With a letter in his hand, Cosgrach Culloden looked VERY thoughtful. It was unclear whether the news of the said letter was good or bad. They just made him think and concentrate hard - so hard that, he didn't even pay attention to where he was going. Surely his legs knew the way by now... he paused for a moment to reread the paper again, without looking at the armour RIGHT in front of him...

Just HOW MUCH animated these knights could get, this professor was about to find out.

Tom was pretty sure that he would never figure out how to find his way around Hogwarts. He'd only taken one flight of stairs and a corridor or two and already he was all turned around. He'd probably only get even more lost the more he tried to find his way back towards the central staircase, and then he'd miss classes and by the time they sent a search party out to find him he'd have died of dehydration...

OH! An adult! One of the professors, surely. He must know where he was going!

Tom turned in the direction the man was walking and hurried to catch up, intent on not just screaming at the man down the corridor.... Then Tom noticed that he was about to plow headfirst into one of the impressively scary suits of armor. Was it... was it moving?!?! Surely not! But yes, the hulking metal arms began to rise up in a defensive sort of posture, and Tom was certain that the poor professor was going to be attacked.

"LOOK OUT!" he bellowed down the corridor as he began to run.

The hulking metal arms DID rise - along with the (harmless) sword they were holding. However, Cosgrach was still too preoccupied with the letter. He did NOT understand -

The armour screeeeeeeched, just after someone yelled something... he raised his head slowly and saw the knight...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Because THAT was how you defended yourself against charmed armours!

There was a horrible sound from the suit of armor, then an even more horrible sound from the professor.

The knight lurched, metal clanging against metal, and picked the professor straight up off the ground. He must have been at least a meter off the floor! With his legs kicking furiously as if he were running and his arms flailing around trying to free himself from the knight's grip.

Tom picked up his pace, running even faster towards the professor.

Then he realized suddenly that he really didn't know what on earth he planned to do once he got there. What could he do against the enormous suit of enchanted magical armor? Break his arm at it? He stopped running, because he was a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor, and stood there for a moment in indecision.

He decided to do the only thing he could do.

"AAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

NO NO NO THE BOY WASN'T SUPPOSED TO SHRIEK HE WAS SUPPOSED TO SAVE THIS PROFESSOR COSGRACH HAD A ONE YEAR OLD AT HOME HE WAS WAY TOO YOUNG TO -

"AAAAAAH DO SOMETHING ATTACK IT SAVE -"

THUD.

"OUCH!"

The armour had only thrown Cosgrach a few metres away - outside of its own vigilance perimeter - but it felt like Cosgrach had fallen A HUNDRED THOUSAND metres. AND HE DID! He had just got older A FEW YEARS at least due to stress! He didn't even try to get up and see who he was. He was too busy thinking his whole body was broken (which was a completely exaggerated reaction, as he usually did). At least he didn't whimper... for now.

Tom watched with wide eyes as the professor was tossed across the corridor with a crash and a loud shout. The knight stood vigilant over the man for a few moments before, seemingly satisfied, it stepped back into place and resumed its normal position. He waited for the space of several heartbeats until he was sure that the knights weren't going to move or attack anyone again. Then he ran the remaining distance to the prone professor and knelt down next to him.

"Professor! Are you all right?!"

The man lay unmoving and silent, and Tom frantically ran his eyes over the his body, looking for blood or wrong angles or any other sign of a serious injury. He couldn't see any, but the professor wasn't making any move to get up or speak. Tom hoped he wasn't going to start crying or something. He wondered if he should just leave the professor lying there and go get help.

"Professor?" he tried again, raising his voice this time just in case the man's head had been addled and maybe he hadn't heard the first time. "Do you need me to get help?"

Was he alright? OF COURSE NOT. HE HAD JUST BEEN ATTACKED BY A KNIGHT. HE WAS LUCKY TO BE ALIVE! What would his family do if he was rather foolishly dramatically killed here?! But he had to be strong... and probably get up, this was getting ridiculous. A 46 year old professor was being helped by a first year because an armour attacked him.

He sloooooooooowly rolled over and sat. He groaned during the whole process, but one would wonder if he was exaggerating a little bit. The first year had better not question it.

"I'm just," sigh, "just shaken up a little. Stupid armour. Will talk to Abraham about removing them..." He dusted his sleeves off and looked at the kid for good for the first time.

"Who are you?" At other circumstances, he was very polite, but he had just been saved from death. He had the right to be direct.

Tom was actually kind of bummed at the idea of removing the armor. They were really cool! Sure, they'd kind of attacked the professor, but Tom thought that maybe the professor just had tremendous bad luck.

He glanced back over his shoulder to confirm that the knights still weren't moving, just to be sure, then turned back to the professor.

"I'm Tom. Tom Selwyn. First year Slytherin," he supplied, then realized that the professor could probably have figured that out himself from Tom's robes and the fact that he'd never been at Hogwarts before. Well, it wasn't anymore embarrassing than the fact that he had no clue who the professor was! "I was, erm... a bit lost, you see, and then I saw you and figured that you had to be a professor and could point me in the right direction."

"Tom Selwyn." A name he wouldn't forget now. The kid had better be good at potions, because he had a special relationship with Cosgrach now. Saving someone from an armour required that.

"I'm Professor Cosgrach Culloden, potions master," he said and slooooooowly got up to his feet. His knees cracked AGAIN. Ugh. He needed to brew that potion to relieve them...

"Where did ya want to go?" He'd also talk to Abraham about providing the new students with a castle map, because every 20 new students out of 10 he saw got lost in the first month.

"Oh, really?" asked Tom excitedly. "I've really been looking forward to potions! My older brother let me have some of his old schoolbooks"--Okay, he was exaggerating a bit. He'd never actually asked for permission before he'd taken the books, but Will didn't need them anyway so it was the same difference as far as he was concerned.--"and I really, really liked the potions ones. How you have to be so precise and know how things react together and... Well, you know."

Tom smiled at Professor Culloden and tried his best to stop rambling.

"I wasn't going anywhere really. I was just exploring and then all of a sudden I didn't know where I was anymore." It was kind of embarrassing, but hey, this castle was probably the size of a small country or two. "I kind of just want to get back to the main staircase."

Standing hurt since he must have broken several bones while being attacked by the armour, so Cosgrach moved his legs and such a little to try to relieve the pain. Okay... it was getting better...

Oh? "How brilliant!" Truly. "You seem to know already what potions are about. Great." Made his job MUCH easier, though whether he could do the precision stuff was still a mystery. "I don't have to keep an eye on you during classes, then." Haha, no, he always tried to keep an eye on everyone. Just joking.

Oh. Hmm. "It's this way," he said as he pointed there and began walking as well. He wanted to go to his office and relax. "Five points to Slytherin for saving me," he said and smiled a little. Saving him, making sure he was fine and HOPEFULLY keeping this as a secret. If he didn't, Cosgrach would take the DOUBLE of that amount back.

So, after being bored out of his M I N D and wandering around the castle to find EVEN MORE cool spots, the boy came across this one here. One that featured..........

.......... suits of armour.

SUITS. OF. A R M O U R.

Now THIS felt like a castle.

Phillip was staring in AWE at the suits of armour. They were MAGICAL. He half wondered if they had any stories behind them. Had they been through fights and epic battles? Did they have war scars on their, uh, metallic bodies? The boy scratched his head and tried to look around for some here and there, being careful not to go TOOOOOO near to the suits of armour. Three and a bit months had taught him A LOT, thank you.

But not enough. Why? Because Romalotti was now trying to get behind the suits of armours to see if there was an opening somewhere there. How COOL would it be to use this to walk around in one of these? Clank clank clank. OR. SCARE people with this.

Next year's halloween costume was SORTED.

"Last year, Professor Flamsteed tried to get me to climb inside one." His voice came before he stepped from behind the suit of armour, and Rooney looked solemn when he did. In fact, it looked as though he was about to tell all about the experience of being stuck in the metal suit, but he didn't. That wasn't what had happened, but it had been a long process and discussion. He leant against the armour as cool as he could, and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"All first years have to."

And if this one was as gullible as Rooney had been a year ago, then this was definitely his new research project for the year.

It still needed a title.

O__O

HOLY MOTHER OF. THE. ARMOUR. TALKED! WORDS. TALKING. It was talking to him about--

Oh. No, it was just a boy. LAME. But it didn't stop Phillip from looking as shocked, and frankly scared, as he did when he first heard the voice. He looked from the boy to the armour and back again. "You CLIMBED INSIDE IT?" His brain wasn't registering any of this as it should. Everything was getting mixed up and all he could do was stare. "What happened next?" Tell him, older person, TELL HIM.

And then he narrowed his eyes.

"Is it a rule?" Because if it was, he wasn't doing it. Or he would because of his original scaring idea.

PHILLIP WAS CONFUSED, OKAY?

Rooney shrugged and tapped his nose, a grin forming on his lips. "It's different for everyone." He lifted the helmet of the suit he was leaning against and knocked on it with a knuckle. "Not a rule, but a right of passage. I'm surprised that you haven't been told about it." But, to continue playing with the kid - maybe only because he had seen he was a Slytherin, Rooney shrugged once more.

"But, they may think you're not going to last the year. Surprisingly, you're not a Hufflepuff." He assessed the individual in front of him and tapped the suit once more.

"There's a meeting every Friday, in the observatory, 3pm. Everyone who gets suited is invited, gate crashers get dumped. To the ground."

Hehe.

Phillip, who was still pretty much new, was hanging onto every word the boy had to say. It was different for everyone? But but........ "But what happened to you?!" He didn't care about how different it was. He wanted to know what sort of things he was going to be in for. See, he wasn't climbing into something without knowing what he was in for.

And there. Without Rooney knowing -- possibly -- the Ravenclaw boy had just taken away more of a chance of him backing away from the thing. IF he had said that it was a rule to climb into the suit, Phillip would have backed away immediately but since he said it was a rite of passage..........

Uh.

Surprisingly? SURPRISINGLY?! "What do you mean, surprisingly?! I'm all Slytherin." And he was proud of it, too. It was his mum's house, hello?!

Phillip bit his lip at the following words that the older boy had to say. Meetings sounded boring but he valued his life more than being dumped to the ground. "Okay, but you're going to have to help me up because I can't get in on my own." Height problems, you know? He had plenty of them.

To him? Rooney shrugged, lifted the leg of his trousers to reveal a scar he'd had since he fell off stage a few years ago. "Cut my leg pretty bad on something in there." He let the fabric fall over the scar, planning to reapply the cream that Aunt Elodie had gotten for him that cleared up blemishes. It was apparently for when his face did a thing and he got spots, but he had found that it worked amazing on his scars. The five major ones he had and then the few little ones. Nothing from awful stuff, just Brinlee's horse, stage falls and a scratching younger brother.

And stunt class, but no one was allowed to know about the cut he had there. Liability. That's what they had said.

The Ravenclaw laughed, shrugging again and looking the first year up and down. He was really going to town with this charade, but he couldn't give up now. It was good to have a little fun and use his skills without the pressure of an audience exceeding his view. "If you were a Slytherin, you'd have already had yourself inside of there, or found someone else to check it out first." He moved though, offering his hands in a cup for a foot lift.

"C'mon."

Normally, people would be disgusted at the sight of scars but NOT PHILLIP. As soon as the other boy had lifted up his trouser leg, the younger boy leaned closer to get a good look at the leg. As long as it wasn't sprouting blood everywhere, he was fine, but as it was..... "That looks DEEP. What did you cut it on?" Because, again, curious. He was MUCH too curious to let something like this slip by.

When the older boy looked him up and down, Phillip puffed out his chest and pulled the best stance he could. What was this boy looking for exactly? Cowardice? Dishonour? MICE?! Because he had none of those, thank you. "Are you trying to bring me down? Because it's not going to wooooooork!" And then he smiled an innocent, sweet smile, even if his words were, well, not so much.

Oh! It was TIME! The smile turned into a beam as the young Slytherin placed a hand on the statue next to him and then a foot in the cupped hands. He reached the other hand up and grabbed onto the edge of the armour's neck, pulling himself up. Not thinking about A N Y consequences whatsoever, he started pulling himself up towards the inside of the suit of armour.

Oh wait. Before he went any further, the first year looked back at the other kid. "What's your name, by the way?" Pause. "I want to thank you properly for being soooooo nice enough to help me out." And in case someone saw and he needed to point fingers.

Cue another innocent smile.

This kid would get along well with Calliope, Rooney was sure of it. She had a strange fascination with scars, sometimes even drawing on her own to match Rooney's, because they were "twins". Actually, that was something that Roo hadn't said to anyone out loud for a while now. Maybe he needed to talk to her about stopping that whole charade. He liked his August birthday and they didn't look relatively alike. Everything pointed to them not being twins and it was likely that everyone else already knew that they weren't. "Jagged edge. Killed." He shrugged it off almost like it was no big deal, when the truth was that he had cried for half an hour after he fell from the stage.

Roo laughed and shook his head. "No, no. I'm making sure you're going to survive. If you live, I get extra points and I'll probably be a senior member of the club after you. I've helped lots of people do this without dying." He shrugged again, because he knew that was something people with very little worries did and he was trying his darn hardest to be that person right now. He grunted as he lifted the boy -- it was true that kids weren't the lightest, especially when you were only using your hands to take their entire weight. Ooof, man!

"R--oOOOooney. Rooney Bronwy--n." Was he going to lift himself already? Roo wanted to see him drop into the suit.

And stay there.

Jagged edge. He'd cut it on a JAGGED EDGE. And the way he was shrugging only made it seem as if he didn't really care about it or that it hadn't hurt too much. Phillip couldn't tell which but he was still FASCINATED with the scar so, right now, he was likely to believe almost anything. Lucky Rooney. "C O O L!" he whispered loudly, "You have a BATTLE SCAR!" Sort of.

Going to survive? GOING TO SURVIVE?!

WAS THERE A CHANCE HE WAS GOING TO DIE?!

MERLIN, he should have thought about this before he was, you know, ON HIS WAY UP. "What do you mean IF I live? HUH?" Because he WAS going to live, okay?! He still had a lot of magic to learn and places to go and rules to break, there wasn't a CHANCE he was going to die at the age of TWELVE. "NOW I see why you're so eager for me to get into the suit. You want to be a senior member!" AHA! Foiled your plan, Mister.

Rooney Bronwyn. PERFECT! Remember that, okay brain? Phillip let out a few grunts as he HEAVED himself up and up and.......... clambered straight into the suit! He was in a SUIT. LOOK at him!

"NOW what?"

And there weren't any jagged edges in HERE, as far as he could see.

Hm.

He laughed, nodding. "So my Healer said. She hadn't seen that much blood before." That was a lie, Aunt Elodie had actually said that she'd seen more blood on a paper cut. BUT she wasn't an actual healer yet, so she didn't count. HE thought that there was a lot of blood, and the scar looked like there should have been a lot. The scar looked like he should have DIED,a actually. (Another lie, but this kid was already believing everything that a couple more white lies wouldn't hurt at all)

Roo didn't answer the kids questions, he just helped him up and into the suit before smiling and crossing his arms. "What do you mean, 'now what'?" Had he really thought that he had a plan? Man, he was bad at this. He was. No wonder he had ended up in the suit like an idiot.

And he believed the club thing.

Wow.

Phillip scrunched up his nose at the word 'blood'. He wasn't about to tell the unknown older boy about his fear of blood but that didn't stop him from feeling DISGUSTED by the mention of it. It was a reflex action, you know. "But she's a HEALER. Doesn't she have to do operations?" Just like his mum, who had a lot of medical supplies stashed somewhere in the house. How did he know? He was a nosy kid.

The younger boy stared at the older one on the outside of the suit of armour. Uh. This felt WEIRD, you know. And what was weirder was that the boy wasn't saying ANYTHING. Come on, give him some instructions. Tell him what exactly he was meant to be doing in this suit, that was starting to make him feel hot and stuffy. And to think he hadn't even put on the helmet yet! "WELL. What am I meant to do NOW?!" Sing? Dance? Rampage around the halls in the suit and scare as many people as he could? Because the boy had noooo problem doing that last bit.

Floating through the castle typically Moaning Myrtle was being more of a chipper Myrtle these days. She was smiling and giggling at all the students. Something about the castle had her in an unusually good mood.

Turning a corner she noticed two boys climbing into the Suits of Armor and she stopped to watch. "Hi boys" grinning she gave them a wave. Moving closer she looked down into the armor to the one that was inside. "You should be careful these things can move and throw you out." Giggling more she danced around it a bit.

Rooney wasn't sure how much this kid knew, but he was positive it was a very low number. He raised his eyebrow and shrugged. "That doesn't mean anything." It wasn't like he had said that she didn't LIKE blood. Just that she hadn't seen that MUCH before. It had been a lot of blood, how hard was that to understand? First years... Their intellect was questionable. He already knew that, given this first year was now inside a suit of armour and well THAT was just stupid.

Now? Rooney actually ignored everything that the kid was about. He turned away from the statue and started the five second countdown to when he was going to walk away.

FIVE....

FOUR....

THREE....

TWO....

O--

"Miss Myrtle!" Rooney smiled, gave the ghost a little bit of a wave, before looking over his shoulder at Phillip and widening his eyes and making sure he looked as confused as possible. Acting was a wonderful talent. "I didn't even know he was in there!!!" But he probably wasn't going to help him out of there, because that would defeat the object of hsi entire presence here.

"I'm sure there's a reason he's in there, though."