Clubbed to Death

It had taken over 6 weeks to find The Clock Tower, by which time she worried she wouldn’t find anywhere she could be alone. The girls dorm seemed to have constant traffic, though she didn’t know if this was because Slytherin girls were constantly forgetting stuff and unpredictably turning up or if the girls were just extremely curious, on the point of being nosey, when she went up to the dorm.
She’d been asked, on more than one occasion, if she was okay. She’d smile and say yes, but within a short space of time, one girl would come to the room, always with an excuse of some kind, or at least that was how they felt.
She smiled politely and talked sweetly, sometimes even returning with them, but more than once she had to bite back on less than lady like comments about them just leaving her alone. Normally it wouldn’t have phased her to do so, but she knew better than to alienate those who would later be very much needed to her, especially since they would be her constant companions through her life at the school.
So she gave up on the dorms providing her space to let go, instead keeping with those in her rooms to throw them off her trail.
It wasn’t that it was a secret, but she found performing in front of people hard. She could do it, but it felt forced, like a performing monkey.
She knew that there were places in the castle she could go, including a music room and empty classrooms, but they were places that had so much traffic, she may as well have sat in the Great Hall and played.
It was a girl from her dorm who had shown them The Clock Tower, which had been a stroke of genius. The girl had older cousins who had passed through the school and had told her about it. It wasn’t a secret, but when you were new, everything was a surprise.
They’d gone up there to do the normal girl’s things, talk about boys, family. They scared off a group of second year Hufflepuffs, then settled themselves in to enjoy. Other people did come up, but you could hear them on the stairs, making it easy to break off about private things.
“Best of all” the girl told them, pulling a stick out which was to prop open a window, “you can sealed the door shut.”
She used the stick and pushed in into a small groove in the floor and against the door, which must have been done by a hundred students before. It allowed the door to open slightly, but only enough to peer inside, not enough to gain entrance.
So, barely a few days later, after eating an early breakfast, Persephone took her violin to the tower, sealed herself in and set herself to play.
It was easy for her to become lost after just a few bars. She hadn’t been able to use the music she normally did to accompany her, and fill in for the space that the missing instruments made, but it didn’t matter.
She didn’t know how much time had passed, or how long the person had been listening, but she was cut off by someone throwing their weight against the wooden stick, trying to get in. She didn’t know if they’d tried to gain entrance once and then had started their shoving, or if they had literally ran at the door, all she knew was that someone was pushing at it, despite the fact the door hadn’t opened with their previous attempts, trying to get in.
She stood, violin in one hand and bow in the other, looking at the door with some alarm.
“What are you trying to do, break the door down?!” she demanded, placing the two items away and crossing to the door. She removed the stick and immediately stepped back, which was good because the moment the door was open, the figure beyond almost fell into the tower.