The Night Nothing Happened PV Cecily Quinn Closed

The Common Room hadn't seemed quite as cozy since the darkness ravaged the place. It had been months since, but the normally bright, open space still seemed dimmer now, crowded and suffocating. It was, Cecily thought, that the Common Room had felt safe. A haven from the fear and destruction creeping around the school. The Common Room was supposed to be untouchable, impossible for the darkness to find them there. And yet.... Now Cecily found herself wandering during the times she would typically have been curled in an armchair by the fire. Tonight, especially, she was searching for something to keep her mind occupied as it tried to drift back to that evening. She wasn't quite sure what it was about tonight that kept her thinking of the attack— maybe it was the eerie silence of the castle as students partied it up at the Blossom Ball or the thought of the imminent danger that always seemed to find its way into crowds of students— but her twisting thoughts would not be silenced tonight.

Climbing the stairs of the West Tower, unsure of where else to go when there was nothing to do but wander, she found herself face-to-face with the bronze knocker. She stared at it for a moment, not thinking of much but simply taking in the details for what seemed like the first time. The sleek feathers, the narrowed and determined eyes. Remington, perched on his favorite spot on her shoulder, seemed to shy away from the lifelike eagle, retreating behind her neck. Although the knocker couldn't hurt him, there was no taming the inherent fear of predator versus prey.

Sighing, Cecily turned away from the door after a moment, heading farther up the stairs. The only thing farther up was the Owlery, but Cecily supposed there were worse places to spend the night. Maybe it would feel like the old days, her first year, before the chaos really started to unfold. She used to spend so much time with the birds, high up in their tower, but it had been a while since she'd been up these stairs.

She heard a voice drifting through the stairwell as she neared the doorway, and so it was no shock to her when she entered the room to find someone else already occupying the space. She had thought the voice sounded familiar.

Cecily quietly made her way over to the window Adam sat beside, resting her hands on the sill to lean through. Her eyes instantly found the bright lights of the Ball in the courtyard. She stood there silently for a few moments, breathing in the night air and watching the lights dance far below. A faint tune drifted through the air and into her ears, not quite breaking the general silence of the Owlery. She felt no pull to be down there with them, not after last year and the year before and the year before that. She wasn't interested in the food and drinks and merriment, not at the price of her life, or worse, her friends'. Not tonight.

Slowly, she leaned back from the window, moving to sit next to Adam with her back next to the wall, reluctant to break the silence and yet feeling compelled to do so. "Quite a night, huh?" she asked, not really looking for an answer. She reached up to coax Remington from her shoulder, wary of the hungry owls that surrounded them, relocating the lizard to the back of her hand. At least now he would have an escape route up her sleeve should any birds make a move for him.

After a beat of silence, she continued. "What, no Ball for you this year?" Still simply small talk to fill the silence, but at least this question she was more interested in hearing the answer to. It was unlike Adam to shy away from festivities— especially since he had pushed so hard to get her to join him at the dance last year. He hadn't put on a repeat performance this year, but Cecily had still assumed he would be attending, even if she wasn't there. He had plenty of other friends, after all, who were more than likely to make an appearance.

@Adam Harringtom

@Cecily Quinn

Lost in thought, Adam didn't hear the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, so when a figure appeared in the doorway he was caught completely by surprise. He started to climb to his feet — then, as he recognized the new arrival (mid-crouch), he changed his mind, rocking back on his heels and taking a seat against the wall again. Wasn't it funny that he'd just been thinking about Cecily, and now here she was? Maybe she'd been summoned. More likely, she'd just been out for a walk.

Normally Adam would've greeted his friend enthusiastically. But at the moment he didn't feel like talking all that much, so he smiled at her and watched as she looked out the windows. It struck Adam that his perception of Cecily had changed sometime between last year and now. In the past, he would've looked for her as far from the crowd as possible; this year, he'd assumed that she was at the party. Cecily seemed like she'd enjoy the Ancient Greek theme, and from what little Adam knew about them, so did Celynne and Dmitri. He wondered if the three students had grown apart after their team-up last year. He wondered if they'd ever really been friends past that night. He wondered — no. It wasn't his business.

"Huh?" Cecily had joined him on the floor, and she'd asked him something too. Ugh, he was trying to get better at not spacing out all the time. It made him seem rude. The blonde girl didn't seem to mind, though, and gave him another chance to make conversation. No Ball for you this year? Adam wasn't quite sure how to answer without telling her the embarrassing truth: he was afraid of what might happen tonight at the dance, and even more afraid of what his mother would do to him if she heard he'd put himself in danger again. He'd never live that down, so instead he went with a classic: shrugging and making something up.

"No, decided to try it your way this year." Adam adjusted himself so he was facing Cecily and continued. "Probably would've been more comfortable playing games in the Common Room, but...well, you know." He'd heard the stories of what had happened in there not too long ago. In the Boys' Dorms, too. He'd had a lucky streak of avoiding incidents as of late, but it unnerved him to know that their tower wasn't safe. The horrors were no longer confined to the Forbidden Forest. "In case something goes wrong down there, though, I'm keeping an eye on it. And hey, what about you? I thought you'd love all that Greek stuff!"

Movement behind Cecily drew Adam's eye upward, and he saw Edmund hop from perch to perch before spreading his wings and gliding down to a spot closer to the two students. The boy rolled his eyes and made a show of being irritated. "Hold on, Cecily." He cleared his throat and stared at the bird above them. "Oh, sure, now you want to be a part of the conversation. That's how it is, huh? You like Cecily better than me?" The owl wasn't looking at Adam, wasn't even making an effort to do so. His eyes were locked on...Cecily's hand? No, something on Cecily's hand. Adam saw a tiny reptilian head poking from the cuff of her sleeve.

Remington. Adam always, always forgot about the little guy. He whipped his head back to where Edmund hopped from foot to foot and gave the owl a stern warning. "Edmund, don't you even think about it."

If the need arose, he was not afraid to hex his pet.

Adam had actually expected Cecily to be at the Ball, which was definitely a first. The girl had thought that four years of Adam begging her to go would have been enough to establish that no, she was not incredibly interested in spending her evenings dancing to loud music and making small talk, two things she was definitely terrible at. She had to admit that the Greek theme interested her, but it wasn't nearly enough to pick out an outfit, find a friend or even a date to go with, and spend her entire afternoon getting ready and her entire evening, oh yeah, risking her life for whatever disaster struck this year.

"Frankly, I've had enough dances to last a lifetime," Cecily replied, turning her head to face Adam. Or, at least, several years. Certainly not all dances were as horrible as the ill-fated Hogwarts balls, or else Cecily couldn't imagine why they would be so popular. Most people-- Hogwarts students excluded-- seemed like they would learn, after a point, that their dress or tux would simply get ruined and their night would be wholly unappealing, and would quit making an appearance at the things.

Cecily heard a rustle of feathers above her head and looked up to see an owl gliding from high up in the Owlery to a perch closer to the two students. Adam seemed rather peeved at the owl for reasons Cecily couldn't know, but it became clear, as the boy talked sternly to the bird, that it was Adam's pet, Edmund. Cecily felt a twinge of guilt for not recognising her best friend's own owl, but then, all owls looked the same to her. Big and feathery. The only real difference was their colorings, but in Cecily's eyes, that wasn't nearly enough to tell them apart.

Cecily couldn't hold back a laugh at Adam's insulted speech. "I bet he does like me better than you. Isn't that right, Edmund?" She interjected, grinning at the feathery creature staring her down, until she felt a quick movement at her wrist. Remington, having noticed the predator drift closer, had crawled his way up her sleeve, leaving only his head poking out from the cuff. The smile dropped from Cecily's face, replaced by a glare directed straight at their owl friend. If he tried anything, Cecily wasn't afraid to hit a bird. "Hold on. Adam," she began, "if your owl eats my lizard, I'm ending this friendship."

@Adam Harringtom

@Cecily Quinn

Enough dances to last a lifetime. Adam nodded, though they both knew perfectly well that he would be in the middle of the festivities right now if he could be. No, not could be — if he was permitted to be. No — if he permitted himself. Ugh. Trying to untangle his own thoughts gave him a headache after a while. It was a good thing, then, that he was distracted from the process by the arrival of the most irritating savior ever.

He berated Edmund and Cecily laughed, playing along with their little quarrel, of course taking the bird's side. Adam was about to turn on his friend and give her a look of over-dramatized betrayal when he caught on to the sharp, focused glint in his owl's eyes, following their gaze to Cecily's sleeve and realizing what the little lizard Remington must look like to a predator like Edmund. The two Ravenclaws made the connection at nearly the same time: just as Adam shot a warning to Edmund, Cecily gave him one of her own. There was no way he was going to let Remington get eaten. She knew that — right? Of course, it would've helped if Cecily hadn't brought a late-night snack to a room full of hungry owls, but... never mind. It wasn't her fault or Remington's. And nothing had happened, and nothing would happen, as long as Adam was vigilant.

"I got it, I got it..." he muttered, watching Edmund tilt his head a few times before the owl shook his wings and settled on the perch. It looked like he was keeping his distance for now. Good. Adam breathed a sigh of relief, gave Cecily a half-smile that said see? nothing to worry about, and let his head drop back against the wall. "He won't do anything, promise. He liked to ignore me when I first got him but I think we've worked it out since then."

With the threat subdued (for now, at least), Adam's thoughts turned inevitably back to the Blossom Ball, and suddenly an odd idea overtook him. "Hey, what do you think it would be like if we did go to the ball this year? There's all sorts of stuff that could go wrong with that Greek theme. Just imagine it, like, like...

"Once upon a time, two wizards named Adam and Cecily went to a school dance. The risk of danger was high indeed, but the risk of fun was even greater. Wait, no, not the risk of fun, that doesn't make sense. The promise of fun was even greater, that's it. Looking for a fun time, Adam and Cecily wandered the party, wearing stuff that Greek people used to wear and...eating Greek food. You know, Greek party stuff. You get the idea.

"The party raged on and everyone was having a great time, including Adam and Cecily, who had been skeptical at first but were overtaken by the light-hearted amusement they encountered. They stayed and danced and had fun until the moon went up, and it was a full moon! And suddenly the lights blew out, and everyone got really quiet, silent even, and then all the lights came back on but this time it was green fire. And Adam and Cecily looked at the stage that was at the middle of the party, and a bolt of lightning came down and struck the stage, and then ZEUS showed up out of nowhere (because of the lightning, you kn—yeah, you know)! And Zeus said 'Foolish mortals, you used me as a theme for your party and did not OFFER TRIBUTE, which is a GREAT OFFENSE to ME, KING OF THE GODS!' And they tried to explain that they didn't know they were supposed to offer a tribute, but Zeus wouldn't accept that excuse, which, I mean, understandable I guess. And so to avenge himself, Zeus summoned the rest of the gods and the monsters and they destroyed the party and...well, uh...no one died, but they definitely didn't have a great time. The end."

Pleased with himself, the boy folded his hands behind his head and nodded. "I bet you there's a world where that happened," he remarked, glancing over at Cecily to gauge her reaction. "What do you think?"