Chapter Text
Snowflakes were slowly covering the ground around the castle, falling down aimlessly and gracefully behind the window. The sound of the crackling fire created an atmosphere of tranquility and its light irradiated the room warmly, while the aroma of someone's hot cocoa made its way to him, sweet and inviting. It was a pity that he could not enjoy any of this, because his face was covered with a paper and the otherwise calm ambience of the space was interrupted by his friends loudly talking about something.
"We don't know what he did!" Jayce took the newspaper off his face - that was shoved into his face by Mel - to see Caitlyn gesturing to the other woman. "Justice has decided. The Wizengamot has decided! And he served what he had to", she concluded.
"All I'm saying is that it has to be something bad. He disappeared a year ago, was sent to Azkaban for six months. I don't think he merely violated the Statute of Secrecy, that is the only crime we know off", she shook her head. "Sure, you don't exactly get a slap on the wrist and get home if you do that, but you don't get sent to Azkaban either." She seemed serious and maybe a little bit worried, averting Caitlyn's gaze as if she was admitting to being over-cautious.
"Jayce, what do you think?" Caitlyn turn to him.
"I think", he said, sitting upfront, since he was comfortably slouching on an armchair before he was made aware of the discussion, "that I was taking a perfectly good nap in the Common Room and you woke me up. What are you even talking about?"
"Are you for real? Too busy studying to keep up with the current news?", mused him Ekko. Jayce raised his eyebrows in surpirse, not having noticed that Ekko was even here while he was sleeping. Then he rolled his eyes with a grin at his friend's joke. "Veeery funny", he answered. "But really - what are you guys talking about?"
"You're holding your answer right now" was Mel's reply, while she took a place next to Jayce and crossed elegantly her legs, her palm cupping her face. Jayce looked down at the copy of The Daily Prophet that the girl had "gently rested" on his face, waking him up.
"HOGWARTS STUDENT RELEASED FROM AZKABAN AND SET TO RETURN TO SCHOOL: BUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?" was the intriguing title; but, by what Jayce had understood from the conversation the article didn't really meet the goal of answering the question. Probably his confused look cued Cait to ask him "You really don't remember? It was quite a scandalous case and it's been just one year after all."
He did. Some student that he had barely even noticed till that point, had misteriously disappeared during their fifth year. No one had a clue on what had happened. He was a very reserved student too: he didn't seem to have many friends that could give some kind of clue to the Aurors as to what had happened. The school was taken by a mediatic storm, under the scrutiny of public opinion: such a thing should not have been possible in Hogwarts's ground, a student just disappearing into thin air. Then, he reappeared. But where he reappered or what had happened to him was not disclosed to the public. Finally, the most damning part of the story: the Wizengamot had put him on trial and he was swiftly escorted to Azkaban. It looked like those six months of detention were over.
"What about it?", he said, his gaze meeting Caitlyn's and Mel's eyes.
"They are arguing over the fact that he is returning to the school. Apparently we should see him tonight at dinner", was Ekko's response.
"What?" Jayce frowned. "Obviously he should. It's as Cait said. He served his time, whatever was his crime. He's only sixteen or, what - seventeen? How could his whole life be decided by those six months he spent in prison?" He turned to Mel.
"Are you not even a little bit unneverd by not knowing what his crime might be?", was the girl comeback. Even her seemed unsure of her opinion though - something rare for her; insecurity hidden behind a little smile and by not looking him in the eye. He knew her to well to be fooled. He smiled back, confident. "You know judging him like that is not right."
"I agree", commented Ekko. "And here I thought this guy was just muscles and no brain", was the addition, giving Jayce a sympathetic wink. The young man shook his head smiling. "Do not be fooled. I am handsome and smart."
"Debatable", added Caitlyn with a big smile on her face. They just loved to make fun of him didn't they?
"All these slander hides affection. I suffer from success", said Jayce while taking a hand to his heart in a melodramatic way.
And just like that the topic had been dropped and they returned to their usual conversations, such as how to smuggle a bottle of Firewhiskey into the school grounds (a decision that obviosly Caitlyn did not support, at all).
***
While descending the stairs to go to the Great Hall with his friends, Jayce's mind wondered. He tried to remember the face of the famous student that was going to make his grand return that night. He managed to remember his back. He always seemed to be turned the other way in his memories, or his head deep in a book - really fit for a Ravenclaw student, quite amusingly. He always looked like he was in a world of his own that was not to be disturbed and very far from Jayce's shining one, circled by friends, always on the Quidditch field, always on the move and his face adorned by a smile. They could not be more different. It was difficult to be confronted by the reality that Jayce's life had always sailed smoothly, without a sign of a cloud or real, true adversity. Sure, not everything in his life was perfect - he immediatly repressed that train of thought once it emerged. But well, he didn't have to pass six months of his life in Azkaban. What was that like? It was funny. Such a privileged kid that he could not even fathom the life of someone that had suffered in such ways he couldn't imagine. Then again, most Hogwarts kids would never experience that. But Jayce knew that he had the added bonus of coming from a very wealthy family, a pureblood one at that, and having his life laid ahead of him. While - who was this anonymous back in his head? This silent, transparent presence? And what had happened to him. He found it hard to suppress the curiosity and noticed, near the Great Hall, that the others must have felt similarly too. The air was dense and there were a lot of students whispering while entering the room.
But upon entering, after having scanned the room, Jayce didn't notice anything out of the ordinary - even if, by his own admission, he couldn't have recognize the "new" student in any way.
"He's not here yet", said Ekko, almost as if answering his thoughts, an then he made his way to the Hufflepuff's table. Jayce raised an eyebrow. "How does he know? He knew him?", he asked. If someone was more likely to know him, that was Mel, being a Ravenclaw herself.
"No", answered Mel. "It's just... everything looks the same, doesn't it? Anyways, I'm gonna go too. Have a good dinner." She smiled at Jayce and Cait and passed affectionately a hand on his shoulder. He was puzzled. But he wouldn't have been for long.
Shortly after he was seated, it happened.
Everyone seemed to have arrived, but the guest of honour made an appearence. There was murmuring, laughing and loudly talking but all of that turned into an uneasy silence the moment in which the Great Hall doors were opened again. Then the murmur started again, insistently, when a silhouette started its march in the hall. It was slow: the young man that had just entered was limping, slouching if just a little bit on a cane - that was new wasn't it? The next thing that caught Jayce's attention was his face that he struggled so much to remember. It was slender, with two moles that adorned it - or rather, beauty marks, their position very graceful. His amber eyes looked right in front him, not paying much attention to the people watching him, his expression serious and unbothered. Or rather, it seemed like, even in that moment, he was still in his private and secret world, far from the stares and the voices, far from everyone. Jayce realized he was staring at him, like many were, and felt a little bit ashamed by this morbid curiosity; but not only that. He felt that he was staring for some other reason entirely, aside the curiosity, something that intrigued him about this character. Maybe it was just the mistery that surrounded him, but he felt that there was something more, that he could not pinpoint well and was making him feel restless, eager to observe this person more. And more. Maybe he was just excited at the idea of knowing him and peeling off the layers of secrets that a person guarded like him might have had.
Finally, the kid with wavy, chestnut brown hair, sat down at the Ravenclaw table. And then Jayce noticed. He was so enamoured by the art of staring this stranger that he had not noticed that while he closed in on the table, people had started to switch places. No place around him was occupied. He seemed to not notice it either, or to not pay any attention to it, because he just started eating. Jayce was starstruck. He looked so strong, ignoring all those who judged him. Finally, Caitlyn elbowed him with a disapproving look, having misintrepeted - maybe? - why Jayce was looking in that direction that much. He laughed awkwardly and shrug his shoulders, before starting to eat his not-so-warm food.
***
In the following days Jayce sometimes thought back on the first time he saw the stranger. But he never mentioned the impression he got to the others, aside from giving Mel a disapproving look. After all, she was a Ravenclaw, and not even she dared to sit next to the guy. She looked apologetic but never tried to explain herself. He didn't feel like pressing the issue further, or rather was distracted. He was preparing his luggage because soon they would have had to leave for Christmad holidays. And while he did so he attended his classes, his quidditch practice. And he found himself looking for the stranger every now and then. Wondering if they could have had class together. Sure, it wasn't difficult to spot him at mealtime - even if now the gap between him and the other students was getting smaller, probably because the novelty of the situation had weared down. But he arrived and left always in a hurry and Jayce hadn't mustered the courage to go and talk to him. And anyways, what could he say to him? Ask him about Azkaban? Very bad idea. He had no other idea. So he hadn't made a move yet and wasn't sure he would ever do it. He was also not so sure about his motivations for approaching this stranger. Was he just allowing himself to be transported by morbid curiosity? After all, he didn't even knew if they had anything in common. And maybe even trying to befriend him just because others avoided him would have been misguided. After all, who would want a friend that only passes time with them because of pity? So he didn't approach him. At first.
A few days earlier his departure to return to House Talis, he was invited in the Ravenclaw Common Room by Mel, that wanted to give her goodbyes since she would have taken off that day. Next to one of the big windows that made the room so bright and that now displayed a beautiful winter scenery, there was a big Christmas tree, differentiated from others because of the blue ribbons that were placed on it to decorate in. There was almost no one in the room except for Jayce and a person crouching in front of the Christmas tree, whose face was illuminated by the little shiny light - and whose eyes reflected the shine.
He heard a whisper. "Reparo!" The voice was low and had an accent that Jayce couldn't quite place. His feet, his body and his mouth moved before he could think.
"Someone ought to maintain the tree healthy and pretty to cheer everybody up, huh?", he said, smiling, and turning his face towards the stranger.
The other looked up at him with a raised brow, looking a bit surprised, and stood up next to him.
"Actually, I was repairing the lights. One of them had stopped working days ago, but it looks like nobody has noticed", replied calmly and seriously the amber-eyed man.
"I hope you can see that we are saying exactly the same thing", said Jayce with a grin. "In any case thank you for the help you are giving to the community. Christmas lights are essential to the spirit of the festivities." He feigned being serious and did a little bow. It came pretty natural to him to act that way but this time he kinda hoped his audience found him funny too.
Answering to his wishes, the young man chuckled. "It's not like anybody's gonna see them but me. Everyone's going away for the holidays."
"And you aren't?", asked the taller kid, his interest piqued.
"No, I will stay here. Someone has to keep this place safe why you're all away", joked the stranger. Jayce smiled warmly and shook his head a bit.
"Well it's only obvious that you would make the space as cozy as possible then", answered Jayce, looking at the lights. "You like them a lot?"
"I do. Maybe once I didn't appreciate a lot of things like I do now. I think a lot of simple beauty is lost on us and now I like to try and take it all in. The snow, the lights..." The stranger touched lightly one of the bows that decorated the tree. Jayce felt his eyes shine.
Usually people didn't notice that kind of thing about themselves, but Jayce was convinced that there were some moments in which he could so easily feel himself captured by something that he just knew that his eyes were shining. The other turned to him again; probably Jayce had just stared without saying nothing for too long.
"Have I said something weird, Talis?", calmly asked the stranger, that seemed blissfully unaware of whatever effect - positive or negative - he caused on people.
"No - um, you kow my name?", he asked startled.
"Oh, c'mon", answered the other. "Who doesn't? Quidditch superstar, right?" He raised a brow while smiling, probably messing with him.
Jayce chuckled. "Well, yes, you got the right guy. But what about you? What's your name?"
"Viktor", he answered, finally liberating himself from the title of "the stranger" in Jayce's mind.
"Well, Viktor, we could grab a butterbeer if you want sometimes."
"You're very kind to extend your help to poor me, friend-less Viktor", joked him. Jayce had often thought that Viktor was very strong, not caring what others said or thought. But it must have been hard. And Jayce was misinterpreted exactly in the way he didn't want to be misintrepeted.
"No, uh - I was saying that because I'm staying for the Christmas holidays too!", he hurriedly explained himself. Admittedly, it was a lie. But well, it had stopped being a lie the moment Jayce had said it. Mentally he was already undoing the luggage and sending a letter to his mom. He was too deep into it to back off.
"Oh", smiled softly Viktor. "Then perhaps yes, why not."
Jayce's eyes stopped some seconds on Viktor's smile. It felt good to make someone who looked always so serious smile.
"You talk in a complicated way considering your age. Aren't you trying too hard?", he chuckled.
"I just read a lot", was Viktor response, accompanied by a shrug of his shouders.
"Jayce!" A voice interrupted. It was Mel, calling him from the corridor and signaling him to follow her into her room.
"Duty calls", Jayce gestured with his thumb towards the corridor. "But I'll see you soon, right?"
"Sure", answered Viktor, turning his attention again to the tree and taking a seat in front of it.
Jayce started to go towards Mel. It had just happened naturally. As these things are meant to be. Why had he been so nervous? Was making a new friend that difficult? It never had been. He tried to suffocate all the malicious reasons that deep inside him he thought might have had a part in it. The curiosity. His past, the mistery. Demonstrating to himself that anyone could like him. Or even something else entirely. Something that he didn't understand but that was making him nervous and crawling under his skin, slowly but surely.