The Founders

Chapter 49

Kyra rolled over onto her back with a sigh. "I get that this is probably all historically fascinating, but I just don't care that Edvard fucking Limmings got a horse," she said grumpily. Her stomach rumbled loudly.

Alexander placed his own book on the ground in relief and reached over to his bag. He pulled out an apple and chucked it at her. She caught it and sat up, picking up her wand to cut in half. "It's cool, I'm not hungry," he said.

"You don't eat breakfast?" she asked in surprise, biting into the apple.

He smiled. "Not usually, no."

She took another bite from her apple, and wiped her wrist across her mouth. "So, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Where did you learn all the stuff that you know? Like DADA stuff? Who taught you?"

The sunlight was more direct now and it turned the curling edges of his hair into dark filaments of gold. Kyra had to shield her eyes from the glare to look at him. He laughed and ducked his head, running a hand through his hair. "You're still bitter, aren't you?"

Kyra knelt up and grabbed a cushion to hit him with. "I am not bitter. You take that back, Fyfe."

Alex leaned forward and brushed a hair out of her eyes. She blushed and looked down, lowering the cushion.

"My uncle," he responded, sitting back again. "My uncle taught me. He was Ravenclaw's heir in his generation. It was supposed to be my father, the eldest child, but" he trailed off. He shrugged. "He didn't want to do it. He said he wanted a life. So, my uncle had to do it instead. But my uncle doesn't have children. And if didn't do it, then Theo, my little brother- he would have had to do it. I didn't want that." He shrugged again.

"A big part of the training is of course DADA work, but it's also Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology- all subjects, really. When I was ten, my uncle let me read Rowena's diaries, or at least the ones that still exist. I mean, at least half of them were destroyed in the first battle of Hogwarts."

Kyra nodded. "And you dad? I mean, does he ever help with training?" Kyra hoped it wasn't a stupid question.

"No," Alex shook his head. "He just lives his life up in Scotland. With my mum and Theo. Theo's actually starting at Hogwarts next year- it'll be the closest we've lived to each other since I was eight."

"Eight?" Kyra echoed. "You moved away from your family when you were eight?"

Alex shrugged. It was a habit of his, she noticed. "My uncle's great, though. And he gets it. It's nothing to complain about."

Kyra nodded mutely, and took another bite from her apple. She held it out to him. He opened his mouth to protest but she shook it at him. "Just take it, Alex." He took it with a half-smile. She came over and sat beside him, her legs drawn up. She paused for a moment. "I grew up without my parents, too," she said quietly.

"I love the people that raised me, that I grew up with- but that doesn't mean I don't miss the people who were meant to raise me. Or the idea of them, at least. We're allowed to do that, I think. It hasn't really hit me that this place- this room, this sofa, everything- this would have been my home. This was my home. This- sorry," she broke off, looking at him. "Making it about me again," she said with a laugh.

He rolled his eyes and threw an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his chest. The sun was very warm on the back of her neck, and he ran his hand slowly through her hair. "Please, make it about you," he said quietly. "And- you're right, I hadn't really thought how weird this must be for you. This place, I mean."

She craned her neck around the room from an awkward position. "It's more that it's not weird. Like, it almost should feel more familiar, but it doesn't. My only memories here are ones with you."