Call of the Undine

Shelby blocked the first water balloon using the shield charm but had to duck to avoid being hit by the second. She considered playing fair, but there was no fun in that. Besides, this was war.

"Accio Indiana's wand," she grinned evilly as the wand slid out of his wristband and zoomed towards her. There was no way she was about to let him have another weapon to potentially use against her. "Silly Indiana, you should know by now not to put away your wand during a battle," she laughed.

She stashed it in the trunk by her side and grabbed a few more balloons to throw at him. One right after another, she threw three ballons as hard as she could at him.

Indiana sighed as he simply dodged the water balloons aside. Losing his wand had nearly made him lose his rational mentality for the moment but he knew that he couldn't afford that.

"Well, that very much ends that battle. I think it's obvious that a conclusion has been reached." the youth remarked with a bit of fatigue. It was tempting but there was no reason or justification to resort to tactics that he had learned and practiced on or the hidden countermeasures that he had hidden in the inner pockets of his trenchcoat.

He just hoped that the real reason to his abrupt concession of defeat wouldn't be uncovered.

"Are you giving up?" Shelby asked with a frown. She was a little disappointed, she'd hoped Indiana would put up a better fight than that.

She sighed and grabbed his wand from the trunk and walked over to him. She held it out toward him. "Peace offering?" she said with a small smile.

"For now out of common sense." Indiana replied with a smile as he accepted his wand back. "Just that I had some measures I would've used but it would've attracted the attention of the teachers and I'd rather stay off their radar than let them jump to conclusions."

"Kind of caught me off guard since I was under impression that whatever spells that are taught would only be available after the professors that taught them finished and closed their lessons." the youth replied sheepishly.

"Oh, I suppose I forgot about the 'waiting for them to close the lesson' part," Shelby said. "It's a good thing that no teachers saw that then. I'd be so mad at myself if I lost Ravenclaw any points."

The open trunk full of water balloons was sitting innocently on the grass next to them. As much as she tried to calm herself, Shelby was still in attack mode. "Just so you know, I'm sorely tempted right now to grab one of those balloons and throw it at you from point blank range," she commented. "But I'm going to refrain because I don't want to hurt you."

Shelby crossed her arms and looked at Indiana suspiciously. "Now, what would you not be able to explain to the teachers?"

Deciding to just show the physical evidence, Indiana walked over to the trunk and closed it before reaching into his trenchcoat to retrieve the contents.

"Some of this I found in a ventilation air duct in the male Hufflepuff dorm along with a ton of fireworks that I set off during that birthday party." Indiana spoke as he placed five black round pebbles with glitters on the trunk. "A smaller unit of the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder for starters. There were six but I used one just to test it out and they work."

He then withdrew a long black ribbon with one end tied to a metal two-inch diameter washer ring, a retractable yo-yo, and paper throwing stars before placing them down on the trunk. "With the exception of the yo-yo, I made the others and tested around with. If I had used them, I might have stood a chance but then there's the risk of being caught for fighting, which results in expulsion."

"So I was right, it was you," Shelby said gleefully. "I think Resa might still be trying to figure out who set the fireworks off. They were a very nice surprise. Why didn't you come over and say hello?"

She looked down curiously at the last three items that Indiana had taken out and shook her head a little. "My life would be so much more boring if I wasn't friends with you. What are these?"

"Igniting all those fireworks had attracted a lot of attention and I was willing to bet that the teachers were drawn by it." Indiana replied. "I didn't want to spoil the party or bring trouble after that spectacle."

Indiana then held up the three-meter long long black ribbon with the washer ring that was in a bundle. "This isn't really special as it's just a ribbon wrapped around a washer ring. But the washer ring provides enough weight such that I could throw it and maneuver the ribbon to tied around an opponent's arm to temporarily hinder movement or around the leg and then take the person off his or her feet with a strong pull."

After setting the black ribbon with the washer ring down, He then picked up the yo-yo. "This is a Muggle toy for children where the string is wrapped around the central finger before it is thrown downwards. Once the string completely unwinds, it mostly returns back to its original position if there is enough inertia. It doesn't look like much but there are a lot of people that can perform a variety of tricks with this and there are some that have used these as weapons. Trust me, it hurts if you get hit by it full force."

Placing the yo-yo down, Indiana picked up some of the paper throwing stars. "These paper throwing stars here, however, are mostly for distraction but I've seen some people use them to disarm knife-wielding thugs when thrown with precise aim and at very velocities."

Shelby was particularly intrigued by the yo-yo. She picked it up and held it by the string, watching as the string unfurled. "Well that was anticlimactic," she said when the toy came to a dead stop when the string ran out. She frowned at it, wondering why it didn't come back up like he said it would. "What did I do wrong?"

Indiana took the yo-yo from Shelby before rolling the string back up. He then flicked his wrist with explosive force while throwing the yo-yo forward, watching it extend out several feet before the inertia of the given momentum caused it to retract and re-roll back into its original position.

"I disabled the retraction mechanism, which would've brought it back regardless of whether or not there was enough momentum and inertia." Indiana spoke, pointing to a small button at the center. "This is a custom model, derivation of the original yo-yo."

Shelby stepped back in alarm as Indiana showed her how the yo-yo worked. "Be careful, you could knock somebody out with that thing!" she looked at the toy warily.

"Remind me never to make you angry," she mumbled, unable to look away from they toy. "Do muggles actually give these to children to play with?" She couldn't believe that anyone would put such a potentially dangerous object in the hands of a child.

Indiana nodded. "Muggle children tend to play with these and the more interested individuals go further in learning how to do a variety of looping tricks with them. The parents don't really see the yo-yo as a potential weapon back then in the early years but the advent of various advanced looping tricks that involve such fast momentum and control have allowed the toy to be utilized later on in that manner."

After pulling off a few looping tricks with blinding speed and perfect control, Indiana placed the yo-yo down. "Looks harmless until you see such things in action. I don't think anyone would find it pleasant to get injured from this."

"I can see why they could be underestimated," Shelby nodded as she nudged the yo-yo tentatively with her foot.

"What about those? What do they do?" she pointed at the throwing stars, wondering if they were as dangerous as the toy. "Muggles don't give those to their children as well, do they?"

Indiana shook his head. "No, I made these out of paper. I once saw some older individuals make these and I learned it from them."

Taking one of the paper throwing stars, Indiana flicked his wrist with a lot of force as he sent it forward into the air with a high velocity. The paper throwing star spun very fast like a buzz-saw before landing among some leaves on a branch.

"These are only paper so they generally can't hurt anyone unless they thrown at the face, particularly the eyes."

"Have you ever played with anything that isn't the slightest bit dangerous? Like an action figure or a teddy bear or something?" Shelby asked teasingly, shaking her head again. She considered asking about the first object but decided against it, instead asking, "Why do you carry all of this around? Does this have something to do with what May said in her letter?"

Indiana's eyes became a bit distant for a moment while in his thoughts. He did have a stuffed animal puppy that sings the tune "Frère Jacques" when the knob was turned and that was a relic from his grandmother that his late mother gave to him, one that he kept in his room. He didn't know why he was thinking about it at this time before getting back to the issue.

"It never hurts to have more than one option available just in case the wand is taken out of the equation as you demonstrated earlier." Indiana replied as he placed the items back into the pockets of his trench-coat. "I doubt I'd get into a dire situation but it doesn't hurt to take some precautions."

Shelby tilted her head to the side at the sight of the slightly dreamy expression that came over Indiana's face. "Makes sense," she nodded. "But you didn't answer my first question," she prompted stubbornly.

"Thank you for not attacking me with any of those things," she added as she watched him put everything back into his trenchcoat. "I have to admit that had you used them, I wouldn't have known what to do and you would have won for sure."

"No problem, the victory just isn't even worth the consequences." Indiana replied humbly as he retrieved the paper throwing star from the tree branch. "Regarding as to whether I ever played with anything than isn't hazardous, I have on some occasions."

Knowing that the issue would be inquired further, Indiana decided to change the subject. "Are you comfortable now with the Shield Charm?"

It wouldn't do to forget the real reason as to why they were out here in the first place.

"What? You mean, winning isn't everything?" Shelby asked in mock surprise.

"Yes, I feel more comfortable with the Shield Charm, but why do you always do that?" she sighed. "Whenever I ask you about something normal, you don't give me a clear answer and you change the subject. Are you afraid that you'll seem less mysterious if I know what toys you played with? Or does it make you uncomfortable? Is asking personal questions crossing a line?" Shelby was frustrated with not knowing where the boundaries of their friendship were. "I don't understand."

"I thought it was a bit of a light question when you asked on whether I played with things that weren't dangerous." Indiana replied frankly, sensing the frustration. "I didn't think it would be something that would warrant such interest."

Taking a deep breath, Indiana looked at the trees ahead of him. "It's hardly about being an enigma but let me ask you before you proceed. Do you share everything, even personal issues with others?"

Shelby looked at Indiana, who seemed to be avoiding her gaze by looking at the trees. "I suppose it was a light question but I was expecting a little bit more elaboration, not evasion and half-answers. You can't fault me for being curious," she said.

"And in response to your question, I don't just offer personal information about myself to everyone that I meet but if a friend asks me a personal question, I answer it. And I do tell certain people everything, like Lauren and Hilary," she said quietly. "If I ever make either of them angry, they could destroy me with everything that I've told them, and Theresa's right behind them. The only reason I don't tell Theresa as much as Lauren and Hilary is because she's a little more prone to teasing."

She took a breath. "It's okay to tell me if I'm crossing a line. I won't ask any more personal questions if you don't want me to."

Indiana nodded."I understand. I'm not trying to be a mysterious person and such. But instead of saying out loud that the line is being crossed, it just seems habitual for me to use half-answers. That is unless I'm under the drunken influence of excess butterbeer where the chance to answer more openly is likely."

He then turned to Shelby. "It depends on the questions that are being asked. I won't answer some either because it's something that I really rather not talk about or because I think it is more boring than a lecture from the late Professor Binns, who used to teach History of Magic and could probably put a hyperactive child to sleep in his class. Yet, you'll have a better chance on the latter even though I'm a bit stubborn."

"Anyways, the question you asked was directed towards an issue that I find seemingly boring for discussion. I mean, there really isn't anything but mundane things to talk about regarding what I was like in the more younger years."

"You could compete with Theresa for the 'most stubborn person at Hogwarts' award," Shelby said with a slight smile. "That's fair enough if you think it's boring, but you know life's not always finding a car by the Forbidden Forest and receiving coded letters from raving lunatics pretending to be their dead sister. Sometimes life is mundane and boring, and it's alright to talk about that. If it wasn't, then escaping the clutches of an angry octopus wouldn't be exciting."

She remembered a conversation with Theresa by the lake that she'd had a few days prior. "By the way, we named the octopus. His name is Hannibal Lecter," she said, wondering if Indiana would be more familiar with the character than Lauren, Theresa, and Hilary had been.

Indiana had to admit that Shelby brought up some interesting points. So far, he had his fair share of interesting and traumatic events while growing up. "I guess you're right."

"Silence of the Lambs, I take it?" the youth asked after hearing what Shelby and the others named the octopus. Even though he hadn't read any of the books written by Thomas Harris or seen the movies based off of them, Indiana had heard of the name from a few people at his old primary school along with their talk about the movies, the title that he had just brought up along with the other called Hannibal Rising.

"Interesting name. But I've only heard the name along with the movies and books from some other kids at my old primary school so I really don't know what that guy is supposed to be like." the youth replied sheepishly before asking. "A really malicious guy that kills for sport?"

"I think you'll find that I'm usually right," Shelby grinned.

She gave up on her previous line of questioning because was glad that Indiana had at least a little bit of knowledge of the character. "Sort of. He's an absolutely brilliant forensic psychiatrist who also happens to be a cannibalistic serial murderer," she said. "I didn't tell Lauren, Hilary, and Resa that though. I just told them that he was a very bad man," she chose to omit the gory details when talking to her female friends. "I didn't want to scare them too much."