IT'S MAGIC ❤︎ WHY DONT WE

fourteen

it was two days into the new school year, and tomorrow was gabriela's thirteenth birthday. kay was still salty she was older by nine days.

obviously in reality she didn't care at all, it was all for jokes. just like tate jokes about being sad that she's the youngest.

or how jonah will joke that he's cheesed about being thirteen days younger than christina, and christina joking that she's salty about being seven days younger than zach.

it's all out of fun and love, it's funny to them. zach loved how much fun the group has together doing stupid things like this. he can't wait for the friends to make many more this coming year.

currently, the three hufflepuff's sat in their common room, a fire lit as the night grew over them.

zach sat quietly, happily cuddled up in a chair with a warm blanket, reading his book. when he reads, he no longer feels a freak, or out of place, or like no one understands him.

zach's always felt different from everyone else. he thought that finding out he was magic and starting at a school where everyone was like him would make that feeling go away.

he thought he would feel like this was where he would finally feel the same as everyone around him.

but he still felt different. even now, in a school filled with magic and people just like him, he still felt different and out of place. he still felt like a freak, abnormal. he hated it.

reading helped him to forget it all, helped him to feel better. reading and the astronomy tower. they were both so soothing and transporting.

school still is better than back home. even now knowing that there were wizard families in his village and that he wasn't really that alone, he still felt that way.

mr. wilson was the only person – outside of his family of course – who seemed to notice zach, talk to him. mr. wilson was like zach's only friend outside of hogwarts.

he was a sweet man. old, grey, but very happy. he was the one who ran the village library, has been running it for years.

since he was twenty years old, now he's seventy-eight. not a lot of people go to the village library, zach is one of the only ones.

the others who go, they're the elders of the village, a lot like mr. wilson. they don't stay though, they check out books and leave.

zach, however, will stay for hours. reading story after story. he's got to have read almost every book in that building.

the village library was his escape. the library and the broken house on the edge of the village. he went there to get away.

he was so sick of people asking him if he was sick. he's decided to stop asking, knowing he will never get an answer.

for years he would ask those in the village what happened to the house on the edge.

why was it damaged?

why has no one repaired it?

why does no one live there?

he always got the same answers, "my dear boy, are you okay? i believe you should go home and rest."

"are you feeling well, boy?"

"what house? there's nothing out that way."

whatever happened in that house, no one in the village would talk. they made him feel insane, so he forbid himself of ever asking again.

he kept to his books, they made him feel sane, happy, normal. these books made him feel equal to everyone else.

that was something he found so magical about it. even though there wasn't any magic involved in reading at all.

magic or not, reading will always be his escape from any world and–

"zach? are you okay?" christina's voice got zach's head to turn quickly, his eyes slightly widened from shock as she had pulled him from his thoughts.

"you've been staring at the fire for a while now, is everything alright?" she asked, "y-yeah, i'm fine, sorry. guess i just zoned out." he chuckled lightly.

"okay, well i'm heading to bed, i'll see you in the morning okay?" she stood up from the couch as he nodded with a small smile.

"goodnight chris." he spoke quietly, returning to his book. he cuddled up in his blanket.

that same smile layed on his face as he turned the page. "goodnight zach, i'll see you tomorrow."