October 12th, 2007: Third Year
Toph startled at the crash, and Zuko grabbed her hand to steady her. She yanked her hand away and punched him with it, but she grabbed the sleeve of his robe right after. Then they heard someone in the dark hiss, "Shh! You're going to get us caught."
Sometimes Zuko swore the reason Toph liked to go exploring with him at night was because it meant he was almost as blind as her, and as she turned toward the voice and dragged him over to it, this felt like one of those times. She shoved the door open with the kind of terrific swing that would have sent it banging into the wall, were it not one of the enormous over-heavy Hogwarts castle doors. As it was, the effect was somewhat lost. "Don't you kids know students aren't supposed to be out of bed at night?"
"You're one to talk," a girl's voice said. Zuko peered over Toph's shoulder at her, and at the boy in the Ravenclaw tie in the room with them. He was stuffing scrolls of parchment into a bag guiltily. Zuko peered through the dark at him. He was pretty sure they shared double Transfiguration together. He thought the kid's name was Aang.
"Yeah, that's kind of the point, it's a joke." Zuko could practically hear Toph rolling her eyes. "So kiddies, whatcha doing in here in the middle of the night? Were you snogging? Zuko, tell me they were snogging."
"I'm pretty sure they weren't snogging," Zuko said.
"So what were you doing?"
"What are you doing out here?"
"Nuh uh, I'm not telling you, you're that American prefect from Gryffindor. I'm not telling you anything.
I'm not American," Katara snapped. "I'm from Canada."
"Same thing," Toph said sagely.
"And I'm not a prefect, I'm a third year."
"Could have fooled me, miss goody two shoes."
"We have classes together."
"Really? I don't remember seeing you."
Zuko turned around and let his head rest against the door frame. "Come on, Toph, let's just go."
"No way! I want to know what Sugar Queen and her boy toy are doing in here."
"Boy toy?" Katara demanded, voice rising in indignation.
"You know," Aang said, "You guys might want to keep it down."
"She's trying to start a fight," Zuko told Katara. "She's annoying you. You don't want to give her what she wants do you?"
Toph glowered. "Aww, come on, don't spoil my fun."
Katara stared at them both. "You want a fight? You're trying to pick a fight?"
"Maybe."
Zuko grabbed Toph's arm. "It's one in the morning, come on, let's get back to bed."
"You are no fun," she told him, but she let him lead her back through the door. He waved an awkward goodbye to Katara and Aang before shutting it behind them.
"A bug landed on me in that tunnel, I want a shower," he told her.
"I found about eight down there."
"Uh oh."
"Next time I see Sugar Queen back there, I'm dropping them in her hair."
"Toph!"
"Killjoy."