Not Alone PV River Walker Closed

Saturday was a welcome relief after the hustle and bustle of arriving at Hogwarts. Learning to find his way around the castle was an ongoing endeavor for the youngster. Some classes were easier to find than others but the new environment would take a little learning. He had however, applied himself long enough to know how to reach the places he needed to be. Thus far there was no reason to know where classrooms that held subjects he did not or could not study. Those he would discover pathways too after he had established himself better.

Breakfast had felt like a lonely affair. A sea of students, some gorging themselves others more occupied with planning the day than they were with eating. None of them were his Great Aunt. He had been surprised to have that pang of homesickness over Saturday morning breakfast. Normally he would have been a little resentful of the many chores listed for his day by the willowy woman. Now that he was removed from them and from her, he wondered how she would cope without him and felt a small hint of guilt at not being there to do those same chores he had resented.

The boy had pushed such thought and feeling aside. Expunging it with rationality. His Great Aunt did not rely on his help. She had run her farm without his assistance for many years. He was still small and did not, in the grand scheme of it all, contribute so much that she would struggle without him. Thus he need not feel bad that he was here now. Quite the reverse, he ought to enjoy his time here away from said chores. All homesickness was abated with sound reasoning. He was free to spend his Saturday as he pleased and that was a welcome change.

River had taken his books and writing equipment with him to breakfast. One of a few students who looked set to extend their work load into the very first weekend. Where others had friends that they were in a rush to catch up with, River enthusiasm was directed toward extending what he had been taught in class. Somewhere in the school there was one friend that he could have sort out. He’d seen her be sorted into her house and had already sent a letter home about her. The reply had not been as surprised as he had thought.

The library offered a kind of companionable solitude. Everyone had to be quiet in there and yet there could be a lot of students all working side by side. It was his preferred way to be around other people. He did enjoy being around other people when it was absent idle and pointless chatter. He had been deep into his studies when a trill of his name alerted half the library to the arrival of the girl he had seen sorted.

The young boy had been deeply engaged with a text he was reading. Looking up he saw his summer friend grinning ear to ear and was promptly bombarded with her waterfall of vernacular. She hadn’t changed at all. One of the few people who chattered a lot at him that he could tolerate he did not overly mind the excitement with which she greeted him. Perhaps it was because the friendship had begun in his space.

“Shh." He hushed her loudness with a single breath exhaled through his teeth. She was practically electric with enthusiasm and he inclined his head. If she didn’t quiet her tone they would both find themselves ejected from the library. He nodded to the seat beside him. If she sat she would perhaps remember where they were.

When questioned if he were a wizard he simply looked at her. His silent questioning of her logic carrying through as she spoke of her parents and her clear intention to let her parents know that he was there. At mentioning being alone he looked around the room and then back to her. How could she be alone in a sea of students and professors? Let alone the many other entities that occupied the walls, house elves, ghosts, poltergeist, talking paintings, enchanted items… no, it would be nigh impossible to be alone in Hogwarts.

“Summer is a while away.” Pointing out that they had just passed through the summer and not entirely understanding her enthusiasm for a time of season which was many months away. They had all winter to pass through yet. "You can’t tell them that I am here Robin.” He spoke in a matter of fact tone. “You ought to know that. They are not part of this world. You can’t tell them without risking my Aunt.”

How could she not know that? Muggle world didn’t know about magical world. The only part they knew they all thought of as fiction. Robin couldn’t go telling her parents that he was at magical school because she’d be telling them that River was magic and it wasn’t a far leap to them knowing that Agnes was magical by extension. He understood that it wasn’t fair that he could tell his Aunt and she couldn’t tell her parents but it wasn’t him making the rules.

“Why didn’t you come to the summer house?” If ever the boy spoke reproachfully it was in his hushed tone. A subtle hint in his manner of speaking that only a good friend would know to hold a little hurt. River was inept at showing his true feelings but not devoid of them. Setting down his quill he blotted the sentence he had written, it didn’t need to be. She had kept his attention away long enough for the ink to fully dry his very neat handwriting.

River gave her time to answer. He would go so far as to let her go off topic if that was where her mind lead her as he waited for the answer to his question. She had a mind so unlike his own that it had taken him time to understand it. He wouldn’t have said that he understood it even now. Just that he knew she could be distracted and go off topic at a moments notice. “We are not here to play. We are here to learn.” He said when he could get a word in edge ways. He did not share her enthusiasm of knowing someone at the school. He wasn’t imagining escapades and hours wasted in idle chatter. He was at school to learn all he could because he had plans in life and they required his learning everything he could to get there.

Robin ignored River’s shushing her. She wasn’t being loud, not even talking loud. He was being too uptight. Even so, she smoothly slid into the chair beside him, still chattering in her excited but hushed tone of voice. Things felt right now that she had proven to herself that he was no different now as compared to during the Summer. He still allowed her to chatter on, rarely really interrupting her as she said her bit. Yet, River, as usual, seemed to have such a completely different line of thinking to her own. As was evidenced by what he said when he finally had a chance.

Robin rolled her eyes. “Well yeah it’s a while away,” she scoffed. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t look forward to it!”
The red-haired girl’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion as River then proceeded to tell her that she couldn’t tell her parents that he was here.
“Of course I can tell them,” she replied, somewhat annoyed. “They already know about all of this.” Robin spread her arms, gesturing at everything generally. “They had to be told. What? You think someone just told me about my being a witch and then used a spell to trick my parents into thinking they were sending me to a normal school?” If she had been able to, Robin would’ve raised an eyebrow at River. As it were, she merely gave him an incredulous look and snorted in contempt at the idea she had posed.

“No. Mama and Papa are well aware that I’m a witch. They went to Diagon Alley with me to get my stuff. They probably know more about it all than I do at this point since I hardly listened to anything.” Robin was babbling along now, too annoyed to think much on what she was saying other than to prove her point that it was quite fine for her to tell her parents that River was here. She paused as she thought about how to do that. The phone didn’t work at all and inquiries had informed her that this was normal as muggle contraptions weren’t exactly permitted and a spell ensured that they wouldn’t function. As such, if she wanted to send a message home, she would have to write a letter and borrow a school owl, but that would make for an interesting result since her parents would expect post or a text, rather than a nocturnal bird.

Robin flinched at the reproach in River’s tone, her annoyance instantly becoming guilt.
“It wasn’t by choice,” she replied, finally using a tone that could be considered as too quiet even for the library. “Mama and Papa were stressed about the whole witch thing so they cancelled our booking to prepare me for attending school so far from home.” She grabbed one of River’s books and started thumbing the pages to keep her hands busy as she looked anywhere but at him.
“Not to mention, Grandma and Grandpa needed to be eased into the idea of me going to a boarding school not on their lists. They’re not very happy that I’m not going to some academy or that my enrollment papers weren’t handed over. Grandma even mentioned that she would rather me stay at home with tutoring than attend a subpar school…but Hogwarts is the best…isn’t it?” Finally she looked up at River. Desperation for his approval of the choices that were out of her hands, was all too clear in the girl’s green eyes.

Robin frowned at River’s comment about learning, not playing.
“Mama would partially disagree,” she stated. “I’ve been in home tutoring for the past few years and I was always taught to balance my studies with relaxation and play.” The young girl nodded once, vigorously, to emphasise her words. “If you study too much without resting, you will stop retaining the information. That’s why school is confined to no more than six hours of study five days a week, including homework.” This was all said very matter-of-factly. The fact that this information might not be completely accurate hardly crossed Robin’s mind. It was similar enough to what her mother had told her and thus, it had to be the truth as far as she was currently concerned.

It was clear to River that nothing would deter her. He watched how easily she brushed off his concern about her volume and so easily slid int a dismissal of his observation of the fact that summer was a good deal of time away. Had she not been his friend for so long he may have been annoyed by her. She spoke more than she listened. A trait he normally found irksome and yet with Robin, not so much. What did concern him was her talking. Library etiquette demanded studious silence not chit chat. It seemed such sociability did not concern her as she continued to talk.

Of course she invited herself to sit with him. Never mind that he had been deep in his study. She was here now and was demanding all of his attention. River watched the corners of her moth and wondered if he saw a slight upturn there. Perhaps she felt at ease for having found him. Was he some small piece of familiarity that she could anchor herself to? Was Hogwarts a storm she felt that she needed to find a safe port for? He did not know and nor would he ask such things. Instead he let her talk and just be...Robin.

“Correction. They know about you and your school. They don’t know about me. But, yes it is entirely possible for your parents minds to have been manipulated into thinking you are just at some ordinary school in Scotland.” The sleeve of his robe fell down his arm as he leaned his chin onto his palm. The youngster did not elaborate upon his point. She’d had some time to see how spells worked, surely she could imagine possible uses for it? Those clear blue eyes remained fixed upon her face as she spoke. Perhaps she had not given it any thought. That much did would not surprise River at all. She was more action than thought, in his opinion.

She was babbling about having gone to buy her school supplies and his mind disengaged from the conversation. It wasn’t interesting enough to listen too closely. Instead he looked around them to see if others were annoyed at her chatter and perhaps moving away to a more quiet place of study. He very much wanted to hush her again so that he could go back to learning. There was so much to learn. More than the professors were going to teach. More than they had time to teach and that was without even considering the forbidden knowledge they had locked away in the Restricted section.

She picked up one of his books and began to leaf through it. Reading into the action the diversion from emotion that it was he conceded a little and gave a small light hearted huff of air. A mannerism that he used in place of a smile. “At least it wasn’t to avoid seeing us.” His comment upon her reason not to visit in the summer. All was forgiven on his side. He had never been mad at her only sad at not seeing her. “Saved me having to hid a secret from you too.”

Listening to her talk of her Grandparents he couldn’t honestly understand most of the problem with them. His family tended to leave his Great Aunt in charge of everything. They had never to his knowledge, had an issue with her decisions. But that was only to his knowledge and often there is a great deal that goes on between adults that children are not privy to. Had he known she worried about how to get a message to her parents he would have suggested forwarding it through his aunt.

“Yes” He answered her question on Hogwarts being the best school. “It is the best school.” River could not understand her need for his approval, but he certainly did not disapprove of anything she had done so far. She rebuked him about being there to learn. He let her talk and state all of her facts. He listened and weighed the points that she was making against things that he knew.

School hours had nothing to do with letting young minds rest from learning and everything to do with an era in which school houses became sweat boxes. More than six hours or summer in small brick buildings in the past was akin to being inside an oven. Modern times and magic could resolve the issue but the standard had been set in a time when the problem could not be resolved.


While he could have argued the point the boy saw no reason to. It would only damage the friendship and he did not need to prove himself wight over something so trivial. River prioritized Robin’s happiness in that moment. “Would you put my book down?” He asked her politely as she leafed through his book. River was particular about his possessions and he did not like the way she turned the pages. That fastidious side of him had hackles raised at her touching his things without permission.

“Why aren’t you studying?” Taking his chin from his hand and neatening his workspace with a mind to the notion that he was likely not going to get any further work done with her sitting beside him. “I would have thought you found all this more like a game than study.” She was a muggle born as far as he knew. He reasoned that finding out that you could do magic would be an exciting thing and thus something he would have wanted to pour himself into. Which he did even though he was not muggle born.

He busied himself with cleaning his quill as he waited upon her answer. When it was clean he set it down and screwed the cap back onto his ink, slowly packing up his belonging as a visual show of his intention to give her his attention. “Do you have a favorite class yet?” He tried to create conversation. River was not a chatty fellow but he did try on her account.

Robin’s excitement dwindled into confusion as River went off about not knowing about him. “Well they weren’t tricked and they will know you’re here as soon as I work out how to get a message to them,” she said somewhat harshly. She wasn’t intending to come off as harsh or abrasive, but her confusion on the matter made her defensive. River seemed to be implying that it was a bad idea to inform her family that he was there. He was her friend though and he had never had an issue with her talking about him to her family before. Was it just that he worried about being shunned for having magic? Robin remembered hearing about how in the 1800s witches were burned for being different. Yet, all of the movies and stories said that wizards were good. There were never evil wizards, just evil sorcerers. Not that River was even remotely evil. No. He just didn’t express himself well.

“Of course not!” Robin exclaimed in shock when River voiced his fear that she had avoided him this summer. “I wanted desperately to see you! Not just to tell you about the magic stuff, but because I genuinely missed you!” Distress was more than apparent in Robin’s green eyes and the frown that was deeply etched into her face told of the hurt she felt that her only friend had considered that she might avoid him. “You’re my only friend River. My best friend! I look forward to seeing you every summer so it really hurt that I couldn’t see you this year…” The red-haired girl trailed off and slumped. Did he really think that she might dislike him like that even though she so eagerly awaited him at his treehouse every day of her vacation?

Robin calmed down and a smile lit her face once more at River’s reassurance. Her grandparents might not know about her being a witch, but she was still meeting their wishes by attending a prestigious school. She didn’t like that it all had to be secret from them, but she understood. Their comments about their expectations weren’t always subtle or quiet and Robin had been hurt more than once to hear her parents reprimanded for their choices. She didn’t understand it because her parents were great and loving. They always did the best by her.

The red-haired girl started a little when she was asked to put the book down. Truth be told, she hadn’t noticed that she had picked the book up, nevermind that she had been toying with it. Somewhat carelessly, Robin let go of the book. There was no annoyance in the action. More so, surprise. With the book no longer in her hands, the young girl began rubbing at her hands and pulling at her fingers, seemingly unable to keep still.

“My first assignment isn’t due for a week,” Robin replied airily to the question about studying. “No need to stress myself out by taking away time for relaxation. I got a whole week to write four hundred words. Easily done.” Truly, she felt that there was never a need to put in extra effort. Sure, she was expected to get high grades, but with her experience of one-on-one tutoring it had always been an easy task. As such, Robin felt no reason to believe that classes with other students would be any different. She was more concerned by the idea that bullying over her piebaldism would start up again soon. She couldn’t be homeschooled this. It was part of why River’s presence was so important to her. With him, she hoped, that the bullying would hurt less.

“Hmmm,” Robin hummed and thought on River’s question. “I’m not sure yet. Herbology is fun. I don’t usually get to do much in the garden but look. Potions is a bit like cooking but smells worse. Charms is fun though! It makes me feel like Wanda! Although I’m not a fairy and I don’t want to be. At least nothing here seems like evil witchy stuff. I was worried that they would teach us to be like Maleficent or Ursula. Although I suppose Ursula isn’t exactly your standard witch. What with her being an octopus mermaid.” It almost seemed like Robin would never stop with her chatter. Certainly, the reminiscence of films she had seen had perked up her mood. The young girl was all smiles once more.

“Did you know about magic before you got your letter?” The question was posed in the same quiet manner that River generally used. There was no accusation in the asking. He wanted her to see that magic wasn’t something that you just shared information about because you felt like it. He had been taught to be quiet when it came to magic. It wasn’t something to be ashamed of, just hidden from the wrong type of people. While River didn’t for a moment think Robin or her immediate family were the wrong type, he would admit that he did not know who they would or could tell. For River it was better not to blab without thinking first.

After he made his point he’d simply drop the issue. If she was bent on sharing information then he wasn’t going to argue. His opinion of her may change but he would not continue to beat a dead topic. When she exclaimed at him about the summer River leaned back a little. She was being overly dramatic. He had said the point as a means to diffuse the tension and yet she had taken it and not only run but was hyping it up. As a quiet individual, her excess of hyper-reaction to every small thing he commented began to wear thin. His lips tightened as she slumped. She seemed intent on taking offense at every small thing that he said and he was rapidly growing weary of it.

To quiet his mind he closed his books and began to pack away his possessions. It was clear that he was not going to be allowed to study. Stoically he capped his bottle of ink and took a soft cloth to wipe it over to ensure that it had no drips. He also wiped the end of his quill before placing it gently into a box. She was mentioning that her first assignment was not due for a week. This caused River to pause and look at her a long time. A week was not so long a time as Robin seemed to be claiming in the manner of her declaration.

“If they give you a week it means that it takes a week.” He replied with a soft exhale. River was a perfectionist. He used every skerrick of time given to improve upon his task. This did not mean he would never relax. He relaxed a good deal of time because he was very efficient at managing his time. There were never any late nights trying to complete a task for him. Everything was always complete before the time due.

“Relaxation?” The same stone expression he wore met her enthusiastic claim like the wall of a dam meets water. “Shouldn’t you relax after you finish your homework?” He did not, could not, did not wish to, understand her approach to her education. For River education was a part of his life plan. He wanted to learn. School wasn’t just somewhere parents sent him during the day. School was a passport to being the man he wanted to be.

River listened as she mentioned that Herbology was fun and he blinked at her and broke the facade of stone to actually roll his eyes a little. Herbology was farm work. Live on a farm and plants and animals soon became work rather than interest. At least for him. He gave a small bow of his head in agreement that Charms was fun. “Charms is interest…” He broke off as she mentioned cartoon characters that he had no experience of. “Of who?” Confusion at the mention of fairies (pests in his opinion) “Maleficent….Ursula?” Was he meant to know these people? He couldn’t recall her mentioning them to him in the past.

“I’m afraid I don’t know them.” River wondered when she had run into dark witches. Perhaps when she had gone shopping for her school supplies. “An octopus mer...mermaid?” His concern grew. “Are you feeling alright Robin? You seem a little… confused.” She had to be confused. Perhaps running a fever. “We should go to the hospital wing and get you checked over.” Deciding that she had lost her marbles to temperature. Dark witches, fairies and octopus mermaids were not everyday things that a muggle born would run into. She had to be ill.

Robin tilted her head. “Depends on what you mean by ‘know’,” she replied. “I didn’t know that magic was really real, but I knew that it was a thing in stories. How could I not? Even some of the books you let me read were about magic.” The red-haired girl grinned enthusiastically, not actually catching the meaning River was trying to hint at. For her, him being a wizard was no different than her being a witch. It had never even crossed Robin’s mind that his Great Aunt might actually be a witch too. After all, the idea of magical lineages was a foreign concept to the girl. Certainly she was aware that there were families of witches and wizards, but there was no reason to even think that River was a part of such a family.

Confusion furrowed the girl’s brows at the comment regarding assignments taking a week. “Yeah…a week with adequate mental breaks. They’re not trying to torture us by drowning us in too much work,” Robin replied in genuine confusion. “We’re supposed to look after ourselves by taking breaks when needed and weekends are break time. Plenty of time after classes to get the work done.” She waved a hand dismissively. There was just no need to stress about the school work in her opinion. It had always been that assignments with a week long due date could be completed within a day or two if attention was dedicated, however, whenever Robin had applied herself like that she always found her brain fogged up and focus impossible for a week afterwards. When she brought the issue to her mother one day, the small breaks and working on assignments at a steady but relaxed pace had come about. It was in this way that Robin had managed to meet her tutors’ expectations for the past several years and she saw no reason to believe that Hogwarts professors would be any different. As long as the work was handed in on time and at a satisfactory quality, what did they care about the methods used to complete it?

“Of course you should,” the red-haired girl replied with a grin. “But you should also relax in between doing your homework so that your brain doesn’t fog up and making thinking even harder.” The grin dropped into a frown as Robin thought of something. “What’s the point of getting homework done if you don’t retain any of the knowledge and are incapable of focusing on the next piece?” The girl shrugged. “Hence, why mama says I ought to pace myself. None of my tutors have ever cared as long as I got the work done and handed in on time.”

Robin grinned at River’s bafflement over the characters she had mentioned. It was one of her favourite things to see happen. It wasn’t common for River to be overly expressive but with his minimal exposure to modern items like a television, it made it all too easy, and enjoyable, to throw him curveballs like this. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Robin replied laughing when River proposed the idea of going to the school nurse. “They’re characters from T.V.” she explained, still giggling. “Maleficent, the wicked witch from Sleeping Beauty. Ursula, the evil mermaid from The Little Mermaid. Although to be fair, both were still cool characters even though they were the villains.”

Robin paused, eyes glittering with amusement. “If only I was able to show you some of those shows. I know your Great Aunt isn’t fond of modern things like tablets and computers, but I still think you would enjoy watching some of them. Like I think you would enjoy watching Brother Bear. It’s a little old but the story’s fantastic in my opinion! There’s magic in that too from the Great Spirits. So not our kinda of magic, but still fun.” The young girl was practically bouncing in her seat as she tried to not say too much.

“Or Moana! That’s a good one too but I can see you being annoyed by the songs.” Robin took this opportunity to poke River’s ribs. It wasn’t a hard jab, just something to try and make him smile. It saddened Robin to know that he wasn’t likely to ever experience the joy of cartoons. His Great Aunt was just a little too stuck in her time. Sure this made River an interesting character, but Robin lamented the fact that she could never talk about the shows she had seen with any level of understanding with him. Maybe now that they were schoolmates however, she would be able to invite him over for a sleep over and show him some of the films she thought he might enjoy.

“Learning isn’t work.” River stated. For him, learning was something that made him enthusiastic. He was enjoying the entire process. Certainly there would be moments of frustration but those would not be the majority of his experience. River was determined to learn everything he could. Work was getting down on hands and knees to weed between plants or herding animals that didn’t want to be herded. Education was nothing like work. Nothing Robin could say would sway his line of thinking from its course. While he could be incredibly stubborn, she had changed a lot in his life in many small ways. For a start. He did not immediately balk when she said such stupid things like equating education to torture.

She waved a hand at him dismissively and he looked away from her to the shelves laden with books. If she wished to dismiss his opinion then he wouldn’t offer them any more. It was insulting to have his thoughts be so flippantly disregarded. Where she saw a week to do an assigned task he saw a week to refine that same task. To get it right and not to hand in something scribbled up at the last moment. Unlike his friend, River did not simply want to just pass. He wanted to do more than that. For him a pass was minimal effort and skating by on wasted exceptionalism.

She mentioned that thinking could get harder for the fact of using his brain to do work. It was a good thing he had disengaged that cold stare he could fix upon people. He did not share his opinion and she could not see his eyes harden at her point so she would never know that she was wasting her time trying to bring him around to her way of approaching education. He listened about her tutors and wondered at her perception. Of course they wouldn’t care if she was passing. They only be sacked if she failed. A good tutor would have helped her reach the stars not just jump the gutter. He said nothing. He would never say it because she had dismissed his opinion already in his mind.

“Oh.. your picture box” He assented when she said that the characters were from T.V. He hadn’t ever watched one. He had seen things like them of course. Paintings moved, so did photographs. His aunt would never have something that modern in her house. Agnes lived like the nineteenth century had never progressed. New fangled things had no place in her home. When River had read about the Amish he had thought that his Aunt would get along well with them in many many ways.

“Why are they all evil?” He asked her. It was proof that history was right about Muggles. They did see the wizarding world as a threat. Still did if the only magic characters in shows were evil. How to balance his friendship against the things his father said about muggles? It was an internal struggle as he listened to her. “Brother Bear?” Turning back to her as she mentioned the movie. She was all aglow with her excitement and he couldn’t help but ease down from the emotion on only moments ago. “What do you mean annoyed by the songs. I like music.”

Did she not know him? River gave her a slow blink and gave a diminutive shake of his head. At times he found her confounding. Despite this he enjoyed the way she was everything he was not. She balanced him out. Where he was quiet she was vibrant. The boy leaned his head to the palm of his hand. “I like books better” Excusing his lack of knowledge in all the movies that she was chirping about. It was perhaps a little defensive of himself and the life he lived. He had been in similar conversations with her before. He had no idea what she was talking about most of the time. River liked it though. She had a way of talking through his silence and reading his hidden smiles.

“I honestly do not know how you sit and just stare at a box for so long.” He knew that movies took at least an hour to watch, or at least most of them did according to what she had told him. “At least with a book you are doing something.” Even though he was speaking with her his voice was scarce above a whisper and it was entirely possible that she would miss his annotation to her rambling about movies.