Flash, Check this out! PV Finished

It was a relaxed evening, where the normally fast paced hours became more spacious and breathable. The hectic life he had been living up until his inevitable burnout had become a thing of the past. So much of the extra work he had been doing out of presumed necessity had been a completely inefficient use of his time. Now, he kept a much more useful schedule. One that allowed for him to occasionally ‘stop and smell the roses’, as it were.

Now, on the weekends he would spend the morning with his friends, or take a longer walk than usual, and then in the afternoon he would do his homework. There was more than only homework, of course, there was research to do, even beyond what the classes were meaning to teach him. Magical creatures, seers, keeping up with the Daily Prophet and student-run newspapers, the club he was helping co-found…

There was certainly never a lack of material. There was so much to know that he wondered when he would finally be able to feel any sort of mastery over any of it. The more he learned, the more he realized how little he knew. When it would frustrate him too much, he would put away whatever he was reading and let himself process it.

It was in one of those small breaks that the study room door opened suddenly enough that it caught several studying students off guard. When Flash beheld the source of the disruption, he saw Willow and Alan. He knew they were friends from seeing them together at the talent show, but for what reason they had teamed up, he wasn’t sure.

He hadn’t needed to bother pondering it, as they walked towards him with a dramatic sense of purpose. They nearly walked over each other to reach his table, waving an envelope, describing the magnitude of its contents.

Their excitement was palpable, though the suddenness of their arrival gave him pause. He had to blankly stare at their expectant faces for a moment before he could register the action he was supposed to take. Open the envelope.

Inside was a card, which Flash scanned for the information he needed to sort out the strange conversation he had suddenly been thrust into. It was handmade, a birthday invitation, Alan and Willow? Besides that, the card was littered with party paraphenalia, and even the white orbs Willow liked. He would have to try to remember the name of them before the party.

Adorable... Once he took in the whole thing, rather than the parts, he realized where he was. They were britsling with excitement to ask him to celebrate their birthdays with them. It seemed like everyone in Hogwarts loved birthdays. He was starting to warm to them himself, and especially anticipated this one.

He had questions, so he turned to face them.

”You’re celebrating together? That’s very economical.” He realized he wasn’t emoting when he saw their excitement hold steady on their faces, waiting for his reaction. The realization made him laugh, though he quickly moderated his volume when he remembered where they were.

”I’m sorry, first I should say I would be glad to attend. I look forward to celebrating such a worthy occasion!” This time he was smiling.

@Willow Anderson @Alan Vanes

Interacting with @Flash Holmwood @Alan Vanes

There was no one else she would have be at her and Alan's party than Flash. Especially since it was both of their first time spending it with friends at an actual party. When Alan and her were initially making the plans for the birthday, she wasn't speaking with Flash and it destroyed her just a little bit to know she would have celebrated without him. Luckily, everything was worked out now and she had him back in her life. Their matching friendship bracelets always on their wrists so they could be with each other whenever they weren't near each other.

If she weren't so excited, she would feel bad about bursting into the study room as she did. But honestly, excitement ruled her existence right now. They were able to quickly spot Flash and she bounced up to him with Alan and presented their invitation to them. "Flash! Flash, you need to look at this right now. Very important!" She was lightly bouncing on her toes in anticipation of his amazement at their birthday card, and his reaction was honestly a little bit lackluster. They spend a lot of time and effort on this! He could definitely be more amazed, but maybe he just didn't know enough about birthday parties like them, even though he was at Opeila's party...

His laugh broke her out of her disappointed thoughts. His laugh had become one of her favorite sounds, especially when she was the cause of it. After all the pain they had gone through it was another reminder of the healing they had done and of how much love she had for her brother. A giant smile made it's way back on her face, it probably wouldn't leave for awhile. Especially after he said he would come, not like she doubted he would, but she had been nervous. She glanced at Alan, too excited about this birthday. She just started to spout off everything about it.

"There's gonna be so many of our friends there! And my mom is sending food, and I'm going to make a bonfire, and we're gonna make s'mores with marshmallows, and we're all gonna be in our pyjamas! It's going to be so much fun. Me and Alan planned it all by ourselves can you believe it? Once we found out we had the same birthday we had to. We're both Aries! It's so cute!" She tried to control herself and calm down a little bit, her voice running a mile a minute. Her voice was softer as she continued to speak, "I'm glad that you'll be able to be there." There were definitely some upset students from how disruptive they were being, but again she didn't really care.

The third year was waiting for the Slytherin to react in any possible way and he did, by asking them whether they would be celebrating together. Alan quickly nodded and Willow soon explained to him why they were celebrating together as the Flash laughed. It made Alan's smile widen and he was quite relieved that he liked their card. If Flash liked it, this meant that the others probably liked the card as well and would be happy about receiving it; at least Alan hoped so.

"Me too, I a-am happy t-to hear you will be th-there", he offered with a smile, before he glanced down onto the notes on the table. He was curious what subject the other boy would study for on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. But then he lifted his gaze again to grin at Willow. Flash laughing must have drawn more attention to them, than they had before, but this was important after all so why would they need to worry so much?

Alan was already thinking about their birthday and how they would celebrate it. It surely would end up being amazing, he was very sure about that! How could it not be? After all Willow and he had spend so much time planning it and making it perfect. He hoped that everyone would be able to come to the birthday, even though he did not know everyone of those who were invited. But he would meet them and this only meant more people he could be friends with, if they got along!

The truth was, Flash still had many questions. Both of them were so caught up in their excitement that they failed to give many salient details. No, he couldn’t blame them for not rattling off everything like a textbook. He rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes when he realized his studying had made him impatient and irritable. He still hadn’t properly matched the level of energy they were putting out.

He put aside the book he was studying, intended to put it straight into the book return after Alan and Willow finished their explosive invitation. He had been trying to learn more about magical creatures as Alan had suggested, but it was about as tiring as he expected it to be. It was a bunch of strange names paired with a bunch of random information, he couldn’t relate to any of it personally. He was marginally interested in being prepared if something happened, but more often than not his eyes glazed over when he looked at the pages. He was doing it more out a misplaced sense of duty than actual interest.

Flash returned to his smile, still inwardly glad. In Durham, he was invited to plenty of formal gatherings, sometimes ones that took place on a fellow student’s birthday, but they were usually a means of extorting expensive gifts or showcasing one’s own wealth and property. He imagined whatever Alan and Willow came up with, it would be a lot more entertaining and enjoyable.

”Is there anything I could do to help?” Flash asked almost reflexively. He figured they had it under control, but he would be remiss to not be available if they needed him.

@Willow Anderson @Alan Vanes

Interacting with @Flash Holmwood @Alan Vanes

A small frown appeared as Willow realized how tired Flash appeared. They truly had interrupted at the wrong time, but maybe their energy could invigorate him to study. She was curious about the fact that he was reading a book about magical creatures when they weren't going to do that until their third year. But, she also wouldn't put it past Flash to start studying two years early. Maybe he really like magical creatures and she hadn't taken the care to notice. She was getting off track.

When Flash asked if they needed anything, she glanced at Alan for support. Not that she was nervous about asking him, this was a small favor compared to what she could be asking for or something. Her voice became softer, just really laying on her cute act to the max to get what she wanted, it was one she often used with her parents. It's how her stuffed animal collection had grown to the size that it was at. "Well... actually. We were wondering if you could arrange a cake from the house elves? I'm going to have my hands full of food and stuff. Alan has to help me set up too. It would just be really, really lovely if you could help us out with that. Pretty please, with cherries on top. But not on the cake, I'm not a fan of cherries on cakes. Unless you are Alan! Then we can have them. We don't actually have a cake picked out. So you'll have to surprise us, but I'm sure you'll pick out something great!" She finished with a big smile and batted her eyelashes, she knew she didn't really have to try hard to convince Flash. But she wanted him to know that she'd appreciate his help nonetheless.

~

The third year stared at the notes and caught a glimpse of the book and he recognized the book to be one he had to read something from for class. He remembered that the book had a lot of illustrations that were good at giving him more knowledge and visual image, which made the text appear a lot easier. Was Flash studying because of what Alan had told him? It made Alan smile slightly, even though the Gryffindor preferred other methods of studying a subject; but maybe reading was the Slytherin's preferred method of studying? Maybe he could ask him about that at one point. Wasn't there something else, he had wanted to ask? Oh right, he wanted to ask about his hobbies! He probably could combine these two topics for their next conversation?

Flash must have studied a lot, because the first year looked exhausted, making Alan feel worried slightly. Since when had the Slytherin been here, just studying on his own? He knew he liked studying, but taking a break and having some fun was usually something Alan would do, because he doubted he could really get through studying at all!

When Flash asked them, whether he could do something, Alan saw Willow glance at him and he nodded. They had yet to organize the cake! As if Willow had read his mind, she began to tell Flash about it and Alan stood aside her and waited until he was done talking. "I-I'm sure whatever Flash p-picks, is f-fine", he said confidently, because if he was being honest he did not know much about cake combinations. All he knew is, that they were delicious and that there was a huge variety of cakes all of different flavors and visual. But that was about it, if one would have to ask him about ingredients that would belong into a cake, Alan probably could only stare blankly back, because he never had to deal with an issue like this. He might have stirred some mixture before in his life, when he was a very young child, but he never really did anything in the kitchen.

"A-Are there a-any snacks y-you would want a-at the party, Flash?", he wondered curiously. He knew that Willow's parents would send food, but maybe anything that Flash would say give him at least a lead of what he could expect. Or maybe they could organize something like that? As the hosts of this birthday party, they would have to make sure no one would be hungry and that people would have fun; so knowing what kind of food they ate was a big step in planning the menu.

~

Once he had given the offer, Willow’s eyelashes started to bat, as she got her wet-eyed begging look on. It was effectively useless against Flash, but she wouldn’t know that for how often she got her way. Her requests rarely put him out, so he had little reason to refuse them. He would tell her she could just ask normally, but he preferred letting her continue, it would build her confidence.

What they had asked for however came as a bit of surprise. Their birthday cake was apparently something neither of them had solidly decided on, so much so that they wanted to give Flash the reigns completely. He had no idea how he had earned this task, given that Willow knew he was clueless about how food was made, but it didn’t mean he was incapable of completing the task.

”Alright, consider it done.”

Flash didn’t mind being delegated tasks, especially ones as simple as that, though it felt odd that they would lean on him in a field where he had zero expertise. Was it simply because he was willing, or because he was decisive? He couldn’t know for sure unless he asked, but it was important to consider how his friends saw him.

Alan continued, starting to talk about snacks. It seemed neither of them really understood how out of touch he was in the culinary arts. ‘Snacks’ was a word that was used in his house as ‘things you shouldn’t eat’. Snacking, in general, was not particularly good for nutrition. It was better to balance the caloric intake throughout the day depending on your needs. At home, his peckish hunger would be answered with a piece of fruit or a yoghurt. Even if he had snuck down to the larder at night, there was nothing but health food.

Not that he didn’t have preferences in taste, but eating had never been something he did in order to enjoy it. It was maintenance, like showering or sleeping. His preferences weren’t very defined, however. If he tried to explain it, it would undoubtedly cause confusion. He didn’t want to say nothing however, worried that Willow would only push the subject further.

”I’ll be fine as long as there’s something there that isn’t too sweet.” He thought of the s’mores, not wanting to directly tell Willow that he never wanted to eat one again.

The three of them chatted a bit longer over little details about the party, the two of them talking animatedly, and Flash listening intently. Over time, his headache started to soften into a whisper and the muscles in his shoulder blades began to relax. He wasn’t surprised that they had wanted to invite him, but their enthusiasm to tell him had given him another feeling, whether it was intentional or not. It felt nice to be wanted. Another moment he wanted to memorize.



@Willow Anderson @Alan Vanes