Closed Expectation

[Zennon Baros]

Zennon was beyond excited to finally have been following a dream he’d had since he was eleven. Okay, maybe not eleven, but certainly young enough to have been considered a childhood dream.​

​

Things weren’t exactly all peaches and cream though - Zennon was busy a lot and Sam had to take on the brunt of the responsibility that came with raising their son. It was one of the litany of reasons they’d decided it would be a good idea to get a place together - but as it turns out - that probably wouldn’t be forever. His talk with Sam still weighed heavily on his mind. Sam was… seeing someone, sort of. She hadn’t actually said that - but what she had said gave Zennon the impression that she wanted there to be more, or that there was more there. He could only hope that this Ben guy wasn’t anything like his brother Chrys because that would be a disaster and a half. It was crazy to think that they lived in such a small world that these sorts of things affected them. Then again, the entire magical community was small compared to the whole world.​

​

Zennon was proud of where he’d ended up, even after he’d been convinced he wouldn’t make it, he was excited to know that he could achieve something if he set his mind to it. Being Headboy last year had - for lack of a better word - been painful for most of the year and it was only really right at the end that he’d found himself able to enjoy it. He’d been through so much last year.​

​

Losing his father and Elsie - on top of literally everything else - had only been the tip of the iceberg for the year as it had turned out.​

​

Still, things were much more settled now, Finley was where he belonged - with his parents - and he and Sam got along really well. They’d managed to get over the initial awkwardness of everything but given they’d had a lengthy discussion about their relationship and what they wanted, as well as where they were going, they realised that they worked as friends and that they wanted to remain in each others lives as much as possible - but that didn’t mean he was terribly excited about this new relationship Sam may or may not have been forming. They had a child to think about!​

​

He just hoped she was careful - if things went bad, who knew what could happen?​

​

His inner musings were interrupted as he stepped into a ward, he realised a little too late that there was someone moving around in there and he immediately stepped back out, about to leave them to what they were doing, except something made him pause. He frowned at the silhouette - didn’t he know the back of that head? He’d seen it at the Hufflepuff table with Analei often enough…​

​

“Arvel Ayers, is that you?” He hoped he didn’t startle him, but he was pretty excited. All his school mates were off being aurors or travelling or whatever - knowing that Arvel was a healer too only made this so much better. He’d not forgotten how they’d left things, but they were grown up, they were adults in the real world - surely they could leave petty childishness behind, right? “Merlin, this is brilliant. I didn’t know you wanted to be a healer too! What department are you in?” It plain didn’t occur to Zennon that not everyone who worked in St Mungo’s was a healer.​

 

[Arvel Ayers]

Arvel wondered at what precise moment everything had gone wrong. Perhaps there hadn't been a precise moment - perhaps he had fixed his fate from the beginning, and every choice he had ever made had carried him one step further down the slope of failure. 'Any job', his dad had said. Any job. But what if Arvel didn't want any job? He certainly didn't want to be a cleaner. Sometimes he wondered if he even wanted to be an Auror - not that wanting would have made the slightest difference now. His grades had snuffed any hope of that.

On the bright side, he had his own trolley. Those switching spells came in useful now as he changed the dirty linen for fresh, making his way across the ward one bed at a time. He wondered what Analei was doing. She had been accepted into Auror training. Of course she had - they would have been crazy to turn her away. Arvel was trying to be happy for her, and deep down, he was, but he couldn't help but feel as if life had been especially kind to her and especially cruel to him. Why did she get the job of her dreams and a loving boyfriend while he got neither? Wasn't that a little unbalanced?

A familiar voice in the doorway made him startle. Just when he had thought it couldn't possibly get any worse, there was Zennon, here to turn the low ache of shame into complete and wrenching humiliation. The Slytherin had done well for himself, too. A healer. What would he do when the pieces clicked? Laugh? Make fun of him with Analei? Worst of all - feel sorry for him? Arvel looked at his trolley, and at the poorly-made beds. Maybe it didn't matter. He'd be fired in a week.

 

[Zennon Baros]

Awkwardness was not an emotion that Zennon picked up on easily. It probably had a lot to do with his inability to function properly in situations that were tense or awkward (as had been evidenced in his laughing at Arvel that one time) and so it didn’t even register with him that Arvel was incredibly uncomfortable right now. He was a little struck at not being greeted in return, but he figured that might boil down to the fact that the last time they’d really interacted had been incredibly awkward.​

​

“Hey, listen,” but as he was about to apologise - it struck him that Arvel had been making the beds in the wing if the fact that he was near one of the trolleys was any indication. “Wait…” the pieces were swirling in his head as he slowly started to piece it together and then he chuckled lightly to himself. “Oh! Merlin, sorry. What a leap. Not everyone here’s gonna be a healer - my bad.” Never mind, he was sure that whatever Arvel was doing was incredibly important because he was just as smart as Analei and she’d become an Auror. Not that it really mattered either way to Zennon - a job was a job was a job, as long as you enjoyed what you wee doing.​

​

“How long have you been working here then? I’m sure this is the first I’ve run into you, right? Did you hear about Analei? Brilliant! I’ve told her I’ll be very upset if she ends up in one of these beds you’ve just gone to the trouble of making.” It would be annoying he was sure to have to go over all of them again after the time it would take to do it in the first place.​