I need you... PV Santario fin

“Ventus!” Santario drew the twirl into the air as a gush of air rushed from her wand, but this time the rush of air split, hitting both training dummies instead of just the one. A grin spread across her lips as she panted, wiping away some sweat from her forehead. She had been, as usual, practicing for hours in the duelling room, and this was the first time she had ever gotten a ventus to split. Now she finally deserved a rest.



Santario’s eyes snapped towards the window where an Owl was attempting to get in. She crossed the floor, opening the window retrieving the relatively small scroll from its talons. “Thank you.” She unrolled the scroll and scanning over what was written. She knew Alan’s handwriting almost as well as she knew her own, and even if the message wasn’t asking for her, she would have known that he needed her. It took less than a second for her to start running, grabbing her cloak on her way. Pushing the duelling room door open, letting it slam against the stone walls like a bombarda hit it, scaring a group of first-years enough to make them scream.

She did not stop; she did not apologize. They were not important to her, and it would hardly be the scariest thing that they would experience all year. She bounded down the stairs from the fifth floor, always jumping to a landing instead of taking the last few. She had utterly worn herself out during her practice today, but the adrenaline surging through her veins brought her finally into the courtyard, where she stopped taking in gulps of the freezing air. She looked for Alan, but it did not take long for her to see the cloaked figure with… Claws? Her hand went to her mouth. “Oh, Alan.” A barely uttered whisper escaped into the atmosphere in the fog of her breath.

Santario quickly closed the distance between them, and as long as he didn’t stop her, she would wrap her arms around his shoulders, letting her winter cloak cover both of them. “Talk to me. I’m here.”

He was not sure how long he sat there and just waited, it certainly couldn't have been long as he had yet to feel the freezing cold bite him. So it wasn't until long when someone muttered his name and at first the voice sounded distant, as if he was in a capsule of glass and someone from outside was trying to communicate with him. But as arms wrapped around him the glass seemed to burst as he heard the words that did it for him; the tears that had been gathering would well over and pour from his eyes as he would twist his upper body to hide his face in the Slytherin's shoulder. She probably would not be able to feel them through her cloak but the tremors that shook his body gently as well as the shaky breath would be enough to tell her of what was happening. And for the first time in a long, long time Alan would allow himself to cry somewhere public, seeking comfort in the eyes of the one friend he knew for sure would drop everything to come and safe him.

"He's gone San, he is gone..." he would blubber out and she must have heard it too, the professor of charms had left the castle and must be far away by now. Alan was not sure how to deal with the situation, it certainly wasn't an easy one. "He can't just leave, can he? I still need him to teach me," he whispered shakily. There was so much he had yet to learn, so much he wanted to ask the professor. Who should he go to now? Tiger was nuzzled in the Gryffindor's lap knowing full well and trying to comfort his boy to the best of his abilities. But he was just a cat and could only do so much, Alan knew to appreciate the sentiment but could not even register it much for now.

As Alan hid his face into her shoulder, she would hold him tighter, one hand moving up into the hood of his cloak to the back of his head petting over his hair. Santario rested her cheek gently against his head and just held him, letting him take all the time he would need before he told her what was bothering him. Whatever it was, she was certain someone’s pumpkin juice would not taste too good the next day. Then, however, Alan spoke about someone being gone, and the only person that could come to her mind would have been the charms Professor Artemis Vernatis. She had heard that he had left to be with his family. This was an understandable thing to go for, but that didn’t mean that his leaving didn’t hurt the children who had looked up to him here. Santario had personally had many private classes with him to gain better spells for duelling. But, Alan clearly felt betrayed by the man, and she understood. He left with hardly a notice, and he left some of those behind wondering why.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know the full reason why he left, but I know he has kids, and maybe he had to return home to take care of them. Being much younger than us, they need their father too.” She spoke more quietly than usual since they were in such close proximity. Santario also changed her breathing into deep and slow breaths hoping that Alan would subconsciously start to mimic her breathing pattern. Something she hoped would help calm him down before the poor boy started to hyperventilate in the freezing cold. “Maybe the next professor could take you on like Vernatis did, you’re great, so they would be terribly foolish not to. And I can try to help as well. I know you’re two years older than me, but I’m pretty good at spell casting, especially charms. You know I’ll always make time for you.” He was one of two people that could summon her undivided attention at a moment’s notice, the big brother she never had and never knew she wanted until Alan came into her life. “He never would have hurt you on purpose you must know that. He simply adored you.”

The Gryffindor was quiet as he listened to his friends words, he was quiet even once his tears stopped flowing and only his lashes and the irritated skin beneath his eyes would make sure to show he had just cried. The fourth year was not exactly sure how he should be handling the situation of missing someone this much and the last time he had felt like that was when his parents had been gone for a full year while his father was sick. The lack of knowledge about the man's well-being did not help him with overcoming the situation at all and he was a little angry at him for not even telling him about his departure beforehand. He had simply left the fresh prefect to handle with the situation on his own and he was not all too sure whether he was upset at the man or missed him; at the moment he felt the sting of betrayal more than he felt the sadness and sorrow about losing the man as a anchor in his life. he has heard nothing about or from Yuya lately either and it worried the fourth year beyond imagination.

"If he truly did, why did he leave without much of a good-bye? Why did he leave like this?" the young boy rasped out, but with the help of Santario, he could sense his body shift back to its original form, the visage Santario was most familiar with and the form he took when he was asleep. "I just miss him... it makes me mad," he explained and finally began to mimic Santario's breathing. It felt a little shaky at first but he would get used to it quickly and she truly managed to calm him even further, yet the lingering feeling of betrayal stayed behind, pulling at his heartstrings.

Santario took a deep breath and continued to pet over his hair, happy that he was finally falling into the breathing pattern. The last thing she wanted was for him to get sick, especially being out in this weather like this, and hyperventilating would only hurt in that cause. She hugged him a little tighter when his form shifted back to the boy she was used to seeing they, her and Tiger, were making progress in calming him down.

“Maybe saying goodbye would hurt him more than just leaving. Maybe he just couldn’t bear the thought of seeing the hurt in your eyes when he told you he was leaving. Even adults make mistakes like that. I think he should have taken the time to say goodbye to us, but he made a mistake. Don’t let that tarnish all of the good memories you had with him.” She knew nothing she said would completely soothe the older Gryffindor, but hopefully, it would help him at least a little. She honestly didn’t know what else to do right now besides, perhaps, get him out of this cold weather. “Do you want to go get some hot cocoa? That always makes me feel better, and it’s pretty cold out here, and I have a small gift for Tiger in one of these pockets I’ve meant to give to you, but I kept forgetting.” Since Santario had been appointed the co-captain of duelling, she had been forgetting to do quite a few things, like eating on a regular basis.

Alan knew that Santario was probably right with what she was saying and that Artemis would not have left him behind for no reason if it was not urgent, at least he was trying to convince himself of that fact. He wanted to send an owl after the man who had taught him a lot and allowed him to grow at his own pace but with strict guidance. One of many sighs of this day would escape his lips as he would finally force himself to give a nod at Santario's words and they helped they truly did, but it was as if this nod was to convince himself rather than him actually having felt assured. But he would get there, he usually got there so he was confident in that at least.

When Santario would offer some hot cocoa, he could not help but perk up, there was just something about chocolate in any shape or form that he simply could not say no to, so he would give a small smile and nod. "I would love that, and I am sure Tiger will love the gift, won't you boy?", he would say, facing his cat for the last part of his sentence as he raised the cat slightly to make eye contact. The cat's body would stretch awkwardly in a cat-like manner as his forearms drooped over Alan's hands, holding the feline. Finally he would pick the feline up entirely, holding him close to his chest before smiling at his friend once again. "Thank you," he whispered sincerely.

There it was; Alan finally perked up at the thought of hot cocoa so she would gently withdraw her arms from his shoulders as he pulled Tiger up higher, proving that cats are just liquid. “Good because it’s cold, and it will do us some good to warm up from the inside out.” Santario would reach out and give Tiger some gentle head scratches before reaching up and fixing Alan’s hair. “There we go.” Santario nodded her approval of his now perfect hair before standing up and stretching. Arms going straight up into the air and raising up on her toes with a happy groan.

“Anytime Alan, really. And if anyone asks why your face is ready, just say I accidentally hit you in the face with a snowball or something.” As she waited for Alan to get up so that they could start walking toward the great hall, Santario’s hand dug into one of her pockets before producing a palm-sized brightly colored phoenix with real bird feathers for its tail. “It’s got catnip in it. Figured he could run out some energy in your dorm with this toy. I also heard that on some occasions, depending on the cat breed, they will even play fetch, kinda like dogs, so maybe that could be something too.” Santario would hold the toy out to Alan, hoping that Tiger liked it.

Alan would give her a weak smile as he took in a deep breath, forcing his shoulders to sink and relax. There was just something about Santario that never failed to make him smile and he was really grateful to have her as a friend. He felt like he had known her forever, as if they grew up together like some sort of siblings. Her next comment was unexpected enough to make him snort as he glanced in the snow. "You must have been able to hit me first for that," he teased back, actually smiling now even though there was still pain in his mind. He was very aware how capable Santario was if she would have tried to hit him with a snowball she might have succeeded especially with the element of surprise on her side, but Alan was fast and dexterous so the chance was high that he could have avoided such an attack. But he was not trying to talk facts, it was more of an attempt to take her up on that banter. It helped ease his mind in a way.

When Santario would produce a cat toy from her pocket, his eyes lit up as he gently grasped it in his fingers and admired the phoenix. It was well made, of excellent hand craft which made him wonder where she had gotten it from. Did she have it sent from home perhaps? That was not important however, as he was just bursting from happiness at the thought that she had gotten something for Tiger. "He will love it for sure! That gives him something to do when I'm in class, San it is amazing!" he chirped in admiration, gently pocketing the bird before finally giving her a smile that didn't fail to reach his eyes, specks of gold would shine beneath the darkened green irises.

Santario rolled her eyes and chuckled at the boy as he boasted his evasive joke. It wasn’t wrong, though; the older boy was decently more agile than she could predict. “Perhaps next time, we shall put that to the test.” She chuckled softly as they kept making their way up to the castle.

A huge smile broke across her face as he exclaimed that Tiger would love the cat toy. “I’m glad, he seems like a high-spirited little fellow, and I’m sure he can get frustrating if he has too much energy in the middle of the night. My mom’s cat does that sometimes just zooms back and forth for no real reason. So I started playing with her a lot before bedtime, and that seemed to help.” There was that smile she had been looking for, and as if the sunlight had peaked through the forest canopy, she saw golden flecks appearing in his emerald eyes.

It was a start, at least, because she knew this pain would take some time to dissipate. Someday he would be able to look back and understand further, and eventually, he would only remember the good memories, but those things took time. “Alright, brother, let us get that hot chocolate now before we both get sick.” It was the first time she had really said it out loud. Of course, she had written it to him in owls and things like that, but verbally to his face, this would be a first. Naturally, she pretended like it was no big deal, said as if she had always called him that.

Santario leaves this thread for Hot Chocolate