Closed Moment Alone

[Manaia Te Rangi]

The only real word for Manaia's holiday was 'strange'. In the time he had been at Hogwarts so much of the dust had settled from his parents' separation. Dad had settled into his new wife's home, Mum had changed her surname back to Josephs, everyone had moved on without him. And strangely, being back in the unfamiliar new version of his home in a much more settled state had made it easier for him to move on too. He still mourned the loss of his family as a unit, but everyone seemed happier now, in a way he didn't realise they had been unhappy before, and he was surprisingly glad to be moving forward.

It had been nice too, bringing Rāwhiti this time when he came to school. It had been nice having Ngawaiata around too, but his cousin had always been a bit standoffish, and there was nothing like having your brother around. He did feel bad for Marama at home all alone, but it was nice having more of his family at school with him. So all in all he was in a much better mood than he had been the last year, humming to himself as he made his way down the hall. He smiled and nodded when he spotted a classmate he was familiar with, raising his hand in greeting to Louis. "Hey, man."

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis was ready to make this his year. He was part of the Quidditch team now, finally, and he just knew he was going to shine this year and become as popular and well-liked as he should be. He was walkting along the corridor, keeping an eye out for someone to hang out with, when he spotted Manaia. He paused for a moment. He had learned that Manaia was the person Caleb had kissed last year and had bragged about to him. It made Louis curious. He had also kissed someone, Valeria, but it was a little annoying that Caleb had beaten him to kissing a guy. It had als omade him very curious about kissing Manaia himself, and he wondered if he could make that happen. Deciding to give it a try right as Manaia greeted him, Louis grinned and approached him. "Hey, did you have a nice break?"

 

[Manaia Te Rangi]

Although they were classmates and spent time in the same circles, Louis wasn't someone Manaia talked to every day. They talked just regularly enough for Manaia to somehow always forget the full force of his accent until he spoke. There was something so romantic about French, and Manaia could see easily why people swooned over accents like Louis'. He kept his flusterment contained, grinning in response to the other boy's greeting. "Yeah, pretty good aye. How about you?"

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis smiled sideways and tilted his head a bit. He had practiced this in the mirror and it looked pretty charming, as far as he could tell. "Pretty good, a bit boring though." He said with a small sigh and a shake of his head. "You look really nice, did you do something different with your hair?" He asked, glancing at him up and down with a slight frown. It wasn't a lie, Manaia really did look good.

 

[Manaia Te Rangi]

The accent had already drawn Manaia in, and now the way Louis was looking at him... Manaia thought guiltily of his brief kiss and confused feelings towards Caleb, but right now he couldn't help wanting to be closer to Louis. "Oh... yeah, kinda." Manaia smiled, reaching up to touch the knot of hair at the back of his head automatically. "Been growing the top bit out. I kinda wanna grow it real long." He said sheepishly, wishing he could think of something as smooth to say back. "You, uh... what are you up to?" He asked, failing that task entirely.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis grinned at Manaia's response. He was pretty sure he was charming him, either that or making him uncomfortable. But Louis was willing to take a gamble. He knew Manaia had liked Caleb enough to kiss him, and Louis was definitely cuter than Caleb. He smiled. "That'd look awesome." He said, reaching up to lightly touch the knot before lowering his hand again. He chuckled at Manaia's question. "Me? Right now? Talking to a cute guy." He said with a slight raise of his eyebrows.

 

[Manaia Te Rangi]

Manaia felt his heart skip as Louis moved close enough to touch his hair, studying the French boy's face for a second as he wondered if Louis was going to kiss him. He had to hold back the instinct to stop Louis from withdrawing his hand, but the boy's next remark pushed all other thoughts from Manaia's head. "Oh, yeah?" He couldn't help grinning in what he was pretty sure was an overly enthusiastic way. "Pretty cool coincidence, 'cause I'm talking to a cute guy too..." He replied, hoping to sound half as suave as Louis had.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis was a little nervous about Manaia's reaction until he saw the huge grin on the other boy's face. He grinned. "I know an even better thing for us to be doing." He then said, putting a hand on Manaia's arm and pulling him towards a slightly more private alcove in the corridor. Once there, he pulled him closer and kissed him. This was easy.

 

[Manaia Te Rangi]

Writing song lyrics was a craft, one Manaia took seriously. He was good with words, he always had been, but they took time to perfect. In this kind of fast-paced conversation, he was quickly finding how hard it was to express himself. There were smooth lines beginning to workshop themselves in the back of his mind, in the hopes of catching up with Louis, but while he was processing the Gryffindor had caught him, very literally, and Manaia couldn't hold in a small yelp as he allowed himself to be pulled away. He had just opened his mouth to ask what this was about when Louis kissed him, and all thoughts floated from his brain. Despite the spontaneity being the same, this was so different from his kiss with Caleb. Longer, more private, Louis was closer. He kissed back eagerly, letting himself untie all the thoughts knotted in his head and just relax into the fact that a handsome boy was kissing him, and that meant the day was going quite a bit better than he had planned.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis' hand moved back up to Manaia's hair, lightly brushing his fingers through it as they kissed. Kissing Manaia was definitely different than kissing Valeria, but Louis decided he liked it. He stepped back slightly, allowing his back to hit the wall before he drew Manaia closer, not breaking the kiss.

 

[Raawhiti Te Rangi]

Rāwhiti knew he would come to terms with it eventually, but not making the Gryffindor Quidditch team was still weighing heavily on his shoulders. He had always known he had a slim chance of making it in his first year, but it had just felt right. Like, being Hogwarts' youngest ever Quidditch cup champion and captain was his destiny. But no. He was stuck on the benches, just like everyone else. It was a small comfort to be able to watch Quidditch pretty much whenever he wanted, sneaking into the practices and making notes of moves and techniques he wanted to add to his own repertoire, as well as learning more about the players who would be his teammates and rivals once he made Seeker. He was on his way to the pitch to have a little practice on his own, Firebolt under his arm, when he heard a strange noise from an alcove just within his sight. Looking closer, Rāwhiti's eyes widened as he recognised his brother, and widened further as he recognised who his brother was with. "Manaia!" He yelled, unable to help himself. "Are you going out with Louis Alcott?!"

 

[Manaia Te Rangi]

Manaia had known Louis was handsome for a long time, but he hadn't really put all that much thought into it. Had never really considered what it would be like to kiss the Gryffindor. He was quickly discovering that he very much liked it. He would have been quite content to continue very much liking their kiss had a familiar voice not brought things to a halt just as Louis was pulling him closer. Manaia winced, lurching away from Louis as his head snapped to see Rāwhiti peering in at them and looking far too excited. "Go away, Rāwhiti! You promised you wouldn't bother the Quidditch players! That includes right now!" He switched languages quickly, not wanting Louis to know just how obsessed Rāwhiti was. As angry as he was at his brother, he didn't want his obsession to hurt his chances of making it onto the team some day. The French boy would probably pick up the word Quidditch, but it was better than nothing. "I'm sorry about him. He's a weirdo." He added with a very pointed look to Rāwhiti.

 

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis was glad this was going so well. Manaia seemed entirely happy to kiss him and it really was rather enjoyable. Then, suddenly, the kiss was over as Manaia pulled away abruptly. Louis blinked blearily, trying to figure out what had happened. He looked at the new person who had joined them, a young boy who looked pretty similar to Manaia. Louis ran a hand through his hair, glancing between them as Manaia chewed out who Louis presumed was his little brother. He grimaced a bit at the boy's question. They had just been kissing for the first time, Louis didn't really want to discuss 'going out' yet. He noticed Manaia switched languages, not sure why. The message was clear enough, and Louis hoped the boy would listen. But he simply smiled at the younger boy and held up his hand. "Uh, bonjour." He said lightly, not sure what else to say. Then he paused. "Wait, you know who I am?"