On A Bad Day

Vivianna was sitting on the open stone window of the clock tower. If she had been the type to do such things, she'd probably be roaring drunk on Firewiskey by now, or have consumed much too much Spice. The teenager wasn't the type though, she might go and do something incredibly stupid on occasion, but was smarter than to do so regularly. If she let herself, the witch knew it would be far too easy to get addicted to that lifestyle.

It was just one of those days. Those days where the world seems out to get you. If anything, it had been yesterday she'd been dreading. The day before had been her mother's birthday. Vivianna had written a letter, knowing that no reply would be received, and sent if off with one of the school owls. The teenager had been fully prepared to spend the day brooding, but yesterday had turned out to be an alright day after all.

Today however, had not been. Due to this, the witch had been forced to face all the negative emotions she'd ignored the day before. In short, Vivianna was in a bad mood. The very same bad mood that was practically legendary, and as feared as a chimera in Slytherin house. So she'd been left alone all day, left to wonder if her mother would ever see another birthday. The girl let out a sigh as she adjusted her perch on the cold stone, she loved heights, they always calmed her.

Somewhere private. That’s what Kate needed. She was tired from Care of Magical Creatures, too tired to dance, and so all she wanted to do was to find somewhere with a good view; to relax and unwind.

Her legs protested profusely at climbing all the stairs to the Clock Tower, but it was peaceful up there, quiet. Somewhere nice to just collect her thoughts.

Kate walked into the Tower with relief, (it was always further up then she thought, especially when she was tired), but soon stopped in her tracks. Someone was already here, sitting on the open stone, facing away. Although she had never talked to the girl personally, let alone remember her name, she recognised the auburn hair and Slytherin robes from tales told in her dorm. The girl used to be nice, but apparently something had snapped, and nobody talked to her much anymore.

Unwilling to start a confrontation, Kate slowly turned away, thankful the other girl had not noticed her. But her attention to silence distracted the rest of her body, and somehow she managed to step on the back of her robes and trip backward, landing hard.

“Oh God.” She moaned in pain. She was never this clumsy.

Then she remembered the girl. She’d have to be deaf not to have heard that. One can only hope.

When Vivianna heard footsteps up the echoic stone clock tower stairs, she was temped to let out a groan. Mentally chanting over and over for them to just go away, Vivianna's lips turned up in a grin when the footsteps stopped at the top of the stairs. The Slytherin didn't move, pretending that she had no idea that she was no-longer alone. It was then that she heard a rather large amount of ruckus.

It was worse than she'd thought, someone had recruited one of the young Slytherins to check up on her to see if she was sociable yet. The witch knew it was a young Slytherin because this was a trick they always used, make a ton of noise by mistake so that you have to look.

Turning her head around slowly, the teenager let out a noise of exasperation as she caught a glimpse of a yellow striped tie. This was much worse than she'd thought, all the Slytherin's were worried for their own skins and had recruited a Hufflepuff. Really, her housemates should know by how that she would never do anything to the young ones, she had a soft spot for kids.

"If you're seriously hurt I advise the hospital wing, if not, just tell them to stay away from Strike," the witch snapped at the Hufflepuff on the ground. Strike was her cat, who had a habit of biting humans who got too close, with the exception of his owner. The creature seemed to get even more irritable when his owner wasn't in a good mood. Her House would understand the meaning of the statement.

Great, now she'd done it. How was it possible that she could manage to do two perfect pirouette's in a row, and bourree flawlessly, but the one time she needed her feet to work normally, they betrayed her.

It had been a very stressful, tiring day and this wasn’t making it any better. She’d stayed up most of last night finishing off homework for Charms, had then proceeded to fall asleep and be five minutes late for Potions, which was never good, especially since she did not do well in the subject. She’d then almost forgotten the Charms homework to take to class, and by the time it got to Care of Magical Creature’s , she was much too tired to concentrate. So right now, she really didn’t want to have to deal with some rude Slytherin’s attitude or a confrontation on top of that.

Kate did a quick assessment for injuries, satisfied that there were none, par a bruised coccyx, and hauled herself off the floor, brushing the dust from her robes. She had just washed them too.

Then Kate remembered the girl was waiting, rather impatiently, for an answer.

"Look, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you or anything, I just wanted to go somewhere quiet. I'm sure I can find somewhere else to go. Sorry, again."

Vivianna regarded the girl, examining her tired posture and her expressions as she spoke. Well this was interesting, the girl hadn't come to check on her, just stumbled across her on accident. Well that was alright, as long as the other student didn't turn out to be too annoying, Vivianna supposed she could stay.

"No need, feel free to stay, I just thought you were... someone else," the Slytherin said slowly. Vivianna knew who this girl was, it wasn't hard when she kept tabs on so many people to pick up a few extras. Besides, this girl was in her year, it would be stupid not to at least know her face.

Kate, the teenager was almost certain the newcomers name was Kate. A Hufflepuff, fairly quiet from what Vivianna knew. Not the type to cause a riot, perhaps she could even hold half way decent conversation as well. If the Slytherin was lucky.

Noticing that the Hufflepuff hadn't moved, the redhead raised an eyebrow, "well, come on then."

Kate blushed deeply; nervously wringing her hands in front of her. She must have looked like an idiot; just standing there, either looking like she was frozen from fright or just waiting like something was going to happen. She needed to work on her social skills when meeting new people.

The girl had seemed a bit annoyed, but maybe she was simply in a funny mood, and just wanted to be alone. Kate herself had come up to the Tower to collect her thoughts, right? Kate felt bad now, for judging this girl, when she didn’t even know her, and so decided to stay and try to make a conversation.

“I really didn’t mean to interrupt you. I just wanted somewhere quiet, and I like the view up here.” A light clicked in Kate’s mind, “Vivianna, right? We have Potions together, I think?”

When Kate said something about the view and the quiet here, Vivianna found herself nodding. The Slytherin had a thing for heights. She loved them, adored them. The teenager had climbed every stable tree in the safe part of the grounds, and some that weren't. She spent as much time in towers as possible, as sometimes wondered what it would be like to live in one like she knew the Gryffindors did.

The witch knew from a strategic standpoint, that the dungeons was the best place for her house. Isolated, somewhere other houses rarely ventured, with the narrow, dark, twisting corridors that was practically a maze. In fact, ever part of the dungeons but the potions classroom right near the main staircase was considered part of "snake territory" just as much as another house's common room was. It didn't keep Vivianna from wishing though.

"Yes, Vivianna Varnes, and you're Kate," the teenager replied with a small nod. Eyeing the Hufflepuff up for a moment, she skimmed through her potions class and their ability levels. As somewhat of a potions genius herself, she had little to do in the class but watch others. "You're going to have to improve to decently pass the potions OWL. We only have a few months," Vivianna said bluntly.