Black Bag & Stuff

Accord Strife was hanging round the Slytherin dungeons. Accord Strife was a timid little creature who did not strike Caelani as the kind of person who hung out in places where she was so out of place. Therefore, it was most likely that she was here for one reason. That stupid little "favour" she insisted Calli owed her. All right then.

"Hello, Accord. Won't you come inside?"

It was only polite to invite the girl in. After all, explaining how she'd got the wrong end of the stick would probably take some time.

"Would you like something to drink?"

Accord: Thanks,

she said as she grabbed her bag and tossed it across her shoulder as she made her way in. This bag was her life. As strange as it sounded it contained everything she thought that she needed to survive any situation.

Accord: I don't need anything to drink but it was polite of you to offer.

Unexpected but polite. Totally unexpected then again this was not dueling. She turned and spoke.

Accord: I do not mean to bother you or take up too much of your time, I just need something from you, just your arm actually and then I can be on my way.

She took a seat on the floor and let her bag fall.

Accord: I started to let you off the hook but it's just a small bit of business and we'll never have to see each other again.

It was polite of you to offer? Like Caelani needed to be told, like she was some child who needed positive reinforcement. Like, she wasn't always more mannerly than the majority of this school. What was with people that they saw the green uniform and just made assumptions?

Accord sat on the floor and Caelani's eyes flicked from the girl to the chairs nearby.

"There's no need to sit on the floor," she said, drawing her wand and floating a pair of those chairs toward them.

She sat in one herself and left the other for Accord, if she wished to take it. Calli wasn't going to force her to sit like a civilised person.

At Accord's next statement, she laughed, though she had known something similar must have been coming. But Accord's manner of asking was so cliché, she couldn't help thinking this was more an act than any genuine desire for... whatever it was. Her arm? Weird.

Calli crossed her legs and leaned forward to rest her chin in her hand.

"That's very cute," she began, "but of course we'll have to see one-another again. We go to the same school."

"Now, you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that you can blackmail me. Unfortunately, that's not how blackmail works. What are you going to do if I refuse? Tell people that you forfeited our duel? Go right ahead."

"But," she shrugged, "I'm feeling generous, and I have to say I admire your attempt at cunning, considering you're not even in Slytherin. Perhaps if you cut the crap and tell me exactly what you want, I might go along with your little plan."

Nothing was ever simple. She despised this. However she listened and she thought and thought again and thought once more.

Accord: Your blood so I can boil it until it's a warm temperature and carefully study and examine it. That is it in a nutshell.

She got up and took a seat. She was not strange but she did cringe at the word cute used in any sense.

Accord: I'm aware we go to the same school but it's a pretty big school and I plan to avoid you as much as possible.

It was not the social interaction. No unlike her brother social interaction was quite a breeze. She just had better things to do with her time than to trade tit for tat or what not. She opened her bag and pulled out the contents. Butterfly needles were named of course for the way that they were shaped. She laid it down across her lap and looked at Caelani.

Accord: I don't even know how to blackmail, I mean I know what blackmail is but I would never. If you refuse, you refuse and I will just have to sit here, needle in my lap and force myself to actually sit here longer because I promised myself that no matter how much I wanted to let you off the hook, I was not going to do it.

Accord needed to learn to follow through with things. This was something she was bad at. Not after today though.Then she felt her lip lift up.

Accord: Feeling generous?

Was she being serious. There was absolutely no way ; Accord burst into a fit of laughter as she shook her head.

Accord : I came on a good day for you then I suppose.

Calani just stared at Accord. Was she actually serious? Her threat was to sit there all day if Caelani didn't open an artery for her?

"Allow me to enlighten you," she told Accord. "This thing you're trying to do right now, when you say you were going to let me 'off the hook'? That's blackmail. You're trying to make it sound like I have some kind of obligation to you, but I don't."

Admittedly, Calli didn't know much about muggle things, and even less about muggle science. She was decent at potions, though, and from that she knew that boiling blood was unlikely to assist with studying it. For that matter, why would anyone want to?

"Why do you want to study my blood, anyway?" she asked.

Caelani had a couple of ideas as to why Accord would want her blood. The first was the same reason anyone would want any part of a person. Hair, nails, teeth, anything would do so long as it had once been part of the person. The law of contamination was at the core of potions like polyjuice and Caelani had no intention of letting someone take her form.

The other reason was more mundane. Taking the word "pureblood" too literally might make someone want to study her blood, but Caelani dearly hoped this was not the case. Mainly because Accord was a Ravenclaw and Ravenclaws were supposed to be more intelligent than that.

Accord slowly tapped the butterfly needle.

Accord: I have this aunt who it's better to please than upset. She has not sent me an owl as to why yet but she just wants blood of those who I interact with. I don't know why, she's bat shit crazy.

Literally. In her time of growing up her aunt had went from an obsessed love of butterflies to a love of bats and in the mean time had went crazy.

Accord: You know how everyone has a strange and crazy family? Yep, mine fits right under that same syndrome too.

She shook her head.

Accord: It's not here or there really. What about your family? Is that off limits for you,

she asked as she reached into her bag and pulled out a small jar. The contents were a sort of petroleum type substance. Followed by two mixing spoons, an eye dropper, and a teal color liquid. Upon dripping a little teal liquid into the petroleum type substance and starting to stir she looked up.

Accord: Or are your family the type where the love runs so deep it's like watching one of those horrible holiday themed movies?

She dipped a little onto the lid and handed Caelani a spoon.

Accord: Stir this for me please, for thirty full seconds.