Seventh Floor: Seventh-Floor Corridor

[Wilber Winterbottom]

Because the seventh floor is the gateway to Hogwarts' biggest towers, you can expect to access quite a bit of the castle from here. The most notable areas that this corridor provides passage to are the Owlery, Astronomy Tower, Divination Tower, the common rooms for both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and, if you know where to look, the Room of Requirement. Sweeping views of the Quad below are available thanks to a series of large windows.

After stepping onto the seventh-floor corridor, a statue of Lachlan the Lanky immediately greets you. There really isn't anything overly special about him, but one can hide behind him and not be easily found if you're playing hide-and-go-seek or are just wanting to completely avoid someone. A renowned tapestry and numerous portraits, ranging from a mother and her baby, various wildlife animals, and the chivalrous Sir Cadogan adorn the walls. The latter portrait, should you ever need help getting around, is always eager to assist those who are, allegedly, in distress.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Usually Atlas enjoyed the portraits around Hogwarts...in that...it was fun to figure out which buttons to push. For the Fat Lady, it was singing off key and loudly while insisting that she was the one who was tone deaf. She was easy that way, but it was an amusing way to kill time every now and again. Some of the portraits were even insightful and an outstanding resource when one did not want to go to the library and do research. It surprised Atlas how many portraits around the castle included inventors and metal charms, one in particular on the third floor proving to be an infallible resource when he was stuck on something with his metallic creatures that he just could not sort out for himself. Also the group of alchemists, they were amazing and the best tutors for the subject he could have asked for.

One portrait he could do without though? His ruddy dad. It was the downside of being a Gryffindor, truly. His dad being a former head of house meant that his portrait was hung right smack dab in the middle of the common room and it felt like he never had any privacy or like school was just some wonky extension of home. This afternoon had felt particularly suffocating, this LOOK in the twinkle of the portrait's blue eyes seeming to see straight through Atlas' baloney and just...too much.

So, here he was, pacing around the corridor just trying to blow off a bit of steam. Was Sir Cadogan around? He was another that was fun and easy to playfully antagonize.

[astrocat]

Brandon's only information on the school portraits before coming to Hogwarts had been this: "Some of them are interesting to talk to. Some of them deserve to have their portraits burn in fiendfyre. Most of them just look at things. It's weird that they move." This knowledge was appreciated... not that he trusted it much. He could make his opinions by himself. And he was really, really curious about the portraits. Apparently, they DID move(he hadn't been sure) and they did come on a scale of great to really awful. But this drew him to them. He was going around the castle, exploring the corridors and talking to the more interesting portraits. Today, he was trying to listen to an interesting portrait lady. Only there was a knight constantly interrupting him. EVERY time he wanted to ask her a question, the knight would talk over him. It was frustrating. Brandon locked eyes with some older student pacing the hall, eyes silently begging for help with the talkative knight.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Apparently, possibly, Atlas was not the only one with this thought.

Steps slowing somewhat and his hands slipping back into his pockets, the seventh year ceased his nonsensical walking path in favor of making them more focused. His long strides eventually brought him up beside the younger but equally blonde Hufflepuff who was giving the Gryffindor all kinds of forlorn looks.

"...are you...lost...or something? Getting directions from that lot can be quite the herculean task most of the times. No depth perception."

[astrocat]

Brandon shook his head, making a note of what the older student said about directions. "I'm not lost. I'm trying to talk to that portrait." Only she was very quiet, and either the knight talked over her or spoke for her and it was the worst. He was patient, but he hated it when someone talked over someone quieter. It made him upset. Even though he guessed it was dumb to be mad at a portrait. Maybe they had set personalities where they acted the same way for eternity. Brandon chose to believe this.

Although if that was the case, the knight must have been reeeeally annoying in real life.

"But the knight is inserting himself into our conversation. Does he always do that?" If so, Brandon would be frustrated. He really wanted his answers!!! But his strategy wasn't working at all. "Is there a way to get the knight into a different portrait so I could talk to this one? Do portraits travel?"

[sweetpinkpixie]

At least the kid wasn't lost because, well, following direction in a castle that quite literally liked to change more than its staircases on a whim was sometimes like waiting for rain in a drought. Anyway, Atlas did not need to worry himself with trying to help out in that regard and thus a hand pushed off his backwards cap while the other combed through his blonde hair and then the cap went right back on his head. "Ah, you mean Sir Cadogan?" the Gryffindor chuckled somewhat loudly while his arms folded across his chest and his shoulder now leaned up against the stone wall. The volume was meant to, hopefully, draw the portrait's attention but what he said next need not be privy to the 2D knight. "Yeah, he really likes to hear himself talk...but he also has a lot of easy buttons to push and can be pretty predictable." The seventh year glanced up and over to where Sir Cadogan was still VERY much engrossed in his one-sided conversation but also had tweaked his body a bit more to face himself and the first year Hufflepuff. "Anything for a worthy quest."

And if he, and now his new accomplice of the moment, played their cards right...could get some additional entertainment out of the whole situation.

[astrocat]

Brandon nodded at what the older boy had to say. He didn't know that the knight was Sir Cadogan, but he could infer it from context. He nodded, as if he'd known the knight's name the whole time. "I just want to get him away long enough to talk to the other portrait. I guess it would be okay to push his buttons. But not in a very mean way, right?" He felt guilty doing this. It was only because he wanted information! NOT because he wanted to make Sir Cadogan upset.

Um, a quest. What was the quest? He tried to look very confident, like he knew what was going on. He didn't want the older student to be annoyed with him and yell at him for being 'incompetent and stupid'(Brandon's least favorite words). "Quests are cool," he agreed, having no idea what the older student was going for but trying his best to not mess it up. He needed him to help get rid of Sir Cadogan! (Also, Brandon was very sensitive to older student's opinions of him.)

[sweetpinkpixie]

Hufflepuffs.

While Atlas was not the sort to be outright cruel and mean to anyone (at least not anyone who had not earned it, retaliation was a totally different thing) he couldn't exactly tell the kid that whatever button pushing could not be interpreted as 'mean' in some capacity. It was sort of engrained in the very nature of button pushing, wasn't it? Whatever. Atlas wanted to push the knight's buttons and not he had a justified reason to do so. SO, he simply lifted a hand up to quiet the first year in a somewhat haughty 'don't worry, I got this covered' sort of way.

"Oh yeah. But I heard from a very reliable source that only a true knight would be able to fulfil it. Been searching all over for the silver chalice adorned with moonstones." That reliable source? Yeah, you were looking at it right now. As for the chalice...well...there wasn't one but it sounded just fantastical enough to be real. "Guess there aren't real knights around here..."

THAT certainly had Sir Cadogan's attention.

[astrocat]

Brandon wasn't exactly opposed to pushing buttons, but he didn't want the knight to be offended. If they got the knight to go around feeling fulfilled with his quest... that wasn't mean. He just wanted the knight to be happy and out of the way. But he kept his mouth shut, because the older boy was clearly gesturing for him to be quiet and play along. So he tried. "There may not be a real knight here but there's a portrait one. Sir Cadogan! Maybe he could do the quest and prove that he's even better than a living knight in the process. And he'd even get to keep the chalice. If he found it." Brandon could be subtle, but not when he'd had about five seconds to think and was trying to fill in the blanks for a plan he didn't know. But it was okay. Sir Cadogan didn't seem to need subtlety, so Brandon just tried for sincerity, like he really believed there was a quest. He even made his best sincere face, which was very good.

[sweetpinkpixie]

No...kid...that had been...you know. Never mind.

Sir Cadogan seemed desperate enough to be all knightly and saintly and whatever else that he didn't seem to fazed by anything said - just that there was a chalice to be found and in the next could of two dimensional beats...the knight was clamoring off and out of the first portraits into the second. Lunging across it into the third, and so on and so on down the corridor until the clanking of metal and battle cries faded into oblivion.

If that was what chivalry made you look like, Atlas was quite pleased to not have much of it.

"That should keep him occupied the rest of the day," he nodded while adjusting his backwards cap a bit and then slipping his hands back into
his pockets. It was not as satisfying an exchange as he had been wanting, but the seventh year had had to make do with the cards he had been dealt. The hardest one to play being a clearly inexperience Hufflepuff first year.

[astrocat]

Brandon wasn't trying to push Sir Cadogan's buttons. He just wanted him out of the way for the whole day, which is what he got! Sir Cadogan was happy, Brandon was happy... the older student didn't look as happy but 2.5/3 was pretty good. He smiled a little, taking out his notebook again. "Thanks, um... I don't know your name. But thanks for helping me!" He would never have thought to try distracting the knight. "I'm Brandon Fox, by the way." He cheerfully looked over his list of questions for the remaining portrait. Now was his chance for more knowledge!

[sweetpinkpixie]

Don't take it too personally, er, kid. Atlas already had a face that was in a perpetual state of indifference at best. That character trait layered on top of a hardened heart hidden behind several brick walls and, well, yeah. It was what it was and there were precisely two people left at this school who were privy to the subtext.

"No problem," the seventh year replied with a small shake of the head as he slipped off his cap, ran his fingers through his hair, and then slipped the cap right back on. "Two fwoopers with one stone." And now he, Atlas, could stop just calling the kid...kid. At least for the time being until he most likely forgot it somewhere down the line. "Atlas," he introduced with a kind of 'sup' sort of inclination of the head.

And he would be leaving the Flamsteed off for the time being. He was pretty sure he just saw his dad prancing around in a nearby portrait which was a BIG no thank you presently.

[astrocat]

Brandon observed Atlas(he inclined his head too, subconsciously copying other people's way of acting to fit in), deciding that he wasn't very easy to read from facial expressions. However, he wasn't hurting him, or being all strange, so Brandon figured that he didn't need to know what his new acquaintance was thinking. It wasn't like his sister, or his father, or Xander and Evy... he was always trying to figure them out for several different reasons. Mostly from what Brandon could tell, Atlas was killing time. "Why a fwooper, as opposed to another magical bird?" Brandon asked curiously, feeling comfortable enough to ask his question. Of course, he knew the non-magical expression, but they didn't say two seagulls with one stone. Which was very good, because seagulls were Brandon's favorite bird.

He didn't bother asking what the fwoopers represented, as that seemed much more obvious to him.

"What do you think I should ask her?" The portrait, he meant.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Killing time and avoiding his dad's portrait were pretty synonymous. Not that his little skirmish with Sir Cadogan was over, the seventh year did suppose that he could double back to the common room and grab his studying materials for NEWTs to hole up somewhere undisturbed for a bit. Might even pull his Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk to make sure that he wasn't disturbed even when someone happened upon him.

"Suppose it just rolls off the tongue easiest," he replied to the kid Brandon's question with a casual shoulder shrug and his hands shoving back into his pockets to fidget with the metal matchsticks nestled there. "And their small so seems more likely that a stone could take out two if chucked at them as opposed to something like a phoenix or thunderbird. A golden snidget is just too much of a mouthful and I reckon the witch or wizard in charge of copy would see red flags in having an idiom that hints at taking out two endangered creatures." All speculation and fanciful musing on the seven year's part, but language did tend to harken pretty heavily on aesthetic and vibes.

Atlas brow arched and he looked at the younger Hufflepuff captiously. "You didn't have something in mind already when you sought her out?" He got it though, getting tongue tied in front of girls - even the two dimensional ones.