Open Definitely Not Worried

[Aonghas Fergusson]

Aonghas had been worried about his brother, he’d been very worried about his brother. He knew his brother wouldn’t contact him while he was at home, but when he’d returned to school and gone to where Rory had said, there hadn’t be a letter, none at all. As the time pushed on, and there was still no word from him, Aonghas couldn’t help but grow relatively worried. He was sure that everything was fine, but he had no way of checking update that would indicate as much. He had no access to information for all of the quidditch teams about who the new players were. He knew it would take till the next brightstone weekend, but that didn’t help his worry. Aonghas just didn’t know and though he fully trusted his brother, he couldn’t help it. At home, it had been rather strange the almost insistence that his brother had never even existed had been a pretty painful thing for him to come to terms with. He’d only brought his name up once, and didn’t fancy ever doing that again. He did what he needed to do to help and try to encourage his brother to get in contact with him, he was writing to him. Another one. He knew at this school he’d be safe from his parents finding out about it, but he still opted to write it in the great hall. It was busy but he was sat at the end of the hufflepuff house table and the place wasn’t too busy. He was very hopefully that on this occasion his brother would write back.​

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian had known Aisa wouldn't be in the same house as him, they were definitely very different, but that didn't mean he wasn't a bit sad about it. He headed over to the Hufflepuff table, though his gaze was on Gryffindor. He was trying to spot his younger sister in the crowd of people, and barely paying attention to his surroundings. Especially when his gaze landed on Jacob for a moment, and he felt the impulse to abandon his course to the Hufflepuff table and go over to him instead. He really liked being around Jacob, but also didn't want to be overbearing or annoying. He had never had the urge to be near someone so much, and worried about coming across as childish and needy. So he forced himself to look around for Aisa once more, but as he did so, he had arrived at the Hufflepuff table. Abian wasn't paying much attention where he was going, so bumped into someone sitting at the table. He quickly looked at him, a blush spreading over his face as he realized the boy had been writing something. "Oh, sorry." He said quickly. "I hope I didn't ruin your letter?" He quickly moved to the side and took a seat. "I was a bit distracted, seeing if I could spot my sister." He said with a small shrug. He hoped the guy might be less mad if he knew why Abian had bumped against him.

 

[Aonghas Fergusson]

Aonghas knew the one problem with doing a letter was he ran a much greater risk of someone noticing what he was doing. The boy had pretty bad luck as someone bumped into him as he wrote, causing a large black streak of ink to cross the page. Anger boiled in him quickly as the person who’d done it quickly apologised and took the seat next to him. Aonghas still felt pretty angry and his letter was ruined, but god, what did it matter, his brother was never ever going to write back to him. This letter would’ve left hogwarts and just gone nowhere. ”f##k,” he muttered angrily, putting the quill down and just crumpling up the letter, holding the crumpled page in his hands. ”Aye, ye did but it’s okay,” there was some frustration in his tone, but he was actually annoyed at Abian, it was a mistake and Aonghas didn’t want to get annoyed at someone over just a little mistake. He felt so frustrated with the entire situation but decided maybe focusing on this boy would help him. ”What does she look like?” Aonghas would help try to spot her, but there was a lingering frustration in his tone, one he couldn’t shake that easily. He had an apologetic look on his face, ”Ah dinnae mean tae sound annoyed, it isnae cause or directed ae ye,” Aonghas clarified hoping that this boy would just roll with his tone.​

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian took a look at the letter the boy was writing and winced when he saw the streak of ink, it definitely seemed ruined and it had been Abian's fault. "Sorry." He said, feeling nervous now. "I didn't mean to." But while the boy seemed annoyed at his letter being ruined, he didn't seem angry at Abian which was nice. Abian smiled at him hesitantly. "I'm sure there's a spell to fix this, but I'm not a very good wizard so I shouldn't be the one to try it. Maybe we can ask someone older?" He suggested, glancing around to see if there were any prefects nearby. He was distracted when the boy asked what his sister looked like. "Oh, a bit like me I guess? She's shorter and has brown hair." He shrugged. "She's a first year and in Gryffindor, you probably don't know her." He didn't think this guy was a first year. "It's okay, I know it's annoying that your letter got ruined. I'm glad you're not mad at me about it though." He smiled at the boy, feeling like he was a nice guy. "I'm Abian."

 

[Aonghas Fergusson]

Aonghas shrugged at him, ”It’s alright mate, ah know,” the younger boy assured him. He was of course annoyed but he didn’t need to focus too much on it. ”Nah, its alright, ah’ll just write a new one,” Aonghas gave a little smile. He would probably not actually write a new one, there was no point, his brother wasn’t replying anyway, so what was the point in sending yet another letter to his brother that wouldn’t end with a response. He knew it was an active choice by his brother to not reply, maybe to cause him less worry but it didn’t, it caused him more. Aonghas decided to just focus on helping this boy spot his sister, but there were so many people about the great hall, it was probably quite difficult to spot anyone within this kind of a crowd without looking really really hard. ”Aonghas,” he said in response, ”Have ye tried just yellin’ her name?” the boy asked with a little shrug, there were better ways of trying to spot someone. ”Or ye could send her a letter?” Aonghas added, ”Why are ye lookin’ fae her?”​

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian relaxed a little as the younger boy continued to be nice about the whole thing. His clumsiness had gotten him in trouble in the past, but luckily it seemed like that wasn't the case today. "Alright... I'll get you some sweets or something from Honeydukes to make up for it." He said, smiling. "We're in the same house, so it wouldn't be hard to find you again." He added. The boy introduced himself as Aonghas, and Abian smiled. But at his suggestion of yelling her name or sending her a letter, Abian shook her head. "Oh no, it's okay. I don't need to speak to her or anything." He said, trying to look at the Gryffindor table one more time. "I just wanted to see if she was looking okay. Since she' new and all." He shrugged. "But she'd kill me if she knew I was worried, she doesn't like it." He shrugged again, smiling. "So I try to be protective from a distance, I guess. Do you have siblings?"

 

[Aonghas Fergusson]

Aonghas shook his head at the boy, he liked that at least this boy, Abian seemed to really be sorry for what he had done. Aonghas was annoyed, but his frustration was not particularly directed at anyone, more so just at the situation. He wouldn’t say no to the sweets, if that was what help Abian felt better about the situation then he wouldn’t say no to it, ”Only if ye want tae,” The hufflepuff replied with a little shrug. He did focus his attention on looking for this boy’s sister. He couldn’t really spot the girl within the crowd of other people, but given Abian’s explanation of why he wasn’t like shouting it or trying to get her attention. He didn’t want his sister to know that he was trying to look out for her. ”Ah’m sure she’s doin' alright,” the hufflepuff assured him. He could understand however the desire to be protective of siblings. After all, he was protective of his sister and he was protective of his older brother - even if the other boy never sent him any letters back. He knew that they as siblings had to be close, had to look after each other. At the question Abian said he nodded, ”Aye ah do, yeah,” he hesitated, wondering how much he should say, what he should give away, his parents wouldn’t appreciate him talking about Rory still being his brother but he had to. ”Ah have two full blooded siblings, a younger sister and older brother and two half siblings, a half sister, and a half brother. No a small family,” Aonghas said with a little smile, leaving out his one dead sister but making sure to include all the extra parts of it. ”Dae ye have more than one sibling?”​

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian smiled at the boy. "I do. I think it would be fun to share sweets no matter what, you know? Even if it wasn't to make up for this." If he could make a new friend out of this, that would be perfect. Abian didn't really have many friends in his house, and that was something he wanted to change. He was hoping that being part of the Quidditch team now would help with that. "I know." He said with a small sigh. "She's usually good at taking care of herself." He shrugged, glancing at the Gryffindor table one last time. "But I hope she's making friends..." Abian knew his sister was independent to the point where she was often alone. He wanted her to get good friends, like he had. He listened curiously to Aonghas as he explained about his siblings. It seemed like a much more complicated family than Abian's was. "Wow, that's a lot." He said, then smiled. "Sounds like fun." He wouldn't mind having another sibling. "Nah, just Aisa." He said with a small shrug. It had always been just the two of them.

 

[Aonghas Fergusson]

Aonghas shrugged a little at him with a little smile on his features, he definitely wouldn’t mind the sweets if this boy really wanted to get them for him. He wouldn’t argue against it anymore about it, or try to sway him otherwise. Quite content for him to just be able to get them in the future. Aonghas nodded along, if the girl was good for looking out for herself he couldn’t imagine that Abian needed to do much more to help. He was sure that if this was how Abian felt about his sister, he could only imagine what it might’ve been like for his own brother, though of course it was an entirely different situation with so much more going on. ”Ye might be worthwhile askin’ a gryffindor friend if ye’ve got any tae look oot fae her. They might see her a bit maer often?” Aonghas offered. He knew that when or if Lusaidh ever came to this school and wasn’t in hufflepuff he’d get someone to look out for her. He chuckled lightly at the other boy’s comment about it being a lot and let his head nod in agreement, ”Aye, it gets complicated, ma family’s a bit ae a mess,” the boy said with a light smile. He was saying it lightly, but he was also being rather truthful. ”Ye guys must be close then? Since it’s just the two ae ye?”​

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian's eyes widened a bit at Aonghas' suggestion, as it was a really good idea. "Oh! I can do that! Two of my best friends are in Gryffindor." He said with a bright smile. He could probably ask Vader, though Jacob could be good too. It just felt to him like Jacob probably had more important things to do, being the Gryffindor captain and all. Though Vader was also running the yearbook club, which seemed to be a lot of work as well. "Are any of your siblings at Hogwarts right now?" He asked the younger boy, not wanting to only talk about himself. The boy's question made him a bit uncomfortable, and he shrugged. "We are a bit. Used to be more close." He admitted. Aisa had started being more and more distant the past few years, and it was hard for Abian to connect with her.

 

[Aonghas Fergusson]

Aonghas gave a little smile to the other boy when he seemed to take on his last suggestion. The boy was happy to help. If this boy could find other people to help him keep an eye on his sister then that would be better, he knew it was something that older brothers did. His brother hadn’t asked another student but someone else to look over him, ”Naw, ma brother, Rory, graduated last year, there’s a lot ae years between ma siblings and I,” he admitted with a shrug, ”Ma eldest brother’s twenty-six or somethin’, my eldest sister's thirty and ma youngest sister is like seven,” the hufflepuff replied. The more he gave it some thought the weirder his family structure was appearing to be especially when he considered the fact that two of his brothers weren’t really in the family. ”What happened?” he couldn’t help but ask, sure that it was perhaps a slightly more personal question but he couldn’t really help himself, the question just slipped out. He wondered if perhaps sharing with her a little about his own family and how it structured but he also didn’t particularly want to do that. Maybe not yet, if the reason between Abian and his sister was more tame he didn’t want to admit anything about his own family.​

 

[Abian Hunter]

As Aonghas explained his family dynamic, Abian's eyes grew wide. He didn't know anyone who had sisters or brothers as old as thirty, and it was quite strange to him. "That's cool. Wasn't your brother on a Quidditch team?" He seemed to vaguely remember, though he hadn't paid as much attention to the any other team as the Hufflepuff one, obviously. He was trying to wrap his mind around this all, when Aonghas asked him a question about him and Aisa. Abian hesitated, not sure how to put this into words. "I guess we just grew up... or she did. She always wants to do stuff on her own and be independent, so she gets annoyed if I try to help her too much." He said with a shrug. He felt like including his dad's death in the explanation was too personal, and figured his answer was close enough to being the truth. He averted his gaze though, as he wasn't sure how comfortable he was with this topic of conversation. "That's why, I guess."

 

[Aonghas Fergusson]

Aonghas nodded, ”Aye he wis a chaser,” the boy replied, knowing that Abian wouldn’t be talking about his eldest brother, though that guy had also been a chaser, captain to if the yearbook was anything to go by. Aonghas just smiled knowing that he came from a small line of successful players and that he himself was on a team. Maybe not as a full member but as something and that was all that mattered. The boy nodded and listened as Abian explained what had happened. He felt like it was a little frustrating for Abian to have this separation from his sister more so than the sister. He could understand the frustration over not being to help. He gave a little sigh in sympathy with Abian and put a light hand on the other boy’s shoulder. ”That sucks,” was all he said, but he could deeply understand it. He had known that his insistence to his brother had annoyed him, that though he was younger he wanted to help as much as he could. He knew that the years apart because of school had made them grow apart, in so many ways that he hadn’t even thought possible. ”But ah get it, and if ye need any help helpin’ her, ah’m yer guy,” Aonghas told him, if he couldn’t help his own brother then he could attempt to help someone else with their sister.​