Hogwarts Hermitober

X has had his fair share of trauma right? Let’s give him some love shall we? This fic is not out to hurt you after all! Right?

Xisuma learned to know Etho much better under…well, quite strange circumstances. One day False had approached him, asking if he wanted to be the referee for hers and Etho’s dualling match. He had agreed because he was a softy.

“Alright ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the duel between Etho Slab and False Symmetry. My name is Xisuma Void and I’m not sure why I’m here as I know nothing about duelling,” they enchanted their voice to be louder with a quick sonorus and went to start the match.

“Okay, duellist take your places. One, two, three. Begin!”

He was confused the entire time, but he quickly began to understand how difficult duelling was and so he began to appreciate it more. The duel took very long, almost too long in his opinion, but in the end False won and Etho lost.

Neither of the two looked too upset and so he decided to congratulate both and head back to his dormitory.

A week went by and they were walking through the halls towards their next lesson when someone shouted at them.

“Xisuma! Xisuma, come quick!” it was Hypno who looked very paranoid, “I just Saw Etho getting hurt in the Prefect bathroom!” X immediately ran after the fifth year and stopped in front of the Prefect bathrooms.

“I ehh- I’m not a Prefect, but you know the password right?” Hypno asked uncertainly and X mentally cursed at himself for being so stupid.

“Flourish dutifully,” he spoke clearly and the door opened.

There Etho layed on the floor, blood seeping out of his arm while a piece of glass was held in the other. The bathroom was in shambles and upon closer inspection there were more glass shards that had embedded themselves into Etho. It was a mess, the water making it seem like he had lost more blood than he had and so Xisuma did not know what condition he was in.

“Oh my gosh Jeepers, what happened?” Hypno asked the albino concerned, but Etho could not speak and just moved a bit.

“We have to get him to the Hospital wing,” Xisuma concluded and they grabbed a small stretcher from their pocket, something he had learned from Madam Pomfrey.

“Engorgio,” he whispered and together they hoisted him onto the stretcher, “Wingardium Leviosa.”

They sped towards the Hospital Wing where they were greeted by Madam Pomfrey who began looking for her potions, as soon as she saw them. Xisuma lowered Etho onto a bed, grabbed some pliers and began removing some of the glass from his arm and leg.

“You can go now Mr Tized, we’ve got him from here,” he heard Madam Pomfrey say from behind him and he heard Hypno leaving, but he stayed focussed with his tongue between his teeth.

“Don’t you have potions right now, Xisuma?” Madam Pomfrey asked him as she began applying some Essence of Dittany on Etho’s wounds.

“I do,” he responded, “But I can ask someone for notes later,” Madam Pomfrey tutted a bit but made no move to throw him out, instead she gave him a permission slip and told him to give that to professor Snape when he got back.

Xisuma waved his wand in order to scan for remaining glass and any other injuries and only found a couple more shards. What, exactly, had Etho been doing there? And why was the Prefect's bathroom in shambles? But he could not ask him, as he had passed out at some point.

They sighed, he had to go back to his classes didn’t he? Oh well, it was just potions left and after that they could wait by Etho’s bedside and do some of their homework. It was not as if they did not live in the Hospital Wing after all.

He slowly got up and went back to potions. The class would be over soon anyway.

“Ey Xisuma?” X turned around, “Could you please ask professor Snape for some Essence of Dittany while you’re at it? We’re running low,” X nodded and began making his trek towards the dungeons.

When he entered the classroom professor Snape looked up a bit disturbed, but that was quickly replaced with a blank stare as soon as he saw that it was just Xisuma.

“Mr Void, nice of you to join us,” professor Snape muttered slowly as Xisuma handed him his slip, “Very well then, Mr Weasley is working on your attempt on Veritaserum.”

X went to his and Percy’s seat and indeed the Weasley was fully engrossed in their batch of Veritaserum.

“Hi,” X muttered as he took his seat, “Sorry, had some Hospital issues,” he apologised but Percy waved it away.

“Don’t worry about it mate. Are they safe?” X nodded and Percy smiled at that. “Good. I’m gonna need your help by the way, I don’t understand what it wants me to do here.”

The remaining ten minutes of potions Xisuma helped Percy understand what they had to do and when the class was over, he headed back to the Infirmary.

Etho had still not woken up, but X was not surprised at that because the boy had lost a lot of blood. So he sat by his bedside and did his homework for the day. After that Etho still showed no signs of waking up and so he continued learning and practising for his charms exam.

It was eight o’clock in the evening when Etho finally woke up and when he did Xisuma was there.

“How’re ya feeling bud?” they asked him as he got his bearings.

“Hi,” Etho muttered, “What happened?” X frowned, how could they know what happened to him when Etho did not remember?

“We don’t know,” they sighed, “Hypno ran towards me after having had a vision of you in the Prefects bathroom. Covered in blood,” they added.

“Oh, that’s- that’s something…” Etho trailed off, “I remember bits of it, there was someone else there. I remember talking to them and-,” he cut himself off.

“And?” Xisuma prodded.

“After that nothing.”

There was no way in Hells Xisuma believed that, but he let it slide for today because Etho obviously looked bothered by it and he did not want him to feel any worse.

Two weeks went by before Etho finally got the courage to come up to him again and when he did Xisuma welcomed him with open arms. It turned out that a few Gryffindors and Slytherins had banded together and bullied him because he lost the duel to a girl. Xisuma was extremely angry after that, not only because they had hurt his Etho, but also because they were sexists and he did not like that one bit. Sexism was not something that was very common in the Wizarding world and it was deemed to be only for ‘stupid’ Muggles, so he was a bit shocked at that.

Naturally they did what they did best; reporting them to professor McGonnagal.

They got the punishment they deserved.

Meeting Cub was just like meeting all of the other Hermits; peculiar. The Ravenclaw was one of many mysteries and seemed to pop up everywhere no matter where you went. 

But when Cub walked through a literal wall into the Hospital wing Xisuma nearly dropped his precious moly salve. But he did not have a lot of time to register that fact as Cub began to ramble anxiously and pulled him out of the Hospital wing through the corridors.

Xisuma was just confused.

“Cub, what- where are we going?” they asked confused and this time Cub spoke clearly.

“We were practising with Vex magic- Scar and I- and suddenly a spell backfired and Scar hit himself and he was hurt and I could not help him,” he rambled and pleaded, “Please, he’s in pain.” Xisuma was already convinced, Scar was like a little brother to him. No way he was going to turn down helping him when he obviously needed it.

When they got there Xisuma was happy that he was still carrying his moly salve, as it was a salve that was used when counteracting enchantments like the one Scar seemed to be under now.

It was a horrific sight to see.

Scar sat frozen on the couch, his green eyes fogged over and his whole body shaking. He did not seem to be aware that they had entered the room, being in a place they could not reach.

On his upper arm was a burn mark where a blueish fog seeped out of. That must have been the spot where the curse rebounded. Xisuma opened the moly salve and applied some of it on Scar’s arm. Scar twitched at the sudden touch, showing some sense of awareness, but kept staring at the fireplace in front of them.

Xisuma frowned and casted some scanning spells to see if the spell had affected any other part of his body. Negative. They sighed in relief.

“I’ve healed him,” they informed an anxious Cub, “Now he needs to come back to us.” Cub nodded tentatively and took a seat on the other side of Scar, grabbing his scarred hand and Xisuma grabbed the other, hoping to ground the younger in some way. He did not know when he had started talking, but after a while he had caught himself rambling about the moly salve.

And Scar squeezed his hand.

Their head shot up and saw that Scar’s eyes were no longer focussed on the fireplace, but were able to move around. His body was getting there too.

“Scar,” they said in relief, “You back with us buddy?” It took Scar a minute or two to be able to respond.

“I- I think I am,” Scar said uncertainly, moving his fingers around to get some feeling in them and then he smirked, “I just could not listen to you ramble on about herbology. I love you man, truly, and I love herbology… but gosh that was boring and I could not stand it any longer so I tried my hardest to come back.” 

X did not know whether to be offended or laugh, he chose the latter (of course he chose the latter, this is Scar we’re talking about).

“It’s good to have you back buddy,” Cub hugged him, “Maybe lay off with the attacking stuff, yeah?” Scar nodded smiling.

“That brings me to another point,” Xisuma said sternly, “What in the world even happened?” The two went red and started fiddling with their robes.

“Of course you don’t have to tell me, but I’d appreciate it if you did.”

“We learned how to do Vex magic a while back,” X nearly fell off the couch in surprise.

“You did what now ?! How?! ” 

Xisuma met Hypno briefly when the boy brought in Beef. He knew he was a Seer, but he had never really understood the extent of that until he came running down the corridor, pushing him to the side.

They had been confused as to why he would do that so randomly, but barely a second later a rock fell right on where he was standing just a second ago. They stared at it in shock before turning to look at Hypno.

“Yeah, sorry for pushing you like that…,” he trailed off but Xisuma shook his head violently.

“No no no no no no!” he exclaimed and smiled in awe, “Thanks for that!”

Hypno blushed and they went on with their separate days.

That was the first time that that had happened, but most certainly not the last.

When he got back from St. Mungo’s after the Death Eater attacked him he found out that one of the reasons they had been found was because Hypno had a vision and had alerted his father who was an Auror.

He owed him his life.

It were those little things that Hypno was willing to do for him that made him feel warm and fuzzy inside; he felt loved.

He met Jevin after the boy was brought to the Hospital wing, having turned himself into a blueish sort of slime while practising in the Ravenclaw common room. It took a while for the boy to come out of his shell, because Jevin was very embarrassed, but Xisuma stuck by his side as they figured out a counterspell that would not harm him.

After the accident Xisuma met up with him a couple of times in order to boost his confidence, as they figured out that turning something, or someone, into blue slime was a confidence issue. And who was Xisuma to not help a person with self esteem issues? 

From that moment on he got a christmas gift from Jevin each year; a christmas sweater with all of his favourite colours and detailed with his interests. It melted them just from sheer cuteness that the boy appreciated him so much for paying attention to him and the things he liked. So when he made a little studygroup in his final year, Jevin was one of the first people to get an invitation.

Xisuma never was one to judge someone, but when it came to the Gryffindors he seemed to not be able to not to. Most of his patients came from that house or were put there because of a Gryffindor that had messed up. Even Slytherin was not as bad.

Of course there were exceptions to that, like Ren, Hypno and Etho and… Yeah there were quite a few acceptions actually. But the feelings were still there, Gryffindors were just trouble.

So when a fourth year Gryffindor ran into the Hospital wing shouting about needing to see Ren when Ren was not in any state to be seen, he drew a line.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, I’m sorry,” they stated and Iskall managed to gather his bearings.

“No, you don’t understand!” the Gryffindor shouted, “I know!” 

From the inside Xisuma went into full panic mode, but from the outside he seemed as cool as a cucumber.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you are talking about,” they stated clearly, “Leave now please, you’re disturbing my patients,” he lied as cold as ice.

“X, it’s fine,” said the weak voice of Ren from behind his curtain. 

It left him confused, why would Ren let someone see him in the state he was in. He did not even let his friends see him like this, let alone reveal his secret!

“You sure Ren?” they hesitated. 

“Yes my dude,” came the reply from the younger and they nodded.

“Okay, come in Iskall,” they relented and said sternly, “But keep it quiet, you got me?”

X let them have their heartfelt talk and searched for his moly salve so he could ease Ren’s pain. When he came back he heard some words that he would rather have not heard, fueling him with protective rage.

“Well, most people would. I’m a monster you know,” Ren answered to something Iskall had said. But before X could intervene Iskall did it for him.

“No, you’re not. At least not by choice. I like to think that I know who you are as a person, Ren. I’ve played too much wizard chess with you to not to.” X felt touched by those words and stepped back into Ren’s little private area.

“You’re a good person for that Iskall and Ren, you’re brave for telling someone,” he praised them both.

“What can we say,” Ren grinned but winced as X applied his moly salve. 

“We’re Gryffindors after all,” he finished and Xisuma grinned at that. 

“Oh I know, it gets you in all sorts of trouble,” he winked and went back to treating patients.

Maybe he could now add another person to the list of reasons not to judge Gryffindors.

Whenever X went to the Friday night game night, which was everytime, he always felt himself drawn to the same group of people. Doc, Etho, Mumbo and him were often stuck together, investigating how all of the games were created and the magic that it took behind the scenes. 

It is how he met Mumbo. They shared the same interests and had a very similar take on life, they just mashed well together!

The Ravenclaw was always very careful in doing things, so it came to a surprise when he entered the Hospital wing after his last class and finding Mumbo lying in one of the beds. 

He immediately rushed to his side and saw that he was awake, but had his arm in a mitella. It was not very severe then, X stated.

“Hullo Mumbo,” he smiled at the younger, “What’s gotten you to end up here?” Mumbo looked up startled, not having seen them enter, but smiled nonetheless.

“Grian wanted to go flying with me and Scar,” he answered, “But flying is not really a Scar-safe activity. He accidentally bumped against me and it made me fall off my broom. We weren’t high above ground, I just fell wrong.” X nodded and decided to keep him company for the rest of the day, until he was released. There were not as many patients anyway and they had a feeling that Grian and Scar were not allowed in anymore.

Back to his point about Gryffindors.

Iskall had not even left the Hospital wing after his visit to Ren, when a panicked Impulse ran in carrying an unconscious Gryffindor that he recognised as one of his friends. He quickly pointed at a bed and helped Impulse lower him onto it.

“Impulse,” he questioned, “What happened?” The younger was shaking slightly.

“I don’t know X!” he exclaimed, “I was walking to the Owlery to write a letter to my father and then I saw Zed falling off it with wings attached to his back!” Xisuma let out a deep sigh and massaged his temple with his hand.

“He tried to fly you say?” Impulse nodded and X sighed one last time before getting to work. He grabbed some Skele-gro, to heal Zed’s bones after he had reset them, and gave him one last check over.

“He should be fine, Impy, why don’t you grab Tango?” he offered, “I’m sure he is wondering where you guys are by now,” Impulse nodded quickly and dashed away to find the third piece of their puzzle.

It turns out that that was a mistake, because the two boys came back with sleeping bags, being very adamant that they would stay by Zed’s side. That, of course, was not possible, and so they resorted to camping by the door.

Luckily Zed woke up the next morning and the two did not have to stay there any longer.

“You Gryffindors, always getting into trouble,” X said, “You were lucky one of your friends was nearby.” He huffed once more and then began to check if his leg had grown how it should.

“You’re lucky, everything managed to regrow how it’s supposed to. You’ll be stuck here for a few more days though,” Zed nodded in understanding. “You have some visitors by the way. They would not leave, even when I told them to.” They sighed and waved them in with his hands.

“ZED-!” “WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME WERE YOU THINKING!” Tango and Impulse shouted, busting out his eardrums and so he walked away.

Yeah, they would be just fine.

He knew Impulse. The younger was a housemate of his and he was also very familiar with his brother Skizz, as he was a part of the Quidditch team and could not not end up in the Hospital wing after a match.

What he did not know was their background, him being a Muggleborn and all that. He did not know that their family was resented by the rest of the Wizarding World. 

It was a nice Sunday morning when he did find out. He was quietly eating his breakfast when he was alerted by a cry of pain. 

Impulse, who was seated only a table away from him, was holding his hands, which were beginning to swell quickly and blisters were already forming. On the table in front of him was a letter with pus seeping out of it.

“Impulse, Skizz, come with me,” he ordered immediately, “We gotta get you to the Hospital wing.” Skizz and him helped Impulse get up from the table and away from the pus that was still flowing from the letter and onto the table.

Professor Sprout had also seen what had happened and had run towards them, but slowed down as soon as she saw him. She nodded at X and then removed the pus off the table.

“What a foul trick, who in their right mind sends this to a fourteen year old,” they heard her curse as they walked away. Skizz muttering to the letter;

“Get out of there you piece of junk!”

Luckily the Hospital wing was not too far away from the Great Hall, because Impulse’s hand was only getting worse and it was not until Impulse’s legs gave out beneath him that X ran ahead to call for Madam Pomfrey. 

Madam Pomfrey came out as soon as she heard them and quickly ordered Xisuma to go and grab some stuff while she took him to a hospital bed. They came out with some potions and salves and began applying them on Impulse’s hands.

“I’m so unbelievably mad right now,” he said furiously but forced his hands to remain soft and calm. “Who in their right mind would do something like that to a student, no less a third year!” 

Skizz was basically vibrating with anger on the chair next to him.

“Someone who’s still pissed off at our mother,” he answered the underlying question, as Madam Pomfrey fed Impulse a potion as he still could not move his hand. “We get angry letters sometimes, apparently people think we take after our mother and that we are just as mad.” 

Madam Pomfrey audibly gasped. “They wouldn’t do that! That is unacceptable, you can’t be held responsible for your mothers actions!” This left X even more confused than he was earlier.

“Our mother was who they like to call the ‘Mad’ Black,” Impulse explained, biting through the pain, “She kind of meddled with things she should not have to make herself more beautiful and died because of it.” 

“Oh my gosh, my condolences!” they gasped.

“Don’t worry about it,” Skizz waved it away, “It has been a few years since and it’s not like she was the best of mothers anyway.”

“But still,” X persisted, “You should not get blamed for something like that! The audacity of some people!”

That was the moment from when Xisuma decided to stick with them, making sure that no one bothered them again and cheering them up when they were in a bad headspace.

No child should have gone through the things the Esvee siblings had ever again.

On that note, let’s talk about Tango. 

Xisuma had gathered from Etho and Ren that the reason that others treated him like a parasite was because he too was seen as a disgrace to the Wizarding World. His family treated him like dirt from what X had heard, and so he made it his job to give the ginger a new one that saw his worth.

Impulse and Zed were doing a very good job at that, but they could see that the Slytherin was still struggling with self esteem issues and we could not have that could we?

With an accident regarding fire earlier that year, Tango had become even more of an outcast. At least, that was how the younger felt about it. 

But after he had spilled him being an Elemental to Xisuma after the pressure just got too much for him, they were quick to correct that. 

He took Tango ice skating, something he knew the other was passionate about, and after that let him rant about Decked Out and the choices he made while constructing it. 

And it helped. After that day Tango seemed more like his usual bubbly self. 

A job well done, he would say.

At the start of the year a second years who went by the name of Gem joined his House’s Quidditch team as a Beater. Skizz and Stress had boasted her skills to them and they were not disappointed at the sheer size of skill that she seemed to possess. 

While it was true that he did not understand the concept of Quidditch in his fourth year, but due to the many games he was now forced to watch because of him helping Madam Pomfrey, he could say that he now saw when someone was good and when someone was really good.

And Gem was really good.

But she was still a Beater and Beaters usually ended up in the Hospital wing after a match. Even if it was just for a check-up.

And that was when he started to get to know Gem. They talked after matches and went through what went wrong and what went right. She taught him the insides of Quidditch until he felt confident enough to bring some input of his own.

She introduced him even further to the Wizarding World.

Just like meeting a lot of the other ‘Hermits’, meeting Pearl was also under bad circumstances.

It was a pretty quiet Tuesday evening when Gem stumbled in, supporting an out of it looking Slytherin. He immediately ran towards them and took the Slytherin from Gem and laid her on a bed.

“What happened?” he asked Gem concerned and he began checking the girls reaction speed, which was very slow.

“I don’t know! Pearl wanted to tell me something and then she just fell quiet, so I looked over to ask why she wasn’t continuing and that’s when I saw her staring off into the distance. At first there was nothing wrong, but she was not reacting to what I was saying, so I figured that there had to be something wrong,” Gem ranted and they guided her to a chair for her to settle down on.

“And then she started shaking and screaming and I panicked, so I tried to get her out of wherever she was. Which I know was not a good idea, but she looked like she was in pain and I didn’t know what else to do!” Gem sighed and X ran a hand through his hair.

They thought they had a clue as to what had happened to Pearl. Hypno had described something similar to him when he told X about being a Seer.

“Alright, I think I know what happened, but this is outside of my area of expertise. I’m gonna get Poppy,” he said and went towards Poppy’s office.

“Poppy,” he called out upon entry, “I need your help!” Madam Poppy appeared from behind a shelf and walked towards him.

“Of course my child, what is it?” she asked him.

“I think that I have a student here who just had her first vision, she’s not reacting and still in shock.” Upon hearing these words, Madam Pomfrey sped towards the hospital to look for herself.

“Oh goodness, where is the poor child,” she exclaimed as she came to a halt in front of Pearl and began doing the same tests that he had done.

“Yes, yes. I think you were right, Xisuma. I think that the poor girl just had her first vision, that must have been a shocking experience.” She and X tried for a good twenty minutes to bring her back fully, but in the end X resorted to asking Hypno for advice and went to search for him.

The Gryffindor had already been sleeping but did not mind being woken up as soon as he heard that X needed help with someone having had their first vision. That was something that he had not Seen coming.

Hypno was able to bring Pearl back to her senses and explained everything to her.

But from that moment on X kept close watch on Pearl and made sure that no one was to ever harm them by taking her out of a vision.

After Pearl came her cousin Grian and boy was he a menace. They had heard of the Slytherin from Mumbo, but nothing could have prepared them for actually meeting him. 

It was one of the only ones where they met someone outside of the Hospital wing and while they normally would have been glad that that was the case, this time it was not.

He had just been going on a stroll through the halls of Hogwarts, as he normally did on a Saturday morning, just taking a few minutes for himself. Only this was quickly disrupted by a water balloon full of yellow paint dropping on top of his head.

It took him a few seconds to process but when he had gathered his bearings he was met with a mischievous giggle coming from a corridor near him. X took a few strides towards the door and pulled it open using wandless magic.

In there was a first year Slytherin with a gigantic grin on his face, that fell as soon as he saw Xisuma, but came back as soon as he saw the state the Head Boy was in.

“Grian Dreamslayer,” they started, “Give me one reason not to give you detention right now!”

The grin fell once more and he started looking for a way out, but the only one was the door Xisuma was blocking right now.

“You know…” the younger trailed off, “we can talk about this…” This time it was Xisuma who was grinning.

“Oh yeah?” he asked, raising his wand. “Can we?” 

“I mean,” Grian said as he backed away, “We’re grown men aren’t we? We can find a way to be civil.”

If there had been anyone Watching at that moment, then they would have laughed at the sight of Grian saying grown men when there was a clear difference between the 6 foot 3 Hufflepuff and the 4 foot 9 Slytherin.

“We sure can,” X grinned and that was the only warning Grian got before he too was hit with a paint bomb, only this one was made out of powder.

X had gotten him good.

He did meet Bdubs in the Hospital wing, but under much calmer and normaller circumstances than he had met the others. The young Hufflepuff had trouble with sleeping and had asked for a sleeping potion that would help him fall asleep.

“It’s weird,” Bdubs had told him, “It’s like time has changed and I, as a Clocker, would know!” X was not sure what to think of that, but he too had noticed the difference as well as Ren. But he thought that it would be best to leave something important like time to the professors, instead of messing with it and it becoming even worse.

He made sure to check up on the first year though, because he knew that it was hard to adjust to Hogwarts even without all the messing with time.

These were all people that Xisuma had met during his time at Hogwarts. Every person was someone that he would consider a friend.

And so he founded a little studygroup consisting of every one of his friends in order to help them find each other and give them someone to hold onto when he, eventually, would have to leave.

But he never would have thought that he too needed someone to hear him out, someone who was not Keralis.

He found that someone in one of Hogwarts' resident ghosts; TFC.

TFC was not someone who frequently showed himself to students. In fact, the only students that he knew that had seen him were Hypno and Pearl, but that had something to do with the fact that they were Seers, which was connected to TFC’s own background.

But that was something that X never wanted to ask about and so he just let it be.

TFC often accompanied him during his Saturday morning strolls. They would talk about, how ironic, life and how strange of a thing it was. The ghost would give him advice and would tell him to pursue his dreams.

The ghost became more of a father figure than his own father could ever be and Hogwarts became his home.

It was a sad thought that he would have to leave it all behind very soon, but with that came the opportunity to build a new home for himself.

It was not the end of the world after all, it was just new beginnings.

X would have never thought that the things that he had done in his years attending Hogwarts would have such an impact on the school and its students.

It was hard to imagine that scared little Muggle boy living with the horses would grow into a fine young man making everyone’s day better.

But maybe it was not as hard to imagine after all.

He was spending his evening working on his studies in the library, but it was busy there and he found himself unable to concentrate fully. Sighing frustratedly he laid his head on one of the books he was reading out of.

“You’re not lookin’ so great there luv,” Stress pulled him out of his misery. “How long ‘ave you been here fo’?” X just groaned defeated.

“That's what I thought,” she put her hands in her hips, “You’re comin’ wif us.” Stress pulled him out of his chair. It was only then that he saw that she was joined by Iskall and Cub, who put his books back in their correct spots.

“Yeah Xisuma,” backed Cub up, “You, my friend, need to take a break.”

“Maybe we can go play some games in the game room?” Iskall proposed and Stress and Cub nodded along. They sighed once more but then followed them.

Taking a break would not be so bad, would it?

It was not indeed, because once they opened the door to their games room, still looking back at Stress, Iskall and Cub and talking about the pro’s of moly salve, they were met with a whole lot more people than they had expected.

“SURPRISE!”

X literally jumped at the sight of their Hermits.

“I- hwa… hi?” X brought out as he looked around the room to find the Hermits with creature costumes with his face on them, his favourite food and snacks and lots of Muggle games. Beside that, the room was beautifully decorated with different shades of purple, his favourite colour, and filled with all sorts of herbs and plants, making the room smell delightful.

It was amazing… the effort that must have taken!

“I hope I’m not too late,” came a voice from behind them and they spun around. TFC.

“Hello son,” smiled the ghost of TinFoil Chef and X could not help but let a couple of tears fall.

“You did this all for me guys?” he sniffed, smiling.

“It’s amazing. I love you all.”

The rest of the evening was one of laughter and joy, with him thanking everyone of the Hermits and especially Impulse, who had coordinated all of this.

Despite him wanting it to last forever, things had to come to an end.

He finished his NEWT’s with outstanding scores and immediately got a job at St. Mungo’s due to his internship there while he was still at Hogwarts.

They enjoyed it there. Of course it was not the same as Hogwarts and they still needed to buy their own apartment, they were staying at the Leaky Cauldron for a while, but they quickly fell into a familiar routine. 

It became their new home and their coworkers became their new family.

But that did not mean that they forgot about their Hermits…

Dear beloved Hermits,

I am sure that it feels a bit strange now, Hogwarts. As do I. Do not get me wrong, I love it here, but there will always be something missing. I am not even going to try to replace that feeling, because knowing it is there means knowing that the time I had with all of you was something special and something I will cherish until my last breath.

This will be a new start for everyone, a new school year and all that. But I trust that you will help each other pull through. You are a family after all, my family, and family is what family does. Do not underestimate your capabilities and help fill in what the other is lacking. Be a ying to the rest’s yang and I know that you will be able to overcome everything that will be thrown at you.

I am sure that you are all curious as to how I am doing, but maybe that is a bit selfish of me. Anyways, that is what I like to think. I am doing okay for now. I have worked the entire time that you had a holiday and I have earned enough that I am looking for an apartment in London right now. So if you were wondering where I am at, that is where.

This will not be the last letter that I send your way. Actually, I like to think that I will write to you all long after you have all left Hogwarts and started your own lifes. I would like to keep in touch with you all for as long as possible. 

I already look forward to seeing you all again. Maybe we can arrange something during a Hogsmead weekend. I trust that you will keep me up to date whenever those are to occur.

I am signing out now. Good luck on your studies and do not be afraid to ask for help! I will see you all very soon.

Lots of love,

Xisuma Void

The end