 Bathes in Maple Syrup | Dancing Lobster | Moy Pomidor | Seneca's Beard | That Is So Fetch!
Miguel's relief at hearing he wasn't going to be in trouble lasted approximately three seconds. His eyes followed the professor's gesture toward the corridor just as the staircase beneath them emitted its long, wounded groan.
"¡Ay, Dios mío!"
The words escaped him automatically as he grabbed for the nearest railing. The stack of books now clutched against his chest wobbled dangerously. One slid sideways. Another nearly launched itself before he caught it against his elbow.
Miguel stared in disbelief as an entire section of staircase detached overhead and began moving away with all the offended dignity of someone storming out of an argument.
"You were serious," he said, looking back at Professor Voss. "It actually has feelings. I don't think it liked being called the aggressor."
The realization felt somehow more alarming than being trapped had. Back home in the Muggle world, buildings did not get offended. Buildings definitely did not throw tantrums.
The staircase shifted again, and Miguel instinctively took a step closer to Professor Voss, arguably a bit too close. At this point, she seemed to possess the only reliable anti-staircase magic in the castle.
"So," he said cautiously, "if the staircase is upset—" Another rumble. "—can it hold a grudge?"
The question, as ridiculous as it sounded, came with all the seriousness of a first-year who had recently learned that magic was real, portraits talked, and apparently staircases possessed emotional depth. Miguel was suddenly struck by how much of Hogwarts seemed possessed of a restless sort of juvenescence despite being the oldest thing he had ever encountered.
"What do you actually do when this happens?" he asked. "Wait for it to calm down? Apologize? Bring it chucherías?" Given everything he had seen during his first year so far, none of those options felt entirely impossible.
__________________
 |