Closed Making Friends...

[William Kaimarama]

Entering school for his third year, William felt no less out of place than he had in his first. His sister joining him at Hogwarts had been a mixture of comfort and frustration last year. Though William would never admit it to anyone, it was a comfort having Maddy at Hogwarts. Even if he had only managed to make one friend on his own, he wasn't alone now. He had Maddy. But that was also a problem in and of itself. Everyone else knew Maddy too. Even the only rose he got last year had been delivered by someone who just knew him as Maddy's brother. It was exactly what William had feared - Maddy's likeability had trumped him once again, and nobody would have any time for boring William.

At least, that was the case among younger students. William still had hopes he could make some friends with the people in his own year or older. They wouldn't wanna hang around a little kid like Maddy, and as long as he could avoid Uno and Phineas, there was hope that maybe he could actually make some new friends. Keeping his head down last year hadn't done William any good, and this year he was going to try a different approach. Spotting a kid whose name had stood out to him in lessons, William chuckled slightly to himself as he approached, finally making a joke that had been on his mind for years. Singing the imperial march, he made his way over to Vader, giving the boy a light elbow in greeting. "So are your parents huge Star Wars geeks, or do they just hate you, or what?" He joked, chuckling slightly.

 

[Vader Hume]

Vader had been growing increasingly worried, it was october and soon the very important first school event that he would have were going to be happening. Vader was preparing for it, he had some time yet but there was just this nagging in the back of his head that he was never going to be ready in time, that it wasn’t going to go well and he was going to be shown to be a failure. It was a quiet voice at the back of his head telling him this, and he did his best to ignore it. He focused instead on his studies, on his revision, of taking pictures of other things, on spending time with friends. So, if it took him fractionally longer to get to sleep at night, it wasn’t because of this small growing stress and worry but it was because he simply hadn’t done enough in the day to make him tired. Vader had tossed and turned a little that night, and had vowed in the morning when he woke up feeling mostly well rest, he knew that he needed to get more active. His plans for that day had been to study, but he’d decided to make the most of the increasing sunlight and fresh air and went outside.​

​

Vader was stood by his robes with a few books scatter out on the robes, but was mostly focused on setting up the camera on the tripod to take some pictures of the grounds. He finished setting it up and picked up some of the more recent pictures he had taken, including the ones he’d taken most recently of the lake. Landscape shots were a little lost on magical camera, when not much moved but he liked having them and could imagine they might help pad out the yearbook and keep all the so-called stock pictures up to date. However, he had intended to study first before focusing on the camera and his pictures. However right when he’d been about to do so he heard someone singing that all too familiar tune. The boy froze tensing up instantly, keeping his gaze firmly on the grass in front of him. It had been a while since he’d heard that tune - people at hogwarts had generally been a lot nicer about his name. He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping desperately that it would stop before all of those memories of primary school and what the tune tended to lead to flooded back. Thankfully it did stop and he opened his eyes, still very tense. He near flinched at the light elbowing and finally looked up. It was someone from his year, some Slytherin, William or something. ”They like star wars,” he replied, his voice low and quiet. He was still tense and frozen in the spot. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad, hopefully this boy would leave him alone.​

 

[William Kaimarama]

William was surprised that Vader seemed put on edge by his presence, but decided that was for the best. Maybe Vader was like Abian, someone William could actually convince he was cool. He chuckled, nodding when the other boy spoke. "That's cool. Star Wars is cool." He agreed, sticking his hands in his pockets. William didn't want to make too much noise about the nerdier interests he had picked up from his parents, just in case it led someone to pick on him, but he figured a kid whose name was Vader was always gonna get it worse than him on that front. "You know it means 'father', right?" He chuckled. "Your dad named you dad, that's pretty funny."

 

[Vader Hume]

Vader was a little surprised when the other boy called it cool, called star wars cool.....no one had ever found it cool at least not in front of him. Vader definitely didn’t think so, he also didn’t want to say anything against it. Vader wasn’t sure what this boy wanted, if he was trying to be nice or if he wasn’t. The words hadn’t been anything particularly wrong but they had been exactly like the words that used to be thrown at him in primary. They were never followed by anything nice though. Perhaps this boy would go away now, that would solve Vader’s problem of how to react, but that didn’t happen. Instead William continued and all Vader had to do was nod, the connection had been presented to him before, in different ways, with different tones, this tone the boy had wasn’t the usual tone he’d come to associate with it. ”I know,” Vader replied with a little nod. ”It’s just my name,” speaking quietly, Vader looked up at the other boy finally really meeting his gaze. The gryffindor was visibly nervous, eyes wide, glancing around the other boy’s face searching for any indication of whether or not he should be worried. Of what more might come. His fingers found the hem of his shirt and nervously played with the edge. ”Do you want to take some pictures?” Vader motioned to his camera, maybe if he could distract this boy from his name to his camera, he would stop. The boy maybe hadn’t meant anything bad and it was just Vader’s own lived experiences which coloured his reaction to things, especially people making fun of his name. He hoped this boy would let it go. ​

 

[William Kaimarama]

Vader looked outright nervous, and William still felt contented in his decision that that was likely for the best. Hopefully that just showed how impressive and funny Vader thought he was. William couldn't think of any more jokes about Vader's name offhandedly, but luckily, Vader changed the subject. "Oh, yeah!" William grinned, excited. He had always quite liked taking pictures of wildlife on hikes with his family, though his parents often used muggle cameras to get close up pictures they could study without having to wait for a bird to fly back into frame. "Is it super different from muggle ones?"

 

[Vader Hume]

There was a sheer sense of relief which washed over Vader as William seemed content to leave him alone and instead focus on the camera and taking pictures. He still wasn’t much at ease around the boy, he avoided really holding his gaze too long and his hands were shaking lightly. The boy nodded at the question, ”It’s pretty different,” he said, ”There’s no screen, so you can’t see the pictures after you take them, they need to be developed,” Vader explained keeping it in simple terms and keeping most of his gaze quickly between the other boy and the camera, ”It also takes pictures that move, so it’s better to move about,” Vader gave a quick nervous smile at the other boy, he found it easier to talk about cameras but the whole interaction with William had put him on edge that he could hear the way his own voice didn’t keep steady. He reached out and took the camera off the tripod and very nervously held it out to the other boy, ”Press there, hold it down for a few seconds and then release, keep the camera up for a few more seconds then it should be captured. Just, be careful......please,” he hoped that he wasn’t doing something that would backfire on him, he just wanted to stop this boy from picking on him further but his camera was his prize possession and if he broke it Vader wasn’t sure what he’d do. He just had to hope William wasn’t that bad. ​

 

[William Kaimarama]

William listened to Vader's instructions about the camera, grinning slightly as he accepted it from the other boy. William could be rough at times, he knew that about himself, but he had grown up around enough delicate equipment to know how to handle it properly. Displaying more care with the camera than he had with Vader when he elbowed the boy minutes earlier, William turned the camera over in his hands, taking a moment to find the viewfinder and figure out where all the buttons were. He held it carefully, peering through the viewfinder before taking a picture of the first thing he saw, which happened to be Vader. "Haha, nice." William grinned, enjoying the satisfying mechanical snapping sound it made. "That's seriously awesome, bro."

 

[Vader Hume]

Vader watched with a nervous expression as William took the camera and seemed to get a little grip on it before going to take a picture. He ducked his head shyly when the thing the boy took a picture of was him, he felt his cheeks redden slightly and he didn’t meet William’s gaze, he knew that given that this was a magical camera that the picture of him wouldn’t be too great since he’d mostly just looked away from it. He finally looked back up at the other boy when he called it awesome, ”Yeah?” Vader asked nervously, William was odd, he couldn’t figure out if the boy was just making fun of him or if he was being genuine. He’d started with jokes that had put Vader exceedingly ill at ease, but was being nicer now. ”I can take a picture of you too?” Vader asked, he was keen to get the device back and maybe taking a picture of William would keep this conversation friendly enough that he wouldn’t make any more jokes. Vader did also want to just get the camera back in his hands, William had shown a decent amount of care when handling the camera, but a part of him worried that this was all an act and the boy would end up just throwing the device harshly to the ground.​

 

[William Kaimarama]

William nodded, smiling as he looked the camera over before handing it back. "Yeah, feeling the like... clicking happen is way more satisfying than digital cameras, that's awesome." He laughed when Vader offered to take a picture of him, trying not to pay attention to the pit of unease twisting his stomach. "If you wanna risk it, bro." William joked, hiding his insecurities as he struck a stupid face. "My face might break your camera."

 

[Vader Hume]

Vader frowned a little at the boy’s words, he didn’t think it was possible of course, but he didn’t think the boy was so unpleasant to look at that he’d break his camera. Should he say as much? Would it be weird? Would it bring on the same taunting as he’d had in primary? He didn’t want William to feel bad despite his jokes at the beginning, but perhaps the jokes would continue if Vader said as much. ”It’s pretty sturdy, it would take only a true troll to break it,” he spoke quickly, not really meeting the other boy’s gaze and fiddling aimlessly with the camera’s settings until he raised it and then said, ”Ready?” he said, with his camera posed and ready, ready to take the picture the moment that William was ready. It would be easier to just get this over and done with. Get it taken and then they might move beyond it, beyond the comments.​

 

[William Kaimarama]

As nice as it was, William couldn't bring himself to believe Vader's compliment, choosing to just ignore the remark entirely. He pulled a stupid face, like he always did in photos, and nodded when Vader asked if he was ready. A picture where he was pulling a dumb face was much safer than a picture where he was trying to be serious; at least this way William could pretend he looked terrible on purpose. He kept the silly face up, waiting for Vader to take the picture, hoping it wouldn't be too bad.