#nchpclosed

It has been seven years and still Chester can managed to find unexplored nooks and crannies in the castle. It always did pleasantly surprise him, especially with how well hidden some of the passageways and rooms were. Though it was always much more rewarding when he managed to stumble over another student’s stash. It use to be a game when he was younger adding hidden treasures to his horde, but that eventually gave way to practicality and necessity.

Chester found himself on one of the deserted floors in the West Wing, looking for a new hiding place for a drop. It was only a matter of time before one of the others were found if he used it too much. His eyes caught on one of the torch holders jutting out on the wall oddly. He closed the distance and peered closer, reaching out a hand to grab the bottom. His lips twitched into a smirk. A disguised knob to a secret passageway.

Chester casted a specialis revelio and huffed, “Figures it needs a password.” His attention preoccupied by the spell that he wasn’t watching the corridor for other occupants.

@jasper-not-wednesday

It must have only been half four, Jasper hadn’t slept a wink, all nights his dreams were plagued with consuming nightmares, it had been getting worse by night and tonight he’d mostly given up. He slipped out of the dorm careful not to disturb the others and wandered the halls aimlessly hoping to bump into someone and yet, the halls were empty leaving him alone with those intrusive thoughts.

Odds are she was fine, and he was overreacting, he’d talked this out with people, he was being paranoid, he needed to give her space but Jasper just couldn’t shake the thought that maybe space was the last thing she needed in that big house with so many people living in it and yet no one really there at any time you needed them.

He ended up at the top of the astronomy tower, staring out at the first streaks of light start to make their way across the sky, he started naming all the bones in the human body to focus on something, but got distracted as the light caught and he saw the streaks of red across the sky, something settled and he knew he had to at least check on her, make sure she was okay.

Rowen always had trouble describing the circus to people. La Cirque de la Perte wasn’t like a normal circus, it was different. It opened when the sun began to set, typically around 5pm, depending on where they were, and remained open until the last person left, or until the sun began to rise, dependant on which came first. Though on the rare occasion it would be open during the day. 

Rather than a single big top, there were multiple tents, varying in size depending on what they were used for, and the were all black and white striped. Suspended between all the tents were garlands of bright white fairy lights that seemed to make the night sky so much more magical. There fairy lights draped down to wrap around the silver coloured clockwork trees that were dotted around the circus, the lights wrapping around the metal branches. Sometimes on these trees, patrons would find caramel apples, or hard boiled sweets, all wrapped and hanging from the trees as though they were the tree’s fruit. Occasionally around these trees patrons would find small makeshift performances. Perhaps the fire breather would do some small tricks, or the contortionist would bring a suitcase to fold herself into, or the illusionist would interact with the crowd making bird appear under hats, or the acrobats would maneuver up and down the silver trees.

Each tent holds a different attraction. Theres a strong man, illusionist, acrobats, a fortune teller, contortionist, fire breather, fire dancers, belly dancers, jugglers, tightrope walkers, aerial performers, and many more. The performers typically wear modern iterations of victorian clothing, and many performers incorporate steampunk styles into their outfits, always in the colours of: black, white, red, and/or silver. Additionally, many of the performers wear masks whilst they perform so that they are free to roam the circus between their performances without being noticed. The clothing and masks of the performers seem to give an almost timeless quality to the circus, as though it is a place separate from time.

In the centre of the circus there is a large clockwork tree, similar to the smaller ones dotted around the grounds, but much larger in scale. All the fairy lights from around the circus come to a centre at the large tree, practically making a canopy of lights. The tree is known as the L’Arbre à Souhaits due to people believing that if you lock a padlock onto the tree and wish upon it, the wish will come true. Further, if a person were to lock a padlock onto the tree one night and return the next, they would find that their padlock had turned the same colour as the black clockwork tree, with no sign of paint, patterned locks turning to an eerie greyscale. 

Chester fastened his coat and tugged it straight making sure it was secured. The rest of his dorm mates were either still in the common room studying or already falling asleep behind their closed bed curtains. He pushed open the window and hopped onto the windowsill. The winter wind was cold, but thankfully he dressed for the weather and it barely bothered  him. 

Chester checked that his wand was in place before grabbing the edges of the window. He let himself fall out, swinging the window close behind him. Chester didn’t let himself freefall for long and he tucked his legs in close to control the spin of his fall. He whipped out his whip and slowed down his momentum in time to kick off one of the smaller turrets to angle himself to a rolling landing on the covered parapet walks.

He huffed and brushed himself off. People rarely looked out the windows at this time at night so he wasn’t really worried about casting the human revealing spell. Besides all the prefects were so busy patrolling the hallways so mostly everyone was locked away in their common rooms.

 Chester took off at a careful but leisurely walk so he could get a better look at the corridor to the Gryffindor tower. Hopefully Connor and Longbottom don’t take forever and a day to sneak out. Otherwise he was going to leave the both of them and go to London by himself.