Stairway deigned! - Any Firsties

Tuesday, Tuesday before lunch, where was she meant to be? Blossom suddenly couldn't remember, she wasn't used to having to be in a particular place at a particular time. It was hard. She had to do and be places other people wanted, not what she wanted or where she wanted to be. Her sisters had never warned her this was what school was like. She knew she was in one of the tower classrooms, whoever thought having classes in a tower was a good idea clearly didn't have to lug books up and down stairs five days a week. It was brutal. Her sisters had also forgotten to tell her how huge Hogwarts was, she had spent the first 3 weeks getting lost. She still got turned around and confused corridors and rooms, she accidently ended up in a 4th year lesson the other week. She only realised when Briar had looked at her confused and asked her why she was there. Of course that made her tardy for her next lesson.

And lessons, well they were even worse. She thought there would be more wand stuff, there was in fact more book stuff than wand stuff. And it seemed every professor had visibly rolled their eyes, warned her they were watching her or instantly sat her away from others when they learned her last name was Asquith. She would have to thank her various sisters for that later. She had her suspicions which sister it was, but in fairness it could have been any of them. She wanted to be different but her families reputation was making it very difficult.

She glanced at her time table pulling it from the pocket in her pinafore, she had colour coded it, so she knew where to be at a glance, the next block before lunch was green, Herbology, oh great it was going to take forever to get there, she knew she could double back and go out the back of the tower but that was a longer way to the greenhouses. But then she saw other first years, maybe they knew a quicker way, as she moved to catch up with them she began to get her bearings, she was near the grand staircase, if she went down there it would mean she was closer to the green houses, perfect. Obviously they knew their way better than she did.

Blossom walked quickly and passed several of the other first years as she started down the stairs, she got down about a flight before there was a massive juddering and shaking and the stairs moved. Blossom grabbed the rail to stop her self from tumbling down the stairs, when the movement had stopped she looked down, and paled, she looked up noticing others on the stairs too, but looking up made her stomach sink even lower. The stairs had stopped but neither end was connected to a floor. Blossom was stuck it didn't seem like she'd be getting to class anytime soon. "Oh Bloody hell!" she exclaimed

Kathryn Elise Barlowe was in a sour mood.

Many who didn't know her might think it was the mood she most frequently walked around with. Solemn, if not a bit sullen, silent and disengaged from her surroundings. There was an edge to that solemnity as she ascended the stairs with a few of her classmates following their morning's potion class. Avery Hale had brewed a perfect antidote to common poisons, and her mother had praised him. He'd been smug the entire rest of the lesson, offering advice she didn't ask for. The boy had the gall to beam.

Her potion had been perfect, too, but it hadn't been her first time brewing it. With a mother like Julia Barlowe, Kate was no stranger to poisons and their antidotes. She had already received years of practice. The potion was rudimentary. Hardly worth the praise her mother had wasted. The boy should've known that, too. Anyone could brew an antidote for common poisons. The steps were simple and the ingredients easy to procure and prepare, but he'd been praised anyway while she'd gotten a nod to confirm she'd gotten it right again.

Kathryn was by no means a riotous child and wasn't the sort to make a scene, but her silence followed her loudly with each step she took to ascend.

Her potion was perfect.

Someone should have told him. She didn't know how much longer she could listen to how 'intuitive' it had been, or how he'd 'studied carefully before the class'.

Her stomach hurt. There was a knot forming in there, a hot, tight knot that twisted her insides. Some may have recognised it as anger or jealousy. Kathryn recognised it as an intrusion into her body's internal equilibrium, and she didn't like it. The little girl never liked to feel too much, finding it unsettling and off-putting. On some days, it rose to the level of distress. Today, it was merely uncomfortable and made her skin prickle.

Before curfew, she would brew another potion and take it to her mother. Then she would wait patiently for her to tell her how perfect it was, too.

For now, it was off to Defence Against the Dark Arts. At least, that had been the plan. If she was being honest, Kathryn hadn't been paying attention to where she went, using the shape of the small crowd in her periphery to guide her. The sudden jerking motion of the staircase pulled her attention from her polished Mary Janes – not a scuff in sight. She bet Avery had scuffs.

Why had they stopped?

"Oh Bloody hell!"

Blue eyes moved to the Hufflepuff who'd found herself in their mix. Blossom, she thought her name was. Asquith. Her mother had mentioned the name on an occasion or two. Nothing good. The one standing before her might not have been good either. Kathryn took a measured step back, uninterested in whatever nonsense she'd convinced herself must be the girl's doing to prevent them getting to where they needed. She looked neither up nor down, incurious about their current state beyond the fact it would make them late.

Avery would have to do something.

This just wasn't good enough, she had been warned by pretty much everyone that the stairs moved, she hadn't been warned they just failed to work at all. She recalled her sisters writing a few years ago to complain all the stairs stopped working. They had assured her that it had been fixed, they had said things were back to normal. Clearly they had been wrong. They seemed to have stopped again.

She looked over the edge, it seemed a long drop down, there was absolutely no way she would even attempt to try any acrobatics, she was not that Asquith. Tulip and Poppy seemed to have some inane contest about trying to climb into places they shouldn't be, or who did the most dangerous thing. She wasn't going to join them in that endeavour, it was un lady like and monumentally stupid.

She sat down in a huff, she was stuck here and likely going to be in trouble for being late, that was something she didn't want especially in Herbology, she liked the teacher and didn't want to make them cross with her. She looked up noticing one of the others stuck on the stair case, at least she wasn't alone here, there was a girl looking at her, Blossom wasn't quite sure what sort of look it was but she wasn't smiling, not that smiling was always a good thing in the Asquith house. She was a Ravenclaw, Blossom wondered if they were all like Briar and a bit strange.

"Did the stairs catch you too?" Blossom asked but then instantly realised that was a dumb question, of course the stairs had got her too, she wouldn't be here if they hadn't. "I was going to Herbology where were you going?" Blossom was nothing if not bold. Being the youngest of 7 you had little choice but to be. "I guess we're going to be late now." she kicked the banister with her loafer not hard enough to hurt but enough to show frustration at the situation.

Avery Calder Hale was in a fantastic mood.

Beaming as he walked alongside Kathryn - or rather she walked alongside him, as she was never one he sought out on his own - Avery was riding a high that could only come with the sort of praise he chased on a day-to-day basis. Professor Barlowe - the lady one - had been impressed with his antidote, holding it up as a demonstration to the rest of the class of the standards she expected from them. He'd studied hard in the week leading up to their lab, focusing all of his energy on the perfect ingredient order, quality, water temperature and stirring methods.

All of it had come to fruition as Avery sat proudly at his desk, smug as a cat that had gotten the cream for the rest of the class. Ravenclaw that he was, Avery was incredibly competitive in the realm of academics, and nothing sent a thrill up his spine like knowing he was the best and at the top of his class.

Kathryn looked the same as she always did, but Avery, for his own ego, would assume she was upset that she hadn't done as well as him. Perhaps she should study harder, he thought as they ascended the moving staircases in silence. He thought to say something, encouraging or perhaps a bit glib, but his thoughts were interrupted as the staircase suddenly jerked to a halt, sending him sprawling forward onto his hands and knees.

"Oh Bloody hell!"

Well that wasn't Katie, that was for sure. Avery glanced up from his place on the stairs, meeting the gaze of Blossom, one of the first year Hufflepuffs he'd seen around from time to time. No real threat in classes, he remembered, but it really was only the Ravenclaws he felt any sort of challenge from.

The rest of the houses all seemed a bit dim.

"Did the stairs catch you too?"

Hufflepuffs really weren't the brightest were they? Obviously the stairs had caught him. They were standing on the same set. He looked sideways at Kathryn as he climbed back to his feet, his face contorting in confusion at the expectant look she gave him. "What?" he asked, though he hardly expected an answer out of her.

"I was going to Herbology where were you going? I guess we're going to be late now."

LATE?! Panic suddenly struck the boy. Late?! No, no, he couldn't be late. It was unacceptable. It would mean...it would mean he could miss part of the lesson, or be reprimanded, or have himself lowered somehow in the professor's eyes. "Uhh...Defense Against the Dark Arts," he muttered, watching as Blossom kicked the staircase as though that would help.

Avery leaned over the banister, looking to see if maybe the staircase had gotten caught on something. He rushed to the other side when he'd found nothing and moaned loudly when there wasn't an answer on the other either. "I can't be late," he whined, "today's the practical on shields and I stayed up late to..."

He didn't finish his sentence, rushing up to the top of the staircase to see if maybe a solid jump to the next platform was possible.

It wasn't. Dejected, Avery plopped himself down on the steps, glowering at Kathryn. This was probably her fault somehow. She used her mafia powers to ruin his day, just when it had started going great. "Now what do we do?" he asked. Scream? Yell? Try the few spells they knew to see if they could get the bloody thing moving again?

The boy sighed. Not one to usually give up so easily, he glanced around again at the portraits that were now studying them curiously. Maybe one of them had an answer.

"Did the stairs catch you too?"

Her gaze drifted left as Avery's drifted right, the pair meeting across the distance with shared but unspoken words. Kathryn, however, was not quite so disparaging in her assessment. Her gripe came with the thought of being 'caught' by something that shouldn't have had the power to capture her in the first place. It was reckless and negligent to have such constructs, capable of tearing through her schedule whenever they had a mind to.

It wasn't the first time the stairs had acted up, and while she knew it sometimes just...happened, it didn't make her any less annoyed. The moving staircases were one of the things that genuinely frustrated the little girl within the castle. There was neither rhyme nor rhythm to the way they moved, making them difficult to predict and plan around. Even with her most careful preparations to be where she was going at an appropriate time, there was a moment, every so often, when the staircases developed a mind of their own and their own grand plans for where they thought she should be.

At this point, it had become more than a mild inconvenience and something more akin to a personal assault on her sanity. As if her day hadn't already offended her enough.

Blossom said the words that turned Kathryn's tempered irritation into subdued panic.

Late.

Late for class.

Late walking into Defence Against the Dark Arts as if she were some hooligan who couldn't read a clock and held no regard for the professor's time? Her, Kathryn Elise? It couldn't be allowed to stand. Avery really would have to do something.

Her gaze followed him as he looked over the sides, assuming that the answer might find him in time to set them free. His subsequent surrender on the floor came as quite the disappointment. She expected better from the boy who swore he knew it all. Avery's glower was met by impassive blue oceans, almost seeming to look through him. Only almost. Kathryn didn't have the first idea why he may have turned his aggravation on her, as if she'd been the one to make them late.

If anything, they would have been in a better position had he not stopped to talk to her mother when potions class ended, beaming from ear to ear about his work. Nevermind that she could have gone on without him. They always walked to classes together. That was how it was. She couldn't simply walk through the classroom door without him. Now look what it had gotten her.

And, for that matter, what was he doing on the dirty ground?

She pinched firmly at the sleeve of his school robe and attempted to pull him back to his feet with a scowl of disapproval. His bum would be covered in dust and dirt.

"Now what do we do?"

We?

Kathryn pointed back to Blossom Asquith. She wasn't a Gryffindor, but she had sisters who were – at least one was. Some of it had surely rubbed off on her. They could send her on whatever foolhardy mission it would take to see them to the other side. She gestured the Hufflepuff toward the edge of the landing, hoping she might let her imagination run wild.