Approximately 8:00 PM

He knew it was against the rules to practice magic in the hallways—but this one was empty and the classes that were usually empty just were not as enticing as they usually were. Plus, this hallway was super long, and it was just the right length for him to practice illusion spells from a distance. He was getting help from his creepy, eccentric doppleganger. No matter how mean Leo had been to Eli, that kid just would not back off. Eventually, Leo gave up and was actually sometimes nice to Eli, though he would never admit it. The other guy was starting to grow on him on one hand, while on the other he was perpetually irritated by him.

“What’s that one—the one that makes people think they’re in Africa or a hospital or something?” Leo mused, looking at Eli from the corner of his eye. It was like looking in a mirror. Or no, not a mirror—it was more like some sort of strange, wealthier version of him from another dimension. They both even wore similar colors! “Illusiato? Illusio? Doesn’t it usually need to be more specific?” He frowned and then shrugged. It didn’t hurt to try, right? Leonardo pointed at the end of the hallway, “Illusi—oh, joder!” Leo cursed, dropping his wand. The appearance of a younger female had startled him.

As the wand hit the ground, everything went white.

Then he was somewhere else.

He saw Eli. He saw this Hogwarts girl. But everything else was different. There were walls where walls weren’t before. The walls that had been there just moments ago were gone. Leo touched one of the newer walls and his hand went right through it.

Oh god.

He didn’t just die, did he? He wasn’t a ghost, was he?!  Leonardo looked at Eli in a panic and took his bookbag off his shoulder and threw it down the hall angrily, “Me cago en todo lo que se menea! En Dios!!![1]” He did not even think about the fact that the bookbag was hurtling towards somebody’s face.

1.	Literally translates to, "I shit on everything that moves! On god!" It is an exclamation of frustration that is apparently, common in Spain.

The day had been busy... and long. Every day was long lately. She didn't move as fast as she used to to get away from crowds like usual if she even tried at all. Most of the time she just didn't care anymore. As someone had suggested she'd tried writing a letter to her father, but any words that managed their way onto the paper didn't make sense, were complete gibberish, or were things that would break his heart, and so the papers would go into the fire. Sleep evaded her every night and so, tonight, she decided to try studying somewhere quiet.

Where she went turned out to not be so quiet. Looking up in surprise she noticed everything suddenly, change. Glancing around she wondered what the boy a short distance down the hall had done. Moira looked back as he seemed to cuss in another language only to see a book bag hurling at her face. Her eyes went wide, not having time to move out of the way. When it hit, she heard a very solid crunch before her nose and face abrupted with pain.

"Shite!" Her hand flew to her nose, her own book having landed forgotten, as blood gushed out of it so that she had to breathe through her mouth. "What have you done, dobber?![1]" Pulling off the scarf she still had over her shoulders she put  it to her nose and tilted her head back. It hurt.

1.	Translation: Idiot.

Elijah, in the past couple years, had gotten away from his bad boy past. These days, Elijah was scared to break even the smallest of rules, and it was all time for that to change. Perhaps it was the added hanging out time with his alternate universe twin, or maybe it was just embracing his old personality before it was too late. Either way, the Ravenclaw boy was out to make a change for the worse and the first step to making that happen was breaking the rules.

 Magic in the halls was strictly forbidden at Hogwarts, and though they probably wouldn’t get in trouble (even if caught), it still sent a rush of adrenalin through Eli’s system knowing that they were doing something naughty. He’d set up shield charms at both ends of the corridor, so if anything went wrong, at least it’d be contained to the hall they were in, and not long after, Eli was glad he had. Things started happening in quick succession, and even with the Grimlish’s quick reflexes, it was hard to keep up.

First, Leo dropped his wand mid-incantation. Not good. Then some ladyface came barreling down the hallway, only to get knocked in the face with a flying bag that Eli had no clue where it had come from. And through all this, Eli was standing on a three foot wide island in the middle of an ocean, with Leo and Moria standing on the waves silhouetted by an endless horizon. The sound of the crashing waves resounded in the Ravenclaw’s ears, and Eli had to commend his non-twin-that-is-a-twin on his ability to cast such a believable illusion. Actually, Eli was a little jealous.

“Don’t move!” He called through the mess, even as blood dripped into the fake water, attracting fake sharks. He could throw a minor healing spell Moria’s way, but if Leo’s spell was strong enough, and there was an illusionary wall between he and she, then the spell would go awry and somehow Eli just didn’t think that more magic was the answer to their current problem.

“Shite Leo, what have you managed to do?” He asked, a grin popping up on his face, even though the situation probably warranted a bit more of a frown. This was epic.

Ah!

That girl was yelling. How annoying. “I don’t know what happened!” He exclaimed. Nor did he know how to fix it. He had never performed an illusion on a mass group-- maybe on individual people, but not on himself. Or did he somehow change the environment? Oh,Madame Bisclavet was going to kill him. He tried to rush over to Moira but he ran into a wall that just wasn’t there and knocked his head.  He turned around, disoriented. They were moving. Moira nd Eli were floating.

“Get over here! I need to fix your nose!” He exclaimed, but they kept floating. “What are you doing? Stop it.” He slowly made his way over to Moira, who was still ‘floating.’ and tried to pull the cloth away from her. “I can fix it. C’mon.” He rolled his eyes at her. He looked back at Eli, who was now spinning in circles. “What do you see?” He asked, looking away. It was starting to make him dizzy.  Although he could probably make  Moira’s nose stop bleeding, he didn’t think he would be able to fix this illusion. He wasn't sure if everyone was seeing the same thing he was, or if their perceptions were totally different.

Secretly, he was a bit impressed at himself for being able to perform thiis kind of magic. However, he didn’t know the counterspell, and he couldn’t just fix it on his own.

“It’s impressive, isn’t it?” He finally said, acknowledging that this kind of magic was often difficult to perform. And difficult to undo.

This was going to be fun.

Ah, not moving was perfectly fine with her. Her eyes were closed until the boy who had caused this mess was yelling at her to get over there so he could fix her nose. Moira eyed him apprehensively and he awkwardly made his way over, but she wouldn't let him take the scarf away. "Pardon me, as amazing as this illusion is, if I'd rather wait to get to a healer." Her voice sounded funny even to her. Stupid broken noses.

Once the second boy had been asked what he saw, Moira decided to actually look around the hallway and what her illusion was. She knew the question hadn't been directed at her, but... "A cave with a little tide pool. There's... oh if only that were the real thing!" Her eyes widened in excitement at the false animal sitting not quite out of the water. "An Amphibious Dog... It would be great to study if it were real..."

Annoyed that he was still tugging at the scarf she gave him a half glare and stepped back, only to find the wall covered in bugs. While she didn't mind insects in general, having a bunch suddenly move under her back was highly unpleasant, and she ended up jumping away... right into the 7th year once again. "Along with lots and lots of bugs... oh that felt weird."

She wasn't sure if this was true of all twins, or only the set that she was a part of, but Evie carried a distress signal inside of her at all times, which tended to go off when her brother was making a mess. Most of the time she had enough sense to ignore it. Eli was always making a mess of things, and the signal was constantly sounding, warning her that before long she'd probably hear (second-hand) about some catastrophe that her brother was at the center of. Today's catastrophe was harder than usual to ignore, however. Not only were her distress bells ringing away, but, from where she was walking, she could hear his voice echoing through the quiet part of the castle – specifically, she'd heard loud swearing followed by an exclamation that suggested, what else but a giant mess!? She supposed it was best to investigate. It was out of her way, but Evie seldom minded an adventure.

She didn't realize she was stepping into a shielded hallway, nor a hallway whose occupants were all independently occupying their own little worlds. All she saw was a small cluster of students, her brother among them, who seemed to be in an odd configuration. Ah, and there was blood. She couldn't tell, for the life of her, what was actually going on here, but she was certain that something was going on.

”Along with lots and lots of bugs... oh that felt weird.”

“Bugs?” Evie asked curiously, approaching the cluster of addled students. She looked around, her eyes scanning the walls, the floor, the people themselves... but she came up empty. “I don't see any bugs,” she concluded mildly. Her eyes fell on the bleeding girl who'd spoken. “You shouldn't tip your head back like that, you know, unless you want to die. You might choke on your own blood and asphyxiate. I thought I'd mention that.” Although she felt in her heart that something more than a bloody nose was wrong with this picture, she had no clues to help her. She glanced up at the group of them again, cocking her head to one side like she was studying a sculpture at a museum. “You all look very peculiar,” she remarked softly. As far as catastrophes went, this one seemed particularly mild so far.

This was epic! There was rampant magic, blood, and screaming matches – totally what Elijah needed to jumpstart his dormant pranksterisms. A smile crept onto his face, though he knew the situation didn’t really warrant it. He sniffed the air, trying hard to catch the coppery scent of blood in the air but only getting a nose full of salty spray. That’s when he heard her voice and Elijah visibly winced. Either the illusion was a really exceptionally powerful one, or his twin had meandered into the scene… and that simply couldn’t be good.

“She’s right, you know,” He shouted down the hall, unaware of how loud his voice sounded – his own ears filled with the sound of rushing waves. He glanced toward Evie, wondering if she was seeing something odd or if walking in after the charm was cast made her safe. Magic was a funny thing, and unless you had complete control on it, the finicky stuff would run away with you in unexpected ways. “You could try episkey, but I dunno if it’s really a good idea to try more magic until we get this sorted,” He said, shaking his head slightly.

He ventured forward a step, then another, until he placed his foot directly on the water and shuddered when it stayed firmly atop the waves. It was such a peculiar feeling – walking on water – and it kinda gave Elijah a power complex. “Guys, I’m walking on water. This is so queer. Anyone thought of just using finite to get rid of it?”