Open Easier than growing up

[Tilly Drage]

Since her arrival at the school, Tilly had been thoroughly impressed. Lectures put her to sleep, of course, but there were endless places to explore in her free time. Today, she had her sights on the cliffs. She tied her hair back as she reached the base. Magic or no magic, she was climbing to the top. Tilly secured her wand in her pocket and reached above her head. She found natural footholds in the rock face and began her slow journey upward.

@Penny Wills

 

[Penny Wills]

Today Penny ventured the furthest she had been from the castle since sorting night, all the way to the bottom of the cliffs. The countryside air was refreshing and she smiled as she relished the freshness of the environment around her. She was approaching the base of the cliffs when she noticed a lone person beginning an attempt to climb the cliff face. She shook her head, Hogwarts had some strange students. "LOOK OUT!" She shouted loudly up to her for a laugh to put her off.

 

[Tilly Drage]

Tilly was mid-reach when the words look out reached her ears. She started, her body shaking involuntarily as she pressed her hands and feet into the rock. There was nothing to look out for. Instead, a Slytherin girl stood at the bottom of the cliffs.

"RUDE!" Tilly hollered back. She had to admit, the girl had gotten her pretty good. If Tilly had been a less-experienced climber, she might have taken a tumble and trip to the hospital wing. Tilly grinned to herself and resumed her climb. "Going to join me, or what?"

 

[Penny Wills]

Penny laughed as the Hufflepuffs reaction, credit she held her own. "Sorry! I thought I saw a rock fall!" Penny scoffed when they asked if she was going to join. "Um, no? I've never climbed before. I wouldn't know where to start."

 

[Tilly Drage]

Tilly snorted. She knew the girl was messing around with her, but Tilly took it in stride. She climbed a few feet upward and held there, her muscles stretching and shaking. She loved the feeling.

"You've never climbed before? Not even a tree?" Tilly shouted back. She hoped the Slytherin girl would give it a try and join her, but some people were scared of heights.

"It's easy. The trick is you use your legs to push yourself up, not your arms to pull yourself up. Find footholds and handholds, and," she grinned, "don't take all hands and feet off at once!"

 

[Penny Wills]

"Well yeah I've climbed trees obviously!" The easy ones with low, thick branches she added silently to herself. "But this is a cliff, it's not really the same thing." Penny approached the cliff face and wondered what on earth she was thinking. She couldn't climb this thing without training and proper equipment. "Are you going to climb all the way to the top?" She questioned.

 

[Tilly Drage]

"That's the plan!" Tilly turned back to the task at hand. She was about a third of the way there. The small of her back was drenched with sweat and her robes were coated with dust and earth. No matter; she knew ahead of time she would need to change before dinner. Tilly would never balk at getting dirty.

She looked over her shoulder to see that the other girl was still at the cliff base. "I think there's an alternate way to hike up there," Tilly shouted and smirked, "if you want to race me!"

 

[Penny Wills]

Penny laughed, "Alright I'll try that, see you in a few minutes then." Penny could see the path and it took her about a quarter of an hour to reach the top. She was better at walking than she was cliff climbing. When she reached the top she looked around for the rock climber, Penny didn't know her name.

 

[Tilly Drage]

"Sounds good." With the Slytherin girl off to hike, Tilly focused on her climb. Her body was demanding rest, but she pushed herself higher and higher. She'd learned early on that once she pushed far enough through pain and struggle, the feeling was euphoric.

Tilly finally reached the top of the cliff and pulled herself over with a grunt. She flopped onto her belly and breathed in hard. Then she saw the Slytherin girl was already there.

"Oh, boggarts, you beat me!" Tilly groaned, absolutely exhausted. She put her face on the ground, her heart pounding and her lungs searing as her body caught up with the tremendous effort she'd just put in.

Still out of breath, she turned onto her back and sat up. She grinned at her companion. "Well, you won, fair and square. Good show." She extended a hand. "The name's Tilly Drage."

 

[Penny Wills]

The Hufflepuff girl wasn't at the top when Penny reached it. Penny peered off the side of the cliff to check she hadn't fallen, or if she was still climbing, how long she would be. Seeing her just reach the top, exhausted and breathing hard was a huge relief for two reasons. One, she hadn't fallen and died. Two, Penny, who hadn't even broken out in a sweat, would have ended up in the same state had she attempted climbing.

She was impressed with the girls efforts. "Well done!" She praised, "You just free climbed a cliff face, I think you can take the credit just this once. Can you do the same back down?" Penny took her hand and aided in pulling her up to standing (OOC wasn't sure if this was just a handshake, can edit). "Hi Tilly, I'm Penny."

 

[Tilly Drage]

Tilly laughed. She wasn't ready to head back down just yet. "I'm so tired I would probably fall on the way down. I was thinking of walking back, honestly." She gratefully took the Slytherin girl's hand and stood up.

Tilly brushed at her robes, although there was no way they were getting truly clean without a proper charm. She smiled. "Pleasure to meet you, Penny. You're a first-year, too?" Tilly thought she might have seen the girl in her classes, but there were honestly so many students in the school, she had a hard time keeping everyone straight. Tilly looked over the school grounds and lake- it was gorgeous up here. She couldn't understand why it was supposed to be off-limits.

 

[Penny Wills]

Penny looked around, taking in the breathtaking views of Hogwarts and the surrounding area, she turned 360 around her, then back at Tilly who said she would be walking back down. Penny nodded, this was a good idea. "Walking will give you a chance to admire the views, isn't it beautiful up here?"

"Yes, I'm a first year too - I think we have History of Magic lessons together." Penny said, recognising Tilly as one of the Hufflepuffs. "Did you have any more excursions planned whilst you were up here?"

 

[Tilly Drage]

Tilly nodded. “Absolutely. I think it’s even better than the top of the castle towers.” She meant it. Tilly stretched her arms behind her head. No doubt, she would be sore tomorrow. But the climb had been worth it.

She shrugged at Penny’s question. “I didn’t have anything in mind!” She smiled. “I like to explore anywhere I can. It’s batty, really, how much ground there is to cover at this place.”

Tilly pointed down at the sweeping trees and shadows of the Forbidden Forest. She lowered her voice, even though she was fairly certain they were alone. “One of these days, I’m going in there.” She blushed, and added, “When I’m any good at magic.” That won’t be soon, Tilly thought to herself.

 

[Penny Wills]

Penny enjoyed Tilly's sense of adventure, first she was climbing the sides of cliffs, now she was talking about venturing into the forest. "I nearly went in there on my first night." Penny admitted, "But common sense told me that it was a bad idea." Her common sense wasn't always great, but it's hard to ignore the survival instinct. "But I'd consider going in for real too, once I'm trained up with some spells. I'd love to really know what is in there."

 

[Tilly Drage]

TIlly laughed. “We’re probably both monster food at this point. Best to wait until they teach us to defend ourselves.” She doubted any first year was a real match for the Forbidden Forest. If what the professors said about the forest was true. Some creature had chased Alexis King’s cat, Kaiba, but he was a cat. Prey much smaller than a first year. Students couldn’t be prey- right?

The sweat that coated Tilly during her climb now chilled her all over, like a wet blanket. The wind was picking up. It didn’t help that they were so near the lake.

Tilly shivered. “Want to head back down, Penny?” The Hufflepuff really wanted to wash and change robes before dinner. If she didn’t, she would probably scare all her housemates to the other end of the table.

@Penny Wills

 

[Penny Wills]

Penny could see Tilly was getting cold as her body cooled after the climb, “Sure, let's head back down” The Slytherin was all too happy to turn around and start the descent, she had no ambitions to go any further. "It's been nice meeting you Tilly, do you have any plans to climb any other parts of the school whilst your here?"

 

[Tilly Drage]

Tilly started down the footpath. While the descent was much easier than her initial climb, she was still mindful of where she stepped. A combination of gravity and poor footing could send her tumbling down. Tilly looked back at Penny. “Not really, but,” she grinned, “the castle is tall. I wonder if a student has ever scaled one of the towers?” She meant from the outside. Was that something she would tackle soon? No, but it couldn’t be impossible. Especially with magic at her disposal in an emergency- once she got good enough at it.

 

[Penny Wills]

Penny had only been joking about climbing the castle but it was clearly something that Tilly was considering for the future, "I have no idea but if anyone is up to the challenge it'd be you." She told her as they walked back to the castle. "You'd need some safety equipment just in case!"

 

[Tilly Drage]

Tilly smirked at the idea of safety equipment. “Maybe, we’ll see.” She picked up the pace, although she was still cautious. She was hungry, and dinner in the Great Hall was not that far off. The Hufflepuff didn’t want to have to scavenge the kitchens for food later.

Once they had reached the foot of the cliffs, she looked over at Penny. “Race you back to the castle?”