A Friend of Percy’s

“Morning trouble, it’s time for class.” George whispered to Lirum who was still fast asleep on his shoulder.

Blinking themselves awake to the sound of their friends' voices and rhythmic steps. Lirum noticed they where no longer in the forbidden forest but instead the castle. The boy had kept his word on bringing them back and carried them all the way to the charms classroom.

“Godric’s heart, did I actually fall asleep on you like that?” Lirum asked, feeling their cheeks burn.

“Oh yeah, I’ve got the drool stains on my robes to prove it!” George said with a deep chuckle Lirum could feel against their chest. “You talk in your sleep you know that? If you like dragons that much I should introduce you to Charlie.”

“I-I have no idea what you're talking about!” Lirum protested anxiously.

“Come in, no need to turn pink over it. Nothing to be embarrassed about.” George laughed again, rumbling beneath them. “Come on now, hop down. You’ve got to go inside or you’ll be late for class.”

“What about you? Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?” Lirum asked worried they’d get him in trouble.

“I couldn’t give two Knuts about being late, and besides I owed you a favor. I like not being in debt.” George joked dropping Lirum off safely on the ground.

“Don’t go getting yourself in trouble because of me. You wouldn’t let me, it’s a two way street.” Lirum insisted, glaring at the ginger boy.

“The difference is I was in trouble before we became friends, and Percy would kill us if we got you into trouble. The boy needs to get his own friends.” George joked pushing Lirum towards the door before opening it. “Now go before you're late, and I have to deal with another screaming match between Fred and Percy.”

“I think technically I was a friend of Percy’s before you and Fred.” Lirum joked walking through the door before stopping to look back at him. “how did you know my next class anyway?”

“You’re always here at this time?” He said with a shrug.

“How would you know that though I don’t think we’ve talked about our schedules yet really?” Lirum asked suspiciously. “Have you been stalking me or something?”

“A-a friend told me!” He said a bit too quickly.

“Who told you my schedule? I don't even have it fully memorized?” Lirum asked again, watching the boy start to panic.

“I’ve gotta go to class, can't be late, see you later!” George said as he quickly made his way down the hall in long bounding strides.

“All of my friends are acting weird,
Perfect!” Lirum said to themself, going to take their seat in charms.

They sat and watched professor Flitwick took his place on his podium to begin instructing the class.

“Today we will be revisiting the summoning charm. Accio, remember to summon something you must say the incantation followed by calling the item you are trying to summon. Now everyone wands ready and practice summoning your quills.”

“Accio quill.” Lirum practiced the incantation and proper hand motion, succeeding with ease as a note landed on their desk.

Lirum turned the note over to read ‘You seem a bit off today is everything alright?’ scrawled onto a loose piece of parchment. They looked over their shoulder to see Cedric up a row and over a seat, and grabbed their quill to write him back.

‘I actually really need to talk to someone about it if you’d listen. I thought you might understand and know how to help, but It’s a bit complicated. Can we talk in private?’ they wrote before pausing to think how they would send the note up to him given his place above and behind them.

“Accio note?” Cedric said under his breath as the note flew from Lirum’s desk.

“Cedric, that's the least sneaky way to do that! You’re going to get us caught.” Lirum snapped in a hushed tone at the Hufflepuff boy.

“What did you want me to do! Were you going to hold the note above your head for me to grab?” Cedric argued, looking down at the note. “And I want to help you but I would argue we can’t get more privacy than the notes, given that even if theirs no one around the paintings can hear us and all.”

“If you were just gonna lean over the wall anyway, why did you write the note? You’re so bad at being sneaky.” Lirum snapped again at the boy practically hanging on the edge of the riser reaching out to take the note back.

“Accio note” professor Flitwick called from his podium as the note flew swiftly to him, taking a moment to read it before speaking again. “Mr Ollivander, Mr. Diggory although I am happy to see you’ve successfully performed the summoning charm. We will be discussing whatever problem the two of you are working through in my office after class.”

“Right professor Flitwick.” The two teens said in tandem. Both turned back to face the front of the class and practice their charms.

At the end of class Lirum rushed toward the door hoping Flitwick had forgotten he’d told them to meet him. They had no such luck as they heard the short man call out for them as they tried to leave.

“Mr Ollivander, are you forgetting something? I hope you're not trying to avoid meeting me in my office.” He said waving them back over. “Mr. Diggory will be joining us as well. Hopefully it will be private enough for you to tell me what’s going on.

Professor Flitwick let the two fourth years to his office speedily. He took his seat at the other side of his large desk looking at the two of them before opening one of the drawers. He pulled out three cupcakes, setting them on the desk and gesturing for the students to take them.

“You keep cupcakes in your desk professor?” Lirum asked, looking at the sweet treats he had just taken out of a random drawer.

“Why yes I’m sure you remember I have an open door policy for all my students.” He answered picking up one of the three cupcakes for himself.

“What do cupcakes have to do with your open door policy?” Lirum asked, still eyeing the cupcakes suspiciously.

“Well I think they’re for this? When students are having a bad day and need to talk about it?” Cedric chimed taking a cupcake of the desk leaving only the one for Lirum.

“Precisely! Mr. Diggory.” Professor Flitwick cheered. “If your days have been too bad, I can use a charm to make them do a little dance to cheer you up. I figured we might need them after I heard what happened this morning.”

“So we’re not in trouble?” Lirum asked skeptically.

“Not really though, please refrain from passing notes and arguing in my class. I knew there were some extenuating circumstances today. You said you needed to talk about it so please I’m all ears.” Flitwick said before taking a bite of his cupcake. “If your not a fan of cupcakes I believe I have some sugar quills here somewhere.”

“No, no I’m fine I’m just not in a very peckish mood. I’m also just not sure if I know how to broach this subject with you, no offense.” Lirum couldn’t think of how to explain to him what happened between Percy and Penelope or even worse how to bring up Luna.

“Well you’re a Ravenclaw you’re smart I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I mean it makes since why you would have went to your Hufflepuff friend-“ Flitwick started before getting cut off.

“I hate it when you do that! I know you take pride in this house but I am not just a Ravenclaw, I am a person. Cedric is my friend, he’s Cedric, not ‘your Hufflepuff friend’. We are not just one of four possible personality traits!” Lirum snapped bitterly ready to leave.

“I apologize, it was meant to be encouraging. I hope this isn’t the reason you’ve been avoiding me” he said with a sigh.

“I-Professor I-“

“I feared I had done something to upset you. When you quit choir last year and began avoiding me I knew I must have done something. I apologize again for not realizing earlier that you were uncomfortable.” He said reaching into another drawer “Although I wish you’d told me sooner I’m glad to know I’ll try to keep that in mind in our future conversation.”

He pulled out a folder from a drawer flipping it open to reveal a picture of Lirum from their sorting ceremony. It was accompanied by notes written neatly. Professor Flitwick grabbed his pin and added it to the file before putting it back into the drawer.

“What was that?” Lirum stared at the drawer confused.

“I keep folders for all the students in my house. Likes, dislikes, strengths, things to avoid, and the like. It helps me keep track of all my current students stay here. After they graduate they go into the cabinet.” Flitwick explained.

“Is it a full moon? Everyone is acting crazy. You, Penelope, Percy, Fred, George, Luna, oh god Luna, even Cedric’s acting weird. Have I lost it, am I the crazy one and all this is normal?” Lirum ranted feeling lost as to why everyone seems to have lost the plot.

“What did I do?” Cedric asked, taking the last cupcake.

“You decided to summoning charm my note, and then basically climbed over your desk dangling off it to argue with me about why that was the best option.” Lirum said, turning to him.

“That’s fair actually, maybe I should go. I don't seem to be making this better.” Cedric said awkwardly. “If you keep fidgeting with your wand like that, you're gonna wear right through the handle.”

“Though you have a point, I don’t think now was the best time for that Mr. Diggory.” Flitwick said calmly. “You should Probably head to your next class.”

“Right yes.” He said standing up from his chair, followed by Lirum.

“Not you Mr. Ollivander I’ll be in touch with Professor Vector later about your arithmancy lesson today.” He gestured for them to sit back down. “I think it’s time we talk about what happened in the great hall.”

“What would you like to know?” Lirum said falling back down into the seat across from him.

“Ms. Clearwater said some rather hurtful things this morning if I’ve heard correctly. She lost seventy five house points because of it. How are you feeling?” Flitwick asked.

“I’m fine. Snape shouldn’t have taken that many points. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Is that how you really feel? There are several students who think Snape let her off easy. Are you aware of what those muggle insults meant?” Flitwick asked, pulling a sugar quill out of his desk.

“I grew up in London of course I know what those insults meant! She only went insulting my friend calling her crazy for answering a damn question, the other a stuck up arse and then off yelling about me being a stupid little whore for being friends with Gryffindors. While she’s actively dating said stuck up Gryffindor arse.” Lirum snapped, anger from this morning bubbling up.

“So you are angry about this morning?” Flitwick asked, offering the sugar quill to the angry fourth year.

“Maybe! It’s complicated!” Lirum yelled in frustration, snatching the brightly coloured sugar quill and crunching down in it instead of letting it devolve. “I was angry before but it’s a long complicated story and now I don’t know how to feel.”

“We have time.” Flitwick said calmly again.

“You have to swear they don’t get into trouble because of what I tell you.”

“As long as they haven’t broken any major school rules like casting unforgivable I think I can turn a blind eye just once.” Flitwick assured them.

“Luna wants Me and Percy, the Gryffindor prefect, to get together, but he’s dating Penelope. So when she got insulted she fake cried to make me and Percy upset. So the two would fight and she could brake them up.” Lirum explained guilt ridden. “So as angry as I want to be for what she said I can’t. Because I know she was right, Luna was up to something, but I had no idea until we sat down and I tried to comfort her. It’s just so infuriating because I don’t have any right to be mad about it because it’s my fault it happened.”

“That is not your fault. Luna made that decision and Penelope is not only two years older than you she’s a school prefect and should never have said those things. Now that I have the whole story I think I know how best to handle the situation. I won’t be pulling her prefect badge just yet as snape recommended. Instead I’ll be putting her on probation. You should return to your dorm and get some sleep.” Flitwick said, jotting some things down on his parchment as Lirum stood from their chair and slumped back to the Ravenclaw dorms.