Closed All the Trouble

[Weston Stirling]

When Weston had gotten his prefect badge, he'd been a little worried that his new duties would mean he would have less time to spend with his friends. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. He had already spent most of the evening hanging out with Zay and was absentmindedly chattering away as they made their way through the castle. "I heard there's supposed to be a deathday party tonight. One of the ghosts mentioned it at dinner. Have you ever been one?"

It was perhaps a pointless train of thought since it wasn't like they could actually go to the party. It began at midnight, well after curfew started. Still, Weston kind of wished he could attend a ghost party, just for the experience. It wasn't like there would be a lot of opportunities once he graduated. They turned the corner, and Weston realised something was off. "Hey, where is everyone?" It had been a while since he'd seen anyone, alive or dead. "What time is it?" Surely it wasn't curfew already.

 

[Isaiah Thompson]

Isaiah wasn't sure what to think of the fact that Wes was now sporting a prefects badge as well. And that Jordie had been given the Head Boy one on top of that. He was proud of his friends, sure, knew they had worked hard to achieve it. He just wondered what that would mean for him. Would he be able to still tell them his plans? Would they tell on him if he broke a few rules? So far, he hadn't done anything that would make him worry about that but this was his last year at Hogwarts, he was bound to break a few rules along the way.

"Nah, dude, that sounds cool." Zay responded with a nod when Wes mentioned a deathday party at one point during their conversation. He had seen plenty of ghosts roam the halls of the school but he had never made much effort to interact with them. Crashing a deathday party would certainly be something he could add to the list of things to do before school ended. Seeing the hallways get more and more quiet as they had been roaming around Zay knew it was likely that curfew was upon them. "Not sure." He shrugged at Wes' question. "But adding up the darkness outside and the empty hallways I'd say we're either pretty close to curfew or we've passed it already."

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston frowned. "It can't be curfew already." He tried to think back to the last time he'd seen a clock, but his mind went blank. Maybe during dinner? Weston had always had trouble keeping track of them time, often turning up late to classes and meetings and such, and that problem was only exacerbated when he hung out with his friends. His footsteps echoed in the empty hallways as he picked up his pace and rounded another corner. There, finally, was a large grandfather clock tucked into an alcove, and Weston paled when he saw the time. "Zay," he said, lowering his voice to a loud "whisper," as if he was afraid a professor might suddenly overhear them and appear. "It's past curfew. We're going to get in so much trouble if we're caught," he said, completely forgetting that as a prefect, the curfew rules technically didn't apply to him anymore. "We have to go." And then he remembered what floor they were on, and he groaned. The towers were so far away.

 

[Isaiah Thompson]

Isaiah glanced at Weston when he started thinking anout whether they were out past curfew or not, almost able to seee the pieces clicking together in his friend's head. He followed along and picked up his pace as Wes moved on. He wasn't entirely sure where his friend was headed but he had a hunch that he might just be looking for a clock. One that was confirmed when Wes suddenly started whispering. "Dude, you're a prefect. You're allowed to be out past curfew." Zay responded with a small shrug, lowering his voice to a whisper just to keep Wes happy. "Also why are we whispering? There's literally nobody around." He added. If he knew his friend as good as he liked to believe he did he knew there was a big chance that Wes would either start stressing or freaking out. Or maybe both. "It's fine, bro." He replied when Wes mentioned they needed to go. "If someone spots us we'll just say that you caught me out past curfew." Zay added casually. "But since that hasn't happened yet can't we just keep going? See if anything interesting is happening? Crash that death day party?"

 

[Weston Stirling]

At Zay's reminder, Weston froze, relaxing for just a brief moment. And then he remembered who he was with. "Yeah, but you're not," he said, the wave of panic returning once more. He didn't want Zay to get in trouble either. Even though the hallway was deserted, Weston still glanced around nervously. "Someone could still hear us. The prefects have probably already started patrolling." He tried to remember who was on duty tonight, but it was hard enough keeping up with his own patrol schedule, let alone those of the other prefects. He just had to hope it was someone like Jordie or Indi who was patrolling tonight. "That would be a lie," Weston said, appalled. "I can't just throw you under the bus like that." The last time he'd gotten Zay in trouble, they'd stopped being friends for an entire year. He couldn't let that happen again, especially not when they were in their last year at Hogwarts. The mention of the death day party made Weston pause, but he shook his head, as if he could literally shake the idea from his mind. "I don't even know where it is."

 

[Isaiah Thompson]

Isaiah was glad to see his friend relax when he realized that he was allowed to be out past curfew, pinching his nose the second Wes realized that he was not. He liked his friend, but Wes had a way of worrying about things that Zay just could not understand. "So we avoid them." He replied with a small shrug. "Shouldn't be too hard." He added confidently. If anything, most of the prefects were younger than they were which meant they hadn't been at school as long. And most of them were well-behaved kids, so surely Zay'd know more of the school's secret hideouts than they did. "Yeah, you can. This time I'd be cool with it." He said light-heartedly when Wes didn't seem too keen on throwing him under the bus. Which wasn't exactly true when it had been his own idea, right? "Right. So we can either go look for it or we can make our way back up to the seventh floor while trying to avoid anyone else roaming the halls right now. Your pick." He offered, mainly just wanting to make sure his friend would stop worrying. If heading straight for the common room was what it would take then so be it. He wasn't going to talk Wes into doing anything that made him feel uneasy, he'd be a bad friend if he did.