Closed The Last Table on a Rainy Afternoon

[Ajaccio Skey]

With a new term upon them Ajaccio was discovering that perhaps all of the things that Vader had told him about running accio was a bit of an understatement. There was so much that he needed to do and plan out. There was just so much he had to organise, so much that he had to do that Ajaccio was very glad he had decided to not bother with Quidditch this year, he simply would not have had the time for such a thing. The boy was making his way through the school, his skateboard left in the dorm and the short stack of work for Accio that he had under his arm. He had wanted to work on it outside but had in the end decided against that when it had started raining heavily, his nice warm sun filled break now truly forgotten, opting now instead for just the student lounge, which seemed to be teeming with people. He spotted an empty enough table in the end of the room thankfully by the window and headed over,it helped that as he approached he realised who was sat there, ”Hey Connor, you mind if I join you?” he asked, he didn’t just want to sit down and take up space in case it turned out that Connor was saving the seat for someone.​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor had been dreading coming back to school before he had gotten an unexpected letter. The yellow prefect's badge shining on his lapel still felt wrong, almost like he had accidentally borrowed another person's robes, like he should be bringing it back to the person it belonged to. Connor strove to be a good person, to be a good example, but he had never expected to hold a position like this, responsible for the students of his house. At least most of the people he knew in his own house didn't seem to hate him, but venturing out of the Hufflepuff commons, Connor still felt a frisson of fear, worried he would be assaulted by one or other of Nicole's cronies. So he couldn't quite help jumping when Ajax asked to sit with him, looking up at the Ravenclaw warily. "Um... sure." He said slowly, but he couldn't keep the tension out of his voice. "But this isn't about Nicole, is it? I really don't want to talk about her." After the confrontation with Nicole's brother on the train, Connor didn't think he would be so lucky as to avoid the problems of last year trickling into this one, and he knew Ajax had always been closer to Nicole than to him.

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio looked at Connor with some confusion...he knew they had never been close but Ajax wasn’t sure why Connor would think he wanted to talk about Nicole. ”Nah, I just need a place to work..” he replied. The prefect could think it perhaps had a little to do with the break up being between Eric and Nicole, and while he was perhaps more on Nicole’s side because he knew her better, he wasn’t exactly going to get in the middle of it. Though the break up had been public that didn’t mean that everything else had to be too. He could help and make Nicole feel better without having to know what happened. He didn’t know what had caused it, who had done what. It wasn’t for him to know. He began placing down his accio things on to the table, if Connor said no, he’d go but the prefect was hopeful that he wouldn’t say no.​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor sighed and relaxed when Ajax confirmed this wasn't about last year, nodding in relief. "That's all good then." He said, nodding slightly. "I'm just.... really sick of that whole thing." He sighed heavily, trying to think of a change of subject. "How was your holiday though?" He asked, sitting up slightly. "Did you go anywhere cool this year?" He still couldn't believe all the holiday stories he had heard from Ajax before, and quietly hoped the Ravenclaw had something exciting to share yet again.

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio sat down and nodded lightly, he hadn’t been involved, really only support Nicole when he’d seen her but he didn’t need to be involved, it wasn’t his place to be involved. At the change of subject he smiled and nodded, ”It was good, a little tiring, my dad and I went sailing around some of the islands in the pacific,” he said with a little smile. It had been good but being on a boat, having to help out with running it and all that was rather difficult. He was deeply tanned from the hours spent in the sun on it, and was surely that in his last growth spurt over the break he was a little more lean than before. ”So it was good fun and saw some really amazing places. How was your break?” he asked, wondering if Connor had gotten up to much.​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor nodded as he listened, unable to help the fascination that crept onto his face as Ajax spoke about his holidays. "That's so cool, it must be so exciting just... going out and having all those adventures." He said, awestruck. He shrugged a little awkwardly when Ajax asked about his holiday, feeling almost silly about it now. "I didn't really do anything, I just hung out at home with my brother." Connor admitted quietly. "We've never really... gone anywhere cool, don't have the money." He added with a small shrug. He had been trying to be more okay with letting people know they weren't like the other Hollands, rolling in money and prestige, but it still felt a little shameful to admit when people most commonly associated his surname with the Minister.

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio gave a little smile and a shrug, he thought they were exciting too, but admittedly he had often forgotten how exclusive and how rare it was to be like that. Which was especially brought home as Connor spoke of his own holiday. ”If it wasn’t for my dad’s job we would barely travel too,” he told him, which didn’t make up for it really but was an honest statement of how it was in part just a bit of good fortune that had given his dad the job in the first place and that he continued to be employed by them. He had always known he was privileged for his father’s work but this always brought it home. It didn’t matter that this last holiday had been a lot of hard work and he’d really picked the wrong time to stop eating meat and fish. ”What are you studying today?” he asked, he didn’t want to linger too long on what he did or didn’t have, so talking about what they were doing was good too.​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor nodded as Ajax mentioned his dad's job, a little surprised that he had never considered the Ravenclaw's home life before. "What does your dad do?" He asked, wondering what kind of job would take someone all around the world like that. Certainly something more exciting than anyone in Connor's own immediate family. He shrugged when Ajax asked what he was studying, a little sheepish as he glanced down at the book he had been entirely failling to pay any attention to. "Oh... um, it's.... Divination notes from last year." He said, fidgeting with the paper slightly. "Figure it's never too early to start preparing for OWLs..." That part was true, although Connor would be the first to admit he hadn't been doing the best job of actually studying those notes.

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio smiled at the question, ”He’s a travel journalist. He works for a magazine with a digital print that does lots of feature articles on travel and my dad does like deep dives, dangerous sports and like adventures,” he told him. ”He has a modest social media following,” Ajax said with a little shrug, Ajax knew his dad was setting him up with social media accounts and posting to them which he wasn’t there, which was both funny and not. But he liked the photography element of it. ”It’s not, for sure, I’ve not like properly started but I know I’ll need to start soon. Do you know what you want to do when you leave school?”​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor listened in fascination, wondering what it would be like to grow up with a parent having such an exciting job. Seeing the entire world, going on all sorts of adventures, it sounded incredible. "That sounds so cool...." He said emphatically, eyes slightly glazed over as he imagined. He was brought sharply back to reality by the subject of OWLs and the future though, shrugging uncomfortably. "I mean... I love Herbology and the Wild Patch and everything, I know I want to do.... something with plants. But I don't know about... I mean, some of the plants we're studying are so dangerous, I don't think I would want to do anything like... you know, Professor Carter, like, being a proper Herbologist or anything. Maybe I can just.... design nice gardens or something?" He shrugged unhappily. "I don't know. I really haven't figured it out." Connor hesitated, glancing at Ajax. "How about you? Are you gonna do cool adventure stuff like your dad?"

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio nodded in some agreement, He knew that it was pretty cool, even if it really was for him just a norm. He knew that it wasn’t a particularly common job. Had always known it wasn’t. The amount of travelling he did tended to indicate and remind his as much before. He nodded as Connor mentioned something with plants. ”Design nice gardens would be cool!” he said with a warm tone, he thought it would be nice to design stuff like that, to have that sort of creative eye. For his own part he liked photography in part for the picture that could be built. ”We’ve still SO much time to figure it out,” he said. ”I don’t know. I like travelling, and I like the adventures, but it’s also nice to like have somewhere to come back to instead of always being on the road.” Ajaccio said. ”But you know, I've got time,”​

 

[Connor Holland]

Connor was relieved that Ajax didn't think his goals for the future sounded silly, smiling in response to the Ravenclaw's compliment. He nodded in agreement when Ajax pointed out how much time they had, and listened to the other boy's plans with interest. "Yeah, definitely." He agreed. "That sounds cool though! Maybe you could write travel guides or something, like.... go to a place and experience it, then come home and write about it? Best of both worlds." He said with a smile. Connor didn't know much about writing or travelling, but that sounded like a sensible sort of job.

 

[Ajaccio Skey]

Ajaccio nodded, knowing that that was a possibility, he just wasn’t entirely sure that was actually what he wanted. He knew that in an ideal world that was what he would want, but he knew the work was never that ideal, and he knew that it was more likely that he would not get what he wanted. Rather that he would have to make a decision either way, probably. Perhaps it was just that he’d spent so long with his dad, in the mind set that travel never stops that he didn’t see the alternative as particularly valid. But it didn’t matter. He looked back at his books and gave a little smile. ”I guess we should get to work at some point right?” he said knowing that though he would rather speak to Conor the entire time he did have work he needed to be getting on with. ​

 

[Connor Holland]

After the fight with Nicole, losing all of his friends, and the tension he had felt with his entire year, Connor had been enjoying the relief of just... having a normal conversation with someone. He almost felt a little sheepish when Ajax reminded him they should be studying. "Oh, yeah, of course." He smiled a little awkwardly and glanced down, returning his focus to the notes he needed to memorise for the approaching OWLs.