Closed Houston, We Have A Problem PV Bubba McGarry

Bubba had had quite enough of today already. Classes felt like they'd lasted a thousand years, he'd felt like he'd learned absolutely nothing, and to start it off just right, Kalle had decided it would be fun to attack his foot as it was sticking out from under the blanket while he slept. Not one for the books by any stretch of the imagination. He was really not enjoying today. It was far from the worst, he'd neither been poisoned nor shoved in the lake today, so that was positive, but it ranked pretty far from the best. He wasn't even sure where he was going at this point, just walked to blow off steam basically, that was the best way to put it.

Looking around, he was reasonably sure that he was roughly halfway between the Hufflepuff dorm and the Great Hall. How he'd gotten there, he had absolutely no idea. Matter of fact, he didn't even have any classes near here, he really must've been on autopilot to get so far out of the way. Sighing, he turned around and started heading back down the corridor. His mother had told him about the portraits and how they moved but sometimes he still found it creepy. It felt like they were watching him, and when he looked up he realized they really were watching him. He gave the one he laid eyes on a dirty look before he walked away.

Halfway down the corridor, he saw the most hideous, tartan tapestry he'd ever seen. Green and red may go together but those shades certainly didn't go. "Bloody ugly thing," he said quietly to himself. He prepared to move on when, most disconcertedly, the tapestry talked back.

Bubba blinked and refocused his eyes, it must've been a longer day than he'd thought. Now he was hallucinating too, tapestries didn't talk. At least he didn't think they did, not even the magical ones. Should he go up to the hospital wing and talk to Nurse Frogge? And what would he say? "Oh yes, nurse, I was walking back to the Ravenclaw common room and when I insulted a tapestry, it insulted me back," he said as he thought out loud. He'd think Bubba was barking mad. Still, he should probably get himself checked out in case he had one of those brain slugs everyone was talking about these days. As he turned, the tapestry talked again. It was a young girl's voice, she sounded very distressed.

"I bloody knew tapestries couldn't talk," he said to himself as he set his bag down and ripped the tapestry back to reveal a hidden door. "Ah, so this is where the house elves sleep." He said to himself as he examined the door. "No, wait, if this was a house elf they could just apparate themselves out." He slapped himself on the forehead as if he could've had a V8. A student was stuck in there, "Just a sec, I'll get you out."

He reached into his robes and pulled out his wand, very confidently, with the proper motion he said, "Alohomora!." Nothing happened. He repeated the process two more times before he got frustrated with himself again. "Right she probably already tried that at least the same amount of times."

He raised his voice to make sure she could hear him (although everything he'd said thus far would be clearly audible through the door), "I think it's jammed, I don't know how big that room is but get to the back of it I'm going to have to force my way in." He leaned his head against the door and heard a quiet "ok".

He leaned back and then charged the door with his shoulder. It didn't budge. "Bloody thing must be really stuck," he said to himself as he reloaded and tried again. Still, no joy, it was just as stuck as before, "Okay on more time, and if this doesn't work I'll go get a professor... or a half-giant, that might work too."

This time he started from across the hall and came at the door at a full sprint and the door flew open with a mighty crash. He grabbed the door frame with one hand to keep himself hurdling into the room as pain shot through the shoulder and arm that he'd just rammed into the door. "Fucking hell that hurt!" He exclaimed as he stood there, bathed in the late afternoon light from the hallway, he no doubt cut a heroic silhouette. As he looked over at the first year he quickly added, "Err sorry for the language," as he shook his arm a couple of times, which only made it hurt more and caused him to wince visibly.

Interacting: @Alma Stoll Mentioning: @ N/A

Her prayers had finally been answered as someone stepped to the door and called to her from outside. “Just a sec,” he said. “I’ll get you out.”

She stood abruptly and quickly wiped a stray tear that had escaped from the intense claustrophobia. She nodded hopefully at his words as if he could see her.

She began to freak out again as she heard him also fail to cast the unlocking charm, (three times actually), her fast heartbeat coming out in quick rapid breaths. When she was given the instruction to step back she muttered a quiet “ok” as to not freak him out as well.

The room was pretty small, but she was just barely able to squeeze her back to the corner of the wall so that the door wouldn’t hit her if opened.

The first slam against the door made Alma flinch hard, her hands coming up to her face and forearms hiding her head in case the door broke and one of the pieces were to hit her. Reminded her of the old unlocking charm that Muggles were somewhat familiar with - Open Sesame, that would rip doors from their hinges and splinter them so bad they were unusable.

The second made her flinch again. When the third hit finally landed and the door burst open, she yelped and stumbled back down on the floor.

When she realized no door pieces were flying into her face, she carefully peeked out from behind her arms to see who her savior was.

She couldn’t see his face very well, as he had his back turned to where the bright light of the corridor shone into the tiny room casting a rather heroic shadow, but she could make out some of his more prominent features. He had dark hair parted to the left and from what she could tell by his robes, he was a ravenclaw.

Snapping back to her senses, she took notice of his hurt arm and jumped back up off the floor. She raised her eyebrows at the strong language, but didn’t comment on it; he was obviously hurt.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay?!” she exclaimed, rushing to his side and examining his arm. She wasn’t exactly a medical professional, but it did look pretty bruised up. Then, she remembered that two minutes ago she was stuck thinking she’d be in this closet all night.

“Thank you so much for getting me out! I thought I was gonna be in there for a while,” she said, still inconspicuously examining the boy’s arm. She had half a mind to go in for a hug but maybe that would be too weird.

She put a hand gently on his shoulder (avoiding the place he got hit) and would lead them both out of the small space, provided he let her. She was relieved to be back in the once boring corridor, now happy to be anywhere but that broom closet.

She turned back to the other with a concerned look now painted on her face, deep worry evident as she scanned his arm. “Do you need that checked out?” she asked hesitantly. She didn’t even know this kid, why on earth was she talking like they were already acquainted.

“I’m Alma, by the way!” she chirped, trying her best to lighten the mood. “Nice to meet you!”

As if this wasn’t an entirely unfortunate situation already. She tried to just be positive, keep the kindest smile on her face and listen to whatever the boy had to say. There was no way she could make this any less awkward than it already was.

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@Bubba McGarry

Bubba was pleased to see that his message had gotten through and that girl, who now that he could see her almost certainly had to be a Hufflepuff. She looked a little worse for wear, probably not a fan of the dark, but she was okay and unhurt. She immediately rushed over to him and he saw the Hufflepuff badge on her chest. That would explain why he didn't know her. He was still trying to keep the first-year Ravenclaws straight in his head. "I'm not sure," he said weakly to himself as he stood back from the door and turned to lean against the frame. He was pretty sure he'd heard a snap when he made contact with the door the last time.

The touch on the shoulder, oddly enough, didn't really hurt, but there was a throbbing pain in his upper arm. He allowed her to gently lead him into the hallway. As she turned to look back at him, he leaned against the wall and slowly slouched down to a sitting position, "I don't know," he said, still fairly weakly. "I think I might've broken my arm." As she thanked him he smiled up at her, it probably looked pained but was still warm. "You're welcome, always happy to rescue one of George's lost badgers."

He winced in pain as she asked if he needed to be checked out. There was no urge to be macho and say he was fine. He was in proper pain and he knew that he couldn't ride this out. He didn't dare try to move it. "I think I'd better, I don't know anyone who knows how to mend broken bones, and I really do think this is broken, I'm in a lot of pain." He tried to stand to get up but that simply was not possible at the moment. "Hospital Wing for me, definitely." He said and then laughed more to himself than anyone else, even that hurt a little bit, "Ha, before I knew you were in there I thought I was going to have to go up because a tapestry was talking to me."

He was starting to get a bit delirious from the pain now. He'd been in accidents before but this was definitely the most pain he'd ever been in. His eyes slid in and out of focus as the pain reached its peak. "Nice to meet you Alma," he said with a weak smile, "I'm Bubba."

Interacting: @Alma Stoll Mentioning: @ N/A

The mention of George had her puzzled at first, but she soon realized what he meant with a quick glance at her yellow robes. “Oh, right…you know George Henry?”

That was a bit of a stupid question - of course he did. Why else would he bring him up? But then again, her mind was too clouded over with concern to do anything other than worry about the Ravenclaw’s broken arm.

She scanned the section of corridor they were in and saw no one. It must’ve been getting rather late, but at this point she couldn’t really care. She scrambled to sit down next to the injured boy to offer some comfort. She winced herself as he tried to stand, rushing to hold her arms up as if she could catch him in the event that he fell. It seemed standing wasn’t possible at this point though.

“Oh dear….” she said as he mentioned the Hospital Wing. “I really am sorry, if I hadn’t gotten stuck in there then you wouldn’t exactly be having this problem right now..”

She giggled a bit at the tapestry tale. “It is quite an an ugly thing, don’t you think?” she asked, gesturing to the very tapestry that got them into this mess. “I’m not sure that green and that red pair together very well.”

She wished she could offer a smile of her own but all she could do was frown at the pained smile on Bubba’s face. Gosh, of course it had to be today that she got stuck in a blasted closet and now was sitting late evening in the corridor with a broken-armed second year. “Lovely name,” she said, craning her neck to take another look at his arm.

It looked entirely impossible that he was getting up anytime soon; especially on his own. Perhaps she could just make some small talk. “So…how long have you been here? At the school, I mean, I-I should say what year. What year are you in?”

She stuttered over her words. Perhaps it was the adrenaline still from being locked in there or perhaps it was the anxiety that came with talking to (seemingly) an upperclassman. “I’m only in my first year…although you could probably guess that just by looking at me. I’m not exactly Quinn Healy, if you noticed.”

She couldn’t help but spare another look at his broken arm. “I think I better help you up there…doesn’t look like you’ll get far by yourself. Here,”

She stood and offered a hand to him, realizing that he wouldn’t be in the perfect position to take it. So she took initiative and kneeled, wrapping her arm around him strategically and slinging his good arm over her shoulder so he could lean on her if needed.

Although their difference in age, it wasn’t that difficult to lift him. They were both the same height and Alma was decently strong - not everybody can lift themself up on their broom whilst dangling nearly 50 feet in the air. Luckily, he put up no fight and easily let Alma help him up.

“Just lean on me while we walk until you feel a little less dizzy,” she said. She paused a minute to make sure he was good to go before she took a step. “Just let me know when to move.”

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@Bubba McGarry
mentioning: @George Henry

"Yeah, George and I are friends," Bubba said in a pained voice as he settled on the floor once again, "And don't worry about it, it's hard to resist the allure of an unlocked, darkened room you've never seen before." He tried to joke good-naturedly, not that it really worked. He tried to tell the joke through gritted teeth while trying to offer a pained smile at the same time. The end result was simply a pretty stupid look on his face. Oh well, it was really the least of his problems at this precise moment.

When she came to his name he gave a little chuckle that hurt him a bit (in fairness at this point just existing hurt) but managed a real smile this time, "Thanks. A lot of people say that but I'm pretty sure they think it's silly. I'm named after a friend of my father's from the deep south." He paused for a moment before shrugging his non-injured shoulder, making himself look a bit hunchbacked for a moment. "It's different but it's my name, and hey, never get confused with a fellow student."

Despite being in severe pain, Bubba couldn't help but be a smartass when Alma asked him how long he'd been there. "Oh... you know... I suspect I got here a couple of minutes after you got stuck in here." He strained himself to give her a playful wink as he shifted his weight slightly. The floor was not comfortable. "I am a second-year. So not all that much older than you all things considered. And yes, I figured you were a first-year. Not by your stature, I just don't remember seeing you last year." He paused for a moment before offering an explanation, "It's a pretty small castle. You may not know everyone by name but eventually you'll at least know them by sight." He did admit as an afterthought, however, "I don't know Quinn though, well at least not by name, but I'm sure I've seen him around."

Bubba offered no resistance when she tried to help him up. He'd rather do it himself but he wouldn't reject help when he needed it. Very carefully, with her assistance, he stood and lifted himself off the cold for. "Thanks," he said as he used her to steady himself and they set off for the hospital wing.

Interacting: @Alma Stoll Mentioning: @ N/A

“No problem!” She began leading him through the corridors in the direction of the hospital wing - she only hoped she actually knew where she was going. She’d never officially been there herself yet, so she only had a vague idea of where it was.

Thankfully, he didn’t offer up any resistance so she decided to keep it moving as fast as she could without hurting him. Can’t have him going and damaging his arm even more. It wasn’t too hard to hold him up, only a few stumbles here and there, but it was getting quite awkwardly quiet, so she raised a little bit more conversation.

“Sorry again for…y’know…breaking your arm. I appreciate you getting me out!” Boy, was that a true statement. If she didn’t get out of that closet when she did, she would’ve had a full blown panic attack and probably would have been there all night.

She sighed deeply as she looked around at the nearly empty halls. They must’ve been cutting it close with curfew. Alma had never had detention before - hopefully she wouldn’t have to start now. She looked back to Bubba and only now did she notice his shiny prefect badge. “Oh wow, you’re a prefect?! That’s awesome!”

Being a prefect, (or anyone on the Hogwarts staff really), held a lot of respect in the eyes of Alma Stoll. Her own mother was a Ravenclaw prefect when she came to this school. She assumed it to be a hard job, having to monitor all the students and hand out detentions. “Have you given any detentions before? That must be scary, having to get a kid in trouble on purpose.”

She kept walking and tripped on her shoe a bit, sending her almost falling forward. Her top priority at the moment, however, was keeping Bubba held up so she firmly planted her foot before she could fall and made sure nothing was pressing down on his arm. She looked and thankfully he had not flattened like a pancake on the floor.

“You okay?” she asked. “Sorry, a bit clumsy. Just let me know when you feel like you can walk on your own.”

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@Bubba McGarry

"Seriously, don't worry about it." Bubba said as Alma led him up to the Hospital Wing. Surely they'd be there soon, right? He didn't think he'd ever been in this much pain. Thankfully for him, he hadn't been a particularly clumsy child. He'd fallen out of a tree a couple of times but he'd thankfully never broken anything. Even in the car accident where his magic revealed itself for the first time, he'd escaped with nothing more but bumps and bruises. Unfortunately, this was considerably more than a bump or bruise. It was not fun in the slightest. Even the pain he had been in when Hunter poisoned him last year paled in comparison to this.

He was bemused when she marveled at him being a prefect. "I am," he said with a weak chuckle, "I think that surprised a lot of people, myself included." He said as he limped along with her support. "I got good grades last term but.. well I wasn't the most model student. And certainly wasn't an angel." He'd gotten a detention right at the end of term for what he was now referring to as The Lake Incident. That was the fateful day when Sienna Miller had chucked him into the lake for no good reason. He was still salty about the detention but not as much anymore. It had led to him meeting Sam and she was wonderful, even if she had given him the detention. He was so giddy with excitement about going to the ball with her that the pain in his arm seemed to lessen when he thought about it. He resolved to try to keep that feeling. "Honestly, I just try to do my best to prove Professor Iwasaki was right to trust me with it."

Bubba gave a hearty laugh when Alma asked if he'd ever given a detention. He thought back fondly to the time he'd spent with George on the first Saturday back. Time well spent. It had been fun and George had helped him finally understand what was going on between him and Sam. "Yes, and no, but mostly no." He said as they continued walking. He was glad that she was keeping him talking, it distracted him from the pain. "George laughed at me when I got stuck in an invisible stair first week back. I gave him a 'detention' but it was really just an invitation to come and have tea."

When Alma almost fell he became more worried about her than himself. "Hey, are you ok?" He asked as he shifted some of his weight off her so she could keep her balance better. She recovered after a moment and they kept walking. Fortunately, a minute later they found themselves at the door to the hospital wing.

"Thanks, I'm not sure I would've made it up unassisted," he said as he took his weight off her and opened the door. He walked in and left the door open for her to follow him. He hobbled over to the nearest bed and sat down. He quietly hoped that this would just be a quick visit. After he sat down he called out, "Nurse Frogge, are you in?"

Interacting: @Alma Stoll, @Polonius Frogge Mentioning: @ N/A

It didn’t matter one bit when Bubba told her not to worry about it - she was still going to regardless. Nevertheless, she still simply sighed and kept walking.

The laugh she received at her detention question was rewarded with a confused smile, listening as he explained his “detention” story. Although giving him a detention might’ve been a far step from just asking him to hang out, the story made her laugh and she thought it sweet.

“I don’t know George that well yet, but, he seems fun to hang out with!”

Her small tumble was met with some sweet concern, but she didn’t need it. She mainly wanted to make sure he was okay. “Yeah, i’m fine! Thank you, though.”

They finally reached the door and she was relieved for a second when she felt the weight get pulled off of her, but at the same time she braced her arms in front of her to ensure he wouldn’t fall. They went inside and she followed him to the bed they sat at, standing awkwardly beside him, looking around for Nurse Frogge.

For a second, she pondered wether she should really be here or not. I mean…she got him to the Hospital Wing all in one piece, mostly. But would it be rude to just leave him here when really, she was the cause of all this? She decided to just stay put next to him. Moral support was always good.

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@Bubba McGarry @Polonius Frogge
mentioning: @George Henry