Seriously, Guys, I Hate You [Billie!]

[cypress]

What, exactly, had possessed Cypress to agree to this, he wasn't entirely sure. Probably that it was just that bastard Seth. God, that guy was such a little brat! And he clearly wanted him dead but, and wasn't that just like a fucking Hufflepuff, he wanted Cypress to do his dirty work for him. Well, he was going to show that little git that he wasn't too scared to do the dare and that he was smart enough to ask for help so he didn't die. Okay, so asking Billie of all people might not have been the best idea in the world – not that he'd asked her, exactly, she'd offered, pretty much, but still – as he didn't know exactly how good she was at the charms he needed in order to, you know, not die, but at least he had slightly more chance of not dying now.

Sneaking out of the dorm was easy enough, as always – no one really seemed to care – but sneaking round the corridors was a different matter altogether. There were ghosts, caretakers and slightly pissed off headteachers to contend with, after all. Ever since she'd put the kaboosh on the dare game (like that had worked), the teachers had started prowling the corridors both during the day and night in order to stop anyone trying to go through with dares. Unfortunately they seemed to have the uncanny knack of knowing who was going to do what, as well. He'd seen three people caught pre-dare fulfilment, and he didn't want to be added to the list. It was bad enough that he was still in the middle of his previous dare and so was going to do this jump in a skirt. Thankfully he'd stolen a pair of leggings from one of the more considerate Gryffindor girls (who had said she didn't want them back, which was probably for the best), so he wasn't going to be flashing anyone if they could see anything at night anyway. He'd done his hair up again, too.

He had one close shave with Peeves, but the ghoul didn't see him and Cypress made it to the tower with a minute to spare. He looked round and shrugged, it wasn't a thorough search and he couldn't be bothered, so he went and sat down on the windowsill of the Astronomy tower, legs over the edge as if ready to jump right then and there. It was a cool evening, pleasantly breezy, but he imagined a free fall would be chilling. He wasn't scared, exactly – though he knew he should be – but... well, he wasn't really bothered. He had Billie, everything was going to be fine.

[Billie Ackerman]

Billie had decided to skip dinner at the Great Hall for the task ahead. While everyone was inside eating, she’d been stalking the base of the Astronomy tower casting cushioning charms on every bit of ground she could reach until the footing felt a bit like a trampoline to walk on. Thanks to curfew starting practically right after dinner, there was now no danger of anyone straying across the rather insanely large patch of spongy grass. Billie had perhaps gone a little bit overboard with the amount of ground she’d covered, but she kept having visions of Cypress being knocked off to the side by a gust of wind and hitting the dirt and cracking his head open. No crazy Gryffindor was going to die on her watch.

As an added precaution she’d lugged her Quidditch broom along. It was hardly the newest racing model any more, but if it could beat a bludger to a target it could certainly dive faster than gravity ought to allow if things went wrong. Checking a six handed pocket watch tentatively, Billie figured the time was right, and she took a second to change her face and hair to resemble a Hufflepuff fourth year she’d been examining earlier that day. Mounting her broom, she manoeuvred her way up the side of the tower, avoiding any windows and cursing herself for not bothering to learn a disillusionment charm first.

By the way her heart was almost feeling like it was going to jump out, Billie could tell she was nervous, though she didn’t need that to already know she wanted to be back in the common room with Iris and Lacey instead. She wasn’t the one jumping off the schools tallest tower, but if anything happened she’d definitely feel responsible and the last thing she needed was the ghost of Cypress’s mangled body following her for all eternity.

The sight awaiting Billie however, was not what she was expecting. ”Cypress? What the hell?” she gasped in disbelief, eyes wide as she took in the done hair, leggings and skirt. For a moment she was too surprised to remember she was still hovering in midair, and when Billie’s brain finally caught up she almost tripped off the broom as she dismounted onto the side of the tower. ”You’re going to do this in a skirt?”

[cypress]

He'd never admit it later on, but he'd started daydreaming instead of paying attention to whether or not anyone was approaching. It was only about the concert tickets he'd managed to persuade his mother to get for him, but he was thinking about asking Art if he wanted to sneak off out of Hogwarts and go see it with him. If not, well, he was going to have to ask someone else, but he'd like his best friend to go with him. It would be a good laugh, and he doubted they'd get busted for it. Besides, he thought Art liked the band and that was reason enough.

In his defence, though, he hadn't expected someone to float up in front of him from nowhere and screech at him. The sight and sound startled him and he toppled backwards in fright with an indecent and slightly girly squawk as he fell onto the Astronomy tower's floor with an audible thump, skirt flapping down over his chest. He pushed himself up with his elbows and stood up, dusting himself off as whom he assumed was Billie got off her broom and joined him on solid ground. He raised an eyebrow. He knew she was a metamorphmagus or whatever it was called, but he hadn't realised it could be that drastic. ”Nice, you look like a five year old.”

He looked down at himself and back up at Billie, shrugging. ”Yeah, why not? I'm still in the middle of my other dare and I was told that I don't get to wear jeans – I have to look like a total girl.” He paused and grabbed the skirt, pulling at it. ”What, is it gonna make it too difficult?” Okay, now he was starting to worry a bit.

[Billie Ackerman]

Billie had to resist the urge to burst out laughing when Cypress fell back onto his arse, skirt flapping. She didn’t know if they were close enough to warrant laughing at each others accidents yet, even if the whole incident was extremely amusing. Thank the lord he was wearing something underneath or it would have gone very quickly from ‘hilarious’ to ‘mortifying’.

”No no no, the skirts fine for the jump,” Billie said quickly, but apparently unable to look away from Cypresess’s bizarre choice of fashion. ”It just a little, er, unexpected. It’s not like it’s going to flap up in your face or anything when you jump I hope.” Oh well, if he wanted to make a jump looking like that, it was his prerogative, but Billie was almost certain everyone who had dared him to do this was glued to their common room windows with binoculars.

Looking away from Cypress for the first time, Billie wandered back over to the side of the tower, clutching the broom unusually tightly. Funny as Cypress was looking right now Billie was still freaking out over the numerous ways this could go wrong, and the concern was showing. This was why she didn’t make it into Gryffindor, she never felt the need to almost kill herself. She wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to do it once he stood on the ledge and let fear (or common sense) do its work.

”Well, the bottom of the tower feels a bit like a jumping castle at the moment so as long as you don’t fall too fast the landing should be fine. I’ve been having people throw stuff at me, and Imedimenta slows it down a hell of a lot, but you’re bigger and heavier than scrunched up parchment. You shouldn’t fall that much faster though. If it looks like you’re going to hurt yourself I should be able to catch you. When you’re ready then.”