Grounds: The Courtyard

[Wilber Winterbottom]

Accessible from the castle via the Clock Tower, the courtyard is both a throughway, leading to the wooden bridge which spans the nearby ravine, and a popular area of the grounds in its own right.

Many students spend their free time here outside of classes, particularly during break or lunch. Between lessons, this area is usually crowded with students catching up with their friends, getting in a round of gobstones, or lingering under the pear tree while they wait to head to their next class. A covered cloister surrounds the paved courtyard, and stone benches are spaced throughout the covered area, as well as dotted around the courtyard itself. Much of the architecture is in the gothic style, from the arches to the gargoyle parapets.

In the middle of the courtyard is an ancient fountain flanked by stone eagle sculptures, their features somewhat worn away by the elements over the years. Feel free to make a wish and toss a coin into the fountain, but be aware that once it's gone, it's gone. Any attempts to retrieve it will be unsuccessful, as the coin will keep magically sinking out of reach. Do not try to jump into the fountain; staff will take pains to rescue you, but they're unlikely to be very impressed.

An addition to the courtyard as of 2104 is a bronze plaque, hanging on a restored pillar, its cracks and missing pieces clearly visible to those who take a good look. Both the pillar and its commemorative feature have now been charmed to prevent theft. The plaque reads:

Quote:

This marks the location of the duel to the death between the Neo-Alliance leader, Lucien Rosier, and the British Minister for Magic, Charles Hollingberry, which resulted in Rosier's death. Long Live Hollingberry! May 10, 2104.

[NiallNIP]

Of all the bustling spaces Maddox could be in the castle, the courtyard was probably his favorite. More so when it was quiet, of course, but when there were a lot of people around it was alright, too. He liked sitting in the archways of the cloister rather than on the benches—less people to sit next to that way. He'd gotten enough of being right next to people when he was in classes, and at meals, and in the hallways, and in the dorms. Any chance he had to be more than five feet away from someone, he took. It was getting late in the afternoon and the sun was beginning to set, a slight breeze was blowing leaves across the cobblestones and not many other people were around. So it was the perfect conditions for him, really.

He sat cross-legged across the piece of stone, just enough space to sit comfortably and shuffle his cards. He had been practicing every day the proper way to shuffle his tarot cards, splitting the deck evenly in half and bending them just enough so the ends would fwip down past his thumb and onto each other. It wasn't quite right every single time—sometimes the cards would lay unevenly and be a struggle to push back together into one stack, sometimes he would bend them too far and a couple would fly out—but he was getting more consistent with it. It was a semi-regular thing to see him doing in between classes or during down time next to the windows in the common room. Something about being next to an open expanse of darkness felt right when practicing cartomancy.