The Sound of Mucus [Parvati]

[blaise leo zabini]

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January 19th, 2029

Blaise and Parvati stood outside of a small broom closet that led up to the Gryffindor Tower, where the common room used to be, as the sound of shuffling and shifting came from within. An older student that had been walking by only minutes earlier had found the two of them whilst they were conversing on the floor below this one and told them of the noises. Blaise had never had blinders on while at Hogwarts, either when he was attending or over these last few years, so he knew these things happened. He unfortunately used to stumble upon it quite often when doing night patrols and it had gotten to a point where he got too tired of making the reports and taking away house points. Kids were kids. The only problem he had was that he wasn’t exactly subtle or tactile about it. So for today, having Parvati there with him seemed to be the best case scenario. He probably wouldn’t have even bothered if the report had come to him while he was on his own.

”Do you want to knock, or should I?” he turned to his colleague right before the sound of a broom being knocked over against the door could be heard. There was quite a bit of rustling going on, and he really didn’t want to have the door opened with their literal pants down. No one needed that. Luckily there weren’t any other students in the corridor at this time of day, which was probably why these ones had chosen it. Go figure. ”Or I could just…loudly announce myself? Put the fear of Merlin in them, or whatever.” Blaise let out a long exhale before shaking his head again for what had to be the dozenth time since they’d arrived a minute ago. Why couldn’t they have found an abandoned classroom? At least then they’d have more room and wouldn’t be knocking things over left and right. As he thought of that, it sounded like a bucket was also kicked hard. Merlin…

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January 19, 2029

In spite of everything, Hogwarts was still a school, and the adolescents who attended it were still going to do things that adolescents did, even if they weren't particularly appropriate for a broom cupboard. Such was life, felt Parvati, but being tipped off about the situation while in conversation with Blaise meant that they were the ones responsible for doing something about it. Obviously, it was an awkward situation for all involved, even if the students in question weren't aware that they had been overheard. Hearing the racket coming from the indicated cupboard when they got there, though, was a pretty clear indicator that they had a teensy lecture to give.

"Do you want to knock, or should I?" Blaise asked aloud. Unfortunately, the obvious presence of Slytherin's Head of House wasn't enough to silence whoever was on the other side of the door. It was possible, though, that the students had been too focused on whatever they were doing in there to notice. "Or I could just… loudly announce myself? Put the fear of Merlin in them, or whatever."

Whatever Blaise wanted to do was fine with Parvati, especially since the noise hadn't stopped. If anything, it almost sounded as though it had gotten more intense. Disciplining students wasn't "fun" for Parvati, but she got the feeling that this occasion would be one of the more interesting ones—and probably more than enough reason for some owls to be sent home, if they weren't LIFE students who had made their way over to the MAGIC building.

"I'll knock," Parvati assured Blaise after a moment of thought. She didn't want to open the door and barge in if that could be avoided. The more discreetly they could handle it, the better. As she had told Blaise she would, she reached out and knocked on the door to the cupboard twice in quick succession, wanting the students inside to know that the knocking had been intentional.

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[blaise leo zabini]

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Merlin, he really despised having to do this. It was bad enough with his own children, he didn’t need to be discipling other children like this. Only once had he walked into his home, just to be immediately stopped by his wife and turned around silently and pushed back outside. He knew what the look was, and they went off to Diagon to get ice cream to kill time. That had been an eye-opening experience for him, despite knowing that it was probably already happening. He had been that age once after all. The talk a few days later wasn’t exactly necessary, but he did recall bringing up that silencing charms were a thing. Even if just for privacy’s sake.

Parvati decided for him that she was going to knock and did so almost immediately. The sounds inside stopped, but there was no panicked shuffling of trying to get clothes back on or whispered ‘shh’s’. That was silly of them. Obviously, he and Parvati knew they were in there, otherwise they wouldn’t have knocked in the first place. Growing slightly frustrated at this, he turned back to his colleague, ”I say we give them thirty more seconds to get decent, and then I’m opening the door.” Blaise made sure to raise his voice louder than he had before, trying to make his point be heard.

Strangely, there still wasn’t any movement though. This sort of situation, being caught by professors, should have caused all kinds of panic. But it hadn’t. And that confused Blaise. He didn’t like when things didn’t make sense. Counting in his head to thirty, he cleared his throat loudly, looked at Parvati and rolled his eyes, and then reached for the handle. ”I’m opening the door!”

A giant blob of mucous sat inside. It lurched violently as Blaise stared at it. Whatever it was though, it vanished almost instantly as roaring flames of fiendfyre erupted out of the broom closet, causing him to skitter backwards instantly. ”BACK!” he screamed at Parvati, not wanting either of them to be anywhere close to the vicious, cursed fire. The shape of a charred body now stood in the doorway, engulfed. Even though none of this made sense, as fiendfyre would have eaten away at the door a long time ago and disintegrated the person inside, Blaise’s instincts were screaming danger. What was going on? And what the fuck was that slug-like thing that was there when he opened the door?

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January 19, 2029

Knocking didn't seem to do much, so Blaise gave ample warning to whoever was inside the broom cupboard that he would be coming in. Already preparing herself for the conversation that she and Blaise were going to have to have with two students with a little too much free time on their hands, Parvati waited. The students they were anticipating weren't there, though; it was, without a doubt, Fiendfyre. It was the sort of Dark magic that most people never encountered once in their lives, yet it seemed likely that Parvati and Blaise had found themselves in its midst again.

Being that close to what appeared to be almost certain death, Blaise yelled at her to move backwards. Parvati's mind felt the need to flee, yet her legs felt as though they had been anchored to the floor. She was jolted enough by Blaise's command, though, that she stepped back, doing so at a diagonal.

The Fiendfyre continued to move towards them until she shifted to the side. At that point, the flames flickered and began to draw back like a tidal wave. Instead of engulfing them both in an instant, the fire seemed to become indecisive. It moved back and forth as though it didn't know where to go. Though she had hardly stood around to study Fiendfyre before, Parvati found something about the flames unusual. It didn't make sense that Fiendfyre could be so easily contained. Really, it could have—would have—made its way out of the broom cupboard long before their arrival.

The experience of not knowing whether or not the fire was holding back and waiting to unleash its full fury was terrifying. But not being dead in seconds came as the greater shock.

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[blaise leo zabini]

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The fight or flight response was an amazing automation of the human brain. Sometimes, though, it acted incorrectly. Blaise would never willingly dive out if the way and into the corridor floor if he could help it. His body wasn't what it once was, and marble flooring had a habit of being, well, hard. He had somehow managed to stay in his feet, mostly because of his quick response time in pushing Parvati out of the way, but was already spinning around to battle the incoming fiendfyre flames. A slash from his wand that he'd managed to pull from its holster on his side made contact with the fire, pushing it into the open door.

Which it didn't immediately engulf and eat like fiendfyre was supposed to.

Blaise stopped and stared at it. Parvati seemed to have come to a similar conclusion in the silence between them. This wasn't acting the way it should have at all, not to mention that it had suddenly appeared after he opened the door. They had been stood outside of it for well over a few minutes, with no signs of fire or smoke. Taking the time to actually assess the situation, Blaise now knew that they were dealing with something else altogether. Especially when the first thing he saw upon opening the door was the blob like substance. Unless fiendfyre now formed from jelly, this wasn't the real deal.

"Step in front of it, Parvati," he asked, moving to the side. He had a theory on what it might be. "I think we've got a boggart on our hands. But keep your distance just in case." The way the flames licked and wavered between the two of them also helped support his theory. If that was the case, they really weren't in harm's way at all. Still, Blaise kept his wand pointed directly at the broom closet. Should the fire decide to be real and start spreading, he was going to have to fight it. Again.

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[parvati patil macmillan]

January 19, 2029

Blaise succeeded in pushing the fire back magically, a feat that no one would have been able to accomplish with Fiendfyre. It ceded, and Blaise stopped, too. The fear of the Fiendfyre made Parvati want to tell him to get back, just as he had to her, but the flames stayed where they were.

"Step in front of it, Parvati," Blaise instructed her. The fear that had been present in his voice when he had yelled at her to stand back was no longer present. He was still cautious, in the way that Parvati knew him to be, but the sense that they might soon be dead had gone away. Parvati looked as her colleague moved to the side and expressed his belief that what they were dealing with was actually a Boggart.

The realization that washed over Parvati was accompanied by a lump that formed in the back of her throat. She wasn't embarrassed by the thought that it was likely only a Boggart, but what pained her was that the creature had apparently taken on the form of Fiendfyre for the both of them. Back when they had been taught about Boggarts by Professor Lupin, everyone's fears had been so varied, and so many of them seemed juvenile in retrospect. Their worst fears had become far worse—neither Lord Voldemort nor Elaine Dupree but something over which they had no control.

"F**k," Parvati murmured, choked up, as she got out her wand. She stepped in front of the presumed Boggart but gave it space, trying not to let it get inside her head.

It's only a Boggart. It's only a Boggart.

She held her wand out, facing it, and steadied herself as best she could. "Riddikulus!"

blaise leo zabini

[blaise leo zabini]

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Fears could, unfortunately, change with time. Blaise had encountered plenty of boggarts over the years, including the ones he would teach with if he managed to capture one in time for a lesson during the school year. While exceedingly rare these days, he’d spent enough of his youth bouncing from mansion to mansion, depending on whom his dear mother was married to at the time. A lot of those had plenty of abandoned rooms and closets, sometimes even guesthouses on property that hadn’t been utilized in decades. Prime real estate for the traveling boggart. After learning about the creatures third year from Remus Lupin alongside Parvati, the fear of boggarts had lessened drastically.

Blaise had assumed, up until this moment, that his boggart would still be his family, dead at his feet. An unknown terror that hadn’t cropped up until he’d had children of his own. He shouldn’t have assumed that Parvati’s would have been as well, though was completely stunned when the fiendfyre didn’t change form. A brief moment of panic washed over him again as he thought that maybe he had been mistaken and this was the real thing. But Parvati’s counter-spell launched itself and the telltale sign of the boggart kicked in, the creature attempting to find a new form to change into. Unfortunately for it, the two of them shared the same fear and it started to falter.

He took advantage of this and rushed up to the open closet door, grabbing the edge with both hands and forcing it shut with as much force as he could. The squabbling boggart retreated into the cramped enclosure, uttering indistinguishable and grotesque noises as it more than likely changed back into its original, unknown form. Even though Blaise knew it wouldn’t be able to exit on its own, he still kept his hands pressed up against the door, only letting up once he felt it was safe to lock it with his wand.

Turning around to face his colleague, he shook his head in disbelief. ”I guess I’ll have to take care of that now. If I can confine it to a chest, I’ll be able to hold onto it for safekeeping until the Ministry can get here to dispose of it.” He’d already taught boggarts during the fall term, and had no interest in holding onto this one until the following year. The Goyle lad would want to take it off his hands anyways. He always had a look of sick pleasure whenever some nasty creature was captured and turned over to him.

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January 19, 2029

While it was caught in limbo, Blaise managed to force the Boggart back inside the cupboard. He held the door closed initially and then locked it magically to ensure that the thing—and that was the most accurate description for it—wouldn't be able to get out. Though having to keep a Boggart locked somewhere inside Hogwarts wasn't ideal, it was only a temporary measure. As Blaise explained, if he could confine the Boggart to a chest instead, he could keep it safe until the Ministry of Magic could come and take it off his hands.

With her colleague wrangling the Boggart, Parvati was able to decompress slightly. There was no Fiendfyre, nor were any students about to get in trouble in the way that they had anticipated. Everything was as it should have been, with the exception of the Boggart's being there. Until whoever the Ministry sent showed up, they could keep it contained (either in the cupboard or a chest, as Blaise had mentioned) to where it wouldn't cause a scene.

Of all the features that had been added to Hogwarts when it was rebuilt, one element that hadn't been added was someplace to store Boggarts. That would have been nice in a pinch. Parvati still felt a tinge of embarrassment because of her reaction to the Boggart, though, and told herself that she should have known what it was all along. Regardless, it was better that she and Blaise had come upon it than any of the students.

"Yeah," Parvati agreed with Blaise's stated next steps. "We shouldn't keep that here for any longer than necessary. I'm happy to help you move it." There were various departments and offices within the Ministry for a reason; not all of them went after Dark witches and wizards, so there was no concern about tying someone up with a mere Boggart when they could have been out catching criminals.

"Are you alright?" she asked quickly. Blaise had been awarded an Order of Merlin for his heroism amidst Elaine Dupree's attack on Hogwarts, but the suddenness of going through that experience over again couldn't have been pleasant for him, either.

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They were both in agreement that capturing and moving the boggart was the best next step. Blaise didn’t want to leave it around for a janitor or student to accidentally open the storeroom door and then have to deal with it on their own. He was thankfully beyond qualified with boggart containment. In another life, he probably would have been halfway decent within the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. It required a significant amount of knowledge regarding most magical creatures out there, as well as spells, charms, and general life hacks to survive repeated dealings with most of them. At least dark witches and wizards were somewhat predictable. The same could not be said about some of these creatures.

”I would be lying if I said I was,” he stated while letting out a long exhale. The initial shock of the boggart’s fiendfyre was starting to wear off finally. Blaise hadn’t anticipated having such a shock in the middle of the day like this. ”If it helps, we would have been dead instantly if it had been the real thing. Wouldn’t even know what hit us. I would take a boggart any day over fighting fiendfyre again.” He would have preferred knowing how he was going to die instead of being incinerated by magical fire or snuffed out with the killing curse. At least then he could have a few seconds of quiet contemplation about his life before it was done with.

”I have an old travel broomstick case in my office,” he stated quickly. ”If you could make sure nothing goes in and out, I’ll be back in a moment with it?” Blaise departed and put himself into a fast-paced stroll.

---

Finding the broom box was more difficult that he thought it would be, and a summoning charm didn’t work in the slightest. Which figured. The case was probably charmed beyond belief. Eventually, he moved a few stacks of old textbooks in the closet in his office and spotted the metal clasp of the case.

Blaise returned to where Parvati and the boggart were as expeditiously as he had left, scaring a few first years as he zoomed by them. If only they knew a boogeyman was hanging out in the closet behind the school counselor. ”This should work,” he said as he slowed down in front of her and popped open the case. An instruction manual for the broom he no longer had fell onto the floor, and Blaise ignored it. ”What we’ll do is throw it in there open, and give the boggart a few seconds to climb in. Then we’ll repeat the process from earlier, but force it all the way into the case instead.”

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January 19, 2029

Blaise admitted that he would have been lying if he said that he was alright, but he reminded her that they would have been dead by then if it had been Fiendfyre that they found. Given the choice between Fiendfyre and a Boggart, Blaise continued, he would take the Boggart. Parvati was inclined to agree; as awful as encountering a Boggart was, it was only temporary. Other days, she thought to herself, she might have just taken the Fiendfyre.

In terms of dealing with the Boggart, though, Blaise volunteered that he had an old travel broomstick case in his office. "If you could make sure nothing goes in and out," he told her, "I'll be back in a moment with it?"

"Not a problem," Parvati assured him, watching as he left to get the case. Her job was arguably the easier one. All she had to do was stand guard in front of the broom cupboard and ensure that it was still locked.

While it was slightly awkward to have to guard a broom cupboard with a Boggart locked inside it, Parvati didn't have to stand around for too long. Blaise soon returned with the case, which he set down before her. There was still an owner's manual for the broomstick model he'd had in there, apparently, but he didn't seem to be too concerned about it. As he indicated, the case seemed to Parvati that it would work for the sake of getting the Boggart out of the way.

"What we'll do is throw it in there open," Blaise explained, "and give the Boggart a few seconds to climb in. Then we'll repeat the process from earlier, but force it all the way into the case instead."

"Got it," Parvati replied, stepping away from the door to the broom cupboard so that she was facing it rather than standing with her back to it. She readied her wand, too. "I'll follow your lead." They would need to unlock the cupboard and move swiftly to keep the Boggart from getting out again. Hopefully, an old broomstick case would entice it.

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Giving space between the open broom box and the closet, Blaise mentally prepared for the upcoming sequence of events. Parvati had cleared out of the way and given him room to work, offering her assistance once again. The real trick was making sure the boggart didn’t pop back out into the hallway, especially if students came around again. Currently, the corridor was clear. He didn’t even want to imagine what fighting a rotating boggart would be like, whilst also trying to calm students. Maybe that wouldn’t be the worst, considering he had the school counselor here. But trying to fight two fronts again wasn’t something he really felt up to anymore. He’d done it once, for the sanctity of the school and its students. Doing so over a simple creature such as a boggart seemed silly. There were more professional ways to remove it without harm to any of the children or it.

With everything in place, he gave Parvati one last look to indicate that he was about to begin. The flourish of his wand swiftly unlocked the door to the broom closet once again, and then flipped the latch, allowing it to slowly open with a creak that would disturb all muggle dads lacking WD-40. The more it inched open, the more he felt his grip tighten on his wand handle. ”Come on, you blasted boggart,” Blaise cursed under his breath as he waited for the ‘fiendfyre flames’ to lick back out into the hall once again. It would be only a moment’s notice between that and when he would have to slide the box into the room.

It didn’t take long for the boggart to realize that it was free once again. At the first sign of flames, and once the door was open enough, Blaise flicked his wand again to send the broom box sliding inside. It was quite amazing how simple spells could fulfill such complicated tasks. Once again, the door was closed with a snap, and Blaise finally relaxed. ”And now, we wait.”

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