Chapter 3
J. Finch Fletchley is not very much enjoying his classes, thank you very much.
He started out the same way he started out with everything- with unrelenting optimism, but when right off the bat he confuses lotion with potion with perhaps the scariest teacher in all of Hogwarts, it’s hard to remain cheerful.
He’s trying anyway, however. He’s faking it until he makes it.
Transfiguration doesn’t go much better, with Oliver, who’s really a sweet guy, losing even more house points, and Defense Against The Dark Arts goes even worse when Megan taunts their professor and the whole room goes red and weird.
I mean, it is a magic school, but still. Things are scary and confusing, and if there's one thing J. Finch doesn’t like, it’s things that are scary and confusing.
That night in the common room, Justin sits curled up in a quilt he brought from home, still smelling like his cat and his room and his mum’s breakfast tea he spilt a little on it, and he tries not to cry as he stares at the flickering light in the fire.
“Are you alright there, J. Finch?”
The voice from the corner belongs to Cedric, and he frantically wipes the blooming tears from his lash line.
“Yeah.” His voice cracks.
Bloody hell.
Cedric smiles a little to himself- not unkindly, never unkindly, and shakes his head just a little. “Follow me.”
Unsure of himself, J. Finch wraps his patchwork quilt around himself and walks up to Cedric, staring up into his kind eyes. With a cheeky, knowing smile, Cedric leads him out from the common room and through the portrait hole, even though it’s after hours.
“But- Cedric- we could lose points-”
The older boy's voice is soft. “I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to us, okay? If we get caught, I’m just taking you up to Madam Pomfrey because you’re homesick and need some Pepper-Up potion. I wouldn’t let you get in trouble.”
And Justin trusts him.
He leads him barely two feet to a portrait of pears, lightly tickling them, and to J. Finch’s infinite surprise the painting swings open.
“Cmon now, up you go, careful of the step-” Cedric guides him through the little passageway, and the smile on Justin’s face is a real one when he realizes where they are.
It’s a kitchen. A beautiful, huge kitchen, bathed in candlelight. There’s the smell of the next morning’s porridge, and coffee already being brewed (not that J. Finch likes coffee- it’s too bitter for him), and apple pastries being baked in the oven.
There’s a magic crack! and J.Finch nearly jumps out of his skin when one of the house elf workers appears a foot from him. Cedric smiles down at the elf, eyes crinkling in affection. “Hello, Bippy. You’re on leave from the manor again, I see.”
“Hello, Mr. Cedric Sir! I am, I’m allowed to be here when Mrs. Megan is in school! Oh, Bippy is overjoyed to see you again! And who is this with Mr. Cedric Sir hm?”
Encouraged by Cedric, Justin smiles down at the elf. “My name’s J. Finch.”
“Oh!! One of the new Puffs, yes! The house elves love the Puffs, so kind! What can we be doing for Mr’s. Cedric and J. Finch sirs?”
Cedric puts a warm hand on J. Finch’s shoulder, sending a happy, comforting thrill down his spine. “Now, Justin- do you like cocoa?”
And Justin does.
Moments later, Cedric and J. Finch are back on the squishy yellow couch in the common room, drinking the most fantastic cocoa in the world together, right under J. Finch’s quilt together.
“Now that you know where the kitchens are, you can go back whenever you need a little pick me up, okay? It’s always cheered me up.”
And for some reason, that’s a little shocking to J. Finch. “You need cheering up?”
Cedric looks at him kindly. “Everyone does sometimes. It’s okay to be sad. It’s normal. It’s okay to need help sometimes. Things get better.” And then Cedric sips his cocoa, and stares out at the fire, and J. Finch stares at him.
And maybe it’s because he’s a Puff, or because he’s naturally naive and trusting, or because he’s a child, but Justin thinks he loves Cedric for it already.
Halloween is a big, scary mess, and when they go through the school with drawn wands, J. Finch tucks himself into the safety of Cedrics back, guarded by his presence.
And what do you know? Things do start to look up. As the months pass, the spells get easier. They start earning points and points and points, once even leading Cedric to slap him on the back in pure joy, filling Justin up with pride and joy and love- love for the Puffs, for this school, for himself, and for Cedric.
And life is good.