Briallen Bevin and the Clocktower Guard

Chapter 9: Time Management

*POP*

A pile of clothes appeared on top of the trunks of all the girls Briallen shared a dorm room with, as well as on her own trunk. It was the first Monday morning of October and they had been in a school for over a month but Briallen had only just put her dirty clothes in her hamper the other day, and so she had a pile of clean clothes larger than even that of Chante (who wore, at minimum, two different outfits per day). She had been so busy with Quodpot practices and preparing for her first big game, along with all of her school duties, that Briallen just kept forgetting to put her laundry in the hamper. That is, until Cass kindly suggested the previous night that she might start smelling funny if she didn't have her clothes washed.

Kimmy and Chante snickered at the pile of clothes and Briallen heard one of them whisper the word 'dirty,' but she paid them no mind.

Briallen had more important things to worry about - like when she was going to write the essay she had due in History of Magic tomorrow, and when was going to study for the quiz she had on Thursday in Spell-Working. She hadn't been practicing the Congealing Charm at all, and had a feeling she wouldn't do too well on her quiz. In her head, dates and times and to-do lists swirled in a jumbled mess, and it was giving her a headache.

But she pushed the anxiety and throbbing down, and down, as far as she could, to a place where she could ignore it for the time being, and continue doing what she'd done for the past month - deal with it. Already finished dressing for the day, after a dawn Quodpot practice, she dutifully began to put her clean clothes away in her dresser. She grabbed a pile t-shirts, and then a pile of shorts next. It was colder out now, meaning shorts weren't seen as often around the school anymore and so her pile of summer clothes only served to remind her how long it'd been since she'd last had her laundry done. She wrinkled her nose at her lack of hygiene and added 'do laundry once a week,' to the swirling lists in her brain.

"Briallen, this fell off your clothes," said Noelle as she scooped up a folded piece of parchment next to Briallen's trunk.

Briallen took the parchment from Noelle, thanked her, and looked it over. It had a note attached to it, written with poor spelling, explaining that the parchment had been found in the pocket of one of her shorts. She was confused for a moment but then it struck her - it was the mysterious note she'd received on the train ride to Bergamot! She had stuffed it in her shorts and forgotten all about it.

She hastily ripped it open, while the her roommates watched, curious. The note was written in the same hand-writing as the one she'd gotten before she left home back in August, and it read:

I had this note delivered by a most trust-worthy friend,

someone I'm sure you trust as well - with your life, even.

I cannot say much, for I do not know much. I know only

what my friend, a Seer, tells me. She speaks of a great

storm ahead, and of a great darkness rising, not only in

my own nation, but yours as well. I regret having to involve

a child, but she names you directly. To help you in the

task mentioned in my previous letter, I am sending you a

powerful tool, one I hope will help you. Use it wisely.

Briallen's brow furrowed in confusion. This letter was obviously from the same person as the last, and it was just as vague. And while Briallen could excuse the first letter as a mistake, as something delivered to her by accident, this second letter had found her on a moving train. She shook her head.

There's no way this was meant for me. It sounds so serious - they can't possibly be asking for my help with this - this rising darkness! I'm only thirteen!

Again, she shook her head.

She crumpled the letter into a tight ball and threw it in her book bag before heaving the bag over her shoulder. She had more important things to worry about than weird letters from mad old wizards. Putting it out of her mind, and ignoring the strange looks her roommates were giving her, she headed down to the common room to start her day.

She spent the next two weeks doing as she'd always done. She went to Quodpot practice. She went to class. She helped Professor Conleth as a student aide. She visited her grandfather for lunch twice a week. She did her homework and studied (most of the time, at least).

Overall, Briallen surprised everybody and remained out of trouble. It was now mid-October, and her thirteenth birthday had come and gone without a party - everybody was much too busy this year. She wasn't the only one involved in extra-curricular activities. She was thankful, in a way, because she was exhausted. Ever day was tedious, and yet busy, and she hardly ever saw her friends anymore, outside of meals, as the little free-time she had was now taken by her incredibly needy boyfriend, Hayden.

Late one evening Briallen sat quietly at a miniature version of a teacher's desk, directly next to a full-sized teacher's desk, as she thought about how much she truly missed spending time Marisol and Toby. She and Toby were supposed to have asked Rudy and Ricky about their game and if they could join but Briallen, of course, hadn't the time and so Toby dropped the idea. She felt bad but she had obligations. Now, Toby spent most of his time with Dax and Abe; and Marisol was spending her time with Ashley, Anthony, and, of course, Shane (whom she hadn't actually asked out yet).

Briallen felt abandoned.

"Once you've finished grading those quizzes, Briallen, I'm going to need you to clean up all this ash on the floor and then lock the door behind you, okay?" explained Professor Conleth as she gathered her things from her desk and prepared to leave.

"No problem, Professor Conleth," answered Briallen mechanically, as she went over the quizzes the first years had taken that afternoon.

"Thank you, Briallen." Professor Conleth squeezed Briallen's shoulder as she left the room and then Briallen was all alone in the large classroom.

When she had first started her job as a student aide to Professor Conleth, Briallen had been afraid to be in the large, empty classroom by herself. Now however, it was her most treasured activity - she had no one asking her questions, ordering her to play a Double Eagle Pass until she got it right, or nagging her to spend time with them. It was quiet and it was peaceful and it was the only true relaxation she got these days.

"Briallen?" whispered somebody from behind her. Briallen jumped and had her wand on the person behind her in less than a second.

Hayden was practically on his back on the desk behind him with Briallen's wand at his throat. "Wow! Obviously all that Quodpot practice has improved your reflexes! Merlin, that was fast!"

Briallen lowered her wand and pulled Hayden to his feet, her hands lingering slightly longer than was necessary on his hands. "I've been so jumpy lately for some reason."

"Maybe it's because you've only had about three hours of sleep a night for the past month? Kids need at least ten hours of sleep a night to function normally - it's a fact. Maybe we should start doing those relaxation techniques again; I swear those were helping you."

"No," said Briallen, shaking her head as she sat back down to finish grading the quizzes. "I don't have any time for that. I have Quodpot practices and games and when I don't have those, I'm doing my homework or helping Professor Conleth... I just don't have time to relax."

Hayden looked around the room. "What else do you have to do tonight?"

"Sweep the floor."

"I can take care of that for you." Hayden removed his wand and pointed it at the dirty, ash covered floor. "Scourgify!" he said loudly. The ash vanished and the floor was as spotless as it had been that morning before classes began.

"I still need to learn that one."

Hayden pulled a chair up next to Briallen and ran his hand down her back. "You need a break, Briallen. Ask Professor Conleth - I'm sure she'd give you a week off or something. Then we could do some meditating, practice breathing techniques, clear your mind... " Hayden took several deep breathes in and out and closed his eyes. "It helps, really."

Briallen laughed quietly as she graded the last quiz and then put the papers in a neat pile. "I'm done now, you hippy. Want to take me to the kitchen?"

"That's the only place we ever go these days," he answered with a frown. "Hey, listen, there's this room on the sixth floor that I heard some of the guys talking about... "

"I'm hungry, Hayden." That and she knew what he wanted - to make-out, and that was something that still made her nervous. She was perfectly happy just holding his hand and allowing him the occasional kiss on the cheek.

"Maybe if you ate more during the day." Briallen was about to say something in response but Hayden cut her off. "You don't have time for big meals - I know, I know. You need to find the time, Briallen. This isn't healthy, the way you're going on. You'll wear yourself away to nothing if you don't change how you're doing things, right now."

Briallen stood up and placed the quizzes in a drawer in Professor Conleth's desk and then locked it with the keys she had been given. "Let's go to the kitchen."

Hayden sighed and gave in. The two of them made their way silently to the kitchen downstairs.

O * O * O * O

"BEVIN, AR CHLE! TORTOISE!" shouted Conall Lonigan from his broom as he sped alongside Briallen. While the opposing team heard nonsense coming from the intense Withers Quodpot Captain, Briallen heard a direction and a play. She pulled her broom left and made a sharp turn. Noah Pierce tossed her the Quod and then she tossed it to Wendy Polans, above her, who then made a spectacular dive and managed to throw the Quod into the cauldron right as the whistle blew, signaling the end of the forth, and final, period of the game.

"And that does it folks! After a super pass from Lonigan to Pierce to Bevin and then finally to Polans, Withers manages to just beat Almerick, 23 to 22! What an incredible game this has been!" cried Lindsay Price, the official commentator for the Quodpot games that year.

Briallen could hear the crowd shouting, some in joy and others in anger, but all that really registered was the pain she felt in her head at that moment. After a sloppy landing next to the girls' locker room, Briallen went in and sat down on a bench, dropping her head into her hands. She'd gotten two feet and an elbow to the head during the hectic and chaotic game, but that had only magnified the pain that was already there. She felt dizzy and almost wished that she'd been on the bench for the game. Almost. She only wished she were able to point and laugh in Rex Hampton's face, except that he got to play as well since Kishori had come down with Dragon Pox.

"Hey, you were fantastic out there!" said Mele Kanaka, still pumped from the game. She began to remove her uniform padding and had gone over several of her favorite plays from the game before she finally realized that Briallen wasn't listening to her. "Briallen! Hey - BEVIN!"

Briallen's head shot up and her eyes were wide. "Oh, for the love of Circe, Mele. Never do that again. I thought Conall was in here..."

"If he were that mad, I'd hex his eyes shut for all eternity! This is the girls' locker room after all. Are you feeling alright, though? You look like you're about to ralph."

"I feel like it," moaned Briallen as she slowly pulled off all of the padding she was wearing until she was in nothing but her Quodpot uniform shirt and pants. "I think I'm just going to shower in the dorms so that I can take as long as I want."

Mele nodded, a look of concern in her round eyes, as Briallen grabbed her broom and clothes and walked out of the locker room. She had started down the path that led to the front doors of the school when she heard someone calling her name yet again. "Briallen! Briallen!"

She turned around, expecting to see Benjamin and was surprised when she saw the shadowed, angular face of Conall Lonigan. He very rarely called her by her first name, and it made her nervous. "Briallen, I just wanted to say: job well done. Job well done."

He held out his hand for her to shake. She took his hand as he expected and was shocked when he broke into a grin. Briallen had seen Conall grin only once before. He looked strangely handsome, in a creepy and maniacal sort of way. "That pass to Polans was perfect, and this was your first game where you weren't benched before halftime for having the Quod explode in your possession! Those extra practices with Beauvais have been paying off apparently."

Briallen nodded and gave him a weak smile. "I've been working hard, you know, to live up to your expectations. I know you wouldn't have let me on the team if it weren't for Benjamin... but I think I may have to stop those extra practices now because it's really cutting into my homework time."

"And Pierce."

"And... What?"

"Noah Pierce. He was your biggest supporter. Said you're fast on your feet and good at making quick decisions. Seemed to think you just had to be pushed a bit more and then you'd really shine on the field. He wasn't wrong, that's for sure." Conall said all of this in one breath. Then he grinned again, baring all his teeth in a way that made Briallen think of her scar. She wrapped an arm protectively around her waist as he continued, "Who knows - maybe you'll make Captain in a couple of years! Once Noah has left, of course, since he's the natural first choice. And you'll have to talk to Benjamin about your practices - if they're really affecting your grades, we need to work around them. Anything less than a B and you're off the team - that's Dean's rule."

"Okay. I'm going to go clean up for dinner now." Conall nodded and then made his way straight to Rex Hampton, who was only a couple of feet away from Briallen, complaining to his girlfriend, Grace Daniels. She smiled as she listened to Conall chew out Rex for attempting to skin an Almerick, which had given Withers their only foul in the entire game. That was what had made the final score so close and Conall was thoroughly angry about it.

Briallen walked slowly, shuffling her feet all the way to her room, where she showered and changed into clean clothes. The game that day had been their second in a week and they had another one, against Wenlock, the following week. She didn't think she would make it that long. Looking at herself in the mirror, she examined her reflection: bags under the eyes, a bruised nose, a cut lip... some new injury appeared everyday. The school nurse, Mrs Krause, even had to give Briallen her own jar of OraJealer, otherwise she'd be in the infirmary every night. Briallen opened her bathroom cabinet and removed the jar of orange jelly-like substance and began to put it on all her cuts.

After showering and dressing and tending to her wounds, she looked at her watch and frowned when she saw there was still an hour before dinner began. Briallen hadn't had an entire free hour to herself in ages and wasn't sure what to do with such freedom anymore.

Briallen entwined her fingers behind her back and looked around the empty bedroom, whistling to herself. Kimmy Moseley's new pet, a tiny Mottled owl named Sugarfingers, sat on its perch nearby, staring at Briallen as if she were just daring her to mess with any of Kimmy's belongings. Sugarfingers had only been in the room for two weeks but the owl already hated Briallen for some reason unknown and whenever nobody else was around, she would nip violently at Briallen or clip her hard on the head as she flew around the room. Briallen had inadvertently become sworn enemies with Sugarfingers.

The owl stepped side to side on its perch several times before turning around and closing its eyes. Briallen sighed in relief; Sugarfingers was too tired to nip and clip her just then, though she was dying to test a few new fire spells on the mean owl. She sat down on her bed and after one last, long sigh, she fell backwards with the intent of resting until dinner.

"OW!" cried Briallen, surprised and in pain. She'd fallen back on something hard that had been placed on her bed. Instinctually she glared at Sugarfingers, but the owl didn't move. She rolled onto her side slightly and pulled whatever she had accidentally lain on out from under her. "No..."

Briallen sat up quickly as she looked over the rolled up parchment that was tied with a red ribbon. Briallen recognized the red ribbon as Marisol's favorite - the one she could have sworn Marisol had put on the day they took the train to Bergamot; the one that had been missing ever since. Briallen examined the parchment with hesitance. Slowly she untied the ribbon. As she unrolled the parchment, a necklace fell into her lap. Briallen looked at the necklace and gasped -

She knew what she held in her hands. She had researched it at the beginning of the year, knowing what a demanding schedule she would have, and she knew it was very rare. But she couldn't think of how or why one had been left on her bed, wrapped in a piece of parchment and tied with Marisol's very red ribbon. Briallen looked back at the parchment to see if anything had been written on it. In sloppy, unrecognizable handwriting that had obviously been written in a hurry, there were only three words:

Use it wisely.

She recalled those same words from the unsigned letter she'd gotten on the train ride to Bergamot. This was obviously the device her mysterious sponsor had sent to help her to... defeat the rising darkness? Ridiculous. She rationalized that if there were a 'rising darkness' it'd be all over the papers. Not that she'd read any newspapers lately, but she was sure she would have overheard the students talking about it.

None of that really mattered, however - for whatever reason, it was now hers, to do with as she pleased. So long as she didn't tell anybody...

With a smile, she ran to the mirror over her dresser and put the necklace on. Then, carefully, she tucked it inside her baggy t-shirt where no one would notice. Now she just had to go to the library and figure out how to actually use it.

Sliding on her old tennis shoes, and shaking out her wet hair, Briallen made her way down the stairs. Just as she entered the common room though, Dante Garcia, followed by Brady and Morana, entered through the portrait hole. Immediately Briallen removed her wand from the back pocket of her jeans and held it tightly at her side, just waiting for Dante to make the first move. They all stood motionless, glaring, like cowboys at a high noon duel.

Dante was the first to speak. "Long time, no see, Bevin, just how I like it. I was hoping the rumors of you moving into the girls' locker room were true... shame they're not."

"I came back just because I missed you, Dante," Briallen replied sarcastically. She muttered a choice word in Spanish, courtesy of Marisol.

"What was that?" snapped Dante. Briallen did not repeat herself. He paused and glared at Briallen, in a weak attempt to intimidate her. "I believe we still have a score to settle. Isn't that right, Brady? Morana?"

Brady Dolt nodded dully, though anger flashed in his eyes. "She was with Toby and Marisol on the train."

"And we've already taken care of those two. Now all that's left is your punishment."

"My punishment?" asked Briallen, incredulous. She did her best not to laugh. "You are so lame, Dante. L-A-M-E, lame."

With a growl, Dante raised his wand and prepared to cast a spell but Briallen was too quick for him and shouted her spell first: "Expelliarmus!"

Benjamin had not just been helping her practice her Quodpot; she was eager to show Dante everything else she had learned. His wand flew out of his hand and across the common room but he was still blocking Briallen's only exit out of the Withers tower. Brady and Morana both pulled out their own wands and a magical fight ensued between Briallen and Dante's two minions, with Dante on the floor in the middle of it all, looking for his wand.

"What is going on in here?!" shouted Professor Morra as she came into the common room and just narrowly dodged a Hair-Pulling Jinx cast by Morana and aimed at Briallen. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and at that moment they all had fear in their eyes. "Dolt, Tenebros, Garcia! Detention with Mr Eldred! Bevin! Detention with me!"

"They started it!" argued Briallen as she huffily put her wand back in her pocket. She'd just gotten her first detention of the semester, and she hadn't even done anything worthy of it. If she'd known Professor Morra was going to catch them anyway, she'd have been less kind with her choice of spells.

"I don't care that they started it. I saw you hurling hexes at them just the same! Everybody gets detention, tonight, after dinner." Morana took the chance to stick her tongue out at Briallen while Professor Morra was not facing her.

"Yes, ma'am," replied Dante politely. "Brady, Ana - let's go do our homework." Brady and Morana nodded and followed Dante up the stairs that led to the boys' bedrooms.

"Briallen, I had originally came in here to tell you that your grandfather would like to speak with you before dinner."

She apparently wasn't going to have the time to go to the library that evening. Briallen, silently disappointed, nodded and followed Professor Morra out of the Withers common room and to her grandfather's office. When they reached the portrait of the first Dean of Bergamot, Professor Meyers, who acted as the door to her grandfather's office, Professor Morra turned and left. Briallen cleared her throat so that Professor Meyers would notice her and let her in.

"Yes, yes," mumbled the old Professor in the portrait as he barely opened his eyes to see who it was that woke him before he opened his portrait. Briallen walked into the Dean's office to see her grandfather crouched by the fireplace, speaking to what looked like a head inside of it. Briallen, having never seen such a thing before, let out a surprised yelp.

Cal Bevin heard her and looked over his shoulder at Briallen, smiled reassuringly at her, and then turned back to the head in the fireplace. "I have a student in here now but I will let Mr Eldred know of our plans as soon as possible. Let us hope Reynard is willing to cooperate."

"Yes... and you will be there tomorrow?"

"It involves my school - of course I'll be there." The head nodded and then disappeared and Cal Bevin stood to greet his granddaughter. "Briallen! Excellent game, dear! It was very exciting and you've gotten quite good at Quodpot. We'll have to invite your parents to the game next week!"

Briallen nodded absent-mindedly, thinking about the head in the fireplace and willing herself not to ask the question about how it was possible. Instead, she asked many others: "Who was that man, grandpa? And what's going on with the school? Where do you have to be tomorrow? Who's Reynard?"

"None of those things are of worry to you, my dear. Just typical, boring, school business. Interviews and such, if you like. Now, take a seat." Cal Bevin motioned to one of the chairs in front of the fireplace as he sat down in the other. Briallen folded one of her legs under her and sat down. "I wanted to talk to you about something specific. Your - friend - Hayden came to speak to me the other day."

Briallen groaned as she realized what this conversation was going to be about. "I'm fine, grandpa, really I am. I'm just a bit tired is all, but winter break is almost here and my parents said I could stay with you, again... I'll rest then."

"You can rest now, Briallen. You're young, you should have time to have fun. Hayden says that all you do is school work and Quodpot. I've spoken with Professor Conleth and she's agreed to give you every third week off." Cal leaned forward and put his hand on Briallen's hand. "Have some fun, Briallen, but safe fun. Be a child while you still can because once you get a real job you will be working for the rest of your life. And for witches and wizards that can be a very, very long time."

"Or until I retire."

"Which is nearly the same. Also, I wanted to share with you my way of organizing things so that I may have some free time. If you would like to see it, that is."

Briallen shrugged. She knew it was best to humor Cal when it came to advice. "Sure, why not?"

Cal Bevin stood up and went to his desk where he opened a drawer and removed a small brown leather book. He then went back to his seat in front of the fireplace. "It's a simple thing. Bought it in a Muggle bookstore: it's a day planner. For each date there are several times listed so that you can write what you need to do for each time period. It helps greatly in organizing everything and it helps relieve my stress because this way I know I am not forgetting anything and I know that while I'm working now, I'll have free time later on." He closed the leather book and handed it to Briallen. "This one is for you. I bought it early this morning."

Briallen took the book from her grandfather and flipped through the pages. "I had something like this at Surry Elementary, but we called it an agenda. I never really used it much but if you think it'll help, I'll give it a shot."

She only told Cal what he wanted to hear. His gift of a day planner was unnecessary and obsolete after the gift she'd received less than an hour ago. She brought her hand to the silver chain around her neck and smiled.

"I hope so," said Cal with an encouraging smile. "I don't want you to burn out before fifth year. You need to have all your wits about you when you take your O.W.L. exam."

Briallen looked up at her grandfather and smiled. "That's what everybody's been telling me."

"Because it's true... now, I suppose you'd like to see your friends?" suggested Cal kindly. Briallen nodded, gave her grandfather a quick kiss on the cheek, and left his office.

Her new necklace weighed heavily on her mind. It had become habit for Briallen to miss dinner due to homework, or Quodpot, or helping Professor Conleth, but that evening, Briallen skipped dinner so that she could read up on her new, much-needed, gift.