Snapshot 6: When The Ectoplasm Hits the Fan
After listening to the ensuing argument between Harry and Draco, the Camera moved on, heading towards the food table. The feeling of hunger was very new, and it didn't like it one bit. After grabbing a chicken leg and trying unsuccessfully to eat the meat it found out that it didn't have any part that could function as a mouth. It grabbed a napkin off the table to clean its lens with and moved away from the area, planning on finding a nice quiet place to engage in a little quality time sulking. It was interrupted, however, by the bellowing of Nearly Headless Nick. It turned to see the ghost point it's finger at the Bloody Baron.
'I tell you, Sir, I was a man of noble blood! I challenge you to a duel, you Knave!'
The Baron gaped at the angry Gryffindor ghost for a moment, before sneering. 'Challenge accepted!' He said, drawing his sword. Sir Nicholas reached for his sword as well. An embarrassing grope ensued, before he laughed nervously.
'I...uh...appear to have neglected to furnish myself with a weapon...' He said, moving back from the advancing Slytherin ghost slowly. The Bloody Baron sniggered.
'You know as well as I that once a challenge to a duel has been made and accepted it must be carried through until one concedes defeat, is disarmed or lies dead on the floor. As we are both already dead and you have no weapon to be separated from, do you concede?'
Sir Nicholas drew himself up to his full height. 'I do not! I am not the Gryffindor house ghost for nothing!' The Baron answered his speech with a swipe to the waist. Sir Nicholas grabbed on of the candlesticks on the table and raised it to block the blow.
'Hah! If one is resourceful enough one can beat thou even without a blade!' The candlestick-wielding Sir Nick cried, slipping into the olden tongue in his excitement.
'Aye, but thou hast none of aforementioned resourcefulness, and as such will in the end yield to my wrath!' The Baron bellowed, and began to move forward again, slashing wildly. Sir Nicholas De Mimsy Porpington managed to fend off every blow, and flourished his candlestick at the Baron.
'Do you doubt my ability or heritage now, knave?' he cried.
The answer came as a blow to his head. It passed through the candlestick and right through Sir Nicholas' neck, severing the last sliver of skin joining his head to his body. It rolled onto the floor from the table, and the two ghosts gaped.
'Go the Baron!' Draco yelled. 'Teach that idiot which house is boss!'
Sir Nicholas leant over and picked it up and slowly turned to face the Bloody Baron.
'That was my head!' He snarled, and threw it at the Slytherin representative. It hit the ghost in the middle and passed through, but not before it had knocked him over onto the table. Sir Nicholas picked his head up again and examined it, before bursting into tears.
'This will take heaps of ectoplasm to repair!' he wailed, before fleeing the Hall. The Camera quickly judged the distance and took the picture of Sir Nicholas fleeing, The Baron standing and dusting himself off, and Draco cheering for his House Ghost. Just as the button on the top of the Camera went down the clock struck twelve.
—CLICK!—
'Oh, bugge—'
