Richard, William & Roseblunt
Richard had his hands tucked away in his pockets as the two boys and the professor walked through the otherwise empty hallways, their steps echoing against the walls. The boys had had a couple nightly excursions in the past, but tonight was different. It was... An eerie feeling, as if something was constantly hovering behind the group as they proceeded up the stairs from the basement, to the main hall.
Glancing to his friend, Richard was still feeling worried about William, although he hid it extremely well. If Richard had something going for him other than Quidditch, it would be his natural talent for acting.
He looked to the professor waddling along in front of them, smiling at the stocky, often confused man. "Thanks, professor. I know it's not an easy call to make, but Will really appreciates you doing this for him!"
Roseblunt hummed in amusement, noticing how Drakengard chose to speak for his friend. He meant well. Drakengard always meant well, from Roseblunt's understanding.
"Oh, but certainly boys! The last thing we want is for any of you to get hurt. Hm, or be in pain if you happen to already have been hurt."
As they came into the corridor closest to the entrance hall, the professor motioned for the boys to wait by a corner for a bit while he waggled on ahead to make sure that there was no unforeseen business or possible danger going on in the main hall when they needed to get to the big, bright stairs.
The boys could glimpse the entrance hall from their position in their current corridor, and saw Roseblunt disappear cautiously from sight as he went out into the large, open space. But they could hear him mutter.
"Stranger things have actually happened in this castle before, believe it or not. The Second Wizarding War and the Battle of Hogwarts started with silent terror, not too unlike this. Of course the situation outside of these walls is nowhere near as grave as-"
A gulping noise cut his lecture short. He was still gone from sight.
"Why did we have to bring 'em along, Drake?" William said with a sigh. "I mean, he's got the best intentions, but ye know he's not exactly...well ye know?" William gestured with his hands that Roseblunt was prone to the occasional absent minded streak, something only really Drake would understand. He went back to rubbing his eye, feeling something of a burning sensation that caused a rather sharp pain. "Oi. This thing is really startin' to bug me."
Richard gave a wry little smile and a shrug. "Eh, you know. It was either this or not going at all. Trust me, I would've preferred it just us two as well, but, you know." He gave William another once-over, furrowing his brow as he gave another little nod. "Right, we should probably get a move on. Do you think someone jinxed you or something on the way to school, like in the train?"
Gesturing for William to follow him and still being interested in an answer, Richard proceeded ahead and peered around the corner, into the eerily quiet main hall. "Professor?"
"Oi!"
A child's voice made them turn their heads around. Walking up to them was a little boy, surely not even old enough to attend Hogwarts by the looks of it. And strangely enough, he was wearing very oversized clothing. Clothing that looked strangely familiar.
"Boys..." the kid began, but then a wrinkle appeared on his forehead as if he understood how strange it sounded for him to talk to them as if they were smaller than he was. "We seem to have run into a bit of a predicament. This might very well be a curse of my own. I wonder how that came to be, I certainly wonder..."
Hearing professor Roseblunt's words come out of the mouth of a little boy, rosy cheeks and golden locks on his head, was certainly a predicament indeed.
"Heh..hehe...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" William burst out into laughter, slapping his knee and tears coming form his eyes. "Haha," he heaved, trying to muster the composure to squeeze some semblance of a coherent thought. "Phew, aye, haha, um...what happened...'Professor' to ye? I mean, if ye really are our professor of course."
Richard simply stood there, staring down at the small boy. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. Eventually, he couldn't help but let out a half-held-back snort of a chuckle, lifting a hand in front of his mouth to cough into it, sending William a wry grin before looking down at the 'professor'.
"Uh... yeah, this is... err, definitely a problem. I guess it's a good thing we're going to the infirmary, huh?" He looked a little relieved as he smiled. "It's pretty inconvenient, but if that's all there is to this curse, that's not so bad, right?"
Little Roseblunt frowned. "This is no laughing matter, boys!" his squeaky voice came.
William shrugged and started to head in the direction of the infirmary. "Aye, it is good as plan as any. Come on, professor, let's get ye fixed up too. Then we can figure out what's goin' in this place."
Richard started following William, still amused with Roseblunt's new appearance, but he quickly came to a stop again, glancing down at the boy almost drowning in clothing. He paused for a moment, looking away, before lowering himself down to the professor's level.
"Do you... uh, want a lift, professor?"
The normally aged professor Roseblunt would have taken the friendly gesture for what it was. Unfortunately, this younger version was quite a bit more stormy inside.
"I certainly don't need a lift, Mr Drakengard! And you watch it, Mr McConnahaugh! I am still your professor, no matter what I look like!"
His lower lip curled up and trembled slightly, a sure sign that the little boy was growing angry. "Now, follow me!"
He did stumble quite a bit in the huge trousers though, trying to hold them up with hands wcdrowning in too long sleeves. Especially in the stairs. But before too long and too many mishaps, they found themselves entering the hospital wing of Hogwarts.
"Carl!" little Roseblunt called out and actually fell over in his rush.
Mr Castoro, the resident 'nurse', came quickly out from his office into the main hospital hall. His eyebrows weren't even raised at the sight of the two Hufflepuffs and the little boy.
"Huh," was his mere reaction, plus a sigh. "What have we here?" It was directed more towards the Hufflepuffs than the kid.
"Well, mr. Castoro... I think we may have run into a curse." Richard nodded down at the young Roseblunt before glancing over at William. "And Will's eye really hurts."
Richard and William had visited the nurse numerous times due mainly to quidditch related injuries, and possibly on a few other occasions. Still, William was the one who most frequently had visited the infirmary, though usually accompanied by Richard as well, as if he was afraid if leaving him alone for too long.
"Carl, it's me, Roseblunt!" the boy, now standing up, said with arms crossed. "I don't suppose you have an insta-aging potion somewhere?"
"Most people would rejoice at having another shot at their childhood," Castoro said with a mild smile before turning back to the, uh, older boys. "And here I thought at first you two had gotten someone else into trouble for a change. Come here," he said to William, motioning for him to sit down on the nearest sickbed. Of course, as this was the first night of the semester, there was no occupied beds here yet. Roseblunt pouted at the lack of attention and sat down on another bed, giving Richard a disappointed glare in the process, the older boy quickly busying himself with heading over and looking out a window.
The nurse put one hand on William's forehead. "Can you open it up?" he asked, lighting up the tip of his wand with a sharp, white light with the other hand.
William flinched at the nurse putting a hand on his forehead, not having felt anything resembling a fever at all.
"Aye, I can," William said. He popped his eye open to a strange sensation. Oddly, the pain subsided slightly, replaced by more a surge of energy. William, even if he had bothered to say anything, wouldn't be able to match the words with the thoughts that were swimming in his head. He simply sat there with his eyes open, awaiting further instruction.
Castoro looked closely. "Dilated pupil... But no irritation from what I can see. Are you hurting? Or, did you people really come here to see if I could make professor Roseblunt age?"
"Well, it was hurtin' a fair bit earlier. It's fine now...oddly," William admitted. "And did ye really think Drake and I would pull a prank on him?" William asked with a gesture to the child-like professor. "I rather do it to sum kid and make them old. Aye, we should do that," WIlliam said with a chuckle, and managed to lure a little smile out of Castoro.
Richard who was still looking out of the window let out a little cough, lifting a hand to cover his mouth as he did so, but William managed to catch a glimpse of Richard's amused smile which he had tried to hide. Afterwards, he turned back to Castoro and William.
"He's right, it really seemed to be bothering him earlier. And we haven't come here for no reason in the past, have we? Maybe it's one of those curses, like the one that hit the professor...?" Richard questioned, glancing over at the child nearby.
William gulped at that. "Why would they curse me?" William shifted to Drake. "I mean, why curse students at all?"
Richard shrugged, not looking too alarmed, even if he did seem a little worried about his friend. "Hey, don't ask me. Even if it -is- a curse, it doesn't seem to be that... you know, dangerous? I mean, if all it does is make your eye hurt a little..."
"Don't worry boys!" little Roseblunt said, jumping up from his seat. "We will figure out the root of this malade pronto!"
Castoro sighed. "I would like to spend a whole day examining just how much of the professor is still in there. But it is getting late and I had better focus on people who actually seem to have a problem for now."
"You call this not a problem?" Roseblunt spat.
But Castoro turned back to William with a serious gaze. "You come running if you feel anything about your eye getting worse. For now, I guess we can say you got something in your eye that is now gone, because you look perfectly fine to me. I will follow you back to your House-"
"I am fully capable of-" Roseblunt tried to squeak and interrupt.
"Because Frindolf here might fall asleep on the way back, if I know 5 year olds right."
"I'm not five!"
Richard raised his brows, glancing over at William, mouthing out 'Frindolf'? with a surprised expression and a barely held-back smirk.
William snorted at the name and stood up, stretching out his body with a big yawn. "I think I'm in danger of fallin' sleep more than the Professor here, so I'mma start headin' back if I got the permission to do. I think we can escort our Professor a-okay," William said confidently. "Thank ye very much, doc." William had almost forgotten to add the last part, but then again Castoro was used to the Quidditch Beater popping in after practice during the season that 'thank yous' had become far too tedious to utter.
As the trio, with little Frindolf Roseblunt at the front, exited the hospital wing, Castoro watched the go with a furrowed brow. An eye hurting without any other symptoms? The curse of Hogwarts might be trickier than they hoped.
