The Strange Noise in the Dungeon

[Cherie Bombe]

So happy! The device seems to work! Cherie made a laugh as she tested her device, a sputtering, bizarre charmed object much like a flute, except it sucked noise in instead of blowing it out. The sputtering, however, seemed unaffected.

The item's controller was a woman of about 5'8", with curly brown shoulder length hair. She was dressed in a red camisole with an open, short sleeved leather jacket draped over it. Her dark blue jeans were worn and had various burn marks and other various inexplicable damage marks on them. Her shoes were black converse high-tops.

Her tattoos glowed blue and showed various pictures of smoke, steam, and lightning on her bare arms and neck. As Cherie became more excited, the tattoos would brighten. The light reflected off her goggles, which were down over her eyes.

She started to adjust the device with her wand, causing small lightning bolts to dance between the wand and the flute. With no warning, the bottom half of the flute blew off and ricocheted all through the dark dungeon, followed by a horrible cacophony of ambient dungeon sounds amplified heavily.

"Accio Flute," she chanted, reaching out her hand. The flute's bottom flew back, clattering through the dungeon, to her hand. She reattached it, but just as she was about to turn it on, she heard another sound, headed towards her.

Who could be in here at such a time of night?

[Professor Carina Erikson]

It was just a random stroke of luck that Carina was in the castle that night, since she normally stayed most night at Timothy's house during the summer. When the wards chimed at her, she was laying on her bed reading, idly petting Ambra, whom in private, she called her the Cat Who Lived. She cursed, probably just a glitch, but it was her duty to check, they were her dungeons after all. Scooting Ambra over, she grabbed her ward and followed the pull of the wards.

As she walked further down the dark halls, she heard the noise before anything and she winced. Whoever it was, they were loud. Turning the corner, the witch stopped short. There was a girl. Okay. There was also some sort of machine. She inched closer, wand ready at her side. Once upon a time, Carina would have cursed first and then asked questions, but she had aged, gaining self control in the process.

She stepped around so she could face the lone girl. A strange urge to stomp her feet washed over her when he saw who the girl was. She controlled her feet and managed to spit out a word.

"You."

This girl she knew. This girl lived by her house, one left to her by her mother. This girl had managed to catch Carina's house on fire when one her infernal machines exploded. Calm down. Breath in and out. In and out.

"What in Merlins name are you doing in the castle?"

[Cherie Bombe]

"Yes! Someone to witness my amazing Back-Flute!" Cherie exclaimed. "The audioacquisition index is over 9000!" She continued shooting lightning bolts at the flute from her wand. She initially gave no indication that she was even aware of being spoken to. She blinked a couple times, then a few seconds later...her expression suddenly changed. She seemed puzzled, trying to remember some very far out of reach fact.

"Y'know, I'm actually not quite sure. I guess it seemed like it might be too quiet outside," Cherie mused. Completely oblivious of Carina, she continued zapping the flute. "Almost got it!" She shrieked. Her tattoos began to glow brightly blue, illuminating a decent portion of the immediate area in pale blue light. Bolts of lightning streamed across her skin, and the tattoos began to resemble a thunderstorm.

Cherie tapped on the flute with the wand, prodding it much like one does when expecting the object in their hand to lash out and bite them, or explode in their hands. "Such a fickle thing, sound charms. I guess it's a good thing I won't have to teach them quite yet! Gives me some time to refresh." Cherie gave a relieved sigh. She made a final bolt of lightning at the wand. "That should do it!" she looked down the barrel of the flute.

Mid-looking-down-a-barrel, Cherie made a nervous laugh. "Oh hey, you remind me of this girl whose house I almost burned down. I always felt kind of bad about that, I hope she was ok," Cherie mused. Completely oblivious, she made a sound of joy, turned the flute around, and pointed it down the hallway. She turned it on, and it began sputtering and backfiring, slightly less so than before. A loud chugging sound had replaced most of the noise. Absolutely no sound seemed to come from the hallway she pointed the flute down.

"Isn't that cool!?" Cherie asked with glee. She wasn't paying very much attention to the flute, however, and pointed it at Carina by accident.

[Professor Carina Erikson]

She tried, really she did. She tried to keep the mask on. The stern potions master that struck fear in the hearts of first years and crawled the dungeons. In the end, though, Carina was sucked into the force of nature that was Cherie. She was in the castle because it was too quiet outside. Cherie shouldn't be here at all. Unless...No that couldn't be right, Hermione wouldn't do that to her, would she? Fate wouldn't be that cruel. They needed a Charms professor. And Carina put two and two together. Merlin, save us all, she thought with a sigh.

Wand was still at the ready, though more for the machine than Cherie. The girl wasn't dangerous, her machines were, but not her. Carina leaned down to look at it a bit closer. A mix of spare parts, wires and magic. She hadn't ever seen anything like it. The conversation continued, and at Cherie's comments about the house, Carina rolled her eyes. "Cherie, I am the girl whose house you almost burnt down."

Curious, she followed the other girl to the hallway. Once the machine was on, there were no longer any sound from the halls. It was the machine she had heard earlier, now that sounded bloody awful. But Carina had to admit, it was pretty cool. "That, um, actually is quite interesting."

The respect Cherie had just earned for her smarts faded quickly as Carina asked her a question. Well, tried to anyway. Her mouth worked but no sound came out. Damn it. The machine hadn't been cut off before Cherie managed to point it at her. Tried to stomp her foot. Nothing. Finally, Carina just poked Cherie in the shoulder, pointed at the machine, and moved her hand over her neck. The universal sign to cut it off.

[Cherie Bombe]

Cherie waited patiently for the answer to her question. Carina must just be mouthing to herself on how to answer. Cherie did that all the time. Wait, why did she want her head cut off?

"Oh!" Cherie exclaimed. Duh. Cherie switched the flute off. "Sorry. I uh, guess I got carried away there." Cherie thought for a second.

"And, ehh..I kind of thought you were her. I guess getting carried away is kind of a thing for me." Cherie's tattoos blushed with her, briefly tinting pink.

"Anyway, I'm not quite as stupid as I was way back then. Reckless I guess, but not stupid." She handed the flute to Carina. "Wanna try it?"

[Professor Carina Erikson]

Carina waited impatiently for Cherie to realize what was wrong. When she finally did, Carina rolled her eyes. Wow, it had been a pretty long time since she had to eye roll like that. Breath in, breath out. It wasn't her fault she was a bit ditzy. That was often the price of genius. Carina knew that well enough. "Cherie, dear." She paused, thinking her words over so she didn't sound mean. "Next time, let's watch a little closer where you point your machine."

Bonus points for blushing while talking about the house. It was obvious that Cherie felt bad about it. Forgive and forget and all that. Besides, Carina would fill her in on a little secret. "I'm not mad anymore. It's just...It's was my mother's house and well, I'm very attached to it. Besides, it's not the first or last time it's been set on fire. Potions are my thing and I tend to blow stuff up too."

A bright smile painted her face as Carina took the machine from the tattooed girl. "Of course I want to try it." Messing around with it for several minutes, Carina had to admit, it was brilliant. "I so need one of this. I could have quiet in class." She glanced over at Cherie, still grinning widely. "Or better yet, my cat. That damn thing never shuts up."