heaven's net is wide

[Theodore Tonks]

It was one of the perks of Head Boy, albeit a small, somewhat double-sworded one. A lack of sleep patrolling the halls of the castle every other evening of the week in exchange for...well, that small freedom that came with it. And while Ted wasn't one to manipulate things for his own good - never him, he of the Grey Lady's ilk and the just morals of the Fat Friar's family - and certainly never one to turn away from the opportunity to socialise in favour of one's own lonely company, he couldn't help but enjoy the rare occasion to be on one's own that gaining the Clock Tower as final patrol point for the night incurred.

Indeed, the Clock Tower. A beacon of Hogwart's in it's own right. It was quiet save the tick of the time wheels and the tock of the pendulum. Set apart without being remote, a delightful maze of this corridor and that ladder in which he'd delighted in learning the nooks and crannies of in his earlier years of Hogwarts, and yet still managed to get lost in on occasion. But then, perhaps that was simply Hogwarts in general for you - older than time, and yet always, always changing. You could spend years in the castle and likely still not know all of it's secrets. Secretive and quiet, and at this time, one would assume nobody was up there - and if they were, and it was innocent, Ted might be tempted to let them go out of the kindness of his soft old heart. Less innocent might be another matter, though. Very much so.

The Clock Tower was also high up. High and higher and dwarfed only by the Astronomy Tower and that tower which belonged to Gryffindor, perfect for a lad who was too dreadfully clumsy - in his opinion - to enjoy Quidditch without risking serious injury to himself and yet enjoyed the prospect of heights. Ted loved heights, he always had. So much so that really, heights had been the catalyst behind his childish displays of magic, even if he himself and his parents had had no idea at the time what was happening. Though their responses had been markedly different; he had been delighted like only a child could be, and they had been utterly mind-boggled.

It, or rather they, were memories rife with the nostalgic amusement that often seemed to come as one entered adulthood and revisited their childhood days of innocence. Thus, Ted chuckled, the sound strangely muted in the thick blanket of night, soft and yet no less in it's merriment even as he leant against the railings seperating one from thin air and the rest of the world, high above the swinging pendulum. He didn't mind stopping here a while; it was nearing the end of his patrol - Head Boy, Head Boy, wherefore art though? - and besides sleep, he had nothing of great importance to attend to. Homework done, study laid to rest for the night; he was a good Ravenclaw boy.

A good Ravenclaw boy studying his Astronomy, even, or that would certainly be the playful excuse he might use if someone nagged questioned his intentions in being up here. Astronomy. Star-gazing. Picking out the constellations - Vulpecula and Carina and Sirius and Cassiopeia and Andromeda, oh yes, Andromeda, not showy yet still so bright - lost in the endless heavenly bodies of the night sky. And murmur a little sadly how Love fled/And paced upon the mountains overhead/And his his face amidst a crowd of stars.

OOC: Sorry for whichever poor sot picks this up, if they do, for the total lack of proper opening. And for Ted being...well, apparently poetic. xD