Painting in the Rain
Whizzer was in the infirmary again.
He spent most of his time there now, talking to Charlotte while sitting beside Jensen’s still body. He wasn’t the only one, in the five days following Jensen’s mysterious collapse, ten other students were brought in, all in the same coma like state.
But Whizzer only focused on the one, his friend. Currently, he was the only awake person in the room. Madam Pomphrey had left to grab some supplies with Charlotte, and the other visitors were either in class or pointedly ignoring their friends. Whizzer wasn’t able to do it, he preferred to be here with Jensen, in case something happened.
Marvin was suppose to be there soon, promising Whizzer he would stop in around lunch to bring him some food and keep him company. Whizzer was forever grateful for his boyfriend in days like this. It was nice to have company when the room became too quiet, when Whizzer’s thoughts started roaming and the reminders of his failures echoed inside of him.
The door opened, and Whizzer looked up, watching as a parade of close to five Gryffindor’s marched into the room, glaring him down.
“What are you doing here?” One asked, looking almost surprised.
“Sitting with my friend.” Whizzer replied, kicking his feet up on the bed. It seemed to be the easiest way to piss of Gryffindor’s.
“I don’t think you should be here.” She replied.
“Who are you again?” Whizzer asked, pretending she hadn’t seen a thing.
“His girlfriend.” She replied, and Whizzer had to choke back a laugh. This girl dating Jensen's gay ass?
“Does he know that?” He asked her, smirking when her face went red. She looked about ready to draw her wand on him when one of the others stepped forwards, shoving her behind her.
“Excuse her, she’s protective.” The new girl said, a slight lisp to her voice, Whizzer simply hummed, raising his chin a bit to look at her, she seemed familiar in a way. “It’s just, Jensen started hanging out with you, and then shortly after,”
She trailed off, looking down at Jensen with a look of sadness.
“Are you implying that I had something to do with this?” He asked, a bubble of hurt and guilt rising in his chest. How bad was his reputation in Jensen’s other friend group?
“We’re not imply anything.” The first girl said, and someone else hit her to shut her up.
“We don’t know what to think, but for now I think it’s best if you leave him alone for now. Just until we figure it all out.” She said, raising her arms in a calming way.
“And who are you to him?” He challenged, a tiny bit curious. “Please don’t say his other girlfriend.”
The girl looked slightly hurt, looking down at Jensen for a moment, sadness filling her eyes. “Angelina, his sister.”
Whizzer nodded, understanding dawning, Jensen had talked about her before. His younger sister who he didn’t have much in common with, but would probably willingly still do anything for. The storied Whizzer listened to about her, he knew that what these two had was special. It made him want to fly back home to see his own brother.
Angelina carefully sat in the seat on the other side of the bed, and the others in his posse quickly backing off and giving them some privacy.
They sat in silence for a moment, Angelina reaching out to grab Jensen’s unresponsive hand.
“You care about him.” She whispered, not looking up at him. Whizzer didn’t respond, the answer lying in the countless hours he had spent with him. “He told me you were his best friend.”
Whizzer choked back tears, emotions rushing to the surface, but he pushed them down quickly. In three months, it was an honor to be considered Jensen’s friend, let alone best friend. And now here Jensen was, lying injured in a bed and no one knew why.
“He told me a lot about you. Said you were the bravest witch he knows.” Whizzer told her, and she laughed softly. “He adored you.”
“Thanks,” She said, grinning up at him. “You seem like a decent guy Whizzer. But you have to understand. You have a reputation, and everything’s going wrong. I don’t want him getting hurt. I don’t think you did this of course, but until I know what did this to my brother I don’t want anyone I don’t trust near him.”
Whizzer fought down the urge to yell, to fight and prove to her that he had just as much rights as her to be there. But there was something in her voice, desperation and fear and it made something inside him ache.
“It’s just, you being from where you are, it looks bad when a pure-blooded Slytherin is hanging around him and then suddenly all this blows up. I just don’t know what to do.” She continued, and Whizzer bristled slightly, then remembered what some pure-blooded Slytherin’s had done, what his parents had done.
“I get it.” He said softly, reaching out to push Jensen’s hair back before leaning down to plant a kiss on his forehead. He stood up, looking Angelina in the eyes.
“Take care of him okay? Marvin will be coming around soon, I don’t know what you think about him but I wish you luck.” He said, saluting her goodbye as he turned to leave.
“Thank you.” She called out, and he gave no response, walking out the door and down the stairs.
__________________________
When Whizzer felt particularly helpless, he liked to go read his parents letters.
They came in once a month, always opened and read, but never returned. They mocked him, begged him, bribed him, but Whizzer pretended they didn’t exist.
But it didn’t stop the sting every time he looked at the letters, the horror and memories creeping closer, threatening to pull him under. How when he read the letters the echoes of screams and whispered promises were ringing in his ears, chilling him to the bone.
The only highlight was when they mentioned David, his sweet little 4-year-old brother who was waiting for him at home, the only reason he still went home in the first place. His parents hated him, and he despised them back, but as long as little David was in their grasp he would do whatever they wanted, would keep coming home to visit.
Whizzer stared down at the most recent letters skimming over the words but not really comprehending them. They had been nicer lately, the first few of the year were scolding, fierce and filled with hate. Now they were easier to read, nicer and filled with forced pleasantries.
Whizzer bit his lip, hate bubbling up inside his stomach, if he had only realized sooner, if only he was strong enough to stop it. But he wasn’t and now he had to deal with the downfall. And what a downfall it was.
Whizzer took a shaky breath, composing himself and shoving the letters away, curling up on his bed and closing his eyes, the ache inside his chest growing larger.
He found himself unable to shake off the dark cloud above him, but he figured he deserved it.
________________________
“Whizzer!” Trina called out behind him, and Whizzer turned in surprise, unused to having the Gryffindor girl willingly talk to him. She looked slightly out of breath but she caught up easily, walking beside him.
“Trina, what’s new?” He said, slightly confused. As far as he knew, Trina hated his guts. Thought he was a manipulative bitch who was the reason Marvin was acting incredibly bitchy last year. Marvin’s’ words not his.
“I just wanted to talk to you, you’ve been off lately.” She said with a friendly smile. Whizzer frowned, he hated people asking him how he was. A constant stream of “are you okay?” “how are you holding up?” It got on his nerves.
“I’m fine.” He replied with a sigh.
“No you’re not but that’s to be expected. I was wondering if you could look after Jason for a bit?” She said, brushing him off.
Whizzer blinked. “Yeah sure, I like the cat.” And it was true, he loved the adorable little fluff ball of attitude. “Why can’t Marvin take him?”
“He’s busy.” Trina shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Lazy if you ask me. But thanks, I’ll bring him for dinner tonight, see you there!” And with that she was off, a swirl of robes billowing out from behind her. Whizzer blinked for a second, unsure about what just happened but accepting either way.
Late that night he was sitting in bed, trying to amuse Jason with a toy. The cat was half amusing him, bating at it when Whizzer tried hard enough but otherwise ignoring him.
“I see how it is.” He muttered, grabbing a treat and tossing it to the cat, who meowed thankfully. Whizzer watched the cat for a few more minutes before getting bored, grabbing a baseball and tossing it into the air a couple of times. Before he could blink, he tossed it into the air only for Jason to screech, running across the ground to dive and knock it out of the air.
Whizzer blinked watching the cat hit it around the room before laughing, cats were weird.
Whizzer yawned, blinking to keep himself awake. It was embarrassing how tired he was lately, Quidditch practices so much harder when his arms felt heavy and useless. Not that they could play any games with half of their team suddenly falling into mysterious comas. Whizzer blinked, dispelling the thought. The headmaster would figure it out soon, for now he would continue on doing what he was doing and hoping for the best.
Eventually Jason got bored, crawling onto Whizzers lap and just laying there, so Whizzer decided to call it a night since he wasn’t allowed to move anymore.
He used magic to turn the lights off, trying to fall asleep before his roommates got back from wherever they were. Sleep came easily to him recently, despite it scaring the shit out of him.
He never knew when he was going to go to bed and not wake up.