Quote:
Originally Posted by
emjay 
It had only been several days into the school year so Gunnar was still trying to find his way around the castle. There really was a lot of ground to cover, both inside and outside of the castle, and the first year was spending much of his free time exploring. Not only were there a lot of interesting things to be found, but he wanted to know his way around enough so as not to get lost.
The moving staircases were interesting enough on their own, never knowing where you'd end up if they started moving while you were on them, but he wondered if there was some sort of system or pattern to them. Maybe if he could figure that out, he'd have an easier time getting around. But for now, he'd just explore wherever the stairs led him to go, since he didn't currently have a class to get to.
As he started up the stairs, Gunnar noticed one of the professors up ahead, just standing there. Lost in thought? Trying to remember something? Gunnar wasn't sure, but he continued that way, intent on politely passing her.
"Hi, Professor," he greeted as he stepped foot on the step she was currently on. He recognized her as the Transfiguration professor, but couldn't quite remember her name. There were a lot of new names for him to remember, okay? He was sure he'd get them all soon enough. But for now, Professor should suffice as that was her title anyway. But when he went to lift his foot to take the next step above, he found he couldn't move it. His foot was stuck!
"Uhh.. what's going on?" He grabbed a hold of the railing as he tried unsuccessfully to pull his foot up even harder. He turned, giving the adult a questioning look. Oh! Was she stuck too?
These trick stairs were
painful; that was yet another lovely detail that Celestia had somehow forgotten after graduation. She glared balefully at the stone as her leg sank another inch or so under the step she was perched on. Honestly, these things were rather dangerous, but then, Hogwarts had never been exactly safe, had it?
The Heads of the school and their staff members tried every term to keep students as safe as possible, but the reality was that chaos was almost guaranteed to reign in a castle stuffed full of young wizards who had yet to master their powers. She imagined that foreign schools of wizardry faced similar challenges every year. Perhaps Hogwarts was merely the most famous...
Celestia was jerked from her thoughts as she heard a voice greeting her. She spun around as quickly as she could manage with her leg sinking through the step and called out,
"Mr. McCaul, wait--", but she was too late. The first year Slytherin boy had fallen victim to the vicious staircase as well.
"Well, Mr. McCaul, it seems we've both fallen victim to one of the many trick stairs at Hogwarts," Celestia informed the boy with a sigh. As she answered him, she paused briefly -- his name
was McCaul, wasn't it? -- but she was almost sure that it was. To be quite frank, by the time the Sorting had reached the names starting with "M", Celestia had not been paying as much attention as she perhaps should have been. Not to mention the fact that Celestia had always been bad with names; it had taken her weeks to memorize the other professors' names, and there were naturally far too many students for her to have them all down perfectly so early in the term.
Still clutching a stack of spellbooks to her chest with one arm, Celestia rubbed her forehead wearily with her free hand. There was a way to get out of these steps, but as far as she could remember, she and the other Gryffindors used to simply lift each other off of the offending step. That strategy didn't seem to be working out so well thus far. She turned to the Slytherin stranded beside her and asked,
"Are you expected somewhere, Mr. McCaul?" Perhaps someone would turn up looking for the first year...