Silence Open

@Amaya Bourne

As quietly as he could, Flac moved in between the huge shelves filled with books. He was afraid to bug anyone, especially the older students. But then his eyes found the titles he was longing to read, and he was fixated on the books. He was no bookworm, but when something fascinated him, he wanted to learn as much as he could about it. Slowly he raised a hand and touched one of the books. Then he stoked the back of another book, slowly stepping into a new row of shelves.

But it still took some time, till the tiptoeing boy realized, that here was another person here. He saw long, black hair, highlighting the pale skin, and closed eyes. Slowly he came closer, torn, wether it was a good idea to speak to the girl or it was not for some time.

Convincing him to do the former was the slightly reddened nose, many people have, when they are either sick or have hidden tears. And either way, some company can do magic. Not literally, of course, but as a highly social person he strongly opposes to leave someone alone, when they are not feeling well. So he approached a little more, looked over his shoulder, cleared his throat and whispered: "Hey, I am sorry to bother you, but are you alright?"

Amaya felt slightly annoyed when she heard someone whispering near her- loudly enough for her to hear, anyways. Her eyes flashed open, and she looked around furiously, before realizing that someone was talking to her. She spotted a boy standing fairly close to her. Looking around again, she decided that he had, in fact, been talking to her, and shrugged, thinking back to his question.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking...”

Awkwardly shifting her weight, she turned around in her chair to face him. She offered him what she hoped was a cheerful smile (but was probably a weird and extremely creepy contortion of her face) and paused to think it over, before staring back at him.

“ Why are you asking, though?” Cocking her head to the side, she thought back to how she’d acted. I wasn’t that obvious... Right?

She thought it over again, and decided that yes, she had been that obvious. She sighed, before examining him more carefully. He seemed to be pretty short, but probably around her age, and had dark blonde hair. His eyes were an interesting shade of gray, and she stared at them for a while before realizing that she was probably being extremely creepy and returning her gaze to the dark brown desk in front of her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled under her breath.

The way she answered and the way she was smiling felt familiar, too familiar to believe her. He would probably react the same way. But still, Flac was not in a position to grill her about something she clearly did not wanted to talk about. But he could nethertheless try to cheer her up, he thought, thinking of ways he could accomplish that goal without a lot of noise, as he still not wanted to distract anyone from studying.

Then the girl in front of him asked, why he was even asking. The truth seemed not appropriate to share to the boy, so he improvised a non committal grin and a hopefully believing answer:

"I dunno, you looked like your about to fall asleep and wanted to get you out of the library bevor that happend." Flac was not a good liar. He was not even a passable liar, his eyes unable to meet hers, his ears getting red and his hands playing nervously with a lose string on his uniform. And this was just a small lie to make her feel better!

Flac recognized his behavior and stopped it quickly, barley in time to see her eyes turn away from him. His brows tightened a bit, as he tried to figure out, what she was excusing for, but he did not find a satisfying answer.

"I am afraid, I don't know for what you should feel sorry for." He replied, visibly confused.

Amaya watched curiously as he turned extremely red, telling her about how she’d looked as if she were about to fall asleep? Did she look that tired? Thinking back to how she’d closed her eyes for a while, she shrugged to herself. It was pretty possible. “Well, I guess I can see that... I, uh, wasn’t exactly tired though. ”

After she’d apologized for staring creepily at him, he’d replied, “I am afraid I don’t know what you should be sorry for.”

Turning red herself, Amaya stared down at her hands desperately as she offered him another awkward smile. “Uhhhh... N-never mind? It wasn’t exactly important anyways...”

She laughed in an attempt to clear what she’d thought of as an uncomfortable silence, her gaze moving to the table. She shifted again, idly fiddling with her hands as her thoughts returned to the owl and her expression turned into a slight scowl. It took her a moment to realize that he was still standing while she’d been sitting the entire time, and her eyes instantly snapped back up. Trying to settle her expression back into a more neutral one, she looked around her again.

“You can sit here if you want,” Amaya offered, gesturing towards the empty chair next to her in an attempt to be polite.

Flac nodded. "Then I am sorry that I disturbed you. Well, I would be sorry too, if you, in fact, were asleep and I disturbed you, but then again, I probably disturbed you without a reason... uh..." The more he tried to maneuver himself out of the situation, the more he stuttered and trapped himself within, because he tried to speak around the truth he thought was so obvious to see, he was ashamed to lie. That Amaya was not in best shape to hold a conversation did not help either. But when she asked him to sit down, he hesitated. "Only, if that's okay for you. I don't want to intrude here and make you feel pressured to be polite and nice or something. If you want to be alone, just say it." Nethertheless, Flac took a seat next to Amaya. "Hey, I am Flac. Flac Flintshire." Expecting to be thrown out anyway, Flac did not bither asking the girl for her name. But he took a quick look at her, noticing the small freckles on her cheeks and her sky colored eyes. Well, in fact, his eyes could be described the same way, only focusing on cloudy days, while hers were blue like the sky of a hot summer day. He smiled softly.

Amaya paused as he began shuttering about how he must have bothered her for no reason. She straightened in her seat, her voice rising a little despite her attempts to keep it low and calm. “You never disturbed me. It was actually pretty nice of you, so you have no reason to be sorry. And I, uh, wasn’t sleeping, so don’t worry about it.”

She looked around, realizing that some people nearby were now staring at her. Blushing a little, she stared back down at her hands, having had forgotten that they were in a library. She could practically feel the librarian’s glare from her desk, the disapproval radiating from the other side of the room. Sinking into her seat, Amaya could feel the embarrassment flooding her.

“Only if that's okay for you. I don't want to intrude here and make you feel pressured to be polite and nice or something. If you want to be alone, just say it,” he told her as he sat down. Looking back up at him, she realized that it felt better than being alone. She... Kind of liked it more.

“Uhhh, no, this is fine. It’s... An improvement,” she replied (in a much lower voice this time), giving him a small, but more genuine smile.

When he introduced himself as Flac, she hesitated for a brief moment, before deciding to respond. “I’m Amaya Bourne, nice to meet you.”

Flac thought he would just melt into the ground, when suddenly all eyes were on him and Amaya. His cheeks, ears and even his neck were as red as a traffic light and he started to sweet a little. When everyone went on with their business he let out a long and relieved sigh and quietly excused himself to nobody in particular, it could even be Amaya he ment.

"I am glad, you don't think I should be sorry." He whispered. "Maybe you shouldn't have gotten so emotional about it, I reckon."

He was still visible shook by the sudden negative attention, their conversation got them and tried to be as quiet as possible, so he just nodded and smiled quietly to show his appreciation for her honest approval and the invitation to stay.

Her name he had to comment though and muttered "That is a beautiful name. It fits nicely to your hair, too.", in Amayas direction, turning his head to see her reaction.

Though she seemed to be alright now, Flac had not forgotten the state she was in when he first saw her and carefully studied her body language and her expression to find out, whether she just played or really calmed down, yet he had no reference point, so he was not sure, wether his findings were the right ones.

Amaya’s face turned redder when he told her about how she probably shouldn’t have been so emotional. Sinking further and further into her seat, she let out a small sigh. “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have.”

She laughed sheepishly(and may or may not have mentally berated herself for being stupid) and stared up at the table from her position. She stayed there for another moment, before deciding that she had already acted stupid enough for one day- and that her back ached enough from the multiple times she’d done it before.

Quickly sitting back up, she turned to him when he commented on her name. She offered him a small smile. “Thanks. I think your name’s pretty unique! It sounds really smooth, and it’s pretty cool too.”

Amaya then shifted slightly in her position, thinking of what to say next. She hated awkward silences. A lot.

Giving him another quick glance, she hesitated before deciding to go through the ultimate... Small talk.

“So, uh, how’s Hogwarts been for you so far? You’re also a first year, right?” Amaya asked.

Flac giggled softly and as quietly as he could, then Amaya disappeared into her chair. "I am sorry.", he whispered quickly, when she came back up. "But that looked really relaxing and a bit funny."

He listend what she thought of his Name and smiled. "Thank you. It is an acronym of the names of the first wizards in my family tree, Forwin and Leofwin and my mothers father, Alexander, and my father, Corvus. So yeah, it is pretty unique. But I always have to tell people how to write it down, thats less cool.", the young Hufflepuff explained.

He was not a big friend of small talk, even preferring a mutual silence, but he was raised to answer all questions politely and therefor nodded. While answering, he focused on the book filled shelves, as he carefully weighted words against each other. "Yes, I am in the first year. The school is great so far. Different, but great. I mean.... I miss my home, but I also really like getting in touch with other wizards and wishes my age. And the landscape and the castle itself are stunning, to put it mildly. And in every room there is magic, which I am used to, but it is still adding to the unlimited wonders of Hogwarts. I have a feeling, that I will for the next years always miss the place I am not, other I am in Hogwarts or at home." The boy was seemingly satisfied with his elaborate answer, as he turned the small talk into a bit more personal talk. He turned to Amaya. "How do you like it here?"