Compartment 451

Part 23

"Can you skip Muggle Studies?" Elijah asks from his seat on the music room drum stool, kit left abandoned for the time being as the boy takes a break from playing.

When Zayn had first found out about the course he thought the same thing. What new things could they teach him about himself?

"It's an elective," he replies, yawning lightly from where he's laying across several classroom chairs. It's not the most comfortable of makeshift furniture, but there's not much else he can work with in this room, and he'd rather not lay on the cold floor. "So that'd be a yes."

"Thank god," Elijah sighs in relief. "Can you imagine how boring that'd be? You didn't take it, did you?"

Zayn's eyes are closed, but he can imagine Elijah's probably staring at him in anticipation to be proven right.

"Nah, opted for Arithmancy, Magical Creatures, and Divination." Realizing that this was going to be a longer conversation than just a few words between songs, Zayn decides to sit up. "Although I imagine the topics might be boring, it could be kind of fascinating to see our world taught from that point of view instead of it always being the other way around. I remember when Thomas told me he taught the class I asked him what it consisted of. It was weird to hear how the human world that we just naturally know can be broken down into categories. Bit of a dream for Niall though."

Practically Zayn's entire third year consisted of listening to Niall go on and on about any and every new thing he learnt in the class that Zayn hadn't already taught him. Over the years things died down as he was able to use his knowledge to make inferences about questions that he might have, but Zayn remembers that first year of electives being one where he did a lot of talking.

"You still on a high from the other night?" He asks, switching topics to something more exciting than his reflecting.

"I was," Elijah begins in an annoyed tone, "until Teddy worked us to the bone tonight." As if reminding himself of the painful workout, the boy stood to stretch and get out of the poor posture sitting position he was in. "For a sport that doesn't take place on the ground, you'd be surprised on how much my muscles hurt."

Zayn chuckles at the remark, knowing from how he got short of breath at the end of a flying session with Liam that training for a sport revolved around it couldn't have been easy. "I don't doubt that. My legs hurt enough having to climb the stairs up to the common room daily, so yours must be getting a beating."

"No pain no gain though, right?" The younger wizard reponds, doing his best to touch his fingers to his toes.

"Yeah, alright Beckham," Zayn mocks with a mild roll of the eyes.

At the mention of his new nickname, Elijah smirks, glad that Zayn hadn't forgotten what he had said about it and pleased that he had followed through.

"You know I was thinking about what Liam said before the game," the boy wonders aloud. "What are you gonna do if we do end up going up against each together in the championship?"

Zayn barely hesitates with his answer, knowing that it was a simple one. "What I did last year when we did: sit in the Hufflepuff section and wear blue for the rest of the year if we lose."

Elijah rolls his neck before sitting back down on the leather throne. "And if we win?"

The first thing that comes to Zayn's mind is console Liam. When Ravenclaw had reigned victorious over Gryffindor in the last game their second year, he remembers having to keep reassuring his best friend that there's always gonna be next year. Next year turned into four, but Zayn thinks that once he actually had that championship under his belt his first year as captain, the wait was worth it.