunatics.

He nodded, "Yeah. She really needs to learn how to have some fun," Andy said. He flipped open the visor, when then proceeded to fall over his eyes again, making a clanging sound. He sighed, and reached out to touch Natalie's shoulder.

"You're It, now!" he cried, and darted off, trying to not give himself a concussion in the process.

Hester was attempting to find her way around the school (not that she knew quite where she was trying to get to) when she was almost knocked off her feet by a boy wearing one of the metal helmets from a suit of armour. There was a girl near as well, wearing what looked like the rest of the suit.

"Woah!" she said as she stumbled, trying to keep herself upright. But she was grinning. Whatever these two were doing looked like a lot of fun.

"NO!" Natalie gave a cry of despair as Andy tagged her. She made a grab for his arm but missed as he bolted away from her.

Suddenly, another girl appeared. "Hi!" Natalie said cheerfully, glad that this girl wasn't as snooty as the last and actually seemed interested in joining them.

Only one way to find out, she thought.

She kicked off one of the too large boots and bent over, grabbing the girl's leg and putting the boot on her. After all, anyone who wanted to play would have to be wearing some type of armor, and this would be a good way to judge if this girl wanted to have fun.

Natalie then poked her in the shoulder as Andy had done to her and said, "You're it!", before running off after Andy, her footsteps clanking only half as much since she had given the other girl half of her gear.

Hester looked down at her legs, surprised. She certainly hadn't been expecting that, else she might have put up more of a fight. She shrugged, and then charged off after her and the boy. It was hard to run in the boots, but she had such an adrenaline rush that it didn't stop her. The clanking sounds filled the corridor.

"What's your names?" she yelled loudly after them as she attempted to catch up with one or the other.

Andy heard Natalie shout defiance, but was too quick. He bolted, and nearly ran into a new girl who had joined them. He didn't stop to have a chat, having to get away from Natalie quick smart.

He didn't know what was happening, but looked behind him and saw that the two girls were miles away from him. Where's the fun in that? Anthony slowed down to allow Natalie and the new girl, if she was going to play, a chance to catch up. He laughed as Natalie attacked the girl, placing one of her boots on her. I guess she's playing now, too! Andy thought.

He slowed down enough to catch what the new girl said, and called out. "Andy," before running faster once more, seeing that they were catching up.

"I'm Hester!" she yelled, and put on a burst of speed. She was so close to the girl, and yet she couldn't quite reach her. Andy, on the other hand, had slowed down for a moment. She used this to her advantage, speeding up and grabbing his shoulder.

"Tag?" she asked. "You're it." Then she charged away, trying to put as much space between them as possible. She looked back for a moment, trying to see which one Andy would go after, her or the other girl.

"Natalie," she shouted in a manner very similar to how Andy had introduced himself.

She kept running, not wanting to be "it" again. Andy had slowed for a moment, which allowed the other girl, Hester, to catch up and tag him. She stopped abruptly and changed direction, turning down a new corridor and taking off. She nearly ran into something or someone, but she didn't pay much attention, as she kept looking back to see if Andy was following her.

"Sorry!" she yelled, just in case it was a person rather than an inanimate object.

Hester charged off in the opposite direction to Andy. She didn't want to get too far away though, because she wanted to stay in the game, so she kept glancing back, checking that he was still in sight. She couldn't see the other girl any more, because she had taken a different corridor, but she heard her yell of 'sorry"' and wondered who she had bumped into.

James barely got out of the way of being trampled by a girl with one metal boot. He blinked. Yes.. It really was a girl with one metal boot. How peculiar.

He flattened his back to the wall just in time, and called out to the retreating figure. "That's alright." Sheesh, some people were odd. He had to wonder, where the other boot was though.

James walked in the direction the girl had come from and noticed a familiar figure in the distance. Hester, by the looks. He had to raise an eyebrow. What was the Gryffindor doing, and then noticed that Hester was also sporting one metal boot. What is going on?

James also saw a boy with Hester as well, and thought that he looked awfully familiar. He slowly walked closer to the two figures, trying to decipher who the Helmet wearing boy was. He watched as Hester seemed to run away from the boy. James blinked and ran after Hester.

"What's up Hester?" he said, as he ran closer to the girl. "Did I miss the memo for suit of armor wearing day or something?"