They Come and Go

[Reuben Pendleton]

Reuben had heard storied of distant Uncles and Aunts passing away, but never before his little brother's had news of a death brought the boy such tremendous grief. Reagan, at just five years old, had been the heart of the family: his ebullient nature - his manner of giggling at anything and everything that could possibly be considered humorous - was, in times of hardship, often all that had kept the spirits of the Lagowski family lifted. And now he was gone. There was a big, gaping hole in the heart of Swallow Barn; and nothing remained there of Reagan's presence but the lingering scent of his hair on his pillowcase.

At first, as is often the case when a dearly loved one dies unexpectedly, Reuben had been angry. He had questions that nobody seemed to be able to answer. "How could you do this to me?" was one of them; and as he sat on the floor in the far corner of the abandoned classroom, knees clutched to his chest and face streaked with tears, he repeated it several times, the frustration in his tone increasing each time it went unanswered. He wasn't quite as angry now as he'd been the week following his brother's death, but it was clear that he still held over him a great resentment for it. Reagan wasn't really to blame - Reuben had to surmise that he wouldn't have chosen to die had he been able to help it - but knowing this only made the Hufflepuff feel worse for being so angry with him.

His tears must have piqued someone's interest, because presently there was a knock at the door that sounded distinctly like someone coming in. Not wishing to attract any attention to himself, Reuben ducked his head into his knees and held his breath, praying to all the great magical figures he knew that whoever it was would consider themselves mistaken of any sound and leave. But alas, gravity was not Reuben's friend, and in order to prevent a big glob of snot falling out of his nose, he was forced to sniff in, revealing his presence in the corner at once.

 

[Ares Jeffreys]

Ares always loved wondering, he liked walking through the halls of this magical school and just letting his mind run wild with different ideas and different stories, his mind would actively create the story around him, and he found it so much easier to just see all of that, he found it simple to just let his mind create as he just marvelled and lived the story. Many times Ares had been so lost in his thoughts that he'd missed classes, or hit literal brick walls, but he liked it, and it wasn't like anyone had yet told him that he was too childish for such things and rather he enjoyed just being able to relax in his own mind. The beginning of this term had been difficult for him, mostly because he loved being at home with his family and school meant lessons and things of that nature that he really wasn't interested in, mostly just because he wasn't that academic, the moment a professor started lecturing his mind ran wild with ideas and situations other than he one he was in.

However, today he didn't have much in the way of something to do, and was just roaming the halls of the school, with his mind currently in a fantasy land filled with magical fairies that made lives happier with their spells and magic. They had magical glitter than rained down happiness, perhaps it was just that Ares was in a really good mood that he saw this rather than more of a story where he would have to free or save someone. The boy stopped dead in his tracks when he heard something that sounded suspiciously like crying, and he wondered who it was and why there were upset. He stood at the door of the abandoned classroom just listening vaguely to what was happening and then decided to just enter the room, see if the person was alert when he immediately entered the room appeared to be empty, "Hello?" he called out and it was then he heard a sniffle in the corner and noticed the boy whom he knew vaguely from quidditch, "Oh no! Did the evil queen of the nymph's strike you with her sadness arrow?" he rushed to the bows side, clearly not meaning what he was saying since he knew there were none, but he was still very much in his fantasy mindset and wondered if perhaps this boy might play along, "Here, drink this potion, it'll lessen the effect," all he produced was a bottle of water but regardless of if he did play along, he figured the water might be of some use.
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[Reuben Pendleton]

As if it would make any difference to hid discovery, Reuben kept resolutely still, even holding hid breath until his chest hurt and the room began spinning around him. But, as he had sniffed, and perhaps also a little owing to his no longer being so small and easily hidden in confined spaces, he wss found in a matter of mere seconds. After exhausting this pointless endeavour, he entertained a second by wiping his eyes on the sleeves of his robes, as if to pretend he'd never been crying in the first place. Then, once he'd realised the futility of this, too, he ceased rubbing his eyes and looked up to see who had joined him. Aaron, or Ares, or something; Reuben recognised hin from the Hufflepuff common room, and from the lessons they shared together on a regular basis. They'd never really conversed before, which was predominantly because Reuben had been much too shy to approach him, and not because he didn't think he looked like great fun to hang around with.

He sniffed again, a frown of perplexity creasing his forehead. His Mom often told him that if he frowned too much, he would get wrinkles, and he privately assumed this was why she had so many of them. Evil queen of nymphs? Sadness arrow? Such great numbers of months had passed since Rudolf and Reuben had played make believe together that, for a moment, the trusting boy really wondered whether these things might exist. But his tears were the work of no evil nymph. A potion couldn't bring his little brother Reagan back. So, rather than attempting to decipher any truth from the boy's words, Reuben simply batted away the bottle and gave his eyes another rub. "I don't want to play," he lied miserably. He did want to play; more than that, he wanted someone to play with. Rudolf was always either too busy or 'too old', and Graeme, he had to admit reluctantly, probably really was a bit too old. There was hardly a soul else in the castle who knew his name - most people mistook him for Rudolf. Others weren't even aware Rudolf had a twin. He was very lonely, and so, even though Ares' timing could have been significantly better, Reuben suddenly decided he did want to play after all, and with renewed spirit took the bottle he'd just rejected and swigged from it. "I think it takes a while to start working," he told the boy, when, having tasted that it was nothing but water, his suspicions that this was all a game were confirmed. "How did you know what to do? Has the evil queen of nymphs hit you with one of her arrows before, too?"

 

[Ares Jeffreys]

Ares watched the boy carefully, knowing him mostly from his house and the quidditch team that he was an alternate for, the boy wasn't sure how to make him feel better he had never really experienced sadness in the way that and he didn't know how to help him really, Ares had been too young when his mother had died to ever really miss her in the way that he knew his father and brother had been when it had happened. The only thing that Ares had to offer was the playful nature of story telling, of having a little fun in a day dream but knowing in his mind that this boy probably didn't want that, most didn't. The young Hufflepuff felt a little sad at the boy's first instance that he didn't want to play since Ares thought it really would help him, but he didn't want that and Ares had nothing else to offer this situation but he didn't exactly want to leave the sad boy to remain in his sadness. Ares felt himself frown and he tried to come up with a little story that might be more suited, and then noticed that the boy moved, clearly he wanted to play.

The young hufflepuff watched him take the real bottle and take a drink of it commenting on the potions effectiveness and then he took back the bottle and just smiled, Ares loved stories and he didn't need to be encourage to continue it with the boy, "The potion takes a while to take hold, you just have to keep taking small drinks whenever it feels like it's getting worse," he said to him with a small smile, essentially saying that if he ever wanted to drink from the "potion" that he just had to ask. Ares then just shook his head, "I've been tracking the evil nymph queen for ages," he told him, "She's left a path of sadness in her wake, but I think I'm finally pretty close," Ares put down the bottle of water between and reached out, lightly touching the other boy's face, "From the looks of it, your sadness is very fresh, which she was here very recently, I can't be far away, she might even still be in the room," he let his voice fall away at the end as if pretending to be listening more carefully to the room as if she was still in it, he pulled out the wand, "I've never been so close! Do you want to help me destroy her?"
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