December Winds

[Reuben Pendleton]

Was it redundant to send an owl home so close to Christmas? Probably. But if there was any slim chance that moral support from Reuben's parents might reach him before the time arrived to board the Hogwarts Express, he was going to take it. Inevitably his owl would return after his departure, and the letter would sit unopened in the owlery for the duration of the holidays; but Reuben was of that young age where his hopes had been crushed few enough times that he retained the childish belief it was possible to contrive an event merely by willing it to occur. He reached out of the tower window, and with a mighty flap of its wings, his owl took flight into the dusky air. After watching it dissolve into the darkening north-eastern sky, he withdrew his upper body back inside and gave a sad sigh. He had, for certain, failed his exams. Year after year it seemed the Hufflepuff could not match, either academically or socially, his brother's talent. Indeed, he was destined to be a friendless failure for so long as he lived. The easily dejected boy slumped back into his writing desk and lay over it, resting his head on the backs of his hands. There he cried softly, his tears wetting his fingers and the parchment he leant upon. Never in all his life had he wished so dearly for home as now.

 

[Damide Snow]

Now that he had mapped ninety-five percent of Hogwarts castle (it was always prudent to leave a margin for error), Damide had 'claimed' certain areas as his favourite haunts. The Towers were always included in that list, for they were close to Ravenclaw house and were often peaceful, unlike the lower floors. The North Tower in particular was a comfortable place to spend an evening studying, so that was where he was headed, Louie in hand with a treat between the rat's paws, and a bundle of letters to finish writing before he moved on to the Owlery to send them.

When he entered the wide, round room, he paused at the threshold at the sound of sobs. Quiet though they were, they were the only sounds in the room above the rushing wind outside. Damide swallowed and held onto the doorframe, hating to intrude on another's privacy, but the curly head of hair bent over one of the writing desks was awfully familiar. The Hufflepuff trim on the back of the boy's collar cinched it; that was Reuben Lagowski, Damide's favourite frenemy.
The Lagowski twins were always finding new ways to vex the Ravenclaw boy. It had started with the sabotaged cupcakes and gone on from there to a legendary one-sided prank war. Damide suffered it good-naturedly despite his growls and complaints, and he begrudgingly liked the funny boys, even after nearly three years of irritating companionship.Now, without even knowing what had upset him, Dami needed to fix whatever had made Reuben cry. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't so simple a problem to sort, but he had to try.

He disliked the idea of scaring the other boy, so he kept his tread heavy, unlike his usual mouselike gait. Damide took hold of a chair on the way and dragged it beside Reuben. He sat quietly and deigned not to look at the Hufflepuff's tears, but dropped his head tentatively on the boy's shoulder in a gesture of understanding and solidarity.
"Reuben," said Damide softly, a gentle query paired with acknowledgement.​

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

At the sound of advancing footsteps, Reuben kept very still, hoping that he might be able to immobilise himself into inexistence - or, at the very least, fool whoever had arrived into believing he was just having a kip. Alas, the boy who had appeared was no fool, but Damide Snow, and as he pulled up a chair and rested his head on Reuben's shoulder, the Hufflepuff snivelled even louder. He didn't deserve Damide's comfort, of all people, though he did have to admit that no prank he had ever played upon the poor Ravenclaw had been meant in unkindness. If anything, Reuben thought the boy was cute, and the assails he unleashed against him were merely an effort to disguise his fondness. It wouldn't do to be thinking of a boy like that, he thought. Rudolf had plenty enough things to poke fun at him for as was.

Unsure whether to be comforted or discomfited by Damide's physical display of affection (such was practically non existent in the Lagowski household, except between the twins, and occasionally their father), Reuben stayed stone still for some seconds before his broadening frame softened. He was getting older, now: his voice cracked whenever he raised it, his body was changing in weird ways he wasn't sure he completely liked, and since he wasn't particularly disposed to smelling funky all day, he had to - Merlin forbid - wash. But with these physical changes came an abundance of emotional ones, too, and these confused him more than the former, most of which his father had warned him to expect back before his first year at Hogwarts. Indeed, Reuben could not fathom why he was silently wiling Damide not to move, or why his stomach did a flip every time he saw him, but it was completely unwelcome and could absolutely get lost, thank you very much. Moving a hand to wipe his face, Reuben carefully sat up. "HuuarghDamide," he mumbled half heartedly, looking down at the stains his tears had made on the parchment. "Nah, I'm sorry," he said suddenly, thinking of how Rudolf's teasing made him feel. "That's not cool, man. I'll stop doing that now."

 

[Damide Snow]

Reuben dislodged Damide not ungently, and the Ravenclaw felt a pang of loss that he carefully did not analyse. He looked at the other boy and shook his head without ire.
"Don't worry about it," he said, his dark eyebrows pressing together in concern. "Don't you think I would have hexed you by now if I minded? I wouldn't take it from anyone else," said Damide, the silent 'but you' left unsaid. He might have even added 'you two', but it occurred to him long ago that it mustn't be nice to be compared to your lookalike that wasn't always like you at all.
"What's gotten you so self-conscious?" He knew the difference between both twins by now, which was why he was so surprised at seeing this one cry. Well, perhaps not- Reuben was pretty exuberant, likely to cover up insecurities few knew anything about.

Damide inexplicably wanted to put his head back where it was, but he settled for sitting near enough so that their sleeves brushed from time to time. He glanced over at Reuben's leftover parchment and watched in silence as Louie hopped off his shoulder and down to lick the salty tears from the pages.
"Why are you crying?" Dami finally asked, looking at Reuben again. Loathe as he was to embarrass the Hufflepuff more, he had to ask; if there was anything he could do to comfort him and he didn't do it, it wouldn't sit well with him later. Damide's thoughts turned to Reuben often, sometimes wondering why he hadn't been pranked lately and somehow missing it when he wasn't. He complained inwardly about many things; how much the twins had grown and how he'd stayed short, how distracting it was when Reuben charmed paper balls to bounce off the back of his head, how distracting it was when the other boy smiled ... It was all very irritating (and mildly disturbing- especially the last feeling).​

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~DISCONTINUED~​

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