Enjoying the View

[Charles Abberline]

The first day of classes was finally over with Potions being the last class. Not having anything else to do to kill the time before he would go to the great hall to eat some dinner, Charlie decided to make his way back to the Ravenclaw common room to read over his notes from today's classes. On his way to the commen room, the thirteen year old managed to get lost twice as he was climbing the grand staircase with the stairs moving unpredictably, guiding him to different locations, some of which he had never even been to before. Eventually, he found himself a ghost who was kind enough to tell him how to reach the tallest tower from where they were now. Although Charlie had been at the castle for some time, he still hadn't seen most of it, or so he assumed. After Rose and he got caught by Professor Josephs the boy hadn't really done any exploring because he'd been too afraid to get caught again and lose house points. Luckily for him, the directions he got from the ghost proved to be correct, and after climbing another spiral staircase, he walked into the corridor that would lead him to the entrance of the common room. However, instead of approaching the portrait at the end of the corridor, the boy got distracted by the view outside. The castle's surroundings looked simply amazing from up here. Charlie walked towards a windowsill and leaned his elbows on it to support his cheeks on his fists, looking down at the students walking on the grass whilst the sun was slowly setting.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose had forgotten how hard it was to sit still during lessons, she was glad to be moving around again after one day of classes. Potions was fun, but being in the dark dungeon was something she didn't really enjoy. She decided to go in the opposite direction, she had to talk to her sister and she was going to look for Ravenclaw tower today. Though they had just been together during the holidays she hadn't really talked to her enough. She was starting to regret this decision about halfway up the tower. She was scared of heights, and though it was fine as long as she didn't look out the windows, she was starting to wonder if this had been a good idea. Phoebe might not even be in the Ravenclaw Common Room and she would have made this climb for no reason.

Just as she was considering going back to the safe ground, she noticed someone familiar. Charlie! The two had explored the castle together at night in their first year, but she hadn't really spoken to him since. She had seen him in classes, though, like potions earlier today. Her first urge was to approach him, so she did. "Charlie!" She said, patting him on the back as she approached. Big mistake, she had briefly forgotten her rule about not looking out of the window. "Whoa." She muttered, taking a step back and squeezing her eyes shut. She laughed nervously. "I forgot how high this tower was."

 

[Charles Abberline]

Charlie chuckled softly while looking at the students down below. They all looked like ants from up here, which he thought was a funny thing. He looked up after hearing his own name, and smiled at the Gryffindor as she patted his back. ''Hi, Rose!'' the boy exclaimed happily. Charlie hadn't seen or heard much from the girl except in classes, so was happy that she had stumbled across him. He looked concerned for a moment when she took a step back, wondering if there was something wrong with him, but then it hit him. ''I didn't know you suffered from acrophobia!'' He said as he quickly moved away from the window so she wouldn't accidentally look out of it again whilst talking to him. ''It's all right now, I moved, you can open them again.'' Charlie told Rose with a smile on his face.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose laughed, her eyes still closed. "You would know the fancy name! You're such a Ravenclaw, Charlie." She opened one eye to make sure the coast was clear and then opened the other one. "Thanks, heights just make me all woozy. It's why I don't like flying. Do you like flying?" She wondered what he liked to do, she didn't know a lot about him. She smiled at him. "Acrophobia, huh? That sounds a lot more impressive." Her plans to see her sister were all but forgotten, she had wanted to spend more time with Charlie for a while now. "So how have you been? Any more night time excursions?" She tilted her head and added teasingly. "I assume you've found the bathroom in your Common Room by now?" She couldn't help joking about their first meeting.

 

[Charles Abberline]

Charlie snickered at her comment, thinking that it was only fair of her to say that. He himself used to suffer from fear of heights as well so kind of knew how Rose was feeling whenever she would look out of a window at a certain height. ''Understandable.'' He just hoped that she wouldn't feel too uncomfortable standing in one of the highest corridors in the castle. ''Not that much.'' Charlie replied. ''I like playing Wizard's Chess more, it's less dangerous and way more fun.'' He shook his head at Rose's question. ''After we got caught I sort of stayed away from any night time activities, which is a good thing really because I still tend to get lost around here.'' Charlie said with a chuckle. The Ravenclaw grinned at her next comment and nodded his head. ''I found out that the toilets were located next to our dormitory the following day.'' he said. ''Apparently I had already found the door they were behind when exploring the common room earlier that night, but because I didn't know whether or not I was allowed to open that door, I didn't. Silly me.'' Charlie was glad that he had found the bathroom the next day because he had not been eager on having to sneak out at night again to find it.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose focused on Charlie and not on the knowledge that they were hundreds of feet in the air. She knew that the castle had been standing for a while, so surely the tower wouldn't collapse suddenly. She laughed. "Chess? I'm very bad at that, I can never really remember the rules all that well." She shrugged, her hair falling over her shoulders. "But maybe you could try to teach me sometime, I might remember it better if it comes from you." She smiled when he told her he hadn't done any sneaking out. "I have sneaked out but I got caught again! Right outside the Common Room too." She sighed. "I might be cursed, I seem to always be getting caught." She smiled. "And getting lost too! I totally know your pain, this castle is way too big for its own good." She giggled when he talked about the bathroom. "If you want to try sneaking out again, we could always try again. Maybe we can see if we can get anything in the kitchen? That doesn't have to be at night but it could be." She smiled. "Maybe the day is safer." Charlie seemed a lot more careful about the rules than she was. "What are you doing right now? Just looking out of the window?"

 

[Charles Abberline]

He smiled broadly. ''I would absolutely love to teach you how to play chess!'' Charlie said excitedly. He and his father used to play a game of chess every other night before going to bed back when he still lived at home so finding out that Hogwarts had its own little chess clubs he could join in his previous year had made the boy very happy. He listened attentively as she told him about the other time she had tried to sneak out of her common room, and shook his head laughing. Charlie shrugged, a part of him wanted to explore the castle more - and knew that he could only do that during the night with his current schedule - but the other part thought that it'd be best not to do so in case he would get into trouble if he got caught sneaking through the corridors in the dead of night. ''With your curse, and my terrible sense of direction?'' the Ravenclaw asked Rose chuckling. ''I think it's best if we would visit the kitchens during daytime.'' He was sure that if she would try hard enough she could convince him to go with her at night, but figured that as long as Rose wouldn't know that, he'd be fine. He nodded again. ''I was on my way to the common room but got a little distracted as you can see. What about you? Isn't the Gryffindor common room a floor down, or were you planning of visiting the Owlery? I do that sometimes, to check up on the owls!''

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose was glad Charlie wanted to be her chess teacher, though she hoped he was patient. Rose knew she wasn't always the quickest at picking things up, and her younger sister often got exasperated with her because of it. She didn't want that to happen with Charlie. She grinned when he laughed, glad he seemed to find her funny. "Alright, daytime it is! We might still get busted because I don't think we're technically supposed to go to the kitchens at all, but let's hope not!" She smiled. "We could get something nice! Like cake..." She sighed longingly at the idea. Charlie admitting he sometimes checked on the owls was pretty cute and she smiled. "No, I went to check up on my sister. The owls might be more talkative though, she's not really talking to me a lot lately." She sighed. "She's in your house, her name's Phoebe. Have you seen her in your common room?" Rose gestured with her hands. "She's about my height."

 

[Charles Abberline]

Charlie smiled when she agreed on visiting the kitchens during daytime and was happy that she didn't push him into breaking the rules by sneaking out of the common room at night. ''I heard that people often go to the kitchens if they are hungry though.'' He had a hard time believing that the kitchens were out of bounds to students, so squinted his eyes at Rose, thinking that maybe she was teasing him about the fact that he didn't really like breaking the rules. Going to the lowest levels of the castle to either ask the house-elves if they could make you something to eat, or actually making it yourself surely wouldn't be seen as a crime. What else were they supposed to do if they were hungry, starve to death while waiting for either lunch or dinner? He nodded slightly at the suggestion of making cake whilst visiting the kitchens and smiled once more. ''Yes, cake would be nice, I like cake.'' Charlie told her. He listened as she explained to him why she was here, and shrugged when being asked if he had seen her sister in the Ravenclaw common room. ''I might have?'' he said while trying to remember if he had come across a girl named Phoebe in the common room. ''Do you want me to go inside and look for your sister?'' he asked.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose nodded at Charlie, his explanation made sense."Maybe it isn't against the rules? I just assumed so since Rory does it all the time and she loves breaking rules." Rose smiled. "Do you know her? She has red hair." It was a pretty noticeable color. She was already imagining the cake they might eat when they went into the kitchen, when Charlie offered to go look for her sister in the common room. Rose hesitated for a moment, she wasn't sure if she wanted to see Phoebe anymore. She was having fun just talking to Charlie,but a good sister wouldn't think like that. Phoebe might be having trouble adjusting, though Rose doubted it if she was honest. Phoebe was so smart and strong, she wouldn't have trouble in any sort of situation. But she missed her younger sister quite a bit, so in the end she nodded. "Could you please check?" She asked. "Just call her name or something, she'll come." At least, if the girl was even in there.

 

[Charles Abberline]

Charlie chuckled at what the girl said. ''Is that the girl who sits besides you during classes?'' he asked curiously. ''I might have seen her around a couple of times, yes.'' he said. He wondered what it would be like to have a brother or sister as he was an only child, especially one who was a student at Hogwarts as well. He could only imagine the fun you could have with them whilst staying at the school, though it seemed like Rose wasn't here to catch up with her sister but out of concern for her, or at least that's what he thought might have been the reason why for her to come all this way to the highest tower of the castle if she was scared of heights. So, when she asked if he could check whether or not her sister was in the common room, Charlie nodded his head and smiled politely at Rose. ''Of course, wait here.'' he said before turning around to walk towards the Ravenclaw portrait.

Charlie answered the riddle and entered the common room, scanning the room for anyone that looked even remotely like his friend. ''Is there a Phoebe in here?'' the boy asked. ''Your sister's waiting for you outside the common room, and it's urgent.'' he added.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe had been researching, she was already done with reading the things she was supposed to read for her classes so she was looking into spells that could be used to alter someones appearance. She wondered if it was possible to just have green hair for a day without too much hassle, but it all seemed way too advanced for her. It was frustrating, every spell that was interesting was for the older years. Couldn't they leave any of the interesting things for the first years?

She looked up from her book only when her name was called. It was a boy she didn't know. She raised an eyebrow, wondering what this was about. She got up with a frown on her face. "How urgent? Is there blood?" She didn't wait for a reply, she pushed past him and left the common room. There she saw her older sister, looking perfectly fine. Phoebe frowned, crossing her arms. "Urgent, huh?" She gestured at Charlie. "Who is this anyway, your boyfriend?" She just wanted to embarrass Rose, though she knew her sister was rarely embarrassed.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose nodded. "She sits with me a lot, she's a lot of fun!" She wasn't sure if Charlie would like her, though. He was a lot more of a rule follower than Rory was. She liked him a lot, but she wasn't sure if her friend group would mix with him very well. Maybe it was nice to have a friend all to herself. It was so nice of him to go look for Phoebe at once and it apparently didn't take him long. Her sister came out of the portrait and Rose waved at her, she ignored her comment about the urgency. "No, this is Charlie! He's my friend." Phoebe knew very well that she had no boyfriend, but Rose knew she was still annoyed and probably trying to embarrass her a little. "I just wanted to talk, it's not that urgent but I missed you, we haven't talked a lot lately." She smiled hopefully at her sister. "Thank you Charlie!" She said to her friend, she hoped her sister hadn't been mean to him.

 

[Charles Abberline]

Charlie smiled at Rose's younger sister. ''Well It's not that - and you're gone already.'' he pressed his lips together and watched as she pushed him to walk past him. He had only said that it was urgent so he was sure that she would go and see her older sister. But now he was slightly regretting that he had done so. He followed Phoebe out of the common room and mouthed 'sorry' to Rose when approaching his friend. Charlie couldn't help to turn a little red in the face when Rose's sister asked if he was her boyfriend and shook his head almost immediately after hearing the comment. ''Yes, I'm a friend.'' the boy agreed. He wondered what was going on between the two sisters because it really seemed like Phoebe did not want to talk to her sister that much. Charlie nodded and smiled weakly when his friend thanked him for getting her sister. He hoped that he hadn't screwed it up by saying that it was an urgent matter.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe sighed. "I don't have time right now, I'll talk to you at lunch sometime, alright?." She told Rose with a shrug. "You don't have to come all the way up here, I know you hate that. Besides, you're hanging out with whatshisface here." She pointed a thumb at the boy, though she hadn't actually forgotten his name. She was just starting to get annoyed by how many friends her sister had that she would rather spend time with than with her, even when she was going to look for her she had to bring one? What was that about? She sighed. "Look, I'll see you around. Alright?" She gave her sister a smile. "There's just a lot of interesting stuff here i want to learn, it's not personal." She waved at Rose. "Soon, I promise." She smiled and then headed back into the Common Room, eager to get back to her research.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose sighed, maybe this had been a bad idea. Phoebe was a great sister usually but when she was in a mood she was the one that decided when she was going to be over it, and apparently it wasn't that time yet. She knew her sister probably really was busy, but not too busy to talk for a few seconds. She nodded, though, pretending she believed the excuse. "Alright Pheebster, just don't be a stranger!" She said, before letting her go inside again. Rose sighed. "Sorry Charlie, that was sort of a waste of time. Thanks for helping, though." She paused. "You didn't have any siblings, right?" Right now, that sounded sort of nice.

 

[Charles Abberline]

Charlie listened as the younger Ravenclaw told her sister that she would spend some time with her soon. He didn't know whether or not he should say something to Phoebe about spending time with her sister now rather than later because it really seemed like Rose wanted to hang out with her sister at the moment. However, the thirteen quite understood why the young Ravenclaw didn't want to spend much time being around her sister as he too had been occupied with learning everything that was new to him in their previous year. He smiled at Phoebe when she went back inside the common room and then turned to Rose. Charlie shrugged at her comment. ''It's okay, I'm just glad I could help out.'' he told the Gryffindor, smiling brightly at her. He shook his head when Rose asked if he had any siblings. ''I don't, no.'' the boy replied. Charlie would've loved to have a brother or sister but knew that with his mother no longer with them, and his father still not over it, it probably wasn't going to happen. ''So, what do you want do to now?'' he asked, quickly changing the subject so he wouldn't have to think about his mother anymore because he could feel his eyes tearing up a little whilst thinking about her.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose smiled at Charlie, trying not to show her disappointment. She had gone up here to see Phoebe, but at least she had found her friend instead. "You were a big help." She assured him with a smile. Her question about siblings seemed to have an effect on him that she hadn't planned to. He looked so sad. Rose really wanted to ask him what was wrong but she decided not to, it might make him feel worse if he knew that she had noticed. Instead she linked arms with him and grinned at him. "Let's leave this awful tower and have an adventure outside." She told him. "We'll figure it out along the way."

 

[Charles Abberline]

Charlie blinked away the tears that were forming in his eyes quickly and smiled brightly when Rose linked arms with him. ''Good idea.'' he replied, already excited for whatever they were going to do outside, though hoped that she wouldn't want to go into the forbidden forest with him because he would never ever set foot in the forest whilst attending shool. Dinner will have to wait, he thought to himself. Charlie didn't mind it anyway, if the two of them were going to miss it because they were going to have fun together then so be it - he could always visit the kitchens afterwards.