Chapter 39: Stars Above

After his vanishing act, Sans had slept.

Not in his fourposter bed in the Ravenclaw dorm though, that would just be ridiculous. But he did stop by there, very briefly, to do a few things like, say, kicking off his shoes and dropping off his still-kinda-too-large outer robe. Wearing his much more comfortable hoodie only—instead of both robe and jacket, because that's what he had been doing, naturally—was completely worth the detour.

Of course, he also stuffed a pillow under the blanket as a dummy and summoned up a bone for Sirius. Not as a snack, of course, though the question of whether his magic could be eaten is kinda interesting… but that's beside the point. The bone was meant more as a message for his friend to not wait up for him.

His effort to avoid the dorm isn't to say his bed isn't comfortable—because it really is—but more that he wanted some space.

Literally.

He yawned and stretched, one arm rattling lightly against cold stone while the other ended up dangling over a great deal of empty air. Which is to be expected, given he had chosen to sleep on top of a small piece of decorative masonry that just so happened to be part of the roof of the tallest tower at Hogwarts.

It was peaceful up there, quiet with nothing but the comfort of a wide-open sky overhead.

A sky filled with stars.

There were no entirely familiar constellations, though honestly the fact that most come remarkably close is simultaneously fascinating, strange, and deeply unsettling. Seeing an extra star in an arrangement or noticing that one is just missing… it sparks an abrupt sense of being in the wrong place.

Or maybe dreaming.

He knew he wasn't.

But sometimes, with only the small lights in the sky for company, he let himself forget.

It was kind of like a trick he had used before, underground, when he would sit back in his sentry station and stare up at the glimmering stones. Back then he pretended that rocks were stars.

Now he pretends that stars are the right stars.

Go figure.

He was maybe halfway to dozing off again when he became aware of quiet noises—murmuring voices and the sounds of metal on stone.

"I can't believe they've got us up here on our first day back," came one noisy grumble.

"Well…" replied another speaker, "I mean, it's already past midnight, so technically…"

There was a startlingly loud clatter as something was set down none too gently. "I haven't gone to sleep yet, it still counts as today."

While he could just ignore whatever was going on and fall back asleep—he had napped in louder places, after all—Sans was curious enough to roll over and crawl to the edge of the roof for more direct eavesdropping.

There were ten or so students on the balcony below, all putting together tripods and adjusting knobs and generally getting ready for the class that gave this tall tower its name: astronomy.

"You chose to be here, Mr. Challock," the professor pointed out, tone strict but clearly amused. "I hope you realize you'll be expected to be here every Friday?"

The student in question groaned, already exhausted by the thought. A majority of the class clearly agreed with that sentiment—students from every house united in shared tiredness—but they pressed on and continued setting up their telescopes anyway.

And one in particular was very familiar.

One Cassius Warrington was getting set up at the far end of the balcony, fiddling with the eyepiece and apparently trying to clean it with the end of his tie. The two other students with green trim on their robes were standing with him.

Then there was a pretty noticeable gap, as the rest of the students—red, yellow, and blue—were clustered together at the opposite side. They were still vaguely grouped by color, but certainly nothing as distinct as the split from the greens.

When class actually started, Sans found it to be an odd mix of boring and interesting. The professor apparently wouldn't be covering anything about what the stars actually were—nothing about nebulae or supernovae or anything cool like that—but it was still kind of neat to hear about their paths through the sky and how that would affect particular magics.

Having lived underground for essentially his entire life, under a sky of stone and false stars, that wasn't something he had ever really considered.

Other than that, though, it would seem that the class was mostly about naming the different celestial bodies and filling out blank star charts. Which he thought sounded incredibly boring, even if stargazing was always enjoyable. It reminded him of something Frisk had mentioned, ages ago, where they would watch a film in class but have to fill out a worksheet about it after; it just sucks out all the fun.

He propped his head up on one hand, briefly sending a contemplative look to the sky above. Out here in the middle of nowhere, with only a few lights from the castle itself and a few specks from what he guessed to be a small village nearby, there were truly an uncountable number of stars.

A noise brought his attention back down to Earth—or more accurately, to the students below—where Cassius was frantically steadying his teetering telescope.

Then the student turned his attention back to the roof, directly where a grinning Sans lay watching.

It seems he had been spotted.

The Slytherin squinted slightly, closed his eyes briefly, shook his head, and squinted at him again. It was as if he wasn't sure if there was actually a first year student peering down at him from the masonry, or if perhaps it was just a peculiar gargoyle.

But there was no gargoyle, there was only Sans.

Who, upon noticing that he'd been caught, naturally gave the poor confounded student a cheeky wave, followed by a pair of finger guns. The second gesture was met with the same kind of confused affront as it had at the sorting the day before, which was very amusing.

It was plain that Cassius had some trouble focusing on his classwork after finding the secret observer on the rooftop.

The professor did notice his wavering attention, though luckily she seemed to attribute it more to the late hour than anything else. An assumption based on the fact that, sure enough, around this time a lot of the students began flagging: genuinely due to exhaustion and not plain distraction. When one basically fell asleep standing up, nearly tipping over and falling off the tower altogether, she decided that it was about time to wrap things up.

"Alright everybody," the professor finally called, clapping her hands to get their attention. "We'll call it a night here. Go get some sleep, and make sure you've plotted all the planets on your charts by next week."

Her announcement was met with murmured noises of relief, and clatters as the students began folding away their telescopes. Cassius, however, glanced to the roof and hesitated.

After the rest of the students had already made their escape, he still stood there by his telescope.

Even the professor was halfway out the door, one hand holding it open, before pausing to send her student an understanding smile. In fact, assuming Sans was interpreting her expression correctly, she probably had a bit of a soft spot for Cassius; he got the impression that the Slytherin student often stayed behind after this class, or maybe helped her set things up before lessons sometimes.

"You're welcome to stay, Mr. Warrington," she said, essentially confirming those suspicions.

"Thank you, Professor Sinistra," Cassius replied, and he—very slightly—returned the smile.

It seemed a tad uncertain, as if he wasn't used to the happy expression and it couldn't quite settle on his face. Even the professor seemed momentarily surprised, though she recovered swiftly. Then, with a nod goodbye and good night, Professor Sinistra left.

Sans took a moment to appreciate the cool-ness of her name. Though it did sound a bit more suited to a super villain or demon lord—like in the anime Alphys obsessed with—rather than somebody in charge of teaching children.

As soon as the door shut behind her, Cassius said, "What do you want?"

Sans stood with a shrug, nonchalantly stuffing in his hands into his pockets. Then he took one step forward, remaining perfectly upright as he slid down from the steep roof. His feet made soft clack noises against the regularly spaced roof tiles, the blunt sound thankfully muffled slightly by his thick socks.

With a little hop at the gutter and some blue magic to control his speed and trajectory, Sans landed lightly on the stone tiling of the balcony.

"fancy meeting you here."

His voice was clipped and maybe a little stressed when he repeated, "What do you want?"

"me?" Sans just shrugged again. "i was just sleeping, minding my own business, and it turns out there was gonna be a class up here. who'da thunk?"

"You were sleeping…"

"yep."

"…On the roof of the Astronomy Tower."

Sans paused, acting as if he was thoroughly considering his answer, before simply replying, "yep."

There was a moment of silence. A chill night breeze made the human shiver slightly, though the only effect it had on the disguised skeleton was to gently tousle his illusory white hair. Cassius closed his eyes; letting those one-word answers sink in.

Then he just turned away, carefully distracting himself by taking down his telescope and putting away his other school things.

"so… how've you been?"

Cassius didn't reply at first, instead going around his telescope case and flicking the various clasps shut. The last latched with a definitive click, and he pushed himself upright.

"Actually, right now?— I'm tired." He paused, trying not to yawn and ultimately failing. Then he jabbed his finger at the grinning first-year. "We will continue this conversation tomorrow, when it's not past midnight, and I'm not all but dead on my feet. Got it?"

Sans just shrugged, not particularly bothered. "sounds good to me," he replied, walking to the edge and hopping up onto the short stone wall that ringed the balcony.

Cassius watched him with a slight frown, concern written across his face. "Could you come—"

"welp, see ya later!" Sans said cheerily, and stepped off into thin air.

He vanished into a shortcut as soon as he fell out of sight, though he did catch a glimpse of a suddenly much more awake Cassius rushing to the edge after him. Maybe choosing that particular exit strategy had been a bit mean, but the mixed expression of relief-annoyance-confusion on the kid's face when he looked over the edge to find nothing was totally worth it.

=X=X=X=

The following day, as promised, Cassius tracked down the enigmatic definitely-not-an-average-first-year to get some answers. He found him dozing in the middle of one of the upper courtyards, curled up at the base of a decorative statue so worn that it was impossible to make out any distinctive features. Plants had overgrown the base, keeping the snoozing student a bit hidden from view by leafy bushes and vines.

At least it was a better place to nap than the bloody rooftop.

A quick glance assured him that the coast was as clear as it was likely to get—this courtyard might not see a lot of traffic, but there was still some. There was a golden retriever sniffing around at the other side of the courtyard, but a dog wouldn't be a problematic witness.

So Cassius took a breath, and he made his move.

"Don't do that again," he hissed.

The mystery boy—named 'Skelton', he reminded himself—cracked open an eye at his approach. "oh, hey. it's you." Then he grinned. "don't do what?"

"Don't just walk off—" Cassius stopped himself before he finished the sentence, noticing that his voice had gotten louder with each word. He took a breath, reset his volume to less than a whisper, and finished, "Don't just walk off the edge of a tower and fall to your apparent death, you dolt."

"aw, i didn't know you cared."

"I can't ask questions to a dead man," he hedged.

The cheeky grin that garnered in response—as if Skelton was laughing at some secret joke—made him scowl slightly.

"On that subject," Cassius pressed on, crossing his arms, "it seems to me that you have some free time right now, and you owe me answers. Humor me for a while."

That one open eye stared at him for a long moment, unblinking. Then, with a huge yawn, the first-year stretched and sat up. "i guess i could do that."

Cassius was skeptical, certainly not trusting that easy concession, and his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

Picking up on that, Skelton just grinned. "i have a couple of stand-up acts that are pretty good. what kinda jokes you lookin' for?"

Which was more in line with what he had expected, to be perfectly honest, and he found himself relaxing slightly. "We both know that's not what I meant, Skelton."

"eh, worth a shot." He shrugged. "so, questions?"

The Slytherin glanced around, checking the courtyard and finding it lacking in terms of maintaining secrecy. After a look of his own—spotting a few curious students eyeing them as they walked past—Skelton seemed to agree.

This was always the problem when it came to scheming while in school: really, the only issue was that the whole school was full of students and professors and also ghosts and even the paintings, and they all might be inclined to spread rumors. Even the castle walls might be enchanted to report suspicious dealings to the headmaster, which wasn't a risk either of them were willing to take.

Clearly Skelton had more secrets than one can wave a wand at—being the mysterious defender at the Quidditch World Cup, plus who knows what else. Cassius personally wanted his own unwilling actions at that attack, as well as his newfound freedom, buried deep. He couldn't let anybody know what had happened; if word got to his parents that the Imperius was no longer in effect, they would surely trap him under it again.

So, while the courtyard was quiet and didn't get too much traffic, it was not nearly safe enough.

Skelton got up and pushed his way through the plants surrounding the statue he had been napping under, becoming basically covered in leaves in the process.

"let's walk," he said, dusting himself off but missing most of the stray plant-bits. "i know a great spot for an interrogation."

"Really." Cassius was not convinced—while this first year student might be more than he seems, this was still only his third day in the castle. "Where?"

"oh, that info's strictly need-to-know."

Before he could reply, a dog suddenly joined the conversation. Tail wagging, the golden retriever barked and bounced between the them both, apparently very happy about the idea of going for a walk. Very, very happy about it… too happy, almost.

The Slytherin couldn't quite pin-down why, but all that energy felt like forced cheer. It was as if the dog was specifically keeping himself there in the middle: protectively separating his person from a possible threat, but disguising those actions as excitement for some reason.

Cassius shook his head, chiding himself for being overly paranoid. It's just a dog, after all.

The dog gave a small woof, ears lopsidedly raised in question.

"calm down, paddy," Skelton said, waving away the barks as he turned and began leading the way to some unspecified place. "it's fine. you can come too."

That unspecified place—apparently so secret that its location shouldn't be carelessly shared—turned out to be an abandoned classroom. All the desks and chairs had been shoved to one side in a haphazard mess, and some of them even appeared to be broken or damaged in some way.

Skelton shut the door behind them with an air of finality.

Then, voice heavy with what was probably mock solemnity, he asked, "are you ready?"

"…Ready for what?"

"this is your last chance to turn back," he continued, answering nothing. "are you ready to go?"

Even though he knew—or was at least fairly sure—that the short student was just pretending to be so serious, he was still somewhat unsettled. The dog wasn't helping, since it had sat down and was now just smugly watching.

"Go where?" Cassius asked, frowning. He glanced around the empty classroom, but the only other door just led into an old unused office space. "Is this not our destination?"

"oh, i had somewhere a bit sunnier in mind."

"What? Then why did we—"

The golden retriever barked happily, cutting him off, and he shot him a quick glare.

"alright then, let's go!"

"Wait, honestly, wha—"

And as abruptly as it had happened to him nearly a week and a half ago, Cassius felt the ground drop out from under him and fell through the floor.

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Undertale.

In this chapter, a skeleton naps at all of the most comfortable spots.

So, uh, happy April Fool's Day? I tricked you with this… normal chapter, I guess? It's not super exciting so, uh, gotcha…? Man, I got too much school stuff to think about pranks. Like, c'mon the universe, you used to be cool!
Yeah, but seriously, I have essentially five weeks of classes left before graduation. Hoh snap, guys. It's gonna be a wild ride!

Oh, and another shout-out to Creator 290 and company over on YouTube, since they've just posted another fan video thing for this story! It has some of the panels from DangerPuff's great comic, and some cool animation scenes and stuff. Just, go check it out if you've got a bit of spare time!

Updates are on the first of the month.
As always, I can't thank you all enough for all of the reviews, favorites, and follows!

Guest: That'd be neato! Still, while Sirius might be able to do a partial shift, even with a human voice box he would probably have trouble speaking through his dog-face.

Cross: Thanks! I didn't super intend an InkSans reference there, but I can definitely see it and I wish I had done that on purpose! Good spotting!

See ya on the flipside, everyone!