Stanley takes a deep breath and calls Richie. He’d made him get a flip phone the first summer after they started dating. Richie hadn’t been a fan of the idea at first but Stan insisted, wanting to be able to talk to his boyfriend faster than just using owls. Richie picks up after the first two rings.
“Didya do it? Didya?”
Stan nods, before realizing Richie can’t see him. “Yeah, I told them.”
“What did they say?” He asks, clearly eager for more information.
Stanley closes their eyes, mentally telling themself that they can get through this conversation. “I mean, they reacted pretty much how we thought. They'd known something was going on obviously but now they know the truth. My mom was horrified, my dad kept pressing for more details. They’re- they’re really scared, Rich.”
“Well, yeah, obviously. We all are. It’s scary stuff.” It’s just like Richie to try and reassure them. “But we’re gonna beat him. Well, not you and I but like... you know what I mean,” Richie rambles.
Stan can’t help but smile a little bit, despite all the tension around the whole situation. Even with Voldemort back and the wizarding world on the brink of war, Richie was still able to make them smile. Which made this so much harder.
“They really weren’t keen on the whole ‘anti-muggle’ thing. Apparently, when you tell your parents that there’s an evil wizard who wants their family dead or enslaved, they won’t be too keen on the matter. Who could have guessed?” Stan tries to make the situation feel a little better with his signature sarcasm but it hurts to joke about.
“Look, I know this is hard, bub. But they have to know you’ll keep them safe. What did they say about you spending the rest of the summer at my place?” Richie’s voice is hopeful. Stan winces at the idea of crushing that hope.
“Uh, they said no. I’m sorry, babe. I was really excited and I tried to convince them but they don’t want me to leave right now. Not with everything going on.” Stan tries to be gentle in telling this to their boyfriend. He can hear Richie’s subsequent sigh.
“Well, I mean, that’s shitty. But hey, it’s only a month until school starts. I’ll see you then. And we can talk every single day until then. And then we have all of the school year starts. It’ll be okay.” Stanley hates hearing the excitement in his voice, knowing that it’ll be gone soon.
“Rich, I- I need to tell you. My parents… they don’t want me to come back to Hogwarts anymore.”
“What?” The confusion and pain in his voice stings Stan’s heart. “What, so they just want you to sit at home all year? I don’t understand. You’re no safer there than you are at Hogwarts. Fuck, I mean, you’re way safer at Hogwarts than you are at home.” Richie is getting louder with each sentence.
“Rich, calm down. I already tried going over all of this with them. It didn’t work. There’s no convincing them. I’m not going back to Hogwarts. It is what it is.”
“How can you be so calm about this?! I mean, are you just not going to graduate? Merlin’s beard, you’re a wizard! You need Hogwarts! You can’t just not come back to school. I mean…” Stan thinks he hears Richie’s voice crack. “I don’t want to go to Hogwarts without you. It won’t be the same.”
Stanley is on the brink of tears as they listen to Richie speak. They feel fragile and dainty, like the more they talk about this, the more likely it is they’re going to break. It hurts too much. Richie is still speaking.
“You have to convince them, Stanny. They’re just scared. They need to get over it.”
Stan feels oddly defensive of their parents when Richie says this. “They aren’t overreacting, Richie. This is a big deal. Of course they’re scared, they should be scared. I’m scared too.”
“Yeah but you can’t just run away from that fear. They’re being cowards!” Richie isn’t trying to hurt them but that comment cuts deep.
“Cowards?” Stan repeats. “They aren’t being cowards. They’re being smart. You have to see this from their point of view! Were their parents being cowards when they fled Poland?!”
Richie goes quiet for a second. He probably wasn’t expecting Stanley to get upset like that or to raise their voice. He definitely wasn’t expecting Stan to bring up their family’s history like that. When he finally does talk, his voice is quieter than usual. “Stanley, you know that’s not what I meant. It’s not the same situation.”
“You can say that all you’d like but it doesn’t change anything. If my grandparents had just decided to stay in Poland and pretend everything was normal, I wouldn’t be here! It’s not as far removed as you think, Richie! Think about it for a fucking second. You tell my parents that there’s an evil guy rising to power who wants them dead! Who thinks that his race is superior and wants to wipe out their kind! How the fuck do you expect them to respond? You want them to just sit back and send their only kid back where You-Know-Who is?” Stan is no longer on the brink of tears. Instead, he’s full on crying. Talking about this stings. They love Richie more than anything but he’ll never be able to get it from Stan’s perspective. He’s a pureblood. Sure, the blood traitor thing hasn’t exactly made him popular with death eaters but there’s not the same danger that Stanley is in. Even more than that, Richie will never be able to understand the generational trauma that comes with Stan’s family history. “You think I haven’t seen this before? I know how this story ends, Rich. It’s in my fucking blood.”
Richie is quiet on the other end of the phone. “Stanley, I-”
They really aren’t in a place to keep talking about this. They need some alone time. “I love you, Rich. I do. I just- I’m sorry, I can’t do this right now. I have to go.”
“I love you too,” Richie says softly. “I’ll call tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah, talk tomorrow.” Stanley agrees, hanging up the phone. They collapse onto the bed, letting tears shed freely.