Chapter Text
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About three weeks had gone by of the new school year. Wilbur sat in the arithmancy classroom, lost in his thoughts. Arithmancy had never been interesting to Wilbur, maybe when he was a first year, but that interest had slowly faded away as he grew older. And still Mr Nook insisted he should take these advanced extra classes after his already long school day. Arithmancy had never been hard to Wilbur either, he never understood when his friends left the lessons confused and clueless about what they just learnt. Thats maybe why the interest for it disappeared.
"Mr Soot? Hello?", Wilbur looked up quickly, Mr Nook grabbing his attention. "Do you know the answer?"
Wilbur quickly eyed the blackboard behind Mr Nook before answering.
"23791563826105", Mr Nook was always hard to read, but Wilbur saw a mix of surprise and pride in his face.
"Thats... correct", Wilbur started hearing whispers around him. Things like "how the fuck did he solve that?" and "there's no way he just did that in his head", even though it was rather annoying Wilbur quite enjoyed the praising. Mr Nook hushed the classroom before continuing his lesson. Wilbur quickly cancelled out his monotone talking and got lost in thought again. He's missing dinner because of this lesson, the first years are probably already done eating. The few students in the year 6 and up advanced arithmancy classes always ate late dinner together every Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was a way to bond with each other, but it always ended up with some sort of competition about who had the best grades, got the most compliments from Mr Nook, had the cleanest desk, had the most expensive equipment etc. Wilbur had given up long ago trying to make friends with them. He instead kept to his small friend group he already had, which included Niki, Charlie and Jack. At times Fundy also hung out with them, as well as Quackity. Fundy was a ravenclaw boy in year 5, aka a year under Wilbur. They met when Fundy was stuck with Glatt, a weird talkative ghost who probably was an alcoholic when he was alive, talking to him. Wilbur walked by and saw the boy getting bombed with random, intrusive questions and wild stories about when Glatt was alive. One was about some sort of caravan and he became president of some nation or something similar, Wilbur usually stopped listening when Glatt came up with stories. Will had been in this situation himself so he decided to intervene. Glatt had introduced himself to Will when he was a first year, and they bonded instantly. Now their relationship was filled mostly with banter, which made it easy for Will to get Glatt away from Fundy who quickly made his way to another room. Fundy later thanked Wilbur for the help and they started hanging out more.
Quackity was a year 6 slytherin, Will had heard that the sorting hat couldn't make a decision if Quackity belonged in slytherin or hufflepuff which resulted in bullying but he also got to choose his house, which is kinda cool. Wilbur actively tried to befriend Quackity by trying to sit with him during lessons, he straight up ignored Wilbur at the start or simply asked "is this a prank or some shit?". But after a while Wilbur and Quackity grew more and more close, Quackity still being more of a lone wolf and keeping to himself. Wilbur didn't mind, he was just happy that his social skills didn't fail him and that he gained a new friend.
"Okay that's it for today!", Wilbur woke up from his thoughts once again. "Remember to eat dinner, you won't just survive on a chocolate frog and bertie boots, ok?"
The other students was standing up and grabbing their stuff. Will copied and stood up and started packing his stuff, he yawned slightly and started walking towards the door. His stomach was aching and desperately needed some food, he always told himself to bring a snack to these classes but always forgot.
"Soot can i just talk to you for a second?", Wilbur stopped and turned around, making his way to Mr Nooks desk and sitting down on an empty chair. Mr Nook finished of polishing of the blackboard before sitting down on the other side of the desk.
"What'd you wanna talk about?", Wilbur asked, his stomach reminding him there's no need to drag this out.
"Well ive noticed you're not paying attention in class", Mr Nook started, he looked genuinely concerned. "Is there as reason for this?"
Wilbur shrugged. He just had no interest in arithmancy, he mostly took these classes to get higher grades.
"I don't know, i think I'm just uninterested.", Mr Nook nodded slightly, he thought for a moment.
"Is it too easy?", Mr Nook asked. "It can be boring if you already know everything."
"Yea maybe", Wilbur just wanted to get the fuck out of there and eat something. "Ive been thinking of dropping this class, it doesn't feel fun or necessary anymore"
Mr Nook looked a bit surprised. But also determined to make Will stay.
"I really think you should continue taking these extra classes, you got an O in arithmancy in the O.W.Ls last year and soon you need to pick your N.E.W.Ts. I really think you should pick arithmancy, you have a big possibility of getting O there too. It would open multiple career paths! But for that to happen you need to stay in this class"
What could arithmancy N.E.W.T levels open up? Arithmancer was the only thing Wilbur could think of. Will had been thinking a lot about the N.E.W.Ts, he wanted to be a full time musician but that didn't need a specific N.E.W.T grade, just talent. So his main plan was to go Defence against the dark arts, or DATDA, since that was his favorite subject and he got an O in the O.W.Ls.
"Mr Soot, you are really smart and your skills in arithmancy makes me really impressed. I just think you shouldn't waste this opportunity", Mr Nook sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Im done talking now, so go eat dinner", Mr Nook said with a smile.
Wilbur stood up and quickly waved before walking through the door to exit the classroom.
As soon as Will left the classroom he started running towards the great hall, only with 21 minutes left to eat dinner. His green and silver striped tie was slightly blowing in the wind. He could make it in about 5 minutes if he ran.
"Wilbur!", someone shouted. It was a familiar voice, Will stopped and turned around and at a bench in the yard sat Tommy, Wilburs younger brother, with some other boys his age. Two hufflepuffs, two gryffindors if you count Tommy and one slytherin, everyone chatting and laughing. Tommy signed to Wilbur to come, Will was hesitant at first as he really needed something to eat but he could probably still make it to dinner, right? Wilbur jogged up towards the bench.
"Hey gremlin child, what's up?", Will chuckled as Tommy flipped him off.
"Not much, where were you during dinner?", Tommy asked looking up to meet his tall brothers eyes.
"The extra arithmancy classes i told you about", Wilbur answered.
Tommy scoffed.
"Fucking nerd", he smiled.
Wilbur chuckled and ruffled Tommys hair.
"I got to go, dinner ends in...", Wilbur started and looked at his watch. "Shit, 15 minutes. Bye Toms!"
Wilbur started now sprinting towards the great hall after waving goodbye to Tommy and his friends. He could probably at least run into the great hall, grab some food and eat in the slytherin common room.
When Wilbur eventually arrived at the great hall it was about 10 minutes left of dinner. He went in to grab some food to go to his common room and eat there. As he walked in he could see some students from his arithmancy class chatting and finishing their meals, as well as some other students, mostly from year 7, sit and finish their plates. Will grabbed a clean plate and took some chicken, roast potatoes, broccoli and a small apple pie piece as dessert, he then made his way out of the big hall and went towards the slytherin common room. As he wandered through the big halls and corridors he started wondering what he would do when he got to the common room. Probably eat his food and chat with Charlie, after he could maybe play some guitar? Will was currently writing a song and he had practiced so much that his roommates had started to hide his guitar. It was kinda annoying but Wilbur was just as annoying playing the same strings over and over all night, quietly trying to figure out lyrics. He had come up with "treating my memory of you like a fire, let it burn out, don't fight it, and try to move on" and "ill pick up my hiking boots when i am ready and ill put down my roots when I'm dead". But that was it this far, lyrics is really hard to write, it needs to sound poetic and even though Will had been interested in poetry almost his whole life, writing it himself had always been a hard challenge-
A shadow in the corner of Wills eye interrupted his thoughts. He quickly turned around but nothing was there. Maybe it fled into the corridor? Will slowly sneaked up towards the wall, walked to the corner. His whole body tensing, he saw a shadow. He was sure. Will slowly turned his head around the corner and looked into the corridor, nothings there. Suddenly his chest started tingle, but the unhurtful tingle quickly turned into pain making him fall towards the ground. The pain was almost unbearable. Will was laying on the ground shaking, it felt like someone was squeezing his ribcage and heart, it felt like his skin was stretching out, it felt like his whole body was being pulled on and squeezed. It felt like it was going on forever but then, all pain disappeared. Out of nowhere all the pain just vanished. Wilbur breathed out, shocked. He slowly stood up, getting support from the wall beside him.
"What the actual fuck", Will whispered to himself. He had experienced these sort of attacks before, when he helped in the second wizarding war, but never this severe. Never this extreme. It was long since the last time this happened, he was a 2nd year when the war happened. He helped evacuate students and helped heal people who got hurt. He had these attacks occasionally then, doctors had just told him that it probably was him being stressed about the one who must not be named and some sort of ptsd similar thing since one of the death eaters hurt him really badly when he got caught healing someone. But Will thought this was something else, it was too physical. Not mental at all, or a bit mental i guess. He had these blurry visions when he got the attacks, the visions were often people dying or getting hurt. It felt like these things happened for real, it was not just in his head. Will picked up his plate he placed beside him before he fell and slowly stood up. His exhausted body was very weak but nothing really hurt, everything was just tired and drained. Wilbur continued to slowly but steadily walk towards his common room.
Niki was making her way to her common room, she had been on her extra-curricular art class. It was a 30 minute lesson after dinner every tuesday and friday. She enjoyed it a lot even though it was so late. As she turned the corner she saw Wilbur. One of her best friends.
"Wilbur!", Niki yelled, waving. Will looked up and smiled, his hair was messy and he looked exhausted. Niki jogged up towards him, getting more and more concerned the closer she got. He looked like a mess, his uniform more uneven and messy than usual. His eyes being dark and kinda empty? He looked drained.
"Will, are you okay?", Niki asked with a concerned look. Holding Wills shoulders.
"Yeah, don't worry im oka-", before he could finish his sentence he fell on Niki. Niki quickly caught him in her arms and sat down on the ground, laying Wilbur down. Okay, Niki had learned what to do if someone passed out in flying class, Mr Za had teached them in 2nd year when this kid passed out. Mr Za's words were echoing in her head. Sooooo logically she should check the pulse first and made sure Wills breathing, right? Okay he's breathing, good. Is he laying down as comfortable as he can? Yes, Niki could get a pillow or something but she doesnt want to leave his side. The last step is to get more help, but no ones here. And this late no ones gonna just walk around in the corridors. Niki thought for a moment before deciding to just sit there until Will wakes up.
Wills head hurt really bad, he slowly opened his eyes. The bright light hit him immediately making his head throb out of pain. Will slowly lifted his hand and held his head, groaning slightly.
"Will!"
Will opened his eyes properly and saw a worried Niki look down at him. His memory was blurry.
"Wait...what happened?", Will asked, his eyes still getting used to the surroundings.
"You passed out? You were out for about 5 minutes", Niki said with a calm but worried voice. Will tried to sit up properly but fell down again onto Niki. "I want to ask you the same thing honestly. You were walking here and i saw you and you looked exhausted, i went up to you and you just passed out"
Will remembered, the shadow, the pain, the exhaustion.
"Okay, ill tell you. But help me up first please", Niki started lifting Will up slowly and Wilbur sat up, stabilizing against wall.
"Go on, what happened?", Niki asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"If you promise to not get super worried and scared, and also not to tell anyone", Will stated. Its probably a bad idea spreading this around.
"Promise"
"Do you remember how i had these weird attacks and stuff in 2nd year? Yea, that happened but much much more severe this time.", Will explained. Niki became noticeably worried immediately. "I don't even know why, i saw this shadow in the corner of my eye. I think that was the thing triggering it? Its maybe like the doctors said, im still scared of you know who. Although it feels too physical to only be caused by stress, i don't know. Either way im okay now."
Niki didnt say anything, just lost in thought.
"Please don't tell anyone, people will just get worried.", Will asked with a begging face. "Or think im crazy. Plus its just this one time, and im completely okay."
Niki nodded and smiled.
"Do you want help to your common room?", Niki asked and chuckled slightly. Will nodded and smiled.
"Wait where's my food? I got a plate with food before i passed out", Will asked, Niki turned her head towards the plate. It was on the ground, in multiple pieces, with some food splattered around it.
"And there went my dinner", Will giggled. Niki giggled as well before helping Wilbur stand up and start walking towards the slytherin common room.