A loud crack echoed through the courtyard and Gabriel, who was at the time the only occupant of said courtyard, looked high above his head to where one of the windows had suddenly broken. A short interval of about twenty seconds later, another window spontaneously burst, this one right next to the first. Gabriel could now hear some of the conversation that drifted down from the windows, namely loud swearing and a professor admonishing his students at their carelessness with some charm or other. Gabriel smirked and picked up his wand from where it had been resting on the bench he had been sitting on.
"Repairo" he muttered precisely
The glass shards drew together as though influenced by some invisible force, pooling together in a discordant jangle of glass scraping stone. Another flick of his wand sent them flying, now fully formed into windowpanes, securely into the position they had maintained for nearly two hundred years. He stowed his wand in a pocket, pushed his shaggy blond hair from his eyes and tucked his book in the crook of his arm.
Ten Minutes later he reached the greenhouse where his Herbology class would begin. He arrived a little early intentionally to give himself time to get immersed in his book again, a curious tale about a young wizard with beautiful eyes and raven hair. His own blue-grey eyes snapped up when he sensed something or someone staring at him. His eyes darted into a shadowy alcove and indeed he did see something, though only for a moment. It appeared to be a beautiful woman in blue dress robes, a brooch clasped the cloak that flowed behind her in a breeze that none had felt for a very, very long time, she stared at him and for a moment she seemed about to speak. Then the moment passed and without a word she turned and passed through the wall behind her.
"The Grey Lady" Gabriel thought to himself. He carefully placed a bookmark between the pages, pausing at a part in the story in which the hero had narrowly avoided being beheaded by dropping acrobatically to the floor. What had she been doing at the Herbology Greenhouse, she rarely left Ravenclaw Tower, never mind the castle itself, and why had she been watching him so intently?
"Curiouser and Curiouser" he muttered to himself again, but before he could investigate further, his other classmates arrived and Professor Sprout looked ready to start the lesson.
The Herbology Greenhouse, and indeed the topic itself, was one of Gabriels favorite things. He loved the incredible earthy feeling the place radiated. The smells and textures of the exotic plants they worked with, and more then that he loved learning what each one did, what could be used to stop this, or brew this. Surprisingly he had a lack of skill required to actually brew the potions whose ingredients he was learning to harvest, but this could be corrected in time. For now though it was a noticeable gap in his otherwise well-rounded magical education. Though a mild day outside, the greenhouse amplified the heat to a point where it was always muggy and vaguely junglesque inside. Many a student had dozed off during a Sprout lecture, only to be hospitalized later by the more dangerous plants they had to work with from missing a key instruction. Some in particular could be very nasty indeed. Gabriel recalled his second year where Neville Longbottom had fallen unconscious from not adjusting his earmuffs properly when handling a mandrake. Now however, Neville was the star of his class.
An Hour and a Half or so later, Gabriel carefully plucked the last seed pod from a thoroughly subdued Venomous Tentacula plant. He placed it on the table and noted the plant was beginning to stir again. To be on the safe side, though done his task, Gabriel quickly picked up his wand, pointed it at the plant and stunned it again with a burst of white light. He leaned back and stretched, his arms aching from holding them in one place so as to not raise the ire of the plant he had been pruning. Professor Sprout wandered over and pronounced him done for the day, patting him on the shoulder with a rather chubby hand and gathering up his bag of seeds with the other. He thanked her and gathered his things, eager to be on his way to dinner.
After Dinner, Gabriel gathered his things, he had brought all his books and supplies with him as it was often more of a bother then it was worth to drop ones things off in the Ravenclaw dormitory. He went there now, mentally preparing himself to be able to enter his common room. He walked up the long flight of stairs leading to the tower and stopped in front of a bronze eagle shaped doorknocker. It came to life before him, and said, in a pleasant, woman's voice "Greetings, if you seek to enter the tower you must first answer this question. What is the Ideal world?"
Gabriel closed his eyes and thought hard, he pushed his hair from his eyes again and smiled, his one earring changed colour from the deep blue of thought to the sunshine yellow of happiness. He looked at the doorknocker and gave his answer.
"The word Ideal, is in itself a subjective word, some, would say its impossible to have an ideal world, that everyone's idea of it is different. This is true; however to some this is their ideal world, and that is a very comforting thought. My idea of an ideal world is a world in which there is no war, everyone is respectful to one-another and love is not influenced by societal norms but rather what inspires you to be a better person for whom you love."
The Knocker peered at him with its bronze impassive eyes. Then it opened its sharp beak again. "Well reasoned and thought out, you may enter."
With that it drew back, revealing the doorway to the commonroom.
He entered, and headed for his room. The common room itself always beckoned to him welcomingly, but he knew he would find no space to practice his spells in the popular and beautiful working area. He reached his section of the dormitory and flopped down on his bed. He placed his things on a bedside table, sat cross-legged in the middle of his bed and drew his wand. He closed his eyes and held the twelve and a quarter inch of Yew loosely in his fingers. Wordless he began to move it about. A pale silver mist floated from his wand in irregular but rapid puffs. It flowed into a h
alo about his head before expanding and encircling his bed; another flick of his wand and the mist slowly began to coalesce into four great silvery flowers, one at each of the cardinal compass points. He opened his eyes then and with a final flick, the flowers burst into flames with an ash-chocked roar. Slowly the fire faded out, leaving embers in the air. The flowers formed from the ashes they had been seconds before and finally faded back to mist. Gabriel nodded and placed his wand on the table. He then sank back gratefully into his pillow and closed his eyes.