Open Drying Off

[Wendall Layton]

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After Wendall had been knocked down by an arrogant Gryffindor prefect, and thrown into the lake, the first year had abandoned the scene before anyone else could ask him if he was okay or needed help. He knew he was clumsy but he didn't want everyone to be all over him like he needed some kind of babysitter. Only now his robes were soaking wet, and his textbooks were ruined. By the time he got to the Greenhouses; he figured that the warmth would save the paper and the books may have been salvage, the Hufflepuff let his tears fall through short breaths. He didn't like people seeing him cry, but since he hurt his arm and the prefect had hurt his legs, he was still in a bit of shock from the water, and was damp and miserable, that the books that were just a pile of stodge now was the icing on the top of the cake.

He heaved open one of the doors and felt the warmth of the greenhouse hit him in the face, where he relaxed a little and snivelled as his cheeks became wet. He dumped his bag up on one of the tables and hoped that the room was empty and he'd be able to use the table to dry his books for a little while. He laid out all the books the best he could, peeling off his robe and laying that out to dry too, before sitting down beside a large multi coloured plant. It didn't really matter if he got dirt on his trousers at this rate, he just didn't want to squelch back into the common room and have people stare at him. He wiped at his cheek, no longer crying but just feeling dejected, and admired the plants leave to try and calm himself down.

 

[Aleksandra Kaster]

Aleks quite enjoyed hanging out in the greenhouses, it reminded her of her home when she was younger and her mother had all those ridiculous plants in the house. Her father had always complained, but until they’d moved, he’d never the heart to get rid of them after she died. Aleks was still occasionally angry about that. She didn’t know how her dad could justify getting rid of all those plants, they were everything to her mother and she still hadn't forgiven him for it. Sighing as she stood up, she was suddenly disturbed by the sound of the doors opening. She frowned as some little kid, probably around Elsa's age walked in and placed his things all over the tables. They looked wet, since Aleks was in a bad mood and she really was trying to work on her manners, she immediately stepped out of the place she had been hiding and looked at the boy. He looked kind of pathetic, Aleksandra thought she should help him. "This stuff is wet," she told him, because of course he obviously didn't know that or he wouldn't be laying them like that on the tables. "I'll fix it!" She announced, whipping out her wand and casting the drying charm, which only served to knocked everything off the table and rip pages out of his books. She was satisfied. "There, all dry now."​

 

[Wendall Layton]

Wendall jumped when he realised he wasn’t alone, and he looked up with damp eyes to a girl who was stating the obvious. He was curiously as she approached his books, it wasn’t like they could get any worse. Of course, magic was a thing here! He’d spent his life living as a muggle that fixing something with magic was ever a considered option for the Hufflepuff. He watched the girl get out her wand, and was about to thank her when his books flew off the table, shredding themselves left right and center before scattering around him on the floor. His jaw dropped and he peered round in shock. He was wrong, they could have got worse. Wendall didn’t know whether the girl had done it on purpose and it was just another attempt for an older student to make a mockery of him, but as the realisation set in that he wouldn’t be able to study for exams in subjects he’d been working so hard towards, the first year began to bawl his eyes out. He didn’t want to fail and be sent back to live with mum. He was going to fail all his exams now and everything was ruined. He was a mess, his education was a mess, and as Wendall sat on the floor of the greenhouse he had a terrible feeling that this was it. This was the extent of his time at Hogwarts and he wasn’t good enough to be a wizard.

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio missed travelling, he’d settled in school, made some friends, had fun outside, gotten a partner for the upcoming ball, but really he was bored. Everyone was studying and the warm weather was making him think of where he’d been at this point in the year before. A two month stint in India. He missed waking up to different places, different people, different possible experiences. He found too as others all settled down to study and wanted to spend a little less time just messing around. He missed his dad, he missed living out of a rucksack, he missed the variation that his life had had. In the end the sentimentality had driven him to asking the wild patch club and the herbology professors if he could grow some mint. Mint had been a strong scent in his mother’s house and had always been his and his father’s go to drink whenever they went somewhere new, a fresh pot of coffee and a fresh cup of mint tea. ​

​

Ajax had been spending the sunny day in the greenhouse, tending to the plant and to others as part of the reason for him being able to grow his own mint. He heard the door open, though given that others were in the room, he didn’t think anything of it. That was until he heard someone crying. Then he decided to go see, it took him rather by surprise when the person in tears was Star ”Star?” Ajax had been working for most of the day in the greenhouse and the hot air, and sweat from the work had made his hair ever frizzier, it bounced along with Ajax’s quick steps over to the boy. He noticed the girl, an older girl, the boy’s belongings a little everywhere and couldn’t help but frown, what had happened to make his friend cry so much. ”Hey buddy, whats wrong?” Ajax knelt down to his level, a friendly smile on his face and reached out to lightly touch his shoulder in what he assumed would be a comforting manner. Ajax had never been a friend people turned to in times of need. He was the fun temporary friend, not the lean on friend, but he’d try, he could be that!​

 

[Aleksandra Kaster]

Aleks watched in slight horror as the boy burst into tears. She had been trying to help! She didn’t mean to upset him! She wasn’t expecting him to worry about a couple of pages and anyway, they were never going to dry out the way he’d put them. She but her lip, wondering what she could say or do to help, but she couldn’t think of anything! Usually when her siblings cry she laughed at them, they usually started laughing too and then that was that, but this was a bit different. “Oh no! I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to do that!” She said, quickly rushing over to the books to have a proper look. “I think I can repair them, honestly it was a mistake!” She couldn’t really handle crying kids and she wanted him to stop crying but she wasn’t sure what the best way to do that was. “I really am sorry, please let me try and fix it!” She’d give him her books if only she could remember where those were.​

 

[Wendall Layton]

Wendall was an ugly cryer when he got going and even though he was embarrassed at himself for doing so while at school he still couldn’t help himself. He was used to his own company after all. The girl was flapping around apologetically but Wendall couldn’t really see how she could possibly have fixed it. His sniffles only reduced when he heard someone say his nickname, and right now that meant only one person. He peered across to see the face of his Ravenclaw friend, and did his best to control his tears. “There was..a water side.. one of the...older people.. they kicked me and I flew into the lake.. and then..everything got ruined..and I tried to dry it all but now it’s beyond repair.. and my legs and arm really hurt,” he stuttered between breaths as he tried to calm down, not realising he was clutching at his arm as he did so. He knew it wasn’t broken this time but it was still sore and now he was sure his legs were going to have humongous bruises after the Gryffindor literally swept him off his feet. The Hufflepuff looked back at the girl, disappointedly but accepting of his fate at the school. “They’ll probably expel me..” he said, voice cracking a little at the thought of going back home.

 

[Professor Angel Castillo]

Angel had been trying to enjoy what little time he had to himself today, but it seemed like the student body was intent on making that difficult. There seemed to be a lot of noise and students doing something outside which he was pointedly avoiding on the increasingly likely chance he would have to do something responsible about it. When the noise moved inside one of the greenhouses, Angel finally had enough, groaning as he got to his feet to investigate.
"What's all the noise in here," Angel said, stretching as he emerged from the back of his office where he had definitely not been trying to nap. "You guys are going to upset the screechsnaps if you keep this up," He said, pausing to survey the rather sorry scene in front of him. There were scraps of paper scattered around, a kid crying on the floor, and a lot of water for some reason. "If I ask what happened am I going to have to do something about it?" He asked cautiously, hoping the crying kid had been joking about being expelled.

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio looked around at the older girl who was trying to fix whatever had gone wrong, it seemed to be not really be helping. Though of course he didn’t really know. He didn’t know what had happened, and so he just focused his attention back on Star who started speaking, telling him about something that older students were doing, that he got kicked, and his things destroyed. Which explained the stuff and the girl who seemed to be trying to make them better. He was a little confused at Star’s last statement, ”Why would they kick you out? This wasn’t your fault,” the boy told him squeezing his shoulder lightly, ”It’s just stuff Star, it can be replaced,” given that Ajaccio had never really had that much stuff, he was pretty good at letting go of things. He knew it was likely more difficult for others, but that was the best advice he could give him. ”And if they kick you out, I’ll quit!” Ajax hoped this would help make him feel better, he wasn’t sure what else he could do or say for it. He had never made someone feel better. He would certainly appreciate if Star would stop crying as loudly as he was. Ajaccio glanced around at the professor who appeared, asking about what had happened, though Ajax was no more certain than this man would be about what had gone on. "Some one knocked him over outside, tell him they won't kick him out,"​

 

[Wendall Layton]

Wendall began crying harder still when a professor came round the corner. He didn’t even bother trying to wipe his tears with his sleeves for they were falling too hard to catch. Ajax was doing his best to reassure him, but even if it hadn’t been his fault, Wendall should still have been able to do something about it. He should have been able to move out the students way, and dry his own books, and not have to come into the greenhouses to get away from people who kept making things worse. His tears sniffled a little and he regained his breath when the Ravenclaw said he’d quit too if he got expelled, and while he hoped he was joking because he’d feel even worse if someone else left because of him, it did make the first year wonder if they would expel him if the chances were small enough for Ajax to joke about. The Hufflepuff peered up at the professor through blood shot eyes and short quick breaths as he waited to hear what his fate would be.

 

[Professor Angel Castillo]

This was why Angel was grateful he taught the older years. He didn't know what to do with crying kids. Especially when the one down on the ground started crying harder. Scratching at his beard Angel raised an eyebrow at the other boy's explanation, glancing at the older girl in case she could shed any more light on the situation. "So he's worried they'll kick him out.. because someone knocked him over?" He said slowly. The story didn't quite make sense to him, but as Angel was learning, the younger kids were wild and Angel was ready to just give up an accept weird kid logic already. It didn't explain all the water and paper scattered about, but Angel decided some things he was better off not knowing about. "I'm not a rules expert, but no. You'll be fine." He said, hoping that reassurance as enough to put that issue to bed so he could go back to his.

 

[Wendall Layton]

When the professor said it, it seemed so pathetic, but it wasn't just that. He was terrible at magic and defending himself and it meant that he was a terrible wizard. Why would they keep him if he couldn't do magic when he needed to? This professor just didn't understand the gravity of the situation. Even when the professor mention it wasn't going to be kicked out, he couldn't be sure. Look at the state of him! He was going to have to buy new books too when he felt like taking another trip into Brightstone. The man wasn't really helping his situation and now there were more people here than around him at the water slide. He dropped his head in his hands, snivelling in his own tears.

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio nodded when the professor repeated back what Ajaccio had understood about the situation and was pleased that the man said that Star would be fine. His attention was drawn back to the other boy, but it didn’t seem to help him stop crying. Ajaccio wasn’t sure what else to do, the boy was clearly very upset about all of his destroyed stuff, ”Hey star, we could go shopping again over the break, get you all new stuff? And in the meantime you can just use mine, I’ve barely cracked open a book since I got here,” ajaccio said, ignoring the fact the professor was right there, would’ve likely heard him say as much, it wasn’t like the man taught him yet. ”It can be a boy’s trip, we can get ice cream and go skateboarding down the street,” he was hopeful that one of these sentences would encourage the boy to stop crying, he really didn’t like crying. It was proving hard to be the sort of friend that provided comfort in a moment of need, he really didn’t know what he was doing but he was his friend and Ajax was determined to be a good friend!​

 

[Wendall Layton]

Even though Star was sad, he was still listening and his friend was clearly trying to cheer him up. The first year hadn’t expected Ajax to offer to come with him shopping, nor lend him his books but that didn’t sound so bad. He wouldn’t have to borrow them for long and then it could be fun to spend the day out getting his new ones and having ice cream with the Ravenclaw. He wanted strawberry ice cream. Or caramel. Or blackcurrant. Star dried off his eyes, peering up at the boy with a little relieved smile. If he still had another chance like the Professor said, and he was going to make it to the end of the semester, maybe he would be alright. Plus, he’d never say no to learning more in the skateboard as long as he did his very best not to fall off. Star nodded, collecting his emotions and even a little smile found its way to his face. “Okay. That would be fun,” he looked at the scraps of paper that were scattered around the floor. Even if he couldn’t use them, he didn’t think the professor would want them littering his greenhouse. “I’ll put these in the bin,” he added, lifting himself up and gathering the shreds of his books. A few pages were salvageable that he stuck into his bag, but the others he held between his little fingers and his chest, ready to dump and hopefully be turned into something useful like rabbit bedding. They had rabbits at Hogwarts, right?