Beauty of September Skies ((Alex))

[Celia Richmond]

September. A new start to a whole new era in Celia's life at Hogwarts. She'd completed her OWLs at long last, and achieved excellent grades-6 Os in Runes, Astronomy, Charms, Herbology, Muggle Studies and Transfiguration, all of which she was taking to NEWT level, and Es in Potions, DADA and History of Magic, all of which she wasn't taking to NEWT. Potions as Snape would only accept O-grades, History as although she was relatively good at it it didn't really interest her, and DADA, well, she didn't enjoy it at OWL and thought that it would be rather useless for any of her future career plans. So only taking six NEWTs put her in the lower range of Ravenclaws, who tended to take everything they could, which was, in most cases, every subjects they did at OWL level.

Another factor in her choice was that the previous year she had been made, rather surprisingly, a Ravenclaw prefect. The surprise being that they chose to go against the stereotypical straight Os/10 NEWTs Ravenclaw and chose a more relaxed student. Well, in work terms anyway-Celia was far from relaxed a lot of the time, due to the problems with her parents, and her sister being at the awkward age of 9, just starting in Year 5 at the same primary school that Celia had gone to. She spent more time than anticipated doing prefect duties-guiding students around the school, reporting any types of incidents to teachers-usually Flitwick, or McGonnagall or Dumbledore for extreme situations. She enjoyed having the authority, despite it meaning she didn't have time to cope with more than six NEWTs.

Now Celia was 17-being the eldest in her year group, being born on the 1st of September-in the wizarding world she was legally an adult, and would soon be starting Apparition lessons, something she'd been looking forward to since the fist time she heard that now very familiar cracking sound as someone appeared apparently out of thin air. She looked at the common room noticeboard every day to check for notices about it, but wasn't surprised that until now there was no news of apparition lessons. Well, it made sense, seeing as hardly anyone in her year was 17 yet, but that's what you get for being the eldest-have to wait until the others have caught up. Must be worse for the youngest, having to wait while everyone else grows up around you.

But today, Celia was looking forward to having some peaceful time alone. It was a warm evening approaching the end of September, and in the twilight the sky glowed a warm, welcoming orange as the sun set on the horizon. It was 7pm, or near enough to, but it was only a matter of weeks until it would be like this at 6pm, and then 5pm, which was a depressing thought. It was a very relaxing thing to watch, but nobody else seemed to think along the same lines. From the courtyard she had a perfect view, but she was all alone. She gazed at the sky, as she often did when she had no work to do, like tonight. Listening carefully, she could hear footsteps coming along the gravel path towards her, and as she looked up again, she wondered who it was that was coming her way.

[Alexander Promise R7]

Alex bid Mack seeya later as she headed off to make her prefect rounds with Kennedy. See, when Promise and Mack patrolled together, they rarely got much patrolling done...come on, boyfriend girlfriend, empty hallways. The possibilities were far too appealing. Boyfriend and girlfriend...was that really what they were? No. Promise and Mack had become so much more then that. Of course, maybe that was only to them because those terms seemed so unfinalized. They sounded so insecure. Alex and Mack were far from insecure in their relationship. They both knew, though they hadn’t quite discussed marriage and thing yet, that they were going to be together forever. Promise knew that Mack was the only one he’d ever be happy with. She might have been his first real girlfriend but that didn’t mean he didn’t know exactly the kind of girl he’d be perfect with. Mack had fulfilled every single one of Alex’s hopes and dreams...and I mean that in a very deep, profound, and emotional way too. Not just physically...though you might say that too...

Moving past that, Alex looked around the empty hallway that his feet had led him to, and sighed. He ran his fingers through his hair quickly before starting up walking against an easy pace. He didn’t want to be in the castle, it was stuffy and drafty and he didn’t like it unless he had Mack to hold close to him. Some might have called Alex a chicken, but he really wasn’t. He just didn’t like to be scared, and being alone scared him; especially in the castle. At least outside of the school there weren’t clicks and bangs of the creaky old castle. So Promise made his way outside. It was nice out there, it was breezy and not drafty, and the air was nice, not so stuffy. It was clean, good, unused air, and Promise liked that a lot. The sun was setting slowly in the distance, and Alex decided to walk that way while he made his rounds. He needed to make rounds anyways, and since Kennedy and Mack were inside, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to be outside in the nice evening. All he had to do was go all the way to one end of the grounds, turn around, and go all the way back and then his time should have been up. Well that was if he didn’t find any trouble. As Promise walked however, he found the empty grounds to be boring him, and so he turned around, and headed back towards another place that was outside. The courtyard.

As he entered the courtyard he smiled as he saw he wouldn’t be alone. Who else but his fellow Ravenclaw prefect. To be honest, Alex didn’t talk to Celia much, not much at all. Alex didn’t talk to many people except for Mack and Kennedy these days. Those two were his closest friends, and so he much preferred their company to anyone else’s. But Promise had been in a friendly mood lately, so he walked up to Celia. “Beautiful isn’t it?” He said, pointing up towards the sunrise. He walked over and took a seat next to Celia. “I should be making rounds, but if you don’t mind, I think I’ll join you here until I have to go meet Mackenzie before bed.” Promise smiled brightly at Celia and then turned his attention back towards the setting sun. “It’s so clear out here, the air I mean. Rather than in the castle. Don’t you think?”

[Celia Richmond]

As she looked up, Celia saw that it was her fellow Ravenclaw prefect, Alexander Promise. Or just Promise as many people called him. Despite being prefects together, they hadn't talked much. They didn't patrol much together-he spent most of his time with Mack Holden, the Slytherin prefect in their year, getting up to God knows what. In fact, she rarely saw Promise on his own, he always seemed to be with Mack, or Kennedy. Or both even. Perhaps the other 2 Slytherins were patrolling together, leaving him to entertain himself for a while. he did look a bit lonely as he came over to talk to her, come to think of it. Celia smiled at him-the beauty of the sky was all well and good, but it was easier to enjoy when someone was there with you.

"Yes, it is rather" she said to his comment about it being beautiful, "I love the sunset, it's the most beautiful natural thing you can see literally every day." This was true. Just the range of reds, oranges and yellows throughout the sky around the setting sun, and the blues and purples further out was just amazing. She could sit watching it for hours. Same with sunrise, but that was usually before she was awake or when she was getting ready for lessons, so she didn't get a chance to see it that often. "And yeah, it is pretty clear this evening....clear for September anyway, and relatively warm" she didn't even have a cloak or coat with her. "In school it's so musty and cold...it really does have the "old building" feel, though that's understandable."

Then he confirmed Celia's suspicions that he had been left alone by Mack and Kennedy, when he said that he should be doing his rounds. "Yeah, sure you can sit here. I could do with someone to talk to...it's beautiful, but rather lonely. Nobody ever comes out here except me...which is a shame. It's so magical. Well, not literally, but the colours are heart-warming. I guess I should be doing rounds too, but it's much nicer out here. And I think the others said something about them doing it tonight anyway, so there's probably no point in me going back in. I take it that's where Mack and Kennedy are, if you're not with them?"

She continued to stare up at the sky for a while, in awe. She would never tire of this, never. Well, unless she got physically tierd and had to go to sleep, but right now she wasn't particularly sleepy. "It's just so relaxing to sit back and look at it...it's so easy to watch and get immersed in your own thoughts. It's a greatplace to come if you're really stressed out...it has a gerat calming effect." She sighed, and looked over at Promise, who seemed, like her, to be in awe at the sunset. She smiled again...there was nowhere she'd rather be right now.