open Written on the walls… Closed

Why the Boys' Lavatory had to be on the Fourth Floor when the Hufflepuff Dormitories and Common Room was on the First Floor was beyond him. Then again, Hogwarts was an old castle and honestly the students should be glad there was one in the first place.

Usually the distance was slightly annoying, but on that particular day, Simon had just left the Rehearsal Room where he went to get a little alone time and devote some time to practicing his guitar. However, he had some of the music he had been writing on perched up on the piano bench and it had fallen and when he went to retrieve it, he hit his head upon that very bench. He decided to take a quick detour into the Lavatory to check the mirror, to see if there was a visible bump (and maybe to check that his hair was in place as well. Which it always was).

He entered and saw the boy scanning the wall and remained quiet so he could be alone with his thoughts. Simon turned to the mirror and leaned in, tilting his head and examining his forehead but luckily no mark seemed to have been left. That was good. With the Fall Ball approaching, he didn't need some big bump on his head for his date to stare at all night. That was, if she was still going with him.

From the reflection in the mirror, as he brushed his hands through his hair, he saw the boy pull out a notebook and begin to sketch something in it. Simon smiled. He too carried around a notebook which he write any little question about the wizarding world that came into mind - so he might research the answers later in the Library when he had time. "Find something interesting, mate?" he asked, trying to make casual conversation. He never really examined the walls much and was curious as to what the boy had found.

Ben jumped when he heard someone entering the lavatory. He had been all alone, and studying the image so intently that he hadn’t really expected anyone to join him. He turned to see the kid who had walked in and raised an eyebrow. “Hey… Sorry… I… I thought I was alone.” He closed his notebook and looked from it up to the kid. He nodded a little, looking from the symbol to the boy. “I found this sketch in the wall… It… It has my father’s name on it. And this weird symbol. Have you seen this anywhere before?”

Ben tried to think about if he had seen the image in his uncle Marcus’ office before, the attic in the house. He hadn’t been up there many times… Only once or twice because his father didn’t want him to be up there. He still didn’t know why. But there was something that was going on with this symbol that he just didn’t understand.

“Take a look, man. This symbol here. It’s an L, right? With the four animals all around it… What do you think it means? Obviously it’s each of the house symbols… for the four Hogwarts houses… but what about the L? What could that stand for?”

The boy had asked if he saw a marking anywhere before and it was most likely the one he had sketched out in his notebook. Simon approached the other side of the lavatory where the boy stood next to the wall.

The boy had mentioned it had his father's name. Father. Simon thought back to the first month of Summer Holiday and how the mysterious man, with similar facial features, showed up at the door late one night asking for his mother. The man, that left behind a box - a box which most likely contained some sort of memories. Perhaps a name. Perhaps more.

The pointed to one of the markings and Simon leaned in, snapping out of his own thoughts. It looked similar to the Hogwarts emblem and yet, it was different. The most perplexing thing that stood out to Simon, and it seemed the Gryffindor beside him, was the letter L. He asked what it could stand for. Simon thought.

Well, if it were Hogwarts it would have the H. Maybe it was for one of the school's clubs? No, not quidditch or duelling. A class? Simon started thinking about the courses he currently was taking and the ones that were offered to older students but still came up just as confused.

"I can't say I'm any help. Maybe you could ask him?" Simon said, regretting the words the moment they came out of his mouth. It would be like if someone asked him if he could ask his father something. Absurd for some.

Ben winced as he heard the kid’s suggestion. The name on the wall did indeed say “Joseph Coletti, Slytherin”. But well… there were many reasons why he couldn’t talk to the man about this symbol. He looked over at the boy and took a deep breath, sitting back against the wall. He pulled his knees up under his chest, putting the notebook in his pocket.

“I would love to ask him but… I don’t think they let you send owls to Azkaban,” he said with a sigh. He looked down and said, “My Dad was arrested on my eleventh birthday. I guess he… did some stuff, but I don’t even know why. But it happened on my eleventh birthday, during my party. I’d just gotten my letter and everything. Then he was just… gone. No goodbye, no nothing. Just… gone.”

The memories hurt, especially because it had just happened nine months ago. “I don’t even know what he apparently did they just… took him. My uncle Marcus and aunt Tanya adopted me and now I live with them. My mom… died when I was little,” he shrugged a bit. “So now I guess I just want some answers, you know? I want to find out what they arrested him for. The papers all said it was for crimes against Muggles, but that doesn’t make any sense at all… There has to be more here that they’re not telling me.”

Simon could tell the boy seemed trouble even before he went and sat down. He decided to give him a moment but that didn't feel right so he slid down along the wall and sat right next to him. He was quiet as he listened to him speak about his father and some of the events that went down at his own eleventh Birthday party. That was no way to celebrate getting a Hogwarts letter or one's Birthday. Then again, Simon was sure that the Gryffindor's father hadn't been having any fun either.

"Sorry to hear about all that," he said, getting that out first and formost. He then held out his hand towards the other. "I'm Simon, Simon Kincaid. Second Year Hufflepuff. How long will he be there? Maybe you can ask him when it's time for him to get out...or if its longer, maybe you can petition to the Ministry to get a letter to him. You deserve answers. Does your aunt and uncle know anything at all?"

Simon then realized he seemed to be prying a lot and hoped the boy wouldn't take offense at it. "You know, I never knew my father. My mum ended the relationship with him even before finding out she was pregnant. And she too passed when I was little. I was three at the time. I live with my aunt." The two boys had some in common.

Ben frowned as he leaned his chin on his knees and looked up at the kid. “My name is Ben. Ben Coletti…” He was sure the last name would be revealing of the article that had been in the Daily Prophet back in January, but he didn’t know if the other kid would have remembered something that far back. “I guess I could talk to the ministry but… My Uncle is a private investigator, kind of like Sherlock Holmes in the wizarding world. My aunt works at St. Mungo’s as a healer. They don’t really tell me anything, cause they don’t think I’m ready to hear it, I guess. I have no idea how long Dad has to stay there. For all I know, it could be forever,” he shrugged. He wasn’t offended by Simon’s questions at all. It helped to have a friend he could talk to finally.

He blinked then, looking up at Simon. “Wow, you live with your aunt too? And your mom died when you were little? I guess we do have a lot in common, huh? Do you think there’s a way you could ever find out about YOUR dad? It would be interesting if there were some records or something.” He then got an idea, that investigative spirit passed down from his uncle, and possibly his father, though he didn’t know it yet, was starting to spark inside him. “Maybe we could search for information together… Who knows, maybe they were both at Hogwarts at the same time? Do you know if he was a wizard, or was your mom a witch?”

"My mum was. She was in Gryffindor," he said, having noticed the house colors on the boy's tie. "But my father, no. He wasn't a wizard." He was a vampire. He had to be a vampire because he knew his mother was a muggle-born witch who wasn't a vampire and if he was a dhampir, that meant one of his parents had to be...But Simon wasn't ready to say that out loud. No need to scare off a new friend.

"I've got a way where I think I can possibly learn a little about him, I'm just...not ready. Not ready for it. I guess I'm taking the stance of your own aunt and uncle with my mystery," he sighed, knowing that the information in that stupid wooden box couldn't haunt him forever. It was screaming at him to be opened and someday soon he would have to.

"But I don't think that I'll get the majority of answers. Maybe I'll just end up with more questions," he shrugged, not really sure. He looked over to Ben though and smiled when he brought up searching for information together. He could try and help Ben with his mysteries and Ben could help him with his own. "You know, I do a lot of research in the Library. I like delving into things. If you'd like me on your investigating team, I'd be happy to come aboard and help if I can."

He liked this idea a lot. He could not only make a new friend out of it, but perhaps he could help Ben find some of the answers, even if it was just someone to talk to and get his ideas sorted out.

Ben smiled a little and said, “That’s cool… she was in my house then.” He blinked, hearing about how his father wasn’t a wizard, but just nodded softly. Ben tilted his head a bit and smiled. “Yeah, I know… It’s that fine line between wanting to know and… needing to know. It would be fantastic to have your help though. I’ve only got two eyes, after all… To have someone else reading through things would be really helpful. I was hoping maybe we could run into some ghosts or paintings that would know anything about this, you know? I mean… There’s gotta be ghosts around here from when our parents were in school… you’re not THAT much older than me… Who knows, maybe our mothers knew each other, right?” He grinned.

Ben looked back at the symbol on the wall and thought about it. “This symbol though… Have you ever read anything about any club starting with an ‘L’? Maybe you read about a faction or something that wasn’t official… or maybe it has to do with a subject that isn’t taught anymore… a time in history that no one talks about… a person… I mean, it could be about anything, really.”

He liked the idea that maybe his mother knew Ben's parents, although sadly there was no way of knowing. But then Simon turned his attention back to the symbol. The L. He asked if there was any sort of club about it or something. "Well, here at Hogwarts there's the Lake or the Library..." but that didn't seem likely. Who knew though really. It could be anything under the sun and he understood the boy's issue.

"Driving factors for general life can be Love, Lust, ...Lies?" he was reaching, but hey, sometimes brainstorming got out some ideas that normally wouldn't be thought of. Sometimes you had to go outside the realm of the obvious.

People with the name L? Now that he didn't know of. He had looked into the history of the castle, a lot on magical plants and creatures, and most of his research into vampires. Nothing with an L. Not when it came to Hogwarts.

"There's the light casting spell Lumos and uh, like that one area of magic where you can read and explore someone's mind - Legilimency. Oh, and isn't the technical term for what werewolves are afflicted with called Lycanthropy? But I don't think I can come up with anything else much. I bet there's some stars and constellations that begin with L."

"And then we come to the subject I probably know best, the Lord. That's an L. Lots of other Ls in the Bible like Luke, Linus, Leah, Lucifer."

He didn't think he was being very helpful, but at least he was trying. Wait, speaking of books..., Simon paused. "Hey, do you think the Librarian would have a record of books your father had checked out? That might lead us in the right direction."