#ituniverse

me:

5k - richie/eddie - fix it 

"Guys?"

Eddie stares at the surface of the water, heart sinking like a stone to his stomach. Sinking, his brain snags. Then, alone. alone. alone.

"Okay, guys, c'mon."

His call is met with silence and he knows, he knows, that they're saving Bev, or at least trying to. He shouldn't be doing anything less, but fear grips him tight as a vice, pinning him in place.

He calls again and again there's nothing. No movement he can see, even as he sweeps the light from his headlamp across the cistern. It seems, suddenly, like a gaping maw, the mouth of a hungry beast waiting to swallow them whole, and maybe it's most of the way there already.

"Guys, c'mon, please. Please c'mon, I don't wanna walk outta here alone."

He's praying, begging, and he's not even sure to what. Something. Anything. And something must hear him, must feel the desperation and terror rolling off of him in endless waves, because the surface breaks with a collective gasp, with one, two, three, four, five heads.

The adrenaline makes way for a rush of relief, and his bones feel like jelly, like he's already being digested, like he was swallowed too and hadn't even realized it.

Read on AO3

nobody knows what house he is actually in

no, literally, even the head of houses have no clue – he was sick during the sorting

only the headmaster knows but has a soft spot for richie and thinks it's funnier not to say anything

he can get into any house's common room and has 4 different beds that he sleeps in at random

sometimes he will change his uniform in the middle of the day or wear a mix of house clothing

the professors eventually give up trying to wrangle him into a proper schedule – he's a menace, but his grades are always top notch

he becomes a prefect in ravenclaw and hufflepuff in the same year and nobody even questions it

he also does quidditch for his final three years and nobody ever knows before a game which team he will be playing for

the student body starts a betting pool for which house he's in and almost everyone has a stake in it, including the rest of the losers

some people think the losers secretly know the house he's in, but they keep assuring everyone they don't

it specifically bothers eddie, who constantly tries to pry the information out of him, to no avail

there is absolute chaos one day when georgie starts his first year and casually says he knows what richie's house is

bill isn't even sure if georgie actually knows (georgie wont tell him) or if it's some plot richie developed to drive them insane

in fact, bill isn't even sure if richie knows his own house anymore

"i just forget sometimes"

Me: *spits blood*

Stephen King: Say Eddie and Stan are going to die!