Whomping Willow & The Shrieking Shack

Negative levitated Zero a few feet off the ground and onto the first couple of steps. She rested a little, and then began again, seeing as he was on a safe step. She repeated this until he got to the top, and opened the black wooden door.
She didn't like it in here. Alex could be anywhere. But that was the problem, was she wanting to face him or not? She couldn't decide.
"I'm out of the way!" she yelled drowsily. All that spell work had left her tired.
Her hand drew to her wand in her pocket, when she felt a chill on her back. But her wand wasn't there anymore.
"India-Zero! My wand's gone!"

As Zero sent the mattress, some torn curtains, and his walking stick down, he heard Negative call out that her wand was gone before he reached into his cloak.

Thankfully, his wand was still there and Zero immediately whipped it out and held it high, his grip tightening around the handle.

"Accio Negative's Wand!" he chanted, focusing on the details of his friend's wand before hearing some wood rattling up above as though something was trying to get free.

"Your wand is somehow up here! I tossed my walking stick down there with the mattress! Take it and I'll be back!"

"I will!"
Since that day at Uncle Bargy's- the day she had been waiting since she was young- she got her wand, that thin pieve of wood had been a lifeline. The prospect of being without it, with Indiana just as vulnerable upstairs frightened her to no end.

Wait, what? Her wand was up there- rattling? Left alone? Alex made no sense.
"If he does anything, In-Zero- get out of there. My wand can wait."
She sat on the dust incrusted mattress, the particles rising up to her nose. She sneezed.
Just as her eyes opened, she saw something move past her face...

Grabbing a broken chair leg while still maintaining the Summoning Charm, Zero threw the piece of furniture hard against the broken planks above him, breaking them upon impact before seeing a familiar wand soar towards him that he grabbed it before heading back down to the trapdoor when a coat hanger sailed from out of nowhere and slammed into his side, sending him crashing against the wall.

It wasn't long before he heard the familiar laughter of Peeves the Poltergeist.

"Zero is no hero! Zero is just an emo! GAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Getting to his feet, Zero scrabbled for the trapdoor just as he felt something hard smash into his back, causing him to fall through the trapdoor and down to the ground, landing badly on the left side of his back next to Negative.

"Here." he coughed, holding out her wand.

"Oh nuts. In-ZERO- are you ok!?"
This was her fault. She should've kept the stupid Levitation Charm.
After his hand wavered for too long in the air, she grabbed it out of his hand and let it drop.
"Roll over," she said tersely. When he didn't move, she rolled him over anyway. "Let's see the damage. Can you sit up?"
Oh god. Alex is up there. He's up there. He's- "Wait. Was that Peeves?!"

(LOL!!!!! EMO! PAHAHAA XD)

After taking a moment to recuperate from the fall, Zero coughed a bit as he slowly rose, trying to sit up before removing his helmet/mask and placing it aside.

"I'll be alright..." he coughed while clutching his left shoulder with his right hand. His left hand held onto his wand tightly. "It's not bad. I'll be fine."

Indiana took a deep breath, trying to ignore the pain before hearing the laughter of the chaotic poltergeist.

"You sure? Because I can take you to the Hospital Wing no problem- We can do smores another night, I promise. Don't stay here on my account."
Luckily, there was no blood.
The sound that was unmistakably Peeves' scream ripped through the room.

In a broken voice, Negative said, "Let's get a fire going."

Because she had been wrong.

Indiana shook his head before replying without hesitation and with conviction. "I'm not leaving you here on your own. What kind of friend would I be if I did? I'm staying and it'll take more than some maniacal poltergeist to take me down."

After taking a moment to regain himself, he placed his helmet/mask back on before heading towards the knapsack and reached in to pull out a box of matches.

"Catch, Negative!" Zero called.

Negative nodded. "Ok."
It was what to be expected- she'd hardly do anything different if she was in his situation.
She caught the matches with Keeper reflexes, as his jarred shoulder made him throw it wide. "Matches," she read, stroking the side of the box. "What are Mah-chez?"

Zero headed towards the remnants of the wooden stairs before gathering some broken pieces along with some scraps of parchment and bringing them back to the site.

He then made a campfire pile some few feet from Negative, arranging the wood on top and the scrap paper on the bottom.

"Go ahead and toss me the matchbox. I'll get a fire going and show you how matches work." Zero spoke. "Keep your wand just in case."

"Mhmm. OH! So they're what make the fire? They're like mini wands, aren't they?" fawned Negative. "Tiny."
Slipping out of the tangent, Negative handed Zero the matches, resting her chin on her palms. She looked down. Her bare fingers looked a real mess. She looked back at the pile of wood again.

Taking the matchbox and extracting a few matchsticks, Zero struck them against the striking bar, immediately igniting the phosphorus tips that unleashed flames. He then carefully placed them against the scraps of parchment in the campfire pile, igniting them before the crackling of flames echoed in the cavern.

"Are you alright, Negative?" Zero asked calmly.

"Wow," was all Negative could muster as she watched the flames dance before her. She could feel the warmth on her cheek, which made her wonder: did this make wand-fire artificial.
Compare. Measure this fire against it.
She reached out her hand to touch the fire...
Zero's voice brought her back to her senses.
"You know what? I think I am."
But her papery thin, red red fingertips were flashing her alarm signals. If it gets infected or something, then I'll go to the Hospital Wing..
Negative rooted through her bag for marshmellows. "I'll go and get some sticks to put them on. Or should we just use our wands?"

Through the large circular opal visor of his mask, Zero looked about the cavern, which echoed with the sounds of crackling flames while being illuminated by the light of the campfire.

"Use the Levitation Charms on the marshmallows and then collect them into a bowl." he spoke calmly, clutching and massaging his left shoulder to ease the pain. "What do you think happened to Peeves? I thought I heard him scream out in pain earlier."

"Good thinking, Batman. Accio ice!"
From presumably the Kitchens, a bag of ice zoomed into Negative's lap. "Wizard's have their benefits in this way. Here. Put it on your shoulder. I forgot how much of a fall it was."
Negative opened her small bag which contained a clean box she usually used for Cauliflower Pureé. She put her hand over the picture of the Rubber Duck.
"I don't know. What can you do to a ghost- but, oh. You said it's different, didn't you. You said he's a poltergeist." Negative levitated two stuck together marshmellows over the small fire, appreciating Zero's initiative. "Why did you take so much interest in him?"

After placing the bag of ice over his left shoulder and the left side of his back, Zero winced a bit at first before feeling the injury of his fall slowly lessen and began to numb.

"That feels better." Zero remarked. The healing process would be slow but at least it would eventually allow recovery without going to the Hospital Wing.

"Regarding Peeves, I guess the interest started from what I heard between the Fat Friar and Nearly Headless Nick. All ghosts are souls that are apparently here and have not moved on." Zero explained. "After some incidents involving a number of flying objects, some of the other ghosts were blaming it on Peeves and I heard the phrase that he wasn't even a real ghost while giving the true ghosts a bad name. Naturally, I got curious to start figuring out the mystery of the poltergeist. After I'm done with Peeves, I'll start researching that giant octopus in the lake."

"Just keep moving the joint, dude." Negative sat in silence for a while, until her curiosity got the better of her. "So you don't want to go to the Hospital, eh?" she asked, bemused. Did he hate- and fear- Hospitals as much as she did? It had taken a lot of courage, courage she didn't have to take Jaz to the hospital, waiting nine hours until she woke up, healthy and alive. Still scared the living daylights out of her, though.
"Oh, it all makes sense now. I see. So the ghosts couldn't throw things around like that?"
She grinned when Zero said his next conquest would be the octopus.

Zero nodded before moving the shoulder joint as Negative suggested. The feeling of numbness caused by the ice seemed to have at least alleviated the pain.

"I'd rather not be asked questions that I don't want to answer, especially to whoever is running the Hospital Wing these days." Zero replied.

"Yes, ghosts can't move things around. Peeves may have a number of similar traits to ghosts such as floating through walls or appearing out of nowhere, but he can touch and manipulate the movements of physical objects, something that true ghosts can't do."

Negative nodded at Zero took her advice. That was another thing, the girls never took her advice- well, she was a bit of a livewire around them.
Negative slumped at Zero's answer. Fear of questions, not of the place. It was even more scary than the prospect of Him after them in the Forest.
"Professor Green's taken it over now. I think the structure is a lot better. I couldn't stay with Jaz, though when she started bleeding out of her ear."
She shuddered.

"So poltergeists manipulate things? Just like muggles that think Paranomal phenomina is by ghosts- so it's just Poltergeists like Peeves? Poor ghosts,"
Learning about the muggle way of life was something Negative had loved to read about in her free time. She was glad that most of her friends were muggleborn. Plus, she got to show them some amazing things that to her were everyday.
"Hey, Zero. You heard of Hogsmeade?"

'Professor Ophelia Green?' Zero thought with a bit of apprehension. What better way to torment students by going after the ones that are injured and he certainly found more resolve to stick with the slow process of natural healing.

"Yeah. It's just poltergeists instead of ghosts." Zero answered. "How Peeves came into existence is unknown, though I do have some guesses."

When Negative brought up Hogsmeade, Zero nodded. "Just a little bit. I haven't actually been to Hogsmeade yet."

"She's not that bad, Ophelia Green. She puts a lot into Hogwarts," she said thoughtfully. "But I won't be dropping around there any time soon.
"Got any good guesses you'd care to share?" asked Negative as she levitated the two smores to Zero's free hand.
"When we break up, I'll show you around. 'Three Broomsticks is the best pub by far. Unless you bring the Leaky Cauldron into it, of course."

(a/n sorry i didnt reply quick, but i will now. been fixing a virus )

"I bet she does put a lot into Hogwarts while having her own bit of fun." Zero remarked dryly. "I just hope the professors don't have jurisdiction in Hogsmeade."

Zero then proceeded to explain what he thought about Peeves. "Much of the paranormal activity that Muggles have said to witness tend to involve certain individuals that have uncontrolled mind energies containing kinetic factors capable of various activities such as moving objects without physical contact."

"The cause of such activities is a condition called Recurrent Spontaneous Psycho Kinesis or RSPK, which is also known as Poltergeist. I suppose in a way, it's somewhat analogous to children that are beginning to show signs of accidental magic, which causes certain forms of chaotic events ranging from floating objects to other what Muggles consider to be paranormal activity."

"I suppose its that Loco Parentis. I hope they don't walk around trying to give us detentions in Hogsmeade though. That would be a downer. We'd probably end up hiding upstairs or something!" Negative said, grinning.

Negative nodded at the appropriate times when Zero spoke of Peeves. Now that he'd explained it to her, Peeves and the problems all seemed to make sense.
"What do the smores taste like?" she asked, as she levitated hers to her mouth, after sollemly vowing not to touch anything, if she could. Apart from her wand, of course.

"Well, I wouldn't be hiding even if they're out in Hogsmeade." Zero replied.

"Usually RSPK isn't suppose to cause the birth of a living and sentient entity like Peeves but I guess that magic must have done that just like it did to Elise." Zero finished before opening the bottom section of his mask and biting into the smore, tasting a mixture of graham cracker along with marshmallow and chocolate.

"It's rather sweet and good." Zero remarked as he consumed the treat. "Want me to make some lemonade or tea?"

"Wait, what? So you think Elise has a poltergeist kind of thing in it too? I suppose that's a way of looking at it."
Grinning when Zero said it passed the test, Negative tried her own. Not bad. Not a scratch on Cauliflower Pureé though.
"Ooh, lemonade!" she squealed, bouncing on her knees. "Lemonade!"