Here Comes Trouble

He really shouldn't be here in the library, not at this time anyway. In all four years of Bertie's time at Hogwarts this would be the first where he was out of bed after hours. Up to know he hadn't ran into a Professor, or worse, Peeves. Nonetheless that didn't keep the Ravenclaw on edge, he didn't want to be thrown out of Hogwarts just as fourth year was ending. Not that he would get expelled but being the imaginative boy that he was in situations like these his mind jumped to the worse and right now the worse that could happen would be expulsion.

Bertie opened the doors to the library and swiftly scuttled past the librarians office - he didn't want to wake her. Once out of sight from the office Bertie withdrew his wand. 'Lumos.' Now he would be able to search for what he'd left his bed for. A book. But not just any sort of book it was a book that would solve all his worries, a book that would allow him to experiment with the idea that had popped to mind.

Whilst law in bed, the gentle gust of the window soothing his breathing, an idea had struck the Ravenclaw. An idea for a story, a story about time travel. Travelling back in time to try and stop something from happening, something... bad. He wasn't quiet certain what that something bad was yet but hopefully by the end of the night he would, although he just needed one piece of information before he could finalise the plot. How could a wizard travel back in time. Was it even possible?

Usually Bertie would have simply shrugged his shoulders and carried on with the plot but this information had him stumped. Surely if wizards could travel back in time then there would be no problems with the world. There'd be a lot less crime, people would never get addicted to drugs or accidentally mistake a jar of doxy venom for mulled mead. Surely someone had thought of the idea though? Somebody would have come up with, at the very least, theoretical ways in which a wizard could time travel and Bertie needed that information for his story, heck even if it hadn't yet been done an theory to use would be nice. Usually the Ravenclaw would have come up with his own theory but it was half past eleven, Bertie was tired and needed a quick answer.

Casey did not know why she was doing this.

If her god-cousin Teddy (or whatever he was) knew about it, he would probably go all social worker on her and say she was acting out because her only ally in Hogwarts was gone and so she wanted to be gone too, wanted the same attention her cousin had recieved as she found herself relatively forgotten and alone. She would not buy into any of that at all, of course. She had always been a troublemaker and, finally out of her cousin's lanky shadow, she could shine.

That was an easier pill to swallow anyway.

That or, with Lily now gone, she no longer cared what anyone thought of her and she could do whatever she damn well pleased.

Bingo. That was it.

Casey was tying fireworks on every corner of every bookshelf she can find. A fuse ran between every single one of them. Tomorrow was the last day anyone would probably care to come into the library, intent on returning all of their books and looking up ones they might want to purchase over the summer. It was her last chance to do something to seriously piss someone off. Her stunt with the paint had barely been noticed. It was tme to get noticed.

She turned another corner and suddenly found herself in the full sight of another person - that boy, Bertie. She had heard him called out by Henri Finch at that party. She stared at him for a long moment. She was caught, red-handed.

Great.

She panicked. Rather lamely, she threw a firework at his knee.

There was sound movement from somewhere behind him. Spinning instinctively on the spot, wand pointed in the direction of the noise, the light from Bertie's wand fell upon a round faced girl. The Ravenclaw recognised the girl, she ha wide eyes and her hair was a brownish color. Casey Weasley was her name?

Before the boy could say anything the Gryffindor had threw something at him, something rather hard, heavy and long. It hit his knee, causing him to stumbled back and drop his wand.

There was a spark, a hissing and Bertie squinted curiously at the tip of his wand. A little orange flame was finding it's away along what seemed like a piece of string attached to-

KABOOM!

A firework, erupting like the sound of a canon, blasted from the ground by Bertie's wand. It launched past Bertie, showering him in sparks before it spiraled up to the ceiling where it divided into several smaller fireworks. The fireworks rained down colourful flares that-

KABOOM!

There was another blast, Bertie hastily reached for his wand and looked up to see that several fireworks had rocketed upwards from the bookshelves, colliding with the ceiling above, shaking the room and causing the shelves to wobble.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Bertie edged to the end of the isle, not paying any attention to what Casey was doing, and saw the shelves were falling, crashing like dominoes into each other. Turning his brown eyes of the Weasley girl he looked at her in horror.

'Run!'

Casey might not have thought the jerk-reaction of throwing the firework through. She had assumed it would knock his shins backwards, send him toppling, and give her a chance to escape before she was idenitified and her plan was derailed. What she did not anticipate was the accidental lighting of the firework she had just thrown.

Sparks flew and her mouth tipped open with shock.

There was a roar of a canon and Casey flinched, jamming her hands into her ears. She watched in horror as the firework, new prototype of the Dyllan brand sold at Wheezes, zipped about. There was another large noise and she jumped, running into another firework. It sent that one spinning towards a line of fuses. "Ah, fu-"

BOOM!

Fireworks were everywhere now and Casey was looking around at the mess she had caused, half in awe, half in horror. She turned to look back at the boy who staring at her. Her eyes darted left and right and she saw the perilous rocking of the shelves.

"Run!"

Casey took off, headed straight for him. A shelf toppled down behind her eliciting a short scream of surprise. She hoisted her backpack higher up onto her back as she caught up to the boy. Hands came out to push him ahead of her. "Faster!"

Bertie wasn't athletic, he wasn't the best runner and ran out of breath quiet quickly into any physical exercise so perhaps this wasn't the best situation for the Ravenclaw to find himself. It felt as though he'd stepped into some alternate universe where he was doing the exact opposite of everything sane: sneaking out at night and finding himself in a firework fiasco.

Feeling Casey pushing him Bertie found the strength to urge on forward, darting left, straight ahead then right onto the main isle leading towards the door. They would soon be there-

Bertie bolted upright in his tracks. The librarian's office door was opening. They were going to get caught, Bertie would find it hard to defend himself, heck he could find himself expelled for being under this mess. Not being one for confrontation the Ravenclaw grasped Casey's hand and ran down the nearest isle. There was loud crash somewhere the otherside of the library.

'Ahhh!' Bertie screamed, quickly ducking out of the firing line from a rocket that has whizzed where the tousled-haired boy's head had been moment ago. The Ravenclaw found himself flat on the floor, his firework-victim knee aching even more from the sudden fall.

'We need to get out of here!' He gasped to the Gryffindor, a note on panic in his voice. The librarian wasn't near them, not yet anyway, she was having a panic and had burst out of the library to get help but she'd bring reinforcements with her in the form of a Professor. Bertie couldn't get caught up late at night, moreover being held responsible for this colourful display of destruction.

They boy sped up as she applied pressure to him. She soon found that they were nearing that dangerous speed, when one's feet were moving faster than what felt possible. Legs sockets were suddenly more spry than before, ankles moving with dexterity thought impossible, muscles barely feeling the strain as adrenaline filled them - like keeping your feet on a bicycle that had reached top speed, out of control but still along for the ride. Though Casey knew she was supposed to be scared, afraid of the potential outcomes, part of her was much too excited to think responsibly of anything along the lines of fear.

The boy suddenly stopped and she collided painfully with him. He managed to stay upright and suddenly she was being wrenched in another direction - why did this feel so familiar? They were off again and it was Bertie that now carried the brunt of their escape. Her legs worked hard to keep up, and she glanced over her shoulder in time to see a wand raise, an incantation recited to stop some of the shelves from colliding.

And suddenly, they wre falling. Casey spun at the last second to avoid falling on the boy, and felt a painful twinge in her ankle. Her face contracted in pain but in a breath, she was ignoring it. She turned and nodded at the boy's words, unable to conjure words because of the minor distraction of pain. Casey looked about and saw another shelf fall, revealing the exit. She pointed, pulling her ankle to an upright position. She stood, her leg quivering under her weight and looked back at Bertie. "You coming?"

And she took off once more, ignoring the pain in her desire to escape. As she ran, she withdrew one last firework, along with her lighter. She just had to finish off in style...

Casey stood up seeing an opportunity to leave the library. The Ravenclaw wanted to go, follow her through the exit but no doubt people would be approaching the library thanks to the racket the Weasley's fireworks were making. They'd be caught red handed. Technically Bertie wasn't at fault but he was the one who'd set the whole extravaganza off, the teachers would see him just as much involved as the Gryffindor. The Gryffindor who was foolishly causing insult to injury by the looks of things. 

'No!' Bertie cried, rushing after her and grasping her wrist in horror as she was about to light yet another firework. What on earth did she think she was doing? Was she really this crazy? Did she really think the damage she'd done was not enough.

WHIZZ!

The firework sizzled and fizzled it's way out of their grasp, soaring up to the high ceiling. If the first display had caused Bertie's eyes to bulge that was nothing compared to now. Jaw dropped in horror he didn't move he simply stood fixed looking up at what Casey's firework had caused. It was colourful, captivating, extraordinarily enchanting but scary. A flashy piece or magic alright.


'What on earth is going on?' It was the sound of Professor Cooper's voice approaching the library door from the other side of the corridor. Oh gosh. They were about to get caught, just when they had been so close to leaving and retreating to their beds. Where would they go? They could hardly stay here, if they ran away to a side door Professor Cooper would walk in and see the back of them and the restricted section was out of bounds. 

Ready to admit and accept what was coming Bertie looked away from the door and to Casey, ready to mutter a disheartened 'Thanks.' But he never did.

The sound of sobbing outside the library had halted Amelia. 

'A-A-Amelia I. Someone. I. I've been w-woken up!!' Professor Mist wailed, gasping for air as she too had come to investigate the source that had disturbed her peaceful dreams. 

They had seconds, seconds before the Professors entered the library. 

(OOC: Sorry I wanted them in there a tad bit longer) 

Casey had just lit her lighter and was preparing to light the fuse. Her plan was to turn at the last second in the library door and release this finale, in the hopes that it would help disguise their escape and keep the librarian behind them for a moment. Sure, the move was largely inspired by her own hopes of continuing to cause trouble, but it was also a very rational choice. It was possibly the only way they could stall the adults long enough to actually escape.

She was not expecting Bertie to grab her wrist. When he did, her hand jerked and the fuse slid through the open flame. She quickly wrenched her hand away and the firework exploded in her hand. Her skin immediately stung from the burn, ash blowing into her face. She nearly fell down, but she managed to turn, her ankle twinging again – she was just falling apart not. She turned on the boy, looking furious. “Good going!” she burst, looking absolutely fierce in all of her youthful rage.

Right after her outburst, another voice joined the fray. Casey cursed under her breath, looking to the boy who was coming out a stupor of sorts. Sass wrinkled her nose, curled her lip, raised her eyebrows as she looked at the Ravenclaw genius, certain he had another bright idea to get them in even more trouble. Had it not been for him, everything would have gone as according to plan. He was officially Rotten Luck.

He seemed frozen, though. Casey turned around her, looking for an idea for what to do next. She had one idea, but it was potentially horribly stupid. She would have left Bertie there if he did not promise to be a threat to her. If he was found, what would keep him from ratting her out. The professor was about to come through the library door, so there was no escape that way. But Casey had an idea. And it looked like, at first glance, a stupid idea.

“Shut up and follow me,” she instructed. She grabbed Bertie’s wrist and dragged him after her, her hand throbbing painfully from the burn. She was jogging towards the library door, straight towards the voices that promised detention. It looked like a suicide mission.

At the last second, she whipped around, pulling him after her. She slid behind the librarian’s desk, a three sided thing with sturdy shelves. She shoved Bertie into the bottom shelf before clambering next to him. It was cramped – here an elbow, there a knee, there a foot. She was not facing him, but facing out so she could view a tiny space above the desk where the door was.

She hissed, “Once they get halfway into the library, we make a break for it. Unless they come behind the desk… we’re home free.”

Bertie didn't object, he didn't even respond to her anger in his attempt to stop her causing anymore damage. He was too distracted by the voices, his mind numb from the fear that Professor Cooper was about to walk in and catch them red handed.

The next thing the Ravenclaw knew was that the Gryffindor was dragging him straight towards the door. Alarm bella were ringing in his head telling him to break free from her grasp, run deeper into the library but truth be told Bertie had accepted his fate. Perhaps Professor Cooper would uunderstand if he told her the truth, maybe she'd simply deduct points and send him back to bed - not that the same would be said to Casey.

However these new thoughts about what he would say to his head of house were quickly forgotten as he found himself crammed behind the librarians desk. Casey muttered something that he didn't quite catch. Instead his brown eyes were wide and pain from the newly noticed burn by his wrist was kicking in. Bertie's rib cage was rising and falling rapidly, aheavy gasps were escaping his dry lips. He couldn't hold it in, he had to scream, it was the only way to fight through the pain.

'Oh no!' Mary Mist cried as she entered the library, bringing Bertoe to his senses. Biting his lips, tears leaking from his eyes the Ravenclaw listened to the Professors, hoping that they would go deep into the library and allow him to exit and let out a well needed scream:

'The books are, are... ON FIRE!'

'I can see-'

'AND THE SHELVES ARE FALLING DOWN!'

'Yes, yes, Mary. Do try and compose yourself will you?'

'B-b-but its a horror sh-'

'Grab a tissue and help me sort this mess out!' Amelia ordered trying to not losw her patience with the divination professor who was just as much help as a chocolate frog. Vanishing a firework before it left the library Amelia quickly cantered further into the library to find the librarian and get some answers as to what was going on.

Mary meanwhile made her way behind the librarian's desk in search for a tissue.

(Ooc: feel free to God Mod Mary or Amelia!)

Casey could hear her breath resounding in her ears. The space was cramped and she could feel the Ravenclaw’s pulse beating madly against her. Just minutes before, she had been the one acting rashly, deciding based on panic, reacting out of fear and excitement. Now, she could feel the adrenaline kicking in, fueling that mind that the Sorting Hat had deemed clever enough for the House of wit, if she had not been so adamant about becoming a Gryffindor. At such a young age, she had seen no use for logic or cleverness. Now, however, it was hopefully going to come in handy.

Behind her, Bertie was beginning to panic. Sharp, heavy breaths were escaping him, his body expanding rapidly and jostling her in the process. The shelf was going to rock in its place and it was going to make noise. She glanced around and spotted a fallen box of tissues. She swiped at it, fingers scrabbling to get a hold. Finally, she hooked her index finger in the opening of the box and she flung it towards herself. Her other hand caught it, plucking a tissue out and thrusting it behind her – hopefully right into the boy’s open mouth.

No sooner had she done this than the word tissue came out of Mist’s mouth. Casey swallowed and decided it was time to take another chance. It was the only thing she could think that would work, with the resources she had, anyway. She let out a calming breath before drooping her hand out of the shelf. A sharp flick of the wrist sent the tissue box flying out from behind the desk, seemingly out of nowhere, and hopefully right towards the professor.

The plan had been to frighten her off to give the pair the mere seconds they needed to escape. It seemed to work as Casey could hear the panic in Mist’s quick departure towards the other professor. Casey, holding in a groan from the pain of her hand and ankle, rolled out of the shelf and seized Bertie by the front of the shirt. She pulled him out with surprising strength, gave him a look as though deciding whether or not he was worth all the trouble, and then jerked a head. “Ten seconds to the door, I reckon. Now it’s nine.”

And she took off running towards the door, her ankle threatening to give out at any time, her hand stinging painfully.