| Details for Stress Relief |
| Summary: | Tensions rise, but only Claire gets relief. |
| Date: | October 22, 1937 |
| Location: | Ramparts |
| Related: | None. |
| Characters |
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The ramparts of Hogwarts Castle are massive and provide an uninterrupted pathway all along the outside of the castle as well as giving any visitor an amazing view of the surrounding grounds, Hogwarts Lake, the Forbidden Forest and even Hogsmeade. The view is only interrupted by some of the taller towers of the castle like the Astronomy Tower or the Owlery. The ramparts themselves have chest height walls to either side creating a six foot wide corridor. Every two feet or so crenelations rise up another three feet making the walls almost eight feet tall at those points. Strong winds tend to blow along the ramparts frequently making it a particularly uncomfortable place to be at during the winter but making it nice and cool during the hottest days of summer.
Sunday night means just about everyone has crawled back to Hogwarts. It's a nice night for stargazing though, with the light wind pushing all the clouds away. Lorraine has set up a small telescope and is consulting a star chart with the tip of her wand illuminated red so as not to ruin her night vision.
Claire takes a deep breathe of the cold night air when she steps out onto the ramparts. She exhales slowly. For a moment she's finally relaxed, but then she sees Lorraine at her telescope and she tenses up again. How dare someone else intrude on her planned site of brooding.
Hey now, this is Lorraine's site of brooding. Well documented fact. Of course, she's so busy brooding that she doesn't notice this interloper in her fortress of solitude. LOOK AT THE STARS!
Claire takes a moment to consider her options. She could always push the other girl over the edge, that would be satisfying, but probably frowned upon. And there's no relief for her agitation inside the castle. Well, the battlements are big enough for the two of them, under duress. With a low sigh calibrated to express the exact degree of her annoyance, Claire stalks past Lorraine.
Lorraine notices that sigh and lifts her head from the eyepiece of her telescope. "Something about stargazing offensive to you, mudblood?" asks Lorraine, almost conversationally.
Claire tastes boiling rage in the back of her throat and spins on the ball of her foot, using her forearm to slam the other girl up against the battlements. She's drawn her wand and is pointing it at the Slytherin's face. Claire's expression is smooth but her eyes are hard, the look of a dog that's about to bite if you don't back up right fecking now. "I," Claire growls, "am a witch."
Lucky thing she didn't knock over the telescope. Would have really ruined Lorraine's night. Not that… getting slammed up against a battlement is more fun. The breath wheezes out of her and for a moment, the redhead looks a bit scared, eyes crossing as she eyes the tip of the wand. "Of course you are," she drawls in a patronizing way, playing it cool.
Claire smiles when Lorraine goes cross eyed. "Would you like me to prove it?" Claire asks, sweetly, leaning closer. "Or are you willing to take my word for it?"
Lorraine considers Claire in silence with the calm composition of an artist looking for the first place to chisel the block. "Well they don't give wands to just anyone, so I'll take your word for it. Though I shan't be impressed that you can do spells. Even the house elves can manage a bit of that now, can't they?"
The muscle in Claire's jaw twitches, the jab got to her, but she is in a position to do something about it. "Petrificus Totalus," she says in an even voice, the motion of her wand concise and quick. With the other girl frozen, Claire steps back and brushes off dust from the front of her robes. She turns to go. "I don't want to hear that word out of your mouth again. If someone is here, they're a wizard. It doesn't matter one whit what their parents are." Claire walks to the stairs, in a considerably better mood than when she came up.