You can't fix broken
Wilbur climbed up the snowy mountain Ilvermorny sat upon. It was the only privacy he could get. Away from all the voices and the prying eyes. Away from prying eyes and minds. At the top of the mountain everything was quiet. Cold, but quiet. At home Wilbur would’ve gone into the Forbidden Forest to get away. He’d befriended the centaurs and spiders of the woods, and they allowed him to enter for some peace. And of course, to let loose.
Will peeled off his shirt shivering as the chilly air hit the two long scars that painted his back. They began to bleed as they were torn apart, as something tried to force itself outside. Brown feathers began to slowly make their way out. Wilbur dropped to the ground, the process being extremely painful. Finally they came out in full, wings spreading a flexing in the cold wind. They steamed, the warmth of being formed wearing off. The feathers were the color of cinnamon with small snowflakes dapple the edges.
Phil had always had WIlbur hide the fact that he was a hybrid. It came from a place of fear for his son, worried about getting hurt for his differences. Tubbo was a hybrid too, a bee, but he lost his wings as a result of an experiment. Wilbur’s strangeness was also built in a lab. The bones of his wings folded neatly under his skin and into his back. When the unfurled feathers grew on rapidly. It was draining, but he had to let them out sometimes just for some relief.
Wilbur looked down the mountain. He couldn’t fly. He’d never been taught to by the scientists or Philza. Something in him wanted to. Something wanted to soar above the clouds and away from the world early.
To never come down at all.
It had been a week now since George stopped talking to Dream and Sapnap. It seemed the cup drawing had been the final straw. He knew deep down it wasn’t their fault, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. He’d begun to spend some time with the Hogwarts students, after all he was a transfer. However, George never expected to actually gain a bit of wisdom from one of them.
“You know George, perhaps you should consider why you aren’t a part of it rather than simply not being there.” Eret said to the other one day in the lounge.
“What do you mean?” George shot back defensively.
“Well, you only really learn things when you think about them from another perspective.” Eret explained. “If you were J. Schlatt, why would you not choose GeorgeNotFound for some stupid spy club.”
“Because I’m some foreign piece of shit that can’t do anything.” George grumbled.
“Well you’re half right.” Eret said. George could’ve sworn there was a twinkle in those thick sunglasses. “Why would I want a foreigner in my super secret government creation?”
“I guess so.” George replied quietly, pondering the new perspective. “I’m… I’m gonna go talk to them.”
“Yes please leave.” Eret said as he left. “Tommy won't shut up about being friends with GeorgeNotFound.”
George walked through the corridors of Ilvermorny looking for his friends. One kettle wheeze later and Dream had been located outside the library laughing his ass off about something stupid Sapnap had done. Punz and Sam were there too, and Techno could be seen actually in the library reading a book- looking pretty pissed off about the noise.
“Hey can we uh- can we talk?” George said, walking up to the group. It went quiet for a moment- just a moment- and then Dream smiled.
“Course George, come on.”
It was getting dark but Wilbur didn’t want to leave. He felt so free atop the mountain. It was different from the forest. Here he could feel the wind whispering around him. He could watch the sunset from above the clouds. Vibrant blues and deep fuschias danced across the sky as the sun sank below the clouds. Behind him the moon climbed out from the night’s abyss, it’s light drawing a winged shadow from Wilbur.
He jumped at the silhouette a first before realizing it was his own. It was hard. A piece of WIlbur didn’t see himself with wings, and it felt strange, dysmorphic even. On the other hand it was liberating. It was wearing a piece of himself laced with pain like a badge of honor. And it was rebelling against Philza, even if Wilbur wasn’t ready to admit it yet.
He was pulled from his calm when he saw a winged figure approaching, soaring up from the clouds and coming right for him. As it drew closer the snow white wings gave it away. Ari. She glided around him, touching the sun and moon before landing.
“They’re looking for you.” Ari said, not waiting for an invitation to sit down next to Wilbur. She didn’t pay his wings any mind, just looking at the last sliver of sun ducking below the clouds.
“And they sent you?”
“No, but I knew you’d be here.”
“Why?”
“It’s where I’d go, and you’re a lot like me.”
“Excuse me? I’m nothing like you. I don’t kill people!”
“Hurting people isn’t the pinnacle of my personality. What matters is why I do it.”
“Sure.” Wilbur slid away from Ari, his wings curling around himself to form some sort of shield.
“You want to be trusted, but you find it hard to trust people back. You care about people, but you always seem to disappoint them. You aspire to make a better choice, but always seem to end up being used. You try, but in the end trying isn’t enough.” WIlbur looked over towards Ari. She was peering out at the clouds, and the moonlight lit her face enough to see that her eyes were glistening with pools of tears. “It’s never enough.”
“How do you do it? How do you keep going.” Wilbur asked, unconsciously moving his wings back and letting them sit in the snow.
“I don’t know. I just… do.” Ari replied. “Because- because maybe I can make something of someone else.”
“You like teaching them, don’t you.” Wilbur said, his eyes finally meeting Ari’s for the first time.
“Yeah… yeah I guess I do.” And then she smiled. It was warm and nice and reminded Wilbur of Kristin, or Mumza as he and T- as he’d preferred. He missed her. They all did. But she was gone, and it had never been the same without her. “You should clean them.”
“What?”
“If you clean your wings off they’ll hurt less when they fold back in your back. They’ll be stretched out and clean when they form again.” Ari said.
“I don’t know how.”
“I mean it’s not that hard you just…” Ari faded off as the boy leaned against her as she lightly adjusted his feathers, lining them back up straight and picking out dirt from underneath. “You know what? I’ll tell you later, just let me do it tonight.”
“Thanks.”
“I know what the first task is.”
“What?”
“Do you want to know?”
“...Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry for being jealous and mean and stupid and mean a-” George began, but he paused when he was brough into a warm hug by his friend, the familiar smoothness of the rim of Dream’s mask hitting the top of the smaller’s head.
“It’s okay George. You’re my friend, and that’s what counts.” Dream said with a smile, pulling back to look his friend in the eyes and taking off his mask to reveal green eyes and a goofy smile. “Anyway, you wanna know what the first task is. Techno and I figured it out already with Ari’s help.” Dream’s face lit up, he seemed pretty excited.
“We’ll be fighting our house animals. Wilbur will have a basilisk, Tommy will have a giant lion, and Techno and I will ha-”
“You’ll have a Wampus cat.” George looked worried. “Dream those things are nearly impossible to kill.”
“I don’t have to kill it, just knock it out.” Dream said with a smile. “Plus, I have a plan… kind of.”