au_hogwarts | (no subject)

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Since having found out there's going to be an explorer's club as well as some help regarding his charms work in the future, Tyler's gotten to be pretty relaxed and happy. He's got a few friends, who for today, aren't with him in the hallway right now, as he heads up to the library to look up more things on charms to try and at least PASS that class.

That's why, jogging up the passage towards the library, he's woefully unprepared for the group of Slytherin fourth years, just coming OUT of the library. It's why he freezes upon seeing Charles Brigman, the fourth year he ended up getting caught for filching, just as the bigger, meaner boy catches sight of him, and then runs.

"buggerbuggerbugger."

He is no match for Brigman with a wand, and while he's Gryffindor, he is not a bloody minded fool.

"EAT SLUGS YOU LITTLE SQUIB!"

"BUGGER!"

He's not going to dodge the next blast, so there's a first year, running for all he's worth down the passageway.

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Tyler's head peers out of the shadows just above the shield and towards where he last heard Brigman mouthing off...

"..coming down in a moment."

Mel steps back, giving the wall an appraising look.

"Much room up there?"

...Tyler glances back.

"..there's a tunnel up here, it's just big enough to crawl through comfortably." He replies, squeezing over to inch towards the sheild again. "Haven't gone to look where it leads yet though."

"Get back, then."

It's all the warning she gives, before hitting the wall at a run, pishing the shield aside, and with fingertips fiding the edge of the tunnel and toes finding an uneven stone, she's folding into the tunnel alongside him, moving the shield back into place behind her. It blocks out all the light from the corridor.

!! She can probably hear him starting a little at her leap up into the tunnel before he's scuttled back into the small space. Then with the light gone, it's just the noise of him moving further down the tunnel to give her space.

Mel stays at the mouth of the tunnel long enough to pull her wand out of her belt, mutter "lumos rubeus" under her breath, and hold her wand out at arm's length, illuminating the tunnel with a gentle red glow.

"Huh. How'd you find this place, kid?"

"The air moved funny near the wall. I found it my first week here." Tyler answers, honest and conversationally. "I get chased a lot, so I keep track of where I find odd spots in the castle."

"You know there's a corridor of all mirrors that only shows up on Tuesdays?"

"Yeah, but only most Tuesdays," Mel says. "You can tell if it's not gonna be there 'cause the weeping knight on the south end has a horse if its Tuesday and there's no mirrors. I dunno why."

She's half distracted, peering down the tunnel and crawling forward. "Pretty good find, this. For a firstie."

"It's not the greatest, but it works really well." Tyler nods, agreeing that this is a good find for him at least. "Kind of thinking I'll keep it to myself, stead of sharing with the explorer's club meeting.

Then he stops up ahead, because the tunnel has taken a lovely sudden drop, with the passage staying the same size.

"Drop ahead."

"How deep?"

That's the important question for Mel. The second one comes thoughtfully, a second later.

"What's Explorer's Club?"

"It's a club that's getting started up by Kirika, since most students don't know that much about Hogwarts, and all of the passages." Tyler answers, squeezing over. "Can you get your wand over the edge to show some light down there?"

Mel knows the name Kirika as one of the first years in her own house. She knows nothing else about her. And she's not sure how she feels about first years covering all her shortcuts around the place.

She slides past him with the gentlest of brushes as she squeezes through the space, and pokes the wand down over the edge.

"About two and a half metres," she says. "Looks like it straighten out again at the bottom."

She then puts her wand in her mouth so it sticks out horizontally at either side, then scoots back in the tunnel a bit to give her room to turn around and throw her feet down first.

It's a tightish fit, but that just helps her arrest her fall with her feet, dropping down in three bursts.

...Tyler's a bit smaller so he's coming down by a few decimeters at a time, because he doesn't have the body size to give himself enough pressure.

"Anyways, the history professor's sponsoring the group if enough people join. The sign up sheets went around the tables a couple of weeks ago."

Mel has moved down the new level tunnel a little way, holding her wand back to give him light.

"Ross? Figures. She's got some sort of thing about getting people out into the castle. Cuts right into my History of Magic naptime."

"I think she..." Grunt. "Wants students to pay more attention to what's around em....wasn't the old History of Magic Professor just a few..." Grunt. "Dozen times more boring anyways?"

"Yeah, but he never pretended his subject was anything but," Mel says conversationally. "That's where the naptimes came from."

"I find it interesting, it's one of the few classes that I'm probably going to pass this year without getting any trips to the infirmary." Tyler admits openly before he drops the short distance into the level tunnel.

"Oh yeah?" says Mel, making sure he's safe on the level before turning back.

"Maybe you can do my homework for me."

"Maybe, not to be rude, but what'll you do for me if I do it?"

Fair trade of work and all that.

Mel pauses in her crawling to peer back past her hip at him.

"Maybe I'll teach you Brigman's weak spots."

She's had plenty of time to discover, for example, that he's more likely to cry if you kick him in the side of his ankle than if you go for his stomach.

"...that sounds like a fair plan." Tyler murmurs, looking forward. "...you know the snack cart lady on the train cursed him since he tried to steal her till?"

"That was him."

It's relatively toneless, flat, but with all the weight of a final irritating piece of a puzzle being slotted into space.

"Idiot. He's got all the store keepers in Hogsmeade leery of students."

Particularly Slytherins.

"Yeah, he's pretty much a grade F buttweasel."

"Don't have to tell me that," Mel says, looking forward now as she crawls. "I've been in his house for three years."

"I'm sorry that you have to take classes with him. He must really cut into your nap time on other courses too," Tyler mutters. "...how're you in Potions class?"