There are approximately four hundred things I would rather do at the eleventh bell than walk across a residential courtyard in the dark.
Sleeping is thirty-nine of them.
I want that understood before I explain any of what follows, because everything that happened that night happened to a person who had already decided, twice, to go to bed instead, and who got up anyway both times, and who has spent a considerable amount of the time since wondering what would have happened if he had managed to be lazier for one more hour.
***
Vanguard's door was unlocked.
That is not unusual.
Residence rules permit any student to enter another residence's common areas until midnight, and James Vellaroux had reportedly written approximately one rule for his entire building, which concerned fighting indoors and which he enforced with the enthusiasm of a man who had been waiting his whole life for something to enforce.
Tristan Rhael was in the common room.
