Who: Oscar and Marius
Where: varius hallways
When: 08/07/2017, after Scorpius and Marius's log in the library
Rating: G? Possibly PG for accusations of molestation.
Marius ran out of the library, not paying attention to where he was going, and when he finally stopped, panting, it was to realize that he was nowhere near Gryffindor tower, or the library, or anywhere he recognized at all. He wasn't sure what the worse problem was--the chance that Scorpius might tell the entire school his secret or the chance that he'd never find his way back again. Maybe the school would eat him. Did the school eat students? He hadn't heard anything, but the moving staircases seemed vaguely malicious. "I'm not lost," he muttered to himself. "Not lost."
"You sure about that, woobie?" Oscar said as he strolled around the corner, recognizing the voice before he saw the speaker. "This isn't anywhere near the Hufflepuff dormitory, you know."
"I was trying for Ravenclaw this time," Marius bluffed with a proud tilt to his chin, squashing down any relief that might have risen to the surface had he been anyone but himself and not in need of assistance from a Weasley, especially this one, honest.
"Ah, not quite so far, then," The second year amended, amused. "But I don't know that you could get past the statue at the door, quite frankly." He softened his words with an easy grin.
Statue? Marius hadn't known about any statue. "I was planning on going back to Gryffindor for tonight anyway. I don't think I'd be able to stand people who studied all the time. I'll put in my transfer to Slytherin tomorrow." And with that, he stood, waiting for Oscar to lead the way and trying not to look obvious about it.
Oscar kindly suppressed a snort. "Alright then," he said instead, "I was on my way there now." It was a lie - he had been intending to head to the library - but it wasn't too far a walk back to the dormitories, if they took the shortcut through the portrait on the fourth floor. "You can walk with me, if you want."
Marius crossed his arms and adopted his most put-upon look. "I'd rather not, but I suppose I'll have to if we're going the same way."
Oscar grinned. "That's true." He started down the hall, back in the direction from which he had come. "This way, woobie~!"
"Don't call me that!" Marius snapped, and followed.
Oscar led him down the hall, up one flight of stairs and through a side corridor to a long, narrow painting of lavender rabbits frolicking in a pastel field. "Hullo, I need to get through, please," he adressed the rabbit in the top right corner. With a twitch of the bunny's nose, the frame swung open to reveal a narrow, unlit passageway.
Marius narrowed his eyes. "How do I know you're not going to try to molest me in here?"
"Because I'm twelve. Honestly, woobie, neither of us has even gone through puberty yet." Oscar smirked as started down the passage, lighting his wand with a quick, "Lumos." He glanced over his shoulder at the younger boy. "You coming?"
"The way Mother talks, I don't think that would stop a Weasley. If you expect me to follow you into this stupid tunnel alone, you're crazy." But Marius went in after him anyway.
Oscar grinned as the painting swung shut behind them, leading the younger boy up a set of narrow, uneven steps and around a sharp corner. "You keeping up okay, woobie?" He called back to the first year.
"I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!" Marius yelled, right before tripping over something in the dark. Pain shot up in his ankle and he clutched at it, trying not to whimper as tears came into his eyes.
"Woah!" Oscar turned his wand in time to see the boy fall, and dropped to his side quickly, eyes wide. "What happened?"
Marius looked up with watery but defiant eyes. "I HATE THIS TUNNEL AND I HATE THIS STUPID SCHOOL AND I HATE YOU!"
"Is it broken?" Oscar said, ignoring him.
"I DON'T KNOW, IT JUST HURTS!" Marius howled. He wanted his mother, but he wasn't about to say that in front of the perverted Weasley.
"Sorry, of course," Oscar floundered, hovering. "Um, um. Here," he reached for the boy awkwardly, intending to help him stand.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Marius tried to jerk away, but the movement jarred his ankle and he hissed. "Ouch..."
"Right, come on," Oscar said decidedly, heaving the other boy up, thankful that he was so small as he tried to let him settle his balance on his good ankle.
Marius's face was red with embarrassment and frustration, but he leaned on Oscar anyway. "You'd better not grope me," he muttered, trying his very hardest to hold onto at least a little bit of his pride. So much was going wrong tonight--Scorpius knew about his mother and now he had to hold on to a Weasley--he sniffed and held back his tears. This was bad enough. He'd not cry in front of Oscar too.
"I won't," Oscar assured him, amused despite the situation. The tunnel wasn't long, and they only had to hobble a few yards before he was able to push open the false wall that opened into a corridor on the fifth floor.
It was even worse out of the darkness of the tunnel. In the hallways, anyone could see him like this, and his face flushed even redder, in a way he knew brought his freckles out into bold display. He hated everything about this. "Where's the stupid infirmary, then? I can make it myself." He tried to push himself away from Oscar, but only ended up falling again.
"It's... erm," Oscar grimaced slightly. "On the first floor."
Marius looked at Oscar's expression and hoped it meant that they were already on the first floor and that the pervert was upset he wouldn't have contact with Marius's body for much longer. "And where are we now?"
"Aheh." Oscar braced himself for the inevitable explosion. "Fifth floor."
"WHY WOULD YOU BRING ME HERE? WOULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN FASTER TO GO THE OTHER WAY? YOU REALLY ARE AN ENORMOUS PERVERT AREN'T YOU?" Marius took a deep breath and then really YELLED: "HELP! HELP, I'M BEING MOLESTED BY A WEASLEY, SOMEONE HELP!"
"Merlin's- shut up!" Oscar hissed, zapping the first year with a silencing spell that might have been a little stronger than was necessary. "I went this way because I wasn't sure I could navigate those stairs half-carrying you, you noisy little twit!" He snapped irritably.
Even if Marius could have spoken, he wouldn't have, shocked by Oscar's display. He stopped sniffling and stared directly at Oscar is if to say, "Fine, I'll play it your way for now."
Surprised at the sudden acquiescence, Oscar returned to business, guiding the other boy towards the stairs. Dear Merlin, it was going to be a long walk.
This time around, Marius was obedient and the going was much faster and rather more peaceful. There were no more near-falls and when he wasn't too busy being paranoid, he found that Oscar was rather good for leaning against, not that he'd admit it.
Oscar was wary of the lack of wriggling from his favorite first year, but chose to assume that the younger boy was not just gathering his strength to lash out and attempt to overpower him when he'd been lulled into a false sense of security - he'd never shown any Slytherin tendencies before, after all. "If you promise not to start yelling again, I'll take off the spell," he said slowly, watching Marius's expression out of the corner of his eye as they walked. "If you do anyway, I'll just put it back on, of course. But I assume you don't want the Mediwitch to know you had to be Silenced just so I could get you to the Hospital Wing safely?" He raised an eyebrow.
Marius glared at Oscar but nodded. Choosing to not speak was different from not being able to, and he preferred the former. He could keep quiet. It wasn't as if he had some need to complain constantly or anything.
Still a bit suspicious, Oscar murmured the countercharm with a conservative little flick of his wand, and paused, waiting to see what the boy would do.
"That was very rude," Marius said, more to test if he could really talk than anything else. "Well, are you going to bring me the rest of the way or is standing around in hallways for fun a strange Gryffindor tradition I don't know about?"
"What, you haven't heard of that one yet?" Oscar joked, but he began walking again. "It's not too much farther now, woobie, don't you worry."
"Don't call me woobie," Marius muttered, though with considerably less vitriol than the last couple of times, and the effect was probably lessened even more by the fact that he was pressed up against Oscar.
"I can't help it - it's habit now," Oscar replied cheerfully, helping the first year hop/hobble down yet another flight of stairs, before said stairs began to move with the boys still on them. "Oh, do go ahead, it's not like I had plans for this evening," the second year murmured, annoyed.
Marius's eyes widened, and he might have squeaked something like, "This castle is evil and wants to eat me!" though of course he would never say such a thing and certainly never admit to it.
Oscar grinned a bit despite himself. "It's not evil, just a bit.. spiteful, at times," he corrected ambiguously. "You'll learn to work around it." He angled them towards another, tamer flight of stairs. "This way, now."
Marius sighed. "I bet the stairs never did this to my Mother," he couldn't help but point out--not whine, point out. He was adamant about this.
"I bet they did," Oscar countered easily. "Hogwarts is very non-discriminatory about who it inconveniences. Watch that step, there, it vanishes-" He half-lifted the smaller boy over a trick stair, attempting to set him down gently, but really, Oscar wasn't all that strong.
"Mother wouldn't have let the stairs do this to h-" Marius stopped himself and luckily had a somewhat rough landing to cover with. He winced and fixed his glare once more in Oscar's direction. "Are you trying to make my injury worse out of morbid curiosity or are you just a sadist?"
"It'd have been much worse if you'd fallen through," Oscar pointed out reasonably, ignoring the glare. "Come on, not much farther now."
True enough, the infirmary was in sight. "You don't have to coax me. I'm not a little girl; I can handle it!" Marius grit his teeth and hobbled the rest of the way leaning on Oscar without complaining about his ankle.
Oscar grinned. "I know that, woobie," he chuckled, trying to support the younger boy's weight as best he could.
"Don't call me woobie!"