"You said you were having difficulty with your Charms?" Molly sat across from a round faced, slightly wide-eyed first year; one with wispy, slightly unkempt blonde hair. He nodded, and she noticed, with some disapproval, that his hair was littered with leaves and small twigs.
"You've been out in the forest again. You know you're not allowed." He nodded again, his bare, and grubby feet swinging slightly in the comfy, if slightly threadbare armchair.
"Perhaps you spent more time in the class room, and less dreaming..." She rubbed temples, pushing her glasses up slightly to reach them. He blinked at her, his eyes slightly too innocent for somebody of his age.
"I want to see the Thestrals. I can see them taking the meat I leave. I can hear them, smell them." He paused, dangling dangerously on the edge of the chair, his legs swinging more rapidly.
"You know you can't, Lysander. You need to see somebody die. Short of murdering somebody, which I am quite sure you will," Molly shot him a sharp, green glare, as if he would get ideas, "Not stoop too, you will not be able to see them. I can't understand why you would wish to. They are not a pleasant sight, from what descriptions and artwork that have been gathered would suggest."
Lysander continued to stare at his swinging toes, his plump lips down turned into a frown. “But I want to.” His voice was touched with the hint of a whine. It was enough to make Molly wince, and sit even straighter in her chair. “Mummy can. Daddy can. Even Lorcan. At least, he says he can. Says they’re not anything important. Says I should stop daydreaming so much. And that I should wear shoes.” He said the last sentence with so much scorn that Molly wondered what that particular item of clothing could possibly do to be so offensive. It was well known that Lorcan, the studious, if somewhat scatter brained twin of Lysander, had been with Xenophilius when the incident that had killed their grandfather and left him with permanently dilated eyes. He refused, point blank, to divulge any further, murmuring only that it was the old man’s fault, and he hadn’t been able to prevent it, and would they please leave him alone and stop teasing his brother, because it wasn’t their fault the rest of the world was so boringly dull and normal, at least through their eyes, and would the please stop asking him why, because he was trying to find it out for himself, thank you very much.
Molly blinked. “You might do well to listen to him. Shoes are perfectly accepted, by society and your dorm mates, and you could do to wear them. As for Thestrals, it is not good for somebody of your age to be thinking so much about death. Not when there are Charms to learn.” She tapped the sheet of paper on the low desk between them, and he let out a tragic sigh. “It wouldn’t kill you to learn.”
“But I do learn! Honest I do!” His eyes bounced up to meet hers. She recoiled slightly at the intensity of his gaze. Lysander never looked at you; rather, he stared into you, and you tried to handle it as best you could. Molly held his gaze, marveling at the strength of will his innocent eyes held. “It’s just, it doesn’t speak to me. I don’t know what the use of knowledge is if you can’t have fun learning it! The forest teaches me things. I don’t understand why I can’t go there, Molly. I like it there. Nobody laughs when nothing’s funny.”
She sighed. His oddity as it was, Lysander was often the butt of mean spirited jokes. Whilst the actual joke made went straight over his head, he could hardly ignore the tone they used, or the reaction they warranted from his brother. “People have different ideas of humour, and sometimes, because of these differences, they will laugh to cause pain. I quite agree with you in the fact that most flora and fauna don’t take the same path; however, there are quite a few things in the forest that would hurt you more than the screeching laughter of your peers. If you are accompanied, with permission, you might be able to venture a small way in. Otherwise, you are to stay in here. Maybe, just maybe, if you tried less to resist and more to find the beauty within the pages, you might find yourself catching up to the rest of your class. You might even surpass them, with careful planning and time.” He continued to stare at her, his mouth opening slightly, ready to protest. “For the moment, we might want to focus on your thus far dismal attempts at a levitation charm. Repeat after me.”
He stared for a little while longer, his mouth agape, until she managed to pull his attention back to her by using the very spell they were supposed to be practicing to lift him, and his chair, slightly into the air. It was only then that he managed to focus, and retained his drive until the embers of the fire were naught by pinpricks of light. He began to flag after the first success, but she pushed him until he dropped into the pile of feathers, sound asleep. As Molly blinked sluggishly, her mind already creeping into blissful unconsciousness, she wondered if he might be convinced to practice all tomorrow as well. There was still so much to work on, still so much; and with that, her head fell to her arms, and she too, was soundly asleep.
