Just before 11am, Thursday morning



The Gryffindor common room was a lovely, warm, jolly place. It would always hold a very special in Ariadne’s heart, as the room where some of her funniest conversations had taken place, where celebrations over quidditch wins had got out of hand, spells had gone awry and portraits had ticked them off for swearing.

“Yeah, not interested now are you?!” Ariadne called to them.

The portraits did not reply, and from where she was, it looked like most of them had gone out to hang with other painted subjects in the castle where there was more going on. How could they miss this? How could everyone inconveniently abandon her right at this moment?!

“Where the heck is everyone?” Ariadne grumbled to herself, alone in the common room.

Then - hope. Distantly the school bell rang.

Ariadne itched at the rash on her chest, glad she’d decided to wear trousers for her uniform that day and not a skirt, otherwise this would be super, super awkward. On the plus side, she’d spotted half a dozen paper airplanes, a missing cat collar, and two stashes of Honeydukes chocolate lodged on the top of the furniture. Unfortunately, her wand was about twenty feet below her on the rug.

The portrait entrance to the common room swung open and Ariadne’s heart leapt.

“CARA!” Ariadne yelled, at her fifth year housemate, returning from Defence Against the Dark Arts. She tried to wave an arm, but it was hard when you were pinned up against the ceiling of the common room. “CARA! Help - I’m stuck.”

Cara climbed through the portrait hole that lead to the Gryffindor common room, high up in one of the school's towers—and was immediately beset upon by Ariadne.

Hearing Ariadne's plea for help, she peered around the room, thoroughly confused... and, finally, looked upwards, spying her older housemate up around the ceiling.

"What... ?"

Cara stared up at Ariadne, entirely nonplussed, for several moments—before the reality of the situation settled in and she pulled out her wand.

"I don't—how did you?—I mean, I can try to get you down, but—how?"

Whether or not an explanation was forthcoming, Cara pointed her wand up at Ariadne, drawing the rough outline of a shield as she spoke aloud: "Finite incantatem!"

No luck! Ariadne remained entirely airborne, and Cara's shoulders sank a little, racking her brains as to how she could possibly return the older girl to the ground.

It struck her, and she raised her wand once more, giving it a wiggle and saying: "Descendo!"

That one worked! With a rush of pride at having done something right, Ariadne began to descend to the floor of the common room.

"It's a good job you weren't outside when this happened, or you—oh no!"

No sooner than she had reached the ground was Ariadne yanked back into the air, ceiling-bound once more.

Cara fretted beneath her.

"What do we do?"

Ariadne didn’t want to tell Cara she was her only hope at this second, relieved that there was someone else around at last. Most of the days it seemed the Gryffindor Common Room was never empty, until ironically, you needed someone.

“Finite incantatem!”

Ariadne braced herself for a sudden decent, heart thudding in her chest, but none came. She was still pressed to the dusty ceiling.

“Descendo!” She braced herself again, but this time -ooh! She was moving. Ariadne’s face lit up.
“Hey! Nice one-.”
“It’s a good job you weren’t outside”
“Yeah!” Ariadne agreed, speaking through Cara’s sentence, trying to get her feet down first to land.
“...when this happened, or you - oh no!”

With a pull right through the middle of her navel, Ariadne was rising back into the air again. She flailed for a nearby piece of furniture but missed the back of an armchair with her fingers.

“What do we do?” The fifth year exclaimed. Ariadne’s eyes swung around the room in rapid thought.

“Can you conjure a rope?” she asked, “and get it to me. Perhaps I can, you know, climb down in reverse? Then find my wand and I can try and get rid of whatever this curse or hex is…” Ariadne was still floating upwards, Cara getting smaller. “I was fine until about half an hour ago. I sneezed and next thing I knew I was floating up here. Thanks Cara…”

“Can you conjure a rope? And get it to me. Perhaps I can, you know, climb down in reverse? Then find my wand and I can try and get rid of whatever this curse or hex is… I was fine until about half an hour ago. I sneezed and next thing I knew I was floating up here. Thanks Cara…”

"Oh, uh—yeah! That's an idea," Cara replied, pausing for a moment. After some deliberation, she raised her wand up towards Ariadne, giving the tip a bit of a wave and muttering an incantation and—woosh! Hempen rope expelled itself from the tip of her wand (as if by magic!), arcing gently up towards the older girl.

"You sneezed and wound up on the roof?" she called back after a moment, wiggling her eyebrows thoughtfully. "That's strange... doesn't sound like any hex I've ever heard of, love. Maybe we'd best see what they think in the infirmary?"

“You sneezed and wound up on the roof?”
“Preeetty much.” Ariadne agreed, reaching for the rope, gripping it with both hands.

“Probably caught some kind of floating ‘flu,” the older Gryffindor suggested, beginning to climb down the rope with both arms. She was glad all the quidditch she played had given her some arm muscles, her body was bobbing above her like an impatient balloon. “Don’t think it’s contagious, gosh, not sure I’m going to make it with my feet on the floor.”

Ariadne dithered a moment, considering.
“Cara, don’t suppose you mind, y’know, walking me like some carnival meat balloon to the infirmary do you? Like, I’d owe you but .. short of walking there on the ceilings myself…”