Flowers for Peace

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton was pretty tired, despite everything and how happy he was about the semester, he'd found it a little more difficult that the last and he certainly had a lot of questions about quidditch. The teen had always loved the sport, but it was a brutual sport, more so than the taekwando that he'd done prior to school. he wasn't sure he should still be playing as a beater, he wasn't particularly good as it turned out. He couldn't protect his team members all that much, despite the fact that was his job. It filled him with frustration, so much frustration. he didn't like seeing April so injured, after all she was his closest friend and he loved the girl in a largely plutonic way. He wanted to protect her in the game, because if she wasn't injured she won, she caught the snitch and he wanted her to know that she could play quidditch. The boy had saught out the gardens, walking in amongst the blooming flowers, the huge mass of growing roses that would be used soon. He couldn't help but feel largely at peace within the gardens. It was just quiet and it wasn't too busy most of the time which allowed Norton's overly active mind calm down, and calm down to the point where he could relax and just let himself be quiet. The teen didn't spend too much time thinking about thing, preferring to be active, but the gardens were where he could think. He sat in amongst the roses, in an empty spot where he could lay on the dirt and stare up at the clear blue sky. Magic was an incredible thing and he wouldn't change it for anything. No matter how strange and dangerous it could be.
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[April Ward]

April's bright mood was dimmed slightly by their recent loss in the Quidditch match. It wasn't like it still hurt phsyically or anything, as she had been patched up at the hospital wing, but her pride was pretty dented from it all. Would she ever make it through a match without being hit constantly? Was she just that bad at avoiding them? It was hard for April to focus on more than one thing sometimes, so maybe that was her issue. She focused too hard on finding the snitch and didn't keep an eye on the beaters and bludgers well enough. She had talked to Ares and he had said he didn't blame her, but she still felt like it was her fault they had lost. She had hope for their next game, though. She would definitely win that one for her team.

Ever since the match, April felt restless. She had gone out running a few times, but it still didn't really help. She didn't think she would feel at ease until they had at least won one match, but she would have to wait until the next semester for that. Now, in order to avoid both her dad and stepsister who wanted to help her study, she was simply taking a walk. She didn't think they would think to check the gardens. At least, she hoped not. As she walked around, she spotted someone between the roses. Frowning, April approached to see who it was. A smile spread over her face as she recognized Norton, who was one of her best friends in the whole world. "Hi!" She said, waving. "Are you trying to become a flower? Could be a promising career." She grinned, knowing he would understand she was joking.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton sat up slightly as he heard someone speaking, he was a little startled by it and fully expected it to be one of the leaders of the wild patch or an older student telling him to get out of the flowers because he would likely be killing them. He was however very happy to see that it was April and his expression changed to one of joy at seeing who had really become his closest friend. She was an amazing person and norton was unafraid to say he loved the girl, in a purely plutonic manner. He smiled and waved back at her, "Hey!" he knew that she was likely disappointed because of the quidditch game, but he was just happy to see her up and about and very clearly just fine. The teen knew she always did her best and Norton knew the team wouldn't be the same without her, so he was always keen that she stick about. He nodded, "I'm becoming one with the flowers," he agreed not wanting to say it was because they helped him think, no it was better to just agree that he wanted to be a flower, "Do you want to join me?" he offered, "it's really easy to learn, in no time at all you'll be a flower too," the boy joked, he was sure she might agree to it, the day was lovely, the sun was bright and the flowers in full bloom, it would be a lie to say that it wasn't a really nice way to spend a few hours and he was sure that April would agree once she got the chance to try it.
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[April Ward]

While the loss still grated on April, she tried her best not to show it. She wasn't going to let the Ravenclaw team enjoy seeing her crushed spirit, that was one thing she could still do. And Norton probably felt bad about the whole thing too, seeing her sad would probably just make him feel worse. So April smiled brightly at her friend, which wasn't difficult. She really liked Norton, he was one of the people she felt closest to. When he said he was becoming one with the flowers, April giggled. That sounded silly, but also not too strange. Like, Norton was happy and sweet enough that he would probably do quite well as a flower. "What kind of flower are you?" She asked him with a grin, reminded of a similar conversation she'd had with her stepsister a little while ago. "Of course, Mr. Flowerpants, I'd love to join you." She joked back, moving to his side and sitting next to him among the roses. She got pricked a little by the thorns on her way to his side, but eventually made it. She looked down at him, as he was lying on the dirt. "Don't you have to study for any of your exams?" She asked him with a grin. "I'll tell on you." She teased, though she obviously wasn't studying either.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton smiled at her and looked to the flowers around her, ”I’d be a sunflower! What would you be?” He was fairly confident about that, his mother had always called him her little sunflower because he’d been smaller than most but always cheerful. The boy didn’t feel the need to go into why he was that flower or why he knew it so certainly, he didn’t want to bring the mood down, and Norton didn’t often talk about his own family unless it was about Gilly. It didn’t matter anyway as he watched her take a seat, ”We’re friends April, you can just call me Flowerpants,” he joked with a wide and expressively happy smile. He lay back on the dirt and let his gaze settle up until she spoke again. Exams, he couldn’t help but giggle at that, ”Oh no! Don’t tell on me April,” he pretended to be upset as he said this, but of course he wasn’t. ”Studying’s boring, plus I couldn’t concentrate on my new career path as a flower if I’m instead behind some books,” he motioned lazily with his hand to the flowers. He wondered if due to her family being at the school as a professor, if she felt the need to do better than most and just study more, ”Have you been studying much?” Norton didn’t know if she had, they rarely studied when they hung out, so maybe in any of the moments that they didn’t, that was what she was doing.
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[April Ward]

April grinned at Norton as he said he would be a sunflower, she had to agree. "I think I would be a daisy, but maybe like... a really tall one." She was very tall for her age, so it felt a little strange to pick such a tiny flower. But she loved daisies and thought they suited her personality, she had said as much to October not too long ago. Norton's joke made her giggle, and she nodded. "I might actually start calling you that now in every situation." She said, only half joking. The girl was aware that calling him Flowerpants in a public setting would probably be weird, but she didn't really care that much about being seen as weird. As long as she stood out, she was pretty happy. April stroked her chin. "I won't tell on you if you help me along in my own flower career." She said with a grin. "Teach me all the tricks of the trade." Truthfully, some sort of career where she didn't have to study would be kind of nice, but she would probably still try to get good grades simply so her dad wouldn't be disappointed. It was impossible to hide anything from him, as professors talked. His question hit close to home, and she sighed. "More than I would want... my dad keeps trying to help me." She said with a shrug. "Not to be ungrateful, but it makes it harder to avoid responsibility when he keeps telling me I can use his office to study in and offers me biscuits and tea while I'm there." She knew her dad was trying to be supportive, but it was a little overbearing too. "And my stepsister always wants to help me too." The struggle of being in a family with two Ravenclaws, she supposed. Especially if both of them were at school with her.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton had noted as they’d gotten older that April was taller than most of their year group, she was certainly taller than Norton, so he thought it almost ironic that he went for such a large flower and her such a little when in terms of height they were entirely polar. The hufflepuff, ”Tall daisies would be amazing! I wonder if you could use magic to make daisies grow that much bigger,” he said wondering out loud about the limitations of spells on flowers, that was perhaps a conversation he should have with a professor but he just wondered and thought about what it could mean, if he never found out then the Hufflepuff would be as happy. ”If you don’t I’ll be real sad,” the boy told her with a fake sadness in his voice. He wouldn’t care if the name stuck or not, but it was all for the name of this conversation. He smiled as she went on to talk about her own studying, he could imagine that it was a little more difficult for her with her father at the school, and though he could understand how annoying it would be to have a place and him to force her to study, he did feel a little twinge of jealous over the fact she could do that, while most others like himself could not. It passed as soon as it came as she mentioned a sister, ”I didn’t realise you had a sister?” if they’d talked about it, he’d very much forgotten about, and would feel bad if he had forgotten about it. He wouldn’t care if it was a step-sister or whatever, family was family. No matter who it was.
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[April Ward]

April grinned at Norton, deciding to tease him a little. "Maybe we can use magic to make a really tall daisy and a short sunflower." She said innocently. "Then we'd have us together." She was joking, and she hoped Norton wouldn't take it too badly. Sometimes April found it hard to judge what people would like, though she herself thought she was pretty funny. "But really, we could ask Professor Carter if it's possible." She said, thinking about it. "Or maybe Professor Haden? Or Professor Pendleton if it's a potion!" Sometimes it was fun to make plans, even if she wasn't actually interested in following through on them. Norton's joke about how sad he would be if she didn't call him that finalized it, she would definitely call him that from now on. At least, as long as she remembered it. After she was done complaining, she felt a little bad for how she spoke about her dad and sister. Her biggest complaint was really that they were trying too hard to help her, which really wasn't all that bad. Norton's comment surprised her for a moment, but it made sense. It wasn't until recently that she was starting to really consider October a sister, and the girl would really officially be her sister once their fathers got married. That hadn't happened yet, but since they lived together and their dads were engaged, it felt like it was official already. "Well, it's sort of recent. My dad is marrying her dad soon, but they've been dating for a while and they moved in last year. She's the Ravenclaw seeker, October." She said with a small shrug.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton nodded excitedly. Of course they could, and he was sure one of the professors would help them if they did actually ask for a little bit of help with it. He was thinking as she listed the professors who they could talk to about it. Maybe it would take more than one, but he figured it was more than likely a herbology professor who knew how to make the flowers grow in a certain way, or maybe it was a charm, and they just had to enlarge one and shrink the other. The hufflepuff's mind was trying to use all of his now obviously vast magical knowledge to figure out which professor and which branch of magic would be most useful to what they were looking to do. The hufflepuff smiled slightly, and nodded, his mind still a little on it as the conversation continued, he was also committing to memory what April's flower was, he figured that had to also be her favourite flower and who was he to not remember someone's favourite flower. Especially given that the someone was his closest friend! Norton was sure that April knew about Gilly, though he wondered if it had ever actually come up, surely it had. But he listened "Congratulations to your dad!" he exclaimed happily and he couldn't help but be happy for April and her growing family, "That must've made that last game a little tricky then, I don't think I'd be able to play against Gilly," Norton admitted, maybe that was different though. Gilly was his twin not just a sibling recently acquired. Norton didn't think it bore thinking about, "Is she nice? Have you gotten to spend time with her yet? Does like reading?" he was curious about April's new siblings and curious to hear what April herself thought about it.
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[April Ward]

April grinned. "Thank you! I'm not sure when they're going to get married yet, but it's going to be great." She had heard her dad and Kyle discuss things, but had mostly tuned the boring planning stuff out. What April was most concerned with was the decorations and the entertainment. She hoped her dad would listen to her when she told him glitter was definitely a must in any wedding, especially one as great as this one. She should get Kyle on board, he seemed more likely to say yes. She nodded when Norton brought up the game. "It was... I wanted to win, but I was also a little happy for her when she won. She didn't even show the referee the snitch before she came to see me in the hospital wing, though. I heard she got lectured for it too." She said with a small smile. It made her happy to see signs like this that October was really starting to care about her as a sister. She felt the same way. "Gilly is your sister, right? She's in Slytherin? Doesn't she like Quidditch?" April couldn't imagine not liking Quidditch, it was the only sport they were able to play at Hogwarts so she was very happy to be on the team. "I've seen her in classes, but I never really talked to her. What is she like?" She wondered why she had never asked this about Norton before. It felt like she sometimes forgot to show an interest in the lives of other people, as she was so focused on herself. She really needed to work on that, but it was difficult. "She is nice, mostly. She can be a bit of a know-it-all." April said with a shrug. She knew her sister's flaws. "But she's really smart so it's usually earned. We've known each other for a while, our dads actually met because they were picking us up from ballet practice when we were younger." She smiled as she thought back to those days. October had been someone she looked up to back then, and she still was. Only figuratively, though. The girl was notably a lot shorter than April was, despite being older. "She does like reading, just like my dad." April performed an exaggerated eye roll for effect. "Ravenclaws."

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton smiled at her, he couldn’t really understand how that would feel in that position, in either position really. His own sister had never shown an interest in quidditch and when they had done the same sport, they’d never been against one another. Mostly because he could never imagine hitting her, and she couldn’t imagine hitting him. They had enjoyed the sport together and practice together but it had never been too serious and not in the way a quidditch game was. He tried to also imagine his own father getting remarried, and having new siblings but that was just odd, he had Gilly, he didn’t need anyone else. At April’s questions about his own sister he gave a little smile, ”Yeah, Gilly, we’re twins,” he told April, clearly proud of that fact, ”Since mum died around the same time as when we came to school, she just didn’t like getting involved, so I don’t think she ever considered it,” Norton said, he didn’t mind that Gilly didn’t play or wasn’t too into it, ”She supports me, and that’s about it with quidditch which suits me just fine! But Gilly is the best, she looks out for me, she’s kind and caring. She might be a little rough around the edges to some, but she’s always nice to me. I think she just has a more difficult time processing things” Norton loved his twin, and his fondness for her was plainly apparent.

Unlike Norton however, April’s sister wasn’t a there from birth kind of sibling, and was an attachment. The had shared maybe some aspects as the parents dated, but the marriage would be bringing them both together. He nodded and listened along to what April was saying, given that the girl was a ravenclaw, he could easily believe that the girl was all the things April described. She certainly seemed like a nice person, but he of course didn’t know her any better than how April knew his sister. ”So you have known her a while? Did you know she was magic? Was it a magical ballet class?” The boy asked, while there was a lot he now knew about the magical world there were still a lot of gaps in Norton’s knowledge. Ones like how did it work when they were younger than Hogwarts age.
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[April Ward]

April wasn't surprised to hear Gilly was Norton's twin sister, considering she knew her from classes, but it startled her to hear him mention his mother's death. She tried not to let her usrprise show, as she felt like she should have known that about such a close friend. But she hadn't. Had she just not been paying attention? Sometimes she was very bad at remembering facts about other people, but something like this she should have remembered. April glanced at Norton nervously, but he didn't seem overly sad about it right now. He probably was on the inside though. April found it hard enough that her own mother and father were divorced, and that she hardly saw her mum. In the end, she realized she couldn't just ignore it. "I'm sorry." She said quietly. "But it's good that your sister supports you with Quidditch. And that she's nice to you." Thinking for a moment, she perked up. "Maybe I should get to know her! Since she's in our year." She wasn't sure if Norton would want that, but if he did she would certainly make an effort. "My dad supports me too during matches, he's always watching them. But then he gets all nervous and worried when I'm hit and fusses over me." She sighed, then realized she had turned the conversation around to be about herself again. She gave Norton a slightly guilty look, and tried to think of a way to turn it around. "Does Gilly get worried?"

Talking about October as her sister was still a little strange, especially considering how the girl hadn't always been too open to this possibility. When their dads had started dating, she hadn't been very welcoming to April, especially after they moved in together. But April knew it wasn't always easy to suddenly have to share spaces. It wasn't for her either, though she tended to look on the bright side. She nodded at Norton's first question, but shook her head at his second. "Yes I've known her for ages, but we didn't know they were magical. It was a muggle ballet class, so me and my dad thought she and Kyle were muggles! It's kind of funny in hindsight, because we were keeping our magic all secret and they were too!" She giggled at the memory. "They were just dating then, not engaged and we weren't all living together yet. So it was this big secret. At least, until we ran into them on the train platform to school." It was still funny to think back to that and remember how excited she had been to share this part of her life with October too. "I thought October had been going to a prestigious ballet academy the year before. Turns out it was Hogwarts!"

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton was confused by the sorry which April gave, and realised with a start that he had perhaps just never told April that his mother was dead. it had always been something Norton didn't talk about. Minerva had only found out because she'd come round to his house over the holiday and the lack of his mother around the house had tipped her off, but he still hadn't actually talked about. Norton preferred not to, but in saying it then, talking about his sibling with April, it had just slipped out, "It's okay," he gave as a quick reply before the conversation swiftly moved on, remaining just on them and their families support of quidditch, "I don't my dad understands the sport in the slightest," Norton laughed before shaking his head, "Not at all, we both used to do a muggle sport called taekwondo, where we would both run the risk of getting kicked in the face, so she doesn't worry about me now," Norton didn't actually know for certain that that was the case. But he was fairly confident that it was, he and Gilly hadn't really talked about quidditch and his playing all that often at all.

He was glad to that it seemed a lot of magical people spent time with muggles, he knew it had to be hard to leave for some unknown place and leave those friends behind, but he could barely remember most of the kids he'd grown up with. He listened to the story and couldn't help the little laugh which escaped him when the girl talked about running into each other in the train. Norton couldn't imagine what that must've felt like, the way it was so easy to forget that others could be magic, that others were not unlike them, with their normal lives. He hadn't run into anyone he'd known from the muggle world in the magical world yet but he was sure that at one point or another it would happen, "That's pretty amazing," norton replied with a large smile on his face. "She sounds pretty awesome April, I'd love to meet her too! Get to know her," he replied, he would of course want to get to know someone like her, "What flower would she be?"
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[April Ward]

April was glad Norton didn't seem sad or upset with her response to what he said about his mother, and also secretly a little glad he didn't say more about it. She wasn't the best person to talk about feelings, she knew that. But hopefully she would be able to distract Norton and have a fun conversation with him where he didn't have to think about anything sad. "My dad isn't big on Quidditch either. He gets the basics of it, but seems to think it's pretty dangerous. My mum's a muggle, so she doesn't really understand it at all." Which was good, because April thought her mother would probably also be worried if she knew exactly what April got up to now she didn't do ballet anymore. "Wow! Taekwondo seems so cool! I didn't know that!" It seemed like she was learning a lot about Norton today, which was nice. They hung out a lot, but details about their lives before Hogwarts never really seemed to come up.

It made her happy to hear Norton say her story was amazing. It really was a funny one, though it was now hard to imagine seeing October as a muggle at all. The girl was so good at her classes and at Quidditch, she was definitely a witch. Better than April in most magical things, at least. Though April would argue she was the better seeker, despite losing to her last time. "I'd love for you to meet her! She's great." She said, nodding. Norton would be a good influence on her, especially because she seemed to insist on hanging around that Tristan guy, who was also a Hufflepuff but a lot less nice. Maybe if she saw Norton, she would realize Tristan was a jerk in comparison. "A rose." She said without hesitation. "A really pretty one too. What about Gilly?"

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton smiled at her, nodding along with what April was saying about it, he could sympathise with her mother having no clue about it and being unable to wrap her head around it. He knew that if his father could see the sport, he would understand it, but it seemed when he couldn’t see it being played out it was endlessly more difficult to understand. He knew that when he had first heard of the sport he hadn’t understood it much at all either, but Norton had absolutely been there for the game, falling in love in moments. A better sport than any he’d previously done. He wasn’t surprised that April didn’t know about his old sporting haunts prior to hogwarts, he didn’t particularly talk about them, nor was he the sort of person who screamed that he did that. ”Gilly was better at it, and far more into it than I was,” he conceded, ”But it was good fun,”

Norton liked hearing about other people’s families, he couldn’t help but think the story that April told about her sibling, her new sibling. He nodded he would love to meet her properly, the interactions on a quidditch pitch were not enough. He liked April a lot and if April got along with her sister, why wouldn’t he get along with her? As she returned the question he thought about it, what kind of flower was Gilly. He was tempted to joke and say gillyweed but, he knew Gilly hated that. He pondered it, thinking hard about it, ”Gilly would be lavender flower,” she was amazing, and did so much to take care of him, but off putting occasionally to some. It was odd, he didn’t spend much time talking about real things with April, they were always just messing around, and though he did prefer that, it was nice to be real.
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