Disturbances [Anthony]

Returning to Hogwarts had been a nice thing to Morgana. She didn't like leaving Mordred behind, as he was the one person who was smart enough (smarter, even) to understand her. She loved her father. It was somewhat like an unknown feeling to her, as she barely even tolerated other people. The difference was so big. And that was the only reason she wasn't happy about being back at Hogwarts. Other than the noisy teens. But other than that, the huge castle was a place of learning and she had more than enough places to go to avoid people.

Now, she was walking towards the clocktower. The sound of the ticking clock was soothing and often helped her study. Not that she'd gotten much work to do yet. Classes hadn't even begun. But Morgana bought her books and read them before school started, and she had a couple dozen pages left in her potions book. She reached the stairs and swiftly climbed them.

The room in itself was damp but not uncomfortably so. It offered a solemn mood and Morgana walked over to the big clock and sat down on the edge next to it. She pulled out her book and started reading about Felix Felicis. It was one of the most difficult potions made, and Morgana had been practicing. She knew she'd get it during class. It wasn't going to be a problem.

Her mind left the realm of the living as she focused deeply on the pages of the book in front of her. So much so that she didn't at all take notice it when one of the room's doors opened.

When Anthony had first come to Hogwarts, and been sorted into Gryffindor, he had quickly decided that it was the absolute worst house out of all of them. It had the most people in it, and it had the loudest people in it. And they were always in the common room and running up and down the dormitory stairs and just absolutely everywhere. And now, two years later, Anthony found that his opinion of his housemates hadn't improved in the slightest. So, as usual, he found himself striding out of the common room without bothering to acknowledge anyone else in the vicinity.

Once he'd escaped, he just had to try and figure out where he could go that would contain the least amount of people. There was always the gamekeeper's hut, but that was a far walk. And Anthony wasn't in the mood to walk that far right now. The next best place was probably the clock tower - for whatever reason, people didn't seem to gather there. Ever. So, twirling his wand between his fingers, he took off at a brisk walk toward the tower. Since he was approaching from the Gryffindor common room, Anthony decided to use the third-floor entrance.

He pushed the door open silently and closed it behind him, his steps light. The clock pendulum swung monotonously back and forth before him. He had no real reason to be quiet, but moving silently came naturally to him. Better to not be seen or heard if you could help it, even if there was no danger. But he hadn't taken more than a step into the room when he noticed that he wasn't actually the only one there. He sighed slightly in irritation that - even here - he hadn't managed to find solitude. But as his eyes took in the dark-haired figure, he realized that he recognized it.

He'd never spoken to the Slytherin girl, but she was one of the few people in the castle whose presence didn't bother him. She kept to herself and never irritated him in the way that most people did. He didn't even know her name. It started with an M or something. Anthony realized that she'd probably come here seeking an escape from the rest of the population as well. Well, maybe they could share their solitude. Anthony would have just crossed the room and not said a word, but he didn't want to startle the girl. So he spoke up in a low voice. "Do you mind?" he questioned, but stepped across the room in the opposite direction of her and slid into a sitting position along the opposite wall without waiting for her permission. "Couldn't concentrate in the common room. I won't make much noise."

Again, without waiting for an answer, Anthony pulled out his wand. He needed to practice his spellwork, but had been planning to work on his nonverbal spells. So he wouldn't disturb the girl, so long as he chose quiet spells. There were plenty. He'd been told that nonverbal spells were a bit advanced for someone going into sixth year, but Anthony didn't do much else but study and practice magic. So he'd started trying it a little early. And he wasn't bad at some of the simpler things. Glancing around the room for target, he located a decent-sized stone laying on the floor a bit away from him. Aiming his wand at it, he concentrated carefully and summoned it to him in his mind. It zipped toward him easily. Holding it in his hand, he tapped his wand to the stone and thought the spell geminio, keeping his focus on the rock. The stone popped into two, though the copy was a bit rough and not completely the same as the original. He'd just have to keep working on it.

Morgana was ripped from her intense reading when someone spoke to her. She didn't jump; she was constantly on guard even when she wasn't. But she was near on close to cursing the life out of whoever it was, and not because of surprise; because it had been so calm, and it couldn't just stay that way. But she refrained from hexing him into the next century and looked at him. He didn't seem happy that she was there either. Sucked for him, really, she wouldn't budge.

But he did say he'd be silent. She found that a weird statement, but decided to give him a chance as he sat down opposite of her. She didn't bother relpying, he was obviously not asking for her permission. Morgana turned to reading but noticed over the rim of the book that he was practicing nonverbal spells as he pointed at a rock in the corner and it shot to his hand. Morgana looked at him. She had seen him before. A sixth year. Even though the summoning spell wasn't the most advanced spell, it spoke of his magical abilities to do it nonverbally. Not every sixth year would succeed at that.

And then he tried to duplicate it. She could see, even from this distance, that the two stones weren't very similar. And the duplicated one looked somewhat nastier and faker than the original one. But it was definitely something to manage a geminio spell without saying the words. Morgana closed her book. Apparently his mere presence annoyed her. So why not help him on?

She cleared her throat to get his attention. "If you balance your focus on the effect that you want and the incantation, you'll get it right," she said in a monotone, watching him. She continued to look at him to see if he'd try it. She was curious on whether he'd make it or not. She figured he might, he seemed to be magically adapt.