Post by Tommy Bryce on Oct 26, 2008 9:26:31 GMT -5
With all his homework finally done, Tommy felt exhausted. His hand hurt, his eyes were aching, and it wasn’t even dark yet so he couldn’t go look at the stars. There were plenty of books in the library on astronomy that he could read, but to be honest, he really didn’t want to read anymore. He already had a nasty paper cut on his thumb from turning one page a bit too quickly, and he thought his brain might just drop out or die on him if he insisted on looking at any more long words. And astronomy did tend to have some fairly hefty vocabulary. When he was younger his favourite word had been ‘perihelion’, closely followed by ‘spectrophotometry’. Both just sounded so... alien. And it had taken him some time to work out how exactly you said them aloud. It was much easier just reading the letters in your head, but not as much fun as stumbling over the words as he said them aloud for the first few times, eventually improving to the point where he could say them over and over again, like a tongue twister. That had certainly impressed his younger brothers.
With nothing else much to do, Tommy found himself wandering the castle, exploring once more. He had done lots more of this when he first joined Hogwarts, but had focussed on the towers, and finding where the best place would be for star-gazing; not to mention that his common room was high up. Unsurprisingly, that place had turned out to be the astronomy tower. On this occasion, he found himself going down steps instead of up, finally ending up at the stone stairway that led to the dungeons; the below ground level of the castle. The only times he had been down here were for Potions lessons with Professor Sparrow, but other than that it was a unknown area. The idea of exploring a strange place sent adrenalin through his body and a tiny grin appeared on his face – just the corners of his mouth twitching upwards in reality, but inside he was beaming. This was gonna be fun. Quite a few people might not expect Tommy to be the adventurous type, considering how cautious he was otherwise, but if something caught his attention or he found interest in something, he would not just let it go.
Venturing down the steps, his eyes alert and watchful, he peered around for a moment, but saw nothing but the potions classroom and Professor Sparrow’s office. Going further, he came to his first junction. After a moment of deliberation, he turned right. Then left. Then left again. Bad move – it was a dead end. Back, then right this time. It was a complete maze to Tommy, even though many of the older students, especially Slytherins, knew the place like the back of their hands. He passed a seemingly out-of-place picture of a bowl of fruit, but then stopped when he was only a few metres away from it. He thought he’d heard a noise. Having learnt very early on not to have your back to something that might harm you, he quickly spun around.
With nothing else much to do, Tommy found himself wandering the castle, exploring once more. He had done lots more of this when he first joined Hogwarts, but had focussed on the towers, and finding where the best place would be for star-gazing; not to mention that his common room was high up. Unsurprisingly, that place had turned out to be the astronomy tower. On this occasion, he found himself going down steps instead of up, finally ending up at the stone stairway that led to the dungeons; the below ground level of the castle. The only times he had been down here were for Potions lessons with Professor Sparrow, but other than that it was a unknown area. The idea of exploring a strange place sent adrenalin through his body and a tiny grin appeared on his face – just the corners of his mouth twitching upwards in reality, but inside he was beaming. This was gonna be fun. Quite a few people might not expect Tommy to be the adventurous type, considering how cautious he was otherwise, but if something caught his attention or he found interest in something, he would not just let it go.
Venturing down the steps, his eyes alert and watchful, he peered around for a moment, but saw nothing but the potions classroom and Professor Sparrow’s office. Going further, he came to his first junction. After a moment of deliberation, he turned right. Then left. Then left again. Bad move – it was a dead end. Back, then right this time. It was a complete maze to Tommy, even though many of the older students, especially Slytherins, knew the place like the back of their hands. He passed a seemingly out-of-place picture of a bowl of fruit, but then stopped when he was only a few metres away from it. He thought he’d heard a noise. Having learnt very early on not to have your back to something that might harm you, he quickly spun around.