Sunday, March 21

As much as Mysti would much prefer being outside for practicing schoolwork, the amount of rain recently had been putting a stop on that. So now she found herself in the usually empty corridor on the third floor. It had been a usual favorite when she felt like being alone, or needed quiet from the common room. Often times she’d be fine doing homework around others, but for some spell-work she preferred it to be quieter.

Today she was sitting against a wall and reading a few chapters of the charms book. Every so often she’d practice some with erasers or quills. Making things move then stop, disappear and reappear. Most of it was fairly simple. There was a section on flying charms, which Mysti was interested to try. Pulling out her wand, she read the passage again and practiced the wand movement. Not much paying attention to what she was doing, she said the incantation along with the wand movement.

After the third time, something happened. Except there was someone else who she hadn’t realized joined her in the hallway. The spell hit the other person and Mysti jerked her head up to see what happened.

Outside it was dreary and rainy; not the type of weather that was amenable to lingering outside for a bit of good-natured relaxation.  Which was unfortunate.  After a long winter - and one far too dark for Migs' liking - the shadowy, stone corridors of the Hogwarts castle made the young man feel restless.  Between study sessions, he'd taken to wandering the corridors in an aimless fashion, just as he might meander the lawns or the edges of the forest. 

He'd spotted the Hufflepuff as he'd turned the corner at the end of the corridor.  He recognized her from classes but, after only a few months milling amongst the native Hogwarts students, Migs hadn't come close to learning all their names.  He started down the corridor towards her, trying to think of someway of approaching the conversation without it being painfully obvious that, for the life of him, he couldn't remember her name. 

Migs smiled, opened his mouth to greet the young woman when he felt the charm hit his legs.  Instantly, he felt his ankles pulled back and up towards the ceiling.  "That's a - oow," Migs started to say as he was hoisted in the air.  As his levitation turned him upside down, his brow had just clipped the stone floor, sending a few slight bright flashes into his field of vision.  By the time his vision had cleared, his feet had come to rest on the bottom of the ceiling and he was looking down at his hair falling towards the floor from his head. 

Rubbing his forehead, he looked at the Hufflepuff.  "Looks like you mastered that one!" he offered with a grin.  Glancing down at the hard stone floor, he quickly added: "Maybe don't release it right away?  As thick as it is, I don't think my skull would survive another hit."

Mysti’s head jerked up when she realized someone had joined her in the hallway. And then she jumped up faster than a seeker who saw the golden snitch. The girl moved a bit closer to the other student. She winced as she watched his head graze the floor before settling himself upside-down on the ceiling.

“I’M SO SORRY.” She exclaimed. “I didn’t see you and didn’t know how well that’d work!”

She took a moment to look at exactly who it was that she’d spelled while he talked. Judging by his accent, he was of the Americans from the Salem Institute.  And “tall, dark, and handsome” was a good way to describe him. Of course, Mysti shouldn’t exactly be checking him out as he was hanging upside down from the ceiling due to a spells she probably shouldn’t have been practicing in a hallway. Either way, he was attractive, and she still needed to figure out a way to get him off the ceiling.

“Is your head okay? And um… well… I could do the counter-spell… but that’d probably just make you drop. And I’ve got decent arm strength, but probably couldn’t do much to catch you if you fell off the ceiling.” She looked around in vain for something that could soften a fall, but there was a severe lack of pillows in the corridor. “Why are there never pillows when you need them? Or a giant marshmallow? I mean, again. I’m sorry. Any ideas?”

Her mind kept jumping around but it was the best she could do when affronted by the problem. Because honestly, who thought of a giant marshmallow? Finite incantatem would most likely get him down from the ceiling, but she didn't want to hurt him further than she already had.

Still rubbing the crown of his head, Migs gazed down at the Hufflepuff, grinning between brief grimaces.  "Seems your success took us both by surprise," he offered with a grin.  "It is an interesting predicament." 

Another student, a Slytherin by the looks of it, passed by the end of the corridor and cast a fleeting glance as he moved through the corridor's intersection.  A second later, the rubbernecker stepped back into the intersection, apparently needing a few extra moments to fully process the scene.  The onlooker shook his head and, with a derisive snort, continued on his way. 

"Naw," Migs offered, trying to wave off the apologies.  Of course, doing so required lifting his arm up against gravity and the gesture was awkwardly misaligned.  "It feels a bit like I took a hoof to the head but I've survived that many times before.  Casting the counter-spell, though-"  He looked towards the ceiling and then at the Hufflepuff.  Migs wasn't quite a giant and the young woman certainly wasn't teeny but he doubted her attempt to catch him would save his cranium.  "If there were pillows lining the corridors, I'm not sure I'd ever make it to class.  I'd be catnapping all over the castle." 

Migs gave up fighting gravity and let his arms fall over his head towards the floor.  Was there any option that didn't end with him landing on his head?  "If only I were taller.  Or the corridor was shorter," he thought aloud.  He waved his hands in the air.  "If I could reach the floor, I could handstand down.  But, aren't there spells on the castle or something?"  He remembered someone saying that.  Either way, he doubted the castle's only defense against students doing renovations was relying on the students not to try. 

When the other student down the hall passed by, Mysti looked a bit embarrassed.  Then again, she wasn’t the one hanging upside-down like a bat on the ceiling.  She looked back at the bat-man and tried thinking some more.  He made some decent suggestions, but unfortunately nothing that would work too well.

“Yes, I’m sure there are some spells on the castle.  Probably many years of misbehaving students to warrant that.” If only there was some way she could think of to keep him from falling when she reversed it… “Well, there’s the freezing charm, but if I cast it before, it’d stop when I stopped the flying charm.  If I cast it after, I’d have to be really fast about casting it before you fell. So I’m not sure how well that’d work.”

There had to be some other way! Mysti racked her brain trying to think of other spells.  Transfigure something? That wouldn’t help probably. There had to be some sort of charm to help. The Hufflepuff closed her eyes and tried sorting through the spells in her mind to think of something. Then, it hit her! Her book! She could make the book bigger until his hands could reach it so he could steady himself when she stopped the flying charm! Thankfully she’d already learned the engorgement charm and its counter.

“Perfect!” She exclaimed, putting the book down under the other student. “Engorgio!”

The book began to grow in size, until it was large enough to reach the hanging student’s hands. Stopping her wand movement, she smiled excitedly up at him.

“That should be big enough, right? And now you should be able to steady yourself when I release the charm!”

"Misbehaving students?"  Migs repeated back with an exaggerated air of confused ignorance.  "Never heard of such a thing.  Aren't we always-" he'd started to elaborate as he looked up (or down, depending on your perspective) at the ceiling and shuffled his feet in a feigned gesture of awkward fidgiting. 

Instantly, it became apparent the shuffling had been a mistake.  The movement of his feet dislodged a layer of dust, cobwebs and aged stone that seemed to have accumulated from years of neglected ceiling cleaning.  Migs closed his eyes and brushed his hand over his face, trying to protect himself from the falling debris while he waited for the shower to subside.  He was still trying to brush the itchy stuff off his chin and out of his hair when he heard the Hufflepuff's other suggestions.  All of which seemed to promise a high likelihood of collision with the ground.  Except.

Migs blinked a few stray bits of dust from his eyes as he watched the young woman put the book on the ground beneath him.  At first, he could only watch in confusion but, with a quick spell, her plan became clear.  He grinned as she lowered her wand and reached his arms up (or, again, perhaps down) over his head.  He had to stretch his arms just a little bit but he was, in fact, able to reach. 

"This might work!" he announced with a grin, bracing his arms in preparation for when they'd find themselves suddenly supporting the full weight of his body.  With his arms and torso stretched towards the floor, his shirt tails began falling free from the waistline of his jeans. 

Migs nodded, readjusting the position of his hands.  "Alright.  I think I'm ready.  Might as well see how it goes."

Mysti coughed a bit as the dust fell from the ceiling. That was one thing she hadn’t really thought about in the castle, ceiling dust. One didn’t really stop and stare at the ceiling around Hogwarts much. There were always portraits on the walls and suits of armor to distract you, not to mention all the other students and things going on. And people hardly ever walked on the ceiling, except for now apparently.

“Perhaps we should tell someone the ceiling needs cleaning…”

Then she was distracted and glad to see that her idea might work well.  And the American student seemed to think the idea was good too. She watched as he stretched out, able to reach the top of the now giant book. Mysti did her best to not be distracted by the way his shirt was trying to come untucked from his trousers, and focused on the spell at hand.

“Okay. Here goes.” She took a deep breath, and said the spell. “Finite Incantatem!”

She nervously watched to make sure that he didn’t come completely flying off the ceiling and onto the floor.

During the next few seconds, they would be discovering once and for all whether her idea would work.  The Hufflepuff raised her wand to cast the counter spell and Migs tensed the muscles in his arms, readying himself for when his hands would inevitably find themselves supporting his whole body. 

As the spell ended, Migs' boots disconnected from the ceiling and his weight shifted suddenly to his arms.  His balance wobbled as gravity took hold in awkward angles and he had to shift his arms to keep himself from toppling over.  He remained in the head stand for a few brief moments until he'd oriented himself enough to ensure his feet would both drop in the same direction.  Then, with a sigh of relief, his feet touched ground.  He straightened upright then immediately thought better of it as the blood that had collected in his head started rushing back towards the ground. 

He started to laugh and he leaned against one of the walls of the corridor, letting his head hang forward slightly as he waited for his head to clear.  "Man, that's a rush!" he admitted, looking up and grinning broadly at the Hufflepuff.  "Safe to say, I think you've got both those spells nailed." 

There was at least on good thing that had come out of the whole ordeal: Migs had a definite reason to greet the young woman and he no longer felt guilty for not remembering her name.  "Name's Leonard Nagde, by the way.  Though most call me Migs.  Saves you at least a second or two."  He held out a hand to the young woman to shake it before making a half-hearted attempt to straighten his shirt and pull his hair back under control. 

"You know, I have an old uncle that still goes trapping and he spends hours setting up these little snares to catch rabbits' feet.  He'd be totally envious of that little trick."

She couldn’t help but give a big smile once he was down safely from the ceiling. It was kind of a rush to do something like that. Of course they do magic in the classroom. But actually doing something like that outside of the class was a thrill.  Mysti hadn’t gotten into quite a weird situation before, but now that Migs was safe, she was glad.

“Nice to more officially meet you, Migs.” She smiled, returning the handshake. “Mystique Ketteridge, otherwise known as Mysti.”

While he adjusted himself, Mysti gave a Reducio! to shrink the book back down to it’s normal size. Maybe even just a smidge smaller so it wasn’t as heavy when she had to carry it around. And now that she realized she could do it, she might slightly shrink some of her other bigger books.  That would definitely be a handy tip to keep in mind, and she kicked herself a little for not thinking of it sooner. Book in arms, she turned her attention back to Migs.

“Well, perhaps now you’ll be able to show him.” She said, giving him another smile. “And I’ll have to be a bit more careful when I’m practicing it, or any other spell that could potentially have someone walking on the ceiling. Or cause any other problems for that matter. But I’m glad we were able to figure it out in the end!”

Mysti was also glad to have made a new acquaintance.  She felt bad because she hadn’t really taken much time to get to know many of the students from the other schools for the tournament. That was the point of it, international magical relations, right? At least she was slowly making progress and making new friends.