[ 1 ] EXPLODE ( r. black ! )

twenty-four || truly silent

ACT ONE; CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
TRULY SILENT

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SOME NIGHTS FELT like an eternity. Often it was the bad kind of eternity where you just wanted to be able to crawl into the abyss that was your duvet covers and catch some sleep. By midnight on the Yule Ball, Eleanor usually had those cravings as she wasn't much of a night owl as some was – plus she couldn't really handle her drink, not that she'd admit it. Her Sixth Year Yule Ball was a different story.

                When time came that the teachers had begun their patrol to usher wandering students into their beds, Eleanor and Regulus accepted defeat and headed back inside. However, when the turn to separate Dorms approached them, their final kiss of the night lingered. With nobody around, they were free to do that and more but each of them reluctantly tugged away for their own reasons.

                "Goodnight Archord." The boy mused after a moment of leaning against her, who was resting on the wall and hoping the eternity could continue for a little while longer.

                Softly sighing, she released him to the boys' hallway. "Goodnight Black."

                Smile planted on her lips, she continued the short way back to her Dorm alone. When she looked back to see him leave, as she used her wand absentmindedly to undo the locks on the door, her grin furthered at seeing his celebrations. Clearly, he had expected her to simply enter her room and sleep rather than take one last second of eternity to watch his expression that mimicked what happened in her head perfectly.

                The moment ended quite abruptly after that. Midway through already beginning to reminisce with her body leant against the door and eyes closed in serenity, her ears detected a nearby crash followed by a sigh and a yell. Relaxing her reflex to use a defensive spell upon hearing the two all familiar voices, Eleanor slid her wand back into place and opened her eyes to raise an eyebrow at the scene before her.

                "Where on Mars have you been?!" Pandora's slurred shout was being echoed from where she was wrestling against a noticeably tired, sober and annoyed Kelsie. It seemed with Eleanor's absence that Kelsie had taken over the role of helping Pandora's drunken actions sober up in her peaceful sleep but with different results that usual – thus the horror-struck expression on Eleanor's face as she surveyed the damage around Pandora's bed.

                Due to her grimacing surveillance of the room she'd be forced to tidy before they travelled on the Hogwarts Express in only a few hours' time from that moment, Eleanor's tiredly slowed reaction time didn't have time to respond when Pandora's crawling over the bed resulted in falling from the foot of that bed. Luckily, from her spot sitting at the side of the bed where she'd been trying to get Pandora to sleep, Kelsie's lazy spell caught her before an impact could happen. Both sober girls breathed out in relief and ignored the struggling of the third.