The Leprechaun Hunt

((Rule: as it is the year 1351 and we aren’t in Ireland, none of our English characters will know that leprechaun gold isn’t real. Only Seamus, from Ireland, knows, and he won’t show up till the end of the thread. Plot: we wander into the woods - of course - and a bunch of leprechauns lead us on an egg hunt, with chocolate eggs containing “galleons“. Eventually, we find out it isn't real, and get revenge on the leprechauns.))

Adelaine walked through Hogsmeade village with Peyton, Gavin, and Marigold. Their friends had agreed to meet up with them at the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer or five, but they were late. So, the four of them decided to go for a stroll.

“What’s going on over there?” Gavin wondered aloud.

He pointed to a small group of fast-talking Irish merchants, standing outside of the cauldron shop. There were about six of them, unloading trunks. A few trunks were slyly carried out to the forest. That’s odd, Adele thought.

“They’re rather shady,” she muttered. One pudgy man locked eyes with her, and she shuddered. “Let’s go in the Post Office.”

“Maybe there’s some sort of Easter deal on postage,” Gavin hoped, smiling. “Oh, here they come!"

They spotted a couple of their friends walking down the street.

"Well, some of them," Peyton said. "Marigold, go tell them we’re in here, okay?”

No one in the Post Office seemed to notice that Arya had disappeared. She was engulfed in curiosity - who were those merchants? Normally she wouldn’t question it; merchants travel from town to town for their livelihood. But they didn’t usually carry merchandise into the forest. ((OOC: Blonde moment, I just put the two together - merchants/merchandise!))

“Watch where ye’re goin’, lass!” an Irishman scolded her, as she tripped over his cloak.

“It’s not my fault your bloody cloak is so long,” she grimaced.

Crouching behind a cart, she watched the men. The crates they unloaded were average looking, but some rattled. Those were the ones they took into the woods. At one point, she could’ve sworn she saw a green finger stick out of a crack in one of the boxes. She hustled back over to the Post Office and told her friends what she had seen.

“You know what this means..?” Arya asked slyly.

“Time to go exploring?” Gavin guessed, a grin forming.

“It has been a while since we put ourselves in a dire position,” Peyton said, summing things up.

Kolby was walking among the shops, stopping to gaze at items. He wasn't in a buying mood. Just a looking mood. He sighed and sat on the fountain, deciding what to do. That's when he saw the weird little men with the trunks. He cautiously walked over there, his Slytherin observant nature getting to him.

"Woah. What're ye doing lad?"an Irishman stopped him before he could get too close.

"Oh. I was just wondering if it was new quills for the quills shop. I've been looking for one."he lied.

"No."the Irishman said bluntly, shooing Kolby away. Kolby rolled his eyes and noticed that Adele's group was hanging out in the Post Office and watching the wagon too. He went in just in time to here them plan for an adventure.

"Can I tag along?"Kolby asked. They all looked at him weirdly. After the duel, Kolby knew that they probably didn't like him all to much. But, him and Adele had an understanding.

"As long as you don't stab us in the back."Asher concluded. Kolby nodded. He was part of this adventure now.

The group crossed the street and headed to the forest, hiding and crouching and tiptoeing along the way. They didn’t want the merchants to notice them, but they were never more than fifteen feet away.

“Where do you think they’re going?” Gavin panted, behind a tree.

“I don’t know,” Peyton muttered. “But it sure is far.”

After what felt like an hour, the men stopped in a clearing. At least ten crates were piled in the middle, rattling viciously. Adelaine looked at Arya when she saw a tiny green hand, remembering her friend’s story - what could it be?

“The buyer will be ‘ere soon, aye,” the pudgy man was saying. “You stay, ‘n make sure they don’ get out!”

A slim lad, no more than 20, bravely nodded and stood guard while the men went back into the village. Whatever was in those crates seemed to frighten him - he stayed as far as possible. The group watched patiently, and after a bit of time the guard fell asleep. Asher motioned for them to follow, and so they did.

“What is it?” Gavin wondered, peeking into a box. A green hand reached out and pinched his nose. “Ow!”

“Confundo!” Adele shouted, befuddling the waking guard. He laughed stupidly and fell asleep again.

“Sorry,” Gavin whispered, rubbing his nose. “Bloody thing got me.”

Before Adele could stop him, a curious Asher unlocked the crate. A dozen tiny green men, in tiny green leafy clothes, jumped out and ran to open the other crates. Before they knew it, the group was surrounded by fifty leprechauns.

If the moment hadn’t been so tense, Arya would have been doubled over in laughter when that leprechaun grabbed Gavin’s nose. The little guys reminded her slightly of house elves, only they were a thousand times more confident, adventurous, and talkative.

“Are you sure about this?” Gavin asked sheepishly, following Arry.

“What’s there to be unsure of?” she shouted back to him, chasing after a leprechaun.

The group had split up, all of them going in different directions. She and Gavin had been wandering for about five minutes when they came upon the first egg. It was the most wonderful thing she’d ever seen.

“Wow,” she breathed, in awe of it. “It’s so…”

“Shiny,” Gavin finished. “Crack it open.”

She did as he suggested. The egg was the size of her hand, and the shell had a golden sheen. Arry tapped it lightly against a rock and the shell fell off easily; the egg was actually chocolate! She snapped it in half and…

“Bloody hell!” she gasped.

“A galleon!” Gavin laughed. “Incredible!”

Adelaine couldn’t help but feel slightly on edge. Something about these leprechauns made her uneasy…she was wracking her brain, but couldn’t remember any information on the creatures that would give her such a bad feeling. Surely they couldn’t be too dangerous, right?

“Found another one!” Peyton shouted, grinning ear to ear. “Three galleons in this one!”

“How can this be possible?” she wondered, studying the gold. “I mean, why would they have this much money? And why give it away to children?”

“Beats me,” he shrugged. “But who cares? I’ve never seen this much gold in my life!”

They’d been searching through the forest for fifteen minutes, and had found ten eggs - and a total of sixteen galleons! Adelaine’s father had always told her that there was no such thing as ‘free’; everything comes with a price. But what was it in this case?

“Another!” Peyton laughed, counting out three more coins. “This is brilliant!”

“I wonder how the others are fairing,” she sighed, munching on chocolate. Something about this just wasn't right.

Kolby was trailing behind Asher, the two boys looking for the eggs. And Marigold. The foolish girl went running into the forest without a care in the world. She didn't even wait for anyone. Now, they couldn't find her.

"Found another one."Kolby called out, picking up a gorgeous egg. It blue and looked almost like stained glass. He cracked it open and ate the chocolate, passing the two Galleons he found to Asher. Kolby didn't need the money so he let Asher keep it.

"We got 10 Galleons now. That's enough for me and my six brothers to live on for three months!"Asher calculated. Kolby seemed a bit shocked. Asher had six brothers? Kolby and Asher weren't close. They were polar opposites, like fire and ice. Like night and day. Like chocolate and vanilla. Like Slytherin and Gryffindor. But, there was one thing that connected them: they had big families.

"You got six brothers?"Kolby asked.

"Aye. I'm the oldest. You got any siblings?"he asked, climbing a tree to get an egg.

"My family did a double family. I got two older brothers and two younger sisters. I'm in the middle."he said. Asher grimaced and cracked open another egg, collecting the three Galleons that were inside.

"No wonder you cause trouble. You have middle child syndrome."Asher said kiddingly. Kolby laughed but it was true. He got casted aside sometimes, with his mother worrying about his two sisters and his father worrying about the town he was running and his older brothers. He never had much of a childhood and was by himself a lot. He wanted attention so he caused mischief.

"What's your family like?"Kolby asked as they walked around.

"Well, very close. We live in this tiny two room house with the farm in the back so you can imagine it's quite cramp. We don't mind though. The house is full of love. I wonder how their getting along without me. Especially after mother....."he trailed off.

"I'm sorry. For your loss."Kolby said out of respect. Asher shrugged. Maybe that's why he's been so angry lately. He's bottling everything up.Kolby thought. It was rare for Kolby to feel sad for anyone. But, he actually did feel bad for Asher. He was just misunderstood by everyone.

"Don't tell anyone else this Kolby, especially not Marigold. But, I'm not sure I'll graduate from Hogwarts. My father is going in a downwards spiral and I'll have to take over the farm soon if he doesn't get better." he told Kolby. It got really quite between them.

"Hi!"a voice said. Kolby looked around and smiled. It was Marigold. She was sitting on a tree trunk with a waterfall running underneath it, dipping her toes in the water. Kolby looked at Asher, who was just staring at her.

"You really like her."Kolby said. Asher blushed and waved back to her, snapping out of it.

"Shut up."he whispered to Kolby as they walked up to Marigold.

“That’s 25 galleons so far,” Gavin counted, sitting against a tree.

“I’ve never seen so many in my life,” Arya muttered, staring.

They’d found several eggs by now, ate their weight in chocolate, and were taking a rest in a little clearing. The others were nowhere to be found, so they were on their own. Arya had no pockets in her gown, so Gavin was holding the coins - but he insisted that she keep them all. She didn’t feel right about it, it felt a little like charity; but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“I wonder where it all came from,” he thought aloud. “I can’t imagine what kind of business a bunch of leprechauns would run.”

“Unless it’s not theirs,” Arry suggested. “Maybe it’s the merchants', and they stole it to get back at ‘em.”

“Psst!”

The two jumped and turned around to find a little leprechaun peeking out from behind a stump. The green guy had a mischievous grin on his face, and gestured for them to follow him. Arya and Gavin exchanged glances and shrugged, then chased after the creature. Gavin came to a halt when he saw where they were headed.

“Arry, no!” he yelled, grabbing her shoulder. “It’s the cave! Come on, let’s just go find the others..”

“But -”

“No, Arya! That cave is bad news, let’s go.”

They turned back, but had only walked a few feet before they fell into a hole. Screaming, they slid down a long, winding tunnel and shot out straight into the heart of the cave.

Adele and Peyton had found the others at last, but Arya and Gavin were missing. Marigold was obsessed with her pet kneazle, and Kolby and Asher seemed to be in cahoots. Everyone was counting their gold, and no one seemed to notice Seamus sneaking up behind them.

“Oi!” he shouted.

They jumped, and Adelaine actually let out a tiny scream. How on earth did he find them?

“Where’ve you been, mate?” Asher wondered, sifting through his galleons.

“Been at Potage’s,” he explained, before taking notice of all the gold. “Did ye rob a bank, or somethin’?”

“No, we’re hunting for eggs!” Peyton grinned, tossing him one.

Seamus cracked the red egg open and three galleons fell to the ground. Curiously, he studied one.

“Leprechauns,” Peyton told him excitedly.

“Leprechauns!” Seamus shouted, looking at them all like they were crazy. “Have ye lost it?!”

Everyone hushed him and asked what the problem was, while he threw the egg behind his shoulder. He went over to Asher’s pile and kicked it, gold flying everywhere. Asher hopped up and ran around like a madman, picking up the galleons and cursing Seamus.

“Leprechauns are tricksters, ye dunce!” Seamus explained, holding a galleon out of reach. “It isn' real!”

Not long after he told them, the gold slowly started to disappear right before their eyes. Asher fell to his knees and looked like he wanted to cry. Peyton stared in horror at his now empty hands.

“Wait,” Seamus paused. “Where're Arry and Gavin?”

“They were off on their own, Peyton and I looked,” Adele said, hesitantly. “But we couldn’t find them…are they in trouble??”

“We gotta look for ‘em!” He hurried off between the trees, as they rushed to follow. “Leprechauns like to mess wit’ people, who knows wha’ they’ll do! Let me think…they like dark places…”

“The cave!” Peyton exclaimed.

"Cave? What cave?"Kolby asked. Everyone was rushing to this cave, to see if Gavin and Arya were there.

"Long story short, we found a cave and it was guarded by a siren and a sphinx. Adele defeated the sphinx and Renoir had to rescue us from the siren. No telling what's there now if they increased security on it."Peyton explained quickly. Kolby sighed. Yep. This group is cursed. he thought.

They stopped when they got to the cave.

"No sphinx. That's a good sign."Asher said, as he pulled out his wand. Kolby pulled his out too.

"We have to go in there, don't we?"Peyton asked.

"Of course we do."Seamus said.

"They might not be in there. They might be back in Hogsmeade, enjoying Butterbeers."Peyton said.

"Stop acting like a scared little girl. They may need our help."Asher told him.

"We almost died the last time we came here! Don't go calling me names for trying to be smart about this."Peyton said. Asher rolled his eyes and looked around. Kolby was investigating the mouth of the cave. It looked like a normal cave.

"Come on. Let's go."Kolby said, entering the cave.

Arya and Gavin were roped together, back to back, in the center of the clearing of the cave. She had never been there before, but she knew the gist of the story. Gavin explained it to her, and told her about how Deirdre had finally passed away so there was no more security around the cave. She figured it must be how the leprechauns took it over so easily.

“Varlets, these little guys,” she muttered over her shoulder.

“Absolutely rough hewn,” Gavin replied.

She had to laugh at that; even when they were being held hostage by a group of mental leprechauns, Gavin was as lordly as ever. The creatures were running around like madmen, singing in a foreign language (Gaelic, she assumed), and shooting multi-colored sparks into the air. That’s got to be a fire hazard, she sighed.

“Whadya think they want?” she whispered. “They’ll probably eat us.”

“I don’t know anything about leprechauns,” he mumbled back. “But they are definitely not going to eat us.”

“Say, green fella!” she shouted to the nearest trickster, ignoring Gavin’s frantic whispers. “What do you want with us?”

“We’ll be keepin' ya here tonight,” he cackled maliciously. “Ye’ll miss curfew!”

The leprechauns all laughed and babbled to each other in their language. Was she missing something? Was that seriously all they were going to do? Make them miss their curfew?

“If we miss curfew, we’ll be in huge trouble,” Gavin warned her, reading her mind.

“Yeah, but…”

“Let them think it’s a good trick,” he whisper-shouted. “Don’t give them reason to make it even worse.”

That said, the two students halfheartedly moaned and groaned about how awful the leprechauns were.

Adelaine and Peyton were tied back to back, alongside Kolby and Asher, and Marigold and Seamus. Gavin and Arya were a few feet away, so they quickly whisper-shouted the plan - pretend the leprechauns’ trick was good. They all joined in and moaned and groaned about it.

“You creatures are terrible!”

“Bloody awful!”

“I can’t believe we’ll miss curfew!”

“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened!”

The leprechauns were skipping in circles and singing and dancing and laughing. Seeing them in this light, they weren’t as cute as Adele thought they were when she thought they were kind and playful little creatures.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” she muttered to Peyton.

“Any ideas?” he mumbled back.

"No," she sighed sadly.

Fast forward to several hours later at sundown: they’d missed their curfew. The students were exhausted and fed up with the leprechauns and their hooting and hollering.

“Oi, ye gonna let us out?” Seamus asked crossly, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, sure, sure,” one of them responded.

Finally, they were free from their bonds and outside of the cave. Adele was intent on going home, but the lads weren’t giving up without a fight. They huddled together and planned out their revenge.

Kolby was hungry. Starving. Those leprechauns kept them in there for hours. He sat as he heard the third years planning. 

"Can we discuss this over food? It's getting dark and I don't want any werewolves to come out a get us."Kolby complained. 

"Shush. We're scheming. We can get food after we get our revenge." Peyton said. Kolby groaned and flopped on his back, staring at the sky. 

"You know, revenge is never a good thing. And, that's coming from a Slytherin. Let's just let them live in the cave and leave them alone."Kolby suggested, his stomach rumbling. 

"No way.  They kept us tied up for hours. We got to get them back."Gavin said. Kolby groaned. He was hungry. He wanted food. He looked over at Marigold, who was playing with her kneazle. The thing had been waiting outside just for her for hours. 

"You seriously think this is a good idea?"he asked. Marigold shurgged and he groaned again. 

"Quite your complaining. To make this work, we need to smoke them out. Kolby, can you make us some of those smoke bombs that you made at the Halloween feast?"Asher asked. Kolby smiled and sat up. Of course he could.

“No, no, no,” Arya said firmly, refusing to go along with their plan. “We are not torturing them!”

“Why not?” Asher challenged. “They’re just leprechauns, and they’ve made us miss curfew!”

“Just leprechauns?!” she exclaimed heatedly. “How bout we smoke you out of a cave and torture you? You’re just a human, right??”

Shouting of course broke out. Asher and Seamus were sided together, and Gavin was defending Arya. She really had no idea where that sudden passion for keeping those leprechauns safe came from, but she decided to go with it.

“They’re harmless,” she chimed in. “They’re just tricksters, they don’t deserve to be smoked out and -”

“Fine!” Asher shouted, giving in. “What do you propose we do, then?”

Arya sat on a boulder to think. Finally, she had the perfect plan. She quickly explained her idea to the lads and they went to work. They sneaked into the cave and set up the smoke bombs, then lined the boxes up along the opening. The open sides of the crates were facing the inside. The five boys were in place, hiding a few feet inside the cave.

“Ready? Go!” she whispered, signaling for them to set the plan in motion.

Adelaine watched as the scene unfolded. It was the perfect way to get revenge without really harming the little guys. She had to agree with Arya on that; they didn’t deserve what the boys had planned for them. A miniature war? Awful.

“Here they come,” Peyton whispered, alerting the boys.

All the lads were waiting inside at the opening. The bombs had exploded, and smoke was billowing toward the mouth of the cave. Along with it came the leprechauns, running quickly and coughing and shouting the whole way.

“I hope this works,” Adele muttered.

She was with Marigold several feet away, watching the whole thing. The plan went perfectly! The leprechauns ran straight into their crates. The boys watched carefully, and when the moment was right, they ran across and shut the boxes, magically locking them. When the smoke cleared, all fifty leprechauns were trapped again, cursing the students.

“Brilliant!” Gavin exclaimed, hugging Arya.

“Let’s get these things back to the clearing,” Asher said, grinning.

The big crates were too heavy now for them to lift, so they each had one floating in front of them and headed back.

Marigold smiled and petted her kneazle while the group walked back to the clearing where they found the leprechauns. They weren’t alone.

”I  knew ye kids were trouble,” one of the Irish merchants said. They were all there. The kneazle hissed.

”Excuse me? We’re trouble,” Gavin scoffed, using his Ravenclaw wit. Marigold smiled. ”These little monsters escaped and we missed curfew to return them to you, and you say we’re trouble? Can you believe them, Peyton?”

”I can’t believe that we’re being accused of being troublemakers, when we were being good Samaritans,” Peyton said.

”Aye, we should get a reward for our good deed,” Seamus suggested. Marigold and Asher played it cool and just nodded along. The merchants were very confused. Finally, the leader grumbled and reached into his coin purse.

”Sorry for ye’re trouble,” he mumbled , handing each of them five galleons.

”Not a problem,” Asher nodded.

”We’ll be on our way now, bye!” Marigold concluded. They started to walk away from the merchants. Once they were in the clear, everyone started laughing.

”That was bloody brilliant,” Gavin exclaimed.

”Let’s go get a butterbeer and some supper,” Peyton suggested. Everyone agreed and they headed to the Three Broomsticks.