Second Times the Charm? Finished

Maybe it was because they didn't have nearly as much experience as the small Gryffindor girl who'd shown him this in the first place. It also could have been because these stairs didn't move and give that extra flick that the moving staircase had, as terrifying as it had been. Either way, they weren't gaining enough sideways momentum, that much was obvious even as Elsian grabbed the edge of the sled and leaned as much as he dared without making the sled fall over entirely.

A small bit of fear rose up, mixed between the adrenaline and the excitement of it all. The very real threat of crashing too soon just the sort of motivation one needed to try something that would either end in an amazing moment of stupidity turned genius or some new battle scars to show whatever idiotic idea they'd lived through.

Maybe even a bit of both.


With that in mind Elsian did something that anyone in their right state of mind wouldn't do. Instead jumping ship or bracing themselves. Grabbing the edge of the sled he waited for the last second, that small moment between crashing into a dead end and still cruising down the staircase and leaned to the left before throwing his body sideways. His knuckled white with the death grip he had as the sled lurched sideways practically turning over on both of them with the sudden weight shift and he yelped barely stifling a surprised cry as the shift forced the sled sideways knocking against the wall clumsily.


It jostled them sending Elsian practically backwards with the jolt and he scrambled for balance as the sled finally righted itself, bouncing and clacking against the ground as it started to lose all the momentum from before. Slightly dizzy, head spinning he laughed, a small breathless thing as his grip loosened even as the sled cruised with a small crawl on the large step between the staircase they'd just speed down and the next leading down an equally slippery slope.


"That wasn't so bad." he said breathlessly, flinging his uninjured leg out to press against the ground as the sled came dangerously close to the edge of the next staircase. So turned around he didn't know how he'd ended up sitting backwards, staring down the next staircase like he was but he simply accepted it as is, his back meeting Williams as he slouched backwards. "Wanna go again?" he asked stifling some laughter as he thought about the others scream.


"You sounded like you had fun but was that a scream of terror or excitement?" he ribbed with a light hearted snicker.

A small grin played on his lips at Williams words, running a hand through his hair to push away long windswept bangs from his eyes as the other boy seemed to take a small breather after the immediate adrenaline wore off of them a little.

He'd honestly thought they'd been about to crash. He was surprised his little stunt had actually worked and now that he had the time to take a small breath and think about it...it'd been a very dangerous stunt but at that moment...all he'd been worried about was making sure William didn't get a face full of wall so he supposed that balanced out the stupidity of his brashness.

When William spoke up Elsian leaned back even more, stretching to lazily put all his weight on the other before moving onto his knees to shove them away from the edge of the stair case less they fall backwards. Turning he slipped off the sled, fingers shoving at the sled his companion was on quite easily around due to how slippery the floor could be against the wood of the sled. As he did this he gave the other a smirk, teasingly lifting the front of the sled just a tiny bit, barely at all really, as if he was about to send the other on a trip down backwards all by himself, "cool, you can go backwards next~" he offered, but otherwise simply turned the sled around by the front wood.

"So very effective he agreed," nodding to the others words, his fingers letting go of the sled once it was all turned around. He crouched next to him, eyeing the flimsy rope at the front of the sled and remembering how it'd come loose before on him when Sage and he had been thrown into the ride of a lifetime.

"Aw, that's not fair." he huffed, eyes narrowing at the rope just as he was about to get back on, "it didn't break on you but it breaks on me when on the moving staircase? How even?"

He simply laughed at the other, letting go of the rope in his hand to shove the other slightly forward. Making room for himself to sit sideways on the back of the sled with a half amused half affronted look at Williams words. "It wasn't my idea." he quickly defended, "besides, we had protection when we did it! She just..." he trailed off, forcing down both the grimace at the memory and the heat trying to crawl its way up his neck.

It was honestly embarrassing to admit out loud. For himself. For Sage. For both. He couldn't really say but the latter was probably the most likely. Still, it was partly his fault if anything. He'd known she could be ditzy and had still accepted she'd known what she was doing.

Honestly, it'd all been pure dumb luck they hadn't crashed and broken a limb.

"...just got the time wrong. We ended up going down 5 flights vs the one without a single broken bone so I'd say that's a breakthrough. And it's not a limp." he sniffed, turning his nose at the other with a small frown, "it's just a bruise and it's already going away I'll have you know."

He really hated reminders and the other bringing it up had Elsian already itching to look over his shoulder as if a teacher would see. They'd force him to go to the hospital wing and he didn't want that. He'd worked so very hard acting perfectly normal around any adult or older years in the halls...

"Plus that was different! We had a lot of momentum, had to jump ship after we neared number 6."

And hadn't that been a wild ride? The expected 1 flight turning into a ride or die 5? Neither Gryffindors had expected it and Elsian was just thankful he'd had enough foresight to get them to use pillows as armor rather that the kitchen gear Sage had said she'd tended to use back home. Pot helmet. Hah! They would have had head trauma more like!

"Besides..."he started, turning to the other with a pleased look, resembling much the cat his house tended to represent, "seems like you're fine playing a part in this horrible idea. Ready to almost crash again?" he grinned, teasingly pushing his weight into his side to slide them closer to the stairs.

He simply laughed, shaking his head in surprise. The other had him there, but he could honestly say he had not expected the other to so blatantly admit it. Especially from William! although... then again...he didn't really know the other all that well now did he?

The whole reason he'd thrown them over like that in the first place was because he didn't know him! Get him to do it and he was a partner in the crime. Simple as that and yet he was already forgetting that fact but...maybe that wasn't a bad thing. After all he hadn't ever gotten so comfortable around people who were bad news so maybe William was actually just the sort of friend material Sage was constantly saying he needed more of...

He could never admit she was even close to being right. She'd never let it go.

Shaking the thoughts away he nudged the other to sit correctly with an excited smirk of his own. "You didn't, my mistake I guess," he said sagely, as if admitting his fault in some sort of fancy debate rather than the train wreck that was their horrible stair surfing adventure.

Fixing his posture to shove them closer to the edge with his good leg he braced a hand against the sleds edge. Shifting them blindly by pushing against the ground whilst he sat backwards, back meeting Wills, he kept going until he felt the sleds weight shift. Carefully, with a small huff of laughter he spun around, balancing on his knees to peer over the others head and down to the long path of their possible demise. The only thing keeping them on the top his weight on the back of the sled.

"Any last words?" he asked mock solemn.

And then as if to console the other after the blatant threat on their lives he continued, patting the Slytherins shoulder like one would for good luck. "As the one with higher probability to survive back here I promise to only make your death sound a little stupid."