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She had been putting it off for a while, but this seemed as good a time as any to get it done. At the very least, any meeting that took place would be in public and nobody (herself included) would make a scene if there were a lot of people around. She hoped. So before getting the finishing touches done, Megan sent off an owl.

Lorne,

I don't know if you remember me (except I think I was rude so you probably do) but we met at your Sorting. My name is Megan, and I wanted to know if we could talk. I'm throwing a dance in the Great Hall in a while, so if you wanted to come down for that, you're welcome.

Megan Gwynn
Gryffindor and X-man

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The owl found Lorne over at his usual haunt, behind the piano in Ravenclaw. Most of the bargoers didn't mind his quiet noodling on the piano keys, provided he kept the music fairly sedate. And it's not like he could belt out Patti LaBelle or Gloria Gaynor on the piano and do it any justice. Not without any decent backup singers.

Rather than send a return owl, Lorne opted for the direct approach and headed down to the Great Hall. A little music and dance might serve to brighten his mood along the way.

The demon lingered near the door in a surprisingly subdued suit consisting of blues and greys. The music was a soothing wash over his aura, and the auras of those who had started to gather and he was instantly glad he opted to come down. Megan seemed like a good kid, and he was inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt, figuring she wasn't calling him down just to yell at him again.

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When Lorne arrived, Megan was once again high up off the ground--though this time, instead of out of fear, she was in full party mode, and trying to remember not to let out puffs of dust since this was a school and not a Dazzler show. Dancing was so much more fun when you could take advantage of all the space possible, after all.

She didn't notice Lorne for a while, and when she did a good chunk of her giddiness flew out and a big leaden AUGH feeling replaced it in the pit of her stomach. Some lingering fear, yeah, but mostly the knowledge that she had been a jerk and would be having to apologize. Yeah. Suck.

Gulping, flew over and smiled because she really wasn't scared okay. "Hi. Um... enjoying yourself?"

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It was easy to spot Megan dancing, even if he hadn’t been looking for her distinctive wings, or the fact that she was one of the few partygoers doing her dancing twelve feet above everyone else. She was happy and when he looked at her with his unique sight, she gleamed like a captive star.

The glow dimmed as she stopped dancing and zipped in his direction. Lorne regretted being so hard on her the last time they met. It was rare that he lost his patience, especially with a kid her age. She had been done in by other demons and hell, who was he to judge? He had been done in by his own kind.

“I’m a little more partial to Patti LaBelle than Pink, but hey, any good excuse to get people together to listen to music is a good one in my book."

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"Who?" Megan asked blankly.

But she nodded at the sentiment. "Oh yeah, it's fun, isn't it? I used to go to concerts all the time back in San Francisco, but there's none here or even any dances or anything while I've been here and I figured it's about time." She dithered a little more before finally scuffing at the ground and clearing her throat. "Look, I'm really sorry for being rude at your Sorting. I didn't get any evil thingies off of you and I freaked out because you reminded me a little of someone I'd met before--" and stabbed in the back-- "and the whole... you know. Demon thing. And it's not like mutants don't get treated like that back where I come from and there's a whole big long excuse I could make but really I was just mean. So I'm sorry."

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((SO sorry on the delay. A little Angel marathon helped wake him up again))

"Who? Oh kiddo, who do you think influenced this new crop? Good old fashioned soul mamas like Patti, Gloria Gaynor and the divine Gladys Knight." Ah, youth.

He smiled at her apology, "I owe you an apology myself. You've been screwed over by demons, me too. I know what it's like and should've cut you a break. So whaddya say we call it even?"

Lorne was a hugger by nature, but checked his impulse to do so. She might still be a little leery and the last thing he wanted to do was inadvertently freak her out again.

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((No worries at all!))

She nodded slowly, still clearly unsure. The names were unfamiliar (had she heard the songs, she would probably give a sheepish Oh, THEM, but if it wasn't on repeat constantly, it was effectively out of mind) but it would be rude to say so, probably.

Megan scuffed at the floor. Her cute outfit didn't have pockets to jam her hands into, so she twisted them in front of her instead. "Yeah, but I've been attacked by regular humans too, and I don't jump at them at every turn. It wasn't right."

She was likewise usually a hugger, but... not now. It was just too weird. Instead, she smiled up tentatively. "Okay. So... you're really having fun?" There was a pleading note in her voice, the sound of someone who had worked with a lot of determination on a project.

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He gave her a kind smile, "Really, kiddo. It's a good time and a good idea. I know with all this Hat Shore insanity people could probably use a chance to cut loose and enjoy some pretty good music. You set all of this up yourself?"

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"The house elves helped," she said, beaming. "I thought it'd be fun, though. Plus, I'm in a really good mood lately, so I thought, why not spread it around? And I haven't seen anyone throw a dance or anything while I've been here, at least not that I can remember."

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glamhologram.livejournal.com

Fresh from the Sorting Room, Jem noted the dance-party fliers straightaway. This was her kind of scene!

Was it coincidence, cruel fate, or the connivance of the Hat that as Jem entered the Great Hall, the song just beginning to play should be "Rio" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3W6yf6c-FA)?

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Jem was pretty hard to miss. ~~Also Megan had been maybe secretly hoping that she would show up and make the party awesome and congratulate Megan on being so cool, so she had been on the lookout when she remembered.~~ So she didn't have to wait long for Megan to fly over and greet her.

"Hi!" she bubbled happily. "Did you get Sorted okay? Do you want some snacks or something?"

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Flyers? Whatever could they mean? After a while deciphering, them the Shoggies figured it out. "There's going to be a sooo cool party!" was the cry around the school, and soon, it had spread far and wide, reaching even the Shoggies in the Forbidden Forest and in the deepest parts of the DETHTOWER. A small crowd of Shoggies even went to the lake, where they shouted "Fhtagn!" just right, and, managed to wake up their Great Master Cthulhoo for just long enough to hand him a flier, which quickly went to mushy pulp in R'lyeh. But he'd gotten the jist of it, anyway- there was a party! And he was invited!

But how to enter the school? That was the challenge- the usual magic of Hogwarts was a potent thing, but, not quite potent enough to reduce an unspeakably huge Great Old One to a size capable of navigating the halls. No, for that, Cthulhoo needed something more powerful. Something Godly, like himself. And so, Cthulhoo returned to Hogwarts after a brief contemplation for this, just long enough to find some Shoggies, and to tell them to find him a God capable of temporarily reducing his size to one capable of entering the school. After all, if one God could appear at Hogwarts, surely others might?

And so, the Shoggies arranged for their Great Master Cthulhoo to meet the 'Owl-God' Lezard before the party. Lezard was perhaps a tiny God, but, he was nevertheless a God- in fact, Cthulhoo was distinctly reminded of certain young Nordic Gods (http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/319/) who occasionally appeared in the Vault- the Vault was for all Gods, after all. Although not entirely convinced that Lezard would manage to shrink anything of his size into a sensible one, Lezard assured him that it was possible, that it was a matter of the matter into which he was temporarily shrunk. Cthulhoo's unspeakable mass was comprised of something that was not matter as Earth knew it, and would need to be temporarily adjusted into something else entirely. . .

When Lezard had finished with his sorcery, Cthulhoo had indeed been adjusted. He wasn't entirely sure about his new form- it appeared to still be properly tentacled, but, it also appeared quite fuzzy, and from the Shoggies' sudden exclamations of "Soooo cute!" he was concerned that he was also snuggly. But he was small, and that was the goal- a bit smaller than he'd actually intended, but, when it was Cthulhoo comparing scale, it seemed 'close enough'. Cthulhoo also found that his motions were somewhat limited in his adorably boneless plush form. But this was easily handled- his slaves were on hand!

Thus it was that a swarm of Shoggies arrived at the party, hauling a Shoggy-constructed litter they'd constructed from a combination of bones from the lake and blankets collected from the school. Atop this unusual construction, Plush-Cthulhoo was enthroned, fuzzy tentacles twitching with interest as he looked about his surroundings. It was awfully nice and dry, and indeed seemed to offer the comforts that Megan had claimed. Although his size was diminished, his voice was not, although what organs were currently producing it was even more mysterious than it was in his regular form. "Behold, mortals! I have arrived!" A chorus of surrounding Shoggies called out in response, "Hail, Great Cthulhoo! Fhtagn!" "I seek the one called Megan. And do you have any sacrifices for me?" Cthulhoo asked- the rythmic music did seem to suggest its possibility. . .

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Wow. How could anyone miss an entrance like that?

Megan flew over, mostly out of curiosity over what the Shoggies were carrying in. Maybe it was like... a cake. She'd need to thank them if they'd brought their own snacks! "Hi, guys!" she said over the music and waving. "What've you--oh."

The sight of what--who--was being carried in brought her up short. It was her Yule Goat. Except tiny. Really, really tiny, and... kind of fuzzy? And instead of being sort of horrible to look at... "Oh my god," she squealed. "You're adorable!"

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The Shoggies piped their enthusiastic greetings as Megan approached- soon, numerous irregular eyes were roving about the Great Hall, admiring the 'sooo cool' decorations- of particular interest were the streamers, which looked like "sooo delicious intestines." They didn't smell like them, so Megan's decorations were safe from Shoggy appetites for now- several had caught scent of the snack table, which did smell like food, and was of far more interest. A few had even started 'dancing', which consisted of quivering and generally amorphous-ing around in a semi-rhythmic manner.

Even the Shoggies carrying the shrunken, transmogrified Cthulhoo's litter failed to resist the distractions now offered by the Great Hall, and so only a few of them lingered around after greeting Megan. They weren't really a quality slave race, what with the ADD and negative IQs (http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/371/), but Cthulhoo knew he could round them up again easily enough. He was pleased that Megan both remembered him in his altered form, and had apparently decided to join his cult, as evidenced by the 'oh my God'- or so he heard. He was the sort to take colloquialisms personally, which mean the 'adorable' didn't ruin his good mood. He'd been prepared for that possibility, but his fuzzy tentacles nevertheless curled a bit with embarrassment. "A side effect of the Owl-God Lezard's magic. I didn't mean that part to happen." "But you're soooo cute Great Master Cthulhoo!" a random Shoggy piped in, which was ignored by Cthulhoo, who announced, "I have come to experience the pleasures of Hogwarts castle, with its comfortable, dry towers! You can show them to me after the party! Will the sacrifices be soon?" It was the nature of a God used to sacrifices to be on about that point, although he supposed he might have missed them, dancing and rhythms tending to carry on after the sacrifices as well as before.

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"Sacrif..." Megan trailed off, remembering who exactly she was talking to here, adorable tiny plush exterior or not. Oh yeah. He was big on sacrifices and offerings and stuff like that. "I hadn't planned on any," she said doubtfully. "We've got snack mix, though."

She brightened again quickly enough, though. "I'd be really happy to show you around! You've never been in here, right? It's got all sorts of stuff, like moving staircases and talking paintings and if you like books it's got a huge library, but if you like food more the kitchens are good too, and have you ever seen a fireplace before?" She warmed to the topic, wings fluttering in excitement and lifting her slightly off the ground. If she could ever slow down and get her thoughts in something resembling a linear order, she could have a good career as a tour guide. "What do you want to see first?"

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"Snack mix is acceptable," Cthulhoo admitted- of course, the idea of 'snack mix' conjured up a mental picture that Megan luckily didn't have to experience. Actual snack mix would prove to be crunchier, much less bloody, and lacking the special spice that souls added, but, snack mix was still tasty. As usual, Hogwarts had its odd influence on Cthulhoo, like a nice, mellow buzz, and, he felt an unusual lack of desire to eat any of the party guests. Not that he could have accomplished it very effectively in his current form, but this was a point that was yet to concern him.

"I've only seen the castle from the outside," Cthulhoo confirmed. "The Shoggies have told me of the kitchens, and their abundance of meats. But they're not very bright, and never mentioned the library. I wonder if any of my books are in there. If not, I'll have to have the Shoggies bring by a Necronomicon. Is a fireplace a place for bonfires?" He supposed there might be sacrifices there, if so. It sounded warm and dry, in any case. "I'd like to see it. And the comfortable beds- and all the rest! Fireplaces first." Cthulhoo waved a now-fuzzy little arm in what might have been an imperious gesture, had he been at his usual size, and made of his usual substance. But as he wasn't, the response just prompted a "Oooooh, you're sooo cute now Great Master" from a nearby Shoggy, which Cthulhoo tried extremely hard to ignore, fuzzy tentacles twitching in mild frustration.

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"Great! This stuff has some kind of hot sauce or mustard or I don't know what in it, but it's a little spicy and I think I kind of like it. I don't know about you, though. Do they have spicy food in your underwater home?" Spicy and underwater didn't quite go together in Megan's mind.

"We could go check!" she said brightly. "But yeah, the fireplaces are great. The one in Gryffindor is, anyway. I haven't really seen a lot of the others, but we could go look! Like... a fireplace tour. Ooh! I can take pictures! I think I have a camera in my room somewhere. This way you can always remember it!"

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"That sounds good! I don't spicy food much in R'lyeh, unless I'm lucky enough to catch one of those metal food-boxes with the spicy surprise inside. But this only happens once in a while." Cthulhoo's surprise metal food-boxes were of course nuclear submarines- and so not all that common. "Shoggies! Bring snack mix!" A few Shoggies squelched off in an attempt to do just this, although, their efficiency was questionable.

Cthulhoo wasn't in a rush, however, and was happy to chat with Megan while he waited on his snack mix. "A fireplace tour! That sounds like an excellent idea. The closest we've got to bonfires are the volcanic vents (http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/131/Cthulhoo/) Dagoon and I sometimes have cookouts at. But we've never taken pictures! We must document our tour with pictures!" Cthulhoo clapped his plushy paws together in delight, pleased with this idea. He could put together a very well-laminated scrapbook to take back to his house in R'lyeh! Even Great Old Ones enjoyed a good vacation.

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Megan puzzled that one out, not quite getting it. She reached for something that she could grasp, instead. "Oh, so kind of like a Happy Meal?" She hadn't thought that McDonald's existed underwater, either. Maybe there was some kind of trans-dimensional thing going on. Yeah.

"Oh wow, volcanic vents sound awesome. We don't have any at Hogwarts, at least not that I've seen, but there are plenty of fireplaces. Oh! And you could visit the food libraries! They've got ice cream there, and all sorts of other snacks, if you like the snack mix we have here. Hot Pockets, too, have you ever had those? What else... I don't think your legs are really long enough for DDR right now, but you might like the music, and there's a couple of bars. What else do you like? We can figure stuff out, even if they don't really have it!"

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