Basil could feel the grin on his face stretch wider to the point where it should have hurt, really, considering he never looked like that at anyone. It had been a long time since Basil Foxwood had been really and truly amused. It would seem the thought of Lissing eating a pepper and then roasting through it with regrets… well, that just about did it. He chuckled a bit and the turned with the other to face the so called monstrosity behind them. Ah, so it was Lissington’s practical exam… Well that explained some things. Basil eyed the collection of hedges sprouting haphazardly in the middle of Hogwarts grounds. Now that he sort of knew what it was, he could in fact distinguish that it was a maze, especially as he spotted what was likley an entrance just near them. From Lissington’s anxious babbling alone one might not guess as much, but if their shared history gave Basil any advantage it was that he’d learned so speak ‘Gus’ fluently. He could tell the red-head was getting embarrassed though as Lissing’s cheeks heated and pale skin betrayed him. Basil was only infinitely amused.
…Until the other asked him to run through the maze, that was. Basil’s grey eyes widened a touch and surprise flickered across his face. “I— wha— me?” He hadn’t been expecting that. As Lissington turned his most pleading look in the brunette’s direction however, Basil knew he no longer had a choice. He was a conniving bastard, Augustus Lissington. Basil had never been able to deny that look anything, not in the past and certainly not now. He turned to peer at the maze more closely, pausing only to snort at the other’s quip about memory charms. Good, he thought. He trusted Lissington’s hand at memory charms more than his baby cousin’s, but he wasn’t keen on tempting fate again, regardless.
“I suppose I can lend a hand,” the brunette sighed dramatically. Basil ran a hand through his hair mussing it and grinned at the other professor. If he was going to do the man a favor, he was certainly going to milk it. What better way to force normalcy than to fake it? To pretend everything was right as rain? “But you, sir, have to accompany me in case there is anything amiss. I won’t be caught a fool again by your subject going awry, and wandering alone in the dark no less!” He assumed it would be dark, as these things tended to be. If the thought of being alone with Lissington in the dark in cramped quarters made Basil’s heart beat a little faster, he didn’t notice.