Popcorn Can't Hold Me Down! (Semi-Open RP)

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

The last thing Murphy remembered was trying, for what felt like the thousandth time, to get ahold of Dresden. She had a case that was...well, it was going badly. Very badly. And this was a hell of a time for Dresden to go missing. Murphy hated to admit it, but she was in way over her head.

Actually, since Harry'd been missing for months, she probably shouldn't be as irritated as she was. He'd just taken off with no note, no contact, and indication he was going to return. Just swell. So the director of S.I. was left without a professional wizard in a town that seemed to attract the creepy crawlies. Not that she couldn't hold her own. But now she was seriously missing him - in a strictly professional capacity - and Murphy was pissed to no end that he was unreachable.

One second she was standing at yet another crime scene, her cell pressed to her ear, legs braced apart, eyes furrowed, listening to the freaking recording - again - and the next she was standing in a stone room surrounded by popcorn kernels. Huh.

The cop in Karrin didn't hesitate a beat. Her gun was out, cell phone away, and she was sweeping the room in one smooth motion. As she walked from the doorway out into the hall, her brow furrowed. This...could not be what she was thinking it was. It was impossible.

But after she'd passed her fourth suit of armor, Murphy had the sinking sensation that this was not the result of a knock upside the head. Slowly lowering her gun, she gaped for a moment at one of the portraits - which freaking moved - and the torches providing illumination. She had just somehow transported from Chicago to a castle.

She had been trying to reach Dresden. Now she was in a fairy tale castle, just missing a bullfrog and a head of hair from here to China. Not hard to figure out how to blame.

"Dresden! she shouted, eyes narrowing. "You half-witted wizard, you come and fix this right now or I will make you pay!"

Comments

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

I did understand, in a way, what this was doing to her. I'd seen her before, when she'd undergone spiritual mauling, and while this wasn't anything nasty, it had to have the same lingering flavor. I wasn't sure what else to do, though--part of me was so stupidly giddy just to have her back that I couldn't think of anything else.

I wasn't stupid enough to misread her reaction. She was Murphy the Cop, and I had to deal with her like Murphy the Cop. "Come on," I said, beckoning her after me. "We're in the same House--they're dormitories, basically." My words were as businesslike as I could make them--letting her do her thing was probably the best and only thing I could do for her just now.

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

Ah, the spiritual equivalent of surprise buttsex rape, done by a creature wearing Harry's face. Yeah, Murphy tried not to think about that a lot. At least, not without her sleeping pills and a nice bottle of gin. And the whole 'you're missing several months of your life' definitely was dredging up bad memories.

So, cop mode it was. Plain. Simple. She could handle this. Following along behind Harry, though, some doubt started to creep in. What if this wasn't Harry? What if this was another creepy crawly thing wearing a Harry-mask? She'd been so relieved, so stupidly glad to see him, to see anything familiar, that she hadn't been thinking. Cursing herself, Murphy suddenly stopped, eyes narrowing.

Damn it, she was smarter than this. Think, Karrin. Don't just react. Reacting gets you dead.

With a graceful move, Harry's face was suddenly planted in the wall, his arms yanked behind him. Murphy didn't bother with the gun - if this was Harry, her nice, new semi-automatic would probably get all gunked up. "If I say chainsaw," she asked in a quiet voice, steel covered silk, "what do you think of?"

The plant monster was a good enough shared memory - and not one that would be easily picked out by just that one word by anything rifling through Harry's brain.

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

Part of me had been expecting something like that, but that didn't make it suck any less. At least this time she hadn't chipped my tooth.

"Wal-Mart," I managed--as well as I could, anyway; it was kind of hard to talk with my face mashed against the wall. "Trolls, chlorofiends, mind-control gas. Can I peel myself off the wall now?"

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

For a second, Murphy just stood there. God, she didn't realize until Harry had confirmed his identity just how much she'd been expecting him not to. Letting Harry go, she walked a few steps down the corridor, letting out a shaky breath.

Then she turned again and did the Murphy version of a glomp - tight hug, face buried in his chest, for just one brief second half-relaxing - before she let go and slugged his arm. Lightly, though. Well, kind of lightly. "Fine." Subject change, before she admitted how much she'd missed him or how hurt she'd been that he'd left. "Let's see this dorm of yours. Though if you think that my future includes bunk beds or homoerotic pillow fights, you've got another thing coming."

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

Okay, I should have expected that...damn that woman has a strong right hook. "No bunk beds," I said, wincing and rubbing my jaw. "I think you knocked one of my teeth loose. No, there's no bunk beds, and I've never heard of any pillow fights." I paused. "Mud wrestling, yes. Pillow fights, no."

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

Snorting quietly, feeling a little bit more like herself, Murphy shook her head. "Stop whining, Dresden. You're lucky I didn't just cuff you now and ask the questions later."

Mud wrestling? Letting that go with no more comment than an arched brow, Murphy nodded her head towards the corridor. "Let's go. If we really are in some freaky magic castle that mysteriously has all my stuff, I want to change into something more comfortable." Like sanity.

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

I chose not to point out the fact that she had nowhere to take me, if she decided I needed interrogation. That would probably only get me kicked.

"All right, come on," I said, leading her down the hallway. "You've got your own dorm room--some people share, but not everyone." She'd had girly nightgowns, too, but I wasn't going to mention that, either. I liked my kneecaps where they were.

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

"Your delusions are getting pretty intricate, there, stilts," Murphy said with a wry twitch of her lips. "And how would you know what my dorm room looked like?"

But she followed along meekly enough, having resigned herself for the moment to letting Harry steer. A moving painting made her jump, though, and she studied it for a minute before smiling to herself. "Huh." Now that was pretty cool.

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

"Well, you did let me in," I said, watching her reaction to the painting. "You didn't keep it like Fort Knox or anything." I'd been in there, as had Lily, and Thomas--some of us not in our own bodies--and my room had been Grand Central Station a few times.

I didn't know the password to the Gryffindor common room, but that was all right, since hardly anyone ever thought of shutting the painting-door anyway. "In here," I said, leading her into the more-or-less deserted common room.

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

"Must have gotten lax in my magic days," she teased faintly. Walking into Gryffindor, Murphy's eyes went up and she turned a slow circle, staring around her. "Please tell me that I had a down blanket," was all she said, though she was wearing a faintly impressed expression. "This place has got to be hell on heating bills."

Castles were pretty awe inspiring, even if they were part of a mental breakdown.

"Okay, so..." Murphy looked up at him, hands on her hips. "Where's this room?" She seriously just wanted to take a bath, get into something comfortable, and sleep. Going crazy was exhausting. No wonder Harry looked like shit half the time.

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

"It never actually gets very cold in here," I said. "Magic, probably." As a matter of fact, she had had a down blanket, but I wasn't going to bring that up, especially since the first time I'd seen it I'd swapped bodies with her.

"Right up this way," I said, leading her up the spiral staircase. "Apparently there used to be dormitories, but that seems to have gotten thrown out a while back. Right here."

Here I ran into trouble. I knew what wards Murphy had had on her door before she popcorned, but I wasn't sure if they would have changed while she was gone. I reached out with my staff, tapping at the door, and to my surprise found no wards at all. Huh. That might not be a good sign.

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

"Neat trick. Why can't you do that?" She smirked slightly as they made their way up the stairs. "Your apartment is always freezing."

As he paused at the door, tapping it with his staff, she rolled her eyes, arching an eyebrow. "Problems?" Taking matters into her own hands, Karrin opened the door and pushed it open to find...

An empty room. A bed stood made but obviously unused, the desk and dresser shoved into the corner had a distinct abandoned air. Walking in, Murphy let her eyes rove around before nodding slowly. "Oh, yes, you're right, Dresden. This is my dust. Thank God it's still here from my magical education and diversion into snack food."

Huffing a breath, she headed back out into the hallway. "Come on," she said, exasperated. "Game's up. Har har har, mocking the confused woman with a gun. I always knew you were suicidal." She gestured for him to lead again. "Do you have a room? Or do you just lurk in hallways?"

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

"Different kind of magic, I think," I said. "Besides, this place isn't sub-level." Stone walls or not, the place absorbed more natural heat than my underground apartment. Still didn't explain why it didn't freeze in winter, though.

When she opened the door, I stopped and stared. What the hell? I'd heard that a popcorned person's stuff came back when they unpopped, but it obviously hadn't now. If it wasn't here, just where was it?

"Um," I said. "I'm not really sure how to explain this one. Your stuff should have come back when you did." Yeah, because that didn't sound lame. "We'll have to see if one of the house elves can find it, I guess." Unfortunately, Hogwarts wasn't likely to get any less confusing with further exposure--I'd had a hell of a time when I'd first shown up here, and I'd come to the school on purpose. Had to be ten times weirder to just show up with no warning.

"Yeah, I've got a room," I said. "I just hope all my stuff hasn't mysteriously disappeared since I left it." It was meant to be a joke, but it fell kind of flat.

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

"Different kind of magic? Crap, and here I was just getting used to your unique brand of mumbo jumbo." She said this teasingly, nudging him in the side with one elbow. God knew she'd seen enough of what Harry could do to have respect for it, even if she didn't always understand.

Laughing shortly, she rolled her eyes. "Right. The elves did it. No, really, your delusions are getting more believable with time. Come on, Dresden. You can go quietly crazy on your own time. Right now I'm taking over your room." She prodded his leg with her toe. "And if your things have vanished, too, I swear we'll hunt down the pesky leprechauns that done it and make sure justice is served." Smirking? She was most definitely not smirking. That was a serious look, buddy, make no mistake.

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

"If you thought mine was bad...." I trailed off. She'd see for herself, sooner or later. I wasn't sure I wanted to be around when she did, because someone was probably going to get hurt. "And the elves really did do it--wait till you see one. They're like leprechauns on some really hard drugs."

I choked. "Wait, what? Taking over my room?" Thank God I'd had the elves clean it, at least--if she'd seen it while it was still evolving new forms of mildew, I'd never hear the end of it. "Are you really sure you want to do that?"

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

"Yes, Harry." Karrin looked up at him, brow arched, and crossed her arms. "Your room. The one you supposedly have. And what, you think I'm going to get scared off? I've been married twice, not to mention the fact I've known you for years. Trust me, I can handle a little bachelor mess. But I've just been up for two days straight dealing with a particularly nasty case. I'm tired. I'm hungry. I seriously need to change clothes. So," she gestured towards the hallway, "your room."

Everything else could get put off until she had time to stop and think. The fact she'd just been yanked out of Chicago while in the middle of a job was less than an ideal situation. Speaking of which...

Murphy reached into her pocket and flipped open her cell. Yeah. No reception. Just her luck. Rubbing her forehead with one hand, looking stressed, irritated, and exhausted, she muttered, "I suppose it'd be too much to hope you had a phone in this alleged room?"

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

"Believe it or not, it's not a mess," I said, leading her the rest of the way up the staircase. Why did I think this wasn't going to end well? Probably because Bob was going to have field day. "Right in here."

I unwarded the door and let her in. It was clean, thanks to the elves--all the books were put away, my shelves of ingredients organized, and no visible laundry. The moldy pizza boxes had disappeared, too, thank God.

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

Not nearly as bad as she'd been expecting. Vaguely impressed that she didn't have to pick her way across a minefield of clutter, Karrin headed over to sit on the bed, rolling her shoulders with a sigh. Dear God, she hadn't sat in hours. Just tense standing, walking, staring at gruesome bodies...

And now she was in freaking Scotland.

Eyes popping back open, she eyed Harry. "Your clothes are going to be so huge on me." She hoped they had a laundry here or something. She was not looking forward to going shopping to fill out her wardrobe wearing one of Harry's many t-shirts as a dress.

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

That had occurred to me before now. "Well, yeah. I know someone you might be able to borrow some from, until you can either find yours or get new ones." Lily wasn't much taller than Murphy, and I was pretty sure she'd be totally willing to loan some out. "Meanwhile, at least my shirts ought to work all right."

I dug through my closet, eventually producing one of the few Star Wars T-shirts that had survived the purge she'd done on my closet when we body-swapped. "Bathroom's that way, if you want a shower," I said, nodding to the far door. She looked tired--no, she looked exhausted. "And unlike my place, they actually have hot water here."

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

Accepting the t-shirt with a nod of thanks, Murphy stood. "Sounds good. We'll work on that in the morning." Or when she didn't feel like she was going to collapse. She'd been running on bad coffee and adrenaline, and now that both were fading so was she.

Oh, God, a hot shower. "Sounds like heaven," she admitted with a small smile. Stretching, arms above her head and back arched, she then padded into the bathroom, calling, "I'll only be a few minutes. And try not to get taken by the elves while I'm gone, Harry."

The shower was better than heaven. Hot water pounding onto her sore muscles was bliss and Murphy was in the bathroom far longer than she'd intended. But she was boneless and mellow when she came back out, hair still damp and feet bear, legs poking out from under Harry's t-shirt. She'd kept on her bra and underwear (http://www2.victoriassecret.com/images/prodpri/V265506.jpg), of course, but left the rest of the clothes to be laundered.

Stifling a yawn, she stretched again, feeling much better, and looked over at Harry. "Don't suppose you know where we could get a burger where the dress code is just below 'bum casual', do you?"

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

The house elves had come for her clothes while she took a shower--how the hell they knew when to show up, I still didn't know. I had a hard time keeping a straight face when she emerged from the bathroom--the T-shirt, which fit me just find, came down below her knees.

"The house elves do take-out," I said. "Not that you'd stand out here, really--you'd be surprised some of the crap people wear." Well, actually, she probably wouldn't, though it was weirder here even than Chicago.

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

Shaking her head, she decided to let that fly. Talk of house elves was a bit beyond her capabilities at the moment. Smiling at the sight of Harry all comfortable on his couch with Mister, Murphy joined them, curling up at the far end with her legs tucked under her. "I don't care if everyone here regularly wears capes or tutus, I'm not going out in your t-shirt and nothing else."

Her cheek rested on the back of the couch and she fought back another yawn. "What's good to eat, then? And if you say 'bangers' or 'mash' I will kick you someplace. Hard." Since she looked at the moment more like a sleepy kitten than anything else, that threat was probably a bit hard to take seriously.

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

I burst out laughing. "Never tried either," I said. "You can get a hamburger here, if you ask the right elf. You can get just about anything here, including my kind of coffee." Which was like tar--so thick you could stand the spoon up in it.

Mister, traitor cat, climbed off my lap and ambled over to rub his head against Murphy's knee. "Capes and tutus...aren't far off the mark, actually," I added. "Trust me on this." Granted, most of the really weird stuff was worn by people who weren't actually from Earth, but not all of it.

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

Expression shifting to a slightly delighted grin, Karrin reached out to scratch Mister behind his ears. "Your kind of coffee is a health hazard, Harry. And...okay, I'll bite. Seriously, an elf?"

Running her hand down Mister's back, she bit back another yawn. "If I ever see you in a tutu, I will die happy." Her back arched slightly as she stretched. "How about a burger, then? With everything. And some coffee that won't give me a coronary."

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

"Just because you can clean battery cables with it doesn't mean it's a health hazard," I said. "And yeah, seriously an elf. They don't look like what you'd think of as an elf, though--they're maybe two feet high, with bat ears and giant eyeballs."

I wished I'd had a sock, so I could throw it at her. "You will never," I said, "ever, ever, ever see me in a tutu." I might not have much dignity, but I have some, dammit. "As for a burger...well. Summon one of the little bastards--all you usually have to do is say you want one to take your order."

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

"I bet you'd wear one if I asked real nice," Karrin teased with a grin.

Oh, summoning things. Um, okay. Looking kind of uncertain, she shot Harry a glance before clearing her throat and saying, "Hello?" Okay, she felt really stupid now and if Harry was just pulling her leg she was going to--

HOLY CRAP.

A tiny little malformed midget had just appeared out of nowhere and Murphy was only slightly ashamed to admit she'd jumped back, practically into Harry's lap. "Jesus Ch-"

The thing bowed at her and Murphy let out a short, choking laugh. "Okay. Wow." Looking at Harry again, she tucked her hair behind her ears. "Um, can I get a cheeseburger? With everything? Oh, and two cups of coffee - one that'd strip your intestines and one normal."

The elf bowed again and disappeared with a crack. Murphy just stared for a second at the place where it'd been, then shook her head. "Okay. That was weird as hell."

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

I had to laugh. "Told you," I said, aware I was probably going to get smacked. "House elves. They can get you almost anything, though I wouldn't trust them to do Mexican." I'd learned that the hard way, though I wasn't about to say so to Murphy--the last thing I needed was to give her more ammunition to taunt me. "And no, I'm not wearing a tutu. Ever. I'd draw the line at anything worse than a leotard."

[karrinmurphy.livejournal.com]

Eyes narrowing at him, Karrin shot out an elbow to his side. "Real helpful, Dresden," she muttered, reestablishing some distance between them. (Ha! It was like a metaphor for their relationship.)

"Yeah, somehow I don't think I'm going to be trusting them with much of anything. Did you see it's ears? Ears like that do not bode well for take out." No, seriously!

Flashing a grin at him, Murphy leaned back, starting to laugh. "Oh, God, the mental picture of you in a leotard..." Trailing off into giggles again, Murphy realized just how tired she must be. But no, really, the idea of Harry in a leotard was pretty hilarious.

[dresdenfile.livejournal.com]

I had to laugh with her. Not because I found the idea of me in a leotard particularly funny, but because she was Murphy, and she was here. It didn't matter that she didn't remember anything of her time before here--she was Murphy, and she was here. Even if nothing ever changed between us, the fact that she was at Hogwarts counted for a hell of a lot.

"I don't know," I said, dead serious. "I don't think I have the legs to pull it off."