Open To The Top

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë had been wandering around the castle for a while, figuring out what to do with her time. She was already fully up to date with her homework for next week, so she figured it wouldn't hurt to explore a bit more of the castle. Since her common room was so far up she had first wanted to head down towards the dungeons. It wasn't a place she had often been to and she thought it might be interesting to see some more of it, but then the thought that she might run into her cousin there had popped up and she changed her plans. She didn't feel like running into Paige anytime soon. She had been trying to not even look at her when they'd have class together, but it also made her wonder why she did it. She tried to respect Paige's honesty, sure, but she couldn't shake how mean her cousin had actually been to her. So then why should she try to make it easier for the slytherin to ignore her? Anyways, with that whole situation going on the dungeons were a no-go and she had decided to head further up instead. Up to the top, as far as the castle would let her. And at the top she was. Chloë smiled as she walked over to the edge, leaning on the cold stones and letting her gaze wander across the grounds. It was a pretty view, but she wondered how long it would keep her entertained. Knowing herself that probably wasn't going to be long. Right. She let out a little sigh as she enjoyed the view for a second, trying to think of anywhere else to go or anything to do.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

With the semester dragging on, Sully was starting to feel restless. Quidditch had been useful for some of the pent up energy, but while it did a number on his thighs, he didn't really feel like it was a real physical activity like rugby had been back at his old school. And as they got older, it was getting harder and harder to get people to come mess around with stuff on the lawn. Sully supposed he could try to play around with some of the younger students, but it seemed kinda sad. He'd decided to try and race himself up to the top of the North Tower, enjoying the burn in his calves and lungs as he raced up the final steps. It probably would have been better if he'd had some way of timing himself or something, but Sully was still feeling pretty accomplished, bent over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

Looking up, Sully grinned, still huffing in air, when he spotted Chloë starting out at the school grounds. "Chloë!" He said as loudly as he could, while still out of breath, wondering if he could startle her a little bit. "What are. You doing. Up here?" He asked her in short bursts between breaths, coming over to lean against the wall near her.

 

[Chloe Thompson]

The sudden sound of her name being called out startled Chloë and she twitched, her hands grabbing a hold of the stone barrier in front of her. "Jeez! Just throw me over the edge yourself why don't you?" She joked, turning around towards the direction of the voice, which she was pretty sure belonged to Sully. It made her wonder whether he'd hoped she would give a more embarassing reaction, perhaps trying to get her back for spooking him back at gladgrags over the break. "I was bored." She shrugged at his question. She still was, but at least now that her friend was around thing might be getting a bit more interesting. "Was gonna explore the dungeons but didn't want to run into my cousin so went the complete other way instead." Chloë added, not really sure why she was adding that particular information. It had been a while since her run in with Paige and she hadn't mentioned it to anyone yet, so maybe it be good to tell at least one of her friends? "Did you.. run up here?" She slightly raised an eyebrow when she looked at him, wondering what kind of silly idea would have made him run up those stairs.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully wheezed out at a laugh when Chloë startled, which wasn't helping him catch his breath as he doubled over again. "It's not like it's a long drop or anything, aye, careful," He joked, feinting a move towards Chloë but backing off before he could actually startle her again. Honestly, even with him playing quidditch now, heights this far up still made him a little nervous. Not that he would want Chloë to know that. "You don't like your cousin?" Sully asked when Chloë mentioned avoiding them. Sully had plenty of cousins, one's he liked, and ones he could easily imagine climbing the north tower to avoid. "I was bored," Sully answered with a grin when Chloë asked if he'd run up here, hoping she might be impressed. Especially now that he'd finally caught his breath. "Ran up here pretty fast too. Easy as, no sweat," He added easily, ignoring some of the very obvious sweat that was collecting in his hair.

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë laughingly shook her head when Sully didn't even have enough breath left in him to actually laugh at her reaction. Serves him right. "Right, I'd be down in a sec. Nothing to worry about." She replied casually, bending over the edge and looking straight down. She liked being up high, never had a problem with height but she would rather not plunge down the side of the castle. "I did," She answered when he asked about her cousin, "Untill she yelled in my face that she didn't want me to be here." Chloë shrugged. She tried to make it sound like it wasn't that big a deal but in reality she was still a bit hurt by it. Mostly because she still didn't understand. "Yeah me too, but I'd never voluntarily run the stairs all the way up here." She chuckled at her friend, who clearly managed to have another idea of beating boredom than she did. Although they both managed to head up the tower. "'You trying to show off, Tofilau?" She laughed when he casually mentioned it had been easy. She didn't buy that for one second and the way he was panting and looked only seemed to confirm that.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully liked how easily Chloë took a joke, laughing at her flat reaction. "Yeah, it's a shortcut, right?" Sully said with a giggle. Not wanting to look like a chicken, he peered over the edge when Chloë did, though he regretted it. The tower was crazy high and he shook his head, slumping back against the wall to finish catching his breath. "Whoa, she didn't want you to be like, here here, like at the school?" He asked, puzzled. "Lame, what's up her butt," He said, raising an eyebrow. He didn't know Chloë's cousin, but she seemed cool enough to hang around with, so her cousin probably just had issues. "It was easy though, aye, not even showing off," Sully swore, pretending to flex. He might admit to Chloë that he was showing if she was impressed though.

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë chuckled at Sully's next response and noticed him come up next to her to peer over the edge as well. She also noticed how he shook his head and how quickly he had turned his back towards the wall again. It made her wonder whether he was scared of heights which would seem strange since he was up in the air all the time at quidditch. She almost wanted to make a joke about it, but she didn't want to make him feel bad. You don't do that to friends. Instead she figured she'd ask him about it another time, when they'd be closer to the ground than they were now. "Yep, like at all. Said I wasn't supposed to go to beauxbatons and not come here." She nodded seriously, which was rare for her since she seemed to be smiling pretty much all of the time. "Right? I don't even know what her problem is." She responded, glad he seemed to agree that her cousin was just being stupid. "Right." Chloë nodded. "Just your everyday run up the stairs, huh? No biggie. I don't even know why we mentioned it.." She shrugged casually. Ofcourse she was joking but she wondered if he'd take the bait. If Sully was going to act like he'd just been casually running up the stairs then two could play that game.

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully scrunched his face up at the mention of Beauxbatons. He'd only just gotten Jarica back from there at the end of last year, and had concluded the other school was boring and not a place anyone should wanna go. "Yuck, no, that dumb French school? Why does anyone wanna go there, Hogwarts is way better," He said decisively. "Your cousin can go there if she likes it so much," Sully generally got along with his family, but he knew if he'd offered his big sister the chance to go to France or something to get away from him she would have jumped at the chance. "I bet she'd miss you when you were gone too anyway," He added, mostly as an after thought, though it kind of sounded like maybe Chloë would be better off even if her cousin didn't.

Chloë was definitely teasing him about the run now, but she'd walked up here so she had to know it was still impressive to run all the way up here. "I mean, yeah, like we do it for classes and stuff but like, it's not like everyone could run up here from the entrance hall or anything. Plus you gotta deal with the staircases and stuff too. Just saying, aye." Sully shrugged a few times, but he wasn't able to keep a very serious face, breaking out into a grin when he glanced at Chloë out of the corner of his eye.

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë was taken a bit by surprise about how much Sully seemed to dislike the french school. Her brother seems to like it there and her mother is very fond of it so she had always figured that it wouldn't be too bad. Otherwise why would they speak so highly of it? "I dunno, my brother likes it a lot." She shrugged at his words, wondering what would have caused the boy to dislike the other school that much. "Yeah but I'm French and she's not, so I guess that's why she thinks I should've gone there?" She reasoned. Chloë wasn't exactly sure why she was explaining how her cousins brain must have worked, almost as if she was justifying the thought. Which she wasn't and she hope he got that. "I don't think I should care about what she thinks now anyways." She said as she came to that realization. Who cares what Paige thought? If her cousin didn't want to be her friend anymore than there wasn't a reason why her opinion should still matter to Chloë. "I mean who wouldn't miss me? I'm a hoot." The gryffindor joked as a smile graced her face. In her opinion, things were only truly bad if you weren't able to joke or laugh about it.

Chloë couldn't contain a laugh when Sully seemed to try to explain why it had been a big deal that he run the stairs all the way up to the tower. She wouldn't do it even if someone dared her to. But then again she just wasn't a big fan of stairs, or running for that matter. "Okay, fine." She chuckled as she dramatically threw her hands up into the air as to show that she had been defeated. "Colour me impressed."