Trick Step

[NICHOLAS JASON BELBY]

Nicholas Jason Belby was doing anything but watch where he was going while he made his way back down to the Hufflepuff Common Room from the Astronomy tower after the 6th year NEWTS students had their class. Nicholas was a NEWT student in almost all of his classes. He was surprisingly good at school, even though often times he would leave his books in his dorm and then would insist that he was too comfortable to get up out of his chair and get up and get them. So while a handful of his homework went either undone or was a either left to the very last minute or turned in a little late, Nick still put effort into most of his classes. He found it hard to fail. He felt like as long as he paid at least a little bit of attention, he would be fine. And fine was enough for him.

Nick was walking down a set of stairs, still refusing to pay attention to what was going on around him. He always figured that after six years at Hogwarts he would know exactly when to jump over a Trick Step and when to time the moving stair cases just right. But every now and then, when he was refusing to pay attention, he would misstep and his foot would get caught in a trick step. Just as it just had. "Great." Nicholas dropped his bag to the ground and sat on the step. How did he get his foot out again? It couldn't be that hard. He had done it a million times before, for himself and for his friends. Why didn't he know how to do it now?

[NICHOLAS JASON BELBY]

Nick was still beating himself up about getting himself stuck. He knew better. He knew to jump over the trick steps, he had been doing it for six years now. He hadn't even been all that distracted, just careless. He rested his face in his palms and his elbows on his knees, trying to remember how to get his foot out of the trap. He looked up when he heard the frantic steps rush up behind him and then attempt to go around him. He stood up and attempted to catch the girl as she fell, but seeing as he couldn't step at all, he was just out of reach and thus he had to let her fall to the ground on her own. Luckily she was able to catch herself though and didn't look too scratched up.

"Yeah." He sighed when she asked if he had gotten caught again. "And I see I'm not the only one who forgot to jump over the step." He added, wondering for a moment why the Ravenclaw Prefect was in such a hurry that she would risk being caught up. Then again, he really didn't have an excuse either. He had just been not paying attention. "Are you okay?" He asked her.