"Give me that letter," Harry said flatly, striding towards the spooked girl. "You shouldn't have opened it."
Ashley fetched the envelope from her torch-wielding hand and held both it and the letter out to Harry hesitantly.
As my brother leaned in to sntach it away, Ashley suddenly flicked the torch off and on again, flashing the bright artificial light straight into our unsuspecting face.
If it was a tactic meant to blind the boy, it failed spectacularly. He didn't even blink.
The boy's vampiric eyes, shrouded by Gawain's enchanted glasses, perfectly adapted to the sudden flash of light.
"Oh… Fuck…" Ashley muttered, stumbling backwards, away from my brother. "Your pupils - They didn't dilate at all. This letter wasn't just a joke, was it?"
'How did she even think to- Never fucking mind.' Harry stopped himself mid-complaint. 'What do you think the odds are that she keeps quiet about this?' He asked me irritably.
「 Lower than zero. 」I answered dryly, oddly surprised by the girl's initiative. It seemed the glasses weren't flawless then.「 Even Andrew won't be able to keep her mouth shut about something of this magnitude. 」
Harry snorted inwardly. 'Yeah,' He replied. 'I thought so too. Thank god - Or should I say, thank our lovely double agent Gawain for these new glasses, otherwise we might have actually been screwed by this. More than we originally were, anyway.'
「 She'll prove to be a problem. 」I said, throwing in my own grain of salt. 「 Even if the Muggles don't believe her, all it takes is for one magical to drop by and hear about this for their suspicions to pile up into actual inquiries. 」
Harry's earlier interpretation of why he had been turned had struck a chord with me.
If there was even the slightest chance that vampires truly were a kill-on-sight level creature, then it meant that he couldn't tell a single person about his transformation.
Ashley was already one person too many.
The girl had a very strong track record for being unable to keep even a single secret.
「 You need to make sure she stays silent. 」I said, my decision made.「 Threaten her if you have to. It might be the only way. 」
Deep down, I didn't think that threats would have any effect on her either. Ashley seemed like the kind of person to be too detached from reality to even register any incoming danger even if it was right in front of her.
I had seen the girl's type before. People like her eventually got in too deep, and were crushed under the weight of the new reality they had created for themselves.
'I see your point - And I agree too, but do you honestly think that threats are even necessary?' Harry's mind lit up with a cruel derision. 'And as far as I see it, they'll treat her like the boy who cried wolf. Nobody's going to give a shit and they'll forget about it within a week.' He tapped the frames of his new glasses subtly before continuing. 'I also have these glasses now, and they weren't mentioned at all in the letter - She'll have no idea about them.'
I stayed silent.
Harry offered a good argument, I admit. But my previous point still stood.
I didn't like loose ends.
A spotless track record was infinitely preferable than a slightly blemished one.
There was also the fact that Harry's magic had been mentioned in the letter - Alluding to its current unreactive status.
This meant that Ashley was aware of the existence of magic now, thereby breaking the statute of secrecy.
The more I thought about our situation, the worse I ended up feeling about it.
'Alright.' Harry bit out. 'It's worth a shot, I guess. But don't blame me if it turns out with making this ten times worse than it already is.'
My brother opened his mouth slowly, purposefully emphasising the movementt bait the girl's attention toward his fangs. As intended, Ashley's eyes were involuntarily drawn to the action and away from his hands.
Harry's right hand suddenly darted forward and slammed onto Ashley's mouth, covering it fully.
I frowned. That was a fair bit more forward than I was intending him to be.
She let out a muffled cry as he pushed her head backwards, with the taller girl staring down at him in alarm. Ashley flailed backwards, landing against the corridor wall, hard.
The torch was sent clattering to the ground, its weak beam of light spinning erratically up and down the empty corridor.
I felt a flash of something foreign sprout inside of my brother's psyche as he pushed the terrified girl up against the cold stone wall.
Alarm flashed across my mind.
"Don't make a sound," Harry murmured distractedly. He stared straight ahead at the girl's exposed neck with a strange, out-of-place curiosity.
We could hear her pulse quickening. Listen to the flow of blood that was rushing through her neck; smell the fear that was sticking to her skin.
Dark walls of agitation and yearning thrust me out of Harry's mind bodily, before I could even think of trying to bring him to his senses.
I could sense all reason starting to slip away from my brother's mind. He found the scene before him so unbearably alluring that it was simply impossible to ignore.
Powerless, I watched as Harry pushed the whimpering Ashley's head to one side and slowly opened his mouth.
He was trembling. We were trembling.
With a feeling that I could not possibly come to misunderstand.
Anticipation.
Harry moved his head forward and slowly licked the side of her neck, feeling the thrum of her quickened pulse beneath his extended tongue.
Ashley shuddered, still obediently silent.
Our fangs were on fire, burning with what I now recognised was a primal need for blood. Her blood.
Harry began to teethe on the upper part of Ashley's neck, his fangs barely even pricking the surface of her skin. His actions felt akin to an animal's; giving the its food a few experimental licks before dining.
The boy worked his way downwards, his tongue still tracing one of the many veins that crisscrossed beneath her pale flesh.
I could feel that the only thing keeping my brother from biting the girl was curiosity.
Pure, unintelligent, toddler-like curiosity.
How much longer that would last though, I knew couldn't be long.
Right on cue, Harry bit into the base of Ashley's neck, slowly easing his lethally sharp fangs into the surface of her skin. The deeper they went, the further the girl's whimpers worsened.
Her blood began to leak into our mouth, tasting reminiscent of bitter iron, just the same as it would have before our transformation.
I didn't feel the appeal of drinking it at all.
This primitive, vampiric version of Harry though, couldn't seem to get enough of it.
I sat through ten long seconds of my brother feeding upon the shivering girl.
"Stop," Ashley whispered, grabbing the back of my brother's hair and pulling on it weakly. She sounded pained. "Stop it. P-please."
The girl's words, along with the steady influx of her blood that was trickling down our throat, began to bring down the dark walls that were erected around my brother's mind.
His hunger began to vanish.
The boy blinked; his eyes refocusing.
'Oh… F-fuck.' Harry started, stuttering inwardly. He swallowed another mouthful of Ashley's blood; sickened by the sensation of the warm sticky liquid that was travelling down his throat. 'What the fuck… Did I just…?'
「 Damage control Harry. 」I stressed, pushing past my own concerns, able to access his mind once more.
My brother retracted his teeth from Ashley's neck, staring down at the four deep puncture holes he'd left behind, stunned.
To our paired surprise, and relief, the wounds did not bleed, clogging shut almost immediately.
Harry stepped away from his victim gingerly, glancing up to face her.
Ashley's face was flushed red with fright; thin lines of tears dripping down her cheeks.
The girl raised up a hand and pressed it against the bite wound on her neck, wincing as her palm made contact with it.
Ashley peeked into Harry's eyes, before quickly averting her own. She crouched down to retrieve her fallen torch, arms shaking with worry.
"Go back to sleep," Harry ordered, his tone strained. "We'll talk about this tomorrow."
Ashley teared up again; likely at the cruel dismissal, before hastily backing away.
She retreated down the shadowed hallway; disappearing into the girl's dormitory and quietly closing its door shut behind her.
Only when she was gone did my brother dare to breathe again.
'F-Fuck.' Harry muttered, casting his eyes away from the door. 'I just attacked her. I- I remember it. I remember everything.'
「 I was expecting a little bloodlust - But not anything even remotely close to that level. 」
Harry's mind felt scattered. Jaunty.
He was afraid.
'She'll be okay, right?' The boy asked, turning on his heel and speedwalking back to our dorm, this time not forgetting to retrieve McGonagall's fallen letter. 'She might be annoying - Sometimes. But I'd never actually want to hurt her.'
「 Physically speaking? 」I asked, cringing. The feeling of Harry swallowing down the girl's blood like a starved animal still burned at the forefront of my mind.「 It looks like she just lost about half a litre of blood - So not very good, no. 」
My brother licked his lips nervously, tasting blood once more.
'Fuck me,' Harry muttered, starting to wipe at his mouth; checking to see if there was any more blood there. 'That was fucking terrifying, Art. What the hell am I going to do? If it's as unpredictable as that, then I don't-'
「 Stop panicking. 」I instructed, cutting across the boy's ramblings strongly.「 And put your glasses back on. 」
Harry clenched his fist in a momentary frustration, put out by my firm rebuttal.
Then the sentiment vanished.
'Sorry.' He muttered, knowing full well that I could feel his every emotion.
「 This impulse can likely be dealt with, just like any other addiction can be. 」I started, slowly taking the time to translate my hypothesis into a coherent explanation.「 My current working theory is that this extreme craving for blood is a trade-off for your enhanced regeneration. Ergo; if you don't get us injured, it won't be nearly this bad. 」
Harry's worry lessened under the weight of my usual pragmatism, taking solace in my logic.
'So like some sort of stamina then?' He asked, before furthering his question a split-second later. 'That makes sense, I guess. Which means this was caused by our testing, then?'
I sent Harry a mental nudge of affirmation.
Our 'testing' as he had put it, involved Harry playing around with his regeneration to see how effective it was.
Cuts, bruises, and even muscle fatigue healed almost immediately after it was sustained.
My brother's willingness to harm himself was slightly concerning, but my worry was somewhat diminished by the fact that every one of his injuries healed back to normalcy all but immediately.
And when it came to the matter the pain - Harry genuinely couldn't care less. It didn't stop him at all.
'Okay, so it might be controllable. Great. It's a bit fucking late to know about that now though.' Harry thought, shaking his head in disbelief. 'Knowing that also doesn't solve our original problem either. I can't eat anything other than human blood anymore - Regular food is just too disgusting to even think about considering.'
「 Cross that bridge when we get there. 」I quoted, already brainstorming a way for us to deal with this issue.「 Ashley's has likely bought us some time - Hopefully enough to figure out a functional solution for this issue. 」
'Like what?' Harry asked, laughing in a quiet despair. 'Human blood is still human blood, even if I don't need to drink it too often. How the fuck am I going to get access to that here - Hell, how am I going to get access to that inside of a magical fucking boarding school?'
To be perfectly honest, I was thinking the exact same thing.
How exactly were we going to get a hold of it there?
I racked my fragmented memories concerning the original books, searching for any information relating to vampires.
It was difficult. It had been over a decade-and-a-half since I had even set eyes on them. Eleven years in this life, and over four years in my previous.
『 Blood… 』I thought, my mind fluctuating in frustration.『 I don't… I don't know. It was too long ago. Far too long ago to remember such small details. 』
Fine then. I would have to figure out a solution on my own.
「 Your hunger was a mental force. 」I started, powering straight into a new theory.「 It locked me out of your mind before I could fully realise what was going on. 」I paused. This idea was a shot in the dark at best.「 Hypothetically, if I were to notice it before it notices me, then I might be able to suppress it before it grows too large for me to deal with. 」
'That's sounds… Ideal, honestly. But risky too.' Harry muttered. 'I don't you to get hurt. If that's even possible in the first place.'
「 It might be our only option. 」I countered, resignedly.
I didn't like the proposal either.
But, this headspace was my home, and it had been for years now.
And now it was under attack.
My brother's mind was under attack.
Our peaceful way of life rested on me now.
✽ ✽ ✽
» The next morning
"Well, well, well. I can't believe our resident bookworm is actually deigning to read comics now."
The teasing female voice made my brother let go of the graphic novel he was reading tiredly, allowing the flimsy paper to flop forward onto his front.
We were lying in Harry's bunk bed, reading one of the comics Andrew had so generously decided to lend him without giving permission.
The lender in question was lying in the bunk above us, no doubt lost in thought and staring off into space like usual.
"Hey Jas," Greeted Harry, raising a singular lazy hand to welcome the young adult.
"Yeah," Andrew chipped in, his voice sounding slightly muffled due to his obscured position above us. "He's finally decided to stoop to our level - An incredible sight to see, I know."
"Your level you mean. I'm not into that nerdy stuff and you know it." The girl retorted, grinning up at the teen easily. "Anyway," She continued, turning her endearing gaze back down toward my brother. "Ashley's asked me to come get you. Dunno why. But she looked a bit pale - Paler than usual anyway. I'd be careful if I were you."
Harry sighed loudly, quickly retrieving the fallen comic book and slamming its open pages onto his face loudly.
He stared up into the shadowed, unfocused illustrations with a pure, unfettered regret.
My brother's guilt for attacking Ashley still ran rampant.
He'd even tried to distract himself with a comic book of all things, but it hadn't worked in the slightest.
"Good fucking luck," Andrew called down, promoting another groan from my brother.
"Jasmine," Harry started, feeling a little vindicative. "What exactly did you do with that dark romance book I gave you?"
An extremely awkward silence suddenly festered between the room's occupants.
「 Way to shoot the messenger Harry. 」I said; sympathetic for the poor girl standing to our right.
Then we heard Andrew stifle a laugh.
"Err," Jasmine said, stuttering uncharacteristically. "Nothing."
The corner of my brother's lips quirked upwards.
"Does 'Nothing' involve the passing of said erotic item around between your fellow dormmates?" Harry asked, pinching the comic book's spine and removing it from the front of his face so that he could fix the older girl a mocking glare.
"… Possibly?" She answered, starting to fidget in place. "But only because I got asked about it - Thanks for that by the way."
The bunk above Harry creaked loudly as Andrew suddenly rolled over to stare at the sheepish-looking Jasmine, horror-struck.
"Tell me you haven't been spoon-feeding my sister dark romance novels." The teen asked, sounding utterly aghast. "Please. She's bad enough as it is."
"Not directly. I just gave it to Olivia - I couldn't control where it went after that." Jasmine reasoned, crossing her arms defensively. "What brought this question on anyway?" She asked, a light blush shading the entirety of her face. "You've never asked after it before."
"Who cares," Harry muttered, sliding out of his resting position on the bunk and dangling his legs over the mattress's edge. "It's your fault for reading it anyway. You were meant to pawn it off to some charity shop."
The girl huffed, uncrossing her arms and moving backwards, giving my brother the space he needed to stand up. "Not a word about this, okay Andrew?" She said, glaring at the older boy threateningly. "I mean it. Or I'll set Ashley onto you for a week."
Andrew raised his hands in a mocking surrender, smirking softly.
Harry stood up, shaking his head ruefully. He turned around to shoot his other friend a helpless sort of look before turning away to face Jasmine again.
"Oi, Red," Andrew started. I caught wind of an unusually serious undertone in his voice - An attitude that was an extremely rare find in him. "Why does Ashley want you?" He asked.
My brother turned around again before sighing. "It's complicated." He replied, his mind drifting toward all the information Ashley could leverage over him.
The letter and the attack painted a contradictory view of Harry.
In the letter, he had written with a visible worry coupled with concern about the change, highlighting his feelings of helplessness.
In the attack though, he had ripped into Ashley's neck without a hint of remorse, treating her like nothing more than a wild animal to be preyed upon.
「 I think playing it up a bit might help us here. 」I interjected contemplatively.「 Andrew's the only person who can keep a real handle on her antics. 」
Harry sent me a surge of grudging acknowledgement.
'If it was him who'd discovered that letter instead of her we wouldn't be in this fucking mess right now.' The boy complained, a tad grumpily. 'He wouldn't have even opened the bloody thing, I guarantee it.'
"Complicated how?" Andrew pressed, a dangerous glint entering his heavy-lidded eyes. "The fact that you're actually choosing to go and meet her is honestly a bit worrying."
"I…" Harry started, choosing his next words carefully. "I don't even know how to go about explaining it really. Hopefully I'll be able to sort it out, but if I can't - Well, I might need to ask for your help with- Well, you know. Containing her."
Andrew stared at Harry for a second before his demeanour quickly lost its solemn edge. "Alright." The boy conceded, rolling over onto his back again. He stared up at the room's ceiling, his expression back to being near-unreadable. "Let me know if you do. I'll handle it, I promise."
"Cheers, Andy." Thanked Harry, gracing his friend with a quirky, playful grin.
Andrew's head suddenly snapped in our direction, and he shot my brother a look of revulsion. The teen them shook his head in an utter disgust.
Harry waved him an overly cheery goodbye that was purposefully reminiscent of Ashley's overly-sunny attitude, which prompted his expression to crumple even further.
Jasmine smirked at the exchange; turning around to open the dormitory door.
Harry let out one final childish wink in his friend's direction, before following the older girl out of the boy's dormitory.
✽ ✽ ✽
"There she is." Said Jasmine, pointing Ashley out and patting Harry on the head sympathetically. "If you need any help, just come see me, okay? I'll sort her out."
"Thanks," Harry murmured.
The girl in question was leaning against the hallway wall, hands thrust into her jean pockets, not too far from the dormitory my brother had just left.
She looked anxious.
"You have questions," Harry stated simply, keeping his expression one of a flawless boredom. He looked across at Ashley unconcernedly. "Go ahead and ask them."
Ashley hesitated.
Then she posed Harry a question that neither of us were expecting.
"Red, are you… Are you okay?"
Harry blinked, thoroughly taken aback by her genuine-sounding concern, but thoroughly relieved by her lack of submissive affection.
If she had tried to play into the role Harry had been dreading she might have, my brother would've died of embarrassment on the spot.
Harry stared ahead at the girl intently.
There was surprisingly no falsehood hidden within her gaze.
Harry sighed, his face revealing a rather tired expression that Ashley immediately took notice of.
'Art? Can I be honest with her?' He asked me.
If one were to call the two children before me friends, then it would have been a bit of a stretch to say the least.
But they were oddly and undeniably close - Even if they only interacted because of their mutual relationship with Andrew.
Still, even so, this level of concern, and even honesty, was way out of character for her.
「 If you want to. 」I answered.
It was his mistake to reap if he got this wrong.
I felt a brief prickle of annoyance bloom across Harry's conscience at my non-committal reply; his irritated sentiment surprising me.
'It's your life too you know.' Harry muttered back, sounding strangely annoyed.
The boy didn't wait for my reply, instead opening his mouth so he could answer Ashley's strangely unorthodox inquiry.
"No." My brother responded aloud, taking the spot near the wall next to her and slowly sinking down the cold stone to sit on the whitewashed tiles beneath us. "Not really."
The girl slid down the wall she was leaning against and joined him on the hallway floor, pulling her legs into a crossed position.
"That wasn't you last night, was it?" She asked, her gaze uncharacteristically soft. "Will you be alright?"
"I don't know," Harry answered, reaching up to push his new glasses further onto his face. "I've… Well. I don't really see a way out of this to be honest."
"I see," Ashley muttered, losing herself in thought.
The girl's lack of curiosity concerning the letter and what it contained was intriguing - As was her sudden change in attitude.
She wasn't acting entitled, wasn't crying for attention, and didn't seem to have any ulterior motives either.
Had I… Misjudged her?
"I wasn't expecting you to react like this. It's almost like you're-" Harry stopped for a second, searching for a fitting word to use. "Mature." He finished lamely, glancing across toward the girl who sat on his left. "You're not acting at all like you usually do."
"I care about you a lot Red, secrets or no secrets," Ashley answered simply. Honestly. "Andrew does too - Even if he doesn't show it too often. You're part of our family now."
My brother sat there quietly, stunned into silence by the girl's honest sincerity.
'Ashley Graves - Is she actually… A decent human being?' Harry thought, feeling a bit dazed.
"You… You're like this normally, aren't you?," The boy guessed, unclasping his arms from around his legs and falling into a cross-legged position. The girl nodded slowly. Regretfully. "Then why do you act so- So hopeless all the time?"
Ashley smiled faintly before nudging my brother reproachfully. "The magic-wielding vampire gets to ask about my secrets before I get to ask about his." She shook her head in a rueful, mocking sort of way. "How unfair."
Harry looked away from her again, fully intending to speak, but then hesitating instead.
The boy remembered what McGonagall had told him about the statue of secrecy.
About the harsh penalties for breaking it.
About the Obliviator Squad, who were happy to stroll right up to the orphanage's door and wipe the memories of every muggle inside just to keep his powers a secret.
Harry sighed again. Heavily.
"Well," Murmured Ashley, her smile slowly fading. "I guess it's too late for me to take this back now, right? Gotta see this all the way through now. Just like it is for you."
My brother shot her a quizzical look that was intended to convey how wrong that statement was, one which she didn't visibly take notice of.
I think she chose not to see it.
"I do like acting up, it's true" The girl admitted, beginning to fiddle with the tips of her fingernails. "And it is fun to see people's reactions to my antics, however empty they might feel. But that isn't the main reason why I do it."
Ashley went silent.
She too, was hesitating.
"Then… Why?" Harry repeated.
My brother recognised Ashley's need to share. The boy knew that feeling all too well.
Harry knew he was lucky to have someone like me to talk to. Someone he could absolutely trust; someone who couldn't spill his secrets even if they wanted to.
Someone he could be open and honest about everything with.
Someone she didn't have. Likely had never had.
The girl pulled up her legs and wrapped her arms around them.
"Our parents - Mine and Andrew's I mean." Ashley started. "We don't talk about them much, and there's a good reason for that." The girl paused, looking as if she were struggling to find the right words to speak with.
My brother began to sympathise with the not-so-psychopathic girl sitting beside us. And unsurprisingly, so did I.
I had indeed misjudged her - Severely, even. And I felt unashamedly sorry for being fooled so thoroughly.
Her act had been flawless.
"After our parents… Well. It doesn't matter anyway." Ashley swallowed hard. "You're smart. Smarter than you should be. You've probably already figured out the reason I act like this already." The girl's voice quietened. "It's so Andrew feels like he has to stick around to take care of me."
Ashley looked away.
"Because I know the moment I don't need him anymore, he'll- He'll leave me behind."
My brother's eyes widened.
Harry understood what she was trying to infer.
"I saw this look in his eyes back then, and I can't… I can still- Still see it to this day." Tears began pricking at the corners of Ashley's eyes. "I'm sorry if I ever upset you with my jokes Harry. I'm sorry about all of them. But I had to. I had to keep him alive. It's all for him. It's always been for him."
Harry's mind began to shake. Then, without a second thought, he buried the older girl in a tight, inescapable, but at the same time, gentle-feeling hug.
"This whole time? Seriously" Harry said, his question rhetorical. "You stupid girl." He whispered, his fingers tightening around the girl's woollen jumper. "You should've told me earlier."
"I'm sorry," Ashley choked out, leaning into my brother's tight embrace shakily. "Sorry."
'Art... She's so- So scared.' Harry murmured, trailing off. 'I know Andrew comes off as a bit apathetic - But this? Has her doing this really been necessary? Would he really do something like that?'
I took a moment to formulate an answer, watching as my brother soothed the young teen.
I remembered the teenager's pessimism, his dark humor. Not incriminating, but a clue.
The way he stared off into space when he had nothing to focus on, as if he were trapped within his own mind. And the maddened rage that we rarely ever saw.
Now that I thought about it properly, his habits were all too familiar.
「 It's possible. 」I said, my answer receiving a wave of dread as its reply.
Ashley didn't sniffle in my brother's embrace. Didn't kick up a fuss. Didn't wail in despair like so many others her age would have.
She just cried silently into my brother's shoulder, uncaring of how open and vulnerable she looked.
Who knew how long she had been holding that in.
Minute passed.
"Oh, what the hell," Ashley mumbled, hastily moving to wipe her tears away. "What the hell am I even doing, unloading all that on an eleven-year-old?"
The girl's comment sounded like an innocent self-reprimand, but I knew better than to take her words at face value now. It was a calculated but gentle gesture that she hoped Harry would respond to.
I was starting to understand Ashley a little bit now.
She felt so… Desperate. It was sad. Just sad.
Harry let out a wry, understanding sort of smile. "I don't really feel like I'm an eleven-year-old at this point." He said, staring down at his sharp, vampiric nails.
"I don't really feel thirteen, either," Ashley replied, her faint smile returning. "I Guess we're both a bit dysfunctional then." She finished, poking my brother's scarred cheek with a single sly finger and detaching herself from his hug.
Harry let out a laugh. Then he told Ashley about everything.
I didn't voice my disapproval. This was his decision to make. She was certainly not the same person I had thought her to be.
Maybe this would turn out differently.
Harry told her bout magic, Hogwarts, McGonagall, his mother, the vampire attack, and even about Gawain.
He told her about everything but me.
Everything but what Lily had done to him while he visited her in the Red Ward.
Everything but what his mother had tried to do to him.
Ashley grinned and interjected childishly, rudely commenting on everything like she always did; slowly slipping back into her entitled, immature, brattish persona.
I smiled sadly.
Ashley was someone else who hadn't given up when they had every right to.
Another person who powered forward, just like Harry had.
Unlike me.
I tried to be angry with myself for starting to think this way again, but I couldn't bring myself to be.
I had been weak. I acknowledged it.
But… I didn't feel weak any more.
Despite having done nothing to prove so otherwise.
Despite the thick cloud of apathy that still clung to me after all these years, which had stayed in spite of my occasional laughter.
I felt different now. So very different.
It was a comforting feeling. One that I succinctly crushed under the heel of my well-exercised despondency.
Complacency had lead me to ruin once before. I would not get comfortable again.
Never again.
"So," Harry said, gently elbowing Ashley in the ribs, a grin beginning to grow. "I hear you've been giving Jas's dark romance a read. How did you find it?"
The cheeky girl stared at Harry, stunned. Then she choked loudly, her face visibly heating up.
"You- But- Back then-" Ashley gasped, reeling backwards away from my brother in shock. Then the girl did another double-take, forgetting her previous shock as its intensity abruptly doubled in weight. "Wait - That was Jasmine's book?! Pretty, perfect, Jasmine?!"
The girl's animated, almost gleeful-sounding shouts carried down the empty hallway; her overly loud echoes bouncing across the orphanage walls.
"Ah." Said Harry, suddenly feeling immensely regretful. He stared at the orphanage's gossip girl, whose mouth was hanging wide open in shock.
'Olivia… She didn't tell anyone the book came from Jas, did she?' My brother asked me, knowing full well the answer to his own question.
Harry's awkward silence as all the confirmation Ashley needed.
「 Nice going Harry. 」I said, feeling quite a bit of pity for the soon-to-be adult. It wasn't the best secret to be uncovered right before ones adulthood. Especially in the nineteen-ninteys.「 Jasmine's social death is set for around about lunchtime then. Shall we pray for her? 」
My brother took one look at the wicked grin splitting Ashley's childish face before sending me a guilty flash of meaningful, wholehearted agreement.
'Yeah, we should.' Harry mumbled, offering up a silent prayer of apology for spilling the girl's scandalous hobbies. 'Sorry Jas.'
✽ ✽ ✽
〘 A/N: End of Arc 1. 〙
Now, I know that there hasn't been much focus on magic so far, but that will obviously change once the brothers reach Hogwarts.
For now, I've simply been setting up the board for all my characters to play on - Something I know can be a slow read, so thanks for sticking around.
A few key pieces which are crucial for the later half of the story have been introduced during this first arc - With some of them being far more obscure than the others.
I wonder if you've spotted them.
In any case, this story will be on hiatus while I flesh out a few minor details concerning their first school first year.
Thank you again for your time and support.
✭