Ben's Brother's Birthday Badge flashback solo

05:32, February 2nd, 2011
Kensington Garden Square, London, England

Right now, the flat was at its most silent. Only a few hours earlier, there'd been loud and violent protests about not wanting to go to bed- and only a few hours later, the same kind of protests would arise again about not wanting to get up.

These protests would all be coming from one nine-year-old boy, with frizzy brown hair down to his shoulders and a plaster over the bridge of his nose. Anyone in the entire building would be able to recognise his high-pitched, relentless objections... But the reason as to why he was silent now wasn't, contrary to everyone's belief, that he was finally asleep.

Benedict Jones-Alexander was sneaking.

Passing many pieces of old, ornamental pieces of furniture in gold and blue upholstery, Ben tried his best not to have his naked feet make the paneled floor creak through the dark. Especially not here, in the narrow corridor on the second floor, where his parents' bedroom was just opposite to his little brother's. A single noise, and Gretchen would send him right back to bed in a second...

Once he made it to the end of the corridor, though, he turned the golden doorknob to the left very slowly- passing the small ink line on the inside of the doorframe, which represented how tall his brother had been the year before, and approached the second pair of naked feet in the room, as they were peeking out from underneath a heavy duvet.

"Scott? Are you 'wake?"

He wasn't. Of course not. Scott would fall fast asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow... And that's just where it was, now: with its blonde hair spreading like a thin, yellow halo around it. His other pillow lay on the floor, and after Ben picked it up he turned the bedside light on (as the only light before had been a soft green one erupting from the enchanted stars stuck to his brother's ceiling), he replaced it on the bed.

"Are you 'wake, now? Scotty?"

In the stronger light of the yellow lamp, Scott's head turned from one side to the other and back again, before he confusedly fluttered his green eyes open. It didn't take them even a second to find their way to Ben's, and by instinct the small boy's cheeks rounded as he smiled:

"Be-"

"Don't talk!" Shushed Ben, holding a warning finger to his lips. Scott imitated the gesture very gravely, and nodded slowly with his mouth closed. A secret, in Scott's opinion, was one of the most exciting things his brother could share with him.

"You can't wake up Gretchen, or Dad. You understand? It's important."

Another nod. Ben sat down on the floor next to the short bed and rested his chin on the wooden frame.

"It's your birthday now, you know."

Scott looked confused, and furrowed his brows as if about to object.

"It is, look!" Ben pointed to the ticking grandfather clock in the far corner of the room, showing the time twenty-five to six. Though this had been difficult to tell, not only because of the dim light, but because most of the clock's face would read It's time for bed! from nine to six, in Gretchen's handwriting.

Scott, on the other hand, pretending to know how to tell the time, simply nodded in sudden understanding. Then his excited smile returned, wider than ever, as any five-year-old's smile would should he unexpectedly be told it was his birthday.

"That's right," Continued Ben. "Because it's morning time. Look, I want to give you a present now. And you can't show it to neither Dad or Gretchen. Ok? ...you can show it to Silas when he gets back for Easter, but only him!"

Scott sat up straight in his bed now, clutching the pillow Ben had laid on his stomach eagerly. He was delighted to hear he was about to receive a gift, and even more so because it was a secret one.

Ben, not breaking the serious eye contact with his little brother, reached into one of the pockets of his pyjama pants to retrieve a large, circular badge. He held it up before his face like it was the most precious thing his brother would ever lay his eyes upon, and in a sense, it must've been.

Scott grabbed it with two hands, and examined it with wide eyes.

It was a black badge, depicting a large, red bat flying in eights across it- and with something written at the bottom.

"The Ballycastle Bats." Said Ben, proudly. "That's our team, Scott, never forget that."

Nodding, Scott didn't ask why he wasn't allowed to show it to their parents, nor why Ben had to wake him so early just to give it to him- because at the time he was too enchanted, too transfixed by the badge in his hands that no question like that even crossed his mind.

The truth was, of course, that Ben had taken it... It wasn't a big deal. The whole family had been in Diagon Alley, visiting Quality Quidditch Supplies in order to find Silas a broom (he'd just made the Gryffindor team). So, in what must've been a hit of brotherly envy, Ben had felt the need to get something for himself, too. Naturally, when he'd then spotted the basket on the counter, he'd nicked a badge and put it in his jacket pocket as soon as they all turned to look at a particular Cleansweep 14 together with the shop owner.

It had been a good year for The Bats, so the one Ben took had been the very last.

"You'll hide it, yeah? And take good care of it. These big ones with Barny the Fruitbat are expensive."

"Yes..." Whispered Scott in return, not taking his eyes of the mascot.

"Good. That's good... Look, I have to go back to bed now. So Gretchen won't-"

But he was interrupted suddenly by Scott snapping his attention back to his brother, and throwing his arms tightly around his neck. He was clutching the badge hard in one hand as he did so.

"Thank you!"

Ben coughed slightly into the hug, but when his little brother wouldn't let him go regardless he sighed.

"Yeah, right... Happy birthday..."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

”He wasn’t in his bed, was he?”

”No,” replied Jacob, returning from Ben’s room with a troubled look on his face. ”He wasn’t… I should check Silas’ room, sometimes he-”

”No…” Smiled Gretchen, piling a last Madeleine cake on the silver dish and pressing a small flag depicting a number 5 into it. ”No, I think I know where he is. Heard him last night.” Then she merely patted his cheek gently, and gestured for him to follow her up the stairs from the kitchen and into the bedrooms’ corridor, where she started whistling the birthday tune.

Just as she had expected, there was a bundle of frizzy brown hair clutched tightly between her son's arms when she walked inside. And to her further endearment, this bundle was snoring quietly into Scott's duvet... Walking over to them carefully, she stood and observed for a little. From the floor behind her, meanwhile, her husband had bent down to pick up an unfamiliar emblem... Looking at and registering it for a second, he smiled clandestinely to himself as he hid it inside the bedside drawer without as much as a sound.