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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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The corridor outside the library intersects (On Thursdays) with another corridore that happens to lie on the most direct route between the herbology greenhouses and the Slytherin common room.

And it just so happens that Melaka Fray, who has a habit of making bets with the seventh years about what she can or can't steal from the Professors, has just had a narrow escape in the Herbology greenhouses and wants to put as big a distance between them and herself as quickly as possible.

Usually she has pretty good spatial awarenesws. Today she is sprinting all out down that corridor.

Naturally, the resultig collision is spectacular.

"Whough!"

It would be almost comical, the way Tyler blindly and fully runs into the larger student at full speed. If it weren't for the little fact that he's been chased by larger students, and has just lost what ground he gained in the collision.

A gasped 'Sorry!" is the best he can manage as he tries to untangle himself from Mel before Brigman gets his first shot of 'eat slugs' off.

Mel isn't that much bigger than Tyler himself. She's certaily pretty small for a fourteen year old, and is knocked to the floor, where they skid for a few feet under combined momentum.

Small, but quick, strong, and very angry. She pushes the kid off herself, and then gives him a more violent shove, hard away from her, just as the blast of the curse shoots between them and is lost in the air.

"Hey!" she snaps, roudning on her classmates. "What's the big idea? That almost hit me!"

"Then stand out of the way!" Charles snaps back at her, readying another volley of the curse. "He's mine!"

Tyler meanwhile, would like very much not to spend the rest of the day in the infirmary barfing, so it's an attempt to get up and run like buggery again for the rest of the corridor, away from the Slytherin commons room.

And yet, somehow, Mel doesn't stand out of the way. In fact, she stands up, directly between Charles and the scarpering first year, chin out and stubborn.

"What's the matter, Charlie? Finally found someone you weren't scared of?"

There are three of them and one of her. They have wands and she hasn't bothered drawing hers.

And yet, soon it's likely to be just Brigman, because his friends - finally proving themselves faster learners after only three years, start backing away slowly.

"He's going to pay!" Charles shouts back still angry and defiant, though the bluster is rapidly draining out of him as his friends back off. "Where're you two going??"

"Get out of the way, that stupid squib has earned every slug he's going to be vomiting up!"

Slytherin's Beater rolls her eyes and casually folds her arms lightly in front of her chest. But she doesn't get out of the way.

"What'd he do? Use a big word you didn't understand? Try the Groundskeeper's Manticore. I bet she's closer to your intelligence level."

She doesn't look over her shoulder, but she hopes the little squirt had the sense to keep running.

...dude, he's pulled of a good disappearing act at any rate, because as Charles tries to shove his way around Mel, there isn't a sneakered sign of the first year anywhere in the corridor.

"Damn it Fray, mind your own goddamn business and go steal something from Aquam!" Charles snarls.

Trying to push past her wasn't a good idea, because when he does that, she grabs his wrist, just above his wand hand.

She's smaller and him, and a girl, but she has a grip like iron.

"Get out of my face, Charlie," she says.

Which, y'know, would be easier if she wasn't grabbing him right now.

"Come on Charles, there'll be another chance to get him later..." One of his friends call from further back the way they came form.

As for the bully..well..Charles is hissing at the grip she's got on his wrist before he drops his wand. He'll leave, but that doesn't mean that this is over with.

No, it isn't over. But Mel's had her eye on him for years, and she's itching for an excuse to snap that wand.

"I catch you picking on the firsties again, Charlie boy, I'm gonna use you for bludger practice."

She scowls right in his face, and yanks her hand to give him a nasty twist on that wrist, then kicks his wand down toeards his mates before letting go. "Go to the infirmary. No way any of you morons can do a decent spell."

"...watch yourself Fray." Charles mutters, holding his wrist with a hiss before he runs back to join his two friends and make their hasty exit for the hallway that will lead to the infirmary today.

...With those three idiots gone, she can probably hear the very soft scrape of sneakers on stone overhead. And a shield on the wall that is just slightly askew.

She can and does, and glances up, first at the shield then further up to the sound.

"You coming down or do I have t'come up?"

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.