t r i c k {nix}

[gage]

Gage made his way up the staircase, with the intent on going up to the Gryffindor common room at the end of the day, feeling a little tired. On days when there wasn't any Quidditch practice he could still be seen zooming about the pitch in efforts to refine his skill in seeking even further. Gage had even figured out a nifty charm to make a golf ball fly about the pitch in immitation of a snitch. It certainly gave his solo practices a little more productive. Perhaps he ought to bewitch rocks to act like bludgers...

Lost in thought, Gage's foot sank right into the trick step that he was supposed to jump. He groaned at his own stupidity, he grabbed the rail and firmly yanked his foot out. Thankfully, he hadn't delayed too long, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to free himself. It was then that Gage got a sudden idea. What if it was that entire flight, not just that one step, was a trick stair? He walked up to the safety of the unmoving landing of the sixth floor, narrowing his eyes at the stairs.

How on earth was he supposed to pull that off? Gage hadn't recalled ever learning the magic to make trick stairs. He decided that he might as well try, so he pulled out his wand, still surveying the steps as if they held some important secret. Gage hurriedly put his wand away when he heard the sound of footsteps, the last thing he needed was to be caught. He didn't fancy doing detention for a professor he didn't like... Gage turned his head to look at...

[nixnight]

Nix was bored rather simply. She knew there were professors watching her for the while after she had jinxed a few slytherins and given them a day attached to their brooms for insulting her for using one of the schools brooms for a bit. So that ruled out any forest trips and meant no changing for her unless someone was there to watch her back and she didn't have any friends like that for the current moment so that meant, no wolf for nix. She gave an angry sigh and jumped down the next fight of stairs in front of her in only three jumps before coming to a dead halt on the floor and then over balancing and tipping forwards. Another sigh later and a roll of her side and she was kneeling on the floor and balanced, "well done nixie, you make a problem so you damm well fix it" she muttered in anger to herself as she heard someone move and realized she wasn't alone on the steps

[gage]

Gage looked down to where Nix was sprawled on the floor, half-torn between amusement and concern. The two of them weren't exactly close friends, but being in the same year and house nearly gauranteed some sort of a relationship would manifest itself. Nix was cool in Gage's book, though he had been slightly jealous of her at the beginning of term for gettign the captain's badge. It had taken a little while, but he had gotten over it, writing it off as the fact that he didn't really desrve any position of authority after all the trouble he got into. "All right there, cap'n?" asked Gage, offering her a hand to help her off the floor.

[nixnight]

Nix felt like banging her head on the floor and had been about to when she'd heard a voice and decided that would make her look stupid, so she twisted round to see gage. Her head began running off the notes it made about everyone around her, gryffindor, sixth year, qudditch team member and best of all, trouble maker. She gave a small smirk before taking the hand he offered her and standing back up again and then she bent over a little to dust herself down before lifting her head and looking the other gryffindor over, "what you up to?" she asked with a grin. She lifted a hand up and ran it through her hair and messed it up a little more than it had been before hand before she dipped a hand inside her robe and took out her wand, she just liked to feel the wood against her fingers when ever she did something because it reminded her that she was better than her aunt and uncle, she was a witch and they couldn't do anything about it .

[gage]

Gage helped Nix to her feet and then took half a step back as not to violate her personal space. In thinking on it, the redheaded girl was one of a select few people that he hadn't tried to flirt with. Not that she was unattractive, but Gage didn't really think of her in that way. To him she seemed something of a cousin whom he rarely got to see, he couldn't really explain their relationship all that well. He thought a moment when she asked what he was up to, trouble was the easiest explanation, but perhaps she might be able to help him out a bit. Of course, he had no idea as to whether or not Nix knew anything about trick stairs. "I was pondering how to make trick steps," said Gage truthfully, "I haven't the slightest idea on how to do it."

[nixnight]

Nix smiled as she heard the reply to her question and she flicked her wand in her finger ,"transfigure the step in to a sponge and then back again but don't focus, that gives you a step that absorbs what ever steps on it" she said with a smile. It took a moment but she started to laugh and then nodded to the bottom of the stair case, "I tried in last year when some slytherins were after me for dying their robes pink, it was most useful" she said with a sideways grin before she nodded to the steps below the pair ,"you want to do it here I'll assume" she said with another grin. She paused for a moment as a strand of hair fell over her face and poked at her nose, she rolled her bright eyes and then lifted her free hand to lift it away from her face and tuck it behind one of her ears to get it out of she line of sight and to stop it tickling her nose and making her feel like she would sneeze

[gage]

"Ah, then there is an answer for everything," said Gage, taking out his wand again and looking both up and down the stairs to be sure that there weren't any teachers or prefects that might catch him in the act. Nix was most definitely cool, she wasn't going to turn him in for his antics, plus she was even telling him how to pull it off in the first place. "Pity I wasn't there to see that," said Gage, "the Slytherins in the pink robes I mean. Not that all Slytherins deserve something like that, but a few of them..." He allowed his sentence to trail off as he transfigured the first step into a sponge, and then allowed his mind to wander when he transfigured it back. Hopefully that would do the trick like Nix had said that it would.

[nixnight]

Nix smiled at the words of her classmate before twisting round and flicking her wand across the direction of the banister and smiling somewhat darkly before chuckling to herself ,"girls get to have fun too" she said in a low voice so only she could hear as the banister transfigured in to a sponge and then she let her mind wander to the next qudditch game as she tried to change it back again and looked to see it appearing the same. But she knew it wasn't of course. She chuckled to herself again before lowering her wand and then lifting her free hand to run it through her long red hair and mess it all up again before she turned to gage ,"may I ask? Is there a reason for this aside boredom or only that one?" she said with a business like voice and childish smile

[gage]

"Now that there is cruel," said Gage playfully with a wink when Nix performed the spell on the banister. Now there would be nothing for their poor victims to grab onto as they tried to free themselves from his false steps. He half wondered why he and Nix didn't spend more time together, she was fun to be around and didn't have a problem with him getting up to things. But of course, there was still that bit of innocence about her, which made Gage slightly reluctant on the idea of inviting her to one of his parties. There was drinking, intimate sorts of dancing, and he was mostly sure that some people hooked up because of them. "Boredom, mostly," said Gage with a shrug of his shoulders, "as well as curiosity. But we should go before people start coming by, no need to be caught at the scene of the crime."

[nixnight]

Nix listened to the other boy speak before rolling her eyes, "I guess your right, I always like to stay and watch but of course then I'm the only one laughing and it's clear who did it but hey" she said with a snigger as past memories of laughing so hard she'd had breathing issues and people had been forced to carry her to detention. She shook her head before grinning and nodding outside to the darkening sky ,"wanna go for a wander in the forest? I like being outside at night, just because I know I shouldn't be and because me and the moon are good friends" she said with a small smirk that she didn't really need to explain

[gage]

"I don't need another detention under my belt, not right now anyways. I just got off doing a week's worth from my last punishable offense," said Gage, rolling his eyes a moment. It had been relatively minor for him, he had only briefly... borrowed... a teacher's answer key because he hadn't felt like grappling with a homework assignment. But Gage had been caught returning the key and slapped with a week of detention as well as a zero on the assignment. "Eh, why not," said Gage, "I've been looking for a reason to procrastinate on that essay I've got for potions." He then turned to take an alternative route to go outside.

[nixnight]

Nix smiled at her friends reply when an idea hit her, she could have a lot of fun with a nightly trip to the forest what with her extra ability. She gave a dark grin before looking down at the stairs and then tilted her head to one side, "looks like we'll have to go behind the portrait on the next floor up" she said more to herself than to gage before she twisted round and paused again to try and remember the password for that one portrait. Being a well known trouble maker she knew a whole lot of passwords for portraits all over the school so it took a couple of seconds before it came to her and she nodded to herself quickly before walking over to the stair case she'd walked down only a few moments before and placing a hand on the banister before looking back over her shoulder with a smirk, "don't go getting all slow on me now, we don't wanna be caught" she said with a chuckle as she took one step up the stairs

[gage]

"Me?" said Gage raising his eyebrows, "slow? Never." He then adjusted his pace so he was going at about the same speed as Nix. Hogwarts had so many ins and outs, passages, winding corridors and staircases that even a troublemaker such as himself might have a difficult time finding their way around. Then again, Gage had been notoriously terrible with directions ever since he was young, he supposed it had something to do with his dyslexia. Speaking of which he had only then remembered that he had forgotten to take the potion that helped with his symptoms that morning- perhaps that was why he had had so much trouble with classes that day...Pushing the thoughts of likely failing that Transfiguration test out of his mind Gage instead continued to follow Nix, smirking slightly.

[nixnight]

Nix walked up the stair case and listened to gage following up behind her and then spotted the portrait and grinned, the woman in it had long red hair and was wear a black cloak that wrapped all around her aside her hands Which were blazing with a dark purple fire. She watched the two gryffindors walk up to her with bright green eyes before smiling darkly, similar to nix's own smile, nix didn't actually know the name of this witch and she didn't know anyone who did but she still used the portrait a fair bit for foresty walks so the two witches knew each other rather well. "Cyan Auxin" nix said with a grin and the witch nodded her head and then waved a hand of fire out and the portrait swung forwards to reveal a tight but tall corridor and nix chuckled to herself

[gage]

"That's a new one," Gage commented after he stepped into the passage behind the portrait of the witch alongside Nix. Sometimes, no it was more like most of the time, he got the feeling that the redhead knew the passages around Hogwarts better than he did. Of course, Gage wouldn't be quite arrogant enough to assume he knew all of them, as the contents of the castle were constantly shifting and changing as they deemed fit. "Cyan Auxin, I'll probably forget it, but that passage could be handy, so long as it comes out at a convenient location," said Gage, "speaking of which, where exactly does this passage lead anyways?"