Here we go again (Open)

They had done it again. Ben and James had locked Ethan up in the kitchens using random utensils and forcing the elves to keep him in check. It had happened at least three times this year already and they'd just laugh as they ran off, leaving the elves to force feed Ethan sweets until he was able to break free. Luckily this time they stopped giving him food with enough of a pause that Ethan was able to tell them to stop.

As he began to leave the kitchens he stood outside the portrait of fruit and began wiping various crumbles of food off of his clothes, though he could hardly get the flour to come off he still tried his best to smack it all free. He grunted lowly, "Curse them. They're probably going to expect me to be wherever they are in a matter of minutes!" His best friends had a way of doing that. Expecting Ethan to show up where they were at any given time, and if he didn't show when expected he was teased ruthlessly. He sighed. There was no way he was getting that huge patch of flour off the back of his trousers.

He decided he'd give up and began climbing the stairs out of the Hogwarts basement. But before he got far he heard footsteps. Oh, please let it be them. He thought as he quickly hid himself beside a dark crook in the wall. He would be able to jump out and scare them this way. He smiled at the idea as he waited for the footsteps to draw nearer.

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I’m really, really hungry.

That was the thought that had been circulating Angela’s muddled brain for the past couple of hours. The night before for Angie had been full of fun, laughter and just a few drinks that were snuck in to the castle. But there had been just enough drinks to make sure Angela slept straight through lunch. Now in the middle of the afternoon she was finding it very hard to concentrate on anything with her stomach grumbling angrily at her. Every time it did she would glance at the time and inwardly groan. Dinner seemed to be so far away. She would just have to take matters in to her own hands.

It wasn’t the first time she had snuck down to the kitchens. She rather enjoyed it actually. The House Elves were friendly and seemed to know instinctively what her favourite food was. Angela had been shown the entrance to the kitchen in her second year at Hogwarts by a Hufflepuff friend and from then on she would come down to visit once in a while. These trips had become a lot more frequent in her later years at Hogwarts due to the increased number of meals missed. This wasn’t the first time she had slept through lunch because of a late night.

With a smile on her lips at the thought of the mountains of food awaiting her as well as the House Elves who were all too eager to feed her said food, Angela made her way down through Hogwarts. By the time she got to the spiral stairs leading deep in to the castle’s basement Angie was skipping down the steps two at a time, all too eager for her delicious reward and all too oblivious of the shadow lurking in the wall.

Since it wasn’t the first time that Ben and James had pulled a prank on him, Ethan was hoping that he could finally get them back somehow. He had gotten them back once before, back when he was in his third year he sicked a niffler on James at his home over summer vacation. Oddly enough the Potters don’t collect much jewelry but it managed to find a very shiny sword which it then caused to fall off the wall, nearly cutting off James’s little sisters head. Lilly was not pleased. Ethan chuckled and shuddered at the memory.

Ethan spent most of his time waiting trying to decide what phrase to use to scare his hopefully friends coming down the stairs. He didn’t want to say anything stupid like ‘boo’ or ‘gotchya’. He had to think of something clever, something that would really freak them out momentarily. Maybe a spell or something but without pulling out his wand... it could work. Then he heard them even clearer, the footsteps. Whoever it was came much closer by the second. The problem was if it wasn’t James then who would he be scaring? It took a moment struggling within him if it was worth it. Then he decided it was.

“SHAWKAKWAKACRODILE!” he shouted aloud as he jumped out from his hide out. Time seemed to slow down for a moment as he realized who it was as he was speaking but it was too late. He knew that brown hair, that smile, those lips, those eyes. He had known them for almost all of his time at Hogwarts. During the slowing of time, he thought about how he wished this moment didn’t scare her. He really hoped she wouldn’t scream. He really hoped... but alas, it was too late to take it back now.

Angela had always considered herself not an easy person to scare. Growing up surrounded by a horde of fellow children there had always been pranks and such happening constantly around her, so much so that throughout her childhood Angie had developed a protective skin and learned to anticipate certain fellow youths jumping out and scaring her. However, with her mind stuck solely on muffins and spaghetti and other such treats, Angela was not prepared for what was about to happen to her. It was not something one would expect to happen on a deserted staircase in the middle of the day leading down to the castle basements after all.

It was all a blur and a loud scream. Angie didn’t have time to process it. One moment she was skipping down the steps and the next there was suddenly someone in front of her shouting some nonsense about a crocodile. At least that was all Angela got in the split second between the person jumping out and her missing a step in fright causing her to tumble in to said person and a small, frightened, choked cry escaping her lips. Quickly grabbing on to the person’s upper arms, Angie held on for dear life as she tried to right herself and her balance. Her hair was everywhere from the trip and it took her a while to peer through the strands of her masking her face to realise the person she now had in her hands was none other than Ethan Johnson, something she would secretly consider a very good thing in normal circumstances. The two had both come to Hogwarts in the same year, and with both of them being sorted in the Gryffindor it had ensured that they soon became good friends. This friendship grew over the years but recently Angie played with the idea of him being more than a friend… Not that she would ever utter it out loud. That very idea terrified her and would probably terrify him, enough so that it would scare him away so she vowed to remain silent.

She was suddenly aware of how she must look. Her hair was everywhere; strands were strewn across her blushing face which still had her mouth held open in shock of the scare. But what shocked her the most was that it was Ethan. She would have expected it from his two friends but Ethan… “What in the name..? Ethan… You… I… What? Crocodile?” was all Angie managed to blurt out, still calming from the sudden scare. Looking down at her hands she realised her knuckles were turning white with the strength she was gripping his arms. Her blush reddening, Angela quickly let go and tucked her hair behind her ears. “Sorry!” she almost shouted.

As sad as it was, Ethan couldn’t complain about the fact that it happened to be Angie that bumped into him on the stairway. It could have been much worse, but it couldn’t have gotten much better than this. Angela was someone that had been on Ethans radar since year one. Though he never was able to say much to her for a while, they became very good friends over time and she was one of the people he respected most. Her overall ability to have fun and be reasonable at the same time was something Ethan admired.

Ethan wasn’t expecting his victim to tumble into him. He held his arms up to wrap them around her back and turned to lean them both into the wall, as to not fall down the stairs. Sadly his head had smacked the wall pretty hard in the moment and he took his own down to let a cry come out of his own lips. Then she was speaking. Then she was pulling away. ”Hey wait a minute Ang,” he started but she had already proceeded to tucking her hair behind her ears. ”Aww...come on it’s... no big deal.” He finished with an awkward smile, though he stayed leaned against the wall. “I’m really sorry that I scared you. I was hoping it was James...” He bowed his head down awkwardly and reached his hand to the back of his head to rub it. “Are you... okay?”

notes: sorry its so short!

Literally falling in to Ethan’s arms was definitely something that Angela didn’t see coming when she got up that morning. Once she felt the telltale warmth spreading across her face, she knew she was going to start blushing and had to extract herself from his hold very quickly, if not a little bit reluctantly, though she hardly even admitted that to herself and quickly smothered the thought. Her thoughts still whirling from the shock of the whole ordeal, it took Angie a moment before she fully processed what had happened, and the first thought she had when she was finally thinking again was that Ethan still fully smacked his head against the wall.

“Oh my gosh, Ethan!” Ang yelped, her voice noticeably higher than usual as her face flooded with worry. She raised her hand as though about to tentatively touch Ethan’s head where he hit it, then she dropped her arm quickly thinking better of it as a slight pink colouring her cheeks. Angie still looked on in worry chewing her bottom lip as she did so, her tell that usually indicated she was nervous, stressed or worried. “Are you okay? I’m so, so sorry… Well it was you who frightened me but I did fall in to you even if you caused it but I still fell… I’m sorry. How’s your head?” Angela clamped her lips together to stop her slight ramble.

A slight look of confusion wrinkled her brow when Ethan confessed he was hoping it would have been James. “Wait, why would James be down here? Why are you down here? What happened?” Angela asked, her last question taking on a small tone as suspicion. She knew James and Ben loved to play tricks and she had noticed that their best friend Ethan seemed to be the target of quite a few of their jokes. When he asked if she was okay Ang waved her hand dismissively, ”I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,”” she watched Ethan rub the back of his head and again she had to smother the instinct to reach out and inspect it for herself. She didn’t want to scare him off acting like a weirdo, “Sure you’re okay?”

Angelas voice was a bit higher than Ethan remembered it being. Maybe there really was something wrong with his head and he was now starting to lose his mind hearing higher pitches and seeing red cheeks on her face. Yes, he was definitely starting to hallucinate. Though, he did like the sound of her saying his name, especially in that strange high voice he was hearing. He tried not to wince when she raised her hand, he was used to James or Ben reaching to smack the side of his head when hands were raised like that. Especially in moments like this telling him to get up and be a man. He decided to do just that and stood up straighter. As she clamped her lips shut he knew this was his moment to respond. “No, no i'm fine!” he started, ”You're right i'm the one who scared you... yeah... i'm okay, i'm fine.” he quickly removed his hand from his head, feeling guilty that he showed his pain.


He sighed, he didn't know whether to tell her the true situation of what had happened to him or if he should make up a story. Like a prank he was planning to pull on James or something and was really excited to execute it. But, truthfully, Ethan never was a very good liar and that story would definitely be a lie, and he didn't really want to lie to Angela of all people. He shrugged, Well, they left me down here and... I just figured they'd come back for me so...” He didn't know how else to put it. Now she was going to ask how they just left him and he'd have to tell about getting tied up. He immediately knew he had to change the subject, and fast. He noticed his hand found it's way back behind his injured head, ”I'm glad you're fine! He said excitedly.

There it was again. Her worried tone and her lip biting. He knew what she looked like when she was nervous, stressed and worried. He knew well the way her brows furrowed. She had discovered him after being the victim of a prank more than once. He shook his head quickly and removed his hand, it stayed awkwardly in the air beside his head, ”I really am fine.” He produced a smile, with some difficulty, ”Were you uh... hungry?” There had to be a reason she had come down. Unless James and Ben had told her to come down because they wanted her to see him hung up. He felt his hand clench, that's probably exactly what had happened.