One Can Never Cause Too Much Trouble | CLOSED

It had been a while since Damian and Aquila had hung out. Since the previous school year, actually, when they had wrought havoc upon Moaning Myrtle and several other denizens of the castle. They had gotten away with it, then. No reason they shouldn't be able to pull it off again.

There area of interest, this time, was the fifth floor. So little seemed to happen on the fifth floor. The Prefects Bathroom was there, but that was old news, already. Surely, there had to be something else of interest.

Damian probably should have remained in his dorm or gone to the library - anywhere that wouldn't lead him to more trouble - but the third year was on a roll.

Besides, one can never cause too much trouble.

Aquila walked along the corridor casual as ever, his hands in his pocket and whistling an obnoxious tune as he was prone to doing when he was in the mood.

And he was in the mood presently. After a half a year of rather disgruntiling disappointing antics, he felt things were back on the track they were meant.

He smirked as he strolled up to Damian, "Well if it isn't my favourite Huffle... well, I guess Ceph should really fill that role, buttt, I won't tell him he's been replaced if you won't."

Damian grinned back at his friend. "My lips are sealed," he agreed.

"So. Shall we see if we can find any secret passageways or chambers?" Damian looked around, then hooked a thumb towards the corridor behind him. "I'll start with that hall if you wanna take the other."

Aquila nodded, "Sounds like a plan stan."

He grinned to himself as he wandered down the selected corriodor. Enjoying the way his feet clapped against the stone and the excitment jumped in his blood.

"Here secret anything," he mumbled to himself, smiling as he went, "Here secret, secret, secret."

Stopping after a moment he looked at a door that looked unused in a while.

"I wonder what you're hiding," he asked himself as he grabbed the handle and pulled.

To reveal a -rather dusty - classroom.

"That," he laughed, "was highly disappointing."

Damian wandered the corridor, poking into every nook and cranny in search of anything of interest. Nothing, so far. He past the Prefects' bathroom without a thought. He'd been there before; nothing of interest except a pool-sized bathtub.

The boy had promised his mentor that he would 'behave'. He had decided, however, that in comparison to fighting with his schoolmates, exploring the castle was behaving.

Empty classroom. Empty classroom. Dusty storage (which upon inspection, wasn't interesting, either). Empty classroom.

Sighing, Damian went to the other side of the hall and started back towards Aquila, wondering if the younger boy might have found anything, yet.

Quil abandoned the highly disappointing classroom, and continued down the hall, enjoying poking his head into everything. Honestly, he loved making everything that wasn't his business, his buisness.

Still after tromping down the hall he hadn't found anything more amusing than when he started. Shuffling his feet, he made his way back down the hall, and was once more caught by his door.

Shrugging he went back into the the classroom and looked around. The windows had been covered, and the light was dim. He pulled out his wand and muttered a quick Lumos, and was disappointed to find that the added light didn't give anymore information than before.

It was still a dusty room.

Still... might as well not ruin his fun completely. Walking behind the desk, he spent a good few minutes making an eleborate show of 'teaching' a class.

"Now, Class," he leaned on to the desk, "the best way to mess with your brothers-" he cut off in a yell was the desk moved forward on him and seemed to crash right into the wall and stopping only when it was about halfway through it.

The boy stared at the accident for a moment before letting out a little laugh, "Oops. Hope that wasn't important."

"Dame," he called sheepishly, forgetting that the older boy was supposed to be a corridor away, "I think I broke the place."

Sliding the desk back into its place, Quil stopped as he noticed something. The wall didn't seem to be harmed at all. But how could that be possible? He had seen the table go through it.

He bent down, and because he was Aquila Turrow and couldn't leave anything alone, began to prod at the wall...

From this angle it didn't seem to be a wall at all. An illusion?

"Dame, I think you may want to see this!"

Damian broke into a slow jog when he heard Aquila calling for him. He entered the classroom, locating the boy at the opposite end. Making his way over, he crouched beside him, reaching a hand out towards the wall... only to reach right through it.

His face broke into a grin.

"Age before beauty?" he suggested, moving forward and sticking head through. It was some sort of tunnel. Damian pulled back out to give his friend a teasing smirk. "Though, I guess it is still beauty first!"

And then, he started forward.

Aquila stuck his tongue out, but his eyes twinkled with laughter, "You can keep telling yourself that."

With that he followed Damian and stepped through the wall.

"Where do you think it goes?"

"I don't know," Damian responded with a shrug. He reached his hand up to the ceiling... which was only a few inches above his head. "I'm just glad I'm not tall, for once."

They reached a corner and had to go left. Two more turns deposited them into a chamber dimly lit from the light that managed to pass through the grimy windows high up in the walls.

Large pillars lined two of the walls and near the center, a figure of stone stood upon a raised platform. It was a man, though he somehow appeared to be in the process of changing back from a bird. Either that, or the subject had had a fetish for feathers. At either end of the platform were two pedestals, each with the impression of a hand print on its surface with the same Latin words etched beneath.

Damian grinned widely.

"This is so cool," he breathed.

Quil followed the boy out and was, for once in his life, actually shocked into silence.

Of course, it didn't last that long.

"This is waayy cooler than cool," he claimed walking about, "This is-is-is..." he threw his hands up in the air, "Beyond words."

He walked in running his hand along on of the pillars, and then stopped in front of the statue.

He tilted his head as he looked at it, "How do you think I'd look in feathers?"

Damian paced the edges of the room before going to examine the things in the middle. He blew the dust from one of the pedestals, coughing slightly as it blew back in his face. The boy gave his friend an appraising glance.

"Like a feather-brain," the Hufflepuff finally replied. He started towards the other pedestal. "You should see the back of him. He got wings, too. Whoever he is, I betcha he ain't human."

He had reached the other pedestal. "Huh. Same words, same oversized hand print," the boy remarked. "Whaddaya think'll happen if I put my hand on it and read the words?" Damian proceeded to do just that.

Nothing. Raising a brow, he shot a look at Aquila, wondering if the Ravenclaw was thinking what he was thinking...

Quil walked and stood on his toes to look at the wings, "I bet you could get some serious air with those things."

He leaned back and appraised the statue for another second, "You know I really don't think I'd want to meet this fellow."

He felt distinct disappointment as absolute nothing happened when Dame tried the words. Still...

He glanced at the other pillar and returned Damian's raised eyebrow with a smirk.

"This," he said walking over to the second pillar, "is why you should never go adventuring alone. Here goes nothing."

Damian smirked in return. Returning his hand to the print on the pedestal, he waited for Aquila to do the same.

"Perhaps, we should the words together?" he suggested. "Ready?" He waited for his friend's affirmation before turning his gaze back to the inscription. Damian wasn't sure about Aquila's Latin, but his kind of sucked. Hopefully, for whatever it was they were meant to accomplish, bad pronunciation wouldn't matter.

"In ipso discrimine dicimus vos," Damian read aloud, pacing himself so he spoke with Aquila as close to in unison as possible. He put a note of authority in his tone. "Protector innocentium vigilando. Protectoris egredere!"

As the final syllable echoed through the chamber, everything went still. Damian groaned in disappointment, removing his hand from the pedestal.

And suddenly a loud crack reverberated through the room, hurting Damian's sensitive hearing. Shooting a wide-eyed look towards Aquila, Damian's gaze was immediately drawn to the statue... just as it gazed right back at him.

Only, it wasn't a statue, anymore, but flesh and blood.

"Quil - run!" he shouted.

Aquila Turrow was honestly the master of plans gone wrong. For almost every half cocked plan he had ever think of - for he never really gave many things very many thoughts - had fallen through in some spectacular manor.

However none of that could compare to this, and now.

Instict made him duck down as the crack echoed through the room, but once he had allowed himself to look back up he had really wished he hadn't.

"Bloody Hell," he breathed fumbling about his robes for his wand. For once he was not any where close to finding a joke for this situation.

And when the creature - for Dame had been so right before, there was no way in hell that it was human - let out a screeching caw, like the worst kind of noise one could imagine and swooped down at them Quil did not need Dame's order to tell him what to do.

He may be foolish sometimes but he wasn't an idoit.

So, Aquila turned on his heal and ran down the tunnel faster than he thought possible before.

The... thing was between Damian and the exit, though, at least Aquila had gotten out. As it started towards him, the boy brandished his wand at it. "Reducto!" he shouted frantically, backing away. "Impedimenta!"

Pausing, it looked at him, soulless eyes studying him. And as suddenly as it had come alive, it morphed into a large black bird and shot towards the ceiling, then out, breaking a window to do so.

Damian gaped, heart still pounding in his chest.

"No..." he murmured incredulously, staring up at the broken window in shock. "It can't be that easy!"