Stuck Adaryn

Adaryn jammed her books into her arms as much as she could so that none of them would drop from her cautious steps down the stairway. Her Herbology notes were hanging precariously from under one arm, her thin parchment of a Charms assignment slipping with every breath of wind from the other. Just as she put one foot down on the stairs, there it was again: that bloody disconcerting movement beneath her feet.

Unnerving.

Stone upon stone echoed loudly in the chamber as the stairs shook to live, snatching away their standing ground. Adaryn's heart threatened to stop as she reflexively gripped the railing, her knuckles a white as snow. If she had ever heard of stories about students getting carried away to entirely foreign wings of the castle at inconvenient hours, she had never so much as sketched out a plan of action in response to an actual staircase disturbance-gone-wrong.

After reassuring herself, Adaryn found herself searching for that other person whom she thought to be a few steps ahead of her: Maisy. She watched for a moment as Maisy let out an exasperated sigh that echoed her own feelings and took another glance at her watch, this time a look of resignation replacing her earlier annoyance.

Well, the two of them were together now- stuck in a state of limbo.

"Um-where are you trying to go?" Adaryn said once again, with a worried face, struggling to see the girl in front of her under a mountain of books. Another jolt, this time courtesy of the staircase, and Adaryn gripped the railing again as though there were any chance it would provide stability.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and end up somewhere useful?" Adaryn's voice grew a little louder, rising with hope but still low. Down she looked at the shifting and rotating staircases, rearranging themselves like a giant stone puzzle that only Hogwarts seemed to understand.

She let out a little, amused breath as the whole distance of the stairwell drifted further away from its entry. "At least we are not alone in this?" she said with a good-humored smile shot in the direction of Maisie.

Books were clutched tightly in both arms, trying hard not to let any notes slip. "Unless you happen to know a shortcut, in which case we might need to concoct a ridiculous excuse if we do get taken to the wrong side of the castle," she laughed gently, half-turning back toward the invisible stairway behind her just in case she needed to make a dash for it.

There was no doubting, whatever that staircase brought them out at, it would be an adventure.

@Maisie Gemmell

To be completely honest, Maisie hadn't really considered anyone else might be stuck here on the stair with her, until they spoke and wondered where she was headed. "History of Magic," she answered, "You?" The girl looked about her age and they probably had a class together, but there were so many first years that it was hard to tell.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and end up somewhere useful?" chirped her companion.

"Ha, I doubt it," Maisie replied. The times she had gotten stuck on a rogue staircase had always cost her time. It was only a question of how much time. And with every second that passed the staircase seemed to climb higher and higher, it seemed like it would be a lot of time.

That, in turn, lead to her companion's suggestion: a shortcut. Pursing her lips, Maisie gripped the railing and looked down. It was far and not just far down, but far from pretty much any landing. They seemed to be stranded in the middle of the air—

—for now.

"Not really, no. Though I suppose it depends where we end up," she started. And then, still looking down there was the idea: "You wouldn't happen to be in second year, would you? I heard there's a spell on their syllabus...something about slowing movement. If we got close enough to jump to a lower platform..." Her voice trailed off. This was crazy. There wasn't enough room, surely to do something like that. The idea seemed to shrink smaller in her mind as the seconds passed as her brow furrowed.

Perhaps her companion would have better ideas—or at least more responsible ones.

@Adaryn Misfit

To watch it all carefully while moving with the weight of her books, a little corner of the parchment flapped against her robes with the slightest breeze swirling around them. Adaryn gave a quick nod in reply to Maisie's question. "History of Magic too," she murmured, her voice warm in spite of the precarious balancing act the two were both performing. "If we ever actually make it."

A faint laugh followed the dry skepticism of Maisie with, "Yeah... maybe luck's not the greatest quality in Hogwarts staircases."

Adaryn cocks her head slightly to follow Maisie's gaze and reasoning as her friend looks down to mention the spell. Her eyes widened a little more. "Oh! I think I remember the spell you're talking about... but no, I'm still a first year too. I don't think we have learned anything that could safely slow a fall just yet..." Again, she looked down and quickly back up with her fingers tightening around the rail.

"But if we had that charm, and I was brave enough to jump," she said with half a grin, half a grimace, "I'd like to think I would rather not test it from this height."

A moment of awkward silence passed before she gave Maisie an embarrassed smile. "But I mean... you're braver than me for even thinking about it." Then she adjusted a rather obstinate scroll trying to escape the pile on her arm and exhaled slowly to center herself as the staircase creaked ominously.

"I thought maybe if we just stood perfectly still for a minute it would take us somewhere fairly predictable? Like the third floor or something?" Adaryn said, glancing hopefully at Maisie. "Or maybe if we start talking about something incredibly boring, like the uses of Flobberworm mucus, it would get so annoyed it drops us off quicker."

She laughed at her own joke and shook her head. "It's kind of funny, but I find it endearing how the castle... makes things more difficult for us. I mean, even when it gets somewhat unreasonable. It has a sort of personality. A very dramatic one."

A sudden jerk made her squeak but when nothing happened after that she relaxed the tension again and smiled. "Okay, maybe I don't love it right now."

Maisie found it easier to speak-there-with a matching glance between them-now. "We're in this together, though. I'd cover for you if it happened that we ended up somewhere really horrible. Like, we got lost looking for Peeves, or maybe were to send us by a ghost on some urgent, mysterious errand. Something fun."

She lowered her voice a little. "Or, you know... we could always just tell the truth. Lost to the staircases again."

@Maisie Gemmell