Closed Better Late than Never

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob might have forgotten that he'd told Zennon he'd meet him after quidditch....two weeks ago. He didn't really have a good excuse other than that. Time had just sped away from him, but he'd finally remembered today and with a little free time on his hands, the Gryffindor figured he could make some time to see what Zennon wanted. It wasn't like he wasn't curious. Jacob still hadn't spoken to him since he'd gotten that rose last year, but he didn't think it was about that. Or maybe it was.

Arriving at the common room entrance, Jacob asked the first Slytherin he saw, a very tiny looking girl, to see if Zennon was inside. That done, the teenager leaned against the wall across from the entrance, his lanky frame portraying the picture of teenage nonchalance. His eyes quickly roamed over each student who passed, happy none of them were Diana Holland. He grimaced at the thought of her and then schooled his expression back into something more neutral.

 

[Zennon Baros]

There was a lot that Zennon still had to do, just from a studying standpoint. Though Sam had been instrumental in helping him with that, there was still a lot of work he had to do, now that he knew he wanted to be a healer. Whilst potions was fine, his Defence Against the Dark Arts could definitely use some work and he was almost positive his Transfiguration was one of the bad ones too, he wasn’t exactly bottom of the class he was pretty sure, but it was really hard to know these things for sure and he just hoped it was enough to get him through to the next year since he was pretty determined to continue all of the core classes, as well as Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies and probably either Ancient Runes or Arithmancy, but he wasn’t yet sure and probably wouldn’t be until next semester. It was a lot for a fifteen year old to think about honestly.​

Though his talk with Professor Pendleton had gone well, and he was pretty sure he’d figured out what to say to Elsie and Rowan, he was still a little hesitant on everything. Honestly it was one thing for the Professor to understand all the lies, but his friends were another story all together. It was them he wanted to talk to the most. He just didn’t quite know how to broach the subject as it could go both ways honestly. They’d all been busy the last half a year though, so he wasn’t all that surprised that they’d been having trouble running into each other, the only people he’d seen with any frequency outside of lessons was Sam and Leda, since they were the only Slytherins he considered to be friends. He hadn’t really realised how many non Slytherin friends he had until this year, since it had been hard to find time to see them.​

He looked up from the notes he was reading over when someone mentioned there was a boy outside looking for him. He could only assume that it was Jacob, since Mervyn wouldn’t come looking for him. He closed his book, suddenly apprehensive. He wanted to talk to Jake for ages but hadn’t found the right time to do so and they’d both been busy, Jake with Quidditch and Zennon with his extra activities in the Hospital Wing. He was both excited and terrified to talk to his friend after so long. He headed out of the common room and out into the Dungeon corridors, spotting Jacob against the wall immediately. “Hey, King Jay,” it had been ages since he’d used that nickname, he hoped he still could. “Been a while, how have you been?” He knew Jake’s mum had been gone most of the term and he was curious as to why, but he knew it wasn’t really any of his business. “Quidditch going well?”​

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob pushed off the wall when he spotted Zennon, suddenly doubting that this was the right thing to be doing. He wondered if perhaps it had been too long for them to ever regain their friendship, but at the familiar greeting, he relaxed a bit. "Heeeeey" he greeted, the word slow to roll off of his tongue. The queries were easy enough, the conversation of two acquaintances. Jacob replied with a small shrug. The Gryffindors hadn't yet had a game, so there wasn't much to tell. And it was true, it had been a while. He wouldn't disagree with that statement. "Not so bad. We've got a good team this year" he stated, his arms crossing over his chest as he stood in front of the Slytherin teen. Time was changing them day by day, week by week, month by month. Jacob was about a foot taller than he'd been when he'd started school, and his parents kept telling him they didn't think he was quite done. His voice had a bass to it that it hadn't years ago. But there were some familiarities as well. His hair still looked quite unkempt, his glasses the oval shape he'd grown used to and knew framed his face well. Zennon looked both different and the same to Jacob as well.

"So, uh, you wanted to talk right? Sorry I didn't meet you that day. Practice happened and I ended up staying on the pitch late and then I..." he paused and shrugged again, "I just forgot. Sorry" he finished, mumbling the last word. As far as excuses went, he could have tried a lot harder. But he figured honesty would be best here. At least he hoped that would be the case.

 

[Zennon Baros]

This was weird. They were acting like strangers and much like the talk with Analei, he was acutely reminded that, for the most part, they were strangers. Zennon had neglected his friendships for long enough that they'd both developed outside of each other and that now meant that he just wasn't one hundred percent sure he could even say he knew Jacob. He'd heard from Sapphire about Jacob and Onyx and he'd been surprised because he'd never heard anything about it. He knew why of course, but it only served as a reminder that he and Jake weren't as close as he wanted them to be. Though he hoped he'd be able to rectify that soon, since Jake had been his best friend and he dearly missed him. He was glad to see that even though there appeared to be some awkwardness between them, Jake didn't seem to be completely closed off to him, which was more than he could hope for. After such a hectic first semester and subsequent year and a half before that, it was hard to really judge what the attitudes towards him were going to be, so he was always at least mildly surprised when people weren't hostile. "That's good, I've seen you guys training out there a bit, but never quite made it down there to get a good look at how they were shaping up. I'll have to make time to go to some of the games, I've missed them." Zennon enjoyed Quidditch, he just was never interested in playing it.​

​

"No, no that's okay. I was studying anyway, so it's no big deal." He seemed to do a lot of studying these days, but he knew that was what was required if he wanted to be a healer. He'd only told Leda so far and she'd been pretty cool about it, but he would expect nothing less of her, since she had a lot going on of her own too. "Yeah, so... firstly I wanted to like... apologise and stuff... you know," he said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. He was glad the corridors here were usually mostly empty, since most people that came down here were the Slytherins and they were all in the Common room for now, since it was almost exam week. "I've been distant and a really sh*tty friend... so, yeah, that's the first part of it." There was still a lot that he had to tell Jake, but he didn't want to dump it all on him at once. He missed Jake so much, and he'd wanted to tell someone for so long, he'd decided that Jake would be the first (second after Professor Pendleton) and he hoped it would go well, he wasn't sure he could handle another rejection. "There's other stuff too, but," he looked around the corridor and stepped closer to drop his voice. "I don't want to tell you right here, incase someone overhears." There was a broom cupboard a little further down he thought might work though.​

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

"Yea, you should" Jacob grinned. Talking about quidditch was always an easy way to get the teen to open up. He enjoyed the game, enjoyed talking about the school's teams and professional ones. And, if he was being truly honest, he wouldn't mind having another person out there cheering him on. Jacob enjoyed the popularity that came with being a quidditch player. It was a big thing in the castle. As the conversation shifted again, Jacob could feel the awkwardness return and his hands drifted to his pockets. He listened, surprised at the apology. Jacob didn't know how to reply. It was an odd relationship they shared. They'd been nearly attached at the hip during their first years and then they'd just seemed to drift apart. Jacob had been sad about it, for sure, but he'd moved on. He hadn't held out much hope for them becoming friends again and then he'd received the rose last year. It had come completely out of the blue. Not that Jacob had minded getting the rose. It had been cool to get, but it had left him a bit confused about it all.

The teen hadn't ever told Zennon, and now he probably definitely wasn't going to, but he'd had a small crush on Zennon those first years. So he had always assumed he'd done something out of turn, something that had pushed Zennon away from him. When Zennon leaned in saying that there was more and then glanced up the corridor, Jacob couldn't hide his curiosity. He nodded his head in that direction, gesturing for them to walk. Pivoting on his foot, he started to stroll in that direction. He'd just come from there and had seen another door though had no clue where it led. "I'm sorry too. I haven't exactly been friend of the year." Jacob was speaking quietly, not wanting his voice to carry too far down the corridor either. He reached for the door handle and pulled it open, surprised when it opened easily to reveal a broom cupboard. "Here?" he asked with a slight chuckle.

 

[Zennon Baros]

There were so many things in his life that Zennon regretted, and essentially dropping off the face of the planet had definitely been something that he regretted, risking his friendships, with Jake specifically, who had been his best friend for nearly two years. Of course he'd considered Analei his best friend too, which had been why their rivalry had been so hard for him, but there was something different about a male friend and a female friend and the things you said and did around one and the other. He was glad at least that Jake didn't immediately ignore him when he said he had something to tell him, which was more than he could hope for, he seemed curious in fact and because of that Zennon grew nervous. What he had to say could end their relationship here and now, especially because of the fact that there had been a lot of lies of omission and he couldn't really say that Jake had ever known him for who he really was, not really. He followed Jake back down the corridor, nodding as Jake spoke. He couldn't say he agreed or not, since he hadn't been much a part of his friends life the last couple of years, though he'd seen some from afar, it wasn't enough to have the right to say yes or no or anything over the words. He couldn't say anything, and so he didn't. They reached the broom closet and Zennon nodded, stepping into the room and looking around quickly. He wasn't sure what he was searching for, but he was soon satisfied and breathed a sigh both of relief of being out of ear shot of anyone else and of trying to steel himself for his coming confession. Jake meant a lot to him, even if he hadn't showed as much over the last few years, he hoped they could be close again, but this was basically going to be it for them, either this helped them, or broke them, he just didn't know which.​

​

Zennon shut the door with the pair of them inside, though once the door was shut it was all very final for him and he started to think about what might happen if Jake suddenly decided that Zennon wasn't actually worth much at all. He wasn't sure he could deal with that, not after Elsie. He knew what Pendleton had said, about people who were really his friends not caring, maybe they'd be hurt by the lies but that his reveal would ease them some, maybe they'd hurt for a while, but if they were true friends they would forgive him. But that didn't help him at all, because what was he supposed to do if he now discovered that he and Jacob should never have been friends in the first place. Jacob was his best friend, he'd always admired and respected him, both as a friend and as something of an inspiration. Jake never let anything get in the way of what he wanted and that included his name and who he was related to. Back in first year Jake had even defended him against those revolutionists, the ones who'd said it was people like Zennon, purebloods, who made it harder on everyone else, telling them that he looked past things like blood status and whilst Zennon latched onto that and he wanted to believe that, it was one thing to look past someone's blood status, it was entirely another to look past something that was always associated with the Dark Arts in some form. Being a Slytherin, being pureblood, being a parselmouth, they weren't things he could control, but that never seemed to stop some people. Zennon didn't regret any of these things, but that didn't mean it made any of them easier. It was an inherited ability, so that meant Zennon was probably related to some of the wizards and witches, most of them bad people, that he'd read about right? Connections he wasn't even aware of. It was difficult just to set all of that aside now just to come right out and put everything on the table. He didn't even know if Jake would understand. He realised a little late that he'd been staring off into nothing for longer than he probably should have without making this either uncomfortable or weird, or both, but he was trying to work out the best way to go about this and he clearly just wasn't the most articulate person he knew. There was more than just this too, there was so much he wanted to tell Jake, but this was the first, because this was the thing he'd kept so close to himself he almost thought it made him a completely different person, and it was the thing most present about him, the thing that shaped him to who he was now. The other stuff came later.​

​

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be weird..." This was starting well and Zennon shook his head, pacing in the tiny room, though there wasn't much space to do so and his pacing mostly consisted of brushing past Jake repeatedly as he moved back and forth three or four steps. It wasn't helping any. "Merlin, this is harder than I thought, I knew it would be hard, but..." He was struggling, it had taken a lot to face the Professor with this information, and he'd been fairly sure he would have been kicked out of the school at a moments notice then, but this was different. Elsie, he knew, would come around eventually after she calmed down and he'd already made plans to talk all of this out with her, but Jake was an unknown, he had nothing to base his friends reactions on and if the talk with Rowan had shown him anything, it was that he really wasn't good at opening up. Zennon stopped pacing suddenly and dropped to his knees and sat back on his heels mostly to stop from pacing, because really he was being ridiculously dramatic, he was working himself up and making all of this worse, but he just didn't know how to say it. Why was this so difficult? If he couldn't tell the one person he so desperately wanted to tell, to prove that he really did value their friendship and that he wanted to start again somehow and apologise for disappearing, how was he supposed to tell anyone else? "Jake I... I want to just... I need to tell you, it's important but, I don't..." He was scared, so scared and he was being ridiculous he knew that because this was Jake and Jake was amazing, but, this was still a huge secret, being a parselmouth was a big deal, he couldn't just come out and, "I can talk to snakes."​

​

-Sorry about this, he is a bit more dramatic about this than I was intending -​

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob stepped into the closet after Zennon, a quick glance up and down the hall to make sure no one was looking their way before watching as the door was shut behind them. The small room was full of brooms, of course, but other things and with two teenagers added to the mix, the space to move was sparse but Zennon seemed to find some as he paced back and forth. Jacob wasn't uncomfortable, per se. He wasn't feeling cozy either. It had been ages since he and Zennon had been alone. He tried to think back as he waited but found he couldn't remember when it had last happened. That made Jacob sad. He knew that childhood friendships often didn't last. His parents told him that all the time, but then his mother still had Aunt Kat who she had known forever. And Jacob had come to terms with the idea that him and Zennon had grown apart. But then the rose had been handed to him last year. Jacob hadn't known what to do with it, so he'd done nothing. And now this. Jacob was beginning to wonder if OWL year was this stressful for everyone. He not only had his coursework to contend with but all of these other issues. Jacob hoped his life would slow down at some point, would just let him breathe.

Finally, Zennon broke the silence. Jacob just stared, trying and failing to pay attention to each time the Slytherin brushed past him. Jacob tried to hold his ground, not wanting Zennon to realize he was being affected in any way. Not that staring would help accomplish that, Jacob soon realized and moved his gaze to the shelves just over the teen's head. Cleaning supplies lined them, boring but safe. And then Zennon stopped pacing and dropped down, which shifted Jacob's attention back to him. His eyebrows furrowed, curiosity brimming in his eyes. He nodded as he heard his name, hoping it would push Zennon to see whatever this was, his breath hitching as he wondered what this confession was going to be. And then it was out in the open. Zennon could talk to snakes. Jacob stared at the teenager. And he stated some more, his face unreadable. He'd have tried to think back to some time when he and Zennon had been around animals but he'd failed at his attempt to remember their last hang out. Other memories were also vague, more focused on how he'd felt and less than on the background and settings. Finally, Jacob grinned. He'd realized this for what it was. Some sort of front for whatever the real important secret was. It had to be a secret since they were in a broom closet. "Bull****" he stated. "Now what do you really want to tell me?" he asked, sliding down the wall until he was in a corner, knees up and facing Zennon.

 

[Zennon Baros]

Zennon was stunned. He wasn’t expecting to have to defend the ability he didn’t even want. He had prepared himself for acceptance and rejection, but not for disbelief. He had nothing for that as he stared at Jake, open-mouthed and unsure what he was supposed to say. What could he say? Would Jake believe him if he just blurted out some words? Jake slid down the wall to sit beside him and all Zennon could do was laugh. He’d built up such a tenseness in himself assuming that Jake would hate him and push him away, and he didn’t even believe him, he couldn’t even think about how he felt knowing that, perhaps it was a good thing that Jake would never believe his friend could be evil, but it was also a little offensive to know that he was trying to have a serious conversation and Jake didn’t even believe him and now he was laughing! How was he supposed to convince Jake he was serious if he couldn’t even take himself seriously right now? This hadn’t gone the way he’d expected at all! Zennon continued to laugh so hard that he had to hold onto Jake for support and began wheezing as he calmed himself down. “Oh, n-no, Jake,” he tried to say, laughter getting in the way of his words. “I’m se-serious, I... I c-can,” It was all just too much for the Slytherin as he coughed. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do now, since he was having a hard time calming himself down. He tried to even his breathing. “Jakey, Jake... I’m serious.” He said, breathing deeply. “I c-can ta-alk to s-snakes.” He said, finally.​

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Zennon's laughter seemed to go on forever, and all Jacob could do was look at his friend, a look of clear amusement on his face. There was strong curiosity there now, wondering exactly what was so funny. The Gryffindor brought his hand to his shoulder where Zennon was holding him and offered his friend some additional support. He didn't want him falling over, there wasn't a lot of room to do so without risking some kind of serious injury. And he wanted to know this thing Zennon wanted to tell him. Finally, he was able to talk again and through the laughter Jacob listened. He shut his eyes briefly at his old nickname. It had once made him cringe to hear, but now felt like a comfort. Hearing his childhood nickname made him remember just how close he and Zennon had once been. It made him remember the crush he'd once had on his Slytherin friend, the one that seemed to be rearing its head right now. Coming into this cramped room might have been helpful for Zennon to keep unwanted ears from listening but to Jacob it was not that. They were in a literal closet. Jacob could almost laugh himself about that, but he'd never told Zennon how he'd felt. He hadn't even known what he was feeling until he and Zennon weren't friends anymore, and now they were and... "What?" he said, attention broken from his own thoughts. He'd heard Zennon. It was more that he needed a moment for the words to catch up to him. Then he spoke again, immediately regretting the person he chose to name. "Like Voldemort?" It was just the first person who popped into his head who could speak to snakes.

 

[Zennon Baros]

There hadn't been a lot about this situation that Zennon hadn't already thought about. How he was going to tell Jacob, what he would say, what he would do, how he would respond to what happened, but none of his preparation seemed to really help him now as he saw the change in Jacob as it seemed to actually hit him what Zennon had said. The words he chose though, burned Zennon and he immediately dropped his hand from Jake's shoulder. He hadn't thought about how that name would make him feel. A historical figure that had done so much to the magical community and the ties the magical community had together. One of the worst people in history and Jacob was comparing him to that. "Oh," he said, dropping his eyes from Jake's so he wouldn't see the hurt the name had caused. He hadn't really thought that Jake would think like that. He'd always found his friend to be a good person, a decent person. Even if he had been caught in the middle of Jake and Analei's antics a couple of times, there had been a reason why he'd chosen to come to Jake first. He wrapped his arms round himself, picking his legs up to wrap his arms around them. It had really hurt, to be compared to someone like that and though Zennon had already spent half of his life seeing it in himself, it was entirely a new feeling to have someone else think it. "I'm...sorry, I," but there was nothing he could say, there was just nothing to say. "You don't... really think... I would never... Jakey, please tell me you don't mean that?" He asked, though he kept his chin pressed against his knees and his head down. He wasn't sure he could look at Jacob if it turned out he really did mean it.​

 

[Jacob Kingsley]

Jacob knew he hadn't said the right thing. As soon as the words were leaving his lips, he was hoping, wishing for a way to pull them back in. So as soon as he heard Zennon's words, he was shaking his head. Zennon didn't even need to finish. Jacob could hear the hurt in Zennon's voice, and a panic filled him. This was the first conversation he'd had with Zennon in...he didn't even know how long, and he'd ruined it. Jacob was up, scooting on his knees until he was right in front of Zennon who wasn't even looking at him. "Merlin no, Zennon." Jacob put his hands on Zennon's knees, gingerly, as if he expected them to be slapped away. It was probably what he would do anyway. It was what he deserved. "Zennon?" he repeated his friend's name. "That came out wrong. I'm an idiot. I don't think you're like him at all." He didn't even want to say the name again and screw things up more. "I just...it was the first name that came to mind who had that ability" Jacob continued, not knowing if he was making things worse or not. He was in the thick of it now though, so the rambling continued. "I...you can really talk to snakes? But no I don't expect you to use your powers for evil. You're too good, too kind, too..." Jacob just stopped abruptly. He'd almost said something he was sure to regret more than what he'd just said. But this time, he'd actually been smart enough to stop. Thank goodness. Jacob flushed, his gaze dropping away from Zennon.