History Lesson PV Sylvain Indarys Finished

Sylvain seemed to stop for the moment at least, though the way he rubbed his arm made Flash wonder just how tightly he had grabbed for him. As far as he had been concerned, he thought he was about to watch Syl plummet into the inky depth to never be seen again. Instead, he was a few steps in, struggling to get out some kind of explanation. He started and stopped, looking at Flash as though he might have some kind of answers himself, but he could only raise his eyebrows in a questioning look. He was talking about a dream with water, but he had barely begun talking. Flash nodded, a ‘go on’ gesture.

It seemed Syl barely had a grasp on why exactly it meant so much to him, though the through line that was clear enough was that something did mean a lot to him about it. It was the lack of answers, and something that going under water might be the answer to. It was still so vague, but Syl likely already knew that. Perhaps it was why he hadn’t mentioned it before, or why he started crying only moments after beginning to say it out loud. Flash inched slightly closer, though he wasn’t exactly the type of person to run up and hug someone that was crying. He still felt moved to want to reach out, but he thought better of it, given that he had just grabbed him a moment ago.

Then, he said it. He washed up on the shore? They just… found him? It sounded just like the start to a fairy tale or a mystery novel, but the way Syl said it through gritted teeth and salty eyes made the words lack any kind of romanticized enchantment. Flash had no idea Sylvain was adopted, let alone this information that he was apparently the first to hear. He nodded along the second Sylvain reached out to him for acknowledgment.

”Yes. You don’t have anything to go on, so you’re investigating.” Flash repeated what he said, in his own words. ”You were found on the shore of Inverness, so you want to look in the waters nearby. It makes sense.”

From the mixed assortment that his face had gone through in the last few minutes, it had finally settled back on something of a neutral expression. Now that he understood, he felt better. He could move forward as long as he knew what situation he was in. Perhaps Sylvain was a bit the same way, since not knowing how he came to be was bothering him so greatly. It was likely obvious, but exploratory investigation was an arduous ordeal. Casting out a wide net and not even knowing if what you pulled was useful… it sounded frustrating just thinking about it. But… he was moving forward. He was trying, he was doing something.

”That sounds like a lot of work. You’ll need a lot of gillyweed.” Flash sighed, looking at the suspended, floating plants in the shallow water. ”I’m sorry. I thought you were being reckless but… it seems you’ve given this plenty of thought.”

Flash crossed his arms, half for the warmth, and half as a sign that he wouldn’t be yanking the skinny scholar around any more.

@Sylvain Indarys

Hexcode= #507091

Sylvain gently kicked a splash of water towards Flash's feet in an attempt to playfully combat the tension that had risen between the two just moments before. Though he wasn't smiling or joking, there was kindness in the motion itself. The kindness that said "I could drag you down with me but I won't." Wiping what tear-stained-solution still remained on his cheek, Sylvain turned back to the Gillyweed (seaweed in all reality) that he thought would purchase his answers. Tickets for a one way trip to knowledge. Their tiny slimy leaves worth far more than glittering gold, or lustrous silver. Knowledge just inches from his fingertips, the boy became something else. Insatiable.

Hoping to impress Flash with his knowledge of flora, and soon to disappoint him, Sylvain waded in to nearly his knees, the water touching just beneath the brim of his boots. His steps slurped and squelched as he plodded into the clay-like mud that lined the floor of the Great Lake, scraping his soles with pebbles, and sand. The only wall between the freezing cold of soaked feet and the comfort of warm, dry socks was that thin layer of rubbery substance coating his wading boots. If he took even another step further his trousers would begin to dampen as the lake slowly consumed him to the waist. If he traveled even a step further he'd be too far in. Too far in and in over his head.

Sylvain tugged at the seaweed, only to reveal that it was in fact not the Gillyweed he sought but rather the not quite as nearly useful kelp-like substance that had more culinary applications than potion-making properties. A heavy sigh of anguished disappointment and frustrated reluctance to give up would send ripples across the still, yet all the more disturbing, surface of the mist-cloaked body of lost dreams. The Great Lake disappointed him this time, its riches were more like rubbish and ash in his mouth now than they were in his previous attempts to gather critters and components.

Sylvain would spot an actual clump of what it was he sought further out, and with the red herring in his fist, his frustration would nearly be escalated to anger.

Now, to go further would be foolish, unwise and rash to say the least. There was little he stood to gain by risking much more than he already had, but still he thought of the new set of consequences as his curiosity demanded them. He'd upset his greatest friend, though the bruise on his arm told him that their friendship might need serious re-evaluation, and he had played coy with the dangers of the Great Lake. Dangers that were minuscule so close to shore, but not exponentially greater with each trudging step. If Flash was his friend he might stop him, and if the dangers of the Lake consumed him then so be it. Knowledge was worth it. He would peak back over his shoulder, giving Flash a look of "watch this", his eyebrows flashing upwards for only a moment as he turned back forwards to take another step. A step that unhindered, would unwittingly be a step too far in the wrong direction.

Mentions @

Sylvain didn't seem particularly happy about the freshened understanding between them, though his playfulness showed a willingness to let go of the transgression of Flash's panicked grabbing. While Flash wasn't really the grabby type, he felt at least one lesson was learned there-- Syl was sensitive. Physically, that was. While prone to shedding tears at the drop of a hat, Flash didn't consider the reasons for doing so to have ever been a fragile emotional fortitude, but rather a domineering will that made deviations from it emotionally taxing. Only a theory, of course.

Flash crossed his arms and watched Syl do his harvesting work, obscured lightly by the fog but otherwise the only silhouette sticking up from the dark murk. He said nothing else, leaving Flash to delve into his own thoughts amidst the silence enveloping them. A silence he didn't welcome, given the thoughts he had been trying to beat down, which were only emboldened by being given the time to bloom in the darkness of his memory. There were a few things in nature so defiant as to need no light nor nurturing to grow. In Flash's case, his burgeoning fear of death.

Trying to patiently trust the harvester to have his own self-preservation in mind was a telling endeavor, since it made Flash's skin crawl. He didn't want to be a pest, even though he still felt he was right. Gillyweed could be bought, or harvested somewhere safer, with more precautions... But as long as it was a short jaunt, he wasn't going to enforce his will. He would squirm quietly, reminding himself to have reasonable boundaries.

That was, until Syl looked back at Flash briefly, as if daring him, before started to tread further in. Flash was instantly aghast, had he decided to completely disregard Flash's earnest warning, Flash's trust of him? All bets were off at that point, Sylvain needed protection from himself. Pulling his wand out from the place where it was always secured by elastic on his leg, Flash carved an 'M' through the air in Syl's direction. He had learned the spell very recently, so its usefulness was on the forefront of his mind.

"Arresto Momentum!" Flash enunciated it clearly, the loud sound of his voice jarring in the still calmness around them.

There was no bright, colorful light to signal the spell's success, but the effect would be immediately clear. Syl's movement would now be glacial, so slow as make any snail nearby feel like Turbo. That was Flash's full intention, as he didn't much like the dire restriction of the Freezing Charm, nor did he think running in and grabbing him again would do much besides stew more animosity. This way, he had the opportunity to re-sheath his wand, take off his decidedly non-watertight shoes and socks, and begin to walk up to his friend calmly. His pants would get wet, but it was a small price to pay.

"That's far enough. I'll buy you a thousand sprigs before I let you walk any further." Flash took his time, speaking calmly, yet decisively. "You won't be going home soon anyways, there are better ways to do this. Safer ways."

Flash finally reached the slow motion scholar, picking him up out of the water like a harvester of boys, his light frame not much of a burden. He had, strangely enough, lifted much heavier things out of that same lake before. Starting to walk back to the shore with his catch, the talk of returning home gave Flash a thought.

"Actually, were you planning on returning home during winter break?" The revelation that Sylvain was adopted brought light to his previous reasons for staying at Hogwarts during the holidays, something Flash had never questioned.

Flash had neglected to ask, realizing that he assumed their winter break would be spent together. It would be the anniversary of the first time they actually talked. A lot of things had changed, and that could very well have been one of them. Even though he had no right to demand it, it was the only thing Flash could say he was looking forward to during the Christmas season. He had even selected another Christie novel to read together. The sudden conflict between them made him wonder how far he had let his assumptions carry him.

@Sylvain Indarys

Hexcode= #507091

His back was turned, so Sylvain didn't see the casting of Arresto Momentum until it was too late and its effects began taking place. He felt like the falling giants he had seen in movies, his movement was reduced to the pace of a snail, and not one that had been injected with nitrous oxide as some sort of twisted experiment. Just a regular snail's pace. He could hear Flash wading in behind him as he attempted to begin turning around to face him, though Flash was upon him and wrenching him from the water before Sylvain even had a chance to fully spin around.

Still in tow, Sylvain thought earlier to when Flash had taken a hold of his arm. This sort of embrace was much gentler and sweeter, though still more like some sort of dead fish than dear friend. His gaze and mind came to as Flash asked him a question, the confusion of what he'd been doing before washed away his ability to think straight. "Uh..." he responded like a dumbstruck idiot, waiting for his brain to process what all had just happened to him. He didn't even manage to get the gillyweed!

"No, I won't be going home this year either," he said morosely, both disappointed by his lack of components and the letter he'd received just a few days prior to this excursion. That letter had been the very thing that made him feel so lonely to start with. That letter was the reason why he asked Flash out for a stroll by the Great Lake. In fact, a letter similar to that one was the reason he and Flash had even met at all. A letter of rejection. A letter that told him he wasn't their favorite anymore, that he would have to find a way to be happy on his own. Without them.

"What about you?" Sylvain said hopeful that his first, and currently proving to be, best friend had plans himself. Plans that would take him to places he was happy, or to be with the people who loved him. "Doing anything good this year?"

Mentions @Flash Holmwood

Sylvain had answered his question, but the somber tone of his voice made it out to be something he perhaps didn't want to talk about. He was making Syl do all kinds of things he didn't want to do, it seemed. He trudged the short way back through the shallow water, placing the nearly-frozen student on the ground upright and pulling his wand out a second time.

"Finite Incantatum." Quickly, Syl's stuck joints would soften to their normal fluidity of movement. Hopefully he didn't just make a break for the water again... better to keep the wand out for a while longer just in case.

"I'm staying at Hogwarts too. I was thinking of bunkering down, getting ahead in my studies. I was..." Flash cleared his throat, feeling like he was in a bit of a bad situation to be asking for favors, which made anxiety tickle up his ribcage. "I was hoping it could be a bit like last year, with you and me in the library. Not that you would have to study too or anything, just..."

Flash's eyes had been wandering around, but the returned to Syl to gauge his reaction. He had been invited to the lake's edge because Syl wanted his company, but was he still glad that Flash was there? Flash wouldn't regret taking Syl out of the deep end, but he would regret losing Syl's trust.

"Keep each other company, you know?"

@Sylvain Indarys

Hexcode= #507091

Sylvain was glad to have his finer control restored by means of the general counterspell. He'd already made the mistake of going too deep once, and since Flash had shown that he cared enough to risk getting in trouble to keep Sylvain out of trouble he wasn't going to try anything stupid again. He realized then that he shouldn't have pushed his luck the way he did, and Syl certainly wasn't about to let Flash down or make him regret diving in to save him after being so firm with him.

Whatever the question he was about to pose, it was obvious that Flash was uncomfortable asking it. Or at the least unused to it. The way he cleared his throat before asking and the way he seemed almost troubled by taking time to pick his word choice was enough to tell Sylvain that he should listen closely and read between the lines.

Flash wanted to spend winter break with him in the library like last year. Just like that, whatever hard feelings had begun to condense were sublimely evaporated once more by the love of his friend. A true friend. One who needed him as much as he needed them. You rarely find those kinds of people. According to all of his research of course.

"I'm so glad it was you who came to help me." Sylvain said, his eyes catching Flash's darting and evasive gaze. Not only had the boy proven to have more common sense than Syl, but he was also a thousand times more charming in the way he cautiously asked to become best friends. "Of course I'd love to spend winter break with you again," his small innocent smile would come back in a hurry as his tummy tickled with delight that Flash wanted his company.

A loud crack of thunder preceded by lightning in the sky illuminated their position, and cut short Sylvain's smile. It was about to start raining hard, he could feel it in his toes.

"We should probably get back inside before we get even more soaked than we are now..." his voice began to trail as he took in the water damage that had soaked Flash's pants. It wasn't exactly a warm day out either, but Flash had dove in to save him all the same and was now suffering for it. He owed him thanks, or rather Flash deserved it.

"Thank you again," Sylvain said his voice quiet and calm. He wasn't afraid to say what for either. "Thank you for being exactly the company I needed today." He hugged his friend tight.

In Syl's mind, Flash was a guardian angel.

Mentions @Flash Holmwood

With Sylvain's attention on him, Flash grew more confident that the ordeal was over, and tucked his wand back into its hidden spot. All of the anxiety in his chest melted away when Sylvain smiled and agreed, the idea of the cozy library a lot more welcome than the currently reality of cold, slowly freezing feet. Flash would smile too, knot a knowing smile or a forced smile, but one that was just glad to have the idea of spending time with him met with enthusiasm. Not only that, but he had already been looking forward to it. The fact that it was verified reignited the excitement. Studying alone over winter would have been quite depressing... though he hadn't considered it until the agonizing 15 seconds it took Syl to respond.

With the sounds of a storm is the far distance, they had more than one reason to hightail it back to the castle. Flash's eyes were drawn by the thunder, but Syl encouraged the expedient relocation. The sooner the quicker, since the wet shoes were likely to quickly become a problem. Before they moved however, Syl grappled him into a surprise hug. Not usually one for unexpected tough, Flash stifled a gasp as he was squeezed. Still, it wasn't an unhappy surprise, and he reciprocated by tightly hugging him back. Hugs were nice., Flash had always been a huge fan. Even though his lower half was in the process of becoming ice, his heart was being warmed.

He let the hug last for as long as he deemed appropriate, then took his hand to guide him back to the castle. They would likely have to part ways to change, but they wouldn't be apart for too long. They were friends.
@Sylvain Indarys