Building the Foundations

[Talon Windwaltz]

Talon stood before the ashen ruins of Ravenwood Tower. It had been over two months now since he was here last, though he'd certainly looked much better then. The wizard standing at the former entrance to the tallest tower of the school was now bald with long and orange-tinted burn scars running across the top of his head and across his cheek. Despite his grizzled appearance, his eyes and robes were still as bright as ever, a brilliant sapphire and purple respectively.

He took a deep breath. Almost as soon as he'd gotten out of the hospital, he'd been pressured into getting to work rebuilding the tower by his investors. Having new students come to a school with one of the buildings half-destroyed was bad for the school's reputation, and if Firefox kept messing up than he wasn't going to receive their funding anymore. It wasn't an option to leave the place in disarray, even if Talon didn't exactly feel up to such strenuous magical labor as fixing the tallest tower in the school on his own.

Especially at night, as the December chill blew against the back of his naked head.

He was going to have to do it alone, too. He would've gone to Sylph, his Deputy, but she was still in Egypt. By all accounts, she might never come back. It didn't seem like a very Sylph thing to do, but she did have a taste for adventure and a love for magical creatures. Perhaps she had simply found work, or something else fascinating, in Egypt and didn't want to leave? The wizards of Ancient Egypt, as well as the creatures of Northern Africa, were a sight to behold. Still, it would've been nice if she'd at least sent an owl to see how he was doing.

Apart from being colleagues, he'd considered her a friend.

But then, he'd considered Forgoil a friend, too, and he'd even gone so far as to love Rezna. But where was she? He hadn't seen or heard from her since he'd gotten out of the Hospital Wing, and she'd hardly even shown up at all within the final days he'd been resting. Perhaps she'd just finally packed up and left after all, despite his protests. He wondered if he'd even miss her.

He felt his heart drop. It wasn't really heartbreak he was feeling, just a sense of loneliness.

Talon blinked, trying to force his thoughts of his head. Somehow, no matter how much he tried to just get to work, it always came back to his miseries. He almost wondered if he would have been better off dying that night. "Bombarda," he said, pointing his wand at a nearby chunk of ruin. It broke into tinier pieces, and he did a few quick snaps with his wand to make them leap to attention. "Scourgify," he casted, and the ash upon the tiny pieces of rocks were cleaned away as if a magical scrub had just gotten to work on them. "Duro," he said then, and the rocks became hard and firm once more. "Conjuncto," he casted again, and the tiny rocks flew back together into the original piece of the tower which now looked like a giant puzzle piece.

That was one down.

If only he did have friends.

ooc: First post to the Bishop.

[Beau Halloran]

It had gotten cold enough the ground was misted with frost, and so with every step he took, the grass crunched quietly under his feet. It was the only noise the nocturnal professor caused as he made his way across the grounds, no particular destination in mind. He just wanted a nice walk, and so walk he did, head tilted back to watch the clear, cold sky.

Nights like this made for excellent viewings, after all.

A figure came into view ahead of him, and he paused momentarily, deadpan expression taking the scene in. He could tell who the person was by their royal robes, but as to what they were doing... His dark blue eyes flicked up to the ruined tower, then back down to the broken rocks.

Ah.

Silent as ever, Beau halted a couple of feet away from the other man. The look on his face remained the same -- expressionless -- and his words, when he spoke, still had his typical empty pause before any actual speech, but it was a start.

".......Headmaster."

Again his empty gaze went to the rocks, to the man's brandished wand, to the slight strain evident in Talon's face. There was another long pause during which he did not fidget his clean robes, or play with his straight charcoal hair, or any other matter of behavior that would have showed he was uncomfortable in his customary silences. Beau remained stoic as he unflinchingly met his slate-blue eyes with Windwaltz's lighter cerulean.

"........Want help?"

Rebuilding towers wasn't exactly in his job description, but he didn't mind.

[Talon Windwaltz]

Talon looked around and spotted another giant piece of stone lying upon the grass. His expression did not hide his annoyance. The school relied on him far too much, and while he was ever its Headmaster and guardian, this was becoming a bit ridiculous. Did anybody even think to clean this mess up? Did Chloe come by here, realize her office was blown to pieces, and then go somewhere else? Sparky was quite talented at charms, why didn't he think to at least repair the stairs inside? Not even the students tried their hands and fixing the walls, and back when he was in school the students would beg to be considered helpful to the school.

Maybe he was too good of a guardian. Maybe Wilting Rose and Claire's absolute lack of regard for their students and the safety of their school - going so far as to invite their lycans, who had somehow become his lycans, to tea parties and letting them bite all their students whenever they wanted - taught their students to rely on themselves because their elders were just trying to get them killed.

He knew how to rely on himself. If he didn't, he wouldn't be outside in December fixing a tower alone.

".......Headmaster."

Talon made a full turn, his sapphire eyes connecting with the deep blue of the Astronomy Professor, Beau Halloran. At first, the anguish that he had been feeling seconds prior tried to leap out. The strain in his features was evident, but they quickly vanished as he saw the calm expression of his fellow wizard. Beau's clean robes and his stoic nature seemed to invoke the very nature of order, and brought peace to the chaos raging within Talon.

"........Want help?"

Talon smiled slightly. He couldn't exactly blame Beau for not fixing the tower, could he? The wizard hadn't even been hired until after the place was destroyed. For all he knew, it was just like that naturally. "Yes," he said, "thank you." He nodded his head to Beau, "this is...well was...Ravenwood Tower. It's where we usually hold Astronomy courses. If we can fix it, we can hold them here again."

He pointed to the broken entrance way with his wand, "Reparo." The stones began to reorder themselves into an archway, and he concentrated for a full minute and a half before it even seemed to resemble an actual doorway. "Go inside and..." he turned to look at the Astronomy Professor and stopped mid-sentence, "I mean...stay out here. Did you see what I did with that block over there? Can you do it to the others? I'll go inside and repair the walls."

[Beau Halloran]

Beau showed no reaction to the turmoil flickering clearly on the other man's face, simply watched and waited. So this ruin of a tower was where his classes were supposed to be held? He glanced momentarily at it, somewhat interested, though, of course, his expression remained steadfast disinterest.

"......I can do that."

The professor withdrew his wand, aimed it at a chunk of what had once been tower wall, then paused, and looked back Talon's way. This was the part where normally concern of some kind should pass over his features, as he did feel that way, but his face remained impassive as stone. At least he could maybe convey it through words.

"......Be careful."

Now, for the task at hand. He'd heard most of the spells Talon had been using, enough to piece together how he was supposed to go about doing this.

".......Bombarda. Scourgify. Duro. Conjucto."

He stared at his handiwork for a long moment, then moved on to the next.

".......Bombarda. Scourgify. Duro. Conjucto."

It looked like a long night ahead. It would be worth it, though, if it meant his students could have a classroom to their own again.

[Morgan Pendragon]

The ruins of Ravenwood Tower were one of the first differences Morgan noted upon her return. She remembered spending many happy hours there, lying on her back on the top of the tower watching Mondleid fly in lazy circles overhead. She'd been meaning to survey the damage for weeks, but at first, before she got hired, she thought it would be inappropriate to hang around campus, and afterward, well, there was certainly a lot of work in being a professor.

However, Morgan felt she could put off planning lessons and grading papers for one night. Besides, she owed Talon for much more than he'd ever know. Twice now, he'd provided her with a home when she'd had no where else to turn. Twice now, he'd saved her from Morticia's cruelty.

Besides, she'd been a big part of rebuilding the library after the Shadow War, and though she no longer had access to Pendragon family funds, she was determined to help with this, however she could.

As she approached the tower, she noticed that someone, or actually, two someones, had already begun working. Out came her wand, and in a flash she summoned three mugs of hot water, which she then transfigured into hot cocoa. She drew closer, and seeing Beau working, and knowing that the other person could only be Talon, she said, "Good evening, gentlemen. I've come to help too, and I brought something to keep everyone warm."

[Talon Windwaltz]

It took Talon a few more minutes to rearrange the doorway so that it wouldn't collapse on him the second he tried to step through it. Another contributing factor to the length of time was that he kept looking over at the Astronomy Professor as he went about his work. The quiet man carried out the spells that Talon performed without any question, and all the while his expression did not betray any discontent. Not to mention the blocks that he was forming were flawless and looked just as much like big puzzle pieces as the one he had made. A smile came to his face as the doorway finally seemed repaired enough to pass through - perhaps he was not alone in this after all.

Just as he was about to step through the door, another voice called out behind them. Talon turned around to see that Morgan Pendragon, a former student of his and now Charms Professor, had arrived on the scene and was offering to help. The Headmaster could've laughed - things were really looking up. He supposed he couldn't blame her either, since she hadn't been hired until after Talon was already in the Hospital Wing. Then again, she, unlike Beau, knew the tower wasn't supposed to be the way in ruins. Still, she was here now, wasn't she? That's all that mattered.

"Thank you, Morgan," the Headmaster said, "I appreciate your coming to help." He looked down to the mugs of hot cocoa in Morgan's arms. "Oh and you brought us drinks!" He laughed, "that was very thoughtful of you. I will have to drink mine later, though, as I'm about to go inside and repair the walls and I will need all the concentration I can get. At any moment the tower might come down on my head!" And of course that would mean he'd be in the Hospital again, if he survived at all. Somehow, despite his knowledge of the danger and his own importance to the school, he could never bring himself to ask another man to do any kind of threatening task when he could do it himself.

"So if you could please help Beau out here while I am inside, I think there might be more rubble on the other side of the tower. If there's no more rubble outside..." Talon paused for a moment, "...then just wait here until I give the word to come inside." The wizard then turned and stepped through the doorway. The inside looked absolutely nothing like the tower entrance that he'd raced into chasing Anil Hawkins that night two months ago. Anil Hawkins. Willow had said he'd been there that night, trying to stop Roan, but he'd never seen him. Had the former Charms Professor perished that night by the forces of the elements? Perhaps Talon would find his remains as he fixed the tower.

Despite Anil's hatred of him when they'd last met, Talon would give him a proper funeral. The wizard was still a hero, and for some reason he'd even returned to help save the school again only to meet his death.

The Headmaster could feel the cracked roof waiting to give in and push down. There was no doubt that several of the floors above him had fallen in during the conflict on the tower's roof, and gravity was just waiting to give way and fall in on the entrance. How had it managed to stay up on its own for two months? Perhaps, thought Talon darkly, it had missed its chance to do away with him through fire and now sought to swallow him up. Well, he didn't want to think about his school as having it out for him, so he instead focused on repairing it. He cast a few charms, though cautiously, to try and mend the cracks upon the floor above.

One spell done poorly and it was over.

This took quite a while. Though the minutes seemed to blend as Talon focused solely on his work, it might have taken about a half hour. Sweat began to form on the Headmaster's body even with the cold outside due to the strenuous effort of the work. The gathered dust and ash inside the building did not help his concentration at all. As the last crack on the ceiling was fixed, he was almost afraid to focus away from it. The second he looked away, the whole thing might come down just due to him messing with it. Still, he had to take the chance, and he did.

Nothing happened.

With relief, the wizard walked back outside to address the other Professors. He wiped the sweat from his bald head, which only made the cold night chillier, and called out, "if you're done, I've finished repairing the ceiling, we can get started on fixing up in there."

[Beau Halloran]

Beau stilled his casting as a blonde girl approached them. He recognized her as Morgan Pendragon, the Charms professor; they'd met in the staff meeting, though, due to his schedule, he'd never really seen her around after that. She offered them hot chocolate, and the dark-haired man took one gratefully, nodding his head slightly in thanks.

Windwaltz spoke, and Beau's gaze first slowly transferred to him, then back to Morgan when the Headmaster suggested she could help him out.

".......Okay."

The drink was warm, and felt good in comparison to the December chill, but after only a sip or two, Beau set the mug aside and went back to the task he'd been assigned, this time at a slower pace so she could see what he was doing.

"......Start with Bombarda."

Step by step he went through the incantations, and once he was sure she understood, or at least got the basics, Beau turned back and continued working, silent in his movements and the only words coming out of his mouth the spells they needed.

Conversation... wasn't really his thing.

Like Windwaltz, he lost track of time as he concentrated fully on the task at hand, methodically cleaning one chunk after another, and when the Headmaster rejoined them, Beau looked up, blinking, somewhat startled in his own detached way. Were they done? He looked around them. Yeah, they were done.

"............"

He didn't want to start on his own, so in the end he just nodded and relaxed his wand, eyes fixated on Talon, waiting for his command.

[Morgan Pendragon]

Morgan smiled at Beau as he explained the charms he was using to repair the exterior walls. Simple enough, although not something she might of thought of on her own, with her tendency to over complicate things. In fact, had she thought of it, it was something she might have done when she rebuilt the library all those years ago. Of course, she'd merely been a child then, and although she'd always been a quick study, perhaps she couldn't have carried it off all alone.

However, irrelevant post-padding conjecture aside, Morgan was quick to follow the directions given to her, vanishing the cocoa for the moment. She could always conjure more when she wanted to. To aid her work, she conjured up an illusion of a scale model tower, about as tall as she was, and with one wall cut away, so that the interior of the tower could be seen. She spun it so that she was looking at the side she was working on, opposite from Beau and Talon, and soon her work settled into a rhythm. Before too long, it seemed that the exterior was finished. Easy enough with three wands wielded by competent wizards and witches, she figured.

When Talon said he was finished repairing the ceiling, Morgan was glad for a chance to work on the interior. Her illusioned model followed along behind her as she walked back around to the tower's entrance. "Just say the word, sir," she said. "I'm here to lend a hand, and a wand, anyway I can."

Morgan found herself feeling a little tug of guilt that she'd cut off an avenue of resources by being disowned. If she'd still had access to the kind of wealth that she'd been privy to in her younger days, she would have made Talon an offer right there, so he wouldn't have to deal with investors, or their demands. As it was, she did have quite a tidy sum from several sources. Morgan had always been a saver rather than a spender, preferring to alter her clothing rather than buy something new.

So, in addition to money from her single (incomplete) season as a professional quidditch player, as well as a sum of settlement money from the International Association of Quidditch because of her accident, the half-interest in the bookshop in Drakborough, and the money she'd gotten from the herbology book she'd published, she also still had a little left over allowance from back before her parents had disowned her. Considering the fact that her parents felt that a reasonable allowance was three hundred and fifty galleons a month, and the fact that Morgan hardly ever spent even a third of that, it wasn't exactly like she was hurting for money.

In fact, the main reason she'd wanted to return to Firefox to teach wasn't to get a paycheck, it was because some of her happiest times were spent here. She had a lot of friends here, and a lot of history. Firefox was home in a profound way that nothing else could match. As Talon had said in the meeting, Morgan lived for Firefox. And if need be, she would die for it as well.

[Talon Windwaltz]

Talon's eyes went first to the Astronomy Professor, who nodded to him upon contact. His stoicism and quiet nature kept him from saying further, but his eyes showed that he understood. When Morgan walked back around the tower the Headmaster's attention then turned to her, and she affirmed that she was finished on her side as well. "Good," the wizard said, smiling, "we're making a good deal of progress, but it's not over yet. At the rate we're going, though, we might have this all done in one night."

Maybe he was just being overconfident, but he had always had great faith in Morgan Pendragon, and he was coming to respect Beau Halloran very much.

Talon led them inside the first floor of Ravenwood Tower. The floor was completely coated in dust and tiny stones, and blackened picture frames that had their portraits burnt to cinders - a fate far worse for wizard portraits than muggle ones - lay strewn about the floor. Pieces of furniture lay in cold heaps of dark firewood on the ground, and the rugs and carpets had all been destroyed. Flames had run through here like stampeding bulls, bringing nothing but destruction with them.

The Headmaster coughed. "We're going floor by floor. The important part will be to keep the ceilings from collapsing and restoring those that already have. Also, we'll have to repair the balconies that go around what was the Divination classroom. Beau and I," he looked the stoic Professor in the eye, "will restore the ceilings and begin to repair the second floor. Morgan, if you could fix the interior walls, clean up, and restore the furniture? If you finish, feel free to come up and help us, and we'll continue this floor to floor until we get to the balcony."

He nodded to Morgan, and then pointed his wand at the nearby staircase, which had a great deal of rubble at the top of the stairs. "Reducto," he casted, pointing his wand at the stones at the top of the stairs. The stones broke apart and reduced themselves to a large pile of pebbles. He tapped the railing as he walked up the stairs, and a warm light appeared at the tip of his wand and poured out across the blackened rail like water scattering sand. The rail fixed itself, and the black soot turned to dark-colored moths, flying in a swarm to the center of the room and out into the open air where the chill reduced them to their original form.

Talon looked back and gave Beau a smile. He wasn't entirely sure why.

He then proceeded to walk up the stairs to what was formerly the second floor. The roof, which was also the third floor, had collapsed in, with only the stairway to the fourth floor still intact. There were less ashes on this floor due to the fire not quite being able to make it through the rubble, and a portrait of a wizard in a blue robe with a long nose and glasses sprung awake and looked to Talon. "Oh thank goodness," the wizard in the painting said, "Headmaster! You are alive! When I saw that wretched woman running through here with you...oh it was awful...on your shoulder, I thought you were dead or worse! Have you come to rescue me?"

Talon swished and flicked his wand at the piece of ceiling that kept the portrait trapped. The stone levitated onto another pile of former ceiling and the Headmaster then moved his wand to stick the portrait on the wall. "Much thanks," said the portrait happily. Talon nodded, and then turned around to look at Beau. "I think the first part here is reducing the rubble so as to get all the trapped furniture and carpets out. Once they're out of the way, we can use the Conjunction Charm from before to turn the pebbles into the ceiling and third floor like we did with the walls outside."

He pointed his wand firmly at some of the rubble, "Reducto." Just like the debris that had blocked the top of the stairs, the stone reduced itself to pebbles. He turned to look at Beau, that smile from before still on his face, "see?"

[Beau Halloran]

Beau padded silently after Talon, his detached gaze taking in the blackened and burnt room. He listened carefully to the other man's instructions, and then followed him up the stairs that Talon had cleared for them. A portrait addressed the Headmaster, and Beau watched without comment, though, behind his expressionless face, thoughts began to whirl.

What had happened here?

It wasn't his place to ask -- not like he would, anyway.

The professor listened to Talon's briefing, nothing difficult, and nodded once the other man was done. Pretty simple spellwork, once you got down to it. As long as the ceiling didn't just collapse on them, they should be fine.

He got to work, copying Talon with the Reducto spell. It didn't take long before the rubble had been cleared, and they were ready to go onto the next step. The professor got to work pulling the newly-freed furniture aside, moving most of it with simple spells over to the side of the room.

At the rate they were going, this shouldn't take too long at all.

[Morgan Pendragon]

Morgan was sure she could handle her assignment and she worked carefully, repairing walls, restoring the furniture and generally tidying up the debris as she went along. Aided by the illusion model, she worked her way up the tower, even managing to make a few small improvements as she worked. She had always been talented at household charms, and cleaning and repairing went quickly for her.

She stuck to the stone staircase against the outer wall as much as possible, not wanting to strain the floor in case it was unstable. Even though she was lean, she was a tall woman and had built up quite a bit of muscle, and there was her silver leg to consider as well. Her weight was not as slight as it had once been. When she did have to enter a room to restore it, she took care to levitate herself first.

Before long, her job was done, and she even double checked her labors against the model provided by her memories of the tower. Once she was satisfied that everything was as it should be, she went down to help the other two.

((Sorry for suckage. I didn't want to hold up this thread any more, sorry.))