Briallen Bevin and the Clocktower Guard

Chapter 6: A Kiss and Click

The Healer they met in Memphis was a good-natured old woman with a friendly southern accent and a silly sense of humor. She spent a good five minutes laughing at Lucan and the fact he'd had a Butt-Clap Curse cast on him, saying, "I haven't seen one of these since I was a school-girl! Oh, Mungo-all-Mighty, you've made my day young fella!"

Lucan didn't find the situation quite as humorous and once she'd fixed him up, he grabbed his things and disappeared, scowling at them all as he left. Toby wasn't in a good mood either once the Healer fixed him, and she didn't find his ailments as funny as Lucan's. She mumbled about how the other boy had "done some right evil on this poor fella." She gave them each an apple before she left, and then the train attendant demanded they not leave their compartment for the remainder of their trip.

And so the rest of their ride to Bergamot was uneventful. They changed into their school robes, played simple, non-magical, card games, and ate more of Marisol's candy; Briallen forgot about her mysterious note, still in her jeans' pocket, which were now in her trunk, and Toby, for the moment, forgot about Lucan.

Luckily, the wild storm they had passed through in Kentucky and Tennessee didn't follow them to The Village, and when they finally arrived at their destination there wasn't a cloud in the twilight sky. While the land was dry, however, the air felt hot and damp. The moment Briallen stepped off the train, the humidity hit her like a bucket of water. She was annoyed when after only minutes outside her clothes clung and had dark spots of sweat all over.

"Ew, it is so muggy out!" Briallen overheard one girl tell another girl on the train station platform.

"It ain't muggy at all. What your feeling is the pressing heat of magic... some mighty, mighty magic been going on," muttered Mr Eldred, the Bergamot groundskeeper, who had suddenly appeared on the platform with a large oil lantern.

"Do you know what sort of magic would do this?" Briallen asked the old man.

"Not quite sure. It had to have been powerful, though, to press on all us like it is... bit strange, really. I only remember this happening once before, a long, long time ago... But, no matter! That magic ain't affectin' us!" With his last word, Mr Eldred began moving towards the docks, shouting all the while for the first years to follow him. All of the other students went to the curb of Caravan Road where there were a great many horseless carriages waiting to take all of the students in second year and above to Bergamot.

Marisol, Briallen and Toby hopped in a carriage with a Summerbee, Shane Stanton, who they knew from classes. Marisol had invited him to join them, obviously hoping to get to know the adorably shy boy better, but they were all quiet on the ride to the castle. Briallen felt as if she were suffocating due to the 'press of magic,' as Mr Eldred called it, and everyone else appeared to feel the same thing. It was like being in a Laundromat with all of the dryers, after simultaneously finishing their loads, open all at once - it was that hot, suffocating heat that made one gasp for cool, crisp autumn air. When they finally arrived at the castle and walked through the front doors, though, the press of magic dissipated and everybody could finally breathe normally.

"That was... the strangest thing I've ever felt," mumbled Marisol and she, Briallen, Toby, and Shane made their way to the dining hall with the mass of other students who had also just arrived at the school. Everybody was in a bad mood now and Briallen wondered if it was the train ride or the weather that had ruined everyone's day.

They entered the dining hall to see that there were already many students there, having arrived from nearer locations and off of other trains from other cities. She looked around for the Price sisters and when she saw them, she waved happily. They waved back. She then searched for Gavin Ellison, who wasn't sitting with Kara, hoping that the rumors about how he might not return to Bergamot were untrue. He wasn't there, so far as she could tell. With a frown, Briallen trudged to the Withers table and took a seat in her usual spot between Toby and Benjamin Beauvais.

"Ready for some real practice?" asked Benjamin once Briallen had sat down. It took her a moment to realize he was talking about flying, and about training her for Quodpot. Preoccupied with the strange weather, and what had happened on the train, she had almost forgotten she planned to try out for her house's Quodpot team that year.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. You know, I practiced in between your visits too. Though the essays I had to do this summer took up a lot of time of my spare time. I had five essays! It's so weird having summer homework."

"Just thank your lucky stars you're only a second year. The older you get, the more they assign, especially the summer between forth and fifth because of O.W.L.s. And I've heard that the homework load between sixth and seventh year has, literally, driven some students insane."

"Way to make her feel better, Beauvais," said Ava Hudson, a Wenlock prefect, from her seat directly behind Benjamin at the Wenlock table. The summer months had done nothing to remove any of the extra weight that Ava carried, though Briallen thought she somehow looked more womanly and more confident than the year before.

Benjamin winked and blew her a kiss. Ava smiled, tossed her hair and turned back to her friends. Briallen looked back and forth between Benjamin and Ava. She had the impression last year that he and Mindy Price were in a relationship and she couldn't help but wonder now if that was just because of his flirtatious personality. Benjamin wasn't conventionally attractive but he was friendly and funny and made friends easily, particularly with the girls of Bergamot. "You know, I think that's why so many girls have a crush on you. You shouldn't do that."

"What?" asked Benjamin innocently, but with a very large, and very knowing, smile.

"Half the girls in school want to marry you," explained Briallen, exaggerating only slightly. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, as a wave of exhaustion suddenly washed over her. The day had been stressful and uncomfortable, and while she joked around with her friends, she was ready to go to sleep.

"Do you want to marry me too?" teased Benjamin.

"No. I don't think I'll ever marry," said Briallen with a depressed sigh, not playing with his joke. She threw a quick look back at the Wenlock table to see Hayden Van Vlerah wave giddily to her. She waved back, and a goofy smile spread across his face.

"What about your boyfriend over there?"

"He's not my boyfriend... we just... enjoy each other's company is all."

"Really? Because he's been staring moon-eyed at you ever since you walked through the hall doors," said Benjamin as he shook his head and laughed. "That's about the age I started noticing girls too... about half-way through third year. I had this sudden thing for Susie Cooper. She was in seventh year at the time, in our house, and Head Girl. She was also Captain of our Quidditch team. Merlin, was she perfect. I wonder what she's doing now... " Benjamin immediately forgot all about Briallen and gazed away, day-dreaming of his first crush, Susie Cooper.

Conall Lonigan, sitting opposite of Benjamin, grumbled something and then spoke to Briallen. "That's the worst distraction there is. You can't be making googly-eyes at someone in the stands when you've got a Quod in your hands."

Briallen, with a brow raised, nodded, though she had a feeling his comment was meant for Benjamin and not herself. He had been glaring at Benjamin ever since his flirtatious exchange with Ava.

"Did I really just hear you're dating Hayden Van Vlerah?" asked Chante Nguyen, sounding uncharacteristically excited, as she sat down across from Briallen and next to Conall. Conall sneered at the airy girl and turned away from her, though she took no notice of his snub.

Briallen shrugged nonchalantly but secretly she was upset that Chante, the princess of gossip (second only to Tinna, who she unofficially apprenticed), had overheard her conversation with Benjamin. She wasn't sure what her relationship with Hayden was just yet, was confused about what she wanted it to be, and she didn't want anybody but Marisol knowing about it until she was sure that she and Hayden were or were not dating. And she was far too tired just then to deal with Chante's intrusive questions. She decided to try and play it off as a joke. "Maybe."

Chante looked Briallen straight in the eye and then burst into giggles, which was unlike her. She apparently hadn't gotten the joke. She stood and went straight to Kimmy Moseley, who was waiting for her a few plates down. From Kimmy, the news managed to spread all the way to Hayden. Briallen watched it all happen as if it were in slow motion, as one kid whispered to another and another, and it hopped tables to even more ears. When the news finally did reach Hayden, she saw the surprise on his face, which quickly morphed into relief, and then to pure giddiness. He wore the same stupid grin he had that day on the Ferris-wheel after he had first kissed her and Briallen had not punched him in the nose in return.

Briallen also found herself relieved that the question was settled, which surprised her. Hayden was obviously happy to call himself her boyfriend and she, surprisingly, realized she didn't mind calling herself his girlfriend. She had been preoccupied with him since their date at the faire, and it felt good to her to know that they were, quite simply, now dating. She just hoped her mother didn't somehow find out or, even worse, her father, who would surely blow a fuse when he heard his little girl was not only dating a boy, but a boy who was a wizard.

"Welcome, students, to another year at Bergamot Academy for the Magically Gifted!" announced a familiar voice. Briallen looked up to see her grandfather, the Dean of Bergamot, standing in front of the teachers' table at a podium. "We all hope that this year is filled with wonder and adventure, but lacks the danger of previous year." Cal Bevin grew solemn and spoke more seriously as he continued, "What happened last year was, hopefully, a solitary tragedy, and we will strive to make Bergamot an even safer place, for it served as a lesson to us all. We are all still young - yes, even I - and so we must keep in mind that our years could be taken from us quite suddenly and we must live each day to its fullest. Forget all quarrels and prejudice, and be thankful for what we do have... but I am getting ahead of myself. Let the sorting begin!"

Mr Eldred led the new group of first years into the dining hall and he repeated what Miss Winsome had said the year before. With a silent spell, the sorting staff appeared and stood on its own between the students' tables and the teachers' table. He then began to call names. Briallen watched, semi-interested and semi-fascinated, but found that her mind kept roaming back to what her grandfather had said.

"DUEZ, ROXANA! ... WENLOCK!"

Our years could be take from us suddenly... but how are we supposed to live each day to the fullest when we have homework and exams and grades to worry about? Wouldn't living each day to its fullest mean doing whatever you wanted? thought Briallen, her brow furrowed. She had lived like that the year before and it had only brought her danger and trouble. What she had learned is that the best thing to do was to do what everybody else did and follow all the rules. She was determined this year to show her grandfather and her professors that she was a good student and a good kid.

"JEMISON, SCOTT! ... ALMERICK!"

Maybe living each day to its fullest means doing what's best for us, like our homework and studying, and spending time with friends, and having hobbies? I'll have to talk to grandpa later...

"VANCIL, DOSH! ... WITHERS!"

Briallen was surprised when food suddenly appeared on her plate. She didn't remember the sorting ending or her grandfather's closing speech.

"Earth to Briallen," said a girl's voice. A chicken leg was swung back and forth in front of her eyes. Briallen waved it away and looked up to see Noelle Dugan sitting across from her now, and eating the chicken leg she had been swinging in front of Briallen. "I was saying what a weird name that boy has." Noelle chuckled. "Dosh."

"You know, waving stuff like that in front of people's eye can hypnotize them," said Briallen.

"I've never heard of somebody being hypnotized by a chicken leg... clocks and quills and gemstones, sure, but never chicken legs. I think the smell would be distracting, don't you?" Noelle took another bite of the chicken leg as Briallen burst out laughing, along with all those sitting around Noelle who had heard what she had said. "So, Briallen, Chante is telling everybody that you're dating Hayden. I think he's perfect for you: you're both very strange." She licked her fingers.

"I suppose," mused Briallen, "but we're not really dating yet. Not officially or anything. I mean, we hang out and stuff, and we wrote to each other over the summer, and sometimes we hold hands, and he kissed me once, but... actually, yeah, I guess we are really dating, aren't we?"

Noelle raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like it to me... That is the sort of stuff people do when they date, right?" Briallen wasn't sure, so she shrugged.

"And a bit more," said Benjamin suddenly. "Some of it more fun and some of it less fun." Then he looked at Briallen as if he were about to scold her. "But you're too young for most of that stuff. Boys are bad news - remember that."

Toby, silent until now, scrunched his nose in disgust. "I have better things to do than date girls."

"Like hang out with them everyday?" asked Briallen, looking pointedly at Toby.

"You know what I mean."

Briallen laughed and nodded. "Yeah... That's how I feel most of the time, but with Hayden... it's different. He blushes every time I smile at him, and that makes me feel good." The more she spoke of him, the easier she found it to be.

"It's because you're in control," muttered Conall. He was glaring at the mashed potatoes on his plate, and even though he added something to their conversation, he was clearly thinking about somebody else. Briallen wondered if he had any distractions of his own, though she couldn't think of anyone who would want to distract him in that way. He was intimidating normally and she couldn't imagine how intense he would be as a boyfriend.

"I suppose," replied Briallen, absent-minded. She was already over talking about boys and ready to move on. "Hey, Conall, did Benjamin tell you that I'm trying out for the team this year? He's been training me all summer and I've been practicing on my own too."

Conall grunted and nodded, before shoving an entire dinner roll in his mouth. Aolani Kanaka, who sat next from him, stared in disgust as he began speaking with most of the dinner roll still in his mouth. "If you plan on staying as small as you are, you'd better be fast then."

Briallen looked down at herself, and frowned. She still hadn't had a real growth spurt yet and was one of the shortest in her class now. "I'm still growing... Do you think I have a chance, though, Conall? Since we're friends and everything?"

"We'll see how you are at try-outs next Friday. And I don't play favorites."

Benjamin leaned towards Briallen and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll help you train some more these next two weeks."

"Thanks," said Briallen, sighing in relief. She knew she wasn't nearly as good as any of the other students on the team, but she felt she had a decent chance at making the team with Benjamin helping her. She remembered what her grandfather had said last year about the discipline required to play a sport, which was the only reason her parents approved of her trying out for the team in the first place (especially since they still didn't really know what the sport involved, as Briallen had carefully skirted around explaining the fact the ball explodes if held too long).

Briallen spent the rest of dinner chatting with Benjamin about Quodpot. She wanted him to take her to a game during winter break so that she could see the professionals play, but Benjamin explained that had to work for his dad at Whizzhard Books, all the way in Habory Lane, over the holiday and he wasn't sure he'd have the time to go to a game. That made Briallen angry, and being angry made her even sleepier.

Soon, students began filtering out of the dining room, making their way to their dorm rooms for a good night's sleep after an dreary day. Briallen said goodnight to her friends, who had decided to stay a little longer, and left the dining hall. She made a quick trip to the bathroom under the grand stairs in the entrance hall to wash her hands, and as she was coming out, Hayden popped out in front of her, causing her to scream.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" said Hayden, worried that he had made her angry. Nervous, he kissed her quickly on her cheek and then stepped away.

She resisted the urge to wipe her cheek where he had kissed her as she mumbled, "It's okay, just... say something next time so I know you're there."

"I will," agreed Hayden, smiling. "Um... I was wondering if I could, maybe, walk you to your common room?"

This time, Briallen couldn't help herself from blushing and giggling just a little bit. She nodded and let Hayden hold her hand as they walked up the stairs to the portrait hall.

"You could've stayed with your friends, you know," said Briallen. She tucked her hair behind her ears, suddenly wishing she had checked it in the mirror before she left the bathroom.

"I know, but... boyfriends are supposed to walk their girlfriends to their door." He paused and gulped. "Um, we are..."

"Yeah, I suppose," said Briallen, answering his question before he even asked it.

"Oh, okay - good." He laughed lightly, embarrassed, as they stepped onto the fourth floor landing and stood in front of the portrait of Sir Lawrence of Woodcroft. "So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

Briallen stared at the floor and nodded shyly. Her cheeks hurt from smiling so much, but she couldn't stop. Hayden kissed her on her cheek again, said goodnight, and tripped as he went up the stairs on his way to his own dormitory. They both laughed nervously and waved good-bye a few more times before Hayden finally disappeared down a hallway.

Briallen turned to the portrait of Sir Lawrence, and only then did she realize she didn't know this semester's password. Irritated by her forgetfulness, Briallen turned around to return to the dining hall and ask Benjamin the new password. She had just stepped onto a staircase that was changing its position when she heard a strange clicking noise below her. She looked over the stair's railing. On the bottom floor of the portrait hall was a sort of communal common room, with doors on opposite walls that led to the north and south courtyards. Normally, those doors were locked during dinner, but Briallen could see one of the north courtyard doors was swung wide open.

Curious, and not sensing any danger, Briallen went down the stairs, passed the armor-lined hallway, went down another flight of stairs, and walked innocently to the open door. It was dark outside and the moon was dim, hardly providing enough light for her to see the north courtyard clearly. She had only been in the north courtyard a few times, for class, or passing through it to the Administration offices. Normally, she preferred playing in the south courtyard, which was larger and didn't have any of the creepy statues that randomly populated the north courtyard.

The wind rustled, but the clicking noise had disappeared. She took a step outside.

"Detention!" shouted a deep, booming voice from above her. Briallen pivoted towards the sound and rolled her eyes when she saw Professor Stalkes pointing at her from the staircase. Just then she heard another strange sound, almost like giggling, come from the courtyard behind her. She didn't have time to investigate it just then, however, as Professor Stalkes marched down the steps, pulled her inside, and shut the door. "A detention on your first day back; I think your grandfather would like to hear of this."

"I didn't do anything!" argued Briallen. "The door was open when I got here - I was just investigating-"

"Investigating? Making more trouble is more like it. You can explain yourself to the Dean," snapped Professor Stalkes as he led Briallen up the stairs by her arm.

He marched her into the dining hall and everybody turned to watch as they approached Dean Bevin. Cal looked up from his dinner and smiled at Professor Stalkes and Briallen, who was still in the grumpy teacher's grasp. "Yes?"

"Your granddaughter broke open one of the courtyard doors. I caught her just as she was sneaking outside," sneered Professor Stalkes, looking at Briallen the whole time.

"He's lying! I didn't touch the door! It was open already and there was somebody else out there - I heard them laugh when Professor Stalkes yelled at me!"

"What were you doing by the courtyard doors in the first place, Briallen?" asked Cal. He didn't sound angry or disappointed, just curious. She knew by the tone of his voice that she wasn't in trouble and she calmed down greatly.

"I was going to bed but forgot to ask Benjamin for the password. So I was heading back and I heard this - this clicking noise down in the first floor common room so I went to see what it was. Like I said before, the door was open when I got there. I just thought some animal or something got into the school."

Cal nodded and stared at the goblet he held in his hands. "Let her go, Consus. You heard her - she was following the clicking."

Professor Stalkes frowned and let Briallen go. He clearly knew what Cal meant.