Open Lonely or Just Alone?

[Shane Ackley]

Shane hadn’t enjoyed the valentines celebrations nearly as much as he had in past occasions. They were filled with lonely people, who were desperate and happy for a quick connection, but on this occasion he was left feeling a little lonely. He had left the hall shortly after he’d reminded Emilia of where he stood, leaving her feeling a little sad. He had gone to the dorm and gotten changed, but he knew he wouldn’t really sleep, so instead he had gone to the kitchens and got himself a coffee before going to the abandoned classroom. It was an empty place and with so much else going on no one would look here. He took a seat by the window, mostly sitting up on the window sill and sipped at the hot coffee. His gaze shifted out to the great expanse, of the grounds, of the surrounding area, of the stars. The hufflepuff hadn’t ever felt this way after having kissed someone, he had even with Emilia always been clear about what he wanted. Had something gotten lost, had she just gotten attached despite all he’d said. Shane sighed into his coffee. He would’ve gone for a walk if at home, but at school he was a little stuck. At this school they cared about people breaking curfew. There was so much on his mind, and so much of it was just trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Why she had gotten attached, why he hadn’t noticed, why he didn’t want what she was offering. The last he knew why, he liked it better but he was just so against relationships of any kind. He couldn’t connect with people unless it was for short kisses. Maybe it was just a good thing he liked the quick kisses and didn’t deeply desire a relationship or something ‘special’ as she had put it. He knew he’d be much lonelier if didn’t like it. ​

 

[Lina Olaf]

Lina had never been one to worry about social implications so after missing the ball for the sixth year in a row, it wasn’t something that the Slytherin even considered an issue. Students would always return to their own mundane lives, back to their own routines they’d built for themselves, and there was never any reason for the brunette to think differently. In her arms lay a heavy book, but she doubted it was one that any other student would ever be seen with, at this school anyway. Hoping to get time to herself, she threw open the door to the abandoned classroom, stalling in the doorway as she spotted Shane sat near the windows. Lina hadn’t spoken much to her classmate but she’d seen him around here and there. “I didn’t realise we were getting taught in here now,” she mused, slipping into a seat on the opposite end of the room, hoping to pursue her original plan of study. As long as the Hufflepuff didn’t interrupt her too much, she didn’t think they’d have a problem.​

 

[Shane Ackley]

Shane rolled his eyes lightly when the door to the abandoned classroom opened, of course, there was no peace in this school, no solitude. He could never just find a spot to be alone without someone coming to annoy him, even if they didn’t realised they were annoying him. He looked over when the person spoke, noting then that it was a girl from his year. He didn’t know her well at all, she was no someone he’d spoken to and even now, he didn’t really want to speak with her. He thought about trying to flirt but his heart and mind just weren’t in it. He’d just wanted to be alone with his thoughts, alone with his coffee to lament sadly and feel a little sorry for himself, but of course he wouldn’t get that. He took a light sip of the coffee and glanced back around to the girl, watching her for a second as she seemed to be reading, almost revising, ”Why aren’t you doing that in the common room?” he wasn’t specific about his or her common room, he wasn’t sure which she was, so it made sense to specify very little. Nor was there any malace in his voice, it was just dull and lifeless, a question asked without much curiousity behind it. ​

 

[Lina Olaf]

Lina didn’t mind if Shane was here, but no sooner had she sat down he was asking her questions. She didn’t lift her eyes to him, keeping them on the book in front of her instead, “I could ask you the same thing. There’s lots of places around the school that would be more comfortable than in here,” she replied, flipping the pages as she tried to find where she’d previously been reading at. She contemplated leaving it at that, it wasn’t likely that Shane actually cared to know what she was reading about, but then again he could always leave if he didn’t want to hear about it, “It’s easier to study muggle textbooks when you don’t have witches peering over your shoulder,” even muggleborns seemed confused as to why anyone would be reading this type of material while at Hogwarts, and while sitting in the Muggle Studies room would have been her back up, she didn’t need the professors on her back either.​

 

[Shane Ackley]

Shane had to stop himself from retorting back to her that he’d been there first, it wasn’t really the argument that he wanted to make, it was a childish one really. He knew for him, in his mind it was somewhat valid, but it was not really. This was an open space for anyone, he was just choosing this area to be because it hadn’t been as likely for someone to come in, but of course that was never really true. The hufflepuff took a sip of his coffee and just let his head lean against the window. He would’ve been happy if she’d left it at that, happy if that had been all they’d said to one another. However, she continued, saying that it was easier to read muggle books, and he looked then towards the book. ”What muggle thing are you reading about then?” he asked, and though his expression was neutral there was a hint of curiosity in his tone. He spent a lot of time with muggles outside of this place. ”Muggles host great parties,” he spoke quietly, almost smiling as he thought of them. He was pretty clued up on muggle things, had a muggle phone back home. Perhaps this girl’s interest in muggle was purely from books though.​

 

[Lina Olaf]

Even though Linas parents herself had brought her and her siblings up in a magical environment, there were still a number of close family members that were muggles. Her aunt and uncle were muggles, and even though her uncle was the brother of one of the professors in this school, they still had many other Kain relatives that shared no magical traits at all. While she was happy to sit at home and read muggle books, she didn’t get the vibe everyone at school would be happy about it. The Slytherin was hesitant to tell Shane when he asked, or at least she was until he mentioned that muggles host great parties, and watched as he seem to trail off into his own thoughts. She gave him a moment, before finally answering, believing that if he thought their parties were good, maybe he wouldn’t mind. “I’m reading about coding. You know, muggles have computers. This coding makes video games,” she tried to keep it simple for him, but she knew one day when she could, she’d practise as much as she could. Lina was grateful to know magic, but it was university she was looking forward to most of all.​

 

[Shane Ackley]

Shane nodded as she talked about coding, he knew of it, other people had once said something to him, usually when they all realised that Shane didn’t really use computers. He now had one of those muggle phones but he got the impression it was difficult to use. He nodded, ”Are you interested in coding?” the word felt odd in his mouth, almost out of place. ”Have you ever played a video game?” Shane had been introduced to that at a muggle party, he had wondered why a group of guys would crowd around a muggle tv and then spend their time playing games when there were things to do, people to speak to and flirt with. Shane had been given the opportunity to try at them, but it had been complicated and Shane hadn’t particularly enjoyed it. He took a small sip of his coffee and looked back at Lina, she didn’t seem like the sort of person interested in muggles, but then again, it wasn’t like he knew her all that well or what she liked. He couldn’t exactly ask why she was interested in muggles without her perhaps misreading the sort of tone that he was going for. ”Do you spend much time around muggles?” he settled upon asking, maybe her interest in it came from an outsider looking in. ​

 

[Lina Olaf]

Lina had to suppress a chuckle when he asked if she liked coding or had played video games. “More than most,” she smiled. Before she’d joined Hogwarts she would spend most of her time playing video games. By the time she had joined the school, rejected by Mhairi who had been growing more independent by the week, Lina had quickly realised she was no longer needed as the sister that looked out for her, and she’d turned her attention back to the thing she’d actually enjoyed. “Half my family are muggles. There’s so many links, can you really stop different bloods bleeding across the lines anymore?” She asked him seriously. She wasn’t one of those Slytherins that believed in blood superiority, and even if she was it would have been a fruitless task trying to control such a petty thing. “I want to make videos games when I’m older,” it has been her go to line for years, although “being older” was quickly becoming a reality. “Have you never played one?” She asked, wondering how that was even possible unless you lived under a rock.​

 

[Shane Ackley]

Shane hadn’t actually met anyone magical who seemed to really like coding, and those other muggle things, muggles were obsessed with it, with video games and other electronics that he tended to cause disruption to. He listened as she talked about her family being pretty muggle, his own had once been that too, memories of his parents, his grandfather tried their hardest to make themselves known and with only a passing sadness on his face he pushed them away too. He was exceedingly surprised, showing as much on his expression when she said that she wanted to be a video game maker after school, so many hogwarts kids ended up in magical fields, but muggle things were fun too. He gave a little half shrug, ”I have, at some party over the break just there, they were playing some football game, were all pretty obsessed with it,” he told her with an almost fond smile on his face, ”I was trying to impress some muggle boy, but I was pretty awful at it,”​

 

[Lina Olaf]

Lina hadn’t rest been sure of what to make of Shane since he transferred in. She knew he seemed to have a lot of friends, but didn’t know what his hobbies were. She rolled her eyes when he mentioned a football game, knowing exactly what he was on about, “Well don’t stress about that too much, that’s a terrible game anyway,” she said, curious why he was trying to impress someone in the first place. She wondered if that’s what Aodhan had been trying to do with her last year, which was strange that he would bother, but stranger still that he kept popping back into her brain, with some annoyance on her part. “I love ones with a story. Or ones that are scary. I bet if you could actually get through a horror game with someone, that would be impressive,” she half joked, shifting in her chair. “Where do you stay over the holidays?” She asked, picturing him as the type of boy who’d probably go home to parents, and have a tonne of other kids in the neighbourhood to adventure with over the holidays.​

 

[Shane Ackley]

Shane gave a little laugh as she described the game he had tried as terrible, ”It felt pretty terrible,” he hadn’t really understood why the boys at that party had been so obsessed with it and so keen to play it when there was far more going on around them. Admittedly he’d only tried to be able to impress one boy but in the end he’d moved his sights on to someone who wasn’t stuck playing a video game, no great loss either. He nodded along when she said what sorts of games she liked, he could admit then that though he could figure games would have several genres he hadn’t thought that they would. Truly he hadn’t give it a whole lot of thought. At the question he gave a little frown, why did she want to know. Why would she care. He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, looking in her expression and trying to almost spot something in it. ”I go home,” he said, lying a little, since it was the home he had, but he’d never considered it to be home. Certain he didn’t think this girl, whom he’d really only just met deserved to have to hear about his family situation. ”I live in Dunedin, it’s on the sort of edge between the muggle and the magical town, which makes it easy to jump back and forth. I’m out most nights at whatever party I can get an invite too, getting the invite is never too difficult,” He boasted giving a little flirty wink to her, saying more about it than he needed to, almost in an attempt to get the attention away from where he stayed in the holidays. ”What about you?”​

 

[Lina Olaf]

The Slytherin couldn't help but smile at his admission, glad she wasn't the only one to think so. It did shock her a little though when he frowned at her question, and she cocked her head to one side as she tried to read what was going on him his head for him to suddenly become uncomfortable. It was nearly the end of year, and besides they were talking about life outside of the school anyway. Shane still answered though, and Lina nodded at his response, at least until he boasted that that he could get an invite to basically any party that he wanted, and the sixth year had to hold on to a scoff, "Really? You know enough people out there that there are that many parties going on?" A party every night would not only be exhausting, Lina imagined, but either it was the same hosts every time, or he had such a wide network in the muggle world that he could wiggle his way into somewhere new everytime, "And how do you manage that then? Is there some kind of smooth talking agenda you use, one with a high success rate?" surely if he was a professional and getting himself invites, he must have had a few tips and tricks that never failed to work. It would have been a nightmare for Lina if she ever tried to figure out how to turn someone round into asking her to attend something. "I go home too. My parents live in Bulgaria, though we live in a massive forest, it's pretty remote so there's hardly any parties," she said, not thinking that would be of much interest to the Hufflepuff. She loved her home but the worst thing about it was that the signal was awful.​

 

[Shane Ackley]

Shane looked at her and smirked a little at her, ”Of course,” he told her, since it was somewhat true, it wasn’t like he struggled that much to get invited to things, since a lot of the kids had the same holidays with him and Shane was always charming to the muggles he met. He went to skate parks, walked his aunt and uncles dog. It was easy to meet them, and some even sought Shane out because they knew him relatively well for all the time he spent with them during breaks. ”It’s quite easy really, a little flirting, a little batting of the eyes and a discussion of plans and then there’s an invite, most of these people are looking to have parties that will the entire house, so what’s one more body,” he told her, there was a clear boast in his tone. He had a smirk and he clearly thought it was nothing, but all down to his charm. He looked at her when she told him about where she lived. ”If you stick around in New Zealand, I’ll take you to some parties, if you want?” the hufflepuff was a little surprised when he said it, but if she liked muggles and didn’t get many chances to interact with the ones their age then why wouldn’t he try to invite her. ​

 

[Lina Olaf]

Shane made it all sound so easy, having lots of friends or at least lots of influence to be able to convince others to let him in. Lina was surprised when he said he would take her to one, but if it was all so easy to just add “one more body” to a house of people, she didn’t consider it to be a big deal or something to overthink about. “As I said, I go back to my parents in the holidays,” she stressed, besides, she’d never actually been to a real party before so it wasn’t as though she knew what she was missing out on. “Maybe next year?” She asked, believing that he would probably forget when the time came to it anyway. Boys like Shane just said what they thought people wanted to hear. Lina still liked time with her family, and wanted to make the most of it instead of being pulled away by boys who probably didn’t have the best intentions. ​

 

[Shane Ackley]

Shane shrugged, he didn’t understand why someone would want to spend too much time with their parents, but then, it wasn’t like he had parents to go back to. Of course he didn’t want to spend that much time with his aunt and uncle. But he ignored his own thoughts, pushing them down and just giving her a smile, ”If you change your mind, just owl me.” he told her, ”My aunt and uncle have a pretty big house, they wouldn’t mind,” Shane assured her, he didn’t know Lina that well, but if she was interested in muggles and video games and if she wanted to, he would help her, there was nothing quite like a party to learn about how things worked. ”Whenever you want Lina,” he replied with a little shrug. It wasn’t like he was interested in Lina, aside from the light flirting that he was doing, he just wasn’t in the mood for it and he wasn’t sure he would ever be that interested, and given all that had happened with Emilia, he was going to need to be even more clear about what he wanted from someone. ​