Seeing Stars in Clouds

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes could surely say that he was in love, he could feel it, he loved it, he loved her, the boy had no idea at which point he had just fallen for her, but he well and truly had, perhaps it had been the pride festival, he didn't know, the Ravenclaw thought that she was perfect, just perfect in every single way, he thought about her every day, Tholomyes had always thought that he was strong willed, that he didn't fall in love easily, but the opposite was true, he fell head over heels for her, his mind was filled with her and how amazing she was to him. Theo had returned to school, having bored Venus to death with his talk about Emma Snow, but now he was back at the school, the Ravenclaw boy couldn't help and be eager to see her, there was just a massive issue in that he believed that no matter how much he felt for her, she could never like a guy like him, that she was suited to better looking people, to smarter people, that he was everything that she wasn't and because of this, they would never end up together.

The boy had found his way outside feeling so much despair over the fact that he loved her so much, the fact that he knew he would do anything for her, that she was a light in his life, the only thing he thought was good. The boy lay down on the ground at the foot of the lake and just let out a small sigh, he knew that if he asked her out, it would just end horribly, like any one of the paintings he done while at home, like his education in general, it didn't matter what he did, he was just going to fail at it all, and he'd be alone and broke, and without any love in his life. The boy had his sketches beside him and he had scored out just about every drawing, hating each and every one of them. Theo sighed deeply waiting for some inspiration to hit him, for him to succeed in something for once, but his mind draw a blank and all the belgian boy could do was stare up at the sky and look at the clouds passing overhead.
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

The sunny days at Hogwarts were getting the better of Lilyanna. Her sister had somehow managed to convince her to get outside a bit more and it surprised her that she was actually convinced. Possibly it was the beautiful scenery outside of Hogwarts that had drawn Lilyanna to it all or it was simply just because she knew she needed some more vitamin D. Spending time inside all day for the past eleven years had made her skin extremely pale and maybe starting to go outside was a good idea. She had brought some light reading of her favourite books with her from home and walked outside to find a good place to read them in. She wasn't quite sure where she wanted to go but had decided that the lakefront was a good idea. There probably wasn't going to be many people there either which was a good thing. But unfortunately, she was mistaken and when she made it there there were already people taking up the good parts of the grass area near the lake, including a boy whom she had spotted sprawled out all over it. She wanted to go over there and confront him but instead controlled her anger and just decided to sit quite close to him and not acknowledge his existence. Maybe if she invaded his personal space long enough then he would move and the whole area of the grass would be Lily's.

Opening her book to the front page, Lilyanna began reading. It was quite an old book and was a bit tattered as she had had it for quite a while but it was her favourite and how could she just throw it out? Of course, she could go and buy a new one that was in a much better condition but she fell in love with this book and this book only. She would never think of trading it for a new one. She looked to her left at the boy who was still lying across the grass and smirked, hoping that he'd soon disappear. She didn't have all day and would enjoy the book much better if she was alone.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes' mind was truly wrapped around the annoyance of his own lack of goodness and her with how perfect she was, there was nothing in his young mind which made him think that she would at all want to be with him, Emma was perfect and he just wasn't, and he was completely enamored by her, she was so amazing, the way she smiled and laughed, and he could only think of himself as like a horrid dark cloud which was only going to bring her to his level of misery. The Ravenclaw boy sighed heavily, being back home amongst his family members had been nice of course but it had also reminded him of how terrible he was at everything, Victoire having achieved near perfect grades, Louis-Philipe achieving excellent grades and a whole world of success with his debating team, and Venus, whom was of course easily the most beautiful of their family, and Theo was just Theo. He brought nothing to the table, nothing he could draw or paint ever compared to the brains and beauty that the rest of his siblings had gotten.

The Ravenclaw let out a long sigh, sighing over the pathetic-ness of his own life compared with others, sighing over the fact he loved a girl so perfect when he was so imperfect and held little chance, and just over the fact that he faced another term of average grades and annoyance that he had to perhaps consider pulling up his grades. Theo had brought a book with him to the grounds, though it sat beside him doing nothing but laying there in silent judgement of him as instead of picking it up at reading the boy was staring up at the sky and just looking at the clouds, sighing heavily at every other moment.
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

Lilyanna wanted nothing more than to move schools right away. It was clear that she did not fit into this school anymore and already there were people that were annoying her to the point where she wanted to run away and never come back. But if only it was that easy and she was able to run away just like the boy in her book did. He made it look very easy but Lilyanna knew it wasn't and could only wish that she'd get away with it just like he did but she knew she couldn't and was only left stuck in this horrible life of hers that she wished she could get out of. Of course, it wasn't entirely horrible and was simply frustrating. In all honesty, she loved life and she loved everything in it but it was just the way that life treated her that she simply couldn't stand.

It turns out that the boy was not going to move. All he did was sigh and continued looking up at the sky and Lilyanna was unsure whether or not he was ignoring her or could just not see her. Maybe he was blind? "Do you mind!?" she snapped, slamming her book shut in front of her. "Your life can't be that hard that you have to sigh all the time." She rolled her eyes at him, clearly annoyed at the lack of acknowledgement she was getting from him. All she wanted was this spot on the grass and she would do whatever it took for it to be hers. After all, he didn't seem to be doing much anyway other than lying on it acting like he was depressed. But maybe his life was just like Lilyanna's and it was treating him unfairly too? Whatever it was, it could wait.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes glanced at the girl who started speaking, slamming the book closed and then he just shrugged and gave a little sigh, "My life might not be hard, in comparison to others but to me, it's hard," the young Ravenclaw told the girl as if asking her to not diminish his feelings just because others had it out harder than he did, was he not allowed to express his sadness just because there were some in the world with more reason to be sad or hard to require sighing so much and the boy didn't care whether she had a more difficult life, he was sighing because of Emma, and how much he felt for her, because in his mind all hope at them being more than just friends were impossible, she deserved so much more than him, she deserved someone more talented and more academic, someone who didn't look as awkward as he did, who was as bright and happy as she was.

"I mean, this world is hopeless, I'll never really achieve what I want," he complained with the whine clear in his voice, "My magic will never be good enough," he continued just happy to be able to voice his concerns over the matter to her and just have a moment of happiness over being able to talk, "And this girl I like, she's so pretty and I feel so good around her, but no one understands because she's so good and I'm not," he sighed heavily, "My sister says what I feel is something I'll get over, but I don't want to," he continued sitting up and looking straight at the girl who had essentially let him speak about his troubles even if she hadn't meant for him to.
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

Lilyanna was slightly shocked that they boy didn't seem to care about Lilyanna's outburst. Usually people would try to scream to her back and it would cause an argument but this boy seemed intent on telling Lilyanna all his feelings. She found herself nodding when he started going on about how the world was hopeless. It really was and she was glad that someone else had felt the same way as her but she wasn't good at cheering people up and knew that she probably wasn't the person who he should be talking to. She thought about telling him to go see a councilor and leave her alone but the fact that this boy, who didn't seem too much older than her, seemed to be in love was a bit shocking. They were both only young and he was probably delusional.

"It's... okay." she said tentatively, not really knowing what to say. "I agree that life is hard. I'm sorry for yelling at you." She knew she had to apologise. She didn't want the boy to be sad just because she snapped at him but it still would have been polite if he had spoken first. After all, Lilyanna wasn't really good at social situations and starting a conversation herself wasn't really her thing. "But.. this girl... if you don't talk to her you'll never know. Besides, don't you think it's a bit too early to be starting to think of things like that? It's scientifically proven that if you have liked someone for over 4 months then you're really in love with them." Well, at least that was what she was told. She didn't think that even if those two did start dating that they would last very long. They were only just teenagers and she thought it was too early to think of love at the moment. To her, her studies always came first.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

The Ravenclaw was a little startled when it seemed that she understood what he was taking about or at the very least didn't mind his whining which was a little bit of a novelty, his sisters were the only ones who listened to him and he knew that was because they were related, Theo looked at the girl, as she replied telling him that it was alright, and he sat up slightly on his elbows, running a hand through his mop of unruly dark brown hair, unsure of how to even approach the Emma situation, but knowing part of it would just be seeing her again, the boy shook his head at the apology, "It's okay, I understand," he did understand the yelling at him, he had experienced it quite a lot, but he was more than thankfully that rather than wondering away she stuck around and then began to try to answer his questions, or answer his issues.

As she spoke of the girl, Tholomyes couldn't help the smile which erupted on his face thinking of her, Emma just did that to him, and he just nodded along with what she was saying, "I don't think it's been more than four months, she just has this smile," and he sighed unhappily, just so annoyed at his lot in life had meant he knew this girl and he couldn't even find the words to express on much it was never going to happen, "I mean, if you look at her and then at me, then you'll realise how hopeless it is, I'm awkward," Tholomyes continued with another heavy sigh as he lay back down and glanced up at the sky, "I'm Tholomyes by the way," he told the girl, "Most people just call me Theo," Tholomyes added, glancing back at her and flashing her a small smile before glancing back up at the sky, "The sky looks so beautiful with the clouds, I wish my pictures could do it justice," there was a heavy pause as the boy marvelled at the sky above him, "Do you draw?"
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

Quite frankly, Lilyanna was horrible at relationship advice. The boy hadn't liked the girl for four months yet which probably explained his slight obsession with her. Lilyanna had never had a crush on anyone before as she didn't really like people in general so she didn't exactly know how to feel about the whole situation but she did know that this was only the first step in having a crush on someone - talking about them a lot and obsessing over them. Truthfully, Lilyanna felt it was a bit weird and she had never really grasped the concept of love before. How could anyone ever love someone for such a long time? That was probably the main reason why most relationships didn't really work out nowadays as the world was just full of unlikeable people. Admittedly, Lilyanna thought that love was a waste of time.

The boy had introduced himself as Tholomyes. She either had the choice to call him that or Theo but would rather call him Tholomyes as that was his name and that was probably what was written on his birth certificate too. "I'm Lilyanna but Lily is fine." she said, mainly hoping he would call her Lilyanna than Lily. Despite this, she didn't mind at all what he called her as long as he would continue being nice to her. "And you're not awkward. In fact, you're far from awkward. I suppose I am more awkward than you are." she said matter-of-factly without the intention of trying to cheer him up. Instead she was just pointing out the truth. He was the one who started the conversation and so far it didn't seem awkward at all.

Talking about the sky had in fact interested Lilyanna. She had loved not just the sky but the stars and planets that were beyond it and therefore was looking extremely forward to Astronomy lessons this year. They were just really pretty and when the boy asked if she drew, it slightly amused her. No, she had never drawn before but it was indeed a good idea and probably something she could have a look at. She much preferred reading books but what would she do if books didn't exist? It was about time she had developed another interest. "No." she said simply, proceeding to lay herself down to look up at the sky next to Tholomyes. "But I want to. Do you draw? Perhaps we could draw together." She hadn't really liked the company of people but something told her that the boy needed some and she didn't know why but she felt sorry for him and thought that perhaps she should try to give him company for his benefit. After all, she hadn't really befriended anyone at Hogwarts yet so maybe she should give it a try.

-
Sorry, it's pretty long.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes got the impression from how she had explained her name that she didn't want to be called Lily at all, but had just said it, like he'd said Theo, but he always figured telling people to say it Theo was easier than having to tell them each time how to say Tholomyes, the only ones who could were his family and those who spoke french, and those students within the school were few and far between. Theo glanced at her as she said he wasn't awkward citing her own self as more awkward and the boy just shrugged at her, he didn't think she was that awkward, likely in the same way she thought he wasn't, but the boy just let out a heavy sigh, opting to not even address what she'd said, thinking it just easier to not even think about it. The young Ravenclaw knew he was awkward, knew that he sounded awkward, that he acted awkward and though he could try as much as he wanted he was never actually going to be able to move beyond his own awkwardness, not now and likely not ever, if the current trend of his life was anything to go by.

The Ravenclaw's gaze just stayed firmly looking up at the sky, as he took in the beauty of the clouds unable to capture them however much he tried, he had always been the best at art in his last school but this place was different he couldn't practice, which was likely why he had just gotten so much worse in his mind. Theo sat up slightly at her words, before passing over his sketchbook which he had brought with him, waiting for the inspiration to strike and for him to be able to draw like he'd once been able to, or thought he'd been able to, perhaps everything he'd ever drawn had just been wrong and terrible and the grades he had gotten were nothing but pity grades. Tholomyes glanced at the girl before looking back up at the clouds, of course they could draw together if that was what she wanted, he could definitely do that, Tholomyes did really enjoy drawing, and despite how terrible he thought he was currently at it, it didn't stop him, he had page after page in his notebook filled with drawings and sketches, largely they were done by pencil, the occasional quill doodle, nothing complex or colourful, but indicating that Theo did still practice, after a moment he sat himself up and then pulled out a few pencils holding them out to the girl, "I draw," he replied before flipping the sketchbook open to a new page and then placing his pencil on the page, "I like to draw flowers," he admitted as he drew the first few lines of what wasn't a flower but the clouds in the sky.
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

Lilyanna was glad that Tholomyes had agreed for her to draw with him. She was perhaps going to learn something new today and learning new things was always something Lilyanna loved to do. Besides, drawing didn't seem that hard at all and at least it didn't involve having to listen to loud noises or doing any physical activity as that was definitely not what Lilyanna was all about. She was also giving the boy some company which was perhaps one of the nicest things she had done in a while. She sat side-by-side next to Tholomyes as he took out his book that he had seemed to be drawing in quite a lot. She smiled slightly at the drawings and thought that drawing was really going to get her mind off of things. After all, she was free to draw whatever her heart desired and Lilyanna loved to do things her own way only.

It wasn't until Tholomyes took out some 'stick-things' and offered them to her that her smile had completely disappeared from her face. It was replaced with a look of utter confusion and fear and she leaned back a bit, unsure of what those sticks were going to do to her. They didn't look anything at all like a normal stick and had a sharp point on the end of them which Lilyanna was scared was going to attack her at any moment. "W-what are those?" she asked, not wanting to take one in her hands yet. They looked rather dangerous and she watched wide-eyed as the boy started to draw with them in his book. He didn't have an ink bottle with him but it didn't really look like he needed one. What were they? It confused her to the point of frustration and she simply continued to watch him cautiously as if at any moment those sticks could turn into a life-threatening weapon.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes has already just started drawing, lazily moving the pencil across the page, completely oblivious to the girl and the fact she didn't know what he was holding out to her in his other hand, that was until she spoke and was clearly surprised he glanced between the pencils and her and realised that perhaps she'd just never seen one before, but that was odd, surely everyone knew what a pencil was, that was one of the few staples of life, pencils, they'd been around for hundreds of years, did her family just not exist within the normal world. His gaze continued to shift between her and the pencils before he sat up slightly and stopped drawing on the page, he placed down the pencil he was holding for drawing and placed the one he had been offering to her in the palm of his hand.

"It's a pencil," he told her turning it over so that she could see it, so that she could see it's shape, "This is graphite," he pointed to the sharp bit of the pencil touching it lightly with his little finger to show that while sharp and perhaps sore it wasn't some weapon that he was about to use on her. Then he took the pencil and drew a line upon the page with it, "The graphite is like ink, only you don't need to be constantly dapping the pencil into the ink for it to work," he continued in his explanation not quite believing that he was really honestly describing a pencil so someone, "A pencil can get blunt and you just sharpen it with a pencil sharpener," that item he took out of his pocket to show her briefly before putting it back in, "Have you never used one before?" he asked as he finished his explanation of the pencil really wondering if she'd really never seen one before, never had to deal with one, "I'm guessing you weren't raised by muggles then," he said with a small smile reaching his face, feeling almost lucky to be able to say he was the one to introduce her to the items.
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

Lilyanna stayed silent as Tholomyes began to explain to her what he was holding in his hand. It was almost like someone had picked up a stick and shaped it into what he told her was a Pencil. She jumped slightly when he stabbed his finger with it, afraid that it was going to hurt him. Instead, it didn't do anything of the sort which told Lilyanna that it wasn't infact dangerous at all. Now that she thought of it, it was probably one of the best inventions yet. She took one of the pencils from him and began to turn it in her hand, inspecting it closely and, when Lilyanna stabbed her hand with it just like Tholomyes did, it didn't hurt at all. "So... the sharp bit is graphite which is like infinite ink. But when it runs out or 'gets blunt' all you do is sharpen it." she mumbled to herself, summarising everything Tholomyes said. "How do you sharpen it?" she asked, glancing at his pocket in which he put the sharpener back in. It all seemed surreal for Lilyanna and she wanted to know more. Who invented this masterpiece? Were there books on it in the library? She'd have to have a look see later.

"No, I was raised by two mixed blood wizards." she said matter-of-factly, answering Tholomyes' question. "We only ever use quills because, well, it's the only thing we're able to find." She must ask her parents for a trip to the muggle world one day. She had never been to the muggle world before and if they had many more astonishing things like this pencil then she would gladly have a trip there any day. Besides, she didn't think the muggle world would be that different but it was definitely something she wanted to have a look at for herself. Were muggles really that different to wizards? The question was something that she had always wanted an answer to. If they were able to invent such great things like this pencil then they had a magical power that wizards in the wizarding world did not.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes had been waiting for a couple of questions from the girl, but it seemed like she'd pretty much gotten it, aside from asking about the sharpener, which Tholomyes gladly took out of his pocket and held it out to her with a small smile, "You put the pencil in and turn it against the blade," he explained holding it out so that she could see it, before then placing the pencil in and showing her how that was done with a bright smile, feeling pretty pleased with himself for having at the very least imparted a little bit of knowledge to someone else, even if it was a little strange to him to have to explain something that he just thought everyone knew about in the wizarding world, but then being from both it was easy for him to forget which aspects were purely in one world, and likely not at all in the other world, it was so easy for him to live and exist in both worlds while forgetting that others didn't have his luck of this.

The Ravenclaw was hardly surprised when she said that she was from two magical parents, and that they'd only used quills, it made sense in that, but he just nodded smiling slightly at this fact, nodding his head before handing her the pencil and just continuing the lines he was drawing, it seemed to not be taking any shape in particularly, given that he was drawing rough lines and it was still early, "Both my parents are muggles, but both my sisters are magical like me," he told her, knowing that his younger sister would be magical too and though she wasn't directly related to him it wasn't like he cared about this tiny fact, they were related in all but blood and that was such a little factor he barely cared about. The boy shrugged at her, "We used these pencils and pens, no quills, quills are pretty messy," he told her, "Although writing with them is almost like a completely different form of art," he shrugged at her again, glancing from the painting in front of him and back up at her, "Pencils are the best for drawing because you can eraser any mistakes you make," Theo told her as he continued drawing, clearly drawing a cloud in the shape of weirdly puffy star.
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

Lilyanna followed Tholomyes' actions carefully with her eyes as he put the pencil in the hole of the sharpener and demonstrated how it worked. It made sense when you thought about it and Lilyanna thought that it was such a great idea. "Can I try?" she asked, snatching the sharpener from him and beginning to use her own pencil to sharpen. She did this slowly and watched as the blade made little shavings which made a mess around her, all the while making the point of the pencil sharper and sharper until it eventually broke. She jumped, keeping the sharpener a good distance away from her face as the lead broke off, leaving nothing but the weirdly shaped stick there with a messy point. "I-I'm sorry." she stuttered, quickly taking the pencil out of the sharpener incase it were to explode or something. She didn't mean to break the pencil and was only just interested in seeing how it worked. Carefully, she put the pencil back into the sharpener and continued turning it, trying to get it back to normal. Eventually it did but Lilyanna purposefully continued to keep breaking the pencil over and over again, clearly amused. Sharpening a pencil was more entertaining than it looked.

Lilyanna looked up abruptly when she noticed that Tholomyes was still talking. "Yeah, quills get really messy so I guess it's good they made pencils." she nodded, agreeing with him. "How would you erase a mistake?" She tried to use her finger to get rid of the graphite on the page the Ravenclaw was drawing on but to no avail. Instead she simply smudged his drawing and she sighed, not bothering to apologise again. Besides, he didn't seem like he was drawing much anyway and it didn't cause that much damage to his artwork. It was only just a small smudge and she was sure he'd get over it. Perhaps muggles used some kind of spell to get rid of the drawing? But how did muggles use spells? There had to be an easier explanation. Looking down at her pencil, she noticed it had decreased in size and quickly gave the sharpener back to Tholoymes in case the pencil disappeared completely with all of her sharpening. Sharpening pencils was fun but sometimes she knew she had to stop as she was sure Tholoymes wouldn't like her if she ruined his artwork and his pencil.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

The boy was happy to let her try the sharpener, finding it a little odd, if a little endearing how interested she was in learning about all of these supposed muggle things which he had, even though to him, the objects that he had were all perfectly natural things, nothing that any person would have to learn about and he just watched the girl, Lilyanna with a lot of curiosity wondering why no one in her magical family had taken the time to learn or teach her about them, there were still a lot of differences between the magical and the muggle world, which he was learning about every day. It was a little difficult at times for him to distinguish between the two but he really happily did so now showing her the little part of his old life which he'd brought into the new one. At her apology he just shook his head and smiled, as she figured out what to do, he used this time to just draw aimlessly on the paper.

The Ravenclaw nodded at her and just from within his pocket produced an eraser, placing it down on the page, he put the pencil behind his ear before taking up the eraser and then rubbing out half of the lines he'd been drawing sweeping away the bits of eraser that were rubbed off and then looking back up at the girl, "This is an eraser, it erases," he explained finding himself laughing slightly at his own sentence, it was just so strange to be talking about such things, so strange that this was something he was talking about, but the boy didn't mind, "I don't mean to laugh, I grew up with muggle parents this is sort of like if you had to explain what quills and ink were to me," he tried to explain feeling bad for all that he had said to her about it, but he couldn't help it. The boy just motioned to the paper, "Just draw," he suggested, as he continue to draw, leaving the eraser on the page if the girl wanted to try them, and instead of pondering it much longer just began to fill in his picture, better than before, a picture of clouds in other shapes, a strange thing to draw but Theo just drew.
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

Being raised in the magical world and having not ever been inside the muggle world, Lilyanna had found it quite interesting how exactly muggles were taught and raised and watched as Tholomyes seemed to be drawing with ease, not worried that what he was drawing with seemed rather peculiar. He nodded at Lilyanna's words and took out a small object made out of rubber and Lilyanna looked at it curious, wondering what ingenious name the muggles had given it. 'Pencil' was by far the best name out of all of the objects and Lilyanna positioned herself on her stomach on the fresh grass, not taking her eye off of the new object that Tholomyes had in his hand. Perhaps one day Lilyanna could invent something as clever as that? For now, she had to focus on her education if she wanted to grow up to be as intelligent as the muggles.

Lilyanna chuckled at the name that the muggles gave the rubbery thing that erased mistakes. It was such a simple name and very easy to guess. She thought Tholomyes was laughing at the same thing until he spoke. She understood why he thought she was probably a bit stupid, which slightly offended her, but she shrugged it off knowing that not everyone was the smartest at everything, including herself. She watched as Tholomyes told her to draw and shrugged before picking up the pencil with her left hand and beginning to try and mimic what he was drawing. It felt weird using a stick instead of a feather but eventually she managed to get the hang of it and was drawing different shapes around her piece of paper, all the while thoroughly enjoying what she was doing. She felt at ease as her hand moved around the page, occasionally using the eraser to get rid of some of her mistakes. "This is pretty fun." she mumbled, not bothering if the boy had heard her speak. Tholomyes was definitely the most fun person to be around at Hogwarts despite his loner reputation and she had already learnt so much from him upon their first meeting. Now she could definitely tell her family she had made a new friend.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

It was nice to have helped someone learn something, he liked the strange feeling that it left in him, and though this was only good because he'd managed to help her and the boy knew that if he hadn't the feeling would be not only the opposite but also ten times worse, he didn't like the idea at failing at something in such a way, so it was likely that this had worked out, and the girl, Lilyanna seemed to really enjoy the pencil, and the sharpener and the eraser, it was all so weirdly nice to see. He liked the idea of teaching all of a sudden, that despite all the hopelessness of how he felt sometimes when explaining that perhaps there was something to this teaching thing, that perhaps he could when he eventually left school teach, his passion was in art, he loved drawing, he loved moving the pencil across the page, he loved creating something, but he never liked anything he did, he struggle for hours to learn and perfect what he did, even if at the end he hated it, however, this here and now with her, teaching her what the utensils were and watching as she drew he knew that his love of it was something far stronger than his hatred of his own pieces.

Tholomyes couldn't help but nod at her statement, and he put the pencil on the page, abandoning the earlier drawing to instead doodle something else, "There are at Hogwarts a lack of art classes, plenty of art, but a lack of art classes," he said with a heavy sigh not looking up from what he was doing from what he was drawing upon the page, it was nothing too amazing, but it was the clear outline of a person, he always struggled with portraits unable to really deal with people and the frustration they might feel over a terrible picture, but he was trying his best, he had previously thought before magic that he would do art until the end of school and study art professionally, be the guy who always had paint on his fingers, to be like the depictions of the arts with messy hair, charcoal smeared on faces, cigarettes in mouth, but he had more options than he ever could've imagined, and being with her made him wonder about teaching, "I find it soothing, even though I'm not very good, and I'll only get worse because of a lack of a teacher but, I like it," he looked up for a moment and then back at the page, a small doodle was forming, a quickly drawn Lilyanna on the page, he mostly drew Emma, she was everything in his life, but this was different, this was a quick sketch which was definitely not as awful as he thought it was.
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

Everything about how Tholomyes was drawing made Lilyanna wonder how exactly they painted the moving pictures that she saw everyday in not only the Hogwarts castle but her own house. She had never thought of it like that before and simply supposed that whatever you draw would move but the things Lilyanna were drawing simply stayed put just like an ordinary picture. There were many questions that were bottled up in her mind but Lilyanna tried to push them away as Tholomyes started talking about the lack of art classes at Hogwarts. "But isn't there an art club or something that you can join?" she asked, wondering if they still did that kind of stuff. Her father had told her that there were many clubs that she'd be able to join and she even considered going to the club fair this year. Despite how fun they might be, she'd rather focus on her education than club activities and thought that even if she went that there wouldn't really be many things to interest her. Socialising just wasn't her thing.

Lilyanna felt her heart warm when she saw what Tholomyes had drawn. It was a picture of a girl but it looked exactly like Lilyanna. "I-is that me?" she asked, feeling slightly flattered. If it wasn't then it would've been awkward. But everything about it made her feel good about herself and she just wished she had enough skill to draw a picture of him in return, but not even the simple shapes that Lilyanna were drawing were anything compared to his. "You're really good." she told him truthfully, not taking her eyes off of what he drew. Why didn't the whole school know about his talents? Surely he'd be one of the most famous people in the world with his skill if he told everyone? The thought made Lilyanna want to befriend him even more, and not just because he could potentially be famous but because he truly was a nice person and she wondered where on earth someone like him had came from. If it wasn't for him Lilyanna wouldn't have learnt what a pencil was which she thought was quite interesting.

 

[Tholomyes Fontaine]

Tholomyes liked watching her draw, and shrugged a little sadly at the statement, "There was but, now there's just a room, no club to go with it," there was almost an element in his tone that made it seem like he thought it was his fault there was no longer an arts club and he was clearly upset by the lack of it. The young Ravenclaw shrugged again, there was nothing he could do about it, nothing that he could do to change it, nothing that he could do that would make any sense, or bring it back. He used the room, and planned to use it as often as he needed it. The boy however just kept draw, doing most of it from the few glances he shot at her and just nodded at the question, "I've always struggled with faces," he complained as he use the eraser, to slowly get rid of a line he had incorrectly done. Theo didn't think he was really good, most of the time he didn't even think of himself as good. Tholomyes didn't have anything to say to the compliment, "This is terrible, I'm terrible," he muttered with a heavy sigh, but it was clear he was trying to improve it, make it up to his standards, even if this did seem like an impossible task.

The Ravenclaw looked at what she was doing and just smiled, "You're doing good, clearly a natural," he told her trying his best to boost her confidence, she'd learned what a pencil was, and he'd helped her do that, and it had felt so strangely good. Tholomyes smiled at her, "We should head inside, I can show you the arts room?" he offered, getting to his feet and stretching his body slightly, a little eager to get inside and to show her the art room, which he figured she'd get some used out of.
​

 

[Lilyanna Hope]

Lilyanna felt quite disappointed that there wasn't such thing as the art club anymore. She might have actually considered joining it if it still existed but she knew she could always just draw on her own or with Tholomyes whenever she wanted to. The club must have been interesting though and if Lilyanna was a year older than she was then she would have been able to join it for a year. At least she found something she was quite interested in now. "You're not terrible!" Lilyanna exclaimed quickly after Tholomyes began to doubt himself. "You're better than I am! Really." She smiled at him, a kind of smile that she usually never gave many people. It was a friendly smile that was to let him know that Lilyanna was telling the truth. She rather appreciated his company and was very glad that he took her spot on the grass after all.

As Tholomyes called her a natural, Lilyanna wondered whether or not he was being sarcastic. She just shrugged at him, not really knowing whether or not she should really believe him. Her drawing was nothing compared to his. She watched as he erased a line he accidentally drew, mesmerized at how he had managed to get every single detail of Lilyanna perfectly, despite them only just meeting and despite her not really looking up very much from what she was drawing to give Tholomyes a good view of her face. "The art room sounds like a good idea!" she exclaimed, finishing up her drawing of stars and other shapes that she had found herself drawing before standing up with it in her hands, ready to leave. Hopefully she'd be able to give it some colour now. "You can lead the way."