Everyone has Problems, Some Figure it out Quickly. Others…
Remus and Ezekiel certainly grew closer after their little hospital run-in. They always sat next to each other in classes and during Study Hall.
It wasn’t even unusual to catch Remus sleeping in one of the extra beds in Ezekiel’s dormitory, the other Gryffindor boys were much too noisy for either of them. Soon, though, the other boys got a little antsy about it. Especially Sirius.
“Why are you always hanging out with Lupin and not us, hm? Your brains would be perfect for future pranks.” Black slammed his hands on the table Ezekiel was sitting at in the library, earning a sharp shush from Madam Pince. He rolled his eyes and continued to lean on the table. Ezekiel made the conclusion that he wasn’t going to leave very easily, so he closed his book and stared up at him.
“Well, for star’ers, he’s my friend. Second, you guys, whether yeh realize or not, are extremely loud and neither of us particularly like loud people,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“What about when he leaves to go sleep in your room?”
“He says you guys stay up too late talkin’ ‘bout pranks or whatever you guys talk about. Plus, we wake up ‘bout the same time so it’s jus’ easier.” Ezekiel paused.
Was he… jealous? He almost burst out laughing when he connected the dots. The ever so stoic Sirius Black was jealous that Remus was hanging out with Ezekiel and not him.
“Are you jealous?” Ezekiel decided to rip the bandaid off and just asked him straight out.
“W—what? No! No, of course I’m not—I’m not jealous! Where’d you even get that idea?” Black sputtered out, extremely red in the face.
“Look, I’m jus’ sayin’ that I’ve never heard of someone gettin’ all ruffled ‘bout a guy not hangin’ out with him, and it not be jealousy. The question is, who are you jealous of? Me or him?” The redness in his face spread to his neck and ears. Ezekiel smirked and watched as Sirius sputtered for an answer before he decided to take pity in him.
“Look, I’ll hang out with you guys more often, yeah? I’ll also see if Remus wants to join. How’s that sound?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. I’ll, uhm, see you, Eldritch,” Sirius stammered, still blushing like crazy, and shuffled out of the library. Ezekiel finally did let out a laugh, quiet and wheezy.
***
Days went without any letter back from neither his parents nor Eleanor. Ezekiel wasn’t too hung up about his parents not writing back to him, due to his many summer camps with not one letter from them, but he was beginning to worry about his sister.
“Ezekiel, are you expectin’ a letter? You’ve been watching the owls go by for some while now,” Remus asked one morning as the others chatted away about whatever new topic interested them.
“Oh, yeah, from my sister. I wrote to her a little bit ago and she hasn’t written back yet,” he tried to hint that it was the day of the full moon, but he was pretty sure that the message wasn’t received.
“When’d you write to her?”
“It was, uh, the full moon. Y’know how she loves the moon? Well, it’s been a tradition of ours to write to each other on full moons,” Ezekiel tried to be vague, keeping up from the previous lie he told.
“Ah, right,” Remus cleared his throat, “That’s a pretty cool thing for you two.”
“Thanks, but I can’t take any credi’, it was ‘er idea.” The two gave each other pained, forced smiles before they fell silent, listening to whatever the others were talking about.
The owls flew above head, screeching at the kids they delivered to. Some left immediately after dropping off whatever they had, others lingered with the recipients, earning themselves food. A certain owl, familiar to Ezekiel, swooped down the Gryffindor table and planted itself in front of Eldritch, a letter tied to its leg.
“Ooooh, who’s that from, huh?” Black wagged his eyebrows, a smirk tugged at his lips as Potter and Pettigrew laughed, all three now extremely interested in Ezekiel, who was now looking at the letter.
“My sister,” he responded, staring at the neatly folded up piece of paper. Staring at the little symbol precisely drawn onto it. “I’ll, um, read it la’er.”
“You sure? You just said you’ve been waiting to hear back from her,” Remus asked, not exactly pushing for information like the other three were.
“Come on, open it! We want to know the secrets!” Sirius begged.
“No, it’s fine. See this little symbol here? No, not the ink that bled through. This.” Ezekiel pointed at the circle with a tree in the middle. “It means that I should read it in private or with people I really trust.”
“Well, you trust us, don’t you?” Potter questioned, glancing at the other boys beside him with a raised brow.
“Of course I trust you guys. It’s just… We’re in a giant room with a bunch of people and I basically only know you guys .”
“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense,” Black muttered, Pettigrew and Potter nodded along.
***
As soon as Ezekiel got to his room after breakfast, he immediately unfolded the small piece of paper. He sat down on his bed as he read the nearly illegible handwriting that he knew all too well.
When he was done reading the note, he slowly fell backwards, now fully on his bed. Ezekiel’s mind raced over what the note said, ingraining the words into his mind.
The same words stayed with him until the end of the day, when he reread the note from his… sister? No, that wasn’t quite right anymore… He’d have to think of what would work, but he knew it couldn’t be sister anymore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Ezekiel,
Please, don’t worry about me, I’m fine. It’s honestly really nice here, the workers are nice and all of the others like me are really friendly as well.
Yes, they are feeding me well. You are such a worry-wart! The food servers make sure to give me extra food when we eat, so there’s nothing to complain about really.
Well, I suppose some things have changed. I go by Venus now and
I don’t think I’m your sister. Not to say we aren’t related, but it just doesn’t feel right anymore. I’m not your brother either.
I’m not sure. I think there’s something wrong with me, as well.
Love you,
Venus :)
(P.S. I hope we’re able to figure ourselves out soon)