School of discipline (L.S.)

Chapter 26

November was cold.

Saying that, it wasn't as cold as Harry was used to back home but cold was cold and winter in England brought with it nothing but. He had never been a fan of winter weather. Even as a small child when he friends were excited to play in the snow, he would much rather stay inside, a mug of hot chocolate warming him up and his favourite Christmas film playing on TV. Here there wasn't any snow, not that he would be expecting any at the beginning of November, but at least snow brought reason to the cold. Now it was just cold for the sake of being cold. There was no reward for their suffering, nothing to look forward to at the end of it, except for summer which was still many months away. He missed the sun. He missed beach days. He missed the excuse to eat bucket-loads of ice cream every day. And yes, cosy winter nights were lovely, wrapped in blankets, buried under his duvet, warm drinks in hand, but when the cold seeped through to his bones and he left his house in the morning in darkness and returned in the same light, winter really started to drag.

But through that slog there had been one night that brought him joy, one light in the darkness, one night that had been left untainted but family arguments and petty, unnecessary drama: Bonfire night. Bonfire night had been a time that they would all come together, wrap up tight in their coats, hats, and scarves, and join everyone on the local green where residents of the area had been piling up their old shit for days to set on fire. There was a kind of beauty to it, a catharsis perhaps. And Harry had been pleasantly surprised to find out the school had its own celebration. They'd only reinstated it a few years back after one cohort decided to throw all their school work onto the bonfire. At the start of the year, Harry probably would have considered that himself but now there was no way he would even contemplate it. It wasn't because he was scared of any punishment, though he didn't think he would be in for a fun time, but he couldn't imagine throwing away his hard work like that. In the recent weeks especially he had begun to put a lot of effort into his classes and he would hate for that to all be wasted, to have no show of the progress he had made. He wasn't sure what the students had done to get the events restarted but he was grateful for it.

The Halloween party had only occurred a few days prior but those days had passed in a blur. The afternoon the following day, Louis had made him stand in the corner of the living room, holding a sheet of paper to the wall with his nose as punishment for drinking. It would not have been too bad a punishment if Harry hadn't dropped the paper twice and subsequently doubled his time. It was all worth it though when he got to snuggle up next to Louis on the sofa afterwards, letting Louis hand feed him fruit as a reward.

Harry was finally beginning to understand the importance of aftercare. It had been a large focus of their d/s class recently and that week they'd been set an assignment to write about why aftercare was important to them. He'd spent a long time looking into it and though it originally had been unsure what to write, not entirely believing of the fact the aftercare was a necessity, but after voicing that to Louis, who had instructed him to do some thorough research into the subject, he began to learn the benefits of it and why it was essential to every dom and sub.

Even that had been new information to him, that aftercare was necessary for both the sub and the dom. Then he felt bad about the way they had carried out aftercare for his previous punishments; it had been all about him and his needs. They had watched his favourite films, drunk tea at his request, eaten his favourite foods, and cuddled up together because he needed the contact. He had done nothing for Louis in return. He'd apologised for it that evening which led to a rather lengthy discussion about how Louis benefitted from their aftercare too. He liked the cuddles, the physical contact, but he also liked preparing food and drinks for Harry, providing for him, caring for him. He needed to take care of his sub in those moments and doing those things for Harry was perfect. He could make sure Harry knew he was there for him, that there were no lingering hard feelings. And only in reflection had Harry realised he felt the same was. Spending that time with Louis after any punishment showed him that Louis was there, that he cared, that he was safe.