Basil blinked again, wearily. His head was positively pounding but he wasn’t sure if that young lady was going to be alright. He looked after her, half wondering if he should say something else. It wasn’t polite, after all, to make a young woman look like that. His father would be annoyed, and mama? Well, he didn’t even want to think about that. Basil raised a hand to his forehead and the very action of it made him groan in pain. Well, this was certainly uncomfortable.Beside him, that familiar voice chittered on about a spell and finally, Basil focused his attention on the man. Red hair and bright blue eyes looked at him with concern and Basil scrunched his brow. “Lissing?” He demanded. “Is that really you, behind all those wrinkles?” A bubbly laugh, lighter than was usual for Basil these days, stuttered up from the man’s throat. He sat up on his own and ran a hand through his neatly placed hair, mussing it like he used to.
“I feel quite fine,” he replied. “A little wobbly in the head, but not any more or less than usual.” Then, throwing Lissington a lopsided, easy smile, Basil leaned forward conspiratoriously. “I know it must be some mistake, but I do rather like this version of you.” Grey eyes raked up and down the older, unfamiliar version of Gus Lissington standing before him. “Handsome, mature. Refined, in all the best ways.” Basil laughed again, and accepted the man’s hand.
“My head is fine,” he insisted, ignoring Lissing’s tease of the term ‘Professor Foxwood.’ It must have been his own spell that backfired, however odd that seemed. Even if he couldn’t remember just what they’d been doing prior, he was sure whatever this little mixup was that had changed Gus into an old man and taken him for a spin would wear off soon enough. Though, Basil hoped sooner rather than later. He did suddenly remember the Transfiguration essay for Professor Bart still waiting back in the common room for him…
Following the other into the empty Defense Against the Dark Arts office, Basil frowned a little. “Mmm, I don’t know if we should be in here, Gus.” He said, quietly. Reaching for the other’s hand, he gave it a small tug. “It’s one thing to go sneaking around the trophy room, but quite another to get caught in Professor —’s office.”