The exercise:
Write about: infighting.
I don't know that there could be any stronger confirmation that it's past time to end the blog than the fact that I've got two prompts left after this one and have had zero inclination to do anything special to wrap things up.
Also... I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've mentioned it in a post. It's really just been a discussion in the comments, and not much of one at that.
So, uh, heads up, in case you somehow missed it: the blog will see it's final prompt on December 31st, and then one final post that may or may not feature a prompt on January 1st.
2 comments:
I hadn't noticed that all the discussion had happened in the comments either -- so I think calling it out in a post is a good idea! And I think it might be better for the blog to end quietly than with a lot of fuss as otherwise you might be constantly tempted to revive it, which wouldn't be good for your busy life! I hope the things that you will do to replace it are more exciting though :)
Infighting
The Great Hall was lit by thousands of tiny candles, each enchanted to have a pair of delicate, lacy wings by Professor Flibbertigibbet, the Charms and Manners professor. They hovered above the tables and chairs, dripping hot wax onto unwary students and casting little spheres of lambency that illuminated some things and left others in darkness. They also gave out a startling amount of heat; partly because the cheapest wax available (which they were, naturally made from) was dragon's earwax which burned hotter than some metals, and partly because Professor Flibbertigibbet had made a small arithmetical error in her spellcasting that moved the decimal point one point to the right and boosted the heat output instead of the light output.
"What's Dr Bumblebee up to?" asked Ronnie Weasel. "Ow!" He sucked incautiously on a hand that had just been burned by hot wax. "Yuk! That tastes foul!"
"That's not Bumblebee," said Hermione. "He was arrested after being caught handing out potions of polymorph to students, remember? You should, they were all polymorphed into copies of you. That's his replacement, Bittergold. He studied at the Donnerblitzen Academy for Shadowy Arts so I imagine he's encouraging infighting amongst the staff."
"The surviving staff," said Ronnie. He wasn't alone in noticing that Hermione seemed to have single-handedly thinned the staff out by about a third, possibly at the incitement of Bumblebee before his arrest. Hermione gave his a side-long glance that suggested he ought to think twice before saying that again.
"You might have noticed," she said, dodging a fist-sized drip of wax that splattered over Harry's head and starting charring his hair, "that since Bittergold arrived the faculty with the more practical subjects have been having little scandals over their lack of academic qualifications and the more academic staff have been having small accidents with things they eat or drink. He's setting them against each other, but I don't know why."
"Is that why it's like an oven in here?" said Ronnie. He noticed Harry and tried to clear the wax away, but it was already setting.
"Yes," said Hermione. "The heat makes people irritable, and Flibbertigibbet is already getting acrimonious looks from Teatable."
"Teatable?" Ronnie picked up a spoon and started scraping wax away so that Harry could breathe at least.
"Predictions professor," said Hermione. "She predicted that you wouldn't do well enough to get into her class. But I think that Professor Several Snipe has doctored their drinks so that they're all going to mysteriously grow feathers overnight."
"Is that a prediction too?"
Hermione smiled. Professor Snipe had told her what he planned and asked for a little help in stirring up the potion. "Why not?" she said happily. "What are you doing, Robbie?"
"Ronnie," said Ronnie reproachfully. "Trying to make sure Harry can breathe."
"Didn't I tell you he died last night?"
Greg - apologies, once again, and hopefully for the final time, for the spam folder taking a liking to your writing. We had a pretty good run there without issues though!
And I suspect I will still be tempted to revive the blog now and then, but hopefully won't do so until I'm able to do it properly.
Just a... just a gleeful amount of chaos going on here. I can practically picture you laughing as you wrote it :)
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