On Autumn's Hill PV Dan

Selim Text Color: #4d0f25
Aku Text Color: #614f6d

"Time travels at different speeds for different people. I can tell you who time strolls for, who it trots for, who it gallops for, and who it stops cold for."
- William Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'

It was another still day for the rabbit-masked boy. Lunch had arrived to interrupt the day's classes, and Selim had gone to the great hall for it like everyone else. Unlike everyone else, he only went there to grab some food and drinks before immediately leaving and wandering to the courtyard.

There, he set up his own tea time in solitude. Spreading a grey blanket across the dried autumn leaves, he placed down the warm biscuits and dumplings he snatched from the Slytherin tables, then lowered the kettle of hot water beside them. He then set up three of his chipped and worn teacups, one for the puppet who never drank it, one for the cat that actually drank tea when it lowered to a manageable temperature, and one for himself. He placed the teabags in each, the blends coming from his birth family's tea company, and filled the cups up with hot water to let the herbs and spices seep.

Then he settled down, pulling the hood of his baggy grey jacket up over his head and pulling Aku off his scarred hand to place him by his tea. Then he cupped his own in his pale hands, looking over the scenery of the courtyard.

Hogwarts was a deceptively beautiful place for being such a deathtrap, really. The nights always held a haunting majesty to them, the days were almost always cinematic in one way or another, be it with an overcast sky or a clear one. Each season was always snapped perfectly into one picture around them, and fall was not one to be left out of that.

The willow tree he sat under was orange, its leaves floating gently in the wind to mingle with the rest of them that drifted from the few other trees there. The frosted ground was just beginning to thaw, bringing with it the earthy scent of decaying plants and dew. The sky was overcast, beams of sunlight breaking through the gaps in the sheets of grey, giving everything an ethereal feel. To finish the scene off, the weathered walls of the brick and mortar school contained the complete autumn vibe in one spot.

Why would he pass this up for sitting in an antechamber-like room full of unknown faces and noisy children? The cacophony of their voices was always overwhelming, and he always felt a creeping sense of being watched whenever he lingered there for too long. No, this peace was very much preferred over such unruly chaos, which is why he always spent his meals in the courtyard, no matter the weather.

(Admittedly he had caught a chill more than a few times whenever it was raining or snowing out, but that was beside the point.)

Outside, time almost seemed to stand still for him, as if he had found his own peaceful bubble whenever he left the confines of classes and school to admire nature. Sometimes it was jarring stepping from the faced-paced rate of Hogwarts into the almost-stilled time of the world as a whole. It was like looking from inside a confined box to a vast open space with seemingly no walls or ceilings. It often made him realize just how meaningless he was to the rest of life, an insignificant dot on a radar that stretched far beyond his line of sight.

Hogwarts was defenceless in the face of time, inevitably it would end, and everything else would move on, undisturbed, pace relentless, leaving it far behind in a faint memory.

A calming thought.

Kioshi let out a meow, snapping him out of his trance, and he smiled slightly, reaching out his mottled left hand to stroke the dark feline's plush pelt. The cat began to purr, rubbing against his palm, and for a moment, he felt content, even happy, in his solitude.

"At least you'll never change how you act around me, as long as I care for you you'll love me. Humans are so finicky compared to animals..." The boy murmured, feeling a moment of sadness as he remembered that Kioshi had been a gift from his big brother... was he ok? Had father lashed out against him? Was he even alive?

For a moment he stilled, lowering his hand back onto his lap. Placing his tea down he propped his elbows onto his knees, burying his masked visage in his palms. His vision was watering... how troublesome.

The boy took a few deep breaths trying to calm himself and his slightly trembling frame. His attempts to seek reprieve from his own mind were met with failure once more. The questions, the concerns, the ever-lingering confusion of his displaced life, they all returned inevitably.

He snapped out of the downward spiral when he heard the lapping of liquid. Blinking his eyes clear he saw his feline companion drinking from his teacup... instead of the one he placed for him.

He let out a choked laugh, the burst of amusement contrasting his churning emotions starkly enough to make him do so. Reaching his hand out once more he stroked Kioshi, we began purring while drinking the tea that was not his, the combination making the purring distorted funnily.

Selim chuckled again. At least he had Kioshi... the cat always somehow managed to help him in his slumps, as if a piece of his brother was always with him, secretly making fun of his life in that same old brotherly fashion.

It was nice, a piece of positivity in his unstable world.