Getting Lost [Open]

Hogwarts was a very large castle, much larger than Gilbert's old school, which had been a surprisingly modern building that was about the same size as a Muggle high school. Hogwarts was three times as large, and with moving staircases, plenty of dead ends, and secret passageways that kept disorientating Gilbert's fragile sense of direction. He had been trying to get from the Gryffindor Common Room down to the Great Hall, but a reasonably short trip had extended to an hour and a half of wandering about in a lost daze. Gilbert had tried asking the paintings for directions, but he had a suspicion that some of them were a bit barmy or outright mischievous, and kept sending him in circles. He had seen that painting of some guy in a tutu with trolls six times now. Where the hell was he?

Gilbert finally decided that the paintings weren't to be trusted and sat down on the stairs, giving his aching feet a good rest. He needed to get down on the ground floor, but he had gone down a million stairs, it felt like, and up only a few of them. By all logical reasoning, he should've been in the basement by now - but, then again, Hogwarts was a magical castle, so logic probably didn't exist here. Maybe he had been going up all along. They really should've given Gilbert a map of some sort, instead of letting him get lost and confused and ending up wandering in circles for the rest of eternity. If only Gilbird was here...that little canary was awesome with directions. But Gilbird had flown off somewhere, probably to explore the forest. He hoped he didn't get eaten...

Matthew was wondering around, to nowhere in particular, just going for a walk around the castle. Because there didn't seem to be anyone around, he was happily saying his thoughts out-loud to himself, wondering various things. One thing he was grouching about- and was a common topic of complaint -was his brother. Another was how he could never get to his Astronomy lesson on time. In fact, this was exactly what he was ranting about when he came face-to-chest with an unknown boy and ended up lying on the floor and groaning.

"Ah... Ow..." He looked up. "Oh! Oh my god I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going and... Sorry!" He squeaked out. The boy was much taller than him, so he was probably older, and Matthew was a skinny boy lacking in muscles. If this boy was a bully then Matthew was screwed one way or another, but apologising profusely would maybe give him the chance to save his neck, but it was also polite and Matthew was brought up with manners.

He scrabbled back a little way to get a good look at the boy but the palms of his hands hurt because of when he threw them out behind him to lessen the impact of his fall. They stung, and his behind throbbed, and the back of his head wasn't exactly pleased either.

Gilbert had only just resumed his lost wanderings when he collided with someone when turning a corner. He staggered back a step, but kept his balance, and blinked rapidly as he automatically readied an angry rant at the rude person who dared to run into him. He saw no one though, and he looked about in confusion before rapid apologies brought his attention downwards at his feet. A rather small, weedy blond with a yellow tie was speaking rapidly, scrabbling back with the anxious look of a rabbit cornered by a fox. Gilbert frowned. Well...damn, he'd feel guilty snapping at such a nervous looking person, and Gilbert wasn't hurt; he barely staggered.

"Hey, hey!" He shouted, catching the boy's attention - and stopping the apologies. "It's cool! I'm alright, see? You, though...how much do you weigh? About as much as a feather? I practically knocked you off your feet!" He snorted with laughter and bent down a little, holding out a pale hand. "C'mon, up you get."

Matthew's spew of apologies were cut off by the boy in question. He almost had a heart attack at the first sharp "Hey!", but as the boy went on, Matthew relaxed slightly. The boy was alright, he'd just said so. Matthew hurried to reply, "I'm, I'm just, fine, yeah! Perfectly fine..." It was not completely true, but hurting hands and bottoms were nothing to worry other people about, especially those he'd never met before who probably ask out of obligation. "I'm not that light... Why, I'm not light at all..." He let out a small, nervous laugh, "After all, don't people say, the heavier you are, the harder you fall? A-And I did take a pretty hard fall..."

Now the boy was offering a hand... It was much paler that Matthew's was, and Matthew had grown up in Canada, in a place where there wasn't a great amount of sun... Matthew wiped his hands on his robes to get rid of the dirt and bits of dead skin the fall had dragged up before acccepting the hand and pulling himself up. "Thank you..." It was always important to remember manneres, and besides, he meant it.

"No problem! No one was hurt, right? Right." Gilbert grinned a little and pulled his hand back once the blond was situated on his feet. "No harm, no foul, as they say. The name's Gilbert. Gilbert Weillschmidt. In Gryff-in-door." He could never pronounce the Houses' names correctly, except Ravenclaw, unless he sounded it out slowly. He was relieved to find another person actually. Hopefully they'd give better directions than the lying paintings around here. "What's your name? By the way, do you know how to get down the Great Hall? I've gotten a bit turned around, and none of the paintings are helping me." He spoke quickly, his accent thickening in his desperate enthusiasm. He was lost! He just wanted to get to his destination already, manners be damned! "Not lost, exactly, just a bit, you know, disorientated. This is my first year here, you see, so, yeah, no idea about the layout. They really should've given me a map, y'know? I mean, I am awesome, but not /that/ awesome."

"O-Oh, a little unsure of where you're going?" Well, Matthew could handle lost. He'd been at the school long enough to know his way around the main part of the school- and the Great Hall? Hey, that was as main as it could get! Matthew always leapt at the chance to be useful! "Of course I can help! My name is Matthew." He nodded in acknowledgement of Gilbert's introduction, "I'm a Hufflepuff. Uuh, this way! Our common room is the nearest to the Great Hall, I believe..." He turned and started to shuffle down the corridor, glancing at Gilbert to make sure he was following.

"What country are you from? I think I could identify your accent, but I don't want to be wrong and offend..." Offending people was the absolute worst! Matthew found himself assuming things too much and it nearly always landed him in a bad situation, so Matthew chose to find everything out from other people all the time to avoid these bad situations.

Gilbert sagged in relief, following after the weedy boy - er, Matthew - down the corridor, easily keeping up with him with his long legs. "Hugglepuff? The, right, the Badger house." Badgers were horrible, nasty creatures, so if Gryff-in-door was for the brave lions, then Hugglepuff was for...the vicious badgers? Matthew looked too shy and weedy to be dangerous, but Gilbert knew better than to judge a book by its cover. Why, back home, this scrawny little kid could smack an adult flat on his ass with a well-aimed kick. It was so cool! So yes, treat 'Matthew' with caution, as badgers were evil creatures.

"Ja, danke. I'm Deutsch- German. Sorry, I'm, well, I'm pretty damn good at English, but I still mess up a bit, so, y'know 'scuse me if I make a mistake." His mother had told him to say that every time he spoke to a native. He thought it pointless, since it should be apparent by his accent that English was his second language - or third, rather, but Mam insisted, and she was scary, so.

"Hufflepuff," Matthew corrected helpfully. "Yeah, the house with the badger..." Badgers were cute! Matthew'd never seen one in real life but he bet it was cute and cuddly and maybe it would get along well with Kumajirou! Matthew pulled a tapestry aside and slipped through the hole there, beckening Gilbert through. "German? Oooh, I was right. That's neat. Like, really. I like European languages, they sound all super fancy and stuff..." Matthew smiled. "And it's okay, you seem to be doing real well with your English so far." He nodded encouragingly, emerging on the other side of the hole which was also hidden by a tapestry, and squeezed past a suit of armour which was far too close to the opening. "I'm Canadian, so I speak some Canadian-French, but it doesn't sound as silky and pretty as European-French does." And the French seem to agree...

Matthew cast his mind around for a topic of conversation. "Made any friends yet?" That'd do... He could see if he knew anyone Gilbert had made friends with in Gryffindor; he did know a few! Like his brother... And... Zaman... And that one other Gryffindor... So not many, but hey, it was a decent amount for Matthew.

Gilbert panicked a little at the friends question. Truth was, Gilbert hadn't made any friends yet in his house. Everyone seemed to already have their little close-knit groups this late into their education, and Gilbert hadn't yet approached the other exchange students - but even they seemed to have split off into their own little groups. Gilbert was once again on the outskirts, but he didn't let that bother him. He'll try to be the centre of attention later, and make friends. Maybe. But he couldn't say he was a friendless loser to this helpful bloke, but he couldn't lie either, since Matthew probably knew people from the school and could call bullshit - which was always embarrassing.

"Not...Not yet, no." Gilbert admitted. "But, heh, just got here, so, you know, in time, I probably will!" He laughed, brushing it off easily.

Matthew was slightly concerned with the pause in the conversation, but then Gilbert spoke up, and Matthew relaxed. "Oh! I completely understand, it took me months to get friends which weren't my brother! So I'm sure you'll get plenty!" He hesitated. He wanted to ask Gilbert if he'd like to be Matthew's friend, then Matthew could say he was Gilbert's first friend and he'd have someone else to hang out with and do fun things with, but he wasn't sure if Gilbert liked him or just needed him to find his way to the Great Hall then they'd never see each other again...

Then he realised he'd been a bit quiet and quickly pretended it was because he was counting suits of armour before stopping in front of one and pushing it to one side, climbing down the ladder underneath it. Lots of suits of armour had this shortcut to different floors, but it was hard to remember the pattern which told you which suit of armour was the right one. He pushed back the wall he'd stopped in front of and went through, stepping aside to let Gilbert through as well.

Gilbert allowed the conversation to lull, looking at his surroundings while they walked. He had been here for several weeks now, and he should've made at least one friend, or an acquaintance at least that he could talk to every so often. But at the moment, nothing. He stifled a sigh. He shouldn't mope and act all losery about it though. You try and try again! It was only a matter of time before he made friends with someone. Hopefully. And...and if not, well he liked being alone anyway! All he needed was Gilbird!

Even though he had been excited going to Hogwarts because...well never mind.

Gilbert followed Matthew down a ladder, and stepped through the opened wall, starting to get disorientated again. How did he know all these passageways and stuff off by heart? Gilbert didn't know where he was still, if they were at the top of the castle, or at its bottom. The silence was starting to get to him as well, so he clumsily tried to restart the conversation.

"So, er, you've been at Hogwarts your entire education?" He had to to know his way around so well...

"Well- sort of, basically, yeah... I didn't start at the beginning because I hadn't attended any wizarding schools back in Canada. Instead I went to Muggle school because I hadn't shown any signs of magic. But then I did, and I got a letter from Hogwarts!" He beamed, puffing out his chest with pride. He was pleased that he'd gotten the letter because if it had turned out he was a Squib, he doubted his parents would pay any attention to him ever again... And that was a scary thought- especially with his brother attending a school in England where Matthew couldn't see him any more.

Matthew hesitated. He wanted to continue the conversation, but the Great Hall was only a corridor or two away. So Matthew had to either show him the right way and lose the possibility of a new friend or show him an unnecessarily long way in the hopes that he'll be able to make friends with Gilbert officially. So Matthew made a quick decision and turned the wrong way, deciding to take a slightly longer route, but not too long. "What school did you go to before this one?" It was best to keep the conversation moving.

Gilbert hummed quietly at Matthew's explanation, not minding that the blond had been a near-Squib. Hey, his dad was a Squib, he can't be all snooty about them. His dad was awesome, even if he couldn't do Magic, and the more people that realised that, the better. He had enough of sneering Purebloods that put too much stock on how far back their precious magic went. Gilbert was a powerful wizard, and his dad was a Squib and his mother a Muggle-born, what did that tell them? That Gilbert could easily best them in a Wizard's Duel if need be!

Well, he said powerful - which was true - but he struggled to control that power. Still, it showed that pure breeding wasn't everything!

And Gilbert got lost in his own thoughts. He pulled himself out, catching Matthew's question just in time. "Oh, er, school in Germany. It's a lot smaller than Hogwarts. Small and efficient. It's more...modern, too. We just go to a normal looking boarding school, though, not a huge ass castle."

Matthew nodded politely at Gilbert’s short description of his school. It sounded nice, but he’d grown attached to the ‘huge ass castle’, having attended it for a while now. “That certainly sounds safer than this wacky place,” he commented with a nod. Hogwarts was like the world’s largest funhouse, practically, with all its tricks and hidden rooms and passages which had just accumulated over the centuries and students had to be careful where they trod if when visiting parts of the castle they weren’t familiar with.

He swerved and started to lead Gilbert down a flight of stairs, but five steps down, his foot went to the next step and just… kept going. He squealed in alarm, stumbling and ending up sinking into the accursed trick step all the way down to his arm-pits. Matthew swore and clawed at the steps in front of him in order to pull himself out, but to no success. “Sometimes I wonder about the founders’ sanity, you know…” The stairs were squeezing his chest unpleasantly and Matthew’s breaths were short and fast as a result (of both that and shock).

Gilbert blinked in surprise when his guide suddenly vanished halfway down the stairs, and yelped when he almost tripped over Matthew's head and fell head over heels down the stairs. "Fuck-" He squawked, backing up a step. He stared down at the blond trapped up to his armpits in a slightly see-through step for a long moment, then snorted with laughter when he saw that the boy wasn't hurt. "What? Oh, this is just awesome." He laughed, stepping over Matthew and turning to face him. "What is that? A trick step or something?"

However, Matthew was looking a bit flushed and wheezy there, so he should probably get pulled out. Gilbert wondered how to do that without hurting him though. He looked scrawny, but Gilbert wasn't the strongest person in the world (that was reserved for his brother), so if Matthew was stuck stuck, Gilbert would more likely hurt him than help him. "Can I just pull you out, or does it keep you in place?" He wondered, even as he grabbed the Canadian by under his armpits, bending his knees slightly, and tried to haul him out. Oh. Yeah. Matthew was stuck. "Oof! How much do you weigh?!"

Matthew squealed. "Ow, ow! Ouch! Gilbert, stop stop!" Pulling on Matthew just hurt! His chest was being squeezed and he was pretty sure the more Gilbert pulled, the tighter the grip became. "I am not fat!" He glared at Gilbert defensively, "Not heavy!" His face flushed and he was feeling frazzled. This was not something he had taken into account when coming down this way, though he was sure he'd encountered the trick step before, but that time he was going upstairs, not downstairs, and just fell on the steps in front of him. "Don't you know a spell or something to get me out?" He nearly whined at Gilbert. Nearly. "You're older than me after all..."

His feet were prickling. He wondered how high up he was and if he were to slip through, would he fall miles and go splat on the dungeon floor? Or would he just break his legs on the staircase below? Or would he hit his head when he slips through and get a concussion and bleed from the skull and die?! Or die in some other horrible, falling-related way?! "Gilbert! Help!" He squeaked suddenly. "I think I can feel myself slipping, I don't want to fall, I'm only a child! I'm still a virgin! I don't want to die a virgin!" He wailed.

"You're not gonna die!" Gilbert shouted, trying to be heard over Matthew's panicking, and crouched in front of the blond with a thoughtful frown. He didn't know a spell to get him out, unless Accio would work. Probably not. It would Summon the blond to Gilbert, but there was the matter of the steps in the way. He would probably accidentally snap the boy in half- ugh. Ew. No, horrible mental image. Abort. Abort. Okay, then, how about Relashio? That would force the trick step to release Matthew - although it wouldn't mean it'd spit him out, it meant it would just let him go straight through and not hold him place. Yeah, splattered Canadian isn't what he wanted.

"Uh, okay, so..." Gilbert muttered, grasping onto Matthew's arm in case the boy did slip through the step entirely. "Maybe, uh...I could like, levitate you out?" Yeah, yeah that was it! He could levitate him out! "Charms isn't my strong point, but I could get you out." The most Gilbert could levitate was a small bag. Matthew probably weighed more than a small bag.

He'll just not tell him that.

Gilbert straightened up, fishing his wand out of his pocket. "Okay, here goes." No backfiring allowed this time, wand! Just, float the blond out of the trick step, nice and easy, with nothing exploding or forcing Canadians to fly to the top of the castle from too much power. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Matthew clung to Gilbert's trouser leg like a lifeline. He wasn't about to believe Gilbert and relax, relaxing might make him slip through the gap once and for all! "L-Levitate me? That might work..." He muttered uncertainly, nibbling his lip in thought. Gilbert was not exactly filling him with confidence. Perhaps getting a teacher to levitate him out would be a better idea? But Gilbert was already pulling out his wand, then he was raising it, then he was casting the spell, and Matthew didn't have time to make any suggestions! For a few moments there was nothing but the feeling of blood rushing to his head (Strange, that should only happen when people were upside down, right?).

But after a few moments there was a stronger pulling force, and Matthew felt himself slowly rising, centimeter by centimeter, and soon, he was pulled out to his chest, then to his stomach, then to his belly button, and he could lean forward and grip the steps in front of him, pulling. The extra force of the spell, now that most of Matthew was free, yanked his legs out of the gap, his feet flying over his head which caused Matthew to do some sort of flip, tumbling down a few steps. There was a pause while he was disoriented and trying to get over the many aches on his body, then Matthew sat up and threw his arms around Gilbert.

"I'M FREE!" He yelped into Gilbert's chest. "Free! Thank you thank you thank you!" He felt the urge to shower kisses on his saviour, but resisted, settling for squeezing his gratitude to Gilbert's middle.

At first nothing happened, and just when Gilbert was thinking about putting more strength into the spell he saw Matthew slowly rising from the step. He felt so victorious that he almost lost concentration on the spell. He kept up the spell up until Matthew was free enough to pull himself free, and winced when the Huddlepod went tumbling down the stairs once he freed himself with a cartoonish sounding 'pop'. The albino hurriedly stowed his wand away, and went after the blond to check if he was fine - only to almost be bowled over when Matthew suddenly lunged at him like some sort of attack dog.

"Ah!" No, he didn't give a girlish shriek. It was a manly noise of surprise. "O-Oh! Uh, you're welcome! Eheh, told you I'd get you out!" Gilbert laughed, feeling quite proud of himself, and happy at how someone appreciated his awesomeness for once. He did have to wriggle out of Matthew's embrace though, because although short, Matthew had the grip of an anaconda. Gilbert thought his eyes were gonna pop out of his skull! "You alright though? You took a nasty tumble down the stairs."

When Gilbert started wiggling, Matthew realised it was probably best to let him go, which he did with a small embarassed blush and a giggle. "Hm? Ah... I think I'm alright." He wiggled his ankles, then bent his knees, then a little wiggle of the hips, then rolled his shoulders. Everything seemed okay. "I ache a bit, but nothing bad..." He trailed off and nibbled his lip before peeking down his shirt to check. "...yeah, I'm ok. I have a bruise line across my chest now, but other than that, I'm dandy!" He bounced a bit to prove it. "Again, thank you, though! I swear I was gonna die right there and then you were- you were- like my hero!" He giggled. Oh if Alfred heard him saying that...

"Should we get you to the Great Hall now?"

(( Sorry for the long overdue and short reply! ))

"You sure? Wanna go to the Infirmary to check?" Gilbert asked. He normally wasn't this fussy over people, but the kid did just fall down the stairs and he looked very, er, delicate, in Gilbert's opinion. It was best to make sure. But being called 'hero'... Gilbert grinned a little and rubbed the back of his neck in a 'aw shucks' kind of way, feeling quite bubbly at it. He'd never been called a hero before. It was nice. Chuckling a little, he clapped his hands together and bounced on his heels a little. "Mn, yeah. If you feel okay. Nothing cures a traumatising incident like food."

"I visit the Infirmary a lot, I'm sure they're tired of seeing me there," Matthew shrugged with a smile. And it was true; Matthew was very accident prone, and quite often, he ended up sniffling in the Hospital Wing. "Let's head there right now!" Matthew had no reason to hesitate, he felt more confident that Gilbert would stay with him when they got there this time. And he really was hungry, he hadn't eaten since breakfast because he had gotten too distracted with various things... Like his bear, and his charms homework.

He started to lead the way, as he had been before, and in truth, they were only a corridor and a half away from the great hall once they had headed the rest of the way down the stairs. As Matthew approached the large doors, he slowed, glancing at Gilbert. Gilbert was in Gryffindor, and Matthew was in Hufflepuff... " Here we are! What... Uh, what table do you want to sit at, Gilbert?" Matthew asked, fiddling with his sleeve. He wasn't sure, but he thought he hadn't yet said the other's name, so he was trying it out. It wasn't very different, it was like every other name; a couple of awkward sounds and an average number of syllables. Matthew could get used to it.

Gilbert watched Matthew closely as they walked - just to see if he really was okay after his stair entrapment and tumble - but eased up when he saw that the Hufflepuff was walking fine. He did look a bit confused as to why they slowed down a little when they reached the Great Hall, and he tilted his head at the question. Where did he want to sit? Did it matter? All the tables served the same food right? Oh, yeah, Hogwarts had the House system thing.

He shrugged and grinned. "Wherever you wanna sit? I don't really give a shit so long as food's being served up."

(post so short i sorry |D)

Matthew let out a little squeak at the curse word and went pink, nodding. "Right, it's just a place... And you're not used to the houses thing, huh. W-Well, I would love it if we could sit together at the Hufflepuff table..." He twiddled his thumbs and smiled up at him. "I-I mean, I thought you'd want to hang out with your Gryffindor mates, but it would be nice at my table. W-We get these little yellow napkins- does Gryffindor have red napkins? Wouldn't that be a bit garish? Or are they gold, or just white?" Wait wait wait, why was he standing out here and talking about napkins, and what colour they are?

Instead of continuing the conversation, he pushed open the door and wondered in, glancing back to make sure Gilbert was following, and shuffled over to the Hufflepuff table, sitting down and arranging his cutlery appropriately. "Is this spot good?" He asked as he looked at the food for the day. There were baskets of bread along the table, so he started with those, carefully slicing one open and selecting a packet of butter to spread on it.

Gilbert appeared a bit bemused at Matthew's stuttering, his grin widening the more the blond spoke. He was such a weirdo - but nice, he guessed. Gilbert didn't particularly mind shy people, and Mattie was cute and amusing when flustered, so he just chuckled softly at the napkin topic and shook his head a little. "Nah, just red napkins, I think. I dunno, I don't really use them." He had an overwhelming urge to ruffle Matthew's hair like he used to do with Ludwig when his brother was shorter than him. Hell he still did it now ever since Ludwig got into the habit of slicking his hair back like he was a businessman or something.

He stifled it though, because it would be creepy for him to touch a near stranger's hair so familiarly - and he didn't want to scare the shy boy off.

He followed Matthew into the Great Hall - once again entranced by the sky above, how did they manage to do that? - and sat next to his new friend at the Hufflepuff table. They drew a few odd looks, but because they were sitting at the friendliest house table - and there wasn't really any rules about sitting at another House's table, everyone sort of shrugged and just went back to their own business. Gilbert grabbed a piece of bread and munched on it idly.

"Yeah, this place's fine," he said cheerfully.