The Comprehension of Staircases

[Stella Wright]

Stella sat cross-legged at the banister with a notebook in her lap. She'd chosen her position carefully, as high up as she could get, within view of as many staircases as possible. The height was quite dizzying up here, when you thought about it, but Stella had discovered in flying lessons that she found that rather thrilling. Even if she had been worried, it was worth it for science. Stella had been meaning to do this all of last semester, since she'd talked with Phoebe about it, but the rigours of classes and the strangeness of getting used to a new school had driven it out of her mind until now. Her determination hadn't waned, though. It was an interesting project, and one that could prove most useful if her results turned out well.

Stella had done a lot of preparation for this. She'd devised a shorthand with which to record which staircase moved where, and spent her first half hour in this position making a diagram to show what the possibilities for their range of movement were. Now, she watched. Now she waited. If there was any order to the manner in which the staircases moved, she would find it. It would take many days of observation, she knew, and the pattern was unlikely to be simple or straightforward. but now, at the start of the semester when the classwork wasn't yet too demanding, was the perfect time to undertake such a project. And the data she gathered could be extremely valuable.

 

[Nixon Mercury]

Despite harboring a desire to learn and experience new things, Nixon was not very academically inclined and often chose to spend his free time the way he wanted to rather than wasting it by completing homework. He was aware that the point of attending Hogwarts was to learn how to use magic, and that by dismissing the homework tasks, he was defeating the purpose of being there in the first place. Not to mention the work was sure to build up if he did not get ahead early on. However he hardly cared when his free time was precious and having as much fun as possible was one of his goals for his time in school and his number one priority over school work as far as he was concerned.

So, while procrastinating schoolwork and wanting to burn off the sugary treats he stuffed his face with in the great hall earlier that day, Nixon decided to climb the school staircases. From the very first stair near the dungeons to the highest point he could get in the castle. It was a task that had him out of breath by the third floor though he soldiered on, walking through his tiredness and up the winding, ever changing staircases. A second wind of energy hit Nixon when he walked past the sixth floor which turned out to be convenient timing as when he finally arrived to the seventh floor, he soon spotted someone sitting at the banister and the newfound energy still lingering was enough for him to start a conversation. Nixon approached the railing, placing his hands on it for support and looking down at the many staircases he had climbed, before looking to the girl. "I just climbed all of those." He said, feeling accomplished. "What are you doing with the notebook?" He then asked, wondering why the girl was at such a high point in the castle, staring downwards, with a notebook in her lap. The sight of someone staring with a notebook nearby was a sight Nixon knew all too well, and one he associated with observation and research as his parents were never seen outside of their research state holding various journals at a time to write down notes, but they researched the sky and Nixon could not figure out why the girl was staring down from the seventh floor instead of up towards the stars for the life of him.​

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella looked up abruptly as she heard a voice from immediately above her. She had been so absorbed in her task that she hadn't noticed anyone approach. Now she looked at the boy, though, she realised that she had seen him making his way up the staircases as she charted their movements. Up close, she realised that she'd seen him before, in classes, so he must be in her year, though she hadn't spoken to him. "Oh, hi! Yes, I saw you, well done." Climbing up all those stairs was quite an impressive feat, and he did look exhausted. Had he just been doing that for the sake of it? That was what his tone seemed to imply, although Stella couldn't imagine what the point of such an exersize might be. "Science!" she said excitedly, as an immediate, automatic reply. Stella paused with her head to one side, attention still half on the movements of staircases below as she considered how best to respond to the boy's question. Of course, it should have occurred to her that she might attract attention, sitting here like this so clearly engrossed in what she saw below. But no, it hadn't, so there wasn't an immediate answer that sprung to her distracted mind. "I'm trying to understand the movements of the staircases," she said at last. "If there's a pattern there, it'll be really useful for getting to class and stuff. If not, if it's just completely random, that's really interesting too. really I'd like to know how they work, and knowing what they do is the first step to that."