It was around 4:00 in the morning, most everyone was either asleep or goofing around in their quarters, leaving the common room very quiet. A perfect time.

Tiptoeing down to the common room, Noah gazed around for a moment to make sure that all was clear. It would be better if he could use an empty classroom for this, however due to curfew he'd have to use it during the day, and the thought of occupying a room that someone else was supposed to use was more uncomfortable a thought than someone stumbling into him down here. He certainly didn't want to get in anyone's way...

He moved a small chair over against the wall, placing a book down upon the chair before moving a few meters away to face it. He took a deep breath before holding up his wand, it shivering lightly in his unsteady hand. His eyes fell along the shaft for a moment, thumb gently rubbing the grip in his hand. He had developed a special fondness for his wand since receiving it, taking the connection that was explained by Olivander. The idea that something could see something in him as a wizard was a rather exciting prospect as well. He grinned lightly to himself before looking up to the book again.

Swish and flick. It was rather easy, and he had been able to do it in class, however he wanted to know that he could do it reliably, quickly, and efficiently. The boy held the wand firmly, perhaps a bit overly so, his hand shaking a bit at the effort with which he was putting into holding it and concentrating. He went through the motion and called in a low voice, not wanting to call attention to himself or wake anyone.

Wingardium Leviosa

The book shot into the air, billowing out like a lofty bat as the pages caught the air and fell back to the ground. Noah took a step back, the reaction far more violent than he had anticipated. He cringed as the book struck the floor of the common room with a thud, standing quietly for a moment to listen for movement before scurrying over to set up the book once more.

Before long, the Ravenclaw was back in place, wand up and eyes focused. With another swish and flick he continued with his practice.

Wingardium Leviosa

When Philo's eyes opened he glanced to his alarm clock. Ye gods it was early and he was fully awake. He wondered if he was developing insomnia because the moment he was rendered conscious his mind instantly buzzed with activity.

Schoolwork, Runner the carpet, the Irregularity Camera design, Drea, the tournament, the new professors, Drea again, the reminder that he promised to help out with Helio's birthday party in five days.

He sighed and rose. Arlaug, thankfully, was still asleep. That saved a rather obscene wake up alarm. In his pajamas Philo padded his way down to the common room.

Whump! Something had landed downstairs. It could be related to any of the number of Ravenclaw prefects that were early risers but it didn't seem like that. Cautiously Philo descended the stairs until he saw Noah Archer, one of the new Ravenclaws sorted into the house this year.

"Oh," Philo exclaimed when he realized Noah was practicing spells. "Sorry. I thought...never mind." Yawning, he scratched the back of his head.

4am meant most of the castle was slumbering, leaving the massive building quiet and dark. It being a Saturday, this state would likely remain for some time, breakfast or not.

Still, 4am was also one of the hours Tapendra was awake. With the sun still below the horizon, it made it easy for him to work outside if he needed to - which was rare, admittedly - and gave him quite a bit of privacy to turn on his record player and spread his paperwork out.

He wasn't working much this day, though. He had other interests tonight - or was it this morning? This early, it didn't seem to matter. Either way, the Ravenclaw tower was where he found himself, in this case after one of the books left on the shelves in the Ravenclaw common room.

4am also gave him a shield of privacy that let him embarrass himself over the tower's riddle door. Bloody cryptic wizard riddles! At least it hadn't asked him one with a muggle answer, like the last time he'd been up here. It ended up just being some poetic nonsense about boxes. One day, he'd have that thing switched to something sensible. Maybe something with math. That'd keep the rabble out.

Ever the wise one, he very maturely kicked the door with his bare foot as he headed in, which wasn't the smartest move. His hissed a few words he wouldn't normally have said with students around, hopping and flexing his toes til the sting faded.

He froze at the sight of Noah, however. He probably shouldn't have been surprised to see a student studying this early, but he'd have put considerable money on it being Sasha, not one of the first years. And, well, out of all the Ravenclaws after his own daughter, Sasha was the easiest one to randomly run into.

Tapendra cleared his throat. "Practicing your Charms, Mister Archer?" He asked the first year, as he crossed towards the bookshelf. As he did, Philo appeared, and he nodded to him in greeting. "Mister Falkin."

Noah stumbled a bit at being addressed, causing the book he was attempting to levitate to shudder and fall with another thud. He looked over to Philo with a tinge of guilt in his eyes before looking down.

"Er... I'm sorry. I didn't wake you, did I?" Noah said a bit nervously, looking over his shoulder with his wand still pointed over to where the book had been as if stuck in place, "I can st-"

He turned again as Professor Trishna made his way into the room as well. His wand arm instinctively fell down to his side as he rubbed the back of his head. "Good morning, Professor..." he said, the awkwardness of suddenly being amongst his superiors heavy in his voice.

"No you didn't," Philo reassured Noah. "I was already awake. Just...thinking." That sounded like a very Ravenclaw trouble.

"Good morning sir," he said to their Head of House. Ever since the summer trip Philo had been extra attentative to not have anything unrequired in class, given all the iffy-ness he had in times past with the astronomy professor. Most of it from not paying attention, which he was trying to work on. But it was odd, sometimes it seemed like Professor Trishna didn't like magical things. Well, there wasn't too much magic to astronomy.

"So what charm were you trying? Wingardium?" Philo asked Noah. "That's always a key spell to learn. We were still tested on it during finals last year."

He picked up the book that had fallen in Noah's attempt. Energy From Space: Magical Potential of Celestial Bodies by Perpetua Fancourt.[1] It looked pretty thick and the table of contents inside listed her study of the moon, the effects of lunar energy and then the same for the other planets in the solar system.

"Um, maybe you'll want a lighter book?" Philo suggested as he closed the cover.

1.

HP wiki

Noah nodded a bit to Philo's suggestion. "I didn't think too long on weight, I just grabbed a book... eheh..." he commented before looking around the common room a bit out of curiosity, "What do you think would be a better one?"

"A key spell it might be, not that most adults use the bloody thing as much as they'd have you believe!" Tapendra offered cheerfully, as he reached one of the many bookshelves and scanned it, thumb running along the spines of several of the books and he looked at their titles in the dimmed light.

Despite his rather aggressive wording, he seemed in a good enough mood, and looked over his shoulder as Philo picked up the book. He didn't recognise it at this distance, though he did agree on the younger man's assessment - it was rather large for a testing object. He agreed on it for different reasons, however.

"Oh, don't use books for that," he said, shaking his head as he turned and walked over, holding his hand out for the book that Philo now held. "If you're just trying to get the hang of it, use a quill or a pen. One of the more common misfires involves the target object crashing into things, after all." And the Ravenclaw Tower - as beautiful as it was - hadn't been decorated with flying books in mind. A bit of an oversight, perhaps, but he wasn't about to have the delicate glass sculpture of Candence the Canny smashed by errant spellwork.

"Besides, you could hurt the book," he added, tone an odd mix of scolding and lightheartedness that made it clear he was joking. "And if you haven't met our Librarian yet, Mister Archer..." His expression darkened for a moment, and it was clear he wasn't exactly exaggerating. "You don't want to be taking a book to him for repair as a first meeting, shall we say." Landis was the Slytherin Head of House for a reason, after all.

"Oh, um, sorry sir." Philo's gave the book to the professor. Nargles, he had done it again, becoming so focused on a problem that he wasn't paying attention to what he was actually doing. This did appear to be a school copy of a book, which performing magic on them was asking for trouble. It wasn't like Noah was using his own book since that did not appear to be first year astronomy text.

"Well, after the quill maybe you could use a quill case?" Philo's suggested. What else might be good for practice if Noah wanted something with more mass than a quill. An ink bottle? Strike that one down immediately, Professor Trishna wouldn't appreciate ink on the walls.

"When you have good control over a lighter object, then you could find something a bit bigger."

"Ah... alright." Noah replied simply before looking around a bit for a quill or a pen. He had a bit of disappointment on his face at the idea, as one of the main reasons he was up practicing was to get beyond the light and tiny things that were provided in class and to move up to heavier and more useful things.

It was during his search that realization hit him, turning to his upperclassman. "Oh! Er... I'm Noah by the way... Noah Archer" he introduced himself, a bit embarrassed that he hadn't thought to do so until just this moment.