Closed World at the Tip of My Fingers

[Margo Fox]

Margo had come to really love the library at Hogwarts. It was one of the first places she visited once they arrived back from the holidays. She had enjoyed her time at home and loved falling back into the familiar routine she had with her grandmother. Her aunt had come for Christmas and brought her books and some new clothes, as usual, which she always appreciated. But the new books weighing down her trunk didn't stop her from poking around the library for something new to read. The unopened letter from her brother felt heavy enough in her bag but she wasn't ready to open it yet. She hummed to herself quietly as she scanned the titles of the books on the shelves. Margo paused and looked up when she noticed a book bound in bright read leather and gold lettering. It looked like it said something about dragons so she reached up to try and pull it off the shelf. Most of the time she didn't mind being short but it was times like these when an early growth spurt would really come in handy. She strained on her tip toes but could barely even brush the spine with her fingers.

 

[Cameron Roswell]

Ostensibly, Cameron had come up to the library to look up something for his homework but he'd gotten quickly distracted wandering the shelves. The number of books in this school had to be bordering on the impractical; Cameron refused to believe anyone was actually reading all these. Though maybe someone boring, Margo, might, he thought, spotting her straining to reach something on an upper shelf and snorting at her as she failed to reach. "You're never gonna reach that," he informed her smugly, well aware he wasn't much taller than her, though Cameron was sure he'd hit a good growth spurt any day now; his mum had always said his dad was really tall. "Lemme try," he announced, rolling up his sleeves and pulling out his wand. "Accio book!" No sooner had Cameron cast the spell than half the books on the shelf lept off, causing him to scramble back as he was hit by several of them at once. "Ow, crap, stupid," he muttered, shaking out his arm where a particularly dense hardback had hit his elbow. "Shut up," he muttered moodily at Margo as the dust settled.

 

[Margo Fox]

Margo managed to nudge the book ever so slightly before giving up momentarily just as Cameron appeared. With out wasting a second he of course started to criticize her and she rolled her eyes. "I was close." she said defensively, and it might have been true if she was an inch or two taller. She felt a bit silly when he pulled out his wand and started to cast the Accio charm. She frowned and wished she had thought of that before he had shown up. Margo still had trouble remembering that magic was just something she could do at school and not reserved just for classrooms.

But her self pity quickly turned to annoyance as Cameron's spell went sideways and they were quickly being attacked by an avalanche of books. In her hast to get out of the way she ended up dropping her school bag and it's contents spilled all over the ground. With a heavy sigh she turned to the Slytherin. "What did you do?" she whined before bending down to collect her things. She spotted the letter from her brother dangerously close to where Cameron stood and she scrambled for it quickly. "And don't tell me to shut up." she added rather boldly for once.

 

[Cameron Roswell]

"I was helping," Cameron said defensively, still rubbing at his elbow before shuffling a few of the books on the ground with his foot. He didn't really want to pick them all up again, especially when he knew the librarian could just do it with magic, but he figured Margo wouldn't let him just walk away from the mess. "Why not, it's a library, you're supposed to shut up," he wheedled at her, crouching down to start trying to stack a few books, pausing when he saw Margo scrambling to pick something up off the ground. "What's that?" He asked, grabbing for the parchment as well.

 

[Margo Fox]

Margo bit her tongue, well metaphorically at least. Cameron insisted he had been helping and she wanted to say that was hard to believe since he always seemed to have it out for her even though they were friends. Or at least that’s what she thought they were despite him never acting like it. That didn’t stop him from always being there, like now. She rubbed a spot on the back of her head where a book had made contact and stuck her tongue out at him when he said they were supposed to shut up in the library. She had already been the mature one once and thought he deserved it. In her act of defiance she lost a few valuable seconds and Cameron was able to grab Avery’s letter first. “Give that back.” she said sharply. “That’s…private.” she added, her voice wavering a bit. She hadn’t talked about her family with Cameron or Isadora. Though she had to imagine they had some idea since she lived with her grandma but she didn’t want it to be like this. Her face felt flushed and she tried to reach for it and grab it back.

 

[Cameron Roswell]

Cameron held the letter over their heads, not entirely sure if he was actually tall enough to keep it out of Margo's reach and leaning back some to accommodate as she grabbed for it. The tone in her voice made him pause though and Cameron hesitated, glancing between the letter and Margo before lowering his arm, handing it back. It was fun to tease her, but not if she was actually upset and started crying about whatever it was. "Okay fine, have it back. I'm sure it's boring anyway," he offered mulishly. "Someone writing you love letters or something?" He offered with a small grin, nudging Margo's arm. "I bet it's that Valerius guy from the dance right? Gross."

 

[Margo Fox]

Margo clenched her jaw as Cameron attempted to hold it above both of them. She was pretty sure if she wanted to she could have grabbed it but she hated that he was making her look like an idiot just to get her own property back. She let out a sigh of relief as he finally caved and handed it to her. She grabbed it quickly and put it back in her bag, making sure to stuff it between the pages of one of her books to keep it in place. She scoffed when Cameron asked if it was a love letter. As if she would let anything like that out of her sight around him. But the thought of it made her face flush. "It is not." she said firmly as she straightened up. "Not that it's any of your business." Margo added and crossed her arms across her chest. She hesitated for a moment before decided honestly would probably be best. At least it would stop him from thinking it was from someone like Valerius. "It's from my brother." she said quickly, as if that was all it took to brush this all aside.

 

[Cameron Roswell]

Cameron stuck out his tongue as Margo took back the letter, ready to continue teasing her about her new boyfriend until she hesitantly revealed who it was actually from. "I didn't know you had a brother," he said awkwardly. Admittedly, they didn't get into each other's home-lives that much, which Cameron liked, but he'd definitely been over to Margo's place and he'd never seen any sign of another sibling. "I thought it was just you and your grandma," he said, just barely resisting the temptation to add on "stinky", though even he could tell they were treading close to something of a sensitive topic. "But as long as it's not Valerius then that's fine. That guy's soo boring," he added, stooping down to start re-shelving the stupid books by hand.

 

[Margo Fox]

Margo shifted uncomfortably as the inevitable questions started to come. "Well he's a lot older than me." she explained but that was only half the story. If Avery had stayed with her after her parents died there was a good chance he would be living somewhere else by now. But he hadn't stayed and she wasn't sure she would ever forgive him for that. "He doesn't live with us. He never did." she started to explain but felt herself fumbling her words. "After our parents died he didn't come to live with us." she finally got out the words and realized she had ended up staring at the floor. She glanced up and Cameron, wary of what his reaction would be. She hadn't even told Isadora this and she felt crazy for starting with him. Margo was more comfortable being annoyed at him and leaned into that. "Valerius is nice." she insisted. "Not like you would know anything about that."

 

[Cameron Roswell]

“Oh,” Cameron said simply as Margo explained, blinking a few times as he processed the information, his eyes focused on the bookshelf in front of him as he slotted the books back randomly. “More room for you then,” he said after a beat, turning back to Margo with a shrug. “Do you… Miss him or anything?” He asked, leaning back against the shelf before thinking better of it as he felt some of the newly replaced books slide behind him. Cameron was familiar with the feeling of missing someone you barely knew, wonder if Margo felt the same way about her brother.

He wrinkled his nose when Margo insisted Valerius was nice, scoffing at the idea, glad to be on familiar footing here. “You’re just saying that cause you liiike him or something,” he goaded, rolling his eyes and grabbing another book.