With a Sheen of Silver

Keith couldn't sleep.

It wasn't homework - he was never stressed about that. It wasn't Spice - he was making a tidy little profit, trade routes (such as they were) had normalized, and nobody seemed to suspect a thing. It certainly wasn't school drama. He couldn't give less of a shit about that.

So he wasn't sure what it was exactly, that lead him to the top of the astronomy tower at three in the morning. It was absolutely freezing outside, but Keith had had the foresight to bring a heavy quilt from his bed to insulate him from the cold. He must look idiotic, but he wasn't worried about anyone seeing him. After all, he had the key to the castle in the palm of his hands.

Speaking of the key to the castle, he stole another look down at the wrinkled piece of parchment clenched in one hand. Most of the dots that represented students were tucked up in their dormitories - a few were out, studying late or going to the bathroom. None were anywhere near the tower though.

Wait, scratch that. Keith narrowed his eyes as he saw a single dot moving steadily towards his current location. Teddy Crewe, it read.

Keith half chuckled, half groaned. She was too close for him to sneak by her now. He had no idea why she was coming up to the astronomy tower this early in the morning, but if he couldn't prevent it, he might as well make a show.

"Mischief managed," he said, tapping the Map with his wand. The lines of ink vanished, fading into the paper as if they were never there in the first place. Satisfied, Keith stuffed the map into his pocket and took a seat with his back to the hatch leading up to the tower.

A few moments later, he heard the hatch creak open. "Sup, Teddy?" He asked, making sure to keep his back to her.

She had retreated to the common room. Her dormmates were absolutely dreadful- incessantly gossiping in hushed voices, glancing over at her and dropping their voices as obviously as possible. So, she had stumbled downstairs and chosen a sofa as her sweet escape.

When someone had entered, she had curled in closer to the cushions, content to ignore them. But a familiar swagger and stature caught her attention. She didn't think Keith Nicholas had seen her, as his back had been to her. But the second he exited the common room, she summoned her jacket, pulled it on over her pajamas, and scrambled after him.

She followed at a distance, waiting for him to move into a new corridor before crossing through the one he had just traveled through, always one corridor behind. It became clear that he was heading to the Astronomy Tower. She hung back, giving him a minutes head start, before walking towards the tower.

On the climb, she desperately searched her pockets, looking for an excuse. She found one, but it was a scary one. She had been searching through a dormmates' things, like any other night, when she had found a pack of cigarettes. If it came to that... she would do it. anything for information.

She pushed her way into the Astronomy Tower, hoping the surprise of stumbling upon him might be enough. Her head popped through the hatch and she began to smile triumphantly, for his back was to her. Then he greeted her.

The smile vanished. She did not move, but stared furiously at his back. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

Keith turned his neck to see her, a sudden gust of cold wind causing him to pull his quilt more tightly around himself. It was probably getting pretty dirty out here. He would need to get the house elves to clean it - this was his favorite quilt. At least it was keeping him relatively warm.

What are you doing here?

What was he doing here? He couldn't sleep, obviously, but why the astronomy tower, of all places? Keith had never much liked astronomy. On a rational level, he understood the idea that each of the stars were massive balls of nuclear fire, and therefore awesome, but he had never really shaken the thought of them as just tiny little pinpricks of silver sitting listlessly in the sky.

He could turn the question around at her, he supposed. Ask her what she was doing here. But it was too late (or too early, depending on how you looked at it) to be playing mind games. He was tired - the dull, aching tiredness that comes from wanting to go to sleep but finding yourself unable. He didn't have the energy, or the patience, for games tonight. Especially not with Teddy. Much to challenging.

He sighed, and looked back up at the sky. Enormous balls of nuclear flame. Tiny, listless pinpricks. "I dunno," he said after a moment of just staring. "Can't sleep, I guess."

That didn't really answer her question, but she would have to deal with it. He didn't really know the answer anyway. "C'mon," he said, patting the ground next to him. "Close the trapdoor. It's basically soundproof, but if you keep it open our voices go all the way down the hall."

She was sure she had caught him. Surely he had been up to no good. Surely she had caught him off guard. Surely he would have to own up to some nefarious act and finally she would have the information she so dearly, if without real reason, wanted from him. She could feel the triumph building. She might even toast herself with some stolen Butterbeer later.

He disappointed her. That was something that she had not expected. Even when he had refused to own up, when he had bested her, she had not been disappointed. But now, she was.

He couldn't sleep.

Teddy didn't move, but remained with her head and shoulders sticking into the room. She stared at him incredulously, waiting, hoping, BEGGING for more.

He continued on, asking her to sit next to him. Was he crazy? Teddy glanced around, trying to see if perhaps he was speaking to someone else. But why should she hang halfway in the room. That would be no help. She pulled herself in and closed the hatch, before scrambling over to him, sitting next to him and joining him at his gaze at the stars. She wasn't sure what to say, but felt as though it were her turn to say something... anything. She asked the only question she really had left, the only one left, anyway, that had any chance of being answered. "Why the astronomy tower?"

"Why the astronomy tower?"

Honestly, why the astronomy tower? Keith had been bouncing that around in his head since he had begun his way up the ladder, but had not yet found a satisfactory answer. Normally he would let it go - Keith wasn't big into questioning his own motives and impulses, preferring to float on them with as little resistance as possible, letting them carry him from situation from situation. But Teddy's question had stopped that from happening, crystallizing the question in his mind and forcing him to face it.

"It's...it's peaceful up here," he said finally. "Down there, there's always something going on. Always something. Even right now. Did you know that two fifth years are meeting in one of the abandoned classrooms? Probably to make out or something. And it's like...things constantly happening. I like it. But it can get too much sometimes. Maybe. Hell, I don't know."

At this point he was barely talking to Teddy anymore - it was like she was very far off, and his comments were focused more towards himself, or perhaps the stars up in the sky. He was tired. He would probably regret this in the morning.

It was true though. He enjoyed the peace and quiet, in a weird way. He liked the flurry of activity Hogwarts provided, and stepping outside it, even for a moment, was jarring. But at the same time, it was relaxing. He didn't feel any need to go. He didn't feel any need to keep up.

Keith was quiet tonight and, if she were to go out on a limb and make an educated guess, he was thoughtful as well. He seemed to be in a mood for reflecting and contemplating- a very serene pastime for the boy who was typically shadowed closely by explosions and detention slips. Here he was, sitting alone in the astronomy tower, beneath a canopy of stars, quietly meditating on Merlin knew what.

Teddy was very, very confused.

He spoke and she watched him speak, watching the profile of his face as he explained to her his reasons. His words didn't seem to be directed to her, but he was merely allowing her to eavesdrop on his own private musings. Teddy felt a tad uncomfortable. She wasn't used to people being honest around her.

They lapsed into silence and she looked up at the stars for a bit, before glancing back at him. "I wouldn't think the castle could ever be too noisy for you. I mean, you're usually behind most of the chaos. I thought that without it you'd lose the will to live or something." She smirked a tad weakly, but it was gone before it could even fully register. "Maybe after awhile, people just wear down."

"Yeah, I guess," he said after a moment of thought. He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back until he was lying with his back to the floor of the tower. The heavy quilt no longer covered him, and he shivered to himself as a burst of cold wind hit his now unprotected body, but it wasn't enough to prompt him to return to his original position.

He glanced over at Teddy. "Little young to wear down though, don't you think, I'm fourteen for God's sake, over here talking like I'm forty or something." He shrugged. "I'll be fine in the morning. Probably. It's just been a long night, you know?"

As he lay there, staring up into the sky, he realized something that had been bothering him since he had first noticed Teddy's name on the Map. "Wait though," he said, "enough about me. What are you doing up here? Are you stalking me?" He flashed her a grin. "Should I get a restraining order?"

"Age is merely a number," Teddy said, before cynically adding, "Said every pedophile ever known." She glanced among the stars, her lips pursed and her face closed off as she contemplated the conversation she was in. She understood him. When she wasn't, y'know, stalking everyone, she preferred solitude. It cleared her head and gave her some breathing room. She understood him perfectly.

"Yeah, it's probably all in your head," she said dryly.

Keith was lying down now, which meant she didn't have to meet his eyes during his latest accusation. She shrugged. "I don't know. Can't sleep I guess. Misery enjoys company, right? I figured it might apply to insomnia too." She glanced over at him. "You didn't notice me in the common room, then. Very unobservant, Mr Prefect."