"Ready," Chance confirms. "Thanks for showing up on short notice, Billy. This was a little unexpected. Can you take us to the place where you found the trilobite that Dr. Grant's been keeping?"
"Second floor, coming up," he said. The search lead them to a corridor on the second floor, outside of an out-of-order bathroom. Water pooled from under the bathroom door, making the crevices in the stone floor damp. Billy crouched at a spot about twenty feet from the door. "I found it here, in the hall."
It's the dampness, the water pooling, that gives Chance the shivers. It's too much like
(inside the waterworks tunnel)
something from a late-night creepy movie. She makes herself go right up to the spot Billy's indicating, and she crouches down beside him, peering at the waterlogged stone like she expects to see trilobites surface from the stone, like it's a permeable barrier between here and the Paleozoic era.
"Maybe someone transfigured something else into a trilobite," she offers. "Not even the real thing." She doesn't even convince herself.
A very polite male voice sounds behind them -- a throat clearing, then a tentative, "Is the plumbing only broken here, or is this a castlewide problem?"
Chance turns to look over her shoulder, awkward when she's crouching. Now she really looks like she's seen a ghost.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything," says Simon Tam.
Grant vaguely recognized Simon, and he couldn't quite place him at first. Chance's reaction is a bit surprising, but is this part of the trilobite thing? And then Grant realizes where he knows Simon from.
"You're River's brother," he said. He'd seen him at the wedding.
Billy had been looking at the stones, trying to see if maybe there was a gap of some sort. "hey," he said, without turning around.
"I'm River's brother," Simon agrees warily. "I'm sorry, I don't remember any of you." How else would they recognize him?
"Yeah, I figured," says Chance. She's making herself speak as evenly and neutrally as she can. Not this guy's fault he's another iteration of the guy she used to ... care a lot about.
Simon blinks. "Come again?"
Chance waves a hand. "I knew another you. It's no big deal. It happens around here." And that is as much as she will say. Though it's damn funny (funny-weird, not funny-amusing) to see him now of all times, the man who put so much effort into convincing her she wasn't crazy when she first arrived at Hogwarts. "We're looking for trilobites. Not your area of expertise."
Simon's brow furrows. "No, it isn't, you're right. Look, I don't want to get in the way. I guess I'll just --" He gestures vaguely down the hall, awayChance says quickly: "I'm Chance Silvey. TA for Care of Magical Creatures. That's Professor Grant, who teaches the class. And that's Dr. Billy Brennan. We're
( ... )
Grant had been in enough awkward situations in his life to recognize one for what it was. Billy could sense that something was up, too, and stood up from his spot at the wall to come over and stand next to Grant. They exchanged a look, both secretly relieved that it wasn't them in the situation. And also that it didn't involve phony checks and dinosaurs.
"Have you seen anything that's about this big," he held his hands apart, "and looks like an insect or a crab around here?" Grant asked, stepping into the pause in the conversation. "If you have, it would be a big help."
Billy, for his part, was trying to stealthily check out Simon.
Chance, meanwhile, is definitely not checking out Simon. Strictly speaking, she doesn't need to. That's the problem. She already knows what she would see. It's hard to look at him, even peripherally, and not associate him with his former self, a whole slew of memories.
Today is a day for unsettling memories of all kinds. And it's not even close to lunchtime yet. Chance considers going back to bed when all this is over with. Pulling the covers over her head and not leaving. I have the bad-memory flu. How's that for an excuse?
Simon can be startlingly thickheaded in some ways, startlingly perceptive in others, and he definitely groks that Chance saying it's no big deal is nowhere near honesty. He can tell his presence really alarms her in some way. (To be fair, he also doesn't realize she's coming off a bad trilobite trip, so he's ascribing that general unease to his own presence as well.) Grant's question gives him a welcome change of focus. "No, I'm afraid I haven't," he answers readily. "It doesn't sound like
( ... )
"Did he just walk into the women's restroom?" Billy asked after Hogwart's most awkward getaway. The 'Out of Order' sign flapped on the bathroom door.
Before anyone could respond, Simon was back out into the hallway. Grant was in there in a heartbeat, because the alternative was another strange conversation. Sure enough, a trilobite was waving its spindly arms in the sink. It seemed to be enjoying itself.
Chance doesn't get a moment to verbally respond, but she does have time to shoot Billy a look. It's an eloquent look, and Chance doesn't normally specialize in those. It's sort of an eyeroll and sideways-look hybrid, and what it says is: Yes, he did, and this does not surprise me.
Simon follows the paleontologists back into the bathroom, all thoughts of a getaway erased by the absolute freakiness of the trilobite. Seeing Dicranurus monstrosus in the sink is not a pleasant experience. There's actually more than one sink in this bathroom, a row of old chipped sinks under a long grimy mirror, but the trilobite really can't be missed.
"Could that even fit in the pipes?" he asks, curious and grossed out in equal measure.
"Probably not," Grant told him. "But from what I'm getting, physics and geometry really don't seem to work on these things." It was strange to refer to the trilobite as a 'thing,' like the magical creatures he studied. As far as he could tell, it had no magical properties in and of itself. It was a normal animal. A normal, prehistoric animal that defied science and logic simply by being, but was harmless sitting in a bathroom sink.
The animal was ugly, but it wasn't malicious. Whatever was causing them to appear in the castle might be, though.
"The laws of space and time don't seem to apply to these things, period," says Chance flatly. "The last ones died out about 250 million years ago." She makes herself look at the trilobite. It shimmers wrongness like a mirage. Or is that her skewed perception?
Simon is fascinated. "The laws of space and time don't seem to apply to us either," he points out. "I came here off a spaceship."
"I know," Chance snaps. She's not at her best. Then she puts up a hand. "I'm sorry, Dr. Tam. I've had a rough night." As ever, understatement.
Billy took that opportunity to make the best out of a bad situation and give Chance a break. "Hey, Simon? Now that you know what these things look like, I need a second set of eyes. There's some standing water in the hallway that might have something in it." He opened the door for Simon, a clear indication that they should get out. "They're the experts. Why don't you leave them to deal with the live one in the sink?"
Simon gladly takes him up on this fabulous offer. "Of course! I'm happy to help."
Chance turns her attention back to the trilobite in the sink. "I wonder how many of these are down there," she mutters to Grant as the younger men leave.
Back in the hallway, it was clear that there wasn't much in the puddle besides water. The water trickled over the stone slabs onto the floor, and Billy went back to his search for gaps in the stone.
"These are marine arthropods," he told Simon. "My best theory is that we'll find more the closer we get to a water source. If the pipes run along the wall, there might be more farther down the hall." He ran his hand through his hair. "Assuming that they actually use pipes here/"
Simon crouched to peer at the juncture of wall and floor. "I think there are pipes. The other sinks I've used, and the showers, drain normally with the sound I'd expect from water going down a pipe. Unless magic also supplies the sound. I, ah ... I've stumbled onto something that really isn't any of my business, haven't I?"
"What?" Billy asked. "We're looking for evil trilobites. How is this not better than spending all day in the library?"
Grant shook his head. "I don't get you," he said, and left it at that because Chance had joined them. "Ready to go, Dr. Silvey?"
Reply
Reply
Reply
(inside the waterworks tunnel)
something from a late-night creepy movie. She makes herself go right up to the spot Billy's indicating, and she crouches down beside him, peering at the waterlogged stone like she expects to see trilobites surface from the stone, like it's a permeable barrier between here and the Paleozoic era.
"Maybe someone transfigured something else into a trilobite," she offers. "Not even the real thing." She doesn't even convince herself.
A very polite male voice sounds behind them -- a throat clearing, then a tentative, "Is the plumbing only broken here, or is this a castlewide problem?"
Chance turns to look over her shoulder, awkward when she's crouching. Now she really looks like she's seen a ghost.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything," says Simon Tam.
Reply
"You're River's brother," he said. He'd seen him at the wedding.
Billy had been looking at the stones, trying to see if maybe there was a gap of some sort. "hey," he said, without turning around.
Reply
"Yeah, I figured," says Chance. She's making herself speak as evenly and neutrally as she can. Not this guy's fault he's another iteration of the guy she used to ... care a lot about.
Simon blinks. "Come again?"
Chance waves a hand. "I knew another you. It's no big deal. It happens around here." And that is as much as she will say. Though it's damn funny (funny-weird, not funny-amusing) to see him now of all times, the man who put so much effort into convincing her she wasn't crazy when she first arrived at Hogwarts. "We're looking for trilobites. Not your area of expertise."
Simon's brow furrows. "No, it isn't, you're right. Look, I don't want to get in the way. I guess I'll just --" He gestures vaguely down the hall, awayChance says quickly: "I'm Chance Silvey. TA for Care of Magical Creatures. That's Professor Grant, who teaches the class. And that's Dr. Billy Brennan. We're ( ... )
Reply
"Have you seen anything that's about this big," he held his hands apart, "and looks like an insect or a crab around here?" Grant asked, stepping into the pause in the conversation. "If you have, it would be a big help."
Billy, for his part, was trying to stealthily check out Simon.
Reply
Today is a day for unsettling memories of all kinds. And it's not even close to lunchtime yet. Chance considers going back to bed when all this is over with. Pulling the covers over her head and not leaving. I have the bad-memory flu. How's that for an excuse?
Simon can be startlingly thickheaded in some ways, startlingly perceptive in others, and he definitely groks that Chance saying it's no big deal is nowhere near honesty. He can tell his presence really alarms her in some way. (To be fair, he also doesn't realize she's coming off a bad trilobite trip, so he's ascribing that general unease to his own presence as well.) Grant's question gives him a welcome change of focus. "No, I'm afraid I haven't," he answers readily. "It doesn't sound like ( ... )
Reply
Before anyone could respond, Simon was back out into the hallway. Grant was in there in a heartbeat, because the alternative was another strange conversation. Sure enough, a trilobite was waving its spindly arms in the sink. It seemed to be enjoying itself.
Reply
Simon follows the paleontologists back into the bathroom, all thoughts of a getaway erased by the absolute freakiness of the trilobite. Seeing Dicranurus monstrosus in the sink is not a pleasant experience. There's actually more than one sink in this bathroom, a row of old chipped sinks under a long grimy mirror, but the trilobite really can't be missed.
"Could that even fit in the pipes?" he asks, curious and grossed out in equal measure.
Reply
The animal was ugly, but it wasn't malicious. Whatever was causing them to appear in the castle might be, though.
Reply
Simon is fascinated. "The laws of space and time don't seem to apply to us either," he points out. "I came here off a spaceship."
"I know," Chance snaps. She's not at her best. Then she puts up a hand. "I'm sorry, Dr. Tam. I've had a rough night." As ever, understatement.
Someone please rescue her.
Reply
Reply
Chance turns her attention back to the trilobite in the sink. "I wonder how many of these are down there," she mutters to Grant as the younger men leave.
Reply
"These are marine arthropods," he told Simon. "My best theory is that we'll find more the closer we get to a water source. If the pipes run along the wall, there might be more farther down the hall." He ran his hand through his hair. "Assuming that they actually use pipes here/"
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment