Clock Tower

[a porg]

The Clock Tower is one of the older features of Hogwarts Castle. There lies the mechanism that run the tower's clock. There is an old courtyard at its base, and at the top is the clear glass dial of the clock. There is space between the clocks movement and the dial for a person to either work on the clock or to stand and look out over the courtyard. There are five bells in the clock tower. The Clock Tower chimes every half hour and strikes a small bell at the beginning and conclusion of class sessions.

 

[The Forgotten Weasley]

I'm looking in the mirror and I think I'm liking what I see!
Big pink lights shining bright like I'm on the TV...
My heart pumps as the bass drum thumps;
You gotta move when the floorboard jumps!
Something's going on and I think it's going on right now.
All the boys and the girls, they got it going on,
And when the beat kicks in you feel it your bones.

J E S S A M I N E
C A T H L I N
W A L S H
Seventh Year Prefect │ Hufflepuff Seeker │ Halfblood Twin

Jess had been on the hunt for Eleazar for a while now. Like, at least a few days. Of course it wasn't continuous (she wasn't THAT crazy, she had to go to at least some of her classes and eat and drink and sleep and bathe) but every free hour she had she was looking for her younger brother. The only problem was he was really, really good at avoiding her. She didn't know why she had ever expected this to be easy. You only found Lea when he wanted to be found at Hogwarts. The castle was so large she could literally go in circles and he'd always manage to be just a step ahead of her. He had to know she was looking for him. He wasn't stupid. But couldn't he see that she was trying? She was trying to be a good big sister, rather than just an annoying and occasionally bitchy one.

Not that she'd ever been cruel or really, seriously tormented her brother, but... they'd had their fights, and he could be cutting and sarcastic and she could take her teasing and mock insults too far and hit a nerve. They'd never been close. She chalked it up to him being adopted. She hadn't know her brother until he was about seven and she was around nine. It had definitely taken them a while to get used to each other, and he was a bit standoffish to begin with. And just because they were now used to each other didn't mean they always liked each other. But she was always going to care about him, because he was her brother, and she knew something was seriously wrong. Something had been seriously wrong for a while now. She couldn't even remember when she'd first noticed. Probably after Thea died.

They all knew Eleazar knew far more than he was telling about the how and why of Thea's death- the healer who examined her said Killing Curse, and everyone knew that had to be true, but who just murdered a little girl? People didn't just snap and do that on the street. It didn't happen like that. And yes, of course they all knew Eleazar hadn't killed her himself, his wand had had to be checked as a formality anyways, since it was treated as a murder investigation. Unless he used someone else's wand, and whose would that be? Besides, Jess at least knew her brother well enough to know that he was not a murderer. He still caught bugs in the house and released them outside. She was probably more than a killer than he could ever be. But something bad, seriously twisted, had happened that day, to Thea and Eleazar and Eleazar refused to talk about it. At all. And she got the feeling that it wasn't that he didn't want to, it was that he literally felt like he couldn't.

Jess was good at getting people to talk. If any of her siblings could get him to spill about what the hell was going on with him, and where he'd really been this summer- because she wasn't sure she bought the whole 'with my birth father' thing; wouldn't the guy have at least wrote their parents to introduce himself or ask permission or something? Her parents were not naive or oblivious or unused to lying teenagers. but they were afraid of pressing him too hard and him disappearing again, because next time he might not come back. They'd freaked out the last time; Mum had apparated everywhere she could think of, written every relative and friend of the family, gone to the Ministry, Da had combed muggle London, even the sketchy parts, put up posters, checked all the muggle hospitals and shelters and police stations... Nothing. Until he just showed up again, even thinner and paler than any of them remembered but seemingly unscathed.

Now Jess was pretty damn sure he was up here, and she was pissed, too, because there were a lot of stairs to get up to the top of the clock tower. Thank goodness she was a prefect and thus could use that as an excuse if she got caught. She finally reached the top, breathing heavily, and stepped around and under whirring parts and machinery. The ticking was pretty loud, but at least the bells were silent. "Eleazar?" she called out tiredly. "You'd better be ******** up here, I am not going all the way back down." Silence. Tick. Tick. Tick. She sighed. "Lea? Come out. I know you're up here. I asked a ghost. Dead people can't lie. It's like a rule." Tick. Tick. Tick. "I will literally-"

He stepped out from behind one of the working gears, gripping his Potions textbook tightly. He looked tired. He always looked tired now, shadows under his eyes, a drag in his step. "What do you want, Jess? You've been trying to stalk me for days." He looked annoyed. Well, good. She was annoyed, too. "Trying?" she said shrilly. "I've been doing a damn good job of stalking, thank you very much, Eleazar Bradley. I've been looking for you everywhere. We need to talk." She debated crossing her arms, decided that was too stereotypical bossy older sister, and settled for giving him a look.

"Pretty sure we don't," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Since when do you want to talk to me, anyways?"

"Since now!"

"That's not really a reason." He tried to inch around her to get to the stairs, but she grabbed him by the arm. He flinched, violently. Jess dropped his arm immediately, and stopped giving him the look. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He lied through his teeth.

"Don't lie to my face, I'm not that much of a ditz, Lea," she said firmly. "What's been going on with you?"

"Clarify," he said dully.

"You know what I mean. Everything. Everything with you is messed up. Mum and Da are freaking out, they think you have PTSD or something or that you're gonna..." She trailed off, not really she wanted to go there. He looked her in eyes. "Gonna what?" he almost sneered.

"Gonna hurt yourself or somebody else," she snapped. "You don't talk to anyone, you barely eat-,"

"Oh, so you're monitoring my food intake? Good to know I'm apparently five again," he retorted, visibly nervous.

"What is going on?" she insisted. "You need to talk to someone. Look, you hate me, fine. But you need to talk to someone. You really do." He was silent for a long time. She looked at him curiously, wondering if he was silently crying, but his eyes were hard and dry. "I don't hate you," he finally said in a low voice. "I just don't want anything to happen to anyone else." She could have laughed if she wasn't so horrified. "Is that was this is about? Lea, nothing is going to happen to me, or anyone else. We're fine. It's you we're all worried about."

"You shouldn't be."

"Yes, I should be. I'm your sister, you dork! I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." She tried to sound calm, reasonable, which she wasn't very used to. He gave her an almost amused look, and said very frankly, "Don't you think it's a bit late for that?" It suddenly seemed a lot colder in the drafty tower. She wished she were back in the warm, pleasant smelling basements, by the kitchens. There was a lump in her throat, and she blinked so as not to cry or look like she was about to cry. "I'm sorry. I should have been with you and Thea. That day. I could have gone with you guys. I should have."

"No," he was shaking his head fiercely now. "No, no, no. You should not have- Thea shouldn't have even been there. It was all wrong." It was as if she were talking to her eight year old brother, not her fifteen year old brother who had been taller than her since he was thirteen. "Lea," she said slowly. "Look at me. Look at me right now." He looked up at her, after a moment, with such a pained expression on his face she wanted to hug him, but it would have been awkward. They hadn't hugged in years. "Did someone hurt you?" she asked quietly. "You're jumpy. When someone touches you. Lea, if someone's been harassing you or hitting you..." He stopped looking her in the eyes. She felt sick. "Tell me right now," she ordered. "Tell me right now or I swear I'll get Toby and I'll write Mum and Da. Has someone done anything to you? With their fists or a wand? Were they trying to hurt Thea, too? And they killed her instead? Is that what happened?"

"You won't really write them," he said quickly. "You're bluffing."

"Don't try me," she said in as close to a hiss as she was ever going to get. "I'll kill them, whoever it is, but you need to tell me who." She would, she would- nobody laid a hand on her little brother and got away with it. Smug b*****d, whoever it was, probably thought they were getting away with it-

"What're you going to do about it?" he spat back at her. "Charm him to death? Yeah. Right."

"I'll scratch his bloody eyes out and feed them to Tova," she said darkly. "You think Toby wouldn't do anything? Mum wouldn't? Da wouldn't? Uriel wouldn't? Even Vio? We're your family. We love you. We'd tear someone limb from limb for you." Her face was flushed with anger. She didn't feel cold anymore, she felt hot. "He'd kill you," Eleazar said, but he sounded a lot less sure of himself. "He'd kill all of you in a heartbeat-,"

"Like he killed Thea? Guess what, Lea, we're not defenseless kids. We're all adults. You're still a kid. You don't need to ******** sacrifice yourself to try to protect us or keep us out of this. Tell me. It's eating you from the inside out," she said earnestly. She put a hand carefully on his skinny shoulder, and gave him a wobbly smile of sorts. "We can fix this. It'll be okay. Just tell me."

"I can't fix anything," he admitted, more to himself than her, and his face crumpled. "Oh god, I can't fix anything. Jess, I can't." He slowly slid to the smooth floor, face in his hands, voice muffled. "I couldn't save her. I couldn't do anything. Except stand there and watch, like a coward." Jess swallowed hard and crouched down beside him. "You are not a coward. You're brave. You're braver than all of us."

"He didn't even look at her when he killed her, my father," he whispered, and her heart stopped and restarted itself, skipping a few beats along the way. "You can tell me the rest," she assured him shakily, though now she knew she didn't want to hear this, at all.

He told her everything.

OOC:

show spoilerhide spoiler

Username

((part of a plot, please do not interrupt))

And when the basement cracks and the needle drops...
You can't turn back and you just can't stop!
I can see the silhouettes dancing up against the wall;
It sure feels good, feels good, yeah, we're gonna lose control.
Turn it on, make it strong, a good beat never hurt no one.
Kickin' up the dust and we're making every move we know!
Baby, don't stop, keep the vibe up...

 

[murruelecreuset]

Richard Indigo Devereux
First Year Gryffindor
Conditional Family Heir

Location : Clock Tower

It took Richard a while to bring himself to write his parents on his sorting. He knew being placed in Gryffindor wouldn’t go over well and it would probably lead to one major debacle within the family. So when he finally brought himself to do it, he was rather uneasy at the length in time it took for his parents to write back. Here he was weeks later with the reply that ultimately was expected but overall was dreaded. Standing up in the clock tower letter in hand, Richard watched as the rain teemed down. It was a crummy day which only made it more fitting.

~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~
Dear Richard Devereux,

I can only imagine what’s going through your head. As you probably expected your grandparents and your uncle did not express much fondness for your house placement, unlike your mother and I. We are quite proud of you and hope you are enjoying your time at Hogwarts regardless of what’s going on here at home.

I’m sure you’d like to know what took place that made our letter back so late. Due to the nature of this situation, you can suspect disownment was on the table. I assure you that was not the decision the family came too. As upsetting as the news was for them, we have agreed that it would be in the family’s best interest for Julius to take over the right as heir. It was a small price to pay to keep you within the family.

As we’ve relieved the situation, I trust the rest of the year goes accordingly. We look forward to seeing you come the holidays.

Sincerely, Adrien Devereux
~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~

It had been the third time Richard looked at the letter. He knew he should be happy that he hadn’t been disowned from his family… That he wasn’t heir anymore either. That had been the worst case scenario and he hadn’t wanted to be heir to begin with. However, he knew his placement would ruin any chances of him succeeding within his family. His grandparents from the get go didn’t like him and his placement only made it that much easy to cut him off. He imagined that this letter wasn’t going to be the last of it. It only made him dread the holidays even more.

Status : Concerned
With : No one

Attire : Casual Shirt and Jeans

OCC : Open for Interaction...


Not afraid to be different!
Well isn't that refreshing!
Your family may be Slytherin, but I think you'll find your way in...
Gryffindor!

 

[murruelecreuset]

Richard Indigo Devereux
First Year Gryffindor
Conditional Family Heir

Location : Clock Tower

Dwelling on what he could expect come the winter holiday Richard watched the rain come down. It wasn’t until he heard someone greet him that he looked away from it. Seeing Reyna he didn’t know whether to be happy or not. “Hey Reyna,” Richard greeted back. He tried to give her a smile but it only fell flat when she asked what was wrong. Did he really want to explain what was really wrong? Was it worth getting into?

Glancing down at the letter in his hand, Richard looked back at her. “I got a letter from my parents.” He told her. “My extended family weren’t exactly thrilled to find out I’m in Gryffindor. Then again I’m the only Gryffindor among an entire line of Slytherins.” He explained. “Let’s just say it’s pretty bad.”

Status : Concerned
With : Reyna

Attire : Casual Shirt and Jeans

OCC : Open for Interaction...


show spoilerhide spoiler
oyehh



Not afraid to be different!
Well isn't that refreshing!
Your family may be Slytherin, but I think you'll find your way in...
Gryffindor!

 

[murruelecreuset]

Richard Indigo Devereux
First Year Gryffindor
Conditional Family Heir

Location : Clock Tower

Richard knew that his decision to tell Reyna would start some kind of conversation. Finding himself joining her on the floor, he looked over at her as she gave her feelings on the matter. It hardly mattered what she thought, then again it hardly mattered what he thought either. “My family is one of those old fashioned families that believe all members should be the same. In other words the dominant parts of me should be those qualities of a Slytherin. Which, they aren’t obviously.” He replied back.

“When I got here I wanted to see if I was different from the rest of them.” Richard told Reyna before taking a breath. “Which obviously I am but I don’t care about that, I don’t even care that they don’t like me for it. I never liked them anyway and I didn’t want to be the family heir either. So, I suppose I shouldn’t care about the outcome. Though, my parents had to deal with it all.” He said before explaining. “My grandparents and my uncle aren’t exactly the best sort of people. They’ve never liked my side of the family. I’m just amazed I didn’t get disowned. Guess I have to hand it to my father for talking them out of that one.”

Falling silent until Reyna asked if he thought of staying at the school for the holidays, Richard nodded. “I have but my mother would never let me live it down.” He said before adding sarcastically. “She’d probably whine and cry for weeks.”

Status : Concerned... Maybe Reyna's right...
With : Reyna

Attire : Casual Shirt and Jeans

OCC : - - -


show spoilerhide spoiler
oyehh



Not afraid to be different!
Well isn't that refreshing!
Your family may be Slytherin, but I think you'll find your way in...
Gryffindor!

 

[murruelecreuset]

Richard Indigo Devereux
First Year Gryffindor
Conditional Family Heir

Location : Clock Tower

Richard knew he was affected. He just wanted to believe it didn’t. His parents were the ones dealing with it all. If it hadn’t been for them he was sure he’d be without a home, come the summer. He certainly wouldn’t have been invited home for the holidays. At least Reyna understood. He imagined a few wouldn’t, like Esther. “You’re right, I’m not unaffected. Though I wish I was.” He admitted leaning his head against the stone wall of the tower.

“Yeah, I suppose I could try that.” Richard said with a smile. “Though, he usually sides with her most days.” He admitted, rather unfortunate for him really. “It’s worth a shot though.” He added knowing he could at least try. He wasn’t going to hold his breath though. “Thanks for listening Rey.” Richard said then knowing she didn’t have too. She could have pretended she hadn’t seen him. But she hadn’t, instead he gave her an ear and some honest words. He couldn’t be more grateful for that even if he wasn’t the type to go on and on about his problems. Sometimes he just needed it.

Status : Concerned... Maybe Reyna's right...
With : Reyna

Attire : Casual Shirt and Jeans

OCC : - - -


show spoilerhide spoiler
oyehh



Not afraid to be different!
Well isn't that refreshing!
Your family may be Slytherin, but I think you'll find your way in...
Gryffindor!

 

[addaellis]

✄ Aɪᴅᴇɴᴇ Aᴢᴜʀᴀ Kɪᴇʀᴀɴ
fifth year || Ravenclaw || pureblood vampire
Art Club doodler || Astronomy Club friend || Adventurer's Guild warlock || Cooking Club challenger
Dueling Club duelist || Fencing club senior || Fite Club founder || Quidditch beater
_______________

OWLs were over, but Aidene was still practicing. She wasn’t supposed to be outside without supervision, but she also didn’t feel like bothering Professor Whitethorne or any other Professor to fly around with her when they probably had finals for the other years to grade. So while Aidene really wished she could take her broom for a carefree flight around the grounds, instead she made her way to the Clock Tower for practice. She’d been up here a few times over the last six months, when she was up “early” and didn’t have anything else and didn’t feel like she could be around other people. She’d bring a bottle of blood up and train or study or sometimes just take deep breaths and remind herself not to cry. Once the curfew bell started ringing, she’d race down to the Library for the rest of the night.

Plus from here she could see down to the Clocktower Courtyard, where the Dueling Club met. The night they’d gotten back to Hogwarts, Aidene had turned leadership of the club to Lavinia with the excuse that she “was focusing on OWLs”, but Aidene still felt like she had betrayed her club members by disappearing. She also felt like she’d betrayed Giant Boss and MiniBoss, maybe even Birdy by leaving Dueling Club. It was the same with Quidditch. And Art Club. Adventurer’s Guild. Fencing. Cooking.

It couldn’t be helped. But tonight there was no pressing homework assignment she had to finish so she could see Vespera on Sunday. No future-deciding OWL exam to grind for. She could afford some reminiscing tonight. At least, for a bit-- she only had an hour even though she’d woken up “early”, nearly an hour before curfew.

At some point she realized there was someone coming up the stairs. Aidene took a deep breath and a sip from the bottle just in case. She smiled when she recognized her friend and roommate. ”Lavinia! Greetings! They were quite far from the Ravenclaw dorms, but she didn't know enough about where Lavinia usually wandered. "Late night hike?”

_______________
setting Clock Tower, A few days after OWLs, Summer 2050 || with Alone > Lavinia
appearance 4'5", 125 lbs || outfit Dark blue and red dress + black boots
status Unexpected company
_______________
//OOC: SO I realized I misspoke and said Stone Circle when the Dueling Club meets in the Clocktower Courtyard sweatdrop BUT THEN I found out Aidene wouldn’t be allowed outside without supervision anyways so did the next best thing sweatdrop sweatdrop Hope this works! As always I'm willing to edit!

Just for clarification: Giant Boss = Vinny Cloutier. MiniBoss = Jordan Scheer. Birdy = Sonora Li. All recent graduates and former dueling club members.

show spoilerhide spoiler

murruelecreuset

Bloodstains washing underneath the waves
I'll be reaching out to keep you safe (as we fall)
I can't hold on much longer
We're drifting down to the other side
Tried to pull us under
Keep holding out for the other side
✄
~"As We Fall" from League of Legends.

 

[murruelecreuset]

Lavinia Elena Gismondi
Ravenclaw Fifth Year
Halfblood • Young Backpacker • Chaser

➽ Location : Clock Tower (2048/2049)


Lavinia was grateful that her OWLs were over and done with. Not only were they extremely stressful but they were also time consuming. Between class assignments and club meetings and quidditch practices, she was extremely busy. Luckily, summer was right around the corner and she could get out of the house and just enjoy the break from all her responsibilities as a student. No more cramming (oh the cramming…) and no more stressing over every assignment.

In truth Lavinia’s biggest stress was running the dueling club. She’d taken it over for Aidene. The reasoning OWLs, which seemed to be a thing that stopped everything. Course that didn’t make much sense when you looked at all the other clubs that Aidene stopped participating in. She’d even disappeared from Quidditch, which Lavinia found incredibly hard to believe. Aidene would not have dropped Quidditch for OWLs. Some clubs sure, but she’d vanished from pretty much everything. The fifth year had never pressed figuring there was little point in prying. Hell, she had enough on her plate with OWLs anyway.

Lavinia wasn’t worried about any of that presently. No, she was going to enjoy the rest of her night before curfew hit. That left her a bit to wander around the castle. She liked going on late night walks throughout the castle. It was surprisingly peaceful and relaxing. Tonight, Lavinia’s venture led her to the clock tower. Walking up the stairs, Liv found her roommate Aidene.

“Evening Aidene,” She greeted with a nod. “Yeah, I figured I there was nothing pressing given exams being over. So, I decided to take a stroll around the school. How about you, what’s brought you up here?” She asked with a smile as she leaned up again the wall. The view from up there was a good one.


➽ Status : Content
➽ Company : Aidene

➽ OOC : You are good Adda ouob Only thing I'm not sure of is if by now Liv knows what's up with Aidene.


show spoilerhide spoiler
addaellis



A curious one, aren't you?
The simplest answer to most things is 'magic'
Though I wager you'll want a more complete answer than that
Adventurous spirit, sharp mind
Yes, you're well suited to
Ravenclaw!

 

[addaellis]

✄ Aɪᴅᴇɴᴇ Aᴢᴜʀᴀ Kɪᴇʀᴀɴ
fifth year || Ravenclaw || pureblood vampire
Art Club doodler || Astronomy Club friend || Adventurer's Guild warlock || Cooking Club challenger
Dueling Club duelist || Fencing club senior || Fite Club founder || Quidditch beater
_______________

Aidene hummed with agreement that exams being over meant there wasn’t anything pressing.

”I was practicing spells earlier, but took a break and then just got to reminiscing.” She started truthfully. ”I can’t believe it’s been si-- five years.”

She had been about to say six months but caught herself. Six months wouldn’t have made sense. Either way, this was a bad topic. Everything about the past was dangerous or awkward. Studying had been safe. Usually. It was how Brook had chosen to cope with her brother’s death, and Aidene tried to follow her bestie’s lead in studying. It was a good conversation excuse, in any case. Previously, it would have been unusual for Aidene to be without embroidery or a pile of cookbooks and DnD campaign notes scattered about. But Aidene didn’t want to lie about suddenly dropping all but her late night clubs. It was better to just avoid the topic. Studying had kept a pile of textbooks and homework notes around her, and had given her something to focus on besides feeding or feeling. She was okay. Or at least, she was gorram well going to convince everyone she was.

Aidene looked up from her spot on the ground and planned her next words more carefully. Thankfully, even if she had to take all her exams at night, she knew they had been comparable exams. And if not, that would be interesting to compare the versions they had. ”I mean, look at all the magic we’ve learned! Or didn’t learn? I’m just hoping I don’t get a T in Transfiguration. Hey but I bet we both aced DADA, right?” If she remembered correctly, Lavinia had been great at DADA too. Aidene hesitated-- this was just another reason not being in class sucked. ”My boggart had changed a bit since third year, but it was still fine. How was yours?”

_______________
setting Clock Tower, A few days after OWLs, Summer 2050 || with Lavinia
appearance 4'5", 125 lbs || outfit Dark blue and red dress + black boots
status Unexpected but welcome company.
_______________
//OOC: Aidene wouldn’t have said anything or confirmed if asked? I’m not opposed if you want to say Lavinia figured it was a medical or mental health thing. The not being in DADA of all classes on top of the clubs is definitely suspicious, especially since they're roommates XD

show spoilerhide spoiler

murruelecreuset

Bloodstains washing underneath the waves
I'll be reaching out to keep you safe (as we fall)
I can't hold on much longer
We're drifting down to the other side
Tried to pull us under
Keep holding out for the other side
✄
~"As We Fall" from League of Legends.