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The wooden table’s surface was cold and smooth under Gendry’s fingertips as he rested his hand on the table, his other hand softly nudging the slowly swaying pile consisting of an Advanced Magizoology book, a teacup, his holly wand and at the very top of the magic wand, a potion, inside the glass swirling a liquid switching from a dark teal to a bright green that reminded Gendry of freshly mown grass. His roommate – Lommy – had given it to him as a gift after Gendry admitted he’d spend the holidays in Hogwarts.
It wasn’t something he wished – the halls had never felt quite as empty as now that most of the students had left, and the Great Hall had never been lonelier, even if the hundreds of candles lit up the room in soft glow, the night sky above him glimmering, every lone star whispering comforting words to him. His eyes were fixated on the glimmer of the stars between the candles, before the blue eyes returned to stare at the slowly swirling potion that was supposed to make him laugh, to make it all better for a while. Lommy had said it wasn’t like alcohol muggles had – it would make him happy, even if it was only for the time the potion worked. It sounded tempting, oh so tempting – it was hard to find any light, any laughter in his current situation.
Then, the almost eerie silence of the great hall was broken, as the large door at the end of the hall opened with a creak. Gendry turned his head to look at whoever was interrupting his brooding session, only to find a pair of curious steel eyes looking back at him from the door.
It took a second for him to connect name and face – Arya Stark, a year his junior, a Slytherin student and part of the Stark clan that had conquered most of Hogwarts, with the oldest brothers dominating most classes and Quidditch among themselves, the star student in his year, the Ravenclaw redhead, and the younger Stark boys, the youngest of which being a Hufflepuff – and spreading chaos wherever he went in the common room.
Gendry absolutely despised families like the Starks. They were pureblood, and although not every family was loud about it, it was not hard to see the privileges they were given; fast lane to Ministry of Magic jobs, admiration in the professor’s glances and asking to put in a good word for them for their Ministry-working families. And he knew some of the Starks were like that too, especially the oldest on his way to become an auror.
But only Arya was different.
He had spoked to her a few times – his potion and transfigurations classes were always after her year’s lessons, so they’d meet in the halls, run into each other on their ways to their classes.
At first, Gendry had thought she was just like the other pureblood cunts – but as the months had passed, he became softer with Arya, for Arya. She didn’t try to advance her position in the school with her family, all the merits she had were because of her own work; she had even helped him with his Herbology essay last week as she was already going to the advanced stuff and Gendry was absolutely helpless with identifying the herbs and brewing anything else than pukejuice from them.
So as Gendry recognized the soft features of his favourite Slytherin – although he would never admit that to anyone – his face softened.
“Hi.” He greeted as Arya shut the large door behind her, walking towards him. She was dragging her large trunk behind her, her red tabby cat, Keeper, followed behind her.
“Hi. You’re not going home?” She asked, sitting down across from him at the Hufflepuff table like she owned the damn thing.
“I- No. The family has … A full house this year. Since the twins were born.” Gendry answered, looking more than a bit awkward, his hand rising up to rub the back of his neck.
Arya knew about Gendry’s “family”. After his mother died when he was a little, he had been moving around from house to house, family to family because nobody wanted to keep a broody muggleborn kid around. It still hurt admitting it out loud, though.
“I mean, you could come stay with my family.” Arya said matter-of-factly. Gendry’s dark eyebrows rose sharply towards his hairline, half of him wishing she was honest, part of him waiting for the punchline. The latter didn’t come, though, even as the silence stretched, Arya’s gaze never leaving his.
“… I can’t just pop up at your house. Don’t you have a lot of like, ministry officials coming over?” Gendry finally stammered, leaning back as if to physically soften the blow when Arya realized it would be a mistake to invite him over.
“Yes you can! What’s stopping you?”
“Everything.”
“You’re such a baby. It would be no problem-”
”Arya, you don’t get it.” Gendry interrupted, now visibly annoyed, staring at the headstrong girl. “I can’t.”
The silence sounded deafening in his ears, as he turned his eyes towards the sky in the ceiling, frustrated, annoyed.
“Well, if you can’t go, I can stay.”
Gendry’s blue eyes slid slowly back down to the girl sitting in front of him.
”What?” his voice and features were filled with quiet hopefulness, nervous questions.
“Yeah, I mean… Yeah. I can stay. I can be your family for this Christmas. And the next one, if you still want to stay back here. I’m not going to let you spend it alone.” Arya sounded honest, earnest, her eyes filled with determination. Gendry stared back at her, confused, until he sighed, shaking his head.
“No, your family will miss you. I mean… Just no. It wouldn’t be fair to steal you away from them.” Gendry argued. “You can’t miss, like, 300 years of some family tradition because of me and just roaming around the school without anything to do.”
“Bullshit, I know you Puffies have an access to the kitchen. And we can do whatever we want, nobody is going to be bothered if we like, I don’t know, sleep in the astronomy tower floor or whatever. We can make our own tradition until you get some sense in your bullface and come spend the holidays with me.”
There was a long silence, until Gendry finally laughed, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I’d like that”
And for the first time in years, Gendry felt like his family was fighting for him.