Closed A Thousand Days of Thunder

[Harper Alston]

Years of flouting the rules had emboldened Harper. She'd grown to assume that no one minded when she broke curfew early in the morning to go running or when she ventured near the cliffs and forest. So when she had spotted a flicker of movement in the forest yesterday, she hadn't hesitated to follow it. Unfortunately, someone had spotted her. And even more unfortunately, that someone had also caught her flying past the cliffs earlier that week. The two infractions had been enough to land her in the owlery in detention.

Harper eyed the pile of muggle cleaning supplies in front of her. It was much easier to focus on the supplies than the enormity of the task ahead of her. The room was completely covered in dirty straw and owl droppings. And that was just what she could see. Who knew what half-eaten remains lay under all the straw? Somehow she was supposed to clean the entire place by hand all while owls kept swooping in and out, adding to the mess. And as if that wasn't bad enough, she could spot dark clouds looming in the horizon. Cleaning this place would be impossible if rain started blowing in. Then again, maybe inclement weather would cut her detention short.

At least she was supposed to have help. Harper had been informed that another student would be joining her for detention. She didn't really want to start without them, but maybe if she claimed one of the brooms, she could busy herself with the straw instead of having to scrub off owl droppings. Harper took a step forward but froze when she heard a sickening crunch. She looked down to see that she'd stepped on a regurgitated rodent skeleton. Making a face, she crossed her arms and stepped back. Nope, she was going to wait.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

Anyone who knew Flynn knew that he most certainly didn't give a toss about the rules. As far as he was concerned, rules were just made to be broken and only put in place to ruin people's fun. Apparently, always not bothering to do your homework and showing up late to class would get you a detention. Not that this was new news or anything, Flynn was well aware of that fact, but he kept doing it anyway just because he really couldn't be bothered to do the work himself. Homework was a waste of time, anyway. But because he had done it one too many times he had been dumped with some stupid detention to clean the owlery.

At least he wasn't alone in this torture, however. Though, when he actually arrived and saw who he would be slaving through this detention with, he couldn't decide whether this made it better or even worse. Flynn moved a little further into the room, wrinkling his nose up as he looked around, shoving his hands into his pockets as he stopped to stand next to the other girl. "I'm all for ditching if you are," he first offered, clearly not bothered about the fact that would just get them into even more trouble.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper tried very hard not to sigh when she saw who would be joining her in detention. Flynn never seemed to be in a good mood, and she'd found that even the tiniest things could set him off. This detention would almost definitely just make him more grumpy. Harper supposed she should have prepared for this. After all, if she had to make a list of people who were most likely to end up in detention, Flynn would be near the top. Still, a small, selfish part of her had hoped that maybe Hilda or Sky had landed in detention with her. (Though after a second look at the mess surrounding them, she decided her friends didn't deserve that fate).

She gave Flynn a small smile that quickly disappeared when he suggested they ditch. It was tempting, but Harper knew they would have to pay for it later. "We can't. They'll definitely notice if we don't do something to this place, and they'll just give us more detention." Harper kicked at some straw and wrinkled her nose. "And it'll probably be supervised and even worse than this," she speculated, hoping she wasn't laying it on too thick. She really didn't want Flynn to leave her here to clean by herself. Plus, it wasn't too much of a stretch to think the professors could come up with something worse, especially since they had the help of magic.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

He supposed Harper was still better than a lot of other people in the castle who he didn't really want to be hanging around with. And he was quite sure that they felt the same way about him and didn't want to be serving detention with him. Then again, Flynn didn't exactly want to be serving detention himself, though there was little he could really do about it. While it was annoying, Harper was right and if they just ditched, they would probably be made to do something else. Then again, they could just ditch that, and then the one after that. And just keep going. No one could force them to do something. At least, they couldn't force Flynn, no matter how many house points they wanted to take from him.

"Who cares? They can't force us to clean stuff," and anyone who knew Flynn well knew that he certainly didn't care how much trouble he ended up in. "I mean, what could they do? Take more and more house points off us? Like I actually ever cared about that." And he certainly wasn't going to crack even if some Professor was standing there glaring at him the whole time and telling him off.

 

[Harper Alston]

She should have known that things wouldn't be as simple as her pointing out the consequences of ditching and Flynn changing his mind. Things were never that simple with Flynn. He'd proven that back in first year when he'd tried to start an argument with her over playground equipment. "Yes, but they could give us supervised detentions. And that would take up even more time," Harper tried to explain. The professors might not be able to make them clean, but they could definitely keep them trapped in a room. She wasn't sure what Flynn did in his free time, but she had to assume he had better things to do than sit in detention.

Harper wasn't surprised to hear that Flynn didn't care about house points, but there were other things the school could do. "Aren't you worried about losing your spot on the Quidditch team?" she asked, puzzled. She knew that wouldn't be the immediate consequence of ditching, but if he kept escalating things, she assumed the school would take more severe action. In some ways, she had a lot less to lose. She wasn't part of any clubs or extracurriculars. There wasn't a lot that could be taken away from her. But it was all a moot point since Harper certainly didn't plan on taking things that far. Unlike Flynn, she did care about house points, and she didn't want to serve any extra detentions after this one.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

Flynn just continued to stand where he was, making absolutely zero attempts to wandering further into the absolutely disgusting owlery. Harper was still failing to convince him that it wasn't just a good idea to turn around and leave already. just as he seemed to be failing to convince her to come with him and ditch this stupid detention. "So what?" Just sitting in a room for an hour or so was a perfect opportunity to nap. And it was not really like he had much else going on and a lot of his time was spent just lounging around the place avoiding doing his homework.

And then Quidditch was brought up and Flynn paused. He thought about it. Then he thought about it some more. And then he shrugged, "Not really." Sure, he enjoyed playing Quidditch and liked the feeling when he managed to grab the snitch. he also quite enjoyed proving that just because he was missing a leg didn't mean anything and he could still play sport and do things everyone else could. But if the Professors wanted to punish him by removing him from the team just because he didn't do their stupid detention, then he really didn't care. Not being on the team was still better than actually putting in any effort to attend detention.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper wasn't sure how to make herself more clear. "Wouldn't endless supervised detention be worse than just doing this one?" She thought the choice was a pretty simple one. As terrible as these next few hours would be, she knew it would be better than spending several detentions in a row tasked with something grosser — or even simply doing nothing. Already, she could feel herself itching to move. But she didn't want to end up cleaning the entire place by herself and effective serve Flynn's detention for him.

For a second, Harper wondered if she'd gotten through to Flynn with the Quidditch comment. But then he shrugged, leaving her to gape at him. "Seriously? You'd rather get kicked off the team than serve a detention? Maybe he was just saying that to be contrary. But no, he actually did look like he was okay with losing his spot on the team. Harper couldn't imagine ever feeling that way about football. Her whole life had revolved around sports, and it had been crushing to realize she had to give that up at Hogwarts. And here Flynn was, still able to play sports through the Quidditch team, and he didn't even care. "Do you even like Quidditch?" she asked, truly baffled. Maybe the team had forced him to join out of desperation for a seeker. She had a hard time understanding why someone would willingly subject themselves to bludgers if they didn't like the sport.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

"Who said I would even show up to the other detentions?" It was not like the Professors could force him to show up if he didn't really feel like it. It was actually a bit of a miracle that he had even bothered to show up to this one in the first place. A big part of him had just considered ditching and leaving everything for Harper to deal with herself. Which he was still planning even now he had taken the time out of his day to get here.

Maybe his priorities were out of order just a bit. Most people would probably care quite a bit about losing their spot on the team, especially seeing how hard it actually was to make the Gryffindor team with so many people trying out every year. Flynn had just gotten lucky, he supposed. "Of course I enjoy it," what a stupid question to ask, "I wouldn't bother doing it if I didn't enjoy it." Did she honestly think he was the sort of person someone could force to do something if he really didn't want to? Absolutely not. If he hated flying and playing quidditch then he wouldn't have tried out for the team even if someone had been begging him to do it.

 

[Harper Alston]

"Why'd you show up to this one then?" Even as Harper spoke, she knew she was unlikely to get anywhere. Flynn seemed committed to his stance, and if all her previous reasoning hadn't been enough to convince him, then nothing would. Harper had always assumed that Flynn had been given detention before, but now she was questioning that assumption. She couldn't imagine a professor putting up with this.

Harper gave him a skeptical look when he insisted that he enjoyed Quidditch. At the very least, it seemed like he enjoyed avoiding detention more. But they were still dealing in hypotheticals, so maybe he was just saying that to be difficult. She had never quite figured out if Flynn was just like this or if he had something against her personally.

A distant crash of thunder made her glance out the large opening cut into the tower The storm seemed to be getting closer. Hopefully it would be upon them soon, and they'd get this detention cut short. But for that to happen, Harper knew she had to make it at least appear like she'd done something. She gingerly picked up a broom, trying to avoid actually touching the straw it was resting on. "So are you staying or not?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. She'd made her own choice pretty clear.

((sorry this is so late x.x))

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

He considered the question for a moment before he gave up and simply offered a shrug of his shoulder. "Dunno," he admitted easily, "Maybe I was just curious to see who else had landed in detention with me." But now he did know exactly who it was and what they were supposed to be doing for this incredibly boring detention, he didn't really want to stick around for much longer. He could already imagine the angry letter home about how he was missing detentions on purpose and getting into trouble at school, but as if he actually cared much about that. He'd gotten into plenty of trouble before at the orphanage, but he didn't really care about it then. Just because he had been adopted now still didn't mean he really cared about getting letters sent home. Much, anyway.

As far as he was concerned, Harper was being boring by agreeing to stick around to actually do the detention. Why couldn't she just be more interesting and agree to walk off with him? Maybe they could be the start of something and make the Professors realize that they shouldn't be making students do menial labour as detention. Lines or actually doing their homework was for more reasonable. Not that he would actually willingly do that, either, but still.

"Maybe I'll stay just to watch you do it and laugh," then he could always lie about helping if a Professor happened to show up. There was no proof that he hadn't actually been doing something before they arrived.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper wasn't sure whether she wanted Flynn to stay or leave. Well, she wanted him to stay and help, like he was supposed to, but clearly that wasn't happening. So she'd assumed he would just go. At least then she wouldn't have to argue with him. But somehow he had found a third, even worse option. Harper was starting to wonder if maybe the real punishment wasn't cleaning the owlery, but having to deal with Flynn.

"I'm not covering for you when the professor shows up." If it had been just about anyone else, then she probably would have. But Flynn had only ever been rude to her, and she wasn't about to lie to a professor for him. Harper started to half-heartedly sweep the dirty straw into a pile. It wasn't like she had any other choice. She couldn't exactly hex Flynn — not unless she wanted more detention, and avoiding more detention was the whole point of staying. It was a shame they hadn't covered silencio yet in Charms, though. Because that would have been a very useful spell to know if he did actually start laughing at her.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

If there was a grade for being annoying at Hogwarts, then Flynn was sure he would pass that class with flying marks. No revision or studying needed to get top marks. And maybe that was something he shouldn't be proud of, but he sort of was. It was pretty amusing to just annoy people and see their reactions. It was probably why he only had about one real friend in the castle, and it was also someone who was like him. Which was probably why Finn could put up with him better than most people could. Not to mention Finn wasn't annoying or boring like a lot of other people in their year. Because why would he want to be friends with someone boring and no fun?

Flynn shrugged, "I don't recall asking you to." That wasn't an issue, he was sure he could easily make things up and get out getting into trouble. All he had to do was pretend that he had been helping. And sure, Harper might say the opposite, but it was not like she had any proof he was just standing around and not participating. Speaking of which, he sent a look around the room as he folded his arms, "You missed a spot." Obviously, she hadn't even started yet.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper just sighed, knowing that nothing she said could convince him to pick up a broom and help her. At the end of the day, when the professor came and wondered why they'd barely gotten anything done, it'd be her word against his. Harper liked to think her word meant more than Flynn's, but then again, they had ended up in the same detention. Who knew who the professor would believe? She wondered if maybe this was Flynn's endgame all along.

At his comment, Harper rolled her eyes before brightening. "Wow, I hadn't noticed. Thanks!" She quickly swept up some of the dirty straw into a pile next to his feet. "Better?" she asked with a cheery smile. She knew Flynn would likely just move away, but as long as he was standing there, she could push her sweepings towards him. Harper continued to work, trying not to grimace every time she uncovered an owl pellet or rodent skeleton. "So what'd you do to end up here?" she asked after a bit. If Flynn was going to stay, the least he could do was talk to her and distract her from the unpleasant task.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

This would all be a lot more fun for the both of them if Harper was actually willing to take his side on things and just ditch this whole thing and do something far more interesting. But she was deciding to simply be boring about things, and Flynn was not in the mood to try and change her mind about anything. If she wanted to slave away sweeping up bird poop and old skeletons, then she could go right ahead and do that. He certainly wasn't going to help.

He scrunched his nose up as she decided to sweep a little pile right next to his feet, but it was no problem to just take another step away again. "Why don't you just use magic or something instead of sweeping?" They did know the cleaning charm, wouldn't it be easier just to use that instead of wasting time doing it the muggle way? But that wasn't any of his business, he still wasn't going to get his wand out and help. And then she asked how he had ended up in detention and Flynn shrugged. "Didn't do my homework and showed up late one too many times. You?"

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper had to hide her smile when she saw Flynn make a face. It was probably petty of her to annoy him this way, but it was the least he deserved for letting her do this detention by herself. She paused to toss some fresh straw on the bare ground, covering the places she'd already swept. "Because they specifically told us not to use magic? I don't want to have to redo this detention because I somehow did it wrong." Harper knew she probably sounded lame, but she couldn't help but worry that they'd somehow be able to tell if she started using magic. Besides, she'd accepted that this was her punishment. She'd broken a rule and gotten caught, and now she had to pay the price (even if she did think it was overkill).

"Huh, I would've thought they'd just give you a couple T's. Didn't realize you could get detention for that." Probably because she did all her homework and tended to show up to class early. Harper thought it was kind of dumb to risk getting in trouble for something so simple, but she knew the same could probably be said about her own crime. "Got spotted entering the Forbidden Forest after getting caught on the cliffs earlier this week," she answered with a shrug of her own.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

"Yeah, but how are they going to know you used magic and didn't just sweep it all up yourself?" They were at Hogwarts so it was not like there were security cameras around to catch them in the act or anything. And there wasn't even a Professor around to supervise this detention, meaning that anything could happen and they wouldn't know about it. Which was why it would just be painfully easy to turn around right that second and ditch the whole detention. But no, Harper still didn't seem to be down for that particular idea and was happy to just do as she was told.

Flynn shrugged, "They did that's how it started out. But if you do it too many times it extends into detention, I guess." That is what he was assuming given that he was here right now and not just doing his own thing much as he wanted. And then Harper admitted what she had gotten detention for a Flynn smirked, "You got caught? You need to brush up on your stealth skills." Not that he was going to attempt to sneak into the forest himself, he'd long decided that it was boring.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper shrugged. "Doesn't magic leave a trace or something? Like, they can tell when you do magic outside school, and there's something that lets them check your wand." She didn't really know all the details of how that worked, and she assumed Flynn would have a better idea of what she was talking about since she was pretty sure he wasn't a muggleborn. But what she did know was that it was definitely possible to detect underage magic (and get expelled for it). The official who had delivered her Hogwarts letter had warned her as much, and it was the only thing that had kept her from trying out her wand as soon as she'd gotten it.

She was tempted to ask why he'd continued to skipping his homework and showing up late if he'd already gotten T's for it, but this was Flynn they were talking about. Their earlier conversation had proven that he didn't care about consequences. "I'm guessing you're not going to stop?" Hopefully she wouldn't be around for his next detention. At his smirk, Harper just sighed. "I wasn't trying to be stealthy. That's why I was caught." She'd learned her lesson, however. Next time, she would check her surroundings before dashing into the forest.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

Flynn rolled his eyes, "And do you seriously think they're going to waste their time checking your wand to see if you did any magic? Just lie and say you didn't even bring it with you." It really wasn't hard. Was this how normal people went about their school lives actually doing what the Professors wanted and not trying to find loopholes in things. It sounded incredibly boring to him. "And pretty sure the trace only works outside of school. Otherwise, the Ministry would constantly be getting alerts of people using magic." He wasn't completely sure, but that is just what he assumed anyway. He didn't really think they would track it once they were at school, that sounded like a waste of time.

He grinned, "Course not." No amount of house points taken away or detentions was going to make him start wanting to do his homework. And he was pretty sure he could keep getting away with showing up late if he just blamed his leg. He didn't think the Professors would really want to argue with the disabled kid. "Why weren't you trying to be stealthy? Of course you were going to get caught. There are always Professors patrolling that place to stop students sneaking in."

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper hadn't thought of just straight up lying to the professor, and she thought it might work. But she wasn't about to admit that. Plus, it seemed like an unnecessary risk. "I doubt they'd believe me. Don't most people carry their wands with them everywhere?" During her first semester at Hogwarts, she'd constantly forget her wand in her dorm, but these days, she almost always had it on her person. It felt strange not to have her wand with her. As Flynn continued to speak, she noted that he seemed to be using the word "trace" in a different way than she had. She wasn't completely sure what that was about, so she made a mental note to look it up later and focused on her sweeping. Maybe she could subtly push the dirty straw so that it formed a small enclosure around Flynn, and she got to work doing just that.

She smiled back at Flynn. "Have fun at your next detention then." Harper certainly did not plan to be there, and she hoped that if anyone else had the misfortune of being co-assigned a detention with him, they'd be smart enough to request a separate assignment. That was definitely what she was going to do the next time she got a detention. "They usually don't bother patrolling early in the mornings. Most people aren't up yet, and I think they'd rather sleep in than patrol then." It was something she'd noticed during her early morning runs and taken advantage of.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

He shrugged his shoulders. "Some people probably don't," though he was not one of those people. Magic was just too useful half the time and made things far much easier than if you didn't use it. It didn't make much sense to just leave your wand in your dorm room and only bring it with you if you were going to class or knew that you were going to actually use any spells. "But that's beside the point. It's still not the Professors are actually going to search you to make sure."

Flynn did notice what Harper was trying to do, so quietly took a couple of steps back towards the door so she couldn't encircle him with the dirty straw. "I'll probably not even bother turning up to it," it was a pretty easy admission to make. And he doubted there was anything Harper could do even though he had admitted he'd ditch. And he doubted she actually cared that much. "No, they're just patrolling the castle instead to stop people from getting out in the early hours of the morning." If there were defences at all, then students would be sneaking outside and into the forest all the time. And he knew that wasn't the case otherwise he was sure he would have heard about it.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper gave him a skeptical look. Who wouldn't want to have magic available to them at all times? "It's not worth the risk if I get caught," she said with a shrug. "But you could use magic to help me if you don't think they're going to check," she pointed out. It wasn't like a couple scourgify charms took much effort, and she was curious to see how Flynn would respond. She'd never quite figured out if he was this antagonistic towards everyone or if he specifically had something against her.

Flynn took a step back, but Harper pretended not to notice. Maybe if she made the circle of dirty straw a little larger, it wouldn't be as obvious. It was admittedly a petty thing to do, but at least it was something to do. She kept quiet when he said he wouldn't turn up to his next detention; she assumed the professors would be more than capable of handling that situation. "I don't know what to tell you, I've never had an issue getting out of the castle early in the mornings," she said. Maybe she was lucky. Maybe her early morning runs were late enough that she wasn't actually breaking curfew. Harper had never bothered to learn when curfew actually ended. "I think most people try and sneak out at night, not in the mornings." Hell, she remembered once running into Flynn shortly after the start of curfew last year.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

Harper really was no fun, not even willing to give magic and shot. Instead, she still seemed quite content to do all of the work manually. Which was just stupid when he was quite sure the Professor wasn't going to search and prove you hadn't just used magic. And he didn't really think it even mattered if they had, if they cared so much about not using magic then there would be a Professor supervising the whole thing. "Nah," he responded rather easily, "I told you, I'm not taking part in the detention." Even if it was just to wave his wand around.

"Probably just because you're doing it late enough that curfew's over," that was the only explanation he had. If the Professors just gave up patrolling after a certain hour, then what was stopping someone from waking up in the early hours of the morning and trying to sneak out then? He could very easily stop himself from going to sleep and then try and sneak out before the sun was up. "Just because it's not always easy to wake up or try and stop yourself from falling asleep," trying it before it was too late meant you didn't have to hang around hoping you wouldn't fall asleep.

 

[Harper Alston]

"You're already here," Harper pointed out. "So you're kind of already taking part in it. Might as well cast a few spells." She supposed in a way, sticking around the dirty owlery was its own punishment; she doubted Flynn was enjoying himself hanging around here. But then again, maybe he was apathetic enough not to care that he was wasting time in the owlery.

Harper shrugged. As long as no one tried to stop her, she didn't really care whether it was technically against the rules or not. Satisfied that she'd built up a a mini-wall of dirty straw, she swapped her broom for a rag and bottle of cleaning chemicals. She would need to bag up the straw later, but she was curious to see how long it would take for Flynn to notice the wall that now separated them. "Exactly. Most people don't bother to go through the trouble to get up early, so there are fewer patrols in the mornings." She also doubted any professors would want to patrol that early in the morning.