Saturday morning, Nov 4th, 1893 — Outside the Owlery, Hogwarts Grounds

It was a wretchedly cold, blustery, wet day out. Basil was wrapped head to toe in winter attire despite it potentially looking a bit unseasonable. He had no robes, and instead wore a thick tweed winter jacket with one of his favorite red cravats. Over that, his Ravenclaw scarf was wrapped two or three times, even when he was indoors, and the brunette had managed to enchant his waistcoat with a heating charm. What he’d forgotten, he now realized, as he tromped his way across the grounds to the owlery, was his wand. A ridiculous thing to forget, today of all days! Basil prided himself on being prepared for everything and always having his wand at the ready, even practically in sleep. But today, worried as he’d been about chasing that dang niffler out, he’d left it on his desk in his office. He was going to have to have words with Gus… this was getting out of hand. Phil either needed to find a new office to terrorize or Gus was going to have to put some kind of tracking leash charm on him.

So, with cold toes and no way to heat them up, Basil scurried about his business in the freezing cold building. It was fairly early morning yet and the dramatic change in temperature over night had caused a thick fog to settle over the grounds. The owlery was rather ethereal looking, shrouded in a hazy mist as it was. It if wasn’t pouring bloody buckets and plastering his hair and clothing to him because he’d forgotten his wand, then Basil might even have paused to admire it. As it was, he frowned instead and muttered grouchily to himself as he sheltered in the opening. He was still soaked veritably through and the thought of stepping foot back out there to run back to the castle was… less than appealing. Perhaps it would pause, or lighten, in a bit.

Hunkering down into himself with a fat scowl, Basil wished he had a book. A few minutes ticked past, endlessly slowly, and no dice. The rain continued to pour down in buckets. Basil sighed to himself and realized he had no choice other than to run back up now and suffer through the wet, or stay stranded here and still freeze. He made the obvious choice.

Only one foot, one foot, had stepped out of the owlery when thunder cracked like a whip above his head. Basil startled so violently he knocked right into someone he hadn’t even noticed. Down they went, student and went lump of professor and all. When he finally came to rights, grey hues flickered open and he recognized the face he’d nearly crushed— and it was very close to his.

Basil couldn’t imagine a worse possible scenario. Until it magnified.

“Ms. Farris, I do so apologize, I didn’t see you there—" Oh? Stuttering his apology and attempting to lift off her, the brunette found he couldn’t move his left hand. It was stuck to the ground with a bloody sticking charm. This was it. This was how he lost his mind and his job all in one blow.

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Matilda Farris & muse song lol good luck mattie //rip

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   Matilda Farris

Putting up a Lonely Hearts advertisement in summer had been a genius idea, and one from which Matilda was still profiting – who else was getting entertaining letters from mysterious society men (shipwrecked sailors and tiara thieves galore) in their owl post? She was enjoying it all immensely, though sitting on the secret of the letters was difficult: she had to slip away to the owlery alone to send her replies as soon as possible, both because she was bursting to get the next reply and because it was hard not to have a furtive smirk on her face anytime she thought about them.

The letters and her wand were tucked deep in the pockets of her day dress, layers below her cloak and well protected from the ugly weather, but the last lines she’d written were at the forefront of her mind as she hurried up the steps to the owlery, hardly looking where she was go—

Oh! The floor was too slippery to save herself, and the force of the collision too great – the only mercy of her head ringing as she hit the floor was that they had landed more in the owlery than out. (The last thing Hogwarts needed was another person to fall tragically down the stairs.)

Another person... another professor. His body was lanky, but still broader than hers, and the sheer proximity of it was inescapable, particularly because he was soaked through and dampening her the more everywhere they touched. Which was – all over, rather, because he was on top of her, and Mattie’s eyes widened before she could help herself, half shocked and half struck by the thrill of it, even as another droplet of rain shook itself free of his hair and rolled onto her face. “Professor Foxwood,” Mattie gasped, breathless from the force of the fall but suddenly caring much less about her aching limbs. “It was an accident, you needn’t –” apologise; worry; she had been going to say something kind and amused and forgiving, so he would think her cool and carefree, but just then he had shifted in place, but he hadn’t gotten up. So maybe this almost wasn’t an accident on his part after all? Gossip had been rife enough about teachers and students lately, but Professor Foxwood was – well, he was Mattie’s personal choice for this scenario, at any rate. Imagine if it had been Professor Valenduris on top of her!

(She refused to imagine that, actually, because it would only take away from the fervent fantasy she was rapidly discovering in this.)

She smiled at him – forgiving, encouraging, or a little delirious.

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   Basil Foxwood

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To say Basil had any real notion of how to proceed was a stretch. His left hand, no arm was veritably stuck to the floor from where it had bent at the elbow in their collision and resulting fall. This meant he couldn’t pivot off Ms. Farris in any gentlemanly way to help her up, because his body just didn’t bend that way. Still, that furiously academic mind jumped through every hoop and rigging it could manage as he looked down into her pretty, girlish features and stuttered an apology.

If he was to have crashed on anyone else and landed in such a precarious position, Basil wasn’t sure if he’d rather have had it be anyone else than Ms. Farris. On the one hand, he knew she was a dutiful Ravenclaw, a prefect nonetheless, who was diligent in her studies and made sure the school kept to its proper order. On the other, she was his prefect. And all those lovely accolades he imagined about her rung true as the very reason to wish this upon anyone else, and not poor Ms. Farris herself. Either way he looked at it though, Basil figured this was a loss. He didn’t know how to save face elegantly…

So, deciding to shift his weight onto his knees as best he could, the brunette felt his cheeks redden. Darkly. (Bloody great, he was caught in the folds of her skirts too!) Ok just stop. moving. Foxwood! “I-I… er—this wasn’t— I’m so sorry—” he tried, all the while attempting not to look Ms. Farris in the face. If he had paused for even a fraction of a second in his stressed out rumination to bother looking at her, Basil might have seen the small smile Ms. Farris shared with him. As it was, he thankfully missed every possible insinuation of such an expression until he gave up, with a huff, and finally let grey hues track to brown.

“I-I really… this is so—” he paused to suck in a breath, unable to complete that sentence. So…what? Inappropriate? Great yes, point that out and see how it makes things worse. Basil could have cursed. Instead, the professor tried to steady himself. He looked down again apologetically into Ms. Farris’ face and couldn’t hep but note how his curls were dripping all over her. The ones that weren’t plastered to his face, at least. “I seem to be... stuck,” he finally admitted.

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Matilda Farris & muse song lol good luck mattie //rip

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He was evidently the more uncomfortable party in this situation, which surprised Mattie somewhat, given he was the one on top of her. Still, his awkward fretting did not make her like him any less at all; he was already flushing endearingly like a schoolboy. Mattie, for her part, had tried to make the best of her position, and was trying to be sprawled here on the owlery floor as beautifully as she could, to make a pleasing scene of her dampened locks of hair and a pretty figure through her corset and skirts. A graceful damsel, if you will; some Ophelia in a painting. (Only there were owl droppings and freezing slush on the floor, and no flowers, but –)

She was trying to fancy herself the heroine of a romance novel her father would have fainted to know she’d read, though as she heaved a deep breath Professor Foxwood had tried to lift his chest away from hers (a pity); instead, though, one of his knees was resting somewhere between her legs. (On the many layers of her skirts, but still.) And he wasn’t getting up, because for all his struggling apparently someone had felt it wise to plant a sticking charm here. (Mattie would have to thank them later, whoever they were.)

She waited patiently beneath him, as if waiting for him to make the first move, something in her eyes almost laughing. “Yes, it’s hardly ideal, is it?” she said, outwardly innocent but also just a touch teasing. But if the wet chill was trying to sink into her bones, fortunately there was a heat radiating between her body and his to counteract it. “But I suppose at least no one else is here to witness it,” she remarked. A mercy, to spare their dignity. (Or an excuse for there to be no rush in extricating herself from this scenario. Either or.)

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   Basil Foxwood

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To say that Ms. Farris was, at the very least, taking this whole debacle in stride was reassuring to Basil’s fragile sense of professorial responsibility. He’d decided he did hate having put his poor prefect in this position, and that he would have been better off toppling quite frankly any other student in the whole school, even Grey. To think that he might ever be responsible for such rumors as those which circulated not a few weeks ago—

“Merlin,” he huffed under his breath.

The girl herself did not seem so concerned however, and Basil let grey hues search brown for a moment as he tried to discern what she could be thinking. There had been a hint of teasing in that last statement, he was almost sure of it. Offering the prefect a sheepish smile of his own, Basil felt his cheeks remain warm. “At the very least,” he concurred.

Lifting his free hand, Basil made to run cold fingers through his curls and push them back off his forehead so they would cease to drip all over the both of them. He shook out a little bit, as best he could, and leaned back on his haunches (as much as possible) to put some distance between his face and Ms. Farris’. It didn’t help much. The brunette cleared his throat. “Erm— you don’t happen to have your wand on you, hm?” He asked, quietly. It was worth a shot.

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Matilda Farris & muse song lol good luck mattie //rip

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Mattie tried not to pay too much attention to the flex of his arm as he ran a hand through his hair, but her imagination, wild as it was, was getting the better of her – and making her blush now, just a little. But – beneath all the professorness of him – his grey eyes were quite something, and his jawline and his body both seemed more solid, firm, manlier than the seventh years boys she knew. In half a year, she would be out in society, and in the company of men... so this was surely good practice. (Not that she expected to be in this particular position, necessarily, but...)

“Yes – it’s in my dress pocket,” Mattie remembered, brightening for a moment, although she couldn’t see a great deal from here, so when she moved her hand to try and get into the pocket hidden in the folds of her dress, she ended up touching his hip instead of hers. It would be difficult to rearrange herself under him; perhaps with his free hand he could go digging. “I’m sorry – do you think you could –?”

There were her Lonely Hearts letters in the same pocket, but Mattie had forgotten about those entirely in view of the prospect of him sort-of-having-to-feel-her-up.

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   Basil Foxwood

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The sight of a blush spreading across Ms. Farris’ smooth cheeks did not go by unnoticed as Basil tried to extract himself from her as much as he could. Oh Merlin, he was making this as awkward as ever! If only there was a way to be reassuring, strong, and not make this worse on them both. Put that professor hat on, Basil old boy. Be the adult, he thought, miserably. But awkwardness of this sort had always been his achilles heel.

The realization that Ms. Farris did, in fact, have her wand was reassuring however, and Basil felt himself brighten in a mirrored reflection to her cheeriness. (Ms. Farris did always have a sweet, determined way about her that reassured him. Especially when she was helping tame the feral first years Ravenclaw had acquired this term…) He tried to give her the space she needed to move but the feel of a hand settling closer to his hip than her skirt made him freeze. It would seem they might be at an impasse.

Face reddening brilliantly, Basil shifted in his discomfort.

“E-er, of course—“ he responded, more on instinct rather than with any ounce of rational thought. His hand lifted off the ground but lingered there, hovering more than… digging. Basil had never before, ever, riffled through a woman’s skirts before. Say what it might about him, even in the most innocent of senses, he’d never been the one to need to. (Merlin only knew, what if something jumped out at him from in there?!)

He tried his best, giving Ms. Farris a small pat on the side as he looked straight ahead at the wall. (There was a rather sizable crack in the stone nearest the doorway; that would need attention eventually.) From the pat he located her hip and, assuming that female garments worked about how gentleman’s garments might, he figured he was in the right vicinity. Fingers fumbled, looking for any semblance of a thin, solid rod between them that could possibly indicate her wand. (There was discoloration around the base of the floor there, near the crack; likely from flooding or rain.) As nothing but fabric and the curve of her hip-bone met him, Basil scrunched his face in frustration. Was she sure she had her wand somewhere here? (The crack seemed to move as his concentration waned; perhaps there was something inside of it daring to make an exit. A spider or—) Fingers finally settled on something, not quite a wand, but Basil pulled it free anyhow, his control at its wits end.

“You know, on second thought, this is likely not the most appropriate course of action!” he blubbered, face so red it felt like it was going to melt his skin. “I’m afraid you’ll have to retrieve it, Ms. Farris.” In the meantime, he tried to hastily hand her whatever it was he had found, letters of some kind, it looked like. (Logical, since they were in the Owlery.) His gaze flickered over the names and contents of the letters briefly, whatever was in sight that he could see at least, but frazzled as it was, his brain did not register them.

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Matilda Farris & muse song lol good luck mattie //rip

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Mattie hadn’t been shying away from watching him, as he searched for her wand (however deliberately he was Not Looking as he did it), but she inhaled sharply when he produced not her wand, but her Lonely Hearts letters. Not that he would know what they were, just on sight (she hoped), but they contained aliases and anonymous recipients and somewhat provocative topics of conversation, so – perhaps not Prefect-appropriate epistles. She set them aside for now, glad he had given up possession of them so hastily and would not currently be in a position to peruse them.

And she did not want to get in actual trouble, if she could avoid it. “Never mind, I’ll do it,” she said breathlessly, his own frantic response sending her heart skittering faster than it should be. And she – she had to put her free hand up to his chest simply to hold him up off her, otherwise she feared he might come crashing down against her with his hips pressed against hers in a way that she certainly was not comfortable considering (until she was back in the safety and darkness of her dormitory, possibly). With her other hand, she shifted under him and edged her hand into the folds of her dress, finding her pocket without looking and sliding out her wand.

“I shouldn’t like to take your eye out,” she said, wondering vaguely if Professor Foxwood was having a mental breakdown, “– could you do the honours?” (By which she meant, cast the unsticking charm.) She offered him her wand to his unstuck hand.

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   Basil Foxwood

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As time ticked past, Basil made every effort not to look too closely at any part of Ms. Farris’ face. He glanced in her direction once, startled suddenly that the corner of a letter was going to accidentally catch her in the eyes from his fumble, and an apology hung off the tip of his tongue. Buggar, he was being rather a klutz wasn’t he? Luckily, she seemed safe enough from that peril and Basil let out a small breath as the prefect went digging around in the folds of her own skirt. He chanced a glance this time out towards the entrance of the owlery again to see if anyone was coming. Blessedly, this misfortune seemed to be theirs to share alone.

At last the end of a wand was procured and Basil couldn’t help the relief that washed over his face. He fought the urge to thank Ms. Farris exorbitantly and instead gave the girl a short nod as she - very logically, if he did so note - pointed out that he ought to cast the unsticking charm. “Of course,” the brunette responded, ever gallant.

He gave the wand a wave and it flickered in his grasp a moment, stubborn and resistant, but ultimately Basil’s determination won. He muttered the spell under his breath for added insurance and soon enough his arm managed to wrench free. Thank bloody Merlin.

Sitting back on his haunches, Basil clenched and unclenched his fist trying to bring circulation back into his frigid fingers. Finally, he thought, moving to crawl off of Ms. Farris as quickly as he could. Then, offering her a hand, he felt the tip of his nose and ears tinge pink. “I beg your pardon, Ms. Farris,” he said quickly, moving to a stand. “This has been… a most unfortunate debacle.” Then, reddening even further: “Will you ever forgive me?”

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Matilda Farris & muse song lol good luck mattie //rip

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Her wand yielded to him, as she had hoped it would. Which meant that he was freed – and thus her next, from under him. Mattie oddly felt it rather an anticlimax, but she took his hand in consolation and stumbled up, sure she looked damp and rather dishevelled as she tucked her letters back away. (Though less flustered, still, than him.)

Will you ever forgive me?

Mattie bit her bottom lip, because she felt the sudden and dreadful urge to flirt. By the summer, she would be free to do so, if she got into any similar debacles with handsome suitors in society. But until then, she was too conscious of Miss Flitwick and Professor Prince’s unfortunate entanglement to want to press her luck here. Professor Foxwood would be horrified if she fluttered her eyelashes and said anything untoward like I’m sure you can find a way to make it up to me, never even mind what the rest of the population would think. And she wouldn’t risk her position as Prefect just to see his face when she said it, either.

“Oh, but it wasn’t your fault, Professor,” she assured him graciously (although wouldn’t it have been a scandal indeed if it had been, entrapping female students? Mattie might have done real damage to his reputation after this, if she had cared to – and of course she didn’t, she liked Professor Foxwood very much; but she also liked the little frisson of feeling that power gave her, having someone’s fate in her hands). “I shan’t tell anyone about it, either.”

She may have pressed his hand slightly before she let it go – but that could easily be an accidental motion. “Anyway, I’m sure I could have been stuck with someone much worse, so I could not hold it against you. Sir,” she added lightly, sure she was on the cusp of pushing her luck, so she made sure to laugh and look mildly abashed by it. (And it was true, anyway. Imagine if she had been stuck up here in close quarters with Miss Adebayo!)

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   Basil Foxwood

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To Ms. Farris’ credit, Basil couldn’t help but note, she seemed quite a bit less flustered than he was about all of this. He’d always known she was a most practical, studious, and dutiful perfect, but this whole debacle only solidified her reputation in his mind. Evidently she’d been the perfect selection for Ravenclaw student leadership, if ever there had been any. He gave the girl a grateful smile as she accepted his hand and was pulled to her feet. As for the bit about it not being his fault, well— “Yes, I suppose you’re right,” he conceded sheepishly. “But nevertheless,” thank you for being graceful about it his storm-grey eyes said. And, perhaps, for not telling anyone. Basil cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away.

Her small hand fell from his - cold by contrast, likely from the chill in the owlery - and gave a small squeeze as it went. Basil glanced back to Ms. Farris with a slightly less awkward grin, an acknowledgment that - maybe - they’d shared something here. He gave a gentle huff of a laugh and felt the tips of his ears burn red again. “Yes, well, compliment noted.” He chuckled.

“And you’re sure you’re… er— alright?” He asked, giving her a quick once over as he laced his hands behind his back. She certainly looked fine, but well— one never knew. “Would you like me to escort you to the nurse or anything?” He desperately hoped not. While Basil had no qualms at all in spending time with Mr. Farris under usual circumstances, he didn’t really want to detail any cause for injury to the nurse either.

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Matilda Farris & muse song i look forward to the day he realizes shes not a baby student anymore...

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   Matilda Farris

Mattie had decided she liked nothing better in the world than the ability to make somebody blush. They were both too cold for his pinkened ears to have come from anything other than her compliment.

Merlin, and she how she enjoyed feeling more on a par to the people she spoke to. She had never grown up with siblings, so her first company had always been her father, and other adults – and she had always been a child to them. She was still a student here – she did not think Professor Foxwood was inclined to think of her in any other fashion – but today Mattie felt very close to womanhood. The world was her oyster, or whatever the phrase was: and all she need do was get through the rest of this school year to start experiencing it.

It struck her that Professor Foxwood avoided much of adulthood by staying here at the castle, cooped up with his academia and a tower full of Ravenclaws. She wondered why. (He would only wax poetic about Transfiguration, if she asked, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t wonder.)

“Right as rain,” she assured him, with a laugh. “And we’re about as wet as it, too,” she added. “I think I ought to head back to the dormitory and change.”

She wouldn’t make him escort her there – although if he was headed back to his office they would be heading awkwardly in the same direction. Perhaps she would hang back here for a moment longer and spare him that awkward walk of shame.

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The delicate laugh his prefect gave was enough to settle Basil’s awkwardness a bit. He was still endlessly grateful to her and the fact that she seemed to act as if nothing was amiss only reassured him all the more. Taking it at face value then, he gave her a small, much more genuine smile that dimpled a bit in the corner. “Yes,” he echoed again.

One glance down at his sopping shoulders and overcoat reminded him of the horrendous temperatures and with a pang he realized he could do nothing about it, for himself or for her. Ruefully then, he shook his head. “I’d offer a few heating charms if I had my wand but…” Basil gave a vague gesture of ‘we know how that went…’

“Anyhow, I’d best be off to find it.” The library seemed like a good bet, and then he could dry off properly. “Have a good rest of your week end, Ms. Farris, and— my apologies. Again.” With a stiff gesture of farewell, Basil took off around the corner of the owlery and made to trot back through the still pouring rain towards the castle.

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Matilda Farris & muse song he owes you one Mattie, cash it in!

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   Elias Grimstone