One Closet, No Braincells PV Aleks Drašković Finished

Got permission to manhandle. The rumor mill was bubbling over with ideas of midnight ghost tours, rock bands, singing toilets and forgotten doors that only opened at night with a shinin beam as announcement! With the start of second year, the atmosphere seemed to sprout with curiosity and mayhem. To Aleks, every idea felt like a weed, especially the ones involving nighttime mischief, which were the perfectly annoying kind of dandelions. Not even the normal ones—no, the wild field dandelions, the kind of flowery menaces that crack through asphalt with their ugly faces and laugh bright yellow straight into your face. It was exactly this new atmosphere that had prompted Aleks to stage a little outing beyond the confines of his bedroom and investigate at least one of the rumors hands on. Naturally, he'd also thought of a good luck charm to support him. With only a minor detour, he had crept up to his best friend Aiden Sinclair’s bed and secretly plucked a single hair from the attractive young man‘s scalp. Freshly harvested, he hoped it would offer some emotional support and maybe a dash of luck and charm, should he run into a teacher or prefect along the way. The actual plan was indeed absurd, or at the very least not the most strategic. That much he had to admit the moment he stepped out the door. The Slytherin had tucked the wavy hair into his pocket and tapped the fabric as if offering his friend a caress from afar. If he really got caught, not even the power of friendship would save him. However, the thought that it still might, sparkle, evoke rainbows and a theme song to blast in the background, was enough to keep his courage in tact. Aleks had slipped out of the Slytherin dormitory a little while later, and spend at least an hour wandering the school‘s corridors. At night, they seemed longer than usual. The air lay surprisingly cool in the winding corridors, and even the dust seemed to have gone to sleep, cuddling up with its friends. What normally swirled and danced in sunbeams was now invisible—nothingness between moonlight and his eyes. Silently, he had moved , and even now Aleks remained as quiet as possible! His greenish blue eyes narrowed until pressure throbbed at his temples, trying to make out anything in the dim light. Crashing into a suit of armor would probably be too loud. Then again—couldn’t he just blame it on a ghost? Although he wasn’t sure whether the living plastic bags could move armor in the first place. He hadn’t paid enough attention in class for and suddenly regretted it, as he passed by one of the metallic clothes. Suddenly, something eased the darkness. Around a corner, a faint glow pushed back against the shadows like an american football player in an uneven weight class. Aleks froze mid-step, one foot hovering slightly in the air. His eyes fixed on the light. A weed of curiosity sprouted in his mind.. Maybe the rumors are true, and a door really is opening? the Slytherin thought, his mind flinging itself back into memories of whispered stories and the promise of glowing doors just like this light could be. Just how fast it appeared, it went out. And left nothing but the damn disorientating darkness! Aleks felt duped. His forehead furrowed, and his foot lowered to the ground with a dull click of his sole that echoed through the corridor—louder than intended. His heart shot into his throat, which was when he heard it. A sound like footsteps, light against the floor and twisted by his scrambled sense of direction. Perhaps he was a fly in another life, hitting his head on glass in a lack of environmental awareness. The Slytherin couldn’t place where the steps were coming from—only that they were getting closer! Approaching, even. Panic slammed its fist onto the alarm switch in his brain. Supported by the loud shrieking noise of red lights surrounding his braincells, Aleks began to move. His hand found the pocket with Aiden’s hair beneath, even as he approached the corridor‘s corner, holding his breath. The Slytherin shot around the corner when with a crash, collision stopped him. His body slammed into a smaller frame. He felt hair, warmth, and fabric collide with his face and torso, the impact shoving him slightly backward. Stumbling, he tried to steady himself, squeezed his eyes shut, and took two steps back in an effort to regain his balance. Confused, Aleks shot a glance at the beast that had tried to body slam him in the dark! He expected a chubby house-elf or Gabriele in snack-stuffed clothing, but it was neither. On the floor of reality, and quite literally on the floor, was a girl. In the faint moonlight, he could see something fluid glinting, which she tried to stop with her small hand. The dark hair a mess, the blue eyes seemingly bright enough to capture the hints of moon despite the dark. Wait..that‘s not.. Aleks’s eyes widened. His heart beat like a car, heading for the wall, pedal on the floor. Guilt knocked the breath out of him, dropping him forward and toward her before his thoughts had caught up. "Oh sh—f*ck. Sorry! Are you hurt? What am I asking , yes, you are. Wait t—",with outstretched hands, he rushed toward her, about to be dropping to his knees and to offer her a tissue from one of his overstuffed Mary Poppins-style pockets—when something echoed. Something moved—or at least, it sounded like it. Like a dangerous foul dragging itself through the corridor, something clattered or perhaps rattled in the distance. Adrenaline and guilt were already surging through Aleks senses. His head whipped around, searching for the source of the sound, but there was nothing: only stone walls etched by faint moonlight and one door in particular… one without a lock. They had to go somewhere. Somewhere the noise—or whoever was making it, if there was sound at all or just his paranoid self—couldn’t follow. The risk loomed like a charging angry neighbor, ready to complain and demand them leaving his lawn. "Forget that!! Let’s go!" Aleks snapped, spinning back toward the slender figure. Somewhere inside, he felt responsible for her and those bright eyes. With wild hair falling into his own, he reached straight under her arms and hauled her to her feet. Adrenaline surged through his veins as the Slytherin lifted her clean off the ground. Panicking, she felt almost weightless in his arms—willingly or not to be forced into the role of damsel in distress. With three quick strides to the left, Aleks darted toward the unlocked door. He shoved it open, shoulder first against the hard wood, and slipped sideways inside with her. Naturally, it was even darker in the room than outside. No windows—only a shade of color that was the darkest of them all: Black like Professor Snape’s hair, if the old oil portraits were to be believed. In the same breath as entering the darkness, he set her back on the feet and shoved the door shut with his elbow. With a loud thud it closed, and a clinging high pitched noise brought their doom: locked. I hate this school.

Interaction: @Avis Greymond ──────────── Speech: #84319f 10/9/2025 Blablala-Whale-Song-Singing-Dominance-Asserting

Everything seemed to happen in a mad blur of disheveled dark hair, red smears and a male voice spouting swear words. She barely had time to register what had happened before the wall she had run into was in front of her forming a jumble of sentences she couldn't quite understand over the incessant pulse of pain in her nose. God, this might have been worse than the Bludger.

As her blurred vision began to clear up, Avis blinked upwards to see a pair of sharp blue green eyes seemingly belonging to a boy around her age and decidedly not to a wall. Interesting change of events.

"I think you've got blood on your-" she started but once again, a blur of action interrupted her observation. A distant sound ignited the boy into action and suddenly, the Ravenclaw found herself being hastily lifted by her armpits and onto her feet. There was no time to think. And apparently no time to move as the boy lifted her once again and hauled her up like a school satchel stuffed with too many books. "Merlin's beard, I do know how to walk-" she hissed indignantly, cheeks heating against her will at the proximity of his surprisingly strong grip, but despite her whispered protests, she was escorted quickly into a nearby closet as the sound down the corridor grew closer. They tumbled in and the boy hastily shut the door behind them.

Moments later, the lock clicked, trapping them in the pitch black.

Shit.

Avis held her breath, listening closely as footsteps approached the door. Instinctively, the Ravenclaw found her rescuer's mouth in the dark with her hand, clamping her palm over it to ensure complete silence. She was not about to get caught after curfew, especially now. A jingle of keys and a whispered Locking Charm followed and soon after, she heard the same footsteps fade away down the corridor. Perhaps the keeper of keys making sure everything was locked up tight for the night. She grimaced.

Hand still absentmindedly clamped tightly over the boy's face, Avis reached for her wand with the other.

"Don't worry. I know a spell for this," she whispered, feeling around its usual location.

Nothing. She blanched, eyes widening. A cold trickle of anxiety slid down her spine. Where in seven hells was her wand? Avis swallowed, her throat dry.

"Or I would use a spell for this if I knew where my wand was," she said with a nervous grin that she didn't realize her companion probably couldn't see at all whatsoever.

Hey, at least that meant he couldn't see the dried red smears all over her face. And his shirt...

Her comments had been noted—along with the information about Aleks’ clothes and the red, staining evidence of their shared stupidity. Aleks gave it no thought at first. The adrenaline had flung his brain cells against the wall, where they still stuck and smothered down as the lock clicked shut. Sounds continued to trail through the door. Even without pressing his ear to it, he could hear the dull thud of shoes, paws of a fat rat, or perhaps even a house-elf.The exact creature or size was a mystery Aleks hoped not to solve! His lips and fingers felt colder, as if the thrill had flash-frozen the boy. The darkness before his eyes only deepened the weight of the situation, looming over their heads like the strictest form of space. Aleks narrowed his blue eyes to thin slits, trying to make out the door—or at least the girl—when suddenly a warm hand pressed over his mouth. It squished his lips to the front of his teeth. The sudden shift in temperature and the soft pressure made his spine lock up! The footsteps beyond the door grew louder, and now he, too, held his breath. His heart pounded against his throat. For a brief moment, he feared it might be audible through the door and all the way to Headmaster Solomon Lear’s office. Every beat hit his rib cage like a drum, the vibration thudding in his left shoulder. A dead silence remained in the darkness of wherever they were, hiding the two children. Only after a few tense seconds did the footsteps begin to fade. They grew as quiet as drunken mice, until they disappeared entirely in the distance. Aleks exhaled through his nose, breath brushing against the hand on his mouth. The Slytherin’s back curved slightly as the tension melted from his limbs. Somehow, the warmth against his face felt oddly comforting. There was something strangely calming about it, like a familiar soul trying to stop him from laughing at a late hour, the sort of friend that giggles but tries to keep you from busting your covers when the parents walk by. Aleks drew in a deep breath to slow the last frantic beats of his heart. Then he heard her voice again. From the side, she whispered that he didn’t need to worry—she knew a spell to get them out of this mess. That instantly made her far more valuable in this mission than him. The boy nodded, forcing the hand to move with his head as he attempted to respond. Naturally, it came out as a muffled murmur behind the obstruction, like someone gagged with tape over their mouth. “oun ea-!” Something moved beside him. He couldn’t quite tell what she was doing, but in that brief moment, an intrusive thought crept in—he could lick her hand. That would definitely make her remove it from his mouth. Before the idea could sound more appealing than it should have and tempt him to actually try it, she spoke again. There was a nervous edge in her voice: "Or I would use a spell for this if I knew where my wand was." “Wha-?!” Even without a freed mouth and freedom to the range of lip movement, he hoped she could decipher the full-blown panic wrapped in his tone! Her words echoed in his head like a wicked forest spider. Its venomous fangs poised right above his throat. And in those sharp monstrosities lived the chilling thought: that they might actually have to sleep in this place, run out of oxygen and die. It wasn't as much fear accompanied in his sorrow as it was discomfort and bewilderment. So much so for Aiden‘s hair as a good luck charm. At the thought of his always-calm and calculating friend, an alternative solution struck Aleks like electricity when one puts a fork in the outlet. His hand moved instinctively to his bag—tucked neatly inside his uniform. There, waiting like a well-behaved companion, rested his cherrywood wand. Of all wand woods, cherry was perhaps not the best type to hand over to another witch. Known for its lethal strength and the fierce wish to be handled by disciplined individuals, it did not take kindly to being wielded by just anyone. This said, Aleks wasn’t thinking clearly. Not about consequences or about the danger this might bring to their already bad circumstances. The panic still lingered like the remaining bacteria of bronchitis in his throat. He pulled the wand from his coat and held it out into the dark, toward the place he assumed she still occupied. “—‘ere, ake mine,” he muttered around her fingers, forcing the words out as clearly as he could with his mouth half-covered. Maybe he should’ve just licked her hand after all…

Interaction: @Avis Greymond ──────────── Speech: #84319f 10/9/2025 Blablala-Whale-Song-Singing-Dominance-Asserting

Still locked in her own head trying to figure out a solution, Avis just nodded absentmindedly at her closet companion's alarmed muffled response to her wand situation.

"I know. I know. Rotten luck," she whispered back to his vague sound.

She glanced about the floor but to no avail as it was still pitch black. She managed to make out a few nondescript shapes as her eyes adjusted but those did not include a long thin rod lying about. She sighed. Without her wand, the Ravenclaw was unfortunately as powerful as a Muggle at the moment, which didn't include Muggle superheroes, to which she'd developed quite an affinity to, although still had much to learn.

Her mind drifted away to thoughts of Spiderman and...er... the bat one. So many nasty animal related heroes. It was rather strange. She did suppose bugs, at least, had immeasurable strength compared to their size. Look at ants, as a matter of fact. Capable of carrying 50 times their own body weight. Hmm, a fact that should be shared.

She turned in what she hoped was the boy's general direction.

"Hey did you know that ants can carry- Oi! Sorry!" Avis said sheepishly as she realized the boy was still muttering around her fingers. She pulled her hand back hastily as her cheeks flamed but her embarrassment was quickly forgotten when she realized he was holding out not her wand, but his.

Merlin. This could be a bad idea.

She took a breath and straightened. "Alright, but be warned I might blow both of our fingers off and maybe other items as well. Just...stand back I guess," she said, taking the wand and feeling around for the door.

Avis impulsively pushed back any thoughts of caution into the frequently used archives of her mind and shakily pointed the wand forward at the lock. It was a bad idea. A horrific one actually, but they didn't exactly have many options, did they? She paused and twisted her head back towards her companion.

"I'm Avis, by the way. Wouldn't want us to die without knowing each other's names. Y'know, in case we're stuck with each other as Hogwarts ghosts and haven't been introduced in real life yet," she lamented and turned back towards the door with another shaky breath.

"Alohomora!" she hissed, trying to remain quiet. She waved the foreign wand in the shape of a backwards 'S'.

And the closet interior lit up with a loud bang!

Permission to manhandle still clinging to my chest like some koala bby. The word ants rang in his ear like an invitation to a tea party. A particularly thrilling one filled with bizarre trivia that should never come up at the worst possible moments—yet always did! Aleks could already picture how much this bizarre girl could have to say about fossilized dinosaur dung and starfish teeth. It was the exact kind of time he‘d seek under normal circumstances, or at least under those, in which he isn't locked into never ending darkness. Hence the topic of ants, for now, was shoved into the backroom of his mind and barricaded there, so it wouldn’t come back out until they found their freedom as well. Still, Aleks wanted to smile. His cheeks tensed against the warm fingers, just before the unfamiliar girl pulled her hand back and finally released his lips into freedom. The whole thing was accompanied by a small “oi” and “sorry” from her, which only tugged his mouth corners higher. He replied, “No problem,” with the hint of a quiet laugh. That was when his wand was snatched from his hand. Surrounded by darkness, the surprise of the takeover crawled all the way up to his shoulders. Aleks gave a brief inhale and briefly tensed, only to release both breath and posture into a loose smirk. Her voice was clearly audible in the still room, "Alright, but be warned I might blow both of our fingers off and maybe other items as well…" —accompanied by the advice that it might be wiser to step aside than stand between the door and her magical solution! Taking it to heart, Aleks certainly did as she suggested. The young Slytherin had absolutely no intention of standing at the other end of his own wand. Who knew what all disastrous things could happen? With a gulp, the thought crept into his head—a spell might not only strip the eyebrows clean off his face but also snap against his nose like an oversized finger, then insult his heritage and teleport them into the Headmaster‘s private Rooms. He could image the shocked expression, the pajamas Aleks didn't want to know of and the disappointment in his eyes. The image twisted his expression, stole the smile, and basically forced Alek to step quickly to the side. Of all things, the thought of having his future Boggart be Solomon Lear in his pajama and then having to explain that specific detail to the Professor, was perhaps the most frightening to the otherwise fearless boy! Carefully, he crept his way along the left wall, trying to stay deliberately away from the girl’s voice, dodging her aim. The knowledge of nightwear had to be prevented at all cost. As he ran his palm over a piece of wood, what he assumed was an old shelf for storing cleaning utensils, the girl with the bright eyes broke the silence. Her name was Avis, and introductions would seem only proper if the two of them were about to haunt the school as ghosts for all eternity. He could not help but compare this phrasing to a scary form of a proposal. Would they equal a married couple if they had to be spooking the old corridors together? In turn, the image was oddly amusing, he thought. It stirred in Aleks a trace of relaxed delight—more, even, than the thought of not surviving with his eyebrows intact. “Nice to meet you! I’m Aleks. If we really are about to turn into half-translucent idiots, let’s at least come up with a better explanation than having died over an old broom closet,” the boy commented on her train of thought. The Slytherin could already sketch in his mind some better scenarios. Especially ones involving the two of them haunting the entrance to the Slytherin common room and distracting other students from their work, instead of housing between wet wipes with dust bunnies as their pets. Briefly, Aleks reached for his pocket, where the plucked lucky charm from his best friend lay tucked away. Hoping the not so much permitted harvest brought any luck to their misery, Aleks added, “We’ll be fine for sure.” For a second, there seemed to be a looming silence—then she appeared to wave the wand, and the word Alohomora reached his ears. The freckled boy didn’t know that spell. Even though he’d skimmed the books multiple times and the word might have come up once or twice, he hadn’t been paying any attention.His brow furrowed. For a split second, he feared she’d teleport them to Hawaii, because he did know the word Aloha—didn’t it mean family? His eyes widened, then his stomach clenched. Maybe she was trying to summon their parents! That, surely, was the worst possible way to meet own father for the first time. But not even half a second passed, then the spell revealed its true form. A loud crash let the shelves tremble, and a blinding light seared away their by now personalized darkness! Red and yellow hues burst like fireflight against the door, tearing the blockade from its metal hinges. The spell erupted like an explosion—whether intentional or not. Aleks flinched. At the sound of the spell hitting the wooden surface, he reflexively stretched an arm out toward the girl. It was partly to hold it with some distance in front of her chest, in case something came flying at them, he rather it hit him instead of the Ant-trivia wisdom beknownst Witch. Aleks ears briefly rang. The old door only made it a step into the corridor before it began to fall—slowly, like it was caught in time between slow motion and a dramatic effect. The heavy plank tilted backward. The moment it would hit the ground hung in the air like a countdown, already ringing in his ears as Detention once the loud noise echoes. Aleks reached straight for Avis’s arm. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, transforming him into a protective animal in flight. “We have to get out of here!” he quietly hissed, pulling her through the opening and out into the corridor, the moonlight was acting as their conductor. With his pulse pounding in his ears and the door still falling behind them, he dragged her along. The door didn’t hit the ground until after the ten steps that led them around a corner. It was far enough that hopefully no one investigating the clatter of crashing metal would likely see the two students. “Sorry”, he muttered. Only then did he release her, trying to catch his breath and regain his composure, as well as to study with a concerned frown her face. The flickering light of a nearby torch was meant to help with the health-check up. His own face was smudged with soot along the cheeks. It covered his freckles like a clumsy attempt at dressing up as a panda—if Aleks had never actually seen one and only heard of them through word of mouth and terrible descriptions. The front strands of his hair stood on end and off to the side, and a faint, frizzled texture had woven itself into one of his locks.

Interaction: @Avis Greymond ──────────── Speech: #84319f 10/9/2025 Blablala-Whale-Song-Singing-Dominance-Asserting

tags: @Aleks Drašković | date: 10-09-2025 | fit: x |
ooc: permission to womanhandle granted (:

It was like a Muggle superhero movie really. Avis stood there, dark brown hair flying, shaky wand arm stretched out in front of her, Aleks' single protective arm over her shoulder and a thunderous explosion in the background as the door blew right off its hinges and into the hallway. All they were missing was the exaggerated slow motion, but unfortunately it happened so fast, Avis hardly had time to think.

The intended result was to have the door quietly unlock and for them to slip out, unobserved and unheard. Yet it seemed as though using another wizard's wand resulted in well...unexpected results and the two of them stood there, eyebrows singed and eyes wide.

Before another sound could be made, the boy reached for her arm and they were off once again as she was pulled through the crumbling opening and out into the dark corridor. She nodded dumbly to his observation, giving the tipping door a shocked look as they whizzed passed, somehow managing to collect her own wand lying dejectedly on the floor in the process. Great Merlin, she had done that.

They found refuge around a corner as the door finally collapsed with a loud, echoing bang and Avis flinched, finally returning to reality. She wrinkled her soot-covered nose at Aleks' unnecessary apology. In most cases, she would've quite disliked being dragged around by her arm (she was very capable of walking on her own) but in this case, it seemed that his intentions were to keep them clear of any approaching professor or prefect after that mess and a small spark of gratitude lit in her chest.

"It's alright," she whispered back and handed him back his wand with a sheepish expression. "I was the one that blew the door off...which was an accident, by the way."

The Ravenclaw was met by a surprising look of concern, as if he was making sure she had all her body parts still attached post-explosion, which gave her the opportunity to study him as well. Smudged soot lined high cheekbones which almost managed to cover a scattering of freckles across his sharp features. The same blue-green eyes she'd noticed before glinted back at her in the flickering light. They were full of mischief and the potential for trouble but there was a kindness there she hadn't expected.

She giggled at the haphazardous mess that was his dark ash-ridden hair, but quieted down when she realized hers probably looked much of the same. Swallowing awkwardly, Avis turned, breaking eye contact and glancing about the hallway for means of escape. Just because they'd managed to find a corner to take temporary refuge behind didn't mean they wouldn't be found eventually.

Avis eyebrows' rose in recognition. It seemed they were in luck! This was the very corridor her older brother Will had mentioned at the beginning of her first year in his spiel about secret passageways at Hogwarts, for which he had an affinity. If she remembered correctly, there was a passageway waiting to be revealed behind the suit of armor at the very end of the hallway on the left. The only problem was, she had no idea where it went, but it seemed to be their only option at the moment as sudden rushing footsteps erupted from farther down the corridor in the opposite direction. Avis gasped quietly.

It was her turn to do the pulling and she took Aleks' hand with her own ash-covered fingers, tugging him down the hallway towards the supposed passageway.

"Quick!" she whispered. "There's a secret passageway down here...I hope."

Moments later, they were standing in front of a dusty suit of armor, Avis' wand out as she searched for the incantation for the passage opening charm in her head. As the footsteps and now quiet statements of shock echoed from around the corner, Avis tapped the wall gently with her wand.

"Dissendium," she hissed and suddenly the stones were rolling over top of each other to reveal a small but present hole in the wall. She threw an excited grin back at her partner. "Don't know where it goes, but it's anywhere but here," the Ravenclaw added, stepping into the opening and moving forward into the dark.

Permission to manhandle still clinging to my chest like some koala bby. The young girl had said it was fine— after all, she was the one who had introduced vandalism as the new order of the day. Yet Aleks remained worried. Maybe the stress was getting to him! It dug up genuine concern from beneath reckless plans and placed it on his heart like the cheapest menu item slid across a Starbucks counter! He reclaimed his wand, then lifted the piece of wood to his face to rub at his soot-stained cheek with the back of his hand. The smear dragged across his skin to his jaw. Again, he gave Avis a sharp look from head to toe. She indeed seemed unharmed—no blood from her nose, no horn sprouting from her forehead, and her hair looked largely intact. At least his eyes did not wander over any bald spots. The small melodic laugh confirmed his inspection’s result. A faint grin relaxed back onto his lips. “Mhm, sure thing… let’s just pretend it was an accident…”, with a teasing wink he underlined the remark in soft sarcasm. Truthfully, Aleks was inclined to believe it hadn’t been intentional. Who would confidently declare an explosion as a legitimate solution? Avis didn’t strike him as a sociopath of the reckless kind. Though, the thought had its appeal — the girl, with her sweetly impish bearing, speaking of solutions while meaning violence, ruin, death, and devastation! A quiet snort shook through Aleks’s frame. The stress sat in his limbs. It rattled up into his throat and shifted into traitorous amusement. He had to press a hand over his face to keep the laughter from escaping. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the boy still thought he could hear the pursuit of the ominous authority figure, and a half-laugh would be the most pitiful reason to be caught! His bluish eyes followed Avis as she scanned her surroundings, when suddenly a small firework unfolding across her expression. Aleks drew the cold corridor air deep into his body, smelling the stress. He attempted to force himself back into calm, dropped his hand from his mouth. In doing so he smeared the black paste of ash across his lips. It was only noticed by its dusty and iron taste. Aleks could not help but compare the sensation with heated wood and grime, trying to force their way in — pounding fists against the door with the blooming intention on beating his tongue into submission! His face twisted. Distracting was one way to put it. Slightly parting his lips, Aleks attempted to push the soot outward with his tongue. His face became slimmer in focus, when Avis caught his hand and whispered he shall be quick, “There's a secret passageway down here.” That was the end of his own pursue. Pulled along by her insistence, he followed willingly, surprised by the fervor with which the young Countess Chaos van Bomb forged ahead! It took only a few hurried steps before the two stood face to face with a corner. Aleks made no move to suppress the sharp confusion etched into his expression. The suits of armor stood to their left and right like the merciless wardens of an asylum for the insane. That was exactly how Aleks felt — staring into the dust, with the pressing certainty of being pursued at his back. “Uh, are you sure you haven’t hit your hea—” Aleks began quietly, but Avis had already drawn her wand, lost in thought. The young Slytherin grew tense. Footsteps drummed across the floor, drawing audibly closer. His thoughts spun around other possible solutions. Perhaps he could say he’d been on his way to the bathroom and had found a confused Avis in the hallway? Out of pure goodwill, he had decided to stand by her in her condition, lending the supportive presence required to accompany her mischief. She couldn’t help it — she was ill! In Aleks‘ mind, the possible ailments that could explain such a state rattled off one after the other. His eyes flicked toward her. The moonlight tinted strands of her hair with a bluish sheen. That was when it occurred to Aleks. There was a certain well-known bodily state that could set doors ablaze and make dust a more compelling companion to stare at. Should anyone ask, she had simply gotten her period — and Aleks, as a self-declared, highly trained expert on women, was obliged to provide emotional support. Instinctively, and as though his hastily formed plan held some kind of logic, his thumb brushed across her knuckles. In case a teacher found them any moment from now, he rather it looked believable. A faint rumble stirred behind them. Aleks’s ears began to twitch with nervous anticipation. With an uneasy glance toward the shadowed gaps in the knights’ helmets, the Slytherin suddenly felt cornered in every sense. Even with a plan in mind, the situation seemed hopeless. Inwardly, he prayed to whatever scuttles, and plays chess with humans, that Avis hadn’t blasted her brain cells away. He tightened his grip on her hand; the warmth between their fingers at least made him feel less alone. Distracted from his staring contest with the hollow armor, he only noticed — with the hissed word “Dissendium” and the grind of shifting stone — that the girl still was in full possession of her senses. The sound drew his attention back to the corner. The stones shifted, rising and sliding aside as if to clear their path for a rocky king—pressing close together, eager to avoid any show of displeasure. Aleks stared into the darkness. Of course he wanted to know where it led, but Avis was right: the important part was to simply disappear. With the onset of a smile he whispered:“Time to dodge consequences!” He followed her without so much as another blink. Once he too was fully emerged in the dark, a grinding rumble echoed behind the students. Aleks didn’t need to turn around; the sudden stillness and darkness spoke for itself—they were sealed in. At least this time there was enough room to find distraction, move and die comfortably. They walked on. With her hand caught between his fingers, Aleks swung his arm forward and then—on the return—back in the direction their feet carried them. “At least we get to possibly die frolicking instead of being buried under broomsticks and toilet cleaner. Any idea where this path is taking us..?” he asked, just before a spiderweb slapped into his face like his last Potion grade. The threads slid over his lips and into his nostril. The fingers tightened around Avis‘ hand. “Ew, the bedroom of a spider…” he announced with a quiet hiss. Aleks reached up and peeled the string from his face.It ran along the jawline. “When we get out of here—If—and before we go our separate ways—I might give you a pat-down. Can’t have you sleeping with an eight-legged roommate…who knows how big these are!” The rhythmic swing of their joined hands didn’t stop, even while the Slytherin was busy removing the remaining strings from his face.

Interaction: @Avis Greymond ──────────── Speech: #84319f 10/9/2025 Blablala-Whale-Song-Singing-Dominance-Asserting

tags: @Aleks Drašković | date: 10-09-2025 | fit: x

“Uh, are you sure you haven’t hit your hea—” the boy started as she pulled out her wand to find the passageway. Avis broke her focus for a moment to shoot him a look before returning to her task. In the back of her mind, she noted that his face was seemingly only getting dirtier somehow as a new streak of grim had appeared across his lips.

Moments later, the two young students were watching the stones in the wall in front of them peel away at a maddeningly slow pace and Aleks' hand tightened in her grip, his thumb brushing over her knuckles. Maybe he was nervous? She squeezed back in reassurance as they stepped into the foreign opening. The passageway remained ajar for a moment behind them before clattering back into place, darkness enveloping their surroundings. Avis snorted in amusement at his observation of "dodging consequences" but couldn't disagree. It was exactly what they were doing.

She tugged him down the path, newly obtained wand in hand and stumbled a few times before muttering 'Lumos' and brightening the path ahead. The Ravenclaw grimaced at the gloomy, cobwebbed cavern and suddenly felt the slight big of nervousness shoot through her chest. She had been about to drop Aleks' hand but decided it was better to hold on a bit longer. It was strangely comforting.

As if he could sense her premonitions, the boy began to swing her hand back and forth in a manner that made it seem as though they were walking around a summer fair rather than an ominous, mysterious passageway deep within the walls of Hogwarts. She involuntarily let out a giggle at his mention of frolicking.

"You're ridiculous," she snorted in amusement, but kept her hand swinging in his regardless. "And no, I've no clue where it goes. Will didn't get that far in his explanation."

His fingers suddenly tightened around hers and she glanced up in concern, only to see the Slytherin wearing an impromptu mask of cobweb. Avis couldn't help it. She laughed. The bedroom of a spider? He was certainly unique and she found herself for the first time not regretting this accidental late night outing. Holding up her wand-light, she reached over and brushed off a piece of the web he'd missed, still laughing from his funny way of putting things.

"Thank you for the offer," she replied, a bit breathless. "I don't think Maisie...er my current two-legged roommate...would appreciate me bringing another bunkmate home. Although Quigley might not mind..." she added as an afterthought. Her cat did enjoy a good spider hunt. He certainly had brought more than few to her as gifts. The Ravenclaw grimaced at the thought.

As their hands remained swinging between them, Avis walked along with a skip in her step enjoying this strange little event for the time being. A few steps later, however, she stumbled to a stop when the light revealed a branch in their path, one path going off to the left and the other, logically, to the right. She stood there stumped, slowly peering down each path with her light. Avis glanced up at her companion, chewing at the inside of her bottom lip with a concerned expression.

"Which way do you suppose we go?" she asked quietly. "Does it matter? What if we end up at the bottom of the lake? Or...or in Sauber's office?"

The Potions professor would most definitely not appreciate two dirty children covered in spider-webs stumbling into his office in the middle of the night, although in hindsight, the thought of it was rather ridiculous. Avis hid a smile, trying to focus on the dilemma at hand and awaiting Aleks' input.

Permission to manhandle still clinging to my chest like some koala bby. With the blue glow of Lumos bouncing off the dusty walls, it struck Aleks once and for all that he really ought to pay more attention in class. He wasn’t even sure if the spell’s light depended on house colors. Inwardly, his imagination twisted the sight into a hypothetical scene in which his Lumos cast green light across the grime of the stone—just because he was a Slytherin. The thought was less appealing than blue; in green it would look far too much like lost footage from a Muggle horror film. Aleks was, in fact, familiar with the subject. One of his neighbors owned a Muggle television and a small metallic device. You could insert round plates into it—thin, plate-like things with a hole in the center. Aleks murmured softly at the thought. Their hands kept swinging despite the misadventure with the crawling creatures. Thanks to Avis’s spell, their hands were casting shadows, which flitted across the floor like a flash warning. Nor did it bother him to be warmly called ridiculous. Why should it? Better that, than a dreary book-hugger. Although, the boy had to admit, sometimes a book could carry knowledge worth keeping. Even he enjoyed the theory behind Quidditch. Still, it felt as though at least one spider thread clung to the outside of his ear. In a relaxed gesture, he reached up and tried to brush it off. In the meantime, Avis answered. She thanked him and gave, among other things, a wholesome commentary on a Maisie and a Quigley. Despite the Slyherin‘s ever wayward air, Aleks was not slow on the uptake. His brow furrowed for only a second, while the pieces of her story were fit together like a puzzle. Avis was female, Maisie was bipedal—a typical case of a roommate. Quigley, however, was a male name. Aleks didn’t need to ask to guess it must be a pet! A small, curious glance was cast sideways at the girl. Driven by questions, he wondered what animal she might own. Perhaps it was a seagull—the kind that steals fries from strangers and poops on their head. It wouldn’t surprise him if that was her emotional support animal. With a faint grin, he squeezed her hand a little tighter, feeling her fingers beneath his. “Well then, we’d better do that,” Aleks replied, “wouldn’t want that Maisie storming out of the room in distress.” For a few minutes, an unexpectedly pleasant silence reigned. Aleks turned his gaze back ahead, though there was little to see amid the dust and narrow walls. The blue light illuminated the air swirl tensely.But after a few steps, he noticed Avis moving just a touch faster. Skipping in her steps, naturally Aleks decided to follow suit, matching her pace playfully. „Death, here we come.“, he chuckled. The moment could have lasted longer! There was a thrill in wandering a secret passage at night, half-jumping, waking the poor souls below with drumming footsteps, pretending they weren’t perhaps running straight toward their doom. When suddenly, the light split in two. Right in front of the two kids, a fork in the passage opened, and Aleks greeted it with a sharp puff. It felt as if the playful rush had frozen in his veins. His hands fell slack, and the frolicking came to an end.A question from her lips pierced through the mounting tension. "Which way do you suppose we go? Does it matter? What if we end up at the bottom of the lake? Or...or in Sauber's office?" Unluckily, she had struck with precision. It was as if Avis stood beside him with a dart in hand, hurling it at a board scrawled over with hypothetical disasters. Aleks‘s features sharpened. It was once again time to pull himself together and take life seriously! One of those situations had arrived—the kind usually reserved for translating between his immigrant mother and the Office of Magic. His gaze shifted from one corridor to the other. Slowly, he gave voice to his thoughts: “So, …we were on one of the lower floors. But the moonlight shone beside you, opposite of me, and the Moon is not too high in the sky. That must mean we were on the edge of Hogwarts, not near the courtyard, otherwise the wall on the other side would’ve blocked the light… We didn’t go down any stairs, so we’re not in the basement but at least on the first floor, at the outer edge—otherwise I’d have only seen your head, lit from above, not your whole silhouette….” After his quiet reasoning, Aleks turned his eyes to the right. His voice carried a steadier weight now, almost taking on a note of maturity. “When right must lead further inside of the school… then left-,” Aleks turned his head and lifted both their joined hands toward the shadowed corridor. “-leads outward, along the edge of the school. Better chance we don’t end up in Sauber’s bathroom that way, so… left it is!” By the end, his tone shaded back into a smile. A small grin unfurled across his face, as if it had personally taken on the task of keeping his lightness intact. “In the worst case, we just got lost on our way to brush our teeth,” Aleks added nonchalantly, tugging Avis with him toward the left. This time, instead of frolicking back and forth, Aleks chose a rhythmic swing of their hands right, then left, as though the two of them were conducting the music to their own downfall. Confident he was not—but he tried to trust the two intact braincells he owns. They didn’t have to walk for long. Only a few steps, and suddenly the air seemed fresher, the dust motes scattering like intimidated children—fleeing to their rooms. Albeit head, the blue light seemed to slam against an end. Aleks slowed at the sight just as a rumble echoed. The boy froze, his hand tightening just a touch around her slim fingers. When suddenly, bricks began to roll apart—first opening a thin hole, before it spread like a human sized portal into another world. Moonlight streamed through. For a moment he thought they broke the 4th wall, but what lay beyond was nothing more than a gap in Hogwarts’s outer wall. Relief settled over Aleks, as he muttered, “So, no teacher‘s bathroom. Shame, really.” Of course, he hadn’t meant this seriously. Releasing her hand, the cold air bit into his palm where they had built a warm little hideout. Taking a step forward, Aleks cast only a quick glance down their escape route. Between them and the grass lay roughly three or four meters—the height of a first floor. His first thought brought a satisfied smile: his guess had been correct! However, his second was far less pleasant. His soot-smeared mouth tightened uneasily. A jump from this distance was certainly no safe bet. Aleks knew that all too well from an accident back home, when in childish recklessness he had leapt from the balcony of a first-floor flat with nothing but an unenchanted broomstick between his legs. “Anyway..,” he announced softly, pulling the decision out of his sleeve as if on impulse to be an idiot. Forcing lightness into the moment, Aleks crouched down and let his legs dangle over the edge. Only now, with the moonlight against him, he noticed how dirt-stained his trouser leg had become from their explosion. With a chuckle he brushed a hand over it, smearing his fingers black. Aleks added his plan, “Wait, I’ll check it out first—then catch you?” To his surprise, the brave young Avis insisted she could manage on her own. With raised brows, he let out a soft laugh. “Alright then. But I’m still going first!”,He just laughed, raised his brows—and shoved himself off the ledge. The boy dropped down, the fear of breaking a leg not even crossing his mind. Falling, one thing in his mind was clear: don’t hit the ground stiff as stone. He kept his legs loose, letting the weight of the landing push him down into a crouch. Aleks clenched his face as his ankles briefly flared with a dull burn. The sound of grass and dirt being met by his weight accompanied it. His knees, though, held steady— hence the young Slytherin exhaled in relief. His shoulders were rolled loose, and he straightened back into normal posture. The outside air flooded his lungs, both cold and clear off dirt, dust and spider poop. Aleks just had to grin, throwing a glance upward to where Avis lingered in the gap. “Still not dead!” That ought to be the case for her too. A flicker of concern crossed his face. His left ankle still hummed from the impact, thus Aleks, just in case, observed more intently in which direction she will throw herself off the cliff.

Interaction: @Avis Greymond ──────────── Speech: #84319f 10/9/2025 Blablala-Whale-Song-Singing-Dominance-Asserting