[Great Hall] Worms, anyone?

[Caleb Russo]

"That's a laugh. He doesn't have the guts to do it." "Yeah, he'll chicken out, I know it." "If you do it, I'll give you five sickles." "Same here!" Caleb's group of friends crowded around him out in the courtyard, where a large pile of earth worms they had stolen from the Green House sat in from of him. They had all dared him to eat five of the worms, figuring he wouldn't be up to it. Much to their surprise, he was all in.

"Alright. Get ready to pay up, mates." Rubbing his hands together, he grabbed the first worm. Such nonsense would normally be done by the first years who thought that by doing something revolting, they would gain a positive reputation. But, when you're the freak in your group of friends, it's just another one of those things you would do to make them give you some extra money. Smirking, he secretly change the wiggling worm into a candy one just before he put it to his mouth, and made a loud slurping noise. Much to his satisfaction, none had noticed.

"Ugh! Russo! That's just disgusting," One of his friends called from the group. "Hey. He's showing more stomach then you right now." Caleb could heard the thud of a punch in the arm, and smirked again. Grabbing the four others that the group had picked out, he popped each one into his mouth, secretly changing them as they went, and grinned up at his friends. Holding out his hand, he flashed a toothy smile. "Pay up." The group grumbled, each reaching into his pockets and pulling out the reward. "Russo, you are some kind of freak, that's for sure." "It's all in a days work." Pocketing the money, he told his friends he would meet up with them later, deciding he should get some real lunch.

Turning his collar up as the November winds came blowing in, he walked up to the Castle amused by his own trick. The guys weren't idiots, but they surely didn't use their eyes. He could swear they all could see, even a person a yard away would be able to tell that it was a candy worm. They were probably to caught up in the moment to notice anything. Even if they realized it now, he had all their money, and he wasn't about to give it back.

Entering the Castle, Caleb took off his coat and walked into the Great Hall, smelling the delicious food as he entered. The place was somewhat crowed, but most of the students had already finished and were on their way to their next classes. Taking a seat at the Gryffindor table, and laying his coat next to him, he grabbed a hold of some apples, and piled them on his plate. He subconsciously ate the apple as he scanned the room, and when he turned back to grab a muffin, he found a worm had crawled on his plate.

He picked the worm off his plate, about to fling the little bugger onto the floor, when the worm slipped out of his hand crawled down the table. Shrieks and yells were heard, and Caleb wanted to grab it, but he couldn't help but laugh as people freaked out about a little worm. When he had finally composed himself, he set his apple down, grabbing the worm off the plate of it's last terrified victim. "It's just a little worm, relax." He said coolly, before striding away, and setting the worm outside the Great Hall doors.

When he returned to his seat, he could feel his fellow house mates glaring at him, but all Caleb could do was try not to spit out the muffin he had most recently grabbed. It was amazing that people could get so worked up about a bug crawling across their plates.

[pippa]

Pippa couldn't quite tell you how she turned up at the Great Hall, just descending the stairs and witnessing a shocking event. She'd only just got up having missed her first potions lesson, which was unlike her as she actually liked that, but she'd stayed up late with her mates just nattering the hours away really.

Already it was lunchtime and it felt like it, she'd had an early tea and no nibbles in the evening so she was now starving. Coming out of her reverie just as she saw a guy that her Mum would decree fit for use, she sighed inwardly beginning to really hate the way she was ever so slightly thinking like her Mother. The idea was shudder worthy and she felt utterly repulsed at the thought of actually turning into her Mum, no-way was she going to just marry for the sake of it, or worse, for the money. Seeing him kneel down she watched in fascination as he gently laid down, a worm, well that wasn't slightly strange, and pretty cool too, only problem being it would likely be squished by the stampeding collective menace that was Hogwarts students, sure he'd placed to one side, unfortunately just where she could get a good view of him, but someone would still stamp on it somehow. as he cooly swept back into the Great Hall, presumably to continue his lunch she tenderly scooped up the poor worm and strode into the Great Hall after him, temporarily losing sight of his blond locks, she spotted him at the Gryffindor table, typical, he'd probably brought it in for a dare and set it loose among the masses to scare everyone, ok she was being preducicial but she knew plenty of Gryffindor and they all tended to have a mischeveous streak.

Not so steathily creeping up behind him, it was necessary given the clamour of witches and wizards gobbling down food as if their lives depended on it, and using their moves to shout and scream too, grinning Pippa pulled back his collar and dropped the wriggling worm down the back of his shirt. Near seductively she whispered into his ear, "that's for all worms out there." Quickly slipping into the seat beside him, the grinning Hufflepuff acted as if she'd had no part in what had to be pretty nasty feeling and said nonchalantly, "got ants in your pants man?" Leaning back against the table so she could face him, and gleefully watch his discomfort she grabbed an apple, took a great chunk out of it and sat back to watch the show.

(ooc hope you don't mind me joining in the fun =) )

[Caleb Russo]

(Not at all!)

By the time the glares and smirks had finally stopped being directed towards him, Caleb had basically finished his lunch. The worm story was going to be another one to tell his mates. Grabbing an apple, and biting into it, he decided he was going to take up the entire lunch hour. He had no where to be but his next class, so why bother getting up?

Rolling the sleeves up on his sweater, he glanced over to make sure his Gryffindor cloak was still next to him. Once or twice it had been stolen under his nose, and it took quite a bit of effort to get it back. He felt a sudden chill down the back of his spine, and his sweater seemed to be tighten on his neck.

It felt as if something was wiggling down his back, squirming to survive. Someone had whispered in his ear about worms, and then he realized what was crawling down his back. Squirming as the worm did, he quickly reached behind him, grabbing the little bugger before he could escape into his pants. Now that would be an interesting site.

Turning towards the culprit, he realized the girl looked neither in his year, or in his house. He doubted he had seen her at all, considering his world was filled with Gryffindors 24/7. Finally becoming annoyed with the worm trying to escape from his hand, he took out his wand, and used the same spell he had earlier, changing the wiggling fiend into a gummy worm.

"Now, I wouldn't say ants.." He replied, smirking. Glancing at the candy worm, he grinned. "Worm?" He offered, attempting to keep his face as composed as possible. Caleb himself found it a little odd to be eating something that only hours ago was crawling around in the ground blindly, but if this girl was going to start putting things down his shirt, what the heck?

(Blegh. Excuse me if this is a little weak, having a brain fry currently..)

[pippa]

Watching the terrific show of squirming made Pippa laugh aloud, but it was over too quickly, before she knew it he'd turned it into a candy and was offering it to her, as cool as cool could be, she had to admit he had smooth moves reacting quickly and not panicking, then again it had only been an ikkle wormy.

No big deal though, he could still be a laugh even without a worm down his back, what he'd been doing with a worm in the first place still puzzled and bothered her, how she'd get to the bottom of that mystery was in itself a puzzle, suddenly she felt like Sherlock Holmes, or even better; Batman, discovering the truth of the crime against poor wormy.

"Would I really like to eat a worm whacky Wickham?" It was rhetorical, she hoped he wouldn't try replying and yes he'd become Mr Wickham from Pride and Prejudice, man she loved tha book, the story was sublime.

"Change the poor thing back, and better, put Wiliam back where you found him," she poked him, rather savagely, in the side to jolt him into action. Bounding from the bench Pippa squeezed her hand into his and dragged him skywards, "come on Wickham, I'm making sure you put William the worm back, hop to."

(lol don't worry, it's cool)

[Caleb Russo]

In an attempt to make the worm seem repulsing to eat, he wiggled it a bit and made a mock face of shock. "It's still alive!" He whispered, hiding a smirk. There was nothing more fun than a good prank, and even better when the prank that was intended on you, was turned around and shot back at the other. He wasn't planning to put the worm in her shirt like she had to him, but other plans were calculating in his noggin.

Her question puzzled him. Wickham? Who was Wickham? "It all depends on what your appetite asks for." Smirking again, he wiggled the worm a little more. He was ultimately puzzled by the Wickham thing, but he attempted to play along, hoping to keep their little conversation going. It'd been a while since he'd talked to someone outside his group of friends, or his sisters. Much less his house.

So she had named the worm now? "Nah. I think he likes being a candy worm. He doesn't have to run away from savage animals.. Just savage humans." He dangled the worm in her face, somewhat teasing her in a way. Soon, Caleb was being poked in the side, prodded like an animal. "Oi!" Grabbing her wrist, he smirked. "It's not nice to poke." He kept her wrist for a moment as if to make sure she wasn't going to poke him again, then let go.

A moment later, he was being half dragged across the the Great Hall. "Well, what if I don't want to change him back?" Stopping in his tracks, he put on a playful smirk, daring her to drag him on. Caleb made sure both feet were planted flatly on the ground so it would be a little more difficult for her to drag him along.