Rivers Run Into The Sea

Rose chuckled at Toby. “Escape? As if I’d ever get caught, you wound me,” she said sarcastically as her hand dramatically clutched at her chest like he hurt her feelings, her lips lifting up in a playful smile. “If I was to get caught, I doubt I’d have to do anything. My mother would lecture them so much that they would let me go freely just so they wouldn’t need to face her wrath.” As much as she loved her mother, Rose had one too many times gotten on Hermione’s bad side and it was not one she liked to be on. “And you? How would a Longbottom break loose from prison?”

Toby conceded immediately that the picture Rose described was entirely accurate. “I think they would be very wise to let you go in that situation.” He chuckled. He knew his father was a Gryffindor through and through, but he couldn’t exactly see him scrapping with the wizengamot to secure his release. “Well I’d say my best bets were talking them to insanity or my legendary puppy dog eyes, but I don’t think either would work on the dementors.” He shrugged. “So I suppose I’m stuck until somebody decides to break me out.” Seeing as school children seemed to be capable of it, he supposed that wasn’t as hopeless as it sounded.

Dominique playfully rolled her eyes in response, “it’ll be even more fun when I escort you to the hospital wing.” In all honesty she couldn’t remember how their friendship began or when they had taken to always being there for one another, but she was eternally grateful for it. When he too gave up on the search she sighed softly, head lulling to the side as he squeezed her shoulder. “You always pick the difficult tasks.” She teased before following him back out into the corridor. She paused at his question, taking a moment to think back on all the stories and reading she had on the Room of Requirement. “I don’t see why not, but I’m sure you would really have to need it. Not just a want, but a need.”

“If it’s grace you need, I will gladly teach you. Gotta help our fellow students.” Normally by this point, she would have clamped her mouth shut and run off - but if Toby was going along with her awful jokes, it put her a little more at ease. “Maybe the muggles have their own secrets.” she mused, though the chances were unlikely, it was still fun to ponder the ‘what ifs’ of life. Turning the book around so that he could see the title, a small smile overtook her features. “Dreadful Denizens of the Deep. I seem to have fallen into a magical creatures hole this month. But I’m not mad about it, they’re fascinating.” 

He nearly scoffed at her offer. He was pretty sure he was a hopeless case. “How would you even teach someone grace?” He asked, already writing himself off. When he saw her book his eyes lit up. “I was looking for that book in the library the other day!” He beamed. “I’m researching for a, err... project.” He didn’t know how much he should really give away. He could trust Dom with all the gory details, but he didn’t need everyone thinking he was even weirder than they already did. “I just really like the whole underwater world I guess.” He smiled bashfully, it was a little bit of an understatement, but again, for once he was doing damage control. “How are you finding it? Could I borrow it when you’re done?” He asked eagerly.

“I’m a little convinced the step is only there so that other people can laugh at whatever poor student trips on it. But the jokes on them, cause I fall with grace.” Tilting her nose up at the end, in some faux regal pose, she wasn’t sure what came over her. By that point, she’d normally retreated back into her shell, there was just something almost comforting when talking to someone else who wasn’t the most poised. “Huh… That sounds like a weird concept. They’d have to go round again wouldn’t they? They can’t just… disappear…. Can they?” 

He laughed at her pose. He was glad it had been Imogen who had come to his aid. Not only had she helped him up, but she was helping to take him mind off the whole thing. “Hmm, perhaps I don’t need to stop falling, perhaps I just need to acquire some grace.” He grinned. Grace was one thing he was certainly lacking. “I’m pretty sure Muggles don’t have the ability to disappear. Unless we just haven’t covered that yet in muggle studies.” It was a possibility he supposed. But then if they could do things like that, why was there such a divide between the muggle and wizarding world? “What are you reading?” He asked, gesturing to the book she was holding, and presumably, reading before she’d come to help him.

“How do you even do that? Tripping over your own feet?” Wouldn’t a person require an object standing in their way, in order for them to trip? And not just doing that by themselves. “I was on my way to the library, I have to check some things, I need them for the Christmas holidays. Since I won’t be staying in the castle. What about you? What else were you doing, other than falling down the stairs?”

“Oh um, welI I guess I just lose track of where they are and then one trips over the other and then I... fall, I suppose.” Honestly he was as confused as Sylvie was, and trying to explain how it happened didn’t exactly help his confusion. It sounded even stupider out loud. “I was just going to the great hall to get some food.” Oh good one Toby. Greedy Toby, tripping because he was rushing to devour some food, brilliant. Why couldn’t he ever just think to lie? “But I could come help you in the library if you like. Two heads and all that,” he offered. 

Rose sat in the Great Hall, her one hand absentmindedly scooping pumpkin soup into her mouth while the other held a copy of the Daily Prophet, her eyes never leaving the page as she read the article about the Azkaban break in. “You know, with the amount of times Azkaban has been broken into, it really shouldn’t be called an ‘impenetrable fortress’”, she said aloud as someone stepped in front of her, not looking up to see who walked by as she was desperate to talk about it with anyone.

Toby sat down at the table and promptly started to pile his plate high. He looked over at Rose and winced when she mentioned Azkaban. The whole topic made him uneasy. “I guess it is a bit of a joke at this point. It’s still not my ideal holiday destination though.” He couldn’t imagine what crime he might commit to end up there, but with the Aurors around watching everyone’s every move, he was over thinking everything. “How would you escape then? If you were wrongfully imprisoned and the dementors were after your soul?” He asked, giving a lighthearted smile, hoping to drive the conversation away from politics. He wasn’t good at politics. 

“I wasn’t talking about the giant squid.” She teased, bumping him softly with her shoulder before she took to looking around the room. If there was a pair there she would notice immediately, having once been obsessed with the non-magical world due to a summer spent with her grandpa Weasley. She was beginning to lose hope when Toby spoke again, drawing her attention away from the artifacts and back into the conversation they were holding. “Well I can’t take all of it, you’ll definitely earn your half by doing all the difficult things, like taking a plunge into the lake.” A small groan slipped past her lips as she rounded on him, shoulders tense as she finally said, “I don’t think we’re going to have any luck in here.”

“It won’t be difficult, it’ll be fun,” he said in all seriousness. He didn’t see swimming as a chore, and he certainly didn’t see meeting an incredible and elusive creature like the giant squid as a chore either. He burst into a broad smile as Dom turned to him hopelessly. It may have been odd that he was so cheerful in the face of her despair, but he was just so happy that she cared so genuinely about this project. “That’s alright, we can try the room of requirement like you said.” He put a hand on her tense shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. “Do you think if I ever really needed to go swimming, a swimming pool might appear there?” He asked, turning to the door.

Alice nearly pout her bottom lip, but figured she had babied him enough for the next hour or so, speaking as she was practically dragging him to the hospital wing for a nose bleed. Maybe it was the house divide that made her feel separated from him. She felt like that a lot, actually, when it came to most of the Gryffindors she had played with as children. But it was with Toby, in particular, that she felt like she had to try harder just to maintain her familial bond with him. “That won’t last too long,” she tries to assure him, “I’m no expert, but I’m sure there’s at least one person out there who’s in their right mind. Besides, having a busy love life isn’t all the excitement it’s cracked up to be.” She chuckled, only sure that he had fully understood half of what she said. Must normally do. “I know…” she grunts as she tries to help him turn the corner down the hall, “It’s just… those who do it for sport? It lacks depth and meaning and sincerity. One should be flirting to entice someone they’re dying to get to know better. Instead it’s used as an ego booster. One smolder with a giggle in response and it’s on to the next one. It’s baffling how it makes one feel so special when that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Toby wasn’t so sure about Alice’s reassurance, but she was his sister and she was trying to make him feel better. She was never going to say ‘You’ll be alone forever I’m afraid’, so he’d take it without arguing. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. I don’t know why I worry about it really.” He tossed her a reassuring grin. As she explained flirting he dabbed his nose and realised he’d stopped bleeding. “Oh yes, I agree,” he said distractedly. Then he stopped walking, turning on her. “Look, I’ve stopped bleeding now. I think going to the hospital wing would be a waste of time. Don’t you?” He looked at her hopefully. “We could do something else instead. Something more fun than the hospital wing,” he offered, hoping to sweeten the deal.

She laughed softly at his response, eyes rolling before she shifted her gaze before them. With Toby being as clumsy as he was at least one of them needed to be watching where they were stepping. “If you get eaten or caught I’m claiming my innocence to your father.” She said teasingly, “no Professor Longbottom, I promise I didn’t know. He told me it was strictly hypothetical, for a paper he was writing for Care of Magical Creatures.” When they had finally reached the classroom she peaked her head in, making sure it was empty before they both slipped inside. “Oh, so not only do I revise you homework, but I’ll also be a key part in your future career as an author. I think I deserve a bigger salary than what I’m getting now.”

Toby didn’t want to think about what his dad would say about his plan. Hopefully he’d never find out. “Don’t worry, giant squid don’t eat people.” He paused and then looked back at her. “At least I don’t think they do.” He pushed the thought away and turned his attention to the classroom. “Right flippers. They’re like fish fins, but for your feet right?” He asked, looking around. There were various display cases with artefacts in the classroom itself and he knew that doors leading from the classroom lead to store rooms for more items still. “I think after all the classes you’ve helped me pass, you can have all the proceeds from our giant squid book if you’d like,” He said, rather absentmindedly as he skimmed through a few items on a shelf.

Once he had rose to his full height Dominique looped her arm through his, almost daring the other students with her eyes to mention what had just happened. It was one of the few positives she had when it came to her strange reputation. “I thought you said that your questions were all hypothetical.” She challenged, brow raising as she lifted her gaze to meet his. Of course she had known better when she gave him the answers, but she would never pass on an opportunity to tease the Longbottom male. With a sigh she began walking towards the muggle studies room, “if they don’t have it there then perhaps the Room of Requirement will have a set.”

Toby was oblivious to the glares Dominique was dishing out to other students, his mind was already miles ahead thinking about his plan of action. “Well at the time it was purely hypothetical. Technically it still is. Before any good experiment you need a good hypothesis. The next step is simply testing that hypothesis.” He reasoned, using about a billion words he only knew because he’d heard Alice use them when she was getting all wordy and intellectual. He was glad to see she was on board either way. “That’s a good idea, I hadn’t thought of that.” He smiled, rejuvenated by this new quest. “You know I could find hardly anything about the giant squid, or giant squids at all in the library, so I think I’m probably going to have to write the book myself. And then you can edit it to make it readable.” 

“If it makes you feel any better - the stairs here are crazier than most places. I don’t even want to count the amount of times I’ve tripped on the disappearing steps.” Were the words hyperbolic? Yes, but the aim was to try and take away any leftover embarrassment he may have had, even if it meant embarrassing herself in the process. “I think the general thought process when designing the castle was ‘we’ll have all these first year students trying to find their way around - so let’s make it as hard as possible’. But I guess it’s a school, so making people learn stair patterns as the first test, isn’t so out of place.”  

“Pfft,” Toby shook his head. “There isn’t a single time I have passed the disappearing step and I haven’t tripped.” He grinned, as if this were now some kind of odd competition. Or perhaps just a support group for clumsy people. “You know that sounds about right. At least if you pass the stairs test you get all the cool things as well.” Really the stairs were a small price to pay. “Although apparently muggles have moving stairs too. Except you step on the bottom step and it takes you up to the top. I don’t know what happens if you don’t get off at the top. Maybe you go back round again?” He always listened eagerly in muggle studies class. The things they could do just amazed him. 

Alice raises her eyebrows as she sighs. “I wish more of that for you too,” she said as she rubbed his back gently, “I just, you know, don’t wanna know too much about it. You’re still my baby brother. Need to know only.” She chuckled. It was a fact that Alice was probably flirted with a little too much, and often times by the wrong crowd. She had refused to acknowledge that as fact, however, since mindless flirting didn’t seem like anything worth mentioning since it didn’t mean anything. Surface-level, basic flirting was a sport that amounted to absolutely nothing and had no real substance whatsoever. Who on Earth would ever want to brag about such a thing? “Menial,” she begins, her dictionary of a brain flipping its pages, “Adjective. Not requiring much skill and lacking prestige. Synonyms include unskilled, lowly, degrading, inferior.”

He laughed at Alice’s reaction. As far as siblings went he and Alice were pretty close. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t talk to Alice about. She was probably the first person he’d go to with a problem, certainly before he want to his dad. But romance things tended to be approached with awkward caution. Mostly Toby just found it amusing that he knew exactly how to make Alice cringe if he needed to. “Well you don’t have to worry because my love life is entirely null and void.” He assured her. He also found it amusing when she went into hyper intellectual mode. “Alright, that makes sense.” He’d never understand how she could just store away information like that. By tomorrow he’d probably just be left with a vague feeling of what the word meant. “You know I don’t think flirting is menial. I think it’s actually pretty hard.” If it wasn’t then that meant he was just exceptionally bad at something very easy. 

“Hi Toby.” She responded softly, patting his shoulder as he shifted into a sitting position. It seemed to be instinct at this point, to be there when the male found himself in a rather difficult predicament. A laugh slid past her lips as he spoke, knowing well enough that it was mostly an attempt to keep himself calm as the other students giggled around them; however, a single glare from the green eyed Ravenclaw was enough to send them on their way. “Sure, where would you like to go?” She asked as she rose to her feet, hand grasping his arm in attempt to help him gain his balance.

On his feet once more he thought about her question for a moment. And then his eyes lit up. “Well there has been something I’ve been meaning to do for a while.” He grinned, injuries nearly all but forgotten. “You know you mentioned flippers, when we were talking about the giant squid? I want to go to the muggle studies classroom, see if they have anything like that I could borrow.” He absolutely was not planning a date with the giant squid, but if he was, he needed these flippers. “As the expert, your eye would be much appreciated.”

“That’s good, because I wasn’t entirely sure how to bring a floor to the hospital wing.” It may have been making light at the situation, but she reasoned if he went along with it, he didn’t mind too much. If she was in his shoes, she’d probably want to brush past it too. Shaking her head as he thanked her, it didn’t seem to merit any thanks in her mind, it was simply what should be done. “Then it sounds like most people need to take basic manners class again. I mean…  I can’t say that I’ve never accidentally laughed at someone falling, but you should always make sure they’re okay.” 

He liked that they were making jokes, it made him feel less embarrassed about what he’d just lived though. “I don’t really blame them, you know, everybody’s busy I guess.” He didn’t want to condemn the entire student body as rude in one fell swoop. “Although I think a lot of problems would be solved if that class did exist.” He gave an tense chuckle. He tried to imagine how explaining basic human decency to teenagers would go down, and oddly enough it didn’t go too well in his head. “We could probably all learn something from going over the basics I guess. Stairs for beginners, for example. I think I missed that one” 

REGRET overcame the hufflepuff as toby fell down the stairs. never had they meant for that to happen when they called out to the younger student. “ fuck— my bad!” teddy exclaimed as they got to the bottom of the stairs and held out a hand for him. “ are you okay? i didn’t mean to— i’m sorry, “ apologizes fell out of teddy’s mouth at max speed as they continued to apologize.

Toby hadn’t realised it was Teddy who had called him until they were standing over him apologising. “Oh, no, don’t worry about it.” He tried on a smile as he took Teddy’s hand and scrabbled to stand. “Me? I’m fine, yeah.” Toby cringed internally. Cool, Toby, real cool. It was pretty much true though, a bruise or two, grazed palms, nothing that wouldn’t be forgotten by tomorrow. “Did you need me for something?” Hopefully everyone could forget he’d just taken an awfully embarrassing trip.

“Did you just fall down the stairs?” Sylvie asked as she extended her hand to help him stand up. “It’s much cuter when girls do it.” She joked. Why should it surprise her? It was Toby, she could expect anything silly and ridiculous from him. Sylvie had realized that, once they had been paired together. At first it would severely annoy her, now it had started to seem sort of entertaining. “Did you trip or something?”

Toby looked around, assessing the situation. “Uh, yeah, I did.” He took her hand and stood, amazed he hadn’t done more damage to himself. “Cute?” He couldn’t imagine someone hurting themselves being cute. Maybe there was something he was missing. “Yeah, it was my fault really, tripped over my own feet.” He shrugged hoping they might skirt over the issue. This whole trying to seem cooler thing wasn’t going particularly well for him so far. "Anyway, what are you up to?” He asked, pretty desperate to change the subject.

“Okay… good…” Alice said with a sigh, “I’m sorry I had to say it like that…” Truly, it was that side of her that longed to scream and destroy and set the world ablaze that took over in the tone of her voice. And she wouldn’t apologize for it to anyone but Toby. He never deserved to see any dark side of her. He had been too good, always seen the best in her no matter what. How could she ever live with herself if he looked at her like he was truly afraid of her? “They’re asserting their desire for alpha dominance in a social environment where they feel like they don’t have enough attention, and so must compensate through menial things like flirting like it’s a conquest or literally watching someone fall beneath them. Such a small-minded concept and one that usually stays within this age range until they grow old enough to talk poorly about that kind of behavior while hypocritically refusing to acknowledge they partook in it.”

Toby was no stranger to these passionate intellectual rants where Alice would barely pause to take a breath. He smiled despite everything. He could fondly listen to Alice theorise for hours, and he was sure whatever she was saying was correct, but there was no way he could following it right now. He had to work hard to keep up with Alice, and it usually went best if they were alone in a quiet room and he didn’t have to focus on anything else, like navigating corridors or staunching a nosebleed. “I wish I had more of the flirting and less of the falling.” He replied simply, part of the speech he had understood. “What does that word ‘menial’ mean?” At least she wasn’t fussing over him as much while she was fighting for social justice.