What Have you Got There, Autism? Closed

One shouldn't be mistaken, Illowy was fiercely protective of the people in her house; however, that didn't mean that she liked everyone, and the display happening before her in the Small Hall was the perfect example why. For a short moment, she watched the boys approach a small Huffle boy, playing with an odd toy before the older Slytherins and a Gryffindor started at him.

Magnards do not start fights, they finish them.

That was what her mother had always told her. Closing her book, the girl stood, smoothing out her uniform skirt before starting over to the group. Illowy wasn't entirely sure what the word 'autism' meant, what it entailed or really anything about it. In her short years, she'd never come into contact with someone who was autistic, at least not to her knowledge. That hardly mattered to the raven haired Slytherin.

By the time she crossed the hall, the poor first year was already in tears. There had certainly been plenty of days in her first year spent like that because of bullies, and she was hardly about to let it slide, "Oi!" the girl spoke sharply. Cold, pale eyes flickered between each of the bullies, "Put the boy down, you sorry bunch of bloody idiots." her tone was hard and cold like stone, before her eyes went to the older Slytherin boy holding the Hufflepuff, "Unless you want Proffessor Jenson to hear about this and send you off to scoop owl shite for the next month, you'll drop him."

For a moment, there seemed to be a bit of a stare off, as though the boy though he could intimidate her of all people. No, she'd been through far too much to be afraid of a pimple face boy, too afraid to face someone his own size. All the same, never breaking her eye contact, he set the boy back down on his feet before they turned to leave. Illowy moved herself between the strange boy and the pack until she was satisfied with their distance, then turned to look the boy over. He didn't seem hurt, only shaken up.

"Come now, enough with the crying." perhaps not the most comforting tone, but she was trying. The girl pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and offered it over, "Clean yourself up." alright, now her tone was starting to ease, "I'm Illowy, and those owl-pellets-for-brains are all bark, no bite. Don't let them get to you." she tried to assure.

Cosmo's eyes were wide as he looked at the Slytherin girl in front of him. "Come now, enough with the crying." she said. He couldn't tell her tone or what she was trying to get across, it was too confusing. He wondered if this girl was trying to comfort him or not. He exhaled, wiped his tears. He noticed a couple of other kids looking at him and the girl with concern. He narrowed his eyes. He hated people staring at him. It didn't give you a good feeling. He put his fidget spinner in his pocket. It was a bad idea bringing it, from what he could tell, no one knew what it was. They were really popular in America for a time, he guessed they had never reached to England. He began to stand up. He brushed himself off, glancing at the concerned kids again. Well, only some of them looked a bit concerned, they were mostly covering their mouths and grinning, whispering. He was most likely wrong. Cosmo then looked at the girl, whose name he had learned was Illowy. She had long dark brown hair and a pale face. "Thanks." He said to her, looking up and then down.

When his eyes went to the other children who had been looking over the situation, she shot them a glare. Children could be stupid and cruel, that was a lesson she'd learned quickly. Even still with the few friends she'd managed to acquire, her own social skills and understanding of how children worked weren't fantastic, "Never mind them." she spoke, looking at back the boy.

She watched as he slipped an odd shaped object into his pocket, dusting himself off as he got to his feet. He seemed to look her over for a moment and she couldn't help but wonder if she was intimidating him considering how quiet and soft spoken he appeared to be. The girl knew she could be a presence at times with her light features, dark hair and piercing eyes, but she was doing her best to appear non-threatening.

The girl shifted uncomfortably as he thanked her, unsure what to do with a child who didn't seem to be able to keep basic eye contact as he looked down towards the floor again, "Keep your chin up, now." she ordered gently, "Don't look at the floor. It attracts those sorts." she nodded towards the upperclassmen that had been giving the boy a hard time, "They didn't hurt you, did they?"

Cosmo tried to look up, but it was hard. His instinct told him to look down. He shook his head. "I can't" He said to Illowy. "Don't worry, they didn't hurt me." he added, in response to her question. Cosmo then began to walk off, into the halls. He got back out his spinner and balanced it on is finger as he walked out. He can't do that again, he told himself, it was embarrassing. The thing is, he wasn't exactly a confident kid who could stand up for himself. He was more the 'barely in the background kind of guy' to quote on of his favorite musicals he saw in New York when he lived there, Dear Evan Hansen. Out of all the musicals he saw for the years he lived there, Dear Evan Hansen was his favorite. He was like the main character, Evan for many reasons. Except Evan didn't have a dad, he wasn't autistic, and he wasn't a wizard. Cosmo wished he was a popular kid who everyone wanted to hang out with and had all the newest items, but unfortunately he was not. He was just himself. That couldn't change if he tried his hardest.

The boy insisted that he was fine, however he still seemed a bit off; but before Illowy could even open her mouth to respond to him, he started to walk away to leave the hall, "Wait a minute-" she called, hurrying to gather her things and pull her bag over her shoulder before starting back after the first year. Illowy scurried to catch up with him, tucking a long tress of hair behind her ear.

Why in the world was she chasing off after this strange boy? He wasn't even in her house, much less her own year. Part of her mind tried to justify that she wanted to make sure he would get to where ever it was he was going safely and make sure no one else tried to mess with him.

"You didn't tell me your name." she pointed out when she finally caught up to him. She noticed he had taken out the oddly shaped toy once more, balancing it on his finger easily. The snake furrowed her brow a bit, curious and genuinely unsure of what the object could be, much less what it's purpose was, "What's that?" she asked with a small tilt of her head.

Cosmo heard Illowy's footsteps running up behind him. "You didn't tell me your name." She said. Cosmo looked at her for a second, then back to his spinner. "Cosmo." He responded in a simply put way. He wondered why she was following him again. They were much different people, and didn't share anything in common here. She spoke again. "What's that?" He watched Illowy tilt her head. "Oh, uh. It's called a fidget spinner." Cosmo spoke with his more American accent this time, rarely pronouncing words with a british accent like the rest of the students. He spun it and balanced it to demonstrate. "It was big trend in America, where I grew up." He glanced at her to see her reaction. He knew not many people would know what this was, or maybe had seen it once or twice, but he hoped that at least someone here knew stuff about American life. He was definitely an outsider here. He hoped they had a class on the American lifestyle, because he would nail that out of all classes. They probably did not have that class at a wizard school, however. Oh well. He wasn't particularly exited about the rest of the classes, either.